Greg T

Wilfully calling this man Jimmy Donaldson is the small act of resistance needed to warm our souls in this troubled time.

Fox Nick Wilde and bunny Judy Hopps discover Marsh Town with a new beaver friend in "Zootopia 2" (2025).

Film #42 for 2026 is Zootopia 2 (2025). It's better than the first film, if only because its metaphors are less muddled, and it succeeds at being solidly entertaining for 108 minutes, which is all it's trying to do. It's no Encanto or Turning Red - but it's also no Elio or Wish, and that's enough.

Jessie Buckley screams with grief in "Hamnet" (2025).

Film #41 for 2026 is Hamnet (2025). Look, light and shadow and the gateways between them is Basic Bitch My-First-Film-School-Project filmmaking - but when it's done with this much skill, raw power and emotion it reminds you why it works. This is an exceptional film.

I mean, I feel like if you've got a situation that requires more than a couple of explosions to resolve - let alone 52 - then you really should be more prepared than just a pack of cards anyway.

I mean, is it possible with skill? Yes. Is it the most effective and reliable way to use this power? No, especially when it's always happening outdoors, around people moving swiftly, often alongside a woman whose power is literally wind.
Rule of cool, though. It's a comic.

The biggest dissonance was in its map, where a combination of mechanics initially make it appear you should explore freely and discover things, when actually the map only exists as a means for you to input the solutions to puzzles and clicking anywhere else comes with punishment.

It's always hilarious to me, given that Gambit's power is charging things to explode and then throwing them, that he does this with cards, arguably the worst possible choice for this purpose. He should be a darts guy. Or a baseballs guy.

A screenshot from Strange Horticulture (2022) showing shelves of plants at the top, a plant identification book and plant at the bottom, a customer in the top-right and a drawer of items in the bottom-right.

I tried out Strange Horticulture (2022), a cozy plant-identification puzzler which got some love a while back, but for me personally, it doesn't work. It's attractively presented and quite short but after several hours its series of tasks had failed to cohere into any actual fun, so I'm bailing.

Renee Zellweger in a gold dress in "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" (2004).

Film #40 for 2026 is Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). This cringey cash-grab sequel is devoid of charm or wit, but Hugh Grant delivers a performance far better than it deserves in his second-last romantic comedy role. Harry Gregson-Williams is wasted on its score.

That... is not how political parties work. You are maybe getting it confused with cabinet solidarity, or with Labor's "party discipline", which applies to MPs, not members.

A very complex-looking puzzle from the videogame "Strange Jigsaws".

Strange Jigsaws by @flebpuzzles.bsky.social is a heap of fun. It's not so much a jigsaw game as a jigsaw-themed puzzler. It's blessedly restrained in scope, but takes a lot of big and exciting swings on puzzle design. Most screens aren't as overwhelming as the one pictured.

Diagram of a woman who looks somewhat like Sussan Ley, with text "Do you suffer from any of the following?" and labels marked "Head, Ear, Jaw, Neck, Eyes Mouth, Teeth, Throat".

Real time footage of Sussan Ley announcing her resignation from politics.

You should! Metal Gear Gameboy aka Metal Gear Ghost Babel is genuinely a great Metal Gear game (despite its weird alt-timeline place in Metal Gear canon).

A "Fury" from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Starfleet Academy 1x06: On paper this should have been a series highpoint. In practice, it has too many characters, ugly production design for the Miyazaki and the Furies, glacial pacing, and an overreliance on a Caleb/Tarima relationship that I just don't care about.

Screenshot from Darkside Detective. Chief Scully complains at a retirement party than an uncontrolled fire (pictured) is an inappropriate retirement gift.

"Darkside Detective" by @spookydoorway.bsky.social has a lot going for it - puzzles that are diverting but not intimidating, tons of humour, big chunky pixels. It's the kind of game that in the 90s would come on a CD that you didn't pay a lot of money for and would feel like a hidden gem.

Yes, but also note we don't have good science on how acidic the lake is, which bits of it are acid, and whether it's not actually just other swimmers who would still be around the kids whether they were swimming or not.

Person who has literally never seen a film before viewing Citizen Kane for the first time:
"Okay, so first off, I have opinions about the colour grading..."

I'll add it to the list!

I watched it halfway through solo and then went, "Crap, Elinor needs to see this too," so I stopped, and we watched it together tonight.

I'd previously only seen the Howard Hawks comedies; this was my first foray into Hawks' drama outings. It impressed.

Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and the other cast of Only Angels Have Wings (1939).

Film #39 for 2026 is Only Angels Have Wings (1939), which, simply put, is a perfect film. Crackling knife-sharp dialogue, knuckle-biting tension, and stellar performances from everyone except Rita Hayworth, who simply can't keep up with Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. (Jean Arthur steals the film.)

Bsky just enabled/re-enabled Trending Topics for me. Based on experience with X/Twitter, both before and after the Muskening, I strongly recommend you go into Settings->Content and disable it for the sake of mental health.

Age restricting social media is more harmful to the health and wellbeing of young people than not doing so, plus it causes a range of harms to other groups, and there is currently no evidence of it achieving any of the measurable benefits advocates hoped to achieve.

I mean, if GTA 6 flops it will be devastating to the AAA-publisher model. But AAA-publishers are basically parasites on the industry these days anyway, in much the same way as record labels - far less relevant now that manufacturing physical copies and placing them in physical stores isn't a thing.

Screenshot from the "Bluesky Map" website showing my relative position among other communities too numerous to describe in alt text.

I appear to be in good company.
Hello to the Guetemalan Progressive Community and Chinese Speaking Liberal Democrats, who are apparently just over the hill from me.

bluesky-map.theo.io

10 novels a year is absolutely rookie numbers in the spicy romance world. Traditional writers are easily outpacing her. The more interesting thing is how she's positioning these on Amazon under the "Christian religion" subcategory.

Shared with us from Sydney happening now. He had his hands up.

Haven't played it, but the sequel seems to be a general casualty of Square Enix not being able to find its ass with both hands in the 2010s.

What can I say, they all made me feel like I was exactly the target audience at the time they released, and nailed what they were doing.