also posted on mit admissions one of my favorite quotes does not have a discernible origin. “dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude” is a refrain commonly attributed to anne frank, but wikiquote and other sources have been unable to locate it in any of her writings. … Continue reading regrets

my writing professor says the Right Way to write stories is character-driven; you start with very detailed descriptions of the main characters you want to talk about, and if those characters are sufficiently compelling then their interactions will emerge organically and that naturally gives rise to your plot. we talk about how plot-first writing often … Continue reading mit is still a bubble

(don’t worry @ my vegetarian friends this is not a food post) a few posts ago i mentioned turning my dorm room into a hotel. the site for that is up now so check it out if you ever want to stay in my room for whatever reason, and feel free to share with people … Continue reading salt and pepper chicken

so last week i was accepted as an mit admissions blogger, which is pretty cool! i am somewhat surprised because i think i have a tendency to occasionally write opinions that are unrelatable and blunt or inconsiderate towards people different from me, so i am not sure why admins thought it would be a good … Continue reading verbs

(i flew home from alaska on the 22nd and then flew to boston on the 26th. this post is still about my time in alaska. also, the title is my favorite lord huron song) there is a saying among alaskan natives that anchorage is like fairbanks, except with more people and all of them are … Continue reading meet me in the woods

last friday my internship ended, and the week since then has been pretty good immediately after work finished, i revived a project i started in june of trying to translate english into chinglish. my nlp algorithms for this are still incredibly basic and far from great, but i decided i simply didn’t have time to … Continue reading labor

so i installed tiktok last weekend, which is something i never would’ve considered last year or even six months ago. the tldr is that one of my housemates makes educational history videos on the app, and i was curious what they were like for a long time i’d had concerns about tiktok’s security and the … Continue reading tiktok

i have relocated to goldstream, alaska! i’m spending a total of three weeks here, hanging out with several ucla alumni in what is essentially a house in the woods near fairbanks. i lived with one of the people this past spring; the others are their college friends whom i didn’t know prior to coming here. … Continue reading goldstream

documenting my recent internet usage (also known as: the things i do when bored during work) the nba playoffs ended on july 20th. but while they were still ongoing i’d watch highlights and analysis videos, largely because i didn’t have the patience or emotional investment to watch games live. most basketball commentary is brainless but … Continue reading annihilation of joy

i’ve been thinking about this monologue from bojack recently:  Here’s a story. When I was a teenager, I performed a comedy routine for my high school talent show. There was this, uh, cool jacket that I wanted to wear because I thought it would make me look like Albert Brooks. For months, I saved up … Continue reading half-life