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...

It's such a nice day outside. The sun is shining and I don't have to battle the wind that bites at your skin and chills you to the bone whenever I walk outside. It feels like it's summer, and it just makes me smile and be happy in general. There are people outside in the field that my room overlooks playing frisbee and soccer. They're blasting some kind of rap music which is just a little bit annoying since I have my window open (I can finally open my window!) People like sun in general. It mak...

Disclaimer: obviously this is my personal opinion, so don't flame me? Every library has a 24/7 space that is a strict subset of the entire library that is open 24/7. When the library closes, students (and other members of the MIT community) must relocate to the 24/7 space to work. It's probably the only places that have security cameras or something so they know you're not destroying books or whatever collections they're hiding. Anyways, I distinguish between these two parts of the library, si...

I went to a cafe to grind out some psets today. I ordered myself a little latte (I've decided that I'm a latte girl now), a slice of pistachio cheesecake, and a chicken pesto prosciutto sandwich. I got there with my friend at around 11:30. We were planning on visiting another cafe called Cicada, but it's really popular and there was a wait to get inside. So we ended up in some chain Italian cafe that had decent vibes. My friend left halfway through to get groceries, so I was chilling by myself f...

That too familiar, too dreaded clench in my chest, a disgusting taste of dry acid in my esophagus, I want to spit it out, heave it out, but nothing comes out except stale air. It's all in my head. Remember, it's not real, your mind is just confused, tricking you, it doesn't know you're moving when you're not moving, or was it the other way around? I forgot. I forget easily. I get lost easy, lost in the silly feelings I make worse myself. Breathe (in). Don't stop (out) breathing (in). When...

Tomorrow's a snow day and I'm sitting on my bed looking all silly with a face mask that my friend gifted me on my birthday four months ago, that I haven't found a moment in the last four months to lay it on my face for 15-20 minutes and just chill. It's not really that I don't have time, because that's never really the case, it's just that I haven't made time for it. Like how I haven't made the time to write in more than just a hot second. But it's okay, because I have the time now to write,...

I was catching up with a friend yesterday and I asked her: "What is the hardest thing for you to adjust to in college?" Her response was that maintaining friendships was hard now. She talked about her experiences, and I realized that she was vocalizing what I also felt. So here I am today to talk about it. When you're in high school, she explained, your friends were people that you meet on a regular basis, whether it be through classes or some kind of recurring extracurricular activity. You do...

I started writing these a really long time ago, and I was scrolling through my old drafts and I thought this one is one of the easier ones to polish up and publish. I see so many people on campus ride bicycles without their hands. They aren't going that fast either. And they can also turn?? I can barely take turns without falling over. Well, being on the weird BlueBikes is definitely not helpful. I think part of it does have something to do with the bikes they have. Honestly, I think it's just...

IAP is too short man. You're telling me that we're a fourth of the way through already? Independent Activities Period (IAP) runs during the month of January and is a period of time where MIT students get the chance to pursue individual projects. For example, some classes that are running this IAP are WebLab, bike building, generative AI and music, Pokerbots, and glassblowing. The beginner level language classes are also available, though those are quite time-intensive. I know someone who's in J...

Overall, like 6/10. Kinda mid. I mean, it's well thought out and everything, but like there wasn't really anything that I gained out of it. I only really read it because I'm a math major and every math major knows about it or something. Yeah, it's more of a mathematical pop culture phenomenon rather than an actually great book. This will be short because I really don't have much to say about it. I mean, the first half (and mind you this book is like 100 pages) is spent explaining the world of ...

Can your days be wholly uneventful and still pass by very quickly? Yes. There's something called online competitive video games. I think I planned for winter break to be a time for me to relax and reset into the kind of activities I was doing before school started. During college application season, I used to game like 20 hours a week as a kind of coping mechanism for all the stress I was under, because having to shoot people before they shoot you was less stressful than writing about myself. ...

Lying on the floor, thumb searching the endless feed. What am I looking for? ...

I've survived a semester at MIT! It's honestly flown by, but so much has happened. In somewhat chronological order: Splurging on room decorations, Mario Tennis, a short-lived attempt at cooking for myself, listening to my friends' boy dramas, my own boy dramas, whining about 8.01, so many trips across the Harvard and BU bridge, ChatGPT, BSO concerts, at least 500 dollars worth of Venmo transactions, Costco trip, drugs, matcha drinks, the first birthday cakes and birthday parties I've had in a l...

To avoid the inevitable brain rot that will occur if I stay in my dorm all day, I find myself here, at the big library in Harvard, tippy-tapping at my laptop while whoever's left of the students here are doing their law or medicine or whatever readings. This place is a lot nicer than any of MIT's libraries, that's for sure. The marble ceilings are incredibly tall, with nice little skylights and hanging chandeliers. The bookshelves are a deep brown and the furniture is too, and everything just ha...

Yeah, I know you, dear reader, probably know me in real life. I mean it's much more probable than some random person chancing on my blog. Sometimes, you're a guy who's into me or something. Let me know if that's you, I guess. But also do you even want to date me, after seeing some of the stuff I write? Some of you are friends. I don't know how I feel about you seeing this side of me. It's okay, I guess. I hope this doesn't change the way you see me. The point is, I'm not writing for you. I'm wri...

It has been 21 days since my last post. What happened to updating every week, indeed. Oh my, remember when I said I was going to write everyday? Things change. Plans change. I suppose that's life for you. I suppose, I say, because I'm not actually sure. I'm not actually sure about a lot of things, but I'm working on it. So yeah, a lot of things have happened in the past 21 days. I'll walk you through it. I was planning on writing over Thanksgiving break, but then I thought to myself, "I sh...

7/10. Spoilers, again. Yes, I was crying for basically all of it after Waymond gave his little speech. Now usually I would give movies that make me cry a really really high score (because part of what makes a good piece of media to me is its ability to make me feel things), but in this case I think I only cried because the theme or the moral of the movie was really topical to my life at the moment. It's kind of cheesy, in general, and so I don't think I can give it a high score. Let's talk a...

I really liked it! Solid 8/10. Spoilers, obviously. I actually started watching The Platform when it came out in 2019. I stopped at the part where the old man (Trimagasi) started cutting into the main character's (Goreng's) leg, because I thought there was going to be blood and cannibalism and I could not take it. This time, I was watching it while playing Honkai Impact, so I just looked away when that happened. I was surprised to see the crazy mother (Miharu) stun Trimagasi and kill him. Th...

Note: I can guarantee that all the quotes in this post (and in all posts in general) are not correct. I don't remember exactly what these people said, only the sentiment that they were trying to convey. Or at least, the sentiment that I believe they were trying to convey. It's so funny that in the previous post, I wrote that I am spontaneous and on the same day my friends tell me that I'm the least spontaneous person that they know. Or at least, in their words, "You would be the first person I...

My birthday post didn't do this topic justice. I should talk a little bit more about what the milestone of adulthood. I suppose I haven't really thought about it much on that day, given that I was preoccupied with a quiz in a class that I wasn't doing so hot in (and I'm proud to announce that I scored higher than I thought I was going to and earned a very solid C, rather than being on the cusp of failing like in the last quiz). I will take a quick digression to mention that after the second qu...

Yes, I know, I didn't update in the past weekend. I was so caught up with the quiz that I have to take on my birthday today that I just didn't give myself the time to study for it. Couple that with some questionable late night decisions meant no time in the morning for me to sit down with some kind of warm beverage and sit in my feelings. Let me tell you, I have sat in my feelings over the last week. I have sat in them and I have not put them here because I realize that people who know me read...

There are too many things that happen in one week. It's been a crunch week for me, but I think I've handled it pretty well. I started all of my psets pretty late, but I managed to turn them in on time. Well, except for my physics pset, which I thought was due at 11:59, but it was in fact due at 11:00. It's okay though, one pset is only worth 1% of our grade. I did decently well on the first midterm (I'm not sure why we call every test either a midterm or a quiz), so I'll definitely be able to pa...

I have an extension cord with three plugs. I have three devices that I need to charge. However, I can only use two at a time because Apple adapters are fat. Update: I can now use all three because I received a shiny new iPad Pro 13 inches or whatever because I do MITWE (wind ensemble) and we read sheet music on it. Life is good. Last week I said it should be fine to leave rice in my rice cooker. I opened it today after a couple days. There were spots of mold. I washed that bad boy very rigorou...

So far, I have sustained two cuts. They are both on my left hand. They are both a result of being lazy and not using a cutting board. I have obviously not learned my lesson because there are now two cuts, and not just one. I was even cutting the same vegetable on two different occasions. To be fair, the second cut was much less substantial than the first because I was trying to be more careful about not cutting myself, but not careful enough to use a cutting board apparently. I still will not us...

Well, it's more like a half-week. Classes start on Wednesday, which means that there are two days of the week where there is absolutely nothing for me to do. Well, there are things to do, certainly, because Rush is this week, but I've decided that I'm too tired to even go to a single frat event. Yes, the free lobster and steak dinner is nice, but I just don't want to talk to people right now. I want to stay in MacGregor House and do random, brainless shit in the entry lounge. I suppose this is m...

Every time I try to type in this website on my computer (app.standardnotes.com is where the blogs get written), the first thing that it autofills to is apply.commonapp.com. It's a very unpleasant experience. Upon further examination, I have decided that I should just put all of Orientation into a blog post because I again feel bad for those of you who subscribe to this who get notified everyday. A blog post should be a special occasion, like the end of Orientation, which is a good special occa...

I've decided to write in the mornings instead, because I really am a morning blogging person, as I've mentioned before sometime. Regardless, to keep up with my 100 days of writing streak, I'm seated here at 2am writing. I'll try to dump all the events that I've done today and I'll add some more in the morning. We get 14 free meals at the dining halls, but so far I've used none of them. There are too many events with food, so I've never had the chance to. This is a potential problem because I...

Honestly, I should start writing these the moment a flash of inspiration comes to me. I remember having so many great ideas to write about, but none of them are coming to me now at the end of the night. It's not terribly late but I'm quite tired from everything that happened in the day. We landed in Boston and made our way over. We left our stuff in my dorm after I checked in and we headed straight to Hmart for lunch. I got some too-salty ramen. Then, we walked to the big Target that was like 2 ...

Well actually, I'm currently on a plane to Atlanta, but my final destination is Boston. At the beginning of the day, I was quite positive that we would have no trouble at all fitting everything into our bags. I think what ended up happening was me going, "I think I can add one more thing in," and now we have backpacks that look like they're about to burst open. Either way, we (by that I mean my parents and I) made it through TSA fine and everything, and we're on the plane safe and sound. I'd l...

I really do hate packing. If I have the choice to, and I probably will never have the liberty to do this, I would just stuff everything I have into a bunch of bags and call that packing. I have a hoarding problem. I grow sentimentally attached to everything. I probably do need a Marie Kondo in my life to ask me if each item brings me joy and to throw away everything that doesn't bring me true happiness. Well, I'm not that extreme. I have a hard time procuring the clothes in the first place, so...

This coming semester, I will be electing to not take part of a meal plan and will therefore be cooking all of my meals. Let's see how that goes. I will also be posting some sort of follow up to this once the school year starts to get up and rolling to see how my cooking journey works out. Hopefully, I will not devolve into eating frozen meals and instant ramen. Honestly, even if I did so, that would still be saving me money compared to purchasing a dining plan, and it might also be healthier. ...

First of all, I'd like to announce that my sleep schedule is fucked. It's not really as bad as some people's during the summer, but it's bad in my book. Like, I wake up at 10, which is super late in my book, and that means I go to sleep past 1, which is super late in my book. Thankfully, my flight to Boston is going to be overnight, which means I'll be getting near zero sleep that night and that should serve as a good reset to my circadian rhythm. Anyways, I was up last night watching Vocaloid...

As of writing this sentence, it has been 2 days since I have flown from Boston back to my home state. For the last six weeks, I was at a math summer camp named PROMYS. If you look at their front page, you might be able to pick me out from the hundred or so people on the group photo. This marks the third year that I've been at PROMYS. This program has altered the path of my life, and I am infinitely grateful for its existence and for my acceptance. I am also incredibly thankful towards all the pe...

I've been listening to Airhead on repeat ever since I found it a couple days ago. I've recently uploaded a bunch of photos to the cloud, and managed to create enough space to redownload Project Sekai: Colorful Stage! It's a fun rhythm game by Sega, who owns Sonic and also Vocaloid (you might know Hatsune Miku). Incidentally, this makes Sonic and Hatsune Miku siblings, or so I'm told. Anyways, Project Sekai is my rhythm game of choice because I genuinely like the songs, which consists of Vocaloid...

I have the interesting power of waking up right as a drop of blood from my nose forms and being entirely lucid while it falls across my cheek. Sometimes, I am successful in catching that droplet before it touches my pillow. Today was one of those days. It always takes me a couple of seconds to register that the little wet streak is blood. I opened my eyes this morning to see blood over the back of my hands, along with an unfortunate stain on my shirt sleeve. I checked my pillow and the surround...

I don't usually check the MIT 2027 discord server, but there was an @everyone ping, so I naturally checked it. I honestly can't believe that they @everyone for a little ad for the application to become a blogger for MIT Admissions, but I should thank them because now I know about the opportunity. To be clear: I don't blog. I don't read blogs. I had no strong desire to blog before I read that message. But when I did, I had one of my "fuck it, I'm down" moments, and I set my mind on pursuing thi...