I went out for a simple New Year's Eve dinner and there were too many people in the square. When I came back, I had a stuffy nose and a dry throat, so I tried to wear a mask outside as much as possible.
On the last day of 2023, I finished reading Hermann Hesse's "Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth". This book tells the story of Sinclair's confusion and anxiety when he enters school. Demian's appearance changes this situation, saves Sinclair, and guides him through the most difficult path of self-realization in his future growth.
I remembered when I was a child, I also experienced this kind of confusion. At that time, my parents went out to earn money, so we followed my grandmother. From elementary school to junior high school, at that time, I didn't have someone like Demian to guide me. My grandfather's strictness and prejudice towards me made me weak in character.
When I was in high school, the boarding school environment, which was relatively relaxed and free, gave me the opportunity for self-realization. Although I was still ignorant at this time, compared to before, I was more open-minded. I had my own ideas about many things, and some friends I made also made me a little more mature and gradually gained corresponding understanding of many things.
2023 was a special year. My wife was pregnant, and I accompanied her to complete various medical examinations. The little one was also growing up slowly. I never thought that I would become a father so soon and have to take on my responsibilities. My personality is not the kind that plans everything. It is the kind of attitude that does not plan for life, just live in the moment, do well in myself, and take care of my family.
Sometimes, when I have nothing to do, I always criticize myself, feeling weak and unsuccessful. In the past, when I wrote summaries, I would ask myself what is the meaning of life. Now it seems that the meaning of life, the meaning of being alive, is responsibility. There is no need to live so grandly. Just do well in yourself.
2023 feels like a fulfilling year. Although the overall environment is not very good, personally, 2023 is fulfilling overall. Maybe I have read a lot of books this year, but the output is still far from enough.
Before October 2023, I used the built-in reading app on Apple to read books. The advantage of reading is that you can import books and combine them with the voice center to listen to books. After October 2023, WeChat Reading also launched AI voice reading function (actually it was available before), I tried it for a while and felt that it was cheaper and more convenient compared to the voice center. So I switched from Apple Reading to WeChat Reading, opened a membership, and also participated in the 365-day reading challenge to urge myself to read every day.
WeChat Reading will block some books. As long as you import those contents, they will be automatically deleted. You cannot use WeChat Reading to read such books. This is also criticized by many people, but there is no way in China, so I can only use reading.
Also, if you encounter some traditional Chinese characters in books, it is difficult to read. At this time, you need to use voice, listen while reading, and it will not be so difficult.
Reading
WeChat Reading
In total, I read about 90 books, so I read every day. I import notes into readwise for review.
After finishing a book in WeChat Reading, I import the notes into readwise. I use notepal to import the notes into readwise. Currently, this is the only way. The website provides a more convenient synchronization tool, but considering the need to pay, I gave up. Manual import is not very troublesome. If the copied notes contain tag marks, readwise will report an error during import. At this time, just delete the tag content.
Before, I used Hugo to build my own blog. In April 2023, I switched to xlog. At that time, I thought xlog was innovative. Anyway, I used to update my blog sporadically, so I slowly moved over. At the beginning, I updated more frequently, but as I learned more, I didn't update as often. Many of them are learning notes or some records of targets, vulnerability reproductions, and other content. I have published about 120 articles. In the new year, I will continue to work hard!
memos cards
In November, I started to build the memos platform to record my thoughts, work records, reading excerpts, and other content. I have accumulated about 400 cards.
Competitions
I participated in some competitions. One of the competitions was organized by the telecommunications industry. I participated in it and won second place in the individual competition. It was the first time I won an award in so many years of work. Then I was invited to participate in the national competition, but I couldn't handle it. The gap was still quite big. The team also won an award in a competition, which was the first time we won an award as a team, a third prize.
Let's continue to work hard in 2024!