Here is a record of Raye's life, stories, and thoughts from July 31, 2023, to August 6, 2023.
I found myself constantly battling procrastination every week. Even though I have planned everything in my mind, I always come up with various excuses when it's time to start.
This week, I came across He Tongxue's video even though I no longer like him for various reasons and no longer follow him. However, his latest video did inspire me in some ways. It reminded me that no matter how much external help you have, you still need to take that step from within. (Even though this is a simple truth that everyone knows, we are never unable to live a good life because we don't know a certain truth 😂)
I don't know if you, the reader of this article, also have this feeling: whenever I have to report, give a speech, or meet strangers, even though I have prepared myself, there is always hesitation in my heart, and I hesitate to take that step.
So, we are afraid, afraid of change. This damn inertia drives us and makes us find one excuse after another.
So we blame perfectionism, blame procrastination, blame everything we can find.
That step in our hearts is the real step.
Lowering expectations and deceiving ourselves appropriately to start, rather than hesitating and not moving forward, is a good method.
So, I started writing this weekly report on Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday 🐶 (but I still ended up posting it today, Tuesday 🤔
After all, as the title says, the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago, followed by now.
📝 Memories of Shenzhen#
Suddenly, I want to record some of my thoughts about Shenzhen, this city.
It has been three years since I first came to Shenzhen in 2020. Compared to my younger self, I always have more words to write.
In May 2020, I came to Shenzhen alone, just one month after returning home from Xinjiang. It wasn't as dramatic as described in the text, but during the epidemic, my choice was somewhat different from others. I was tired of staying at home.
The most immediate impression of Shenzhen is its heat, an inescapable heat that will accompany me in the future, a heat that I will be immersed in and not notice.
So, my pace quickened, my vision sharpened, my mind became clear. Those who are busy in this city seem to have clear goals (and there are many beautiful girls 🐶).
The atmosphere of Shenzhen is different from Wuhan, lacking the freshness of young people; different from Changsha, lacking the down-to-earth feeling of ordinary people; different from Xi'an, lacking the historical weight of an ancient capital.
In short, it is a city of working people. Working from sunrise to sunset, this is the unchanging scene of Shenzhen on workdays.
I haven't been to many places in Shenzhen, except for the daily Shenzhen Bay, small hills, and small parks. Apart from the roads I pass by on my way to work, everything seems to remain in my initial impression.
💭 Reflections & Miscellaneous#
I feel like my weekly report is turning into a list of events, so I plan to make some changes and focus on recording my thoughts this week.
As soon as Randy developed support for logseq in notepal, I immediately became a paying user 😉.
When I was experimenting with the export function, I happened to come across a sentence I read a long time ago in "The Convenience Store of Troubles":
If the people who come to consult me are compared to lost lambs, they usually have a map in their hands but don't look at it or don't know their current location.
At that moment, I was stunned. Indeed, every individual in the book already had their own thoughts when they asked for help from the Convenience Store. Who actually followed the path set by the old man in the Convenience Store?
Since the advent of chatGPT, haven't we also fantasized about using chatGPT to do things that humans cannot do? Some even say that there will be the emergence of ultimate intelligence, but to me, it's just a joke (I hate that kind of talk 😒).
After all, when we ask chatGPT questions, most of the time we already have the answers in our hearts.
Everyone has their own map, but some people are unwilling to face it, pretending that their map doesn't exist or hoping for a better one. In the end, the map is still the same, only the way you look at the map can change.
🏃🏻♀️ Running#
Challenging ten kilometers again, let's go 😊
I went for a run right after writing this sentence, but my Apple Watch recorded less than four kilometers in half an hour. I seriously suspect a GPS signal problem with the watch 😭
Confirmed, keep track of the distance is correct 😅
📺 TV Shows & 📖 Reading#
I didn't watch many TV shows this week, I spent most of my time reading. Here are some records:
"Annoying Tai Bai Jin Xing"
This book, how should I put it, although it has received high praise, I think it is written quite well. However, I can't recognize any of the immortals mentioned in the book, let alone the calculations between them. But the most exciting part is that it truly depicts a scene of office politics, just like "Officialdom Unveiled". How to solve personnel disputes, how to resolve conflicts among colleagues, how to be indirect, even immortals cannot escape the cause and effect within.
Putting that aside, what I admire most is the imagination of the prince. When reading "Journey to the West," you may have this question: why do those monsters end up as mounts or pets of heavenly immortals when they return to heaven? The prince gave a good answer: they originally came to work 🤣
More allusions and references can be found here: https://book.douban.com/review/15227484/
Another book is "Hungry Prosperity: Gains and Losses in the Qianlong Era"
Reading this book is heartbreaking, but what can I say? I can only sigh.
To truly understand the history behind China's thousands of years is quite difficult. I have been trying to understand it from various aspects:
- The division between imperial power and ministerial power. At first, I didn't understand why it had to be divided and why there was centralization of power.
- China's geography. Why is China always a unified country compared to Europe? There are many geographical factors, such as climate, terrain, and so on.
Here are a few excerpts, and I have forgotten some of my thoughts after a while...🫠
The old eunuch came to ask me, saying that he heard the beautiful high seat was for the coachman, and the emperor's seat was inside the carriage. He asked with a mocking smile, "Do I think the emperor would tolerate someone sitting higher than him, with their back facing him?" He wanted to know if we had a way to remove that seat and move it to the back of the carriage.
Narrow-minded and outdated ideas, indeed unreasonable 🤣
The British astronomer demonstrated various things in front of the emperor. He placed a piece of metal in front of the lens, and in a moment, the metal melted. The emperor was very surprised and concluded, "Both the transparent lens and the telescope are made of glass, the same thing made into different instruments by the Europeans' skills."
Now foreigners have come directly to Tianjin Dagukou to sue the emperor. Obviously, there are Chinese people behind them giving advice, or at least acting as advisors. Otherwise, how could foreigners be so clear about the process of suing the emperor? This matter must be investigated thoroughly.
Therefore, while Li Shiyao was investigating the Guangzhou Customs, he also focused more on investigating which Chinese people provided assistance to the British during the process of suing the emperor.
The drawbacks of a unified prosperous era. Although everything seems peaceful, there is always suspicion of hidden currents. Investigating every little movement and pursuing the root cause.
While reading, I couldn't help but think of the current situation, how certain issues are elevated to the level of ideological struggles and national confrontations, all the result of foreign conspiracies. It seems similar to the prosperous era of Qianlong.
📮 Newsletter#
From now on, all my records will be automatically synchronized to my personal channel, https://t.me/RayeJourney
But I will also excerpt some and post them on my blog:
- How to Get a Real US Phone Number | From Free to Expensive, There Will Always Be a Use How to get a real US phone number, I have tried gvoice before, but it didn't last long, so I gave up (although I'm not sure what a US phone number is useful for 🤣).
- ChatGPT Updates Coming Soon I'm looking forward to the updates of chatGPT, as I have become a heavy user who relies on it.
- Pake - Build Lightweight Applications Easily with Rust Best practices for building lightweight applications with Rust, something to learn.
- Which Songs Do Famous UP Creators Like the Most This Year? LKS always has some interesting content.
- A Website to Discover Prompts This website allows you to debug prompts.
- A Website for Practicing English Conversations with AI This website seems interesting, but it's paid.