Perimeter Drains – The Perfect Metaphor for a Mental Firewall (and how I feel)

stormwater flowing

Working in my basement as a software developer was once my dream come true. That was, at least, until my basement started flooding during a storm and I barely saved my computer from frying in time. As you know, computers and water don’t mix well. I had no idea how to solve this basement flooding problem until I did what I’m best at and hit up the computer. I researched and researched online and now, after getting the solutions I need, my basement isn’t flooding anymore. How? Perimeter drains!

While researching perimeter drains and how they stop basement flooding I also realized they’re the perfect metaphor for how I feel, because having my basement flood wasn’t the only reason I don’t feel like I’m living my dream anymore. As you may have deduced from my last few posts, especially the poem I wrote, I haven’t been in the best of moods lately. I’ve actually been fairly depressed to be honest. I’ll save exactly why I’ve been depressed for a later post, but to summarize I’ll just say I’ve been sub-contracting for another software company and have been doing boring work that I’m not passionate about instead of developing my own video games like I always dreamed of.

Like perimeter drains, which stop stormwater from flowing against the foundations of your home by managing waterflow, I feel like I’m protecting my mind against depressing thoughts by installing mental firewalls to stop bad thoughts from seeping into my brain. If this metaphor doesn’t make sense yet, I don’t blame you. Please allow me to elaborate:

At first, when depressing thoughts were flooding into my head like rainwater, the basement flood situation only made things worse. After saving my computer from water damage just in time, I had no idea where to begin. I nearly gave up and thought about getting a new job that wasn’t so stressful, something labor orientated rather than sitting on the computer all day. I’m so glad I didn’t give up though. All it took was the brief moment to say to myself, “Okay, let’s just look at how I can solve this problem.” I ended up finding this perimeter drains Victoria BC company website where I read and read and learned everything I needed to know to understand why basement floods occur and how to fix/prevent them. The company already came and solved my basement flooding problem, and while watching them install the perimeter drains is when I realized what I needed to do to fix the other metaphorical flood that was causing my depression. I realized perimeter drains are the perfect metaphor for the mental firewalls I needed to install in my mind.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done some metaphorical thinking on the blog. Way back in 2020, I used software as a metaphor for consciousness. The situation is the same here, except I’m using perimeter drains as a metaphor for the mental firewalls I installed in my mind to protect against negative thoughts, and it’s been working wonderfully. Like I mentioned before, perimeter drains stop stormwater from damaging your home’s foundations, and the mental firewalls I have in place (more on that soon) act in the same exact way to stop negative thoughts from damaging my mind and state of mood.

But what exactly are the mental firewalls I installed? This article on Quora does a great job at explaining what I’m talking about, although they call it a “psychological firewall”. And that’s exactly what it is. To quote, it says “Psychological firewalls are intended to create an inner barrier between our emotional needs and those of the outer world. These mental barriers are created to prevent us from absorbing anything negative or excessive that could overwhelm us emotionally.” Now do you see why a perimeter drain is the perfect metaphor for this? Just like how my mental firewall protects my mind from flowing negative energy in the outside world trying to penetrate into my inside world, a perimeter drain protects my foundation from damaging storm water trying to flow into my basement. And to be more precise, the exact firewall I installed in my mind are mental habits like mantras and reminders that send off alerts whenever I catch myself thinking negatively.

When I catch myself thinking something like “Today is going to be another boring day” my mental firewall sends off an alert, I catch myself in the act of thinking negatively, and correct it by thinking something like “Today is going to be whatever I make it, and today I feel like enjoying the work I’m good at, by providing a service for my employer.”

I personally believe that depression is largely caused by our own mental habits. But I have to remind myself of this often, very often, because when I forget how powerful my own thoughts are I can catch myself thinking very negatively. As soon as my mental firewalls force myself to think positively, just like a perimeter drain forces storm water away, I suddenly feel much better, and all flooding stops so to speak. Instead of letting unwanted thoughts flow into my mind, my mental firewall protects me, and my mind becomes peaceful again, like a dry basement.

So, at the end of the day, maybe it was a good thing my basement flooded. If this never happened, I may still be depressed in my basement instead of sharing this awesome metaphor with my blog readers. If you’re dealing with depression, too, I hope this metaphor can help you see the importance of setting up mental firewalls, because without them your mind can become flooded with negative thoughts. I wish all the best to you, and thank you for visiting. Maybe now that I’m not so depressed I’ll start to post here more frequently again!

A Poem To Explain Why I Haven’t Posted in a While

poem

If it’s been a while since you’ve been here to the SM Soft Blog, I don’t blame you. After all, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Today my wish is to appease by few but beloved readers with a poem designed to hint at the reasons why I haven’t been blogging much lately. I hope you see the humor in the poem, and understand my human flaws. I intend to blog more often from now on.

Poem

Video games don’t design themselves,

Broken electronics fill the shelves.

The phone rings on and on,

Like a siren from Hell.

I try and try to answer them all,

But Lord knows I only fall.

To busy to carry on,

My hobbies seem to take a stall.

I wish I had more time for fun,

But my chores always weight a ton.

Though I bet it won’t be long,

Before I can see some sun.

Cramped and sweaty everyday,

Working for a small company.

I miss my old passion,

of blogging happily.

Now I’m back and here to stay,

what I couldn’t wait to say.

Now the bet is on,

Can I blog every day?

As you can tell from this poem, we haven’t been vacationing in Mexico. We spent our Dogecoin profits immaturely, and then the price tanked so we’re back at work focusing on video game design and electronic repairs. Thanks for bearing with us!

SM Soft Taking a Break

dogecoin vacation

Hello and we hope you’ll understand after reading our update today why we need a break. We just made lots of money off of investing in Dogecoin and will be taking a vacation in Mexico for perhaps several years before resuming our project. We’ve been working hard since graduating from high school and now that we’re in our 30s we want to enjoy our youth while we have it. Until our our Dogecoin profits are spent, we’ll be enjoying the wonders that life has to offer.

Thank you for understanding. We’ll be back eventually.

Listening to the Same Music Every Day

music

When I’m developing software I like to listen to music. The only problem is I’ve been listening to the same music playlist for 4 years. But I’m not the only one, and the problem isn’t that bad honestly. I wanted to write this post in case anyone else out there is wondering if it’s strange to listen to the same music every day. I think a lot of people have a favorite playlist, but if a neighbor heard you playing the same songs every darn day then they might start you judge you. Not that we should change just because someone judges us, but I understand their perspective. It’s odd to play the same songs every day, I mean every single day!

So if you’re like me and do the same thing, this should make you feel better. I have no intention of changing my playlist any time soon and if you love your music then you shouldn’t feel pressured to change your playlist unless you want to. And we’re not the only ones, too. There are many of us, and I’ve met some of them. In my favorite Subway, a sandwich artist I’ve gotten to know works weekends only, and every time I go in there he has the same music on. He says he wouldn’t work there if he wasn’t allowed to play his own music, and his manager respects that.

Another person I know who listens to the same music everyday is a tow truck driver in Red Deer, Alberta. He’s an awesome dude, and listens to the same reggae mixtape. I always call his cell for a personal tow truck service even though he works for a legit towing Red Deer company because I know there will be good music while he services my vehicle. The same goes for my favorite corner store and the janitor in my building. We all do it, so don’t feel ashamed if you listen to the same music every day too.

My playlist pumps me up and gets me going, and other music doesn’t do that. It’s taken a life time to make my playlist and I may never change it for decades.

If you still think there’s not enough of us, here’s a list of all the other people I know who listen to the same music every day:

  1. My dentist’s secretary
  2. My old history teacher
  3. My old soccer coach
  4. This guy I did some programming with a while back
  5. A dude I met on a software forum

If you have a playlist you want to share with us, we’d love to check it out. Respect!

Can Video Games Ever Be “Realistic”?

A lot of gamers like to say they only play “realistic shooters”, “realistic RPGs” or “realistic strategy games”, etc. But can a video game be realistic? Today, we’ll explore that question.

First of all, we have to define what realism is. Realism replicates reality like a video game tries to do. A lot of video games are labeled as simulations because they try to simulate reality and be as close to real life as possible.

But unless we are actually living the experience, it will never be reality. Keep in mind, however, that realistic and reality are two different things. So although a video game can’t be reality, it can be realistic, especially relative to other video games that don’t try at all to be like real life.

At the end of the day, though, whether a game is realistic or not is subjective and unique to each player. I would argue that even an ultra realistic video game can be seem very unrealistic if the player is unable to escape disbelief while playing. Meanwhile, other gamers might escape disbelief while playing a game like Minecraft and therefore it would be realistic for them.

So keeping all this in attention, the answer is there but still unclear, changing from player to player. What do you think? We’d love to hear your opinion. To get in touch, click here.

Bye for now.

PS, check out www.timothyrjeveland.com as a great source for knowledge on realism in fantasy.

Winter Advice from Roofing Victoria

winter snow on roof

It’s winter in North America and cities across Canada are filling up with snow. In Victoria BC where I’m currently visiting for family time, a lot of people don’t know how to handle the snow because it doesn’t snow here that often. If you’re one of those people like me who could use some helpful pointers on how to keep a residential property safe from snow damage, keep reading here.

Here are few helpful tips about residential winter management from a Victoria BC roofing company.

The first tip is to park your car in a garage or cover it if you don’t plan to be driving in the snow. I know many people who also just order groceries online and cancel their car insurance during the winter to save money and hassle.

Another tip from Roofing Victoria is to put winter salt on your driveway and if possible you should also put it on your roof. Putting winter salt on your roof to prevent snow build up can prevent damage to older roofs. The combination of ice, cold and wetness on old roof tiles and shingles causes damage that might not be visible when the snow melts but it’s there.

A lot of people in Victoria BC never consider to prevent snow build up on their roofs. Roofing Victoria also recommends ordering snow removal services either from a friend who is offering or from a landscaping company. Landscaping companies often offer snow removal when the snow is too high for them to do anything else.

These have been some helpful winter tips and I hope you can put good use to them. Keeping a home safe from heavy snow fall is one thing roofing companies have much information in and thanks to them everyday renters and home owners can benefit and keep their rooftops in good condition.

Once again thanks to:

Roofing Victoria

(778) 404-1394

#304, 2250 Oak Bay Avenue, Victoria, BC, V8R 1E2

bestchoiceroofingservices@gmail.com

www.bestchoiceroofingservices.com

Family Time This Christmas

As someone who spends most days working at home on the computer alone, looking forward to Christmas really helps my state of mind. I’m getting excited to take a break from work and a few weeks away from the computer. Spending time with family every Christmas also gets me excited to get back to work in the new year.

I brought this up because I feel many people are also excited for Christmas this year. 2020 has been rough for everyone but it’s time to make things better with the good, old Christmas spirit in the air.

We’re all about video game development and ideas here at SM-Soft so whenever we get the chance to talk about something different I take it.

I want to wish everyone here a happy Christmas.

Are Video Games a Waste of Time?

wasting time with video games

The answer to this question will always be subjective, but here is my opinion. As someone who plays a lot of video games I understand why people who don’t play may think it’s a waste of time. And then there’s other people who say “why should I care how other people spend their time?

If you’re a parent then you have good reason to care, because it’s true that many kids who build the habit of playing video games every day may still have that habit by the time they’re an adult. I won’t get into how people can become professional gamers to make millions of dollars because there are a billion gamers around the world and only a few thousand of them have made it to that level. Most gamers either do it for fun or because they’re addicted.

I have a friend who strongly believe it’s a waste of time to play video games, but only if you play for more than 4 hours a week. He believes this because he wants to be a Hollywood actor and so he knows that every hour spent doing something other than following his dream is dangerous to his career goal. We only have so much time on this planet and so if you make the decision early in life that you are going to spend a lot of time throughout your life playing video games then you better make peace with that decision because when you’re middle aged it will be too late to get that time back.

My concrete opinion is that it’s different for every individual. If you’re content with the job you have and don’t have many long-term goals, then there’s nothing wrong with playing a lot of video games so long as you’re having fun. In other cases where a person is trying to succeed at a long-term goal, it may be a waste of time to play too many video games because you should be doing other things. Also, if you’re developing a video game or being paid for it, then only you can look inside yourself and answer the question “is this a waste of time?

If this didn’t answer your question then stay tuned because I’ll be discussing this more in the future. Thanks for reading.

A Towing Video Game Idea

tow truck service

Have you ever played the video game Grand Theft Auto and just had fun doing all the tow truck missions? I sure did. That’s partly why I came up with an idea for a towing video game. Here’s where I’ll explain my idea.

To get started I’ll expound on who I think would do a great job at making this video game. The towing in Grand Theft Auto is already amazing, though a bit clunky. And I’m talking about GTA 5, not the older ones, although you can still do towing in the older ones. Because they did such a great job with it I think this tow truck game would be best if was made by Rockstar Games, the same people who made GTA.

Now before I describe the details of the game let me tell you why I think this game would be so fun. I don’t think it would be something tow truck drivers would want to play but all the gamers who love truck simulator games might jump all over it. And if you added humor to the game by making it a bit goofy and exciting it might be even more fun.

Towing Missions

For missions I got some good ideas. To start, the gamer will have to get good at reversing the tow truck in first person, using the rear view mirrors to line the truck up. Then, he’ll have to get out of the truck to hook it up while people are coming up and trying to fight you. Kind of like repossession. But when you get the car hooked up to the hitch, you’ll have to escape from pursuers. These are no ordinary towing missions. These are dangerous, high risk and high reward challenges in an open world. And you’re not allowed to hurt anyone so every time you crash you fail.

Later, when you’re a higher level in the game, the missions will get harder and when you accept repossession contracts from government agents you’ll have more freedom to crash and speed. I got another good idea from a friend who does towing Barrie Ontario services. He told me that the hardest part of towing is making sharp turns in tight corners, especially when you’re towing something large. So I think a good mini game for side missions would be to drift on a track while doing heavy duty towing.

This would be the perfect game to hook up a steering wheel to because, although it’s not a racing game, it’s all about your virtual driving skills. So the driving physics should be ultra realistic even though the game is goofy in nature. You could also make it more simulator-like by getting rid of the goofy aspects but then I might not play it. If someone makes this game I want it to be fun.

Any Ideas?

If you like this idea and have any opinions or ideas to make it even better, then please contact me because in the future I might be getting in touch with a developer to make it a reality. So far it’s just an idea and I’d be glad if someone else made it so I don’t have to. Consider this idea in the public domain. But I’d still like to hear any ideas you might have.

Thanks for checking this out. The video game industry is still very young and it’s up to young people to continue it into the future. So follow your dreams and let’s make it happen!

Software Compared to Consciousness

If you look at the human body as a machine, then the mind is the software that helps it to function properly. That’s why a healthy body starts with a healthy mind. You could have the best computer in the world but if the software is old and outdated then you might as well have an old and outdated computer.

This concept is important for understanding why racism still exists in the world. People are functioning on outdated software. Your consciousness, without the hardware to hold it in place, may or may not still exist. That’s a talk for a different day. And it’s not like you install updates in your consciousness whenever it’s outdated. We’re not like computers in the sense that we can receive automatic updates. If that was the case, then racism would’ve ended a long time ago.

However, we are similar to computers if they have automatic updates turned off (like I do). This is because in order to update our way of thinking we have to do it intentionally or by some kind of reaction to an external event. For example, if you’re computer gets a virus you might have to wipe it clean. Likewise, if we get sick and have to stay home, we might get a chance to reflect on things. Or if we take a holiday we might be updated by the time we get back to work.

I love talking about this subject because there’s so much to explore. If you enjoyed this talk, then check back to sm-soft.org in the future. We’d love to have you back.