A quick search for “Roe” on whatever’s left of Wikipedia in the reader’s dystopian future will clarify the significance of today.
Read: Lazy Dragon Queen vol 3 (Ace Arriande): It’s a monotonic progression, yep. (Although going and living in a pocket universe seems like a good plan for uterus-havers.)
Written: 458 words, for 2622/3000. Writing things that are not kitten words is so much slower!
No training meeting today, just customer cases. And lethargy.
Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Our octopus managed to get entangled with a terrorist plot that turns out to be masterminded by Chi’s sister and may or may not be related to our actual mission. In theory, we should probably ignore it or just tip off the authorities and move on, but none of us think very highly of the authorities and their ability to prevent atrocities, so we’re going to take care of the Purple Death Express ourselves. Somehow.
Read: Lazy Dragon Queen vol 2 (Ace Arriande): Even more ridiculous and full of cute girls and affection and cat abuse and tower defense and crafting.
Written: 89 measly words.
Watched: Persuasion (1995): I think I’ve been radicalized by the Internet, because I mostly just want to send these people to the guillotine. The military people are slightly more sympathetic, because at least they do something, even if it’s mostly sailing around putting babies on flagpoles. (Okay, Anne’s not bad, just crushed down by her shitty society.)
Read: Lazy Dragon Queen vol 1 (Ace Arriande): Isekai romance between a completely OP dragon who assumes cute human form, the pocket universe she created, and the hapless gardener she demands as tribute. More wholesome than you might expect (assuming your expectations are not that high), and also completely ridiculous.
Read: Boo! It’s Sex! (Danielle Corestto, Monica Gallagher, Mae S Keller): 96 episodes of a ghost giving woefully ignorant college freshwomen sex ed and terrible jokes.
Read: The Witch and the Beast vol 8 (Kousuke Satake): End of the Vampire Level, I think. Honestly I’m getting kind of confused. Also why are we watching this vampire bozo beat people up instead of Gideau?
Written: 88 measly words.
Boss A is partially back, yay! So are the customers, boo!
Read: Sky on Fire (Lindsay Buroker): Penultimate book in the series, and the last one is going to have multiple wars, at least one interdimensional invasion, a plague, and assorted superpowered sociopaths to take care of. Everyone’s least favorite mage got ganked in this volume, though.
Written: 559 NON-kitten words. The kitten words are a whole month ahead, so I switched to writing something else, but it’s a lot slower going. I’m not back into the right voice yet, and I keep trying to edit while writing, because I am A Idiot. Anyway, 1987/3000 for the week.
Juneteenth is a Federal holiday now, but I still have to work. Bah. Seems like Boss A is recovering well, though.
Read: My Next Life as a Villainess Side Story: Girls Patch (Satoru Yamaguchi, et al): What it says on the tin: official fancomics about Katarina and some or all (mostly all) of the female characters. Because who even needs boys? Mushy, but deniably romantic, as per the core manga.
Written: 1428 kitten words, for a total of 1428/3000 for the week. I did the writing sprints, so I can have done at least one weekly sub-challenge (it’s automated, so everybody scheduling things in Eastern time doesn’t matter), and it did increase my output. I may want to go back over those entries before posting them, but that’s a month way.
I meant to get up early to do a co-working session with the other people in the writing challenge, but I was not awake enough to read (!!) never mind write, so I went back to sleep for a few hours. Because I suck.
Watched: Moon Knight ep 6: That wrapped up this plot, but there are any things left unresolved! There should be a second season! Also Layla should get to be awesome more.
Written: 1162 kitten words, for a total of 4767 this week. Slightly less than last week, but still pretty good.
Hey, look, I’m not on call! But the tickets that I worked on yesterday are coming back, so I feel guilty. Not guilty enough to log in to work, though I would have if the on-call person (who I think is New Coworker K today) asked. Instead I was pretty much useless all day.
Watched: Romeo and Juliet in the nearby park with Ayse and Ken and Marith and Jus and Nonny. It was a modern-dress production, and Romeo (as well as several other characters) were women. This didn’t work entirely well with the lines, so they still got referred to as “men” pretty often, but since nothing was changed otherwise, it was fine. Everybody died, including 7th-graders who had to listen to bawdy jokes.
Written: 259 kitten words, for a total of 3605/3000 this week.
Still short-staffed, got a severity 1 case to take up even more time. I have no brain left, because I had so little brain to start with.
Read: Chosen for Power (Lindsay Buroker): Fourth in the series about a mother-and-son of archaeologist in a mage-supremacy dystopia with worldgates and surprise dragons and so much doom. The doom is increasing, but the main characters are (on average) getting more power.
Watched: Ms. Marvel episode 1: Pretty swell! To me, it has a significantly different vibe from the comic, and the main character seems to have a different special effect for her powers (but, in Champions, they might be written up almost the same, it’s hard to tell so far). I think I need younger eyes to get all the background animation, but it’s cool anyway. I did notice the sign with America’s Ass.
Written: 343 kitten words, for a total of 3346/3000 so far this week.
Still down two people, so other teams wanting the thing they volunteered our team for will just have to wait. Boss’s boss B was complimentary of my explanation of how the thing works during the training meeting, though.
Played: Nothing. Ken was unavailable, Vivian wasn’t up to running, and Ken would destroy us all if we played Lancer without him. Again.
Written: 413 kitten words, for a total of 3003/3000 this week.
Ugh, 7:00 all-hands meeting.
Read: In The Land Of Leadale vol 1 (Dashio Tsukimi, Ceez, Tenmaso, Ryo Suzukaze): The usual bedridden-person-gets-sucked-into-MMVRRPG setup, but hundreds of years have passed in the fantasy realm, and there don’t seem to be any PCs left. Presumably some sort of conflict will arise in future volumes, but maybe it will only be interpersonal drama.
Written: 1100 kitten words, bringing the week to 2590/3000.
Is it really a holiday if I don’t get the day off? Didn’t think so.
Boss A is definitely down with the Rona, and coworker L is still out for the next couple of weeks, so that’s great. I interviewed a guy to join the team, and he seems good, but maybe I’m just giving him the benefit of the doubt because he’s a mature white guy. In any case, even if he passes all his other interviews with flying colors and accepts our offer, it’ll be months before he’s useful.
Read: FAIL.
Written: 355 kitten words. I think I need to work on something else and also not be dumb.
Uh oh, coworker T is back but now boss A is feeling “cold” symptoms.
Read: The Art of Growing (Jacqueline Ramsden): Ridiculously cute sapphic romance despite the truly horrible family of one lady and her resulting extreme lack of self-confidence. The fake dating is never in even the slightest danger of not being real.
Read: Ghost Reaper Girl vol 1 (Akissa Saiké): A twelfth-rate actress gets drafted to hunt spirits escaped from hell by being possessed by another spirit, some reverse harem. Could have been interesting but is just too skeevy.
Written: 1135 kitten words. Not as good as Monday of the first week, but still off to a good start.
I managed to get my hair cut, I guess that’s like having done something today.
Read: No Matter What You Say, Furi-San Is Scary! vol 3 (Seiichi Kinoue): Still cute, but not very interesting.
Written: 660 kitten words, bringing me to 4778/3000 for the week. Will I be as productive next week? Possibly, if I learn to focus like I did before. The trend has definitely been downwards since the first day, though.
Why is there so much temperature? I didn’t order this! At least the customers were mostly quiet.
Played: Zoomwarts. The lizards and their mammalian sidekicks made it back into the land of the dead, to rescue everyone!
Eaten: Coq au vin and kale salad.
Watched: The Slayers 4-5: Attack of the fish-creature! Also joke which caused Jus to die of mortification, which fortunately will never be brought up again.
Written: 286 kitten words, for a total of 4119/3000 so far this week.
Coworker T was out today, so back down to 60% of the team. It’s not traumatic, but still somewhat annoying.
Read: Finder’s Keeper (Mar Delaney): Old girlfriends reconnecting, but then bandits and desert survival intervene.
Written: 690 kitten words, bringing me to 3833/3000 for the week.
Played: Eclipse Phase 2, now with additional octopode action! Okay, really, octopode investigation, but since we lost Kelsey and her Titanian Science Cop, having Brand and his freelance forensics octopus is very useful. Chi being in an excessively-gendered morph is much less useful, although at least they’re somewhere their cold hard cash is useful.
Read: Micchi vs The New World vol 3 (Jammin’ Rabbit aka Tony Huo): Further adventures of the isekai delinquents looking for their former leader and being massively OP all over the place.
Written: FAIL.
Got some fillings, which didn’t hurt and was only mildly uncomfortable at the time, but then I was hungry and and the anesthetic hadn’t worn off so I was afraid if I tried to eat, I’d chew my own face off from the inside. Fortunately my nervous system recovered before I had to risk it.
Read: Encrypted (Lindsay Buroker): A fantasy cryptographer gets shanghaied into a dungeon crawl by her enemies, one of whom is handsome and not so hostile. Or maybe it’s really SF and only the benighted fascists think it’s fantasy.
Written: 840 kitten words, bringing me to 3143/300 for the week.
I successfully deposited my ballot, yay democracy.
Coworker K is back, but coworker L is still out, so work is kind of annoying.
Read: Venom and Vanilla (Shannon Mayer): FIXME
Written: 847 kitten words, for a total of 2303 this week. I’ll probably make my goal of 3000, if my brain functions even a couple more nights this week.
Coworker L’s mom died over the weekend, so no idea how long they will be out. Coworker K is on vacation until tomorrow. That leaves us at only 60% capacity, but at least the other team is back from monarchy and I only got volunteered for one urgent project.
Watched: Moon Knight 5. Now we finally know what Steven and Marc’s deal is! Also apparently there’s only one more episode!
Written: Saving my writing yesterday was apparently the right move, as I made 1455 of my 3000 weekly goal tonight.
On call all day, but the customers only attacked individually. Still, I’ll take it as an excuse for not having gotten anything done.
Read: The Fall (Alan Baxter): Five more short stories that, together with The Gulp, form a mosaic novel of cosmic horror and fungal doom.
Watched: The Owl House 2.9-10: Oh, that’s what’s going on with Luz’s mom!
Written: I signed up for the Hawai’ian Pizza Positive Writing Challenge, so if I have any ideas for writing, I should save them for tomorrow!
Marith was very flat so we didn’t have any Zoomwarts today. I did go over to help eat dinner and get hugs, and also explore the wider world of ice cream. I have long (well before the current pandemic) suspected my sense of taste is just not as good as most humans, and I think this confirms it. All the ice creams were good, and the olive oil ice cream definitely had a unique texture, but I clearly didn’t experience them in the same way as non-defective people. Still, deviled egg ice cream!
Written: 509 kitten words.
One coworker is out for family stuff, and another is on vacation. Also, one of the three teams is completely off because their monarch is very old and they live in a country with workers’ rights. Someone forgot to inform the customers, so I spent from 7:30 to 19:00 flailing uselessly at graphs and logics. Then Marith brought me a French dip sandwich, and I don’t know what was in it, but apparently none of the other beefs, grains, onions, or cheeses I’ve had recently contained what I needed. Maybe it was the meat juice? Last night’s burrito was made with pretty dry brisket.
Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue vol 4 (Makoto Sanda, Isuo Tsukumo): Wow, literally everybody who isn’t explicitly a villain ships them. (With good reason!)
Written: FAIL. Having to get up too early is no excuse!
I used a suggestion from a pocket friend for the team meeting activity, and it wasn’t quite a disaster. Now I have five weeks to find something I can do better at.
Played: Both Eclipse Phase and Lancer. Oh no, are we crossing the streams? Anyway, the PCs on the Jovian station who were not whatever the hell Brooks’s second character were successfully exfiltrated due to multiple critical successes to avoid complications (I told you, Chi is too fabulous to die!) and went back to the scum swarm where GML made an isopod-cat hybrid. Its name is Smooth Randy and everyone who is not a heartless spider robot loves it. Then we got Ken’s progressive technopriest integrated with the rest of the Lost University weirdos and got mechs set up on Comp/Con. Now we can have a giant robot fight someday!
Written: 348 kitten words.
…I got nothin’.
It’s kind of like Monday, only I’m on call during the day because it’s Tuesday. V confusing!
Read: Wish Upon A Satellite (Sophie Labelle): Further queer adventures of Ciel, Stephie, et al, in a Montreal high school that has both cuties and assholes, not easily sorted. The cuties are pretty cute, though.
Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue vol 3: Reread, so that now I know where they were and why Giselle was finally telling her story.
Watched: The Owl House 7-8: Oh my gosh, they’re all so cute! Except maybe Hooty.
Written: 504 kitten words.
I was extremely not useful on my day off. I mean, I accomplished my two important chores of grocery shopping and laundry, but that wasn’t really very much. I started mutant jotto with a pocket friend, which I will inevitably lose because I’m dumb. Also I saw a butterfly and despaired of what we’ve made of the world.
Watched: Moon Knight 3-4: Marith was finally able to come over again (with pizza!) so we watched another couple of episodes. That’s not actually the best way to get that information, but I understand they had limited time. Also, middle of episode 4, ?????
Read: In/Spectre vol 15 (Kyo Shirodaira, Chashiba Katase): Looks like a lot of people have cunning plans, but if you come for the God of Wisdom, you best not miss.
Read: Babalon’s Hangover (Liva Jensen, Stein Hansen): More (if I can say that when it’s actually previous to the other) horrible things to meet in Mörk Borg.
Written: 413 kitten words.
Gaming cancelled due to plague (not that plague) at the Gollubs’, so I slept in without having to reset my alarm repeatedly, which was more restful than some alternatives, and then did a huge amount of nothing, including eating fried food and reading the archives of Pterrible Dinosaur Drawings. Eventually I went over to hang out with Ayse and Jus and Nonny for a while,
Watched: The Owl House 2.5-6: Horrible children! A conflicted villain! A horrible monster! Kisses!
Read: FAIL
Written: FAIL
I don’t actually need to shop for groceries until Monday, but I ended up buying some less-perishable stuff because I had to go to the bank to get quarters anyway, and then the bookstore is right down the street, and I didn’t have to be on call until the afternoon…
A few weeks ago, Nonny wanted a “My books are calling and I must go read” shirt like mine, which was I was finally able to deliver. Now we’re Book Buddies.
Played: Zoomwarts, although not very energetically. Jus had a sleepover last night so of course very little actual sleep occurred, and Marith is always oppressed by work.
Eaten: Japanese food, but it wasn’t great. Or maybe I was just wrong about that being what I wanted. I’m not sure about this whole “eating” thing, TBH.
Read: The Gulp (Alan Baxter): Five linked stories about an extremely creepy town on the Australian coast and the horrible things that happen there: fungus, mutation, ancient dreams, inbreeding, eyeball eating, murder, the usual fun stuff.
Read: Babalon’s Hangover 2 (various): 100+ pages of horrible things, places, people, and happenings for the doomed, decaying world of Mörk Borg.
Written: FAIL.
Bah, no hot water for most of the day.
Today’s meeting activity was more stretches, so we’re at 50% stretching and 50% computer games. I should come up with something better when it’s my turn next week.
Watched: The Owl House 2.3-4: Backstory for both King and Eda and Lilith! And something is up with Luz’s mom.
Read: FAIL.
Written: 469 kitten words.
Ugh, commuting is the worst. Being in a warm office with a bunch of other humans is also the worst. Free barbecue lunch, whatever. But I knew many several a few things when I imprudently sat across from former boss M in the training meeting.
Played: Ken is going to a con or something (they still have those?) so we worked more on Lancer characters and determined that our characters are actually ex-university cast into the future by spatial anomaly research, not ex-military, and have been recruited by the people who took over the university station after everyone ran off to become Horus.
Read: Enemy Action (Terry Mixon): Third in the series about a refugee from genetically-engineered commieland who becomes a space marine for the empire ruled by wild-type hereditary aristocrats (which is somehow better?). It’s fifteen thousand years in the future, so naturally all cultural references are to the mid-20th century, and makeup is a surprising revelation. It’s a good thing these books are free, because old white guys are dumb.
Written: Wait, I’m an old white guy!