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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Sapiens is a challenging book, but that’s also why it’s a must-read. As much as its focus is on science & technology, I ultimately read it as a reminder that we need to ask ?s from the humanities to safely navigate our present and future.

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In jury-rigged standing desk news, I have replaced the MacBook box my monitor was teetering on with a Yeti microphone box, and I think I’ve got the monitor at the right height now.

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Bike commuting adventure of the day: Finding all the places in my office where I can discretely hang up wet clothes from a rainy commute (thank goodness for my closet full of dry work clothes).

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Just finished the 2006 “Life on Mars.” Fantastic premise, and some amazing individual scenes, but not quite enough connective tissue between the two.

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When Twitter first gut-punched third-party apps by limiting their API, I was afraid not being able to check “likes” through Tweetbot would make it unusable. Now, that’s actually the appeal.

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Central Kentucky libraries apparently have summer reading programs for adults, and I can’t remember the last time I was this excited.

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I love learning more about regular expressions except the part where it’s always in response to some mistake I’ve made.

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Paying for my third year of Posteo tonight and not missing Gmail at all. (Still haven’t kicked the Drive/Docs habit, though).

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Going to see Endgame tonight, and it occurred to me earlier today that the first Avengers came out when I was still in college, and this one came out at the tail end of my second semester as an assistant professor.

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As a big fan of both The Good Place and the French language, I suddenly feel an urgent need to know what substitutes Chidi hears in French when Eleanor tries to swear in English.

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Currently in the middle of the long process of purging old tweets from my Twitter account, so my profile page looks weird, as though I haven’t tweeted regularly since 2017.

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Super excited that Alfred 4 is coming out this summer. I was just thinking yesterday how the app continues to impress even after years of using it.

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YouTube is a great way to talk about personalization algorithms. On one hand, it’s quite good at what it does. On the other, that often leads to my watching more YouTube than I meant to, and I resent it for that.

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Sometimes I unplug my headphones and give anyone walking by my door the gift of learning about Johnny Hallyday.

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I recently finished “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy,” the English translation of a comic based on the author’s time in the French foreign ministry in the leadup to the Iraq War. Loved it, but wish my library also had it in the original French.

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Just got a notification that today marks a whole year since I began journaling in Day One. I’ve really enjoyed it so far (even if I have a couple dozen incomplete entries right now that I need to go back and finish).

brief thoughts on entertainment media

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I once had a neighbor who argued that because it had higher fidelity, 3-D was the future of cinema. To prove his point, he asked “who would prefer an audio adaptation to a video one?” and was surprised when I, a big radio fan, raised my hand. To be honest, I don’t know that I’d prefer radio to TV/cinema in every instance, but I believe firmly that it’s more about how you use a medium than it is about what medium you use.

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Every year, I hit a point where my productivity system feels constraining, so I give it up for a few days, only to feel like I no longer have any control over my time.

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Sometimes, being a bike commuter means spending the first 30 minutes of your work day fixing a spring clasp on a pannier.

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I don’t really understand how fraternities and sororities work, so whenever I hear about Greek life, I half-expect someone to follow up with a discussion of “Roman life”, where all the names are different even though everything else is the same.

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THERE’S NO ONE CURRENTLY NEXT TO ME FOR WHAT WILL BE A NINE HOUR FLIGHT BUT I’M NOT SURE IF BOARDING HAS CLOSED YET AND THIS IS THE MOST STRESSFUL PART OF THE WHOLE TRIP SO FAR

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Highlight of Paris airport this morning is the Scottish “hey Europe, can we still be friends?” ads that I keep seeing.

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What I’d really like to see added to HTML are tags.

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J’ai déjà atterri à Roissy, j’ai déjà fait le contrôle des passeports et la douane, mais je viens d’entendre le « jingle » de la SNCF, et c’est donc maintenant que je sais vraiment que je suis en France 😍🚉

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Just when I thought I had screenshot shortcuts down for macOS, Cmd+Shift+5 reveals itself and blows my mind!

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One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was when my mom sent me a copy of The Moody Blues’ “Days of Future Passed” for my birthday when I was a freshman at BYU, assuming that because it was quirky, I would like it. She was 100% right.

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Objects in my office visible from my webcam when I’m having professional teleconferencing meetings: an Axis and Allies board, a model of the Battlestar Galactica, and some Star Wars fan art.

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Thanks to my upcoming presentation at a conference in France and the different ways different countries do Daylight Savings, I have the dubious honor of getting to “spring forward” twice this year.

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Next flight has no headrests, which is way more comfortable (for me, at least).

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Currently on board one of those planes where what is intended to be a head rest for normal people is, for me, a “shoulder-pusher.”

planner thoughts

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I have five months left in my twelve-month planner, which naturally means I’m already thinking about my next one. I’m only half-joking. I spent a lot of time last summer setting up productivity systems, and this semester is showing their weak spots. Eager to revisit.

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There’s something about stepping onto a new bus that makes me feel like I’ve stepped into the future. I don’t need jetpacks, just clean seats and an electric motor.

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Public library holds and academic library holds are two of my favorite things.

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Dans une semaine, je serai à Québec, et j’ai trop hâte.

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Thanks to latitudinal differences, my spring break trip to Québec is happening while there is still snow there but after winter boots have gone on clearance here.

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Today’s writing is powered by The Doubleclicks. Hard to believe it took me this long to start listening to them!