AcademicalNerd @academicalnerd@qoto.org
People are more important than wires.
Joined Jan 2021
2021-03-12, 08:43
Right, forgot an important thing. I’m on my third day without caffeine (not counting tea, but I need to drink something hot). I feel slightly less alert in the mornings, sleep better, way less jittery and anxious. I do miss the taste though. Not quite sure if the tradeoff is worth it, but it’s good to have some stability for once.
An important feature is pain tolerance. When I have caffeine in my system it gets harder to tolerate pain, especially sharp one. And I get injections for avitaminosis every second Sunday, so it makes sense to keep this “fast” going for at least another few days.
2021-03-12, 08:17, Friday
Weather swings are a lot like mood swings, but it’s not just your mind gets stained; your boots and pants do too. I am now looking at my shoes covered in mud and contemplating my life choices while the train gets me to university.
On a serious note, I am weather-sensitive and get severe mindfog along with a headache whenever temperature rises significantly. This is very annoying since I’m Moscow these “jumps” are common.
I could probably write something else but I haven’t written anything for my projects yet and it’s half past nine. So I’ll leave it for another time.
2021-03-11, 08:55, Thursday
New diary entry. Hopefully this one is a bit cleaner and easier to read since it’s not a translation.
2021-03-11, 08:12, Thursday
And I still have no idea if there will be a class on x-ray diffraction or not - the professor just ignores all emails. Anyhow, I have enough on my to do list to keep myself busy.
2021-03-10, 09:37, Wednesday
Posted a diary entry. Here it is: https://academicalnerd.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-last-day-of-winter.html
2021-03-10, 08:26, Wednesday
One article, mind you. This is an actual problem.
2021-03-10, 07:20, Wednesday
“You know what we didnt have for a while?” my brain asked yesterday. “Uncontrolled anxiety! Yay!”
That wasn’t nice, honestly. I decided to hold off my caffeine consumption for this reason - it usually helps a lot. I should probably get to work - a lot of writing and programming to do today.
2021-03-09, 08:15, Tuesday
Getting back on track. Managed to write some notes on tensors and make a thesis for the conference. It’s a good practice of writing craft to fit a popular explanation of your work into one A4 page. Slightly frustrating since I don’t get to brag about how complicated things are, but you can’t get everything at once.
Actually, I might write about this part of my work here at some point. Would make a decent essay, even though a bit nerdy.
2021-03-08, 08:09, Monday
I’m off track with writing, work and studying because of the party. Now it’s time to catch up. The plan is to do the weekly review that I skipped yesterday and then go from there. Slightly frustrating but it’s fine, it should be that way.
2021-03-07, 19:25, Sunday
Oh well. Threw a party. 8 people in my countryhouse, we made a lot of bbq type food (not a traditional bbq, a russian variation). It was very nice and everyone stayed for the night, we played some board games, drank a lot of cidre and red wine. And today in the morning we were just sitting in the living room and watching the snowflakes fall for an hour. Charming night and a beautiful day, but my introverted ass is exhausted. Nonetheless, I’m grateful to finally have quite a few people to have fun with. This is new and wonderful.
2021-05-06, 08:21, Saturday
Day off, going to my country house to throw a party there. Not the most nerdy thing to do, but it’s a good way to unwind and relax. This will also make a good story. As a photographer looks for beauty around then to capture it for others, I now look for experiences to capture in my writing.
2021-03-05, 20:00, Friday
Great podcast with Jordan B. Peterson by Tim Ferris. Very interesting, a lot of things to think about.
https://youtu.be/C1sEHNw4UIg
2021-03-05, 06:40, Friday
I can’t work late at night. After 18:00 my cognitive functions drop to almost zero and I fall asleep by 21-22. It’s possible to shift this slightly if I wake up later, but most of the time it works this way.
This is why I have an hour and something like 10 minutes to study for today’s test. We covered the material yesterday and classes lasted ‘till 18:30 so there was no way I could revise. Anyway, time to study.
2021-03-04, 08:40, Thursday
I write a lot these days. Finally found a story I like enough to work on it for multiple days. There is also a piece of software I’ll need to work on… Actually, I might tell a story.
So I am writing this program, it’s basically a very advanced thermodunamic calculator. My work is to create a qt gui around someone else’s core library. And my advisor asked me to give some work to a younger student (currently 2nd year) on the project. Following best practices, I asked him to do some tests. Haven’t gotten anything out of the guy for the past few months. Another student, 1st year, joined the project later; actually, she installed the program a week ago. Yesterday she sent me some tests and filed around five bug reports on github. So much responsibility.
2021-03-03, 08:10, Wednesday
I decided to stop using alarm clock altogether, at least when there is no early class or it’s online. Yes, sleep hygiene will suffer since I’m unable to wake up at a consistent time, but overall anxiety goes down this way. I remember living with an alarm clock very well: waking up at 5 am for a few years. I now understand that I wasn’t really happy at the time, partly because going to bed early significantly constraied my social activities, partly because of unavoidable sleep deprivation. A good lesson nonetheless.
2021-03-02, 07:55, Tuesday
Yesterday @FailForward pointed out that the link to my blog is broken. Let’s give it another shot: link. Anyway, it’s academicalnerd.blogger.com, as always.
I started writing fiction in the mornings, 500 words every day for a week. I hope to turn it into a somewhat decent short novel. This helps to hone my craft and escape the unpleasant reality I find myself in from time to time.
2021-03-01, 12:15, Monday
My willpower is way too low to do anything decent today, so I organized my blogspot page. Here it is: link. I’ll be posting longer stuff there just in case. This will be moved to my website once I have time to actually build one.
2021-03-01, 06:53, Monday
Classes start again. I’m not font of the ones I’ll have today but it’s fine - there are things to do while ignoring my teachers. Like reading a textbook on the subject, for example.
There probably will be a break in my long-form posts since I want to try some fiction in Russian. Sorry to my English-speaking followers, I’m not yet comfortable enough to write something big in English; might translate it, though. Generally my idea is that I’ll spend a week writing around 500 words per day and release the result in the end of the week.
Also, I’m thinking of using the “blogger” website instead of making an actual site because I have relatively few free time now. Building a decent site can be done on holidays, though.
2021-02-28, 08:50, Sunday
Getting back to work. Yesterday’s podcast was sooo good, I might even go back and take some notes. But for now I’ll need to take notes on crystallochemistry and a couple other subjects. Thinking of using anki for this.
2021-02-27, 08:47, Saturday
Day off. Watching Lex Fridman’s podcast with Eric Weinstein, round 4. Beautiful conversation, highly recommend.
Got my birthday gift from my uni group, about 10 months late but it’s fine. Two small bags of good coffee and a bottle of amaretto. Never thought I needed one, but it seems like I did. Gonna give it a shot.
