Regulars' Table

[Altbert]

I haven't been playing much lately. Waiting for my new rig: new Asus mainboard with i5-12600FK 32G, new videocard with RTX 4060Ti 16G, 2TB SSD and a new BlueRay/DVD player. Last couple of days busy creating backups of anything important on my old rig, and in between playing some other games like XING: The Land Beyond and Call of the Sea. Also slowly emptying my old rig of anything I'm not using at the moment.

[Selene310187]

Noise pollution from neighbors got out of hand:
I hadn't talked about the noise pollution from my neighbors for a long time. With the strategies I had developed over time (playing white noise on YouTube, for example), I was able to come to terms with it. Unfortunately, the noise pollution got out of hand recently. Now they are constantly slamming the doors and have moved their arguments outside, entertaining the whole neighborhood with their sometimes extremely loud voices. I don't want to have the white noise on all night. After talking to a friend and my mother about this situation, I came to the conclusion that it would be better if I moved to another apartment.

Vacation:
I've been on vacation since Monday, which lasts a total of two weeks. Monday and Tuesday I played several hours of Cyberpunk 2077, which I rarely got to do recently. Let's see what I do the rest of the week. I'll probably continue working on Abyss Demon, which I paused a short time ago after doing too many all-nighters again. Next week I want to go away for a few days (within Germany). Maybe to Hamburg, Düsseldorf or Cologne. I'm having a hard time deciding. One reason why I'm putting off booking. Hopefully I'll get my butt in gear in the next few days...

Steam Deck and Cyberpunk 2077:
Because of the planned trip, I have postponed the purchase of the Steam Deck anew. The desire to own it is still there, but not the urgency. For the time being, I'm continuing to play Cyberpunk 2077 on the PC with settings that consume less power (so I've switched off ray tracing and set the graphics settings to medium). I also tried a lower resolution, but the upscaling by the AI caused an annoying graphics bug.

[Avrie]

Sucks that you feel the need to move, but wise to make the call and get on with it. I hope they allow you to at least enjoy your vacation. Personally the old cat would get a very large high powered water gun and spray them with cold water when they're outside yammering. It works on cats

(It's also more satisfying than letting them force you to move... perhaps both)

[Selene310187]

On Monday, I'm going to the customer center of the housing company in my district to get in touch about looking for a new apartment. I went to the main office last week. They told me that everything can now only be done online using a form - no consulting, nothing. I felt really left out in the cold. Hopefully I'll at least get some consulting at the branch office.

[Avrie]

Best of luck with that. Hopefully something is available that works for you.

[Selene310187]

The advisor at the customer center referred me to the janitor. He inspected my apartment and told me that I needed to do some painting work, for example on the baseboards. If these are ok, I'll get various suggestions for a new apartment. Nevertheless, I will contact the caseworker to see if I really need to do this painting work. The advisor at the customer center didn't say anything about this. She told me that I should contact the caseworker after I have made the appointment with the janitor. Or she forgot to mention the painting work part.

Yesterday, I actually managed to take a trip. I went to Bremerhaven and visited the zoo there (Zoo am Meer). Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for a harbor tour as I didn't arrive until midday. I'll do the harbor tour next time.

[Selene310187]

I've found someone who can do the painting work in my apartment for a good price. It's a friend of one of my neighbors. According to the neighbor, she can do this very well. Now I have to make an appointment with her and will call her tomorrow evening.

Nevertheless, I will contact the caseworker to see if I really need to do this painting work.

I simply forgot this. But it doesn't matter now. I have talked to the janitor again when I reported the disturbance of the peace at the end of last month. He said that the tenants also have to do something, i.e. a mutual concession.

Incidentally, it was the first time I reported a disturbance to the janitor, as I normally shy away from conflict. One night, the neighbor above me and his friends got so crazy that I felt compelled to take action. The other neighbors said that I should have called the police too. I had thought about it, but I was afraid that I would make things worse.

As for the move, others said that I shouldn't let the disturbers of the peace chase me away. That's easier said than done because they don't have to put up with the noise pollution every day.

Nevertheless, doubts about my plan arise from time to time. Because I actually like my apartment, the very leafy area and, on top of that, the apartment is very cheap - if only it weren't for those noisy people who spoil everything for me.

I think I'll take a two-pronged approach: I'll look for a new apartment and log the disturbances. I'll keep submitting the latter to the janitor. And maybe the noisemakers will get enough warnings to get them kicked out so that I don't have to move. Both can take a long time.


Next subject. After 12 years, my microwave broke down. It no longer heated the food. I didn't want to put any money into repairing the ancient device, so I bought a new one for around 90 euros and disposed of the old one in the electronic waste container. As I rely on public transport, transporting the new microwave was an adventure. I managed the distances on foot with lots of short breaks. Yes, I could have had it delivered. But I didn't want to wait that long for the parcel and at the moment there is hardly a concierge around to take it in my absence (many of the landlord's high-rise buildings have one or more concierges).

[Selene310187]

I've found someone who can do the painting work in my apartment for a good price. It's a friend of one of my neighbors. According to the neighbor, she can do this very well. Now I have to make an appointment with her and will call her tomorrow evening.

We had negotiated a deal, but due to a misunderstanding she withdrew from the offer. She only responded to my attempt to clear up the misunderstanding with silence. So I have to find someone else and, if that doesn't work out, do it myself. If the latter is the case, I'll have to watch a few tutorials, because I know next to nothing about painting.

[Selene310187]

I just published the first article this year on Selene's Shadow Realm about Being a mod author vs. being a gamer. It indirectly refers to one of my posts in the Abyss Demon thread and asks the following question: How do I find a balance between creating mods and playing games in a casual way without exhausting myself? A question that I have been asking myself for a long time and that I have not yet been able to answer satisfactorily. Either I work on a mod project for a while or I play a game - one of the two always comes up short. I want to be able to divide my attention between both passions better.

[Selene310187]

For about two weeks now, the neighbors have been much quieter and I have been less disturbed by them. Apparently my complaint to the janitor did have an effect. I will continue to observe this and postpone my plan to move out for the time being. I'm in no hurry because I haven't given formal notice to move out yet. The only question is how I will explain this to my mother if I decide not to move out. She said that there will always be people who will disturb my peace and quiet immensely because you can hear everything through the walls.


I told you that I had postponed the purchase of the Steam Deck. And it was the right decision when I look at my current account balance. In the last couple of months, I had to make some purchases that were really more important, such as the microwave and recently the two jackets (a between-seasons jacket and a winter jacket). I hope that I'll be able to buy the Steam Deck for Christmas or my birthday, which is at the end of January.