megane-kun

I changed schools. Now, even if I wanted to approach her, I can’t!

Kidding aside, I asked myself “if I am so anxious even approaching her, how can I even be in a relationship with her?” and basically forced myself to decide whether to: “yeah, this is a crush that I won’t be doing anything about it, better to not let it linger and move on” or “I must do something about the anxiety.”

If my feelings is not intense enough for the second option, the feelings will die soon enough, and will not make me regret that much.

In reality, I tend to think “no, they’re more than likely not into me (due to various reasons)”, and I’ll just let the feelings be until they decay. Did it lead to regrets? Not really. The few times I’ve actually asked and approached someone I had a crush on, they were flattered, but ultimately told me they’re not into me. The more it happened, the more I felt justified in my way of thinking.

I know right? Kids don’t need any reason to carve penises onto desks and tables and walls. They just do.

One of the older toilets used in a couple of the old school buildings (demolished for a newer one after I graduated) was permanently closed because it became so full of shit.

It was a toilet on a separate building, that was used for a couple of old buildings (one from the 1930’s if the local oral history is to be believed), and another one from the 1970’s. The stench was so unberable that the classrooms near it were also abandoned.

Oh, the school wasn’t infamous for that. I think, pushing shit aside, it’s so wonderfully mediocre that it didn’t really have anything it was famous or infamous for.

I use Anki to keep my French and Japanese from deteriorating any further. Why those langauges? For Japanese, it’s the usual answer: anime and manga. For French, I had to learn it in school and I just don’t want to let it be forgotten.

A good number of the decks I use for language learning, I made for myself. Those that I’ve gotten from AnkiWeb were already gone, but here’s some similar ones:

• French Sentences — a collection of French sentences, sorted from easiest (most simple) to hardest (most complex). This deck begins with very simple sentences, and slowly gets harder as you progress.

  I’m pretty sure this is an exact, if not a close copy of the one I got a while back.

• Dictionary of Japanese Grammar - DoJG — a deck made from the entries of “Dictionary of Japanese Grammar” (basic to advanced).

  My copy of this deck has undergone significant changes in card design (and function, like showing a random selection of the example sentences), but this one should be similar.

• Core 2k/6k Japanese Vocab — likely one of the copies of the various Core 2/6k Japanese Vocabulary decks that were recommended to me back when I started. The description I managed to find for my copy of the deck has this description:

  Using vocabulary and sentences derived from Smart.FM Core 2k and 6k and sorted by Cangy’s program via 2001.Kanji.Odyssey kanji order. This detailed deck is designed so each new card contains the minimum amount of new kanji (and by proxy new words) creating an optimal i+1 learning environment.

I sometimes get that feeling when I run across someone’s personal blog, and it hasn’t seen updates in quite a long while (yeah, like in ten years or so). However, as with most of the other replies here, I tend to just assume they’ve lost interest and moved on.

I’ve had some blogs like that myself, and I’m certainly still alive (I hope, lol!) Some of them already gone with the sites themselves like Multiply, if you ever remember that, also, Friendster blogs—all this in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. Then there’s some Wordpress blogs I used for a while back in 2015~2018. I just got lazy, lost interest, and so left them in the dust.

Thus, yeah, I simply assume they’re doing just fine, and have just moved on with their lives.

However, there’s a different feeling for when I browse the blog/social media profile of someone I definitely knew has already passed on. It hits different. It’s like a frozen snapshot of their life. Their final post just there. A lot of times, the final post doesn’t even indicate anything. Their lives just went on as normal until it didn’t, and it just hits me differently than someone who I would just assume have just stopped posting.

The way I’ve been using (and heard it being used) is more about the act. For example: “Nakiki-usyoso ka pa dyan! Pumasok ka na nga!” (“You’re even spectating over therel! Come right back in, you!”)

There’s another word, usisa, which I would characterize as more like “to investigate, to look into” but is also akin to usyoso in a way I just can’t put my finger on. I think it got conflated with usyoso as the colloquial uzi (from usisero/a, “someone who is overly-curious”) took hold (example: "Uy! Wag ka ngang uzi! Kita mo na ngang nag-aamok na yang si Mang Torio eh. Pumasok ka na dito, bago ka pa madamay dyan!" [“Hey! Stop being an onlooker! You already see Mang Torio running amok. Come back inside before you get involved.”])

I’d use neither to refer to the feeling of “wanting to find out about someone I’m spectating on” though. Personally, I’d just use something like na-intriga (“got intrigued/curious”). For example: “Na-intriga ako dun sa nabasa kong blog kagabi. Ano na kayang nangyari sa kanya. Huling post nya 2020 pa, tapos depressing pa yung post.” (“I’m curious about the blog I read last night. I wonder what happened to them. Their last post was on 2020, and the post itself was depressing.”)

I’ve started doing this when I noticed the space savings. First, I’ve done it with underwear, then with my undershirts. Now, only those shirts I need to be ironed (and immaculately folded) don’t get rolled.

Wait, what? Peel avocados? ‌ Just why?

But then again, I grew up eating ripe, if not nearly overripe avocados, the kind whose flesh would turn into mush if you try to grab them. So, yeah, I would just slice the avocado in half (going around the pit), remove the pit, and then scoop out the flesh.

I’d be worried about not really being able to make my own decisions and not having someone there to help me out.

I don’t know about you, but I sure hope I’d be able to check out before that time comes for me. Before my mind and body becomes too feeble, I’d like to be able to just nope out.

Even if it were possible, I still would not prefer to have any kids.

First off, I haven’t even been a “proper adult”, and probably would never be. How can I be expected to raise a child with the care and love they deserve when I don’t even have my life sorted out? Even if you argue that I’d have to change once having a child, I’ve also seen people fail to change even after having children they swore they loved even more than their own life.

Secondly, we’ve already got enough people that are unwanted and abandoned. Why not take better care of people we already have now?

Lastly, parenting is a huge commitment. It’s not just about you and your “legacy”, but another life that will suffer for your mistakes. For those who are up to the task and willingly take on the responsibility, thank you and best of luck!

Because why not? I’m alive by default, and I’m too lazy to change that.

First OS: Windows 3.1 running on top of MS-DOS 6.2

First Linux distro: Ubuntu (forgot the version, but it was circa 2018).

If I’d count an OS/Linux distro that I’ve used even if not in a machine I own, it’d be Linux Mint of circa 2006.

NO

Neither do I self-identify as a tankie, I don’t think anyone who’d identify themselves as tankies would think of me as one.

I’ve tried to discern the context in which you’re asking this question, but based on the OP and their replies, I think it’s not so much about outlining than it is organizing details and thoughts before writing the initial rough draft. I might be wrong and that the OP‌ already knows about what I’d laid down below, but I hope even if it doesn’t help the OP, it might be of help to someone.

Outlining is basically trying to organize your thoughts and all the details mapped out before writing. I assume that all the details are already laid out in one form or the other, and now it’s time to put them into order. What order things would be put into depends on what is being described or being explained.

If I were to describe a house’s interior, I might go from the main door, then proceeding as if I’m physically walking through the house, and then describing objects I encounter as if I’m panning the camera.

If I’m describing a person, I might go with the basic biographical details first, then an overview of their achievements, then personal life. Within each heading, for example, their personal life, I might go chronologically.

If I’m describing a process, I might go with an overview of what the process is for, what are its inputs, steps needed to prepare the inputs for the process, and then the process itself in chronological order. Within each step, I‌ might go into the reasoning behind having to do this step, or why this step must go before (or after) some other step.

If I’m describing an idea, I might go for a general definition first, then go more specific, discussing what makes each specific definition different from the others. I might then go for a quick historical overview of how this idea came into being, what ideas have led to this idea, and the thinkers that have contributed to building up this idea.

That is, there’s a lot of approaches you can use to organize your ideas. You can organize your ideas or details based on location. That is, organizing details spatially, like describing a house’s interior. You can organize your ideas based on time, which came first, which comes next, like describing a process. You can also organize your ideas from most general to the most specific (or vice versa, though starting with the most detailed first might require more concentration on part of the reader). One can use these and any other methods of organization you can think of so long as it makes sense given the context.

How you might organize your ideas or details would depend on what you’re trying to achieve in the first place, and some methods are more suited than others depending on the topic. Lengthier works might even require a mix of these techniques. For example, if I were to describe a city for a D&D campaign, I might describe its layout first, laying out the details as if I were walking through the city. Then, I might describe its government structure from the widest in scope to the narrowest. Is it part of a kingdom? How is the city itself governed? Are there any districts, if so, how are they governed?. I would then give an overview of its history—in chronological order, of course. Any other detail that might be of use (for the DM or the players) can then be listed in order of most prominent or well-known to the least.

Now as a demonstration, I’ll attempt to outline this response:

• Foreword and disclaimer
• Basic overview of outlining
• Examples
  • Describing a house
  • Describing a person
  • Describing a process
  • Describing an idea
• Organizing detail
  • Based on space/location
  • Based on time/chronology
  • Based on generality/specificity
  • Combination of approaches and others
• Demonstration

This might pale in comparison with all the other replies here, but one incident really made me uneasy.

I was seated inside a train minding my own business. I was wearing a loose shirt and an even looser pair of walking shorts. The shorts were made of thin and glossy material. It wasn’t thin enough to expose my underwear but it readily shows any bumps or whatnot.

The train wasn’t that full, and there were lots of empty seats. The train had longitudinal seating (two rows of seats facing each other, with some standing space in between. There’s also an area where the train can “bend”. This area has no seats of course. I was seated next to this “bendy area”.

I remember having difficulty staying awake and was seated in an increasingly loose way. I caught a glimpse of a guy standing in front of me. He was leaning against the train walls and was on his phone.

Now, the train isn’t the most quiet, but I distinctly heard an unmistakeable camera sound which jolted me awake. Selfie cameras on phones wasn’t yet a thing back then and the way his phone is oriented, I can see the phone’s camera lens pointed at me. The guy, noticing that I noticed the sound, quickly put the phone back in his pocket.

I might be wrong, I hope I was wrong, but I thought a stranger took a photo of me just a meter or two away from me.

That’s it. Kinda underwhelming, I suppose but I was kept wondering why that guy, if it’s indeed the case, took a picture of me.

Before, I use Active for my subscriptions, and Top Day or Top Week for the All feed. Currently, I use Scaled for my subscriptions and All feed unchanged (Top Day or Top Week). I just like how I can take a peek at All and looking at the day’s or week’s top posts while mostly keeping to my subscriptions.

I sometimes look at Top 12 hours or Top 1 hour in my All feed, but rarely.

Yeah, as far as I’ve seen, that’s the vibe: Esperanto isn’t perfect, it can be improved, but it works and changing it would introduce confusion and would make it harder to learn.

I also sense this unease among the Esperanto-speaking community with regards to changing anything in the language. That allowing any one of the proposed changes will lead to a slippery slope of accommodating any and all proposed changes.

And then there’s the fact that not many of these changes have gained foothold amongst the community (perhaps due to the aforementioned unease in changing anything about the language).

Esperanto has no grammatical gender, indeed. However, it isn’t as gender neutral. For example, the word for “woman” (virino) derives from the word for “man” (viro). Lots of other words referring to females (humans or otherwise) can be derived that way. Examples include:

• patro (father) → patrino (mother)
• onklo (uncle) → onklino (aunt)
• kuzo (cousin) → kuzino (niece)
• kato (cat) → katino (female cat)
• hundo (dog) → hundino (female dog)

This is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it helps with the learning of the language by making it easy to derive words from existing ones, but it also makes it easy for someone ascribe sexism in the language. There’s also no agreed-upon way to make words gender-neutral. There’s a lot of proposals such as listed in this wikipedia article on Esperanto gender reform but I don’t think there’s been a consensus other than “don’t change it!”

Of all the claims Esperanto has, I think “one can easily learn it” is the one that has most ground to stand on. It’s been a while since I’ve dabbled in the language and I can still read and listen to it without much trouble (save for having to look up some of the more specialized vocabulary).

I find it more difficult to read text that are short, concise, but using lots of specialized vocabulary. However, a problem about the second choice is making it simple in words, but structured in such a way that ensures both attention and comprehension.

The problem with walls of text, and a problem I also encounter in stuff I write myself, is how there’s just a wall of text. A string of lengthy paragraphs consisting of long sentences that just go on and on without providing the reader a place to pause. That is: a point in which the reader can stop, check for comprehension or just a breather.

Reading such a block of text can be tiring.

I’ve been taught to employ a variety of sentence and paragraph lengths, and try to apply them to my writing. However, this can run the risk of making the result disjointed and rambly. I am guilty of this myself. I realize that this just means I didn’t take the time to collect and organize my thoughts before typing things out. It can be as simple as thinking about what I want to say in the first place, or it can be as involved as thinking about the main point and any supporting points, and how I can lay them out such that they flow neatly in the result.

Longer texts can be improved with just a bit more care in their composition, and without it, walls of text are definitely a chore to read.

EDIT:

I should proofread before hitting post.