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.

Heck yes, new nerdy magnets for the office.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This isn’t what I want every day, but it’s an excellent combination of flavors.

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

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.

One of my favorite herbals!

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.

This was a delight, and I’m glad I read this series.

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!

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.

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.