8/30 #
A fantastic facet of the Steam platform is that you can always find unique, creative, and surprising indie games. Recently, I really wanted to play RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike, but it doesn’t support macOS, and so I have to buy a PC (and a monitor). This will be part of my plan after moving to another flat at the end of the year. For now, I don’t have a desk with enough space for all of these. Anyway, I was playing 9 Kings instead as a substitute, because it was just on a 50% discount. I beat all nine kings; some of them are so imba, so I just played and won, while others are weak and thus I needed to think up some strategies. Still, I had fun. The figure shows a Lab Rat Solo Strategy I used. The ability of rats is “Levelling up whenever adjacent plots level up, with no max level”, so basically, you deploy rats at every plot, combining with a tower that can automatically level up a random plot at the end of a round. This strategy has unlimited growth potential, but I was only able to reach round 92 due to the computer’s performance limitations.
8/31 #
Whenever there is a conflict in the relationship, I remind myself of these words from The Little Prince:
I shouldn’t have listened to her. You must never listen to flowers. You must look at them and smell them. Mine perfumed my planet… I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words. She perfumed my planet and lit up my life… I ought to have realised the tenderness underlying her silly pretensions.
9/4 #
I read the manga Ajin: Semi-Human (亞人, あじん). I didn’t finish it.
I was researching China’s sixth-generation strike fighters and the history of 成飞 and 沈飞, the two industries that developed different prototypes. When I say “researching”, I mean watching videos on Bilibili.
Today, I negotiated with my PhD supervisor and confirmed that I don’t need to be on campus on weekdays, unlike the old arrangement when I worked as a full-time research assistant. Another thing was the preparation for the ARWA 2026 conference. I realised that I cannot use the funding to travel to the conference until I pass the qualification exam and become a PhD candidate. I may still be able to be there, with my supervisor (using his funding instead). Hope this happens.
We watched Tommy Emmanuel live on September 2nd. He mentioned the name of his upcoming album, which I misunderstood as Living in the Live. Turns out, it should be Living in the light, when I searched for it on the Internet later. Both real name and the name I misheard are perfect.
9/5 #
I was just on the balcony, gathering my laundry /ˈlɔːn.dri/, and I saw the biggest cockroach (蟑螂) that I have ever seen in my life (as big as my big toe). It fell out of the clothes, and then I wanted to stomp on it. However, it rushed away to the edge of the balcony railing /ˈreɪ.lɪŋ/ and spread its wings and flew away.
I think a very different aspect between youth and tedious adults is the frequency of sharing thoughts (like, on social media platforms). Young people always feel excited about everything and would like to let others know. I don’t mean adults don’t act like that, but they have to behave like adults in most situations. Now, I really enjoy this personal website. I can record myself in a relatively private space, unlike other social media apps, and only those genuinely interested in me or truly caring about me will take the time to visit this website to check out my thoughts. I feel safe.
9/7 #
Bilibili is the best web music player.
9/9 A Dream #
I have a dream this early morning: Every animal on Earth becomes extremely aggressive and grows sharp teeth. I ran to a spaceship at a playground (possibly the one in my primary school). I was safe once I was onboarded. The broadcast from the spacecraft announced, in English (it seemed like this was the first time I’d dreamed in English), that Earth was no longer suitable for living, so we were going to leave to search for a new planet, but no spacesuits would be provided.
9/11 Another Dream #
I have another dream today: I was bitten by a short, fat おじさん and became a vampire. I hunt other students. To avoid being caught, I would quietly descend from the upper floor of the student apartment building to the lower floor after attacking someone. This succeeded several times, but people gradually became suspicious of me.
9/13 #
I was wondering whether the neural activities in the human brain (e.g., neural functions) that correspond to a specific psychological behaviour (e.g., decision-making) are one-to-one correspondences between individuals, or if they merely appear similar in particular brain areas. I doubt it’s the latter. For example, someone may train a Bert, while others train a GPT.
Phonological awareness is also helpful during spelling. This is what I learned from personal experience. Taking “engieering” as an example of long English words (well, at least, for English beginning learners, it’s long), every time I write “engieering”, I will first think about “engine”, and then realise that the second half should be something like “deer” puls “ing”. Which means, the spelling of long words can be decoded as the combination of some short words and/or compounds. Such a process should become automated and unconscious after practising.
Chinese people can “remedy” the lack of an element in 五行 (including gold, wood, water, fire, and earth) by choosing a corresponding Chinese character for their names, usually done by their parents at birth. For example, if you lack wood (木), your parents probably would add 森 or 林 in your name (many woods here, right?). But I was wondering, how do Western people achieve this? They don’t have Chinese characters (a logographic language) in their names! It turns out that such a process is just an unscientific Chinese traditional belief to help lazy people name their children without effort.
I was reading a New York Times article that introduces information about a pre-eminent professor, and I just realised that the name of the rapper Eminem implies eminent!? How interesting. I really need to read more to be a pro.
9/16 #
I stayed up late to play Hollow Knight: Silksong last night. I woke up at 10:00 and bought two tickets for 盘尼西林’s livehouse show at 11:11 (the exact time the ticket purchase opened). This show is scheduled for October 18th, the day before my birthday.
9/17 #
I discussed possible future humanoid robot servant products with Bblythe, who has a strict requirement for daily chores. We agreed that people should also be polite to robots.
9/18 #
I found that the hamburger buns at the 盒马鲜生 supermarket tasted particularly good, better than those I bought elsewhere, including affordable supermarkets in Hong Kong.
9/21 #
Guess who was so happy about ordering a late-night delivery of two McFlurries and three fries? Hint: it wasn’t me.
9/25 Love in Education #
I want to cultivate professional and passionate students who understand what love is and can genuinely love others. Love is crucial and has been neglected in education. We should love students equally and teach them using professional knowledge, rather than persuading /pəˈsweɪd/ them using unfair status and fake reasons. Supervisors should know that students may not be as experienced as they are in a specific expert domain, but they are not stupid. We should love them equally. Of course, I don’t mean respect is unnecessary. Chinese adults keep talking with ridicule that our generation “grew up in a sealed jar”. I think it’s not a flaw, but rather an advantage: only those who have been loved know how to love others and treat them kindly. As evidence, empirical studies have already demonstrated that a hostile family environment impairs a child’s academic achievement and mental health. These words also apply to the support for early-career researchers.
9/30 The Third Dream #
A dream: I was born in a big family. I wanted to swat a mosquito, but I couldn’t find it. An adult dragged the arm of a sleeping baby, and the mosquito landed on the baby’s white, soft, vulnerable arm, so the adult swatted it easily. How impressive.
We watched Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc in Hong Kong.
I am trying a “specific citation” method. That means, I will try to mention the specific page(s) when quoting others’ opinions/statements. Instead, when mentioning general conclusions from studies, I will adhere to the general APA citation format. I think many researchers (especially students) do not distinguish “quoting” and “citing” since these two distinct concepts share the same word in Chinese (i.e., 引用). Perhaps I should emphasise that in my future class (if I have one) and encourage using this strategy for practice.
BBlythe watched me pee right at my flat before we left for dinner. She said that was just an accident, and she was too curious about it, but that’s unfair. The next time I noticed her peeing, I rushed into the bathroom to pay her back, but then I immediately realised that I couldn’t inspect her “faucet outlet” when she was sitting on the toilet, since females have quite a different body structure from males. I also found that she used three pieces of tissue after peeing, whereas I usually use only one and fold it twice.