Filling the void

You do in the end times, though. :zombie:

Just sayin’.

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I was going to suggest marking the crustacean post as the solution! :white_check_mark: Oh well.

If you’re not into pets, you could do the whole survival of the species thing (look for someone to start a family with).

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Mine’s for sale.

I’ll chauffeur your Audi?

She sounds like a keeper. I’d be chuffed to bits if someone bought me something that ridiculous.

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Perfecto!

The TT is not really chauffeur able though
Perhaps when I get a Roller

I don’t like other people driving me too much, but i love a good hand wash. Can’t remember the last time i was waxed off :smiley:

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I did mine today

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Getting and receiving little gifts is fun, isn’t it? A while back I sent my mum some wooly mammoth hair. It’s difficult to resist the temptation to by all sorts of random stuff for $15-$30 a pop in 雜貨店 and stationary shops in Taiwan.


My significant otter also bought be a hatch-able dino egg and eagle temp tattoos (I thought the rose or dolphin designs might have suited me better, but was assured — incorrectly it turned out — that eagle tats would give me a bad-ass look that would make small children and the elderly think twice before messing with me.

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But if purchases can’t fill the void in your heart there are some good suggestions above. Pets are good: I raise stick insects (cooler than cats, but you can’t skin them for use as fur hats in the event of the nuclear winter that some Forumoseans are prepping for).
Plants are also good: I have a golden rain tree that I inadvertently (and fortunately) bonsai’ed. If you live in Taipei there are lots of meetups and events you could go to socialise and meet people.

Or you could use your spare time to learn something: a world class education available to anyone with an Internet connection if only one makes the effort to seek out quality material (for instance, you could learn a new language for free or almost for free — and learn it much more effectively than attending classes at any of the world’s top universities.

Personally I find exercise really important. I’d go crazy in Taiwan if I couldn’t exercise. I mean crazier. Going to the gym or whatever doesn’t take up much time, but it has a lot of not only physical but also psychological benefits.

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Pets are good but I feel more burdened by them than anything - I may enjoy someone else’s pets for a short time, but then it just gets annoying.

I don’t live in Taipei, I live in the UK, not a particularly friendly part either.

I do enjoy stillwater rowing (sometimes called crew rowing), particularly sculling, I was part of a club five years ago but I got bored of emails telling me off for breaking the rules after every session (I eventually wore them down and they took that rule out)

I studied Japanese for a while using Youtube - it was very good, the teacher has an effective learning style, but, involves more computer screen time and time spent indoors using my already-tired brain.

Yeah, I do road cycling - it’s great to be outside and afterwards my mind feels more rested than it would if I had been sleeping. Again, its a bit solitary as I’m slow as fuck and not that bothered about KOMs and stuff, that just puts me off in all honesty. I had a bike computer for a year or so but I realised that was doing more harm than good.

“Oh, you only managed 25km this week? Poor you OwO - you’re past your prime anyway don’t worry about it, kitten xox”

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What rule? I don’t know anything about rowing, but I’m intrigued.

OP will give you a sensible answer, but I’m imagining rule violations like lobbing rocks at the competing boats or trying to hide a motor under the hull

I’ve been learning Japanese this year too (it’s a bugger to learn, almost as bad as Chinese). I try and listen to as much Japanese (podcasts, audiobooks etc) as I can on the go — working out in the gym, commuting, walking outside etc.

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The rule was that you had to stop in designated places on the lake and not anywhere else (as you are moving backwards and people don’t look)

I thought it was stupid, because there can be any number of reasons for someone to stop (including safety reasons), and it should always be a free option. Just because people are too lazy to look where they are going, doesn’t make it a valid enough reason to be a rule where if someone runs into you when you are stationary, it’s your fault

Anyway, basically because they were educated they thought that made them intelligent and superior, it was very frustrating.

Nah

I recommend Japanese Ammo on Youtube - she’s a Japanese native but speaks with a British accent, which I find makes things a bit easier (similar local accent to me). Also a bit more worldly when it comes to her perspectives, can be light-hearted and laugh/criticize at her native countries customs.

Miku Real Japanese is good too, but she speaks English with a Japanese accent which can be a little harder to understand, but this obviously has benefits too.

I mix the two as they both have different, yet effective, styles.

Recommend any?

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The two paid apps I’ve used in learning Japanese are LingQ (after learning hiragana and katakana I started learning Japanese by reading and listening to the LingQ mini story series many times) and Satori Reader. podcasts and youtube channels I’ve listened to a lot and found useful include Learn Japanese with Noriko, Akane’s Japanese Class, Haru’s Japanese class, Comprehensible Japanese, Japanese through Stories — all of these are entirely in Japanese but have a transcript or subtitles available. I’ve also listened to Japanese only videos from Miku’s Real Japanese. I’ve seen Japanese Ammo: the girl is kawaii, but the video seem to involve explanations in English when what I was after, even as a beginner, was content entirely in Japanese. Perhaps I should start another thread about learning Japanese.

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Get a wife POOOF. All your free time is GONE

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Now, now, I’m sure the OP can find less self-destructive solutions than marriage

Husband, rub ointment on my bunions! Peel the potatoes! Delouse the kids! Iron the dog! Perform your conjugal duty! (And one is expected to do all of those things at the same time)

Thanks for those suggestions

I’ve tended to follow her stuff as I find her explanations of the grammar and systems in Japanese very good, personally the whole ピカちゅは本当にかわいいですね。stuff I find a bit irritating but I won’t hold that against her but more as a part of Japanese culture that I’m not a particular fan of, and that’s who she is, so who am I to…

I have previously tried to do time periods (a week) where I am exposed only to a foreign language (admittedly, Korean, in that instance) … I don’t think it was that effective. I know “kronica” or something that sounds like it means similar to “because” or “why” but that’s it, anyway I digress.

Language learning is something I am interested in, but I felt totally overwhelmed and exhausted mentally with my previous job so it made more learning basically impossible. Hopefully later with new job it’ll be better.

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So many lonely people in Taiwan.

Both those that have recently left and the new arrivals they all talk about it on social media or face to face.

Perform your conjugal duty ? You not married I gather ?

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