#‘it’s fine that I spend x amount on HP stuff and spend x amount of time devoted to it’

[dentpx]

I do think there’s a degree to which it’s fine to like. Involve yourself with the existence of Harry Potter because pretending like this massive series never existed and had no impact on anybody is a fool’s errand and people simply aren’t going to abandon something like that wholesale. But I really do think that you should not spend your money on it PERIOD because part of what has maintained the popularity of the world is how insanely marketable it is. Like the universe itself and the houses and all that is just. Endless streams of merch. And if it sells then they make more forever and JKR gets all that money and funnels it back into her transphobia.

[rigelmejo]

Audio Immersion Loop

I’ve read this suggestion by Nukemarine before, and I think its quite a good idea - especially for improving listening skills and reinforcing what you know into a more immediate-understanding. https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/886lfg/does_your_japanese_listening_ability_lag_behind/

The core idea is: a mix of ‘audio seeds’ (audio you’ve studied before and therefore understood before) and ‘other’ audio (ideally things you’ve watch/heard with english subs or directly in your target language before - so your mind ‘likes’ the material). He suggests 30% audio seeds and 70% other, though any combo may be useful and he’s not sure if another % split would be more effective.

The idea is your mind understood the ‘audio seeds’ before in study, so as you listen to it regularly without pause your mind practices understanding it quicker and without concentrating as much, then over time you hear words/phrases/sentences similar in the ‘other’ audio material and your brain latches on and starts trying to comprehend them too and practices. 

I’ve very roughly followed this article’s advice before, and it started helping. So I’d like to make a proper list of what I could use for a full on Audio Immersion Loop that meets all these needs:

Japanese:

Audio Seeds: - Core 2k Pimsleur (audio directly from Nukemarine’s LLJ decks and because of that it should be mostly things I’ve studied before, or you could study using the Nukemarine LLJ Memrise Courses): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B8cWM0WNU3s4eFdSMzk5Vm9HR1E?resourcekey=0-KVCnBQh3SJxhn2oCUC-SiA - JapaneseAudiolessons.com (not ‘pure’ audio seeds idea since this includes english, but would count as comprehensible audio). Link for meL https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qoJ7B002ZEgyDvCnGyFXUS1u8S_qgoG2 , General link for you: https://www.japaneseaudiolessons.com/ - Clozemaster Radio Mode for Japanese - Well suited for this, since you can have it play audio of sentences you already studied!

Other Audio: - Lets plays of any game you have familiarity with/like - for me that’d be Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X, Ratchet and Clank, etc. Also any ‘video game movie’ since it goes directly through parts you know. - Condensed audio of FFX (perfectly suited for this): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1M5jdUQCM7O12r1X8np5y4ofkzBKMSdJo - Condensed audio of Death Note: https://www.paliss.com/episode/death-note-1615919536511x465432008057248060 - anything from this site if you’ve seen the anime: https://www.paliss.com/ - general condensed audio files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EMBr5yskSiBTZ-LUQtMY-r4AihRIJczJ

What I’d do: listen to Clozemaster Radio Mode Japanese, and FFX condensed audio.

Chinese:

Audio Seeds: - Chinese Spoonfed Audio (not ‘pure’ audio seeds because there’s english, but when I played this in even just the background regularly I saw listening skill improvements): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MCKgOxzW9cd1u9cWjzGwWrpxnL5pDz0w - Clozemaster Radio Mode for Chinese - again, well suited for this, as you have the option to play only sentence audio you have already studied. 

Other Audio: - Guardian audiobook! by Avenuex: https://music.163.com/#/djradio?id=791802378&order=2&_hash=programlist&limit=100&offset=0 - Sherlock audiobook: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVyDH2ns1F757P-m8MHckuIFqWapl6y-1 - Guardian audiobook by wheat (I really like their voice): https://music.163.com/#/djradio?id=794964371 - Silent Reading audiobook (note this is the same version as ximayala so if you have that then just search ximalaya this version has some sentences/paragraphs skipped): http://www.6ting.cn/books/59641.html - Silent Reading audiobook unabridged (UPDATE I am listening through this one while following the webnovel and YES this version actually matches the text): part 1 - https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1b5411N7aa?share_source=copy_web part 2 - https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1SX4y1G7z7?share_source=copy_web part 3 - https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1tU4y1p74y part 4 - https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1cy4y1t7cC?share_source=copy_web - Silent reading (on music.123 by 景喵- , I tend to prefer this site because you can still listen to it in a mobile web browser with it minimized)  https://music.163.com/#/djradio?id=349361634&order=1&_hash=programlist&limit=100&offset=100  - Silent reading (on music.123 by  栗煜子)  https://music.163.com/#/djradio?id=792725710&order=1&_hash=programlist&limit=100&offset=100 - Guardian condensed audio (my link, will not work for others, u can ask for a copy if you’d like I just basically ran the episodes and subs through subsrs, mainly to make condensed audio): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11J2qADG9rHSK_45rKpvVIpzXn8YYWhA_ - Silent Reading audio drama: https://youtu.be/DsdmeQBMD_M - Word of Honor audio drama: https://m.missevan.com/sound/2853120 - LiuLi audiobook: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH_aGSaKXFeHSofRd4LF1Hl8fpCSREVBW - HP audiobooks: https://music.163.com/#/djradio?id=526222636&order=2&_hash=programlist - general condensed audio link for chinese if anyone would like (it has The Untamed): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LtZEKe9ItVg-H5q-G01YITLyfrWpOZR-

What I’d do: listen to Chinese Spoonfed Audio or Clozemaster Radio mode Chinese (whatever I could get myself to), then other percentage split between any audiobooks I’d want to listen to Guardian/Silent Reading/Sherlock.

French:

Audio Seeds: - Francais Par Le Methode Nature (literally made to be comprehensible, even if its brand new then Still just like chinese spoonfed audio files, it should be fine to just play repeatedly until you pick stuff up): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf8XN5kNFkhdIS7NMcdUdxibD1UyzNFTP - Gigafrench audio files (specifically if you have studied the related lessons already): http://gigafrench.com/construction/ - Clozemaster Radio Mode for French (however I’m not a big fan of my phone’s french voice)

Other Audio: - Dracula in french: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0hdBpzGpYY - Frankenstein in french: https://youtu.be/8AP02iALr5A - Carmilla in french: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpOWTYUar6NK8Qn7niKNw7Vp0z5YE5t7Z - Buffy francias: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x42mdjh - Merlin francais: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2crj9t

What I’d do: listen to Francais Par Le Methode Nature on repeat, spend other portion of time going through Dracula audiobook tbh (unless anyone knows an audiobook I’d enjoy more that’s easy to find). 

---

As for me specifically, realistically what I plan to do for a while:

Listen to Clozemaster radio mode Japanese and Chinese more often in down time (make the most out of the fact I have the radio mode option lol)

Listen to more chinese audiobooks, in the background, any time there’s nothing playing otherwise. (Since I really could LISTEN more often, its super easy to do during work I just don’t do it).

Actual other materials in japanese and french I probably won’t get to for a while. But if and when I do, above is a good plan for ways to include more listening practice.

---

Overall, my main July (to maybe mid-August) study plan right now:

Listening to chinese audiobooks (so more listening in general)

Listening-Reading Method Guardian or Silent Reading (or honestly anything), just doing it when I feel like it or can. (so more listening and reading in general, along with getting through more of Guardian). This activity eats up the most study time.

Reading more chinese chapters (so more reading in general, I want to up the amount I’ve read)

Trying to use Clozemaster (Listening Mode and/or Radio mode) for Japanese more. (and chinese optionally, if I want) So more basic vocab/grammar for japanese. *italic is lower priority

Lower priority, but I’m also doing these:

Reading through japanese grammar guides (specifically finishing reading Sabuki https://sakubi.neocities.org/, and my Japanese in 30 Hours book). So enough of a grammar base to read more. This should take like 4 hours max to finish if I just sit down and do it. 

Small amounts of japanese immersion (mainly reading) - right now its been playing KH2 in japanese, and reading Guardian’s japanese translation.

Translating Guardian print novel into english (so mainly reading skills, translation practice). This is much slower going than reading, so I probably won’t have much time for this project until I’m finished reading it regularly. 

[atomau]

So I’ve been without a laptop for a month at the time of this writing. One of the things I’ve been doing to keep myself entertained is make my first DnD character ever and I wanted to share. Plus, I don’t actually have anyone to play with, so I’m using this post as some sort of public CV I guess?

Also I made a spreadsheet for them from scratch. It’s got some character-specific stuff, but it should be easy to get rid of it, so feel free to use it if you like

Name: Goes by Jiggy among other races. Closest approximation to their name would be Yigüirro (bc that’s our national bird and I am the actual worst at naming)

Race: Aarakocra (bird people, basically)

(I understand that having a character that can fly from the start could be a big issue, so I came up with a couple ways to nerf it. They’re under the cut)

Class: Alchemist (turns out this is not a thing that exists in first-party materials, so I had to look at a bunch of homebrews before settling on this one)

Alignment: Neutral leaning towards Chaotic Good

Background: The short version is, they had a very brief stint as a Cloistered Scholar-type, but have spent pretty much their entire adult life as, like, a Hermit with more of an Outlander’s lifestyle? Backstory below the cut

Age: 4ish (Aarakocra reach maturity by 3)

Weight: 40kg (~88lb)

Height: 1.44m (~4'9")

Wingspan: 3.32m (~10'11")

I’m no ornithologist, and just can’t wrap my head around this sort of thing in general, so if those measurements look off to you, I’d appreciate advice

Appearance: Pretty much looks like a Eurasian magpie. This isn’t lore-friendly but lbr here. I’d be playing a homebrew class with a character that can fly from level 1. Plumage should be the least of a DM’s concerns. Also Aarakocra seem to not have tails in the illustrations I found? Fuck that, too. Tails are pretty and really important for flying probably

Backstory:

Born on (in?) the Elemental Plane of Air and lived there until shortly before coming of age

Was accidentally brought into the Material Plane by some magic school students who were trying to summon a Djinni to get a wish

One of their wings got broken in the ensuing commotion

It seemed pretty fucked up to send them back injured and grounded, so the students decided to nurse them back to health

That said, the summoning was a violation of school rules, so they had to do this in secret

It went about as well as you might imagine

Aarakocra don’t like to stay cooped up (pun intended), so they’d constantly leave the room

Picture the Cheddar manhunt from B99, the dinner scene from The Iron Giant, that sort of thing

I’m sure it was hysterical

To help them stay entertained, the students brought them books from the library to read

This is how they initially learned/got interested in alchemy

They became fascinated with the Material Plane, so they decided to stay

After a heartfelt farewell, the students went back to their dorm and noticed Jiggy had robbed them blind

“The idea of ownership baffles most aarakocra. After all, who owns the sky?” (Sasquatch Game Studio and Wizards of The Coast. “Elemental Evil Player’s Companion.” 2015, p. 3)

Has been living a nomadic life since. Spends most of their time in the wilderness, occasionally staying near towns if they need certain supplies or if the people need someone with their particular skills. They’ve gotten a lot of practice in the healing side of the field thanks to that

They still don’t fully grasp the concept of ownership (but have gotten in trouble for shoplifting enough to learn not to get caught), but they do understand needs. They’ll only take something if they truly believe its “owner“ could live without it

So about those flight nerfs. The rules already say that Aarakocra can’t fly if wearing medium or heavy armor, but that limits your class selection more than the ability itself

Note that I haven’t had a chance to actually try any of this in a game, so they could be wildly unbalanced for all I know

Wing Health

Each wing has a health subpool. If either one is reduced to 0, they’re grounded until both wings have at least 1 hp

I haven’t decided how much they would be. I’ve been toying with either 1/4 or 1/5 of the total. 1/5 makes more sense because any less would leave the body with half the health at most, but I worry that would make it too easy to ground them

Flight Time

In battle, any flying they do would have to be hovering, which consumes a lot of energy. There’s a reason only the smallest birds can do it for prolonged periods and hummingbirds need to consume half their weight in sugar every day

So, flight time is limited to (level + constitution modifer) x 30 seconds. Assuming they start out with a +2 modifier, for example, this means they’d have 1:30 minutes available at level 1, up to a theoretical maximum of 15 minutes at level 20 with 30 constitution. Which would be ridiculous

I think you should be able to go over, at the cost of exhaustion levels. I haven’t fine-tuned the details on this part

Flight time replenishes after a short rest

Compared to hovering, soaring/gliding consume a tiny amount of energy, which translates to flight time being depleted at a rate of 1 minute per “second“ while doing those

Encumbrance

The rules include an encumbrance system, so I just used that as a guideline

If carrying over 5 times their strength score while flying, flight time depletes at double the normal rate

If carrying over 10 times their strength score, they can’t fly at all

This is to prevent the player from trying to solve every combat situation with “I grab the enemy, fly really high up, and drop it for massive fall damage,“ while allowing it in some cases

Sidebar, this is also why I decided to divide their inventory into three categories:

What is on their person at all times (armor, weapons, ammo, spell components, etc.)

A bag containing essentials and personal effects

A larger pack where they carry everything else

Assuming they carry the pack on their back, they’d need to drop it in order to fly, and they can also drop their bag at a moment’s notice if need be

[robertkstone]

2019 Ram HD First Test: How 1,000 LB-FT Performs at the Track

“Hey, man,” the Ram PR dude said to me. “Would you mind starting out in the Hemi 2500 Tradesman?” No, dude, I silently thought to myself. I did not drive 47 miles to spend the night at the Four Seasons Westlake Village only to drive some dirty old gasoline-powered Ram HD with only—only —429 lb-ft of torque.

No, sir! I made the sacrifice to stay in a five-star hotel away from my sleep-averse toddler only to play with the big dog, to experience the main event, to drive the Ram with the 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel inline-six with—are we all sitting down—1,000 lb-ft of torque! A Hemi 2500? Come on! “Sure,” I said, knuckling under to petty authority. “That’s fine.”

The shocking part is, said Hemi-powered truck is much better than fine. I remember back at the 2017 Truck of the Year competition, Ram lent us a gasoline-powered 2500. Hated it! Hated it to the point that I questioned why anybody would ever buy a gas-powered heavy-duty.

Well, let me announce that the 2019 Ram 2500 Hemi answers that question. Because it’s terrific. Same engine, in fact, so the question is, why is the 2019 version so much better? Gearing. The new version is mated to a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission (the 2017 model had a six-speed automatic), and that alone basically solves every issue I had with the last gen. Suddenly, the low-spec Ram HD feels quick, sporty, and swarming with torque. Even though the job-site-white, crank-window(!) Tradesman had 2,500 pounds of lumber in the bed, the thing still felt fleet and darty. Sure, any truck is going to ride better with weight in the bed, so yes, Ram PR totally tricked me.

However, if you actually use your truck to move stuff around, the 2500 Tradesman is a great, low-dollar, high-capability alternative to a half-tonner. Ram hasn’t announced pricing yet, but I’d guess you’ll be able to slide into the Tradesman’s vinyl-skinned interior for about $35,000 with no options whatsoever, just like the example I drove.

On the other end of the pricing spectrum sits the full-fat, 3500 Mega Cab dually with the aforementioned optional 1,000-lb-ft engine, in either Laramie Longhorn or Limited trim with the Max Tow package—which can set you back over $90,000.

What if you want the capability of a big, strong diesel powerplant, but the notion of a near-six-figure truck leaves you cold? Don’t worry. For $9,100 over the base gas engine, you can opt for a 370-horsepower, 850-lb-ft version of the Cummins. Jumping from 850 to 1,000 lb-ft—which requires a different transmission and transfer case—costs another $2,695. Still, you can buy a very capable Ram heavy-duty hauler for well under 50 large. How capable?

I got behind the wheel of a 3500 Limited dually with its 850 lb-ft of torque and a large, enclosed box trailer hanging off the gooseneck. All the trucks present had little white placards inside announcing both the trailer weight and the weight of what was on/in said trailer. All the trucks save for the Delmonico Red bruiser I was sitting in. Some other journo swiped it. I’ll ask the PR guy later, I told myself.

Even though 850 lb-ft of twist is weirdly a “normal” amount of torque these days, the trailer felt very light. “Maybe it’s empty?” my passenger mused. Yeah, maybe. The two of us guessed that the unladen trailer weighed 2, maybe 3 tons, max. We made this assumption because the ride quality wasn’t all that great. As stated earlier, heavy-duty trucks tend to ride much better when under a heavy load. Imagine our stunned shock to discover the trailer was full of bags of rocks; thus we’d been hauling 16,580 pounds. As for the ride quality, I’m thinking the Max Tow package solves that problem. Why am I thinking that?

Finally it was time to climb into the truck I’d come to drive, a 3500 Limited dually with the Max Tow package plus the 400-hp, 1,000-lb-ft king Cummins. As it happened, this particular truck was hooked up to an 8,440-pound trailer with a 9,100-pound skid-steer strapped to it (total: 17,540 pounds). Heavy, yes, but the crazy part is that 17,540 pounds is less than half of the truck’s capability. That’s right, this rig is capable of hauling 35,100 pounds.

(An aside: Sadly for Ram, Chevy just announced that its heavy hauler can handle 35,500 pounds. Meanwhile, Ford’s new thing is to announce numbers without actually revealing the numbers—such as saying the GT500 will be 700-plus horsepower. So, Ford’s 7.3-liter V-8 will have some sort of output—but you can rest assured that the 2020 Super Duty’s max tow rating will be at least 35,501 pounds.)

Up the Grapevine we went. Although it’s not quite the legendary Davis Dam towing test we employ as part of our Truck of the Year festivities, the California Grapevine up through and past Gorman is quite mountainous. The big Ram got itself up to 50 mph on a flat section of freeway, no problem whatsoever. I waited for the uphill and then punched it. As it turns out, knowing you have four-digit torque at your disposal and experiencing said tidal wave of force are two radically different things. I knew this truck wouldn’t sweat the load, but I wasn’t prepared for how effortless it would feel. To my astonishment, I watched as the 3500 HD accelerated up to 65 mph as easily as an unladen passenger car would perform the same act.

Going downhill was as easy. Ram includes an automatic exhaust brake that acts as a sort of smart descent control. After double-tapping the exhaust brake switch twice, all you do is ever so lightly drag the brake pedal to hold your current speed. Touch the throttle to override it. Simple. Also worth noting, with the Max Tow package, the rear brake rotors are larger (14.4 inches) than the fronts (14.2 inches). Why? The rear brakes of the truck act as the front brakes of the trailer. Think about it. Clever, no?

After turning around to head back to base camp, I found myself stuck behind a motorhome struggling to go 25 mph up the hill. During Truck of the Year, testing director Kim Reynolds calls this the Frustration Test, and it has become a staple of our Truck of the Year testing (though we test accelerating from 35 to 55 mph). I pulled out to the left and floored it as we passed Tejon Ranch on the way up to Frazier Park.

I checked my rearview display, and, yup, cars were bearing down on me and the giant Ram. I didn’t know it at the time, but the 3500 Limited I was driving weighs 9,060 pounds empty. Counting the trailer and at least 800 pounds of passengers (including Ram HD chief engineer Rod Romain, who has a 1,000-lb-ft handshake), we’re talking more than 27,000 pounds that needed to get from 25 to 65 mph uphill in a big hurry. Moment of truth, as they say.

In our standard testing, this big Ram hits 60 mph in 8.4 seconds and runs the quarter mile in 16.4 seconds at 84.9 mph. On paper, these numbers sound like nothing. Back to knowing versus experiencing, this big ol’ hoss feels much quicker than our instrumented numbers say.

There’s this Bentleyness (for lack of a better word) to this sensation—that the tsunami of torque you’re surfing will never crest, will never cease, will never relent. The times on paper aren’t quick by modern standards, but by the seat of your pants, this engine in the Ram feels invincible. Also, this 4.5-ton monster truck rides remarkably well completely empty. As for the Frustration Test, I ask, “What frustration?” We passed that slow-moving motorhome without breaking a sweat.

2019 Ram 3500 Heavy Duty Limited 4×4 BASE PRICE $66,945 PRICE AS TESTED $87,810 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, 4WD, 5-pass, 4-door truck ENGINE 6.7L/400-hp/1000-lb-ft turbodiesel, OHV 24-valve I-6 TRANSMISSION 6-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 9,060 lb WHEELBASE 169.0 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 260.8 x 96.5 x 79.3 in 0-60 MPH 8.4 sec QUARTER MILE 16.4 sec @ 84.9 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 140 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.61 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 30.2 sec @ 0.53 g (avg)

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