A Low-Energy Day

I've caught a cold. Yet again.

It's like October had barely ended when November's cold automatically respawned. I'm honestly getting sick of it. It's only a minor illness, but to avoid it I'd been wearing a mask whenever I went out, and it got me anyway. I was on a work trip to Langzhong, and after one night in the hotel I woke up with a sore throat.

A sore throat is how my colds start. It's practically a required step. Every cold begins there. The next day my throat stops hurting, and then come the runny nose, the sneezing, the stuffy nose, the whole series, one after another.

Today was probably the peak of it, with a wildly stuffy nose and a runny one on top.

So I didn't go to the gym today either. I just spent a low-energy day at home.

How do I spend a low-energy day? It's simple, and it comes down to one word: lying down.

On a normal day, after breakfast I sit at my computer and tinker with something. Around ten I head out to the gym, and I'm home a little after eleven. In the afternoon I'm back at the computer, messing around with AI, writing and so on.

But when my energy is low, I usually choose to lie in bed and play on my phone.

Yesterday was the Start of Winter on the Chinese calendar. Chengdu had a little rain, not much, but enough to bring a chill. On a day like this, I always get out my winter pajamas, the fuzzy ones. I put them on and burrow under the comforter, and before long I'm warm all over, as if the cold has already gone away.

I opened Bilibili and watched The Eight Immortals, a movie that just came out there. I thought it was pretty good. It reminded me of watching season five of Bu Liang Ren, because both have tons of really cool, freeze-frame-style shots.

Overall, I think The Eight Immortals is better than Ne Zha 2. They're both popcorn movies, but this one has better pacing and a deeper story, and it doesn't lean on so many poop and fart jokes, which I liked. If it falls short anywhere, it's that the eight characters aren't fully fleshed out in this film yet.

After lunch I took some cold medicine and got back into bed. I played on my phone for a bit and then slept for a while. When I woke up it was already three in the afternoon, so I picked up my phone again and watched an episode of Reply 1988. It's a Korean drama that's perfect for winter. This is my third time through it, on the day after the Start of Winter in 2026.

At four thirty I got out of bed and sat down at my desk. That morning I'd come across a video on Rednote showing a bookshelf animation. I thought it was really cool, and since my personal site happens to have a bookshelf, I wanted to recreate it.

I sent the video to Claude. After watching it, Claude built a demo in about three minutes. I looked it over and didn't feel anything needed changing. It was almost a 1:1 copy of what I wanted.

I hadn't looked after my personal site in a while. Since moving to this one, I've added things here and there, like an About page and English support across the whole site. The rest has been design polish to make the site nicer to look at.

Once that was done, I went out with my mom. A few days ago she went to Ya'an and came back with 40 kg of tangerines, bought at just 0.8 yuan per kg. Over the past few days she's been telling friends and relatives to come by and take some. There was one bag left for her best friend, but my mom couldn't carry it, so I had to go with her.

When I got home I started writing this post, stopping partway through for dinner. I had the leftovers from lunch and made a fresh pot of rice.

My mom has gone out for another walk. I'm sitting by the window, feeling the chill drift in, and finishing this post.

In a little while I'll take a shower, put my warm pajamas back on, crawl into bed and watch a quiet movie before I go to sleep.

I really love this kind of scene: after a hot shower, you get under the covers, wait for the bed to warm up, and put on a movie you can sink into, something deep and still.

Lying there in the dark, I get the feeling that I've left the Earth and am drifting through space. Only when I come back to myself do I realize I'm still in my own room.

If I had to recommend one movie that's perfect for this scene, I wouldn't hesitate to tell you: Interstellar.