After a whole busy season, things have finally slowed down a little. Only then did I realize, with some embarrassment, that I had not updated this place for an entire year.
Work took up most of that year. I was not only handling data at headquarters, but also being sent to the front line to support the business. This year, I have officially moved into a business role, which means the amount of travel is very likely to increase rather than ease up.
Back in university, I used to think a job that involved business trips sounded pretty cool. Now I know better. There is nothing particularly glamorous about riding second-class trains to places on the edge between city and countryside. Still, even though I continue to get a little emotional around sunset on Sundays, the job feels worth taking on.
Life outside work was not completely neglected either.
The most memorable trip of the year was going to Singapore for the Mayhem concert. As a qualified Little Monster, I had already watched and studied so many recordings from earlier shows that I knew every cue, every bit, and every lyric by heart. But the moment the spotlight landed on Lady Gaga’s face, I could not make a sound. Instead, tears just kept falling as if they cost nothing.
After finally seeing the woman who has influenced me for 15 years, I feel like I can face turning 30 with peace of mind.
Lady Gaga performing in Singapore
Another good thing from the past year: I gained a new bestie. Unsurprisingly, she is one of my colleagues. During the recent National Day holiday, I went to Thailand with her and her daughter.
Thailand is not exactly the easiest destination for a family trip, but fortunately her daughter is unusually mature. At five years old, she is already obedient and considerate like a tiny adult, so the whole trip turned out to be smooth and fun enough.
Failed to find a gay bar alone, so I went back to the hotel to play with the kid
There was also one unexpectedly satisfying achievement: the blog server stayed stable for the entire year and set an astonishing record of 11 consecutive months without a reboot. I think this is largely thanks to switching to a better-configured server a year ago, as well as moving to the 1Panel control panel. Since then, there have been no more access issues caused by insufficient memory or expired SSL certificates.
Of course, renting a server with such generous specs only to update it once or twice is honestly a huge waste. So from here on, updating has to be put back on the schedule. Let me first plant three flags for upcoming posts:
The vibe may be drifting dangerously close to Xiaohongshu, but deep down, my heart still belongs to blogging.