Work#

At the beginning of the year, the company underwent significant changes, and the entire wealth management business line was eliminated. A large number of people either transferred to other departments or resigned. In the front-end technical department, several people also left; out of the original five front-end developers on the sixth floor, only three remained. Our old projects were all scrapped, and we started working on a new project, Netease Baitiao. After nearly a year of intense work, the product’s numbers are looking quite good, and it will officially open to public application after the New Year. The prospects are promising.

However, two of the front-end developers upstairs are leaving after the New Year, and with such high turnover, there’s no sense of belonging. Coupled with many departments from Alibaba calling me for interviews, I sometimes feel tempted, considering Netease’s not-so-high salary, but I’ve rejected them all. I want to stay at Netease for at least three years to properly settle down and gain solid experience. It’s also a chance to temper my personality; constantly changing jobs isn’t conducive to long-term career development. But recently, a new blockchain project launched, and although I’m not involved, it makes me feel that the entire department is very restless, leaving me to wonder if staying here is the right decision.

Life#

Overall, this year has been like a glass of plain water, with occasional moments of sweetness that quickly faded.

Physically, I’ve clearly started to expand horizontally, gaining five or six kilograms, but my physical fitness has declined. I can only do one pull-up now, my goodness! In college, I could easily do ten; this decline is far too rapid. I keep saying I’ll exercise, but it mostly stays at the talking stage, with sometimes a month between workouts, haha.

Sometimes when I feel bored, I want to cultivate a hobby. After much thought, I decided to learn the harmonica – low investment, quick results. So I bought a harmonica and found tutorials online. For the first few months, I was quite dedicated, practicing almost every day. Now I can play uncomplicated tunes, and I feel pretty good about it. The only thing is, since I’m learning blues harmonica, the low 6 needs to be bent, and I still can’t consistently produce a pleasant bent note, let alone incorporate it smoothly into songs. I need to keep practicing. My two favorite songs to play now are “Alone” and “You Are My Sunshine.” When I’m in a bad mood, I play them for myself.

Trip to Japan#

Around November, the company organized an overseas trip for us, with three destinations to choose from: Japan, Saipan, and Australia. I chose Japan, my first time going abroad, and I was very happy.

We went to Hokkaido, which felt like rural Japan. On the first day, in the small town where we checked in, the streets were empty by 5 PM. My colleagues and I walked around and eventually found an izakaya near the hotel that opened after 7 PM. A group of us went in, hoping to experience local Japanese izakaya culture, but the owner was alone and couldn’t understand our language, so he was completely overwhelmed. He looked a bit unhappy, but we had a great time drinking.

The first attraction we visited on the second day was a zoo, my first time at one. I saw penguins, wolves, seals, hippos, and giraffes. The only hiccup was almost getting separated from the group when leaving.

Later, we visited the Hokkaido Government Office, Lake Toya, a bear park, and Hell Valley. The hotel we stayed at in Lake Toya that night had a truly beautiful environment.

I’ve forgotten where else we went in between, but we eventually ended up in Sapporo city, with a free day for activities the next day. During the day, we went shopping. My colleagues bought a lot of things at several large department stores; they were all big spenders, haha.

During this time, something quite interesting happened. I wanted to buy a SONY 1000x, and I spent a long time trying to communicate with the salesperson about the input voltage for these headphones. Various translation apps didn’t work; speaking English didn’t work, and speaking Chinese didn’t work either.

Finally, we found someone from Taiwan to help, and only then did we successfully resolve the input voltage issue. It turned out to be USB charging, so it didn’t involve 110V or 220V, and I was able to buy the headphones.

In the evening, my colleagues and I ordered a 20,000 JPY king crab. It looked impressive, but it wasn’t very tasty. Later, we also went up the TV Tower and saw a panoramic view of Sapporo.

The week-long trip to Japan ended there. I had a lot of fun.

Moving House#

At the end of the year, my lease expired. The landlord wanted to raise the rent from 5000 to 6500. My goodness, a 30% increase! Last year, my annual performance was A, and my salary only increased by 10%. At that rate, I couldn’t afford to live there anymore. So, I discussed it with my roommates, and we decided not to renew the lease.

Well, damn it, moving house again, it’s truly annoying.

Due to the tight schedule, we only had two weekends. So, we didn’t look at many places. Initially, I wanted to find a nicer community, not these noisy resettlement apartments. We looked at several apartments in high-end communities, but most were subdivided, and the prices were outrageous. With no other option, we continued to look around Yuan Community. There weren’t many listings, so we spent two weekend days looking for apartments posted on small ads at the entrances of various communities. On the last weekend, we viewed three apartments. Two were by the road, too noisy, but otherwise okay. One wasn’t by the road but was on the first floor, and it seemed quiet when we viewed it. We chose this first-floor apartment that appeared quiet at the time, but it was the beginning of a nightmare.

On the first morning after moving in, I suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice speaking near my ear. I thought someone had entered the room and was startled. I opened my eyes, saw no one, but the voice continued. I pulled back the curtains and looked out the window. Oh my god, people who woke up early in the community were chatting downstairs. Because I was on the first floor and the single-pane windows had very poor sound insulation, the voices sounded almost like they were talking right next to me. I felt a bit distraught at the time, realizing I wouldn’t be able to sleep in anymore. Moreover, around March recently, the room has been very damp. Every night when I lie in bed, I can feel the mattress is damp, which makes sleeping very uncomfortable. These past few days, I’ve put a dehumidifier in the room to remove the moisture. It’s been about two months since I moved into the new apartment, and my conclusion is that first-floor apartments are genuinely not suitable for living.

Relationships#

It was complicated, too lazy to elaborate.

Last Year’s Goals#

1. At least one blog post per month.
2. Go out and explore every month, even if alone.
3. Still need to read books, so one book every three months.
4. Still need to exercise, just keep it in mind.
5. Write and publish a personal project, no matter how simple.

I only completed about 50% of last year’s goals. Goal 1 (blog posts) was not completed. Goal 2 (go out) was completed. Goal 3 (read books) was completed. Goal 4 (exercise) was only occasionally remembered. Goal 5 (personal project) was completed; I wrote an automated trading program, which was indeed simple, but it counts. Overall, my execution was quite poor, and I found it very difficult to stick to my plans.

It’s almost been four years since I started working, and I don’t have much drive left; I always feel a lack of motivation. So, this year, I have only one goal: to find some motivation for myself. Specifically, that means finding a girlfriend and ending my single life.

PS: This year-end summary dragged on for several months; I barely managed to put it together when 2018 was already a third over. There were just too many bothersome things. Anyway, that’s how it is.