By no means an exhaustive list, this is just a simple list of things I pulled mostly from memory, mostly from 2020.
Best Fiction I Read This Year
Kings of the Wyld. This was a suprise to me. It was a very refreshing take on a high fantasy romp clearly influenced by table top RPG’s. I read several good fiction books this year, including The Stormlight Archive and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but this one just let me zip through it and feel a sense of fun and adventure.
Best Non-Fiction I Read This Year
I read a majority non-fiction this year, and I read several really good ones. However, one that stood out to me as a parent was How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk. This book made me analyse my interactions with my children, and realise how I could approach them better. Am I perfect? No, but this one will probably get a reread. Incredibly helpful examples that I’ve personally encountered with my children.
Interesting Things Found on YouTube
- Homemade Bread for Beginners by Alex the French Guy. Nice and straight forward, while entertaining too.
- “Cripple Creek” with Tracy Neuman wonderful, short, song.
- 11 levels of Origami: Easy to Complex interesting view on origami, and how simple and how complex it can get, even when concentrating on one form.
- Artist Mentorship: Ahmed Aldoori the whole series shows how even someone you see that is apparently successful may not feel that way, and show’s some interesting techniques for getting through those feelings.
- Heinrich Kley ORIGINAL Sketchbook Tour my introduction to this amazing artist.
- The Antikythera Mechanism Episode 10 really, the whole series. This is just the link I have on hand.
A Few Other Interesting Finds This Year
Perhaps I didn’t find some of these this year, but I did read them, use them, pursue them, or otheriwse come in contact with them this year.
- The Theme System – been a huge fan of CGP Grey for a while, and this popped up along with Spaceship You for me this year.
- DIY Art Curriculum – a surprisingly robust collection of online learning options for art, in a structured format. Including Free and Paid-for content. It may not be complete, but it does seem robust and collected all in one place. A great foundation.
- Couch to 80k Writing Workshop – this is an amazing guided set of exercises to help you break into just writing without any looming fear of rejection. I’d also recommend Tim Claires podcast, for what I’ve listend to of it, Death by 1000 Cuts
- DDPYoga – focuses on what you can do, and eschews the spiritual aspect of many other Yoga(like) programs. This focuses on practical exercises that can be modified to where you are at, and has a supportive community around it. If it gets me moving, that’s a good thing in my book.
- Raspberry Pi 4 – such an amazing little machine. TBH, it’s my main personal computer. It’s perfect for internet, writing, some light programming, and doing all sorts of amazing things. Not great for graphical work or games, but still a perfect day-to-day machine.
- Nim – been following this project for more than the year, but it hit 1.0.0 in Nov 2019 and only proceeded to get better in 2020. It’s the one language I’m really interested in, for personal use, right now.
- Mysterium – One of the best board games I’ve played this year (but by no means the only great one). Same company that made Dixit, another of my favorites.
- Karl Kopinski – I was introduced to his artwork this year, only to realize it was in my face for a long time. It was great to put a face to some of the artwork that shaped my life.
- How Sustainable is a Solar Powered Website? A great followup to another fantastic article about an idea for making websites more directly sustainable, How to build a Low-tech Website
