German psychiatrist voice

“It appears to be threatened by self actualization and fixated on its dysfunctional relationship with its Father.”

Technically there have been ruins and tombs with traps and riddles. Take a look at some of the info about the Curse of Tutankhamun’s Tomb alone, including stuff like an anthropologist named Field having his house burn down, then flood after its rebuiling (purportedly because he had accepted a mummified hand as a paperweight which came with a cursed bracelet attached).

Granted, there’s no Myst or Tomb Raider-style tomb puzzles unless you count translations of ancient dialects used by the original architects/artisans/scribes/etc., but a lot of death has been associated with burial sites/tombs, whether or not you attribute them to curses or long-dormant mould being disturbed and breathed in…

Surreptitiously collect information about it, and it’s confidential parts while researching its competitors. Extend feelers to said competitors anonymously, seeking to sell said information, all while actively interviewing for work elsewhere. Don’t just dump them, sandbag them on the way out without exposing yourself.

This isn’t my belief, it’s the general state of affairs. The reason for its cost isn’t rational in the sense that you’re hoping for, they want for you to either produce the capital needed to push through the ceiling, or stay where you are. It isn’t supposed to be fair, it’s been purposely contrived to keep people “in their proper place”.

Social infrastructure FTW, a far more respectable way to run the ship. I’ll keep with the boat analogy to use another idiom; “a rising tide lifts all boats” society shows wisdom in encouraging the kinds of conditions where their citizens can succeed without significant barriers, and improve the whole of it afterward (instead of the banking institutions which extend predatory high-interest loans) with their success. Hats off to Sweden.

Fair point to feel a little harangued by the cost of education, but the incongruity isn’t quite so irrational it seems. This has always been the way of things - dues must be paid, costs must be levied to keep people in their place, this is the order of things, and has been for a very long time. The idea of a free education at any stage is a relatively new concept, historically speaking, and even then public schools’ cost to its users (kids, parents who decline to send their children to prestigious private schools for financial reasons) are levied via taxation instead of fees outright. It always costs money, but the amount paid, and the personal/professional advantage gained vary widely.

Sort of broadly applied throughout history, it’s a kind of way to establish and maintain the strata (see definition 3B) of society. You or your family must have the funds to send you to school, and if you can’t pay to learn, you don’t, and you go to work when you’re deemed old enough. If you’re lucky, you apprentice with family, if not you labour at any task which earns your bread, so to speak. The only real break in this system has been subsidy to ensure that less wealthy families’ children can attend school to learn to read and basic math (as well as PE, science, literature, art, etc.), and people’s ability to generate loans specifically tailored to post-secondary. It sucks ass, but please believe me when I say that it could be much worse.

Describe for me how far from a city center or incident you think that you would have to travel - minus the car/uber/taxi/bus/train. 5, 10, 15, 20+ miles until zero cameras and a Superman telephone booth costume change?

Pre-19th century: would literally make out like a bandit, assuming they knew how to fight & had supernatural powers

20th century: would make out like gangbusters until the invention and widespread use of CCTV

21st century: without active electronic/optics countermeasures, it’s all over, anonymity of secret identity impossible to keep

Same scenario goes for villains, who were previously able to simply outrun/outwit pursuit by authorities, often within the same country. Wire services made this more difficult, depending on the pursuers in question, then moreso with radio, then moreso with telephony & TV broadcasts, then moreso with the advent of the internet. Current tech can analyze recording of subjects and lift face shots, as well as highly specific information like gait (now sometimes touted in the same way as debunked “bite mark analysis” circa the 1980’s courts/justice system). A hoodie would be workable only under the loosest conditions, the second that anyone pulled off the hood, or the subject in question were photographed both with/without it on, it’s all over.

I feel seen, had forgotten all about that.

Classic elementary/high school scenario: “This kid is ahead of the curve… a little too far ahead if you ask me. I’d better accuse them of cheating, given that the rest of the class sucks ass at long division/algebra/calculus…”

Haha, no just a quick little shitpost after seeing the sidebar on a dictionary site. Made me think of that town with the twenty syllable name in Wales.

Subscribed to all five meme groups too, huh? Figured I’d spread it around to see where it gained traction.

rotates chair to glance at collection of hard copy encyclopedias & encyclopedic dictionary

Got to be honest here, I know and patronize a lot of Mom & Pop shops, but it hadn’t occurred to me until just now that there were still independent ice cream shops anymore. I’m super jelly that you have one available to you.

There’s no better way than by rote practice, which is to say, the more that you write, the more it should improve. I’ve been told that I have nice handwriting, despite seldom using cursive. It seems to be a bit of a bicycle thing, the more you practice, the easier it is, you can get right back on after years but never really forget either… Hand write notes on paper instead of on apps, I’m talking grocery list, reminders, books/movies that you hear about and want to read/watch later, use an actual physical calendar hanging on your wall, etc.

If you’re specifically concerned about some discrepancy in your output where lower & uppercase characters are concerned, I’ll recommend going over your writing afterward to adjust your output manually by very conscientiously re-copying it so that it appears as per technical standards (First letter of sentence only capitalized aside from proper nouns, acronyms, etc.). I couldn’t speculate as to what specific variant of dyslexia you’re experiencing, but you may be able to practice it to death by retraining yourself? The brain has an oddly consistent way of rewiring itself to adapt to input, the same may be true in your case. Best of luck.

I remember that one too. Turns out that carbon monoxide is the real brain-fog inducer.

You know what? I wouldn’t put it past them.

Hard pass, I’m not filling my home with any additional gasses beyond the ones I’m farting out.

Not fishy or dried fish, we’re talking pork sausage kind of a smell. Pure deli vibes RN.