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What did you do this week (and weekend)?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
• I managed to go grocery shopping two times this week. Normally, I don't do it because it involves unwanted social interactions and pre-pandemic also included being "touched" when walking through a crowded store.
• A friend gifted me whetstones with some accessories to learn to sharpen my extremely dull kitchen knives. It was a lot of fun doing that and I was surprised at how easy it was to keep a constant angle for me. The sharpening process itself is so relaxing and the stone-, metal- & water slurr it creates smells nostalgic like the mineralwater well in my hometown.
So these are big accomplishments for me.
Aside from that, I just finished DMing a solo D&D-session for one of my players, because they were left alone in a mysterious temple by their party last session. That changed a lot going forward, but we both had fun and found a good compromise on further in-story events.
I ran session 2 of my campaign this past weekend for my players. It's a pirate themed game and they've been recruited by a cursed captain to search for a set of wish granting orbs (yes I stole this from DragonBall). What have you got your players into?
You won't believe me, but we are also playing a pirate themed game, kind of.
We are playing 5e Spelljammer since around february.
The crew consists of a ferret ranger / bard, a plasmoid monk, a hadozee fighter and a dowhar (penguin merchant) artificer.
Early on, they had a lot of fun on Bral, the kinda hub-city that the setting brings with it. The crew wants to be pirates, but especially the ferret thinks that a pirate is what santa clause is.
They steal stuff, switch it out with chocolate coins and help people rather than plunder everything.
Technically, the campaign includes them having to find 3 orbs themselves, but after the first one they derailed heavily and now we were having fun in a lot of locations with sidestories.
At some point pretty early in the game, the Demogorgon was involved as a weaker illusion they fought after it was banished from their plane of existence in the past. Very recently the ferret died in a fight. In his dying state, the Demogorgon came to him disguised as an angel they just met, to trick him into a contract (so it can later on return to their world).
The ferret, who can't read (and is very set on never learning how to read), of course signed the contract and was immediately surprised by the Demogorgon's true form.
Now they are all concerned with the Demogorgon taking over the ferret's body at some point.
But last session ended with them leaving the ferret alone in a floating greek-style temple that contained a boss version of the Medusa creature from 5e, as well as a giant snake.
So that was the session I was playing yesterday. Starting sunday, the player will play their backup character that has some shared background-story with the event that banished the Demogorgon.
...and all that happened in 16 sessions so far, without them ever meeting the actual main villain, because they always avoid any possible encounter with the king, as they know that he's the bad guy.
Edit: Funny enough, "wish granting" is also a thing in our game. They recently learned about it. In a prison, they found the weakened angel I mentioned, as well as the handle of a lance that belongs to a different angel. They now know that the lance is supposed to be used to summon that other angel, who granted people of a specific bloodline an unconditional wish. (I was on my 5th rewatch of shadow hunters when I felt like that's a good element)
That sound awesome! It's funny you mention the Medusa because that's going to be the boss "fight" my players encounter next session. I put fight in quotes because they found a magical map to guide them to each orb, and riddles appears one by one on the back of the map to clue them in to the next challenge. The riddle made it fairly obvious that a medusa holds the first orb and one of my players immediately said she looks forward to breaking her curse and making the Medusa her wife (creepy deep sea elf character).
Edit: Forgot to mention I'm also playing Spelljammer with one of my players as the DM (three of us rotate DMing, also playing Curse of Strahd). I'm playing a Twilight Cleric/Moon Druid multiclass Astral Elf named Arcturus whose family was taken by Illithid, and a Goliath Rune Knight fighter named Kaz who's just a really nice wholesome guy that is beloved by his tiny village.
That sounds nice. I'm going to be a player again soon. The newest of my players wants to try themselves on DMing and wants to run a nordic mythology inspired campaign. I'm going to play a Battle Smith Artificer (Tiefling).
Aside from that, another player, who previously was our DM before I started DMing my first game last year, is currently running an Alien RPG game with different players which might continue today. Previously, I was playing a Tiefling Bard of Creation in Storm King's Thunder and had a lot of fun.
The group I'm with now just recently finished a campaign we'd been in for the last year and a half or so. I was a Battle Smith Artificer in that game! He was a forest gnome named Bilzu. My DM set up an encounter while we were level 2 where we fought a clockwork dragon and after we defeated it, our party wizard used tensors disc to help bring home the pieces. We leveled up and the dragon became my steel defender. His name was Rill and my DM was cool enough to give him a fly speed and a fire breath attack. And since gnomes are small I used him as a mount!
Also, I didn't recognize your username before, but you did have the correct person on discord. I unfriended before I realized though so you can resend if you like. Edit: If you tried to resend and it didn't go though, I forgot I went and turned off open invites after I got yours. I opened it back up temporarily.
Not been up to a huge amount this week, mostly work but we're starting on a large project so it's actually been quite exciting at work this week.
I had a D&D session last night, I play with two groups where I'm the DM for both. One is on hold at the moment because two of the players just had a kid so there probably won't be another session for another 5 or 6 weeks. The other group I played with last night are a regular weekly group but it's been on and off the past month because of holidays and illness so it was nice to get back into the campaign.
This weekend we're going into town to get some proper shoes for our daughter who is now walking all over the place and doing so with a high level of confidence. We'll probably grab some lunch while we're there but apart from that we don't have much else planned so we'll just relax which will be nice as the past few weeks have been really busy with birthdays, father's day, holidays and sickness.
I finally got my insurance to send a tow for my car that's been stranded at my apartment for a week and a half. Someone drilled out my ignition switch to try to hotwire my Boxster, but little did they know, it's got an immobilizer, which disabled the car if it can't talk to either the ignition switch or the ECU.
Insurance didn't believe that the car wouldn't start. Had to have my agent come out to have them try to start my car. Spoiler: he couldn't.
I miss sleep. I lost several days of sleep. Working night shift, I'm usually asleep during normal business hours, so I had to stay up several times just to deal with insurance, the tow company, and the tow company again.
Sorry to hear, that sounds miserable 😞 I’ve had someone do something similar to my motorcycle (jammed a piece of metal into the ignition but failed to unlock the steering lock), was stuck with an immobile bike and had to get someone to come and release it. A real pain in the ass…
Ooh hopefully insurance covered it. Thankfully I have good insurance and I'm only liable for my $500 deductible. I'm just glad they didn't cut my soft top to get into it. Insurance definitely would have totaled the thing, which would have been unacceptable considering I just bought it in April.
I had a time lol.
After years of putting up with a steadily declining workplace situation, and of saving up damn near everything I could, I realized I had enough to quit and ride things out until the next step comes. The next step is already in place, and it's just a matter of getting to the proper time, so I'm left with something like 9-10 months I can just have for myself. It took a lot of work and a lot of meticulous management to pull it off, because the job was not a good one, but I did it, and I've every reason to think this next phase is going to be what will sustain me.
It's a long and complicated story, but the gist is that the company I worked for was bought and was enshittified. After they were bought, things just sorta slowly came undone, and during that time I worked on creating an alternative. That alternative, is to launch a business with my family. At this point, the rest of the family has expressed total support, so it's just a matter of getting over there once my lease is up. I'm also gonna check out conditions for breaking the lease, and may jet early if that is cheaper. For now though, for a little bit, I'm just taking the time for myself because I can.
So, this past week, I've been tinkering with my steam deck and making plans to do creative stuff with my friends. I'm working on materials for the business and getting some accounts set up, along with planning out ads and branding. That's all in-progress and will be for some time. But mostly I'm just glad to be free again. I told my dog when I got home, "home forever! home forever!". It'll be true in a bigger way soon.
I've always had fairly cheap hobbies (reading, music, and video games) and wanted a new one so I've made the poor financial decision to get into painting miniatures and painted my first one.
I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed it as someone who doesn't paint/draw at all. Took about 3 hours between assembly and painting but it didn't feel like it. I'll definitely continue and I can't wait to see how much I improve.
LOL, I am about to embark on this poor financial decision. If my partner and I are not successful at getting pregnant this cycle, getting a custom primed mini from Hero Forge is on my "period prize" list. That way no matter what the result of the pregnancy test is, I will have something exciting to look forward to. :)
What type of mini did you paint? / Is it going to be used for a campaign?
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the process! If you ever feel comfortable sharing, I would love to see a pic of the painted mini.
For my first mini I bought a couple Warhammer complete sets (comes with 3 minis, a brush, and the paints you need). Here is a picture of my first one. I figured the beginner sets would be a good way to get used to painting and not be too worried about mistakes.
I also bought some more Warhammer, DnD, and Battletech ones. I do plan on actually using them for their respective games too, trying to be more social and figured getting into those hobbies would be a good way to do that.
I'd heard of Hero Forge before but didn't realize they actually print the minis too, thought it was just a modeling thing, once I've done what I have I might get one from them too, seems fun.
That looks pretty cool! Thank you for sharing the picture of it.
What do you like to main as when playing DnD (or what kind of character are you currently playing in your campaign)? I currently main as a halfling druid, but during this current campaign our group plays, I've also played as minotaur fighter with dual swords for a brief stint (my druid was captured after being knocked unconscious, and another party member managed to escape back to the city and elected to go back to save the captured characters, so another groupmate and I came up with alternate characters to help aid her in the rescue mission). Playing DnD definitely helps/encourages me to be social in person. :)
I don't really know anything about Warhammer or Battletech, except that I've heard of them before and they also use minis haha. I am exploring other TTRPGs to pick one I might like to try GMing for my first time.
I actually haven't played dnd since highschool (10+ years ago) but when I did I enjoyed playing Bard the most. With the release of Baldurs Gate 3 coming up though I've been thinking of getting back into it, also want to try out Vampire: The Masquerade.
My (small) social group kinda exploded recently with multiple people moving away so in an attempt to rebuild it I've been getting into miniature games because I wanted to paint them anyways.
My boss has been on vacation all week and will be back sometime after the 4th. I work for a small local remodeling company. He left me in charge of running the 3 jobs and in charge of 4 other people and so far this is have gone really smoothly. We're on track with schedule and nothing crazy has happened which I'm happy about.
That ended differently than expected. Nice work! Possible promotion in your future? Was it your first time managing these projects solo?
Thank you! Not that I'm aware of but there could possibly be one in the future. These ones yeah. He went on vacation one other time when I was his only employee and we had just one job going so that was super easy. This was pretty easy as well, I guess the biggest challenge was one of the jobs being on an island so if I was out there working the other guys were kind of on their own. All in all it went really good.
Definitely sounds like it is promotion worthy! It's hard these days to find hardworking, honest people. It seems like he trusts you, which is another trait that is more and more difficult to find. Keep it up, your hard work will pay off.
Work! I can finally do work without procrastinating for too long. It's mainly because I'm in the middle of it now rather than starting it. I'm still kind of slow but I'll get there.
So I recently finished a book about procrastination by Jane Burka and it was pretty insightful and useful I thought. It helped me and I have a big problem with procrastination. I'm going to write a few things I learned, but leave space in case you don't want to read them. Edit, so formatting is not as easy as line space or return. Still don't read the second part unless you want to.
Last day of swim lessons for my 5 year old was yesterday, which I'm thankful for. I'm not sure he got a lot out of it and I'm happy to not have any obligations in the morning for a week or so. Unfortunately, now I really need to find something for my kids to do each week, which I'd already been doing, but I find it hard to get the momentum when I'm not already out of the house and doing a thing. I'm trying to figure out what to do with our day and it's already 9:30...
I've "reengaged" with my kids, even though it's hard. I've been suffering a long bout of depression, which has finally been lifting and I'm reminding myself to play with my kids and entertain them a little more; being silly, goofing around, etc, just puts me in a better mood and I'm less of a crab ass overall, which is good for them and for me, so it's been nice to finally feel like I'm happier again.
I submitted my List for a Warhammer Age of Sigmar tournament I'm doing next weekend; it was due no later than today and I have no idea if it's really going to work or not, as I didn't practice much with it as I did before a prior tournament, so I'm just going to have to hope it all works out. At least I have a practice game against my buddy this evening, so I'm hoping the few changes I've made in my List and my strategy will work out.
I've also managed to crank through building six new models for my 40k Necron army, which is nice. The models themselves are a bit fiddly and each one is fucked-up in its own, unique way (which shouldn't be noticeable once, eventually, painted), but I'm finally through the two boxes I bought months ago and can move on to other stuff.
Really quite bored with building stuff at this point and just want to get back to painting, as time permits.
I'd call all of these a victory.
Gaming tonight, Rimworld mostly.
Going to work on some powerpoint goodness tomorrow for a pitch I've got on Monday for some work at a client. If I get it, it means relocation from my city for at least 36 months. It's very exciting. Off up there on Sunday and going to see a mate whilst I'm there.
Quite a quiet weekend.
Been pressure washing my deck and getting ready to re-stain/seal it. Bought some lumber to help my kids rebuild their play structure to help make it better as they get older. Been slowly making my own front door for the wood shop I built last summer.
And I've been taking my kids to swim lessons.
Haven't really done much, just been waiting for the weekend as I'm going on a road trip. Only snag I've hit so far is that my car is complaining about needing an oil service within the next 500 miles or so and my road trip will be about 800 miles total. But besides that, I'm looking forward to this trip, I'm finally hanging out with friends I haven't hung out with in a while.
On Monday I suddenly had to bury one of my pet birds. She died in the hand of the vet.
Other than that I got some paperwork done regarding selling our family home of 130+ years. It's good that it's sold and the last important signature is now dry, but ... damn, selling the house my great-great-great(?)-grandparents built still hurts, I still grew up there as well and for many years, we lived there with three generations under one roof. Given how long and tedious selling a house in Germany is it will legally be ours at least for two months, but the trajectory is final now and I paid some bills for the realtor as his job is done now etc.
Other than that I was mostly sick at home with a cough and didn't leave the house much.
Yesterday I made the final post on RIF and deleted the app, I wanted to feel like it was my choice and I had a say about it. Afterwards I nuked almost my entire post history, some saved posts I might want to use again as exceptions. I'm not yet ready to delete my account given a small handful of communities I still care for, but it felt sad nevertheless.
I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your pet bird. :( And the transition of selling the family home I imagine has lots of mixed feelings as you move into the next chapter of that story.
5 years was way too young for a turqouise parrot, they easily reach 10 or more.
Yes... the entire thing was and still is a mess, also given the circumstances. My father died three years ago, and early last year I carefully suggested my mother if she didn't want to move into my town, sell the house and (given the price differences between the places) buy a nice apartment in the city center - at the moment they build a lot of them, and they're usually suitable for older people - like ramps to the entrance etc. This way she wouldn't have the workload of a big house / property anymore and I could take better care of her once she would have gotten older. To my biggest surprise she wasn't opposed to the idea.
She died just days after the talk. When we were allowed to enter the house again (it was off limits for a while and sealed by police given the circumstances - she didn't die from natural causes) it was more or less the state she left home on her last day (except all important documents and the PC missing as secured by police). These belonged to the worst days of my life. In the first weeks I couldn't enter the house alone, as I felt she could be behind me any second. Over the months the house lost it's soul - all family members and less than a handful of close family friends took what they wanted, so it finally stopped looking like I remembered the house given more and more empty spaces. And the less it felt like a place just left in the morning, the more often I had to check if everything is fine, the more the house just became a nuisance to me. So when signing the contract I was glad to finally get rid of it, still going back home I fought tears.
I gave my chance to live through some memories one day though: Before we started clearing (so after we secured the few documents police hadn't thought as important, after turning off all electric devices etc), I went through each room with the tripod, from basement to attic, stood in every corner and took pictures in each directions. Then I mounted the camera on it's tripod and took a slow 360° video.
That sounds like a great way to capture the look/feel of the house that one last time before making preparations to sell it. I'm sorry to hear that your mother passed suddenly after that talk. I'm wishing brighter days ahead for you through these life changes. <3
Thank you! It's all a nightmare that lasts way too long by now - among other things I wait for a decision about the appeal regarding the criminal trial against the one responsible for her death. First court handed him a life sentence, I hope this is upheld in the appeal.
Saturday - NASCAR Xfinity race in Chicago
Sunday - NASCAR Cup race in Chicago
I've been in Chicago all week on work travel. The organization I work for is putting on its big annual convention. This is the 17th one I've worked. Got here on Sunday and I don't leave til Monday. Even though I'm really an IT guy, I'm responsible for event materials logistics, AV and event IT (AV is not IT), and our registration desk. Plus anything else that my event planner or team needs of me. As is often said in the small non-profit world, I wear many hats.
While it's been pretty smooth sailing, and it's been nice to talk with and hang out with our volunteer leadership, members, and other attendees, I am so ready for this to be over. As an introvert, my social battery is starting to fail me. As are my feet. I'll be very happy once we pack-up and ship everything back on Sunday.
Swam with dolphins and went snorkeling in Florida.
Lots of work stress as it's the end of H1 (first half of the year), so lots of final invoicing on projects and ramping up ordering and logistics for the next phases of projects coming in H2. I also took on several projects new to me after a coworker's sudden departure, and it has temporarily pushed me out of my "sweet spot" of beneficial stress into "oh no what have I signed up for" level of stress.
As one of the nuns said recently at Buddhist meditation, "Everything is impermanent."
Looking forward to long holiday (USA) weekend of reading, gardening, and general house stuff as we make our (new-ish) home feel more like... well, "home".