EtaoinWu

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This is the first time I’m writing an annual post in English; however I have done this in the Chinese half of my blog for a few years. As the Chinese New Year is still ongoing, let me take my final chances to write it down before the new year officially starts.

Two thousand and twenty-six, year of the pony, is kind of my year. The years before that, my official zodiac year, was probably too depressing to write about; after last year’s annual post (in Chinese), things are getting better, little bit by little bit. Order was gradually restoring. The year that has just passed, therefore, is a year of convergence, unification, and better control over everything around a certain Etaoin.

Things

I am, by no means, a diary person. I tried multiple times over the last couple of years to form a kind of record-keeping habit, every time failing to do so eventually. I have to rely on tools like Google Photos, GitHub, etc. to find out what I have done myself in the past year. Some of the things I did include:

• My office was moved to a brand-new building with a look much more modern. A change in environment is a change of mood, but sadly the building isn’t the roughest one.
• I started to host a PGP Keyserver Hockeypuck. It is my attempt to contribute a little to the PGP ecosystem, which is in its decline for a couple of years now. The community is small but wonderful, and I am glad to be a part.
• I did some modifications to my electric scooter, including front and rear suspension, lights, bags, bells, etc. A better commuting experience makes the life much better.
• In March, I went to Griffith Observatory with some friends. The weather was good.
• I went back to China in May, and stayed there until the end of summer. Spent some time meeting with important people. During the trip:
  • The layover was in Singapore, which is the best city in the nation of Singapore is a very fun city. Changi airport gives me a bit of city life, which I have long been deprived of living in the shithole called Los Angeles. The first layover was long enough for me to ride a shared bike (blue!) around the city center.
  • I went back to the city where everything started, Hangzhou. Also visited places like Shanghai and Xiamen. Met a lot of interesting friends!
  • Ate a lot of good food: and some bad food:
• I have finally broke the zero-paper barrier in my PhD career, with a paper published. I presented it in Lyon back in the summer. The city is immensely beautiful, and I had a good time experiencing the European way of life.
• On the not-so-good side, my chronic respiratory disease got worse in mid-year. The physician recommended a new medication, which works well but is extremely hard to get in the US healthcare system. I communicated with my doctor and insurance company for months, and it is still not approved. The American healthcare system is really as bad as people say.

Fun

I did some fun things:

• I became a licensed HAM radio operator. I mostly do FM and DMR on U/V bands, but I also bought a HF rig; however, the noise level in my area is bad, and I haven’t made a contact yet.
• I learned paracord knotting and weaving. I made some balls.
• During the summer, I attended AOSCC 2025. Didn’t do any talk or something – after all I don’t even use the distro – but it was good to see many friends there.
• I got to know an interesting group of gamers towards the end of the year, who introduced me to many new games. Back 4 Blood has some interesting cooperative shooting, deck building, and roguelite elements, which I thoroughly enjoyed; Rabbit and Steel has asome fun coop bullet-hell gameplay and a nice art style. Besides those, I also want to give a shout-out to Öoo; if you want to learn puzzle design, this game is a textbook.
• I customized some postcards (I won’t show them here!) and sent them to some friends. I also received some postcards. If you want to receive one from me, contact me on any platform.

People

I, unfortunately, is not good at writing the section on interpersonal relationships, in all of the previous annual posts. My groupchat SoL has seen a significant decrease in the number of messages, maybe due to timezone differences and the disconnection of some bots. Despite this, I thank every member for the fun they provided. It’s a pity I cannot meet everyone I want to meet.

As for significant relationships, I have tremendous difficulty writing this section. Let me just show this photo.

Thoughts

Etaoin, unfortunately, is not the best writer of this style. Even my tourism photos are not good as some other blog authors like ByVoid’s. But why would I keep writing these new-year blog posts? What’s so special about new years? When the earth goes a full circle around the sun, four seasons come and go, this specific moment isn’t naturally significant for modern people. The tradition and ritual of new year was passed to us by our farming ancestors whose work depend on the season, but we keep them as a chance to talk to family, review what’s passed, and imagine about what’s to come. I might have just forced myself to continue my tradition of the couple of posts before. Even when the new year is a completely arbitrary moment in time, we still use the calendar year as some kind of milestone, and treat the new year as a new start in life. Why shouldn’t I take on this chance to give some change to my life?

So, if you read all the way to here, wish you a happy new year. Wish myself a new year as well: a twenty twenty-six that can keep on the trend of stablization, that I can use to better take care of myself physically and mentally, and that will give me a lot of fun.

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