The Art Of Not Asking Why

I’m behind on the photos challenge, but I’ve been working on my wiki and other content… Maybe I’ll post some of the pics later, just for fun :)

I want to like Horizon Zero Dawn (HZD), but I can’t. I tried. I’m wondering why it took me so long to give it up.

A greedy CEO of a mega-corporation builds powerful robots. The Robots become self-sustained and decide to do away with humanity. Humans realize their mistake too late and nuke the planet (I’m not sure about that last part yet, but I’m taking a wild guess). Apocalypse happens. A hero emerges some 100 years later. Bla bla, humans are now nature friendly, bla bla bad guys dig up an old technology and start all over again, bla bla, what’s the lesson to be learned, kids? It’s a formula that works, so why change anything?

Yet another case of a beautiful open world with very little to do in it. Walls you can climb are highlighted (what I’d like to know is who placed climbing cables in glowing yellow on the outside of a skyscraper after the apocalypse?) The space between metal beams can be big enough for a bus to get through, yet an invisible wall blocks your path. The navigation system keeps nagging you like an overbearing parent, so you can’t even entertain the thought of getting lost.

My favorite annoyance: there’s exactly one kind of bush across the different biomes of this vast open world you can hide in. You can find it in deserts, jungles, and frozen mountaintops. No other thing in this game will hide you, not even a thick bunker wall.

I stopped playing this game twice before: once after a boss I couldn’t beat (there were none of them bushes to hide in), the other due to poor framerate that made a fight with a translucent enemy impossible. I should learn to trust my instincts. No matter how many people admire a game, if it doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t work for me.

In my second official S3 video, I talk about the getting more comfortable recording and editing videos (ironically, adding text to a video in OpenShot is a pain in the behind), blog posts and continuing the Micro.blog March photoblogging Challenge, and recent updates to my wiki.

As usual, posting to PeerTube first, then YouTube and embedding the video here.

The spice shelves at our home. I also have a thing for owls. #mbmar

Changes to the wiki: upgrading, markdown implementation, and creating a personal (local) wiki. More in the CaptainLog.

Sometimes, you go to take a chance and take a dark tunnel to reach the light at the other end. #mbmar day 27

I came to appreciate the National Weather Service’s graphs. It gives a general idea for the day (and tomorrow) and all the details at the same time:

A nice day temperature-wise 🌡️, cloudy ☁️, with a decent chance of rain ☔.

If you go to the first page of this blog, you will notice something odd. There are some old posts (dating back to 2018) with a big gap leading back to 2022.

This is because I started pulling posts from my old blog. For the most part, I copied the old post as they appeared originally. This is despite the fact some of them make me cringe; some of them are terribly written.

Some posts won’t make it over here and will end up on the wiki, while others won’t make it at all. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to find some older posts still (from before the days of TAONAW) and add them as well.

I’m on a train heading to Pennsylvania. We were stuck in New Jersey for an hour or so. Some complications with the power lines involving balloons, a parade, and people with too much alcohol in their blood in honor of St. Patrick. The ride takes 3.5 hours as is, so I’ve had more than enough time to contemplate what’s on my mind.

It’s been busy at work. Not just the actual labor; there was a lot of mental effort. We have a finite amount of energy each day, and we tend to underestimate how much of it we spend on things we don’t fully grasp. It’s one thing to evaluate a 3-hour project in terms of time and money, but how do you evaluate it in terms of mental energy? You can’t bullet-point energy units, and it can be difficult to know when you stopped autopiloting and wandered into brainstorming land. Comparing the mental “cost” of one project to another is hard as well; we don’t have a catalog explaining that “all projects in X category cost Y energy bottles.”

When we’re sick, we go see a doctor, get medicine, and take a day off of work. But when we’re mentally depleted we shrug it off and keep going. Why is a “mental day” considered a privilege still for most people?

I’m far from being the first one to ask such questions, but I realize I owe myself to ask them more often. I’m just tired. A bit of a rest, a walk in the sun, good music - and I’m recharged. Good to go. Medicine for the mind.

That nice feeling you get when you look at your blog and see a stream of thoughts, ideas, and pictures. I’m happy I’m here on Micro.blog

A pigeon observing the street with patience before taking flight. #mbar day 15

Updated the Micro.blog guides on the wiki. Still have much more work to do… Pages, best practices, updates to the short articles…