2020 is worse than expected for everybody due to COVID-19. The pandemic started in China in February, and quickly spread world-widely. It is extremely difficult to travel oversea and the situation becomes worse after the mutation of the virus in the UK. I did not go back to China in the summer holiday as expected and there is no hope that I can go back for the up-coming 2021 Chinese new year.
However, I still manage to have lots of fun this year! Let’s start with interesting non-physics stuffs.
The first half of 2020
In February, after two weeks of self-quarantine back from China, I went to the cinema to watch 1917. This movie talks about a simple story during World War I: two British solider is ordered to deliver a message to the frontier to avoid failing into a German military trap. It is the first time I watch a film with long takes. Watching this film feels like I was in the film, going along with two soldiers through all the dangerous area. A unique experience for me.
The most excellent TV show I watched during the first half of 2020 is Better Call Saul, Season 5. I haven’t watched previous seasons before, but I noticed it has very high scores on IMDb. So, I finished all season 1 – 4 in March to catch up with the newest season 5.
Better Call Saul is a spin-off of another TV drama, Breaking Bad. However, I watched Better Call Saul first and then Breaking Bad because the previous one is so good! In fact, personally, I think Better Call Saul is way better than Breaking Bad.
The best part of Better Call Saul is the richness of every character, especially the main character Jimmy. He is a con artist but want to be a respectable lawyer like his brother, Chunk. His con artist experience makes him a very unconventional lawyer, which does not win his brother’s respect. All the plots are arranged in a very unexpected way, making the TV drama fascinating. What’s more, it talks about a very deep topic about human nature: is it possible for a once “bad” guy to turn into a good guy?
This TV show is full of beautiful scenes. I show choose two random screenshots below.
On June 12, Jay Chou gave us his new single, Mojito, a song full of Latin American feelings. It is my summer piece apart from Summer Breeze (夏天的风). I even learned how to make the Mojito drinking because of this song, though I usually do not drink any alcoholic drinkings.
The second half of 2020
I moved to a dormitory of the University of Tokyo near our institute in July. It is called Kashiwanoha International Village (KIV), and located right near the Kashiwanoha Campus station on Tsukuba Express. I met many nice friends here. In September, there are two new members joining our research group. One is an international student coming from the Philippines but with half-Japanese blood. The other is a Japanese student who did his undergraduate study at Waseda University. Both are nice and interesting.
In October, the movie version of Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃) came out. I first watched the normal version and then the IMAX version. It is a touching movie and the fighting scene is gorgeous!
My favorite TV shows in 2020 and perhaps till now is Attack on Titan (or Shingeki no kyojin, 進撃の巨人). I watched the first few episodes of season one in 2013 when I was a freshman. Season 2 and 3 came out very late in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but I was busy with my physics self-study project and didn’t watch them then.
After watching the Kimetsu no Yaiba movie, my friend told me I should really pick Kyojin up because it is extraordinary and the final season will come out this December. It turns out she is perfectly right! The deepness and fascinating plot of Shingeki no kyojin show themselves slowly in last season 1 and accumulate in season 2 and 3. The feature of Kyojin that make it so different from any other TV shows or anime is the combination of the unsolvable contradiction of two groups with different values and the tension of the plot. I have no better words to describe this extraordinary TV show for you. However, if you enjoy any of the TV shows like Kimetsu no Yaiba, Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad, etc., you will fall in love with Kyojin! The author, Isayama, seems to already have a huge iceberg built up, and he shows the tip of this iceberg slowly to you. The beautiful tip of the iceberg makes you wonder what is underneath the ocean.
The Rosie Project and Asperger's Syndrome
I was looking around for interesting books in June after the season 5 of Better Call Saul finished. The Rosie Project, recommended strongly by Bill Gates, got my attention. I’m always in the road of finding a balance between logic and emotion, and The Rosie Project is about this topic. Anyone who tend to be overly logical will identify with the hero, a biology professor, in his mid-ages, with Asperger’s Syndrome who is looking for a wife.
I did feel there are many similarities between the hero and me. I have difficulty understanding ordinary romantic relation. It makes no sense to me at all! I would think that why everyone wants to find another person to step into their own lives to disturb everything? Especially when the relationship becomes closer, people tend to show less respect to each other and care less about the boundaries of an individual. I then suspect I might also have Asperger’s Syndrome like the hero.
I have never heard of Asperger’s Syndrome before. The symptom includes difficulty in social interaction and in understanding nonverbal communications. If you know the TV series, The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Lee Cooper is a prototype of an Aspie.
I find an online test to get a self-evaluation. There are about 100 simple questions. The result of the test I took a few minutes ago is like (also see the polygon diagram above):
- Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 102 of 200
- Your neurotypical (non-autistic): 117 of 200
- You seem to have both neurodiverse and neurotypical traits
It says that now I’m a mixture of normal and Asperger person. The result tilted more to Asperger type when I took the test half a year ago. The two scores are 138/200 and 80/200 then.
I share many traits of an Aspie. One of them is that I cannot stand to spend my time in things (or people) I’m not in love with. It is the most important reason why I switch to physics from engineering side in 2019. I don’t like parties either. It is better to have one or two best friends than to have dozens of acquaintances. Also, I often think very differently from others about ordinary stuffs. When everyone talks about involving into a romantic relationship, I’m more curious about what is a romantic relationship, or more generally, what is love? When I stare into the eyes of a girl and say I love you, do I really love her? I have answers to none of these questions. As a result, I usually cannot answer a casual question like “do you have or had a girlfriend?” After all, what does this question mean? I plan to learn more about Asperger’s Syndrome in the future.
