Status Log

Completed my first outdoor climbing routes with top rope at Oak park in Grand Ledge. Routes include Schism, Potato Chips, Karen's Direct, and Mossy Gully. The hardest route had a grade of 5.9 of the YDS USA scale.

Completed my first 10k event with a 32 minute 5k. This was also in the rain.

Completed a V2 and V3 bouldering route.

Completed a V1 bouldering route. Also completed a V0 bouldering route without using legs.

Ran my first 5k event while it was raining and cold.

Published my first game which is based on the first novel I wrote and published earlier this year.

Did my first unassisted muscle up with bad form.

Was listed as a top writer in Medium for the first time.

A book I wrote made it to the top 100 of a category in Amazon for the first time.

An article I have written about generative AI has been translated into Japanese

Made my first novel available for preorder.

Did my first 1 arm pullup with bad form. Range of motion seems to be an issue, but I do seem to be able to hang and lift myself a certain amount with one arm.

Ate at Spago in Las Vegas for the first time. This makes it my first Michelin plate restaurant.

Have a full paper that I was the first author of presented at a conference (IEEE RO-MAN 2022). I was also nominated for an Outstanding Early Career Scientist Paper Award. This marks 3 milestones: my first full paper, my first paper as first author, and the first time I was nominated for an award based on my scientific research.

Completed AWS Developer plan which contained 18 courses and required above 30 hours of time to complete. Topics covered provide an overview of AWS services from Fargate to Cloudwatch and the final course covers questions asked in the Developer Certification test.

Completed YCombinator's Startup School for Aspiring Founders.

Completed successful thesis defense and earned Masters.

Completed 500 pushups within a 24 hour period during which no food or water was consumed. Pushups were completed in 10 sets of 50 pushups each. This is comparable to or exceeds what military personel may experience during a day of basic training.

Memorized entirety of periodic table.

For the first time in my experience as a masters student, I scored the highest in a course out of about 80 people. When compared with where I was at the beginning, I think this is undoubtable proof of my improvement.

Was awarded my Thesis Entrance Permit. The rate of improvement given the conditions at the beginning of the masters program is something to be noted.

Through some miracle, I actually managed to pass all of my resits. This is good, but I don't feel much of a sense of accomplishment and this seems to complicate whether I should continue with the program or not. I intend to treat this as an optimal stopping problem and make a decision after I have completed 37% of the program.

Found the presentation my entrepreneurship group at TU Delft made for the Entrepreneurship course.

My work ethic has reached an extreme over the past week or so. My time is spent mainly studying. I only spend about 4-8 hours to take a break in a single week. This is despite the fact that the CS program should ideally only consume 42 hours of my time in a week. When I wake up, I usually think about school. I currently don't have much of a social life. Sleep isn't that great either because I can't stop thinking about school and the sun rarely comes out in the Netherlands. I'm not sure what the solution to this is, but I'll continue documenting status as things progress. Generally speaking, it is highly discouraging when all of the work you put in does not pay off in any way. On the positive side of things, I'm getting rather proficient in Latex.

Received passing grades for the remaining 2 exams. 2/4 is not great, but the statistics at least shows that I'm not the dumbest person on the campus or in my faculty which is promising. How I proceed from here will depend on how I learn to handle stress, manage the classes for Q2 and how I handle resits. So far, things do not look promising.

Completed second exam for the first quarter of the Computer Science graduate program at TU Delft. Having second thoughts about the program. Guitar playing skills are degrading rapidly due to no instrument to practice with and very little time for practicing. I don't think I can shred anymore. I am also losing a fair amount of weight due to stress and lack of high intensity exercise. The lack of meat in the European diet is not helping either. It is highly likely that I will need to do more than one resit for this quarter. On the flip side, I am learning a lot, and have met a fair number of people. In some ways, I am gaining something from the program despite questionable academic performance. There are some things I have noticed. It has been many years since I have taken an exam in an academic setting and I need to be able to handle psychological pressure during an exam to minimize mistakes. Due to my below average memory, I require more repetition which requires more time to place items into long term memory. If I want to be able to succeed, I not only need to better manage time, but I will also need to find a more efficient way of studying. My level of mathematics is not up to par and it has been many years since I have attended a math course. This has forced me to learn entire classes worth of information to keep up with classes in the program. There is not much I can do about this other than try to catch up, because this information was not disclosed to me before admission. Due to the mathematical nature of the classes at TU Delft, my years of experience in the professional world has been mostly useless outside of team related activities. I plan to continue to forge forward, but if outlook does not improve, I may seriously consider leaving the program after the third quarter. This will ensure that I at least leave with a decent understanding of deep learning.

Memorized 1000 Dutch words. Memorization was accelerated through the use of Memrise. In the past, I used Anki, but Anki has limitations when trying to associate sound with a flash card. I can make out simple conversations, but I have trouble understanding Dutch due to my ears not being used to the speed at which people talk.

Left Thomson Reuters to pursue a masters degree in Computer Science at TU Delft.

Ran under a consistent 10 minute pace for the first time over a 2 mile trail within minimalist running shoes.

Will be reducing consumption of new media to revisit movies and books that I've seen in the past for the next month.

Run 4 km while carrying 30 pounds. There are a few things to note about wearing a weight vest while running. In addition to requiring higher strength when running, a weight vest can also restrict your breathing, making it difficult to utilize lower lung breathing. Wearing a weight vest is more about pain tolerance than stamina.

Eat quail for the first time.

Ran 2 kilometers in rainy conditions for the first time. Temperature was 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ran 5 miles at once which is the longest distance I have traveled at a running pace. Distance was covered at Island Lake State Recreation Area. I wore flat minimalist shoes with little cushioning if any. Afterwards, I had pain in my toes and trouble going down stairs due to difficulty bending my left knee. I intend to run again in one week.

Will be cutting down on time spent coding for the website and other projects and will be focusing on other efforts such as writing, exercise, and beginning long distance running.

Jumped out of a plane. Jumped out at 14,000 feet above ground in tandem and spent about 50 seconds in freefall before the parachute was released.

Had escargot for the first time. Would like to try eating an invertebrate with an exoskeleton at some point.

Scheduled tandem skydiving session to test myself and understand the nature of fear and courage.

Endured extreme cold temperatures in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Utilized the Wim Hof method for 10 minutes in 13.4 degrees Fahrenheit weather. I started losing feeling in my toes towards the end, but did not suffer any negative consequences. Highly recommended for improving pain tolerance and mindset.

Hold a baby freeze for 5 seconds on each side, making it the first freeze that I have mastered.

Hold a handstand up to a wall for the first time.

Hold a headstand for up to 1 minute for the first time.