I’ve been on a gradual journey to fill my kitchen with high quality, as close to forever tools since I bought my first house 20 years ago. There are a ton of outlets keen to give you a recommendation. But my go to, all the way back to the start (via PBS), has been America’s Test Kitchen. This video is a great summary of their picks that have stood the test of time. And it turns out I own some and can confirm:

• Victorinox Fibrox Chef’s Knife – My first actual chef’s knife I bought w/ purpose. I have two others I rotate through now, but this one is still a workhorse.
• OXO Locking Tongs – I own them in two sizes and they just do their job. No slipping, no accidently unlocking when you don’t want them to.
• Technivorm Moccamaster – This was a last year replacement for what we thought was a killer coffee maker. Nope! The Moccamaster is pricy, but essentially automated pour over quality coffee.
• RSVP International Colander – New purchase based on this video. What it replaced in our kitchen looked a lot like the one they dragged in the video.

Summer is absolutely flying by. We have been busy traveling, working on projects, and just living life. I’m working on a Toronto Travel Log, and we are way ahead on the 26 in 26, but I am way behind on the write ups. In the mean time I’ll share a few videos:

I don’t think this game has any right to knock another off my 50 best of the 2020’s, but boy oh boy does it have it’s hooks in me. Its the rare city simulator that can evoke my teenage nostalgia for 1993’s Sim City 2000. Timberborn does so with a three pronged approach:

• Liquid physics: This is the novel feature it brings to the genre. Water has volume and flow that can be mastered or failed to feed, power, and grow your town.
• Beavers! The theme, design, and art just work for me. The tech designs made from natural materials is a rich palette to for the developers to play with.
• Balance: The learning, progression, and difficulty curves are well refined. Most of the tech tree feels intuitive. Meaning I’m not watching YouTube videos every 5 mins to play it. It leads to a loop where I understand the problem or goal and have the tools I need to creatively solve them.

That has all led to some late nights in front of my PC. Jumping from one challenge or ambition to another. All credit to the game that can see me crawling into bed at 1 am and working through how I will revamp my power infrastructure for the 30 mins that follow. The answer is diversification and batteries to weather worst case scenarios.

Vince Staples newest album is a departure from the past decade of music he has released. At least in it’s production and instrumentation. The lyrics and sprit of his style persist at the core, but this is a distinctly new sound and I dig it.

I loathed the early 2000’s era of music. While Limp Bizkit was topping the charts, I retreated into a backpack rap cocoon. That is not damning of all rap production that strays into other genres, but it does create a high bar for me at least. There have been plenty of albums that easily clear it though, notably:

• Big Boi Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors (2012) – Big Boi
• Sour Soul (2015) – Ghostface + BadBadNotGood

Cry Baby fits nicely with these high jumpers and I find myself coming back to it over and over again.

The wilderness post Desus & Mero has been long and dull. The my world needed their funny and quick takes on the week in news, sports, and general bullshit. Mero hit his stride with Victory Light, but the closer it got to long form talk radio the less potent it became. Desus just started up a new channel and it is a return to form. 20 minutes of Julia and staff tossing him absurd stories from the headlines and him reacting with cutting jokes. Worth a watch every week.

I got a wild hair to watch the first season of Twin Peaks this Spring. I know it as cultural point of reference or as a heavy influence that has snowballed into countless shows, movies, and videogames. But I don’t actually know anything about the show. I was 9 when it originally aired.

My short book report is that its a tough watch in 2026. But also I that couldn’t stop watching it. Visually it is a product of its time, but an interesting lens into televisions visual language in the late 80s. Fast paced editing for the shrinking attention span in the 2020’s has ruined my ability to watch some older shows. E.g., Why are we holding camera on that person’s shoe as they get out of a car for so freaking long.

It takes large story and directorial swings between soap opera, creepy mystery, straight faced weird humor, or even just straight weirdness. I had to ask a few friends if all of that was intentional or just how it was. Basically are they in on it or am I just laughing at occasional bad acting or directing choices. The answer was both, but more that they are in on the joke with intention.

What all of that does is showcase how many new things Twin Peaks was doing. Mashing up genres. Showing casing legit scary and strange stuff on network television. Inspiring a generation of writers and directors to take what it offered and spin it forward. One easy example is my now deeper appreciation for what Alan Wake 2 (Best of #33) was paying homage to three years ago.