Kai's Diary (6): Spring Allergies and Black Holes

I'm starting to believe some sardonic, dark fate have tied my life to cold and rainy days, because these are still my best moments in Leuven. No, I'm not going crazy; trust me, I love sunny days the most. But sadly spring always comes with one dreaded thing: POLLEN.

Column: On Studying

Exams are upon us. Well, upon you—I'm trying to finish my PhD and for the first time in five years, I'm not taking any exam. But I've been there and I also know how it feels to have to go through the ordeal of re-reading texts and notes, writings papers, finishing one's research, and bracing oneself psychologically for exams. So I decided to skip heavy philosophical reflection this time and make some remarks and share some tips on studying.

Kai's Diary (5)

PROBABLY YOU LACK SUFFICIENT IMAGINATION, MY DEAR!

 

It's about noon and the sun is almost fully up outside.

But when a lecture is tedious, seconds pile on seconds to become minutes.

Like abandoned threads of webs and dead spiders heaping atop of one another become distracting patterns in the upper corners of your bedroom walls.

And there is no magic ingredient which will make logic good for anything in the life of a normal, happy human being.

When I thought things couldn't get worse, the professor was interrupted by the most annoying girl in class – one who loves hearing the sound of her own voice.

Column: On Having Control, Making Choices, And Trying To Be Good

I have just turned 29 and living in a place where there are always young faces, I feel terribly old. The more I age the more I realize that there are just so many things that are beyond my control. And the more I think about it, the more I see that most of the things that determine what and who I am happen without my consciousness and choice.