Tired Tired Monday
Mar. 2nd, 2026 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickIt's been a long day, as my write-up can attest to:
Work – I am sorry to report that I didn’t have a very pleasant Monday back at work:
A) It took me most of the morning to do the GL because of how long it took to match up all the missing 2025 CCA credit card payments our credit card company finally posted on Friday – they were all from the beginning of January and February, so I had to keep going back to old reconciliation reports to see where the new stuff was added in
B) We got a call from one of the parish secretaries – turns out that priest who brought in a bunch of gifts on Friday did so WITHOUT TELLING HER, and thus she didn’t have a record of how much there was in checks, cash, and credit card gifts respectively. Fortunately we had all the envelopes from the batch, plus copies of the credit card stuff we’d sent on, so I was able to give her the info she needed, but sheesh. (And also I had to re-redact the credit card information on the copies, as you could still just about see the numbers that my coworker tried to black out.)
C) Right at the end of my lunch break, a guy called in about the remainder on his Capital Campaign pledge, which was SUPPOSED to have been paid by credit card, only the version on our credit card people’s site was $500 less than the actual pledge on OUR database – I ended up having to coach my coworker through updating the pledge to set up five final $100 payments
D) The credit card company FINALLY got back to us about an issue we’d been having putting on certain pledges – revealing that a setting was checked that prevented any pledges from being made that had a payment go past the end of the year. Which was an issue, as we most definitely let people make pledges that go past the end of the year – I sent our contact an e-mail saying as much (after fighting back the urge to be a lot ruder about it). So hopefully that’ll get turned off and I can finally put on some of these waiting pledges
E) Relatedly, thanks to an early call from someone hoping to change their credit card, I discovered that the credit card company has not uploaded any payments or anything for about half a month, which is – not good. Didn’t get a chance to e-mail them about it today, but if nothing’s popped up by tomorrow…
F) Near the end of the day, we heard from our processors that a new trainee had accidentally charged the full amount of someone’s pledge instead of setting it up for installments while trying to key it in, forcing us to issue a hasty refund (though at the very least I got to show my coworker how to do one of those)
G) And I was interrupted in all these activities by bursts of phone calls from people looking to do credit card stuff or check to see if we had their latest gifts or not.
*sigh* Yeah, it was – a long and busy day, to say the least. We’ll see if tomorrow’s any better – I’m not sure I hold out much hope.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – I got on the bike a little late tonight (thanks to Dad’s workout running a bit long), but I did get on it, and started pedaling my way through “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #1 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla!” This is something my friend Squid recommended to me – a two-part adventure, DMed by Mark Hulmes of the High Rollers (a group of friends who are part of the Yogscast network of creators who play D&D campaigns under that name) and created in collaboration with Larian, featuring the Origin companions of Baldur’s Gate III – Gale (Tim Downie), Astarion (Neil Newbon), Lae’zel (Devora Wilde), Shadowheart (Jennifer English), Karlach (Samantha Béart), and Wyll (Theo Solomon) – having to take a side journey during their in-game travels along the Sword Coast to help their friend and party leader Tav when they (Tav) are assaulted by strange magics! Interestingly, this was apparently the first time any of the actors involved had actually played D&D – which is weird, because you think at least one of them would have been into it! It’s only the most well-known TTRPG in the world, after all. :p Fortunately for everyone, Mark Hulmes is a patient GM, and they all seem to be grappling okay with the mechanics thus far. Today’s workout took me through the opening half-hour of the adventure, which included –
A) An ad for Baldur’s Gate III right at the start – which briefly confused me and made me wonder if I’d clicked on the wrong video XD
B) Me noting “Wow, Theo Solomon has beefy arms” during the opening introductions (what, he does!) and being very amused by Jennifer English introducing herself as “God’s favorite princess” and then admitting she wanted that on a shirt XD
C) Mark having Amelia Tyler, aka the game’s narrator, read out the opening, with the character’s waking up from a restful night spent in one of their camps, putting on their armor, and getting ready to tackle the day – only for things to be interrupted by Tav suddenly being surrounded by horrible sickly yellow-green light that seemed to pour itself into their body, lifting them off the ground and contorting them in horrible ways. D: Mark was like “I am never going to be live up to that” after she was done XD
D) Gale kicking things off by deciding to do an Arcana check to figure out what the fuck the magic was that was assaulting poor Tav (with Tim admitting that he’d been really nervous about going first, and yet here he was…) – Shadowheart immediately jumped in and cast Guidance on him (a cantrip that adds a D4 to your rolls) because, well, that is what the players make Shadowheart do constantly in the game anyway XD (I am not immune, I happily add Guidance whenever I can to Smiler’s skill checks)
E) Astarion deciding to look through Tav’s stuff while that was happening to see if there was anythingvaluable USEFUL OR POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS in there...only for Neil to biff the Perception check and instead become utterly obsessed with Gale’s surprisingly-fancy boots
F) Lae’zel making herself useful by yelling at Gale (who had in fact ACED the Arcana check and learned that the magic assaulting Tav was big, complex, trying to take over their body, and was being cast from a surprisingly long way away) to hurry up and figure out what was going on or she’d end him – and when Mark suggested that could be a particularly nasty form of the “Help” action, Devora going “that does not sound like Lae’zel” XD
G) Wyll spotting a little circle of standing stones off to the side of the campsite and leading Karlach over there to investigate, as they could both feel some nasty magic pouring out of them – only for a portal to open up within the stones and start spewing out strange spirits, commanded by a warrior who looked to be made of pure clear glass and who directed them to attack Tav O.O
H) The gang rolling initiative for the first time, and Astarion and Lae’zel both rolling 1s (though with bonuses, Astarion actually got a 4, while Lae’zel ended up with a mere 2) – Wyll, on the other hand, got a nat 20 :D
I) Mark revealing that there was a little model campsite that they could use as a “battle map” on the table and giving everyone miniatures of their characters to place where they thought they should be – Lae’zel ended up standing on the picnic table, presumably to get more height so she could better berate Gale. XD Mark also revealed that Scratch and VOLO, of all people, were also in the camp, then declared that Volo was probably so scared of Lae’zel he was hiding under the table she was standing on. XD
J) Wyll kicking off the fight by dramatically dragging down a circle of Darkness onto the spirits so they wouldn’t be able to see and thus couldn’t go for Tav...then using his movement to rapidly back out of the Darkness, right after the Glass Warrior gave him a challenging look (“I’m not running away!” XD). Notably, this left Karlach, who very much CANNOT SEE IN MAGICAL DARKNESS, stranded on the edge of the stone circle. Not very Blade of Frontiers of you, Wyll! XD
And I left it off with Gale, next in the initiative order and having spotted all this happening, preparing to try and cast Ray of Frost on the Glass Warrior – we’ll see if he succeeds, and how the battle goes from there, tomorrow!
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – got another page edited tonight, covering:
A) Alice wondering who the hell besides her would want to steal the Ankaran sarcophagus, and Beckett pointing out that pretty much every supernatural creature in Los Angeles was a suspect, along with most human thieves, before adding “I suppose we may want to question magicians as well” – which prompted Carpenter to rant about how a musician who did their best vanishing act without an audience wasn’t fit to strut the stage XD
B) Alice grumbling that LaCroix wasn’t going to like this, causing Beckett to sarcastically comment that the Prince doesn’t like most things, so what’s one more bit of bad news? Alice promptly retorted that it might be the thing that got her killed, since LaCroix was already annoyed at her thanks to the Grout fiasco the previous night. She needed a good explanation of why she didn’t have his sarcophagus, or she was screwed!
C) Caterpillar scolding Alice for letting others tell her what is or isn’t real again and pointing out that their pool of suspects was much smaller than Beckett had surmised, since it was only the local vampires who were really up in arms about the sarcophagus – cue Alice absent-mindedly answering him aloud, noting that, given what she saw on the Dane, there were probably at least a few humans also pretty riled up too, and Becket subsequently noting, “Ah – talking to nothing. I was starting to worry you weren’t a proper Malkavian after all.” XD
D) Alice, annoyed, then telling him about her Wonderland hallucinations and how she tries to keep the conversations inside her head when she’s around people, but sometimes stuff slips out – and that he should be grateful she’s not one who speaks solely in riddles, or tortures people in the name of “science.” Beckett assured he was (after all, he’s had his own run-ins with some of the “mad doctors” of her clan) and that he was merely noting how her madness was more subtle than most, causing Alice to admit that she’d had a lot more time to deal with it, given she hadn’t been fully sane since she was nine years old. Beckett confirmed for her that Malkavians are often drawn to those already suffering mental illness, and she confirmed for him that that was indeed why her sire Embraced her – he was personally insulted by her trying to manage her madness, and made sure she could never do so again. Reasons we’re all glad Fish is dead!
E) And Alice then telling Beckett that her hallucinations helped her through some very traumatic times in her life, and that they continued to help her now, relaying what Caterpillar had said about the sarcophagus thief likely being a vampire, and clarifying what she meant by her response – namely, that the cops on the Dane were probably pretty riled up about it, given what they saw on the ship, and that the story of the Dane’s arrival might have provoked a superstitious human thief to go after the item. (She also took a moment to wonder if Officer Heinz ever met his actual contact, and if he was regretting letting her go wandering around the boat yet. XD)
Not too shabby, I suppose. I left off with Alice asking Beckett if he would have stolen the sarcophagus, if he’d had the chance – tomorrow, we’ll start with Beckett claiming he just wanted a look at it, and move into his thoughts about Antediluvians and signs of Gehenna!
3. Watch something on FreeTube: No check – another one of those days where I simply didn’t have the time this evening. Though I didn’t see any new uploads from any of my Subs, so – worked out, I suppose!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A, as per usual for a Monday – didn’t have to check Valice Multiverse, and didn’t have anything pressing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). We’ll see what happens over here tomorrow!
Yeah, it's the busy time of year at work, and between that and all the other stresses in my life -- yeah. Tired Victoria is tired. I'm gonna go try and have an early night for a change -- night all!
Work – I am sorry to report that I didn’t have a very pleasant Monday back at work:
A) It took me most of the morning to do the GL because of how long it took to match up all the missing 2025 CCA credit card payments our credit card company finally posted on Friday – they were all from the beginning of January and February, so I had to keep going back to old reconciliation reports to see where the new stuff was added in
B) We got a call from one of the parish secretaries – turns out that priest who brought in a bunch of gifts on Friday did so WITHOUT TELLING HER, and thus she didn’t have a record of how much there was in checks, cash, and credit card gifts respectively. Fortunately we had all the envelopes from the batch, plus copies of the credit card stuff we’d sent on, so I was able to give her the info she needed, but sheesh. (And also I had to re-redact the credit card information on the copies, as you could still just about see the numbers that my coworker tried to black out.)
C) Right at the end of my lunch break, a guy called in about the remainder on his Capital Campaign pledge, which was SUPPOSED to have been paid by credit card, only the version on our credit card people’s site was $500 less than the actual pledge on OUR database – I ended up having to coach my coworker through updating the pledge to set up five final $100 payments
D) The credit card company FINALLY got back to us about an issue we’d been having putting on certain pledges – revealing that a setting was checked that prevented any pledges from being made that had a payment go past the end of the year. Which was an issue, as we most definitely let people make pledges that go past the end of the year – I sent our contact an e-mail saying as much (after fighting back the urge to be a lot ruder about it). So hopefully that’ll get turned off and I can finally put on some of these waiting pledges
E) Relatedly, thanks to an early call from someone hoping to change their credit card, I discovered that the credit card company has not uploaded any payments or anything for about half a month, which is – not good. Didn’t get a chance to e-mail them about it today, but if nothing’s popped up by tomorrow…
F) Near the end of the day, we heard from our processors that a new trainee had accidentally charged the full amount of someone’s pledge instead of setting it up for installments while trying to key it in, forcing us to issue a hasty refund (though at the very least I got to show my coworker how to do one of those)
G) And I was interrupted in all these activities by bursts of phone calls from people looking to do credit card stuff or check to see if we had their latest gifts or not.
*sigh* Yeah, it was – a long and busy day, to say the least. We’ll see if tomorrow’s any better – I’m not sure I hold out much hope.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – I got on the bike a little late tonight (thanks to Dad’s workout running a bit long), but I did get on it, and started pedaling my way through “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #1 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla!” This is something my friend Squid recommended to me – a two-part adventure, DMed by Mark Hulmes of the High Rollers (a group of friends who are part of the Yogscast network of creators who play D&D campaigns under that name) and created in collaboration with Larian, featuring the Origin companions of Baldur’s Gate III – Gale (Tim Downie), Astarion (Neil Newbon), Lae’zel (Devora Wilde), Shadowheart (Jennifer English), Karlach (Samantha Béart), and Wyll (Theo Solomon) – having to take a side journey during their in-game travels along the Sword Coast to help their friend and party leader Tav when they (Tav) are assaulted by strange magics! Interestingly, this was apparently the first time any of the actors involved had actually played D&D – which is weird, because you think at least one of them would have been into it! It’s only the most well-known TTRPG in the world, after all. :p Fortunately for everyone, Mark Hulmes is a patient GM, and they all seem to be grappling okay with the mechanics thus far. Today’s workout took me through the opening half-hour of the adventure, which included –
A) An ad for Baldur’s Gate III right at the start – which briefly confused me and made me wonder if I’d clicked on the wrong video XD
B) Me noting “Wow, Theo Solomon has beefy arms” during the opening introductions (what, he does!) and being very amused by Jennifer English introducing herself as “God’s favorite princess” and then admitting she wanted that on a shirt XD
C) Mark having Amelia Tyler, aka the game’s narrator, read out the opening, with the character’s waking up from a restful night spent in one of their camps, putting on their armor, and getting ready to tackle the day – only for things to be interrupted by Tav suddenly being surrounded by horrible sickly yellow-green light that seemed to pour itself into their body, lifting them off the ground and contorting them in horrible ways. D: Mark was like “I am never going to be live up to that” after she was done XD
D) Gale kicking things off by deciding to do an Arcana check to figure out what the fuck the magic was that was assaulting poor Tav (with Tim admitting that he’d been really nervous about going first, and yet here he was…) – Shadowheart immediately jumped in and cast Guidance on him (a cantrip that adds a D4 to your rolls) because, well, that is what the players make Shadowheart do constantly in the game anyway XD (I am not immune, I happily add Guidance whenever I can to Smiler’s skill checks)
E) Astarion deciding to look through Tav’s stuff while that was happening to see if there was anything
F) Lae’zel making herself useful by yelling at Gale (who had in fact ACED the Arcana check and learned that the magic assaulting Tav was big, complex, trying to take over their body, and was being cast from a surprisingly long way away) to hurry up and figure out what was going on or she’d end him – and when Mark suggested that could be a particularly nasty form of the “Help” action, Devora going “that does not sound like Lae’zel” XD
G) Wyll spotting a little circle of standing stones off to the side of the campsite and leading Karlach over there to investigate, as they could both feel some nasty magic pouring out of them – only for a portal to open up within the stones and start spewing out strange spirits, commanded by a warrior who looked to be made of pure clear glass and who directed them to attack Tav O.O
H) The gang rolling initiative for the first time, and Astarion and Lae’zel both rolling 1s (though with bonuses, Astarion actually got a 4, while Lae’zel ended up with a mere 2) – Wyll, on the other hand, got a nat 20 :D
I) Mark revealing that there was a little model campsite that they could use as a “battle map” on the table and giving everyone miniatures of their characters to place where they thought they should be – Lae’zel ended up standing on the picnic table, presumably to get more height so she could better berate Gale. XD Mark also revealed that Scratch and VOLO, of all people, were also in the camp, then declared that Volo was probably so scared of Lae’zel he was hiding under the table she was standing on. XD
J) Wyll kicking off the fight by dramatically dragging down a circle of Darkness onto the spirits so they wouldn’t be able to see and thus couldn’t go for Tav...then using his movement to rapidly back out of the Darkness, right after the Glass Warrior gave him a challenging look (“I’m not running away!” XD). Notably, this left Karlach, who very much CANNOT SEE IN MAGICAL DARKNESS, stranded on the edge of the stone circle. Not very Blade of Frontiers of you, Wyll! XD
And I left it off with Gale, next in the initiative order and having spotted all this happening, preparing to try and cast Ray of Frost on the Glass Warrior – we’ll see if he succeeds, and how the battle goes from there, tomorrow!
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – got another page edited tonight, covering:
A) Alice wondering who the hell besides her would want to steal the Ankaran sarcophagus, and Beckett pointing out that pretty much every supernatural creature in Los Angeles was a suspect, along with most human thieves, before adding “I suppose we may want to question magicians as well” – which prompted Carpenter to rant about how a musician who did their best vanishing act without an audience wasn’t fit to strut the stage XD
B) Alice grumbling that LaCroix wasn’t going to like this, causing Beckett to sarcastically comment that the Prince doesn’t like most things, so what’s one more bit of bad news? Alice promptly retorted that it might be the thing that got her killed, since LaCroix was already annoyed at her thanks to the Grout fiasco the previous night. She needed a good explanation of why she didn’t have his sarcophagus, or she was screwed!
C) Caterpillar scolding Alice for letting others tell her what is or isn’t real again and pointing out that their pool of suspects was much smaller than Beckett had surmised, since it was only the local vampires who were really up in arms about the sarcophagus – cue Alice absent-mindedly answering him aloud, noting that, given what she saw on the Dane, there were probably at least a few humans also pretty riled up too, and Becket subsequently noting, “Ah – talking to nothing. I was starting to worry you weren’t a proper Malkavian after all.” XD
D) Alice, annoyed, then telling him about her Wonderland hallucinations and how she tries to keep the conversations inside her head when she’s around people, but sometimes stuff slips out – and that he should be grateful she’s not one who speaks solely in riddles, or tortures people in the name of “science.” Beckett assured he was (after all, he’s had his own run-ins with some of the “mad doctors” of her clan) and that he was merely noting how her madness was more subtle than most, causing Alice to admit that she’d had a lot more time to deal with it, given she hadn’t been fully sane since she was nine years old. Beckett confirmed for her that Malkavians are often drawn to those already suffering mental illness, and she confirmed for him that that was indeed why her sire Embraced her – he was personally insulted by her trying to manage her madness, and made sure she could never do so again. Reasons we’re all glad Fish is dead!
E) And Alice then telling Beckett that her hallucinations helped her through some very traumatic times in her life, and that they continued to help her now, relaying what Caterpillar had said about the sarcophagus thief likely being a vampire, and clarifying what she meant by her response – namely, that the cops on the Dane were probably pretty riled up about it, given what they saw on the ship, and that the story of the Dane’s arrival might have provoked a superstitious human thief to go after the item. (She also took a moment to wonder if Officer Heinz ever met his actual contact, and if he was regretting letting her go wandering around the boat yet. XD)
Not too shabby, I suppose. I left off with Alice asking Beckett if he would have stolen the sarcophagus, if he’d had the chance – tomorrow, we’ll start with Beckett claiming he just wanted a look at it, and move into his thoughts about Antediluvians and signs of Gehenna!
3. Watch something on FreeTube: No check – another one of those days where I simply didn’t have the time this evening. Though I didn’t see any new uploads from any of my Subs, so – worked out, I suppose!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A, as per usual for a Monday – didn’t have to check Valice Multiverse, and didn’t have anything pressing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). We’ll see what happens over here tomorrow!
Yeah, it's the busy time of year at work, and between that and all the other stresses in my life -- yeah. Tired Victoria is tired. I'm gonna go try and have an early night for a change -- night all!
