Recently, I haven't written any diary entries for a long time. The main reason is that work and family have been exhausting this month, and I feel completely drained. I feel like I can't continue this job for much longer.
I briefly reviewed what I have been playing and watching these past few weeks.
Can't Remember How Many Times I've Watched Friends#
I have to admit that Friends is really enjoyable to watch. In the past, I used to watch it with subtitles and laugh foolishly, but now I've watched it so many times that I can understand what they're saying without subtitles. I even find it annoying when the adult jokes and some puns are not translated by the subtitle group.
From Season 1 Episode 1, where Rachel cuts up her credit cards and enters the workforce, to ten years later when everyone says goodbye and leaves their own keys behind. During those ten years, youth is always passionate and beautiful, and a new life brings new responsibilities and challenges.
Friends is so wonderful, almost utopian. When I was studying, I thought that my life after entering society would be like theirs, but reality is a bit colder.
During this rewatch, there was one episode that I didn't feel much about in the past. That episode itself is quite trivial, it's about how everyone spends their 30th birthday and their age anxiety is revealed. When I was young, I used to think that I expected to live until 50, and every day after 50 would be a bonus. So before I turned 25, I didn't care about anything. But on my 25th birthday, I suddenly realized that if I calculate based on 50 years, I have already passed half of my life, and most of my current life is filled with pain. That day, I fell into a severe state of anxiety.
Later, the way I relieved my anxiety was to make myself feel indifferent towards time. Time is a scale defined by humans, and time doesn't really exist.
Attending My Sister's Wedding#
I'm very tired. I went back to my hometown to attend my sister's wedding, and it was exhausting and agonizing.
My sister looks so beautiful, I really want to post her photos. I'm really tired. My sister is already married, and everyone's attention is on me.
After returning from my hometown, I feel empty inside. My sister said that getting married seems like something that happened just a few months ago, and then suddenly everything sped up. I haven't even met her partner yet, and they've already registered and had the wedding banquet. Accelerationism is really fast, just a month ago they were asking me if I wanted to take wedding photos together. In the past, they used to say that preparing for a wedding takes a year, but now it only takes a few months. But I heard from the elders that next year is an inauspicious year, so everyone rushed to get married this year.
Then my mom went from urging me to get married to pressuring me, and she even arranged a marriage for me. It was like a combo, everything happened smoothly.
I collapsed on the subway platform and saw an advertisement. Who came up with that? There's no difference between weekends and weekdays. I came home and frantically dealt with the remaining work. I fell down, collapsed in the fatigue of the night.
The Rule of Taurus 2#
This month, I've been playing "The Rule of Taurus 2". Based on my progress, I should be halfway through the game. I think I bought the first game at a low price before, but it was a bit difficult and the 3D graphics made me dizzy, so I didn't finish it (after finishing the second game, I might want to go back and finish the first game).
This time, I feel like the puzzles in the second game are a bit too easy. The solutions are easy to come up with, and I remember when I played the first game, I was scratching my head, wondering why this generation is so much easier.
The unique feature of this game is that it combines puzzle-solving with philosophical thinking, but I don't want to think about philosophy after work. So I didn't read any of the dialogues and just focused on solving the puzzles in the next room.
When it comes to puzzle games, the Portal series is really fun to play, but this one is also pretty good. I would give it 4 stars out of 5. However, the map is really big, and running around the map can be tiring.
The puzzles in this generation are really simple, and I can solve them with just a little bit of thinking. I haven't watched the main storyline, I'm just obsessed with solving the puzzles.
Tip: Set the field of view to 90, otherwise you might get dizzy in 3D.
Tried Playing Wenxin Yiyuan#
I tested it out, and Wenxin Yiyuan can recognize LaTeX, but it can't perform calculations using LaTeX. Similarly, ChatGPT3.5 doesn't have the ability to perform LaTeX calculations either. I don't want to write too much about this aspect, I just did a rough test and it feels like it's catching up to ChatGPT3.5. However, its logical reasoning ability is still lacking.
Different Paths Lead to the Same Destination#
When I saw the news about Henan Unicom firing an employee and the employee revealing all the dirt on them, it reminded me of last year or whenever it was when we had a natural gas inspection. The inspector said my gas meter was too old and needed to be replaced.
The person who replaced it was also a newbie, and he eagerly replaced it for me, but he accidentally broke the connection between my natural gas pipeline and the gas stove (the replacement worker said at the time that there might be a slight gas smell right after the replacement, but it would go away after a while. I left the natural gas on at home for a few hours, but I felt that something was off, so I turned it off).
In the end, I had to replace the gas stove (probably because he was afraid I would make him pay for it, so he had a colleague come and install it for me) (but since the landlord paid for it, I didn't mind). The new meter is an electronic one, and I can just top up the money through the official account. But then a problem arose. With the old meter, I could use 30 units of gas for a couple of months, but with the new meter, 30 units would only last for half a month. At first, I suspected that the new gas stove was using more gas. But then more and more people complained that the new meter was consuming gas faster than before, and it became a public opinion issue that forced the municipal government to say they would investigate.
I didn't follow up on the investigation, but now I can use 30 units of gas for a couple of months again. It seems that their methods are not much different, making money in a monopolistic industry is still simple.
Monster Hunter Rise#
During the Steam Autumn Sale, although there were advertisements everywhere, I felt that the discounts were not that great, and the games I wanted to play were still quite expensive. I chose Monster Hunter Rise over Monster Hunter World because I heard that it's more suitable for beginners, and I also heard that the longsword in this generation is really cool, fulfilling my dream of being a samurai.
However, when I actually started playing the game, I found that the longsword is really long, but it can still be sheathed, you Japanese people are amazing.
I've played for 13 hours in 3 days, and I've already completed the village quests up to six stars. I've unlocked the three-star quests in the low-rank quests, but I plan to start from one star. I don't really understand the weapon and equipment system, but the longsword is quite simple. Through my exploration in the village quests, I've found that the core gameplay of the longsword is to keep the blade in the red state by quickly opening and closing it. Currently, it feels quite simple, many skills have invincibility frames, and the game is quite forgiving with lots of healing items and three cat companions.
I've already unlocked the ending cutscene after playing for about five to six hours.
I haven't made any armor sets yet to play the Rampage mode, I'm still using the starting armor and the longsword given by the village chief. Mainly because I don't want to grind, and I'm not sure what effects those armor sets have. For example, the longsword, there are so many variations, but the stats on the panel are not as high as the one given by the village chief, so why should I bother making those swords?
My friends say that the later stages of the game are difficult, but I didn't buy the expansion, so I'm thinking of finishing Rise and then playing World, I heard that World is even more fun.
In conclusion, I don't know what I'm playing in this game, but it's a game that I'm really enjoying.
Autumn Scenery#
