People straight up do not realize that part of the reason manufacturing is not returning to the United States in massive waves is because we have things like “OSHA” and “environmental laws” and “minimum wages.”

It’s not even just about fair wages. It’s literally about the fact that you can’t dump industrial waste in a river here anymore.

Our cheap goods are so cheap because South American and Asians environments are being destroyed so you can buy a $40 pair of shoes every 3 months.

Cutting granite countertops has lead to a rapid increase in silicosis in the lungs out in California. All the working men and women in my family have died from pulmonary fibrosis. They were carpet layers, Post office workers, floor tilers. Staying safe in manufacturing jobs is annoying but also very, very expensive. Real manufacturing factories belch smoke and dust and grime that causes asthma and birth defects in surrounding communities. Everyone wants their manufacturing jobs back until they realize their kids are living directly under the Asthma Plant.

There will come a time when the workers in these countries rise up and demand better and things will start to even out, but if you want to honestly “do your part,” you gotta stop buying cheap shit for no reason.

Not every event needs to be celebrate with a baseball cap or a coozie or a t shirt or a keychain. Not every wall in the house has to have a picture or a cute phrase on it. The knickknacks are killing people.

Yep!

🌌Study log 12/4/2025

⛅Weather report: chilly, sunny

🙂Mood report: normal, hopeful

✅Finished tasks: 16

⏱️Total time of study: 6h 15 min

Big review is almost finished. I just have to finish making Genki grammar flashcards.

Hiroshi Yoshida

I saw the sentence “Japan has been stuck in the year 2000 since 1980” and while I don’t have any opinion on the object level truth of the sentence, it is very pleasingly quippy to me

1/27(月)、11時から18時まで営業です。 本日はふだんより暖かいですね🕯店内模様替え中ですが、お待ちしております！

✴︎本の買取もお気軽にお声かけください。

記入

きにゅう

entry (in a form, register, diary, etc.); filling in; filling out

ボールペンで申込書に記入してください。 ボールペン で もうしこみしょ に きにゅう して ください。 Please fill out the form in ballpoint pen.

japanese-immersion day #3 || 04.09.2025

what i listened to:

独身アラサー女の毒ラジオ #145 || passive immersion || 25 minutes || understood: 5 %

what i watched:

あかね的日本語教室 (vid1 - ) || passive immersion || 22 minutes || understood: 20 %

名物ランチ＆機内食も!? || passive immersion || 22 minutes || understood: 20 %

コミックマーケット || passive immersion || 30 minutes || understood: 30 %

国際線グランドスタッフの一日に密着 || passive immersion || 26 minutes || understood: 30 %

空はCA/海はAC || passive immersion || 30 minutes || understood: 30 %

total: more or less 2 hours and 45 minutes

commentary:

i'm glad i could listen and watch content that was a bit different than what i usually consume! + i love daily life stuff and learning more about other people's jobs so that was a win win. maybe tomorrow i'll have the motivation to start doing notes on akane-sensei's videos.

that's it for now! バイバイ 🐻

ビル群の春

2016年、浜離宮恩賜庭園。

菜の花を楽しめる摩天楼。

Basically, I don't think there's going to be an announcement that Tumblr is getting shut down. If the pattern we're seeing holds, I don't even think it's going to happen intentionally. I think Tumblr is going to go out like an early 2000s forum: they're just going to keep cutting the tech support budget until something goes wrong in a way that none of the remaining skeleton crew know how to repair, which could be tomorrow or three years from now. If it does happen, it's probably going to happen completely at random, so there's no point stressing out!

This is my idea of studying Japanese. I am learning sewing terms, will be learning knitting/ crochet terms (it’s the same word 編み ami) because I have Japanese crochet books.

Oh do you know what this is?

富山弁

I live in Hokuriku, and here are a few words or quirks of the Japanese in this area!

(There is overlap with other prefectures and regions so don’t come for me if you’ve seen these words on other lists. We are probably both right!)

キトキト = 新鮮, fresh (especially for seafood)

わちゃわちゃ = 忙しい・賑やか, lively or busy (in the sense of a lot of people talking in a restaurant or a lot of kids playing around)

きのどくな = ありがとう, thank you

そやちゃ = そうだね

〜かい？= かい？ for making casual questions

〜られ = 〜て for making casual commands (食べて-> 食べられ)

おる= いる ex. どこにおる？・食べとる

🌱I’ve been reading キノの旅 and started a reading journal where I summarize what I just read in Japanese. I try to use the new words I highlighted and it makes them stick better than flashcards. I actually haven’t studied any flashcards for 4 months and don’t miss them. I might go back eventually, but I found that I was spending time on flashcards that I could’ve been using for reading.

🌱I’ve had a lightbulb moment recently where active study works better for me - so I turned a passive activity like reading into a more active one where I read out loud and write in my reading journal. As I get back into studying after a 6-month break, I want to incorporate more active study methods like writing, shadowing, speaking, doing crossword puzzles, etc.

🌱I’ve also started working with a language coach and it was such an amazing experience! We talked about challenges with studying languages with AuDHD, monotropism and a bunch of other stuff. It was so nice to talk to someone about a shared interest because I can’t really do that with anyone in my real life. We also talked about how to incorporate more Russian into my life since I want to reactivate it and start immersing in it and writing in it more again.

🌱I think my main takeaway was that it might be better for me to make Japanese my main focus for now. Since all activities feed into each other - listening helps reading, reading helps writing, writing helps speaking - they all work together to strengthen the language until I start thinking in it, which is what happened to me with French. Of course I’ll still immerse in other languages, I’ll just mainly focus on Japanese. I’ll get way more out of it this way. I’ll also start doing weekly updates, so stay tuned!

I smashed my hand against the keyboard to make my username :(

Anyways, こんにちは，私の名前はアラストルです，23歳，誕生日は4月1日に春です仕事がない，私は家族を助ける，お爺さんは99歳，彼は古いでも明るいな人です，彼の笑顔は嬉しくって，嬉しい！私の趣味は…絵を描きと写真を通る，時々寝ってる，コーヒーが大好きですえとね，あの…ゲームをします！

Hello, my name is Alastor, 23 years old, my birthday is April 1st in the spring, I don't have a job, I help my family, my grandfather is 99 years old, he is an old but bright person, his smile is happy, I'm happy! My hobbies are ... drawing and taking pictures, sometimes sleeping, I love coffee, um... I play games!

導入終わりました，よろしくお願いします

The introduction has been completed, nice to meet you

私の理由に日本語の学ぶは…テレビドラマわかって欲しいそれで，ミュジクを聞くと欲しい，日本の文化が大好きです

My reason for learning Japanese is ... I want to understand TV dramas, and I want to listen to music, I love Japanese culture

未来に明るい欲しいです

I want a bright future

I have learning disability and this is one of my goals, so I know I will run into many obstacles, I do not wish to give up so I I will study hard, I’m fluent in English, I don’t only want to be monolingual

Just a reminder in case you're ever looking to back up your blog try this method first before you do something silly like scrape the thing yourself or put your password into a third-party tool without verifying what it really does

also feel free to @ me on discord at sreegs. same username there.

this is your random reminder to CHECK IF YOU'RE STILL HAVING FUN

are you enjoying scrolling tumblr? watching youtube? reading that book? playing that game? drawing that art? doing that activity? if not,

YOU CAN STOP AND DO SOMETHING ELSE

you don't have to stick to something that you are doing for fun if it isn't fun for you anymore. You can come back! If you've loved it before you are likely to love it again! but you can stop!

Don't get stuck in a loop of doing something that you think should be fun when it isn't! You can put it down for a bit! Maybe that's the very thing that will make it fun again later!