In the morning, Hamer was reluctant to get out of bed; she had only realized last night right before sleeping that she still had homework to finish, so she stayed up late to catch up. After breakfast, I headed out with Xiaoyan. Just after I dropped her off at the subway station and reached the turnstile at my office building, Xiaoyan called—she had left her laptop at home. I had no choice but to turn around, go back, and deliver it to her.

Today’s main focus at work was optimizing device connectivity, covering everything from functionality to the interface, with a lot of detailed adjustments involved. On the functionality side, there was the challenge of recording the last-used device, which proved to be a bit complicated. The primary issue was that while we were saving information like the device’s name, we also needed to retrieve real information about the device based on its name. This resulted in a mismatch between the initialized device from the saved data and the reloaded device list in the system, causing the display to appear blank. I spent quite some time trying to keep the popup window open continuously, but in the end, I needed a colleague’s help to resolve it. Afterward, I tested the real-time changes in device status, working through the issues until about 10 p.m.

During the lunch break, I spent half an hour playing frisbee. Today, I tried throwing left-handed backhand, which went pretty smoothly. Most of the throws were mid- to long-range, and I broke a sweat—felt in pretty good shape. I got back to work at the office and didn’t grab lunch until 2 p.m., when I bought a Subway sandwich. Dinner was a quick bite with some basketball colleagues near the office, about a 40-minute meal before heading back to tackle more device optimization work.

One regret today was missing out on shopping with Xiaoyan and Hamer. Xiaoyan later told me that Hamer picked out everything in pink, giving a nice sense of style and coordination. When I got home, Hamer was about to go to bed, so I sat down to chat with her briefly. Afterward, I updated my Spotify account, did a quick wash-up, and went to bed.

This morning, Hamer woke up early all on her own, got washed, dressed, packed her school bag, and finally came to hurry me up to take her to school. I still felt like I hadn’t rested enough, but seeing her all ready, I pulled myself together and got up. She managed to wake up so early thanks to going to bed early last night. When we got to school, the gates hadn’t opened yet, so we waited in line for a while.

Once at the office, I dove straight into implementing the right-click menu and properties panel—so many little details to tackle. Before I knew it, it was 12:30, and I’d only just finished putting together the basic framework. I grabbed a pasta snack from Lawson downstairs, eating quickly while standing, which oddly left me with a sense of “melancholy.” Part of it was the rush, and part of it was the feeling that eating had become just another task. After lunch, I headed to Hamer’s school for the parent-teacher meeting, having taken the afternoon off for it.

The meeting stirred up complex emotions—both disappointment and unease. It started with the language teacher, who assertively directed the kids to get ready and launched into a series of class demonstrations. I didn’t like this approach; it felt pointless. No wonder Hamer said she was afraid of this teacher—the teacher indeed came off as very forceful, and the kids seemed cautious and tense around her. I couldn’t help but wonder: What are the kids actually gaining from these demonstrations? Why is this staged show necessary for parents? What I really wanted to see was natural interaction between the teachers and the students, not something that felt like a task to check off a list. If this sort of performance is typical in the classroom, I’d feel genuinely uneasy. As a parent, I already keep an eye on Hamer’s learning progress, often helping with her assignments, so I have a fair sense of her growth. I don’t need this kind of “report” to feel reassured. By contrast, I appreciated the second half of the meeting, where teachers shared small milestones in the students’ learning journey and their hopes for the future. That part felt valuable, much more useful to me.

After the meeting, I took Hamer to the hospital to check out her persistent cough. She’s been coughing all week, with no sign of improvement. It was close to 4 p.m., and the pediatric waiting area was still packed. We were number 89 and had to wait nearly an hour. The doctor, young and very thorough, diagnosed it as a regular cold, prescribed some medicine, and reminded us to keep her warm. Afterward, as is tradition after a doctor’s visit, we went to Xibu Mahua for noodles. Coincidentally, our table number was also 89. Hamer and I enjoyed the meal immensely.

In the evening, the whole family went to the National Stadium to watch a basketball game—Beikong’s home game against Zhejiang. It was our first time watching the CBA. Xiaoyan and I were quite into it, while Hamer seemed unimpressed and eventually fell asleep. Beikong won in the end, and as the crowd began to leave, we suddenly heard a loud popping noise. We thought someone might be setting off fireworks to celebrate. But then we remembered that fireworks are banned in Beijing, and we realized people were stomping on their inflatable cheering sticks, making sounds that resembled firecrackers. We joined in and stomped on our sticks too; it was surprisingly fun.

We didn’t get home until late at night, and everyone was exhausted. After a quick wash, we all headed to bed, ending the day on a satisfying note.

I couldn’t get up early this morning, but I hurried to finish yesterday’s diary. Then, I got ready for the day with Hamer, washing up and preparing for school. After dropping her off, I went back home to make breakfast. Today, I deliberately used a tray to arrange everything nicely. Xiaoyan even smiled and took a picture with her phone, saying the plating “had a vibe.”

During the day, I was completely immersed in work, thinking about how much I could push the features forward before the Feature Freeze. Most of my time was spent optimizing device connectivity, followed by dealing with layer structure, saving issues, and tweaking the right-click menu and properties panel. The work pressure was quite high, but the progress was decent. In the evening, I discussed things with a colleague, and we decided to separate the device positioning structure. This way, the user experience would be smoother. My colleague was very helpful and assisted in implementing part of the features.

I also started coughing today—there’s a colleague who’s been coughing for a while now. The two of us were coughing back and forth in the office, which gave everyone a good laugh as they teased us for our “synchronized coughing.”

I got home around 10 p.m., just in time to meet Xiaoyan on her way back, so I picked her up. Hamer had already gone to bed with her grandma, and the house felt especially quiet. Before bed, Xiaoyan suddenly started thinking about buying new clothes for me. She complained that my old clothes were too ugly and that I kept wearing the same few outfits, which she “couldn’t stand anymore.” She was really serious about it, occasionally measuring my waist and arm length. Her attention to detail left me feeling a bit helpless, but also quite touched. I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking that if it were up to me, I would have long given up out of laziness—no way would I have her level of patience.

Today, I finally merged the first Pull Request for the GNSS feature. Although it’s the first PR for such a large feature, looking back, something feels a bit off—it took until now to get just one PR merged. There were several major issues: first, some technical challenges remained unresolved; second, the feature design was never fully nailed down; and third, I didn’t break down the tasks well enough. I’ll need to properly reflect on these lessons later.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning feeling refreshed, thanks to a good night’s sleep. When it was time to wake up Hamer, I quietly told her, “You have 23 minutes before it’s time to leave.” She let out a big sigh of relief, thinking at first that we were running out of time. Lately, I’ve been consciously reminding her of how much time is left instead of just rushing her, and it seems to be less stressful for both of us. Xiaoyan helped Hamer with her hair and getting dressed. When she saw Hamer slowly putting on her socks, even though it was a bit frustrating, she patiently waited. Later, she couldn’t help but comment to me, “She’s so slow!” We both laughed. After dropping Hamer off at school, Xiaoyan and I had breakfast together. That time has become a peaceful moment for just the two of us—no rush, just sitting down, eating slowly, and chatting, which felt really relaxing.

The workday was busy as usual, and I dove headfirst into developing new features. Most of my Pomodoro sessions were around 40 minutes, though one stretched beyond 50 minutes, and another even exceeded an hour. It’s clear that sometimes I get too absorbed and lose track of the Pomodoro rhythm. Still, the highlight of the day was merging the new feature’s PR, which brought a huge sense of relief. My colleagues helped a lot—some worked on positioning displays, others on layer loading. We collaborated closely, especially on the satellite info display. By the afternoon, one of my colleagues had already implemented an initial UI according to the design, which was impressively efficient. I felt really grateful for their hard work. While I was still working, Hamer called to ask when we’d go to Hema. It turns out today was our regular shopping day. Although I sometimes forget, Hamer always remembers, which is impressive. These little family routines feel so heartwarming. Xiaoyan took Hamer to shop first, and I hurried over to meet them. After we finished, they headed home, and I went back to the office to handle some other feature bugs. This time, I didn’t stay too late—just over an hour—because I knew that if I stayed longer, it could throw off my balance and reduce my productivity.

In the evening, Hamer cried three times. The first was because she was having trouble memorizing the combinations of 7, 8, and 9. The second time was when she couldn’t find the rock sugar she needed for her experiment. The third was when she was told that the socks she had asked her mom to buy had been returned. About the rock sugar, Xiaoyan found out she actually wanted dry ice for a smoke experiment. As for the socks, Xiaoyan told her to promise she’d organize her socks better in the future. Hamer didn’t quite grasp the concept of making a promise and seriously said “Si” with a very earnest expression, which made Xiaoyan laugh out loud.

I wasn’t feeling my best today, mostly annoyed at myself for being so unproductive.

I pretty much slept all morning and didn’t really get up until noon. Last night, Hamer was tossing and turning, clearly uncomfortable, moving around a lot, sometimes even crying. I asked her what was wrong, but she couldn’t really explain—I think she didn’t even know herself. She woke up early this morning with a nosebleed. I helped her stop the bleeding and comforted her for a bit, then turned on Starfall for her to watch. But her nose still felt stuffy, and when she tried to clear it, the bleeding started again. After that, Xiaoyan took over caring for her, and I went back to sleep, all the way until eleven.

Xiaoyan took Hamer out for breakfast and even took her to get a facial around noon. And me? I just stayed in bed, scrolling on my phone, feeling all sluggish. Finally, past noon, I got myself up, ate the breakfast they brought back for me, and then sat down to watch some Korean drama.

Thankfully, something in the afternoon helped me get a bit of my rhythm back. The water heater installer came over, which sort of rescued my otherwise wasted Sunday. We checked the setup at home, drilled a hole through the glass for the vent pipe, removed the old one, and put in the new one. The whole thing took a little over two hours. The guy worked really efficiently and paid a lot of attention to detail. I was quite happy with the job he did. After that, I tidied up the kitchen and balcony while watching COU ultimate frisbee matches. The Bologna team was seriously impressive. I found myself getting caught up in the game—it felt like just the mental break I needed.

Xiaoyan got home early in the afternoon and ended up dozing off on the couch while watching TV. Hamer went to the amusement park with her friends and didn’t come back until evening.

By nighttime, we just kept it simple—dinner, freshen up, and then off to bed. Almost all the appliances at home have been replaced now, and using them today felt really nice. It was one of the few bright spots of the day.

Working overtime on Friday night and Saturday completely threw off my routine, and honestly, it just wasn’t worth it. The worst part is that the overtime didn’t even yield good results; it just wore me down. On top of that, not sleeping well these past couple of days made it even harder to get up this morning. I was just in such a lazy and tired mood—it was a pretty rough day, all in all.

Today, I woke up early—before 5 a.m.—feeling really good. I managed to complete four solid Pomodoro sessions in the morning, catching up on all the journal entries I’d been putting off these past few days. It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

It was raining in the morning, and I hurriedly took Hamer to school before heading straight to the office. My goal for today was to finalize the layer design we discussed yesterday and figure out how to implement it. I spent the entire morning sorting out my thoughts, and by lunchtime, I had a clear plan. After lunch, I discussed it with a colleague, and we finalized the approach. In the afternoon, I continued improving functionality based on the new layer structure and even went through the whole process with PE using the device, identifying issues that still needed to be addressed.

I went for lunch early and returned to work right after, feeling great and full of energy. It was at this point that I suddenly received an email related to my level at work, which made me quite excited.

In the evening, I played badminton, and it was so much fun. I played with several different colleagues, and it felt both relaxing and enjoyable. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play with Hamer tonight. When I got home, I dealt with the social security receipt from her school, which required a lot of photocopies. After school, Hamer went out with her grandmother, but there was a bit of a scare when her grandmother lost track of her and called Xiaoyan and me in a panic. It turned out Hamer had wandered into a mall by herself—thankfully, it was just a false alarm.

Tonight, I planned to go to bed early, getting into bed by 9:30. I felt a bit regretful, though, as Xiaoyan seemed to be in a bad mood today. I wanted to talk to her before sleeping, but I was already dozing off and didn’t bring it up.

Finally, after four days, I’m back to catch up on my summaries. This break was mainly because of the overtime on Friday night—I’ll go into detail about that another time. For now, let’s get back to today and do a quick recap.

Last night, I went to bed really early, mostly because I’d been so tired these past few days, and I wanted to use today to get back into some sort of rhythm. And today, I did it! I’m really happy about that. The following part of the journal was written this morning after getting up early.

In the morning, Hamer got up by herself, climbed into our bed, looking all worried. She wanted to run for class monitor but still hadn’t prepared her speech. She was already stressed about it last night—she had spent the entire weekend playing and only remembered it when it was time to rest yesterday evening. First, I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions on what to say, then I had Hamer take out the draft she wrote last night and practice it again. It was a picture she draw last night, which I found quite interesting. Her speech had three parts, talking about what she could do and how she’d do it. It was simple, but you could tell she had put her own thoughts into it. In the evening, she shared some good news—she was made group leader. We asked her about the class monitor election, and she said she felt a bit disappointed at first when she didn’t get it, but she was still happy to become the group leader.

We left home quite late in the morning, and by the time we got to the school gate, it was already 7:50. We were delayed because of the speech, plus I wanted Hamer to do everything herself this morning, so I didn’t rush her too much. It was really cold this morning, so I put a vest on her, but even then, she complained about being cold when I biked her to school. Since we left late, there might be not much time for breakfast, I was worried about Hamer could be too cold, and I still felt like I hadn’t gotten enough sleep, so I was in a bit of a bad mood all morning—a little irritable, to be honest.

During the day, work helped me regain some rhythm, and I got pretty focused. One thing I was happy with today was that, even though I was busy, I strictly followed the Pomodoro technique and didn’t ignore my work routine. I managed to get three things done: first, I organized the playback part of the code to make it more structured; second, I added all the UI icons and strings; and third, we discussed and finalized the data structure for several layers. Adding the icons and strings was a bit of a hassle. For one, there were a lot of them, and the names didn’t always match—sometimes I forgot to add resources, other times I missed something. On top of that, I ran into a bug with Resources Explorer that caused the new text resources not to be parsed. It took quite a while to sort that out.

By evening, I was still reluctant to leave work. I really wanted to finish designing and displaying the data structure. But in the end, I held back and went home with Xiaoyan. After all, I didn’t want to fall into the same endless overtime trap as last Friday night and Saturday, spending so much time without getting good results.

Quickly summing up today feels fitting, given that my entire day has been a rush—a constant race against time. There were so many things to do that I could barely pay attention to my Pomodoro timer reminders, completely straying from my planned rhythm.

This morning, while getting Hamer out the door, I felt pressed for time, so I pretended to be all flustered, darting around on purpose. She found it amusing, which encouraged her to speed up her own routine. After she left, I went home to make coffee and had breakfast with Xiaoyan. I didn’t waste my commute either, using the time to rehearse the English passages I’ve been practicing over the past few days. I can feel my fluency improving bit by bit.

During the day, I focused on GNSS development, especially designing custom layers and advancing the main UX framework as planned. Though progress was steady, I did hit a few snags with some details, so I’ll need to continue working on those tomorrow.

After work, I went to the gym. When I mentioned this to Xiaoyan in the morning, she was surprised—I’ve always been someone who avoids gyms at all costs. But this time, I wanted to try something different: building strength, gaining muscle, and hopefully forming a new habit. Today was mainly about familiarizing myself with the space and doing a few basic sets of squats, bench presses, and deadlifts. After the workout, my arms were so sore I could hardly lift them, but it felt amazing, like my body had been reawakened.

Today is a day worth celebrating because I finally managed to nail down the technical solution and user experience design for the GNSS feature. Now I can proceed step-by-step according to plan. The challenge we faced yesterday about playing back saved data in chronological order was also resolved after a productive discussion with my colleagues. The only slight downside today was that my presentation during the morning Scrum meeting didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. I struggled to organize my thoughts, and I came across as a bit rushed, almost aggressive. I hope to improve on this and work on expressing myself more calmly in the future.

I woke up early this morning, not because of an alarm but due to the sound of an argument coming from next door. After lying in bed for a bit, I decided to get up and start the day. Hamer also woke up early today; she came to find me at six-thirty, with teary eyes, saying she didn’t want to go to school. I held her close, gently soothing her, and asked her what was wrong. She whispered, “I had so much fun playing with Coco back in Jiangxi.” I comforted her, giving her some suggestions, and we sat on the edge of the bed, talking. I asked if she had made any good friends at school, and she perked up right away, counting them on her fingers.

While she was making her milk and cereal, Hamer passed by the TV and suddenly stopped when she heard a familiar tune. She asked me to play the song again, and she began humming along. The melody sounded familiar to me as well, and I checked the player—it was Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For.” I was pleasantly surprised that she’d remembered the tune so well and could hum it with such confidence.

On my commute today, I practiced reading English aloud as I walked. Today’s passage was a bit shorter and easier, which made it more manageable and gave me a bit of a confidence boost. After work, I took Hamer shopping, and Xiaoyan returned from his business trip this evening. It felt great to finally have the whole family together again.

I didn’t get up too early this morning, but after dropping Hamer off at school, I came back home to continue reading and practicing English. Starting the morning quietly with a few pages of a book and some English audio tracks seems to fill me with energy for the day. After breakfast, I headed to work, and I could feel the extra boost from that bit of self-improvement earlier.

Today’s English practice followed the methods described in One Thousand Hours. I listened and read along, identifying several areas where I could improve. Compared to the more passive style of simply following along with Speak, this active, self-directed learning allows me to pinpoint my weaknesses, which feels much more rewarding.

At work, I had a few meetings during the day, and I spent the rest of my time discussing the implementation of new features, along with ways to display and save data. The biggest challenge was figuring out how to make the saved data play back in chronological order. Since many details are still undecided, the progress is slightly slower than I had hoped.

In the evening, I played badminton with colleagues. I just played for less than an hour, but worked up a sweat. On my way home, I got a call from Hamer, asking me to come back quickly. It was great timing to be heading home early today, not only because I promised her last night we’d play badminton together, but also because her teacher assigned quite a bit of homework. This way, we could play and still leave enough time for her to complete her assignments.

Hamer also received her winter school uniform today—a set of fleece-lined sportswear and a down vest. Now she has three uniforms, including her previous two sets.

Recently, I’ve also made some changes to my lunch habits, opting for a combination of meat and vegetables from the convenience store, cutting back on carbs. It’s a lighter meal, but I feel more physically and mentally refreshed.

Since I was up late finishing a few things last night and wanted to get to bed earlier today, I saved this journal entry for the following morning. Writing it in the morning actually gives me more time to reflect and keeps me from feeling guilty about staying up late.

Today was a fulfilling day. Not only did I complete my work tasks, but I also made some new attempts as planned and gained a lot of valuable knowledge.

In the morning, I woke up Hamer, saying, “We’re a bit late today; we need to hurry up, okay?” She got up, went through her morning routine—washing up, using the restroom, getting dressed—all in one smooth, efficient flow. She looked so grown-up, and I could really see her gradually maturing.

Xiaoyan had to head to the airport this morning for a three-day business trip. After wrapping up my tasks as planned, I focused on developing the GNSS functionality. My primary goal for the morning was to figure out how to create a new user experience. As I worked, some design ideas started to take shape in my mind. Just as I was about to delve deeper, PE mentioned that there might be some upcoming changes, so I decided to slow down a bit. I spent the afternoon experimenting with and refining the data structure to ensure it would meet the requirements.

At noon, I had originally planned to study some English shadowing techniques, so I picked up Li Xiaolai’s book, Everyone Can Use English. Before I knew it, I was absorbed in another of his works, One Thousand Hours, where a chapter on “self-training” made a strong impression on me. The author suggests that such self-directed learning experiences not only reshape personal learning habits but can even influence the destiny of an individual or an entire family. This really resonated with me, and I started reflecting on Hamer’s education and my own lack of thought in this area.

In the evening, when I got home, Hamer was playing at the plaza. I suggested, “How about we play some badminton?” Her eyes lit up, and she eagerly jumped at the idea. I was thrilled by her progress; we had some great rallies, and her serves have improved a lot. After badminton, we also did the Seven-Minute Workout. It was a bit tiring, but we both felt great afterward.

Before bedtime, I watched SpaceX’s fifth Starship test launch with Hamer. This time, they managed to successfully recover it. The moment the rocket rapidly descended and was gently caught by the “chopsticks” was breathtaking. Then, as Hamer lay in bed, I shared some of what I had read today about “self-training.” She quietly fell asleep while I was talking.

This morning, I got up early to get ready to go to Chaoyang Church. After getting up, Hamer suddenly changed her mind and decided she wanted to come along with me, so we set out a little later than planned. It was an overcast morning, and as I rode the electric scooter, the chilly wind hit me, seeping through my clothes—it was a bit cold. We even took a slight detour on the way. When we arrived at Chaoyang Church, the staff informed us that young children weren’t allowed inside, which was a bit disappointing. We wandered around the courtyard, took a look at a small exhibition inside, and then left.

Why aren’t children allowed inside? I suspect it might be to allow them to make their own decisions about religious beliefs when they grow up, or perhaps it’s because church services are solemn and quiet occasions, and lively children might disrupt the proceedings. Next time, I could just ask to find out the specific reason, rather than guessing.

Afterward, we headed to Sun Park to play. We parked the scooter at the north gate and walked south toward the amusement park area, where Hamer most wanted to go. I let her navigate us to the destination using the map on my phone. She seemed quite interested in the task and looked like she was getting the hang of directions. Along the way, we saw many interesting things, and she would often stop to fully enjoy them—feeding small animals, running around on the grass taking photos, and climbing on the equipment for exercise. Today, we went on the children’s roller coaster, parachute tower, flying chairs, magical journey, and the dream world ride. When we got to the last attraction, “Rapid Transformation,” Hamer decided to give it a try and loved it right away. One ride wasn’t enough; she immediately went for a second round. After a day of fun, we made our way back, heading to Solana to meet Xiaoyan for lunch.

There was a minor incident before dinner. I told Hamer to wash her hands, but she was too tired and didn’t want to. I got upset, wondering why she would come all the way to the entrance but refuse to go in and wash her hands. She retorted, saying she didn’t like the restaurant and didn’t want to eat there at all. In the end, she didn’t wash her hands, and I was quite frustrated. When we arrived at the restaurant, Xiaoyan comforted her and took her to a nearby restroom to wash up. Meanwhile, I stayed quiet and focused on eating, feeling in a bad mood. I worried that staying longer would dampen everyone’s spirits, so after finishing my meal, I decided to head home alone. I took a slow walk along the Liangma River, and halfway back, I got caught in a heavy rainstorm and took shelter under a bridge for a while. The walk wasn’t tiring, but I felt exhausted and low on energy. After getting home, it wasn’t long before they arrived too. I ended up taking a long nap until the evening, then tidied up some clothes, took Hamer out for a walk, and bought some yogurt and fruit. We had a light meal together.

Hopefully, I can get to bed early tonight and wake up early tomorrow.

今天公司秋季运动会，射箭、平板支撑、套圈、实心球和脚踢沙包，趣味性比较足，玩了一整天。我们组得了两个团体冠军，比较意外，颁奖时我们就一直站在台上。 射箭是这次运动会的重点，大家也都是第一次射箭，慢慢摸索和适应，到半决赛的几个确实都很强。

回来后，直接去天虹找哈妹，她看到我有点惊喜，再玩一下后回家去了。补充了点零食、看了会儿iPad后我们又出去跳绳、打羽毛球。哈妹跳绳时，我先做完了7 Minutes Workouts。今天哈妹打羽毛球感觉比之前进步很多，能接到比较多的在她面前的高球，她自己也有比较强的满足感，一直跟我打着，只是中间喝水休息了几次。 小眼下班后来找我们，一起玩了会儿。回家后，由于休息和吃饭的问题，她有点生气，最后自己点了饺子外卖。