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  • Today we are starting with the first poem of the Tao Te Ching. If you want to be a good student, you can read it here.

    Are you done reading? Good, let’s start then!

    Analysis

    Before we get into any specific part: I think, broadly speaking, this poem is about what this “tao” is. So most parts are just about what it is, or what it is not.

    Part 1

    The tao that can be told
    is not the eternal Tao.
    The name that can be named
    is not the eternal Name.

    Lines 1-2: Tao is not really a thing that can be named. Only instances of it. -> The name you give it, is only the name of the instance in which you observe it.
    For example: When you count things, you give them numbers. Like 1 rock, 2 rocks, 3 rocks, and so on. These numbers can be named, but they don’t really are the things you see. It’s more like a concept.

    Lines 3-4: This is basically the same as the first two lines. With the difference being, you can’t give it a name.
    This in turn also means “tao” is not the real name, but only the (or rather a) instance of “it”. Whatever this “it” might be.

    Part 2

    The unnamable is the eternally real.
    Naming is the origin
    of all particular things.

    Line 1: This abstract “tao”, is an eternally real concept.

    Line 2-3: This is independent of the tao per se. In a way this means, if you don’t name something, it’s not real.
    For example, you don’t wanna give false accusations about (for example) cheating in a relationship. Because once you done it, this is always lingering in your head, and you can’t really get it out. So you made it a real thing by naming it.

    Part 3

    Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
    Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

    Free from desire – and you get it, otherwise you see only particular things. As the mathematician I am, this seems like: Free from desire gives you the law; and the desire gives only specific examples.
    No better example (or learning thing) here…

    Part 4

    Yet mystery and manifestations
    arise from the same source.
    This source is called darkness.

    I think, this darkness is like the unknowing. Because mystery definitely comes from not-knowing; and manifestations: I don’t know. I don’t even get, what this is supposed to mean… Or maybe, these manifestations are only manifestations in the mind of yourself. So then, this darkness would be your mind. Which is a somewhat negative worldview – to call you mind “darkness”. Maybe, instead of “mind” you have thoughts. Because, see next part.

    Part 5

    Darkness within darkness.
    The gateway to all understanding.

    Darkness = thoughts? If so, then this would somewhat make sense. It definitely be a good justification to meditate for long times (haha).

    My Title

    The Thing Itself

    (I’m speed-running this right now, since otherwise I’m never going to finish this post…)

    Authors Title

    The tao that can be told…

    To be honest, not

    Closing words

    All in all, this describes a vague notion of what the tao is (I guess). But I expect, that we learn way more about it in the future. So maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea to sometimes come back to this poem, to see, how I changed my views about it.


    I just did this now really quickly, since I want to get further into the book. And I knew I started this, but I wasn’t really motivated to keep going. So now I did it poorly, so I could get further into the book!

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! When I woke up, I made myself ready for uni and so on. Just the usual stuff. After my 1 hour complex analysis lecture, I went and asked the prof 2 questions about the exercises we have for next week (well, the week after, since next week are holidays). It turned out, I had made a mistake, so I had to solve most of the exercises again. I did that on my way home, since they weren’t that hard.

    In the afternoon, I spent some time watching things and solving the rest of the exercises.

    During most of the afternoon, I had a suspiciously high amount of energy. Because of that, I went to the gym in the evening. 2 things about that.
    1. I had an arm workout. So first, I trained shoulder, then biceps, and then triceps. Now I used to only do one exercise for each muscle group, and then go to the next. But today (and probably in the future) I did three exercises per muscle group, with 4 sets per exercise. So that was really
    2. You know the feeling, of not having energy after the gym. Now obviously I had that as well. But it was kinda strange, since my upper body and my legs were super relaxed, but I could hardly move my arms. I don’t think I’ve ever had it like that.

    Then after the gym, I went home, took a shower, and then I watched some videos. Initially, I went home at like 11:15pm (or something like that), but now it’s already 2am. So another day, where I go to bed too late.

    With that being said, that’s all for today. I’ll see you again tomorrow! Until then – take care! Bye-Bye!

  • My Day

    It’s late again, So I try to be quick: Got up, and went to uni. I had one “question” where I did think, that the prof was wrong (he wasn’t) so I had -1. But then I answered the 2 other questions he had correctly. So all in all OK!

    Then I went home for lunch, since I had already solved the exercises for this week. At home, we didn’t really have any food, so I made myself some hamburgers. That means, I roasted 2 beef-patties, prepared some slices of bread with pickle, and cheese, and ate that for lunch. I’m always surporised, how fast this is done. It only took about 20-30 minutes from beginning to cook, to being done with the dishes.

    In the afternoon, I watched a lot of YouTube and Num3rs… Also, I thought about coding another program, where I’d de-blurr images. I already have an approximate idea on how to do it, but we’ll see. Maybe tomorrow(?).

    At about 5pm, I went outside to have an ice. So I sat in the garden, and slurped away. Then my sister came to me, since she was smoking outside.
    We talked a little bit, and then she asked me, when I started to appreciate beauty in such little things. And I didn’t really have an answer, so I said:” You know, a few days ago, I saw an kite (bird) outside, and I asked myself: ‘when was the last time, you imagined yourself being a bird’. For me, it’s at least a few years ago. And I think, this is kinda sad”.
    So this was my intro to my philosophical… idek. Just thought, I’d mention it.

    After that, I cooked dinner. I made a classic. Spaghetti bolognese. Nothing special. Today, the sauce was kinda watery. So I don’t know what’s up with that…

    Anyway, after dinner, I did the dishes (alone) and after that, I went to my room, and watched some more of Numb3rs.
    One time, they mentioned Network analysis. I thought this was a kinda interesting topic, so I googled it, and read a little bit about it. Not much yet, but maybe some more in the future!

    Then, I took a shower, and now I’m writing (to) you. So that’s all for today. I hope I see you again tomorrow! Take care, and I see you then! Bye-Bye!

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! Today was no special. I mostly spent time on my PC, watching a lot of Numb3rs and coding a little. I didn’t get that far with my coding project, but it’s gonna come, surely. Well, the next step would be, to have multiple cameras set up, and then work further from there. So there’s now a little break here…

    Otherwise, in the afternoon, I went outside to have an ice. In the afternoon the clouds lifted mostly, so it was nice outside. I spent the first time (in quite a long time) looking at clouds far in the distance. I kinda missed that. All these details. These hills of clouds. Beautiful world. Also, the grass (or mostly flowers) in the garden looked really nice, since it rained a little, so now, everything is more green (saturated) than usual.

    Usually, I do some uni-stuff on Monday, but today, I surrendered the deep learning lecture, since I couldn’t let it count for my degree. So now I definitely have to find (or a) new lecture, to which I can join from middle of the semester, and then take the final exam. Otherwise, I’d take too little courses this semester.

    Ah, while watching Numb3rs, Charlie (the math guy) said: “You don’t know what it’s like, to have an idea so pure, that you can’t even put it in words. You just know that it’s right.” And this reminded me of the Tao. This is exactly like the Tao. (At least, that’s what I remember from the first poem which I read…) This was one of the first times, I really saw this applied to anything, except in the book Tao Te Ching.

    So yeah. That’s about everything from today. Nothing more happened… Now, Imma take a shower, and then I’ll go to bed. And you; you do the same thing now! So sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite; and I see you tomorrow! Bye-Bye!

  • Dear Diary! Today, I am tired, since it’s already too late. Why is it too late? I started a new programing project. Whats the goal? Basically, I saw this video, and now I’m trying to do something similar. Mainly, a program, that takes as input 2 (or more) cameras with their respective angles, and then determines the distance to certain objects. Only, I’m doing this a little more general than in the previously mentioned image. That means, I’m not simply taking the difference of this and the next image, but I search for points which are the same in both images, and then combining it like that.

    Because of that, I’m keeping it rather short today (I think).

    My Day

    Morning: Wake up -> not hung over, so the salt-sugar drink maybe helped. I think, I added too much salt (I added 2 pinches) and too little sugar (I added about 3 pinches). But once I had it down (yesterday) it wasn’t that bad.

    So this morning I spent just chilling. I woke up quite early (at like 9am – 6 hours of sleep). Oddly enough, I was motivated in spirit, but not in energy. So I spent most of the day just chilling on my PC.
    I tried to finish the Sudoku from yesterday afternoon/evening, but then after 2.5 hours I realized, that I had made a mistake… So in the end, I didn’t manage to solve it.

    Otherwise I saw some more videos. One was about comparing American (US and Canada) ski-resorts to European ones. One new thing for me was, that it costs like 3 times the amount per day, compared to Europe.
    Also, I learned, that in north US the tree-line is higher up than in Europe. I didn’t really think, that that would happen. So that was kinda interesting.

    Also, I spent some time looking at new clothes to buy. Did find a few, which I’ll probably order tomorrow.

    In the evening, Jerry (foster brother) came over to have dinner with us. (Since his girlfriend / roommate is on a vacation in Colombia.) We talked quite a bit, but nothing that special. But it always makes me happy, when he comes over. Obviously.

    Once he was gone, I went back to my room, watched some numb3rs and chilled for a little more. Today, I realized, that they are really honest about how they feel. I actually kinda like that. So I hope, I can be more like that too. Also, they really observantly realize how they feel. Which of course is also quite nice. It obviously makes it easier, that it’s a TV-series, but still. I’ll try to be a little more like that!

    Then I started to program my above mentioned thing. And yeah. Now I’m here.

    Looking back, at what I wrote, it’s more than expected. So you have more to read – how nice! But that’s all for today! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Take care and see you then! Bye-Bye!


    P.S. I am now in bed, typing on my phone, since before I forgot to mention this. Whem I was in the shower, I had a sudden “sad-attack”. Not too bad, but still. A bummer…

    I then got out of it by wanking with a funny scene in my head. At first, I was this masseur, massaging the hot female. But that didn’t really do the trick, so I switched it up. About 2 weeks ago, I went to foctor for a ultrasound. I had this somewhat hot doctor. But she explain really nicely what she did, so that made her a little hotter. Now in my “fantasy”, when she wiped the gel (from the ultra sound) off of me, she went quite low. Which *hot*! Then she pulled her hand back, but I said, I think there’s more down there. So she went back, and from here on, I think you know what happened.

    Kinda embarrasing to tell, but afterwards, I found it really funny, so it helped me break out of the sad-attack.

    But now that’s all for real! Sleep tight!

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! Today, I hardly did anything. I planned to meet some friends in the evening, otherwise, nothing really…

    So, in the morning, I slept until late, and then I spent some time watching YouTube. During this time, I’d say, I got the “flame” back, to playing volleyball. That means, I watched some volleyball matches, and it got “my blood pumping”. This was a nice feeling!

    In the afternoon, I cycled to the nearest grocery store to buy some meet for dinner. So I spent some time outside. Now, the weather wasn’t as nice as I’d hope, but still warm and not rainy. So that’s just fine by my standards!

    Otherwise, I watched some Numb3rs and I tried to solve a few Sudoku. But these weren’t normal Sudokus but from dailykillersudokus.com . Especially this one. I tried it (passively) for about 2 hours, but still couldn’t solve it. But it was something to do (at least).

    Initially, we planned to meet at 6pm. Since I can track Josh (with “Find My” – Apple user), I checked where he was. And he was still about an 3/4 hour drive away… So I spent some more time trying to solve the Sudoku and watching Numb3rs.

    Then, once my episode was over, I took my bicycle and went to Pete (and his apartment). It was actually quite funny. Since like 1 minute before I arrived there, they called josh to know when he’d be there. And in this call, Josh said that I should arrive soon, and exactly in that moment I rang the bell. So perfect timing.

    Once we were all there, Pete and Jones told us about their vacation. They went to England and Scotland for 3 weeks. To visit some cities and to interrail to some places. They told us, what they’ve done and so on.

    Then, we had a BBQ, talked some, and played some card games. It was a fun evening. Just a calm evening with the boys.

    Then, at about 1:20am Josh and I were the last ones to leave and we also went home. Now, I’m writing (to) you. Soon, I’ll take a shower, and then go to sleep.

    Just before, I asked Chat-GPT if there was an amazing anti-hangover drink. And it replied with “Just water with a little bit of salt, and a little bit of sugar”. So now I’m trying this, and I’ll tell you tomorrow if it worked especially well or bad. If there’s no extreme, I’ll probably forget (just so you know that).

    So that’s all for today! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Until then and Bye-Bye!

  • My Day

    Morning – Chilling

    Dear Diary! Today, I woke up -> spent some time on my PC watching stuff and double checking my math things I did yesterday (found 1 small mistake) -> Lunch

    Afternoon – Trying to Explain Math, Gym & Helping to Cook

    After lunch, I tried (once again) to explain to my dad some math things (with infinity) and he didn’t agree(?). Which is always quite funny. Because I try and try to explain it to him, but he just doesn’t agree.

    Then, at 2pm I went to the gym with Josh. I did squats, low row, and bicep curls. So basically the same as last time. Hopefully tho, I don’t get as sore muscles as last time. My squat today was actually quite good. I had some warmup, 1×10 with 80kgs, and 2×8 with 90kgs. I’m quite proud with that.
    For squat, my next goal is 100. Which, maybe I am even able to do that right now. Didn’t dare to try yet…

    After that, I went home, had a protein shake, and from then on spent some time on my PC. I had a small PC break when I had an ice outside. Then, I felt kinda sad going back inside again, but I didn’t know what to do outside…
    Also, at about 6pm, my mother called me, and then I helped her prepare dinner. We made a pasta-salad, and then had a BBQ with that.

    Evening – Floriography

    In the evening I watched more YouTube. Specifically, I watched A Goodwin TV’s reaction to Spy x Family. And then in the comments I learned about floriography. Which is the communicating in/with flowers.

    For example, if you gift someone red roses, this means love and so on (we all knew that). But if you gift someone white roses, this means “no”.
    Now if you want to get a specific message across, you can create your bouquet of flowers in a way, so that each flower balances out the others, and then you have a (somewhat) clear thing. So in some sense, this is like a secret language. (Obviously, this is all about love stuff and so on; but still interesting.)
    I’ll definitely keep this in mind, the next time I’m going to buy flowers.

    Also, this triggered a memory of my deceased grandma from fathers side. Since she always had a specific flower she mentioned. This being Myosotis, or better known as “forget-me-nots”.
    The meaning of this flower is (obviously) “don’t forget me” – which I didn’t. Specifically this helped me think of her. This made me quite happy.

    Night – Shower -> Going to Bed

    Now just before I took a shower, which went on for way too long. Nearly an hour. TBH, I feel kinda bad about that. Nonetheless, it’s in the past, and we can’t change it now…

    So that’s all for today! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Take care and until then! Bye-Bye!

  • My Day

    Morning – TA Work

    Dear Diary! Today I woke up at about 9:30am. Which was half an hour earlier than my alarm was set. But sadly, the sun was too far up in the sky, so no sun-bathing in the morning 🙁 . After I got up, I put on some cloths, and slowly got ready to go to uni for some TA stuff.

    In the university it was as usual. Hardly any questions, so that’s nice in a way, but also not. Only one question, for which we had problems understanding the student; or rather, the student understanding us. So this took then 10-15 minutes, which was nice, since then the exercise hour is over faster.
    Nonetheless, we could go home at the usual time – 12:00.

    Already in the train on the way home, I started with the corrections. Once I arrived at home, I had lunch with my family. Since my mother has vacation days right now, she cooked spaghetti. So we ate those. (whaaat?)

    Afternoon – Corrections

    In the afternoon, I corrected the rest of the exercises. This took until like 16:30. So after that, I was basically finished with my work for today. I then watched some episodes of numb3rs.

    Now to that. This series is from 2005; and it shows. It has a few aspects, which I really like (from the live of a 2005 series). Hardly anyone has phones, and so they spend more time together. I think this is quite impactful. Because of that, I’m currently thinking about buying a key-phone. So I don’t have a phone at all. After all, I’m not using my phone for much, but I think with even less it’d be better. Well, more true to nature and so on. We all know what I mean!

    Evening – Better Complex Function Grapher

    Then, after dinner, I did some more of that, and I checked, if there’s already a new exercise sheet for the complex analysis published. And wouldn’t you know – there was! So I took a quick look at that, saw, that we have to hand this in on the 30th. But upon closer inspection, I realized, that I could solve 4/5 of the exercises rather easily, so I did that. I think, I didn’t do it, as it was intended, but I’m like quite sure, that it still works.

    I also improved (well added a new functionality) to my complex function graphing system. Now I can create 3d graphs, where the height is the real part and the color is the imaginary part. And low and behold, it spins this 3d graph, so you get a better idea of the heights. So it’s actually quite nice. Props to myself on that matter!

    Then I took a shower and (as usual) I wanted to wank. But since I don’t watch porn, I had a somewhat hard time… Because, I don’t really have a crush at the moment, so I didn’t know what scenario to imagine. In the end “it” still “worked”.

    That’s about all for today! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Take care! Bye-Bye!


    P.S. right now, I’m gonna change the “About Me” a bit, so it says, if you wanna use this page for AI training, you have to pay me like 1000$. So in the rare case of this happening, I get some money (maybe).

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! Today was nothing special. I mostly didn’t do anything. Well, that’s kinda a lie… But I didn’t do much!

    In the afternoon, I figured out, that I cannot take the deep learning exam. Well – That’s not entirely true. I can take it, but I can’t let it count. So I probably won’t take this exam.
    Also, i might not be able to take my measure theory exam. But today I wrote my email, and I’m hoping for the best.

    Now, this means for me, that i still have 1 year until I get my bachelors degree. Which really annoys me. So i tried, looking for other lectures which I can still take this semester, but there aren’t really… Maybe compiler construction (or something similar to that).

    Other than that, I programmed a function visualizer for complex functions. (With the help of Chat-GPT. This somewhat helped to visualize these functions, which otherwise can’t really be done…

    I also started some short organizing of the next volleyball season. For which I then figured out, that I don’t have enough information to do that already. But the foundation is still done!

    Ah, since the university had this special day today, I didn’t have any lectures as well. So I stayed at home for the entire day!

    That’s about all! Otherwise, I can’t really think of anything I did today… I’ll see you again tomorrow! Take care and until then! Bye-Bye!

  • My Day

    Dear Diary! Today I woke up, weirdly early. At like 8am. This was about 1hour before my alarm went off. Since I knew, I had to get up some short time later, I didn’t fell asleep to hard again. Also, there was a strip of sunlight on my bed, so I laid in a way, that it hit me maximally. I really like this.
    So I spent my first hour of the day dozing like that. And then of course, when it got to getting up, I nearly failed.

    Anyway. After getting up, I put on clothes and went to university. One quick complex analysis lecture later, I went back home again.

    At home, I ate too little lunch (since we only had “old” bread, which I didn’t really like – sue me). Now, usually I do some complex analysis exercises on Wednesday afternoon. BUT tomorrow is some special day at uni (150 years of something(?)), so we didn’t get a new exercise sheet. And since I already solved all of the old exercises, I didn’t have any.

    So, I spent my whole afternoon watching YouTube and Numb3rs. Not that productive…

    In the evening, I had to go to a meeting with some volleyball people. We had finalized the teams for the next season. I am now officially a player! SUI!
    Despite all that, it was quite an annoying meeting. Louis has this annoying tendency of: Whenever I disagree with him, he calls me stubborn. Which kind of annoys me. Also, one coach was there, who clearly does not like me, and she had some problems, but in the end, I got it (mostly) the way I wanted it. So not too bad. Only one exception. But this is OK for me…

    Then once I was back home, I watched some more Numb3rs, took a shower, and now I’m writing (to) you.

    Emiliana Texting is Over

    Yes. You read it correct in the title. I decided to not write anymore. Why? It was obvious, that she didn’t want to text anymore, since she sent a lot (not that much) one word replies. But the master-texter I am, I was able to reply with something sensible.

    So now to today: I texted her this one silly joke (somewhat funny) and then she replied with three laughing emojis. As I told you already, I wasn’t sure, if I wanted to continue the texting, but this was just the tipping point. So then I didn’t reply! So now all this texting is over!

    No More Porn

    I decided, that I don’t want to watch porn anymore. It’s time to go back to nature. This just rots (in) my brain, so I better stop it.


    So that’s all for today! I wish you a very good night! See you again tomorrow! Bye-Bye!