2019 has ended and a new decade has started (as it will every year), here are some of my favorite things, reflections and goals for the future. No implied ordering, just good things.

Books

2019 was a good year for books for me and I was able to get through quite a few (but who cares how many, like I don’t need to see your tweet telling everyone you read 100 books.). In a stunning turn of events I read some fantasy that wasn’t written by J.R.R Tolkien and got through all but the last of the published Game of Thrones books. I would give them a score of “good”. The three books that I thought were real standouts are:

- Exhalations by Ted Chiang.
- The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A new History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte.
- Black Flag: The Rise of Isis by Joby Warrick.

An honorable mention to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsbergs book My Own Words. Really good.

Comic Books

Every year where Brian Michael Bendis switches from marvel to D.C has to be exciting and it was. We also saw the unexpected end of The Walking Dead. My favorites this year must be:

- Black Hammer -- Written by Jeff Lemire and mostly drawn by Dean Ormston.
- The Walking Dead -- Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Charlie Adlard.

Podcast

I’m a podcast addict in many ways and listen to far to many. My everlasting top podcast are and will probably always be _The Skeptics Guide to the Universe_and Ifanboy but this year saw some great podcast.

- The Anthropocene Review by John Green continous to be amazing.
- Oral Argument by Christian Turner and Joe Miller. Pure. Greatness.
- Everything is Alive from radiotopia hosted by Ian Chillag is super funny.
- National Security Law Podcast by Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck for everything nat. sec.

Tv and Movies

We didn’t have time to watch pretty much any movies.

- Avengers Endgame was a real nice ending for some characters.
- Watchmen was just outstanding
- The Crown. Just. Wow.

Music

I don’t have time to listen to that much music but my two standout albums of the year were:

- In League with Dragons by The Mountain Goats
- Itekoma Hits by Otoboke Beaver

Stock Market

Last year I took a real interest in trading stocks and funds to save for retirement (or something like buing a house if needed) and this was my first full year of trading in a serious way. And by that I mean having a strategy and sticking to that 100%. That strategy is (1) Only trade in Swedish stocks (this might be subject to change in the future), (2) have a base of solid investment companies and (3) build on the base with quality companies.

That strategy netted me a return of 49.5%, beating the index I’m comparing against with 17 points. I’m betting that I’ll never see a year like that again. Then of course I have a 30 year investment horizon so maybe.

Goals for 2020

In no particular order

- Write more
- Read more
- Learn more about Rust
- Learn more about network programming
- Learn more about operating systems programming
- Start on that book I've wanted to write (on programming)

Hope you have a great year!