5月の日記

2020 5/1 (Fri)

Quarantine one month passed. I am fine. but I feel like I am losing willingness to try something new, to achieve what I've never done before. One reason of this is because the schedule of my day is a complete mess. I want some new todo list apps or something. And I found this Roam. honestly I don't know what it is but someone on twitter says it is the best note-taking and todo management platform ever so I wanted to try. I've never used this type of platform before because I don't think it's useful for my life but as I said I want to let new wind in my boring life during this pandemic so I think I should try.

2020 5/3 (Sun)

It is so hard to keep my English not stupid even though I'm not using it frequently. Melting vocabulary, forgot how to spell. Maybe I have to write at least one book to get used to writing English. Maybe so. Even I've read lots of books and articles in English, I have to use them to remember how to use, or how to spell. I know after I watch some movies on Netflix or read some books on Kindle, I can write this diary well somehow. Just I have to remember, remind me of how to sound English in a practical way.

Yes, I just forget it. And in these quarantine days, it is quite difficult to use them because all I want to do is to sleep well. And eat well of course. How do you manage that? All bilinguals or trilinguals on Earth, please tell me how you keep your ability in these chaotic days. YouTube and Netflix are my friends, my English speaking friends, well I don't have English speaking friends before that technically. And books. But I don't read books at home. yeah, I read some, but mostly I read them at a cafe like Starbucks. I like Starbucks by the way. There are so many frustrating things at home to read books especially written in not my mother tongue. It needs beyond human concentration.

In this sense, this diary helps me a lot in a way that I have an opportunity to write things in English. Otherwise, my English ability would have been diminishing every second.

Honestly, I want to read books, I want to get some new insights from books around the world, but humans are weak you know. Every time I open the book, there's a phone, an iPad, or even 週刊少年ジャンプ by my side. Do you think I can manage this? Who on earth do you think would be able to manage this? Plus, it is on Kindle, on computer screen. I know it's super useful, but I can't tolerate enough this to finish the entire chapter of A Game of Thrones. I want paper printed books. Then you think you better buy it. yeah I know, I know, but Kindle edition is usually really cheaper than paper books so... and I always read some part of it before buying the books at the book store even if I bought them on the Internet. But I can't go anywhere so...

And Minecraft is just super fun so...

2020 5/4 (Mon)

Hi from notion.so. This is an amazing product. I've just touched it for a few minutes but I can say this would become my best friend. Why? Because thanks to Notion I don't have to take care of lots of other apps anymore except for Google Calendar. It seems that Google doesn't allow others to use the calender's API right now. Please open it up, don't be evil :)

Right now I am writing this piece of cake on Notion editor, it is just wonderful. I can use it as a blog editor, a todo app, a collection of resumes, some notes related to research, and more. As a novice backend web developer, I can see how tough it is to implement this product. Users can do so many things here, and which means, developers have to prepare all of these things moving around at the backyard of the browser to let it happen. It's exhausting tasks, believe me, it is.

Oh, and another good thing is, here I am typing on the browser called Google Chrome, so Grammarly teaches me how to spell English words and he also corrects me some mistakes. What a great age to study foreign languages. Thank you technologies. On VScode, Grammarly can't help. But maybe I should see the settings.

I've seen some ed videos on YouTube that native speakers trying to type some sentences and Grammarly corrects them right away. Now I am experiencing the same thing. It is a way better experience than I've expected.

Yeah, it is difficult to find topics that could be written as a diary, because I must have enough vocabulary to express about it, and usually, I don't have one. So I need more vocabulary. Just one language, you know. Just to get familiar with a single language takes so much time and effort. I can't believe how so many people out there are managing it. Or they don't manage it.

Honestly, I like to write things and also I like to try new things, so that's why I could keep doing this habit? When did I start writing something on the Internet in the second language? Maybe a year ago or two years ago? And what's amazing to me is that here I am writing so many words on this page (not so many actually), Grammarly has corrected me only twice or so (It was a lie in the end :) but at this sentence it was true). Honestly, I am not confident about my grammar skill but somehow I've got one. Perhaps reading helped me a lot?

What Grammarly tells me was that, I am terrible at using commas and periods, thank you for letting me know, I'll fix that bug later.

And the most exciting thing is! I can export this post directly to the html file! What the heck.

2020 5/6 (Wed)

Today I feel like I want to study more and so I did some of the assignments of my class. I want to study more keenly, more earnestly about what I learn in the classes at uni.

One of the reasons why today I think I want to study more is because I got a new iPad Pro (11 inches). Maybe that's all. By the way. I've been taking Data Structures course on Coursera and today I watched amortized analysis videos, and I have to compute 等比数列 to get the estimated computation complexity. And honestly, I didn't remember what it is. No, I did remember what it is but I didn't remember enough to solve the problem. I realized that basic math is important in every field. And I am not good at calculation by hand, so... I want to improve more yeah.

2020 5/9 (Sat)

I've taken Google Online Challenge which is required to proceed internships hiring process today. And it was not so bad I think. But not so good as well. I don't know where it goes because of the coronavirus. I don't know when they send me the result. If they send the result this month, and if that denied me, I would take Microsoft's internship program. Hold on, are you studying mechanical engineering at uni, right? why are you pursuing software engineer potitions? well, I don't know. I don't know what true engineers do. and software engineers can do their jobs with just a laptop, whereres hardware engineers can't. That's one of the reasons why students often choose software engieering as their hobies or something at uni. Or just I don't know other students.

Anyway, I've finished one of the toughest challenge of this month, so I'll sleep well.

2020 5/10 (Sun)

LinkedIn is not so popular in Japan. Many BIG comapanies don't use LinkedIn as a looking for jobs platform. They just post some jobs on their homepage and usually everyone doesn't know about it because they don't share it on LinkedIn. Hey HR managers in Japan, please use LinkedIn. Believe me you can get super talented people from anywhere around the world. Because everyone sees it.

I know japanese culuture doesn't fit services like LinkedIn because they hire their people from the cradle to the grave and never let them go. Because they educate them and it costs a lot, I guess. And japanese people don't like to change their jobs. So, overall, LinkedIn is not for huge japanese companies. And that's completely okay if you want to be in the same company for like forty years. But if you don't want to? Well, join a smaller company, startups, or find jobs outside of Japan. I think that works for you.

I think that is not a bad thing. Working at the same company for a long time sounds great if the company is for you. But, if that wasn't the case, then, what would happen? That's the problem.

And for me, I am a guy who likes to pursue what I want to do. And oftentimes what I wanna do changes constantly. That's the problem for me. I want to do a lot of different things in my life. And just I think this personality doesn't fit for the culture of the traditioanl japanese companies. That is why I am looking for a job that is suitable for me. And I think that's a company that is not in Japan. Or, in japan but startups.

But to achieve that, I need to gain skills to get a job that I want to get. It takes time and lots of practices but I think that's what I want to do at least for now. So, I am looking for somewhere that works fine for me. If you know the place, I would apprecieate your kindness.

LinkedIn is not so popular in Japan. Many BIG companies don't use LinkedIn as a looking for jobs platform. They just post some jobs on their homepage and usually everyone doesn't know about it because they don't share it on LinkedIn. Hey HR managers in Japan, please use LinkedIn. Believe me, you can get super-talented people from anywhere around the world. Because everyone sees it.

I know Japanese culture doesn't fit services like LinkedIn because they hire their people from the cradle to the grave and never let them go. Because they educate them and it costs a lot, I guess. And Japanese people don't like to change their jobs. So, overall, LinkedIn is not for huge Japanese companies. And that's completely okay if you want to be in the same company for like forty years. But if you don't want to? Well, join a smaller company, startups, or find jobs outside of Japan. I think that works for you.

I think that is not a bad thing. Working at the same company for a long time sounds great if the company is for you. But, if that wasn't the case, then, what would happen? That's the problem.

And for me, I am a guy who likes to pursue what I want to do. And oftentimes what I wanna do changes constantly. That's the problem for me. I want to do a lot of different things in my life. And just I think this personality doesn't fit the culture of the traditional Japanese companies. That is why I am looking for a job that is suitable for me. And I think that's a company that is not in Japan. Or, in japan but startups.

2020 5/12 (Tue)

It's tough to finish online courses. The important things are:
1. Finish an assignment at the end of the chapter, don't go next until you complete it.
2. Don't see the next chapter
3. Imagine your certification

You shouldn't go next until you finish all of its contents in the current chapter. Because if you know the next content in advance, you somehow lost your concentration and curiosity. You should wait. Wait and think about how this course goes. That's the key. And if the current chapter has an assignment, do it, right, now. Just do it. If you don't, then you won't. The best time to finish the assignment is right now. It may be the most important thing to finish the course.

If you truly want the certificate, then you have to finish all the assignments. and basically that's difficult if you are watching the lecture videos just for curiosity. It's a good reason to start with, but you have to make a system like watch the lecture at a certain cafe after work to complete all of its contents. Because it takes time and energy. You can't do that without introducing a systematic way.

And I lost that battle recently. I've been watching Data Structure on Coursera for a few weeks now. And I didn't finish the assignment of chapter 1. The end of the world. At the time I don't have enough time to complete it, so I made a mistake. I should've chosen the right time if I sincerely wanted to get the certificate. But I didn't. I don't think I need any certificates from online courses. No, I want it. But I don't think I want it for a reason that I think I truly want to do. Just for resumes, CVs, I hate it. Yeah, I know I should have. BUT I ALREADY HAVE ONE (MACHINE LEARNING) SO I'M FINE THANK YOU.

2020 5/14 (Thu)

BUSYYYYYYYYY

But I'm enjoying it.

It's time to enjoy all the laborious things. I have lots of things to finish by the end of this week. But I am fine cuz I am fine. First off I am using three programming languages at the same time but it's completely ok cuz I can handle it. Second, I'm using two natural languages plus math but it's also okay because now I can write a blog in both languages.

More specifically, I have to write Node.js at work and I have to use MATLAB to process lab data and for class assignments I use Python. And it's totally acceptable because these three languages are not so complex and can be written easily. Of all these three languages, I hate Node.js the most because I have to write so many lines to finish the same task in Node.js compared with others. I hate cumbersome brackets, one line, please?

I think people should pay much more attention to how many lines are needed to achieve the same task in the language. You can't see five or more lines at once, you must see carefully what's going on by scrolling and scrolling. But if you could write the space-consuming code in one line, you'd be able to grasp what's going on much easier. Yeah, sometimes it is just a garbage code, but Node.js, you're consuming too many spaces just to display some simple function. Once you write two or more functions, your screen would be full, congratulations, you got an honor to buy a new monitor.

So, I'm just sayign why not try deno?

2020 5/15 (Fri)

LaTeX

It is time to use LaTeX for all of my studies. I've barely used LaTeX as a memo tool because it's tedious to open up the laptop every time. But in this quarantine age, I have to open it up anyway, so that gives me an opportunity to use LaTeX as a study tool. Basically, if you want to write something that contains mathematical expressions, you would end up with LaTeX because otherwise, you can't.

I don't think LaTeX is the best tool because, for me, it feels like it's a low-level programming language. I think we can improve this language more. Why does everyone keep using it? Because researches can handle it. No matter how difficult the tool is, they use it because they know how to google what they don't know. For the sake of their intelligence, they lose an opportunity to make more useful things.

But I would say a document made by LaTeX is undoubtedly beautiful. I have to admit that. Not so easy to write, but beautiful. And many researches do programming, that's one of the reasons why they also use LaTeX. Word is also good. But they are less convenient in terms of mathematical notations.

Now we have Overleaf, so we could use LaTeX much easier than before. But still, we have to take care of a lot of things like, we can't use other languages except for English without further settings, we can't copy and paste an image without typing some code, and it's cumbersome to put the image in the right place. And it takes relatively long time to compile the script. More than 100 pages? Good luck.

The most important and delightful reason why we use LaTeX is that we can have them as a digital format. Once we write something difficult in LaTeX, it will be there forever. And we can review it happily because it's beautiful. No more scribble. Everyone can read it. Although they can't read your document written by your hand because it's dirty.

See? It's the biggest benefit of digital format. We don't have to worry about losing the document, the handwriting, and the physical space. That's why everyone uses it despite its uneasiness.