Jeez, it feels like I just wrote one of these. But I have nothing better to do now other than wait for tomorrow afternoon to come, so I may as well write about a few things in my mind.

First of all, the vibe at work has worsened. In short, back in January my contract was about to end. My boss offered me a finagled new contract that I’m sure wasn’t very legal, but I refused because it lowered my wages by thirty percent. I also was sick of working there, had experienced my second episode of arrhythmia recently, and I wanted to rely on unemployment benefits for a while. Last month I returned to work only to find out that the aforementioned boss (main boss of the place) no longer wants to acknowledge my presence. I could understand that. However, recently I have realized that another coworker has gone from speaking to me cordially (before my last contract ended) to refusing to look at me as well as return my greetings, and is generally being a dick.

For example, yesterday I entered the office only to realize that the guy whose workstation I was occupying had returned from vacation, so I had to pick another workstation. I switched on the PC of the guy whose medical leave I’m technically covering, but he’s the kind of nuts who altered the BIOS of his work PC in such a way that we can’t figure out how to reach Windows (not that I put that much effort in figuring it out, because I don’t want to be involved with that guy’s stuff). Then I moved to what I thought was the only other free workstation, that belongs to the aforementioned guy who had stopped greeting me. I thought he was on vacation, so I used it for a while. Then I was informed that he wasn’t actually on vacation, but had to travel to another hospital for a ticket. I finally settled for a fourth computer (which ended up having problems later on, but that’s beside the point).

When the guy who is acting weird returned, he went to his pal, who sits opposite me, and started whispering and murmuring about me (I understood “he reset my computer,” which I had to do because it was blocked with his user, as we usually leave them). A guy in his fifties acting like a schoolgirl. I could tell that his pal, who usually looks fed up with life, didn’t want to get involved in his grievance.

After a few years of tolerating the neuroses of this place, and particularly after my heart injury, I have become more and more retiring. I refuse to look up at people’s faces as I’m passing them in the hallways. I’m in one of those “I want to quit but that’s not feasible” kind of situations. I fantasize about winning the lottery, gaining the power to make everyone in my life forget about my existence, shapeshifting into a less disgusting form, etc. In general I just want to be done with it all.

Like thousands of people on X (formerly Twitter), I have been following the news of this LK-99 stuff, a supposed room-temperature superconductor fabricated by some reputable scientists in South Korea. I have joined the masses that read the excited posts in which materials scientists argue with each other, while the rest pretend to know what the fuck they’re going on about.

Some laboratories around the world have replicated the material, which is extremely promising. However, there’s further testing to be done. Apparently the original formula required lead and copper, but Chinese scientists have determined that gold works better than copper in that formula, which is a bit disappointing (gold is far harder to get, as well as geographically and politically limited). Anyway, the Korean scientists who have published the paper will either win the Nobel price or end up disgraced (and/or in a Korean drama).

A room-temperature superconductor is the holy grail of materials science. It would be apparently like discovering fire, like going from the wheel to steam engines. I’m talking a quantum computer on your desk. It would revolutionize every field.

As the last topic of this entry, Baldur’s Gate 3 comes out tomorrow. The Baldur’s Gate series is a legend in the genre of RPGs; I first enjoyed it about twenty-five years ago. It’s based on the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, which has accumulated a tremendous amount of intriguing and convoluted lore. The third entry has been developed for these last seven or so years by the best studio making CRPGs these days.

I feel more or less like a kid waiting for Christmas. I love cinematic games with an insane amount of choices and reactivity, and Baldur’s Gate 3, that has been in Early Access for the last three years or so, has proven itself a worthy contender for best RPG ever made.

Here’s the trailer (one of them anyway):

When I get home from work tomorrow, I’ll spend the entire afternoon either playing the game or just creating my player character. Such games also allow you to lose yourself in the fantasy for long stretches of time, which I require to prevent reality from crushing me like a bug.

See ya.