Original Intention#
Recently, I haven't been very enthusiastic about writing weekly journals. Work has taken up most of my life, and there's nothing interesting to write about. However, following the belief that "if it's not recorded, it's as if it never happened," I still want to maintain the habit of writing.
Why Write#
First of all, I need to clarify why I want to write a blog, or what kind of blog I want. It all started when I used to upload videos on Youku, but they had to go through a review process. At that time, I read the user agreement and found out that the platform would partially transfer the copyright of the video content to them when I published it. I couldn't accept this, as it was my content, but others had the right to delete or modify my work (I guess this is also why I still have a little hope for web3). So I secretly thought that I should create my own website to showcase my own things (I definitely couldn't afford to host videos, but I could write some texts).
However, during the process of building the website, the fun of building the website outweighed the purpose of building it. I was using WordPress at the time, tinkering with themes and learning frontend knowledge. My blog has been around since 2015, and I've been writing on and off, always focusing on life and never writing about technology (because I don't have much knowledge in that area). At first, it was just some random thoughts, some reflections after reading, some lamentations about life... Later, I wanted to write some deeper thoughts, and now I laugh at myself. Of course, there are some benefits to writing what I consider to be "valuable" thoughts.
The first article on my blog made me believe that writing is a form of "sedimentation." When I write, it feels like I'm having a conversation with myself, which brings me peace. I really like a quote from the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges that I once read:
"I write, not for fame, nor for specific readers. I write to find peace as time passes."
No one cares about my blog#
Although I seem to have started writing a blog early on, it has always been for my own entertainment. Except for the first year when I bought a domain name and tried to do SEO and indexing, I haven't really done much. It's all self-produced and self-sold.
Honestly, my blog is just a showcase of my foolishness to the world. I have always warned myself that "if you don't speak, no one will treat you as a mute, but if you speak, you'll look like a fool." So I have always kept to myself. Even if I show my blog to friends around me, most of them just politely take a look and secretly mock it: "How can you write a blog so poorly?"
As a result, I have never wanted to and dared not make my blog public. The consequence of not making it public is that even if I set a goal for myself to write weekly journals, I still easily fall behind and stop updating. A one-week or two-week break can easily turn into a month or a year.
Now that I'm older, I don't care about these things anymore. When I read my journals in a few years, they will be a memoir of the emotional journey of these years, just like what I said earlier, "if it's not recorded, it's as if it never happened." Writing now is a conversation with myself, and rereading old articles is a conversation with my past self (a more foolish self).
Learning to write is difficult, and I have no intention of becoming a well-known blogger. It's also unlikely that I can make money from writing. Writing is just a process of catharsis for me.
Maintaining a blog used to be quite costly: domain names and servers were needed; I didn't know how to roll back when I made coding mistakes; I didn't know what to do when I was hit by a DDoS attack... Now, static blog solutions are much better, and I can focus almost solely on writing.
Whether or not my blog is made public is no longer that important. What matters is that I am writing.
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate#
Ubisoft gave it away on Black Friday, and I happened to have never played it. I didn't buy it because it was free, and I stopped playing Monster Hunter because the canned food was delicious.
I didn't pay much attention to the storyline, as it follows the same formula as other Ubisoft games, with points all over the map for you to clear. However, this installment does have a stealth gameplay element, which I really enjoy. The game has improved the performance of the grappling hook, and if it's nighttime and raining, it feels like playing as Batman. The game claims to be about building a gang, but that aspect of gameplay is not very prominent. Since it's a gang, there's no need to hide it like the Brotherhood in previous games.
There are many bugs, and the game often becomes glitchy while playing. The main storyline is not long, so I spend most of my time playing side missions to extend the game's lifespan. Of course, this is a characteristic of Ubisoft games, so it's not worth mentioning.
Here are a few things I want to mention. The background is set in the Industrial Age, the Victorian era, around 1868 if I remember correctly. I'm not very familiar with the history of this period, but I do remember that the air quality in London during the Industrial Age was very poor. However, in the game, the weather is always sunny and there's no indication of air pollution (although it's possible that it wasn't severe enough at that time to obstruct visibility). The transportation in the game is horse-drawn carriages, and I remember seeing a detail in a British drama where the streets were filled with horse manure because horse-drawn carriages were the main mode of transportation at that time, and the road conditions were poor. In the game, you can race carriages (indicating good road conditions).
The game also has interesting aspects. One of them is the frequent rescue missions for child laborers. At that time, the salary of an adult could hire six or seven child laborers. Even though there were regulations prohibiting the employment of child labor, there were still many missions to rescue child laborers, showing that the country was still capitalist. When the game starts, you are in the Whitechapel area in the north, where the infamous Jack the Ripper case occurred. This area was chaotic, and most of the poor people lived here, right by the street. To the west of the map is Buckingham Palace, with an elegant living environment, parks, ponds, singing and dancing. The industrial area and the wealthy area are divided by the River Thames, with the affluent area on the left and the harsh living conditions of the workers on the right. The game also has a Karl Marx side mission, leading the proletariat in rebellion, but it feels like blowing up factories, preventing workers from blowing up factories themselves, giving speeches... It's quite confusing.
Overall, it's quite fun, more enjoyable than the later Assassin's Creed games, but there's not much joy in climbing buildings because I often use the grappling hook. At the beginning, Bell took me to climb Big Ben, but because I used the grappling hook, there were hardly any memorable moments. It's not as enjoyable as when Ezio climbed buildings in Florence and Venice.
Peaky Blinders Season 1#
I heard a lot of good things about it before, but I couldn't get through the first episode no matter how many times I tried, maybe the timing wasn't right. This time, I watched it while eating with Syndicate, and I finished the first season in just a few days.
The clothes are quite stylish, and the gang fights are more intense and treacherous. The Peaky Blinders at this stage are still not very impressive, their methods are not yet sophisticated enough, but there's a feeling that you have to play hard in the early stages of development. The American empire across the Atlantic Ocean has long stopped playing these games, they play political corruption.
The time period here is around 1920, about 60 years different from Syndicate, and the biggest change is that the transportation in Syndicate is horse-drawn carriages, while in Peaky Blinders it's cars.
Another change is in the women's clothing: Victorian-style clothing extensively uses lace, chiffon, ruffles, ribbons, bows, multi-layered cake cutting, pleats, etc., as well as palace-style designs such as standing collars, high waists, princess sleeves, leg-of-mutton sleeves, etc. (according to Baidu). This type of clothing emphasizes romance, elegance, and delicacy, highlighting the curves and waist of women. It requires a lot of time, manpower, and maintenance in terms of design, production, and care. In Peaky Blinders, due to the recent end of World War I, there was a shortage of resources, and women began to pursue simpler and more practical clothing. Victorian-style dresses were abandoned in favor of looser and more comfortable clothes, with softer and simpler colors.
This change in clothing style also reflects the changes in society and the advancement of women's status at that time. Due to the large number of men participating in World War I, women had the opportunity to enter factories and work in fields that were previously exclusive to men. This made women more economically independent and laid the foundation for later struggles for equal political rights. In Peaky Blinders, Aunt Polly can always confront Thomas by reminding him that it was her who held the family together during the war, while Thomas can only helplessly say, "Now we're back."
What hasn't changed is that the wealth gap has become even more severe. In the early 20th century, the average weekly wage of an ordinary British worker was usually around £10-12, but after the Peaky Blinders took control of the horse racing business, they could earn £150 a day. At this time, the Peaky Blinders couldn't even be considered as fingernail clippings in front of capitalists.
I wrote this while working, and there are still things I want to write down, but I don't have time to organize my thoughts. I'll see if I remember these things next week and write them down.