It was a rainy day in Beijing. I dropped Hamer off at school with just one raincoat—she ran in through the rain, which made me feel a bit guilty. Xiaoyan and I commuted together, and during breakfast, we had a brief disagreement about the messy house.

At lunch, I squeezed in a light gym session.

Work was smooth: I finalized the AI newsletter and joined a productive meeting where a collegue shared a flexible new framework for the AI Assistant. I spent the evening debugging an MCP tool issue, finally resolving it by 8 p.m. before heading home exhausted.

Today felt like an emotional roller coaster—starting with anxiety in the early morning, turning into worry later in the morning, followed by a glimmer of progress around noon, sinking into helplessness in the afternoon, and finally ending with relief in the evening. All of this was triggered by a technical presentation I wasn’t prepared for. … I was about to head out but figured I might as well sit in and listen to the CoP meeting to get a feel for its format and vibe. After some quick greetings, the sharing session began. The presenter’s slides were polished and their delivery was smooth. It made me a bit nervous about my own future presentation—my content is still incomplete, some parts borrow other people’s ideas, and my slide design is fairly plain.

Last night, Xiaoyan came home very late because of a flight delay and woke me with the doorbell.

This morning, Hamer anxiously asked whether she needed to rewrite her math assignment, only to learn that she just needed to make corrections—yet she still has to redo it fully this evening.

During my commute, I admired colorful blooms and used ChatGPT for flower identification. It provided a more accurate and detailed result than the now-retired Flower Recognition app.

I spent the day preparing my MCP presentation, generating new flowcharts from the spec and code, and planning to polish and map out the demos and Q&A.

After work, I arrived home early and finalized Hamer’s statistics report, though she insisted that Mom help instead because she finds me “nitpicky.”

Returning to work after the Labour Holiday, I spent the morning helping Hamer decide on a topic for her statistics assignment—she ultimately chose to map sports courts and player numbers. By bedtime, she had sketched out her layout and is ready to colour it tomorrow. I also outlined my upcoming MCP presentation and found more substance than I had expected.

Today, I spent a make-up workday testing our MCP server using Cherry Studio and SiliconFlow instead of Claude Desktop, and refactored poorly structured parameters into typed classes. Despite steady progress, I missed my usual excitement when tests didn’t yield expected results.

In the evening, Xiaoyan’s friend joined us for a Brazil-themed dinner, and Hamer dove into her new extracurricular books—she even picked one up on her own, which made me quietly proud.

Overall, I felt tired and a bit unmotivated, but reminded myself it’s okay to take things at a slower pace sometimes.

Hamer started her day by building a tiny notebook and sharpening a pencil to match. After breakfast, we returned to Tianqiao Theater for Into Ballet, arriving early to join the introduction part and waiting for a while at the backstage send-off after the performance.

Following a quick lunch, I headed to a soccer match—playing goalkeeper and leading a thrilling late comeback—while Xiaoyan took Hamer to ballet and a dental appointment. Later, we reunited at a riverside café with live music and helped rescue a mandarin duck from aggressive peers using orange peels.

In the evening, we relaxed for two hours at Liuliu’s dad’s barbershop, where we all got fresh haircuts and enjoyed the lively chatter.

Xiaoyan dropped Hamer at school before leaving for Handan on a business trip.

At work, I completed a major cleanup of our MCP server projects—adding tests, updating pyproject.toml, managing dependencies, and refreshing READMEs—wrapping it up by 8 p.m.

In the evening, I briefly reviewed Hamer’s math homework. She delighted in role-playing as the teacher and reading her Chinese characters aloud. Later, she practiced the Rubik’s cube—her finger movements growing more confident—even as sleepiness soon set in.

Tonight was my first real attempt this year to help Hamer with her homework. She pointed three enhancements after my requesting: no asking her to explain answers, no interrupting her snacks, and she’d prefer Mom help instead.

Her teacher had shared extra exercises and called to discuss her struggles—rushing through problems, getting distracted, or not fully grasping concepts. It made me realize I need to be more involved in her learning going forward.

In the morning, Xiaoyan took Hamer to school. Hamer joked, “Do you even know where my school is?”—a funny moment between them.

At work, I focused on MCP transport types, explored uv, and began organizing the project for long-term maintenance. Slow but satisfying progress.

This morning’s meeting felt dull—low energy all around, and I wasn’t in top form either. I hate feeling that way but haven’t figured out how to fix it yet.

I continued refining the MCP server based on ArcGIS Portal Service, uncovering more subtle issues as I went.

In the afternoon, I had the next stage of my root canal—cavity filling and crown prep. Thankfully, it wasn’t painful.

Evening was spent fixing Xiaoyan’s Line account. After trying and failing to recover it with a temporary number from sms-man, we had to start fresh—meaning re-adding all her contacts.

On the tech front, I signed up for WildCard, activated Anthropic’s API, and tested Claude Code. With Gemini available via Google AI Studio, I’ll hold off for now. Next up: exploring the llm CLI tool with its Gemini and Anthropic plugins. Looking forward to diving deeper.

I woke up early and dove back into the official MCP docs—so well written that re-reading them sparked new insights. It helped me refine some lingering thoughts from yesterday’s discussion, giving me more clarity moving forward.

The morning was filled with meetings. Our usual weekly session felt oddly quiet with few attendees, but the room filled quickly for Zhongzhi’s presentation on supplemental medical insurance—a stark contrast.

Before lunch, there is an update on the UC planning, maybe there still a chance.

In the afternoon, I focused on the Portal Service MCP server using Cursor and Claude 3.7 Sonnet. But this time, the generated results didn’t click. I spent hours debugging with little progress. It made me think: maybe it’s time to go back to basics and handwrite the logic based on the docs for deeper understanding.

After work, I joined a relaxed basketball session. No hard running, just fluid movement. It felt great—no back pain this time.

And yes, the Rubik’s cube craze is still going strong—I solved it in the bathroom, during my ping-pong break, while walking, resting, and again after getting home. Each solve is faster and smoother. It’s become my steady little ritual throughout the day.

Today, I felt deeply immersed in my own world, until my colleague came by in the evening to discuss some MCP-related matters. Although I didn’t have all the answers, our conversation clarified many things I want to explore with MCP. I felt like I had broken out of a closed-off state. When I later worked on the AI news, I found myself reenergized.

In the morning, I stuck to my plan and made steady progress, but by the afternoon, my energy dipped. I wasn’t sure if it was due to poor sleep or the slow performance of the local model, which started to frustrate me.

Throughout the day, I became completely absorbed in solving the Rubik’s cube. I practiced while waiting for Xiaoyan, during my midday walk, at lunch, back at the office, waiting at traffic lights, and even after dinner. The Rubik’s cube was my constant companion today.

This morning, Hamer and I headed out to watch the Beijing Half Marathon. She was fascinated by the huge crowd of runners, and we stayed until the 8km cut-off point.

Craving lamb offal soup, we went to Xiaoguan Market. Hamer curiously tried my lamb tripe and ended up eating the entire extra portion I had ordered.

At home, I practiced solving the Rubik’s Cube, following a tutorial. Xiaoyan tried to nap beside me while I made clicking sounds—she was not thrilled. Later, she took Hamer to a café with her math homework. They also discovered a massive playground near Side Park—definitely worth a revisit.

I kept practicing the Cube and finally solved it around 3 p.m.—an exciting moment. I continued practicing until I got faster, then watched a Korean drama that was underwhelming but passable. By night, I felt mentally drained and didn’t want to start anything new.

It was a vibrant Saturday.

We started the day with the Beijing Half Marathon Family Run, completing the 2km race hand in hand. After enjoying generous race packs and a relaxing brunch, Xiaoyan and Hamer went to dance class while I played goalie at football—earning praise for some solid saves.

Later, we explored Sanlitun, talked about DIY doll-making, drank in a riverside bar, had some late-night noodles, and enjoyed Reply 1988 together before bed.

A rainy day in Beijing set the tone for deep reflection and small emotional turns.

While fixing an AI build issue during work, I accidentally dampened a colleague’s enthusiasm by responding too formally to her design share—something she later kindly pointed out.

At home, Hamer’s mystery about being kept after school had us guessing until she finally confessed: she scored a bit low on her math test.

I ended the day with a slow jog and stumbled upon a riverside bar serving craft IPA—a peaceful, unexpected find.

I resolved client build and packaging issues and discussed two directions for integrating MCP with ArcGIS Earth—either as a server via Automation API or as a client to interact with other MCP services.

In the afternoon, I underwent a root canal after discovering severe decay under a previous filling—thankfully painless under anesthesia.

Today was one of those days where everything feels unproductive.

After morning meetings, a high-priority bug pulled me away from my AI MVP draft. Debugging led to a valuable lesson from a colleague—a handy trick in Visual Studio that helped us locate an infinite loop. I later eased into the MVP discussion and managed to fix the bug before heading to play badminton.

Still nursing a twisted ankle, I focused on ball control and enjoyed a slower pace.

In the evening, I played idiom games with Hamer. Surprisingly, the two colleagues I play table tennis with have never even heard of Billie Eilish.

Today, I felt utterly lost—eager to accomplish everything yet ending up doing nothing meaningful.

During the work, I tackled PM questions in the moring and attended my first Dev Lead meeting. I struggled to balance team updates with my own ideas about an internal AI weekly newsletter.

At home, I cooked dinner with Xiaoyan, sharing a brief moment of culinary success. However, the day ended on a sour note when Hamer, upset over a broken promise regarding her new underwear, erupted in tears and a tantrum, triggering a conflict between her and Xiaoyan. Despite no further escalation, I was left feeling burdened by unresolved resentment.

With strong winds forecasted, we spent the weekend cozied up at home—it felt like a mini vacation.

On Saturday, I slept in late after a night of binge-watching TV. Hamer kept whispering in my ear until I finally got up. “This is the first time I’ve seen Dad get up this late,” she said. I lost a bet with Xiaoyan over the pronunciation of “divorce” and had to make lunch—two veggie dishes and a fried egg that turned out surprisingly well. Later, Hamer and I continued our series binge, and even Xiaoyan joined in after dinner, crying during several scenes. That night, I slept soundly in Hamer’s bed.

Sunday was equally low-key. After playing in the morning, we went grocery shopping for braised green bean noodles. Hamer also wanted a new watercolor set because hers lacked a skin-tone color. There were a few tears during the discussion with Xiaoyan, but she got it in the end.

In the evening, Xiaoyan cooked radish and cuttlefish soup—it was delicious. Hamer helped with folding laundry, hanging clothes, and washing fruit. She’s really becoming Mom’s little helper.

Meanwhile, I got deeper into pour-over coffee and finally dialed in the grind size. It’s starting to click.

Last night’s badminton game left me with a twisted ankle, and by morning, it was still sore and uncomfortable to walk on. After dropping Hamer off, I grabbed McDonald’s for breakfast—just had a craving.

Later, I visited the dentist to follow up on a previous check-up. X-rays revealed an old filling that may need a root canal. For now, I had a cleaning and got a reminder: no horizontal brushing, use an electric toothbrush, floss well, and pay extra attention around my implant.

In the afternoon, I worked on setting up an old AI project environment. With help from a colleague, I finally got it running and plan to document the process and improve it next week.

Before heading home, Hamer called and joked that I might get blown away if I didn’t hurry. After dinner, we watched When Life Gives You Tangerines and only realized IU was the lead by episode two.

The long-anticipated windstorm still hadn’t arrived by bedtime—maybe tomorrow.

Hamer’s been waking up early lately, getting ready calmly and playing on her own before school. After dropping her off today, I grabbed breakfast, ate wontons while waiting for corn, and brought extra food home.

In the morning, I subscribed to CapWords—originally just out of curiosity, but the heartfelt story behind it deeply resonated with me.

I spent the day testing local language models with the Earth MCP Server. A larger model was too slow, and a smaller one underperformed, but I eventually got two working and pulled together some solid takeaways. Before wrapping up work, I submitted a documentation PR to the oterm project—my first open-source contribution—and was thrilled to see it merged right away. I hope it’s just the beginning.

Around noon, I was notified of a seatbelt violation from last Sunday. It surprised me—I’m usually careful—but the photo said otherwise.

All the talk today was about Beijing’s strong wind forecast. Looks like we’re staying indoors this weekend.

I started the day by continuing to listen to the ongoing company meeting—by this point, I had followed it from start to finish, which made me feel somewhat involved in the whole session.

Throughout the day, I explored integrating Ollama with MCP to run local language models. I initially tried Open WebUI’s mcpo to expose MCP as an OpenAPI interface, but I didn’t know how to use the tools it offered. Later, I found oterm, an Ollama client that supports MCP tools. When I couldn’t select tools, I realized that not all models support the tools feature.

When we got home, Hamer surprised me by pretending to be a waitress—seriously guiding me through removing my shoes, washing up, and serving dinner. Her commitment to the role was both hilarious and sweet. After dinner, we went shopping. I was impressed by how disciplined Hamer has become—carefully choosing only a few things. She’s really growing into a thoughtful, self-controlled little person.

I went to bed late last night after an online company meeting, and when I woke up, it was still going. I tuned back in and was struck by how open and confident everyone was, regardless of role.

The rest of the morning was filled with more meetings, but our team meetings felt flat—minimal interaction and little new information. It’s something I’ve been reflecting on.

I spent the afternoon preparing NMEA data visuals for a presentation and began exploring LM Studio and Ollama’s Python SDK to see how local models might support MCP tasks.

On the way home, I got my badminton racket restrung, filled a growler with beer, and grabbed barbecue for dinner.

Xiaoyan and I also considered renting a car for a weekend trip now that I’m confident driving, but the windy forecast led us to postpone until next week.

This morning, Hamer woke up teary-eyed, missing Liuliu deeply. She cried as she got ready but gradually calmed down.

After the dev meeting, I reflected on how to make these sessions more impactful.

In the afternoon, I settled on NMEA playback as the focus for this week’s Earth 230 Tips, which gave me clarity and momentum. I also completed paperwork for my work-residence permit renewal—much easier now that the company is handling it directly.

We decided to skip this week’s family badminton session. Xiaoyan felt I’ve been too critical during play, and Hamer said she was a bit tired. After dinner, we took a relaxing evening stroll and picked up some fresh fruit.

Today, I drove back to Beijing, covering 250 kilometers in 7 hours, bringing my total driving distance over the last two days to 400 kilometers—the longest I’ve ever driven. It was a challenging but rewarding experience, and by the end of the day, I truly felt like a “real driver.”

We left around 11 a.m. and got home by 6 p.m. In the evening, we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 62nd birthday with a family dinner. Happy Birthday, Mom!