Kassadin.moe
中文 ZH English EN 日本語 JA

Monthly Log: 2025-04

Published on

Original language: Chinese . AI translations: English , Japanese .

Spring anime season is here, which means a quarter of 2025 is already over (

Post Structure

  1. 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

  2. Random Thoughts
    Maybe I will write down whatever I’m thinking

  3. Output
    Maybe a blog, but I’m not good enough, so maybe I have no output for a whole month (lol)

  4. Travel
    If I went somewhere, I’ll jot it down. If not, then whatever

  5. Misc
    Small things that don’t fit in the categories above

Input

Learning

SICP

The legendary SICP. This month I finished the first two chapters: Building Abstractions with Functions and Building Abstractions with Data.

Chapter 1 starts with functional programming, written entirely in recursion.
And it doesn’t use JavaScript’s built-in data types. Instead you hand-roll the classic trio: pair(), head(), tail().

function pair(x, y) {
  function dispatch(m) {
    return m === 0 ? x : m === 1 ? y : error(m, 'argument not 0 or 1 - pair');
  }
  return dispatch;
}
function head(z) {
  return z(0);
}
function tail(z) {
  return z(1);
}

SICP is basically built on this “function inside a function” style.

I’m reading the JavaScript edition of SICP. Using pair everywhere is probably to stay close to the original Scheme (or Lisp-family) style?

With pair you build linked lists, then reimplement common operations like foreach, map, reduce, and filter, and then you go on to higher-level data structures like unordered list, ordered list, set, tree, etc.

The data abstractions section starts from an example of rational numbers, explaining how to build data-abstraction barriers to get good abstraction and isolation. That way changes in one layer won’t affect the others, making refactors and new features much easier.

After these two chapters, it feels like I learned a lot. But since I didn’t do the exercises, my actual impression isn’t that deep (for example, when writing this part, I had to flip back to the book to recall details).
When I have time, I really should do the exercises.

Anime

April’s new season is here. This quarter feels like it’s back on track: more interesting shows than last quarter.

Watching

  • Post-Apocalyptic Hotel (末日后酒店)
    The biggest surprise of April. A high-quality original anime: an unpredictable “stage of fate”, and the opening episodes feel effortlessly confident.
    The overall vibe reminds me of Girls’ Last Tour and Train to the End of the World. You could call it the high-spec version of that train show.
    The OP’s animation is excellent, second only to Witch Watch. I’m not into the song yet though.

  • Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
    I’ve already watched the theatrical version, so the first few TV episodes didn’t have much to offer.
    The OP is very half-hearted. The visuals are polished, but there are basically no highlights.
    Overall: decent. I’ll keep watching, but I’m not that excited.

  • mono 旅
    Same author as Yuru Camp. The photography club setting is pretty fun.
    It makes me want to buy a 360 camera.

  • Summer Pocket
    Surprisingly decent for a GalGame adaptation. The chuuni male lead adds some charm.

  • 忍着与杀手二人组
    Made by Shaft. Cute character designs, stable visuals, and occasional flexing.

  • Witch Watch
    Best OP of April. Great music and show-off animation.
    The main episodes are fine too. The comedy works.

  • ざつ旅
    Slightly underfunded. The heroine’s hair looks kind of weird.

  • 时光流逝，饭菜依旧美味
    P.A. Works is back.

  • 记忆缝线
    Apparently a “small pp”? Haven’t watched yet.

Dropped

  • 摇滚乃淑女的爱好
    The era of big-girl bands. Too noisy, and I’m not that into band themes. Dropped after 1 episode.

  • 男女之间存在友情吗
    Cheap production, and the story wasn’t that interesting either. Dropped after 2 episodes.

  • ある魔女が死ぬまで
    Collecting “touching tears”, and it needs 100 people’s worth. You can already see the episodic formula where each episode must solve a problem at high speed. Last time I saw this kind of thing was To Your Eternity.
    It’s not that you can’t do emotional stories, but it needs careful build-up and strong atmosphere. That’s extremely demanding on the writing. If you fail, it just becomes forced tearjerking, which is awkward.
    Episode 1 didn’t stand out. Dropped.

  • Lazarus (拉撒路)
    One look and it’s over. Watching a MAD compilation is enough for the animation.
    Shinichiro Watanabe falls off the pedestal again (last time was Carole & Tuesday.

  • 300 年史莱姆
    The production is worse than season 1. Obviously half-hearted.

  • 完美圣女
    A bunch of stale characters stuffed with stereotypes. Boring.

  • 乡下剑圣
    An isekai with some budget. The plot is boring.

  • 星际国家的恶德领主
    Also pretty boring.

Others

Recent TV/movies. I try not to spoil.

No movies I wanted to watch in April. Skipped.

Random Thoughts

I witnessed a boomerang that took six years to come back. In the new video, the uploader openly admitted that back then he was jealous because Revue Starlight’s BGM ranking was higher than Mawaru Penguindrum, so he made that “Why I don’t like Revue Starlight” video.
Six years later, whether naturally or after some life changes, he no longer hides his love for it, and he sincerely and bravely shares his thoughts in public.
The video is long, almost 40 minutes. I’ve watched it multiple times. Every time, I’m impressed by his sincerity: not lying to himself, and not lying to the audience.
I’m also impressed by his courage: admitting his shortcomings, and doing it publicly in a video.

I personally really like this kind of material where someone shares their own mental journey. Especially when it’s the same topic with a non-trivial time gap (six years), you can clearly see how a person changed.
That’s also why I write a blog: to record and “freeze” my current thoughts. When I look back years later, I can clearly feel what changed (and what didn’t).
In early 2023, when cleaning up my stuff, I found weekly journal assignments from high school Chinese class. Reading those words I’d completely forgotten felt like reading a stranger: “So that’s what I was thinking back then”, “So I already had that tendency at the time”.
Anyway, it’s really interesting.

Back to the video. The theme is Revue Starlight, but the uploader inserted some personal experiences that seem off-topic. Two parts resonated with me.

  • Video 17:27
    Moving 3.5 times in a short period. He can’t make plans more than a week ahead, and he doesn’t dare to buy physical books.
    “I’m struggling because I don’t want to struggle.” “I don’t know what I want to keep, but I want to keep everything.”

    It reminded me of a line of poetry: “my life drifts like duckweed beaten by rain.” It’s not that tragic, but it does make you feel like rootless duckweed: you live here every day, but you don’t belong here.
    In China there’s 北漂 (Beijing drifters) and the 北上广深 grind; in Japan there’s 上京 (moving to Tokyo to struggle). Now that I live in a salaryman-standard pigeonhole apartment, I also rarely buy physical books. Moving is annoying, and before buying things I always think about whether the rental has space, and whether it will be easy to move.
    After thinking twice, I buy. That’s why my place still looks fairly tidy.

    But I know I will definitely move.
    Someday I will pack everything up and go somewhere else.
    Where will the next place be? I don’t know.
    Will there be a place after the next place? I don’t know either.
    Everything is uncertain, everything is unknown. And I just drift on in this directionless current, actively or passively~~~

  • Video 25:50
    A player who stands outside the game and can rewind and rewrite the plot at will, and an ending that cannot be changed no matter how many times you rewind.
    Even though you know it’s just a story designed by the game, you still feel guilty toward the characters.

    Pouring in too much emotion one-sidedly, and then being one-sidedly guilty and sad.
    Is it precisely because it’s illusory that it’s pure…

Output

None.

Travel

つつじ祭


Nezu Shrine’s Tsutsuji Festival. I went a bit late. Looks nice from afar (up close, they’re already wilting).


Torii corridor (why does it feel like every place has one of these…)


I also went to Kameido Tenjin Shrine to see wisteria, but the season was completely over.


A perfectly round tree.

Misc

Daiso カビとり スプレー

The bathroom didn’t ventilate well enough, so a bunch of mold spots appeared. Regular toilet paper can’t wipe them off at all, so I tried Daiso’s mold remover spray, and it worked extremely well.
It’s literally called カビとり スプレー. It sprays out foam. Spray where it’s moldy, wait a few minutes, then rinse with water. The bathroom looks brand new.

Don’t let the spray touch your skin, and the smell is pretty harsh. Wear gloves and keep ventilation on while using it.

Closing

Rushing out April’s Monthly Log on May 31. This series is getting later and later, and also starting to feel more half-hearted, like I’m just completing a task…
Not great. But I don’t have a clear idea of how to change yet, so for now I’ll just keep going.