I have been amusing mysef by sticking bits of my thesis into the "Gender Genie," which claims it can figure out the gender of a writer using the power of Math! (tm). It seems overwhelmingly convinced that I am a dude, except when I am writing about those wussy aesthetes the Ming dynasty literati,* at which point it becomes much less certain. ( Read more... )

Earlier today in Chinese class I was feeling all impressed with how much we've learned in the last year, but language karma soon caught up with me for my cockiness when I stopped for bubble tea and was quite predictably stymied by the cute little writing on the top of the cup. And yes, it was even in Taiwanese characters, not Mainland simplified ( Read more... )