My 2024 in retrospect

Everywhere I look on Facebook, I can see people posting their year-end recaps—about buying lots of things, achieving goals, fulfilling wishes, and so on. I sincerely congratulate you all for achieving those desires, no matter how small or fleeting they may be. Efforts matter, and I'm proud of you for that.

To be fair, this year has been a pretty calm one for me.

I spent the whole year juggling between studying and working. In the evenings, I’d play games and learn a bit of Japanese. Around the middle of the year, I managed to land some part-time jobs that paid decently, so I was able to buy more things for myself (thanks to Tom Resker). But when I think about it, these material things are rather fleeting. It feels like a cycle—no matter how far I wander, I’ve now come to realize that the most valuable thing is still family.

Oh, by the way, nothing dramatic happened to my family; we’re still very happy. Maybe this is one of the things I’ve come to cherish more as I grow older? My real joy isn’t winning an intense PvP match that gets my adrenaline pumping, but something as simple as driving my dad to go drink beer during the Lunar New Year festivities. Being praised by relatives as the "grown-up son," both my dad and I feel so proud. Little things like that can easily make my day. Shit, maybe I AM old. 

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is, tell your loved ones that you love them sometimes.  Wish you a happy new year!

I got my first presentation (in English) ever, for the last 3 years in university. For you, it might not a really big deal - but damn this one is really fucking huge for me. I'm a big introvert and standing in front of the whole crowd most of the time will shut my thought process down.

This is also the first subject where I have to carry around 80% the work of the entire group, only because I'm the group leader.

Like one of those IT guys where they work on both the backend and the frontend (I know nothing about IT), I had to think of the presentation, the slideshow and the speech content - all at the same time. It was one of the most stressful time of this year, but thankfully - everything ended up well. I got an A+ for this subject, so whatever.

Maybe this is one of those thing I have to experience in my uni years? Sure, but just keep those leechers away from me.

HIFIMAN He400se + iFi Hip DAC 3 for my home set-up, Truthear Hexa + Fiio BTR5 or Moondrop Space Travel for going out.