I like French, comics, books, podcasts, (board and roleplaying) games, biking, and trains. I try to stay organized and in good (physical and mental) shape.
Moi, j'aime le français, les BD, les livres, les podcasts, les jeux (de plateau et de rôle), le cyclisme, et les trains. Je fais de mon mieux de rester organisé et en forme (physiquement et mentalement).
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🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (Series 3)
- kudos:I miss the traditional “storyteller” sketches at the end of every episode, but I know they’ll be back in future series, and there were plenty of laugh out loud moments in this one.
🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (Series 2)
- kudos:This show continues to be fun, even if it wears off its genius on the third run. Some parts still make me laugh out loud, though!
🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (Series 1)
- kudos:This is the third time I’ve listened to this series in the past five years, and I wonder if I’m rating it a bit low because of that. At any rate, I couldn’t help myself from trying it again after finishing Cabin Pressure. I might like this show even better—Finnemore has more freedom to show off his gift for words and his intricate plotting and callbacks.
🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Cabin Pressure (Series 4 and Finale)
- kudos:It’s been about a decade since I was introduced to this show, and I’m very glad to finally have experienced the whole thing. The last season was fun, the finale was a nice wrap-up, and I really do think the whole thing is a masterpiece.
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My favorite radio episodes to download from the Internet Archive are the ones that are actually recorded from a broadcast, so you get a minute or so of continuity announcer at the beginning and the end.
🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Cabin Pressure (Series 3)
- kudos:This series feels like Finnemore kicking things up a notch. There are some interesting new character arcs in play, and it’s fun to see Finnemore playing with the fact that one of his actors is now taking on the role of Sherlock Holmes. He’s also clearly having fun subverting some audience expectations with stories and characters. I hadn’t heard this series before, and it was fun to come back to it!
some praise for Dumbing of Age
- kudos:I’ve been a big fan of webcomics since I first discovered they existed in the early-to-mid 2000s. I’ve been following Order of the Stick for about twenty years(!), I’ve read the entire web run of Dr. McNinja, xkcd makes frequent appearance in my lecture slides, and there are other comics that I’ve jumped in and out of over time. It hasn’t been that long since I started following Dork Tower again, but last Fall, it did a crossover with Dumbing of Age, which I mentally noted I should check out sometime.
🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Cabin Pressure (Series 2)
- kudos:My journey through Cabin Pressure continues! I can’t remember how much of this series I’ve previously listened to—definitely not the Christmas special, but probably the rest of it. At any rate, it continues to have exceptional writing and lovely acting. Radio is underrated, and John Finnemore is perhaps the best example of that.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Story Behind The XZ Backdoor Is Way More Fascinating Than It Should Be'
- kudos:I’ve been meaning to read more about this story, so I’m grateful for Masnick’s summary here. link to “The Story Behind The XZ Backdoor Is Way More Fascinating Than It Should Be”
🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Cabin Pressure (Series 1)
- kudos:It’s been ages since I’ve listened to this, though I’ve listened to some of John Finnemore’s other work in the meantime. It’s such an excellent show: brilliantly written, well acted, and a real joy to listen to. I’m confident I haven’t listened to all four series, though I can’t remember which bits I’ve missed. Looking forward to finding out!
🎙️ radioblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Primary Phase)
- kudos:I first picked this up through an Audible deal several years ago, with the idea that it would help with the move from Michigan to Kentucky (I can’t remember if I wasn’t yet anti-Audible or if it was just a good deal that I couldn’t pass up with the whole family living off my grad school fellowship). Anyway, the U-Haul didn’t have an aux jack or Bluetooth, so my brother-in-law and I cranked my phone as loud as it would go and tried to make out the jokes over the highway noise.
Arthur Dent, the bulldozer, and generative AI
- kudos:This week, I decided to see if it was worth relistening to the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. I’m having trouble committing to things to listen to right now, and I’ve found in recent years that I don’t enjoy H2G2 as much as I once did, so it’s hard to say whether I’ll follow through with this. However, I did get far enough in to the first episode to enjoy Arthur Dent’s confrontation with Mr.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'New Catan game has overpopulation, pollution, fossil fuels, and clean energy'
- kudos:Interesting! I haven’t been into Catan for years, but this could bring me back. link to “New Catan game has overpopulation, pollution, fossil fuels, and clean energy”
📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Borgen (Season 1)
- kudos:I struggled with what to rate this series. It’s great in a lot of ways, and it’s fun to watch a political show that is based in a country I don’t know very well (plus, explaining parliamentary coalitions and other election systems to my spouse made me feel smart). That said, it’s also not as tight and polished as something like The West Wing, and while it might not be fair to compare the two, it’s inevitable.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'After years of trying, the U.S. government may finally mandate safer table saws'
- kudos:I have a scar from a nearly 20-year old table saw injury, and that made this fascinating to read. link to “After years of trying, the U.S. government may finally mandate safer table saws”
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Nancy Wins at Friendship: A Nancy Comic Collection, by Olivia Jaimes
- kudos:This time, kiddo checked this out on hoopla, and I decided to read it, too. As I’ve said before, gag-a-day comics aren’t really my thing, and as delightful as Nancy is, I still can’t say that it’s my favorite.
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Dune Part Two
- kudos:The Dune universe is super weird, and I don’t know that it’s my favorite, but this is a really well done movie.
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Dune
- kudos:This movie looks great and was a lot of fun to watch. I have very vague movies of the book but liked this a lot better.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow
- kudos:This is a fun book in many ways—Doctorow is great at super weird science fiction. However, there’s just not enough in there of what else makes Doctorow good. I’m glad I reread this, but it’s probably my least favorite of all the Doctorow novels I’ve tackled.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Une Miss Allemagne âgée de 39 ans et originaire d'Iran : un pied de nez aux racistes et misogynes'
- kudos:On vit dans un monde pourri, mais quelle jolie façon d’apprendre la phrase « pied de nez ». link to “Une Miss Allemagne âgée de 39 ans et originaire d’Iran : un pied de nez aux racistes et misogynes”
un souvenir ludique de Grenoble
- kudos:Il existe à Grenoble un magasin des jeux nommé « Les contrées du jeu ». Il y a seize ans cette semaine, alors que j’habitais à Grenoble, j’y suis entré m’offrir le jeu « Wings of War ». J’ai toujours une carte de fidélité comme preuve de cette transaction : Il n’y a rien de profond dans ce souvenir, mais j’ai beaucoup de petits souvenirs du temps que j’ai passé en France et en Suisse qui semble avoir une grande importance malgré cette manque de profondeur.
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Marvels
- kudos:I came for the Ms. Marvel, and this delivered! She’s a great character, and it was fun to see her in this movie. There were also lots of weird-but-fun bits that I enjoyed. There are plenty of things about the movie that didn’t work for me, but it’s no less dumb than most Marvel movies, and I have no interest in feeding what I understand is a bunch of hating on the movie.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Queen & Country Definitive Edition, Volume 04, by Greg Rucka
- kudos:I recently came into some Amazon gift cards, so I bought this volume to complete my collection of Queen & Country. I think this is the first time I’ve owned an entire comics series? At least, one of this length. I’m glad I own the whole series, but like the show its based on, I feel like it gets less interesting the longer it goes on. It’s fun to get some peeks into the backstories of the characters who come up in the first two volumes, but it’s just not as interesting as the early stories.
📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Doctor Who (2023 specials)
- kudos:I got really into Doctor Who for the better part of a decade, I have really fond memories of the many seasons I watched, and there are episodes I would gladly return to. I petered out after Jodie Whitaker’s first season, though, and watching these specials showed me I’m still not ready to come back. I don’t know what has changed, but I feel less patient with the show’s goofiness. If it’s going to keep coming to Disney+, I’ll try to keep an eye on it, but hard to say if I’ll ever really reinvest.
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Okay, my new favorite fun fact about myself for ice breaking activities is that Wil Wheaton has read my name aloud as part of his recording of a Cory Doctorow audiobook.
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My Apple Watch is generous and congratulates me for a full night’s sleep even if I miss my goal by a few minutes. My body, on the other hand, is more demanding and keeps reminding me I needed more sleep.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Thousands report issues with US mobile services'
- kudos:Oh, so it’s not just me… link to “Thousands report issues with US mobile services”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Beware: A cheese crisis looms'
- kudos:Save the cheese! link to “Beware: A cheese crisis looms”
un helvétisme que je ne savais pas connaître
- kudos:Mon beau-frère s’intéresse beaucoup aux langues. Moi aussi, d’une manière générale, mais lui, il se fonce dans une langue quelconque quand l’envie lui prend. C’est donc comme ça qu’il sait lire un peu en français, en espagnol, en turc, en néerlandais, et ainsi de suite. Si je n’ai pas la largeur de ses compétences linguistiques, j’ai quand-même une meilleure connaissance du français que lui, et il lui arrive donc de me poser des questions sur le français.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Legend in the Mist is ‘counter-D&D,’ a game where words are more powerful than numbers'
- kudos:Love seeing this kind of narrative- and character-focused mechanic, link to “Legend in the Mist is ‘counter-D&D,’ a game where words are more powerful than numbers”
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Sometimes, a run produces a runner’s high and sometimes it just makes me tired the rest of the day. Stayed up too late last night, so there’s a lot riding on this morning’s outcome.
📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for For All Mankind (Season 4)
- kudos:I love this show, and this season was a delight to watch. There were bumps along the way, some characters were done dirty, and I don’t know that I like the characters that the finale wants to be in the right (or that the characters I like weren’t in the wrong), but it was a wonderful piece of television.
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I like that there’s a They Might Be Giants lyrics bot to follow on Mastodon, but I’m dealing with a lot more TMBG songs stuck in my head these days.
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Hier soir, j’ai rêvé d’une France post-apocalyptique où les Parisiens ne reconnaissaient plus les noms des villes « en province ». Juste avant de me réveiller, je partais à pied explorer un pays oublié et enneigé.
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English speakers who insist on pronouncing “coup de grâce” without the final /s/ sound are actually saying “coup de gras,” which evokes pelting someone with a lump of fat.
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Après un vélotaf sous la pluie, une tisane à la réglisse fait beaucoup de bien.