Preface
This piece is a record and reflection of life from 2023-11-08 to 2023-11-12.
This week, I returned to a normal rhythm. Work-wise, the main task was discussing and designing solutions, without much coding involved. For another AI-related project, I wrote some backend API code related to smart contracts and call chains. Although I’ve written quite a few contracts, opportunities for non-demo projects that string together the entire process are still rare. In terms of exercise, I had two personal training sessions, and my condition was quite good. In terms of life, I cooked a few meals, and my senior created an online document to record recipes and menus. I can feel that my culinary skills seem to be improving. I sorted out some previously shot video materials, planning to edit a version, which would be a video version of the review. I rearranged my office environment in Beijing, making it much more comfortable. I went shopping and bought some seasonal clothes. There were many interesting things happening.
The Burnt Keyboard
The most interesting (?) thing this week was probably when I was working overtime one night and suddenly smelled something burning. I shouted to my senior, “Something seems to be burning!” and continued writing. After a while, the burning smell seemed very close to me, and I shouted again, “It might be my computer or keyboard burning,” and then continued writing. A bit later, the keyboard stopped responding. I picked it up and sniffed it, and there was a strong burning smell. It turned out that the keyboard really did burn.
At that moment, I didn’t think much of it, but looking back, my reaction was quite funny. Perhaps I was debugging a bug and was in a focused state, so my reactions to the surroundings were like programmed outputs. I guess I’m the type of person whose first reaction to an earthquake would be to git commit + git push.
I’ve been using this keyboard for almost a year. It’s the Hanwen 75 from “【Self-made】I Made a Modular Mechanical Keyboard!【Soft Core】” designed by Zhi Hui Jun. The appearance and feel were quite nice. I contacted customer service, and they said it was probably a burnt cable and that I needed to contact after-sales for inspection. They said this was the first case they had encountered.
I guess my coding skills have really improved, I even managed to burn the keyboard with my code.
My senior: “Do you want me to buy you insurance? Being a programmer is truly a high-risk occupation.” 🤣
The Myth of Pompeii
My senior’s company had some art exhibition benefits that could include family members. Thinking we shouldn’t always stay at home on weekends, we chose to go to the National Library of China on Saturday to attend an exhibition called “The Myth of Pompeii — Treasures from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy”. It included several sections: “Back to the Golden Age”, “Love Myths in Ancient Greece and Rome”, “The Joy of Life: Ancient Romans’ Love for the Good Life”, “The Concept of Beauty in Ancient Art”, and “The Rebirth of Myths”.
Because it included a guided tour, we listened to fantastic Greek myths while looking at the ordinary yet not simple daily life of that era, creating a strange sense of harmony. I think compared to the ancient tomb groups in China that only royalty could enjoy, this suddenly disappeared city seems to better showcase the original face of a city, giving it a more authentic feel.
In our imagination, 2000 years ago seems like a distant era, but judging from the state of Pompeii, their pursuit of life far exceeds ours today. The gourmet food, paintings on tableware, various paintings and sculptures of the gods they believed in, and interestingly, the small city of Pompeii had more than twenty brothels and many murals depicting sexual love. Their openness to sex and desire was even far greater than today.
The volcanic eruption permanently stopped time at this moment, without having to experience aging and slow death, which perhaps precisely fits their attitude towards life. Their daily life embodies “seize the day” and “the ultimate pursuit of beauty”. Their longing and praise for love itself are also reflected in their artworks. I think besides religion, they also firmly believed in a good life and love itself.
A Magical Dream
Something very magical happened on Sunday night.
I was thinking of finishing the weekly review at night, but I was very tired after a whole day of working out and shopping. I thought about putting the computer by the bedside and waking up around three o’clock to write (but I didn’t wake up in the end). I had a dream in the middle of the night, probably because for some reason my MacBook accidentally broke into two halves. The last moment in the dream was probably regretting not buying AppleCare. When I woke up startled, my hand grabbed the laptop that was about to slip from the pillow to the ground.
Perhaps I’ve become so in tune with my computer that it sensed the danger and sent me a dream to save it. It was a very magical dream. Adding to this week’s release of OpenAI’s GPTs and a series of new features, and having just watched PLUTO, an anime about humans and robots, I suddenly couldn’t tell whether I was looking forward to or fearing this future.
Health Adjustments
Fitness
About a month ago, I started twice-weekly personal training sessions at the gym. Actually, I haven’t been very concerned about my body for many years, and thanks to a fairly good constitution, I rarely even had minor illnesses. In high school and college, I would do some basic sit-ups and push-ups in the dorm, which could probably maintain good fitness and physique. However, as I grew older and my routine became increasingly uncontrollable due to some extra factors in work and life, I gradually started thinking about increasing the frequency and amount of exercise.
After comprehensive consideration, I signed up for personal training at the gym, usually two sessions a week, from 7-8 am on Wednesday/Thursday and 2-3 pm on Sunday, basically covering all the points I want to exercise. Now I’ve had 7 sessions, and this is the body condition measured before the first session. I should measure again after one or two more sessions to see if there’s any improvement.
Working out is really quite an interesting activity. The first two times were very novel, trying to do a little more in each item to break my own limits. After a few sessions, there would occasionally be times of weariness and poor condition. I would often glance at the clock on the wall during some difficult movements, thinking it was too long. Now that I can clearly see some results, I’m somewhat accustomed to and even looking forward to that feeling after exercise.
Diet
As my fitness and life rhythm have become more stable, I’ve started cooking more for myself. Although it takes a bit more time every day, I feel it’s quite an interesting experience, and life seems to have become more concrete.
Interesting Things and Objects
Shopping and Couple Outfits
Beijing has actually entered winter, and the temperature has dropped sharply these days, but I haven’t prepared any thick clothes yet. After working out on the weekend, I thought it was time for a seasonal change and should go buy some.
So we went to the mall near home, and my senior and I shopped for a few hours. It wasn’t until after we finished that I suddenly realized this was probably our first real shopping trip to buy clothes together. It’s quite amazing, it seems like we’ve been together for a long time, but we can still discover many new things we haven’t done. It’s not related to how close the relationship is, maybe it’s more about the mode of interaction. Neither of us deliberately tries to check off “x things that must be done”, everything just happens naturally.
Then we went to support Cali’s Zolplay Mall and bought a set of “404 Not Found” couple hoodies. Looking forward to seeing them when they arrive.
Input
Although most interesting inputs are automatically synchronized in the “Yu’s Life” Telegram channel, I’ll still select a part to list here, which feels more like a newsletter.
Books
- Building a Second Brain, currently reading.
- Elon Musk, currently reading.
Articles
Videos
- Hit the Jackpot! Even Beginners Can Learn to Shoot Blockbusters with Drones 【Aerial Photography Tutorial】
- For the First Time in My Life, I Sat Down to Talk with a Murderer
- study vlog #37｜A Female Programmer’s After-work Study Routine｜This Episode’s Cat Content is Off the Charts｜Reading “A Brief History of Tomorrow” ｜TEDxTalks Co-reading: The Secret of Self-control/The Dilemma of Personality/Is Technology a Savior or a Killer
Anime
- PLUTO, an interesting subject about the symbiotic relationship between robots and humans. I watched the first episode and thought it was pretty good.
TV Series
- Prison Playbook, by the same director as “Reply 1988”. I watch it casually while eating. It’s a different style, but also quite interesting.
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