i reblog tons of tips and helpful college and college-adjacent info. you’re gonna be just fine.
240 posts
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Two job-hunting resources that changed my life:
This cover letter post on askamanger.com. A job interview guide written by Alison Green, who runs askamanager.
a lot of you seem to be desensitized right now but i would like to remind you that we are in the second week of massive destruction in the west bank. the Israeli military are carrying out an occupation operation in Jenin and nearby areas of the West Bank.
we are being severely impacted.
to put things into perspective: 70% of Jenin's streets have been bulldozed, and 80% of the homes in the city have no water. infrastructure, water, sewage, communication, and electricity networks have been damaged
33 Palestinians have been killed since the invasion began, with 19 of those deaths occurring in Jenin. 7 children were murdered, including 16-year-old Lujain Musleh, who was shot INSIDE HER HOME by an Israeli sniper while looking out her window
in Jenin's refugee camp, homes have been occupied and damaged. Israeli occupation forces have deliberately been making holes in the walls of citizens' homes to facilitate their movement for their occupation operation. keep in mind - people cannot even go to work anymore. and there are severe shortages of food, medicine, and essential services. even shops have been destroyed. municipal crews are struggling to provide aid due to ongoing military fire.
the hospitals in Jenin are struggling to function due to water and electricity shortages, and patients are having to be transferred to other cities for care - which is insanely difficult with the operations going on. its back to school season all around the world, but here- schools remain inaccessible.
our city is in a state of paralysis.
Cappuccino Cheesecake Bars
Strawberry Jam Sugar Cookies
Health Insurance USA reminders
Friendly reminder you only have about one month left to look at health insurance plans for open enrollment. (ends middle of January in 2024). www.healthcare.gov is the best place to shop for insurance plans.
Take it from someone who has a master's degree in public health, here's some tips to make sure you're paying not an arm and leg.
DEDUCTIBLE: Ideally you want it 3k or less PER PERSON. It's the amount of money you pay before insurance decides "hey, let's pay that for you". So this would be things (depending on the exact nature of the plan) like - imaging studies (xrays, ct scans, mris), labwork, specific medical tests (cardiology like stress test, hearing test, sleep tests, etc.)
PREMIUM: this is how much you're paying OUT OF POCKET PER MONTH. A lot of places are trying to advertise big savings. If you're lower income (this depends entirely on your individual state), you might be eligible for up to $100-300 in savings for this (I was lucky and found a plan that only costs $20 a month per these savings).
COPAYS: This is how much you pay the doctor, per visit. BE WARNED! Many plans advertise a low premium (MONTHLY) payment, HOWEVER the deductibles are often EXTREMELY high (5k+) and/or the copays are ridiculously expensive (I've seen them as high as $75-150+ per visit per doctor)
FILTERING PLANS: A lot of places now come with the option of filtering plans out per doctor and/or specific meds you want covered by insurance. Be warned, more rare drugs (ex: specific drugs for specific conditions like narcolepsy drugs) tend to come with more expensive plans since these meds are used solely to treat these uncommon (and/or rare) conditions.
Please, please, please be careful when picking plans. I see so many people blindly pick the $0 a month premium plan but then end up stunned they have to pay $75+ copay per visit. PLEASE look at these fine details.
becoming an adult cheat sheet!
learn to coupon
what to do when you can’t afford therapy
cleaning your bathroom
what to do when you can’t pay your bills
stress management
quick fix meals
find out if you’re paying too much for your cell phone bill
resume workshop
organize your closet
how to take care of yourself when you’re sick
what you should bring to a doctor’s appointment
what’s a mortgage?
how to pick a health insurance plan
hotlines list
your first gynecology appointment
what to do if the cops pull you over
things to have in your car in case of emergency
my moving out masterpost
how to make friends as an adult (video)
how to do taxes (video)
recommended reads for surviving adulthood (video)
change a flat tire (video)
how to do laundry (video)
opening a bank account (video)
laundry cheat sheet
recipes masterpost
tricks to help you sleep more
what the fuck should you make for dinner?
where should you go for drinks?
alcohol: know your limits
easy makeup tips
find seat maps for your flight
self-defense tips
prevent hangovers
workout masterpost
how to write a check
career builder
browse careers
birth control information
financial management software & app (free)
my mental health masterpost
my college applications masterpost
how to jumpstart a car
sex ed masterpost
there’s enough pictures of chicken soup and tomato soup on this site. eat this now
1: https://www.recipetineats.com/thai-red-curry-with-chicken/
2: https://schoolofwok.co.uk/tips-and-recipes/thai-boat-noodle-soup
3: https://delightfulplate.com/vietnamese-duck-noodle-soup-mi-vit-tiem/
4: https://omnivorescookbook.com/wonton-char-siu-noodle/
UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the US, is allegedly using a deeply flawed AI algorithm to override doctors' judgments and wrongfully deny critical health coverage to elderly patients. This has resulted in patients being kicked out of rehabilitation programs and care facilities far too early, forcing them to drain their life savings to obtain needed care that should be covered under their government-funded Medicare Advantage Plan.
It's not just flawed, it's flawed in UnitedHealthcare's favor.
That's not a flaw... that's fraud.
For usamericans who may not know how to support decolonization and indigenous people in their every-day lives, may I suggest checking this list of native-owned businesses, curated and maintained by indigenous folks. There's food, candles, cbd pre-rolls, clothes, jewelry, hats, baby things, handicrafts, art, and hundreds of other useful and wonderful things. I check this list before I buy non-native owned as often as I can.
Also check out the native-owned (pulitzer-prize winner Louise Erdrich started it!) bookstore and press Milkweed Editions (dot org) for an amazing selection of books by indigenous authors. I recommend Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (a collection of essays that will change your thinking if your mind is open at all) that's great for sitting down to read for bite-sized chunks. For book recommendations, check out this infographic!
Do you own property and want to support landback but still need a place to live? Odds are good that there's established precedence in your area to transfer its jurisduction to a local tribe and pay your land taxes and etc to them instead of the settler government!
Here is a list of charities and fundraisers for indigenous support.
Other ways to educate yourself and learn what indigenous people are working on nationally and locally is to follow indigenous people online! Many Native peoples on various social medias tag with #indigenous, #native, and by looking at those you will find many other tags and people to follow.
If you have extra cash, consider paying indigenous people's bail, donating to some of the causes linked above, or look for local initiatives to support in your own community!
A creamy Hungarian Mushroom Soup made with fresh mushrooms, aromatic dill, and sweet Hungarian paprika. This is one of our favorite mushroom soups and one every mushroom lover should try. The unique flavors in this soup blend together like a fine-tuned instrument.
So, I have a big advice post to write, but until I have the spoons, I want to warn everyone now who has legally changed their first name:
Your credit score may be fucked up and you need to:
check *now* that all your financial institutions (credit cards, loans, etc) have your current legal name and update where necessary
check that all 3 credit bureaus, on their respective sites, not via a feed like Credit Karma (so, Trans Union, Equifax, Experian) are collecting that info correctly and generating the right score - you might need to monitor them for a few months if you made any changes in #1
I am about to apply for a mortgage and learned that as of 2 weeks ago:
Experian suddenly thinks I am 2 different people - Legal Name and Dead Name (none of whom have a score)
Equifax has reported my active 25 year old mortgage as closed and deleted one of my older credit cards, hurting my score by 30+ points
Credit scores influence everything from big home/car loans to insurance rates to job and housing applications.
And for whatever reason, the 3 bureaus that have the power to destroy your life are shockingly fragile when it comes to legally changing one's first name.
So, yeah. Once I get this mess cleaned up for myself, I have a big guide in the works if you find yourself in the same predicament. But with the mass trans migration out of oppressive states, odds are there are a lot of newly renamed people who are about to have a nasty shock when applying for new housing.
Take care, folks.
OK Tumblr Geriatric Ward, let’s talk about your posture-
there are things you should be doing now to prevent yourself from starting to look like 🥀
Why does it matter? Future you would like to avoid the pain, limited motion, and fall risk that goes along with worsening posture.
What’s the focus?
1. Keep the flexibility in your spine
2. Stretch the muscles in the front
3. Strengthen the muscle in the back
Here are some simple things you can do daily while sitting and when you get up to go into the bathroom or the kitchen
Keep the flexibility by doing these repeated movements: 10 repetitions several times a day
The goal is to give yourself a double or triple chin. Keep your nose pointing forward, don’t let it tip up or down
Thoracic extension- use a chair with a seat back that comes up to the level of your shoulder blades. Try to bend back over the top of the chair without arching away from the seat back and without extending your neck. If the pressure from the top of the chair is uncomfortable you can place a towel there
Stretch the muscles in the front by using a door frame. This one will feel good afterwards
If this isn’t enough of a stretch you can do one side at a time. If you have the right arm up step forward with the right foot and turn slightly to the left. Then do it on the other side.
Strengthen the muscles in the back by squeezing your shoulder blades together for a count of 10 and then repeating 10 times. You can do this several times a day Hint: Don’t lift your shoulder blades up
There are lots more exercises for strengthening your back muscles but this is a good starting point and easy to do. I like doing it while driving
Tips:
Do the best you can
If it hurts stop
Envision future you saying thank you each time you do one of the exercises
Ok but like. What the fuck is there to do on the internet anymore?
Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.
Now, it's just... Social media. That's it. Social media and news sites. And I'm tired of social media and I'm tired of the news.
Am I just like completely inept at finding new things or has the internet just fallen apart that much with the problems of SEO and web 3.0 turning everything into a same-site prison?
The biggest lie in fanfiction is that everyone has a first aid kit in their house. I have never owned one in my life
Under the read more is a huuuuuuuge (70+) list of free resources I’ve compiled during my time studying Thai, with some resources on Isaan and Lao as well. I’ve organized it by alphabetical order for Tumblr but you can view by level, format, and content on Notion (you don’t need an account to view btw). Since I’ve been using Notion to organize and keep track of all these resources that’s also where you’ll find more notes and future updates. This list focuses on resources meant specifically for language learners and does not include native content made for native speakers.
Keep reading
Free Thai language learning resources
I’ve been learning Thai for the past 20 months. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive, what works for me doesn’t have to work for you, etc etc. That said: I’ve used most of these and found them useful, I thought you might, too. Have fun!
Youtube channels with free video lessons:
There are tons of wonderful teachers on youtube; this is by no means an exhaustive list. The three channels listed here are comprehensive, long-running, and updated regularly; if you have other favourites, please reblog and append!
Comprehensible Thai is a channel that teaches Thai in Thai, from zero, via the comprehensible input method. They have videos from total beginner through upper intermediate/lower advanced levels available.
Learn Thai with Mod – Mod runs a language school that offers good, structured group classes; she and her co-teachers often upload short videos about specific aspects of Thai. The channel has been around for a long time and they cover a lot of topics, including grammar points.
Thai Lessons by New (Learn Thai one Word one Sentence) – lots of good vocabulary and situational phrases
Other channels I like:
Advanced Thai with Kruu Momm – one of my favourites, Momm’s a star. Not included in the upper list only because this is definitely more of an intermediate-advanced resource.
Thai with Grace – I knew of Grace via her polyglot channel and travel vlogs before I realised she also teaches Thai. Fun stuff.
Kat talks Thai – I believe Kat is more active on instagram (@kattalksthai), but these are still really neat.
Perth Nakhun’s Basic Thai playlist
Honourable mentions because they’re interesting and can be nice supplements (yes, the video titles on these channels tend to be clickbaity, the content is useful, though):
Stu Jay Raj: Stu is a polyglot based in Thailand. His channel is a bit of a mixed bag, but he has a very interesting approach to languages and sometimes does foreign accent reduction / accent analysis sessions on his channel (with consent and participation of those whose speech he dissects).
Thai Talk with Paddy: Paddy is an Australian who learned Thai when he was a volunteer in Thailand, he’s kept it up. Fun things about language learning and culture
Listening comprehension
I’m assuming many folks on here who are interested in Thai already watch some Thai shows (yes I’m stereotyping but also this is tumblr), which means you’re spending time listening to Thai.
If you’re not:
Netflix, Youtube, WeTV, and Viki all have several Thai shows with English subtitles available. The Youtube channel of Thai broadcasting giant GMMTV has English subtitles on nearly all of their uploaded series, some series are also subtitled in languages other than English. one31 is another huge channel; they have English subtitles on some series and some series also have subtitles in Thai. There’s tons more – find a rec list and a Thai show that sounds like you’d enjoy it, chances are you’ll be able to watch it for free, legally, on youtube. You can use the youtube controls (or the ones on netflix) to turn the speed down to 75% —this can make it a lot easier to catch what’s being said. 50% gets so draggy that I personally find it almost harder to understand, but ymmv—give it a shot!
https://lingopolo.org/thai/ has real-life recordings for listening practice; sign-up is required but it’s literally just an e-mail-address, user name and password. Using the site is free.
https://www.activethai.com/ has a section dedicated to learning the tones (under “Overview of Thai Tones”) including a self-test for listening that I found very useful.
Learning to read
I will always, always, ALWAYS recommend learning to read the Thai script. All available romanisations for Thai have drawbacks, and besides, you learned to read English with its “though through thorough tough thought”, you can damn well learn to read Thai. I promise it will help you improve your pronunciation (yes, really) and overall understanding of how the language works.
Learn-to-Read-Thai resources that seem comprehensive and like they should do everything in one:
Anki decks “Read Thai PHASE 1 - The Consonants“, “Read Thai PHASE 2 - Thai Vowels“, “Read Thai PHASE 3 - Consonant Classes” and “Read Thai PHASE 4 - Tone Rules” by Khruu Gaan (ครูกานต์). Anki is probably the most powerful spaced repetition software I have ever used. It’s free on all desktops and android. These decks have sound.
Memrise course “Read Thai: A Complete Guide to Reading Thai“
Other resources I used (In hindsight, I feel like I should’ve picked one resource to learn to read from and stuck with it; I think I was rushing and made things more complicated than need be for myself with my hodgepodge mix-and-match approach. But hey, I can read now.)
https://www.activethai.com/ – the site I started with. Teaches the consonants separated by class and with sound. The only reason this is no longer my top recommendation is that I ended up using this alongside a resource that helped me memorise what the words used to represent the letters actually mean because the site itself didn’t tell me, and I wanted that easy way to have 44 vocabulary words ready as soon as you’re done learning your consonants, and it gives you access to neat mnemonics such as ไก่จิกเด็กตาย(เฎ็กฏาย)บนปากโอ่ง.
The chart on Wikipedia’s English article on the Thai Script
the reference section of Thai-Language.com
In order to better learn to read Thai written in different fonts (modern and handwriting fonts can be tough at first), the Thai Script typographical styles overview on Thai-language.com was a huge help, as was throwing simple phrases things into gdocs and messing around to see how different fonts made them look. This chart from sanukmaak.com also helped.
Speaking and pronunciation
The hardest one for any new language for most folks. For me personally, finding someone who speaks the language and is willing to correct me was an absolute necessity, but I know that’s not always an option. If you’re going it on your own, make sure you check out the resources above for learning to hear the tones and those sounds and sound clusters not present in your own language correctly first.
Things to try on your own:
shadowing: Whenever someone on a show utters a sentence you think might be useful, or provide a useful pattern, or something just sounds cool, rewind and try to speak along as they say it, trying to make it sound as close to their pronunciation as you can.
try to record yourself and listen back – yes, it’s cringe af but it will HELP.
memorising short sentences and phrases: tying back to the section above, there’s a ton of youtube videos that is “phrases to use in [situation]” that are great for targeted learning if you’re up for it
self talk (cautiously! don’t want to cement bad pronunciation habits)
if you’re linguistically inclined: looking up descriptions on how to make a sound correctly sometimes helps, as does watching videos of folks who’ve successfully learned the language.
once you’ve learned to read: find sentences to read somewhere (twitter, a textbook, whatever) and read them into your phone’s dictation engine. See if the software understands you correctly. Adjust as needed until it does.
Websites and apps to find language partners or (paid) tutors
Like any other app where you ‘meet people’, please exercise caution on these.
italki (mainly for finding tutors and teachers, but you can find language partners on the forums)
Preply (web/app) (for finding tutors/teachers)
hellotalk (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners – free to use basic features like messaging, voice rooms, etc; has annoying ads
tandem (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners – free to use basic features, has ads
any other app or website that’ll let you meet people, like local facebook groups (yes really), instagram, etc
(note: Neither hellotalk nor tandem allow users to sign up without selecting a binary gender. it sucks. I’ve seen people who managed to circumvent this on Hellotalk by signing up via apple ID (? I think), but it’s hearsay and I have not managed to do so myself.)
Books (a book) that are (is) worth spending money on imo
Higbie & Thinsan: Thai Reference Grammar. The Structure of Spoken Thai. Orchid Press: Bangkok, 2002. Yes, it’s ancient in textbook terms. It’s not perfect, but it’s still the best reference grammar for Thai I’ve come across so far, and I use it frequently.
Random bits and bobs
Stu Jay Raj has two videos in particular that I, as a phonetics-and-phonology-loving person, loved and found extremely useful and wished I’d watched before I started to try and learn the script: Thai Vowels for Dummies in 5 Min v2 - A System Impossible to Forget and Thai Bites Extended Edition - Transliterating Thai using IPA. I realise these may be overwhelming and less helpful for people with no prior phonetics or phonology training, but they helped me so much it’d feel amiss not to include them.
Resources I recommend AGAINST using when starting out
drops/hello words – seems like their Thai courses have been created using machine translation that wasn’t sufficiently proofread. They will assign you nouns in places of the corresponding verb or false cognates, and that’s within the first 10 or so lessons. Might be useful once the level where a learner can tell “ah, yeah, that’s … not right” has been reached? idk.
transcription as generated by google translate: BURN IT WITH FIRE. it’s a transliteration, i.e. 1-to-1 representation of 1 Thai letter = 1 Latin letter (extended), it’s not phonemic, it’s not going to help ANYONE (and those who can make sense of it presumably already read Thai and would be better off with just Thai script). Just. Stop.
Google translate as a dictionary: still shitty but not AS bad as the transcription function. Still, for the love of all that you hold dear, please, save yourself the pain and confusion and just use thai2english or thai-language.com instead.
—
And that’s that from me, friends. Yeeting this into the void before I second-guess myself more. Please append additional resources!
Edited to fix a couple of typos and errors on 2023-06-15
Me: oh yeah, if you think school photography is hard now, try imagining doing this with film.
The new girl: what’s film?
Me: … film. Like… film that goes in a film camera.
New girl: what’s that mean?
Me: … before cameras were digital.
New girl: how did you do it before digital?
Me:… with film? I haven’t had enough coffee for this conversation