angelofdesth

hi hi hi hi gang, my bad i've been gone, there's just been life lately Well, there are some changes that happened this semester that I'm still adapting to. New problems, old problems, have been popping up (in relation to my mind, I don't mean people at least). So it's spring break right now, and I suppose we're like halfway through the semester? Crazy how time flies. I'm sitting at a cafe (Bloc cafe) and I just demolished the best egg sandwich I've ever had in my life, and I told myself that ...

"There was one time when you were a little kid, you had your arms full, trying to carry too many things at once. And then they fell out of your hands and you would cry," my mom told me over winter break. I can imagine clearly my 5-year-old self, tears streaming down her face, trying desperately to hold onto everything. An apt metaphor. When you're at MIT, you find yourself trying to do more and more things. I mean, the people that admissions want are the overachievers, and when the people arou...

"i actually might burn myself out before the semester starts" "Is that exactly what you said you would learn from last semester?" "lmao" So what have I been up to these days? What is it that takes me away from writing? What is it that takes me away from giving myself time? Well, to be fair, I think I have been taking good breaks. I've really locked into the 3 hour grind session with Honkai Star Rail breaks in between. Catching up on all the old events that I missed during my hiatus is a good t...

Oops, it's been a while, hasn't it? This post has gone through a few revisions and editing since I came out of PROMYS, considering how it's the end of the year. I promised a student that I'd get it done by the end of the year, so here I am making sure that it is done. (at the last moment, I'm not in EST so it's still 2024 for me lol) PROMYS has always been near and dear to my heart, and of course I returned as a counselor for the summer of 24. I mean, I'm fresh out of freshman year, there rea...

One of the requirements for obtaining a course 18 (math) major is differential equations. We have a standard diffeq class (18.03) which almost everybody at this school takes because understandably, it's an engineering school, and one needs to understand how to model things that change over time in their engineering lifetime. There are also other classes that fulfill this requirement, like 18.032, a more theoretical approach to the 18.03; 18.152 P(artial)DEs; or 18.303 L(inear)PDEs. I think it's ...

I went over the long weekend 11/9 - 11/11 (Veteran's day) to a retreat/lodge place in Cape Cod. It's not far away from the beach. The lodge itself is kinda old, like all lodges are, and it was also pretty poorly insulated, which was not ideal in early November. I think it's used primarily as a Christian retreat lodge, judging from the fact that the other group that was there was a Christian camp and the books on the bookshelves were old-timey how-to-be-a-good-Christian books. I went with Addir...

it's been a weird time I suppose. My vision is worse than normal today. My glasses don't have the correct astigmatism prescription, so everything is slightly blurry, but it's fine most of the time. Not today though. I suppose my eyes are too tired to focus or something. But right now, walking back to my dorm between the tennis courts and the track field, I look up and I can see the stars. I stop on the dirt path and look up. There are so many lights in the sky today. The moon is there, t...

"You don't deserve to suffer", a recurring motif recently in my conversations. The people who have told me that don't understand how much that means to me. I mean, there has been a lot of sweet and kind things said to me recently because it was my birthday this past Friday and people wrote me nice, sweet, kind notes. Reading their heartfelt words, I realized how easy it is to forget how much people care about you. Go write your friends a kind note. Maybe they've forgotten (or just never learne...

I have a pset due tonight that I haven't started. Oh and a midterm in two days. After I finish writing this I gotta lock in hardcore. Unfortunately today is not a coffee day, so we're doing a matcha review (because I've been thinking about matcha since the Maruichi popup with that one famous matcha guy) Phin Coffee House Rating: 2/5 Location: 10 High St, Boston, MA 02110 Ordered: large Matcha latte (6), Chicken Banh Mi (11), coffee cake (5) Vibes: Chill, brightly lit, with light wood furni...

actually, I think about this place almost everyday And I wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you, and that I made some uh mistakes over the last couple weeks with what I'm doing with my time, and that came from starting to think "I don't have time this week to write, I'll write when I do have time" because it's all about making time to do the things that are important to you, and I haven't been doing that, so I'm sorry. I'm working on things, a little less than I should, bu...

PROMYS 2024 had just ended. Caught up in all the goodbyes, getting lost with two other students, and the bus to the airport getting super delayed, I was really worried that I wasn't going to make my flight on time. That's okay though, because while we were walking in circles at South Station trying to find the goddamn bus to the airport (and the ironic part is that I've taken this bus multiple times), I found out that my flight is delayed by an hour and a half. I still ended up at the gate abo...

I can't shy away from hard things. I have to continue to challenge myself to do hard things, like be forced to make decisions about people so that I can help even more people down the line. It's so important to me to help any person I come across be their best self (though it's not true for anyone. I feel the calling more for some people than others. There are people we're destined to help, I believe). Life's easier when you're enduring the suffering for something that you care about. (I suppo...

This post was written as part of my submission to MIT's Blogger Applications for 2024 What is something totally inconsequential that you have a strong opinion about? No, there isn't a best symbol to represent multiplication. If there was a best symbol, it definitely would not be the center dot. Different occasions call for different symbols, and it's crucial that you use them for the right occasion, or you might seriously offend your residential mathematician. I'll be typing my examples in...

This post was written as part of my submission to MIT's Blogger Applications for 2024 Write at least 400 words about a random monotonous small thing in as much detail as you can. Every Sunday, I'll wake up quite early (mind you, at this school quite early means 8am), and I'll spring out of bed because Sunday is laundry day. The sooner that I get done with laundry means the sooner I can sit down and start working on all the things that I have due on Monday. Starting laundry early is importan...

I literally spent 30 minutes choosing places today, and then I decided that I was going to hop on the T and go to this spot that I've had bookmarked for a long time now. Man, was I impressed. Ogawa Coffee Rating: 5/5 Location: 10 Milk St, Boston, MA 02108 Ordered: Kyoto house blend (3.5), smoked salmon bagel (13.25), matcha cake roll (10.75) Vibes: Immaculate. The baristas have uniforms of white shirts, black ties, and a black apron over it. The place is very modern, industrial-esque with it...

PROMYS means I'm in Boston means I can continue cafe hopping :) Phinista Cafe Rating: 3.5/5 Location: 96 Peterborough St, Boston, MA 02215 Ordered: Iced Phin Ube (6), Matcha Bun (4.5), Saigon Breakfast Banh Mi (11) Vibes: A cute little coffeeshop just a little distance away from Fenway. Dark wood furniture against a white backdrop. Lots of real flowers and plants everywhere. It's the kind of decoration at a Vietnamese coffee shop, I suppose. No music playing, tons of chatter, good crowd but ...

I swear I'm not a stalker. I'm pretty sure other people do the same too! There's this guy with amazing style and he's the reason why I got a wolf cut. He's a senior, or, he was a senior. He graduated this year, and I'll never see him again. He's never going to know that he has inspired me to change my hair style. He's never going to know that he's literally changed a part of me. I will clarify that getting a wolf cut had been on my mind for a while at the time, as it was something that my bf...

Where have I been? Traveling. First of all, I am Singaporean, but my parents were born and raised in China. It was a very interesting time. My parents (and by extension, my grandparents) witnessed the rapid development that China underwent. I once interviewed my mother for my final project in my 7th grade history class, and she told me about food rations, coal stoves, and going to bed cold and hungry. Now, pretty girls sit in front of buildings of steel and glass, talking to their phones on a ...

Oh, it's summer again. Last summer, I started this blog. How time flies. I'll be really busy this summer compared to all the summers in the past. I'm going back to my home country of Singapore for the first time in ages (I was still in elementary school when I last visited, I believe). Since I'm kind of pooped from traveling, I've asked to just chill for a day at least. And so I'm sitting in the neighborhood public library, typing out this blog. I would like to be reading some math textbook, b...

I'm on a flight out of Boston, having slept approximately 60 minutes in the last 36 hours in the form of ten minute naps and microsleeps, and I lost my left Galaxy bud to the depths of the airplane floor. The turbulence is going kinda crazy, but I'm only bothered in the sense that every little bump and jerk the plane does, my earbud rolls a little further away from me and my chances of finding it after we deplane decreases. I'll probably recover it, I think. The end of the year happened so fas...

I'm going back to Singapore for the first time in like 7 years with my mom, and we're flying through Japan Airlines, stopping in Tokyo for a couple hours (enough for me to do some touristy stuff). But that's irrelevant. The important part is that I'm on the flight right now and they have Weathering with You as part of the in-flight entertainment. It's one of those shows that was really big and popular back then, but I never got the chance to check it out and it's been on the back burner ever sin...

I had to come up to this side of Boston to run an errand, and so I decided to hit up a coffee shop and be super, duper productive because I really need to lock in for my finals (and here I am, spending at least half an hour writing this review). I had seen this place mentioned a couple times on r/boston, and so I've been waiting to try it out. The guy next to me has a sketchpad out and Canvas pulled up on his iPad, I think he's an art student frantically trying to finish his work for the semeste...

Quick update, because I don't want to leave y'all hanging. Unfortunately, I have a final in every one of my classes. I've organized a notion with the grades I need to get an A in the class. For some classes, it's not very high (like 8.02, of which I just need a 60%). For other classes, I need to get a B, and I don't know if I can guarantee that. I know I have a tendency to stress out about stuff, and I'm definitely getting stressed out right now. But what usually happens is that a couple day...

I cut my ankle and it lowkey bled everywhere. I was standing in a puddle of blood that was gathered in my knock-off crocs (thank god I wasn't wearing an actual shoe because that would be annoying asf to deal with) and it was a rather awkward situation to deal with overall imo. Now I'm seated at my desk, which is next to my bed, and I have my legs up on my bed (which is so very nice and warm and cozy) and I think to myself, what better way to spend my time injured than to update my blog? For the...

OMG ALL THE HAPPY PREFROSH ON CAMPUS their excitement is contagious (i'm literally more excited than some of them). Why study for test when I can talk to prefrosh and write about talking to prefrosh. But seriously though, why is there even class over cpw??? Why do I have a test during cpw???? I want to hang out with the prefrosh and pump them up and get them to comMIT. Oh yeah, btw, CPW (Campus Preview Weekend) is a weekend lasting 3.14 days where adMITted students come and visit MIT! Over thi...

It's Marathon Monday, and I don't have anything to do, nor much work to get done. And so we continue on the coffee shop grind. It's also such a nice day, it'd be a shame if I spent the entire day indoors. I might make this into a series. I should really lean into the foodie part of me. According to online reviews, this place is highly rated for vibes and their healthy food options. There is a wide variety of smoothies and smoothie bowls, along with regular brunch items (toast, sandwiches, wa...

It was raining today, but since there wasn't a very strong wind, I push forwards on my cafe hopping journey. Today, I crossed the river to hit up this coffee shop near Berklee and Northeastern. I've been trying to taste more local-crafted coffees and this was one of the shops that did that. I actually biked here so I was soaked when I arrived. I also did not sleep as much as I should on break last night, so the cup of coffee is appreciated. Render Coffee Rating: 3/5 Location: 563 Columbus Ave...

I did not have breakfast this morning, and I was rushing to go to a meeting that I found out was cancelled when I arrived (I did not have time in the morning to check before I left), and so I made my way here without much preparation. It's a bit away from campus, but since I was on the east side of campus, and this place was located east of campus, I decided to make my way here. Unfortunately for me, this place sells waffles as their only food item, and so I was kind of disappointed that I cou...

It's located in Central, where Hmart and Target is, which is where I plan on going after I have my little lunch here. Good location for grocery shopping after :). I don't know what a kouign-amann is, so I purchased one because it would be a shame if I kept going to coffeeshops without buying at least one pastry (ouch wallet). 1369 Coffeehouse Rating: 4.5/5 Location: 757 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 Ordered: Latte (4.95), Basic Bird sandwich (11.50), Kouign-Amann (5) Time spent: 2.25...

dragging myself out of my room every morning to avoid the brainrot, but also developing a caffeine addiction and wasting my mother's money (sorry mom) I make no claims about being a food expert and knowing anything about coffee (i've never drank coffee seriously before). These are obviously my opinions, and there are people who are way more qualified to give their opinion on food than I am. As I was walking to my last (and only) class on Friday, not counting the class that I always skip, I b...