𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉

@seanfranco

Writer, reader, classic Who fan, board game player, Roman Catholic, anti-capitalist Ⓐ☭⧖. M-I-Z! Support 🇵🇸🇨🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 f,rt,l≠e

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𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 21d

4′33″ is a modernist composition by American experimental composer John Cage. It was composed in 1952 for any instrument or combination of instruments; the score instructs performers not to play their instruments throughout the three movements. It is divided into three movements, lasting 30 seconds, 2 minutes and 23 seconds, and 1 minute and 40 seconds, respectively, although Cage later stated that the movements' durations can be determined by the musician. As suggested by the title, the composition lasts 4 minutes and 33 seconds. It is marked by silence except for ambient sound, which is intended to contribute to the performance.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 25d

Post two movies from one director to show their range.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 25d

the office they’re the same picture dot gif

interrogation marker from the board game Queen of Spies #boardgames

screencap of a article about Doctor Who, featuring a photo of Dalek operator John Scott Martin inside of a Dalek skirt. The article reads:

Inside a Dalek

You have to be pretty slim to get inside the shell of a Dalek. Here, an actor shows how it’s done. He sits down inside the Dalek and moves the wheeled wood and cardboard mechanical being along with his feet. The voice actually comes from another actor off the set.

#doctorwho

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 25d

I wonder if they can be friends…? 😱♟️

box covers for Chess Joker and Knightmare Chess

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 25d

🎲📦 Mail Call!! (A few days late, but I’ve had a busy week.) Chess Joker (designed Carl Chudyk/published Asmadi). I’ve actually been wanting a proper chess set for a while since I’ve never had one of my own. The bonus Chudyk card madness is just an exciting perk. #boardgames ♟️🃏

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 26d

I’m rereading Dune right now. It’s probably been about 15 years. I think I appreciate it more this time. I often see Dune compared to The Lord of the Rings. I think a big difference structurally is that Paul Atreides is basically Frodo, Gandalf, AND Aragorn, all rolled into one character.

a paperback copy of Dune by Frank Herbert #booksky

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 26d

I thought Wild Strawberries were Swedish, not Finnish. But in seriousness, I really like that boardwalk. The bench/railing balance tickles my brain somewhere.

a film poster for the 1957 movie written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, Wild Strawberries

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· 27d

So not quite the brief here, but nothing makes Trainspotting sound more boring than its own DVD cover. No mention of drugs, raves, AIDS, Scotland… nothing that actually makes the movie exciting and interesting.

The back of the Trainspotting DVD, which in part reads:

The motion picture sensation that wowed critics and audiences nationwide, Trainspotting delivers a wild mix of rebellious action and wicked humor! It's the story of four friends as they try to make it in the world on their own terms... and who end up planning the ultimate scam!

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 13

Sam Neill, you were a real one.

collage of Sam Neill in films, including The Hunt for Red October, Jurassic Park, In the Mouth of Madness, and Event Horizon

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 11

The only thing way to save higher ed (and probably society in general) is to go full Butlerian Jihad. arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/w...

The story that Serrano told them begins in December 2025, when a gunman attacked Brown’s campus and killed two people, including one who had recently introduced herself to Serrano.

Shaken by the experience, Serrano decided that his spring 2026 section of the quite difficult ECON 1170 would allow take-home exams for both the midterm and the final. Suddenly, the course received an influx of students. El País has the story:

The course… typically attracts few students, but very good ones. [Serrano] has never had more than 30 students enrolled at a time, and on some occasions he had only eight. This semester, probably because of the new evaluation system, 86 students signed up for the class. The results of the midterm exam, which was administered on March 5, were extraordinary, with an average score of 96 out of 100. Forty students scored a perfect 100.

This was indeed extraordinary, because as Serrano told Inside Higher Ed, “Historically the average grade in the midterm of this course has ranged between 65 and 80 [percent], and this exam was harder than the exams I wrote in the past, because… take-home is an opportunity to challenge the class a little bit more, given that you’re giving the students unlimited time.”

Beyond the numbers, many of the answers, even when correct, felt slightly off. They had a “very convoluted style,” Serrano said. When he and his grad students ran the exam questions through ChatGPT, they received similar results.

A suspicious Serrano decided that he would make the final exam in-person; he would see if students did similarly well on it. He emailed his class, telling them, “I am not declaring [the midterm] void for now. I am going to give the class a chance to prove me wrong. That is, if the distribution of the final exam is roughly similar to the distribution of the midterm, I will count the midterm. Otherwise, which is of course what I expect to happen, I will declare the midterm void and reweigh the final accordingly.”

Eighteen students suddenly dropped the course, while nine others didn’t even attend the final exam. Of those 27 students, El País noted, “22 had scored a perfect 100 in the midterm exam.”

Among those who took the test, the average score plunged—from 96 all the way down to 48.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 9

Hey, can you swing by Aldi and pick up just four ice cubes for me? Don’t worry, it’s only $5 for four cubes. Of ice. Of prepackaged ice cubs. In a four pack. $5. Thanks.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 9

Grant Morrison?

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 9

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 5

I’m liking superhero stories set in space less and less, at least on the big screen. Comics movies are infrequent enough (compared to actual comics, at least) that having a whole story without any Earth-based stakes/familiarity doesn’t feel worth it. Thoughts on space/superhero stories in general?

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 5

Supergirl?

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 3

www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-c...

The true crucial question is what Tradition is, and above all who is to safeguard it while allowing our understanding of Tradition to grow under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
If Tradition is crystallized into an ideological system; if people arrogate to themselves the right to judge a Council presided over by two holy Popes, with the participation of three thousand bishops from around the world, which promulgated documents approved practically unanimously; if they demand that the Successor of Peter and the whole Catholic Church accept and make their own the theological ideas of one particular group, there is something profoundly contradictory.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 1

The hits keep on coming.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 1

What a day in history for a schism.

screenshot from a wikipedia article reading

Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos or Voes, were the first two Lutheran martyrs, executed by the Council of Brabant for their adherence to Reformation doctrine. They were burned at the stake in Brussels on 1 July 1523.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jul 1

What board games did I play in June? boardgamegeek.com/blog/9268/bl... #boardgames

collage of board game covers including

Android: Mainframe, Saboteur, Comanchería, Container, dnup, Sumidagawa Red Town, Realm of Reckoning, Red Flag Over Paris

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 30

🎲📦 Mail Call!! Queen of Spies (designed @beyondsolitaire.bsky.social & @djackthompson.bsky.social / art @meeplefactory.bsky.social / published @saltandpeppergames.bsky.social). It’s a solo game about espionage in WWI Belgium. I love the b&w art, and I’m looking forward to playing. #boardgames

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 30

From this weekend: the non-randomized setup for a four-player game of Food Chain Magnate, waiting for my guests to arrive. #boardgames

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 25

Well, at least I got to read this one through before it was deleted. (In summary, the 25th Century guy had posted somewhere “Fuck Donald Trump” and some other guy posted it to the T&E forums expecting everyone else to be pissed, and basically no one was.) Board game culture is a rich tapestry.

screenshot of BGG forum post for Tigris & Euphrates. subject line is “25th Century Games Unprofessional Interactions”

all posts in the thread are deleted.

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 24

As Doctor Who likely enters its second Wilderness Years, here’s my ranking of the Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions films from the first Wilderness Years. A few of these are very good and several are very bad. letterboxd.com/seanfranco/l... #doctorwho

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 24

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 23

🎲📦 Mail Call!! Hunt for Blackbeard (designed by @volko.bsky.social / published by @fortcircle.bsky.social) and Sumidagawa Red Town (imported by @dnlnwmn.bsky.social). Historical hidden movement and single-loser shedder. Looks like some good stuff. #boardgames

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 23

𝔖𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔬 ✒️📖🎲🦺🚉@seanfranco· Jun 17