The kinds of food I make are simple and depends on how much time I have to meal prep. Since I’m living on my own now, I don’t have to make a lot of food as I used to when living with family. I wouldn’t want to waste a lot of food too often.The things that I like to make are:
Chicken long rice
Chicken or shrimp pasta with mushrooms, broccoli, and home made Alfredo sauce
Chook or Jook (Not sure how to spell it, but its a rice dish)
Spam, egg, and rice/fried rice
Boiled eggs
Saimen (sorry, Ramen) with egg
Tuna sandwiches
Fried/baked Salmon with asparagus
Chicken or beef (Japanese) curry/stew
Steak and hot dogs
Something simple, something fast, some things can be eaten cold, others are quick to heat up (without a microwave, stoves are good too). I can make enough to last a few days, have for lunch or dinner, and can last me during long work days where I have no time to cook. Adulting is tough, but it’s only making me tougher!
I used to think about this question often in high school and in university, exclaiming, “the world is messed up! It needs to change; politicians need to do better; If only things were done a (vaguely specific way without evidence or driven by assumptions).” You know the kind of rant I’m talking about, right?
I would love to make changes to (modern western) society, but I don’t know enough, let alone properly informed, about what changes are necessary. I don’t have social media, I stopped watching the news years ago, and most of my information comes from people’s opinions. Are they anymore reliable than FOX or CBS News? I don’t think so, but people do provide information to potentially look into.
Otherwise, everything from me would be to ask questions:
What is it about (modern) society that is terrible?
Am I projecting what I dislike or am unhappy with in my situation onto the whole society?
Have I taken steps to solve a real tangible problem in my power to change? If so, what, when, and how did I contribute or could contribute?
Am I listening to the opinions of others who, if asked to elaborate on why they think about X and Y, they would be able to provide clear and concise answers?
It’s likely easy for me to ask questions because, whatever is going on in the world, things haven’t impacted me as harshly as the people in the mainland. I live on an island, we have our fair share of problems, but it’s still problems that need to be addressed.
Infrastructure
Tourism
Homelessness/Available housing
Education
Although, trying to change society is WAY above my pay grade, even if a hypothetical. I’d rather, for now, donate my time, money, blood, and spare resources I could share. I can start small, set a goal for how much and what, research where to donate to, and simply do my part. That’s good enough and easier for me to manage – society is too vast – and engage with.
I wouldn’t know where to begin if I were to describe myself to someone, be it familiar or stranger. No two people would say the same thing twice. I could be anything to anyone at any point in time:
Friendly
Empty
Neurotic
Dull
Lazy
Bitter
Angry
Excited
Loyal
Curious
Inquisitive
Experimental
I could be everything in between or nothing at all to anyone. I could be polarizing, neutral, or static, but the answer changes and it’s never consistent. We’re all the strange phenomena of, “Schrödinger’s Cat” – we’re all walking paradoxes of being both alive and dead – we’ll never know the answer unless we open the box, right?
Even if my task is to describe myself to someone, I wouldn’t be able to. I, myself, have an insufficient vocabulary, so, I wouldn’t have much words to properly express myself well. I am whatever the other person perceives me to be and nothing – reputation or action – could change their mind. I’ve slowly have come to terms with not changing someone else’s mind. Trying to is a terrible waste of time, energy, and resources.
The one thing that I could share though, despite it all, is that I’m still here; I’m still navigating the complexities of life and seeking simple pleasures wherever and however I can. I know I’ve made strides from the person I used to be to be who I’ve grown into, but old patterns linger and have festered when I thought they were gone. Nope. Out of sight, sure, but never far from mind.
So, in essence, I’m still fighting to live, fighting to remain, the only word here is fight. I might not be standing on a blue mat, I’ve been thrown around by life, be it by choice or circumstance: surviving, battered, beaten, bloodied, even without obvious evidence showing otherwise. I get up against my severe need for rest and I keep getting slammed anyways. Eventually, I’ll be able to retaliate, I’m bidding my time and waiting for the chance to strike. I know how far I’ve traveled in my own journey, some people don’t need an explanation, only I do and that’s enough.
Welcome, Co-conspirators, The Stratagem’s Archives are now open for perusing. Today, I learned, after HOURS of searching through so much YouTube videos, I have fixed an Xbox 360 with something I’ve never experienced before: An error code, E68.
Last night my boss at my rage room job received an Xbox 360 in great condition from a customer who said that it was broken. A coworker tested it out on our job’s TV to see what it looked like and it looked like this:
This video was taken in my apartment, but the system error remained the same.
The power bank light is green, the power on the system itself is red, and the screen shows an error message on my TV. I had spent, I’m not sure how long, looking for solutions to fix this Xbox. I turned it off, laid it on its side, turned it back on, only to have the same message appear because most of the advice from over 10 years ago showed this did fix their systems. It didn’t work for this one…
Like this was going to work, but I was skeptical.
Then, after reading through the comment section from this one YouTube video by “Huzaifa Techincal Guru”, it is when I finally found out the reason for the error code for this Xbox. Now, my Xbox (right of one in video) is fully functioning after all these years when I realized I put the AV cords into the wrong ports of my LG TV. So, I figured, something is causing this other console to act up.
That’s when the video asks that I take it apart. Not apart to it’s minuscule component, rather to get to it’s hard drive.
If you can’t spot something different about this vent, then I’ll point it out that the vent looks different where I circled in red. There’s a gap in this vent. That’s where the hard drive is. I was mind blown when I learned those 3 vents were a button to open that hatch!
The inside to the hard drive!!!
Once you have the cover off, you will see something with a small piece of fabric sticking out now. That is the hard drive. From my understanding, it is not for extra memory, rather it is used to play first generation Xbox games on this second generation system. It makes it backwards compatible and able to function as though it is the original system.
Once you remove this hard drive, as far as the error code E68 goes, this is what happened.
IT’S ALIVE!!!!
The Xbox starts to function and the error code is gone! Apparently, as far as this experience went, E68 occurs if the hard drive is malfunctioning. You technically don’t need it.
This is only for allowing the Xbox 360 to play Xbox games.
The Xbox 360 has it’s own internal memory, unless you want to play games that require more memory or you have a lot of game profiles, the best solution is to remove the current malfunctioning hard drive and get a new one. Else, it’s really not needed and works fine without it.
One System Has Been Saved!
After trying to figure out what was wrong with this system, I felt dumb because the solution was so simple – I didn’t have to open the entire system open, I would have broken it for real because I don’t know what to do, then my boss could sell this at work to break. Some people get ecstatic when they get to break a gaming system not theirs. I was so happy because I told them I was going to fix it, with no prior electronics experience AT ALL, and I did!
Now, my job can do what they want with this system, but I figured that, since it works, we could put it to use than break it when can still be used to play on. The customer that dropped it off also gave the remote controllers and the Kinect system too. All we’d need would be batteries and a few multiplayer games, then we’d be set!
I’m glad that I was able to figure out how to fix this system, I didn’t want to give up on it until I went through every option possible. Now the Xbox 360 will have multiple error codes appear, but I am thankful I was able to solve one of those error codes today and not resort to watching a system get utterly destroyed.
I’m biased because I’m a long time gamer; been playing since my dad showed me his PlayStation 1 console playing “Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Nemesis, Frogger, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat and other games. Then we got the PS2, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PSP, and PSVita. I haven’t gotten any new systems in forever, but that’s for later.
Anyways, I just wanted to share something new I learned and, if your Xbox 360 having the same issues that you want to keep and is fully functional, maybe this might help. Let me know in the comments, what technical issues you had to deal with and how did you fix it? I’m curious to know what kind of electronic mis-adventures you’ve all had, especially if you have no idea what you were doing, but fixed it somehow.
Until next time, Co-conspirators, The Archives will now be closing. Until we open again!
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I’ve preferred dogs over cats, even though I like them too, having dogs around meant security: literally and physically. The area I grew up in is considered “ghetto” by our standards and where I lived is usually where a lot of activities tended to be.
Cops, ambulances, and fire fighters would always show up for something. Not at our property, but rather the properties across from us. It could be in the dead of night and you’d see their colors flashing through the curtains. Having dogs around allowed us to be alerted when someone came near our flimsy fence, whether walking by, walking their pets, stray dogs causing trouble, or people were possibly up to no good. It was better safe than sorry.
Even with security cameras installed outside, I had furry companions to keep me and my family company. My parents, my dad’s older brother, and I lived with my grandma in a 3 generation home. Even though I moved out to experience what living on my own was like, rather out of necessity, I hate myself for leaving because my grandma is over 80. She’s sound of mind and mobile, but my dogs: an older adopted female red nose pit bull mix and one female and one male, both runts of their respective litters, XXL pure blue nose pit bulls, keep her company and watch the property.
Dogs always gave nothing but love: they want to play with you, cause trouble, protect you, even when they rely on us, they have no ulterior motives. Even when my dad and I adopted my old lady dog from the humane society years ago, she used to be a stray and was wild. She would scratch and bite me, but I didn’t care, she was scared.
Even when we brought her home to our other adopted female red nose pit bull mix, they constantly fought until we saw blood. I didn’t want to take her back because Bianca, my old lady’s name, would have been put down, even though she was very difficult to handle. It took her time to get adjusted, then she calmed down, and she would take care of our other dog, Minnie, as she got older in age.
Bianca still waits by the front yard for Minnie because my parents took her to the vet to be put down because she suffered a stroke: couldn’t eat or drink without help, she couldn’t move her lower body nor sit up, and it was a very difficult decision for us to make. She was suffering and Bianca saw us put Minnie in the truck, I stayed behind because I couldn’t watch her go like that, as Bianca tried to break through the fence to follow.
So, when I come home, even before moving out, Bianca waits by the fence, she’ll sleep there or in front of our house door, all of our dogs become outside dogs after a certain age, until we all come home. She takes care of our newer dogs; our girl blue nose, Ka’ena, is much bigger than Bianca, but, once Bianca growls or puts her paw on Ka’ena’s head, she immediately listens, then goes into zooming mode. Bianca isn’t young anymore, but she keeps the younger dogs in line.
The boy, Kainalu, gives Bianca trouble. We don’t know why these two fight if we let them out together to play, but they would growl at each other and they have attacked each other a few times where blood was drawn. However, when I saw them out together when I let Kainalu out to use the bathroom and to play while I washed my car, Bianca pushed her way out of her kennel and the two were egging each other on.
I had to put Kainalu back in his house because he doesn’t know how to pop the lock or can push through his gate, yet, like Bianca. Bianca has more freedoms than the other dogs because she’s older and manages herself better than they do.
All of our dogs are knuckleheads, but they’re our knuckleheads, and I love them very much. I feel less lonely with them, even with family, and they tell you what they want by going in their house for food and water, they sit or wander by us for attention, and they play to get energy out to sleep. People are different and tough to read, but dogs are more honest and trustworthy.
When I first thought about starting my blog, discomfort wasn’t just a passing feeling—it was a weight. Thoughts swirled in my head:
“You’re falling behind in life.” “You’re stuck in jobs that only keep you afloat.” “Why aren’t you building something of your own?”
That spiral came from something as small as reading a chapter of The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber. Suddenly, I was face-to-face with questions I had avoided for years.
Life in the Grind: Between Gratitude and Restlessness
I’ve been lucky in many ways:
I live on my own in a small studio.
I have steady full-time work with benefits.
I pick up part-time hours on top of that.
I see family often, and I’m not alone.
But I also know the grind: 3AM alarms, long commutes, and sitting in traffic wondering if this is all my life will be. I should be grateful (and I am), but envy and restlessness creep in. I want more—more peace, more freedom, more of a life that feels like mine.
Why I Finally Chose to Write
I knew I couldn’t keep waiting for the “perfect time.” If I didn’t start now, I might never start at all. A blog felt like:
A break in my exhausting routine. A way to sharpen my voice and courage. Proof that clumsy and done is better than perfect and never begun.
This space isn’t about being polished—it’s about being present, learning, and creating even when it feels uncomfortable.
The Dragon We All Face
Many of us wrestle with that question: “Am I doing enough?” The truth is, it’s never comfortable to face it. But discomfort is a sign of movement, of growth, of slaying the small dragons that keep us from even trying.
I don’t have the answers yet. But I know this: starting, no matter how small, is already a victory.
A Note to Fellow Archivists
If you’ve found your way here—whether in the early morning hours, on a restless night, or during a pause in your own journey—know this space is for you too. This little archive is a safe place to reflect on your path, even if it doesn’t fit neatly into life’s expectations.
If something here resonates, I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you’d like to walk alongside me, subscribing means you’ll also get my Letters from the Void—personal reflections and early glimpses of projects I’m building behind the scenes. And a copy of The Stratagem’s Manifesto as a thank you gift from me to you for subscribing.
Because sometimes, finding each other in the noise is proof that we’re not as alone as we thought.
Other Articles
If you’d like to explore more about doing things even though you’re not ready to comfortable to, I have other articles below too check out:
