First Win in Hades

I feel rotten. A damn headache has been throbbing on and off over the weekend, and I feel rotten about it. Damnation!

Recently, I finished reading Ouran High School Host Club. I think that the manga is much stronger than the anime. The dynamics of Tamaki with his family (father, and grandmother) are much more complex than whatever was portrayed in the anime. I call this the ``Hellsing effect''---where the anime is called into production before the manga has its main story arcs fully resolved, leading to some make-believe storylines just so that the anime can end its run at the correct episode count. The most blatant of this is the comparison of the Hellsing anime against the newer Hellsing OVA---``Incognito'' as the big bad in the anime made no sense to the narrative build up as compared to the final near-pornographic bloodfest showdown between the Major and Sir Integra Hellsing, as their underlings thrash London to fight the war that the washed up ghoul-Nazis of the Major had planned for fifty plus years after the second world war.

``But MT, the source material is almost always richer than the adaptation.''

Yes, that's the point. Which is why we should not be in a rush to make adaptations of stories without knowing how the major arcs' trajectories are heading. I'm not saying that the adaptors are bad---I'm saying that without having the original creator's direction, there will be a jarring change in direction when the plot holes from unresolved story arcs start showing up. Sometimes, even if the original creator is involved, they may not even know where they are heading since they are ``making things up as they go along'' at times (recall that much of the serialised works are paid by some set contract period, in which case the stories need to be crafted at a consistent-enough pace, with sufficient material to ``keep on going'' for the length of the contract). But at least the original creator's general direction can be sought and the plot holes may be resolved amicably within the adaptation.

Ouran High School Host Club is definitely a romantic-comedy, kind of like Kimagure Orange Road, but unlike the latter, I could actually stomach the former without going through hiatuses from reading. I think it's because of the near-surreal comedy that comes from the over-the-top nature of the clash between the high-class society of Ouran High School and the ``commoners' common sense'' deadpan nature of Haruhi/Ranka---it definitely feels more funny than jealousy inducing, even when Hikaru/Kaoru were showing actual jealousy against Tamaki.

All in all, I like the manga. And thanks to Eirian-VI, I can now tackle the offline version of Questionable Content, all 5.6k pages of them as at the crawl. I'm saying this now because The Adventures of Dr McNinja is no longer available at its original form due to the site being attacked. I have my own offline copy (of course), but for those who want to read this masterpiece of 2010s webcomic storytelling, a kind soul has uploaded it to The Internet Archive.

In short, what I mean is this: if there's something on the 'net that you enjoy, and would like to revisit it again in the future, there is no shame to find a way to make a copy of it. Because the adage of ``what goes on the 'net stays there forever'' is patently false.

``MT, what about DRM?''

Heh. What is morally/ethically the right thing to do sometimes has no support in law---in which case the law is not just and needs to be amended. The law is a set of rules that a particular society has agreed to abide by, and if they are created by humans, they can be amended by humans. Whereas morality and ethics are based on stronger absolute values that may only be judged by God---no one save God can change them.

------

I talked about Juufuutei Raden's Guide for Pixel Museum in a post from last month, and I am proud to say that I have finally finished all the 300+ puzzles. The nonogram puzzles were fun, but I preferred those that were associated with the artifacts than the ones that were part of Raden's memories---the former had interesting patterns, while the latter, being some selected part of some pictures that depicted an event Raden was in, seemed to be simpler ones based around basic geometric patterns instead.

So effectively, the memories section felt like filler, and the game would be stronger if they were taken out. But then again, taking them out might reduce the effect of the game as a soft introduction for the casual nonogram lover to the very learned/cultured (literally, not the ironic form of ``cultured'') VTuber that is Juufuutei Raden.

Overall, still loved the game, and am glad that I finished all the puzzles.

------

Ah Hades. I last talked about it nearer the start of the month, and I'm proud to announce my first win of the game.

It took me 60 previous runs to get my first win on the 61st, and it was with a weapon that I never thought I could ever win easily with (the Bow).

I was expecting my first win to be with the Spear---ah well.

The Bow was not easy to fight with---there was long-ish charge time before the attack can be made, and the AOE was quite shit. The damage from the Bow was also bad (but not as terrible as the Rifle I mean Exagryph I mean Adamant Rail). What made this win possible was largely through the power of the RNGod.

Heartbreak Strike gave me more damage with Weak as a curse, which was cool.

Explosive Shot changed the single-shot into a small AOE, but it slowed down the charging rate. This was rectified somewhat with Swift Strike that added back 30% attack rate.

Companion Battie helped me save one Death Defiance that I was about to lose at the boss fight of Elysium (that 2.5k damage against the solo Theseus meant that I could finish him off with one more shot even as my HP was inching to 0).

I could consistently best the Furies (bosses of the first biome of Tartarus), reaching near consistency against Lernie (boss of the second biome of Asphodel), and am inconsistent with Theseus and Asterius (bosses of the third biome of Elysium). Big bossman Hades (boss of Styx) was always hard, and I was only starting to reach his second stage.

The true MVP for the win is Smoldering Air with Aphrodite's Aid. This combination allowed me to spam Aphrodite's Aid consistently about once every 5 s, and the Charm that comes from the boon effectively interrupts Hades' laser attacks. That gave me more opportunities to land hits more often, needing 3/4 less hits than without the effects of Explosive Shot, and avoid damage as I fumble my way through.

And as you can tell in the screenshot of the victory, I got through the barest of my skin right there.

Honourable mention goes to Festive Fog boosted by Scintillating Feast---it added some additional AOE, and gave enough curses with Weak to allow Privileged Status to proc, giving an additional 40% of damage.

To think that I was contemplating whether to turn on God Mode for that 20% damage reduction that would increase by 2 percentage points for each death... there's no real penalty for using God Mode, but it does store the records separately from non-God Mode. I think I'm fine without God Mode, as shown through this first win. I did a meme run with all the Pact of Punishment conditions at Max, and didn't survive for more than one chamber. Bummer. I suppose it's back to the regular mode for now.

This first win is also special because I think this is the first time I actually had a successful run of some rogue-lite in a long while. I don't usually do well in rogue-lites because they tend to get a tad twitchy, and my reflexes are no longer what they were. Meta-progression in Hades is fun compared to say Rogue Legacy because it is so much easier to control, particularly with the meta-progression currency being separate and persistent as compared to in-run currency for in-run progression items.

And now, another 9 more wins to unlock the rest of the story. 💀

------

I wrote a new short story over at my prose blog, and I think that it caught some aspects of a narrative that I was hallucinating about that day. Not sure if it truly achieved what I wanted to say, but I think it is good that I'm writing things other than work reports, slide decks, and rants out here.

I suppose that's about it for now. July is fast reaching an end, and soon, it will be August with all the craziness that the appraisal period brings.

Oh and SIN city celebrates its GOTH BIRTHDAY.

...

I mean 60TH BIRTHDAY. Who the hell capitalises the ordinal suffix letters?

Till the next update.

Supply Run and then Some...

What a week! But before I recap what happened, I'd like to share two principles of mine.

Principle 1: I refuse to go out alone with a female friend who is married/have a steady boyfriend. Now I know and they know that friend means friend, but the person who does not know me as well may develop some weird thoughts about what is going on---why be someone else's stumbling stone? As a corollary, I prefer creating group chats that contains both the couple and I for coordination purposes. The reason for this is much simpler: whatever is said to my friend will definitely make its way to her significant other. In which case, I'd rather make it more direct and clear to avoid ``telephone game'' syndrome.

Principle 2: If you are a sit-down restaurant, I don't mind if you make me use your stupid web site to make an order. However, if the only way you are allowing me to pay is to enter my payment information into the same stupid web site, then I'm walking out if alone, or it will be the last time I eat at your place if I'm with others and cannot easily leave (I'll get someone else in my party to pay through your stupid system). Two such sit-down places have been black-listed by me for this (that udon place in UTown, and the replacement restaurant out at NUS Alumni House), and today, I added a new one: Nando's.

See, the card has a chip on it. And the payment system as provided by the bank is simultaneously faster and more direct for payment than the stupid web site way---I do not like sitting at the stupid table just to enter 20--23 digits worth of numbers (16 digits for the card number, then another 4 for the expiry month, and maybe an extra 3 for the CVV2 number). And with the ubiquity of surveillance camera, some fucker can just review the video and figure out what those information are, should they so choose.

``But MT, you can just add your payment information to like your Google Pay/Apple Pay, and then use it from there...''

...and if I lose my phone, fuck me. No thanks.

------

Today's a leave day to make up for the fact that 2025-07 has no public holidays. I could have gone for yet another long-ass cycle, but my heart really isn't in it, and more importantly, I needed to make some supply runs.

The most important is meds. This is a normal run that I need to do about once every quarter-ish, on average.

The next is replacement shoes. I think I last got my daily work shoes back in 2023, and they have developed some very interesting holes through the leather due to wear and tear from walking too much. And so, I had two pairs to replace them.

``MT, why two?''

To alternate. It makes the shoes less stinky, and more importantly, they retain their shape much better when allowed a full 24 hours to chill out in between uses. I would have done the same for my boots if I wear them often enough, but I don't, so it's just the one pair for now.

The last is a new external HDD. The current one is 4 TB (that's SI prefix there), and it has been years. So it's time to get another one. I was scouting earlier, and saw a Western Digital Duo Book that could go up to 44 TB---in the form of 2× 22 TB hard drives in RAID 0 configuration. It was tempting, but I didn't end up getting it for a couple of reasons: it was a ``desktop model'' that needed an external power source, and 44 TB is stupid large. Even if it were reconfigured to 22 TB via RAID 1, that is still a stupidly large amount of data to work with---if I lose data due to the hard drive going bananas, that's a stupid amount of data to lose/restore.

So I just got a 5 TB one, and as I am writing, I am doing the necessary data transfer from the older HDD to the new one. It still sucks though---one of the syncing operations has an estimated 2.4k min, or nearly 2 days. And since both hard drives each need a USB-A port, I'm out of a mouse---no games involving mice for these two days.

Oww.

But the supply run was successful. That Nando's thing happened, and I just ate at Josh's Grill nearby, which was excellent.

------

In other news, my Ninomae Ina'nis merch has arrived. I now have a nice hoodie of octopuses, and it is really cool! I mean, it's warm too, but you get the idea.

Volumes 5--7 of the Flute Sheet Archive has also arrived, but since it requires a USB-A port to access, it might as well be in the mail still.

------

Mentally though, I'm a mixed bag now. A little this, a little that, a little something else.

Overall, I'm functional. But am I thriving?

I don't know.

Till the next update then.

As Spoken in Flute Forum...

In response to an observation on the Flute Forum that some grading boards are requiring videoed performances for examinations, especially at the diploma level:

Doomposter mode.

Data is the lifeblood of the new economy, and I would not be surprised if these videoed examinations are a way for the relevant boards to amass data of performances for sale under the guise of data analysis.

A very negative one is the new capability of nit-picking, therefore gatekeeping the higher certifications. Why rely on the "error prone" and subjective comments of the examiners from a live performance, when one can rewind and replay and highlight all the minutae on how one is doing something sub-par?

A more positive spin is the normalisation of the "Internet Content Creator" path for performers under the guise of the "democratisation of the Arts through application of communication technology".

Do I believe that everything I said here is true? Not wholly, but I would not be surprised if these are part of the calculus over the more obvious "let's save money/time from all that travelling!"

Honest reflection? I can see these happening, really. Most interactions these days are held over the 'net, and with the rise of cheap (relative to before) mobile Internet, videos are fast becoming the dominant form of media creation/consumption.

And this includes things like VTubers, that I like to watch.

Music is a performance art---one performs for an audience. In the past, the audience were on the streets (literally), or in the concert hall.

But today, the audience is online.

Not being able to work with technology for performing will be a major disadvantage for the modern professional.

But with recordings comes the pursuit of perfection. See also how music albums are made, and relatedly, why going to watch your favourite band live in concert should be more about the vibes than about trying to listen to great music a la album quality.

And then there's that AI grenade that I lobbed in.

That, I have no doubts will be an eventuality. It's just a natural consequence---current generative AI is orders of magnitude better than what was available ten years ago, and their use in entertainment is gaining more traction as the MBAs start realising that they have the equivalent of slave labour compared to the existing artiste/artist structure.

Of course they'll find a way to monetise it. And the examination boards are the best place to get high quality data, especially since the examinee is the one who pays for the privilege of being graded.

And the examination boards can double dip too---take money as part of the examination fees, and then take more money as a data source.

Any half-decent MBA would be frothing at the mouth for that.

``MT, that sounds dystopian...''

It doesn't sound dystopian---it is the reality we are living in.

That's all for now.

Ramblings of a Tired Old Man

Thank God the week is done. I am so fucking done with the week.

So much stupidity, so much drama, so little reprieve.

Sadly, not even today.

------

I like drawing the line between personal time, and work time. Part of the reason of this is the [gradual] realisation of several points of reality:

• Workers sell their availability for the price of the compensation;
• No one is truly indispensable;
• There is rarely any [uncompensated] work that requires ``instant'' responses to; and
• Power trippers are gonna power trip.

As a result, I really hate it when people want to use one of the many informal direct-communication tools (like WhatsApp, Telegram) as their primary means of conducting business.

Apart from the sheer disruption to personal time if one is dumb enough in this age to not have a separate cellphone number for work, there are also other important business reasons why this is a bad idea. The most important of which is the difficulty of maintaining a paper trail of events/decisions that were made---many of these communication tools lack an easy to export log, and even if they do, the fact that they border on the informal register makes the meandering conversation hard to distill down to the actual important point.

Not to mention the false narrative of how email-spam is annoying while somehow getting random notifications from these chatting programs isn't, especially since how one can actually set up filters to channel unimportant emails into different folders for most of the email clients/providers but cannot do the same for chat logs.

``MT why are you bringing this up here?''

No reason.

------

Previously, I talked about doing ``arts and crafts'' in the form of restoring the colour of the carvings on my dizi. I used the gold Pentel acrylic paint, and it had good results.

What I didn't mention was that I had bought a neon(?) green one (also Pentel acrylic) too, for some of the carvings that were filled with green. I tried using that, and the results were disappointing.

The green one didn't go into the crevices well, and even when they did, they looked nothing like the colour that they held when squeezed out. I don't know if it is because the green one was less viscous than the gold one (it didn't feel that way), or that the green just isn't as opaque as the gold one when spread thin enough [into the crevices], or that the particular formulation for green wasn't as ``sticky'' to stay in the crevices of the carvings.

In other words, the green was a failure, and a SGD 2.50 lesson.

Ah well.

------

The Summer Steam sale is in full swing, and I was angry for quite a while when I couldn't purchase the stuff I wanted to.

After ding-donging with Steam Support (yes, they exist and actually work, unlike Grab that stiffed me out of SGD 15.00 voucher use because their stupid app allowed me to apply it after the ride was booked and not before by trapping me in AI chatbot hell (2025-07-22 edit: Turns out that Grab did not stiff me after all---while the original deduction was the full price, the actual settlement made was the one where the voucher was used)), the problem was found: Command & Conquer™ The Ultimate Collection (sale price of SGD 11.48). Take that off, and it works.

Of course, ``today'' I got Command & Conquer™ Remastered Collection for SGD 6.22, but bearing in mind that it doesn't have... I don't know what.

The main purpose is to play some C&C, having not really played it before, for cheap.

Aaanyway, the thing I want to gush over is not C&C nor Steam Support, but Hades.

How could I have missed out on this?

Maybe it's because of my dissatisfaction with a similar game like Hyper Light Drifter. I like rogue-likes, but I prefer it when I have time to think. Same reason why Crypt of the NecroDancer didn't jive well with me (maybe I'll revisit it again...).

But Hades... it is actually fun! There is some meta-progression that helps nullify some of the pain from the real-time gameplay (I'm looking at you, Binding of Isaac!), and there's an actual story. I've been having too much fun just romping around thrashing the underworld in Hades.

``MT, what changed your mind?''

Reine played Hades, she had fun, and it looked fun.

That said, I also pulled the trigger and get Blue Prince, for the same reason, despite the whole ``dynamic puzzles rogue-like urrghhhh'' pain.

And that pretty much summarises my Summer Steam sale adventures.

------

Lastly, officially I'm fat. I've slacked off my mass-tracking for three months, and am 80 kg now.

It sucks.

Back to OMAD and the control measures again.

Till the next update.

colonisation vs infection

I was pretty angry a couple of days ago.

The long and short of it without naming names is that the nurse from the community hospital informed me that the person who was in said institution was isolated due to a ``CP-CRE infection''.

``CP-CRE infection?''

``Yes, CP-CRE infection. It's garbled-text escholvvabacteria---it's a long name bacteria that exists in the gut when we tested person.''

``So, did person get this from the previous general hospital, or did person get it here?''

``It is normal to have it.''

``I know, but when person was at the general hospital, they were giving person antibiotics. I don't have the case notes that you do, and am curious about how this infection came about.''

``Sir, I think you should talk to the doctor. Doctor will do their rounds tomorrow, and I can get doctor to call you between eight and nine in the morning.''

``Okay, thank you Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name.''

That was Monday, after I had my eyeball examined under observation duty rules (I'm mostly out of the woods, and can re-start more vigorous activities like cycling---thank God; but Doc still wanted one more check-in in three weeks' time). I made arrangements to work from home just so that I don't miss the call.

Tuesday came. Eight o'clock came. Nine o'clock came and went. I was on tenterhooks, working fitfully, trying to be alert to the call, while also doing the myriad of smaller tasks that did not require a large block of uninterrupted time.

Ten o'clock came, eleven.

I was pissed.

A call was made to said community hospital, looking for the original Staff Nurse.

Original wasn't on duty. A different one took the call, and very lazily said that the doctor was still on rounds.

``I was promised that the doctor will call in the morning between eight and nine. I am working and had to make arrangements to receive this call to understand what's going on.''

``Oh... doctor can call you after lunch.''

``When's lunch?''

``Twelve-thirty to one.''

``Okay, thank you.''

Twelve o'clock, then one o'clock. The phone rang.

``Hi, I'm Doctor different-doctor-name.''

``Hi Doctor, I'm person's relation. I was told by Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name that person is currently isolated because of CP-CRE infection. I'm curious because person seemed well before the transfer, but the last I remembered before person was transferred that person was on some antibiotics. I'm not sure if that is helping with this infection, or if something else needs to be done about the infection.''

``Oh... it's not an infection. It's a colonisation.''

``Colonisation?''

``Yes, colonisation.''

``That's a helluva different thing. So person's not infected?''

``No, person's not infected. We were doing a routine test and found that person had CP-CRE colonisation, so we isolated person to prevent the spread to other patients in the ward.''

``I see... that was not what I was told yesterday by Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name.''

``Ah...''

``So just to recap so that I get the correct picture, person has a CP-CRE colonisation and not infection, and there's no need for us to do anything. person is currently isolated from the other patients just so that they do not catch the CP-CRE.''

``Yes, that's right.''

``I see. Thank you doctor! Sorry if I sound rough, but please understand that I had to make arrangements from work just so I could receive the call in the morning that Staff Nurse staff-nurse-name said would come, but didn't actually get that call till now.''

``No problems. Glad to help!''

😫

What the flying fuck man.

Look, I understand the need to dumb things down for the lay person when it comes to explaining complicated medical conditions, but what pissed me off was the sheer condescending nature (bad attitude, but not that big a deal) and the absolutely incorrect terminology.

colonisation

The presence of the micro-organism, but without pathogenic effects.

infection

The presence of the micro-organism that is actively invading the body, causing pathogenic effects.

These are two very different situations!

If the staff nurse said ``CP-CRE colonisation'', I'd just go ``I wakaru, thank you for the information'' and not have to ask any of the questions that eventually led me on that absolute waste of a perfect morning waiting for a useless call.

``But MT, it was just the morning!''

I would be less angry if that were true.

The thing is, that was no social call I was expecting---I was steeling myself for the hard/serious questions regarding the treatment plan that the community hospital had for handling this infection. Being on hyper-vigilance to wait for the call saps spoons, and by the time it was all done, I was completely drained of spoons.

I ended up taking a half-day sick leave (no MC) just to reset my mental state. I was that drained.

I had wanted to go cycling, but didn't because (1) I didn't feel safe enough to control my body with my then-current mental state, and (2) I hadn't charged my GPSr-watch that I used for tracking distances and other useful metrics.

So I ended up doing some ``arts and crafts'' by restoring the colour of the carvings of the key/maker/poem on some of my dizi with the gold Pentel acrylic paint that I bought on Monday.

It was messy, but the mess was easy to deal with (relatively speaking), and the end results were pretty that it helped me to defray all that innate anger and loss of spoons.

There are more annoying and stupid things that happened, but maybe I'll reserve it for a different day. Maybe.

Till the next update.