Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

The Bear, Season One:
This dramedy about a local restaurant trying to turn into something better has a lot of shouting and tension balanced out by great relationships and breezy food porn. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B

Jungle, Season One:
In this show, people make bad choices in a mildly futuristic London and convey their emotions by rapping. It's weird enough to work so we gave it a shot. Unfortunately, all of the rapping is in the trap genre so every "monologue" starts sounding the same pretty quickly. The story takes a very weird turn after episode three and then never recovers its earlier investment in its characters. We gave up after episode 4 with just 2 more episodes to go. If you like watching offbeat experiments and saying, "That's interesting! Glad they're doing something new!" you might like this. On Amazon Video.

Final Grade: C

Reboot, Season One:
This is a fairly meta sitcom about rebooting a classic sitcom with the same actors. It leans a little to heavily into TV insider jokes, but is fun to watch and over quickly. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B-

Under the Banner of Heaven:
This limited series about a murder in a Mormon community starts incredibly strong but doesn't quite stick the landing. I felt lilke the last couple episodes kind of dawdled between reveals we already knew without any nice summation of what had come before. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B-

Advent of Code Day

I'm participating our company's Advent of Code competition for the fifth year in a row this year. While looking through my old times, I noticed that I never went to bed without first solving the night's puzzle. Here's a graph of how late after midnight I was up over the years.

The 4:39 spike in 2019 was the worst. You had solve a maze with keys and doors by moving a robot the fewest steps in Part 1. In Part 2, the maze was divided into four isolated quadrants and there were four robots. After solving that monstrosity, I got in the car and drove straight to the office for another day of proposal writing.

I'm currently in 2nd place. You can keep up with my daily progress this month on this competition leaderboard (which I also run).

Memory Day: Snapshots

Our annual family photo from Christmas 1999, now twenty-three years ago. I was home from my 4th year at Virginia Tech where I was living with Kelley Corbett in East AJ.

BD Cartoon Day, Part V

a selection of original cartoons from the business development Slack channel I maintain at work

Other posts in this series: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

12:16 AM: First to finish the daily puzzle in Advent of Code.

8:54 AM: Showered and ready for work.

9:17 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

11:24 AM: Ian and Rebecca come home from yoga.

12:20 PM: Tech runthrough for a presentation I'm giving on Thursday.

1:09 PM: Working lunch.

2:39 PM: Home from the bus stop and ready to do nothing but relax on the couch.

3:36 PM: "Helping" with the laundry.

4:13 PM: Wrapping Rebecca's presents.

5:01 PM: Mirabel just discovered Bruno's vision!

6:21 PM: Dancing to the Bluey theme song.

11:55 PM: Standing by for the next Advent of Code puzzle.

12 12 of 12s

a recap of 12 of 12 posts from 2022

January: A pre-snow-storm Costco run.

February: Enjoying a warm day in Claude Moore.

March: A snowy day.

April: On the farm.

May: Rejuvenating a sidewalk.

June: First restaurant breakfast.

July: Special guest on my work call.

August: Walking around Lake Anne.

September: The day a bug flew in her ear at school.

October: Group story time.

November: Dinner at Ford's.

December: Encanto roleplay.

Top Reviews of 2022

Here are the experiences I gave the highest ratings to in 2022. I hope you discover something new!

Television Shows

• Only Murders in the Building, Season One and Two (A+, B+) (Hulu)
• Reservation Dogs, Season One and Two (A, B+) (Hulu)
• As We See It, Season One (A-) (Amazon Video)
• Inside Number 9, Season One (A-) (Amazon Video)
• The Outlaws, Season One and Two (B+, A-) (Amazon Video)
• Money Heist, Season Five, Part Two (B+) (Netflix)
• Silicon Valley, Season Six (B+) (Amazon Video)
• Dave, Season One (B+) (Hulu)
• Better Call Saul, Season Five (B+) (Netflix)

Movies / Specials

• Michael McIntyre: Showman (A) (Netflix)
• Onward (B+) (Disney+)
• Palm Springs (B+) (Hulu)
• Emergency (B+) (Amazon Video)

Music

• Hands by Wallis Bird (B+)
• Will of the People by Muse (B+)

Games

• Flourish: Signature Edition (A)

Books

• I haven't read enough new books this year.

Easy Photos Day

Maia spent the weekend at the grandparents' house and helped make Stop n' Go cookies (The grandparents persist in avoiding any GOOD cookie flavors involving chocolate).

Enjoying the lights and walkability of Seminary Valley.

Ian and Rebecca head to Folly Lick Park on Sunday, while I catch up on sleep (having stayed up until 5 AM on Friday morning and 2 AM on Saturday morning competing in Advent of Code).

London broil for dinner.

Unwrapping some of the grandparents' gifts early!

2022 Timeline

A smattering of events from 2022

• Enjoyed several snowy days.
• Renovated the basement shower.
• Maia caught COVID at the end of the month.

• COVID raced through our family.

• Joined th HOA.
• The regular invitations to kids' birthday parties resumed in full force.

• Went on a Spring Break trip to a cattle farm in Culpeper, VA. Visited the Ahlbins and the Hickses.
• Went to Steve's new house in Harper's Ferry.

• Resumed weekly family dinners out at local restaurants.
• Maia graduated from preschool.
• Saw various Hickses.

• Emily Gillis and kids visited.
• Lots of out-of-towners converged for Rebecca's 39th birthday.

• Maia went to her first fireworks show.
• Everyone had sore throats.
• Lots of dinner visits with friends.

• Ian got his first COVID shot.
• Rebecca and I had a date night.
• We visited my sister's family in Rhode Island.
• I wrote my four-part COVID essay.
• Maia started kindergarten.

• Another date night, this time at a chocolate-themed restaurant.
• I turned 43.
• Went to Front Royal for a long weekend in the mountains.

• Went to Disney on Ice! and SterlingFest all in the same day.
• Sara and Karl visited.
• Started playing Overwatch again.

• Finally saw Mike Catania again.
• Had various Thanksgiving dinners like old times.

• Did Advent of Code for the 5th straight year.
• Took atrip to Orange, VA to visit the Ahlbins after Christmas.
• Saw the rest of my family (including the Binders) in Alexandria.

Christmas Day

Advent of Code Results Day

I ended up in 2nd place overall in my company's private leaderboard for Advent of Code. 3rd place is still in flux (people have until the new year to catch up on puzzles they missed), but my ranking should be locked in now.

This year's puzzles felt a lot more demanding than last year's, but in comparing the times, it looks like I spent about the same total time working on them.

Now to resume my classic old person schedule of "going to bed between 9 and 10 PM" and my classic overachiever schedule of "waking up between 5 and 6 AM"!

Uri / Binder Day

We just got home from a three-day trip through the heartland of Virginia, where we spent time with the Ahlbins (currently at 7 kids) and then drove up to Alexandria to see my parents and my sister's family.

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2022 album.

• Events
  • Went to the Claude Moore Christmas Lights event with the family and Ghazaley on S 12/3.
  
  
  • Maia and Rebecca saw Seussical Jr starring the Smith kids on S 12/4.
  
  
  • Went back to the doctor to review my annual physical results on W 12/7.
  
  
  • Holiday Potluck at Mike and Ghazaley's on S 12/10.
  
  
  • Quick visit to my parents' house for an oil change on S 12/11.
  
  
  • Maia went to my parents' for the weekend, F 12/16 - S 12/18. Dinner with the rest at Ford's Fish Shack on F 12/16.
  
  
  • Early Christmas dinner (London broil) with my parents on S 12/18.
  
  
  • Sara and Karl visited from Minneapolis on T 12/20.
  
  
  • Went to a division Happy Hour at Barrel & Bushel in Tysons on H 12/22.
  
  
  • Went to the evening service at Riverside on S 12/24.
  
  
  • Had Christmas at home with a later visit from Char on S 12/25.
  
  
  • Road tripped to Orange, VA, M 12/26 - W 12/28. Visited the Ahlbins for two days.
  
  
  • Met up with the Rhode Island cousins at my parents' house on W 12/28.
  
  
  • Walked around to look at Christmas lights in the neighbourhood on F 12/30.


• Projects
  • Did Advent of Code for the 5th straight year.
  
  
  • Gave my annual Business Development brief to our Tech Leadership Development Program on H 12/15.
  
  
  • Rearranged my home office again on S 12/31.


• Consumerism
  • No amazing new shows or movies this month although we're enjoying the Willow TV series as each episode comes out.
  
  
  • Still playing Overwatch 2.
  
  
  • No new music this month.

December's Final Grade: B+, a very good month in spite of ongoing colds