Previously, in Trip's Life...
31 December 2017 - Sunday
As has become traditional, I went to Ayse and Ken's, and we had fondue
with Earl and Cat. This year we had no Marith, because it's hard to get
both holidays off when you work retail. (It was probably hard enough to
get just Christmas off.) So I really can't complain about just being a
fifth wheel for an evening, at least no customers were involved!
Earl's fondue was, as always, superb. I probably gained about five
pounds.
2018 better suck less, or I'm going to demand a refund.
I have officially failed at NaNoWriMo
extension. I am still writing, but at this point I should probably just
switch to a daily quota.
Make a comment!
30 December 2017 - Saturday
Well, now my apartment is cleaner, but I'm not any more productive.
- Sailor Moon Crystal 3.4: Oh no, kissing!
- Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions 8: Now Marith is caught
up, so we can resume when Dave gets back.
- Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun 4-5: Dating sims! Mixers!
Editors! Bento!
- Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 6-7: Kiku finds his
motivation! Which is apparently the opposite of finding love.
NaNoWriMo
extension: 42962/50000.
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29 December 2017 - Friday
Apparently being useful two days in a row is my limit.
I read some new manga that fell into my bag when I went shopping the
other day, because I don't have to move to do that.
- Gabriel Dropout (Ukami): Unexceptional high-school otaku
shenanigans, doesn't make use of the supernatural angle.
- So I'm a Spider, So What? (Asahiro Kakashi, Okina Baba,
Tsukasa Kiryu): Teenager sucked into an inexplicably videogame-like
world where she must negotiate the levelling and skill system, but
she's incarnated as a spider monster. Cute, but not for arachnophobes.
- Spirit Circle (Satoshi Mizukami): Definitely the best of
the three, middle-schoolers inheriting grudges (and spirit minions?)
from multiple past lives, where they each seem to have been in the
wrong sometimes.
Also read today:
Redeemer (by everybody's favorite Kit, CE Murphy) is Rosie the
Riveter × Buffy the Vampire Slayer × Kamikaze Kaitou
Jeanne. Weirdly, it also has a person I know as a secondary
character, which hurts my brain, but whatever. People who don't know that
person will probably like the character, but I had too much cognitive
dissonance. That aside, it is pretty good 1940s and awesome female
characters and butt-kicking. Everone should read it!
NaNoWriMo
extension 42961/50000. It is not awesome.
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28 December 2017 - Thursday
I didn't get up quite as early as I meant to, but made it to Mike's
gaming day no later than many. There were enough people that there were
two, sometimes three, games running in parallel, but the ones I played were
Tales
of the Arabian Nights (a new edition since I played it like 20 years
ago; Erin beat me but only because she had more statuses), Betrayal
at House on the Hill (I survived and the traitor didn't, so I guess I
won?), and then some Tsuro of the
Seas (supports up to 8 players, no deep strategy, maybe I should get it
for Ayse and Ken's family to play with Jus).
Eventually I was bloated with gaming munchies and it was getting dark
and cold out, so I crept back to the train, but people were still gaming
when I left.
NaNoWriMo
extension 42069/50000.
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27 December 2017 - Wednesday
Today I managed to get up and go to breakfast, do laundry, and even
shop for New Year's presents!
I also upgraded to Scrivener
3, which incidentally counts words in a different manner that robs me
of 200 words!
NaNoWriMo
extension 41713/50000.
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26 December 2017 - Tuesday
Today, I was useless again.
In Arcadia (Andrea K Höst) is the second epilogue to the
"Touchstone" series (Stray, Lab Rat One,
Caszandra ), and is mostly just goopy mush. But there is some
of what happens after the protagonist makes it back to an unsuspecting
Earth. Also, hot psionic space ninjas.
NaNoWriMo
extension
41007/50000.
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25 December 2017 - Monday
Ayse and Ken and Jus and Nonny were kind enough to have me over to
Christmas dinner along with Marith and Cat and Earl. There was ham and
brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes and leeks and happiness, and then
after the kids went to bed we watched some Nirvana in Fire
(still without Dave, but we were equal to the task).
- Nirvana in Fire 28-29: Uh-oh, Prince Yu is Suspicious!
NaNoWriMo
extension 40443/50000.
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24 December 2017 - Sunday
Today, I did nothing of any use whatsoever, not even emergency
Christmas shopping. (I meant to, but then it was cold outside, and getting
dark, and the stores would suck anyway.)
NaNoWriMo
extension 40278/50000.
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23 December 2017 - Saturday
Even though Dave is not here, we had anime! And because Jus was so good at
washing dishes, we had Sailor Moon even though she was very
sleepy.
- Sailor Moon Crystal 3.3: Mysterious academy! Witches
Ever-Decrementing! Male pronouns for Haruka!
- Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun 3: Shenanigans with the president
and star of the drama club!
- Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 5: In which the main character
finds out that he is good at bawdy stories and crossdressing, neither
of which befits his dignity.
NaNoWriMo
extension 39481/50000. That's pretty much FAIL.
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22 December 2017 - Friday
I didn't like Stiletto (Daniel O'Malley) as much as
The Rook, because the main characters were not quite as
engaging, but it was still good. Plus, the [SPOILER] reminds me of Twig, which is not a bad
thing.
NaNoWriMo
extension 39478/50000.
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21 December 2017 - Thursday
Hurray, Avalon is not dead, and finally had time to see me among all
the work and recuperating and other work!
NaNoWriMo
extension 39000/50000. A nice round number, only a few thousand behind where it
should be. Maybe dying in a pit would be better.
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20 December 2017 - Wednesday
For probably the last time this year,
13th Age and
Thai food! Apparently this is the part
of the adventure where we fight monsters that hit on a 5 or better, and do
enough damage to outright kill most of the party in one shot. I don't know
about this game...
I read The Rook (Daniel O'Malley) on Ayse's recommendation,
and it is pretty good! It's somewhere between "The Laundry" and supers, and
seems quite British but more on the eccentric-tradition side than the
Laundry's bureaucracy humor. It actually reminds me more of Simon R Green's
"Shaman Bond" series in the way people randomly have supernatural
abilities, although it's not nearly as over the top. It is also quite funny
in places, when it is not being alarming.
NaNoWriMo
extension: FAIL.
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19 December 2017 - Tuesday
The office passed inspection, so all our rewiring work yesterday must have
paid off.
In Princess Holy Aura, Ryk E Spoor addresses the important
question, can a mahou shoujo team be run ethically? It is very
mahou shoujo: talking animal companion, why teenage girls,
transformation sequences, dashing mysterious man, whence world-threatening
monsters, elemental affinities, how no one remembers the ancient evil
rising or being defeated before, catchphrases, opposing elemental team,
etc. Bonus points for diversity in race and wealth. The twist is that the
first person the talking animal selects to save the world is a geeky,
financially-struggling, gamer... grown man. As the author
admits, this is potentially extremely bad, but I think it was done
reasonably non-badly. It's not the focus of the book in any case. Anyway,
PHA is not artfully written, but I liked it pretty well.
NaNoWriMo
38412/50000, which is better than yesterday, but still not anywhere near
caught up. I think this all started going off the rails when I couldn't
come up with a good reason for the PCs to not turn everything over to
the grownups and go hide under the covers forever. I have a bad reason,
but it's just getting them into more trouble without making abdicating
responsibility seem less appealing. Maybe I need to invoke more deus ex
machina, because it's supers?
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18 December 2017 - Monday
Today the Appropriate Authorities finally noticed that our office is
powered entirely by daisy-chained power strips that are probably one
thunderstorm away from exploding in flames and issued an Edict.
Fortunately we are a small company, and our office manager just went to
Fry's to get more appropriate power strips that we installed by the end
of the day.
NaNoWriMo
37694/50000. Ugh. I need a plan. But I have no plan, only dumbness.
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17 December 2017 - Sunday
No gaming, only gingerbread! I was not that amazing, but I stayed
until the last train that wouldn't involve exceeding the bounds of
scheduled hospitality, and even talked to Susan about a writing a
little. (She is an actual writer, not like me.)
NaNoWriMo
extension 37025/50000, which is only two days behind. But still not
going anywhere.
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16 December 2017 - Saturday
As usual, I meant to get up early so I could go shopping right after
the cleaners finished, but failed miserably. This week's excuse is that
I was out playing board games until like 23 o'clock.
- Sailor Moon Crystal 3.1-2: Jus is now watching this
with us, at least until it becomes too scary. So far it is not,
although there are very ominous shots of the Outers.
- Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun 2: The "basing characters on
people Nozaki-kun knows" episode!
- My Hero Academia 1.1-2: We have just gotten to the part
where All Might acknowledges the main character's potential. Ken hates
this show, for reasons that I do not grasp, but maybe he will change
his mind when they get to the superpowered tactics bits. Or not!
- Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions 8: The Priestess may
be awesome, but it's not clear she's a great parent.
NaNoWriMo
extension 36281/50000, which is not quite FAIL. Technically.
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15 December 2017 - Friday
Instead of laundry and writing, I went to Monkeycat Mountain to play
board games. Mike and Brooks from Wednesday night gaming were there, and
Mike's daughter Erin who is on break from college, and some games were
played. I tied with Erin at Dominion, and then she
crushed us at Roll for the
Galaxy. Some other people also played Tzolk'in,
and Mike crushed them. Also there was pizza and Indian food.
NaNoWriMo
extension: FAIL.
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14 December 2017 - Thursday
NaNoWriMo
extension 36159/50000. But the plot is not advancing, because I don't
know where it should go, because I am dumb.
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13 December 2017 - Wednesday
13th Age,
featuring chili and cornbread cooked on-site by Brooks!
The PCs managed to get to the flying island of storm giant
philosophers, talk to them about the doom that is coming, and get access
to their library. Then the murders orc assault began,
requiring the PCs to discard all of their reasonable plans and start
trying to steal the Stone Thief's other eye.
At this point, Nonny exploded, so we had to cut gaming short.
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12 December 2017 - Tuesday
From today's Internet:
NaNoWriMo
extension 35281/50000. I am technically caught up through tomorrow (when
I won't have any writing time), but only by having too much detail
again.
Make a comment!
11 December 2017 - Monday
After a long break, I have finally finished
chapter 16 of Twig
(Wildbow). Oh the doom. And dismemberment. And romantic tension. And
Helen, who is some combination of all three. (Helen is the best.)
I finally have spent the mountain of stamina I got from blowing all my
diamonds on the star event in Love Nikki!
NaNoWriMo
extension 34127/50000. Better than yesterday, I think.
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10 December 2017 - Sunday
The published version of PbtA,
so that's all good, but it doesn't have quite the tightness and
evocativeness of the best PbtA games. So, you know, only better than I
could do myself, not inexpressibly better.
I spent most of the day futzing around on the computer and intermittently
writing, making it up to
33186/50000, but I think today's words were even more terrible than usual.
Specifically, too much unnecessary detail, probably due to being unfocused and
also a terrible writer (and generally stupid).
Make a comment!
9 December 2017 - Saturday
Ken and Ayse and Jus went to Ken's work holiday party, so there was
no actual anime tonight. Instead we watched Whisper of the Heart,
which I have seen, and Dave thinks he has probably seen but didn't
remember and Marith had not seen. It was as low-key as I remembered.
Bonus points for the middle-class Tokyo family not living in a veritable
mansion.
Persepolis Rising (James SA Corey) picks up the story of
"The Expanse" some decades after the last book, when the new regime has
stabilized and most of the main characters are getting on toward
retirement age. Suddenly, a new problem arises! It was probably
inevitable, given the situation they were left in, but it is a doozy,
and will be the focus of at least one more book, if not the end of
humanity (one way or another).
NaNoWriMo
extension 31580/50000.
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8 December 2017 - Friday
I'm sure I meant to do something useful today, but without
success.
NaNoWriMo
extension 31538/50000.
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7 December 2017 - Thursday
Avalon is stuck in bed, which is bad for working, but good for
napping.
NaNoWriMo
extension 30355/50000. I am still just barely on track to finish by the
end of the month. Well, to reach 50000. No idea if that will bring an
end to this horrible novel.
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6 December 2017 - Wednesday
Avalon has had surgery on her leg and is not dead even a little bit,
although she is not very happy right now.
This week, everyone is healthy and present, so we played a little
13th Age.
Only a little, because we can't start until well into the evening after
Jus has been put down, and because we apparently cannot focus worth
beans (or sessions are so short that the time it takes us to focus
leaves almost nothing for playing). Also, it's still D&D.
Maybe I'm just disgruntled because I ate too much Italian foods.
NaNoWriMo
extension 29770/50000.
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5 December 2017 - Tuesday
Avalon's accident was martial-arts-related (and now I know why the
dojo I went to only taught those techniques on "silly kicks night"!),
but apparently bad enough that she needs surgery. That is not okay!
Avalon, take better care of your bones!
NaNoWriMo
extension 29707/50000. No one has a good plan. Everyone is doomed,
including the author.
Meep! by marithlizard (Thu Dec 7 05:38:31 2017)
Poor Avalon! I hope her leg heals fast and she has the good pain drugs!
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4 December 2017 - Monday
I have know Rachel for many years, so I understand that broken bones
are just a thing that happens in martial arts, and I will not get too
worried about reports that Avalon has broken her leg.
The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of
Fortune (JY Yang) are advertised as being independent, and they
probably could be read in either order, but interally they are in that
order. They seem like Asian fantasy (pugilists, mountain monastaries, kirin
and naga) with magic that is almost sufficiently advanced, but also famliar
physical laws and an oddly unEarthly world. Also, all children are of
undeclared gender (with medical support) until they explicitly decide to be
a girl or boy. Political machinations and strange magic ensue.
There are supposed to be two more pieces coming out next year, which
I hope means early in the year and not endless months from now.
NaNoWriMo
extension 28877/50000. This is the point where I need a good reason for
my characters to not turn the matter over to someone qualified to handle
it. And then the characters need a good plan to avoid that happening
anyway. Because grownups.
Make a comment!
3 December 2017 - Sunday
Not Your Villain (CB Lee), the sequel to Not Your
Sidekick, is okay on representation, but the writing style seems to
embody "tell, don't show". Also, we already know what to do about storms
and solar panels, so worldbuilding/research failure. Meh.
NaNoWriMo
extension 27903/50000.
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2 December 2017 - Saturday
I meant to get up and ready before the cleaners came, but that trick
never rarely works. So I was super-useless.
- My Little Pony 25-26: End of the season! I'm not sure
even Jus is enjoying this that much, so I don't know if we will go on
to watch the second season.
- Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun 1: This is our new show to
watch while Ayse & Ken put Jus to bed. It is pretty funny, and also
kind of adorable. I'm surprised the main character hasn't thought to
rehearse her confession, but that would just ruin things.
- Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 4: Why is being a
responsible and functional member of society so much work?
- Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions 6-7: Aww, Rikka has a
tragic backstory. I can sort of guess how the rest of the season will
go, but it will probably continue to be adorable. Also I kind of ship
Nibutani and Dekomori.
MLP by marithlizard (Mon Dec 4 18:24:27 2017)
What would we watch instead in that slot though, to keep Jus included? Back to Sailor Moon? Convince her parents that the first part of Avatar:TLA might be okay? Investigate that Adventure Time thing people talk about?
(I'm not particularly thrilled with MLP, but don't mind it either at this point, and I think Jus enjoys being the resident expert who knows all the spoilers. Plus people keep saying it improves in later seasons.)
Re: MLP by Trip (Mon Dec 4 19:10:27 2017)
I don't know, do I look like a parent?!
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1 December 2017 - Friday
The NaNoWriMo
progress tracker only works until the end of November, so I have to use the
Scrivener wordcount which is a little higher (I'm guessing hyphenated
words, but I don't actually know), at 27215/50000. I guess at this rate I
might be done before the end of the month, perhaps. Dying in a pit still
seems like a better gift to the world of literature, though.
Make a comment!
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