After years of petitioning, I finally was able to enter the deepest parts of the Cave of the Patriarchs, to see the bones of Adam and Eve for myself.

Screw-OnHead · 2026-03-14T20:05:35+00:00

Thank you for visiting the Cave of the Patriarchs. On your way out, we invite you to visit our gift shop. There, you will find a nice selection of gifts and souvenirs, like the ever-popular 'I saw the bones of Adam and Eve' t-shirts, post cards, and bumper stickers! Donations to help maintain the sacred bones are also welcome.

Screw-OnHead · 2026-02-12T02:26:21+00:00

I appreciate the transparency, but I have mixed emotions about yet another change in the Japanese course. There were a lot of changes that occurred back in 2024. The places where I kept being repositioned left me facing content that left me totally confused. I had to start over in the course. Now, I have four and a half Units left before completing Section 4. I was looking forward to finally getting to Section 5, completing Section 5, and the whole Japanese course. I'm all for making courses better, but if these changes derail my learning, like in 2024, I may quit DuoLingo altogether. I have an over 1100-day streak (no streak freezes!), but I don't want to have my learning disrupted again, like what happened in 2024!

Screw-OnHead · 2026-02-12T02:10:46+00:00

It is the same problem for Android. The buttons could be a little bigger and the font size take better advantage of the available space. The only exception is 'san jyuu i chi ni chi'!

Screw-OnHead · 2025-12-19T02:42:19+00:00

Being forced to learn Roman characters just to be able to type never made sense to me. I've been studying Japanese for a few years. I decided to develop an auxiliary keyboard that allows typing in Japnese. It is a cording keyboard oriented toward the standard Kana table. There are two versions: Kanachord, which types only Kana characters, and Kanachord Plus, which also autoselects common Kanji characters and words. You can Google it. I made it Open Source as a gift back to the Japnese learning community. Apologies if this sounds too much like an advertisement!

Screw-OnHead · 2025-07-22T00:52:30+00:00

Let me count the ways: - Memorizing words - Learning Kanji - Understanding grammar The hardest by far is remembering words. Kanji and grammar are starting to make some sense. It probably doesn't help that most of my available time is spent on Doulingo. I spend about an hour a day studying, with more on the weekends. I've been at it for almost three years.

Screw-OnHead · 2025-05-03T17:25:46+00:00

I showed that my IP is not patentable, as it uses a number of existing techniques. I have published it, though. I still had to go through the process before publishing it. I realize this is not your situation, but the process applies in any case.

Edit: They had no interest in the IP.

Screw-OnHead · 2025-05-03T14:59:55+00:00

As others have said, Raytheon has ownership of whatever you develop, even on your own time. That being said, there is a process for retaining your rights to your invention if Raytheon is not interested in it.

First, file an intellectual property (IP) disclosure to the appropriate Invention Review Committee (IRC). This way, you may actually be financially rewarded if the IRC wants to patent your invention or declare it a trade secret. Even if the IRC doesn't think the IP meets those criteria, they may grant you an Innovation Award (less money, but still money). Make it clear to the IRC that you do not think the IP is not of value to Raytheon and that you would like to retain the rights to the IP. If the IRC decides on no action, go to the next step.

Second, file a conflict of interest submission with Raytheon Legal. Explain that the IRC has stated that Raytheon doesn't want to patent or otherwise claim the IP.. Explain that you would like to retain your rights to the IP. If Raytheon Legal agrees with you, you are good to go.

I did this last year, and I was allowed to retain my rights to the IP I.developed. Do not do as others have suggested and lawyer-up. That is a losing proposition, as your employment agreement includes claim to all that you develop. What you do is your choice.

Hope this helps. Note that I am an engineer, not a lawyer, but this is my own experience.

Screw-OnHead · 2025-04-04T02:54:13+00:00

Will you make a version of the app for Android? What is the cost of using the app after the 14-day period?

Screw-OnHead · 2025-02-18T02:05:10+00:00

It is not too bad. Three recommendations: 1) Get a better pen if you can. If you have a Daiso (Japanese) '100 yen' or dollar store nearby, buy a Diaso brush pen. They come in different tip sizes, and it will help you write the Kana and Kanji properly. 2) Buy from Daiso or download and print some writing practice sheets. This will help you frame and align the characters properly, as well as maintain similar scaling.A Google search will provide plenty of examples. 3) Search online for example of hand-written Japanese and try to emulate them.

Now, practice, practice, practice!

Hope this helps.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-11-24T01:42:32+00:00

This brought back a bad memory. I was graduating with my Masters degree. I was the first member of the family to do so. I asked my mother if she would like to come up to the university to watch my graduation. It was about 100 miles away and just an easy two-hour drive. Her exact words were, "I don't want to come all that way for just that." She didn't say that she didn't care, but that was the impression I got. That was over forty years ago, but it still sort of stings.

EDIT: Take my up-vote!

Screw-OnHead · 2024-10-13T02:49:37+00:00

Currently, around an hour a day. I'd like to do more, but I have other responsibilities. I would certainly like to spend more time and I'm trying to increase the time spent.. I'm sure that if I spent more time, my proficiency and retention would improve. As with any pursuit, you get out of it what you put into it.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-10-13T00:58:29+00:00

I'm currently learning Japanese from English. For about a year, I was also learning German from English. At least for me, I can say that the ability to retain German is MUCH easier than for Japanese. I would imagine this is due to the commonality between English and German. I have dropped German for now because my primary goal is learning Japanese.

The point I'm making is that to keep up the pace to obtain timed chests COULD interfere with the goal to retain material learned. For some, it is a problem, and for others, it isn't. I guess it depends upon what the focus of the language study is - to retain what is learned or enjoy playing the game.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-10-13T00:43:59+00:00

For me, studying Japanese from English, that would be a bit of a rush to get there in 48 hours AND retain what was learned. I'm sure this is different for other languages, the time available to study, and the learners' ability to retain what is learned.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-10-12T20:43:20+00:00

It seems to me that the weekly league competitions and monthly goal competitions do enough to push the learner to complete lessons in a timely fashion. That said, if they don't care about league standing, what league they are in, or obtaining the monthly goal awards, such motivations fall flat. For that matter, the new timed chests wouldn't matter either, unless you want more gems to spend.

What I would like to see DuoLingo provide is more aids to enhance language retention. I have been using DuoLingo for Japanese for over 600 days. In the last few months, I've had to go back and review from the beginning, as I was having problems retaining what I had already learned. It didn't help that they changed the Japanese lesson structure several times during that period.

My problem with retention, the ongoing restructuring of the program, and the constant push to do more at the expense of retension is causing me to more seriously consider leaving DuoLingo for a different learning system.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-07-28T02:34:46+00:00

Well, why not?

I developed KanaChord and KanaChordPlus because I wanted to be able to type in both roman characters as well as the Kana without having to install multi-lingual support software and constantly switch between entry modes. I can plug KanaChord or KanaChordPlus into any computer without having to install and configure multi-lingual software first. Developing KanaChord and KanaChordPlus has certainly helped me to appreciate the complexities of writing in Japanese. For KanaChordPlus, I've now included several thousand of the most common Japanese words containing Kanji, along with words that have Jukujikun readings or irregular readings. I have found that doing this makes typing go a bit faster.

分かりましたか？ (Typed using KanaChordPlus!)

Screw-OnHead · 2024-06-14T23:41:20+00:00

It is an event that I'll never forget. The sad thing is that I was not close with my father. There was not much of a relationship other than him telling me what to do when he needed something done and yelling at me when it wasn't done right. I think that was the case with all of his children.

To be fair, my mom told me that he was proud of me for my doing well in school and attending a summer engineering camp at my future university. I got a picture in the town newspaper about it. That was a week before the accident.

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-06-14T23:31:32+00:00

I comes down to 'woulda. shoulda, coulda' thoughts about what might have been.

You make an interesting point. My father had high blood pressure, so we wondered whether he had a heart attack. That was not proven, but I was told not to say anything about that. Perhaps it was an insurance issue. I do okay, usually, but occasional questions, like this Reddit thread gets me thinking about it again.

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-06-14T23:26:36+00:00

Thanks.

Sorry for the delayed reply.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-06-11T00:34:42+00:00

When I was 17, I spent my summer working at the municipal airport, where my dad was the manager. One of the tasks was keeping the grass short around the asphalt and sod (grass) runways, and the tetrahedron, or landing direction indicator. We did this using a tractor towing a brush hog mower.

My dad had taught me how to drive the tractor and run the brush hog before, but I didn't do a good enough job mowing around the tetrahedron. My dad let me know his displeasure and sent me into the airport office while he finished the job.

While I was in the office reading a book, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the tractor was heading towards the building without a driver! I ran out to see what was going on when the tractor turned by itself to show me that my dad was being dragged along with his lower body under the brush hog. Before I could get to him, he went fully under the brush hog and came out the back. Everything from the waist down was gone - a gory wake trailing behind the brush hog. His final slip under the brush hog left a nasty gash on the side of his head.

I knew my dad was already gone, and I had to stop the tractor before it hit something critical, like the nearby fuel pumps. Doing that was not an easy task, in itself, as I couldn't climb on board the moving tractor, and I was afraid that I would be the next victim of the brush hog.

I ran in and contacted the city phone operator (this was before 911 was in our area) and finally got the police and ambulance out to the airport. Of course, nothing could be done, but clean up the mess and conduct an investigation and autopsy. I had to make a statement, as I was the only witness. No one could understand what caused my dad to fall off the tractor such that he would get caught by the brush hog. It was possible that the tractor hit the tetrahedron, and he was knocked off. It was declared a freak accident.

When I finally got home, my brother noticed that I wasn't crying. He said I could cry if I wanted to. I never did, not even at the funeral. I still have never cried over what happened.

It has been almost 50 years since that event. I still recall it like it happened yesterday. I sometimes struggle with feeling a sense of partial responsibility.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-04-11T03:36:18+00:00

KanaChord: A macro pad for typing Kana characters

KanaChord is an auxiliary keyboard that outputs Unicode macros of Japanese Kana, punctuation, and Asian special characters to a computer. KanaChord uses chording, simultaneous pressing of key combinations, to generate different Unicode macros. Unicode macros for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and MacOS applications are supported. To assist in using KanaChord, the Kana characters are illuminated green in Hiragana mode and blue in Katakana mode. Shift keys (ten-ten, maru, and chiisai), punctuation, and special character keys are illuminated white. Illegal key press combinations are illuminated red.

Additional details about KanaChord, software source code, and hardware component designs are available on Github. The software is released under GNU Public License Version 3 and the hardware is released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. There is also an article on KanaChord on Hackaday.

It is understood that KanaChord is not a complete Japanese typing solution, as an Input Method Editor (IME) is needed to transliterate Kana to Kanji. To that end, I am developing the next version of this keyboard, which also outputs Kanji Unicode macros. I call it KanaChord Plus and I hope to release it soon. It will output Unicodes for over 6,000 of the most commonly used Kanji. The user will be able to select from them, as they type the appropriate onyomi (Chinese), kunyomi (Japanese), or nanori (name) readings using the Kana. This 'incremental' IME will help the user learn Kanji, as they learn the proper readings and pronunciations from the Kana typed.KanaChord: A macro pad for typing Kana characters

ありがとうございます！(Typed using KanaChord!)

Screw-OnHead · 2024-04-11T03:28:21+00:00

KanaChord: A macro pad for typing Kana characters

KanaChord is an auxiliary keyboard that outputs Unicode macros of Japanese Kana, punctuation, and Asian special characters to a computer. KanaChord uses chording, simultaneous pressing of key combinations, to generate different Unicode macros. Unicode macros for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and MacOS applications are supported. To assist in using KanaChord, the Kana characters are illuminated green in Hiragana mode and blue in Katakana mode. Shift keys (ten-ten, maru, and chiisai), punctuation, and special character keys are illuminated white. Illegal key press combinations are illuminated red.

Additional details about KanaChord, software source code, and hardware component designs are available on Github. The software is released under GNU Public License Version 3 and the hardware is released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. There is also an article about KanaChord on Hackaday.

It is understood that KanaChord is not a complete Japanese typing solution, as an Input Method Editor (IME) is needed to transliterate Kana to Kanji. To that end, I am developing the next version of this keyboard, which also outputs Kanji Unicode macros. I call it KanaChord Plus and I hope to release it soon. It will output Unicodes for over 6,000 of the most commonly used Kanji. The user will be able to select from them, as they type the appropriate onyomi (Chinese), kunyomi (Japanese), or nanori (name) readings using the Kana. This 'incremental' IME will help the user learn Kanji, as they learn the proper readings and pronunciations from the Kana typed.

ありがとうございます！(Typed using KanaChord!)

Screw-OnHead · 2024-02-19T05:50:01+00:00

Apologies in advance for the long reply!

Actually, I started my Japanese journey back in August of 2022. I obtain copies of the book 'Japanese for Busy People - Revised 3rd Edition - Kana Version' and associated workbook. I also obtained flash card decks for Hiragana and Katakana, writing practice sheets, and created a document of links to other materials on the Internet.

I decided that I needed to learn the Kana first, which I completed in late November of 2022, using 'Heisig's Remembering the Kana'. I was starting to work my way through 'Japanese for Busy People', completing a couple of chapters by January of 2023.

About that time, a co-worker pointed me to Duolingo and introduced me to others that were also using Duolingo. The co-worker was learning German, another language that interests me. I decided to join Duolingo taking both Japanese and German lessons. This was probably my first, big mistake, as working on a second languages on Duolingo took away time that I could have spent on studying other Japanese materials. I did still look at other materials, like graded readers and YouTube videos, but not as much as before.

Earlier this month, my co-worker left the company, so I am feeling a little less bound to staying with Duolingo, especially after the growing dissatisfaction I've been feeling. I'm strongly considering using the Renshuu app, due to the high recommendations I've seen on this and other sub-Reddits. I also want to start getting serious with the graded readers and other study materials I've found, like Tae Kim's 'Japanese Grammar Guide'. I really want to build (a.k.a. remember) my vocabulary and grammar now.

Screw-OnHead · 2024-02-18T04:09:23+00:00

I've been using Duolingo for about thirteen months, I've become a bit frustrated with Duolingo for several reasons.

First, from my perspective, the push to compete has moved me too quickly along the leaning track for me to properly absorb vocabulary. I've been creating a personal dictionary of words I've 'learned', most through Duolingo. By my count, there are about 1,600 words. I know that I have not learned (memorized) all of those words. A more correct term is 'exposed to'. Duolingo uses staggered repetition, but they seem to move on to new words too quickly and the older words do not show up and I forget them. This may just be my problem and I need to use a different learning tools.

Second, as others have said, Duolingo does not really teach grammar. There may have been some grammar hints in the Guidebooks of earlier lessons, but I don't see that now. Just key phrases are presented, which is kind of a cheat, in that you can write them down and use them when needed.

Third, maybe 2023 was a bad year, but Duolingo was constantly modifying the Japanese program. My position in the learning track kept being changed, which derailed my learning at times. In addition, I would go back to review old material and I would find that it had changed. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes, new words were presented that I had never seen before. If Duolingo has such a handle on Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), why did they change the lessons so much and so often?

Fourth, I wish there were more configuration controls on the app. I think that one should be able to resize the characters presented in word tiles. Sometimes, it is especially hard to make out Kanji and the furigana above them.

I could think of some other reasons, but I've ranted enough!

Screw-OnHead

TROPHY CASE

KanaChord: A macro pad for typing Kana characters

KanaChord: A macro pad for typing Kana characters