Happy new year! I've been working on planning 2014 and thought I would do a 2013 roundup first.
Here's some stuff I did last year:
- Launched Interrupt Violence with Kartemquin Films, Kounterattack Design, Tribeca, and ITVS
- Produced a conference webcast and wrapup video for Arts Alliance Illinois
- Worked with Table XI and Ebert Digital to launch and maintain RogerEbert.com
- Made additional websites and videos with a handful of professionals
- Experimented with Trello for running projects
- Starting using a spreadsheet value sorting system to easily rank big lists (e.g. what movies I’d like to see)
- Launched this website and blog
- Finally found a desk that seems an appropriate height for me, drastically reducing ongoing wrist discomfort
- Printed new business cards and stationery with Werner Printing in Chicago
- Was particularly inspired by the work of psychologist Cynthia Ebert, surgeon Michael Levitt, and comedian Drew Michael
- Finally got around to creating a six-month financial forecast and quarterly tracking systems
- Created separate email accounts for actual correspondence and then newsletters/sales solicitations
- Began to more carefully balance protein, carbohydrates, and fats in my diet
- Bought and started using a food scale
- Began a bodyweight calisthenics routine
- Took class to improve my swimming stroke
- Traveled a bit
- Helped my dad begin assembling a classic car
- Made many interesting mistakes
The best books I can remember reading are:
Mindfulness in Plain English
Bhante Gunaratana
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't
Nate Silver
The Complete Walker IV
Colin Fletcher
The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software
Jonathan Rasmusson
Even the Terrible Things Seem Beautiful to Me Now: The Best of Mary Schmich
Mary Schmich
Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence
Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Roger Fisher
Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
Michael Moss
Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess
Fred Waitzkin
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers
The albums I really liked:
Silence Yourself
Savages
Reflektor
Arcade Fire
Wakin On A Pretty Daze
Kurt Vile
Electric
Richard Thompson
Hoodoo Man Blues
Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band
Random Access Memories
Daft Punk
Fulfillingness First Finale
Stevie Wonder
Favorites of the movies that I saw:
Vertigo
Casablanca
2001: A Space Odyssey
Days of Heaven
Oslo, August 31st
The Ballad of Narayama
Blancanieves
Les Miserables
The World’s End
12 Years a Slave
The Spectacular Now
Nebraska
The only TV show I really watched:
Spaced
The worst movie I saw:
Pacific Rim
My favorite excerpt from a book (Susan Cain's Quiet):
[Warren] Buffett takes pride not only in his track record, but also in following his own ‘inner scorecard.’ He divides the world into people who focus on their own instincts and those who follow the herd. ‘I feel like I’m on my back,’ says Buffett about his life as an investor, ‘and there’s the Sistine Chapel, and I’m painting away. I like it when people say, Gee, that’s a pretty good-looking painting. But it’s my painting, and when somebody says, Why don’t you use more red instead of blue? Good-bye. It’s my painting. And I don’t care what they sell it for. The painting itself will never be finished. That’s one of the great things about it.’
I was also lucky to spend a lot of time with old and new family, friends, and colleagues. Thanks for making 2013 a year to remember!