July 21, 2024

Dear Diary,

Today is Sunday, July 21, 2024. The weather is sunny.

This morning we went swimming again, and I can now complete a full lap of backstroke. That feeling was amazing. I hope I can swim faster and more easily. After swimming, we went for a massage. Sitting for long periods at work has made my body uncomfortable for a long time. We had lunch at a small hot pot restaurant nearby. It was a self-service hot pot, similar to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

In the afternoon, I started frantically earning experience points on Duolingo because I was only 2,000 points away from first place on the leaderboard. This is the closest I've ever been to that rare diamond badge. After swiping for more than two hours, I finally got first place. If nothing unexpected happens, I will receive the badge tomorrow. I'm so happy.

I finished watching the first season of The Orville last night and also watched two episodes of the second season. I felt great about the last two episodes of the first season.

Episode eleven is about them accidentally discovering a two-dimensional space. They didn't directly crash into that space; only one corner of the spaceship passed through it, causing a plant to die instantly. It also caused their engine to malfunction, so they had to stay in place for repairs. Then they discovered another space pirate ship was about to crash into that space. They warned the other ship, but the other ship didn't believe them. Then everyone on that ship died. They discovered that the spaceship had stolen items from the enemy of the alliance, which might attract pursuit from enemy warships. Sure enough, they were approaching soon, and they had to find a way to hide in two-dimensional space. Inside, they saw a shocking scene: a world of two-dimensional space.

This plot reminded me of Interstellar, which I watched some time ago. It's a very interesting storyline about worlds of various dimensions.

Episode twelve is about them discovering a planet in an unfamiliar star region. This planet disappears from the universe for a period of time every few days and then reappears. When the female protagonist arrived on this planet to investigate, she discovered that they were still in the Bronze Age. She accidentally scared a child, and the child fell and got injured. Then she used their technological means to treat his injury. Then she quickly left that planet.

A dozen days later, when this planet reappeared, they found that the civilization on this planet had already developed for 700 years. The people on the planet have already regarded the heroine as a god. They had to go back to the planet to find the Pope and explain to her that it was just a misunderstanding. Eventually, the Pope believed her and decided to make it public. Unfortunately, due to the short time, they had to leave immediately. After they left, the Pope's subordinates assassinated the Pope. The result they expected did not happen, and that world continued to regard her as a god. When the next cycle appeared, they had already evolved to a state similar to the 21st century of humanity. This time, they decided to send someone to that planet for 700 years, so there would be enough time to correct this mistake. This candidate could only be Isaac because he is a robot and won't die of old age there. In the end, by the next meeting, humans on this planet had successfully evolved to nearly their level. A perfect ending.

Goodnight, Diary. Until tomorrow.

Best, Jasper Van