a sudden update

Jul. 12th, 2025 12:51 am
issenllo: strawberry thief print from William Morris (Default)
[personal profile] issenllo
It's been so long since I posted that I will not look for my last post. Suffice it to say that I had plans for Yuletide, then Hikago Day, then nothing. Yikes. I had not quite anticipated how much a big fandom does swallow you up. My heart Hanyu Yuzuru <3

On the other hand, I've also stumbled upon the world of tolerable to terrible Chinese language webfiction, on podcasts via (probably) an AI-generated narrator, on Youtube. Some of them are long-ish, about 1 hr, the ones I'm going for are about 30mins. I set them on the kitchen counter while I cook... this is the level of intellectual engagement they require. On the other hand it's doing a lot for my listening comprehension of Mandarin, especially the ones that (inexplicably) run at about 1.5 speed.

Most of these webfiction (flashfiction?) that come via my algorithms are of broadly three types:

1. set in unnamed/imaginary ancient Chinese dynasty, a young lady's (yes it's nearly always a noble lady) journey to marrying the right guy, finding love and happiness. Plots include some version of evil stepmother or stepsister drama, mother-in-law drama, harem plots, invasion by barbarians and a/an (in)conveniently conferred decree of marriage by the emperor. Eventually she gets rid of her rivals and villains and live happily ever after.

2. Teenager on the verge of gaokao/national examinations, becoming the top scorer in the province, finding love and happiness. Plots include some version of school bullying, evil best friend/sister/stepsister, nearly missing the exam due to plots, switched at birth drama and meeting a tall, handsome boy who is smart, rich and madly in love with her. Eventually they move to Beijing or Shanghai, build a global business empire, and live happily ever after.

3. Either of the above except with rebirth/redo/reincarnation premise, or that they have been pulled into an imaginary bookworld where 1 or 2 are happening. These variants come with the ability to predict what bad guys are doing and getting on top of that, exposing the two-timing boyfriend, backstabber best friend, etc. and getting some vindictive revenge (in the best way!) along the way

They are incredibly addictive given how generic and predictable they are. It's a bit like Mills and Boon. You know how it will end but you can't stop. A few came close to being genre-savvy but most of them have been very earnest so far. Some are pretty funny and a few genuinely made me cry.

Admittedly my algorithms have skewed me towards a certain type of fiction, so I'm drowning in Mary Sues on a wish-fulfilment journey. They have similar names. The male lead and the 2nd male lead also have similar names, and the ability to differentiate them is how you know the skill of the author. For the stories that are reincarnation premises, I'm grappling with the morality of pre-emptive revenge, i.e. you are reborn and you meet the villain who murdered you horribly in your last life, but now that it's a redo and you've just met him and yes, he's still a baddie but right now, he hasn't yet done a thing to you, should you - just go ahead and skin him alive, so as to speak?

Something to consider lol

Embodiment requires sacrifice

Jul. 10th, 2025 11:00 am
sporky_rat: Garrus, Mass Effect 2 (hurt)
[personal profile] sporky_rat

Stupid little walk for stupid little brain chemicals in stupid heat.

It was either heat or humidity, so heat.

Sunshine Challenge #3

Jul. 10th, 2025 10:53 am
pensnest: PP full face (Pedro Pascal)
[personal profile] pensnest
Journaling prompt: What are your favorite summer-associated foods?

My grandma grew raspberries. She had a lovely square patch of canes, and I often helped pick them, which was a great way to sneak extra raspberries into my mouth instead of into the bowl. Delicious berries. And they remind me of my grandma, which is never bad.

FIL also grew raspberries. Back when he had two allotments (!!) and a respectable back garden, he used to make raspberry jam, which was *excellent*. However, he also used to freeze raspberries with so much added sugar that they tasted more like sugar than raspberries, which was a practically criminal waste.

I have my first serious raspberry harvest this year! Picked a good bowlful on Sunday morning, and my Boy came round for lunch and interview prep. We had a generous portion each (fresh raspberries! from my garden!) and there was still enough for me to enhance my breakfast for a couple of days afterwards.

There are more on the canes. \o/


Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes.

Hmm. I spent two hours yesterday drawing people, in the final class. Copying a photo is so much easier than drawing from life! We spent half an hour on the photo (an elegant Black woman in profile), then drew one another for five-ten minutes using pencils, graphite sticks, charcoal and oil pastels, then one final 'portrait' in whatever medium we chose. It was actually easier to do the 5-minute ones, because there was no expectation that we'd do it well....

All this to say, I'm out of drawing today.

As far as summery food goes, I guess I eat more salad in the summer and more soup in the winter, but salad merely involves cutting/tearing and throwing into a bowl a selection from: lettuce and similar, from a head or a mixed bag or both, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, spring onions, feta cheese, salted cashews, sprouting beans, mushrooms, anything else I have that seems reasonable.

I am, however, inspired to create a Summer Pudding. Nigella has a recipe here https://www.nigella.com/recipes/summer-pudding but all you really need to know is: pudding basin, slightly stale white bread, mixture of berries, sugar. Line the basin with the bread, fill the centre with lightly heated berries and sugar, saving some of the delicious juice to coat all the bread. Cover the top with more bread, and juice that, then put a weight on top and leave it in the fridge overnight. Serve slices with double cream.

Eton Mess is good, too, with the additional benefit of not mattering what it looks like.

Icon is Pedro Pascal because he is also delicious.

DS Story: Y Is For Yuki

Jul. 9th, 2025 02:58 pm
grey853: (DS_FK2_koshi700)
[personal profile] grey853
Series: Due South Alphabet Series
Title: Y Is For Yuki
Author: Grey/Grey853
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski

Tags: male slash, explicit sexual content, explicit language, alternate universe-canon divergent

Summary: Ray and Ben get a new wolf-dog. Ray's life is in danger from a previous case. Vecchio makes a huge life decision.

Word Count: 28,153

Link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67319440

Snippet:

″What about Yuki?″

The tiny white fluffball suckled Ray’s little finger. The pup was still only a few weeks old, but growing fast. ″Yuki? Yuki for what?″

″For his name. It’s Japanese for snow.″

Leave it to Ben to know another name for the white stuff. The little guy snuffled and whined so Ray leaned over the wire barrier and returned him to his husky mama Hazel and two hungry siblings. ″Yuki, huh?″

″I know we’ve bandied several names around, but since he’s all white, I thought it might be appropriate.″

″Guess it’s classier than Snowball or Bubba.″

Ben chuckled. ″You really want to name our new dog Bubba?″

″Not really. Snowball would be even worse. Imagine calling out either of those names when we’re trying to get his fuzzy butt back into the cabin after a call of nature.″

″I am, which is why I’m suggesting Yuki.″

Ray thought about it and stared at the wriggling pup snuggled up close to his mother. Ben had been reluctant to get another dog, but had come around after the pups were born. Ray knew he said yes just to please him. If letting Ben choose the name helped him feel better about being a new pup dad, so be it. ″Yuki it is.″

(no subject)

Jul. 8th, 2025 12:08 am
ysobel: A kitten on a piano keyboard (music)
[personal profile] ysobel
So my G&S earworm morphed into a weird amalgam that started with HMS Pinafore --

We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We are sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.

-- only then towards the end of that song, shifted to a classical music orchestral piece that I had the damnedest time placing but that was something I knew I a) had heard within the past year, at one of the concerts I went to, probably late 2024, b) had not heard within the last month, c) had an annoying tendency as an earworm to loop (not just stick as earworms do, but literally loop back on itself), and d) had been in my head before, months ago.

It felt very much like either Tchaikovsky or Beethoven, and I was confident it was a symphony, so I went to imslp and started browsing the sheet musics. It was none of the Tchaikovsky ones, so I tried Beethoven, though I was fairly sure it wasn't the 9th. I also googled for "classical music that sounds like Indiana Jones" because some of the bit in my head reminds me of IJ music, only that confused things because the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky'a 6th contains a (different) Indiana-Jones section. Obviously the symphonies preceded Indiana Jones, just as the 4th movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony preceded Jaws, but still. It had to have been some sort of inspiration.

Anyway I eventually found it: the beginning of the 4th movement of the 5th symphony (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUNCQ4TbN4&si=qqSWtKaUa7qsXghO) ... not the first measures, but the stretch 0:30 to 1:00 with the cascading runs down and the horns and then the bit I fondly consider the Indiana Jones section. (I think it's the modulations?)

So then I had to listen to the whole symphony, and I had almost forgotten just how fucking amazing it is. The first four notes get overused in popular culture to the point of being almost cheesy, but other than that it's just utter perfection. And listening to it makes me incredibly happy omg.

(It's one of my favorite symphonies -- my all-time favorites are Beethoven's 5th, Sibelius' 2nd, and Tchaikovsky's 4th (clearly I need a first and third to round it out) -- and it's one that, if I'm alone, I'm moving to, not just "conducting" with hands but full body emphasis. Obviously I behave at concerts, so I don't distract others, but. It's just. Good. So good.

(If you don't know it besides the duh-duh-duh-DUHHHH motif that starts the piece, go listen.)

...of course, fair warning, it does sometimes get bits stuck in your head...

[note to self -- this entry took exactly an hour to write]

(no subject)

Jul. 7th, 2025 08:18 pm
echan: rainbow arch supernova remnant (Default)
[personal profile] echan
I switched my morning soda for tea, starting last month. I'd been intending to do this for many years, but I didn't actually like tea much, until recently. I want to say its because I made a concerted effort to acclimate to tea and gain an appreciation for it. And maybe those efforts helped a little bit, but mostly it just... happened.


Lately I've been feeling older, as if I didn't age for many years and now suddenly things are going a lot faster, and part of that is apparently existential crises about what preferences are personal choices vs quirks of biology or something else.

pensnest: close up of Adam Lambert without makeup (Adam beautiful)
[personal profile] pensnest
Soooooo.... mixed bag today.

Beast got my bug, and took a Covid test today. It was positive.

*

I sneaked, masked, into Sainsburys and bought twenty Covid tests by mistake. I meant to buy four, and was not surprised enough that the boxes were rather large.

*

I found dead animals, gross )

*

Our large freezer seems to have the spent the night warming up. Beast spotted this at some point this morning (it was at room temperature) and Took Steps, and it is cooling down again. But my lunchtime chocolate covered mint ice cream onna stick had to be eaten with a spoon. Chocolate casing: still good; contents: very soft indeed.

*

In better news (phew!), our new printer arrived today. It is mighty, and has a scanner on top like a lookout tower. It prints—in colour, which the elderly laser printer has not done for ages, since we didn't want to replace the cartridges.

*

We tried to help our Boy yesterday with prepping for his job interview tomorrow. Good luck, Boy! It mas been a very long time since he interviewed for anything, as he has made minimal but steady progress for over a decade with his current employer, and is more interested in being comfortable than successful.

*

I continue to be entertained by Bridgerton. I don't mind the dazzling colours of the costumes, for I am partial to bright colours and a good bit of glitter, too, but I growl at the sight of a long, white, modern wedding gown with train and veil. Give the poor bride something a bit nicer than last year's net curtains, please! I like the multicoloured cast—although I believe Regency England was somewhat more mixed than our media have generally made it out to be, it's nice to see a world where nobody is remarking upon it (well, not quite nobody, but it's generally just *there*). And everybody is ridiculously good-looking, of course. I don't think the Duke of Hastings has an equal yet, but there are competitors.

*

I planted those four fuchsias at long last, and pulled out the self-seeded currant that was growing in my hostas-and-fuchsias bed. And what appeared to be a baby silver birch, which I have transplanted in the hope that something pretty may result. It'll probably turn out to be something quite different, if indeed it survives at all.
crafty_packrat: (foodie)
[personal profile] crafty_packrat
Bacon-cheese wheel, almond croissant, apricots (!!), red plums, strawberries, yellow raspberries, black raspberries, sour cherries (pie!), donut nectarines, strawberry lemonade, a gallon of herbal lemonade, brown sugar kettle corn, caramel kettle corn.

Next week I will buy red sweet cherries (for ketchup) and peaches (for salsa), and actually enter my canning in the county's agricultural fair this year.

Fun fact, red currants used to be illegal to plant in the United States -- they are the second host for white pine blister rust disease, and that is a threat to the lumber industry as white pine is very susceptible to it. This is why purple candy in the USA is grape-flavored, while in Europe purple candy is currant-flavored; we didn't *have* currants (or gooseberries) legally for almost 100 years.

Sunshine Challenge #2

Jul. 5th, 2025 10:37 pm
pensnest: Victorian woman with fan, caption Fangirl (Victorian fangirl)
[personal profile] pensnest
Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-4.png

Tunnel of Love
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.

Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like


I'm going to be a bit wayward over the Journalling part of this challenge, but I think a bit of romantic fiction does squeeze into the category, so here goes.

Beast and I have lately started watching Bridgerton. I don't think it was the reason we decided to spend a little while chez Netflix, but it was one of the first things that sprang to my mind, at least.
Not spoilers, probably, since this is old news, but anyway.... )

The love poem is going to have to wait.

Sunshine Revival Post

Jul. 2nd, 2025 01:23 pm
yourlibrarian: Every Kind of Craft on green (Every Kind of Craft Green - yourlibraria)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) As part of [community profile] sunshine_revival's first challenge: "Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community."

I just shared some necklaces I made a few months back over at [community profile] everykindofcraft. I did a lot of beading in the first 13 years after I took it up, but things have been rather start and stop in the last 10. A craft store closeout + a challenge from a relative got me making some new things in the last few months. That probably also contributed to my starting [community profile] everykindofcraft here, because I saw various people posting wonderful stuff that not many people were seeing, whereas on Pillowfort some general craft communities there are always getting posts.

Hopefully we can get more crafters sharing here!

2) Have been watching a slew of Apple+ shows as our subscription cutoff nears. The miniseries Disclaimer was framed in an interesting way, one which I suspect had a lot more clarity in multimedia than in the book, but perhaps not. It uses multiple narrative voices and POV for the narration, including second person, first person, and some omniscient narrative. This was pretty relevant because of who was being framed (literally) and who actually got to have their voice(s) heard. Read more... )

3) Surface is a story told in a much more straightforward manner even though it also involves an unreliable narrator of sorts in that our central character had memory loss and is trying to piece together her past which also involves a parental mystery. Read more... )

4) Also saw the movie Wolfs, which is fine but largely a vehicle for us to watch Pitt and Clooney do fun stuff. Read more... )

5) Finished The Big Conn and Cowboy Cartel, two documentaries about big crime. I found the former much more interesting, even though I'd heard about the case before. What was probably the most striking about both was the role of the media in precipitating change. Read more... )

6) Careme was marketed as the story of the first celebrity chef, who served Napoleon, Tallyrand and others. It was certainly about far more than cooking. Read more... )

Poll #33317 Kudos Footer-529
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
5 (100.0%)



Been away, came back.

Jul. 2nd, 2025 02:17 pm
aunty_marion: (Y Ddraig Cymraeg)
[personal profile] aunty_marion
Hmmm. And it's been a year since I posted, it seems. There *was* six months of chaos following the flood last year, of course. Mostly sorted (two new shelving units, lots of unpacking, packing, re-unpacking, lather-rinse-repeat) & I still have 3 tubs of what S & N packed for me stacked in the bedroom, & still haven't got rid of my archery equipment.

Various other things have happened - I went to stay with [personal profile] lexin in December, & had a reasonable holiday, as usual, though I seemed to have gone almost completely deaf in my right ear just beforehand, which was ... interesting ... and has led to me getting hearing aids this year!

I went to the filk con in February, a friend died in May & I went to her funeral in early June; and I've just (on Monday) got back from another lovely 2-week stay with [personal profile] lexin in Bangor, where we had numerous outings!

List of the out and abouts )

Week one, done!

Week Two )

I came home on Monday with a slight sense of dread, but nothing seems to have disastered this time. Tomorrow morning I have someone coming on behalf of the council to do a 'condition survey', which I do have a slight feeling of dread about, as they may be recommending a new bathroom, which I shall fight because if they do I'll probably lose my washing lines.

Sunshine Challenge #1

Jul. 2nd, 2025 12:12 pm
pensnest: bright-eyed baby me (Default)
[personal profile] pensnest
There are at least a dozen bee-esque insects bobbing against the perspex roof of the verandah outside my craft room door. I'm not sure if they are confoozled honey bees or... not, but I have never seen such a collection of them in such a place before.

*

Sunshine Challenge Time!

Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-1.png

Challenge #1

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

Goals for July

1 Complete UCAS application
2 Communicate with potential new Mosaic members
3 Work on Rainbows song
4 re-think the progress of Dragon in the Woods
5 finish the Gardens of Giverny scarf
6 block the big shawl
7 try to actually post to DW instead of composing things in my head and forgetting them

Creative Prompt: Shine a light on your own creativity. Create anything you want (an image, an icon, a story, a poem, or a craft) and share it with your community.. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I have been going to a drawing class for the past three weeks—to my chagrin I won't be going today, because last night at about nine pm I was smitten with a vicious sore throat and a miserable nose. Having in consequence had far too little sleep, and being now obnoxious to be around, I won't inflict my woes on anyone else. (It's not Covid, at least not according to the test I took. But yuck.)

Anyway. I'm very pleased with this:




Excuse the dots at the bottom—I 'drew' a polar bear on the other side of the paper!

...well, hardly ever...

Jul. 1st, 2025 05:18 pm
ysobel: A kitten on a piano keyboard (music)
[personal profile] ysobel
So I was listening to an audiobook of Agatha Christie stories

and one character mentioned the "why and wherefore" of something

which *immediately* got "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore" from HMS Pinafore going through my head [https://youtu.be/fz00Ru9RXA8?si=_iW2jYRH-8RW_w49]

which of course meant I had no choice but to listen to the whole of HMS Pinafore [https://youtu.be/N6iNGprcxFI?si=B-vFtrypguIKurHv for example]

and now various of those songs keep popping up ... for at least week now ... only the lyrics are starting to scramble, which tends to happen when something is stuck in my head long enough.

("I am the captain of the minotaur~~" wait no)

Anyway my plan for dealing with this is to watch the 1983 film version of Pirates of Penzance, which is an extremely solid plan with no possible down sides.

Happy Canada Day!

Jul. 1st, 2025 11:58 am
grey853: (ckr_smile_skater_g8r)
[personal profile] grey853
I hope all my Canadian friends have a wonderful Canada Day. Let it be known that I respect your sovereign nation. Stand strong against all tyranny.

ckrcanadabanner

something I learned at climbing today

Jun. 30th, 2025 07:12 pm
echan: rainbow arch supernova remnant (Default)
[personal profile] echan
It is possible to use your entire forearm against one of those giant sloping holds where there's basically nothing to grab its just an awkward orb bigger than your head and you're praying to the gods of friction to keep you there. You do get a lot of friction, laying an entire forearm on it! So much that, after moving your feet up, you're in a terribly awkward position with no good way to move your forearm without losing a bunch of skin or falling off the wall.


I'm better at sloper holds than I think I am, but, confidence & lack thereof adds its own difficulty.

All is Well

Jun. 30th, 2025 12:15 pm
yourlibrarian: (MERL-ArthurLake-kathyh)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) A few more trip photos posted over at [community profile] common_nature, these of Oneonta Gorge.

2) Saw The Flash film and found it better than expected but also so-so. The big problem to me was the lead himself. Granted his character isn't really written to have any charm but a good bit of the humor fell flat for me, and when he was on screen twice as much it made it worse. Read more... )

3) Just an update about the bed situation listed in my last post. Everything went well! The youngsters delivering the bed had no problem with taking the old one down to the moving truck, and moving the other one to another room. Read more... )

4) A new wrinkle in the last few weeks is that during yet another heavy rain we got a leak near our front door. Read more... )

5) I quite liked this diagram of the interaction between entertainment production and fan activities. This came from an interview on Henry Jenkins' blog about a new set of textbooks for studying fandom.



Poll #33307 Kudos Footer-528
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
6 (100.0%)



AI is making my job worse

Jun. 29th, 2025 04:32 pm
echan: rainbow arch supernova remnant (Default)
[personal profile] echan
At work I have acquired two junior devs who heavily use AI when writing code. I don't mind the AI, but I do mind that they're too junior to know what good code looks like and AI accelerates their bad choices to stratospheric levels. One dev told me he that "AI couldn't fix the bugs" in his new unit test so he let AI rewrite it in a completely different test framework at four times the length and still with bugs. The other dev asked me to review 1k LOC he had not read himself that was a nightmare of bad choices and code that had no business being added to the existing service. For both, the initial review wasn't even a review, it was me eyeballing it for two minutes then bailing and telling them to rewrite it entirely.

Fleeting

Jun. 29th, 2025 01:27 pm
suzy_queue: A photo of Lou Ferrigno Jr through the golden lenses of sunglasses (9-1-1: Sunny Lou)
[personal profile] suzy_queue
Seriously, how is it almost July?

Mom fell and broke her ankle April 22. This is my first full weekend in my apartment since. It feels so soon, and also, I can't remember my last weekend here.

She's doing brilliantly, has been discharged from pt and just needs to be careful and not overdo it for at least the next three months. Which is something she will absolutely try and do, or feel she needs to do.

I won't lie, it was rough. I spent basically 4 weeks there, except for two overnights, and then moved to 3 day weekends up there. It was exhausting and sometimes stressful, and I felt awful abandoning work so much. But I loved the extra time with my sweet puppy, and was glad to help mom, and was paid by the state for some of my hours caring for my brother. So I'm glad I was able to do it--and also glad that Dad is pushing off his other knee surgery until next year, ha.

My first night here, back in May, was stressful. I went straight to work, got home after 9pm, and left the next morning. It made me feel for a week that my space wasn't my space, and I didn't belong here. And it took me a long time to get used to the idea of what I usually do in my own space--reading, creating, writing, watching tv--and be able to do it. I'm back into the groove now, mostly.

I did have a nice birthday, and did get to see Thunderbolts with Unicorn, and did end up having to drive up that night instead of the next because they needed me. That was stressful, the quick change of plan, so I was more intentional about choosing to come home on a Friday instead of Saturday the next time it was a possibility. And it did happen, and I was ready for it.

Thunderbolts was AMAZING, a top five Marvel movie for me. I can't wait to watch it again on D+.

I bought myself a laptop, mostly for D&D that starts in August but also a little for the kidlit convention this fall, and because it would be nice to have on weekends/long weeks home. She's super cute and still getting decorated with the perfect stickers.

I finished both of the stories I wanted to in May, and have been steadily creating icons and graphics for fandom_empire. Some weeks are inspiring and some weeks I make crap. But I'm always making!

Yesterday, I read a big stack of Marvel comics and a new kids book, watched the first three episodes of Ironheart, Frozen the Broadway Musical, and the first season of Murder in a Small Town, and only the kids book disappointed. Today I've done some board and convention things, showered, did a face and body mask, and BLOGGED YAY.

I'm off Thursday and Friday for the holiday and because I work Saturday, and I am tempted to go home Wednesday afternoon until Thursday evening, and still get Friday and Sunday off. I know it will take a load off mom, and I do miss my puppy. Otherwise I won't see them until July 17, which is SUCH a long time after two months of constant visits.

July is Disability Pride Month and I will be super super busy at work with programs and the usual summer reading madness so maybe another set of two free days will help me relax. Especially since it's pretty likely they'd convince me to stay until Saturday morning and leave at 7:30am to get to work. (We don't drive on drinking holidays because my grandparents did and my step-grandmother was killed.) But puppy. So hmmmm.

The cleaning pro is coming Tuesday and it's been March since she was here. My goal was to get the Christmas tree down but honestly, I don't think I want to. I'm embarrassed, but I really like the light. So, well, I probably won't do that today. But I can still make some things, watch some things, and read some things.

Gratitute!
1. I am grateful I get to do impactful programs and displays to celebrate disabled people!
2. I am grateful for icon resource communities--I just downloaded dozens of new layers for the first time in at least two decades so my icons can get fresher.
3. I am grateful for my friends at work who supported me through the last two months.
4. I am grateful that my D&D adventure has an official start date!
5. I am grateful for my window a/c unit. We don't usually get into the 90s until late July, but we've had a week or two of them.

Duo blathering

Jun. 28th, 2025 10:28 pm
ysobel: Pink bunny (bunny comics), holding a sign: "jesus save / cthulhu eats"; text: choose wisely (choose wisely!)
[personal profile] ysobel
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?)