Previously, in Trip's Life...
28 February 2018 - Wednesday
We successfully had 13th Age and
Chinese food! First, we had to play Codenames
because Ken and Kelsey hadn't arrived, and I still suck at it, but
whatever. Then we finished the fight against the dire mantises, avoided the
magical gate that leads to literally the tarot card "The Tower", and
discovered that something has stolen the giant plant we want, without
leaving any sign that it was there except for the giant hole where the
plant used to be.
Two more "Flavia de Luce" books, The Weed That Strings The
Hangman's Bag and A Red Herring Without Mustard (Alan
Bradley), and I am worrying about this girl. She doesn't seem to go to
school, her father mostly ignores her, her sisters abuse her (she abuses
them back, but still), her only friends are a bicycle and someone with
massive PTSD...
Words:
295. Could have been more, but it was already 8734565932 o'clock at
night (instead of only half-past 8734565931).
Flavia by marithlizard (Thu Mar 1 21:45:13 2018)
I am glad you are liking the Flavia de Luce books! They didn't ring entirely convincing to me after the first one, but it's been long enough that I don't quite remember why she seemed off to me. Alternately too smart/dumb/old/young as the plot required, I think. Also the sisters need their own passions and projects.
Re: Flavia by Trip (Fri Mar 2 19:31:53 2018)
Yah, there has been some of that. They are not perfect. But I still like them, so I will keep reading them, although I can imagine getting tired of them before the end of the series.
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27 February 2018 - Tuesday
Words:
381. Two good things have happened to my protagonist in this chapter so
far, so I think I need to make things horribly awkward now. (She's 13,
there is no situation that can't be horribly awkward.)
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26 February 2018 - Monday
I ran out of Taint to
read, so switched to Trials by the same
author. It is more LitRPG, but SF (kinda?), and funnier. When your
protagonist has sold back their ability to make expressions in voice or
speech, everything is deadpan humor!
Words:
503, but most of them are probably a huge lump of exposition that should
be edited out.
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25 February 2018 - Sunday
Deirdre is sick, but we had PAD&D5 anyway!
After defeating last session's ambush by boldly leaping into the
middle of it and daring the [SPOILER] to do their worst, the Heroines of
Red Larch retreat to replenish their resources while the ninjas sneak
back in to scout. However, their rest is interrupted by the two most
dangerous members of the [SPOILER] Hostage Squad, who are coming to
parley with the Heroines' friend about the hostage situation. One of the
two has been a thorn in the Heroines' side since the first time they
saved Red Larch, but the other, although fundamentally annoying, is
polite enough, so they all go up to see [SPOILER].
Meanwhile, Mika and Mara, in disguise as low-ranking [SPOILER], have
found a variety of interesting things and people in the [SPOILER] lair
(including the probable leader), been volunteered for two separate
Villainous Activities, and stabbed a few deserving [SPOILER]. Finally they
manage to finagle their way to taking the hostage upstairs to confront the
Heroines' ally [SPOILER].
The ninjas rejoin the rest of the group as Lamthanc is failing to
prove her accusations on [SPOILER]'s body (fighters are totally
OP), and when the thorn in their side sees the hostage, the fight
begins.
Once the [SPOILER] are driven off, some secrets about the hostage are
revealed, and [SPOILER] realizes the fruits of their recent intellectual
labor and departs, leaving the Heroines to clean up.
Also I learned that one of the other players has a girlfriend, which
has less than 0 direct impact on my life, but reminds me how much of my
youth (and really the rest of my life) I have wasted by being me. Avalon
not dumping me notwithstanding.
Words:
227.
Weekly total: 2231.
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24 February 2018 - Saturday
Cleaners: check. Grocery shopping: very heavy, but check. Brain:
FAIL.
Turkey chili: YUM.
- Sailor Moon S 1-2: Jus survived seeing this arc of
Sailor Moon Crystal, so now Ayse is determined that she
should see the correct version.
- My Hero Academia 1.5: It's not a school adventure
unless there's a teacher who hates the protagonist!
- Flip Flappers 6: So what exactly is Pure Illusion, then?
Words:
278.
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23 February 2018 - Friday
I am not usually a mystery reader, but Avalon recommended the "Flavia de
Luce" series (Alan Bradley) so I picked up the first one, The
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The protagonist is an
11-year-old girl in rural Britain in 1950, so it is very something. Flavia
is pretty great, though. She will definitely grow up to be a
supervillain.
Words:
308.
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22 February 2018 - Thursday
Taint is a lot like a
shounen fantasy anime in text form, but with some Chinese elements, and a
protagonist who is terrifying and not particularly sane. But it's hardly
her fault, and regaining her humanity is at the main emotional plot. This
may be more difficult when the supporting characters span the range from
Chaotic Evil all the way up to True Neutral.
Words:
322.
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21 February 2018 - Wednesday
We knew Brooks couldn't make it for 13th Age and Burnt Rice (not actually
burnt, but kind of slow and they messed up the order), but then Kelsey
cancelled at the last minute again. Bah!
While waiting for Ken to become available, Dave and Mike and I played Codenames,
a word-association game that uses completely different brain cells than
most games. I played terribly, but it was fun anyway.
Terraforming
Mars is a much more standard board game, although cute enough. We
didn't finish, even though we played too late, but I would have done well
on the next turn. Really.
She's a street rat from one of the world's few remaining dystopian
cyberpunk slums. He's one of the psychic space whales that saved humanity.
They fight The System. Honor Among Thieves (Rachel Caine, Anne
Aguirre) is definitely not hard SF, but it is pretty charming.
Words:
241. But I stayed up too late writing them, since I couldn't start until
after I got back from staying out too late playing Terraforming Mars.
Bah.
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20 February 2018 - Tuesday
Bah, work. Can we have fully-automated luxury gay space communism
now?
Words:
507.
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19 February 2018 - Monday
What, Trump hasn't been hauled off in chains? This President's Day is
defective!
I petted Aspen and she purred! She was sitting in the Basket of
Warmth +2, looked at me with big blue eyes like I might commit some
horrible act of Thumbed Oppression at any moment, so I sat down beside
her and petted her (as I sometimes do). She stopped watching me and
eventually made a kind of strange noise, and she was definitely
vibrating. What a good kitty!
Apparently Barnes & Noble suck the moose wang, so I did not go in
search of manga. (The nearest independent bookstore is more than an hour
each way by bus, blah.) I did hunt down an Instant Pot, because Ayse and
Ken always use one to make tasty food. Perhaps I could make tasty food!
Or, you know, die in a pit.
Words:
348.
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18 February 2018 - Sunday
Despite database failures (not mine!), Marith and I managed to go to
Black Panther, and it
was as good as people on the Internet said! (I don't understand what
white people are complaining about, there was a white guy and he totally
did an important thing almost entirely on his own.)
Hurray, Avalon is not dead even though she works too much!
Words:
470.
Weekly total: 2194. I seem to be doing about 300 words per day, on
average, which is about 1/6 of NaNoWriMo speed. Bah./p>
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17 February 2018 - Saturday
We had anime even though Ayse has run away with Susan.
- Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun 10-11: Surprise!
- My Hero Academia 1.3: Catchup for Marith.
- Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 11: Reunited at last!
- Flip Flappers 5: I think that might have been Spookytown.
Halcyon City Herald Collection
is a supplement for
Masks
with setting bits, moves for those settings bits ("When you peer through
the Time Specs, roll+..."), and some new playbooks. The setting stuff is
presented as newspaper clippings, which I think do a decent job of concrete
details to build on ("draw maps, leave blanks"), and also reminds people
of the role of the press in superhero stories. The new playbooks are
the Newborn, the Joined, the Innocent, the Reformed, and the Star, which
are definitely advanced playbooks because they each have a very strong
theme that could take over a game if left unchecked. Even though they
are official playbooks and not wacky 3rd party material, I will sensibly
not use them the first time I run Masks (if I ever get to). But I will
admire them.
Words:
201.
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16 February 2018 - Friday
It took longer than I hoped, but finally I got the new cluster
installed, and it works and is not on fire. So, yay?
Words:
245.
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15 February 2018 - Thursday
There seem to be a lot of entries in the "LitRPG" (person sucked into
alternate dimension that is exactly like a computer game down to having
literal character sheets), of which I have read only a tiny fraction, but
by far the most interesting one I found is Worth
the Candle. As soon as he gets dimension-shifted, the main character
starts trying to figure out where he is, what "here" even is, and why so
much of it looks like literal D&D games he ran. Also, leveling up at
computer-game rates is properly viewed as completely terrifying by
everyone else who has to learn things for real. Later, it gets kind of
meta.
Words:
513, despite
Wordscapes.
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14 February 2018 - Wednesday
It seems to be Valentine's Day, and yet there is still an entire
continent and a national border between Avalon and me. Hmph.
Words:
387. This time I blame Worth
the Candle.
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13 February 2018 - Tuesday
I spent all day trying to fix what I broke yesterday, until people
above my (inexplicably not minimum-wage) pay grade decided it would be
better to spin up some new servers and start over from scratch.
Oh no, I am caught up on
Ward (JC McCrae)!
Now I have to wait!
I have not been enjoying Ward as much as
Worm (arguably a sign that it is better written, because I
am a genre reader with no taste), but it is still quite good, and I want
to find out what is going on with all the new characters. I also want
many of the antagonists to die horrible deaths, which seems like
something that could be in the cards, even if it's more likely to happen
to the protagonists.
Words:
166. Bah. I blame TENX.
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12 February 2018 - Monday
Ambari was successfully upgraded last week, so now it's time to
upgrade HDP! Or, more accurately, spend all afternoon and late into the
evening failing to get it either upgraded or rolled back. On a major
production machine. Um. I wonder if Finland is still doing the Universal
Basic Income thing? I don't seem to be doing well at providing services
for money.
Words:
212.
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11 February 2018 - Sunday
Look, it's PAD&D5!
Dave was late, because he went hiking and the trails had changed
without the maps or signage being updated, but he did eventually arrive.
The expected defense of Summit Hall against the [SPOILER] Hostage-Taking
Squad is derailed by a literal song-and-dance put on by the Squad. Since
the only Heroines of Red Larch on the scene are Lamthanc and Hazelrae,
neither of them known for their cleverness, the ruse works, and the
Retribution Squad escape with their target. Curses!
Even when they are gathered together, the Heroines don't think they
can take the Hostage Squad, so they investigate the scene of the
crime, and find out the probable target. Then they head back to
their ally's location, which is what Lam had been saying they should do
all along, so they have some recriminations to occupy their time during
the journey.
[SPOILER] is still kind of flipped out, so the Heroines decide they
have to handle this on their own, and head back down through the traps
(which they can avoid this time) to invade the [SPOILER] lair, and end
up fighting a chunk of the Hostage Squad, but fortunately a small enough
chunk that they can prevail. Even after fishing Rimardo out of the
chasm, they are in bad enough shape that they have to withdraw upstairs
and try to rest.
(I didn't realize it until after, but when Jeremy was trying to warn us
off the Hostage Squad, he missed a golden opportunity to wave his tentacles
and deliver the line, "Are you sure you want to ride this
train?".)
Words:
326.
Weekly total: 1847. Oops, still declining. Although if I somehow
deserved the benefit of the doubt, I could note that this week had
stupid annoying work stuff.
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10 February 2018 - Saturday
I did not manage to get up and functioning before the cleaners
arrived, but at least they admired Ghirardelli properly. (Aspen is
always hiding when there are humans in her apartment.)
When I tried to go shopping, I discovered that today is
Nonny's birthday party! So after shopping and stuff, I went to
The Little
Gym and watched Nonny and Jus and a bunch of kids have a great time
running around and climbing on things and eating pizza. There may have
been hugs.
- Sailor Moon Crystal 3.13-14: The end! Also, cliffhanger
for next season (if there is one). Hotaru's dad didn't do as well in
this version.
- Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun 9: Poor Chiyo and her
umbrella. Poor Miyako and her
tanuki editor.
- Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 10: Finally, we see more
characters from the framing story! Well, one adorable one, anyway.
- Flip Flappers 4: "I've seen this episode of
Evangelion!" "I've seen this episode of Steven
Universe!"
Having run out of Pact, I am now reading Ward (JC McCrae),
which is a sequel to Worm. The
entire setting is a spoiler for Worm, since it takes place
after all the events including the climactic battle, so don't read this
first!
Ward follows one of the secondary characters, who had
her life ruined and then got it back but now has to do something with it
in the new improved world. Only a very few characters overlap with
Worm, but these new ones are probably even more messed up.
They may also be doomed.
Words:
199.
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9 February 2018 - Friday
With the help of Coworker J and Coworker C, I
defeated Ambari. It is now a more recent version, and there's nothing
anyone can do about it! Muahahahaha!
I thought it would be a lot longer, but finally I reached the end of
Pact (JC McCrae). It
turns out to only be about half the length of
Worm,
which still amounts to like a ten-book series. It is full of doom,
because it wouldn't be a Wildbow story without the protagonist getting
whittled away mentally, emotionally, and physically in pursuit of their
goals, and Pact has some really abrasive surfaces for poor
Blake to run into face-first. Or maybe soul-first.
If you like magical magic, and don't mind horror elements, definitely
really Pact.
Words:
368.
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8 February 2018 - Thursday
Today's work thing had some more technical content, although it was
still hampered by the inability of middle-aged guys to shut the hell up
and listen to the presentation. We wrapped up at midday, but New Boss K
didn't have to be at the airport until late in the evening, so Coworker
J and Coworker S led us to the
San Pedro Market,
where we ate expensive foods (duck carnitas taco!) and Coworker S
admitted to his compulsive ticket-answering disorder. Also I guess we
filled New Boss K in on how we do things around (messily).
When I got back to the office, I ended up staying late to mess with
stupid Ambari stuff some more. Bah.
Words:
192.
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7 February 2018 - Wednesday
I went into the office so I could at least work on the stupid Ambari
thing at work, but was officially instructed that the company event is more important
than Ambari, so I used the light rail to zoom straight to the hotel
where it's being held, and spent all day being educated on Sales stuff.
It was of dubious utility, but I did meet my new boss (and promptly
forgot his face, because too many middle-aged white guys in one room),
and it was definitely less unpleasant than Ambari.
I skipped out on the festive (read: drunken) company evening in favor
13th Age
and Indian food. No Kelsey, but we came up with a good excuse for why
her character wasn't there, and we only finished the E1 round of the
fight so she can rejoin next week. Er, week after, since next Wednesday
is Cute Couples Day.
No terrain stunt until round E4, bah!
Words:
166.
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6 February 2018 - Tuesday
I meant to upgrade Ambari in the morning and then go to the big company
thing in the afternoon, but instead I spent all day and into the evening
struggling feebly against Ambari before admitting defeat. And I did it from
my apartment, which reminded me why I don't like working from home.
Ugh.
Ambari sucks.
Words:
242.
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5 February 2018 - Monday
Avalon can walk on her own feets again! It will be longer before she
can do jumping spin kicks, which is probably for the best.
Words:
354.
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4 February 2018 - Sunday
I meant to get up in a timely fashion and do the thing, and the other thing,
and maybe some additional things. Instead I read
Pact until my brain came
out, tried to do one thing and failed on account of not being smart enough to
ride a bus, and finally did another thing (not the most important thing).
Words:
291.
Weekly total: 2381. Hey, that's more than last week! Maybe I've levelled
off!
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3 February 2018 - Saturday
Customers, do not break things on weekends!
- Sailor Moon Crystal 3.11-12: Heroic disembodied soul action!
- Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun 8: Prince Girl does not
understand why everyone is reading shoujo manga!
- Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju 9: Despite the American
influence, Japan at that time was not friendly to someone who wants to
reshape culture to fit the future.
- Flip Flappers 3: I don't think missing the first two
episodes increased Marith's level of confusion any. Also, the villain
from this episode is kind of like something from Kill 6 Billion Demons. Not
really, but kind of.
Words:
175.
Marith gave me a good idea for my plot, so I can send everyone careening into
a death spiral. I tried to give her a good idea, but I don't think it
worked.
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2 February 2018 - Friday
Huh, apparently work has hired someone to manage me and coworker M. I find
it somewhat concerning that no one mentioned this to us ahead of time, but I
haven't been such an exemplary employee that I deserve special insight into
what is happening. Also next week is full of stupid Sales stuff.
Words:
433.
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1 February 2018 - Thursday
Trundling to the vet was not as onerous as I remembered, but bringing
back cat food would have been easier if I had thought to bring bags.
Sheesh.
Words:
559.
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