In recent months, I've been building a social media aggregation platform using the Windsurf AI IDE. The platform displays a multimedia timeline that pulls content from Mastodon, Bluesky, Sharkey, Nostr, and Micro.blog. The goal was to centralize my social media interactions in one location instead of checking multiple sites.

Developed in Python using AI coding assistants (Claude and ChatGPT 5.2 High Reasoning) to accelerate development, I designed the platform structure and verified the implementation through testing. The screenshot shows the current interface. Some posts appear duplicated because I follow the same people across multiple platforms.

NASA's latest technology captures the dynamic interaction of the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission-1 lander's engine plumes with the lunar surface.

The platform works well and I appreciate having one central location to read and respond to posts. There are occasional bugs to fix and a few features left to implement, but it serves its purpose.

#personal #programming #ai

Almost six years since starting my Spanish journey, here's where I'm at today.

It occurred to me today that it has been a long time since my last post regarding my journey in Spanish, something that I used to post updates on pretty regularly in the past.

My journey in Spanish started in February 2020 when I hired a tutor from iTalki to take me from zero to, well, fluency (or so I hoped). Four days a week I was having lessons, and outside those lessons, I'd self-study by reading stories for language learners.

I've had my ups and downs, especially in the beginning. I'd study and practice for hours, then attempt to have a small conversation with someone at the store when visiting Mexico, and not understand a word. It was demoralizing. But even when I felt at my lowest, I kept going, and things started to turn around.

The Language Started to Slow Down

As time went on, I'd say that I reached a new milestone in my language learning journey about every six months, and the language started to slow down for me. That's not to say I understood every word someone said, but I understood enough to know what we were talking about.

I'd work my way through conversations with my tutor and family. It felt awkward at times, and there were many times I faked understanding, but the consistency started to pay off.

Roughly three years in, and I had reached a point where I could participate rather naturally in a dinner conversation. Not perfect, but I wasn't trying to be perfect. I was trying to understand, and to be understood.

How I Learn Today

Today things are different. I don't have three or four classes per week with a tutor going through exercises and vocabulary. I'm fluent, and that stuff bores me to no end (plus, it would be minimal gains at this point).

Instead, I have two sessions per week with a native speaker, and we just chat for an hour about whatever. The news, vacations, life, family, culture, history, or whatever else we feel like at the moment. He's a pretty solid guy, I really enjoy our conversations.

Between those sessions, I read books in Spanish for entertainment. This is where I push my language abilities because I'm always coming across new vocab or ways of saying things. Also, it exposes me to cultural differences. A book written by an author from Spain will often use different words compared to an author from Mexico, for example.

I have a vocab list, but honestly I don't review it very much. It contains words that come up during my one-on-one conversations. Sometimes I'll zip through them, but I could be better at this.

Last, I speak Spanish with my wife and her family fairly often, seeing as they are from Mexico. I still get opportunities to learn new expressions and ways of saying things through these conversations.

My Status and Goals

Currently, I'd say that I'm averaging a High B2 level in Spanish. Interestingly, this is around the same place I think I was at two years ago. The difference today though is that some topics I'm definitely at a C1 level, whereas others maybe I dip a bit if I'm not as familiar with the vocab, but still very much fluent.

In regard to listening comprehension and reading, I'm at a C1 level for sure. I don't have many issues when talking with folks, at least when it comes to vocab and subject (sometimes their accent may throw me off as I get accustomed to it). I read books in Spanish now for fun that are written for native speakers.

So on one hand, I think I'm pretty darn good at this point, but on the other, I feel like I could be a little more refined (speaking), especially after six years. My improvements are very tiny at this point, but so is my effort. I don't push myself consistently in the ways necessary to reach higher levels.

As of right now, I'm pretty okay with that. I can communicate just fine 97% of the time. I don't get tripped up often, and if I do, it is usually due to an individual accent rather than lack of vocab or grammar knowledge.

In the end, I feel so grateful to be at the place that I am with Spanish. It has opened up a world to me that I would have never known without it.

#personal