This article is also published on Candinya Blog.
Work#
Speaking of work, I feel a bit confused. At the most enthusiastic moment, I encountered RSS3, a company full of youthful energy. I even doubted what I was doing, whether it was a dream in a popular online novel. With the team growing step by step, from obscurity to ups and downs, we have established our own small world in the chaotic world of Web3. Some people came and some people left; some people had a brief encounter, sometimes even had a pleasant conversation, but still became passing guests for various reasons; there are also people who are willing to settle down and work with us to contribute to the ideal. Naturally, we also see the doubts of outsiders, but with an attitude of improvement and perseverance, we correct every deficiency we encounter, step by step, and make progress.
2022 is a year full of stories: the brutality of politics and the cruelty of war have damaged the confidence in the world's economic development, and the economic downturn has brought a long bear market, with companies of all sizes going bankrupt one after another, or some running away with money. The price of the tokens we issued this year seems to have not improved much, which has attracted criticism and rumors from some malicious traders in the community, or public humiliation in the community chat groups. But we can still see the flickering light, the wholehearted contributions from community developers, the encouragement from industry peers and predecessors, and our supporters pushing us forward. We have persisted, we have built a Ethereum-compatible chain with social attributes called Crossbell, developed a series of user-friendly and fun peripheral ecological products (such as xLog where this article is located), created perhaps the first truly comprehensive Web3 aggregator search engine, and achieved many accomplishments that we want to share but still want to wait for the right time.
We held the first internal hackathon, and each team developed creative or interesting works, many of which have become part of our daily lives: the WLB bot's warm reminders every evening; the ecological projects originating from xCharacter; or the background music for the annual data summary, presenting a valuable answer to the bit by bit life of Web3 with retro-pop visual effects.
Learning#
In terms of basic education, after completing the basic coursework and only having one graduation project course left, I applied to complete the project at home in the second half of my senior year. Thanks to the help and encouragement of my advisor, time passed quickly, and the project was completed successfully. Although it did not meet the standards for an excellent evaluation in the end, it still marked a satisfactory end to my four years of university life with a good grade. Saying goodbye to the course groups where we used to be happy or joking, I cleaned up some friends who may never meet again. I opened a new window and signed up for an online music course, trying to explore the mysteries related to sound.
The basic course was scheduled for the summer vacation. As soon as I entered the classroom, the teacher's approachable attitude and innovative teaching methods made me feel that it was worth it. The process of learning music is difficult and boring, but it is these knowledge that needs to be memorized and stuffed into the brain that eventually builds unforgettable melodies. From a simple exploration of classical music theory to the initial attempt of modern electronic music, and gradually feeling the hidden bass, in less than two months, I have gained a completely different understanding of music. With the arrival of the winter vacation, the advanced course began. This is another challenge I launched on myself, a battle to overcome laziness, evasion, and giving up, a lifelong journey that will never end but always progresses.
Life#
Since cotton swabs and seals issued a kill order to the soul's desire for freedom, the city I live in has been filled with the smell of disinfectant, and the sound of nucleic acid tests for all personnel has been constantly heard. We have become our own weakness. Although I am a home-loving otaku and the impact is not significant because I don't go out much, when the news that cannot be said on non-existent platforms repeatedly shocks the eyeballs, I deeply feel the distortion of the real world. Some people take dirty money and tell lies with their eyes open, and some people force their already tortured throats to utter the last word. Masks and citizen cards have become necessary items for human-shaped creatures to go out in the new economic era. Even in magical realism novels, I'm afraid they dare not describe the despair of being locked in a room and turning into charcoal when a fire breaks out; even in dystopian works, they probably won't arrange for an ambulance to be blocked outside the isolation barrier, causing the wounded to die early. It feels like living in an absurd drama, everything I see is so real and yet so fake. The heartbreaking cries in the voice of April are truly painful, and even a neutral year-end video from Netease News cannot accommodate them.
Then, this seemingly unbreakable and pitiful thick barrier suddenly reversed overnight. The strategy of pretending to be weak combined with the guidance of public opinion control changed Telegram from the best chat software to a lifestyle loved by uncles overnight. After Musk acquired Twitter, he fired the engineering team with three moves, scared away a group of users, and frightened a bunch of advertisers. This drove a large number of Twitter users to move to the Fediverse (note: the Fediverse network is not Mastodon). But unfortunately, as with every wave of cyber immigration in history, as time goes by, the gold left by these new users who are willing to stay is still a minority.
A few days ago, Elk officially announced its open source, and today Misskey released version 13.0.0. These memorable moments have brought more memorable moments to our social life. I also hope that users who find Mastodon uncomfortable can try more alternative products, find a way that suits their usage habits, and find their favorite small world.
In June of this year, Meow Nest celebrated its second birthday. Since the first line of code was typed two and a half years ago, it has witnessed the rise and disappearance of various instances of friends, and has accompanied everyone through sleepless nights and difficult times, sharing the joy that belongs to this quiet little world. About a month ago, Meow Nest moved to a dedicated server with stronger performance and more sufficient space, hoping to help her support more companions seeking companionship.
Development#
As my own project, the most challenging milestone this year was writing NyaTrace, fulfilling a long-standing wish that has troubled me for many years. I started from scratch to understand the working principle of ICMP tracing, learned the encapsulation of low-level sockets in C++ under Windows, learned the calling and processing solutions for dual-stack functions separately, reviewed the use of Qt's graphical interface, and gained a preliminary understanding of QML.
Another memorable project this year was the development of an invitation management system for Misskey, which finally solved the difficulties in distributing and managing invitation codes. Taking this opportunity, I also familiarized myself with Misskey's authorization callback interface. In the near future, I will write an OAuth2 conversion compatible server to completely solve the problem of other services not being able to use SSO login.
Travel#
Thanks to the travel restrictions, I basically didn't go out this year. The only thing worth mentioning is that during the National Day holiday, I went on vacation with my family and stayed in a vacation home for a few days, slightly away from the hustle and bustle of the city, feeling the touch of nature and experiencing the beauty of tranquility. Maybe I will go on another trip during the Spring Festival holiday to feel the long-lost atmosphere.
Entertainment#
It seems that this year I only seriously played the game "Stray" and realized that cats are better than humans.
Conclusion#
I don't know how to conclude this year. One year is too long, and four seasons are too short. So much has happened this year that I have even forgotten when it all started. All I know is that I am still thinking, still learning, still working, and still striving for a better tomorrow.
Never drown the flame of hope.