31 March 2023

杂思草记


一复工就被催工,仿佛我休假期间也应该在工作,一复工就有成绩可以呈现那样。

还有那铺天盖地的工作量,滔滔不绝的涌入。

也不过就是休假了几天,有必要这样催命吗?

*****

没有本钱逍遥自在的大瓜继续顽固自我,荒废宝贵的求学人生阶段,沉迷手机和电游。

那么糟糕的成绩还可以那么满意现状,还不是专心求学上进、努力增强自己,而是把时间和精力浪费在无谓的事情上。

那么不成熟的人又那么的自以为是,还要在应该专注于学业的时候去谈恋爱。

唉… 怎么会有个这么不懂事的孩子?

*****

突然就很厌倦了很多东西。

工作、生活、经济状况、家里的负能量、重复又重复闹剧、那电脑游戏…

厌倦了自己的人生。



随兴随想 |系列|


28 March 2023

Diablo IV open beta


Been playing the early access of Diablo IV the previous weekend and the open beta this past weekend.

Overall I am enjoying it, not perfect, but I like it. Perhaps because it's still novel, the new toilet syndrome. I hope not.

The one thing that irked me is the skip cut scene function that is not working. Don't get me wrong, Blizzard makes fantastic cut scenes, and there are many in Diablo IV, lengthy ones too. I love them the first time through. The second time, not as much. By the third time, I just want to skip it and get on with progressing my new character.

this cut scene is so awesome I couldn't helped myself taking a screenshot

I submitted a bug report for the skip cut scene not working after trying repeatedly in vain. By my fourth character, I would be clipping my nails, went for bio break, went to refill my water, et cetera during the cut scenes. True story.

As my nature, I tried all the five available classes. Started with sorcerer which I levelled all the way to 25, the max for the beta. Barbarian was next, which I only played to level 11, stopped because the early access weekend was over. Started a druid this past weekend open beta, levelled to 23, this character had some multiplayer dungeon clearing time with an online friend from Diablo Immortal. Then played the necromancer, solely to find all 28 of the Lilith's altars in the region, altar finding and doing the events en route got the character to level 18, then played that character a bit more till level 22 because quite like the class. The last class I played is the rogue, levelled to 18 doing side quests and some dungeons.

28 altars of Lilith in Fractured Peaks, for my own future reference

The class skill tree is so diverse, I can see myself spending a lot of time playing this game just to try skills out. Here's hoping there will be no cookie-cutter 'best' build but instead many viable builds. I really hope Blizzard can balance it so there is no single 'best' min/max build, then we will have variety instead of everybody being the same.

Liking what I experienced so far, my pre-order is justified. I guess now Diablo fans worldwide have to wait three more months for the official release.



Other |geeky gaming| category entries.


24 March 2023

Potato mode on!


Taking next Monday and Tuesday off for a four days long weekend to recharge my totally drained state.

My current plan is to turn on the work laptop tomorrow morning after I wake up, okay, maybe it's no longer morning when I wake up if I am really lucky, but the plan is to check the three simulation cases I set to run overnight and save them if they have completed.

Just save them and do nothing else, no post-processing, no analyse and set new cases to run, that sort of things. Use the minimal of time to get that done and then no more turning on the laptop until after my break.

That's the plan anyway. Hope I can stick to it. Goodness knows I need the break.

Actually, probably nobody knows how badly I need the break. Even wifey doesn't seemed to know I need it. *Sigh...*

An antisocial introvert who likes to stay at home really just want to stay at home, sleep, chill, read some novels, play some game, eat some junk and drink some Coke. That's rest and relax, that's quality recharge time for me, especially if it's peaceful and quiet at home.

And since Diablo IV open beta is this weekend, an avid Diablo fan like me will try to maximise the gaming time. Next fix will most likely be the June official release. Can understand, right?

Anyway, potato mode is on, don't contact me for any work related stuff, and unless you are really close to me, don't ask me out because I just want to stay in and chill. Really.



Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.


23 March 2023

Low batt


After working through so many weekends, I am tapped out, probably going to burn out.

Initially I thought this week I will have a relatively easier time, a more normal working pace, as the rush for results for the major meeting with customer is over. There is usually a few days decision making time before new direction is set, a few days for me to take a breather.

Too bad, no such luxury. Even as the major meeting with customer A about project A was happening, another meeting with customer B about project B was also underway. I handle both projects, and more.

The meeting with customer B was in preparation for a major meeting in early April, and it's about finding a solution to a lofty target, because, somehow, that 31% improvement that already proven in prototype is not enough. My goodness.

31% is freaking amazing improvement from one generation to the next, okay? All the time and effort I put in to get to that 31%, under the stricter than usual design envelope, and it's still not enough. Bollocks.

Back straight into rush mode, with first set of simulation results from ideas generated in the meeting expected tomorrow. Ya, so much for the few days of breather.

Like I said, I am tapped out, I have taken next Monday and Tuesday off to recharge. I hope it's really going to be four days of break, without having to work overtime.

One can dream.



Other |wretched workaholic| category entries.


19 March 2023

Another first


After my first circus show last weekend, I had another first today.

All my life I have been washing my own car ever since I started driving. Until today.

I have been so busy for so long that my car got so dirty I just couldn't stand it anymore, so on the return route after visiting mommi today, I drove to the car wash service in a petrol station and got it washed.

There is a first for everything. Just a bit sad that something I have upheld for so long finally got broken.

Oh well, seldom get what I want in life, this is no exception.



Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.


Diablo IV first impression


March is a gaming month? I guess every month is gaming month for true gamers, but Blizzard is giving free World of Warcraft: Dragonflight game time last weekend to all players, and this weekend and the coming weekend are early access and open beta for Diablo IV.

I was busy working overtime last weekend so totally missed the free WoW game time, bummer. Still had to work for a bit yesterday morning and night, but at least I got some Diablo IV game time in in between.

Never been a power gamer and as usual I am taking it slow, exploring where I can and a true sucker of the lore and storyline. There are already players with characters at the early access level cap, seriously, what's the rush?

Generally I am liking the game, graphics are good and game play is fun. Could just be because it's new so it's intriguing. Thank goodness none of the Diablo Immortal pay to win bullshit so far, hope never.

The game world is huge, and breaking from the Diablo I, II, and III mainly linear storyline and game progression (yes, I intentionally excluded Diablo Immortal as that rubbish P2W game model a disgrace to the series), Diablo IV feels more like a MMORPG, feels like World of Warcraft when it comes to world exploration. At least the way I have been playing WoW lately, primarily casual solo.

I can just go explore instead of working on the main quest line, there are so many places to go and things to do, there are side quests, dungeons small and big, and events that players can just work on without forming party first and still get bonus of being in proximity of other players, nice touch Blizzard!

I tried the world boss, and died many times to one shot. Well I am way under level, it says it's a level 25 encounter and I am far from it. Think if there were 30 to 40 level 25 players who knows what they are doing, the world boss is doable. Hmm, there is no healer class... but then this is not WoW, hope Blizzard designed the world boss encounter with that in mind. For now I reserve judgement on the world boss encounter because too few were there and many were under level like me in my one time experience.

I don't know how many players are in the early access, and how the server separation works, while I can encounter other players in cities and while exploring the open world, the number is not as high as I thought it would be. To me this is a good thing, I hope it stays like this, could do without the typical MMORPG grief of mob camping, ore node and herb stealing.

Anyway, that's my first impression thus far, still so much to do, places to explore, classes to try, and of course I just don't have the time. Hopefully at least I can get to the early access level cap, that's the goal.



Other |geeky gaming| category entries.


15 March 2023

代价


两头烧的蜡烛双倍速的燃尽。

身体和精神是不能长期承受这样的压力和工作节奏的,所以不是会不会垮,而是几时垮塌而已。

就是今天,身体和精神受够了,直接来个撕裂头痛,是只能在床上做死尸的那种程度。

唉… 揾食艰难,鬼叫我穷

只好卖命养家。



随兴随想 |系列|