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diff --git a/docs/random/summer_2024_wrapup.md b/docs/random/summer_2024_wrapup.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8663d74 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/random/summer_2024_wrapup.md @@ -0,0 +1,287 @@ +# Summer 2024 Wrapup + +2024-08-25 + +I flew home. To spend the summer in Shanghai. + +Reasons: + +- Reunion with family +- Everything cheaper +- I need to order a bunch of PCBs and parts which are also cheaper + +By "summer" I mean 2024-05-07 thru 2024-08-25 inclusive. + +## Projects I Did + +### Reflow Workshop 2 + +In 2023, me and my buddies at TechJI did [Reflow +Workshop](../projects/reflow-workshop.md) and it was a huge success. Which +begs the question: + +If Reflow Workshop is so good, why is there no Reflow Workshop 2? + +There is. + + + +▲ I designed this to be as different as possible from last year's poster. +Color scheme yoinked from _Clancy_ (2024). + +Based on last year's overwhelming demand (I bought for 20 but more than 20 +people signed up), I decided to buy enough for 30. However, this time +I did not see enthusiasm as high, probably because it was scheduled on the +weekend leading to the midterms. Only 17 people signed up. However, I did +get sweet extracurricular credits out of this. + +### Linux Install Party + +My buddies at TechJI hosted a Linux Install Party, so naturally I showed +up (to help). Not many people were with us, as it was raining. One person +had an old ThinkPad, and when I looked closer it was an E220s, which was +32 bit and ran Windows 7. Hardly any distros support x86-32 now. +Fascinating that it still boots. Also, the plastic was all sticky. + +### Bookmarkotchi + +Bookmarkotchi is an ongoing project. It's a PCB bookmark that helps you +form a reading habit. The irony is that I broke my reading habit once +I flew home. whatever + +## Places I Went + +- Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xuhui campus + - Had a meetup with my friend and gifted him a copy of _Scaled And + Icy_ (2021) +- Xi'an with my parents + - Terracotta warriors + - Hua Mountain: With considerable help from a cable car, we climbed + two peaks, including the tallest in central China. There was an + orange cat on our way down + - A "musical" titled 驼铃传奇 (Tuo Ling Legend, literally the Legend + of the Camel's Bell): see below + - Shaanxi History Museum, where a gallery was playing a NileRed video + - Two jade jewelry stores that the tour guide forced us in (she later + threw a fit when basically nobody bought anything) +- Sichuan with my father and ten friends of his + - Mostly 甘孜 (Garzê, a Tibetan autonomous prefecture), including + a bunch of mountains atop the Tibetan Plateau which got me panting + - 映秀 (Yingxiu), where an earthquake struck in 2008 + - There's a public square with pillars commemorating soldiers who + sacrificed themselves in the Sino-Japanese war or the civil war + (forgot which). I find it absolutely unnecessary. It's like, "oh + yeah, your father died in an earthquake? well check _this_ out, + _this_ guy died in a _war_!" They're both tragic, ok? + - 资阳 (Ziyang), a suburb east of Chengdu, where I busted a tire while + pulling out of a parking lot + - A friend's hometown (village) in 内江 (Neijiang) + - 罗泉 (Luoquan), also in Neijiang, where we bought hundreds of yuan's + worth of assorted tofu +- Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Minhang campus + - Volunteered at the graduation ceremony + - I failed to mention in the [Winter 2024 + wrapup](../umich/w24_wrapup.md) that I volunteered at a UMich grad + ceremony as well, for JI students in the CoE +- Drove our family car to a dealership to sell it, because we're getting + a new PHEV (wise move) +- Cycled to the bank with my grandpa to withdraw 300,000 CNY in cash for + a completely legal transaction. I felt like a drug cartel +- A record store in Xuhui with my friend because I heard they had a bunch + of Radiohead. Couldn't afford any, so I just picked up three stickers + and dipped + - There was a restaurant called "Normal Canteen" which totes sounds + not suspicious +- My childhood apartment where I lived from 3 to 10. Unfortunately, + there's a mouse infestation. +- Flew back to Ann Arbor + - Flight was delayed on tarmac for three hours. Captain quoted + "electronic" and "hydraulic issues" + +### Tuo Ling Legend + +It's a show, a musical of some kind, about the folks walking the Silk Road +(the real one). The tour guide recommended it, and I find it +disappointing. I mean, the dancing and the props were good, but the story +seems to be the product of a junior high project that was done over recess +in three days. Not to mention the cheesy lines, which were, of course, +dubbed. + +The show tries to be touching, but the playwright and/or director failed +to consider that, just having the actors (voice actors, in this case) +speak the lines operatically does not automatically make it sentimental. +It comes off to me as cringe. + +I did not get the point of the play either. It could be one or both of: + +- Look how much our ancestors did for us on the brave new road +- Look what superpower we were back in the good ol' days. We're gonna do + it again haha am i right guys + +Our tour guide claimed that the show was what foreign guest officials +would watch, and I don't believe it. If I were an official in a foreign +country and they showed me a musical hinting that they once dominated the +world and had a luxurious palace, I would leave. + +Notable features, among this failure: + +- They have real wolves (who I hope weren't mistreated) running down the + aisle +- The audience sat on a rotating platform to view six stages clockwise +- There was a scene where they poured a literal tonne of water in + a waterfall and it splashed all over us + +### Sichuan + +Much more enjoyable experience than in Xi'an (if you don't count the flat +tire night) overall. Never was pushed to a store to buy anything. Only +time I was persuaded to buy anything was a street vendor selling +ready-to-eat walnuts in a bag for only ten bucks. It was good. Everything +was voluntary. The people were nice. Lots of dogs. I learned a new card +game called 干瞪眼 (staredown). Food was hot and greasy but that's how +Sichuan cuisine works. Once one of my dad's friends got drunk and told me +about the time he and his team reverse engineered the .doc and .xls +formats in the 90s. Only complaint (other than the tire) was the hours of +being in a car every day. + +### Ann Arbor + +Things I did after landing: + +- Abused my privilege and requested a SafeRide™ home (I can only do this + six times per year) + +- Volunteered to pick up new arrivals from SJTU twice at DTW +- Volunteered on an IKEA ride and bought a Livlig husky plush + +- Installed a cargo rack + basket for my bike, didn't apply enough torque, + lost two bolts on a bumpy road +- Got a replacement from Fabrication Underground; also pumped my tires +- Got a flat while riding around Bursley +- Fixed my flat (and a couple other problems) at [Common + Cycle](https://commoncycle.org/) with help from Matthew. Basically got + a new tube for free. Donated 5 dollars. + +- Visited the [phallic dumpster + exhibit](https://umma.umich.edu/exhibitions/machine-dazzle-ouroboros/) + at UMMA. Five stars +- Saw the furry club poster at Duderstadt and almost had a heart attack 💀 + + + +## IA application + +I applied for <abbr title="Instructional Aide">IA</abbr> back in April, +and despite HR saying the "goal" was to have the "majority" assigned by +"July 21", I didn't hear from the professor until 2024-08-05. But hey, +progress. + +We had an interview, then I waited. On 2024-08-19, I got news that I was +hired. Now all that's left is training and paperwork, which should not be +hard. + +It turns out I was literally the last hire; I was really lucky. Also, my +former roommate is also an IA now, which is cool. + +They gave me a sheet to indicate which hours I'm free so they could +schedule lab sessions. And that's where I fucked up. I forgot I had +a lecture on Friday afternoon, and by the time I discovered that it was +too late. I've emailed and texted but to no avail. + +Shit. + +## Movies and Shows I Watched + +- "Barbie": Watched it for the second time on the flight to Shanghai. + Someone in front of me was watching Oppenheimer at the same time, and + there was a brief moment where Ryan Gosling danced to the detonation of + the first atomic bomb. Also realized Billie Eilish sang in the movie. + (Barbie, not Oppenheimer) +- "The Garfield Movie": Saw the negative comments, wonder why. They're + right. Plot was unoriginal. +- 抓娃娃 ("The Successor"): Comedy film on helicopter parents. Seems + biased toward the parent side, but the actual message requires critical + thinking and speculation, which will takes another five pages, so no. + Open to interpretations. +- Stand-up comedy night with 严值高 (Yan Zhigao, homophonic to + "good-looking"): Lots of sexual humor. +- 逆行者 ("Upstream"), which is about a former software engineer who + becomes a delivery driver (rider to be more specific) to pay mortgage. + The ending where everything worked out is dystopian. The riders compete + against each other without even once questioning capitalism, or the + authority who exploit them. Imagine showing Mao this movie. +- "The Lion King", on the flight to Detroit. Can see why it's one of the + classics. +- "Everything Everywhere All At Once": I have suspicions that it's just an + elaborate pun on the everything bagel + +## Music I Made + +This was a musically prolific summer. I wrote two songs, covered one, and +forced a computer to cover two and a half. In chronological order: + +- [Diag](/jam/diag/): Original. Entered Fedivision 2024 and won 56th + place. Also [on air in Berlin thanks to Herr + Irrtum](https://www.elektrische-lasagne.de/radioIrrtum/) (Sendung + 2024-06, timestamp 53:20) +- [At The Risk Of Feeling Dumb](/jam/at-the-risk-of-feeling-dumb/): twenty + one pilots cover from scratch. Somewhat overproduced. +- [A Flat Tire Is Nothing To Worry + About](/jam/a-flat-tire-is-nothing-to-worry-about/): Inspired by the + Ziyang flat tire incident and my father getting drunk. Decided against + overproduction. Features minimal instrumentation and effort. +- [OK Computer but sung by + a Computer](/jam/ok-computer-but-sung-by-a-computer/): featuring the + Festival Speech Synthesis System, invented the same year OKC came out. + +## Music I Listened To + +- Fedivision 2024 songs (all 72 of them) (I even kept a spreadsheet to + rate them so I can vote) +- twenty one pilots + - _Clancy_ +- Radiohead + - _Amnesiac_ + - _In Rainbows_ + - _The King Of Limbs_ + - the other albums as well, but mainly these three + +## Things I Bought or Otherwise Acquired + +These were bought online in China: + +- A fume extractor for soldering which I should've ordered in 2021 +- A CO detector in my grandpa's kitchen +- A pair of earbuds +- A logic analyzer +- A ten-port USB hub because apparently four isn't enough +- Some accessories for my bicycle, like a cargo rack +- Some stickers including this one: + + + +Also I made a few badges with the badge press in the hackerspace I worked +in last year, including this one: + + + +These were bought in the US: + +- A Livlig husky plush + +## Things I Am Going To Do + +Notable event happening in the coming month: + +- August 26: First 370 staff meeting, Festifall North +- August 28: Festifall Central +- September 1: Pride Outside +- September 4: Green Day Saviors Tour +- September 9: Practice teaching as part of IA training +- September 29: twenty øne piløts Clancy Tour |