Network

Entry tags:

Duo blathering

Duolingo's increasing reliance on AI at the expense of human employees bothers me a lot. It's also, not coincidentally, gotten sloppy. I've noticed things in the English that feel off -- "He didn't die because he had the operation on time" should have been "in time"; "It's possible that I start going out with Francisco" should be "I'll start" or "I might start"; "She isn't tolerant with other ideas" should either be "of" or the object should be "people" (this may be regional? but for me it's tolerant *of* things, tolerant *with* or of people); "The travelers would buy at the market" should either have a different verb like "shop" or should have a direct object (I know "buy" can be intransitive but it still feels weird in this sentence); etc. If there are things that strike me as odd about the language I'm a native speaker of, how the fuck can I trust them to be correct in the language I'm trying to learn?

I currently have a subscription, partly so I wouldn't get ads and partly because I supported their stated mission. I no longer want to support them. My renewal, set to annual, renews next month.

On the other hand I have a streak of 3839 days, several friends streaks over 300, and a ridiculous number of friends quests in a row (can't find the info but I think it's around 85-90?). Also while practicing Duo mostly makes me better at Duo, I am still learning vocab, even if some of it doesn't want to stick.

So I'm trying to decide:

Option 1: cancel subscription and delete app. Up side: cheaper and more ethical. Down side: realistically I'm not going to find an easy Spanish-practice alternative.

Option 2a: cancel subscription but keep "playing" until I reach a pretty streak number, then quit. Up side: cheaper, though ads mean they're still profiting, and I get to leave on a pretty number. Down side: ads, plus im still planning on breaking the streak.

Option 2b: cancel subscription and keep playing indefinitely. Up side: still get Spanish practice. Down: ads, blech.

Option 3: keep subscription for another year. Up: practice, no ads. Down: I'm paying money for dubious AI.

If I take one of the streak-breaking options -- either now or in 161 days (which is, uh, 5 months and change, so December? -- and then regret it, I'll have lost the chance to make the long streak longer. OTOH it literally can't go on forever anyway, and I don't like supporting AI. OTOOH one subscription isn't noticeable really, so they won't care.

...I hate making decisions...

(Side note: my phone's predictive texting really wants to decapitalize I. If I type "i wo" it of course autocaps i to I, but then doesn't suggest "would"/"wouldn't" for the next word, but instead suggests "i would" which changes the I back to lowercase. Is this inherent to autocorrect or am I doing something wrong?)

Entry tags:

Hrm.

Not sure how this one came out but it's there at least.

Iron

It turns out
I used to
Do
Blood
Wrong

And it left
My eyes
Bruised
And tired;

I don’t know
what being a man
Actually
Is

But now
I look at my face
Without wondering
What
Hit
Me

And that
Will do.

monuments

Small-town Great War memorials are so sad. You have this glorious statue erected To Our Brave Boys, Their Sacrifice Will Endure Forever, and then, added on to the side or back of the plinth, the World War Two memorial is like, "well, fuck."

Entry tags:

handstands

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Kinda funny how mood can affect experiences as much as the other way around.

Impulse-went out to eat tonight... Black Bear Diner, a casual diner spot where I ( Read more... )

and I'm just really satisfied and happy, and I know good food improves my mood, but good moods make food better

I don't expect this mood to last all evening but dang it's nice

* * *

Unrelatedly, I love that the D&D DM for my group rewards roleplaying. Our group had freed a genie and were granted a wish; the guy with the highest charisma was volunteered to make our request. He didn't make any effort and was just basically "give us X", got a 19 on a persuasion check, and that failed and annoyed the genie. I used the inspiration I'd gotten (from a really good pun) to undo that attempt, then decided to take over since high-charisma dude didn't want to try again. My character has -1 to charisma, but I gave a passionate speech about the various adventures we'd been through and the various perils we were facing and how we could Defend The Innocents better if we could get some fun magic items to use... I got a 10 for the persuasion check and *passed*. (High-charisma dude is already at BEC status for me, so it was extremely amusing to win with a lower roll just because I ... erm, roleplayed, in a role play game, how novel...)

Every Kind of Craft now open!

Do you make crafts? Do you like to look at crafts? Would you like to get (or give) advice about crafts? All crafts are welcome. Share photos, stories about projects in progress, and connect with other crafty folks.

You are welcome to make your own posts, and this community will also do a monthly call for people to share what they are working on, or what they've seen which may be inspiring them. Images of projects old or new, completed or in progress are welcome, as are questions, tutorials and advice.

If you have any questions, ask them here!

apparently it's just like riding a bike!

I picked up my bicycle yesterday!

On

ringthebells's wise advice, I had them show me how to lube the chain and pump up the tires. (not that I own chain oil or a pump, but in principle I am prepared!) They installed a locking kickstand (fancy!) and threw in a rear-view mirror, which they mounted on the left handlebar and which I didn't think I'd have the spare attention to look into for days, as I concentrated on figuring out how to ride a bike again after fifty years, but I was certainly glad to have it. I wobble-rode around the local parking lot a bit to get the hang of it and then headed home! I felt secure enough to ride it on some of the deserted residential streets, but got off and walked it whenever there was traffic or I just felt insecure. (Every now and then I have to swerve a bit to keep my balance, which is not a thing to do if there are cars around.)

And today I rode and walked it into downtown again, to a community festival going on this weekend that provides a secure bike valet service. And I already feel more secure and stable (which is not to say that I'm not still occasionally wobbling, or jumping off in a hurry, and definitely am still walking it whenever anyone or anything else might be moving anywhere near me) -- and checking the mirror is already almost second nature! I think forty years of driving a car helps with that. I have the theory of how to shift pretty well down, too; this bike has three gears in front and five in back, which feels like massive overkill for my needs, and all the riding I've done so far has been on the level, but I've tried changing gears a few times just to get used to how to do it.

I traded my bike for a claim check and wandered around the community festival; and then I wandered through the big main-street commercial festival that's also going on; and then a friend texted me to find out if I was nearby and I connected with them and we wandered back through the community festival so they could check their bike as well, and then through the weekly farmers&crafters market, and then through the National Indigenous Peoples Day festival -- there was a lot going on in my city today! And then we went back and reclaimed our bikes and said goodbye and I biked-and-walked home, and now I'm exhausted from four hours in the midday sun but I still have a bunch of stuff to do before I leave tomorrow morning for eight days, oof. (Vacation with my in-laws. I do like my in-laws, but still -- oof.)

But it feels ~~slightly scary and also~~ good to be back on a bike after all this time! And my goodness but that is faster than walking. A very different kind of muscular effort, as well.

Entry tags:

my day

More tiny excitements

* Shelves are fairly well stuffed. The other brackets have arrived, so we can go get more boards and tiny hardware at our convenience.
* There is now Shelf in the living room. Things are going in it.
* Household tidying progresses.
* Today I filled boxes for 13 weeks of my morning and evening pills. It feels like it took less time than usual, but I think that's a trick of the light. I think I usually start later in the day, and keep going until it's dark. It took about four and a half hours; I try to allocate at least 5.
* This means that I've got pills packed until sometime in September. Go, me?
* Juneteenth is tomorrow!
* Turns out that being a director at a certain kind of non-technical organization means that you spend evenings face-down in the user interface level of a misbehaving database. I am chockablock with sympathy.
* Yellface is adorable, and likes to spend the part of the day when I'm awake but still in bed sitting on my legs.
* Had games and pizza with friends last week; they've got a young-ish teeneager placed with them right now. She wasn't up for games but she did appear to fill her water bottle. Luna-cat is very curious about new people and apparently charged her, which was off-putting. I faded early.
* I got some new bras; I'll have to add pockets but the test wear was promising!
* Nobody told me about the dragons in The Priory of the Orange Tree, everyone just mentioned the lesbians.
* There's a new serial at

the_comfortable_courtesan!!!

Current Mood: thoughtful

Entry tags:

Brief ponder on autistic social trauma

After a conversation bit Saturday (and then another conversation later Saturday) I got to pondering that my default manifestation of deep-seated social trauma is always at least partly some flavor of "I am faking all this (and if anyone notices they will hurt me)" and now I'm wondering if at least some of that 'I am faking this' is rooted in dysphoria issues as much as it is neurodivergence because if I'm historically incapable of feeling authentic as myself I can't expect anyone else to see me as real either.