Author: Trip the Space Parasite

Boo carbs.

Today I ran two (2) errands, with some amount of success. I was still very tired and very bad at Minecraft, though. Dave hooked my portal up to the Nether Railway Network, through no virtue of my own, and I mined a bunch of blackstone and basalt off one of the train tunnels. Maybe they will be better for a dark tower than the black concrete that got exploded anyway.

Read: The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction (ed Mike Ashley): A collection of stories that take “literature of ideas” seriously. “Wang’s Carpets” (Greg Egan) is here, along with many other stories about the far future, extreme conditions, transhumans, technology with unintended consequences, or some combination, written between 1909 and 2006.

Written: 131.

Astronomy brings us so many weird knowledges!

I stayed up too late reading because I am dumb, so instead of getting errands done, I mostly twitched uselessly all morning. I did feed a cat, though.

In the afternoon, I had to do work, which was poorly-timed enough that I missed seeing Jus’s show. Boo, customers!

Also I played Minecraft so badly that a creeper destroyed a bunch of my storage and most of the items despawned before I could recover them. Obviously it’s time to wall off my base and fill it with torches.

Written: 141. Too much Minecraft.

If it were National Pickle Day, I’d presume it meant pickled cucumbers, but it’s international, so does that mean it includes other pickled items? Or is it just pickle imperialism?

Went to the office, ate a butter chicken, did a work.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 15 (Kore Yamazaki): This is apparently as far as I’ve ever read before, and also right about where we are in the anime. Everything after this will be new and surprising!

Read: What Feasts At Night (T Kingfisher): Sequel to What Moves the Dead, Alex Easton and their henchman encounter another creepy mystery, this time in their own homeland.

Written: 116.

If I baked, my course would be clear!

Went to the office, ate a pineapple curry, did a work.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 13-14 (Kore Yamazaki): College arc continues with the field trip and the mysterious attacks, very much like the anime.

Read: The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess! vol 3 (Hanami Nishine, poporucha): Finally we learn what the deal is with the mushrooms and the FL’s mysterious past and everything.

Read: “Fire Above, Fire Below” (Garth Nix): This seems familiar, but it’s not on my reading list so it must have been some other story about dragons and firefighters that I read?

Read: “The Necessary Arthur” (Garth Nix): “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain,” or in more modern terms, being a post-human entity of unfathomable power doesn’t mean you aren’t also a complete fuckup.

Written: 294. See, this is what makes me think I could increase my quota to 250.

Your private-equity flower bulbs will not save you from the most cursed of all days!

It is also Frog Jumping Day, and D&D needs way more secret frog magic and way fewer 1st-level wizards with the exact same carefully focus-grouped spells as other 1st-level wizards.

Watched: The Ancient Magus’ Bride 2.13-14: Creepy alchemists, creepy alchemy, monster-murdering class.

Written: 300 exactly.

Did I remember to text my mother? I did not.

I did tell Rachel Happy Mother’s Day when I went over to game, at least.

Played: Librarians Errant. Jeremy made us do a bunch of world building about historical Masked Lords of Waterdeep and their families/heirs/successors. We might have been slightly ridiculous. Then the team made it back to the University with the second magic item and we leveled up. Now Thaïs can send a howling monster of shadow to annoy her enemy. Also I have to choose between fly (generally handy for a ranged combatant, similar to the leaping and skydiving magic she already has) and thunder step (escape and attack as a single spell, similar to the thunderous magic she already has but most similar to the one she never uses). Or of course another spell, but those seem like the two best that fit her affinity.

Played: Minecraft. I finally built a nether portal and experienced the horror that is the Nether. I had a shiny hat so the piglins were whatever, but hoglins and ghasts crushed me like the insect I am. I did mine some polished blackstone bricks from a bastion remnant, and lots of quartz and netherwrack and a surprising amount of gold before I gave up for the day.

Written: 239. My head is almost 1/30th as magic as Kit’s!

Instead of going shopping and eating pastrami and such, I went to Ayse and Ken’s and we watched Eurovision! It sucks that the Netherlands got kicked out and Israel didn’t, and also that so much popular vote was wasted on Israel. (Just on principle; the bus was terrible so I didn’t see their song.) It was the year of goth fae and witches, but it is okay that Switzerland won with their nonbinary meow-meow. I think that both Ireland and Finland should have placed much higher, however. Why did people not ask me before casting their votes?

Also we engaged in friendship activities and got squished by Jus and ate Thai food, and then I went shopping at the other grocery store and did not go into the bookstore because I was there just last week!

Marith missed out because she fears the germs.

At home, I played some Minecraft.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 12: More College backstory and doom and doomed backstory.

Written: 129. I’d say being social all day used up my brain cells, but no one thinks I had any to begin with.

Apparently not all the socks turned loose on No Socks Day are able to survive in the wild. Sniff!

Went to the office instead of sleeping, ate some Indian food, did a work that was not as annoying as yesterday, caught up on journaling.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 9 (Kore Yamazaki): Conclusion of the Cartaphilus arc! That is how he came to be in the place doing the thing in the College arc.

Written: 355?! That’s almost more than zero! Not really, but almost!

Donkeys rarely wear socks. However, I had to wear socks today because they go with my shoes for going into the office. Ate a pretty okay salad, did a work, tried to wrangle livestock in Minecraft. This did not result in any explosions, but I lost one of the two leashes I got from boating llamas and then all my chickens got away because it doesn’t work to put the ungulates in with them. Also made some obsidian so I can make a nether portal if I feel motivated someday.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 7-8 (Kore Yamazaki): Jealousy! Kidnapping! Bad monster! And that’s how Chise got her arm, which I had forgotten the details of.

Written: 162

Big props to all the teachers who did not murder me and/or leave the profession for good when I was younger.

Played: Lancer. Only in Lancer is this a problem we would solve by punching it with giant robots. I guess this is an important lesson about the trauma of war.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 5-6 (Kore Yamazaki): Death and Christmas!

Written: 218.

I, myself, drank one or more beverages today!

Also I did a work or something. Whatever.

Watched: The Ancient Magus’ Bride 2.10-12: So many sketchy people (and things) acting sus! Okay, I guess attempted murder isn’t exactly sus, they were very clear on that.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 4 (Kore Yamazaki): Yay, more dragons!

Written: 161. Second drafts are the worst.

Does maniacal cackling count? It better!

Today I did one (1) errand, and also played some Minecraft. I got enough diamonds to make a pickaxe, and I already have a Lavanator, so I can make a nether portal whenever I like. Also I have a chicken run, so I can get eggs and feathers.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 3 (Kore Yamazaki): Yay, Ruth! Boo, Cartaphilus!

Written: 183.

Yes, even student journalists who oppose genocide.

Got handed a case right at the end of the day so I had to work right up to the end, bah.

Played: Zoomwarts. Rosamund tried to do science, Bella got detention, Rosamund found a secret door that was there in her dream, Bella crawled into a hole by herself and went silent.

Read: The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess! vol 2 (Hanami Nishine, poporucha): Romance therapy is going slowly, but the romance is progressing despite the female lead’s terrifyingly sheltered upbringing.

Read: I’d Rather Have a Cat Than a Harem! vol 2 (Kosuzu Kobato, Hinano Chano): Having befriended almost everyone who appeared in the game, including the probable heroine, the MC goes on to live a happy life with her loving prince and a zillion animals, the end!

Read: Tacticians of Ahm Early Access 0.8.3 (Christian Sorrell): I guess it’s Final Fantasy Tactics the RPG, but (unbeknownst to the characters) set in a digital world that is slowly degrading, introducing corrupt10n. All square grid all the time, most powers have an area of effect in grid squares (often one specific grid square), plentiful multiclassing, etc.

Written: 167.

And yet, my cats still don’t seem to like seafood. Which is legit, it’s not like their ancestors were out there hunting tuna! I guess a bobcat could hunt salmon or trout? Probably not as effectively as rabbits, though.

Went to the office, ate a kind of cold and soggy Reuben, did a work.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 2 (Kore Yamazaki): Still zipping right along with Chise and her lack of survival instincts in the deep end.

Written: 140.

AKA Labor Day everywhere that’s not a blighted capitalist hellscape (and some places that are, I guess).

I’m the only one who goes into the office on Wednesdays, so I went in even though we had an early-morning meeting. I had to commute on the bus since the train doesn’t run very frequently outside of rush hour, but it wasn’t too much slower. Ate a Korean bento thing, did a work.

Read: Ogami-San Can’t Keep It In vol 4 (Yu Yoshidamaru): Oh no, it’s the hot childhood friend! Who is also immune to the male lead’s quirk, to add insult to insult.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride vol 1 (Kore Yamazaki): Rereading from the very beginning because I didn’t remember much of it, but I do remember it now that I’m reading it, and also how fast it moved at the beginning. Halfway through the first volume and they’re already in Ulthar!

Written: 132.

So I should be writing!

Played: Librarians Errant. It turns out Gladys’s minions have wangled the Water Baron’s permission to be there under cover of being itinerant book shelvers or something, so the team has to offer to help them and try to find The Magical Education first. Which they do, but they stick around for a while to make sure all the books are correctly tagged in LoC, not Dewey Decimal and also to throw off suspicion. Alas, the Alexandrians figure it out, and as the team is taking in the Troll Experience before leaving town, the Dewey Decimal Trio busts in with a bunch more hobgoblins. Circus fight! Fortunately the trolls are not best pleased by this, and help fend off the invaders while Shia slips away with the book. Once it’s clear the book is no longer present, the fight is abandoned in favor of beer.

Written: 115.

My plush baby tapir probably needs a better name than “Baby Tapey”, don’t they?

I did the usual shopping things, got unjustifiably mad at Marith for destroying one of the campfires I set up under beehives when I find them, then got Jus’s house blown up because approximately one million creepers attacked while I was stopping by on my way to give Dave dripstone points for a lava factory. Apparently I should just hide in my own valley and never leave.

Played: Minecraft, very very badly.

Watched: Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 12-13: Poor cat princess! She needs to grow up to overthrow the patriarchy! I am very disappointed that the hyena-soldier is a boy, too.

Played: Kick a ball very ineptly down the street so kids can get energy out.

Written: 124. Can’t blame capitalism this time.

Can the aliens come save us from the idea of IP?

Played: Zoomwarts. Food fight!

Read: Sandy Pug After Dark (Various): Varied spec-fic smut: aliens, AIs, monsters, gods, queer people. Needed more editing.

Read: The Exodus Gambit (Glynn Stewart): The start of a new missiles-in-space series, a sort-of princess on the run from the traitorous uncle who murdered the rest of their family, and her bodyguard, trying to outwit their pursuers who have a ship that’s much better in every way and get to help.

Written: 113.

I approve of both, although I have not seen a lot of crossovers.

Went to the office, ate a beef curry with green papaya, did a work.

Read: #DRCL: Midnight Children vol 2 (Shin’ichi Sakamoto): More hauntings, ghastly apparitions, madness, and a pretty extra Van Helsing.

Read: Witch of Thistle Castle vol 1 (John Tarachine): This is the same genre as Ancient Magus’ Bride, but the OP teenager is a boy sent to live with a London witch. Also he seems kind of gay for the cute French boy.

Read: Lieutenant Fusilier in the Farthest Reaches (Erika Chappell): It’s the British Army in the days of buying commissions, except it’s in space and all the troops are robots. Our dashing lesbian lieutenant is one of the extremely few robots to purchase an officer’s commission. Colonialism and class divides are explicitly addressed, although maybe not resolved in ways that are satisfying to modern sensabilities. Also, gay robot lady!

Written: 234. I think.

No thank you.

Went to the office, ate a salmon poke bowl, did a work.

Read: Daemons of the Shadow Realm vol 4 (Hiromu Arakawa): Yep, everybody is conspiring. Also, some daemons are just plain mean.

Read: Please Don’t Tell My Parents I Saved the World Again (Richard Roberts): Ninth in the series, back to the bi poly high-school necromancer. She makes a new friend who, unfortunately, comes with a lot of baggage (but does not want to join her harem).

Read: Komi Can’t Communicate vol 29 (Tomohito Oda): It is simultaneously the beach episode, hot springs episode, and stupid-games-for-high-stakes-because-idiots-are-in-charge episode. But Komi can actually communicate, at least well enough to defend her boyfriend!

Written: 187 but also some journal.

Also something involving copyright, which should be abolished in favor of UBI.

No gaming, Ken had more classes on UK time or whatever.

Read: I’d Rather Have a Cat Than a Harem! vol 1 (Kosuzu Kobato, Hinano Chano): Reincarnated as an otome game villainess, but the fluffy version. Her whole family is also reincarnated as her new family, she can easily avoid romantic entanglements by eating enough to no longer conform to local beauty standards, she makes friends with the lady who invented the cat rescue in that world, all is well until it turns out at least some of the hot boys are actually nice and also like animals, and is that the heroine?

Written: 290.

I keep thinking I could try edibles, just for the experience, but have never managed to actually do such a thing. It would probably make my face fall off or something.

What I did do today was go to the very last Spring Fling for Nonny and draw lines on many elementary-school children. Some of the people who were supposed to show up to help Ayse check off kids as they completed laps didn’t show, so I had to help. It was fine, the kids were hardly even traumatized by my appearance, but standing in the same facing for a couple of hours during the middle of the day got me a sunburn on the tops of my calves.

Played: Minecraft. We had another session during which I was super-lame but got to listen to people being super-cool on voice chat, so that was fine. I found a bunch of beehives and managed to both smoke them and not irritate them, so I ended up with a bunch of honeycomb and honey bottles, which I will later use for something clever. Candles, probably. I also found the big pool of surface lava I had seen earlier, which was further inland than I thought. I think it’s actually close to Jus’s homestead.

Written: 164. This isn’t going in the way it should if I want it to sync up with everything else, but I think I know how to fix it.