Resurrected & Remastered

Back in 1998, when the original StarCraft came out, I bought a copy, the good old CD version. Then later, when Blizzard released a StarCraft and its expansion BroodWar combo pack, I bought that too. So I have two copies of StarCraft and one copy of StarCraft: BroodWar.

Fast forward a couple of years, when Diablo II was released in 2000, I bought two copies, so I could play with my girlfriend then, who has since become ex-girlfriend after promoted to wife. Then one year later in 2001, Blizzard released Diablo II expansion: Lord of Destruction, which I duly bought two copies as well.

Now in 2025, after twenty odd years, because they are on 50% and 60% discounts, I bought StarCraft: Remastered and Diablo II: Resurrected. Basically the upgraded graphics version of the same games that run friendlier on modern computer.

For StarCraft: Remastered, the in game graphics are nicer, but Blizzard did not touched up the cutscene cinematics. I am rather disappointed, as Blizzard cinematics are usually pretty impressive.

For that reason, I decided to give my limited game time to Diablo II: Resurrected first, because it has upgraded cutscene cinematics! =P

Strange how just an uplifted graphics can make an old game feels like a new game. I guess probably because Diablo II gameplay stood the test of time, but I could be biased since I am a Diablo fan.

Diablo I absolutely left its impression, the first ever computer game that I played for a long time, the turning point when I truly became a gamer, and the reason why I bought every Diablo game since.

So ya, bought two old games in new skin, so to speak, and I am enjoying the Diablo II: Resurrected experience thus far. =)

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

Chugging along

SoulBot-V, my gaming machine built in 2014, decided to stop booting up today.

Kid was still using it to play game yesterday and didn't noticed anything strange, but today it just stopped working.

I know it is an old computer, the original graphics card has died and has been replaced. Probably some other components as well that had to be replaced but I cannot remember.

To give it credit, it already outlived SoulBot-VI, the NUC I bought in 2017, which the motherboard died.

Anyway, with my rudimentary debug skill, managed to narrow down the problem to memory related, thanks to the labelled LED on the motherboard. Then through trial and error of removing the memory module, clean with eraser, putting it back, still failed, removing it again and putting it in another slot, managed to get the computer working again.

So good old SoulBot-V is still up and chugging along, but I know it's just a matter of time.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

2024 in numbers

2024 was to me, a year of survival and hanging on. 2024 started with the tail end of my second Covid-19 infection, my lung capacity is never the same after that. A quiet Chinese New Year as a show of respect to mommi. Adjusting to life without mommi, and remembering her in piecemeal moments.

2024 was full of tiredness, primarily the weariness of the mind, the heart, the emotion. Less than ideal sanctuary, often lacking in warmth, peace and harmony. Ever-present dust, dirt, grime, cobwebs. Frequent unfulfillment, discontentment, disappointment. Often felt like struggling alone. Exist to provide, give, sacrifice. Drained.

Anyway, here are the 2024 numbers:

125 blog entries. 11 entries per month except November, this is the 17th consecutive year I have done so. Truth is, the notion of breaking this number has popped up in my mind more than once this year, but somehow I still wrote those 11 entries every month...

43 days of commute to work recorded, which covered 1933.4 kilometres, giving an average of 45 kilometres per day.

8 petrol filling recorded. My six years old Civic is doing an average of 10.8 kilometre per litre of petrol. A significant drop of 2km/l from last year's average. Sign of deteriorated engine performance? =(

23 days of leave taken, of which there were 8 half-day leave and 19 full day leave. 3 days less compared to last year. =(

126 days of worked till overtime-worthy late. 1 day more than last year because I missed a day with the record in my mobile phone, of which I use as live tracking. So despite consciously stopping myself from working any more overtime once I reached 125 as shown in my phone's record, I had in reality already worked one day more when compared to the detail record in Excel. Clocked a total of 324 hours and 26 minutes, and the average overtime duration is 2 hours 34 minutes and 30 seconds. So even though I worked overtime 1 day more compared to last year, on average the overtime duration per day is 6 minutes less than last year's, that is good. Still, I need to get the overtime count to be a lot less.

Putting the overtime count into perspective: 52 weeks of 5 working days = 260 working days. Take away 17 public and replacement holidays, and take away 23 days of leave I had 220 working days. Out of the 220 days I worked overtime 126 days, that's 57.3%. Urgh... =(

0 days on business trip. =)

5 online tabletop gaming sessions held. Lackluster interest, guess it's just very low on others' priority list. We played 3 board games this year, one of which is a new game.

21 novels read, 18 new books and 3 reread. Managed to read one more book compared to last year, hehe. Average of 17.4 days for a book, slow. =/

0 patent filing. Failed. =(

47, 20, 17, 15, 4+1, 0 for my own reference.

Happy New Year dear blog viewer, wish you a wonderful 2025.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

By association

I am a meeting thermal engineer, currently my main role is to attend endless meetings design cooling solution for laptops.

The team charter is to compete in the premium and creator laptop segments, so that's what my designs are primarily targeted at.

It's very satisfying when customer has the gut and the money to adopt wholesale the best design I came up with in terms of performance, but that rarely happens, only once so far if I remember correctly.

Majority of the time we have to compromise for various reasons, cost is one, and often also because customer simply does not dare to be the first or the early adopter, and prefers to stay with conservative design. The tried and tested route, I understand, but I also know that my designs are all simulated and backed with data, and the one who dares to try new things will be the one who sets the trend, the first to reap the benefit before the mass follow and copy.

Anyway, got sidetracked, not meant to post about that. =P

So, I design cooling solution for laptops, I don't buy or sell laptops. I am sure there are people who compare laptops spec, performance, value for money, that sort of things, but that's not what I do.

In fact, ever since I started having personal computer, it has always been desktop, I have not owned any personal laptop. So if you come to me asking about which laptop to buy, then I would direct you to do your research through Google, at least that's what I would do.

And no, I don't get free laptops. I wish so too, but unfortunately no.

Other |nutty nuts| category entries.

Long weekend

Taking annual leave tomorrow, Friday, so will have a three days long weekend.

Do not plan to work overtime, still trying my darndest to hold the line. Gotta stay strong.

Had a boring Christmas yesterday, no Lord of the Rings marathon or any movie watching with wifey, as wifey was busy with other things the whole day, no time for me. =( So I guess the highlight for me was the nap I took in the afternoon.

Don't foresee it will be any different this long weekend, besides the scheduled annual flu vaccination tomorrow and a family dinner with brother on Saturday.

Wifey and the kids are out still at the time of writing this, been out since noon. Good to be the things that made her priority list. I should be jealous.

Anyway, three days long weekend, yay...?

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

随想

年尾了，学校这星期是假期，两天后圣诞节，然后下周三是新年。

就是想说，这样的时候还真希望自己是和把圣诞节和新年看得很重的洋人工作，因为那样的话这两周就会很清静。

偏偏就不是，而是和那些还拼命在赶工的同事工作，没有年尾要休假，轻松充电的同事。他们只是给我额外两份模拟要求，和问我几时能给报告，就是暗示我赶快做好的意思。

我说我今晚（星期一）马上跑一个案件，然后明天（星期二）再过夜跑另一个，那么一切顺利的话星期四可以给报告。我也直接说星期三是圣诞节公假，我不打算工作。

我要死守今年不再加时工作，不然我就会超过去年的加时工作总数了。

真的嘞，年尾了，让人喘口气行不行？

随兴随想 |系列|

Arrived

Wifey's new car has arrived!

Happy wife = happy life. ^_^

Other |enjoyable events| category entries.