At the end of each year, I usually post my favorite photographs I’ve taken lately. This year I thought I’d mix it up a bit and post some of my favorites in more genres – for myself to look back on, and perhaps for you to get some inspiration from.
Favorite movies and TV shows
I watch a lot of shows and there are many that deserve to be on this list. These are just some of my favorites from the year that have passed.
- “Last of us” started off the year and what an amazing start it was. I knew the videogame have a strong foundation to build on, and I had high expectations but never thought a show based on a game could be this good.
- “Snowfall” (season 6) came to an end and it felt a little bit like losing a bunch of friends that you’ve watched growing up. From a few grams to whole drug empires fighting for power.
- “The Bear” (season 2) was just as phenomenal as the first season. Some very different episodes that is impossible to leave you emotionless. I’ve already rewatched “Forks” and “Honeydew” but not sure I could handle watching “Fishes” a second time.
- “Foundation” (season 2) get a lot of criticism for not following the original story, but to me this is people misunderstanding both the books and the show. This is as sci-fi as it gets – it’s demanding, and it’s very rewarding if you get invested in it.
- “Slow Horses” (season 3) is one of the few british show I’ve truly enjoyed. Fantastic performance by Gary Oldman and a few others, and it’s exciting to see the overarching story evolve.
- “Blue Eye Samurai” was an unexpected delight. Yes, it had flaws, but also great animation, a strong female lead, and reminded me a bit of old school samurai manga.
- “Gen V” does not have quite the same weight as “The Boys” but it’s just as bloody, chocking and crazy, perhaps even more so. “Little Cricket” manage to capture criticism of a whole bunch of modern day issues and is my favorite character by far.
- “Only Murders in the Building” (season 3) might not be necessary the best tv show ever made, but it’s just so bloody cosy? All I want to do is make some tea and snuggle up under a blanket and try to figure out who the murderer could be. A bit like old days with Agatha Christie books.
For me, TV shows have taken over most of the time I used to spend on watching movies. I do rewatch old movies now and then, but I won’t list them here. My favorite movies of 2023 is probably gonna be “The Banshees of Inisherin”, and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”. I did enjoy “Barbie” too, but it didn’t live up to the massive hype.
Favorite Videogames
The only story-driven game I played this year is the newest Zelda. I wanted to get the new Diablo and Baldur’s Gate, but this year I tried to only buy games when I will actually have time to play them. And there haven’t really been time. I continued playing “League of Legends” but didn’t get out of bronze this year either.
- “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”, I’m about half ways in only but I enjoyed it more than the previous Zelda game. An impressive technical marvel and smart reuse of existing world manage to capture the essence of Zelda games to me.
- “Suika Game” is available both in a web browser and Nintendo Switch, and has that annoying feeling of “just one more try”. The versions are quite different so I play both of them, hah.
- “Palia” eventually arrived on Nintendo Switch and I’ve been playing it daily for a few weeks now. It’s good, and maybe my favorite farming game to date, but I’m also hitting that point where I need to spend lots of time to get any further.
- “The Finals” should be on this list too, even though I guess I’m biased. I think it’s already really good, and I can’t wait to see where we’ll be in a year from now.
Favorite Apps
Reddit killed my favorite app Apollo, and I refuse to use the official app. Twitter/X killed my favorite app Tweetbot, and I rarely visit Twitter anymore now. But there have been others that have risen from the ashes of social media, which is very interesting, but also means that the accounts I usually follow are now split among several services.
- “BlueSky” is both an app and a social media network. I’m not sure if it’ll last for me, but there are a few interesting accounts posting there that I keep track of.
- “Ivory” is Tweetbot for Mastodon and my main client. I do think Mastodon has a good foundation, but people seem to think it’s difficult to sign up and it haven’t gained the traction I hoped for.
- “Ice cubes” is also an app for Mastodon and I love how the developer is super active, writing proper app updates, and adding new fresh ideas to social media clients in general.
- “Threads” from Instagram is getting more popular than expected. I don’t like what they’ve done with Instagram, which mostly annoy me nowadays, but Threads is really good so far.
- “Arc Browser” is the only new Mac app on the list. I didn’t think anything could take me away from Safari, and it still haven’t, but I find myself using it about 30% of the time. It’s really growing on me.
Favorite Purchases
I don’t usually buy many things, and the past years I’ve been leaning into buying things that “sparks joy”. Which basically mean I overspend on things that look good but don’t necessary do the job better.
- “Mug from Hasami”, I love the idea and the look and feel of Hasami products. Got one mug now that I use daily, and plan to retire most other generic mugs except a few other favorites.
- “A Japanese stone lantern” is something I wished for a long time as addition to the balcony, and finally found a place where I could get one that is handmade in solid stone.
- “Balmuda The Pot” is not available around here, and eventually I decided to import from Korea to get correct voltage. I know.
- “Mac Mini M2 Pro”, finally back with a real Mac. It’s small, silent, and I love Mac OS X. Now I just need to figure out what to do with my old Hackintosh which still sits under my desk.
Favorite Music
Partly based on Apple Music recap, these were some of the artist with new albums that I listened the most to during the year.
- “Verité – Love you forever“
- “Gunship – Unicorn“
- “Transviolet – Body“
- “Depeche Mode – Memento Mori“
- “Ruin” technically only have two singles out when I write this, but they are very good and I cannot wait for the full album.
Favorite Books
Sadly, I read even less books this year than previous year. I don’t like audiobooks, and I’m too tired in the evenings to read before bed, so not really finding the time to sit down with a book. So my favorite book of the year goes to “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver.
Favorite Photographs
My favorite photos have a page of their own.
