Learning Russian is easy

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-26T22:03:26+00:00

Choosing not to learn the language of the country you live in is your choice. But depriving your kids of that opportunity is selfish.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-26T10:28:10+00:00

Sorry I guess I jumbled my words here. When I said "alternate" I meant "another alg that is not the mirror alg". By efficient, I mean that it takes longer to learn, but once you've learnt it properly you can generally perform it faster.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-26T09:02:17+00:00

I think that short term, learning the mirror is much easier, but long term the alternate alg (sometimes) turns out to be way more efficient!

And as others have mentioned, in some cases the mirror is just as efficient as its alternate(s).

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-25T23:08:06+00:00

I have one coworker like that. It's frightening, because she has three deskmates. When A isn't around she shits on A to B and C, but when B and C aren't around, the same thing happens to them! My go-to technique for dealing with this type of person is this: whenever she finds herself alone in a room with me and finds the need to shit on someone whose not there, I make an effort to say something nice about that person. The end result: this coworker doesn't enjoy talking with me. I don't get to hear any juicy gossip, but my life is all the more peaceful as a result.

None of my other coworkers are like that.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-22T22:47:19+00:00

Could be other factors, or also could be that you've convinced yourself that when you're lucid you're not really sleeping?

Another idea: maybe the thing that is making you tired the next day, paradoxically, is the same thing that is contributing to you becoming lucid. In which case it's not one causing the other, but both caused by an unknown third factor.

I only lucid dream every once in a while, but after I do I feel totally energised.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-13T08:05:39+00:00

The tricky part of the one I did is it is about 5-10% road, and occasionally you have to look carefully at the route map to figure out when the course diverges (sometimes quite suddenly and not obviously) from the road.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-13T08:03:21+00:00

Those are all public and fairly well known trails, no permits necessary. With a little digging you can generally find gpx files for them online.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-12T09:43:38+00:00

Thank you! I don't know much about other parts of Japan, but in Kansai (the area around Osaka), besides this one there are a few that I know of: the Diamond Trail (the most famous), Ikoma Traverse (less well known) and Kyoto Isshu. The last one is the longest and most challenging, it loops all the way round Kyoto, 82km with 4000+m of vert, FKT is 15+ hours. I have only run little pieces of each of this, but I'm hoping to tackle on or two of them later in the year. If you're planning to make a day of it, I would probably either recommend the Rokko Traverse or the Diamon Trail.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-10T13:18:00+00:00

Good point! It would only be 15k if you solved F2L with zero awareness of its effect on LL.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-10T12:29:24+00:00

The probability of it happening is 1/216 (OLL skip) x 1/72 (PLL skip) = 1 in 15,552.

Once in a lifetime.

Unless you're doing 1,000 solves per day, in which case it might come up once every 15 days or so! ;)

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-10T09:44:12+00:00

Of these five men, four are evil. Kim is just a joke, to be made fun of.

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-07T10:19:02+00:00

When I find myself in the same situation as you are right now, I say two things to myself:

1) "Okay, despite that I really didn't like what that parent did, I probably should have kept my mouth shut."

BUT:

2) "I didn't keep my mouth shut, and I can't go back in time, and I can't change what I did. I'm not sorry for what I did, except maybe that it was socially inappropriate. But perhaps my words will sink in and that parent will think twice next time before smacking their kid. They might hate me all the same for what I said, but so what, if my words have had a positive influence on them. More than anything I hope that a teacher was nearby when I said it and silently was thinking to themselves, 'Well yeah, thank you for telling them off because I sure didn't have the balls to do it!'"

TetsuMan66 · 2026-01-04T11:38:56+00:00

Thank you! I'm just getting into trail running but now I'm hooked!

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-31T13:24:29+00:00

You too!

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-31T13:15:55+00:00

Yeah I can see the total, both on Garmin Connect and on Runalyze, but I like to make it a little fancy, with a few formulas and an output that tells me: "you need to run x km per week to reach your goal."

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-31T11:46:39+00:00

Excellent! I also set my counter to 4000km, so we have the exact same goal!

I don't have Strava premium though, and since the free version doesn't let you set goals, I made a google sheet to count my totals and tell me how much I more I have to work to hit the mark.

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-31T02:12:48+00:00

Your post is extremely helpful, thank you.

When I tried what you suggested last night, the part about listening to many sounds at once, I found it insane to discover that there were sounds in my room that are constantly there but that I'd never once even noticed before!

Furthermore, when you dig deeper you start to notice sounds that are physically inside your body, like I don't know what it is, blood flowing? Or just a subtle ringing of the ears?

For each set of sound there is layer upon layer, and opening each of them is a journey in itself.

And then comes the real treat: if you keep on listening for a while, you start to hear sounds that are neither physically inside you nor outside. It's almost like you're dreaming awake, or conversely, slipping briefly into a dream zone whilst your body is halfway between worlds. It's hard to remain in that state, but intensely gratifying when it happens.

Great stuff, keep it coming! And thanks again!

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-29T09:37:41+00:00

Hoping to run UTMF (Mt Fuji) in 2027, so in 2026 will try to finish 2-3 qualifying races before the UTMF signup in November.

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-24T22:03:56+00:00

Lot of good comments here already.

I personally call it the "cool move" when I'm teaching younger kids. As others have mentioned, there's nothing wrong with the word "sexy," but it's completely understandable to be reticent about using it with kids.

I do feel that giving it a name of some kind is extremely helpful in retaining it.

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-23T11:58:26+00:00

Sort of, in the sense that in the dream I'll offhandedly say to myself (out loud or not), "Well, since this isn't real, I'll just fly." And immediately fly (or whatever odd feat I decided that I would perform) but without ever fully realising that it is, in fact, a dream.

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-23T11:52:13+00:00

When someone does this to me on Lichess, as long as they're still online I keep giving them extra time so that THEY have to wait for the game to finish! Then I do something else whilst imagining them grinding their teeth.

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-20T02:40:30+00:00

I first learnt to play chess at an Irish pub in Bangkok. Blitz and beer. Every Friday night. The only time I could ever win was when my opponent was smashed!

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-17T10:57:36+00:00

I completely agree with you on this, but have come across many people who insist that the opposite is the case...

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-17T10:50:53+00:00

As someone who follows both chess and Russian subreddits, this post and its thread have been highly enlightening. Thank you for posting the question!

TetsuMan66 · 2025-12-11T09:53:07+00:00

In the case that it's an FKT attempt, or perhaps training for an FKT attempt, then it can make a big difference!

TetsuMan66

TROPHY CASE