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.
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I sometimes write in French! To only see the French content (which is also available below, alongside English content), please click on [fr] in the site header.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for I Excised All My Anxieties into Cartoon Characters Who Definitely Don't Have Feelings for Each Other (An Eleventh Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
Comic continues to be good post timeskip! I am glad to almost be done with this reread, since I’d like to turn my attention to other books, but the reread is totally worth it for additional Willis insight and bonus strips.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Renounce Magical Thinking and Embrace Empirical Evidence (A Tenth Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
You know, I’d kind of been dreading getting to this book because I remembered the climax, and I remembered not liking it. After reading it, though, I’m starting to think that it’s better done than I remembered but just that it stresses me out. At any rate, this comic continues to be good, and I also feel like we’re getting more Carla, which I appreciate. She’s the best.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Now Let's Go Commit Something Mildly Subversive (A Ninth Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
This actually has an absurdly long(er) title that I refuse to include in its entirety. I appreciate the effort, but I think it might break something somewhere on my web workflow.
It’s interesting to read this volume with knowledge of what’s coming up in the series! I can see plots being set up that I might not notice otherwise. Not all of those plots are my favorite, but I still really like this comic, so I’m looking forward to them anyway.
🔗 linkblog: What France and America Know About Each Other'
This is clever, spot on, and sometimes hilarious.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Up Here We Can Be Garbage (An Eighth Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
In some ways, I can’t at all relate to Dumbing of Age because my college experience was so wildly different. Yet, it’s funny how I can relate so much to parts of it now, well after my college years. I don’t know that I would have wanted to have this freshman year (especially not the melodramatic bits or superhero fights), but I do wish I could have learned some of the lessons in the story earlier in life. Anyway, it’s a great comic.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Just Put Down the Ukulele Only Then Can the Healing Begin (A Seventh Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
This continues to be good, the bonus material keeps getting better, and even though I can’t be bothered to write thorough reviews for these volumes (still 6 to go!), I’m really glad I own them.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Machinations of my Revenge Will Be Cold, Swift, and Absolutely Ridiculous (A Sixth Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
The lines between books continue to blur, and as much as I like Becky’s growing importance, I’m not always a huge fan of Amazi-Girl scenes. This continues to be a good comic, though, and I’m enjoying the reread.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Hey, Guess What, I'm a Lesbian! (A Fifth Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
Lots of plot developments that will go on to define the comic here, and I enjoyed revisiting them. The bonus material is also really starting to pick up here with the inclusion of Patreon strips, so that’s fun, too.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Amazi-Girl is Always Prepared for Anything (A Fourth Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
To be honest, the collections are starting to blur together some, so I don’t exactly remember where the dividing line is between this one and the last. The series continues to be good and fun, though, so it gets this rating nonetheless!
I think one reason I like DoA so much is because it’s so different than my own college freshman experience. Some of that is clearly because it’s a work of fiction, but it’s also because BYU is a very different place than other universities, so it’s still interesting to consider different experiences.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Your Stupid Overconfidence is Nostalgic (A Third Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
DoA can get kind of melodramatic sometimes, and there’s plenty of that in this book. Sometimes it strains credulity, but it doesn’t get in the way of a fantastic webcomic.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for I Beg You, Don't Cast Your Body Into the Cragged Shame Pits of the Lustwolves (A Second Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
Like the first volume, this was familiar (since I’d just read these comics a few months ago) but worth rereading—both because the comic is good and because the bonus materials are interesting.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for This Campus is a Friggin' Escher Print (The First Dumbing of Age Collection), by David Willis
It was just earlier this year that I archive binged this comic, but I recently bought PDFs of the collections through a Kickstarter and decided to reread it with the commentary and bonus material.
I can see the rough spots that have been improved in over a decade of webcomic history (in art and choice of language, for example), but this still makes for an excellent introduction to the universe, and I feel such a connection with Joyce that it’s interesting to meet her again in her original characterization.
🔗 linkblog: What’s the Difference Between Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads?'
This is a helpful EFF overview that I’m posting to bookmark for later.
🔗 linkblog: Lexington’s 2-mile downtown trail system wins another national award'
Lexington has lots of room to improve, but I’m glad they’re getting credit for the good work they’ve done.
🔗 linkblog: Apple WWDC 2024: the 13 biggest announcements'
I’ve been feeling for a while like I need to move away from Apple eventually, but I’m so entangled in the ecosystem that I’m dragging my feet on it. Seeing the company drink the AI Kool-Aid is definitely accelerating my plans—and will even more so if there’s no easy way to turn these featutes off.
📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Pushing Daisies (Season 2)
This season isn’t as strong as the first; I’m glad I watched it (for the first time!), but I feel like it got too tangled in storied and then trying to wrap things up for the end.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The High Crusade, by Poul Anderson
The book has a fun premise for science fiction: An alien craft lands in medieval England, a series of forced worldbuilding details makes the English knights stronger than the aliens, and before you know it, they’ve gone to space and conquered themselves an empire. The book also has the benefit of being written in a way that anything that hasn’t aged well can be attributed to the fictional characters narrating the story.
🔗 linkblog: Wallace & Gromit's New Movie Will Bring Back the Greatest Villain In Animation History'
I suspect the return of Feathers McGraw will ultimately be a disappointment, but I love the character enough to be very excited in the meantime.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition (Volume 1), by Hitoshi Ashinano
Manga is one comics tradition I’ve never really gotten into, but I was impressed by someone else’s description of this series on Micro.blog and decided to give it a try. There are some manga conventions I’m still getting used to, and I don’t know that I fully “get it” yet, but it’s fun! The “cozy apocalypse” vibe it gives off is nice, and I’m looking forward to reading the next volume.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Social Fiction, by Chantal Montellier
I’m glad that so many French comics are now available in American libraries, and it’s a pleasure to read something that came from the influential Métal Hurlant. This is one of those reads, though, where I understand why the work is important, but it just didn’t land with me.