每周反思 / 24/6#
This is a record and reflection on the week from 2024-02-04 to 2024-02-10.
Family during the Spring Festival#
This week is the Lunar New Year, and it is also the first Spring Festival that I couldn't spend with my family. I originally wanted to call my family early, but I didn't sleep well the day before New Year's Eve. After taking a nap in the afternoon, it was already 11 o'clock in Beijing time when I woke up, so I chatted with my family and then started preparing my own New Year's Eve dinner.
During the chat, I found that the topics I have been discussing with my parents seem to be the same: how is my sleep, whether I feel uncomfortable, whether I eat enough vegetables and fruits, and so on. I didn't pay much attention to this issue before because of the fast-paced work, but since I went abroad, I have had more time and I can feel this change. Upon careful consideration, it seems that the communication between my parents and me is always in a mode of "not worrying" about each other, and both parties know about each other's situation but don't know how to talk about it. It seems that since I left home to go to college, I rarely tell my family about the difficulties I encounter, and my family imagines that I work hard, so they don't want to talk about the problems I encounter. In the eyes of my family, my life may be a blur. I think of the scene in "Reply 1988" where Ra Mi-ran said to Dog-hwan, "Mom wants to know everything about you." This year, maybe I can make some changes and invite my parents into my life.
When I hung up the phone, I suddenly remembered that last year during the Spring Festival, my dad said that if I went out this year, we wouldn't be able to celebrate the New Year together next year, and then there was silence in the house for a while.
New Year's Eve Dinner in the Netherlands#
I organized a dinner with my apartment friends before. When we were preparing the meal and it was almost ready to eat, our Romanian roommate, who was invited, hadn't come home yet. Later, she hurried back and told me that she thought we would have dinner at midnight on New Year's Eve 😂 So she planned to come back when the food was more ready. This misunderstanding also extended to our outfits. She didn't know where she saw the customs of the Spring Festival, so she deliberately wore green clothes in the morning and red clothes in the evening. As a result, she became the only person in the whole house wearing red.
Both Xiaohua and I had some unexpected mishaps during the New Year's Eve dinner. I originally wanted to make Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce, but because I didn't wake up in the morning, I didn't see the Douban sauce in the ingredient list, so I could only stir-fry some chili oil, but in the end, it lacked the core flavor, which was a bit regrettable. Xiaohua later made Sticky Rice Chicken, but we couldn't buy lotus leaves in the Chinese supermarket here, so we used banana leaves instead. However, she forgot to add salt and soy sauce when steaming it, so it didn't taste very flavorful, but overall it was still good.
After the New Year's Eve dinner, we played Splendor. Everyone became familiar with the rules after one game, and as the game pace accelerated, everyone became more engaged. After the third game, we realized that it was already past midnight. Amidst everyone's "happy new year," we entered the new year.
Xiaohua took out the red paper she bought near the train station today and wrote the Chinese character "福" (fortune) with everyone. I was already very tired after drawing one, but they were still very enthusiastic, and in the end, we almost finished drawing all the red paper:
Insufficient Interview Preparation#
This week, I interviewed for the UPS Data Science Internship and realized that I still have some shortcomings in my technical coverage, mainly in the following areas:
- Linear Regression Model: It is a very basic model that I have always heard of but have not been able to apply in practice. This part happens to be included in my courses this semester, so I can summarize my learning and study other models.
- CI / CD: My understanding of this part mainly comes from GitHub Actions, but I haven't applied it in practice. Looking back, I have indeed seen this requirement in many Data Science-related positions, so I need to learn it.
- Big Data: I need to familiarize myself with enterprise-level applications for processing big data, such as BigQuery.
- Cloud: Experience with cloud services. I previously bought the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate course on Umedy, but I haven't continued with it. This is also an opportunity to restart my learning.
Overall, these shortcomings are mainly due to a lack of experience in applying new technologies in projects after learning them. Therefore, I plan to build my portfolio and promptly convert the knowledge I have learned into visible project applications. This seems to be a way to break out of tutorial hell.
A Week of Battery Anxiety#
When I went home last week, I forgot my laptop charger at Xiaohua's house, so I spent this week in constant battery anxiety. The experience of frequently paying attention to battery life this week made me reflect on my relationship with electronic devices. When my battery is low and I shut down my computer, it seems that I suddenly return to real life. In the past, I could always find fresh things on the Internet: new Data Science tutorials, new internship positions, new podcast episodes, newly published books... I was also caught up in a syndrome of hoarding due to the fear of falling behind, tirelessly chasing after these things. But this power outage and loss of internet connection made me suddenly return to life, focusing more on myself rather than the external world, and experiencing a more authentic sense of freedom.
Reading#
This week, I started reading "The Gulag Archipelago".
Before starting this book, I thought I would read a passionate and tearful indictment throughout the book, but the first chapter, "Arrest," is written in a very humorous way. "Arrest," as an act forcibly imposed on an individual's behavior, often represents the power of authoritarianism and should be a serious process. However, Solzhenitsyn deconstructs it, allowing readers to see the arbitrariness and surrealism in this process. Solzhenitsyn does not use exaggerated descriptions, he only describes a reality that is absurd enough, and it already creates a satirical effect in the text.
Weekly Gems#
Code#
-
MoneyPrinter is a trending project on GitHub last week. It calls APIs for GPT, free images, and free videos, and generates short videos using MoviePy. I tried it out, and it can indeed generate videos, but the video quality is average. The author's approach of calling and integrating APIs is worth learning. I plan to read the source code to see the specific implementation of each component.
-
Python For Finance is a video series that explains the application of Python in finance. It will be helpful for my future thesis writing, and I can also include it in my portfolio.
Podcast#
I watched "The Wind Rises" a long time ago, and after many years, my memory of it has become vague. This time, I listened to the podcast again while cooking, and I was suddenly inspired, especially when I heard about the participant in the Hakone Ekiden who broke down and cried because they couldn't pass the relay baton to their teammate. This year, I plan to reread the book and hope that it can continue to support my running.