On the home front, we had relatively nice weather. Warmer than usual, with some rain (remnants of “Nate”), until the seasonal temperature caught up to us to give our first freezing warning. Now, let me remember what happened in the last two months. So many stuff…

I had a terrible time at the job. I was asked to do something that was against the rules (and my ethics — we all know I am a stickler for the rules!). I voiced my objections but was ready to do the task nonetheless. Instead of praising my flexibility, I was told I was difficult to work with (that I might agree with but you should see what I have to deal with) and didn’t adapt well (not as fast as they can change their mind anyway — and, whatever we do, one cannot adapt to chaos). It was the culmination of all of what’s wrong with the place (the mismanagement, incompetence, utter inconsistencies [they flip-flop so much in their decision making sometimes that it’s a wonder they’re not flying!], and lack of respect). This incident was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I couldn’t take it anymore and it made me quite depressed for a while. Too much to my taste.

Lots of stuff was happening at the same time: the FFM, the preparation for the major (and expensive) repairs to the balcony and masonry at the back of the house so we needed to clear the backyard of all vegetation, etc. All this caused me a lot of stress (expressing itself with high blood pressure, digestion problems, rash, etc.). In the end, I was able to manage (finding something interesting enough to forget all those troubles). After all, we’re alive, there’s no imminent catastrophe chasing us and we have something to do to keep us busy (my writing, not this hateful job). Don’t worry, be happy! Easy to say…

I also changed my phone as Apple released lots of news stuff (some new hardware [iPhone 8, iPhone X, Apple Watch 3, Apple TV 4K, etc.] and many OS updates — some painful to implement, so I’ve spent lots of time back-uping hard-drives and re-installing everything)…

Despite all this, I was really on fire at the keyboard: I wrote many comments (on the opening of the Frederic-Back Park, on the FFM movies [Noise, Dear Etranger], a few capsule reviews (on  the latest Yoko Tsuno, Pline #2, Jackie and Samurai Gourmet) and two mangas (The life-changing manga of tidying up and Anne Frank’s Edu-Manga)–some posted at the Irresistibles: Yoko Tsuno #28 and Le journal de mon père), two essays (the second part of my piece on literary genres and an article on how I approach writing comments!) and I talked about Ishiguro getting the Nobel Prize and Rue de Sèvres publishing the last Taniguchi. Not bad, but there’s still so much to do! And, remembering  Daniel Keyes’ novel Flowers for Algernon, I cannot help myself in worrying that this welcomed lucidity of mind is only a fleeting perk…

In the news, it becomes clear that this will be an annus horribilis for the U.S. (and the world): not only Trump was unleashed onto the world (bent on unravelling everything good that Obama did and destroying the American democracy), but more disasters keep happening: an earthquake in Mexico, hurricanes Harvey (causing damages mostly in  Texas), Irma (in the Leeward Islands and Florida), Jose (again in the Leeward Islands) and Maria (in Puerto Rico), there was also a terrible shooting in Las Vegas, great fires in California, sex scandal in Hollywood (shocking!), etc. How comes some people still support this moron and deny climate changes is beyond my comprehension!

Despite all this, I still managed to stay acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered about an hundred notable news & links — which I now share with you (in both french or english, slightly categorized, but in no particular order), after the jump.

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