Friday, 14th February 2020 ◆ Longing for past becomes lost again (9)
The kind of games I most appreciate are also the hardest to find: little games made by hobbyist developers. My favourite moments come when I feel I have connected somehow with the person who made the game. Perhaps I've discovered some hidden feature they planted in the game, or maybe the game appeals to a specific interest of mine. A game designed to attract a large number of players is unlikely to be able to scratch that very specific itch.
There are several features of other languages which seem completely alien to me, a native English speaker. When I come across one of these features, I enjoy trying to come up with an example in English which approximates the feature. Here I share a few of the analogies I've come up with.
Gender
In English, we use he or she to refer to people (and sometimes animals), and it to refer to things. Barring personification (and antiquitated practices like using 'she' to refer to ships), all 'things' are treated the same.
Friday, 31st January 2020 ◆ Leader’s concerning toilets (7)
It was the first day of the cycle, and the day upon which the Advisory was due to gather. The Great Hall was a large building which stood in the centre of the city, and it was from here that all government business would be conducted. The meeting room was not overly large; there were only a couple of paces between the table and the walls on all sides.
Wednesday, 25th September 2019 ◆ Crazy Queen meets bad end: my new home (6)
After having first tasted living abroad during an Erasmus year in France, I have been longing to repeat the experience. The main attraction for me is to learn another language, but it's also exciting to be part of a different culture.
I worried that the roots of jobs, flats and friendships would grow, tying us to London more and more strongly the longer we stayed. My partner was due to finish his PhD in the Summer and would be looking for the next stage in his life. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to move. We made the decision to move to Spain about half a year in advance, and it was a very exciting decision to make!
Wednesday, 10th April 2019 ◆ Anything but the most common letter makes a sound (4)
Here is a snippet of me aaahing twice. What do you think their relative pitches are?
To me, the first sounds deeper than the second. However, according to a pitch detection app I downloaded, they are both the same pitch (roughly A2). Why is this?