Tag: office

Another day I have failed to celebrate!

Went to the office, ate a Mediterranean hamburger wrap thing, did a work.

Read: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou omnibus 1 (Hitoshi Ashinano): This is one of Dave’s favorites from ages back, which I never managed to read in scanlation, but now it is available at bookstores in English! It is some days in the life of a robot girl running a cafe during the last days of humanity. Written in the 90s, the fading civilization is not very futuristic, despite bits like human-level robots and perpetual streetlights, but the quietness and the fading are the important parts. I quite like it, but it is the opposite of exciting.

Read: The Invisible Man & His Soon-to-Be Wife vol 3 (Iwatobineko): More mushiness, still no steaminess. Probably at least another three volumes before they can manage more than a kiss, even though they have the good example of other couples to inspire them.

Written: 121, mostly copying stuff from a first draft into a notes for a second draft.

Excellent day for Gilbert & Sullivan heroes to be born!

Went into the office, was dumb, ate a cold Impossible burger, did a work.

Read: The Moon on a Rainy Night vol 3 (Kuzushiro): Protagonist has finally realized her feelings. Surely this will bring her only happiness with her beautiful girlfriend.

Written: 225 words of gaming notes, since I finally had ideas for the Perils & Princesses adventure for next Big Bad Con, or maybe it’s better to say the ideas I had started to fit together.

Another day that should be every day.

I did go into the office today, and ate Korean bento or something close to it. Then came home and tried to attend a late meeting about the new product I’m supposed to support, but apparently it was cancelled with no notice. Bah.

Read: Alpi the Soul Sender vol 1 (Rona): Nature spirits don’t die often, but when they do, their bodies are cursed until they’re given proper funerary rites, so the main character travels around doing that and dealing with other spirit-related problems, along with her butler(?). Humans make a lot of spirit-related problems.

Written: 128.

Yes, hippos are great! Best animal ever! 14/10, would import to different continents again! (Do you think that’s enough to keep them from murdering me?)

Went to the office, tried to learn a thing, ate some barbecue (I like barbecue, I’m probably doomed), tried to learn another thing, came home.

Read: Bloody Sweet vol 2 (NaRae Lee): Magic potential and a vampire in her closet don’t stop our MC from being bullied at school, but she deals with it pretty well, possibly because her emotional support vampire is full of wise advice.

Read: There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… vol 4 (Musshu, Teren Mikami, Eku Takeshima): Our MC is now being fought over by two beautiful top-of-the-class girls, and there seem to be more waiting for their chance. She complains a lot, but she’s definitely doing something right.

Written: 120.

I did get up and did go to the office and do a few works (not as many as I hoped) and eat British Indian food (tasty but not very spicy) and not die, so I guess that was something. Now can I do my writing and Internet chores and go to bed at a more sensible hour?

Read: Nameless Magery (Delia Marshall Turner): I first read this approximately one million years ago and then the author vanished, but now it’s been republished because that can happen on the Internet (which we have now). A young woman of vast magical power escapes the evil interstellar empire by crashlanding on a backwards planet and getting tangled up with the local mages and their licensing board. Entanglements and magic and road trips ensue. I’m not sure why I like this so much, maybe it’s the two sides each being sure they know how magic works, or maybe it’s just Lisane being awesome.

Read: Of Swords and Spells (Delia Marshall Turner): Same setting, different and more prickly young woman of vast magical power, more Enforcers being horrible. We get to see a little of what things are like on civilized planets, or on spaceships, but at the end it does cross over with the climactic finish of the first book and we get to see it from a different angle.

Read: Run Away With Me, Girl vol 1 (Battan): Two women run into each other again ten years after breaking up at the end of high school, with their adult lives that are not as satisfactory as they might like to pretend, and there are Feelings.

Written: 110. I think this might need to be thrown away too.

It has been a really long time since I flew a kite.

Today I did go into the office and eat butter chicken pizza. It was okay. Also I did my job or something. Whatever.

Read: The Moon on a Rainy Night vol 1 (Kuzushiro): High-school yuri, but the deuteragonist is very hard of hearing, and yes, it causes actual problems, and yes, she has a lot of feelings about it. I don’t know anything about the hard of hearing, especially in Japan, but the author seems to have done their research judging by the existence of a bibliography.

Read: Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Witchcraft and Mayhem (Roseanne A Brown): After discovering the other part of her heritage at the end of the first book, the MC leans hard into it, which causes even more trouble than she already had. But it’s okay, now she has a plan for paying off the debt she just incurred to [SPOILER] in the third book, which surely cannot go wrong!

Written: 123. I have finished the chapter (not that I have chapter divisions) so now I have to write another one and I have no idea what needs to happen next.

If only we could get all the disasters to happen on Feb 5th, planning would be a lot easier.

The power was still out when I woke up, and didn’t show any signs of being restored, so I ended up going to the office at the suggestion of the boss³ who was worried that we aren’t putting on enough of a show of being office team players. Well played. There was no lunch because only Tue-Thu are the official office days, but Pocky is like a healthy meal, right? Right?

Still no power when I got home, but at least I had realized that I could use my full-charged work laptop as a power bank for my phone, to read books I had already downloaded.

Marith was also grouchy about the lack of power so we went to Cheesecake Factory outside the Land of No Power and ate things that weren’t cheesecake. We could not bring leftovers home, because no refrigeration!

Read: The Savior’s Book Cafe Story in Another World vol 2 (Kyouka Izumi, Oumiya, Reiko Sakurada): The super-mage tries to keep living her quiet life uninvolved with anything except books and customers and one customer in particular, but of course that never works.

Read: The Yakuza’s Bias vol 2 (Teki Yatsuda): More yakuza stan hijinx. It doesn’t feel to me like there are any new jokes, so I probably won’t keep reading, but maybe that’s just because I’m old and not cool.

Read: The Drab Princess, The Black Cat, and the Satisfying Breakup vol 1 (Rino Mayumi, Machi): Light novel about a princess who tries to become an archmage so she can get out of her arranged engagement and make room for her younger sister who her fiancé obviously likes better, and the hapless archmage she dragoons into helping her. A lot of people get involved, and no one has any idea what anyone else is feeling, because that’s the genre.

Written: Still THWARTED.

A day for Marith!

I did go into the office today, but the person who freaked out wasn’t there and anyway it was quite busy so there wasn’t a lot of “between tasks”. I did get the sexual harassment training video squared away. (TL;DR: don’t be a disgusting asshole and you’ll be fine.) I also ate a pile of pork and dried mushroom dumplings, which were sadly underwarm but otherwise good.

Read (while commuting to work): Glitch vol 2 (Shima Shinya): The investigation club continues to investigate, we see more of the other members’ families, and then they get some of the weirdness on them.

Read (while commuting home): My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampiress vol 3 (Chisaki Kanai): Besides having maxed stats, the male lead apparently has the superpower of making vampires like him. Unfortunately this includes vampires who do not buck the stereotype of being crazed killers as well as ones who do. Also, ritual magic FTW.

Written: 203.

Admire my Windows-free lifestyle!

Back to the office. The customers were rabid today, but I got a crispy chicken sandwich.

Read: The Yakuza’s Bias vol 1 (Teki Yatsuda): The boss’s teenage daughter drags the middle-aged old-school yakuza to a K-pop concert and a whole new world of fandom opens up before him. Most of the other yakuza are bemused, but a few get it. It’s definitely an “explain K-pop fandom to the mundanes” manga.

Written: 105 of outlining. It would be nice if I could just keep outlining and then add punctuation to get a complete draft, but it doesn’t seem very likely. Also I need to decide what these aliens look like now that I know where they come from.

Mmm, plant protein.

Not only did I miss the first connection, the following train was cancelled entirely, but I still made it into the office, ate a salad bowl thing with veggies and meat and grains, and did some work.

Read: A Cat From Our World and the Forgotten Witch vol 1 (Hiro Kashiwaba): Decades after the magical prodigy saved the world, she has fallen on hard times, so she tries summoning a guardian beast and gets an enormous cat. Problems ensue, but the cat is a loyal friend. Also apparently every character except the forgotten witch should get played with until they come apart.

Read: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol 1 (Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe): Decades after the team of heroes saved the world, the elven wizard is upset to be reminded that humans don’t live even a century. She sets out to learn more about humans as a way of remembering her friends, taking the apprentice of one friend with her. Although the premise is sad, the story isn’t that sad, or maybe I just don’t have a heart.

Written: 138.

At least it’s not Thesaurus Abuse Day, or I’d feel called out.

I missed the primary connection to get to work, but the fallback train is still not bad, and I got to the office in time to get my preferred desk (the one that lets me see when lunch is there). We got Ethiopian today, and not even the penalty for corporate delivery lunch could make it not pleasing.

Tried to get Jus to join the alternate Sunday game, but she is not at a stage of her development where she can go places and do things of her own volition yet. I feel like I could at that age, but a of all, like I actually remember anything that far back, and second of b, I had so many fewer commitments to plan around because it was 1984.

Read: Komi Can’t Communicate vol 28 (Tomohito Oda): I guess that passes for mushiness in this genre! Also Komi is getting better at friending and I think the series is probably close to the end.

Written: 111, which is more than 99.

No apparent connection to turkey and gravy.

Read: Candy & Cigarettes vol 6 (Tomonori Inoue): Having accomplished their goal, our antiheroes discover that there is still a lot more murdering that needs done. Reminds me a little of Starter Villain.

Read: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth (Andrew Joseph White): Transmasc autistic necromancer in a C19 England where only men are allowed to do necromancy and AFAB people with the gene using their powers is as abhorrent as being trans or neurodivergent. Content warning for every terrible thing that can happen to young AFAB people in a C19 “mental institution” and some extra horrors that necromancy makes possible.

Read: My Poison Princess Is Still Cute vol 1 (Chihiro Sakutake): Human knight who respawns whenever he’s killed is married off to the demon princess who emits a lethal miasma, to make peace. 4-koma jokes ensue. The characters are not as charming as they’re supposed to be, although the male characters are the most meh.

Written: 215.

Made it into the office, did some work, ate some greasy “East-Coast-style” pepperoni pizza, made it back home without getting rained on excessively. I guess that was a successful day?

Read: The Witches’ Marriage vol 2 (Studio Headline): Further interactions between the earnest young witch and her partner the sexy older tsundere witch. Other witches butt in, there are magical mishaps, they go to Witch Marriage School and have a beach episode, etc.

Read: Have Sword, Will Travel (Garth Nix, Sean Williams): A sketchy magic sword drafts a boy who doesn’t want to be a knight, and his friend who would much rather be a knight but is spurned by the sword. Adventure and multiple villainous plots that need foiling ensue, and maybe the kids aren’t terrible at knighting after all.

Read: Candy & Cigarettes vol 4 -5 (Tomonori Inoue): Miharu’s tragic backstory, and then it’s off to America, because that’s where they keep the massive gun battles and desolate wastelands.

Written: 253. I came up with a better cliffhanger, although I’m not sure how the MC can possibly get out of it. Maybe that means it’s the right choice.

We have always celebrated World Hypnotism Day. It is the best holiday. You should celebrate it too. Join us.

More beeping and cats to help me sleep, more going to the office, more sleepiness in the afternoon. Today I had some kind of Mayan pork and roasted vegetables thing for lunch, which was pretty good and also did not make my arm widget freak out. I also ate a dinner of carbs and stuff, so hopefully there will not be any beeping tonight.

Read: Secrets of the Silent Witch vol 2 (Tobi Tana, Matsuri Isora, Nanna Fujimi): Continued undercover magic school intrigue, with bonus accounting.

Read: The Luis Ortega Survival Club (Sonora Reyes): A mostly-mute autistic high school and her friends have had it with rapist-boy and aren’t going to let him get away with that shit any more.

Read: Candy & Cigarettes vol 3 (Tomonori Inoue): Ah, the “captured and forced to do a job for the bad guy” arc.

Written: 205.

But I slept poorly, because my arm widget decided to beep annoyingly at me during the night. I guess I didn’t eat enough dinner? But I got up and went to the office anyway. The train was a mess because at-grade crossings are still somehow a thing, but because my new route is so much better, I was only like five minutes late. Did some works, got very sleepy, ate half a tandoori chicken pizza for lunch (didn’t seem to upset my arm widget at all, so I guess thin crust was the right choice), did some gross shell scripting to find out the shape of a customer’s doom. Despite being sleepy at work, I was very productive for a brief period when I got home, instead of immediately lapsing into torpor. Not sure how that happened.

Read: Candy & Cigarettes vol 2 (Tomonori Inoue): Further morally-questionable exploits of the 5th-grade assassin and retired cop as they work to take down the criminal mastermind through extrajudicial murder.

Read: Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki): A runaway trans girl, a diabolist violin teacher, and interstellar refugees cross paths in the Asian-American community of modern-day Los Angeles. It is very much about trans and refugee and violin star and demon servant experiences and trying to build new lives. I liked it, but

Read: Secrets of the Silent Witch vol 1 (Tobi Tana, Matsuri Isora, Nanna Fujimi): A high-level witch with social anxiety  so severe she had to invent silent spellcasting to avoid talking (and maybe on the spectrum as well?) has to go undercover at magic school to protect the crown prince. Hijinx ensue.

Written: 139, which is trending in the wrong direction but still valid.

It is now very unlikely to get any darker! Could still get a lot rainier, though.

I did make it into the office today, and it was not a lot less crowded than usual. I probably should have skipped the potato salad that came with my cow meat sandwich.

Read: The Girl I Want Is So Handsome! (Yuama): Complete fluff, a cute 1st-year meets a handsome and athletic and stacked 2nd-year and they fall head-over-heels for each other. The only real conflict is “she couldn’t like me that way, it must just be friendship” and even that doesn’t stand in the way very long. Complete in one omnibus of about two tankobon.

Read: Kiss the Scars of the Girls vol 1 (Aya Haruhana): When each vampire girl at Secret Vampire Girl School turns fourteen, she’s assigned an older vampire girl to mentor her in learning all kinds of important things, like how to feed on humans without getting murdered. They don’t seem to be very good at it, even when lesbian drama isn’t getting in the way.

Read: to ask about loyalty (tasara_bokka): Vorkosigan Saga fic, allegedly canon-compliant but a different perspective on Miles and Ekaterin’s wedding. I liked it fine, but probably would have appreciated it even more if I remembered all the books better.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 3.7-10: The triumphant conclusion, after struggling with principles and also with giant monsters. Random character: “Who would even come up with a plan like that?” Main cast, in unison, “Kipo.”

Watched: Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space 1: A young woman who has been fired from every job on her mysterious island encounters a strange creature that gets her temp jobs on Walkr planets. It is more surreal and has a chiller aesthetic than Steven Universe, but reminds me a little.

Written: FAIL, although I did scribble some notes of things that need to be revealed in one project. That’s not quite a plot, since the MC should also have personal development or something, but it’s stuff that would go in an outline.

A good day for Ayse.

This new transit route has worked correctly three times in a row, and only requires getting up ten minutes earlier than the defective route, so I guess I’ll stick with it.

Office lunch was salad with pulled pork, which the arm widget liked much better.

Read: Magical Girl Incident vol 2 (Zero Akabane): As per usual, the explanations given to the MC are woefully incomplete, but at least he knows he isn’t the only one (even if the rest of them are a bunch of loons).

Not Read: Mob Psycho 100 vol 1 (ONE): I liked the anime, but I couldn’t get into the manga. The art style is weird, and I don’t know.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 1.10-2.2: Kipo and her ever-growing assortment of friends (apparently the favored stat for humans is Charisma) solved the problem they thought they had, which resulted in a much worse problem.

Written: FAIL.

 

Boo, office. Apparently the local COVID admissions are still green, though, so the CDC does not recommend that everybody else in the office mask. Arm widget said my fried chicken sandwich lunch was No Good, I guess it’s okay that all the breakfast carbs were for the capitalist oppressors.

Read: The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter vol 1 (Ichi Yukishiro): An elderly dragon adopts a discarded human girl, but finds that even death cannot release him from his parental duties. I’m not sure about the role models that are being provided for this poor girl!

Read: Magical Girl Incident vol 1 (Zero Akabane): An office worker encounters a monster and in a fit of heroism transforms into a bona fide magical girl. WTFery ensues, but there is apparently some rhyme or reason to what’s going on. Not clear why the coworker has such disturbing resources.

Watched: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 1.7-9: Almost to the end of the first season, and of course the problem Kipo thought she had is not the real problem.

Written: FAIL.

Hooray!

Tried to go into the office, was betrayed by the bus simply not showing up, ended up super-late. I obviously need my robots to make me a better plan. Beet salad for lunch, which even with chicken did not make my line go up much.  Then tried to replenish the cats’ gooshyfood, but forgot how these particular busses work and missed the gooshyfood emporium’s hours. I have enough for tomorrow’s breakfast and that’s it, so I better not mess up tomorrow!

Read: I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into A Girl vol 2 (Azusa Banjo): New characters are introduced, but there are still zero (0) people being mean to our genderfluid cutie, which is probably completely unrealistic for modern Japan, but is exactly as it should be.

Watched: Derry Girls 2.4-6: Teenage hijinks, morbid hijinks, teenage hijinks, major historical events!

Written: FAIL because I am dumb.

Ovodiablerism is the best!

However, office lunch was Nepalese(?) which included two or more types of paneer plus garlic naan(ish) and no deviled eggs. Still good!

Read: Dandadan vol 5 (Yukinobu Tatsu): Another bizarre encounter with cryptids and cultists and aliens, most of them dumb or horny or both.

Read: Omega Morales and the Legend of La Lechuza (Laekan Zea Kemp): A twelve-year-old from a magical family but with defective(?) magic of her own and her annoying cousin and friendly ghost are stalked by an owl-witch-monster and also annoying middle-schoolers and racist buttheads and family that is not as helpful as they think. It’s hard being twelve.

Read: Me and My Beast Boss vol 1 (Shiroinu): A human (and therefore marginalized) office lady gets promoted to work with the terrifying lion-guy CEO, who is terrifying but also appreciates her abilities. Possible romance!

Written: Still FAIL.

Nailed another one!

Office lunch was Chick-Fil-A, which was not healthy, but also not that great (not even counting the homophobia thing). Cold fries.

Read: The Cruel Stars (John Birmingham): It has the buzzwords for modern SF, neural augmentation, space-time manipulation, a little Eclipse Phase (bioconservatives vs transhuman civilization), some Culture (obnoxious hovering ship AIs), but the SFnal elements don’t quite stick together, not even counting “geostationary orbit over the northern hemisphere”. Hundreds of years of enormous AIs should have made things weirder, IMHO. But I guess milSF is always like that.

Read: Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout vol 1 (Shin Ikezawa, Yu Tsurusaki): On the upside, “total knockout” doesn’t mean breasts bigger than her head, and people struck by her beauty propose marriage or worship her as a goddess. However, massive heteronormativity (the whole schtick is because the leads could not recognize their feelings for each other if they were both men), and the MTF lead seems pretty young for all those offers of marriage.

Written: FAIL. Will I ever write anything again ever?

Slime for everyone!

I guess I did a better job of sleeping, so I was up to my usual level of uselessness.

Office lunch was “acai bowl with nuts”, which was some kind of superfood berry frogurt with granola and banana slices, or something. I ate it, but I feel no need to repeat the experience. It might have been cursed.

Read: Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens (Tanya Boteju): A queer teenager struggles with crushes on various girls, her self-perception as completely boring and lame, other people’s trauma, inability to hold her liquor, a missing mother, and the possibilities of drag.

Read: Blade of the Moon Princess vol 1 (Tatsuya Endo): The violent, unrefined teenaged princess of the Moon Kingdom gets stranded on Earth while escaping a coup and must try to not be a terrible person under difficult, even ridiculous, circumstances. Has a similar mix of violence and humor to Spy x Family, unsurprisingly.

Read: Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers vol 6 (Chorisuke Natsumi): Further adventures of the tall, busty, shark-toothed frosh and her shrimpy sempai. It’s okay, but I don’t know that I need to read much more of it.

Written: FAIL.

And yet, I work in software. There is no ethical production under capitalism, or something.

Office lunch was burritos, so that was okay, or at least more interesting than I would have eaten at home. Also there was a lot of capitalism.

Read: With a Golden Sword (Rachel Aaron): Everybody’s favorite glob of faerie magic continues to defeat the asshole blood mage, but he has so many plans and allies that he takes a lot of defeating. She also finds out more about how she came to be what she is, which I would appreciate more if I remembered the magic system better.

Read: Witch Hat Atelier vol 3-4 (Kamome Shirahama): The second test, where we see some of why the ancient forbidden magic is so very forbidden, but the new witches solve problems with compassion and slightly less regard for the letter of the law than some might prefer.

Written: FAIL.

 

Nope, I fail at this one. I used to bring them to gaming sometimes.

Office lunch was salad again, sheesh.

Read: Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality (Roshani Chokshi): This is the volume where Aru and the rest have to come back from rock bottom to win the final battle. The end!

Read: Witch Hat Atelier vol 1-2 (Kamome Shirahama): It could be cute witches doing cute things, but there are conspiracies and ancient forbidden sorcery.

Written: I fail at this too. Maybe I should go back to writing about my teddy bears.

 

Teachers are in fact awesome, they probably deserve several days.

The bus did not show up when I expected it again, although the VTA website says it should have. Is it just getting cancelled for some reason? I guess I will have to check ahead of time next week.

Office lunch was Oktoberfest sausage and pretzels and sauerkraut. So many sausages. It was pretty great. The office itself was less great, being full of humans and their virus-spewing faceholes.

Read: Otherside Picnic vol 5-6 (Iori Miyazawa, Eita Mizuno, Shirakaba): It seems like they are figuring things out, but they are also slipping into the otherside more and more easily. Will they understand the otherside before being lost entirely? Is there a difference between those?

Written: 353 from the last time I counted up, which was sometime before the con. Whatever, that’s the word count I’m at now, even though hardly any of it was written tonight.

I’m falling down on the job! But not as much as VTA did when I went into the office this morning.

Office lunch was packaged supermarket sandwiches, which is what I normally eat for lunch, so a complete bust as far as bribery to commute.

Read: Otherside Picnic vol 3-4 (Iori Miyazawa, Eita Mizuno, Shirakaba): More otherside, less picnic! Unless by “picnic” you mean “hallucinatory terror”. Also drama, because none of these people is sensible and all of them are under a lot of stress.

Written: FAIL, but at least finished my con report. Tomorrow for sure! maybe.

Sounds anti-capitalist to me!

Gave Penzey’s gift cards to my coworkers. I don’t think they knew what to think, but whatever. Also ate empanadas and fixed some customers.

Read: Otherside Picnic vol 2 (Iori Miyazawa, Eita Mizuno, Shirakaba): Our heroines end up in the Otherside again, naturally against all nature and reason, and find some other humans stuck there. This is probably going to go even more terribly than expected.

Read: Call the Name of the Night vol 1 (Tama Mitsuboshi): A cute young girl with a night-related curse and pet shadows lives with a cute doctor who is trying to take care of her. Other people cause problems, but not insoluble ones. The pet shadows are cute.

Written: 207.

I’ve spent 364 days practicing for this!

Office is still there, unfortunately, and had fairly mediocre sandwiches (unlike the terrifying ham-cheese-bacon-pasta sandwiches of yesterday which I missed out on). Open-plan offices are the worst in every way, business executives should never be allowed to make decisions about anything.

Read: Murder on a School Night (Kate Weston): An anxious high-school and her crazed best friend try to solve some mysteries in modern rural England, which explicably involve a lot of period products and also a lot of patriarchy that needs smashing. Not sure about the face turn near the end, but it still makes me think my teenaged characters aren’t crazed enough.

Read: Daemons of the Shadow Realm vol 2 (Hiromu Arakawa): This volume was pretty much two fight scenes, but we got to see some more daemons. I hope we start finding out about the horrors of the world like we did with FMA.

Written: FAIL.

And that’s what was for lunch at the office, so I win. Although there was a customer call in the middle of it, so also I lost. The weekly training meeting has returned, although it won’t be weekly most of the time, so I remembered that I need to shut up and let other people talk more.

Had to get my neck ultrabeeped after work, results to follow next week. It would be nice if they found a fixable thing, I guess.

Written: 236.