Business trip
Early in the month I went on a business trip to a branch office to debug some equipment. I got there around noon and spent the afternoon on the firewall and servers. It had been a long time since I’d done that kind of work, so by the end of the afternoon I’d only managed to get one server configured. The people at the branch insisted on taking me out for drinks. I’m not keen on drinking with serious boozers, so I made an excuse and bowed out. There weren’t many restaurants nearby; I ordered one dish, picked up a half-jin bottle of liquor, drank it by myself, and got ready to find a hotel.
There was a hotel near the factory that I’d stayed in before. I booked it through the company platform and checked in. The moment I got into the elevator I regretted it. The place looked battle-damaged. It was the same room as last time. Last time I’d come with the Commander and was so drunk I barely knew what was happening when I checked in. This time, realizing it was the same room, I felt numb. I’d had a frightening dream there before. Now I looked more carefully and thought, what kind of garbage hotel is this? I washed quickly, used a bath towel as a bed sheet, and slept in my clothes. That night I ordered disposable pillowcase covers right away, just to avoid random business-trip surprises later.
A parade that hit hard
The parade this time was really stunning. JL-3, DF-61, DF-5C—after watching, my head was full of “what is that?” and “what was that?” questions. Some clever commenter joked that DF-5C could “beat the five permanent members into submission.” That’s a bit funny. Ordinary people’s lives are tied to the country’s fate, so I hope our country keeps getting better.
Mood
Lately I’ve felt like my long-overdue “male monthly visitor” has arrived. My mood is negative, I keep overthinking, I have no desire to work, and I’ve even been asking what the meaning of life is. I need to adjust my mindset, or I’ll probably fall apart.
Teacher’s Day
LD said the other day that for Teacher’s Day we should give Dabao’s teacher a gift. She’s in the youngest kindergarten class, and the teacher is supposedly quite good. I’m not against giving a gift, but it should be the child’s gesture, not something the parents prepare. Recently I saw posts about North-South differences around Teacher’s Day. The North seems to have this tradition; Southern responses said they don’t. I don’t know what teacher salaries are like in the South, but in the North they seem low. Last year, in the city where I worked, word was that teachers’ salaries couldn’t be paid. It happened to coincide with school meal catering. That giant company promised to advance the money if salaries couldn’t be paid. In the end the catering was pushed through. There was a lot of negative feedback at first, but after people understood it better, it seemed okay.
A ten-year group
The cause seemed to be a vulnerability in a self-deployed QQ bot. After it was scanned, some sensitive information was sent out, and a large number of QQ groups got hit. A ten-year-old group was affected. Recently I haven’t had the heart to browse blogs; I’ve just been looping between work and home.
Teacher’s comment
Dabao’s homework got called out by the teacher in the first week. That’s normal enough—at this stage, as long as she doesn’t hate school, it’s fine. She still goes to school happily every day. Watching the school monitor, she seems to study pretty seriously. I hope she can keep learning happily like this.
There were a few more things I wanted to say, but they slipped my mind over time. That’s it for now; I’ll write them down when I remember.