#The Dictionary Of useless Knowledge

[namchyoon]

day 386/547 until joon returns

[k-star-holic]

Pachinko' Kim Min-ha joins first entertainment top model...'

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

My favorite genre of book is the “list book,” where the contents are essentially one long, cut-and-dry list of information, organized in alphabetical order with no embellishments whatsoever, other than diagrammatic pictures which show the meaning of something. This includes dictionaries in English, foreign language-to-English dictionaries, encyclopedias on various subjects, toxic chemical transportation handbooks for truckers, etc.

[literalsunhobi]

taehyung and wooshik are hilarious im crying

[mostlymihawk]

Can't Sleep?

Prompt: Mihawk, Sanji, Nami, Luffy, Zoro, and Kuro, and how they handle a gn reader who has insomnia.

CW: Strangulation.

Mihawk:

Oh no. He is not doing this again.

He kept his peace the last time you had a restless night because he believed you when you said there was nothing to be done.

What followed was two. hours. of torture.

Up and down, tossing and turning, it took you forever to get to sleep.

Tonight, he's taking action.

"Are you going to the washroom?" he asks when you start to rise from the bed after five minutes of tossing.

When you reply that you thought maybe something to eat might help, he grabs you around the waist and yanks you back to bed.

He whispers sweet nothings in your ear until you fall asleep.

"You are calm, the night is quiet, the moon hangs overhead to accentuate your glow..."

It takes considerably less time his way.

Sanji:

Name it, it's yours.

Lullaby? He's not a great singer, but he'll do it.

Hot chocolate? Warm milk? Midnight snack? Done.

"Of course, love. Anything for you."

Sanji also can't sleep because you toss and turn too much, but he'll never say that part out loud.

You're already miserable, and if he has to suffer a little for you then so be it.

Oddly enough, it's the cigarettes that eventually lull you to sleep.

He steps outside for a moment to smoke, and hearing his deep inhale and long, slow exhale, you start to copy him...

When he comes back from his smoke, you're sound asleep.

Nami:

Has a whole bag of tricks up her sleeve.

Warm cloth to make your eyes heavy, suggests blinking rapidly for the same reason, drops the temperature in the cabin to emulate sleep temperature, tells you to tense and relax...

Eventually just straight-up hypnotizes you.

"Just focus on your breath as it goes in...and out. In... and out."

Reassurances that you're safe, telling you to imagine a forest with a crystal clear stream, it's all very cliche.

Even though you don't think it'll work you do everything she tells you.

And then it's morning.

You ask her to do it again the next night.

Luffy:

Food solves all problems. Even this one.

Enter warm milk.

Luffy reads you a story and sings a song, and you eventually realize that his knowledge of sleep is limited to stories of nap time at daycare.

It does not work, but his care is touching.

You jokingly say that maybe one of those thick mats you sleep on in daycare would help.

The home apparently goes over his head because the next week two of the mats are there.

(You're a little too big for just one nowadays, seeing as you're not five anymore.)

Zoro:

Deceptively useless.

You'd think with all the sleep he gets he'd be able to help someone get to sleep.

Turns out he doesn't have a clue; insomnia is not in this man's dictionary.

"Just go to sleep. It's not hard, you're fighting your body's natural drive to sleep, so just stop fighting it."

Eventually gives up and makes a show of cuddling you.

It fixes nothing, and neither of you is happy about this.

Insists that his not kicking you out of the room so he can get some sleep displays incredible restraint on his part.

You disagree. Loudly.

Kuro:

Not to worry! Kuro has a quick fix to help you get to sleep right away.

Strangulation.

"Please do stop struggling, I'm not going to kill you, obviously."

Has no patience for your insomnia and wants to get his own sleep.

Will not be trying to entice you to sleep with the carrot, it's straight to the stick with him.

It works, sort of.

You wake a few minutes later with a headache, but Kuro's already asleep with you pulled against his chest and purring contentedly.

It's literal; his snores rumble deep in his chest when he sleeps, and it does in fact sound like purring.

Funnily enough, the purring is what does it for you.

Next time you can't sleep, you Lady very still and let his purring soothe you to sleep.

When Kuro catches on, he gets marginally nicer about how he treats you when you're struggling with a bout of insomnia.

[transmutationisms]

how'd you learn to read french? could you point me to some resources? ideally free, i don't got them dollars or euros.

i took it for about 7 years in school, but a lot of that was kind of useless as far as reading knowledge goes because they were trying to teach us conversational skills lol. i had three semesters in undergrad that exclusively focussed on reading, which helped a lot, but since then i've just gotten stronger by practicing.

what i would recommend is just to download a 'french for reading' book (there are 5 different ones on libgen for english -> french; i believe i used the palmeri in college, but they're probably all fine) and work through at least the basic grammar that way. then it's really just a matter of starting to translate things.

iirc my coursework started us on larochefoucauld's maxims and pascal's pensées, then we did some descartes and rousseau's émile, and then switched to literature: racine's phèdre, one of molière's plays, baudelaire's fleurs du mal, rimbaud, and passages from proust's à la recherche du temps perdu. but there's nothing magical about that sequence -- what would be most helpful to you will depend on what sorts of things you want to read in the long run (eg, for me personally it would have been more useful if i'd learned on biology texts or something, just to introduce me to that vocabulary set earlier, but oh well).

you can also find collections of children's stories (i did this for german and found it boring but often helpful; fairy tales might be fun but be aware of the literary passé simple tense vs the more common-use passé composé) or you can also start on news articles since those tend to be written in plainer language with limited tenses. we used to use le monde in high school lmao. in any case just try to pick texts that have translations available so you can check your work.

i'd also strongly recommend wordreference.com if you don't already use it (online dictionary, but it'll give you examples of the word in sentences and in unusual usages, plus there's a discussion forum feature that is actually useful sometimes) and linguee.com, which lets you search phrases and shows actual documents and websites where they occur. most of the corpus is things like government websites, but it still saved my ass a good few times when i was starting out and would run into usages i just hadn't learned in the classroom.

& if you're looking for historical sources, the french national library's digitised collection is free/searchable at gallica.bnf.fr, and includes texts that have translations available as well as ones that don't.

[rin-and-jade]

Job Roulette.. or Not: A Post about Alter Roles

Roles like Hosts? Protectors?.. maybe a Cleaner? an Academic?.. why is there an alter who comes out only for driving?! What about these other alters who don't really do much--they got to have one right??

--Are probably what you might be thinking when this topic comes up. But, there's something more into it,, it's not all about what job or how the role is assigned to an alter only.

Well, for this post, lets talk EVERYTHING about how roles work, what kinds exist, why it's there?? And especially, why are some more task specific, multi-role, or even... none? Bowl straight to the point, let's roll out. Haha punny

Ok J, spill. What are they?

Hold on. Im pulling out this dictionary definition of it--ah!

"defined positions that are associated with given responsibilities and are usually allocated according to the position or ability of each person."

To put it in system terms, it's how different parts can do something that others couldn't, or, feel a sense of responsibility in one particular aspect. That's making sense right? But oh.. you still want to know why they're there at the first place. Fine, follow me!

Yeah, show me why!

As aforementioned, this disorder boxes up our different parts of selves with amnesia and weaker bonds of connection which really sets us back on easing our 'modes' for different situations.. not only that, a part's moods and state/personality can greatly affect what kinds of jobs they get, it's not so random as you'd thought.

So, thing is, because some alters have a distinguished ability capable in doing something, depending what fragment or pre-existing knowledge/experience it holds, that can become it's very own job task.

They can be hereditary (upon split or formed), gained (fuse or passed traits), or even learnt (by its own commitment, without any prior skills). Roles come from many origins, and none of them are so different.

But, some are more complex..

I get it, some can have more than one, have ultra specific ones, or literally just don't have any. Now it makes you think--if it was from predisposed strengths each alters naturally have, then why are some more niche? or like, anything else? I know why:

Our brains are complex alright. We both can think maybe we can do (even if we don't like it) and not do something, and these are all compartmentalized in each alters, so basically its part feelings, part acceptance of such trait, and part commitment as the formula. Even confidence or the call to action affects this outcome!

This can apply to who can handle more than one jobs, or for those who are more specific or lesser known roles. In fact, roles do not have any limits, they are specifically tailored for your functionality so don't fret if you have an alter who's job is only to sleep, or anything else 'silly' !

What about the ones without.. roles?

Do you think it feels wrong to not have roles? While it is true that roles are needed, they're not actually a required standard for everyone to have a job task. Mainly, ANP's are the one who usually have roles, but EP's can too.

If they do not have a role, they might be disinterested or think they don't have any potential, or sometimes they're only there to hold memories / don't have the qualified skill sets, and thats okay! You can take proactive action in anyhow you'd like, just remember, every parts aren't forced to contribute, you know? It doesn't make them useless, maybe more on passive support/back ups.

I've also seen some systems who don't really have roles because the alters are all well-rounded, as in pick up other's tasks and that they're not assigned/compelled to do a particular job at all times, like being flexible. everyone's different!

Make sense, anything else?

Well, that we are not bound to roles, they do not define us, and that we can lose, or change roles according to our growth. Have anyone ever mentioned that?

Im aware that we tend to put too much emphasis on having jobs and being contributive, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that we all in this together, and to help each other, in a way or another.

Never forget that you're more than your job! Maybe try to enjoy other parts of life, yeah?

--

Thats the end of the post. What will you do if you find a new alter with no impressions of having a role? How do you see roles in your own pov? What's the first thing you'd do if you were to be free from your job task, if any? Feel free to let me know, i hope this has been informative, im willing to add anything if something's missing!

- j

[crystaldust]

Lester Levenson's story (part 1)

/Source/ (part 2)

Lester turned his life around completely in 3 months. He was 42, a successful physicist and entrepreneur, but was unhappy and very unhealthy (including mentally). He had a massive heart attack and was on the brink of death, with no hopes of recovering. Upon discharged from the hospital he found himself to be very angry, frustrated and depressed. He seriously considered ending his life right then. 

He pondered on the meaning of life, realizing that his life had been meaningless, that all he wanted was to be happy and he never got it. His life had been an endless cycle of struggle in exchange for quick, momentary bliss. Nothing made any sense anymore. All his possessions and accomplishments felt meaningless and empty. He decided he wanted to at least get some answers before he died.

He focused on a few questions:

♡ What is life? What is it that I’ve been looking for? A: Just a little happiness ♡ what is happiness? How do you get it? Where do you find it? ♡ What is life? What is this world all about and what is my relationship to it? ♡ How did I get into this mess I’m in? Is there a way out of it?

He searched in the dictionary and all the books he could get a hold of (by physicists, philosophers, etc) but nothing helped. He realized that all the knowledge he had acquired in his life was useless, that he was stupid and that he wouldn’t be able to find the answers in books written by other people who didn’t know it either. So he let go of that, and by doing that, a burden was lifted from his shoulders. 

The problems were within him, he reasoned. It was his body, his mind, his emotions. The answers must be within him, too. That was his lab, and that’s where he would look.

He worked by trial and experience, having two-way conversations with himself, first posing a question, then exploring each possible answer until he could either validate it or eliminate it.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

♡ First month: What is happiness?

A: Happiness is when you’re being loved.

Q: Are you happy now? 

A: No. 

Q: Then that must mean you are not loved!

A: That’s not exactly true. Your family loves you, so do your friends and past lovers.

It came as a shock that with all that love, he still wasn’t happy. It became obvious that being loved was not the answer to happiness.

Q: Maybe happiness lies in accomplishments.

A: He was proud of himself, but not happy.

Q: Well, then, have I ever been happy and if so, when?

A: He reviewed his past and found several moments with friends and loved ones where he felt truly happy. He thought of his lost love from 20 years ago and he fell apart with all the suppressed emotions he held for so long. 

Q: What was the common denominator from all those happy moments?

A: Happiness is when I am loving! He realized that in every instance his feeling of love for the other person had been intense and that’s where the happiness had come from, from his own feeling of loving. It was so clear to him now that being loved was not the answer. He could see that even if people loved him unless he felt the love in return, he was not going to be happy. Their loving might make them happy but it would not, could not, make him happy.

He looked at the unhappy times in his past now and it was very obvious that he had not been loving. 

About his past lovers: He loved them, needed them, wanted them. But was that love, he wondered now. No, it was painful … he was experiencing pain that they didn’t love him. And even though he called it love, he was really wanting to possess them completely, thinking he needed all their love to be happy. That was the key! He had been experiencing a want or lack of love, expecting the other person to supply the love, waiting for the other person to make him happy.

The truth is that he’d been all the time dying inside for want of love, thinking he had to get it from someone. What he’d been looking for all his life was inside him.

Q: If happiness is when I’m experiencing love for the other one, then that means happiness is a feeling within me. And if I felt unloving in the past? Well, I know I can’t change the past, but could I possibly correct the feeling now inside myself? Could I change the feeling to love now?

He looked at his most recent unhappiness, the day he left the hospital.

Q: First, was I experiencing a lack of love that day?

A: Yes, he felt like no one cared about him. He hated the doctor the most.

Q: Well, can I change it? Is it possible to turn it into love for the doctor?

A: Hell, no, why should I? What did he ever do to deserve any love?

Q: That’s not the point. The point is not whether he deserves love. The point is, can you do it? Is it possible to simply change a feeling of hatred into a feeling of love – not for the benefit of the other person but yourself?

As the thought crossed his mind, he felt something break loose in his chest. A gentle easing, a sense of dissolving, and the burning sensation of rage was gone.

It seemed too easy so he pictured again the scene with Dr. Schultz in the hospital. He was surprised to find that it brought only a mild feeling of resentment rather than the previous intense burning hatred.

Q: Can I change this feeling of resentment into a feeling of love?

He thought of Dr. Schultz again, pictured him in his mind and felt happy, even loving.

A: “Doctor Schultz, you son-of-a-gun,” he said, grinning, “I love you.”

He went on to apply the same process to other unhappy memories and buried feelings.

Each time that he asked himself if he could change the feeling of hostility or anger or hatred to one of love, the dissolving process took place. Sometimes he had to repeat it over and over until he felt only love for the person. At times, the entire process would take only a minute or two; at other times, it might take him hours.

One by one, he changed all the old hurts and disappointments to love. He began to feel stronger as the weight of his pain dropped away. He was happier than he had ever been in his entire life, and he kept it going, feeling even more happiness with each new thing corrected.

He wondered how far he could take this. Was there a limit to happiness?

He kept going. Whenever someone bothered him in any way, he was able to correct that response with love either immediately or shortly after that. The experience pleased him, and he found himself loving others with an intensity far beyond anything he had imagined possible. Eventually, he got to a point where, no matter how much he was being opposed, he could maintain a feeling of love for them.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

♡ Second month: Accepting the unwanted (aversions)

He kept trying to correct his feelings about his lost love, but couldn’t fully deal with it, there was a feeling of despair which he couldn’t get past. He instinctively wanted to do anything to get away from those intense feelings. He couldn’t understand why he couldn’t dissolve them. 

He started crying from all the pent up pain, wondering why she left him when they could have been so happy together. Why did she do it? There should be a way for him to change it, change what happened and the effect it had on him. At that point he felt the familiar pain of his stomach ulcers and he realized for sure that they had originated on the last day he saw her (when she left him). He told himself he couldn’t do anything about it so he should give up. 

At this point he had a revelation: he was still trying to change something that had been finished for many years. He realized that he couldn’t accept it, that was his attachment. “No, it can’t be finished,” he cried in desperation. “I won’t let it be finished.” That was the source of his anguish; he’d wanted to change it all these years and so he kept it alive inside himself, the pain buried deep, eroding his happiness.

He decided to let that go. And with that simple decision, the whole thing was gone. He thought of her, and all the bad feelings were gone, he simply loved her.

He realized that the cause of his ulcers was that he had wanted to change everything in the world. He saw himself subject to and a victim of everything he wanted to change!

He began dissolving all that. When he thought of something that caused him pain about a person or situation, he would now either correct it with love or dissolve wanting to change it. This added a new dimension to his work, and his progress accelerated.

Sometimes he felt as though he had hold of a chain with many links to incidents on it which needed correcting. Once he got hold of the chain, he would follow through incident by incident until there was nothing left to be corrected.

Ex: jealousy - it was a big thing with him

Once he decided to correct this tendency in himself he looked for it, not content to let it come willy-nilly. He would probe his memory for instances where his jealousy had driven him; correct it; then look for more.

When he thought it was done, he would test himself imagining scenes that would have otherwise made him mad with the feeling. Until he could finally be neutral and loving towards the imagined scenes.

The more he kept going, the better he felt, not just emotionally but physically. He was getting healthier, more energized, and also much much happier. Insights came with increasing frequency. He started to understand things that used to puzzle him. His mind began to feel like crystal … clear, sharp. Colors seemed brighter and everything was more sharply defined.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

♡ Third month: Discovering his real nature

By now, he felt so much more free, it allowed him to concentrate better, so he began to investigate his mind. 

Q: What is my mind? What is intelligence?

A: He got a mental picture of an amusement park bumper car ride. The energy to power all the cars comes from a single source, the ceiling. The amount of energy is regulated by individual drivers using a foot pedal. The steering mechanism is constructed to be oversensitive, so it requires the utmost delicacy of handling to maintain control of the car because the slightest movement of the wheel sends it careening, and the cars are constantly bumping into each other, out of control. And it seems that the more a driver tries to control his car, the more erratic the action becomes. This was a picture of mankind today. We all use the same single intelligence and power taken from above. But most of us are out of control, using the energy to bump into each other.

Lester saw that he could regulate his own energy, so he started to look into the relationship between his thinking and what happened in his life. He realized that whatever happened in his life had a thought behind it at some time prior. He never realized it before because there was usually time in between the thought and the happening. Thus, if he could find a way to use this, he would be able to consciously pre-determine everything that would happen.

He learned that he was responsible for everything that had happened to him, formerly believing that the world was abusing him. It was tremendous freedom, knowing that he was not a victim of the world. To be able to arrange the world the way he would like it to be. There was freedom from the subconscious compulsions (that he needed to work, to make money, to be loved etc). 

Suddenly he felt like there was no need for him to have anything. His happiness depended on him and his thinking determined his life. 

His happiness was beyond his imagination. It was so great he was determined to see where it could lead him. He kept going with these newly found processes, correcting his entire life. 

By now an old fear came up, it was the fear of death, which had accompanied him all his life. Now he recognized it as the basis of every single feeling he had ever had. He worked on drawing it out in order to dissolve it. And it worked. He got to a point where he could laugh at it. This last of the monsters turned out to be, after all, only a feeling. 

After this, he realized his body was completely healed. It was unexplainable. He was now into the most blissful, joyous state. He felt light, with joy exploding inside him every moment. Everyone and everything became exquisitely beautiful to him.

He kept looking for more things to correct, but there didn’t seem to be much. Occasionally something would occur to him, but it would be gone almost before he could define it and the joy would surge through him even more strongly.

He wondered if it could get better than the joy that he was experiencing?

He received an answer: it was peace, imperturbability. And he knew that if he accepted it, it would never go away. Everything was still. He was in a quietness that he now knew had always been there but drowned out by incessant noise from his accumulated, uncorrected past. Beyond this there was only one Beingness, and everything was It. It was the essence of every living thing, but they were without awareness of the fact, blinded by the uncorrected past they hold on to.

He saw this Beingness as something like a comb. He was at the spine of the comb and all the teeth fanned out from it, each one thinking it was separate and different from all the other teeth. And that was true, but only if you looked at it from the tooth end of the comb. Once you got back to the spine or source, you could see that it wasn’t true. It was all one comb. There was no real separation, except when you sat at the tooth end. It was all in one’s point of view.

He tested this out, if he really was the whole comb, then he should be able to tune in with any tooth. He thought of a friend he had in California, and suddenly he was there, in his friend’s living room, he saw everyone that was there and what was happening. Then he called his friend and checked if what he had seen was accurate. His friend was shocked to confirm everything. 

But his friend was so scared, he was panicking, and Lester could feel his panic as if it was his own, as if he was inside his friend. It was a new experience, and then he realized that he was in fact the other person, and every other person… because his essence was the essence of all. He was sitting at the spine of the universal comb. He had a new point of view and could see everything.

He told his friend he was joking, in order to calm him down. He realized he had to be more careful. He’d forgotten that people think in very narrow terms, unable to accept anything outside the conventional. Much like how he used to be, before he discovered all this. He was a convinced materialist. He only believed in what he could perceive with his physical senses. 

When he realized that his solid world was truly only a thought, the whole thing started to crack. His entire lifetime began to fall away, but it didn’t fall gracefully and with ease. He shook for days, dropping away everything he formerly knew about himself and the world.

By the end of this period, he was completely transformed, having discovered firsthand that we are all unlimited beings, limited only by the concepts of limitation that we hold in our minds. These concepts of limitation are not true; furthermore, because they’re not really true, they can easily be released or discharged. 

He knew now that the real wasn’t the physical world, nor his mind, but something greater. He knew that his very Beingness was the reality, and it had no limits, it was eternal. All the things he used to believe were him, like his body and his mind, were the least of him, rather than the all of him.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹

♡ Afterwards: The last breakthrough

He couldn’t believe that it had only been three months, it had felt like a million lifetimes had gone by, but it also felt like it was only a moment. His sense of time had changed radically.

He realized that from his perspective, in the quietness, there was no time. There was an ever-nowness. Time was relative and had meaning only in the world of differences, of separation.

He was that peace… his body seemed small and distant sitting in its chair. He could see it there if he chose, but he felt himself spread across the entire universe; that body was only an infinitesimal speck in the vastness that he was. He was omnipresent. There was no travel, only a thought, and he was there.

“It was obvious to me that I wasn’t that body and mind as I had thought I was. I just saw it—that’s all. It’s simple when you see it. So I let go of identifying with that body. And when I did, I saw that my Beingness was all Beingness, that Beingness is like one grand ocean. It’s not chopped up into parts called “drops of bodies.” It’s all one ocean. That caused me to identify with every being, every person, and even every atom in this universe.”

First, you see that the universe is in you, then you see the universe as you. Then you know the Oneness of this universe. Then you are finished forever with separation and all the hellishness that’s caused only by separation.  And then you can no longer be fooled by the apparent limitations of the world.

He discovered tremendous power in the mind. But he only believed in what he knew he could already do, so he began testing himself, experimenting. 

“If I am these things, can I do them?”, he would ask. And he proved these things to a few witnesses. He would move things with his mind. Thought he wouldn’t impose himself on others, if they didn’t believe him, he wouldn’t bother them. He never felt like the doer of such things, he was only the clear catalyst, with no ego involvement.

He saw that the source of intelligence is only one and we all have it. Therefore, unlimited knowledge, omniscience, is available to all. It was available in unlimited amounts and it came simply by freeing himself of his former compulsions, inhibitions, entanglements and hang-ups. He didn’t have to be subject to anything. All he was doing was removing blocks that prevented that power to flow through him. 

Inherently each person has the ability to have, be, or do whatever that person wills or desires.

[unbearable-lightness-of-ink]

so anyway I really did start compiling a kinyarwanda/english dictionary/grammar guide out of all the random resources i've been hoarding on my phone (it doesn't have to be great, it just has to be better than searching multiple different files every time I'm looking for some obscure vocab or grammar detail) and one of these resources is some PDF uploaded to the internet archive and it's... not great. from the writing and contents it's clearly

old (my guess is mid-1900s. I don't remember colonial and post-colonial Rwandan history specifically enough to guess well here, but based on some of the typos, it was done on a typewriter and then scanned with OCR)

intended for missionaries (some examples of actual sentences in the "translate this" exercises include "I praise God because He saved me and He gave me peace and joy" and, I shit u not, "The blind man cannot see the Word of God, but he can hear and he can know the love of Jesus." it's. well for one thing this is basically useless vocabulary for me, and also it's cringe af)

written by someone who was not a linguist (at one point instead of just saying "if T is preceded by an unvoiced consonant, it turns into D" they give you a list of every unvoiced consonant and then recommend that you invent a mnemonic phrase to memorise the list?! why?)

written by someone who was shit with pronunciation (legit so many places where they're like "there's no way to describe how this sounds, you just have to ask someone to make the sound for you" my good bitch the phoneme might not be in english but I could describe it just fine. skill issue.)

but the thing that's really killing me about all this is that every time they try to explain tonal vowels or phonemes that aren't in english, they tell you to "ask an African to say it for you."

an. an what now? an African? babe there are approximately 1.5 billion people in Africa. Africa accounts for about 20% of the land on earth, it's the second-biggest continent, and it has an estimated two thousand living languages spoken throughout the continent.

and kinyarwanda? it has maybe 15-25 million native speakers, depending on which source I trust. it's spoken (almost*) exclusively in rwanda, which is the 9th smallest country in Africa--and that roundup includes islands off the coast of the continent. It has the second densest population in Africa but it still only has like 13 million people in it. and it's a very unique language. its closest relatives do not have the same phonemes that kinyarwanda has, and its closest relatives are also spoken by relatively few people. I don't know enough about kirundi to say much but I do know that it doesn't have the same vowel tones in all instances and it doesn't have some of the same consonant clusters. and the more widely spoken related languages that you're more likely to stumble on someone who knows how to speak? they're even worse for a reference; ask someone who speaks kiswahili to pronounce kinyarwanda for you and they will not pronounce the difference between, say, umuceri (rice) and umucyeri (berry), or the tonal difference between words like umusambi (floor mat) and umusambi (crested crane).

so, like. it's just absolutely sending me, this random white lady who was obviously a colonialist missionary, bothering to make a whole language guide to teach me how to proselytise in kinyarwanda, but along the way she's like "just ask an african--any african--how to say this" lady less than 1% of them are going to know this language but go off i guess

*almost because there's the diaspora of rwandan expats and immigrants in other countries plus the banyamulenge which is a whole aspect of it that has so much fraught history on all sides that I won't even try to say something intelligent about it, it's totally not my place/something i'm educated enough about, but to my knowledge most of them speak dialects that are more or less dissimilar to kinyarwanda; kinyamulenge and kinyabwisha are not the same as kinyarwanda. take it from my munyamulenge coworker who could never pronounce the difference between c and cy

[bts-trivia]

LAST CALL: Which song was included on Proof because Seokjin chose it?

[namchyoon]

day 314/547 until joon returns cr. and for @jung-koook 🤍

[k-star-holic]

The Dictionary Of useless Knowledge' Launches New Nineteen Eighty-Four... Pachinko' Kim Min-ha, First Entertainment Top Model

[skarletchains]

<3<3<3<3 gimme useless facts!

Send ‘♡’ for a pointless fact about the mun

I studied for three years in a manga workshop. But I never took the time to practice enough, so I have the knowledge to be a mangaka but not the practice.

I participated in a singing workshop for two years and then took private lessons. I also studied guitar and composed two songs: a melodic one and a blues

Among my large library you can find books about: mythology, legends, fantasy (HP), manga (Junji Ito), physics, erotic novels (50SOG), psychology, romance, mystery, language books (English, Japanese and Italian), 4 dictionaries (one in Spanish, one in older Spanish, and two in English), a medical encyclopedia, world and national classic literature. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

My favorite movie has always been the Pirates of the Caribbean saga

[bonvoyagenoona]

Office Hours is one of my favorite NJ fics of all time and the Vogue photos that just dropped are exactly how I picture Office Hours Professor Namjoon everytime I read it 🫠🫠🫠

Aaaah these?? You are so right! I mean the article even captures those vibes!! Look at the captions and questions:

Your passion to learn and gain wisdom was on full display when you appeared on the Korean talk show The Dictionary of Useless Human Knowledge (Alsseulinjab) .

That's so the Office Hours trivia scenes!! 🥹

An artist often suffers alone during the process of creation and expression, but some creative processes, like the upcoming photo shoot, can be very collaborative, involving many people. What are your rules on collaborating with others to achieve a certain artistic outcome?

That's so them collaborating on publications 🥲

The joy of admiring beauty, the passion to humble oneself and learn, the determination to fight complacency: The essence of youth, the essence of RM.

That's the— I mean the whole fic is abou— THAT'S OFFICE HOURS NAMJOON IN A NUTSHELL 😭

Oof, that took me back! Thanks for reading Office Hours and seeing that thread! I hadn't seen these drop, so if it hadn't been for your ask, I would've missed it completely. Thanks again and hoping you enjoy an Office Hours Namjoon fond gaze from across the pub table!

[thevoiceofthebard]

Chapter 8 - Farengar I: Bleak Falls Barrow

Morndas, 18th of Last Seed 4E201 Evening

Farengar

I am Farengar, of the Secret-Fire. No, my name is not the result of idle gossip over a flame I harbour for this or that maid in town - or man, as some for some reason think. But it is true I have a secret obsession.

Dragons.

Ever since my youth, the Nord tales of dragon-killing legends held me like no other. Who care for the sordid exploits of Ragnar the Dead when massive scaled beasts who razed towns with their fiery breath still existed in legend? Why listen to the affairs of Daedra when one could envision taking to the skies astride a dragon? Yes, that was what inspired me; the magic of eld.

How disappointing, then, to discover nearly all Tamriel's information regarding them was oral and apocryphal. The College of Winterhold held scant few books on the topic. And of course, the College of Whispers and the Synods are too busy jockeying for power to share what little they recovered over the years. I even petitioned the Greybeards atop the Throat of the World for their help, but my query was ignored by the recluses. I suppose with their supposed extinction, nobody saw fit to keep records about dragons. Nothing on physiology, or migratory patterns, or even behaviour. (Unless you believe the stories that paint them all as mindless harbingers of death. Which I don't.) All I could find when I began was the fact that dragons had their own language, spoken and written, and that these words gave dragons the powers told of in stories. I even stumbled upon an alphabet, but no dictionary of words. That was it.

A dozen seasons I spent, following the most minuscule of leads, expanding what little knowledge I had of the fell beasts. Comparing stories to find common links. Looking for vague references in unrelated texts from three eras ago.

Along the way, I suppose I became a mage of some renown, and wound up court wizard to the Jarl of Whiterun. Would I were not tied down, but man cannot live by will alone. And I suppose the extra influence from my position is useful when requesting some obscure text from a private collection. But even then, my obsession was largely ridiculed for its seeming uselessness. Not that I cared what others might have thought; knowledge for my own personal desires was more than enough for me.

Well, at least until yesterday. I suppose some legends aren't to remain solely legends. And suddenly, my amusing hobby has made me the most valuable citizen under the Jarl's employ.

Thus, I find myself poring over my notes, all the information I've gathered in an effort to prepare for... Well, whatever may come. Destruction, most likely. Weaknesses to exploit, strengths to defend against. But there is still so little we know. If only the Jarl would let me complete this recent request, but no, I'm locked up here and...

I feel a tug at the ward I placed upon my door, signaling that someone has entered my rooms. And more importantly, disrupting my concentration. It's annoying, if necessary. I once ignored Avenicci for five minutes once, I was so engrossed in my own thoughts. Doesn't help that the man is more dull than Heimskr's incessant babbling.

Where was I again? Right, visitors.

I step out into the receiving area, and find Balgruuf himself waiting for me. Along with... Some other man? Gods, I hope I haven't met him before; I hate forgetting names and faces. Note to self, look into perhaps making a journal to record people's names and characteristics, so I'm not clueless about every person who walks in.

"My Jarl."

"Farengar, I think I've found someone who can help you with your dragon project. Go ahead and fill Talao in on the details." Odd. The Jarl usually wastes time on pleasantries when he visits. Well, I suppose the current situation has everyone a bit off-kilter, even Balgruuf.

The man in question seems a bit... Shrimpy. Nothing in particular stands out to me; he seems rather bland. "So, the Jarl thinks you can be of use to me?" Certainly no warrior, no armor, no weapons. "He must be referring to my research into the dragons. Yes, I could use someone to fetch something for me."

"That's it?" he asks.

I hesitate for a second. But the Jarl seems convinced, if his look is anything to go by. I suppose it's on him if the unlucky bastard dies. "Well, when I say fetch, I really mean delve into a dangerous ruin in search of an ancient stone tablet that may or may not actually be there."

He blinks. Stunned and confused, if I read his expression correctly. "And this has, uh, what to do with dragons, exactly?"

Damn. Definitely spooked him. Maybe I shouldn't have been so blunt with him. My doubts grow, but again, Balgruuf must have chosen him for a reason. Perhaps if I try stroking his ego; I find that works wonders. "Ah, no mere brute mercenary, but a thinker - perhaps even a scholar?"

"Of a sort, I suppose. I'm a bard by profession."

We're doomed.

No, stop that. Find the common ground... Stories! "You see, when the stories of dragons began to circulate, many dismissed them as mere fantasies, rumors. Impossibilities. One sure mark of a fool is to dismiss anything that falls outside his experience as being impossible. But I began to search for information about dragons a while back - where had they gone all those years ago? And where could they be coming from now?"

He nods, his earlier hesitation gone. "To be sure, our own history is often the key to understanding the present." Smart man. I truly hope he comes back alive. "What do you hope to find in this ruin?"

"Of course. I, ah, learned of a certain stone tablet said to be housed within Bleak Falls Barrow - a "Dragonstone," - said to contain a map of dragon burial sites."

"Burial sites? Are you planning to exhume a corpse? Or..." His eyes widen, "Perhaps they're, what, being resurrected."

"Possible. I highly doubt it flew here from Akavir, since all sources seem to agree they all left en masse. Necromancy is an option, though it begs the question why only now has such a thing happened. We don't know, which is where you come in. Go to Bleak Falls Barrow, find this tablet - no doubt interred within the main chamber - and bring it to me. Simplicity itself."

"This is a priority now," Balgruuf interjects. Obviously. "Anything we can use to fight this dragon, or dragons. We need it, quickly. Before it's too late."

"Of course, Jarl Balgruuf." Of course, it only took the imminent destruction of Whiterun to inspire interest in my work. Silver linings. "You seem to have found me an able assistant. I'm sure he will prove most useful." And I suppose I do mean it. A little.

"Succeed at this, and you will be rewarded. Whiterun will be truly in your debt. Speak to Proventus if you should need any supplies for your trip, as I'm sure you're running low after your ordeal at Helgen." With that declaration, which I'm sure he thought very grand, Balgruuf exits, leaving Talao and myself alone. I can't help but sigh heavily. Working with others can be so tedious. But sadly necessary. Back to my research then. Based on the shape of the skull of the dragon above the Jarl's throne, (how ghastly) it seems clear that...

"Ahem."

The sound startles me, and it take a moment to realize it's Talao. Standing in the same place. "You're still here?"

"Yes," he replies with a grimace. "See, while I'm indeed grateful for the trust your Jarl has placed in me, I'm... Well, not a terribly seasoned fighter. In fact, you could say I'm utter rubbish in a fight."

"Your point?"

"I'm about to dive into a Nordic ruin, which from past experience can often house Draugr, bandits, and other things that would gladly tear the flesh from my bones. I need some manner of protection beyond whatever supplies I can gather in town."

Reasonable enough. Smart not to go barreling to his death, at least. "Well, I do have a small collection of spell tomes for sale here, but I doubt you would be able to learn anything of value overnight. You could always find some easily swayed mercenary at the local tavern that's daring or dull enough to join you. Though I would prefer you keep my research between as few people as possible. It wouldn't do to worry the locals about something so trivial as our utter lack of understanding of dragons."

"No, certainly not," he laughs. "Thank you for the information."

As he turns to leave, I'm struck by a bout of inspiration. "Wait a moment." I dash into a side-room I use to store things on which I'm not currently working, to grab... Damn where is it? Aha! There. An old staff, carved into the likeness of a golden dragon. Though it's faded so thoroughly it seems mere yellow now. I return and present it to him. "This is an old staff of mine, back from when my research was... Less sedate. It's enchanted with a basic Fireball spell. Perfect for combating undead and bandits alike. I keep it charged, but old as it is I don't know how many casts it will last for. Better than anything you'll find at Belethor's, though, I guarantee."

He takes it reverently. Or maybe fearfully, as if he's afraid it might explode. Hmm, that's a frightful thought, can staves explode under certain conditions? Add it to the research list. "Thank you, Farengar. I shall treat it well."

"See that you do. I would like it back in one piece, if possible, but better if it should help you complete my task." Strange that I'd part with it after so long, but I suppose it's been gathering dust anyway. Besides, my history is locked safely within my own mind. I wave farewell to... By Julianos, I've already forgotten his name. I'll just check with Balgruuf at some point. Now... All dragon stories feature fire-breathing, so we'll need to stockpile reservoirs of water. Perhaps we can ward against it? Or is their magic so different that they'll be ineffective? What about...

Chapter 7 - Balgruuf I: Before The Storm x Chapter 9 - Uthgerd I: Bleak Falls Barrow

[multipleclavis]

mission statement

TLDR: We are compiling a glossary of words used within our system.

We (the System Language Glossary) recognize the lack of adequate language surrounding multiplicity and believe that expanding the pool of words that describe our experiences is the first step in creating a world that embraces plurality and the diversity of experiences it encompasses.

In our day-to-day life as part of the web system, we often feel frustrated by our limited vocabulary surrounding how it feels to eat, socialize, love, touch, believe, and many other parts of our human experience. We cannot talk about our lives with technical depth, with emotional depth, or with the intended variations in tone. The words that do exist are often simplistic and invalidating. Given how critical it is for all parts of the psyche to communicate with each other well, i.e. accurately, empathetically, and honestly, we believe that our vocabulary should be robust and cover all spheres of life.

Because we have little choice but to communicate, the web system is continually in the process of creating new words and borrowing words from other fields. But because of the nature of our system, knowledge is often lost soon after or even during its creation. Words and phrases for the same concept are created over and over because of the lack of a centralized dictionary. Our own amnesia aside, we believe that many other system-related terms exist outside of our system, but are stored in places they cannot be easily retrieved, such as private Discord communities, obscure medical texts, or human memory.

This blog exists primarily to catalog these terms and the details of their usage in a format that is accurate, accessible and easy to traverse for all members of the system. We desire an archive that is complete, and, consequently, we hope to record terms even when we personally find them to be useless, distasteful, or incomprehensible.