Happy women in science day!! The mere fact that we need this day is the reason why I’ll never stop being unapologetically feminine and demanding the respect I deserve xx

Stay pink🩷

min vs spring term!

long time no classes post!

taking a bunch of theory staples this semester that im so excited about.

• Standard Model and Beyond: im so excited about this class. its pretty standard for hep curriculum but im glad i have the chance to dive deep!
• SUSY: AH supersymmetry im so excited!!! i love the idea of susy even though our experiments dont seem to like it very much but idc itll happen trust.
• Relativity & Cosmology: i was utter shit in GR but im back for a rematch. this class has a section on gravity as a gauge theory which is what im REALLY looking forward to!!!
• String Theory: i thought i was strong enough… i am not strong enough. i dropped this LMAO
• Advanced QFT: let’s go path integral formulation!!! so happy to do this again and really hammer it home this time.

this term has been really busy so far,, esp with grad app decisions happening as well. ive not been posting much bc im trying super hard to keep a steady mind despite everything. lets see how things go!

i wish it was socially acceptable to announce to your physics degree classmates that if you were left unsupervised in the proximity of a radioactive element you would at LEAST TRY to take a little nibble on it. like just for Science. has anyone tried it. how would the bajillion calories it has change your metabolism . remember: IT’S FOR SCIENCE!!!!!;?!+((_?“!???!!!!!!

Currently in my very last exam period ever (or at least for quite a long time).

Honestly I am excited to be done with it!

2025-12-22

Had a day of being out and about. I had some last minute shopping to do, and then I got to settle into this cozy corner at my favorite tea shop. Curled up with a book, and got lunch a block over at a local restaurant. It felt like a fancy yet humble kind of day.

I’ve been eyeing this corner all semester, but never sat in it because I always had work to do on a laptop. Today was the day and I couldn’t help but grin occasionally.

2025-12-18

Proud of this cup of matcha I whisked up. I’ve been working at half capacity this week and letting myself do things slowly, which actually makes it easier to do things. I have a handful of things left to get to before the holidays, and it should be an easy slide into time off.

I also have some blood tests coming up that will hopefully reveal my missing Vitamin™. If it’s what I suspect (hypothyroidism), then medicine should be able to help with the fatigue, brain fog, memory issues, migraines…I feel hope that I might be able to be 100% me within the next few months.

hiiiiii. so after a few rough days im back !!!

i wanted to reach out to the physics side of studyblr. i need you guys to recommend me your favorite books or research papers on physics. obviously i dont know advanced physics but dont let that stop you!!! im curious.

it’s seriously awesome how physics is basically magic tbh

[25/11/25] TIL humans need sleep. humans need validation. humans need mucking about time with other humans. humans make mistakes. min makes even more. (min slept in until 11am bc min’s only class was at 5)

Day 16/30:

• went to class
• 2.5 particle physics pset question
• zero rep theory lectures
• did not work on research
• drafted one (1) more emails (but it was a big one)
• worked on grad apps

Tomorrow:

• go to class.
• 0.5 pset question
• 3 rep theory lectures
• 3 hours research
• 2 more emails
• personal statements

today’s song rec: Loser - Kenshi Yonezu

I got all dressed up in a dark academia vibe to study physics lol

I finally have an office (or a least a desk in a kinda crowded office) and I feel soooo grown I’m so excited I bought two plants and I just aaaaa

[19/11/25] the temperature dropped suddenly this week and im worried i may be coming down w something bc my head is killing me. i did some scary application things today, but other than that its just been routine research.

one thing you find out very quickly when you get into research is that it’s not glamorous AT ALL. after some more debugging today, i rolled up my sleeves and started rechecking my coefficients bc i didn’t trust them anymore. they’re not hard calculations, but they’re very finicky and typos compound all the time, so it’s very cumbersome to comb through the math. im tryna develop a method to bypass all this but before that works i gotta do it the old school way i guess.

Day 13/30:

• went to differential geometry
• finalized part of list and sent out spreadsheet
• continued debugging,, suspecting typos
• redoing some calculations to validate against reference papers
• made meeting plan

Tomorrow:

• finish calculations
• make sure code reflects those
• research meeting
• go to all classes
• cry about sign errors
• work on applications

i really should start focusing on coursework. this would work if i didnt spend 70% of my time on the weekends as a lump in bed. it takes a lot of energy to be a human being!

today’s rec: The Chosen of Dragons’ Trials - HOYO-MiX

“…spinor analysis is complexified tensor analysis…”
– Physical Numerology & Classical Cosmology, Nicholas Wheeler

you’re kidding me.

I suffered through two semesters of graduate quantum, later self-taught myself basic general relativity, only to now see with this little note that these concepts are so related.

i love physics but the labs are so annoying 😭😭😭😭

Hi guys I’m back from a month or so long break to tell you that I have graduated from my masters degree and have been accepted into a PhD program in my university!! I have taken some time to post about these news to really appreciate them privately but now I’m back to annoy you possibly every week about this new exciting journey xxx

[30/10/25] grabbed a drink with a friend yesterday and then locked in with her. she brought me more postcards and more kuromi to decorate my desk with.

gonna combine yesterday’s and today’s productivity into one bc i skipped a day lol.

Day 3/30:

• Went to the string theory seminar. Went to another seminar today. Both flew over my head, but its important to be uncomfortable.
• Research pipeline still not finished, realized that my parser is translating some bullshit (dimensions don’t match)
• Met with the postdoc added onto my project. He found the issue with my code, but its taking forever to run now.
• Completed four lectures review for representation theory.
• Two particle physics pset questions completed.
• Conquered some bureaucracy.
• Hung out with friend.
• Drafted one rec letter request. Other is non-trivial.

Tomorrow:

• Go to all my classes (hard mode because I skipped one today, and they go into the evening again tomorrow. mf its friday leave me alone)
• Go to particle cosmology seminar.
• Update CV
• Wrangle a list of PIs to email by Monday. (>= 3)
• Have concepts of a list of where I’m applying.
• Send rec letter requests
• Two particle physics lecture review.
• Hang out with dad.

[28/10/25] wandered into a cafe near my flat and had some banging tiramisu. and then i made some (a concerning amount of) banging pasta. im having such a good day food wise. but productivity wise?

Day 2/30:

• Finished missed lectures in representation theory.
• Three lectures review for representation theory (no particle physics pset)
• Fixed parser.
• Oh my code is optimizing alright. I just dk why the minimum is where it is now.
• Went to all my classes.
• I have concepts of a rec letter request email. i lost confidence after looking at more phd positions today

Tomorrow:

• Go to the string theory seminar.
• Finish research code pipeline.
• Continue debugging optimization.
• Two lectures review for representation theory.
• One pset question please min
• misc bureaucracy.
• Hang out with friend.

[27/10/25] ah. groups. Lie groups. Lie algebras. manifolds. representation theory. my love. it just stretches my brain in all the right ways. i almost forgot i love the burn.

it is very in character of me to fuck right off after saying that i will do a productivity challenge, but i have dragged myself back.

Day 1/30:

• Set up my calendar in Notion.
• Started reviewing lectures for my particle physics class.
• Completed three sections of notes for missed lectures in my representation theory class.
• Went to all my classes and bonded with my cohort
• Did some PhD position round up.

Tomorrow:

• Finish missed lectures in representation theory.
• Two lectures review and one pset question for particle physics.
• Fix parser in research code.
• See optimization documentation for research code.
• Go to the Differential Geometry elective lecture!!!!
• Draft rec letter requests!!!!

baby steps, baby steps. i have like one (1) class tomorrow, but im trying to get into the habit of going to the diffgeo lecture as well to a) bond with my cohort and b) actually learn diffgeo this time round. i should definitely have the time to do all this if im not a bum about it. wow holy yap, signing out.

oh how it makes me happy when a student who was clearly struggling to wrap their mind around a vitally important physics concept during lab fuckin kills it on the postlab. ive had a few students who i was moderately worried about their understanding of the content based on the first postlab’s answers and the major points of confusion that came up during lab 2, but im grading the postlabs and im seeing a number of the ones that were super confused during lab getting 10/10 or 9 - 9.5/10 because they lost a point for having an explanation for their reasoning missing somewhere, or made a minor extremely common mistake. very happy to see that how much thought they’ve put into it makes a difference, and the questioning-focused teaching strategy is working for many if not most of my students

30 Days of Productivity (2/30)

2.10.25

• Took notes on physics slideshow about electric circuits
• Started the new topic in methods; counting methods and statistics
• Wrote down the personal curriculum for October

Another slow day, but I know tomorrow will be much more productive as I’m going to the building for my VET course in game programming to catch up on some work that I missed while being sick. I’ll work on some physics or maths on the train to and from the building.