In my history during summer of 2024
Like every year in July, I went on holiday with the Club des gens cools, and like every year, we went to the Vosges. This year, we went to Épinal, after a few years in houses lost in the mountains. It was really nice, and if you're ever in this area, I'd recommend the the escape game of the museum of Epinal, where you'll have to help an amnesic typographer. The difficulty is well balanced, and it’s nice to dig into typographical cases and help compose a journal page.
My vacation week went way too fast, but I spent 3 days in Strasbourg at the end of the month trying to finish my tattoo sleeve, so I don’t have much to complain about, I had a really good month of July. And at the end of August, I went for the first time to Brest, it was beautiful!
Between the train rides and insomnia, I had time to read and watch a lot of things this summer, so brace yourselves!
Let's start with my ‘top 10’, the gems you shouldn't miss if you don't have the time to read everything!
#1
Tattoo – Of course, I'm opening with this. Sophie Ellis Raptor and Jean Jaurex are now surrounded by monsteras, calatheas, anemones, and lots of plants from the jungle!It'll need another seance, but I'm already extremely happy with the result ♥ (by the way, I would NOT recommend 2 full days of tattooing back to back, it was a bit rough in the end)
#2
Brest – I spent 3 days in Brest at the end of August, and it was the perfect weekend to end the summer: the weather was perfect, not too hot, just enough wind, and rain only when I was inside! I highly recommend Océanopolis, the aquarium, where you can see otters, tropical fish and sharks, and also what I preferred, the polar pavilion with penguins and seals.I also loved the botanical garden in the valley of Stang-Alar, with its tropical greenhouses, it is really a place not to be missed if you are in Brest, especially when the entrance is free if you do not visit the greenhouses.
SOn the way back we took a detour to Pointe Saint-Mathieu, and I completely understand why it's so renowed, it was absolutely magnificient. It's one of the most beautiful places I've seen in my life.
We walked a bit on the coastal path, I really want to come back here (it was really hard to be reasonnable and come back home to work instead of staying one or two more days 😭)
#3
Climate change – It’s Too Hot to Fly Helicopters and That’s Killing People. Temperatures are so high in the US that emergency services choppers cannot fly and go save people that are dying from the heat. This is fine.#4
Cinema – In Praise of Great Exposition, a great video that made me want to rewatch Twelve angry men.#5
Cinema – I've just watched Rome, open city by Roberto Rossellini, it was my first foray into Italian neorealism, and it was very good.It’s not an easy subject, and it’s even more burdensome than I expected, but it’s worth it, if only for Anna Magnani, which I discover and who is absolutely fascinating. Impossible to look away from her for a second.
The movie is availble on Arte until September 15.
#6
Animals – During my holidays with Le Club des gens cools, we saw llamas and alpacas, and it was very nice! It was at the Montagne des Lamas, in La Bresse.We were able to feed and pet the animals, and we saw little ones who were only 2 or 3 months old. It’s very nice, and the place is super pretty, it makes a very nice ballad.
Of course, I bought "baby alpaca" yarn to knit myself a shawl.
#7
Mastodon – The more I use Mastodon, the more I enjoy it. I find the diversity of Twitter from a few years ago: I can find my specific interests or discover niche topics that I did not even suspect existed. I'm missing the shitpost/memes on the news part of Twitter a bit, but it's coming with some peace of mind, since it was often accompanied by violence, stupid beefs, and other trials in militant purity. Anyway, this lack is not stricly structural, with more active accounts, we should see some of it.The platform itself has changed a lot since I arrived at the end of 2022. Most of the friction inherent to the decentralized structure has been erased enough to no longer be annoying (it is much simpler now to liker/RT a toot from another instance, for example); and new features appear regularly. For instance, the notification system was completely overhauled a few weeks ago and is now much more suitable for those who receive a lot of it.
I take this opportunity to point out the difference in reactivity between Mastodon and Twitter: At one time I had more than 1,000 followers on Twitter, with almost exclusively active accounts (I removed bots and dead accounts), and I have never received as many likes/RT/responses as on Mastodon where I have less than a third of that number, in addition to being on a very small instance, which does not help discoverability.
In short, Mastodon is cool, it’s full of nice people, the people who work on it try to do things intelligently (and for now, it’s quite successful!), so when can we see you there, friends?
I've already written a few lines on the subject, which I suggest reading if you do not know where to start: Twitter is dead, long live Mastodon.
#8
Knitting – I have knitted 19 sweaters and 8 shawls since I started knitting in 2018 (not counting the multiple projects stopped along the way, and a few disasters I unknitted once finished), but I think I have photos for less than 5 of them. I do not have a photo of my "Chuck" finished, although it is my first sweater, and my first project with twists. I threw it away during a move, because I had knitted it with wool of very poor quality and it was very damaged, and I regret bitterly not having taken the time to photograph it properly.I decided to remedy this by taking a picture of all my completed projects, and adding them on this page of my site.
#9
Reliure – My bookshelves are shaking with jealousy!#10
Music – Lawrence just release their new album, and it's perfect from the first to the last note ♥ I missed them in Paris a few days ago, I fully intend to make up for it on their next tour!- Reading – In July, I devoured Rebecca F. Kuang’s Yellowface. It’s funny, incisive, well written, and I loved the ending. There’s a little bit of a floating moment at the beginning of the third act, and I was a little afraid of how it would end, but it was perfect.
- Mistake –
« Instead of "I did something stupid" I shall henceforth say "I laid the groundwork for dramatic improvements in the future" »
- Board games – Holidays with friends is also the occasion to play board games 😊
We started with Just One, a classic (a player must guess a word, each other player can propose a clue. If a clue is proposed 2 times it is eliminated. You must succeed in finding the right balance, with a clue you're the only one to think of, but which is not too complicated, it's very funny).
We also tested 2 pommes 3 pains, with limited success.
The best one was Kipourkoi, a game where you need to vote for little monsters. We played it the night of the elections, it was perfect.
We also played Blueprint a bit, it was cool.
- Typography – I really like the font Dragonsteel, a fraktur inspired by the heavy metal logos and the RPG from the 80's.
- Working accident – These interns, apprentices and very young adults who die on the job.Arthur was 14 years old, Tom 18. They died in the workplace, on a farm and in a slaughterhouse. Youth is a risk factor in the workplace, particularly in agriculture.
- Fast fashion – It’s Not Just Shein: Why Are ALL Your Clothes Worse Now?, a good summary of the evolution of clothing production since the early 2000's.
- Politics – Edouard Louis spoke on Blast, and it was fascinating. The impact of politics of the body of the dominated is a fundamental point, which is not sufficiently present in discussions, even and especially on the left.
« The role of literature isn't to show what we did not know anymore, as did Sartre and Beauvoir, as did Zola when he wrote the minors, the role of literature is to force readers to confront something they already know, but don’t want to know. »
« It is known that the far right has been very powerful in recent years also because it has somehow won a psychological battle, where it has become present in all brains, and where the political game of recent years often consisted in commenting on everything that the extreme right said. The extreme right said a fascist, racist, misogynist, homophobic nonsense, and then it became something that was commented on in all the newspapers, in all the tribunes, to be indignant. And we know that in the United States, it was one of the conditions of Trump’s victory, where Trump said precisely racist nonsense, and they were in the front page of the New York Times every two days to deconstruct what he said, which can be very important at moments, but which, when it becomes an obsession, makes the far right the master of language. It is the extreme right that asks the questions, and the left and progressives answer. And so the question, for the left, and to reconquer a hegemony of the left, is to reconquer a hegemony of language. It’s up to us to speak, and it’s up to them to answer. It’s not them who decide the debates, it’s not them who decide the questions we ask ourselves, it’s us, and they will have to react. So yes, I think silence plays a very important role in politics. »
« I had intimate memories of politics, before I had political memories of politics. And when I found myself in more dominant circles, it was always felt that when I spoke politics, that I was too nervous, too angry, too authoritarian, too extreme maybe, but it is because my relationship to politics was not the same as that of the bourgeoisie, that for me and the people around me, it meant living or dying, and not for the bourgeoisie. »
- Front-end – krkrkr
- Music – When I was in kindergarten, a young man made us sing and try out many instruments, and this is one of the few memories I have of that time. Among the instruments, we played guiro, and I always liked the sound of it. I heard some recently, and I just bought one. I can’t wait to produce kindergarten-level music with it!
- HTTP – There's a pin's for the Error 418 - I’m a teapot, and that makes me stupidly happy.
- Cover – I recently stumbled upon the video The greatest cover song of all time?, about the cover of Hurt by Johnny Cash. The video is not really worth the attention, but I find this comment perfect:
« Reznor wrote a suicide note.
Cash wrote a eulogy.
They’re both beautiful in their own way. » - Travail – At Matmut, when new software makes work impossible.. Monitoring, micromanagement, work overload, loss of autonomy and visibility on the tasks to be carried out, degradation of service... Working conditions can get worse very quickly because of a few bad managerial choices, and it is always the employees who end up suffering.
- Nazis – via Aral
« Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters. »
- Resistance – To not stand idly by while fascism rises in Europe: Extreme right: what resistance is being organised?
- Urbanism – I just discovered a new rabbit hole, and there’s no reason I should be the only one to spend my evening in it :
This was the summary, and that is the website where you can get lost for hours: Decoding density
- Missing person – I have just read married to a ghost, the 7th episode of the obsession “je me vais” on Les Jours, devoted to voluntary disappearances, which affect 4,000 to 5,000 adults in France every year. As usual, Les Jours take their time to address a delicate subject, and do so with respect.
- Furniture – Why Are (Most) Sofas So Bad?
- Israël & Palestine – Last week tonight with John Oliver's episode on the West Bank is crystal clear. And if you want to know more about the evangelical movements that financially support Israel in hopes of accelerating the end of the world, I recommend this documentary from Arte: Praying for the apocalypse - USA, the underbelly of the evangelical church.
- Politics – And the grand prize for the best clapback of this election cycle is awarded to Boulet :
« Personally you ask me if I’m sad to lose RN followers, it’s like you’re asking me if I’m sad to have lost 200 grams after taking a shit. »
- Trump – If the political situation in France is not enough to depress you, John Oliver talks about what a second term of Trump could do to the US.
- Fascization – Another great portrait by Ostpolitik & Modiie :
- Trade unionism – I have been reading a lot about trade unionism since the beginning of June, with the European elections, the dissolution and then the early elections being a reminder of the importance of unions. My best sources on the subject are:
- Dix questions sur le syndicalisme by Guillaume Goutte (litt. Ten questions on trade unionism). It's really short (116 pages), clear and informative. (thanks Bruno!)
- De l’enseignement professionnel aux savoirs éclectiques. Les Bourses du travail et l’éducation (1887-1914) by David Hamelin (litt. From vocational education to eclectic knowledge. Labour Exchanges and Education (1887-1914)). A super interesting article on the Labour Exchanges, which I had never heard of before reading the book quoted above.
- Tesla sape les conditions de travail et brise les grèves : exemple en Suède (litt. Tesla undermines working conditions and breaks strikes: an example in Sweden.). The article focuses on Tesla, but it has good examples of what unions can do in practice to improve wages and working conditions.
- Video Game – Indie studio opens up to share canceled Magic School project. I'm a bit sad because it would have been a perfect game for me, but I'd rather the studio realise they are reaching their limits and stop before causing any long term damage for a project they never could have finished.
- Quote –
« Being on the left means thinking about the world first, then your country, then your relatives, then yourself; being on the right is the opposite. »
- Cooking – For those you, like me, are under-utilizing their rice cooker, here's a series of 9 cool recipes. Thanks Gaëtan!
- Bicycle – A tutorial to straighten a crooked bicycle wheel.
- Accessibility – Math is hard. People with disabilities matter, a short but necessary reminder.
- Rape – I just watched the mini-serie Unbelievable, and I read the article it was based on, An Unbelievable Story of Rape. I'm so angry.
- Last will – 1Password recently published a guide explaining how to plan you digital estate (.PDF, 9,7 Mo). It's not something we want to think of, right now, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, but it's important to anticipate, so your loved ones don't have to handle everything on the moment.
- Nostalgia –
It’s a weird feeling missing someone you’ve never met.
- Olympic Games – 2030 Winter Olympics: a social and environmental catastrophe announced
« Either the climate denial of the leaders is at its height, or it is cynically profitable end of the world, for the pleasure of a handful of wealthy tourists and to the detriment of workers. »
- Interviews – Salomé Saqué always knows how to get the best out of her guests, she shows it again in Living at the campsite year-round: the hidden face of the housing crisis and Leaving romantic love as the only model of society..
- Music – I really love this, thanks Gaëtan!
- Pettiness – XScreen Saver is a collection of free screensavers. To be able to put their app on the play store, Google imposes a privacy policy.
This pantomime where Google pretends to care about your welfare would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad, but here we are anyway.
. You can read it here. - AI – I already liked Procreate a lot, and that won't hurt 💚 AI is not our future. Creativity is made, not generated.
- Edition – No one buys books, a summary of the situation for the big five and the edition market in general, thanks to the numbers revealed when Penguin Random House tried to acquire Simon & Schuster.
- Patriarchy – In How Men Like Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh And Brock Turner Are Made, Amelia Mavis Christnot explores the root of toxic masculinity. From Ivy League to positions of powers, the entitlement shapes behaviour and nurtures impunity.
- Communication –
Uncommunicated expectations are premeditated resentments.
- Francisation – Great docu !
« Can you learn French in six months? We followed people from all around the world — Ukraine, China, Iran...— who tried to do it with a "francisation" class at Cégep in Montréal. We dive into their learning journey, but also into their daily lives and the unique stories that led them to rebuild their lives in Quebec.
Since June 2023, the Quebec Charter of the French Language provides that all public services are rendered in French (with exceptions) to the entire population, including immigrants and refugees who have arrived for more than six months. Registration for Francisation courses remains voluntary. »
Funy pics
