I came across a picture that a friend in the group shared while browsing.
It seems that Chinese people live their lives for only a few things: the intense studying for the college entrance examination, the short Spring Festival homecoming, the reluctance to say goodbye while waving goodbye, the eagerly anticipated holidays, the weekends after a tiring week of work, and the countdown before leaving work every day.
In just one line, it reflects the difficulties faced by young people nowadays, the mental exhaustion, and the daily countdown. Only the brief moments of happiness are fleeting and cannot be held onto.
The holiday passed quickly, in just a few days, and I didn't have enough time to relax. I'm already back in Shanghai, sitting at my desk and working.
Before the new year, I went home two and a half days early. On the day I went home, I had a meal at work and then set off for home in the afternoon. Because my home is not very far from Shanghai, I often go home on weekends, so I no longer feel the excitement of going home once every six months or a year. However, I am really looking forward to the next nine days, when I can temporarily forget about work and all the trivial matters, and immerse myself in my own world. After all, I haven't had such a long holiday since last year's internship.
In order to enjoy playing games at home, I bought a gaming TV a few days in advance and also had the PS5 sent back home. I thought that during this uninterrupted and undisturbed time, I would be able to focus and complete several games.
Once upon a time, that long summer vacation that seems so distant now no longer exists, and now there are less than ten days left. In the past, I always felt that after the New Year's Eve, going back to school was not far away, so I started to feel anxious during that period. But now, with almost no holiday before the new year, I guess I'll just be emo for a long time. I really don't want to think about work troubles anymore.
Taking advantage of the last day of the year, I bought the digital version of "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart" on sale. It's also a game that I've been thinking about for a long time, and I hope to complete it during this period of time.
Thinking that I might have time to calm down and read a book, I bought a book called "React Design Principles".
One day before the new year, I went to Aqara Home and signed a contract for a smart home. I've been thinking about HomeKit for a long time, and I hope to move into my own house this year, escape from Shanghai, and live a laid-back life in my hometown.
On New Year's Eve, it was different from previous years. I didn't write code or watch the New Year's Eve Gala. It was just an ordinary day. I lost all my interests and hobbies.
After the new year, I didn't visit many relatives, I mostly stayed at home. Every afternoon, I watched movies with my family and played games alone. This went on for several days. As for reading, I was thinking too much. I was restless and couldn't focus. I actually only read half of a book, but the knowledge didn't really sink in. I even started to doubt if I'm not suitable for this profession anymore. I'm thinking about changing careers, maybe I can learn about smart home design and go back to my small hometown to work in the Internet of Things. The establishment of the Matter protocol at the end of 2022 may mean that the next few years belong to smart homes. It's also because of my interest. I've always insisted on making my whole house smart.
In the last few days, I completed the second playthrough of "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart" and got the first platinum trophy. It's a great game, but I still felt a bit restless during the platinum process.
I also played around with HomeAssistant. It wasn't too difficult to set up, and I managed to integrate my Xiaomi IoT devices and understand the process of bridging to HomeKit through a bridge. However, I couldn't connect to HomeKit in the end because HomeKit requires devices to be on the same subnet, and my HomeAssistant is running on Docker on macOS, so I couldn't start bridging the network. In the end, I gave up on tinkering with it. There are still many limitations to controlling Xiaomi devices through HomeAssistant. That's why I chose Aqara. Aqara's devices are really almost twice as expensive as Xiaomi's.
The day before I left home, I played around with OpenWrt and accidentally turned my own router, the Redmi AC2100, into a brick. But luckily, I didn't follow the OpenWrt flashing process and instead flashed Breed in advance. After that, I flashed the OpenWrt firmware three times, trying both customized and original versions. Finally, I managed to connect to the international internet.
And now, all of that is in the past.