My Hiking Boots are Back!

What a day. It's getting late, and so I will keep it rather short.

I've completed Tools of Titans. It's a good self-help book in that it provides many bite-sized snapshots about how some of the best creatives in the [western] world operate, and serve as interesting case studies on what can work and what may not work.

I finally completed defragmenting the external hard drive that I am using for my data back-up. The file system is exFAT by default, and funny enough, Windows 10 cannot defragemnt it with the built-in defrag tool. After poking around, I found Defraggler from CCleaner, and it could get the job done.

It was none too soon though. With about 1.3 TB of 4.0 TB used, the fragmentation was at 6%, thanks to the various multi-volume RAR archives that ended up with about 3k+ fragments total. Defragmentation was excruciatingly slow since the process was limited by the 1.0 MB/s transfer rate, as compared to the 70+ MB/s that is typical of the internal SSD.

That was part of the big reason why I ended up not playing Cyberpunk 2077 for the past few days---it's just so that the 60 GB worth of file fragments can be sorted out thoroughly.

It is a good thing because it allowed me to do my reading. I have gotten to volume 8/16 for The Junji Itō Horror Comic Collection, and as noted earlier, completed the 872 pages of Tools of Titans. I also read a couple more books of the NKJV, and it would seem that I can probably complete a full cycle of reading the entirety to the Bible within a month or two.

That's all good.

I may end up playing me some Cyberpunk 2077 tomorrow, but what is likely to happen is some kind of planning event for various errands that I need to run. Specifically, I'm going to have to go build a new Xunbuntu PC for my mother. Her current build is at least seven years old, and is running Xubuntu 18.04 LTS ``Bionic Beaver'', which is running out in terms of support. I have upgraded the operating system through at least 3 LTS versions, and would happily continue to do so, but the hardware is really taking a punishing from seven or so years of operating in a hot and humid environment without any air-conditioning, with the added hysteresis from daily boot-cycles (she turns off the computer when she is done, unlike me who often keeps systems running ``forever''). It has gotten to the point that the DIMMs were causing POST-issues due to contact issues---every couple of months or so, they need to be taken off the motherboard and have their contacts cleaned, and generally have the DIMM slots ``rubbed'' through careful replacement of the DIMMs.

Frankly, it was just time. But it is happening at a very bad time. I just hope I have enough budget to pull this off.

On a final note, I finally got my hiking boots back from Mister Minit, and more specifically, the one at Hougang Mall (Shop #B1--16, 90 Hougang Avenue 10, Singapore 538766). As referred to previously, I had sent in my hiking boots on Feb 03 to get a broken lacing hook replaced, but there was no replacement lacing hook, and it took roughly this long (10 weeks exactly to the date) for the supplier to actually bring in lacing hooks that would work for my boots and for the repair-person to fix it.

I am so happy that it got fixed! I am really thankful for the repair, and actually gave a tip, despite the long wait. I think that it is the least that I could do for someone who was providing me with the excellent service that he did---my boots were well-kept in storage while waiting for the parts, and when he got them and did the fix, actually called me as soon as it was possible.

And so, I now have my hiking boots in working condition again. Time for more walks, despite the much worse weather. Frankly, I couldn't care less about it---gotta get out there and stomp about to clear my mind more.

Funny enough, the longer I am on my sabbatical, the more clarity I am starting to see about the things that are happening about me. Suddenly there is less appeal to return as a wage slave for someone else, and to actually consider taking my chances out there in the wider world. Sometimes it really is important to put one's money where one's mouth is---if I really think that I am getting exploited badly, then it would be really stupid of me to keep on returning to the dysfunctional set up, hoping that this time it would be somehow magically different.

I mean, if we, as responsible adults, refuse to allow children to indulge in bad behaviour, why aren't we applying the same standards to other adults who should have known better?

If it is the fear of repercussions, or the fear of how society will perceive us, that prevents us from going on a different path, then I say that it is just a socially-constructed control mechanism that we had been conditioned to accept unquestioningly. Jesus's death and resurrection has already redeemed us from God's wrath---how can a mere human cause even more suffering to us? I think that I'm too simple-minded, in that I cannot abide by the duplicity of serving both Mammon in being a wage slave just to keep up with the so-called society's expectations, and serving God in terms of doing works that glorify His name.

I think I will stop there, and just end this supposed-to-be-short entry. Till the next update.