One down, more to go

Today's the day to close one of those "extra" tasks that's not my core job but have to do for one reason or another.

Decided to stop rejecting and just do it once to get it over with, else manager will repeat every year.

Time consuming and highly reluctant, but have to give it my best shot anyway because that's principle.

So I drafted, bothered others for references, bother more people for feedback and review, modified the draft and bothered people a few more times, and finally submitted.

Oh, and practised enough times until I can probably do it without the material. Well, good for today and until my goldfish memory kicks in, which is probably tomorrow.

Think I did well with the presentation. No idea how I did in the questions and answers, because questioners don't seemed to have thermal background and I am not sure what they are really after.

Don't really mind though, I just want to get it over with, the outcome is not important.

Done my part so that's that, way too many tasks demanding my time and attention.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Rat race

So Diablo Immortal has this Risk and Rally event happening now that is basically a race for fastest solo dungeon clear.

Usually I do not care about this kind of events since I am a Free to Play player, and the game is primarily for Pay to Win players.

However, there is a nice twist this time, the game tries to level the playing field in the sense that the event can be done in any difficulty, so naturally everyone will pick the lowest difficulty. The event description actually recommends this as well!

In the lowest difficulty where monsters die easily, usually with just one hit, the Pay to Win massive killing power simply becomes overkill. Okay, maybe still beneficial in killing tougher bosses but Free to Play players can handle the bosses as well, perhaps with just a few more hits.

The time for that few more hits probably means a few seconds longer, which actually is a big deal in the top few ranks but at least the playing field is not overly skewed towards the Pay to Win players in this event.

Every twelve hours there is a change in dungeon, and a score will be given to players based on their fastest clear time, as well as some token reward. The ranking is class specific so that removes the class imbalance issue, and the score from each dungeon change is cumulative until the end of the event. At the end of the event, players are awarded differently according to their final ranking, with the top three having the best award.

The thing is, competition is fierce, and missing any dungeon on the twelve hours time frame means you are 50 points behind the top score player, which is a huge deal as score is on a 5 points increment. Missing any twelve hours dungeon race pretty much means you are out of the race, well, at least out of the top 50 ranks, probably more.

Not surprisingly, the top few high score players are fairly consistent, most likely the Pay to Win players with all sorts of gears and legendary gems to min-max. But surprisingly, I am doing fairly well thus far, but of course it's just a few days since the start of the event, I am sure more and more Pay To Win players will overtake my score as the days go by. The event ends on 11th of August, way too long to go for my liking.

Also I am not sure if I can keep up with the twelve hours dungeon change demand outside of weekend, so perhaps I will be out of this rat race sooner than I expected. Oh well.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

Extra trips

Since the outbreak of Covid, I have been working in hybrid mode. I no longer have a permanent cubicle in the office and have set up a home office instead.

As a significant portion of my work is thermal modelling, which I run on workstations residing in the office, and which I interact through remote desktop, I have no real need to go on site.

In fact, going on site is a drop in work efficiency for me, the commute time alone is already a huge waste of time, and also the single external monitor set up in hybrid cubicle is just not sufficient. I need at least two big screens for thermal modelling and post-processing, laptop screen is too small.

Suffice it to say that I don't go to office unless I really have to, like for face to face meeting, for hands on work in the lab, when workstation died and remote command no longer works and nobody is there to help, et cetera.

Last Wednesday I had to go in to clean up the cubicles where my workstations reside in, as they are making them hybrid cubicles. Whoever uses those cubicles best not to mess with my workstations, they run 24/7.

Last Thursday I went on site for the bi-weekly staff meeting, this is the number one reason why I go to office, so usually I only go to office once every two weeks. Last Wednesday was the unfortunate extra trip.

To make things even more unfortunate was the CrowdStrike's Blue Screen of Death fiasco last Friday, which brought down my laptop. I went in office hoping to get the other laptop my manager has recently bought for me to use when dealing with a specific customer, but IT said they couldn't complete the setup due to CrowdStrike BSOD. So a total waste of my time and effort, and the third trip to office of the week.

Well, received notice late Friday night that IT has a workaround and affected employees can go on site on Saturday to recover their laptop. So ya, I went in yet again on Saturday to get my laptop up and running, making it four trips in a week that I went to office. No, I am not a happy bunny.

This week I should not have to go to the office, as the next bi-weekly staff meeting is next week, but the CrowdStrike fiasco also brought down one of my workstations, bollocks!

Getting the workstation to IT for support will take forever, and incur a charge as well, but thankfully a self-recovery step by step document is available and now that my laptop is working, I could look up the recovery key myself.

So I went in to office to sort out the workstation this week, making a trip that I rather not have to do. Too many trips to office in too short a time span. Absolutely not a happy bunny!

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Random thoughts

Finally completed the second material for the upcoming training that I need to conduct. Spent too much time on it. Training in a few weeks, can't wait to get over with it.

*****

Another thing I spent way too much time on is the career advancement stuff the manager roped me into. Interview is next Wednesday. Same thing, can't wait to get over with it, whatever the outcome. Just don't bother me any more.

*****

Lunch out with wifey. Just the two of us. Korean. Don't get to do this often.

*****

One of the workstations is down from that CrowdStrike screw-up. Too busy to go on site to handle it. Too tired too to be honest, to get up early to go to office to avoid traffic and to get one of those severely insufficient parking slots. Have to do it soon regardless, as struggling with simulation output with only one working workstation.

*****

My tummy the size of three months pregnancy. Or thereabout, as wifey couldn't be sure, saying her tummy size was different during her pregnancies.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

时间

时间，每个活着的人拥有的最基本的筹码。

时间很公平，不管身份地位、贫富贵贱，每个人每一天就只有二十四小时。

时间的运用，就是把这最基本的筹码，转换成其它的筹码。换成了其他人觉得有价值的筹码，就能够用那新的筹码兑换自己想要的筹码。

花时间学习，就是把时间换成学问或技术。有了学问或技术，就拥有了时间以外，可以和别人兑换的筹码，比如教学或工作来赚钱。金钱也不过就是一种广泛接受的筹码。

筹码越多，和越多种类，兑换筹码的选择也会更多，生活也会相对的容易点。

时间的妥善运用，决定我们拥有的筹码数量和种类。整天游手好闲的人，用时间筹码兑换闲懒游乐，那不是种别人会要、或能够用来兑换的东西，所以纯粹是把时间筹码用了，减少了自己的筹码数量。

时间很公平，我们怎么运用我们的时间筹码，决定了我们是否拥有其他的筹码，和那些筹码的累积。

心语细述 |系列|

Forced day off

The work tasks piled on like a vengeance for me taking the whole past week off. How dare the cheap labour gone on such long break, simply despicable!

This week is a four days working week since Monday was replacement holiday, that didn't stopped the colleagues and program managers asking for tasks completion that assumed I was working the previous week...

I was on leave last week! I said that many times, meant nothing though, as I was still expected to deliver a full report for top management this morning, among many other deliverables.

Having to go on site, which is an efficiency drop for me, on Wednesday and Thursday did not helped. So I had to work till Friday 01:00 hours, after starting work at 06:50 hours on Thursday, as I start my work early whenever I need to go on site to avoid rush hour traffic, since traffic is such a big sucker of useful time.

Mind was so heavy when I presented the material to the top management this morning, delivery was not as smooth as my usual since brain was so slow I stammered for words. Lack of sleep does that.

The initial plan was to complete another big task of preparing training material after lunch, but the lunch time meeting was abruptly ended when laptop threw a BSOD, and then it forever stuck in the reboot and BSOD loop.

So I went on site yet again, three days out of a four working days week, to get IT support. Only it's Microsoft server issue, said IT support, nothing they can do about it but to wait for Microsoft to resolve their issue.

Basically Microsoft has given me half day off, only it's more like a 1.5 hours off as after the horrible traffic there and back, it's already 16:00 hours.

It also means Microsoft has forced me to work in the weekend to get the training material done. So thanks but no thanks! >_<

Other |wretched workaholic| category entries.

In a blink

Today's the last day of my ten days break. Over in a blink.

Through determined self-constraint, only worked overtime three days out of the ten. I think that's a win.

Managed to rest better around the fifth day onwards, before that were sleepless nights.

Only manages one long walk, and a short walk. Guess better than none.

Paid to get the car washed instead of washing it myself. Of course it rained after the car wash. Typical.

Watched some variety shows, nothing very interesting to be honest, more like ticking off the list than enjoyment.

Resuming work tomorrow. So not looking forward to it. *Sigh...*

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

又一季

这星期是「奔跑吧」第八季的最后一集了。

又完了。不知道年尾会不会有特别篇？不然又要等一年了。

第八季还可以，有好笑的地方，但也有平平无奇的部分。整体还算可以啦…

难得的是，看「奔跑吧」变成了每个周末和家人一起做的事，至少最后的那几集啦。

可惜没有了。

就像韩国的原版「跑男」，除非本质换得面目全非，这应该是只要还继续拍，我就会继续看的综艺节目吧？

随兴随想 |系列|

有感而发：原则·承诺·坦诚

二零二四年七月九日，凌晨三点二十三分起，至凌晨四时十三分。又一个不眠夜。

有原则，是无论心情好坏、对自己有没有利，都做同样的决定和举止。喜欢的时候才做，不喜欢的时候就不做，那是任性，没有原则可言。

同样的，坚守承诺，最能够展现的就是在艰难、不想做的时候，依旧牢牢守着，那才是承诺的意义。随性就改变，想要的时候才守，不想要时就不守，那样的承诺毫无意义，完全抹杀了承诺的用意。

坦诚相对，指的是两个人互相真诚的对待对方，把自己的想法毫无保留的告诉对方。只有心情好或想讲时才说，心情不好或不想讲时就不说，那不叫坦白，那不是直率纯正，毫无隐瞒。

只要心情不好，或不想讲，就保留隐瞒，是没有说谎，因为根本没有讲，所以也许是诚实，但一点都不坦然。看心情、选择性的提供讯息，那不叫坦诚相对，因为少了坦白直率、真实交流。

有感而发 |系列|

Hypertension

Dad was having high blood pressure yesterday. When trying to verify if both the blood pressure monitors are working properly and calibrated, did measurements on myself and wifey, and found that I too, have high blood pressure.

Wifey sent me some information on hypertension, and going through the symptoms list, it suddenly made sense that all those headache episodes I suffered had to be hypertension related.

Severe headache, dizziness, difficulty breathing, nausea, blurred vision or other vision changes, anxiety...

One of the ways to reduce the risk of hypertension, the first on the list in fact, is to reduce and manage stress. Ya... I cannot control the stress others induced, the worse part is I am lousy at managing stress, *sigh*.

I can't really avoid stress from work, I just hope I can avoid stress from home, especially from the elder son.

One can hope. Or die early.

Other |sane side| category entries.

Potato mode on

Next Monday and next next Monday are public holidays, and because I think I bloody well deserved it, I took four days off to make it a ten days break.

May as well admit it that yes, I know I will be working overtime to check on the simulations, and set more to run, but I will try my best to keep that to a minimum. Just need to suppress my sense of responsibility. Something like that.

No solid plan, just need a break from work. Need to wash my car. Would be good to have a long outdoor walk, a few would be better. Won't mind to have a seafood meal, especially crab, haven't had crab for a while. Maybe will consider watching a drama series, or some variety shows that I have never watched. Just chill.

Oh, I absolutely need to properly rest, the over-worked-and-stress-induced headache was so bad yesterday I had to stay in bed zombie-like after the after dinner overtime, barely functional again near midnight after taking the painkillers.

The unruly troublemaker will probably create enough negative energy at home to ruin my break. Nothing I can do about it, unless I have a few days hotel stay or something, hmm...

Anyway, heads up, potato mode is on! Don't contact me for work related matters, you would be put on Santa's naughty list, my hate list and all that.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.