三十

（写完已过了凌晨，原本是要二十九日上载。）

情人老婆仔，拍拖三十周年纪念日快乐！<3

三十年…

一起过了很多好时光，当然也不缺坏的时候。

我们还在一起，还是有牵手、有抱抱、有轻吻。

喜欢和情人老婆仔亲吻，但现在几乎都只是蜻蜓点水般的轻吻。

在一起久了，没了激情不出奇，平淡过日子是挺好的。但请不要忘了爱需要经营、呵护、灌溉。

请不要把我的付出、退让、牺牲、妥协，当成理所当然。爱是两个人的事，不能只靠一方努力。

两人同一条船上，要一起往同样的方向划桨，而不是你不顾一切只朝着你要去的方向划桨。要么我就顺着你的方向划，要么就是我下水往我要去的方向游…

你和我的温差，感觉越来越大。很多的初衷已被你自顾自的改变了。

也许爱情里爱对方比爱自己多的总会感到委屈吧？那爱得很卑微的感觉。

心语细述 |系列|

心的频道：第九个

今天星期六，加时工作时查了电子邮箱，发现昨晚十点多，有封电子邮件是公司负责专利的部门发来的。难道…

打开电邮时心情是有点紧张的。

如期望的，是公司要为我有参与的发明概念，申请专利的通知。哦嘢！v^_^

这是我第九个专利申请，上一个是四个月前的事。

虽然这次我不是贡献最大的那一位，毕竟散热只是整个概念的一小部分，但我把自己负责的部分做得妥妥的，所以我心安理得的接受。七个人中有比我贡献更少的人啦，嘿！

第九个。开心，感恩。

再一个，就进入二位数了。期待。

心的频道 |系列|

Tough days ahead

Project management is a mess, things changed on a daily basis and yet the deadline for thermal assessment is two days.

I said I need two weeks, and they said two days, simply because they want something to report out this coming Friday.

Too bad then, should have managed the project better. Can't even have the project properly defined, still making changes today. The dimensions today are totally different to yesterday's, so I guess they would ask for one day thermal model generation, simulation and assessment if I asked today.

I didn't bother. There is no point when working with this kind of people.

I am doing my best, did overtime yesterday, and going to work overtime after dinner tonight. But I am not miracle worker, the thermal model will not be ready, let alone thermal simulation.

What's really going to make it tough though, is that wifey is going on a trip, so I am losing my wellbeing support.

Going to be stressful these coming days. I am already dreading it.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Potato mode on!

Public and replacement holidays next Monday and Tuesday, plus the half day leave I took today make a 4.5 days long weekend, yippie! =D

And since the project management keeps changing their mind on a weekly basis, I actually do not have the latest information to be able to do anything, so there is no worry about working overtime this long weekend.

I will take that as a blessing in disguise, and worry about the unrealistic deadline they will demand when they finally decided on something solid.

Not like it's the first time we suffer for management issue. Have zero confidence they will improve. Call me a skeptic, but I am just being realistic.

Anyway, I intend to sink some substantial time in playing Diablo IV, to progress in the season journey and be done with it. Like the storyline, but can't say I enjoy the gameplay. The latest and not greatest item and loot changes have been unnecessarily convoluted, and the many more one shot kill mechanisms are pure frustration. Most of the time I didn't even know what killed me.

Don't really have any other plan for the long weekend...

So heads up, potato mode is on! Don't contact me for work related stuff, bad karma and shittiest luck for the remaining of the year to whoever that does.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

忌日

三年。

我们好好。

对不起。谢谢你。

心语细述 |系列|

心的频道：第八个

六个月后，我再次收到了公司要为我有参与的发明概念，申请专利的通知。

是上星期六发出的电邮通告，我这星期一才看到。但星期一在公司忙了一整天，回到家我都忘了要做个记录。

这是我第八个专利申请。=)

心安理得的接受，因为可以说是我把整组人拖过终点线的。

好啦，应该说是一个半人，把整组五个人拖完最后那几百米。我是贡献了一整个人，加另外两位各四分之一。

我那许许多多周末的加时工作，总算没有徒劳无功。

第八个。开心，感恩。

心的频道 |系列|

Diablo IV Lord of Hatred

Diablo IV second expansion: Lord of Hatred has arrived!

I have pre-purchased it a while back so I had played one of the two new classes in this expansion: the Paladin. So, like many others, I will be playing the new Warlock class this season.

Many new and changed things besides the new classes in this expansion. There is the continuation of the storyline in a new region. The level cap is raised to 70. The Horadric Cube is back, as well as set items.

Skill trees got overhauled. End game is supposedly more fun now, with a War Plan system to help organise the activities and earn rewards. Not sure what the fuss is about loot, but Blizzard said the new Loot Filter is much asked for.

Also not sure why Blizzard has to include fishing in so many of its games, but ya, players can fish in Diablo IV now. For the record I continue to ignore the fishing in Diablo Immortal since it was introduced, however long ago that was.

Here's hoping I have time to enjoy the game.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

So be it

Just want to put in record that today is the day I decided that, after the stock at home runs out, which is pretty soon, that I no longer want to have Coke at home.

Also, I no longer want to have potato chips as supper.

Don't get me wrong, I will still drink Coke and I will still eat chips, it's just that I no longer want to have Coke readily available at home, and I want to eat something healthier (hopefully) as supper.

Because my health is a mess now and I am in constant discomfort in a daily basis. I would like to live to 50. Nobody cares so it's up to myself.

It's a thought at the moment, and soon when the stock of Coke runs out, it will commence in earnest.

How long will I last? I honestly have no idea.

I can but try.

Other |flickering fling| category entries.

New view counter

Since February, the view counter for this blog that I used for many years has gone haywire.

I was hoping it's just a temporary glitch that would be sorted out, but alas, it wasn't.

From early February to early April, it reported negative view count for about twenty days. So the counter is no longer reliable and the view count is totally messed up.

I finally decided I have given it enough time to sort itself out, and since it didn't, I ditched it and changed to another counter from websiteOut (thanks!) yesterday.

So the view count (daily unique visitor) for this year is screwed, I will have to start over with this year being the new baseline. Oh well.

Blogspot does have its own counter though, which I displayed at the bottom of the left menu labelled Total Pageviews. That's Blogspot internal counter and it shows a pretty large number so I guess that must be from the beginning of this blog and most likely is page view instead of daily unique visitor count.

Anyway, let's hope this new counter is reliable.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Record!

Not even April yet and I have already completed my tax refund. This has got to be a record for me.

Yes yes, I know there are kiasu people who completed it as soon as the e-filing tool is available and some who already got the refund banked in.

I am not one of those people, I am the slacker extraordinaire, so the norm for me is doing it on the last few days before the end date.

This so un-slacker-like behaviour is due to this being the first time I am filing tax refund with wifey having income, so we decided to try to see whether filing together as one or separately net us higher amount of refund.

Hands down filing separately for our case, by a big margin. Now we know.

And since I have completed the two versions, I just submitted the filed separately version and be done with it.

So ya, 'tax refund completion more than one month before end date' achievement unlocked! =P

Other |nutty nuts| category entries.

Potato mode on!

Replacement holidays next Monday and Tuesday, so it's a four days long weekend, woohoo!

Granted, I just finished my overtime work not long ago but at least I still have 3.5 days long weekend.

Cheap labour should not complaint.

Here's hoping I can truly rest and relax for the rest of the 3.5 off days. Goodness knows I need it. Desperately.

So heads up, potato mode is on! Don't contact me for work related stuff, bad karma and shittiest luck for the remaining of the year to whoever that does.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

炒与被炒

几个月前辞职的旧同事朋友，今天告诉我一些有关炒公司鱿鱼，和被公司炒鱿鱼的差别。

说清楚点是自己丢信辞职，和被公司裁员的一些差别。

先说自己其实一直都有那帅气的丢信，加一句 “See you, suckers!”，然后拍屁股走人的幻想。炒公司鱿鱼，嘢！

至今那都还只是幻想，因为我既不帅气，也没有骨气。但有时这样想想，才会心里平衡点、好过点。

旧同事朋友说，自己辞职，就拿不到年尾花红；而那些被裁员，拿遣散配套的，就能够按工作月份比列拿到年尾花红。

真的有够抠。

还有就是还在职时帮公司做出来的专利，应该给的奖励金，也因为奖励金不是及时发放而是拖了几个月到他辞职后才发放，就没给了。有没有搞错？专利上可是写着他的名字的哦！

真的，要炒公司鱿鱼，还真的要有足够的底气和骨气。

当然可以选择臭骂…

随兴随想 |系列|

Low batt

Tired. Just tired.

Very bad quality of sleep lately.

Is it the mattress? The pillow? Or somehow, the blanket?

Don't know. But the heat wave doesn't help. The recent full moon doesn't help. The stress from workload doesn't help.

Just did three consecutive days of overtime work, including the weekend. In fact, worked hardcore through the weekend from waking up until going to sleep, only significant breaks being the meals.

And still I can't see how I could deliver everything by the end of the week. Stressed.

So, constantly in a low energy, low mood state.

Dry.

Other |sane side| category entries.

Meaningless system, part five

After one month, another visit to the hospital. Third appointment with the nephrologist.

Arrived around 07:40 hours, for the 08:00 hours blood and urine tests. Very familiar with the process now, so self-registration, guarantee letter verification, then went straight to the lab.

No hospital personnel behind the registration counter and in the lab when I arrived. I just took the number from the machine, it said L001 on the slip. Then I found a corner seat and took out my novel.

Didn't noticed when the hospital personnel arrived at their respective places, next thing I knew was my name being called. So I kept my book and approached the lab. I was indeed the first patient.

The nurse at the lab mentioned it's non-fasting blood sample collection, so the nephrologist nurse pulled my leg as she wrote fasting (blood test) in my appointment card. Oh well.

The lab personnel was still as efficient as the previous visit. So thumbs up for them. I was done with blood and urine sample collection in a jiffy and arrived the nephrology clinic around 08:10 hours.

Just waited a short while for my turn to have my weight and blood pressure taken, then I was free to go until the 10:20 hours consultation. At least that's the time written on the appointment card, but for once the meaningless appointment system was sabotaged by itself, as the automated reminder system told me the actual appointment time: 11:20 hours.

Before I left the nephrology clinic, I double-checked the appointment time with the nurses there, asking if it's 11:20 hours (coincidently I didn't brought the appointment card), which they said yes.

I came home to get some work done before returning to the hospital closer to 11:20 hours, even though I was on half day leave. I returned to the hospital and arrived the nephrology clinic around 11:10 hours, brought along the appointment card this time and handed over to the nurses.

I was called around 11:35 hours, a lot less time wasted waiting this time round, since I didn't fell for the fake 10:20 hours appointment time.

After three consultations with two blood and urine tests, the nephrologist confirmed what's known from the medical check up two months ago: that my kidneys are unhealthy, below the average of people my age. Not sure why but the nephrologist made some educated guesses, he did mentioned those were just his guesses, unless we do more tests to verify, which he doesn't think is necessary.

He also thinks it's not necessary to go on medication, and gave generic advices about exercise, healthy diet, watch the blood pressure, that sort of things. Said we keep monitoring and to go see him again in three months time, with the blood and urine tests.

I noticed this time the nurse wrote non-fasting instead of fasting (blood test) in the appointment card, heh.

Other |runaway rants| category entries.

Haywire view counter

The view counter for this blog has gone haywire. =(

Since early February, the counter started to show lesser number than the day before on several days.

I can totally understand having 0 view, that nobody visited the blog on that day, but negative view count?

We can unsee things now? And the view counter is aware of that?!?!!

So hard to find, reliable stuff.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Rest in peace, Squeaky

Rest in peace, Squeaky (3rd November 2023 to 13th February 2026), you were the most adventurous of the three hamsters we brought home back in 2023, and the most curious, acutely aware of our presence within your domain.

So nosy indeed that you stuck your head out of wherever you were resting so you don't miss anything. You would hang your head out standing in a container until you fell asleep and slipped back into the container, often jerking yourself awake to poke your head out again.

You made so much noise on the day we brought you and your siblings (well, cage-mates) home from the pet shop, hence 'mommi' named you Squeaky.

And you continued to squeak when you and your siblings all shared the two interconnected containers. You sure were vocal. You became quiet after we separated you and Pearly, after Brownie left.

Missed your squeaks since then, and only once did you made some noises for a lengthy period when 'mommi' was near, sounded like you were singing. You sounded happy.

Oh, and your angry hiss when the nephew disturbed you rudely. That was not a nice sound.

You were sociable and like to interact with us, unfortunately you also like to bite, especially 'mommi's' fingers and hand. You did bit me, but not often, and in the later days you no longer did that. But your biting branded you though, 'mommi' and your young owner did not like to interact with you because of that.

You were pretty good at making tunnels, you could make some nice round passages and hidey-holes. And when you were younger you would burrow everywhere, exploring every inch of the containers.

You lived the longest among all the hamsters we brought home so far, you outlived your older sister Pearly by two months. And thankfully you didn't had any severe illness or issue in your advanced age, only the minor degradation in your rear legs.

Thank you for being part of the family, I hope we had provided you a nice and comfortable life.

Now you three sisters are reunited in hamster heaven, I do miss you. All of you.

Other |sane side| category entries.

不会开的签唱会…

时隔六年，唱片公司终于把我从冷宫拉出来，给我出张超级限量版的虚幻专辑。

真心感恩。

如果不出我所料，这应该是我的最后一张（虚幻）专辑了。

这么多年之间，发生了很多事，那位十三年前曾默默赞助我开签唱会的唱片公司经理已离开了公司。很多曾经一起打拼、一起组团合唱的歌手们也离开了唱片公司，还留着的要么已单飞，要么就有各自的团队了。

所以以往出唱片就开个签唱会的习俗也消失了。感觉应该，但不会开的签唱会…

是遗憾，但也有庆幸。我承认我老了，没有了以前的精力和热情。

怎么都好，希望专辑可以大卖，纾解些供孩子读书的费用。

花钱的人比赚钱的人还要潇洒…

这篇文章，这些内容，懂的人就懂。主要还是写给我自己。

心语细述 |系列|

立春

今天立春，丙午（火马）年的开始，祝大家马年快乐！

今天开始到明年立春前出生的宝宝就是属马的啦。

我有皮毛的八字命理学知识，略懂五行属性: 天干「丙」是太阳的火，地支「 午」也是火，所以今年是双火年。

那些八字里需要火，或火是有利的五行的人，今年应该会很旺。

我已经忘了自己的八字和五行的利弊，没时间重温，就笼统的希望今年会给我带来好运和福气啦！

太需要了…

附笔: 社交媒体可能又会被那些把鸡蛋站立起来的照片洗版。真是的，每天都能做到的啦，不是只有立春而已。

随兴随想 |系列|

Meaningless system, part four

Another week, another visit to the hospital. Second appointment with the nephrologist (kidney specialist), and new referred appointment with the ophthalmologist (eye specialist).

Arrived by 08:00 hours for the blood test, which went smoothly all considering, got delayed at the registration part but the lab part was smooth. Thumbs up to the lab people.

Done within 30 minutes, including the surprised urine sample request, which I wasn't awared of until then. Gave them what my bladder could produced then, not a lot but they didn't called me back so I guess it's sufficient.

Went straight to the nephrology clinic, the nurse took my weight and blood pressure and told me in a nice way to bugger off. The appointment with the nephrologist was scheduled for 10:40 hours.

So I went out to breakfast. Oh, I walked to the hospital in the morning, and walked back home when I was finally done. Everywhere else in between that was also walked, for a total of 1 hour and 47 minutes split between six walking sessions.

Took 15 minutes to walk to breakfast and 15 minutes back to hospital, still more than an hour until the appointment with nephrologist so I went to the ophthalmology clinic first, see if I could get lucky and get that appointment done first.

No luck, the appointment was at 11:00 hours. I told them I had a 10:40 hours appointment with the nephrologist so most likely I would be late. They smiled, they know. Well, at least I prompted them to sort out the medical insurance thing, which strangely was issued for yesterday instead of today, so not totally a waste of effort.

Went back to the nephrology clinic and took out my novel to pass time, slightly more than one hour to kill. If the consultation was on time, that is, which it wasn't. No surprise there, and no prize for guessing if it was earlier or later than the appointment time.

The nurse called me 37 minutes after the appointment time. Took 6 minutes for the consultation, basically being told my blood test showed same results as the one done in December, and still need to wait a few days for the other test results. So another appointment was scheduled in late February and none the wiser on what's wrong with my kidneys.

So naturally I was late for the 11:00 hours appointment with the ophthalmologist. The consultation happened at 12:24 hours, but if we take away the time delayed by the nephrologist, then really it's "just" 41 minutes late.

The ophthalmologist said maybe it's the spectacles, or maybe dry eyes. Advised me to make a new pair of spectacles and gave me some eye drops, and said to go back early March. So another appointment. Looks like I still have to visit the hospital on weekly basis end of February and beginning of March.

I went straight to the optometrist to get a new pair of spectacles made. They tried to sell me two pairs, one multifocal for distance, intermediate and near, the other an office glasses for intermediate and near. I resisted and said I only need one, the office glasses. Already cost me an arm for that, I don't need to lose both arm and leg.

After all that is done, went for a late lunch and by the time I reached home, it's already 15:25 hours. That's another leave gone.

Other |runaway rants| category entries.

Meaningless system, part three

Yes, another follow up, exactly one week after the previous. Neurologist wanted a MRI scan, and when I left last Monday, the nurse told me they will inform me of the MRI date once they have made the booking.

Well, true to their word, they told me the date for the MRI scan alright, as they called me at 11:30 hours today to inform me that the MRI is at 14:00 hours today. Yes, a 2.5 hours notice before the appointment. What a "fantastic" system that is.

The nurse said they sent me SMS last Friday, which strangely I did not received. Let's just give them the benefit of doubt.

Good thing there wasn't any critical meeting this afternoon, so I scrambled to inform manager that I needed the second half off. After a not so leisure, somewhat rushed lunch, wifey dropped me off at the hospital. By the time I finished the self registration and reached the appropriate part of the hospital, it's 14:02 hours.

The next serving of the "fantastic" system was when the nurse at the MRI place told me that the MRI scan was booked for 15:30 hours. When I told her the nurse who called me earlier said it's 14:00 hours, she asked me to wait and got on the phone to that nurse.

After their conversation, the nurse at MRI told me nope, the MRI booking was at 15:30 hours, asked if I had lunch, hinting me to go do something else and come back later. I told her I already had lunch, didn't said it's somewhat rushed because I wanted to arrive by 14:00 hours, and told her I would just wait there. She said if any of the prior bookings freed up, they would slot me in. I thanked her and found a corner and took out my novel.

15:30 hours appointment but asked me to be there by 14:00 hours, wasting 1.5 hours of my time. Such "fantastic" system!

Not sure if someone really cancelled his or her appointment, or the unfortunate person just got his or her time slot given to me and made to wait (common theme in the "fantastic" system), but they got me on the 15:00 hours slot. One hour after the fake MRI time slot but 30 minutes before the real MRI time slot.

First MRI scan in my life. It's loud, noisy and uncomfortable. I tried my best to stay absolutely still for the entire 20+ minutes. I think I did okay, since the neurologist showed some pretty sharp cut-plane images of my brain when I eventually saw him later in the day.

I moved from the MRI place to the neurologist place and sorted out yet another registration by 15:29 hours. Then another time wasting wait commenced. Honestly I thought of bringing another novel with me before I left home, seeing that I am close to finishing the novel I am currently reading, but I didn't, naively thinking they can't always be that bad.

Well, unfortunately, they sure can. I checked the screen after the 15:29 hours registration, it showed no number in the queue to see the neurologist. So I had to be next, right? I asked, twice, to two different nurses, once at registration, and the other when they called me for blood pressure and weight measurement about 15 minutes after registration, whether the neurologist was already in, and both of them confirmed that he already was.

Fine, I figured the neurologist must be waiting for the MRI scan results. Must be some really gigantic file size coupled with slow computer and slow network connection, that sort of thing. I guess not all institution has the computing and network resource that can transfer 100GB file across the globe in 15 minutes, which I think is already not fast enough with technology nowadays. So ya, must be that.

I finally get to see the neurologist at 16:52 hours, which is strangely similar to the 1.5 hours 'waste of my life' time period earlier in the day. Makes me wonder if the "fantastic" system has this 1.5 hours buffer to the actual appointment time? Hmm...

Anyway, done with the consultation in 4 minutes. The good news is that there's nothing wrong with my MRI scan results, thank goodness. The bad news is that the neurologist hasn't a clue regarding the cause of my headache, so he is referring me to the ophthalmologist next...

Not sure if I am being referred from one to another and undergoing different tests and diagnostics because I am claiming company's medical insurance, but goodness know I am glad I have that medical insurance. I really don't want to know the amount of the medical bill, and it's not even over yet.

I do know I am visiting the hospital on a weekly basis, next appointment is Friday next week, and every singe time my precious time is being wasted away.

Pfft!

Other |runaway rants| category entries.