photo saturday: natural metal

When placed on a scale between "1" and "Fuck This Week", I find that the last seven days (although probably more accurately the last four days) gravitate towards the latter end of that particular spectrum.

But we're going to skim over a bunch of it because a) it's a long boring story with no point and b) I don't necessarily want to remember it all in a few years time when it's all very much water under the bridge and no longer as important as it feels right now.

Rolling back though...

Sunday I made decent enough, although not spectacular, chicken noodle soup. Possibly it would have been better if I hadn't put chorizo in it. I did remember to shred the chicken this time, which was definitely an improvement.

This week was also light on DnD games.

Monday was fine, the end of a trilogy of adventures that was possibly a little too complex for it's own good, but still good to round out the story.

Wednesday's day game we finally got back to the hardcover we last played about a month ago, which was fine... we had a new player join us, and he was actually really good, so hopefully he joins us again. It was after the game that the wheels fell off things a little. Well, both actually, but more on that in a minute. Wednesday's game didn't happen because fuck my friends. Which didn't really bother me one way or the other, it just gave me more "dwelling time" than I might otherwise have had.

Thursday's didn't happen for a myriad of reasons. First, our regular Thursday group DM, after having had a couple of weeks off realised that she has too much on her plate currently and can't commit to a weekly game (understandable and accurate, but still annoying). One of the other players/DMs was going to run, but life got in the way there too, so that fell apart. I stayed home.

Other than DnD, not a lot happened (well, not a lot of anything happened this week really). I did attempt to complete an application form for a thing I need to do, but because bureaucracy breeds more bureaucracy I couldn't without also having to request a new copy of my birth certificate so that I can authenticate my birth certificate online. Urgh. I will see if there's a way around it, but if not then form A is going to have to wait until I complete form B and have that processed by a completely different government agency. Double urgh.

Today was... good? I dunno... there's probably an alternative universe somewhere where today didn't happen at all and another where it went significantly differently. I know, that's hopelessly vague. I guess I've just spent some time over the last couple of days thinking about the butterfly effect basically. Thing A happens at a certain point, leading to Thing B happening at a later point. If you change Thing A, does Thing B still happen or does Thing C happen which is worse (or better I guess). Sorry... that was just a stream of consciousness.

Anyway. Short version, we went shopping. I'm planning on making beef stew this week. Ma bought a new (second hand) car.

Fortunately she'd looked for cars online already, had a place and a car in mind, when we got there there were actually two possible options in the make and model (and colour to be honest) she was interested in. And the salesman was a dork, but a lovely dork.

It doesn't feel exciting though. I mean I'm anxious to get my own car back, but Ma said herself that she's not excited by the process or result of getting another car. And I totally get that. It's the difference between moving into this apartment versus moving into the last North Adelaide apartment. The former was moving AWAY from something I loved to something that was necessary and acceptable. The latter was moving TOWARDS something that was very much a positive at the time. Car situation is exactly the same, doubly so because it's also the difference between a brand new car and a second hand car.

Plus, even with a specific budget, that shit gets expensive fast.

So, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff going on, which on the surface could be positive, but just doesn't feel even remotely like it. Most of it is just annoying or draining or exhausting.

Yeah. That.

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photo saturday: art in odd places

Have I mentioned that sometimes I get obsessed with certain projects and just disappear into them. Yeah, that kinda happened at the end of this week.

But, starting at the beginning, I made chilli instead of bolognese sauce... I got fixated on chilli, and found a recipe that I half-ish followed. And it turned out pretty damn good.

Not having the car really didn't effect the week all that much. In fact it was kind of nice to just be able to sit there and not have to drive myself home.

This week's DnD was... slightly repetitive I guess. Like last week I ran the same games on Monday and Wednesday (for the day game), and in both cases (and as it always the case I think), the second iteration was better, because I had a better idea of how things were going to go.

After the Wednesday day game (due to a lack of the evening game), I hung out with a couple of the other players afterwards (well, it was supposed to be just one of them, but someone else invited themselves along, which was fine) and we just sat around in one of the food courts and talking shit for a couple of hours. It was nice.

Thursday we still aren't back to our usual game, but I did head in anyway and played a character I haven't had at a table since December 2017. I'd semi retired her to be honest, but it felt appropriate to bring her out for this one.

And I had a couple of interesting moments with the DM, one that I knew was going to bite me in the butt, but went for it anyway, because it was too good not to. The other was something he threw in just for me (for one of my other characters to be honest), but led to me crafting a whole family tree for that particular character (well, about 5 generations back for the paternal line anyway).

Yeah, I know. This is possibly the only character I'd do this for though. And it gave me a better understanding of his history, which is kinda weird, because some of it just came together like it was an actual history of a person rather than all being stuff I totally made up. DnD is weird.

That was about it for the week though.

Oh, one vaguely interesting factoid. Remember how I assumed that I'd voted incorrectly due to basically existing in a fever dream for about a week back in May. Yep, I got a letter this week that said as much. I voted in the wrong local area, so they couldn't count that vote. Which would be a tragedy if I actually cared at all.

Today wasn't much of anything again. Unsurprisingly.

And I didn't bother driving my car when Ma brought it down. I could have, it just seemed like a lot of palaver readjusting the seats for me, then readjusting them again when Ma went home. Because it might be a couple of weeks before things get sorted there.

But we did the supermarket thing. My plan this week is to make chicken soup, but properly this time, since last time was a little lackluster. Then next week maybe some kind of beef stew, we'll see.

Afterwards we hung out here for probably too long, watched some more of the Studio Ghibli Weekends on the World Movie channel and then headed out for Officeworks and Spotlight.

Fun fact, Officeworks only sells one printer that prints purely in black and white. Which I kind of get, but it also seems weird to me. But at least I know that now, if I want to go down that particular avenue.

The Spotlight wander ended up mostly being knitting wool for Ma (although I might get a scarf out of it eventually, which isn't the worst thing in the world). We also wandered around everywhere just looking at stuff. Which I always enjoy.

And that was that.

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photo saturday: mood

mood
/muːd/ noun
1. a temporary state of mind or feeling.
2. an angry, irritable, or sullen state of mind.

Guess what the word of the week is? Actually more than just the word, it's the prevailing theme of the week.

Hence also why the images for this week a) don't have a theme and b) are as random and odd as I could combine together.

Let's try and keep this all in the usual order though, otherwise it makes even less sense.

Sunday I made potato and leek soup... not perhaps my best ever effort, to be honest I'd rather just make the chowder again, but it was nice for something different.

Monday was, for the most part, fairly standard. My DnD game went okay, it was only a two hour though, so the party got through it in about 3 hours, which is pretty standard.

Tuesday is where the wheels fell off the week. I got a call from Ma late in the afternoon to say that she'd had a car accident. She's fine, the car however, not so much. A woman in an SUV was turning across Ma's lane and "didn't see" her due to the sun. Not really what we need right now to be honest. I mean there's never a "good" time for a car accident or to write-off a car, but the timing sucks.

Wednesday I reran the module from Monday but for different people... and as tends to be the case, a very different outcome, and had it not been for me being a benevolent DM (especially after I accidentally killed one of the players), they all would have died. The Wednesday night game as one of the quiet sessions, which was nice.

Thursday the other proverbial wheel fell off my brain. The game store where we play DnD is a business, I understand that. They need to make decisions based on what they believe is appropriate for their business. As a consumer, I can choose not to contribute to their business when they make choices I disagree with. However, this also comes with a side helping of the old adage "cutting off your nose to spite your face". Choices have consequences, I just need to determine whether those consequences are worth the choices.

It also meant that I didn't go to DnD on Thursday. It wasn't our "regular" game though, so I didn't especially miss out on anything.

Basically it boils down to me throwing a spaz and maybe making my own life and/or other people's lives more difficult as a result.

Speaking of which, the latter half of this quote has been rolling around in my brain for a couple of weeks now, but I only discovered where it's actually from today...

Lisa: Instead of giving us an education, they used us to design a toy! Aren't you outraged?
Bart: Not really, but if you're gonna throw a spaz, I'll come with.

Grift of the Magi, The Simpsons, S11E09

Friday was essentially me just being annoyed. And sad. But mostly annoyed.

Then we got to today. Due to the aforementioned car fuckery, I drove down to pick up Ma this morning, then we came back here and did the shopping. Then it decided to bucket down with rain. So we loitered around here until the sun made a reappearance.

We headed into the city, mostly to finish off the quest for a battery for Ma's cordless phone. It really shouldn't have been that hard. But we got there in the end. From there we mostly did a bit of a wander.

When we got back here, I sent Ma off home in my car. Honestly, it makes more sense that way anyway, she needs to use it more than I do, I can use the bus for anything I need. It'll make my life slightly more annoying, but I'd rather do it that way.

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photo saturday: between the lines

I can't help feeling like this was a weird week, despite not being about to put my finger on any actual reason why it might have been considered weird. Something in the air, or the water maybe. I dunno.

I've now learned that chicken noodle soup is much better when it's simpler. And also when you use the thin noodles and shred your chicken in the same manner.

This week I ran three out of four DnD games... which was okay, if a little tiring. Monday's game was okay, but unfortunately for my Monday group, they're the ones that I end up testing new modules on.

Wednesday's day game gets the good end of that lollipop, since I then run the same game for them, but I generally have a better idea of the shape of it, and where to fix the mistakes that happened on Monday. I mean, that's only been for the last two weeks, and we'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks... we really need to get back to playing the hardcover we started with another DM a few weeks back, but he's been MIA.

Wednesday night's game was chaotic. I mean we made (and by we, I mostly mean me) some stupid decisions and I nearly got eaten by a giant purple worm. To try and save the NPC who I know is in love with one of the other player's characters. Because my character has gotten a bee in his bonnet about ensuring that his friends take advantage of love when it's offered to them. Yeah, I don't know either... blame my DM for stealing my own NPC girlfriend. But it makes for an interesting character flaw. I may need to rewrite his traits, bonds, flaws and ideals... they've definitely changed during the course of the game.

Thursday I ran an old "favourite" adventure. I put it in inverted commas because it was the second adventure I ever played and that DM leaned into my reactions to the NPCs and made them even worse. So every time I've run that for other people I layered in more and more elements to make them horrendous people, including accents. And the group of Thursday loved to hate them, so I did my job correctly. Sadly, because I let them roleplay and explore more than I possibly should have, plus they were a little bit all over the place, we never actually got to the final part of the module and had to skip past the really fun stuff at the end. Oh well.

I will say that I'm getting to the point where I'd love to run a four hour adventure over 6 hours... or for as long as it takes to actually finish it. Probably I'm in the minority for that, because, you know, people have lives, but it'd be nice.

Otherwise the week didn't seem like a lot happened.

Friday was Chiro Day... so that was good. Not that there's really anything to report as far as that's concerned. I went into the city, saw the chiro, came home again.

Today was both constructive and repetitive.

We did the supermarket thing... I didn't really buy a lot of stuff, but I intend on making potato and leek soup this week, which should be good. Then we got a little sucked into my least favourite Studio Ghibli movie on TV (thank you SBS World Movies for the Ghibli Weekend).

After that we went into the city, Ma was looking for a replacement battery for her cordless phone and I decided that I really want to get a cheap but decent printer that will only print black and white. Mostly because I'm sick and tired of using up my colour cartridges while only printing monochrome things. Seriously, WTF?

I definitely need to go into one of the larger Officeworks stores though and explain exactly what it is that I want, see what they say. In theory I might be able to get something for about $50, which would be nice.

We did do a lot of looping and backtracking because I kept forgetting there were things that we wanted to go and look at in areas we'd already left. It was fine though, we got a nice walk, we poked around and found a bunch of stuff, even if neither of us actually got the thing we'd come into the city to look at.

And that was it really.

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