2023, 0821-0827

I was quite productive and in a good mood the first two days this week, continuing to adapt the widgets for Zen Flip Clock and Minimal Diary to iOS 17, and I also updated two English blog posts, ready for a productive week. But I was forced to stop working after just two days.

COVID-19

Starting Wednesday, I got COVID-19 for the first time, and have been bedridden most of the time since then.

Wednesday

I started feeling body aches and chills early in the morning, and came down with a fever during the day. I took paracetamol three times but couldn't get the fever to go away even though I was sweating heavily. This was the most painful day, I was delirious all day, my clothes, bedsheets and pillows were drenched in sweat, and I had a splitting headache.

Thursday

I still had a slight fever in the morning but it was gone by the afternoon, and I felt like I had regained some strength. I thought I was getting better but then the fever came back before bedtime, and I felt weak and stuffy.

Friday

I went to the community health center in the morning to get some bloodwork done. It showed only a little inflammation and the doctor said my lungs were ok, but I was 95% likely infected. When I got home I tested positive on a self-test kit. It was my first time using one, from my mom's supply since they are not sold in stores anymore.

I started coughing in the afternoon and felt phlegm in my throat.

Saturday

I suddenly lost my sense of taste and smell. I could only feel the texture of food but no taste at all, even vinegar didn't taste sour. Coffee only tasted burnt without any aroma. I had to imagine the taste of everything I ate.

I tried two bottles of Coke as an experiment, one regular and one zero sugar. Without being able to taste, the regular Coke only felt slightly more viscous than the zero sugar one.

Sunday

The fever is gone but I still feel weak and achy all over, especially my back. My eyeballs hurt when I move them.

I started having diarrhea at night, going to the bathroom three times. At first I wondered why my poop didn't smell the past two days, then I realized why and had to laugh.

In retrospect, I experienced all the common symptoms of COVID (fever, cough, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, loss of taste/smell, sore throat, stuffy nose, diarrhea) except breathing difficulty and nausea. I'd give the experience a near perfect score...

Zen Flip Clock iOS (App Store)

I received an App Store review from an overseas user saying the app used to work fine but started crashing after updating to the latest version. This immediately reminded me of a WeChat message last week from a Xiaohongshu user reporting crashes shortly after launching the app and providing a video clip. I hadn't taken it too seriously since I hadn't received similar crash reports before, but these two very similar reports must be related. So I opened App Store Connect to check the crash analytics...

Sure enough, the new version had a spike in crashes, traced to the audio file playback code. With help from Claude, ChatGPT and friends, I was able to fix the bug. I wanted to contact that Xiaohongshu user and have her test the beta before submitting the update, but she didn't reply so I just went ahead and submitted it. She confirmed the bug was fixed half a day after the app updated, only then was I relieved.

I discovered the problem Thursday night and somehow powered through fixing it, but was too weak to do the submission work, so I waited a day until I recovered a bit on Friday before submitting to the App Store. I was very anxious yet miserable physically during this time.