When I started writing this weekly journal, it already felt like the New Year's holiday was a long time ago. A month can really bring about a lot of changes. As the first weekly journal of the new year, it can hardly be called a weekly journal anymore (it’s more like a monthly journal).
Life Records#
Shared Memories with Family - Thoughts on Topic Separation - What Can I Do?#
It has been two years since my family moved into the new house, and most of the furniture and decorations have been managed and purchased by my father. I have been working away from home 90% of the time, so I am far less familiar with the new house than I am with my small rented room. My contributions have been minimal (I didn’t even know that a few plants that had accompanied me for years in the previous house were discarded during the move). This time, when I heard that my father wanted to replace the sofa with a better one, I suggested we check out the nearby IKEA after a bit of thought.
So on New Year's Day, I took my parents to IKEA; this must be the most successful option I made during this visit home (no, even in the past 23 years).
IKEA is so vast that we spent four hours wandering around, almost examining every inch. While IKEA is said to sell furniture, it feels more like a department store. It was my parents' first time at IKEA, and they came away with all sorts of ideas about "how a house can be decorated." The most interesting part was that whenever we saw something novel, we would discuss "what is this for, and where can we place it in the house?"
On the way back, we also saw the several kilometers of furniture city in Foshan. I learned how much the upper limit for a sofa in our home should be, and 9,000 yuan is still quite expensive. I also found many things I want to buy later. While some might think there’s nothing special about going to IKEA, for my parents living in a small county, it was quite a novel experience.
(Here’s a picture to show I’ve been there)
My parents have always been watching bad movies. Due to the complexity of various platforms and their memberships, they are reluctant to subscribe, and they lack the ability to discern good works. The end result is that they either watch domestic family ethics dramas or anti-Japanese and founding dramas. A quick search on Douban reveals ratings of five or six, which really makes my eyes go dark.
I have always struggled to find topics to talk about with my parents. As I spend more time working outside, the distance between my heart and theirs grows further. To put it simply, this is a generation gap. I’ve discussed this topic with some friends, and most of their responses were, "You can only accept reality; you can't change your parents' worldview." But I believe there are still things I can do; I don’t think I’m powerless.
Although I haven’t studied what common topics can consist of between people, I believe shared memories and interests can bring about common topics. Then I realized that "having watched the same work can be considered a shared memory." We often feel a certain online friend is very familiar, which actually stems from their insightful comments on a piece of work. So, during my previous visits home, I would find a few movies to watch with them. And before leaving, I wouldn’t forget to recommend one or two good TV shows for them to watch (like last month when I recommended "Game of Thrones").
But I feel this is still not enough; after I leave, they still go back to watching family ethics dramas and anti-Japanese and founding dramas. To solve this problem, I decided to use Apple TV, along with Infuse + Alibaba Cloud Drive, to introduce high-quality content so they can enjoy a better viewing experience. As for IPTV, I adopted a method of periodically manually maintaining the sources to ensure their stability and simplify the usage process for my parents.
You might think I’m being arrogant? Some might say, according to the principle of topic separation, "Improving your parents' understanding is their issue." But helping them broaden their horizons and understand that there are more wonderful works in the world is something I can do. (Taking them to IKEA was also somewhat for this reason.)
I also tried deleting my NetEase Cloud Music and Keep apps from my phone and attempted to use Music and Fitness from Apple One. (Haha, saying all these legitimate reasons, I actually want to experience Apple TV myself.)
(So Infuse has "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," which led me to spend three days during the workweek finishing it.)
Ah, after finishing the above two paragraphs, I was too tired to write anymore~~
Failed SIM Card#
Recently, I got a SIM card from Macau. One reason was for future convenience when applying for some foreign accounts. The other was to replace my current second SIM card to reduce the monthly fee. However, after finishing, I realized there was a better way to get a foreign card. (The Macau card requires real-name authentication, which is quite a hassle.)
Documenting Life Requires Photos#
This month, my random topic is this; I have been synchronizing it to my Telegram Channel every day, but I found that even such small things, doing them daily, consumed quite a bit of my energy.
"Take photos to document life | 记录生活需要有照片 | Take 10 photos a day, choose 1, and learn a bit about Affinity Photo for post-processing"
(I bought a pot of succulents to plant; it’s the first time in my life I’ve tried to find something to grow.)
(Although it was a rather boring journey, journeys have this benefit: the remaining memories are all beautiful.)
Sense of Community#
The sense of community is formed by "contributing to others." Starting from "contributing to others," receiving gratitude from others, getting feedback and support, and thus creating a place for oneself in society.
On the first and third weekends of this month, I dealt with matters related to Nyaruko. Trying to assist others in doing something and receiving feedback and support has been the happiest thing for me during this time. I also met two cyber friends through this.
What Did I Watch? or What Did I Use?#
The progress of the software should be considered my familiarity with this software.
| Work & Product Name | Medium | Progress | Rating | Complaints |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liushen Leilei Reads Jin Yong | Book (WeChat Reading) | 80% | 8 | Just missing "The Deer and the Cauldron" among the key works |
| The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (1996) | TV Series | 100% | 9 | Spent three days watching it during the workweek; it truly is a bottomless pit of slacking off. Although "The Sunflower Manual" and "The Evil Sword Manual" may seem absurd to outsiders, I always feel there are many similar things in reality. |
| The Courage to Be Disliked | Book (WeChat Reading) | 100% | 9 | At first, I thought it would be quite profound and hard to understand. But after reading it, I found it very practical; with "topic separation" in one hand and "sense of community" in the other, it helped me understand many entangled interpersonal relationship issues. I felt a long-lost clarity of thought. |
| Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography (Revised Edition) | Book (WeChat Reading) | 100% | 10 | 450,000 words. I listened to it intermittently on WeChat Reading for two months; the "density" of biography books is quite suitable for listening. A team that changed the world has its reasons; their full commitment to work and passion for their cause leaves no room for error. I can’t feel a hint of envy or jealousy; they deserve it. In the face of the idea of "getting things done," face is not important. Or rather, it should be considered worthless. |
Miscellaneous Reading Items#
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[Deck Plugin Recommendation] Screen Recording Plugin - Decky Recorder 178 - Trying it out to record gameplay videos on Steam Deck~~
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I Work as a Social Worker in Australia: I Can Save Everyone Except Chinese Girls | I Will Save You 14 - Although I’m a guy, I’m not someone who doesn’t express emotions.
Recognize true emotions and understand where your emotions come from. Don’t force yourself to be perfect, and don’t ignore your negative thoughts.
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2023 Letter | Dan Wang - Many critiques are very incisive.
What are the great Chinese creations of the last 20 years, aside from a science fiction trilogy published before Xi took office, a short-video app that doesn’t display Chinese content overseas, and a video game that looks as if it’s thoroughly Japanese?
Even most of the movies released these days are either nationalist blockbusters, sappy romances, or supernatural action flicks.
除了习近平上任前出版的科幻三部曲、一款在海外不展示中国内容的短视频应用程序以及一款看起来完全是日本的视频游戏之外，过去 20 年中国还有哪些伟大的创作？
甚至现在上映的大多数电影要么是民族主义大片，要么是多愁…
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CloudFlare Tunnel Free Internal Network Penetration Simplified Tutorial - 少数派 - It’s really quite useful.
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Node.js Power Tools: 13 Libraries Every Developer Should Know | by Pinjari Rehan | Dev Genius - Sorry☹️, I’ve used no more than three of them.
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Revenge Bedtime Procrastination: Why People Do It and How to Stop – Solving Procrastination - Hmm, I found that besides this, there’s also revenge shopping and revenge loafing. It reminds me of the part in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" where they buy a goat. I realized that the feeling of buying a goat is actually the same as my feeling when I buy a figurine. Only when I buy such things can I feel my control over life.
There’s a term called "revenge bedtime procrastination," which refers to some people who, despite being exhausted during the day, refuse to sleep early at night and would rather play on their phones in bed.
This is because they cannot control their lives, and by delaying sleep at night, they gain a sense of freedom in controlling their time.
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2023 Smooth Transition - DIYgod - A very positive summary. Looking at DIYgod's year-end summary feels like a realistic character seeing the life of a super character. It shows me the possibilities of life and reminds me of my longing for that kind of life when I watched "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" a few years ago. However, my first feeling is that not much has been done in each field, and each number is not intimidating. But when these things add up, it’s quite good. On the contrary, I have been too rough and too hasty in doing things, showing a messy product to others without refining it. The completeness of doing things is much more important than the quantity.
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The more the truth is debated, the clearer it becomes; Ko Wen-je goes all out, and the presidential candidate debate officially begins! - YouTube - I’m not Taiwanese. Even just watching this debate, I know who to vote for. (Of course, in the end, he still lost~ The Air Force was strong, but ultimately lost to the Army.)
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Tom Scott, and the Formidable Power of Escalating Streaks - The best way to get really good at anything is to do that thing on a regular basis, thoughtfully, and with the goal of doing it slightly better every time. (I feel I really enjoy reading this type of article; is this considered a motivational article?)
The best way to get really good at anything is to do that thing on a regular basis, thoughtfully, and with the goal of doing it slightly better every time.
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Ask HN: What Software/Tech Blogs/Magazines Should I Be Reading in 2024? | Hacker News - The comments are very interesting; the first emphasizes being a value investor rather than a day trader.
Slightly contrarian perspective: I'm trying to read less temporal (things that matter now) and more fundamental (stuff that mattered 1+ year ago and will still matter in 1+ year, with even wider intervals for non-tech content).
Postscript#
Although it’s called a monthly journal, it’s written in the length of a weekly journal, so it’s just like that; writing one or two things is enough, and there’s no need to lay everything out in detail.
I also found that I always want to do too many things every day, which makes me feel very suppressed, and the end result is that I have no motivation to do anything, dragging things out, so that in the end, I might only accomplish one-tenth or one-twelfth of what I wanted to do in a day, which is quite a pity. For example, recently my Airport Pro was accidentally washed with clothes in the washing machine, which actually made me…
The company’s product has also started to be promoted, and the difficulty of promotion is indeed quite challenging. I deeply understand that the product I create for myself and the product I create for others are worlds apart.