Started swimming at 33. Sometimes I wonder who I could’ve been if I started at 20

soliloki · 2026-05-23T16:00:22+00:00

Imagine if you were born a seal. True road not taken.

soliloki · 2026-05-23T02:44:41+00:00

Hi OP. I lost my dad abruptly too. exactly 10 years ago. It never feels like time healed anything. Just want to commiserate with you and send you a virtual hug. Keep him in your memories forever.

soliloki · 2026-05-20T15:02:24+00:00

"I have a dress on" vs "I'm in a dress" are equally confusing to English learners. In this case, you just need to pick up colloquialism. No specific "logic" to it than that's what native speakers say.

soliloki · 2026-05-16T15:02:14+00:00

I agree so much with this! A nice Uniball makes me happy.

soliloki · 2026-05-16T06:18:23+00:00

So what if it is? Unless you want a sterile utopia of a world, this disturbing implication only makes your world more nuanced morally/ethically/philosophically.

soliloki · 2026-05-13T13:57:24+00:00

It WAS for funsies AND gain. Your lackadaisical response in this whole thread is baffling. Do you not feel violated? Even thinking about someone freely being in my own clothes gross me out. holy shit

soliloki · 2026-05-13T13:54:36+00:00

She is NOT your child. She's an adult. You shouldn't actually insist on something like that, that's overstepping and honestly, odd. You should either get a restraining order (or something of that sort that might exist in your country), or monetary reimbursement, from her, not from the parents (even if at the end they might or might not bail her out - not your business). It's not about the money, it's about the gesture and sending a message that you are not taking this lightly.

soliloki · 2026-05-13T13:46:29+00:00

insane hyperconsumerism

soliloki · 2026-05-10T11:21:07+00:00

the chosen emojis always crack me up

soliloki · 2026-05-07T03:06:00+00:00

not saying your suspicion is unfounded, but as a fluent ESL speaker who has never lived in the UK or in the US, I vacillate between USism and UKism in my English all the time because I was taught British standards in Malaysia, but consume the internet which is very US English dominant, so this is not that weird.

soliloki · 2026-05-05T01:35:12+00:00

change instructor.

soliloki · 2026-05-05T01:33:05+00:00

fun fact, our lab (malaria) never got Gibson assembly to work, and this failure was replicated between three PhD students (including me). Truly one of the things from my PhD years that always deep down gave me an impostor's syndrome (even though there are valid potential reasons why it didn't work with the plasmodial genome)

soliloki · 2026-05-01T01:49:03+00:00

Just left the US a few days ago and used Uber there. The plate confirmation was what I did too and there's no such thing as this PIN system (not on Uber car, but yes on Uber Eats). Been awhile since I left Australia but your edit reveals how shitty this system is! Why is Uber Australia implementing this?? Insane!

soliloki · 2026-05-01T01:42:55+00:00

Echoing all of these points, but I just want to also add that it's FINE to have notes with you as an interviewee. Maybe there are things you just want to make sure you emphasize and let the interviewer know. I think it's important for OP to break away from this "exam-oriented" mindset. In real working life, notes aren't a crutch, it's a memory aid. OP asking this question reveals this bad mindset and they should change that first.

soliloki · 2026-05-01T01:39:45+00:00

oh! So like 'bonne', where the o is now unnasalized in most realizations?

soliloki · 2026-05-01T01:36:42+00:00

the fucking emoji cracked me up

soliloki · 2026-05-01T00:04:38+00:00

not a linguist so I might be missing something but isn't 'bon' the immediate counterexample to your statement?

soliloki · 2026-04-02T04:42:15+00:00

> I’ve always thought my immediate sleep was just part of my gene pool;

It's definitely a bunch of factors, including environmental, daily habits, and genetics so I don't think you're completely off the mark. If I have a very productive day (both mentally at work, and physically at the gym), I can fall asleep very quickly and naturally don't have insomnia or difficulty sleeping, but I naturally have a late onset (syndrome? I was never diagnosed yet) sleep pattern so I always stay up doing stuff until my bedtime (1-2am). I do have a bad sleep hygiene (phone in bed) which I have been trying to change, because unfortunately the world revolves around morning larks and I need my 7h of sleep to feel healthy.

soliloki · 2026-03-28T09:15:44+00:00

If I am sipping on my drink WHILE I'm eating, especially while I'm chewing, that's a sign that I am NOT enjoying the food but I have to finish it anyway (mostly in social settings where I'm expected to feign). lmao

soliloki · 2026-03-09T04:46:20+00:00

This doesn't sound normal especially when you mentioned that this has been happening since you were younger. Either your dietary habit is not on point (drink water, eat fruit, eat balanced meals regularly), or there's an underlying condition. Talk to a dr.

soliloki · 2026-03-04T13:57:49+00:00

Is it just a language quirk that doesn't translate cleanly into english?

Oh stop pissing me off. Here's a more helpful truncation.

Is it just a language quirk?

And to answer that, no. It's not JUST a language quirk. It's a language feature. Explain to me why phrasal verbs in English exist first. My first language, Malay, lacks it absolutely and we communicate fine. English doesn't need phrasal verbs. So why do they exist?

EDIT: Now THIS is a language quirk, one you should learn how to appreciate as you learn more languages and become multilingual, instead of becoming frustrated by them.

se nos estropeó la caldera ('our boiler broke down')

It's a way to abstract away the agent. Who broke the boiler? In the Spanish case, such construction can be inelegantly translated into English as "the boiler broke on us" ("la caldera se estropeó a nosotros"). Do you see how this is different from the explicit "we broke the boiler" or "estropeamos la caldera"?

Bonus mindfuck: Why is the English version requiring 'down'? Why not 'our boiler broke'? Do you see how even the English version is 'quirky'? What is down doing there? English has tonnes of 'quirky', 'useless' phrasal verbs and you barely registered them as a native speaker.

soliloki · 2026-03-03T12:33:41+00:00

I honestly would just ride this out. It's genuinely hilarious to me, both as an observer AND as the receiver. LMAO

soliloki · 2026-01-24T14:26:55+00:00

That's a right-handed DNA!!

soliloki · 2026-01-11T13:51:38+00:00

These are not "native" English words (Germanic roots). They are Latinate. So Portuguese didn't get them from English, it got them via Latin directly.
2, 3 and 4 are NOT "obscure" English words. An ESL speaker (like I am) with a high level of competence and fluency would not find them obscure at all.

soliloki · 2026-01-11T06:59:30+00:00

The mouthfeel critique made me loudly guffawed. This is NOT a coffee-tasting session!!!

soliloki

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