I'm a perfectionist at heart. And especially when it comes to my strongest subjects (i.e. math), I expect a lot from myself. The image here is from my first mathematics midterm. Do you see the word "unfinished" twice there? (You should definitely look at the full-sized image for this.) That certainly was not what I was hoping for. I know that "perfectionism is bad and is unattainable" is such an obvious lesson and definitely one which I should have learned a hundred times over by now (there were many such instances in high school), but I'm still here talking about it. In hindsight, I didn't even receive a bad grade on the midterm. All this to say that especially during my college years, I need to remember to keep my goals reasonable for my own sanity. Hopefully some day I learn this lesson.

Ahh, yes. Election Simulator. The one Computer Science 143 assignment that actually severely stressed me out. I took CSE 143 this year mostly because it's a requirement for basically every other Computer Science course in the Computer Science major. But in high school I had a lot of exposure to more complex computer programming. That made CSE 143 one of my easier classes this quarter - thankfully, so I could spend more time on other classes. That said, this might just have induced a little bit of complacency in myself regarding the class, which definitely didn't mean that I procrastinated super hard on this assignment ... Ok, aside from that, Election Simulator was a super stressful but also markedly helpful assignment, discounting the whoe procrastination thing. It forced me to overcome apparently impossible practical limitations and understand other people's code to complete the assignment. I especially appreciate the latter because I often code for myself for fun, but I rarely have to sit down and try to understand what someone else has written, which is often very challenging even if the writer left detailed comments on the code's functionality. That combined with new data structures was stressful - but fun!

This was the event that occurred during Autumn quarter. Sure, there have been panels in CSE 143 and guest speakers elsewhere, but this was the event that occurred outside normal class time that was of any real significance. Admittedly, some of this is because engagement is hard during online school, but that's not the point I'm making when I select this artifact. It's what the event was about that was significant: communicating about important issues to a divided public. There was so much that was said that I felt (and still feel) like I could use in my everyday life. Whether it's using strong and accurate language to describe crises as crises, such as "climate crisis" instead of potentially more neutral terms like "climate change" or "global warming," finding the true point of conflict, emphasizing to the apathetic the universal existence of personal gravitas on these issues, or especially respecting others as people with some cogent thought behind their beliefs, I found nearly the whole event to be amazing at making me rethink how I interact with others. I hope to have the opportunity to use these tools soon.

One of the best things that a person can do as a person is surround oneself with a variety of people. My friends, more often than not, are mathematically or scientifically oriented. In that sense, Article Club allows me to converse with a very different group of people. That was apparent in the first meeting in January. As we often talk about current events in Article Club, it isn't surprising to learn that everyone else in Article Club was either a social science or English major. This made the fortnightly meetings interesting, as I got to talk about the Capital riots, vaccination inequalities, reintroduction of wildlife, etcetera, with people who think differently from me. I got to hear a perspective focused more on relations and comparisions to history, on social inequalities. At the same time, I brought a more analytical perspective to shed light on the statistics and logic in the articles. It was also great being able to handle ideological differences in a calm, debate-like manner, as Article Club, a discussion-based club, should be. A great experience all around!

This was the final assignment (ok, technicaly the second-to-last assignment) for ENGL 182, and it was the culmination of everything I have learned in the class. And oh boy, did I learn something. I signed up for this course not knowing that "Multimodal Composition" meant the usage of visual artifacts to make an argument. However, I decided not to drop this class once I figured this out, instead sticking with the course despite not really being the artsy kind of person. And I would say that my persistence paid off! By the end of the course, I felt much more able to make an argument through or aided by a visual element. This assignment, Major Project 2, reflects my learning in the course. I made a map demonstrating the relationship between international affairs and the Olympics. This was such a good assignment for me because of, for example, how I was able to connect what was apparent visually with my argument - there have been more Olympics in the Northern hemisphere than the Southern hemisphere, and this reflects inequity in the Olympics venue selection process. The visual element also grounds the argument to a real place at the thumbnail, whose image is also deliberately selected. Although there's definitely still room for improvement, this was nevertheless my best assignment by far, earning it a place as a showcase artifact.

The Putnam! For the lack of a math team to join, the Putnam allowed a touch of continuity with my high school self. Although the Putnam is unofficial this year, being online and all that, I still treated it like I would any math competition. Of course, this is the first proof-based competition I have ever participated in - I've been in several hard competitions, but no proof-based ones until now. It was certainly different, but it was also the same. The MATH 13x series definitely put me in the right mood to complete proof questions. And for the first year of doing the Putnam, where the average competititor doesn't even complete one question, I was able to completely solve four questions, including a Problem 4, and I'll hopefully end up with a 40/120 this year. Needless to say, I was quite satisfied with how I did. All that's left now is to find the math team when everything goes in person, maybe take Math 342 (The Art of Problem Solving - not to be confused with the website of the same name), and I think I can do even better in future years!

This is one of the most agressive projects I have ever undertaken for a final project. Of course, Chinese is not the easiest subject for me, but I decided to draw my project on top of that. Part of that was because the project requires a visual component, but part of this choice was in order to challenge myself. Also, the dorm has huge whiteboards! 😀 This took Chinese skill obviously, but this project also required overcoming both a lack of drawing talent but also a conflicting desire for drawing perfectionism - I'm pretty sure part of the reason I think I'm bad at drawing is because my standard of "good" is realism, which my lack of skill cannot provide. Objectively, though, the project did well. I can always use work on my pronunciation, and the content itself was mostly just review of the material, I did get to consider how cultural differences impact our understanding of morality and ethics. That, and I received extra credit for my presentation on account of my approach combined with nice video editing. A few parts might be kind of cringe but oh well. You can see the project here!

I had several choices for a social artifact this quarter. Which is great - I had many opportunities to meet new and old friends! The downside to this is that I feel it would disservice anyone I didn't pick for my social artifact, unless I decided to give myself five artifacts just for friends, which honestly would get boring. So instead, this is a more neutral picture that still conveys the same idea, namely, I got to be on campus hang out! That said, I'm typically not a huge social bug so I don't go out with friends that often. However, after about a year of being at home, enjoying campus safely was definitely the best option. Aside from the Quad, I went to Denny Field at North campus fairly often, where I made some unlikely friends playing pick-up Ultimate Frisbee. Spring quarter is a great time for it - either that or we had an unreasonable amount of sunny days - and hopefully I can play some more (and be with friends in general more) when school comes back next school year.

One of the things I found out living on campus is that vegetables are not that easy to come by. Maybe it's the pandemic that's making things difficult, but there was really only one place where I could consistently get vegetables at Local Point was Tero. Granted, Tero was pretty good (the picture here is Tero flatbread, which is gluten and dairy free courtesy of goat cheese), and I could also go to the District Market to get a salad, but these options honestly got tiring. As a result, my diet was not the best while living on-campus; I'll need to figure out a way to eat healthier in the next few years of living away from home. I've realized how valuable my mother's cooking is for my health now; at home we traditionally have rice with some meat dish and some vegetable(!) dish. It always tasted good, but now it tastes all the better in comparison. Let's hope that either I learn how to cook or I'll find more vegetables (maybe cooked? That would be nice) to eat next year.

Living in Terry with the Honors community has been one of the best experiences in my college life so far! Of course, I have my roommate, Cole, with whom I have great chemstry; I couldn't ask for a better roommate. Then, at least on the fourth floor, there are so many people hanging out to talk about current events or school, play late-night poker games, and do homework together. Several people on the floor also took MATH 134 this quarter, and as my schedule was pretty manageable this quarter, I made myself as available as possible to help out friends in the dorm with proofs - quite a difficult concept to understand if you don't have a background in it. That said, apparently the fourth floor of Terry has a penchant for cooking .... or the exact opposite of it, as Terry triggered something like four fire alarms during the quarter.

I followed through with my plan last quarter to cook for myself for the sake of my health. Over the summer, my mom helped me learn how to use an instant pot, and I relied on that this quarter to make ground beef or pork every week or so. With rice and frozen broccoli as well, I didn't have to rely solely on university food for the whole quarter! Aside from instant pot food, mom stocked me up with canned soup that's actually good, and healthy ramen, because college students and ramen. And the result was, in combination with Autumn quarter being in-person causing me to walk more places as well, I maintained my weight this quarter. Aside from the health benefits of this kind of food, it's also very nostalgic, and helps me feel more at home at the dorms.

Of course, the highlight of this quarter was that we were finally back in person! I had forgotten how nice it was to take notes on paper again, see an instructor face-to-face, raise hands, have a blackboard or whiteboard, talk to the professor or classmates after class, etcetera, etcetera. With COVID still circulating, it is a little awkward at times, but definitely an upgrade from online classes. Here, I'm taking MATH 334 along with Alicia Stepin, an old high school friend. Specifically for MATH 334, being in-person is a boon for his story-telling and body language are incredible as he goes about the details of somewhat humorous stories of famous mathematicians. Looking forward to the in-person experience for the rest of the school year!

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