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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📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for The Sandbaggers (series 3)
- kudos:I love the premise and the characters of this show, but it felt like it was running out of steam by the third series (though I’ll admit I don’t know how much the mysterious disappearance of its creator had to do with this—I’d like to read the book on the subject). Burnside got less and less likeable as the show went on (though this might be the point!), and I got tired of how many plots boiled down to “Burnside doesn’t care and goes rogue.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Chroniques de jeunesse, by Guy Delisle
- kudos:J’ai déjà lu la traduction anglaise de cet album magnifique—Delisle est assez connu aux États-Unis pour paraître (en traduction) dans les bibliothèques près de chez moi. Pourtant, il y a toujours quelque chose de decevant quand je sais que j’aurais lu le lire en français. Quand une ami a visité Bruxelles récemment, je lui ai donc demandé de m’acheter l’album en français. Ayant passé quelques étés dans des usines, l’expérience de Delisle m’a beaucoup marqué.
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Il y a un terrain de golf non loin de chez moi qui s’appellle Connemara. Je suis incapable de le voir sans penser à Michel Sardou.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'with love and respect to Senator John Fetterman and his family – WIL WHEATON dot NET'
- kudos:I read this when Wil first published it, but I thought of it again today with even more gratitude—for both Wil and Senator Fetterman. I’ve been wondering recently whether I should refrain from making particular commitments or pursuits because of my own struggles with mental health, and knowing that there’s someone with depression serving in the U.S. Senate is giving me hope. link to ‘with love and respect to Senator John Fetterman and his family – WIL WHEATON dot NET’
- kudos:
Scrabble’s fundamental flaw is that it tries to make language more discrete and managed than it ever has been or ever will be.
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- kudos:I loved the first Black Panther and am kind of bummed to be disappointed by the sequel. Obviously, Chadwick Boseman’s tragic passing made this movie an uphill battle to begin with, and its wrestling with that loss within the movie is one of its strongest parts. There are also other individual parts of the movie that are really interesting on their own: international intrigue with strong Françafrique overtones! Riri Williams! turning a goofy 1940s comic book character concept into something compelling and decolonial!
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Top 10, by Alan Moore
- kudos:There’s a lot to love about Top 10, which is why I read it for what is at least the third time (likely more). The story is well-crafted, the concept is interesting, it riffs on superhero tropes while breathing new life into them, and the art is full of so many easter eggs for the savvy reader (my favorite is probably the Astérix and Obélix cameo, but there are lots of other great ones).
📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Sandbaggers (series 2)
- kudos:I’m not sure I enjoyed the second series as much as the first, but over time, it grew on me. The finale nicely tied things together and helped me see how Burnside’s hubris was a running theme of the series (rather than a character derailment). Interested to see what happens in the final series!
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Venmo’s insistence that transactions be accompanied by notes makes me wonder what they’re doing with that data. For several months now, I’ve insisted on replacing any helpful indication with random characters.
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Now seems like a particular good time to bring up my perennial pet peeve that people treat the terms “UFOs” and “aliens” as synonyms when the whole point of the former is to reserve judgment about the latter.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Mech Cadet Yu (Volume Three), by Greg Pak
- kudos:Still a fun series, and I’m glad it’s short enough that I could go ahead and finish it out. It continued to get more interesting as it went along, but it also didn’t give any of its twists and turns enough time to feel deserved.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Mech Cadet Yu (Volume Two), by Greg Pak
- kudos:I liked Volune Two more than Volume One: The story breaks free of simple troping and the characters become a bit more interesting. That said, none of this is enough in my mind to really set the series apart. I wonder if this would be better as a long-ish YA novel than as an ongoing comics series.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Mech Cadet Yu (Volume One), by Greg Pak
- kudos:The premise is fun, and I liked (most of) the art, but I felt like the story moved too fast to move beyond recycled tropes—or let the characters be more than flattish archetypes. It probably won’t stop me from reading the next volume, but I think it’s aimed at a younger audience than me.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lazy Reporters Claiming Fediverse Is ‘Slumping,’ Despite Massive Increase In Usage | Techdirt'
- kudos:I’d seen some of the headlines Masnick is critiquing here, but I hadn’t read the articles. I appreciate this critique and overview. link to ‘Lazy Reporters Claiming Fediverse Is ‘Slumping,’ Despite Massive Increase In Usage | Techdirt’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley
- kudos:I haven’t read this in over a decade, so I recently decided to listen to an audiobook version and see how I liked it this time through. The overall story is excellent! I found particularly compelling the question of scientific (and technological) responsibility, and the creature’s railing against his creator at Chamonix in the middle of the book struck me as almost Job-like. I wasn’t expecting the Chamonix scene to resonate with me as much as the tech allegory, but it will also stay with me, I think.
- kudos:
There’s a great John Finnemore sketch that involves a ridiculous number of nested stories, and I’m thinking of it as I approach the end of Frankenstein (a novel in the form of letters sent by a man recounting conversations with Frankenstein, who quotes other letters, etc.).
- kudos:
I’m sure this is overthinking things, but I have a LOT of linguistic questions about Frankenstein.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Swisstory: The Untold, Bloody, and Absolutely Real History of Switzerland, by Laurie Theurer
- kudos:Swisstory wasn’t awful, but it’s pretty clear it’s written for kids: Lots of playing up the bloody and gross, and not as detailed as I would have liked. I own a French-language accessible history of Switzerland with illustrations by the late Swiss cartoonist Mix & Remix, and I wish I’d reread that instead.
📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Sandbaggers (series 1)
- kudos:I only learned about The Sandbaggers last weekend, on an episode of The Incomparable, but I watched the entire first series this week—and loved it. It isn’t perfect: There’s too much 1970s casual misogyny for it to be self-critical in the same way that a modern show set in the 70s would be, and the brown face in one episode is also embarassing. Not setting those aside, I was still impressed with the way the show combined the bumbling hypocrisy of Yes, Minister; the self-serving internal politics of Slow Horses; and the cynical despair of Le Carré into a single, compelling show.
- kudos:
The last time I read Frankenstein, I got a kick out of noticing all the Swiss connections. This time, I’m amusing myself by thinking of the title character as a hubristic tech bro.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Fascinating read. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years… I remember learning the news at a Boy Scout activity. link to ‘The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia | Ars Technica’
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Petite preuve que la technologie n’existe pas hors culture : Quand un site web américain n’acceptera pas un numéro de téléphone comme « valide » si les chiffres sont séparés par des points, comme j’ai pris l’habitude de faire. Faut des tirets, comme un vrai Étatsunisien.
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First Gloomhaven session of 2023 yesterday. Tough scenario, and we might have lost either way, but my Leeroy Jenkinsing with a squishy Spellweaver certainly didn’t help.
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Il faut une version de la chanson « Sacré Charlemagne » qui se plaint des responsabilités de la vie adulte.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'People Can’t Stop ‘Spotify Snooping’ on Friends, Exes and Crushes - WSJ'
- kudos:This is dumb and gross, and another reason I’ll never use Spotify. link to ‘People Can’t Stop ‘Spotify Snooping’ on Friends, Exes and Crushes - WSJ’
- kudos:
Ce matin, j’ai préparé du muësli fait-maison au lieu de faire des corrections, et je n’ai aucun sentiment de culpabilité.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Les Jones releases 'Burger,' an homage to /mocking of America | Boing Boing'
- kudos:Franchement, c’est parfait. link to ‘Les Jones releases “Burger,” an homage to /mocking of America | Boing Boing’
- kudos:
Une vraie amie, c’est celle qui visite Bruxelles en vacances, trouve par hasard une librairie avec plein de BD et t’envoie un message pour te demander quel album tu veux qu’elle apporte aux États-Unis pour toi.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Terms and Conditions, by R. Sikoryak
- kudos:Reading an actual Apple terms of service document can only be so interesting, but at least creating a graphic novel version helps. The sheer audacity of the project is most of why I liked this comic, but it’s also quite fun to see Sikoryak’s homages to different comics, always with a Jobsian twist. It’s weird, and I don’t see myself rereading it, but I think it’s great.
- kudos:
Just checked the Wayback Machine to see if my old, long-deleted LiveJournal ever got archived. It wasn’t, but I’m honestly not sure whether that’s a disappointment or a relief.
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
- kudos:Look, I’m not a cinema connoisseur, and I’m sure this doesn’t hold up in ways that I don’t know. Conversely, I appreciate Weird Al, but I’m not the kind of megafan that would pick up on every joke. All I know is that this movie is delightful for the way it just leans into the absurdity and doesn’t apologize for it. I loved it, and even the dumbest parts made it better.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amid widespread backlash, D&D maker scales back “open” license changes | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Seems like good news, but while I’ll be happy to join others’ D&D games, I think my preferences are locked into Paizo games and indie titles. link to ‘Amid widespread backlash, D&D maker scales back “open” license changes | Ars Technica’
- kudos:
Hier soir, j’ai été sage en me couchant à l’heure. J’ai même réussi à vite m’endormir ! Logique, donc, que j’ai été réveillé bien avant l’heure prévue.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Paizo Announces Own OGL Due to Dungeons & Dragons Controversy'
- kudos:Lots of respect for Paizo for doing this. I think my TTRPG future is more in rules-light, story-first indie titles, but if I want something more classic, I wouldn’t mind privileging Pathfinder. link to ‘Paizo Announces Own OGL Due to Dungeons & Dragons Controversy’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Dungeons and Dragons Is Jeopardizing It’s Greatest Strength: Its Ubiquity'
- kudos:Once again, the more I read about this, the more worried I get. I also appreciate the thesis of this particular article: D&D could lose its status as the ur-TTRPG over this. link to ‘Dungeons and Dragons Is Jeopardizing It’s Greatest Strength: Its Ubiquity’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'RPG fans irate as D&D tries to shut its “open” game license | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Glad to see more coverage of this so I can be more upset by what’s going on. link to ‘RPG fans irate as D&D tries to shut its “open” game license | Ars Technica’