This article is also published on Candinya Blog
Work#
Speaking of work, I feel a bit confused, to be honest. When I was most enthusiastic, I encountered a youthful company like RSS3. I even doubted what I was doing, whether I was in a dream in a wuxia 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, 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 improving if there are shortcomings and striving harder if there are none, we correct every deficiency we encounter and make progress step by step.
2022 is a year full of stories: the tyranny of politics and the cruelty of war have shaken the confidence in the world's economic development, and the economic downturn has brought about a long bear market, with companies of all sizes going bankrupt one after another or 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, or public humiliation in community groups. But we can still see the flickering light, the wholehearted contributions from community developers, the encouragement from industry peers and predecessors, and the support that keeps us moving forward. We have persisted, we have built a Ethereum-compatible chain with a focus on 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 aggregation search engine, and achieved many accomplishments that we want to share but still want to wait for the right time to reveal.
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 bits and pieces of Web3 life with retro-pop visual design.
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 successfully completed. 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 study with a good grade. Saying goodbye to the course groups that used to be filled with joy or laughter or complaints, and cleaning up some friends who may never meet again, I opened a new window and signed up for an online music course 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 ultimately builds unforgettable melodies. From a simple exploration of classical music theory to the initial attempt at 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 have 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 the order to kill the soul's desire for freedom, the city I live in has been filled with the smell of disinfectant, and the shells of nucleic acid tests have been constantly whistling, forcing us to become our own weakness. Although I am a home-loving otaku who doesn't go out much on weekdays, so the impact is not significant, when the news that cannot be mentioned 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 humanoid 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 heart-wrenching 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 being lazy and releasing control of public opinion, shifting the blame for the inability of pharmaceutical companies and hospitals to continue to the people who dare to raise white paper and speak their minds. The arrests of participants did not stop for a moment, and more innocent girls were imprisoned with iron chains in Feng County. The mouths of human rights lawyers were sewn with one bloody suture after another. The effective mRNA vaccines were stubbornly refused to be released, and the ibuprofen that flooded into Beijing may not be distributed to other areas in need. People who live a peaceful life show off their wealth everywhere, while those who struggle move their elderly relatives to the crematorium time and time again.
Fortunately, the elderly in my family were not infected by the virus outbreak this time, which means that the upcoming New Year will not be too sad. However, I still heard the sad news that many relatives and friends did not survive this winter. While feeling unfortunate, I can only pray that the deceased rest in peace, the living stay healthy, and everyone can find comfort.
Social#
For most users, this year has been a year of great changes. Dolov took away the usernames that had been cherished for many years and publicly sold them on the blockchain, turning Telegram overnight from the best chat software into a life loved by uncles. After Musk acquired Twitter, the three fires burned the engineering team, drove away a group of users, and frightened many advertisers, driving a large number of Twitter users to move to the Fediverse (Note: The Fediverse network is not Mastodon). But unfortunately, as with every cyber immigration wave in history, as time goes by, the few gold left by the new wave of users who are willing to stay are 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 ways that are more suitable for their usage habits, and find their favorite small world.
In June of this year, Meow Nest celebrated its second birthday. In the two and a half years since the first line of code was written, it has witnessed the rise and disappearance of various instance partners, and accompanied everyone through sleepless nights and difficult times, sharing the joy unique to this quiet little world. About a month ago, Meow Nest migrated to a dedicated server with stronger performance and more sufficient space, hoping to help her support more companions looking for company.
Development#
As my own project, the most challenging milestone this year was writing NyaTrace, fulfilling a long-standing wish that had 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, reviewed the use of Qt's graphical interface, and gained a preliminary understanding of QML.
Another memorable project this year was writing an invitation management system for Misskey's service at join.nya.one, 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 barely went 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 break during the Spring Festival holiday and 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. A year is too long, and the seasons are too short. Too many things happened this year, and I have even forgotten when it 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.