@arborelia the year is 2039. it is 3 AM and i am furiously studying Sentinelese. if i can become fluent by 7, then I'll have a good 18 minutes before the chatbots catch up and take up all the good search results. i'm ahead of schedule. i take a sip from my water bottle, the one i got so that i could study Xhosa, eyeing the time on the wall. the clock hands taunt me with their movements, jittery and rigid. my pen meets paper again and i continue my linguistic manifesto.