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Very Average Thursday
Nov. 13th, 2025 11:53 pmNot horrible, not great -- you know how it is. *shrug* Let's get straight to the write-up:
Work – It was a pretty boring day at the office today, all told – I spent most of my time working through the obituaries from the paper, with just a few little interruptions here and there:
A) I grabbed a returned pledge billing to check the donor’s account and see if the address needed to be updated – turned out we already had a new address on file for the guy, so I printed out some labels, updated the billing, and sent it back out in the mail bucket
B) I looked up a gift online for my supervisor, who got an e-mail from someone who’d made a gift on the behalf of his Knights of Columbus council, wanting to make sure the gift had been received – I found it on the online system, but confirmed it hadn’t been uploaded to our main database system yet (which was a good thing, because it allowed me to link the council’s ID number to the gift and make sure the group as a whole would be credited)
C) I helped out the Fiscal department when they called a few times, including telling them when I’d learned that a certain donor’s account had been hacked (because one of their payments had gotten rejected but apparently wasn’t showing up correctly on the bank statement), and explaining why one credit card deposit wasn’t showing up right (some fees that were charged in error had to be refunded, and apparently THAT wasn’t showing up right either *rolls eyes* Fucking hell, I hate credit card stuff...)
D) And I got some replies back from the people I’d contacted about their overpayments, all of whom said “keep the money and put it toward next year,” and a message from our processors about someone reducing their pledge (as it had been put on wrong when first processed), so I did a batch of reversals to update all of those items accordingly
*shrug* Nothing particularly special! Most exciting thing was me somehow getting pizza on my pants during lunch. >.< We’ll see if Friday is a decent end to the week or not!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with Back To The Future Part III with the June 2002 commentary by Bob Gale and Neil Canton! I pedaled my way through Doc derisively dismissing the idea of love at first sight (especially for him) to Doc getting slapped when he tried to tell Clara the truth about going back to the future (because she thought he was lying, understandably), listening to Bob and Neil talk about the following:
A) The reasons why, when presented with the DeLorean being out of gas, Doc didn’t go and get the gas out of the version of the DeLorean buried in Delgado Mine – first, Doc would have already drained (and, presumably disposed of/used) the gas out of the car before storing it, and second, he wouldn’t have dared tamper with the car for fear of breaking something and causing a paradox. They also mentioned that Doc would have already known that pulling the DeLorean with horses wouldn’t have worked, but they absolutely had to do the shot because it was like the essence of Part III. XD It is an iconic shot! (And to be fair, they had to get the DeLorean back to the blacksmith shop SOMEHOW – Marty probably insisted on checking the speedometer, and Doc let him so he could see it wouldn’t work.)
B) The fact that the entire town was constructed so Bob Zemeckis could do all sorts of cool long shots (like zooming in on Doc standing in front of the window looking out at the train tracks in the distance) without having to worry about the sun or anything like that – he apparently got a little TOO used to that and in a future movie had poor production designer Rick Carter go out with a GPS to figure out where the sun would be so it wouldn’t ruin his shots. XD (Also, that shot of Doc realizing the train was their answer took QUITE a while to film, as they had to get the timing JUST right)
C) The fact that you can see both Clara and the clock for the clock tower behind Doc and Marty on the train platform, which is just neat
D) The different timelines in play during Doc’s dramatic rescue of Clara – specifically, that she died by falling into the ravine in the original timeline, before Doc or Marty came back to 1885; that she survived in the timeline where it was just Doc in 1885 because he did pick her up from the station, and they felt that instant zing there; and that the ending timeline we see in the movie with Doc and Marty is a bit of an amalgamation of the first two, because Doc never picks her up, but he IS there to save her from falling into the ravine! Just trying to keep the order of temporal events straight for everyone!
E) The fact that they never considered anyone but Mary Steenburgen for the role of Clara, and were absolutely terrified that she’d say no because they had NO back-up plan; fortunately for everyone, her kids were fans of the movies and were so excited over her being offered a part, she said there was no way she could have turned them down (Bob was like “we are indebted to you, Mary Steenburgen’s children!” XD)
F) The reveal that they’d actually had a big party right before filming where everyone got to ride the big steam train that the rail company was lending them and have a nice barbecue; Bob and Neil recalled it being a blast
G) Similarly, the reveal Bob’s favorite bit of shooting was doing the Hill Valley Festival scene, as the weather was perfect and ZZ Top would jam with the local musicians between takes! :) (It probably wasn’t Mary Steenburgen’s favorite bit of shooting, admittedly, because she managed to sprain her ankle practicing her dance moves, but the show had to go on!)
H) The fact that Doc and Clara’s kiss was Christopher Lloyd’s first ever onscreen kiss...which transitioned into a funny story about them trying to get some sort of big press piece down to hype up the release of Part III, and their publicist managing to get a New York Times reporter to do the first-ever interview of Chris Lloyd. Unfortunately, Chris is very shy in real life, and the reporter called Bob afterward saying that he’d said basically nothing in the actual interview. So she ended up interviewing everyone ELSE involved with the movie to get an idea of who the hell Chris was instead. XD Still got their hype piece, though!
I) And the fact that Bob read a lot of period works, plus the Bible, to make sure how the people in 1885, particularly the educated Clara, talked was accurate – that’s why Clara uses both the word “mendacities” and the word “whopper” in her furious speech to Doc when she thinks he’s lying to her.
Interesting stuff, as always – and I like Bob taking the time to answer some questions that he KNEW the audience would have, probably because he’d already been asked them a bunch of times and seen them online and such. XD Tomorrow we’ll pick up with Doc stumbling into the saloon, and see if I can finish this sucker off!
2. Work on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – edited a little over a page of hospital horrors today, with Alice:
A) Being startled off the two “balance beams” she was using to get down into the hospital basement by some sudden screams of terror, landing hard on a broken cabinet (ow)
B) Yelling back to the screamer that she was there to help them and getting directed to the lowest level of the basement – cue her following the cries into a hallway full of rusty gurneys, around into an autopsy room with a hole in the floor and a disturbingly-fresh bloodstain on the drainage table, under the floor into ANOTHER autopsy room with ANOTHER bloodstained drainage table, through a door into a U-shaped room, and finally to the door the guy was pounding on…
C) Arriving just in time to see the guy’s head go CRUNCH and the window get covered in blood. D: The Queen of Hearts promptly complained about Alice being on the wrong side of the door, and Alice yelled at her to “shut up, you heartless bitch”
D) Following Caterpillar over to where she needed to go to finally find the creature murdering everyone (complaining about the hospital being worse than the Fortress of Doors as she did), and finding a hole in the wall overlooking the morgue, and someone walking around inside it; cue her pulling her knife and preparing to go invisible –
Only for Cheshire to counsel that she save her blood, as her presence has been noted, and the “mantis” within wants to chat instead of fight. Alice thus stayed visible, but kept her knife in hand, just in case. *nods* I left off with her creeping through the hole into Pisha’s lair – tomorrow, she meets the woman herself, and has a very interesting chat with a very curious vampire...
3. Watch something on FreeTube/Invidious: Check – had just enough time this evening to watch the OXtra list video of the week – “7 NPCs With Unexpectedly Tragic Backstories!” Ellen and Jane talking about those NPCs that you wouldn’t expect to have tragedy and sorrow lurking in their pasts, only for their games to whip the rug out from under you! Think Sable Able of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is just a reticent seamstress hedgehog, happy to let her little sister Mabel chat with the customers in their clothing shop? WRONG – she’s actually the oldest of three, and had to step up and take care of her two little sisters after their parents died! One of whom, Label, ran off to become a famous designer and was estranged from her for a while! And she works super hard day and night to make sure they always have enough money so Label can follow her dream! Think GLaDOS of Portal fame is nothing more than an evil snarky supercomputer? WRONG – she’s actually what remains of Caroline, Cave Johnson’s personal assistant! Who he demanded be shoved into a computer in his place if he died before his brain could be uploaded! Think Goro Majima from the Yakuza series is just goofy comic relief designed to torment (and occasionally help) protagonist Kiryu? WRONG – he’s actually someone who lost his oath brother (and his left eye) thanks to being set up to fail an assassination; was put into a secret prison and tortured for who knows how long; and after being released, fell in love with a kind woman, only to realize his yakuza lifestyle would put her at risk and step out of her life in favor of her other suitor. Basically, you can never truly tell when if an NPC is in possession of a terrible, heartwrenching backstory!
...well, unless you’re playing a Hideo Kojima game. Because in that case they all do. Seriously, guys, why was Laughing Octopus from Metal Gear Solid 4 on this list, NOBODY doubted for a SECOND she had problems...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitution check and proper check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Still didn’t have anything to do queue-wise over here, so instead I just straight-up reblogged something again – this time, a poll from polyshipweek! Letting everyone know that Polyship Week 2025 was one week away (starting on the 19th), and asking how everyone was feeling. Potential responses ranged from “totally ready to share my stuff!” to “wait it's NEXT WEEK ALREADY???” to “fuck it we'll do it live.” XD I picked “totally ready to share my stuff!” and happily bragged in the tags about how all my stories are written and half are in my tumblr drafts, but at the time of this writing the option actually winning the poll is “wait it's NEXT WEEK ALREADY???” XD I mean, I must confess, I know the feel – hence why I planned so far ahead for this one!
Valice Multiverse – Over here, meanwhile, I had two anon asks to drop into my queue for tomorrow:
A) That damn “anon discusses the weaknesses of American democracy with the founding fathers, while George Washington eats fruit snacks and points out that they were trying to put government into the hands of the people and Thomas Jefferson reads a yaoi novel and wonders where he can purchase a twink” ask that’s been giving me trouble for the past five days – I FINALLY came up with an answer to it tonight, with Londerland!Bloodlines Alice noting that Jefferson asking where he can purchase a twink highlights some issues with the founding fathers themselves, explaining why their system might not work as well as intended, before admitting she wishes the American people would do as George Washington says they should and remove the corrupt assholes in power. ...and then wondering where the hell the founding fathers came from. XD (I threw a panicking Doc, having noticed the time circuits in the train read 1776, into the tags to explain THAT mystery! Along with an apology for my reply taking so long.)
B) And a new ask that just showed up tonight, simply reading “A bee girl would probably say ‘in my bumble opinion’” – I had Inevitable High School!Smiler agree, saying they wouldn’t be able to resist the pun if they were a bee person! Not in the least because very little rhymes with “humble.” XD Hooray for the nice easy ones!
*nods* Yeah -- nothing particularly exciting, nothing particularly horrible. Though it WAS nice to get that damn ask out of Valice Multiverse's inbox. *nods* And now I should really head off to bed -- night all!
Work – It was a pretty boring day at the office today, all told – I spent most of my time working through the obituaries from the paper, with just a few little interruptions here and there:
A) I grabbed a returned pledge billing to check the donor’s account and see if the address needed to be updated – turned out we already had a new address on file for the guy, so I printed out some labels, updated the billing, and sent it back out in the mail bucket
B) I looked up a gift online for my supervisor, who got an e-mail from someone who’d made a gift on the behalf of his Knights of Columbus council, wanting to make sure the gift had been received – I found it on the online system, but confirmed it hadn’t been uploaded to our main database system yet (which was a good thing, because it allowed me to link the council’s ID number to the gift and make sure the group as a whole would be credited)
C) I helped out the Fiscal department when they called a few times, including telling them when I’d learned that a certain donor’s account had been hacked (because one of their payments had gotten rejected but apparently wasn’t showing up correctly on the bank statement), and explaining why one credit card deposit wasn’t showing up right (some fees that were charged in error had to be refunded, and apparently THAT wasn’t showing up right either *rolls eyes* Fucking hell, I hate credit card stuff...)
D) And I got some replies back from the people I’d contacted about their overpayments, all of whom said “keep the money and put it toward next year,” and a message from our processors about someone reducing their pledge (as it had been put on wrong when first processed), so I did a batch of reversals to update all of those items accordingly
*shrug* Nothing particularly special! Most exciting thing was me somehow getting pizza on my pants during lunch. >.< We’ll see if Friday is a decent end to the week or not!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with Back To The Future Part III with the June 2002 commentary by Bob Gale and Neil Canton! I pedaled my way through Doc derisively dismissing the idea of love at first sight (especially for him) to Doc getting slapped when he tried to tell Clara the truth about going back to the future (because she thought he was lying, understandably), listening to Bob and Neil talk about the following:
A) The reasons why, when presented with the DeLorean being out of gas, Doc didn’t go and get the gas out of the version of the DeLorean buried in Delgado Mine – first, Doc would have already drained (and, presumably disposed of/used) the gas out of the car before storing it, and second, he wouldn’t have dared tamper with the car for fear of breaking something and causing a paradox. They also mentioned that Doc would have already known that pulling the DeLorean with horses wouldn’t have worked, but they absolutely had to do the shot because it was like the essence of Part III. XD It is an iconic shot! (And to be fair, they had to get the DeLorean back to the blacksmith shop SOMEHOW – Marty probably insisted on checking the speedometer, and Doc let him so he could see it wouldn’t work.)
B) The fact that the entire town was constructed so Bob Zemeckis could do all sorts of cool long shots (like zooming in on Doc standing in front of the window looking out at the train tracks in the distance) without having to worry about the sun or anything like that – he apparently got a little TOO used to that and in a future movie had poor production designer Rick Carter go out with a GPS to figure out where the sun would be so it wouldn’t ruin his shots. XD (Also, that shot of Doc realizing the train was their answer took QUITE a while to film, as they had to get the timing JUST right)
C) The fact that you can see both Clara and the clock for the clock tower behind Doc and Marty on the train platform, which is just neat
D) The different timelines in play during Doc’s dramatic rescue of Clara – specifically, that she died by falling into the ravine in the original timeline, before Doc or Marty came back to 1885; that she survived in the timeline where it was just Doc in 1885 because he did pick her up from the station, and they felt that instant zing there; and that the ending timeline we see in the movie with Doc and Marty is a bit of an amalgamation of the first two, because Doc never picks her up, but he IS there to save her from falling into the ravine! Just trying to keep the order of temporal events straight for everyone!
E) The fact that they never considered anyone but Mary Steenburgen for the role of Clara, and were absolutely terrified that she’d say no because they had NO back-up plan; fortunately for everyone, her kids were fans of the movies and were so excited over her being offered a part, she said there was no way she could have turned them down (Bob was like “we are indebted to you, Mary Steenburgen’s children!” XD)
F) The reveal that they’d actually had a big party right before filming where everyone got to ride the big steam train that the rail company was lending them and have a nice barbecue; Bob and Neil recalled it being a blast
G) Similarly, the reveal Bob’s favorite bit of shooting was doing the Hill Valley Festival scene, as the weather was perfect and ZZ Top would jam with the local musicians between takes! :) (It probably wasn’t Mary Steenburgen’s favorite bit of shooting, admittedly, because she managed to sprain her ankle practicing her dance moves, but the show had to go on!)
H) The fact that Doc and Clara’s kiss was Christopher Lloyd’s first ever onscreen kiss...which transitioned into a funny story about them trying to get some sort of big press piece down to hype up the release of Part III, and their publicist managing to get a New York Times reporter to do the first-ever interview of Chris Lloyd. Unfortunately, Chris is very shy in real life, and the reporter called Bob afterward saying that he’d said basically nothing in the actual interview. So she ended up interviewing everyone ELSE involved with the movie to get an idea of who the hell Chris was instead. XD Still got their hype piece, though!
I) And the fact that Bob read a lot of period works, plus the Bible, to make sure how the people in 1885, particularly the educated Clara, talked was accurate – that’s why Clara uses both the word “mendacities” and the word “whopper” in her furious speech to Doc when she thinks he’s lying to her.
Interesting stuff, as always – and I like Bob taking the time to answer some questions that he KNEW the audience would have, probably because he’d already been asked them a bunch of times and seen them online and such. XD Tomorrow we’ll pick up with Doc stumbling into the saloon, and see if I can finish this sucker off!
2. Work on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – edited a little over a page of hospital horrors today, with Alice:
A) Being startled off the two “balance beams” she was using to get down into the hospital basement by some sudden screams of terror, landing hard on a broken cabinet (ow)
B) Yelling back to the screamer that she was there to help them and getting directed to the lowest level of the basement – cue her following the cries into a hallway full of rusty gurneys, around into an autopsy room with a hole in the floor and a disturbingly-fresh bloodstain on the drainage table, under the floor into ANOTHER autopsy room with ANOTHER bloodstained drainage table, through a door into a U-shaped room, and finally to the door the guy was pounding on…
C) Arriving just in time to see the guy’s head go CRUNCH and the window get covered in blood. D: The Queen of Hearts promptly complained about Alice being on the wrong side of the door, and Alice yelled at her to “shut up, you heartless bitch”
D) Following Caterpillar over to where she needed to go to finally find the creature murdering everyone (complaining about the hospital being worse than the Fortress of Doors as she did), and finding a hole in the wall overlooking the morgue, and someone walking around inside it; cue her pulling her knife and preparing to go invisible –
Only for Cheshire to counsel that she save her blood, as her presence has been noted, and the “mantis” within wants to chat instead of fight. Alice thus stayed visible, but kept her knife in hand, just in case. *nods* I left off with her creeping through the hole into Pisha’s lair – tomorrow, she meets the woman herself, and has a very interesting chat with a very curious vampire...
3. Watch something on FreeTube/Invidious: Check – had just enough time this evening to watch the OXtra list video of the week – “7 NPCs With Unexpectedly Tragic Backstories!” Ellen and Jane talking about those NPCs that you wouldn’t expect to have tragedy and sorrow lurking in their pasts, only for their games to whip the rug out from under you! Think Sable Able of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is just a reticent seamstress hedgehog, happy to let her little sister Mabel chat with the customers in their clothing shop? WRONG – she’s actually the oldest of three, and had to step up and take care of her two little sisters after their parents died! One of whom, Label, ran off to become a famous designer and was estranged from her for a while! And she works super hard day and night to make sure they always have enough money so Label can follow her dream! Think GLaDOS of Portal fame is nothing more than an evil snarky supercomputer? WRONG – she’s actually what remains of Caroline, Cave Johnson’s personal assistant! Who he demanded be shoved into a computer in his place if he died before his brain could be uploaded! Think Goro Majima from the Yakuza series is just goofy comic relief designed to torment (and occasionally help) protagonist Kiryu? WRONG – he’s actually someone who lost his oath brother (and his left eye) thanks to being set up to fail an assassination; was put into a secret prison and tortured for who knows how long; and after being released, fell in love with a kind woman, only to realize his yakuza lifestyle would put her at risk and step out of her life in favor of her other suitor. Basically, you can never truly tell when if an NPC is in possession of a terrible, heartwrenching backstory!
...well, unless you’re playing a Hideo Kojima game. Because in that case they all do. Seriously, guys, why was Laughing Octopus from Metal Gear Solid 4 on this list, NOBODY doubted for a SECOND she had problems...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitution check and proper check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Still didn’t have anything to do queue-wise over here, so instead I just straight-up reblogged something again – this time, a poll from polyshipweek! Letting everyone know that Polyship Week 2025 was one week away (starting on the 19th), and asking how everyone was feeling. Potential responses ranged from “totally ready to share my stuff!” to “wait it's NEXT WEEK ALREADY???” to “fuck it we'll do it live.” XD I picked “totally ready to share my stuff!” and happily bragged in the tags about how all my stories are written and half are in my tumblr drafts, but at the time of this writing the option actually winning the poll is “wait it's NEXT WEEK ALREADY???” XD I mean, I must confess, I know the feel – hence why I planned so far ahead for this one!
Valice Multiverse – Over here, meanwhile, I had two anon asks to drop into my queue for tomorrow:
A) That damn “anon discusses the weaknesses of American democracy with the founding fathers, while George Washington eats fruit snacks and points out that they were trying to put government into the hands of the people and Thomas Jefferson reads a yaoi novel and wonders where he can purchase a twink” ask that’s been giving me trouble for the past five days – I FINALLY came up with an answer to it tonight, with Londerland!Bloodlines Alice noting that Jefferson asking where he can purchase a twink highlights some issues with the founding fathers themselves, explaining why their system might not work as well as intended, before admitting she wishes the American people would do as George Washington says they should and remove the corrupt assholes in power. ...and then wondering where the hell the founding fathers came from. XD (I threw a panicking Doc, having noticed the time circuits in the train read 1776, into the tags to explain THAT mystery! Along with an apology for my reply taking so long.)
B) And a new ask that just showed up tonight, simply reading “A bee girl would probably say ‘in my bumble opinion’” – I had Inevitable High School!Smiler agree, saying they wouldn’t be able to resist the pun if they were a bee person! Not in the least because very little rhymes with “humble.” XD Hooray for the nice easy ones!
*nods* Yeah -- nothing particularly exciting, nothing particularly horrible. Though it WAS nice to get that damn ask out of Valice Multiverse's inbox. *nods* And now I should really head off to bed -- night all!
