curiouscloud | Reading

Happy Juneteenth!

Yesterday was a good, albeit weird day. It was going well, I got some people in for appts, and then the head boss of our dept sends me a message on teams. "You may get a message from (blank) in communications." Oookay.

It turns out the really sweet compliment I had a month or so ago has wings. The boss and head boss brought it up in a meeting with their bosses, the managers to all our sites, and the head of radiology, and the next day the head of radiology said that she spent the rest of the night thinking about the letter. Now, they want to highlight it and recognize me somehow. So, the radiology communications head is going to be reaching out to me.

On one hand this is super cool, and I'm into it. Yes please, tell me how awesome I am. On the other, I'm being perceived, and I'm not sure about it. Also, define "recognized". Are we talking a nice little blurb in an internal departmental communication? That sounds good. Or are we talking about something public or that goes to the entirety of the hospital? That sounds a little overwhelming.

And of course, there's the part of me that's like "I did my job." I may have done a little more than normal, but hopefully it's what anyone would do for a patient who was so scared.

Then, my new progressive glasses came, which was nice. I'm still getting used to them, but it sure is nice to have one set of glasses that does everything. They're very cute, too.

Then, for dinner, I cooked surf and turf. NY Strip and Lobster. I was worried about doing the lobster, because it's so techy. Overcook for even a minute and it turns tough. Even on sale, they were a bit of an expense, so I didn't want to make them dry and icky. I needn't have worried. I was on top of it, poking it with the thermometer every few minutes, and I was able to pull it out at just 2 degrees past what they reccommended. It was perfect. I had gotten two, because Jess normally doesn't like lobster (but it turned out that they'd only had it from Red Lobster, who always overcooks). I asked them if they wanted a taste, and it turns out that they like lobster quite a bit. Both my sister and I were happy to sacrifice some of mine, because they were enormous tails, and so we all had lobster with butter and were very happy.

Today, our new mattress comes. I'm really hoping that Fedex delivers it to the door and not the foyer, because it's 96 lbs and that will be a bitch on the steps, but we'll see. We probably won't put it on the bed tonight, but we'll see. I'm going to hire someone to take the old mattress, rather than leaning it against the dumpster.

And now, I shall go get pants on and get myself together for work. Everyone have an amazing Thursday!

fayanora

I've been able to read again lately because I've been going back to my roots and reading horror. (When I was a kid, I wasn't initially keen on reading books on my own -- preferred to have them read to me -- and what made the switch for me was Goosebumps books, "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark," and other kid's horror. But then I moved on to sci-fi, fantasy, and the occasional survival story like "Hatchet" and "Brian's Winter." Oh, and I had a phase where I kept rereading "White Fang.")

What I've been reading has been audiobooks mostly. I really liked "The Hollow Places," but I already did a post about that. Currently I'm reading another T. Kingfisher book called "The Twisted Ones," which is a horror take on stories of the "fair folk" and is also apparently a modern take on a classic horror story called "The White People."

Unfortunately, most of T. Kingfisher's stuff appears to be standard fantasy, and I'm on a horror kick, so when this book is done, I'm gonna need something else to read. And I can't stand Steven King's writing, so don't suggest his stuff. (That man's writing style is more boring that watching paint dry while Ben Stein reads technical manuals in his monotonous voice.)

But yeah, I'm taking suggestions. I especially love cosmic horror. Hell, I've got cosmic horror in my Ravenstone series.

fayanora

I went out can-boxing again. Went my usual route and then stopped off at home to drop off the ones I'd collected because I had gotten a full cart of them, and then went out again for more down in Milwaukie. Brought back 13 on the second trip, so sixty-three altogether. That's a fully full green bag in one day. And of course, 63 returnables is $6.30 here in Oregon.

The last time I returned full green bags, I had dropped two of them off. (Sunday, I think.) One was processed right away, and the other is still waiting. I'm very annoyed by this, and would rather they hadn't processed either of them if they weren't going to do both at once, since it can take up to a week for them to process the bags, and for me that's a week of my anxiety brain thinking "What if I forgot to put a bag tag on one of the bags?" Which is ridiculous, because that day I specifically went out with the goal of finishing filling up that second bag on the way, and I clearly remember putting tags on both bags before even leaving the apartment. But I'm not going to be able to relax fully until that second bag gets processed. And while this new bag may be full, I'm going to wait to drop it off until the last one gets processed just so I don't extend the anxiety by another week. But I'm going to put a tag on it as soon as I hit post anyway, just to be on the safe side.

And if I collect another bag full by the time the last one processes, I might take both of them in to the bottle drop center in Milwaukie just so I don't have to wait a week; ones taken there usually process within an hour, the main drawback being they charge you a bag processing fee. Waiting a week at the other places is generally worth it because the other places like New Seasons Market pay the bag processing fee for you, so you get more money. The fee is usually only about 40 or 50 cents each time, but still.

Mood: anxious

beanside

I'm a little less sleepy today, which is good. Yesterday I just was blah. I didn't feel badly, I just couldn't quite get myself into "on" mode, which makes work very difficult. I got through all but two hours, and then called off, because I was just wiped.

After that, I vegged for a few minutes, then went to Sam's club to get some things. I got some special things for dinner, which I'm now frantically googling for the best way to cook. which thankfully seems to be baking. I have twice baked potatos to bake, and the NY strip steaks, and then two very lovely lobster tails. Sams had them on sale, so I figured why not? Jess isn't a fan of lobster, so they're going to get a full steak, and my sister and I will each get half a steak and a lobster tail. I ordered kitchen scissors to cut the shells and make it perfect. After that, a little melted butter, and we'll be good. Hopefully, I can catch the sweet spot and cook them well, without overcooking.

I got other things, of course. Fruits and creamer and other tasty things, but those are the big ones.

I need to look and see how long the twiced baked potatoes need. Hmmm

I went to bed early and promptly got anxious for absolutely no reason and had to take some anti anxiety meds. Today is payday, and I have literally no bills to pay with it. It's glorious. I'm planning to save most of it, aside from taking Jess out for a research brunch in Annapolis. There's a Brazillian steakhouse down there, and I want to see if it's as good/better than Fogo De Chao.

My last big purchase comes tomorrow, which I'm very excited about, our mattress. I was more excited before I saw the weight on fedex.com. 96lbs! That's going to be a tough one to get in and unpackaged. We went with a GhostBed, and I'm looking forward to trying it out. I told Jess not to try to move it themself. I think this is going to take 2 of us.

My next D&D campaign is slowly taking shape. It's a folk horror game, so I have a Relic Born (skeleton person) and a Threadborn (living doll). I'm looking forward to it very much.

I've got another homebrew game starting next month that I'm excited about. It, much like my other game is more roleplay heavy, though there will be some combat, of course. I'm curious to see how things go. This is a much larger group that my little Arvandor band, so it could be difficult.

On that note, I shall go forth and take a nice hot shower, and get ready for my day. Everyone have the very best Wednesday!

fayanora

Just woke up from a dream where I spent an hour with my parents trying to contain and clean an angry orange cat because I made a cake and covered it with peanut butter, and I was eating it and this cat that I had no idea I owned in this dream world came out of nowhere, jumped on the cake, and got absolutely plastered with peanut butter. So like I said, the rest of the dream -- which lasted a subjective hour -- was just me and my mom and dad trying to contain this cat so we could wash it, and getting the shit clawed out of us in the process.

And the reason I blame Max Miller is because before bed, I watched an episode of Tasting History With Max Miller about a boiled cake called spotted dick, and so of course that's what I was eating in the dream, except I don't know where the peanut butter came from; there was no peanut butter in the video, dream me just thought it was a good idea to slather this thing in peanut butter.

Which, to be fair to myself, is a good idea cuz spotted dick is apparently pretty bland on its own. The video featured a sauce made out of brown sugar and butter, but I don't have brown sugar, so slathering the cake and peanut butter would be a good alternative. How the hell was I supposed to know dream me had a cat? In real life, I never had an indoor cat because when I had cats, they were outdoor cats because my dad is allergic to cats, and I haven't had any cats since then. Nor any other pets.

At least the cake was good.

wrote_and_writ

I’ve been caught up by the reading bug for the last few months, so I’m not going to give detailed thoughts here, but this is what I’ve read recently. Titles are linked if you want synopses.

I read the latest volume of Ballad of Sword and Wine. I am so in love with this novel. The world building is A+ (even though I still get a little confused with some of the factions in the imperial drama). Shen Zechuan and Xiao Ce’an are just great. Their relationship is dynamic and interesting. One of my big gripes with Stars of Chaos is that Chang Geng and Gu Yun spent so much of the narrative apart. It was necessary for the story, but I really wanted to see their interactions. BSW balances the plot-relevant separations with more frequent reunions.

Legend of Exorcism wasn’t particularly on my radar. I picked up the first volume after seeing it at Barnes and Noble this winter, and it is awesome! It’s a historical fantasy danmei, with lots of action and humor. This is another one of those series that, if I were a billionaire, I would fund a lavish live-action drama adaptation. I polished off volumes one and two in about a week.

In non-danmei reading, I read all the current English translations of Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! I know there are several adaptations of this, including (I think, I can’t be bothered to check rn) a Thai adaptation. It’s a very sweet series. I needed a palate cleanser after the dramatic battles in BSW. I’ll keep up with this series. It also reminds me I need to get back to What Did You Eat Yesterday? because I do love stories about proper adults.

10 Things I Want to do Before I Turn 40 is a single-volume (as far as I can tell) BL manga with a similar plot to Old Fashioned Cupcake. It’s fine. It’s as satisfying as a decent cupcake.

Finally, I read Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man), an absolutely charming and wonderful cozy mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, and follow-up to Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice to Murderers. Vera is a wonderful character who would certainly be besties with Jane Marple. I love how Vera just adopts a gaggle of misfits and makes this wonderful family for herself -- and in the process of the two books, builds a better relationship with her actual son. I cannot recommend these two novels enough.

I have a few other non-danmei books queued up for summer break, but tbh, I’m mostly excited to dive into a bunch of series as they get official English translations. I’m especially enjoying branching out into different genres. When I first started, I thought danmei was basically fantasy because my first exposure to danmei was to MDZS, but that’s not the case at all. My current reading tastes seem to be either danmei or Japanese/Korean slice of life stories set in bookshops and cafes. I also have some non-danmei books on my tbr list, such as the latest Rivers of London novel, The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo, some nonfiction books like Ghosts of the British Museum that I’ll pick up at my hometown library. Plus, bestie and I are road-tripping to Oregon this summer, and we’re stopping at Powell’s, so who knows what treasures I’ll find there?

I’ll keep you posted.

wrote_and_writ

Here is a synopsis from the author's website:

Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible offer: serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.

The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.

This book was a pretty fun read. It’s one of those books that, if I was a billionaire, I would pay for a lavish, 40-episode drama adaptation, with all the best CGI and costumes and actors and music. And I’d release it outside of China to get away from censors (there are some background gay couples, plus all the magic stuff).

I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say about the book. It’s a pretty straightforward fantasy novel steeped in Chinese mythology (although it’s not a direct adaptation of existing stories). I did think it was weird that it was shelved as a YA book, although Xue technically is a young adult -- she goes through her coming of age ceremony towards the beginning of the novel. If I recall correctly, Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess is shelved in adult fantasy and I would say Xue and Xingyin (protagonist of DotMG) are pretty similar characters. Lin’s previous novels are also sold as YA, so maybe that’s just what her editors have decided is better for marketing. I only bring it up in case you decide to read this and have trouble finding it, or if you don’t like to read YA -- it’s really not YA, at least not as YA is presented. Anyway! It’s fun, the world building is interesting, and I enjoyed reading this.

zarla

SO MANY THOUGHTS TO PUT IN ORDER ABOUT THE NEW DELTARUNE CHAPTERS STILL but in the meantime have this post i made on tumblr, haha. Spoiler warning of course!

---

Thinking about why I like Tenna, he's fun, but he doesn't grab me like Spamton does, in spite of them both being OTT flashy weirdos who are sad and attention-starved. On the surface they act pretty similar, to the point where I thought of Tenna as Diet Spamton, but the more I think about it they actually have a lot of really big differences between them. They're almost opposites, actually. What I think it comes down to is their greater themes. Tenna, King, and Queen are all about abandonment/neglect. Spamton, in comparison, is all about failure.

( Counterpoints to each other! )

lj post

Mood: full
Watching/Listening: 39786. K² + Darius - missing everything

beanside

It's Tuesday!! We survived Monday! Actually, Monday was pretty good for me. Busy, as expected, but not terrible. People were mostly nice, and I was able to get some people in quickly for needed appointments, so I was happy. My final packages came in, so that was good, though fedex is on crack. One was supposed to require a signature, and so Jess was waiting in the living room for them to come, but they just left it. More on that later.

My knee has been SUPER pissed off the last two days. I'm not sure what I did to it, but it has not been happy at all. Yesterday, I was limping around like I was 90. Today it feels a little better, but still tentative. We'll see how it goes.

It's Farmer's market day! I'll see how my knee is and go from there. I'd also like to go up to Sam's club and get a few things, so I may do that as well. There's a few things you can't get online that are club only, so I might drag myself up there. I can always borrow a scooter there if my knee balks. I just have to see whether Jess wants to come with. I could go after the farmer's market or I could wait til after we walk the dog.

It's out anniversary in a few days. On 6/21, it'll be 22 years since we handfasted. I remember it very well, yet not at all. The night before there had been a midnight release party that Jess was working at Barnes and Nobel. I had gone as well, and it was a lot of fun, for the book series that shall not be named because JKR is a twat. We both were dragging the next day, but I was up early to go fetch the cake, and take care of some of the minor details. I wore a denim dress that I loved, and Jess wore a flame colored dress and looked amazing. I wouldn't mind renewing our vows after their top surgery, and getting some pictures of them in a suit.

One of my purchases was a starter kit from Vampire Vineyards. I mostly got it because my sister likes wine, and I like to cook with wine. I'm not a huge fan of dry wines, but I figured what the hell. Plus, it came with a bottle of Fangria Sangria. Holy shit that was good. We finished the entire bottle and were all mildly tipsy. I will definitely be getting another bottle. They're not super expensive, but very tasty. And the Pinot Noir sauce I made for the pork was very good, too.

As a result of the wine, I'm a little sleepy today. Not hung over, just a bit tired.

And on that note, I shall go forth and drink some more coffee. Everyone have an outstanding Tuesday!

beanside

I am for no apparent reason, very sleepy today. I could have dozed for another hour easily. I'll wake up eventually, but I really slept very soundly last night, and another hour would have been nice.

I had a nice day yesterday, first with lunch, where I had a steak bigger than my head, topped with a big scoop of crab imperial. There's still about two thirds of it left, because with the Rybelsus, I can't eat a ton at a sitting. The food was SO good. We got a takeout for my sister, a burger (her choice) and she said it was amazing. It looked pretty tasty.

Then, it was home to relax and feed the puppy before game. Game was super fun, even though it was mostly set up for the next arcs. It's one of my special favorite games, so I was really psyched to play it.

I had a little burst of madness yesterday and signed up to DM another campaign. It's called The Crooked Moon, and it's a folk horror game that looks super cool. I'm looking forward to trying it out. I limited to six people but feel horrible about the people who got excluded. I did it fair, and did a drawing, using a random wheel to remove people. I had to whittle it from 10 people to 6, which was a big cut. If it goes well, I'll run a second game when we finish for everyone who didn't make it.

Today, it's back to work. It's sure to be a busy one. Hoping for a nice not too crazy week. And I'm hoping that they get back to me quickly about the application.

And on that note, time for me to get dressed! Everyone have an amazing Monday!

dmxrated

Mom had some watermelon wedges cut up for me, Brian, Emily, and Maris by the time I came home from work. I had a few, and Maris also had one while Brian played with her on the driveway.

Brian and Emily left later in the afternoon, while Mom put up some fencing around those new trees.

beanside

It's father's day, and I'm a little wistful this morning. On one hand, I'm so grateful that the exhausting ordeal that was his last years is over, before anyone but me did permanent damage to themselves. On the other, I miss being out and finding some sort of little treat, and taking it home to him. He was so picky that it was always a little thrill to find something that he'd eat. Overall, though, I feel a little bad that I don't miss him more, but the father that I miss is not the person who was there the last 2 years. I don't miss that person at all. I'm just glad he's at peace, and that at the end he went easily.

Today, correction from yesterday, we do have some things to do. We're going out for lunch to a steakhouse with my friend from 911. She's the only good thing that came out of that shitshow. I regret that I let it effect my mental health, but it got me where I am not, so I don't actually regret doing it. Then, I'm debating on going to the pool for an hour and swimming, and then we have game with the lovely

poisontaster DMing. It's going to be a fun, relaxing day and I'm here for it. The pool is contingent on the weather, of course. Right now it looks pretty dreary.

Tomorrow, it's back to work, and hopefully to get some interest in the application.

Yesterday was a lot of fun, but good lord, I am not cut out for the heat. By the time we got home, all I could do was fall over. I was no more good the rest of the day. We got street food, but by then I was too hot to eat it. I had one bite, which was excellent, and then realized that if I persisted, I'd be vomiting on the table.

I had brought some beads that I purchased from amazon. I felt a little silly, putting them onto the table, but they were super popular, so I'm glad I did. We had so many people thank us for what we do and for coming out. We were there in support of the Hopkins Gender Expansive Clinic, and a lot of people were very interested. Some came over to say thank you, because they're already patients. Including one who had the very surgery Jess wants to have. So they got a look at what they could look like in a year's time, which was very cool.

I'm debating between cooking breakfast versus having a donut. I probably will cook something. Maybe pancakes and sausage. I have some sausage that I got at the farmer's market. Tonight, we'll have leftovers, since we're going out to lunch late.

And now, I shall drink my coffee and relax until it's time to make breakfast. Everyone have an amazing Sunday!

dmxrated

Brian and Emily came down for Hanalei's birthday and Father's Day this weekend, arriving just half an hour after I arrived home from work.

I asked Brian if he saw that YouTube video, but he said that he hasn't even read my blog lately, where I originally figured he'd follow from. First thing he did was have a nap, and I left my blog up for him to read whenever he'd be ready, but he kept winding up busy with different things starting with a conversation with Mom after he'd wake up (I was reading The Week when I overheard).

Mom decided to order a couple of pizzas, and I went with her to pick out a cream soda and a gelato. Brian asked me to pick him up a root beer, to combine with some vanilla ice cream he had brought over for a root beer float.

Mom and I went inside together, and while I initially looked up my phone clock to decide on a soda flavor, Mom asked me to hurry up so that she could pay for everything, and I wound up defaulting instead to grape, since I never saw that flavor there before.

Brian or Emily had put on Thomas the Tank Engine for Maris while we were out, and we let that run while eating.

Shortly after I finished, I sat down and picked the remote up, and Mom asked me if there was anything I wanted to show everyone. I specified Brian in particular, and he and I instead went into the office to show him that clip once and for all.

During the buildup, he asked me if I was rolling dice to decide what to retrieve from Escargo Express, to which I specified actually zeroing in on the one Rust Promoter. (Even in the walkthrough, I usually sort whatever's relevant at a given point into groups by priority, although Rulers, Protractors, and Picture Postcards, the three items that serve no actual purpose at all, tend to be last since you might as well make such purchases "count". In this case, I had already sent the Rust Promoter in question off just before my first trek to Fourside, because there are no metallic enemies in the gold mine or the department store, and enemy encounters on the streets are so infrequent that you might as well stick to PSI instead before either a cheap or free rest in Monotoli Grand Hotel or back in Dusty Dunes Desert, or Paula's abduction in the store.)

After all played out, Brian then showed me someone's TikTok footage of Grand Theft Auto V, where they fly a blimp into some building where a cutscene awaits you, without the person you're visiting bothering to question what's going on. Here is that on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBbxlP6NXXs

Walked a lap up and down Masem Court. Upon coming back, Brian or Emily had set YouTube up for Maris with the videobook adaptation of Pecos Bill.

Emily brought Maris to her parents' house after it ended, and has spent the night there. Brian went into the apartment to sleep, so this morning is not a good time to get a recording in while he's still likely sleeping.

fayanora

Went looking for returnables down in Milwaukie (half hour walk away) because I had to drop something off at the library there, so once that was done I figured why not go looking for returnables. I ended up finding nearly an entire green bag full of them! So tomorrow I'm going to take the wagon out, take the other green bag with me because that one is full, and can-box along the way to fill up the remaining space in bag two, at which point I will be dropping both bags off at New Seasons Market.

It wasn't as overfull as the last time, partly because I brought a reusable grocery bag for any overflow, but it still wasn't quite as many as the last time I filled an entire bag in one go. But it should only take like 4 or 5 of them to finish filling the space in the bag.

beanside

It's Pride weekend, and I just want to go back to bed. I did not sleep well at all. First, we ate pretty heavy right before bed, and then Boodle was bing a velctro kitty. Jess was also very cuddly last night, so between it all, I had a restless night's sleep. It's okay, I just have Pride to get through. I cancelled my afternoon game, because I just couldn't see rushing from Pride, with all the traffic of the Trans Pride and Pride Block Parties as well as any No Kings rally traffic, managing to get home in under an hour (because we are 100% ubering. Parking is going to be a nightmare. This way, we can finish my shift, walk around, and then go forth and maybe grab food and then go home.

After that, I have nothing planned until it's time to make dinner. And that's just a pork loin with mashed turnips. Then, I can crash out and go to bed while Jess plays Strixhaven.

Tomorrow, I have absolutely no plans. Just going to laze around and nap, I think. I could uber down to the pride festival, or drive down to the big Greek festival, but we'll see.

I had my bimonthly performance review yesterday. As expected, I'm doing well. I had told them that I applied for the supervisor position, and there was much lamenting on not wanting me to leave, but then he said if I get the position, I should push for as much money as I could get. Then, I should wait to sign the offer until they can go to their bosses and see if they could get a counter offer.

If after all the time I spent banging my head trying to advance at IKEA, now I've got people getting into bidding war over me, I'ma laugh.

And on that note, I'm going to start getting myself together for work. Everyone have a super Saturday and be safe!

fayanora

I will be attending the No Kings protest in Portland at Westmoreland Park tomorrow. Lets give Trumpsterfire a very unhappy birthday!

If the person I talked to today was right, this one is a gathering point and then they go to the one downtown. I think that's a bit dumb; a protest like this should be broken into smaller cells around town to make it more difficult for the pigs to crack down on them. But nobody asked my opinion about it.

dmxrated

Deciding two days ago to hit Bagel Boss for lunch, my order on the app included a chocolate cigar for my snack. Upon arriving inside, I found the actual snack case to feature cake pops now, and asked someone at the counter if he could replace my original snack with one of those. He let me just have a freebie instead, and I saved the chocolate cigar to bring home.

After I finished eating, I asked a different employee why they weren't on the app to order in the first place. She told me they're actually new, and offered me another one for free, not knowing of my previous interaction with someone.

Put both that and my chocolate cigar into my drink bag after I had my Body Armor later, and would put the bag itself in the fridge when I'd arrive home. Mom asked me about that, and put them instead into a container, still refridgerating them at my request.

-

Mom had half a day at work yesterday, in order to come home to drive me to this week's physical therapy session. I was finishing my lunch when she arrived home, we also had the landfill to dispose of some dead bushes at, and she offered to boil me some tea when we'd be back home to have with that second cake pop.

-

Even though I had already had a snack, yesterday was so hot that Mom offered me some ice cream from McDonald's after therapy. I saw an ad for a new smores McFlurry flavor, and decided to get one of those while Mom ordered an M&M one.

beanside

It is so early. I got up a little bit early to go fetch Friday the 13th themed donuts, and I'm kind of regretting my life choices.

Today, we shall have donuts for breakfast, and then I'm going to work, and then? Date night. We haven't decided where we're going to dinner. There's a couple of places that we're considering. It's difficult finding somewhere with good food that also doesn't require special attire. I'm not wanting to dress up. I just don't have the clothes for it. I should really consider getting a skirt or dress for that, though then I have to think about shoes. Maybe I'll just visit the mall.

Tomorrow is Trans Pride, followed by game. Right now they're callling for overcast skies with maybe a bit of rain thrown in. But only 80 degrees, which is good.

I went yesterday for my glasses, and got my new prescription. We'll see how I like the progressives I ordered. Apparently, my eyes hadn't changed much. I'm going to get a fun backup pair from Firmoo.

Of course, after the eye exam, I had the WORST headache. I was really just good to go lay down, but I walked the dog and ate dinner. I'm still a little headachey this morning, so I'm going to go take some tylenol and ibuprofen and see if we can get rid of that.

Yesterday, I also put in for a job at Hopkins. It's not in my dept, and I'm not sure I'm even going to get an interview, but I gave it a shot, and that's what matters. I'm going to let my bosses know today.

I have my one on one today, so that'll be a quick meeting. I'm a little concerned that I put my current manager in as my reference, but she's going on maternity leave soon, so I may ask her today if I should switch the email address over to one of the other supervisors.

If I were to get it, it would definitely be more money and more responsibilty, but we'll see.

Okay, and now, I go put on pants and get donuts. Everyone have an excellent Friday!

fayanora

I don't have the energy to go through the whole thing, so I'll just say I went can-boxing in the reverse of my usual route. Found so many that though I started with an empty green bag in the cart, by the time I got to New Season's Market, the entire cart was so full -- including ones I had shoved into my Gaia bag, a basket I found the other day, inside the netting used to contain the mass of returnables, AND down the sides between the box and the cart's liner -- that I had to take all the ones out of the netting, set them aside, and take the green bag out of the box in the cart and put everything into the now free bag... which filled the entire bag! It was completely full, from ONE trip, so I tied it up, slapped a Green Bag sticker on it, and dropped it off at New Seasons Market. I didn't even get a chance to count them all, there was no way to do it without the wind blowing them all into the street. But those bags usually contain between $5 and $8 worth of returnables, depending on size. Given I had nothing larger than a 16 ounce bottle in there except maybe some of the longer beer cans, and given that in one spot I had found like 15 little water bottles of the same brand, I would estimate I must have found at least $7 worth of returnables at that point.

And the craziest thing was that after all that, I found a bunch more. Only like 7 or 8 more, but still. One hell of a haul for only about two or three hours.

Oh, and I still had half a green bag at home. I was just looking to top that one off to take it to New Seasons later. But a whole bag full in ONE trip!!!

Mood: tired

dmxrated

Sure enough, I could see a difference between what I uploaded to YouTube yesterday and the actual beginning of my recording, when I checked the latter to verify the arms dealer's menu for five items instead of four as per the Starmen.net walkthrough (I had a Big Bottle Rocket to buy as per my preceding numbers online, but would have spoken to him anyway for a price comparison with the main hack). Even though the receptionist and elevator lady's hair almost looks gray in such dreary surroundings, Paula's looks even more brown in the department store, outdoors, and the bakery (had a Lucky Sandwich, a Croissant, and two Rust Promoters to get, after having saved previously in the dept. store) than in front of the alpha channel in my palette (should I perhaps have left the background there white, unlike with commissioned graphics for Starbound?).

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It took a good bit of googling, starting during my fifteen at work, but I managed to share that video (the actual video, not just a link thereto) on Reddit and Discord. Managed to find some working instructions for Reddit on WikiHow, but someone on the Discord server Earthbound / Mother suggested I contact a mod or so there. Started with one, and then two more, one of whom was denoted online at the moment. The first one got back to me after a few hours, and said that while a bot is supposed to enable me to embed videos a week after I join, my account probably fell through the cracks. He enabled it for me, and all I had to do from there was copy the regular video link from YouTube, with the video showing up automatically upon posting.