A Farewell to the Past, an Exciting Journey Ahead

It's hard to believe that my journey, both personal and in the blog, began over 12 years ago during my freshman year of college. Admittedly, I haven't been as active here for the past couple of years – life has a way of keeping us busy, and sometimes, I confess, procrastination takes over. This post might even serve as my farewell to blogging, or at the very least, my last post from the United States, where I've called home for the past 13 years. 

California Street, with a glimpse of the Bay Bridge in the distance—an iconic San Francisco vista

My thought before my thesis defense

4 days before my defense/a month before moving

- This past week has been pretty interesting. Since I will defend my thesis at the beginning of next week, I have reached out to so many people in my life that I have met over the years to tell them about the defense. (I guess one good thing about doing a defense online is that anyone can join the defense from anywhere.) People that I reached out to include physics friends from my old high school in Thailand, high-school friends, a physics teacher (Ms. Cianciulli!), college friends, people I met during an undergrad summer school, people I met during my PhD from old roommates (quite a few of them), classmates, and Thai friends around the city. This just made me realize how many people that I have met over the past ten years in the US and even more in Thailand. 

Boston Skyline from the Charles river

นักดาราศาสตร์​ MIT ค้นพบกระจุกกาแล็คซี่ใหม่ ที่คนอื่นหาพลาดไป

เขียนโดย Kelso Harper 

วันที่ 26 มีนาคม 2021

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นักดาราศาสตร์​จาก MIT ได้ค้นพบกระจุกกาแล็คซี่ใหม่ที่มีความพิเศษแตกต่างไปจากกาแล็กซี่เดิมๆ ในงานวิจัยที่มีในปัจจุบัน ผลการศึกษาที่ได้ตีพิมพ์วันนี้ เสนอว่าประมาณ 1 เปอร์เซ็นต์ของกระจุกกาแล็คซี่ มีความพิเศษ  ทำให้ถูกจำแนกผิดเป็นแค่หนึ่งกาแล็คซี่ที่สว่างเฉยๆ ได้ เมื่อนักวิทยาศาสตร์สร้างกล้องโทรทัศน์ใหม่ขึ้น ก็ควรที่จะใส่ใจกับรายละเอียดผลการศึกษานี้ ไม่เช่นนั้นก็อาจจะมีความเข้าใจจักรวาลได้แบบไม่ครบสมบูรณ์

What would you tell yourself back in January?

I sometimes spend my isolated weekend going through my photos from when I was in junior high all the way up until the past couple months. It is surprisingly an effective time-sink activity when you have lots of free time, like I have now. One time, I stopped at my photos from January of this year (2020) when I spent two weeks in Hawaii, looked that my past self, and told that person "the world that you know it will change completely in just over a month." 

Me on top of Koko Head, one of the nicest place to hike in Hawaii

What would you tell yourself back in January? 

What a weird dream ...

Recently, I have been having a weird nightmare that the entire world has turned upside down.

The Eiffel tower, once crowded with tourists trying to take just another selfies and locals enjoying their brunch on the lawn nearby, is now completely empty. Not a single person or a single car on streets, but pigeons remain packed surrounding the area. Some even notice that these birds start to chirp a little bit louder than usual.

A tree

The First Post about Museum of Fine Art

The first topic that came to my mind during my visit of MFA this time is about "the perspective".

The perspective from where you see the painting actually change how I feel about the painting, especially couple landscape paintings from Monet. I found this is a unique way to experience the art like I never did before. You can't really do it from the photograph of the painting online or elsewhere. This makes me appreciate my time going to different art museums more.

The two photos below show the same painting but at a different angle. Looking at the painting at the 45 degree angle gives me a sense of three dimensions from the painting which is gone as soon as I stepped right outside the painting.

Valley of the Petite Creuse, Claude Monet, 1889

Trip to Peru Miniseries: Day 4 - Lima

I decided to separate into a post for each day. You can find more post here for Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

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I had to wake up early (6am) again to catch my flight to my one day trip to Lima, the capital of Peru. Another day, another city. I read up some information about Lima but didn't really plan the exact path for the trip.

The first thing I did in Lima is meeting up with Guillermo near his office. I met Guillermo back in UChicago as we were a student at the InterVarsity group there. We had a great ceviche (spicy seafood salad) for lunch. He also showed me how to use the metro (which is, surprisingly, a bus on a special lane! instead of a train) to get around the city.

The Cathedral, Lima