himicos
Vol. I · No. 01 · Spring MMXXVI Field Journal Cover

Quietly learning
to build thoughtful
systems & study
the shape of language.

I’m himicos — a student exploring the vast world of programming, currently fascinated by large language models and the way they reshape what software can quietly understand. This is a working journal of projects, notes, and small obsessions.

p. 001 · Cover

A quiet learner,
technically curious,
forever in revision.

Programming found me later than it found most. What began as a single curiosity about how machines come to understand us slowly turned into long evenings spent assembling full-stack applications, reading transformer papers I half-understood, and writing small notes to my future self.

I work across the stack — React, Vue, SpringBoot, Node — but I’m happiest where the interface meets the model: the soft seam between user, prompt, and inference. I care less about novelty than about inevitability; the feeling that an interaction could not have been any other way.

“The best software disappears into the gesture it’s for.”

Outside of the editor I keep a small archive of music, a longer one of half-finished essays, and a habit of writing things down in two languages — because some ideas only show up in one of them.

§ 03 Contents of this issue
I.
Three projects, in some detail.
p. 004
II.
An itemised list of tools, in three columns.
p. 012
III.
Where I’ve been, in seasons rather than dates.
p. 016
IV.
Four records by Zhao Lei, listed in order of release.
p. 020
V.
Ways to write back.
p. 028

Selected Work

№ 01
2025
№ 01

Career Voyage

职航星途
Role · Full-stack developer · Year · 2025 · Form · Web + WeChat Mini

A full-stack internship platform connecting university students to partner companies — contributed end-to-end with Vue, SpringBoot, and a paired WeChat Mini Program for the candidate experience.

The challenge was less technical than editorial: dozens of roles in the institutional flow had to fit one calm interface. I worked across the matching engine and the data-visualisation layer so administrators could see — not just query — where students were stalling.

Vue 3 SpringBoot MySQL WeChat Mini ECharts JWT
Outcomes
3 mo.
from blank repository to deployed pilot across two faculties.
~40%
reduction in time spent administering placement paperwork.
2-sided
platform: institutional web console & mobile-native flow on WeChat.
Fig. 01. Administrative console — placement view.

Stack & Catalogue

§ 05 — Working tools, listed plainly.

Frontend

The visible half
  1. i.React & Next.jsDaily
  2. ii.Vue 3 & Composition APIDaily
  3. iii.TypeScriptDaily
  4. iv.Tailwind CSSOften

Backend

The part no one sees
  1. i.SpringBoot (Java)Daily
  2. ii.Python (FastAPI)Often
  3. iii.MySQL & PostgreSQLDaily
  4. iv.RedisSometimes

Models & Other

The new shelf
  1. i.Transformers & PyTorchStudying
  2. ii.LangChainSometimes
  3. iii.Docker & LinuxDaily
  4. iv.Git & CI/CDDaily

A Brief Path

§ 06 — In seasons, not dates.
2026Spring · Present
Began my first internship Industry
Stepped out of coursework and into the working week — reading other people’s code, sitting in stand-ups, learning how software is built when it has to ship.
2025Summer
Shipped Career Voyage pilot University collaboration
Contributed as a full-stack developer on a placement platform — learned the practical edges of SpringBoot, MySQL, and patience.
2024Autumn
Crossed into full-stack; began studying the transformer Independent study
Picked up SpringBoot, MySQL, and Node — the back half of the stack I’d been peering over. Alongside it, started reading the original transformer paper line by line to understand what was actually happening underneath the chat window.
2023Autumn
First pages on the frontend Coursework
Just Vue and the three classics — HTML, CSS, JavaScript. No database, no server yet; the screen was its own whole world, and that was already plenty to learn.
2022Winter
Met ChatGPT & GitHub Copilot At home, in private
The first time a piece of software talked back. Watching Copilot finish my sentences turned a vague curiosity about how AI works into the quiet decision to learn to program.

Music I love

§ 07 — Four records by 赵雷, on repeat.

A small, deliberate shelf. Folk songs from 赵雷 — sincere, plainspoken, written in a register that has followed me through every season of learning. Listed in order of release. Albums & turntable — gifts from 硕硕, kept on the shelf where the light is best.

№ i.
赵小雷 cover

赵小雷

Zhao Xiao-Lei
赵雷 · Zhao Lei · 2011

首张个人音乐专辑 — a debut, sincere and unhurried.

  1. 01
  2. 02南方姑娘
  3. 03未给姐姐递出的信
№ ii.
吉姆餐厅 cover

吉姆餐厅

Jim’s Restaurant
赵雷 · Zhao Lei · 2014

献给母亲的专辑— warm, devotional, written for his mother.

  1. 01我们的时光
  2. 02三十岁的女人
  3. 03北京的冬天
№ iii.
无法长大 cover

无法长大

Unable to Grow Up
赵雷 · Zhao Lei · 2016

代表作「成都」收录于此 — the high-water mark.

  1. 01成都
  2. 02无法长大
  3. 03再见北京
№ iv.
署前街少年 cover

署前街少年

Youth of Shuqian Street
赵雷 · Zhao Lei · 2022

回归初心,记录少年时代的梦想 — a return to the boyhood notebooks.

  1. 01我记得
  2. 02程艾影
  3. 03小行迹

§ 09 — Correspondence

Write to me
about anything
in particular.

I’m happiest reading a slow, specific letter — about a paper you’re stuck on, a tool you’re building, a sentence you can’t get past. I will write back, eventually, in the same register.

Quiet collaborations welcome. Loud ones politely declined.

Yours, in revision,
— himicos