Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Mar 20, 2020 3:44:03 GMT 1
The timing of everything, though...
I'm wrapping up my third week at the new job, still in training for the most part, but I can do some tasks on my own. Yesterday, Wednesday, we started the day by being told that all of us who weren't in the manufacturing part of the office would be sent home to work. They staggered our departure times so we would have time to get home and get set up without overloading the IT department with help desk tickets. By 4 o'clock, I had loaded up the car with my computer and all three monitors, and then I met Southpaw at the nearby Walmart because I needed a table to use as a desk. $200 later, I'm walking out of there with what I hope is enough to get me through the next two weeks, though I will admit that I probably bought more than what I might need or use in the next two weeks, but I do like having more options.
I started that trip by wiping down the cart with the sanitizing wipes near the entrance. There were a handful of people walking around wearing face masks. The shelves were so empty... I've seen a Walmart supercenter the night before opening its doors to the public, with everything full and organized, and this was not that. I've seen grocery stores around the holidays and when people are preparing for snow storms, and this still doesn't compare. This was like watching a K-Mart going out of business, the way things were empty and strewn about. Heck, Black Friday shopping doesn't even leave the shelves this bare. I think I got groceries about a week ago, when we were laughing at people for hoarding toilet paper, but this was worse than that, and it was really sobering to consider what this has become. Among the things I worried about... obviously, if I would end up catching this while out in public... if I don't get certain things now, would I even be able to get them in a week or two, or would this have a ripple effect where I'd be unable to get it for a while... do I have enough grains/proteins/fruits/vegetables?...
So far, I feel fine. I've had mornings where I'm coughing from post-nasal drip, then I'd be fine at work, and then I'd come home and start coughing or sneezing... but for what it's worth, Southpaw had rounded up the troops this past weekend to clear out my storage unit in Syracuse, so now everything I own is pretty much here in my apartment. That also means there's a fair amount of dust in my apartment, hence my occasional coughing and sneezing when I'm here and not elsewhere. So, that's a problem, and not one that requires any further lectures (yeah, I have stuff I don't need, and the less of it I have, the less dust there will be). Southpaw is free to say what he will... we have discussed how I feel about throwing out certain things, if it's even worthwhile to keep certain things, and how the pandemic has caused a recession that would make it that much harder for me to sell things that would already be a lot of time and effort to sell anyway. We'll figure something out, I'm sure... I suggested giving him stuff I don't want, and having him tell me it all went to good homes, but actually throw it away instead and leave me to wonder if it did or not, but my lawful good boyfriend can't do that.... we'll figure something else out...
Apparently I like things on Netflix that have censored profanity in the title. I had been watching The End Of The F***ing World, but I ran out of episodes. Then the past two nights, I watched Don't F*** With Cats, which... I don't melt as easily as Southpaw does over cute animal videos, but I'm not one for gore because I'm a bit empathic about it. This was about a guy named Luka who had filmed himself torturing and killing kittens before finally murdering a person on camera. As you know, I have a cat... and his name, according to the adoption papers, was Luka before I adopted him. Not Luca, the city known for blitzball in Final Fantasy X, which is how I associated the name... The name was Luka before I named the cat Demon. I adopted this cat about a year after this guy Luka was apparently arrested, and I'm sure it's coincidence and the previous owners thought nothing of the name. I can't even imagine doing the things he did to those kittens.. It was a three-part show, and I probably would have stopped after the first part, but I wanted to see how they eventually caught this guy. Now I need brain bleach, because I barely want to think about that guy. I need new stuff on Netflix..
|
|
|
Post by lemmingrad on Mar 24, 2020 23:59:58 GMT 1
So long time since I last was here.
Things have shut down here in Ontario, Canada, so now I’m laid off from my “non-essential” job. At least I get to collect from Employment Insurance in the meantime.
Means now I have no excuse for not doing my art related jobs. Does mean any supplies I need, I need to order online and delivered.
Been exploring a lot about remote streaming games to my friends. Because everyone has “special needs” I have now setup:
OCTGN Tabletop Simulator Parsec to stream either of the above.
|
|
|
Post by Plum on Mar 25, 2020 20:27:33 GMT 1
Ah dude that sucks I don't know how things are being done in Canada - hopefully you're not going to be in a tight spot while the world goes to hell I'm working from home for now (fortunately I'm in IT and my company is doing ok - we're a delivery company so we're still pretty busy) and missing karate. I've taken up jogging again as we're allowed outside once per day for exercise or to collect essentials, so that's one silver lining at least
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Apr 6, 2020 1:06:37 GMT 1
Still hanging in there...
Having heard that the death toll had tripled in NY state within 3 days, I'm a little more nervous. If I leave the apartment, I spray some cleanser onto a paper towel, then touch all the doorknobs with that, and then wash my hands when I come back. I've never been a germaphobe, but I'm certainly phobic right now of this germ.
I didn't think things would be too bad to just see Southpaw even once a week, since I don't otherwise leave the apartment, but even if I'm not a carrier, I risk possibly picking it up. I will probably be fine... I'm pretty sure I'll be fine... but people have already been careless, so I either have to set a better example for them or I have to just do better at following what has been told.
I've learned that a friend's ex fiancee has tested positive for the virus. I try to keep him in the loop on her well-being, since we've heard things like she's become homeless, etc. since they split up. He moved her to NYC when they were together, so now he just hopes that she's still doing well because he does still care about her. However, neither of us knows where exactly she is or anything, so we can't really help, no matter what her situation happens to be.
My birthday was fun. Six of us got together, four of us played a board game. That was the second to last time I was at Southpaw's place. The last time, we decided together that we should be doing the social distancing a little more hardcore than we were. We gave ourselves the excuse that since some of us had little contact with the outside world, then as long as we only saw each other, we weren't likely to spread the virus. When we decided to buckle down, I was still given a pass since I haven't ordered food or gone out for groceries. However, when offered the opportunity to spend time with Southpaw this afternoon, I dragged my feet, making all the excuses about this pandemic. That's not to say I didn't want to see him - I did, probably more than anything. But,... when we're in the clear, and I get to make up for lost birthday activities and all else, getting to spend more time with him will be worth it.
I'm craving sushi, and I would like to get more meat, though...
And I still don't have a Switch... but there's no way I'm giving my money to GameStop, after they tried to claim they were an "essential business" but wouldn't even take measures to be more sanitary.
Everything in time...
I've now worked at my job for a month. You know how you say, "when things settle down?" I don't think things have ever settled down. Between my frantic two-week departure from the last job, then almost two weeks at the new job before it turned into a remote position, things feel like they've been in constant flux. I feel like I'm retaining some of what I've been taught in regards to how to do the job, but other things, I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel like they're going to cut me loose because of my lackluster performance, but I do try to ask questions even though I know everyone is busy. I'm distracted as well, as the cat doesn't always leave me alone. But, I like having fresh-made food for lunch, not microwaving anything, or eating a sandwich I made a few hours prior, or even going out to eat. Although, I do actually miss getting to have enough time to go out to eat. But it's certainly too soon to really be comfortable with this new arrangement, and probably by the time I'm doing well at the job and are comfortable with the arrangement, maybe that's when we'll all be back at the facility. Because, really, things never settle down.
Oh, and he got me a beautiful necklace for my birthday! It's silver, and it has two cats sitting on the moon, their tails curled together to form a heart, and on the moon are three roses. When we can't chat or spend time together right now, looking at that, I think, will get me through this time.
|
|
|
Post by Plum on Apr 6, 2020 18:19:02 GMT 1
I've pretty much settled into a routine now. It's been two weeks of virtually zero in person interaction with friends - I even made conversation with the cashier when I stocked up recently. I did a huge supply run and did a food delivery to my boyfriend, so we got to talk for a while. From a few metres away of course, I sat outside his apartment while he stayed inside it. I also delivered some to my parents and it was a similar story, taking the food around to their utility room and leaving it there, before pulling up a seat on the patio and talking to them through the stable door. They then pick up the food from the utility room after a 12 hour quarantine. It might be overkill as I don't think I'm sick, but since they are in their 70s, I'm absolutely assuming that I'm carrying Covid and taking precautions. Shopping at supermarkets is weird. It's totally silent, the kind of sombre hush you get at a funeral. We Brits are very good at queuing though so I've not had any problems waiting in line. Everyone keeps an appropriate distance away and nobody is complaining. It's kind of nice to know that people on the whole are actually good and just trying to get through this as best we can. The shelves were all stocked, I didn't struggle to find anything. My D&D clubs have moved online to Roll20. My karate club is using Zoom. I play boardgames with folks from my game club on Yucada.de. Most of my hobbies seem to have transitioned to this new world pretty smoothly
|
|
Jude
Member
<custom title here>
Posts: 111
|
Post by Jude on Apr 9, 2020 4:46:42 GMT 1
So I'm bad at staying in contact with people as much as I should. But that is a whole other topic for another day.
Lot's has happened and things are going about as well as they can be given the circumstances. We moved into our house at the end of November. It's been super great so far. It's not big, only 2 bedrooms, about 800 square feet but it works well for us. I still have some picture to hang in the office and we have a lot of stuff in the garage we were going to donate but I guess that will have to wait a few months. I will probably do a lot of landscaping this summer so I'm sure I'll post some pictures.
I got hired on for real at my job towards the beginning of February. It was weird doing salary negotiations, but it's great to actually be a full time employee and get all the vacation days and stuff that I didn't as a contractor, not that we'll be taking any trips for a few months. It's not the highest paying company in town but the culture/work environment/benefits more than make up for it. I've been on several different projects so far and will be moving to a new-ish one next week, where I'll be working with people on more backend stuff. So that will be a good learning experience for me. It's also weird getting paid so much more than I made as a barista for working (at least what feels like) so much less hard. Still have some survivors guilt I think from making it out of the service industry.
Had a hangout with my friend at the beginning of March, just in time it turns out. Started a 5E Eberron campaign. We haven't played 5E ever before or any tabletop rpg in a long long time so it was a bit of people getting used to things again. I need to type up a big email for all of them with more questions about their characters to help flesh them out but I've been lazy. We'll probably try to move things online now. Also the adventure that I had planned for them might have been a bit too, I don't want to say complex, but a lot of urban social interaction gathering info type adventure. So we might have a time out on this one and go back and do an intro thing just so everyone can get more used to playing again and learn their characters better before we play more.
I don't really have any more free time than I did before but I've been fairly productive. Making lots of cardstock terrain and accessories. Programming my own projects. Started recording a video. Working on updating my site that hasn't been in forever. I also started an Instagram even though I barely use any social media. It's been a good way for me to take a picture every day of what I worked on. More about just keeping myself motivated and if any body else ever looks at the pictures that's cool too.
Probably more stuff to say but I don't have to fit it all into one post. Glad stuff is going well enough for all of you.
|
|
|
Post by Southpaw Hare on Apr 9, 2020 15:22:14 GMT 1
It's also weird getting paid so much more than I made as a barista for working (at least what feels like) so much less hard. Still have some survivors guilt I think from making it out of the service industry. As someone who made this transition from Fast Food to Office IT over a decade ago now, I don't think this feeling ever goes away. It has never stopped making me feel guilty that my office jobs make multiple times more money than other people I know who do service jobs like I used to, while at the same time allowing me to do stuff like take bathroom breaks whenever I want without asking, grab coffee and chill by the water cooler, or spend a half hour reading and writing email. Office jobs seem to have this culture of treating its employees like grown adults who can make their own decisions, whereas fast food and retail treat their employees like children who need to be monitored at all times and who need a hall pass to go anywhere. The fact that service work gets paid less (sometimes much less) to be treated worse (sometimes much worse) strikes me as a pretty serious flaw of our society.
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Apr 24, 2020 4:11:16 GMT 1
Sorry... Been busy playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake... Southpaw made me get it and is making me play it, not against my will...
In all seriousness, I am enjoying it, but I'm getting my butt handed to me doing sidequests and such in chapter 14. Southpaw has been watching me stream it, but as we near the end, we learned that chapter 18 is blocked from the PlayStation system recording or streaming the game. So... We might have to be in the same room for that.
The curve here is diminishing, which is good but we're not out of the woods yet. All the same, I did visit Southpaw this past Sunday. The cat wasn't pleased that I left his side, but he's had me almost nonstop for the past month...
Not much to say, really. Without being able to do much outside of our homes, we're not doing much adventuring. But oh, when we can, the observatory is at the top of my wish list... It wasn't closed for Valentine's, when we considered going, we just opted not to go, and now haven't been able to since.
Also, I miss sushi, and I'm kinda wanting to go to the Korean place he took me to once, for the thing we had, the name of which escapes me.
|
|
|
Post by lemmingrad on Apr 30, 2020 17:07:11 GMT 1
So, update on my life:
- I do work 2 days of the week at the store to do curbside pickup orders. - I am also enrolled in the Canadian program of $2000 CAD per month for 4 months. - Also unintentionally, I also applied for Employment Insurance, which also has the same program, so I am enrolled in both. At some point the government will want their $2000 back. - I finally got people to play Arkham Horror LCG on Tabletop Simulator. And yesterday, Asmodee took the mod down. Good thing I had a heads up from the community, and I have the mod backed up. It's fair they need to protect their IPs, but it still sucks for timing. - going through my back log of video games: Streets of Rogue, Full Metal Furies, Death Road to Canada, No Heroes Here, Monster Prom (which just got an update to replace the soundtrack) - currently playing XCom: Chimera Squad. Basically XCops, with the new mechanic focus being Breach gameplay. Sectoid and Viper squaddies for life (until they run into Mechs and Turrets.) - coincidentally, I discovered Tactical Breach Wizards is in development, the same guy who did Gunpoint and Heat Signature. He maintains his fascination with Defenstration.
|
|
|
Post by Plum on Apr 30, 2020 17:43:07 GMT 1
I am a huge Tom Francis fan and am awaiting TBW eagerly Unfortunately Chimera Squad keeps crashing for me so I'll have to wait until they've patched it before I can actually try it
|
|
|
Post by lemmingrad on May 18, 2020 3:17:58 GMT 1
So, slow trickle return to regular work days (abeit shortened) to my province this week, starting Tuesday. Get all my side stuff out of the way.
|
|
|
Post by Bomber678 on May 18, 2020 7:39:44 GMT 1
My favourite restaurant is back open, but my friends are still too nervous about virus to come with me. It's understandable, but having to wait even longer to hang out makes me sad
|
|
Jude
Member
<custom title here>
Posts: 111
|
Post by Jude on May 25, 2020 17:21:50 GMT 1
So week 9? of working at home is over. Not a lot of new or exciting stuff going on, lot of routine days that feel the same but still haven't built good routines to spend my time how I want. Mostly just need to have some physical activity. I have space to exercise, I just prioritize getting stuff done on the computer done instead.
I've been in the mood for kind of a crunchy RPG and I've always liked the idea of the Ogre Battle series but never beat the first one and never played Tactics Ogre. So I started replaying Final Fantasy Tactics because it was what I had easily available and I've only played through it once a long time ago. The first time I got very side tracked by the completionist part of me and spent so much time doing side quests I kind of lost track of the story, so this time my goal was to just finish the game as fast as I can and it's been enjoyable. I'm actually surprised at how short the game feels after I remember sinking so many hours into it before. I might try to play through the PSP remake and see what the new translation is like, the original is definitely rough in spots.
Organized a lot of my cardstock drawer. So a lot of my terrain is more organized and there's space for quite a bit more. I have a stack of stuff I've printed but not cut yet.
I started putting post it notes on my wall to use as a to-do-list because I felt like I was trying to keep too much in my head. It's worked alright. I've kind of been ignoring it though and haven't made new ones for items that have popped up. It seems like a good system for medium to long term stuff. We'll see how it goes.
Looking back I have actually gotten a lot done, I just have more that I want to accomplish. FF Tactics has kind of side tracked me and made me realize how addictive my personality can be.
Places are slowly starting to open back up here. Most of the restaurants never stopped doing carry out orders. Most of them are trying to open up their outside seating or have booths inside with larger dividers put in to keep people separated more. We'll see what the summer brings.
|
|
|
Post by lemmingrad on May 26, 2020 16:15:21 GMT 1
So, my cousin who is a co-worker, is ill. He got tested for covid-19 and has to wait at home for 3-7 days for the results. So yeah, until then, I gotta fill in and get paid under the table.
|
|
|
Post by Plum on May 26, 2020 19:37:29 GMT 1
Hope you stay well Lem, fingers crossed for you
|
|
|
Post by lemmingrad on Jun 3, 2020 22:53:22 GMT 1
And he tested negative. So things are less short staffed.
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Jun 13, 2020 16:57:39 GMT 1
I'm chilling at Southpaw's for the weekend, as usual, and wearing a dress because I don't otherwise get to wear dresses right now.
So that being said, I'll be wearing a dress while I partake in today's Fantasy Strike tournament.
I have more news, but let me get through this weekend first...
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Jun 15, 2020 23:37:31 GMT 1
Ahhh... The tournament was more nerve-wracking than it needed to be...
Southpaw was having connectivity issues, which, if he was, it would have affected me as well. Then again, having to reset the router meant I was kicked off the internet as well. That's all well and good, because while he was resetting the router, I was still looking for my first opponent. My opponent was a no-show, so I "won" my first round. Southpaw's opponent figured the issues were on their end and conceded, so Southpaw also won his first round.
Second round comes, and I'm now matched up with theZipBon. Who the heck is theZipBon?! I asked Southpaw to tell me what it meant, because their ranking didn't show the militaristic stars and bars, but rather a gem with the number 6 on it. Apparently that places them as the sixth best player in the game. I didn't notice that, or ask that, until after I lost the match, a match I never had a chance at winning. Southpaw also lost his match for the second round, and then we both lost our loser's bracket matches.
We watched the stream until the end. That evening, I put on headphones to hear the audio while I played Paper Mario, while Southpaw played some more Fantasy Strike... after some Geiger mirror matches, I couldn't take hearing "Time Spiral" for the rest of the night.
Still waiting for some other news to be finalized before I make a reveal...
|
|
|
Post by Plum on Jun 16, 2020 14:44:53 GMT 1
I'm not expecting to get much traction on this conversation but I just finished She Ra s5 and oh my god I'm full of feelings. I don't think I've ever cried so much at a cartoon before. I think I'll leave it to percolate for a couple of weeks and then go straight back to s1 to start rewatching it. I know it's probably not the jam of most people here but oh my god it was sooo good.
Between this and the final series of Bojack, Netflix is absolutely smashing it with meaningful animation (edit: speaking of Bojack, that was almost certainly the last time I cried this much over a cartoon - the episode where we finally fill in the backstory of Bojack's mother just absolutely destroyed me)
|
|
|
Post by Southpaw Hare on Jun 18, 2020 3:21:55 GMT 1
I'm not expecting to get much traction on this conversation but I just finished She Ra s5 and oh my god I'm full of feelings. I don't think I've ever cried so much at a cartoon before. I think I'll leave it to percolate for a couple of weeks and then go straight back to s1 to start rewatching it. I know it's probably not the jam of most people here but oh my god it was sooo good. Between this and the final series of Bojack, Netflix is absolutely smashing it with meaningful animation (edit: speaking of Bojack, that was almost certainly the last time I cried this much over a cartoon - the episode where we finally fill in the backstory of Bojack's mother just absolutely destroyed me) A significant portion of my roommate/friend social circle watched all of the new She-ra together as well, and we think it's pretty excellent. It started out good, and pretty much got better with each season. Quality contemporary TV.
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Jun 24, 2020 1:34:43 GMT 1
Well, here it is...
I QUIT!
Maybe I was overly critical of myself, but day in and day out, it never really felt that way. I easily spent the last two months just wanting out of this job, like I'd rather spend my days doing nothing but looking for another job and worrying about the money.
The worst of it came when I was put into the phone queue a couple weeks ago... the homeowner queue wasn't too bad, just tell people they need to speak to their dealer or transfer them to the warranty department. But the queue I was also put into at first, which I asked to be taken out of before I was put into it full time, was the queue that the dealers call into. With the pandemic, the company was either running short-staffed in production for health and safety, or they were running with the usual number of people for this time of year and everyone just happens to want a new pool or liner because they can't go anywhere so might as well enjoy the home they're cooped up in. So.. I have to deal with calls asking where their pool stuff is, with an ever increasing lead time (how long it takes to order it and have it go into and finish production before shipping) on pretty much everything. It's not even my problem... but I have to answer to dealers who have set schedules for when they're installing stuff, and the best I can do is... pass a note along to someone, or maybe enter the information needed to put their order into motion... but half the time, it was like I couldn't find orders that are supposed to be there, or I'd have something come up that I'd try to resolve, first on my own, then asking around and waiting a while for some kind of response, only to sometimes find out it's for a different department. Of the things that were within the realm of what I'm supposed to do, I feel like the process I needed to follow should have been taught to me sooner, or the document to use as reference should have been easier to find, or sometimes there should be a comprehensive document made to cover more issues I may have.
But anyway... eventually I managed to get an interview for a new job, and the place made me an offer that day to hire me. Might be sketchy, but like I told Southpaw, it gets me out of the job that got me moved here. I managed to do a drug test during my lunch break one day. The only thing holding me up was the background check, having to go through the court system for another state I've lived in (wow, they're thorough...). Of course, the courts have been closed due to the pandemic, FML. Eh, I only had to wait, what, a week? The courts reopened this week, not to full staffing, but enough for the proceedings that we were waiting on.
So I was on a call today, order status and all, when I had another call come in... work comes first, of course. The call was almost done, and when it ended, I called back to the call I missed. "They want you to start tomorrow..." Oh believe me, I was at the point where as soon as I got a start date, I was going to pack up my work computer and drive it back there, then just spend my "two week notice" on video games and fixing up the apartment. Heck, I was on the verge of quitting last week, but Southpaw wouldn't let me... (not entirely true, he just talked me out of doing so). Even though I didn't get a few days to myself, I did have today to myself, kinda. Because I absolutely agreed to starting the new job tomorrow, and then I immediately sent a resignation email to my manager and then turned off my computer so fast that I spent the rest of the morning wondering if I actually did send that email. Eh, even if it didn't get sent, my manager still got the message, because the receptionist was going to make sure she knew that I returned the computer.
I got the car looked at... I need to get some repairs done on it, so that's going to be this weekend for starters and then again in about a week or two to finish some other stuff. I'm not thrilled about it, but then again the car sounds so beat up that I almost want to get a newer car. Part of me would have bought Southpaw's car from him if it meant getting something newer for me and him getting the all-blue car he recently had as a loaner; it's really too bad he couldn't keep that, because it had his aesthetics more than his own car does. Regardless of all that... I do still have reliable transportation, no matter how you look at it, at least for the time being. It's not like my Jetta, when I had to push it to get it to back out of parking spots.
So yeah, that's what I was waiting to talk about, was just getting the new job. Today has been a pretty good day overall, and I feel like a lot of the stress has lifted for now.
|
|
|
Post by lemmingrad on Jul 28, 2020 21:46:44 GMT 1
So, update for my life:
So hot tub industry is crazy hot. All the cruise and vacation money got moved to backyard renovations, and as a consequence, our store is selling 2021 stock. Like, if you ordered a Swim Spa now, you'll get it in... May 2021. At the rate we're going, we'll be out of 2021 stock by November.
This week, my cousin and the sales manager are on vacation, leaving me and whoever can fill in. Will be an interesting week.
My older sister is moving back into my parent's place next month. Means if I want dibs on her bigger bedroom, I need to get my stuff migrated soon.
As for gaming:
- Holy hell, I went from 2 years of barely getting anyone interested in playing Monster Prom, to it being a weekly thing. - Have a co-op partner to play Pit People - My Arkham teams finished Dream-Eaters. Both sides reunited in the epilogue. - They're now playing The Blob that Ate Everything. They got confused when they realized there were 8 players.
|
|
|
Post by Southpaw Hare on Jul 28, 2020 23:00:29 GMT 1
I've realized that it's been a long time since I've given any kind of update on my life. I think the fact that I have a wonderful girlfriend that I constantly vent to has made feel somewhat unnecessary to vent elsewhere. Nevertheless, I know that I still have some friends here, and I feel like you all deserve to know how I'm doing every now and then.
I haven't really mentioned anything since before the real start of the Pandemic Lockdown, but nevertheless, I've been taking it very seriously. My social circle has formed our own little bubble group where pretty much no one is around anyone else other than ourselves as much as we can help it, and we've regularly banned people for weeks at a time when there are even moderate risks that someone could have been infected. We make grocery trips as infrequently as possible, always wear masks and gloves, and use curbside pickup options whenever available; I even usually take a full-body cleansing shower after getting back from anywhere.
My job has continued to be a mixed bag. I don't actually do much programming; rather, it's all horribly infuriating Code Archeology about stuff that literally no one in living memory understands anymore. Furthermore, the promotion exams that were supposed to help me change positions internally to something I'd enjoy a bit more have been put on indefinite hiatus due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, I have to feel pretty grateful... I've been able to work remotely for over 4 months now, often have days with low amounts of (infuriating) work, and am getting paid a decent amount. State work comes with good job security now that I've been there for a year, as well as good health insurance. I'm doing well financially in these hard times (in fact, I've actually been saving more money than before the pandemic), and I know a lot of people are suffering right now (or about to start suffering soon), so I am very thankful for what I have.
I have an amazing girlfriend! @luna and I have been getting closer and closer over these months, despite the pandemic situation. We haven't been able to do any traditional dates since she moved here, nor even just have a nice night on the town. But that's okay... we can just snuggle at home. We still have each other, our health, and each other's love <3 , and that's enough.
Politics have been on my mind more and more these days. I've always considered myself to be someone who fairly judges both sides of situation and seriously gives critical thought to things; nevertheless, I keep finding myself agreeing with what has been deemed "The Liberal Left" more and more over "The Conservative Right", to the extent that people tend to classify me as being pretty extreme left-leaning. I don't think I'm overly extreme, but I do disagree with almost literally everything that President Trump does. I feel like that's more a facet of him making consistently bad decisions than unreasonable bias on my part. Nevertheless, I've found that I've been clashing with more and more people over my beliefs, and while I don't regret standing up for these beliefs, it has been hard.
I agree with most of the protest and activist movements of today. I believe that fighting for civil liberties is something that we should all be doing right now. Honestly, I wish I was doing more. I feel like we're living through very important times, and that we're at a crossroads of some very important decisions that will shape our culture in big ways going forward. I think history is going to write a lot about this period of time, and I hope there are some good changes to write about.
New Free-to-Play Fantasy Strike is fun, although I see through all their obvious tricks. Ever notice how when some game that has purchasable in-game currency lets you buy the currency in bulk, they give you a little "bonus" amount to make it seem like a better deal? But the problem is, that bonus amount is specifically not a multiple of what anything actually costs, so some or all of it will be completely wasted. Gotta say, though... some of the costumes are really well made. Oh, BTW... GGs Jude ! You're really good!
And those are my thoughts on life right now.
|
|
|
Post by Plum on Jul 29, 2020 14:36:30 GMT 1
Not much for me to talk about, but we're doing a staggered return to the office from next week, turning up for two days out of five. Seems completely pointless to me but such is life. Even worse, we'll still be distancing in the office and no meeting rooms will be available, so if I need to talk to anyone else it will be done remotely via slack! And because we're still working from home the other three days of the week, we now need to move all of our work stuff between home and work every single day! Ugh utterly pointless exercise that gains nothing and exposes everyone.
|
|
|
Post by Southpaw Hare on Jul 29, 2020 16:00:33 GMT 1
Not much for me to talk about, but we're doing a staggered return to the office from next week, turning up for two days out of five. Seems completely pointless to me but such is life. Even worse, we'll still be distancing in the office and no meeting rooms will be available, so if I need to talk to anyone else it will be done remotely via slack! And because we're still working from home the other three days of the week, we now need to move all of our work stuff between home and work every single day! Ugh utterly pointless exercise that gains nothing and exposes everyone. We're going to be doing something similar starting at the beginning of September, doing a 25% reopening where people are divided into 4 groups that each go in every 4 days. It kind of terrifies me and doesn't seem very helpful, but I suppose we have to go back eventually...
|
|
|
Post by Plum on Jul 29, 2020 16:25:19 GMT 1
Yeah I don't dispute that, but this way of doing it seems ill thought out and ineffective. And I can understand the company not having any pandemic protocols, but we have 7000+ employees across dozens of sites nationwide - if they mess this up, statistically an employee will die unnecessarily. What we are implementing feels like a knee-jerk reaction, not a well considered return plan
|
|
|
Post by Plum on Jul 31, 2020 10:21:05 GMT 1
Whelp, they already cancelled the return to work plan as there's been a spike in Covid cases in the office area. That's a relief, plus it buys them time to actually correct the plan
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Aug 1, 2020 22:02:04 GMT 1
I have an amazing girlfriend!
Oh please... I convert oxygen to carbon dioxide, and manage to pay the rent after dropping $500 on a Switch. I'm not that special... But this guy... He took a moment to run to my apartment after my Switch was delivered, just to put it inside my apartment so I could have some peace of mind... And then he pet my cat. I finally have a Switch now! I guess Smash will be one of my future purchases, along with Splatoon 2. I'm working on Paper Mario and surviving Tetris 99 so far, and when I plug in the toaster I'll start Breath of the Wild.
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Aug 10, 2020 5:27:07 GMT 1
I did plug in the toaster! And it seems like I have the full Smash roster so far, so my efforts this week have been successful... But I still haven't started Breath of the Wild yet. Between Smash and Fantasy Strike, I have a minimal amount of space left on my hard drive. In fact, I had to remove the Pokemon Cafe game because I didn't have enough room to get the update for Smash recently. In all honesty, the Pokemon cafe game is mobile trash, I'm not too far into it and it seems like using power-ups is the best/only way to clear levels. But also, this is one of the reasons why I kinda prefer having the physical copies of games, so even though I spent an extra $10 on Tetris 99, I don't have to decide (at the moment) if I want it on my system or not. Smash takes up over half of my storage space... I'm going to need one of them mini SDXC cards, one of the pretty Nintendo ones that I won't even be looking at once it's in the system. I'm definitely eyeing Splatoon 2 as my next purchase... I enjoyed the first one a lot, and once I got used to the gyro controls, I was doing pretty good! So it's probably a surprise, then, that I didn't go with a purple Splatoon icon for my console profile, but I got the Kirby with the heart, which is what I've been maining in Smash for Spirit Board and most other things, and then I've been randomly saying "poyo!" while visiting Southpaw... I don't know, the Inkling fighter is tricky for me so far. I'm good with the roller and keeping my ink tank refilled in Splatoon, but not so much in Smash. Eh, everything in time... Southpaw is going to judge me for still being up... I had a headache earlier today, something mild and seemingly one that I usually get when I've lacked sleep the night before. When I got home, I took two Advil and did chores while waiting for it to kick in, so now I'm fine... otherwise we probably would've taken a walk tonight. I wasn't against walking, in fact I've been doing a little better at getting/keeping my weight down lately. I suppose part of that is buying a salad for lunch and then barely eating anything for dinner (minimal carbs, since I'm eating dinner around 8, winding down for bed two hours later, and then trying to call it a night around midnight). Yes, I have breakfast. And it wasn't that I didn't sleep well last night, it was that we were up late, talking about stuff. In short, my difficulty with giving criticism, as well as receiving criticism and compliments. I shouldn't need to give an example, but here... I'd like to say I'm working on it, but it's still difficult for many reasons. No matter how that conversation went, it's still one that I never had... in the past... but, at the same time, I don't feel like people in my past were ever willing to have such difficult conversations that could make me better to some degree. I happened to think about how my ex-fiance's mom expressed to him that I "come with baggage," and while we made the joke that he would help me carry it, referring instead to my physical baggage, he certainly wasn't equipped with the willingness to deal with any of it, physical or emotional, to be honest. So yeah, I stand firm in my belief that Southpaw is the amazing one in the relationship. Maybe that doesn't acknowledge my own strengths, my own reasons for being awesome, but there's a lot to be said about someone who's not about to let you just act like you don't have wounds that are not properly taken care of, and then be willing to put the antiseptic stuff on it that stings like a MFer before putting actual clean bandages over the wound. Anyway, I do need sleep, and the more I add to this, the later I'll be up, and the more I'll feel guilty for doing so... nah, I'll get over it, aside from any regret I feel in the morning when I'm all zombie-like...
|
|
Luna
Member
Posts: 109
|
Post by Luna on Aug 14, 2020 3:23:40 GMT 1
I'm having a week... It started after Southpaw and I took a walk on Monday night. We were heading downhill, finishing up the loop around the neighborhood, when my boots started rubbing my small toe into a blister. These boots are awesome, okay? They're 6 years old, Sandlar 4-button boots, purchased for $250 because it was at the Ren Faire. The only upkeep I've had to do is just to replace the shoe inserts every few months. http://instagram.com/p/BQTei2qg5O4 http://instagram.com/p/BUGAkONFDK5 My ex fiance used to clean and polish them, which I appreciated because they would look nice again, instead of being covered in the dust and dirt of the Ren Faire or wherever I happened to wear them. But, he stopped polishing my boots long before breaking up with me, and only at the time of breaking up with me did he say that he felt like I didn't appreciate him. I happened to recall that memory on our walk... I suppose I should have been a bit celebratory, since this is the second time that Southpaw and I have done that loop completely, and this time was seemingly faster than the last time. But, unfortunately, that memory came to mind... You have to understand, I don't want to go back to my ex. That will never be an option. I am, however, dealing with a wave of emotion, where I just want to... I don't really know. I mean, I don't like that I wasted three years of my life with my ex. I really don't like how the things I appreciated were taken away from me, and like a slap in the face I was told that I didn't seem appreciative enough, as if I never did anything for him, and as if he didn't act appreciative of me or anything. And... Southpaw does a lot of things for me. He's bought me groceries, he got me quarters for laundry, he's the one who pays for takeout most of the time,... I still owe him for the deposits he paid for this apartment, and I want to pay him back for the quarters,... I'm in a position where I want to do more for him, I want this to be more reciprocal. I don't even know if I really worry that one day he'll stop, or that he'll say I don't seem to appreciate him enough... maybe it's not even about knowing what he'll do, it's just a matter of me being acutely aware that he's doing things I like and that I have to be even more obvious that I appreciate all he does so he doesn't stop and/or suggest that I don't care or something. I need to do some more cleaning around the apartment, but I didn't feel like it tonight because I got out of work... I mean, I gave the cat some flea medication, so now he's passed out asleep in the other chair. I cleaned the bedroom windowsill, and since I'm wondering if that's how he got fleas in the first place, I might opt to keep the window closed from now on. I only closed the window because I woke up at about 3 am on Tuesday night and I was overheating, and I only had the sheet on, so it must've been a humid evening. I turned on the AC in the living room (because the bedroom AC unit doesn't work) and went back to sleep, then shut off the AC in the morning. I know I didn't sleep well last night because I knew the cat had fleas, and I didn't want him cuddling beside me. And I also think that knowing that gave me a bit of anxiety. My front door keeps sticking, like a lot... and I can barely grip the handle, because I have to pull it to get out in the morning. But I have no way to be here to wait for maintenance. It almost seemed like I wasn't going to get out at all this morning, which isn't a good feeling when you have to leave for work and have to add time to your commute because you have to take a detour that goes in the opposite direction before circling back around. So, I've been a bit of a mess this week... I want to be happy, and I have plenty of reasons for being happy... but, everything else is coming to the forefront of my mind. I know this will pass, I just hope it passes soon...
|
|