Travis Vroman

I posted a new video on my YouTube channel the other day, kicking off a new series around the NamorvTech engine. The format is going to be different, with less of a focus on a tutorial series and more of a focus around adding new features, extending existing ones and using these new features to make games along the way. The goal here is to make lots of small games along the way, and to ship each and every one of them. I’ll be going into much more detail about my plans as time continues with this. Another note – early this week my YouTube channel hit 1000 subscribers! I want to say thank you to everyone who has subscribed, and continues to watch the content I provide. I can only hope that it is truly helping people out along the way […]

The time has finally come. After over a decade of wanting to visit the Land of the Rising Sun, the wife and I have booked our tickets. We set off in March of next year. Bearing that in mind, there is much to do! First, I’ll need to really brush up on my basic Japanese. I’ve had troubles as of late with keeping up on it, and it’s suffered as a result. Well, sometimes for me a deadline is the best motivation. Now I’ve got about 4 months to get my Japanese back in shape. o.O Another thing to note is that I will be posting pictures and video of the trip once I return. Note that I won’t be taking *tons* of photo and video, but there should be more than enough to go through. I also will not […]

Inspiration is a powerful thing. Having it can lead to one creating some of the most amazing things in the world. Not having it can leave that same individual in a hamster wheel, just surviving the daily grind. Recently, I’ve had inspiration on the art front, which is something I have lacked for the past 6 years (probably more, if I am brutally honest). As a result, my skills in drawing and painting slipped significantly. However, upon getting this newly-found inspiration, I feel after a couple weeks that my skills are sharper than they ever have been before. This interests me to no end, and I’m going to research why this is the case. As anyone who’s followed this site (ha!) has noticed, my post quantity has been beyond sparse. Almost non-existent. I just haven’t been inspired to do it, so […]

Remember way back when where I said I’d hold myself accountable for my mistakes? That I’d admit them, and post them so maybe you’d be able to avoid them (towards the bottom of this page)? That’s what I’m doing here. This is a bit of a post of shame, although all is not lost. Allow me to explain. So in a previous post I’d mentioned that I had some career moves, and that I’d “soon” describe how they’d affect my Japanese learning, this site and my other activities. I guess “soon” is now – sort of. Right. So, the short version of it is that I got a new position at the company I am with. Actually, I’ve been in this position for over a year now. Specifically, it’s a software development position, and it’s one that (initially) took a […]

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here. To be honest, I’ve had a lot going on, and maintaining this blog hasn’t been the topmost priority. I just recently got over the flu (the actual flu, not just the common cold. You know, the kind that typically sends you to the emergency room). I’ve been focusing really hard lately on trying to keep my Japanese studies up as well, and to me that ranks higher than updating this blog. On an unrelated note, I’ve been trying to learn to play guitar on my spare (ha!) time. Man, that crap is hard! First and foremost, though, I have been working on sharpening my skills as a developer since that’s what brings home the bacon. After all, without bacon, what is there? All jokes aside though, I am still […]

Everyone has used Google-Sensei’s fantastic Image Search feature to find things online. Sometimes it gives you whacked results, but most of the time it’s pretty spot-on. That being said, most people probably don’t think about it being used as a dictionary. Think about it for a moment and it will make sense. If you type in “banana”, Google-Sensei will return a wide array of photos featuring bananas. If you enter “car”, you’ll get a variety of content featuring cars. Why not apply this to language learning? Why not apply this to Japanese? For example, in the article image I entered “バナナ” (banana). Behold, photos of bananas! The next time you are stuck on a word, type it into Google-Sensei’s image search. The image feedback has the added bonus of helping it stick in your brain. That is all.

Alright, so it’s been a bit again since I have updated. Most of the reason behind this is what I stated before, but I also feel that I should come clean about something. As hard as I tried not to, I have broken the chain! 🙁 I know, bad Torabisu! Bad! The truth is that the learning curve at my new position is a steep one, and I’ve been spending my spare time getting up to speed on things required for it. When I originally posted about the chain, I knew this would probably happen at some point no matter how hard I tried. It’s inevitable, really. Life tends to get in the way of studying Japanese sometimes – that’s just the way things go. It was never my intention to keep the chain perfect. Nothing is perfect in life, […]

Hello, AN followers! It has been a (long) while since I have posted. For this, I do apologize. The lack of posts is due to a decent number of factors. First, there has been a lot going on in my personal life which has been occupying much of my time, thus taking from the time I used to have to write. It’s not a complaint – just a fact. I’ve still been studying my Japanese every day, and haven’t broken the chain yet (that’s good, at least). Family and friends should always come first over everything, and sometimes we lose sight of this. I know I have. For far too many nights I have sat in front of my computer either writing code, studying Japanese and or navigating Facecult{{1}}. While some of these things are important (such as sticking to […]

おはようございます！Happy 2014! I just wanted to take a moment and talk about some current events and updates. First off, I should mention that the Links page has been revamped. I’ve added a ton of new resources and reformatted it so that everything is organized into categories. I’ll be updating that page more in the coming months. As I mentioned in the previous article, I have decided to apply for the 2015 JET Programme. That article is the beginning of a series that will outline my journey through the application process and (hopefully) after acceptance. I also updated my YouTube channel with a new video, which can be found here. Please subscribe if you like it (as well as the other videos on my channel)! Stay tuned!   [Image source]

UPDATE: I am putting this on hold for the time being for reasons I will discuss in a future post. I will explain more in detail within the next week or so. Original post: So I have decided that I am going to apply for the JET Programme. I am making my first move towards living and working in Japan. The JET Programme? For those of you who don’t know, the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme is a program designed to promote and facilitate international exchange between Japan and other countries. Basically what this means is that it is a way for someone such as myself to learn about Japan, it’s language, culture and history. In exchange, the person (me, in this case) would provide the Japanese people with a unique perspective of the United States, along with it’s […]