@pandemona @mischa LOST references, reply threads with old friends — nay, comrades in the trenches…
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Sean Matsuno
9.7K posts
Sean Matsuno
@sean
Japanese, Sichuan, and Italian cooking; whisk(e)y, wine, Nihonshu. Comedy fan. Twitter Japan 2008-2022
Tokyo Katılım Nisan 2008
3.4K Takip Edilen8.8K Takipçiler
Seeing people I follow again in the TL feels like the ending of Lost.
(This is good, and kind of nostalgic).
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@MikeIsaac Wonder if it’ll be even more jarring for Economist writers
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anecdotal re: “pivot to video”:
moved from the city to oakland in ‘21, friendly with neighbors tho most didnt know me beyond “has a cool dog”
did a NYT vertical vid for a story in ‘24, a neighbor i barely knew who saw it on IG stopped me on the street to ask abt it the next day
Steven Scott@scottstev
@MikeIsaac Yup. And their kids would recognize you if it was short video.
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The only place I will drink a Long Island Iced Tea: bar in the international terminal
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@MikeIsaac To be fair though, at least when it comes time for the merchandising the hot ones universe the flamethrower will finally make sense
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i have a hard time thinking development arms that aren’t like A24 or Neon will internalize the success of backrooms/obsession and internet-native creativity in ways that will translate
it’ll be big studio execs saying “let’s make a hot ones cinematic universe”
Kyle Buchanan@kylebuchanan
Some box-office analysts are saying that the success of BACKROOMS proves that studio executives should stop relying on established brands. And while I wouldn’t argue with the sentiment, BACKROOMS *is* an established brand! Just not one that over-50s are familiar with
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I have no idea what @gopuff is but the fact that someone signed up with my email address and their customer support is powerless to fix it is pretty sad!
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I’m actually quite good at mapo tofu, a skill honed over now decades
First because I had no money, now because I and the family really like it
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Seeing all the delivery, we can’t cook etc discourse makes me think more people need to learn how to make mapo tofu or buy a 90’s stir fry cookbook
First day of living alone in college I went to Borders, bought one and fed myself with stir fry and barilla pasta cheaply, easily
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For those who don’t know, there was a kind of stir fry trend back then. I think the 90s elders were right about that one
About sun-dried tomatoes maybe less so (still good, but only so useful)
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@HMBrough_ I meet a surprising number of Americans who think their kids are going to have the same idyllic summers and just get As and a good SAT score and waltz into an ivy like they did who will even admit they couldn’t get in today with their app
(Banking on legacy admissions maybe?)
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Americans best start believing in hagwons...they're in one.
More Perfect Union@MorePerfectUS
NEW: Youth sports is now costing parents as much as $25,000 a year. Private equity and corporations are turning a childhood pastime into something only the wealthy can afford. Youth sports has become a $40 billion industry, and the steep costs are crushing American families.
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@HMBrough_ I can’t speak to French (or Mandarin…) but the annoying conjugation hell of Spanish I find more annoying than Japanese, including kanji
Tones in Mandarin definitely seem like an X factor though
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AI has legitimately saved me some time recently but alas still doesn’t have enough taste to help me find a proper gardener
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@HMBrough_ Learning Japanese instead of Spanish, over the objections of many around me, was probably one of the most prescient choices I made as a kid. For one, it helped lead me to a life changing job.
Longtime follower. Drinks on me if you’re ever in Japan again, DM anytime.
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My view of learning foreign languages in the post-AI era is that it’s worth doing, but only as a way to signal intelligence, discipline, commitment, and cosmopolitanism. The actual utilitarian value of foreign language learning is questionable.
There is NO native Mandarin speaker who is impressed by me having the speaking skills of a Chinese 4-year-old (though I somehow doubt a toddler knows how to say “he drank too much liquor this evening, so he should not drive.”) and writing skills worse than one.
And still, I get amused and positive reactions from native speakers I encounter. Precisely because they recognize the difficulty of what I’m attempting, and respect me more for it.
You know what does not get you respect? Spanish. I spent years in Hispanic societies, and got good enough to do full patient histories in Spanish, but precisely once had someone praise me for knowing the language, even though I obviously don’t look Hispanic.
And I think that’s because people recognize that Spanish is a fairly simple language to learn. Even if they don’t know how the American foreign service classifies languages, they intuitively get it.
So if you have to pick a language in the post-AI world, pick one that’s tough, ideally Mandarin or Japanese. Korean is an option too. Don’t pick Russian because everybody hates Russia these days.
You’ll suck at the language for a long while, but it won’t matter because everyone will recognize and honor you for what you’re trying to do.
Jerome Sneed Democrat@avrilbradley23
These people outnumber the "why don't high schools have Latin courses anymore?" classical education types 20 to 1 btw.
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@MikeIsaac Every now and then I think about an alternative universe where I emigrated to Europe instead of Japan, then I look at the mild winters in Tokyo vs real deal ones in a lot of the EU where I likely would have turned up and realize I probably made the right decision
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california life for 20 years turned me into a huge baby
im out east and keep complaining about how im covered in sleet and it’s KMS levels of lacking sunlight and all people can tell me is “oh but last week was way worse”
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Incidentally this is also why I learned how to make basic cocktails. The ancients were right: turns out cheap liquor tastes better if you mix it with stuff
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All this cooking discourse reminds me of when I was in college and learned how to make mapo tofu. Recipe carried me through first crummy job, even impressed a few people. Still make it today
That and canned tomatoes (pasta and such) made for many cheap, easy, and good meals
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@sean Well, their cheese selection is excellent. So yeah maybe not for you.
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Lived near a Trader Joe’s for awhile, went twice, never went again. Just not my thing, was never all that impressed, but maybe that’s because I’m a diva about food.
The Wall Street Journal@WSJ
Trader Joe’s totes are being carried in Seoul, Melbourne and Tokyo. Because there are no Trader Joe’s stores abroad, the bags now sell on resale platforms like Depop, eBay and Korea’s Karrot market for up to $10,000. on.wsj.com/4jokWxX
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@wil_da_beast630 Chris Rock called this out years ago, not sure this is new
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I'm starting to see why the young guns are having trouble forming healthy relationships.
For women, the NUMBER ONE most attractive trait in men is "being in a relationship" with another woman.
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