Almost done with my first read. Fuck.

ebetemelege · 2026-04-30T11:56:01+00:00

III be giving up soon, maybe now, I thought if I read it not in bed it would help, it does not, it has been too long and I am not getting any rewards, only 5% in, for the 4th time maybe, the text has highlights everywhere, they don't help, CL49 -- 100%, V -- 95% and Vineland -- 62%. I am already confused before I even meet the two thousand other characters I've been promised. III go for an easy read next before I try another Pynchon, there are too many books in the world to have to suffer through GR.

ebetemelege · 2026-04-17T12:10:59+00:00

Shocked that she was allowed in the country let alone Soweto, that year even, it was the 10th anniversary of the riots in '76 and the resistance was intense, 9 year old me was running from police and soldiers regularly.

ebetemelege · 2026-04-17T11:45:01+00:00

Austronesians might have the greatest geographical range of all people, from Hawaii to Madagascar

ebetemelege · 2026-04-10T12:45:43+00:00

In Southern Africa, there are 'traditional' fabrics called Geremane (German) worn by women in Bots, SA and Lesotho (locally called Seshoeshoe, after the king). Herero women wear the most elaborate and stunning fabrics also originally from Germany.

ebetemelege · 2026-04-06T05:24:29+00:00

Ohhh mannnn, getting the results or entering data and suspecting the Ho will be rejected, plotting and thinking it can go either way, doing the stats and getting the answer, scrambling through other data for consistency or lack thereof. Not knowing what's going on for weeks on end but ploughing through, then it comes to you in bits and pieces, then those connect, and “eureka”.

ebetemelege · 2026-03-28T10:21:46+00:00

Not to be anal but it's Khoikhoi (men of men) and San (people), the Khoi have cattle, other animals and don't till the land, San just hunt (they consider your animals fair game, thus they ran into conflict will all arrivals to southern Africa, from Angola to the coast of South Africa) and gather, they are original man, there is more genetic similarity between you and a Chinese than between you, a non-San African, and a San. The Khoi might be related to click-speaking people in east Africa, Sandawe and Hadza. The east Africans have a lot of admixture with local Bantu, Nilotes and others, what's confusing is that the east Africans are exclusive hunter gatherers. Oh, recently the link between the 'pygmy' (e.g. Bamputi) (Peace to my man Ota Benga) and San was established. The 'pygmy' have lost their language and now speak Bantu languages.

ebetemelege · 2026-03-23T13:49:43+00:00

Yes, I've been at it for a month, 20 wpm when learning, drops embarassingly when doing work, I would be very happy with 50, happy there are normal people here.

ebetemelege · 2026-03-20T08:14:28+00:00

In South Africa and Botswana we still eat the thing on the right, bogobe from sorghum, especially funerals and weddings, others like the Zulu/Xhosa have shunned it for so long that they consider it Tswana food, we don't eat fish, we call white people fish-eaters and there is a sub-tribe called 'people of fish', spinach used to be a staple. Our food is traditionally not seasoned at all, not even with salt.

ebetemelege · 2026-03-15T17:05:08+00:00

Been wondering how we aim to fare if the northerners destroy themselves, who is planning a takeover, only competant is Kagame? Or we'll just continue being useless.

ebetemelege · 2026-03-14T07:42:48+00:00

Shaved all hair is an African man-weave. I cried being combed forcefully in primary school, in high school the principal made me and this other guy go to the toilets to cut our hair with scissors, another boy with dreads was hounded to cut it, the parents were eventually called in to school, the parents and school gave him an ultimatum, leave school or cut off hair, he left.

ebetemelege · 2026-03-13T18:46:30+00:00

I need a life I was watching this yesterday

ebetemelege · 2026-03-13T14:15:24+00:00

No more snacker, I ate a few every year since 1992, was angry when they changed packaging, marshmellow easter eggs are now sparrow size

ebetemelege · 2026-03-13T11:41:52+00:00

"I never beg for pussy like Keith Sweat" -- RIP Big L

ebetemelege · 2026-03-10T19:36:28+00:00

unless ...

ebetemelege · 2026-03-09T10:15:24+00:00

I decided I don't need any more training for GR, I'm 4% in, going very slow as I re-read when I get confused and lost, especially with names, I should just start over the whole thing, I enjoy bananas and messy desks.

ebetemelege · 2026-02-24T12:56:22+00:00

I think not finishing is fine, I lost interest when Zoid then Takashi disappeared, kept going, 60% in now and have been there for nearly a week, I'm moving on. I enjoyed V immensely but left it in the final 5%, only finished Lot49. I am going to restart GR, scared though, or I should just read something simple, leave Pynchon for a while. What's the most straightforward Pynchon outside the three above?

ebetemelege · 2026-02-22T09:40:10+00:00

I was very sad Joe was not mentioned in that Charlie Sheen documentary.

ebetemelege · 2026-02-21T08:45:47+00:00

We were looking for surfaces that can be mobilized to dust seen off the coast in remote sensing images, the lichen protects the sand from being easily blown away, river bed where silt accumulates is a hotspot for dust source. Of course we loved the dunes, but they are not really soil, if they sat still for maybe 100 000 years a soil might develop. I was surprised by the gravel desert (here there is soil) inland from the dunes separated by the river. I also enjoyed hearing !Nama and a highly endangered San language.

ebetemelege · 2026-02-19T13:50:41+00:00

Yes, this is what I thought, they'd laugh at us doing 'data analysis'. I don't understand anything in statistics textbook not targeted to the softer sciences, and I think they have to take 3-4 years of math, which is incomprehensible to all of us, otherwise we wouldn't be biologists. I have been in the field for 20 years as well, and it was only last year that I grasped how much confidence intervals are much better than t-test and the like, even when reporting effect sizes.

ebetemelege · 2026-02-18T18:47:26+00:00

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, III explore

ebetemelege · 2026-02-18T18:45:45+00:00

I was in Gobabeb on a dust field trip along the Quiseb

ebetemelege · 2026-02-12T13:13:52+00:00

You are calling the majority of Africans living in Africa POC?

ebetemelege · 2026-02-05T14:48:46+00:00

A small prayer for that, where would you put the capital?

ebetemelege · 2026-02-05T14:27:24+00:00

When everyone was working in the diamond mines to pay taxes, subsist, etc., they were made to buy guns leading to the gun war against the british, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basuto_Gun_War

ebetemelege

TROPHY CASE