Preface
This piece is a record and reflection of my life from September 13 to September 17, 2023.
On Monday, I went to see the long-awaited “Oppenheimer” - it had been a while since I last went to the cinema. Saturday was spent sketching at the Old Summer Palace, a fully immersive day. Sunday marked my first boxing class at a boxing gym, quite a novel experience. Midweek, I finally met Atlas and discussed various topics about work and life. My life routine is gradually returning to normal, though there are some issues with my work status that required adjustments. I made a guest appearance for an interview on polebug’s channel, discussing many topics related to Web3 and contract development. There were many other interesting happenings as well.
Interview
I had a chat on polebug’s Bilibili channel about my previous learning experiences and topics related to Web3 and smart contracts. Before I knew it, we had talked for nearly 30 minutes. It was an interesting conversational experience and also served as a small summary of some of my learning.
Boxing
Long ago, I read about this sport in my senior’s article “Sports | What are some things you only know after learning boxing?”. However, as a hardcore homebody, I couldn’t even distinguish between Western boxing, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, let alone try them. It wasn’t until recently when I wanted to find some group activities that I thought of starting with boxing. So, I made an appointment for a weekend afternoon, changed into sports attire, and headed to the boxing gym.
I had rollerbladed for many years before and skateboarded for a while, but had little exposure to other sports. I approached the class with some apprehension. As expected, I struggled with coordinating footwork and punches due to lack of experience with this type of sport. My coordination wasn’t great either. I realized I might have been stuck in my own thought patterns for too long - at first, I almost wanted to make a mind map to lay out the sequence of various movements. I felt a bit discouraged when my body and mind weren’t in sync, but after a bit of practice, I managed to keep up with the training rhythm.
My senior even recorded a short video of me practicing punches, which I posted in my channel: https://t.me/pseudoyulife/2360
Being able to experience the satisfaction of punching in the first lesson was very rewarding. Overall, it’s an interesting and stress-relieving sport, and not as difficult as I had imagined. Many footwork and detailed movements still need more practice, and I want to continue training.
Work Status Adjustment
My life routine has been gradually returning to normal these past few weeks, which can be seen from the frequency of my weekly reviews. I’ve started reading books and watching movies again, finally took the first step towards exercise, and have been slowly participating in some outdoor activities on weekends. My emotions seem to be in a good state.
However, I’ve noticed some issues with my work status. It’s not about the direction or content of the work, but rather that there are too many things I want to do, and I seem to want to explore them all. But my time and energy are ultimately limited, causing me to lose focus and affecting my efficiency. After talking with my team leader and colleagues, I’ve started making some adjustments.
It seems I’ve reached another cycle of self-adjustment.
Personal Life Snapshots
Oppenheimer
Because I subscribe to various streaming services both domestic and foreign, and generally don’t follow trending topics, I rarely go to the cinema. After work on Monday, I went to see a movie for the first time in a while - the long-anticipated “Oppenheimer”. The last memorable experience was the three-hour Batman film, equally long and equally enjoyable.
Nolan’s “Interstellar” and the Batman trilogy are among my favorite films. His pursuit of immersion and control of emotions is well-suited for more profound biographical, historical, and heroic themes. The protagonist is striking yet realistic, and the supporting characters each have their own story arcs. What impressed me most was the deliberately disjointed narrative, the interweaving of black-and-white and color images, and the long dialogues. As a biography, it’s hard to expect a clear storyline and developmental rhythm, but the somewhat chaotic and complex imagery constitutes a very “Nolan-esque” editing style, which allowed me to catch several hidden plot twists and foreshadowing.
Sketching at the Old Summer Palace
Another fun weekend activity was accompanying my senior to sketch at the Old Summer Palace on Saturday. It was my first time visiting the Old Summer Palace. Although I brought my camera, I didn’t take many photos around. However, I did try out the newly purchased Sony ZV1 Mark II, which I intend to use for recording our life together. It’s a very compact point-and-shoot camera, with improvements in focal length and usability compared to the ZV1 I used before. I set it to HLG3, consistent with my camera’s parameters, so I can shoot some videos with it in the future. Perhaps I’ll regularly record some vlogs or something similar.
Interesting Things and Objects
Input
Although most interesting inputs are automatically synced to the “Yu’s Life” Telegram channel, I’ll still select a few to list here. It feels more like a newsletter this way.
Books
- Building a Second Brain, I’m continuing to read while building my own knowledge management system based on his theory.
- Elon Musk, I’m quite looking forward to this biography, just started browsing through it a bit.
Articles
Videos
- How much does a YouTuber with 3.5 million followers spend each month? Reading comments after 5 years!
- Chatting with a Web3 practitioner #4 | From English major to smart contract developer - pseudoyu ๐ | Why choose to study blockchain at HKU | Sharing smart contract learning resources | Advice for those switching to computer science
Movies
- Oppenheimer, see the main text above.
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