Tag: office

I presume they mean the color, not the performer, but who can say?

Went to the office, had the room to myself because Coworker D is out until next week, ate fried chicken guys, was very sleepy, did a small amount of work.

Read (manga): The Tree of Death: Yomotsuhegui vol 3 (Masasumi Kakizaki): Finally, the boss battle! Also difficult decisions, personality erosion, terrible revelations, etc. The End.

Read (novel): Ghosts on an Alien Wind (Moe Lane): Just a few hundred years before humans developed interstellar travel, everybody in the galaxy was wiped out, leaving dead, hella creepy worlds that could have been full of friends but now have only unknown dangers, nigh-incomprehensible tech, and creeping madness. It’s SF adventure with cosmic horror beneath it, which pleases me greatly. Also the [SPOILER] are real [SPOILER], which is amazing.

Read (manga): I Can’t Say No to the Lonely Girl vol 6 (Kashikaze): They finally come out to their friends, everything is great, the end!

Written (catgirl): 170.

Another one that’s illegal now, I guess. Also National Walking Day, International Children’s Books Day, and National Ferret Day.

Went to the office, ate some vegetarian curry and flatbread after figuring out which unlabeled lunch was mine, did a work.

Read (novel): To The Bloody End (Rachel Aaron): Conclusion of the faerie vs blood mage in magic cyberpunk Detroit trilogy. Despite gaining immense power in the second book, our heroine still has to figure out how to use it in nonstandard ways to save the world.

Read (manga): God Bless the Mistaken vol 4 (Nakatani Nio): Conclusion of this story about people in a world where reality randomly changes every day. Although does a slice-of-life story have an actual conclusion?

Written (game design): 125.

I’m not qualified to participate in Good Hair Day.

Went to the office, Boss K is there this week, ate a naan pizza, did a few works.

Read (novel): When the Moon Hits Your Eye (John Scalzi): Suddenly, the Moon is replaced by a Moon-mass lump of cheese. Over the course of a month, this has various effects and humans react to it in various ways.

Read (manga): In/Spectre vol 20 (Kyo Shirodaira, Chashiba Katase): The yōkai finish their locked room game, Kotoko starts investigating a new case that looks mundane, Rikka executes the second phase of her prank.

Written (game design): 179. Not sure how to summarize combat concisely. Not sure if any of my ideas are even viable.

Also Frog Day, Sparrow Day, Storytelling Day, Atheist Pride Day, Extraterrestrial Abduction Day (it was a bum rap), etc.

Went to the office, ate a cold beef sandwich, had to play icebreaker games with the rest of the company, maybe did a little work.

Read (manga): In/Spectre vol 18 (Kyo Shirodaira, Chashiba Katase): The Edo-era kenjutsu style yuki-onna arc continues. As is typical with Kotoko, there are at least two possible explanations at every point in the story.

Read (novel): How to Survive a Slasher (Justine Pucella Winans): An enby whose family was on the wrong side of the serial killings that made her small town famous is just trying to survive high school and their mom’s hardcore anti-serial-killer training and their obnoxious little brother and the yearly serial killer fan convention, which should be more than enough for anybody, when the past refuses to stay past yet again.

Written (catgirl): 142.

Hi Ken!

Walked to the train station again, got somewhat damp, went to the office, ate a beef and vegetable bowl with multiple vegetables, did a customer call that didn’t last forever, walked home in wind but not rain.

Read (novella): The River Has Roots (Amal El-Mohtar): Two sisters lived by the river that flowed out of Arcadia, so it’s not surprising they got involved in fairy tale murder ballad events. I spotted references to at least two fairy tales, and probably missed a bunch because I’m not a very analytical reader, but the story is all its own thing.

Read (manga): Box of Light vol 1 (Seiko Erisawa): There is a convenience store between the worlds of the living and the dead, staffed by people from both sides and haunted by outer darkness, salespeople who won’t take know for an answer, and of course the dying. Despite that, it’s not a particularly morbid manga, more supernatural workplace drama.

Written (catgirl): 166.

I guess it had to be some day!

Walked to the train station in the slight drizzle because all the bus drivers are on strike, went to the office, ate Mayan chicken and vegetables and rice, did some works, walked back from the train station in the rain, contemplated the futility of my life.

Called my senators to remind them to not vote for the Republican fuck-everything-up bill, for all the good it will do.

Read (manga): Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! vol 3 (Sumito Oowara): They assimilate Sound Girl, make the video about shooting down UFOs, and go to the doujinshi convention.

Written (catgirl): 217. Apparently I didn’t give up.

Presumably not this nation.

Went to the office,helped Coworker D with a customer call, ate some chicken biriyani that was really too spicy.

Read (novel): Momo Arashima Breaks the Mirror of the Sun (Misa Sugiura): Further adventures in Japanese mythology, new friends for the main character to have fights with, and really that mirror had it coming.

Read (graphic novel): Taka (Ryan Jampole): Through a comedic series of mishaps, a delinquent gets stuck with the power to transform into a superhero and defeat the alien menace from the past. She hates this, and also does not want friends, but by the end, has decided it’s not so bad. Let’s hear it for personal growth!

Written (catgirl): 161.

Is it only 23 hours long?

Also No-Brainer Day. Look, it me!

Went to the office without a jacket for the first time this year (I think), there were people there, ate some popcorn chicken that seemed good in theory but was awfully fried in practice, hated being in the office because people talk and talk and there aren’t enough conference rooms for everybody who needs to do a customer call. Return-to-office continues to be a pointless waste of everybody’s time, as it has been since the beginning.

I tried to think about game design more, but you know how when you crossword too much, and a perfectly ordinary sequence of letters stops looking like language? I think I’m at that point. Magic? Fight? Treasure? Elf? Experience? Monster? Is that all supposed to add up to something?

Read (manga): My Cute Little Kitten vol 2 (Milk Morinaga): Insecurity, sex, life changes, medical emergencies (the cat is fine), it’s hard being a hot lesbian couple!

Written (catgirl): 110.

Another failure on my part.

Went to the office, had the room to myself, sat on customer calls all day, ate a short-rib-between-grilled-rice-cakes burger thing. May or may not have done any actual work.

Read (short story): Peacock on Parade (CE Murphy): Every time Kit writes about a bird shifter, it’s more alarming. I’m pretty sure that after Colorado Shifters and Irish Zoo Shifters, the next spinoff series is going to be Reign of the Dinosaurs II: Theropod Boogaloo. Also the female lead from this book is someone from TooMUSH.

Read (game): Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes (Michael Addison): Wandering heroes against the post-apocalyptic oppressors! The GM is also the voice on the radio that provides mysterious information. Pick your apocalypse and wasteland and oppressors, or make up your own, pick a playbook (ex-oppressor, robot, mutant, whatever), and have wild adventures. The system is fairly basic larger-dice-for-higher-skill, spend successes to get additional benefits, with the twist that if you accomplish enough with a skill you get a sticker to put on your character sheet. The book comes with a complete set of stickers, but I guess after that you need to draw them yourself.

Written (game design): 173. Still not sure that my initial ideas weren’t all wrong.

Also Clean Out Your Bookcase Day. I am better at one of these things than the other, possibly.

Went to the office, there were people there, ate a brisket sandwich and potato salad, did a work or two.

Read (game): The Lost and the Jammed (Tom Mecredy): It’s like a cross between D&D and Wild West and WWI, or D&D where the iconic weapon is the gun rather than the sword. Ruins with remnants of advanced technology, cyclopean shell craters, diabolists summoning demons to make infernal guns, wandering sages with blueprints for divine weapons tattooed on their skins, dragons causing trouble for the lesser species, etc. The system is a pretty standard increasing/decreasing die size, Gear is a stat, negative conditions instead of hit points.

Read (novel): Emberstone Farm (L Meili): Isekai heroine in a world that seems to be an Asian-themed cross between Stardew Valley and Minecraft, with only minor elements of monster-slaying and dungeon-delving. She also has stacks of MAXINT of every worthwhile item, thanks to her friend who hooked her up when it was just a game, so she has nothing to do except farm, romance the locals, terraform the blighted wastelands, and induct her minions into the ways of the System. And occasionally get kidnapped, but whatever.

Read (manga): Skygrazer (Masakazu Ishiguro): Linked series of shorts around a future housing development, with murder mysteries, normal teenagers, robots, bioroids, rape, tragedy, everyone coming to a bad end.

Written (catgirl): 184.

I had some chocolate mints, but I eated them. I guess I also have Thin Mints in the freezer, but those are for Marith.

Went to the office, ate chicken guys that were nicely crunchy but too spicy, did a few works, probably should have done more.

Read (graphic novel): The Pirate Princess (Luca Frigerio, Lorenza Pigliamosche, Simon Bowland): Daughter of the pirate is raised on an idyllic island, finally gets dragged back into pirate intrigue, finds out about her family, adventure, betrayal, but all on such fast forward it wasn’t very interesting.

Written (catgirl): 140 new words.

It’s not true that without internet friends I would have no friends at all, but I’d definitely have many fewer.

Went to the office, Boss K was there visiting from Texas, ate a sandwich and chips, tried to do some work but was thwarted by my laptop having some kind of password explosion.

Read (manga): Nightschool omnibus 2 (Svetlana Chmakova): Apparently I had read this before, I just didn’t remember the ending. It wasn’t supposed to be the ending, but as far as I know no further volumes have come out, so it’s pretty abrupt.

Read (novel): The City of Spires (Erios909): Third and possibly last in the series about the isekai girl who started as a demon and has become an angel. After the destruction of book 2, the MC and her girlfriend and their refugees find a new city to live in, defend it against invaders, achieve high position, etc. There’s obviously way more room for leveling up, but that seems to be it for the series for now.

Written (game design): 145. I should probably start putting numbers on these things, even if they have to be changed later.

Evolve, evolve, OK! (Probably illegal in the US now.)

Went to the office, had the room to myself because Coworker D was out, ate pad woon sen, did some work, read about how noodles are the worst (carbs plus oily).

Read (manga): Nightschool omnibus 1 (Svetlana Chmakova): Apparently I didn’t remember much of the plot, just the snarky lines and the art. I like the school bits better than the grim and serious hunter bits.

Written (game design): 111.

If it’s not from the Canada region of North America, it’s just sparkling tree sap.

Went to the office, got rained on, ate a Korean bento with tofu and veggie stuff, did a work.

Read (manga): The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Jack Flash and the Faerie Case Files vol 3-4 (Yu Godai, Mako Oikawa, Kore Yamazaki): A shadowy master criminal who claims to have an ideological motive! This will definitely not be a disaster.

Written (game design): 158, but am I actually getting anywhere? I’m not sure I am.

Mostly I only have fondue at New Year’s, although I guess technically there’s nothing but laziness stopping me from getting it at other times. It wouldn’t be the same without friends, though.

Went to the office, ate spicy eggplant (fondue was not on the menu), did a work.

Read (novel): Demon World Boba Shop vol 5 (RC Joshua): Our isekai’d human finally accepts that he has a valid life, he is doing his part in the world, people love him because he deserves love and not out of pity, etc. The end! Owlgirl is still the best.

Read (manga): The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Jack Flash and the Faerie Case Files vol 1-2 (Yu Godai, Mako Oikawa, Kore Yamazaki): Spinoff about two changelings (one in each direction) working as PIs in New York for the supernatural community. Ghosts, maguffins, faerie meddlers, horrible rich people, magical informants, all the important magic detective tropes.

Written (game design): 136. But what if all the ideas I started with are wrong and I should start over?

I have outsourced all my dinosaur drawing to an expert.

Went to the office again, ate beef and gouda dumplings and pickled vegetables, did a small amount of work.

Read (manga): Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! vol 2 (Sumito Oowara): Through making a deal with the Robot Club, and the culture fair and Character Animation Girl’s parents.

Read (manga): Yokai Cats vol 1 (Pandania): Like Monster Cats, but with Japanese monsters instead of European/D&D. I guess this was the original.

Read (novel): Something Extraordinary (Alexis Hall): Third and probably final book in the series, since everyone in the group is partnered off. The runaway fiancé from the first book saves the extremely gay man who was in love with her brother from a terrible marriage mandated by his family by marrying him and not wanting him to sleep with her. People have Ideas about marriage, but not ones that can’t be overcome.

Written (game design): 251 of farting around with skills.

Happy New Year, Moon!

Went to the office, had to mask because Coworker D was there, ate a brisket sandwich and coleslaw, did a work I guess.

Read (manga): Peach Boy Riverside vol 13-14 (coolkyousinnjya, Johanne): Is this not going the way it originally appeared? What are the odds? But at least most of the main characters are back together.

Written (game design): 414 of erasing and rewriting lists of skills. I know I want to have no abilities, only skills, but that means I need a reasonably-sized list of skills that cover everything a PC might do. I started with the list of skills from D&D, and the examples of things that might require a plain ability check from the PHB, made my own list of skills based on verbs a la FitD, made a long list of things adventurers might do, made another skill list based on occupations that do adventuring-type things (soldier, burglar, hunter, hobo, murderer, etc), made another list of skills, etc, and don’t seem to be any closer to making a definitive list of 20ish skills that would fit on a character sheet.

I probably should, but I won’t. Even though my pad theoretically would accept it, if my stylus worked.

Went to the office, ate salt and pepper tofu with onions, did a work.

Read (graphic novel): Be Wary of the Silent Woods (Svetlana Chmakova): MIddle-schoolers in the Weirn setting, going where the adults explicitly told them not to, and finding a whole lot of trouble that they can’t quite get out of on their own, at least not without severe social damage. I liked both the YA Weirn graphic novels and the author’s other middle-school GNs, so this was great.

Read (manga): Marriage Toxin vol 3 (Joumyaku, Mizuki Yoda): Poison Ninja finishes saving another young woman from a rival ninja, getting no dates but another friend in the process, and then gets recruited by a ninja who may be in more trouble than anybody can handle.

Written: 204.

Sage is full of questions, such as “Gooshyfood?” and “Treats?” and “Cuddles?” Fortunately the answer is practically always yes. Nightvale is more taciturn, but does leap quite surprisingly to my shoulders, so that’s okay.

Went to the office, ate some chicken nuggets, enlightened a customer, placated some other customers.

Read (novel): Asunder (Kerstin Hall): A somewhat strange book in a very strange world, where civilization was sustained by divine servants of questionable benevolence until the terrifying things from outside ate them, and now a warlock of the outer things is trying to help the person she accidentally doomed and also avoid her own doom and there is creepy magic everywhere and also a lot of angst, because her life is kind of terrible, honestly. I liked it, because creepy magic everywhere, but it is not a cheerful book.

Read (novel): Death of an Irish Druid (Catie Murphy): Is our cursed driver finally resigning herself to her fate? Her friends from the US aren’t helping with any kind of normality, that’s for sure! Unfortunately this is probably the last book of the series, unless it finds another publisher.

Read (short story): The Body in the Zero Gee Brothel (Cameron Cooper): The mystery was not the point, the setting twist was the point, and I have to admit, I did not see it coming.

Read (manga): Marriage Toxin vol 2 (Joumyaku, Mizuki Yoda): Having failed to get girls through normal socialization, our poison ninja is now (on advice of advisor) rescuing women who are in the kind of trouble a ninja can help with. This plays to his strengths and is much more successful, although he’s too much of a nice guy to pressure a woman into dating him just because he saved her life. He does another friend now, though, which is definitely something. (His friend has a shark. I’m pretty sure this will come up again later.)

Written (game design): 235, although mostly notes on what D&D thinks would call for an ability check, to make sure I’m not missing anything obvious. It’s like research or something.

I read a book with a dragon, does that count?

Also National Quinoa Day. Hi Ken!

Went to the office, did a customer call, ate a barbecue pork sandwich, was only minimally functional.

Read (novel): The Hexologists (Josiah Bancroft): A married couple solve mysteries in a quasi-Edwardian world where the Industrial Revolution is powered by feeding wood through a hellish alternate dimension to produce superfuel. Royal intrigue, rich bastard intrigue, necromantic visions, horrible monsters, lost magical arts, tragedy, and marital bliss ensue. I liked it enough that I may go back and try the author’s earlier series that I originally bounced off of.

Read (manga): Dark Gathering vol 1 (Kenichi Kondo): A college student who hid in his room for two years due to a traumatic supernatural encounter starts to socialize again, and ends up tutor to his childhood friend’s small cousin who is extremely creepy and obsessed with hunting evil spirits. Road trips to haunted locations and additional trauma ensue, but the spooky little girl does actually know what she’s doing.

Read (manga): Hello, Melancholic! vol 2 (Yayoi Ohsawa): Trombone Girl and Drums Girl continue to have feelings. Trombone girl finds out about Flute Girl and Bass Girl’s secret relationship and backstory, which is not what I expected from how they’ve been presented so far.

Written: My script says 392 words of changes, but most of that was shuffling stuff around for better(?) organization. Kit says she counts that as half, so I’ll call today 196.

I wore one of those!

Went to the office, had the room to myself because coworker D didn’t make it in, ate some beef and rice that was tasty but sadly lacking in vitamins, did some works.

Read (manga): Hello, Melancholic! vol 1 (Yayoi Ohsawa): An awkward trombone girl gets dragged into playing music by a cute popular girl and somehow ends part of the all-girl band. Probably one of the two has a crush on the other. Jazz ensues.

Written: 327.

There is a lot of playing god in the “Dungeon Crawler Carl” books, and so far it’s not going that great for them, because fuck alien oligarchs.

Despite staying up too late reading, I went to the office, ate hipster onigiri, and sort of did a work.

Read: Monologue Woven For You vol 1 (Syu Yasaka): One college girl is an actress, the other acted in high school but gave it up for some mysterious reason, they fall in love, but the one girl’s dark past may come between them.

Read: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Matt Dinniman): A level designed to give the humans extra trauma, an unwise bargain, and a lot of forces outside the dungeon on the move. Also the dungeon itself seems to be freaking out more and more, which must be a good sign, right?

Read: Kidd Commander vol 1 (Aria Bell): This is Marith’s favorite comic ever (I probably exaggerate), and I have not previously managed to get into it, but I got through the entire first paper volume (which goes up to the waitress’s big reveal), and although it is very Early-Web-Comic, it is also pretty cool.

Written: I felt I wasn’t getting anywhere with the project I had switched to writing in summary form, so I switched again to working on the ideas I had to simplify(?) D&D5. Game design is pointless and stupid, as people barely have time to play games that have already been published, never mind playtest new ones, but arguably not more so than my fiction writing. Anyway, 126 words of that.

That is BY DEFINITION every day!

Went in to the office, didn’t have it to myself because Coworker D is back, ate some crispy chicken bits with coleslaw and pickled veggies, did a work or something.

Read: A Conventional Boy (Charles Stross): A hapless D&D player who was sent up the secret river back in the day finally breaks out of the Laundry internment camp so he can attend a convention. Alarming LARPs ensue.

Read: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! vol 1 (Sumito Oowara): So far, pretty much like the anime. There’s Backgrounds Girl, Character Girl, and Business Girl, fantasy sequences, the disintegrating clubroom, the screening for the student council, etc. I don’t remember exactly, but I think the end of this first volume of the manga is pretty far through the anime series.

Written: 138.

I’m not sure I understand the difference between emo and goth, but I’m old and terminally uncool and nobody cares what I understand.

Went to the office, ate Thai fried tofu and roti, did a long call with a customer.

Read: Daily Report About My Witch Senpai vol 1 (Maka Machida): Some people are just witches, can’t let that get in the way of a het workplace romance. Ditz x stoic.

Read: Raven’s Hope (Glynn Stewart): Conclusion(?) to the series about a heroic starship commander and a heroic diplomat trying to keep things from exploding after the alien empire was overthrown. I’m not sure I approve of the resolution of the threat of the last three or so books, but I guess if someone is making war against you, there’s only so many kinds of responses.

Read: Chainsaw Man vol 7 (Tatsuki Fujimoto): And now, a bunch more crazed devil-wielding freaks for Denji to get mugged by!

Read: The Twelve Failed Careers of Oddmass (Chris McDowall): A supplement for Electric Bastionland with twelve bizarre and vaguely Christmas-themed failed careers to generate characters.

Written: 200 exactly.

About to become illegal, no doubt.

Went to work, sat on a customer call with Coworker K while the customers talked endlessly among themselves until she used the “we have a hard stop at (now+15m)” line to get them to do the thing, ate something called a sushirrito, was the only person left in the entire office by about 16:00.

I keep thinking about how to simplify  D&D even though this is completely pointless. People barely have time to play games they already know; nobody has time to learn a new one, never mind playtest.

Read: Chainsaw Man vol 6 (Tatsuki Fujimoto): Wow, that turned out even worse than I expected.

Read: How to Survive at the End of the World vol 3 (RC Joshua): Technically our handyman is past the end of the world now, making his janky OP way in a System-enabled galaxy. Surely nothing can go wrong from this point.

Read: An Unreasonable Doubt (Jonathan L Howard): A mysterious crime, mysterious people with ideas about it, and a British detective who doesn’t need any of this.

Read: Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You vol 1 (Jinushi): A middle-aged salaryman, a mysterious young woman, lots of cigarettes, and slice-of-life interactions.

Written: 141.

I guess it’s just the thoughts that are unmentionable, not the festival itself? Anyway, hope you had an obscure one!

Went to the office, ate crispy chicken fried with cheddar, did some work I guess.

Read: Cheerful Amnesia vol 1-2 (Tamamushi Oku): A young woman loses three years of memory (in that neat way of fictional amnesia), forgetting how she got a girlfriend or what having a girlfriend was like, but it’s okay because when she wakes up to find the girlfriend next to her hospital bed, she immediately falls madly in love all over again. Genki idiot x stoic butch, rampant horniness, moderate high jinx, very silly.

Read: Tournament of Ruses (Kate Stradling): Second book in the trilogy, a young woman from country nobility gets sucked into the capital after the upheaval of the first book and doesn’t like it much but manages to make do and find a boy and save the day and only get killed a little bit. Still very conventional, still cute.

Read: Partridge in a BEAR Tree (Murphy Lawless): Sequel to OctoBEARfest, the cousin of the male lead from that one discovers the drummer of the female lead is her fated mate, and shenanigans ensue. Major shenanigans that I was not expecting, and also a crossover with the non-Virtue, non-Renaissance shifter books I haven’t read. But, gay shifters! The Virtue books were so conventional as required by the Zoe Chant Collective that I wasn’t sure that was even possible.

Written: 128.

I know kaleidoscopes used to be big, but now there’s an app for that. Wait, is there actually an app for that? … Yes, several, although a lot of them seem to be for drawing your own symmetric patterns or filtering your photos into symmetric patterns.

Went to the office, did a work, ate a Korean BBQ sandwich.

Read: Kingdom of Ruses (Kate Stradling): A kingdom founded on lies, a handsome young man who Remington-Steeles himself into the lies, annoying younger brothers, a well of magic, het romance, political intrigue, mysteries. Sadly very heteronormative, but cute.

Read: Lucy, Uncensored (Mel Hammond, Teghan Hammond): Not heteronormative at all. A trans senior girl tries to find a college drama program that isn’t terrible, despite cis guys and transphobic school boards and unsupportive parents and her best friend’s poor dietary choices and dodgy dog.

Read: Throw Away the Suit Together vol 1-2 (Keyyang): Also not heteronormative. A lesbian couple in their last year of college give up on the Tokyo rat race and run away to an island to live in a borrowed family beach house. Sadly a dilapidated house is not enough to survive on, so they have to deal with people and capitalism and everything. I’m not sure if it’s exactly slice-of-life, because that usually doesn’t include so much upheaval, but it’s close. And cute.

Written: 223.

Zoom!

Went to the office, ate a bento-type thing, did a work. Boss K is visiting so even though Coworker D is still out sick, I did not have the office to myself.

Read: Tearmoon Empire vol 1 (Mizu Morino, Nozomu Mochitsuki, Gilse): The princess, somewhat deservedly, is guillotined by the revolutionaries who have overthrown her corrupt government, but wakes up as her tween self. She isn’t any less shallow or self-serving, but she really doesn’t want to get executed, so she does her best to shore up the kingdom and make people not hate her. This combined with her  knowledge of future events leads people to believe all kinds of untrue things about her, but she’s doing her best (such as it is)!

Read: Eden of Witches vol 1 (Yumeji): All the plants in the world have taken the animals and gone off to hide, leaving humanity in a barren wasteland. Only witches can grow plants, so instead of hiring them, the populace murders them at every opportunity. Very women-witches-nature good, men-science-civilization bad, so bleah.

Written: Another 130 of notes. Am I running out of ideas?