u/RandomUsury

TL;DR

I'm looking for pen and paper exercise books to work on the fundamentals of European Portuguese.

Details

I've been working on my PTPT for about a year: Praktika, Practice Portuguese, YouTube, another website for basic vocabulary. I'm doing okay. Not great, just okay. What I need, what I used when I was a kid growing up learning other languages, are exercise books that require actual writing. (Writing has been shown to be an effective way of reinforcing learning, better than just typing on a phone.)

I'm not 8 years old, so I don't want cute little cartoons. I'm looking for exercise books that introduce vocabulary or a grammar point, and then reinforce them through short written exercises.

For example, let's say the grammar point was definite articles. The exercise might have a variety of words (masculine, feminine, singular, plural) and you have to write the answers:

Question: the cake - Answer: o bolo

Q: the pen - A: a caneta

Q: the cakes - A: os bolos

Q: the pens = A: as canetas

I've chosen something very simple here just to demonstrate what I'm talking about.

I'm looking for suggestions for these sort of exercise books for European Portuguese.

Thanks, all.

TL;DR : How do I move to decaf and not miss the sharpness of regular?

Details

I make my own cold brew and reconstitute it with boiling water. I drink it black: no sugar, no cream. In the past, I hit 3 cups by noon, and maybe 1 or 2 more by dinnertime.

I need to reduce caffeine because reasons. The problem is that I find the taste of decaf to be lacking. It doesn't have the sharpness that I like in my regular black coffee.

Am I doomed to drink flat tasting decaf? Or do I have other options if I want to stick with coffee instead of herbal tea?

Thanks

EDIT

Thanks, all, for the suggestions. Some clarifications:

Half-caf won't work. I'm okay with caffeine in the morning, but after noon it's no caffeine at all for me. Ideally I'd like to keep my regular cold brew for the morning and find something else for the afternoon.

The best suggestion seems to be trying beans that have been decaffeinated using the various different processes.

I reached 2000 days today, and I'm done.

It's been a good run, and I appreciate the habit that Duo helped me create. But Duolingo is no longer the tool I need for what I want to do.

I don't like the increased emphasis on gems and chests and gamification in general. The instructional quality has gone downhill the past year as well. I let my subscription lapse a couple of months ago and decided to stick around just to reach a big round number for my streak.

It's done. I'm done. I am no longer a prisoner of my streak.

Why did I get 1 star as a passenger?

I don't ride Uber often. I have maybe 40 rides in the past 18 months. I tip, I'm clean, I'm polite, I don't require assistance, I'm punctual, I'm always ready for a pickup. All of these are good qualities, I believe, for a passenger rating.

Out of curiosity, I downloaded my user information. I have 35 5-star ratings and one 1-star. I can't tell which ride it was. It's buried in the middle of the ride information, so it could have been any time in the past 6 to 12 months.

I'm not losing any sleep over it, but I have to wonder what I did to piss off this one driver.

It's a mystery.

I travel a lot, and I'm looking for a carry-on bag.

Here's the problem: I travel a lot on US airlines (which generally have one size limit for carry-ons) and I travel a lot on non-US airlines (which generally have a slightly different limit).

Here's the breakdown

US airlines

22 x 14 x 9 inches (55.8cm x 35.6cm x 23cm)

non-US airlines

21.5 x 15.5 x 9 inches (55cm x 40cm x 23cm)

US bags are a little taller; non-US bags a little wider

Consolidated

21.5 x 14 x 9 inches (55cm x 35.6cm x 23cm)

Any suggestions for a good bag that meets both limits?

Thanks

I had a ride recently that was a first in many (bad) ways for me.

1. The driver had trouble finding the pickup point at an airport terminal (Chicago). Fifteen minutes late. I watched her drive around and around via the app. It's an airport, and she said she couldn't find the pickup spot. At an airport. That she's gone to before. Many times.
2. The driver did not offer to pick up bags for me and co-passenger, so I loaded them into filthy trunk which was filled with what looked like old grass clippings. Somewhat unusual for an airport pickup, both the lack of bag handling and the grass clippings. After I got into the car, I saw a handicap placard, which explains the lack of offer to help with the luggage.
3. The interior of the car was... not clean.
4. The seat belt in the back seat did not work. Driver: "That's okay. You don't need to wear a seatbelt." She did get out of the car for this, to try to fix it.
5. Driver would not stop talking about anything and everything despite hints and non-responses. However, I learned that the grass clippings in the trunk were from the driver's spouse who apparently occasionally uses the car to move lawn mowers from A to B. (You can't make this stuff up.)
6. Driver had a handicapped placard hanging from the mirror. That's okay. It was a different state. Maybe not so okay. It was due to expire in the next couple of weeks. From her endless chit chat, I knew that she and spouse were both long term residents of the state of Illinois.

I didn't leave a review, and I didn't tip. Should I have done more? Should I have done less?

EDIT

A lot of people are getting hung up on me loading my own bags. I included that for completeness, the whole story so everyone would know why I saw inside the trunk. Yes, I can carry my own bags, and I did. Yes, the handicap placard might explain why she didn't offer. She wasn't completely immobile in the car, as evidenced by her getting out to fix the seatbelt. But that's a small detail compared to the inability to find the pickup point, the dirty interior of the car, the broken seat belt, the constant talking, the grass clippings in the trunk, and maybe the illegal use of a handicap placard. Let's focus on the important stuff, people.

I canceled my subscription a couple of days ago.

Duolingo was great when I started using it a few years ago. I built up a daily habit of practicing, and truth be told, that was invaluable.

However, the quality has gone down. We all know it's AI, etc. Plus the insistence on jewels and prizes and whatever just irritates me. I don't care about that stuff. I don't need to be treated like a child who can't concentrate and who needs constant gamified reinforcement.

So I canceled. I'm going to keep going for another month to get my streak to 5 years, and then I'm calling it a day.

It was a good run, but it's time to move on.

PS. Duolingo, you should really hire humans again to create content and do quality control.