2024.12.29
River ice. Ninety percent. Ice hole. Fisherman. People on the ice. Danger.
This month, the income and expenses are balanced. Thank you to the new customers. The old customers are also very generous.
2024.12.22
This week has been busy. I didn’t ride my bike. I also didn’t take Sam to and from school. It’s cold outside, and the wind is strong. He takes the bus. That’s it.
2024.12.15
The ice layer on the river surface is not thick enough, with only thirty percent of the area frozen. However, some people can no longer bear the solitude and have carefully stepped onto the thin ice with their fishing rods.
2024.12.8
This week, several new work contracts have come one after another. This is undoubtedly a good sign, so let all kinds of design work come to me, I will not refuse any.
Recalling a few months ago, I had rejected a contract, and subsequently, job offers drastically decreased. Since then, I have warned myself that as long as the compensation is reasonable, I should not easily refuse any job opportunity.
Why does watching short videos make people feel like they are wasting their lives? It may be because these fragmented images leave us with not complete memories, but rather a vague blank in our minds. Imagine spending two hours a day watching short videos versus spending two hours doing other things, such as reading, walking, or conversing with others. How different would your feelings be when you reflect on that time? The former may leave only a few scattered fragments, while the latter can evoke deeper and more complete memories.
A year ago, I discussed Xena’s ideal job with her. The criteria I provided were: easy work, high salary, and close to home. As long as two of these are met, it would be a good job. However, I prefer that she chooses a job close to home. Sam is now in the first year of middle school and comes home for lunch every day. If the job is close to home, it would allow for an extra hour or even two to spend with the child. After a year, how precious that time would be.
I believe that the value of life lies not only in work but also in the connections between people. The time spent with family is the most precious wealth in life.
2024.12.1
Well, another week has quietly passed. Time always slips away like the wind drifting over the water’s surface. The income and expenditure ratio for November is still glaring: -3929.35.
This week’s wind is particularly biting, and compared to last week, the trees seem even more desolate. Except for Thursday, I hardly stepped on the pedals of my bike. Sam is the same, occasionally choosing to take the bus to school alone. Imagining him with his backpack in the cold wind, I feel a mix of emotions, hard to describe whether it’s guilt or relief.
Recently, he made a friend in the same class. They always have endless things to talk about after school. Since the friend’s house is between ours and the school, they sometimes run into each other on the way. I often worry about his safety going to and from school alone, but I’m also afraid that continuing to pick him up will make him feel embarrassed in front of his friend.
The children around are a bit younger than Sam and often go to and from school alone. Perhaps I am being overly worried. After all, I started crossing the village alone to go to school in the first grade. But the current social atmosphere has some things that worry me. The cold descriptions and images in the news seem unable to dispel the shadows in my heart. It’s not just me; Xena is also anxious, and even Sam’s grandmother calls me every time to remind me to pick up and drop off Sam.
This week, I bought two games on Steam with Sam (Subnautica and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey). One is set in the deep sea, and the other in ancient Greece. Sam didn’t like the deep sea one and returned it. He kept the one set in ancient Greece.
ChatGPT said I have “domain name anxiety”. It’s true. I’m always thinking of various creative ideas, considering that there are many interesting things in this world waiting for me to explore. However, I always hesitate to move forward. Those registered “domain names” are like infinite possibilities for the future, slipping away one after another, and by the time I realize it, countless have vanished without a trace.
2024.11.24
Yes, two months have passed again.
Since October 1st, almost every weekday afternoon, I would ride my bike to school with Sam, and then continue riding alone by the river for another hour. As the weather got cooler and the days got shorter, I simply moved my riding time from the evening to the afternoon.
The trees by the riverbank have almost shed all their leaves. The bare branches sway in the cold wind, yet it does not diminish people’s enthusiasm for exercise. Runners and cyclists continue to come and go.
Last week I could still wear short sleeves and race in the wind, but this week I have to add a light jacket. The weather forecast says the temperature has dropped below zero degrees.
The financial situation this month is not very optimistic, and it is estimated that there will be a deficit of four thousand yuan. Whenever anxious feelings arise, I always remind myself to relax. The health insurance has also stopped, and I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, lest illness comes like a landslide.
Take it easy; life is just like this, with its ups and downs.
2024.09.22
More than two months have passed, Sam’s summer vacation is over, but we still haven’t gone on vacation and our income hasn’t increased.
On the contrary, I expect my expenses to exceed my income this month, and I’m not any less busy than I have been in the past few months.
I registered two domains this week. Recently, I’ve become more cautious about domain registration because it’s too expensive for me.
Another significant expense this month was purchasing a one-year membership to Envato Elements, which I think will be a worthwhile investment for my future work. Initially, I was hesitating between FreePik, Envato Elements, and Motion Array. I thought that Motion Array had higher quality video footage, but in smaller quantities; FreePik has more vector assets, but most of them are available for free. Because my work skills cover graphic design, web design, video editing, animation, and more, I ultimately chose Envato Elements.
2024.7.26
Today’s work includes poster edits for one client and Amazon A+ edits for another client.
Sam has been gradually recovering. Hopefully he recovers soon as we plan a holiday to the beach next month.
I went cycling again this afternoon. Due to the rainy season and hot weather, I hadn’t ridden for a week. I don’t know if it was the hot weather or the fact that I hadn’t ridden for a few days, but the 25km almost made me give up halfway through.
Today I used Claude AI to design a WordPress theme, which is the one I currently use. I would say Claude is the AI service I’d most like to subscribe to at the moment. But unfortunately I’m in China and unable to subscribe to it.
2024.7.25
Today’s work includes designing a web graphic and poster for a client. Yesterday’s unfinished tasks include Amazon A+ design and video editing revisions.
The music generation app Udio has been updated to include some customizable advanced features, and I now find it more effective than Suno. I played around with my own poems as lyrics for a while, and I felt like it would soon be possible to add recorded vocals as seed input.
2024.7.24
Today’s work consisted of designing two poster sets for one client, as well as working on an unfinished Amazon A+ design and video editing for another client.
In the evening, when it started raining, Xena drove Sam to the hospital’s emergency department due to complications from his circumcision surgery recovery. I couldn’t go with them because of work commitments.
Today I renewed my Adobe Creative subscription for another year. Dropbox’s trial period expires in four days, and I’m considering whether to purchase it or opt for Google Drive or OneDrive instead. I think this is a necessary cost I must incur for work.