Sep 23, 2023·edited Sep 23, 2023Liked by Rick 'The Cheapskate' Broida
How could you leave out Hoopla?? Also via public library card, and ad free. Chinatown, Memento, The Act of Killing, There Will Be Blood, Sophie's Choice, Heaven Can Wait . . . Plus many, many TV shows (especially British), ebooks, audiobooks, music (including the latest pop releases), and a superb selection of graphic novels. More widely available than Kanopy, I think. Kanopy is terrific for art house, but Hoopla has a lot more kid fare, and random B-movies for silly moods. Oh, also, binge passes for Great Courses, Kidz Vidz and Puzzle Palace.
YES!! Guess I need language learning, lol... totally forgot Hoopla! Though in my experience sometimes the streaming resolution isn't great? Have you noticed the same?
Now that you mention it, yes, I have noticed that, and I think more so on older materials. I wonder if the distributor matters (listed under the title). There seem to be many 3rd party distributors, who probably pay lower fees for lower resolution. And there are also majors like Warner Bros. and MGM.
I goofed, too! I was thinking of "No Country for Old Men" but typed "There Will Be Blood". I often get those two titles mixed up for some reason. Same with certain other movie pairs.
I’m a neurology PA and see patients with dementia on a regular basis. The best ways to prevent dementia: stay physically active (150 minutes of exercise minimum per week), keep your blood pressure perfect (<130/80) and aim for a Mediterranean style diet. There are other things too of course but those three have the biggest effect. And if you have concerns about yourself of family members, get them seen by a neurologist asap. I can help slow the progression but I can’t do much once it’s happened.
So, my cell provider gave me a 3 month subscription to Duolingo, and I’ve only got a few days left, so I’ve used it enough to provide some review. Yes, it is a little childish, but still, it does teach. My only complaint, and this may be because I don’t use it enough, is that it’s very repetitive. That’s helpful, because it ensures your knowledge, but it gets old using maleta (suitcase) over and over. I wasn’t aware until now that there is a free option, this was supposed to be a $90 gift, but whatever, I’ve enjoyed it for the most par.
I'm about ready to cancel Prime, anyway. Their own movies are so filthy that we won't watch them and I've never been able to get Prime Music to give me the songs that I want to hear. Not near as responsive as Pandora. So I'm down to free shipping as the only benefit. I'm not sure I use it enough to justify the cost.
- Love Duolingo, but for languages with different characters than what you are used to (like Greek ;)), you have to do a significant amount of the phonetics lessons before you get to the language learning as that's what the questions and answers are printed in.
- Pimsleur is great! It's speaking, repeating, answering only. It helps to have the basics first, I will say. I took a few in-person classes for a foundation.
- My mom swears by Rosetta Stone, and there is also a program through the state dept. I guess you can get that foreign service workers use? She says highly recommended.
I'm currently using it to relearn/refresh my Japanese. For those who don't know, most of the characters used 漢字 have 2 or more possible pronunciations. The intended pronunciations can be indicated in superscript. Duolingo occasionally shows alternate pronunciations that don't match the audio or the context. I already know the difference, so it's just annoying to me. But I would not recommend it as the primary source for a new Japanese learner.
It's free, so I'm getting what I paid for, but I'll be considering your alternate recommendation rather than upgrading Duolingo to paid.
FYI, free Flashcards App on Android is just $2.99 for upgrade to unlimited if you want to DIY some of your learning. You create your own using text, images, or audio files, with several answer modes.
"MEmento," not "MOmento." :) It's about, appropriately enough for this edition of your newsletter, MEMory, not MOMents. One of my favorite movies of all time, BTW.
Unfortunately, no... as noted, it was a limited-time deal. But StackSocial does tend to repeat them fairly often, so if you're not in a hurry, maybe wait a month or so -- I'd wager it'll be back!
How could you leave out Hoopla?? Also via public library card, and ad free. Chinatown, Memento, The Act of Killing, There Will Be Blood, Sophie's Choice, Heaven Can Wait . . . Plus many, many TV shows (especially British), ebooks, audiobooks, music (including the latest pop releases), and a superb selection of graphic novels. More widely available than Kanopy, I think. Kanopy is terrific for art house, but Hoopla has a lot more kid fare, and random B-movies for silly moods. Oh, also, binge passes for Great Courses, Kidz Vidz and Puzzle Palace.
YES!! Guess I need language learning, lol... totally forgot Hoopla! Though in my experience sometimes the streaming resolution isn't great? Have you noticed the same?
Now that you mention it, yes, I have noticed that, and I think more so on older materials. I wonder if the distributor matters (listed under the title). There seem to be many 3rd party distributors, who probably pay lower fees for lower resolution. And there are also majors like Warner Bros. and MGM.
I goofed, too! I was thinking of "No Country for Old Men" but typed "There Will Be Blood". I often get those two titles mixed up for some reason. Same with certain other movie pairs.
I’m a neurology PA and see patients with dementia on a regular basis. The best ways to prevent dementia: stay physically active (150 minutes of exercise minimum per week), keep your blood pressure perfect (<130/80) and aim for a Mediterranean style diet. There are other things too of course but those three have the biggest effect. And if you have concerns about yourself of family members, get them seen by a neurologist asap. I can help slow the progression but I can’t do much once it’s happened.
Thanks so much for sharing that, Kate!
So, my cell provider gave me a 3 month subscription to Duolingo, and I’ve only got a few days left, so I’ve used it enough to provide some review. Yes, it is a little childish, but still, it does teach. My only complaint, and this may be because I don’t use it enough, is that it’s very repetitive. That’s helpful, because it ensures your knowledge, but it gets old using maleta (suitcase) over and over. I wasn’t aware until now that there is a free option, this was supposed to be a $90 gift, but whatever, I’ve enjoyed it for the most par.
.
I'm about ready to cancel Prime, anyway. Their own movies are so filthy that we won't watch them and I've never been able to get Prime Music to give me the songs that I want to hear. Not near as responsive as Pandora. So I'm down to free shipping as the only benefit. I'm not sure I use it enough to justify the cost.
I use GIGS of photo storage. I leave Prime; I lose all my photos
Language learning:
- Love Duolingo, but for languages with different characters than what you are used to (like Greek ;)), you have to do a significant amount of the phonetics lessons before you get to the language learning as that's what the questions and answers are printed in.
- Pimsleur is great! It's speaking, repeating, answering only. It helps to have the basics first, I will say. I took a few in-person classes for a foundation.
- My mom swears by Rosetta Stone, and there is also a program through the state dept. I guess you can get that foreign service workers use? She says highly recommended.
I have used PlayOn cloud to download movie/ shows on Hulu or any services with ads, never paid more than 10c a program ( I hate ads)
Definitely going to be printing those ghosts with my 3d printer!
Re: Duolingo
I'm currently using it to relearn/refresh my Japanese. For those who don't know, most of the characters used 漢字 have 2 or more possible pronunciations. The intended pronunciations can be indicated in superscript. Duolingo occasionally shows alternate pronunciations that don't match the audio or the context. I already know the difference, so it's just annoying to me. But I would not recommend it as the primary source for a new Japanese learner.
It's free, so I'm getting what I paid for, but I'll be considering your alternate recommendation rather than upgrading Duolingo to paid.
FYI, free Flashcards App on Android is just $2.99 for upgrade to unlimited if you want to DIY some of your learning. You create your own using text, images, or audio files, with several answer modes.
https://www.flashcards-app.com/
"MEmento," not "MOmento." :) It's about, appropriately enough for this edition of your newsletter, MEMory, not MOMents. One of my favorite movies of all time, BTW.
Lol... I will try to reMEMber that...
Babbel lifetime comes up as $199. Is there a code:
Unfortunately, no... as noted, it was a limited-time deal. But StackSocial does tend to repeat them fairly often, so if you're not in a hurry, maybe wait a month or so -- I'd wager it'll be back!