September 1, 2024 - bloghan 9
Today in bloghan 9: also not much, to be honest. I didn't get invited out anywhere because no one was really doing anything. My coworkers are still reeling from the absence of the ones who left. But, new things are coming up for us, so I guess it'll all work out.
Tier list of the week
This week's tier list: polyhedral dice! This tier list is from my perspective as the forever DM and how useful I find each one. Here's the tier list:
Ordered tiers, but unordered within tiers. The d20 is just so useful because if I ever need to stall I can just ask a player to roll it for some random check related to what they're doing, and then use the result of that roll to tell me how I can guide the story. The d10 and d12 are basically novelties, barely used unless someone picks up a halberd or a greataxe. And the dotted d6... it just doesn't fit.
Personal updates (achievements, reflections, and antics)
The start of the week was... rather quiet. I walk into the office, at my new desk in the close coworkers corner. My work rival is on my right, the guy who started on the same day as me on my left, and the fourth desk empty. But most importantly, the corner was finally clean and clutter free now that the two messiest desks were cleared, and also much quieter. In fact, this was the quietest I've ever seen my work rival. I didn't mind so much, it was a nice change of pace for the corner, but I realized about 90 minutes after starting that my rival was quiet because he missed those guys. A lot. I guees this is my more impersonal nature shining through here, but I didn't really empathize. Even so, I didn't press him to talk, partly because I wanted to let him decide when he's ready to talk, and partly because I was enjoying the quiet. Finally, another person visited the corner, and he was willing to open up and drag everyone into a conversation, distracting us from work, just like he used to. We had lunch, finished off the work day, and I went home. That's how most of my days were this week.
I say I went home and nothing much happened, but that would be a lie. That night, my landlord came down, and asked if I would accompany her to a showing. She's a realtor, but she was a bit afraid to go out so late at night, with the sky being as dark as it was. I agreed, but it wasn't until I got in the car and we pulled out of the driveway that I thought, "why is there a real estate showing so late???" At that point, I got really nervous and thought I was being kidnapped, and that the whole renting thing was just to see if I was a worthy target/had good organs/was gullible enough. I started texting a friend my location and any street signs, house numbers, and license plates that I saw. Apparently, the client was also nervous about going out at night and brought a friend as well, and they spoke with my landlord in Chinese. When we went into the house, they greeted me with my first name and I was very freaked out, but looking back, I realize that she must have introduced me during that spiel I didn't understand. While inside the house, I was really nervous about if I was about to be chloroformed or something, but I had already shared my location and the hosue numebr and street name of that house with that friend, so I just gripped my keys really tightly to put up a fight if something did happen. Nothing did end up happening though, and on the way back, my landlord complained a bit about that client being so picky for a budget so low, as well as complaints on immigration and Korean food. I got back, a little shaken by how easy it was for her to get me in the car. My friend didn't even see the messages until about 10-15 minutes after I returned, and called me right away. I was in the middle of cooking when he called, but I assured him it was fine but I was really on edge. The call was helpful in reducing some of that, but it was still there (the microwave was beeping a lot and I jumped every time). His girlfriend (she is ambivalent about the events of September 11, 2001) talked too, and we discussed a bit about tall guys (6'3" and the like), and about the food I had been eating and the food I was currently cooking. I would've liked to talk a bit longer, but I felt like if they were both in person for this call, I was probably interrupting something anyways by live texting him my pseudo-kidnapping. Next time, I will try not to get kidnapped, I guess.
Tuesday was also an exception to the "not much happened after work today": after work, we went to an Asian supermarket. I bought a pomelo for my landlord, to thank her for all the stuff she's given me, a pot lid to replace the one I broke (spoiler: it was too big and I've yet to return it), and some barbeque pork buns that taste just like the ones from home. Some others with me got these novelty Kit-Kats and some tuna buns and red bean buns. We all tried out the stuff in the car, then headed back. I gave my landlord the pomelo and she was very excited, and surprised, and happy! I said my thank-yous, mostly for all the help she's given me, but in the back of my mind, I was also thankful that she wasn't kidnapping me last night.
Meanwhile, at work, not much was going on. I was pulling my hair out at this new task I took on because of some dumb library thing, but I wasn't as busy as everyone else on my team. They were all panicking over things breaking and massive changes happening, but I was kinda just doing my own tiny little tasks, completely oblivious. I'm perfectly fine with that, but my work rival had absolutely no work to do. Everything was broken so he couldn't actually work on most of his changes, and his boss was on vacation and the next person in charge was sick, so nobody was giving him much to do. I didn't mind entertaining his little questions though. Things like "who do you miss the most" and "which of the three who just left do you think woudl do such and such," things like that. And then he asked me a magical question.
"Have you ever heard of 'Dungeons & Dragons?'
I shared that I had played a bunch before, as the "forever DM." I then proceeded (at his behest) to give him a 90 minute rundown of the game, how it's played, the goals, the players, the characters, all the options, the stories I had told, the stories that I wanted to tell, the way I run it, all of this and so much more. He was engaged though all of it, asking pretty good questions, but still slipping into that "goo goo ga ga" brian ocassionally to make a joke. At the end of it, he asked if we could play, and I told him we could if we had a full party. I mentioned that one of our other coworkers once told me she played 'Baldur's Gate 3.' so she would be familiar with it, and he left the corner to pay her and some others a visit. I assumed he got up to ask the others if they wanted to play, but when he got back and I asked, he realized that maybe he should have done so. After a bit of talking at lunch, and osme visits to the corner, we secured a group of four and a potential fifth. It was agreed that a mini adventure would be run in 4 weeks for September, and that a longer adventure would take place from October to December. I would be DM for the September campaign, and I would co-DM with the coworker who played 'Baldur's Gate.' It turns out she has also played 'D&D,' but never as a DM, and that she wanted to learn. I don't really think I'm all that great at it, but I do have an overactive imagination (see the events of Monday night paragraph above), so I can't be all that bad. The next day, after work, a coworker and I drove to this local game store to buy dice. I told her to stop me if I tried buying more than one set. Which I did try. Thankfully, I was stopped. It was her first time in one of those stores, and she's not really the nerdy type, so her positive reaction to it seems like a good sign for when she tries the game. My spare time at work, including some of my lunch time, quickly became filled with writing in my notebook about what I wanted those two adventures to look like, what kind of plot, what kind of enemies, locations, timings, all of it. It brought me back that creative writing spark. I haven't filled a notebook page with pure fiction ideas in a long, long time, and it feels really good to be back.
Speaking of the sentiment of "we're so back," 'Jujutsu Kaisen' had its finale chapter this week. I won't spoil it here, but while the last chapter was all hype and not much writing quality, this chapter was... no hype and a little better writing quality. Sure, a bunch of things felt a bit anticlimatic, but I think that's becuase I was reading chapters weekly as released, instead of back to back to back like in a volume release. The level of the writing, character interaction, and narrative quality has been decreased for a while to the level of a line like, "This truly was our Jujutsu Kaisen, everyone," but it was still pretty good. Glad we got progression of Yuji's character, reaching a pretty good closing point actually. All I can really think to say about this chapter was my first thought after reading the last page: "this really was our Jujutsu Kaisen." 3 chapters left before serialization ends, so maybe things will be tied up more cleanly there, but I feel like Gege is pretty done with it. However, once Gege makes his idol manga, I will be there no matter what.
The rest of my week was either work, talking at work, being at home trying to prep for 'D&D,' or killing flies. New tenants moved into the upper floor of my place, and ever since they've bene here, a bunch of flies just appeared in the laundry room, flying into my studio by going under the door. I've been swatting them with sweatpants, sweaters, socks, and jeans, whatever I grab first, but they just keep coming. I left all the spiderwebs up becuase I thought those lazy bums would do something about it, but no! They didn't! Except for one by my desk. I heard the fly buzzing desperately, looked down, and saw it tangled up in a web. I actully saw the tiny little spider managing that web, dwarfed by the fly, deftly wrap up the fly real tight. I had the event lit up with a flashlight and watched it real close, like it was National Geographic. I missed the killing blow, but I was still pretty proud of the little guy. Meal, well deserved. My third thought after seeing it was "me and who?" The fly problem is a lot better now, there's not as many, and I've been covering drains and pouring boiling water down them, throwing out trash more often, and sweeping up more, and it's working in the studio, but not the laundry room. It's annoying to have to clean surfaces you touch a lot when a fly land on it, or to re-clean clean dishes because of the same, but those are mostly studio activities, so it's ok. I will have to figure out a better solution, but first I have to prove ot my landlord that it's not because I'm keeping garbage in the place too long. Once I get past that misconception, I think this will get a solution faster.
I also had a quick call with someone I knew from high school back in my home city. He came out here for a degree in sociology at one of the universities here, but we live pretty far away. I've played 'D&D' with him before and he seems to really want to play more, but I'll have to see what my bandwidth is for that. We were joined in that call by another friend from my home city (they have COVID right now, and they made chicken strips on call. After seeing them, I told them they should cook them for 2 minutes more, but they misheard it as 15 minutes instead and ocmpletely burned them), and someone else currently taking graphic design. We were talking class schedules and about bad professor ratings and how feasible it is to do things like co-ops and internships and classes with only 5 minutes between them. At one point, I was insulted by sociology major about using a calculator on tests to calculate single digits additions, and graphic design major told me I shouldn't just take that. I don't really know how to make a comeback, and I asked, "is my salary a good comeback?" Graphic design major said yes, and I said it, and the call went silent. I knew it was above the norm by a bit, but I guess that makes it automatically above the norm of a graphic design intern who usually doesn't get paid. After the awkwardness had dissipated, we talked for a bit more. It was nice to hear from those guys from the home city again, and it was nice meeting someone new too, but I think I'll avoid dropping the money stats as a comeback from now on.
The last notable thing happened on this Sunday. I went out to shop! I hit up a office supply store to get small binder clips (useful for making standees for 'D&D,' a dollar store for a half-inch binder (the office supply store was selling them for eight dollars, which is so unreasonable), a hardware store for those fly catching sticky ribbons, and a more general store to see if I could find some sort of mat with a grid on it, also for 'D&D' purposes. After I completed most of my shopping, I realized that I was only about 10 mintues away (walking) from my work rival's place. I text him (after I responded to a message giving me fun facts about September 11, 2001) asking him if he's home and free, and he says I can come over. I start walking, and see a coffeehouse restaurant on the way, and ask him if he wants anything. I walk out with an iced coffee for him, and a strawberry lemonade for me. I get there, text him, "I'm here," followed by, "This message is related to your Uber Eats order," and wait. He comes out of his condo complex 5 minutes later, and immediately pulls out his phone and takes a picture of me from a high perspective in "point-five" mode, whatever that means. I head up, and enter his apartment. I talk with him and his roommate around their cardboard furniture (they have only a cardboard box for a table), sitting on the floor. I feel a bit awkward for not bringing something for the roommate, but apparently he arrived after I left the restaurant, so it's all good. We kinda just talk. We exchange goss on our bosses, directors, other relvant authorities at work, get into conversation about more serious topics, like tall girls, the only two (2) experiences with flirting I've ever had, attributes like height, weight, muscle mass, and force of personality in a potential romantic partner, speedrunning rulesets for Capri-Sun drinking and pencil sharpening, femboys, protein powder, universities, towns in the middle of nowhere, catboys, 'The Emperor's New Groove,' role reversed relationships, my low level of attachment to people when they leave my life, the legend and repeated stories of the smartest kid in the class/cohort, grad trips, 'Love Live! School idol project,' the three coworker who had left, 'Love Live! Sunshine!!,' 'Dungeons and Dragons,' furniture, couches, the Japanese town of Numazu, taking selfies in front of a furniture store, threats of violence as a form or non-form of flirting, the scam that is the workplace reward system points, and my failing to understand the concept of love. You know how it is.
His roommate wanted to nap after all that, so he slid into his room. My work rival offered to cook something for me, seeing that I brought him a drink. He made some egg fried rice, having a bit of a mishap with spray on cooking oil ("why is it white???" bro, you gotta shake it first), but he made a ton of eggs (I would put only one egg in to be honest). He spiced it with black pepper and this Cajun mix, and it was the best part. I usually start with garlic and onion with bottled oil, then chopped vegetables with pepper and this random chicken spice mix I got, then a spoonful of black bean chili sauce, then whatever protein I'm eating with it. After that, two splashes of soy sauce, then I throw in my rice, mix that around, squirt in some sriracha 2-3 times, mix again, move everything to the side and crack an egg in the middle, scramble the egg in the middle until cooked, then mix everything again, then eat! I described this process to my rival as he cooked his rice, eggs, pepper and Cajun seasoning, and maybe I made him feel a bit bad. The fried rice was still pretty flavourful, and eggs were cooked in a better way than I have so far for fried rice. We had it with peach Peace Tea, he took another "point-five" pic and sent it to another coworker and I, and then we got up, put the dishes in the sink, and I headed out (he wanted to hit the gym, and I had been there for about 2 hours by now). I stopped by another store to convert some of my cash into a prepaid card (don't know what to do with it yet), got back to my place, and started writing this bloghan, putting away all my purchases for the day, and getting ready for a big day of 'D&D' prep tomorrow.
Future plans
It turns out that even if I set up very small milestones for me to hit, I still don't manage to hit them all, even if I reference the list. This is because: it also turns out that new things come up throughout the week. Lists don't remain static, but a tuple does.
- 'Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney': I got through case 5... if only the first three days of case 5 counted. I paced myself under the assumption that it was a three day trial, as it is established in canon and in the first four cases, but apparently case 5 is a rarity in being a four day trial, at minimum. Of course it is.
- 'Kirby: Planet Robobot': All 200 stickers collected! The reward of new music in the sticker menu was a pleasant surprise.
- A little walk: Explored two of the parks in my neighbourhood, and a little back path with pretty shading that I didn't know about. Pretty nice, overall. It's surprising how interconnected all these scattered parks and footpaths are. I discovered three soccer fields, a 400m track, the field of a high schoool (that explains the track I guess), a plaque dedicated to a Holocaust survivor, a rich person's backyard, the limit for the free plan of Pokémon Home being 30, and a tennis court too. Pretty nice stuff.
- Haircut: Ohhhhhhh, that's what I forgot.
As for my plans this week, the first priority is to finish prepping my D&D sessions for the month of September, including setting up the standees, pacing out sessions, and sketching out some maps. Maybe some grocery shopping for some stuff to finally finish off that spaghettini (alfredo, perhaps?), and maybe make a bit of biryani. I might give an attempt to the True Arena in 'Kirby: Planet Robobot' and I will probably finish off the first 'Ace Attorney' this week too. Oh, and I'll get that haircut, this time for sure.
Song of the week
'Blue Line' (https://youtu.be/MOFX0mjzLN8), featured in 'Gran Turismo 2,' is the song of the week. While some of the lyriccs don't make that much sense, the instrumental version (https://youtu.be/nrYuD_U9ihk) is where it's at. The saxophone, not only following the sung notes, but also holding its own in new sections, is such a joy to listen to. I might even write my own lyrics for it. Maybe.
Until next time
Not as much to talk about in this bloghan, no, but that concludes bloghan 9. I regained a little bit of my creative writing fire this week, so we'll see if next week's bloghan is even more flowery in its content.
- bubbler