Using GnuCash with a Centralized Postgres Database via Docker In case you were wondering, I’m still definitely freaking out about space: I’ve been reading about The Great Attractor and have been fascinated finding myself in graphics like this. I’m taking a break from the usual space freakout to share a quick tutorial on finances and accounting, which is just as fun, right? ...

As part of my diet for learning Japanese, I’ve added Japanese manga and anime to my language-learning regimen. It isn’t possible to understand the Japanese language or modern Japanese culture without knowing the country’s manga or anime. I have come across some manga and anime that I’ve enjoyed. Dr. Slump made me laugh out loud several times. After finding success reading Dr. Slump, I felt brave enough to try reading the new, more modern Dandadan. I had a newfound awakening of respect for anime as I cried like a baby during Dandadan’s “Acrobat Silky” character’s origin story. ...

I talked in the previous post about using languages to learn things in other languages. I have also been trying to find content available in other languages that help with learning things in general. For example, a channel that I have referenced before that has a good explanation about trade wars. I don’t really want to go into the current situation, but I’ve been hungry for an explanation about how these work, and a historical perspective on previous instances. ...

I’m currently reading Until the End of Time. I’m also devouring a recently discovered YouTube channel, 李永乐老师 (Teacher Li Yongle). Until the End of Time has been a great read. Brian Greene does a fantastic job explaining a well-rounded set of ideas in an easily digestible way. I’ve been re-reading a few sections of the book that explain some processes in chemistry, like redox reactions, and how the human body takes advantage of this by eventually storing energy in our cells. The process itself has been fascinating to re-learn. I’ve also been inspired to take advantage of learning some of the vocabulary in an enjoyable way. I want to demonstrate how I’ve been using other languages, like Chinese, to help me understand things in English ...

Since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with learning and answering the question “why.” Things could never really click until I was able to answer that question. This curiosity has never left me. Astronomy is the best and worst thing to ever happen to me in this regard. It’s a never-ending source of wonder, of new whys to answer. Astronomy is also seemingly the answer to everything: our history, our future, and our present. ...

A few days ago, I came across an article presenting the discovery from the James Webb telescope through the lense of an idea. A surprising number of early galaxies are spinning in the same direction, which may be proof that our universe is inside of a black hole. This idea changed my life. I immediately toyed with the idea of our universe being encapsulated within a bigger universe. I felt as if I could mentally travel there. I could zoom outside of our universe and back in. I could zoom infinitely out to the never-ending loop of nested parent black holes. I could zoom infinitely in to the final universe. I could see information flowing between them. Information being encoded into a black hole, and information being emitted. This was a fun thought experiment until I concluded that everything is just information. Black holes are just encoding information, like an encryption algorithm. Universes are like big “zip files.” All of the data present inside of a zip file is still able to be represented in the uncompressed state, and vice versa. ...