Promiseland

[Fetian]

I really need Cael to stop playing in the litterbox

[Fetian]

Class over! I was going to jump right into doing the quiz but it's locked until 1:30

When I got into the zoom meeting I was the only one there, and continued to be for like, fifteen minutes, which made me very nervous that there wasn't a class today? Or that I was in the wrong meeting, and it turns out there's no way (that I could find) to check what room you're in once you're in a zoom. So I left, and when I came back there was one other person there, so either I was in the wrong zoom or she arrived in the twenty seconds I was gone

So we listened to some sample dialogues from the textbook, and in very exciting news I was able to understand the gist of them without having to read the translations! Then we learned some grammar and in more exciting news conjugations are finally making sense! So many Learn Japanese programs just, throw you in and have you just kind of pick up on vocabulary and learn how to use which conjugation intuitively and I knew that if I could just get someone to sit down and explain the conjugations that I could finally understand it but no one wants to scare the poor little hobbyists away with charts and grammar. It is in fact super easy -- you conjugate verbs that end in -u one way and verbs that end in -ru another way, because verbs that end in -ru already have part of the stem and don't need to be conjugated in the same way as -u verbs

Oz is playing with a taffy wrapper, it's very cute

Anyway, due to quiz we got out of class an hour early, so that's just about all we did. Oh and we learned a little about negative forms of verbs (distinct from negative forms of phrases)

I'm going to sit here for four more minutes I guess and then take a quiz

[Fetian]

30/30!

[knightofcups]

I am really enjoying reading about your class.

[Fetian]

Speaking of class, the guy who got asked to stay after Monday's class for suspiciously advanced homework answers wasn't there today

[Fetian]

There's been some kind of knocking sound these past few days that's been driving me nuts, and I can't tell if it's coming from somewhere inside the house or outside

[Fetian]

My package is Not In New Jersey

[Fetian]

A local Adanberto's that used to be an Adalberto's is renaming back to Adalberto's -- not the same Adanberto's that used to be an Adalberto's that I used to go to all the time, a different Adanberto's that used to be an Adalberto's -- and that got me to finally look up what the fuck is going on with these burrito places and their weird names and aesthetics that are almost but not quite identical

Here's the short of it:

In the 1960s, Roberto Robledo started buying restaurants and eventually also renamed them to Roberto's Taco Shop. He and his wife had 13 children, and they all helped run the restaurants and eventually took over individual restaurants. In the 1970s, he rented one of the shops to two of his cousins, who did not run the shop to Roberto's standards, so he told them to shape up or stop using his name -- they chose the latter, changing the name of the restaurant to Alberto's and absolutely nothing else. More friends and relatives immigrated over and started their own restaurants in the chain, each putting their own spin on the *berto naming scheme -- generally getting started after working at one of the shops and getting familiar with how it all works

Now none of this explains the swapping back and forth between Adanberto's and Adalberto's but I suppose that comes down to who owns a given restaurant, and it occasionally changes hands? I also wonder if these are all still owned by Roberto's family (and friends of the family). Though I guess there's, like, nothing stopping someone from just, starting their own *berto's if they wanted to. I do am reading that Roberto was supportive of people starting their own versions of his restaurant, which is very neat

But yeah! There you have it

[Fetian]

New keyboard arrived!! Like two hours ago, but ash and I were hanging out and while I spent some time messing around with it I didn't want to set up so far as to come here and write out a whole post about it, but now we are not hanging out so here I am!

It is Very Nice, I am a big fan. It has three transmission settings: wired, wireless via dongle, and bluetooth, so I can in fact have it set up with multiple computers and just swap between which one is getting input with a flick of a switch. It also has full per-key and under-case LEDs with a few different settings (right now it is on rainbow, because of course). The keys feel pretty standard, the switches feel alright, neither are particularly anything to write home about but they're also not, like, travesties or anything. Nothing feels cheap, to me at least, we'll see how I feel about all of it with some more experience under my belt. The spacebar does have a nasty ping (like, a sound, not an input delay) that I'm going to have to see if I can do something about, though at this particular point I'm not sure what there is to do. I did take some keys off and tried putting one where the spacebar is and it still had that sound, though a little less noticeable, so it's not an issue with the spacebar itself but might be that switch or those stabilizers.

I'll get some pictures later, but I'm also loving the weird open case. It is completely metal and pretty heavy! I will probably want something lighter to be a portable board at some point, though as of right now I don't, like, go anywhere to need a portable keyboard for, you know.

The other package -- that isn't in New Jersey -- should get here early next week, and there's a keycap set and some switches in there that I want to try out on this board, but for right now this is extremely pleasant. I think the keycaps might look a little silly in it, but it also might look great, we'll see which way that goes. Other steps will be trying lube on the stabilizers, see if that reduces the ping, and I want to see about getting some foam on the bottom of the case and see if that will reduce the sound some more (though it's not super duper loud or anything as is). Some tape on the underside of the board is also something I'm thinking about, but I'll need to get some electrical tape for that.

Yeah! Pleased! Gonna go take a typing test now

[Fetian]

Screenshot 2024-03-06 at 20-37-50 TypeRacer - the global typing competition.png

 
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