305 lines
45 KiB
XML
305 lines
45 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
|
||
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en">
|
||
<title>Leilukin's Hub</title>
|
||
<subtitle>Leilukin's personal website.</subtitle>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/feed.xml" rel="self"/>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-02-09T14:58:38Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<author>
|
||
<name>Leilukin</name>
|
||
<email>contact@leilukin.com</email>
|
||
</author>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 9 February 2025</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-02-09T14:58:38Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2025-02-09-my-first-smartwatch">&quot;My First Smartwatch&quot;</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>My First Smartwatch | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-09-my-first-smartwatch/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-02-09T14:58:32Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-09-my-first-smartwatch/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>I just received my first smartwatch: Xiaomi Smart Band 9.</p>
|
||
<p><img src="https://leilukin.com/assets/images/posts/my-first-smartwatch/my-xiaomi-smart-band-9.avif" alt="Close-up photo of my left wrist wearing a black Xiaomi Smart Band 9 smartwatch, with the screen on and displaying information about time, date and health."></p>
|
||
<p>This Xiaomi Smart Band 9 was a free gift from my father's purchase of Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G. My mother had bought the same Xiaomi smartwatch for herself a while ago, so my parents gave this new one to me. Since the &quot;mi&quot; (<span lang="zh">米</span>) in Xiaomi's Chinese name <span lang="zh">小米</span> also means rice in Chinese, my parents jokingly referred to my father buying a new Redmi Note smartphone as &quot;buying rice&quot; (<span lang="zh">买米</span>).</p>
|
||
<p>My parents and I have been Xiaomi customers for years since we purchased our first Redmi Note budget smartphones. My current smartphone is Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G, so I used my Redmi smartphone to set up my Xiaomi smartwatch as well. Yes, the photo above of me wearing Xiaomi Smart Band 9 was taken with the camera in my Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G.</p>
|
||
<p>As I have entered my 30s, my parents have encouraged me to do my best to take good care of my health before it is too late. Recently during Lunar New Year, my eldest paternal aunt commented that I had gained weight since the last time she saw me nearly a year ago. I never considered getting a smartwatch before, but now that I have one, I may as well make good use of it by keeping track of my health information, so hopefully it will help me to stay healthy.</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 6 February 2025</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-02-05T16:25:31Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year">&quot;My 2025 Lunar New Year&quot;</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>My 2025 Lunar New Year | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-02-05T16:25:22Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>Happy Lunar New Year and Year of the Snake to fellow Asians who celebrate! 🧧🐍</p>
|
||
<p>As a Chinese person, Lunar New Year is a major holiday, especially given the fact that here in Malaysia, Lunar New Year is the only traditional Chinese holiday that is also an official holiday in a national scale, which means the first two days of Lunar New Year are a holiday for non-Chinese people in Malaysia as well.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="preparation">Preparation</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/#preparation" aria-labelledby="preparation"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>As for my family specifically, our tradition for celebrating Lunar New Year is family gatherings with our relatives in my parents' hometown. In addition, as Lunar New Year takes place in January or February, we start preparing to celebrate it since early January, soon after a new year in Gregorian calendar begins. Our Lunar New Year celebration in 2025, the Year of the Snake, is no exception.</p>
|
||
<p>This year, my younger brother, who has been living in Singapore since attending a university there and then working in Singapore since, returned to Malaysia from Singapore, which is not something we take for granted since he had skipped returning to Malaysia during Lunar New Year in the past, including the previous year.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="lunar-new-year-eve">Lunar New Year Eve</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/#lunar-new-year-eve" aria-labelledby="lunar-new-year-eve"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>Once we returned to my parents' hometown, we gathered with our extended family on my father's side for a reunion lunch (yes, lunch, not dinner since we had our reunion meal in the afternoon) on Lunar New Year Eve on January 28.</p>
|
||
<p>After our lunch, my immediate family and I joined one of my paternal uncles, who owns the house we were staying in after the passing of my paternal grandmother, and his girlfriend in visiting our family's durian plantation. The highlight of the durian plantation visit is meeting my uncle's female dog Baak Baan for the first time.</p>
|
||
<p><img src="https://leilukin.com/assets/images/posts/my-2025-lunar-new-year/baak-baan-1.avif" alt="Photo of a mixed breed white female dog with brown spots on her forehead, ears, backside and tail, at the compound of a house, looking at the camera while smiling, and a pot is beneath the dog's head."></p>
|
||
<p>Baak Baan was a stray dog that was founded by my uncle when she walked into our durian plantation one day months ago. At the time, Baak Baan was injured, and starved to the extent that her ribs were visible. Thankfully, under my uncle's care, she had become healthier, so she became my uncle's pet and guard dog. She was named Baak Baan after the mahjong tile <span lang="zh">白板</span> in Cantonese. Baak Baan was a good girl, and we enjoyed greeting and petting her.</p>
|
||
<p>When the evening came, we prepared to count down to the arrival of Lunar New Year. As soon as 12 am of the first day of Lunar New Year arrived, fireworks began.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="first-day-of-lunar-new-year">First Day of Lunar New Year</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/#first-day-of-lunar-new-year" aria-labelledby="first-day-of-lunar-new-year"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>My immediate family also has the tradition of visiting my maternal family in the morning of the first day of Lunar New Year and having lunch together in the afternoon, and 2025 was no different. I have large extended families on both parents' sides, due to the combination of my father having many siblings, my mother's elder sister having many children, who would end up having children on their own.</p>
|
||
<p>Fun fact: both my parents were actually childhood neighbours who grew up in the same hometown, so I am lucky to have the convenience of being able to visit both sides of my extended families in the same place during Lunar New Year. While my maternal uncle had moved out several years ago, it is still not too far away from my parents' hometown, so we still do not need to travel far to gather with my maternal family during Lunar New Year.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="return-to-my-home">Return to My Home</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/#return-to-my-home" aria-labelledby="return-to-my-home"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>We returned to my home from my parents' hometown on the second day of Lunar New Year, after taking our lunch.</p>
|
||
<p>My brother went back to Singapore on the next day, which was also the third day of Lunar New Year.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="watching-a-malaysian-lunar-new-year-film">Watching a Malaysian Lunar New Year Film</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-02-06-my-2025-lunar-new-year/#watching-a-malaysian-lunar-new-year-film" aria-labelledby="watching-a-malaysian-lunar-new-year-film"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>While my family's Lunar New Year celebration in my parents' hometown had been over, we are still in a Lunar New Year mood. Therefore, on February 3, which was also lichun (<span lang="zh">立春</span>) and the sixth day of Lunar New Year, my parents and I watched a Malaysian Lunar New Year film named <cite>Money Games</cite> (<span lang="zh">《半斤百两》</span>) in a local cinema.</p>
|
||
<p>This was the first Malaysian film I watched with my parents in cinema. I did not expect much from a Lunar New Year film to be a masterpiece since such films are made for entertainment first and foremost, but I had some good laughs out of the film. Not to mention, given how rampant news about Malaysians encountering scams are, an entertaining film aiming to be anti-fraud is not a bad idea.</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 19 January 2025</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-01-19T15:14:44Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2025-01-19-attending-42-school">&quot;Attending 42 the Computer Science School&quot;</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Attending 42 the Computer Science School | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-19-attending-42-school/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-01-19T15:14:39Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-19-attending-42-school/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>After failing to pass my probation in my first web developer job and thus having to <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-16-leaving-my-first-developer-job/">leave the job</a>, I had been considering how to proceed to the next phase of my web development journey. After all, I chose to leave my previous company <em>because</em> I intend to keep being a web developer, instead of sacrificing my time in continuing to learn web development to switch my job focus on digital marketing, a field I am less interested in and equipped for, just to keep my previous job that I would likely end up even more miserable in the long run if I chose to stay.</p>
|
||
<p>One day in December 2024, I suddenly remembered that my mother told me once that there was now a coding school somewhere relatively near to our house. We even talked about how my younger self would have appreciated the existence of such a school so I could become a developer much earlier. Out of curiosity, I searched the web to look for the school in question.</p>
|
||
<p>Turned out, the school is named <a href="https://www.42network.org/">42</a>, and is an international school network that provides free computer science education, with many campuses around the world, including Malaysia. The main thing that differentiates 42 from traditional universities is its peer-to-peer and project-based learning models that do not involve any teachers.</p>
|
||
<p>According to the <a href="https://42.fr/en/what-is-42/42-program-explained/">official website of 42's Paris campus</a> — where 42 originated — the name is a reference to Douglas Adams’ book <cite>The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy</cite>:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p>In Douglas Adams’ book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – H2G2 for short – an advanced alien species builds a super computer. It has only one job: to find the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. After 7 million years of calculation, the computer finds the answer: 42. In geek culture, 42 often represents the answer to a seemingly insuperable problem. This is why 42 is called 42. This is our answer to what IT education should be today and in the future.</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>As a web developer without a computer science degree, a physical school that offers computer science education for free is certainly an attractive notion. Furthermore, as a developer who learned to code through online courses and learning resources, I have got used to learning new things without a teacher holding my hand. My years of working experience had also taught me to not expecting anyone to hold your hand if you want to upskill yourself. I have also found myself to prefer to learn to code by building projects.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, in late December 2024, I applied for the Malaysian campus of 42 near me, spent two hours in their application test consisted of a memory game and a logic game. On the next day, I was informed that I passed my application test, so I chose to enrol in their trial bootcamp, referred to as the Piscine, that will take place in late February. Participants need to pass the 4-week trial bootcamp before being able to take 42's core curriculum.</p>
|
||
<p>Meanwhile, through their official website, I learned that the campus would host an open day on 18 January 2025, so I decided to take the opportunity to visit the campus for myself to see what I can expect from the environment when I started my study there. When I attended the open day on January 18, I learned that the computers in their workstations use Linux, specifically the Ubuntu distribution with Gnome as its desktop environment.</p>
|
||
<p>However, to my surprise, the computers did not have any setting to adjust screen brightness, which was not a good thing for me due to my <a href="https://leilukin.com/articles/living-with-retinitis-pigmentosa/">retinitis pigmentosa</a> making my eyes sensitive to bright light, including artificial lights. I would prefer not to rely on my clip-on sunglasses just to see a computer screen, since the surroundings including the keyboard would appear too dark for me. Therefore, I approached one of the staff members to request methods of dimming the computer screen when I attend my class there. The staff member suggested that they should be able to arrange that to accommodate my needs.</p>
|
||
<p>After visiting the campus on its open day, I have been looking forward to attending the school more. Wish me luck in passing my Piscine so I can become an official student of 42!</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 7 January 2025</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-01-07T08:24:32Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge">&quot;Blog Questions Challenge&quot;</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Blog Questions Challenge | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/"/>
|
||
<updated>2025-01-07T08:24:26Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>I was tagged by <a href="https://home.hedy.dev/">~hedy</a> for a <a href="https://home.hedy.dev/posts/blog-questions-challenge/">blog questions challenge</a>. I put a lot of thoughts into how I build and set up my website, so I am happy to have been invited to talk about the meta aspects of my website, including my blog. Thank you, ~hedy!</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="why-did-you-start-blogging-in-the-first-place">Why did you start blogging in the first place?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#why-did-you-start-blogging-in-the-first-place" aria-labelledby="why-did-you-start-blogging-in-the-first-place"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>I learned about the concept of blogs for the first time when I was a secondary school student in the later half of the 2000s. I was introduced to blogs by a Malaysian Chinese secondary school magazine named <cite>Xuehai Weekly</cite> (<span lang="zh">《学海周刊》</span>).</p>
|
||
<p>As an undiagnosed autistic kid who was more comfortable communicating and expressing themself through writing, and had been keeping a journal, I was fascinated by the concept of a personal journal on the internet. Therefore, after trying it out, blogging immediately became one of my main hobbies, and I enjoyed browsing and reading other people's blogs as well. I loved blogs for allowing ordinary people to write and publish their writing to express themselves outside traditional publishing channels.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="what-platform-are-you-using-to-manage-your-blog-and-why-did-you-choose-it">What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#what-platform-are-you-using-to-manage-your-blog-and-why-did-you-choose-it" aria-labelledby="what-platform-are-you-using-to-manage-your-blog-and-why-did-you-choose-it"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>This blog and my website where this blog is part of, Leilukin's Hub, is built with the static site generator <a href="https://www.11ty.dev/">Eleventy</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>After coding Leilukin's Hub from scratch for the first time in 2022, and working on the website for a while, I started to get frustrated with having to duplicate the HTML of my layout by hand over and over across all my HTML files to maintain a consistent layout, especially when you wanted to change parts of your layout. Therefore, I began to search for solutions, and discovered static site generators (SSGs).</p>
|
||
<p>I chose Eleventy over other SSGs, mainly because of its flexibility, including by allowing users to customise their file directory structure and supporting multiple templating languages. The fact that Eleventy is written in JavaScript means it has the advantage of being built in a familiar language for someone who was already learning front-end web development like me.</p>
|
||
<p>Using an SSG like Eleventy to build my blog means once I set up my website layout and page directory structure, when I draft and write a blog post, I can focus on my words by writing on a Markdown file, and let the SSG handle the HTML output.</p>
|
||
<p>Leilukin's Hub also has a [tumbleblog](<a href="https://tumbleblog.leilukin.com/">Leilukin's Hub Tumbleblog</a>) hosted on a subdomain and powered by a blogging engine written in PHP named <a href="https://chyrplite.net/">Chyrp Lite</a>. I use Chyrp Lite like a self-hosted alternative to a Tumblr blog, in that Chyrp Lite also allows you to create different type of posts such as text, photo, video, link, quote, etc. The fact that Chyrp Lite is written in PHP also makes it a good lightweight alternative to WordPress.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="have-you-blogged-on-other-platforms-before">Have you blogged on other platforms before?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#have-you-blogged-on-other-platforms-before" aria-labelledby="have-you-blogged-on-other-platforms-before"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>During my teenage blogging years in the 2000s, I tried out many different blogging platforms, including primarily English ones such as Blogger and WordPress.com, as well as Taiwanese ones such as Wretch (<span lang="zh">無名小站</span>), Roodo (<span lang="zh">樂多日誌</span>) and Yam Blog (<span lang="zh">天空部落</span>), which were all eventually shut down. Later, I settled for a now-defunct Malaysian Chinese blogging community that powers members' blogs with a Korean blogging engine named Tattertools.</p>
|
||
<p>Since 2011 to late 2024, I continued blogging by doing it on Tumblr, before deciding to retire from Tumblr to put more focus on my own websites, including Leilukin's Hub.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="how-do-you-write-your-posts">How do you write your posts?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#how-do-you-write-your-posts" aria-labelledby="how-do-you-write-your-posts"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>I use <a href="https://obsidian.md/">Obsidian</a> to draft and write my posts. Obsidian had become my main note-taking app since I started using it myself, so it is a natural choice to plan and do my writings on Obsidian. It helps that Obsidian note files are in Markdown format, and Eleventy supports generating HTML with Markdown files. Writing my posts in Obsidian also allows me to focus on my words, and letting the <a href="https://github.com/Clemens-E/obsidian-languagetool-plugin">LanguageTool Integration</a> community plugin spellcheck my writing, without worrying about the technical aspects of publishing my post to the web first.</p>
|
||
<p>After I finish writing a post in Obsidian, I copy the Markdown file content, paste into a new Markdown file in my blog post folder in Visual Studio Code, my main code editor. Then, I add frontmatter to the blog post's Markdown file to configure data of the post such as title, description and categories, use Visual Studio Code's built-in terminal to enter Eleventy commands to generate the new post, then use Git and GitHub Actions to publish the new post to my website.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="when-do-you-feel-most-inspired-to-write">When do you feel most inspired to write?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#when-do-you-feel-most-inspired-to-write" aria-labelledby="when-do-you-feel-most-inspired-to-write"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>I can get inspired to write by just about anything: books, articles, essays and blog posts I read, interesting things I discovered when browsing the web, video games I play, conversations with other people, etc.</p>
|
||
<p>When inspiration strikes, I jot down my ideas in Obsidian, so when I have time, I can go through my Obsidian notes and plan how to write a post about those ideas, beginning by outlining what I want to include in my posts.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="do-you-publish-immediately-after-writing-or-do-you-let-it-simmer-a-bit-as-a-draft">Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#do-you-publish-immediately-after-writing-or-do-you-let-it-simmer-a-bit-as-a-draft" aria-labelledby="do-you-publish-immediately-after-writing-or-do-you-let-it-simmer-a-bit-as-a-draft"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>I publish my posts immediately after completing a draft, so the question is how long does it take for me to complete a draft. I plan ahead before drafting my posts because I want to be considerate for how I express my thoughts, so I only complete and publish my draft after such considerations, which often takes time.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="whats-your-favourite-post-on-your-blog">What's your favourite post on your blog?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#whats-your-favourite-post-on-your-blog" aria-labelledby="whats-your-favourite-post-on-your-blog"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>My favourite post on this particular blog would be <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-01-indieweb-carnival-november-2024-impact/">my submission to the November 2024 IndieWeb Carnival</a>, where I talked about impact by reflecting on other people's impact on me and my life, and my beliefs about everyone being capable of making an impact on others.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="any-future-plans-for-your-blog">Any future plans for your blog?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#any-future-plans-for-your-blog" aria-labelledby="any-future-plans-for-your-blog"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>I do not have any concrete future plans for this blog specifically, but I do have more ideas for what to do to other parts of Leilukin's Hub, including writing more articles and creating more <a href="https://leilukin.com/shrines">shrines</a> and <a href="https://fan.leilukin.com/">fanlistings</a>.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="why-do-you-write-other-than-your-blog-do-you-write-long-form-content-elsewhere">Why do you write? Other than your blog, do you write long-form content elsewhere?</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#why-do-you-write-other-than-your-blog-do-you-write-long-form-content-elsewhere" aria-labelledby="why-do-you-write-other-than-your-blog-do-you-write-long-form-content-elsewhere"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>As an autistic person, verbal communication is not my strongest skill, so I prefer to communicate my ideas and express myself through writing. I have found writing a great way to relax and organise my thoughts. Furthermore, I write because I like to read, and reading other people's writings have inspired my own writing.</p>
|
||
<p>Aside from blog, I have also written and published articles about various topics on my website. These articles are distinct from blog posts in that while my blog posts are usually written about events or subjects that happened recently, my articles are meant to be more static pages containing useful information or my thoughts on certain topics, not just what is happening right now.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="your-turn">Your Turn</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2025-01-07-blog-questions-challenge/#your-turn" aria-labelledby="your-turn"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>I cannot decide who else to tag for this blog questions challenge, because not all my acquaintances in the personal web are bloggers and some bloggers are not huge fans of meta type posts.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, consider this an open invitation: If you find this post and are interested in answering these questions yourself, feel free to write your own post!</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 30 December 2024</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2024-12-30T12:29:48Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>Create page for my <a href="/links/stardew-valley-mod-list/"><cite>Stardew Valley</cite> mod list</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 27 December 2024</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2024-12-27T04:09:47Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2024-12-27-my-2024-christmas-season">&quot;My Christmas Season in 2024&quot;</a>.</li>
|
||
<li>Fixed broken links in my blog posts to my other blog posts in the website's RSS feed.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>My Christmas Season in 2024 | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-27-my-2024-christmas-season/"/>
|
||
<updated>2024-12-27T04:09:39Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-27-my-2024-christmas-season/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>Happy Holidays!</p>
|
||
<p>Christmas celebration is not a tradition in my family because my parents are not religious, but we always look forward to Christmas season, because Christmas Eve also happens to be my younger brother's birthday. Yes, that means my brother is a Christmas Eve baby, haha. 😄</p>
|
||
<p>Even after my brother moved out of our hometown to work and live in Singapore, he still makes plans for returning to Malaysia and visit us during Christmas season every year, to celebrate his birthday with us, and this year is no exception. 2024 is also the year my brother turns 30, and thus officially joins me in the 30s club.</p>
|
||
<p>On my brother's birthday, we had our lunch in a restaurant together, and visited a bakery store to buy a birthday cake for my brother, who chose a fruit cake. We had a birthday celebration at home for my brother with the fruit cake later in the evening after our dinner at home.</p>
|
||
<p>My brother returned to Singapore after spending five days and four nights in our hometown during this Christmas season.</p>
|
||
<p>I am grateful of the moments of my immediately family gathering and talking together, especially when my brother takes a break and returns from Singapore to visit us.</p>
|
||
<p>Hope you have a pleasant holiday season!</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 26 December 2024</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2024-12-26T11:12:29Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2024-12-26-indian-ocean-tsunami-20-years">&quot;Remembering the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami&quot;</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Remembering the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-26-indian-ocean-tsunami-20-years/"/>
|
||
<updated>2024-12-26T11:11:55Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-26-indian-ocean-tsunami-20-years/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p>Twenty years ago today, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami happened.</p>
|
||
<p>When I realised a while ago that the year 2024 would also mark the 20th anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami, I felt that time filed, because I still remembered the shock I felt in my young mind when I read the news reports about that natural disaster.</p>
|
||
<p>When the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in 2004, I had just graduated from primary school and was staying at home, and 26 December was also the birthday of my favourite cousin. Later, when I learnt of the massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a massive tsunami that affected many countries, including my own country, Malaysia (especially the northern Malaysia), I was deeply shocked by how deadly and destructive the tsunami was, with the sheer amount of lives lost and the destruction of areas caused by that natural disaster, even though the part of Malaysia I lived (and still live) in was not affected.</p>
|
||
<p>May the dead rest in peace. My condolences to those who lost their loved ones on that day.</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Changelog: 25 December 2024</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/"/>
|
||
<updated>2024-12-25T06:26:04Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><ul>
|
||
<li>New blog post: <a href="/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review">&quot;Leilukin's 2024: A Year In Review&quot;</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
|
||
<entry>
|
||
<title>Leilukin's 2024: A Year In Review | Blog</title>
|
||
<link href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/"/>
|
||
<updated>2024-12-25T06:25:57Z</updated>
|
||
<id>https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/</id>
|
||
<content type="html"><p><a href="https://32bit.cafe/">32-Bit Cafe</a> is hosting a <a href="https://32bit.cafe/newyear25/">New Years '25 event</a>, so this is a good opportunity for me to write a year-in-review post to reflect on my 2024, which has been an eventful year for both Leilukin's Hub and my personal life, although I already intended to do so even without 32-Bit Cafe's event. 🙂</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="rebuilt-leilukins-hub-with-eleventy">Rebuilt Leilukin's Hub with Eleventy</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/#rebuilt-leilukins-hub-with-eleventy" aria-labelledby="rebuilt-leilukins-hub-with-eleventy"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>The first major event was my discovery of the static site generator <a href="https://www.11ty.dev/">Eleventy</a> in April 2024. I was looking for a way to manage and continue to build my website better by eliminating the process of duplicating some HTML parts over and over across multiple pages. Then I discovered Eleventy through Neocities, as some websites hosted on Neocities were built with it.</p>
|
||
<p>After digging into and trying out Eleventy, I quickly realised that it was the solution I had been looking for, so I <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-04-21-april-2024-leilukins-hub-overhaul-with-eleventy/">spent a whole week rebuilding Leilukin's Hub</a>, and I could not be happier with how my website and my new development workflow turned out.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="custom-domain-name-and-new-host-for-leilukins-hub">Custom Domain Name and New Host for Leilukin's Hub</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/#custom-domain-name-and-new-host-for-leilukins-hub" aria-labelledby="custom-domain-name-and-new-host-for-leilukins-hub"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>Rebuilding my entire website with a static site generator was only the first step of taking my site to the next level. As both Leilukin's Hub and my web development skills grew, I began to consider alternative hosting services to Neocities, which was where Leilukin's Hub was initially hosted on, and renting a custom domain name for my website.</p>
|
||
<p>Near the end of May, I rented leilukin.com from Porkbun, <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-05-31-domain-name-hosting-change-leilukins-hub/">set leilukin.com as the domain name of Leilukin's Hub, and migrated Leilukin's Hub to Netlify</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>Meanwhile, I dabbled in PHP to build a <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-06-21-leilukins-hub-tumbleblog-launched/">tumbleblog</a> and <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-07-02-fanlisting-collective-launch/">fanlisting collective</a> for Leilukin's Hub. At first, those subsites were hosted on InfinityFree, but after using nearly two months, I started to feel frustrated by the limitations of InfinityFree.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, I finally <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-07-27-hostinger-migration-leilukins-hub/">migrated Leilukin's Hub and all its subsites to Hostinger</a> in July. I have used Hostinger since then, and I am satisfied with it.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="started-participating-in-the-personal-web">Started Participating in the Personal Web</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/#started-participating-in-the-personal-web" aria-labelledby="started-participating-in-the-personal-web"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>2004 was also the year when I made the conscious decision to be more active in participating in the personal web and connecting with other personal website owners. I explored other personal websites more through links, left messages on other people's guestbooks, sent more emails to personal website owners, and joined more webrings, pixel clubs, web cliques and fanlistings.</p>
|
||
<p>Browsing other people's personal websites also provided a lot of inspiration for my own website, and socialising with other people in personal web spaces made me learn that if we want to have a community, we need to put effort in making connections with and reaching out to other people, instead of relying on a particular platform, online or offline.</p>
|
||
<p>Furthermore, I joined the 32-Bit Cafe community in June, and became active in both its Discord server and Discourse forums, which <a href="https://tumbleblog.leilukin.com/2024/07/02/earned-32-bit-cafe-new-member-of-the-month-award-for-june-2024/">awarded me &quot;New Member of the Month&quot; for June 2024</a>. I also participated in a 32-Bit Cafe event for the first time in August, specifically the <a href="https://leilukin.com/articles/accessible-footnotes/">&quot;Back to School&quot; community code jam</a>.</p>
|
||
<p>This 2024 year in review post is my second time participating in 32-Bit Cafe's events.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="my-first-web-developer-job">My First Web Developer Job</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/#my-first-web-developer-job" aria-labelledby="my-first-web-developer-job"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>My interest in web design and development went as far back as my teenage blogging years in the 2000s, when I learned basic HTML and CSS through editing blog themes and widgets, but I did not know how to pursue web development as a profession at the time.</p>
|
||
<p>Fast-forward to 2022, when my interest in HTML and CSS was rekindled by coding my own website from scratch for the first time after discovering Neocities. This time, my interest in web development grew enough for me to take online courses, starting with freeCodeCamp, and decided to switch my career path from graphic design to web development after being inspired by the stories of other people, including career switchers, becoming a professional developer without a computer science degree.</p>
|
||
<p>After teaching myself web development for almost two years, my dream of <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-08-18-from-hobbyist-to-professional-web-developer/">getting my first developer job came true in August</a>. In my first web development job, I succeed in developing a custom WordPress plugin, something I never did before this job.</p>
|
||
<p>Unfortunately, my first web development ended up lasting only four months, because it turned out my employer only considered his company website as merely one part of the company's marketing, and what he really wants is a digital marketer who can wear as many hats as the company wants. I refuse to waste my time and life in a field I am less interested in and less equipped for just to keep one job, while sacrificing my time in continuing to learn web development, so I <a href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-16-leaving-my-first-developer-job/">decided to leave the company</a>, thus 3 January 2025 will be the final day of my employment in the company.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="diagnosed-with-retinitis-pigmentosa">Diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/#diagnosed-with-retinitis-pigmentosa" aria-labelledby="diagnosed-with-retinitis-pigmentosa"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>While I have astigmatism and myopia for most of my life, recently, my parents and I suspected that I had other genetic eye conditions as my relatives were beginning to experience issues with their eyesight.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, on 30 November 2024, I went to see an eye doctor. Turned out, I do have a genetic eye condition, specifically <a href="https://leilukin.com/articles/living-with-retinitis-pigmentosa">retinitis pigmentosa (RP)</a>. My reaction to my RP diagnosis was more relieved than upset, because there was finally an explanation for many of the difficulties I have been experiencing in my daily life as I grew older, aside from autism. I have accepted that I am visually impaired, and my visual disability may not be cured in my lifetime, in ways that are similar to my acceptance of my autism.</p>
|
||
<div class="heading-wrapper h2">
|
||
<h2 id="wrapping-up">Wrapping Up</h2>
|
||
<a class="heading-anchor" href="https://leilukin.com/blog/posts/2024-12-25-leilukins-2024-in-review/#wrapping-up" aria-labelledby="wrapping-up"><span hidden="">#</span></a></div>
|
||
<p>2024 has been a huge year for Leilukin's Hub, my relationship with web and my personal life.</p>
|
||
<p>Leilukin's Hub has grown significantly since 2022, while connecting with other personal website owners and participating in personal web spaces inspired the many improvements I had made to my website, and helped me cultivate a healthier relationship with the web, by learning to make connections and be social with other people on the web. For my personal life, being diagnosed with a genetic eye disease that causes gradual vision loss and currently has no cure made me understand my conditions and limits better, so I can know how to live my life better.</p>
|
||
<p>I am not really a person to make specific goals for a new year, because I am old enough to realise that unexpected circumstances can change our goals and plans. However, for 2025, I intend to continue to work on my websites, participate in the personal web and advocate for making your own websites, and keep learning web development.</p>
|
||
</content>
|
||
</entry>
|
||
</feed> |