Rant 1259 / Golfer's Elbow.

20th June 2020

Lots of 20s todays.

Slowly discovering the flaws of the Admiral's Mug.

First, the inconsistent insulation is unfortunately the biggest flaw of it's "hard to tip" design - by making it smaller on top and bigger at the bottom so that its centre of mass is low, the insulation at the top is much poorer than that of the bottom, so much so that condensation actually forms near the rim where the plastic cover is. With good insulation, heat transfer should be so slow that condensation should not form because the rate of natural evaporation would be higher than the rate of condensation.

Second, the locking mechanism of the cover. It completely relies on the plastic to grip onto the same plastic surface to lock, no rubber, no silicone, no metal, just two pieces of plastic molded to a perfect fit. The workmanship is impressive because the design of this mechanism has very little room for error, but I worry about it loosening or wearing down over the years because you have to unlock and lock again for every sip.

Still, overall it's a fantastic mug. Still, the insulation is incredible, the handle is a perfect fit, the cover has a tiny hole for air to be sucked inside as I drink, and the drip-resistance is so good I was tilting the mug all around to look for any fine print and nothing dripped.

Had an idea of where to check out a few months ago but never had the mood to really look into it.

Explored briefly just now and mind was blown.

I think...there are a lot of things that can be done with a lot less difficulty than I had ever imagined.

Now to look through as many possibilities as I can.

Apparently what I am experiencing is called the "golfer's elbow". It's a few classes above the "people's elbow" because only golfers get it, and we all know only rich people play golf.

Damn.

24th June 2020

Moving is a nerve-wrecking event when you're the one in charge.

Couldn't sleep much the night before, kept thinking about what to bring over and where to put them, and etc, and each time those thoughts come up I get anxious.

In the end, managed to move almost everything. Now it's just the fire extinguishers and aircon.

So after a few months of using the cheapest instant coffee from Fairprice (house brand "Original Blend"), now I can finally see the difference when using Robert Timm's blend.

But unlike what some "experts" seem to be trying to say, instant coffee still lack something that brewed coffee has, and I'm using a relatively expensive brand. For one, it still tastes like shit without creamer.

Need variety, so instant is an easy one. I'm too lazy and cheap for anything else.

I have always believed that a country can do without blue collar workers among its citizens the way the oil-rich Arab countries do - you simply employ foreign ones, and let your own citizens work in the roles of supervisors and above. Nobody from your country would have to do the "dirty work", some would just need to watch foreigners do it to make sure they are doing a proper job, and your citizens get paid more. How is that bad?

The pandemic just showed everyone how that is bad. Times like this, lots of foreign workers just want to go back home to help their families in whichever way they can. Not enough of them wants to stay to work unless the money is REALLY good, and if accommodation wasn't provided before, it has to be now, raising the cost of hiring them even more.

Still, compared to the cost of having relatively highly paid local labourers permanently, is it worth it to rely on our own people for dirty jobs?

What can we do about it?

I believe 3D printing buildings is indeed part of the solution. It does not solve the problem but it will dramatically reduce the challenge we are now facing if it ever returns.

27th June 2020

After realizing that it's not a requirement, I've decided not to take the old aircons from the old office. It's not worth it, and nobody is available to work on them in time. Moreover, I've always wanted to upgrade to a stronger unit, so might as well spend a few hundred dollars more and do it.

Those things are not even 15k BTU, and my new office needs one that's at least 21k BTU.

Cleared a partial clog in my sink. Strangely, not even soda powder, bleach and boiling water could solve it, but the snake managed to push it away.

Upside: I didn't have to see what it was.

Downside: It may stop somewhere further down the pipe that is connected to the drains in the rest of my home.

But feels good to get it settled. Most likely it's gone anyway, since the pipes are bigger further down.

During the process, also managed to see how the sink trap works. I like how plumbing is always about simple ingenious designs.

Steam Summer Sale. Steam was surprisingly generous in giving S$4 off S$25 spend, so I used it on several games that were either at least 75% off or were under $5.

Space Colony turned out to be a 90s game that appears to be a base-building game, but feels like half of it is The Sims.

March of the Living is like Organ Trail but serious and much more elaborate. I thought my first run did pretty well till a Screamer somehow did massage damage during a melee fight with me and my baseball bat. It became a habit quickly into the game  that the last zombie would usually be settled with a melee weapon since I don't have to worry about getting attacked by multiple zombies anymore and they don't do more than 1-2 damage each time. Well, the zombie did probably 5 damage in one hit and then suddenly I was at 1 HP and died from the following attack before I could push it away.

Now I know not to stay grabbed. It was probably a bite that happens when you get grabbed, based on what we usually see in zombie flicks.

28th June 2020

Arm seems better now, no more pain when lifting stuff with arm stretched out.

It's the Screamers that really hurt in March of the Living. They don't even need to grab me, they just attack me so rapidly that my HP drains fast even when I'm running pass them.

Since the dehumidifier in my store room sucks air in from the back and blows it out through a swivel at the top, it made sense to keep it blowing forward to have the most moisture behind it. Ever since I left one of the thermometer-cum-hygrometer in the room, the humidity has been steady at about 70-72%, rain or shine, 24 hours a day.

Two days ago, I decided to change it to swivel about 120 degrees from straight forward to upper back, and also turned on Economy mode, and it has dropped to 65% today.

One of these changes made the machine more effective, and it can't be the mode change, so it has to be the swivel angle. I have no idea why.

29th June 2020

The beans used for Dolce Gusto's Lungo are partly from Vietnam, and this explains why it's so nutty.

Still wondering why Vietnamese beans I buy from Vietnam don't taste this nutty when I use it in my moka pot and French Press.

Anxiety, every night. Then again, employees get that too sometimes just like that, so it has nothing to do with running a business.

Glad I remembered during the regular anxiety-free days that such times will come occasionally and reminded myself to enjoy it while I could.

For once, I will write down a plan and hope it works - I am terrible with dealing with last-minute changes, yet counter-intuitively, I feel more comfortable handling such issues if there weren't a clear plan in the first place.

My guess is my mind is slow at changing the boundaries of a situation.

30th June 2020

Woken up probably at 5.30am when my alarm was set at 6.30. As usual, no idea what woke me up because it could be anxiety or the loud noises coming from upstairs. Whoever it was, it sounded like he/she was moving furniture.

Maybe I slept through it in the past, or maybe something got him/her up at 5-6am that motivated some furniture-shifting. That sounds like a cockroach, it's the only thing that I can come up with right now that would make me do something like that at this part of the night.

And just when I almost fell asleep, my alarm rang.

Space Colony's civilian missions were surprisingly few - I'm done with those now. The last mission was challenging, especially with the temporary downtime for the automatic lasers but I could handle everything.

Maybe I just suck at this sort of thing, or maybe people who grow up on these games are just better at it, but this difficulty level is what games should be like - challenging but still fun. Now games are so complicated it's basically work, so it's not going to be surprising if someone finds out that people in general have been moving away from 4X and other city-building games to other genres.

02nd July 2020

It's weird today that my eyes feel so tired since late morning, but I just can't fall asleep during an attempted afternoon nap. It's not anxiety, so that's what's puzzling me. It's also not dry eyes but just droopy eyelids. Makes no sense.

03rd July 2020

I forgot to check my office letterbox. Again.

04th July 2020

6 sets of 10 pushups, with long breaks in between a few.

11th July 2020

Have not had sleepless nights in a very long time till these few months, though it's mostly stopped now that I have some breathing room.

After months of religiously logging in to Quube daily for a bit of their free cryptocurrency, I had accumulated enough to redeem some stuff by the time they discontinued the login rewards. So I redeemed bag of dried scallops, 200g I think.

Yesterday I finally wanted to use some, and discovered they were all mouldy - there was a little tear at the bottom of the bag, letting moisture in.

Ugh.

At least I had enough fish maws, frozen pork ribs and various beans to give my soup flavour.

12th July 2020

Line of Duty on Netflix is pretty good, though the first season took a while to warm up.

Surviving Mars was good, to the point where time flew when I played.

But Halcyon 6 was better - it was hard to stop even when I realized I had to go, despite the fact that I could save and quit at any time. I just like the battles, and when the battles are over, I immediately want to settle the stuff that followed, like upgrading the refinery I've just rescued, or simply sending the ships back home, and then I forget that it was time to shut the game.

26th July 2020

So my PC's problem of booting up with a black screen (no display signal) wasn't a problem in my graphics card (or motherboard, fortunately because that's the worst thing to replace) but my OS hard disk.

Got some shop on Carousell that had a lot of good reviews (plenty of them) to diagnose and fix, and they added a new SSD hard drive with a new Windows 10 installed, for S$210.

Yeah, not cheap, I can easily get a Sandisk 240GB SSD for way less, but I have zero experience and this is fuss-free, so I picked the smallest SSD option as damage control, and when Black Friday comes, if my budget allows, a bigger SSD will come as the 4th drive. I mean, the original OS hard drive was a regular old-school hard disk with hardly anything important that can't be transferred, so there's definitely a slot for a new hard drive.

When it rains, it pours. Then it gets broken up by the intermittent dry spell.

05 Aug 2020

So, finger joints ache, especially my middle fingers. That was an entire week of moving filled cartons about while my staff unpack. Expected all the body aches from arms to legs, but did not expect finger joint aches, likely from gripping things all the time, in the process pressing those joints constantly.

Went for a massage, it was ok, more worth it than usual because I needed it. Very uncomfortable in the sense that we have to keep our masks on during a massage and breathing was harder lying down as it was even without a mask to make it harder.

Well, the package was probably 5 years old so it might as well be free. I'm really surprised they are still letting me use it. Pretty sure when they sold it to me they mentioned a 2-year limit, but if they aren't complaining, I won't either.

Definitely feeling fitter these days after that week of madness. Able to sleep less. Tired today though.

Took hours to set up the camera properly but might not work all the time. Connecting to the camera feed was not always successful for some reason, so it's unlikely I can expect my staff to be able to fix it if it needs to be fixed.

Going to place it at the door soon. At the same, I'm wondering how the cables can be set up since I am using the same extension cord for their radio, and also whether to get the cloud storage. The SD card is great and all but it can malfunction, and the camera itself can be easily stolen.

Holy cow the insurance premiums just keep piling up! I thought they were all in the first half of the year! Now that these costs matter, I'm really noticing them.

PC's fixed. Now it's booting up at the speed of light. You can't go back to regular hard disk after using SSD for your boot drive.

Dolce Gusto needs more flavours. Lungo Intenso is nutty like Vietnamese coffee having this, Grande Intenso and Cafe au Lait Intenso all the time for over a year is making me get tired of this, despite the ease of use.

At this rate I may just return to my moka pot and French press.