Life is actually more like an extremely complex and constantly changing equation, full of variables: era, environment, family, opportunities, health, cognition, personality, choices, and even luck. And these variables are not simply superimposed, but influence and restrict each other.

But many people always like to understand life as a linear “input-output” relationship, as if as long as they invest something, they will definitely get the corresponding result.

For example, some people think: “As long as you work hard enough, you will definitely succeed.” But they often ignore that success never exists independently of the environment. The same effort, in different eras, different platforms, and different resource conditions, may lead to vastly different final results: some people rise with the wind, while others exhaust their lives in the headwind. Effort is of course important, but it is only one of the variables, not a universal formula that decides everything.

For another example, some people feel: “Make money desperately when you are young, and you can be happy when you are old.” But the problem is, no one can determine in advance that they will definitely reach that “old age” smoothly. Even many times, it is precisely the long-term overdrawing of the body, sacrificing health, and squeezing the spirit when young that ultimately causes the body to collapse first. As a result, before people have time to enjoy the future, they have already lost the ability to move towards the future in advance.

Many times, reality is not a stably running assembly line; it is more like a dynamic system—variables change at any time, conditions can be reset at any time, and formulas that held true in the past may not necessarily hold true in the future. Many seemingly natural life logics are essentially just phased experiences under a certain specific environment, rather than universally applicable truths.

Therefore, what people really need is perhaps not to cling to a certain fixed life formula, but to always retain awe for “variables.” Knowing that life cannot be absolutely controlled, and understanding that many things are not guaranteed to be obtained just because you “worked hard,” or realized just because you “planned well.”

This cognition is not pessimistic; on the contrary, it means that a person begins to truly understand the complexity of reality, and therefore knows better how to balance, exercise moderation, and cherish the present.

And this is what it truly means to understand the four words ‘life is impermanent."

——

What if time travel is not just a sci-fi fantasy, but can also be a cognitive leap?

I think true spiritual practice is actually a spiritual folding of time and space: it allows us to gain insight in our youth into those true meanings of life that would otherwise require the baptism of time to understand.

In other words, spiritual practice is actually a cognitive time travel.

——

Last week, the Telecom technician came to my door again, saying they suspected I had PCDN at home. The basis for suspicion was a large amount of upstream and downstream traffic for 215 consecutive hours (actually, I downloaded very little during this period, less than 1T of downloads in 215 hours, and upload was not even 300G~). I was speechless. My Transmission upload limit is already set to 1024 KB/s, what else do they want me to do?

Just looking at the recent online cases of users being speed-limited or disconnected by operators under the guise of PCDN, it feels like major operators are using PCDN as a catch-all excuse to crack down heavily on users with large upload volumes (this ”large” is relative to average home users; you know, an average home user's upload might not even exceed 1G a day~) so I also felt the danger: after all, I am an old user using a public IP package at a very low price, which makes me a thorn in Telecom's side. If they catch an opportunity to claim I violated the rules and take back my public IP, it would be a huge loss (although I don't really need a public IP right now, but not taking advantage of a good deal is just foolish).

After thinking it over, and combined with the experience of being disconnected by Telecom for 3 days last year, I already had a sense of crisis. So I simply got another Mobile gigabit broadband line, claiming 1000 Mbps downstream and 100 Mbps upstream.

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Believe it or not, there really is nearly 130 Mbps upstream:

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After more than a week of tinkering, I completed the traffic splitting for the intranet terminals. Terminals related to the home data center go through Telecom, while other applications (including PT downloading) go through Mobile. The Mobile egress is set as my home's default egress, while the Telecom and Mobile egresses serve as backup lines for each other. Now, except for power outages, I no longer worry about access issues for some applications due to broadband problems. Although it was a forced addition of Mobile broadband, I suddenly feel that dual broadband indeed brings a greater sense of security. At the same time, it can be considered as fulfilling my long-held wish for dual broadband~~~.

It wasn't easy. In the Google search results for the term ”home data center”, ”Baidu Baike” and ”Wikipedia”, which had long suppressed me, were finally overtaken by me once. Although this moment will certainly be brief, it is still worth posting a status update about:

On a sudden whim today, I ran PageSpeed Insights again, and the score actually reached 94 (the previous highest was 91). Given PageSpeed Insights' unpredictable nature when testing sites using CDNs, it's highly unlikely I'll get lucky enough to see such a high score again in the future. So, I'm posting this update to commemorate this peak moment of my life~:

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year's Eve. I wish everyone a ”try to be” happy New Year in advance. As for why I say ”try to be”, it's because nowadays, ordinary people might not necessarily be happy, so we can only "try our best".

As for me, I also plan to give myself a vacation and have a good rest. After all, keeping up with a weekly update (I only started weekly updates in the past few months because I couldn't hold on; before that, it was 2-3 updates a week, which was even more terrifying) is still very tiring. It's also a good time to let my brain rest and empty out. Updates will resume on February 10th, so please stay tuned.

Previously, Google's ranking for the keyword ”Tang Wudi” was dominated by various novel titles from Qidian like ”Great Tang Invincible” and ”Great Tang Invincible Son-in-law”. As a result, my Chinese online alias ”Tang Wudi” was pushed back several pages, which was very...

So I have been continuously optimizing SEO to improve the position of my blog domain in Google search results. After months of unremitting efforts, coupled with the recent help of the Rank Math SEO plugin, today, my Chinese online alias ”Tang Wudi” has finally ranked first in Google search engine's Simplified Chinese results. Posting this to commemorate!

P.S. Probably won't last more than a few days~

Due to a large number of malicious registrations recently received by the blog:

Coupled with the fact that I've recently started being attacked every now and then by bored individuals (although it has no real impact, it's quite annoying):

I have decided to temporarily disable the blog's user registration function and clean up maliciously registered accounts (to prevent bored individuals from using registered user links to launch attacks). As for when registration will be reopened, we'll see when the need arises. In any case, there are currently no features that require a registered account to use (previously, some articles required VIP access, but now I have opened up everything except for a few sensitive contents).

The last record was on May 24th, when I had just completed the 1,200 clicks achievement:

However, I forgot this time and only remembered on August 28th, missing it by 4 days. My OCD is very annoyed. To be fair, I'll use the results from August 19th, even if it means taking a bit of a loss~:

Not bad, it has nearly tripled in the last 3 months, which basically proves that my general direction of understanding SEO is correct. Looking forward to the results in 3 months. However, I feel like achievements are being unlocked slower and slower. If 1,200 is considered "Friendly", is it at most "Honored" now?

At this rate, when will I ever reach "Exalted"?

The true essence of cultivation is to comprehend the Dao and seek the truth. This truth is the truth of one's original nature, the truth of the Great Dao, also known as Tathata (suchness) or truth.

All living beings have desires, indulge in them, and sink into the vast sea of desires. Only through moderation, rationality, analyzing the true self, and understanding one's original nature can one break free from the shackles of the mortal world and comprehend the Tathata of one's own nature.

What is an immortal (Xian)? A person who lives in the mountains. Why do people live in the mountains? Nothing else but tranquility and moderation of desires. Cultivators do not lack desires, but they must know how to separate the desires in their hearts from the instincts of their bodies: I control desire, rather than letting desire control me.

Those who control desires with humanity and possess thorough wisdom are cultivators; those whose humanity is controlled by desires are beasts, demons, and not human.

Forced to take action, but there was really no way to hold on any longer:


Fortunately, last year I also used 2 Synology NAS (Xpenology) with idle hard drives to transfer dozens of TBs out, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to endure until now~.

Yesterday, I suddenly saw the words "weixin110" in the source domains of Umami:

Opened it to take a look:

Thinking of the phenomenon where links often show as inaccessible after being reported when clicking links in messages using the built-in browser in WeChat, I figured this was because after I sent my blog link to friends in WeChat a few times, WeChat came to audit it. I quickly tried opening the blog address in WeChat, and sure enough:

Before, I remember it either directly blocked you from accessing or allowed direct access. This prompt about the ICP being unfiled is actually the first time I've seen it in my memory (not being directly blacklisted already shows that my blog content is very healthy!), combined with the fact that my blog could be searched on Baidu before but now nothing can be found, and combined with last month's incident where "my broadband was blocked for nearly 3 days because an unfiled domain was scanned at the iKuai remote management port", it is obvious that now there is a comprehensive crackdown on access to unfiled domains in various fields.

Guys, the situation is getting more and more severe, be careful. If your domain is unfiled, try to keep a low profile in all aspects, including sending links through WeChat~.

Challenge me if you dare! ~~~:

I accidentally found a help post I made on ChinaUnix 21 years ago, shortly after I started working. Looking at it brings back so many feelings. Time is indeed a butcher's knife. The newcomer who had just stepped into society back then has accidentally turned into a middle-aged, greasy, fat otaku~~~ I almost forgot that I used to be a network engineer...

I just learned about SEO in January and didn't know anything, so I set many things to default values. Then, the results after 28 days:

Later, I gradually got a concept of SEO and kept modifying it according to my understanding. Then, on May 22nd:

Suddenly, it feels a bit like playing the World of Warcraft achievement system:

Keep it up, and strive to unlock more achievements!

It feels okay for now, seems like the speed is a tiny bit faster? I don't know if it's an illusion... But theoretically, this only affects the first-time open experience, and subsequent loads should still rely on caching. Maybe I should disable the image cache first?

I have temporarily disabled the image cache, and the loading speed seems pretty good. Let's try it like this for now.

I haven't played with it before either. I'll study it for a while and then write an article to summarize. There's no other way, this test takes time.

Yesterday morning around 9:00, my home network was on and off for a few minutes, and the status lights on the optical modem were a bit weird. I felt like Telecom was changing the modem parameters. After it stabilized, I restarted the modem, and guided by my seventh sense, I tried multi-dialing. Then I found that triple-dialing was restored, at least it's still working up to the time of this post... I will observe for a few more days. If it is indeed stable, I will reallocate different applications to different links according to my previous plan.

I don't know if this is a common phenomenon. Could it be Telecom backing down in my game with them this time? But that's unlikely; compensating me with a month's internet fee was already enough, there's no need to go this far. If it's a common phenomenon, can they spit back what they already took away? Could the shutdown on April 17th be due to a crackdown during that period (I was even caught in the crossfire and lost internet for over 2 days), and now that the heat is off, it's restored?

But regardless, the restoration of triple-dialing is a good thing. You know, nowadays one public IPv4 address is worth 500 yuan, so three are equivalent to 1,500 yuan... Although it doesn't generate any revenue for me, I always feel like I got a huge bargain~~. It's worth celebrating, let's add some extra meat to dinner tonight.

Now it's a complete same-city disaster recovery setup, but in the future, there will be an additional task of scheduled image hosting synchronization. O&M work is indeed tiring~.

It passed in just a few days, I didn't expect that, I thought it would be rejected:

Another new field to research, haha.

Woke up today and tried multi-dialing as a routine, only to surprisingly find that 2 dials are now possible:

Has Chengdu Telecom found its conscience? Could it be a May Day holiday special promotion??

No rush to reallocate incoming and outgoing traffic to Line 2 yet. Let's observe for a few more days to see if it stabilizes and if it will restore to 3 dials... Really looking forward to it.

Today I received an email from cloudflare saying that the threats I faced last month exceeded those of ordinary websites on cloudflare, and they even suggested I upgrade my plan. The key is, does my little, traffic-less site deserve this kind of treatment?

This morning, during my usual routine of turning on the computer to go online, I found the network was acting up. My "magic" (VPN/proxy) wasn't working, and Cloudflare's tunnel was also down, but accessing domestic websites normally was fine, which left me a bit baffled.

Since I luxuriously use one line for domestic internet and another for "magic" and tunnel, I habitually checked iKuai's multi-dialing interface:

This feeling instantly made me empathize with the sadness and despair cats and dogs feel when they wake up and find their balls are gone. I really wanted to tell them, "I feel you!" Still refusing to give up, I restarted the fiber modem and restarted iKuai, but still nothing... I realized that multi-dialing has completely left me.

Without multi-dialing, iKuai's greatest advantage cannot be utilized~ Actually, this is not even the most critical part. After all, multi-dialing just made my life more luxurious; it wasn't that essential. I just feel that I might not be able to hold onto my public IPv4 address for much longer. After all, under the pressure of the general trend, when one day Telecom uses the excuse of "national policy" to forcibly cancel public IPv4 addresses, and even complaining to the MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) is useless, we will naturally have to say goodbye to public IPv4 addresses.

Of course, without multi-dialing, my previous solution of routing traffic into the local network via public IPv4 IPs from different lines is now invalid, so a public IPv4 address doesn't mean that much to me anymore. Besides, with the support of public IPv6 addresses, there is no impact on domestic CDNs accessing the origin server in my home data center; and I have been connecting to my home devices through Tailscale for a long time, so it really doesn't matter to me. The only unfortunate ones are my classmates and friends who don't have IPv6 addresses but want to access my EMBY (actually, there is a way—they can access it through Tailscale's node sharing feature between different accounts, since the devices where I installed Emby all have Tailscale deployed. It's just that they need to find a way to set up Tailscale on the client they use to play my Emby, depending on whether they have the technical skills to pull it off. After all, in the current environment, to break through technical blockades, you need to have some skills).

The network environment is deteriorating day by day. To ensure a normal online experience, everyone has no choice but to work hard and learn new technologies to cope.

If one day, when you find that being human is too exhausting and painful, or even difficult to survive, you surprisingly discover that once you let go of the self-control you have always maintained as a "human" and choose to become a beast instead, life suddenly becomes much easier and simpler. At that moment, how would you choose between remaining human and becoming a beast? How many people, once accustomed to the liberation of being a beast, would never want to be human again?

But the irony is—isn't the difference between humans and beasts precisely this ‘self-control"?

All kinds of human virtues—patience, trust, compassion, justice, kindness, honesty, benevolence, and so on—exist based on tomorrow, relying on the future, because everyone believes that as long as we adhere to these standards, the future will become better and better.

But if the future becomes a bubble-like lie, and even the beasts themselves no longer have any hope for tomorrow... how can you stop them from enjoying the present?

For those who make money from popularity and traffic, having controversial remarks is a good thing; the more controversy, the more popularity and traffic it brings, allowing them to squeeze more profit out of it.

And what attracts even more attention are all kinds of bizarre comments that seem completely brainless, weird summaries, and even sheer nonsense leaks, as well as rumors that can be seen through at a single glance...

Why would anyone be so outrageous?

Being outrageous is normal; if you weren't outrageous, who would pay attention to you?

To attract more fans, you must say more; to attract more traffic, you must say more exaggerated things.

In this process, countless people who are too lazy to think will revere such a person as a leader and a god, following them to fight battles everywhere, until one day they are toppled from the altar by their own followers because of their own words.

Without exception, and no one will know when to stop.

The taste of being flattered and worshiped is enough to intoxicate the most rational and sober people. The illusory sense of power makes people secrete hormones of happiness, and the fulfilling experience of being in the spotlight, driven by the desire to perform and a sense of mission, makes them run wild all the way... until one day, they are overthrown, exposed, and forgotten.

Therefore, for this type of people, the best way to deal with them is to ignore them and treat them with indifference; all your attention, comments, and retweets, on the contrary, serve as motivation for them to continue talking nonsense.

As the Nine Yang Manual puts it well: “Let him be strong, for the gentle breeze caresses the mountain; let him be fierce, for the bright moon shines on the great river.”

If one ever had the chance to witness the prosperity and brilliance of society, to see all that is flourishing and bright, who wouldn't be heartbroken by this?

It is nothing but a dog-eat-dog world.

When self-interest becomes the sole criterion, when social status becomes the benchmark of judgment, when communities and society turn into ruthless machines; when the law of the jungle becomes an accepted truth, when the extravagantly luxurious powerful prey on the lower classes for nutrients without restraint; when everyone has no choice but to become a screw, competing with ten or a hundred other screws for a position that seems more prominent and bright...

Humans prey on others, and are preyed upon by others.

To be stronger, to be higher, to escape the wide-open mouths of others, one must swallow other food into their belly first. Even if one struggles to the very top of the food chain, they only become one of the plump beasts, and their gaze toward other equal existences will only become increasingly thirsty and insatiable. Once accustomed to the pleasure of eating flesh and drinking blood, there is no going back...

This is the rule of survival in the age of beasts.

For modern humans to survive, they must rely on the existence of order, no matter how bad that order may be.

But if they cannot receive protection from the order, or if they are abandoned by the original order, humans will instinctively turn elsewhere to find a place that can shelter them... This has nothing to do with human goodness or evil.

Once justice and due rights are completely gone, helpless people can only huddle together for warmth, seeking new authorities and relying on religion or organizations, even if these authorities are more blatantly corrupt and hideous.

How many people actually think? How many people choose to become the walking dead?

Hearing those profound words, he would think they are absolute truths; flipping through a couple of fabricated short stories in celebrity biographies, he would also seem to grasp the truths of this world.

Discovering what things are being scrambled for by others, he would also think it is a good thing; seeing one or two powerful and inspiring articles, he would find his direction in life.

Whatever others say, he says; whatever others think is right, he also thinks is the truth.

If someone commits a crime, he will also be filled with righteous indignation in the crowd; perhaps he will also appeal, feel indignant, and he will always stand on the side of the majority, hiding in the crowd, completely ordinary...

Clearly possessing reason, yet not thinking; able to feel love, but not spreading it; learning principles, but not applying them; knowing where wisdom lies, yet proud of one's own ignorance; thirsting for justice, yet stubbornly pushing anything different from oneself to the side of evil.

But why can't they think? Why not open their eyes and expose those childish lies? Do they really understand what they are doing? Have they really figured out their own roles? Are they really alive?

Do such individuals or groups of people really deserve to be happy?

All things are finite, but desires are endless; it is human nature to always want more. A beggar living hand-to-mouth seeks food and warmth, a critically ill person seeks recovery, a fading elder seeks youth, a well-read scholar seeks fame and wealth, and an emperor seeks immortality—all of these are, in essence, desires. It is just that once people obtain what they wanted, they often forget their original aspiration and turn to crave even more.

When kindness has become a luxury, there is no difference between humans and beasts.

The strong are orderly, the weak have support, the hungry have food, the sick have medicine, sons have fathers, and fathers have sons—that is all.

Everyone must die, but no one should live a life worse than death.

Today, my Ren and Du meridians were suddenly cleared, and I found the vocal state that suits me best. I then realized that in the past, I was just imitating in various ways, never truly relaxing to make good use of my own instrument and sing in my own style. What a waste of time~~ From now on, every time I sing an old song, it will feel like the first time. Who can understand this feeling~

There is far more than one path in life. Different eras, different environments, and different personal fundamentals can all lead to different suitable paths. So when you feel that life is not going well, feel that life is full of hardships, and cannot find the meaning of living, you might as well look back and think calmly. Perhaps in the end, you will suddenly realize that you simply chose a path that is not suitable for yourself.

The phrase “clarifying the mind and seeing one's true nature” often mentioned in Buddhism can be understood on a simple level as: understanding one's own “true heart” and seeing one's own “true nature”. Clarifying the mind and seeing one's true nature is extremely important. Spiritually, it is the starting point of cultivation; practically, it is a hallmark of a person truly recognizing their own inner heart, truly realizing the meaning of their own life, and initially reaching the level of "being without doubts".

But for ordinary people, clarifying the mind and seeing one's true nature is very difficult and requires breaking through layers of illusions.

Everyone's growth environment is different. In the process of growing up, one's thoughts will inevitably be influenced by all aspects such as family, school, society, tradition, and culture. In the end, there is a high probability that under the influence of various aspects, one will find a balance point that they can accept. This is also the state of “becoming mature” in the words of others, after starting to contact society and going through various beatings of reality.

But is this “maturity” truly mature? Are these thoughts at this moment your true thoughts deep down in your heart, or merely compromises after being beaten down by society? Were your naive and simple thoughts back then really just “naive and simple”? With these doubts, if things go on like this, you will completely lose your true self, become numb and indifferent, and eventually turn into a piece of duckweed drifting with the current.

Therefore, break through the layers of illusions surrounding yourself, and have the courage to face your true self. No matter how ugly, how shameless, how disgusting, or how terrifying your true self is, that is your true nature.

After recognizing your own true nature, do not fight against it; reconcile with it, then accept it, get used to it, control it, and ultimately refine it. This is the very purpose of spiritual cultivation.

Clarifying the mind and seeing one's true nature, and thus seeing the Tathagata.