I forgor 💀

Having finished graduate school in September, I will be starting my new job soon, and pitching in (voluntarily) at the workplace until then is a refreshing change. It’s nice having something to do.

Except for the names he spelled wrong. Some unrelated people will die.

If you take a view of America as it truly is and truly has been, rather than an idealized view of what it could be or says it is, it’s hard to say that America is the superior option, especially considering the direction that America has been going over the last 30-50 years.

At least Chinese investments in renewable energy and sciences and general human development are actually underway, unlike the United States, which seems hell bent on halting or reversing all of the above. And this is not even a trump thing, that has been the trend for most of my adult life, at least as far as I can tell: Rising anti-intellectualism, gutting the arts, science denial, and doubling or tripling down on non-renewable energy sources have been the milieu in the USA as long as I can remember, having been born there in 1990.

Hey, I studied at Sophia and even met Dr. Mari, even if just in passing! Neat!

Two that are related to falling

猿も木から落ちる [Even] monkeys fall out of trees [too]. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you’ll always get it right.

七転び八起き Fall down 7 times, get up 8. Pretty self-explanatory

I’m not very caught up on the specifics but I do think it’s funny that the same people who chortle about Tiananmen and Chinese censorship on DeepSeek have nothing to say about the results you get from Gemini or ChatGPT if you ask about American politics (elections/politicians) or misbehavior (Gaza/Israel/Palestine) or even ask them to write something violent or sexual…

What?

That’s a direct translation; better English equivalents would be “give it a try” vs. “look forward to it”. They are pronounced similarly (tameshimi/tanoshimi) and either makes sense in context (usually heard at the end of an ad), so “Please look forward to/get excited about X” and “please give X a try” both would make sense.

Commercials are saying お試しみしてください and not お楽しみしてください.

Realistically? I probably wouldn’t. And neither would you.

What does it do to things like visas, customs, etc. when all your travel documents and similar credentials are just obliterated like that?

No， it was not natural.

I mean, yeah - they don’t.

I have one plastic bag that is full of other, crumpled plastic bags.

Were? Did something happen?

Nunca imaginé que los leopardos se comerían MI cara.

Dopamine and serotonin.

他會說中文嗎？

"it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

And even if it turns out to be, we'll only really know in hindsight.