Life is a journey 生命是一场修行

Thursday, November 10, 2022

The formula never fades!

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

I am hooked again by Total War Series. This time, the Three Kingdoms.

When I was in school, I was dying to get a Three Kingdom Total War game. Who does not want to unify China through all those blood, diplomacy and conspiracy?

To get a somewhat close experience, I tried so many mods which was never good enough for sure.

Therefore, when the Three Kingdoms were announced, I was so excited.

However, when it finally came out, my interest was simply gone.

On one hand, life was getting tough for me just about that time.

On the other, I was losing interest in the formula: build, battle, build, repeat and repeat…

So I installed it, played for 20 mins and never picked it up again, till this week.

Maybe I was too bored.

But the formula worked for me again. I was again playing for 10 hours plus a day..haha

When not playing, it is still clear to me that the whole game is just repeating over and over, many times even with the exact same map and terrain.

But I still cannot stop thinking about the next steps — go north or south, another army or more income-generating settlements, vanguard or strategist…

Let alone the fact that I will totally forget the gaming is repeating itself, while playing.

The result? Good fun and a huge amount of time consumed.

Trust me, I continuously question myself whether this is something I want to do or whether the time can be better spent. But for now, I intent to complete at least one campaign.

So a unified China, I am coming!

Till next time!

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

It is all about perspectives

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Very often, something happens and we feel a particular emotion.

That emotion is triggered by change which is brought to us by that something that happened.

When talking about change, there is always “before” and “after”.

“Before” is our baseline if nothing had happened.

“After” is what things are now because that something did happen.

And of course, there is “how” we react to the change. The same change can trigger totally opposite reactions and emotions to different people.

Typically, to improve our emotional happiness, we are asked to examine our “how”, because that seems to be the only thing we can influence, while “Before” and “After” are facts. There is a book on this.

However, “Before” and “After” can also be “influenced”, because what they are is entirely in our perspectives.

In other words, it cannot be taken for granted that people will see “Before” and “After” as what they really are.

Hitler still commanded armies that did not exist to defend the red army at the door step of Berlin, up to his last moments.

As commoners, we probably make more mistakes in that regard.

So before we rush to change our “How”, do take a few moments to think over the “Before” and “After” to make sure that we see them as what they are.

“How” actually originates from our beliefs and mechanism how our brain works. If we force changes to our “How” based on wrong facts, we might cause damage to what we are as a person.

Just imagine someone who “really feels” happy upon something terrible. That is close to insanity.

And last but not least, it is ok to feel emotions, even the “bad” ones. Just be mindful when compelled to act by them.

Till next time!