2025 just flew by so quickly. It feels like the older I get, the faster time passes.

This year seemed a bit too uneventful. Apart from a few moments when I stepped out of my comfort zone, most of my life was as plain as water, so there aren't many things worth recording this year.

Stumbling Forward in the Quagmire of Research

This year, I finally got my first (conference) paper accepted. Although it has some recognition in the coding field, it's not SCI after all, so I'll keep working hard. However, the serious problem I'm facing now is that there's no "myself" to attend the conference, which might lead to withdrawal. Ahhhhh, that would be a real disaster. I hope the appeal succeeds.

Also, the AI Codec direction I've been working on seems to have diminishing room for improvement. This year I've been trying some new directions, such as optimization related to large models, but there hasn't been much progress yet. Some previous research topics are still dragging on without results, and I'm also being chased by graduation requirements and the joint training program in my curriculum. The pressure is quite high. I hope for a good breakthrough next year.

Finding Joy in Life Through Travel

This year, I finally had a few travel opportunities outside of business trips. Besides going to Shanghai multiple times for various exhibitions, I went to Harbin at the beginning of the year, and during summer vacation, I finally visited Japan, a place I've always wanted to go. Although I also went to Shenyang, Dalian, and Macau, they were for business meetings, so there wasn't much opportunity for sightseeing.

Winter in Harbin is definitely worth visiting. After all, as a southerner, it's not often I get to see such scenery (though there were really a lot of people at every attraction). It was my first time experiencing temperatures of minus ten to twenty degrees Celsius, my first time stepping into the icy and snowy world of the north. It was quite a nice travel experience.

My summer vacation this year didn't start until late August, so early September was also during my break. Taking advantage of this dirt-cheap flight and hotel deal (5 days 4 nights for just over ¥2000), I went on a pilgrimage to Kyoto and Toyohashi. When you personally walk into the places where anime characters have "lived," virtual and reality blend together, and this experience transcends mere check-ins.

New Technologies, New Attempts

Given the Next.js experience I accumulated before, this year I continued learning while developing, and I've gained some experience using AI for web development. So this year I also joined a senior's startup company to help with some operations and development work.

I also built a small website based on my own needs—RD Curve AI, which helps researchers in the compression field parse experimental results, record data, and plot RD curves. If you need it, feel free to try it out, and feedback is welcome.

In the past, I felt that many people were unwilling to accept new technologies, trapped in their comfort zones, using outdated tools and methods for work and life. But this year, AI development has been so rapid that I don't even have the energy to try those new technologies. What can n8n's workflow automation do for me? What improvements do the new models have, and how can they help me? ... Apart from AI programming, which has genuinely expanded my development capabilities, everything else seems to be subtly changing my life, but I'm gradually becoming numb to it.

Hello, 2026

Last year I said "contentment brings happiness," but the rapidly passing time this year still makes me feel a bit anxious. I hope to work harder in 2026 and accelerate forward.