One could say, in fact, that no story really has a beginning, and that no story really has an end, as all of the world’s stories are as jumbled as the items in the arboretum, with their details and secrets all heaped together so that the whole story, from beginning to end, depends on how you look at it.

— Lemony Snicket, The End

Welcome to my digital arboretum!

Hey, I’m Ngân (Ryan), an aspiring researcher who jots down thoughts here before they vanish into some dusty corner of my brain.

This is a little nook of the internet where I stash my
📝 notes — quick dives into concepts,
👓 writing — longer pieces where I pretend I know what I’m doing,
📚 class notebooks,
🧵 (mostly unfinished) discussions,
and whatever else pops into my orbit.

Some of them are polished, some are incomplete scribbles, and a few might just be empty placeholders waiting for future me to figure things out. Consider this a living, evolving brain-dump.

As for the penguins waddling around the arboretum… some questions are better left unanswered 🐧.

Lost in the trees? Don’t worry, I’ve got a map

You can hop between posts and notes by clicking on links like this inside each page or by using the interactive map. If you’re on a desktop, you’ll find it on the right side of the page. On mobile? Scroll down, it’s waiting at the bottom. There are also handy buttons on the bottom right to:

🧭 Open the global map (for the adventurous)
🎲 Pick a random post (for the chaotic)
↑↓ Jump to the top/bottom (for the efficient)

Feeling extra lost? There’s a search tool at the top (or just hit Ctrl+K) to dig through the archives.

Or if you just wanna see what kind of rabbit holes I’ve fallen into, here are some of my main topics:

🪐 planetary-science & climate (mostly modeling),
✨ astrophysics, cosmology,
⚛️ particle physics,
🧪 chemistry (more like physical chemistry, really),
❓ or completely random topics I’ll probably never revisit lol, like image-processing, seismology, earthquakes,
and even more stuff!

Acknowledgement

I stumbled upon an older version of Quartz while trying to figure out how to publish my Obsidian notes on a neutrino application. What followed was an absolute blast and a fair amount of head-scratching as I set up my own digital arboretum. Front-end stuff as a complete noob? Equal parts fun and frustrating. Weirdly addicting too. 10/10 would recommend… but also, send help.

That said, the struggle was so worth it! I picked up a ton of new knowledge along the way, and this little blog wouldn’t exist without Jacky Zhao’s incredible work. Huge thanks for making this possible!

Also, big shout-out to Eilleen for their ridiculously helpful Quartz customization log—those floating buttons are absolute lifesavers!