Books
I started this year with a goal of reading 50 books. Then in May my life changed and all of my goals changed. But I still made it through 23 books. Here’s my list if you’re interested. My favorites:
- The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – A fantastic, if long book written by a british journalist in the 50s who was living in Berlin from 1939 – 1944. Entirely written from the POV of Axis powers, very little about the Allies viewpoint, which made it a really interesting book.
- Once Upon a Time in Russia – An easy to read book about the rise of the oligarchs in russia after the fall of the soviet union. I learned a lot.
- Nexus – best fiction book I’ve read in a long time. It’s set slightly in the future, and the plot revolves around tiny programmable CPUs that you can inject into your blood, that bond with your neurons and form a sort of super computer for your brain that lets people communicate telepathically. Quite good!
- The Timeless Way of Building – Famed architect Christopher Alexander’s seminal work. Applies to things outside of architecture, especially software and other systems.
Music
- Desire Lines by Camera Obscura – I must’ve listened to this 50 times on my Oregon road trip
- Whiteout Conditions by the New Pornographers
- Plural by Electric Guest – poppy, altish
- Animal Shapes by Geographer – poppy, techno-ey
- And the War Came by the Shakey Graves – folksy
- American Dream by LCD Soundsystem – NEW LCD AW YEA
- Men Amongst Mountains by The Revivalists – NOLA based awesomeness
Movies/TV
I watched a lot more recently than in the early part of the year, but here are my faves:
- Finally caught up on the first 3 seasons of Game of Thrones. I love the show, can’t help it.
- The OA – Netflix original
- Season 1 of Narcos
- Ip man 1, 2, and 3
- Happy People – Werner Herzog documentary about living in Siberia
- Planet Earth 2
Games
I bought a PS4. The only game I can say I really enjoyed was Rise of Tomb Raider. I loved it. High replay value. I sold my Xbox One last month and am not sure what the future of my PS4 holds.
Played a ton of settlers, though.
Adventures
- 2-week solo road trip through Oregon
- Backpacking in Big Sur several times
- Killer bachelor party in Kentucky
- Killer wedding in Cleveland
- Off-roading in the Mojave Desert
- August summer cabin trip
- Solo backpacking in Buck’s Lake Wilderness
- Float down russian river, got sunburned
- Wedding in Sonoma over Memorial Day
- Friends visit for Bay 2 Breakers
- Bachelor party in Chicago for a college buddy
- Backpacking in Mendocino National Forest
- Tons of snowboarding
