Twenty Twenty-Two. No jetpacks, no faster-than-light traveling, no flying cars (at least not mass-produced and widely available or reliable). In short, this isn’t the Jetsons future we thought it might be.
Why does that matter? Because by any metric for arguably anyone born on the other side of Y2K, 2022 was the future. Well, the future is now, and it’s not living up to expectations, I can tell you that.
So let’s look back on the year as it was, and ignore the things it would or should have been.
The Written Word
I continue to read books like they’re going out of style, but this year I learned, to my surprise, they aren’t!
I don’t know what the final tally was, but I reviewed six books from author Douglas Coupland, three from Terry Brooks, and three from Len Deighton. All of those are older books, but I also read and reviewed two books that were released in 2022; The Mirror Man by J.B. Manas and Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree.
The fact that there are new books coming out, and that I’m seeing discourse about them on the internet, makes me think I’m not alone in this reading thing…
The Big Screen, The Small Screen, and The Streaming
When I wasn’t reading, I was consuming movies and television shows, and independent content from creators on YouTube.
But we’re not talking about timely consumption unless you’re talking about some of the YouTube content, mainly the Hermitcraft and Empires SMPs. Even at that, I also went down some “Late Late Show with Craig Furgeson” rabbit holes and found some other great channels on what is probably still the largest time suck on the internet. And that’s only because I’m not on TikTok.
Because I’m not talking about timely consumption, that also means I’ve thrown off the shackles of FOMO. I enjoy Star Wars and Marvel, and there are plenty of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime exclusives, but I’ll get to them when I get to them. As an example, I did watch almost every Marvel offering this year, but I was about two or three months behind their releases. You’d never know that because some of it was watched merely to enjoy with my partner. Not all of it is worthy of a post, and that’s OK.
Music
My podcast consumption was down significantly in 2022, but my music consumption was up by that same factor. I find it hard to balance those two things, so I figure they’ll be fighting for prominence in my headphones for years to come. I find, however, no matter how much I enjoy any of the podcasts that I’m subscribed to, my mood is always better when music is in my ears.
IRL
To that end, I have returned to playing bass. I started as the summer turned to fall in anticipation of the first major purchase of mine since I picked up that electronic drum kit a while back, and I did recently pick up a Squier Affinity Series 4-string Precision Bass in Lake Placid Blue, which has been a joy to noodle around on. Getting back to a 4-string after only having my 5-string Jazz Bass available to me has reminded me of why I picked up the instrument in the first place, and that is a deeply satisfying personal journey.
But that isn’t the only journey I’ve been on. I went to Southern New York State for a friend’s wedding. I took Stefanie to her first Major League Baseball games at my cathedral, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, with more to come next season for sure.
I also ventured to Scranton, Pennsylvania for an in-person premiere of a movie I helped make with my friend Christopher J. Hughes titled “They Sleep On Us,” which we put on IMDb to make official and we hope to make more widely available in the coming year.
And for once I was digitally ahead of the social curve, having left behind most of the social mediums before it was cool towards the latter half of this year. I was never on them for the game and it just wasn’t fun any more at that. I’m still out there, and I still keep tabs, but I now have a tendency to leave my phone in the other room. It’s amazingly freeing and satisfying.
However, there is one thing quietly happened in the background this year. I realized that when things turn 20, it makes me feel old. This happens to many of us many times in the year, but it was only recently that I learned the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers turned 20. That one hurt! Next year Jurassic Park turns 30 and that somehow doesn’t make me feel as old as The Two Towers did this year.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t comment that the FIFA World Cup taking place in November and December was just as odd this year as it was when the Tour de France didn’t happen in July. It also reminds me that the 2022 Tour de France Femmes race was exciting, and I’m looking forward to more of that race in the future.
Looking ahead
In getting ready for 2023, I’ve already made a bit of a schedule. I know I’ll probably read the last three Deighton novels that remain to complete his bibliography. I’ll continue to read some more Coupland and Deighton, all the while tackling more of my personal library in a quest to read all of the books that are in my house.
But something that I have already started and that I’m basically announcing right here and now is that I will be creating a new series for this blog about my journey through Star Trek. The series itself will start off with where I was before I started watching The Original Series, which I’m about halfway through as I write this. I don’t know when that series will start to be published, but look for it sometime in 2023.
That aside, I’m not sure what’s in store for 2023. 2022 wasn’t a bust personally, but it wasn’t great. Perhaps as I enter my 40th year on this planet in a few months I’ll figure it all out; perhaps I won’t.
Either way, I wish you the happiest of New Years and I hope that as you look back on Twenty Twenty-Two, you can find the good in it and take what you can to propel those positive vibes into Twenty Twenty-Three.