i'm so tired of doing group projects. why, why, why do we have to have meetings instead of just emailing each other. it's making me lose my mind in a small way each and every day. but that's just class stuff. they're going fine in general, at least i think. there's a lot of class-related stuff that's annoying me but i'm also just being annoyable right now. research is going fine. i've been so overwhelmed with these group projects and homeworks that i haven't really been able to settle into my third rotation's lab. i'm on an interesting project but i'm also just sort of... i don't know. i guess i feel like i made a bad choice out of the three options for projects i was given when the rotation started. i also just really don't find model training to be satisfying work. sure, thinking about it is fun, but i'm not really doing that nor am i really qualified to do that. so i don't know. but this was the lab i really wanted to end up in. it's literally not even been a week so i need to calm down. i liked my last rotation a lot except for the scheduling side of things. that, and i'm afraid i wouldn't be able to do much computational work. i guess i don't even want to write about school stuff and i'm annoyed as if someone is making me write about it. what else other than school... ana and i are working on more merch and i maybe finally finished the second of two designs. i'm super excited to get that finished up but also a bit terrified. i always feel mixed feelings around selling stuff like that. spotify income is one thing, no one's really paying me specifically for that. but when it's merch or bandcamp stuff, i feel a bit more guilty when people buy things. i know they're just doing it because they want to but i can't help but feel like they feel some sort of obligation to. i know that doesn't make any sense. it's kept me from doing any sort of other physical media too since the first round of tapes however long ago that was with max and ismael. i know the opportunity is always there with ismael and eric and they'd love to make more tapes or whatever with me and i do think it would eventually be fun. i guess another part of it is that it's a more real evaluation than streaming numbers of just how many people *extra* care. and sometimes i just don't really want to know that. oh yeah. and if i made a bunch of stuff and barely sold any i'd feel stupid. i've been listening to a little more music than usual (which was none at all), so i guess i'm listening to just a little bit of music. i'm going through the whole thing where no music sounds good and all music sounds bad. but i've found some songs i've liked at least. i think sometimes it helps to make a game out of it. so what i'm doing right now is that it has to be a specific kind of twee i think made from 1997-2002, except i've been being a little more flexible with the dates. i also am getting frustrated with myself and kind of the world for the whole reliance on the algorithm for music recommendations. unless you're reading blogs or biographies or whatever, you're reliant on either the fans also like section, radio, or playlists either generated or made by other people who also found it from one of those three methods. and you just hope along the chain of playlists someone is reading and thinking otherwise we're just passing around whatever it's predicted we'd like. and it ends up being a lot of stupid stuff that doesn't make any sense. i don't know. it's not like i want more music influencers in the world because that's even more annoying. i do like reading silly personal music things people share if it isn't just 'oh yeah this was recommended to me and also recommended to all of you already because we're classified into whatever same niche.' i know i'm doing the thing i tend to do with the internet where i'm just minorly annoyed about one thing and make it out to be a way bigger issue. but hey, maybe it will force me to be more conscious of my sources.