As has become a tradition of mine here on the ol’ blog, it is time for my best of from the past year. The idea isn’t mine, I got it from Tested.com, the haunt of Mythbuster-turned-maker-extraordinaire Adam Savage. Each year he and the other contributors to Tested put up videos of their favorite things from the year. So here goes my “best of” for another year!
MacBook Air
I replaced my dearly departed Mac Mini with a MacBook Air in Starlight this year. Not only is it a gorgeous laptop, it has been plenty powerful for all my computer and school needs (I went back to school for the first time in thirteen years!). It has tripled as a personal computer, work computer, and school computer, and has handled all three jobs fantastically. By now it is no shock to anyone that I prefer Apple products, having featured at least one most years. I like my Air and it, along with all the software updates that Apple provides, are my jam.
LEGO Minifigure
Sometime this year, I don’t remember when, I bought a LEGO minifigure. Well, that is misleading. I bought a macrofigure. It is a large set that replicates the ubiquitous LEGO figure into an upscaled minifigure. It was a ton of fun to build, and even features a proper minifigure under the hat in a control center “driving” the larger figure beneath. I have it sitting on a surface where I see it every day, and it makes me smile every day.
Books
I have been reading this year! If you’ve been following along with the ups and downs of my mental health, you will know that reading is something that has not come easily for years. This year I have read several books, among them Stephen King’s On Writing and Tolkien’s the Hobbit and I am working my way through the Lord of the Rings again, currently in the middle of the Two Towers. I couldn’t be happier! I downloaded an app for my phone, Reading List ( <— link to the iOS app), which allows me to enter books by scanning their barcodes (older books can be added via ISBN or manually) and then I can carry about listing of my entire library with me, or track my progress reading through a book. I can even look back at all the books I have read this year, and add books to a “To-Read” list. It has really come in useful when I go to Half Price Books and can’t remember off-hand if I already own a book or not. I look it up, and that keeps me from duplicate purchases. In all, a very useful app that pairs with all the books I am reading, have, and will read.
Speaking of which, I have added several Tolkien books to my library, too many to list out here, but which tell the broader story of Tolkien’s writing and scholarship. One in particular, The Proverbs of Middle Earth by David Rowe, sparked a semester long study of the folklore of Tolkien’s fairy tales for one of my classes! I got to study and read Tolkien at the same time, which was a dream come true. I had much fun and even impressed my professor with some of the analysis I was able to do.
Infrastructure
I’ve added some furniture and other things to the Art Studio my wife and I have upstairs in our house, across from our bedroom. Among them a computer desk, an art table or two, and various storage solutions. Trying to fit two people and their art infrastructure into one largish room is always a work in progress, and over the holiday break I hope to optimize the space even further. It would help a lot to not have carpet, and to have more room, but there is only so much you can do when you are making art in a space in your house and not in a dedicated studio or other building.
Still, the changes we have and will make are making it easier for us both to do what we love to do: make stuff. She crochets, works with clay, and other fiber and physical arts; and I customize my action figures, create dioramas, sometimes build LEGO, and paint or other crafting. We even moved the TV upstairs from the living room so we can watch shows or movies while we work or relax. The next step is to somehow fit a couch for group viewing, but it remains to be seen if that will even be possible. It’s a goal, anyway!
Soylent
I have been working to maintain good health ever since contracting Covid-19 a few years ago, and part of that has been trying to eat healthier. For awhile I was drinking Glucerna shakes, a blood sugar friendly protein drink, for breakfast. Recently my wife decided to try Soylent for her breakfast, a similar product to Glucerna, but one that doesn’t have milk protein. She and I are both lactose intolerant, and while Glucerna is better for blood sugar, it has milk in it, and was causing unpleasantness for me. When my supply of Glucerna was used up, I switched to Soylent, and it is even more filling and less with the side effects!
In fact, it has been so good that I have replaced both breakfast and dinner with a Soylent shake. I have noticed in just the short time that I have made the switch that I am less sleepy, have more energy, my blood sugar is lower, and am not as hungry. Plus, I don’t have to decide what to eat twice a day! I eat lunch at the cafeteria at the university where I work, so that lets me exercise my jaw. It remains to be seen if the long-term results are as good as what I am experiencing here in the short going, but for now I am happy. A subscription on Amazon keeps me supplied and saving a bit of money on the Soylent, so that isn’t bad either.
I think that about wraps up my favorite things from 2023. It has been a great year, all things considered. I achieved my goal of returning to work after being laid off in February; I achieved my goal of returning to school after a long hiatus; I am healthier; I feel mentally strong in a way I haven’t in a long time; and while things are not perfect, I have a supportive wife, a couple of good dogs, my family, and I’m alive. After 2020, that is all I really need.
a simple man 