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Yesterday (May 16): WIN.   I have followed the instructions given by the IT guy I was communicating with and now my work computer no longer works. Outlook won't open, Teams won't open, Excel won't open, and I can literally get nothing done. And this weekend is a long weekend. I have been stressing out about this so much that I've slept for less than 2 hours last night.   Looks like I'll be trying to get work done on my personal laptop I guess? It's against company policy, but right now I don't have any fucks to give about policy since it should also be policy for the IT team to fix shit in a timely manner.

Thursday 16 May Not much to say here, long day at work, then straight into a therapist session, then straight back into our Netheril Dnd campaign after the Easter break. Quick summary for @Jarric and anyone else following these campaign reports:   Our trio of characters was introduced to Arcanist Ergon in hopes of earning his patronage. He was extremely fascinated with elves (which had my human character being quiet and grumpy in a corner) and he clearly hopes to gain enough power quick enough so he can enter the circle/court of the enclave's archmage. Our elven spellcaster is interested in how humans approach magic and wants to study at the local arcane academy, so he offered his services (but no murder and no sharing of elven secrets) in exchange for tutelage fees. The half-elf cleric wants to save an injured slave that was going to be pushed into another fight in the arena despite the injuries. Initially, she wanted Arcanist Ergon's patronage so she could fight in her place at the arena, but believing elf blood shouldn't be shed with such ease, he offered to buy the slave instead. As for my character, he agreed to assist him with his research, which seems to be heavily focused on flight, especially ways to make it permanent or craft magical items of the sort. With that out of the way, we finished our tea out of his impressive collection of herbs on display, the cups flew off on their own to get washed and we were shown our quite glamorous rooms in his tower, since he's also offering lodging while we're under his sponsorship. Another interesting touch of magic being commonplace in Netherese society, the beds were especially inviting to sleep in (even the elf who normally goes into a 4 hour trance actually slept for the full 8 or so hours) and we all shared the same vision before our individual dreams began, a scene of Arcanist Ergon and the enclave's Pactmistress surrounding the archmage. Like I said at the time, this felt like a "this dream is sponsored by Arcanist Ergon" unskippable YouTube ad   The next day we went to the arena for negotiations, where we ran into the obstacle of the fight already being scheduled and the master of betting strongly objecting to any changes. After some negotiating, I think Arcanist Ergon had to buy both fighters, or compensate the man for bet losses, I dunno I was getting pretty sleepy by then and both cats decided it was zoomies scream o'clock. What I do remember is that because the arena mostly features slaves fighting captured monsters, there was a mention of harpies and my character was sent off to find any literature related to harpy items as magical ingredients or components for magical items. He first visited some tinkering factory of sorts, where he met a grey skinned dwarf smith with a dragon tattoo on his forehead, who was more into crafting than theory. Nice touch to have him be grumpy about having to make springs and coils and components for something he doesn't quite understand (the enclave's metallic golems) and lament simpler times of the past when he'd make simpler, sturdier things that made sense to him, like an axe. I know it's not an intentional comment on labour specialization and workplace alienation, but I choose to interpret it as such. Long story short, my man then visited a magical academy and found a book by a famous magician on flight. Wasn't his spellbook per se, more like research notes, but it's good enough for me and might help us figure out the inner workings of the project. Gave it a glance and was told he can get a copy for 50gp. Which he doesn't have, so he had to sell Arcanist Ergon on how he could go to the library daily and study it, but it might be better to get a copy so they can both read it and save it for his own collection.

60 seconds jumping jacks - 🐝

So, remember the recap of last weekend's food shenanigans? Crisps binges, eating my weight in BBQ meat, deluxe breakfast, cake, spaghetti?   Weekly weigh-in   Weight: 93.50 kg (-0.85) Body fat: 22.1 % (-0.6)  

What last weekend looked like for me:          Weigh-in:   15/03: 94.65 kg / 208.7 lbs 22/03: 94.15 kg / 207.6 lbs 29/03: 94.20 kg / 207.7 lbs 12/04: 95.10 kg / 209.7 lbs 19/04: 94.15 kg / 207.6 lbs 26/04: 94.05 kg / 207.3 lbs 03/05: 94.00 kg / 207.2 lbs 10/05: 94.35 kg / 208.0 lbs 17/05: 93.50 kg / 206.1 lbs (-0.85 / -1.9)  

They actually are a favourite of mine. But mainly because of their time-saving quality. They're cardio AND strength workouts in one, and they wipe me out so fast that just 3 sets in 5 minutes feels like a massive HIIT workout... 😅     Funny thing about how my mind works. I logged the 20 DailyDare burpees as 0.1 workouts (so just a single exercise). If I would have done 2 sets of 10 burpees (just like I did for the DailyDare) as part of a regular mini-workout, each set would have counted as an exercise, so it'd be 0.2 in the log. For the exact same thing. Because... OCD? ASD? Brain farts?    

We can get low to mid thirty's on especially hot years. Mostly our summers are high 20’s though. Winters will be below 10’c guaranteed. But, as mentioned, dropping into minus numbers is unsual. My cacti do not like anything below 6’c, but most years i only have to put the greenhouse heater on for a couple of moths in the coldest period of winter/spring. We do (contrary to all the advertisments) get very very wet and story winters. Round here, when new people move down, we usually say if they’ll last the winter they’ll probubly stay. Many cannot tolerate (and are not expecting) the weeks of endless cloudy days interspaced by storms. 50mph winds are so common here in the winter we dont count anything as a storm til it goes over 50. Its just a blustery day, or “a bit windy out” 😆. A 50mph storm is pretty small by our standards. Year before last the wind hit 120mph in some places. But this is unusual. 70-80 is more normal for a good blow. Most storms are 50-60pmh.  In all honestly though i suspect it is the weeks of endless cloud and rain that do for people. They seem to think we have nice weather all the time. We are actually one of the areas of highest rainfall in the uk. This is why we are so green.    We do get inundated with tourists in the summer. It seems to have become worse since covid. Which bemuses me as accommodation is currently very expensive here (the air b n’ b’s are exorbitant).  Right now it is getting up to 17 in the middle of the day with a cool East wind. This is quite cold of our spring into summertime weather, but easterly's are always chilly here. We are having a lot of sunshine though so in the day and out of the wind it feels much hotter. Suntan lotion is a daily must, i am already seeing visitors walking around looking like grilled lobsters.    i met someone from tenesee yesterday who said it was delightfully cool here. So i suspect you guys are also much warmer right now.  ok, went off on a massive tangent. Trust a brit to talk incessantly about the weather (yes we are a cliche in real life too)   Glad you enjoyed them. 

Yeah.... thanks for that one. 🙄   😁

Yes, it's the position I thought would be the best fit of the ones discussed. Not only a new boss, but a completely different division of the company (commercial rather than space). So as of now, I do not have to deal with the shitty manager anymore! 😁