Earth Online | 26 - 10
Earth Online | 26 - 10
The first half of the month was much like usual: out and about, having fun. But midterms started in the second half, so I spent every day either at the library or at a cafe. Whenever I got tired of studying, I started browsing the new website instead. There are quite a few new things now, so if you’ve been following my posts through RSS, come take a look!
Website Updates
Homepage
The homepage has gotten a makeover! The old one was something I had hurriedly asked AI to generate because the homepage looked so empty. I thought it was really ugly. I was so bored of writing proofs during exam season that I discussed it with AI, and eventually went with a GitHub-inspired design. I originally wanted to design it myself, but my artistic talent isn’t great, so I had to copy GitHub for now.
Notes Page
If you visit the homepage on your phone, tap the hamburger in the upper-right corner (yes, the one with three lines!) and you’ll find a new Notes page. On a computer, there’s now a Notes button in the navigation bar too. It contains the notes I’ve digitized so far and that are at least readable. Feel free to use them if they’re helpful! I put them there for everyone to use. I can’t guarantee everything is correct, but I’ll try to fix things when I notice them. If you spot an error, feel free to open an issue or email me, though I may not actually fix it.
Photo Page
Since the last time I changed the theme, this blog has gained a page dedicated to photos. Newly edited photos get posted there first, so you can get an early look at them, or think of it as a story that doesn’t disappear. Editing and color-grading photos is so much faster than writing a whole post, and I don’t want to mix articles and pictures together1, so I moved the photos to their own page. The photo page also has its own RSS feed!
Going Out
Club Trip
Ever since people started taking officer roles last semester, someone had been saying that we should all go on a trip together. After a year of talking about it, we finally went. At ten in the morning, we rode out from campus and headed south to Changhua. It wasn’t exactly far, but it wasn’t exactly close either. Riding with a big group felt like a scene from a movie: a bunch of young college students forming a convoy on a provincial highway. The sun was blazing, but the strong wind kept us from feeling hot. Our first stop was downtown Changhua, where we ate at One Rice Ball (that’s the name of the shop). I heard Bang had spent three hours the night before talking about how good it was. The verdict: it really was delicious!
After eating at One Rice Ball, we headed for Lukang. My high school roommate hadn’t been exaggerating: the wind in Lukang really can blow you off your bike. You wobble as you ride, and a sudden gust can turn both your handlebars and your bike sideways. The wind was so strong it lifted little stones off the asphalt and hurled them at us. They were tiny, but there were so many that getting hit on any uncovered skin really hurt. When we got to Lukang, we dropped our bags at the hotel. Calling it a hotel is a stretch: we had rented out an entire hostel, with one bunk for each of us and nobody else around, as long as we didn’t get too loud. That night we looked for food on Lukang Old Street and went back to the hostel for drinks. The next morning we slept until checkout. In the afternoon, we went to the beach in Lukang to fight. After getting covered in sand, we rode back to Taichung.
Shanlinxi
The day after the club trip, I went to Shanlinxi. This was a last-minute trip organized by Eilu2. It was called a group trip, but there were only two of us. We planned it too late (we probably made the plan on Tuesday and left on Sunday), and it was also a long weekend, so just the two of us made the trip to Shanlinxi. Before leaving, two college students tried to decide what time to set off. Since we were college students, there was no way we’d wake up for an 8 a.m. start, so we cautiously agreed to meet at 9:30 and leave from Taichung. But anyone who’s been there knows that if you arrive that late, you might as well turn back after taking just a few steps. After some discussion (and advice from my parents), we kept moving the departure earlier until we settled on 7:30.
That day, we drove south on Freeway 3. After taking some exit, we just kept going until we were deep in the mountains. I was driving, but I don’t remember how we got there. Once we reached Xitou, we rolled down the windows, and the car’s air-conditioning instantly turned into warm air. A natural nineteen-degree breeze drifted in through the windows. It had been a long time since I’d felt a mountain breeze like that. But the convoy behind us didn’t thin out after Xitou. Everyone was heading into Shanlinxi! That wasn’t what I expected, but never mind; I figured everyone must be taking a different route. We kept driving up and started seeing signs for the twelve zodiac animals. According to my dad, once you drive from the first zodiac sign to the last, you’re almost seeing God there. The road was one hairpin bend after another. The whole convoy stayed under 40 km/h; before we could even speed up, another sharp turn was already coming. If we went too fast, we’d fly off along the tangent. We were tossed around as we gripped the steering wheel, which was actually pretty fun.
There were quite a few people at Shanlinxi, which made sense given the convoy we’d followed in. We checked the map and figured that since we’d come all this way and still had time, we might as well walk all the way to the very end and back. It was pretty crowded at first, like hiking at Dakeng: people in front and behind, pushing us along with the flow so we couldn’t walk at our own pace. But past the waterfall, there were hardly any people. The trails at Shanlinxi follow a river upstream, and there’s a spot along the way where you can climb down and touch the water. Shanlinxi is so! beau! ti! ful! The photos are in the photo gallery.
Cafes
Studying in the school library every day gets too boring, so every few days I go study at a cafe. I feel a little bad about sitting there from afternoon until evening after ordering just one coffee. Lately I’ve been going to the Green River Roastery near campus. Everyone there seems to share the understanding that people come to study, so you can comfortably work there until closing. Their lattes are great too. I always get mine iced, but I’ve heard the hot ones are even better.
School
A Strange Class
The most frustrating course this semester is probably Introduction to Analysis, also known as advanced calculus, though so far it hasn’t shown any signs of having anything to do with calculus. We have class every Tuesday and Friday. Tuesday is a regular lecture, but the professor always starts sharing his philosophy of mathematics partway through. It’s his way of approaching math: vague and impractical, and once he gets going, he can’t stop. It eventually turns into his philosophy of life, basically a bunch of stuff unrelated to the course. On Fridays, there’s first a TA session (the only time we can actually learn something), and then he asks students to go to the board and work through exercises. You can get bonus points for going up, but it’s competitive, so it’s hard to get a turn. Those problems might show up on the midterm, which means he only tests problems we’ve already done. Don’t get too excited, though: the question bank ended up with nearly 60 problems, all proofs. Some of the proofs passed down from previous students have issues. After checking them and filling in the gaps, I’ll post a version that I think is reasonably solid. Feel free to collaborate if you’d like.
Research Project
Lately I’ve been wondering whether I should do a research project. It feels like you haven’t really gone to college if you don’t do one, especially since I did one in high school too. Not doing one would feel like a downgrade. It’ll probably be something related to machine learning. Exams and a project at the same time, here we go. I hope I’m still doing okay by the end of the semester.
Games
Genshin Impact
I have to say, HoYoverse really delivered with the Snezhnaya story. I thought it was even more exciting than the previous chapters, so I’m back! Now I’m waiting for the second half of the banner because I want to pull for Linnea. Don’t tell me I should save for the Tsaritsa instead; I’m pulling because she’s cute.