I have a feeling this will be a rambling account, but let it be.

A Steadily Progressing Research Journey

In fact, I increasingly feel that I am more suited for industry rather than academia. Perhaps I should be grateful that I chose an engineering doctorate.

Over this year, my research progress has been quite slow. I've been working on a project for nearly a year and a half without any results. The paper text is already written, but I still need to supplement experiments and further improve performance. Unfortunately, there's no server usage time tracking implemented—maybe if I pulled the data, I'd be at the top? At one point, I even wrote a script to email me when experiments finished so I could check results quickly, but later I felt the pressure was too intense so I deleted it.
(* ￣︿￣)

Besides my own project, there's also a collaborative project with another lab. At least this year, we successfully encoded an image—yay! But it will still take some time before there's actual output like a paper. Right now, the professors from both labs are uncertain about the next direction. I hope they reach a conclusion soon so I can determine the next improvement plan.

I hope to get the paper submitted early next year, ahhh! Server, please work harder and run faster.

No Poetry, But the Distance Remains

Since deciding not to work overtime on weekends, life has become much happier. In 2023, because I wanted to compete (or perhaps for other reasons), I felt I never truly relaxed wholeheartedly. This year, whether alone or with friends, the number of times I went out of campus increased significantly. I used to think I was quite a homebody, but now I've found that going out for walks is nice too. I visited many cities (Shanghai, Chuzhou, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Hefei, Shaoxing, Weihai, Wuxi —surprisingly, only the first two weren't for business trips), and returned to my hometown twice (Yichun, my hateful homeland, yet that nostalgia...). I also explored quite a few places in Nanjing, like walking 30,000 steps in one day to cover all the attractions near Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.

The reason for making this change might be that I bought a used car at the beginning of the year (my wallet instantly flattened). The trigger for all this was that transportation in my hometown was really inconvenient (plus some reasons why I had to be independent). On the other hand, I also got Jiangsu's Three-Free Card, which allows free rides on buses and subways, and free entry to many scenic spots! ヾ(≧▽≦*)o

However, compared to scenic spots, participating in various events feels even more enjoyable. My favorite event this year was probably ChiliChill's tour—the atmosphere was absolutely amazing! Of course, BA Only was also quite good.

Whoa, It's a Weeb!

Compared to last year, this year I had more time to detach myself from the phenomenal world and immerse myself in one story after another.

My favorite anime this year was undoubtedly Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!. While the animation was exquisite, the sense of youth created by the story was also memorable enough. After finishing the anime, I couldn't help but read through the original novels. I'm Komari Chika's dog! A1, you're not planning to skip season 2 for such a great work, are you?! (´；ω；`) You might not have noticed, but this homepage's theme color changes with each refresh to one ofYanami Anna,Yakishio Lemon, orKomari Chika's theme colors (I might be a bit obsessed).

I also have to mention Oshi no Ko. Whether season 1 or season 2, the anime is truly excellent. But I really can't stand Akasaka Aka—he always hooks you at the beginning, gets adapted into great anime, and then the ending leaves you speechless. Although I prefer happy endings, I can accept less-than-perfect endings (like Plastic Memories or CLANNAD). But after finishing Oshi no Ko season 2 and learning about the subsequent plot, it reminded me of the painful feeling when I finished following the Kaguya-sama: Love Is War manga. I'm not that fragile though—either I won't watch Akasaka Aka's next work, or I'll be mentally prepared for the suffering.

I didn't watch many movies this year. Miyazaki Hayao's The Boy and the Heron, as always, takes people into the world he has constructed and conveys a vision of peace. Spy x Family Code: White, like the anime, brought me a joyful performance. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with The Umbrella Girl—the story background was too grand but couldn't be developed in just 90 minutes. If they could maintain the same production quality, it would have been better to write the story in an anime series format. The emotional expression brought by the hand-drawn animation of Look Back really struck my heart, and this emotion further made me feel it's a good story, even though it's not a happy ending. I'm talking about you, Akasaka Aka (gritting teeth)! A short year-end summary and I've already callbacked to you twice. Perhaps we will always experience separation and death. No matter how sad, time will continue to pass, and life will move forward.

Stay Curious

Recently, a labmate said I have a spirit of exploration—perhaps that's true. New things always attract my curiosity. The biggest progress this year might be starting to learn some frontend knowledge. Actually, I've thought about learning this several times before, but always gave up because I thought lectures would take too much time. This year, because I wanted to write a Lab GPU Monitor and Electric Vehicle Charging Station Status for my own convenience, I started learning while coding, and then improving while learning. On the other hand, it's also because of this personal homepage based on Mix Space and Shiro—I really like this style, but there were still some things I wasn't satisfied with, so I made some improvements with the help of AI and my own understanding. I'll write a blog post to introduce these improvements when I have time.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I refactored the mijia-api I wrote this year, turning it into a PyPI package for others to use directly. Since then, the stars have been growing faster. But after all, it's just a simple tool, so I don't expect it to have much impact. Recently there's also been an official HomeAssistant integration. My solution provides a simpler Python interface, so perhaps it has a slight advantage.

Hope to maintain the curiosity for learning next year, infinite progress.

Hello, 2025

I really like my life right now. Perhaps it's contentment. I hope to continue this in 2025. Of course, my research progress has been a bit slow. I hope to publish a result soon, form a positive feedback loop, and give me more motivation to keep moving forward.