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Bit Of A Drag Monday
Jun. 12th, 2023 11:49 pmI mean, it wasn't horrible, at least when I finally got home, but work. . .well, just look below:
Work – Unfortunately, it ended up being a pretty long and boring day – after an initial flurry of activity in the morning with a handful of phone calls, everything was quiet as hell. I didn’t even have a long GL to keep me occupied. I slogged through the day with my duplicates and was relieved when we could finally leave. Bleh – still, better than being stressed out. And the commutes up and back weren’t too horrible (though I got behind some annoyingly slow people this morning). And I’m off for the following two days, so that’s nice.
As for beanbags, we didn’t end up playing, as the weatherpeople kept saying that rain was coming in this afternoon. This proved to not happen, but by the time we cottoned on that we’d been bamboozled, it was already too late. *shrug* The end of the week is supposed to be nice, so hopefully we’ll get to do it then!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike again tonight, to start the next Live Oxventure in the line – “Grad Attitude!” This one started with a bunch of jokes about how the Oxventurers file taxes (including Prudence saying she is SCRUPULOUS in filing her expense reports regarding her sacrificial victims to Cthulhu), which neatly led into the start of their adventure – them hanging out in the lake district, with Corazon having waterboarded Dob until he told them the location of the money (and warning him about the eels in the lake). The gang had gotten a decent amount of gold out when they were approached by a fellow in shiny new leather armor with shiny new weapons – Dob managed to stop Corazon immediately shooting him with his hand crossbow as a potential treasure hunter. XD The dude asked Prudence if she was a Great Demon – Prudence wasn’t sure if that was an insult or a compliment, but explained that she was demonic in origin, but not a Great Demon, no. The fellow explained that he’d been looking for one to fight to the death, and she promptly offered to summon one up for him, with Dob saying they’d be happy to help him battle it. Corazon quickly stepped in to ask who this guy was and what his deal was – turned out his name was Jonathan Bennet, who’d recently applied to the prestigious knight school (which was indeed also a night school) in the walled city of Ardent – I can’t remember the other word, but it definitely had “Ardent” in it, so let’s just call it that for now. Anyway, he’d gotten a full ride on the strength of his application, but the school just wanted proof that he’d actually DONE all the things he’d said he’d done. Which was a problem because, well, some CV padding HAD been involved. Dob insisted that the Oxventurers could help him (for free, which Corazon naturally was not particularly keen on – Dob said that they were “investing in people” and his co-treasurer Merilwen could back him up), causing Jonathan to pull out a list of things he’d said, which included such things as “wrestle a lion and win” and “defeat the electric eels in the lake and take their fangs.” Corazon figured, “oh, well, that last one will be easy” –
Cue a panicked Dob explaining “THERE ARE NO EELS IN THE LAKE I JUST SAY THAT TO WARD PEOPLE OFF.” XD He quickly started trying to figure out where to get eels on short notice while the gang decided to focus on the “wrestle a lion” task. Egbert suggested dressing up Bearilwen to look like a lion, but Merilwen said that she could shapeshift into any creature she’s seen, so if someone provided her with a picture of a lion. . .Corazon did so, and it was determined that he thinks lions are two fried eggs stacked on top of each other. XD Merilwen decided to just go for “wildcat but larger,” and she and Jonathan promptly had a proper wrestling brawl, with Jonathan getting a steel chair to the back from Corazon (he has a warehouse nearby) and Egbert tagging in briefly to perform a flying elbow drop on Merilwen (only one point of damage – he’s a VERY good wrestler). Eventually, though, Merilwen let Jonathan pin her, and Dob painted a portrait of the two to commemorate the occasion and provide Jonathan with his needed proof – though a roll of nine meant that he ended up giving the guy Popeye proportions. :p Still, it was an item checked off the list, and the gang moved onto the problem of finding Jonathan some eels to destroy and defang.
Dob was promptly like, “oh, you just need the fangs? I’ve got loads of those – I stick them in my flesh and pretend I got them from eel bites if anyone asks for proof of eels being in the lake.” Johnny let him have this audacious claim, but in the interest of making the guild, you know, DO THINGS, had Jonathan examine the fangs and say they were from GRAPHITE eels, not electric ones – they’re non-conductive. Dob thanked him for the lesson, telling Corazon that this is why he invests in people. :p The decision was made to go to the nearest fish market and just buy a couple of already-dead electric eels (and if they got thrown in the lake so Jonathan could at least pretend to shoot them, then that’s fine). And if they found a crystal quaggoth along the way, so much the better! Yes, apparently Jonathan had put defeating one of THOSE and getting its beautiful and highly valued jeweled eyes on the list – not an easy feat, given they’re monstrously dangerous overmuscled creatures who live in caves. Jonathan defended himself by saying that he hadn’t expected them to ask him to PROVE any of this, and Dob checked his pockets for crystal quaggoth eyes, only to come up short. :p Ah well, seems like they will have to adventure after all!
And so the group proceeded to the outer wall of Ardent, where another wrinkle in their plan was revealed – namely, Jonathan needed a disguise if he was going to go in, because if any of the application committee spotted him, they’d ask him about all that proof he was supposed to have procured six days ago. Merilwen told him “that’s why you don’t leave these things to the last minute,” but he insisted that he hadn't been able to find a lion or a Great Demon. The gang began thinking of ways to disguise him – the classic “spider-tiger” look came up, and then the suggestion was made to turn him into a giant eel, buying up his friends and family to free them (Corazon was like “you don’t need an excuse to buy fish from a fish shop!”). Unfortunately, at some point, Dob’s attempts to figure out what eels look like made him think they had lots of bones –
And cue him summoning the Skeletons of Ethelfrit! XD Who were only too happy to try and turn poor Jonathan into a skeleton at Dob’s suggestion. Fortunately Merilwen and Dob were able to countermand the order – unfortunately, this led to the skeletons passive-aggressively asking Dob why he never writes when he admitted it had been a while since he summoned them and talking about his failed wedding, putting him in a mood and making him useless for the time being. An annoyed Merilwen just walked into the city at this point and followed her nose to the fishmonger’s, who ended up demanding she give him an excuse for buying electric eel. She quickly blamed her wildcat instincts leaving her with a craving for fish –
And then Luke passed Ellen a note indicating she should say “just for the halibut.” Cue a cavalcade of fish puns as Johnny wondered again why they’d ever agreed to DM for this group. XD Merilwen was allowed to buy ONE eel with this excuse, but not the two they needed – Prudence appeared at the door to try and prompt the sale of a second, but the store owner wasn’t budging until SHE had an excuse as well.
Cue Corazon walking in, declaring he was sexually attracted to eels, and rolling a seventeen on the resultant Charisma check. The man led him over to his tanks of eels, where Corazon picked two electric ones and the fishmonger attempted to charge him 600 gold on the basis of “attraction to eels” being a niche market (“no, it’s a fish market,” Ellen said, causing Johnny to facepalm). I left it off with Corazon trying to boot the guy in the groin and make off with the eels, but only rolling a seven – we’ll see how that goes tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “The Joker And The Queen”: Check – when we last left off, the gang was facing “SW3 Containment Procedure Omega” in a random hallway. . .which, in essence, means that Kelman’s locked the doors and is opening up the floor below them to drop them into a big pit. Naturally, no one was keen on this – least of all the universe, who got one side of the opening floor to malfunction and stop, and the other to slow down, buying them a little time to figure out how to get across. Rita didn’t trust her super speed (especially with a slightly-dicky leg at the moment from being tased), Oblivon was reluctant to pocket-dimension them because that’s where Joytide was, Thirteen had no plants she could use, and Smiler couldn’t use forced happiness on a mindless machine. . .but they COULD feel that everything would be all right if they trusted in Air. Air, of course, was a little nervous about the idea of flying them all over the gap, but everyone gave her a ton of encouragement, and with no other options, she was willing to try. . . And let me tell you, her attempt is going to be something spectacular. Namely because, well, the coaster she’s named after isn’t “Air” anymore. . . ;)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – tonight was all about catching up with the GrayStillPlays –
A) “When black holes swallow reality” – Gray plays Tasty Planet Forever, the Black Hole levels! You start as a subatomic black hole eating quarks, progress up the molecular food chain before ending up in a lab on Mars, then continue growing from there to devour everything on the planet, the planet itself, various stars, various nebulae, solar systems, and eventually entire UNIVERSES (with the way they’re pictured bringing the game full circle, as they look just like the quarks). You also get to eat random space manta rays and the Flying Spaghetti Monster himself (if not under that exact name). Gray had an absolute blast nomming down everything in the world (even if he didn’t understand half the things he was looking at in the early stages, as he’s no scientist). It’s a simple concept, but it is oh so satisfying. :p
B) “Everytime I crash chaos happens in GTA 5” – Gray plays another Alex Torture Board in GTA V! And ooh boy, this one was a nasty one – Alex had Gray racing all across the map to reach four specific checkpoints, and every time Gray crashed, a random Chaos Mod effect would take, well, effect. (A crash was here defined as a “classic” crash – Gray had to hit something, though it didn’t matter if it was a rock, a person, or a traffic cone – if he hit it, the Chaos Mod came into play). He provided Gray with a starter car at each stop, and told him that he could do whatever it takes to get across the map and reach the checkpoints – but he ALSO provided Gray with a permanent Chaos Mod effect at each one (starting with a “Five Star Wanted Level” (so all the police wanted him dead), and moving through Traffic Magnet (so all the other cars on the road would try to crash into him), Meteor Shower (self-explanatory), and Drunk (also self-explanatory and meaning Gray could no longer drive in a straight line) – and they all stacked), and increased both the pool of chaotic things that could happen (from 40 to 50 to 60 to 69) and how long they would last (from ten to twenty to thirty to forty seconds) every time Gray crashed. Gray, as you might imagine, wasn’t exactly happy about any of this. XD But he persevered, through teleportations real and fake, turn turtles (which flip the screen upside down) and portrait mode, gravity both low and high, gamespeeds ranging from 0.5 to 0.2, gravity fields smushing him and beyblades spinning him, and even a few genuine game crashes, stealing whatever cars, motorcycles, tanks, and finally planes he could get his hands on to finally work his way around the map and to the win!
. . .where he promptly got sucked into a black hole, because this is Alex we’re talking about here. XD Oh man, the dude really does have a doctorate in torture at this point. . .
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got the remaining three Chill Valicer Save update posts all sorted out before my workout, just like I hoped! Though I did struggle a bit with the wording at times (ended up making some edits after supper to clean up a few paragraphs) – and I ended up changing out one picture in one post entirely after I realized showing Victor eating a BLT was less important than showing Smiler repairing the wind turbines, because with the latter picture I could mention the mysterious-but-welcome jump in the electricity surplus from 3 to 73. But they’re all done now, meaning I should be good to go for Wednesday, yay!
So yeah, very boring workday, but a satisfying afternoon! And now I have two days off, w00! With the parents off on their own adventures! Goals for tomorrow include getting some more tumblr drafting done; playing Sims 4 and sending the Valicer trio to San Sequoia for SimCity Founding; keeping up with the OXBoxRE4 playthrough for a change; and getting some more "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" done. I don't intend to sleep in too late (trying not to wreck my sleep schedule too much midweek), so hopefully this will all be doable. Night all!
Work – Unfortunately, it ended up being a pretty long and boring day – after an initial flurry of activity in the morning with a handful of phone calls, everything was quiet as hell. I didn’t even have a long GL to keep me occupied. I slogged through the day with my duplicates and was relieved when we could finally leave. Bleh – still, better than being stressed out. And the commutes up and back weren’t too horrible (though I got behind some annoyingly slow people this morning). And I’m off for the following two days, so that’s nice.
As for beanbags, we didn’t end up playing, as the weatherpeople kept saying that rain was coming in this afternoon. This proved to not happen, but by the time we cottoned on that we’d been bamboozled, it was already too late. *shrug* The end of the week is supposed to be nice, so hopefully we’ll get to do it then!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike again tonight, to start the next Live Oxventure in the line – “Grad Attitude!” This one started with a bunch of jokes about how the Oxventurers file taxes (including Prudence saying she is SCRUPULOUS in filing her expense reports regarding her sacrificial victims to Cthulhu), which neatly led into the start of their adventure – them hanging out in the lake district, with Corazon having waterboarded Dob until he told them the location of the money (and warning him about the eels in the lake). The gang had gotten a decent amount of gold out when they were approached by a fellow in shiny new leather armor with shiny new weapons – Dob managed to stop Corazon immediately shooting him with his hand crossbow as a potential treasure hunter. XD The dude asked Prudence if she was a Great Demon – Prudence wasn’t sure if that was an insult or a compliment, but explained that she was demonic in origin, but not a Great Demon, no. The fellow explained that he’d been looking for one to fight to the death, and she promptly offered to summon one up for him, with Dob saying they’d be happy to help him battle it. Corazon quickly stepped in to ask who this guy was and what his deal was – turned out his name was Jonathan Bennet, who’d recently applied to the prestigious knight school (which was indeed also a night school) in the walled city of Ardent – I can’t remember the other word, but it definitely had “Ardent” in it, so let’s just call it that for now. Anyway, he’d gotten a full ride on the strength of his application, but the school just wanted proof that he’d actually DONE all the things he’d said he’d done. Which was a problem because, well, some CV padding HAD been involved. Dob insisted that the Oxventurers could help him (for free, which Corazon naturally was not particularly keen on – Dob said that they were “investing in people” and his co-treasurer Merilwen could back him up), causing Jonathan to pull out a list of things he’d said, which included such things as “wrestle a lion and win” and “defeat the electric eels in the lake and take their fangs.” Corazon figured, “oh, well, that last one will be easy” –
Cue a panicked Dob explaining “THERE ARE NO EELS IN THE LAKE I JUST SAY THAT TO WARD PEOPLE OFF.” XD He quickly started trying to figure out where to get eels on short notice while the gang decided to focus on the “wrestle a lion” task. Egbert suggested dressing up Bearilwen to look like a lion, but Merilwen said that she could shapeshift into any creature she’s seen, so if someone provided her with a picture of a lion. . .Corazon did so, and it was determined that he thinks lions are two fried eggs stacked on top of each other. XD Merilwen decided to just go for “wildcat but larger,” and she and Jonathan promptly had a proper wrestling brawl, with Jonathan getting a steel chair to the back from Corazon (he has a warehouse nearby) and Egbert tagging in briefly to perform a flying elbow drop on Merilwen (only one point of damage – he’s a VERY good wrestler). Eventually, though, Merilwen let Jonathan pin her, and Dob painted a portrait of the two to commemorate the occasion and provide Jonathan with his needed proof – though a roll of nine meant that he ended up giving the guy Popeye proportions. :p Still, it was an item checked off the list, and the gang moved onto the problem of finding Jonathan some eels to destroy and defang.
Dob was promptly like, “oh, you just need the fangs? I’ve got loads of those – I stick them in my flesh and pretend I got them from eel bites if anyone asks for proof of eels being in the lake.” Johnny let him have this audacious claim, but in the interest of making the guild, you know, DO THINGS, had Jonathan examine the fangs and say they were from GRAPHITE eels, not electric ones – they’re non-conductive. Dob thanked him for the lesson, telling Corazon that this is why he invests in people. :p The decision was made to go to the nearest fish market and just buy a couple of already-dead electric eels (and if they got thrown in the lake so Jonathan could at least pretend to shoot them, then that’s fine). And if they found a crystal quaggoth along the way, so much the better! Yes, apparently Jonathan had put defeating one of THOSE and getting its beautiful and highly valued jeweled eyes on the list – not an easy feat, given they’re monstrously dangerous overmuscled creatures who live in caves. Jonathan defended himself by saying that he hadn’t expected them to ask him to PROVE any of this, and Dob checked his pockets for crystal quaggoth eyes, only to come up short. :p Ah well, seems like they will have to adventure after all!
And so the group proceeded to the outer wall of Ardent, where another wrinkle in their plan was revealed – namely, Jonathan needed a disguise if he was going to go in, because if any of the application committee spotted him, they’d ask him about all that proof he was supposed to have procured six days ago. Merilwen told him “that’s why you don’t leave these things to the last minute,” but he insisted that he hadn't been able to find a lion or a Great Demon. The gang began thinking of ways to disguise him – the classic “spider-tiger” look came up, and then the suggestion was made to turn him into a giant eel, buying up his friends and family to free them (Corazon was like “you don’t need an excuse to buy fish from a fish shop!”). Unfortunately, at some point, Dob’s attempts to figure out what eels look like made him think they had lots of bones –
And cue him summoning the Skeletons of Ethelfrit! XD Who were only too happy to try and turn poor Jonathan into a skeleton at Dob’s suggestion. Fortunately Merilwen and Dob were able to countermand the order – unfortunately, this led to the skeletons passive-aggressively asking Dob why he never writes when he admitted it had been a while since he summoned them and talking about his failed wedding, putting him in a mood and making him useless for the time being. An annoyed Merilwen just walked into the city at this point and followed her nose to the fishmonger’s, who ended up demanding she give him an excuse for buying electric eel. She quickly blamed her wildcat instincts leaving her with a craving for fish –
And then Luke passed Ellen a note indicating she should say “just for the halibut.” Cue a cavalcade of fish puns as Johnny wondered again why they’d ever agreed to DM for this group. XD Merilwen was allowed to buy ONE eel with this excuse, but not the two they needed – Prudence appeared at the door to try and prompt the sale of a second, but the store owner wasn’t budging until SHE had an excuse as well.
Cue Corazon walking in, declaring he was sexually attracted to eels, and rolling a seventeen on the resultant Charisma check. The man led him over to his tanks of eels, where Corazon picked two electric ones and the fishmonger attempted to charge him 600 gold on the basis of “attraction to eels” being a niche market (“no, it’s a fish market,” Ellen said, causing Johnny to facepalm). I left it off with Corazon trying to boot the guy in the groin and make off with the eels, but only rolling a seven – we’ll see how that goes tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “The Joker And The Queen”: Check – when we last left off, the gang was facing “SW3 Containment Procedure Omega” in a random hallway. . .which, in essence, means that Kelman’s locked the doors and is opening up the floor below them to drop them into a big pit. Naturally, no one was keen on this – least of all the universe, who got one side of the opening floor to malfunction and stop, and the other to slow down, buying them a little time to figure out how to get across. Rita didn’t trust her super speed (especially with a slightly-dicky leg at the moment from being tased), Oblivon was reluctant to pocket-dimension them because that’s where Joytide was, Thirteen had no plants she could use, and Smiler couldn’t use forced happiness on a mindless machine. . .but they COULD feel that everything would be all right if they trusted in Air. Air, of course, was a little nervous about the idea of flying them all over the gap, but everyone gave her a ton of encouragement, and with no other options, she was willing to try. . . And let me tell you, her attempt is going to be something spectacular. Namely because, well, the coaster she’s named after isn’t “Air” anymore. . . ;)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – tonight was all about catching up with the GrayStillPlays –
A) “When black holes swallow reality” – Gray plays Tasty Planet Forever, the Black Hole levels! You start as a subatomic black hole eating quarks, progress up the molecular food chain before ending up in a lab on Mars, then continue growing from there to devour everything on the planet, the planet itself, various stars, various nebulae, solar systems, and eventually entire UNIVERSES (with the way they’re pictured bringing the game full circle, as they look just like the quarks). You also get to eat random space manta rays and the Flying Spaghetti Monster himself (if not under that exact name). Gray had an absolute blast nomming down everything in the world (even if he didn’t understand half the things he was looking at in the early stages, as he’s no scientist). It’s a simple concept, but it is oh so satisfying. :p
B) “Everytime I crash chaos happens in GTA 5” – Gray plays another Alex Torture Board in GTA V! And ooh boy, this one was a nasty one – Alex had Gray racing all across the map to reach four specific checkpoints, and every time Gray crashed, a random Chaos Mod effect would take, well, effect. (A crash was here defined as a “classic” crash – Gray had to hit something, though it didn’t matter if it was a rock, a person, or a traffic cone – if he hit it, the Chaos Mod came into play). He provided Gray with a starter car at each stop, and told him that he could do whatever it takes to get across the map and reach the checkpoints – but he ALSO provided Gray with a permanent Chaos Mod effect at each one (starting with a “Five Star Wanted Level” (so all the police wanted him dead), and moving through Traffic Magnet (so all the other cars on the road would try to crash into him), Meteor Shower (self-explanatory), and Drunk (also self-explanatory and meaning Gray could no longer drive in a straight line) – and they all stacked), and increased both the pool of chaotic things that could happen (from 40 to 50 to 60 to 69) and how long they would last (from ten to twenty to thirty to forty seconds) every time Gray crashed. Gray, as you might imagine, wasn’t exactly happy about any of this. XD But he persevered, through teleportations real and fake, turn turtles (which flip the screen upside down) and portrait mode, gravity both low and high, gamespeeds ranging from 0.5 to 0.2, gravity fields smushing him and beyblades spinning him, and even a few genuine game crashes, stealing whatever cars, motorcycles, tanks, and finally planes he could get his hands on to finally work his way around the map and to the win!
. . .where he promptly got sucked into a black hole, because this is Alex we’re talking about here. XD Oh man, the dude really does have a doctorate in torture at this point. . .
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got the remaining three Chill Valicer Save update posts all sorted out before my workout, just like I hoped! Though I did struggle a bit with the wording at times (ended up making some edits after supper to clean up a few paragraphs) – and I ended up changing out one picture in one post entirely after I realized showing Victor eating a BLT was less important than showing Smiler repairing the wind turbines, because with the latter picture I could mention the mysterious-but-welcome jump in the electricity surplus from 3 to 73. But they’re all done now, meaning I should be good to go for Wednesday, yay!
So yeah, very boring workday, but a satisfying afternoon! And now I have two days off, w00! With the parents off on their own adventures! Goals for tomorrow include getting some more tumblr drafting done; playing Sims 4 and sending the Valicer trio to San Sequoia for SimCity Founding; keeping up with the OXBoxRE4 playthrough for a change; and getting some more "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" done. I don't intend to sleep in too late (trying not to wreck my sleep schedule too much midweek), so hopefully this will all be doable. Night all!
