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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☕ teablog: Elmwood Inn, Chocolate Mint (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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: Pickwick, Lovely Liquorice (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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 5 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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!
📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 4 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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.
📚 bookblog: Paper Girls, Volume 2 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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
So is now a bad time to need to sell a 2020 RadCity 4?
☕ teablog: Whittard, Ceylon (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
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 (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)
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 (❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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 (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
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.
☕ teablog: Whittard, Darjeeling (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
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 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)
I enjoyed watching some of my favorite characters in this series, but it does not have the coherence or cleverness of the first one.