I went out for a simple New Year's Eve dinner. There were too many people in the square, and when I came back, I had a stuffy nose and a dry throat, so I tried to wear a mask outside.
On the last day of 2023, I finished reading Hermann Hesse's "Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair". This book tells the story of Sinclair's anxiety and confusion 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 make 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 against me made me weak.
When I was in high school, living in a boarding school 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 gave me a corresponding understanding of many things.
2023 was a special year. My wife was pregnant, and I accompanied her to complete various medical examinations. Our little one is also growing up slowly. I never thought that I would become a father so soon, and I have to take on my responsibilities. My personality is not the type that plans everything. I have an attitude of not planning my life, just living in the present, doing my best and taking care of my family.
Sometimes, when I have nothing to do, I would criticize myself, feeling weak and unsuccessful. In the past, when I wrote summaries, I would ask myself what the meaning of life is. 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 what I do and take care of my family.
2023 feels like a fulfilling year. Although the overall environment is not good, personally, 2023 has been fulfilling overall. Maybe I have read a lot of books this year, but my output is still far from enough.
Before October 2023, I used the built-in reading app on Apple to read books. The advantage of this app is that it allows importing books and combining 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 found it cheaper and more convenient compared to the voice center. So I switched from Apple Reading to WeChat Reading, became a member, and also participated in the 365-day reading challenge to motivate myself to read every day.
WeChat Reading will block some books. If you import that content, it will be automatically deleted. You cannot use WeChat Reading to read such books. This is also a criticism from many people. But in China, there is no other way, so we can only use other reading apps.
Also, if you encounter some traditional Chinese characters in books, it is difficult to read. At this time, you need to use the voice function to listen while reading, which makes it less difficult.
Reading
WeChat Reading
In total, I have read about 90 books, so I read every day. I import my notes into readwise for review and tagging.
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 to do it. The website provides a more convenient synchronization tool, but considering the need to pay, I decided not to use it. Manual import is not too troublesome. If the copied notes contain tag marks, readwise will report an error during import. In this case, just delete the tag content.
Previously, I used Hugo to build my own blog as the output platform. In April 2023, I switched to xlog. At that time, I found the xlog platform innovative. Anyway, I used to be inconsistent with updating my blog, so I gradually moved to xlog. At the beginning, I updated more frequently, but as I continued to learn, I didn't update as often. Many of the posts 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 building 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 them 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 make it. The gap was still quite big. Our team also won a prize 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!