有感而发：小毛孩可可

我们家仓鼠，可可，年纪大了。已经是八十多岁的婆婆了。

近来它越来越不活跃，食欲也大大减低。

情人老婆仔说可能它的牙齿已经没力了。我想老婆仔说得对，因为曾经可可每晚宵夜吃的豆谷类食物，它现在已经不感兴趣了，多数时候看那些它留下没吃的，都是有壳的。

今天看它有时上楼梯会有点吃力的样子，观察一阵后发现它的四肢开始有不协调的迹象，还从高处跌倒了几次。

唉… 我可爱乖巧的小毛孩老了，真的为它感到心酸。

情人老婆仔说买了些婴孩的食物，还没有收到。这几天除了它的粮食，也会给它多些新鲜的蔬菜。

周末清理它的住处时会把连接两个盒子的楼梯拿掉，让它就只是在一个盒子里生活。虽然知道它喜欢高的地方，但看它有时辛苦的上楼梯，和会从高处不小心掉下，觉得还是这样对它比较好。

不知道它还会跟我们在一起多久，但希望可以让它过得好好的。

我知道它离开的时候我会伤心的。

有感而发 |系列|

疲累

睡眠素质不好的我，对累不陌生。

这一周至今，两天工作日都是累。今天特别累，还没有午餐就开始累了。

昨晚也没有比平时频醒，觉得睡眠素质就一般般，没有特别的差，但今天特别累。

午餐后喝了一瓶红牛，因为下午和经理有会议，是一直在对话那种会议，不是可以放空那种…

红牛下肚，到了和经理会议时候我依旧是累了，会议是由我伸一个懒腰提神开始。

傍晚下班时我已经累到头痛了，关了电脑就直接床上做死尸到小儿子来房里叫我吃晚餐为止。

累，就是累。除了累，还是累。

随兴随想 |系列|

Parental angst

Complete results for kids' second exams are out, with the useful average of the whole form included.

The younger son did not disappoint, his grade continues to improve, and while fell short of his targeted position among his form, he has passed every subjects and is within the top 20 percentile.

The elder son on the other hand, is a major headache. Not really surprised from his attitude throughout the semester but still disappointed. I guess I am still trying to believe him, even when he has not delivered on his promises. His words are cheap.

At the beginning of the school year I emphasised that he no longer has any buffer, he should treat it as a 'do or die' situation, and put in everything he has into his studies.

He continued to scorn study and prefers to waste his time playing computer game, watching television, and gluing himself to his smartphone.

So it's no surprise with the results he got. He has dropped to the bottom 16 percentile now. Being the absolute last in his form is perfectly within the realm of possibility now given the trend of his decline.

So I took it upon myself to analyse his results and to go through the analysis with him. Taught him how to analyse, how to interpret, and how to strategise. Taught him about the weighting, showed him the trend of his form, how he compared to the average of his form and what does it mean, and which subjects he should put more effort in and which are less important because of the weighting.

That was yesterday, and the first thing he did today after he woke up was to play computer game, then had his lunch, and continued to play computer game after lunch without washing up his dishes. At the time of writing this sentence he is still playing, and wifey has reminded him several times that he has already exceeded his game time.

Yes, such is the angst of being the parents of a child with problematic attitude.

Other |sane side| category entries.

Not gonna make it

First season for Diablo IV, Season of the Malignant, will be over in about two weeks time.

Feel like it just started not long ago. How time flies.

Really don't have much gaming time lately, just completed my quarterly report yesterday and it's shocking the amount of thermal simulations I have done in last three months...

Ya, hence the lack of gaming time, as I was working on weekends, holidays and even annual leaves. *Sigh*

Anyway, I am playing the druid class in Diablo IV first season, a shapeshifting druid. I started off with a werewolf build but it became too fragile when I started the tier three difficulty, progress became a frustrating grind.

So I gave up on being different and looked up a cookie cutter werebear build. Survivability went up so progress becomes less frustrating, still feel too grindy for my liking, and now I am just like the other druids... =(

Given the season will end in about two weeks time and I am just level 57 at the moment, I don't see how I could complete the season journal in time, especially since I only really have time for proper gaming in the weekend. Well, weekend when I am not working overtime, that is.

So ya, looks like I am not going to make it. Oh well, a shame.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

Price of hubris

Gave myself a birthday present back in 2021. It was meant to be a motivation, a driving force for me to keep inventing.

But I suppose it could be a sin as well depending on viewpoint. For the sake of this blog entry, let's just assume it's a sin and not my inability to produce worthwhile invention this year. =P

As a punishment to my pride and hubris I failed to obtain any patent this year, so no award money, and there goes my charity fund.

Doubt I will have one in the remaining quarter of 2023, so the price for my hubris is to bear the donations from my saving. A bad year in that saving front as well, given the pay cut.

So a double whammy, ouch.

Other |sane side| category entries.

To do

To do for tomorrow:

1. post-process the three thermal simulation cases, then analyse the results, then make decision on what are the next three configurations and designs to simulate, and then setup the cases to run.

2. clear the unread e-mails in October 2022 before their one year retention period expires.

3. set the October birthday reminders in calendar.

4. write up quarterly and send to manager, also update the tracking tool.

5. write up weekly. Hmm, it's a three working days week, do we still need to send weekly report?

Ya, it's a public holiday tomorrow but I have at least five tasks that need to be completed tomorrow, so working overtime tomorrow is unavoidable.

Taking annual leave on Friday to make a four days long weekend, I know I will be working overtime, my only wish is to keep the overtime duration to the bare minimum.

One can hope.

Other |wretched workaholic| category entries.

Sharing

To promote work/life balance, camaraderie, inclusiveness, et cetera, my manager has this monthly 'coffee chat' session.

Being antisocial, it has not been high on my priority list, but I do join whenever I can, since it's usually on the same day as our monthly face to face staff meeting.

If I am busy with work, or there are more important meetings later in the day that will end close to the end of working hours, with less than an hour interim, then I will skip the coffee chat to drive home to attend those meetings from home. Let's just say I am allergic to traffic. =P

Today, some random remarks while discussing upcoming team event led to me disclosing that I learned the very fundamental of destiny codes, and the request for me to share it in coming coffee chat session.

More than a decade ago I bought a few books on destiny codes, and managed to finished the first two or three books, covering the most fundamental of understanding the destiny codes. About two years ago I revisited the books, while I progressed more than before, I still didn't managed to complete all the books I have. It was a good refresher though.

Of course, with my goldfish memory, I have forgotten most already by now. So time for another refresher if the colleagues are serious about me sharing in the coffee chat.

The absolute truth is, I would never have thought this is something I will end up sharing with colleagues, in my work environment.

It feels somewhat amusing.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.