CW: ageism

Life, it seems, is the valiant yet hopeless struggle against entropy. It begins as a trickle and builds year by year into an irresistible tsunami that sweeps all our poor structures away.

📚💬 #bookskychat 🧵 Took a while but I finished Le Tour du monde en 80 jours (en français facile). I read it (in English) decades ago but didn't remember it much. What a wild ride! 1/2

No one tells you that along with everything else, aging is the accumulation of grief.

Two unrelated thoughts 1. US Constitution Article VI, clause 3 2. Sturgeon's Law

We all suffer indignities daily. Some of us smile and carry on, So as not to rock the boat too much. Me too! Me too! And sometimes I wish I didn't.

#dyspraxia is a rather neglected neurodivergent condition. Here are two short videos by #bytesdyslexia (Michael Bloomfeld) that that give an overview and discuss just how complex it is youtu.be/KR0yqJLYK1g?... youtu.be/1gkL1do860M?...

Replete with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and baguette Because lox and bagels are not to be had in this culinary backwater that is southern France.

An elephant's life tedious, laborious, slow, I've been an elephant all my life so I blooming well ought to know youtu.be/oZccW-ntOKE?...

So much to do And time is running out. Still waiting for the ADHD to kick But I've relied on so much this last two years I fear it may be broken.

Once again, intellectual disabilty and moral defect are not the same

In the late 60s and 70s several pop groups released songs criticizing upper middle class culture. Some of these efforts were worthy: The Boxer, Sounds of Silence, Eleanor Rigby, Nowhere Man, Little Boxes. Some were not. I'm thinking of Simon and Garfunkel's "Dangling Conversation." 1/

A subpost: Yeah, nature is healing and all that, but regular access to wild nature is an extraordinary privilege.

J'ai un chat Le chat a moi J'ai trouvé mon chat sous le abre là-bas. (It doesn't matter if you put a few extra syllables in a line)

One of the commonest bits of advice I've gotten as a language learner is, "Read. Don't worry if you don't understand everything. Don't worry if you are mystified even for pages at a time. Just keep reading. Your mind looks for patterns and it will find them." 1/2

I have eaten the blue paint that was in the reflecting pool and which you were probably saving for July 4 Forgive me It was delicious so American and so flag

Tonight is the annual Festival of Music. Musicians all across France will be performing in the streets gratis. With daytime temperatures near 40C, I hope a) people will be careful and b) temperatures drop rapidly at sunset.

💕💕Frannie here. While I am waiting for my forever family, my friends and I are busy eating and um filling up our litter boxes 💩. Our fosters are in desperate need of Dr Elsey’s Clumping Litter. Can you help us out? 💕💕 www.chewy.com/g/loudoun-co...

Just for reference 40C is equivalent to 106F.

Cats I have known: • George II, a beautiful, smart tuxedo boy, gone way too soon. • Buttermilk, a gorgeous, floofy orange, smarter than the reputation but definitely lazy. • Lupin, a small but willful tortie rescued from the barrio. • Mullein, her daughter, incredibly soft and very shy. 1/3

Can I just say, je desteste, the expression "neurospicy"? It suggests that neurodivergence is just a flavor sprinkled on top.

I dunno. Dunk on me if you wish, but most the World Cup videos I'm seeing (that aren't actual play) are young, white men acting stupid.

Good question. IMO there could be also, to investigate, potentially an epigenetic effect. Mitochondria have their own, separate DNA. It comes exclusively from the mother. www.genome.gov/genetics-glo...

“Under chronic stress, mitochondria may adapt in ways that supply cells with the energy needed to respond quickly to adversity, which can be useful in the short-term....But, over time, if the mitochondria are always working as if they’re under stress... it might wear them out more quickly...."

Personne a raison. Personne n'a pas raison.

The rat has sharp teeth But a man with no manners A man with no manners Why doesn't he just die. -- Book of Songs

Reading "Around the World in 80 Days" in simplified French, and ambiguity of "Je suis le voleur" is hilarious.

#MyAdventuresLearningFrench ✅️Reading ✅️Listening ✅️Writing ✅️Vocabulary ✅️Grammar ❌️Speaking Il fait chaud aujourd'hui. Il fera chaud toute la semaine. On a la clime, mais elle est très cher.

Hot take that will earn me much hate: the Obama Presidential Center is ugly.

Life with a cat: there is fur in my wine.

#MyAdventuresLearningFrench ✅️ Speaking ✅️ Reading ✅️ Vocabulary ✅️ Listening ❔️ Grammar¹ ❌️ Writing ¹Today was group lesson day. The teacher doesn't really do grammar, which is OK -- yesterday's post. But she did do a bit about expressing degrees of liking or disliking something.² 1/32

#IYKYK But my brother Esau is an hairy man, whilst I am a smooth man.

#IYKYK As I was on my way here tonight, I chanced to go out by the way one should go in. A chap from the railroad hailed me, "Hey, where do you think you're going." At least that was the gist of what he said. 1/2

#IYKYK Life is like a tin of sardines. We're all of us looking for the key. Some of us think we have found the key. We roll back the sardine lid of life and enjoy the sardines, the fruits of life therein. But, you know? There's always a bit in the corner you can't get out.

Yeats said it better" "The Best Lack All Conviction While the Worst Are Full of Passionate Intensity" -- WBY, "Second Coming" Why is this better? (Other than its more elegant and forceful phrasing) 1/2

#Narjawan I hadn't any scones, and I was low on jam. I did have some biscuits (stale, I'm afraid) and some tea (still good) when Narjawan came knocking at my door. Surprised, I opened the door and welcomed him warmly. "Narjawan! It's been an age!" "Yes," he said. I've been traveling." 1/3

#MyAdventuresLearningFrench ✅️ Reading ✅️ Vocabulary ✅️ Grammar ✅️ Writing ❌️ Listening. There's a whole school of language teachers who say not to study grammar. I get it. It's pointless to memorize a whole bunch of rules that have no context or meaning. 1/3

This might become a My Adventures Learning French Account (or not) Today's scorecard: ✅️ Reading¹ ✅️ Listening² ✅️ Speaking³ ✅️ Grammar⁴ ✅️ Vocabulary⁵ ❌️ Writing ¹One hour Jules Verne "Around the World in 80 Days," student edition. 1/

Bonne nuite à tous. Morgen werden beßer sein.

I read to be taken out of myself. If I want gloom and fear, dread and destruction, I can get all that at home.

My French teacher played a trick on me. I recently started private lessons, and, of course, the teacher is trying to assess my level. Last session we agreed that I am at about A2. Today she gave me a "Test de Niveau" (test of level) 1/

Je ne comprends rien. Donc je vais me coucher. Bonne nuit a tous.

Two suggestions to avert the impending SSA crisis, and one to end the problem of excess inherited wealth. 1. Lift the cap on SSA taxes. There is no good reason to exempt high income earners after some arbitrary limit. 1/2

There is love that is based on passion. It does not endure. There is love that is based on commitment. It endures. This is true of personal relations, and it is true of one's relationship to God.

Where I am with French right now. In language learning there are seven treasures. Four are skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Three are accomplishments: vocabulary, grammar, and spirit. Of them all the most precious is spirit.

Morning.

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To somewhat oversimplify, the root problem is not intellectual incapacity. The root problem is immorality By which I mean the unwillingness or inability to recognize other people as people.

From time to time someone will post an extract from some philosopher. Without fail it reminds me why I don't read philosophy anymore.