Diary

Chathuranga is back and brought us gifts - fridge magnets and jasmine tea. Very nice. We had lunch together at noon. Our regular group meeting at noon was uneventful. Started learning about Typst and FEM, then began studying VIM. After dinner at home, continued learning VIM. This editor is incredibly difficult to use.

Gemini gave me some great advice while I was learning Neovim. It made a very good point: 13:33 “For beginners, ‘over-intelligent’ tools are often the biggest obstacle to learning.” Since I am using a “cleaned-up” tutorial, I shouldn’t obsess over the missing ‘X’ in the exercise. The core purpose of Lesson 1.4 is simply to learn how to use i to append missing characters. As long as I identify where a line is missing text and manually complete it, I’ve achieved the goal of the exercise. ...

Today is Saturday. I woke up early to video call Huan before she went to bed. I scolded her a bit again because I feel she often represses her emotions just to be a “good person.” I don’t think that’s healthy, especially between family and partners—it’s important to be honest about how we feel. After the call, I started working on my assignment. I’ve really come to enjoy using Quarto and LaTeX to complete my homework; the results look very professional. ...

Since I had no classes today, I spent the entire day working on my assignments. In the morning, Luis invited me to a breakfast event, but I turned him down. He then called Amir, who suggested that Luis ask me one more time, but I declined again. However, when they returned, Luis brought a burger back for me. I felt a bit guilty and embarrassed for having said no so many times when he was being so thoughtful. To make up for it, I shared some meat and an egg with him during lunch, which made me feel a little better. ...

I didn’t sleep well last night and didn’t fall asleep until almost two o’clock. I was exhausted the entire day today. On top of that, I had classes all day today. Three classes were truly draining. In the morning and again in the evening, Xiaohuan and I got into some confusing arguments over things that didn’t really make sense. Perhaps we both need to read more, experience more, and feel more. ...

I didn’t sleep very well last night, so I felt quite groggy when I woke up today. Despite the tiredness, it was a very fulfilling day of study. I spent the entire day reading literature and recorded my thoughts and to-do items in my weekly log (2026-W03). I also managed to submit my assignments. In the morning, I grabbed a coffee with Dr. Zhao. During lunch with Luis, Amir, and Dr. Zhao, we ran into Zheng, and I introduced everyone. Without realizing it, I’ve once again become the central hub and a bridge for connecting different people in the group. ...

I don’t know why some things are so energy-consuming, especially tasks like writing in my journal or studying. My day mostly consisted of attending two classes and working on my Rock Mechanics homework. Aside from that, it was a quiet day with nothing major to report. In addition, I called the RBC to get $6 refund.