Recently I just became a Grandmaster(GM) on Codeforces (for one who does not know, this is currently the most popular site for competitive programming). Hoo ray for me! I guess. Well, I thought that maybe I should do some celebration, sort of. But... I don't know. Becoming a GM was a small goal of my goals in my competitive programming career, and for me archiving it after 6 long years up and down on the site is a kinda big deal. But somehow I still don't find satisfaction after completing the contest yesterday. Oh well, still an achievement, and I thought I should mark this moment. So blog writing should works then, as a way to celebrate and a way to mark my achievement. And besides, this blog site is kinda dead tho, this is just another post for making content π. In this post I will want to talk about... things, randomly, so don't expect something too crazy (like how to become red).
Maybe I'll start telling you how yesterday went, or maybe before that. Well yesterday (Thursday, September 30Th), I had 2 classes at the university, which started at 13:30 and 15:20 (Moscow time). And the contest yesterday was unusual since it started at 13:05 (still in Moscow time) (and the usual ones often start at 17:35). So I actually have skipped 1 class. Please don't be me, classes are important! And by skipping it, I lose 1 chance to give my lab. But why have I done that decision? First of all, it was a lab class (where I have to do some works, write the report, go show my works, and then defense my work). The thing is the lab was given to my class (or rather, my group) two days prior. So if I have planned to do the lab, I have two days. But then I need to consider this: the class that I skipped is scheduled once in two weeks, while the next contest on Codeforces at the time I see the calendar will happen in the next three weeks (and now they added a new one on the next two weeks). But still, I wanted to compete, and I just don't want to skip this opportunity. I only have less than a year for the ICPC. So the decision was made, and I have not done that lab at all till the moment of writing this blog π. Will do it soon, don't worry! Besides I can give multiple labs at once (for most of the time).
So how was my day actually went? On the day before, I have decided that I will sleep for 7 hours. Usually I only sleep for 6 hours or 6 hours 30 minutes. But I slept for the contest π. I wake up at like 8 o'clock. Usually this is good if I just go brush my teeth, wash my face and have breakfast right away. But NO, my current self is now on an unhealthy routine: I browse Discord for one hour, and then do the other thing after.
I know this should be fixed. But hear me, I have tried today. I just browse the message but don't allow myself to reply yet. Therefore I had reason to go washing my face π.
Anyway, I made my breakfast, while texting with mom π. Here is my cooking process tho (these are images I sent mom but I find that it is still suitable for this post)
After having breakfast (which is about 10 AM btw, because of my unhealthy routine), I just browsing stuff (which I don't recall). At about 11:30 I leave for the university. As usual, this is a 2.4km walk for 30-40 minutes. I bought lunch instead of having lunch at the Non-cafeteria at the university (that is the actual name of the cafeteria btw, which is located on Kronverksky). I then sat at the Co-working place of the university for 1 hour before the contest, just chatting on Discord.
And then there the contest went. If you follow, the contest is somewhat unbalanced, with Div 1 having a little bit hard A and more challenging B (and also very easy C). I won't go on the details on how I tackle the problems, but by today's luck, I have solved those 3 problems, secured my place for getting red.
But what I have done afterward? I pull out my lunch and eating it while reading D. At that time I got only more or less 30 minutes. And eating lunch actually costs a lot of time, and I don't really plan to solve more. After lunch, I just pack my stuff up and went straight to the lecture (which started at 15:20), and did not care about the last 10 minutes of the contests.
Sadly I did not take any photo of my lunch, but it was called Π¨Π°Π²Π΅ΡΠΌΠ°. You can google this term to see more detail.
Well, that was not the end tho. After my solution passes the system tests (which happened after the end of the contest), that is when I finally relax about the result. In the lecture, I still cannot concentrate, because again, Discord. Friends just congratulated me and we discussed the problems. Don't worry I still listen to most of the lectures tho, even I was more focused on chatting and the lecture was in Russian π. And I went straight home after the lecture, enjoying the autumn.
I'm sorry that this is not the best example I can find. But it is most yellow one on my way to my dormitory. And it was almost night around this time.
I think that should be the end of the story. In the evening of yesterday, I don't really do anything special tho, besides preparing for today's lab's protection. I did not celebrate either. Well, today I thought that I should have done something, so I just order pizza for myself (I more or less was lazy to cook).
The left is pizza and the right are chickens and some onion rings.
Maybe enough for the story. Now should be the time for the title's question. What's next? Well, I have ICPC on the way, and I planned to only take part in ICPC one more time this year, even tho technically I have 2 more changes. I don't plan on taking a Master's degree yet. Well, I also did really plan anything at all, I just don't want to continue studying. For the Codeforces part, yeah I don't really have any plan to stop online competing right now. The result might not be as good as now tho. I might have chances to go down orange (Master) again. Or maybe I can reach a higher rank. Who knows? And still, now I only focus on Codeforces. I do have an orange account on Codechef and an yellow account on Atcoder. So maybe I might recheck them out, or maybe not because of very strict time. Speaking about time, I am now a 4th- year student, and I have to do the final work for my bachelor's degree. Hope that I can still manage to squeeze out time for doing CP and doing university stuff at the same time. Well, I might just need to stop lazing around π.
Anyway thanks for reading this random non-structural blog post of mine! Now re-read it I think it is just like a page of a diary. It should be that tho because that's all I wanted - mark this day. I do proud of myself for getting this far tho! I know, there are still lots and lots of people who have a higher rank than me, and/or can reach GM in a very short time, unlike me with 6 years of competing (very sad time indeed π¦ ). But it still is an achievement to prove myself worthy!
Thanks again for reading my blog!
Side note β
Why the language is English? Should the casual stuff be in Vietnamese like I said in the first post? For some reason, I still like writing stuff in English. My mind now is partially thinking in English. And another reason that this blog should be important. I want this blog to be as deliverable to many people as it can. And there you have it, English is the choice to go.
But well that did not go without a cost. I still have to use Grammarly to fix lots of mistakes. And I don't even use the paid version, which offers more suggestions on the wording. But oh well, good enough, and hope that you guys think so.