lvxferre

I don't see this as an unpopular opinion, but I do agree with it - at least here (Brazil) Twitter was evolving into a containment cage for nutjobs and morons, until it was blocked. (And it's damn easy to find who's who in the Bluesky diaspora, as the nutjobs/morons miss Twitter while the saner people are glad to see it locally gone.)

This is the sort of thing that I love reading on the internet.

From a conlanger perspective I feel like the time reference could be split into four, to account time travel. For example: let's say that both of us travelled to 3100, I remained there and you came back to 2024. Then you write me a letter, that I'm going to read as soon as we arrive in 3100, telling me about your experiences. You could use:

• your current date as reference - 3100 comes after 2024, so it's future
• your personal experiences - you already experienced it, so it's past
• my current date as reference - as I'm in 3100, it's present
• my personal experiences - as I'm watching you experience it, it's present

Any given language could pick any of those references to model their tense around, or many of them, or even none (plenty languages IRL lack grammatical tense). If only doing things from the PoV of the speaker (you), that means 6~9 tenses for what most languages have 2 (past and non-past) or 3 (past, present, future).

There was a time that people prefixed my nickname with "Wiki-", because apparently I stand out for knowing a bit about everything. I don't quite agree with it but hey, at least it's something nice.

My accent (when speaking Portuguese) also stands out, apparently. Outside my city people are quick to identify where I'm from; and yet in my own city people often ask me where I'm from.

You know, the ban here was enlightening for me, about certain people from my social circles. Four examples:

1. Resumed Twitter shitposting in Bluesky. Different URL. No mention of Twitter.
2. Cheering Twitter being gone, as they were only using it due to their contacts, but felt like shit for doing it. Criticising how Moraes did it, but not the goal itself.
3. LARPs as against fascism but screeches nonstop in Bluesky about Twitter being gone, as they think that the world revolves around their own convenience.
4. Left microblogging altogether.

But I digress (as this has barely anything to do with the OP). Those people like Musk are bound to "creatively reinterpret" the words: in one situation orange is yellow, in another it's red, both, neither. Sometimes it isn't "ackshyually" related to red or yellow, it's "inverted blue". And suckers fall for it. That's what Musk is doing with fascism.

In the second hypothesis it wouldn't be self-inserting; it's more like the author explaining something to the readers, outside the story.

I've never noticed this usage of the past tense in the appendix about Newspeak - you're right, it does. And it's also written in standard English, so interpreting it as written in a world after Oceania fell is viable.

And following this line of thought we could even interpret the main story as a narrative within another.

Another possibility is that the appendix is not written in-universe, and uses the past tense because it's how people expect storytelling to be written in English, with Orwell speaking directly to the reader instead of Winston Smith.

This is not exactly what you're asking for (media inside media), but it's really close in spirit (nested narratives), and I really like it: a book written in Portuguese in the XIX century, called Noite na Taverna (Night in the Tavern).

The book has an overarching story of friends telling each other stories in a tavern, over booze; with all those nested stories being about love, despair, and death (it has a strong gothic vibe).

And, as each character tells the others a story, there's always that fishy smell that the story might be actually bullshit; and other characters do raise some doubts about its in-universe veracity (like Bertram does to Solfieri). And you, as the reader, do the same - but in no moment you question the veracity of the overarching story, and you feel like you're inside the tavern alongside the drunkards.

So it's a lot like the author is toying with your suspension of disbelief - redirecting it from the overarching story to the nested stories, and as you doubt the later you get even more immersed into the former.

If I must use an example of media within media, then my choice would be "The Book" within Orwell's 1984. I think that it's a great piece because it shows Orwell's views on politics and society, while still serving narrative and worldbuilding purpose - for Winston it's a material proof of the Inner Party's bullshit, for O'Brien it's a tool of the Inner Party to sniff out dissidence. (Note: 1984 is extremely misrepresented nowadays, I'm aware, but I still like it.)

It conveys "I have such a disdain for that thing that I'm asterisking its name like it was a slur or swear word".

I'm not a big fan either, even if you can find some secondary roles for that (as keeping someone from finding it, like ilinamorato exemplified). It distracts the reader from what is being said to the author's personal opinion about what is being said.

To prevent the empire would be more complicated than it looks like, since you got multiple rebellions and civil wars popping up as early as 135 BCE. They ultimately boiled down to

• plebeians and/or slaves pissed due to poor living conditions
• local peoples rebelling against Roman oppression
• some patrician family wanting a larger slice of the pie

And those are all problems that are damn hard to address without leading to plebeians being manipulated, local peoples being suppressed, and cutting down the power of the patricians by a central, strong government. That's basically what Caesar tried to do, and Octavian achieved.

Accordingly to the USB inventor, he didn't make it reversible right off the bat because it would need 2x more wires, circuits, and cost 2x more. So you probably [won't be | weren't]* able to convince him.

Perhaps a better approach is to tell him that they should be clearly asymmetric, to both touch and sight. Like HDMI connectors are.

*tense marking is fun in time travel.

Sorry, I know that this is a thread for people who dislike anime to voice their reasons, but do you mind some rec? Based on what you said, I feel like you'd enjoy Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood quite a bit:

• there's a lot of substance in FMA:B in the theme, worldbuilding, character interactions.
• there are fight scenes but they never overstay their welcome. They don't feel tiring like in Dragon Ball Z or similar.
• characters are relatable. For example, the two protags fuck it up big time, right at the start, and yet can you really blame them? You'd probably do the same in their situation.
• there's practically no sexualisation of female characters. Arguably only one of the villains, but that's done for characterisation and it would feel off otherwise, it isn't there for fanservice.

[Note: I'm not recommending this to change your views or some crap like that, it's just that as I was reading your list of issues I was thinking "true that... wait, FMA:B doesn't do it!"]

Take care of your body. It's only getting worse after that age, so you need to ensure that it doesn't go too fast.

Take care of your mind. Culture yourself, have fun, rest properly, cut off from your social life people who cause you psychological harm.

Set your own values. It's fine if you change them later on, but you need some way to ground your actions that is not "do what other people tell you to".

Learn your limits. Some are higher, some are lower, than the average person; just don't assume that you can handle vodka, work nonstop, or scale cliffs as well as someone else does. Stop punishing yourself for those limits being too low, and stop abusing the limits that are higher.

Learn how to budget. "Economise money" is easier said than done, I know; but once shit hits the fan, it's best if you know which expenses you can cut, temporarily or permanently, as well as the impact of doing so in your life.

Find people whom you can rely on. Even if you're an introvert, even if you hate dealing with people. Family, friends, you call it. And make sure that they can rely on you, it's give-and-take.