this blog is a log, and it's also a language lesson — on purpose. every post pairs a mandarin word with its literal definition: 蜕变, tuì biàn, metamorphosis; 黄油, huáng yóu, butter; 网, wǎng, the net. each word card is a dictionary entry, not a tagline. and the words aren't decoration. they're the theme, done slowly
why the words
the whole system is transmogrifying toward mandarin — two axes, by contact: the c++ moving to rust, and the language of the work moving toward simplified mandarin. i decided the words would travel with the work, each one explained the first time it appears, so i'd learn the language as the system adopted it
that's why every term arrives as character + pinyin + meaning. 博客 (bó kè - blog), 协议 (xié yì - protocol), 数据 (shù jù - data). opaque tokens would defeat the point; the point is that a person — me, reading my own log — learns a little with every post
a molt, not a costume swap
the name of the theme matters. 蜕变 is to molt, to slough off a shell the body outgrew — not to change clothes. the system leaves bodies behind, keeps the thing it became. and the language lesson rides the same track: each word a small shedding, a little more of the shell replaced
词 is the word. every post is a word card and a step — the log teaching its own language as it tells its own story