photo saturday: washed out

This week was weird. By the current definition of normal anyway.

I made pretty good beef and vegetable soup this week. Helped mostly by the spicy kransky and spicy salami I added. I often think that that is the secret of good soup, adding something spicy.

Anyway...

This week's DnD was Monday, Wednesday and Friday... not bad overall to be honest. Monday was a game of doing the dumb things and living to tell about it. Until we walked into the room with the baby dragon right at the end. We'll see how that goes next week.

Wednesday was good. I've settled into the groove of a new character, he has already acquired a personality trait he didn't have when I put him together, and he's about to get a lot more interesting.

Friday we didn't play for super long, and we ended up doing a bunch of roleplay, which I love, and proceeded onto the next part of the story, which I've kind of been hanging out for for a while. We'll see how long that lasts. Depends on what happens next I guess.

I also heard from one of my previous Monday players, and he did enquire about whether I was playing online... so I ended up inviting him to next week's Wednesday game (after I checked with the rest of the group). Which will be an adventure.

The tradie turned up to look at my oven on Thursday morning. And, obviously, he was able to shut the oven door immediately. Grrrr. He did confirm that one of the hinges is completely screwed, and I pointed out that the seal has split at the bottom of the door, so now we just need to wait for confirmation and parts and landlord approval and whatnot.

Also, one of my Friday night DnD crew dropped by to drop something off to me, which was very nice. We stood the required 1.5 metres apart at all times, but it was still very pleasant.

Then Friday I was off to the chiro. My first trip into town since my last chiro appointment. Which was also my last trip since the previous chiro appointment.

So I went into town, went to the chiro appointment, walked most of the way down the Mall, then got back on the bus and came home.

Exciting.

Today was mostly the same as all the previous Saturdays... we did the supermarket thing, which almost feels like we're back to normal, except for the arrows pointing people in the same direction, and the fact I'm still wearing latex gloves, because it's just easier.

I'm planning on making chilli this week, which should be fun. Or at least something different.

Then we came back here, started doing the YubTubs thing, then got distracted and we ended up doing a Google Maps tour of the town in England where Ma grew up. Which was interesting, although a little bit of "if she'd stayed, what would my life be", albeit that I wouldn't be ME, because choices.

Anyway...

After that we took our first trip into the city since... I think the end of February... yeah, so there's that.

It was mostly just to pick up some socks and a phone cover to replace the phone cover I fucked up putting on earlier in the day (grrrr, don't ask).

We thought about wandering the Mall, but honestly there were kind of too many people and then there appeared to be some protest or rally or collection of people with signs and shouting, so we gave up and headed back here.

Current mood:

photo saturday: weird and random

I'm getting to that point in the photos folder where it's kind of hard to make a coherent set of four that I actually like. Which is a problem. Not a big problem, obviously, but still.

So this week you get these four which are nominally colour themed... but there's also a case to be made for textures.

Also weird random shit.

This week's chicken chowder was... decent. Perhaps not quite thick enough, but it did make eight servings (nine technically, but I don't count the portion I have on Sunday).

Otherwise we return to the three DnD games this week. The Monday game continues, and I remain somewhat ambivalent to it. I mean it's fine, I just don't much care.

Wednesday's game was good. I started a new character I quite like (teenage human barbarian, because of course), who I'm actively playing as someone who stands back and doesn't take the lead in social situations. Which is a change for my DnD characters for the most part. It also kind of fits in with the way I'm feeling about playing the Wednesday game. And sometimes you just want to be able to run in and smash things.

I also dug into the role of male children in Ancient Sparta for his backstory, which was highly informative. And honestly, sounds like something that somebody made up, since it's so over the top. But it's actual history, which is always more out there than stuff people just made up.

Friday night's game was likewise good. Not super exciting, but good. We travelled with a "friendly" Mezzoloth for most of the game, and my character may or may not have flirted with him to keep him friendly and on side. I mean he was awesome because our DM made him so, but sometimes that's all it takes for a memorable NPC.

And next session we actually get out onto the plains of Hell. Or Avernus as it's also known. And I'm kind of excited. I'm sure it will all go tits up in a matter of seconds, but it'll be fun while it lasts.

Plus I'm going to transform into a Giant Eagle in the next game, so that'll be fun.

In other news, there is no news.

Today was still a rinse and repeat of the last... forever.

I was originally going to make some sort of chicken soup... I mean I know I made chicken soup last Sunday, but a different kind of chicken. And somewhere along the way it just turned into beefy tomatoey soup. Or it will when I make it.

Otherwise we shopped, we came back here, we watched a bunch of stuff on the YubTubs, we went and got some lunch and then Ma toddled off home.

So yeah.

Current mood:

photo saturday: kite colours

Late Autumnal sunshine... if I was a housecat I would lie on my back in it and dissolve into the catpuddle state. Otherwise, I'm just grateful that this apartment is orientated where Summer sunshine doesn't actually hit the front windows of my apartment, whereas Autumn and Winter comes right in the door.

I feel like that was massively incoherent, but I've been staring at a blank screen for a while, so that's what you get. Which may be a metaphor for this week. Or not... I may have forgotten what a metaphor is also.

So...

I made beef and vegetable soup this week. I bought the "wrong" kind of beef to be honest. As in one that didn't fall apart after cooking, like a gravy beef... I mean it wasn't bad, just not what it could have been. I also cooked the onion with some balsamic vinegar which was interesting, flavour wise.

On a totally unrelated note, I discovered a couple of amazing movies this week. In a genre that I didn't even necessarily know was a thing... Korean zombie movies. The movies in question are Rampant and Train to Busan.

Rampant is doubly unique in that it is also a period movie... and I don't think there are many period zombie movies (that are actually good). It's not quite a "wire-fu" movie, and I will say that one of the things that entranced me was the costume design (because who doesn't love a fabulous hat). Train to Busan is just AMAZING though. An interesting zombie mechanic, a great location (the aforementioned train) and a hell of an ending.

Both movies have a similar narrative structure in a number of ways, which I actually didn't mind, because there's always going to be some level of formula to this type of movie, and it worked well in both cases.

So if you like the zombie genre, take that as a recommendation.

This week's DnD games counted to a total of one. In the first case caused by non epidemic sickness of small child and in the second case, because I just wasn't feeling the Wednesday game. Honestly I don't even know if there was a Wednesday game. I haven't checked.

 Friday night's game was decent... the first one we've actually done in... I dunno... a month maybe... three weeks certainly. And we did very well for the first half, and then during the second half it was combat after combat after combat. Not sure there was anything we could have done about some of them, but some of it got confusing.

And the explanation for the confusion will have to wait until next week. So there's that.

Otherwise the week was a whole lot of nothing.

And I'm still waiting for news about when someone is coming to fix my oven door. Which I will definitely follow up next week.

Today was 100% rinse and repeat. Supermarket with latex gloves and social distancing. The ingredients for a chowder based soup. YubTubs. And then we took the trip to Haighs we attempted last week. And succeeded.

And that was that.

Current mood:

photo saturday: outlined adventures

Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Dungeons and Dragons, have been releasing free content for a number of weeks now, so that people can either play at home or play from home using online tools. Which is great, and I love. Amongst the adventures they've also been releasing colouring pages "to download and complete by artists of all ages". And I've been downloading all of them.

And while I never really got into the whole "adult colouring" craze, with actual physical colouring with pencils, I do love digitally colouring things. So I did some colouring. Imperfect colouring in a number of cases, but enjoyable colouring.

All four of these are from the Dungeons and Dragons Adventures Outlined Coloring Book by Todd James. Clockwise, from the top left we have the all consuming gelatinous cube, the creepy grell, a bunch of sweet, harmless flumphs and a very hungry mimic.

In other events...

I made potato, leek and bacon soup this week... all blended up and what have you. Pretty decent too.

This week's DnD total count came to two. With an additional round of board gaming.

Monday's night's game with the Friday night crew was good. I may need to make some adjustments to the character design... not the stats or anything, just the personality traits, since the way I'm playing doesn't gel with the way I designed the personality... and the way I play very much depends on the personality of your DM also... or at least it does for me.

We finished the long, drawn out game on Wednesday night. And it's a module I love. But like I think I said last week, this might have been the wrong module for the wrong group at the wrong time. Like, I might have been able to play this with a different group online... or I might have been able to play it with this group if we were doing face-to-face games. Or a different adventure. I dunno.

Or maybe I'm in a mood in general, or that group specifically. Or who the hell knows what's going on right now.

Friday's game-to-be was deferred due to sickness of small child. So we played some board games instead and did a little bit of chatting, but not a huge amount. It was required... therapy?

In other news, the door to my oven will no longer close. It's been temperamental for a little while now, but on Friday, after I finished making roasted mushrooms for lunch, I opened the door to put the big oven tray back in and the door wouldn't shut.

Fuck, fuck, fuckkity fuck.

Hopefully my land agent/landlord actually gets off their proverbials and gets somebody out to take a look at it/fix it... because it's almost time that I can make bread again, and I want to make bread (and then share it with other people) goddamn it.

It also meant that everything that caught my eye at the supermarket today was oven based.

Because as soon as you tell me I can't have something, it makes me want it all the more. I'm peculiar like that.

As far as today is concerned, copy paste from the last several weeks honestly. The supermarket seemed less crowded honestly. And the shelves definitely had more things in them... things of the previously missing variety anyway.

We did the shopping thing, we came back here, we did the YubTubs thing... Ma made the very silly mistake of suggesting we head over to Haighs on the Saturday before Mother's Day during a pandemic. I mean we took a drive anyway. And then saw the line down the side of the building and didn't even really slow down before we legged it. Or wheeled it, because car.

Current mood:

photo saturday: ferries

Lady Herron, the "double ender" ferry in the top left was quietly retired this week along with her sister ferry Lady Northcott. Which is super sad. I mean understandable if the maintenance costs were five times the newer boats... but still.

These photos have all appeared in the blog previously, but it seemed appropriate to bring them all together for today.

In other news... it's been 84 years. Like, just generally, it's been 84 years... 84 years since my last post. Or since the last time I left the house. Or something. I dunno, this isn't my best material.

Mostly because it's been 84 years.

Anyway.

Two and a half games of DnD this week. Well. Two games. The half a game was either a game nor DnD. Have I mentioned it's been 84 years?

On Monday the Friday group did a different thing. Which was fine, but honestly, I'd kind of rather just been playing more of the Friday game. Especially since we didn't actually play the Friday game on Friday.

Wednesday's game was... functional. I mean every body did well, and there were a few interesting moments, but given that the Wednesday game is voice only, it definitely didn't work as well as it has done in the past. Also, it's possible the group isn't the right group for this particular adventure, I dunno. I'm not sure if I want to run again... not because of this, but just generally, I don't know if running online works for me honestly. I dunno.

I dunno a lot of things at the moment honestly.

Friday was supposed to be DnD, but we had a last minute drop out... or I got told about it last minute... or whatever. So instead we just hung out, played some video games online and ended with a tour of my DM's Animal Crossing island. Because everything is about Animal Crossing right now. Except me. Because I don't have a Switch. And if I did have both a Switch and Animal Crossing I may very well forget to feed, bathe and dress myself.

But if someone wants to send me a Switch and AXNH, I'll take that risk.

Otherwise, literally nothing this week. I made chicken noodle soup, with ramen noodles. And it was decent.

This week I'm just going with flat out potato soup. All blended up and stuff.

Oh, they announced a new Assassin's Creed game this week. By way of the most ridiculous 8 hour livestream photo manipulation of a teaser image that a) was obviously vikings when I tuned in a couple of hours in, b) incredibly tedious to watch and c) either specifically done to be long and drawn out given that the artist seemed to be changing the same things over and over and over again, only to then totally cover those details with later details. Yeah, let's not do that again.

The trailer looks... very pretty. But I went back through some of the trailers for the last few AC games, and they all have very much a focus on being an assassin. Sneaking, freerunning, what have you. The most over the top version of that being Unity, where a wave of free running hooded dudes flood through the streets of Paris. And in the Origins trailer you don't even see the main character until like the last ten seconds of the thing.

And I still maintain that Odyssey isn't actually an Assassin's Creed game because a) it takes place 400 years because the canonical beginning of the assassin's brotherhood, as featured in Origins (also the game is fucking called Origins) and b) no hidden blade.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla doesn't look especially assassin-y either. The trailer is just one big battle. And yes the hidden blade is back... but yeah, the series seems to have gone in a different direction now and I don't think that direction is for me. Which is fine. Especially if they're going to put more of those dumb sailing/boat missions in (which they totally are going to do because longboats), because I'm so fucking over those... since Black Flag basically.

I also understand that there's a whole base/settlement building mechanic... which is... fine? But it that means the settlement will get attacked continually and you need to defend it, I don't know I'm that bothered.

Stupidly, the one thing that is a draw for me is that in this one the bird companion that has been with you in the last two game returns... as a raven. Which it originally was supposed to be I believe. And makes sense given the setting. But... raven!

Anyway.

Compared with last week, today's supermarket trip, today was super chill. Granted we were there a little earlier than we have been of late. But yeah, it was much better. And the shelves are starting to refill slowly.

After shopping we headed to Haighs to see if they had any of the broken eggs left. Sadly no. But we'll live.

Then we came back here, did the YubTubs thing, then Ma went home around 1pm.

Current mood:

photo saturday: shrine

Life continues.

Which is kind of all you can say about the world right now.

I made pseudo minestrone soup this week. I say pseudo because I didn't use a recipe, I just threw a bunch of things that seemed like they should be in minestrone in a pot, and declared it good.

And it was good, to be honest.

There only ended up being one online game of DnD this week. And that was the Monday edition of the Friday game. And my character absolutely should be dead.But we have a kind DM. I mean, I say kind, she still handed us our asses. But nobody died.

And my character got into an argument with the new character, which was great... because big juicy roleplay is always great.

Wednesday's game was called off on account of birthday. Honestly, a birthday that should have been mentioned way, way earlier than it was. Or rather an inability to play because of said birthday should have been mentioned earlier. But, it meant I took a week off, and that wasn't the worst thing in the world.

And interestingly (or whatever), now that I think about it, the Friday game was also called off by a birthday. But a birthday not of one of the players, but one that removed half our group. So the remaining half (and by which I mean me and the other guy) still got together on Discord, talked shit and just hung out for a few hours.

Otherwise Friday was just plain weird.

It started off with me getting a little emotional over random YouTube videos... yeah, I know... but it's what happened. And it was fine, I did it, then I got up, started making the bed and just found myself crying again. I wasn't especially sad, I wasn't emotional at all really, but my body just had other plans.

So I cried while making the bed. I cried while having a shower. I cried shampooing my hair. I cried right up until the point I brushed my teeth. Because, it's hard to brush your teeth and cry. And it's not like I cried solidly that whole time. It was just clear that my body had plans that didn't include me.

Very weird.

I have a feeling my body just had a build up of stress hormones and needed a way to dump them before I needed to go out and do things in the world.

Because that was the other part of the day. Going into the world. It started with a trip into the city for my chiro appointment. I considered just taking the car, but ended up deciding on the bus. And wearing gloves. Because gloves.

I had the whole bus to myself. Except for the driver, obviously. But it was still weird. As was being in town for the first time in... I dunno, four, five weeks. Whenever my last chiro appointment was. And while I wouldn't call it "deserted" by any specific definition, it was definitely sparse.

So I did the chiro thing, wandered along the Mall, because I just wanted to see what everything was like.

Sparse.

I came home, shared the bus with one other person.

And then, because of today's half-day public holiday, I went to the supermarket. Alone. On a Friday. At noon. On the day before a half-day public holiday.

Yes, those of you paying attention will understand that while necessary, it was a bad idea. I mean it wasn't a disaster, but too many people, and not enough of them seemingly paying attention. To what they're doing or what other people are doing to be honest.

But I did what I needed to do, got my stuff and stuff for Ma... if it wasn't for the current state of the world, it would have felt very much like the bad old days after Ma was recovering from her shoulder injury.

Then I came home and made bread. Because Ma still came down this morning, but we didn't go shopping, so I decided to make bread. Turns out I haven't made bread at all in almost 30 days (not counting the hot cross buns)... and I haven't made bread to actually share with people in around 40 days. And I missed it. Both the making and the sharing... but mostly the making with the intention of sharing.

Anyway, Ma came down in the morning, we ate bread, watched crap on the YubTubs and whatnot and then she headed off home.

So yeah, life indeed continues.

Current Mood:

photo saturday: scientifica legofica

Day 562...

Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have the account above; and I made a large tent, which to preserve me from the rains that in one part of the year are very violent there, I made double - one smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it; and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among the sails.

Fun fact... I just discovered that Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe (above), was deathly afraid of full stops... his writing seemingly having very, very, very few of them.

Yeah, I was doing a bit... but I can't get over how dense his writing is. That whole paragraph is one fucking long run-on, semi-coloned sentence. Wow.

Anyway, moving on...

This week's attempt at chowder was... serviceable. I got distracted while it was cooking and may have left it on the simmer for longer than was necessarily good for it. It was fine, but not thrilling.

I did attempt making hot cross buns. It was likewise serviceable. Even if I should have left them in the oven for another five minutes. I don't know if it was just the recipe that was a bit m'eh, or it was me... but I won't be using that one again.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday were all online DnD nights. Monday and Friday was our regular Friday night game (you know what I mean)... and then I ran something on Wednesday. I'll be honest, I don't love running online. Or at least when it's audio only. I think I'd just feel better if there was video. Especially for that group.

Alas, no. I had done a lot of set up in Roll 20, the platform we've been using. So at least that worked well.

This coming week I'm running the second half.

Thursday was Haircut Day. Correction, Thursday was supposed to be Haircut Day. I cancelled it. On the down side that does move the "I'm gunna do something drastic to my hair" Doomsday Clock five minutes closer to... you know... drastic.

Or else I'm just going to end up looking like Worzel Gummidge.

Otherwise, not much of anything else. I genuinely didn't leave the house between getting home from the supermarket last Saturday and dumping a bunch of recycling in the bins downstairs on Friday afternoon.

So there's that.

Today was actually a relatively chill shopping trip. I mean people are still intensely ridiculous and don't pay attention, but that notwithstanding, it was fine.

I'm aiming for a minestrone soup this week... or at least a pseudo minestrone.

Otherwise everything was fine, we got back here, watched some YubTubs once again. And then around noon Ma wandered off home.

Current mood:

photo saturday: blue layers

Leaving the house is stressful.

I know, I know, Captain Obvious, newsflash, film at eleven. Still true though.

So... I made beef stew. Not perhaps the most artful or well constructed beef stew. I maybe added a little too much flour to it later in the process to try and thicken it, plus I added the last of my brown rice. But not quite soon enough so that first bowl on Sunday night, it was still a little undercooked. I mean once I reheated some of it the next day it was fine. But still.

And I totally fucked the pearl/pickling onions. By which I mean I ended up slicing them in half to make them go further and they just dissolved into individual onion pieces. Ah well.

The beef itself was beautiful and tender though. And it wasn't the worst. It was just distinctly average. Which is perfectly fine. It's not like I got bored with it.

Anyway.

There were three DnD games again this week... our Friday game became both Monday and Friday, and we finally finished off the punishing series of adventures on Wednesday.

Monday's game might have been a mistake... and I say that only because one of our party died. Like dead dead. The character obviously, not the player. And I surrendered the rest of the party to the bad guys because what the hell else was I going to do, we would all have ended up with new characters otherwise.

So then on Friday we had a possible chance to bring him back, or rather we had the opportunity to say our goodbyes and his player then made a decision about whether or not to bring him back. He chose not to, which is fine. But now we have to create new relationships with this completely new character. I'll be honest, I don't hate the new character, it made contextual sense, but it's just gunna take a while before this new character finds her niche.

It'll be interesting though.

Wednesday was an exercise in frustration. I mean these last three modules have been an exercise in frustration. But when the final session is essentially one big combat encounter and you get stunned for basically the last, I dunno, 45 minutes to an hour maybe. I mean I started off combat with a big boom and knocked a big bunch of health off some of the final bad guys, but it was a super frustrating encounter anyway, and then not being able to do a damn thing was doubly so. I mean it mostly was the fault of my dice and/or random chance. But still.

At least we're done with those adventures now. And those characters are now essentially the highest level any of us have that we're still playing (basically they're about the same as the ones we just finished playing the Out of the Abyss campaign with).

But I'm going to run the next adventure, which may go for between two and four sessions, depending. But it's one I've run before, and I like, so we'll see how badly these particular friends manage to fuck it up. Because they will. And I'll punish them appropriately in game when they do.

Thursday was... not usual. After being pulled over the other week for a non-working brake light, I needed to take my car in for a service, and to get the light fixed obviously. So I set out early, dropped the car at our usual mechanic and then waited for Ma to show up and give me a ride home.

I don't like outside right now. Outside is where other people are.

But I did some outside, then we came back here, did nothing much really. We put a movie on that I mostly ignored and fiddled around with the laptop. And then the mechanic called around lunchtime and we headed back, I picked up the car and we went our separate ways.

So not very much really... but you know, outside.

Which brings us around to today. Saturday and the supermarket.

I pseudo realised (in so much as it had probably already occurred to me, but I just hadn't spent any time on the thought) that right now shopping is the most stressful thing I'm doing... actually that most people are doing.

And of course people who don't usually shop first thing on a Saturday morning are thinking to themselves "hey, I'll go in early and get things done first thing". Which is a great idea if dozens of other people weren't having the same thought. So there end up being more people than usual... and those people aren't all thinking clearly because everyone's brains are fried right now.

So I might have very politely told off a couple of women early in the trip for going the opposite way around the supermarket. Yes, yes, I know. But the supermarket put up a gigantic sign in the entryway asking people to do it, and, you know what, I'm shopping with a woman in her 70's, so you better follow fucking directions and abide by social distancing. On the up side, at least one of those women then inform someone else who was going in the wrong direction, so, you now what, my work here is done. I know most people aren't doing it on purpose, see earlier comment about fried brains, but sometimes you gotta poke people gently from a safe distance.

The unfortunate thing was that we then kept running into the same two women, but I'll live with that.

I also took a moment to tell the woman assigned to the self-serve checkouts that her bunny ears looked fabulous, because they did. And it seemed to improve her day, so that's good.

Anyway... we both went in with the solid idea that we weren't going to buy as much stuff... and somehow about half way through I think the wheels fell off that idea. But we did find some face masks. Very expensive face masks I will say, but I feel better having them.

I'm making some version of chowder this week. Probably more of a corn/pea/general vegetable chowder, I mean I do have some chicken in the freezer, so I could add that, but who knows.

Once we got back here we faffed around a little, then Ma just headed home. Because what else is there to do right now.

Current mood:

photo saturday: verticals

Every time I got to start one of these posts of late, all I can think of is this fanciful Tumblr post about very long queues while visiting the supermarket in the lead up to a snowstorm from 2016...

Day 27: we have created a new colony, hidden among the dried goods and Italian import section…we hear rumors of a similar colony in the frozen food aisle, perhaps we might trade with them.

Day 32: we sent a band of our people out to try and establish contact with the Frozen Food Peoples…they did not return.At night we hear screaming and tell ourselves it is the wind.

Night 33: It is not the wind.

The full version is worth reading.

So clearly, I've gone around the bend, yes? Honestly it's kinda hard to tell right now.

I did, however, decide completely on a whim to bake a chocolate cake at 4pm the other day. Don't ask me what day, they all run together for the most part. And then yesterday I got up out of my chair and started rearranging three shelves in my pantry. I mean it was good because I was able to work out what the fuck I actually had. But then I swapped all my remaining plastic containers for glass jars. That may have been a mistake, given the relative space I lost, but glass jars make me happy, so there's that.

Also, without context, this has made me smile a number of times this week, and I'm therefore recommending it to almost everyone I speak to.

You know how I regularly say that there is a day in March that starts out with me wearing shorts and ends with me in a hoodie? Well after a couple of false starts, that week finally appeared. Very late being the last week in March/first week in April, but better late than never.

But let's try and keep some sense of normality and backtrack to the start of the week.

Chicken noodle soup this week... using one regular chicken stock and one Thai noodle soup base. Not bad. Spicy enough to be interesting, but not overwhelmingly so.

I baked bread on Monday night, because having it with soup was more important than having it for Friday night.

If I do that again this week, I might make a whole loaf... although the fact that flour only comes in 10kg bags at the moment is slightly problematic. I mean I'll do it, don't get me wrong, but it'll only be really, really useful for as long as the yeast lasts.

This week there will be beef... something. Probably closer to stew, but aiming somewhere between soup and stew.

Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night were all online DnD nights. Of the three, Monday was the best logistically... in so much as we had video chat AND online maps. Wednesday we had voice chat and maps. Friday we just had video chat.

Weirdly, my Wednesday character, one of my oldest characters, is on a bit of a downward spiral right now. I didn't make a decision that was going to happen. But the DM asked us questions at the start of the game during the last couple of sessions about our character's state of mind and what they were up to, and my character made some interesting choices. Ending up with her spending at least a couple of weeks taking a room in a festhall (ie brothel), drinking, fighting and fucking. Interestingly, while there isn't a ton of info on the place, I did find this:

The Velvet Doublet: A festhall that caters to the wealthy. Known to satisfy those with exotic tastes.

Yep, that's right up my girl's alley. She has a bit of a thing for the exotic ladies. And she's absolutely swimming in coin.

Anyway... the adventure was... frustrating maybe... I dunno. The combination of the enemy type (I'm pretty sure the adventures were chosen specifically because they exploit our weakness as a party, low intelligence stats), and if we'd run them as three 4 hour sessions, that might have been fine, but it's been five 3+ hour sessions with another to go, so by the end of this module I will be very much over it. Plus I'm playing with characters who do ridiculous amounts of damage, like 'totally broken, why does this fucking ability even exist within the game, wtf' amounts. And for some reason it's getting on my nerves. Not that they're annoying with it, but when me, as the spell caster, only casts like three spells in a four hour session, it's a bit frustrating.

I'll live, I mean compared with everything else going on in the world, it literally isn't important. It's just that when everything else is out of control, you look for those little things you can attempt to control, right?

Anyway.

Friday night's session was a short one, but we're scheduling another session for Monday to make up for it. And we might do that for the next few weeks, given that we've been all over the shop for the last little while, understandably for the most part, but still.

Today was a study in me being a judgemental bitch. Which is my default state, but when you have announcements at the supermarket that say "hey, we put big blue arrows on the floor, you should follow the arrows", and 90% of people do that... I'm going to be a judgemental bitch at the other 10%. Because stupid people who think the rules don't apply to them.

Otherwise, we bought more stuff than we should have. It's not even like we're "stockpiling", it's just that we keep buying more stuff than usual. Which is a problem. I think. I honestly don't know.

Remember last week when I said I had that human moment with the woman at the deli counter? Yeah, happened again with the same woman today, and turned into a very surface level conversation, but it was still nice. And the girl on the checkout was a little spitfire, but I liked her. I think she might have been mid-complaint about stupid people when we got there, and I always enjoy that.

Anyway, my weekly excursion over, we headed back here, did the usual YubTubs thing and then Ma headed home.

Welcome to the next six months, basically.

Current mood:

photo saturday: stone and structures

The current End of the World continues... the main problem, as with all things since the invention of humans, is people.

People is dumb motherfuckers. It makes me think of that quote from Men in Black:

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

Particularly the people who don't think the rules apply to them. The people who decided to go to the beach today, and seeing a large number of other people there didn't immediately say "hmmm, that's a bad idea, let's not do that". And those people at the supermarket that just don't pay attention to where other people are or where they're going.

If we make it through the next several weeks without me either very pointedly telling people in a shopping centre exactly what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing or just screaming the same information in a much less effective manner, then I should get a fucking medal.

But, let's rewind.

We entered soup season with a bang, I made chicken chowder, the soup I've been thinking about basically since last soup season. It was pretty much perfect with the possible exception of it not necessarily having much spicy kick to it. But then that's not really the point of chowder. It was much better than having to think of what to make multiple times in a week.

This week I'm attempting chicken noodle soup. Because my soul needs it.

DnD got very technological this week. I actually played twice, once on Monday and then with the regular Wednesday night group.

The Monday session was a special one off game that was also a one-on-one session that I quite enjoyed. I will say that the author is way too fond of just doing a straight version of existing pop culture properties with only minimal interpretations. It worked pretty well this time around, but honestly, everyone needs to get over this Witcher/Mandalorian boner they have right now. I'm sure they're good, but when you've seen one "homage", then you pretty much know the shape of the story.

Or I'm possibly just a grumpy old man right now.

Or maybe both.

The Wednesday session was not the total chaos I fully expected it to be. Partially because it was our first attempt at doing the online thing, partially because it was a reduced number of people and not the 6-7 plus DM I was expecting.

And we managed to finish the adventure we started a couple of weeks back. So bonus there.

There should have been a third session on Friday night, but due to circumstances one of our number had to step out of the game, so instead the remaining three played board games online. Thanks to a very quick online search, I found Board Games Arena. Not perfect, some of the games we would have otherwise played were locked behind their "premium" account, but we found a few games that we knew and played the living shit out of one of them.

All the while being in a video chat... so it was definitely a good way to finish off the week.

The site could get to be addictive however.

I also made what might end up being the last Friday night bread for a while. I'd kinda rather make Monday bread to enable me to have soup with bread during the week honestly. And making it just for me isn't the same as making it to share with other people. Much less fulfilling.

I didn't leave the house between around noon on Sunday to around the same time on Friday when I took on the pointless task of checking Coles for toilet roll at Ma's request. Because the people in Coles in the middle of the day on a Friday... most of them were exactly what I was complaining about at the top of this post.

Doubly so because the worst offenders were people in their 60's and above and a woman pushing a stroller with a toddler in it. WTF.

The toilet paper aisle was half taken up with their Easter egg supplies. That possibly says something about the world, but buggered if I know what it is.

What was weird was the lack of any seating at any of the cafes, and also none of the shops seemed to be doing those free food samples. I'm glad, don't get me wrong, but overall it just felt weird.

Today wasn't as fraught, shopping wise. Although again, worst offenders, old people.

There was also another one of those little human moments that just made me feel slightly better. One of the women at the deli counter, who I've seen if not every week, more weeks than not, shared a smile with me as she handed me my purchases. Not sure if it was because I was one of the few people actually standing in the taped areas they'd put on the floor in the last week, or if we were just having a human moment for no reason.

Then when I got to the register I actually thanked the check out girl, because everything about that job has to suck right now. Dealing with people. Dealing with those, hopefully rare, cases when people are trying to buy more stuff than they should. Standing there in latex gloves for hours at a time. All so we can buy our milk and our pasta and our baked beans.

Do me a favour, next time you're served by anyone in a shop, tell them you appreciate them and what they're doing right now. I mean 3000% do that if you know anybody who is a health care professional of any stripe right now. But also thank anybody who provides you with goods or services in exchange for money right now.

We also wore latex gloves to the supermarket today. We absolutely were not the only ones either. A few people even had masks and gloves (some just in masks, which I get but also, you've gone that far, let's just do gloves also, yeah?). Like that's the world right now. Shopping wearing latex gloves. And resisting every single urge in your body to touch your face with said glove.

After that, obviously, we came straight back here. And I unpacked and we did the YubTubs thing, talked crap for a bit and then Ma went home and it wasn't even noon.

Current mood: