There’s no copyright date on this one. If it’s the normal 80’s/early 90’s I wonder how many readers would have known what a futon was

If you use youtube on a mobile app rather than a browser, it doesn’t have an address bar

Can anyone say the s and the th in Isthmus? It’s making my tongue feel funny.

You joke, but one time I got woken up by what sounded like a Chinese lady complaining about batteries, and it turned out to be the low power alert on the cheapo import soundbar.

directus→derecho from “straight” to “right”

So that’s why “straight on” and “on the right” are the maddeningly confusable “a derecha” and “en derecho”. Such a pain when following directions.

I’m using an LG K9 right now. Works ok, but I’d prefer a smaller screen

In Mexico I found out that, when you’re expected to be somewhere at the actual time written on the appointment, it’s called English time. Was a surprise to me (am English) because I thought that was German time.

bxa3 on a pastry

The prized all-noun headline

So many times I wanted to talk about ‘el año’, and instead wrote ‘el ano’. 😣

(Spanish. ‘the year’ vs ‘the anus’)

Compared to the first question, I had to think a lot harder about this one. First stumbling block - ‘difficult’. Difficult compared to what? Second, ‘reading’. Is it ok to also think about characters in films and TV here? Taken at face value, the answer would be no, but the question seems more about interpreting the story than about the medium that the story is in. So film and TV should be ok? I think?

Anyway, characters in stories tend to be pretty explicit in their intentions. Captain Ahab wants to kill the whale, Frodo Baggins wants to destroy the ring, Elizabeth Bennett wants to find a suitable husband. They will explain themselves in dialog, and sometimes even get their thoughts narrated. Sometimes a character’s goals will be ambiguous or misleading, and that’s deliberate on the part of the author. It’s not a problem if you get to the reveal in a mystery novel and don’t yet suspect the killer. So, I think I can follow stories well enough. But…

Is there some aspect to characters that I’m not getting, and that I am not aware I’m not getting? There’s a kind of intrigue type of stories that just go over my head. I never know what’s going on in Scorcese or Frances Coppola movies, for example. And then there’s people in the fanfic space who like to ship characters, or imagine this character in that universe, and I don’t get it. Back in school we had a book report exercise with questions about the characters and how they develop through the story, and I found it unreasonably difficult to apply those questions to the stories I was reading.

So I’m going to say Slightly Disagree. On the face of it, I can generally understand what I need to follow a story. But I have some doubts, and I don’t think I have the insight to assess how relevant those doubts are.

E. After the discussion below, I’m revising this to Slightly Agree. I think there’s more going on with this question than I’m able to fathom.

Did you know YAML is a recursive acronym? It stands for ‘YAML AML MAML LAML’

I don’t get the gender neutral either (using Gboard on an older Android). Which is a bit odd because as far as I can tell gender neutral is the base character, and the male and female versions are customisations that are applied as if they were accented characters.

I’d rather have them all as no-gender, no-race, generic little yellow peeps but eh…

Getting XCom flashbacks. I’d set up a breach team on the door, and send the rest of the squad round and up that drainpipe so they can drop down from the roof. But best go around the back of the cars so as not to activate through the window.

Have you all forgotten that they directly addressed this in the show? https://youtu.be/Q9W7pvOLxmQ

Stamets, put Lemmy down! You can post a meme once you’ve done a task.

Oh no, that was my perception in my words. If there was anything so explicitly hostile I would have taken a picture of that instead.

Some context for my reaction - it has a cover letter that mentioned the high demand on the service and 24+ month wait times. Health service provision here (the UK) is highly politicised (as it is everywhere), and services are always under pressure to cut their wait lists. The application pack came in separate sections for standardised assessment forms, and one for admin details like contact numbers and medical history. This question was in the admin section.

I appreciate your point of view though, and it’s a reasonable possibility. I’ll keep it in mind when I fill it out.

Oh that’s all reasonable information to ask for. And I hadn’t considered the possibility of someone filling it reluctantly at a doctor’s request, so thanks for that. But the format of the question rubs me the wrong way.

“Bearing in mind that our resources are limited, and that you might be mistaken, write a persuasive speech about why you, in particular, merit our attention”. I’m (I think) decently able to express myself. I’m not great at self-advocacy, but I can grit my teeth and do it anyway. Not everyone filling this form will have those advantages. It feels like a barrier for people to self select out of the process, and I have to wonder if was clinicians or administrators that put it there.

Almost at the top of the rope. You won’t have long before a patrol spots you, but long enough to snap a picture and get out. You swing your legs over and look around.

The top of the wall exends into the morning haze in both directions. The view to the other side is blocked by a jumble of small huts, chimneys, floodlights; each one emblazoned with the logo of the Ohio Containment Corp - the block capitals OHIO enclosed in a möebus band. You pick your way through until you see what you came here for.

Disappointment. It’s just the same scrubland, dusty tracks and fields that you drove through to get here. Maybe there’s some settlements way off in the distance? It’s hard to see. Oh well. What did you expect? The whole secret laid bare on your very first view? You snap a picture, and step forward for a better look.

What was that? You heard something! Is there someone else here? You dart back and crouch, out of sight you hope, and try to listen. If there was a guard they would surely have raised the alarm. You creep forward, quietly as you can, then … shit! You see its shadow. Human shaped, crouched, moving slowly, stalking you.

You’ve gotta go. Where’s the rope? You must have got turned around in the confusion but you find it. Swing over and back down. Hand over hand as fast as you dare. Your buddy Flip is still at the bottom where he parked the car.
“Whoa, slow down. You’ll break your neck”
“Flip, we gotta go”
“Did you get the photo?”
“Yeah, but -”
He grins and raises his palm. You fumble the hi-five.
“Flip, someone saw me. We gotta go”
He looks up at the wall, sceptical, but nods. “Hey, are you driving?” He motions you towards the other door. You stumble around and climb in. What is wrong? Something is, you know it.
“Wow, you’re really flustered about something. You’ll feel better with some breakfast.” He hands you a candy bar. You take a bite. It tastes … not bad, but different. It’s some knock-off Snickers bar with its label in a foreign alphabet. Flip starts the car and pulls out left, past the Containment Corp sign. You notice a misprint on the logo - it says OIHO.
“Flip, I don’t think this is the way back”
“Sure it is - it’s the same way we came here. You’re really in a state. What happened to you up there?”

You don’t know. You try to think. You try to reflect.

Here’s the article I checked to refresh my memory; https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/oct/15/homeland-is-racist-artists-subversive-graffiti-tv-show . The show runners never checked and it went to air uncensored.