<geek> chicky · blog </geek>

Dead to rights and wide awake
just li'l ol' me

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[Current Mood | okay okay ]

WP Prompt of the Day: What’s something you miss from the old days?

Early internet maximalism in personal websites. Seamless background wallpapers that mimicked satin fabric. Black Chancery font. Guestbooks. Flickering animated torch gifs around headings. Flaming horizontal dividers. Animated gifs for everything. Java applets that made water ripples. And for the pièce de résistance, a midi of Meat Loaf’s “Anything For Love” that automatically loads and can’t be shut off.

Morning, y’all. We’re up and about and on the couch. Pippin is eating her breakfast in private quarters this morning. Podrick finished eating 5 minutes ago.

Yesterday was a nice, slow day. Shawshank went to work, and I wrote a bit. He came home around lunchtime, bringing me a gift of mac and cheese. Then he fired up “Cyberpunk” and ran around for a couple of hours. I pulled some thread out of the box and worked on my needlework project while he fought gangs.

My stitch and bitch project is coming along nicely. I’m very happy that I ripped out the first attempt at the sky, because I much prefer this stitch and how it looks. I also find it to be a less frustrating stitch to use to fill in big areas. Also, the blue I used for the first attempt was way too dark. Buying a bunch of proper colors was a good choice.

I handled most of making dinner last night. Shawshank brought home a loaf of raisin bread and some sausage. He handled the sausage, then I made a stack of French toast. We spent the rest of the night gaming some more. I played “Witcher 3” for a few hours, mostly just handling a few quests, then went back to needlework.

We’re not leaving the house today. Shawshank just started the washer, and we’re having pasta pork cutlets and sauce and garlic bread. I’m sure there will be plenty of gaming going on.

how do you want to do this?

[Current Mood | creative creative ]
[Listening To | fluffy Saturday morning news ]

Good morning, world. I’m up and enjoying a coffee. Shawshank is up as well, but he just got a phone call from the boss saying the kid opening the store this morning never showed and isn’t answering his phone. He just took off to open, and is hopeful this means he’ll be home tonight.

Yesterday was another day. We drove Shawshank‘s mom into Slightly BiggerTown for a trip to the dentist. We dropped her off at the office, then drove around town to do the shopping while we were out. The secondhand shop was absolutely insane inside; we’re pretty sure it was the first day they had their holiday stuff set out. His mom wasn’t too long, and we headed back home once we had her back in the truck.

Shawshank had to go to work when we got back to town, so I set up the bedroom, and got ready to stream. It was a frustrating process because the cats wanted to assist. I’m ok with them in the bedroom during setup, as long as they stay out of my way. Pod started off on the bed, which was fine, until Pippin walked past the doorway and Pod gave chase. I redirected him to his laser toy and went back to setting up. He was fine for two minutes, then he was back after her again. I chased Pod off, and put Pipping up on one of her shelves, and closed the bedroom door, hoping that if I didn’t hear them, the setup wouldn’t be interrupted again.

I was wrong, of course. Podrick chased her down and pinned her, making her cry. At this point, I was all set up and just trying to get online, and I lost my shit. I burst out of the bedroom in nothing but a thong, and chased him around the house, slapping shit with a tank top. After winding myself up, I had to sit and try to relax before I could actually start streaming. Then, when I actually got online, it was dead. Chaturbate would randomly disconnect me, and the dudes weren’t coming into my stream. I’m experimenting with hashtags again, and it didn’t go well. At least I remembered to start the stream this time around.

I spent the rest of the night getting the second version of my new stream game tested out. There were a couple of little hiccups – my fault entirely – but it does work. The biggest thing to worry about right now is actual “gameplay”. It’s one thing to come up with a basic game idea and a rule set, but this is much more interactive, and really hinges on me running things more like a DM. A slutty, horny Matt Mercer.

THE FINCHES ARE SWARMING

[Current Mood | blah blah ]
[Listening To | news ]

WP Prompt of the Day: What’s a time you ignored your gut – and paid for it?

I can’t think of any time where I’ve actually listened to my gut about anything. I’m a walking ball of anxiety and stress, if I listened to everything my gut said, I’d be more beholden to my anxieties than I already am.

Good morning, world. It’s Friday, and it’s the 13th, and it’s looking pretty gray out there. Podrick snuggled a lot. Between the overcast skies and a briefly docile cat, we were able to stay in bed past sunrise.

Yesterday was a nice day off. Shawshank spent the morning playing Cyberpunk, then handed off the controller so I could play for a little while. Once again, I’m in a “fuck yo storyline” mood and not actually doing anything to advance the game at all, simply because I want to explore things. I can’t pass an alley without going into the dark spots. If I can climb it, I will. Eventually, I’ll run out of gangs on the island I’m locked on, and have to do the next quest.

After lunch, we headed out to Shady Acres and met up with Shawshank‘s mom. We loaded a bunch of bags of donations into the back of the truck and headed out to the secondhand shop. The nice ladies at the shop didn’t even let us put them in the donation shed, we just brought all of it right into the back room. I’m sure the two king sized, handmade quilts will never make it into the shop. We brought a few things over to the li’l flat, then came back home. I did some testing on some vibe coded bullshit and watched Shawshank play the game again.

We’re going out to Slightly BiggerTown with his mom today, she’s having some dental work done and probably won’t be able to drive home. We’ll do some shopping while we’re out, drive home, and I’ll see about getting a stream going.

but it was a trendy neighborhood so it’s news

[Current Mood | frustrated frustrated ]
[Listening To | Scandals! Shootings! Societal collapse is in the air! ]

WP Prompt of the Day: What’s something you’ve forgiven but haven’t forgotten?

All of it. Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die – so I forgive, for my sake. Forgetting is the more difficult part.

Good morning, world. It’s fucking Thursday. We’re up, the coffee is percolating, and we’re yelling at the news. The cats are doing their own things. Scandals are unfolding all around us.

Last night’s stream was a complete shitshow, but it wasn’t entirely my fault. I set everything up, sat down, and launched the stream. I’d actually tweaked my “shelf” a little bit, and figured out an arrangement for the two screens and the desk clamp that holds my cam’s boom. All my cords were plugged into the Dell, the music was on …. and I forgot my mic. I shut down the stream to hunt it down, plug it into the splitter, and sat down to start the show once again.

I set out my “I’m online!” announcement, killed time for the first 15 minutes or so, as usual, while I waited for folks to come in. I felt great, I was having fun and testing out the second version of my new stream game for about 20 minutes, absolutely killing it. But no one was coming into my room, and I’m trying not to focus on numbers so I’m not looking at my live stats. If I had looked at my stats, I’d have noticed that I wasn’t actually streaming. I’d plugged in the mic, sat down, and started the show- but never hit START.

I took a hit from the vape, and hit the fucking button. Within 45 seconds, I heard an unfamiliar noise from the other room, and logged out again to investigate. This time around, I remembered to start the broadcast again. I stuck around for a couple of hours, but Chaturbate was having all sorts of problems. After dealing with about a dozen disconnections, I ended up logging out because I couldn’t access my bots.

We’ve got a day off today. I expect it’ll be nothing but games.

overlay, over it.

[Current Mood | annoyed annoyed ]
[Listening To | politicians whining ]

WP Prompt of the Day: If you got to live inside a video game world, which one would you choose?

Skyrim. I’ll take the Golden Hills plantation, or just the alchemist’s cabin. My biggest adventure would be that time I saw a giant and his mammoth in the distance.

Good morning, world. We’re up and getting the go-go juice into our bodies. The cats are waiting for the morning visit from the birds.

Yesterday was a sucky work night. I’d added a new game to my streams, and last night was a test run of its graphics. I made a few macros to deal with popping the overlays on screen, cycling through, and clearing them, all using one button on my control deck. It worked, but I wasn’t very happy with it. I also decided to log in late, thinking if business doesn’t start to get busy until about 4pm, why don’t I just log in then?

[Narrator: In the end, however, that was a bad choice.]

My rank was in the absolute toilet, and there it stayed. I had a couple of quick spikes of activity, but other than that, shit was really bad. Trying to look at things positively, a dead shift was a good way to work out the kinks with the new game play, and to learn not to fuck with my established schedule. I logged out, fed the cats, fed me, and played “Cyberpunk” until Shawshank came home and I gave him the controller. To cap off the night, I spent an hour making my new overlays work the way I wanted them to work, remapped my control panel, then ate some pie.

Shawshank‘s working a day shift today. I’m going to assume the human form and get back in The Bean again. The overlays are working, let’s do this.