Grumpy Thursday
May. 11th, 2023 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, unfortunately it hasn't been the best day -- I was a little late getting out of the house today (and dealing with some nasty static in my clothes and hair); work was kind of irritating; the bra Mom ordered for me online JUST didn't fit; and I spent a good portion of the night feeling stressed out and annoyed. *sigh* The to-do list will give you the details --
Work – Kind of an annoying day, I have to say – came in and immediately was told by my coworkers that they’d run into problems with credit card stuff the other day (including just figuring out how to turn on the computers), so I had to resolve all that, plus I had the usual check scanning and reports to run, plus a QC file waiting for me. . .then, after lunch, I had the usual “oh, I haven’t really heard back about any of these problems, let me escalate them yet again” call with the credit card people (though at least ONE thing got properly fixed on the call, I will have to give them that). Also had to make a spreadsheet for them, though that wasn’t really too much of an issue. . . Add in some of the usual “fun with traffic” on the rides in and out, and – yeah. Meeeh. At least there’s only one day to go!
Oh, and we did have beanbags when I got home – I had a good start, a terrible middle, and an okay end, while Dad started a bit slow and finished strong and Mom was back to her usual “can’t get a win for the life of her” antics. :p Final scores were me W-3-2; Dad 2-W-W; Mom 3-2-3. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to the final bit of Oxventure: Legacy of Dragons – “Corpse and Robbers!” Having learned that Richard and his compatriots are jackalweres in service to a lamia (a super-hot half-lion lady), trying to drive people out of Mistmire to turn it into a ruined wreck for the lamia to inhabit, the gang questioned their captive (whom I believe was named Ed – there was another guy named Tim, and the dead one was Dave) as to if the lamia was on her way or what. Ed confirmed that she’d be waiting elsewhere, and Prudence drew upon her knowledge of lamia and realized that their mistress probably didn’t even know Mistmire exists yet – Richard and his team were just some forward scouts. (Ed took some offense to this.) The gang realized they probably had to tell the paladins about this, and Dob Messaged Shattershield to bring him up to speed (quite rudely) and tell him to put out an All Points Bugle about Richard so they could track him down. Shattershield did so personally (though thanks to his preference in instruments, it was actually an All Points Trombone), but the Oxventurers – not having much faith in Le Dragon D’Or – decided it was in their best interest to try and hunt Richard down themselves. Merilwen used Wildshape to turn into a jackal herself and sniff Richard out, and got a strong scent trail leading down the tunnel. The gang followed it to an old storeroom (fortunately NOT all riding on Merilwen, like Corazon suggested, knowing full well how small jackals actually are XD), and Corazon suggested they needed a plan to take out this guy quickly.
Cue Dob bursting in, lunging at the startled Richard (still in jackal form), getting him by one haunch like he was going to yank him out of a hedge, and – well. Remember how, at the beginning of the episode, Dob joked that he wanted to cast all of his spells at once, and then qualified “but not at this moment” when Johnny said “great, that can just be a thing that happens?”
GUESS WHAT MOMENT IT WAS. Yup, the “boss fight” of the episode proved to be just Dob slamming spell after spell after spell into the unfortunate Richard, in the order in which they appeared in DnD Beyond. XD Hilariously, this meant he started with stuff like Mending (fusing Richard’s hip), Message (telling Richard to “check this out”), Prestidigitation (to make him taste like vanilla), and Cure Wounds (fixing a persistent toenail fungus) – but THEN we got stuff like Hideous Laughter (via a terrible joke), Thunderwave (the classic!), Calm Emotions (so Richard was very CALM about dying), Crown of Madness (Dob NEARLY set Richard on Corazon or himself before Johnny reminded him that Richard himself was a humanoid; Johnny then rolled a crit one on Richard attacking himself, and after some confusion, decided Richard dislocated his jaw), Heat Metal (on some of Richard’s fillings; Richard was very dead now), Major Illusion (to try and make everyone feel better by showing a Richard who was fine), Shatter (essentially exploding Richard’s corpse into little bits), Greater Invisibility (on himself, out of shame), and finally Speak With Dead (confirming that Richard’s mistress wouldn’t be showing up before letting him just die). Everyone was – more than a little horrified. XD Merilwen rightfully pointed out that they really shouldn’t always accuse HER of the war crimes.
Fortunately, at that point a distraction winged in – the gold dragon, accompanied by the frost dragon! Everyone ran out to meet them (with Corazon giving Giovanni some of the “jackal popcorn” on the way), and the eggs were reunited with their mother. Everyone thanked the gold dragon for honoring his word – however, the gold dragon had a very important question for them. Namely, why was the cavern below Mistmire done up all nice with fake dwarven architecture and hot orange water for this newcomer, Giovanni, when nobody had even bothered to take care of the damp when HE was stuck down there? Merilwen pointed out that they hadn’t known about his particular predicament until just now, and that they’d assumed that he’d wanted to live out in the wild, free and clear. Which he did, but he felt like he’d been cheated out of a nice new lair, so he demanded that they help him fix up his new lair whenever he found one. The frost dragon also demanded this (surprising Merilwen, who’d assumed they were together – the others pointed out that the gold dragon had openly said that he wasn’t interested in raising the hatchlings full-time), and the Oxventurers reluctantly agreed to do more dragon renovation. They asked the frost dragon where her lair was, and she admitted she hadn’t found one yet –
And cue Dob’s sister Suzette showing up, saying that she could help with that! And so the episode ended with Dob giving his sister a big old hug (after wiping the jackal bits off himself); Corazon feeding Percy Junior bits of jackal and squirrel while Merilwen watched on, charmed; Prudence enjoying the view from the previously holiest part of the citadel; and Egbert politely refusing to rejoin Le Dragon D’Or, wanting to keep his vow to his new god, La Vache Mauve. Shattershield understood and respected him for it, and quietly dropped “the Careless” from his name. Awww. :) Oh, and there was also a promo for the sequel to this arc – “Extinction!” AKA the arc they MAY have just finished? I’m not sure yet, but they’re about ten episodes in, I believe, so. . . So I’m nearly caught up! But there’s still a number of live shows to get through first. . .plus the One-Shot Wonders. . .and the rest of Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark. . . basically I’ve still got Oxventure and Oxventure-related properties for days here. XD
That didn’t quite fill up my workout, though, so after a false start with what I thought was a Smiler-related video (fortunately the dude had text cards in between filmed bits, and one of those indicated he was about to bitch about the Smiler Takeover – I exited out at that moment), I instead enjoyed “Copperdale World Secrets and Features” by PeteyPlaysIt! Which was basically Petey just pointing out all the nice little bits of the new world (like the secret teen hangout spot by the bridge, the fact that you can swim in the water around the amusement park on the pier, all the various woohoo locations), while admitting it all did rather leave him wanting more. Especially when it came to the school and the attached athletic field, because YEESH. *shakehead* Still, the world has its nice spots – and now that I own the pack, maybe a trip to the amusement park might be a fun night out for Victor, Alice, and Smiler for Love Day. . .
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – didn’t get as much as I usually get done thanks to a VERY late start (more Merge Dragons grinding to get all the rewards I wanted from their weird midweek event; I did manage it, at least!), but I was able to finish up Alice’s time at The Last Round, promising to keep them informed re: Grout, and wondering if Damsel and Skelter are deliberately trying to wind her up (answer: yes, a little). Alice also got some advice from Caterpillar about not committing to one side or another, which she is more than happy to do – after all, she considers both sides dicks. XD Should be able to wrap up this chapter soon! And then it’s on to Grout’s, ugh. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – despite getting to the YouTube pretty damn late, I was able to keep up with the Subs AND sneak in a bonus video –
A) Started with another OXBox list from the Watch Later – “7 Games That Rewarded You for Failure!” Andy took us through a selection of games that had special rewards for failure – ranging from getting a handful of Nier: Automata’s alphabetical endings by being bad early on in the game (like dying in the initial bullet hell nonsense) and thus getting an early start on 100% completion, to getting the best sword in the game by dying and quickly continuing enough times to “earn” the help in the RPG Alundra when you reach the place where it’s kept, to straight up getting a New Game Plus with new extra upgrades by dying enough times to wrack up a huge debt to your employers in Armored Core (an early FROM Software game, causing Andy to be salty that this isn’t a thing in Elden Ring XD). Sometimes, it’s fun to fail! Which is good, because I fail in games on the regular. :p
B) Then, in the Subs, we had the latest from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Briar Rose/Aurora,” a sketch of Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty in her “Briar Rose” outfit from the beginning! Sleeping Beauty is Josh’s favorite of the classic Disney-era films – he considers it an artistic masterpiece, with excellent animation (especially on Aurora AND Philip, since Disney hadn’t done that much with its princes before him), and he did an excellent job aping the animation style of that film. He really is a great artist. :)
C) And finally, we had the GrayStillPlays Thursday Minisode – “Busting 5 Myths in GTA 5 #shorts,” animal edition! Myth One: A deer can run faster than a train – true! Gray assumed the form of Meaty Bits and showed that it could run just barely faster. Myth Two: Touching high voltage stuff doesn’t affect birds – false! Gray booped a high voltage thingamabob as a seagull and DIED. Myth Three: A deer cannot defeat a mountain lion – false! Meaty Bits Gray showed that, if you time it right and loop around when the mountain lion is making its attack, you can avoid its one-hit kill and use a couple of invincibility frames to take it down. Myth Four: Killer whales will never attack you – true! Gray as himself went swimming with a bunch of them, and they never even seemed to notice him. Myth Five: A Westie dog can one-hit-kill a grown man – true! Yup, Westie Gray was able to take down an attacker – appropriately, with a groin attack. XD Thank you again for your myth-busting, Gray!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – I actually snuck in a little editing time on a draft of one of my “Not-Incorrect” Valicer quote collections this morning on Victor Luvs Alice (the “sleepytime” edition, adding more ideas related to Victor, Alice, and Smiler sharing a bed and sleeping together), so that was nice! And this evening, there wasn’t anything happening on Valice Multiverse, so I just threw another day of Valicer Polyship Week (Day Seven, the end of the road trip and Smiler thanking Alice for sharing) into the queue. Nice and easy there, at least!
Yeah, so -- got some stuff done, but also spent a good portion of the day grumpy for one reason or another. *waggles hand* I've had better Thursdays. But I've calmed myself down with some Valicer stuff and now I'm heading for bed so I can get through the final day of the week. Hopefully it won't be a total shitshow. Night all!
Work – Kind of an annoying day, I have to say – came in and immediately was told by my coworkers that they’d run into problems with credit card stuff the other day (including just figuring out how to turn on the computers), so I had to resolve all that, plus I had the usual check scanning and reports to run, plus a QC file waiting for me. . .then, after lunch, I had the usual “oh, I haven’t really heard back about any of these problems, let me escalate them yet again” call with the credit card people (though at least ONE thing got properly fixed on the call, I will have to give them that). Also had to make a spreadsheet for them, though that wasn’t really too much of an issue. . . Add in some of the usual “fun with traffic” on the rides in and out, and – yeah. Meeeh. At least there’s only one day to go!
Oh, and we did have beanbags when I got home – I had a good start, a terrible middle, and an okay end, while Dad started a bit slow and finished strong and Mom was back to her usual “can’t get a win for the life of her” antics. :p Final scores were me W-3-2; Dad 2-W-W; Mom 3-2-3. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to the final bit of Oxventure: Legacy of Dragons – “Corpse and Robbers!” Having learned that Richard and his compatriots are jackalweres in service to a lamia (a super-hot half-lion lady), trying to drive people out of Mistmire to turn it into a ruined wreck for the lamia to inhabit, the gang questioned their captive (whom I believe was named Ed – there was another guy named Tim, and the dead one was Dave) as to if the lamia was on her way or what. Ed confirmed that she’d be waiting elsewhere, and Prudence drew upon her knowledge of lamia and realized that their mistress probably didn’t even know Mistmire exists yet – Richard and his team were just some forward scouts. (Ed took some offense to this.) The gang realized they probably had to tell the paladins about this, and Dob Messaged Shattershield to bring him up to speed (quite rudely) and tell him to put out an All Points Bugle about Richard so they could track him down. Shattershield did so personally (though thanks to his preference in instruments, it was actually an All Points Trombone), but the Oxventurers – not having much faith in Le Dragon D’Or – decided it was in their best interest to try and hunt Richard down themselves. Merilwen used Wildshape to turn into a jackal herself and sniff Richard out, and got a strong scent trail leading down the tunnel. The gang followed it to an old storeroom (fortunately NOT all riding on Merilwen, like Corazon suggested, knowing full well how small jackals actually are XD), and Corazon suggested they needed a plan to take out this guy quickly.
Cue Dob bursting in, lunging at the startled Richard (still in jackal form), getting him by one haunch like he was going to yank him out of a hedge, and – well. Remember how, at the beginning of the episode, Dob joked that he wanted to cast all of his spells at once, and then qualified “but not at this moment” when Johnny said “great, that can just be a thing that happens?”
GUESS WHAT MOMENT IT WAS. Yup, the “boss fight” of the episode proved to be just Dob slamming spell after spell after spell into the unfortunate Richard, in the order in which they appeared in DnD Beyond. XD Hilariously, this meant he started with stuff like Mending (fusing Richard’s hip), Message (telling Richard to “check this out”), Prestidigitation (to make him taste like vanilla), and Cure Wounds (fixing a persistent toenail fungus) – but THEN we got stuff like Hideous Laughter (via a terrible joke), Thunderwave (the classic!), Calm Emotions (so Richard was very CALM about dying), Crown of Madness (Dob NEARLY set Richard on Corazon or himself before Johnny reminded him that Richard himself was a humanoid; Johnny then rolled a crit one on Richard attacking himself, and after some confusion, decided Richard dislocated his jaw), Heat Metal (on some of Richard’s fillings; Richard was very dead now), Major Illusion (to try and make everyone feel better by showing a Richard who was fine), Shatter (essentially exploding Richard’s corpse into little bits), Greater Invisibility (on himself, out of shame), and finally Speak With Dead (confirming that Richard’s mistress wouldn’t be showing up before letting him just die). Everyone was – more than a little horrified. XD Merilwen rightfully pointed out that they really shouldn’t always accuse HER of the war crimes.
Fortunately, at that point a distraction winged in – the gold dragon, accompanied by the frost dragon! Everyone ran out to meet them (with Corazon giving Giovanni some of the “jackal popcorn” on the way), and the eggs were reunited with their mother. Everyone thanked the gold dragon for honoring his word – however, the gold dragon had a very important question for them. Namely, why was the cavern below Mistmire done up all nice with fake dwarven architecture and hot orange water for this newcomer, Giovanni, when nobody had even bothered to take care of the damp when HE was stuck down there? Merilwen pointed out that they hadn’t known about his particular predicament until just now, and that they’d assumed that he’d wanted to live out in the wild, free and clear. Which he did, but he felt like he’d been cheated out of a nice new lair, so he demanded that they help him fix up his new lair whenever he found one. The frost dragon also demanded this (surprising Merilwen, who’d assumed they were together – the others pointed out that the gold dragon had openly said that he wasn’t interested in raising the hatchlings full-time), and the Oxventurers reluctantly agreed to do more dragon renovation. They asked the frost dragon where her lair was, and she admitted she hadn’t found one yet –
And cue Dob’s sister Suzette showing up, saying that she could help with that! And so the episode ended with Dob giving his sister a big old hug (after wiping the jackal bits off himself); Corazon feeding Percy Junior bits of jackal and squirrel while Merilwen watched on, charmed; Prudence enjoying the view from the previously holiest part of the citadel; and Egbert politely refusing to rejoin Le Dragon D’Or, wanting to keep his vow to his new god, La Vache Mauve. Shattershield understood and respected him for it, and quietly dropped “the Careless” from his name. Awww. :) Oh, and there was also a promo for the sequel to this arc – “Extinction!” AKA the arc they MAY have just finished? I’m not sure yet, but they’re about ten episodes in, I believe, so. . . So I’m nearly caught up! But there’s still a number of live shows to get through first. . .plus the One-Shot Wonders. . .and the rest of Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark. . . basically I’ve still got Oxventure and Oxventure-related properties for days here. XD
That didn’t quite fill up my workout, though, so after a false start with what I thought was a Smiler-related video (fortunately the dude had text cards in between filmed bits, and one of those indicated he was about to bitch about the Smiler Takeover – I exited out at that moment), I instead enjoyed “Copperdale World Secrets and Features” by PeteyPlaysIt! Which was basically Petey just pointing out all the nice little bits of the new world (like the secret teen hangout spot by the bridge, the fact that you can swim in the water around the amusement park on the pier, all the various woohoo locations), while admitting it all did rather leave him wanting more. Especially when it came to the school and the attached athletic field, because YEESH. *shakehead* Still, the world has its nice spots – and now that I own the pack, maybe a trip to the amusement park might be a fun night out for Victor, Alice, and Smiler for Love Day. . .
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – didn’t get as much as I usually get done thanks to a VERY late start (more Merge Dragons grinding to get all the rewards I wanted from their weird midweek event; I did manage it, at least!), but I was able to finish up Alice’s time at The Last Round, promising to keep them informed re: Grout, and wondering if Damsel and Skelter are deliberately trying to wind her up (answer: yes, a little). Alice also got some advice from Caterpillar about not committing to one side or another, which she is more than happy to do – after all, she considers both sides dicks. XD Should be able to wrap up this chapter soon! And then it’s on to Grout’s, ugh. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – despite getting to the YouTube pretty damn late, I was able to keep up with the Subs AND sneak in a bonus video –
A) Started with another OXBox list from the Watch Later – “7 Games That Rewarded You for Failure!” Andy took us through a selection of games that had special rewards for failure – ranging from getting a handful of Nier: Automata’s alphabetical endings by being bad early on in the game (like dying in the initial bullet hell nonsense) and thus getting an early start on 100% completion, to getting the best sword in the game by dying and quickly continuing enough times to “earn” the help in the RPG Alundra when you reach the place where it’s kept, to straight up getting a New Game Plus with new extra upgrades by dying enough times to wrack up a huge debt to your employers in Armored Core (an early FROM Software game, causing Andy to be salty that this isn’t a thing in Elden Ring XD). Sometimes, it’s fun to fail! Which is good, because I fail in games on the regular. :p
B) Then, in the Subs, we had the latest from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Briar Rose/Aurora,” a sketch of Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty in her “Briar Rose” outfit from the beginning! Sleeping Beauty is Josh’s favorite of the classic Disney-era films – he considers it an artistic masterpiece, with excellent animation (especially on Aurora AND Philip, since Disney hadn’t done that much with its princes before him), and he did an excellent job aping the animation style of that film. He really is a great artist. :)
C) And finally, we had the GrayStillPlays Thursday Minisode – “Busting 5 Myths in GTA 5 #shorts,” animal edition! Myth One: A deer can run faster than a train – true! Gray assumed the form of Meaty Bits and showed that it could run just barely faster. Myth Two: Touching high voltage stuff doesn’t affect birds – false! Gray booped a high voltage thingamabob as a seagull and DIED. Myth Three: A deer cannot defeat a mountain lion – false! Meaty Bits Gray showed that, if you time it right and loop around when the mountain lion is making its attack, you can avoid its one-hit kill and use a couple of invincibility frames to take it down. Myth Four: Killer whales will never attack you – true! Gray as himself went swimming with a bunch of them, and they never even seemed to notice him. Myth Five: A Westie dog can one-hit-kill a grown man – true! Yup, Westie Gray was able to take down an attacker – appropriately, with a groin attack. XD Thank you again for your myth-busting, Gray!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – I actually snuck in a little editing time on a draft of one of my “Not-Incorrect” Valicer quote collections this morning on Victor Luvs Alice (the “sleepytime” edition, adding more ideas related to Victor, Alice, and Smiler sharing a bed and sleeping together), so that was nice! And this evening, there wasn’t anything happening on Valice Multiverse, so I just threw another day of Valicer Polyship Week (Day Seven, the end of the road trip and Smiler thanking Alice for sharing) into the queue. Nice and easy there, at least!
Yeah, so -- got some stuff done, but also spent a good portion of the day grumpy for one reason or another. *waggles hand* I've had better Thursdays. But I've calmed myself down with some Valicer stuff and now I'm heading for bed so I can get through the final day of the week. Hopefully it won't be a total shitshow. Night all!
