Can Someone Please Explain To Me What Evaporated Milk Is? Wouldn’t That Just Be Gas By Definition?

Can't have the sun without the moon, so here's the lass <:

(Contemplation, Search for Truth, Loneliness, Isolation)

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Li Lianhua/Yi Xiangyi & Di Feisheng 6/?

MLC 1 | MLC 2 | MLC 3 | MLC 4 | MLC 5 LLH 1 | LLH 2 | LLH 3 FDB 1 DFS 1 | DFS 2 JLQ 1 JLQ 2 FEIHUA 1 | FEIHUA 2 | FEIHUA 3 | FEIHUA 4 | FEIHUA 5 OT3

Isekai where a fanfic writer is determined to get back to their normal world in time to post their next update on schedule

original post from changlinarmy.tumblr.com which has been deleted

Duolingo is NOT what it used to be.

Nation.Cymru

Language learning app Duolingo to mothball Welsh course

Emily Price Language learning app Duolingo will mothball its Welsh course at the end of this month meaning it will no longer be edited or up

“Duolingo is ‘sunsetting the development of the Welsh course’ (and many others)”.

I’ve used Duolingo since 2013. It used to be about genuinely learning languages and preserving endangered ones. It used to have a vibrant community and forum where users were listened to. It used to have volunteers that dedicated countless hours and even years to making the best courses they could while also trying to explain extremely nuanced and complex grammar in simple terms.

In the past two years it feels like Von Ahn let the money talk instead of focusing on the original goal.

No one truly had a humongous problem with the subscription tier for SuperDuolingo. We understood it: if you can afford to pay, help keep Duolingo free for those who couldn’t.

It started when the company went public. Volunteers were leaving courses they created because they warned of differing longterm goals compared to Duolingo’s as a company; not long after it was announced that the incubator (how volunteers were able to make courses in the first place) would be shut down. A year goes by and the forums—the voice of the users and the way people were able to share tips and explanations—is discontinued. A year or two later, Duolingo gets a completely new makeover—the Tree is gone and you don’t control what lesson you start with. With the disappearance of the Tree, all grammar notes and explanations for courses not in the Big 8 (consisting of the courses made before the incubator like Spanish/French/German/etc. and of the most popular courses like Japanese/Korean/Chinese/etc.) are removed with it. Were you learning Vietnamese and have no idea how honorifics work without the grammar notes? Shit outta luck bud. Were you learning Polish and have absolutely no clue how one of the declensions newly thrown at you functions? Suck it up. In a Reddit AMA, Von Ahn claims that the new design resulted in more users utilizing the app/site. How he claims that statistic? By counting how many people log into their Duolingo account, as if an entire app renovation wouldn’t cause an uptick in numbers to even see what the fuck just happened to the courses.

Von Ahn announces next in a Reddit AMA that no more language courses will be added from what there already is available. His reasoning? No one uses the unpopular language courses — along with how Duolingo will now be doing upkeep with the courses already in place. And here I am, currently looking on the Duolingo website how there are 1.8 million active learners for Irish, 284 thousand active learners for Navajo, and even 934 thousand active learners for fucking High Valyrian. But yea, no one uses them. Not like the entire Navajo Nation population is 399k members or anything, or like 1.8 million people isn’t 36% of the entire population of Ireland or anything.

And now this. What happened to the upkeep of current courses? Oh, Von Ahn only meant the popular ones that already have infinite resources. Got it. Duolingo used to be a serious foundational resource for languages with little resources while also adding the relief of gamification.

It pisses me off. It really does. This was not what Duolingo started out as. And yea, maybe I shouldn’t get invested in a dingy little app. But as someone who spent most of her adolescence immersed in language learning to the point where it was literally keeping me alive at one point, to the point where languages felt like my only friend as a tween, and to the point where friendships on the Duolingo forums with likeminded individuals my age and other enthusiasts who even sent me books in other languages for free because they wanted people to learn it, the evolution of Duolingo hits a bitter nerve within me.

~End rant.

so i was doing research for translation (while procrastinating, as you do), and well. here's a breakdown of 悲风白杨 / bitterwind poplar, the martial technique di feisheng created.

悲风, which i've translated as bitterwind, refers to the ear-piercing and mournful howl of the wind. when put together with 白杨, it likely references this couplet from the anonymous han dynasty poem 《去者日以疏》 / the dead become estranged with the passing of time: 白杨多悲风，萧萧愁杀人！ / how mournful is the wind that howls through the white poplars; the soughing sorrow weakens the heart! among other things, the poem describes an intellectual's forlorn confusion at not being able to find a way out/forward.

on the other hand, the 白杨 / white poplar is known for taking root easily even in harsh circumstances, and for growing straight and true with sturdy branches. therefore, in chinese tradition, it signifies an indomitable spirit that will not bend nor yield, and is strong enough to not be shaken. it also features in 《白杨礼赞》 / in praise of the white poplar, a 20th century essay written by the novelist 茅盾 mao dun, in which he commends the white poplar for unwaveringly reaching to the skies, then likens it to the tenacious and diligent northern farmer, whom he praises for being frank and striving for progress.

i literally do not have the capacity to think any further on this right now so. yeah. :))

Ghost Marriage 冥婚

Red Lotus: Despair and Brokenness

初見你 眉目清 容顏秀 • 曾許你 此生一世無憂 • 殊不知 你心中有解不開的愁 • 轉身 竟成 永久

Meeting you, at first, looking delicate and pretty, (I) once promised you a careless life. Who could have suspected, the intractable torments of your heart and that turning around would become an eternal parting?

Xiao ShùnYáo 肖順堯 - 雲樹之思 Cloud and Tree's Longing

has been lately watching

my part of @shlzine 💞✨💖🌟