ELSEWHERE

I've got a thing I've been working on for a few months and I thought I'd finally gotten all the parts for it, but I turn out to have forgotten something so now I need to wait for that to arrive as well, womp womp

Talked with dad on the phone today, he is doing fine despite the heat. The landlord semi-recently had every tree on the property removed, so there's no shade now and the heat is brutal especially when you consider that the house is occupied by two elderly people. Some context for people who don't live in the county: here, you are either in an area that is serviced by the local community-owned utilities company or you're stuck with PG&E which gouges its customers for every red cent it can (and also causes immense problems in the state by not keeping its infrastructure up to code); dad is one of the former so it means something that his SMUD bill has been $300 a month. Aside from that, though, he has been golfing and laying on the couch, watching TV, and (I assume) attending AA meetings. He has another court date September 17th, and has reason to believe this will be the last time they push things out on him. Fingers crossed he has been showing enough good faith that they go easy on him.

The weather is supposed to be very nice the rest of this week and over the next, and I'm going to try to go visit him. ash we should also do something one of these coming weekends. And schedule that final Arcadia scene to record together

Did half my watering! Going to try to keep on doing it daily for a bit, give the plants some respite from the summer. On average, July and August are our hottest months (with identical average temperatures), so we just need to make it through this month. Even if we have a particularly hot September it will not be as bad as these couple of months have been, fingers crossed. And the sunset is getting noticeably earlier, which is more time for the ground to cool off overnight!

ash and I watched an interesting video about the kinds of jobs you can get with a linguistics degree, and then another Farscape. This was the episode where we find out the ship is pregante, which I'm almost positive we've watched before, but as I keep saying it's been long enough that we don't remember the details as we're moving along, anyway, so it's fine to be seeing things a second time. Tonight I will see about getting RE2 running on the deck and then maybe we'll get that started tomorrow

I have been itching for a video game to zone out with and nothing I've been poking at has been doing it for me. I'm not sure what I'm after, but I also should be playing less video games and doing more, not-video-games, anyway, so. Maybe I'll get off my butt and get some things done.

For now, y'all know the drill. More dinner, youtube, then other stuff, whatever that ends up being

Over a couple-few days here I listened to Camp Here & There, a Wacky podcast about a summer camp where things happen like penguin attacks and mercury rain and where the food is always things like "cotton soup", "a smattering of smooth stones", and "grilled pineapples with tabasco sauce". It is very, very clearly inspired by Welcome to Nightvale, down to the way episodes are framed and laid out. It is interesting, not super my thing, which is why I was able to listen to it, because I knew it wasn't going to be anything significant or anything for me.

I listened to it because a song I really like has turned out to have been made for the soundtrack for the show, and I was curious about the character whose theme is that song (the character is nothing to write home about), but as I started digging into the show a little I have discovered that the making of the show is much more interesting than the show itself, though hard to find details on. Which is fine, because they're the sort of details that are none of my business unless one of the people involved wants to make it the internet-at-large's business, but the short of it is that the two creators behind the show have apparently had some kind of falling out, and one of them has said that he wants out of the show and to never have anything to do with it anymore -- and, it seems, has broken up with the other creator, romantically (I think?) in the process. This is a major problem for the show because he was the voice for the deuteragonist and had a lot of very important plot points hinging on him, and the finale actually wraps up one of those plots by... having the protagonist and deuteragonist have a heartfelt conversation about how they're going to spend more time together and be more open with each other and communicate more, and also makes their relationship Official. Awkward!

The splitting of ways happened a few years ago, now, and the second season of the show has not happened, both for the above and for the other writer who is sticking around, experiencing some other awful life events. The patreon is stuff from 2022, including 'Hey since the guy who's left has his name in the company name, I need to change that, what do y'all think of this option?' (change has not happened) and audition reels for recasting that character, and then in April a post that also went on the main website about 'I'm sorry I haven't had anything for you in a while, here is what has been happening, I promise I'm still working on the show', and then in June a "teaser script" -- so, you know, doesn't look to be dead dead, but jeez. Definitely an uphill climb, and I wish that creator the best and hope the second season goes and goes well.

Oh, and their twitter has also gone private

 
I have been playing Viscera Cleanup Detail, I've knocked out a couple of levels (finishing one I was partway through, getting all the way through a second, and now I've started a third). I've also been working on a creative thing, but it's still very early days on that. And I started reading the most recent Wayward Children book.

Today, ash and I watched a Farscape, and then a few Steven Universes, and then he went to bed early because joint pain. I did get RE2 working on the deck, so when we have time to start digging into a new game, we can do that. Tomorrow, I should try to go to the store, and the missing part for the thing should arrive in the mail, hopefully. I also once again need to shave and shower, because being alive is an endless trial.

Both of the cats are Extremely interested in something on the ceiling that I can't see, and also are both completely ignoring the actual fly that's buzzing around my room

Shaved and showered today! Did my hair, too, and did it all in the shower so I did it with only one mirror, so the mohawk is a little wonky, but I didn't miss any spots and it turned out pretty good for not being able to see the back of my head.

We started RE2 tonight! I am struggling with it, and died, uh, I think it was just after the bus so we stopped there and I'll have to replay that far again. It is fun and I'm enjoying the corniness and wibbly graphics (that reminds me a video about playstation graphics got put on my radar recently and I wanted to watch it... if I can find it again,,,), but the lack of subtitles is a bummer and I'm not looking forward to having to do boss fights. Will keep at this for a bit and see if I get the hang of it soon, otherwise we'll switch to the remake

Stardew with Dave! Grange display today, got full marks and first place on it. We also finished another community center bundle -- just need the rabbit's foot, I think! We have helped a raccoon find a wife, and we're going to get Willy's boat fixed up and upgrade Dave's shack again.

Want to poke at creative project a bit before bed, but of course first it's dinner and youtube.

I've been so very fatigued lately, physically. I'm definitely at a point where I need to fight back against it (gently) by forcing myself to spend more time upright and semi-active, but that's hard. It's hard to be exhausted but make yourself keep doing things anyway. Things like, standing, or, walking across the room, or, sit up,,,

Finished Mislaid in Parts Half Known (Wayward Children 9) a few days ago -- it's interesting, I liked it well enough though it's not one of my top reads for that series. More interesting is that the writing it is noticeably better than the writing in previous books of the series, to me, which is notable simply because Seanan McGuire is such a prolific author that you just kind of start assuming that if she were going to improve on something she would have done it by now (like, that her flaw is a deliberate stylistic choice she's making). But it just goes to show that there is always improvement to be made and we are always getting better at the things we practice doing!

There are some between-book short stories in that series that I need to read, but I instead picked Into the Drowning Deep up again simply because it's already on my phone and I was already a few dozen pages into it. Now I'm a few dozen more

Supposed to go to dad's this week but I'm not sure I'm physically able to get myself there, might talk with ash about getting a ride on a weekend day again. Also still need to get to the store but in addition to being fatigued I'm also broke, womp womp.

Sleep soon. Gonna chill out for a little while longer first

God I miss being able to just buy software instead of paying for it every month forever

Hmmmmmm I am suspicious that the landlords have stopped paying the pool guy again

He forgot his hat here last week, and it's gone now so he's definitely been here. But the pool doesn't look like it's been cleaned.

(He also hasn't filled it in forever, no matter how low I accidentally let the water get, but that wouldn't be related to payment or lack thereof)

 
it's wimdy

Woke up, listened to a podcast while I ate some bread and peanut butter, waited for my phone to charge, and then I finally went to the store and got some more baby food for Oz and cereal for me. I considered taking the bus, which wouldn't change the length of time I'd be out but it would halve the amount of walking I'd need to do -- but that bus apparently only comes every hour? So was inconvenient, and didn't end up ready to go to or from at a time when the bus would be there soon. Annoying! That street is a pretty busy thoroughfare, it should have better public transport

Apparently when I took my headphones off to be checked out, the pad on one of the ear pieces fell off and the man behind me handed it back to me, but I guess when I was juggling it and my change and my groceries I must have dropped it again because I don't have it now. I realised I had no idea where it ended up while I was taking my mask off and putting my headphones back on outside the store but I really just didn't have the energy to go back in and look for it. I need to consider replacing those headphones, anyway -- I really wish a higher quality headphone company made the kind of clip-on headphones I like! -- but even if I don't do that for a while (which I won't), it doesn't sit on the ears tight enough to be a bother, or I can just replace the pad itself probably.

Anyway, walked home and then laid down with the cat and continued listening to podcasts, before dozing off a little for a couple hours. I am listening to The Tolkien Professor, which is what it sounds like

ash and I watched a Farscape with dinner, and then we played some more Resident Evil 2. We actually switched to the remake for a bit because I was struggling with the original, in a way that I would be fine just fighting through if it were just me playing but I don't want to make ash sit through that, so I was going to play the original on my own so I could be like 'Oh they changed this' while we played the remake, but then I remembered the original was made in 1998 and probably had cheat codes. I couldn't find any for the PS1 version that worked but I did find some like, game genie codes for the emulator I'm playing on, so now I can refill my health whenever I want. So we'll play the original for Leon, and then Claire for the remake.

Tomorrow I'm going to dad's in the afternoon, at which point I will hopefully be awake. I really don't want to -- go, that is, not be awake -- I am low on social slots, and energy in general, but I gotta.

I've been wanting to play Death Stranding again, so last night I set that up on the playstation, and while I was at it I checked Elden Ring just out of curiosity, and it loaded up fine, so I could also play that again if I wanted. I think I'm going to stick with the Death Stranding plan, though! I also, last weekend, asked ash to help me get my piano keyboard out of storage, so I've had that and last night started poking at learning piano again.

A little over a week before classes start again! I have not in fact been reviewing the textbook -- I fell out of language brain and didn't want to push myself and risk burning out before class even started, I am sure I'll be fine. I'm hoping the information for the history class drops soon -- I know what textbooks I'll need for the Japanese class, but I don't know anything about the history class or its requirements. Oh the canvas for the Japanese course is up, I should check that out. The one for the history course exists but isn't published, so I'll keep an eye on that