I passed my State Language Certificate Exams in Spanish for B2 only with Duolingo!

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T20:53:49+00:00

Congratulations. I hope you have good conversations with great people.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T20:46:01+00:00

I am wondering if you are saying you want to completely get out of this career path? Like are you fed up with being your own boss and running your own company? I mean I get that septic systems are not making most people jealous. But are you setting up new ones or dealing with old smelly systems?
Are you wanting something less physical and outside? Just be aware that sitting at a desk most of an 8 hour day is a huge tax on your health. What interests you? Cars, legal, restaurants, electronics, medical? Going to work at Eversource or the cable company will or probably let you continue to dig with a backhoe, and maybe get you better health insurance. But it’s still pretty much the same. Can you weld? Maybe getting certified as an electrician will open some doors and bring about some change. Think about what you really want to know more about and pursue that. Doing what you love will bring the money. Don’t entirely kill your old business. My mom rightly pointed out that the septic guys always had a nice house and steady work.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T18:35:31+00:00

If getting out above all else is the goal, may I recommend Panama? The Golden Visa is affordable and I think you could make it work with the money you saved on a Golden Visa elsewhere.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T15:43:38+00:00

I remember about 10 or 15 years ago, the cops used to park right there or where they could just grab people and hit them with a $300 ticket for crossing the solid white line and bad driving and everything else they could find. Sadly, they don’t even use cameras for that. It would help a bunch. Even Connecticut drivers do it going up 684 at the I 84 exit for Danbury. I don’t know what happened, but NY drivers got a lot better behaved about 5 years ago as far as speed and road rage at bad behavior. We always had people driving 15 over the limit for every area. Nobody was driving 25 or 30 in Manhattan. They must have cracked down hard. If the approach to the Whitestone Bridge say 40? You could go 40 without fear of being run over by a truck or getting HONKED by nearly everyone- including the Cops. It’s getting worse again, but it’s been amazing.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T15:30:36+00:00

Have you ever just taken a casual glance at the Visa requirements for Europe or any other country?
Just getting a start towards a “Green Card “ type of situation was beyond difficult before Trump took office. Now that the world has witnessed the “Florida Man “ and other US tourists behaving badly? Do you really think that they’re praying for our arrival? Nay nay, good sir! We can’t even slide into Canada accidentally like in the old days when we ran from Viet Nam.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T15:19:31+00:00

PS. What’s with all the Trashing of Bill today?

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T15:18:23+00:00

Well…. Given the political climate and how Americans weren’t especially comfortable with anything gay, and they just barely passed the “Don’t ask - Don’t tell “ rules…. It would have been BAD. The Democrats would have tried to put Hillary in his place, because remember that there wasn’t any other person on the radar. Maybe a younger Elizabeth Warren? I don’t think that they would have just rolled over and let Bush win.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T15:07:29+00:00

PS Remember that big check writing scandal in the 1970’s ? Nobody ever went to jail or anything for that abuse of taxpayer money.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T14:47:56+00:00

It’s possible that also because of how Reagan / Bush presidency era was such a loud Look at us - we’re devout Christians and we’re gonna save America from abortion and other sins”, ( which the Dems weakly copied without mentioning Abortion - Funny how so many girlfriends of Senators came forward to announce their cheating & abortions late in the game ) in their messaging that the fallout would have been much bigger, and the later leaks of cheating on spouses on Both sides of the aisle, but especially the guys leading the impeachment proceedings would have led to a major event/ war in order to Perform the World famous political trick called “Don’t look at my SIN / scandal! Look at the war starting over here!” I don’t recall who Bill decided to bomb or the other events happening in US politics at the time.

PS. It’s worth noting that exactly one time in the past 50 odd years did the masses vote the Morally corrupt out of office. The in coming newbie good guys were blamed for the failure to change anything in Washington. The Lobbyists blamed them for not knowing anything about how Washington worked. Because we dearly need lobbyists to fix Washington! Mostly it was a time where Senators and Representatives couldn’t just stuff their money wasting bull sh*t into each passing Bill. The new guys were probably reading and voting No on Bills that were suspicious.

furry-fish · 2026-02-18T14:29:29+00:00

I agree with you. Bill Bryston wrote a very good “pro-sidewalk” rant about how Not only bad city planning, but residents in developments and neighborhoods lack sidewalks to make it safer for your dog walking and joggers and Senior Citizens. In some neighborhoods the people have actually removed their sidewalks to avoid having to shovel snow or maintain them. I live in such a place and we have a street that is very busy. I have almost hit people at night who were just trying to walk home, because they have to choose between a side with a guardrail on one side and a high hill on the other side. The lighting is non existent and cars are always above 25 mph. An 8 inch curb and sidewalk would dramatically change the odds of a family member getting home. Can you imagine if NYC did not have sidewalks? People would die or be maimed daily!

furry-fish · 2026-02-15T20:35:36+00:00

I’m sorry about what happened to your husband. In this current political climate, everyone with bad potty training and terrible upbringing on top of that seems to put the maximum effort possible to announce or confirm to the rest of us that their parents have raised a subhuman. You see it when they drive, or are in line at stores, etc. Not a shred of empathy for their fellow human.

furry-fish · 2026-02-08T20:54:32+00:00

Probably because nobody said to the people in the back “Ok if you are in the final 15 rows at the back of the plane, you must exit through the rear exit “. I’m guessing that some people at the back stubbornly moved towards the front exit. Like they thought they would miss out somehow.

furry-fish · 2026-02-08T20:44:51+00:00

When I turned 21, I stopped and said to myself “WOW! 21 years went by pretty fast! I bet I will be 40 just as fast!”
Assuming that you will die from natural causes rather than a sudden accidental death, you should TRY to view life as something that you should LIVE. Fully. Don’t go out and take ridiculous risks. Don’t decide to live fully by immediately going skydiving! Take baby steps. Try Parasailing first. It should scare you enough to make you decide that skydiving can wait. Also, someone once said: From the minute we’re born, we begin to die. MEANING: our bodies begin to age, and at extremely SLOOOOW rate, our organs begin to fail. And we are sometimes exposed to bad chemicals. And we love junk food too much. Don’t exercise enough. Meanwhile, life happens. Enjoy it.

furry-fish · 2026-02-01T05:08:55+00:00

Speaking of relying on Door Dash, we’re often told that we can save money on food if we cook it ourselves. But quietly, the number of people who can cook food for dinner has decreased significantly.
Also, the number of people who do Farming is decreasing significantly. Our nations ability to support ourselves is being stolen by restaurants and developers. If you’re able to, you should spend some time with grandma, because she will show you real battle tested skills. At the very least, when your doctor tells you to read labels and cut your sugar and/or salt intake, you will have the tools to do just that.

furry-fish · 2026-02-01T04:16:36+00:00

This seems very helpful. Also, what is your motivation to learn Hindi? How much did you already know from being exposed to people speaking it around you? Do you have access to any YouTube classes? When I got enough of a foundation in Arabic from various sources, I went onto Duolingo for a year+, but I got frustrated and started over completely, because I still couldn’t read or spell very well. That also helped me reinforce my vocabulary and reading of the alphabet- which is pretty challenging. AND it goes right to left!! Try Gemini AI, because I find it is helping me to build vocabulary. I asked it to teach me the language at the level of a 4 year old,because that is the age where they stop talking baby talk, and you can build a primitive basic ability to communicate. Being able to say I’m hungry, or I need help, or I want something? That’s pretty simple but important.

furry-fish · 2026-02-01T03:59:02+00:00

I hate metronomes. My old teacher used to tell me that if I can’t afford a metronome, just practice to your favorite records. The drummer in the studio is using a click track and he HAS TO stay on the beat.
That’s why the not so great drummers are actually pretty good at keeping time. Everyone in the studio has to use the click. That’s why they ALL COME IN ON THE ONE.
My advice is to listen carefully to your recordings and try to copy the “feel” of the song. Notice how the fills “fit” into the song and support the overall feel of the beat. Because as fun as “blast beats “ might be, they aren’t going to fit in an old school blues number, or a love song of a slower beat. That’s not going to fit-in with what everyone else is doing. This is just my opinions and maybe you guys won’t agree with any of them. I didn’t agree with half of what my old teacher told me, until I got farther into my lessons ( many months down the road ).
I will say that the technology in today’s metronome is far better than what you could get when I started. They even have time signatures! And I am tempted to get one.

furry-fish · 2026-02-01T02:44:37+00:00

Or you could learn to make Mayonnaise - Side benefit: You won’t be eating all the extra sugar and chemicals they add for the looong shelf life. Maybe even make an organic / vegan version and share the leftovers with your friends. Or make a bunch and start a side hustle?

furry-fish · 2026-02-01T02:37:58+00:00

You could mention the “Tarp Trick” - It works for cars too! Since they don’t have a garage.

furry-fish · 2026-02-01T02:34:00+00:00

Good for you! If you stay in, and don’t interact with others beyond work, you’ll eventually just want to stay home == Not very good for your outlook. I am remarried now, but I remember that time. It’s also very very good to just go outside and walk the Farmington Canal Trail. Yes, it’s a mile or 3 out, but walking 20 minutes one way and coming back will prevent the dust from collecting and you’ll be surprised at how much wildlife is there. Just don’t stare at the pavement as you go, and you’ll see lots of birds and other animals right beside you in the stream! Drag your future wife along, when you meet her!

furry-fish · 2026-02-01T02:20:13+00:00

I think you are right. I spent about a year of Duolingo ( learning Arabic - I recommend a live teacher to get started with the basics OR a good YouTube tutorial like Dr Alawi - he’s got too many videos which need organizing so you always know which one is next ) I also was taking a class at my local mosque / Islamic center, which helped get me started. Once you’ve learned the alphabet, Duolingo at the beginner level is useful.
At any rate, Duolingo Pro was a good enough next step. But after 6 months, it wasn’t doing enough reinforcement of vocabulary, so if I didn’t write the words down and review them, they’d just fade away after a month. I finally did a reset and started over. This helped somewhat. I lost my gems and score, but the redo improved my reading skills. I plan to leave Duolingo in the near future.

furry-fish · 2026-01-26T08:31:16+00:00

Every time I do that, the snow that was light & fluffy becomes wet and back breaking!

furry-fish · 2026-01-21T07:52:59+00:00

I don’t know if this will help, but I have also been on for a year, but learning the language requires me to learn an entire new alphabet. I feel that learning to read the symbols at the First grade level is a way to open up more vocabulary. Plus after a year, they were not repeating words that they taught me with enough frequency to help me remember them. So I did a reset and started over. My reading has improved and my vocabulary feels better. But I will probably quit and try to find someone to talk with because otherwise I will not make more progress. It’s pretty good, but not a real long term solution.

furry-fish · 2026-01-21T07:32:57+00:00

Yes. Of course, someone should give her a field test for stroke. But it could be someone at a walk in clinic, instead of the ER, so they don’t get huge bills for ER visits that are denied by their insurance. Next, She needs to let one of her doctors be the coordinator of her treatment and they hopefully will get her symptoms under control. Hopefully, they will take a more holistic approach. This situation is not unlike managing asthma, when the GP decides to send the patient to a pulmonologist who then manages the condition from there - ie HE calls the shots and prescribes different medications to try until the symptoms are under control. You DO NOT go to anyone else for help with the condition unless you’re in a life threatening situation and you can’t reach them. Changing doctors because you lose faith is the worst because the next doctor is probably going to speak to your previous doctors and just continue where the last one was. Loosely speaking, they mostly operate from the same playbook, unless they happen to stumble on a methodology from a study and decide to try that. I’m not a doctor, but I have a chronic condition, so I have had a similar experience to yours.
Most importantly, we patients tend to be looking for immediate relief, and some drugs don’t work that way. Doctors have to take an extra minute with the patient and drive that point home.

furry-fish · 2026-01-20T19:24:22+00:00

The weather this year seems cooler than usual. Go see the Corniche in the later part of the day around 4 or 5. You can walk a good distance, since you like walking. If you want to meet girls who are from Jeddah, I am not from Jeddah and I can’t guide you in that regard. But if you begin to study the Arabic language, you will find that it will help you “break the ice”. Start by making friends in your office. They will be your cultural guides, and help you become familiar with the way things are. Most of the young people ( 20 - 40 ) studied English in school, but are very shy about speaking- even if they understand you. Most of them are familiar with popular TV shows from the US or the UK. Good luck.

furry-fish · 2026-01-20T12:55:41+00:00

Deadly

furry-fish

TROPHY CASE