October 20, 2024 - bloghan 17
Well, to those who thought all I did at work was fool around, this week was my karma week. Not much in the way of "fun" happened, but that's okay!
Tier list of the week
This week's tier list: main characters of 'Thomas Was Alone,' which I completed in full this week. I will only be focusing on the main seven characters ("the Architects") with this tier list, since they're the ones you spend the most time with, and get the most characterization for. Here's the tier list:
Ordered tiers, but unordered within tiers. I rated them mostly to how their mechanics worked, but a little bit of consideration for their story relevance and personality was also used.
Personal updates (achievements, reflections, and antics)
Monday was a holiday, so I got to sleep in. Around noon, I got woken up by my landlord knocking on my door. She was very apologetic about waking me up, but to be fair, it was a pretty reasonable assumption on her part to assume I would be awake at noon. She gave me some pumpkin soup made with coconut milk, and I told her I would have it for breakfast, and thanked her for it. After she left, the smile wore off: I have a very strong aversion to pumpkin. I just can't stand the texxture and the taste, so I try to avoid it where I can. However, I can't just toss it out, it's food and it was a gift, so I ate it. It was fine, for being made with pumpkin. I was grateful for not having to make breakfast that day, and for the meal. The rest of the day was filled with chores: laundry, sweeping, things like that. I also had a sudden recollection of a card from a game I once played, and that card depicted a teru teru bozu doll, a charm you make and hang outside to keep rain away. I had nothing better to do, and all the material (except string) so I decided to make one. The process brought me back to the arts and crafts days of childhood. I asked my landlord if she had any string, and she brought down the perfect type... many hours later, after the sun had set. I decided that I would hang it up tomorrow, during the sunshine. I wanted to go to be earlier anyways, since there was work the next day.
Tuesday morning was cloudy, but there was some sunshine coming from somewhere, and there was no problems heading to work. If it was raining, I couldn't wear my headphones, meaning I would have to fully expereience public transit, which would be a problem, but it wasn't one this morning. At work, nothing really notable happened between me and my coworkers. Sure, at lunch we went down, but I didn't play 'Exploding Kittens' or even just regular card games like 'Speed,' just ate and watched. Before and after lunch, no one really had anything to say to me either, and me to them. At one point, I got a visit from my work rival's manager, as she came over to answer my questions about the task I was doing for her. I was confused on what kinds of things and which files I should account for, but I didn't really telegraph that all that well. She seemed to get what I was saying, and answered my questions, but I realized that after she left, I had a list of files open on my screen that seemed to show that I already knew the files. I had that list in the first place because I wasn't sure if they were even right in the first place, but I think with my nervous phrasing I implied that I didn't know they existed, even though the list was right there. It was alright in the end though, I got some good progress in. The strange part of Tuesday though was how no one brought up D&D. To be fair, I brought all the stuff and didn't bring it up, since I was waiting to see if anyone else did. Maybe we had cancelled this week's session sometime ago, and I just simply forgot? I hope this isn't how it ends, I would've at least liked to finish this first story off, but if it is, I still have the group from home on Thursdays, right? It started to rain just as I left work, and I knew it must have neen because I didn't hang my teru teru bozu out on Monday. I got back, and didn't really know what to do now. I had cleared things from my evening under the assumption that D&D was happening, so since it wasn't, I looked towards my LaTeX USB project. I hadn't touched it in a while, so I tried opening up the package manager for the portable install to see what needed updating, while I searched for a porable TeX editor for use on Linux machines. While I found an appimage that would do just that, it looked like TeXLive 2023 was having trouble finding any repositories online, and after trying to finangle it to update to TeXLive 2024, it just wasn't having it. So I removed the installation completely, and decided to reinstall TeXLive 2024 later this week.
Wednesday at work started off normal, up until about 90 minutes before my regular time for lunch. I was in the middle of conversing with my work rival about something unimportant, when the director walked in. I thought he was going to ask me on my progress on his task, which I had completely shelved for the other things I was asked to do, but then he asked me about the progress on the task I was doing for my work rival's manager. That caught me off guard, but I did have it open, and I explained what I had done so far on the task. He seemed pretty neutral about it, and I couldn't detect any dissapointment or anything like that in his voice, and he asked me to really prioritize a smaller version of the task to give my work rival's subteam a start. Apparently, this was really making them fall behind, and preventing the completion of an important delivarable that was due two weeks ago. This smaller version was essentially the same as the original task, just with a more limited scope. He also told me that if I had any questions on the task, I should no longer ask them to my work rival's manager, but to him instead. He ended of by telling me that he would send me some stuff to make the completion of the task earlier, using a specific method I had only heard of before to help with the task. I thought with that, he meant he would give some sample uses of it, but he just ended up giving me a perfectly fine implementation that I could just straight up copy into my current progress. He started to finish up, asking if I had any questions. I mentioned how some flows using a certain tool were not currently working because the base project itself wasn't fully functional, and this included some very important flows written before I was brought on. I wasn't sure how to respond to people asking me about why it wasn't working (apparently, I've become somewhat known as a guy to go to for using that certain tool?). To this, he uttered a very strong swear, then told me to tell them that they just had to wait until the base project started becoming functional. After he left, I knew I had to actually lock in and get this task done. I skipped going to lunch with the usual group of coworkers, skipped any sort of conversation or going on my phone, and just worked on it until it was finished. Once I did finish it, and got an end result, I sent it to the director, who didn't bother to look at it and just told me to send it to the relevant people. As I was writing that e-mail, he came to my desk and thanked me for getting that mini part of the task done so quickly. Then, after going through my work again, he told me that he wanted the full version soon, and that he "want[ed] results tomorrow." After re-describing that task to me, I was a bit confused on details, as they didn't seem ot match up with what I was doing. I went back to original e-mail I got about this task and realized that I had completely misinterpreted it form the start and no one had corrected me on it. What I had done so far worked for the limited case I was given today, but not for the actual full solution everyone had in mind. In order to actually do this task, I would need to start from (very close to) scratch and rewrite everything. Tomorrow, I would have to take time to completely redo all my work, and get those results. I spent that night really worried about if I could actually pull this off. I wasn't very confident, and I found myself thinking back to school, and how things seemed so much simpler then. I was panicking, because I had essentially promised the director results the next day, and I knew he wasn't above visiting me at my desk whenever he was free: if he saw me completely rewriting the thing, he would not be impressed by my inefficient use of company time. Well, that night, I couldn't really do anything about it, so I went to sleep worried instead.
Thursday, I walked into work, and got started immediately. I didn't know when the director was going to walk in, so I got to work on my complete rewrite. There was some sort of pizza event that I had signed up for that I wasn't sure I could attend, so I was initially thinking of getting someone else to go in my stead and bring me some. As I was contemplating this, my work rival's manager came to my desk, and asked me just what it was I sent her yesterday, since it wasn't what she was requesting. I explained that the director asked me to give her the results from that "miniature" version of the task, and that by the end of this day, I would get her what she actually wanted. She was satisfied with that, and I continued with what I was doing. About 30 minutes before the pizza event, I had about 50% of the rewrite done. I went to check the messages between me and the director, to reference that sample usage of that one method, but I saw on his status that he was... working from home in a time zone eight hours ahead of mine. Which meant... he wasn't going to visit my desk! So, I could go to the pizza event and take a break! Yippee! So I went down, grabbed the equivalent of 3 medium slices (I think), played a bit of table tennis (badly), and just kinda talked. Apparently, one of my coworkers saw me at the bus stop that morning, and rolled down their window to say hi and offer a ride, but I had my noise cancelling headphones on and I was busy whistling a "weird" song (I think it was 'Shadow gate to love' by Guilty Kiss?) , so they had to drive off when the light turned green. I kinda wish he hadn't heard in the first place, but I didn't mind it all that much. I do regret it (potentinally) being that song though, since it's not as melodic as other songs from 'Love Live!' Other Guilty Kiss songs kinda have the same problem, but certain AZALEA songs and most CYaRon songs don't, so if it was one of those, I wouldn't be as regretful, and the song itself wouldn't have been perceived as being whistled "weirdly." Me, this driving coworker, and another guy got into a longer conversation after that, talking about 'Love Live!' and 'Bocchi the Rock!' and shoujo, then into shonen and why shonen seem to not being getting good endings lately, then some stuff on 'One Piece' and 'Delicious in Dungeon,' then finally, him giving me some recommendations of what to read. For now, on that front, I'll be sticking to my reread of 'One Piece' until I catch up to the (mostly) weekly releases. I also played crazy eights with other coworkers until the event ended, and afterwards, headed up, but not before grabbing some cookies for my work rival, who had left the event early. I woudl find out later that he had already grabbed cookies, but he was thankful that I did anyways. I spent the rest of that day working on the task and the rewrite, and I managed to complete it that day! I have never achieved such levels of "locked in," not even in school. I managed to give the results to the right people before I left that day, and I felt pretty great about that. D&D on this day was cancelled, so I decided to turn in earlier.
On Friday, I got to sleep in, since it was a work from home day. My day started off with being asked by my work rival's manager for results for the same task applied to a different part of the base project, which I provided to her within an hour or so. Afterwards, I began work on another task (one that was given to me by the guy who I once had beef with), when my boss cold texted me, "can we have a quick chat?" Everytime he sends a message like that, I always get scared, because it always feels like one of those "you're about to be told you're doing a bad job" messages, even though every single time, it has not been that, but instead a check in or a new task. This time, it was a mix of both. He asked me about how my task with the work rival's manager was going, and I told him that I had finished it. He wanted me to walk through the results, and how I got the results, before asking if I could, yet again, adjust it to do a slightly different function, which was essentially the reverse of the original flow. I told him I'd need time to make it work in reverse, and he agreed. That call was honestly really awkward for both of us. I do feel like all these managers and the director don't really like me as much as the guy who I replaced, and since that guy specifically is coming back soon, I'm not sure what will happen to me. I try hard with what I do here, but it still feels like I'm not living up to that expectation. I spent the rest of Friday working on this new, but reversed task. Simultaneously, I started the TeXLive 2024 install on my LaTeX USB, which was a lot easier than I remembered it being. Nothing else of note really happened on this day, and honestly? Same for Saturday. Saturday was basicalyl all chores: two loads of laundry, two rounds of sweeping the floor, cleaned two carpets. In between, I played games and read a bit too.
Sunday was about to be like that, but I realized that I didn't really have all that much food in my fridge and freezer (and I wasn't feeling like more dumplings). After I wrote about half of this bloghan, I went out for lunch and groceries. I noted on Google Maps that there was a pho restaruant not too far from my usual grocery store, so I headed there first. I specifically went to this place because I noticed on their menu they had banh mi, which I was really excited for since it felt like I haven't had one in forever (even though I had one last Saturday, it didn't seem as good as it could have been). I headed to the restaurant, and on the way there, I was just very happy with how blue the sky was, and how sunny and warm it was too. Months before today, it had sunk in that I was living here, in this new place, and that I was going to be living here for a long time to come. And it had also already sunk in that here, I was more free than I've ever felt, but this afternoon walk made me really feel it again. Made me think over it, roll it around in my mind, rotate it in my imagination like it was in a microwave. Living so far, far away, and living alone, has probably been one of the best things to happen to me.
I make it to the restuarant, order my sub, wait for a bit, get it, and walk out. I started to look for a bench or something to eat it on, and I see a picnic bench very close by, just across the road. For some reason, it's right in front of this guant building labelled only with a cabinet manufacturer's logo. I sit, and I eat, looking out between the tress I was under, and the intersection I was gazing upon. This sub had less veggies than the one I had downtown last week, but it had more beef in it, and a better tasting sauce too. I will probably go back to that place again, it's probably the closest I'm going to get to the banh mi places I'm used to. It was a bit windy, so one hand was used for both holding the sub and for holding down the bags I got with it, which the suace dripping onto my hand was not helping with. Once I finished, I almost lost the napkins given to me in the bag because of the wind, but I caught them before they flew off. My hands were still sticky after wiping, but that was something I could ignore for the time being. Then, came a great source of frustration of today: where are all the garbage bins??? Seriously, I feel like back home I've been in similar areas, and I could easily find one or two public garbage bins for me to put stuff in. I eventually just walked away from the spot with the sauce spotted bag in hand, being blown back by the wind. I passed by a dumpster in an alley, and tried to use it, but found that it was padlocked. Fine. That's fine. I'll find somewhere else to toss this. I don't need your dumpster. I don't need anyone. I'm fine on my own, and finding things on my own, like a place to toss my trash. Keep your dumpster and its absurdly long padlock. I continued walking, hoping I would find one before getting to the grocery store. Then, I got to the grocery store. Of course. I walked past the grocery store, and started walking around the community center, since it was nearby. I had to make half a lap around it, passing by 2 entrances, until I finally found a garbage bin, and tossed the bag my lunch came with. When did we as a society decide to not have as many of those anymore? This sounds like such a first world problem, but I think I understand why there was so much garbage and plastic bags by the train tracks I passed by on the way to the pho place. Even with the community center, why did neither of the two entrances I passed by first have one? Surely, those are entrances too, so I feel like its fair to have one there, so why not???? I walked into the grocery store, and the first thing I am greeted with is this yellow barrel, which apparently is the grocery store's garbage bin. How considerate. I swear that was not there before today. I would have remembered that! I use the front entrance's hand sanitizer to get rid of the stickiness from the sauce, got my groceries, and left. I came back, and got straight to finishing off bloghan, bringing us to now. Even cooped up in my place, I still feel free, and I'm very glad that is the case.
Future plans
This week might be the first where I actually managed to get everything on my list done! Or at least touched upon to a satisfying extent. Even with the door, I managed to do something!
- LaTeX USB: Found an appimage for a TeX editor that I will test once the TeXLive 2024 install finishes (at time of writing, it has been installing for more than 55 hours)
- Door: wrote out some notes and such to better plan/figure out the removal because I made a mess of files
- Reading: re-read 'One Piece' up to and finishing the Alabasta arc, and read up to and including chapter 15 of 'A Court of Thorns and Roses'
- 'Bocchi the Rock!': I have now watched up to episode 11
- 'Thomas Was Alone': Got 100% achievements and 120% completed the levels in it too! Great game, got me emotionally invested in quadrilaterals
This week, I'm going to have to figure out what game I'm going to complete next. Since I just finished a Steam game, I'll probably look at what's installed on that 3DS I brought. Right now, I'm leaning towards the second 'Ace Attorney' game. In the event that the LaTex installation continues through to next Monday, I guess technically that would still be part of next week. I will make more efforts towards the door problem, and finishing off 'Bocchi' and moving on to... uh... I don't know yet! As for things with substance that I'll be doing, Eli Ayase (from the first 'Love Live!') has a birthday this week, and there might be plans to go hiking or rollerblading or some secret third activity with my coworkers.
Song of the week
'I Will Remember You' (https://youtu.be/HMisDKEWBBs), by Asia is the song of the week. This week was a bit more mellow due to me being more busy at work than ever, and not really doing many "fun" things after work. Many people think that my favourite album is something from 'Love Live!,' or some other media's OST, but it's really 'Phoenix' by the rock supergroup Asia. This was a reuninon album with Asia's original four members, and while some Asia fans didn't quite like the more mellow and doleful sound, and the more ballad-like tracks, I absolutely love them. On public transit, I usually only listen to 'Love Live!' music to help me cope with taking public transit, but this week, this album was more the vibe. This song, while not my favourite on the album, was one that stuck out to me this week. I guess I was a bit more reminiscent this week? Remembering less busy times, and separately, more fun times.
Until next time
Back in bloghan 16, I hoped that bloghan 17 would be more prepared. And guess what? It totally wasn't! Hopefully, it still held up to expectations, but I think next week's bloghan 18 might possibly be a bit better. See you then.
- bubbler