Longview on Sojournal

Sojourner's Diary - 131

Tue, 05 May 2026 12:00:00 -0500

While packing today, I found a little notebook I had written in as a child.

My name appears in an immature hand. On the cover, “403” sits over a fluorescent-highlighter background, “503” is shaded in pencil, and “603” was finally carved in ballpoint pen. Most of the pages contain drafts and bits of writing made for fun. There is also no shortage of Minecraft group rosters, house designs—yes, I drew them one block at a time—and even a comic abandoned halfway through. Some passages distinctly foreshadow the later Boring Notes, making this notebook a true veteran.

Sojourner's Diary - 130

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0500

After finishing the website, I went an entire month without writing a diary entry.

Why? Partly because having one more place to update felt troublesome, and partly because everyday life gave me plenty to do. But if you kept pressing me, you would probably receive only stammering and evasive glances. It is true that the past few weeks of school have been rather intense, but with a mere thirteen credit hours this semester, I can handle the assignments comfortably enough. At least I do not stay up until the middle of the night. (Ah, a deadline warrior.)

Sojourner's Diary - 128

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500

After some thought, I decided I should at least reach two to the seventh power. Today, let us discuss a subject that has been brewing in my head for quite a while: the emotional aftershock a story leaves behind.

The immediate cause was the 3.1 story update for Wuthering Waves, which genuinely stunned me. Its excellent script carries traces of predecessors such as Interstellar and Steins;Gate, yet still tells a good story rooted in the world of Solaris. Although, for now, it ends badly. It takes the literature of regret tentatively explored in 2.5 and brings it to full maturity, successfully stabbing another large crowd of players, myself included.

Sojourner's Diary - 127

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500

This is Tianyao, who spent nearly three weeks after publishing Diary 126 writing an essay titled “Why People Should Start Keeping a Diary.” Ironically, he did not write a single diary entry during that period. (

Now, faced with a new proposal for Composition class, he has finally remembered the starving little essay series abandoned in a corner, with only 127 entries to its name. Ah! (Seamless transition.) At this point, attentive readers may ask: no matter how hard we search, why can we not find the nearly sixty entries between 34 and 91? Was some mysterious power at work? An exotic numeral system, perhaps?

Sojourner's Diary - 126

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0500

Unable to think of a topic for my first English Composition II essay, due tomorrow, I began digging through old papers on my computer.

Omnibus has a special sort of “reputation”: it makes you consider questions no one else your age would ever think about, yet which an American citizen apparently needs to consider. It is an American textbook, after all. At the same time, if you replace “Country A” with “Country C” in each essay’s cultural analysis, the difficulty of publishing that essay immediately rises by an entire level. Unfortunately, that is what we did for most prompts involving Country A. Consequently, most people who can see this post on WeChat cannot see those pieces of my “dark history.” On reflection, perhaps that is not so unfortunate after all.

Sojourner's Diary - 124

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500

It is that time of year again, and naturally the annual retrospective cannot be omitted. Let us see how much I can finish before 11:59 p.m. (

One thing worth mentioning: I gave my experiences in the Puzzle Hunt community this year their own article. On one hand, I feared I would hit WeChat’s character limit and leave no room for anything else. On the other, judging from the feedback I have received all year, not many people around me are particularly obsessed with this subject. The video made its earth-shattering debut during the puzzle team’s TPAPWRAPA livestream on the 29th, then appeared on Bilibili together with the companion article. If you are interested, please follow Zhuge Tianyao on Bilibili. Thank you!

Sojourner's Diary - 123

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Congratulations to the WeChat account Mysterious Mr. Owl Q on reaching one thousand followers! Confetti 🎉

I saw the news first thing in the morning and became so excited that, amid the deadline panic of finishing a paper, I found time to doodle some limited-edition merchandise. Only one exists, so you tell me whether that counts as limited. If the opportunity arises, I will put it into ruthless mass production. (

Come to think of it, I have been in the puzzle community for roughly as long as that account has existed. I have recently been organizing the various puzzle-related things I wrote over the past year, so here is a tiny preview—and a lazy way to pad today’s word count.

Sojourner's Diary - 122

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving break!

American geocaches are beginning to seem suspiciously homogeneous. So far, I have found at least six hidden in similar places, including the only two physical caches on campus. Damn it, I have not seen a single one resembling the ingenious camouflaged caches Teacher Nano once showed me. Must Chinese Taobao teach these Americans a small lesson in the manufacturing might of Yiwu?

Then again, this pattern gives me more time to read the story behind each location, because that is honestly the only interesting part left. Perhaps this is simply geocaching adapting to America’s great road-trip culture. At least I can confidently write “found” in my log instead of behaving like certain newcomers who search for my cache in Hangzhou, fail without ceremony, immediately post “Needs Maintenance” to pressure me into sending a friend out, and then demand a revised hint and lower difficulty in one seamless chain until the answer is practically placed in their mouths. You only realize how demanding players can be after becoming a cache owner. I wonder whether any of my own “did not find” logs at the beginning of the year caused someone else the same trouble.

Sojourner's Diary - 121

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 12:00:00 -0500

We meet again after n days. I missed you all so much!

I recently made a website introducing my university and sharing some of my experiences here. Teacher Zhang once asked me to give a talk for some younger students at the end of September, but who knows how long I will keep procrastinating on that? I may as well publish this instead:

My Life at LETU

You will need a VPN to access it from China. The site is entirely in English for now, because it was actually an assignment for my English Composition class. (Gets punched.) In the future, I will gradually archive the Sojourner’s Diary series there, making all my ~~dark history~~ entries easier to find. (In the end, I still put them here.) Questions are also welcome; the answers may be added to the site!

Sojourner's Diary - 120

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0500

The updates have returned!

I have been quietly working on something big, which should be ready soon. After agonizing for ages over whether to make it an article or a video, I decided I want both. My QQ status has already hinted at the subject. It was also one of my possible titles, haha.

Halloween culture has always been strong in America. For someone whose only systematic introduction to the holiday and its history came from an Omnibus textbook, this was my first time truly celebrating Halloween. I had received candy before, admittedly… but that was at a birthday party.

Sojourner's Diary - 119

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Mid-Autumn Festival today. I have been thoroughly consumed by the US-TC puzzles, but since this assignment is already written, I might as well post it here and pad the diary count (

A Different Mid-Autumn Festival

It is the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month: Mid-Autumn Festival. I sit alone in my dorm, gazing through the window at the bright full moon. My family may be far away, but I am not truly alone. Around me are many brothers and sisters who have become family in the truest sense.

Sojourner's Diary - 118

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0500

One night, my roommate and I were talking before bed, and somehow the conversation reached Grandpa. I told him I wanted to cook a dish Grandpa had taught me, to remember him, and share it with people I knew. My roommate immediately replied, “Isn’t tomorrow night’s pizza party the perfect opportunity?”

In fact, the idea had been with me since I heard the news on Sunday night. Fortunately, because I did not trust my own memory, I had recorded the entire lesson when Grandpa taught me. Through a screen only a few inches wide, I could still see him, almost as though he were beside me.

Sojourner's Diary - 117

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Like I told the classmate who messaged me especially to offer comfort, “I’m really doing all right.”

I just don’t want to look sad in front of other people, so I pull myself together and pretend nothing is wrong.

I just don’t want to open WeChat. I’m afraid of seeing the three pinned profile pictures that have all changed to mushrooms.

I just don’t want to think, “From now on, I don’t have a grandpa anymore.” But every so often the thought returns, and something inside me feels hollow.

Sojourner's Diary - 116

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I’m sorry, Grandpa. After reading what Mom and Dad wrote, I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

I didn’t want to disturb my roommate, so I hid alone in the dorm bathroom and cried quietly. Then I suddenly remembered that I still had the recording from when you told us your stories about the Vietnam War. I found it and started listening, but I couldn’t finish.

Because I was talking to you from a bathroom that time too. And you clearly said you still had more stories to tell us.

Sojourner's Diary - 115

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Grandpa, I didn’t cry.

Sojourner's Diary - 114

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Career Fair, but I Forgot to Turn Off Auto-Loot

LeTourneau is famous for its extraordinary employment rate. Supposedly you can come here and have nearly a 100 percent chance of finding a suitable job. Whether reality is quite as miraculous as the stories I have heard, today’s Career Fair certainly opened my eyes. Most companies came looking for interns for summer 2026. According to my roommate, their selections are generally settled before next spring, while next semester’s fair will already be preparing for the year after that.

Sojourner's Diary - 113

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Near the end of yesterday’s Cornerstones class, our professor gave us a little Puzzle Hunt.

Can you imagine how I felt?

Cornerstones, as the name implies, is the class you must take if you hope to survive at LETU. It is the foundation of everything. Fine, it is not actually that grave. Apart from doctrinal material such as the cheating and plagiarism policies, the class is basically one extended tea party. Our professor also chairs the writing section of the student center, so she gleefully assigns us a journal every week. Presumably she hopes we will take our drafts to the tutors there for help, although I have never once done that. My first thought was: perfect, I can lazily count these as entries in Sojourner’s Diary! My second thought was: perhaps exercises written with elementary-school vocabulary and grammar are better left unpublished. (

Sojourner's Diary - 112

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Today’s entry number happens to equal the maximum completion percentage in Hollow Knight. I looked at Trial of the Fool, which I still have not beaten, and decided…

No games today!

Fine, it was not exactly a decision. In the morning I followed our PAs, Korbin and Amy, to church to make dumplings. After lunch we visited several board-game stores. In the afternoon I attended a Lake Day organized by a retired missionary to China. By the time I returned to the dorm, it was after nine. A little early to wash up and sleep, so I suppose I should write something.

Sojourner's Diary - 111

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Huh? How did I vanish for several days without warning? Diagnosis: too much Silksong. (

Quite a lot has happened over the past few days. As a brother far away, I cannot offer much practical help, but I should at least offer some encouragement. After all, I have weathered my share of great storms. (Have you really?)

Today I joined a community-service event organized by the university. That sounds grand, but it amounted to everything from clearing shrubs and weeds to cutting down trees and operating a forklift. (All right, I was obviously not driving it.) Along the way, I met a student from one of LeTourneau’s Societies and learned roughly how these “alternative dorms” work.

Sojourner's Diary - 110

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Here is a simple, effective, and ridiculous way to make people on campus approach you and start conversations. (It really is simple!)

Want to know how? Unlock our monthly charging plan for the low, low price of $7,999,999 and— (Gets punched.)

Fine. What actually happened was that, after SI tonight—think of it as an after-class study session where a student instructor leads everyone through problems and reviews the material—I was about to leave when someone called me back. He invited me to play table tennis, so I stayed, and we began chatting on and off.

Sojourner's Diary - 109

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Hehehe. I must survive, I tell you.

Who designed these ants?!

You are correct, but this is Hunter’s March. It is probably only the third area most players enter, yet the entire map is crammed with brutally difficult platforming. Its ordinary enemies are feats of game design in their own right, and the hidden boss has an extra surprise prepared just for you!

Allow me to introduce the local wildlife.

Sojourner's Diary - 108

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Today was actually rather relaxed. In theory, once I had run to English Composition carrying a half-eaten burger and finished class, I had nothing else to do. I still ended up making several trips between professors’ offices to sort out my switch to a double major, and spent ages chatting with one professor in Chinese while I was at it, haha.

In any case, dinner was probably the most leisurely meal I have had in days. Allow me to set the scene. Starting from the far left side of the long table, there was Jaemin, the Korean student I met on the bus during the orientation Walmart Run—technically a Walmart Drive, haha. Next came the aggressively multicolored, questionably edible cafeteria cream jelly that some people could calmly consume any number of. Then there was wrinkly Kris, still clearing his game dailies over dinner. Because of this, we taught everyone the Chinese pronunciation of “gacha-game addict” and enthusiastically explained why the players are compared to cockroaches. Our Korean classmate was delighted. Beside him sat Ted, who finished the jelly with the same untroubled expression. (Incidentally, those last two are both exchange students from the Shanghai Civil Aviation College.) Finally there was Korbin, who has started learning Chinese under the professor I mentioned and who prepares a detailed to-do list for every day: the God of To-Do Lists, in sharp contrast with the many Gods of Last-Minute Deadlines present.

Sojourner's Diary - 107

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Classes officially began today! With my roommate enthusiastically leading the way, I reached all three on time. (Applause.) The material was fairly basic—it was the first class of the semester, after all—but I did meet quite a few new people. Their names, however, still refuse to remain in my brain.

Come to think of it, I do not believe I have even mentioned my roommate’s name. He is Joel, a local American majoring in mechanical engineering. At today’s residence-hall meeting, he displayed extraordinary extrovert powers. Bantering back and forth with the returning students was one thing; the man spent an entire afternoon seeking out new students to talk to! Please mentor me next time, sob.

Sojourner's Diary - 106

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I have arrived at LeTourneau and met my new roommate. After several frantic days, everything is finally settl—

AND CLASSES START TOMORROW AAAAAAH!

Never mind. I will save my personal LETU survival guide for later. Let us talk about something fun today.

On the first day we met, he established his power level by producing a desk lamp and a three-in-one wireless charger. So when he pulled out an Ethernet cable today and boosted our internet speed from 80 to 800, I was no longer quite as surprised. And then…