Tag: myEasyLife

2024 is a year of Firsthand, period.

We outgrew the windowless “8-person” office and moved into a 24 seater, and by the end of year we even added another extension. We built the product from scratch and launched it! Midnight launch zoom parties were pretty exciting! lol

While building the company and a new team, I’m also glad I get to hire half of Flux’s team back. The layoff at B was a blessing in disguise. It’s really nice to work with the people I knew and trusted, especially the one(s) I haven’t talked for a long time.

2024 was mostly a busy year for work. Did I travel? Lol I almost cannot remember… Iceland is the highlight trip for sure. That was a magical trip of 7 days. But it’s far less hiking than I needed… The Congaree NP trip was a nice little one, without hiking but the firefly encounter was amazing. The February Portugal trip was ok, the September Portugal wedding trip was kinda meaningless and expensive (missed the return flight due to the unbelievably slow custom…). The Mexico City trip was more of an errand trip, too, with nice hotel and food. And two business trips at the end of year to CA and Vancouver were actually better than they sounded.

About gaming, it was a pretty light year:

• Baldur’s Gate 3. Probably my personal choice of game of the year, except it was released in 2023.
• Black Myth: Wukong. Must play for a Chinese gamer who can play some action game, lol
• Astro Bot: the opposite of Baldur’s Gate 3 but equally excellent. Since it’s actually released in 2024 so it’s my GOTY choice.
• Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred. So much better than the original version, mindless slashing and optimizing once in a while. Not bad.
• Unicorn Overlord: fighting feels like a slow-motion RTS, and story feels like a slow-motion anime. I stopped half way as it’s too slow..
• Balatro: a rare mobile game I played. I noticed it when reading articles summarizing 2024 games. It’s a fun idea. Good for some hours.

For board games I’ve been mostly playing Ark Nova online. I started doing arena mode and participated a few seasons as I find it’s much easier to find similar-level players this way. My top rank so far is 80!

Other than online Ark Nova, Gaia Project’s new expansion Lost Fleet is pretty amazing too. Gaia Project was an already perfect game, the expansion somehow made it a tad better! Darwin’s Journey has a beautiful theme but feels like a scavenger game… worker placement but no economic engine. BRASS is a solid game, good for a play once in a while.

Bye 2024. I’ll miss you.

前一阵子在Netflix看到一个魔术show叫Magic for Humans，主演叫Justin Willman，大概就是这个人表演一些街头魔术，很好看。有一些看起来实在是太神奇，虽然那个show坚称没有用camera trick也没有用托儿，但还是觉得有些部分太不可思议了。当时Google了一下发现这人会在纽约演出，于是立马买了票，上周五去看了真人现场版。

现场演出的效果可以说比较符合预期，并没有太多神乎其神的魔术手法，有少数甚至显得有点直白（网上简单查一下就能查到解释的那类）。但现场气氛很火爆，主要归功于他的表演。感觉他的那个show其实也是类似，三分是魔术技巧，七分是类似standing comedy的表演，尤其是和观众互动的部分，异常的纯熟。整个场面时时刻刻都在掌控之中。如果说大卫科波菲尔的那种魔术秀是“硬”魔术，他这个可以说是一种“软”魔术秀了。娱乐效果倒也是一流，就当成standing comedy + magic来看就好了。

放个Magic for Humans的trailer，有兴趣可以去看看Netflix的这个剧。看到后面会觉得有点重复，前几集还是很好看的。

I lost my phone on a Lyft ride last Thursday. Got off a ride, went upstairs, checked my watch and noticed it was disconnected from phone, realized phone lost in car, used “Find My iPhone” to locate/beep/lock my phone, filed a Lyft support ticket and they contacted the driver, driver said he didn’t see any phone, end of story.

Since then, I’ve been rocking a “phone-free life”. I started reading a paper book on subway and actually made good progress, although I reflectively yawn a lot when reading a paper book these days. I use an old iPad as bed alarm and for WeChat. I use Google Hangout for making calls and receiving calls, which means I sit in front of a computer to wait when I’m expecting a call, just like sitting in front of a phone in old days.

What I miss most without phone:

• Check weather before going out in the morning
• Check map and subway status
• Google words, phrases
• Call people and get calls when I need, which is actually rare.
• … cannot think of much else

But, it’s indeed relieving and freeing. When I’m offline, walking on street, taking a subway, my subconsciousness knows no one is able to contact me at that moment. No phone call, no message, no email, no Slack. Think about it. I haven’t had this “luxury” for many years.

Maybe I’ll choose to accidentally leave my phone at home one day a week from now on?