Best Video Game

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I don’t think this one is much of a surprise. Tears of the Kingdom is a marvel. A sandbox that rewards creativity, a massive world to explore with all sorts of delightful and surprising things, story beats that were actually emotional (which is a rarity in Nintendo games)… It’s a masterpiece.

I don’t think anything is going to surpass it, though I have yet to play Final Fantasy XVI. But still. It’s everything I would have wanted, and more, from a sequel to one of my favorite games ever.

Best Movie

Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse

Another sequel to one of my favorite things that did not disappoint! Spider-man: Into The Spider-verse was one of the most visually dazzling, creative, stylistic, clever, and original pieces of media back when it was released in 2018. The sequel jumps in right where the previous movie left off and continues to be impress with its inspired storytelling. By far and away the best superhero movies, in my opinion, and it’s not even close.

Best TV Series

Silo

I’m a sucker for suspenseful, mysterious sci-fi series, ever since Lost came out way back in 2005. Silo is less fantasy sci-fi than Lost, more dystopian - closer to a mix of Snowpiercer, The Platform, Station Eleven… That type of vibe. If slow building mysterious dystopian shows are your jam, Silo will be quite engaging for you. I won’t say too much more because it’s definitely one of those “the less you know the better it’ll be” type shows.

Best Song

I have literally no idea I still just listen to 90’s music

I have no idea what’s popular in music these days. I think the most contemporary song I’ve been like “ooh that’s a bop” is “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd and that came out like 3 years ago.

Best Meme

France

Lots of ones with potential, but France recreating the classic “This is fine” meme during one of its many protests is an instant classic.

Best Overall Thing

Nobody cares about covid anymore

Vacations are happening again! I don’t have to wear stupid masks and fog up my glasses all the time! Traffic is back! …Er, well, that’s less good, but at least that means people are going places again.

Covid seems so quaint now that we’ve almost forgotten how annoying it was, and how nice it is to just go to a restaurant and eat like normal, go to the gym and work out, hang out with friends, and all the other hundreds of things that felt just slightly worse when covid was on everyone’s mind.

Thank goodness.

April fools was a bit of a dud this year, but April did provide a number of amusing and interesting tweets, as every month does.

So without further ado, here is a smattering of my favorite April tweets:

1. The only good April fools tweet

Seriously, April fools tweets were just junk this year. Maybe we’re all cynical now and no company wants to take chances anymore. But Tesla lampooned one of my favorite gifs to also advertise that their Cybertruck refuses to crash due to its safety measures. Clever.

2. These were the days

Turn on the computer, wait 10 minutes, boot up counterstrike ~ the life.

3. Our brains are weird man

There’s a whole bunch of these in the linked thread - black and white lines creating weird illusions and your brain somehow fills in colors. How? Why? I don’t know. But it’s cool to get confirmation that our brain’s are all messed up.

4. Legendary Woj tweet

Woj is well known for his breaking sports news, and Gobert punching Kyle Anderson was such a bizarre situation, with this equally bizarre tweet to explain it.

5. Satirical verified tweets

This thread is a classic, lampooning the way many people engagement farm on twitter. Well worth the read.

Good satire always gets my respect.

6. I hate planking

Planking seems so easy at first, but after less than a minute I hate everything.

7. LinkedIn new unhinged feature

Soren creates all sorts of fake dystopian tech features - this one in particular would be particularly devious and yet quite useful!

8. Chicago Bulls MVP

This kid is a hero.

9. Birds aren’t real

Japan has all sorts of insanely adorable animals, this one is no exception. See also the Ezo Momonga (a Japanese flying squirrel).

10. Forbes sure knows how to pick ‘em

There’s been quite a few showcased Forbes 30 under 30 who have… Not quite lived up to their hype, to put it mildly.

11. An amazing show

This dragon fire is worth watching and imagining being in the audience for. Fortunately no one got hurt, so we can enjoy the wild and dramatic failure.

12. I like inflation jokes

This is a good inflation joke. I like it.

13. If you know you know

Bill Ackman is well known for making massive walls of text on Twitter. With the character length increase, who knows what kind of monstrosities will come!

14. SF has great glass replacement service

Many businesses are running away from SF, but the vehicle glass replacement business is thriving!

15. Whoopsies

Probably didn’t consider the implications of the wording before tweeting…

Until next time!

~ B

I grew up on the TV. Whether it was watching cartoons or playing video games, the television has always been quite central to my world. Nowadays, I probably spend more time on my tiny portable rectangle, but I definitely have a soft spot for the big and not particularly portable rectangle in my living room.

After finishing one of the best episodes of television I have ever seen last night (“Connor’s Wedding,” the third episode of the final season of Succession - it left me speechless) - I was inspired to write an article about some of my favorite recent TV shows, because they’re so freaking good. There’s so much these days to consume, so I feel like recommendations are quite useful so we don’t waste our time getting invested in a show that ends up feeling like a giant waste of time.

I’m also a huge TV snob. But when I like something, I really like it. And these four shows are fantastic, far and away the best I’ve seen in the last wacky 3 years. So without further ado:

1. Succession

When you start this show, you’ll hate everyone in it. They’re just terrible. An extremely rich family, loosely based on the Murdoch family of the Fox empire, acting entitled and awful and selfish and delusional to everyone around them. If you’re like me, you’ll ask yourself - why do so many people recommend this show? I don’t get it.

But keep watching. Please.

Slowly, you’ll start to actually care about these horrible people - mostly due to the writing, which is absolutely brilliant, the way it is filmed, which feels voyeuristic and intimate, like we are getting to see something we aren’t supposed to - the struggles and dynamics of the men and women behind the curtain, controlling so much of our world.

And the acting. Oh man. The aforementioned “Connor’s Wedding” felt so authentic and real that it gave me flashbacks of a similar situation I found myself in my actual life. I wanted to throw an Emmy at everyone. The main cast is so incredibly fleshed out they start to feel like part of your world. The supporting cast adds to the absurdity of the situations everyone finds themselves in. The cast is sublime.

It is gut-bustingly funny at times. I have laughed more strongly during this show at some of the absurd and hilarious situations in this show than any other show. It is incredibly moving at times. The emotions from the actors are so real and raw that you feel them. It is deliciously ridiculous, a train-wreck that you can’t keep your eyes off of and you must know what happens next.

It’s an incredible, brilliant show. Once you get into it, all you’ll wanna do is rave about it to anyone who will listen.

2. The White Lotus

White Lotus is also a show about the rich and how detached they are from the rest of the world, but with a much different focus. Taking place in a luxury hotel called “The White Lotus” (filmed at the Four Seasons Hotel in different locations), the general storyline of each season follows a number of families and their interactions with the hotel staff, the city they are in, the resort amenities, and each other.

What makes this show brilliant is the creator, Mike White (who, fun fact, was a runner up on Survivor one season), has such keen observations of the human condition. There are no real protagonists, the characters are messed up in their own ways, and even though they are somewhat absurd people, they are very real - and as they go through their individual journeys, you can see their hypocrisies and bad habits and insecurities and hangups all play out in very real ways, making what might seem like caricatures at first glance feel relatable.

It’s highly amusing throughout, but with a deeper layer - each of the characters journeys is satisfying and almost a learning experience to better understand what it is to be human. The cinematography is also next level, with amazing shots of the exotic locations that can create a sense of foreboding and awe.

Highly, highly recommended.

3. Severance

I love satire, I love sci-fi, and I love exploring dystopian futures like Black Mirror does. The concept of Severance is essentially a highbrow Black Mirror episode - there’s an experimental program where someone can quite literally separate their work lives and their home lives, and so they never actually experience working anymore and enjoy their life. Sounds great, right?

Except, of course, for the severed personality, who essentially only exists in the work world. And in this bizarro work world, is made to do strange, mysterious tasks while grappling with the betrayal of their outside personality essentially imprisoning them.

The tone of Severance is one of silliness, with a slightly creepy satire of work life and the meaninglessness of it all - coupled with suspense and mystery of the characters trying to grabble with their reality and what is really going on at this company. The performances are great with an all-star cast, and the writing is clever and keeps you guessing. But the real star is the whole concept and execution, the mystery, the suspense - the finale had a sequence that made me jump out of the sofa and yell at the TV, it was so intense, in a brilliant way.

4. Devs

Topical and relevant, Devs is almost better as a show where the less you know the better it is. I will spoil a tiny bit of the concept just to explain - Alex Garland, the creator of this show, also is the writer and creator of one of my favorite movies Ex Machina, which explores artificial intelligence in a humanoid form and its relationship with people. He appears to have a deep understanding of the subject and explores the implications - and while it is in somewhat of a fantasy / sci-fi way, it is rooted in understanding of the technology.

This show is about AI when applied to… Well, everything. The Language Learning Models powering the contemporary AI tools we use, extrapolated into something much larger. The arc of the show is very satisfying and thoughtful, asking and answering questions that all of the best sci-fi tend to ask and explore, like what is consciousness? What do you do with a technology so incredibly powerful it changes how we perceive the world?

Good, heady sci-fi is not especially common, so this was a treat to watch, and not a huge investment since it is only 8 episodes.

I may in the future do an article on my top 5 favorite shows ever - but if I think about it, it’s hard to top these 4 shows, even though they are quite recent. It’s just a testament to how incredible television is these days. If you also enjoy any of these shows, I would love to chat about them with you :)

1. I need to see this before I die

Yeah so this is a February tweet but it’s one that happened since my last favorite tweet article. And it’s insanely gorgeous. One day I’ll see aurora borealis in person. One day…

2. Presidents with mullets

Another late February tweet (cough) but it’s gold. With the help of Midjourney’s AI, reimagining all the presidents, except with mullets and chuck norris level badassery. The entire thread is worth a look, all the presidents are included!

3. Ruining an emoji

Can never look at this emoji the same anymore 🥵

4. Preventing someone from sitting next to you on the bus

This would be an exceptionally effective, subtle way to prevent anyone from sitting next to you. Dude looks insane.

5. …And then everything went to shit

The month was going okay… But then, SVB had to randomly die, starting a wave of panic and nuttiness and we’re still dealing with the fallout. Yay.

6. The logo looks like a bearded dude in an orange hat

It looks like a bearded dude in an orange hat. Someone should tell them.

7. An exceptional summary of how awesome everything is

Being a millenial rules! Everything is going great!

8. France is a meme

France is really good at protesting. It’s such a seemingly common occurance that the locals are unperturbed.

9. The most annoying optical illusion ever

I hate this. Now you can hate it too.

10. AI is perfect

Google’s stock dropped 10% more after this tweet.

11. Some puns are good

The coolest tennis player ever, Roger Federer, in a pun tweet is enjoyable to me. The fed hiked rates 25 points despite the pun.

12. Jonah Hill fixes Kanye’s antisemitism

The director of 21 Jump Street and Jonah Hill, doing God’s work.

Until next week!

~BM

1. The best use of AI

This is my absolute favorite trend with AI tools - using AI to generate realistic sounding conversations between famous people in ridiculous scenarios. This particular sketch has Joe Biden vs Donald Trump, flaming each other in Overwatch. Instant classic.

2. A brilliantly evil idea

Twitter shitposter @0xgaut consistently churns out hilarious, dystopian product ideas, and this particular one was extra evil. The green bubble is the bane of every group chat, making poor android users feel ostracized and annoying every iPhone user. Shame sells.

Plus I got featured in his mockup, and flattery gets you everywhere!

3. Average user of each social media app

Instagram users putting on a fake happy face and pointlessly angry Twitter users pretending to be smarter than everyone else just completley nails it.

4. Cats being nice to each other

I’ve had multiple cats before, but I’ve never seen cats act nicely to each other like this. Just a lot of hissing and ignoring each other.

Quite wholesome.

5. A terrible map of Oklahoma

This is just stupid. I love it.

6. Perfect targeted ad for crypto bros

There was a lot of chatter this month about how bad Twitter’s targeted ads are. But apparently upgrades were made, and this ad perfectly targeted us crypto bros losing all our money last year.

The ad itself is pretty mid, but the targeting is S-tier.

7. Billionaires are just like us

It’s nice to know that billionaire VC’s like Marc Andreessen and myself have the same morning routine.

8. …Well, some billionaires

I do hope Twitter can become profitable at some point 🤣

9. Fishing is hard

Pure comedy. No explanation needed.

10. More AI generated stupid shit

Zach’s one-two punch of a perfectly realistic sounding AI generated argument between Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro and tongue-and-cheek gatekeeping of proper AI usage is perfection.

11. Eel historian gets his shot

I don’t know anything about the Eel Historian account, or why there is an eel historian… But I really enjoy these self-contained tweets that give you all the context you need.

12. Inspiring words from Ricky Gervais

Sums up my life philosophy pretty well.

Until next week!

~BM

As a generally sarcastic, cynical curmudgeon, it can be difficult for my broken brain to turn off its desire to make fun of things, and I have a very hard time connecting to things that don’t feel authentic to me.

The four talks that I want to highlight here, though, all share something in common - genuine authenticity. These four speeches helped shape my life philosophy and consider things in a different perspective than I had previously, which makes them easy for me to recommend.

1. Jimmy Valvano’s 1993 ESPY Speech

I watched Jimmy V’s iconic speech at a very young age did not yet understand the gravity of it, but it is something that stuck with me ever since. He had been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer less than a year before this speech, and unfortunately passed away 2 months after making this speech. He was a larger than life personality, a coach of underdogs who was able to inspire his teams to overachieve, and it’s easy to understand why he was able to inspire when listening to him speak.

What stuck with me the strongest was the quote “If you laugh, you think, you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day.” I was a pretty sensitive, emotional kid - I still am, really - and I would cry quite a bit and get easily hurt, and felt a lot of shame from having so many strong emotions. But those words put it into perspective, that it’s okay and even something to embrace, because to be passionate about things is living a fulfilling life.

It’s something I always come back to when going through life’s difficulties - it’s okay to be emotional. Laugh, think, and cry. That’s a full day.

2. David Foster Wallace - “This Is Water”

Empathy is hard. Life can be quite annoying, and it’s easy to get wrapped up in your own perspectives and problems and dismiss what others are going to. In this 2005 commencement speech, David Foster Wallace encourages us to be more mindful, self-aware, and recognize how we do have a choice of how we view things and react to things. How we should question our built-in assumptions and be less arrogant that our experiences are the highest truth.

“Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.”

What I enjoy about this speech is it isn’t preachy about this subject, it’s honest. It recognizes that it’s quite difficult to fight against our innate natures, and doesn’t cast judgement on right and wrong. We don’t have to morally grandstand about empathy, it’s not going to be something we have the energy to give all the time, particularly when we are all going through hardships ourselves. But it is available to us - it’s a choice we can make.

3. Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk - Your Elusive Creative Genius

I personally feel at my best when I am creating - whether it is writing music, making video games, programming, putting together videos, writing, etc. - but I’ve always found the process to be hard to maintain. I tend to get random bursts of inspiration and energy and can create things that I am really proud of in that state, but then other times I feel like my “creative battery” is running on empty, like I simply don’t have it in me.

The way Elizabeth Gilbert is able to express that feeling in this TED Talk - in her words, “explaining the utter maddening capriciousness of the creative process,” resonated so strongly with me. She is the author of the very well-known and successful novel “Eat Pray Love,” and was more or less talking about her emotions and thoughts when trying to write a second novel after being so successful the first time.

And it gave me a mental construct to deal with it - instead of stewing in the misery that can come with a lack of creative energy, to relax more about it, let the spark come when it comes, and ride it out until it dissipates. That has helped me a great deal with my mental state when pursuing creative endeavours.

4. The “Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch was a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. The context for this speech was a thought exercise of giving a hypothetical final lecture - the wisdom you would try to impart on the world if you knew it was your last chance to do so, but it wasn’t exactly hypothetical - he was told by his doctors that he had about 3-6 months left of good health after undergoing a procedure to try to fight pancreatic cancer.

This lecture is packed with nuggets of wisdom that have stuck with me ever since.

”Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.”

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game.”

“Never lose the childlike wonder. Show gratitude. Don’t complain, just work harder.”

It’s quite easy for me to get wrapped up in self-pity when things don’t go my way, but we all have the power to change our perspectives and find a way to move forward. Randy Pausch was dealt the ultimate bad hand at only 47 years old, but instead of self-pity, chose to be greatful for the life he lived, and share his wisdom to all of us.