Apr 6, 2025, 9:37 PM
Kim's Convenience Season 5, 6 out of 10
The writers continue to deny the Kims meaningful character development. I guess it's fair to expect that Saang-Il and Young-Mi develop slowly as any normal pair of middle-aged adults, but I expected more from Jung and Janet. But well, we're here for it anyway. At this point we're used to not expect much other than a pastime, mostly lighthearted and mostly wholesome, still sometimes a bit too silly, sometimes too stereotypical.
Apr 6, 2025, 9:00 PM
Novelette is Trying
Small production set in Vancouver. Black & queer lead. Curious to give it a try.
Mar 31, 2025, 3:30 AM
Disclaimer Season 1, 8 out of 10
Disclaimer: from beginning to end, uncomfortable and disgusting to watch. I suspected that it was intentional, and yet the direction and its conclusion still had in store a final punch to my stomach. There's so much to think about, to re-evaluate. Overall masterful storytelling, but I don't know to whom I'd recommend this.
Mar 31, 2025, 2:02 AM
Am I the only one watching #Junos via CBC Gem finding the audio a bit weird? It’s like a few channels are muted
Mar 29, 2025, 9:39 PM
Mar 29, 2025, 9:32 PM
Mar 29, 2025, 9:28 PM
Severance - The Lexington Letter, 8 out of 10
Interesting and clever side story, and a fun way to deliver more material for the fans to see a little bit of extra world building with very light but still captivating writing.
Mar 29, 2025, 9:25 PM
North of North Season 1, 7 out of 10
The showcase of Inuk culture and the life at Nunavut is super interesting and the series packs a few not so subtle punches on the relationship between Canadian institutions and native peoples. It's often corny and predictable, but at the same time every episode has a fresh and unique touch.
Mar 29, 2025, 9:22 PM
Severance Season 2, 8 out of 10
The season started strong. The two first episodes got me hyped up for another strong run. Unfortunately, expectations might have gotten out of hand and a few episodes were disappointing. It's as if directors are now operating in the comfort zone of an existing and forgiving fanbase, different from when they weren't sure if the series would be a hit. Woe's Hollow was too out there, Sweet Vitriol and Atilla were good attempts but ultimately unsatisfying. Jessica Lee Gangné rocks and Chickhai Bardo was a beautiful and excellent episode, and so was the season finale - both made the season worth it, and I'm looking forward to a third season after a few learned lessons.
Mar 26, 2025, 4:45 PM
Mar 26, 2025, 4:44 PM
Mar 26, 2025, 4:43 PM
Mar 24, 2025, 9:49 PM
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, 7 out of 10
The second part of the Monk & Robot series, focusing on the journey of said monk and robot back into contact with human society. By establishing that contact, some extra world-building happens - some great and some not so much. We are sold the idea that robots willingly avoid using digital communication protocols, avoid integrating with knowledge databases or even mere calculators, and avoid repairing themselves because they just accept death. The robot's personality and character plays a bigger role in this story, with longer dialogues and, matter of fact, staged monologues. The robot taps into several combined tropes: innocently insensitive, fish out of water, simple-minded wisdom. Well, my annoyance makes me empathize with Dex having to deal with all that, so the books still works somehow.
Mar 24, 2025, 7:55 PM
Using [sic] when quoting people in positions of power is probably the most delightful and socially acceptable way to punch upwards, even if it brings a tint of academicism. It's a guilty pleasure.
Done expertly, it's humiliating. Reading a well timed latin expression for "they're dumb, not me!" is the respite I needed while consuming my weekly poisonous dose of #USPol.
Thanks, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Mar 20, 2025, 2:46 PM
“Here is a chart”
🥹 welcome back @j_mcelroy, missed you
Mar 18, 2025, 12:00 AM
Thinking of starting side project number 623737278, while still keeping my current one involving my IndieWeb presence. This is usually trouble as my focus tends to resist dividing, but here we go.
I never successfully launched a mobile app, but I hope nowadays the learning curve is less steep. Probably going with #ReactNative and expo.
Mar 7, 2025, 6:12 AM
Kim's Convenience Season 4, 6 out of 10
The writing has its ups and downs and the portrayal of how academia deals with minorities codes some strange red flags... But the series marches on, mostly lighthearted and mostly wholesome, still sometimes a bit too silly, occasionally too stereotypical.
Mar 4, 2025, 8:34 PM
Every day reading #CanPoli and #USPol news starts an exercise of trying to make sense of the unreasonable.
Is the strategy to dissolve the conspiratorial fame of conservatives by behaving so randomly dangerous that everyone else gets used to look for "dark money" and "cabal of elites" to process this madness?
I'm already crafting meta-conspiracies.
Feb 28, 2025, 5:29 PM
Fifth day in Brazil.
Being an expat is ever stranger. I do feel home. The birds, the food, smiles, slangs, the plants, flowers, sand. The car I used to drive. Muscle memory kicks in. It all feels like it should. Even the clouds look as if they had been broken and are now fixed.
But I also feel like a visitor. The heat, the traffic, inequality. It’s the same as always, but also worse than it was. It’s strange to so easily overhear, to invisibly connect so fast.
Feb 21, 2025, 4:46 PM
“This government does not represent us”
Yes it does, it’s literally called representative democracy.
I have been there before (Bolsonaro), and while I get the #NotMyPresident chant, this cannot be used to excuse oneself from the consequences of these representatives.
“I did not vote for this” isn’t a free pass, it’s the bare minimum.
Feb 20, 2025, 10:47 PM
Great piece.
https://thewalrus.ca/common-sense-politics
How to reconcile the anti-intellectualism that serves as a foundation for the denial of science with the apparent technocratic positivism behind the defense of tech oligarchs?
The answer is grievance. #Politics of resentment. An angry bunch is an engaged bunch.
Feb 20, 2025, 10:40 PM
For anyone interested in reading a weekly curated best moments of humankind's wordcraft, the #newsletter is https://buttondown.com/perfectsentences
Feb 20, 2025, 10:37 PM
Feb 16, 2025, 6:10 PM
This Friday for the first time I took a #seaplane from #Vancouver to #VictoriaBC. It's incredible. Beautiful scenery, downtown to downtown in 35 minutes, check-in in 20 minutes - quicker than BC Ferries as a pedestrian... The noise isn't as bad as I thought, but it's still a solid 90 dB so an earplug is welcome.
The worst of it is the smell and the pollution from the fuel, and obviously the price. It's ten times the price of public transit for the route, but it's nearly ten times faster!
Feb 15, 2025, 1:35 AM
Unfortunately what I need isn’t really photography, which is what all three federated services deliver. My main needs are 1) Stories, 2) Highlights, 3) carousel posts mixing image and video. That’s the state of the art that would make an #Instagram replacement for me.
Feb 15, 2025, 1:30 AM
Discovered another #PixelfedAlternative besides frequency.app thanks to @bluszcz
The vernissage.photos and the Impressia iOS app. It looks like they were related but split in two separate projects? These seem even more focused on photography.
Feb 14, 2025, 6:43 PM
#Pixelfed seems to have good momentum, as dan continues to churn out code at a wild pace.
Still, it’s still quite not there as an Instagram replacement for me, and I’m afraid the project is competing for attention with Loops, the other project from same author.
So I have been looking for alternatives, and today I found out about @frequency: open source backend is a mastodon fork, polished app, friendly and sensible maintainers. Following it closely 👀 https://mastodon.social/@jesseplusplus/113891449411033309
Feb 14, 2025, 2:18 AM
My #introduction post is actually a page that I'll be trying (not too hard) to keep up to date:
https://victor.villas/notes/now
These days I decided that saying what I'm up to is more important than trying to state who I am.
Feb 13, 2025, 9:19 PM
Decentralized social media still has a lot of rough edges but the email analogy the concrete tips go a long way. https://video.fedihost.co/videos/watch/2fdb8e23-6ef1-4cac-853d-a5e104ba82cb
Feb 13, 2025, 7:51 PM
Stupid truck kills person, Mounties issue warning, people continue getting stupider trucks, police gets more budget.
Just North America things. https://flipboard.com/@cbcnews/british-columbia-i8sdok9nz/-/a-Zofdnf4GQcqozM--QyII-g%3Aa%3A107108217-%2F0
Feb 13, 2025, 5:15 PM
This is incredible. Super timely. I just watched a @fedihost podcast about the challenge of bringing I cities to the fediverse and this kind of grassroots effort is blowing my mind on its effectiveness. https://socialbc.ca/@chris/113980763976318326
Feb 12, 2025, 4:30 PM
Anyone out there working on #fediverse Strava/Slopes/etc?
Feb 11, 2025, 11:34 PM
A little bit of trumpology doesn’t really calm my nerves but at least things that were incomprehensible horrors are now merely horrors.
#CanPoli #USPol https://mastodon.online/@justinling/113986221558762208
Feb 7, 2025, 6:12 AM
Kim's Convenience Season 3, 6 out of 10
Can't say I particularly enjoy the Raj & Janet storyline, but what can I say? The series continues its promise of being mostly lighthearted and mostly wholesome, still sometimes a bit too silly.
Feb 6, 2025, 7:29 AM
Jan 30, 2025, 7:21 PM
Jan 19, 2025, 5:12 AM
Disclaimer Season 1
Recommended by a few friends. Interesting premise and trailer. Halfway through, I can definitely see that the directors succeeded in making viewers uncomfortable watching the emotional violence of young Catherine over Jonathan, but I think the same could be achieved with less explicit sex screening... oof I'm not used to this
Jan 16, 2025, 6:12 AM
Kim's Convenience Season 2, 7 out of 10
Not much is different from the first season, still lighthearted and mostly wholesome, still sometimes a bit too silly.
Jan 4, 2025, 2:49 AM
Kim's Convenience Season 1, 7 out of 10
Lighthearted and mostly wholesome, though a few bits are excessively silly. A great series to just hit play and relax on the sofa.
Jan 4, 2025, 2:49 AM
Kim's Convenience Season 1, 6 out of 10
Lighthearted and mostly wholesome, though a few bits are excessively silly. A great series to just hit play and relax on the sofa.
Jan 4, 2025, 2:49 AM
Apr 10, 2022, 6:12 AM
Severance Season 1, 10 out of 10
Superb, definitely one of the greatest series of the year. The writing is great and the directing is amazing. The story is just so well timed, the corporate world has never felt so bleak and COVID-19 along with the approaching "return to office" mandates cemented the perfect stage. It starts a bit slow and perhaps only relatable to those immersed in white-collar culture, but it picks up the pace to become a suspense/thriller of general appeal.