2021 Recap: Seek

In 2021 I wrote 3 English articles and 2 Chinese articles.

I actually had a lot of blog ideas during this year, but the vast majority of them failed to become a full blog post. It's so hard to write something that is interesting and unique at the same time. Maybe I should lower my standard a little bit.

Oh, and there's a facelift to this blog. I feel pretty content at the current aesthetics of this blog. I'm by no means good at graphic design and typography, so I cannot make a theme that is truly groundbreaking; but at least the current theme is elegant and fast, which is good enough.

• AOSC OS A ton of infrastructure work.

  • apml Reduced Bash syntax for describing packages. Comes with a Rust parser implementation.
  • Omakase A declarative package manager designed to replace apt in AOSC OS. Took most of my hobby time during the second half of the year. It is mostly usable now, but still need some polish.
• Internship Spend my summer time doing intern.
• Photography Bought my first full frame camera. Mostly used to record moments of my life.

This year's new games aren't super exciting. Hopefully next year we will see some interesting releases.

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (4/5)

  • The classical Zelda experience.
  • Motion control is awkward though. Maybe Wiimote Plus would work better.

• Tales of Arise (2/5)

  • An okay JRPG experience. Nice graphics, but story and map design aren't great.

• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint (?/5)

  • Didn't finish it. Feels super boring for some reason.

And some old games I revisited:

• VA-11 Hall-A

  • I'm feeling like I'll play this once per year. Such a cozy experience.

• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands

  • Don't know why, this game feels much better than Breakpoint.

New additions to my music library:

• Beethoven, Wiener Philharmoniker, Carlos Kleiber – Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7
• Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet

• Shostakovich - Piano Trio No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1

  • Oh our boy Shosty. Super weird but super addicting.

• Mario Kart 8 Original Soundtrack

  • Intro music is surprisingly jazzy and awesome.

• The 30th Anniversary The Legend of Zelda Game Music Collection

  • A gift from a friend. You know who you are. :)

• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Original Soundtrack

  • Tal Tal Heights is crazy good.

And some old albums I listen frequently:

• Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan – Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (1976)

  • Currently my favorite interpretation of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

• Bach, Glenn Gould – The Goldberg Variations (1981)

  • It just never gets old.

• Bach, Glenn Gould – Art of Fugue, The Well-Tempered Clavier

  • I use them as nap music
• Sviatoslav Richter - Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18
• VA​-​11 HALL​-​A - Second Round
• Xenoblade 1&2 Original Soundtrack

Mostly philosophy homework.

• Albert Camus - The Strangers, The Myth of Sisyphus
• Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Has 2021 turned out to be better? Not necessarily. Hell, it might be even worse. But does that really matter?

No matter how the world is, I traveled to places I would never imagine one year ago. I experienced events I would never guessed one year ago. No matter how painful it is, it's been fresh and fun, and that's the only thing that matters.

Monolith Soft! Please! Xenoblade Chronicles 3! Faster!