thornbill.dev

Favorite Things of 2023

I started making lists of my favorite (new to me) things for the year 2020, inspired by the series from Tested. I have always had the intention of publishing these lists to this blog, but I was uncertain if anyone would find them interesting. If nothing else, publishing these here will be easier for me to reference than being locked away inside various note-taking apps.

Hardware

  1. Vertical mouse — I have dealt with some wrist pain for some time that tends to flare up after long sessions of computer usage or driving. This strange-looking mouse seems to have alleviated a lot of that discomfort for me.

Development

  1. TanStack (React) Query — This library for server state management makes a lot of complex problems (caching, refreshing, and de-duping API requests) really simple.
  2. Zustand — This library is a refreshing take on client-side state management. It is really everything that I wanted from mobx, with official support for features like state persistence.

Technology

  1. Mastodon | IceCubesApp (app) — I have never been a very active user of Twitter, but the anti-features that have been rolled out in the past 1-2 years have led me to completely stop using the service this year. Mastodon was not entirely new to me. (I had an account several years ago on a now-defunct server.) However, this year I setup a new account (thanks to the folks at Fosstodon for hosting their public instance!) and started using the excellent Ice Cubes app as a client on iOS. There may not be as much content available as there was on Twitter, but I really don't care as I find the quality of content much higher (at least for my general interests in open-source software and self-hosting).
  2. RSS | FreshRSS (server) | NetNewsWire (app) — Another service that effectively died for me this year was Reddit. Their open hostility toward users, moderators, and third-party developers prompted me to stop using the service. This left me looking for a replacement for following current events, and I found myself returning to using RSS for the first time in several years. I set up FreshRSS to use as an RSS aggregator and web reader. The experience is much nicer than the aggregator I used years ago. Coupled with NetNewsWire on iOS, it has mostly replaced the use case I had for Reddit, but entirely using open-source software and open web standards!
  3. Seek (app) — This is probably a bit of an outlier compared to the other apps on this list. Seek is an augmented reality-type app that attempts to identify animal and plant life. I have found it very useful while on hikes and outings with Scouts or just while in my yard.

Entertainment

  1. Jury Duty — This is just a fun situational comedy show with a different take on a "reality" style show.
  2. The Witcher — I'm a bit late to this one and entirely unfamiliar with the related books and games, but I still really enjoyed this sci-fi/fantasy series. Although I am somewhat concerned about the next season's transition to a new actor playing the main role.
  3. Ready Player One (book) — Definitely not a new book, but it was a really fun read. I had previously watched the movie, and while they are substantially different, I think the movie did a decent job of capturing the spirit of the book.
  4. Wargroove — My son randomly picked up this game on the Xbox, and it immediately became one of my favorites. The game play reminds me a lot of the Advance Wars games for the Game Boy Advance, and the developer even lists this as a source of inspiration for them. They released a sequel (Wargroove 2) this year also, but I have not picked it up yet.

Miscellaneous

  1. Record player — I think that owning physical media is really important in the age of everything being digital and ownership rights generally disappearing. I was given a vintage record player in 2022, but I didn't really have speakers for it until the end of the year. Now I have it all setup in my office and have a few records from my favorite artists to switch out during my work day.
  2. Hot Wheels Batmobiles — These are just desk toys for me to fidget with during meetings, because who doesn't like the Batmobile??? (My personal favorite is the Batmobile from Batman the Animated Series.)
  3. Funko Pop — Yes, they can be rather silly-looking, but they are affordable and cover a huge range of different fandoms. I think they are fun.
  4. Bro Thor's New Asgard (LEGO set) — This is a small set that packs in a ton of detail, and "Bro Thor" is one of the funniest characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.