Tag: tv

I did actually buy some tiny apple pies when I was grocery shopping, although I probably shouldn’t have.

Read: Handyman Saitou In Another World vol 1 (Kazutomo Ichitomo): Okay, I think the isekai-to-D&D-videogame-world genre is played out. New idea plz.

Watched: Derry Girls 1.5-6, 2.1-3: It must be a new season, Gerry has a mustache! The other characters are not much changed, even Clare, but they are still ridiculous and definitely their own worst enemies.

Written: FAIL, haven’t plugged my computer back in.

Most of the day I spent being a useless lump, yet available for customers if they needed help, but then the cats showed a great interest in the nook next to my computer desk, and when I looked, the electrical outlet there was smoking heavily. I unplugged everything from it and it stopped, but it obviously needs replaced. Maybe it’s time to think about a better apartment, but I’m not sure I’m up for doubling my rent.

Since my computer is also unplugged, I had to order pizza and watch TV.

Watched: Derry Girls 1.1-4: Everybody said this is very funny and it is! They are all sincerely ridiculous.

Read: O Maidens In Your Savage Season vol 7-8 (Mari Okada, Nao Emoto): Somehow, everything gets sorted out by the end, and yet sex remains pretty much a mystery. Also nobody dies, which they definitely would have in the US.

Written: FAIL, my computer is unplugged!

 

Ah, maybe that’s why I failed to obtain a black cat today, I’m in the US. Which is built around cars and the adoption people would not hand over the cats when I said I was going to carry them on the bus. I will have to make a better plan and try again.

Fortunately work was pretty quiet so my taking a few hours off to fail miserably wasn’t a problem.

Watched: Marith and I tried watching some Adventure Time, because apparently it is still a huge cultural phenomenon, but even with what Marith could remember of the curated episode list, it was still pretty uninteresting. Then we tried watching the pilot of the new cultural phenomenon, The Amazing Digital Circus, which was also not very interesting. It was just weird things happening to the main character that she can’t do anything about.

Written: FAIL.

But don’t worry about that, being superstitious is bad luck.

I had no brain and accomplished no things today.

Watched: Murder Drones 1.4-6: Rewatching the two episodes before the latest only helped a little bit. It is still very confusing. They have a human to take care of now? But also robot dinosaurs! (The robot dinosaurs are also cursed.)

Written: FAIL.

Do they mean the small woodland mammal, or something else? I guess I’ll have to ask them over and over and over to clarify.

Watched: One Piece 1.8: Yeah, the thing with Garp should have been much more drawn out, although of course streaming shows can’t ever delay gratification more than a few episodes. It was a decent season finale, with lots of yelling and the boss’s body never recovered.

Read: “The Air In My House Tastes Like Sugar” (ZZ Claybourne): African witches, mother and daughter, travel the world and get varying receptions from white people and their haunts. The oven thing totally makes sense in context.

Written: FAIL.

Other people will have to handle this one, obviously.

Did manage to shop a grocery, although this week I only have two days of work because then I am being useless and/or preparing for and going to a con.

Watched: Cyberpunk Edgerunners 1-3: It’s a streaming content based on a videogame that’s based on a 35-year-old RPG that’s based on a 40-year-old subgenre of SF, so only the surface features are left, none of the depth.

Written: 166.

I think the equinox is just before midnight, unless I’ve forgotten how time zones work, which is entirely possible.

Ate too much Chinese food, because what else are local Chinese restaurants for?

Watched: One Piece 5-7: Every pirate crew needs a cook with a backstory! Also we finally get Nami’s backstory, and it is full of doom and betrayal. Next episode: season finale battle!

Written: FAIL.

That was somebody’s fact in the fact-or-share portion of the meeting. Mine was that chickens, pheasants, and other birds in that family can eat deadly nightshade without harm, thus spreading its seeds. I got adopted by Boss B, because I was able to look up Helicoprion, but that did not save me from being on shift until 19:00.

Watched: One Piece 3-4: The ones with Kaya, Usopp, and Kuro. And Sham, who can be my minion anytime. Also Zoro’s backstory, so maybe next episode we’ll find out about Nami.

Read: MonsTABOO vol 4 (Yuya Takahashi, TALI): Instead of going on for one million volumes while never getting closer to a resolution, it ended! Many people died, who may or may not have deserved it, some people did not die, some people did both.

Written: FAIL.

SWIDT?

Fortunately work was light today, but I have to be available in case the Special Customer calls between 19 tonight and 13 tomorrow, and same tomorrow night. The expected number of calls is zero, though.

Watched: One Piece 1.1-2: Marith liked the first episode, so we continued on to the Evil Clown episode. The clown was definitely evil! Also more of Luffy’s backstory. Shanks was pretty great, it’s no surprise Luffy thinks of pirates as heroic. Not sure about this anti-Straw-Hat task force, though.

Written: 242, although I ended up deleting most of it after. It wasn’t going in the right direction.

I, uh, gave money to unionization efforts? Does that count?

Finally got my act together enough to do one (1) errand, so, uh, go me? No, not really, I still suck.

Second round of signups for Big Bad Con was slightly less of a disaster than the first round. I got signed up for Plant Girl Game and Rats in the Cellar, anyway. Four more slots to go!

Watched: Sweet Tooth 1.1: Randomly picked from Netflix offerings because I’d heard of the comic it’s based on. So far it is not a very unique take on the post-apocalyptic genre, although at least Earth hasn’t inexplicably lost all its water. Not sure if I’ll watch any more.

Read: Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz (Garth Nix): A collection of all the stories about the godlet-hunting magic puppet and his human sidekick published in various places, which I’d only read I think three of. It’s a great adventuring setup that I should really steal some time.

Read: There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… vol 2 (Musshu, Teren Mikami, Eku Takeshima): That was not okay, Mai! But the text does not treat it as okay, which is better than some. Also our main character needs to think more about what she’s doing to the other character’s hearts!

Written: 196.

Gaming is cancelled due to Covid among the Monkeycats, so I have nothing to do today and might as well continue to die in this pit.

Watched: One Piece 1: I don’t remember much of the manga, but that was pretty cool on its own merits. Luffy seems kind of… off, but apparently that’s intentional. Also everything is ridiculous and Roronoa is hot.

Read: Just Friends (Ana Oncina): Two girls meet at summer camp and fall in love among mild teenage shenanigans, with flashforwards to their future relationship. Not entirely cheerful.

Read: Dungeon People vol 1 (Sui Hutami): A high-level thief gets drafted to work in administration of the dungeon where her father disappeared so many years ago. Mostly about meeting new coworkers and how to use fax slimes to file the dungeon paperwork.

Written: 220. Not exactly about skyscrapers, but they’re there in the wide shots.

But September means Big Bad Con is almost here!

Finally finished Good Omens 2, I was not impressed. It fulfilled Marith’s fanfic need to see more of the main characters doing stuff, but I didn’t like some of the stuff they did, or much of what the secondary characters did. Also, it was clear setup for subsequent seasons, which just seems foolhardy in this world of streaming services.

Written: 186.

 

Today’s meeting fact: Hippos can’t swim. That’s not buoyant fat, it’s all muscle and bone to WRECK YOUR SHIT. Bonus fact, hippos are an invasive species in South America.

Watched: Good Omens 2.4-5: I’m pretty meh about the flashbacks, and in general just not liking this as much as the first season. Apparently Pratchett did add something. But maybe the last episode will bring it all together and I will understand the genius.

Read: Dandadan vol 3 (Yukinobu Tatsu): The annoying aliens are back, with reinforcements, not that it’s going to do them any good against the naked yokai powers of Earth.

Read: Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie vol 2 (Keigo Maki): Further slices in the life of a very femme-presenting but tough and cool high-school girl and her less butch and also cursed boyfriend.

Written: 325. That’s more like it, brain.

Everybody loves the void!

Traffic was horrible, probably because parents all drive their children to school in individual vehicles, so I didn’t make the transfer to the train, but the long bus got me there like twenty minutes later, which isn’t too bad. Customers were still somewhat numerous, but not like yesterday. I did a command line thing, it was okay.

I could not find the things I was looking for in my useless room of useless piles of useless comics.

Watched: Good Omens 2.3: Oh good, more ominousness!

Read: A Restless Truth (Freya Marske): It’s the same magical intrigue from A Marvellous Light, but the quest has extended to America, which can only be reached by water, so it’s time for the ocean liner murder mystery! With enthusiastic sapphic interludes.

Written: FAIL.

Mine was several days ago, but close enough!

After telling everybody in the office “Go home for the rest of the week. No reason.” the company told everybody “Get back in the office this week. No reason.” That does not make me confident that they have identified and mitigated any safety issues.

Watched: Good Omens 2.2: I am in awe of the beard. Also, angels r dum.

Written: 220/1212/14965.

I have nothing against Australian lemon-choco cakes, but probably wouldn’t have picked this for my header if Coworker T hadn’t used it for his fact in the meeting today. (My fact was about turtle butts.)

Watched: Murder Drones 4-5: Still pretty ???, but then YouTube rolled over to somebody explaining his theory of what happened, and it seemed pretty plausible. No idea whether it’s correct.

Written: 181 today, 994 for the week, 10541 overall.

Played: Dark Matter. Turns out Death Race 800 isn’t just a race, we have to stop at three (or maybe more) points to engage in minigames. Being first to the field is definitely an advantage, though, so it’s not not a race. The first minigame was capture the flag, set in an industrial catwalk maze with no safety features whatsoever. There were unfortunately rules about what we could do to the other flags before the second and third teams arrived, but none of them said we couldn’t weld a cable to it one of them for yoinking or stick the other one on top of the flame vent. The cable didn’t work as well as I hoped, but it did slow down the other teams stealing the flag enough that we could get all three and open the exit lock. Also a couple of the larger demons got discorporated, which should make things easier going forward. Next session, we have to rescue one of the NPCs we like before she gets tattooed drunkenly.

I tried to foil the Chinese restaurant’s attempt to give me bonus soup by getting different soup as part of my order, so they gave me bonus fried rice instead.

Watched: Shadow & Bone 2. Yeah, yeah, chosen one, reluctant hero, whatever. When does she get to be a living laser cannon?

Read: Against All Odds (Jeffery H Haskell): Missiles in space, but way too much heroic Christian Americans-in-all-but-name who don’t trust this out-of-control technological innovation vs degenerate swarthy Muslims who only want to rape white women and also all media and civilian oversight of the military might as well be working for the enemy.

Written: Eventually it added up to 157 for the week, but at least I’m not that much of a MAGAt.

So lethargic. Will I ever have the energy to get my blood tests done or my neck pinged? I barely managed to go grocery shopping and that’s something I do every week.

Got some maps going, and found out the zombie mine I found while tunneling downward in search of ore is actually way the heck out in the ocean. I guess that’s what happens when you generate dungeons randomly.

Watched: First episode of Shadow & Bone. Fortunately I haven’t read the books so I have no preconceptions, but I bet the criminals were also cooler in the books. They’re very Blades in the Dark.

Read: Beware of Chicken vol 2 (Casualfarmer): Everybody levels up doing farm and family things except the heroic xianxia rooster, who goes on a quest to learn magical secrets. Well, and the antagonists, but maybe being horrible is a family thing for them.

Written: FAIL.

 

Oh yeah, I did order Christmas presents for some people. Good job, past me!

Fortunately I was able to reuse the nature fact about tarantulas keeping pet frogs this week, but I definitely need to get some new facts. Maybe dinosaur facts, everybody likes dinosaurs.

Watched: Amphibia 9-10: Apparently there is some structure to this world besides one village surrounded by deadly hazards, and also, there’s clearly going to be doom.

Read: The Tryout (Christina Soontornvat, Joanna Cacao): Semi-autobiographical retelling of the author trying out for middle-school cheerleading squad as a nerdy Thai-American girl in a small Texas town.

Read: “The Difference Between Love and Time” (Catherynne M Valente): The space-time continuum reimagined as a kind of surreal, terrible boyfriend.

Read: Cotton Tales vol 1 (Loputyn): I’m not that familiar with the Gothic genre, but this seems like it: a young boy who has no idea what’s going on or who any of these people are, allegedly because he has amnesia; a huge house with a special tower to keep a mysterious relative in; sinister houseguests; unicorn rabbits that only some people can see, that seem to be at war with each other.

Written: 623 kitten words.

Put a container of precooked vegetables and several sliced-up sausages onto a baking sheet and put it in the over for a while. This counts as cooking N/N?

Read: “Undercover” (Tamsyn Muir): Maybe not necromancy per se, and not space, but lesbians and death and terror and betrayal!

Read: Freestyle (Gale Galligan): Graphic novel about 8th-grade breakdancers in NYC and drama around new friends and school and parents and yo-yos.

Watched: Amphibia 7-8: So basically female frog-people are terrifying. Seems legit.

Written: 670 kitten words.

Back to getting up early, but it was a useful meeting this time.

Watched: Amphibia 5-6: Not really any kind of plot, but who needs a plot when you have snailmobiles?

Read: How To Get A Girlfriend When You’re A Terrifying Monster (Marie Cardno): Apparently the answer is, hang out in your home dimension trying to not get absorbed until an intrepid explorer of fixed yet oddly hot shape shows up and follow her home. Screaming, hiding, and general panic may ensue, but there is a possibility of smooches.

Written: 390 kitten words.

 

Got up earlier than I would like for cleaners, but then managed to take a nap and get up a second time to go grocery shopping at a reasonable hour. Then I was a massive lump.

Watched: Amphibia 1-2: Jus recommended I watch it after finishing The Owl House, but I don’t like it as much. I guess I like a world of giant bones and bile magic better than one of human-sized frogs and giant insects. Maybe if there were more insects.

Written: 569 kitten words.

Wait, what happened to November?!

Two nights of fireplace noises has shown that this is not a good sleep aid. I think I need just plain white noise.

Despite my brain being shriveled from excessive dreams, I did three works today.

Read: Beesong Chronicles Omnibus vol 1: Sting & Song, Webs & Words, Hives & Heroism (Benjamin Medrano): For chaos god reasons, some fraction of the giant bees in a LitRPG world turn into beepeople. One of them gets kicked out of her hive, falls in with adventurers fighting against the Demon Lord, and is weird and cute and selfless and murdery and ace and bee-like for three books. The story is complete, but it’s labelled “vol 1” because the author hopes to write more.

Read: Hammered (Lindsay Buroker): A spinoff from the “Death Before Dragons” series, following another half-human Seattle resident who gets mixed up with interdimensional skullduggery when she just wants to renovate houses and have a normal life. Tragic backstory, magic weapons, elf-dwarf romantic tension.

Read: “How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him To Villainy: Miracle 1” (AJ Sherwood): A knight goes to an unlicensed sorcerer to help protect the people from the horrible princess, extravagant flirting ensues. The sorcerer is cute and eccentric in the best tradition of wizards who are so powerful they don’t have to care about dignity.

Watched: The Owl House 2.18-19: Revolt, revolt! OK!

Written: 319 kitten words. Too much reading, not enough writing.

I finally remembered to download an app for noise for sleeping instead of running the fan all night. Crackling fireplace noise was pleasant, but I don’t know how much it actually helped.

Watched: The Owl House 2.15-17: Flashbacks and also concrete information about King’s past. I was right about Belos.

Written: 170 kitten words, bringing me to around 12000 words for the month. That’s not as bad as I thought, even though most of them were not NaNoWriMo.

I have today off because in the original plan I was going to need it to recover after coming back from Roseville and I never changed my vacation plan. I meant to get up at a normal hour so I would be ready for tomorrow, but failed miserably. I did manage to do one thing, and then another thing, and finally the water is back on so I could take a shower and do dishes and stuff. I should not dread tomorrow, but I do.

Read: Illuminations (T Kingfisher): A young girl lives in a family of magic artists, who follow a tradition of painting practical enchantments into weird pictures, but some of their ancestors were more ambitious and did not follow safe disposal procedures. It has the T Kingfisher kids’ book feel, but it’s just not one of her strongest.

Watched: The Owl House 2-13-14: Luz and Amity are very cute but also kind of terrifying. Willow is pretty awesome too.

Written: 322 kitten words.