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kechpaja.bsky.social
Dual US/FI citizen who doesn't really do gender. Trans as in transhumanist, transatlantic and transfluvial. I'm "kechpaja" pretty much anywhere you see that username. tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhlaH. Fediverse: @[email protected]
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I just deleted LinkedIn. You could call this a spur of the moment decision, but things have been building up to it for a long time. I haven't gotten any value out of the site in many years, and it has been barely usable at all — to say nothing of the low quality of the posts — since 2023 or so.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

One of the starkest lessons learned by hanging out around polyglots: no truly serious language learner will have a straight answer to "how many languages do you speak?" — instead, they'll explain their level in and history with each language, possibly in great detail.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Enthused by some recent conversations, I treated myself to an evening of linguistic research and writing, and here's the result: My case for why the word order of Proto-Indo-European was not 'SOV', or another basic arrangement of subject, objects and verbs... dannybate.com/2025/02/20/p...

submitted 7 days ago • 5 comments

Has anyone ever actually tried to develop four-dimensional chess? Like, an actual game played with chess pieces (or something like them at least), on a four-dimensional board?

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Emily is especially interested in whether identity terms have changed in meaning across generations, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have any Gen X respondents yet. So... if that's you, we'd be especially grateful!

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

A very random #linguistics question: There are a wide range of recreational drugs whose use is described using the verb _to do_. What, precisely, are the criteria that trigger use of the verb _to do_ instead of another expression?

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

It's always worth keeping in mind that you can't badger, shame, or threaten people into suddenly having skills they never acquired.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Somehow I always thought websites in 2025 would be faster and easier to use than websites in 2010. And yet, here we are.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Okay, I have an idea for a parody of _Ich komme_. The problem is that it's.... subtle. I need to think about whether I can actually write it in a way that will convey what I want it to convey, especially to people who are already primed to see _everything_ as a metaphor for sex.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

I've never had a Kindle (or the equivalent app), and increasingly that is seeming like a good decision. (I did buy a few books on Apple Books a decade or so ago, but it has been long enough now that I've written them off and moved on.)

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Someone should remind Elon Musk that in the Iain Banks books he likes naming things after starships from, changing gender is easy and considered entirely commonplace.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

One of the things I've noticed after starting to wear more obvious queer symbols — and especially after dying my hair — is that I've begun to develop a sense for when a person _isn't okay_ with those things.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Making USB sticks tiny was a nice party trick, but in doing so we also made them very easy to lose. Perhaps there would be a market for "stylish" memory stick casings that made them easier to see and handle? Perhaps with room for multiple actual storage nodes?

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Apropos of nothing: if you are a non-native #English speaker who finds the extreme similarity in pronunciation between _can_ and _can't_ confusing, remember that the former is hardly ever stressed (the main exception being when contrastively emphasized), whereas the latter is almost always stressed.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

With CDC removal of trans data, its important I use my platform to support research in this space. Emory is doing a virtual study on HIV+ trans-fem individuals and working on shaping viral load testing for this population, with some compensation. If it applies to you, here's the link to enroll:

submitted 16 days ago • 15 comments

Trump’s executive orders are not law. This doctor knows it. Many hospital systems know it. Those that comply with something not passed by congress and with power not constitutionally granted to the president are cowardly.

submitted 16 days ago • 46 comments