Month: August 2024

We had bacon! And also waffles! And later in the day, the traditional Chinese takeout. In between, there was Everdell and swimming, and afterwards, those of us who were keen on astronomy went up to a remote airfield for a star party. Alas, my eyes are just not good enough, even with a 10″ telescope.

I was also not good enough at Everdell. I blame the large number of places to put a worker that I had to keep track of and could not easily read, some of which were hidden in other players’ tableaus. Obviously it’s something of a skill issue on my part, but I think it’s also a problem with the design.

Stayed up too late reading a copy What If? (by the xkcd guy) that was in the room where I was sleeping.

Written: VACATION

Dave and I took the train to Roseville, which involved dealing with zero traffic and got us there in good time for pizza, but did not involve any whale sharks whatsoever. People who went by car got there very late and kind of frazzled, although probably in better shape than when the kids were smaller.

The small child who cannot be named is toddling now, but not entirely clear on the concept of numbers.

Started off the weekend of board games with Dominion, which went oddly because we had several special treasure cards from the Prosperity expansion but no extra actions.

Written: VACATION

You know, like the right of women to not be pregnant

Went to the office, did some work, ate an Impossible burger and coleslaw. Too many humans.

Read: I Can’t Say No to the Lonely Girl vol 2-3 (Kashikaze): The good student is not only getting school-skipping girl to go to school, but luring her into the friend group. Also, is it normal to not mind smooches?

Read: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol 8 (Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe): Back on the road, finally getting to the northern hellscape that they needed the mage certificate to enter.

Written: 247, but not on the vampire unicorn space princess book. Possibly that’s for the best; do we really need vampire unicorn space princesses?

I have quite a few dreams, but still waiting for the one I can just write down as a best-selling novel.

Went to the office, ate some spicy Indian chicken and roti, and I guess did a work.

Read: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol 6-7 (Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe): The rest of the first-class mage test, and the sponsor behind it all, who is at least as scary as Frieren. Also, apparently when you’re a high-level mage, murder and manslaughter are no longer crimes.

Read: The Old Guard (Glynn Stewart): Sequel to The Exodus Gambit, our survivor of the murderous usurpation of her minor system hatches schemes to get the might of the great powers to help her restore her rightful government, one way or another.

Written: 170.

No work today, only riding the bus. Also a visit with a hepatologist (I probably have a liver) and a thyroid ultrasound (will find out about having a thyroid later), but mostly riding the bus. I read a lot of manga.

Also no gaming, Kelsey’s job is being horrible.

Read: The Tiger Won’t Eat The Dragon Yet vol 2 (Hachi Inaba): The title doesn’t mean nobody else is getting eaten, and now we know why everybody hates dragons. But also interspecies adoption, which always makes me happy.

Read: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol 4-5 (Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe): Mortal life is made of meetings and partings, and also finally getting around to testing for first-class magedom even though it’s not like mage guilds last long enough for it to be worth the bother.

Read: The Duke of Death and His Maid vol 1 (Inoue): A boy cursed to kill everything he touches lives in a remote manor with only a hot maid who delights in taunting him, and some other servant who isn’t important because he doesn’t have cleavage.

Read: Mysterious Disappearances vol 2 (Nujima): The school mystery is finally resolved, but it’s still not clear what’s going on with Mysterious Boy and Mysterious Girl. Still pretty raunchy.

Written: 222,

Almost as good as cats!

Read: That Full Moon Feeling (Ashley Robin Franklin): Graphic novelette(?) about a witch and a werewolf going on three dates. There are monster attacks on each one, but I think it may count as slice-of-life anyway because that’s just their life.

Read: The Knife and the Serpent (Tim Pratt): Interdimensional shenanigans with bonus BDSM and evil exes. Actually kind of a lot of evil people all around, although not the first MC. The different dimensions remind me of the “Doors of Sleep” books by the same author, but also of Wild Massive by Moore. This is not a bad thing!

Written: 100 exactly.

I was completely useless today, so probably I sat in front of a fan with no shirt, but that’s not really going topless is it?

Read: Beware of Chicken vol 3 (Casualfarmer): Sadly, the MC’s attempt to live a quiet life is foiled by his pets and minions going out into the world and being excessively awesome. Of course getting great power by living righteously in harmony with the world is going to attract attention from a corrupt society, even if he isn’t thinking of it that way.

Read: To Play With Magic (Draith): Isekai litRPG, but this time there’s a reason our young woman kidnapped from Earth and her variously alarming companions have totally OP abilities and there is obviously something going on with the System. Also, four-armed, four-eyed catgirls, which sounds freakier than cute.

Written: 190.

Also Ken Day (Observed) but he doesn’t like people to make a big deal of it. We went over to help him watch MST3K, though.

Watched: MST3K: Space Mutiny. Mutiny on a generation ship is a simple concept that should be doable even in the 80s, so how did they make it so bad? Even in South Africa? The frame story was pretty nonsensical too. Because MST3K.

Written: 242.

Sadly, I did not have a Cuban sandwich today, although I did think about kitten words. I could write more, but that feels like giving in and living peacefully with my deficiencies instead of slamming my head against them.

Read: The Weakest Contestant of All Space and Time vol 1 (Masato Hisa, KSRG): The gods summon all kinds of creatures to participate in gladiatorial combat to determine who is the weakest, most pathetic, and most fun to laugh at in the entire multiverse. The bottom five escape, shenanigans ensue, somehow their lameness cancels out and they aren’t crushed by the end of the first volume. But they aren’t appealing underdogs, they’re just wimps and jerks and loons.

Read: Welcome Back, Alice vol 1 (Shuzo Oshimi): Horny middle-school love triangle, after exploding, is reunited in high school, but one member has become a femme-presenting enbie (or otherwise gender-nonconforming in a skirt) and there is clearly going to be questionable sexuality going on.

Written: 132.

I did not take my cats to the vet today, but it is coming up on a year since they came to live with me, so I should get them some checkup.

Went to the office, ate some Nepalese chicken curry and samosas, did some work despite everybody being in the same room.

Read: Spy x Family vol 12 (Tatsuya Endo): Yuri and Twilight almost face off, but it doesn’t quite happen this time.

Read: Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus (Dusti Bowling): Sequel to Insignificant Events…, the armless girl goes to high school with some of her new friends, romance and bullying and all kinds of quintessential high school experiences ensue.

Read: A Matter of Execution (Nicholas Atwater, Olivia Atwater): Criminal shenanigans in the remains of a fallen faerie empire. Prequel to an upcoming complete novel, I think?

Read: The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Deya Muniz): Excessive gayness + patriarchy + cheese + fashion + insufficient gayness + fashion + cheese + patriarchy + just the right gayness. Also, crossdressing and additional cheese.

Written: 302.

Everybody likes goats, goats go mehhhhhh.

Went to the office, ate some Mayan chicken and veggies, did some work despite the presence of Coworker D in the same room. Humans, manne.

Read: The Inconvenient Life of an Arousing Priestess vol 2 (Makino Maebaru, Hachi Uehara): Finally the priestess who channels too much life energy (is that a Kingsblood epithet?) gets her home country and her secret (from her) relationship and everything sorted. Probably the end.

Read: Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus (Dusti Bowling): A middle-school girl with no arms has to move to a theme park in Arizona, which means new people who aren’t used to her and therefore suck, but also disability community.

Read: Cosmoknights vol 2 (Hannah Templer): New allies, bigger plans, old allies, increased doom, more zero-G battles!

Written: 211

Alastor’s Hell Birthday aka death day. (Don’t know if that’s a thing, but it should be.)

Successfully played a little Perils & Princesses, but I’ve forgotten how to push people forward. Also I’m pretty sure Ken still hates it all.

Read: Demon World Boba Shop vol 2 (RC Joshua): Not-OP isekai bubble tea maker leaves the city where his tea shop is, encounters many new things, breaks society with a trivial technological innovation from his old life, and sets out for the new frontier with all his friends.

Written: 135.

Ook.

Read: In Bloom (Paul Tremblay): Algae monsters in New England.

Read: Brain Games for Blocked Writers (Yoon Ha Lee): Eighty-one ideas for looking at your non-working story differently to figure out how it could work. Obviously this is idiosyncratic, so it comes with autobiographical detail which I find kind of adorable, especially since this is the person who wrote Ninefox Gambit. Not sure if any of the tips will help me, but that’s something to look at when I stop moving forward.

Written: 186.

An excellent invention, and also slightly relevant to the scene I’m writing.

Played: Librarians Errant. Our librarians successfully travel through Bibliospace to visit the professor/popular author/lich/demigod they want to consult with, but must face his tests to prove their worthiness. Unfortunately, the quest to retrieve a specific book ends with Shia being disintegrated into their own life history by an undead beholder, and reassembled incorrectly, while the rest of the team discovers that the book in question is the cursed shoggoth book that Lili has been carrying around since like episode 3. If only emojis had been invented, this would be the perfect YAYSOB. At least they can be level 7 to deal with the fallout of this next session.

Written: 119.

I presume that’s for the US, and every day in Germany is Bratwurst Tag, but maybe they don’t eat bratwursts anymore and it’s a weird historical holdover for Americans. Anyway, I ate all the bratwursts I had a while ago and haven’t bought any more, but they sound really good right now.

Watched: Dead Boy Detectives 1.6-7: I guess when an escape from literal Hell is placed on the mantelpiece in the first episode…

Read: Cosmoknights vol 1 (Hannah Templer): Powered-armor knights “joust” (it’s a melee) to win the hands of space princesses for their sponsors, because patriarchy and classism. A young mechanic who lost her princess years ago runs into some queer ladies who recognize this system as bullshit and adventure ensues. If only they all had the same idea of what to do about the problem…

Read: Fight Me (Austin Grossman): Not directly related to Soon I Will Be Invincible, but a similar superhero universe. A superhero team is assembled from teenagers who got powers and did crimes, drama happens, many years after they have fallen apart and separately retired/gone into hiding/moved to another continent and changed their names, events pull them back together and further drama ensues. It is very much about how being a superhero doesn’t help you get your life together, entirely the opposite.

Read: I Can’t Say No to the Lonely Girl vol 1 (Kashikaze): A good student is extorted into getting an absentee student to come to school, the absentee student agrees to attend and study in exchange for kisses and possibly other wishes to be granted later, good student doesn’t know what to make of this. It is not a ground-breaking concept even in the smaller world of yuri manga, I’m sure, but I like it anyway.

Written: 205.

I’d say it me, but actually when I went to the doctor on the way to the office to get physicalled annually, she seemed to think I was doing very well. Ichor not too sweet, nerves transmitting impulses, etc. I should reflect some sound waves so they can count my organs, but that’s just a regular thing.

Arrived in plenty of time to go to the Big Boss Meeting (he did not assume a final form, there wasn’t even a different soundtrack, 5/10 at most) and eat a veggie burrito and maybe even do a little work.

Read: FLCL omnibus (Gainax, Hajime Ueda): The art style is sketchy, which is good for an air of surreality, but not so good for figuring out what’s going on in any given panel. Seems to mostly follow the anime, but I’m not sure about the end. Very confusing, so apparently it does have FLCL nature.

Read: Front Desk (Kelly Yang): A 10-year-old girl immigrates from China with her parents in 1990 and ends up helping them manage a hotel. MC is 10, so she makes the best of it, but white Americans of every age are horrifyingly racist to everybody, immigrants who made it are horrible to immigrants who are still poor, etc. Distressingly autobiographical.

Written: 243.

HURRAY MARITH!

I did not see any lizards on my way to the office, alas. But my burger was made of synthetic meat and not lizards, so that’s good, right?

Read: Delicious in Dungeon vol 2 (Ryoko Kui): Oh, right, now I remember these guys and what they were doing. I guess it’s a dungeon, mass murder is not that remarkable. Whatever the amazing twist that makes the whole series a big deal is, I guess we’re not there yet.

Read: Azarinth Healer vol 3 (Rhaegar): OP isekai fight junky gets roped into friends’ family revenge plotlines (yes, multiple), and decides she’s sick of fighting people so goes to the great abandoned North to kick a lot of monster ass, befriend weirdos, develop all the resistance skills, and level up a lot. I guess it’s 100 levels per volume?

Read: Daemons of the Shadow Realm vol 5 (Hiromu Arakawa): A bunch of plot! And murders!

Written: 215.

We can’t all have our checkup today, especially since it’s Sunday and non-ER doctors are off. But it’s scheduled for Thursday, so close enough.

I woke up and fed the cats, but then I returned to my bed to work on daily phone games, and Sage came to sit on my feet so I couldn’t go anywhere. After hugging me with her teeth for a while, she fell asleep, still on my feet, and then it was noon.

Once I was free to move about the planet, I did some more errands, brewed some potions, messed up some other potions due to misunderstanding the system for enhancing them, and built a tunnel for easy access to water so I could harvest pufferfish for potions of waterbreathing. Going to the Nether to hunt magma slimes for magma cream is probably more useful, though.

Read: Teens on Pacts (Diego Barreto): An extremely minimalist cross between Apocalypse Keys and Monsterhearts. Possibly too minimalist to be played without the creator.

Written: 129.

Time to lie on the savannah for three days!

Did the usual grocery shopping and sandwich eating, then returned home to play Minecraft. I got some more blaze rods, patched up the stairway to Ayse’s nether fortress after stray blazes set it on fire, and crafted a brewing stand.

No anime, Marith wasn’t up to it.

Written: 161. Also I deleted about 11809 dead words, but I can’t count that, it would be ridiculous.

But do ebooks count? Iconoclasm and heresy!

Marith got us Chinese food.

Watched: Dead Boy Detectives 1.5: Poor Jenny. Poor Niko. Poor Charles. No new boy for Edwin, but a cliffhanger about boys.

Read: The Mercy of Gods (James SA Corey): A human colony so lost they don’t even really know they’re a colony is conquered and octomated by surprise aliens and their best and brightest carried off to slavery among alien creatures and alien worldviews. The aliens are pretty alien, as well as extremely inhumane, but the second-rate academic who is the main viewpoint character is starting to figure them out by the end of the first book. Presumably the second book will turn everything upside down, although I’m pretty sure the great enemy will turn out to be [SPOILER].

Read: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins (P Djeli Clark): Deranged cult assassins, missing memories, mysterious girls, undead monstrosities, serial killers, a city-wide party, and [SPOILER]. And snark.

Written: 134.

Hurray for cats! I should have given them extra treats, though.

Didn’t go to the office, did go to the endocrinologist. She was very happy with my numbers, which did match (at least on average) what my arm weasels have been reporting. Yay me.

Read: Bloody Sweet vol 3 (NaRae Lee): Finally, Fetechou’s dark past is coming back to haunt him and Naerim!

Read: Chainsaw Man vol 3-4 (Tatsuki Fujimoto): There is no such thing as a bit of the old ultraviolence in this series, which means a lot of attrition in allied characters. Also, hard-core training montage for people who can be resurrected, and still no makeouts for the main character.

Read: Peach Boy Riverside vol 1 (coolkyousinnjya): After his story, Momotaro goes on to look for more ogres to defeat, and meets a princess who wants to see the world even though the world is full of monsters. Surprising revelation!

Read: Demon’s Ascent (Erios909): LitRPG, one plot thread following the OP isekai demoness, another following a local girl who is also kind of OP, eventually they meet cutely and work on solving each other’s problems.

Written: 184.

Hm, maybe my adventure needs more sea serpents.

Got up early so I could stop by the phlebotomy center on the way into the office. Despite a longish line, it all worked out okay. Also I was the only one in the Support room so I didn’t have to mask much. Ate a chow mein, did some work.

Read: Gogogogo-Go-Ghost vol 1 (Miyako Miruzuka): Due to poor life decisions in the capitalist dystopia of modern Japan, an office worker nearly dies and ends up with a guardian spirit who is a creep but is happy to turn her grudges into actual curses and harm on people she doesn’t like. It seems like everybody is terrible and I find the art style weird.

Read: Heretical Fishing vol 2 (Haylock Jobson): Further conspiracy, further animal companions, further OP cultivation powers, further fishing exploits.

Read: Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories (qntm): Short stories about things like the horrors of uploaded personalities under capitalism, extra-dimensional waste dumping, the destruction of Earth, and the like. I liked them, but they are the opposite of cheerful.

Written: 167.

It’s summer, I should be making diet floats! But I would have to remember to get sugar-free root beer and ice cream.

No gaming, Kelsey is still busy.

Read: A Sorceress Comes to Call (T Kingfisher): I don’t recall the fairy tail The Goose Girl, but it’s definitely not needed to appreciate the vast amounts of darkness and murder and evil magic. Has both a teenaged girl in over her head and a cantankerous middle-aged woman as viewpoint characters, thus making it the ultimate in T Kingfisher books. Also did I mention the murders?

Read: The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter vol 4 (Ichi Yukishiro): Elves and their forest and their snobbery and some dragon sadness.

Read: Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc vol 2 (Sekka Iwata, Yu Aoki): Rival companies and CEOs are getting involved in the story now. Also, the karaoke episode.

Written: 153.

I did wear underwear today, so I guess that’s all right.

Got trained on our new procedure for replacing the automatic case assignment popup with manual assignment, just like I did twenty or thirty years ago. Proof that software doesn’t have to be AI to be awful.

Cleaners helpfully swept up my almost-entirely-empty balcony, and then I found the trash dumpster had been emptied this morning so I was able to throw away the last two boxes. I have more boxes that should get dumped, but they are not blocking maintenance so I can do that later.

Read: Navigational Entanglements (Aliette de Bodard): A different space-Vietnamese empire, where hyperspace navigation overlaps with supernatural martial arts. Four navigators who are neurodivergent or suck up too much or not enough or otherwise are unpopular get sent to hunt a monster. Politics and lesbian crushes ensue.

Written: 297.

I think I celebrated this yesterday when I was talking with Ayse about Minecraft Youtubers and fanfic and all kinds of things, but every day should be Friendship Day. Or maybe Capybara Day.

No gaming because Jeremy is still full of Covids, and it was probably just as well because apparently I have to have my balcony cleaned off for painting by Tuesday. Lugged a lot of stuff downstairs to put on the curb where I am assured the city will take it away for disposal, did some errands, lugged some more stuff. Only one of the things was heavier than I should have carried, and I don’t think I actually injured myself. The cats were very distraught by all the weird stuff coming through their living room, though!

Managed to find the correct blaze spawner and murder some blazes for their rods without dying excessively. Also bred some bees and oxidized some copper.

The doctor appointment I have this week is not the one I thought it was, so I have to figure out how to get to the place for a blood draw before Thursday. I guess Wednesday morning on my way in to the office. Ugh.

Read: Noss & Zakuro vol 1 (Rariatto): Comedy about a mother-daughter pair of vampires who live in Spookytown and have monster friends and drink blood from juice boxes. Cute but not super-interesting.

Read: The Lost Souls of Benzaiten (Kelly Murashige): A Japanese-American girl who is so traumatized she no longer speaks after a horrible betrayal prays to the goddess Benzaiten to be turned into a Roomba. That does not happen, but quite a few other things happen, because the goddess has Opinions, and also problems of her own.

Written: 141.

Hi Jus!

Still testing negative, although I actually started too early so I should test a couple more times before declaring victory.

Successfully did some shopping, played some Minecraft (blazes suck), visited people for anime and conversation and hugs.

Watched: Bungou Stray Dogs 1.7-9: That’s a very strange condition for a power. How did they even find out about it?

Written: 101.

Dinosaurs are the best. Even ones I am not currently eating.

Read: Let’s Do It Already! vol 1 (Aki Kusaka): Not nearly as raunchy as it sounds. She’s a normal modern girl who wants to smooch her boyfriend, he’s the scion of an extremely old-fashioned and rule-bound political family and possibly on the spectrum, their story is not that interesting.

Read: Exes & Foes (Amanda Woody): They used to be best friends until they had a falling-out, they both have terrible parent problems (although hers are definitely worse), now they’re in high school and have both fallen for the new girl. Drama ensues. So much drama. Their friends are very long-suffering.

Watched: Dead Boy Detectives 4: Even-numbered episode, no new boys for Edwin. And sadly, although killing a psychopomp may be gratifying in the moment, it’s not likely to stick.

Written: Exactly 100 of poking at individual sentences, but I think I need to throw all this away and go off in a different direction.