August 2024 Status Update

Hello!

After over a year of not posting anything, I'm finally ready to make a status update! I am making this status update post be on this month partly because of my last status update also being on this month last year.

Just a reminder, although I am starting to use this blog more and more, it might not be as active as my social media. If you want to follow me, also follow me on social media! Links are at the homepage.

New homepage (and website major version!)

That's right! You've probably stumbled and saw this post through the homepage if you see that I've changed the homepage! It now contains more stupid stuff that no one is interested in! Wow! But in reality, there isn't really anything more to add, so I think to be "cool", I'm going to add my "activity log" that only updates once every half hour!

Obviously, there will many other cool things that I may or may not add later, as future updates to this website are still coming up (especially if a major version just released) as bug fixes are needed.

So, what have I really been up to?

Nothing much. As stated in my "Plans for 2024" post, my #1 priority, just like most high-schoolers, is to still get in a good university, so the things that I'm currently up to are still what I've said in said post.

I guess, that's all for this blog post, but, in interest of not making this blog post give the feeling that I've wasted your time...

สอวน. ค่าย 2 Review

Camp 2 for Informatics (i.e., competitive programming) for the 2023 Academic Year started on March 18, 2024, and lasted until April 3, 2024 (for Bangkok, at least.) It is held in one of the four university centers. If you just want to see the results, check my certificate display, or scroll down (to avoid spoilers, I made you check the certificate display to see the results only if you've just reached this part of the blog.)

I scored a 80.5% on Camp 1, making it enough to place me in the Top 30 and allowing me to attend Camp 2. According to a professor there, Camp 2's material is "second-year bachelor's material", so, in essence, I've already got a head start if I manage to get in a CS-related major.

The dorm that I stayed in (yes, a dorm, because no one is driving for 2 hours per day just to get there) is probably the best type of dorm in the university I was in, complete a table, a bed, free air-conditioning, a convenience store just across the dorm buildings, and of course, free internet connectivity per room.

On every learning day, it is a 3-hour lecture, followed by a break, then a 3-hour "lab"/practice session. But let's be real, no one actually paid attention for the full 3 hours or did the "lab" for the whole 3 hours, especially in later days, when, for me, the amount of information is "too much" and of course, sitting in front of a computer, in a computer lab, cases of going off to a non-related website or browser game website has happened, which both I and many others did.

Content of Camp 2 (in my center) ranges from basic C++, to breath-first search and depth-first search, and all the way to maximum flow algorithms. Of course, it is hard, as university-level material is being taught to middle-to-high-schoolers. I believe many centers (both in and out Bangkok) have posted on what is going to be in their Camp 2 material, so a quick search on Facebook should give a good result on what is being taught and tested.

The judging system for my center was actually a custom made one, and actually broke on the first test-day, but was fixed quickly, so no big deal there. But sadly, due to some brain issues on my side, I'll admit that I did not do to well on the first team selection exam, scoring only 150 out of the 300 points, but of course, I didn't give up.

On the second team selection exam, I actually scored 300 out of 300 points, getting full score. But of course, there was a twist after the exam: more test cases after exam has concluded, and the scores are only from the "visible" test cases or the example test cases (reminds me of Codeforces Div. 1 and Div. 2 judging), and obviously my score fell down to somewhere around 200 points (probably because the number of new test cases added was so few that getting a WA in one of them could get you a 20-point deduction, for each problem it was 100 points split equally into each test case.)

The professors and lectures there were actually quite nice and fun, and on the first day, a lecturer came up to me and asked me to take a selfie with him so he could "send it to a high-ranking teacher" at my school (he was an alumni at the school I'm currently studying at), and obviously, that made a fun story that I can tell my other school friends now that I'm back.

While in the dorm, I just played Minecraft and watched silly videos. Nothing much. But there was this time where I tried to unclog my dorm's toilet with a bottle, as it won't flush. I won't get into the deep details of this one, as it might be too dumb and "immature" to state. I did find a shop that sold plungers about an hour after I tried unclogging the toilet with a bottle. (I didn't know there was a shop that sold plungers in the dorm.)

In the closing ceremony, a very powerful person handed out our certification certificates, and of course, we heard a speech of the Dean of the Science faculty inviting us to continue to "upskill" ourselves at the faculty.

Now for the big reveal.

My name wasn't on the team selection results announcement roster, and I am therefore unable to complete in the 20th Thailand Olympiad in Informatics. Only five campers passed. Those who didn't pass can retake the team selection exam, provided they are still in the grade range. Unfortunately, I was already out of the grade range allowed to retake the team selection exam, so I can't retake the exams anymore.

Still, I was grateful of this opportunity and had lots of fun, and sometimes posted my experiences on social media. Maybe if you visited them, you could find some stories about it?

Obviously, this was a non-exhaustive review because I don't want to write about what happened each day (as it would be too much both for me and for you reading the blog), nor did I write about the other problems while in the camp (e.g. the dorm's elevator losing power). Overall, I think this was a fun experience to test myself, to learn more CS, and to meet new friends.

See you in the next blog post/Mathematical Base Defenders update/whatever!