Monthly Log: 2025-03

A parrot blizzard, with parrots taking the place of petals

Post Structure

Input
Learning: books/novels/good articles, videos/podcasts, any format, anything that feels rewarding after finishing
Anime: new shows / old shows, TV season / movies, notes on what I watched
Others: movies, TV series, etc., put here
Random Thoughts
Maybe I will write down whatever I’m thinking
Output
Maybe a blog, but I’m not good enough, so maybe I have no output for a whole month (lol)
Travel
If I went somewhere, I’ll jot it down. If not, then whatever
Misc
Small things that don’t fit in the categories above

This book is strongly recommended by Teach Yourself Computer Science. Since it sits under Distributed Systems, I assumed it would be brutally hard and kept putting it off.
After actually reading it, though, it turned out to be much less forbidding than expected, and also exactly the kind of knowledge I need right now.

I had always wondered: there are so many database products out there, what really distinguishes them, and how are you supposed to choose? Surely the answer can’t just be “MySQL is free.”
This book finally gave me some basic sense of how to think about these tradeoffs.

Quick notes:

Database types: Relational Database, Document Database, Graph Database
Workloads: OLTP (On-line Transcation Processing), OLAP (On-line Analytics Processing)
Storage: LSM (Log Struct Merge Tree), b-Tree, Column-oriented Storage
Distributed: Single Leader, Multi Leader, Leaderless

The Architecture of a Database System paper I put down after only ~20 pages last month actually helped a bit.
At least now when the author says things like “SQL is a very successful abstraction”, or talks about interpreters, executors, and parallelism, I don’t feel completely lost.

The part that stuck with me most in the opening chapters was when the author said, “Let’s design a database.” My immediate reaction was, “Welp, here comes the hardcore part.”
I expected a flood of terms and code, but instead the author showed two bash commands: “Okay, our database is done.”
Wait, what? That’s it? This works?
Absolutely mind-blowing.

I’ve read up to the distributed storage chapter and stopped there for now. The chapters after that seem less immediately relevant to what I’m trying to learn at the moment.

By chance I saw someone on Twitter call this book Black Rhino, and also The Backend Bible. So it’s that famous.
You can tell the author has that effortless master vibe: he explains technologies smoothly, and even draws fun tech maps at the start of each chapter.

SICP

I started SICP at the end of March. It’s pretty interesting.

One idea from the preface that really stayed with me: at the entry level, the most important thing is not syntax trivia, nor elegant or efficient algorithms, but how to control the complexity of large software systems.

Our design of this introductory computer-science subject reflects two major concerns.
First, we want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.
Second, we believe that the essential material to be addressed by a subject at this level is not the syntax of particular programming-language constructs, nor clever algorithms for computing particular functions efficiently, nor even the mathematical analysis of algorithms and the foundations of computing, but rather the techniques used to control the intellectual complexity of large software systems.

Anime

Finished
- 悪役令嬢転生おじさん
  ~~Maybe this is what happens when I start aging too~~, but this “middle-aged man reincarnated as a villainess” show ended up becoming my latest favorite.
  Plenty of production resources, and the warm + comedic story works really well. Great for casual relaxing.
  The ending felt good too. It set up more mysteries. I guess there will be a season 2?
- 日本へようこそ、エルフさん
  Cozy slice-of-life. Average production.
  The dragon girl feels more appealing than the heroine.
Catch up later (
- 薬屋のひとりごと
- アオのハコ
- 花は咲く、修羅の如く
These are all great works, but I haven’t had time lately. (I’m not so busy that I don’t even have time to watch anime, but I keep feeling that good shows deserve quiet, focused attention… and somehow I never find that “quiet time”.)
- 想星のアクエリオン
- グリザイア：ファントムトリガー
These two are also kind of interesting. I’ve watched one or two episodes. Maybe I’ll continue later.
Dropped
- Magic Maker
  The production keeps getting poorer, and the plot after the “sloth sickness” arc is boring.
- Ubel Blatt
  The novelty wore off. A bit of aesthetic fatigue.
  Too much talking, too saintly. Meh.

Others

Recent TV/movies. I try not to spoil.

バンパイアハンターD

A frequent guest in animation MADs. I expected to watch it mainly for the visuals, with low expectations for the story.
The animation really is gorgeous. But what surprised me more was that the story also exceeded expectations and wasn’t formulaic (unlike many new shows where you can see the whole plot at a glance).
The ending where the protagonist keeps his promise and sees someone off from afar is great: restrained and understated. No romance line, plus points.

GHOST IN THE SHELL

I don’t think I fully understood the story. Did the ending mean the consciousnesses merged? And if they did, is the Major still the Major afterward?

イノセンス

The opening uses 3D to imitate the body-manufacturing sequence from the previous film, but it looks kind of ugly (
The whole film has a stream-of-consciousness vibe, like a dream. I couldn’t understand it at all.

Random Thoughts

Job hunting is rough

I applied for two Elixir positions and both vanished into the void. I didn’t even make it to the interview stage.
I’m not especially strong technically, and my Japanese isn’t exactly something I can sell either. It’s rough.

Maybe it would be better to build a few more personal projects, stack up some experience, and job-hunt after that?
Otherwise I’m always treated like a beginner (which, to be fair, I am).

Output

Nothing at all~

Travel

A parrot blizzard

I ran into what can only be described as a parrot blizzard: a flock of parrots tearing through cherry blossoms, a pun on 桜吹雪.

First time I’ve ever seen parrots on the street. Are there really wild parrots in Japan? These weren’t escapees from a zoo or somebody’s house?

Normally, 桜吹雪 means petals drifting down on their own. These parrots were biting the blossoms off whole.
And it didn’t even look like they were hungry. It felt more like they were doing it for fun.
Their destructive power was impressive in the worst way. Several nearby trees got shredded, and they showed no sign of stopping.

The fallen blossoms landed in the grass, and for a second I thought some tiny plant had bloomed there.

Misc

Hay fever

Nasal spray saved my life

My nose wouldn’t stop running, ~~plunging three thousand feet straight down~~.
I finally gave up and went to the doctor, who prescribed a nasal spray. The effect was absurdly good. After two days, the runny nose was basically gone.
If it worked this well, why did I insist on suffering for so long?

An explainer article

Found a pretty comprehensive explainer: 20 年老过敏性鼻炎患者的最全备忘录

Thinking back to my symptoms, it seems like what the article says: if you ignore it, it keeps getting worse.
So don’t just tough it out. Get diagnosed and take meds.

The good news is that current prescription meds generally don’t build much tolerance, so they usually won’t just stop working after a while.
The bad news is that this also means taking them for life…

~~大郎，该吃药了~~

Finally got my driver’s license

The long driver's license exchange journey is finally over. From booking the first appointment to actually getting the license took nine months. Truly astonishing efficiency, in the most sarcastic sense possible.

Why did it take so long?

In those 9 months, the actual time spent “exchanging the license” was only a few days. The rest was waiting.

Waiting for the written test
In Kanagawa Prefecture, to book the written test you have to go to the Driver's License Center (免許センター) in person to make an appointment. License exchange is insanely popular, so the written test queue alone is 3 months.
Waiting for the road test
After passing the extremely easy written test, you do a road test (inside the test grounds). This one can be booked online, and the queue is about 1.5 months.
The written test result is valid for 6 months. If you fail the road test within that window, you can book again; if you exceed 6 months, you have to redo the written test.
Whether you pass the road test is up to the examiner’s veto, which is extremely opaque. Rumor (on Xiaohongshu) says the pass rate in Kanagawa is miserable.
It took me 3 tries to pass.

Any shortcuts?

If you’re a very experienced driver
If you pass the written test (3 months) and road test (1.5 months) on the first try, you should be able to get the license within half a year.
But you also can’t be too old-school. Many drivers in China have lots of driving experience but bad habits. I met someone who said he drove trucks back home, and he still hadn’t passed after five tries.
Move to Tokyo
Tokyo has 3 locations for license exchange, so it might be faster than Kanagawa, which only has one test site.
Get a Japanese license from scratch
Give up on exchanging. Pay 300,000+ yen for a training camp program, and get the license in two weeks (money power~

Getting the license

They issue the license on the same day you pass. I thought it would be a little booklet (like a Chinese license), but it’s actually a small card, similar to a residence card.

The staff told me not to drive immediately, and to first have an experienced driver accompany me.
They also emphasized that no matter how small the accident is, you must report it to the police, even if you just hit your own wall.

So are the Japanese police really that idle?

Closing

Once again, I dragged it all the way to the final day.
Next time I’ll start earlier. Definitely. Probably.

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