2022 in numbers

2022 was to me, a year of being forced to go out to the dangerous outside instead of my preferred staying at home. Covid-19 is still out there but noboday seems to care anymore. My 'went out' count skyrocketed when I started doing the chauffeur duty for kids' tuition and activities.

Here are the 2022 numbers:

125 blog entries. 15 years consistently without fail. Enough said.

17 days of commute to work recorded, which covered 756.1 kilometres, giving an average of 44.5 kilometres per day.

4 petrol filling recorded. My four years old Civic is doing an average of 14.0 kilometre per litre of petrol. Sample size is too small to be meaningful.

23 days of leave taken. 2 more days compared to last year. This is a healthy trend. =)

136 days of worked till overtime-worthy late, a 16.7% reduction from last year. This is still an unhealthy number of overtime, but at least in the right trend. I have all overtime duration recorded, the total is 274 hours and 2 minutes, and the average overtime duration is 2 hours 0 minutes and 54 seconds.

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 136 days, that's 61.8%. This is just sad.

0 days on business trip. =)

14 online tabletop gaming sessions held. We played 5 board games this year, primarily the same games we played last year, only tried a new game once. There are many games to try but no time to read up on how to play so...

39 novels read, all new books and no reread this year, think this is a first. Average of 9.4 days for a book. Read rate is fantastic this year, I usually take two weeks per book.

1 patent filing and 1 trade secret. As decided last year, the reward money is my fund for charity, so I have the motivation to continue innovating and inventing.

45, 18, 15, 13, 4+1 for my own reference.

Happy New Year dear reader, wish you a wonderful 2023.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Azeroth short visit

Blizzard gave me three days game time for free to try out Dragonflight, the latest World of Warcraft expansion, where I get to try the new Dracthyr Evoker, first ever race-and-class combo.

So I did just that. =)

Managed to play a total of 17 hours and 14 minutes actual game time out of that three days offer, and got my Dracthyr Evoker to level 63, the level limit of the offer.

Typical of me, I enjoyed the lore and storyline, and was in no rush to level up. I went exploring whenever I could.

Dragonflight comes with Dragonriding, it's a bit like flying skill, only this is more towards momentum and speed, so it's not something that you can use to hover in place to admire the view, but something that requires your intense attention and control.

Dracthyr gets something similar to Dragonriding very early in the game, so that's what I was using to explore since I only got Dragonriding nearing the end of my short revisit to Azeroth.

I enjoyed the short stay, and wouldn't mind at all if Blizzard gives me more free game time. =P

As with all other World of Warcraft expansions thus far, Dragonflight is something I will eventually buy, just not sure when.

Judging from the busy coming January, most likely I will have to pass on the 'buy Dragonflight and get one month game time free' year end offer. Oh well.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

Potato mode on!

Took a few days annual leave and used up the remaining of the wellness leave, coupled with the Christmas and New Year holidays, and I have a total of eleven days off.

My long break started yesterday, and as I like to say, potato mode is on!

Sadly it started off trending towards a rotten potato, for I worked overtime till 5:00pm yesterday, and I woke up working today, though I only worked for slightly less than an hour today so I guess that's an improvement.

I am still undecided if I want to work overtime in the coming days, there are tasks that are due in the new year...

Not a good situation to be in, sense of responsibility is such a liability sometimes.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

老了的其中一个问题

我认老，很多年前就已经感觉自己老了。

老了就有老了的问题，老花啊、越老越迟钝啊、新陈代谢越来越慢啊…

最近又多了一个：天亮后不能再入睡，无论晚上睡得多不好，睡眠素质多差，天亮醒来后再累也睡不回了。

唉… 睡觉是我的爱好之一，睡到太阳晒屁股对我来说是件幸福的事。

现在连这样的幸福都被攫夺了，人生又少了一个乐趣。

人就是不要老…

随兴随想 |系列|

World Cup 2022

World Cup has ended with Argentina winning the Cup in penaltly shootout after 3:3 tie.

I am not a football fan so I surprised myself watching the 3rd place match and the final.

The Croatia versus Morocco 3rd place match was boring, made me regret watching it, rather be sleeping.

The Argentina versus France final on the other hand was worth it. It's entertaining, with plot twist and cliffhangers, glad I didn't go to sleep after the first half thinking Argentina had it in their bag with the 2:0 score and the listlessness of France team.

Then the plot twist ten minutes before the second half ended, France got their equalizer in two short minutes and suddenly the match became very exciting.

Second half ended with a cliffhanger 2:2 tie. Messi of Argentina scored first in the extra time, then France again got their equalizer from a foul in the penalty area. The extra time ended in another cliffhanger 3:3 tie.

Shame really, was hoping the match ends without having to go to penalty shootout.

I am glad Argentina won in the end, a 4:2 penalty shootout score. I think their team have better teamwork and ball control.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Temptation

The new patch released this week has given Diablo Immortal some new lives, there is a new questline in new area, some changes that made it more casual and solo-friendly, like being able to do the raid solo, and easier ways to get legendary and set item.

These changes are to my liking, though of course it's still a multiplayer game at heart and those who play in group and warband will progress faster, but at least there is viable path to play solo.

Giving player more options instead of a forced playstyle is always good in my book.

Well, the thing is, there is this limited-time offer in Blizzard's Battle.net launcher that is really tempting me: buy Dragonflight and get 30 days of game time. Offer ends 3rd of January 2023.

Is it time for me to return to World of Warcraft? Do I have the time for World of Warcraft?

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

散漫

工作了一整年，现在年尾了，心很散漫。

从三月开始做的一个项目应该是可以开始收手的阶段，仍有一些模拟要我执行，但仿佛已不是被注重的事，毕竟已有可以实测的样品。都已经公布我跟这客户做的下一个项目，很快就会开始吧？

六月开始跟另一个客户做的项目还是没完没了，不知道是不是会像前几个跟这个客户做的项目那样，到最后什么都没有，做了个寂寞。

这样的客户偏偏就是还有模拟的要求，而且很可能会因为这模拟的要求导致我需要在已经拿了的，下星期五开始一直到新的一年的假期时段里加时工作。

看明天大老板怎么讲啦… 如果需要在年尾长假里加时工作真的会显到～

这几天进展很慢。心散漫，无心工作，效率很差。

真的就是想要好好休息一段时间才开始另一个项目，但重叠的项目让我根本没有喘息的时间，还常常要加时工作。

唉，为什么要做到这么累？

真的，现在的我就是很不想工作的心境。

求包养…

随兴随想 |系列|

Diablo IV pre-purchase

Diablo IV will arrive 6th of June 2023, gamer can pre-purchase now for early access to the open beta.

Okay, enough free advertisement, did it as public service out of my love for the Diablo game since Blizzard doesn't pay me.

Hitting another dull period with Diablo Immortal, and since Dragonflight is out, thought of revisting World of Warcraft has come up...

But perhaps I should complete Diablo III season 27 first, that Yang's Recurve still refuses to drop for me, meh!

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

心语细述

十二月了。很快，二零二二年就过去了。

今年，工作上还算可以。忙归忙，对加时工作已经麻木，但至少还算顺利。

很庆幸经理赏识我的努力和付出，也感恩经理提供的机会。

我婉拒了提拔的机会，主要是我真的觉得现在已经很累了，不想要生活得更累。

天下没有免费的午餐，越高的职位就有越多和越重的责任。

我明白自己的性格、我的责任感。真的不想活得那么累。

当然，我很可能已经葬送了我的事业生涯…

家庭方面，感觉最多的是无助。

已经认不得我的母亲，我无能为力，我心酸。

还是不醒觉的大儿子，没有自律整天重复同样的错误，搞得家里乌烟瘴气负能量满满，我心力交瘁、心灰意冷。

不如意的人生，才是真实的人生？

心语细述 |系列|

Facial hair

On the first day of December I clean-shaved.

I don't really have a preference regarding facial hair, so it's mainly down to my mood. Though I made it a point to not clean-shave in November because I support Movember.

Clean-shaving is actually easier and faster than maintaining tidy, trimmed moustache and beard, but I guess I didn't really kept my facial hair very tidy since I am a slacker, hehe. =P

Can't stand the hair on the neck being too long though, it tickles. So throughout November I didn't just let the facial hair grow but kept it trimmed on a weekly basis.

Perhaps in Decemeber I will stay clean-shaven. Well, on a weekly basis, I am slacker extraordinaire after all. =P

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

有感而发：命

二零二二年十二月一日。

自称的闲懒月十一月就这样过去了，又回到了每月上载十一篇文章的习俗。

在公司工作了五年以上，每年的有薪假期有二十天，就是每个月会加个 1.67 天的假期。可以累积一倍的数额，所以一共可以有四十天的有薪假期。

任何超过这四十天上限的假期会自动被取消，没有补偿。

前天发现我十二月就会到顶，而且会损失几个小数点的假期。虽然是小数点的损失，但觉得不甘心，所以就很突然的拿了昨天的假。

原本打算就是闲着，休息、看书、看戏、玩电脑游戏什么的，但起身时头已在疼。命贱的工作了一个小时后就已经是需要躺平的头痛程度。

所以我昨天拿了来悠闲过的假，最终变成一整天在床上做死尸，连吃了止痛药都还是头疼那种…

老天，真的需要这样对我吗？

唉，我这命…

有感而发 |系列|