2023 in numbers

2023 was to me, a year of loss and helplessness. Losing mommi is a life changing event, something permanent, something that left a mark. Losing the pet Cocoa is saddening, but she lived a long healthy life so there is solace in that. Losing Brownie is a distressing shock, I am still feeling the remorse and guilt, I should have provided her a safe environment to grow old, but I let her down.

2023 is full of helplessness, the inability to make things better in regards to mommi prior to her passing, and the powerlessness of her sudden passing. The pay cut. The leaving of a capable colleague, the other thermal engineer. The helplessness and frustration in the dealing with customer. The projects assignment. The failed patent attempts. The drifting apart and the inability to stop it, to revert it.

Here are the 2023 numbers:

125 blog entries. 11 entries per month except November, 16 years continuously, a testament to my persistence, consistence and self-discipline.

29 days of commute to work recorded, which covered 1314.0 kilometres, giving an average of 45.3 kilometres per day.

9 petrol filling recorded. My five years old Civic is doing an average of 12.8 kilometre per litre of petrol. This is the average with long distance trips, urban driving average is probably closer to the 11 to 12 km/l range.

26 days of leave taken. 3 more days compared to last year. This is a healthy trend. =)

125 days of worked till overtime-worthy late, a 8.1% reduction from last year. Still a large number of working overtime, but am glad it is in the right declining trend. I have all overtime duration recorded, the total is 334 hours and 26 minutes, and the average overtime duration is 2 hours 40 minutes and 30 seconds. So in effect I am doing worse than last year, since although I worked overtime fewer days compared to last year, I worked on average 40 minutes longer when I did overtime. Not good. =(

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 26 days of leave I had 217 working days. Out of the 217 days I worked overtime 125 days, that's 57.6%. Sad.

0 days on business trip. =)

3 online tabletop gaming sessions held, a drastic reduction from last year, oh well... We played 2 board games this year, both games are familiar games, no new game tried.

20 novels read, 15 new books and 5 reread, a huge 48.7% drop from last year, sad. Average of 18.3 days for a book. Read rate is horrible this year. =(

0 patent filing. Failed. =(

46, 19, 16, 14, 4+1, 0 for my own reference.

Happy New Year dear reader, wish you a wonderful 2024.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

又阳了

昨天晚上开始喉咙不舒服，睡前情人老婆仔说我有点烧，所以吃了退烧药才入睡。

今天起床后开始流鼻水，有感冒的症状。

直到昨天连续八天，每天都有外出。兄弟和他们的家人们外出次数、时间和接触的人更多，但幸运的暂时只是我唯一一个阳了。

都说了，外面的世界很危险…

开始自家隔离，整天关在房里不出去一点都难不倒我这宅男，但平时都已经特别喜欢抱老婆仔，身体不舒服就更加想抱。不能抱抱，很惨。=(

看那些外出的人，几乎没有人在乎新冠肺炎了， 没有防患措施，没有保持距离，没有面具，没有洗手。·

但当然是我这个鲜少外出，外出还是戴面具和人保持距离的患上新冠肺炎的啦。这就是命。

心语细述 |系列|

Rest in peace, Brownie

Rest in peace, Brownie (3rd November 2023 to 26th December 2023), you were the friendliest and most approachable of the three hamsters we brought home early November.

You had never failed to climb onto my hand whenever I offered it. Of the three, you were the smallest in size, with the smallest eyes too.

I always felt that you were being bullied the most, and I went the extra mile to take care of you when I hand out treats, making sure you were isolated and had finished your treat before letting the other two hamsters approach you.

But I failed you, Brownie. I didn't provided you with a safe heaven where you could live to your old age. I am so sorry.

You left us so suddenly with sign of injury on your body it's a distressing shock. We don't know what happened, you were lively yesterday night and this morning you were no longer with us. Did you hurt yourself? Were you attacked by the others? I just hope you didn't had to suffer long.

I had been so busy with making the wooden linkage structures for you three that I hardly spent any time with you these few weeks, and just as I completed the weeks long task, you are gone.

We are supposed to have at least eighteen months of time together...

For the short time you were with us, I hope you enjoyed being part of the family. I miss you, Brownie, you left too soon.

Cocoa will take care of you now in hamster heaven, and Snowball too.

Other |sane side| category entries.

Christmas Eve

Family photo session with pappi, brothers and children: checked.

Big family lunch together: checked.

Replaced 'holey' cardboard hamster's buildings with wooden ones: checked. Though new buildings are still missing linking bridge structure, so the hamsters will have to climb up/jump down for now.

Noisy and happening home gathering: checked.

Disabling headache that rendered me out of action for six hours: checked.

Big family dinner together: missed.

After dinner family gathering: missed.

Other |enjoyable events| category entries.

“加班”

因为连接仓鼠那两个生活容器的楼梯已经被三个小毛孩破坏到千疮百孔，很快就会肢解分裂，所以我近来每个工作天晚餐后都在加时“工作”，制造替代的建筑物。

我果然不是美术系的，也不是建筑师，加上老花和越来越不灵活的手脚，常常需要重新设计、重做，进展非常慢。

越来越觉得像是工作的苦差，而不是兴趣或爱好类似的活动。一有这样的想法，心境就变得不好了，唉…

因为每天这样的“加班”，所以没有时间玩电脑游戏，没有时间看综艺节目，生活很枯燥乏味。

现在已经开始觉得厌恶，就只是想要快点完成了事，久久不再碰这东西。

真的很「显」了啦～

随兴随想 |系列|

Hamster's building craft

Another weekend spent building stuff for the hamsters.

They have already made a hole on the floor in the central building of the linkage that connects the two containers that are their living space, and they are working on making a hole on the mid-landing of one of the stairs.

First they pee on it, then when the cardboard is soggy and wrinkly they chew it until they make a hole. Destroyers of cardboard buildings, all three of them.

No appreciation of the time and effort I put in to make those buildings, ungrateful furry brats! And the problem is we threw away all the other buildings when Cocoa passed away, so there is no alternative linkage bridge at the moment. =(

So I have to build a new one, and this time I am going with ice cream stick instead of cardboard. Well, the wall of the central building will probably still be cardboard, given the size, but the floor will be wooden ice cream sticks.

Over the last few weekends I have made a spiral staircase, one straight staircase and one folded staircase. All three are meant as the first part of the linkage of the two containers, the ground to central platform part.

Yes, really only need two but I made three for variety and back up.

Still no central building, and also need to bridge the gap between those staircases and the central platform, which I intend to do with a short staircase or bridge structure.

I purposely designed it this way so it's easier to isolate the three hamsters when it comes to giving treat, just remove the bridge structure and I have three areas for each of the hamsters to eat in peace without the others attempt to steal their treat.

Anyway, still much to do, so I guess still many weekends without the time for anything else.

Other |enjoyable events| category entries.

I went out (15)

It has been a long while since the last entry of this series, and to be honest, I thought that was the final entry of the series.

But I kept on recording the date and reason I went out, not because I still intend to post a blog entry, but simply because I like data.

Ya, I am weird like that. =P

Despite the surge in Covid-19 cases recently, it's fair to say that people no longer care about it. Plenty of people without mask in public enclosed places for a long while now. I do still wear mask when I am out and about, and wash my hands thoroughly after I got home, but I am probably the minority nowadays.

Anyway, I went to office to work today, and this going out today marks the 365th day I went out of the house since the Movement Control Order (MCO) started back in 2020. The MCO has ended a while back, but that doesn't change the antisocial stay-at-home person that I am.

I have just crunched the data, 215 of them since July 2022. I am not going to list all 215 of them, but the top reason why I went out of the house may be a surprise to you.

I categorized the reason of going out of the house into seven category: 1. work, 2. eat out, 3. takeaway meal (to eat at home), 4. chauffeur duty, 5. visit mom at nursing house, 6. family trip, 7. others.

Chauffeur duty includes but not limited to, driving kids to and from tuition, school, activities, et cetera; pick up and drop of relatives at airport; driving wifey to places; delivery of wifey's stuff to friends or customer.

The category 'others' includes things like going to the bank, clinic, hospital, lawyer firm, car service, that sort of stuff.

There are of course days when I was out for more than one of the reasons listed, I categorized such a day under the main reason I was out, or the first thing I did on that day I was out. For example if I went to work and takeaway lunch home, the main reason is work.

So, anyway, three categories have double digit percentage out of the 215 days out, the third highest being 'eat out' at 13.0% (28 days), the second highest being 'work' at 19.5% (42 days).

The indisputable top reason I went out since July last year till now is to be a driver, a whopping 41.4% (89 days)!

Ya, data does not lie.

Alrighty, let's end this entry in the manner of this series. As of 14th of December 2023, 1388 days have past since the beginning of Movement Control Order on 18th of March in 2020. I have been out of the house 365 times in 198.3 weeks, so about 1.84 times per week on average, or about once every 3.8 days.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Inefficiency

I have been working on a thermal model for many days now, and it's not a start from scratch model, but I am still not done.

The progress is so slow despite working exclusively on that one model and no other. I have other models to work on in the backlog, *sigh...*

Today I didn't had time to work on the model, spent the whole day to prepare one presentation, something I have to present tomorrow.

Whole day for one presentation with ten subjects, and it's a miraculous day with only one meeting that I need to attend.

Why am I so slow? Is it some end of the year effect?

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

徒劳无功

星期五晚餐后，开始为三个小毛孩制造些建筑物。

那三只仓鼠，总是在不对的地方小便，我那做得很满意，连接它们两个生活容器的楼梯，已经多处被它们尿到纸皮湿透，要烂了。

星期五晚餐后做的吊桥，情人老婆仔不满意，而且也没有想象中那么容易当作连接两个容器的桥梁，所以基本上是作废了。

星期六午餐后到晚餐前，还有晚餐后几个小时，做了个螺旋楼梯。第一个版本情人老婆仔不满意，仓鼠也只会上不懂得怎么下那楼梯，所以拆散做了第二个版本。

螺旋楼梯的顶端暂且是一个平台，完成后就放在仓鼠生活的容器里，要看看是否适合仓鼠运用后才继续下一步逐渐建成连接容器的完整楼梯。

晚餐后情人老婆仔用苹果引诱仓鼠们去用那螺旋楼梯，看来上楼梯不是问题，下楼梯也不知道是不是问题，但就是常常与其好好走完楼梯，它们会下到一半就跳下去，有时也会掉下去。

所以我在螺旋楼梯外围加上了类似围墙的东西。加完那围墙我觉得那螺旋楼梯好像比较像是艺术品，不像实用的楼梯…

再放回让仓鼠试用，好像也没有什么差别，是有会好好用楼梯走完的，但更多是走捷径和还是会有跌倒掉下去的。

两天总共用了有八、九个小时来做这些东西，结果好像都不行。

唉～ 怎么最近总是感觉很徒劳无功？

随兴随想 |系列|

我的不一样

二哥的大女儿每年不是全级第一名就是第二名，令人敬佩的学霸！

今天得知弟弟的大女儿也是全级第一名，又一位学霸！真厉害。

我，呃… 我没有女儿…

我玩笑的问了我那好好学习的儿子，他很笃定的自认不能全级第一。他应该也没有那野心吧？

其实他已经很好了，应该是比我中学时还要好，更重要的是他有正确的态度和自律，所以我很欣慰。

另一个态度很有问题又毫无自律的儿子，每况愈下的成绩在几个学期后已经到了触手可及全级倒数第一名的地位。

处于全级倒数十五百分率，再持续他下滑的趋势，全级最后一名是非常可能的事，唉～

当然不希望他会往那个第一前进，但他不改他那错误的态度，很难会有正向的进步。

或许有些人就是需要走冤枉路、吃尽苦，才会醒觉领悟的吧？

还在等他醒觉的那一天…

随兴随想 |系列|

Bye November

While November is Movember for the world, well, for those who know about Movember, November is also slacker month for me.

If you haven't noticed after more than a decade, there are only four blog entries in November, while the rest of the months have eleven entries.

Yup, very consistent, all these years.

For November is my self-proclaimed slacker month, where I get to slack and only post four entries, hehe. =P

But it's December now, so back to posting an entry every few days, instead of about one per week.

Oh well, it's not like I have been living up to my slacker extraordinaire reputation these few years anyway...

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.