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disappointed_lesbianToday I found out that I can be away from my apartment for no longer than thirty days. Kind of ridiculous, the way welfare hems people in. Well, I'm not going to allow myself to be hemmed in. I just don't give a shit anymore. Even if I weren't trying to leave the country, I'd not want to stay in this town, and moving with a housing voucher requires temporary homelessness anyways. I'm not going to put myself through doing a 3-, 6-, or even 9-month course followed by yet another stint of homelessness, so it's either a one-year language course for me or I go for the three-year master's degree program. I'll pay for emergency evac insurance in case war breaks out. Actually, they may not even cover war, or it may be too expensive.
If/when I have to come back to this country, I can get another housing voucher relatively easily because I'm a veteran. Before, I felt like a fourth homelessness adventure would kill me, but I think I may be able to handle it after one to three years abroad, especially since I can probably get into a temp vet housing program while I'm waiting. Turns out the military is the best thing I ever did with my life in terms of survival.
So I'm going to apply for the master's program this fall, and, if I'm not accepted, I'll apply again next fall. I don't have to submit test scores until the end of February for the scholarship, so I shouldn't have to worry too much about my language skills. If I take the test on January first, between then and now I'll have about a hundred and seventy days of study time; at 7 new characters/words/don't know what to call them per day, my vocabularly will have increased by about 1280, and I'm already studying intermediate level vocab so I should be close to B1 in time.
The new vocab routine is firmly in place; what I need to focus on now is listening to people speaking Mandarin for a native-speaking audience plus my own speaking skills.
I tried a while ago to log in to a linux support forum I've used for years, but now even viewing the content requires enabling Javascript, which I'm not going to do. Over the years, I've noticed that more and more websites require Javascript and cookies just for access to a free article or how-to guide. Until recently, I've not known why; I just assumed they want users to submit to their tracking, advertising, and whatnot. But recently I came across a website whose blocked content page provided an explanation: AI is causing site owners problems by scraping the web, so measures to distinguish between AI bots and human users have been put in place. What a drag. Fortunately my search engine lists cached versions of web pages, so I can still access most of the information I need. As I've said before, the Internet has gone to shit. Or maybe it's still going and we haven't even arrived at the worst part yet.
Another five hour walk today and my leg was hurting this time, but I knew that would go away once I got home so I pressed on. I wonder whether acclimating to this enough to avoid the pain is possible. I'm now getting up at one or one-thirty am to avoid the other people in town. 3 am wasn't good enough. Maybe I really should start taking double my d3 dose because I'm getting even less sun this way. Later I did a sprint on the spinning bike with my tired legs at the end of my weightlifting/cardio workout. I pushed myself and got to the end of the song I was listening to (some fast metal) even though I'd set a goal of making it only to the two minute mark and it was a great success.
As usual, I started off on the high school track this morning, but walking on that endlessly flat, featureless surface started to feel something like sensory deprivation. I craved the tactile feedback of a more varied surface under my feet. So I struck off across town and walked a dirt/rock/sand trail. The little rocks were painful, too much tactile feedback, and the sand made my steps ponderous, laborious, and slow, but ultimately I was satisfied. It's the new shoes that make me feel this way.
I've just now come back from a walk to the community market and thoroughly exhausted myself for the day. As of tomorrow morning, we (me and my eleven alternate personalities) will be trying a new diet hack: undercooked oats. Normally I have quick-cooking oats for breakfast; tomorrow, I plan to have regular rolled oats, cooked for the same amount of time, so they will be undercooked, will take longer to digest, and will therefore, I hope, stave off hunger. I've had oats that were completely uncooked, not just once or twice but regularly and for some time, so undercooked oats should be no big deal.
I had cookies today exclamation mark. I don't like typing the exclamation mark in my posts; it feels too emotional or something. There needs to be something halfway between a period and an e.m. Cookies homemade with my einkorn flour, no oil, so they weren't calorific and I could have eaten as many as I wanted. Being able to have sweets without wreaking my diet is great.
If/when I have to come back to this country, I can get another housing voucher relatively easily because I'm a veteran. Before, I felt like a fourth homelessness adventure would kill me, but I think I may be able to handle it after one to three years abroad, especially since I can probably get into a temp vet housing program while I'm waiting. Turns out the military is the best thing I ever did with my life in terms of survival.
So I'm going to apply for the master's program this fall, and, if I'm not accepted, I'll apply again next fall. I don't have to submit test scores until the end of February for the scholarship, so I shouldn't have to worry too much about my language skills. If I take the test on January first, between then and now I'll have about a hundred and seventy days of study time; at 7 new characters/words/don't know what to call them per day, my vocabularly will have increased by about 1280, and I'm already studying intermediate level vocab so I should be close to B1 in time.
The new vocab routine is firmly in place; what I need to focus on now is listening to people speaking Mandarin for a native-speaking audience plus my own speaking skills.
I tried a while ago to log in to a linux support forum I've used for years, but now even viewing the content requires enabling Javascript, which I'm not going to do. Over the years, I've noticed that more and more websites require Javascript and cookies just for access to a free article or how-to guide. Until recently, I've not known why; I just assumed they want users to submit to their tracking, advertising, and whatnot. But recently I came across a website whose blocked content page provided an explanation: AI is causing site owners problems by scraping the web, so measures to distinguish between AI bots and human users have been put in place. What a drag. Fortunately my search engine lists cached versions of web pages, so I can still access most of the information I need. As I've said before, the Internet has gone to shit. Or maybe it's still going and we haven't even arrived at the worst part yet.
Another five hour walk today and my leg was hurting this time, but I knew that would go away once I got home so I pressed on. I wonder whether acclimating to this enough to avoid the pain is possible. I'm now getting up at one or one-thirty am to avoid the other people in town. 3 am wasn't good enough. Maybe I really should start taking double my d3 dose because I'm getting even less sun this way. Later I did a sprint on the spinning bike with my tired legs at the end of my weightlifting/cardio workout. I pushed myself and got to the end of the song I was listening to (some fast metal) even though I'd set a goal of making it only to the two minute mark and it was a great success.
As usual, I started off on the high school track this morning, but walking on that endlessly flat, featureless surface started to feel something like sensory deprivation. I craved the tactile feedback of a more varied surface under my feet. So I struck off across town and walked a dirt/rock/sand trail. The little rocks were painful, too much tactile feedback, and the sand made my steps ponderous, laborious, and slow, but ultimately I was satisfied. It's the new shoes that make me feel this way.
I've just now come back from a walk to the community market and thoroughly exhausted myself for the day. As of tomorrow morning, we (me and my eleven alternate personalities) will be trying a new diet hack: undercooked oats. Normally I have quick-cooking oats for breakfast; tomorrow, I plan to have regular rolled oats, cooked for the same amount of time, so they will be undercooked, will take longer to digest, and will therefore, I hope, stave off hunger. I've had oats that were completely uncooked, not just once or twice but regularly and for some time, so undercooked oats should be no big deal.
I had cookies today exclamation mark. I don't like typing the exclamation mark in my posts; it feels too emotional or something. There needs to be something halfway between a period and an e.m. Cookies homemade with my einkorn flour, no oil, so they weren't calorific and I could have eaten as many as I wanted. Being able to have sweets without wreaking my diet is great.
