Tag: office

<code>Hello, world!</code>

Went to the office, did some work, ate some hummus pita chicken shawarma.

Read: This Used to Be About Dungeons vol 1 (Alexander Wales): I guess it’s litRPG? There’s no popups, though, the world is just arranged into 12-mile hexes with one dungeon per hex, parties with intraparty chat can be formed by a simple spell everyone knows, etc. I guess it’s diegetic litRPG? Anyway, it’s weird. The party is one guy and four girls, but it doesn’t seem likely to turn into a harem as nobody has chemistry with the guy and some of the girls already have crushes on each other.

Read: Delicious in Dungeon vol 12-14 (Ryoko Kui): Read the last three volumes all at once because gaaaaah. Climactic confrontations! All the side characters are back! Everything is almost doomed! But Laios’s love of monsters saves the day! Epilogue! That was quite something.

Written: 237.

We could use a lot more of that around here, especially in voters.

Went to the office, Coworker D was also masking because he’s sick and not American, ate a brisket sandwich, did a work.

Read: Otherside Picnic vol 11 (Iori Miyazawa, Eita Mizuno, Shirakaba): Humans, as always, are the biggest pain to deal with, even when they aren’t technically monsters.

Read: Heretical Fishing vol 3 (Haylock Jobson): There’s still some fluffiness (er, shelliness?) and it’s cranked up to 11, but also the forces of repression are growing ever-more-horrible and need dealt with.

Written: 105.

Went to the office, there were some coworkers there, we had some meetings, I ate a Reuben that wasn’t bad and did a little bit of work. Also, everything is fucked.

Read: A Line in the Stars (Sean Fenian): Conclusion of the trilogy about the thinly-disguised self-insert for the neurodivergent geek author who gets an alien space factory to serve as a decoy for alien jerks and builds Earth a space navy. Finally the catastrophe that the navy is for arrives, and things do not go as expected for anyone.

Read: Peach Boy Riverside vol 6-8 (coolkyousinnjya): There are getting to be a lot of factions involved in this, and now Mikoto is going off after his own psychlims. Surely this will be fine.

Written: 194.

Fortunately I did not have to interact with anyone in person at work, and was able to refrain from typing, “So how about those local Nazi motherfuckers, eh?” into a corporate slack.

Read: Library System Reset: Damaged (KT Hanna): Further litRPG adventures of a college student in the magical library, and we finally find out why her, why the library is so messed up, etc. Now they just need to do something about it.

Read: Kaina of the Great Snow Sea vol 2-3 (Tsutomu Nihei, Itoe Takemoto): Too many male characters, the princess never does anything except get rescued.

Read: Lion on Loan (Zoe Chant): First of Kit’s new shapeshifters-in-Ireland series. Had too much oligarchy, alas.

Written: 175.

For the fourth decade running, no costume for me. I am not cool.

Went to the office, which was full of people, did some more customer meetings, ate a bowl of veggies and pork, spent a lot of time talking with coworkers which I rarely do. There were a few costumes, but not many.

I had one (1) trick-or-treater this year, which is a huge percentage increase over last year.

Read: Peach Boy Riverside vol 4-5 (coolkyousinnjya): Ogre intrigue! Sus ogres professing good intentions! Frau’s backstory!

Written: 206.

Those would definitely have helped at the con!

Went to the office which only had coworker D, ate Bonchon chicken things (which are not significantly different from chicken tenders except in the sauce, but somehow okay anyway), did some customer call.

Read: Whoever Steals This Book vol 3 (Nowaki Fukamidori, Kakeru Sora): For a manga all about writing, this isn’t very well-written. All the exposition came in a lump at the end (which this was). Maybe I’m too picky.

Read: Peach Boy Riverside vol 3 (coolkyousinnjya): Ogres don’t get along with each other any better than they get along with humans, apparently. Or than humans get along with beastfolk, etc. Sally has gone from “I bet we can come to a peaceable solution if we talk about this like fellow sophonts of goodwill” to “here is the peaceable solution, do it or I murder you all” and I can’t blame her.

Read: Jasmine is Haunted (Mark Oshiro): What it says on the tin! A Latina middle-school girl is haunted, it’s very upsetting, finally she makes friends who can help her figure it out and grownups stop being in denial. Also, plentiful gayness.

Written: 170.

That’s literally every day since at least 2016!

Went to the office, which had many people again, ate a doshirak (which seems to be Korean for bento) full of tofu and pot stickers, did a work even though I was sleepy. The train was late getting me home, but whatever.

Read: 7th Time Loop vol 1 (Touko Amekawa, Hinoki Kino, Wan*Hachipisu): Our protagonist has been through six iterations of a time loop from when she gets jilted by the crown prince, each one short but full of learning and independence in a different profession. Now the foreign prince whose bullshit war got her murdered six times even though they’ve never met, wants to carry her off to his country and marry her. Surely this will go splendidly.

Read: Whoever Steals This Book vol 2 (Nowaki Fukamidori, Kakeru Sora): Two book worlds this time, and we meet a thief, but are they the thief that’s causing all this trouble? Still not much closer to learning who dog-girl is or whether they’re going to kiss or why these books are magic or what’s up with the aunt or really anything.

Read: Azarinth Healer vol 4 (Rhaegar): Completely OP isekai litRPG protagonist returns to civilization for a bit, and completely pwns the n00bs, but then has to go back north to help with an extremely high-level dungeon, where she pwns creatures of much higher level and learns some stuff and makes some friends. Not level 400 yet, though.

Written: 202.

Or National Feral Cat Day, and Sage and Nightvale are rescues, so they count! But they are sweeties now.

Went to the office which was excessively full of people, ate some tacos, did a customer call and some other work.

Marith has made some samples of laminated handouts for the con games, which look like they will do nicely. If I were actually competent, I would do graphics stuff to fit them on fewer pages and stuff, but I’m not.

Read: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol 9 (Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe): Characters from the mage test are already recurring, as are enemies from Frieren’s past. And doom.

Read: Delicious in Dungeon vol 3 (Ryoko Kui): Deeper into the dungeon means more monsters to eat and more fellow adventurers to regard with caution and drama.

Written: 213. I didn’t finish any books like Kit and other pocket fronds, but I did make my MC suffer.

I told the pocket friends, so there could be a lizard gif party.

Went to the office, which was full of people including coworker A who is visiting from the UK, ate purple rice wrapped around pork and egg and veggies, went home early so I could do the evening work while Boss K is on vacation.

Read: Pandora Unchained vol 1 (Patrick Laplante): Extremely Westernized cultivation fantasy: mana instead of qi, D&D classes, dungeons are lost temples to the dead Greek gods, etc. Main character is a physician dying from having his cultivation destroyed in an intra-clan spat when he prays to what they have instead of gods now and gets an OP poison-based cultivation path. Intrigue and resource-gathering and assholes and a dungeon labyrinth ensue.

Read: Me and My Beast Boss vol 2 (Shiroinu): Giant terrifying lion boss, human subordinate, corporate intrigue, feelings.

Read: Gokurakugai vol 1 (Yuto Sano): She’s a stoic chain-smoking gunslinger, he’s a young punk with superpowers, they fight anthropophagous undead in a seedy vaguely-Chinese city. The monsters are called “maga”, which pleases me.

Read: Livesuit (James SA Corey): The alien war from The Mercy of Gods seen from the perspective of the main(?) human civilization. Their method of interstellar travel is very unclear except for the time dilation, and in fact a lot of their technology is unclear, but it doesn’t seem like they’re doing a very sensible job of fighting the aliens, or of making supersoldiers. In fact, it seems kind of like their military strategy is to maximize bleakness and futility. Is there an in-world reason for what they’re doing? Shrug emoji.

Written: 183.

Most curious event: three people signed up for each of my sessions at Big Bad Con, so I guess we’re doing this.

Went to the office, ate a cold burger and cold fries because I never learn, did a work, made my escape early so that I could be at my real computer at 18:00 for the second wave of signups. Successfully signed up for Gubat Banwa (non-European fantasy!) and In the City of Glass (never heard of it before), so all was well.

Read: Tiger, Tiger vol 1 (Petra Erika Nordlund): Marith tried to get me to read this as a webcomic, but my ever-decreasing ability to read webcomics foiled her. I was able to read it on paper, though, and it’s pretty swell. A noble lady steals her brother’s identity and ship to set off looking for the theological implications of sea sponges. Hilarity, creation myths, monstrous stowaways, and gay longings ensue, and they’re barely past the first port.

Written: 287. Kit wrote EIGHT THOUSAND.

If only!

I went into the office, but I was the only one in our closet, so I was able to eat my orange chicken and pot-stickers and do a bit of work in peace.

Read: Chasing Spica vol 1 (Chihiro Orihi): More high-school yuri, academic rivals-to-enemies-to-having-unexpectedly-hot-dreams. Slightly sexier than many examples of the genre, and neither of the leads seems to be an idiot or a monster or a lunatic.

Read: I Wanna Do Bad Things With You vol 1 (Yutaka): He’s a high-school villain (at the level of secretly draining the pool because he hates swim class), she’s a meek mousy girl with well-hidden strength and curves and a secret taste for evil, together they do crimes. Obviously there’s no point to male protagonists, but he’s kind of Miles-like in his shortness and health problems and cunning, so I guess that’s okay, and she’s super-hot when she stands up straight and ties her hair back, which always amuses me.

Read: ShipCore 2.0 (Erios909): The wider universe comes to impinge on our heroines’ little corner, showing how much of a backwater it really is and how being impressive to the hicks there is not that impressive. Also, von Neumann capabilities are a go, which cannot possibly lead to any problems.

Written: 160.

Also Compliance Officer Day, which on some slacks immediately leads to the question, is a compliance officer a kind of dumpling?

Went to the office yet again, ate a brisket sandwich of Protein and Death, did more customer calls.

Read: Monthly in the Garden With My Landlord vol 3 (Yodokawa): The fallout from the confession at the end of vol 2! Friends are consulted! Things are said! Decisions are made!

Read: Bite (Bill Schutt): Nonfiction about teeth. The bits about animal teeth, the evolution of teeth and vertebrate superiority, etc are more interesting than the horrors of human dental history. Also, shrews are terrifying.

Read: Operation Liberty and Under Siege (Terry Mixon, JN Chaney): Now that some alien invasions are getting cleaned up, the human-on-human violence needs to be resolved. Surely that will not be difficult.

Written: 138.

Dreams, I has them. Rarely can they be used for writing, though.

Went to the office, did a long customer call, ate some plov (rice with raisins and chickpeas, reminds me of Afghan pillaw in name and composition, which apparently is not a coincidence because it’s from Uzbekistan), survived having a coworker in the office with me.

Read: The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (CM Waggoner): So why does that small town have so many murders without everyone moving away, and why is it always the mild-mannered middle-aged librarian who solves them, anyway?

Read: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou omnibus 5 (Hitoshi Ashinano): Time goes on, people we first saw as kids grow up and have kids of their own, but not enough to keep humanity from continuing to dwindle, the series ends, Alpha goes on.

Written: 111.

I checked, I am still registered! But I’m not in a state with a red government, so it wasn’t likely I would have been disenfranchised.

I thought I was being clever in getting two medical appointments on the same morning so that I would only have to take half a day off work, but then I biffed it. The second appointment needed me to not eat or drink anything for three hours previously, so I had early breakfast, but when I went to check in for the first appointment, I found out that I was supposed to have been fasting for that too. Had to reschedule for a month from now, on the first day of my Big Bad Con vacation. I did manage to get the infrasound(?) test taken successfully, and then since the clinic is right there in Mountain View, went to the office to eat Thai food and do a work. The office isn’t any different on Tuesdays than on Thursdays, it turns out.

Read: Galaxy: The Prettiest Star (Jadzia Axelrod, Jess Taylor): An alien princess in exile and her retainers are hiding out on Earth of the DC universe. The magic disguise avocado has turned her into a boy human, which is not what she wants at all, but her retainers insist on not breaking cover no matter how miserable she is. Then she meets a girl.

Played: Perils and Princesses: The end! The princesses successfully resolved the problem in a completely different way than the first group. After that, we talked about Ken’s proposed Changeling: the Lost game. I have no idea how to be a human in the East Bay in the 90s, or even a 90s human at all.

Written: 241.

 

Also Video Game Day, which seems fitting on both sides.

Went to the office, people were there, customers wanted me to call them, ate some boneless chicken wings, whatever.

Read: HoverGirls (Geneva Bowers): I read this online at some point in the past, but it was cute enough I didn’t mind getting and reading it on paper. Two cousins move to the big city, one to become a fashion designer and model, the other to brood and watch soaps, mysterious aquatic manifestions ensue, the world is saved, etc.

Written: 127.

For obvious reasons, but still valid.

Went to some office, ate some assorted dumpling guys, did some work.

Ordered some Catan pieces to use to make a tiny hexmap of the island when running Perils and Princesses in person. Then ordered some more when the first one fell through because the first person couldn’t find them. eBay, manne.

Read: I Married My Female Friend vol 3 (Shio Usui): The cute girl from the one wife’s past (they were roommates!) showing up could have been drama, but mostly wasn’t, because it’s not that sort of manga.

Read: Tuesday (Draith): Many many iterations of the Tuesday on which the Earth is scheduled to be destroyed, evil misunderstood and badly-raised clones, emotional reunions, clever plans, external brains, the end!

Read: Ogami-San Can’t Keep It In vol 6 (Yu Yoshidamaru): Not cool, old middle-school friend! But the main couple are actually doing okay together, given what freaks they both are.

Written: 295 words of torturing my protagonist. It builds character!

Despite it also being Be Late For Something Day, I had samosas so promptly I ate them yesterday! Today I ate hipster onigiri/rice sandwich things. Maybe I did some work. There were coworkers.

Read: Alpi the Soul Sender vol 4 (Rona): Well, that’s not good.

Read: To Pierce the Heart (Draith): Romance subplot! Also more main plot, and lots of powerups.

Read: Peach Boy Riverside vol 2 (coolkyousinnjya): Racism, murders, the party grows, more murders.

Written: 176. Also I need a name.

Also World Sexual Health Day, but probably best to not try to combine them.

Got up too early, went to the office, ate too much spicy chicken biriyani, did a work or something.

Read: How Do I Turn My Best Friend Into My Girlfriend? vol 1 (Syu Yasaka): High-school girl realizes her feelings for her best friend aren’t platonic any more, best friend is oblivious, other friend is supportive and doesn’t find the gayness noteworthy. That seems to be a trend in newer yuri manga, there’s no “but we’re both girls, how can it be?”. Don’t know if it’s the same for BL but I hope so. Also don’t know if actual Japan is becoming any less homophobic, but this has to be a good start.

Read: Glitch vol 4 (Shima Shinya): The end?! Several things are resolved, but a lot is left open, which could be for a sequel, or just artisticness.

Read: Villain’s Vignettes vol 1 (Drew Hayes): Actually three novellas(?) about Hephaestus and/or Fornax from the “Villain’s Code” series, between books 2 and 3, two holiday specials and one in which Fornax gets isekai’d.

Written: 145.

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.

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

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.

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.

Wow, it’s been a long time. It’s also National Intern Day, so obviously I need an intern to make me a hot fudge sundae!

Did go into the office today, ate a spicy burger, did hardly any work, did remain masked around humans and their virus-filled faceholes.

Watched: Dead Boy Detectives 3: Edwin’s closet full of milkshakes brings approximately 2/3 of a boy to the yard per episode.

Read: Kaina of the Great Snow Sea vol 1 (Tsutomu Nihei, Itoe Takemoto): Tsutomo Nihei far-future megastructures, this time an atmosphere canopy anchored by giant tentacle-trees. Young man in the last village atop the canopy is surprised to discover there are people on the surface, etc. Not sure what the snow sea is made of that doesn’t automatically solve a water shortage, but I’m sure all will be revealed in due course.

Read: No Man Left Behind (WR Gingell): The actual conclusion, in which many surprising events occur. Some of them are perhaps more surprising to the characters than the reader, being heartwarming when Athelas has given up on his heart.

Read: The Moon on a Rainy Night vol 4 (Kuzushiro): This volume is more about deafness than romance, but they are still adorable.

Read: “The Year Without Sunshine” (Naomi Kritzer): Ordinary working-class people coming together during a near-future climate disaster. It’s the wealthy professionals that go all Mad Max.

Read: “One Man’s Treasure” (Sarah Pinsker): Even when there’s actual magic, rich people abuse it and leave huge messes for poor people to clean up.

Written: 305, some fiction and some adventure notes. After reading an actual Perils & Princesses adventure, I realized I need a doom counter and some wrinkle tables.

Where are my lemon drops?!

Went to the office, everybody was there so I had to mask, ate part of a huge pile of chicken bits and sweet potato fries, did some work or something, train failed so I had to ride the bus home and got back late.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue vol 2-4 (Makoto Sanda, Isuo Tsukumo): This is as far as I have read before, so everything after this will be new. Sadly, it looks like the faction that likes to dress Giselle up in gorgeous Chinese clothes is being set up as the worst of a bad lot, so probably normal outfits from here on out.

Read: [Psychokinetic] Eyeball Pulling (FreeiD): LitRPG, the MC’s anomalous class is obviously going to lead her to deep revelations about where the System comes from and what it’s for and all, but I don’t care that much.

Written: 147.

🙂 🙂 😀 🙁 T_T (old school)

Went to the office, Coworker T was there for some reason so I had to mask, but whatever. Ate some short ribs between two toasted rice things, which apparently is a Korean hamburger-equivalent, did some work, might not have looked like a complete idiot in front of my boss.

Read: The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue vol 1 (Makoto Sanda, Isuo Tsukumo): Rereading so I can read all the volumes (that I have). French alchemists are kind of ridiculous, Ao is adorable, Giselle is pretty adorable too.

Read: Behind Closed Doors (WR Gingell): Further exploits of Athelas and his new gumiho buddy as they get manipulated into doing good deeds (sometimes) in the course of accomplishing their own selfish ends. So far it’s going okay, but not great, which is what we expect of book 2/5.

Written: 324