I’m on the list.

It’s called being a registered Democrat.

I mean the best way to achieve your goal of personal connection is just asking them to teach you.

There are some villages in China that I’ve been to with a total of six electric plugs, toilets that need to be flushed with a bucket, a barely-working 3G cellular connection, and where you can’t drive faster than 20 km/h without destroying your car.

Go on Baidu and look up 广州市麦地西街 (The one in 白云区, 梅花园 area)

Look at the street view (too laggy for me so I can’t screenshot it rn)

That’s the neighborhood I used to live… dirty af… urban hell lol… never had internet till my family emigrated… it was 2010 and I had no idea how to use the internet and my US-Born cousins treated me like some peasant lol

Government might be corrupt as hell but at least culture of Mental Health acceptance is much better than Chinese culture.

I’m originally from Guangzhou, China, am naturalized and I overall like the US… at least more than China…

I just hate the corrupt politicians.

Also, so much entertainment stuff… movies, tv, are made in the US. Chinese entertainment is boring as hell (IMO)

Also: Usually those in the Entertainment industry lean relatively more left.

I still think Americans are generally good, if they actually knew the truth and not just far-right propaganda. (I mean that’s just humans in general… people are easily manipulated by the evil few)

The problem is low voter turnout, first past the post, winner take all electoral college, gerrymandering, most important of all, the PROPAGANDA.

Americans in red jurisdictions… rural areas… those who never met a non-white person… have a problem with a distorted worldview…

Primary turnout is atrocious…

Right now my parents and their culture are smothering me to death… they hate the idea of medications and depression is not a serious problem in their eyes.

I’m a native Cantonese and Mandarin speaker and I’ll be brutally honest, you need a huge motivation, or else you will struggle to be fluent.

Not just because you like the aesthetics, or like the idea of being bilingual…

What are you gonna even use the language for.

For example, you might wanna learn Japanese for better experience enjoying Anime…

My parents came to the US as adults.

My dad has been in the US for… 16 years… still a non citizen and never really learned English

Meanwhile, mom needs it to do bussiness… investments… and stuff… so she has to learn it… She knows enough to become a citizen…

The biggest thing is IMMERSION. Even then, dad never learner it…

My parents barely understand me lol. Since I only know 2nd grade level of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin share similar vocaublary)… despite being a native speaker.

A westerner is gonna struggle a lot with the tones…

I was “luckly” enough to be just at the perfect time of 8 years old so I know enough basics of Chinese before emigraring… so my brain is in between two worlds.

If I was born in the US, idk if I could manage to learn it.

IMO Mandarin is gonna be tough since Chinese shows are sooo boring… soo cliche… predictable story is gonna kill the will to learn… (unless you love bad tv drama lol)

Ask your self: What are you gonna use Mandarin for? (Also: do you also wanna learn the writing too? Since its logographics, much harder.) Just as a trophy? Or actually gonna regularly have a use for it?

700 millionaire gang where are you?

💀

My recommendation would be for you to clean that and tidy it up as best as you can and talk to everybody to try to keep it tidy after. It will be a lot of work, but the difference might be felt by them and they might want to keep it tidy and clean.

The habit must be built over time, try to talk to them to help keeping it tidy, it will not be easy and overnight, bad habits are hard to let go.

I think its a waste of effort.

Like… it looks clean when guests visit…

Then guests leave and within a week its back to this again…

I wonder what made him snap.

Hitting the concrete ground at terminal velocity definitely makes you snap in half

The concept of Memories…

The concept of Forgetting…

The idea of existing as a child that has no responsibilities… The idea of Childhood… The idea of Nostalgia…

I have chemicals in my brain that preserved a different “now”…

I remember I used to be a little boy that was loved by parents…

aaahhh I wanna be a kid again.

I wanna be cuddle by mom and not have to worry about “responsibilities”… things like money or jobs

I remember when I was a kid, and I was often with my mom, and adults would be like “is this your son” to my mom and my heart would LIGHT UP for some reason when I get talked about positively (or even neutrally). Especially when its 1st Gen Chinese Diasporas and they’re like “does he speak 中文 (Chinese)” (feels kinda gramatically incorrect btw 中文 is technically the written language) and I instantly feel so proud of my self for being multilingual (English, Cantonese, Mandarin)… I felt a sense of superiority compared to American-Born Chinese… mom was like “oh he does”… I can’t express in words how good that felt when I get praised lol… they seems to be so surprised that I can speak Mandarin too and read

Just all the standard questiois like: “how old is is he?” makes me feel good… cuz it validated my existence… like another being other than my immediate family has recognized my existence. I EXIST. THEY’RE TALKING ABOUE ME UWU 🥹.

Like I overhear my mom’s phone conversations a lot. I FEEL SOO GOOD WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT ME indirectly. Like the “my younger son is [age] years old” and I FEEL SO MUCH JOY hearing that…

just pure childhood

I obsess about memories a lot…

I sometimes fear I wake up one day without my memories… who the fuck would I even be anymore? I’d effectively “died”.

Unfortunately, VX also works on your face

Okay fine maybe for the US where the free press still seems to be okay (barely limping through)

In China… all info is controlled. They can sweep irregularities under the rug. Censorship…

I mean look at how they handled covid… they tried to jail doctors who tried to blow the whisle.

So I still wouldn’t okay an “opt out” system for China until they start becoming more transparent.

Bruh its been like years…

It used to splatter all over the place… so dad just like… idk… I think he tried to fix it but can’t… like multiple times already… so I think he just took apart the ceiling boards and made it so it leaks straight down…

The heater is also randomly stops working during winter… refrigerator sometimes lets the freezer compartment melt so you can’t trust ice cream to remain good, so if there is ever ice cream, you have to eat it all fast before it “randomly” stops being below 0

There are cracks in the walls and near windows…

Roaches infested most of the house… all food have to be in containers or else its gonna get contaminated…

Used to have a mouse infestation until we got a cat.

Arrrrrrgh…

They are reluctant to get professionals to fix things unless there’s no other choice. Cuz “paying people to do things is a scam”…

So parents just use traps for cockroaches… and hit/squish them as they see them… we’ve been at this problem for years…

Sometimes mom barges in and try to “clear the area of cockroaches” and makes so much noise I can hardly sleep… like I’m half awake and anxious all the time when she’s near me and doing that “打曱甴”… I wanna put a mouse trap there and watch her step on it to make a point to STOP BOTHERING ME WHILE I SLEEP jesus christ…

I might have found out one of the root causes of my anxiety and depression…

You acquired “native-level” English “with an American Accent” when you started learning at age 18?

Bruh, my older brother has been here since 13 and he still sounds so weird…

remotely like an average American

What does an “Average American” look like?

Honestly my “American-ness” is gonna depend a lot on if my parents are around…

Like imagine I go to Europe for vacation… One moment, I talk to parents in Cantonese and we sound like either Guangdong-Mainlanders or Hong Kongers, then next moment I speak in perfect American English and they’re gonna be confused if I’m Chinese or American…

懂多少？

我的中文知识达到二年级水平，在国内读过书。然后就出国了。

只会打拼音，不懂怎么用手写。

(try without google translate for practice)

English, with heavy “American” accent. Basically native-level fluency

Okay laws are so stupid. If you have native-level English and have been so Americanized that you “have an American Accent”, you deserve the choice of getting Citizenship.

Wait I’m still still confused, don’t student visas only exist for college? Were you here during teenage years or earlier? Is there even a non-immigrant visa for before college? Like I’m confused af. I thought kids could only come if they are a dependent of a principle immigrant on a greencard visa?

I’m having trouble with trusting such a system…

I mean if a politician or some rich dude is in need of an organ that you happen to have… I don’t trust the doctors to not just… let you die…

Like in House of Cards…

I don’t trust it here in the US, I mean look at the politics… so corrupt.

And I definitely-definitely don’t trust this for China… the way my parents decribe their interactions with doctors in Mainland China… like the most sketchy people you could meet… I mean… these are the heathcare workers that would perform abortions against the mother’s will if the government told them to… (during the One Child Policy stuff…) so yeah they’d happily let you die if it meant some government official can get their organ. Nope. There’s no way people there would trust it… so much 碰瓷 (“broken vase” scams), low-trust society…

Oh my mom does want me to get shot maybe

I mean if she truely unconditionally loved me, the she wouldn’t be threatening to disinherit me for having depression… so my parents, probably most ethnic Chinese parents, their love was always conditional…

My older brother did that “eating alone” first back in like I remember like 2017s or so… then after covid… I became more germophobic and so I also started doing that…

But mom also says a lot of annoying stuff to him like “omg look at your hair, it looks ugly (I mean it does tbh)”, “you’re fat, lose some weight”, “did you meet any girls in school”, “stop using your left hand to hold chopsticks”, “do you think you’re able to get married”/“look at you, would any girl even want you”… etc…

so it’s not unusual why he didn’t like eating at the table

I watch Spy x Family and similar media with good family dynamics… and it melts my heart… cuz IRL is so different… less wholesome…

Moto G 5G 2024 is unlockable after connecting to the internet for approximately 7 days and requesting unlock codes on Motorola website (voids warranty), and supported by Lineage OS

Cost like $140 I think when on discount… official retail price is $200

I did the unlock before, I can confirm it works… however I tried a Verison MVNO and the mobile data refuses to work on Lineage…

(carrier versions have different model numbers and will not unlock bootloader, you need the factory unlocked version)