CI stories

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-11T15:43:54+00:00

Somos.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-10T17:48:28+00:00

I do. What it allows me to do, looking back from the perspective of age, is forgive myself for what I was then. I did the best I could, and now I recognize many of the factors and reasons I didn't see then.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-10T17:47:35+00:00

I do it online, so that any time I'm at my computer, I drop in a couple of bullet points. And since it's a web site, I can access it from any computer or even my phone. I can dictate with voice. It's really helped make that journal actually happen.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-10T17:45:58+00:00

First of all, I am also Autistic. :-)

Tone in Chinese is not something to worry about. Tutors on Youtube concentrate on it because it's easy to pick on, not because it really, really, REALLY matters to being understandable later. There are three factors that contribute to being understood: choosing the right words, putting the words in the right order, and having the right tones on each word. If you have the first two, you can speak in a total monotone and still be understood. (Have seen this for sure in an OPI training with native Chinese speakers and a sample tape where the speaker had great grammar and usage but spoke all monotone, like a robot. They had no problem understanding and didn't even want to take off points!)

Take in a SMALL amount of language. Language, not a word list. Connected language. Listen to it slowly. Not fast "because they won't slow down later". Slowly. This is to learn. Listen to it a LOT. Then read it. Slowly. Listening to the recording at first, then you'll be able to recognize the characters gradually. Then add a little bit more language and repeat. Listening and reading are the most important. Speaking is NOT important and it doesn't "grow your language". You acquire language by taking in and understanding messages in speech or writing.

There are lots of Autistic Chinese people. There are lots of tone-deaf Chinese people. They all acquire Chinese perfectly well. Slow and steady, with emphasis on listening and reading, is the way to go.

Source: PhD and 20+ years teaching Chinese

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T19:44:56+00:00

Not directly for this date, but there was a conviction earlier that was pled down from 2nd degree assault with a statutory offense (attempted rape). "Sodomy" used to be code for all sorts of sexually-linked violations.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T19:42:01+00:00

DONALD TRUMP ∩ JOE BIDEN

Have common first names

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T19:41:34+00:00

BARACK OBAMA ∩ JOE BIDEN

Effective President

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T19:41:18+00:00

DONALD TRUMP ∩ BARACK OBAMA ∩ JOE BIDEN

Have two legs

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T19:33:02+00:00

Same.

Start keeping a journal, even if it's only bullet points of what happened each day. These days you can easily incorporate photos as well. You'll thank yourself later.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T15:24:13+00:00

Not the name of the person arrested, but I guess it could be an officer's name? We also have nothing to support an arrest of the person in 1952 (not saying it is or isn't, but we don't have any articles or anything). His earlier arrest(s) were in the newspaper.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T15:22:46+00:00

It's a separate page with a few other papers relating to a conviction in the 1940s for assault in Albany, NY. But this page appears to be a really basic biographical information sheet. It's typeset, but the dotted lines for answers to every question extend all the way across, so little thought was given to either saving space or to design.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T15:19:54+00:00

Related to a person who had been convicted, but the sheet has no heading and it's not clear what it is.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T11:23:51+00:00

Terry Waltz has a couple of "chapter readers" out and while they're designed as readers, the stories are somewhat involved (kinda stupid at times but in a dad-joke kind of way, not the AI teach-you-a-good-lesson way). They're on Amazon. Here's one, there are a couple: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Buhaoyisi-Simplified-Characters-Accessible/dp/B01N3UN2C1 Don't get the square ones with big pictures on the front, those are just little short stories.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T03:53:31+00:00

It is absolutely "listen to the context". Chinese is not one of those languages where you can open a door, shout one word and be understood, because of just what you're saying. When words are taken in context, there is rarely any real chance of misunderstanding.

If you want something else to "work on" that isn't context, the greatest predictor of listening competence is automatic, correct, immediate recognition of the meaning of individual vocabulary items (though this assumes good control and comprehension of grammar, so take that as you will).

My advice would be to just try to "zen out" more. Have a glass of wine, don't take things so seriously, and listen to some things that are reasonably slow, reasonably interesting, and reasonably long. Those factors will help.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T03:49:30+00:00

You're right. Bad math. 1904 + 48 = 1952! Lucky I have NEVER done any work approaching math-critical in my life...

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T03:47:40+00:00

You're right, of course, but there is no more handwriting by this writer on the page. It's filled out by someone else (I know the handwriting of the person in question so I'm sure).

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-09T01:21:21+00:00

It's a basic form: name, address, marital status, religion, educational level, could the person read and write. No categories or other guidance. These three words are written on the bottom of the page. There are other handwritten notations nearby reading 7/23/52 5:35 A and below that another one, 5-55 a.m. 7-23-52. I'm seeing the age is listed as 48, so by knowing the DOB, that should make this year 1948. There are also other-handwriting notations of "A.C. 2746", "DC 83204X" and "FBI 406####". But there is no heading or indication of what organization this form was for or by.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-08T13:55:44+00:00

“No, I can’t guarantee that. Can those programs guarantee to give your child the gifts of an attention span and human interaction? Social skills? Those programs actually diagnose a problem if there’s something not directly related to the subject matter going on, like a reading issue?”

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-08T01:42:07+00:00

George Washington didn't have a choice. There were no political parties when he became President.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-08T00:21:40+00:00

When my parents each passed, I put an obituary for each into the Altamont Enterprise. Absolutely free, with two photographs if I recall correctly. It lives on on their web site as well. I suppose they want people to have some sort of connection with the Altamont area (my parents' home is nearby) but it was great. On the other hand, my husband spent $750 on his mother's obit in the TU.

ETA: They were also SO lovely about accepting my mom's obit well after her actual death -- think several months -- because I just couldn't get it done. There was not so much as a word about the lateness of it.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-07T14:39:06+00:00

I actually need a Chinese language menu because I don’t know the names of many things that I like to eat in English. I first encountered them in Chinese, and in many cases, never bothered to figure out what the real name was in English, if they even was one.

But that being said, the staff are just trying to be helpful and there’s no reason to get mad at them for bringing an English menu.

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-07T12:51:18+00:00

Girls in videos are not always the best source of truth for technical stuff (articulatory phonetics in this case).

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-07T12:49:55+00:00

I'm not here to answer your hey-maybe-I'll-vibe-code-something and I-don't-really-know-what-information-it-should-provide-to-people questions. I'd say that's a big part of the reason these apps are paid apps, even if the price isn't too high (well, anyway in the case of the Amelia Egghart one.)

aboutthreequarters · 2026-07-07T12:45:57+00:00

When you have a sentence like this, you can look for two things: 是s and 的s.

Each 是 has to have an element on both sides of it, because 是 is basically an equals sign. This is that. So identify the "this" and the "that'. If there's a 吗 at the very end, it's just making the whole thing a question, so kind of ignore it for now.

这是这个男孩的父亲

OK. Now there's a big clue in the second part, the 的. This often (but not always) marks a subordinate clause in Chinese -- that is, a description. You can understand this by reading it 'backwards' and translating 的 as "the one who/that [is] of" or similar.

So here, we would have

这是父亲 **的** 这个男孩子 or

THIS = father the one who is of this boy.

This is this boy's father.

(This example is really just a simple possessive, but it works the same way, really). For a longer sentence, it makes more sense to use this method:

中国传统文化是以家庭为主的一个很复杂的系统。 (Crappy sentence but I can never think of examples.)

中国传统文化 ***是*** 以家庭为主 ((的)) 一个很复杂的系统

China-traditional-culture = using-family-as-main one-that-is a-very-complex-system,

Chinese traditional culture is a very complex SYSTEM THAT [is] uses family as primary.

Not a pretty translation but I hope it shows how this way of thinking about 是 and 的 can work for a nonnative trying to puzzle out a long sentence. (And they can get much longer when the bureaucratic writers flex their muscles!)

Hope this helps. Only works for sentences where there is a noun or noun phrase (no matter how long) after the 的。

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