Art on not quite an expert

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Luck Favors the Lucky

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In The Art of Doing Science and Engineering, Richard Hamming repeats Louis Pasteur’s remark: “Luck favors the prepared mind”, emphasizing personal responsibility in success. However, if we examine it through the book, the prepared mind itself depends on luck.

Hamming’s prepared mind can think and understand fundamental concepts like n-dimensional spaces. By his observation, few minds can do so. By my observation, lucky minds can do so.

Hamming also describes through various anecdotes the problems and resources he had access to at Bell Labs. Throughout the stories, the rise of digital computers which few predicted frames many of Hamming’s successes. These too resemble luck.

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Eat Sh*t and Die

Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I originally started reading The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard Hamming a few years ago. Though I got distracted by more easily digestible books, so I dropped it a few chapters in. Now untethered, I finally finished the book. If you think you’re getting a proper summary, you’ve got another think coming: I’m here to blather on about a tangentially related topic!

In his chapters about artificial intelligence (AI), Hamming asks: to what extent can machines think? Before that, to what extent can people think?

Big Things for Big Rooms

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some psychology research suggests people tend to see larger works of art as better.¹ Large-scale works can evoke a sense of awe or importance. Size is such an important visual attribute that we process size pre-attentively. However, some additional psychology research suggests people can misattribute their preferences to meanings rather than size.

To my friends who describe themselves as not liking museums I suggest we go to the Metropolitan Museum, which houses such large-scale works as the Temple of Dendur and the choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid. A recent exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum, “Big Things for Big Rooms” takes this idea to the extreme. Sure, this pile of rocks seems basic. However, it’s a large pile of rocks in a museum, so it must be important.

Marie Kondo's glass drawers and character development

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

To decorate my desk in the office, I got Marie Kondo’s stackable glass drawers. I went through some real hassle to get them. Since they had been discontinued, I couldn’t order them online. I had to order them from the Container Store in Staten Island, then get them picked up and delivered via Uber!

Why did I go through that hassle? Because I enjoy Marie Kondo’s “character development”.

In her essay about chadō, “the way of tea”, in Letter from Japan,¹ Kondo reflects:

Concept albums

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Compared to many books I’ve read, the critically acclaimed concept albums Wallsocket and Magic, Alive! have less developed characters and less coherent narrative flows. So why do I listen to and enjoy these albums so much?

“The medium is the message”, Marshall McLuhan claims, or less strongly, “the medium shapes the message”, I claim. Detailed dialogue and exposition generally don’t make for compelling lyrics in music. However, music incorporates additional distinct channels - instrumentation, tempo, and volume, to name a few - that communicate meaning, and more broadly build a differently compelling story.

Gowanus Open Studios

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On October 18, I went to Gowanus Open Studios, during which hundreds of artists in Gowanus open their studios to the public.

I felt a real high when the artist in fashion noted I clearly cared about fashion. Then I immediately felt a real low when I hugged the artist goodbye out of habit to meet up with my friend, only to re-enter the studio to meet up with that friend who walked in as I walked out.

Principles for dress

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve started to dress better for others (for me). And since I deliberate and iterate¹ so intensely, I’ve also started to listen to a podcast about clothes.

In the episode “How To Dress” of Articles of Interest, the founder of Tibi lays out principles for how to dress, an enticing framing for a mind afflicted with Engineers’ Disease (ED).

After visiting Tibi’s flagship store in SoHo to read The Creative Pragmatist, the book behind the episode, I’d claim very few principles for dress generalize well across people and time. However, I’ve found these principles generalize pretty well, from most to least generalizable:

Bouquet for coffee II: arrangement

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Another subway ride and I brought the vase and micro dried bouquet to the office.¹ While I lost a few bits of sea lavender and larkspur to the underground, I managed to keep the vase and almost all of the bouquet intact.

Dried stems don’t need it, so I didn’t add water into my vase. However, without anything in the vase, the stems wouldn’t stay in place. I adjusted, and readjusted, and readjusted. And the more I adjusted, the more buds of sea lavender flaked, and the more blooms of larkspur broke.

Bouquet for coffee I: acquisition

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Upon visiting Manjul Coffee & Clothing, I got inspired to enjoy coffee via presentation.

I found the Kinto brand of drinkware, part of the larger sphere of Japanese luxuries which includes matcha, Uniqlo, and fruity whisky. Kinto also makes flower vases, including a few-stem vase so I don’t spend forever arranging stems like last time.

After buying the few-stem vase in NoLIta, I rode the subway, vase in hand, to Bushwick, where I found a florist offering mini dried bouquets. The florist and I admired the unique design of the vase, then worked together, considering color, structure, and texture, to make a micro dried bouquet of sea lavender and larkspur. Feeling either satisfied by our collaboration or eager to earn the future business of this few-stem vase weirdo, the florist gifted me the stems free of charge. I felt like the specialest, softest boi!

Getting steamed

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I got excited about buying my first good belt,¹ so I bought some nice button-down and button-up shirts. They came out of the dryer embarrassingly wrinkled. Like I tried playing it cool wearing one the next day, and a coworker explicitly noted how wrinkled my shirt looked!

To avoid owning too much stuff, like an iron, an ironing board, and all that, I researched a steamer to remove the wrinkles. Fortunately, I found the right model like new on eBay, so I ordered it, excited to steam away my problems.

Exactly what I want

Sat, 31 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

They produce so much content that I often find exactly what I want without knowing I wanted it. For example:

As it gets easier to produce content, even generate content (via prompts), I worry that I’ll get exactly what I want and not much else, missing out on content that would challenge me and expand my tastes.

Pun I: frankincense

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In one of our many hours-long calls, I was telling my friend about my attempt to mimic Hwyl: the motivation, and the mixing, and ultimately, the mess.

I felt like a mad scientist, or as I explained “this may become my Mindful Mommy Joker moment”. I had the essential oils: vetiver, cypress, and frankincense (the most expensive). However, I was roughly approximating the other listed ingredients, obscure fragrance chemicals like eugenol and d-limonene, with other essential oils I had on hand.

My fragrance

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A fragrance-making primer from the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO) got me excited to make another iteration of my Hwyl.

This iteration feels much more mine, not just in the sense/scents that I mixed. I drew more from the earnest and scientific spirit of the IAO rather than the pretentious spirit of Aesop.

On materials:

We believe, at the IAO, that nothing is inherently more valuable than anything else in this weird, wonderful, multiplicitous world. In other words, no one way of working is superior to another. However, we tend to encourage people to try everything, to work with both naturals AND synthetics, to make use of accords if they want to, but always be open to changing their minds.

Renting clothes

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone has principles of clothing, even if just “I want something cheap and comfortable enough (see satisficing)” or “I wear what I can”.

Under my current principles:

I start with quality basics in neutral colors
I finish with final touches in loud colors and patterns
I try not to spend more than an average person could splurge

To fulfill the second principle, I’ve started renting “statement pieces” from a service touting "[p]ersonal styling by experts and AI". “AI” here signals startup.

Rose absolute III: juice

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After soaking the rose petals in ethanol, and filtering out the petals, I now have a jar of what looks like pee. I gotta concentrate the good good stuff in the pee jar to get a sufficiently potent rose adulterate.

In sufficient concentration, next to an open flame, ethanol will EXPLODE. A lil quirky, I know, I don’t like to EXPLODE. So I need to evaporate the ethanol without an open flame; I pull out my instant pot for the first time in weeks.

Rose absolute II: adulterate

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I ended up buying 200-proof “food-grade” ethanol. “Food-grade” doesn’t mean you should drink it; it means un-denatured - typically alcohol comes denatured with bad-tasting mixins to discourage young children from consuming.

My friend and I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations, and with the amount of rose petals I’m using, I could expect a drop of rose absolute. With “mechanical losses” like some getting stuck to the side of the jar, a drop basically comes out to nothing! My ego can’t take that!

Rose absolute I: solvent extraction

Sat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s say you really want to smell the roses, like a concentrated BLAST of roses. Only a small portion of roses creates its smell, which you can extract into rose absolute.

You create rose absolute through a process known as solvent extraction. The solvent extracts the desired compounds, and after separating the solvent, you have the desired compounds.

To make solvent extraction more effective, we prefer a solvent that:

extracts more of the desired compounds
extracts less of the undesired compounds
separates easily from the desired compounds

For roses, I am using ethanol, in which the desired rose fragrance compounds easily dissolve,¹ and which evaporates at an easily achieved temperature (above room temperature).

Hwyl III: reflections

Sat, 11 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I finally made my copycat Hwyl! 3 reflections:

Basics get you to substance

In arts of smell and taste (tea, coffee, wine, cheese, perfume, etc.) you reach for “notes”, suggestions for what to expect.

You can keep the notes basic, and people will understand. For example, while mixing the essential oils, I was smelling for woodsy, citrusy, and floral notes, to balance them. Anyone with a working sense of smell would understand what those mean.

Hwyl II: optics

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I framed before that a product consists of function and aesthetics. Analogously, I frame a job consists of substance and optics. By “substance”, I mean a job does something useful, and by “optics”, I mean everything we could vary while maintaining the same substance, especially how someone appears to do a “better” job.

Heuristically, you can tell if a job has less substance if it has more optics.¹ Call me a philistine, I believe “high” fashion jobs have little substance because they have so much optics.

Hwyl I: aesthetics

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When you buy a product, you pay for function and aesthetics. By “function”, I mean the product does something useful, and by “aesthetics”, I mean everything we could vary while maintaining the same function, especially how the product appears.

I understand the distinction between function and aesthetics becomes hazy depending on people’s values. However, I wouldn’t consider it arbitrary. Some of it comes from the world - a world where people must eat, for example, about which I have a lot to say.

A curated selection of wall art from Za Pizza

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

ZABLAZZZKING

Our artist, anonymous perhaps to avoid the cops, has helpfully drawn a weed leaf. You can tell by the excessive enthusiasm that they have probably never actually smoked weed.

“The Daddy Special”

Yes, I can tell this refers to some pizza topping combination. No, it did not help to exclaim “Daddy’s full”.

Za 피자 (Pizza)

The artist clarifies “피자 means pizza. It’s Korean.” Hmph, very redundant. Almost like a young child with English as a second language. Almost.

San Francisco Bahn Mi

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Preparation

1 bottle of vinegar from the Safeway you only go to at night with the homeless people
1 cucumber from Gus’s Community Market, purveyor of fine and un-fine SF brands

Try to figure out how to use a mandoline slicer
Slice the entire cucumber super thin
Almost slice your finger
Mix with vinegar in one of your mason jars, of which you now have a menacing amount

Base

1 slice of milk bread from Breadbelly
1 glob of mayo from the cheapest brand, because you probably won’t use it all anyway
(Optional) 1 drop of sweat from biking to Breadbelly

Cover one side of the bread with mayo
Toast for 3 minutes - weirdly soft??
Toast for 3 more minutes - burnt black!!

Toppings

1 slab of country pâté from Maison Nico
A bunch of cilantro leaves
A few slices of pickled cucumber

Cover the burnt side of the bread with pâté, wondering how to pronounce French words
Top with cilantro leaves, recalling that time you put cilantro in boba tea in front of your coworkers - you no longer work there
Forget about your (now suspiciously old) pickled red onions and layer with pickled cucumber slices

Meat

1 or 2 or whatever slices of whatever meat you have laying around

Just finish up the sandwich and eat it, you over-the-top bih

Mocktails

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

“Mocktails” refers to non-alcoholic drinks mocking alcoholic cocktail drinks. I don’t like the term “mocktails.”

“Mocktails” implies a natural, superior alcoholic and an imitation, inferior non-alcoholic. However, non-alcoholic drinks have some advantage of flavor and flexibility. Alcohol tastes bitter and burns your throat, because your body recognizes it as toxic; non-alcoholic drinks don’t have to “overcome” that taste hurdle. And most people aren’t trying to get sch-wasted on a workday; they could then drink something non-alcoholic without guilt.

How to read today

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I just finished reading How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. Originally published in 1940, the book has aged surprisingly well, save for a few antiquated passages.

Since 1940, the Internet has radically changed how we read. Websites and search engines have largely replaced physical media. And against this unprecedentedly large collection of digital media, their advice, that different pieces deserve different amounts/levels of your time and effort, rings even more true.

Recipe for Airport Egg Salad Sandwiches

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Start with a uniquely textured bread.

You want a color between white and whole grain bread, so both people who prefer the taste of white and people who prefer the health of whole grain will feel slightly confused. You also want the texture of plastic, to scare your eater into thinking they forgot to remove a layer of packaging.

Take some egg, and mash it into an unrecognizable paste.

Most “chefs” and “cooks” and “normal people” would recommend leaving a bit of variance in texture. Those same idiots would also suggest diced celery or onion for crunch, or, you know salt. Clearly, they have not received the luxurious grace of Airport Egg Salad Sandwich God.

Human taquito

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

You know those mattress-in-a-box companies like Casper or Purple that ship mattresses directly to consumers? Taking advantage of their generous return policies, I ordered 3 mattresses in boxes my senior year, just after winter break.

Each of these mattresses they sent compressed in a giant plastic bag, so suddenly I had a gigantic pile of plastic. Rather than try to recycle the plastic, I kept it beside my bed, to … I don’t know … admire.

Lychee and lime

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I dream of lychee and lime. I dream of a floral sweet accentuated by a tangy sour.

Last week I biked to Japantown in search of lychees, leaving with only a consolation of lychee-flavored soda. Determined, I called a fruit store in the Mission, and to my joy, they had stocked lychees just the day before.

Lightly heaving from biking a few miles, I bought 24 little red gems. 12 I submerged in neutral vodka to make extract, and the other 12 in water and sugar to make syrup.

Apples and moons

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What type of apple do you like the most? When I visited Seattle, I took a bite of the semi-famous Cosmic Crisp. Sweet, tangy, crispy, until very recently the Cosmic Crisp represented my favorite apple. This week I journeyed to the Berkeley Bowl to continue my Apple Quest.

After getting off the BART, I biked over to The Cheese Board Collective, a semi-famous pizzeria lauded by a stranger I met drunk at a party. I ordered myself a whole pizza and a rose lemonade in a fancy glass bottle, and parked on the edge of the outdoor seating. Donning the semi-famous Chicago Lean to not dirty my white shirt, I faced the road to watch people zip by against the backdrop of California’s hills.

Chords

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

When I play guitar, the notes A, C, and E form the A minor chord. The notes A, C#, and E form the A major chord.

When I type on my stenotype keyboard, the chord HAOEL pressed simultaneously forms “heel.” The chord HAEL pressed simultaneously forms “heal.”

When I write Chinese, the simplified Han characters 花 and 园 form the segment 花园, meaning garden. The characters 花 and 椒 form the segment 花椒, meaning Sichuan peppercorn.

Look at all those links to other posts! I’ve started to notice the idea of “chords” across domains. You can combine notes, keys, characters, whatever you’d like to call them, to form distinct meanings.

Sunflowers

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I

Until I started school, I slept in my parents’ room. As I swim through the depths of my mind for memories of that time, I see sunflowers. Rather, a painting of sunflowers hanging on the bedroom wall.

I remember finding it strange the different directions the flowers face. I learned sunflowers face the sun.

In truth, sunflowers follow the sun only in their youth. Before blooming, they follow to gather more sunlight for photosynthesis. And shortly after blooming, they follow to gather warmth for pollination. Once mature, however, they stop moving, giving up sunlight and warmth to face their own direction.

Reasons to cook

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Since moving to San Francisco, I’ve cooked fewer times than I can count with my left hand. This seems strange for someone who cares enough about cooking to write about it.

Realizing how little I’ve cooked recently, I wanted to briefly survey why people cook, why I haven’t, and why I’d cook more.

Reasons other people cook (and why I haven’t)

Economic necessity

The labor of cooking costs money, and if you can do it yourself, you can save that money.¹ Many people cannot afford to pay someone else to cook for them, because they need to save that money to cover the cost of necessities. Others may still find cooking worthwhile, because they can invest that saved money in a more financially prosperous future.

Bottlehead Crack

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

For Cyber Monday, I ended up purchasing the Bottlehead Crack, a DIY headphones amplifier targeted at high impedance headphones like the Sennheiser HD 6XX I already owned. In this post, I’d like to break down why.

Optimizing seller perspective

I think of price from the seller’s perspective as the sum of

cost of inputs + cost of logistics + value of performance + value of marketing + value of usability

Assuming, I cannot control the cost of inputs nor logistics, if I hold the price constant and want to maximize the value of performance, I would “diminish” the value of marketing and usability.

Comparing audio equipment

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

This week, while shopping for a new headphones amp, I’ve been looking for “best” headphones amps. This begs the question: how do we best compare audio equipment?

Resolution vs. profile

Okay, so obviously on a high level the “best” audio equipment produces the “best” audio. However, what constitutes “best” audio turns out much more challenging than you might expect.

An easy (and in my not-quite-an-expert opinion, bad) definition of “best” audio relates to resolution. You could say the “best” audio equipment setup utilizes the most and loses the least music “information” in producing audio. However, as I covered in a previous post:

Why do you play (music)?

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I asked my friend, while they were playing their recently bought guitar.

For romantic others

My friend thought it romantic to serenade a partner with a ballad on the guitar. Many a sappy love song come originally or well arranged for an acoustic guitar.

For platonic others

I jokingly asked if they wanted to annoy others at parties by playing guitar. Though in an intimate setting, two or three people, I like the idea of singing along together with a guitar. At the same time, I feel shy enough about singing that I don’t know if I could muster the will.

Audiophilia: resolution vs. profile

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Take these two side-by-side images of The Great Wave off Kanagawa: One of them has the resolution 3858x2592 pixels, the other 1929x1296 pixels (scaled back up to 3858x2592 for comparison). Can you tell them apart?

I can’t. If you can, I bet you have to look really close to notice a difference. If I take a 12x12 sample of each’s bottom-left corner (and scale it up), you cal tell the difference: The left side has the lower resolution.

Michelangelo / Pontormo

Sat, 29 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I

Michelangelo did not want to paint the Sistine Chapel. Yet Pope Julius II insisted. In 1508 Italy, one could not refuse the pope, so Michelangelo had to paint the Sistine Chapel.

Hoping to get the Chapel over with, Michelangelo sought assistants. Art historian Giorgio Vasari recalls he even brought Aristotile, among five other painters, to Rome in hopes of assisting the frescoes. Aristot i le the painter, not Aristotle the Greek philosopher, unfortunately (no time shenanigans here). Unable to find suitable candidates, Michelangelo painted nearly the whole ceiling himself.

Small touches

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

I haven’t been cooking as much as I would like lately. To fill that gap, I’ve been watching videos from the emmymade channel:

Go to 6:04 and watch for 15 seconds. No really, I’ll wait. These words won’t disappear when you’re not looking.

Snow boots

Did you see that? When Emmy walked out of the shot, the camera focused on the snow boots, helpfully labeled “snow boots.”

Beatrice / Digi

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Content warning: transphobia, mental illness

Introduction

I used to watch a YouTube channel, Digibro, focused on anime analysis. I enjoyed the content on Digibro for its incredible critical detail, e.g. this 50 000+ words, 4+ hours video essay “The Asterisk War Sucks”. Some time around May 2020, I noticed the channel name and narrator voice changed, and found this tweet:

Thinking about going femme and changing my name to Diginee and branding myself as anitube’s big sister

The relative non-importance of color

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Quick! Describe this! When asked to describe something, our minds jump quickly to visual information. A basic visual description will include color and brightness. For instance, I would say the image contains “a bright yellow, green, and blue bird with dark patches.” Formally, brightness we call “luminance” or “luma.” Independent of luminance, color we call “chrominance” or “chroma.”

JPEG compression

As it turns out, humans have finer spatial sensitivity to luminance than to chrominance. As a practical example, let’s take the JPEG compression process.

Medium nudges expression

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A continuation of this post

Introduction

In the previous post linked above, I introduced the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and proposed that the hypothesis applied to both natural and technical languages. This time, I want to expand that idea, that rules and structure influence thinking, to the medium itself.

“The medium is the message”

In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, media theorist Marshall McLuhan proposes that the nature of the medium carries greater importance than the content of its messages. For example, the medium of electric light, independent of content, carries the importance of enabling clear and easily shapable visual expression in the dark.

Color, from objective to subjective

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Objective

Let’s start with an objective definition of color:

Colors represent a visible range of frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum, wherein visible refers to electromagnetic radiation which can get caught by the eye and interpreted by the brain.

Subjective

Upon examination, this definition doesn’t exhibit objectivity at all! In particular, let’s interrogate “can get caught by the eye and interpreted by the brain.” Other species, from birds to bees, can “see” ultraviolet light, which lies outside the human-visible range. Even within our own species, colorblind and otherwise visually impaired people don’t perceive the same range of the electromagnetic spectrum; blind people don’t perceive any of that range.

My room

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Today I woke up to cloudy weather. Properly isolated and rather aimless, I cleaned my room.

A transition, an interrogation

In the beginning, I slept in my parents’ room. Once I grew old enough, I moved into my own room. And once my grandparents moved out, I moved into my sister’s old room.

As a result of shifting spaces, this room belonged (belongs?) to more than me. As I rummaged through the cracks, I found DVDs in a language that often escapes me (Mandarin, my grandparents’?), notes in another’s handwriting (my sister’s?), and CDs in genres outside my taste (my parents’?). I wouldn’t call these things “mine,” yet I felt sad throwing them away, as if simply their company meant something to me.

Deep dab-tastrophe

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Memes live through curious stages. After entering the mainstream, memes sometimes re-surface ironically, as if to meme on of their own mainstream-ness. After Clinton dabbed on The Ellen Show, dabbing did just that.

For those of you not familiar with dabbing, or specifically deep dabbing:

In the summer of 2019, I lived in a massively shared house with over 20 other people. Yes, over 20 others. One day, we decided to venture to the local public park to play Ultimate Frisbee, the Official Sport of Frat and Tech Bros.

Post-modernism and irony

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Inspiration

Post-modernism

Post-modernism rejects universal truth and grand narrative. Instead, post-modernism poses meaning as only contextual. For example, a post-modernist might claim there doesn’t exist a god or gods who gives every person meaning, and there doesn’t exist any set of morals or values that apply to all groups of people.

Four views on Microwave Cooking for One

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

From the Amazon listing:

Fast, easy, and economical, the recipes in Microwave Cooking for One are ideal for individuals, whether they live alone or share busy modern households. From breakfast through dinner, fresh, delicious meals can be prepared to satisfy personal tastes without wasted food, overheated kitchens, or messy clean-up.

View I

Microwave Cooking for One represents the height of laziness! You can’t bother yourself with preparing a proper meal; you can’t even bring yourself to talk to the delivery driver. You filth! You, utter, utter, filth! For once, get out of your bed or off of your couch. For once, stop binging your favorite show for the tenth time and do something! No, shoving three things into the microwave doesn’t count. Did you do the thing I asked you to do two days ago? No? Of course you didnt.

Punch up, not down

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Let’s start with 2 observations:

Our words affect others.
We can control our words.

It follows that we should control our words to have the desired effect on other people. Abstractly, we should say things that promote good and avoid harm.

Jokes

People often use jokes to express contentious or controversial ideas with less risk. Personally, I find myself more inclined to watch a stand-up embedded with political themes than read an explicitly political essay, though sometimes I will find the space for the latter.

Vampires

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Vampires have occupied popular culture for quite a while, so I figured figuring out what they might mean deserved some of my attention.

Symbols

Authors use symbols to imbue their writing with meaning. Symbolism, however, rarely amounts to just “X stands for Y.”

Take, for example, Frankenstein’s monster. Famous monsters in literature and film often reflect the anxieties of writers and audiences in their time. In this case, Frankenstein’s monster evokes fears of what science might reveal in contrast to faith. However, Frankenstein’s monster appeals to many other ideas, such as themes of creation and internal vs. external.

E-prime and precise language

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

When we use the verb to be we can mean a lot of things, including, but not limited to:

Identity: “I am Steve.”
Inclusion/exclusion: “The tomato is a fruit.”
Predication: “They are excellent.”
Existence: “There is a reason.”
Location: “She is there.”

To be, or not to be

The versatile roles to be plays can lead to ambiguity. For example, if I say “this food is good,” what do I really mean?

Beauty and style

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

A quick post on a useful distinction.

Beauty

Beauty is socially defined. What is beautiful is almost always exclusive, like being young or rich. Imagine a runway model.

Style

Style is individually defined. You can be stylish at any age, at any level of wealth, no matter the circumstances of your birth. Imagine a drag queen.

Conclusion

I am still trying to find my style.

Partial reinforcement and addictive games

Sat, 27 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

I’ve been gaming a lot recently, so this has been on my mind.

Reinforcement and punishment

In operant conditioning, behavior is modified with reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement and punishment are defined pretty much exactly as you would intuit:

Reinforcement uses a pleasant result to encourage behavior.
Punishment uses an unpleasant result to discourage behavior.

In formal terms, both reinforcement and punishment can be “positive” or “negative.” Note “positive” and “negative” do not refer to goodness. Here, by “positive” we mean “giving,” and by “negative” we mean “taking away.” Positive reinforcement gives a pleasant stimulus; negative reinforcement takes away an unpleasant stimulus.

Diegesis is not an excuse

Sat, 13 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Look at the big word in the title!

What is diegesis?

First, the elephant in the room: what does it mean?

For the non-critics in the audience, diegesis refers to details within the universe of the story. This is in contrast to details within our universe.

For example, suppose you are reading Things Fall Apart. The character Okonkwo’s exile is diegetic; it happens within the story. On the other hand, the novel’s first publication year of 1958 is non-diegetic; it happens outside the story.

Let's actually build a random Spotify album selector!

Sat, 16 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A continuation of this post

Introduction

Okay, for real this time. I’m going to do it in Rust because I like Rust. Code is available in a GitHub repo for reference, and I’ll be linking files where I can.

We’re going to cover a lot of technologies (including a pretty large tour of Rust), so get ready! Here’s a preview of what we’ll end up covering:

Installing Rust
Cargo
Rocket
OAuth
Rust types (enums, structs, and traits)
Environment variables (.env)
serde
Pagination APIs
Caches
Concurrency (for HTTP asynchronousness)
Options and Results
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Dynamic web content
HTML templating
Deployment
Debugging
Optimizing web content

Installing Rust

Installing Rust is easy (on non-Windows systems). In terminal, run:

Let's build a random Spotify album selector!

Sat, 09 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Continued in this post

Introduction

You read the title; let’s do it!

Meta-goals

I have 2 main goals for this post:

Describe the process of making something.
Write some code! I’ve been itching to code for a while.

So how do (should¹) we make something?

Audience

Let’s start with the most basic, perhaps most important question:

Who’s this for, anyway?

How you answer this question strongly influences every step of making something. Different audiences have wildly different needs, behaviors, and environments. For example, making food for newborn babies is vastly different than making food for 30-something adults. A newborn baby needs food that can be digested without chewing; the 30-something makes their own decisions on where and when to consume food.

Let's go on a peppercorn adventure!

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

I bought a (nice) pepper mill (because my last one broke)!

Green peppercorns

The unripe fruit of the black pepper plant, often sold brined.

In a few years, will look back on some of things they said recently and cringe.

Red peppercorns

The mature fruit of the plant, rarely sold as is.

Unironically enjoys fine wine.

Black peppercorns

The dried unripe fruit of the plant.

Your reliable, friendly coworker who’s going to get promoted before you.

I don't like polenta, and I miss my kitchen

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

This week I’m back at my parents’¹ house. For dinner, I cooked some shrimp and vegetables with polenta.

Part 1: I don’t like polenta

The first comment my mom made as I scooped the polenta into a bowl was that it did not look very appetizing. To be honest, I don’t care much for polenta either.

The one thing I can remember from the first time I tried polenta was the woman who sat next to me. “I love polenta,” the woman declared, nostalgia glittering in her eyes. I could tell she had fond memories of polenta, because the polenta I tasted was flavorless mush. That, or the chef had a vendetta against my taste buds.

The unique challenge of different instruments

Sat, 22 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

I recently started learning guitar. Depending on if you count the voice as an instrument (for this post I don’t), and ignoring the brief period where I tried to learn bass clarinet, the guitar will be the third instrument I have learned. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to describe the different challenges that come with playing each instrument without pictures.

Piano

I started piano when I was 6 because I saw my older sister play the piano. As a shy child, the piano helped me open up to performing in front of others.

The onion saga continues

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A continuation of this post

Caramelized shallots

Because you think you’re better than onions.

Step 1

Peel the shallots that you got from grocery delivery because you couldn’t be bothered, you capitalist.

Step 2

Cry in front of your roommate.

Step 3

Put 3/4 of a stick of butter in the pan. Pretend you didn’t see what you just did. Try to cover up your crime by covering it with shallots. The shallots absorb the butter. You will never be able to hide your shame.

Music at 1.4x speed

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

For a few years, I listened to music at 1.4x (not 1.3x, not 1.5x, exactly 1.4x) speed. When I told this to other people, their reactions ranged from “whatever” to “what?” to “WHATTT???”. I thought it would be interesting to go over some conversations, with varying degrees of convincingness, I encountered with the “WHATTT???” people.

Not convincing (to me)

“You’re not respecting the artists’ intentions!”

This argument can be broken down into 2 components that are not convincing to me:

Onions and lies

Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Continued in this post

Introduction

I recently started cooking again. While my cooking schedule deserves its own post, this post was inspired by one particular recipe. From the recipe for Caprese burgers:

Caramelize Onion and Toast Buns

Place a large non-stick pan over medium heat and add 2 tsp. olive oil. Add onion to hot pan and stir occasionally until browned. 10-13 minutes. …

As much as I liked this recipe, this is a lie, a persistent one, at that. There’s no way an onion will properly caramelize in such short time.

A loose collection of thoughts on food

Sat, 04 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Happy New Year! To welcome in the new decade, I’ve decided to write about food. Apparently, the thing we need to live is somewhat important, so have a loose collection of thoughts on food.

Food isn’t accessible

Tens of millions of Americans live in “food deserts”: areas, particularly urban areas, which lack access to affordable and nutritious food. For these people, it is harder to follow a nutritious diet, especially since cheaper less nutritious options like fast food tend to be much more accessible to them. Food justice advocate Karen Washington prefers the term “food apartheid,” which highlights how the conversation and the consequences are often divided along racial lines. Not only do black people tend to live in these “deserts,” for decades, governmental farm subsidies have disproportionately flowed to white farmers.