missizzy

I was thinking at this point I was, to some extent, done with Marvel. Back when it was colder out, I found I couldn't be assed to walk all the way to the cinema just to see Brave New World, and I'm still not watching the new Daredevil series. But Thunderbolts had more characters in it I had an affection for, I hadn't heard about the reviews being bad or anyone calling to boycott it, and it was nice out today for a walk. So I went to see it, having read very little about it. ( Read more... ) I suppose I shall be back in a couple of months time for Fantastic Four, unless the reviews are bad.
My experiments with the webcam unfortunately failed; I got audio feedback whenever I raised the volume of my singing even a little. I've actually got a recording on the iPad from yesterday that I initially thought I might post if I didn't get a better one today, but the way my sinuses were I now think I might wait another week to see if I can try to record it a little less hindered.

Today started with a guy being hit by a car right in front of me. I was waiting for the bus when he seemed from my vantage point to just be flung forth from the car! Fortunately one of the other bystanders was a trained first responder, so he was able to take care of the guy until the ambulance arrived. He seemed pretty lucid and I think he stood up on his own power before they put him on the stretcher. My normal bus ended up being redirected, and I had to wait anyway for the cops to get around to asking what I saw (not much, since I was on the wrong side of the road to see the hit itself; I basically confirmed to them he landed where he'd been when they showed up.) I got on the next one and got to the library half an hour later than usual, but the Chief Librarian was very understanding. Honestly, I felt unnerved by how routine the rest of my commute was, and vaguely shaky for an hour or so, but perfectly fine after that. (Until everything started aching this afternoon, but that's a separate matter entirely. I think.)
I just hope that guy's going to be all right. Unfortunately, I may never know.

Since Patch 8 came out Tuesday, I've been on a bit of a photography spree through my old savefiles, taking photos partially to add to my tumblr entries, and also just for fun. It's been harder with the first two acts, though, since I deleted way too many saves in my quest to reduce my lag issues. I've had to replay parts of the game just for screenshots. And I can't get back to the magic lesson with Gale, because the new patch has put multiple scenes with Astarion in the way! I don't know if I would get that scene if I started that playthrough now. I'm starting to understand why people are mad about him getting all the content.
Another thing that happened this week: "Even if We're Just Dancing in the Dark" has now gotten multiple kudos for the third day in a row, though it got more yesterday and Thursday. My Daredevil fics have been getting plenty kudos in recent weeks, but rarely more than one or two for any one fic per day. I'm wondering if someone recced it somewhere. I'd really like to know who did, if so...

This morning, the thing I knew I'd being doing today besides Hotelpocalypse would be a morning run to the Giant. It started Sunday night, when I realized we failed to get bread, and I'd already added tinfoil, menstrual pads, and painkillers to the list of things we needed right away even before mom also asked for milk this morning. It was too much for my single bag to carry; I walked home holding the bread in my other hand. I got there to an email from the IT guy saying he was coming immediately, which meant I'd be dealing with both him and the DMV today, too, since I'd have the afternoon left for the latter.
It was be a good thing he came to actually look at the computer, since it turned out the amount of thermal paste I'd put on was just fine; the problem was instead the power cables getting loose. He tightened them, installed a different piece of Samsung software to support the SSDs then the one they started with, told me I'd done a good job assembling it, and left with the computer working with half an hour to go before noon. I've tested it properly with some Baldur's Gate since, and it does seem to be fine at the moment. The red light's still flashing, but he insisted it's supposed to do that.
My sister got into the hotel submission form eight minutes into the sale. I got in at about twelve minutes. My brother-in-law didn't get in for 23! Normally things would not look good for us getting anything from it, but I've seen at least one comment since that it might have gone a little slower this time than previous years, so maybe my sister will get us rooms at some downtown hotel; we all asked for two. Though she's actually not even sure she'll be sent to SDCC right now, and I'm not sure what happens if she books the rooms and then has to bail.
In contrast to the hotel sale, applying for the real ID took much less time than I anticipated. Even when there was a long line to check-in at the DMV, the process itself was quick enough I was only there about an hour. They sent me home with a pair of stamped papers which are officially a temporary license; the card will apparently be in the mail. It's okay. I don't need it until July.

As if my gaming PC not working and IT not getting back to me since Wednesday wasn't bad enough, Friday things came to a head with my phone, where the headphones weren't working properly with either adapter I have on hand, one of them recently bought, and restoring to backup did nothing. A little research later, I came to believe Apple has started making the ones for lightning lousy, and I didn't want to shell out a crazy amount for headphones that would only plug directly in until I inevitably have to replace the phone in a few years, so I tried buying an adapter from another company. That meant I was without headphones on AwesomeCon weekend. I ended up taking Lyfts there both days, but very much missed them on the metro home today!
The Con itself went fairly well. Yesterday I spent most of my time on the floor, got a lovely piece of Imodna art and a few other things, and attended a panel that was weakly put together, but did still teach me a bit about modern Chinese culture. Today I got to play D&D again, rolled much better than I have either of the other two times I've played at AwesomeCon, and ended up making my tiefling paladin character much more tragic than I initially thought I would. Indeed, today was the first time I was looking at my character possibly about to die, and was absolutely fine with his story ending that way. Ultimately he survived, though. Characters I spotted included some of the queens from Six, a Mayrina with a "Have you seen this hag?" sign, a Molly McIntire, an Arlo Black, a Manamana guy with the pink muppets on either shoulder, and more Lord of the Rings characters than I've seen possibly ever. Although that last might have had to do with a panel this morning with a bunch of the cast members. (The line apparently started forming at eight. I was never going to be that ambitious.)
The adapter arrived while we were eating dinner tonight, and right now the headphones are working properly through it. I'll have to see how long that remains the case. If the IT guy doesn't contact me tomorrow, I'm going to have to do something, but I'm not sure what.

So I think the situation is currently stable with the old computer. It's the new one's that's become the trouble. I'd already gotten concerned about the red light flashing on it, but then Sunday it started acting up, and last night it became unusable. I've been in contact with my IT people and this evening I sent them the entire list of parts I bought for it; I had to dig into my emails for that. I'm currently terribly afraid I did mess up while assembling it after all, and it just took two months for the consequences to show up. I've got protection on the chassis and the motherboard, but I'm not sure I have it on anything else.
I just finished watching this week's episode of Weird Kids. That show is rapidly becoming comfort viewing for me. Especially since Ashley is about my age and Taliesin is about my sister's, so a lot of the cultural things they talk about are things I have memories of hearing about or being into. (I was into American Girl, too. Still have some of the books. I wish I knew exactly where my old Felicity doll went.) And I grooved out like mad to that theme.

There was a time I was certain if there was ever another Worlds in Boston, of course I would go again. But now one is starting today, and I'm not. And I regret that a lot less after we all heard about Malinin's AI bullshit. I don't even know what I'm going to tell my poor sister.
Of course, she probably doesn't even know what a bastard Cizeron turned out to be as well, and when she actually thought he and Papadakis were robbed all the way back in 2018, even with that whole wardrobe malfunction. To think, so many of us were dreading the prospect of Chock & Bates just being handed the Olympic gold next season, and now it's not impossible we're going to feel the need to root for them instead, if it turns out to be them versus France's newest.
I really was trying to get back into figure skating. But this sport keeps making it very difficult.

I did my taxes Saturday night. I had to resort to TurboTax again, but doing it there for the second year in a row meant it went really quickly; I was done within an hour. The federal return was accepted before I went to bed, and the state return the next day. The former cost me eighteen dollars, but the latter gave me back eight.
The more I feel the strains of currently being employed by the U.S. government, the more I want to try streaming once we get Fios, just to not let them take that from me. Which I suppose could always complicate my taxes next year, but I've got the feeling I'm not very likely to make enough money for it to cause any real trouble, so...
The library still continues not yet disturbed. A shutdown wouldn't have affected us anyway, what with the way our funding works, though we would've had way fewer people coming in. (Though the military personnel, of course, would've also been exempt, so we wouldn't have had nobody.) I got paid as usual last week.

It is as I feared. We are being forced to send in five bullet points of our actions every damn week until further notice. They couldn't even keep up any plausibility of our submissions being read, since I'm pretty sure it's logistically impossible to do that every week. At most, they can only do spot checks.
Yesterday was such an aggravating day in general that I pretty much gave up on it and went to bed after I finally finished watching the final episode of Divergence and its cooldown. Which took me until well in the evening, since my ability to watch during my commute was hampered by my phone acting up. Gave me a real scare, too, when I got home and rebooted it, and it took way too long after being plugged back in to respond. Solved the problem, though.
It was long enough and stressful enough today I ended up letting myself getting spoiled for one thing with about an hour left to watch. ( Which was actually something I'd started to suspect already... )

Went with my sister to see Legacy on Ice today. She's someone who sometimes watches skating, and she and mom both came with me to Milan and joined me for 2018 Worlds whenever they weren't going to someone else, but she doesn't really follow it the way I do. This was her introduction to Ilia Malinin. She absolutely loved him. I have instructed her to watch his free program from this season.
Legacy on Ice did well as a memorial show, especially since the emotions from those on the ice about them was very real, and you could tell that. Maybe especially powerful was Jimmy Ma skating the program Jinna Han was apparently planning to make her junior debut, and of course Maxim Naumov skating to a song so beloved by his parents. My sister was crying by the end of that, and I had tears in my eyes myself. Some of the decisions made in what it would include, however, were a bit detrimental. Most notably Scott Hamilton coming in and prayer ambushing us. Like full on Christian, as if it never occurred to him that there are people in that audience who did not ask to have someone else's religion forced on them like that.
We also got to see Johnny Weir, which I am very happy about, since I always wanted to see him live, and of course I thought the chances to were all gone. He's one of those skaters that definitely has a presence live.
I'm actually now a little sorry we're not going to Worlds in Boston this year; when individual event tickets went on sail right after the election, I thought it more prudent not to spend the money. My sister suggested we could look at the next Worlds held in Canada, even saying she's always wanted to see Vancouver.