engineering-anthology

[engineering-anthology]

good read for teachers.

[engineering-anthology]

30 Days of productivity

05/30

(not the date, just labeling what number in the challenge I'm on)

I am so behind on posting. I got stuck in a cycle of not thinking I did "enough" to post, but that's not how it works. Literally any productive thing counts. And that's the beauty of it. I'll be better.

I've been drinking more water but pulling stunts with sleep that I really shouldn't be. HOWEVER I do only have two days to crank out this poster on my research, so I'll sacrifice some sleep now and deal with the consequences soon after.

Today I studied for my upcoming exam and worked more on my data analysis. Almost have figures that I like!!! I've drawn this out for so long though...

Good luck, have fun, don't die. I believe in you.

[engineering-anthology]

Don't you love seeing the fruits of your labor? I didn't use the app super consistently because of its ongoing enshittification, but it's still helpful when I need to commit to my work.

I still need to send the staff an email asking for all the monthly challenge trees I've missed. I really like them but the focus-challenge page legit doesn't even open for me. :_(

I hope it doesn't get worse. I really don't want to migrate to some other app but Seekertech seems really keen on pushing people away. Upset.

[engineering-anthology]

30 Days of Productivity

(because 100 is scary)

04/30

Ooof this week has been a lot and I probably won't get a real break until two weeks from now. I'm still working on that data analysis, but my plots are starting to look good! Unfortunately, they also look like they might be pointing me towards a non-result. I have about 4 more hours to churn this out, and then I should give up for the day and focus on other things.

Keeping it short for now. Good luck, have fun, and ace those academics ✨

[engineering-anthology]

20 examples of periodic solutions to the three-body problem

[engineering-anthology]

Goodnight

[engineering-anthology]

30 days of productivity

(because 100 is scary)

03/30

There's a joke somewhere along the lines of being "in the weeds" with my many assignments, but instead of weeds, it's ocean weeds, i.e. algae (given the algae focus of both of my big projects this semester!). However I don't have the time to workshop this joke to completion right now :_(. Maybe later when I have more time to think.

My paper and data analysis are still overdue. Ouch. But I have to submit whatever I have done tonight regardless of whether I'm happy with it so I don't hold up the grading schedule. Feels bad, but it'll probably feel really good to let go of it--it's just supposed to be a draft after all. I intended to turn it in last night, but my body forced me to sleep, I woke up with a nasty headache and promptly gave up on everything, so I missed most of the morning and only got a little bit of work in this evening. I needed the rest though, so I'm going to choose to not feel guilty about it. Or at least I'll do my best to not feel guilty :P

What I did today:

more data wrangling. made progress, spent < 2 hours on it though.

wrote most of an abstract, introduction, and some background

Upcoming tasks:

extract some kind of numbers from my data and calculate their uncertainties. this one is imminent if it doesn't happen in the next hour, it won't happen at all!

write the rest of my background section

fix bibliography, my numbering got a little confused between my previous versions of the intro and background and this version

email electronics professor about rescheduling exam

crank out the implementation of my computational bioconvection project this weekend! I have a draft report due tuesday! eeeek!

Musings: I have a new favorite album to study to! (it changes often though, so get used to this sentence) In the age of AI lofi drowning the bgm scene, having actual human producers whose tunes you vibe with is sooo lovely. City Girl has always been the kind of producer I can turn back to when my brain needs music that's both interesting (as far as lofi beats go) and familiar (but only because I've looped it so many times). Also, isn't the album art gorgeous???? All of her albums are so aesthetically lovely and I want them framed on my walls.

Do you think it would be bad to out what university I attend? I feel like my school and its stupid big ego are important props for explaining my woes. I've been pretty good about online hygiene so far, so I don't have that spooky problem some people have where due to the *magic of web scraping* their entire lives can be pulled up via ChatGPT. I don't want to ruin it, but I want to talk freely about the stupid and hilarious and horrifying things that happen at this big-ego-institution.

As a little aside, one of the reasons I had the confidence to apply to said big-ego-institute is that a blog that I followed in high school was open about the fact that she attended big-ego, answered my questions and encouraged me! She still floats through my mind sometimes and I'm so grateful for her kindness. I kinda want to be that person.

okie dokie, back to the grind! I'm partially saying this because I need to hear it, but don't feel guilty for the time you take to rest this weekend. If you have to crank out assignments that take a lot of brainpower to put together, that resting time is crucial for building thoughtful connections between ideas. (just make sure that the rest is intentional and not scrolling through tumblr or youtube, look at some trees or flowers or rocks or something)

Good luck and have fun! I believe in you <3

[engineering-anthology]

[engineering-anthology]

30 days of productivity

(Because 100 is scary)

02/30

I was productive and made a lot of progress today, but I'm nowhere near the end. Last night I worked late on campus and then slept until morning on a beanbag. It's not good, I know, but it's where we're at right now.

Things I did:

algae data wrangling and conditioning ~3 hours?

held open hours at the makerspace (tried to do more data analysis, but ended up helping a bunch of people with their projects... at least it was a really nice break!)

asked for a teeny tiny extension on my paper, so I now have until tomorrow morning (downside: I will probably be working through the night :_( alas, I can only blame myself)

Things I have yet to do:

reach out to nonlinear dynamics professor and ask for a meeting to discuss bioconvection project (ultra! high! priority!)

finish data analysis and generate plots

write a whole-ass academic paper draft by 9am (I'm gonna die)

prepare for electronics oral exam (itll be ok. itll be ok. itll be ok. o.O)

shower!

Musings:

I need to clean my room. I feel like the clutter might be what's making me reluctant to work and drowsy... like the mental overload of looking at all the bits and bobs drains the energy straight from my brain. Luckily, I have some time this weekend to clean! (and I kind of have to since a prospective housemate is coming to look at this room on Monday)

I think I want to get some more plants. I don't have time to do much gardening or plant-networking (where you ask your plant-friends for cuttings), but I do have enough energy to keep them alive and they make my room feel so comfy. I guess it'll have to wait until summer.

I had a thought earlier that I kind of wish school was year-round? I have this problem where I get used to the workload throughout the semester, and I start actually delivering with the intensity that I'm supposed to, and suddenly it's summer or winter break and everything changes and I have so much time to forget all of the useful skills and habits I've developed. It's frustrating! And any time I visit my family home I get roped into so many little tasks that I have no time to myself to rest. Part of it is that I'm bad at setting boundaries with family, but I do wish a week of home didn't factory-reset all of my hard-earned good habits away into the abyss.

Good luck with your work and studies everyone!!! You can do it! <3

[engineering-anthology]

30 days of productivity

(because 100 is scary)

01 of 30

I'm drowning in my assignments, so it's time for a challenge.

I have two final projects this semester, and both are chonky. I have a draft paper due for one of them tomorrow (for which I'm still doing the data analysis... eeeeek) and a draft report for the other (computational) project due next week. I should be a lot more on-edge than I am, but I'm a little desensitized to failure due to my roller-coaster academic history. Eh, it is what it is and today I'm just here to crank out code and graphs!!

On the table for today:

data analysis for algae growth project (lots of data conditioning in my immediate future because I took shitty data)

send an email to my nonlinear dynamics professor with an update on the computational project (maybe chuck the project up on github if I happen to capture and exploit a moment of ambition)

Soon:

electronics exam Friday. I haven't started preparing. It might be okay?

another electronics exam next week

final poster for algae growth project due next week

walk though the math in papers related to the nonlinear dynamics project. The problem is that I do not have a good foundation in Navier-Stokes stuff, and I think getting myself to understanding is going to be the scariest part... but probably still easier to accomplish than the implementation.

Musings: I recently got a foldable bluetooth keyboard to use while coding at the library, and don't get me wrong, it's a lovely ergonomics upgrade from my injured-tyrannosaurus-rex coding posture, but I have come across an unexpected problem: apparently without the heat of my laptop, my fingers get cold! Now I need to make sure to keep some fingerless gloves in my backpack for this stupid HVAC overload. With respect to my to-do list I'm a little doomed, but I think the best I can do in this situation is make progress. Every 25 minute pomodoro session is a win when you're churning out tasks you dread. I might talk about the source of my dread in a future post--my relationship with academics is a ~super angsty romantic slow-burn~ that deserves more time and thought than I can give it right now. Ok! Back to work! I've sent too long writing this anyway, but it was a good break. I might post my forest as an end-of-day check-in. Good luck to all of you in your work and studies! I'm rooting for you! <3