Happy New Year 2020

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As I write this the clock ticks ever closer to that fateful hour: the end of the decade.

I tend to follow the philosophy of "time is fake", but I was asked to rank movies and music from the last decade and I decided to reflect. (That ranking will be at the end, if you'd rather skip my reflecting. No judgement.)

Ten years. A decade ago I was still in high school, although my time in college had also already begun. I was working at my second job as a library assistant. I wanted to be a voice actor. A lot has happened since then.

My online life has shifted gradually from Facebook to Tumblr and now, in the past year, to Mastodon. I spent a brief time actually using Twitter, and I met some cool people, but I'm happier where I'm at. No more Facebook, no more Tumblr, and Twitter is on a short leash.

My life in the physical world has changed dramatically. I started out in a small town in a relatively sheltered home, and then left to live in a completely different place with completely new people for a couple years. My goals changed. My politics changed. My gender changed. Not necessarily in that order.

And I live with the woman I love, Lisa.

Most Influential Media

Top 4 Music Albums

  1. "Carrie and Lowell" (2015) by Sufjan Stevens

  2. "Electra Heart" (2012) by Marina and the Diamonds

  3. "Exmilitary" (2011) by Death Grips

  4. "Mouth Silence" (2014) by Neil Cicierega

Top 4 Movies

  1. Pacific Rim (2013)
  2. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
  3. Get Out (2017)
  4. Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Top 4 Books

  1. Ancillary Justice (2013) by Anne Leckie
  2. Annihilation (2014) by Jeff Vandermeer
  3. Generalplan Süden (2016) by Madiha (you can buy Generalplan Süden at on itch.io or read it for free online)
  4. Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America (2014) by Annie Jacobsen (which I am still reading)

Honorable Mentions

Every "Top X of Y" list has those things the author just wishes they could put on it... unless it's a Top 100 list, in which case they probably had to do some digging to meet their quota. Well, here's some things that were important to me this past decade that either didn't come out between 2010 and 2020 or just weren't quite in that Top 4.

  1. The State and Revolution (1917) by Vladimir Lenin. A century off, but extremely important to me nonetheless. Its lessons are still valuable today, and it's criticisms almost feel like they are being leveled against the modern Social Democrats.
  2. "The Broken Tongue" (2007) by Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird. This is a music album. My first experience with Klezmer, Daniel Kahn's translations are moving. This album motivated me to start learning Yiddish (although I haven't made much progress).
  3. Ex Machina (2014)... it's just a good movie about a couple of guys treating a woman badly, and they get what's coming to them.

Happy New Year!