conuly

Ugh.

****************************

( Read more... )

For anyone who wonders what they could do in the face of the kidnappings of students by ICE, there is bystander intervention training available for that as well as for other vulnerable groups right now.

Link from thisfinecrew

First, I go "Wow, I understand way more of this than I thought! I'm great at Spanish!" and then I go "Oh, oh, oh fuck no, I do not understand this at all, I do not understand this language even a little!"

It's never in the reverse order. I wonder why that is?

(Speaking of comics....

*********************

( Read more... )

if it was useful.

If you tell me that "herramientas" is Spanish for "tools" then I will automatically say "Ah, yes, because ferrum is Latin for iron, as in ferrous, and many Latin words beginning with F become Spanish words beginning with H, as in horno which clearly is related to our English word furnace." I did that literally two minutes ago. Your eyes are not rolling as hard reading that as mine did once I'd finished thinking it, believe me.

But what I cannot do is look at the word "herramientas" without a translation and then derive that on my own.

(I have that same issue in English, but let's be honest here - I rarely come across totally unfamiliar English words in the wild, and when I do then it's usually clear from context. I'm still a little irked about the time I was reading about the blood-brain barrier and came across the word "astrocyte" and had to look it up because all I could get from that is "something star shaped in the brain". I can't quite remember what those things do. But I know they're star shaped! In the brain!)

The city should be picking up mandated compost twice a week and regular garbage once. Because now that you can't put any sort of food scraps in regular garbage, obviously it's the compost that needs more frequent pickups... especially if their ostensible goal is to reduce the rat population via starvation.

**************

( Read more... )

but in the meantime I also created a whole bunch of feeds for (translated) comics in Spanish.

If you'd like to make your own, I got the feed URLs from Comics RSS and then went to the feed creation page.

Anyway, here's a list of the comics in Spanish feeds. They're not all good comics that you'd love to read, like, one of them is Garfield. It's just so I can get a little more practice.

( Read more... )

And the mockingbird has been singing, singing, singing from its perch at the top of the tree outside my window.

**************************

( Read more... )

but don't have the time or inclination to spend your entire life staring in horror at wtf is going on, you might consider subscribing to wtfjht_feed. One update instead of a billion.

In this kingdom
the sun never sets;
under the pale oval
of the sky
there seems no way in
or out,
and though there is a sea here
there is no tide.

For the egg itself
is a moon
glowing faintly
in the galaxy of the barn,
safe but for the spoon's
ominous thunder,
the first delicate crack
of lightning.

Link

Speaking of eggs, take a poll! Units are in pennies to get around the whole numbers rule, so just imagine a decimal point in the correct spot. At the grocery store today eggs ranged from $8.40 per dozen on the cheap end to $12.75 on the pricey end.

Every one of them tries to make the claim that the way to get poor minority students to behave and do well in school is to "reject victimhood" and be super strict.

If you ever find yourself reading one of these articles, keep these two questions in mind:

1. How do the results from these students compare from students who applied to this school but didn't get in?
2. What percentage of admitted students leave, are expelled, or are counseled out prior to their actual last year of school?

I guarantee, these questions will never be answered in the article you're reading. There is, in fact, a reason for that - and yet, people still keep writing them, which I guess means other people keep accepting them uncritically.

And their batshit, batshit counting down system with inclusive counting.

The 15th is the Ides of March, and the day before that is pridie Ides March, okay - and then the day before that is "three days before the Ides". Because thirteen, fourteen, fifteen makes three days. And they used that every time they wanted to find a date, counted backwards (inclusively!) from the next Kalends, Nones, or Ides.

It broke my brain then and I've never fully recovered.

****************************

( Read more... )

but what I hadn't seen is the absolutely batshit amazing official lyrics video.

So here it is. Enjoy!



(Huh, it's called "lyric video". That can't be right....)

I spent perhaps a little too much time on this game as an adolescent.

And now I guess I can relive it all! In agonizing, rat-killing glory!

‘You are free again’: farewell letters of executed Belgian resistance fighters found, 80 years on

So, Belgium has a small German-speaking population. My grandmother had a story about a neighbor who was from that population, and part of the resistance, and one day the soldiers came to search his house. Not his house specifically, I don't think, they were conducting a set of spot checks. So he went out to chat with the first arrivals at his gate, in German, and when the main group arrived the first few said "Oh, we don't need to check him, he's good" and they walked on!

The moral of this story, as always, is that humans are the weak point in any operation. The human instinct for sympathy and/or laziness can not be overestimated.

(Of course, she had another story about when the Germans left, and somebody put out a flag as they were leaving, so a squad circled back around and murdered him and his family. I guess they weren't feeling particularly sympathetic or lazy that day.)

Namely: When did we all decide we couldn't agree on how to spell Zelensky? Apparently right from the start, so why haven't I noticed until now?

****************

( Read more... )

Then they’re definitely not old enough for you to force feed them screentime while they passively lie there.

I notice Mom is wearing headphones, a courtesy she didn’t feel like extending to the rest of us.

FreshDirect sent me a coupon, and they have exactly two types of egg, organic and not, at $8 and $6 per dozen respectively - limit 3 per customer.

We bought 2.5 dozen last time, but I'm seriously considering getting some more.

If we must live in a dystopian hellscape, it really ought to be one where the tax forms come pre-filled. I mean, c'mon! This is the death by a thousand papercuts, isn't it.

*******************

( Read more... )

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut... maybe I should relisten to all of them first?

Also, the grocery delivery guy told me that our house looks like what he pictured American houses would look like when he was a kid back home watching American tv! He was suitably impressed when I told him it's just over 100 years old.

*****************

( Read more... )

Oh god no.

You ever wonder if you should be rooting for a military coup or a killer asteroid? Yeah. Except the far right has been making a concerted push into the US military for the past few decades, so I guess it'll have to be the asteroid. But hey, it isn't all bad - sky-blackening clouds of dust should put the brakes on the current climate crisis!

(I really need to stop looking at the news, except that there's stuff in there I want to see! Also, not knowing about the specifics isn't as helpful as I think it ought to be.)

and, miraculously, every one of them has spelled her name correctly. I feel like I ought to buy a lottery ticket or something!

(Is it too condescending to praise people for getting it right when they do it? Because, honestly, it's a tricky name! I feel accomplished every time I manage to get past streat without stumbling, to say nothing for feild.)

************************

( Read more... )

and it's not that good for very much - really basic. Does anybody know a charitable organization which could use a laptop even of a very basic functionality? Or, barring that, a person? They need to be in NYC - nobody's going to mail this, even with the best intentions.