Happy New Year 2024!
This article was translated by ChatGPT automatically, with minor manual corrections.
Happy New Year, everyone, despite not having updated in quite a while, half a month flew by!
Busy 2023โ
I've been extremely busy with work lately. It's not just the busyness that's exhausting but also emotionally draining.
To make matters worse, maybe because of the mental and physical stress, my body started showing signs of fatigue I had never experienced before. There was even one day, right after the last meeting, I just collapsed in the chair, unable to get up.
Possibly influenced by the sudden death of our family cat "Although" from heart disease some time ago, I decided to play it safe and went for some heart check-ups. The good news is that there were no major issues found, but the bad news is that the series of tests went on for quite a while. Coupled with the time spent on medical visits, my already scant resting time became even more compressed.
At the same time, in addition to the seven or eight projects I was already working on, a new high-priority project suddenly came on board. This even required me to make two or three last-minute trips to Shanghai, spending a lot of time on the road. Fortunately, despite having to attend meetings on high-speed trains, I was able to fly back and get some rest on the plane.
Actually, the pressure has slightly eased off recently, but because I've been on several business trips, I ended up buying a ROG Ally handheld console - so lately I've been hooked on playing games on it, particularly AVG games, and I even watched the game playthrough of Steins;Gate with my wife. Additionally, falling into the trap of inertia that comes from not writing for a while, I ultimately couldn't find the time to update my blog.
Speaking of which, the first time I brought my Ally on the plane, the young woman sitting next to me pulled out her Steam Deck and started chatting with me about gaming consoles. This was probably the first time I remember being approached by a complete stranger outside... Of course, there was no plot twist like exchanging WeChat contacts or anything; after the conversation, we just played our respective games. I reported this incident to my wife the moment I got off the plane, so no one needs to worry.
Life in 2022โ
If there's been a significant change from last year, it's my life's perspective, which has genuinely improved somewhat.
If it were 2022, with this kind of work pressure, I wouldn't have the energy to go out on weekends or weekday evenings. But this time, I still managed to make a choice to meet up with old friends who I hadn't seen for years and had just returned to the country, or to head out for hotpot and barbecue during the biggest snowfall we've had in years.
When I have a chance, I might write a series of blogs to discuss how this change in mindset happened. To sum it up briefly here, it's somewhat similar to what Ke Mama recently talked about in her video: passing thirty, I finally understood that life isn't just a single dimension and that I can finally find a purpose in life beyond mere survival.
This change might have come from reading some works by Marx and Engels this year, maybe the post-pandemic environment has prompted people to reflect, or perhaps it's just due to age. Regardless, it's good to find a way out of the dead-end and here's hoping that friends who are still stuck there can find their exit soon so we can all enter the next dead-end of life together.
Unfortunately, although I started exercising daily a while ago, I haven't been able to keep it up recently due to a lack of time, much like my blog updates. Understanding is one thing, but balancing life and work continues to be incredibly challenging.
The vision of a better life will have to wait until next year.
Vision for 2024โ
When I was in middle school and college and writing a blog, I used to make a Todo-list for the coming year, then fail to tick off any of the boxes.
Now, even though I still have plans for the next year, I no longer list them in that format. Instead of a lot of specific but unattainable goals, I prefer having an overall direction.
My direction will be to live better.
To better understand what living means, to try living better, and to better balance work and life.
Perhaps there will be some major changes next year as well?
No need to rush. By this time next year, all will be clear.