Et al.

To comprehend 2024 is to comprehend fleeting moments, and a romanticize them sufficiently. 

The Chanin building stands in its auburn limestone glory at the heart of midtown. The low-hanging facades are visible crossing to Grand Central Station, rendering low marine lifeforms: fern-like organisms and tertiary animals crawling about. The Chanin building is the most beautiful when the daybreak radiance reflects into its neighbor, Socony-Mobil building, and all the 1930's warehouse windows have stopped quaking in the aftermath of the strong afternoon winds. These strong decade-long winds bring fortunes benevolent and malevolent. 

I have felt the city's electrifying energy from the magnanimity of wistful silence. In California, it was a competition of who is the loudest--- garnering attention and acclamations. Banal tomfoolery bathed in Pacific saltwater deemed fitting. I embraced it. New Yorkers enjoy subtleties of intentional disguise. Suppressed emotions, lowered gazes, and hushed corridors are representative of the New England etiquette. 

Speaking of California, I remember sometime Asyja explained to me that she was researching on sphixish behavior in AI agents. The concept was that ants, bees, and other sphixish insects with a role-designated sociological hierarchy behave very similarly to future-state AI agents. This is where there will be a centralized "command room" for knowledge retrieval/information storage/mass-usage and all individual agent are distributed as workers. For example, the motivations of an individual worker bee and the desires of the worker bee must be ultimately aligned to those of the group. Even more so, the aligned-bee is pre-determined for servitude. Intelligence, as a resource or as an evolving organism behaving sphixish, will be free-form and, put simply, behaving as a colony of ants or a colony of bees.

When the 79th United Nations General Assembly took place in September, Murray Hill hosted an influx of international diplomats to conduct political forums. The placards that they carried would signify which country they appeared for, in addition to the blue UN badge I see everyday. Model UN in high school was reminiscent of this assembly, trite yet sensational talks that lead to my daily commute being longer than usual. Also, it reminded me of the countries fair that my boarding school would offer every year, where we act as ambassadors and talk of treaties. My elementary school course workbooks would call my generation and me---国家的栋梁. The pillars of the nation, the core competent people of the nation, the foundation of the nation: it is ironic in many ways. 

I have tried on many clothes this year, as to upgrade my New Yorker wardrobe and worldly tastes. A few white tops I've tried and liked: a tall and gorgeous ruched summer-y shirt and beige knitted sweater. However, the beauty of such a pale color goes so quickly with time and wear. For presentation, but impractical for quotidian use. Timeless, fitted pieces such as a houndstooth long-coat brings depth and warmth, but it ages a young girl like myself. These unchangingly classic outerwear makes me appear older than I am. I'd like to think suede jackets have seen it all, the elegance that it brings is like calm-after-the-storm. If wearing suede felt like home, then I must like clothes not for its category but for its fabric type. Put simply, I am indiscriminate because I like all suede-made clothes. But then, one may ask, do you really like the piece of clothing for itself? I digress. After everything, I've taken a particular liking to my grey cashmere sweater this winter, it fits comfortably and pairs well with my circumstances. I will keep it close to me for now. 

For comedic purposes, here is my booklog. Many hours of self-indulgence fictional works have been consumed. Not all of which have made an appearance onto this booklog. 

This year, I want to consume literature abundantly, broaden domain knowledge, run the central park loop in under 1 hour, continue playing field hockey now that I have my stick, maintain a good GPA, and remain grateful everyday. I welcome change, and I invite action. I hope to welcome more change, and to take more action every day in 2025. Onwards!