The ``mental wellness'' long weekend came, and went, and for a glorious 12 hours, I felt mentally well.
Then everything of course spiralled back to the usual tired comment of being tired as I watch myself having to return to the office to deal with... whatever it is I have to deal with.
But by now, you must be tired reading about how tired I am, so I'm not going to belabour the point.
------
Friday was a replay of a similar 48-mi cycling route that I took on 2024-06-14. Still Road --> East Coast Park --> Tanah Merah Coast Road --> Changi Beach Park, and then a backtrack. I somehow managed to be a bit faster (06:18 min/mi vs 06:23 min/mi) despite the weather being way hotter (the rain came much later, and only in a short burst).
I claim that it was due to the introduction of a homemade quasi-isotonic drink that I was using this time around. 1 tsp of table salt, 1 flat tsp of citric acid, and 2 tbsp of sugar, mixed in 1 dm3 of tap water, and I quaffed the equivalent of 4 L throughout the entire ride, compared to just about 4 L of water previously.
I was significantly less delirious towards the two-thirds mark of the ride, and there was no cramping in my muscles, though I was damn sure that one of the stabiliser muscles on my lower left lateral part of my leg was hurting due to overcompensation, but that began fairly early into the ride.
I think I will just continue with this concept for the next long ride. I doubt it will be over the National Day weekend in August, mostly because that's when Cat Quest III is in full release, and I would like to play it.
I mean, who wouldn't? It's a nice game, staring cartoon cats, and is made by a Singapore game studio.
------
Speaking of games, I got my first freighter in No Man's Sky. At around 88.5 h of play time (wait, it has been nearly 90 hours?!), I'm fast approaching the point where the grind will prove to be annoying. Since I only play solo, it was time to bring out the ``play it my way to make it fun'' mode, and I suspect that I would have exhausted all my patience to play this in a few sessions, from which I might just drop it and go back to my regular programming (as in, gaming programme, not computer programming).
No Man's Sky has been fun. But the Anomaly and the base-building side quest roughly run into each other with their overlap of quest rewards. Not sure what to expect though.
I may get back to The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles once I'm ``sick'' of No Man's Sky, just to complete that series. Or maybe start on Disco Elysium, or maybe even the long-ignored Pillars of Eternity (before all the Divinity: Origin Sin and Baldur's Gate 3 hype).
My problem with these games is that they are narrative focused, which funny enough, is something that I have a slight aversion to as I watch my favourite VTubers at 2.5× speed in the background as I game.
First world problems, huh?
I think that's about it for today. Nothing really much to say, except for random belly-aching about heading back into the fray.
Till the next update.
Monday, July 22, 2024
Saturday, July 13, 2024
Pathological Liar
Ah... that was rough.
``Hey MT, we're sick of you complaining in a cryptic way that `that was rough'. Move on damnit!''
Sure voice-in-my-head.
So I was doing some thinking on and off the past couple of weeks. The question on my mind was, how does one deal with a pathologic liar?
Take the latest ah... US presidential election fiasco. Two geriatric men slugging it out. One's gaffe-prone but is generally a tad more gentlemanly, and the other is a pathologically lying cad.
Frankly, neither are good choices, but due to the way the US's politics is structured, it is now the race of ``the lesser of two evils''.
That's not my problem though---I cannot vote in the US by virtue of the fact that I'm not a US citizen.
The part that nerdsniped me is the observation that despite the pathological lying, somehow that person is still ``in the race''.
How?
The usual way to get someone to drop out of a political race is to demonstrate that the said person has some major [character] flaw that impinges on their ability to serve in said political office, and that often involves either fact-checking, or mud-slinging.
Fact-checking has been applied consistently at the pathological liar, and yet he bounces back from each one, stronger than before. And this includes both the regular ``inconsequential'' fact-checking to the stuff that the court of law rules---somehow that has done nothing to knock that person off his feet.
How?
Mud-slinging has been attempted, amateurishly in many ways since the other major political party that isn't supporting the pathologically lying person hasn't decided to stoop that low to play gutter politics just yet. Insinuations on character, on actual illegal and immoral behaviour have done nothing to dampen the zealous support of that person, even among those whose religious teachings were supposed to tell them that those illegal and immoral behaviours were wrong.
How?
Just how does one defeat a pathological liar? The orthodox ways that I just described don't seem to work. Maybe it is time to bring in the playground tactics, like out-louding the pathological liar, or resort to the age-old solution to all problems in life---extreme violence.
But either technique seems rather... inelegant. Perhaps there really isn't any other way that can achieve the outcome through elegance---elegance on its own suggests a certain level of self-awareness, and the willingness to cooperate, neither of which the pathological liar has.
So maybe the more primeval approach is the best. But are people willing to stoop that low?
Edit: Unfortunately, yes. There are some who are willing to stoop that low. That news article first came on 2024-07-14T06:48+08, and as at the time of this edit, was updated at 2024-07-14T14:45+08.
``Hey MT, we're sick of you complaining in a cryptic way that `that was rough'. Move on damnit!''
Sure voice-in-my-head.
So I was doing some thinking on and off the past couple of weeks. The question on my mind was, how does one deal with a pathologic liar?
Take the latest ah... US presidential election fiasco. Two geriatric men slugging it out. One's gaffe-prone but is generally a tad more gentlemanly, and the other is a pathologically lying cad.
Frankly, neither are good choices, but due to the way the US's politics is structured, it is now the race of ``the lesser of two evils''.
That's not my problem though---I cannot vote in the US by virtue of the fact that I'm not a US citizen.
The part that nerdsniped me is the observation that despite the pathological lying, somehow that person is still ``in the race''.
How?
The usual way to get someone to drop out of a political race is to demonstrate that the said person has some major [character] flaw that impinges on their ability to serve in said political office, and that often involves either fact-checking, or mud-slinging.
Fact-checking has been applied consistently at the pathological liar, and yet he bounces back from each one, stronger than before. And this includes both the regular ``inconsequential'' fact-checking to the stuff that the court of law rules---somehow that has done nothing to knock that person off his feet.
How?
Mud-slinging has been attempted, amateurishly in many ways since the other major political party that isn't supporting the pathologically lying person hasn't decided to stoop that low to play gutter politics just yet. Insinuations on character, on actual illegal and immoral behaviour have done nothing to dampen the zealous support of that person, even among those whose religious teachings were supposed to tell them that those illegal and immoral behaviours were wrong.
How?
Just how does one defeat a pathological liar? The orthodox ways that I just described don't seem to work. Maybe it is time to bring in the playground tactics, like out-louding the pathological liar, or resort to the age-old solution to all problems in life---extreme violence.
But either technique seems rather... inelegant. Perhaps there really isn't any other way that can achieve the outcome through elegance---elegance on its own suggests a certain level of self-awareness, and the willingness to cooperate, neither of which the pathological liar has.
So maybe the more primeval approach is the best. But are people willing to stoop that low?
Edit: Unfortunately, yes. There are some who are willing to stoop that low. That news article first came on 2024-07-14T06:48+08, and as at the time of this edit, was updated at 2024-07-14T14:45+08.
Saturday, July 06, 2024
Argh...
Aaaaarghhhh...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
------
What a week. Or was it a fortnight? Or three weeks?
I don't know---time's starting to merge with each other to the point that I no longer have a good sense of what is going on, except for the obvious dichotomies of work-time versus off-time, day versus night, and that's about it.
Things are moving along, slowly, with the kind of ``three steps forward, two steps back'' type of progression that I am starting to accept as the new norm.
I am not exactly a patient fellow, but I am doing my best to keep whatever patience I left about me.
------
I recently read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. It's a non-fiction book talking about the 1996 disaster from the climb up Mount Everest. It's a short read, but gripping and carrying the air of the old adventure story that had not been the genre in vogue for quite a while.
Is it worth reading? Sure. Not many high-mountain climbing books out there.
------
In other news, I've started on No Man's Sky, a game that had its redemption arc after a disastrous launch. So far I'm having fun with it, treating it largely as a souped up version of Minecraft that prioritises exploration & trade over infrastructure/monument building.
SGDQ 2024 is live too, so that's a treat.
And that's about it. I think I'm going to go lie down and catch up on rest.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
------
What a week. Or was it a fortnight? Or three weeks?
I don't know---time's starting to merge with each other to the point that I no longer have a good sense of what is going on, except for the obvious dichotomies of work-time versus off-time, day versus night, and that's about it.
Things are moving along, slowly, with the kind of ``three steps forward, two steps back'' type of progression that I am starting to accept as the new norm.
I am not exactly a patient fellow, but I am doing my best to keep whatever patience I left about me.
------
I recently read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. It's a non-fiction book talking about the 1996 disaster from the climb up Mount Everest. It's a short read, but gripping and carrying the air of the old adventure story that had not been the genre in vogue for quite a while.
Is it worth reading? Sure. Not many high-mountain climbing books out there.
------
In other news, I've started on No Man's Sky, a game that had its redemption arc after a disastrous launch. So far I'm having fun with it, treating it largely as a souped up version of Minecraft that prioritises exploration & trade over infrastructure/monument building.
SGDQ 2024 is live too, so that's a treat.
And that's about it. I think I'm going to go lie down and catch up on rest.
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