The Grouch's Trash Pile [Baldur's Gate 3]

An enneagram test, training website? Seriously? ¬_¬

 

In other news, I stopped being an avoidant weirdo and updated my wordpress blog with a message that I'm not dead. JFC, I don't know why that was so hard that it took me two years to do. Two years I've been paying for the damned thing!

Prayer circle that I can stop being an avoidant weirdo about tracking down the people I wrote a novella for and asking them about the whole royalties thing/where is the money from that going, anyway, now that the company is defunct but the novella is still available for purchase. ( ¬_¬ intensifies )

 

45 minutes of business buzzword salad and Being Professional has made my brain fall over and twitch. @_@ I'm also just kind of lmao at the absurdity of this poor coach being confronted by an autistic goblin with a scattershot of skills who is almost entirely useless from a Business Wants Good Workers standpoint. He asked me in the politest way possible why my Finnish skills are so bad after this long and I was just like, I've been sick A Lot. Which is true! He and employers don't need to know that it was mental illness. (I also don't practice because don't go out much, don't watch TV, and give up really easily when confronted with text in Finnish, which is all entirely my own fault and I should be sorry about it... but I'm not. I also know I'm terribly lucky that anyone is willing to accomodate me on that.)

 

LOUD HOLLERING

FFXIV IS UN-GENDERLOCKING A WHOLE BUNCH OF RAD GEAR NEXT PATCH AND I AM PUMPED

(I also may have logged in for a bit to vacuum up materials for some of the crafted items before the other marketboard vultures got to it >_> Four out of my six characters are GNC, they need more options!)

 

Last video meeting went a lot more reassuringly (for the both of us, I think) -- I can't remember how exactly it came up but I started waxing passionate about UI design and accessibility and he started to laugh and say that they'd had a UI guy in the day before to give a presentation and that dude said, "If you've ever been really bothered by bad UI, you should go into UI design." Which, well. I can't argue! And it does interest me.

The coach was also relieved I don't have any illusions about my skill level (better than a complete layperson's, but still low) or how ready I am to jump into work (not at all), and that when he showed me a 'scary' web development skill roadmap, I was like oh, that's detailed and well-defined, I really appreciate that kind of thing. Sure, it's a lot to look at all at once, but it has a clear starting point and all the big branches are different paths, not something you have to do all of before you can ever work.

The only thing that worried me was the aftermath -- after an hour of listening and talking my brain was static and remained so for the next twelve hours until I went to bed. I know a lot of face-to-face interaction wears me out, but I need to figure out a solid way of decompressing so I'm not useless the entire rest of the day. I don't have any illusions I'll ever be neurotypical about it, but cripes, that sucked.

 

Handed a list of recommended emergency food
80% is wheat, oats, and soy

*sighs*

This is one of the things that scares me the most about possible disasters -- while I can plan my way around my own supplies, if I have to rely on someone else feeding me, I'm going to have a really bad time.

 

Current mood:


I'm digging through the various links of places to pursue an online education and I've spent the last few hours in a low-key panic because there's so much it's overwhelming me, even with my focus narrowed a lot.

Also high-key resenting every course that I know damned well costs money, but the site is cagey about it. "Enrollment is free!" I don't give a shit, you assholes, I want to know how much you're trying to fleece me for!

 

I'm extremely grumpy and disappointed about the job coaching stuff, but I don't want to talk about that right now.





Showing off the adventurer plates I've made instead. It's a fun feature and I'm looking forward to them expanding it. (Need to tweak Iolis's though, and probably replace the joke portrait, as fun as it is.)

 

Witnessed for job stuff, winner for playing with the adventurer plates. Oh, it looks like they've changed the description for the Wind-Up Moenbryda with this patch, as well, to something with much less unfortunate and distasteful implications.

 

I was SUPER pleased to see that. I got a player survey... last year sometime? And brought up the description of that and some other similar things as being really distasteful and unneccessary, and it was disappointing that the ENG localization team (because that minion frex was not described that way in JP) thought that was the kind of humor we wanted to see. I'm glad to see that was a common enough sentiment that it got changed.

 

FFXIV friends, if you have been an MSQ Rouletter in the past, it's still worth it -- still roughly the same xp per minute but each one takes less time (longest is Prae at half an hour, since they kept the important cutscenes), AND the dungeons are streamlined and the bosses have actual mechanics so they're actually kind of fun. And not jank ARR design mechanics -- the devs updated them all to modern design sensibilities, so they have markers consistent with new content and are quite a bit more interesting. They're generously timed and not too complicated since these are early fights, but they're a really good introduction to mechanics new players will see later. They also gave the cutscenes some polish, so the WoL is showing distinct emotions (like looking utterly furious at Gaius's bullshit).

 

Despite being in Maximum Grouch mode, I had a real good time doing MSQ Rou to see one of the new dungeons, getting Prae, and then marveling with my fellow rouletters over everything that had gotten changed. It's so much nicer of an experience! It felt kind of abbreviated, but I don't think it's going to feel that way to a player seeing it for the first time, especially with the Big Bads now feeling like an actual threat. (Apparently Westwind guy and Lahabrea are pretty challenging now, but I don't have it in me to NG+ half of 2.0 yet.)

In Max Grouch news, researching how to learn/improve time management skills, and uh. The amount of advice that boils down to "Just get better at it, stupid! :)" is really frustrating.

 

Even the advice directed towards people with ADHD has a marked NT bias, I've noticed. One of the better resources I've seen is this one which is technically for employers, not for individuals, but it might help especially if what you're being asked to 'improve' is something for which an accommodation could be provided by the employer.

Edit: I really wish I'd had access to this when I was in employment myself, tbh.

 

I appreciate it! It occurred to me after a bit that of course I wasn't finding any useful advice, it was all for neurotypicals... and I'm pretty sure that it's not very useful for neurotypical people either. I seriously doubt that there are very many people who read 'Stop Procrastinating' and go, "Oh shit, really? I never thought of that!"

Anyway, after that I searched for 'time managment ADHD' and I found some articles on ADDitude, but they were kind of condescending. Your link is overall more useful.

---

I'm still super super cranky about my guidance being "If you want to go into UI design, you'll just have to design your own self-study cirriculumn, sorry!" but I've at least cobbled together the bare bones of something. I need to do some research on the paid-for course options (like on Coursera) to see if they're even remotely worth it, and if the financial assistance you can apply for is genuinely available or behind so many hoops and conditions it's not worth it. I super don't trust most of what I've turned up to give me an accurate answer, however; I've seen two different sites that talked about UI design self-study claim that Adobe XD is free, when it absolutely is not.

 

It looks like the financial aid for Coursera is pretty easy to get, so... that's something?

 

Improved version of Iolis's adventurer plate.

 

Oh, and one for Jai.

 

Submitted my study plan, insofar as it is a plan. I need to clear some stuff with the employment office before I start any actual courses; have a phone appointment on the 26th, will probably just deal with it then and concentrate on other stuff (writing, catching up with the works of friend/acquaintences) in the meantime. Still not feeling great about the entire thing, but whatever.

Bid on an Empyreum house in FFXIV since I was interested in upgrading to a medium for a design idea I had, I like the look of the place, and Ishgard is the closest thing to a home Iolis has, but didn't have my heart set on it -- my little plot in the Goblet right next door to my FC house was fine and very comfy. Was absolutely floored that I won, and for a moment I considered turning it down and taking the gil loss. I'd had that cottage for something like four and a half years! In the end, though, I took it, and have been busily turning it into a botanical garden. Still, feels a little weird to teleport back to the FC house and see the empty plot neighboring; it's like a missing tooth. FC has absolutely no plans to move since they've had that house since housing was put into the game in the first place, and I'm glad; it's a medium on the east side of the Goblet, overlooking the ravine, and is really peaceful. (I like the look of deserts so I don't understand the hate for the Goblet at all.)

 

Please observe the latest Solivaga page and know that the professor is one of my beloved OCs. :3 My friend worked absolute magic out of a few ancient-ass drawings, a Sims 4 sim, and a couple of paragraphs of description.

I don't lend out my OCs lightly (in fact, I don't think I've ever done so before; everything with Aud has been collaboration), so that should tell you a lot about how much I trust and believe in this comic.

 

Me: This week is for catching up on the cool shit people I know have made! I'm going to ease myself in with this cool little visual novel.

Me, 20 minutes later, sniffling and wiping my eyes:



(I should have known, Ronove is really good at bleak, honest emotion, but I didn't expect to cry. I almost CAN'T cry anymore.)