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Messages - Fcrate

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1
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 24, 2025, 09:59:03 PM »
Happy friendship day to you too :) Didn't know that was a thing.

2
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 15, 2025, 01:19:44 PM »
As far as grades go, yes they did. I also tried to get them a deeper understanding and improve upon their language particularly. Beyond what is required for the test. I succeeded (I think) at the time, but they're reverting back now. The education system around here rewards rote memorization over understanding.

3
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 12, 2025, 08:16:20 PM »
I tutored neighbors' kids for free. Trust me, they were better behaved than Englishmen having dinner with the queen. Their parents would not risk getting cut off because of any misbehavior. 😁

4
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 12, 2025, 07:31:39 PM »
Well, for starters, I teach at the university, so my students are adults.
Well, isn't that much worse? At least the young ones have an excuse to be stupid. :)
As for the last formula, that's freaking crazy! That was one of the mistakes that my (students? Mentees?) often made. And I had to keep saying: Be careful of where there is and where there  isn't a parenthesis (bracket)... Ad nauseum.
Well that and not being able to perform basic calculations mentally. You don't need a calculator to know what 27+56 is.. Sigh.

5
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 12, 2025, 01:53:45 PM »
I don't know how you do it, to be honest (teaching). I had to tutor a few of the neighbour's kids (14 years old) in maths and English, and I almost didn't make it. I kept my temper with extreme difficulty. The mantra running in my head is: How could people this stupid? It's so obvious. I know, logically that it's only obvious because I already understand it, but emotionally, I want to strangle these kids to death :D

6
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 12, 2025, 05:57:32 AM »
Great news Dina, congratulations!
It's not too gross, I think. Just fascinating to me and might be boring to others. :D
I've never seen the feeding process, but I hear it in the night. I put the beetles in a plastic box they can't escape, it's under the window next to my bed. Sonic never eats dead beetles, only live ones. He attacks them, and I hear him scrambling around in the plastic container for a few seconds, then he runs 2m away, and I can smell beetle's stink attack briefly. He repeats this a second time, waits a full minute or so, then I hear the crunch crunch, nom nom.. My guess is that he triggers the beetle to discharge it's defensive stink first so he doesn't get sick, then settles down to enjoy his meal. Which explains why he never eats the dead ones, as they're still full of the toxic spray.

7
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 11, 2025, 03:32:15 PM »
@Regen: I can't in good conscience laugh at 34 C anyomore. My brother has been living in Germany for 10 years now, and he's screaming about 32 C. He lost his heat resistance. :D Well, he also gained some Cold resistance, so it balances out :D I hope your mother gets better :) How long do you usually have to wait to see a specialist?
@Dina: That was a very enthusiastic report on your hubby's health, if I can say so myself :D
About the beetles, I have some weird news on that front. I have a hedgehog now! My dogs surrounded him one night last year, and woke me up from all the barking. They were at a stalemate, he's curled up, so they couldn't bite him, and everytime he tried to escape they attacked again, so he curls up again, and so on. Being extremely sleepy, I just picked him up, put him in a wicker box, and left him in my room till morning. By morning he'd escaped and had the run of my room (which opens into a small animal feed storage), and he's been living here ever since. He can't escape, and the few nights I've left the screen door open (braving the deadly swarm of a 1000 mosquitoes, I might add) he didn't leave. So after some experiments, I figured out that he eats plain biscuits, chicken skin and intestines (raw) and his most favorite meal is insects, particularly, beetles! Which explains why the feed storage was suddenly clear of critters. Now I have to supplement his diet, because there isn't enough insects to feed him well. So I capture any beetle I see around the farm, and put it in a plastic container for him. He wakes up to eat after I turn the lights out, but the process is fascinating. I'll explain it more if you're interested in knowing.
I've only held him a few times, as he's still pretty much a wild animal, and he doesn't trust me yet, but he's extremely cute. I've decided to eschew subtlety and call him Sonic :D.

8
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: July 06, 2025, 03:07:48 PM »
Hello everyone!
Long time no see, and it's all my fault. How are you? I missed you guys a lot.
Regen, you and your family ok? What about you Dina? Is your Hubby alright?
Personally, I'm "enjoying" the sweltering heat, trying to keep my cat from stealing my dinner, and raising a little puppy!

9
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: May 03, 2024, 03:45:04 PM »
Education is the first thing to go. As it's a long term investment, with no precise calculable returns, governments tend to start cutting corners there. In our case, some of our universities were ranked in the top 20 in the world up to the 90s. Some cuts later, in basic and university education, and we started feeling the effects around 2010. People who wanted to work in the US/Europe started having to go to a remedial year of courses to equate their level with the locals. 5 years later, it became 2 years of remedials.
About the inflation, well, 100% sucks, which I know from experience. Our local currency has lost half its value against the USD every year for 5 years straight now. Which is a nightmare, because every piece of technology and most animal feed is imported here, so everything goes up and down exactly with the dollar.

10
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: May 03, 2024, 07:02:24 AM »
Well, I have 3 trees outside, that I leave to the neighborhood kids, and I have 2 trees that are right outside my window, and they yield about 5-7 kg daily, of which I eat at least 1 kg and sometimes a lot more. And these are the sweetest fruit I've ever tasted, if you wait until they're ripe enough to almost fall by themselves. As a comparison: I tried eating some cookies right after I finished enjoying a handful of juicy, succulent, tasty berries that burst in my mouth as soon as they hit my tongue, and the cookies tasted bland and sugarless.
So, as far as I could tell from your earlier posts, education (even at a university level) in Argentina is excellent. Good job trying to protect it. Private education is good in the short term, but in the long run, it's quite destructive to society. Once you have to pay for it on an individual level, it becomes a business, and the prices will be over-inflated to the point where only the elite will be able to afford it, thus raising the prices in certain areas (medicine/law/engineering, etc).
I'm sorry, did you say that you had an inflation rate of 100% in one year? :O

11
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: May 02, 2024, 07:36:39 AM »
I gained 3 kg so far, but those succulent mulberries can't be denied :D
Had a visit from my uncle and his family. They live in the US, and it's the first time he'd returned in 22 years. I did see my cousins, who I haven't seen since we were kids, and it was nice to reconnect. My cousin's girlfriend also came, and they told my family that they were married to avoid religious outrage (or at least extreme discomfort) but I understood the relationship right away, and kept tormenting them about it for the whole evening. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. :D
I'm glad the weather was fine on your protest. How easily can you protest over there? Here it's illegal, and the police would immediately treat you as hostiles if you do so.
Are they trying to commercialize education in Argentina or something?

12
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: April 25, 2024, 08:18:57 AM »
Hello everyone!
Just checking in on you! I hope everyone is doing alright.
Spring is here, and it's very hot. Looks like this year is going to be even hotter than the last. 43 celsuis today, 42 yesterday.
On a more positive note, the unseasonal heat made my mulberry trees ripen early, so I've been eating the berries like a pig for 2 weeks now, getting happily fat :D I can't resist these babies when they're fresh off the tree. There's something extremely satisfying about picking a fruit and eating it in the same motion.

13
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: March 05, 2024, 04:33:30 PM »
I'm here now :D A little busy these days, well not really busy, but farm work takes longer when you have 3 puppies running under your feet the whole time. I have to do the puppy shuffle, as I explained it before. Raise your right foot no more than 5 cm, move it forward slowly, nudge the puppies to the right, put your foot back on the ground. Repeat with the left foot, and have infinite patience :/ Can't wait till they're old enough to handle a couple of light kicks to teach them to get out of my way :D

14
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: January 25, 2024, 06:52:58 PM »
Well, a little gratuitous violence never hurt anybody..except for the victim, that is. :D

15
The Bar / Re: New Weird
« on: January 22, 2024, 09:31:45 PM »
Thanks Regen.
I love kittens :D Congrats. I wish your mother a speedy recovery.
@Dina: How was Reacher? The first season was very good. But I haven't watched the second one yet.
I'm currently watching Outer Range, which was recommended to me by a friend. I like it a lot, and I do hope they finish the second season. They're a little slow about it though.

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