Get To Know Me 2: Electric Boogaloo

Over two years after my first "get to know me" post, my tastes have...not changed considerably, but they have changed, enough so to justify an update. And, since my website has gotten a long-overdue makeover, I figured - why not? My media consumption has been considerably slower since I started working full-time (no complaints here, I enjoy my job) but I do still make time for the things I love. Especially Bad Buddy. I probably spend way, way too much time thinking about Bad Buddy, which ended seven months ago. I'm beyond help at this point, just leave me on the rooftop to cry.

Admittedly, my favorites remain pretty much the same - I'm a creature of habit, after all. Go with me to my favorite restaurants? Watch me order the same thing every time. Ask me what I've got playing on my headphones? I've been listening to the same two songs on repeat for about eight months now (thanks, Bad Buddy). Don't worry, though, things have shuffled around a bit - new entries, older entries I didn't appreciate before, all of which form a snapshot of what I'm into at the moment and what I might not be into another two years from now. Except Bad Buddy. Seriously, I'm going to be talking about that for at least another minute.

MY FAVORITE MOVIES

You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.
The Social Network (2010), David Fincher

Even though you have broken my heart yet again, I wanted to say - in another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

I just wanted you to know that one day, when he marries another lucky girl who is enough for you, and you're playing with your grandkids while the Tan Huas are blooming, and the birds are chirping – that it was because of me: a poor, raised by a single mother, low-class, immigrant nobody.
Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Jon M. Chu

I'm going to earn money, a lot of it. University, a career, marriage, those are all fine, but first I'll earn money. When I have money, I'll buy the house. On the day we move in, Mom and I will be in the yard. Because the sunshine is so nice there. All you'll need to do is walk up the stairs.
Parasite (2019), Bong Joon-ho

Stop trying. Take long walks. Look at the scenery. Doze off at noon. Don’t even think about flying. And then, pretty soon, you’ll be flying again.
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Hayao Miyazaki

MY FAVORITE TELEVISION SHOWS

How can we be friends when our parents despise one another? How can we be friends if we live next door to each other, yet can’t even talk? How can we be friends if we have to compete against one another in everything? You know what? When you were away, I was so damn happy. I didn’t have to compete against you. I wasn’t being paranoid. I didn’t need to know what your GPA was. I didn’t need to know which sports you were involved in. But guess what? It was so depressingly lonely for me. What we have now...what should we call it? If we're not enemies, do you think we can be friends?
Bad Buddy (2021 – 2022), Noppharnach Chaiwimol

Everything we do is a choice. Oatmeal or cereal. Highway or side streets. Kiss her or keep her. We make choices and we live with the consequences. If someone gets hurt along the way, we ask for forgiveness. It’s the best anyone can do.
Pushing Daisies (2007 – 2009), Bryan Fuller

A bug is never just a mistake. It represents something bigger. An error of thinking that makes you who you are.
Mr. Robot (2015 – 2019), Sam Esmail

Chess isn’t always competitive. Chess can also be…beautiful. It was the board I noticed first. It’s an entire world of just sixty-four squares. I feel…safe in it. I can control it. I can dominate it. And it’s predictable. So if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame.
The Queen's Gambit (2020), Scott Frank

That’s just how it is sometimes. Life. You know, you go to bed unsatisfied. They’re calling lottery numbers on the TV, and you get the first few, and already in your mind, you’re buying a jet or a fjord or whatever, but it’s just not meant to be.
Fargo (2014 – present), Noah Hawley

MY FAVORITE ALBUMS

If I could change your mind, I would hit the ground running
It took time to realize, and I never saw it coming
Forgive my lying eyes, gonna give you all or nothing
If I could change your mind, I could make you, make you mine
Days Are Gone (2013), HAIM

Primadonna girl, yeah, all I ever wanted was the world
I can’t help that I need it all, the primadonna life, the rise and fall
You say that I'm kinda difficult, but it's always someone else's fault
Got you wrapped around my finger, babe, you can count on me to misbehave
Electra Heart (2012), Marina and the Diamonds

If you never been told how you gotta be
What you gotta wear, how you gotta speak
If you never shouted to be heard
You ain't lived in a woman's world
LM5 (2018), Little Mix

All the pretty places
Pull us away from where the pain is
These open skies, leaving the past behind
I would, for all the pretty places
a touch of the beat (2021), Aly & AJ

And all along the highway there's a tiny whispering sound
Saying I could find you in the dark of any town
But all that I am hearing in the poem of my mind
Are silent twisted words finding their way in every line
Heard It In A Past Life (2019), Maggie Rogers

MY FAVORITE PODCASTS

Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we’ve just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible is a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture.
99% Invisible (2010 – present), Roman Mars

Criminal is a podcast about crime. Not so much the “if it bleeds, it leads,” kind of crime. Something a little more complex. Stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, and/or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.
Criminal (2014 – present), Phoebe Judge

"'A podcast about the internet that is actually an unfailingly original exploration of modern life and how to survive it.' - The Guardian."
Reply All (2014 - 2022), Alex Goldman & Emmanuel Dzotsi

Free advice from three of the world’s most qualified, most related experts.
My Brother, My Brother And Me (2010 – present), Justin, Travis, & Griffin McElroy

Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dig into the internet's vast and curious ecosystem of online communities to find untold histories, unsolved mysteries, and other jaw-dropping stories online and IRL.
Endless Thread (2018 - present), Ben Brock Johnson & Amory Sivertson

MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAMES

If you’re reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I’d lost sight of what mattered most in life…real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.
Stardew Valley (2014), ConcernedApe

Hope is a flame, the light that never falters, the beacon of eternity. It is heavy and inconvenient, but there is no greater duty than this one. The fate of lost souls rest on your shoulders.
Spiritfarer (2020), Thunder Lotus Games

I wish I felt ready. My whole life, I’ve never known where I’m going. You make it look so easy. You wanted to be a wielder, and you were. but I never knew what I wanted to be…so how can I be anything?
Chicory: A Colorful Tale (2021), Finji

Let’s not forget that you leaked confidential case details to a witness! That you continue to lie to the court! And all because, by fair means or foul, you’re determined to do your duty. Well…by fair means or foul, I’m prepared to do mine! I will stop at nothing to protect my client - I don’t care who I make an enemy of!
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (2021), Capcom

I believe in a universe that doesn’t care, and people who do.
Night In The Woods (2017), Alec Holowka & Scott Benson

MY FAVORITE BOOKS

The only life that matters is in your mind. The only truth is the one that lives invisibly, that waits even after you close the book. Silence, too, is a kind of music. Silence will last.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016), Madeleine Thien

I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.
The Song of Achilles (2011), Madeline Miller

I'd often wished I could work out people as easily as I did arithmetic: simply break them down to their common denominators and solve. Numbers didn't lie; there was always an answer, and the answer was either right or it was wrong. Simple. But nothing in life was simple, and there was no answer to solve for.
The Alice Network (2017), Kate Quinn

That’s the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?
The Hate U Give (2017), Angie Thomas

Sharing a room with the person you want most is like sharing a room with an open fire. He's constantly drawing you in. And you're constantly stepping too close. And you know it's not good – that there is no good – that there's absolutely nothing that can ever come of it. But you do it anyway. And then...well. Then you burn.
Carry On (2015), Rainbow Rowell