Ain’t It Fun
“…living in the real world?” — Paramore
Smarter Human
I had lunch with DMO at a local restaurant. It was a load of chicken because he’s been upping his running training and he’s hungry all the time.
Walter Isaacson
Even though I don’t enjoy learning most history, I love reading biographies and memoirs. There’s always some applicable lesson about values or actions to take on a personal level.
For example, I was planning my summer Japan trip (more on this later) and asked my friend P if I can stay over at his family’s apartment in Tokyo.
He was unsure because it’s relatively small but he asked his parents, who called my parents and said it was fine.
However, while I was reading Walter Isaacson’s 2003 Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, there was a quote from Franklin’s almanac that I found applicable:
“Fish and guests stink after three days.”
So, I felt like maybe even if P’s parents actually wanted me to stay over, they would regret it at some point. However, truisms are not always true.
Running
DMO told me he was gonna run 14 miles the next day which sounded completely crazy to me even though I knew he ran marathons. I just don’t get how it’s possible to run that fast and that much at once.
7 years ago, he ran a half-marathon (13.1 miles) in 1:39.24, but I’m sure he’s even faster now. So, his pace is about 7.5 minutes per mile, which is kind of crazy because the average American’s pace is 9 minutes per mile for a single mile, but he sustains it.
So, this inspired me to start running again. More on this in the next post.
The Big Apple
Apparently, Grand Central Station is not as its name implies, there’s also Penn Station a few minutes west of it. It’s actually the busiest train station in the Western Hemisphere1!
C
Last week, I went to Manhattan with my friend C, with whom I was in the same 6th grade history class. We actually never talked though.
We somehow got in contact by typing J-pop song lyrics in the comment section of P’s firework post.
We discussed an interesting idea that a math major friend of hers had for a biotech startup. I contributed some ideas that might help save money on manufacturing costs and she relayed them.
I wished not to be credited for the contributions because the idea was just so good that I don’t think anyone would believe I came up with it. That’s why I will not explain what the startup idea is.
Kite
While we walked past a guy smoking pot, she said that when she first heard me speak, she thought I was totally high. LOL
Similarly, my friend G often says that I sound so chill that I must be high all the time, so maybe I just give off that impression.
tan(kite)
On a slight tangent, I kind of want to make a kite
J
This week, I went to Manhattan with my friend J from college. She joined the band some time during winter term as the bassist, invited by another J.
When she joined, she asked why the band is called Shadow Garden and I explained all of Jujutsu Kaisen in one minute while assuming she doesn’t know what it is.
I learned this week that she actually already saw JJK, so I was talking about sorcerers and techniques and shadow creatures in a convoluted way for no reason. However, she didn’t realize I was talking about JJK, so maybe my explaining needs some work.
MoMATH
The main thing we planned was going to the National Museum of Math. My high school classmate and one of three valedictorians (they all had the same GPA), Z, was actually an intern there.
I thought it would be like a few floors and maybe have some historical exhibits, sort of like an astronomy museum. Maybe it would have like the original copy of some math manuscripts, but it was more of a kid-oriented place.
There was a bike with square wheels, which I always wanted to try ever since I saw it in a Vsauce video. It was bumpier than I expected, but maybe it got deformed over time.
Puzzling
We did a bunch of puzzles together, which was actually very relaxing and a lot of fun.
The knot ones were very interesting because it would be like an introduction to knot theory for kids. And now it is an introduction to knot theory for college kids. Actually, she already took a knot theory course, so maybe it’s just an intro for me.
I think we both enjoyed the car puzzle the most. It’s like a chessboard with cars that can only move back and forth and the goal is to get the red car to the exit by getting the other cars out of the way.
Guitar Center
We played some guitars at the guitar center and I actually forgot I knew how to play a few country songs with the picking pattern. She actually learned it really fast!
Next, we had to get to the basement, just like Attack on Titan, in order to play piano. I showed her “Summer” by Joe Hisaishi, which is probably the most popular piano song that kids learn in China, and she really liked it!
She played something that sounded really beautiful and familiar, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Turns out it’s actually one of the AoT ending songs (which I never got to the middle of).
Potentially Performing
For the band, we thought of doing a few songs but we have to limit it to two for the spring term open mic night. We tried to do four in the last one and we found out that we weren’t very prepared, because we messed up a lot of timings.
We have a strange problem because the gap between my highest note and the other vocalist E’s lowest note makes it hard to do a lot of songs. For example, Charlie Puth is too high for me and too low for her.
Hopefully the new Hozier song, “Too Sweet,” is not too high for me.
ER: Endoplasmic Reticulum
Next week, I’m going to Manhattan again to eat dinner with university friends E and R, who are doing a program at Jane Street.
To make a reservation at the restaurant (Che Li), the deposit fee is $100, which is kind of crazy, but it makes sense that they wouldn’t want people to not show up.
I went to the one in Flushing before with my dad and brother and thought that it was super good, so I hope they will enjoy it.
Nippon
This summer, I’m going to Japan for about two weeks, which is enough time to go to a city other than Tokyo. I was thinking of going to Kyoto because of its culinary—I mean cultural—significance.
Last year in health class, I remember there was some kind of icebreaker for which country everyone wanted to go to, and around 90% of people said Japan, which makes a lot of sense because they have really great advertising.
I think the general impression of Japan is that it’s very clean, transportation is convenient, food is good, and the culture is interesting. These things are probably true, but I’ll have to go there to find out.
Also, I still have to learn some Japanese even if P is going to be my guide.
F is for Fun
I decided to make a list of the things I want to do for fun:
- Learn cartography
- Cooking
- Guitar
- Japanese
- Read biographies
- Make a kite
- Watch Pirates of the Caribbean, Rango, and Goodfellas
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