任是无情也动人

London concert canceled last minute due to health reasons (flu). T_T

=( =( =(

*prays that the Las Vegas concert will still proceed as planned*

I won't even mind all the extra money I ended up spending on the tickets as long as it goes successfully. T_T

EDIT: Revisited my posts from last year around this time, when I came down with COVID at the end of Feb 2024. Symptoms started start of March, took pills and was fine by around the 12th. ZS's symptoms started on the 11th, so I am hopeful for recovery by the 28th. *fingers crossed* plzplzplzbeokay.

The making it home part was the easy part. The aftermath...ah-haha... -_-

Pretty much all of the foods in the refrigerator (not the freezer) had to be thrown out. Just the eggs and various canned stuff/bottled sauces left. I figured I would buy some groceries the next day, along with other errands I needed to run...

And then the next day, I try to start the car, and the battery on the Prius dies again. LOL. I have no idea where the charger we used last time is located; searched the garage and couldn't find it. We do have 2 other cars, but the keys had been left at a relative's place, because my parents were paranoid about the house getting robbed or something while we were out. (Me: -_- ...)

So I end up buying the Duralast aux battery I researched the last time this happened, because that place makes same day deliveries. (Oh, and also ordered delivery for food that day.) It arrived pretty fast, just a few hours after I made the order.

Then it was an effort to open up the back trunk to get to the Prius aux battery, because there's no way to open the rear door once the battery is dead. So I had to put down the back seats, crawl in and remove the floors in the trunk from inside, and then stick my hand into the trigger thingy to open the hatch manually from inside. It's a good thing I am small, and the whole exercise still made me bend in unwieldy ways. (-_-)

Then, I tried to loosen the bolts holding down the aux battery using the spanners found in the garage...and none of them fit. Blergh.

In the end I still had to wait for the next day, when my relatives came over to deliver the car keys and other stuff my parents left with them, and also brought over some spanners they had (I sent them a pic of the bolt in question). This time I was finally able to loosen the bolts and replace the battery using directions from youtube. Car is now able to start properly. In time for my dentist appointment this afternoon, to drop off the laptop I need to send back to Cisco at the USPS, and to buy groceries.

Speaking of USPS. I had used the hold mail system for the duration of being out. It worked pretty well. They delivered all the held mail in a bundle on the morning of the 18th, which is when I believe I set the holding to end.

Went to CVS and got a COVID booster shot yesterday morning. The muscles on my arm where the shot was done is still hurting. T_T

Also, started getting an itchy/sore throat last evening. Made sleeping difficult through the night. Double T_T

Did a home test this morning to confirm that I'm still negative for COVID. So it looks like I just have some side effects from the vaccine shot. *sigh*

Nostalgia for Cal hit pretty hard... except, y'know, for the places that aren't there anymore. :p

Anyway, the very rare trip to Cal is always fun, even if it ended involving a whoooole lotta walking. My legs are still sore today.

My neck only looks a lil red, but doesn't feel sunburny. Now, the back of my forearms, those are having slightly burny tingly feelings. No peeling though. So far have been applying some moisturizing lotion periodically, but thinking about getting some anti-itching cream too.

Gypsies was great as always. Mezzo was nice; had half a sandwich after I got home yesterday, and the rest was breakfast today. XD

Alas the sandwich shop I like on Northside isn't there anymore. Nor any of the bookstores/comic stores. I guess those have all moved online.

The kitties were adorable too. Though they left a lotta cat hair. Dropped the clothes I wore yesterday directly in the wash basket when I got back, lol.

My old LG tablet had been suffering from water under the screen for a while now. I think it got this way from being handled while my hands were wet from cooking... in other words, I'm not even sure if it's water under there or oil. It used to just be a little bit on the edge, but now the watermark is pretty much front and center under the screen.

Took it to the local shop today to see if they can fix it. Turns out no, so I did a factory reset and left it there to recycle. (Note to self: they take most computer accessories for recycling!)

Anyway, this means I'm in the market for a new tablet. Any suggestions? (Android only, no iOS)

Dimensions of previous tablet/case: 6.53" (H) X 10.27" (W) X 0.35" (D)

Looking at some possible options...
BYANDBY - cheap
Telcast - Android 12, not sure about dimensions
Headwolf - similar to above, better dimensions

Samsung A8 - larger screen (won't fit existing accessories), more expensive
Amazon Fire - non-Android, need to fiddle with getting Google Play

Power is down... looks like in a lot of places over the Bay Area according to the PG&E outage reports. All this rain and high winds finally caught up with us.

No ETA given by PG&E yet.

My APC UPC battery backup has about 2hrs to go before I also lose internet.

I guess I also get out of work early today? =/

EDIT: Just saw a 5000+ affected users outage in Foster City disappear from the outage map. No ETA was listed for that beforehand. So I guess they're not giving out ETAs today.

Been following the melodrama that is the CNY holiday period box office in China, and the multiple movies who are fighting tooth and nail for their piece of the pie.

There's 《深海》whose reviews are very polarized. There's 《无名》 which became target of its "流量" actor's fans & anti-fans (成也流量败也流量). There's 《熊出没》 which is running steady but whose fans are salty about the low percentage of theater sessions (is that what the term is?) and IMAX sessions.

But the fiercest fight has been the top two movies: 《满江红》vs 《流浪地球2》.

Basically the accusation from the Wandering Earth 2 supporters is that they had the highest gross & attendance on day 1 of release, but starting the 2nd day, more theater sessions were given to MJH. That MJH kept its higher share of sessions even though it's actual attendance % is one of the lowest among all the films (especially starting this week after people started working again). That MJH made under the table deal with theaters to keep more of the profits during the holiday period to ensure their # of rooms, thus squeezing the rest of the movies out of what should have been better performance. Particularly, why does a wuxia detective movie deserve the lion's share of IMAX rooms over Wandering Earth or either of the 2 animated movies. And, MJH used false advertising of the movie as a comedy and happy ending film fitting for holiday family outings, when it's really neither, and incorporates bad history besides.

The MJH supporters (and fans of its "流量" actor) insist that the movie is perfectly suited for all audiences unlike WE2, because sci-fi is too niche for the majority chinese audience to understand, and WE2 is too long and boring besides. That MJH deserves its championship in the box office and that its success does accurately reflect the public's choice.

( And then there's the water army... )

Also this week, as the government holiday period ended and people started going back to work, it looks like 央视 is leaning towards support of WE2, leading to fun articles like this one.

Me personally, I haven't seen MJH and I don't really have a stake in this fight, so I don't really have a strong opinion either way. But watching the fighting on douban, bilibili, and weibo is pretty entertaining in itself.

EDIT to add: And then there's this bit of supreme irony... This song 《明天的世界更美好》 was originally expected to be a standard tribute to Beijing Radio's 30th anniversary. But no, the important bit is that it's co-produced by CCTV6 (the movie channel), which used it for this MV tribute to all of the movies showing during this holiday period. As some fans have ironically stated, it's about the only place where you'll find these movies together in Love & Peace. XDXDXD

Haha, yeah, I ended up not sleeping last night in order to watch the multiple year-end galas in China where Zhou Shen was performing. I did try to get some sleep in between 10 PM and 3 AM, but couldn't really fall asleep, so ended up just getting up again.

Then it was the frantic rush to flip between screens/channels to catch the performances, several of which ended up overlapping with each other due to the scheduling (and the fact that the evening news went overtime and pushed back the start of the gala for Jiangsu TV and Beijing TV). And a couple I missed sections of due to technical issues (some sites/features being flaky or just not serviced for overseas apparently) and having to hunt and watch recaps.

After that it was flipping through weibo and bookmarking the fan recordings for Jiangsu TV (the only one that was live performed of the 4 channels in question).

And then after that... I'm working on call today. Heh. So painfully waiting for the work shift to end at 5.

*sigh* Not gonna repeat this tonight for the CCTV new years gala (it's just one channel/performance after all =P).

Anyway, I want to give props for CCTV and Beijing TV for livestreaming the gala on youtube as well (although BTV was delayed compared to China, so I ended up watch it on the BTV site).

Bilibili's pros and cons cancel each other out. Its livestream kept throwing errors at me. But it was very fast in putting out each show segment immediately after the performance was done rather than waiting for the end of the entire show. However watching these means I miss seeing the commentary (弹幕) during the broadcast, and that's half the point of Bilibili.

Jiangsu TV... ugh, for a gala that it very obviously spent the most money on among the major regional TV stations, for building a spectacular stage, employing some bleeding edge tech, and inviting all the best singers in the industry... you could spend a little more on the distribution part, yeah? Your website is a mess and I had to go to Tencent to watch your livecast, and your youtube channel seems to be for show. So it really doesn't feel like you're "livecasted globally"? =_=

Not many of the performance recordings have been transferred to youtube yet, so no video links this post.

So I was going to buy the preorder for GW2 today (not because it's on sale because it's not, but because I'm working through my long term wish list while some items are on sale)... but then the website keeps throwing me errors during checkout. I guess it's just not fated to be. *faketears* =P

Anyways, the major item I bought this year is an UPS 1500VA / 900W battery backup power supply. Mainly cuz we've had 2 power outages around here in the last few months, one of which was during my work hours. It would be helpful to have a battery to keep the router alive the next time it happens. I'll also need to check and see if I can expense it with my company...

After about a month, this is what I've got so far...

IJ support: Dreamwidth needs to update their site to support https.

DW support: Yes, we're working on it, but I can't give you a sense of when to expect it to be fixed. Thanks for your patience!

Okay then... =/