如风（二）

一转眼农历新年就过去了，如风消逝。

原本想在元宵节写些什么的，但忙得头昏脑胀，一肚怨气，所以就罢了。

不意外的管理层又再次改变项目的方向，年假完后又被催命似的模拟了几个方案的案列，赶出一些结果来呈现给顾客。

顾客把他们要的方向讲明了，管理层还是要依据自己的方向前进。反正他们只是讲而已，真真要干活的、苦的是我们这些工作层。

徒劳后项目方向又改变，一切又要再重新做过，这感觉已熟悉到开始麻木。而且这次要做两个方向的工作:一个交差给管理层的，一个依据顾客要求的。

去年九月还是十月开始参与这项目至今，我已经建了二十六个模型，模拟了一百二十八个案列… 因为项目的方向如风善变。

只能说两边的管理层不知道在做些什么鬼，一个项目的目标方向，不是项目开始前就应该定好的吗？一直这样改变，项目要怎么进行呢？要几时才能竣工呢？

唉，还是只有同样那一句:苦的是工作层。

随兴随想 |系列|

Teambuilding

Had an online teambuilding today, the teambuilding event for this quarter.

Involved just the immediate group so only a small number of people, split to three teams.

Played three games: a drawing game, a scavenger hunt, and an escape room game.

One of the team members did similar drawing game before and had a smart way of doing it, which he set up for us and we proceeded to paint a rather nice image, if I say so myself.

The scavenger hunt game started off with a few of us unable to access the game site so we skipped the first mission and proceeded to the next with the game marshal sharing her screen. We did all subsequent missions pretty efficiently so we ended up with time to spare.

The game marshal then persuaded us to do the last dance mission (we initially wanted to skip it), and even after we completed it we still had time to spare so the two who could access the game site completed the first scavenger hunt mission by themselves.

The escape room game is of course my favourite, puzzle solving and code breaking, what's not to like? =) All smart people in the team so we escaped the fastest among the three teams.

In fact, we did so well in all three games we were the champion team. No prize whatsoever but like what we said to the game marshal, we share the glory. ^_^

Other |enjoyable events| category entries.

白眉毛·黄屁股

不久前才拔掉左眼上那条白眉毛，几天前右眼上又多了条白眉毛。

不是慢慢长出来那种，而是一条已经很长的眉毛一夜突变全白了。

我究竟经历了什么沧桑哦？

决定不管了，就让它黑中独白吧。

不知道是不是会像我的胡须那样，开始越来越多变白，然后连新长出来的也是白的了。

我认老，很多年前就开始认了。

*****

白眉毛是我，黄屁股是我们家「雪球」。

仓鼠的卫生观念跟人类差异太大了，或者就根本没有卫生观念…

它总是把自己弄得臭臭的，然后就天天在挠痒。用它短短的脚很迅速的扒啊、抓啊、挠啊（是很可爱啦…）。

屁股粘着大便也是见惯不怪的事，比较恶心的是它会把掉落的便便放进它的脸颊袋里，然后搬运到某处堆积。

「雪球」，偶麦姑呢斯！你也用你的脸颊袋来装你的食物的啊！ >_<

两天前它泡在自己的尿里睡到屁股黄黄的，又不是它自己可以清理到的地方，所以屁股黄了两天。大儿子叫它 yellow butt，我叫它「黄屁股」。

真的很看不过眼，今天情人老婆仔用两个旧牙刷，一个逗它玩（其实就是给它咬啦），另一个就趁机刷刷它的屁股。它换去咬另一个牙刷我们也跟着换用没被攻击的牙刷来清理它屁股。

是有清理掉一些，但还是有点黄黄的，唉…

这小东西怎么可以这样脏？！？

随兴随想 |系列|

Diablo II: Resurrected

A few days ago, I posted an update on my gaming progress, in which I mentioned that I intend to continue my revisit of Diablo II.

Today, I learned that Blizzard is going to release a 3D remastered version this year, bringing this 20 years old game to modern graphics.

It's called Diablo II: Resurrected, and from the video available currently, it looks faithful to the original game, just a lot nicer. ^_^

You can go to the official site to sign up for alpha test, not sure how the selection process is since given my limited gaming time, I don't intend to sign up so I didn't really look into the details.

At this moment I am not sure if I am going to buy it, since, after all, I bought two copies of Diablo II and two copies of Lord of Destruction all those years back. I am not sure if I want to spend the money just to get a nicer looking game.

By the way, whoever borrowed my second copy, could you please return it to me? I want to introduce it to my sons and play multiplayer with them.

Anyway, there are probably some quality of life improvements other than nicer graphics, I will have to dive deeper to find out.

Can always pick it up during sales, I suppose. ^_^

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

不要！不要！不要！

明天要开工了…

不要！不要！不要！

不必工作都可以有足够的收入来过得舒适，是我的梦想。应该也是很多人的梦想吧？

天天都可以悠闲的做自己喜欢做的事，不必烦恼钱，那可是多么美好的生活啊～

这世上，有多少个人可以有这样的命呢？

我这命贱、劳碌命的，就只能做做梦、空想一想而已，唉…

会拿假到明天才开工，是因为越老越迷信，明天是开工吉日。

至少根据我看到的讯息啦，不同的人讲不同的东西，我的八字知识又还太肤浅。

我又很固执的认为开工就要像平时工作天那样认认真真的工作一整天，不是开了笔记型电脑发个电邮意思意思就好。对我来说那太敷衍了事了。

毕竟我的工作不是发电邮，我也不希望我整年的工作就只是开了电脑发电邮… 我终究还是个责任感很重的人。

所以，明天要开工了（不要！不要！不要！），好无奈。

随兴随想 |系列|

Gaming progress

Taking advantage of the Chinese New Year break, which I took additional few days off to make it longer, to catch up on my gaming.

Haven't really got time for gaming (or anything else really) with the workload and all those overtimes. For months now I would consider myself lucky if I don't have to work in the weekend.

Whatever gaming time I managed to get recently, I devoted it to Diablo III. Season 22 to be specific, which I managed to complete with a witch doctor very recently, end of January beginning of February thereabout.

Before that I think I was playing World of Warcraft, which I stopped in October last year, just before the Shadowlands expansion. Would just be a waste of money if I continued the subscription, given the insane workload.

Anyway, I have a backlog of games I want to play. There are still games that I have bought when I was in England that I still haven't touched, and many games that I want to revisit or to complete once and for all.

Between then and now, a two years time period, I managed to complete Diablo I, and am at act 3 with a trap assassin in Diablo II when it got put on hold. I still intend to continue the Diablo II nostalgic journey. Also on revisit of games, I managed to complete Starcraft II Wings of Liberty campaign again, but stopped in one of the zerg's mission in Starcraft I campaign. Not sure if I will continue the Starcraft I journey...

Somehow I can never get very far with Dungeon Siege, while I really would like to complete that game at least once, it feels more like a chore to me than an enjoyment. Another game that I have stopped cold is Neverwinter.

Re-installed Baldur's Gate I and its expansion Tales of the Sowrd Coast back in April 2018, wanted to complete the expansion so I can finally moved on to Baldur's Gate II and eventually complete the saga. This is the game I am playing nowadays, after close to three years hiatus.

range attack is king in Baldur's Gate

Restarted with a new character, still sticking to the plan of a thief dual class to mage in Baldur's Gate II, so basically playing as a thief throughout Baldur's Gate I. It seems like by the end of my Chinese New Year break, I will end up where I ended up last time: just prior to entering Baldur's Gate.

Hmm... I hope I will still have time for gaming after the break. Really don't want another hiatus, want to at least complete all of Baldur's Gate I this time, so that I can finally move on to Baldur's Gate II.

There is this other game that I have just re-installed though: Torchlight, which is taking up some of my gaming time because I am preparing myself for the barrage of questions from the kids.

Surprisingly, elder son has progressed further in Starcraft I than I expected. In fact, he is close to completing the Brood War campaign, I think just a few missions left. Perhaps this will be the first game that he actually completes?

He is showing sign of his usual "five minutes passion" though, saying he is bored with Starcraft, asking me to re-install Bomberman for him a few days back, which I did, and which he played for a grand total of two days... So I installed Torchlight for him and the younger son, which they will start playing this coming weekend, if they want to. And then the questions will start.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

不一样的新年

后门政府超无能，疫情继续肆虐，漏洞满满效率差的行动管制令二继续延长，所以今年农历新年很不一样。

不出门、不拜年对我这反社会、反交际的宅男其实没什么影响。我真的就是如常生活而已。

是那气氛很不同，今年，没有农历新年的感觉。

如果不开收音机听华文电台，还真的就一点农历新年气息都没有了。

新年前的周末忙着工作，所以只有拿了假的除夕才有空大扫除。

大年除夕醒来后就一直忙清理打扫。直到我开始指示（和用加长玩电脑游戏时间来贿赂）孩子们后，整个家才终于被打扫清理。看来原本今年是没有要大扫除的意思的…

不知道应该怎么形容今年的团圆饭，只能说是我这生，包括在英国的那些年，吃过最不像团圆饭的团圆饭…

年初一因大扫除而全身酸痛的我才醒来，情人老婆仔就出去霸级市场购物了，一直到中午买了麦当奴回来当午餐，所以孩子们到了午餐后才很随意的拜年。

然后就是各自玩电脑游戏啊、追剧啊、看书啊、吃年饼啊、逗仓鼠啊、等等悠闲的过。就是平时不必工作的周末那样咯。

总之今天已是年初三，感觉到的就是很不一样的新年啦。

哦，可幸的是，今年应该会少了些被商业化了的情人节和贪得无厌的商人砍头的羔羊，呵呵！

随兴随想 |系列|

Off!

Heads up! I am off tomorrow onwards until Thursday next week. Will only be back to work on Friday, which is an auspicious day to start working that doesn't clash with my animal sign.

I have done more than my fair share of work for months so unless you have very lucrative incentive, like a few thousand ringgit that kind of incentive, do not contact me for any work related stuff. You will be ignored.

I am ready for my Chinese New Year break. A stay at home do nothing break suits me just fine. Perfect indeed.

Goodness knows I could use the rest. Hopefully in a peace and quiet environment.

So ya, I am off! Happy festival to all, wish you a good time whether or not you celebrate it. =)

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Loyal customers

This entry is to express my gratitude to those loyal customers.

No thanks to the useless back door government and those people with no self-discipline who are incapable of following standard operating procedure and common sense practices, the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia is worse now compared to last year.

The Movement Control Order (MCO) is in effect, ineffective though it is, we still do our part and abide to it. So this will be a very different Chinese New Year. One of the things we do not do this year is the cookies and cakes order.

Well, we still take orders, just not openly as we did the past few years. Only selected few who can come to collect the cookies (and cakes) were notified.

And we are pleasantly surprised by those we did not notified, yet contacted us to ask about the cookies and cakes for Chinese New Year.

We explained the situation and the reason why this year we did not openly announced the cookies and cakes ordering: it's because we could not be certain of the delivery, ineffective MCO that will last for a while and all that, so we only told those whom we know would come to us to collect.

Some are disappointed, but there are some who are determined to get the cookies regardless! So they use delivery service to collect from our house to deliver to thiers.

Wow! Such loyal customers. I am touched.

So I like to express my gratitude, thank you very much, really appreciate it.

Other |sane side| category entries.

如风

管理层如风善变不定的方向，让整个计划翻转重启。然后再重启，然后再…

就这样，根本没时间去叹惜又一次的徒劳，就连续忙了四天四夜，昨晚终于都呈上了我的报告。

今天疲累赶上来追债，整个人懵懵懂懂的。

但完美主义作祟，还是为报告补上了很完善的后备资料，让它变成独立完整的一份报告。

然后，就是定好了下星期要做的模拟测验，难得的准时下班。

等星期一管理层再改变计划方向，让这一切又变成徒劳无功咯…

随兴随想 |系列|

Underestimation

I thought it would take them two weeks to change their mind. Yet again.

Well, I thought wrong.

It only took them less than a week to change the direction of the project. Yet again.

Apparently the latest and greatest (yet again) direction was announced on the very first day of my long weekend. One day shy of a week since the previous latest and greatest direction change.

Oh well, guess I have underestimated their, erm... "efficiency".

Since I stuck to my words and didn't touch anything work related in all four days of my long overdue break, and never gave my mobile phone number to my manager, it's today that I got this direction change (yet again) update.

So I wondered, and asked, if it will change yet again this coming Friday? You know, asking so perhaps I should just wait it out instead of waste all the time and effort generating, running and post-processing the thermal model. Got the standard politically correct management response.

But I guess thermal simulation is just a "two clicks" process for the management, so the expectation for me is to provide the results within the week.

Improvement! At least it's a vague 'within the week' instead of in two days time.

Gotta celebrate the little victories.

Other |wretched workaholic| category entries.