The Days Have Worn Away

“That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil.” — Viktor, Arcane

Visiting home

As a college sophomore returning home, it’s strange that I’ve begun to see myself as more of a visitor. Since I haven’t been home since March, my body is no longer adapted to the cold.

Old feelings

There are some things you can only feel when you’re at home. Some combination of synapses, negative celsius weather, and the low hums of the heart reignite a sort of passion.

Why do people live in the cold? It’s because it’s what they know, and that’s a good enough reason. In the escape from the known, you realize that gut feelings are the guide for reasons.

Most people don’t move around their entire lives and experience different things.

There’s a simplistic beauty in sticking to what you know. Adapting to new situations isn’t always the most important. Sometimes, you just need to do what you know best.

It’s like that Dunkey TF2 video where he keeps switching to the class that kills him but only ends up perpetuating the cycle.

Birder

A friend J from my middle school recently got into Caltech through REA. I helped read some of his material and it was actually quite impressive.

From my perspective, it would be a no brainer to admit him based on academics alone, but that can be said for many of the applicants who end up getting rejected. I think it really came down to his very special narrative with his hobby of birdwatching.

My middle school has a small birdwatching club which has spotted 100 species of birds flying over the campus. J found two additional species in his time at the school, making it 102.

To clarify, the kind of passion he has is not something that can be imitated. It’s important to have true passion, which seems to be the only real thing left in a world of imitations.

The Days Have Worn Away

Team Fortress 2 by Valve (company behind Portal and Half-Life) is an ancient 2007 hat simulator and my favorite FPS game of all time.

Today, they released the seventh and final chapter of the TF2 comic series. I recommend reading the entire series but it’s important to watch the Meet the Team videos on YouTube before you read it.

The game was essentially dropped by Valve in 2017, when the last major update was released. The game certainly holds up even with some outrageous balancings that become obvious in casual servers.

However, it still brings back great memories and a gameplay loop that reminds me of back when things were simpler.

Nile

Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of NileRed and NileBlue videos. He’s one of my favorite science YouTubers and I really enjoy the videos where he tries to process foods in unique ways.

In this video, he tries to make bulletproof wood by soaking it in some chemicals to remove most of the plant material so that he can then use a hydraulic press to heat up and squish the wood so that it can get denser.

From Geology 1, my first guess as to why it didn’t work exactly as the paper stated is because the wood that Nigel cuts has a diagonal endgrain, which would allow the wood to form normal faults when there is pressure forcing it apart.

This is supported by how the second piece of wood looks much better on the right than the left. The right had flat lines while the left had diagonal lines. So, on average, the left is weaker to pressure than the right.

The two machined pieces of metal were a super good idea though, and it’s crazy how it actually works in the end. I was just interested to share a bit of applied geology.

Video Ideas

NileBlue is a bit more interesting than NileRed to me because it just seems like a lot more fun and less serious, which is the kind of content I enjoy.

I actually kind of want to do something mildly related to chemistry on my YT channel now just for fun, like making a video about making soap or something. That might be fun.

However, the worst chemistry is the same as the worst part of cooking: washing the dishes. In cooking, you always need to protect against cross-contamination of germs, but in chemistry, you have to prevent cross-contamination of everything.

Double Digits

I reached double digits today at age of XX.

I’m quite excited to see how things will unfold in the next few years, but looking back, I’ve been a real idiot with a lot of fails and a lot of triumphs, at least I’m hoping.

Still, I’m glad I’ve made a lot of amazing friends along the way, I have a great family, and I’ve provided plenty of trouble for all of them. One day, I hope I’ll be able to lessen the load.