Author | Lightnews

Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 1d

Klanwashing 😂

Black Homeowners Receive Higher Appraisal After Displaying Pictures Of Klan Members

YouTube video by The Onion

www.youtube.com

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 4d

One of my favourite products from France is the rice from the Camargue region, which France took from Indochine and then cultivated in this southern region.

I used to buy them from the brand Taureau Ailé, but lately cannot find it in the French supermarkets anymore. And now I know why: cheapflation

Riz de Camargue : ce que cache Taureau Ailé | 60 Millions de Consommateurs

Ne vous laissez pas piéger ! En rayon, Taureau Ailé joue sur la confusion et fait grimper les prix avec un riz d’origine… italienne.

www.60millions-mag.com

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 5d

This week I watched "Left-Handed Girl", the solo-directional debut of Shih-Ching Tsou, who is Sean Baker's usual collaborator in writing and producing. I like how in my Letterboxd stats of 2025 I now have her and Sean Baker side-by-side under my most-watched directors.

A overview of most-watched directors this year in my personal statistics. Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou are on top.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 10d

Was visiting Beaune in France the other day and tried to introduce "Beaune jour!" to the locals, but it didn't really catch on.

Pity though. I was planning to sing "Beaune in the USA" next.

Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 11d

The difference in upbringing becomes apparent when me and my girlfriend see a wasp floating on seawater and struggling to lift off.

Her: "Let's drown him to end his suffering!"
Me: "He can use my swimming goggles as a platform so he can lift off once his wings are more dry."

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 12d

We had been spending a week at the Southern French town Agay. The name reminded me of a recurring sketch from Little Britain, in which Matt Lucas played the "only gay in town".

I spent the week looking for the one gay of Agay, but was unsuccessful.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 13d

Made up a new code word for when we need to be discreet talking about my girlfriend's period:

Piri-piri

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 15d

What I never understood about this song is why they so enthusiastically exclaim "Oh yeah!!" after posing the question "Would I lie to you?"

It sounds like a confession and confirmation.

Charles & Eddie - Would I Lie To You

YouTube video by CharlesEddieVEVO

www.youtube.com

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 19d

Visiting Dijon. Lovely charming beautiful city.

The only surprisingly disappointing thing is that our hotel restaurant doesn't have any mustard!

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 22d

Today I've learned about a website performance metric called Time to First Byte (TTFB). I started to introduce it to communicate the ETA of when a meal is supposed to start.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 23d

This morning it was announced halfway my train ride that the train will discontinue its journey due to an accident. So I lost time on catching a train back home to pick up the car.

In these moments I wish I was Batman, so I could just call the Batmobile to come to my location.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 24d

More information about the feature:
dwresults.com/loop-it-or-l...

Discussion about removing it that goes nowhere:
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answer...

Naming your product Loop is quite problematic, because when I search for "Teams remove Loop" it results in posts about Teams stuck in a reboot loop.

Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 24d

Just wanna rant here about MS Teams, because Microsoft's support/feedback system blocks constructive resolution.

This month they have rolled out a new "feature", which add loops to every Teams channel. These are impossible to remove.

STOP ADDING NEW FORCED FEATURES AND STOP PUSHING CO-PILOT, MS!!

Microsoft Teams channel which contains a new tab named "Page".

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 25d

Finally I watched "Nemurubaka". Well, watched is a big word as I left after 40 minutes. It's from the same director who made "Baby Assassins", which I really disliked. The premise of his latest film made me decide to give him another chance, but then concluded that his films are really not for me.

Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 25d

Another one I liked was "Kagi", which I saw as part of a retrospective of classic director Ichikawa Kon. It's from the '50s, so there is a lot of unintentional humour in there. But beneath it all is an intriguing story, supported by just as intriguing characters and Kon's good filmmaking skills.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 25d

Then I saw "Good Luck", which is a film by and for lovers of film. An indie director is invited to a film festival in Beppu and meets an actress there. Half of the film is jokes about tourism and the other half is a bit of "Before Sunrise". Even though I hate the latter, I liked this.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 25d

The poster of my next film "Aimitagai" gave me a bad feeling. Fortunately, it was not too bad. And while there were many clichés, the film did film its own voice eventually and I liked how it nicely came to an end.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 25d

Next I saw the doc "Ainu Puri". As the title suggests, it is about the Ainu, the indigenous people of the Hokkaido island in northern Japan.

It's a very strong contender in the recent films and documentaries about oppressed indigenous communities, like the Sami, Kurds, Zapotecos, Palestinians, etc.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 25d

I spent 14 hours at the Camera Japan festival today! 😱

My first film was "Kaiju-yarou!", about a man who had lost his childhood dream of being a kaiju film director a long time ago. But then at his tourist board job he gets the chance to make a PR film for his town.

Goes a bit over the top but 💖

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 26d

I suppose that is a sign of rising authoritarianism.

I once compared the current headlines from our countries with two friends: Mine (Netherlands) was about a scandal in which a CEO earned 20x more than his employees, Greek was about fatal car crashes, and a Slovak one was about quality of honey.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 26d

Finally I saw "Boku ga Ikiteru Futatsu no Sekai" about a CODA, but unlike that Hollywood film from a few years ago the main role here went to an actual CODA. Heartwarming story, which was well directed, though sometimes does border on the preachy side... just for a bit.

Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 26d

Next up was "Sato-san to Sato-san", which is my favourite of the festival so far and also made it to my top2025 list. It's talks about relationships but in a way that it is "Marriage Story" without the Hollywood bullshit. The writing and themes are closer to reality and characters endearing.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 26d

Then I saw "Shini Sokonatta Otoko" about a man who meets a ghost, who asks to help him so he can finally rest. It had its moments, but also failed to impress me.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 26d

Afterwards I saw "Maru" by Ogigami Naoko. She is one of my favourite Japanese directors, but unfortunately this was a bit disappointing. It still provised good commentary on the art industry though.

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Minh Nguyễn @minhnguyenofficial.bsky.social · 26d

At the Camera Japan festival today I saw the heist film "Angry Squad". It's from the director of the cult hit "One Cut of the Dead" and brings a similar kind of inguinity to the genre. It also has more heart than others of its ilk.

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