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zlatiah

@ zlatiah @lemmy.world

Posts
51
Comments
237
Joined
2 yr. ago

Ask me about:

  • Science (biology, computation, statistics)
  • Gaming (rhythm, rogue-like/lite, other generic 1-player games)
  • Autism & related (I have diagnosis)
  • Bad takes on philosophy
  • Bad takes on US political systems & more US stuff

I'm not knowledgeable about most other things

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  • ... I almost never travel not solo, so apologies if I don't know what the other side of the coin is like

    I think the biggest advantage is the absolutely ridiculous amount of freedom, because you can cater to 100% of your own needs, and your own needs alone. Want trip to be cheap? Youth hostels and 10-hour Flix/Blablacar buses exist. Want to do nerdy things only you are interested in? No need to care for travel companions for "wasting" 10-hours in a modern arts museum or anything like that

    I did hear that some people find traveling alone a bit lonely though... so maybe it is not for everyone. Oh and maybe booking restaurants can get a tad awkward depending on the place I travel to

  • What video game did you not expect to like as much as you did?

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    • Slay the Spire. I have played quite a few roguelikes before StS but I never played much card-based games at all, due to me never playing boardgames or TCGs... so this was obviously a new experience for me. Almost 1000 hours on record now with the game, cleared A20H with every base game character (and did A20H on almost every Packmaster pack)... which should speak for itself
    • Dancerush Stardom, that funny shuffle game. This is Konami's attempt at making a beginner- and normie-friendly rhythm game... which never quite caught on (aside from random YouTube recordings having several million views). I wasn't particularly fit & never knew about this game before at all, so it was a pleasant surprise to me that I liked it so much. I have 5-star cleared many of the hardest songs in this game so

  • What search engine do you guys use?

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  • What are some online courses or tutorials that you found helpful and practical?

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  • Extremely niche, but https://iidx.org/

    This is a single guide that teaches you everything you need to know about how to play Beatmania IIDX, a fun but brutally difficult arcade game. Guide covers everything from setting up a new player profile to clearing the hardest skill challenge in the game, and even includes some music theory

    I can't think of anything more helpful than this in terms of relative scale...

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  • I don't remember, I wasn't very into cars at that moment... I just know it was a pretty common car brand among taxis in an economically backwards part of China, so most likely a budget Chinese or Korean brand. Also it was a stick shift

  • As someone in stem who has never felt smarter than anyone how do you justify your sucess?

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  • In STEM specifically? STEM field in particular is somewhat known for fostering Imposter Syndromes... Most people are smart enough, I wouldn't sweat it too much

  • What's the best thing that happened to you this week?

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  • The best thing... depending on how I ask I guess. Either the day trip I made to two nearby towns (one of which is a rather well-known tourist spot) on Sunday despite the rainy weather, or the fact that weather rose to 20 C yesterday & was sunny so I made a nice stroll in the city

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  • Not very well traveled yet but at the moment... either Prague/Praha in Czechia or Ljubljana in Slovenia probably

    Both are pleasant places with beautiful architecture, all kinds of natural scenery as someone who has only lived in flat cities (mountains AND rivers in my city??). Bonus point that Prague has dirt-cheap beer that even comes in alcohol-free variety, Ljulbljana has a ridiculous amount of hiking trails and is within day-trip distance to some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe

  • Is your life better or worse than your parents (I mean specifically your parents, not your parent's generation)? (Specify country)

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  • China. Much, much better, but it's a bit unfair to compare someone who grew up in a typical modern society to someone who grew up in time of extreme poverty, subsistence farming, and famine...

    Although, my parents did go to better universities & got better careers right off the bat due to a lack of educated ppl back in their days

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  • Not a party, but my parents took me around to meet and dine with a few of their friends (mostly somewhat accomplished folks) as a farewell of sorts. I got sent to the US for college 2 months later and basically never had a chance to go back home in 10 years so

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  • I... never learned how to cook properly. Parents did cook all meals at home but only knew how to cook things about as delicious as your average Northern Europe staple, so the only thing I was taught was how to cook rice... but I do not like rice 💀

    Out of convenience I ended up just throwing everything in a pot and make sure they are well-cooked, do meal-prep, and eat the same food over and over again; personally don't mind so it works for me. If it is not enough taste, just throw in some olive oil and spice, if not good enough more spice, if still not good enough add MORE spice, usually works out quite well & is quite healthy

  • What tourist destinations do you think are NOT overrated?

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  • Can you touch type?

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  • Yes. Parents made me learn touch-typing with QWERTY when I was growing up

    I actually made the effort to switch to Colemak-DH less than a year ago. Because getting a properly labelled Colemak-DH keyboard is so difficult (my laptop keys are still QWERTY layout), I... basically forced myself to learn how to touch type in like 2-3 months. Still can't do the multilingual symbols very well (I always forget where the ^/circumflex is...), but I think I have a >98% accuracy on everything else

    Unfortunately I forgot how to touch type with QWERTY after learning the new setup...

  • Can you touch type?

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  • Oh my god the AZERTY... I naively tried it out for like a week or two and quickly gave up on the idea. The numbers and symbols being the reverse of QWERTY was just way too much of a headache, especially for programming. Unfortunately workplace requires all work computers to have AZERTY so

  • If you were able to magically learn any language that nobody speaks in your region, what would it be?

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  • Define "nobody", because there are over 100 languages spoken at fluent level or above by at least a few ppl where I live

    If we ignore the technicalities... Polish. Spoken by a lot of people, quite difficult to learn & would be a good priority target for magically learning it, and hopefully a good gateway to the rest of the Slavic languages

  • "We'll just take a look" - a classic (not my kitties)

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  • This legitimately happened to one of my former colleagues 🤣 Told them where the largest local shelter is, and next thing I knew boom they had 2 cats in their apartment one week later

  • In your opinion, what is the best brand of cell phones in terms of quality and price today?

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  • For the average person it is probably Xiaomi: made in China, and even by Chinese phone standards it seems well known for its low cost and high build quality

    However as a lemming and someone who has a Xiaomi gifted by parents and hated everything they crammed in the OS... How do you define a "best" brand of cell phone when there are barely 3 usable brands (Google Pixel for GrapheneOS, Fairphone, ...)

  • For those who tried to enter the dating pool, how did it go?

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  • I know this is not c/casualconversation but OP you gave me an opportunity to share the funniest dating story I have ever heard of, from first-hand experience unfortunately. This was in middle/late 2023

    I... am not that great. Pretty mediocre looks, Asian guy (there's research on this lol) in the US, and the Autism is very strong... so I only ever got 2 matches, neither of which worked out. One of them was particularly brutal because we talked on the app for a whole month, finally met in a coffee shop... and I immediately got ghosted afterwards. I think at that point (2 mo) Hinge started only showing me ppl I have already seen so I deleted the app. However

    The person I talked for a month with mentioned a local arcade that I didn't think much of. Later in 2023 I decided to visit, on 2023-12-09... and holy shit they have all my favorite games, and they even had a DDR (technically ITG) cab and a maimai cab that are basically workouts. I instantly signed up for the monthly membership (which was way cheaper than a gym) and started going there at least 3 times a week, probably for like 3-4 hours at once. That was literally what got me through the end of grad school

    I still have a picture I took the first time I went of a Sound Voltex cab (6th gen, "EXCEED GEAR") and how I got destroyed on a song I would now do as a warmup routine... which is why I knew the exact date I visited the arcade btw, the picture is timestamped

    So what was I typing. No dating pool isn't great

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  • As a kid I dead-pan told my mom that I'd like to be a "white-collar office worker. Because I wanted somewhat of a predictable routine without too much unexpected things happening

    Considering that this is already my second postdoc (somewhat of a scientist training... intern... thing) "job" (no employment contract btw) within 2 years of my graduation, during which I have moved twice including once across a continent, and once getting work-related anxiety so bad I got sick for a month... I think young me's plan is preferable at this point