Server
Writing this post, it's already the tail of November (11.30). I specifically checked: in August I shut down my self-hosted Misskey instance and went back to vnil.de, and at the time I moved the blog to Cnblogs (if I remember right...). My desktop had just arrived (Mom bought it, thanks Mom), and the problem was how to sync the blog between two computers. My notes in Obsidian used to auto-sync to Github, but git push then git pull is really tedious and inelegant, so after thinking it over I switched back to Notion. When I only had one computer I moved from Notion to Obsidian because I couldn't stand the latency, and there was a size limit on uploading images. Now I faced a new problem (syncing notes across two computers). Different situations call for a better solution, so I privately think switching back to Notion was a reasonable choice. And after using it I found Notion seems faster than before, more usable — a real unexpected delight. Then I shut down my own server. One reason was to save money, another was that the server felt like a burden, as if I wanted to be a bit lighter psychologically... Through the Nobelium project I turn the Notion database into a static blog and host it on Vercel (that should be it), bind my own domain, then move some posts from the old blog (I dropped a lot of articles — some because of lots of formulas, Notion's math syntax isn't quite the same as traditional markdown... some because of lots of images... some because I was too lazy to fix the formatting... ah it doesn't matter, I'll just write them again), and the blog migration was done. The blog I actually want is one where I can put all my energy into writing the content, and every other kind of friction is as small as possible (that's why I had that move to Cnblogs...). The blog as it is now is my ideal state. In fact this article already had a page created in Notion with the title written right after I shut down the server and finished migrating the blog, but I never started writing... Today another occasion made me feel I could put everything I wanted to write into one place.
Fedi
I've been using Fedi a lot lately. I jot down thoughts, or record daily stuff, and when I watch anime I screenshot and post to Fedi too. I changed my old Fedi habits (started posting a lot), because very fragmented things show up more often on friends' timelines and bother them. I don't know if friends have felt bothered hahaha, so I added "unfollow anytime" to my bio, and thanks to the friends who still haven't unfollowed. I really posted a lot while watching anime. A few days ago I saw something about SNS changing the brain's reward circuit, and I felt I had actually been a bit affected, because I seem to have formed the habit of checking WeChat and Fedi from time to time. I've actually been making some adjustments: I turned off WeChat Moments (though today I still couldn't help opening Moments for a glance...), uninstalled Xiaohongshu (that was uninstalled long ago; when I need to look up restaurants for a meal I use the web version, this one I did okay, I haven't wasted time on Xiaohongshu), hoping I can keep it up as much as possible, and not let my attention get interrupted all the time. From now on I'll try to restrain myself from opening Fedi when I'm writing code or studying.
Blog
Yesterday I saw the Faker Unkillable article and really liked it. I was reading it on a Hupu forum page (don't really like that). I suddenly thought, could I reprint the articles I like onto my own blog so I can keep them to read. Then today that idea kept expanding: actually I could do some "aggregation" of content on the blog. For example the anime-watching posts I put on Fedi could totally be cleaned up into an article. That way I wouldn't bother Fedi, and the content would be a bit more complete, less fragmented. The blog is completely my own turf. I don't have to worry whether anyone reads it, because the process of organizing content and writing is entirely for my own benefit. So I plan to make up for the old Fedi posts (like the Cowboy Bebop screenshots), tidy them up and put them on the blog, and later whatever can become an article (the not-fragmented stuff) can go on the blog too.
AI
When dealing with boring homework or writing boring text, GPT has really been a huge help. Cursor also helped me a lot when I was writing code. When I run into a problem, my first reaction now is habitually to ask GPT, then search in a search engine. But I slowly realized: when using Cursor to help write code, my impression of some of the code started getting fuzzy. I remember clearly one night lying in bed, thinking about the code generated with Cursor's help during the day, suddenly thinking a variable didn't seem to be used and maybe could be replaced, then the next day when I checked the code I found the variable was used and couldn't be replaced. That kind of thing happened another time or two. I felt this wasn't okay, so I deleted Cursor. These past few days using ChatGPT4 I found GPT4 got dumber, and it also couldn't read pdfs and image content. My first reaction was to find another GPT for help.
I found that if I myself have to modify GPT-generated content (or GPT), I get a slight fear and keep putting off starting. That's actually dependence, laziness. The most important thing is the process of thinking and the approach to solving problems. If you just let AI give the answer, your own ability atrophies, and you become more fragile.
So I feel I have to strictly limit the scenes where I use AI. Watering reports and watering boring homework — GPT is fine, that's what GPT is for, and then we can save time to think about important things. When studying I can use GPT to help understand knowledge, or let GPT do some extensions, but when writing code I must not use GPT. I am going to be a good programmer!
Depending on translation software and depending on AI are the same idea. I've been paying attention to that too, and it's improved a lot. I feel like I read English faster and better (is it an illusion it isn't), anyway keep going.
In the End
Writing the blog today I clearly felt rusty. Some sentences didn't come out smooth on the first pass. I feel it also has to do with getting used to GPT plus not having written for a long time (mainly that I haven't written in too long? Anyway, alarm bells for GPT). Our life is made of habits, so it's still good to remind myself all the time.
This also counts as practice for the year-end summary. That's enough. I'm going to tidy up the Fedi content.