Author: master-weemy

the days have been racing by and a lot has changed from the time of my last post. right now i am enjoying my newly-discovered peppermint tea in my new favorite jumper feeling cozy and happy to be where i am today. life is one hell of a journey, but sometimes we really should stop and smell the flowers.

with the chaos and the over-stimuli of modern age, its very common to feel lost and overwhelmed. the things that really matter to us tend to fade in the back and we forget what we truly enjoyed in life. a few days ago, i had a talk with my friend who does not own a smartphone (simply because she hated it), and she was wondering how we ended up this way.

its hard to trace back exactly, but i personally believe it went down when we started centralizing everything. when i say centralizing, i mean when we basically concentrated the online traffic and digital content to these big corporations that only get bigger the more data we feed them. we are no longer surprised that we all see the same exact feed, matter of fact, we are surprised if we don’t.

we laugh at the same things, consume the same media, speak the same way, and we outcast the ones who don’t understand. this fomo cycle reels in more people and the user base keeps increasing more and more. we went from using the internet to respond to our social needs to using it to pretty much destroy our perception of the real world. it might just be my nostalgia speaking, which is a valid argument, but we can’t deny that ad revenue and engagement metrics stand above everything.

she then asked me “what can we do to remedy this?” and it left me thinking for a while even after i answered her. my initial response was that we don’t need to participate in this. we can enjoy the things we like the same way we always have. just like she disliked her smartphone and decided she didn’t want it anymore, and just like i ditched my music streaming services and started owning my music.

the internet will not change, in fact, i think it will just keep growing infinitely; such is the nature of technology. however, there will always be those small communities that nurture individuality and ownership and create a safe space for people to express themselves. what are some niche things that you enjoy? im curious to know! for me, its these ascii arts that were so popular back then ↓ ↓ ↓

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they are so fun! i hope we can continue to appreciate the little things that make us happy in life, regardless how others think we should feel about them. being your own self and enjoying differences is what makes social interactions so interesting to me. so yeah, be kind to yourself and spread kindness (づ ᴗ _ᴗ)づ there isn’t enough of that in the world! that’s all from me, if you have any thoughts im happy to hear it! until next time my pookies, peace!

its been a minute since my last post and if you know anything about my personal life you know its because i was in three different parts of the world in the span of like two weeks. it has been incredibly hectic but its work so it’s not something within my control. i just have to bear with it for now!

and as such, i have been away from my hobbies and dedicating most of my time to work. it is, nonetheless, temporary so i can push myself to stick with it for now. it does leave me wondering though about what i want to do for the rest of my life, and this part of my job i can honestly do without…

well, anyways, im not here to complain about my work rather i would like to talk about one of my goals that i wish to dedicate my time to after this week is over and my usual life routine is back to normal (or what im currently used to at least!)

if you’re wondering what the nonsense title means, or if you can actually read it and also think its nonsense because it is, i wanted to talk about something related to kanji or the borrowed chinese characters used in the japanese writing system.

if you are a part of the japanese learning community, you probably have heard of srs tools that help with retention. in case you’re not familiar with them, there is this method of memorization called spaced repetition; a learning technique not unique to japanese language learning that uses things like flashcards where you decrease how often you see cards based on how good you can recall them. the spaced part of the name refers to the fact that you space out the study sessions so that it stays in your long term memory. i believe this study method is popular with med students.

one notable tool is anki, and its like the default option that is fully customizable. i, for one, was never good with using these tools. however they seem to be the best option to memorize the chinese characters and vocabulary. another tool that is specifically just for this use case is one called wanikani. i have used that tool for some time, but i do have some critique about it that makes me not enjoy using it and ultimately drop it.

first of all, you cannot delete any flashcards. this sucks when you are not a new learner and have to dedicate the first few weeks to simple characters like 一, 二, 三, and vocab like 母 and 父. i also dislike being forced to learn standalone readings. to me, it makes no sense to learn it without context. the only benefit i get is to be able to “guess” what the reading might be later, but that does not matter when you learn the vocab anyways (don’t get me started on 生!!). finally, i never understood the point of radicals. sure, they make for a great mnemonic stories or whatever but for me personally i have never used them or feel like i benefit from them except when the radical is literally the kanji itself.

i want to explore other alternatives and find what works best for me, but the japanese language community in all honesty is really not the most friendly and i was always afraid to speak my mind. regardless, i decided to pick up my kanji habits again and work on polishing them. i enjoyed writing and it did help me with retention and remembering specific strokes (shoutout 地下鉄). but i think my choice of vocab or which kanji to learn isn’t the best, i think that’s something i can improve. i also want to use spaced repetition because it really does help. however, i want to figure out a better way that works for me.

there are other aspects of my japanese learning that could be improved, but for now im taking it one step at a time and hopefully if i see good results i can report back! im curious to know if any of you are learning a language or have tried learning one in the past, and what techniques helped you in studying. let me know in the comments!

greetings fellow mortals, first off happy new year! i hope this coming year will be a great one for all of us. onto what i came here for, im sure you are wondering what happened with my electronics venture and i am here to deliver! behold!

yes, it is none other than a light-emitting diode super complex circuit!! okay maybe the fancy word for led did not trick you and made you believe this is a difficult feat to pull. nonetheless, i am quite proud that i did not fry the led.

ill be honest it really reminded me of when i used to play with circuits back in school so it brought me so much joy the moment the bulb lit up. i also tried attaching a button which also worked! it was fun making these small circuits and i want to make more too.

as for the theory part, i learned so much from the book. here is a mini summary of what i learned:

• maxwell’s equations
• lumped element abstraction
• lumped matter discipline
• voltage = potential difference
• circuit sign convention (i +ve into element!)
• ohm’s law
• batteries in series vs. parallel
• calculating resistance
• kvl and kcl
• open circuit vs short circuit
• i=c in series, v=c in parallel
• composition rules
• node method
• linear circuit techniques
• thevenin and norton methods
• digital abstraction
• static discipline
• boolean logic and combinational gates
• binary vs decimal

writing the list down now really made me realize how much i learned. to be fair, from my background in programming, i did have some sort of idea on the digital topics so i didn’t delve too deep into them, but i sure did PLENTY of math with the analog circuits!

im still not done learning the theory, so there will be more updates soon. for now though i will keep this post as a short check-in on what i have been up to. please look forward to the next update! if you have any questions about my journey so far, drop a comment will ya? ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,<)~✩‧₊

i can’t count the amount of times that i have heard the phrase “i asked [llm] about this” or “let me ask [llm] and see what it says” just this past month. and yes, im purposely avoiding using its name but you know exactly what im referring to! i think from my reactions people assume im anti-ai or a hater of some kind but im not exactly mad about ai – im mad about how we are using it.

in the beginning, ai was simply an answer to the question “can machines think?” proposed by alan turing in 1950, and he claimed that if a machine can give an answer that can be confused for a human’s response, then it must be thinking. im sure you and i know exactly why this logic is flawed.

however, it is by that basis that modern llms are built upon: a mash-up of billions of different personas online fed into one machine that can reproduce by some probability a satisfying response. in a sense, it is imitation at its finest, so much so that ai psychosis has become a legitimate concern.

now, is it a problem that a chatbot can retrieve precisely the information you need whenever you need it? not exactly, but the bigger problem is that we blindly trust it. we were always skeptical of the information we read off the internet, especially from media sources that have some sort of bias in their narrative, but why do we not have the same skepticism with the bot?

i can think of one reason why that might be, so let me set the stage for you. you first enter the website, there’s a chat box and you ask it a question. the feeling is just like texting since it will understand regardless of the typing mannerism or typos you have in your text. when it responds (in which sometimes it gasses you up), it give you the answers in easy-to-read bullets and ends with asking you a question. you are intrigued by what this machine can do, and you keep chatting with it as the line between a tool and a friend starts to blur.

in short: we trust our friends, and we trust the familiar. it talks like a person, and so we assume it can also think like one and reason like one. but it does not. the way it works is very simple actually – it just predicts what the next word might be. for example, if i ask it “what year was michael jackson born?” and answer would be “michael jackson was born in…” and only after this part is where the ‘thinking’ kicks in. according to the immense data it digested, the next probable word would be “1958” simply because the numbers won. i assume now you can understand why it hallucinates, and why we should be skeptical of it even more.

but wait, that does not make sense, because if the bot ingested all the data from the internet, it certainly does not ‘speak’ like one! im sure you have heard of the countless shutdowns of bots because of how they picked up the trolling behavior of online users. so what does that mean? it means that the bot is tuned to express ideas with some sort of bias in its voice. we end up then with a company that has a puppet of a robot that people trust blindly – the perfect recipe for a propaganda machine!

now im not saying that the bot is actively being used to push out ideas, im just stating that it’s not at all surprising if it turns out that way one day and that we really need to be careful of what we consume. the key message that i want to convey is that we need to stop outsourcing our thinking to a machine. people are no longer able to have opinions without consulting a bot, and they are unable to state facts without checking with it either!

it is in our nature that we are lazy and that we like the easy way out, but it becomes a problem when we are too lazy to even think! i spent some time wondering what the solution to the reliance on ai is, but the answer to me is to just simply not use it too much. it always seems to me that relying on ai is a slippery slope that only gets steeper with time and it gets harder to climb out from when you’re too deep into it.

i want people to start appreciating their flaws even more and to strive to become better with their own efforts. it really takes away the joy of learning and progress when you take shortcuts all the time. you don’t have to cut off ai completely, but let it not be the first thought that comes to your mind when you want to do anything. i truly believe that you can achieve anything you set your mind to, if only you tried.

if you have any experiences with ai or interesting insights, let me know in the comments! i would love to read them (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) and remember that you always have a choice in life, and that making the hard choices now will lead to an easier life later <3

i don’t know if you’re anything like me, but i tend to feel guilty if i don’t use my brain to it’s capacity. and by that, i mean if i don’t engage my brain in some thought or activity then i feel like im misusing my brain in a way (okay now that i spelled it out maybe it sounds a bit odd).

what im trying to say is, i don’t think sciences and intellectual activities are the only good way to engage the mind, i think creative hobbies are equally as significant. now, its important to note that what im about to say has the potential to be incorrect, so please do your own research too!

anyways, its preestablished that science is an important discipline and a driving force in society as a whole. as such, i don’t need to emphasize the importance of feeding your brain with knowledge. however, i do think that there tends to be an underestimation on the importance of creativity and self-expression.

i think we can all agree that picking up any skill is, in a way, training your brain. when you try a new activity, a new set of neurons fire up in your brain, and the more often that you do that thing, the easier it gets for your brain to process doing it. now, i don’t necessary think it means that you’ll get good at, say, drawing (in general) if you draw the same thing every single day. but, i do think that you’ll get good at drawing if you practice drawing different things multiple times.

i know that sucking is not the most pleasant feeling, and it tends to be the discouraging factor when trying out new things. however, if you can push past that then you can really create amazing things. failing is not a shameful thing, matter of fact, i think never trying is worse! seriously, so what if it sucks? i can’t be expected to produce some picasso-level piece on my first try. but with persistence and perseverance, maybe one day i can make something close enough!

what i said is not exclusive to creative skills, of course, it applies to any skill it may be. i do believe, however, that pursuing a creative hobby has its benefits when it comes to self-expression. sometimes you and i have days where we don’t feel like ourselves, or days where we feel inspired and motivated. sometimes we want some form of outlet for these feelings, be it negative of positive. you can write how you feel, you can draw how you feel, you can make things that bring you joy, for example, with clay or yarn or whatever medium you like.

and you know what the best thing about all this is? you can learn it for free. the internet is a vast sea of information, and you can literally pick any hobby to learn. february of last year, i decided i wanted to learn how to crochet. a big part of it is because my sister crochets and i wanted to enjoy it like she does. so, i bought a hook and a yarn ball (and that’s it!) and i looked up “how to crochet” on youtube and got to working.

i kept crocheting and frogging and crocheting and frogging until i was happy with my stitches. i kept at it and when i was satisfied, i picked a project to make. im pretty sure my first big project was the love letter book bag by mahum cuz it was nearing valentine’s day and i wanted to make something cute for myself. and i did make it! and after that another project and yet another. now, i get asked a lot how i learned how to crochet and unfortunately i have the boring answer: i youtubed it.

and im happy to say, this hobby brought me a lot of joy and good memories. whenever i wanted to relax, i could pull up a ghibli movie and get to crocheting. if i wanted to get a special gift for someone, i could just make it! i made so many cute and fun things for the people i love by myself, and they all appreciated it so much. it makes me so happy being able to create a unique and very personalized piece for someone that only they can understand!

so, why not pick up a new hobby? the new year is coming up and it’s a chance to start something new! not that you need a new year to start something but it seems like that’s the motivation peak for a lot of people. anyways, i leave you with the two winter bears i recently made as a christmas present posing in front of my spider plant, matilda<3.

over the past few days where i have been trying to remember all the things that brought me joy in life, i came across some old pictures of my electronics projects in high school.

to give you some context, my school was very traditional in where all the courses are the default biology-physics-chemistry combo. one day they decided to spice things up and introduced ✨electives✨.

most of the electives, honestly, were not the most interesting for me: french? german?? and some random business courses. to be fair, taking business classes is not a bad idea, that is, if i manage to stay awake during them!

however, one of the most interesting electives was an electronics course. mind you, that was probably the first (and only) hands-on subject in all of the school. you can imagine the amount of students that desperately wanted to escape the books to play with some wires.

at that time, i had not decided or cared about what i wanted to study in my undergrad. i just signed up for the classes that were the most interesting for me, which were pretty much all the STEM courses. electronics came at the cost of physics though so i had to skip that!

at the start of the course, they gave us a toolbox full of the basic components you might need to get started on electronics. these components included an mcu (arduino uno), breadboard, bunch of wires and resistors, some leds and buttons, and i think they even gave us an lcd screen!

i say i think because as you can imagine i got super excited and ordered parts of my own with the little allowance i had. i remember buying a very cheap soldering iron despite the fact that we did not need it for wiring as we had the breadboard. but i think one of the electrical components needed fixing and i wanted to play around with it.

i can only remember two “big” projects i made, which was the self-watering system and the smart house system. the self-watering one was basically a moisture sensor dug in the soil to let you know when you needed to water the plant. the smart home one was leds stuck to a doll house that you can turn on and off through voice commands sent through your phone.

after graduating, i had started a controller project but i think the hype died when the parts took too long to arrive (or never did?) and i got busy with entrance exams anyways. since i had not taken physics on my last year, i had a lot to catch up on! i also came to realize that the theory part of these electronics was something that i was terribly bad at and i have no idea how i passed the courses during my undergrad.

in the process of trying to reclaim the wasted time on social media, i rediscovered my love for learning new things and challenging myself on topics that i struggle with. that being said, i still do not have the same patience with myself that i did before, and im working on improving that. and so, i have decided to tackle the titan that stands before me:

no it is not my slime 受付 (thats his name) but rather the subject of the topic that most terrified me! i am exaggerating but i do remember feeling like no matter what i did, i could not grasp the theory. and this time, if i wanted to get to the tinkering part of electronics, i have to go through this book first! thats my challenge for myself, and i will try my best to tackle it! wish me luck<3

this is my first post on my very new website, im not sure what to include in it really.. __φ(．．;) actually, let me talk about why i made this website in the first place!

over the last few days, i came across many different creators that talk about various things, some of which are the attention economy, privacy policies, and the indie web.

it made me realize the state of the world that we are in right now, and how we lost the communities that made us feel like we belong – especially because of platforms that are under the social media umbrella.

that’s not to say social media is evil or anything (or is it..) but i no longer find them entertaining. to me, they just suck the time out of my day and leave me feeling like my brain was fried! there’s just so much content consumption at such a small period of time!

i decided it was enough and i wanted to reclaim the things that made me happy. i got back to reading, crocheting, and picked up a few new hobbies on the way too! i will update my garden of interests with all these things in the future so look forward to that!

anyways, my motivation for building a website stems from my childhood self who once had a website on piczo. when piczo shut down in 2012, my website disappeared with it. to be fair, my website was just a pile of images and texts and messages from visitors. but it was my space, and it made me happy.

that website was the spark that ignited my passion for computers and everything in the digital world. it was such a fascinating thing to witness the internet era unfold and all the exciting things that came with it. and at that time, with my website, i felt like i was a part of it too.

so, im bringing back that side of me that enjoyed building a website. and im also going to use this space to express myself and talk about all the things that matter to me. i hope you enjoy reading my blog posts, and if you made it down here, why dont you leave a comment? (๑’ᵕ’๑)⸝*