The Cracked Mug v 2.0

[erikavonkaiser]

Work yesterday was inexplicably busy (yo it's a random Monday in December can y'all stop doin', like, murder? the fuck) and today I have a bunch of tasks to do, so I'm sitting for a minute to space out before engaging Go, Random Bullshit mode.

I need to:
• get a full run of groceries (my goal is not to have to even perceive a grocery store after today until post-Christmas, as I am a fragile himbo easily terrified by grouchy holiday crowds)
• do a load of laundry
• call in RX refill
• leave for work early to stop and get a document notarized for a friend's thing

The good news is once I get all that done I'm pretty set for the rest of the week!

[erikavonkaiser]

I need to:
• get a full run of groceries (my goal is not to have to even perceive a grocery store after today until post-Christmas, as I am a fragile himbo easily terrified by grouchy holiday crowds)
• do a load of laundry
• call in RX refill
• leave for work early to stop and get a document notarized for a friend's thing

I did all of the things! And getting the document notarized went way faster than the time I allotted for it (I went to a UPS store and wasn't sure if it would be busy due to holidays) so I was able to stop by my favorite tea store, which was nearby, and restock on some loose tea. I don't mind bagged tea, but that place has some loose leaf tea blends that are

I also nabbed some deli cupcakes and a Christmas card, which I delivered to Baby Dog's veterinarian's office today! I had her dress up for the occasion and she received many pats and belly scratches.

Aside from that I made some soup this morning to take to work with me and played a bit of ESO --

(I gotta remember to log in for my daily reward!! I completely forgot that was a thing and since I'm a new player literally any free thing is nifty and useful. Oh, and I hit level ten so I have a horsie now!!! Two Sauce horse girl hours let's GOOOOO)

-- then I skipped out on heavy duty exercising in favor of taking Baby Dog on a nice long walk. The weather is nice today, which is a relief from the past few days where it's been bitter cold and windy. Today it's normal winter temps and the sun is actually out! Well, until it sets in like four minutes, but at least solstice is like ... tomorrow, I think? Anyway, I'm gonna eat some soup and look up some ESO stuff because I am confused by lockpicking and also wanna figure out how to increase my bank inventory and if there are any newbie quests I need to prioritize.

[erikavonkaiser]

I've made two batches of a corn chowder soup thing and it's fucking delicious but dear god is it ugly, idk what these instagram recipe people do but I do not know any way to blend onions and corn in a way that doesn't come out looking like sad porridge

It's super tasty, though

[erikavonkaiser]

• call in RX refill

This reminds me my job has unlocked new variants of this abbreviation

Rx = prescription
Hx = history (medical history)
Fx = fracture
Dx = diagnosis

[erikavonkaiser]

Vampire Hunter D Volume 13: Twin Shadowed Knight - Parts One and Two by Hideyuki Kikuchi

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First off, I've made the executive decision to not give these books, specifically, a star rating, because my enjoyment of them is kind of separate from how I would rate other books and is mostly defined by how good they are in comparison to the other ones. If that makes sense? Anyways, I'm just gonna stick to putting them in a list of best-to-worst per my personal taste and not worry about actually giving them a consistent star rating. I'll go back and edit the other ones at some point, maybe.

That being said, this one was very good! Probably one of my favorites so far, actually. The damsel is S-Tier and has some great banter with Left Hand;

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She is a fortune-teller's daughter and a) uses her magic ability to be useful b) stays the fuck out of the way when appropriate to do so c) I don't remember what my third point was but anyways Mia's great, we love Mia.

The actual story was good, as well! The tl;dr is an ancient Noble facility begins "waking up" autonomously and D is invested because it's tied to his own past (his father made it) and in exploring it he uncovers his twin. They are actually biological brothers, although it's a bit complicated and the twin considers himself and D to just be the same person. Initially it seems like a "good D" vs "evil D" situation but the twin isn't really evil, per say, and does end up more helpful than not throughout the story. I enjoyed it! It did meander a bit near the end but still came to a nice close.

(at one point D and his brother face off in a 1v1 and Left Hand is like KNOCK IT OFF, HOLY SHIT and they both kinda sulk like kids about it lmao)

Ordered from most to least-liked, and I am forcing myself not to give commentary on my decisions:

Vampire Hunter D Volume 5: The Stuff of Dreams
Vampire Hunter D
Vampire Hunter D Volume 13: Twin Shadowed Knight - Parts One and Two
Vampire Hunter D Volume 8: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea - Part Two
Vampire Hunter D Volume 7: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea - Part One
Vampire Hunter D Volume 10: Dark Nocturne
Vampire Hunter D Volume 9: The Rose Princess
Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Vampire Hunter D Volume 3: Demon Deathchase
Vampire Hunter D Volume 6: Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane
Vampire Hunter D Volume 2: Raiser of Gales

#books2023

[erikavonkaiser]

also the back-of-book-blurbs for Vampire Hunter D light novels often either suffer from translation issues or Dark Horse gets an incorrect synopsis to work from, because they're usually a bit off the mark:

Screenshot 2023-12-21 112918.png

This implies that D actually splits into two people, a good and evil half, and additionally that his evil half gets bitches

Friends, I am here to tell you that neither D nor his twin (who is his actual biological brother and only mildly evil) get any bitches

[erikavonkaiser]

Also while that synopsis is wrong the idea that splitting D in two produces a regular D and then one entirely separate D who actually enjoys the company of women is hilarious

[erikavonkaiser]

I have been playing ESO for four minutes and I'm already exhausted by people who arbitrarily say it's a dead game that's going to be shut down soon, when it is a game that just released a major expansion pack and gets frequent updates

[erikavonkaiser]

Bethesda has Microsoft dollars now, even, so I'm not sure why the assumption is being made that ESO is doomed to be mass deleted in the next seven minutes but World of WarCraft, a game that is a decade older than ESO, will live eternal

like yeah probably at some point it'll get shut down but they haven't even given a ballpark release timeframe for Elder Scrolls 6 so I think we're good for the foreseeable future

[erikavonkaiser]

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