Spencer Greenhalgh likes RSS and thinks you're great for using it

🔗 linkblog: Here's what to expect from the fiery, 14-minute return of Artemis II

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:53:59 -0400

🔗 linkblog: Here's what to expect from the fiery, 14-minute return of Artemis II https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-04-10-i-found/

📚 bookblog: Reminding Myself That Despite What that Sign on the Highway Says, Hell Isn't Real (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:59:54 -0400

I’m still struggling a bit more with these story arcs than I did with earlier ones, but I can’t put my finger on why, and I don’t think it’s because they’re any less good.

It is also very interesting to be reading these books at a time where I’m digitizing journals from my college years, worrying a lot about grades and relationships.

🍿 movieblog: Project Hail Mary (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:17:21 -0400

Excellent adaptation of a book I remember enjoying. My “book is better” brain wanted to quibble with some choices, but I think those choices made sense when considering the change of medium. I also really, really appreciated the almost-throwaway joke about the Phantom Zone.

📚 bookblog: My Peer Group's Smoochy Chart is Basically Now an Ouroboros (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:12:24 -0400

📚 bookblog: My Peer Group's Smoochy Chart is Basically Now an Ouroboros (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-04-09-still-good/

la joie d'acheter (mais vraiment acheter) de la musique

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:05:24 -0400

Ça fait maintenant plusieurs mois que j’ai l’habitude d’écouter en boucle un concert des Cowboys fringants aux Plaines d’Abraham à Québec lors de la fête nationale québécoise en 2013. Vu combien de temps j’ai passé avec cet enregistrement peut-être piraté, quand j’ai découvert que les Cowboys vendaient un enregistrement d’un concert film enregistré une décennie plus tard, quelques mois avant le décès de Karl Tremblay, je me suis dit que j’avais une certaine obligation de l’acheter.

Je l’ai bien acheté, et j’en suis content, mais je suis aussi content de l’effort que j’ai mis cette semaine à télécharger l’enregistrement (car mon achat me le donne le droit), à transformer la vidéo en audio, et puis diviser un seul enregistrement en vingt pistes séparés pour mieux l’organiser dans ma collection de musique. Je suis bien content de pouvoir soutenir un de mes groupes préférés par un achat, mais je suis également content d’avoir le droit de faire avec cet achat ce que je veux. Oui, c’est bien un concert film, et ça fait du plaisir de le regarder, mais il m’arrivera un jour de vouloir écouter la musique en conduisant, et pour cela, il faudra des pistes téléchargées dans une appli pour de la musique.

On vit dans un monde numérique où nos capacités de modifier et adapter nos achats est souvent limité—en fait, il devient de plus en plus rare de pouvoir vraiment acheter un média quelconque (au lieu de louer, selon un contrat complex et flou). Il faut pas dire à mon travail combien de temps j’ai passé ce matin à préparer cette petite conversion de vidéo en album, mais je suis hyper content d’avoir pu le faire.

📚 bookblog: Her Hugs Are Traps (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 10:55:19 -0400

This review is slightly more negative, and I don’t know if that’s because I’m ready to move on to something else to read, because I don’t like all of the subplots in this part of the story, or something else. It’s still good, though!

🔗 linkblog: Finally, Artemis delivers some exceptional, high-quality photos of the Moon

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:56:18 -0400

🔗 linkblog: Finally, Artemis delivers some exceptional, high-quality photos of the Moon https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-04-07-amazing-picturesmight/

🎙️ radioblog: Prisoners of the Lake (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:38:51 -0400

It’s recognizable as a Doctor Who story, and there are some parts that are fun and interesting, but it just didn’t land with me.

📚 bookblog: I Excised All My Anxieties into Cartoon Characters Who Definitely Don't Have Feelings for Each Other (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:36:09 -0400

📚 bookblog: I Excised All My Anxieties into Cartoon Characters Who Definitely Don't Have Feelings for Each Other (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-04-06-posttimeskip-dumbing/

📚 bookblog: Renounce Magical Thinking and Embrace Empirical Evidence (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:30:13 -0400

Part of me thinks that I shouldn’t enjoy this particularly dramatic, action-packed sequence, but Willis does an excellent job of it—and of making it fit within the broader world and story he’s built.

🎙️ radioblog: In Memory Alone (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:26:32 -0400

This last story in the series wasn’t quite as good as the others, but I’m just happy that they made interesting use of the Silents.

🎙️ radioblog: Silent Majority (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:24:01 -0400

This series continues to be fun. It’s making use of a scary villain in compelling ways, and even the “let’s treat UK parliamentary elections like a US presidential race” doesn’t bug me too much.

🔗 linkblog: Artemis II astronauts break a record, name a crater

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:02:33 -0400

I barely got the livestream up on time for this, but I’m glad I did, because it left me teary eyed.

📚 bookblog: Now Let's Go Commit Something Mildly Subversive (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:15:38 -0400

Still enjoying this! I really appreciate Willis’s charitable, nuanced take on non-fundamentalist religion that comes out here while Joyce is wrestling with her faith.

📚 bookblog: Up Here We Can Be Garbage (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:12:01 -0400

I really ought to scan back through each volume as I read it so that I can give it a more thorough review, but these go fast, blend together, and just make a generally good impression. I’d like to wrap up the reread so that I can turn my attention to other stuff, but sometimes you also just need a quick, easy rebinge of a high quality webcomic.

📺 tvblog: The Night Manager Season 1 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:07:07 -0400

Took me a while to watch this. It’s not bad, and I liked it more than my spouse did, but I really want to read the source material now to see how it holds up.

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:52:11 -0400

Neat that I live at a time where I can set this kind of alarm on my phone.

things to listen to instead of Artemis II live audio

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:19:42 -0400

I really enjoyed watching Artemis II lift off yesterday and immediately realized that I would also enjoy tuning into the live broadcast over the course of the mission. The YouTube feed is pretty good, but what I’d really love (and haven’t been able to find) is to find an audio-only feed that I could plug into my internet radio client and just listen to. I’m mostly interested in tuning in to the mission while working, and while the audio will make for good white noise, I don’t really need (or even want) the visuals in there.

In the absence of any live audio feed (though please let me know if you know of where to find one!), I expect I’ll spend some time today listening to other stuff that scratches a similar itch. SomaFM has the Mission Control internet radio station, which offers “mix of ambient and experimental music mixed with the historical sounds of the space program.” I’m just now learning (because I only started listening in the mid-to-late 2010s) that the station only started mixing in the sounds of the Apollo program after the Space Shuttle missions came to an end, and it surprises me that they aren’t doing Artemis II broadcasts, which would be exactly what I’m looking for.

I’m also a big fan of Public Service Broadcasting’s 2015 album The Race for Space, which samples a lot of Apollo-era recordings (among other relevant audio) into what is an excellent concept album. Listening to the “go” sequence during last night’s launch reminded me of PSB’s song “Go!”, which draws from the equivalent sequence for the Apollo 11 landing. It’s very catchy and fun to listen to.

I’m still hoping to find an audio feed for Artemis II that I can put on in the background while working over the next more-than-a-week, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to. At any rate, as I’m listening to the YouTube feed now, the crew is about to get four hours of sleep (after a conversation about how to correctly hold their microphones, which is fun to listen in to), and I expect I won’t have much to listen to during that time. Between SomaFM and Public Service Broadcasting, though, I think I’ll have enough to keep the space nerd part of my brain busy.

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:18:40 -0400

Artemis II has not captured a lot of my attention because it’s hard to get excited about anything my country is doing right now, but I made a last minute decision to put the launch on, and even just listening to mission control is super neat.

🎙️ radioblog: Square One (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:42:44 -0400

It came as something of a surprise that this next part of the story felt even better. It takes some liberties with the British political system, but since it came out in November 2016, it is clearly doing so to criticize Donald Trump, and I can live with that. The story continues to play with the basic concept of the Silents as a supernatural villain, and I’m enjoying seeing where it goes.

🎙️ radioblog: House of Silents (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:39:23 -0400

I’ve made a few comments alluding to how interesting it is to explore expanded universe material in another franchise after a near-lifetime of exploring Star Wars auxiliary fiction. This is a good demonstration of how EUs can be good: The Silents are an interesting villain, and this story makes good use of them while fitting it nicely into the broader Doctor Who canon. I enjoyed the listen.

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:04:56 -0400

My vision is bad enough that I can see better wearing my prescription sunglasses indoors than wearing nothing, and since I brought an empty glasses case to work today, I guess that’s what I’ll be doing.

📚 bookblog: Just Put Down the Ukelele Only Then Can the Healing Begin (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:44:13 -0400

DoA is funny because its plot takes place over a few months, but the story has been told over years and years. That makes it hard to remember what happened when. I feel like this volume has some of the changes that most lead to contemporary characters and storylines, and yet that all happens earlier than I expected.

📚 bookblog: The Machinations of My Revenge Will Be Cold, Swift, and Utterly Ridiculous (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:41:45 -0400

📚 bookblog: The Machinations of My Revenge Will Be Cold, Swift, and Utterly Ridiculous (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-03-31-still-blurring/

🔗 linkblog: British Man Desperately Trying To Get Out Of Panel Show Duty

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 11:59:24 -0400

🔗 linkblog: British Man Desperately Trying To Get Out Of Panel Show Duty https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-03-31-what-a/

📚 bookblog: Hey, Guess What, I'm a Lesbian! (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:57:21 -0400

I wrote about this on my first read through (I think), but it’s very interesting to read this take on the college experience when mine was so very different. It’s interesting to see Joyce, for example, grow in ways I didn’t until a decade or so later in life.

📚 bookblog: Amazi-Girl is Always Prepared for Anything (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:55:02 -0400

These are such fast reads (and I’m waiting so long to review them) that I can’t say I remember the specifics of this volume, but I’m continuing to enjoy this reread, and that’s what counts, I guess.

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:42:11 -0400

Bike update: My dad, a much more experienced cyclist, came to town for something else today, and I got his help. He managed in two minutes what I had spent two hours failing to do. (But my new tube was a dud, and the shop is closed for the day, so the adventure continues…)

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:00:31 -0400

I’m a committed commuter but miserable mechanic, so when I bought a new bike in December, I paid extra for something lower maintenance. Got my first flat yesterday, though, and it turns out these tires are tighter than I’m used to. So far, I’ve damaged my hands more than I’ve fixed the bike.

🎙️ radioblog: Expiry Dating (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:29:21 -0400

My favorite thing in these audioplays is getting the tv actors to come back for their parts, and this is especially fun when it brings back Peter Davison and Colin Baker, too. It’s a good story that makes the most of these characters, and I enjoyed it.

📚 bookblog: Your Stupid Overconfidence is Nostalgic (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:20:41 -0400

I’ve noticed this throughout the reread, but this collection really got me thinking about the connections between Willis’s previous work and this reboot/remix. It’s also amazing to me just how long this series has been going on! I’m reading material that came out when I was just starting grad school.

🔗 linkblog: Webtoon is adding AI localization tools to its comics platform

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:29:00 -0400

I read a fair amount of comics in translation, and even when the translation is done with a skilled human, I can always tell that there’s something off about it. Not sure I trust an LLM to fix that problem.

Also, I wish that Webtoon weren’t platformizing webcomics and that we could go back to the models we had in the 2000s and 2010s.

📚 bookblog: I Beg You, Don't Cast Your Body Into the Cragged Shame Pits of the Lustwolves (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 09:38:50 -0400

📚 bookblog: I Beg You, Don't Cast Your Body Into the Cragged Shame Pits of the Lustwolves (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-03-26-still-enjoying/

🎙️ radioblog: The Black Hole (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 09:36:46 -0400

🎙️ radioblog: The Black Hole (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-03-26-it-wasnt/

☕ teablog: Pinky Up, Mochi Ice Cream Boba (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 10:15:21 -0400

This tea has been an afternoon treat for me for a couple of weeks now, but I only just realized that I hadn’t blogged it yet. It’s much better than my last experience with Pinky Up, and it delivers on its promise to be boba-ish without all the trappings (or cost).

📚 bookblog: This Campus is a Friggin' Escher Print (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 10:09:26 -0400

I had been trying to read some of Willis’s other work, making it through the whole Shortpacked! archive and trying to go through Roomies!, etc., but ultimately I realized that what I really wanted was a Dumbing of Age reread, and so here I am. I enjoy this series much more in collected form than I do one strip at a time, and it was fun to start again at the beginning.

☕ teablog: Central Purrk Cat Café, London Fog (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:07:49 -0400

I keep thinking that I should like Earl Grey, but I think it’s time to acknowledge that I just don’t. I’d like to try some more Lady Grey sometime, but even lattefication didn’t help me enjoy Earl Grey.

📺 tvblog: Un village français Saison 3 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:18:39 -0400

Cette série continue à m’engager—et à me faire réfléchir. Il faut quand-même que je me rappelle que c’est un drame et non un documentaire, car j’ai tendance à trouver les détails historiques plus intéressants que les conflits interpersonnels.

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 08:13:29 -0400

Ah, mais c’est vrai que “Projet je vous salue Marie” n’aurait pas le même sens. Parfois, il faut voir une traduction en français pour me rendre compte des bizarretés de l’anglais américain.

📚 bookblog: How to Fall Forever (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:52:43 -0400

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this series, but I like it so far! Interesting playing with hubris, imaginative story and art, and compelling characters (even if I have trouble remembering who’s who, but that’s my fault).

My one annoyance is that there are a lot of two-page splashes that do not work well for reading PDFs on my phone. I get that that’s on me, but it’s still a pain.

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:45:53 -0400

Brb, nearly doubling the number of my entries in the Day One journaling app by importing a partial archive of all my tweets.

🎙️ radioblog: False Coronets (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:38:33 -0400

This has everything that annoyed me about the rest of the series but also some weird pro-monarchist vibes to it? Glad to be done with this series, and I hope the next one is better.

🔗 linkblog: Pionnier du fastfood, McDonald's célèbre 50 ans de présence en Suisse | RTS

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:12:18 -0400

Moi, j’ai toujours préféré manger un kebab, mais il m’est arrivé de manger chez McDo une fois ou deux lors de mon séjour en Suisse. Le prix m’a choqué, même en sachant que le coût de la vie était beaucoup plus élévé en Suisse. J’avais honte d’être là avec un ami américain qui parlait français mais qui faisait sa commande en anglais parce que c’était une chaîne américaine et qu’il avait donc le droit.

🎙️ radioblog: The Light Keepers (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 10:27:38 -0400

Meh. I really don’t like the narration in this series, and even though I was a bit distracted while listening to this one, I’m not convinced I would have liked it much more if I had been giving it my full attention.

updates I've made to my Hugo site over the past year

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:43:09 -0400

Early 2025 was a difficult time for my focus and mental health given all of the nonsense happening in my country at the time. I channeled a lot of my anxiety and distraction into messing around with my Hugo site, which is both something I find genuinely fun and something that is professionally useful, since I teach a course on content management systems where I’ve doubled down on Hugo as a teaching tool. Yesterday marks the one-year anniversary of my observation that it was “[t]ime to write up a summary post,” and I’m finally getting around to that today. Waiting so long to write that post means that some of my memories are a little fuzzy now, but I made some further updates to my site over the summer and then again last December, so a “the last year in Hugo adventures” post allows me to capture some of that stuff, too.

new taxonomies

Besides trying to ward off nihilism, I couldn’t tell you for sure what was the genesis of all of the tweaks I started making to my site. Taxonomies seems like a strong candidate, though. I rely a fair amount on my tags to get a sense for what I’m writing about and to find something that I wrote in the past on a particular subject. Tags are great, but having all of my terms in a single taxonomy was starting to get a little clunky, and doing bingereads of a bunch of comic series got me thinking about other ways that I could be sorting posts in terms of their similarities (actually, it seems like this had occurred to me before I’d started some of the binges). So, I learned how to set up new taxonomies in Hugo and set up the following ones that allow for navigating through my media reviews in more fine-grained ways:

the media taxonomy gives me a sense of what I’m consuming and allows me to filter posts by specific medium; I’ve made some non-mutually exclusive categories so that I can affirm that bandes dessinées are also comics (which are also books) while also treating them as a media genre unto themselves.
the title taxonomy is mostly useless, except that it lets me see what media I’ve consumed multiple times (like Cory Doctorow’s Red Team Blues—or if I’ve consumed multiple media adaptations of the same story (like When the Wind Blows
the series taxonomy lets me filter posts by a specific series; by extension, it lets me see what I’ve been consuming the most of (though these numbers are a bit imprecise—it takes a lot more work to read a Brief Theological Introduction to the Book of Mormon than to listen to a brief Doctor Who Short Trip)
the franchise taxonomy gives me a way of grouping together reviews of media that span multiple series—or that are connected to each other despite not technically being part of the same series; Doctor Who has recently rocketed to the top of this list thanks to all the audio plays I’ve been listening to
the creator taxonomy (I don’t love that name, but “author” doesn’t fit when I also include comic book artists and audiobook narrators) lets me see whose work I’ve been consuming the most… and has helped me realize that I need to take steps to reduce the concentration of white dudes at the top
the rating taxonomy is perhaps even dumber than the title one, but it does let me confirm my hunch that I’m pretty easy-going (and not usually very critical) when reviewing media

While mediablogging was the original inspiration for expanding the taxonomy offerings of my site, it wasn’t hard to figure out that this could be useful for other parts of my site as well. With the power of regex, I also built a sources taxonomy for my linkblogging that gives me some sense of who I’m reading (or lets me find articles I’ve bookmarked from, say, 404 Media).

I also spent some of the summer (finally!) uploading and sorting through a bunch of my research. While I was doing that, I figured I ought to add some taxonomies there, too. It’s now possible to sort my publications and presentations by:

research projects: collections of publications united by ongoing interest in a specific phenomenon or dataset
research topics: more fine-grained, cross-cutting topics that recur in my research
research methods: specific methodological approaches I’ve brought to projects
co-authors: folks I’ve worked with
outlets: journals or conferences where my work has appeared

Finally, in December, I figured I ought to start logging the teas I drink so that I can remember what I thought of a particular kind months after the fact. I was making my way through a tea advent calendar, and that seemed like as good an excuse as any. Teablog posts can be sorted by:

brand of tea
blend of tea
type of tea (i.e., black, herbal, green…)
rating of tea (which, like its media counterpart, might not be super useful as a taxonomy per se)

I also use a semi-meta types taxonomy to distinguish between different kinds of posts to the site.

new post templates

While I started this post by discussing taxonomies, it was pretty clear from the beginning that building new taxonomies would be most useful if I also messed around with how different post types showed up on the site. Messing around with templates was quite a bit of fun! I had done some minor tweaks to post templates in the past but mostly messing around with default templates. This involved creating a bunch of new templates, tweaking them to work the way I wanted, and then updating my posting workflows to explicitly define a particular template for most posts as they get published.

I’m quite pleased with how it’s worked out. I honestly don’t remember how my linkblog posts looked before, but I’m proud of working the links to articles into the post headers in the current layout. I also like how a publication post is actually all driven from post metadata, which is organized into a specific template; if you pull up the .md file, you’ll see that there’s actually no “content” in the post. The different mediablog post types (book, radio, etc.) have individual tweaks to make them work the way I want (I don’t track “creator” for tv or film, for example), and I learned enough Go to get some conditional formatting worked into the template. Some media has a title but no series, some has a series but no title (for volumes within the series), and some have both, and the template now handles all of that beautifully based on the metadata.

posting workflows

Supporting new taxonomies and templates involved reworking most of how I post to Hugo. I’m currently dependent on iOS’s Siri Shortcuts (and a GitHub client) to make the magic happen, and a lot of this work was actually not directly with Hugo but rather rebuilding my Shortcuts so that they’d prompt me in the right way for all of the information needed to support the new site setup. I also spent some time messing with how EchoFeed forwards my posts to Mastodon and Bluesky, and that in turn led me to modifying the RSS template for Hugo.

This last part (RSS and EchoFeed) is something I’d theoretically like to spend more time with. I could make my post forwarding more social friendly by forwarding previews of or excerpts from my media reviews rather than posting what’s obviously just a title and a link to a blog post (though I also don’t really care about unapologetically putting my blog first). At the very least, I’d like for the post summary that goes to social to include some of the series information (when relevant) and not just the title of the work I’m reviewing. Doctor Who audio dramas don’t tend to have evocative titles, and even I, the poster, am more interested in them for how they fit into a series than what their individual names are (see also: a lot of comics).

bilingual mode!

One of the reasons why the research part of my site got some attention over the summer is because I applied for a job in Francophone Switzerland. The application didn’t really go anywhere (which is fine—I’d love to live and work in Switzerland, but I like Lexington and I like my job), but at least I got some more support for my occasionally bilingual posting.

As with taxonomies and templates, I was very impressed by how easy Hugo made it to create two different language modes on my site. There is now a French-language homepage on my site, and if you go to the French-language version of any of my subblogs (say, “Moi”), you get a French-language introduction and the site filters down to only the French-language posts. However, I also have French-language posts show up in the English version of the site, which fits my approach and also makes POSSE forwarding a lot easier. This could use some additional work (my posting workflow is a bit clunky when it comes to affirming that I want to post content to the French version of the site), but I’m pretty happy with how it’s gone so far.

conclusion

I’ve been using Hugo for a POSSE style since 2019 and I’ve been constantly tinkering with it since then. The last year saw far more tinkering than usual, though, and I’m very pleased with the results. I still have a wishlist of things that I’d like to keep messing with (not least, I’d really, really like to see if I can make the site itself ActivityPub compatible), and I’m sure I’ll get to them at some point, but I’m not in a big rush. I’m proud of what I’ve learned over the past year, and even if these changes benefit me more than anyone else, I think it was worth the time.

🎙️ radioblog: The Top of the Tree (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:22:53 -0400

This story was more interesting, with some additional voice acting to make it feel more like a play than an audiobook. It was also bonkers science fiction in a very Doctor Who way that worked for me.

🎙️ radioblog: The Calendar Man (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:20:40 -0400

I gripe a lot about audio plays being dumb sometimes, but this “narrated story” approach is a lot less interesting than an audio play, and that annoyed me. Jacob Dudman does an excellent Eleventh Doctor, though, so it wasn’t terrible.

📚 bookblog: The Martian (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:16:45 -0400

For about the first half of this book, I was convinced that it was better than the movie and that I had gravely sinned by not rereading it in the past decade.

I am glad that I reread it, but after finishing it, I’m a bit more reserved in my judgment. I can see the seams in the book, there are some comments that feel stuck in the early 2010s, and the scenes that the movie skipped aren’t as interesting as the beginning and end of the book.

Still a delightful read, though!

☕ teablog: Benner Tea Company, Pumpkin Spice (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:13:38 -0400

As a side note, I just want to say how glad I am that I now write these posts because over the weekend, I was trying to remember whether I liked a particular blend, but it was from before I started teablogging, so I had nothing to rely on!

Anyway, this was another good midmorning work tea. I’d gladly drink it again, even if I can’t say I’d notice if I never had it again.

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:30:44 -0400

Just like the first time around, rereading The Martian just makes me want to play some Kerbal Space Program.

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:03:54 -0400

I’ve spent the last decade believing that The Martian was the exception to the “book is always better” rule, but rereading the book is challenging that notion.

📚 bookblog: Woodland Creatures (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:38:49 -0400

This volume seemed to depart so drastically from the first that I had to make sure I hasn’t skipped something by accident. The stories are mostly recognizable as part of a shared universe, but the worldbuilding feels overly ambitious and underserved by the actual plot. The topless Galatea robots are unnecessary, and the lampshading of their luridness by attributing it to an in-universe pervert doesn’t help. I was willing to give the first volume in this series the benefit of the doubt, but I’m glad I don’t have any more of this to read.

🎙️ radioblog: Day of the Vashta Nerada (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:34:05 -0400

See, this one I should have loved: I really want to like Paul McGann’s Doctor, and I do like the Vashta Nerada. This felt like excessive EU riffing, though, and I just couldn’t get excited about it.

🎙️ radioblog: The Carrionite Curse (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:41:54 -0400

I shouldn’t like this! It took a trip to YouTube to remember who the Carrionites even were, and there are so many Doctor-Who-dumb, audio-play-dumb, and just generally dumb elements to this play. Yet, it somehow came together into something that I enjoyed listening to during a stressful week.

☕ teablog: Tazo, Organic Chai (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:36:45 -0400

☕ teablog: Tazo, Organic Chai (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-03-12-doesnt-knock/

☕ teablog: The Republic of Tea, Vanilla Almond (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:35:51 -0400

I hesitated to give this full marks because I know it gets less interesting with time, but that’s also true of my chocolate mint tea that I love, and it’s been a while since I’ve had any of this, so my taste buds are very happy.

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:08:09 -0400

Since I’ve been posting about Doctor Who and Tinker Tailor: I had heard of the Valeyard before (my Classic Who knowledge is limited 😬), but I only recently learned that he was portrayed by the actor who played Peter Guillam, and this is really messing with my head.

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 07:22:04 -0400

I would never claim that Käärijä and Baby Lasagna’s #eurodab is a good song, but having it stuck in my head the morning after poor sleep is doing more help than harm.

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:04:18 -0400

I like the actor who plays Jim Prideaux in the Tinker Tailor miniseries, but even though I don’t speak a word of Czech, it’s very clear that he doesn’t either.

🎙️ radioblog: Empire of the Racnoss (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 08:43:21 -0400

The Racnoss struck me as dumb in their first appearance, and this play hasn’t done much to disabuse me of that impression. That said, this played enough with interesting Doctor Who themes of peace and conflict that it won me over anyway.

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 19:39:07 -0400

Look, I’ve heard some good orchestral versions of the Doctor Who theme, but that song was meant to be as electronic as possible.

📚 bookblog: Tooth and Claw (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:36:04 -0400

Interesting art, and some interesting ideas (like a foulmouthed human being transported to a land of animal wizards). I think there’s something here, even if I’m not totally hooked.

📚 bookblog: Chrononauts, Volume 1 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:45:20 -0400

The art is good, and there are elements of a rollicking time travel romp hidden in here, but the story ultimately comes down to tech bros doing what they want because they have the power to, and we’re lucky that they decided to have a conscience at the end. That is not the kind of story I want to read in 2026.

📚 bookblog: Superman: Red Son (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:42:50 -0400

I’ve read this too many times in the past two decades for it to feel as innovative and interesting as it once did, but it remains good!

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 21:04:55 -0500

La bd que je lis en ce moment avec ma fille fait un petit clin d’œil aux fameux pirates d’Astérix. Je l’ai donc envoyée chercher un album pour lui expliquer la blague—sauf que j’avais oublié combien l’un des pirates est un caricature raciste, et tout a fini dans la malaise 😬

🎙️ radioblog: Night of the Vashta Nerada (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 09:44:08 -0500

“Classic Doctors, new monsters” is such a fun concept for an audio play series, and hearing Tom Baker face off against the Vashta Nerada was a delight. Don’t know if I’ll enjoy the upcoming stories as much, but this was fun.

🔗 linkblog: Les premiers trams prêts à circuler dès mardi à Lausanne pour des tests | RTS

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:54:53 -0500

Si je comprends bien, la ligne du tramway est tout près de l’appartement à Renens où j’ai vécu pendant quelques mois, et cette nouvelle fait donc plaisir même si je n’ai pas mis pied à Lausanne depuis 2010.

🎙️ radioblog: Theatre of War (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 15:47:20 -0500

Sylvester McCoy is delightful, and I’m glad I got to experience a story with his Doctor and Sophie Aldred’s Ace. It’s goofy in the way that most expanded universe material is, but there’s enough there to be interesting, and I enjoyed the listen.

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:19:30 -0500

When did YouTube start autodubbing videos into the language it assumes you want? No, thank you!

🎙️ radioblog: Sweet Salvation (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 20:46:28 -0500

It’s real neat that the Eighth Doctor has had such a presence in Big Finish and other ancillary media, but this is another story that entirely dissuades me from trying to get into any of that, because I cannot follow what’s going on. Hard to say whether it’s continuity lockout, poor writing, or both.

🎙️ radioblog: World of Damnation (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 11:53:38 -0500

This story is the hardest to follow radio drama I’ve ever experienced. It did turn out that I’d accidentally skipped over the first few tracks, but even going back to listen to them didn’t help much. I couldn’t tell characters apart, I wasn’t sure what was a flashback and what was the main story, there was some serious continuity lockout, and I found the whole thing confusing. There were some fun ideas in there, but they were buried under a persistent feeling of being lost.

📺 tvblog: Au service de la France Saison 2 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:49:52 -0500

Je me souvenais de ne pas aimer cette saison aussi bien que la première. Si ça reste vrai (je n’aime pas trop ce qu’on fait avec André, ce qui me semble trop compliqué), il y a des moments marrants qui ont lieu dans cette saison, et je suis triste de savoir que même la plus compliquée des histoires ne trouveront pas de résolution dans une troisième saison.

🎙️ radioblog: How to Make a Killing in Time Travel (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:44:59 -0500

There was some passing around of the idiot ball in this story, and it felt surprisingly dark for a Doctor Who story, but I appreciated the layers of disaster piling up, and the villain was compelling in a pathetic way (in multiple senses of the word). I don’t know the Eighth Doctor well, so it’s interesting to get to know him here.

🎙️ radioblog: Their Finest Hour (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:41:05 -0500

Battle of Britain Doctor Who would really have appealed to me at some point, but it’s the sort of thing now where I find myself wondering if the story is uncritically pedestalizing an important moment of history that is actually much more complicated.

📺 tvblog: The Diplomat Season 3 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 08:10:09 -0500

Enjoying this series less and less the more that it goes on. I think I’d still watch a Season 4, but what began as a smart series with interesting drama has felt with each season that it’s leaning more into the drama and willing to set aside the smarts. Some fun moments in this series but also some headscratchers.

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 08:06:05 -0500

Worms: The Board Game is exactly what I was hoping for. No, it isn’t an elegant work of high strategy, but it captures the feel of the source material even in abstracting it to board game format. Really enjoyed my first play and looking forward to more.

🎙️ radioblog: The Neverwhen (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 16:43:04 -0500

Some silly stuff in here, but enough of a compelling story (and enough John Hurt and core Doctor Who vibes) that I’m willing to forgive it.

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:58:01 -0500

WAIT. Read the letter more carefully, and my “health plan” gave this third party printing/mailing service my SSN and address. This is even dumber.

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:55:16 -0500

Just got word from a “third-party printing/mailroom services” provider whose name I don’t recognize that they had a data breach involving my SSN and address. Literally no idea how they got those data. Did I sign up with them? Does my employer work with them? What a stupid world we live in.

🎙️ radioblog: A Thing of Guile (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:22:48 -0500

🎙️ radioblog: A Thing of Guile (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-02-17-more-fun/

🎙️ radioblog: Legion of the Lost (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 13:59:17 -0500

Expanded universe material can get very dumb very quickly, but sometimes, it’s a great way to explore stuff that the main canon didn’t have time for. Just like it was a delight to have Christopher Eccleston back as the Ninth Doctor, getting more from John Hurt as the War Doctor is a treat. The story is interesting enough, but it’s really just fun to play with these action figures for a bit,

☕ teablog: Chaotic Good gaming café, Chai Latte (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 07:12:41 -0500

When one is at a gaming café, one pays one’s dues to help keep the place open, but the chai latte was a bad choice. It tasted like warm milk with some cinnamon mixed in, and maybe that works for some people, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I might just go for some “regular” tea the next time I’m there—or support the café in some other way.

🎙️ radioblog: The Auntie Matter (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:11:33 -0500

Clever genre blending is one of my favorite things, so setting a Doctor Who story in what I presume is the style of a P. G. Wodehouse story is delightful (even if I clearly don’t know the genre it’s being blended into!).

🎙️ radioblog: The Ravagers (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 10:02:54 -0500

Doctor Who is not often high art, and neither are radio plays, but this was good enough. Besides, I didn’t realize how damn much I missed Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, and I would have struggled through a much worse story just to hear his “lots of planets have a north” voice.

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:45:13 -0500

Torn between enjoying Kagi’s machine translation tool and grumpiness about using something LLM-based. Still can’t get over digital labor, but I might(?) be less hostile to generative AI if it were more often deployed in these targeted, careful ways instead of as get-rich-quick chatbots.

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:50:43 -0500

Leveling up from Doctor Who Short Trips to full-length Doctor Who radio plays, and they’re only affirming my belief that a well-done radio play might as well be television.

🎙️ radioblog: Quantum Heresy (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:33:08 -0500

Maybe I shouldn’t have listened to this while trying to find parking on campus at a very inconvenient time, but even though there’s an interesting time travel bit at the center of the story, it just didn’t pay off for me.

🎙️ radioblog: The Shadow Trader (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:33:07 -0500

This was a fun example of a lot of worldbuilding crammed into the background of a short Doctor Who story, and it gets a lot of points for that.

🎙️ radioblog: To Cut a Blade of Grass (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:33:06 -0500

This story is maybe the most heartwarming and beautiful that I’ve heard in the entire collection! The Sixth Doctor visits a stroke patient in the hospital and takes him into his own future to see a few important events that he’ll miss because he never recovers from the stroke. It really emphasizes that you don’t have to be important to matter and encourages the listener to be kind in small ways. I really liked it.

🎙️ radioblog: The Lions of Trafalgar (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:33:05 -0500

This particular story is just so very British that it didn’t really connect with me. I normally appreciate Doctor Who’s very Britishness, but this one just didn’t work for this American.

🎙️ radioblog: The Old Rogue (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:33:04 -0500

Loved this one. It tells the story of The Fourth Doctor and Romana visiting a café owner who is actually a galactic tyrant who got body swapped with a café owner forty years ago and now lives out a much more meager existence on earth. The Doctor checks in on him every decade or so, and even though he resents the whole thing, it’s kind of working for the villain’s rehabilitation. It was clever, funny, and made me want to watch Tom Baker-era Doctor Who, so full marks.

🎙️ radioblog: Lost in the Wakefield Triangle (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:33:03 -0500

There have been a couple of these audio stories that felt like someone read a Wikipedia article about something they found interesting and decided to build a Doctor Who story around it. I… have not really enjoyed them.

🎙️ radioblog: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:33:02 -0500

There’s an interesting, even Ellulian, moral to this story about falling in love with the means and not thinking about the ends, but I think the story surrounding that moral could have been better done.

🎙️ radioblog: A Star is Born (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:32:58 -0500

It took me three times to start and follow through on this one. The science was too wibbly wobbly, and I’m not invested enough in the First Doctor to care about it on those terms.

☕ teablog: Tazo, Green Ginger (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:02:32 -0500

A friend offered me a cup of this when I dropped by to visit briefly. It was good! I’d drink more green tea if it tasted like this!

🎙️ radioblog: Seven to One (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 07:20:04 -0500

It took me a while to cotton on to some of the premise of this story—again, not being a Classic Who fan means mixing up characters means missing important details—and I’m still not sure I get all of it, but it was fun enough to give it some benefit of the doubt.

🎙️ radioblog: All the Fun of the Fair (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 07:17:51 -0500

Silly and fun, this story wasn’t life changing (and I have a lot of questions about the fictional logic of things), but I enjoyed listening to it.

🎙️ radioblog: The Riparian Ripper (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 07:15:29 -0500

At first, I thought this was going to be gruesome and dumb, but it ended up turning into that special Doctor Who genre of the wildly misunderstood monster, and I really enjoyed listening to it while shoveling ice out of our cul-de-sac.

☕ teablog: The Republic of Tea, Coconut Cocoa (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 15:26:56 -0500

While I’m in a “reevaluating tea” mood today, I want to confess that this tea is not as mind-blowing as it was when I first discovered it years ago. It’s good, but it’s not Smores or Dubai Chocolate-tier good.

☕ teablog: Elmwood Inn, Indian Chai (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 07:58:07 -0500

I badmouthed this in my first review, but I’ve since remembered what I like about it even if it isn’t what I expected from a chai, so it deserves a review update.

🎙️ radioblog: Murmurs of Earth (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:53:40 -0500

The Voyager record as inspiration for a Doctor Who story really ought to work for me, but it didn’t land. Maybe I’m tired of this series, or maybe I should have paid more attention instead of listening while cleaning.

🎙️ radioblog: Wet Walls (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:50:41 -0500

I can’t say this one worked for me. I can kind of see the vibe that the author was going for, but I wasn’t a fan.

🎙️ radioblog: The Wondrous Box (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:45:35 -0500

TARDIS dematerializing is responsible for famous elephant death (which I didn’t know about before listening) is not the fun Doctor Who story the author thinks it is. This felt like it was an extended excuse to riff on a historical anecdote, and it didn’t land at all for me.

🎙️ radioblog: Pop Up (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:42:28 -0500

The idea behind this one is fun—not least a BASIC interface on the TARDIS—but it doesn’t really deliver.

🎙️ radioblog: The Five Dimensional Man (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:40:17 -0500

Fun homage to 50s sci-fi and old-timey radio shows. The performance and the conceit got me more than any of the plot did.

🎙️ radioblog: Letting Go (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 15:37:48 -0500

It can be surprising how dark and melancholy Doctor Who is sometimes, but this story does an excellent job of capturing that vibe in audio. Really enjoyed this one.

🎙️ radioblog: Critical Mass (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 21:57:36 -0500

Yet another story that doesn’t really land with me because I don’t know Classic Who that well.

🎙️ radioblog: The Doctor's Coat (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:49:55 -0500

Good mix of a clever idea that holds the story together, alien world-building (including an alien comics shop, which earns full marks on its own), and some semi-meta reflection on the importance of wardrobe in this franchise.

🎙️ radioblog: Sock Pig (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:47:27 -0500

I like parts of this, but there’s also some nonchalantness about grief that doesn’t work for me—and maybe a vibrator joke?

🎙️ radioblog: Chain Reaction (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:44:40 -0500

Even by Doctor Who’s famously wibbly wobbly standards, the rules of time travel make zero sense in this story, but it’s so fun that I don’t care.

🎙️ radioblog: Walls of Confinement (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:43:04 -0500

Some fun gags, but this is another case where I think not knowing the classic series prevents me from appreciating this. Or maybe it’s just not that interesting?

🎙️ radioblog: The Way Forward (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:51:46 -0500

Sometimes silly is good, and this story features a gorilla quoting Monty Python within a goofy but interesting premise, so I’m here for it.

🎙️ radioblog: 1963 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:50:09 -0500

This didn’t wind up being as meta as I’d hoped when I first realized where it was going, but it was fun and interesting.

🎙️ radioblog: Running Out of Time (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:28:24 -0500

Wondering if I should be reviewing these a volume at a time instead of a story at a time, but it’s too late now. This one felt like a Doctor Who story—if a bit darker than what we might see on TV—but that’s not entirely complimentary. Not bad, but nothing impressive in my book.

🎙️ radioblog: Police and Shreeves (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:51:19 -0500

Up until the twist, this was a fun story—after the twist, it was fantastic. I really like the idea of filling the universe of Doctor Who with people who have their own stories and agency, and this did a good job of it.

🎙️ radioblog: The Wings of a Butterfly (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:48:58 -0500

Pretty fun story, but nothing you couldn’t have done outside of the Whoniverse. Time travel tropes galore, which I don’t mind but wasn’t particularly new either:

🎙️ radioblog: The Deep (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:46:46 -0500

Meh. The TARDIS turning into a whale is a fun idea, but not enough of one to really intrigue me.

📚 bookblog: Une forêt (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:43:30 -0500

Habitant au Kentucky, ce n’est pas souvent que j’éprouve un coup de cœur pour un livre francophone. Pourtant, j’ai lu un article sur ce livre à la RTS, et il arrivait qu’on fasse une commande chez Fnac quelques jours après, et c’est comme ça que j’ai décidé de commander ce livre au lieu sans trop le connaître,

Je ne dirais pas que je regrette l’avoir lu. J’avoue pourtant que j’ai eu des moments difficile avec lui. Mon vocabulaire n’était pas toujours à la hauteur, et puis ce n’est pas mon genre préféré, le roman très, mais très littéraire. Je me suis demandé quelques fois au cours de la lecture si j’avais fait un mauvais choix.

En plus, je vis dans un pays qui ressemble de plus en plus à l’Allemagne des années 1930 (même si on essaie de nous châtier pour oser dire une telle chose), et sans ce contexte-ci, il est difficile d’aborder la question de si la dénazification peut être absurde, voire aller trop loin.

(Il s’agit dans le livre d’un tribunal de dénazification qui veut tuer des oiseaux qui ont appris les chansons nazies—c’est vrai que c’est absurde, et le livre ne fait pas du tout d’apologie du nazisme, mais chez moi certains commencent à parler de faire des tribunaux de Nuremberg quand on aura enfin rejeté le Trumpisme, et ça complique la lecture de ce livre, quoi.)

Pourtant, j’ai beaucoup apprécié le ton mélancolique du livre, en le finissant hier soir, j’ai été assez content de l’avoir lu.

🎙️ radioblog: The Death Dealer (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:20:30 -0500

I wonder if I’d feel stronger about this if I knew Classic Who better. As is, it’s an interesting scifi concept that isn’t bad but doesn’t capture my attention as much as some of these other stories.

🎙️ radioblog: A True Gentleman (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:18:27 -0500

Doctor Who is a great series because it is vast enough to slot tiny stories of all shapes, sizes, and styles into the bigger universe. This fun story about the Doctor fixing a bike and bargaining with an alien ambassador was a great fulfillment of that potential.

🎙️ radioblog: A Stain of Red in the Sand (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:16:22 -0500

Okay, now this is perfect. It feels like a high quality “Doctor lite” tv episode would. Creepy as heck, fun playing with mundane presentations of sci-fi-concepts, and a lot that I like in fiction. I really, really enjoyed this.

🎙️ radioblog: Rise and Fall (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:13:40 -0500

🎙️ radioblog: Rise and Fall (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2026-02-02-interesting-idea/

📺 tvblog: Au Service de la France saison 1 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:10:28 -0500

Bon, c’était le fait de reregarder cette série qui m’a poussé à regarder tant de films français en janvier, mais c’est cela qui m’a empêché de finir cette série, ce que j’ai fait pendant le week-end.

Ce que j’aime le plus de cette série, c’est que les Français savent se moquer des Français beaucoup mieux que les Américains ce croient capables de faire. Il y a des ressemblences entre les deux façons de taquiner la France, mais ce qui serait une blague stupide faite par un Américain fait vraiment marrer quand elle est faite par un Français.

Il y a quelques petites choses qui m’empêchent de la trouver parfaite, mais je trouve cette série hilarante et même éducative. J’ai un aimantin « tamponné, double tamponné » dans mon bureau au travail, et il y a tant d’autres moments dans la série qui restera toujours avec moi.

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 18:17:50 -0500

It is very strange to go back and read Shortpacked after a couple of years of reading Dumbing of Age, and now I wonder how people felt doing things in the opposite order.

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:52:57 -0500

One consequence of tracking my reading over the past few years is seeing which authors and artists I read most—and realizing that the list is dominated by white dudes. Need to make a deliberate effort to diversify my reading.

📚 bookblog: Dim Sun (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:12:06 -0500

I don’t regret pitching in $5 to support a webcomic I have loved for almost twenty years, but even after years of listening to The Incomparable’s Dark Sun campaign, I just don’t know if I know/like that setting enough to really enjoy this story. Alas.

📺 tvblog: Tu préfères (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:16:18 -0500

Je ne sais plus comment j’ai découvert cette micro série Arte il y a plusieurs années, mais je l’ai trop aimée à l’époque, et cela m’a bouleversée quand elle n’était plus disponible sur YouTube. J’essaie de la retrouver depuis des années, et après avoir regarder Intouchables, j’ai essayé une fois de plus.

Heureusement, elle est maintenant disponible sur le site d’Arte, et grâce à mon VPN, j’ai pu lui convaincre que j’étais à Bordeaux et que j’avais donc le droit de la regarder.

Bon, je n’ai jamais été adolescent (encore moins adolescente) dans la banlieue parisienne, et je ne peux donc rien dire de combien la série est représentative de cette expérience. Pourtant, tout me semble réel, et c’est ça qui m’attire le plus. Il y a des choses qui me troublent dans la série (des méchancetés, des commentaires homophobes), mais elle paraissent comme des décisions stupides du genre que font tous les ados dans le cadre d’une série qui a comme premier but de montrer l’expérience ado, et je peux donc accepter… fin, un tout petit peu.

Pour moi, anglophone de naissance, c’est surtout l’expérience linguistique de regarder cette série qui m’intéresse. Ce sont des conversations qui ne ressemblent pas du tout à ce qu’on m’a appris lors de mes études, mais elle sont plus intéressantes pour ça. Des « wallah » partout, du verlan, des façons de parler qui doivent être propre aux ados français, je préfère tout ça au français « à l’Académie ». C’est fascinant.

🍿 movieblog: Intouchables (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:05:16 -0500

Il est sympa ce film ! Il est émouvant tout en faisant rire aussi. J’avoue qu’avec un oeil plus critique, je trouverais des choses qui me gênent (d’abord, il n’est pas hyper féministe comme film, et puis on préfère une histoire « feel-good » au lieu d’interroger les relations entre les hyper riches et les immigrés pauvres), mais c’est vraiment un film qui me plaît et qui me permet d’apprendre un français un peu plus courant que ce que j’ai appris pendant mes études.

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:42:37 -0500

Thinking about how 90% of what I post to social media is links back to my blog and how that’s probably not great for attracting followers but also it’s exactly what I want.

🍿 movieblog: Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:02:59 -0500

Bon, d’abord j’avoue que c’est difficile d’évaluer un film de 2002 sachant tout ce qui est maintenant connu sur Depardieu et Dieudonné (entre autres), mais je mets tout ça à côté pour ce post.

Je voulais regarder ce film parce que je savais qu’il est (était?) bien aimé des Français de ma génération. Je le trouve amusant et une bonne adaptation du sens d’humour des albums Astérix. Comme avec Les visiteurs, il y a beaucoup de blagues qui sont difficile à traduire, mais j’ai eu moins de mal avec ce film-ci.

Le même service qui m’a permis de regarder Mission Cléopâtre a aussi les deux autres films de la série, et je vais peut-être revenir les regarder un jour.

the paradox of YouTube recommendations

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 12:10:13 -0500

Over the past several months, I’ve noticed something funny about what kinds of video recommendations I get when I watch something on YouTube. I have watch history turned off on both my personal and professional Google accounts, so if I’m logged in to Google in the browser where I’m watching the video (usually on a desktop/laptop), I get pretty generic recommendations, with an obvious connection to the video at hand but no awareness of my past viewing. On my phone, though, I’m not logged into Google in my main browser, so if I bring up a video there, I get way more personalized recommendations that are very tied in to what I’ve previously watched on my phone.

None of this is terribly surprising, I suppose, but there are a couple of observations that have emerged from this that are worth making. First, YouTube’s algorithmic recommendations are actually pretty good, and I resent it. The number of times that I’ve clicked on algorithmically recommended videos on my phone demonstrates not only the quality of the recommendations but also how clearly the purpose of the recommendations is to get users to stay on the site longer. It’s creepy, and I hate it. Second, though, there’s a seeming paradox at the center of these differing experiences. If I want YouTube to be less creepy about my watch data, I have to create an account with them to register that preference. Not only is it opt out, but it’s “hey, register with us so that you can opt out.”

Again, I can see with some distance how this all makes some kind of sense, but it feels wrong—enough that I finally got cranky enough today to write a short blog post about.

🍿 movieblog: Superman (2025) (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:13:47 -0500

Not a perfect movie but a really fun one. I appreciate a lot of the choices that went into this (techbro Lex Luthor, bowl cut Nathan Fillion, Hall of Justice in Cincinnati Union Station), and I look forward to seeing what else this iteration of Superman movies comes up with.

☕ teablog: Taylors of Harrogate, Yorkshire Gold (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:02:30 -0500

I got this a while ago, when I was first trying to get into “real” black teas instead of the flavored stuff that’s my favorite.

It’s very strong, so I have had a hard time getting used to it, but I think I finally cracked the right way to steep it, and now I’m not dreading finishing the box.

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:39:21 -0500

There are scenes in Superman 2025 that are very, very funny if you have spent time at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:09:13 -0500

Me, a weakling who has just started doing regular 6-12 minute bodyweight workouts: “Ah, yes, now I too understand why people talk about ’leg day.'”

🍿 movieblog: Les Visiteurs (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 10:44:13 -0500

J’ai des souvenirs très précis du monent où un ami Suisse m’a conseillé ce film et m’a fort déconseillé la version américaine. Cette conversation a eu lieu il y a 17 ans, et je suis enfin arrivé à regarder le film.

Bon, je crois que je ne suis pas suffisamment français (ou bien francophone, si c’est un Suisse qui me l’a recommandé) pour apprécier le film. J’avoue que le regarder en faisant la vaisselle ne fait pas meilleure impression, et j’assume. Pourtant, bien que je me débrouille assez bien en français, j’ai plus du mal à comprendre le dialogue d’un film qu’une conversation face à face. En plus, les sous-titres en anglais n’aidaient pas trop, et je n’avais pas le choix de les mettre en français. Il y a plein de blagues qui ne se traduisent pas bien, et j’ai attendu la moitié du film avant de comprendre la blague Jacquouille, Jacques Ouilles, M. Ouille, qui est assez marrant en fin de compte.

En plus, j’ai l’impression qu’il y avait plein de références culturelles que je n’ai pas compris, et puis, je sais bien qu’il y a un sens d’humour du cinéma français (voir aussi Louis de Funès) que je ne partage pas en tant qu’américain barbare.

Je dis pas donc que c’est un mauvais film—juste que ce n’était pas pour moi, même si je suis content de l’avoir regardé.

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:40:53 -0500

« Chéri, t’as pas déjà assez de livres de ce type Ellul ? T’as vraiment besoin d’en acheter un autre ? »

« Ah, mais tu vois, chérie, celui-ci, c’est un livre SUR Ellul, c’est pas lui qui a écrit ! »

s'échapper encore aux taxes douanières

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:22:09 -0500

En fin mars 2025, craignant l’arrivée des taxes douanières, j’ai commandé un exemplaire d’un livre de Jacques Ellul d’une maison d’édition à Genève. Quelques jours après ma commande, j’ai reçu un courriel avec le message suivant :

Je vous remercie pour votre commande passée sur notre site. Afin de vous éviter des taxes douanières, j’ai enregistré votre colis en “cadeau”.

En fin de compte, mon livre est arrivé avant l’annonce des taxes, et ce n’était donc pas nécessaire, mais je me souviendrai toujours de ce brave employé qui savait que je vivais sous une présidence de folie et de cruauté et a voulu m’en épargner un toute petite chose.

Il y a quelques semaines, sachant qu’un quatrième tome de la série Brume (bien aimée dans notre famille) était sortie, mon épouse et moi avons décidé de faire une commande chez Fnac. Ça coûte cher (mais pas si cher que ça) de faire livrer une seule BD aux États-Unis, et on a donc fini par commander 5 BD et deux livres. On a beaucoup hésité (depuis octobre, en fait) avant de faire cette commande, car on ne savait pas comment régler les taxes douanières sur une telle commande (voire si la Fnac accepterait même de nous la livrer).

En fin de compte, le colis est arrivé aujourd’hui, et un deuxième devrait bientôt venir. Malgré nos craintes, on ne nous a jamais demandé de payer des taxes sur notre commande, et j’ai l’impression de nous en être échappés. Je suis sûr que ce n’est pas le cas, que nous avons profité d’une exception quelconque ou d’un changement qui est arrivé inaperçu grâce à toute la folie et la cruauté qui se passent en ce moment-ci. En tout cas, je suis content d’avoir de nouvelles BD à lire avec ma fille—et d’avoir pu nous les offrir sans devoir verser de l’argent envers l’égoïsme de notre président fou.

☕ teablog: Jackson Avenue Tea Company, Crisp Apple Chai (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 08:02:51 -0500

This is a pretty good apple and cinnamon blend, but having cinnamon in it does not make it a chai, so points off for false advertising. It’s still good even when I borked the steeping this morning, though, so it has that going for it.

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:14:33 -0500

Heck yes, new nerdy magnets for the office.

🍿 movieblog: Rio ne répond plus (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 17:26:23 -0500

Il me semble que parmi les Français, ce film est aussi bien aimé que le premier, mais je trouve que je l’aime beaucoup moins bien, moi.

Il y a des trucs drôles dans le film, mais je le trouve trop compliqué. Ce qui est pire, c’est que c’est bien difficile d’avoir un héros aussi raciste mais sans pourrir le film même. À mon avis, on réussit à trouver l’équilibre juste dans le premier film, mais dans ce film, on ajoute des assassins chinois avec des accents impénétrables, et on commence à se demander si ce n’est pas eux la blague au lieu de Hubert.

Bof, je serai toujours content de regarder le troisième film si jamais j’arrive à en trouver un exemplaire (pas facile aux É.-U.), mais après avoir tant aimé le premier film, quelle déception pour celui-ci.

🍿 movieblog: Le Caire, nid d'espions (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 17:17:29 -0500

Comme je suis en train de reregarder Au service de la France, l’idée m’est venue que je devrais aussi revisiter les films OSS 117.

Ce film est stupide mais assume sa stupidité en s’en moquant. Le héros est encore plus stupide mais ne le reconnaît pas du tout. Bref, c’est un film parfait pour mon sens d’humour. Le rire de Jean Dujardin me fait rire moi aussi, et il est tellement doué dans ce rôle.

☕ teablog: Elmwood Inn, Indian Chai (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 09:33:54 -0500

I bought a one-pound bag of this blend last April without ever tasting it. I generally like chai, and I generally like Elmwood Inn, so I figured it wasn’t too much of a gamble.

It turns out that this tastes different than any other chai I’ve had. It’s not cinnamony like some chais, but it’s also not the ginger and pepper combination that I really like in chais. Maybe it’s authentic in some way that I don’t appreciate, but it was a real disappointment at first. With time, it grew on me, but coming back to it after drinking none of it in December is reminding me how much of a disappointment it is.

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 11:27:15 -0500

Finally realizing that I accidentally removed my site’s commenting overlay a few months ago and getting it back up. 🙃

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:14:11 -0500

Il y a des jours où c’est bien pénible, le vélotaf, mais aujourd’hui, c’était le premier vélotaf de 2026, et j’en étais bien content.

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 19:47:48 -0500

Wrapping up a one-way car rental and once again bemoaning the lack of rail infrastructure in this country.

☕ teablog: Cafein, Hojicha Latte (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 12:15:05 -0500

Green tea is not usually my favorite, and I think hojicha would take a while to get used to, but even without a bunch of milk, I think I’d enjoy it more than other green teas.

☕ teablog: Starbucks, Chai Latte (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 10:08:18 -0500

Look, this isn’t that bad, and I’m probably being hard on it because it’s Starbucks, but I had a really good masala chai experience yesterday, and that makes me think about how too cinnamony and sweet this one is.

☕ teablog: Yido Ramen and Sushi, Ube Ocha (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 20:26:46 -0500

I don’t have Asian iced teas very often, but I usually enjoyed them! This had some fun flavors in it, and I think I like ube?

☕ teablog: The Republic of Tea, Dubai Chocolate (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:33:43 -0500

I have not paid any attention to the Dubai chocolate craze, but my spouse was right to guess I’d like this herbal blend. I wouldn’t mind a stronger pistachio flavor, but with more sips, I’m growing to appreciate the subtle nuttiness alongside the cacao flavor.

media I consumed in 2025

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 09:01:17 -0500

As with many of my posts, I don’t know if anyone reads this except me; as with many of my posts, I enjoy putting together this end-of-year recap even if I’m the only audience. I didn’t realize that it was only this year that I watched The Princess Bride with kiddo, and it’s fun to see the personal challenges I set for myself, like rereading all of Saga, finally listening to all the Terry Pratchett radio dramas I bought years ago, making my way through a bunch of IDW Star Trek comics of mixed quality, etc. I am kind of bummed that I didn’t finish my way through the Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon series before the end of the year, but I also confess that I’m having a mixed experience with the series, and trying to force my way through hasn’t been super helpful.

This was a year of a lot of comics reading (I started it with a reread of the XIII series, which is also why I’ve hit a personal best for number of “books” read (I don’t mean to suggest that a TPB isn’t a real book, because it is, but it does inflate my numbers).

The attentive reader will also notice that the format of my mediablogging switched partway through the year. This is because one of my responses to a crappy 2025 was to make a bunch of changes to how my Hugo setup works. I’ve been meaning to blog about that for weeks and will hopefully get to it today. I’m genuinely proud of how I’ve been able to make some fun customizations to Hugo, and I won’t mind patting myself on the back in a separate post.

Here are the movies I watched this year:

Here are the TV shows I watched this year:

Here are the radio shows I listened to this year:

Here are the books I read this year:

📚 bookblog: The Devil's Devil (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:30:55 -0500

Sometimes, a comic book is dumb in all the right ways. This is one of them. It has an interesting premise (a wizard is sent from a magical realm to conquer Earth but ends uo setting up shop as its protector) that it doesn’t bother being pretentious about, instead leaning into fourth-wall breaking jokes about conventions in comics. It has a Ryan North feel to it, and I love that.

📺 tvblog: Pluribus Season 1 (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:51:15 -0500

I enjoy a work of fiction that leans into its premise, especially if that premise is wild, with existential overtones. While it did feel slow at times, I appreciated how carefully and thoroughly Pluribus explored its central idea, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

📚 bookblog: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:49:21 -0500

Fun listen! It’s not any kind of deep book, but listening to how The Princess Bride was made is just about as much fun as watching the movie itself, and I enjoyed spening some time listening over the past week or so.

☕ teablog: Twinings, Lemon & Ginger (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 08:46:46 -0500

☕ teablog: Twinings, Lemon & Ginger (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2025-12-30-this-isnt/

☕ teablog: Elmwood Inn, Chocolate Mint (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 09:13:21 -0500

I think this is my favorite tea of all time. It tastes just like an Andes mint and brings real joy to my morning.

☕ teablog: Harney & Sons, Hot Cinnamon Spice (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 08:56:02 -0500

This tea is tasty! The orange flavor is good, and I like the cinnamon more than I might have expected. I am not giving it full marks because I think I’d tire of it quickly, and even though that raises some inconsistencies in my rating system, I’m sticking with it.

☕ teablog: The Republic of Tea, Coconut Cocoa (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 21:16:12 -0500

☕ teablog: The Republic of Tea, Coconut Cocoa (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2025-12-25-one-of/

☕ teablog: Pickwick, Lovely Liquorice (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 13:17:45 -0500

It’s not totally what I was hoping for (maybe I’m getting used to the oolong—the last licorice tea I had was just black), but it scratches the itch for a good licorice tea.

📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 6 (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 19:17:09 -0500

📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 6 (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2025-12-22-this-was/

📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 5 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 07:30:59 -0500

This series is getting even more interesting with time, which I honestly wasn’t expecting. I’m trying to remember if I’ve read the whole series before—I’d thought so, but I don’t remember these details. Looking forward to the conclusion!

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 16:31:13 -0500

I genuinely think I’ve hiccuped more this weekend than in the preceding decade. It sucks, and I’m starting to wonder what minor deity I’ve offended.

📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 4 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 19:28:35 -0500

I haven’t yet mentioned how good Chiang’s art is. It’s good! This series continues to be better than I remembered it being.

📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 3 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 08:32:37 -0500

Vaughan seems to like to be edgy in ways that I don’t always appreciate, but this series has hooked me in the way that Saga eventually did, so kudos.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Tippy Assam (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 08:19:51 -0500

☕ teablog: Whittard, Tippy Assam (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤) https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2025-12-20-good-but/

📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 2 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 22:38:59 -0500

Starting to recognize the Vaughan stuff I like from Saga: Unapologetically weird but still holds together somehow. I’m enjoying rereading this series.

📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 1 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 10:14:15 -0500

Funnily enough, there’s a paper TPB sitting on my bedside table from when I checked it out several months ago so that I could revisit this series.

That stalled out, but I am finding it easier to get through as a PDF on my phone. The series is better than I remember it being from whenever I reread it, but it’s still not so good that I feel like I get some of the hype.

📚 bookblog: The Kobayashi Maru (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 10:24:51 -0500

I’ve been a Star Wars fan for long enough to recognize unnecessary expanded universe material when I hear it, but I’ve also been a Star Wars fan for long enough to know that some of it is actually pretty good.

I’ve known about this book for ages and always wanted to read it because the idea of the Kobayashi Maru is just fun. I was delighted to find an audiobook on the Internet Archive and enjoyed listening to it. James Doohan can only do so many voices (I had trouble telling his Chekov from his Scotty), but I appreciated what he brought to the role, the music and sound effects weren’t bad, and the premise paid off.

🔗 linkblog: Rad Power Bikes files for bankruptcy protection

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 09:54:37 -0500

🔗 linkblog: Rad Power Bikes files for bankruptcy protection https://spencergreenhalgh.com/myself/2025-12-17-so-is/

☕ teablog: Whittard, Ceylon (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 07:00:15 -0500

I’ve been looking forward to this blend since the beginning of this advent calendar, and I’ve finally figured out how to follow these steeping instructions, and everything has paid off. I do miss some of the maltiness of blending it with Kenya tea, but this is good all by itself.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Irish Breakfast (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 08:59:04 -0500

Okay, I think I figured out how to steep these “one bag per person” blends because this is really hitting the spot this morning! Plus, I reserved a bag instead of steeping both, so now I have more to enjoy later.

📚 bookblog: World Hunger (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 20:31:05 -0500

I’ve now read all the TPBs for this series that came in the Image Humble Bundle, and I can’t say I’m in any rush to learn what happens next. For such a wild start to a series, this got dull fast.

📚 bookblog: Reflexology (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 19:42:33 -0500

This series works best when it explores its basic premise, and for that premise to work, the characters have to kind of remain pastiches of better known Batman ones (though, to the author’s credit, they are much more interesting than superficial parodies). Yet, as the series goes on, Casey seems to want to explore worldbuilding rather than riff on the original premise of the book, and I just don’t find that interesting. Also don’t love AT ALL that he is riffing off of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory for the name of his actual world-controlling conspiracy. Feels like a major faux pas.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Masala Chai (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 08:30:38 -0500

This would be better except that I steeped it too long, so some of the underlying tea flavor is too strong. It is the kind of chai I like (more pepper and ginger than cinnamon), so I’m going to have to be more careful the next time.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Chelsea Breakfast (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:11:38 -0500

This was pretty good, but I think it would be better if I’d steeped it differently. I don’t get the “one bag per person” instructions and how it differs from “one bag per cup.”

📚 bookblog: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 21:38:39 -0500

I like weird fiction, and this anarchist occult book delivers. I like the mundanity of the occult stuff and the persistent but relatively subtle anarchist themes. It could be better, but the vibes alone are enough for a positive review. Looking forward to reading the next one in the series.

☕ teablog: Celestial Seasonings, Honey Vanilla Chamomile (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 17:25:35 -0500

Chamomile is not something I generally like in tea, but the overall combination here works, and it’s a nice “warm me up” blend for a cold day.

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 15:46:12 -0500

Reading about Apple’s manufacturing practices and thinking about Fairphones again.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Darjeeling (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 07:07:54 -0500

Feel weird giving this full marks because it didn’t knock my socks off exactly, but it wasn’t “slightly too strong” in the way that I penalized yesterday’s Kenya blend for, so I guess if I’m going to have plain black tea one morning, I’d be happy with Darjeeling.

📺 tvblog: The Sandbaggers Series 3 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:46:28 -0500

I enjoyed watching some of my favorite characters in this series, but it does not have the coherence or cleverness of the first one.

📚 bookblog: Daisy Chains (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 13:06:42 -0500

Still kind of meh at this point, and I’m wondering if there’s only so far that the premise of this series can go. There are some interesting plot developments, though, so we’ll see if things get more exciting in the next volume(s).

☕ teablog: Whittard, Kenya (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:51:33 -0500

Not bad but not my favorite. I liked the recent blend of Kenya and Ceylon tea a lot, and now I’m wondering if what I really liked was the Ceylon. I’m guessing I’ll find out!

☕ teablog: Whittard, Coconut Chai (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 06:59:08 -0500

Chai sounds good, and coconut sounds good, but this combination doesn’t work for me. The coconut flavor is too strong, too tropical, and too artificial. Pretty disappointing.

📚 bookblog: Broken Toys (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 17:58:28 -0500

Parts of this are good—especially the Batman-analogue/Catwoman-analogue date subplot that bookends this volume—but a lot of it is meh. I’m also not a fan of the “rich dude has to work to make a problem go away for his company” plot, though we’ll see if that changes any.

preserving old Facebook posts in Day One

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 16:22:16 -0500

For over 7 years now, I’ve been using the Day One app on iOS and macOS to keep my journal. Journaling has been important to me since I was a teenager, and being able to do it on a phone or a computer just makes it more likely that it’s going to happen. My dependence on Day One isn’t without issues: I’ve gotten warier of Automattic over the past couple of years, I’d like to one day extricate myself from the Apple ecosystem altogether, and I do think that there’s something I miss by typing rather than handwriting my journal entries. Nonetheless, it’s a good app, and I’m not likely to jump ship until I’ve finished digitizing all of my older journals and memorabilia so that I can have some PDF, Markdown, and JSON exports of all of my journals to convert into something more homebrew and platform-independent.

One of the things that I (mostly) like about using Day One as my journal is the way that I can easily integrate my public digital life into my more private journal entries. All of my short-form blogging except for linkblogging gets automatically dumped into Day One at the end of the Siri Shortcuts that trigger each post, and I also copy the text of any long-form blogging (like this post) into a Day One entry before going to GitHub Desktop to publish things. This is, also, not without complication, but my digital writing is important to me and captures aspects of my life that I might not ever write down otherwise. I like the idea of validating and preserving that writing.

It occurred to me some time ago that if I was dumping all of my self-hosted digital writing into Day One, I probably ought to dig into the Facebook archive that I downloaded in 2018 shortly before quitting the platform and see if I could import all of that in Day One. I started messing around with that about a week ago. I used R to import the JSON file containing my posts, filtered out a bunch of overly banal (happy birthday wishes to others) or imperfectly preserved (posts with photos) activity, and then prepared a CSV of 1700 or so remaining posts that I was able to import to Day One.

As much fun as I had figuring this out on a technical level, I also have mixed feelings about the project. Some of the posts may not have been worth saving, which is true in a couple of ways. First, a bunch of URLs are now broken, and I probably could have gotten away with ditching all of the posts with links in them. Second, my Facebook account (which I used from 2010 to 2018) represents a (sometimes very) different person than who I am now. Early 2010s Spencer was homophobic in a way that I will never stop being ashamed of and even 2017-2018 Spencer had an enthusiasm for the religion he then practiced in a way that now feels kind of foreign to me. Are these traces of my life worth preserving?

I think so. Past me is also captured in old, handwritten journal entries that I don’t plan to tear out and burn just because I’ve become a different person since writing them. I appreciate journaling (and blogging) as a kind of mindful—even spiritual—practice, but I also really appreciate it as a personal history. I may not always like that history, but I want to hold onto it.

Next project: convert my Twitter archive into Day One entries. This will probably be even more interesting, both from a technical standpoint and for what it tells me about my past self.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Earl Grey (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 07:54:50 -0500

One of the first non-herbal teas I tried was a Lady Grey, and I think that biased me toward that approach to Grey-like teas. I’ve had mixed experiences with Earl Greys (sorry, Jean-Luc), and I usually find myself wishing it was a Lady Grey instead.

This Earl Grey was pretty good, though! Not enough to get full marks from me (again, I found myself wishing for more citrus), but I was pleased by how it worked out.

📚 bookblog: Supercool (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 16:31:29 -0500

This series continues to be compelling, even if I have some complaints about it. Casey’s dialogue for Black characters sometimes feels stereotypical, I don’t love his use (or depiction) of rape as a plot point, and (like some of the other Image series I’ve read) I feel like there’s a fine line between “comics can be a mature medium” and “let’s draw all the boobs and butts we can.”

And yet. This is a more interesting Batman story than so many actual Batman stories I’ve read. For all my baseline prudishness and legitimate concerns, I don’t (usually) think this is just mature content just to be titillating, and I really want to see how things play out.

📚 bookblog: The Summer of Hard (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 16:24:51 -0500

Just over a year ago, I read and reviewed Matt Fraction’s Sex Criminals, which felt weird to read and even weirder to publicly acknowledge having read. I got why it received the acclaim that it did but didn’t really like it.

This Image comics Humble Bundle that I’ve been working my way through included the entire run of Sex Criminals, which I don’t intend to reread, but I am trying to read basically everything else in the bundle, including other series that it feels weird to read and even weirder to publicly acknowledge reading. I’ve been oblique in referencing that so far, but it’s hard to avoid with this review.

Growing up Mormon, my basic heuristic for sexual content in media was that it was bad and that I generally shouldn’t consume that kind of media. As I rethink my general post-Mormonism worldview, reading series like this is a way of rethinking how I feel about sexual content in media. On one hand, I think my previous heuristic was unhelpful and overly naïve; on the other, I think having some kind of heuristic is helpful and that there are kinds of sexual content that I’m not cool with in media.

This series boils down to “Batman with the serial numbers filed off and replaced with lots of nudity,” so it certainly provides opportunities to figure out what lines I’m willing to draw. Sometimes, I feel like it’s right on the edge of one of those lines, and there are other times that I’d say it crosses one.

That said, despite a certain level of base level discomfort—and some genuine complaints that aren’t out of knee-jerk prudishness—this is kind of a good series? The core concept (a recently retired Batman analogue is struggling to adjust to his new life, including relationships) is really interesting, the art and lettering stand out, and I find myself wanting to see how things play out.

This is too long of a review for me to get into my complaints, too, but I’m going to keep reading and see how it goes.

☕ teablog: Green Feather Apothecary, Magic Mushroom (Adaptogen + Chocolate Chai) (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 12:53:43 -0500

I bought this at a Renaissance Faire in September and had the last of it at lunch today, because it’s a “several cups of tea” kind of day. It’s not as exciting as I hoped when I first bought it, but it’s been a reliable weekend tea for the past few months, and I’ve enjoyed it.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Festive Breakfast (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 08:57:59 -0500

I couldn’t articulate specifically why this breakfast blend (which mixes Ceylon and Kenyan leaves) impressed me more than the English Breakfast one, but it did! I could drink this one on a regular basis.

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 22:55:02 -0500

From now on, when I’m feeling insecure about the depths of my technical knowledge, I’m just going to think about this bit of dialogue here.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Afternoon (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 08:46:11 -0500

I was just posting this morning about how great this idea of teablogging is, but I’m going to immediately undercut that my questioning my ability to rate teas in the first place.

This is the most interesting and enjoyable blend I’ve had so far in the advent calendar, and for that, it gets a higher rating than anything I’ve tried so far. Yet, I think I’d also tire of it more quickly than most of the other blends I’ve tried, so in the long term (rather than as a first impression), I think it would rate lower. I could drink the vanilla chai every morning even if it was a bit disappointing, but I think I’d have to space the bergamot and jasmine flavors of this blend out or else I’d quickly get sick of it.

I’m a professor, and it’s nearing the end of my semester, so it feels right to be engaging in a bit of evaluation nihilism here, but let’s just settle on saying that I’m glad to have come across something interesting, even if I’m equally glad I don’t have to commit to a whole tin of it.

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 07:44:51 -0500

Because I only use Mastodon as an extension of a POSSE setup, I missed the rollout of quote posts, but I’m thrilled that (as I expected) they’re a simple syntax translated by the Masto software into a specific presentation. Means that I can probably build it into a POSSE workflow somehow.

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 07:24:36 -0500

My spouse asked last night what that morning’s advent calendar tea had been. It had been a long day, so I couldn’t remember at first, and that short exchange entirely justified the 45 minutes I’d spent on Monday building a new “teablog” content type onto my Hugo site.

🔗 linkblog: AI Slop Is Ruining Reddit for Everyone

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 12:15:02 -0500

This sucks—and even more so because the Reddit company is willing to play nice with AI to get their pretty penny.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Piccadilly Blend (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 07:06:23 -0500

This one is fruity and floral, and maybe I steeped it wrong, because there’s the potential of something interesting in here, but it’s just not flavors I want in my tea this morning.

☕ teablog: The Republic of Tea, S'mores (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 19:08:26 -0500

The secret to a good s’mores-flavored thing is to get the graham cracker part right—this is why BYU’s Graham Canyon reigns supreme in the world of ice cream.

Anyway, I’ve been drinking this herbal tea for years, and it tastes so much like graham cracker that it feels like wizardry. It may be my favorite herbal tea of all time.

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 08:37:16 -0500

Même quand il fait -3, ça fait du bien, un vélotaf après une semaine et demie de pause.

☕ teablog: Whittard, English Rose (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 07:04:45 -0500

I don’t like floral flavors in my tea. This tea was better than I worried, but not as good as it smelled, and… I just don’t like floral flavors in my tea.

☕ teablog: Whittard, Vanilla Chai (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 09:05:29 -0500

I was pretty excited for this one, and it wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t enough chai flavor and there definitely wasn’t enough vanilla. Maybe I steeped it wrong? Maybe I’m too tired this morning to appreciate it? I don’t know, but I’m tired of giving out “good but not great” ratings and was hoping this would really impress me.