After a brief spell of cooler weather, Friday went straight back to blazing heat. The air conditioner in my room has been acting up again lately. It was set to cooling mode, but all it produced was hot air, while the outdoor unit kept roaring like it was working itself to death. Clearly it had broken down again. I contacted the landlord in a hurry; it had just been repaired yesterday, and then sometime before dawn today it died all over again. I woke up from the heat and had to ask for another repair.
There have been a lot of things going on recently—really, a lot. But that is how things are: they come, and you deal with them one at a time. In the middle of all that rushing around, it was suddenly Friday again. Then I noticed the date: August 15, the day Japan announced its unconditional surrender. That alone feels worth celebrating.
During this stretch, my child has been doing summer tutoring classes at a new campus. The first time, I took her there myself. After that, for several days in a row, she has been getting there and back on her own, either by catching the bus or riding a bike. She has also learned how to order takeout by herself on Meituan, go alone to the noodle shop downstairs from the school, and pay by scanning a code.
These are all very basic life skills, the sort of things people might assume should come naturally much earlier. She is only gradually getting the hang of them at fourteen. Still, as long as you start moving, it is never really too late. I told her: look, you have unlocked another new ability.
Over the past few days, I stumbled onto a new discovery myself. For the blog, I used to patch and tweak the template by hand, mostly by modifying CSS little by little. Recently I realized just how powerful AI can be. Now I can describe the changes I want, and it can generate the code directly. Adjusting a theme color scheme has basically turned into writing instructions and getting the result in seconds. Of course, the generated palettes still have that unmistakable AI flavor to them, which is kind of funny. But that means I have unlocked a new skill too. I can change the blog's look from time to time and let it dress for the occasion.
There is still so much potential in AI left to explore. The key is knowing how to ask the right questions.
As for the blog's name, I have gradually gotten used to it. At first, it never looked as right to me as the old one did, but with time that feeling has softened. A couple of days ago, I changed the name of the mini program as well so that it matches the blog. A new page has opened.
I also came across a line the other day: “When you die, your world ends.” Well... unsettling, maybe, but it does seem to contain a certain truth. Everyone will reach that day eventually—hands spread, goodbye to the world. So while alive, just live. That is all there is to it.