The new thing is live, and even almost kind of works a bit, but I was on a customer call all morning so the rest of the team had to complain about it without me. It’s too bad, as I really feel that complaining is one of my core competencies.
Watched: Ms. Marvel 5-6: Yay, she finally got the costume! And defeated the villains, with the assistance of her non-powered but courageous friends! As is appropriate for the genre. I hope there’s another season
Written: 390 kitten words.
I accomplished pretty much nothing today, but I wrote it off as recovering from last week, so whatever.
The schedule for Big Bad Con is nearing completion, so I guess I’m committed to this folly and need to figure out how to make a point-crawl that doesn’t suck for Dungeon World.
Watched: Ms. Marvel 3-4: That seems like a sudden change on the antagonists’ part, but now it’s time for chase scenes! Also more cute boys for Kamala.
Written: 902 kitten words, but they’re only kitten words, so meh.
Accomplished absolutely nothing today.
Played: Dark Matter. This time we found the rest of the asteroid we were hiding in, got beat up by the most pathetic mechademons ever to leap out of a hatch, got beat up again by police drones, and ended up in the brig. However, no one holds that against us, so once we’ve been locked up long enough to satisfy the drones we can start getting them organized to get out of this dead end. First we should probably do something about the sphere of annihilation in the engine room, though. Also the gaming munchies were excellent.
Watched: Our Flag Means Death 5: Good job avenging your husband’s honor, Stede. I think some of the crew are going to get reminded that Izzy is the kind of pirate who murders people the old-fashioned way, though.
Read: “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” (Sarah Pinsker): A story told through unordered posts and comments on a folk song website, complete with obnoxious troll. I think it was up for some award.
Written: 409 kitten words. I thought about other words but was too dumb.
Feeling much better but not entirely. Managed to go grocery stopping twice without disaster striking, but accomplished nothing else today. Jus is hanging out at the mall with her friends, Nonny is playing the teaser for Splatoon3, and Ayse is napping, so no socialization today. I guess it’s a day of rest, which is another way of saying I suck and can’t get anything done.
Read: Komi Can’t Communicate vol 20 (Tomohito Oda): The snowboarding episode, also the “there was only one bed” episode. But nobody whose business it actually is freaks out, so good for them.
Watched: Hazbin Hotel pilot: Despite the nonstop murders, it feels slow, and the OP character doesn’t have any personality beyond being so powerful he doesn’t have to care about anything, which is 700% less engaging than Stolas.
Written: 428 kitten words.
After waking up early and going “fuck this”, I decided to go into the office after the early meeting instead of before, and then found out that boss A’s kid is sick (probably not covid, but still yucky) and the going-into-the-office plan fell apart. There was some movement towards everybody going in tomorrow, but people were too wishy-washy about whether it was really happening, so I’m using my own discretion and if they don’t like it, they can make an actual plan next time. I’ve been interacting with people over the Internet for more than 30 years, I feel no need to marinate in the virus pits just so I can say I was in the same room as my coworkers.
Watched: Helluva Boss 1.6-7a, 2.1: Another episode of violence in which Millie and Loona save the day because they are awesome, and then all feelings all the time. Apparently the second part of the S1 finale is not out yet, but based on the first episode of S2 (which is), it’s probably Blitz feeling terrible about his poor life choices.
Watched: Our Flag Means Death 4: I had not previously understood how over the top Stede’s ship is. Also, cliffhanger ending!
Written: 595 kitten words.
Apparently while I was looking for pictures that I could use for my terrible D&D character, Dave was optimizing his character to provide all needed skills for the party. I should probably just give up on gaming, shouldn’t I?
Watched: Helluva Boss 0-5: Dysfunctional demon startup doing murders on Earth when they can stop swearing at each other and being horny but it’s actually about the relationships and I see why Marith is a Stolitz shipper and Stolas and Octavia are so adorable in episode 2 and I kind of like Loona even though she’s awful and askjgfagk FIXME
Watched: Our Flag Means Death 3: Still ridiculous and violent, because what else do you expect from the Republic of Pirates? But finally we meet Blackbeard! Despite Izzy’s valiant efforts.
Written: Nothing, I tried to go to bed early so I can go in to the office tomorrow.
I did not feel as smart today, but hopefully I did not completely miseducate new coworker C.
Watched: Our Flag Means Death 1-2: Super-ahistorical fun. Marith compared it to The Princess Bride and Galavant, which seems about right (although there is not much singing). It’s definitely not going to engage with the actual horrors of the historical setting, which is fine. Only humorous talk of murder and cannibalism, we are here for the cinnamon rolling!
Written: 536 words today, 2928 for the week so far. I think it’s pretty likely I will make my weekly goal of 3000.
Why is there no brain? I don’t seem to have covid, so apparently I’m just dumb.
Rapid Test: Negative.
Watched: Arcane 8-9: Wait, that’s the end?! I know we predicted great tragedy, but yikes! I guess some people might survive for season 2?
Written: 772 kitten words, 2622 for the week so far.
Back to WFH! But my English muffins went moldy while I was away, and I have no salad, so my eating is still in disarray. I did some work, I guess, although I’m not sure I did it very well after the week of waking up early and interacting with humans. Also I have to be in the office Tue-Wed next week.
Watched: Arcane 6-7: Everyone is completely doomed, aren’t they?
Written: 245 words, bringing me to 866/3000. That’s more than zero, but…
I didn’t spring out of bed and go right to Target to get a USB-USB cable (in fact, I never went to Target at all) but I did some writing and some eating and some walking, so I guess that was okay.
I also thought about gaming, because I still would like to run a real campaign, even if a group that could do such a thing would necessarily exclude me. I have setting ideas I could re-use, although they’re all terrible, and I have campaign plot ideas, although they’re also terrible and I couldn’t find the writeup of the conquest of Amber using the Fate system, Born to be Kings, to see if it’s as good as I remember. How does gaming even?
Played: Nothing, Jeremy and Rachel are on their yearly vacation to hide in a hotel in Las Vegas and order room service and do nothing whatsoever until they get thrown out.
Watched: Ms. Marvel ep 2, which was pretty intense. Kamala with a crush is the most ridiculous and also adorable thing, though.
Written: Did a 2-hour cowriting session, because I suddenly had nothing to occupy my day, and wrote 2423 words of an expected 1000. They’re all kitten words, so meh, but they are indisputably words. That left me at 5837/300 for the week, so after a celebratory ice cream (of DEATH) I wrote another 193 words, bringing me to 6030/3000.
Waffled between getting up like a sensible person and sleeping in forever like a person on vacation, ended up kind of flopping around until it was time to go see the local production of that classic play, Buns In Verona. The best part was when Paris did the happy dance after being told he would get to marry Juliet, although the opening narration was well-delivered and Lord Montague was very impressive.
Tested negative for the rona, so if there is an expedition to Roseville tomorrow, perhaps I will get to go along.
Watched: Arcane 1-3: Interesting animation style, full of doom, reasonably coherent for something based on a video game, makes me think of Blades in the Dark.
Written: 452 kitten words, bringing me to 3438/3000 for the week. If we succeed in going to Roseville and I fail to write, I’m not doomed until next week!
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
Well, my cough is still not covid. I guess that’s something. I hope everyone in the office appreciates it tomorrow.
Watched: The Owl House 2.1-2: Turns out Eda and Lilith are actually experts at magic, who would have thought?
Read: In/Spectre vol 14 (Kyo Shirodaira, Chashiba Katase): More of Kotoko vs Rikka in brain-to-brain combat.
Written: FAIL.
When I went to Target yesterday and decided to buy an Ocular Photon Excluder (With Cooling Gel Action Grip), that was a good decision. When I decided I had enough flat sheets at home that I didn’t need to buy any more, that was a poor decision. I was able to mitigate it, but it took up a lot of my evening.
Watched: The Owl House 19: End of season 1! With Pyrrhic victories to set up season 2!
Read: The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School (Sonora Reyes): A very gay, very closeted Mexican-American girl from a poor family ends up going to Catholic private school with rich white people while still having to deal with her family and capitalism and also an epic crush.
Written: Too dumb to write anything.
I slept in, which was probably a mistake, but oh well. I did manage to get to The Table and get a Reuben, which I have been wanting since one of my pocket friends mentioned them yesterday. It could have done with a little less pastrami and more kraut and dressing, but it was still good. Then I went to Target, which only had some of the things I wanted. If you check in the store, they say “only online” for a bunch of stuff, but if you look on line, they try to get you to go for in-store pickup! Make up your mind whether you’re succumbing to the failure of brick-and-mortar stores already, capitalist scum!
Read: Creepy Cat vol 1-2 (Cotton Valent): Mostly one-page strips about an artist who moves to a creepy old mansion which is inhabited by a bizarre nonphysical cat-thing and ghosts and dreams and general weirdness. It’s very cute, and doesn’t not remind me of kitten words.
Watched: The Owl House 17-18: Oh, no, Luz is definitely she/her. Also, in a lot of doom!
Written: 406 kitten words, some of them about Creepy Cat.
Ken and Ayse and their household are full of plague and woe, so we didn’t go visit them.
Played: Zoomwarts, over zoom, but very badly. I had so many hopes for the Land of the Dead arc, but I am very dumb in addition to my numerous other failings.
Watched: The Owl House 15-16: Amity has feelings! Also what is going on with Luz’s mom? And is Luz nonbinary? I thought they were a girl, but I didn’t notice any pronouns this time, and that Grom outfit was not particularly binary.
Written: 635 kitten words.
Skipped looking for new manga to rush through grocery shopping, so I could get to Ayse and Ken’s in time for Eurovision! It’s finally streaming legitimately in the US, so it has a real start time and everything, and we had a very nice afternoon. Even Marith showed up, although Eurovision is not her thing, and we ate frittata and something involving garlic anchovy olive oil to dip veggies in,
It is no surprise that Ukraine won, but their entry was actually good, so that’s fine. Much more surprising, the UK came in second, getting possibly more points than in every previous Eurovision combined! No one knows what to make of that. There were too many ballads, but also bangers like Moldova. Norway was the Maximum Eurovision this year with the masked banana wolves, but Australia and Serbia were also up there, albeit in completely different genres. France was totally robbed, their entry was a banger. Spain was okay, but did better than they would otherwise due to the butt floss visuals. The American presenter was very fabulous and had angel wings.
Nonny showed me a bunch of Splatoon stuff, and eventually I played a little Zoomwarts with Jus and Marith, and then Dave kindly fetched us burgers from down the street and we ate and played three-square until it was time to disperse.
Played: Zoomwarts! Bella and Rosamund and the lizards seem determined to find out what happens when you blow off Bellatrix Lestrange-Riddle’s explicit instructions. I’m sure that will go well for them, especially if I manage to prepare for their expedition into the land of the dead.
Read: “Min Zemerin’s Plan” (Katherine Addison): Short story set around Witness for the Dead.
Written: FAIL. I did not accomplish anything after I got home.
Blew off work in the afternoon to go meet my new Primary Care Physician, who is astoundingly perky and cute-sounding and swapped recommendations for SFF books and how can anyone be that energetic? Anyway, I have referrals for sleep and brain and a prescription for brain pills and am probably not dead.
Watched: Moon Knight 1-2. Okay, that’s pretty interesting, even if the implications re free will are unexplored. (I have no idea what ancient Egyptian theology thought about free will, if anything.)
Read: Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor (Xiran Jay Zhao): Contains approximately 300% more Chinese history than Iron Widow, but 90% less murder, 100% fewer threesomes, and 75% less Wu Zetian. And it’s set in the near future on Earth and full of magic and written for middle-schoolers. Probably already banned in most red school districts.
Written: 422 kitten words.
Watched: The Owl House 13-14: Misfits save the day! King has a heart!
Read: I Kissed Shara Wheeler (Casey McQuiston): High-school lesbian romance with bonus mysterious scavenger hunt and most people turn out to be cool, except the ones who suck. A pretty good example of the genre.
Written: FAIL.
Marith had to get her mouth fixed today, so I went along to keep her from wandering into traffic when they threw her out still full of anesthetic. It was all fine, just time-consuming. I managed to do a little work before going over to Ayse and Ken’s for the Amerivision finale, so I guess it all worked out, or something.
Eaten: Sushi! Apparently I joined in the grand tradition of ordering too much.
Watched: American Song Contest 2022 ep 8: What are these juries smoking?! Or perhaps better asked, who are they to be so out of touch with America? (10 regional juries assigning 12/10/8/… points like Eurovision, then 56 states/territories doing the same thing and almost turning the list upside down.) We were all very sad when the 70s soft-rock guy from Washington topped the jury chart, but then AleXa won with “Wonderland” because every K-pop stan in the US voted for her or something, so it was all okay. They had the regional jury representatives videophone in to announce who got the 12 points, just like Eurovision. Not all the reps (all previously-eliminated contestants) had the proper Eurovision spirit, but it made me happy.
Played: Living room soccer.
Read: Beyond The Eyes Of Mars (Glynn Stewart): 12th in the series where FTL, stealth in space, and antimatter production are all literally magic. The heroic Martian navy is still cleaning up breakaway factions of the great revolt, and still learning increasingly horrible things about the rebels (which possibly should have been obvious to readers, but I don’t think was telegraphed at all). Also something that came up as being extremely important about 6 or 8 books ago was finally mentioned again, although none of the viewpoint characters knew the significance.
Written: FAIL.
I had no brain at any point today.
Something I read on the Internet suggested that opening links in new tabs is usually not the right path, especially when thinking about accessibility, so I guess I’ll change how I do things.
Played: Lancer, at long last. I leveled up my invisibility, but sadly, we had to make Unity look good, so the whole session was diplomacy and investigation, and we only got to the pre-fight cliffhanger. Next fortnight for sure! Probably.
Watched: Star vs the Forces of Evil 6-7: Yep, still ridiculous. I want to see Star’s next instar.
Written: 520 kitten words.
Apparently getting up early makes me look so wretched that even my boss noticed. I am a Bad Employee.
Read: FAIL.
Watched: Star vs The Forces of Evil 4-5: Still ridiculous, but the two leads are good friends.
Words: FAIL.
The new system is in place at work. Eventually it will even be complete!
Watched: Amerivision semifinals, part 1. Since we are watching at the time of transmission (I don’t think it’s “broadcast” any more), we get to vote, although only Ayse has an NBC account, so we only got one vote for the whole party. Our rule was “no haters” so we didn’t give anyone anything below a 5, but only “New Boots Goofin'” and “Wonderland” got the coveted 10.
Eaten: Cronchy chickens. Also fancy shortbreads.
Played: Not so much twirling, fortunately.
Words: FAIL.