The Wordsmith's Forge

In that I had another annoying day at work, but the evening was all right, at least --

Work – Yes, as per the above, it was unfortunately another frustrating day at work – though I will say that I at least got more of what I wanted to get done, done this time around:

A) I started by doing my time card (didn’t want to forget again), then working my way through the GL – which was fairly big, and just a LITTLE complicated thanks to all the Foundation gifts that were posted the other day

B) Then I put on the latest round of endowment gifts, since my boss asked me to prioritize those

C) Then I spent the rest of the morning going through that thank you QC file from yesterday, finding more problems that needed to be solved and more checks that were actually for the newspaper office, not us (so we’re going to have to take those off and issue a check to them this upcoming week), all while being regularly interrupted by phone calls because the latest mailing went out recently and that ALWAYS prompts a ton of calls along the lines of “I already sent in my gift” or “this person is actually deceased” or “I need to change my parish”

D) Then I started the afternoon portion of my shift post-lunch by returning some messages from the fifty million people who tried to call us during our lunch hour, making one person inactive (they moved out of state) and listening to another rant about how insulted she was that we ask her to give a larger gift (and fun fact, her current gift was actually put on for the wrong amount, so I’m going to have to fix that later)

E) Then I spent some time gathering up supporting evidence (i.e., images of checks and gift envelopes) for those gifts I’d identified as belonging to the newspaper office, along with marking more people deceased as per phone calls and double-checking the gifts of people who were listed as having both a pledge and recurring gift (one was already taken care of, one I shut down the recurring gift because the person in question ALWAYS makes a pledge – we get a fair number of people who make recurring gifts without realizing what they actually are)

F) And I ended the day wrapping up things with a few final e-mails (including one to my supervisor with all the check and envelope images I’d gathered) and posting the batch of credit card gifts we’d done throughout the day

Whew! Lot to do, and the phone ringing so much did NOT help. I started flinching every time I heard it because it was like can you not let me finish one thing. Hopefully it’ll be less chaotic on Monday, but we will see… Just glad it’s the weekend again right now!

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – ‘twas my final night on the bike this week, and I spent it pedaling my way through:

A) The rest of “Fallout: New Vegas - The Man With The Platinum Chip” by Jon of Many A True Nerd! Which featured more of Courier Bames Jond wandering around the 10,000% Extra Damage Mojave Wasteland starting fights (both personally and between different factions) and seeing who won! His adventures included:

I. Visiting the NCR Correctional Facility, and – after successfully sniping off Dawes at the door to get inside (as the guy would have seen through his Powder Gangers disguise), only to fall to leader Eddie within when he tried to present himself to do some quests – kicking off the fight between the NCR and the Powder Gangers for control of the prison! Jon remarked that normally the NCR win this fight handily (good to know as Victor WILL be backing them when he takes on the prison) – but with damage on all guns cranked up so high, he suspected that the Powder Gangers up in the guard towers would prove much more lethal in this universe –

And he was correct! The NCR were torn to pieces by the tower snipers despite having arguably better guns because they couldn’t get a good bead on them. Jon actually reloaded the fight after the first go to see if they could do any better, and – not really. One guy managed to survive long enough to get inside the actual facility, and even he fell to the first Powder Ganger he came across. *clicks tongue* Sad. Jon decided that wouldn’t do and reloaded again, this time having Bames Jond take out the tower snipers before kicking off the fight –

And that went a LITTLE better for the NCR, admittedly – this time, three whole guys survived to storm the main facility. And it looked like they actually might have a chance at winning too – until Eddie showed up with a plasma pistol and managed to take them out before they could reach the stairwell. Bames quickly changed out of his NCR armor and made friends with the new crime lord...then shot him and all his buddies in the face because fuck it, why not. XD

( The write-up got long enough to deserve one of these )

B) And, just to fill out the little bit of remaining time, the YouTube Short “Baldur's Gate 3: Picking Your Warlock Patrons” by Dungeons & Dragons! (I presume the official YouTube channel of the game.) This was just a quick clip of Nick Pechenin, the Lead Systems Designer over at Larian, talking about the different types of patrons your warlocks can have in BG3 – specifically, the Great Old One (the eldritch monstrosity, which focuses on cold and necrotic damage and having tentacles come up to grab your enemies...unless you’re me, in which case it’s all psychic damage all the time) and the Fiend (naturally a devil – the clip in fact featured Mizora, Wyll’s patron – who focus on channeling the “hot hot fires of hell”). *shrug* It ate up the remaining few seconds of my workout!

2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – got through the rest of Alice’s meeting with LaCroix today, which featured:

A) LaCroix announcing that yes, he was officially calling the Blood Hunt on Nines for the murder of Grout, and Alice feeling a wave of relief as the compulsion on her finally lifted, and immediately making plans to run to the Last Round and try to warn Nines once this meeting was over with

B) LaCroix cheerfully noting that Alice had at least removed one other encumbrance from him, then looking at her little entourage and asking if they need more help getting the sarcophagus up to his office; cue Alice awkwardly revealing that the sarcophagus had already been stolen when they arrived while Van, Terrence, and Mercurio all avoided eye contact

C) LaCroix briefly flipping out over the news that his precious sarcophagus was missing, baring his fangs and getting ready to shake Alice – before suddenly realizing who the most likely culprit was and calming down into sullen resignation with an annoyed “Gary”

D) Alice asking who Gary was, and LaCroix explaining he was the Nosferatu Primogen, and how the Nosferatu were the only other ones who knew what had happened to the sarcophagus and how to get at it; Alice proceeded to wonder why he didn’t just use one of THEM to fetch it, then realized that that probably would have been a big mistake – then wondered why one of them would steal it, if they supported the Camarilla, causing Cheshire to point out that she only knew of one member of the clan who supported it, and that supporting the Camarilla in general was not the same as supporting LaCroix in particular

E) LaCroix demanding that Alice find Gary before the sarcophagus was “exploited” – then explaining that no, this wasn’t a Grout situation, Gary just was not an easy person to get a hold of when Alice was like “oh shit, is he not answering his phone either;” he followed up by telling her that the Nosferatu holed up under Hollywood, which was Anarch territory, and that the local Baron, Isaac was at least somewhat civil to the Camarilla and might know how to contact them. Alice was like “guess I should see him to start – and mind my manners,” to which LaCroix replied, “For a change.” XD Alice couldn’t even argue with that after last night! XD

F) And the whole thing ending with LaCroix reiterating that Alice’s task was to find Gary, get him to talk, and then get the damn sarcophagus, before getting the Sheriff to kick everyone out of his office so he could formally announce the Blood Hunt

*nods* Very good progress – the number of pages I have left to edit is officially in the single digits! :D Tomorrow we’ll pick up with everyone leaving the office, and Alice chatting to Mercurio, Van, and Terrence in the aftermath – should be an enlightening conversation for her...

3. Watch something on YouTube: No check, but that was not a surprise, given tonight was Game Night (Parcheesi – Dad won the first game, Mom the second) and I’ve had almost no time for videos anyway given my workout video write-ups are getting longer and longer. *grumbles* Something has gotta be done, though damned if I know what yet...

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – didn’t have anything to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and I ended deleting the ask I had on Valice Multiverse because it was just a “hey isn’t the world rather shit”-style one that I didn’t feel like answering. Yes, I know the world is rather shit, but do we have to talk about it on my pretendy-fun-times blog?

So yeah -- not a great day, but I at least feel less stressed tonight than I did last night. But now it is definitely time to hit the sack. Tomorrow's goals: clean my room and do my monthly laundry (since I skipped last week -- wanted to adjust my schedule to account for stuff happening at the end of the month); play some Little Corners (as I expect the room clean and laundry to take a while); continue editing "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" (inching closer to the end!); and answer Moose's messages (because they have been sitting in my inbox for a while now). And hopefully watch the OXBox list of the week, but we'll see. *nods* Night all!