To kick off 2022, I planned a trip to a Colorado ski resort with friends. 

In the weeks before the trip, I debated skiing versus snowboarding. I was unfamiliar with both and determined to take a class. Procrastination got the best of me, and by the time I signed up, all the ski lessons were full. 

Snowboarding classes were still available, so the decision was made for me.

My first day on the slopes was a hilarious disaster. My friends and I didn't pick up the sport as naturally as we had hoped. The day ended up with us walking down a run instead of snowboarding down it.

Even though I didn't finish my first day as a snowboarding pro, I did understand the appeal. It was fun to be challenged by something new and spend the day outdoors. 

The following winter, I headed to Colorado's Winter Park Resort for a work trip.

I planned to take Amtrak's Winter Park Express train to the resort. Once there, I'd spend two days on the slopes. I was itching for another new experience, so I booked a ski lesson one day and tried snowboarding the next day. 

This time, I didn't procrastinate. I booked the ski lesson a few weeks in advance and was eager to compare the two sports. Here are the major differences I noticed.

My first time snowboarding was with a friend who grew up skiing.

As we each stepped into the massive snowboard boots, she exclaimed how comfortable they were. To me, they felt awkward and bulky, but she promised that they were far more comfortable than any pair of ski boots she ever wore.

A year later, I finally understood what she meant. 

The ski boots I wore were coated in a hard plastic shell, which meant my feet didn't have much flexibility inside the shoe. They also had two awkward bumps at the front and back of each boot for ski clips, making it feel like I was never walking on a flat surface. 

Simple tasks like walking downstairs were challenging. Meanwhile, my snowboard boots had a softer and cushier interior and the bottoms were completely flat.

I didn't mind wearing the snowboard boots all day, but I couldn't wait to get out of the ski boots.

One of the biggest differences between the two sports is where your hips and chest face the mountain while you're skiing or snowboarding.

I knew there would be a difference, and I was curious which way I would prefer to face — either straight downward on skis or perpendicular on a snowboard. 

While skiing, my hips and chest were directly facing forward. This allowed me to use my peripheral vision. I could tell if anyone else was coming down the mountain on my left or right.

On the snowboard, however, my hips were perpendicular to the slope. This made looking behind me slightly easier, but I had a larger blind spot on my snowboard that made peripheral sight more uncomfortable.

Of course, neither skiing nor snowboarding gives you complete 360-degree views, but I felt like my vision was overall better on skis — especially as a beginner. 

Between lift lines and catwalks on runs, I had to learn to navigate on flat surfaces while snowboarding and skiing. 

After trying the two, I learned skiers have it way easier.

That's because most skiers, myself included, use poles. With my poles, I could push myself on flat patches and propel myself forward. 

Snowboarders, on the other hand, don't have poles. I needed to prioritize momentum during any flat area, and if I ended up coming to a stop, I needed to unclip my back foot and skate around. 

Skating on a snowboard was utterly exhausting, and after trying skiing, I longed for the ease of poles. 

Before my first snowboarding lesson, I crowdsourced advice and tips.

Every single person told me to prepare to fall. A lot. 

I went into the class expecting my fair share of topples, but I had no idea just how often I would find myself on the ground.

During the four-hour snowboarding class, I fell dozens of times. When I hit the slopes, I was on the ground more than I was standing.

When I went into my skiing lesson, I expected the same number of falls. During the four-house lesson, I didn't fall a single time.

I did attempt a green run later that day and fell a few times, but it still didn't come close to the number of falls I took during my first day of snowboarding.

Another place where I struggled as a beginner snowboarder was getting on and off the ski lifts.

When the lift ends, it doesn't stop moving. Instead, skiers and snowboarders must hop off their seats and ski or snowboard down a slight decline to the start of their run.

Again, ski poles were a major advantage in this situation. When I got off a lift on skis, I felt sturdy and confident. I never fell.

Getting off a lift on a snowboard, however, seemed like a skill within itself. I had to keep my balance while pushing off the lift. The result was fall after fall.

On my first day of snowboarding, I didn't successfully get off one single lift without falling. Meanwhile, I navigated lifts easily on my first day of skiing. 

Before trying skiing and snowboarding, I didn't realize how hard the sports would be on my body.

After snowboarding, my wrists were aching from falling forward onto my hands all day.

My calves were also not prepared for snowboarding. While on a snowboard, you use the toeside and heelside edge of the board to turn. After many toeside turns, my calves burned.

Skiing was also a hard workout. "Pizza-ing," which is when you point your skis into a triangle to stop, can strain your knees. That's the technique I was taught, and by the end of my first day on skis, my knees were sore from all the "pizza-ing."

Either way, my body was exhausted by the end of my first day on both a snowboard and skis.

My biggest concern with learning how to ski and snowboard was learning how to stop.

If I wanted to do either of the sports safely and comfortably, I knew I needed to be confident in my ability to brake quickly and effectively.

Luckily, this skill took little time to learn on a snowboard. With my board perpendicular to the slope, I could put downward pressure on my heels and immediately stop. While I wasn't able to get down mountains on my first snowboarding day, I was able to feel comfortable stopping.

This wasn't the case for skiing. Anytime I picked up any speed, my "pizza-ing" maneuver wasn't strong enough to slow me down. Instead, I spent my first day stopping by intentionally falling over. 

I'm sure it's a skill I could learn on skis, but the confidence I had with stopping on snowboards was enough to stick with that sport instead. 

After two winters in Colorado, I imagine I've heard the phrase close to a hundred times from friends. And I've recited it nearly as much to others.

That's because after trying both, I'm starting to understand why it's said so often.

While my first day on a snowboard last year was disastrous, my second day went much smoother. By the end of day two, I could get down blue runs, and after about five days, I felt confident navigating on the heelside and toeside edges of the board.

I'm not quite as confident yet with skiing. I've skied only one day, and although I fell far less than I did snowboarding, keeping my feet perfectly parallel seems like a skill that would take months, if not years, to master.

The two sports have their pros and cons.

Since I've spent more time on a snowboard overall, I'm sticking with that for now. I'm aiming to master using my toeside edge, and my fingers are crossed that I'll be on black runs sooner rather than later.

Chalamet is an Oscar-nominated movie star known for a slew of acclaimed films, including "Call Me By Your Name," "Lady Bird," "Beautiful Boy," "Little Women," "The French Dispatch," "Dune," and "Dune: Part Two."

And yet, Chalamet recently told Stephen Colbert that "A Complete Unknown" is "the movie I'm proudest of in my career."

Chalamet learned to play guitar for the lead role and sang live during many of the film's musical performances. He said he spent five years familiarizing himself with Dylan's life, discography, and vocal style.

"A Complete Unknown" begins in 1961, when Dylan moved to New York City as a teenager. He released his self-titled debut album in 1962 and quickly became a fixture in the Greenwich Village folk scene, leading many critics to label him "the voice of a generation."

After releasing a few beloved folk albums, Dylan made a divisive pivot toward rock 'n' roll, punctuated with his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The controversy was documented by Elijah Wald in his 2015 book "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties," on which the movie's script is based.

Today, at 83, Dylan is known as one of the most influential and prolific singer-songwriters of all time. He has won 10 Grammys out of 38 nominations, as well as the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award, which he accepted in 1991.

Barbaro got her start in TV, landing recurring roles in shows like Lifetime's "Unreal," NBC's "Chicago P.D.," and ABC's "Splitting Up Together." She earned her breakthrough movie role as Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace in 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick."

Like Chalamet, Barbaro was not trained as a singer or guitarist before being cast as Joan Baez, who helped Dylan lead the '60s folk revival. She worked with vocal coach Eric Vetro to approximate Baez's famous soprano.

When Barbaro had a chance to speak with Baez over the phone, she said she reassured the musician, "This is all done out of respect."

"She's just like, 'I'm just outside listening to the birds.' She is Joan. She's not so concerned with protecting [her legacy] or hovering over it," Barbaro told The Hollywood Reporter. "She signed over her songs [to the film], all her arrangements. She and Bob are sort of similar, in that they're not so obsessed with dictating this idea of who they are and who they were. They've been in the public eye for so long."

Baez, 83, also received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

Fanning, who originally costarred with Chalamet in 2019's "A Rainy Day in New York," was a huge Dylan fan before she was cast in "A Complete Unknown."

"I had posters of him on my wall and wrote his name on my hand every day, partly to be cool," Fanning told The Hollywood Reporter. "I worked with ['We Bought a Zoo' director] Cameron Crowe when I was 13, and he played Bob Dylan a lot. He would play 'Buckets of Rain' over and over again. That's when it started."

Fanning's character Sylvie Russo is based on Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend in the early '60s. She died in 2011.

Rotolo was cemented in music history when she posed arm-in-arm with Dylan for the cover of his sophomore album, 1963's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan." She also influenced Dylan's left-wing politics and inspired the song "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," among others.

According to Fanning, Dylan asked the filmmakers to avoid using Rotolo's real name because she was "a very private person and didn't ask for this life."

"She was obviously someone that was very special and sacred to Bob," Fanning told Rolling Stone.

After Benedict Cumberbatch dropped out of the movie, Norton — renowned for movies like "Fight Club," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Birdman," and "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" — was hired to portray folk pioneer Pete Seeger.

Seeger's expansive catalog includes the labor-movement anthem "The Hammer Song" and the crossover hit "Goodnight, Irene," both of which Seeger recorded with his folk quartet The Weavers in 1950. He also wrote the patriotic classic "This Land Is Your Land."

Seeger met Dylan in Greenwich Village shortly after the younger singer arrived in town. He is known as one of Dylan's earliest supporters, credited with getting Dylan on the lineup for the Newport Folk Festival. However, according to legend, Seeger was disturbed by Dylan's electric performance at the 1965 edition. Some claim he even tried to cut the sound while Dylan was onstage.

Throughout his life, Seeger was outspoken in support of civil rights, workers' rights, and anti-war efforts, among other causes. He died in 2014 at age 94.

Holbrook is being hailed as a scene-stealer for his performance as Johnny Cash in "A Complete Unknown."

Cash and Dylan officially met at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, but they had already been exchanging letters as fans of each other's work.

"I had a portable record player that I'd take along on the road, and I'd put on 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off," Cash wrote in his autobiography, per Far Out magazine.

"After a while at that, I wrote Bob a letter telling him how much of a fan I was," Cash continued. "He wrote back almost immediately, saying he'd been following my music since 'I Walk the Line,' and so we began a correspondence."

Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, gave Mangold, the director, access to letters that Cash and Dylan exchanged in this era. He told Rolling Stone they became "an instrumental voice in the movie."

The two musicians maintained a close friendship until Cash died from complications of diabetes in 2003. He was 71.

You may recognize McNairy from "Argo," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," or one of two other films released in 2024: "Speak No Evil" and "Nightbitch."

Before the year ends, McNairy will return to the silver screen as Woody Guthrie, widely known as Dylan's personal hero. Guthrie rose to fame in 1940 with his topical album "Dust Bowl Ballads," which chronicles the Great Depression's effects on American Midwesterners. He continued to sing about anti-capitalist and anti-fascist themes throughout his career.

By the time Dylan arrived in New York, Guthrie was being treated in New Jersey for Huntington's disease.

The movie dramatizes their first encounter, including an emotional performance of Dylan's "Song to Woody," with which he serenades Guthrie in the hospital. Chalamet told Rolling Stone that after filming the scene, he went home and "wept." (In reality, Dylan wrote the song after he and Guthrie had already met, per the magazine.)

Guthrie died in 1967 at age 55.

Dan Fogler is best known for the "Harry Potter" spinoff franchise "Fantastic Beasts," in which he played the no-maj character Jacob Kowalski.

In "A Complete Unknown," Fogler portrays Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager from 1962 to 1970. Grossman helped Dylan become an influential figure in the era's folk revival, but his aggressive and intimidating business tactics also earned him a controversial reputation, according to TeachRock.org.

Grossman died in 1986 of a heart attack. He was 59.

In his book "That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea," Randolph wrote that he and Hastings met with Bezos in 1998, who offered them "probably something between $14 million and $16 million," Randolph wrote. But they turned down the offer.

Netflix gained 239,000 subscribers in its first year, according to Inc.

"As you get older, if you're lucky, you realize two things: what you like, but also what you're good at," Randolph told Forbes in 2019 on why he left Netflix. "The answer to both of them [for me] is early-stage companies. I like the chaos. I like the fact that you're working on hundreds of things at once."

Netflix ended 2006 with over 6 million subscribers for its DVD-rental service.

But a New York Times story at the time highlighted how the company still faced doubts about its streaming plans, noting that it would cost Netflix $40 million to implement it. The company's stock dropped 6% with the announcement. But Hastings, who was CEO at the time, said that he had "gotten used to" reservations.

"This was the first time we streamed a show across multiple countries and languages … and it worked," Netflix's current co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote in a blog post in February 2022.

"It worked because it was a deeply local story that we could share with the world," Sarandos added.

Netflix has yet to nab the Oscars' top prize, though, despite elaborate campaign spending. Apple TV+ won best picture last year for "CODA," becoming the first streaming platform to do so.

Chappelle said in the special that "gender is a fact" and defended "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, who came under fire for past transphobic comments.

Sarandos defended Chappelle in a memo to employees, saying in part: "Chappelle is one of the most popular stand-up comedians today, and we have a long standing deal with him. His last special, 'Sticks & Stones,' also controversial, is our most watched, stickiest, and most award winning stand-up special to date."

Netflix trans employees planned a walkout in response to the special and Sarandos' comments.

Aside from the economic strains of the coronavirus pandemic, Netflix blamed the subscriber loss partly on password sharing. It said that it estimated that an additional 100 million people use Netflix with a shared password. 

It also acknowledged increased competition. Over the last few years, new streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, and more have entered the space on top of already existing rivals like Hulu and Prime Video.

Hastings confirmed during Netflix's April 2022 earnings call that the company plans to roll out an ad-supported plan — something it has pushed back against in the past — as the streaming service faced slowing revenue growth and lost subscribers.

Other streamers have, like HBO Max and Paramount+, have embraced ads. Disney+, Netflix's biggest rival, has also launched an ad-supported option.

Netflix's standard HD plan (its most popular plan) is $15.49 per month after the company recently raised prices. 

Netflix laid off 150 staffers in May 2022 and then 300 more in June.

"While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth," a Netflix spokesperson said of the most recent round of layoffs.

In Q2 2022, Netflix said it lost 970,000 subscribers. It had forecasted losing 2 million subscribers in the quarter, so it beat expectations — but it was still a sign of company's struggles, proving why it is introducing an ad-based plan and cracking down on password sharing. 

Netflix is optimistic about Q3, though, and forecasted adding 1 million subscribers.

When the ad program launched, the streamer said it was nearly sold out of inventory.

The end of 2022 represented a bit of a bounce back for Netflix, as the entertainment company outpaced subscriber growth in Q4 by around 3.1 million, adding 7.66 new subscribers despite its own estimates of 4.5 million, per Variety.

In total the streaming giant amassed 230.75 million subscribers by the end of 2022, compared to its target figure of 227.59 million.

Netflix noted that after a decade into making original content, it was "past the most cash-intensive phase of this buildout," per Variety. Accordingly, money spent on content was $16.84 billion in 2022 — about a 5% less than its 2021 spend.

Netflix announced it will end its DVD-rental services on September 29, 2023, according to an official Twitter account dedicated to the DVD-side of the business. It will mark the end of a 25-year chapter for the business, which became known for its red envelopes.

Users will have until October 27, 2023 to return their DVDs. Those still subscribed to the DVD service or whose subscription was cancelled in the last nine months will be able to download their queue, rental history, ratings, and reviews via this link.

Netflix began cracking down on password sharing in 2023, a move that – along with offering a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier – helped it add new subscribers and deliver blowout earnings throughout 2024, quarter after quarter.

That said, Netflix will stop reporting quarterly subscriber figures in 2025, and some analysts expect the returns on its password crackdown to diminish in the future.  

Netflix made a costly push into live sports content with a $5 billion deal for a weekly WWE show in the US, and to air other one-off pro wrestling events globally. The content will start rolling out in early 2025.

Netflix's former firm chief Scott Stuber left the company in January. He was later replaced by Dan Lin, who has reportedly sought to implement a new strategy that shifts away from big-budget action films fronted by marquee stars. 

Lin's plan also involves diversifying Netflix's offerings, prioritizing in-house producers, and skipping theatrical releases.

In February, Netflix signed on to produce its first Broadway show – a stage play about a Russian oligarch in partnership with "The Crown" creator Peter Morgan. The show started previews in April and closed in June.  

Netflix is also working on a "Stranger Things" prequel play in London, but not as a producer, according to The New York Times. That show, dubbed "Stranger Things: The First Shadow," premiered in the West End this month, and is expected to arrive on Broadway in the spring. 

Netflix announced a new venture dubbed Netflix House in June – or "experiential entertainment venues" that are slated to arrive in shopping malls in Dallas and Philadelphia next year.

The locations will include Netflix-themed attractions, games, restaurants, and merch as Netflix looks to hone a model pioneered by Disney.

In November 2024, Netflix's ad business turned two years old. It announced it had 70 million ad-supported subscribers – up from 40 million the previous May – and said that more than half of new sign-ups were for ad-supported plans in countries where the option is available.

Netflix made another massive foray into live sports content in November, streaming a highly anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, which drew a record-breaking 65 million concurrent viewers globally.

That said, the stream was beset by technical difficulties, with some viewers reporting buffering and audio problems. 

Netflix closed out the year by streaming its first-ever Christmas Day NFL games, following a pact it announced in May with the NFL to carry holiday games through 2026. This year's spectacle also featured Beyoncé performing at halftime as the Houston Texans faced off against the Baltimore Ravens.