sproutystudies

[sproutystudies]

08.01.2025

• I studied a lot today. Yippeeee. I did one chapter of MM and it took me so long to get through it, mainly cause of the exercise. It was on biomagnetic signals and SQUIDs. One of the better topics we’ve covered. I also studied two topics in Biomechanics; musculature and temporary implants, and did flashcards.

• The first girl that came to look at the apartment was so nice. She said she wants to move in so I told the second girl not to come and I felt so bad. I have a feeling something will come up and I’ll have to text her again lmao. But hopefully not.

• I tried playing The Sims 4 but I was too tired. I need to do something fun to unwind though. The new sleep schedule is hitting me. I woke up at 7:12 instead of 6:30 lmao but still. My siblings are meant to call later tonight but I don’t think I’ll be awake🥲.

🌲: 6hrs 36mins. Chewed.

📖: A Little Life [pg. 81]. I ended up reading past my bedtime which is exactly why I avoid doing this at night.

☀️: Bumped into a couple of friends today so I got to chat with them for a bit. It’s my brother’s birthday so I called him with my sisters. My new potential roommate seems so nice and I think we could be friends if she moves in.

[sproutystudies]

54/100 days of productivity - 06.01.25

Morning routine: Got up at 7, did some Yoga & watched the news

Did laundry

Workout

Worked on my wedding dress

3 h Uni (history of literature lection 9/18)

Practiced playing the piano

Read Das Glasperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse

Went for a long walk with my dad

Self care: Drank enough tea, eat 3 freshly made meals, read, did some journaling

[sproutystudies]

the ladies reading and relaxing

[sproutystudies]

Don't be jealous of me just because I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame on the Nintendo 3DS please.

[sproutystudies]

scientists in the 1990s, putting a Get More Purple gene attached to a harmless plant virus into an already purple petunia: please get more purple

the petunia, sensing an apparent honest to god Get More Purple Disease, using the previously undiscovered RNAi antiviral ability to shut down all other purple genes along with it just in case: you put VIRUS in petunia? you infect her with the More Purple?? oh! oh! her children shall bloom white! jail for mother, jail for mother for One Thousand Years!!!!

[sproutystudies]

Smooth rock tripe, toad skin lichen, false turkey tail, chrome spagnum, feather moss, flat branched tree club moss (not an actual moss).

[sproutystudies]

did you know that if you actually start writing the paper uhhhh it gets written and you stop thinking of it as an impossible and insurmountable task

[sproutystudies]

start classes again next week :> been watching movies, biking, rereading pride and prejudice, practicing piano, and studying music history over the break

[sproutystudies]

03.01.25 • productivity / life log

🍿 film and dinner with a friend • we went to see nosferatu! i was distracted due to life things but enjoyed it. also love getting her gossip bc she’s a lot more adventurous than i am.

📖 read about 70 pages of my book • still really enjoying, and it gets better and better as i go on. also had some ideas for my own story and a way i could link a few of them.

☕️ coffee and crossword with my sister • our favourite thing to do together!

[sproutystudies]

With the blockade imposed by Israel, it is extremely important to support grassroots organizations. They provide aid to multiple families on the ground. The Sameer Project is one organization. It is led by 4 Palestinians in the diaspora and Gazans are risking their lives while distributing the aid to ensure families are accommodated.

The Sameer Project provides food and shelter. As you know, the rainy season is persistent and many families have been displaced by the sea. The high tide has caused many to lose their tents, the only shelter they have. So please donate to the Sameer Project! With your support, they can branch out to families across the Strip!

Here is their Linktree, which also includes Venmo and PayPal.

South Gaza Aid:

Refaat Alareer Camp Aid:

North and Central Gaza Aid:

[sproutystudies]

Getting things done! Submitted! Yeah!

3/5 Comedy and Identity Reader Responses are IN (last 2 l am going to write and upload tomorrow. Thank the LORD for extensions). If I get them in before the (extended) deadline, that's an A for 15% of that module's grade. So let's do it!

My partner is 1) coming back to London and 2) moving into his new flat tomorrow!!! So I am going and bringing things in the evening and I am SO excited!! I love that man so much.

Christmas was great. Really wonderful. And I've had two ideas I want to do for my poetry portfolio. They are going to take a lot of work to execute but I love the concepts so maybe look forward to seeing those on here once they're done.

OH and I ordered myself a cinnamon perfume. SO excited! Gosh, life is so so good.

[sproutystudies]

wanted to share the first two weeks of my 2025 hobonichi weeks !! there’s not much rhyme or rhythm but it’s been incredibly helpful tracking/planning all my social events and invites 😙 it also got a little wet from the rain a few days ago, which ruined the top of the pages but oh well…..

[sproutystudies]

So even though it's not quite the new year yet, I've gotten started on my resolution of building a professional website. However, I already have to start over...

I use the developer platform Github for version control and documentation of coding projects. When I learned you can also use it for hosting websites, I knew this was the method I wanted to use. It's common to use it in combination with the static site builder Jekyll to add themes or create them from scratch in Markdown (a simple language for text formatting).

I decided to start with just getting a page created (following the github pages tutorial here) and deal with the rest later. I then decided on a Jekyll theme I wanted to use only to realize that I couldn't add the theme after already creating the page (whether this is the case depends on the theme). So now I need to delete my repository and make a new one that is initiated with the theme's template. I'm going to stick to the specific theme instructions from now on. Sometimes it helps to figure out exactly what you want before starting

[sproutystudies]

Hey All,

I've been away for some time, as we've been working really hard on something quite exciting:

let me present to you the world's first ever global ocean drainage basin map that shows all permanent and temporary water flows on the planet.

This is quite big news, as far as I know this has never been done before. There are hundreds of hours of work in it (with the data + manual work as well) and it's quite a relief that they are all finished now.

But what is an ocean drainage basin map, I hear most of you asking? A couple of years ago I tried to find a map that shows which ocean does each of the world's rivers end up in. I was a bit surprised to see there is no map like that, so I just decided I'll make it myself - as usual :) Well, after realizing all the technical difficulties, I wasn't so surprised any more that it didn't exist. So yeah, it was quite a challenge but I am very happy with the result.

In addition to the global map I've created a set of 43 maps for different countries, states and continents, four versions for each: maps with white and black background, and a version for both with coloured oceans (aka polygons). Here's the global map with polygons:

I know from experience that maps can be great conversation starters, and I aim to make maps that are visually striking and can effectively deliver a message. With these ocean drainage basin maps the most important part was to make them easily understandable, so after you have seen one, the others all become effortless to interpret as well. Let me know how I did, I really appreciate any and all kinds of feedback.

Here are a few more from the set, I hope you too learn something new from them. I certainly did, and I am a geographer.

The greatest surprise with Europe is that its biggest river is all grey, as the Volga flows into the Caspian sea, therefore its basin counts as endorheic.

An endorheic basin is one which never reaches the ocean, mostly because it dries out in desert areas or ends up in lakes with no outflow. The biggest endorheic basin is the Caspian’s, but the area of the Great Basin in the US is also a good example of endorheic basins.

I love how the green of the Atlantic Ocean tangles together in the middle.

No, the dividing line is not at Cape Town, unfortunately.

I know these two colours weren’t the best choice for colourblind people and I sincerely apologize for that. I’ve been planning to make colourblind-friendly versions of my maps for ages now – still not sure when I get there, but I want you to know that it’s just moved up on my todo-list. A lot further up.

Minnesota is quite crazy with all that blue, right? Some other US states that are equally mind-blowing: North Dakota, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming. You can check them all out here.

Yes, most of the Peruvian waters drain into the Atlantic Ocean. Here are the maps of Peru, if you want to take a closer look.

Asia is amazingly colourful with lots of endorheic basins in the middle areas: deserts, the Himalayas and the Caspian sea are to blame. Also note how the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra are divided.

I mentioned earlier that I also made white versions of all maps. Here’s Australia with its vast deserts. If you're wondering about the weird lines in the middle: that’s the Simpson desert with its famous parallel sand dunes.

North America with white background and colourful oceans looks pretty neat, I think.

Finally, I made the drainage basin maps of the individual oceans: The Atlantic, the Arctic, the Indian and the Pacific. The Arctic is my favourite one.

I really hope you like my new maps, and that they will become as popular as my river basin maps. Those have already helped dozens of environmental NGOs to illustrate their important messages all around the world. It would be nice if these maps too could find their purpose.

[sproutystudies]

By the way, you can improve your executive function. You can literally build it like a muscle.

Yes, even if you're neurodivergent. I don't have ADHD, but it is allegedly a thing with ADHD as well. And I am autistic, and after a bunch of nerve damage (severe enough that I was basically housebound for 6 months), I had to completely rebuild my ability to get my brain to Do Things from what felt like nearly scratch.

This is specifically from ADDitude magazine, so written specifically for ADHD (and while focused in large part on kids, also definitely includes adults and adult activities):

Here's a link on this for autism (though as an editor wow did that title need an editor lol):

Resources on this aren't great because they're mainly aimed at neurotypical therapists or parents of neurdivergent children. There's worksheets you can do that help a lot too or thought work you can do to sort of build the neuro-infrastructure for tasks.

But a lot of the stuff is just like. fun. Pulling from both the first article and my own experience:

Play games or video games where you have to make a lot of decisions. Literally go make a ton of picrews or do online dress-up dolls if you like. It helped me.

Art, especially forms of art that require patience, planning ahead, or in contrast improvisation

Listening to longform storytelling without visuals, e.g. just listening regularly to audiobooks or narrative podcasts, etc.

Meditation

Martial arts

Sports in general

Board games like chess or Catan (I actually found a big list of what board games are good for building what executive functioning skills here)

Woodworking

Cooking

If you're bad at time management play games or video games with a bunch of timers

Things can be easier. You do not have to be stuck forever.

[sproutystudies]

happy winter solstice 🕯️✨ i’m very proud of myself for the fresh start to my life i’ve initiated recently and it feels like the perfect time to celebrate that!

[sproutystudies]

12 December 2024

Trying to study for the chromatography final next Tuesday but the subject just isn't interesting to me. Got a low grade this week and I'm working on understanding that getting a lower grade every once in a very long while doesn't make me a bad student. I'm a good student, not a perfect one (perfection isn't attainable)