Given his unpopularity, even among his own party, and his recent fumbling of the Freeland and Carney situation causing his cabinet to implode, this isn’t exactly a surprise.

Unfortunately it’s probably going to turn out similar to the Biden/Harris situation where the next Liberal leader won’t have the time to sell themselves to Canadians nor will they be likely to separate themselves from Trudeau’s policies in any real way. Which, since Singh has by and large failed to sell himself to Canadians, seems to be pointing us to Pollievre as PM. Ugh.

This is what I use as well, although it was primarily out of laziness. Works well enough. I would say the Gluetun solution is a better recommendation, more robust and scalable, but the haugene container basically just works.

I tried to read The Nightingale and had to drop it because Hannah seemed to simultaneously want to insist on how french everything was (ooo, they’re drinking café noir, not black coffee) but also didn’t seem to understand how a language works.

Like, the main character was reflecting on her mom calling them her little nightingales because their last name is Rossignol, the french word for nightingale, and I’m like… She called you nightingales because your name is literally nightingale, why does this warrant multiple paragraphs of internal monologuing?

The plot and characters were fine if uninspired, but she put so little effort into the setting that the whole thing felt poorly slapped together. Which I guess tracks well enough with this article, too.

Buckshot Roulette is fun. Not a lot to it, really, but a fun loop that I got a decent number of hours out of.

I bought Arctic Eggs after seeing a little bit of a playthrough but haven’t actually played it yet. Seems weird, which I like.

The first few are available on standard ebooks and they’re quick, easy reads, go for it! With the caveat that the standard ebook versions are the original 1920s versions so there’s a bit of weird racial stuff now and then.

I had to put down Fellowship of the Ring for a while due to a cascade of library books, but I’m finally back to it. God I just love how that book flows.

When I want something simpler to read I’ve been going to the Hardy Boys books lately. Read a bunch of them as a kid, they’re still quite enjoyable now. Normally if I reread something 20 years later it’s pretty clearly no longer my taste, but I’m on book 3 and still enjoying them quite a bit.

IIRC New Zealand returned to actual normal, as in COVID was a relative non-issue, faster than many other countries. Their restrictions were more severe and weren’t lifted very quickly, but when they were lifted things were actually fine.

Places like the US and much of Canada dropped restrictions while things were still pretty bad in terms of infection rates and strain on health care systems, and really they hardly enforced them to begin with. You could see this as a return to normalcy since restrictions were gone, but in Alberta they lifted restrictions when we were still dealing with plenty of deaths, severely impacted health care, and on top of that we were still figuring out the implications of the whole long COVID thing. That’s not a return to normal, I don’t think, it’s pretending things are normal when they’re not.

I blasted through a couple this week to try and kick my reading slump.

The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 12 was great, dealing with the fallout of the previous volume plus dragging Maomao into new situations. Mostly I appreciate that she does actually recognize what’s going on between her and Jinshi. She’s purposefully ignorant, not totally ignorant.

The Misfit of Demon King Academy: Volume 7 was by and large what I expect from the series. Goofy stuff being OP, Anos being OP, and so forth. Good fun in the same way the rest are good fun.

I’ve been a bit out of the loop on LNs for a bit, but All-Works Maid seems kind of interesting, if only because the heroine is apparently unaware that it’s an otome game. Noce change of pace from trying to manipulate every interaction because it’s a game.

To some extent this feels like episode 2; the last few episodes didn’t feel like they really moved along the main conflict with Marcus, but this one really sets up a proper encounter between Veltol (with more of his power available) and Marcus’ minion(s). There’s a point that ties back to everything else, not just a semi-SOL episode dealing with something random.

Not that I didn’t enjoy the last few episodes, but clear progress towards the main conflict is always appreciated in this medium.

I find pan frying them works best if they’re leftovers, the dough fries up better after it’s boiled and then dried out a little. It’s a very good option for sure.

Potato and cheese is classic, and honestly it hits the spot better than you might expect. Toss with butter after boiling. Keeps them from sticking and tastes great.

Commonly topped with sour cream, green onions, other onions, and/or bacon depending on what you have handy. A nice fatty sour cream with grilled yellow onions is my favourite, especially served with a nice hunk of garlic sausage.

Yeah, half-heartedly doing French in Duolingo for a few years meant that I knew a bunch of words and could read stuff okay, but communicating and thinking in French was incredibly difficult. I took a couple of classes IRL to fill in those other skills, so now I can actually get by as long as people are a bit patient with me. It was easier for me to learn that stuff than other people in my classes because I had Duolingo experience, but Duolingo definitely isn’t enough on its own.

I read a couple volumes of the LN and it was goofy fun. Nothing mind blowing, but a fun take on the isekai formula. It got even better once it got out of its own way and acknowledged how silly it all was, because really there’s nothing evil about this dude or his empire at all.

I can’t tell how comedic this anime is intending to be, or whether the source material is supposed to be comedic, but man I find it funny. Every time I think something serious is about to happen it’s a coin flip on whether it’s actually serious or whether it’s some goofy shit that has me rolling.

I’m always excited to see Yaddle in something until I SEE Yaddle in something. Yoda with long hair is just super concerning to see.

Foddy is a game developer with a history of making games with frustrating control schemes. He originally got notoriety for QWOP, where you use the QWOP keys to control the runner’s left and right knees and feet and run as far as you can. Lately he’s better known for Getting Over It, a rage platformer where you play as a guy in a cauldron who moves by using a hammer to drag/throw himself around.

The description and comments on the video 100% confirm multiplayer. Honestly I’d be excited for the game either way, but I have a lot of fun playing crafting/survival games with friends so it’s appreciated.

On our trip a few years back we got some simple pastries, sandwich supplies, and snacks from Bonus to save money and I never felt like we were missing out on good food. Even as a discount grocer everything we got from there was super good.

It’s one of my all-time favorite books and I’m still not sure I could actually explain the plot to someone. In fact, I’m not confident there is a coherent plot rather than a bunch of related vignettes that just kind of happen, some of which tell a story and some not so much.

My brain just kind of spent so much time trying to understand what the point of any of it was that I eventually ended up with an interpretation that I loved to view the book through, and therefore I ended up loving the book.