July 2026
Since coming back from the graduation ceremony at the end of June, I've been busy with a new NUS project and exams… and after the exams came more project work, along with sending out resumes, preparing for interviews, and getting ready for internships in the second half of the year.
There isn't much to say about the graduation ceremony — the gloomy, drizzly weather, a hall without air conditioning, a poorly managed scene. I got my diploma and degree certificate early and left. The main reason I went back was to spend time with my girlfriend, who lives in a different city.
Today I just got freed from three exams, and in a somewhat gloomy mood, I wanted to write something as my first monthly log. It's been quite a while since I last created anything — neither the time nor the space has really allowed me to ponder the rhythm between words, or the movement of each brushstroke. That said, I've recently been doing a few things that carry my personal mark, like this personal website, and an Agent project I'm still refining (Pub2MD Agent).
One of the biggest things I've gained since coming here is a deeper understanding and application of AI Agents — I've started using Claude and Codex frequently, and the whole learning process has brought me a lot of surprise and amazement. Before this, developing a website or project on my own was quite a hassle — scattered reference materials online, bugs that were hard to locate and fix. Now, as long as I provide clear requirements, I can form a smooth, efficient, and highly responsive workflow through interaction with the Agent. And it's not just coding projects — anything that needs to be done on a computer, like PPTs, design work, data analysis, reports… Agents these days can handle all of it efficiently, and sometimes the output is good enough that it doesn't even need further revision or polishing.
It's a bit of a pity that in the first half of the year, my understanding and use of AI basically stayed at the chatbot stage. After coming abroad, though, rising demand and easier access pushed me to explore AI's applications in daily life and study more broadly and deeply.
Another major gain has been in personal finance. I successfully opened accounts with HSBC and OCBC in Singapore — in the long run, a Singapore account is a solid hedge asset. I also opened accounts with Schwab and Interactive Brokers one after another. Personally, I don't trust insurance or pensions from certain places, and the job market isn't likely to look good for a long time to come, so it's important to "keep your money in mature, properly regulated, and long-term prosperous markets" (on this front, recent policies and news have been gradually tightening or even shutting down the channels available to ordinary people).