There is an ongoing war between the oligarchs and everyone else, which only one side fully understands is happening

Maybe we should all start submitting "helpful" AI-generated PRs to Omarchy. 🤔

So... stick with it? Go back to Japanese, which I love, and try to regain the fluency I had 30 years ago? Switch to Spanish, which honestly sounds way easier than Portuguese (even though I was never that good at it)? Switch to Italian, for no reason but that it would be fun?

Start Icelandic, because I'm wrong in the head?

So many options...

My main reason – the only reason? – for sticking with Portuguese at this point is that I'm reasonably close to being ok at it, and it would be nice to get to a level of fluency in another language. But this isn't going to happen without spending significant time in Portugal, which won't happen for another couple years at least (if at all). And it would really suck to be in a holding pattern of just practicing for years, always two steps forward, two steps back.

I have now been studying Portuguese for over 2 years (6 months of DuoLingo, which was surprisingly good, followed by 20 months of tutoring). My teacher says she thinks I'm at B1 (which is kind, but almost certainly untrue).

My reason for originally studying the language appears to have evaporated. Or at least, to have lost urgency (obrigadinho, Lei da Nacionalidade), so I'm left with the question of whether to switch to something else.

Live your life in such a way that you won't be remembered as a tagalong suck-up so pathetic that you'll become a monster just to be accepted by the worse monsters, and still won't be.

The Japanese character for older brother is a mouth on legs. 🤔

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116778767230035885

Thinking about a friend of mine who got into Herbalife and destroyed all of his relationships.

Me: the world is falling apart. Time to shitpost about beloved 19th century literature.

Rereading Jane Eyre. The most appalling part of the first chapters is the degree to which she wishes to absolve Mrs Reed of her cruelty.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@littlealex/116658929488230900

“Any system of thought that subordinates living people to a hypothetical future has already committed the foundational moral error. Once you accept that logic, there is no limiting principle. Any atrocity becomes justifiable. Any amount of present suffering can be rationalized as a necessary input to the glorious output.”

While I appreciate that it hasn't (yet) cost me my job, I hate that my entire workplace personality is being the anti-AI guy.

I honestly feel like the companies that have moved to 100% vibe-coding / dark factory are engaged in revenue capture, trying to milk things as long as they can before it all comes crashing down. #AI

When you change your air filter and it’s furry

My wife just labeled one of my *very important activities* as "productive procrastination", and I feel very called out.

Feeling angry that em dashes and en dashes are now verboten

Homemade vanilla extract: slit open a half dozen vanilla pods, put into vodka, wait 6-12 months.

Homemade almond extract: in order to get rid of the natural occurring cyanide in the stone fruit pits, first... AW HELL NO

I keep track of the biobot numbers on a daily basis. Which is why I've felt fine going unmasked at work and in restaurants this summer – the numbers have been very, very low.

But they're starting to tick up, just in time for the new school year. The mask is going back on.

Also, it turns out that the magic words to get a Covid shot in the US when not strictly eligible are "I live with someone who is immunocompromised." Which is true for me, and will work for anyone else.

#CovidIsNotOver

Thinking about real life super powers.

* supertasters
* perfect pitch
* extra color receptor
* eidetic memory
* extreme funniness
* perfect direction
* human calculators
* ability to stay focused on a task
* charisma

Foreign languages are funny.

Like, I'm listening to all these Portugese podcasts, and they keep referring to the Pope as "Papa".