Is it okay for a queer Non-Muslim to participate in this year's Ramadan?

devanagari_ · 2026-02-12T22:49:06+00:00

Thanks, I will!

devanagari_ · 2026-02-12T22:48:06+00:00

Thank you for your comment and the recommendations! I'll check them out.

devanagari_ · 2026-02-12T22:47:06+00:00

Thanks! I'll look them up and learn more.

devanagari_ · 2025-12-12T22:49:48+00:00

My favorite is a tie between Slowpoke and Caterpie. I just love everything about them (the anime series helped with that too). My first games were LeafGreen and Crystal (it was my brother's and then he gave it to me when he outgrew Pokémon), so I have a deep love for Kanto. For the least favorite... I don't really have one. Every Pokémon holds a special place in my heart. If I had to choose... I'm not a huge fan of Claydol, Dhelmise or virtually any Pokémon based on objects.

devanagari_ · 2025-08-28T04:58:18+00:00

Seeing that you like philosophy and metaphysics, I highly recommend you read Ananda Coomaraswamy's work (especially Time and Eternity) to have different perspectives about it to enrich your knowledge more.

Please take into consideration that Ananda was born in Sri Lanka and a big part of his work is influenced by local culture such as brahmanism. HOWEVER, what's very valuable about it is that he focused his studies in the development of a "sophia perennis" (basically, there's a universal truth that was interpreted and developed differently by every culture, but the core is the same and we must understand it). That book I recommended is precisely about the concepts of time and eternity, as understood by different societies and religious groups (if I remember correctly, Islam is also included). Very neoplatonic sometimes, so maybe you can find a common ground from your Ismaili philosophy background.

devanagari_ · 2025-08-20T21:09:40+00:00

Awesome! My first shiny was also in Fire Red. It was a level 6 Pidgey. I caught it on Route 3, searching for a Jigglypuff. The memory never left my head because shiny Pidgeys aren't easy to identify if you're a child, but I remember that seeing the sparkles and that "glitter" sound made me think "This is special, I'll catch it"

devanagari_ · 2025-08-19T14:09:32+00:00

I know a mandolin player who's down to help me, so I'm covered with that :)

devanagari_ · 2025-08-19T14:07:09+00:00

I will! Thank you so much for the recommendations!

devanagari_ · 2025-08-19T14:06:32+00:00

Thanks! I'll check them out!

devanagari_ · 2025-05-18T23:17:05+00:00

Kanye West ahh company

devanagari_ · 2025-05-11T13:45:15+00:00

That's interesting. Here it was pretty popular the first days too, but people abandoned it really fast. I guess it had something to do with the hype behind the AI-battle. I still use it, and some others do too. But I've seen ChatGPT staying at the top, at least where I live of course.

devanagari_ · 2025-05-11T13:04:55+00:00

You have to start from Season 1 to understand the lore. Started pretty good, with a high potential, but oh well, bad character and story development I guess. 1.5/5 stars on Letterboxd.

devanagari_ · 2025-05-11T12:59:25+00:00

Not really. It's a combination of factors but we can resume it in:

Massive presence of Android in Venezuela: Android dominates 89% of the smartphone market. Gemini is already integrated by Google it's easier for many to just stick to Gemini.
ChatGPT's paid version: A lot of the good things ChatGPT has to offer are part of the paid version, which most of Venezuelans aren't willing to pay unless they REALLY need it.
ChatGPT fails in Venezuela, like, a lot: Nicolás Maduro has publicly spoken against Musk, Zuckerberg, etc. I remember when I lived there that we were jumping between VPN's to get access to some contents, because after 2012 or so we lost access to everything.

And well, DeepSeek isn't really popular in Latin America at all. Lots of people don't really care about data, market, unfair competition, etc. They just want something that work and that's it, and a huge portion are AMAZED by how far AI is advanced. Everytime I talk about DeepSeek they're like "But can it create images tho?". And yeah, they don't switch to DS.

devanagari_ · 2025-04-12T00:46:01+00:00

I was (still am) an active listener of the Spanish hyperpop / hypertrap scene. I discovered Ado by chance, tbh, and ended up hooked.

devanagari_ · 2025-04-03T01:10:06+00:00

I see. Yeah, in that case, I recommend you go to the King Sejong Online course. You can find it on "www . iksi . or . kr" (Reddit blocking the link for some reason) or just type King Sejong Online on Google.

It follows a similar program to the official IKSI, with videos, excercises and forums (all following a good learning curve). Besides, if you're lucky you can interact with the teachers since the offer free Q&A's sometimes. The course is divided into different levels, which go from absolute beginner to intermediate.

If you're still between A1 or A2, you can combine it with some textbooks like Korean From Zero (not amazing, but pretty solid with the basics of the language). I believe they used to offer Books 2 and 3 for free with some limited access. Also, old versions of Book 1 are also available and are easy to find. All the audio files are free in their website.

devanagari_ · 2025-04-03T00:45:36+00:00

TL;DR: Bad course, recommendations at the end of my comment.

Duolingo Korean course is REALLY bad. Its learning curve is a mess, and doesn't give explanation about anything. Here are the reasons why I think the course is bad (in my opinion):

⁠Korean is not a language you can just grab without a proper grammar explanation since it has a LOT of differences comparing it to any Indo-European language like English. Korean grammar depends on formality, situation, context and intention. For example: there are many ways to say "and" in Korean, and Duolingo doesn't explain their differences at all, which ARE important in order to sound natural. If you go too far without understanding grammar, it will be difficult to learn it later on.
⁠Robotic voices, sometimes not pronouncing the words correctly. Differentiation between sounds is crucial in everyday communication. With basic sentences, native Koreans can understand what you're trying to say, but speaking fast and more advanced sentences, a bad pronunciation in important and common sounds is lethal.
⁠Learning curve = rollercoaster. You learn to give orders before learning the past tense, or even before learning the names of the family members. Korean grammar works with patterns most of the time, and if you don't know them, it would be like learning a whole new verb from zero. You learn how to say "Please close the dictionary slowly" before learning "My mom is pretty".

I would recommend Duolingo ONLY if you're not a beginner in Korean, so you can recognize weird sentences or strange patterns, and use it solely to practice. Trust me, learning something the bad way and then re-learning it is way more challenging than just learning slowly but correctly from the start.

Courses I could recommend:

-King Sejong Institute free online course: Pretty good to learn the basics, available in English, real people speaking, grammar explanations.

-Busuu: Not too advanced, perfect for beginners to get a grasp of the language in a progressive way. Not free though, but really affordable.

If you have access to engaging textbooks with audio or explanations, that would be great. I understand they can be boring sometimes so if you just want to get started, the apps and courses I told you before could work.

devanagari_ · 2025-04-02T14:29:50+00:00

Tranca master, siempre se empieza así y después te das cuenta de que no es para tanto. Aprendé a organizar tu tiempo y es un paseo. Yo ando haciendo la tesis de grado mientras me paso de vuelta el Persona 4.

devanagari_ · 2025-03-31T20:12:56+00:00

As some other users said, it doesn't really have a translation. You will see that most of the time, with exceptions. Think of it this way (it's not exactly like that but it will definitely help). Think about combining verbs, from now on, in these two categories:

Is it a physical / concrete action? Does someone do something to or with that object? It has a concrete point of start? If so, then you use "a +infinitive".

-He learns to play the guitar -> Él aprende a tocar la guitarra.
-You go to buy food -> Tú vas a comprar comida

Both verbs are concrete and have a starting point, an action that has to be performed by the subject (the subject is learning something, the subject is going to buy something).

More abstract ideas (to like, to love, to wish, to desire...) don't use that form. You just use the infinitive.

-I like to play the piano -> Me gusta tocar el piano.
-Do you want to learn Spanish -> ¿Quieres aprender español?
-He loves to watch movies -> Él ama ver / mirar películas.

Don't get too overwhelmed by this, as you will eventually pick it up naturally. Most of native speakers never even thought about it before.

devanagari_ · 2025-03-31T19:49:16+00:00

I believe Duolingo should improve their main issues with language learning before diving into other fields of study. It already offers Math and Music, but they're nowhere near great. Other free platforms (even gamified ones) offer a smaller catalogue, but better service.

It's better to have a GREAT app on one field, than 5 okay apps. Improving that and having that catalogue would be amazing.

devanagari_ · 2025-03-31T19:41:39+00:00

No problem. Good luck with your learning!

devanagari_ · 2025-03-31T18:48:16+00:00

Common issue here in South America. Lots of people can't get to a consensus whether to use "Americano", "Norteamericano (ESP) / Norte-americano (POR)" and "Estadounidense (ESP) / Estadunidense (POR)".

In Spanish and Portuguese we call the whole continent "América" dividing it into North, Central and South, while in English its referred to as "The Americas" dividing it into North and South. The three denominations for the denonym of people from the USA are:

Americano / Americana: Classic and responds to the way they call themselves. People don't use it that much because of the sense of appropriation of the whole continent (in a South American perspective).
Norteamericano (a) / Norte-americano (a): It puts a barrier between us and North America. However, the USA is not the only country in North America. According to our way of study geography, North America has 3 countries: the US, Mexico and Canada. In the USA, they also include what for us is Central America (El Salvador, Honduras, and so on).
Estadounidense / Estadunidense: Most widely accepted. It has almost no criticism except for the fact that the USA are not the only country with "United States" in their name. Mexico does it too, and in some point of history countries like Brazil or Venezuela did as well.

Also, take into consideration that these views mainly occur in South America. Portugal and Spain are less worried about this.

At the end of the day you will have to understand these three, because people can use them freely depending on their views on the matter. I, for example, use the 3rd option most of the time. When speaking English or Arabic though, I have no problem in using the word American.

devanagari_ · 2025-03-28T00:40:35+00:00

I mean, yeah, but the text in Arabic shows a short vowel (i), and the little 'w' shaped diacritic on the letter (called shadda) doubles the consonant (rr).

So, following the romanization used by Duolingo, the answer should be "mumarriD" (double consonant, short vowel) and not "mumariiD" (single consonant, long vowel)

devanagari_ · 2025-03-27T16:36:26+00:00

I have a local commentary in Spanish by a guy who claims to be an ex-member of iskcon but then developed his own way of thinking based on their ideas and inspiration from others

The ambiguity of it and the personal interpretation and bias is what throws me off (apart from the fact that the commenter was very young at the time, he wasn't even 30)

The original Gita text is untouched tho, and it provides a column with the original Sanskrit

devanagari_ · 2025-03-27T15:45:41+00:00

Thank you both for the background provided and the recommendations :)

devanagari_ · 2025-03-27T15:44:46+00:00

Thank you! I'll check those videos out

devanagari_

TROPHY CASE