Got cleaners in to make my apartment slightly less horrible. I need to get a whole bunch of stuff off the floor or into the trash if I want to have cats in here, though.
Played: Lancer. Nobody remembered how this game works after Ken cancelled three weeks in a row, but Vivian has brain electrodes, so that’s cool.
Written: FAIL.
Started off the week by having to be available for twelve hours straight, but only the part that was during normal business hours had any activity, so I guess that was okay.
Written: 553 today, 553 for the week, 3934 overall.
Sorry, all father points are revoked upon becoming a Trump voter. I don’t make the rules.
Since there isn’t Sunday gaming for the next however long, and this would be an off week anyway, I swapped with somebody to take their oncall shift today. I think they’re a father or something. But the customers did not attack, so mostly I was useless all day.
We did some Minecraft in the afternoon. I mostly harvested cobwebs and vegetables from the abandoned village, and flailed about in caves looking for dripstone. I replanted the vegetables, but I have no idea if the cobwebs regenerate.
Read: Shadows of a Dying Sun (Alan Bahr): An OSRish game with several tables of dying-earth genre stuff, lots of resource tracks to manage, and an inexorable progression toward death instead of hit points per se. Also there’s an event where someone predicts that the world will end tomorrow and there’s a 10% chance they’ll be right.
Written: 144 tonight, 1734 for the second week, 3381 for both weeks so far.
I slept in forever, but felt slightly less useless afterwards, so maybe that was good? Probably not, though. Only one of my four errands failed due to lateness, anyway.
Written: 375 today, 1590 for the week, 3237 overall.
At least VP B isn’t pretending that losing a big chunk of our team doesn’t suck. But he’s a much better manager than departed Boss R.
Written: Apparently this is my failure day for the week. Hopefully I can keep it to one.
In the office again, for Chick-Fil-A and meetings about support for the ~Special~ customers, which the now-sacked Boss R was supposed to have gotten sorted and which is not sorted. Also my custom of commuting home in the middle of the afternoon is now officially approved.
Read: Ruby Finley vs The Interstellar Invasion (K Tempest Bradford): An 11-year-old black girl who likes bugs finds a mysterious bug and trouble ensues. Even though it’s set in the present (smartphones, Twitter, etc) the main character gets to ride her bike around the neighborhood and visit her friends without having an adult and a car and a schedule.
Read: “The Star-Bear” (Michael Swanwick): I think I’m not Russian enough, or not Russian-lit-reading enough, to get this one. Pretty sure the bear is a metaphor, though.
Written: 102 today, 1215 for the week, 2862 overall.
Back to the office for no good reason. American restaurant pasta for lunch. Light customer activity, which would seem lighter if we weren’t missing so many people.
Read: Spell Sweeper (Lee Edward Fodi): It’s the anti-Harry Potter, where the main character has tiny magical powers so instead of learning real magic at Secret Magic School, she’s on the janitorial track, and her hated rival is the Chosen One, a magical prodigy, tall and beautiful, beloved by everyone, etc. Naturally they have to work together to save the world, despite the unhelpfulness of the adult wizards.
Written: 229, 1113, 2760.
Did I do anything today? I don’t think so. Just blblblblblbl.
No gaming, because after cancelling the past two sessions for work, Ken is now on vacation.
Read: Drew Leclair Gets A Clue (Katryn Bury): A 7th-grader who wants to be a criminal profiler tries to unmask her school’s cyberbully while also dealing with health issues, meatspace bullies, friends who might be into kissing, and her mom having run off with the school counselor.
Written: 302 words today, 884 for the week, 2531 overall.
We had no Marith, but we played Minecraft anyway. The 9-Channel Lavamatic and Obsidian Condenser are done except that I need five more dripstone stalactites and when I went looking for some I ended up stuck in a cave full of lava and apparently with lots of water above me so I can’t dig out. Also Nonny built a cobblestone generator that (usually) puts the cobblestone right into a chest. After that, we ate grilled imitation meats and went to a park and searched for the lost art of conversation and Ayse tried to talk me into getting cats. I have to admit, cats are good.
Written: FAIL. That leaves me at 1647/1000 for the week, though, so I guess I set my weekly goal appropriately for my level of lameness.
I managed to not only go grocery shopping, but also get quarters. The nice credit union lady exchanged me an extra roll, so now I can go longer before having to remember to restock, hurray.
Then I did a lot of nothing.
Marith has flown away to France with her horrible mother. I hope she can enjoy the France and not worry about what random old people think of her clothes.
Read: The Calamitous Bob chapter 1-30: Isekai/LitRPG, but instead of a teenager, the MC is a French soldier. This only helps somewhat. Also her local guide is alarming.
Written: 140 today, 1647 for the week and overall.
Read: Translation State (Ann Leckie): This really shows why everybody hates the Radchaai. Also, lots more about Presger Translators. The Presger themselves remain mysterious.
Written: 400 today, 1508 for week/overall.
We had two separate going-away celebrations for Coworker A (who was Boss A when I joined), who is leaving us to go back to her ancestral homeland. She’s been a pillar of the team the whole time I’ve been with Aerospike, so it is sad to see her go, but hopefully she will do well in this new phase of her life!
Written: 229 for the day, 1103 for the week and overall.
Taco Wednesday in the office.
New (minor) Minecraft version, but I only logged in enough to make sure my main world still works.
Read: Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesh): Yes, the MC is supposed to be that awful at the beginning, because she is starting her story of personal growth (and saving a lot of people) from the very bottom. Much of the plot could have been avoided if the aliens had a better concept of security, but that wasn’t really the point.
Written: 305 for the day, 878 for the week and overall.
No gaming, I blame capitalism. Instead, Marith came over and we watched more Mob Psycho 100. Also I played too much Minecraft, and got ganked by a wet zmobie when I stopped to mine clay on my way to the village where I might be able to turn my string into emeralds. I managed to refloor my hall of making, though, even the edges under the furniture.
Watched: Mob Psycho 100 3.6-8: End of the giant broccoli (and Dimple?), then aliens. That was actually super-nice of the Telepathy Club.
Read: My Cute Little Kitten vol 1 (Milk Morinaga): Roommates adopt an orphan kitten in a no-pets apartment, then one confesses to the other, but the kitten has excellent (terrible) timing for cat stuff. Life ensues, in slices.
Written: 167 today, 573 for the week, 573 overall.
Pizza for Pages started today. Despite my great incompetence, I did most of a co-writing session and got almost half my weekly quota in one evening. But, can I do it more than once a week?
Read: Marvel Meow (Nao Fuji): Wordless cartoons of the cat from Captain Marvel causing trouble for other Marvel superheroes. (Are they really all in the MCU now?) The art style is cute, but the storytelling wasn’t that strong. But, flerken!
Written: 406 for the day, the week, and the whole writing challenge.
I didn’t want to get up, but I went grocery shopping and got a lunch anyway, but even though I was in time, there was no family Minecraft because Ayse and Ken are flat from too much soccer tournament. Instead I spent the afternoon in my own world, ripping up flooring so I could replace it with (correctly-aligned) glazed terracotta. Now the main hall has a nicer pattern, and the hall of magic has a purple floor. The hall of making will have a grey floor, I think, although I’m not sure I can dig under everything that’s there to replace the floor in-place. We’ll see. Hopefully I won’t create a basement full of zmobies again.
Read: “The Puppetmaster” (Kemi Ashing-Giwa): Turns out making deals with demons might have complications.
Read: “Counting Casualties” (Yoon Ha Lee): It’s not Hexarchate, but the same kind of magical technology and duty and horror.
Written: 211.
Slept all morning, on call all afternoon. There was some customer activity but not much, and yet I did not accomplish anything. I think I mostly read webcomics and pushed my inbox to the top of a hill.
I did play more Minecraft, and finally, after tunneling all the way down to Y=-58, I found some diamonds! Now I can make a diamond pickaxe and then an enchanting table! I even almost made it back to the surface, but the cave I broke into that had a climbable slope also had monsters, so I died at about Y=+15.
Read: “Pretty Good Neighbor” (Jeffrey Ford): Terrible people get terrible ideas about terrible things.
Written: 143.
Reasonably quiet day on the work front, possibly because the space where Boss R used to be has not yet imploded.
No anime because Marith has to travel soon, so I spent some evening toodling around in Minecraft. I dug down to Y=-8, but still no diamonds, only caves full of monsters. Bah!
Written: 194, but is it going anywhere?
Went to the office, found out New Boss R has been canned after six months, not much work got done after that. Details are scarce, but apparently he just wasn’t measuring up. I hope these times are not going to be too interesting.
Read: The Witch King (Martha Wells): Much more like the Raksura books than Murderbot, of course, but still pretty good. MC is a body-switching demon, magic is complicated, imperialism sucks, human customs vary. (At least, I think they’re human; no mention of intermarriage, though, so maybe it’s a zillion different species like the Raksura books.)
Written: 187.
Went to the office, ate Panda Express (probably not made from real pandas), spent too much time screwing around with the stupid Windows laptop I have to lug around for Federal support, came back home, blugh.
Read: Critical Mass (Craig Alanson): Kind of deus ex machina, but triumphant. Yet apparently, not the end!
Written: 238, somehow.
I slept terribly, so getting up was no fun, but eventually I did it and did a work and complained to my boss about things and blargh. Then I ordered a pizza and gave away half of it, so maybe I won’t die of cheese poisoning. Or maybe I will anyway.
Played: Nothing, Ken is busy with capitalism stuff this week and next. By the time we play Lancer again, Vivian will have had her brain upgrade!
Written: 183. Also I signed up for Pizza for Pages (pizza not included). I think I’m going to set my weekly goal at 1000, which is 143 per day, or 167 if I miss one day a week, so it’s good that I can sometimes beat that even without cowriting sessions.
Today I had to be on call from some poorly-defined time around 7:00 to an equally poorly-defined time around 19:00, but the customers were fairly quiet, so it turned out okay. I slept next to my phone a bunch, and also tootled around in Minecraft finding villages full of villagers that only want to trade for vegetables. Actually I found one guy that wanted to trade for string, but there weren’t enough giant spiders. I eventually died and had to respawn back home, so I could get some string and row all the way out there again, I guess, but it’s a long ways for emeralds that I’m not sure what to do with.
Written: 210 words.
No gaming, because even though we aren’t going to Roseville, we cancelled too late to reclaim the time slot. Instead I got up before noon to go grocery shopping, and then went over to play Minecraft with everyone. I’m working on a 9-Channel Lavamatic, because every town needs one, but the most accessible lava is way off thataway, so I spent most of the afternoon being very bad at Cartesian orienteering and too stubborn to just build a landmark. If I ever make it back to town, I think I have enough lava to finish filling the reservoir, but I still need enough iron to build nine cauldrons, some more stalactites, and more polished diorite and water to build the safety moat.
Since Ken, who does most of the cooking, is still at Kublacon, we had Thai food and pizza and repletion and happiness.
In my own world, I replaced some poorly-organized chests with slightly better-organized barrels. They stack better, and also don’t autocombine.
Read: Valkyrie (Craig Alanson): And then everybody died! Not really, we’re only like halfway through the series, but that was quite a twist.
Written: Only 93 words, boo. Maybe it’s okay if I write 107 tomorrow.
Slept in until noon again, but then got up and went to automated sushi with Ayse and Jus and Nonny. We ate so many sushis! After that I did a lot of nothing, because I am very dumb.
Written: 124 words.
There’s no going to Roseville because there is only sickness, but It’s not like I gave up having today off. Mostly I slept stupidly, though.In the evening, Marith came over for anime and pizza, but the pizza was bad. The anime was good, though.
Watched: Mob Psycho 100 3.3-5: You know it’s bad when calling yourselves the Giant Broccoli Cult would be a step up.
Read: Bones of the Past (Drew Hayes): Further supervillainous adventures of Hephaestus and friends. Includes superheroes being butts, supervillains being terrifying, and an extremely ambitious plot for vengeance. Also, the secret origin of Fornax!
Written: 154 words
Office again, this time with okay Thai food and Coworker R’s anecdotes about his checkered past. And customers, I guess.
When I got home, I pillaged the sand mine for wood and tracks, but mostly found zombies.
Written: 277 words. Not quite to the maggots yet.
Yuck, commuting. Managed to do a work or two, though.
Read: Armageddon (Craig Alanson): Oops, they ran out of charmed life. Also, it seems like sooner or later Skippy is going to get his wormhole transit card proactively revoked.
Read: Chamomile #1-323 (JezMM): I couldn’t remember where I was, so I had to start from the beginning. Oh no, such a burden, reading about silly cute people.
Written: 207 words, somehow.
Lots of meetings, including a long customer meeting that finally ended with getting them working again. That was satisfying, even if it was new boss R that found the important information.
I got Friday off, just in time for the Roseville trip to be cancelled due to illness. I think I would not have trained up on Friday and back on Sunday, because that is too much time on the train for time spent visiting friends.
Played: Lancer. No fight this time, which is probably for the best since Vivian had no internets and wouldn’t have been able to teleport and teleport and teleport. Instead we worked on fixing our spaceship and some other stuff that’s clearly not as important, and ended on the cliffhanger of the city being attacked. Time for a giant robot battle!
Played a little Minecraft, dug up some of the wooden parts of the sand mine, pillaged a couple of mine cart chests, and also dug up all the track I could find. Then I avoided the zombies and found a village, or maybe a dead village since it contained pillagers that shot me.
Written: FAIL. Gaming and getting ready for office tomorrow instead.
Monday, Monday, Monday! How I hate capitalism! But at least I don’t have any meetings today. Or any brain.
I found a big sandy pit with an arch over it, and what looks like a mine half-buried in the sand. I’m afraid that means all the mineral wealth is completely buried, but the numerous zmobies are definitely not buried.
Written: 227, which is almost a real number.
I did in fact go shopping today (after sleeping in a lot). I also got a hair cut (this one, right here, see?) and paid too much to have people prepare food for me. I played some Minecraft, but mostly just wandered around the northeastern end of the giant mesa visible from home, which had regular white-sand desert, some biome with grass and sheep and no trees that I guess is meadows, and of course caves full of monsters. That wasn’t super-productive, but when I got back, I had enough wheat to breed some new cows, which will eventually grow enough to be murdered harvested for their leather. Still no diamonds, though. Maybe I should go back and start mining around the bottom of that deep shaft in the desert.
Written: 158. So far, so good.