Learning French on Duolingo

I'm on my second trip through the French course on Duolingo. 

The first time I went through it, I used the free course, and learned basic things about grammar, as well as establishing a lexicon.

This time through, I signed up for Duolingo Max (it's about $150/year). This gives me help with errors, explaining what I'm doing wrong; it also lets me "talk" to the characters, via phone calls and role play. There also seems to be more talking and listening involved in the lessons this time through -- before, I was mainly reading and writing. Now about half the lessons involve speaking and listening.

That's made a big difference. I can (mostly) understand spoken French now, and because I get feedback on my spoken French, I can see where I'm fucking up.

It's also helping me with reading French -- I can now read French stories and novels if they are not too hard, and with the occasional help of a dictionary.

I've started trying to learn Russian, but that course doesn't give as much help as the French one does. The Latin and Greek courses as similarly useless, giving almost no help with the grammar or with errors. And I've been learning chess as well -- that course is pretty good, at least so far. (I knew the basics of chess, but nothing about the strategy or why certain moves were better than others.)

If you can justify spending the money, I'd go for Duolingo Max, is what I'm saying. 

Energy Audit Achieved!

Our co-op does free energy audits. The guy came today, looked around the house and in the attic. Verdict: we need more insulation, and we need sealing around the pipes and doors. Also, the can lights need to be changed out.

Good news: almost all of this, the co-op will do for free, including parts and labor. The insulation they'll pay half of, which is still a lot.

Thanks to Nicole and Maggie for suggesting this step!

Words Words Words

Back in graduate school, in the writing workshops, we were told that Tolstoy said you could use the word 'suddenly' just once in a 1200 page novel. I have no idea if this is true, but I passed the rule on in my workshops.

Working on Velocity 4, I'm wondering how often I can use the word 'dubiously.' As in, "Are you sure?" she asked dubiously.

What do y'all think?

Heat Dome

We're in a heat dome -- also known as a "thermal death ridge" -- for the foreseeable future.

It's worse down in the Fort where I used to live, where every day from now until September is going to be over 100 degrees. But it's hot enough here, and the humidity is worse.

I cower inside, between my two fans. It's still hot though.

Weather Report

I was hoping coming to the end of the dog days meant we'd get cooler weather for awhile, but nope:

Highs in the high 90s and 100s for the foreseeable future. UGH.

The AC cannot keep up with this heat -- it takes until 9:00 before the inside temperature finally gets below 72 degrees. (I need it to be in the 60s to sleep.) I spend the day sitting between two fans and whimpering.

Six more weeks of summer.

Shamus the Wonder Dog

Shamus has figured out how to get his collar off. I've never seen him actually do it, so I don't know what he's doing -- he just shows up with the collar in his mouth, looking very pleased with himself.

Soon he's going to figure out how to open doors, and then I'm really fucked.

Honestly Glad to be Out of the Classroom

Our local public schools are moving away from screens and back to paper and books -- which is a good thing, mind you -- and the university where my kid teaches and his husband attends is similarly going back to paper exams and quizzes.

This is, of course, because of AI. No one was doing the work, or even bothering to read the exams, for the most part. They simply asked AI to write their answers. This also meant, frequently, no one came to class -- why should they, when they knew they could cheat their way through the exams and lab reports?

So it's back to paper. Which, mind you, I approve.

But I am so glad I don't have to read 125 essays a month written in the scrawl that passes for handwriting these days. It was bad enough back when I first started teaching, in the 1980s and 1990s, when kids grew up writing everything by hand.

The answer is smaller classes for writing-intensive classrooms. You'll never get the university boards to agree to that, though.

What I'm Watching Now

I've been watching the YouTube videos put out by Andraz Egart, who describes himself as "a twenty-five year old adventurer from Slovenia," and who climbs mountains and camps overnight in public bivouacs and other places.

I don't know why I'm so fascinated with these. Egart has a nice sense of humor, and the scenery is great, but a lot of the time I'm clutching my hair and yelling at the screen, "You're crazy! What are you doing! DON'T DO THAT!"

I think I might like seeing what the bivouacs look like inside. There are usually multiple bunks or sleeping spaces, and sometimes a wood-burning stove, though not always. People leave extra food for other climbers, or blankets, or wood. We don't have anything like that here in Arkansas, but on the other hand we probably don't need it. It would be hard to get far enough away from a town to need shelter. Also, of course, the US does not believe in the public good. Or at least the South does not.

Anyway, they're usually thirty to forty minutes long and I watch them at 1.3 speed, usually one every evening. They're what I watch when I am too tired to read.

Sleep Paralysis

Ugh, I just had sleep paralysis again.

This is maybe the third time I've had it, and this time it was filled with auditory and scent hallucination. Like, I could hear a TV blaring (we don't even own a TV) and smell someone cutting up onions. (No onions were being cut up.)

I keep trying to move and dreaming I had moved and then prying my eyes open to see I still had not moved. I was utterly locked into position.

Finally I tried yelling for Dr Skull. I think I dreamed I was yelling at first, but then I did actually yell for him. And after that I was able to move.

About ten minutes later he came hobbling into the living room, where I was still lying on the couch. "Were you calling for me?"

Anyway, 0/10, don't like that.

Learn the Heimlich Maneuver, Folks

We went to lunch with the kid and his husband today, as is our wont on Fridays, and Dr Skull choked on a bite of chicken. I looked up and saw his desperate expression and how he was grabbing at his chest and throat. "Are you all right?" I said, and then more alarmed, "Are you choking?"

He did not answer, just looked more desperate.

I jumped up. "He's choking!" I shouted at the restaurant. "Who knows the Heimlich?" 

I looked wildly at the waiter, who backed away looking terrified. "I don't know it!" he said.

"Who knows the Heimlich?" I yelled louder. "He's choking!"

A woman got up. "I do. Move out of the way."

"Move!" I said. That was my contribution. Everyone scattered from her path.

She had to do it several times before he had choked up everything -- there was vomit involved, if you've never seen it done -- first while he was sitting and then getting him to stand up. It took like five minutes. It was absolutely terrifying, for me, though also for him.

When we were finally sitting down and he had cold compresses all over him -- that was also the woman's suggestion, since apparently choking makes your body heat go up -- I saw that the entire restaurant had cleared out. We all thanked the woman about a billion times. I forgot to get her name. 

Anyway, I'm signing up for a CPR/Choking class, which is given by the city. 

Aside from the time the kid, at about eight months old, choked on a pistachio,  this was the most terrifying five minutes of my life.

Don't worry, I left a big tip.

Crystal Bridges 2026

The kid and I had a fine if exhausting time at the museum. Here are my favorite works of art:

A Tiffany window

A George Ault I love to pieces

My favorite Will Barnet

We ate at the museum, which had excellent food -- I had a burger and the kid had catfish with purple rice, which was beautiful to look at, and he said it was delicious.

Then we went to William Sonoma. The kid loves William Sonoma. I got some linen napkins and he got a kitchen scale.

It was so hot, but we had a good time nonetheless. We rode the shuttle bus from the parking garage to the museum, and the kid got up to give an old lady his seat and all the old ladies cooed. "Oh, how sweet!"

Rain and Crystal Bridges

It rained last night, so today is cooler -- the dog and I enjoyed the dog park greatly this morning.

Later on, the kid and I are going to Crystal Bridges. I haven't been for over a year, because Dr. Skull is not up to walking around a museum and so far refuses to let me rent him a wheelchair for the excursion. I am greatly looking forward to the outing. 

SO HOT

God, it is so hot here. I can barely stand to walk outside with the dog. Even at dawn, it is near 80 degrees and so much humidity.

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain and then it will be a bit cooler -- high 80s and low 90s for the highs, right through August 11, and then we will be out of the dog days. Things should be less miserable after that. Knock wood.

It is so dispiriting when you're staring down a week with highs in the 100s. Honestly. 

Eight more weeks of summer.

Oh NO

Forecast is for temperatures at or near 100 here for the next three days, with high humidity making it feel much hotter.

Our AC cannot keep it. It's miserable.

(We're in the charred black section.)

O BOY AI!!

Apparently Elon Musk is going to make an AI Odyssey which is "historically accurate," which is hilarious in and of itself. But the MAGA bootlickers cheering him on just crack me up.

This is not about that, but it's funny all the same:

London: we're making a fully AI horror movie! Poe: Barker: King: Koontz: Lovecraft: Barker: fuck ha ha Barker: this fuckin sucks Poe: clive Poe: no never mind Poe: this does suck

— The Midnight Society (@midnightpals.bsky.social) 12:21 PM · Jul 23, 2026

Disclaimer:  I have not seen the Nolan movie which has the Right pitching tantrums. For all I know, it is actually awful. But the belief held by the Right that the classical world was composed of 100% white people cracks me up. It's no use arguing, though. The Right cannot learn. It's kind of the entire basis of their worldview, not learning things.

Barker: this is shit, man Barker: real bad Mary Shelley: sup fuckers Barker: they're making an AI horror movie Shelley: ned ludd was right all along Shelley: we shoulda broken that fuckin loom when we had the chance

— The Midnight Society (@midnightpals.bsky.social) 12:21 PM · Jul 23, 2026