gramie

@gramie@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Whats the best way to deep dive into learning a language without apps?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Try Language Transfer. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It is just a set of MP3 files that you listen to. The teacher explains something to the student, and the student tries it out.

  It sounds silly, but it works really well, and it is the best language resource I’ve ever used.

  You can use them through SoundCloud (downloadable MP3s), YouTube, or with the simple but very effective app.

  It’s all free, although you are welcome to support the project with donations. I have been making a monthly donation for several years now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some of the worst acted main or supporting characters in a TV series you've watched?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I watched the entire British run of Ghosts before I was aware that there was an American one. I have no interest in watching it, because there’s no way it could be an improvement.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon describes past⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I would not have wanted to take my chances of being one of the 1/12. They not have had to worry once it was all over, but while it was happening a lot of people were at risk of being sent to die in a foreign land.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon describes past⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If OP was 20 in the Summer of '69 then he most certainly was eligible to fight in a war.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After ‘Suits’ and ‘Royal Pains,’ It’s ‘Psych’s Turn for a Potential Revival⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I thought he was fantastic (as were all the actors) in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Language Transfer . Much better for learning a language than Duolingo.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consumers make their voices heard as Microsoft's huge venture flatlines in popularity⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In theory there is little difference between practice and theory. In practice there is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In the latest Windows 11 preview build, Microsoft removed the “bypassnro” command, which let users skip signing into a Microsoft Account when installing Windows.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Isn’t the money from selling microsoft products enough?

  “Enough money” is a phrase that simply doesn’t make sense for a lot of people, especially the sociopaths that run companies.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The System Shock 2 remaster comes out June 26th⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve probably played through it 5 times, using different skill trees.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  One of the giveaways for me was the complete ignorance of the Canadian post-secondary system.

  She said that she’s taking pre-health sciences at George Brown College. College in Canada means community college. You take a course, typically 1-3 years, with a specific goal in mind.

  Also, Canadian universities do not offer pre-med or pre-health sciences tracks. You get a degree in chemistry, biology, or whatever, and apply for med school irrespective of the program you are in. One of my classmates was accepted into medical school straight out of chemical engineering. Someone else I know was finishing a degree in Spanish literature when he was accepted into medical school.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any hope for Ukraine to survive as an independent state now that trump is desperately wishing for a peace treaty with Russia, even bypassing Ukraine?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Being Ukrainian puts a completely different spin on it. My comment still holds true for Americans, but I would rather not see Ukrainians ground under the heel of another dictator, especially one enabled by the stupidification of the United States.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any hope for Ukraine to survive as an independent state now that trump is desperately wishing for a peace treaty with Russia, even bypassing Ukraine?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m sorry, but I don’t see it. The century of American supremacy is coming to a close. You may not want to admit it, because everyone in the US has been thought about American exceptionalism since they started school. China will rise, as will Europe possibly. I think Russia is failing as well. Its current lashing out is the end of their term as a great power.

  The US is a big country, and the fall will be slow, but I don’t think there is a way to stop it now. I suspect that future historians will trace it back to the Nixon era. Come to think of it, every Republican president since then has also been really, really shitty when it came to preserving the health of the democracy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jamie Dimon popped off at the 1,200+ JPMorgan employees fighting against full-time RTO: 'I don’t care how many people sign that petition'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Even if he works twice as much as one of his employees, which I do not concede, he is being paid 500 or 1,000 times as much. For that much money, I would expect nothing less than 24/7.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Romance scammers are now in the fediverse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also, the term “pre-health science”, that “she” used has never been used in Canada as far as I know. We don’t even say pre-med. Either you are in med school, or you are trying to get in, taking a variety of courses. There is no defined set of courses that we call pre-med.

  Other differences between us and the US regarding post-secondary education:

  Canadian universities are also almost completely free of fraternities and sororities.

  We have sports scholarships, but they are nowhere near as lavish as in the US. Sports in general is a minor sideline for Canadian universities.

  And to us, college always means community college. University is university (and never “uni” as some benighted countries call it).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨in 1994 Takeshi Kitano's Minnā yatteru ka! (Is everyone doing it?) we see a car dealer hitting a child's head with his parents present, but the parents don't react. Why is this funny in Japan?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hitting inferiors in the head (especially for doing something foolish) is certainly a common trope in Japanese comedy.

  It’s been a couple of decades since I lived in Japan, but I don’t know if they have experienced the same campaign against childhood violence that we have in North America. A few years ago, corporal punishment was made explicitly illegal both at schools and in the home. I’m not sure how much it has changed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you save, we will charge you more⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They are outrageously expensive compared to my hydro Quebec rate of USD $0.05/kWh, or even my previous rate in Ontario of (varying by the the time of day) USD $0.06-0.12/kWh.

  96% of Quebec electricity is generated by hydro power, which of course doesn’t require any fuel. The other thing, though, is that power generation and transmission is done through a public corporation, not a private one. The profits go into general government revenue.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sounds like the position of Mistress is now open.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon is a winner⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I thought that it used up all its good insights covering the first couple of books, and then limped to the ending.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon is a winner⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sounds like someone needs to read “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I got into the wrong career lol⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That is one of the funniest things I have seen in a very long time!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm seriously proud of this⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Starbucks may deserve all the stick that they get for their labor practices, but here in Canada on holidays they pay double time and a half (or about CAD $50/hour).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Not enough people buying Premium, eh?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I just lost my premium subscription after about 2 years of paying $3/month in Argentina. Here it’s $24/month (family plan). YouTube is unbearable with all the ads. Sometimes a 10-minute video has 3 as breaks. I’m only using it for precise purposes now, not scrolling and exploring, and finding alternatives as much as possible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Paramount will be releasing "GLADIATOR II" on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on March 4.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hailed by reviews from Fox TV Houston morning news and a station in The CW network, what could be more reliable than that?

  I guess they didn’t want to influence people unduly by quoting respected reviewers and journalists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Automated Bot of Experian support phone line, refuses to let me to a real person... 🤬⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I tried that recently on a call to, I believe, the bank. It ended up just disconnecting the call. Clearly they know about this trick.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I have been told ever since I was a little shit that when you die you go to heaven first wait in line for St Peter to judge you at the pearly gates? Is this in the Bible? I thought god did judging⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There was a time, not that long ago, when cremation was not an option for Catholics. At some point, the church changed its mind. Maybe in the seventies or eighties?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US Elections question: Bernie Sanders said that the Democrats abandoned the working class, and the working class abandoned them. How is this true?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I can understand being frustrated and angry with the Democrats for essentially being a status quo party that favors their corporate benefactors.

  What boggles my mind is thinking that voting Republican would make any of that better, when in fact it seems pretty clear that it is going to make everything much, much worse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do Americans win their country back?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem is that nowhere is safe now. I’m Canadian, and I wish I had somewhere to go. And just imagine how the poor sods in Palestine, Ukraine, and so many other suffering countries, are feeling right now.

  I wouldn’t be surprised if Vladimir Putin’s armies weren’t occupying large swaths of Eastern Europe by the end of this term.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  But given infinite time, could OP spell “infinity” correctly?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Straightforward.⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The “Mission” paragraph above the highlighted text is even more ludicrous!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Discussion] Of all the films you’ve gone into blind, which one truly stands out as your favorite find?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I went to a double feature because I wanted to see The Tin Drum. First I had to sit through another movie I had never heard of that sounded really corny: Runaway Train.

  Starring John Voight and Eric Roberts, and with a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, it was extraordinary. Certainly not just a cheap action flick.