Long weekend

Tomorrow is Thursday, Deepavali, a public holiday. I am taking annual leave on Friday and next Monday to make it a five days long weekend.

Won't be going into potato mode, hence this entry is no titled so, as I already know I will be working at least one day within this period, if not more.

My current plan is to work on Friday, with luck just for a few hours, and then only resume work next Tuesday. Yes, one can dream.

Intend to brisk walk outdoor during this long weekend, hopefully more than once. Gotta suffer to be healthy.

Other than that don't really have any other plan, just rest and relax if I can get it. Don't always have that luxury now, even in my own home.

Oh, need to fix that broken cloth hanger stand rack thingy. Been a few weeks now, always slipped my mind in the past few weekends (two? Three?), and nobody bothered to remind me.

Feeling low and demotivated, don't think it's depression. Not yet, at least. Hope a break will do me good, but don't really believe it will. Cynical, I know.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Discontent

Dull period of life.

Nothing much to write about besides the same old rants, and I am tired of my same old rants that are due to stuff outside of my control.

They just boil down to 'life sucks', really.

Work wise the foremost thought is a lot of wasted effort because those who decide the direction steered us wrong, so one quarter worth of work down the drain. Resentful, and very dissatisfying.

Life wise the word that came up immediately is discontent. Things that matter to me, things that I cared a lot about, things that are important to me, are getting deprioritised or ignored. More and more priorities are becoming unaligned. They became like flickering after thought, callously handled. Only myself holding them near and dear all these years.

Changes in priority happened without consent, whether I like it or not is moot really, because I have no say. A reminder of the insignificance of what I cared about is to the other. It's sad. It's bitter. It's reality.

Health wise the word is poor. This at least is something I can control, to a certain extent at least. So I am cranking up the frequency and intensity of my exercise. I am living in pain on a daily basis these few days, I hope I can keep it up. Suffer daily so I can be healthy, oxymoronic but true. It's a weird world.

Full of negativity, I know. No less true though, that's my life and the state I am in. Nope, not a happy bunny.

Other |sane side| category entries.

心的频道：虐·善待自己

老了，身体状况和健康越来越不行。

虽然从来也没有什么吸睛的体型可言，也离开那想要吸引人的人生阶段好多好多年了，但那越来越大的肚皮是自己也觉得很不健康的体型。

二零二零年新冠肺炎行动管制令开始，我的晚餐不再吃饭，只吃菜肴。四年后今天，肚皮依旧是大了很多圈…

应该认真养生的我，反而把绝大多数的时间和精力给了工作，健康每况愈下。真是的，唉…

真的，我需要开始虐待自己，每天要做多量不同的运动，让自己每天都活在肌肉酸痛的情况。

活得痛苦来善待自己，就是这么矛盾奇怪的世界。

说是很容易啦，我真的希望我可以坚持的做到。

虐待自己来善待自己。

心的频道 |系列|

Too frequent

As a hybrid headcount without a permanent cubicle in the office, going to work in the office is an efficiency drop for me.

Besides the commute to and fro being a time waste, the shared cubicle set up is not conducive to my working need, even having meal at home is faster and more efficient compared to at office.

It's Wednesday today and this week thus far I have had to go to the office everyday since Monday, and need to go again tomorrow, so that's a total of four days working in the office, assuming there is no last minute urgent stuff that needs me in the office on Friday.

Four inefficient days, and past two days were to entertain the management from overseas, meaning many meetings, forums and such, all non-conducive to getting work done. Quite the opposite, in fact, two days where I had little time to actually do work.

I don't go to office unless necessary, and that usually means only when there is staff meeting, which is bi-weekly.

So in this single week I have used up two months worth of quota, meh!

Other |runaway rants| category entries.

士气低糜

公司现状不佳，士气低糜。

至少我是这么觉得。

同事来来走走，来的是怎么样我还不知道，老实说又要开始去认识我是觉得累的。我不想要交际。

走的是一起工作过的、打拼过的，就算我不常交际，也难免有点交情。所以有点遗憾、有点不舍。

说的是同组的同事，不是那些一加入公司就认识的老同事朋友。那些老同事朋友荣誉退休，我是为他们开心的，真的。

老同事朋友虽然不在公司里了，但事实就是已经好多年工作上也没有接触了的关系，纯粹是私底下的联络和群聊。所以没有在公司里见到这些老同事朋友，反而是很正常的感觉。

同组同事也许还没有到朋友的关系，但是常常会见面，一起工作的人。那少了个熟悉的脸孔的感觉很重。

我是士气低落的，没有干劲、没有动力。

心语细述 |系列|

破功

连续十四天没有加时工作，也算是个新记录吧？

今天破功，因为项目又换方向，以为已经完事的部分，现在又有了额外的工作量。

主要是因为项目领导之前要我们做的，不是客户要的，所以忙了那几个月，就只是忙了个寂寞。

唉～

怎么都好，连续十四天没有加时工作，对命贱廉价劳工的我来说，算很长了。

感恩我也能够有正常工作时间、不必加时工作的十四天。

希望还是会有啦…

随兴随想 |系列|

Suckers are back

Them blood-suckers are back, boo!

Bloody good for nothing pests. It's kill on sight for me.

Well, I tried anyway, but not always successful.

While I do not deny that my eyesight is poor and my reflex is slow, I am convinced them suckers have the power of invisibility, or some sort of stealth technology, that they use when they know I am on them. Cheating cowards.

Managed to kill three of them in my room and one in the kitchen today. Good riddance, may you rest in pieces.

No blood-sucking mosquito is welcome in the house, I will greet you with my electric swatter, and an after-shock squish when I manage to hit you.

No mercy. You have been warned.

Other |nutty nuts| category entries.

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred

Diablo IV first expansion: Vessel of Hatred, has gone live on 8th of October 2024, and with it the sixth season: Season of the Hatred Rising, has begun.

It's called the first expansion, so I guess Blizzard has plan for more expansion for the game. Well, as long as they keep making good games, they can keep earning my money.

Vessel of Hatred continues the storyline of the core Diablo IV game, there is a new class, a new region, and many changes. Haven't played enough to comment on whether they are good or bad changes.

Like many others, I am trying out the new Spiritborn class, but unlike those who sped through everything in order to reach the maximum character level in whatever small number of hours, I am playing the game in my usual casual and slow pace, enjoying the storyline and exploration.

I am in no rush, each to his or her own, but rushing to maximum character level is not my cup of tea. I am enjoying the lore, and appreciating all those Diablo II stuff they linked and referred to in this Diablo IV expansion. They brought back fond memories.

There seemed to be more Diablo II reference or continuation compared to Diablo III, hmm...

Anyway, enjoying the game thus far, still a long way to go in terms of storyline and season journey progression, but I am having fun, and that's all that matters.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

消失的150（二）

三年五个月后，又消失的150。

还给个低智商、无逻辑的理由。

第一次是失误，再犯是明确自知的选择。

选择堕落沦陷、一错再错，还有什么道德人品可言？

竟然可以有这样腐败的三观、糟糕的人格。

原来失望是有极限的，我现在是无感麻木的。

心语细述 |系列|

Made it, barely

After a few days of absolutely unhealthy amount of gaming, I finally completed the season journal for Diablo IV fifth season: Season of the Infernal Hordes.

Had to go through this unfun time no thanks to the short season. If it's the usual three months I am sure I can make it in the usual fun way, as gaming should be.

Managed to complete most of the season journal quests as part of levelling to, or shortly after reaching, character level 100. That is good game design, so credit to Blizzard on that.

Each chapter of the season journal requires a certain minimum number of quests completion in order to proceed to the next chapter, giving players some semblance of choice. However, I hit a wall when I got to the final chapter of the season journal. It needs a minimum of 9 quests out of 11 to complete the chapter, and I managed to complete 8 without much trouble. The three quests left though, are basically gear level check, and are gated behind tedious and unfun grind-fest.

Now that is horrible game design, shame on you, Blizzard, shame on you!

To be honest, even if I had one more month to play leisurely in enjoyable fashion (as playing game should be!), I still would have hated the grind. Grind to get suitable end game gears, which is RNG-based. Grind in The Pit to get end game Masterworking material to upgrade the gear, which also has RNG-based portion. And grind to get the shards to open portal to go into The Pit... Argh!!!

Honestly I am so sick of the game now after days of tedious unfun grind.

Anyway, I managed to solo three of the five level 160 Fell Council of Zakarum, the high priests corrupted by Mephisto we first encountered in Diablo II, now brought back into Diablo IV season 5. Took me many minutes as I am poorly geared, I simply could not stomach the grind anymore so I did the quest under-geared. Their obscenely high resistance to damage (or perhaps because I was under-geared) resulted in way too long a fight.

Nail-biting too as I was down to my final chance after dying twice before even getting to them, but I prevailed. That's the quest I needed to complete the final chapter of the season journal. The other two quests are to face level 200 bosses. Forget it, because I don't find the grind for gear check fun.

That's season 5 done for me. I need to break from Diablo IV for now until the expansion comes out, which is just in a few days time, not long enough a break from this unfun episode.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

托梦

情人老婆仔的妹妹说梦到了妈咪，把梦境告诉了老婆仔，叫她转告。

在妹妹的梦里，爸比妈咪出席了妹妹的生日会。

妈咪很开心，给妹妹紧紧的拥抱。

妹妹问妈咪几时恢复可以走动，妈咪说是年头的事。

不知道怎么解梦，但我听了心里是暖暖的。

感谢转告，由衷感恩。

妈咪，谢谢你托梦给我们，愿你在天堂一切好好的。

心语细述 |系列|