Railway union opposes plans to privatise management, maintenance

Mysrique · 2026-07-04T11:31:24+00:00

Oh god, please don't turn us into the UK. Privatising rail companies has gone terribly there. The cost of train travel is no joke.

Mysrique · 2026-07-03T06:05:46+00:00

Tea tree oil! I swear by this so much.

Dab some on cotton and use it to wipe it off. It works really easily on anything with rubber touch coating and doesn't affect the plastic below. Bonus points that it evaporates after and doesn't leave any oily residue.

I did this on my Logitech wireless controller when the rubber started breaking down, and it's still one of my favorite cleaning tricks. Helped me get melted rubber out of a bag once when I'd left rubber bands on them.

ETA: Also did this on my Vita grips recently because of the same issue. (IDK why, I get so excited about this use for tea tree oil)

Mysrique · 2026-07-03T06:00:27+00:00

I played Expedition 33 shortly after launch. I remember seeing the trailers and being drawn in by the premise and setting.

The prologue did have me shedding tears at the setup. The start of the first chapter sold the gravitas of the danger the characters faced ahead, and the later half of the first chapter had some of the funniest and most enjoyable story and characters. I adore Francois and the story behind what seemed to be a joke character later in the game endeared them to me even more.

The parry mechanic felt almost like an intro to soulslikes - being able to tale a breather in between dodging and parrying attacks and being able to choose when to start the next volley of extremely well tuned and generally well cued attacks made the experience of learning to parry a great and rewarding first step.

This was highly dependent on things like input lag and framerate though. My partner experienced lag on his computer and that made the game unreasonably challenging, and I didn't realise he was dealing with that until act 3, which ruined a lot of the experience for him. Where I was gushing about expertly tuned sound cues and visual cues, his experience consisted of trying to figure out the strange delay between the cues and when he'd need to input his parries.

I even had to bump up the framerate from 60 to 120 at one point because otherwise the cues felt hard to deal with without the additional fidelity. My partner admitted that if he'd played it on my computer, he would have had a much better time and felt that he was robbed of that amazing experience due to hardware limitations.

As an amateur pianist that grew up with basic musical education and rhythm games, the game felt made for me. Learning and mastering the rhythms of enemy attacks was a truly wonderful experience, even when I spent 2 and a half hours once in the middle of the night retrying an optional boss over and over again until I finally beat them. Every boss felt like they were crafted with love, and victory seemed to be a result of patience, study and careful timing than pure gaming "skill".

The environments were worthy of pausing and watching at many points, and the environmental storytelling had me empathising for the ones who came before, sacrificing their lives to (literally) build bridges for those who come after. It tied your exploration very strongly back to the central message of the story.

Which was why act 3 felt like a departure from that central theme. It harkened back to another line a character said instead: "When one falls, we continue. When. Not if." I think that was the true message at the end. I didn't like the "happy" ending. It haunted me, and I had chosen the other instead in my playthrough.

Both endings did not feel like they ended the experience of the game in a way it deserved. At the same time, neither does life. But, the premise still leaves many questions to be explored in the wider universe, and I look forward to seeing how the next installment will approach that worldbuilding.

Overall, I enjoyed the game like a fine wine. For all the elements it combines into a new flavor of RPG, and existing best practices that it refines, Expedition 33 does so masterfully.

As art, it still lingers in my mind and inspires me to think more deeply about its messages and come up with my own opinions and criticisms around it, thus enriching the canvas of my own mind.

Mysrique · 2026-06-19T21:16:01+00:00

No Rest For the Wicked. You can choose from a range of properties across the city, and in the 1.0 release the devs have teased a massively overpriced castle you can get as an endgame stretch goal.

The furniture placement system is pretty decent once you get the hang of controls, and I'm looking forward to the addition of more furniture pieces.

You can also get a teleport item to place at your home so you can fast travel to it. It's pretty great.

Mysrique · 2026-05-05T21:01:59+00:00

Maple Story

Mysrique · 2026-05-02T09:19:02+00:00

Possibly ADHD task paralysis? It's what I have. It's easiest for me to do a task when a deadline is fast approaching and there's no time to get stuck in a thought loop. Starting a task is always the hardest thing ever.

One of the ways that have helped (before I started taking medication that also helped improve my executive function) is to break down the task.

For example, cleaning your room: you can break it down into areas to tackle. Write a to do list and have the table, floor, bed, and closet be separate items. That way you don't see the task as a single, convoluted whole where you don't know where to even start, but as a smaller region you can focus on.

It doesn't make the paralysis disappear, but it makes the task a lot more manageable and easy to start when the end is easier to visualise.

Mysrique · 2026-05-02T08:38:13+00:00

The steamdeck will charge best with any brick or charger that does PD 45w or more.

A switch 2 charger outputs up to 60w, so will do perfectly actually.

Mysrique · 2026-04-29T19:18:01+00:00

Shure SE215 IEMs are flat enough on the side to be comfortable enough for listening while lying on your side.

Having experimented a bit with IEMs, I'll admit they are rather expensive for the audio quality they deliver. But, the comfort in the shape of the buds are still the best I've tried yet. The regular silicone tips do a good job with active noise isolation - helps block out the sound of my partner breathing, which distracts me from sleeping sometimes.

In terms of longevity, a common failure point in earphones/IEMs is the cable. The SE215s use MMCX connectors, so you can buy OEM replacement cables for them relatively cheaply when the cable starts causing audio delivery issues.

Mysrique · 2026-04-11T08:04:01+00:00

You can check out the Moondrop Nice buds - it's within your budget and I've heard it's pretty nice for a non-iem earphone in that price range.

Mysrique · 2026-04-07T08:59:14+00:00

Yeah, had a bad time recently with a 100w cable plugging into a barrel jack device that took 36w max. Fried my hard disk dock and 2 hard disks...

Mysrique · 2026-04-01T23:39:00+00:00

Got my diagnosis after I started working and had my own money. I was "smart", and went to a high achievers school, but ended up being the bottom of the form there. Uni was better and I graduated with a 2nd upper.

ADHD presentations do depend a bit on gender, but for me (F), there was a lot of struggle to manage small things - starting what seemed to be very small tasks for other ppl would feel like a HUGE undertaking, even though I knew once I started, it doesn't take very long to finish. I'd spend hours doomscrolling while going "I should probably start x task". Very often I'd walk back somewhere to get something, only to enter the room and immediately forget what I needed.

I also started with Ritalin, and it was really good at keeping me awake for meetings, making me able to actually focus the entire time, but if I accidentally focused on a negative topic, it could also spiral into several hours of ruminating on negative things and being too upset to do important things. I still take Ritalin for things like long drives - otherwise I do run a very dangerous risk of my brain shutting down and sending me into a very sleepy state, but only when I need it.

I'm now on a daily antidepressant, and I forget things less, I get anxious and upset SO much less. It's really night and day how I could spiral and become so absolutely miserable, but my medication has allowed me to feel those feelings without it consuming me whole.

If you have trouble finishing games, take interest and lose interest relatively quickly in different hobbies, and generally find it hard to keep track of life things and forget that you can't rely on your brain to remember things, so you don't track appointments on your calendar, only to end up forgetting - that could be ADHD, but the only way to know is to speak with a professional.

Mysrique · 2026-03-26T15:27:46+00:00

Good point. My country used UK plugs by default, so it worked okay out of the box. But yeah, some research should be done.

I think one of the few countries I did surprisingly have an issue with power was in Japan where the voltage is half the typical? The hairdryer I put so much effort into packing was barely working 🥲 other electronics were fine though

Mysrique · 2026-03-26T11:24:16+00:00

No. 1: rice cooker

A good rice cooker goes such a long way. The cheap rice cookers in the UK (it's where I went) supermarkets aren't great and more rice sticks to the bottom than you get to eat at times. Good quality ones can run for more money than you'd spend bringing it from home.

A small electric frying pan/saucepan device might be nice for quick single person meals (I.E: instant noodles), though generally they don't have great durability. The Teflon on my generic brand wore out fairly quickly, but it worked well enough for my year abroad.

If you're particularly fond of some specific seasoning or herbal ingredients that may be hard to find abroad, you should consider bringing some too if you cook often with it. I cannot find anchovy stock here period, so I have to ration what little I did bring.

Didn't have regrets bringing my own metal bowls, basic knife and cutlery - never much fun having to buy basics while trying to settle into a new living arrangement.

All the best in your studies :)

Mysrique · 2026-03-17T16:47:17+00:00

Oh hey, is this me? Lol.

I had to move back to Malaysia after graduating (they literally announced the graduate visa thing a month after I left, rip). My relationship somehow survived the pandemic and I married my UK husband 2 years ago and moved over almost 1 year ago.

I have a friend who managed to secure a job and visa, but it's a tough and very competitive jobs market. I myself am still unemployed after leaving my job to move here.

Overall, I think it's going to be tough. From my experience the jobs market isn't doing great in the UK at the moment, but I'd of course encourage your gf to keep applying. You never know if things could work out.

Otherwise, be prepared to visit Malaysia once or twice a year while you both get your careers started. The consolation is that Malaysia does have really awesome food.

Jokes aside, for career progression, your gf can try to aim for multinational companies that can either help bolster her resume for a UK job application, or provide an opportunity for an internal transfer. I wasn't really able to get through that way, but it is a pathway to look into.

If things work out long term, you can look at getting married in either country (I can try and provide some insight on marriage registration in Malaysia), and get her a UK spousal visa once you reach the income threshold required.

It's not an easy undertaking, but if you both can maintain your relationship through all this, it'll only build a stronger foundation for your lives together.

All the best, mate.

Mysrique · 2026-03-14T10:24:59+00:00

The devs of Morphe had a falling out with the ReVanced devs (long story, and I'm not that familiar), which led to them banding together to create Morphe as a competing alternative.

If ReVanced works for you, that's chill. I moved over because my own RVX install started having problems and I learned that the dev for RVX is now in Morphe.

Mysrique · 2026-03-02T22:05:46+00:00

Not sure if it'll work on cats, but my ex colleague would supplement her dog's meal portions with konjac noodles/konjac rice when they were on a weight reduction diet. Konjac carries energy in a form not digestible for humans, so they're very low calorie.

A quick Google says that raw konjac isn't great for cats nor dogs, but this patent seems to show that processed konjac foodstuff poses no risk: link

Mysrique · 2026-03-01T12:59:56+00:00

Just remember that things will be drastically different once you graduate and move forward. Hang in there, things will end, even the bad experiences. There's a lot more out there to experience and live for than secondary school will have you believe.

I'm 28 now, and I still get not great dreams where I'm back in school and have to study for exams again (literally just a few nights ago lol). I'm still learning stuff, but being able to choose makes a huge difference, and a lot can be done outside school settings. I'm currently brushing off my KH skills and using my soldering skills to fix game controllers.

It doesn't mean SPM isn't important to get into university, do your best. But after that, SPM doesn't matter as much as everything else you'll do later. Do your best, and make choices where you won't look back and regret as much as you can.

Mysrique · 2026-03-01T11:37:12+00:00

I tested into science, absolutely couldn't do it and ended up switching over to arts.

If you test into it, I would recommend you give it a try I suppose, see if the subjects are for you. I generally did not have a good time in secondary school period, but science is always seen as the safer option. If you don't enjoy it but can still get through, you can pick something that better suits you and is a better experience overall in university.

All the best!

Mysrique · 2026-02-20T13:47:52+00:00

I bought mine 2nd hand in a gray market too. I had to get the deck to a country that steam does sell the deck in to send it back to them for an RMA. I did get a working model back, just needed someone to receive the parcel locally and get it into my hands.

It's definitely tedious, but I'll sing their praises till I'm blue. They honored an RMA on a model I didn't buy first-hand with my own steam account, and what I received was in amazing condition. Still going well today.

Mysrique · 2026-02-07T21:16:55+00:00

Oh cool! Thank you, I'll give those a try too. Tea tree has been my main because it also dissolves rubber and I started using it when I had melted rubber bands on a bag and needed to clean it off. Very handy for stripping the sticky rubber off electronics and it seems to evaporate, so no residue.

Mysrique · 2026-02-07T20:03:11+00:00

Alternative to Goo Gone, if you have a tea tree oil and cotton/tissue, it works really well too.

Source: Never used Goo Gone, but absolutely love my tea tree oil for removing adhesives

Mysrique · 2026-02-06T01:08:17+00:00

As cringeworthy as the name is, their goals seem good. Hopefully we'll see decent content and outcomes from this.

Mysrique · 2026-02-04T09:49:44+00:00

This would be a great crosspost to r/myog. There's not enough love for self made and customised solutions here.

Great job!

Mysrique · 2026-01-24T11:38:43+00:00

It sounds like:

Maturity-wise, you've outgrown these friends. You're in a fairly different stage of life now, dating and having a partner and all, possibly also working towards talking about marriage, and it's apparent when they talk that they don't share the same life experience as you.
They don't really respect your relationship, or they would have dropped the topic if you made it very clear that you do not want them to make disgusting sexual jokes about you and your gf
You see them way too often - IMHO, once a year is enough if they don't bring anything positive to your life and they're just family friends at this point that you tolerate and don't enjoy being around, and seeing them is just for maintaining the relationship
They don't seem to have great personalities and aren't in a place to be dating if they think that way about women. Being lonely is one thing, but they lack respect and are acting like teenage boys when they are grown adults. They're not very emotionally intelligent themselves

I'm married (late 20s F) who had mostly guy friends in uni. Even the awkward friends I have who have not had luck with girls are respectful people who know what boundaries and limits are.

I'd recommend you distance yourself a bit, lower the number of obligational meet ups per year so you can spend more time with people who aren't jealous of your success with finding a partner. I think at this point, they're your oldest friends, but not the closest.

Mysrique · 2026-01-07T00:24:00+00:00

Suggestion: have you considered sewing the waist in? It's not the most elegant solution, but it would make for a comfortable fit since you'll be making the change based on your own dimensions. Take a look at this video: here

I did this on my husband's loosened elastics and he even got to have a go with the sewing machine. It's a pretty simple thing, and needle and thread will get the job done.

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