GregHowley.com

The year is nearly over, and it's time for my annual best of list. For last year's list, I had a really tough time deciding on the best TV show. This year, there was only really one to choose from, although I enjoyed the final season of The Newsroom, and Agents of SHIELD is getting better. Overall, 2014 had better stuff than 2013.

Favorite TV Show: Orphan Black - I really like science fiction television, but the sci fi elements in Orphan Black are so minor as to be nearly nonexistent. The show's premise? Our main character witnesses another woman step in front of a train and commit suicide. When she rushes to help, she finds that the dead woman looks exactly like her. She takes the woman's wallet and runs - and then steals her identity. Soon she discovers that she's a clone. And the show only gets better from there. The lead actress is amazing. Her adopted brother is my favorite character in any show I'm watching at the moment.

Favorite Board Game: Sentinels of the Multiverse - This was an easy one for me. I've played a number of new board games this year that I've enjoyed. Smash Up and Skull come to mind as new favorites. But since early autumn, I've been absolutely obsessed with Sentinels.

Favorite Video Game: The Last of Us - This was a difficult decision to make only because I didn't really play a lot of games in 2014 that I'd consider excellent. The second season of The Walking Dead was pretty good, if not as good as season 1. I really enjoyed Minecraft at times, and the new Thief game isn't bad, but if I had to pick a single game with which I had the best experience, it would have to be The Last of Us. As ever, it's all about story. Joel is a horrible, horrible human being.

Favorite Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy - I'd have to say that Interstellar is a close second, but Guardians of the Galaxy really was great. Marvel studios has been knocking it out of the park recently. I'm really looking forward to all the movies they've got lined up. Especially the Avenger sequels, Antman, Dr. Strange, and Captain Marvel.

Favorite Book: The Martian - I read only eight books in 2014: The Wise Man's Fear, Existence, Skin Game, Paranormals, Shift, Robogenesis, The Martian, and Live Free or Die. While I enjoyed all of them, The Martian has got to be the best of the bunch. I tore through that book in a week. By comparison, it took me about four and a half months to get through Existence. They're making The Martian into a 2015 movie. I can only hope that it's as good as the book.

Favorite Gadget: Tie: Republic Wireless Moto X and Raspberry Pi/XBMC - It was so difficult to decide between these two things that I had to call it a tie. The Raspberry Pi has been in use most of the year, whereas my phone I've only had for a couple months, but I do love the phone, and the media center always gives me problems. They're largely due to my external drive, not the Raspberry Pi, but it's a pain.

Republic Wireless Moto X - I can't say enough about my new phone. For a while, I had a OnePlus One, a phone which is billed as a “Flagship Killer”. But I got rid of it for a few reasons. Firstly, it would only work with AT&T or T-Mobile. AT&T was too pricy and had no signal at my desk, and T-Mobile had poor signal in West Hartford. Secondly, although I love the idea of CyanogenMod, the software was very buggy. Third, the phone had a 5.5 inch screen, which was too big to fit comfortably into my pocket. So now I've got a Moto X from Republic Wireless. I was shocked to find that the bloatware Motorola software is actually really useful - the phone detects when I'm driving and reads me texts out loud, and then lets me reply via voice. And whenever I'm connected to wifi, the phone makes wifi calls rather than normal cell tower calls. Best of all, because it's using the cell towers so much less, the plan is super-cheap. My monthly plan, with unlimited talk and text, costs me $29/month after taxes and fees.

Raspberry Pi/XMBC - While I've done home theater PCs in the past, first using the PS3 and server software, and later with an HDMI-connected PC, I've come around on the XBMC software. The OpenELEC and RaspBMC forks are especially nice, because they'll run on a Raspberry Pi computer, which costs only about as much as my Chromecast. It's a hobbyist project, since setup can be a pain, and some aspect of the setup fails every few months and requires tweaking. But when it does work, it's so very nice.

Favorite Music: Adam Warrock - Roughly once a year, I discover a new artist and tear through that person's stuff. This year, it was nerdcore rapper Adam Warrock. The new MC Frontalot album Question Bedtime was good, I started liking Daft Punk and Chromeo, and Guster has some new music on the horizon, but at the end of the day, it's Adam Warrock that I'm listening to while I work.

Favorite News Source: The Intercept - While I generally go to CNN or BBC for news, and I check Fox from time to time out of morbid curiosity, The Intercept is my favorite place to go for actual journalism. Plus, they've been "reviewing" episodes of The Newsroom in a most entertaining way.