2023-12-28:

Fri:
Did work stuff, checked the servers today, a bit early, but I wanted it done before coming back after christmas.
Also wrote two bugs. We have links in our software to IE, I mean come on. And our estimated days of usage is somehow off. Like it starts at 15000 pages and 800 days but 8000 pages somehow becomes 3 days. It's very odd.

Otherwise wrote the end of the last chapter, and finished another. Up to 22 chapters now, and we got a new party member. I had never planned to have her party size increase but it made total sense to do so.

Dropped off stuff, did the shopping, and came home. Had dinner, checked sites.

Did game. We ended a bit early, Neil was packing for a 10 hour drive and also wanted to get to bed at some time. So our big fight didn't happen, but we at least got rid of another deadly talisman.


Sat:
Happy night before the night before Christmas!
Caught another mouse. I have two now. What am I going to do with these little cuties? It's pretty cold but they don't exactly prepare like squirrels do. I could still let them go... guilt free?????
Checked sites while I petted a kittman.
Ordered SSDs.
Made the candy.
Cleaned up a bit.
Had lunch.
Finished proofreading and adding to chapter 22. Wow, 22 chapters and I just started this story, what, 20 days ago. That's a tiny bit more than a chapter a day. Neat.
Worked on Midnight's character sheet, as she's coming with us. I finally had a cool idea for her, actually an old idea I can now finally put into practice. I think she'll be a compelling character? Who am I kidding, I can't write compelling characters. But at least she has a somewhat interesting backstory. That took me far too long. Now to make her skills and starting spells.
Surprise xbox appears! We did that for a bit.
Then dinner.
Added a lot of dialog to chapter 21. Midnight is more interesting now that she's not just an NPC I was going to only have around a few chapters, so she hinted at her past more (now that she has one to hint at).
Chapter 22 as well. Not as many changes there as she didn't need to hint anymore, but I added some stuff and tightened it up. Authors are always saying that sort of thing right? Like it's nuts and bolts not words on the page? Tightened? How does that even work?
Back to Xbox.

Sun:
It's eve!

Checked sites, watched videos.
Did my reading for the day.

Wrote chapter 23. Yes, I got it all in my head while I was trying to fall asleep and knew it wouldn't be until tuesday until it could come out otherwise so I sat and wrote it.

Got ready to go over to my parent's house.

Went over to my parent's house. We did the game, had a few too many gifts but I think I got some good ones in there so all is well. I think the best one was the spider monogrammed towel. Yup, no question.

Mon:
Had a nice christmas with everyone. Thanks for everything! Same time next year?

Tues:
Looks like the patch came in, somehow, so I got started on that. Empty parking lot, of course. I expected nothing... more? Anyway, patch is a re-test, we made the patch earlier but it took the "customer" so long to actually take it they've upgraded their software. And as patches are for a specific software we have to remake it. We are smart.

The only other work thing I did was look for Joe's delivery. Still no sign of it.

Proofed the last 4 chapters some more. Then worked on finishing up Midnight's character sheet. Got her skills and "permanent" spells figured out. Any others she just casts on the fly and I record it so it can go away after 7 days.

Went to good will, gotta start looking for next year's game stuff.

Then came home. Put two gutter pipe things on. Had to saw one of the pipes. Tired me out.

Checked sites, videos, ate dinner. No calls, but I have someone to call back from before the holiday.
Ugh, she's not 10 minutes away anymore, she's 30 minutes away. Great. And the weather is going to get worse. But that's future me's problem.
Future as in tomorrow. Something about her printer and wi-fi. Yay, I hate wi-fi.

Set up my speakers now that I had the mic to do so.

Put a few more gifts away.

I want to write up a new spell (I could have sworn I had, like a spider man webbing sort of situation) and a new fatigue based penalty vs a flat spell based penalty based on something I read in Beetle & The Hollowbones I got for Christmas. Great artists steal -- Steve Jobs.

Wed:
Yes, I knew I had written up the webbing spell because I reference it in another part of the guide. Very strange. I wrote it up again.

I couldn't figure out how to do the fatigue thing. It just builds up too fast. I couldn't make it fair.

Finished the latest chapter, it's a little longer than a usual one.

Still didn't find the missing package.

Christina is back. Nothing came in though. No cars in the parking lot again, there were 3 when I left.

Went over to see router lady. She had many cats that came to see me. Unlike some cats I could name. Including one 16 years old. Her router was indeed acting up. And she had one of those stupid, tiny, HP printers. They're a pain to set up. But I reset the router and it started behaving, got the printer done, and came home. Rainy day. Love driving in darkness and rain.

No calls, thank you.

Spoke too soon, someone called. Yay. Humm he's got a bunch of issues with a brand new computer? Odd. It won't wake up according to him, for now I've told him not to put it to sleep, we'll see if that helps. Otherwise his laptop is slow which means an SSD replacement, which I don't have. I ordered some yesterday, so I'm calling him back once I get them in.

Checked sites, videos, and had dinner.

Got ready for tomorrow.

Thurs:
Still no package. Not much else to talk about. We did have a meeting, with all of two other people, oh, so important. But Gina did come up with a date and time for my demo, so there's that. Next week like Thursday I think?

Wrote the next chapter. Watered the plants.

Got cat litter after work. Figured I might as well.

No calls today. Ate dinner, checked sites.

I predict it will be even slower and emptier tomorrow.

Let's see, coming up tomorrow I'll go to the bank, do the shopping, see my parents. Need to get a work calendar, I forgot it until yesterday when I realized, oh yeah, that big calendar thing I keep downstairs. Can't make appointments without that! Oh, I think I figured out why I forgot it... We are doing game, but Neil wants to be sure and stop before 11 which should be no problem. Then Saturday we're doing the pyre game. I skipped over writing the sulpher cave into the adventure not only because I wanted to work on the new story instead but because it really didn't add anything to the plot. We got plans for an item we can't even build, so why bother recording it? I'll start the next chapter with us going to the shipwreck. That at least we've mentioned and a character actually spent money on the map it so I should honor that.

Then it's eve again. Just a slightly different kind. No work Monday.

That's about it for this year. Next one should go just that much faster. Neat.

See you all in 2024. Election year. Gonna be so...

something.