mirror of
https://github.com/helenclx/leilukin-site.git
synced 2025-04-18 01:00:49 +00:00
253 lines
47 KiB
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253 lines
47 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en">
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<title>Leilukin's Hub</title>
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<subtitle>Leilukin's personal website.</subtitle>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/feed.xml" rel="self"/>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com"/>
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<updated>2025-04-12T23:54:16Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
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<author>
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<name>Leilukin</name>
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<email>contact@leilukin.com</email>
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</author><entry>
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<title>Changelog: 13 April 2025</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-13"/>
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<updated>2025-04-12T23:54:16Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-13</id>
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<content type="html"><ul>
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<li>New blog post, <a href="/blog/posts/2025-04-13-42-piscine-first-week">&quot;First Week of 42's Piscine Bootcamp&quot;</a>.</li>
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</ul>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>First Week of 42's Piscine Bootcamp | Blog</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-13-42-piscine-first-week/"/>
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<updated>2025-04-12T23:53:37Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-13-42-piscine-first-week/</id>
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<content type="html"><p>On 7 April 2025, my attendance to <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-19-attending-42-school/">42 the computer science school</a>'s 26-day bootcamp named Piscine has finally begun. I have been looking forward to this day for nearly three months, after visiting my local campus of the school on its open day in January, applying to join the Piscine that was originally scheduled on February 24 but was later replaced by a 5-day bite-sized version of the bootcamp called <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-03-06-attended-42-discovery-piscine/">Discovery Piscine</a>, and applying to join the full Piscine that was scheduled for April 7.</p>
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<p>Despite having attended the Discovery Piscine to get a taste of what the Piscine would be like, the full Piscine is still quite a different experience, because not only the full Piscine is longer, but also its curriculum was different: Discovery Piscine focused on Python, but the Piscine focuses on C the programming language, with the first two projects being about shell commands. In addition, during Discovery Piscine, we did not use Git for storing our projects, but in the Piscine, the school's intranet creates Git repositories for all our projects, so we would submit our projects by pushing them to their own Git repositories, and during peer evaluations, evaluators would clone the Git repositories into their own computer to review their peer's work. Furthermore, Discovery Piscine did not have automatic evaluations, but in the Piscine, after getting through peer evaluations, our projects need to pass the automatic evaluation to succeed.</p>
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<p>A key to succeed the projects is to pay close attention to the details of the project exercise requirements and examples. A good thing is, one of the ways 42 is not a traditional school is that we can retry projects even if we failed. During my first try of the Piscine's very first project, which was about shell commands, I failed due to not paying enough attention to the details of the exercise requirements, but after learning my mistakes and retrying the project, I succeeded by passing both peer and automatic evaluations.</p>
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<p>I had learned C when I took CS50's Introduction to Computer Science course, but it has been a while since I wrote C, so the Piscine served as a good opportunity to refresh my C skills and knowledge. I started the Piscine's first C project on April 10, and despite already having some background in C, I still got to learn some things about C that I was not aware of before, such as the <code>write()</code> function. That said, my background with C and programming in general certainly helped me to pass the Piscine's first exam on April 11.</p>
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<p>After the weekly exam happened on Fridays, we got assigned weekly group projects to do during the weekends, with our team members being generated randomly. The first group project was easy enough for my team to complete it on Saturday, including alternate versions of the project as an opportunity to earn bonus points. Therefore, I got to take one day break on Sunday, but I still need to prepare for the possibility of needing to visit the campus for group projects in Sundays in the next few weeks.</p>
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<p>Attending the Piscine made me even happier with my decision to <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/">learn to use Vim</a> to get prepared for the Piscine, because not only the campus computers have Vim installed, but also 42 has its own Vim plugin to add its custom header, which is a requirement for doing its coding projects like C. The plugin is available for Visual Studio Code as well, but the video resource for the first C project showcases C code with Vim. The staff of my local 42 campus also mentioned having Vim installed in the campus computers when they briefed us on the first day of the Piscine. In conclusion, my hunch that 42 encourages students to use Vim was right.</p>
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<p>On average, I stayed in the campus around 8 hours per day. I had prepared for April being a busy month for me because of the Piscine, so I am doing my best in the Piscine projects, and I hope I can pass the Piscine and enter 42's core curriculum. I chose to attend 42 because computer science and programming are such vast fields that there is always something to learn, and I am a firm believer that learning is a lifelong process and journey.</p>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>Changelog: 6 April 2025</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-06"/>
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<updated>2025-04-06T14:03:56Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-06</id>
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<content type="html"><ul>
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<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2025-04-06-my-2025-qingming/">&quot;My 2025 Qingming Festival&quot;</a>.</li>
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</ul>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>My 2025 Qingming Festival | Blog</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-06-my-2025-qingming/"/>
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<updated>2025-04-06T13:47:59Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-06-my-2025-qingming/</id>
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<content type="html"><p>In 2025, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival">Qingming Festival</a>, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, fell on April 4. It is an interesting coincidence that an important day about dead people in Chinese people in both 2024 and 2025 fell on 04/04, since in at least some Chinese languages, including Mandarin and Cantonese, the number four (<span lang="zh">四</span>) and the word death (<span lang="zh">死</span>) have similar pronunciations, which is why 4 is considered an &quot;unlucky&quot; number in Chinese culture.</p>
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<p>In my family, we observe Qingming Festival every year by travelling to my parents' hometown, and visiting my paternal grandparents' and great uncle's graves. My great uncle and paternal grandfather died many years before I was even born, while my paternal grandmother passed when I was in my mid-20s.</p>
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<p>This year, my parents and paternal relatives visit my grandparents' and great uncle's tombs as usual. However, this year my parents and I agreed that I stayed in a hotel while my parents visited great uncle's grave, because the path to visit my great uncle's tomb was already h to travel especially on foot due to being full of stones and slopes, while my retinitis pigmentosa (RP) would make my movements on such uneven paths even more difficult. By comparison, walking to my grandparents' tombs are considerably easier.</p>
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<p>Sweeping tombs was not the only activity we did during this year's Qingming Festival, however.</p>
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<p>On April 4, my parents and I visited our family's durian plantation, which is currently taken care of by one of my paternal uncles. My last visit to the plantation was during <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/">this year's Lunar New Year</a>, when I also met my uncle's dog, Bak Baan, for the first time. Since our last visit, I learned that Bak Baan has become pregnant, and my uncle estimated that she will give birth a month later.</p>
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<p><img src="https://leilukin.com/assets/images/posts/my-2025-qingming/bak-baan-1.avif" alt="Photo of a pregnant mixed breed white female dog with brown spots on her forehead, ears, and tail, at the compound of a house, looking away from the camera while miling."></p>
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<p><img src="https://leilukin.com/assets/images/posts/my-2025-qingming/bak-baan-2.avif" alt="Photo of a pregnant mixed breed white female dog with brown spots on her forehead, ears, and neck, standing in a grass field, and looking away from the camera while smiling."></p>
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<p>According to my uncle, Bak Baan is a dutiful guard dog. Therefore, my uncle was also looking forward to having puppies and be a dog grandpa, as it means he would have more dogs to help to guard the durian plantation. It is incredible to think about how Bak Baan went from a starved and injured stray when she met my uncle to a happy guard dog who is going to start her own dog family.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, we got to enjoy some durians from our own plantation.</p>
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<p>During our trips both to and from my parents' hometown, we also enjoyed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendol">cendol</a>.</p>
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<p>I love cendol, and the one served in a shop near my parents' hometown is my favourite, so we like to visit that shop to enjoy cendol when we travel to my parents' hometown.</p>
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<p><img src="https://leilukin.com/assets/images/posts/my-2025-qingming/cendol.avif" alt="Photo of cendol, an iced sweet dessert that contains pandan-flavoured green rice flour jelly, coconut milk, and palm sugar syrup, in a white bowl with a Chinese spoon.">
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Coincidentally, when we were enjoying cendol with relatives before we return to my home, my mother met one of her old classmates in the same cendol shop.</p>
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<p>My parents and I stayed in a hotel for this year's Qingming Festival trip for one night. After returning to my home, I will soon need to prepare to attend <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-19-attending-42-school/">42 the computer science school</a>'s 26-day bootcamp, which will start on April 7.</p>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>Changelog: 3 April 2025</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-03"/>
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<updated>2025-04-03T12:26:32Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-03</id>
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<content type="html"><ul>
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<li>Change the website's default font family to <a href="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Readex+Pro">Readex Pro</a>.</li>
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<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/">&quot;I Use (Neo)Vim BTW&quot;</a>.</li>
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<li>Add <a href="/uses">Uses</a> page.</li>
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</ul>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>I Use (Neo)Vim BTW | Blog</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/"/>
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<updated>2025-04-03T12:23:44Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/</id>
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<content type="html"><div class="heading-wrapper h2">
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<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>
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<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/#introduction" aria-labelledby="introduction"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
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<p>It is official: I have switched from <a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/">Visual Studio Code</a> to <a href="https://neovim.io/">Neovim</a> as my main code editor.</p>
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<p>Since I started to teach myself web development, Visual Studio Code had been my integrated development environment (IDE) of choice for two years. I started out with VS Code because an IDE with a graphic user interface (GUI) were easier for a newbie web developer to get used to, especially given the fact that I came from a graphic design background, GUI ticked my graphic brain. It helped that VS Code's vast theme and extension ecosystems allowed me to customise my VS Code workspace to suit my needs.</p>
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<p>For two years, I was content with VS Code and my workspace in it. Occasionally, I discovered other code editors and IDEs, and I even briefly considered using <a href="https://vscodium.com/">VSCodium</a>, a community-driven binary releases of VS Code without Microsoft's branding, but I ended up still preferring VS Code for being easier to install extensions. I knew the existence of <a href="https://www.vim.org/">Vim</a>, but with the first thing I learned about them was jokes and memes about how to exit Vim, it was not exactly the best first impression. 😅 The idea of using a terminal-based code editor had not crossed my mind either.</p>
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<p>That changed when I attended <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-03-06-attended-42-discovery-piscine/">42 the computer science school's 5-day bite-sized coding bootcamp</a>, called Discovery Piscine, in late February this year.</p>
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<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
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<h2 id="the-seed-of-using-vim">The Seed of Using Vim</h2>
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<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/#the-seed-of-using-vim" aria-labelledby="the-seed-of-using-vim"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
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<p>The computers of my local campus of 42 use Linux, specifically the Ubuntu distribution. Discovery Piscine's curriculum focused on Python, but the assignments also included using shell commands, specifically the Bash shell, thus encouraged students to use the terminal to do the assignments.</p>
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<p>When I was attending the Discovery Piscine, the only terminal-based text editor I had used was GNU nano, which I had used to edit some configuration files, so GNU nano was what I used for the Discovery Piscine assignments. This also marked my first time coding in GNU nano.</p>
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<p>However, as I made progressed in the assignments, I quickly realised GNU nano's simplicity would make it inefficient to do more advanced coding work on it. Meanwhile, evaluating my peers' assignments allowed me to discover that some of my peers were using Vim. I did not have the time to learn to use Vim when I attended Discovery Piscine, but it planted the seed of the idea of using Vim in my mind.</p>
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<p>The computers in my 42 campus allow us to install Visual Studio Code or VSCodium — in fact, I used VS Code briefly during the Discovery Piscine to check my assignment files The curriculum also does not impose restriction on which text or code editor we should use for our coding assignments. That said, I figured that with their shell command assignments, and the fact that I already interact with the terminal in my own computer a lot due to building my websites with a static site generator, it would be a good idea to incorporate the terminal in my coding workflow more, by familiarising myself with a powerful terminal-based code editor like Vim, especially as I was planning on attending 42's full Piscine trial bootcamp in April.</p>
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<p>In late March, as the April Piscine was approaching, and I wanted to get prepared for the Piscine as much as possible, I decided to finally learn to use Vim for real.</p>
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<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
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<h2 id="side-note-gnu-emacs">Side Note: GNU Emacs</h2>
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<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/#side-note-gnu-emacs" aria-labelledby="side-note-gnu-emacs"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
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<p>As a side note, it is worth pointing out that the computers in my 42 campus also had <a href="https://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/">GNU Emacs</a> pre-installed. I was already aware of the jokes and memes about the Vim vs. Emacs <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor_war">editor war</a>, and I did consider trying out GNU Emacs, but I eventually chose to learn to use Vim first, because I appreciate Vim for being lightweight and ubiquitous as it is pre-isntalled in most Linux distributions, which means even if I use a different Linux machine, I can still count on being able to use a powerful editor for coding. In fact, Vim came pre-installed in my Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with Ubuntu as well.</p>
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<p>That said, I am still not completely ruling out the possibility of me using GNU Emacs one day, just not anytime soon.</p>
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<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
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<h2 id="started-to-learn-to-use-vim">Started to Learn to Use Vim</h2>
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<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/#started-to-learn-to-use-vim" aria-labelledby="started-to-learn-to-use-vim"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
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<p>I started learning the keyboard shortcuts and commands in Vim by typing the <code>vimtutor</code> tutorial in the terminal of my Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with Ubuntu. I had realised that learning by doing is the best way for me to learn programming, so I appreciate tutorials like vimtutor that allows me to learn and practice by doing.</p>
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<p>Even when just trying out Vim's keyboard shortcuts and commands in the tutorial, I already had a much with Vim. Finally trying out Vim myself has certainly made me appreciate it a lot, and see why would developers choose Vim as their code editor of choice. Doing all the coding in keyboard reduces the context switch that would come with using a mouse, combined with Vim's minimal interface, it allows for a coding environment with fewer distractions.</p>
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<p>Even after completing vimtutor, sometimes I still revisit the tutorial to refresh my memory of certain Vim shortcuts and commands.</p>
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<p>After completing vimtutor, I downloaded and installed gVim in my Windows system. One of the first things I did after installing gVim was adding <a href="https://reubenlillie.com/">Reuben L. Lillie</a>'s <a href="https://github.com/ericwbailey/a11y-syntax-highlighting/blob/main/dist/vim/a11y-dark.vim">a11y dark theme</a>, which was based on <a href="https://ericwbailey.website/">Eric Bailey</a>'s <a href="https://github.com/ericwbailey/a11y-syntax-highlighting">a11y syntax highlighting</a>, as my default theme in Vim.</p>
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<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
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<h2 id="hello-neovim-and-lazyvim">Hello, Neovim and LazyVim</h2>
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<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/#hello-neovim-and-lazyvim" aria-labelledby="hello-neovim-and-lazyvim"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
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<p>As I explored the Vim ecosystem further, I discovered Neovim, a fork of Vim. Vim itself has a vast plugin ecosystem, but one particular Neovim setup that attracted my attention was <a href="https://www.lazyvim.org/">LazyVim</a>, as it not only turns Neovim into a full-fledged IDE, but also makes it easy to customise and extend your Neovim configuration.</p>
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<p>The plugin ecosystem of the Vim family made me consider making Vim and Neovim replace VS Code as my main code editor. LazyVim provided what I was looking for as a great replacement for VS Code: it includes plugins that replicates the various features I use VS Code for, mainly file tree, searching files by file name or file content and code snippets. The more I explored LazyVim's features, the happier I am with my decision to switch from VS Code to Neovim as my code editor of choice, and LazyVim certainly helped with the transition.</p>
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<p>With LazyVim turning Neovim into an IDE that serves my needs, I decided to keep Vim as my backup text editor in the terminal, so I keep my Vim setup simple, with no plugins other than themes and syntax highlighting.</p>
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<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
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<h2 id="from-vs-code-to-the-vim-ecosystem">From VS Code to the Vim Ecosystem</h2>
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<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-03-i-use-neovim-btw/#from-vs-code-to-the-vim-ecosystem" aria-labelledby="from-vs-code-to-the-vim-ecosystem"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
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<p>As part of my efforts to transition to the Vim ecosystem as my main code editor, I'm building the habit of navigating the directories containing my code files with the terminal, and open the code files with Vim or Neovim in the terminal.</p>
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<p>Finally, as I settled in Vim and Neovim, I uninstalled most extensions in Visual Studio Code, officially marking my switch from VS Code to Neovim as my main code editor.</p>
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<p>Hello, Vim and Neovim!</p>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>Changelog: 1 April 2025</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-01"/>
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<updated>2025-04-01T04:24:43Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-04-01</id>
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<content type="html"><ul>
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<li>New blog post, <a href="blog/posts/2025-04-01-tdov-eid-al-fitr/">&quot;Happy Transgender Day of Visibility and Eid al-Fitr&quot;</a>.</li>
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</ul>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>Happy Transgender Day of Visibility and Eid al-Fitr | Blog</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-01-tdov-eid-al-fitr/"/>
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<updated>2025-04-01T04:24:19Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-04-01-tdov-eid-al-fitr/</id>
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<content type="html"><p>In 2025, Eid al-Fitr fell on March 31.</p>
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<p>While I am not a Muslim, I live in a majorly-Muslim country, so Eid al-Fitr is a major event. Every year, the leader of my state, referred to as the Chief Minister, hosts an open house on Eid al-Fitr where everyone can attend, with free meals and music performances available. Fun fact, in Malaysia, Eid al-Fitr is commonly referred to its Malay name, <span lang="ms"><i>Hari Raya Aidilfitri</i></span> or <span lang="ms"><i>Hari Raya Puasa</i></span>, even when speaking English.</p>
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<p>When the Chief Minister of my state hosts a open house for Eid al-Fitr, we would attend for a free lunch. Unsurprisingly, the free meals have always attracted a lot of people. Unfortunately, as an autistic person, I do not do particularly well in crowds as I am sensitive to loud sounds and my mind is rather easy to be overwhelmed by an unpredictable environment.</p>
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<p>On top of that, my visual disabilities, especially with <a href="https://leilukin.com/articles/living-with-retinitis-pigmentosa/">retinitis pigmentosa</a> (RP) weakening my peripheral vision, seeing and navigating my surroundings becomes more challenging in a large crowd. In fact, this year also marked my first visit to the Chief Minister's Eid al-Fitr open house since I got diagnosed with RP. During this visit, I tripped on a makeshift stair because I could not see the edge of the stairs clearly.</p>
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<p>As for the food, I took <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_kway_teow">char kway teow</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biryani">biryani</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendol">cendol</a>, glutinous rice and watermelon.</p>
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<p>March 31 was also the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Transgender_Day_of_Visibility">International Transgender Day of Visibility</a>. As a queer person, I noticed the interesting coincidence of Trans Day of Visibility and Eid al-Fitr fell on the same day in 2025.</p>
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<p>On Leilukin's Hub, one of the ways I use JavaScript on my website is make the header display a top bar and changes the header background on certain days, including LGBTQ+-related events such as Trans Day of Visibility. For Trans Day of Visibility, my header background changed to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_flag">transgender pride flag</a>, and the top bar linked to <a href="https://www.manygendersonevoice.org/tdov.html#/">Many Genders One Voice's Trans Day of Visibility page</a>. This setup was inspired by <a href="https://kotor.neocities.org/">KOTOR Community Portal</a>.</p>
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<p>I would like to give a special shout-out to trans Muslims, and wish them a joyous day.</p>
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<p>Happy Trans Day of Visibility and Eid al-Fitr! 🏳️⚧️☪️</p>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>Changelog: 28 March 2025</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-28"/>
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<updated>2025-03-28T05:33:52Z</updated>
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<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-28</id>
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<content type="html"><ul>
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<li>Add new article to <a href="/shrines/cassettebeasts/"><cite>Cassette Beasts</cite> shrine</a>: <a href="/shrines/cassettebeasts/articles/sunny-minor-role/">&quot;Why I Did Not Mind Sunny Had Only a Minor Role&quot;</a>.</li>
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</ul>
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</content>
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</entry><entry>
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<title>Why I Did Not Mind Sunny Had Only a Minor Role | Articles</title>
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<link href="https://leilukin.com/shrines/cassettebeasts/articles/sunny-minor-role/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-03-28T05:33:46Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/shrines/cassettebeasts/articles/sunny-minor-role/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>On 27 March 2025 in Western time zones and 12 a.m. on 28 March 2025 in my time zone, the 2025 edition of <a href="https://wiki.cassettebeasts.com/wiki/Cassette_Beasts_Showcase">Cassette Beasts Showcase</a>, an annual video presentation in which news and updates about <cite>Cassette Beasts</cite> are shared, was aired on the game's publisher <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJe9aRZCc3U">Raw Fury's YouTube channel</a>. The main highlight of the 2025 Showcase was the announcement of version update 1.8, named the &quot;Sunshine Update&quot;, revealing that among other things, Sunny, a fan favourite character will be a new partner character, along with a new story quest involving her.</p>
|
||
<p>The reveal of Sunny being promoted from a minor NPC who only appears in a minor side quest to a playable partner character took me by surprise, because Bytten Studio, the developers of <cite>Cassette Beasts</cite> had never hinted at any possibility of adding new partner characters before. In fact, Jay Baylis, the art director of Bytten Studio, had <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/14nvsiu/comment/jq9hy3n/?context=3">stated in Bytten Studio's AMA on the r/NintendoSwitch Subreddit on 1 July 2023</a> that:</p>
|
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<blockquote>
|
||
<p>[...]the current number of partner characters is baked into the design of the game in a number of ways, making it very difficult to organically add new ones in.</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>Therefore, it speaks of the power of Sunny's popularity among the player base that she became the first new playable character since the game's launch in April 2023. Unsurprisingly, Sunny fans are expressing immense excitement over the news, because wishing Sunny had a larger role in the game, including becoming a partner, has been a common sentiment among Sunny fans, with some fans even expressing disappointment that Sunny only got a brief role in the game, and questioning why.</p>
|
||
<p>The reason why Sunny initially had little screen time and content was that she was added late into the game's development and only intended by Bytten Studio as a little side story after Eugene's quest to surprise players. Bytten Studio never intended Sunny to have a huge role or much content, and they did not expect Sunny would become this popular in the player base.</p>
|
||
<figure class="c-blockquote">
|
||
<blockquote cite="https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/14nvsiu/ama_we_are_bytten_studio_the_developers_of/jq9mwtq/">
|
||
<p>We believe that a lot of the secret sauce for Cassette Beasts' appeal is in its ability to surprise the player in various ways, so things don't get too predictable. Sunny is a character that I wrote into the game quite late, as I had envisioned her whole sequence of events as being something unexpected and funny that you wouldn't expect happening as a consequence of the questline that proceeds it. Sunny's appearance is, ultimately, just a fun little side story that I cooked up to add some more flavour to the goings-on in Harbourtown. However, it's clear that she's very popular for a character who appears in exactly two cutscenes, which isn't something we entirely expected!</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<figcaption class="c-blockquote__attribution">Jay Baylis (u/SamuriFerret). <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/14nvsiu/ama_we_are_bytten_studio_the_developers_of/jq9mwtq/">Comment</a> during Bytten Studio's AMA on the r/NintendoSwitch Subreddit. 1 July 2023.</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="c-blockquote">
|
||
<blockquote cite="https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1bniroh/comment/kwjb7w4/">
|
||
<p>[...]in hindsight, given her popularity in the community, we all wish we'd given Sunny more screen-time. She was a late, unplanned addition as we neared the release.</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<figcaption class="c-blockquote__attribution">Tom Coxon (u/tcoxon). <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1bniroh/comment/kwjb7w4/">Comment</a> during Bytten Studio's AMA on the r/JRPG Subreddit. 26 March 2024.</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="c-blockquote">
|
||
<blockquote cite="https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1bniroh/comment/kwmb4j4/">
|
||
<p>Sunny was a late addition to the game as I pitched a short storyline involving the gang rehabilitating a Landkeeper after Eugene's quest. It's very apparent we underestimated how popular she'd turn out to be!</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<figcaption class="c-blockquote__attribution">Jay Baylis. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1bniroh/comment/kwmb4j4/">Comment</a> during Bytten Studio's AMA on the r/JRPG Subreddit. 26 March 2024.</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p>Questions about Sunny only getting a minor role were asked by players frequently enough that I even compiled the developers' response in <a href="https://leilukin.com/shrines/cassettebeasts/facts/">my <cite>Cassette Beasts</cite> shrine's Facts page</a>, so I can link to it whenever I see someone asked the same questions about Sunny. Now that Sunny would become a partner character, meaning thankfully questions and complaints about Sunny's minor role could finally stop, I have removed those form the Facts page, but not before <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250120094054/https://leilukin.com/shrines/cassettebeasts/facts/#sunnys-lack-of-screen-time-and-content">saving the page to the Internet Archive</a> for reference.</p>
|
||
<p>I like Sunny too, as I appreciate the concept of a character getting deprogrammed from capitalism and starting a new life beyond capitalism, which makes a good addition to <cite>Cassette Beasts</cite>'s leftist messages. In fact, Sunny's in-game character title, which can be seen if she appears as an opponent in Magikrab's Gauntlet, is &quot;Recovering Capitalist&quot;. However, to be honest, I had always been fine with Sunny only having a minor role in the game, and I did not care as much as other Sunny fans did about the idea of her becoming a partner character.</p>
|
||
<p>Why? The main reason is that it would not be a poor game design in terms of the game's pacing. Sunny only shows up after you completed the personal questline of Eugene, one of the partner characters available since the game's launch. Eugene's personal quest is already rather infamous for taking longer than every other base game partner character's quest to complete, as Eugene's quest requires the player to explore the majority of New Wirral, the main setting of <cite>Cassette Beasts</cite>, to track down and clear the Landkeeper Offices all over the map. This is not helped by the fact that you need to complete a partner's personal quest before you can raise your relationship level with them, so when you finally complete Eugene's quest, you may feel that you only have little time left to raise Eugene's relationship level with you before facing the final boss of the game.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, the idea of making Sunny a partner character means having a partner locked behind another partner's questline that already took up a huge chunk of the game to complete. Making Sunny a partner in the base game would make it feel like you only have little time to spend with Sunny before facing the final boss of the game.</p>
|
||
<p>I believed that if Sunny were to become a partner character, making her unlocked as a partner in the post-game would be better than doing so in the base game. Fortunately, this is Bytten Studio's approach for making Sunny a partner character in the &quot;Sunshine Update&quot;, as revealed in <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1321440/view/543351239572719532">their Steam post announcing the content update</a>:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p>Sunny's quest will be available to those who have finished the base game's story</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>When version 1.8, the &quot;Sunshine Update&quot; went live on April 7, it turned out that Sunny's partner quest, in which Sunny is unlocked as a partner, becomes available only after the final boss of the main story has been defeated.</p>
|
||
<p>Another reason I would prefer Sunny, or any possible future new partners, to be unlocked as partners in the post-game is that I believe the base game having six partner characters are enough.</p>
|
||
<p>Learning that Sunny was a late addition to the game during the game's development only cemented my feelings that I was fine with Sunny having little screen time in the game. To be honest, if I were the developers, I would not expect a minor NPC I added to my game only at the last minute to become this popular with the players either.</p>
|
||
<p>With all that being said, I was looking forward to recruiting Sunny as a partner and exploring her story more in the &quot;Sunshine Update&quot; as soon as the announcement trailer was revealed. Partner characters are a major appeal of <cite>Cassette Beasts</cite> to me, so I welcome more content updates involving partner characters. Shortly after the &quot;Sunshine Update&quot; went live, I played the game, unlocked Sunny as a partner, completed her partner quest, and enjoyed how Sunny's story got expanded.</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry><entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 25 March 2025</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-25"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-03-25T13:51:02Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-25</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>Add new mod, <a href="/projects/videogamemods/kotor2/#Consistent-Bastila-Recognition">Consistent Bastila Recognition</a>, to my <a href="/projects/videogamemods/kotor2/"><cite>Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II</cite> mod page</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry><entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 21 March 2025</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-21"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-03-21T14:05:19Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-21</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2025-03-21-purelymail-online-accounts/">&quot;Purelymail and Online Account Spring Cleaning&quot;</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry><entry>
|
||
<title>Purelymail and Online Account Spring Cleaning | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-03-21-purelymail-online-accounts/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-03-21T14:05:14Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-03-21-purelymail-online-accounts/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>I have switched to <a href="https://purelymail.com/">Purelymail</a> as my main email service provider.</p>
|
||
<p>I have been looking for an alternative email service provider to Gmail and Outlook for my personal use for a while, to reduce my reliance on Big Tech services as much as possible. However, price has always been the main obstacle: as an internet user who lives in a country with cheaper currency than both U.S. Dollars and Euro, I need to be conscious about how much money to spend on Western-based products, and I am honestly not comfortable spending on most of the alternative email service providers, especially for the ability to use custom domain names and create extra mailboxes or users for different purposes.</p>
|
||
<p>Purelymail, on the other hand, is really cheap: its standard pricing is already as low as 10 U.S. Dollars per year, while offering no hard limits on storage, and no extra charges for using custom domain names and creating extra mailboxes or users. After trying out Purelymail for a bit, I decided to officially activate my account with <a href="https://purelymail.com/advancedpricing">advanced pricing</a>, which is its pay-as-you-go model, because I calculated that my usage would require spending less than 10 U.S. Dollars per year.</p>
|
||
<p>I created multiple mailboxes on my Purelymail account with my various domain names for different purposes: for personal communication or registering accounts on online service. This means I changed the email addresses of most of my online accounts as well.</p>
|
||
<p>Speaking of my online accounts, I also took this opportunity of changing the email addresses of my online accounts to close and delete the online accounts that I do not use or need any more. Thanks to a password manager like <a href="https://bitwarden.com/">BitWarden</a>, I am able to not only save passwords and generate unique passwords without having to memorise every one of them myself, but also keep track of how many online accounts I have, including ones that I no longer use or need so I can get rid of those accounts. In the end of this round of online account spring cleaning, I closed and deleted at least 60 accounts.</p>
|
||
<p>After inspired by the resurgence of personal websites to code my own website for the first time in 2022, I have learned more about the importance of taking control and ownership of my online life and presence. It is telling that many of the online accounts I just deleted were related to services that I had settled for alternatives that I have been satisfied with.</p>
|
||
<p>For example, <a href="https://obsidian.md/">Obsidian</a> has become my go-to note-taking software for pretty much everything, including projects, so I do not need other online project management services for personal use any more; <a href="https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/">Affinity Photo</a> and <a href="https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/">Designer</a> have replaced Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for my photo editing and vector graphics needs, especially given the fact that I do not work as a graphic designer any more, so I do not need an Adobe account any more.</p>
|
||
<p>In conclusion, I am satisfied with my switch to Purelymail, and I have found online spring cleaning a good practice in declutter my online life.</p>
|
||
<p>Shout-out to Porkbun's support team for helping me to resolve a DNS issue with the leilukin.com domain name after switching from Porkbun's email forwarding service to Purelymail that was caused by the DNS records related to Porkbun's email forwarding being cached in leilukin.com's DNS records longer than expected.</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry><entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 19 March 2025</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-19"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-03-19T11:10:52Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/changelogs/2025/#2025-03-19</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>In the website's RSS feed, changelog items are now linked to their anchor links on the changelog pages, instead of the website's home page.</li>
|
||
<li>New blog post, <a href="/blog/posts/2025-03-19-ne-zha-2-impressions">&quot;Ne Zha 2&quot; Impressions</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry><entry>
|
||
<title>"Ne Zha 2" Impressions | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-03-19-ne-zha-2-impressions/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-03-19T11:10:47Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-03-19-ne-zha-2-impressions/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>On the afternoon of 18 March 2025, my parents and I went to the cinema to watch <cite>Ne Zha 2</cite> (<span lang="zh">哪吒之魔童闹海</span>), an animated film produced in mainland China.</p>
|
||
<p>To be honest, my parents were more excited about watching this film than I was. After finding out that <cite>Ne Zha 2</cite> was a massive box office success in China, my parents were looking forward to its release in Malaysia. As soon as <cite>Ne Zha 2</cite> started to be shown in cinema in Malaysia, my parents talked about their plans to watch the film, and even watched its predecessor, <cite>Ne Zha</cite> (<span lang="zh">哪吒之魔童降世</span>), at home the night before watching <cite>Ne Zha 2</cite> to do their homework.</p>
|
||
<p>As for me, I have never paid close attention to mainland China's entertainment industry, especially when compared to my teenage years when I followed Hong Kong and Taiwan's entertainment industry closely to the extent of being described as an expert by my mother. Therefore, I accompanied my parents to see <cite>Ne Zha</cite> merely out of curiosity and a desire to see what the hype was, and what made the film such a hit and the highest-grossing animated film in the world.</p>
|
||
<p>As a result, after sitting in the cinema for more than two hours and watching <cite>Ne Zha</cite> for myself, my first impression was that the animation and visual effects of the film are truly stunning and full of action as well as tense and dramatic moments. However, I am not a fan of the film's portrayal and treatment of its female characters.</p>
|
||
<p>A <a href="https://movie.douban.com/review/16499182/">Ne Zha 2 review by circularuins on Douban (in Chinese)</a> explains my issues with the portrayal and treatment of women in the film well. If you do not mind spoilers, I highly recommend reading the entire article. Even if you are unable to read Chinese, I would still suggest trying to read it with a machine translation.</p>
|
||
<p>I deeply relate to the author when they talked about how beginning to strongly identify as an Asian woman, and realise what that identity means in society, and thus starting to look at films' portrayal of women in a critical eye. This is a big part of why my taste in entertainment media has changed drastically as an adult compared to when I was a teenager. As an adult, I began to learn about the concept of media representation, and how the portrayal of different groups of people—including women—in the media reflects and influences the audience impression of those demographics.</p>
|
||
<p>As for the portrayal of women in entertainment media such as film and television, I am particularly tired of and disgusted by the trope of women characters existing mainly or only as sacrifices for the development of male characters. There is even a name for this trope, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_refrigerators">women in refrigerators</a>. This is one of the reasons why I despise the 2023 Hong Kong film <cite>One More Chance</cite> (<span lang="zh">别叫我“赌神”</span>), which I also saw in the cinema with my parents, and regard it as a major stinker of a film. Unfortunately, the woman in refrigerator trope happens in <cite>Ne Zha 2</cite> as well. Honestly, it is embarrassing and insulting to see these tired old sexist tropes in a hit film in the 2020s.</p>
|
||
<p>All in all, while I can understand, to a certain degree, how the animation and visual effects of <cite>Ne Zha 2</cite> are a reason for the film's success, I cannot recommend it wholeheartedly, especially if you have high standards for the portrayal and treatment of women in film.</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
</feed> |