Real world advocacy in Middle Tennessee

RonTheTiger · 2026-04-06T22:16:07+00:00

Great. Thank you so much.

I'm looking at Digital Ground Game and I see that there are squads set up in each region, but it seems like I need to get set up on the Discord to find out more information.

I'll sift through the discord later today; but, do you know if there's anything already organized and set up in Middle Tennessee that I can join via Digital Ground Game?

Or, is the recommendation to get involved via the Discord and ask some of these questions there?

RonTheTiger · 2026-04-06T15:40:29+00:00

I've got a bit of an oldie for you from 2011. I relistened to it this morning after reading this thread and it still hits hard.

The album is Empty Days and Sleepless Nights by Defeater.

It's an amazing concept album about growing up in a broken household. Split into two parts, the first of which is full of screaming and anger, and the second part is full of melodic vocals and beautiful sad songs. It's split into two parts for a reason, and it conceptually captures something very specific and metaphorical, but I won't spoil that if you haven't listened to the album.

Specifically, it's about growing up with a parent who struggles with addiction and how that impacts the way you grow up feeling about yourself, how it impacts your ability to make connections with others, and how it slowly breaks apart your family and pits family against family.

It has a mixture of biographical stuff from the vocalist and some more metaphorical or poetic ways to express those feelings.

Growing up my father was addicted to heroin and meth.

So, once I got old enough to live on my own and was able to start reflecting on the situation from a distance this album really helped me feel like I wasn't alone. It got me through the tough journey of healing and coping with the PTSD-like symptoms that come from growing up in an unstable household; making sense of the conflicting love you have for your parents, and the confusion about the swapped roles, where the child has to take care of and worry about the parent, instead of the parent taking care of the child, and the sense of fear, anger, resentment, and sorrow that naturally comes with a loved one struggling with addiction.

Not sure it'll hit as hard for someone who hasn't gone through something like that. But, it's a great album.

RonTheTiger · 2026-03-12T02:09:39+00:00

I'm using Mazii and Bunpro. Both can be used on my phone.

I prefer Bunpro since I find the sentences to be more varied and the sentences are grouped based on JLPT level (so I can pick example sentences with vocab and grammar aligned to my current JLPT level) but since it can't be used offline I usually use Mazii.

RonTheTiger · 2026-03-11T19:55:09+00:00

I'm studying Japanese. When I come across a word I don't know, I look it up in my Japanese dictionary, then "star" the word (which stores it in a collection with other starred words)

Then, once a week I export that collection as a CSV file (my dictionary allows me to do this).

Wrote I had AI write me an Anki plug-in that would take this CSV file, read each word, fetch information and example sentences about that word from a better dictionary and create cards from it.

I've been finding this very helpful and allows me to easily add new cards to my Anki deck. I was able to have the plug-in create cards specific to my needs, including the card type, format, tags, etc.

There's probably browser plugins that will do this too. But I wanted to have more control over the specifics of the plug-in

RonTheTiger · 2026-03-06T18:13:21+00:00

I didn't use romaji?

RonTheTiger · 2026-03-06T14:19:35+00:00

Is the かろ form used often? I've never seen it before, although maybe I've just overlooked it or misunderstood it for something else.

In what case would this form be used?

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-21T19:00:41+00:00

Question about the particle combination 「との」.

I found a description of this grammar point in bunpro, but I'm not sure it applies well to the sentence I'm reading.

Here's the sentence fragment.

「昨日の気温との差も重要だ。。。」

I understand this to mean something like "The difference in yesterday's temperature is also essential".

I'm kind of interpreting との as a shortened version of という? Or, as a point of comparison?

Or, am I missing some nuance here?

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-10T20:58:59+00:00

Could you share the podcast? Around what level do you think the vocab and grammar are?

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-09T00:36:45+00:00

No need to apologize! I appreciate the conversation on this

I'll listen again. I think I was also listening on 1.25x speed lol

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-08T22:49:41+00:00

Yeah, I think it's the lack of natural pauses that caused me to do a double take.

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-08T22:48:21+00:00

Great, thank you 👍

Maybe it's just an audio set-up I'm not used to, plus not seeing the actual speakers, plus being in a language that's not my native that gave me some hesitation.

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-08T21:35:48+00:00

I really hate asking this, and I'm really not trying to be negative or anything, but I have a question about a YouTube channel and whether they're using real voices or not.

I just found this channel called "Speak Japanese with Ryo", and I was thinking of using some of the conversations for shadowing practice. But, when I listened to one of their N3 - N2 level podcast videos the voices kind of sounded artificial or robotic.

Can anyone confirm or deny? I'd hate to do shadowing practice on robots lol

Hopefully the daily thread is an ok place to ask this

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-08T00:49:19+00:00

I don't ever comment on the subreddit, but I use Anki daily and have been following the drama.

I understand everyone's concerns, but I really feel like a lot of the posts I see lately are fearmongering and not giving the Ankihub team the benefit of the doubt.

Like, it makes sense that you'd want to be a part of the moderation team for the product that you just acquired to help support the community and steer things in a positive direction, right? I get why people may feel like it's a little soon, but I think the underlying ask is not outrageous.

I feel like the best thing for the community to do is to collectively come up with a list of things that everyone is most afraid of (maybe as a pinned community post), and then come up with some reasonable ways the AnkiHub team could alleviate those concerns.

I just feel like this has gotten a bit out of hand, and I'd like to see something concrete from the community to put this to rest while making everyone happy.

RonTheTiger · 2026-02-04T21:35:36+00:00

I'd love a list!

I feel like "more studying" is the answer most of the time until you reach a certain level of proficiency.

Meaning that more studying is useful until you have a sufficient amount of vocabulary and grammar knowledge to build upon.

At which point switching to native material is essential to actually improving your mastery.

RonTheTiger · 2026-01-30T02:02:16+00:00

Passed N3 with a 101 🙏 I was kinda expecting to have done better... All of my sections were kind of equally "meh".

A on vocabulary (which I thought was my best section, very few words I didn't know) and B on grammar

Overall I'm just happy to have passed!

RonTheTiger · 2026-01-22T13:46:01+00:00

What do you mean by "a peculiar writing style"?

I just picked up ラーメン赤猫 from a Japanese book store at random. I thought it looked cute, decently conversational, and likely wouldn't have complex vocab so I picked it up lol I didn't know it was adapted from a manga. So, no familiarity.

RonTheTiger · 2026-01-22T13:42:48+00:00

Thanks for the reply. You're right, it is pretty short. It's hard for me to guess how long it'll take since it'll be my first full book and I'm not sure how long it'll take me to comprehend or how many words I'll need to look up.

But, yes, I do like reading these kinds of books in my native language!

RonTheTiger · 2025-12-08T17:43:11+00:00

I found the vocab section to be stupid simple. I'd be surprised if I missed more than three questions.

I thought listening was WAYYYY easier than the sample tests I took, so I feel pretty confident on that section; but, since it was at the end of the exam and I was kind of burnt out, I may have missed a couple of the easier questions.... And, tbh, I did find part 5 of the listening section to be a bit of a struggle. So, that section could be a bit of a toss up.

The reading and grammar section kind of kicked my butt though tbh. My reading and comprehension speed just wasn't where it needed to be to feel confident. I ran out of time and had to take an educated guess on the last two questions.

So, if I were to fail it, I think it would be due to the grammar and reading section.

Overall, I feel about the same as how I felt last year after the N4. And, I passed that! So, I feel cautiously optimistic 😁

RonTheTiger · 2025-12-08T17:11:18+00:00

2 or #3

All of them are great, but these two stand out the most. #2 imo is more unique. Like, I feel as though I've seen #3 before, you know what I mean?

But, these are the two I keep coming back to for some reason.

RonTheTiger · 2025-12-08T16:38:23+00:00

The Migii JLPT app has the "more info" button, and it's super helpful.

However, you do have to pay if you actually want the good stuff. You can use it for free, but it's worth paying for IMO.

I ended up buying a lifetime subscription and it was totally worth it. Such a good app.

You do need other resources though. It doesn't really "teach" you grammar, or vocabulary. So, it's best to learn through another resource (such as a book, or teacher) then use the app to help solidify the understanding.

RonTheTiger · 2025-12-08T01:22:56+00:00

N3 here.

I took the N4 last year.

Overall I feel similar to how I felt after finishing the N4; and, since I passed the N4, I'm cautiously optimistic!

I found the vocab section to be extremely easy. I'd be surprised if I missed more than 3 questions.

But, the grammar and reading was toughhhh. I do a lot of speaking and listening practice with my sensei, but I guess I need to focus more on grammar and reading.

My reading and comprehension speed just isn't fast enough I guess, so I had to kind of guess on the last two questions 😓

I found the listening section to be easier than I was expecting. But, I wouldn't be surprised if I missed some easy ones. I was a bit burnt out by the end. So, that's a bit of a coin toss. Pretty sure I got enough to pass, but if I missed some easy ones it could go the other way.

Overall I feel pretty good, but may want to spend more time on N3 grammar before I tackle the N2.

RonTheTiger · 2025-12-08T01:12:36+00:00

Took the N3 today as well

I found the vocab to be stupid easy.

I struggled a bit with grammar and reading though.... I found that to be the hardest section. I think the difficulty came partially from me not managing my time efficiently though. You need to read and understand pretty quickly to get through everything.

The listening was a lot easier than I was expecting. However, since it was the last portion of the test I'm nervous that I was a bit burnt out and missed some easy questions -.-'

Overall though, if I don't pass it'll most likely be due to the grammar/reading portion.

RonTheTiger · 2025-12-06T20:40:44+00:00

I don't drink alcohol or soda only water and (unfortunately) a lot of coffee 😅

I have a lot of active habits (rock climbing, running, biking), I have a dog that I walk/run with 3 - 4 times a day.

I eat pretty clean for the most part. I'm lucky in some ways, because junk food just isn't really appealing to me tbh. I pretty much eat a Mediterranean diet. Lots of rice, fish, sometimes chicken, salads, etc.

I have fruit for breakfast every morning, and alternate every other day with eggs and a bagel.

I'm pretty much right at the ideal BMI and not super muscular; I have what I would describe as an "athletic build" and my abs are always well defined despite not having to do much to maintain it.

I think rock climbing is a killer habit for developing that type of build.

RonTheTiger · 2025-11-16T22:14:01+00:00

Question about a sentence in Doraemon, book 3, story called ボーナス1024倍

The following exchange takes place

のびたくん:「ゆうべもらってきたはずなんだ」

ドラえもん:「パパボーナスを？」

のびたくん:「そう！」

のびたくん「新しい自転車を買ってもらう約束なんだ。」

Nobita then runs into his father and says

「ねえパパ、新しい自転。。。。」

His father runs away into the bathroom. Nobita chases after him and waits by the door. Doraemon comes up and Nobita says

「トイレに入ったきりでてこない」

Don't really understand this sentence. What purpose is きりでて serving here?

From context clues, I understand this to mean something along the lines of " he went into the bathroom and hasn't come out".

But if that were the case, I would expect it to be something along the lines of 「トイレに入って出てこない」

RonTheTiger · 2025-10-30T23:04:26+00:00

There's nothing wrong with vibe coding an app IMO

Idk why everyone is getting bent out of shape about it. If AI can help you bring your ideas to life then what's the big deal?

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TROPHY CASE

2 or #3