AI Translation
Original Chinese
A long-forgotten rift in space and time…
Hi! 🙋🏻 A traveler of the rift-it’s a pleasure to meet you.
You must be tired, aren’t you? Before the rift closes, why not stay and rest for a while? Let me tell you a little about myself. Perhaps you’ll enjoy the story.
My name is Lyle Liu.
And what is your name, traveler?
…
Unfortunately, I can’t hear your voice.
An invisible, heavy shackle lies across the rift, keeping your words from ever reaching me.
So, if you don’t mind, I’ll simply call you Traveler.
I’m a developer of magical languagesIn Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, the protagonist, Kobayashi, develops magic using the Dragon language. Hehe. by trade.
The languages I primarily use are Java and KotlinI no longer work on any Java or Kotlin projects. alongside RustThese days Rust is my favorite. It’s genuinely fun to work with, and many of my projects have gradually been rewritten in Rust., as well as the Web.
I don’t know what kind of work you do, Traveler.
Though if you’ve managed to find your way here, I imagine you’re probably a developer as well.
Some time ago A long time ago, I wanted to learn another magical language—one from the functional world.
But I never got very far. Learning an entirely new language is expensive, not in money, but in time and effort.
At the time, my shortlist looked something like this: Rust, Elixir, Clojure
Now I’ve learned Rust, and I absolutely love it.
There’s something deeply satisfying about a language that enforces discipline. Good rules prevent most mistakes before they’re ever made—and Rust is uncompromising about them.
Its compiler is an incredible teacher as well… although, admittedly, lifetimes can still be rather painful. 😄
Sometimes I even wonder if languages with strong guarantees are the ones best suited for the age of AI.
Perhaps Rust is the language AI was always meant to write.
What magical language do you speak, Traveler?
I’ve wandered through more note-taking systems than I can count.
I began with Evernote.
Later I switched to OneNote because it offered much more freedom.
Eventually I found it too fragmented—my notes never truly connected—so I moved to MediaWiki.
After living with that for a while, deployment became more trouble than it was worth.
Then came Notion.
Then Obsidian.
Neither really felt like home.
At one point I even decided to build my own knowledge base. I spent quite some time writing the backend…
Only to discover that building a rich-text editor on the frontend was an adventure I wasn’t destined to finish.
The project quietly faded away.
These days I use LogseqThe main reason I left was simple: Logseq eventually became unbearably slow. Emacs.
But I’ve wandered off the path.
Come on, Traveler.
Let’s keep walking.
A few years ago, Windows was still my primary operating system.
Today, I’ve completely moved to Arch Linux.
Work, entertainment, everyday life—I no longer depend on Windows at all.
I’ve spent quite a few years exploring Linux and have lived with many different distributions:
Debian, openSUSE, NixOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Arch Linux.
Of them all, Arch is still the one I love most.
I enjoy the system I have now.
No frustrating forced updates.
No applications demanding administrator privileges for every little thing.
Everything…or at least, almost everything. feels like it’s under my control.
It’s also a wonderful environment for development.
Setting up tools is easy, customizing the desktop is a joy, and the system stays out of my way.
As for gaming…
Aside from a handful of games with invasive anti-cheat systems, Linux has become remarkably capable.
Some games even run better here than they ever did on Windows.
Speaking of games…
I’ve been playing them for a very long time.
The earliest one I remember was Counter-Strike Online—the Century Tiancheng version.
Later came CrossFire and Dungeon & Fighter.
Interestingly, after quitting DNF in high school, I picked it up again during my sophomore year of college…
Played it for another year…
And then never touched it again.Perhaps that’s the irresistible charm of a game that consumes both your wallet and your life..
I also spent countless hours playing League of Legends.
It was probably the game I devoted the most time to.
A lot of time.
These days, though, I don’t play it anymore.
The first single-player games I ever experienced were Pokémon Sapphire and one of the Metal Slug games—though I can’t remember which installment.
Sometimes I think back to the wonder I felt while exploring the world of Pokémon.
The excitement.
The longing.
The certainty that such a world simply had to exist somewhere.
It’s strangely nostalgic now.
Over the years I’ve played many more:
The Binding of Isaac, Dark Souls I, II, and III, Elden RingThe DLC is absolute garbage., Sekiro, Terraria, Oxygen Not Included, Minecraft, Bloodborne, Factorio…
Out of all of them, The Binding of Isaac remains my favorite.
It’s one of those rare games that never grows old.
No matter when I return to it, there’s always something new waiting.
Looking back, I realize most of the games I’ve loved belong to just a few genres:
Sandbox builders.
Soulslikes.
Roguelikes.
Apparently I have a type.
Perhaps that’s what happens when you spend too many years watching 怕上火暴王老菊.
The Chairman has excellent taste in games.
What about you, Traveler?
What kinds of games do you enjoy?
Years ago I also watched a great deal of films, television series, and anime.
According to my records on NeoDB, I’ve watched somewhere around seven hundred of them.
Lately, though…
For reasons I can’t quite explain, I can hardly bring myself to watch any at all.
Maybe I’m just getting old. 😭
As for favorites…
I honestly can’t think of one definitive film.
Nothing stands out strongly enough.
Among anime, though, Nichijou has always held a special place for me.
There’s something wonderfully comforting about its absurd, wholesome humor.
I wanted to leave a few words of wisdom here.
Some personal philosophy.
Unfortunately…
I don’t really have one.
Long ago I came across a sentence that resonated with me more deeply than anything else.
But I never wrote it down.
Eventually I forgot it.
It’s a shame.
Though perhaps, if I could forget it…
It was never truly meant to become part of me.
The rift is beginning to close…
The shackles are growing heavier…
I’m getting tired…
Perhaps…
It’s time for us to part.
…
Traveler…
I’m truly glad we were able to meet.
I wonder when our paths will cross again.
If nothing unexpected happens,
I’ll remain here,
on this side of the rift,
waiting for the day we meet again.
Traveler, may the wind carry you onward. Don’t let yourself be swallowed by the endless tide.