Weekly Report #28 - Mastodon, Hometown, and the Hide-and-Seek Cat

Preface#

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This article is a record and reflection on the life of the week from 2023-01-23 to 2023-01-31.

Most of this week was spent in my hometown, making up for some regrets. It was plain but precious. After returning to Hangzhou, I stayed for an extra day to meet a friend before hastily returning to Beijing. After arriving home in Beijing, I quickly put down my luggage and couldn't wait to go to my colleague's house to pick up Nie Nie. By the time I finished tidying up, I was already in a daze. I quickly freshened up and planned to take a nap and write a weekly report. When I opened my eyes again, it was already 7 o'clock in the morning. In addition, I had to commute to the company during the day, so I postponed writing until now.

On the first day back, Nie Nie made me angry, adding a little scare to my first day of work. But thinking that I had returned to this interesting daily life, I felt more at ease than blaming myself (~~I dare not~~). Then I quickly ordered a mobile camera. No wonder my friend said that I was raising Nie Nie like a daughter. I worry about her in various ways. There were also many other interesting things.

Interesting Things and Objects#

Mastodon#

I didn't write much blog posts this week, and I didn't finish the things I wanted to do before the Chinese New Year. However, I did some research on the fediverse and found it very interesting.

elk_zone_mastodon_yu

I originally wanted to post some English content on Mastodon, but then I thought it would be better to narrow down my output platform. I will still post on Twitter and automatically synchronize it to Mastodon through IFTTT. It will still be aggregated on the Telegram channel and Crossbell chain. Interested friends can join me. I am at @[email protected] in the mas.to domain.

There are several interesting articles about these topics that I read and gained a lot of understanding:

Crossbell#

In addition, in the previous article "Weekly Report #25 - Personal Information Output and Synchronization System Based on Crossbell (Reconstruction)," I mentioned the issue of synchronizing Twitter and Telegram message history to the chain. I have also received corresponding solutions from them:

When I use them, I also mentioned a few bugs. I will write a detailed article later after experiencing them more deeply, and I will also raise some issues. It's quite interesting.

Input#

Books#

My Profession is Novelist: In fact, Murakami's essays or collections are quite enjoyable to read. The language is sharp yet sincere, with a unique charm that feels like a conversation. It often contains subtle humor that makes me smile. It took me about three months to finish reading it. As one of the few physical books I have, I mostly flip through it when I feel like it. When I first went to the cat shelter, although I was moved, I didn't have the determination to take on such responsibility so quickly. But in one of the pages I randomly turned to, it said, "At that time, we lived a very frugal Spartan life. There was no TV or radio at home, not even an alarm clock. There was almost no heating equipment, so we had to hold the cats we raised tightly to keep warm on cold nights." These few sentences became the biggest motivation for me to bring a cat home. It also talked about many things, such as hobbies, writing purposes, creative ideas, and balance. It took me nearly two months to truly understand them after calming down.
The End of the World and a Cold Paradise: It's been a long time since I felt this kind of anticipation from a novel, maybe because of the narrative style or because I read a few short chapters on the way, always wanting to know what will happen next, but also not wanting to rush through and miss the beautiful writing. The setting of this "another space" reminds me of an old but equally interesting game, "The Legend of Abandoned Capital."

TV Series#

Shizuka: I really liked the first few episodes, the songs by Spitz, the personalities of the characters, and the comfortable daily life. Maybe it's because I empathize too much with the emotional struggle of the second male lead, a gentle and firm love described by Shunji Iwai as "I love you, but it has nothing to do with you." Later, I couldn't help but be disappointed with the development of the story, and I couldn't really understand the starting point of the relationship between Aoyu and Shou. It was beautiful, but somewhat straightforward and shallow.
The Three-Body Problem (TV series): It has become a series that I follow every day. The plot is a bit slow, but so far, I still have some expectations.

Anime#

Bungo Stray Dogs: I watched it slowly during the Chinese New Year. I find the setting of using writers and literary works as tasks and skills quite interesting. I like the character designs of the members of the detective agency. However, I don't feel the urge to immediately watch the next season. Maybe I will continue watching it later when I remember.

Personal Life Highlights#

Life#

Continuing from the description of my home in last week's report, I stayed in my hometown for nearly 10 days during the Chinese New Year, which is rare in recent years. The number of people in my hometown is decreasing, and the atmosphere is becoming quiet and lacking in liveliness. But we were able to set off real fireworks, which is a different kind of memory.

Since I left home at a young age, my childhood playmates and memories have long been blurred, let alone childhood friends. So during these ten days, I visited my grandmother, accompanied my grandparents and grandfather, and other family members. It was a rare and leisurely time.

There was an abundance of warmth, but the sub-zero temperature made me miss the time with heating and Nie Nie (~~gradually losing the spirit of a southerner and surrendering to heating, it's so comfortable~~). Fortunately, I brought my old Intel MBP, and it heats up quickly when running an IDE and opening a few web pages.

I brought a camera this year, although I didn't take it out to shoot much due to the cold hands, but I took many family portraits. The older generation doesn't like taking photos, but fortunately, we now have tools like smartphones to record daily life at any time, so there aren't too many regrets. But I still miss the time when the whole family went to the photo studio to take pictures, although it is a memory from many years ago. This time, I acted as the photographer and took many photos of the whole family and each individual family. Sony's autofocus and continuous shooting are worth mentioning.

When I arrived at my home, my sister brought a dog as a "placeholder" and said that I could just photoshop myself in the picture in the future. She has a bit of a comedian's element of teasing her older brother. In the end, we did take a photo with the dog, the four of us neatly arranged, without me. This is probably one of those interesting things that sound absurd but seem normal in my family.

Of course, the family portrait of the extended family was taken with a tripod and timed continuous shooting. I plan to repair and develop some of the photos soon.

Nie Nie#

nie_nie_on_the_bed

This time, I was away from Nie Nie for almost half a month. Although my colleagues were attentive and often sent me videos, I still couldn't help but worry. The first thing I did after returning to Beijing was to go to my colleague's house. On the way back, I comforted her in various ways. Fortunately, she didn't forget me and still had some conscience. After returning home, there wasn't much unfamiliarity. She immediately jumped onto her favorite spot and comfortably lay down. It's really nice.

The next day, because I had some things to discuss with my project team colleagues and it had been a long time since I went there, I tidied up and went to the office. After getting used to remote work, I felt a bit uncomfortable going back to the office. It was already 10:30 when I arrived at the office. After exchanging greetings with my long-lost colleagues, I just opened my computer and was called to have lunch shortly after. After eating, it was time for a nap. I felt that deliberately dividing time into "work and rest" made it easier to disrupt the rhythm. I might still prefer the mode of finishing work without eating or drinking and then arranging my own time.

In addition, there was a funny and frustrating incident.

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After three months, I went to the office for the first time. During lunch break, I turned on the camera, but for ten minutes, I couldn't see the cat. I shouted into the microphone for five minutes, but there was no response. I carefully recalled whether I had closed my doors and windows properly. I felt extremely annoyed and anxious. I quickly asked for leave and rushed home. When I got home, I found her hiding lazily behind a blind spot of a chair. I guess the number one reason for me to find a fully remote job next time is this troublesome Nie Nie 🙃.

And there's a follow-up.

dispear_nie_nie_2

Follow-up to the previous incident. After I came back, I originally wanted to educate her, but she quickly jumped up and fell asleep on my lap. When she woke up, she looked confused and innocent. I couldn't bear it, so I stopped the cold war after an hour. In addition, I ordered the ebo mobile camera recommended by @mr_easonyang. Thank you! Now I can go out with peace of mind!

~~In the future, I can manipulate the surveillance robot to play with the cat when I'm slacking off.~~

Others#

Two close friends have encountered some conflicts that are difficult to reconcile at this stage. As a small group of three people who have been like family for many years, I can't help but blame myself for not doing enough.

I hope everything will be fine.