I can only really write articles when I'm "thinking it", or find an intriguing idea, which means I might not have anything to post for weeks at a time. My solution in incorporating a lower effort part of the website, in which I can talk about events, and mildly interesting things which I've done or have happened to be, in real life or otherwise.
22.03.2026
I actually published an article and updated the website today!
I think my new "PLANNER" might be helping me to structure my day better, ensuring I get things done and do the things I really enjoy. For some reason, it's really difficult for me to get started writing or updating my website, even though when I do do it, I almost always have a good time. It's a similar story for doing past exam papers, which I know I'll be able to at least tolerate, even when it's a boring A-Level paper. I even face resistance when I try to play vidya or watch anime! It's like the only thing I can do "naturally" is eat food, which is of course great, but not the only wonder of the world!
To avoid burnout, I only did a couple STEP questions today, but one question I did had a really pretty graph I'd like to share with you. Spoilers for STEP III 2019 if you're into that.
21.03.2026
Right, sorry about that. I forgot I had mock exams for a week, and I kind of wanted to do okay in them. It's not over yet, but there aren't many papers left, so I'll get back to writing and doing other things apart from revising more.
I finished watching Takopi's Original Sin (as in the consoomer corner) and I played some Touhou Mystia's Izakaya, among other things. I haven't been very productive this past week, but I suppose that's what exams are for, excuses!
14.03.2026
This is an obligatory post to wish you a happy Pi Day!
To be truthful, I didn't get much done today, ironically particularly with respect to maths. I researched future career opportunities with my good friend Claude, and continued on a recent project of compiling a bank of tasks for me to fit into my routine every day until I get to university. Every evening, I try to make a schedule for my next day, but usually I can only stretch it to about noon, when I give up and go to sleep (the evening, not noon the next day!).
The purpose of this "bank" is to make the scheduling process easier, giving me a lot of good things to be getting on with without the need to think about it. I've separated tasks into various categories. The most obvious productivity category is university and career preparation, involving pre-reading for courses and doing puzzles, programming, book reading, and more to prepare for both university and my eventual career.
I also have sections on "PLAYAN, WATCHAN, LISTENAN, READAN", learning new things, writing (including this site) and going outside. It's not complete yet but it's pretty close.
In other news,I spiced up my desktop environment's icon panel today. It has a rainbow gradient, randomly coloured tray icons, times new roman font, and curves. I'm not showing it to you because I don't know how best to present an image with a 32:1 aspect ratio.
Lastly, I'll keep myself accountable to writing another article tomorrow, probably.
11.03.2026
I started the day off with an A-Level paper, followed by a STEP paper. [Repeat for 100 days]
In the afteroon, I went through my external hard drive and reorganised all of my files and folders, deleting anything which was redundant. I had most of my home folders from multiple installations, so it took a couple hours to work through it all. I actually had fun though.
After this process, it was time to install Fedora, having given up on Arch, which of course isn't a bad distro, rather it just wasn't my thing. My gaming performance wasn't great, which I'm sure was my fault, but I found no better solution than switching things up.
I installed Fedora swiftly and painlessly, but when I made it onto the installation, something was off. My pointer was very sluggish, so after logging into some accounts and doing the basic setup, I checked the settings, and discovered that the refresh rate was locked to 60Hz, and it felt more like 30Hz. It quickly became apparent that this was due to NVIDIA driver problems, so I followed an online guide to install the proprietary NVIDIA drivers, ditching the open-source ones. I had to reboot my laptop, but after that, it was smooth sailing. I transferred my files from my external hard drive just as I had planned
All this left me with little time to do much else, but it's quite alright, as today was an "investment", okay?
09.03.2026
I set up my "LinkedIn" today and took a looksie of profiles belonging to people from my old secondary school. I was shocked to find that my colleagues, once young, and full of joy, had all morphed into "aspiring" [fill in the blank]s. The worst offender was an "Aspiring Chartered Tax Adviser". I understand that I should expect nothing less from LinkedIn, and I'll be guilty of it too at some point. I'm sure everyone's still normal in real life, but the uncanniness of these profiles amused me. 17-19 year olds btw.
In other news, I had M&S ring doughnuts (4-pack, not expensive!) today, and one of them didn't have a hole! I'm astounded, flummoxed, perplexed, nonplussed.
08.03.2026
I'm acutely aware that there isn't long until my exams begin, just 67 days. The exam period should be a fun time, except for the STEP II and STEP III papers in 88 and 94 days respectively. Not long after, exams will end in 102 days. I will leave for university approximately 100 days over that, meaning I only have about 200 days to prepare.
Most university "preparations" will be made during the summer holidays, but it doesn't hurt to get a headstart, especially since I'll hopefully (pending middle east war) be occupied by a trip to Malaysia for about 25 days.
I don't have much of a plan yet, but the vague idea is there.
Over the summer, I'll probably have to learn to do various "life" things, particularly cooking. Counting up the loans and bursaries, I won't be too strapped for cash, but I won't be able to eat at restaurants or shop at Sainsbury's (with any frequency).
I'll need to "lock in" during the first couple weeks to get to know people, so I don't become a recluse for four years. I want to come up with a list of interesting or at least unusual questions to ask, to stimulate conversation. I'd ask for ideas, but there isn't anywhere to give them.
The main thing that makes it difficult to prepare is that I won't even know which university (and city) I'm going to until the 13th of August, leaving me with rather ltitle time to handle the specifics. I imagine I'll be inclined to lethargy between the end of exams and results day, so I need to develop a list of interesting activities and things to learn so I always have something to do.
