Tag: tv

Darn, I’ve run out of chocolate-covered chocolate.

Somehow I got up and did things today. Not sure how that happened, but here we are, with fresh produce and bao and flu antigens and the return of anime night and everything.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 2.3-4: Looking for Kipo’s backstory, but getting Wolf’s along the way.

Watched: Sacrificial Princess & The King of Beasts 1-4: Our first show for revived anime night! It’s pretty fluffy, with hardly any humans being devoured on screen, and so far the princess is only being compassionate, not getting into administration like rumor has it she will. It’s a full season, though, so we have plenty of time yet. Probably not enough for the cat princess to redeem herself, though.

Read: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom vol 8 (Satoru Yamaguchi, Nami Hidaka): More of the same, including a flashback to Katarina’s earlier teen years when other girls were just as unable to deal with her. Apparently next volume they graduate and get jobs, but I can’t imagine it will change Katarina at all.

Written: FAIL.

Is two a herd? They certainly sound like it when they stampede in the middle of the night!

I did several works, but feel like I should have done more. Oh well.

Watched: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off 4-6: An entire subplot to tie in to the original story, sure. Get it, Wallace! But now Ramona has solved much of the mystery, so it’s time for another plot twist!

Read: Blackguard vol 1 (Ryo Hanada): Zombie apocalypse of the future, the arcology’s greatest defender fights alone with a sword and has a death wish, he gets partnered with a more orthodox bad ass, etc.

Read: The Shiunji Family Children vol 1 (Reiji Miyajima, Reiji Yukino): Forbidden teenage love that’s suddenly not forbidden. Despite the ML complaining that living with five stunning sisters isn’t like a harem romcom, it’s obvious where this is going.

Read: Paladin’s Faith (T Kingfisher): Another of the ex-paladins gets tangled up in the problems of a beautiful woman, in this case the mysterious best friend from the first book in the series. Intrigue, espionage, romance, and demonolatry ensue.  I liked it, but it didn’t seem like the espionage adventure and the demon adventure had any connection except one happened right after the other. It could have been two novellas just as easily.

Written: FAIL.

A good day for Ayse.

This new transit route has worked correctly three times in a row, and only requires getting up ten minutes earlier than the defective route, so I guess I’ll stick with it.

Office lunch was salad with pulled pork, which the arm widget liked much better.

Read: Magical Girl Incident vol 2 (Zero Akabane): As per usual, the explanations given to the MC are woefully incomplete, but at least he knows he isn’t the only one (even if the rest of them are a bunch of loons).

Not Read: Mob Psycho 100 vol 1 (ONE): I liked the anime, but I couldn’t get into the manga. The art style is weird, and I don’t know.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 1.10-2.2: Kipo and her ever-growing assortment of friends (apparently the favored stat for humans is Charisma) solved the problem they thought they had, which resulted in a much worse problem.

Written: FAIL.

 

Boo, office. Apparently the local COVID admissions are still green, though, so the CDC does not recommend that everybody else in the office mask. Arm widget said my fried chicken sandwich lunch was No Good, I guess it’s okay that all the breakfast carbs were for the capitalist oppressors.

Read: The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter vol 1 (Ichi Yukishiro): An elderly dragon adopts a discarded human girl, but finds that even death cannot release him from his parental duties. I’m not sure about the role models that are being provided for this poor girl!

Read: Magical Girl Incident vol 1 (Zero Akabane): An office worker encounters a monster and in a fit of heroism transforms into a bona fide magical girl. WTFery ensues, but there is apparently some rhyme or reason to what’s going on. Not clear why the coworker has such disturbing resources.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 1.7-9: Almost to the end of the first season, and of course the problem Kipo thought she had is not the real problem.

Written: FAIL.

These cats are very insistent that they are entitled to three gooshy meals a day and a minimum of eight hours of snuggles!

Played: Librarians Errant. The team’s first assignment this session is tracking down the entrepreneur jerk who tried to hoard all copies of an important textbook. This requires beating up her little gang of  undergrad goons, but Thaïs gets to use a second-level spell and anyway the opposition are kind of wimpy. Only Flint gets beat up much before the team returns to the library in triumph. The next day, as they sort books, the library is invaded by bullywugs looking for volume one of the magical series! Every librarian is mobilized, and the team is set guarding a door deep in the lower lower stacks. Bullywugs come from the sewers, so this is not as pointless as it might seem, but it’s still a surprise when a  very senior librarian appears, chased by bullywugs and fire-breathing giant toads. She is definitely authorized, and also the shelves of archaic legal tomes are now on fire, so the team piles through the door after her and tries to lead the bullies off in a different direction through the maze of even more obscure (and now burning) stacks. Then they find the opening to the Elemental Plane of Books, or something, and the magic card catalog. Thaïs was already looking for books on shoggoth-banishing, so she makes a catalog card for it, and everybody follows the card across the walkway of flying books to the book island. The book on the podium tries to bite Thaïs’s hand off, so she zaps it, and we break as the other books flap to attack.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 4-6: A master villain! Mysterious powers! Metalheads! The shortest romance subplot ever! Probably for the best, as Kipo is way younger than I thought.

Written: FAIL.

Tried to see The Marvels, but there were only two showings a day and neither of them convenient, so I just bought some groceries and went home.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 1-3: A human girl from a postapocalyptic underground enclave is trapped on the surface where everything is mutated and weird and has picked up random scraps of human culture. Fortunately she falls in with some other humans who are willing to help her find her people, although they don’t like the way she tries to make friends with everything. It’s not up to the level of Steven Universe or She-Ra but it’s pretty entertaining.

Written: FAIL.

What do you mean, “pretend”? Same direction and speed as everybody else, though.

Watched: Derry Girls 3.4-7: More hijinks, but then sudden tragedy and the future and even more future, the end!

Read: The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This vol 4 (Takashi Ikeda): And they achieved some professional success and stability, and lived happily ever after, the end!

Written: FAIL.

I rode the other bus to the other train station to catch the same train, which required getting up a little earlier but was otherwise entirely satisfactory. But, was the bus being pretty much on time today just a fluke? There’s not a lot of margin for error there.

Training meeting made me feel like I know something about my job, but that’s just hubris, I’m sure. Lunch was chicken tikka with both rice and naan, which made the line go up Too Much. It was quite tasty, but maybe no white rice next time.

Read: I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into A Girl vol 3-4 (Azusa Banjo): Romance! Cuteness! Other romance! Beach episode! Summer festival episode!

Watched: Derry Girls 3.1-3: Crime hijinks! Maternal hijinks! Colm’s powers used for good(?)!

Written: FAIL.

 

Hooray!

Tried to go into the office, was betrayed by the bus simply not showing up, ended up super-late. I obviously need my robots to make me a better plan. Beet salad for lunch, which even with chicken did not make my line go up much.  Then tried to replenish the cats’ gooshyfood, but forgot how these particular busses work and missed the gooshyfood emporium’s hours. I have enough for tomorrow’s breakfast and that’s it, so I better not mess up tomorrow!

Read: I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into A Girl vol 2 (Azusa Banjo): New characters are introduced, but there are still zero (0) people being mean to our genderfluid cutie, which is probably completely unrealistic for modern Japan, but is exactly as it should be.

Watched: Derry Girls 2.4-6: Teenage hijinks, morbid hijinks, teenage hijinks, major historical events!

Written: FAIL because I am dumb.

I keep resisting the urge to buy More Dice. Maybe I’m a bad gamer. I mean, for more reasons than previously mentioned.

Finally managed to start using the new bloodometers (the kind you stick on and leave in place for two weeks), so at least I could tell the doctor I was doing it. She probably would have been happier if I had done it months ago like I said, though.

Also finally dragged my computer desk into my bedroom so I could plug it back in. Fortunately it is not too far from the wifi router.

Watched: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off 1-3: After the end of the first episode (which was suitably surprising to Marith), it’s all the other characters all the time! I heard that this show is partially a response to people who esteemed Scott too highly (looking at you, SP) and now I believe it.

Written: Regular FAIL.

I did actually buy some tiny apple pies when I was grocery shopping, although I probably shouldn’t have.

Read: Handyman Saitou In Another World vol 1 (Kazutomo Ichitomo): Okay, I think the isekai-to-D&D-videogame-world genre is played out. New idea plz.

Watched: Derry Girls 1.5-6, 2.1-3: It must be a new season, Gerry has a mustache! The other characters are not much changed, even Clare, but they are still ridiculous and definitely their own worst enemies.

Written: FAIL, haven’t plugged my computer back in.

Most of the day I spent being a useless lump, yet available for customers if they needed help, but then the cats showed a great interest in the nook next to my computer desk, and when I looked, the electrical outlet there was smoking heavily. I unplugged everything from it and it stopped, but it obviously needs replaced. Maybe it’s time to think about a better apartment, but I’m not sure I’m up for doubling my rent.

Since my computer is also unplugged, I had to order pizza and watch TV.

Watched: Derry Girls 1.1-4: Everybody said this is very funny and it is! They are all sincerely ridiculous.

Read: O Maidens In Your Savage Season vol 7-8 (Mari Okada, Nao Emoto): Somehow, everything gets sorted out by the end, and yet sex remains pretty much a mystery. Also nobody dies, which they definitely would have in the US.

Written: FAIL, my computer is unplugged!

 

Ah, maybe that’s why I failed to obtain a black cat today, I’m in the US. Which is built around cars and the adoption people would not hand over the cats when I said I was going to carry them on the bus. I will have to make a better plan and try again.

Fortunately work was pretty quiet so my taking a few hours off to fail miserably wasn’t a problem.

Watched: Marith and I tried watching some Adventure Time, because apparently it is still a huge cultural phenomenon, but even with what Marith could remember of the curated episode list, it was still pretty uninteresting. Then we tried watching the pilot of the new cultural phenomenon, The Amazing Digital Circus, which was also not very interesting. It was just weird things happening to the main character that she can’t do anything about.

Written: FAIL.

But don’t worry about that, being superstitious is bad luck.

I had no brain and accomplished no things today.

Watched: Murder Drones 1.4-6: Rewatching the two episodes before the latest only helped a little bit. It is still very confusing. They have a human to take care of now? But also robot dinosaurs! (The robot dinosaurs are also cursed.)

Written: FAIL.

Do they mean the small woodland mammal, or something else? I guess I’ll have to ask them over and over and over to clarify.

Watched: One Piece 1.8: Yeah, the thing with Garp should have been much more drawn out, although of course streaming shows can’t ever delay gratification more than a few episodes. It was a decent season finale, with lots of yelling and the boss’s body never recovered.

Read: “The Air In My House Tastes Like Sugar” (ZZ Claybourne): African witches, mother and daughter, travel the world and get varying receptions from white people and their haunts. The oven thing totally makes sense in context.

Written: FAIL.

Other people will have to handle this one, obviously.

Did manage to shop a grocery, although this week I only have two days of work because then I am being useless and/or preparing for and going to a con.

Watched: Cyberpunk Edgerunners 1-3: It’s a streaming content based on a videogame that’s based on a 35-year-old RPG that’s based on a 40-year-old subgenre of SF, so only the surface features are left, none of the depth.

Written: 166.

I think the equinox is just before midnight, unless I’ve forgotten how time zones work, which is entirely possible.

Ate too much Chinese food, because what else are local Chinese restaurants for?

Watched: One Piece 5-7: Every pirate crew needs a cook with a backstory! Also we finally get Nami’s backstory, and it is full of doom and betrayal. Next episode: season finale battle!

Written: FAIL.

That was somebody’s fact in the fact-or-share portion of the meeting. Mine was that chickens, pheasants, and other birds in that family can eat deadly nightshade without harm, thus spreading its seeds. I got adopted by Boss B, because I was able to look up Helicoprion, but that did not save me from being on shift until 19:00.

Watched: One Piece 3-4: The ones with Kaya, Usopp, and Kuro. And Sham, who can be my minion anytime. Also Zoro’s backstory, so maybe next episode we’ll find out about Nami.

Read: MonsTABOO vol 4 (Yuya Takahashi, TALI): Instead of going on for one million volumes while never getting closer to a resolution, it ended! Many people died, who may or may not have deserved it, some people did not die, some people did both.

Written: FAIL.

SWIDT?

Fortunately work was light today, but I have to be available in case the Special Customer calls between 19 tonight and 13 tomorrow, and same tomorrow night. The expected number of calls is zero, though.

Watched: One Piece 1.1-2: Marith liked the first episode, so we continued on to the Evil Clown episode. The clown was definitely evil! Also more of Luffy’s backstory. Shanks was pretty great, it’s no surprise Luffy thinks of pirates as heroic. Not sure about this anti-Straw-Hat task force, though.

Written: 242, although I ended up deleting most of it after. It wasn’t going in the right direction.

I, uh, gave money to unionization efforts? Does that count?

Finally got my act together enough to do one (1) errand, so, uh, go me? No, not really, I still suck.

Second round of signups for Big Bad Con was slightly less of a disaster than the first round. I got signed up for Plant Girl Game and Rats in the Cellar, anyway. Four more slots to go!

Watched: Sweet Tooth 1.1: Randomly picked from Netflix offerings because I’d heard of the comic it’s based on. So far it is not a very unique take on the post-apocalyptic genre, although at least Earth hasn’t inexplicably lost all its water. Not sure if I’ll watch any more.

Read: Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz (Garth Nix): A collection of all the stories about the godlet-hunting magic puppet and his human sidekick published in various places, which I’d only read I think three of. It’s a great adventuring setup that I should really steal some time.

Read: There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… vol 2 (Musshu, Teren Mikami, Eku Takeshima): That was not okay, Mai! But the text does not treat it as okay, which is better than some. Also our main character needs to think more about what she’s doing to the other character’s hearts!

Written: 196.

Gaming is cancelled due to Covid among the Monkeycats, so I have nothing to do today and might as well continue to die in this pit.

Watched: One Piece 1: I don’t remember much of the manga, but that was pretty cool on its own merits. Luffy seems kind of… off, but apparently that’s intentional. Also everything is ridiculous and Roronoa is hot.

Read: Just Friends (Ana Oncina): Two girls meet at summer camp and fall in love among mild teenage shenanigans, with flashforwards to their future relationship. Not entirely cheerful.

Read: Dungeon People vol 1 (Sui Hutami): A high-level thief gets drafted to work in administration of the dungeon where her father disappeared so many years ago. Mostly about meeting new coworkers and how to use fax slimes to file the dungeon paperwork.

Written: 220. Not exactly about skyscrapers, but they’re there in the wide shots.

But September means Big Bad Con is almost here!

Finally finished Good Omens 2, I was not impressed. It fulfilled Marith’s fanfic need to see more of the main characters doing stuff, but I didn’t like some of the stuff they did, or much of what the secondary characters did. Also, it was clear setup for subsequent seasons, which just seems foolhardy in this world of streaming services.

Written: 186.

 

Today’s meeting fact: Hippos can’t swim. That’s not buoyant fat, it’s all muscle and bone to WRECK YOUR SHIT. Bonus fact, hippos are an invasive species in South America.

Watched: Good Omens 2.4-5: I’m pretty meh about the flashbacks, and in general just not liking this as much as the first season. Apparently Pratchett did add something. But maybe the last episode will bring it all together and I will understand the genius.

Read: Dandadan vol 3 (Yukinobu Tatsu): The annoying aliens are back, with reinforcements, not that it’s going to do them any good against the naked yokai powers of Earth.

Read: Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie vol 2 (Keigo Maki): Further slices in the life of a very femme-presenting but tough and cool high-school girl and her less butch and also cursed boyfriend.

Written: 325. That’s more like it, brain.

Everybody loves the void!

Traffic was horrible, probably because parents all drive their children to school in individual vehicles, so I didn’t make the transfer to the train, but the long bus got me there like twenty minutes later, which isn’t too bad. Customers were still somewhat numerous, but not like yesterday. I did a command line thing, it was okay.

I could not find the things I was looking for in my useless room of useless piles of useless comics.

Watched: Good Omens 2.3: Oh good, more ominousness!

Read: A Restless Truth (Freya Marske): It’s the same magical intrigue from A Marvellous Light, but the quest has extended to America, which can only be reached by water, so it’s time for the ocean liner murder mystery! With enthusiastic sapphic interludes.

Written: FAIL.

Mine was several days ago, but close enough!

After telling everybody in the office “Go home for the rest of the week. No reason.” the company told everybody “Get back in the office this week. No reason.” That does not make me confident that they have identified and mitigated any safety issues.

Watched: Good Omens 2.2: I am in awe of the beard. Also, angels r dum.

Written: 220/1212/14965.

I have nothing against Australian lemon-choco cakes, but probably wouldn’t have picked this for my header if Coworker T hadn’t used it for his fact in the meeting today. (My fact was about turtle butts.)

Watched: Murder Drones 4-5: Still pretty ???, but then YouTube rolled over to somebody explaining his theory of what happened, and it seemed pretty plausible. No idea whether it’s correct.

Written: 181 today, 994 for the week, 10541 overall.

Played: Dark Matter. Turns out Death Race 800 isn’t just a race, we have to stop at three (or maybe more) points to engage in minigames. Being first to the field is definitely an advantage, though, so it’s not not a race. The first minigame was capture the flag, set in an industrial catwalk maze with no safety features whatsoever. There were unfortunately rules about what we could do to the other flags before the second and third teams arrived, but none of them said we couldn’t weld a cable to it one of them for yoinking or stick the other one on top of the flame vent. The cable didn’t work as well as I hoped, but it did slow down the other teams stealing the flag enough that we could get all three and open the exit lock. Also a couple of the larger demons got discorporated, which should make things easier going forward. Next session, we have to rescue one of the NPCs we like before she gets tattooed drunkenly.

I tried to foil the Chinese restaurant’s attempt to give me bonus soup by getting different soup as part of my order, so they gave me bonus fried rice instead.

Watched: Shadow & Bone 2. Yeah, yeah, chosen one, reluctant hero, whatever. When does she get to be a living laser cannon?

Read: Against All Odds (Jeffery H Haskell): Missiles in space, but way too much heroic Christian Americans-in-all-but-name who don’t trust this out-of-control technological innovation vs degenerate swarthy Muslims who only want to rape white women and also all media and civilian oversight of the military might as well be working for the enemy.

Written: Eventually it added up to 157 for the week, but at least I’m not that much of a MAGAt.