Monthly Log: 2024-07

The second half of 2024 has already begun.

Post Structure

1. Input
   Learning: books, novels, essays, videos, podcasts. Any format is fine as long as it feels worth something after finishing
   Anime: new shows, older shows, TV anime, movies, a running log of what I’ve been watching
   Others: films, dramas, and everything else that doesn’t fit the first two categories

2. Random Thoughts
   Maybe I’ll put down whatever has been drifting around in my head

3. Output
   Maybe a blog post, though at my current level it is still very possible to go an entire month with no output at all (

4. Travel
   If I went somewhere, I’ll write it down. If not, then there is nothing to say

5. Misc
   Small bits and pieces that don’t fit anywhere else

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Input

Learning

I forget where I saw this line, but it went something like: even just restating what you learned once helps deepen the impression. That sounds very plausible to me.
For a long time, I kept having the same problem with books and articles: right after finishing them, I would slowly forget everything. It always felt like I had learned a lot, but if you actually asked what I had learned, I could rarely answer clearly.

So from here on, I want to organize anything I read that feels genuinely valuable, either by rewriting it in my own words or by quoting the source directly.
Turning it into notes should make the impression stick better, and it should also make it easier to find again later.

《软件随想录》

Also known as More Joel on Software. The Chinese edition was translated by Ruan Yifeng.
It’s a slim collection of Joel’s blog essays, and the writing is funny in a very readable way.
To make it stick better, I turned it into a note post: Reading: More Joel on Software

I created the file on July 11, wrote a little, and then procrastinated all the way to the end of July without actually finishing it (
Update on Aug 7: finally done. At the cost of delaying this Monthly Log too

《Python 工匠》

An excellent book. It again and again and again and again once more reignited my enthusiasm for learning Python.
I wrote a blog post about it: Learning: Python Study Resources & Notes. Going forward, I plan to gather my Python-related notes under that post.
In that post I described this book like this:

Python is very free, but the corresponding cost is that the gap between lower and upper bounds can be huge. This book discusses how to turn code that runs into excellent code, and how to use Python language features to write more Pythonic (Python-style) code.
It also introduces knowledge that isn’t limited to Python, but is common to any language: for example variable naming, and how to unify code style in large projects.
It’s easy to understand. The GitHub version is free to read. If you like it, you can buy the book edition, which is more detailed than the web version.

《Eloquent JavaScript》

Eloquent JavaScript 4th Edition by Marijn Haverbeke.
I still haven’t finished it yet. Right now I’m about a third of the way through.
But even at this point, its strengths are already pretty obvious:

• Completely free
  There’s a web version, a PDF, a small-phone PDF, EPUB, and MOBI, all freely available from the site.
  There is also a printed edition, if you want a copy on your bookshelf.
  The content is identical across all versions. Honestly, the web edition is probably the best one anyway, because it has syntax highlighting and also the next feature.

• Code blocks are runnable
  Among all these versions, the web version is the most recommended for first-time learning.
  Because every single code block in the web version is runnable. The author explains a concept, gives an example, and then you can just click into that snippet and run it to see what happens.
  You can also edit the code freely and test what changes.
  It lets learning and practice happen at the same time. No environment setup, no leaving the browser, almost no friction at all.

• Progressive content, combining learning and practice
  It starts from the basics. Part 1 is a thorough introduction to the language itself, Part 2 moves into the browser, and Part 3 covers Node.js.
  Part 1 also folds in a lot of common programming concepts like encapsulation, polymorphism, inheritance, object-oriented, functional, closure, recursion, and side effect.
  Each chapter ends with three or four small exercises you can do directly in the browser.
  Every few chapters, there is also a Project chapter where the author walks you through building a complete small program.

  To be honest, when I ran runRobotAnimation in the first Project: A Robot and saw the little robot running around on the screen, I was kind of moved.

• Clean and beautiful website
  The content is just the book. No unrelated info. Clear structure and nice layout.

At moments like this, I really do feel grateful for the internet, and for the kind of internet-minded authors who want to lower the barriers to good knowledge so that anyone can reach it.

Anime

• Watching

  • 败犬女主太多了
    My favorite first impression so far. The production feels attentive, and the character designs are strong (Yanami’s stomach capacity speaks for itself

  • 义妹生活
    Surprisingly okay, higher than expected. Going for an art-film route.

  • 學姊是男孩
    Bro, you’re so fragrant
    The energetic junior girl is really cute.

  • 魔法少女与恶曾是敌人
    A magical girl forced into exploitative labor. The premise is a little too realistic in ways that are not exactly comforting.
    Excellent production. Bones is putting in effort.

  • 鹿乃子大摇大摆虎视眈眈
    PV hype was massive. The main episodes don’t deserve it.
    Comedy shows are honestly hard to do. Not sure I can keep watching.

  • 靠废柴技能【状态异常】成为最强的我将蹂躏一切
    An isekai with relatively sufficient budget. After episode 1 I went to read the novel a bit.
    Characters are very stereotyped, but the plot is okay-ish. At least there’s some thinking in fights.

  • 這是妳與我的最後戰場，或是開創世界的聖戰 第二季
    Pacing is too fast, production is collapsing.
    Even the same director as KamiKatsu can’t save it.

  • 杖与剑的魔剑谭
    Same author as Danmachi. Episode 1 has movie-level production with overflowing budget.
    Episode 2: power level collapses. Don’t expect plot, just watch the production.

  • 我要【招架】一切～反误解的世界最强想成为冒险家
    A bit forced misunderstanding route. Entirely carried by the heroine.

• Added to catch-up list, maybe I’ll watch later (copium

  • 物语系列
    Too many previous works.

  • 小市民系列
    Same author as Hyouka. Heard it’s pretty quiet.

  • 擅長逃跑的殿下
    Heard Umehara team production is strong.

• Dropped after 1 episode

  • 疑似后宫
    No plot. Boring.

  • 不时用俄语说真心话的邻桌艾莉同学
    Well-made industrial sugar. The OP visuals are carefully produced, the ED is half-assed, and the plot is too boring. Can’t keep watching.

    Turns out the ED isn’t half-assed: it changes each episode. Still boring though, not watching.

  • 异世界自杀小队​​
    Cheesy. Dropped after 1 episode.

Others

Recent TV/movies. I try not to spoil.

夏日大作战 (Summer Wars)

15th anniversary, with a two-week limited theatrical re-release.
At first I wasn’t planning to go, since I had already seen it before, even if that was five or six years ago.

But after seeing it again, all I could think was: good thing I came to the theater.
Even though I had watched it once already, back then my verdict had only been something like yeah, that was pretty interesting.
This second viewing made a lot more click. I noticed more details, understood the interactions between characters more clearly, and felt much more aware of the visual storytelling and the threads running underneath the surface. It almost made the first watch feel wasted.

And it isn’t just this film. Sometimes when I revisit other works, I also feel like I understand them more deeply than I did a few years ago.
Maybe I just had less life experience back then and was, bluntly speaking, a bit stupider, so the little hints and details never fully registered (

Watching this movie in 2024 gives it a surprisingly fresh angle. A few notes:

• AI
  In 2009 the film imagined AI causing chaos in the virtual world. Now we really do have AI bot swarms and AI-fueled rumor mills causing chaos in real life (
  The AI wave has undeniably started affecting ordinary people’s lives (Sell me this pen. It’s AI powered.).
  Of course there are upsides too. This month, while learning Python and JavaScript, I had a very good time asking AI whenever I got stuck.
  At this point it does feel fair to say AI has already touched everyone’s life, for better and for worse. Which side weighs more is still hard to judge.

• The boundary between online and real life disappears
  In the film, anyone can connect to the virtual world from anywhere as long as they have a computer, a flip phone, or even a TV.
  The movie came out in 2009. Back then, my house didn’t even have broadband. If I wanted to play games, I had to sneak off to an internet cafe. Nokia still ruled the phone market, and WAP versions of QQ Farm were still a thing.
  At school, our computer teacher once brought in a laptop and a USB data card, and that was my first real impression of what mobile internet looked like.
  That same teacher also told us about something called “Taobao”, where you could buy things online.
  Naturally, everyone thought it sounded like a scam. Buy things over the internet? How could that possibly be reliable?
  And all of that is only fifteen years away from now.

  I can’t believe I’m old enough to say this, even though in student days 15 years was basically an entire life.

  Slight tangent aside (
  what I really want to say is that smartphones genuinely stretched the boundaries of the internet until online life seeped into real life, or maybe the other way around.
  Mobile internet turned going online into a default state that no longer feels like it costs anything. Everyone is online all the time.
  In that kind of era, going offline becomes the strange condition, the thing that requires deliberate effort.

  I saw a concept before: internet immigrants, referring to people born before the millennium who experienced the process of internet popularization.
  In contrast are internet natives, people born after the millennium. For them, the internet is like sunlight and air: something that naturally exists.
  Interesting concept.

• Virtual identity becomes the main one
  In some sense, virtual identity starts to matter more than real identity, which is one natural consequence of online life swallowing everything else.
  Once the protagonist’s account is stolen, he can’t even prove he is himself. His only path is to file a complaint with the system. Very cyberpunk

• Single point of failure
  In the film, AI steals public-sector accounts and can damage public infrastructure; steal a military account and suddenly it can operate missiles. On paper, that sounds a little ridiculous.
  But after the recent global CrowdStrike blue-screen incident, it no longer feels quite so absurd.
  Both cases point toward the same thing: how fragile centralized systems can be. I couldn’t help making that connection while watching.

• Visualization
  The opening guided tour through the virtual world is great. Things that have physical form in real life, like books and cars, are given direct counterparts there too.
  And then abstract systems get turned into concrete shapes: political institutions become an island, the market becomes something like a Ferris wheel, and so on. That kind of visual embodiment is just fun to look at (the protagonist even has to work inside the virtual world…).

  Thinking of “working in the virtual world” reminds me of another work: Expelled from Paradise, written by Gen Urobuchi.

  When the big bad makes trouble, it scrambles road signs in the virtual world to disrupt real-world navigation systems, and manipulates water pressure, etc. The visualization effects are done well.

• The virtual world removes language barriers via real-time translation. Rebuilding the Tower of Babel

• The part reading the elderly person’s letter feels very broad-minded.

• The factorization-by-brain part is too ridiculous, won’t talk about it.

After the movie, I wanted to buy the pamphlet, but as soon as I got to the entrance I heard a staff member shouting that the Summer Wars pamphlet was already sold out.
Too slow. I should have bought it before the film even started.

Recently it’s been 37°C hell weather. Going to watch Summer Wars under the blazing sun: isn’t that itself a Summer War?

Random Thoughts

All of this month’s random thoughts ended up inside the review above.
I had only meant to jot down a few impressions, but it kept growing as I wrote. That’s probably a sign the film is worth revisiting.

Output

• Reading: More Joel on Software
• Learning: Python Study Resources & Notes

I managed to squeeze out two note posts.
I also wrote a bit of JavaScript learning notes, but there’s not much yet. I’ll post it after I finish Eloquent JavaScript.

Travel

It’s too hot. I have no intention of going outside unless absolutely necessary. This month I would prefer to move through life as a sleepwalker.

Misc

Photo Fraud

Watching the rooftop scene at the end of episode 1 of 败犬女主太多了, it feels very summer.
So I asked AI: how do you grade a photo into that Japanese-summer look?
AI replied:

1. Basic adjustments

   • Increase exposure to brighten the overall image
   • Reduce shadows to lift dark details
   • Slightly increase contrast to add depth

2. Color temperature

   • Slightly cooler to emphasize summer coolness
   • Shift temperature toward blue, but not too much, keep it natural

3. Color processing

   • Increase blue and cyan saturation to strengthen the sky’s blue
   • Slightly reduce overall saturation for a soft Japanese style
   • Use HSL panel to fine-tune hue/saturation/luminance of each color

4. Curves adjustments

5. Curves adjustments

   • Create a slight S-curve in RGB to increase contrast
   • Slightly raise highlights in the blue channel to strengthen the sky blue

6. Split toning

   • Add a light blue tone to highlights
   • Add a slight warm tone to shadows to balance the overall color

7. Detail adjustments

   • Slightly increase clarity to highlight textures of buildings and clouds
   • Control noise reduction to keep the image clean

8. Local adjustments

   • Use a radial filter to slightly brighten buildings and add depth
   • Use a graduated filter to slightly strengthen the sky blue and cloud white

9. Add grain

   • Add a modest amount of grain to create a film feel and enhance the Japanese vibe

10. Final adjustments

• Fine-tune overall color balance to ensure harmony
• Appropriately increase vibrance to add summer vitality

I grabbed a photo I had taken on the way to last month’s air show and gave it a try:

before

after

Truly the power of photo fraud.

And yes, this month’s cover image is leftover stock from last month. But it fits the summer theme, doesn’t it?

Sleep quality is important

I used to sleep with the door open, and sometimes the cat’s midnight parkour sessions or bathroom visits would wake me up.
This month I finally hardened my heart and started leaving the cat outside the room during sleep hours. The reward was immediate: sleep so uninterrupted that I stayed down until the alarm.
After my sleep quality improved, it also felt like my ability to study and focus improved quite a bit. Hopefully that isn’t just wishful thinking

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Closing

This month I finished two books, Python 工匠 and 软件随想录.
I also kept moving through Eloquent JavaScript.
For once, it genuinely feels like the month wasn’t wasted. Hopefully I can keep that going.