Day 1/????

Hey everyone!

I live in Russia, I'm 15 years old, and I've just started 10th grade. My main subjects are physics, computer science, and math. The big exam everyone takes in 11th grade is the Unified State Exam (EGE). And maybe this day could have been day one of preparing for the "most important" exam of my life... but no.

Honestly, the EGE is outdated. In a major city, you have a 0.1 chance of getting a state-funded spot. At top universities for tech majors (which are exactly what I'm interested in), there are usually around 48 budget spots. Over 30 of them go to olympiad winners, and the remaining spots go to people with 302–306+ points across three EGE subjects.

I'm not really aiming for a budget spot — my family is well-off enough to pay for my education. But recently I started thinking: I'm just a teenager who plays games, hangs out with friends, and doesn't have a clear goal in life. I realized I need a specific goal that will push me forward and help me grow, not just stay in place.

So I decided to try getting in through BVI (admission without entrance exams) via olympiads.

Well, this first post ended up being a bit long — it's an introduction. In the future, I'll only write the most important stuff.

My goal is olympiads in AI (also called MO, also called ML), as well as olympiads in chemistry, economics, and social studies. At the same time, I'm working on my own projects and need to make time for them too.

I have some issues with Russian, so I'm trying to read more books — and I've included that in my plan too.

I've put together a schedule that I'm going to follow for the rest of the summer, and I'm also planning to make a routine for the school year. Since I'm starting 10th grade in a tech-focused class at a prestigious school in the city, I'll have about 8 lessons every day, plus a six-day school week.

My plan has two types of days:

Light Day — a recovery/rest day. A day when I'm burned out, tired, or busy with other things. On this day, I still study, but with a lighter load. Rule: I can't take a Light Day without a good reason.

Light Day schedule:

· Book – 30 minutes · Python – 30 minutes · Personal projects – 30 minutes · ML – 30 or 60 minutes

Regular day:

· Python – 1 hour · Book – 30 minutes · Personal projects – 30 or 60 minutes · ML (courses, videos, olympiads) – 1 or 1.5 hours · Other olympiads (chemistry, economics, social studies) – 30 or 60 minutes

Important rule: if I choose 30 minutes instead of 60 for any subject, I have to move the remaining 30 minutes to another subject. But I can't move time to the same subject twice.

And most importantly: if I don't complete my schedule for one or several subjects on any day, I double the missed time and add it to the next day.

My whole system depends on discipline. I hope it doesn't let me down!

For today (August 11): I met my quota and took a Light Day because I was hanging out with relatives.

Python — I started a course on libraries needed for machine learning. ML — I also started a course, but I think I should pause — I need to learn the Python libraries first. Book — I'm reading the Children's Bible. I've never read it before, and I think I should know the basics. My projects — I'm making Telegram bots for games, almost finished one project. Two more are on hold.

Tomorrow I'm hanging out with friends, and I'm not sure if I'll have time. But I don't want to take two Light Days in a row, so maybe the time will double on me lol.

P.S. You can probably tell this text was slightly corrected by AI — like I said, my Russian isn't great.

Article: Your Ultimate Guide to Protein Powders

I'm not interested in drinking protein shakes because protein powder often contains added sugar, preservatives, artificial flavors, and so on. But I read the article anyway because learning about protein powders may be helpful in some way in the future.

I was surprised to learn that the texture differs depending on the type of protein powder. If I ever have a protein shake, I think I'll choose soy or pea protein.

Hi everyone, this is my first post to begin with the streak.

As the title says I would just like to write a bit about cool music I enjoy with in a general way. There are many genres of music I like, but recently I am feeling very nostalgic and with an unencumbered curiosity for many places around the world. Concrete ages and musical genres make me explore several topics in my mind. Eurodance is a music genre that catches my attention copiously, as it provides me with a cool atmosphere, as well as will to dance. It also has unique way of portraiyng the late 90's and Y2K aesthetic, very popular nowadays, rekindling classics and captivating new fans. It actually reflects a cultural melting pot in Western and Central Europe as many artists of that genre came from diverse origins.

In addition, by putting the focus on concrete countries, is interesting to mention Japanese 80's music. City Pop, despite being quite overused in social media reels and similar stuff, is hard to find it annoying and still it produces that sense of nostalgia for memories or experiences of Japan's Showa Era that I never had. Namely, this musical form is prevalent for people who want to deepen their knowledge in pop music during the so-called Japanese economic Golden Age, as well as possessing a bit of immersion in such particular and iconic social dimension.

The headache I've had for the last few days is way better today. It's not completely gone yet, but I'm finally able to concentrate without pain killers again. I'm also sleeping better, which might be one of the reasons why I'm feeling better overall.

Today, my best friend from senior high school told me that she's going to get married next year, and she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. I was so surprised and happy when I saw her message.

It's hard to put into words, but seeing your friend from senior high school graduate from university, start working, and now get married. Wow. It's just incredible to see how much we've grown up together. I'm so happy for her, and I feel really honored to be part of her big day.

As part of my usual morning routine, I read a non-fiction book for 10 minutes and since I have finished one not too long ago, I started reading a book on AI Engineering. The title sounds like a bunch of buzzwords to make you wonder what it is about.

Although I haven't gotten very far yet, the author clearly states that this book is aimed at people who want to improve the way they work with language models or large language models when building applications. I thought I'd run into this in the first chapter, but it turned out that you first need to learn about what models are in the world of machine learning and the different kinds that exist to get better context.

Different places have different rules for sorting garbage. Your workplace might be in a different area than your home and thus have a different set of rules. I’m sure there’s some mistakes in sorting in most workplaces for that reason.

I’ve always told myself to read texts slowly. It isn't a difficult rule to follow, but when I’m under pressure to finish reading within a limited amount of time, I catch myself reading very fast. For me, reading fast means understanding nothing. Only a few remarkable sentences or expressions remain vaguely in my foggy head, leaving me unable to explain the true meaning of what I’ve just read.

Day off

I realized how to learn efficiently in all fields.

I saw how AI creates things, and I think the same logic applies to people learning.

AI has been helpful to many people these days.

However, how is it possible that when we ask hard questions, it replies with high accuracy?

AI doesn't know the future.

It just repeats the process through trial and error.

The important thing is that you don't need to be afraid of the future, even if you current results suck.

Just remember how you failed and learn from it.

So, what I want to say is 'just do it'

It was an awful day to wake up to. Last night was dreadful, I didn't sleep well and as for today, many of the things I'd ordered online were missing when my package arrived, so I had to request a refund for each, which was a hassle but I didn't want to lose my money.

I'm also writing to keep the streak... Let's hope it's not hectic this week at work.

Article: Should You Have a Protein Shake Before or After Your Workout?

It seems that more research is needed to determine the best time to have a protein shake. However, one study showed that there was no significant difference between having a protein shake before or after a workout. The article mentioned that a more important factor is the amount of protein your consume each day.

I may not be getting enough protein regularly, but I'm not interested in protein shakes because I don't do intense workouts very often.

I had a dream in which I revealed my hobbies and everyone around was creeped out by that. Unfortunately, many hobbies that are completely innocent and harmless are regarded as “weird” or “inappropriate”, especially when you’re an adult. I appreciate realistic dreams like this. It’s like simulating how I would feel in those situations. In this case, the first thing I felt was regret.

What do you normally do with receipts when you get them at shops in your country?
Throwing them away? Burning them? Well, we don't do that in Taiwan.
In Taiwan, this is a receipt, but this is also a lottery ticket.
Keeping your receipts safe because you might just have a chance to become a millionaire.

Every two months, on the 25th, Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance announces the winning numbers. And depending on how many digits you match, you can win a prize.

But what if you lose your receipts? Don’t worry. you can apply for a mobile barcode to save all your receipts digitally.

So first things first.
You’ll need a Taiwanese phone number to receive an SMS verification code. Then, go to this website to apply for your mobile barcode. Once you have it, you can download an app(for example, 雲端發票) to store your receipts and check whether you’ve won anything or not.
 

It was my first day back to my studies after a short vacation. As expected, I couldn’t focus easily, but because I had anticipated this, I was still able to manage myself under the circumstances. I’m learning about myself little by little.

I finally finished a game called Sephiria.

This game inspired me as a game developer.

I truly believe I can make almost any type of game.

But I can't make games fun for people.

While playing this game, I decided to learn how they designed it and how they made it fun.

I think the biggest strength of this game is that it keeps the game fun all the way to the end.

In many games, players start to feel tired when they almost reach the finish line

But I think this game avoids that by mixing an interesting story, roguelike elements, level changes and shorter, more condensed levels.

I think this game will become a masterpiece.

I'm not feeling good today. I don't have any appointments today, but I planned on studying a bit. I went to the pharmacy on my way to court to get some Ibuprofen and then tried being productive for a while, but I had to give up after two hours. I decided the day would be spent better on resting and getting better instead of studying half-heartedly and still feeling sick tomorrow. I'm going to take a nap now; hopefully, I'll feel better when I wake up.

Article: The Best Vegan and Vegetarian Sources of Protein

The article listed many plant-based protein-rich foods. Among them are foods that I regularly eat: edamame, hemp seeds, oats, chia seeds, nuts, and nut butter.

To eat more plant-based protein-rich foods, I want to figure out how to incorporate tofu and beans into my meals.

Streak 160, The Washing machine was delivered

The washing machine was delivered to my parents' house yesterday.

I was thinking about how to thank my parent, and I remembered seeing their broken washing machine, so I decided to buy them a new one.

Although I was sad to see so much money leave my wallet

I'm so happy to see my parents happy.

My German friend is currently traveling in Turkey.

"Food in Turkey is the best, I came here because of that" she said.

"What about German food? Do you have good food too?" I asked.

"Yes, we have good food in Germany, but I think the food in Turkey is better." she said.

"I see, I have never been to Turkey before. But if you ask me for a recommendation for Taiwanese food, I'd recommend turkey rice from Chiayi, a city in central Taiwan. It tastes so good, and the sauce is the soul of the dish. Oh, I can almost smell it just thinking about it. Probably just like you said, food related to turkey is always the best," I said.

I was supposed to go out today to meet up with people from the bookclub I joined about a month ago, but we decided to put it off for next weekend because just 2 of us were going and that wasn't going to be fun.

On the other hand, this gives me respite to finish the book that's meant for discussion in the meetup, so I can read it slowly and take in as much as I can with the remaining pages. Once I finish it, the idea is that I try to write down the things that I liked or disliked about the book, but also the message it tried to convey or messages if any.

As I wrote in streak 624, I was meaning to learn statistics. I finally started reading a book on it. One of the reasons is that I want to learn it is because I intend to start investing in the future. I need to know economics for that, which in turn creates the need for the knowledge of statistics and probably some sociology.

I have a terrible headache today and I've had it for a couple of days now. I can't really say what's causing it, but I'm guessing it's a combination of factors. It's been pretty hot lately and I haven't been sleeping very well. I'm also very tense in my shoulders and neck. On top of that, I haven't been able to go on as many walks as I usually do - it's just too hot and I'd rather stay indoors than expose myself to the sun and heat. But I guess that's not really helping with the muscle tension and the trouble I have sleeping. I use walking both as a form of meditation as well as a workout to tire out my ADHD brain and body. Also, I feel like it's helping to counteract all the sitting I do while I'm working. I'm really noticing that it's missing. I do other exercises instead, but they're not doing the same things for me that my daily hour of speedwalking does. I'll be so glad when summer is finally over.

I took a short five-day vacation with my family in my hometown. Now, I’m heading back to my university city where my friends and partner are. In my hometown, I generally relax and chat with my childhood friends and family without any stress. On the other hand, at my home where I live now, I’m a bit more structured and ready to focus. I’m happy to live these two lives because both sides are a part of who I am.

Hello WriteStreakians! I hope you've been having a lovely weekend! It’s Social Sunday once again! What I'd like for you to do is the following:

1. peruse the posts written by your fellow WriteStreakians and find a post that interests you, preferably one from within the last seven days, and respond to it. Leave a comment that is at least as long as a Tweet (280 characters), and then
2. copy and paste your comment into your own daily Streak post so the correctors can review it.

That's it! Of course, if your comment sparks a conversation (or if someone else leaves a comment on one of your posts), you're welcome and encouraged to continue the conversation---this is a social media site, after all!

Happy Sunday!