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It’s that time of year again. The end of the year. Which means it’s time to get reflective, like I’ve done in several years past (2012<\/a>, 2013<\/a>, 2015<\/a>). This has been a pretty terrible year for so many reasons (celebrity deaths, the US election, Casey Neistat ending his daily vlog). But this post isn’t going to be about any of that.<\/p>\n This post is about my favorite things that happened this year. It’s a highlight of my favorite content, both created and consumed. It’s a look back at this past year to see how far I’ve come, and to set goals for myself in 2017. This post, of course, is for you to read and enjoy. But it’s also largely for me.\u00a0Oh, and some of the\u00a0links are affiliate links. Just a heads up.<\/em><\/p>\n Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s dive right in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Installing a purchased WordPress Theme<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This is year two of this popular video leading the view count leaderboard. This video now has 44,958 views, compared to 11,061 views at the end of last year. The follow up video, Here’s why you can’t upload a custom WordPress theme<\/a> published at the end of 2015, is second with 16,970 views.<\/em><\/p>\n Five<\/strong><\/p>\n Dammit, I wanted this number to be higher this year. Here’s to 2017…<\/em><\/p>\n Most of my fiction reading this year was the Game of Thrones series. A fun read, but not really best-of-2016 good, at least for me. But that’s why this Top fiction section looks pretty sparse this year.<\/p>\n Admittedly, I didn’t watch a ton of movies this year. So I’m sure this list is seriously lacking. Of the movies that I did watch, these were my favorites:<\/p>\n Survivor (why wasn’t I watching this before?<\/em>), Atlanta, Adam Ruins Everything, BATTLEBOTS, Planet Earth II, 30 Rock (re-watching forever<\/em>), Last Week Tonight, The Last Man on Earth<\/p>\n Got engaged<\/strong><\/p>\n I just barely squeezed this into 2016 (it happened on New Years Eve day). What an amazing way to top off a pretty fantastic year. Looking forward to many more years with Avital Asuleen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Won an NYC affordable housing lottery (and moved in)<\/strong><\/p>\n Many people might not know that New York City offers discounted housing<\/a> for residents that fall into certain income brackets. Apparently there were nearly 90,000 people who applied to City Point Tower 1, fighting for just 200 apartment, 39 of which we qualified for. And we were somehow selected. Ain’t that lucky.<\/i><\/p>\n * The theme of 2016 was “changed priorities,” and so I fell short on quite a few goals<\/em><\/p>\nMost viewed blog posts\u00a0by me<\/h2>\n
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Top video by me<\/h2>\n
Total number of blog posts written<\/h2>\n
Top fiction books read<\/h2>\n
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\nI read this\u00a0little-known Stephen King novel this year, slowly working through my goal to read every Stephen King book (although he keeps publishing new books faster than I can read them). <\/em>Roadwork is easily my number two King book (behind <\/em>The Long Walk).\u00a0This year had me thinking a lot about the loss of the middle class in America, and <\/em>Roadwork fits right in with that theme.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nTop non-fiction books read<\/h2>\n
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\nI’m putting this on the list, even though I still have a little left to go. There will be a mass tidying in 2016.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nI read this in preparation for seeing the musical, and loved it way more than I thought I would. Such an amazing story, so interestingly told. Still need to see the musical, though.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nFavorite\u00a0recently-released movies (no particular order)<\/h2>\n
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\nThis is one of those jaw-on-the-floor movies. A seemingly light subject matter (competitive tickling competitions) just gets darker and weirder.<\/i><\/li>\n
\nAmazing performances by Paul Dano and\u00a0Daniel Radcliffe, amazing work by the Daniels<\/a>, just an overall feel-weird movie of the year.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nThis is one of the stranger political stories to play out…and this documentary is a great inside look at a complete meltdown with a surprising amount of candor.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nThis came out in 2014, but I didn’t see it until this year (after seeing their newer movie <\/em>La La Land). What a great film.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nThis was just a straight-up sad story about addiction. Also, it’s amazing how much footage they had of Amy Winehouse.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nIt feels like a movie made by an Alien who has come to earth and is trying to process\/understand this whole concept we call “love.”\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nFavorite TV Shows<\/h2>\n
Technology\u00a0of choice<\/h2>\n
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\nWhat a great piece of tech. I back up all my files onto this handy machine, and then back up the entire machine to Amazon’s cloud. My chances at data loss have significantly decreased.<\/i><\/li>\n
\nI’ve got Plex running on my home server, with storage in the NAS, and the Plex client running on my Apple TV. I can’t imagine a better combo<\/em><\/li>\n
\nI also have cable internet for the first time since graduating college. Instead of a cable box, I oped for the HDHomeRun Prime, which digitizes everything. With the Channels app on the Apple TV, I’ve got everything I could ever want all in one place.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nIt’s like Dollar Shave Club, but for electric toothbrushes. They send you a new brush head every three months, which reminds you to replace your old brush. It’s also a damn good electric toothbrush. 5\/5 stars.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nI’m still in love with this thing. It’s my living room computer (completely replacing my Air, which used to live there) and is perfect for bringing to the gym. I’ve had a regular iPad, and an iPad mini, and the larger Pro is really where it’s at.<\/em><\/li>\n
\nMy daily driver. I don’t really listen to much music, so I don’t miss the headphone jack. And this phone is just so much better than the 6. I just wish I had gotten the Jet Black…<\/em><\/li>\n
\nThese were a holiday gift, and quite possibly the nicest piece of tech I own. These are the first in-ear <\/i>anything that are actually comfortable to me. And the audio quality can’t even be described.<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nBiggest accomplishments<\/h2>\n
Miscellaneous wins<\/h2>\n
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Last year’s goals for this year<\/h2>\n
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Plans for 2017<\/h2>\n