Favorite thangs in 2024
Intro
People often do a favorite things to sum up the year, this year marks the first year this blog went live. So to commemorate this occasion, I’ve decided to also do a favorite things in 2024. This is not specifically technology related, but something more personal and fun.
So let’s kick of my first ever Favorite thangs in 2024!
Favorite Movies I watched
The Iron Claw (2023)
Last time I cared about wrestling was back in Highschool, I would normally pass up this type of genre, but when I found out what the subject matter was about, I knew I had to immediately watch it. What a beautifully tragic story.
The Fall Guy (2024)
This movie is just pure enjoyment and an amazing celebration of stunt people in the film industry. I think I’ve watched this many times since it’s released and it’s always such a fun watch.
Late Night with the Devil (2024)
I love the horror genre, so I’m always on the look out for new and interesting stories and settings. Late Night with the Devil paints an amazing portray of an era piece of late night talk show television with a demonic twist.
Longlegs (2024)
Some of the magic of movies like Longlegs is that it blends the supernatural and reality together so well. It gives you patterns, clues to how the supernatural works, shows you the impossible and finally gives you a real world explanation for it. And still in the end it leaves a few crucial details out, just enough to make you doubt the facts.
Smile 2 (2024)
The sequel to Smile, and what a follow up this movie was. With sequels we already know the rules, so we need something more to hook us. Smiling has always felt terrifying to me and this movie really ramps up this horrific feeling to an 11, particularly with one scene in Skye’s apartment.
Exhibiting Forgiveness (2024)
I really enjoy movies where the character has broken free of their former life only to have to return one day to face unresolved trauma. I’ve been a fan of André Holland as an actor ever since I saw him Moolight and Castle Rock, so I wanted to check this out.
Your Monster (2024)
This is just a silly premise where your imaginary monster from childhood turns out to be real as your life is falling apart. It’s a fun watch.
Favorite Shows I watched
Abbot Elementary
I finally started watching Abbot Elementary and holy heck did I wish I would have watched this sooner! I absolutely love each of the teachers, they’re all so quirky and wholesome in the ways that I remember my teachers growing up.
Ted Lasso
I also finally got around to watching all of Ted Lasso this year and I totally why this series was so beloved. It’s the kind of story that has an underdog team that you just want to root for, the characters are all great.
The Bear (Season 3)
It’s good, we all know this. But I just want to really share my favorite episode of this recent season, Napkins. I don’t know what it says about me, but I really empathize with characters who get shitted on in life, but put on a smile and persevere right up to their breaking point and beyond. Liza Colon-Zayas’ performance in this episode was absolutely incredible. Fun fact her husband plays her husband in the show.
X-Men ‘97
“The Name’s Gambit, Mon Ami… Remember it.” This shit went so fucking hard and it exhibits everything I love about characters like Gambit. Of course the rest of the season was an amazing nostalgia trip as well and I highly recommend this series to anyone who grew up watching the X-Men cartoon.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
I think what I really enjoyed most about this show was the chemistry between Donald and Maya’s character. They’re weird, there’s a bit of romance, there’s spycraft and it all blends together so well. I’m looking forward to what they do for a season 2.
The Brothers Sun
Being first generation from an immigrant family, this show hits a few of the notes from my childhood, I mean without all the mafia stuff. There’s not too many majority led asian cast television shows in the west and especially ones that tells stories with some level of seriousness. This show had it all, martial arts, comedy, familial expectations, striving to want something for yourself. I loved it and I wish it would get a follow up season.
One Day
I got sucked into the tiktok hype about this one. I saw all these reaction videos of people crying over this series that I had to give it a watch. I have to say as far as love stories go, I really enjoyed this one. It’s not the typical they fall in love and live happily ever after, no, years goes by as this love is developed and tested. It’s a good watch.
The Queen of Villains
My second mention of a wrestling related media, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. It follows our lead, Dump Matsumoto, who is portrayed by Yuriyan Retriever and gives one heck of a performance, during the very real rising era of female japanese wrestling. I love non-stereotypical lead characters and you can’t help but want to root for her.
Dead Boy Detectives
What I’ve come to appreciate about DC in the wake of the Marvel takeover is that they’re no stranger to take chances on characters and stories the typical super hero movie enjoyer may know about. This is like Hardy Boys meets the supernatural, or at least what I imagine the Hardy Boys were like (never read them growing up, too busy reading comics instead).
A Virtuous Business
I don’t often watch k-dramas, usually because I feel it’s all the same, just a bunch of extremely good looking people with some kind of romance problems. However this one has a really interesting premise in which an unlikely bunch of women start a risque women’s lingerie business. What I really enjoyed about this one is how different of a story it was from the typical ones. I really like the main cast of women and the stories that’s told from their perspectives.
Favorite Video Games I played
Lies of P
It’s a soulsborne like game set in a fictitious gothic fairy tale like world. Combat took a while for me to get the hang of because the timing of the blocks/deflect was not what I was used to. But I love the artistic take on a classic fairy tale.
Black Myth Wukong
I was already familiar with the story of Wukong through an old cartoon from my childhood called Monkey Magic. But to experience more of the tales of Wukong and see just how weird it all was in the game styles of soulsborne mechanics was fantastic. I made sure to fight each and every boss possible. Highly recommend.
Helldivers 2
I don’t much play multi-player games outside of Destiny 2. So when some old friends wanted to give it a go, I have to say I was delightfully surprised at how enjoyable the experience was. It may not be so much the game itself, but the combination of good company and fun mechanics is really want made the experience very enjoyable.
Favorite Comics I read
DIE
This is probably my favorite read of the year. Out of all the nerd stuff I’m into, Dungeons and Dragons has never been something I’ve personally been interested in. But man this comic’s story and artwork was so cool, I couldn’t pass up giving it a shot. I love the power fantasy for each of the character in the game world and how non-traditional hero like behaviors they had to grapple with.
Saga
It’s an amazing Space Opera. It’s hard to really hate any characters in this story, even villains become lovable. I can’t wait to read more as they come out.
Favorite Manga I read
A Man and His Cat
This is a slice of life manga I suppose. I actually started reading this years ago, but I think I’ve come to appreciate it more in the past year with the absence of my dog. It’s silly, emotional, and very enjoyable.
Chihayafuru
I knew nothing of what Karuta was but the Japanese just have a way with taking a subject matter that I either know nothing of or have interest in and making it worth reading about. Obviously the story is more than just about the game, but it makes for an interesting vehicle in which to tell a story.
Dandadan
Pure ridiculousness and the facial expressions of the characters is so funny. They also recently came out with the Anime this year as well.
Hinamatsuri
This is lowkey comedic gold and I finally finished reading all of it this year. Highly recommend.
Jagaaaaaan
I love weird shit and Jagaaaaaan is this mixture of weird, violence and ridiculous. It reminds me a lot of Gantz back in the day.
Sakamoto Days
What if the most notorious assassin wanted to settle down and live a quiet life? Well its not gonna go smoothly for everyone else trying to collect that bounty on his head.
Favorite Anime I watched
Yuru Camp
This is just a superb slice of life anime about camping. It doesn’t get deep and it kinda just makes you want to go camping.
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
This anime started airing late in the year, but man has it been so interesting. The plot revolves around Heliocentrism and takes place through iterations of characters studying this “taboo” during a time of Geocentrism. There’s a manga to this as well.
Favorite Items I own
Bambu Lab’s A1 Mini
I already own a fantastic Prusa MK3S, but wanted to see what the hype was around the Bambulab printers. So on a whim with some spare change, I bought the Bambulab A1 Mini. Man what a printer it is! The speed and accuracy in which it printed a benchy was pretty incredible, and at the price point, I totally understood the hype. It’s pretty great for prototyping small prints and even fairly large ones (well large for it’s build volume)
Steamdeck
I used to travel back to my home town lugging my PS5 to keep up with my Destiny 2 addiction. But circumstances changed and I was no longer in a position to travel with my PS5. So I sold myself on the practicality of the Steamdeck. Not only could it play games from my Library, I could even play Destiny 2…. if I installed Windows, which I had no plans to do. Instead what it acted great as was a Sony Remote Play and it worked great being able to stream my PS5 from the Steamdeck. Only bottleneck became the network, so unfortunately it did not run well outside of my home network. However it did allow me to start taking a crack at that backlog. I am thoroughly impressed by the device and I really hope this helps bring more attention to Linux gaming. It also makes for the perfect gaming session before bed.
Favorite Youtube Channels of the year
Adam Savage’s Tested
I’ve always enjoyed the maker that is Adam Savage, his build videos are always a delight to watch. I love how he approaches organizing his workspace and how he explains his thoughts and process in his videos. Every year the Tested team does a Favorite Things of the year, which is sort of what inspired this among many other things. He has an immense appreciation for tools and I love hearing him talk at length about some of his favorites. Here’s one of my favorite videos of the year, would probably only interest people who are makers who enjoy the workspace they build in.
PossedbyHorror
Being the big horror fan that I am I of course watch youtubers talk about horror. This is certainly one of my favorite channels on the subject. I find Sarah’s appreciation of the Found Footage horror refreshing considering that most people seem to write of these shaky cam style horror movies as being bad. I personally love that style of horror. Here’s Sarah’s ranking of Found Footage style horror movies.
Kidology
A youtuber who does analytical eassy type videos about society. I think she has interesting thoughts and ideas that she brings up for discussion and appreciate the data she brings into the discussion. She recently made a video on the discussion of the end of reading, which I found really fascinating.
FLATLANDER TECH
Here’s a interesting maker / film maker type channel. Watching his custom desk build has been really satisfying.
Diggnation
After over a decade since Diggnation last aired, Kevin and Alex get together and do a special reboot episode and boy was it everything I remembered. Diggnation has a special place in my heart as being probably the first podcast I ever watched back in my college days. The subject matter was never really special given that they just picked a few digg article to talk about, but what really made it magical was the chemistry they had, this was a real friendship on display, having a good time, drinking some booze and shooting the shit.
AntsCanada
I don’t know where to begin with this one, but I loved watching this man build this ridiculously giant indoor Vivarium. I couldn’t stop watching every week for a new update.
Mina Le
Another one of those video essay youtubers who talks about a wide variety of societal topics. She has a background in the fashion world so she often dresses up for her videos and sometimes the topic of discussion does have an overlay into that world.
Gawx Art
I only just stumbled upon his videos this year, but damn does this guy know how to make cinematic and aesthetically pleasing videos. I think it was this video that got me into his channel.
Some honorable mentions
- Macho Nacho Productions - Retro Game Console Repair and mods
- YourCoolUncleMarisa - Sharing her love and story telling of retro consoles
- Vuhlandes - Photography, Film Making and story teller
- GxAce - Photography story telling with a cyber punk aesthetic.
Close out
With that, my favorite thangs in 2024 has come to a close. Hope you all have a lovely time spending it with your loved ones and here’s to learning and growing in 2025!