Youtube is a bad place, but every now and then a good video appears. Because I can’t seem to stop going there, I can at least make it easier for you (and future me) to see what was worth it.
If we’re going to give all this data to companies, the least they can do is give us a nice web page with statistics that seem kind of neat for five minutes.
If I’d have guessed, I would have said I’d watched 500 movies this year.
This one shows that some of Letterboxd’s metadata may not be perfect. These count up based on tags, and “On The Rocks” probably shouldn’t be counted as Russian. “To Live and Die in LA” probably shouldn’t count as Spanish just because William Peterson inappropriately uses “amigo.”
Unfortunately Letterboxd doesn’t know if I’m rewatching a movie but just hasn’t reviewed it on the site before. So…there? I sure did like a lot of the movies I watched this year.
What do you mean, they’re still making new movies? I haven’t heard of this.
Letterboxd definitely thinks I should have watched more 2020 films. But what can you do?
In 2019-2020, I tracked my Peloton workouts every three months. I found it useful to to see a quarterly grade on how I was doing. This fall, I changed up a few things in my workout tracking. First, I began to use Notion to track workouts every day. I duplicated Red Gregory’s Home Workout Tracker and modified it with the workouts I do. Second, I tried out Apple Fitness+ in December, which let me try out a different type.
I simplified my stat tracking by not using Peloton’s spreadsheet at all. Every time I finished a workout, I’d add it to the spreadsheet in notion and use the active calories burned as the results number. The workout would already be in the calendar, because I’ve been setting them up a week in advance. That’s why some aren’t checked: I thought maybe I’d do it on Sunday.
Here’s the calendar view of my workouts in notion:
I’ve simplified my stats to just three categories: Cardio (all HIIT, elliptical, etc), Strength, and Wellness (Yoga, meditation, etc). Here’s the data:
Workout Plan vs Results
Fitness Type
Planned
Completed
Percent
Cardio
49
38
78
Strength
27
15
46
Wellness
28
13
46
Time Spent / Calories Burned
Fitness Type
Time Spent (minutes)
Time Average
Cals Burned
Cardio
1019
27
7374
Strength
352
22
2381
Wellness
289
20
1560
The main note for this entry is that it took 10% the time it took to make the last entries. Because I’ve changed how I’m tracking workouts, I’m not going to compare these entries to the last run (though my cardio is way up, because I began using an elliptical instead of outdoor cycling).
The Meddler, 2015 - ★★★. Me doing my best Zach Braff impression at Susan Sarandon right before she kicked Michael McKean in the crotch and ran: “Kick him in the crotch and run! The crotch!”
Fran’s Not Here is a show about Toronto, co-hosted by Sawyer Paul and Robert Pilgrim. Read blog posts about each episode. The show is hosted at Anchor, where you can subscribe however you want.
I’ve been keeping better track of the things I consume this year. I couldn’t have done it without Notion and this blog. Here’s my top lists for every category. If I remember to, I’ll expand each section with reasons for each. If I don’t, assume each one of things gave me some joy and got me through some of this year.
Note: I definitely consumed more media than this in 2020, but I tried to keep it to things that were released this year.
Palm Springs - My answer for “how are you doing?” to everyone has been “yeah, I’m stuck in one of those infinite time loop things” so I’d say this movie hit the general vibe.
Run the Jewels — RTJ4 - The first singles released just as lockdown happened in March, and the rest dropped in June, alongside the Black Lives Matter protests.
Lovecraft Country - It’s very good and a bit sloppy but so much fun and fast it doesn’t matter. Just a goddamn blast from beginning to end.
Perry Mason - I don’t care at all about Perry Mason but I will follow Matthew Rhys into oblivion. I wonder if this had been made in the 2000s it would have just been a 150 minute feature and forgotten by awards season.
Fargo - Fargo season 5 is the only TV show this year that should actually be required viewing.
Avenue 5 - This show seemed stupid in January but then super smart by March.
What We Do In the Shadows - This show is delight medicine. I hope it gets the Sunny contract and runs until the end of time.
Favourite Anime
Dorohedoro - Lightning in a bottle creativity. I want the backgrounds of this show as art on my walls. Having said that, it’s very, very niche and might not appeal to, uh, anyone but me?
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken - A celebration of the creative process, animation, and that period of your life where nobody’s really paying attention to you and you can get away with the thing.
Fran’s Not Here is a show about Toronto, co-hosted by Sawyer Paul and Robert Pilgrim. Read blog posts about each episode. The show is hosted at Anchor, where you can subscribe however you want.