Tiring Friday

As my write-up will show very effectively, I feel:

Work – I am sorry to report that it turned to be a very busy and rather rough Friday at work:

A) I discovered that, while the credit card people DID put up all the missing 2026 payments that I told them about (and seemed to put up all the missing 2025 payments this afternoon), there were still a bunch missing that I could see from pledges put on a little later in the month – I will have to go through all those and figure out what’s missing

B) I was continually interrupted in this task by various phone calls (which only seemed to happen whenever my coworker got up from her desk and thus wasn’t available to take them) – a mix of credit card calls and more general maintenance stuff

C) One of the parish priests showed up shortly after lunch and dropped off some gifts (which he wasn’t supposed to do, they’re supposed to be mailed to our PO Box) – and of course, they were mostly cash gifts from his parishioners, along with a few credit card gifts (which we aren’t allowed to process – we can only take card numbers over the phone, nothing written down). The credit card stuff got sent off to our processors (who CAN process that sort of thing), and my coworker and I counted up the cash and got it posted, but hmph.

D) My old supervisor, who now works for a different department (handling bequests and endowments and stuff) dropped off two batches of checks made out to a specific endowment that he needed us to put on for him – now, this was a more reasonable request than you think because the gifts for that department DO live our database, and he’s actually currently the only one IN that department (his coworker has left for a new position). But we do still have to look up all the donors and make records for the ones not currently in the system, so it is a lot of work

E) I got a call from the guy whose pledge wouldn’t go through yesterday, checking up on it – unfortunately I had to tell him that his pledge still wouldn’t go through and that I hadn’t heard back from the credit card people yet. He was very understanding, but it still frustrated me

F) And after I did my time card for this week using the “building closed” code to cover the hours that the building was closed Wednesday and Thursday (since we had delayed starts those two days – 10 AM instead of 8:30 AM), we got an e-mail from HR saying that we weren’t allowed to use the “building closed” code when doing our hours for those two days. Meaning I had to use a full 8 hours of vacation time to cover the day off I took on Wednesday instead of 6.5 – you know, the actual hours THE BUILDING WAS OPEN THAT DAY. Which – I know it’s only 1.5 hours, but tracking our hours has NEVER worked like that in the past! You always got to save the time that the building was fucking closed! Fortunately my supervisor agreed this was bullshit and said she’d try to get us that bit of time back however she could, but still. *huffs* That really pissed me off.

Yeah – as you might imagine, I was very glad to come home and have pizza and play Scrabble after all that! And now it’s the weekend again already, so I don’t have to think about this bullshit for two more days. Small mercies.

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – my final night on the bike this week saw me pedaling through:

A) The second half of “Reacting to YOUR Greek Myth Hot Takes” by C. M. Alongi! Said reactions included:

I. As I said yesterday, responding to someone’s take on how Medusa was unfairly killed and how her “curse” was supposed to be protection from rapey men with a long chat about the Medusa myth – explaining how in the earliest versions, she was just always a monster; how the more modern “tragic backstory” interpretation was the result of Ovid, a Roman, giving her one when he recorded the tale; and how the Greeks were very victim-blamey when it came to rape because women were more property than people back then (with the only way for an assault victim to regain her honor being to kill herself), so Medusa being punished by Athena for being assaulted by Poseidon in her temple by being turned into a monster would made made sense to them – it’s the modern audience who played around and made it Athena giving Medusa a way to fend off future attackers. (Though she admitted she’d heard SOMETHING about the Ancient Greek equivalent of domestic abuse shelters using Medusa’s head as a symbol and protective charm...but that she had no idea of the validity of it because, well, why would the Ancient Greeks have anything like domestic abuse shelters)

II. Responding to someone commenting on how God Of The Forge and Craftsmen, Hephaestus, is a nice example of disability representation in the myths by going over the origin story of the god (born so ugly Hera tossed him off Mount Olympus, which broke at least one of his legs; raised by nymphs in the ocean; turned out to be incredible at making jewelry, which led to Hera reclaiming him and making him an Olympian after seeing the nymphs showing off their necklaces and whatnot) and saying that he’s not great representation as he’s more of a background character in most myths (having made the magical sword or shield or whatnot the hero may be using), but agreeing it was nice to see a disabled god in ANY role back then

III. Responding to someone’s claim that Apollo was “very problematic” when it came to all his lovers by explaining that she had to push back against the inclusion of Hyacinthus (a handsome Spartan warrior) on the list, because what happened to him wasn’t Apollo’s fault – they had a perfectly nice relationship that only ended because Hyacinthus took a discus to the head while they were throwing it around, and THAT was either an accident or the god Zephyr, jealous of Apollo having gotten the cute guy, killing him under “if I can’t have him no one can” rules – but that in every other case...yeah, calling him problematic was VALID

IV. Responding to someone saying that the “incest ‘issue’ in mythology is overblown, it doesn’t matter with supernatural godly beings, the real problem is a lack of consent whenever the gods mess around with mortals and demigods” with admitting that she KIND OF sees where the commenter is coming from with the incest thing but also it’s still ew and she can’t help but side-eye people who try to downplay it, but totally agreeing that consent between gods and mortals/demigods was a real issue, since no mortal or demigod had any REAL ability to safely say no

V. And responding to someone going “Nyx, Primordial Goddess of Night, is the only god Zeus fears, though I don’t remember where I read that” by saying she too had read that somewhere and explaining some of the Greek hierarchy of greater beings (which goes Primordials – Titans – Gods) and how Chaos formed the first Primordials, which included Nyx...before noting that EROS was also said to be a Primordial (being the personification of love) when he wasn’t Aphrodite’s son (or even when he was, sometimes, apparently the Greeks were good at that sort of double-think), which veered off into a tangent about how much she LOATHES the “ancient creature falls in love with teenage girl” trope, which is why Eros is not only Aphrodite’s son in Monstrous, but also only about twenty years old at the start (while Psyche was aged up to about seventeen at the start of the book, using the excuse that her parents put off her marriage for an unusually-long time to keep getting offerings from the citizens worshiping their gorgeous daughter). Girl is fixing creepy and illegal age gaps in her literature! :p

Interesting stuff, to be sure – and I’m sure she enjoyed getting to flex her knowledge of Greek myths. :)

B) And a series of shorts by DragonsDream, because I had some time to kill at the end of the workout and I couldn’t find a full-length video that would fit the time I had (or, rather, I was looking for one I’d seen in my Recommends earlier, but it took me so long to fail to find it that I instead went to their channel and just watched some shorts), including:

I. “The most wholesome friendship in Baldur's Gate 3” – DD showing off Gale and Tara (his tressym, aka winged cat, friend) hanging out together at the epilogue party and bantering, with Tara claiming the party spot doesn’t compare to Gale’s mother’s sitting room and asking him if all his friends were always so ugly. XD Cute – but also a surprise to me, because Tara’s voice is a LOT different than I thought it would be! I was expecting something younger and maybe higher-pitched, but no – pure middle-aged woman. Okay then. XD

II. “The developers knew someone would try this” – DD using Shadowheart to show off what happens if you follow Meli after he steals the locket from Barth and then steal it off him before Barth can follow him up the ladder and confront him! Basically, Meli protests that he doesn’t have the locket as usual...then, when Shadowheart asks him why he stole it, is very surprised to find that, no, he actually doesn’t have it. Shadowheart then told Barth that Meli may be good, but she’s better, and handed the locket over to Barth – Meli was a little embarrassed, but also rather impressed by Shadowheart’s skills, while Barth was appropriately grateful. He then warned Meli to stay out of his pockets, causing Meli to taunt him with a silly face –

And Barth to backhand him across said face. D: Jerk! And I really don’t like that many of the comments were approving of him doing that. Meli may be a little shit, but he’s a KID, possibly an orphan – cut him a break!

III. “What if you tried to romance both Shadowheart and Minthara” – DD showing off Minthara’s pretty contemptuous reaction to discovering that you were romancing Shadowheart along with her – wondering if their character wasn’t worried “the little amnesiac” wouldn’t forget them in the morning; responding to “I was hoping I could have a relationship with both of you” with accusations of Shadowheart being needy under her cold exterior and declarations that she doesn’t share what she desires, and – after the character said they didn’t want to give up their relationship with Minthara – informing them that they’d have to tell Shadowheart, but not to worry, as the pain of the loss would probably be a religious experience for her. XD God, Minthara is such a bitch and it’s great.

IV. And “When annoyed companions breaks the fourth wall” – DD showing off various annoyed lines the companions will spout if you spam-click their portraits during a fight! My favorites were Astarion’s pissed grunt and “I’m trying to focus on murder!”, Halsin’s irritated “Battle is afoot – you can poke me once we are safe. Perhaps try attacking the enemy?”, and Minsc’s very Minsc “I am armed! Armored! And entirely sick of your foolishness!” XD

Very fun stuff! Now I just have to figure out what I’m watching next week...

2. Continue editing Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – got just under a page edited today, featuring:

A) Smiler assuring Victor that eventually he wouldn’t feel like he was flaunting his wealth at them with his very existence, if only because they and Alice were willing to keep reminding him that wasn’t the case, with Alice adding that Victor had to remember that she too actually grew up rich – her father was a dean at Doskvol Academy, after all, and owned six suits (with one just for special occasions, no less). Her comfortable childhood was just cut short. Victor confirmed he remembered her telling them about that and explained that the issue was mainly that he was a Van Dort, and, thanks to his parents, being one of those comes with – connotations...

B) Smiler immediately being like “and those connotations should apply to your parents alone – don’t punish yourself for their sins,” and Alice backing them up with telling Victor he shouldn’t have to apologize for what his parents do – especially since he’s so unlike them, wanting to hide in the background rather than shove his wealth in everyone’s faces. Victor confirmed he’s the type who prefers a quiet night in to a loud party, and grumbled that Nell never understood that, because she was so obsessed with yelling about how much better she and her family was than everyone else. Despite being the daughter of a Coalridge factory worker herself, and having married a man who was solidly middle-class before starting the cannery.

C) Smiler noting that some people are just not happy unless others are unhappy, and while it’s terrible, there’s not much they can do about it – stating they preferred to live a life that focused on making themselves and their loved ones as happy as possible, and minimizing the unhappiness they caused others. Victor said he liked the idea behind that, but didn’t know how good he was it – Smiler promptly informed him that he’d made them much happier by being their friend. :) And they were sure the same was true of Alice, who confirmed that she’d enjoyed getting to know Victor – before teasing him that he wasn’t nearly as annoying as she’d feared. Victor laughed and did his best to shoot back by saying she wasn’t as terrifying as he’d thought someone from a madhouse would be – she was startled for a moment, then laughed herself, admitting that she hadn’t thought he had it him...but he ought to work on his delivery. XD Victor said he’d probably have more opportunities to practice, living with her, and she confirmed that she expected him to give as good as he got. :P

Not too shabby, I feel. I ended with the group preparing to get back to packing (again), with Victor stowing his sketchbook and sketches in his carpet bag – next time, the rest of Victor’s things will get packed up! Well, almost – he still needs to look under his bed for something...

3. Watch something on FreeTube: No check, but that’s not a surprise at this point – especially considering it was Game Night (as previously stated, we played Scrabble – and thanks to some lucky letter draws and some fruitful searching on Merriam-Webster’s Scrabble word finder site, I ended up winning). I do have some plans to clear the rest of the OXBoxtra stuff I want to watch tomorrow, if I can – we’ll see what happens!

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Again, N/A as Valice Multiverse was quiet and I didn’t have anything pressing on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). *shrug* We’ll see if I get anything done over here this weekend.

Yeah, that work day really took it out of me. Which is sad, as it's the only full day of work I've worked this week... *sigh* Anyway. I've stayed up later than I should have reading TV Tropes, so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is a Cleaning & Laundry Saturday -- I hope to also play some Little Corners, and watch at least one of the OXBox videos still waiting around in my FreeTube Subs. Hopefully that is an achievable to-do list -- night all!