This year has absolutely flown by, and I can’t believe we’re already entering 2023. It’s been an incredible year all in all. Lots of travel, made some new friends, played plenty of board games, and a very successful year at work too.
Place – Cannes, France
I was lucky enough to attend the Cannes Film Festival for the second time in 2022. On my previous trip to Cannes I had rainy cold weather but had the opposite experience this year. Sunny and gorgeous the entire time. A week and a half spent seeing films, relaxing in the sun, eating delicious food, and enjoying time with my partner. Not much else to ask for!
Available in France
TV – Fleishman Is in Trouble
This was the last TV show I watched in 2022 and my surprise favorite! I hadn’t heard much about the show, but I am glad I discovered it. The cast is incredible and have previously been in some of my all time favorite shows. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Lizzy Caplan (Party Down), Claire Danes (Homeland), Adam Brody (The O.C.), and Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother). Great chemistry between them all elevate the show. It provides a great insight to a relationship falling apart and the different perspectives on the experience.
I didn’t know what I expected going into this film, but it absolutely blew me away. Adorable, hilarious, astounding all around. Skip the trailer and just dive right in. Get to know Marcel, his world, and his incredible point of view. I watched it while on a flight and it made that time pass by instantly. I’m a lover of the mockumentary and this ones just about perfect.
Available on pay per view streaming platforms
Tech – Shure MV7
A microphone is a pretty boring pick for technology but for someone who works from home, it’s a game changer. Paired with the Elgato Wave Mic Arm LP that goes underneath my monitor, it’s a perfect microphone setup that doesn’t block my screen.
As I mentioned in 2022 Travel Gear, i’m loving The Carry-On from Away. It’s just a solid carry on bag that is nearly flawless. It fits in every overhead bin i’ve tried, even on small regional planes. It fits an incredible amount of stuff in it too. My only gripe with it is that the portable battery is only available in USB 2.0 and not USB-C. C’mon Away, release an battery!
To be completely honest, I didn’t play many video games this year. I don’t think my Nintendo Switch has been turned on more then a dozen times and my Steam Deck has been lightly used too. I had 2 weeks off during the winter holidays and spent a good amount of time getting back into World of Warcraft with it’s new expansion, Dragonflight. It’s a great expansion to the game with awesome new systems for professions and some fun endgame content.
Originally released in 2014 but new to me this year. It’s a fantastic deck building game and portable enough to easily bring travelling. I played it extensively with friends while bike camping and on vacation with my partner in Mexico. I’m really excited for the new Rise of Empire Kickstarter to come out in 2023. The beauty of Star Realms deck-building combined with a 12 scenario legacy campaign sounds very exciting. It also has a great digital version which i’ve enjoyed playing on flights to pass some time.
Available from Star Realms or your local board game store
Podcast – The Always Sunny Podcast
I’ve been watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for 15 years. It’s consistently been one of my favourite shows to watch, to quote, and to meme. I’ve always enjoyed the creators of the show and have watched everything they’ve made since. Getting to listen to them ramble and shoot the shit every week in podcast form has been a blast.
I’ve gone through multiple phases in life where I biked regularly, mostly to commute or run errands. Biking has come in and out of my life a few times, and I am thoroughly enjoying being back into it. It’s become my primary way to get to my local disc golf course! My biking highlight was going bike camping for the first time, something I am excited to do again in 2023.
Available Outdoors
Book – In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan
I discovered Brian McClellan and his “The Powder Mage” and “Gods of Blood and Powder” trilogies years ago and absolutely loved them. I’ve been following him ever since and he’s really stepped things up with his new book, “In the Shadow of Lightning”. Deep world-building and a really interesting glass-based magic system.
I live across many chat applications - WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Discord, iMessages, and texting. Keeping track of all of them has always been a giant hassle. I’ve tried lots of different solutions over the years but Beeper has been the first one thats knocked it out of the park. One seamless experience for all of my messaging platforms based on Matrix. I’ve been using it since it’s first Beta availability and it’s come a long way. The last half of 2022 it has been an incredibly stable and reliable product that is a pleasure to use.
During my winter holidays I took the plunge and got LASIK laser eye surgery! The recovery process has been so smooth and easy. Within 24 hours I was back to normal life and am just now finishing up my medicated eye drops. Really a marvel of modern technology.
Watch out for a full blog post about this project soon, it’s my last of my year of projects! I subscribe to a few newsletters via Substack and have been procrastinating getting a newsletter setup for my blog for ages. I’ve been looking around at what’s available and there’s no easy option for a Substack like subscription experience but with your own blog… So I built it myself! I’m just putting the finishing touches on it and hope to launch it in the next week or two.
Things I Was Grateful For in 2022
