missizzy

Still trying to get into this year's Comic Con, but it looks like it's not going to happen; I'm still at more than an hour to go. It was never easy to believe that I was going to get lucky in the general sale for a third time, honestly. I've been assured I'll still be eligible for returning registration next year, and I'd like to think I'm more likely to get lucky there after getting unlucky for two years in a row.
A week ago, I would've thought this just as well. It may yet end up being so. Although if things do indeed go the way I think they're going to go for the next hour, I definitely want to go to NYCC instead if at all practical.
Like plenty of Critters, I watched the first episode of The Mighty Nein on YouTube yesterday. Amazon has done a bit more promotion for it than they have for The Legend of Vox Machina, which makes me think someone at that studio thinks it's going to be the more successful of the two. They've probably got good reason to. The original campaign has the raw material for it, and it seems their adaptation distillation is now up and running on full-and they've made sure we all know they're changing the story around, so there'll be much less disappointment there than there was with the third season of LOVM. And in that first episode? The plot may be different in a heck of a lot of ways, but the members of the Nein we've seen so far look to be on point, and getting the parts of their stories they need to have.
That toucan has moved way too much when the wait time is still over an hour. Tempting you with false hope like that is just rude.
ETA: And then during the second hour my wait time starting dropping like crazy! Got in with Friday badges running low, but I still got for Thursday, Friday, and Sunday!

I have now confirmed that the new modem can have two computers directly plugged into, and located the hole in the wall my dad made back in the day when we didn't have wifi so it had to be ethernet cables. My sister is hopefully coming over later today to help move the furniture, though my mom may insist we get professional help with the plugging in of the cable.
I also finished this yesterday, the unexpected new final fic in the Vaxleth series I wrote years ago:

Title: Sunrise Soon
Fandom: Critical Role
Characters: Vax/Keyleth
Disclaimer: My deepest respects to Liam and Marisha.
Warning: Character undeath
Note: New final installment in my Vaxleth series, taking place at the end of Campaign 3.

( Vax'ildan isn't exactly concealing his return from the population of Zepyrah. )

Amid everything else, I have spent the past couple days still in a bit of disbelief that Jane Goodall is actually dead. I read two of her books for my science class in middle school, and they were the pair I loved reading most. I've been interested in chimpanzees and great apes at least a little since. (I would read Birute Galdikas' book too, largely because of Goodall.) Though it's only as an adult that I've come to understand how how big everything she spent her life trying to do was, and just how much respect and admiration one has to have for her. I haven't opened her books in many years, but now I'm wondering if maybe I should get them down from the shelf, and look again.
I also, of course, have now seen the first episode of Critical Role's new campaign. I've noticed before how the first episode of a new liveplay campaign, their third included, can be a little slow, but not in this one; I was engaged immediately. These were fourteen players who know both the game and each other well enough to keep one captivated even during the stretches of the episode when they were merely gathering together. ( And when towards the end of the episode... )
Right after this I'll probably get my suitcase down from the attic and start packing. I'll have enough to do tomorrow before I go to catch the train.

It seems the number of things that are out of stock on the Giant website are on the increase. We managed to deal with it this weekend without my having to make another run to Wegmans, but that's likely only going to get worse with the tariffs coming in. (I think. We don't really order anything from Giant that isn't from the U.S., but I'm still not quite sure how those things work...)
With this weekend still being cooler than next week is going to be, I also made a run to the local small bookshop yesterday and finally got myself a copy of Tusk Love. I found it among the books recommended by the staff, complete with an assurance you don't have to have seen Critical Role to enjoy it. It still feels like this piece of defictionalization has escaped containment with how successful it's been.
I also played a lot of Sims 4 this weekend. I got Cassandra Goth married to Travis Scott, and the stress of real life weddings is certainly reflected in how difficult it can be to get a wedding ceremony to work remotely the way it's supposed to in that game. I left off today having successfully pulled off the ceremony activities, but there's no timer and it's not ending and I'm now thinking I'm going to have a real problem whenever I resume.

This was a week where a huge part of my motivation to push through it was the knowledge that next week I will be in San Diego. We've already started putting our schedules together. I had honestly resigned myself to the Critical Role panels likely being on Friday and Saturday, and so was very delighted when I learned they were both on Thursday, when I can go. Though I do wonder what those doing the scheduling were thinking, having the second in Ballroom 20 only an hour and a half after the first one gets out! I suppose I shall not be eating lunch that day...
Also, what those responsible for scheduling the tickets sales for next years live shows were thinking, having all the sales the same week as Comic Con! I'm probably going to try to get tickets for the one in Atlanta anyway, since that's the one it's feasible for me to attend.
The week also got better when my meds finally showed up on Tuesday. I am now back at full dosage and will remain so for the immediate future, though I'm starting to wonder if it might be worth trying to get a doctor's appointment related to a couple of the problems it's supposed to treat.

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.

A few months ago, I bought a ticket to a Critical Role liveshow in Camden, right next door to Philadelphia, and booked my train tickets and hotel room to give myself a day to see the sights as well. I had not anticipated, perhaps, that come the first week of December, it would get extremely cold out, and also, I would be in no mood for our country's historical lore.
Still, I tried to make the best of it. I found some artistic exhibits to go see in Philadelphia that I could ultimately get to, including some pieces of history I minded less. I'm actually less scared of certain pieces of real history, now that I've accepted that all the times periods have had their great pieces of ugliness just like ours does, and see things associated with more ordinary people who lived okay lives then has become a very real comfort right now. I had my day at PAX Unplugged, got to play a little bit of a Daggerheart demo, and also ended up participating in a train game called Ticket to Ride, learning in the process that train games are very much a thing people like to do; there was even a tournament going on. I came in last, but am actually pretty proud of how well I played, considering the other three people involved all knew what they were doing and I didn't.
I had chosen the hotel because so many people going to the live show were staying there. Unfortunately, it was not at all conveniently located for the rest of the week, but it did mean only a short walk to the venue and thanks to the other showgoers around I didn't have to walk either way in the dark alone. I quite enjoyed the show itself, and will always remember being in that audience for the big final HDYWTTD, because that's a bigger moment when an entire audience is going wild over it.
It was also a good thing it was so close when I realized early on I was going to want to spend Saturday resting up before going over, and that was before I got laid low by a terrible episode of indigestion early that afternoon. Indeed, my body is not very happy with me right now; the various aspects of this trip took their toll. I have to hope my more normal routine will help with that.
I also finished the Wyll/Karlach fic that I hope to post fairly early this week, but I'm not sure quite when.

For the past month, I have spent a large amount of time consuming three pieces of Critical Role-related media. And right now, I have mixed feelings on all three.
The moment last week when two bands of adventurers came together, and the entirety of this week's episode? Felt very much like the payoff of years of invested storytelling that it was. The seven people who suddenly had to be playing two people all rose to the occasion with aplomb, giving us all the interaction we would want from such a meeting, with the two remaining people at the table happily keeping up alongside them. That one's going to be a fan favorite, no doubt about it. But I have been getting more and more wary about how likely Bells Hells are to be idiots at the end of this, because I'm sorry, but the fact remains that releasing Predathos is an act of idiocy at best, and an act of arrogance at worst.
Were I to watch the new season The Legend of Vox Machina having never seen the original source material, I think I would unequivocally love it. Even the over the top moments like the end of episode seven are great when you watch with the right mindset. But I don't feel like I'm watching the adaptation of the original story we've all been waiting a year and a half for. I feel like I've had this season sold to me as something it's really not, and that's a problem. ( And that's when... )
I've also been listening to the audiobook of What Doesn't Break, and I'm currently in the middle of chapter 9. I'd be further, if the story wasn't often hard to get through; a large part of what's getting me through it is the knowledge that it's going to end with her meeting Imogen. And in that aspect of the novel Cassandra Khaw is proving a skilled author who's getting it right, aided in the audio version by a virtuoso performance from Marisha. But she is also turning Exandria into the kind of world you'd expect to see in some old fantasy paperback where women are hated and downtrodden the way they kind of haven't been at all in the rest of canon. In fact, it very much feels like she wanted to write a story about a lesbian (Laudna's in fact being bi is outright erased) in a hostile world, even when said world has also been shown to be way more queer-friendly than ours. It's to the point that I'm afraid I must hope we don't see any of Marquet besides the Taloned Highlands, because I would not trust this author with any non-Western coded society.
I suppose any or all of three of these things could soon end better than I'm currently anticipated. But I don't know.

The new season of Doctor Who. The showrunner may be a guy who's done it before, but it seems they understand the time lord's gotta change with the times. I love that he sings and dances. ( I love that this week... ) I'm quite enjoying Ruby, too. And while I maybe remain a little dubious about the Regency episode's main influence being Bridgerton, I do appreciate that they at least addressed the matter of time travelers doing dancing that well-to-do Regency folk spent years learning how to do properly.
Baldur's Gate 3. Especially Gale. Got to a scene where he tried to teach my barbarian Tav a little magic this week, and seriously, how does anyone refrain from romancing this bloke? Though the camp conversation I had with Astarion this week also increased my appreciation for Neil Newborn; I'm starting to understand why he won awards for his performance in this game. And hey, maybe at some point I'll be able to navigate one of the game's puzzles without having to look up the answer. I've got a lot of game to go; surely I'll manage it sooner or later, right?
We finally have Vox Machina third season release date! Maybe I'll even get to hear more about it in San Diego, too. Although it already looks and sounds like we're definitely getting a few things we've been waiting for...

So far, the beginning of my forties has not been much fun, honestly. But this morning, I have decided, that after seeing weeks of people going after her for issues that were more or less out of her control, I am going to write about how awesome Aabria Iyengar has once again been.

( There will be spoilers involved... )