femtothreads

[femtothreads]

hi, i'm zoe! i’m a high school senior into physics, coding, creative writing, and late-night overthinking. expect science rambles and some occasional studying (yess a procrastination queen ✨)

# rambles

# studying

# astrophotography

# playlist

[femtothreads]

finally crawling out of my room after being sick for a week. i've missed photosynthesizing

[astronomy--girl]

Your daily reminder that you don't have to be a genius or some math whiz in order to be a STEM major. One failed class, one bad exam, or even one awful teacher does not make you unintelligent or incapable of achieving your goals. Dust yourself off and try again.

[copingwithpcm]

Day 03/100 {100 Days of Productivity}

I solved about 35 questions in physics and 25 questions in mathematics. I also lost my maths module again. I had a good revision of previous topics. Some bears to cheer me up -

// all other pics are mine :)

[kitkatstu-dies]

7/18/2025

I did some plates in lab (kind of boring no kizzy) and then I went to Walmart <3 I got pretzels and coconut conditioner <3 I'm going to clean my dorm + work on my grad applications more :)

[catalogthepast]

This week was ehh. I was so tired, I truly had to force myself to go to some classes (I really wanted to skip but it's a requirement of the course to attend those specifically). But I have Haunting Adeline to look forward to tomorrow.

Victories

Managed to drag myself to all my compulsory classes (though I skipped some noncompulsory ones)

Finished a pharmacology assignment

Had a (admittedly very short, but interesting) conversation with my chemistry professor where, I later realised, I wasn't worrying about if I was saying the right thing or making the right amount of eye contact

Used a rotary evaporator ENTIRELY by myself...though I forgot to switch it on at first

Successfully handled multichannel pipettes

Just watched Everything, Everywhere, All At Once and it helped me have a good cry and release a lot of the stress of this week

Exercised 5 days

Defeats

I have several assignments due next week which I haven't worked on enough

I am extremely lacking the motivation to work on those assignments

Really need to revise chemistry, I've fallen back and have started to feel really lost in classes

REALLY need to prepare for an upcoming test...I am maybe 2% ready at the moment and it's only a few days away

I was the slowest person in my lab again lol

I feel like I didn't work hard enough on the pharm assignment but I have no time to do it better

Overall just feeling really anxious... genuinely just feel like I'm walking up a steep hill and halfway there but about to lose my footing and fall all the way back down

[femtothreads]

8.17.25

i think i’m going to cry this semester. maybe i should keep a counter.

i started school last week. i had to fix my schedule and already, my class list is kind of bad. aps in physics c (both mech and em), lit, and calculus. and then an applied math elective for fun. and choir because it’s my senior year and why not :)

BUT THEN my counselor realized i wasn’t going to meet the graduation requirement, and the only class that fit my schedule was ap econ? like you’ve got to be kidding me.

the first day, we did this shark tank thing where we had to come up with a product. our group was basic and thought of an ai refrigerator (why does it seem like every new thing that comes out is like a regular product *but with ai*? sorry for the short rant).

and all i could think about was, how do you make a refrigerator? what is it made out of? what kinds of machines do you need to make it? how does it insulate?

it’s going to be a long year, that’s for sure. i’m grateful for any tips to survive this semester though :)

on the bright side! first day of school had a seniors royal dress up day (pictured: my cat trying to eat my crown). second day of school had a jersey dress up with the number 26 bolded. and then on saturday we had senior sunrise (pictured: those gorgalicious pictures in the field).

[femtothreads]

i hate going back to school. what do you mean i actually have to do homework now?

[femtothreads]

y’all i just realized i haven’t been blurring my cats face in photos…. please don’t steal his identity

[kitkatstu-dies]

7/14/2025

Back in the labbbbbb again. I had a meeting with my advisor that went well! I feel like I'm coming out of my shell a bit- but now I only have a few weeks left lol.

[koi-studies]

I finally get beam power and specific charge 💪

I did 20+ questions on matter and radiation, once I fully get the topic I can finally move on to the next topic!

[femtothreads]

8.11.25

i locked in on my summer homework today. it wasn’t too hard. just some graphing and simple math. but i got it done! tbh i kind of only did it so i could post about it on tumblr…. but i guess thats what a studyblr is for anyways.

one more day of my internship after this and i’m free (only to start school the next day)

i also got my school schedule out. had to fight with my counselor all day via email, but i finally got a good schedule. i’m just nervous because i had to go from regular, semester-long econ up to AP econ. i just wanted a chill year. but i might know the people in AP econ better than the regular class.

a sleepy cat to make you smile!

(hopefully, unless you’re on of those weird people that dislikes cats)

[juliaxyn]

Dream big. Work hard. Study always.

[eta-cygni]

10/8/25

🩰: holiday so no class today

📚: watched a video lecture, completed more readings for a core module (sociology), and studied some electromagnetics for physics

first uni lectures tomorrow! spent two hours figuring out where the equation for energy density in a field comes from.

[femtothreads]

as my chem teacher says, particles do not have feelings, but i think the protons and electrons like like each other

[femtothreads]

8.06.25

I met with my mentor at the astrophysics lab— basically my position is getting cut since the pay came from one of the numerous satellites that the U.S. is no longer funding. They won’t let me continue unpaid for security reasons, either.

But I’ve known this for about a month now, and today I found out that my mentor still needs me to finish the computational part of his paper. So he gave me the option to continue by doing remote work :)

Honestly, this is a huge relief since I still get the experience and get to stay connected with the project, but I get to take a break during college app and sports season. So yay!

Today was also the last time I had to see the other two interns! They’re mostly nice, but even though we all share an office, I’ve only had a couple conversations with them. They normally just hang out the two of them and ignore me (which is fine but makes for a lonely summer).

I also hopped on a short flight today for a 2-day Women in STEM event. And OMG look at this sunset —>

[narcissistcookbook]

an underrecognised tragedy of AI slop isn't just that any piece of contemporary art could be AI, any news reel could be AI, it's that now just any video of something vaguely nice and whimsical happening in the world could be AI

this is about the trampoline bunnies

[narcissistcookbook]

"lol if you just look closely you can tell when somethi--" silence nerd, the problem is that i don't want to have to approach everything nice wondering if the devil is trying to deceive me