Travails with poor connection from an ISP

I have used Starhub broadband for two decades now, the speed and quality have been poor since day one but I didn't change it as it is tied to the TV subscription which my father used to watch.

Right now, the connection is intermittent. It is unusable unless one uses it to surf, for other activities like gaming, teleconferencing, trading, and anything that requires a constant connection, it is impossible, it has been a week now and Starhub has been unable to resolve it. The service staff is polite and apologetic. What can I do?

 I have uninstalled War Thunder a week or so ago. I have spent a staggering 5100 hours over the last four or five years and I enjoyed myself greatly. I am taking a break from it for a few months. Afterwards, I will log back in and do a few things. I don't know if I want to play anymore.

I just threw out a stack of old newspapers dating from 2014. They were mainly the entertainment and restaurants secions. I was looking at places to bring Sweetie back then. Time really does fly. It has been nine years.

Uninstalling Diablo IV

I played the campaign and enjoyed levelling my necromancer to level 51. After which I stopped, I could not bear to continue to level 100. The story was silly, the campaign tedious and I could not imagine myself playing more. I did play my druid, barbarian, rogue and sorcerer to level 31-32. I have uninstalled last week. It was just enough.

New Diablo 4 patch

There is a lot of anger over the new patch. Phew! I have uninstalled. In any case, my characters are too low level to be affected.

Diablo IV uninstalled

Diablo IV uninstalled. A decent game, well-crafted but visually dull. The content is just boring and the story is silly. I will say more about it later.

Enough of it for now, maybe, I will play more when the expansion is released.

I have a level 51 necromancer, level 31 rogue, level 33 druid, level 33 barbarian and a level 32 sorcerer. I realise that I was bored.

 I tried Diablo IV tonight, not bad.

Pixel 7a

I ordered a Pixel 7a from Amazon over the weekend to place my five year old Samsung S9+.

• The Pixel 7a, first impressions:
• It runs hot, very hot as compared to my old Samsung S9+.
• It is a mid-range phone and it feels like one too whereas, the S9+ was state of the art and a first class mobile. Anyway, the Pixel 7a is just what I am expected, a generic, bland, mid-range but functional device that should serve me for 2-5 years hopefully.
• Interface. The Pixel 7a is somewhat clumsy in its interface design, it lacks a BACK button which the S9+ has thoughtfully provided which made it for a friendlier and faster use. Going back to the previous page or menu is dependent on back and every app in how it is written.
• The lack of an audio jack. Well, I don't use it for music.
• The lack of a SD card slot.
• It is manufactured by Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision), the folks who make stuff for Apple, HP, and many other companies.

It is impossible to get by through life without any mobile apps today. Mobile apps are needed for government services, banking and much much more.

Tropical Forest Sceneries

 

I went to the Tropical Forest Sceneries and it wasn't very good. It consisted of some photos, some books and a few paintings in two tiny rooms. That was it. If you had to make the trip there, well..

Il-28 shot down

The other day, I managed to shoot down an Il-28 bomber with a single APFSDS. I was surprised. The Rooikat MTTD has only a 105 mm main gun without any accompanying machine guns.

 

I bought watercolour paper from Overjoyed today. I have not tried those from Clairefontaine yet. I look forward to using it.

 I have also been reading on postwar British naval policy and warship design. Interesting stuff.

 I have taken leave and I have been drawing and painting. And I have been playing War Thunder, far too much of it.

 It has been a while since I have written anything. I will gather my thoughts and write something soon.

The news and BBC

The BBC seems to be the women and refugee radio chat show these days. I tune in for the news and not an endless series of interviews with migrants and refugees and women. It is rather disappointing. These are agendas that the BBC is pushing these days. And I am not even right-wing nor left-wing. I dislike these culture wars from the left and from the right.

When I hear yet another interview with a migrant on the BBC, I just change the channel to a classical music station.

SGX dismal services

SGX's website has horrible navigation. In addition, calling them and asking about services is very difficult, I only managed to find a human once. And I have a fair number of questions. Those silly AI type question boxes are useless, much like the government Ask Jaime crap.

I did manage finally reach a human and she was helpful. After all the assistance I received, I submitted the necessary forms. She had guided me. This was in  November 2022.

It is now near the end of January 2023 and I have not heard from them. This is annoying.

Churchill VII

I have played War Thunder for a few years now. I was abysmal with the Churchill VII tank. I still am. This was a rather unusual game last year where I actually did well with the Churchill VII.

It has been cold. Apparently, Newton and Jurong West have the coldest recorded temperatures over the week here. 22 degrees. I live between Novena and Newton. The wind has been cold. Generally, the wind here is a warm breeze, seldom cold.