Previously, in Trip's Life...
31 October 2020 - Saturday
It's Halloween, I guess.
On call, but customers did not attack.
Ayse and Ken made some kind of Halloween festivities for Jus and
Nonny, so Jus was having too much fun for either Zoomwarts or anime.
Watched:
- Mob Psycho 100 2.1-3: I
don't think you can actually manipulate someone into becoming a better
person, can you?
Takeaway Thai.
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30 October 2020 - Friday
Having filled out my ballot, I ran it over to the library (which is
always further than I think) and tucked it into the sturdy, hopefully
fireproof, metal ballot box to be counted.
Microwave food.
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29 October 2020 - Thursday
I finally got my act together enough to fill out my ballot. Did I
mention, fuck the Republicans and their pro-business Nazism?
Microwave food.
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28 October 2020 - Wednesday
Finally, the 13th Age
Glorantha characters have made it to Nochet, where they are prophesied
to meet the person they are hunting. They also have several other
prophecies, or at least pieces of good advice, extracted via drumming-based
divination, but heal up during the journey.
Ken has been meh about this game, possibly because his character is to a
large extent comic relief, or possibly because no one is happy in 2020, so
he is going to run Eclipse Phase for
a while and we'll see what happens.
Read:
- Dead Lies Dreaming (Charles Stross):
Cyberpunk/supervillains vs horrifying billionaires in the dystopian Nyarlathotep-ruled
Britain of the post-Delirium Brief Laundry timeline. None of
the characters from the first eight or nine books show up except as
brief mentions.
Leftovers.
Words:
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27 October 2020 - Tuesday
You, too, can be a
muppet!
Mouth much better today, although still pretty bleah. Did some works
although not very competently.
Watched:
Read:
- Tome of Beasts II (Wolfgang Baur, Celeste Conowitch, Darrin Drader, James Introcaso, Philip Larwood, Jeff Lee, Kelly Pawlik, Brian Suskind, Mike Welham):
Everybody loves monsters, even if they don't love D&D, and this one has
some monsters from non-white mythology, which is always good. Also lots
of glossy pictures and not too many cheesecake monsters.
Creamy sundried-tomato chicken and roasted vegetables.
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26 October 2020 - Monday
No work, instead I went to the dentist. The x-rays overestimated the
gnarliness of the root situation, so instead of two hours or more, it
took less than an hour to extract the unwanted tooth. However, I still
have a huge hole in my mouth. Sadly, I was not smart enough to predict
this and buy lots of soft food yesterday, but at least I got soup and
fried rice, which require little chewing. No milkshake because the ice
cream store is closed on Mondays.
Now would be an excellent time for nutrient tabs.
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25 October 2020 - Sunday
After some moderately successful grocery shopping, I tried going to
the burger joint that I used to go and sit at for leisurely lunch in the
Before Times. I was dubious, but fortunately I have pocket fronds to
enable me. I think it was fine, epidemiologically speaking, but eating
outside with sun getting in my face and wind blowing stuff around and
cooling the food is not as great. I did drink three of the five
different kinds of diet Dr Pepper, though.
Read:
- Phoenix Extravagant (Yoon Ha Lee): Quite different from
the Hexarchate books! Secondary-world fantasy based on Korea with bonus
Japanese colonizers, magic powered by something horrible, nonbinary
protagonist, romance, robot rights (okay, a little like the
Hexarchate), and apparently [SPOILER].
I guess.
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24 October 2020 - Saturday
Instead of taking the chance of going shopping, or getting up and
working on RCA for yesterday's party, I went back to bed after
acknowledging being on-call. It was nice and cozy, but I regret the loss
of my morning. As it turns out, Coworker L figured out what the deal
was, at least superficially, so now what I need to do is get more
information and extract knowledge from the developers. Ugh.
Watched:
Food, I guess.
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23 October 2020 - Friday
HAPPY HAPPY AYSE-DAY!!
On the phone with a customer until well past quitting time. After the
first little while I wasn't doing the work, but I felt like I should be
there anyway. I may have to spend tomorrow poring over log files.
Read:
- The Tindalos Asset (Caitlin R Kiernan): Modern-day spooks
vs Mythos, very gritty, non-linear, so much doom, inventive horrors.
Microwave food.
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22 October 2020 - Thursday
Why even is work?
Read:
- Come As You Are (Emily Nagoski): What the science
actually says about women's sexuality, so 0% relevant to my life but
possibly relevant to characters I write. Starts with a chapter about the
anatomy (romance novels, that's not how hymens work), but is mostly
about the psychology: excitatory and inhibitory (in the neurological
sense) systems, nonconcordant arousal (another thing common wisdom gets
completely wrong), spontaneous and responsive desire, how stress
makes everything worse, terrible cultural ideas make everything worse
too. The main solution is, unsurprisingly, mindfulness. Additional
themes/messages: you are normal, everyone (including men) has the same
parts arranged in different ways, if you're having trouble having
satisfying sex then create contexts with more excitatory cues and fewer
inhibitory cues. It seems fairly sensible, so I expect people find it
horrifying.
This time I got pizza.
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21 October 2020 - Wednesday
This week in 13th Age
Glorantha, a trek across the creepy wasteland of the Shadow Plateau, a
disagreement with a troll and a giant mantis in which the trollkin
definitely come off worse, and finally a fight with horrifying monsters
right outside what they hope is the place they're looking for. Looks like
another fight where we have no chance but will get captured instead of
eaten.
I was all set to get gaming pizza, but then I remembered I had
leftovers and microwave food that were running short of time.
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20 October 2020 - Tuesday
Marith had today off, but apparently she is dead from capitalism.
Only my soul was killed by capitalism (specifically, customers who don't
read what I write, never mind links I send them).
Microwave food.
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19 October 2020 - Monday
Huh, Monday again. I bet it's still 2020, too.
Leftover Chinese takeaway.
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18 October 2020 - Sunday
We played
Scum and Villainy
and this time I beat people up more. Everyone took enough stress that
induldging their vice was a good idea, and two people took non-trivial
harm. Also a hapless microwave was slain and then buried in reentry.
Next session, an actual paying job that could even increase their rep
with a faction!
Chinese takeaway.
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17 October 2020 - Saturday
Cleaners delayed shopping by being an hour late, but it worked out in
the end, I guess.
Bella is still being very oppressed, so much that she was even kind
of sensible once or twice, and hardly set anybody on fire. I think she
might have ambitions on all the boys, though.
Watched:
- My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! 4:
Wow,she is really dense. But apparently also beloved, which I hope means
this is going to turn out the way I hope.
- Mob Psycho 100 1.11-12:
As expected, episode 10's cliffhanger was not as expected, and although
vast psychic power is important, character is even more important. And
Reigen's lesson is not one that you often see in shounen anime.
Apparently cookies don't count as dinner for some reason, so I had
leftover sausages and leftover rice. That's a protein!
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unfair opinions by marithlizard (Sun Oct 18 23:00:41 2020)
I'll grant you that cookies should count as dinner, and it is tragic that they do not!
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16 October 2020 - Friday
Slow day at work. I actually made an example for a customer instead
of just telling them to RTFM.
Microwave food.
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15 October 2020 - Thursday
I finally watched the video Jus made about the last Zoomwarts game,
and I don't get recaps that good from my adult gamers!
Microwave food.
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14 October 2020 - Wednesday
Back to the dentist to review the results of the skull integrity check
and formulate a plan. It looks like the empty crater of a tooth is
difficult to remove, but once removed will leave a good place to put an
implant, so that one goes first.
This time the dentist was in the middle of the day, and also there was a
lot of plumbing (we're in the future, plumbing involves theremins) so work
was all discombobulated even more than usual when I try to do it, and also
Marith couldn't go to sleep until a million o'clock in the afternoon.
Everyone had power this week, so we could play 13th Age
Glorantha. This session, the PCs make it up to Tarpit, at the very top
of the plateau on top of Shadow Plateau, and meet Sir Scissors, the troll
trader with a sense of humor comprehensible to humans. He has in fact met
with their quarry, who is going by Don Dark again, and who purchased the
location of the local Hobobobom priestess. Presuming that the Thanatar
cultist wants to steal the knowledge cultist's head, the PCs buy some
trollkin to barter for not being eaten, and set off.
Read:
- The Hollow Places (T Kingfisher): Two T Kingfisher
characters end up in a terrible place with terrible things, and they really
are terrible, much worse than a mere corpse in the bakery. But very T
Kingfisher, or maybe that's just in the way the characters react. Anyway,
screaming-intensifies emoji.
Thai takeaway, because what even is money.
Words: Almost, but then the alarm rang to stop preparing for bed and
actually go.
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13 October 2020 - Tuesday
Boss is out, so the work slack was quiet, but otherwise nothing
different.
Watched:
- Steven Universe Future 6-8:
Ayse says this is going someplace and is not just a bunch of vignettes
with obvious morals, so we will keep watching.
Lemon-thyme chicken and broccoli.
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12 October 2020 - Monday
Monday, Monday, Monday.
Watched:
Read:
- Maya and the Rising Dark (Rena Barron): Middle schooler
+ mythology, this time African orishas. I did not find the writing
compelling, although I suppose a middle schooler might.
- Things We Think About Games (Will Hindmarch, Jeff Tidball, et al):
A couple hundred things people have thought about how to play (mostly)
and design games, video, board, and RPG. Obviously the ones that confirm
my existing opinions (like, don't slow play to optimize, and let people
play their own positions) are correct and valid, while the highers are
highly dubious at best.
Salmon and risotto.
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11 October 2020 - Sunday
Completely useless all day. Too much Random
Dice. Not enough hydration or writing or anything.
NaNoWriMo is coming. Will I try it
this year, even knowing I am doomed to failure on multiple levels?
https://www.the-world-that-was.com/writing-process
Microwave food.
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10 October 2020 - Saturday
HAPPY HAPPY MARITHDAY!!
Zoomwarts! Bella gets a letter from her family. That's good,
right?
Watched:
Pizza of celebration.
Words:
FAIL, but I reorganized stuff so I can make what I've been writing
visible without super-obvious links to the terrible stuff that came
before, I think.
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9 October 2020 - Friday
Plumbing, whee. It allegedly works now, but for how long? The manager
said I should bother him more about things that don't work, although
apparently he also had to browbeat the landlord into agreeing to spend
money on fixing things.
Read:
- The Times I Knew I Was Gay (Eleanor Crewes): Cute
illustrated autobiography of the author's extremely non-monotonic
progress toward coming out.
I guess I ate something today?
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8 October 2020 - Thursday
Did anything happen today? Maybe not.
Microwave food.
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7 October 2020 - Wednesday
I had to get up two and a half hours early to go to Mountain View for
a 2-minute irradiation. (I think that company may literally be just a
series of tiny offices each with one machine.) Now my plumbing is
clogged, and gaming is probably cancelled due to Ken and Dave not having
any electrons. On the other hand, I did manage to get some Diet Snapple
that's not peach, and a customer solved their problem which was of their
own making. You win some, you lose some?
No gaming, power is not expected to be restored to Ken and Dave until
a hundred o'clock at night.
Read:
- A Deadly Education (Naomi Novik): This was not as
literary as Novik's past couple of books, but I quite liked it anyway.
Look, worldbuilding that actually justifies a magic school with a
horrifying survival rate! Also Galadriel is so very put-upon, it's
great.
- Tristan Strong Destroys the World (Kwame Mbalia): Sequel to Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky,
returning to the fantastic world,
but it doesn't add enough new. The next book could be interesting,
though.
Leftovers and toaster oven food. Yes, I actually ate an entire
tupperware full of farfalle with no sauce.
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6 October 2020 - Tuesday
Ack, it's been three months (or ten thousand years, or thirty
seconds) since my last quarterly review. I do not suck more this quarter
than last, somehow, and may even suck less, to the point where I could
try to gain XP for levelling up.
Watched:
The Umbrella Academy
2.10: That did wrap a lot of things up, but cliffhanger ending! I hope
Netflix doesn't drop this too.
Lemon-thyme chicken, and carrots of many colors.
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5 October 2020 - Monday
This time I went to the dentist for fillings. It was surprisingly
quick and almost completely painless. These days they just trowel on the
goo, cure it with UV, and away you go.
Read:
- Dark Banquet (Bill Schutt): All about animals that live
more or less exclusively on blood. Sadly, I already knew most of it,
although I did not know there are three species of vampire bat. I
thought there was only one. Also, invertebrates are super-creepy and gross.
- Bearly a Lady (Cassandra Khaw): Surprisingly for the
author, not horror! Except that a werebear's dating prospects, even a
bisexual werebear, in modern London, are pretty dire.
I ate food, I guess?
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4 October 2020 - Sunday
We finally had the whole crew together for the actual campaign of
Scum and Villainy.
Unsurprisingly, they went for the Stardancer again, but there was a
significant minority in favor of the Firedrake, so I obviously need to
throw some political stuff in with the urbot stuff. I also need to go a
lot harder, because no one even took any harm this time! I am clearly
the worst GM ever.
Read:
- Wait for Night (Stephen Graham Jones): That wasn't what I was expecting from the blurb.
I got a chimichanga because I had never had one, but meh.
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3 October 2020 - Saturday
Shoppingu, shoppingu, la la la!
We made a quick visit to stand in Ayse and Ken's driveway with masks
on so Marith could give Jus birthday buttons. They are all still alive,
and probably doing better than we are.
Then we had to scurry back home to play Zoomwarts. I'm not sure we
made any progress on the plot, but Bella was very extra and managed to
slip a secret note to Harry and got only a little more detention.
Watched:
Meh, food.
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2 October 2020 - Friday
Hey, look, the work week is over! Time for weekend stress!
Although hopefully the entire Republican party is having a lot more
stress. Also, ha ha!
Read:
- Layers of Force (Lindsay Buroker): Conclusion of the
8-book series! Everything comes crashing together! It really does wrap
up all the plotlines, although in a sadly heterosexual fashion. There
could be sequels, but they are by no means necessary.
- Short Stories from the Star Kingdom (Lindsay Buroker): Prequels about the origins of various teams that are already formed when the main series started.
Leftover microwave food. I had plans for more ambitious microwave
food, but am too dumb.
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1 October 2020 - Thursday
HAPPY HAPPY JUSDAY!!
Holiday in India so I had to stay at work late, but whatever. Marith
is dead from capitalism anyway.
Read:
- Home Front (Lindsay Buroker): Penultimate book of the
series, in which doing the right thing just pisses off the major
remaining problem more and more.
Hm, that was too much pasta, and also not cooked quite enough, but
now I know better. Also I have pasta to put under leftovers later.
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Sproing!
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