Month: September 2026

This only makes sense in American, but that may be true of Dolly Parton as well. (“In our country, we just give books to kids, it’s paid for by the government.”)

Played (Lancer): Last Stop. Character creation and arguing with Comp/Con, with a side of Vampire LARP war stories. Now we all have weirdos who live on this space station in the middle of the middle of nowhere and are weird. My character is cursed to never die and become one with the cycles of the cosmos, because Horus mechs are fundamentally unnatural. It’s great!

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 110.

Mwah!

Watched (live-action TV): Spider-Noir 1.7: Setup for the final confrontation. “Get me Ben Reilly.”

Read (manga): The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor vol 7 (Anko Yuzu, Sarasa Nagase, Mitsuya Fuji): A bunch of stuff has wrapped up, but a cunning enemy is still out there working against the main character and her now-husband. Gods rarely make any situation better.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 178.

Went to the office, learned how to do the thing, ate some hummus with chicken and pita, did some work.

Read (graphic novel): Queens of the Crypt vol 1 (DOM&INK): A high-school enby in a creepy town accidentally summons a squad of terrifying-yet-personable undead ladies for help when the local cryptid abducts half the people in town who understand them. Spookiness ensues.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 190.

Wait, I have to work another day? What if I would rather sit with a cat and drink chai while the world holds still?

Read (novel): Hero Chimera (Zachary Holzgen): Superhero high jinks on another planet. The main characters get nigh-infinite power, there are ridiculous supervillains and giant iguanas and corruption and all the major characters are related in surprising ways and the world is saved. The main main character is gay, but she doesn’t get much in the way of romance, because the city isn’t going to explode itself.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 188.

Today I was on call, which is usually nothing, but today had two whole customers. In fact, I had to get on a call with one as soon as I logged in, which was annoying and not like going back to bed. After that I sat at the work computer being vaguely useless all day, but I guess capitalism was satisfied.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 155.

It was tempting to stay in bed forever, but in fact I stayed in bed about the usual amount and then got up to shop and stuff. I even had enough time to catch up this journal through today. It will inevitably fall behind, but at least it’s no longer falling further behind. Yet.

Ayse granted me the boon of leftover pozole. I will eat it for lunch tomorrow.

Watched (anime): Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 1.28: That turned out better for the others than I would have expected. But now, the end of the mage test arc, and of the season. Will we go straight into S2? Maybe, or maybe we’ll watch something. Only Future Us knows.

Watched (anime): Daemons of the Shadow Realm 1.12-13: Oh right, that guy is really nasty. Also between the mass murders and the escapes, the village is going to be completely depopulated by the end of the season.

Read (novel): Lillith of Endings (Dreamer’s Riot): A militant anarchist is isekai’d into the body of a small girl in a fantasy world with classism and sexism sliders set to max, and combines her advanced Earth physics knowledge with magic to become OP and start dealing with the ruling serial-killer class and their monopoly on magic. Because it is Misogyny World, she is threatened with rape at every turn, but is actually only beaten up a lot.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 163.

I did not have to get up earlier than usual this morning, but somehow it didn’t help that much.

Ash from alternate Friday gaming is in town and staying with Ayse and Ken, so I dragged Marith over to watch us eat pozole. Brooks showed up too, but Kelsey had no time and no geography. We talked about many geeky things, and a good time was had by all (except Jus who is still sick). Ash seems pretty swell, but I suppose we have to let her go back to New England eventually.

Reread (short): “A Tall Tail” (Charles Stross): This is one of the things we talked about.

Read (webnovel): Revenge of the Black Princess (DD Webb): The scorned and antisocial teenaged princess of the new empire has to solve problems and make friends with her family and save the day anyway, ugh. Possibly appealing to readers of the “Mage Errant” books.

Read (novel): Wizard with a Greatsword vol 2 (Amelia Crawford): Now the protagonist and her tentacle monster and her friends are pirates! Also there are machinations of the higher-leveled, but whatever. Not enough new worldbuilding.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 157.

Went to the office, cheered for the 17th(!) birthday of the company, ate a million pounds of catered Chef Chu’s but no cake, did several works, watched some recorded training sessions. I still don’t like videos, although they’re not as bad as live phone calls.

Read (manga): Lynx vol 1 (Samuel Sattin, tokitokoro): A widowed detective in the  obviously corrupt police force of the last remaining(?) city and her bioenhanced black cat partner try to find out what’s going on with the monsters in the back alleys while taking care of her late wife’s kid.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 110.

Despite lack of sleep, I was up in time for the early meeting, and not much more useless than normal. (That’s still pretty useless, since everyone talks more than me.)

Did some work, picked up some meds, read still too much Questionable Content but tried to go to bed so I can go to the office tomorrow.

Read (graphic novel): I Love Amy vol 1 (UNNI, AH Cho, REBECCA SZE): Psychopathic Bibi drafts shy Amy to help with her crazed plan to get cute Peter, but this involves spending a lot of deranged time together…

Read (manga): Rainbows After Storms vol 8 (Luka Kobachi): The organized ones are worrying about college, the less organized ones are feeling lonely as Christmas approaches and they don’t have anyone to smooch.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 120.

Since there was no gaming, I stayed in bed forever, and then longer, and then did some minor shopping and that’s about it. I don’t even know how to read any more.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 212, probably. I realized I could push even more of the work of counting changed words onto diff by having it emit only the changed lines and counting those instead of trying to calculate from the line numbers, so my script is much shorter and hopefully just as accurate.

 

I did not do a good job of getting out of bed, but did manage to shop and stuff in time for anime.

Watched (anime): Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 1.27: Third phase of the test, completely anticlimactic. But now they have at least one first-class mage for the trip into the northern doomlands. One episode left in the season!

Watched (anime): Daemons of the Shadow Realm 1.10-11: That poor kid, dropped into the middle of these lunatics. He’s not even crazy enough to fit like Yuru was.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 114, but I had to count it by hand, because my bugfix wasn’t actually a fix.

Did not accomplish very much in the way of work today, although there was definitely work I should have done. Ugh.

Watched (live-action TV): Spider-Noir 1.5: Finally we get some information about what happened in the war and why Reilly isn’t in that picture and what is going on with the supervillains. Also some people make extremely poor decisions. There were supposed to be further seasons, so this one can’t end in maximum tragedy, but I think some tragedy is very likely at this point.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 114.

Too hot. I do not approve.

Watched (live-action TV): Spider Noir 1.4: I guess all it takes is one dame to make the PI be a dumbass. He doesn’t deserve Janet.

Read (manga): Rainbows After Storms vol 6-7 (Luka Kobachi): School trip! First fight! Hot-springs episode! Gay panic! The other woman!

I reread way too much Questionable Content and will probably die.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 137, but also I fixed a bug in my word-counting script, so I get all the words it didn’t count before. No idea how many that is, though. We’ll say it makes up for all the deletions that I feel guilty about counting.

Despite insomnia, I was able to gather my energy or gumption or executive function and go to the office to do some work and eat Mayan pork and plantains and rice and veggies and read about Rust (I don’t understand it) and Golang (I don’t understand it). Probably I should have worked on finishing off the Kubernetes course instead.

Read (graphic novel): Clara & the Devil vol 1 (Olivie Blake, Little Chmura): It’s probably not good to be the librarian when the Devil comes in to get a library card, even in watercolor.

Read (manga): Breasts Are My Favorite Things In The World! vol 2 (Wakame Konbu): Turn-about is fair play! Also, the heart wants what it wants, but Busty Girl really needs to develop better taste in women. Maybe this other girl who she is confiding in? No, she’s a perv too.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 139.

I meant to get up and go to the office, but as any readers probably expected, I could not manage to move. In fact, I had to take half a day off because my sleep was so bad that I could not do anything at all. I blame capitalism.

Read (novel): Reborn as a Demonic Tree vol 1 (XKarnation): What it says on the tin! Carnivorous tree sleeps a lot, eats a surprising amount for a tree, grows long sinister roots, befriends local orphans, and cultivates via the system. Murders ensue. So many murders.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 150.

I went to the place to see the kittens Jus thinks I should add to my collection, then went to the other place to get supplies for the cats I do have, and then to yet a third place to get even more supplies. It was a lot of hours and travelling, for what didn’t seem like much accomplishment, but it was probably healthier than staying at home all day.

Watched (anime): Baka & Test 1.1: I saw a clip that made it look like there might be interesting gender fuckery, but it turns out I don’t care enough to watch it far enough to find out.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 156.

Only slept in a moderate amount, managed to go shopping and read Maidens of the Fall before lapsing into uselessness again.

Watched (anime): Daemons of the Shadow Realm 1.9: Apparently we’re done with the cute daemons for now; it’s time for mythological horrors.

Watched (anime): Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 1.25-26: Conclusion of the second test, with cunning plans and terrifying magic. Also Denken was right, they should all have listened to him.

Read (novel): Your Boyfriend Needs an Exorcist (Justine Pucella Winans): A girl who has become a terrible squirrel-eating ghost accidentally possesses the boy her crush is dating, and everything goes downhill from there. Way, way downhill. With murders.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 246.

Also, some money, or at least canned food.

Watched (live-action TV): Spider Noir 1.3: Well, that was a whirlwind of betrayal and murder! And we still have five episodes to go!

Read (manga): Common-Sense Monster vol 3 (Warugi Wanai, Shinobu Shinotsuki): More murders, including of major characters. The end!

Read (manga): Breasts Are My Favorite Things In The World! vol 1 (Wakame Konbu): Apparently I already read this, but it was five years ago so it’s not that surprising I don’t remember. Contains no socially redeeming value whatsoever.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 275.

Did not visit any skyscrapers today. Did get my apartment cleaned.

Watched (live-action TV): Spider Noir 1.2: I realize it was a different, more freewheeling time, but that’s never been superhero best practices, my dude.

Read (manga): Tearmoon Empire vol 3 (Mizu Morino, Nozomu Mochitsuki, Gilse): Timeloop heroine continues failing her way into undeserved success, and new friends, despite some events from the original continuity trying to happen. I liked the first volume, but I’m not sure this is keeping my interest.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 135.

Lucky Fourteen assures me orange cats are the best.

Thought about going to the office, but I’m doing handover this week, so nah.

Read (graphic novel): Wrong Friend (Charise Mericle Harper, Rory Lucey): A sixth-grader is friend-dumped by her slightly older and now infinitely cooler best friend, and tries to figure out how to get a new best friend, what the ideal qualities of a best friend are, etc, in a slightly stream-of-consciousness way.

Read (from the shelf): FAIL.

Written (Geometry for Mutants): 147.