fuck you hostile architecture fuck you requiring proof of someone’s address fuck you removing benches fuck you street sweeps fuck you pay-to-unlock bathrooms fuck you anti-encampment laws fuck you parking meters fuck you homeless shelters/hostels that make you pay, that have a cap on the amount of personal belongings you can have, that have rampant unaddressed abuse fuck you anti-homeless laws fuck you police fuck you fuck everything that criminalises being homeless
I don't think the data supports "lone wolf" terrorism as uniquely American, but if I was doing the worldbuilding, it would be. The country that famously prides itself on individualism having a social problem that's a reflection of its values? It's just too good.
If anyone was wondering, Duolingo just got even worse.
Duolingo was already on a downward spiral for years. I discovered it in 2015 and it was an incredible tool and I used it for a few years but then I started to notice a decline. It got worse and worse in a lot of ways.
I actually ended up having a surreal and jarring one-on-one conversation with Luis von Ahn, the founder and CEO, who reached out to me after a scathing critique I posted on Reddit started to get significant traction.
Talking to him was like talking to someone who had been brainwashed by a cult. I told him how I and others in my life had found Duolingo so useful and efficient for language learning, and that its usefulness was evidenced by me noticing a real-world improvement in ability to listen to, understand, and speak the languages I had been practicing, but that recent changes had made it dramatically less useful to where I needed to put much more time in to get the same amount out.
His response was like "But all our metrics are up, our data shows that our changes are working." It was so frustrating. The metrics were all about engagement. He was showing people were spending more time practicing languages, not that they were getting more real-world ability to converse in those languages. Practice time was going up but actual language ability was going down. I tried explaining that to him but he seemed completely unable and/or unwilling to understand my point.
It was like talking to a wall.
I left the conversation with any remaining faith in the Duolingo leadership completely shattered, and I completely withdrew from using the site.
I now use Clozemaster to learn languages in place of Duolingo, and I think it is far superior it terms of efficiency, especially when combined with listening to material produced by native speakers.
If you're looking for alternatives to Duolingo, here are some options that I'm aware of (and none of them are Babbel. Don't use Babbel):
Other alternatives to consider are Youtube, often a great place for smaller schools and creators to post content. I supplement my classes with Easy German, and I used to be pretty reliant on EveryDay Chinese to practice my tones. If you're looking to learn it, there's bound to be a channel out there that is tailored toward your language learning.
A second resource to look into is textbooks with app learning. MaGraw Hill, for example, has a free app with practice material for the books you purchase. (QUICK EDIT: The app I was looking for only works on older phones, boo. But other textbook companies often have apps.) My German textbook is published by Hueber, and they also have an app. When you're looking to self study, it's definitely worth seeing if there's a textbook to work out of that has built-in app support.
recently we were out on a hilltop taking photos of the comet and suddenly some car's headlights blind us from across the bay. literally four miles away.
who the fuck is out here with these nuclear fusion powered headlights. who puts naval searchlights on their fucking toyota tacoma.
the thing is, sitting with your legs curled up underneath you is so so comfy. until it's not. and your feet and legs are numb and cramping. and this happens every time
