Journey of the mind

I'd like to proudly share a small achievement that brings me great joy: I've finally managed to deliver checkmate in a few games while playing chess with some members of the club, ahihi. After making a resolution to only play online chess once I had properly studied opening theory, I still haven't reopened Chess.com to grind for Elo points. Instead, I've been watching strong players climb Elo on YouTube and following commentary from chess masters, which has helped me improve quite a lot. P.S. The image is for illustration purposes only. The friend in the picture played three games with me and I lost all three in a row. Today is so emotional. It is also brought  a small achievement that brings me great joy. I achieved a good shift in my research work with the help of a talented member in our project and it boosted my confidence a lot. I believe my  efforts are moving in the right direction. PS. Quick results reported to the Professor I also met a freshman student at th...

A master piece in Vietnamese. I deeply feel how beautiful Vietnamese language is. Hanoi, May 21, 2026

#106.  New passions appear quietly Today I walked to work and noticed the streets felt much more open (like, “without you, the road feels wider” :)) With the goal of moving more and weighing less, I said I would do it and I did. Day one: completed. I also marked the first day by copying a habit I've been seeing: buying coffee on the way to work. I got a bạc xỉu ,  a drink I had no clue about when I was working part-time at a café as a student Speaking of walking, it reminded me of my professor. He used to walk to campus every single day, no matter the sun or rain, summer or winter and I truly admired him for that. He also always took the stairs instead of the elevator. It was such a well-known habit that all of us students remembered it clearly. And yet somehow, over time, I almost forgot about it. All in all, I feel really happy that I managed to walk more than an hour and a half round trip today, feeling excited the whole time, without any hesitation. P.S #1. On the way ...

Step one: Follow the Recipe After baking for a while, I've started to feel uncomfortable watching people bake without proper tools or instruction videos that don't include detailed ingredient weights, because it's hard for me  to picture the process and final cake. Still, I think a great baker goes beyond recipes, they taste, adjust, and learn through experience and creativity. As for me, my current mission is much simpler: follow the recipe properly and make something that actually work and build experience for future bakes so I can make them faster and more delicious. I've tried baking with different techniques and tools. I've made cakes both with and without an egg beater, and I've experimented with changing some ingredients. Sometimes I joke that if I follow a recipe but only change the ingredients, will it still be successful? : D Once, I followed a recipe to make a passion fruit mousse cake, but I decided to make a matcha mousse instead because matcha was...