An Analysis of My Big Three Zodiac Signs

I thought this would be a cool thing to research and write about. I’m not super into astrology. I have Co-Star (an astrology app) and I know my big three signs, but I don’t really know what the signs mean. It’ll be fun to see what I learn while writing this post.

Please be respectful even if you don’t believe that zodiac signs actually indicate these traits in people. Also remember that the science of zodiac signs existing is real. Astrology is a pseudoscience, meaning it’s not scientifically proven, but the way your zodiac signs are determined is astronomy. Your zodiac signs are calculated based on positions of planets and constellations, so that part isn’t a matter of spiritual belief but rather scientific belief.

First I’ll do an introduction to the concept of zodiac signs. The zodiac signs are based on twelve constellations that exist in our galaxy, the Milky Way. These constellations are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Pisces, and Aquarius. Since planets and stars are always moving due to gravitational pulls, the positions of the constellations at the time of your birth is going to be different from nearly everyone else. While many people will have the same sun signs, I would assume that you share an identical chart with probably one or two other people in the world.

To calculate your complete and accurate zodiac chart, you need to know the date, year, time, and location of your birth. You probably can’t do this yourself since it would take hours of research to find the positions of the planets and constellations at the exact moment you were born, so there are apps and websites that will calculate your chart for you.

Your chart tells you the zodiac signs corresponding with where the sun, the moon, and the planets (including Pluto) were when you were born, as well as the sign that was ascending/rising when you were born.

There’s also houses which relate to the constellations and their general locations in the galaxy, but I honestly don’t understand them at this point so I won’t try to pretend I know what the significance of the houses are.

Like I said before, I’m just going to analyze my big three signs in this post. The post would get really long if I analyzed all my signs, and I would probably have a meltdown from my brain trying to process all the information.

Also, for people who don’t know much about astrology, your “big three” are your sun sign, moon sign, and ascendant/rising sign.

Gemini Sun

Your sun sign is the sign that was aligned with the sun and the earth when you were born. Sun signs change in about 30 day increments, or approximately every month. These signs usually start a bit more than halfway through a month. For example, Gemini season is generally considered to be from May 20 to June 20. The exact days of the seasons usually vary by a day or two year to year because the tilt of the earth’s axis slightly changes the way that the constellation aligns.

In astrology, sun signs tell your identity, personality traits, and your role in life. Let’s see what astrology says about Geminis.

Geminis suns are generally described as curious, spontaneous, adaptable, clever, and extroverted. I’m not really an extrovert, but otherwise that’s pretty accurate. I’m pretty sure I get those traits from my ADHD¹ though, not being a Gemini.

The trait mainly focused on for Geminis is flexibility. It’s said that Geminis crave options and the ability to fluctuate between different activities. Having to choose definitively makes Geminis nervous. However, they also need to have many options open for them if they’re going to make an important choice. That’s pretty accurate for me, but again, these could all be ADHD-related.

The Gemini constellation is the twins Castor and Pollux from Greek and Roman mythology. Geminis are said to be “two-faced” because of the way they change in every circumstance. This trait is, again, related to my ADHD. It’s literally masking, which is when a neurodivergent* person suppresses their traits to seem neurotypical**. I now have a feeling that a lot of the descriptions of my signs are going to be things that I feel or do because of my ADHD.

Co-Star says that since my sun sign is in my 4th house, I “distinguish [my]self from others through [my] home and family” (www.costarastrology.com). I’m not sure what that means, but thank you, Co-Star.

The Sign of the Great Twins – Things You Should Know About a Gemini Child!
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Pisces Moon

Your moon sign is the sign that was aligned with – you guessed it – Earth’s moon and Earth when you were born. The location and the date of your birth is the most important for finding your moon sign because the sign depends on where the moon was in relation to where you were born. It changes about every two days because the moon orbits the earth.

In astrology, moon signs dictate your emotions.

Pisces moons are supposedly empathetic, sensitive, kind, and vulnerable. I don’t really see it. I guess I could come off as empathetic, but really I just hyper-analyze people so I can mask my neurodivergency better. I’m sensitive when it comes to animals and fictional characters, but otherwise not really. I mean, I hope I come off as kind, but I wouldn’t say that’s one of my main qualities. I’m not really vulnerable either.

Co-Star says my moon sign is in my 2nd house so I ” find security and safety through money and material possessions.” Yeah, I see that one.

Constellation pisces astrological sign Royalty Free Vector
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Capricorn Rising

Your ascendant/rising sign is the constellation that was on the Eastern horizon when you were born. The rising sign is highly variable because it changes every two hours because of the movement of the earth.

In astrology, rising signs describe how you appear to other people.

Capricorn risings appear serious, capable, and ambitious, but also insecure and unsure about the future. That makes sense to me. I’m pretty serious in my classes and get annoyed easily when people are goofing off. I’d say I’m capable. If I want or need to do something, I’ll do it. I also have high goals for the future, so ambitious sounds right. Insecure and unsure about the future also resonate with me. That kind of connects to my Gemini sun and being indecisive. When I think about the future, I’m not sure what path I want to take and I get worried that I’ll choose something that I won’t actually like doing.

Co-Star says my rising sign is in my 1st house, but it doesn’t elaborate on that fact and I have no idea what houses mean, so I guess that’s it for my rising sign.

The Zodiac Sign Capricorn Symbol - Personality, Strengths, Weaknesses –  Labyrinthos
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Well, I didn’t relate to everything that astrology said about me, but that’s okay. It was cool to see the different interpretations of my signs. Maybe I’ll analyze the rest of my placements in another post.

Footnotes:

1 – These are traits commonly associated with or caused by ADHD, but having these traits does not inherently mean you have ADHD.

* – Neurodivergent refers to a person with a mental disability which causes them to have a different neurotype (brain setup) than the majority of people. People considered neurodivergent have ADHD, autism/ASD, FASD, and/or many other disorders.

** – Neurotypical refers to a person who isn’t neurodivergent.

Saved

I nearly made the biggest mistake of my life.

Leading up to the college visit trip I took last week, I was adamant about applying and going to NYU. So adamant in the fact that I was prepared to apply early decision, meaning if I got in I would have to attend.

When I tell you I was saved by a thread I mean it. I was millimeters away from making the worst decision ever.

NYU was not the place for me. I had thought that going to a school without a campus would be fun, my experience this summer in New York made me feel free, and living in New York and attending school seemed ideal. This was mostly because I was with one of my closest friends whose sister went there, so we spent most of our time shopping and eating rather than being students. It was a whole different story at the school. The tour guide talked more about her getting cut from the quidditch team than student life and did many other similar things, making me realize that maybe I wanted more of a college experience.

I had just gone to see Michigan before NYU, where I went tailgating and sat in the student section at the Big House. My friend who goes there showed me around and showed me what it is like to be a student at a big school. I had the best time and realized that this is something I can’t go without in college. I also thought the traditional campus layout would make studying easier, everything was just more simple.

These two factors combined and made me realize what an idiot I had been. Judging my college choices on a fun week I had without considering schools, sheerly basing the biggest choice I will have made in my young life on location.

I feel super relieved I changed my mind about applying to NYU early decision, and that I went on the tour as the feels at the schools were different than the ideas in my head of what they would feel like. It feels surreal that I was that close to making such a big choice based on nothing.

PC: Knight Photography

I had Covid

I tested positive for Covid over winter break and it t’was not a fun experience. I had no symptoms, except I slept for 13 hours the night I tested positive. I had to quarantine for 10 days and it sucked. The only good that came out of my quarantine was that I came out of retirement for my Fortnite career. Having Covid was not an enjoyable experience, I could not hang out with friends, I could not go to the gym, and I could not go to work. I highly recommend not getting Covid.

Food Safety and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | FDA
pc: fda.gov

James Webb

So, as many of you already know, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched a couple weeks ago. Now that might not seem like such a crazy thing, but it most definitely is. This telescope is the most complex telescope humankind has produced to date, it has the ability (hopefully) to see the first light emitted from the Big Bang 13 billion years ago. Now that fact is confusing to some, how can we see back in time? Well, basically, light has a speed of 299 792 458 m / s to be exact (approximately 670616629 mph). We measure this in terms of distance, as lightyears. Say a super bright lightbulb is turned on somewhere ten light-years from earth, it would take ten years for the light to reach us so that we could see it. Now if we take that principle and scale it up, the further we look, the longer it’s taking for us to see that light, so if we look at something 13 billion lightyears away, then we are seeing 13 billion years in the past, and since the universe is constantly expanding finding something 13 billion lightyears away is not very difficult. Anyway back to JWST, it will be in an orbit we have called “L2” which is just behind the Earth so it will constantly be in Earth’s shadow, it will be 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the earth, which is far past the moon. From that orbit, it will take pictures. A lot of pictures. Of course, our time with the JWST is limited so NASA has allocated certain hours for researchers for an approved project. This telescope will bring in a new era of research, we may learn the origins of the universe, and if not we will still learn so many things from this telescope. Things like planets with potential life, we will learn about the formation of galaxies, and many many more things. I am excited to see the pictures this incredible telescope will take.

James Webb Space Telescope: how our launch of world's most complex  observatory will rest on a nail-biting knife edge
Webb's Orbit

Photo credit: Space. Com

My top three

For this week’s blog, I’m going to go back to the pokemon theme and pick out some of my favorites to share with the readers of this blog.

To start Pokemon are a type of imaginary creature that has been incorporated into games cards and tv shows that have run for many years, starting in 1997. I have loved Pokemon since I was first introduced to it in middle school when a classmate gave me their old 3ds. The game omega ruby (a Pokemon game) was the first game I ever played. Ever since I have followed pokemon and tried to play as many of the games as possible. It means borrowing someone’s Nintendo Switches just to play the game and give it back is worth it to play Pokemon.

The first pokemon on my list is Toxtricity (low key form) This pokemon is an electric poison type, the primary reason for this pick is that it is one of my favorite pokemon and that it is powerful. Toxtricity is fast and it can poison enemies with poison-type moves.

Photo credit: Bulbapedia

The second pokemon in my dream team is Salamance. I chose this Pokemon for its dragon flying typing and its sheer power. this pokemon is a large blue dragon that is just super cool looking.

Photo credit: Pokemon. com

The third member of my team is going to be Swampert because he is my favorite pokemon. He’s a starter, this means that it is likely that I would have had him from the beginning of the game. Swampert is a water and ground type pokemon with the ability to learn very solid moves. Mudkip Swapert’s primary evolution was the first pokemon I ever got as a starter and has been my favorite ever since.

Photo credit: Pokemon Database

Homesick

“Do you miss home?” “Do you miss your parents?” As an international student, these are the questions that I receive most often from people. My answer has always been no, and inexplicably, I’ve never missed home while I’m in a foreign country.

But that answer has changed recently.

During Christmas break, I lived near the LA area, where large Chinese community exists. There, you can find almost anything from China and other places in Asia. I never knew that there could be such a place in the US.

When I had authentic Chinese food in one of the restaurants, I suddenly realized that I do miss home. Or more precisely, the two years of my life in China before I came here. I miss my old school, my friends, and my hometown Nanking. I had a sudden urge to book a flight and go back at that moment. But after 5 seconds, I remembered that my friends are not in China either, they are in Germany, Ireland, Canada… just the same as me.

The feeling of nostalgia was something that I never experienced, and I now I finally understood how other people felt when they say they missed home.

Photo Credit: https://www.welikela.com/

Covid decides to run it back

As of last week, I have now gotten covid two consecutive winter breaks. My take on Covid, at least how it affects me, is that it is more of an inconvenience than anything.

Not being able to taste sucks. It makes food borderline unenjoyable. I have been postmating food from all over trying to get a taste of something, but it all tastes like nothing. It straight-up sucks.

Other than that, I am congested and whatever, which isn’t too bad at this point, and I have brain fog. Maybe I don’t have brain fog but it is a solid excuse to procrastinate.

The most annoying parts are not being able to see my friends, play soccer, or stay caught up on school because I have a LAUNDRY LIST of shit to do, half of which I don’t even understand.

I am kind of concerned about OVS’s covid approach. Without guidelines changing, I predict that school will just become a place where the new variant spreads semi-easily. I hope that school provides online as an option at least, as leaving students who are sick in the dark about their schoolwork makes it very difficult to keep up, and if I hadn’t already had covid I would want to have the option to not have to go to school and get covid.

photo credit: CDC

My 3 Favorite Songs Right Now

My music taste fluctuates a lot, and I’m constantly finding new songs to play on repeat until I hate them. Here are the songs I’ve been playing nonstop for the past week or so.

Tend the Garden by Gang of Youths

This song has such beautiful music, and it’s pretty sad. I mean, that’s to be expected from Gang of Youths; they did also make the song Achilles Come Down. Like Achilles Come Down, it’s a narrative, and it’s sang from the perspective of a father who presumably did something horrible and won’t ever forgive himself for having to leave his children. It’s a really poetic song and there’s a good amount of fairly obscure Biblical references, so if you’re into that kind of thing, definitely give it a listen. (Or a million listens, like I’ve done.)

Gang Of Youths Share New Song "Tend The Garden": Listen
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Sanctuary by Joji

This song is so fun to listen to. The music is a perfect blend of upbeat and chill. Joji has such a beautiful voice, too. It’s a really sweet love song and isn’t really sad. Good to listen to if you’re just looking for good vibes.

Sanctuary (Joji song) - Wikipedia
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Black Barbies by Nicki Minaj

This song is totally different from the other two, but it’s so good. It’s basically another version of Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd. The rhymes in it are super clever. If you like artists like cupcakKe, Megan Thee Stallion, and Cardi B, you’ll probably like this song.

Black Barbies by Nicki Minaj | Song | Free Music, Listen Now on Myspace
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Those are my favorite songs right now. They definitely all have very different vibes, but I listen to all of them all the time. I hope if you check them out, you like them too!

What Video Games I could Survive in

As someone who has over 5,000 total hours on video games and absolutely no survival experience, I figured it would be fun to take my favorite games and which of them I think I could survive in.

Dark Souls 3: Being my favorite game of all time, I figured I would start with good ol’ Dark Souls. If you’re not a masochist, and you don’t know what Dark Souls is, it’s a fantasy game that’s generally regarded as one of the most difficult video game franchises. And as a masochist who has now beat the game countless times, I can confidently say that there is no way that I would even be able to kill a single enemy. I mean, the first hard enemy you fight is a giant crystal lizard dog that would beat me into a pulp before I could even lift my sword.

Image credit: Dark Souls III Wiki

Hollow Knight: There is absolutely no way I’ll die in Hollow Knight. I mean everything in that world is literal bugs. If I can’t beat a couple of bugs, I don’t know what I’m doing in life.

Image Credit: hollowknight.com

Portal 1 & 2: As someone who considers themselves a pretty solid puzzle solver, I can confidently say that I can beat both portal games. Not only am I a decent puzzle solver, but Glados stands absolutely no chance against these hands. I mean all of her wires are always exposed. Ever heard of unplugging their wires? I mean if Chell can beat both games without thinking of that obvious loophole, then I can easily find my way through the Aperture Science Labs.

Image Credit: Games Radar

Do You Remember That Time… 2020…

Photo Credit: Tuscaloosa News

Do you remember when we got an alert about the new virus, the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and we were all so scared about it in 2020? People die every day, plus, we know nothing about this new virus. We stayed home and used Rubbing alcohol to spray everywhere when we got home right away. We began to lose the ability to connect with the other person. Sometimes we call our family or friends saying Hi to them and talk about how they are doing recently just to try to imagine we were talking to a “real” person. After a year in online class or work, we lost the motivation to do anything, we only have that little energy left to keep scrolling on our phones. Watching the public prank videos on Youtube from years before, and started to imagine when am I going to talk and meet new friends after the pandemic. At last, we all laughed and cried to celebrate the 2021 new year at home.

It’s only been two years but feels like it happened a long time ago.

When Omicron came up almost at the end of  2021, it didn’t scare anyone much. I noticed that people started to see this type of virus as a common cold. People don’t wear masks around, even gather with another person in the same room. People tell others that they have COVID, but they don’t care about it as long as they know they are fully vaccinated. Time has changed the way we see or think about the virus. The Covid deaths have begun to spike quickly after people gathered to celebrate the 2022 new year without putting their masks on. However, I wish we could go back to “normal” life when we all go to school or the amusement park without having our masks on.

Photo Credit: ABC News (2021)