tsukinofaerii | Reading

I was feeling nostalgic, so I pulled up Road Not Taken and played it for a little while earlier. It took a bit to get back into the swing of things, but I started to remember some of the hidden details and combinations after a while.

It's been ages since the last time I played, and I'd forgotten just how much I love it. It's so helpful if I want to turn off my brain for a little while. I can't believe it's been over a decade since it was first released.

Current Mood: nostalgic

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: accomplished

marinarusalka

I'm sitting in the airport waiting to board my plane to Bermuda. Or rather, my plane to Charlotte, where I get to twiddle my thumbs for six freaking hours before taking my connection to Bermuda. Apparently there's just no good way to get from San Diego to Bermuda, at least not this weekend.

I'm going for work, so I won't have a lot of downtime during the meeting, but I did tack on an extra two days at the end, so I'm hoping to get in some beach time and a scuba dive. I also have knitting with me -- I'm trying to finish a rather complicated double-knit blanket in time to submit it to the county fair, and it's going to be a close call. But I'll certainly have a lot of time to work on it in the evenings at my hotel, as well as my two stupid long flight layovers.

An hour until boarding, whee...

Current Mood: bored

muccamukk

Watch on YouTube

settiai

Since a number of staff at Unnamed Nonprofit are either Christian or Jewish, they've announced that they're closing the office at lunchtime today. Which, you know, as someone who isn't celebrating a holiday at the moment? That's still a nice little treat for me.

I finished my fourth Dragon Age: The Veilguard playthrough last night, so I think that I'm going to pick back up with my fifth one (which is in Act 2 right now) for a bit and then maybe switch to Baldur's Gate 3. D&D is cancelled again tonight because it's the DM's spouse's birthday, so I can properly settle in to play for hours which is something I haven't had the time to do in ages.

Current Mood: hopeful

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: sleepy

settiai

I found a perfect place to do some banter farming in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, so I settled in to max out all of the possible conversations between various pairs of characters off-and-on over the past almost-a-week before starting endgame in my most recent playthrough.

There was so much dialogue that I've never encountered before. Even with characters who I've frequently had together in my party in previous playthroughs, I was getting to conversations that I never heard in previous ones. There's just so much potential banter that's never played for me because I didn't have two specific characters in the party together for long enough, and it was lovely to hear it all. And I'm sure there's still more banter that I've missed that's only available earlier in the game.

( Nothing really spoilery, but under the cut to be safe. )

It definitely makes some of the potential choices in the game even more bittersweet, hearing just how close some of the team members are to each other based on their conversations and teasing of each other.

Current Mood: amused

garrideb

I've decided to write up a post for just the Moomin-related parts of my long weekend in Chicago so I can link it to Moomin fandom spaces. If you want to read about all aspects of the trip, read this post instead.

( Lots of Moomins under the cut... )

I'm giving away the Hattifattener and Little My figures from the gashapon, and I'll be sending them in a tin with Snufkin, Moomin, and Little My on the lid. If you're interested, please comment below. Due to high shipping costs, I'm only willing to ship to addresses in the United States.

garrideb

Jen, Rachel and I went to C2E2 for the first time since… 2019? It was fun! It was also a tad bittersweet and nostalgic, because I remembered how excited I used to get -- going to panels, meeting writers and artists, taking pictures of the cosplayers -- and I didn't feel that excitement this time, but it was still a good trip.

( Long description and pictures under the cut... )

settiai

Let's try for two positive posts in a row, shall we?

I meant to post about this when I found out a month or so ago, but I completely forgot due to all of the chaos going on at the time. It turns out that Unnamed Nonprofit is doing an experiment this year where we get the entire week off for July 4. Once we close on Friday, June 27, we won't be back until Monday, July 7, so we'll have a whole nine days off in a row.

We always have that week-and-a-half off at the end of the year in December, where we're closed for the holidays before the super busy season starts at the beginning of January, and apparently the new president was impressed by how much it seemed to increase productivity at the beginning of the year. So because of that, he's testing to see if giving us a paid break twice a year instead of just once a year seems to give another mid-year boost.

I'm probably still going to be working a little, just to keep an eye out for emergencies like I did at the end of the year, but the summer tends to be significantly slower so I'm hoping it won't be more than an hour total over the course of the entire week - and it would five minutes here, five minutes there, etc.

Considering my Wednesday D&D group has chosen that week for our in-person D&D game, the timing is perfect. I'll have a whole five days of hiding from human contact to help build up my spoons before the long weekend of lots and lots and lots of human interaction.

Current Mood: cheerful

settiai

Hey, I have an actual positive post for once!

My Wednesday D&D group has been actively trying to have an in-person game every year or two, since we're all in the US, unlike my Friday game, and 3.5 out of the 7 of us are already in the DC area, unlike either my Friday or Sunday games. (The 0.5 comes from Zooey since she splits her time between here and Montana.)

Anyway, we had our first in-person weekend in August 2022. We weren't able to pull one off in 2023, but we did manage to have one last year in July 2024 just before I moved into the hotel. And we've just finalized another in-person weekend for this year!

( More details under the cut for those who don't really care. )

I'm going to be exhausted and so very much peopled out when I go back to work that Monday, but it will be worth it. Especially since it looks like everyone can make it this time. The last two in-person weekends, one of the players - Hannah - hasn't been able to come in person. She ended up calling in via Discord, and we had a whole elaborate set-up so she could see the map and such. She doesn't have any prior plans this year, though, so she's actually going to get to play in person with us.

So unless something changes, it looks like all seven of us will be there this time around. 🤞🏻

Current Mood: cheerful

muccamukk

Does anyone know what this character is?

It's not a full stop! It breaks html that needs a full stop.

Also, how did I end up using it? I must have accidentally copied it? From somewhere?

muccamukk

Haven't done one of these in a while and ended up having to trim out stuff that happened a month ago.

( U.S. Politics )

There is not a Canadian Politics section because I find our election too depressing. Here's a good interview on The Breach. Which came out before the NDP started to properly implode. Fuck.

Cool/Fun Stuff:
JSTOR Companion to the Schomburg Center’s Black Liberation Reading List.
JSTOR has created an open library to support readers seeking to engage with BIPOC+Q-authored reading lists like the one developed by the New York Public Library.

CBC: 46 Canadian nonfiction books to read in spring 2025.
I don't remember why I bookmarked this, because I'm not going to look at it again, lol.

Oglaf: Historical Adventure.
One NSFW panel, best summary of The Three Musketeers I've ever seen.

The Wiggles and Orville Peck: Friends of Dorothy 🦖💕.
No notes.

National Theatre's The Importance of Being Earnest: 'I'm particularly fond of muffins' & 'Mr. Ernest Worthing is engaged to me!'

CBC: These are the 1st images of humpbacks having sex, and they're both males.

Blake Lively v. Justin Baldoni:
I'd be depressed about Depp v. Heard repeating itself, except Lively isn't stuck with bargain basement lawyers, so it's going rather better for her. (Okay, so, "whoever has the most expensive lawyers wins" is a terrible system, but it's at least mildly satisfying when the person you want to win has the most expensive lawyers and the better case.) I've been spending probably too much time following this because I want the win. Not that invested in the actors, but am invested in harassment-free workplaces. ( Read more... )

Various YouTube Videos:

CaelanConrad: J. K. Rowling: The Real Story.
From 'homeless single mother with unheated shoebox apartment' to 'self-made billionaire feminist', PR spin and reality diverge.
Mostly about how the Rags to Riches mythology got overblown, with various other digs along the way.

OlurinattiBITES: The Problem with Jonathan Majors’ Redemption Tour.
This is like one of those encores where the performers don't even bother to leave the stage.

JoshJohnsonComedy: Adolescence Is #1 on Netflix—and It’s Got the Manosphere Shook.
Title's a bit clickbaity, this summary is better: The show deals with topics like the manosphere, red pill, incels, and the coded language teenagers use to communicate ideas around the topics. This set reminded me of my own struggles as a young man and how things could have gone very differently for me. It's very funny, and very warm-hearted and sweet, given the topic.

muccamukk

but trying to at least read Stephanie Jones' lawyers' Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Support of Their Motion to Dismiss Jennifer Abel’s Counterclaims and Certain Affirmative Defenses because of the whole Lively v. Baldoni saga, the PR firm fighting itself is by far the best part.

I cannot believe that Jennifer Abel, a genuine adult in her 30s (I think?), making low six figures in a cut-throat industry:

When hired by Jones transferred her personal number, that she'd had since high school, to her new work phone.

Had no other phone besides her work phone, and thus used her work phone for two-factor authentication for all her personal shit.

Decided to steal her company's clients and sensitive documents (I actually can believe this part, see above about cut-throat industry).

Used her work phone and work laptop to plot and carry out said theft.

Used her work phone to text her buddies about how well said theft was going.

Was a surprised Pikachu when her boss found out about all this and fired her.

Was a surprised Pikachu when her boss took her work phone and work laptop.

THEN SUED HER FORMER BOSS FOR UNFAIR TREATMENT.

The subsidiary of "Don't take notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy" should 100% be "ESPECIALLY ON A DEVICE YOU DON'T OWN!!!" holy shit.

settiai

One of my D&D friends and I were talking about jury duty on Discord a few days ago. She mentioned that her parents had gotten a jury duty notice for her at their home, despite her moving out and changing her address years ago. I told her about the same thing happening to me a few years ago, despite me not living in Tennessee since 2010, and we both shook our heads at the fact that Illinois and Tennessee are both that bad at updating records.

I was apparently tempting fate.

I've mentioned before that I'm signed up for USPS Informed Delivery, since my mail goes to my P.O. Box, and I don't want to go out my way to visit the post office unless I know there's something waiting for me. I got a notification today saying that I have a letter from the Jury Commissioner waiting for me, which is almost certainly a jury duty notice.

I'm going to go to the post office after work to pick it up so that I'll know the details about when it is. I need some groceries for Aldi anyway, so I'm just going to kill two birds with one stone and take care of it all after work.

Current Mood: amused

muccamukk

2025 Hugo Award Finalist list is out.

Meh? None of the novels I nominated made it through. I've added three on Libby, but am deeply welmed by the choices. I'll track the rest down after I move.

Several of my novellas did, which is nice, but I was kinda "I guess?" about the whole list. It's (almost) all Tor again (cue someone angrily telling me that Tor and TorDotCom are not the same publisher! OMG! How dare people say they are!?)

I'll get the novelettes and short stories in the package.

I'm genuinely stoked that Rebecca Roanhorse's excellent trilogy is on the series list.

Some of the graphic novels look cool!

Uh... don't care about a lot of the other categories? I guess I'll see what's in the package (my vibe for a lot of this, as I was saying elsewhere).

Haven't seen any of the movies. The wrong Doctor Who episodes made it through! INJUSTICE! lol

Oh! Semiprozine is stacked (as it usually is).

I love that there's a poetry category this year.

Is Iron Widow YA? I keep getting told it's not. But a lot of the Lodestar books look cool, so I'm checking them out.

muccamukk

This came out a while ago, and I was like, "Do I really need to post every single thing Raye does?" before watching it ten million times and deciding, "Yes, yes I do."

Watch on YouTube

It's Raye's song, and she and Lisa and Doja Cat just kill it, and I would read the fic. I don't want to break my youtube algorithm by searching for this, but does anyone know videos or essays that take apart songs (specifically this one) and explain why they work?

I'm not really posting here much beyond music lately, I guess. I have a handful of book reviews I should get to eventually. Probably. I read seven in March, and am currently reading a deeply mid cosy fantasy out of pure inertia, but the Network Effect audiobook just came in from the library!

Relatedly, I've really been enjoying being excited about the Murderbot show, and am trying to avoid anyone being negative about it. I'd appreciate cut tags? I'm staying out of comment sections other than my own (where everyone's been lovely). I don't mean to be a princess, but I'd just really like to hang onto this as my happy place. RL things have Not Been Great.

New Doctor Who in a couple days, which I'm looking forward to! (Speaking of Ncuti, no sign of him on the NT steaming site yet.)

I watch and enjoyed the first episode of season three of SurrealEstate (I'm not clear who the main cast is this season? Is it just Luke, Susan and Lomax? Are the others coming back full time? Phil seems to be gone gone). I feel like Luke's family drama being the arc plot every season might get old?

Otherwise, I've kinda been drifting.

A couple times I downloaded merge three games onto my phone, and hyper focused on them for hours until I had to delete them because I couldn't just play them a little bit. I'm sure there's science about how they're engineered to be addictive, but I was impressed either way.

Bird watching has kind of been my main thing lately. I try to go for a one or two kilometre walk every day to count all the birds I see. It's been really nice to get outside and reset my brain, and the migrations are happening so there are many birds. It'll probably stop once I move after Easter, but maybe I can get back into being churchy at that point.

Someday I might write again. I used to be good at that.

settiai

I've gotta admit, as someone who's nonbinary but is typically assumed to be a woman because of the clothes I prefer to wear and the shape of my body? It's really making me uncomfortable to see so many people complaining about the Murderbot casting because it's "too male" or "not androgynous enough" for a character who doesn't identify as having a gender.

Don't get me wrong, it's fine to not like the casting because it's not what you pictured in your head! There's no issue with being upset that person cast is white. It's perfectly okay be upset that the actor is cisgender instead of them hiring someone who's nonbinary or genderfluid. But when you're talking about a genderless character? Words matter.

So, you know, congrats! You just told me that in your eyes I'm "too female" or "not androgynous enough" to be nonbinary. Which is kinda an asshole thing to say because nonbinary ≠ androgynous.

A number of people who I've known in fandom for a long time have made comments like that, and I'm currently doing my best to resist the urge to go on an unfollowing spree on several sites because I know it's a knee-jerk reaction. It's just that it really kinda sucks to find out that people you've known for years apparently think your gender identity is fake unless you look a specific way, and since you yourself don't look that way? Well, that kinda implies some things.

Current Mood: disappointed

muccamukk

Watch on YouTube

marthawells has been linking to articles with promo pictures and interviews.

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My Ghouls

Reading

Road Not Taken

Titansfall D&D: Summary for 4/20 Game

Off I go...

Music Friday

Long(ish) Weekend

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 4/16 Game

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Banter

C2E2 2025: The All Moomin Version

C2E2 2025

Unnamed Nonprofit

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Links: US Politics, Fun Stuff, Lively v. Baldoni, Misc

somewhat scattered this morning...

Oh, the timing...

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