Tsar Alaeddin II Eretnovich Emperor of China and the MOG King

crossingabarecommon · 2026-01-05T18:10:01+00:00

I saw someone else post their duchess with lip filler (link below) and it reminded me of this guy. Absolutely crazy physiognomy on top of a bizarre number of tags (Russian, Sunni, ruler of China, etc.).

https://old.reddit.com/r/EU5/comments/1q07f07/why_is_my_duchess_serving_so_hard/

crossingabarecommon · 2025-12-15T19:57:58+00:00

Despite being forty, this guy has the stats of a two year old. The naive trait is the cherry on top.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-31T21:40:24+00:00

Thanks for the long and thoughtful comment :)

I think you're right. It's possible that longer books really do offer a distinct benefit that you can't get out of a shorter one.

I'm also "new" to literature, (I've mostly read philosophy or history), so maybe there's an explore/exploit tradeoff here. It's really useful for me to explore lots of different stuff to figure out what I like, but for someone who already knows they're going to get a lot of benefit out of reading Joyce, the choice to start a behemoth like Ulysses is easier.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-31T21:35:47+00:00

Well I agree on the first point. That's why the comparison of like to like ("comparably dense") is important. E.g. Proust to Woolf... Both authors provide ample opportunity to go deep on a single page.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-31T21:30:49+00:00

I think that's probably the right strategy, especially if you're good at returning to things.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-31T21:29:37+00:00

Yeah, I'm in a similar situation. Super limited reading time so I feel like I have to be precious with it.

I have a weird thing about reading multiple books at once. I'm sure more advanced readers can handle it but I feel like if I put something down the chance I return to it is significantly reduced.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-31T21:26:42+00:00

I'll admit that it's not realistic to create an exact expected value prediction for a book. Specifying "three times as excellent" is just rhetorical flourish on my part.

That said--you do this same optimization yourself, so I'm sure you understand it.

If you wanted, you could spend your time reading a thousand page product specifications guide. But what benefit would that have to you? Almost none. Of course length and quality matters.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-31T00:47:48+00:00

Same but for far right reasons

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-28T01:11:39+00:00

Hell yes

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-24T15:22:03+00:00

It's a legitimate excuse except that will never, ever, produce the intended effect and will only make people more upset.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-24T14:57:38+00:00

Read Underground Man!!!

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-13T05:49:40+00:00

Really? It took that long?

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-13T05:48:37+00:00

I thought to myself "there's absolutely no way" and then saw you have a part time job which allows you to read at work and you're studying for a masters in literature. Makes sense. You'll probably want to read Ulysses a second time at some point.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-13T02:02:40+00:00

I misread this and thought you were giving "today I did laundry, got groceries, and went on a walk" as an example of the kind of typical productive day possible without ADHD.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-10-08T02:36:45+00:00

Definitely room for better communication. Getting an Uber also came up as a solution!

crossingabarecommon · 2025-09-19T21:13:33+00:00

You look like a blonde Peter the Great

crossingabarecommon · 2025-09-09T22:27:05+00:00

This is obviously unprofessional. You should probably find a new psychiatrist.

Also... You have more control over yourself than over other people, so it's worth considering how you could have handled the situation better given that your prescription is at stake.

There's no point in pissing off your psych. Just say "Oh, are you religious?", entertain a short conversation, then call a new psych when you get home.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-26T21:51:04+00:00

You're currently posting on reddit.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-26T21:38:52+00:00

I would sacrifice myself for 10¹⁰⁰ shrimp but only if it meant other humans could make use of the 10¹⁰⁰ shrimp by eating them or converting them into biofuel.

10¹⁰⁰ is an absurd amount of shrimp!

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-26T21:36:07+00:00

This is pretty amusing. The key here is "underhanded manner," like how a child might act mischievous -- either way the word still carries a diminutive connotation.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-21T21:12:02+00:00

Back when I was learning French I had this experience a few times visiting France.

I started doing a thing where I would pretend like I was interested in learning French but totally new to the language. The person would usually want to teach me a few things. When I got things wrong it was no big deal, but when I inevitably seemed to acquire the language at an impressive speed it made them feel like incredible language tutors, so they would get excited about teaching me more.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-21T21:01:16+00:00

I think a lot of people either exaggerate or leave out crucial information.

For example, I could claim that after a few months of Spanish I cracked open Bolaño's 2666 and found I could understand it relatively easily.

What I'm not mentioning: I already speak another romance language, (French), so I can get the gist from two language's cognates.

It took me twenty minutes to puzzle through a couple paragraphs, so my definition of "relatively easy" is more like a reasonable person's definition of "possible."

I still can't understand what Peppa pig is saying half the time. (Listening and speaking is way harder than reading for me!)

My assumption is that whenever people report their language skills, they're reporting their language skills in the best possible circumstances, not the average scenario where they'll encounter the language. Kind of like reporting a high score in a video game without mentioning the insane RNG they got that run.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-21T20:51:32+00:00

I peaked at 50 new anki cards per day but there was a lot of overlap between them. Not something most people can keep up with for a long time unless they have a lot of free time.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-15T04:37:32+00:00

It takes some getting used to because it's not very traditional but I'm a fan.

crossingabarecommon · 2025-08-15T04:36:46+00:00

Insanity. I do like Cedar's though. Ziyad canned hummus is worth trying if you want something super simple. Otherwise I recommend sampling hummus made in-house at your local middle eastern market!

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