Honeymoon is over

November, my self-proclaimed slacker month, is over.

Back to eleven entries per month. Not sure to feel happy or sad.

Slacker extraordinaire gotta slack, but then I also like to write... So conflicted.

Anyway, back to eleven entries per month, so can't be slacking off for too many days.

Or do I have to? Hmm...

Time for a change? Or perhaps still sticking to eleven entries for this month, so that this year will end with 125 entries as usual, and only starts in January, a new year thing?

What should the number of entries per month change to? Or simply random every month without a fixed number?

Something to mull over.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Pickleball, round 5

Played my fifth game of pickleball yesterday with colleague friends at a proper indoor pickleball court.

My first pickleball game was played in an indoor court as well, but that was a converted garage and I can't in good conscience called that a good court.

That said, all my subsequent pickleball games had been outdoor in a shaded basketball court, so the first indoor court was still better since it's a real pickleball court and the wind factor was eliminated. If only the flooring and the lighting were done better...

Anyway, basketball court is free of charge while the indoor court has, to my opinion, still quite a high cost comparing to other indoor racquet games. So can't really complain.

Here's hoping with more pickleball courts popping up everywhere, the price will go down to a more reasonable and economical range. *fingers crossed*

Before I write this entry, I checked and found out that my previous last pickleball game was back in June, five months ago. Time flies.

Well, the colleagues still have regular pickleball games, it's just that I have been bogged down by work so I have not been joining them since June. To be honest, the after pickleball game traffic is also a factor, need a lot of self-convincing that the waste of time in the bad traffic is worth it.

Anyway, was a great session yesterday, enjoyed the game and the camaraderie. But two hours for four players was too much for me, I am super unfit so despite taking more breaks than the other three, I am aching all over today.

More importantly, it's a gathering of colleague friends, so it's all worth it.

Pickleball series: | 1st |  | 2nd |  | 3rd |  | 4th |

Other |enjoyable events| category entries.

二十一年

情人老婆仔，结婚二十一周年纪念日快乐！

感谢你的陪伴和爱护、对我这番薯的包容和接纳。

谢谢还是让我牵的手，和那些每天都要的抱抱。^_^

今天拍拖、溜达、吃午餐、购物，没有买到漂亮的裙是有点失望，但并不意外。

我们还要继续走下去，一起变老（和变胖）哦，呵呵！=P

心语细述 |系列|

Master or slave?

This blog entry is about digital wellbeing, particularly about smartphone usage time or screen time. Well, my smartphone screen time, that is.

I have wanted to write this entry for ages, at first I was waiting for sufficient sample size for worthwhile statistics, then I never got to actually analyse the data when I do have sufficient sample size, so it joined the heap of entries and ideas gathering dust at a corner of my mind.

Until today, when I finally went and located the screenshots of the weekly digital wellbeing report I received every Monday, put them together in a folder, compiled the data, and did some simple statistical analysis.

The initial plan was to have at least 30 sample size, so at least 30 weeks worth of data. The first screenshot of the digital wellbeing report was dated 24th of April 2023, more than two and a half years ago... slacker point +1

So the figures I am sharing in this entry are from 132 weeks of data, a pretty solid sample size that should give us high confidence level of insights to my smartphone usage time. I seemed to have missed two weeks in 2023 since I started taking screenshot, else it would have been a sample size of 134 weeks.

the data

Based on 132 data points, my daily average screen time is 19.5 minutes, the standard deviation is 8.9 minutes. The number of weeks within these 132 weeks that my daily average screen time was (1) less than 10 minutes = 6; (2) between 10 to 30 minutes = 107; (3) between 30 to 60 minutes = 18; (4) more than 60 minutes = 1.

So, 85.6% of the data indicates that my daily average screen time to be less than 30 minutes. Ya, I am not a phone person. Caveman, remember? =P

That one week when my daily average screen time was more than 1 hour, well, I checked the date and instantly know the reason. That was the darkest time of my life thus far.

my longest daily average screen time in 132 weeks

On the other hand, the shortest daily average screen time was 7 minutes, happened only once. There were a few 8 minutes, but only one 7 minutes.

my shortest daily average screen time in 132 weeks

While I am not really a phone person, I have nothing against it. There is no denying that smartphone is a tool that has brought us a lot of convenience, a multitude of functions in a mobile computing device with access to the internet.

There is also no denying that there are a multitude of problems induced by smartphone usage, so much so that there are numerous studies and published papers on this subject matter, where some describe smartphones as the epidemic of the 21st century. Just google it if you are interested.

Smartphone addiction is real. I know with absolute certainty as I am a father of one. Hopefully just one, and hopefully no longer am but was, but perhaps that's asking too much...

Digital detox is something a lot of us should practise. Smartphone is a tool, be the master of the tool instead of being enslaved by it.

Other |sane side| category entries.

Scribble Pad is eighteen years old!

Happy 18th birthday, Scribble Pad!

As per custom, here are the accumulated number of views based on the counter. The one for 2025 is as of 18:33 hours.

2008: 4746
2009: 13300
2010: 23226
2011: 31677
2012: 37412
2013: 42469
2014: 46926
2015: 50532
2016: 53716
2017: 56798
2018: 59939
2019: 62732
2020: 65840
2021: 68205
2022: 70269
2023: 72064
2024: 74382
2025: 77048

Pleasantly surprised by the number again this year, but honestly not something I sweat about.

I write because I like to, and this blog is really my online journal that I can, and have many times used, to look up things that happened in my life. Handy tool for goldfish memory me, hehe.

Nursing a headache now so I won't write much further. Health has been getting worse as I get older...

Just like to say thank you for reading this blog. I sincerely hope you get something out of it.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Looking forward to November

Because it's my self-proclaimed slacker month, with only four blog entries to upload. May write more, but will only post four entries. That is just how it is, for years now.

Yes, I am a slacker, used to call myself the slacker extraordinaire, something that I cannot crown myself with anymore since I joined the department that changed me from 'cheap labour' to 'cheap labour with no life'... =(

Looking forward to Movember too, something that I support since I was made aware of it.

Gender equality is all good and well, I wholeheartedly support equal rights and opportunities, but in my humble opinion, majority of the initiatives are for the betterment of female. Don't forget about the male side of things, if it's really equality that we are after. So ya, I support Movember and will do my part.

To be honest I am also hoping a new month will bring some positive changes. Would be fantastic without the hectic work.

Here's hoping I will regain some slacker points in November. One can dream.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

心的频道：第七个

今天收到公司要为最近呈上的发明概念申请专利的通知，嘢！=)

这是我第七个专利申请。^_^

不是躺赢、不是「喷到」，是我费了蛮多功夫尽量优化，和模拟了好多组合来提供最优数据。所以我心安理得、理直气壮的接受。

不应该这么想，但我开始有点希望可以在接下来的半年内再多两个，那就会达到另一个里程碑：十二个月里五个（或更多）。

不希望就不会失望，但心里还真的是冒起了这念头…

怎么都好，第七个。我开心，我感恩。

心的频道 |系列|