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rigelmejo · 3 months ago

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Let's suppose you want to learn Chinese mainly to read webnovels (or other reading material).

Now, personally, I recommend some study of pronunciation like pinyin, and watching some videos or reading some articles on tones and tone sandhi, grammar, hanzi and hanzi structure. Because at some point you'll probably want to listen too, speak too. So you know - use other resources to study the other skills! If you plan to do anything besides read eventually. Also, I think some pronunciation study actually helped me with remembering hanzi (the sound components in them) and reading skill.

But lets suppose you're studying mainly so you can read webnovels. Which is what I did in my first year. And you can set a goal to start reading webnovels within a year. For some people it takes as little as 3 months to start reading webnovels, for others like me it took around 6 months to start reading webnovels and 12 months to feel comfortable.

Download Pleco app and Readibu app. These apps will be your best friends. Pleco app is a dictionary tool so you can look up unknown chinese words, and it's Clipboard Reader area is where you can paste any chinese text into and then click-translate any words. I recommend the first time you look up any word, you press the dictate/speaker tool so you can hear how it's pronounced. You can save words in Pleco and study them using Pleco's built in SRS flashcards if you wish. Mainly though, the important part is using Pleco to look up words, read example sentences, and to use the Clipboard Reader area to read any Chinese text you find online. Pleco has an area to purchase graded readers, these will probably be some of the first things you read (if you choose to use paid resources). Readibu app is a click-translation Reader app for Chinese, you can browse the app for webnovels, or you can go to the Search area and paste in a url of a chinese webnovel, then Readibu will say it's not in the database so click 'search with Google' then you'll see the url as a result and click it, then bookmark the webnovel page in Readibu. From there you can click the open book icon on any webnovel, and it will make it just click-translate text and provide you the Readibu app features. Once you're reading a lot of webnovels, you may wish to use Readibu to read, for some people it will be more convenient than Pleco for going chapter by chapter.

Make a plan to start studying hanzi. I recommend you focus on the most common 1000-2000 chinese words, or the HSK 4 vocabulary, or both. The goal here is to get your vocabulary and hanzi recognition around HSK 4 level. I used this book (Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters: (HSK Levels 1 -3) A Revolutionary New Way to Learn and Remember the 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters) because it just clicked with me, I just read through it over a few months. You can use SRS flashcards (like Anki or Pleco) collections that people have made (I recommend this Mnemonics Simplified Hanzi Deck, or Mnemonics Traditional Hanzi Deck). For common words, I recommend Spoonfed Chinese anki deck (note it has some mistakes but I like that it has audio and sentence examples), but there's a ton of anki decks and common word frequency lists (you can genuinely just study a list) just pick a resource you like with either 2000 common words or HSK 4 vocabulary. Literally just pick any study materials where you can learn roughly 1000 common hanzi and 1000 common words or more. Whatever materials work for you. Study however you want - some people find anki flashcards useful (I just cram studied 1000 words for a few weeks each then never looked at anki again), some find books useful, some find textbooks useful, some use vocabulary lists, some use videos, just pick something. Your goal is going to be to study these words/hanzi in 3-6 months. 8-10 months if you want to wait to read longer, or need more time to study. I studied 800 hanzi in the book I linked for the first 3 months, then 1000 words the next month, then 1000 words the next month, then about 500 more hanzi the next month. It is okay to cram study! It is okay to not memorize these hanzi and words! Just get a basic familiarity! You are going to fully learn these common hanzi and words when you READ later.

As you are studying common hanzi and words, start reading a grammar guide if you would like some knowledge of grammar. Or watch some grammar videos on youtube, whatever clicks best with you. Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar is a good grammar guide summary book, AllSetLearning Chinese Grammar Wiki is an excellent website you can read. I read another grammar guide summary, the website no longer exists. Again, do not try to memorize and drill this stuff, just go through it and get a basic familiarity. You can move on if a particular grammar point makes no sense right now. Learn about grammar the same time you're studying hanzi and common words, so the first 3-6 months.

Okay it's been 3 months! You know some hanzi (maybe 50-500), you know some words (maybe 50-1000 depending on how intensely you've been studying)! Start reading! You're going to start with Graded Readers, which are reading material made for learners. Heavenly Path's Comprehensive Reading Guide suggests some free graded reader resources in the Below 1000 characters section. I used Mandarin Companion Graded Readers and other graded readers I could purchase in Pleco. Mandarin Companion has some graded readers with 50 unique characters. I started with some Pleco graded readers that had 300 unique characters, then moved up to graded readers with 500-800 unique characters. Read graded readers! Reread them! Look up any words you don't know (using Pleco or something else). Listen to the pronunciation of any new words. If reading in Pleco, you can use the Dictation tool to hear the sentences read aloud. When using graded readers in general, use any audiobooks that accompany them. Mostly though just read, read, read, and look up anything you want. Look up grammar points in something like AllSetLearning Chinese Grammar Wiki if you are now starting to see some grammar that confuses you while reading. The reading practice is what is going to teach you the words you've been studying in other materials.

Now it's been 6 months. You've been working your way through graded readers of increasing unique character count (and are now reading graded readers of at least 800 unique characters or more). You've been working your way through studying common hanzi and words, and now have studied at least 1000 words or more. (If you cram like I did, you probably have studied over 2000 words but only the 800-1000 words in your graded reading material have been 'fully learned' and the other words you studied are only vaguely familiar, this is perfectly fine). Go to Heavenly Path and start reading the stuff they recommend for people who know 1000-2000 characters. I think @秃秃大王 by 张天翼 is perfect for people who know around 1000 characters to start with. You can keep reading some graded readers like those that go up to 1500-2000 unique characters if you'd like, but start trying to read novels for native speakers too. Again, I recommend anything in the easiest 'recommendations' from Heavenly Path's recommendation list of webnovels, a lot of novels for children will be perfect at this point. You'll gradually work on increasing the unique characters of your reading materials. Read in Pleco or Readibu so you can use the click-translate tool. To find webnovels online, paste or type the chinese name of the novel (and author if you know it), and then 'zaixian yuedu' like this '秃秃大王张天翼在线阅读'. It is very easy to find novels online in chinese.

From here you just continue reading more difficult novels! Go at the pace you choose! Once you're reading stuff with 2000 unique characters, then if you wish you can stop studying hanzi and common words outside of just looking them up in reading. You can of course continue to study hanzi and words outside of reading. But if you'd rather just learn words by looking them up as you read, you can start doing that as soon as you switch to novels for native speakers (1000-2000 characters). Congrats, you are reading webnovels!

Some people start reading webnovels within a few months, and you can start with a higher unique character count if you wish. Such as starting with MoDaoZuShi or Zhenhun or SaYe as soon as you go from graded readers to regular novels. The difficulty curve will be a lot steeper, and you'll be looking up a LOT of words for a while. But other people have done it. I started reading webnovels around 6 months, after doing graded readers for a while, and it took picking several easier and harder reading materials until I found a comfortable reading level to continue from.

So it boils down to: start studying very common words and hanzi (a list, a book, anki, whatever works for you, and you don't have to memorize just get some Exposure some Basic Familiarity), read about grammar if you wish (again just get some Basic Familiarity so later if you need to look up a grammar point in depth as you read, you know what to look up), and START READING ASAP. Use Pleco and Readibu to read with click-translations of words. Start with graded reader materials, then as soon as you can tolerate move on to novels for native speakers. Heavenly Path's website is a great resource for finding reading material at your level if you have no idea what to pick and don't want to trial and error different webnovels until something is doable. For anyone who finds sounds help with memory (like me) or who plan to eventually learn to listen to chinese, listen to the pronunciation of any new words when you look them up. If you watch cdramas, cdramas often have chinese subtitles on them, those can be good practice for reading as well.

You can start reading within a year. You can read graded readers within a few months, as soon as you feel it's tolerable. And then you can just learn new words BY reading, review words you've looked up before BY reading, review grammar BY reading, and work your way up to reading whatever webnovels you want. I find learning words BY reading much easier for myself, doing what I want to do in the language as I'm learning to read, much easier to stick to and enjoy than anki flashcards or word lists or textbooks. So from me, the suggestion to push yourself to read graded readers ASAP is so you can get to the part of learning BY reading quicker.

#chinese resources #rant #chinese reading #study guide #i am not sure what to tag this #chinese langblr #reading rec list #rec list

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vivicantstudy · 9 months ago

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these methods are what are helping me the most to learn spanish:

1. Label Your Household Items: Place labels with Spanish names on objects around your home. This constant exposure helps reinforce vocabulary in a practical context.

2. Create a “Spanish Only” Zone: Designate a specific area or time each day where you only use Spanish. This could be a room or a period during which you read, watch TV, or speak only in Spanish.

3. Use a Spaced Repetition System (SRS) for Vocabulary: Instead of traditional flashcards, use an SRS app to review words and phrases at increasing intervals. This method helps improve long-term retention of vocabulary.

4. Write a Diary in Spanish: Keep a daily journal in Spanish. This practice helps you think in the language and improve writing skills while reflecting on your day.

5. Sing Along with Spanish Music: Choose songs in Spanish and sing along, paying attention to the lyrics. This helps with pronunciation, rhythm, and understanding colloquial expressions.

6. Learn Through Role-Playing: Act out scenarios in Spanish, such as ordering food in a restaurant or asking for directions. This method helps you practice practical language use in a fun and interactive way.

Important: Methods can change depending on what works for you, so try everything you can. Methods can also turn out to be less effective as you gain more knowledge.

obs: Spanish is my priority right now because I’m no longer learning it as a hobby but as a necessity. You are free to correct me.

#spnotesbyvi #study notes #langblr #studyblr #study motivation #study method #learning spanish #spanish language #spanish studyblr #study blog #learn spanish #espanol #espanhol #español #🇲🇽#🇪🇸#correct me if i'm wrong

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corgitation · 1 year ago

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resources I'm using for studying japanese

vocab/kanji:

wanikani: I use daily reviews to learn kanji and vocabulary using the kanji. This resource isn't free, but this has really helped me stay consistent. I like the UI and find the content helpful

renshuu: this is my favorite mobile app, I use this to learn JLPT-specific vocab and kanji. I use the free version

mochi srs: the best flashcard app! The UI is super easy to use and has lots of shortcuts for making and reviewing cards fast. You can easily create and edit templates for cards, and have cards reference other cards. I have a deck for kanji and one for vocab, and my vocab template references any kanji that are used in the vocab tab. There's also super easy furigana, lots of features for japanese.

grammar:

bunpro: really good for grammar, this has lessons for each grammar rule and divides them into groups through popular textbooks and their own groupings for jlpt grammar

genki textbooks: pretty standard textbook for learning vocab, grammar, and kanji

genki study resources: great site with activities for all the genki lessons

tokini andy genki reviews: extra practice for genki lessons, explains some grammar more clearly, introduces new dialogue.

reading:

japanese folktales for language learners and japanese stories for language learners: folktales are a really great way to learn, because these references come up a lot. I've seen references to urashimo taro in evangelion, and the new pokemon dlc is a reference to momotaro. This book has the japanese on one page and english on the other, with vocabulary after the chapter. (here and here on natively)

animal crossing new leaf tobimori: I've recently started playing this and it's so much fun. I'm already really familiar with the game so I don't depend on any of the text for playing, and it's good for more common expressions, differences in speech between polite/casual/male/female etc. I have a post describing how I'm able to play this here. (here on lingotrack)

listening:

japanese with shun: big fan of this podcast, it's free on spotify and youtube, which scripts on patreon. Each podcast is about a short subject, and they're all in japanese. (here on lingotrack)

learn japanese pod: some free podcasts on spotify with more paid content, this one is both about japanese and in japanese. It will teach phrases for specific scenarios, like ordering sushi or refusing situations.

tracking:

lingotrack: I started time tracking a couple of months ago and it's been so helpful! This site is great for quickly logging study activities and seeing how the time stacks up. It helps me identify which areas I'm spending enough time in and which ones are lacking. I also use the library section for keeping track of my japanese native content

toggl: I use this online stopwatch for tracking the time for different study activities so I can log them in lingotrack. It also has a browser extension which I usually use

finding native content:

natively: excellent site for finding comprehensible input content and tracking days read. This site has a lot of reviews for books so it makes it easy to find books that are on level. You can follow me here

lingotrack: collections in lingotrack provides user generated groups of content so that you can create an see groupings of native material content. There aren't as many reviews for material here as there are for natively though, so I find material there and then add them here. You can follow me here

other:

tofugu: this blog has everything. Use it for finding reviews on japanese language resources, learning grammar rules, etc.

jisho: dictionary app, I use it as my source of truth for vocab and kanji meanings

heisig's remembering the kanji: a different approach to learning kanji, this focuses on first teaching the simplest kanji and building from ones you already know. This is different from wanikani, which will make sure you know (its own) particles before introducing the kanji that uses them, but focuses on learning kanji and vocab in priority order. I'm listing it here because I don't use it much anymore

deepl: ai translator, works much better than google translate. You can also put sentences in chatgpt and ask it for broken down explanations. Take any translations from ai with a grain of salt - they are great tools but do not ensure accuracy

edit 3/10/2024: added tracking and native content sections, added links to lingotrack and natively for media

#japanese studyblr #studyblr #langblr #language #japanese

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factorialsotherfandoms · 1 month ago

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Fanfic Masterlist - Calamidade Pt. 1

Below the cut is a list of my fanfic for the fourth season of Ordem Paranormal Calamidade. They are listed by episode. Once you have finished the related episode, there are no longer spoilers for you.

Welcome to the longest block, mostly because it has all of my 'generically post-canon' stuff. There's a non-zero chance I missed something, purely because there is A Lot

AOP [Link!] OSNF [Link!] OPD [Link!] OPC (part 1) [YOU ARE HERE] OSNI [coming soon] SDOL [coming soon] OPQ [coming soon] OPNM [coming soon]

Episode 0

Green (Canon-Adjacent) Little pre-canon bit. The lovely caffeine-high did a flashcard version with art that you can see here! Characters: Rubens Naluti Rating: T Words: 226 Warnings: Choose Not To Warn Summary:

Rubens, alone

Episode 1

N/A

Episode 2

N/A

Episode 3

Wash at 90, Spin Until Dry (Canon-Adjacent) Late night, grief-riddled talks? Late night, grief-riddled talks Rating: T Words: 1,385 Warnings: Grief Summary:

On their first night in Rome, Rubens does laundry and Arthur talks.

Episode 4

Our Troubles Will Be Far Away (Canon-Divergent) ### lives au, pt 2. A Christmas gift, of a little of Kaiser's life. Rating: T Words: 1,618 Warnings: Memory Loss Summary:

Kaiser wakes up to the alarm on his phone blaring in one ear. He pulls his pillow over his head for three minutes - it does not help - before giving up. He fumbles with it a bit, rubbing at one eye until the screen makes sense. 8am? Why is his alarm set so early? Doesn't he usually do the afternoon shift? He scrabbles at his desk - one every morning affair is easier to remember than a schedule - as his eyes start to agree to work. "Arthur and Ivete in Rome" the alarm reads.

Episode 5

Until Someone Loves You, I'll Keep You Safe (Canon-Adjacent) Rubens and Johnny go missing on a mission. Back at the Order Base, people do their best. Probably my favourite fic I've written in years? It's up there. Characters: Samuel Norte, Letícia Mantra, Senhor Veríssimo Rating: M Words: 18,988 Warnings: Past Major Character Death, Grief, Nightmares, Hospitals, Major Character Injury, Disordered Eating, Depression Summary:

Two agents go missing, and a third haunts the narrative.

There Wasn't Anything To Hold On To, Though (Canon-Adjacent) Missing scene time! Directly follows on from the above, if written earlier Characters: Senhor Veríssimo, Rubens Naluti Rating: M Words: 3,421 Warnings: Grief, Uncertainty, Open Ending Summary:

Following their second encounter with the Host, Sr. Veríssimo attempts to extract information Rubens.

But Like Them, I Will Give You Away (Canon-Adjacent) Samuel finds how to forgive himself for his compassion fatigue. Links up with the above two. Characters: Samuel Norte, Rubens Naluti, Antônio "Balu" Pontevedra Rating: G Words: 1,729 Warnings: Grief, Depression Summary:

Samuel finds Rubens practicing pool

Three Times Damned (Canon-Adjacent) A snippet of a potential happening while Johnny and Rubens were kidnapped Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti Rating: M Words: 1,351 Warnings: Violence, Injury, Blood Summary:

Is Johnny feeling lucky? Always. Is he actually? There's only really one way to find out. (A single scene of Johnny and Rubens in their second appearance in the Host's Games, showcasing a single room perhaps half-way through their trial.)

My Hand Was Not Held (But I Hold Your Hand) (Canon-Adjacent) Pre-OPC, Rubens visits Johnny at the hospital. Characters: Rubens Naluti, Johnny Tabasco Rating: T Words: 990 Warnings: Hospitals Summary:

In the hours before leaving to meet his new team, Rubens holds Johnny's hand

Episode 6

Triumvirate (Canon-Adjacent) Amalia, Celestine, and Cascadia, the morning after. Characters: Amalia, Celestine, Cascadia Rating: M Words: 520 Warnings: Suggestive, Dysfunctional Relationships Summary:

And they got along so nicely last night. They never do in the morning, though; they have sex, they fall asleep, and then everyone is ratty and hungry first thing. It's like this every time they do this. Amalia wouldn't give her girlfriends up for the world, but perhaps she'd give up their vocal cords. Alternatively: Three women wake up together, the morning after a night to themselves.

Olives and Wine (Canon-Adjacent) Amalia and Cascadia embarrass Celestine. Characters: Amalia, Celestine, Cascadia Rating: NR Words: 729 Warnings: Suggestive, Dysfunctional Relationships Summary:

Celestine makes breakfast, and discovers her girls are wearing her spare tunics not their own.

Pass It On To You (Canon-Adjacent) Pre-canon demonstration of Amalia's health-share power. Characters: Amalia, Cascadia, Celestine Rating: T Words: 1,359 Warnings: Major Character Injury, Broken Bones, Dysfunctional Relationships Summary:

Amalia is reviewing paperwork when Celestine drags an injured Cascadia home.

Disaster Hearts (Canon-Adjacent) The evening before the first time the main PCs possess their counterparts, and why Cascadia was checking on Amalia. Characters: Cascadia, Amalia, Faustus, Celestine, Remus Rating: T Words: 1,082 Warnings: Major Character Injury, Electrical Burns, Dysfunctional Relationships Summary:

Cascadia does not need to see Faustus carrying Amalia back from the mission to know something is wrong, but it definitely confirms the matter.

Escape from Sanguine Manor (Canon-Adjacent) Celestine and Amalia nearly get caught sneaking out of a cult party. Characters: Celestine, Amalia Rating: T Words: 996 Warnings: Dysfunctional Relationships Summary:

Amalia and Celestine escape with their stolen goods.

Episode 7

Bloodied Hands, Bloodied Teeth (Canon-Adjacent) Artemis and the only person who ever loved her. Characters: Artemis Deordelin Rodrigues, Apollo Rodrigues Rating: T Words: 384 Warnings: Blood, Injuries to Children, Child Neglect Summary:

Artemis comes home bleeding again. Apollo puts her back together.

Episode 8

Tainted Outs (Canon-Adjacent) A backstory for Johnny's recruitment, featuring a lot of angst. Technically spoiler free after OPD7, but goes better here. Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Arnaldo Fritz, Senhor Veríssimo, Aaron, Chizue Akechi Rating: M Words: 15,304 Warnings: Violence, Blood, Serious Injury, Hospitals, Human Sacrifice, Gang Violence, Needles, Cults, Offscreen Mutilation, Aftermath of Torture, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Gunshot Wounds Summary:

At twenty three Johnny Tabasco is young, reckless, and in over his head. It is also the age at which his life will be upended forever.

The Gamemaster Takes The Floor (Canon-Adjacent) Host character study via torturing Rubens and Johnny Characters: The Host, Rubens Naluti, Johnny Tabasco Rating: NR Words: 2,380 Warnings: Needles, Torture, Graphic Injury Summary:

The Host decides to intervene in a game of his cult's devising or How Rubens Naluti earnt his scar

Episode 9

Do We Fly Heavily With The Weight Of What We Know? (Canon-Adjacent) Slipping an extra scene into the episode. Let Balu have those near-deadly burns actually seen to. Characters: Antônio "Balu" Pontevedra, Rubens Naluti Rating: T Words: 1,290 Warnings: Burns, Injury Summary:

Balu wants to curl up and lick his wounds, Rubens would like to actually clean them.

Episode 10

N/A

Episode 11

N/A

Episode 12

One Step Forward (Canon-Adjacent) Arthur is dealing fine with everything, honest. Characters: Arthur Cervero, Dante Rating: G Words: 909 Warnings: Anxiety Summary:

On the plane back to Brazil, Arthur checks on everyone.

Ice and Fire (Canon-Adjacent) Team holiday fluff Characters: Rubens Naluti, Antônio "Balu" Pontevedra Rating: G Words: 427 Warnings: N/A Summary:

While visiting Carina in Italy, most of the team goes out in the snow. Rubens stays warm instead, until he doesn't.

Afterwards (Canon-Adjacent) More fretting from Arthur. Conversations that canon didn't get to have Characters: Arthur Cervero, Rubens Naluti Rating: T Words: 1,622 Warnings: References to Choking Summary:

At the airport, Arthur buys Rubens a slushie

Three Dogs and a Warehouse (Canon-Adjacent) Dante and Arthur fight a nasty post-canon Characters: Arthur Cervero, Dante Rating: NR Words: 1,292 Warnings: Major Character Injury, Violence, Open Ending Summary:

Arthur and Dante's scouting mission goes badly wrong.

Here's A Hand (Canon-Adjacent) Rubens gets various hugs. Characters: Rubens Naluti, Dante, Antônio "Balu" Pontevedra, Arthur Cervero, Carina Leone, Ivete Beicur, Johnny Tabasco Rating: M Words: 11,099 Warnings: Grief, Nightmares, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Trauma, Hallucinations Summary:

Being a team does not end just because the mission is over. Sometimes that takes a little bit of realising, though. Alternatively - 5 times a Vulture involved Rubens in a hug, one time the whole team did, and one time he got one from his favourite person.

Reach Out To My Weakness, And Don't Let Go (Canon-Adjacent) Alt version of a Here's A Hand Chapter, angsty griefy hugs. Characters: Rubens Naluti, Arthur Cervero Rating: T Words: 391 Warnings: Grief Summary:

4am in the base is a time reserved for mourning. (original form of chapter 3 of 'Here's a Hand', with a slightly different set-up and alt PoV but otherwise very similar)

Kodacolor (Canon-Adjacent) Rubens uses photos to introduce Johnny to the team. Characters: Rubens Naluti, Johnny Tabasco, rest of OPC team Rating: T Words: 4,786 Warnings: Grief, Hospitals, Major Character Injury Summary:

Johnny is not yet well enough to meet Rubens new friends, but that does not mean they cannot be introduced.

Electricity in Technochrome (Canon-Adjacent) 5+1 relationship study but also about Rubens' wires Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti Rating: M Words: 8,723 Warnings: Body Horror, Trauma, Nightmares, Hospitals Summary:

Five of many times that Johnny thinks something might be wrong with Rubens, and the time he discovers what it is

Smoke Break (Canon-Adjacent) Balu and Johnny, back before they knew each other's names Rating: T Words: 957 Warnings: Cigarettes Summary:

They were worse people, back then. That doesn't mean that they never relaxed. Or One Veríssimo offers another a cigarette.

Just Us (Canon-Adjacent) Weird dialogue-only fic where Johnny and Balu discuss Arnaldo's fate. Might redo it as an actual fic someday, but for now... Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Antônio "Balu" Pontevedra Rating: T Words: 1,132 Warnings: N/A Summary:

Sr. Veríssimo and Sr. Veríssimo talk about the fates of Sr. Veríssimo and Sr. Veríssimo (Alternatively - Some months after the events in Rome, Balu summarises the important details for Johnny in the few minutes before Rubens gets home.)

To Go Together (Canon-Adjacent) The team goes to the zoo!!!! Characters: Arthur Cervero, Rubens Naluti, Equipe Abutres Ensemble Rating: G Words: 2,138 Warnings: Grief Summary:

The surviving members of Equipe Abutres take a day off, and go to the zoo. Just, not everyone seems to be having a good time.

After The War (Canon-Adjacent) Johnny takes Rubens to the Zoo Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti Rating: G Words: 1,766 Warnings: Grief Summary:

Once upon a time, Johnny made a promise.

In The End (Canon-Adjacent Art) Art of the above, Johnny and Rubens hugging by the flamingo enclosure Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti Rating: G Warnings: N/A

That I Hope It's For The Best (Canon-Adjacent) One of a pair of fics designed to be read together. Heavy, heavy conversation time. About abuse of power, history, pain, trauma, and unintended consequences. I am so proud of these. Characters: Senhor Veríssimo, Johnny Tabasco Rating: M Words: 8,976 Warnings: Miscommunication, Trauma, Panic Attacks, Suicidal Thoughts, Referenced MCD, References to Abuse Possession and Murder, Emotional Manipulation Summary:

Senhor Veríssimo wishes to speak to Johnny.

What You Taught Me To Be (Canon-Adjacent) The other of a pair of fics designed to be read together. The same heavy conversation, and I remain very proud. About the history of the order, the ways they used to work, and how sometimes forgiving someone doesn't mean it stops hurting. Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Senhor Veríssimo Rating: M Words: 9,179 Warnings: Miscommunication, Trauma, Panic Attacks, Suicidal Thoughts, Referenced MCD, References to Abuse Possession and Murder, Emotional Manipulation, Chronic Pain Summary:

Johnny opens the door to find Senhor Veríssimo wishing to speak to him.

New Year's Eve 2021 (Canon-Adjacent) Johnny spends New Year in hospital Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti Rating: T Words: 976 Warnings: Hospitals Summary:

Johnny Tabasco, in hospital and in pain, is looking forward to a miserable New Year's alone. Rubens has other plans for him.

This Time Next Year (Canon-Adjacent) Slice-Of-Life (Disabled) Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti Rating: T Words: 1,601 Warnings: Hospitals~ Summary:

Ten minutes in the life of Johnny and Rubens, as they leave a perfectly normal outpatients appointment.

Cinnamon Showers (Canon-Adjacent) Slice-Of-Life (Disabled, v.2) Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti Rating: T Words: 2,154 Warnings: Non-Sexual Nudity Summary:

Rubens helps Johnny wash his hair on a bad day, and then they nap about it.

Tomorrow Morning (Canon-Adjacent) Steadily less entirely platonic Arthur and Rubens, this time waking up together Characters: Arthur Cervero, Rubens Naluti Rating: T Words: 569 Warnings: Reference to Character Injury Summary:

Rubens wakes up in Arthur's bed.

And Keep Me Safe Till Morning Light (Canon-Adjacent) Rubens has nightmares Characters: Rubens Naluti, Johnny Tabasco Rating: NR Words: 567 Warnings: Trauma, Panic Attacks, Nightmares Summary:

A bad night in the middle of a string of bad nights.

Elbows and Knees (Canon-Adjacent) Post-grocery pouting and flopping. Characters: Rubens Naluti, Johnny Tabasco Rating: G Words: 543 Warnings: N/A Summary:

Rubens returns from the most horrific of places - the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon.

Blankets and Lightning (Canon-Adjacent) Fluffly thundery hurt/comfort crackfic Characters: Johnny Tabasco, Rubens Naluti, Antônio "Balu" Pontevedra, Arthur Cervero Rating: T Words: 1,374 Warnings: N/A Summary:

Balu rings Johnny and Rubens about a coming storm, and to remind them to handle it now not later.

Some Place That He'd Rather Be (Canon-Adjacent) Johnny being miserable in a series of rooms, and then less miserable. Characters: Johnny Tabasco Rating: M Words: In Progress Warnings: alcohol, gambling, mild injury Summary:

5 places Johnny slept, plus 2 places he woke up

Shattering (Canon-Divergent) ### lives au pt 3! Joui gets his memories back, and all that entails. Probably technically safe earlier. Characters: Joui Jouki, The Magistrate, Arthur Cervero, Kaiser Rating: M Words: 2,214 Warnings: Dehumanisation, Mind Control Summary:

Joui gets his memories back. Within them are the answers, and a lot more questions.

Transcending Night (Canon-Divergent) ### lives au pt 4. Someone else also gets to live, too. Characters: Arthur Cervero, Joui Jouki Rating: M Words: 1,700 Warnings: Major Injury, Dissociation Summary:

After the battle with Kian, Arthur holds Joui. This time, fate is a little kinder to them all.

A Breath Away's Not Far (Canon-Divergent) ### lives au pt 5. Kaiser comes to Rome. Characters: Kaiser, Arthur Cervero, Joui Jouki Rating: T Words: 1,050 Warnings: Memory Loss/Alteration, Hospitals, Major Character Injury Summary:

Kaiser knows he should not run in hospital hallways, but he needs them. (This fic has OPC spoilers, but is divergent as of OPD)

Sunshine (Canon-Divergent) ### lives au pt 6. The Golden Trio in Rome. Characters: Kaiser, Arthur Cervero, Joui Jouki Rating: G Words: 1,483 Warnings: N/A Summary:

Arthur, Joui, and Cesar stop for lunch in Rome

Second Contact (Pokemon Ranger AU) The AU as a whole has spoilers for literally everything, but only this has any published, and this is just up to OPC. Characters: Rubens Naluti, Dante, Antônio "Balu" Pontevedra, Arthur Cervero, Carina Leone Rating: M Words: [ongoing] Warnings: Violence, Injury, Referenced Character Death Summary:

Arthur was supposed to have a simple day, showing visiting ranger Carina the local area. Some strange readings from the south of the region eventually put a stop to that. (OPC-adjacent Pokemon Ranger AU, hopefully you can pick up the au as you go)

#factorial fanfic #opc fanfic #ordem paranormal

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kyokosasagawa · 1 year ago

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I started writing "4 srs" this month and I like how free and accessible writing is, so I'm recommending free software I've experimented with that might help people who want to get into the hobby!

“Specifically Created for Writing Stories”

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Manuskript – Story organizer / word processor. Has an outliner and index card function, along with distraction free mode. Lets you switch between different templates such as a non-fiction mode or a short story.

Bibisco – Novel writing software that includes writing goals, world-building, distraction free mode, and a timeline.

“I Just Want to Write”

---------------------------

LibreOffice – Microsoft 365 alternative, but free! LibreOffice Writer is what I wrote this tumblr post in before I posted it. Also if you copy & paste the text into the Rich Text Editor on AO3, it seems that it actually converts it properly. Nice! No need for scripts.

Note-Taking

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Zim Wiki - note taking application that is very, very lightweight (1.1mb). It functions with a tree structure, so I’d personally recommend it for world-building and character bios. There are built-in plugins that also turn it into a good software for task management (it even has a article on how to use it for GTD) and journalling. See also: CherryTree (2mb), which is a more outdated-looking app, but functions similarly.

Obsidian MD – The Big Boy. markdown note editor that has been adopted by personal knowledge management fans---if it doesn’t do something you want it to do, just look in the community plugins to see if someone has already done it. Some unique non-word processing related usages I’ve found is the ability to create a table of contents dashboard, a image gallery for images, embedding youtube videos and timestamping notes, so forth.

Logseq – A bullet point based markdown note editor that also has PDF annotations, Zotero integration, flashcard creation, and whiteboards. Best used for outlining projects due to the bullet point structure.

Joplin – A modern app comparable to Zim Wiki, it’s basically just a note-taking software that uses folders and tags to sort easier. Looks prettier than Zim Wiki and Cherry Tree

Notion – An online-only website that allows usage of different database types. Free for personal use. Note: I dislike the AI updates that have been making the app lag more. I prefer the others on this list.

Mind Maps

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Freeplane – So much goddamn features, including a ton of add-ons. Looks somewhat ugly, but it works for anyone willing to spend a while learning how to use it.

Mermaid – Text-based diagram creator. Can be used in apps like Joplin, Notion, and Obsidian.

Obsidian’s Canvas – A core plugin for Obsidian, it deserves its own mention in that it allows you to create embedded notes of the mindmap nodes. Thus, if you want to create a 20-page long note and have it minimized to the size of a penny on the mindmap, you could.

Other Things That Might Be Of Interest

Syncthing - A free software that allows you to sync between two or more computers. Have a desktop but also laze around on a laptop in bed, coming up with ideas?? This is your buddy if you don't want to use a online software.

#writing resources

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nowtoboldlygo · 2 years ago

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alternatives to anki for spanish, also free

y'all know i love anki, but sometimes you just don't have the time to make over a hundred flashcards every single week.

clozemaster - an app where you fill-in-the-blank for the most commonly used words in spanish (order is random).

picture dictionary - for beginners, not an SRS! just a learning tool based on pictures for vocab. i recommend using spanish for both native and target language settings.

memrise - limited use for free, and personally i only recommend this if you're taking a course or using a textbook with associated user-created courses. this isn't common in spanish, but is in some other languages

readlang - the most efficient way to remember new words is to read them in context, and readlang does offer flashcards!

#spanish langblr #spanish notes #nowtoboldlygo posts

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sunshyni · 2 years ago

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sunshyni masterlist.

nct.

docinho azedo – Mark;

e esse moletom aí? – Mark;

soda italiana – Jaehyun;

waves are blue like bubu. – Taeyong;

'cê viu a Luna? – Jaemin;

love&basketball – Chenle;

amor de flashcard – Johnny (pt. 1);

amor de flashcard – Johnny (pt. 2 final);

pin date – Haechan;

big boy energy – Jisung (english);

christmas tattoo – Jeno;

wish – Yushi;

honey – Haechan;

on and on – Jaehyun;

monalisa – Jaemin;

milf – Johnny;

cobertor – Haechan;

sugar rush ride – Taeyong;

catch flights and feelings – Haechan;

deixa eles falar – Chenle;

distance – Haechan;

olhos amáveis – Jisung;

não sou santo não – Haechan;

180 + 20 – Mark;

vai me deixar com cárie – Haechan;

rainha da elegância – Haechan;

like star – Haechan;

vou te levar pra saturno – Johnny;

be mine forever only – Jaehyun;

piloto da nasa – Mark;

sr. másculo – Jaemin;

qual seu desejo – Mark;

bala de infância – Jaehyun;

crayon – Ten;

curvas – Haechan;

boyfriend – Mark;

tá faltando ó – Haechan;

tricolor – Haechan;

mark's shawty – Mark;

nasty – Johnny;

posso te engolir? – Haechan;

keep this tempo – Haechan;

penn u;

maloqueiro romântico;

loucurinhas da sun.

nct as xoxo members – Jeno, Jisung, Johnny e Jaemin;

riize.

volleyball&kisses – Eunseok;

summer dreams – Anton;

shower – Anton;

stupid cupid – Wonbin;

histologia – Anton;

seventeen.

toothbrush – Mingyu;

brigadeiro – Mingyu;

bra – Seokmin;

i used to be... – Seungcheol;

tbz.

sun:ray – Changmin;

zb1.

goodnight n go – Gunwook;

frat boy – Matthew;

nct & zb1.

superspiderman – Gunwook e Mark;

nct & exo.

take a ride with us – Kai e Haechan;

#sun guide ☀︎#sun favs ☀︎#sun ideas ☀︎#sun daily ☀︎#sun asks ☀︎#sun masterlist ☀︎

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h0neytalk · 1 year ago

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Mango v. LingQ v. Anki

I’ve been using the above apps for a while now and I couldn’t find a ton of somewhat easy to understand comparisons/explanations of how to use these various cult favorites. I figured I would make one if anyone is wondering where to start or making a departure from Duolingo.

Standard langblr disclaimer: I am ultimately just a person on the internet, I’m not an expert in language learning or a world renowned polyglot. I’m not even an expert in any of these apps/programs. These are all just thoughts and opinions I have about the value of each app to myself as an average consumer trying to learn a language and intended to help other people decide where to spend their time.

Anki

Anki is an open source spaced repetition flashcard program. It has an incredibly loyal fan base of med students and people who just want to learn things. This is also the one I have the least experience with so I recommend diving into forums and other blogs who go in depth on all the ways you can use this program. The web version is completely free and there is an official paid mobile app. There are also unofficial paid apps, this is the source of great drama and discourse and I’m not touching that here. Spaced repetition essentially means that the program will present you with cards at intervals designed to maximize your retention. When you flip over a card, you have four options that boil down to: fail, hard, good, easy. This is how the program determines what to show you and when.

Key Features:

The main draw is obviously the spaced repetition system. It’s much easier and more effective than sorting manually.

Because it’s open source, there is a way to customize the settings and cards to do basically whatever you want. There are also tons of premade decks to import and either use as-is or use as a base.

The online web version is completely free.

You can add really any media type to the cards. You can add sound clips of pronunciations, images, even drawings and diagrams.

Having the four options is particularly useful for the nuances of learning a language. For example, for general vocabulary decks I’ll assign one “point” to general meaning, tense/part of speech, and pronunciation. Getting the general meaning but not the other two means I select “hard” when I flip the card.

Best uses:

Vocab or learning a new alphabet. Specifically for drilling any of those “slippery” words. I don’t know if this happens to anyone else, but there are some vocab words that just refuse to stick with me. I’ve found the Anki SRS does help pin them down.

Potential downsides:

While there are decks to import, there could always be errors that you won’t catch just seeing single vocab words with no context.

The available customization is labor intensive.

The UI for the official app and web version isn’t super slick and intuitive.

Even the best flashcards are ultimately just flashcards and have limits to their usefulness.

Mango

Mango is similar to Babbel or other programs that focus on speaking (and doing so quickly). I much prefer Mango to Babbel or any other similar app and find that it does what it says it will. Languages are split into units. Each unit has chapters and each chapter has lessons. A lesson will start with an optional pre quiz and a brief recording of a conversation that you will be able to follow by the end of the lesson. Each lesson concludes with a listening and reading quiz. It also utilizes spaced repetition and gives you daily flashcards to review.

You learn based on phrases rather than individual words. A long sentence will be presented in its entirety. The lesson will then go through each word individually before combining them into phrases and, finally, the full sentence from the start. Then you will learn vocabulary needed for variations. The activities are fairly standard for a language app: speaking, listening, multiple choice. You can also turn off the interactive feature and have the lesson run as a “speak and repeat” style podcast. It tracks the hours you’ve spent learning a language and there is an activity log, but no in depth stats.

Key features:

It is focused on speaking immediately.

Has a ton of languages and several dialects for those languages.

Focuses on phrases and patterns that are most useful if traveling or having brief, friendly interactions.

Presents information in a digestible way and isn’t overwhelming.

Includes culture and grammar notes.

$12.99 a month but most public libraries and schools give you free access. You can also set up a household account for multiple people and split the cost with friends/family.

The first lesson of any language is free, and some rare and indigenous languages are completely free to access.

Audio is native speakers. When you record yourself, your vocal wave pattern appears that you can compare with the native speaker.

Best uses:

If you are traveling soon and want to navigate basic, friendly interactions, this will get you there quick. Within 1-3 months easily, depending on the language and how often you practice.

I also recommend this as a starting place when you are totally new to a language or to learning a language in general. The structure is excellent for getting a feel for things.

This is also great if you studied a language previously and need to refresh your memory or get back into it.

Potential downsides:

The “record yourself” feature is fairly buggy and often freezes up. It can also be annoying to try and match the timing of the native speaker, but you don’t have to record audio to progress past those lesson points so it isn’t too much of an inconvenience.

It isn’t meant for total fluency. As stated, the lessons (at least that I have done) are focused on speaking while traveling and making small talk. Some of the early lessons teach you to say “sorry, I don’t speak [x]”. Which is very useful if going abroad soon, but less so if you would rather just be able to speak that language.

The regimented nature can make it feel slow/too easy if you are also using other methods.

The review flashcards only have a binary “yes/no” option which feels annoying for longer phrases or after using Anki-style cards.

With any course like this, you aren’t going to have much choice in the vocab you learn or prioritizing topics.

LingQ

I am honestly surprised I don’t see more about this. I think they have been making a bunch of updates recently so maybe the version I’m using is miles above previous ones, but it is shockingly powerful. It’s also the hardest to explain (which may be why I don’t see much written about it and why this is going to be a long section.) LingQ (pronounced “link”) operates on a hybrid comprehensible/massive input model. While Anki prioritizes memorization and Mango priorities speaking, LingQ focuses on comprehension and listening. LingQ is comprised of courses which are made up of lessons. There are pre-built courses made by LingQ but the real goal is to make your own (more on that later).

Each lesson within a course has an audio recording and a written transcript. Words you haven’t seen before are highlighted blue (when you start, that’s every word). You click the word to see the definition and assign it one of 5 statuses: ignore, new, recognized, familiar, learned, or known. “Ignore” is used for things like names or borrowed words, they won’t be counted in your stats. “Known” is for words you knew before seeing them. You likely won’t have any of these if you’re starting a new language with no prior experience. Levels 1-3 highlight the word yellow and it becomes a LingQ. You can create a LingQq using as many words as you want. You can manually change the status of a word when you see it. You can also do various review activities similar to Mango, and if you get a word right twice in a row it will automatically bump up a level. You can always adjust it back down if needed. LingQ is very focused on the value of listening to a language. You can add lessons to playlists and listen to them like a podcast.

My personal favorite part of LingQ is the ability to import lessons. Especially YouTube videos. The site has a browser extension that will import any content in your target language into a lesson as an embedded item. You can then read/listen to/watch that content right in the app and get “credit” for it. LingQ’s statistics are some of the coolest/most motivating I’ve seen. You get coins for completing tasks but those are really just to see a number get bigger. It also tracks the words you’ve read, how many words you know, the hours listened, and speaking/writing if you utilize their tutor marketplace or writing forum.

The free trial is very limited but it’s enough to poke around and get a feel for things before signing up, not necessarily to learn anything substantial. The monthly membership is $12.95 and there’s a $199 lifetime option as well. I definitely recommend spending some time playing around at the free level and then upping to monthly if you like it.

Key features:

The ability to import lessons. It will also create a simplified version of shorter content. This is an AI generated summary of whatever you’ve imported. I use this for videos where natural speaking cadence can make it hard to parse things sometimes. It’s easier/more productive if I know generally what’s going on.

The creation of LingQs. I just think it’s a really cool and useful way to approach comprehensible input. You can visually see the yellow fading as you understand more and more of a lesson.

You can export LingQs to Anki (theoretically). I’ve never done this myself and I’ve seen some forum posts saying it doesn’t work super well all the time but it is a built in feature.

In-depth stats tracking and the ability to consume all the content easily in app. The stats would be annoying if it wasn’t literally easier to watch a video via LingQ than on YouTube.

Community features. There are community challenges (like Duolingo) but also a forum to submit writing that will be corrected by native speakers and a marketplace of tutors to easily sign up for speaking lessons. The forum is free and volunteer based, but scrolling through I didn’t see anyone who didn’t have at least one reply. The tutors are paid at an hourly rate and you can also pay by the word to have them correct written work.

Super flexible. There really isn’t any one right way to use this app so you can structure it however you like and set your own goals/metrics.

Playlists and focus on listening. It really does help to constantly be immersed in what a language sounds like, and being able to read and listen to the same thing has been so nice.

Actually decently helpful emails and not just spam.

Best for:

Hardcore language learners. The app/site provides some guidance on how to get started and the basic idea, but you’ll need to play around with it and spend some time reading forum posts or the emails they send to find what works for you.

Getting to higher levels of fluency after maxing out other apps/self study methods.

People looking to spend a lot of time on language learning because they enjoy it. This isn’t snarky, but there’s a difference between wanting or needing to learn Spanish to communicate at work or on vacation and just really enjoying learning languages. This is an app for language nerds.

Potential downsides:

Very overwhelming. They technically say you can jump right in with 0 knowledge of a language and be good to go, but I think it would be hard to make a lot of progress unless you’ve learned other languages before. If you’re looking to learn a new language for the first time, I recommend starting with Mango to get your bearings.

Doesn’t teach new alphabets. This isn’t a huge issue for Mango since it’s speaking focused, but I wouldn’t jump into Arabic or Russian on LingQ without spending some time learning the alphabet with other methods.

User generated definitions. This is a double edged sword. The definitions being linked to sites like Globse can lead to wrong definitions, but because you’re seeing things in context it’s easier to catch. And looking into what a phrase means is a great way to learn if you are really into languages.

The import feature isn’t 100% perfect when it comes to videos. It will only create a transcript when the video has captions enabled or a transcript provided, otherwise it just shows up as an audio file. It will also sometimes randomly just not be able to import a video which can be annoying, but in the grand scheme of things these are very minor annoyances.

Time commitment. The method doesn’t require a ton of actively sitting down and reviewing vocab or reading new words, but it does assume that you’ll swap out listening to music or podcasts while going about your day with listening to content in your target language. This is all well and good unless you really enjoy listening to specific content while doing tasks or need help not getting distracted. It’s going to be a lot of incomprehensible noise for a while before you can parse it. This might not be a downside as much as something to keep in mind when considering how effective it’s going to be for you.

Not as active of a community. Maybe it’s just for my particular languages, but there definitely aren’t a ton of people actively doing things like challenges. This really doesn’t matter much to me but it could be a bummer if you’re looking for that.

tl;dr just tell me how to learn things

If you need to learn a new alphabet, start with that. Otherwise, Mango to get your bearings, Anki to add to your vocab as you get bored with Mango, and LingQ to realistically get “fluent”. Then start writing and speaking either using tutors or people you know or local language groups.

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maziijapanese · 9 months ago

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Mastering Kanji as a Visual Learner: A Practical Guide

Learning Kanji can feel like a daunting task for many Japanese learners, and understandably so. With thousands of characters to memorize, each holding unique meanings and pronunciations, Kanji often presents a major hurdle. However, for visual learners, mastering Kanji can be made easier through effective techniques and tools tailored to their learning style. In this blog, I’ll share my personal experience and strategies for learning Kanji visually.

1. Visual Flashcards: The Cornerstone of Learning

For a visual learner, flashcards are one of the most effective tools for committing Kanji to memory. But instead of just plain text, I recommend using visual flashcards that incorporate:

Images: Relate the Kanji to images that symbolize the meaning of the character. For example, for the Kanji 木 (tree), you could include an image of a tree to strengthen the mental association.

Definitions: Keep the meaning of the Kanji in mind by clearly including it on the flashcard.

Pronunciations: Adding the readings, both Kun'yomi and On'yomi, will help you remember how to say the characters.

Contextual Examples: Use the Kanji in simple sentences or phrases so that you can recognize how it is used in context.

By combining these visual elements, your brain can make connections between the Kanji’s shape, meaning, and usage. Flashcards are a great way to make learning active and engaging.

2. Leverage Memorization Techniques: The Leitner System

While visual flashcards are essential, combining them with the right memorization method is what will ensure long-term retention. One such technique is the Leitner System, a spaced repetition method designed to make you focus on what’s most difficult.

Here’s how it works:

Start by sorting Kanji into five categories based on difficulty.

If you remember a Kanji correctly, it moves up to a higher level.

If you forget it, it moves back to a lower level.

You review the Kanji from the lower levels more frequently than those in the higher ones, ensuring more attention to challenging characters.

This structured approach helps keep your review sessions efficient and prevents the overwhelm that can come from reviewing hundreds of Kanji at once.

3. SRS (Spaced Repetition System) for Optimized Learning

Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS) are another effective strategy that works hand-in-hand with visual flashcards. SRS adjusts the review intervals of each Kanji based on how well you know it. The idea is to review characters right before you’re about to forget them, which helps embed them into your long-term memory.

Popular apps like Anki or Mazii utilize this principle, and they often allow you to add images and examples, perfect for visual learners.

4. Consistent Practice: The Key to Mastery

While tools and techniques are essential, consistent practice is what will ultimately lead to mastery. Setting a daily or weekly routine that includes reviewing your flashcards, writing out Kanji by hand, and practicing Kanji in context (such as reading or writing) is crucial. Progress may be slow, but steady, and over time, you will begin to recognize more and more characters.

Conclusion

Mastering Kanji as a visual learner is all about tapping into your strengths. Using visual flashcards enhanced with images, incorporating the Leitner system, and taking advantage of SRS technology will streamline your learning process and make it more enjoyable. With the right tools and consistent effort, you’ll find that Kanji, once a challenging obstacle, becomes an integral part of your Japanese language journey.

Keep at it, and soon you’ll unlock the richness of Japanese through Kanji!

#japanese #learn japanese #language #studyblr #japanese langblr #japanese language #japanese kanji #kanji #nihongo #japanese studyblr #japanese vocabulary #learning japanese

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compo67 · 10 months ago

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Slowly, but Surely (Don't Call Me Shirley)

Hello, hello.

i am slowly, but surely, recharging my creative batteries. There's less pressure now, but with good things happening. A detailed account of what's been happening. All below the cut. TLDR at the end.

Let's start with the good.

I went to the Big Gay Market in Madison, WI for the weekend. It was marvelous. There were people of all kinds of genders, an affirming and friendly environment, and so many creatives. I felt like I was in community and it's been a long time since I've felt that way. I was sad when it ended. But I bought the most beautiful wreath to hang in my room. I'll snap a picture of it when I can.

I studied the entire month of June, whenever I had a spare moment and for dedicated study sessions.

I made a total of 300 flashcards, wrote 40 pages in my notebook, used 2 test prep books, 3 learning system books, a 100 page summary of competencies, and 2 apps. I answered 2800 practice questions on those apps. I practiced and practiced until I reached at least an 80% in each competency.

And what happened?

I PASSED.

I kicked that exam in the ass! When I saw "passed" on the screen, I nearly whooped in the testing center. I cried in my car as I relayed the news to my mom, who is also an HR professional. I could not believe it. I still can't. Cal Owens, SHRM-CP. It feels SO GOOD to have letters after my name.

I'm also still on that high of completing my HR Management certificate with "high honors" and then earning my SHRM certification right after it.

Then, at the end of May, right before my birthday, I sent in an application to the Arboretum nearby. They were looking for an HR Coordinator. And they weren't requiring at least 3 years experience or a BS in HR. After the radio silence for a month and a half, I gave up on them getting back to me. I sent a follow-up email, as instructed by my mentor, and still no reply. I figured I was set aside and I moved on to apply for more jobs.

Lo and behold, the Arb emailed last week and offered me a phone interview! I spoke with their Talent Acquisition specialist way past the 30 minute time slot, which I took as a good sign. Next step was to have a virtual meeting.

But guess what? They invited me for an in-person meeting instead! My interview was at 9 AM CST yesterday. it was LOVELY. i genuinely enjoyed speaking to the Sr HR Manager. We chatted for almost 90 minutes. It went by so fast. I felt like I had answers to all her questions, however, I wonder if I was direct and clear enough? I haven't interviewed since 2021, and before that since 2016. So I know I'm rusty, I hope my enthusiasm for the role got noticed.

I should know by early next week if they will move me to the third and final round--meeting the VP of HR. The Coordinator will be responsible for managing the VP of HR's schedule in Google. I just learned how to do scheduling in Outlook, I'm sure I can do it in Google.

Anyway! I can see myself working there. The pay meets the market for that kind of job around here, and the benefits are exceptional. And the view from the admin building? Beautiful. There's just a small lane to walk through from the parking lot to the building. I felt like I was in Jane Austen novel. *Dreamy sigh.*

Fingers crossed.

Okay, so let's get the not-so-good stuff over with.

Caregiving for my father continues to be a challenge. I am the only one of his 3 kids he 100% trusts and is close to. I don't get a lot of support from my sisters because A) he prefers me to handle things and B) they don't offer. I always have to ask, and even then, most of the time I end up doing the thing anyway. Sigh.

I tried a bunch of adaptive equipment things for my dad in June. I bought him an electric tea kettle that sits in a cradle and tips over to pour so you don't have to lift it. Well, it works okay for that, but he can't see how much he's filled the kettle. So that went back. I found a pen that "talks" to you. That's been a game changer. You get special labels with bumps on them, tap the pen to the label, and you can record a sound clip! so i attached them to every medication he has in the house. he's been using the pen! Now I just need to convince him to use his white cane.

Watching my dad go through losing his vision has been very difficult. He's a completely different man than the one I knew just 5 years ago. Little by little, things are changing and that change can get overwhelming. I did manage to find him a peer to peer phone program for folks with low vision. He gets a call every month to chat with a lady name Yvies from New Jersey and just talk about what it's like being low vision. I am so grateful to her. The organization will be creating a caregiver support group in the fall and I am on the waitlist.

So, yes. I've gotten overwhelmed at some points, impatient at others, but I show up. In the future, I want to know, that without a doubt, I was there for my father. I just need to figure out how to balance this and find ways to get help.

I continue to miss Henry and my grandma.

Sometime between this past Saturday and Sunday, I fell ill. Like, nauseated, dizzy, lightheaded. [Content Warning: The GI System Going Whack] Then Sunday, I could not retain food or water. I held out for Monday and Tuesday to see if I got better with a little imodium and zofran. Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM, I called my doctor and she said, "Get thee to the ER."

So, I went. My mother was with me. In miracles of all miracles, I only had to wait an hour to be seen in the ER. I was there from 8 AM to 12:30 PM and in that period of time, I got an ultrasound, labs, an IV with a bag of saline, pain meds, and reassurance that my gallbladder and liver were doing fine. And no one misgendered me. It was a good ER trip.

The ER doctor and my PCP have no idea what knocked me out for 5 days. Could have been a virus. Could have been a side effect of mounjaro. It'll be a mystery for the ages, I suppose...

Of course, it took a huge toll on my body. Today was the first day I felt almost normal again. No bloating, no cramping, no burping, and no intense pain in my abdomen. Yay! I am supposed to be eating "light," but dammit, I deserved pasta tonight and I'm not going to regret it!

I also, in my journey through illness, reached the Medicare donut hole. I have to spend $8,000 before my advantage plan will start paying for my meds again. I have to pay 25% of the cost of all drugs. Thank goodness I was able to get on a patient assistance program for my antidepressant, because I could not afford it otherwise. I've moved all my meds, except two, to be generics. I am always trying to cut the cost down as much as I can, whether it's through GoodRx, OptumRx, or Costco. I spend most of my SSDI money on healthcare, medication, and treatments. If we had free universal healthcare, I would have been able to save up all this money, dagnabit.

The difficult things have been... well... difficult. But they are outnumbered by the good things, which makes me smile.

I am excited to be excited about working again. I am doing my best to visualize myself in that role, going into *my* office and sitting at *my* desk. I see myself growing in that department and becoming a specialist in all things HR. This is what I did as I interviewed for the 24/7 Helpline and I got that job. I saw myself getting on a train to Chicago every day until they'd let me go remote. I saw myself as a city queer again. I felt the train to the city already underneath me. I get that feeling with this role. I feel like, if I get it, I will have a Mary Tyler Moore moment.

She's gonna make it after all!

Thank you, if you've red this far. Thank you if you send good vibes for this Arb job. Thank you for just being here. Hell, thank you for being you.

One of my uncles will be visiting us from Chile in early August. I am eager for him to arrive and spend time with us. I know my mom could really use his support and sense of humor right now.

So I will be driving them (and my father, if I can convince him to join us) all around Chicago and the burbs. I hope to gather some TCV ideas from the places we will go. It's exciting to think about.

I really want to take a small trip to Cedarburg, WI. Spend a night there in a bnb, and take in all the shops and restaurants. But my car's oil needs to be changed and my brakes too, so I will have to hold off on traveling for a while.

I would like to get back to work because it's work, but I would also like to get back to contributing to my 401k, saving, paying off my medical debt and car, traveling, and actually affording medication without (too much) sacrifice. Medicare, I was told, would be cheaper than private insurance. Well, I couldn't afford a supplement, so I got stuck with an Advantage Plan. And it's not all that bad (I've met my out of pocket max), but man, do they make it hard to succeed in the system and this is a system primarily designed for seniors??? Sigh.

Anyway!

There you have it. A detailed account of things that I have been up to or coping with or working on since mid-May.

Hockey is gone. Thank goodness the Oilers didn't win the cup. Pavs retired. Wedgie was traded. Delly was traded. Faksa and Tanev were traded. We kept Dutchy, but that was about it. With a burning passion of a thousand suns, I hate Dumba and DeSmith. They will never be my Stars.

Okay. So. Where does this leave me now?

Well, I am slowly getting back "into" my work as an author. I'm hoping I can read a book or two in the next two weeks. I am inspired by the creativity of others and now that I've passed my exam, I have more free time to read and plot things out in my head.

It also helps to you know... not be extremely dehydrated.

Holy smokes, it's late. And this is long.

TLDR: Lots of caregiving, looking for jobs, studying, and recharging has happened in my break from writing. I am focused on securing a job at the Arboretum. I passed my SHRM-CP exam. I had an ER visit this week, but feel much better now.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for taking the care to read this. I appreciate y'all and the safe space y'all have made for me. I'm so glad I get to lean on this cozy, peaceful corner of fandom.

One last time--thank you.

Let's chat more.

-Cal

#compo67 #authorial rambles #the tide is high and i'm holdin' on #i'm gonna be your number one #thank you #let's chat more

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studyandsteep · 3 months ago

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free resources for studying, part 1

decided to make a small series for free study websites/apps! hope this helps :D

note that all links are for informational purposes only, and i do not earn any commission or compensation from them

knowt.com

the first website on this list is Knowt, a Quizlet competitor. It’s a flashcard app and website similar to Quizlet. Knowt contains all of Quizlet’s features such as Learn mode, Write mode, Spell mode, and Matching for free.

there's also an SRS (Spaced Repetition System) feature that allows you to memorize your flashcards more easily thanks to this active recall method. the website is also full of free AP resources.

Knowt’s UI is also very similar to Quizlet, and switching over is pretty easy- you can transfer all your flashcard decks using Knowt’s transfer feature or their Chrome extension.

Overall, 10/10! Definitely one of my favorite resources out there. It’s free, solid, and works just like Quizlet with even more features.

Knowt homepage

#studying #student #school #study blog #studyblr #studyblr community #student life #studyspo #high school #college #studyandsteep #study motivation #study inspiration

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rigelmejo · 2 months ago

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Some language learning apps:

Notifyword - free, closest I cpuld find to a free alternative to Glossika with the feature to upload your own sentences/decks/spreadsheets, and it makes audio using TTS and plays them. However I did not test it enough to see if it schedules new/reviews so you don't need to manage figuring all that out yourself. It has potential, I will check into the app again in a year.

Smart Book by KursX - free, used to be my favorite app to read novels as it could do parallel sentence translation, then something broke on my version and it crashed whenever I opened a novel. Now any chinese book I add epub or txt shows me a black screen, no text, making the app unusable. Its easier to read in the web browser now. Which makes me sad because this app was so good back when I got it. Then something broke and I haven't been able to fix it. I paid for premium for this app I liked it so much, I'm really sad I can't see text in books in it anymore. If anyone knows how to fix this problem please let me know? Maybe it's a txt file setting? But then why do the epubs also not load text? Anyway great app... if it works for you. Sadly its broken for me.

Live Transcribe - I don't use this enough. It transcribes what people say (or audio), then you can click to translate the text.

LingoTube - only free app I know where I can put in a youtube video link, and it will make dual subtitles/let me replay the video line by line (including repeating a loop on one line), click translate individual words. Excellent for intensive listening. I'm usually lazy so I just watch youtube and look up an occasional word in Google Translate or Pleco. But this tool is excellent for intensively looking a lot up in a video/relistening to particular lines.

Duoreader - basic collection of parallel texts. No options to upload files, but super nice for what it is. Totally free.

Chinese:

Hanly - a new free app for learning hanzi. Looks great, has great mnemonics and sound information and you can tell it was made with love/a goal in mind. It's still new though so only the first 1000 hanzi have full information filled out, making it more useful for beginners. As the app is worked on more, I'm hoping it will become more useful for intermediate learners.

Readibu - free, great for reading webnovels just get it if you want to read chinese webnovels. You can import almost ANY webpage into Readibu to read, just paste the url into the search. So if you have a particular novel in mind you may want to do that instead of searching the app's built in genres.

Pleco - free, great for everything just get it if you're learning chinese. Great dictionary, great (one time purchase) paid features like handwriting, additional dictionaries, graded readers. Great SRS flashcard system, great Reader tool (and free Clipboard Reader which is 80% of what I use the app for - especially Dictate Audio feature which Readibu can't do).

Bilibili.com app - look up a tutorial, it is fairly easy to make an account in the US (and I imagine other countries) using your email. The algorithm is quite good at suggesting things similar to what you search. So once I searched a couple danmei, I got way more recommended. Once I searched one manhua video, more popped up. Once I searched one dubbed cartoon, more popped up. You can easily spend as much time on this as you'd like.

Weibo - you can browse tags/search without an account. I could not make an account with a US phone and no wechat account. Nice for browsing tags/looking up particular topics.

Japanese:

Tae Kims Grammar Guide - has an app version that's formatted to read easier on phones.

Yomiwa - this is the dictionary app I use for japanese on android.

Satori Reader - amazing graded reader app for japanese with full audiobooks for each reader (which you can listen to individual sentences of on repeat if desired), individual grammar explanations for each part, human translations for each word and sentence. When I start reading more this is what I want to use. Too expensive right now unless I'm reading a bunch, as only the first chapter (or first few) of each graded reader is free. I would suggest checking out the free Tadoku Graded Readers first online, then coming to this app later.

#apps #app #resources #app resources #chinese resources #japanese resources

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