I need sleep.

I have ideas, I need to realise them.

Missed piano festival

I seem to have missed the piano festival this year. Oh well. My sister had told me but I subsequently forgot about it.

There will be another year, another time.

Sadness

I slept in the afternoon and woke up covered in sweat just now, a hot afternoon. I had dreamed that I was a prisoner of an enemy army of occupation, I was shut in a cell after being found in a destroyed field of vehicles.

I was allowed out for a while and I met Sweetie at a café outside to talk. That night, we had a dinner to attend but I was to return to the prisoner of war camp, I could not go with Sweetie. I was very sad.

Sweetie was then dancing gracefully.. I woke up after. A sad and beautiful dream.

Located! This is only the first step.

Another pressing task has emerged a few days ago, I need to locate a 1997 document for my lawyer. I found only two sheets from thirteen, where are the other eleven?

Of CD singles and remixes

I stopped buying CD singles some years ago. The trend since the nineties would be for the remixer to deconstruct a song and then reassemble it with little resemblance to the original. In this way, it misses the point, the essence of the song structure, the melody, the hook and even the vocals are lost, only the song component is left.

Yes! A pressing task has been settled yesterday, I am relieved. I haven't taken a vacation since 2011, I will start thinking of one soon, a short one.

Setting limits

I have also limited my play of Battlefield 4 to only the weekends if possible. No matter how compelling, the game is time-consuming and there are lots that I want to do.

Games games games

I enjoy Battlefield 4 tremendously. I play it a fair bit but I have limited my play of Battlefield 4 to about an hour or so now for each session. It is easy to find that hours would fly if I were to play it.

My play seem to differ greatly from that of Battlefield 3. I had made a comparison of the weapons used. For the previous game, I had used a lot of grenade launchers and assault rifles. For the new iteration, I had used employed the Counter Defilade Engagement System or XM-25 weapon and the LMG (light machine gun) a fair bit more. The Ares LMG is my weapon of choice.

However, it seems that players are somewhat more canny now, I am unable to rack up kills as swiftly as previously.

For Ingress, I had previous unfinished business in gaining levels. The end is finally in sight, I had planned to end at level 7 but I had made all the way to level 13. I am at level 13 now, and level 14 would be my end point. In any case, I am in semi-retirement for the game. The chasm to cross to reach 15 is impossible, I am unwilling to commit that kind of time and I don't enjoy it anyway, it's tedious. There is really little point left.

For some, the game is about meeting friends and playing with the community, for me, it isn't, it is about territory, optimisation and geography, abstract concepts. In any case, I have exhausted what I came for in Ingress finally.

It looks like I may be able to settle an issue today and I will be done with it. Hurrah!

I would need to sleep earlier. I have been sleeping later and later.

I slept too late last night. I will not go running today.

A debacle at Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 last night was a disaster. I was roundly trashed and I spent far too much time attempting to rectify that dismal run of results. I should have read the papers instead.

I had instead not thought out a different approach and thus suffered for it.

I had a slight sore throat last week but I seemed to have fought it off. I am alright now, I need to go run this evening.

It may be a trying week ahead, at least, it seems to be shaping up to be one.

Dreaming of you

I bounced out of bed as I woke up this morning with happiness in my heart. I had dreamed that I was with Sweetie at an outdoor café in an old part of town, sipping cocktails and spirits, and talking the night away. Wall-mounted lamps had coated the weathered brick walls of the courtyard in amber, while deep shadows cast by the yellow hues had provided a contrast.

Uninstalling Evernote

I uninstalled Evernote from my mobile. It came pre-installed in the mobile. I didn't find a need for the application. When the one year free subscription is up, I removed it.

Most of the pre-installed applications on my mobile are useless to me.

Battlefield 4 and Windows 10 Pro

Battlefield 4 is up and running after the installation of Windows 10 Pro. It has about a year since I have played. I am back in the game. I did average. Oh well. It could be better.

Windows 8 was mediocre. Windows 10 had remedied many of the interface weaknesses of Windows 8 but not quite. A reversion to the interface of Windows 7 would be ideal.

The focus on BBC

I have been listening to the BBC a fair bit more than usual. It seems that that the focus of the BBC is almost entirely on Africa and India, almost as if it were the African and Indian Broadcasting Corporation.

I wonder why. I can guess.

A lost dream

A few mornings ago, I dreamt that I was at the beach at night and small lapping waves were coming

In the moonlight, I could see other illuminated figures...

The waters eventually rose to knee level, soaking

I dreamt later of visiting a hillside where there was a McDonald's fast food joint. The place was quaint and old, giving an air of an outlet rooted in the past, where everything had gone by it, evoking a sense of a faded photograph.

This morning, I dreamt of visiting a secret waterfall in a forgotten hill in Singapore.

This was a post that I had written in 2014 but had forgotten to post for some reason.

Endless Space

Endless Space had seemed daunting initially. After two hours, the fog lifted and the gameplay became clear.

When I wrote this post, it was in July 2014. I never did continue after funnily enough.

I will look into it again.

Of fanaticism and Ingress

When I had played Ingress, it was optimised around my grocery buying trips. I had rarely ever made any special provision for it, like a day trip just to capture portals. I was a casual player despite claims otherwise.

The portals I had captured were around the supermarket, the bakeries and the cafés where I had coffee. Was it so hard to understand? I guessed the hardcore players lived in another world. I would not have been astonished to if I were to find that some were aghast to find that I had remained at the same level for half a year or more. Baffling for them? It would not surprise me. The fanaticism they had exhibited were something to behold. You would think that the fanaticism akin to that of the Kamikazes were in the distant past, not so.

Hyper Fighters and Naval Warfare

I tried Hyper Fighters and Naval Warfare which I had bought for about two dollars each on Steam. The former was dismal while the latter had interesting ideas but the polish on the interface was lacking.

The interesting aspects of Naval Warfare were that it was set in science fictional Victorian world and also the design ironclad and aircraft.

There is nothing positive to be said about Hyper Fighters, from gameplay to graphics to interface. Avoid at all costs.

Battle Group 2

I found a game on Steam that I got for under two dollars. Battle Group 2. It was a simple arcade shoot 'em up. It was relaxing and fun. I played it for a few hours over three days and finished it.

It is mindless but fun. Recommended.

Of inactivity and Ingress

In the meantime, I have wound down my play of Ingress. I find that I had exceeded my data plan two months ago and slightly exceeded it this month. The game has been a distraction. I am back to my other activities.

Let someone else hold Novena and other parts of the territories which I used to hold. The medals can come later, as can the levels, I am not competing with anyone. I don't care. I am mostly retired from the game anyway.

Power struggle

Politics is everywhere. Whenever and wherever there is a group, there is almost surely politics. I was to be dragged into one despite my clear declaration of not wanting to be involved. The person involved refused to take my stance into consideration. To my dismay, in deposing the leader, one of the persons who were involved had used my name, saying that I had supported every bit of that putsch. That is diabolical.

What part of "no" do these power hungry folks not understand? The power struggles will drag people in what is a game that is supposedly fun. Drama, politics, and power have intruded in a big way.

I had left the groups as I had not wanted to be associated in any way anymore. That was a week ago. Since then, I had listened to different points of views from various sympathetic people from various factions. They understood.

Home territory

I realised some time back that most players only play in their own backyards, meaning their home and work areas. One should not expect reinforcements in the former of higher level resonators and shields. It is to be expected. That is realistic. To disguise the true situation in the form of positive talk reeks of rank hypocrisy.

A few other players have confirmed this state of affairs to me privately.

Attempting to point out the lack of clothes in the emperor would only bring out ugly, defensive anger.

As for fanatical players, they will be everywhere from midnight till dawn. They can also be found outside their home and work areas too.