My mind has been swamped by the amount of information, hype, misinformation, hype, advice, hype, chaos, hype, progress, and hype. Staying sane and calm while on top of the news is hard.

As I wrap up my first PhD project on retrospection, time has come for a first year retro.

“花解语，鸟自鸣。生活中处处有语言，不同的语言打开不同的世界，比如雕塑，基因等都是语言，还有有声的、无声的语言。语言丰富生活，演绎生命，传承文化。请根据所给材料作文，自己拟题，文体不限，诗歌除外，不少于800字。”

I am about to take the International English Language Testing System test, or IELTS test, for the second time. The registration survey asked me how long I had studied English.

“没有钱用，但又懒得去挣钱。请您给我寄一些钱来吧！我决不食言：我只懒到5月份。6月1日起我就坐下来写作。”