The Vault folder was a bit messy, especially the Obsidian templates and project folders. Did a quick tidy-up and also added a reading log template to encourage myself to read more.

11:00 Feel pretty good

Today, my body feels fine with no discomfort, which has lifted my mood quite a bit. The courier called to notify me to pick up my ID card. After retrieving it, I strolled to the market and bought rice noodles, spinach, and cilantro. I ended up cooking too much rice noodles and ate until my stomach was bulging.

16:27 Read Zweig’s The Governess and Moonbeam Alley (Abandoned)

The reflection of human nature and the influence of societal norms in The Governess is not just a tragedy of that era. Similar things exist widely in any era. The two kind-hearted little girls might have been versions of ourselves in the past. Our attitude toward the world gradually turns indifferent simply because we’ve witnessed its coldness.

Both the English and Chinese translations of Moonbeam Alley are particularly obscure, and I think they’re poorly translated. I couldn’t get through it at all, so I gave up. That said, I do agree with the idea that factors like money, desire, and indifference can lead love to ruin. It’s not worth reading—whether the Chinese or English version—as it’s just a pile of flowery words.

21:12 Went Out for a Walk and Got a Haircut

The Fun Barber

I really cooked too much rice noodles today, but since I have a medical check-up tomorrow and then need to go to Guiyang, I forced myself to finish it all. Feeling overly full, I decided to go out for a walk and get a haircut along the way.

I figured that for job interviews, one’s appearance and demeanor are quite important. Hairstyle plays a big role in personal image, so even though my hair wasn’t very long, I thought I’d get a trim for the sake of interviews. The barber said the last cut was too short and didn’t look great, so she felt a bit awkward bringing it up, but I actually thought it looked fine. This barber has a great attitude and decent skills.

After the haircut, there were still a lot of loose hairs on my face, so the barber gave me a quick wash. When I asked how much it cost, she said 15 yuan. I said, “Thank you,” and she replied, “No, thank you.” I joked, “Now that my hair’s cut, I’m even more handsome.” She laughed and said, “Hearing your compliment will make my dreams sweet tonight.” Haha, that caught me off guard. Next time, I’ll bring Huanhuan along to get a haircut and introduce them.

The Uncle Who Asked for Help Charging His Car

After the haircut, I walked to the charging station, where an uncle in a worn-out leather jacket stopped me. He said he didn’t know how to charge his car and asked for my help. At first, I scanned the QR code on the public account for a while before realizing it wasn’t working—there was another one on the display screen. Then he asked me to help bind his car model info. He drove a seven-seater Changan van, and when the list popped up, there were way too many options. I randomly picked one, and it worked, so we went with that. He thanked me profusely and even offered me a cigarette, which I declined since I don’t smoke.

Called Fei Ge

Helping others felt pretty good. I thought about visiting my mom, but it was getting late. Then I realized I hadn’t called Fei Ge in a while, so I video-called him directly. Turns out, the job someone promised him fell through, and he’s been lying low in Xiamen for a month. I imagine it must be tough for him.

Around 9 p.m., Huanhuan finished work. I thought chatting with more people might help, so I pulled both of them into a call, completely ignoring their awkwardness. It was pretty fun and also helped Huanhuan integrate better with my circle of friends.

Ledger

Haha, Fei Ge said that while he still has money, I should hurry to Xiamen to visit him. I joked about my usual “Australian lobster” bit, and Fei Ge said he’d budget 10k to treat us—rent a car and take a trip out to sea. I’ll hold him to that for now.

Yesterday and today, I looked into the requirements for applying for a student visa. Money remains a significant hurdle. But I don’t care too much anymore—I’ll leave it to fate. At this point, I’m not as eager to go abroad as before. Facing reality is more important. As Teacher Liu said: for ordinary families, studying abroad is almost an impossible path. Maybe things will improve if I work harder in the future.

17:34 Achieved Multi-Device Sync in Obsidian

By configuring the remotely-save plugin and leveraging Tencent Cloud Storage, I managed to sync the mobile version. While it’s not as seamless as git, it’s sufficient for jotting down notes on weekends or when I’m out and about. Later, when I have access to a computer, I can push the updates to the website.

Around 8 a.m., the Emergency Management Bureau called for a qualification review, so I quickly cleared my throat and answered. After that, I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I got up, took a shower, did the laundry, and made breakfast.

Just as I was about to shower, the power went out. I went outside to check and found that the circuit breaker had failed—the wiring wasn’t properly connected before and had burned out. Luckily, the water was already hot, so I showered and then started figuring out how to replace the breaker.

I initially thought about doing it myself. A 2P63A circuit breaker costs less than 30 yuan on Meituan, but I was a bit nervous to handle it alone. I checked the price online through Meituan’s service, and they quoted 130 yuan, which felt overpriced. So, I went out to find a repair shop instead. I found a couple running a repair store, and they charged 80 yuan, including materials. I didn’t haggle and agreed right away.

At noon, I messed around with a JS script and missed my nap time. In the afternoon, I lay down for a while but couldn’t sleep, so I ended up playing on my phone.

Later, I tidied up my room, but my eyes were so tired that I went back to sleep.

A day without studying—just pure slacking.

By the way, last night I suddenly thought of my brother-in-law’s father. I’m not sure what the proper formal term is, so I’ll just call him Uncle. I often think of him inexplicably, so I jotted down a few notes.

02:16 An old phone suddenly beeped

My sister’s phone suddenly made a system notification sound, and my mind started wandering.
I thought about how her WeChat might still have chat logs with Uncle Chaoyang, which I never backed up. The thought made me miss him again, remembering how he looked when he passed away, how hardworking he was.

What kind of life should one live? He embodied so many admirable qualities—bravery, kindness, diligence, selflessness, intelligence, confidence, extroversion, optimism. It’s rare for someone to possess all these traits.

Just thinking about it brings me to tears.

Our interactions weren’t many, yet why has such a towering figure left such a deep impression on me? He helped my family in countless ways—arranging medical care for my mom, plowing fields, driving my dad to Shuicheng, assisting my brother with his wedding, even castrating pigs for our household. He was always energetic, never seeking comfort, never drinking alcohol, often rushing from one task to another.

I want to be like him.

When I woke up in the morning and checked my phone, I realized it was just a system notification from Find My Device.

Last night, I spent some time tinkering with my phone again, but luckily, I went to bed relatively early.

Maintaining a slight sense of hunger and fatigue can help foster a more disciplined and proactive lifestyle.

11:49 Lemon + Cured Meat

Adding two slices of lemon when blanching cured meat can bring out a unique aroma while also reducing the oxidized taste of the meat.

The main reason eggs stick to the pan is that the pan and oil aren’t hot enough. On an induction stove, try to crack the egg closer to the center of the pan.

15:50 Considering Root Access from a Consumer’s Perspective

The purpose of rooting is to gain control over the system. I suddenly realized that the notification importance settings were missing. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it was because I had restored the native notification importance settings using Cemiuiler. My new phone isn’t rooted, so I couldn’t adjust the settings.

19:48 Tweaking the Equalizer on the Xiaomi 15

I noticed that the Xiaomi 15’s external speakers don’t sound as good as the Xiaomi 10’s—they’re particularly harsh and lack fullness. After checking online to see how others adjusted their equalizers, I learned a bit about the principles behind equalizer tuning. It improved slightly, but only by a tiny bit.

23:16 How to improve concentration

The inertia of laziness is still quite hard to overcome, which makes creating a conducive learning or working environment especially important. But how do you create one? Generally, there are four main influencing factors:

1. Establishing Rules. Setting rules helps maintain high focus. The most critical aspects are enforceability and unavoidable consequences—the former ensures practicality, while the latter serves as a negative feedback mechanism. For example, in libraries or classrooms, loud noise will draw disapproval from others, an unavoidable consequence that encourages focus in such spaces.
2. Group Effect. This leverages human psychology—people tend to mimic others to fit in. Additionally, people usually care about how others perceive them. To shape their image, individuals in groups consciously imitate productive behaviors. Combined with personal motivation, this makes people more focused in specific group settings.
3. Eliminating Distractions. By keeping potential distractions—whether objects or people—out of sight or reach, external interruptions are minimized, helping sustain focus.
4. Choosing the Right Task. The nature of the work or study material significantly impacts focus. For instance, we often concentrate intensely while gaming, competing, or watching TV shows. Tasks that provide immediate positive feedback are more likely to hold our attention, even to the point of addiction. Conversely, activities requiring long-term effort with unpredictable setbacks—like preparing for grad school or civil service exams—often trigger subconscious resistance, undermining focus.

In summary, maintaining focus while working alone on long-term, low-reward tasks is extremely challenging. Forcing yourself to concentrate might backfire. Instead, try creating enforceable personal rules with unavoidable consequences, joining online communities of like-minded individuals, and using tools like screen locks or Pomodoro timers. Overcoming subconscious resistance by adopting a broader perspective is key to improving focus—but this requires extensive exploration and practice.

I slept in today, and after waking up, we continued playing games. I was hoping to finish the game today.

Around 10 a.m., my brother called and asked me to drive to Liupanshui South Station to pick up Mom. When I met up with him, he said he had already arranged a ride-hailing service for her. We just happened to run into my brother, and then he left. We took the opportunity to have breakfast at Panxian Flavors.

Huanhuan seemed a bit reluctant to let my brother know we had been together these past few days, feeling somewhat shy. I think if it were me, I’d feel the same way, but there isn’t really a good solution for it.

By 2 p.m., we finally finished It Takes Two. It really is an amazing game.

After resting for a few minutes, I took Huanhuan to the bus station. Just as we arrived, a driver from Panzhou approached us, so we avoided having to wait in line for the coach.

When I got back, I originally planned to rest, but I ended up tinkering with Shizuku, Dizuku, and NFC cards on my phone. As a result, I didn’t get proper rest when I should have.

There were still some leftover vegetables from yesterday, so I cooked noodles with them again today. Simple but delicious.

After eating, I caught up on the diary entries I missed.

Now it’s time to get back to work and give it my all.

The money I topped up in DeepSeek always gets used up suddenly—not sure if it’s due to an API leak or issues with the calls. Switched to the API provided by Volcano Engine instead; it’s also cheaper.

10:52 Optimized the QuickAdd action for adding records

Now it can all be done in a single input box. Even with longer text, there’s no need to open the diary again to continue adding more.

13:18 Failed attempt at using TypeIt as a shortcode

Gave up on this. These trivial things aren’t worth the effort—remember, less is more. At all times, focus on the main content and grasp the essence. Unless I’m someone who produces appearances or tools, there’s no need to overcomplicate things.

20:04 Suddenly discovered the benefits of nearsightedness

My left eye has about 200 degrees of myopia. After staying indoors all day, I decided to go out for a walk. My eyes felt a bit uncomfortable, so I tried closing one eye—and made a novel discovery.

As someone who strongly dislikes the overwhelming presence of advertisements in every aspect of life, I suddenly realized that mild nearsightedness can, to some extent, reduce the ads around us—because they become blurry.

Those eye-catching slogans are like being intelligently blurred out, no longer able to grab our attention. Of course, this only works with around 200 degrees of myopia. If the prescription is too high, it might also affect our ability to appreciate the beauty in life.

It’s time to sleep again. Need to go to bed early, or else I won’t be able to fall asleep.

Submitted all the code I wrote today.

10:34 Swelling and Pain Around My Eyes

Not sure if it’s because I slept face down, but this morning I woke up with a painful swelling around my eyes. Nothing seems to help—lying still in bed, applying a cold towel, sitting in meditation, or even DIY remedies—nothing works.

Might as well get up and take a shower. Even if I’m uncomfortable, life has to go on.

Tip

I learned that mom also feels dizzy at the middle of last night and this morning, so I guess that this may be food poisoning.
I rarely get dizzy.

11:17 Still a Headache

Did some coding, but now it’s not just my eyes—I feel terrible all over.

Warning

From now on, focus more on content creation and output, and open VSCode less!

16:05 Cooking

Today I’m making a stew with minced meat, potatoes, and tea tree mushrooms. Sounds absolutely delicious!
It’s already simmering. By evening, I’ll just add some veggies, and it’ll be ready to eat.

18:02 Headache Finally Eases Up

Did some more coding—added a heatmap to the About page. Realized that shortcodes can achieve endless functionalities, and treating them merely as div containers isn’t ideal for website development. So, I refactored the shortcodes for frequently used websites and blog links, separating data from the page structure for easier maintenance.

22:18 Back from a Walk with Mom

Lately, my exercise routine has been excessive—walking five or six kilometers every day. It’s a bit much for me, but Mom seems to enjoy it, probably because she gets bored at home.

My patience always wears thin when I’m with my parents—not sure if that’s good or bad. Maybe I should encourage them more instead of feeling impatient.

Got home and immediately felt hungry. Even though I’d already eaten dinner (and hadn’t even cleared the dishes yet), I had another meal. Eating made me feel much better.

23:13 Writing a Diary

After resting for a while, I got up to complete my diary entry and then submitted today’s code changes.