Hodgepodge: Reactions/Responses for 6/15/2026

I took the weekend off from blogging mostly because I had no real topics I wanted to discuss in depth. While I have a few future topics that will make for interesting blogs, they would require a bit of effort (mostly screen captures), some environment setup (Lego reviews) or a fleshed out outline. While I enjoy writing itself, finding topics that are stimulating and relevant tend to be a huge challenge for me especially because there’s not a lot of great things happening in the world where I can really sink my teeth into (even games). Nonetheless, I still have various thoughts on things I might see but I don’t feel they’re worth qualifying as a solo subject on their own. As a result, I wanted to come up with a new blog post category called “Hodgepodge” where I can dump various thoughts based on things I discover that are probably worth 2-3 paragraphs at best. Also, in this format, I will simply split things up by section with links where appropriate that I find related to the reaction/response. In some cases, I might just write down something that has no link but falls into a “what have I been doing” area just because I wanted to talk about it without a lengthy, in depth article.

Mobile Gaming

Recently, I haven’t been playing much desktop games. My interest in Diablo 4 has waned to the point where I think I might’ve talked myself out of the game based on the negative perception of the upcoming Season 14. In turn, I’ve turned back to Wizardry 6 (hence the numerous posts lately) and a few mobile games. There’d been a few 4x type of games I encountered like Whiteout Survival. However, the pattern for those types of games are all the same: start with an interesting tutorial but eventually you’re taken into a town construction thing where you’re forced to join a guild/clan/club etc. to survive. The last one I played was Last Asylum: Plague. I read a few negative reviews that effectively described it as being the same as these others. There’s a few small mini games but eventually you get to the “join a guild” scenario where you will get destroyed by a superior force once your shield goes away. As you’re progressing, this game does a lot to push you into a guild. I accidentally joined one because of inferior UX and the first thing I saw was numerous messages trying to force me into their Discord to coordinate attacks. At that point, I realized that this type of game is nothing more a disguised multi-marketing scheme. I have a feeling that if I joined this random guild’s Discord that I would get compromised and have my information sold off. In the end, I simple deleted it.

What strikes me odd about these games is that they’re almost all the same. They’re usually run by some company you’ve never heard of and probably backed by Tencent or some other corrupt financer. But the engines are almost identical where the themes and graphics might be the only differentiator. And I think they have adjacent titles because the mini games end up being similar. I wouldn’t doubt some group out in China are making these with some base boilerplate code that they can throw up and skin quickly. But I try to avoid these especially after dealing with Game of War that I read was more of a scam run by the developers who would assault lesser powered groups in the hope that they would spend money to recover their losses.

Instead of these types of games, I’ve been playing mobile games from a developer called Grumpy Rhino Games. Apparently, this group has been around for sometime. The two main games I’ve been playing from them are NecroMerger and Idle Apocalypse. Actually, my friend introduced me to them since I knew about the concepts of merger style games and passively run games. The main highlights to me (which was part of the selling point) was that these games use a kind of an older Ninetendo/Gameboy style graphics and soundtrack. So they’re not high intensity draining games (at least not ones that use crazy graphics)

However, their game play is actually quite addicting. Both games have progressive systems. NecroMerger gets you resources as you merge your monsters and beat opponents or get rewards while Idle Apocalypse generates resources in the background. Both require a small degree of resource management because you need to figure out what your priorities are. Also, both have this weird reset feature where at some point, you cannot progress without doing a “reset”. A select number of resources are retained and carry over to future sessions but your progress gets faster on each successive time through some other currencies or unlocks. Maybe that’s my only real complaint about these games since you have to occasionally perform these resets. But it does provide a fresh outlook when you’re ready.

The other major selling point for these games is that the microtransaction and ad situation aren’t intrusive the way the 4x games were. There are aspects where you might consider buying the ad removal aspect or some other QoL addition. But you can completely play these games without spending a dime and just be required to manage your time/resources (and patience) better. There’s another game that they produce but I haven’t gotten that far into it but it’s somewhat similar to Idle Apocalypse. I’d write about it but I don’t really have much of an opinion on it.

The other game I play is something called Township. Township resembles a 4x game that combines other town building games of this genre along with having a few mini games. But this one is a little more microtransaction heavy in terms of how they try to FUD you out of your hard earned cash. The two mini games involve some sort of energy based quest piece that isn’t difficult as you pick up clues, treasures and sweep out obstacles. But your energy is heavily limited. The reason that occurs is because they want you to play the other mini game which is more of a Tetris-type/Candy Crush of puzzle where you’re given a limited number of moves to solve the puzzle. You get leaderboards from this as well as prizes (like more cards, energy and stuff for your town). But this part of the game is where most of my frustration is because of the limited number of moves. And this is done on purpose so that you have to spend your in-game currency to unlock more moves. The cost is not cheap so you might get frustrated into paying, which is where the microtransaction part can get dangerous.

Honestly, if you just stick with building your town and the quest mini game, then Township is a nice little break game. It does feel like it drains your battery with the graphics and network usage. So I would suggest turning off the music and any vibrations if you intend to play for a long session but aren’t close to an outlet. I will say I enjoy this game more than EA’s SimCity BuildIt, which I had been playing for a significant time over the years. But I ended up stopping a while back because I just ran out of time. When I did return at some point, the game really pissed me off because they added trains, which forces you to re-plan your town. While there was a way around it, I hated how the game simply became too microtransaction heavy and would try to push ads onto at every turn. I still keep it around in case I might want to play but I’d have to be extremely bored to touch it. With Township, thus far I haven’t found any issues where a gap in time might leave me feeling I missed the boat. So in that aspect, I prefer Township as a far better casual friendly game, even though they are microtransaction heavy.

Lastly, anyone who has read my blog will note that I no longer talk about Boom Beach nor Clash of Clans anymore. It’s real simple though: I fell out of the loop. I know that Boom Beach is planning a new HQ 29 soon but I simply haven’t been interested. And Clash of Clans just became too expensive of a hobby around the time I ended both with regards to time and dealing with multiple accounts using a seasonal pass per month. I didn’t like the way either game was going so I merely quit. I still keep both on my phone and iPad but I don’t feel a desire to play.

Wizardry 6

As I mentioned, I’ve gotten back into Wizardry 6 over this past weekend after talking myself into party crafting and playing around with Mad God’s patching/editing utility. Even if what I have done may be considered “cheating,” the real thing is that I wanted to try something different where I decided to give the Ranger another shot. There is a patch that supposedly gives Rangers more attack per swing (or shot) that I enabled. However, I have not seen the effect and my Ranger still does very low damage. I ended up pausing at the point where I’m merely sitting and spinning around the little section on the castle ground level which connects to the Enchanted Forest and have been grinding levels. Pretty much this part of the game is the end game for me. I might do more to optimize the party into its final form but I’m more disappointed by the lack of effect that I can see for the Ranger. All I can think of is just how badly they fucked that class up for Wizardry 6 because of the general lack of gear, poor primary skill (Scouting), no critical hit without a Great Bow or Elven Bow and low damage. I still am planning to take one Ranger into the end game (I’m doing a two female elf party) but my motivation is significantly lower unless I’ve completely missed something here (like maybe her dexterity is too low). Either way, I’ll give it another day or two and see if anything changes.

Household Stuff

Since I’ve been sitting on my couch a lot more lately, I’ve been thinking of upgrades. When I play Wizardry 6, the main irritation is that it uses Dosbox which is a tool to run older dos based games on various newer platforms. But the window has to be setup in a manner that locks your cursor in place. With Wizadry 6, you get another whammy where mapping is old school and you pretty much need some sort of hint book or online guide to figure out where you are. So I use this ViewSonic portable monitor that sits on my Armocity mobile C Shaped end table next to my couch (Note: I have no affiliate program with this blog but it would be nice to get one for the extra munz!!!!). What I like about this setup is that the ViewSonic monitor is lightweight and reasonable big while being able to stand on its folding section in the back and has USB-C connector that I can plug into my old MacBook Pro without additional cables. The end table has wheels so I can reposition it to my preference next to me while I keep my Firefox browser open and can reference maps or other sections of information on Wizardry 6. It’s not the most pleasant/convenient setup but being able to play a game while relaxing on my couch is a huge boon.

I will add one comment about the Armocity end table though. One of the wheels is off balance so it wobbles a bit. I probably have to push down on one of the wheels so it evens out but these are the types that you forcefully have to shove into a hole and locks once it’s inside. I think I might’ve not done a good job. Also, there’s knobs that allow you to adjust the height of the table, which seems great in practice but I think mine are not adjusted well partly because of the wheel problem.

At any rate, part of the reason I’m writing this section is that like my whole Desk 2.0 blog post, I was thinking about End Table 2.0 because I’m on my couch so much. I started looking for extensions to the table like something to hold up my portable monitor or a coffee mug holder (this is to avoid accidentally knocking my cup over on the table or just general leakage when I drink something cold). I have one for my desk but wish to keep it there. Also, because I have a spare 27″ curved Samsung monitor that’s not really in use anymore, I thought about figuring out how I could use it on this small table. I did find some monitor arms but my 27″ curved monitor does not have a VESA connector which is the main thing you want. Lastly, I think larger monitors for this table are a bad idea. The best scenario is to just have an arm that could attach to the portable or bear it would be ideal. However, I simply have not been able to find anything that would work here. Suggestions are welcome.

In addition to adjustments for my end table, I was thinking of adding something for my couch. I’ve seen accessories like an attachment for couch arms. Most of the time, I’m sitting to the side of the couch where I have some pillows and my legs are outstretched. Truthfully, I don’t think this is a great thing for me because it’s probably not healthy. That said, things I’ve been contemplating are a footrest or an ottoman. The ottoman is an interesting choice here because they have storage. I am cautious about getting one from Amazon though mostly because the reviews are less than stellar. Also, it’s hard to determine just how big and sturdy one of these things are based on pictures alone. Yes, they have the dimensions but I would need to measure and plan all this out.

The other thing I’m considering is a couch desk. I have a tray that has a pull out mouse section but it’s not very comfortable. A couch desk though seems more versatile in that you can use it on your couch or in bed while you’re working. The ones I was eyeballing had a side pocket for a book or a cupholder. I like the concept based on how my laptop can get really hot at times and having a desk right on my couch means a more stable surface and avoiding getting burnt. The cupholder sounds like a bad idea though just because you can knee the thing and potentially knock over a full cup, leaving a giant mess on your couch (hence the attachment for the end table instead). The other reason to get one of these is that I could still use the tray and use my mouse on it. Or perhaps, the solution is to keep the laptop on the end table and place the portable monitor on the couch desk along with a keyboard and mouse setup. If I had a second portable monitor, I would definitely consider a setup like this, but in truth it probably sounds better than it is in practice.

Food

On Saturday night, I decided to give this place near my old home a try called Fat Tomato Pizza. It’s located in a tiny plaza by Ted’s Place, which was a favorite of mine (actually Golden Ox was the place my family enjoyed back in the day). What I really like about Fat Tomato Pizza is the late hours. I think they officially close at 1am but take last order around 12:45am. By the time I got there, the parking lot was empty as was the store. But the guy working at the store was very nice to me and made a pretty decent pie. I’m still chowing away at it (I try to eat only two slices at a time for each meal).

The main reason I sought out this spot is because there’s not a lot of good pizza joints in my area. The other one is up the street and in a tiny lot. But it closes earlier. And anytime I have to drive up the street earlier than 9pm, I get anxiety because of the way this stupid road is constructed. The other place is Papa Johns. I wasn’t a huge fan of Papa Johns but it was reasonably priced, close by and would deliver. Once the delivery options change to DoorDash, I stopped using them. I’ve never had good experiences with DoorDash and I think it’s criminal that all these pizza places outsource their delivery to DoorDash.

As a result, I had given up on ordering pizza to my place until a few weeks ago. I did go to an old family favorite called Pizza Machine in Gardena. I got myself some mozzarella sticks and a large pepperoni (forgot if there was additional toppings). The place was still as good as I remember it from my youth. However, the location is just too far where I would consider going as a treat maybe once every few months in a year at best especially with the insane gas prices and general cost of living. But I ended up getting sick of frozen pizza and wasn’t happy making my own. So I guess Fat Tomato Pizza will become my go2 spot for the foreseeable future, even if it means me driving to pick it up.

Another place I went to about two weeks ago was the Wok Experience in Lomita. I ran across a thread on reddit where someone was looking for cheap but filling Chinese that wasn’t Panda Express. This was the main suggestion as this place delivers on overflowing your container with food. It’s family run and like the people on the Google/Yelp reviews mention, the owner remembers your face and is friendly. Oddly, I had driven past this spot almost all my life while living in the South Bay as I’d drive up and down PCH and see it as it was on the corner near a Target I never went to (until this one time). I might’ve tried them at one point back when Eat24 was a thing (prior to it becoming acquired by DoorDash and me giving up on them).

That said, finding good, cheap Chinese food around my zone is actually a lot more challenging than it may seem. And I’ve tried a bunch of spots, some that mix Thai and Chinese, Hawaiian and Chinese, etc. My mom used to hit up the old Hong Kong Gardens and Golden Pheasant in Carson. But Golden Pheasant closed down for good after an arson attack. I think Hong Kong Gardens merged with Hong Kong Bakery & Deli, but they have early hours and are simply too far for me to get to with early hours that discourage me from going. The few times I did order were from delivery and the cost was exorbitant for what you got. I can’t imagine what the prices now would be but I’m sure that it’s more feasible to find a closer spot, which is what I did.

Now, the key to the Wok Experience was the idea that they “filled it up to the brim” where the lady at the counter would pack as much as she could into one of those take out containers. After becoming disgusted by the vast majority of fast food restaurants which charge you an arm and a leg even with an terrible app that doesn’t give you meaningful discounts, I decided enough is enough and to find spots that are more local, cheaper and at least give you increased quantity. Now, this place is definitely an upgrade over Panda Express for a variety of reasons. But I ended up getting two containers loaded with chow mein, fried rice and four items. I think it came out to a little over $20, which these days is a bargain. $20 might seem like a lot still but consider this: I was able to have meals for a few days. So it’s not like I ate all of this at once. Most fast food meals cost almost close to $20 just to fill you up on stuff 10-15 years ago would be around $5-7 max. And even if this Chinese food is greasy, I still can get some veggies in and not feel as guilty. So I’m definitely going to return in the future when I get that craving again.

AI Discussions

Got a chance to talk with a bud/ex-coworker last week. One of interesting points he mentioned was describing how this period might be seen as a down/dark period because of AI. It’s funny because I’ve been mostly neutral in my stance about AI. I’ve been outwardly shifting the blame of AI not on the AI itself but on the people running it (i.e. the CEOs of these firms, shareholders and tech people who make shit tons of money without any actual justification). There’s so much rejection for AI going on at least publicly on reddit or social media that you can see why it’s not gaining the traction you’d think it should.

Mark Zuckerberg apparently wants a company hackathon for AI where everyone inside is less than enthused about. Here’s the issue: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. I think because of the various layoffs and the evolution towards a cut throat, performance based culture, the surviving employees probably see this as another way for people to come up with something so that Zuckerberg can once again steal something, get credit and use it to possibly increase layoffs. I’ve been a proposing that the government should enforce a policy where companies over a certain headcount that perform a mass layoff ought to penalize the CEO and CFO (much like SOX does for public companies) and force the CEO/CFO to take a reduction and/or be forced to quit with no golden parachute as well as wear a stigma for the next few years to prevent them from joining another company. Here’s the thing, when you have two people that are responsible for the livelihoods of many and they only are trying to bump up their numbers, they need to be held to the highest standards and have some sense of social responsibility for their roles. I often think about how Japanese executives take a bow and quit because of the embarrassment of a major mistake (like the merger that formed Mizuho that also caused a huge disruption for customers’ banking). Without such an enforcement, these CEOs act as kings and the public and employees lose trust in these places.

Along those lines, I read an article about how Google’s current CEO avoided the AI topic at Stanford’s commencement speech as 200 students walked out. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened or how students are protesting major CEOs (or past CEOs like Eric Schmidt) in talking about the future with AI. Considering that the prospects for jobs with an inexperienced graduating class are pretty low, it’s not a surprise that one of the top companies in the world is getting slammed. I thought it was interesting how some signs in the article show students with signs displaying on how ICE used Google to perform their dirty work. Whether or not that’s actually true as well as to what extent is irrelevant since it’s the perception of these large companies in how they’ve evolved to only serve shareholders, the government, the 1%, etc. It’ll be interesting to see where many of these people eventually land or what they’ll do.

Another interesting article that popped up was this notion of “Shadow AI” in the enterprise. The gist is how unauthorized AI tools are being used in large companies, which can be a liability. I’ve tended to hate enterprise software and the idea of the CIO office just because it’s meant to control what employees can and cannot use. It really stinks if you’re a developer and you feel held down by this. However, a lot of people end up being handed some crappy tool to do their job most of the time that’s heavily controlled by the admin teams with locked down systems. If you’re truly unlucky at some of these spots, your internet is locked down and monitored so that you can barely do anything without raising suspicion or going nuts from some sort of network firewall. Worse still is how some of these tools might be legacy ones brought in because someone had a friend working in a company that sold them a bill of goods but you’re forced to use this pile of fuck since it’s IT policy.

Given that there’s this monstrous push by dumb ass CEOs who want to hop on the AI bandwagon without fully understanding what it does, it’s comes as no surprise how this “Shadow AI” concept has evolved. The problem though is that these mandates for the software/tools should not be coming from the office at the CIO but a ground up effort led by people familiar with the domain problem. Instead, someone who is working on the problem and figures out an optimized workflow or some method to reduce their work should be praised and work with the CIO office as well as gaining support from colleagues if it means getting things done more efficiently.

Entertainment/Movies/TV

Besides old kung fu movies, I’d been watching Tubi TV quite frequently. Since the new Masters of the Universe movie got released, I had an urge to finally re-watch the entire He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series from the 80s, having gone on an 80s cartoon kick in the past few months. What I like about the old He-Man cartoon is that it’s not antagonizing to me. Yes, Orko can be annoying but he’s not as bad as say Snarf from Thundercats nor Wheelie from the Transformers. Also, I came to realize that besides Evil-Lyn, my favorite character in the series is Cringer. Where Scooby Doo ended up being half way annoying (especially because the other Mystery Gang members could get on my nerves), Cringer is really cute to me. He’s this lazy, cowardly, self-aware grown cat that probably would make for a wonderful pillow outside while fishing next to a river. Also, I think he’s very relatable compared to Scooby Doo, who just gets himself and the others into trouble because he’s goofy. Cringer is much smarter but just cowardly and lazy. Plus, I always had a soft spot for the straggler tooth sticking out from his mouth.

As for the latest movie itself, while I have read good reviews, I’m not interested. Maybe the two characters I was anticipating the most was Evil-Lyn played by Alison Brie and the Sorceress played by Morena Baccarin. While I am a fan of both actresses, I really thought that they should’ve exchanged spots. Maybe the fact that Morena has played other villainous characters in the past and has dark hair make me believe she would come off more intimidating than the goofy Alison Brie. I think the only work of Alison Brie’s that I’m familiar with is Glow on Netflix. But she came across more as an actress trying to be an actress. I will say that Meg Foster’s Evil-Lyn is untouchable when it comes to a live action version of Evil-Lyn because of how Meg Foster has those cold eyes. Also, I preferred Meg Foster’s costume in the 1987 version of the movie; it’s more distinct. The Alison Brie version is more faithful to the cartoon but the whole movie comes off looking really fake and plastic to my eye. More than likely, I’ll wait until it comes out on some site like Tubi TV.

Hot Topics (Politics)

I’m slightly tempted to talk about these things but feel that it’s easy for me to go overboard. I generally dislike speaking on specific politicians or major problems in the world (e.g. the Russian – Ukraine war). My general take has been to avoid these subjects because I dislike giving attention to undeserving trolls. More importantly, politics aren’t really a topic I feel qualified to talk about on this blog without significant research. I feel for me to really blast someone, I’d need a better handling on the issues which would take far too long and there’s almost no gain. I might put something out at another time if I get red hot but I’m trying to avoid that circumstance.

What’s on Tap for Tonight

I ended up finishing the pizza for lunch which means I need to think about the next batch of groceries. I do have some chicken thighs in the fridge and a box of rice pilaf I can cook up but I’m missing out on a bunch of stuff. So I might take a break from writing/sitting on my couch, do my dishes then head next door to the market. I might even just freeze the chicken thighs and buy one of those already baked chickens near the deli section. But I don’t have much snacks and my drinks are pretty limited. Alternatively, I could just pick up something frozen to make for dinner. Either way, I’d have to go either today or tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I ended up staying up far too late yesterday and my sleep schedule is a little off. It’s been getting hotter by the day, which I’m not looking forward to as the summer is about to really hit SoCal. I’ve been running my AC during the day and at night but I’m afraid of seeing my upcoming bill. This is a major reason why I’d love to get out of SoCal. I have said in the past that I wouldn’t mind living in Henderson because of how relatively close it is to California as well as the living conditions which are similar to what you can find in say OC. The heat would be the one thing preventing me from moving (and current craziness in the states).

The other state I would consider is Oregon. I don’t think they get snow in areas like Portland (I could be wrong) but the climate might be better for me. My only concern is cost and the initial distance to move. If the job market were better in SoCal, I would be more inclined to stay. But truthfully, SoCal has been a depressing place that has degenerated over time and make me want to leave asap.

Besides food though, I’m not sure what the current plan is for later. I’ve not touched my programming gig for a while mostly because of burn out. I have some books I probably could read but don’t think they’d add much to me. But I do have that itch to write some sort of fiction. Of what, I have no concrete plans but there are ideas rummaging in my head. I could grind for a few hours on Wizardry 6 but I might be generally done because the end grind where I’m at generally is boring after a point. So maybe I just need to clean up, brush my teeth, take a walk, grab some groceries and see how things go for later.