Best of 2022

Inspired by “Fogus’ yearly list of great things and people that I discovered, learned, read, met, etc.” - this is my version of what were the best things I discovered in 2022.

Preamble: despite fewer and fewer COVID restrictions, I did not manage to do a lot of travel this year (in part for personal reasons), and this had effects both on some of my "stats" (the stepping average is directly proportional to how much time I spend outside of my town) and other lists like "restaurants" or "shopping".

Main Stats

• Daily Steps (Avg.): 10364 (no significant change)

• Aikido (Hrs.) 317 (+78%!!!) The previous year was pretty bad (mostly due to COVID) but we also increased the length of the average lesson a bit.

• Shodo (hrs) 27 (+8%) - yet again, this is based on counting actual practice with a teacher or other students... so the actual hours are a bit higher, but on the other hand this is how I count this from the start, so the general trend is probably accurate enough.

• Aikido first: the full lockdown started in November 2020 and went on and on. On top of that, as soon as it was actually possible to travel abroad I tried to visit some other places again, and albeit the trips were short and not really frequent, these were always reducing my days in the dojo... so -29% is pretty bad, especially because 2020 was already 10% below my normal average.

• Shodo is "increasing", but this is not very meaningful: I do not track Shodo when I do it on my own at home, so the number here is about "deliberate practice together with others". And the uptick is just because I managed to go to a seminar, this time.

• Walking: is a bit better, I am back to 10K+ steps a day (mostly thanks to more opportunities to travel, when I am at home I most often spend any free time locked up somewhere taking care of my other passions).

Fiction Books

• Simon Iff Stories and Other Works by Aleister Crowley a surprisingly good collection of works by Crowley, mostly about Simon Iff. Having read his main (only?) novel in the past my expectations were a bit low. Maybe short stories were more his forte, after all.

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - great book... Clarke manages to accomplish a sort of miracle: writing a classical Christopher Priest's story... without the equally classic Priest's inability to bring it to a satisfying ending.

Technical and Non-Fiction Books/Papers

• N/A (alas)

Miscellaneous Web Articles

• • Reciting Pictures: Buddhist Texts for the Illiterate
• • The sprawling, must-read history of Maxis’ former “serious games” division
• • If Everyone Else is Such an Idiot, How Come You're Not Rich?
• • High Tech High Life: William Gibson & Timothy Leary in Conversation (1989)
• • The Gömböc: The object that shouldn't exist
• • What I learned as a hired consultant to autodidact physicists

Favorite non-book media and entertainment

Little to report here: at this point in my life, movies seem to be just a way to spend some time with my mother - but most of the time I manage to find some little gems:

• Death on the Nile.
• Cyrano.
• Belfast.
• La Brigade.

Apart from that, a special mention goes to Homo Faber, in Venice, which I enjoyed immensely.

Gaming

My Fantasy campaign using Mini-Six it is still going strong... But I have also managed to squeeze in some short playtesting sessions which are now tracked in a dedicated page.

Content (produced by me)

In 2021 I worked on the Italian edition of the Year Zero Mini RPG, and my version came out this year.

Tools

• Apple Air Tag
• Giannina 1-cup

Services

• after at least two years of using the free version I finally decided to pay for the pro version of Deepl, which I use mostly for one-on-one sessions with various models.

Calligraphy/Art

• I took part in the 50th International Calligraphy Exhibit in Tokyo.
• Heart Sutra: Acceptance - Shodo Seminar in Berlin.

Martial Arts

Apart from the regular training and seminars... this year I managed to attend Kayla Feder sensei's Aikido Seminar in Berlin.

Food & Dining

• Gam Gam Kosher restaurant in Venice, right on the border to the "Old Ghetto".
• Frary's Mediterranean restaurant in Venice.
• Meet me Halfway - A nice Persian deli in Berlin
• Birra - an italian craft beer place in ... Berlin?!

Shopping

• Uhm... nothing?

Places

Well... this year I did not travel that much. Basically, I visited only Venice and Vienna (both places I had already visited many times in the past). And Berlin. Spent really a lot of time in Berlin... hopefully, next year will be a bit better for traveling.

One "place" that surely deserves a mention, though is... IKSK - (Institut für Körperforschung und sexuelle Kultur)

Art

New category: Best Instagram find Katze

I must admit that in 2022 my dedication to drawing faltered a little... my original average was always at least one post a day (sometimes more) but especially in the second half of the year the number of days between one post and the next started growing and growing. I will end 2022 with less than 300 posts, all in all...