Actually taking a comical number of Ls recently it's hilarious lmao. Here is a brief retelling of just this past weekend,,,

Part 1

For context, a while ago, I slid into this girl's DMs. For context I knew her a bit before this but not super well and also haven't talked in a few years.

Anyways, we had an initial convo that I really enjoyed? But then every time I've tried to talk to her since, she literally takes days to respond and she never initiates conversations either. So I'm like hmm... I really, really like her (because my brain is messed up), but she probably doesn't, but in the off chance she's just an abysmal texter or busy maybe I'll just go for it.

So last month, I ask her like hey I'm gonna be in your city (Atlanta) in a few weeks, do you want to spend Friday of Memorial Day weekend together? And she responds pretty enthusiastically yes (still days later). Obviously, I'm so happy about this, I plan around it and pick out a somewhat thoughtful but not too crazy present for her too.

Fast forward to this past Tuesday, I'm like hey so for this Friday I was thinking we do W and X from Y to Z pm, does that work for you? And yeahhhh ghosted. She does eventually respond Saturday night with just an oh crap I forgot to check my messages so... yeah.

Part 2

Regardless, I still fly to Atlanta since I'm volunteering for HSNCT this weekend. I watch Better Luck Tomorrow on the plane, which is about a real-life case in which a bunch of asian honors students murder another asian kid. Actually a really great movie, I think. Anyways, the HSNCT/quizbowl part of this weekend isn't that interesting, so I'm going to omit basically all of it.

So, I actually moved my flight early so I could be here in time for lunch with this girl, so now I'm at the airport early on Friday. This sucks, so I decide to go and check out the Skyclubs at ATL to see what they're like, but I forgot to save my boarding pass, which I technically need for Skyclub entry, and it disappears from the Delta app after you land, so now I'm not sure how to find it (or if it's just gone forever?). I go to Concourse E anyways, since apparently that's the best ATL Skyclub and it's empty asf with no line, I can see it. So as I walk up, I'm thinking my odds of Speech 100-ing my way in are good.

I approach the guy at the door like hey can you help me find my boarding pass and hold up the app on my phone. And this guy, some like mid 30s French dude with dyed white hair replies: "No." I figure he means he doesn't know the app either, so I ask, "alright no worries, can I go ask at the front desk?" And he says "no, you need a boarding pass." I start explaining, "hey man I have one I just can't find it" and he starts repeating "I can't give you a boarding pass" and *walking away* from me??

I am so peeved by this I create a Yelp account just to give this Skyclub a one-star rating for this. After I finish my review, I decide to leave the airport and go to the Peachtree Center for lunch instead. This begins a pattern in which (almost) everywhere I try to eat in this city hates me for some reason.

Part 3

For Friday lunch, I get fake Chinese food at the food court. $15. The General Tso's chicken leaves a strange aftertaste. That night, I pay $25 for this fish thing at a sit down restaurant which was Fine but there was like barely any fish in it. I also didn't realize this restaurant was on Resy so I didn't use my Amex.

After dinner, we walk to Baskin Robbins after. It is closed, however, so we double back and go to Krispy Kreme instead. When we enter, one of the employees tries to tell us they're closed, but their manager cuts him off and says "no we're open what can I get you guys." I pay about $2.50 for my donut, which is actually quite good. Cake batter! While I eat it, I recall that time I bought a box of Krispy Kreme from a girl I liked freshman year.

Saturday at lunch, I pay $11 for such a below average roast beef sandwich. You kinda can't mess up a sandwich so it wasn't actively "bad," but it's as bad as a sandwich can reasonably be. I warn my friend about this place. He got a sub that looked good and decent value. Let this be a warning not to you all as well: Do not patronize TJ's Sandwiches at the Peachtree Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I make a mental note to try the sub place my friend tried, but when I check for all subsequent meals the store is closed. Later that night, we go to Dairy Queen. I get, like, no fries in my Dairy Queen order. I also don't notice it only costs an extra dollar to go from a double to a triple, so missed value.

Sunday at lunch, the guy at the poke place misheard my (exceedingly loud and clear) "no" as "Coke" and I pay $4 for a Coke. There were too many people in line for me to feel like contesting it. My friend ignores my warning and decides to get a burger from TJ's Sandwiches, because for some reason he "thought maybe it would be better." It was not. I skip dinner this last night and drink some chocolate milk instead.

Part 4

Remember earlier how I mentioned I moved my flight earlier to have a larger window of potential time to spend with this girl on Friday? I actually moved my return flight later too for this reason as well. Originally, I was supposed to leave on Sunday evening, but I switch to Monday night instead, in case Friday went well and we wanted to run it back on Monday. After she gave her apology, I debated asking her again if she wants to hang out with me on Monday since Friday fell through. I ultimately chose to have some self respect and I do not do that.

On Monday morning, housekeeping barges into my room at 8:30 AM for some reason. I groggily tell her to come back later, but can't go back to sleep at that point. I check my work computer and the customer script I had run over the weekend doesn't seem to have worked properly. That will be tomorrow's problem, I tell myself.

The art museum is closed and the natural history museum didn't look that fun, so I decide to go to the Georgia Aquarium. On my walk there, I am greeted by some of the children I read for yesterday and two of their parents. I smile and tell them I hope they enjoyed the tournament. This is what it's all about :') I get to the aquarium and it costs $70 (wtf), but it was actually pretty fun. I spend about 4.5 hours and see basically all of it. Touched several fish.

As I'm sitting at a table at the aquarium contemplating what to do with the rest of my time, I go to double-check my flight, and which point I discover: I messed up when I moved my return flight -- it actually left last night and I missed it without knowing. I call the Delta Gold Medallion help line to see if they can rebook me at no cost, but they say I have to pay the difference since I got marked as a no-show. Reddit corroborates that I brought this upon myself. I pay an additional $140 so I can go home. This is not the Delta Difference I was promised.

Part 5

I rush to the MARTA Station to catch my new flight. At the subway station, it turns out the card I bought a few years ago expired because they expire every 3 years for some reason?? I try to scan with a credit card, but that doesn't work either. I go to the kiosk and buy a 1 time pass, scan in, throw it out. I get to the airport station, at which point I realize I shouldn't have thrown it out, because oh my god I forgot that you need to rescan your ticket to exit the mf station for some reason in this terrible city. I consider taking another L (for the plot at this point) and buying a new ticket just to exit, but instead I decide to just force myself in behind someone else who was leaving. It's not a turnstile, it's a literal gate made of plastic, which creaks as I force my way through, but I am stronger. I think I hear someone call after me, but I ignore them.

I actually make it past security with a solid 50 minutes before boarding. In my spare time, I return to the Concourse E Skyclub I was denied entry to a few days ago and extract as much value as I can from their food, which was actually very delicious. I consider peeing on their bathroom floor for further value extraction, but decide against it. I also get a notification I got upgraded to economy plus. Which, I better have, given I have spent double the usual rate on this flight by now. On the plane, I watch Easy A, which was kinda funny.

The flight lands and I visit the ORD Skyclub to eat more food and attempt to get more value. It was not good, but I eat a lot of it anyways. I also fill my water bottle with milk, which I guess I drink now. As I try to navigate to the airport Blue Line station, I go to the wrong terminal and have to double back. Upon review, it turns out both of these terminals work, and in fact 1, 2, and 3 all connect to the train station. Without hyperbole, I have messed up leaving O'Hare a double digit number of times in my life by now.

Part 6

To get home from O'Hare, I have to take the Blue Line (subway), then the 78 (bus). I get off the Blue Line and wait at the bus station until the scheduled time. It does not arrive. I wait several more moments. It still does not arrive. I check maps and it's only a 3 mile walk home. I start walking. About 15 minutes into my walk, the original bus passes me. I realize at this point that I ate wayy too much earlier and that plus the walking is making me very nauseous. I give up and wait for the next bus to come. After another 15 minutes, it arrives and I take it home.

When I return home, the cat does not greet me and I exchange no words with my sister. I bathe, then lie in bed fat, bloated and noticeably poorer than I was four days ago. Well, at least it beats working. Oh wait.

So I'm walking down like Broadway (Chicago). It's 11 at night but pretty busy street since tomorrow is July 4th but few pedestrians.

This car pulls up and asks "hey are you from around here" and it's a mom and dad and a kid and I'm thinking they need directions so I'm like "no sorry". But then they're like okay us neither and then this really weird sequence happens.

They ask if I know how diabetes works which, I find slightly insulting but I say yes and she goes on to explain their daughter needs insulin and needs it now because the pharmacy is going to close soon.

At this point I'm thinking okay sure like this is 40% a scam in my head with current info but it's a holiday so whatever I'll float you 20 bucks to make you go away tbh.

But then they're like "they dispense them in sets of 4 and it's really expensive and we're $80 short". So I'm like hUh tf but honestly I was curious to see where this goes so I'm like alr you know screw it I'll Venmo you. I do this knowing I don't have $80 in my Venmo and don't have it linked to any bank accounts anymore for security reasons.

So I pull out the Venmo and she pulls out her phone and asks me to scan. I try typing the username but no hits? She's like nah scan and I'm like alr sure. So I fumble around to enable permissions and I ask her where they're coming from and they say some like neighborhood idr.

Anyways I scan it but before I can enter an amount Venmo immediately errors and won't let it go through. And I've never seen this before and her husband hands his phone over like right away and is like try this one and the wife also says like yeah just put food or something in the noted and it's like also an error (albeit a different one). Also, sidenote, I notice the name on the second one is a second male name, so like ? whose account is it lol.

And I'm like pretty amused at this point because it's obvious to anyone with a pulse this is a grift. But they're insistent, they're saying like you can hold onto my ID my bank card I'll send the money back to you at midnight I swear. And I'm playing along because it's funny like hey no I believe you but the app literally won't let me send it to you lol. And I scan it again and show them the error.

Then they ask about Cashapp, then Zelle, then Apple Pay, none of which I have on my phone like no lie, like I literally show them my Banking app folder which just has Venmo, Expensify and Robinhood (lol).

At this point, the dad gets out of the car and tells the mom to pull the car over because they've been blocking the entrance to this parking lot for 10 minutes and someone is trying to get in now.

So the dad is like hey there's an ATM down the road if you could go withdraw. And I'm like hey I would love to but I don't carry my debit card. Which, again, no lie, and I can tell he doesn't believe me so I pull out my wallet which literally only had my ID and a single credit card in it.

And he pauses for the first time during this whole sequence and suggests I download Cashapp and set that up. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't even work anyways because I don't have my bank info on me. So I'm like nah I'm good go ask one of those guys and I gesture at the guys in the car behind them trying to get into the parking lot. And he's like we already asked them (??) we've been driving two hours please my daughter! But I walk off while saying sorry good luck.

And it's like pretty funny in many ways but also I really did mean it. Like wow what a life to live. Imagine being in your like 30s/40s and fat and so down bad you're driving around at 11 PM the night before July 4th trying to use your kid to scam people out of money.

There's also no way they convince enough people to do this where it's higher EV than a real job or like some kind of Uber gig right? But also maybe the Venmos errored because it worked on a few people and flagged the activity?

Also what if I had said yeah gimme your ID as collateral. What would they have handed me? How does that work?

It's just very confusing how badly this was executed. They clearly have some experience and I can see what they're going for with the like both people talking trying not to give me time to recognize red flags, but even though played along it didn't work so lol?

And why even lie? If they just asked me for money and had real accounts it would've been fine presumably. Because even if it went through I definitely would've gotten their plate and reported it afterwards.

It reminds me of this girl who stopped me outside a Whole Foods asking for $20 saying she just got evicted. And I'm like what's your Venmo and she's like "yeah no they shut everythint down" like hm that's definitely not how eviction works right.

Apparently the beggars in China have Wechat so it's like yeah at least make it easy for me to give you money. Also $80??? That's so much money like who other than me would've said yes lmao.

And I wonder what about me makes me seem like I'm likely to give money. Because I am semi often accosted by people asking for money. Like I mask outside and dress like I'm going to/from the gym always so not sure?

What a day

You see sometimes I'll be up really late at night merging, but Bella won't let me go to sleep until I've opened 20 gold chests in a row. And last week, Lily showed me a Polaroid of my greenhouse broken and dilapidated in an interrogation cell after I 4-merged tier 7 stone. I've missed my midterms, my interviews, and my aunt's funeral. Well, at least I unlocked more lebensraum, I guess.

I've been merging for a long time and I've learned one thing: Sometimes you can win by merging--but more often than not, it's the farm with the best cards that harvests most bountifully.

Katy Yang: Achievements and Contributions

Quantum Computing Breakthrough: At 16, Katy formulated a groundbreaking algorithm that revolutionized quantum error correction, vastly improving the stability and efficiency of quantum computers. This algorithm, known as "Yang's Quantum Stabilizer," became a cornerstone in quantum computing, leading to the development of the first stable quantum transistors.

Academic Competition Records: Katy shattered records in Science Bowl and Quizbowl. She famously answered a record 95% of questions correctly in the National Science Bowl, displaying an extraordinary depth of knowledge in physics and chemistry. Her strategy guides, particularly on obscure topics like non-Newtonian fluid dynamics, became essential reading for aspiring competitors.

Martial Arts Innovation: Katy developed a martial arts style that combined the fluidity of Capoeira with the precision of Krav Maga. This style emphasized adaptive combat, allowing practitioners to swiftly adjust their techniques to different opponents. She also established a training program for self-defense, focusing on empowering young women.

Psychological Insights in Strategy: Utilizing her deep understanding of psychology, Katy authored a series of papers on game theory and its applications in real-world negotiations and conflict resolution. Her work in this area influenced diplomatic strategies and peacekeeping efforts in several international conflicts.

Philanthropic Initiatives: Katy founded "Quantum Leap," a global initiative that provided scholarships and research opportunities for young women in STEM fields. This program led to a significant increase in female representation in physics and computer science departments at major universities. She also launched a series of public lectures and workshops aimed at demystifying science and technology for the general public, particularly focusing on rural and underrepresented communities.

Technological Innovations: Collaborating with leading AI firms, Katy developed an advanced neural network model that improved predictive algorithms in climate science. This model, known as "YangNet," played a crucial role in enhancing the accuracy of climate change models, leading to more effective environmental policies worldwide.

Through these specific achievements, Katy Yang not only cemented her status as a prodigy and a polymath but also used her talents to drive significant advancements in science, technology, and society. Her legacy is marked by a blend of intellectual brilliance, innovative problem-solving, and a commitment to using her skills for the greater good.