demerso3

[demerso3]

Blunder Down Under

Australia has gone completely off the rails with regards to COVID-19 lockdowns and should feel ashamed. Does nobody care about the tradeoffs associated with lockdowns, especially this far into a pandemic when vaccines have already been rolled out? As President Biden would say, "C'mon, man!"

#australia #covid 19 #lockdown #covid #covid19 #omicron #pandemic

[demerso3]

Regarding self-hate

I hate to complain, though I do it a lot. It is mostly because I hate myself and I hate where I'm at in my life right now. It gets worse when I think about all the people who probably have it worse than me. In that sense, I have no right to complain.

Unfortunately, a lot of these problems could be solved if I were able to go back in time with the knowledge I have now. Hell, even if I didn't have all my knowledge, but knew what NOT to do, that would be better. How is it that the older generations tell us to watch out for such mistakes, and yet, even when we try to have good foresight, we make these same mistakes anyways?

I had a dream that I woke up in 2012, and everything from 2012 - 2021 had been a dream. I was so happy. But that happiness turned to sorrow once I woke up and realized those years had already passed.

#self hate

[demerso3]

Self-Driving Cars

A post for the future:

I am certain self-driving cars will be as popular in ten years (by 2031) as human-driving cars are today and have traditionally been. It will happen

[demerso3]

Resumés

I hate making resumés. Nobody is ever happy with mine, and when I say this I don't necessarily mean with the content. I mean with the way the resumé is formatted. None of these career advisors, deans, and other administrators ever seem to agree on anything.

Even the name itself - resumé - tries to be fancier than it really is. Most of these are probably thrown into the trash by recruiters anyway. It's gotten to the point where everybody is incentivized to beef up their resumé with bullshit both they and the recruiter know is bullshit, but don't want to address it directly. It just seems like the way people develop their resumés, and try to get a better job/education, is all messed up. There must be an emphasis away from resumés and a greater focus on more objective criteria for evaluations.

#resume #careers

[demerso3]

On Vaccines and GMO's

Why does it seem that conservative people are more likely to be anti-vaccine, while liberal people are more likely to be anti-GMO? Both stances are wildly anti-scientific to take, and are often based on the false narrative that "more research needs to be done" to prove their effectiveness, despite it being the case that there is already a plethora of research proving the safety of vaccines and GMO's

#vaccines #gmos #science #politics #conservatism #liberalism #anti vaccination #anti GMO

[demerso3]

Hello world!

Did not post much this summer. Trying to get back to posting more often.

Wishing everyone who is reading this a blessed day :)

[demerso3]

North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Island - home to the Sentinelese people - is a mere 52km away from the city of Port Blair, capital of the Andaman Islands. This fact might seem random, until one is reminded that the Sentinelese are described as the most "isolated" people group in the world, yet are relatively close to a city of 150,000. Travelling from North Sentinel Island to Port Blair (or vice versa) is like travelling from the southwest corner of Staten Island to the Bronx.

#geography #history #anthropology #archaeology #politics #people

[demerso3]

My Experience with Duane Syndrome (DS)

Does anybody else here have Duane Syndrome (DS)? I have never met anybody else in real life with the syndrome. For me, I cannot move my right eye to the right. I sometimes forget that I appear cross-eyed to other people.

Having DS is mostly a hassle when it comes to taking pictures. The photographer always wants me to "keep my head straight," and I always have to tell her that I cannot do so without looking bizarre. Shit sucks.

#duane syndrome

[demerso3]

Things that happen throughout the day that, probably unreasonably, piss me off (Part 2)

I hate it when, during conversation, people say stuff like: "Well, at least you have to admit that...." or "You've got to admit," or "We can all agree," or something of that sort. Bullshit! This is not necessarily the case. I don't "have" to admit anything. We are each our own person with our own thoughts, ideas, and lived experiences. Instead of trying to force agreement on something (however trivial or not), why not foster healthy disagreement?

In other words, no, I don't "have to admit," whether in part or in full, to your point of view if I find something wrong with it.

[demerso3]

"Friends" has such a great theme song for such an awful show

[demerso3]

Brood X: Cicadas 2021

We are living through a historic period. In my neck of the woods, the 17-year cicadas are emerging (the current brood is known as "Brood X"). While out on a run today, the sound of cicadas was deafening. I have seen more news articles and the like about cicadas than I ever have before. Indeed, 2021 is the first year of wide-scale social media coverage for these cicadas (think back to 2004, the last time these cicadas emerged). Mark this historical moment on your calendars!!!

#cicadas #brood x #entomology

[demerso3]

My experience with Asperger's/ASD

At a young age, I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (now more commonly referred to as simply being under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD). I was once told by a peer that I had "internalized ableism" for wanting to be neurotypical. I do not think this is true, and hope to expand upon this idea in a later post.

For now, I will leave it at this: For simplicity sake, I think of my life as encompassing two spheres, the "professional" and the "personal." I have been assured from friends and family that my professional life is on the right track (though this is highly debatable, in my opinion). However, there is so much wrong with my "personal" sphere that can only be attributed to ASD. If I cannot get my personal life on track, and overcome these obstacles which arise from having ASD, my life could go south very quickly. I do not want to ever see that happen (obviously), but am naturally afraid that can happen in the future.

#autism #aspergers

[demerso3]

Regarding debates

I should just start calling people "dumb" if I disagree with something they say. That is what they do to me, and it works every time! When I am reminded how stupid of a person I am, I just change my mind and agree with the other person. I wonder if this will work with other people....

[demerso3]

Regarding Language-learning

English is my native language. I don't say I'm "fluent" in English here because some of you in the comments section are probably joking about any grammatical mistakes in this post. Regardless, English is the language I'm best at, as difficult and sad as that may be to believe. I could not talk until I was five; perhaps this is a testament to how difficult the English language is to learn.

However, just because I was born into speaking the world's dominant language does not mean I haven't tried to learn others. Growing up I tried my hand at Spanish, and most recently, I've been learning Japanese. Now some of you in the comments are calling me a weeaboo, or otaku, or whatever.

Despite years of practice, I am fluent in neither, and am increasingly concerned that I will never be fluent as I grow older. From my understanding, it is much easier to learn a language when one is younger, given the neurology and malleability of the brain. Unfortunately, as time moves ever forward, the ability to learn a language wanes significantly.

Now, I will be the first to admit that there are things I could have done differently to improve my Spanish and Japanese studies, respectively (such as getting over nerves about public speaking, along with better study techniques). My perception is that I've picked up on Japanese more quickly than Spanish in part due to the fact that I could learn from mistakes I made when I was younger. However, I maintain that, given the knowledge I knew at the time, I was doing my best.

Similarly, if I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be to not care what other people think. Growing up in Texas, there were a lot of Spanish-speakers. Making a mistake in Spanish class was embarrassing (or at least, I perceived it as embarrassing) because my peers either already knew the language, or were picking up on it quickly. Laughs and chuckles would ensue, which was admittedly a blow to my self-confidence.

Speaking of which, it always seemed that I was slower to learn a language than my peers. Verb conjugations were always tricky for me. While it was "easy" (or for the more sophisticated, "intuitive") for my peers to tell the difference between "hablaron" and "hablaban," for me, it was anything but. Cumulatively, over time, I began to resent some of my bilingual friends, who I felt were gatekeeping the Spanish language by using a combination of peer pressure and destructive criticism to send a message that I was incapable of learning a second language. This has happened in my Japanese language-learning as well, though not to the same extent. Given that I am now older, the people who I hang out with are older as well. However, this “gatekeeping” still occurs, and it frustrates me when it does happen.

Perhaps most frustrating is when I see this happen to somebody other than myself. My good friend Caesar (I have changed his name here to protect his identity), fluent in both English and Spanish, was once stationed on the Sinai Peninsula as part of a UN Peacekeeping mission. Caesar quickly made friends with many of the Fijians who were stationed there as well. Caesar, being the intelligent and curious man that he is, was interested to learn more about the Fijian language. Members of the peacekeeping mission who were from Fiji were described as being “laid back,” and “jokesters,” but wanted to help Caesar learn more about the language - at least, ostensibly they did.

Caesar was told that to say “hello” in Fijian, you must say something along the lines of “bula bula tavale.” Now, from a quick Google search, it seems that “bula bula” is used as a common greeting across Fiji. People in the comments section can feel free to correct me or add on to this as needed. However, the “tavale” part is a little sketchy - the word gets into kinship and familial relations in a way that does not necessarily appear to be tied to the word “hello.”

Regardless, Caesar was assured he had learned the proper greeting for “hello” in Fijian. Caesar would eventually leave the military and, about a decade after his time on the Sinai Peninsula had concluded, went to a Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawai’i as part of a vacation with his wife. There they saw an exhibit on Fiji, being presented by, naturally, two Fijians. Caesar was excited to say “hello!” to these gentlemen in the Fijian language, and repeated the “greeting” he had learned years earlier.

The two men started laughing hysterically, and informed Caesar that he did not say “hello,” but in fact, asked permission to marry his sister. Caesar was embarrassed, and when he told me this anecdote, I was vicariously upset.

Here, Caesar had the opportunity to learn a piece of the Fijian language. It was a first-hand learning experience not afforded to many, and while the Fijians on Sinai were under no obligation to teach Caesar any part of the language, feeding him bad information is worse than declining to teach him at all. Instead of teaching him the proper way to say “hello,” the soldiers set Caesar up to fail, get embarrassed, and look like an idiot in the process.

Caesar’s story resonates with me, in that the tomfoolery showcased by the party that knows the language - and taking advantage of somebody who does not know the language - is but one reason why, generally speaking, I don’t look forward to studying languages like Spanish or Japanese.

And then, to top everything off, people have the audacity to get mad at people like me when we make a good faith effort to learn a new language, but simply “aren’t getting it.” Alternatively, critics of the monolingual say that learning a new language is “easy,” and question one’s work ethic in doing so.

To reiterate, I understand that, upon reflection, there are certain things I could have done to make it easier on myself to learn a second language. Furthermore, I plan to continue studying Japanese, and hopefully work up on my Spanish. I maintain that “society,” broadly defined, has made it unnecessarily difficult for me to learn a second language, and that there are other monolinguals - and even multilinguals - who feel the same way.

#language #linguistics

[demerso3]

Thank you, pop machine! I was once scared shitless of the newest novel coronavirus. However, after reading your message, I realized just how much I was cared for. Very cool!

#coronavirus #drink #beverages

[demerso3]

Education ≠ Intelligence

[demerso3]

My #1 Fear....

......is that there exist civilizations in our universe so advanced compared to humanity, that they look at us like we look at bacteria.