Miscellaneous Things

I'm a big fan of solving Rubik's Cubes fairly quickly using the (subjectively) most goated and most optimal method.

I mainly practice 3x3, One Handed, and 4x4, but I also know how to solve 2x2, 5x5, 6x6, 7x7(in theory; I've never had one), and Pyraminx (and Square-1 and Megaminx if I had a last layer alg sheet).

I do occasionally upload some of my solves to my YouTube channel.

My Times, roughly (~Global average, PB single)

• 3x3: ~14-16s, 8.61s
• 4x4: ~1:03-1:10, 47.85s
• One Handed: ~25-28s, 13.05s

My Favorite Cubes/Mains

• 3x3/One Handed Main

  I main the Moyu RS3M V5 Standard. I don't care much for all the tensioning and customization stuff, and this cube is just fundamentally solid and ridiculously great value for $9. It's also hard to justify spending like $80 or whatever GAN charges these days on a cube.

• 3x3 Honorable Mention

  The original Dayan Tengyun M is a great cube; it's very unique because of how silent it is. I don't main it just because the corner cutting isn't great and it pops more than my RS3M, but it's a trusty warm up cube.

• 4x4 Main

  I main the YJ MGC 4x4. I'm honestly not very good at 4x4 but I still enjoy doing it from time to time, and this cube was a huge step up from my Little Magic that was missing an internal piece, and was honestly trash in general.

Ridiculous/Cool Scrambles

• R U B2 F2 R2 U L2 B2 U B2 L2 D2 L U2 B R' D' R' B (basically full cross with a pair - probably insane F2L lookahead potential)

I was a cross country and (distance) track and field athlete in high school, and thus found my love for running (and cycling, for when I'm injured). I particularly love trail running, as it's challenging due to hills and rough terrain, but equally rewarding due to crisp forest air, lush green trees, and sensational sweeping views.

My All-Time Favorite Run Routes (In no particular order)

• Windy Hill via Razorback Ridge

  ~9 miles, ~1700 feet elevation gained

  Simply put, Windy Hill is my favorite viewpoint in the whole Bay Area. For a bit of backstory, I was actually swindled into this run by a friend who told me he had a route that was "6 miles 1000ft elevation at most." It was not that. I was seriously questioning my friendship as I crested Windy Hill (or it could have been Anniversary Hill; they're right next to each other) and was absolutely blown away with the view. On one side is the Bay Area, stretching to the foothills of the Diablo Range. Turn around and you see the Santa Cruz Mountains ebb and flow to the coast, bounded by the Pacific Ocean, which stretches to the horizon. So, is it worth it? Without a doubt.

• Stevens Creek Reservoir

  ~10 miles ~1600 feet elevation gained

  This route is just a Lynbrook XC classic. As a first-year on the team, I would hear about "Reservoir", the dreaded route that conquered even the strongest of runners. Unsurprisingly, when I ran it for the first time, I was definitely conquered, left sore for days after. However, this behemoth of a route stands out namely because of its versatile beauty. In the winter, it feels like a mystical forest with low hanging fog and moss clinging onto barren trees, and in the summer it feels like being lost in the desert with the sun beating down on your back and the hills, covered in dried-up grass, resembling rolling sand dunes. While this route never will be truly "easy", the sheer beauty of it all will motivate you to just keep chugging on.

• Overlook Road

  ~8 miles ~1200 feet elevation gained

  I first ran this route in my sophomore year track preseason with my team, but even since then, I can't quite put my finger on what exactly made this route so great. The climb is very difficult, the viewpoint isn't mind blowing, and the paved downhill shatters your knees and shins. But running's about more than just training and scenery, and something about that road just made me run my heart out on that day in 2022, and I'll never forget sending the downhill as fast as I could without tipping over, with an ear-to-ear grin on my face the entire time. I would very strongly recommend trying this at least once in your life.

• Calero

  ~8.5 miles ~800 feet elevation gained

  Oftentimes, good runs fall into the category of "Type II Fun." These are runs such that the "good" memories are activated after the run is completed. In the moment, you are in the hellish pain cave as your legs beg you to stop, but you press on regardless. Calero is different because I think it is the closest that running can get to "Type I Fun." The uphill at the start feels effortless, as your legs are fresh, and after what feels like barely climbing, you are blessed with about four miles of smooth gradual descent, as you glide down through picturesque grassy meadows, with the occasional cattle sighting. These might be some of my favorite miles to ever run, period, and for that I will forever cherish beautiful Calero.

My Gear

Just to preface, I'm no longer training with the same intensity as I was in high school, so I'm going through shoes slower and hence trying fewer shoes, so my opinions here are admittedly a bit dated.

• Daily Trainer - Asics Novablast 4

  My favorite daily trainers are hands down the Asics Novablast series. My all-time favorites are the Novablast 3 TR; I went through at least 3 pairs in high school. The 4's aren't as good as the 3's, but these shoes are still just so well done. They just soak up miles and are amply padded, but lean forward and start striding quicker and the shoes don't hesitate to take off.

• Plated Racer/Tempo Shoe - Nike Vaporfly Next% 2

  My favorite tempo shoes are the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2's. I have tried the 3's and 4's and they just don't have the pop that the 2's had. The 2's are so aggressive that they literally suck to run slow in. Anything above 7:00 pace is unstable and horrible, but lean into it and these shoes are rockets on your feet. P.S. These shoes are extra special to me because my friends all got together and pitched in money to get me my first pair of these shoes at their $250 price tag for my 16th birthday, so my first pair of these was extra special and I ran my heart out in them.

• Running Watch - Coros Pace 3

  I currently have a Coros Pace 3, but I'm not sure I can recommend this watch because of its build quality. I'm on my third unit now; the first one had a faulty barometer, and the second one's screen cracked. The watch itself is solid, battery life is great, and run tracking is more than I ever need. It was significantly cheaper than Garmin, but I would say if you can buy Garmin, do it over Coros. I had an older Garmin before this watch, but the Garmin experience is just more polished, and you get Spotify integrated with it.

• Bikes

  • Thesis OB1 Custom

    This bike started out as a 2016 Diamondback Haanjo Comp, which I dearly loved, but the frame and wheels were unfortunately totaled in a crash. I was able to salvage the cockpit, saddle, and some of the groupset, so I went looking for a frame, and found a used Thesis OB1, which I bought with the intent of setting up my old drivetrain on the new frame. I unfortunately realized after I bought the frame that the frame didn't support my mechanical 105 front rear derailleur (do your homework before buying things!), essentially rendering my whole drivetrain useless. I then ended up basically buying a whole new GRX drivetrain and a bunch of other parts to jerry rig everything together. It currently has a GRX drivetrain with the old 105 shifters and Alexrims Boondocks wheels. Terrible decision making from high schooler me.

  • 2012 Cannondale Synapse 5

    Not much of a story behind this one; I got a great deal on it, so I bought it to ride in Irvine, but I don't get much time these days, and I don't really have any riding buddies in Irvine. Hopefully it'll see some miles soon.

• End-to-end beginner friendly Rubiks Cube solver that takes input of three images of sides of the cube, determines its permutation using vision, and generates a solution using a custom algorithm or Kociemba's algorithm.
• Web scraper that scrapes course offerings of all California Community Colleges and scrapes assist.org for course transfer compatiblities and shows all possible CC options to substitute a UC class.
• An actually accurate music genre classifier; I feel like there's nothing good out there right now that I know of, so this is definitely an area in which research can be done, but I'd have to learn more about audio data processing for this to work.