2025 has quietly slipped away. Seizing the tail end of the final day, let’s draw a perfect conclusion for this year.

Blog Topics Retrospective

A brief look back: this year, I published a total of 100 blog posts (including this one), covering a wide and eclectic range of topics.

1. Deep Dives into Technical Exploration. From “Using Goaccess in 1panel to Replace Website Monitoring” to “Migrating Soomal.cc to Hugo” and “Adding Article Search Functionality to HUGO”, nearly one-fifth of the year’s articles focused on blog operations, tool optimization, and open-source practices. Technology is the skeleton, supporting the continuous growth of content.

2. Cool-Headed Reflections in the AI Era. Amidst the fervent wave of technology, I tried to stay clear-headed: “The AI Shopping Era Has Arrived, Are You Using It?” explored practical applications; “What AI Lacks Now Is Not Computing Power, But ‘Memory’” pointed directly at technical bottlenecks; “If Laws Don’t Prevent It, AI Enslaving Humanity Could Accelerate” sounded an ethical alarm.

3. Persistent Questioning of Social Issues. “Controversies Around the Public Security Administration Punishment Law”, “Why Is Sealing Public Security Records Necessary?”, “50 Common Misconceptions About Sealing Drug Offense Records”… This series of articles on legal revisions represents my rational participation as an ordinary citizen and the professional attention instinctive to someone with a legal background.

4. Frank Records of Personal Experiences. “My First Time in an Operating Room: My Perianal Abscess Surgery and Hospital Stay” documented vulnerability and resilience during illness; “After Over 10 Years of Work, I Received My First Commendation Banner” revealed professional satisfaction; “Remembering Old Deng” and “A Life Propelled Forward” were simple tributes to life and time.

5. A Grounded Perspective on Cultural Observations. “The ‘Mán’ of Hunan People Is Not ‘Bà Mán’” analyzed regional character; “Having ‘Mixed’ in Guangdong for 18 Years, Still Can’t Speak Cantonese?” recorded the cultural tension of immigrant life; “How Do Foreigners Choose Names in China?” observed cross-cultural collisions through a small lens.

6. The Democratization of Technology in Online Life. “Can Reducing Bandwidth Actually Speed Things Up?”, “Why Are Home Router Addresses 192.168.1.1?”, “Why Does My 1000M Broadband Only Test at 300M?” — these articles attempted to “translate” technical knowledge into everyday language, allowing ordinary users to understand the underlying logic.

7. Rational Engagement with Public Events. “The Tianshui Kindergarten Lead Poisoning Incident”, “An Old Friend Got In Due to Corruption Issues”, “How to Handle It When the Police Are the Liable Party in a Traffic Accident”… Faced with complex realities, I chose to sort through facts rather than vent emotions, using logical analysis to resist the bubble of public opinion.

8. Reflections on Writing Itself. “The Difference Between Writing for WeChat Official Accounts and Writing a Blog”, “Upon Reaching a Million Words—Launching a Personal WeChat Subscription Account”, “October Thoughts: My First 100K+ WeChat Article” documented the adaptation and persistence of content creation amidst platform changes. The medium changes, but the original intent of expression remains.

9. “Technological Anthropology” in Daily Life. “Why Are People Still Using 20-Year-Old Computers?”, “Do Cars with Dual-Clutch Transmissions Require Learning Manual Shifting?”, “Is It Necessary for an Ordinary Family to Buy a Printer or 3D Printer?” — these articles observed the intertwining of technology and daily life, questioning the essential meaning of tools.

10. Building the Blog as a “Digital Home.” From changing the domain to lawtee.com, migrating frameworks, optimizing deployment, to experimenting with publishing via GitHub Issues and automatic English translation… This year, the blog was not just a content container but became a continuously iterating digital product, embodying all my imagination for independent creation.

Recent Two Months’ Thoughts

In the last two months, I haven’t posted many “Thoughts,” mainly feeling that often there’s no need to say much. Work-related matters mostly can’t be shared publicly, and life doesn’t have that many things requiring the “attention” of others. Overall, it’s been uneventful, with occasional updates.

Bizarre Private Messages on WeChat Official Account

Last year, I wrote an article about repairing a Xiaomi smart lock failure and recently posted it on my WeChat Official Account. Although it only had a little over 300 reads, I was pleased to receive feedback from a reader who successfully fixed their lock using my method. However, today I got a strange private message asking me to come to their home for repairs, which is a bit puzzling. Looking at their account info, they’re from Nantong, Jiangsu, and judging by the profile picture, likely an elderly woman. My backend data shows she probably found the article via WeChat Search.

Logically, someone who can use WeChat Search should have some basic common sense, yet this happened. It’s a mystery.

Git Download Speed Stubbornly Stuck at 20KB/s

Tonight, I encountered a strange issue. Usually, when I clone a repository from GitHub locally, it starts at 50 Mbps. But perhaps because I recently adjusted my blog writing path to use a submodule, when cloning it along with the main repository, the speed stubbornly stayed at 200 Kbps, i.e., just over 20 KB/s. At first, I didn’t think much of it and let it download in the background while I opened Steam to do this week’s CS2 tasks. After playing four matches over two to three hours, a 250 MB repository still wasn’t finished, only reaching 70%.

After canceling and retrying multiple times, I found the main repository downloaded at 100 Mbps, but as soon as it started pulling the submodule, the speed immediately dropped to 200 Kbps. Searching online suggested it might be a submodule protocol issue. Indeed, to work with some workflows, this submodule uses an SSH connection in its settings, i.e., the git@github.com:user/repo.git link format. Git might then use the git:// protocol, communicating over port 9418, which is likely throttled by the ISP.

The solution is relatively simple: add a global proxy for this port in git or rewrite the SSH protocol to HTTPS.

# Create global protocol conversion rules
git config --global url."https://github.com/".insteadOf "git://github.com/"
git config --global url."https://github.com/".insteadOf "git@github.com:"

# Force conversion for all submodules
git submodule foreach 'git config url.https://github.com/.insteadOf git@github.com:'

CS Game Time Exceeds 3000 Hours

Unconsciously, my CS game time has reached 3000 hours. I bought this game during its closed beta in September 2012, with most playtime in the early years after starting work. After having kids, I didn’t play for several consecutive years. Last year, I started doing the weekly tasks in my spare time and earned the commemorative coins for last year and this year.

Yesterday, I noticed a rating display under the card, but it required ten match wins. So, I spent about 10 hours, achieving a record of 10 wins and 4 losses, finally completing the task. The process was frustrating—slow reactions, poor aim—and I was ultimately ranked at 6600 points.

The Bizarre Wall

My VMiss Hong Kong VPS suddenly lost connectivity to all three major networks about ten days ago, only working through Cloudflare. But just now, casually checking, I found it’s back. It went down mysteriously and came back just as strangely.

What a Coincidence

Just now, I wanted to search for something on my blog. Since the new theme doesn’t have a search function, I clicked to view the old version. Unexpectedly, I saw the word count: 1,088,888.

Such an auspicious number must be commemorated.

China Broadcast Mobile Card Recently Gets QOS Throttled Daily

Every morning when I run a speed test, it’s usually full speed at 500 Mbps. But in the afternoon, it gets throttled directly to 1 Mbps. I wonder if it’s because I’ve been using the China Broadcast card as a WiFi hotspot for a long time. But checking the data usage, I’ve only used 15 GB this month, with 200 GB still left in the plan. Unbelievable.

This issue is almost unsolvable. I’ve tested it for many consecutive days, and the results are largely the same. It’s not just one speed test site; multiple sites show similar results, though others aren’t as “extreme” as dropping below 1 Mbps. I feel my SIM card might have been placed in some ISP “card pool” for targeted QOS treatment.

One-Day Trip to Qingyuan Gulong Gorge

Yesterday, I participated in a union-organized activity for a one-day trip to Qingyuan.

Given cost constraints, one can’t realistically have high expectations for such activities. In the morning, we walked around a large park in Qingxin County, covering over 10,000 steps. In the afternoon, we went to the Gulong Gorge scenic area and walked another 10,000+ steps.

Overall, this Gulong Gorge scenic area is similar to many rural leisure tourism spots. For example, the area uses various dinosaur models along the mountain paths to “scare” people, features the ubiquitous “glass bridge,” and has artificial waterfalls.

What’s more distinctive is that Gulong Gorge has two amusement rides that are quite interesting. One is the Cliff Coaster, and the other is the Gorge Coaster (also called QQ Coaster). The former is similar to a typical scenic spot’s “roller coaster” but with the特色 of being built into the mountainside. The latter is a co-branded ride with QQ Speed, where you drive a powerless “cart” down the mountain. It’s quite unique, and the track length is suitable.

Additionally, to enter the QQ Coaster, you need to take a “Magic Carpet” elevator twice. Experiencing this mode for the first time felt quite novel.

Overall, since we went on a weekday, the ticket prices weren’t expensive. But at the front desk, I saw these two “coaster” projects priced at 288 RMB each. If going on weekends or holidays, it might not be very cost-effective. After all, 288 RMB is enough for a round-trip high-speed train ticket from Guangzhou to Guilin.

Observing the Affluent Neighborhood

On the weekend, I took my child to play at her classmate’s house and, following the classmate’s parents, went to see two houses in the local affluent neighborhood.

This friend’s family already lives in a nice house—a 180 sqm villa with 4 floors: a basement with a swimming pool and entertainment room, a first floor with living room, dining room, and kitchen. However, they feel four bedrooms are too few, and one bedroom on the top floor gets too much sun, while the elderly’s bedroom on the ground floor is too damp (it was even flooded this year, Orz). So, they bought a 150 sqm townhouse next door for the elderly, saying they should take advantage of the property management currently not enforcing rules against unauthorized construction. With the added unauthorized area, it ends up being about 180 sqm.

But while buying the house for the elderly, they saw a detached villa in the same community currently selling cheaply. They’re considering selling their current house to buy the larger villa.

I also went to see the villa they’re interested in. Wow, 550 sqm of floor area. The original owner had it decorated with 10 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, two kitchens, plus a chess/card room, cinema, billiards room, etc. Outside, there’s a large swimming pool and children’s play facilities.

One can only say, with money comes任性. Also, this area is overall very quiet, with not many actual residents. Mainly, there were already several very mature large villa developments locally, creating an agglomeration effect. And this location is slightly remote, about 15 km from the city center.

Overall, at my current stage, I don’t have much need for such a villa. Although the price per square meter isn’t much higher than downtown apartments, it’s inconvenient for daily life and requires a lot of effort. Most importantly, funds are tight. Buying one wouldn’t be enough, buying two is unaffordable, so it’ll have to wait. Living in two apartments upstairs and downstairs like now is actually quite good—at least there are elevators, and no need to worry about the elderly falling.

A First-Grader’s Regret

The night before last, my son likely caught influenza A, running a high fever. By 4:30 AM, after a second dose of 0.1g ibuprofen, it finally subsided. Yesterday, he spent the whole day listlessly playing alone at home. But he kept thinking about the school sports day today because he’s been practicing jump rope hard for the last two months, wanting to beat his sister’s record.

Last night, he probably had a low-grade fever all night. I thought he’d be mostly okay today, but he couldn’t get up in the morning and couldn’t go to school with his sister. I took him out close to 9 o’clock because the sports day was starting at 9:30.

On the way to school, he first vomited, covering the backseat floor mat. I had to stop at a small supermarket by the roadside to buy a big pack of paper towels to clean it up.

As we neared the school, he said he really needed to pee. I had just parked when I let him go in the nearby grass. Unexpectedly, as he peed, he also had diarrhea, staining his pants yellow.

There was no choice but to go back home. On the way home, he vomited again, this time more thoroughly. Luckily, he held a plastic bag himself.

In the end, he had to stay home with his grandma to play.

The Most Remote Village in Foshan

Today, I went with a friend to the most remote village in Foshan: Pingling Village.

This village was only transferred from Zhaoqing to Foshan this October. The main reason is that the village falls within the land acquisition scope for the new Guangzhou airport. Since the new Guangzhou airport is located at the Foshan-Zhaoqing border, for easier management, nine villages adjacent to Foshan were given to Foshan.

Being the most remote, it’s 10 km to the nearest county road with a center divider and 15 km to the town—a three-hour walk. With inconvenient transportation and闭塞 geographical conditions, the village basically only has scattered elderly and children left.

The village committee office is just a few single-story houses, probably the most简陋 in Foshan.

Thinking about it, they got lucky. Originally, this place was basically a microcosm of countless空心 villages, gradually declining, likely to become completely abandoned in not many years. But who would have thought they’d suddenly “hit the jackpot” and potentially prosper.

A Headache of a Day

With only a few days left until year-end, work is heavy, with various tasks urgently needing completion—busy to the point of dizziness. I went home at noon for a short nap, but soon after, an elderly family member called, saying they had fallen outside, fractured something, and asked me to pick them up.

In a panic, I rushed downstairs to drive to the location they mentioned. Just as I got in the car, the traffic police called, saying a passerby had reported it and they had already been taken to the hospital. So, I changed the navigation destination and headed straight to the hospital.

Upon arrival, I found it was a township hospital, roughly equivalent to a town health center level. But the doctors had already done a CT scan: scapula fracture, requiring immediate surgery.

I was a bit worried about the hospital’s capability and asked if we could transfer to the People’s Hospital. Two doctors came out saying their orthopedics department is a specialty, and they happened to have two expert doctors dispatched from higher-level hospitals present. They could arrange surgery immediately, and the elderly person’s condition wasn’t suitable for moving again because the scapula裂开 was already severe.

No choice. I paid over 500 RMB for the ambulance and a 500 RMB deposit to start hospitalization. The doctor roughly estimated total costs at around 50,000 RMB. With their hospital’s reimbursement rate, probably about 90% would be covered. Fortunately, it’s a small hospital with few people, so效率 was fast. The surgery was done that afternoon.

This is already the second time for the elderly family member this year. The last time was at the end of August, when they不慎踩空 at work and fell, hitting their head, and was hospitalized for 5 days. This time, they said they fell asleep while riding an electric bike and crashed into a roadside guardrail.

From now on, I dare not let them ride an electric bike that far again. I worked overtime until past 1 AM to catch up on the afternoon’s work.