Notices by Yingtai (yingtai@zirk.us)

@liztai my favourite tricky characters right now are 己 ji3, 已 yi3, and 巳 si4! I'm not even sure how to describe the differences - half-width alignment? I don't think I know any other characters that do this, but that doesn't mean they don't exist ...

@liztai oh yeah there's also 日 ri4 and 曰 yue1! Fun times!

I've been slacking off on #Mandarin because of health and going wild over Obsidian (I do not recommend the combination at all).

But now I'm getting back to it. And wow, I'm really really rusty. ALREADY. It's been less than two weeks!

I love the Outlier add-on for the Pleco dictionary app. I looked up 奠基 diàn jī (to lay a foundation) and found out that the first character originally depicted an offering of alcohol placed on the ground. That's a connection I would not have made on my own! #Mandarin

I am charmed to learn that #Mandarin has a measure word for small things one has to be cautious with. The word is 枚 méi, and you can use it for eggs, grenades, and rings.

I've never heard it used myself, so I'd love to have this confirmed by someone else.

https://chineseedge.com/complete-list-of-mandarin-chinese-classifiers-and-measure-words/

@liztai it's always interesting to hear what your experience learning Mandarin is like, because mine is so similar and yet so different. We're both heritage learners in Southeast Asia, and we're both trying to level up to HSK4.

But you have a great foundation in speaking Mandarin. I sound like a 3-year-old! I did calligraphy and Mandarin in school, so I can copy beautifully. But I did the bare minimum for school, so I can't read the newspaper even at my snail's speed.

Guide Dogs UK has a very important announcement for anyone with an unconventional hairstyle, beard, tattoos etc. You are needed to play with puppies.

"We’re issuing a national appeal for volunteers with distinctive characteristics to help socialise the next generation of guide dogs. Our new research shows that 1 in 5 (20 %) of dog owners revealed their dogs have shown signs of fear or confusion when encountering unfamiliar physical attributes." https://bit.ly/3PgRTOc

I want to delete all my tweets before the new privacy policy takes effect on 29 September, but I get the impression that the bulk deletion tools no longer work after Musk started charging the sky for the API. Does anyone know of tools that are still working?

Alternatively, I would settle for downloading all my bookmarks before deleting my Twitter account. But I'm running into similar problems with the tools.

Please feel free to boost.