Chinese is a ton of memorization and figuring things out from context, mostly (source: am an adult learner, been learning for about a year now). I’d say it’s not directly comparable to learning spelling of any latin-alphabet based language (source: english is my second language, I had to learn it the hard way when I was old enough to remember the pain of it). But interestingly enough a lot of characters do have some clues in them, either for pronunciation, meaning, or both. You start to see the patterns after a while.

Basic example: 妈妈 (ma1ma - mother), 妈 character consists of 女 (nü3 - woman), and 马 (ma3 - horse). Woman part is related to the meaning, horse part is a pronunciation clue since it’s also a ma sound (albeit with a different tone).

But even with the clues you have to sit down and just memorize a ton of characters, which is not what the 3 clue system is doing.

As others are trying to convey, it’s not about the bot but about allowing yourself to indulge in this behavior. The bot could be substituted for a rock or a rubber duck, but you are training yourself to subconsciously think that this behavior is acceptable. It increases the chance that you’ll one day start treating actual people like that.

Imagine this scenario: you come home after a long day of work. At work, you use AI a lot and curse and swear at it when it makes mistakes (which is often). At home, you ask your spouse/child/roommate/parent to do something for you, which they attempt but proceed to mess up. They apologize, and instead of handling it calmly you instinctively react like you’ve trained yourself to react - by screaming at them.

Is that what you want to be like?

• Disco Elysium
• Outer Wilds
• Morrowind
• Rimworld
• Subnautica

Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. Really weird, abstract and interesting. Anyone labeling it as Dark Academia or a magic school book is both completely correct and dead wrong at the same time.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar both have very interesting concepts and great executions.

When it comes to interesting concepts in fantasy/sci-fi, Adrian Tchaikovsky has some bangers. Elder Race, Children of Time, or Alien Clay are some random example recs.

China Mieville’s New Crobuzon trilogy is really out there too. 2nd book is the best and can be read independently but does spoil some things from the first.

…the house elves are in Hogwarts too. They are not staff, they are school property. Harry owns a house elf after book 5. The books openly ridicule Hermione for being the only sane person and trying to end house elf slavery because apparently the house elves like being enslaved and she’s just overreacting. Need I go on?

It’s perpetually in progress but what’s there is already pretty much a complete game, dev just can’t stop adding/revamping things. I’ve played it like 5 years ago, spent 50+ hours and had a great time. There’s also an active modding community.

Nah, humans are great at pattern-matching, even just being aware that some find 67 funny is enough for you to start spotting it. I started finding some amusement in it just due to exposure from younger coworkers.

I don’t listen to this band much but I’m quite partial to Siamés - the Wolf. The animation, limited color palette, and the music all together feel very satisfying.

Depends where you live, it’s somehow still alive and well in Poland! You’d usually use the lowercase xd for a more refined and low-key vibe tho, the full caps ones are reserved for special occasions.

I’d love it if Secret World (preferably the original release, not Legends) was a singleplayer RPG instead of the half-assed MMORPG that it was. You could lower the enemy density and respawns, maybe add some computer-controlled party members Guild Wars 1 style, and it would be the dopest thing ever. The lore, vibe, and worldbuilding in this game is immaculate, it’s just a shame it’s strapped to an MMO framework.

Sorry that that happened to you! Unfortunately there are many people in lesbian communities that can be quite judgemental about such things.

And some people just simply haven’t considered the difference between being attracted to and physical enjoyment derived from sex with somebody. Look at asexual people (who generally experience very limited or no sexual attraction) - some of them are having partners and enjoying sex, and it’s incorrect to say that they aren’t ace anymore because of that (although there has been some drama regarding this topic, go figure). Same in your case.

I’d say saying you’re a lesbisn is absolutely fine - you’re the final arbiter of your own identity.

Arbitrarily forcing a choice to clarify your feelings on the matter can actually be very useful, it’s just a bit rude to use other people for it. When I have a choice like this I’ll sometimes throw some dice (d6, 1-3 for white, 4-6 for blue), if I’m happy or don’t mind what they landed on then it’s the correct choice, if I’m not I’ll probably realize which option I was secretly hoping for and go with that.

I had to check what community I’m in, still can’t believe this is not the Onion.