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Yeah, it was another miserable day weather-wise, with on-and-off monsoon-like rains all day -- and another increase in the humidity, which was not fun. >( It's officially fall -- humidity season is supposed to be over already! Grrr... But yeah, very rainy Thursday today...and if you're wondering about the "occasionally angry" part of the title, well, I direct you to the "Work" section of my write-up below:
Work – Today was a mostly-boring Thursday sandwiched between two intensely-annoying bits, I’m sad to say:
A) First, it was miserable out this morning, meaning the traffic was equally bad – ESPECIALLY at the very end of my drive. Like, creeping down the highway and dealing with the puddles was bad enough, but right at the end of my commute there’s a pair of lights where I have to turn left, go down a short stretch of road, then turn left again to get onto the road where I can pull into the parking lot. And those two lights were a NIGHTMARE because, first, there was a ton of cars trying to get through – and second, the lights weren’t very well synced. As in, the first set kept going green while the second set was still red, meaning there was nowhere to go if you were turning that way! I ended up having to go in the second, non-turning lane after the first light and take an alternate route to the parking lot (involving coming at it the opposite way)! And while it wasn’t a HUGE deal in the scheme of things, it was just – such a pain in the ass. *grumbles* I hate RI traffic, I really do...
B) Then, once I got to work, there really wasn’t much for me to do most of the day – after the usual morning reports, and discussing how the “a gift that posts before its deposit date doesn’t show up correctly on the GL” thing works with my boss (which – I’m HOPEFUL he got it, but who knows), I finished the obituaries I was working on yesterday, then spent the rest of the time looking up people on an online obituary site to see if they were in our system and needed to be marked deceased. And also playing “Giant Sudoku” (five Sudoku squares, with one in the middle joined to the four others at the corners) from an old Sunday ProJo puzzle section I filched a little while back. *shrug* Gotta keep busy somehow!
C) Then, at the end of the day, I got an e-mail from a lady I’ve been going back and forth with about some failed payments, confirming that she wanted me to send her a pledge billing and return envelope like I’d offered the other day. So I let her know I’d get that in the mail, made up and printed the pledge billing, found a return envelope to include with it, then went to print up the envelope to mail everything to her –
Aaaand the damn printer just would NOT fucking print the envelope. Every time I tried, it insisted that I had to put a different kind of paper in a different tray. I fiddled with every setting I could think of, and it just WOULD NOT WORK. And as it was the end of the day, I really did not want to turn the other printer that does envelopes on. So I just set it aside until tomorrow morning. Wouldn’t have gone out this afternoon anyway! *sigh* I hate printers too.
And that, along with a still-busy-but-less-irritating commute home, was my day. You can see why I was a bit grumpy when I came home. *sigh* Hopefully tomorrow is better...I mean, it’ll be Friday, so that’s at least one point in its favor already...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – penultimate night on the bike, but last night with Ghostbusters: Answer The Call! Mostly because I’ve watched everything worth watching on the DVD. XD Tonight’s pedal session included –
A) Me finishing off the remaining non-commentary, non-photo-gallery, non-previews special features (I mean, I TRIED looking at the previews, only to release they were previews for OTHER FILMS – the same ones I had to skip through to get to the main menu, no less), which involved:
I. Watching the end of the “visual effects” feature, showcasing stuff like how they did Holtz, Abby, and Patty getting flattened under the Stay-Puft balloon (basically the girls smashing themselves against plexiglass with an actual balloon atop them while the director watched and laughed :P) and what some of the more dramatic visual effects shots looked before the effects were added (lot of people flying around attached to cranes – and a guy in a Slimer suit XD) – fun stuff! It’s interesting to see a shot come together!
II. Watching the collection of alternate jokes they tried for certain scenes and jokes/scenes they straight-up cut from the movie – which were amusing, but you could definitely see why they were cut. For example, Erin and Abby talking about how they were bullied as kids originally went on for MUCH longer, with Erin coolly relating how they were tormented while Abby put a toxic positive spin on all of it – some funny bits, but it would have really screwed up the pacing, and honestly felt like a bit much. I was surprised to see that they ended up cutting an entire minor subplot in the process of trimming these jokes, though – apparently Benny, the Chinese Food deliverer who never gives Abby wontons in her soup, was supposed to have a crush on Erin! Would have been an interesting contrast to her ogling Kevin as the eye candy, that’s for sure...but then again, it probably would have taken away from Benny and Abby’s mini-feud, so – again, fine with it being cut!
III. And watching the “Meet The Team” feature, which went into the specifics of what each main character brings to the team (like how Abby is the leader and the heart, the one whose beliefs were never shaken, while Erin knows the science and loves the paranormal, but also desperately craves legitimacy after not being believed for so long), and why Paul Feig cast the women he did (basically, it boiled down to “I know lots of funny women, why not cast the funniest ones I know” XD More specifically, he knew Kate McKinnon would be perfect for Holtzmann as she too is nice but very weird, while Leslie Jones worked as Patty because her loud comedy persona perfectly fits the character). Good stuff! I really wish people had given these ladies more of a chance – they ARE funny.
B) And me, with a few minutes left to spare, rewatching a few bits from the climax of the movie – specifically the attack of the old creepy Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons, and Holtz, Abby, and Patty getting saved by Erin; and the fight against the ghosts in Times Square, with everyone getting their big moment to destroy some monsters. And Holtz putting her Proton Pistols to VERY good use. :D Still a favorite scene!
So yeah, that all worked out nicely! Now I just have to figure out what I’m watching tomorrow...must be something I can put on for a half-hour or so...
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – got a good chunk done in the “Victor gives Alice and Smiler their presents” scene tonight, I’m happy to say! Victor has given Alice the real-life version of her Vorpal Blade he had commissioned (from The Reforged, a weapons-making shop I named after the “Man-At-Arms Reforged” series, which had an episode on making Alice’s famous knife), rendering her speechless for a bit (though she did eventually manage to thank him, and assure him that she was very happy with her present – and quite intrigued by the men over at The Reforged being interested in maybe helping make some of her OTHER weapons…), and I left off with Victor having just handed over a “Rowland & Payne” traveling alchemy kit (named after Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne from Dead Boys Detective Agency, since the kit is inspired by one I saw Edwin use in a gif set my friend Newt reblogged) to Smiler, along with a couple of bandoleers so they can transport their concoctions more easily. He’s a little worried if they’ll like it or not, since it might not be quite as good as the Fox-Lloyd bench Smiler has got upstairs...tomorrow, Smiler puts his fears to rest with the biggest hug. :) Almost done with this one, folks!
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Substitution check – there were no updates that I could see on the GitHub thread about that [BAD_HTTP_STATUS: 403] bug, and I was pretty busy with my writing tonight anyway. I spent the extra time instead writing a review for the first chapter of Ace’s new fic, the Good Omens/Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill crossover “A Familiar’s Private Chef!” Featuring Crowley getting yanked into another world by accident; realizing that the king who summoned them there is full of shit when he says that the kingdom is being attacked by demons (unlike the three teenage heroes he was summoned with) and managing to avoid being roped into hero duty himself by exploiting the fact his unique skill, “Online Retailer,” doesn’t sound like much; getting settled into the new world, figuring out his skills (appraising things to learn their stats, having an infinite item box, and having access to a huge online store with instant delivery – aka, some VERY useful skills indeed), and trying to come up with a plan to get out of the kingdom before anyone starts asking awkward questions or sees he’s special; discovering after taking a carriage to one of the border towns that all public transport is being suspended, and the borders are soon to close, and hiring an adventuring party to get them to the nearby kingdom of Veenen; discovering that cooking with the ingredients they get through their Faux Amazon actually gives their adventuring escorts MAJOR buffs and quickly working to tone it down before anyone realizes; and dealing with a fenrir (big wolf creature) approaching the party one night and demanding that he give him multiple plates of red boar meat...only for the fenrir to prove to be a bit of a softy once he’s fed, explaining that he was just grumpy due to be hungry and REALLY wanted to try the food Crowley’s been whipping up. Cue Crowley and fenrir binding themselves in a familiar contract (Crowley to get the fenrir’s protection, the fenrir to get more of Crowley’s cooking), and Crowley naming the fenrir – what else – Aziraphale. :) It looks like an interesting story already, and I said as much in my comment. :) I hope Ace has a lot of fun writing it!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – didn’t have anything to do over on Victor Luvs Alice, but I did have an anon ask waiting for me on Valice Multiverse that I tossed in the queue – with the anon going on about how walkable cities are a bad idea actually, because so many more steps equals so many more cracks equals so many more mothers’ backs being broken...before ending on “if you wanted your mom’s back blown out so bad you could’ve just called me.” XD My reply consisted of the Cuddlepile!Valicer trio each reacting in their own ways – Victor facepalmed, Alice gave the anon a slow clap, and Smiler snorted and gave them a thumbs up. XD I mean, how else should one respond to that? XD
So yeah -- some very irritating moments today, though happily the afternoon/evening hasn't been all that bad. Except for the humidity. *whines* I've got my fan in my window since we're not due any more rain, but while it's helping, it can only do so much against the sticky. Bleh. I'm really hoping it dries out properly tomorrow. In the meantime, I should probably hit the sack and see if I can actually get a halfway-decent amount of sleep tonight -- night all!
Work – Today was a mostly-boring Thursday sandwiched between two intensely-annoying bits, I’m sad to say:
A) First, it was miserable out this morning, meaning the traffic was equally bad – ESPECIALLY at the very end of my drive. Like, creeping down the highway and dealing with the puddles was bad enough, but right at the end of my commute there’s a pair of lights where I have to turn left, go down a short stretch of road, then turn left again to get onto the road where I can pull into the parking lot. And those two lights were a NIGHTMARE because, first, there was a ton of cars trying to get through – and second, the lights weren’t very well synced. As in, the first set kept going green while the second set was still red, meaning there was nowhere to go if you were turning that way! I ended up having to go in the second, non-turning lane after the first light and take an alternate route to the parking lot (involving coming at it the opposite way)! And while it wasn’t a HUGE deal in the scheme of things, it was just – such a pain in the ass. *grumbles* I hate RI traffic, I really do...
B) Then, once I got to work, there really wasn’t much for me to do most of the day – after the usual morning reports, and discussing how the “a gift that posts before its deposit date doesn’t show up correctly on the GL” thing works with my boss (which – I’m HOPEFUL he got it, but who knows), I finished the obituaries I was working on yesterday, then spent the rest of the time looking up people on an online obituary site to see if they were in our system and needed to be marked deceased. And also playing “Giant Sudoku” (five Sudoku squares, with one in the middle joined to the four others at the corners) from an old Sunday ProJo puzzle section I filched a little while back. *shrug* Gotta keep busy somehow!
C) Then, at the end of the day, I got an e-mail from a lady I’ve been going back and forth with about some failed payments, confirming that she wanted me to send her a pledge billing and return envelope like I’d offered the other day. So I let her know I’d get that in the mail, made up and printed the pledge billing, found a return envelope to include with it, then went to print up the envelope to mail everything to her –
Aaaand the damn printer just would NOT fucking print the envelope. Every time I tried, it insisted that I had to put a different kind of paper in a different tray. I fiddled with every setting I could think of, and it just WOULD NOT WORK. And as it was the end of the day, I really did not want to turn the other printer that does envelopes on. So I just set it aside until tomorrow morning. Wouldn’t have gone out this afternoon anyway! *sigh* I hate printers too.
And that, along with a still-busy-but-less-irritating commute home, was my day. You can see why I was a bit grumpy when I came home. *sigh* Hopefully tomorrow is better...I mean, it’ll be Friday, so that’s at least one point in its favor already...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – penultimate night on the bike, but last night with Ghostbusters: Answer The Call! Mostly because I’ve watched everything worth watching on the DVD. XD Tonight’s pedal session included –
A) Me finishing off the remaining non-commentary, non-photo-gallery, non-previews special features (I mean, I TRIED looking at the previews, only to release they were previews for OTHER FILMS – the same ones I had to skip through to get to the main menu, no less), which involved:
I. Watching the end of the “visual effects” feature, showcasing stuff like how they did Holtz, Abby, and Patty getting flattened under the Stay-Puft balloon (basically the girls smashing themselves against plexiglass with an actual balloon atop them while the director watched and laughed :P) and what some of the more dramatic visual effects shots looked before the effects were added (lot of people flying around attached to cranes – and a guy in a Slimer suit XD) – fun stuff! It’s interesting to see a shot come together!
II. Watching the collection of alternate jokes they tried for certain scenes and jokes/scenes they straight-up cut from the movie – which were amusing, but you could definitely see why they were cut. For example, Erin and Abby talking about how they were bullied as kids originally went on for MUCH longer, with Erin coolly relating how they were tormented while Abby put a toxic positive spin on all of it – some funny bits, but it would have really screwed up the pacing, and honestly felt like a bit much. I was surprised to see that they ended up cutting an entire minor subplot in the process of trimming these jokes, though – apparently Benny, the Chinese Food deliverer who never gives Abby wontons in her soup, was supposed to have a crush on Erin! Would have been an interesting contrast to her ogling Kevin as the eye candy, that’s for sure...but then again, it probably would have taken away from Benny and Abby’s mini-feud, so – again, fine with it being cut!
III. And watching the “Meet The Team” feature, which went into the specifics of what each main character brings to the team (like how Abby is the leader and the heart, the one whose beliefs were never shaken, while Erin knows the science and loves the paranormal, but also desperately craves legitimacy after not being believed for so long), and why Paul Feig cast the women he did (basically, it boiled down to “I know lots of funny women, why not cast the funniest ones I know” XD More specifically, he knew Kate McKinnon would be perfect for Holtzmann as she too is nice but very weird, while Leslie Jones worked as Patty because her loud comedy persona perfectly fits the character). Good stuff! I really wish people had given these ladies more of a chance – they ARE funny.
B) And me, with a few minutes left to spare, rewatching a few bits from the climax of the movie – specifically the attack of the old creepy Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons, and Holtz, Abby, and Patty getting saved by Erin; and the fight against the ghosts in Times Square, with everyone getting their big moment to destroy some monsters. And Holtz putting her Proton Pistols to VERY good use. :D Still a favorite scene!
So yeah, that all worked out nicely! Now I just have to figure out what I’m watching tomorrow...must be something I can put on for a half-hour or so...
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – got a good chunk done in the “Victor gives Alice and Smiler their presents” scene tonight, I’m happy to say! Victor has given Alice the real-life version of her Vorpal Blade he had commissioned (from The Reforged, a weapons-making shop I named after the “Man-At-Arms Reforged” series, which had an episode on making Alice’s famous knife), rendering her speechless for a bit (though she did eventually manage to thank him, and assure him that she was very happy with her present – and quite intrigued by the men over at The Reforged being interested in maybe helping make some of her OTHER weapons…), and I left off with Victor having just handed over a “Rowland & Payne” traveling alchemy kit (named after Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne from Dead Boys Detective Agency, since the kit is inspired by one I saw Edwin use in a gif set my friend Newt reblogged) to Smiler, along with a couple of bandoleers so they can transport their concoctions more easily. He’s a little worried if they’ll like it or not, since it might not be quite as good as the Fox-Lloyd bench Smiler has got upstairs...tomorrow, Smiler puts his fears to rest with the biggest hug. :) Almost done with this one, folks!
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Substitution check – there were no updates that I could see on the GitHub thread about that [BAD_HTTP_STATUS: 403] bug, and I was pretty busy with my writing tonight anyway. I spent the extra time instead writing a review for the first chapter of Ace’s new fic, the Good Omens/Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill crossover “A Familiar’s Private Chef!” Featuring Crowley getting yanked into another world by accident; realizing that the king who summoned them there is full of shit when he says that the kingdom is being attacked by demons (unlike the three teenage heroes he was summoned with) and managing to avoid being roped into hero duty himself by exploiting the fact his unique skill, “Online Retailer,” doesn’t sound like much; getting settled into the new world, figuring out his skills (appraising things to learn their stats, having an infinite item box, and having access to a huge online store with instant delivery – aka, some VERY useful skills indeed), and trying to come up with a plan to get out of the kingdom before anyone starts asking awkward questions or sees he’s special; discovering after taking a carriage to one of the border towns that all public transport is being suspended, and the borders are soon to close, and hiring an adventuring party to get them to the nearby kingdom of Veenen; discovering that cooking with the ingredients they get through their Faux Amazon actually gives their adventuring escorts MAJOR buffs and quickly working to tone it down before anyone realizes; and dealing with a fenrir (big wolf creature) approaching the party one night and demanding that he give him multiple plates of red boar meat...only for the fenrir to prove to be a bit of a softy once he’s fed, explaining that he was just grumpy due to be hungry and REALLY wanted to try the food Crowley’s been whipping up. Cue Crowley and fenrir binding themselves in a familiar contract (Crowley to get the fenrir’s protection, the fenrir to get more of Crowley’s cooking), and Crowley naming the fenrir – what else – Aziraphale. :) It looks like an interesting story already, and I said as much in my comment. :) I hope Ace has a lot of fun writing it!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – didn’t have anything to do over on Victor Luvs Alice, but I did have an anon ask waiting for me on Valice Multiverse that I tossed in the queue – with the anon going on about how walkable cities are a bad idea actually, because so many more steps equals so many more cracks equals so many more mothers’ backs being broken...before ending on “if you wanted your mom’s back blown out so bad you could’ve just called me.” XD My reply consisted of the Cuddlepile!Valicer trio each reacting in their own ways – Victor facepalmed, Alice gave the anon a slow clap, and Smiler snorted and gave them a thumbs up. XD I mean, how else should one respond to that? XD
So yeah -- some very irritating moments today, though happily the afternoon/evening hasn't been all that bad. Except for the humidity. *whines* I've got my fan in my window since we're not due any more rain, but while it's helping, it can only do so much against the sticky. Bleh. I'm really hoping it dries out properly tomorrow. In the meantime, I should probably hit the sack and see if I can actually get a halfway-decent amount of sleep tonight -- night all!
