two years

this love never dies

Hey there! it’s been a while, but happy April :) I originally wrote a different version of this post around Valentine’s Day (incidentally also around the time of the UNESCO Day of International Women and Girls in Science), which I decided not to publish because I wasn’t very happy with it. also, between vacating my office, then coming back to campus for a few weeks before QIP¹, then coming back, then the APS meeting², …, and so on, winter quarter was much more hectic than I initially envisioned. still, I’m happy about feeling like I’ve made some progress towards figuring out how I want my life in grad school to look. (side note: I can’t believe I’ve been here for almost two years already!)

A funny story: about a year and a half ago, I was calling my undergrad advisor, and when he asked how grad school was going so far, I told him that there seemed to be a lot of free time compared to undergrad. I think he was surprised by my answer, but then he told me that maybe it was because in his experience, you usually have fewer commitments immediately after moving somewhere new, but that your schedule usually found ways to fill itself up after a few years. a year and a half later, I’m once again amazed by the wisdom of people who are older than me. here’s a roundup of some of the things that have recently occupied my time:

climbing mountains

I remember reading in elementary school that the polar explorer Roald Amundsen had trained himself from a young age to brave the elements by leaving his bedroom window open in the middle of winter. I think the inclusion of this fact was intended as a tribute to his steadfastness and heroism, but I found it mostly pretty unrelatable and a bit jarring. partially this was because growing up, my parents were very attentive to my health, but I couldn’t imagine so willfully defying the modern American comforts of insulation and central heating.

I could list other, more subtle, cultural factors which might explain why I didn’t identify with the rugged archetype of an outdoorsman, but this is starting to be a bit of a long-winded exercise in framing. in short, the message that I want to convey here is that ten years ago, I never would have described myself as particularly athletic or outdoorsy, and it took a number of misadventures in undergrad plus some kind of cultural shift in recent years that’s led to indoor bouldering becoming… kind of mainstream in university and tech circles? for me to start thinking of myself as someone that might actually enjoy climbing (plastic?) mountains.

“it’s called bouldering, Mika…” (screencap from Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe)

That said, I think it would be fun to get outside a little more, especially while I’m still on the west coast. let me know if you have any notes on hikes or your favorite underrated locations in California!

asking (and answering) questions

The older I get, the more I feel like asking questions is an underemphasized life skill. this probably deserves a whole post on its own, but I’ve been thinking more about how to ask good questions in both the academic and personal settings. on that note: I’ve also decided to open an anonymous ask box! call it nostalgia, but I used to really liked this feature back when I was on tumblr in the mid 2010s, and I’m hoping that it’ll make this blog feel a bit more inspired. feel free to send in anything, though no guarantees that I’ll post it!

on what comes after

I recently watched Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End per the recommendation of a friend, who described it as the best anime they had ever seen. while I’m not sure I’d go that far, I did find the premise intriguing, and I can see why it’s caught on in my circles (largely recent postgrads). I also appreciated Frieren’s perspective on magic, mainly because it feels appropriately nutty and academic for an ironic take on the medieval fantasy tradeperson. if she had been collecting something other than magic, like botanical specimens, or integral tricks, or exotic phenomena in symmetry-protected topological phases, she would’ve been a pretty believable character.

But going back to the premise, I found it refreshing that the anime centered around a character who had already experienced more lifetimes and adventures than most commoners could imagine. not only that, but at the open of the story, she had already successfully returned from slaying the Demon King, dismantling the reign of the demons and paving the way for the era of humans all during a “mere ten-year journey”. although the show doesn’t really ask it outright, to me the setup begs the question of how future mages will ever surpass these achievements. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I think some partial answers emerge in a decently satisfying way by the end of the first season.

lightning round

Some other things I’ve consumed recently and enjoyed:

1. The first six-and-a-half chapters of Celeste A-sides, while I was recovering from a cold. my friend gifted me a copy of the game back in 2022, but I only just got around to it… I’m not sure if the gameplay really feels like bouldering, but I can see why it’s a classic

2. “Big Deal” from Forever is a Feeling. easily the best track on the record imo

3. A cocktail that came with a dash of good luck (a fortune slip). really liked this concept!

   

4. Clay pot rice with spare ribs from Ma’s Dim Sum & Cafe in SF Chinatown. never understood the hype around clay pot rice, until I tried this iteration

5. A set of wallpapers from Microsoft Design for Design Milk’s Nov ‘24 feature riffing off of the iconic “Bliss” photo, better known as the Windows XP default wallpaper. did you know that the original photograph was developed without any kind of manipulation or enhancement? all thanks to the power of Fujifilm Velvia, I guess

6. Wildflowers & wisteria blooms, all over California. even though it’s shorter here, spring is still my favorite time of the year <3

   

1. a.k.a. Quantum Information Processing, one of the biggest conferences for quantum information theory

2. APS combined the March and April Meetings this year into the Global Physics Meeting… I’ve never been to a March Meeting before, or any conference with over 2,000 people, so this was a very enlightening experience