#its a huuuuuge accessibility issue

[archive-z]

rambling abt my notetaking methods as someone with memory problems for @divorceblogger

i am not an organised person by nature, but in my apartment Everything Must Have Its Designated Place, and that place must be the most intuitive place i will look for something — keys Must be hanging by door, bc if i leave my keys literally anywhere else (coat pocket, bag) i will NOT remember and then i will not be able to lock my door & leave for the day. the goal is work with my brain, not against it. things should be in the most intuitive place possible, and if they can’t be, i should “leave a trail of breadcrumbs” in order to help myself find what i KNOW i will forget. this is also a strategy i apply to my world of Concepts and IdeasTM.

previously, i was organising my notes into a google doc where each entry was dedicated to a single book/chapter/essay, with (1) a summary of the text, (2) relevant quotations transcribed & cited, (3) my own thoughts responding to the material, and (4) other works in the bibliography that i should check out.

This presented several problems: google doc quickly became massive an unwieldy for a 2-year research project & v laggy

lots of closely related ideas existed in isolation bc it was organised by-book instead of concept-first

couldn’t remember where to find shite bc i would have to recall the exact book the idea was from to find it (BAD for the “trail of breadcrumbs” approach)

very linear process — read & summarised one text, moved on to the next. not letting ideas “accumulate“ (build upon each other) bc it was difficult to search/constantly have to refresh myself on notes i’d made six months to a year ago

~late 2021 or early 2022, this talk is what rly sold me on adopting obsidian. i started using obsidian as my primary notetaking tool, specifically for its ability to hyperlink between concepts & display those connections in graph view (picture above). it solved the problems above with the added benefits of being Not Google & being able to sync to my phone/ipad/laptop (via icloud).

now my process looks like:

Step One: Read the material in its entirety while highlighting and making notes in the margins

by entirety I mean like full article, full chapter. if it is a full book, this is going to take multiple sittings bc i only have the cognitive stamina to absorb one chapter at a time. trying to push thru mental fatigue will exacerbate memory problems into a self-fulfilling spiral. the highlighting & annotating is absolutely essential bc it lets me talk back to the book while reading, without the cognitive fatigue/loss of momentum of stopping read to type up notes, etc.

Step Two: Go thru the material again from the beginning, this time transcribing important quotations into a note

somehow people have gotten zotero to talk to their obsidian by tbqh i haven’t bothered bc i’m fairly fast at writing my citations, and the plugins rabbit hole seems like a massive upfront time investment to me.

Step Three: talk back to the material, write my own thoughts & summaries, make connections with other works/ideas

having obsidian as this big repository of my thoughts on previous books i’ve read, previous movies I’ve seen, concepts and defintions from essays, etc makes really easy for me to start writing a new note with my thoughts about something and just go “okay, I’ll put this concept in [[ square brackets ]] so it can link to my note with all my info on that subject rather than rooting thru one million notebooks or folders of misc notes and projects to find what I’d already written abt that subject”

Step Four: Break the material into smaller units of information

i breakdown/separate out my note on a single book/essay into several smaller interlinked notes abt the concepts covered. that way the information lives (with correct bibliographical citation) in a note titled with the concept, and then that note can get added to incrementally with each new book read. this allows my notes to be organised concept-first rather than book-first.

this — ESPECIALLY the part where i connect the notes to other notes — is a rly important part of the process bc it is the “leaving myself a trail of breadcrumbs” to be able to remind myself of concepts/ideas/texts i may have already encountered that feature similar ideas. if i am wondering if i’ve previously written anything on “regicide” i can click on the note called “regicide” and discover i’d written abt macbeth AND hamlet but not agamemnon and leave a note saying “come back to this and connect it to yr other ideas abt regicide as a form of [[patricide]] in [[agamemnon]]”.

Step Five: leave yrself “on ramps” to revisit notes as new concepts are added and connected

i can’t remember where i got this advice, but it was when you are writing more than can be achieved in a single sitting, leave yourself an “on ramp” before you finish for the day. like if i am coming back to something, maybe it’s not the next day but a whole week later. it is a lot more helpful if i open up a note i was working on and see “REMEMBER: YOU WANTED TO LOOK UP THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORDS FOR THREAD AND FATE TO SEE IF THERE IS A CONNECTION”

do not get caught up in “finishing” a note bc notes will be every-accumulating. work on something for as long as it serves you. if the amount of information is overwhelming, it probably needs to be broken down again into smaller concepts that can be hyperlinked together.

i think that covers most of it but i might come back to this later if there’s anything important i’ve forgotten. oh, yeah, also i love Umberto Eco’s How to Write a Thesis, but that’s less important if yr note writing a thesis, just trying to track info across many different texts for yr own purposes.

[isaacathom]

anyway, the east, right. came out of the Collision pretty alright. some minor chaos, bunch of shit got a ll fucky, a whole big city got completely fucked, but overall pretty ok. and then it booms, completely booms, especially once connections between the human plane and elven plane are built. regions that could not previously be explored now can be, and that entire region booms. the “new” elven capital on the eastern coast is positively booming with traffic and trade with their human neighbours. everything is pretty alright.

then the Separation happens, and the planes are torn apart.

there were likely only two countries on that part of the continent - the human one, encompassing some 3/4 of the land, and the elven one in the east, encorpating the length of the eastern coast. this was fine for all involved, for the most part. minor squabbles over the extent of the elven holdings were common, but usually resolved peacefully. everyone was fine.

but with the separation, that changed. for starters, most of the prominent leaders of the human country were in the elven plane for a sort of ‘high council’ at the time, and were thus stranded. those who had stayed behind to ‘hold down the fort’ were largely unequipped or unqualified to hold total power in their absence, and the human kingdom quickly collapsed. at least one military government was established in an attempt to wrangle control out of an angry populace. the elves to the east were particularly distressed due to the loss of access to their homeland (ancestral or otherwise), and while their country did not collapse, it was rocked. their distress turned outwards, and soon they took advantage of the scattered human kingdom to conquer additional land. because, well, the elven country simply wasnt equipped to handle as many people as it now found itself having. it had been a country, yes, and had permanent residents, but they were few. it was esentially an extra-planar extension of an existing elven kingdom, and it was more of a lookout or small base than an actual Thing. but now it had to be as such. and so it rapidly expanded in an effort to occupy its restless citizens, and to gain resourcs and land for them.

a lot was happening to the human kingdom. a new one popped up in the north north-west, which protected it for a time from elven advancement. it slowly brought stability to its surrounds, though it notably did not include the military government which had been established not far south, which claimed to be the direct successor to the previous kingdom. a number of centrally located towns folded into either the military or the elves with little struggle, except when their borders collided. the northern kingdom managed to secure peace with the elves, though remained at war with the junta, who spread futher south and clashed with the elves repeatedly. 

to emphasise their legitimacy, the junta re-estbalished the monarchy and based it out of a centrally located city, though far further south than the previous capital. the monarchy was technically in control, but all knew the junta was in power. their first monarch, in fact, was a respected former military commander, to connect both sides together.

more splinters emerged. human towns which had folded into the elven country began to reach out to each other and find solidarity, and many considered exiting and forming their own nation. and they did! it was fairly short lived, being quickly subsumed into the northern kingdom, but it was, for a time, wholly independent of its surrounds.

all land was now practically claimed. control over the north-south border became fierce, with the north boasting superior unity and the south boasting a stronger military (of course!). both claimed to be the legitimate successor to the human kingdom. itsa lot of fun.

what the northern kingdom has an advantage is the peace with the elves. the two join forces to push the southerners further south, before peace is brokered between all three parties. the north and east divide the winnings accordingly, to essentially give the elves the entirety of the eastern ranges and their immediate surrounds, and all parties mostly go on their way.

peace is uneasy. individual towns and groups defect to whichever country they find the most righteous or legitimate or so forth, and their border is chaotic. many humans who find themselves under elven rule spill out of their territory in droves, and its just. a Huuuuuge fucking mess. an absolute mess.

while all this occurs, the west remains steadfast. having only sent minor representatives to the “high council”, due to their isolationism/non-interventionist stuff, and also just not giving a fuck, they were not deeply affected by the Separation from a leadership stance. they end us accepting a large amount of refugees from all sides of the conflict, much to their dismay, but they agree to look after them provided they pull their weight, which many do. in fact, theres growing feelings that the west is the strongest power in the region, and could easily claim the other side of the strait for itself. it does not do so. however, it does claim a great many islands dotted off the coast of itself and the northern and southern kingdoms. said islands were largely forgotten or ignored in the greater conflict, and many willingly + peacefully become western. this becomes an issue later, because noone decided to tell the south that this was the case. the southern govt had largely assumed the islands of the coast were still theres.

a minor war likely breaks out over ownership of the islands, to which the west quickly wins. its not really a contest. in proving the point, it clearly establishes its control of the northern islands as well, which the northern kingdom concedes without fuss.

this basically functions. the issue for me now is to tie the northern nobility back into the southern. likely what occurs is that, in ensuing decades, peace is brought between the two monarchies through strategic marriage. the junta dissolves after a while as well, after the wars stop. its not needed. it simply folds back into being the southern military, though it has a huge presence, regardless of its actual size. even though the elven military is likely far larger, it just isnt as pervasive an institution culturally.

this actually ties in well (and unintentionally, haha!) with Warzen’s backstory, and how his noble ‘father’ was going to force him into the military to ‘earn his place’ in the family. the intrinsic tie between southern nobility and the military works even better for this, since i basically imagined that warzen’s family became rich/noble through military connections and were likely involved in like..... profiteering or production or smuggling/sales or some shit, you feel me? war as business stuff. works well for the south as junta into monarchy. i dig that.

AND!! the north being allied with the elves early on (though they did likely clash a few times to start and have some disagreements over borders) also helps to explain “Noverhamptons” notable elven diaspora. theyre friends! it makes sense for elves to perhaps move to the north for some reason. the same is not largely true of the south.

whiiiiich makes the one elven noble (he married in) even BETTER for warzens backstory too, since him being an elf means hes a little bit outcast for the noble circles, leading him to bond easily with the young Warzen. oh fuck me lads its Perfect shit. ohhhhh baby. thats what i like. when the pieces align just so! <3 hell yea man

so tl;dr three countries total - west, central, east/elf. central collapses during the Separation due to lost leadership and general pandemonium. splits into two major powers - a northern kingdom likely centered around a notable aristocrat, and a southern military junta which claims the entirety of Central. the south later establishes a monarchy under an ex-leader to “increase legitimacy”. the elves expand their borders westward out of a combo Huge Distress and need for land and resources to deal with the stranded elven populace. war breaks out between all three. the elves and north make an agreement and broker peace, and they later unite to put the south in its place. uneasy peace is achieved, though the north/south border and south/east borders remain tense and have issues all the time. much of the north/south tension is resolved through a collection of strategic marriages between the two monarchies, making both sort of the same thing. sort of fixes the issue. the two become more friendly. the south remains distrustful generally of the elven east.

the west is just chilling out. takes a bunch of Central refugees and a few Easterners, and it also claims a fuck ton of islands off the coast of both north and south. partly because they can and also because theyve been ignored during the whole crisis and kinda need help. west just swoops in. easy victory. minor war with the south about it where the south just gets fucked.

the southern loss to the west is probably the final nail in the junta as the total control holders in the south, and thus it transitions into the monarchy being in the big. probably.

honestly im mostly cool if the south has an elected govt instead of a kingdom, for some variety, since the nobles can still definitely exist under it. does sort of undermine the idea of the political union via marriage, which i think works well. since the common man p much doesnt give as much of a shit, and its the upper class that cares. could easily marry lesser royalty from the north into southern noble/political families. these all work. happy to look at that in more depth later, you feel me?

but yea! fucking nice!

[dailydigitaltech-blog]

How Deep Learning Could Fix Trump and Healthcare

Nvidia recently propelled a gigantic new push for astute machines, including what is likely the most costly volume workstation on the planet intended for this reason. IBM, which has a tight association with Nvidia, propelled a quantum figuring processor that has a decent possibility of hugely expanding the speed and insight of deduction frameworks. IBM likewise has been the most forceful in advancing the idea that frameworks, for example, these could dramatically affect the execution of individuals who utilize them. I believe that after a week ago, paying little mind to your own political inclinations, you likely wish a considerable measure of people in Washington were wired to these machines, since it feels like the nation is being controlled by fanatic boneheads right now. A profound learning framework could have switched the decision comes about. It's past the point of no return for that, however regardless it could transform Trump from a prepare wreck into the best president the nation has ever had. Moreover, it really could give a medicinal services framework that is both far reaching AND moderate. I'll clarify and after that nearby with my result of the week: the workstation that can possibly make you superhuman - and it just costs US$70K! President Trump Something you learn by experiencing one of the not very many formal CEO preparing programs that exist on the planet is the significance of causality - at the end of the day, the understanding that you can't do or settle anything effectively unless you see profoundly the instrument that will, or created, it. A considerable lot of the foundational aptitudes for powerful authority aren't educated - they are worked through understanding. The issue with encounter is that we tend to recollect specifically the things that had the best gainful effect and that help a view that we don't commit errors. Likewise, the vast majority of us have a tendency to gain from our own encounters however not from the encounters of others. At the core of the Trump prepare wreck is the president's protection from tolerating his own particular slip-ups or to gaining from those of others. Things began severely, and they now appear to deteriorate and turning crazy. This is the sort of thing a profound learning framework could settle. It gains from its own particular missteps, as well as totals the history that has been bolstered into it and gains from the errors and finishes of its associate machines. Actualized appropriately, it would exhibit continuously, and in horrifying point of interest, the result of any Trump choice. Basically putting it between the president and Twitter would greatly change the character of President Trump's tweets. Indeed, given the president's unwillingness to peruse, think about or concede botches, he may be the ideal specimen for the sort of individual who might profit most from this sort of a framework. A profound learning AI framework is intended to do best what the president wouldn't appear to like to do by any means. Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton's battle was an alternate sort of prepare wreck. From the get-go, I called attention to that I figured she would lose on the grounds that Bill Clinton would be more effective at making her lose than Trump would be at making sense of how to lose without seeming as though he was doing it purposefully. Half a month back, the now ex-leader of the FBI affirmed that Bill Clinton was to be sure the trigger for his late detailing about Clinton's messages, which maybe had a noteworthy impact in her misfortune. What ought to have been clear was that in spite of Bill's verbal help, Hillary's win would have been a monstrous unsatisfactory misfortune for him. Being extremely status-arranged, he couldn't acknowledge going from being recognized as the 42nd President to being recognized as the main person in a lady's activity - the principal male First Lady. There was no chance he could bring that up without seeming like a twitch, however somebody in the battle ought to have hailed it, and the fix would have been simple. Either rename and reposition the part as much more capable - something that would have profited each presidential life partner that tailed him - or do what Trump adequately has done: Get another person to fill it. Bill could have been given the title of "president emeritus" or something similarly amazing sounding. Prepared profound learning frameworks can see designs we may miss - and for this situation, the example that ought to have risen was that individuals don't care to take title downgrades. The individuals who are intensely determined by status emerge in this gathering. How frequently are individuals downgraded effectively, regardless of whether they change organizations, and how regularly does that not work out? The appropriate responses are once in a while and exceptionally. Utilizing a profound learning framework to dissect a methodology likely would have brought up that one of Hillary Clinton's greatest resources, Bill, would turn into an obligation. It could have helped her settle on various tricky choices, similar to asset use, all the more adequately. It likewise may have hailed that a system of demonizing Trump's voters would rouse them to vote while doing nothing to get her own kin to the surveys, on the grounds that that is the thing that normally happens. General Healthcare The huge issue with both the Obama and Trump endeavors is that they were established on a few lies that far excessively numerous individuals accept. The three basic untruths are these: 1. that you can make something that is unreasonably expensive reasonable by getting the legislature to pay for it; 2. that you can include an exceptionally costly new taxpayer driven organization without raising duties; and 3. that protection can cover prior conditions. The first is a lie since government oversight includes cost - it doesn't expel it. Alone, it is essentially another costly layer of administration, and the extra costs still get passed on to you. The second is Economics 101. The cash to pay for something needs to originate from somewhere. Obamacare was inventive, but since it required individuals who didn't require protection to get it, protection premiums turned into a duty that wasn't known as an expense. I could call a duck a puppy and it would even now be a duck. Third, unmistakably most people don't see how protection functions. It isn't an administration - it is betting. Much like going to Vegas, all in all we lose. What happens is that you wager the insurance agency you will become ill, while they wager you won't. The charge mirrors the chances in addition to overhead and benefit. It works, on the grounds that the aggregate charges take care of the costs when the insurance agency loses. Notwithstanding, with previous conditions, this would resemble having a space machine that constantly paid out. That isn't betting any longer - it resembles wagering on a stallion after the steed race is finished. To purchase the triumphant ticket, you'd likely need to pay the face an incentive in addition to any overhead to handle the exchange. Presently, it isn't extraordinary for somebody who doesn't have protection endeavor to get it after they have a misfortune that the protection may have secured. Let's assume you would have paid $5K for house fire protection, yet you didn't get it. At that point you have a fire with a $200K misfortune. Obviously, it NOW looks great to pay $5K to get $200K back - however from the insurance agency's point of view, that would leave business doltish. What a profound realizing framework would do isn't just banner that basically everybody is deluding you on this theme, yet in addition give you cases of where social insurance is working best and prescribe that way. It likely would be a solitary payer framework where human services isn't dealt with through protection however as a taxpayer supported organization - and preferable oversaw over most DMV workplaces now are. My best figure at the present time is that a machine would pick Luxemburg as the illustration (Australia is positioned eighth). Wrapping Up: Deep Learning One of the inadequacies of people is that we are extremely particular about what we hold. The most effective of us frequently are more headed to seem ok than really to be correct, prompting hosts of avoidable missteps. Despite the fact that we have more data readily available than any other time in recent memory, we have an abhorrence for utilizing it - learning by our oversights instead of requiring the push to stay away from them. This is the correct inverse of profound learning frameworks, and it is the reason they as of now are better at driving autos - and, on paper, better at flying planes. They do not have the inventiveness and the out-of-the-container believing that characterize the best of us, however they can dodge the sorts of mix-ups that outing up the best of us. To put it plainly, connected legitimately, a profound learning framework could transform any of us into a "huuuuuge" achievement. How about we trust this occurs before a sufficiently major avoidable misstep transforms us into fossils. Victimize Enderle's Product of the Week The sort of cloud benefit that would give the ability I've portrayed above likely will accompany a generally moderate month to month cost in the long run, yet we are no less than five and more probable 10 years from that. In the event that you needed to make a protected customized benefit for somebody like Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, at that point you'd likely begin with an extremely one of a kind workstation concentrated on profound learning and committed to them. Until this month, a wonder such as this wasn't accessible - yet that changed with the dispatch of the Nvidia DGX Station. 

Nvidia DGX Station It isn't a shoddy date at almost $70K - yes, that is seventy thousand dollars - despite everything you'd have to build up the related AI and prepare it. Be that as it may, once prepared, this little puppy could be your "don't get into imprison in any case" card. What might you pay to wind up plainly superhuman? For the present, this is for the most part utilized for the individuals who need to build up a profound learning framework, and costs absolutely will descend as more standard equipment sellers move to this open door. In any case, a man say's identity, a tycoon, and who could stand to influence something like this to work - goodness, and who would not like to be reprimanded - may will to support the first. Simply saying. Regardless, in spite of the fact that it likely is the most costly standard workstation on the planet, it likely is justified regardless of the cost, thus t

[terrierontour-blog]

Week 11 - 6/11/17

I did incredible things yet again!

This week was another unforgettable one for numerous reasons. First of all, I started one of my 100% absolutely voluntary teaching jobs and had a great time in both classes. The children I teach range from about 18 months to 5 years old and honestly they’re the cutest little terrors I have literally ever seen. I think that I might actually have to steal one before I come home.

Because the children I teach are so young in some ways it’s a pretty easy job for me – I don’t have to think about things like phonics or reading and writing, but just get to teach things like the alphabet or feelings and generally have fun with the kids. The only thing that can be a little disheartening with it is the language barrier. The students I teach are a little too young to understand that I can’t speak much of their language so only being able to work out half of their questions and odd words in sentences can be pretty difficult. However, I’m choosing to use this as motivation to learn more Mandarin rather than dwelling on it and being upset.

The most exciting thing this week was that I finally ventured off to Beijing! I have mixed reviews about Beijing really… To say it’s the capital city of China it seems incredible old fashioned and behind the times in comparison to the rest of the country I’ve been to. We couldn’t even use AliPay (the greatest invention ever where your bank card is connected to your phone and you pay for things by scanning QR codes) so we had to carry around cash. Cash is a foreign concept to me even in Britain now thanks to Apple Pay, and here it’s almost unheard of. I haven’t carried cash for months so it was incredibly weird for us to need it in the capital.

Somehow we managed to get a whole weekend of blue skies in Beijing. How did we do it? Not a clue, but the air quality (for Beijing standards) was incredible. It was actually at a relatively low, safe level for most of each day and anybody with a less sensitive chest than mine would have been fine. I still lived in a mask however, just in case, as I always do whenever the AQI is over 50. The blue skies made for an all-round better experience I think, and not to mention our pictures look significantly better than they would have if the air was in its usual state.

I headed off on Thursday with Alicja, Chris and Ollie for the shortest flight of my life (2 hours) and before we know it (after only a slight delay of almost an hour…) we finally landed in Beijing. My initial impression? FREEZING. After waiting around for a shuttle bus almost a billion miles away from the actual airport I was surprised that I hadn’t actually become an ice sculpture. Even my big, fluffy teddy bear coat, hat, scarf and mittens couldn’t save me – talk about a drama queen. We got a taxi from the airport to our incredible Airbnb with the best host ever who had prepared us a detailed plan for our weekend and went straight to bed as it was already almost 3am.

On Friday we headed straight for China’s biggest tourist trap – The Great Wall – and in the infamous words of Karl Pilkington “It’s an alright wall”. If by alright we mean incredibly long and incredibly steep and super-mega-incredibly slippery. So steep and slippery that I genuinely debated sliding down some parts on my bum rather than trying to walk out of fear of falling and breaking my hip once again. We managed to spend a few hours at the wall and took some really good pictures (another one for Grandma’s living room wall perhaps..?) but actually we only moved about 2km along the wall, and that’s if my measurements are generous. The part of the wall we went to was built over the mountains so involved more climbing and descending steps/slopes than it did actually walking the wall. Unfortunately, the bit we visited didn’t have the crazy slides to get down off the wall so we had to walk – very disappointing.

Saturday was pretty manic in that we covered the rest of the tourist attractions Beijing has to offer other than the Summer Palace. Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven, which we kind of ruined for ourselves by heading in through the North gate rather than the South (oops). The silliness meant that the big temple was the first one we saw, which led to massive disappointed after we wandered around a little longer trying to find the proper one and realised we’d already seen it.

After the Temple of Heaven, we went on the hunt for food and found a nice little food court that had the kind of Chinese food we get at home. Sweet and sour chicken never tasted so good, and after the god-awful food in Anhui last week it was such a relief to find such good food in Beijing. Pit-stop over, we headed onto the metro to Tian’anmen Square, which was possibly the most confusing and complicated place to access in the whole of China. I actually think it was easier getting a Visa than it was to be granted access to the square.

Security checks over we finally got to have a look around, and if it wasn’t for Chris and Ollie’s constant tank jokes, you’d never think that the place had been the setting of such a dreadful event as it was. The square is so colourful and decorated with giant flowers, flags and statues commemorating the struggle of the Cultural Revolution that there is no trace at all that anything bad ever happened there. It’s a little surreal to stand there in the hustle and bustle of the everyday tourist life and think about the things that had actually happened right where we stood…

At one end of the square stood a building with a huge painting of Mao overlooking the square. I think that might have been the mausoleum but I’m not quite sure – the only thing I could focus on was the missed pun opportunity of naming it the ‘Mao’soleum…

Through the other side of this building was the Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum. The grounds of the Forbidden City were huuuuuge and we didn’t get even close to covering the entire place at all. I honestly think it would take at least 3 hours and getting lost multiple times to explore the whole place. The buildings inside the Forbidden City were all huge too and pretty impressive, but because we only have just over an hour to look around and there was a lack of signs around the buildings I couldn’t tell you what any one of them actually was. Probably a few temples but that’s all I could say, and that’s only because everything pretty here seems to be a temple.

Once we got kicked out of the Forbidden City (because it was closing time, not because we did anything wrong!) we headed off in the direction of a pretty fancy duck restaurant that had been recommended by our Airbnb host. As someone that absolutely hates duck it wasn’t the easiest of places to find something I could eat on the menu, but the prawns I ordered were incredible and the portion size was so big I think I might have actually become a prawn myself. I can’t comment on the duck myself because I think all duck is icky, no matter how well cooked it is, but the others seemed to enjoy it and polished off an entire duck plus numerous duck themed sides between them.

After eating more than our own body weights combined we went to see the Olympic stadium lit up, seeing as we’d missed the lights the night before. The London stadium genuinely hasn’t got anything on Beijing. I can’t even remember anything of ours other than the giant helter-skelter, but the Birds Nest alone is so cool, even as somebody that isn’t at all interested in architecture I was super impressed. We also discovered that the Winter Olympics are being held here in 2022, trip back over anyone?????

Sunday was a pretty chill day after the super jam-packed Saturday. We headed out at 11 rather than 8:30 and even had time to fit in breakfast at a cute little local café. Special shoutout to the really kind lady with the super cute baby that could speak English and so helped us to translate the menu – without her we’d probably still be there desperately trying to express that we wanted some “laobing” (pancakes).

Post-breakfast we headed to the Summer Palace, another place full of temples and other fancy buildings and Buddha statues. We spent a little time exploring here and then decided it was probably for the best if we left for the train station quite early as the metro there took just over an hour and we didn’t know the station at all. We got to the station about 2.5 hours early so decided to have some food, get a coffee and just sit around and chill.

Here’s where everything went wrong.

It turns out that Alicja, Chris and I are too laid back for even Ollie to be stressed around, so when it got to 17:30 before we decided to head through security for our train (at 17:43). On the way we popped into a shop to get some drinks and snacks for the train back as it was over 5 hours and how else would we entertain ourselves if not by eating… However, we may have overestimated the amount of time we had to get to the gate. After pushing our way to the front of security in the least British way possible (yeah, I’m picking up the local culture), we were then faced with a huge issue. Three minutes until the train left, three escalators between us and the gate, and NO STANDING TO ONE SIDE SYSTEM. Not even all the shoving in the world could have helped us get up those escalators, and there wasn’t a flight of stairs in sight. We finally got up to the departure floor after what felt like hours and literally ran to our gate. It was 17:42 when we got there, “phew, lucky you” you’re probably thinking, right? WRONG. They wouldn’t let us through the ticket gates. After all the stress and trauma we actually made it to the gate in time and still were not allowed to get on the train!

At this point I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cry or laugh. Only we could turn up to a train station almost THREE HOURS BEFORE our train was due to leave and end up MISSING IT. I honestly can’t even explain how completely useless we are. Every single thing over the weekend we had timed well, and the one thing that actually mattered we messed up. I genuinely have no words for us.

Thankfully the Chinese rail transport system is a billion times better than ours and when you mess up they do let you just exchange your ticket – or at least they do with the foreigners anyway… Our only issue now was that we had booked onto the last high speed train to Suzhou, every other train that left that night would take at least twice as long and cost us extra too. We debated getting a high speed train to Shanghai and then a taxi back from there, but decided it would just be easier for us to get a sleeper train straight into Suzhou. It would be an experience at the very least.

So, a palaver to find a cash machine and 200 kuai each later, we had booked onto the 19:34, 11 hour, soft sleeper back to Suzhou. This time we found our gate, nipped to the loo and didn’t move from in front of it for fear of messing up again. As soon as the gate opened we joined the queue, got on the train and swapped about tickets with a few people so the four of us could share a cabin without any other people, and we actually had a really funny time. Other than the initial stress of the situation, and the extra money that I hadn’t factored in spending, the sleeper train was actually really fun. And as an extra positive, at least we know now that the soft sleepers are worth paying for in future when we’re heading on trips further afield.

We arrive back in Suzhou at 7am this morning, and after the hour long tube ride and short walk back to our accommodation, I arrived just about time for my 9am lecture.

I keep promising that I’ll stop with the incredibly long posts but they just keep getting longer and longer – I promise I won’t do anything too interesting for a little bit now! Anyone that has made it through to this point I salute you, thank you for reading through my ramblings once again. I really don’t think my life is all that interesting most of the time but I’m glad you’re all enjoying hearing about it.

心想事成

Bry x

Strange Experience Tallies

Live Animals Awaiting Death in a Restaurant: 10

Squat Toilets Experienced: 70

Bad Squat Toilet Experiences: 5

Photos Taken by Random Locals: 400

Full Body Metal Scanners: 65

When You’ve Adapted to Heat...

The Wall Was Alright, So I Made it Great.

Mega Steep Steps (Plus A Random Chinese Couple)

Temple of Heaven

The Bluest Skies Beijing Ever Saw...

“Flower Bucket” As Alicja Put It...

Embracing The Local Way of Life

Classic Dragon Pic

The Cutest One And I’m Not In It.

Actually Candid Candid Pic

Quack Quack...

Spot The Terrier...

Pretty Towers

Smoggy Summer Palace

He Couldn’t Be Anymore Sick of My Shit

When You Miss The Last Train Home...

Sleeper Adventures.