OneBoot

It's an odd feeling to dislike bureaucracy, yet realize that oneself is inadvertently becoming a part of said bureaucracy. I'm partially mitigating this by, rather than talking around in circles about processes and procedures for ages with higher-level staff who are no longer directly involved in a lot of the day-to-day stuff anymore, I've started just dropping by the offices of the ground-level folks with a notepad and chatting for about 15 minutes about their medical document workflows. Substantially faster results with a much higher degree of accuracy (plus it gets me away from my computer monitor lol). Sorry, but I don't have the patience to spend any amount of time speculating on how things are "probably" done. That kind of nonsense is a big part of why there's a disconnect between the senior staff and the rest of the folks at my workplace. They're all very nice and personable and I enjoy working with every one of them, but it seems to me that they spend too much time in meetings (and are all frankly wearing too many hats). I'm in sort of an odd position with a foot in both worlds, since my direct supervisor is the administrative assistant to the district administrator. Because of her background, my supervisor has a strongly bureaucratic approach to issues, whereas before now I've never worked within a hierarchical business structure before, so I tend to a lot more direct in my problem-solving approaches and I sometimes get frustrated at the obstacles I encounter. So until someone expressly forbids me to do this, I'mma keep making like a good rogue and quietly acquiring information in the most efficient and expedient way possible. Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

.....What about a rocket ship? Hm, I had several quotes I wanted to respond to, but the forum ate them. Oh well, just assume I made some deeply insightful, amusing, and possibly pithy comments on them. Given that I spent a lot of time over the past couple years complaining about my job, I figure it's only fair to balance that out by saying that things are actually really good right now. Due to my new-ish position (I got the job in December last year) as a Medical Records Clerk rather than Temporary Covid Paperwork Employee, my duties recently have been shifting over to more general records management rather than being constantly buried in Covid documentation. What actually surprised me the most about this shift was how weirdly difficult it was. I discovered that I was so used to everything being URGENT and RIGHT NOW and ON FIRE and HUGE MOUNTAINS OF PAPERWORK BACKLOG that when all of that went away, I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. After our area caseload dropped off rather abruptly around the end of February, I spent almost a month feeling kind of...lost, I guess? My duties pertaining to my new position were (comparatively) light, and as staff members started talking about "getting back to the norm" and "transitioning out of crisis mode" and I was like "BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE NORM IS I WAS HIRED DURING COVID! I ONLY KNOW HOW TO BE IN CRISIS MODE!" So...a bit of existential bewilderment for a while there, but I worked through it. As an aside, the internet was actually extremely unhelpful when I searched for suggestions about how to cope with a sudden removal of stress from one's life. So yeah, I've finally figured out how to slooooooow down and just...be okay with things. I'm finding I'm far more relaxed (in the sort of way where you don't realize how tense your muscles are until you relax them) and it's really really nice. I'm writing a lot of desk references (because I'm one of those weird people who actually enjoys that sort of thing), tidying up a gazillion loose ends (records with odd issues that we didn't have time or energy to figure out earlier), and helping to reorganize the medical records file room (which has become rather untidy in the past couple years). And it's all...good. Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

Step 1: Add this set to my pledge Step 2: Start an RPG campaign Step 3: Keep the game running at least until Bones 6 delivers Step 4: Find any excuse to use this mini in the campaign, as often as possible. The actual excuse is irrelevant Step 5: ??? Step 6: Profit! Ever since we started backing Bones Kickstarters, in every group we've gamed with, there will be at least one occurrence, without fail, of a player exclaiming in tones of wondering awe "Wow...you really DO have a mini for everything...." as I pull out some weirdly specific mini that's totally perfect for the situation. Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

I wasn't very engaged with Bones 6, but that was more for life reasons (having an actual job really cuts into one's free time ). I tossed in enough to cover a Core Set and checked on the project every now and again, but didn't really look in depth to see what was offered (though I did bump my pledge up a bit near the end). Things I'm excited about (bold for Super Excited): RODERIC AND GLITTER I've wanted these two ever since Bones 1, I'm so happy! Town Guard (it doesn't matter how many generic guards we have, it's never enough) Green Griffon expansion (especially the bar, I can definitely say that will get LOTS of use) Shadows of Sullenhall expansion, sort of (our undead campaign recently finished, so I will have to think about this one) New MSP Colors 30th Anniversary dragon (super excited about this one, it's a beautiful sculpt PLUS there's a rider!) Legendary Tales - Egg of the Phoenix (especially if the flying carpet is separate from the rider mini) Legendary Tales - Blacktallow lighthouse (big scenery gets used a surprising amount in our games, this will be a good addition) Extra Town Guard (again, we can never have too many guards ) If I were to only get the things I'm Super Excited about (plus the Core since it's always amazing value), it would be roughly $275, which would be quite conservative compared to the rest of the Bones Kickstarters I've backed. I DESIRE about half of what's on offer, I WANT one of everything, but in the end I will probably end up settling around $300, since I can't properly justify any more than that. Not only do we have far more expenses now than we ever have before (huzzah for both the joys and the pain of home ownership), I have literally thousands of minis and (I shall say this quietly) am starting to feel a bit saturated with standard useful gaming minis. So, at this point I'm really focusing more on filling gaps (though one can never have too many dragons ). Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

Sadly I'm only backing for a set of their "Dark Side of Paint" colors. I REALLY want to back for more but our wallet has sustained some rather horrific damage lately, so I'm having to be very good. Realistically, though, even if I did get one of their gorgeous models, it would join the many other gorgeous display models I haven't yet touched. 😅 Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

So, yesterday was our final (well, penultimate since it ended up running way long and we had to cut it off) Pathfinder session for a campaign that's been running almost 5 years. I still haven't painted a mini of my original character (I just used an elf I already had painted, even though it didn't match the character at all otherwise), though I did paint nice minis for everyone else's characters. My secondary character, who joined the group in 2019, got a mini I literally painted in 5 minutes just to have a thing on the table. It looks truly dreadful at anything closer than arm's length, but it's just for gaming so whatever. I finally got around to painting an actually nice mini for him a couple weeks ago, and finished it yesterday. The paint was still wet when I fielded him in the final boss battle. At work I was tasked with sorting through a box of records and separating out adult files from minors (for record retention purposes in this case, anyone under age 21). I did the math and realized that meant anyone born after 2001. Later on, I realized that I am now exactly twice as old as most high school seniors and had to sit down and think about that for a bit. Like, I don't feel like mid-30's (and I generally don't act like it either ). It just kind of...happened? Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

Nah. It's either "A wizard did it" or "ALIENS." Anything else is just silly. Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

I approve of the can of Dr. Pepper as a required part of the process. At least he left a message? When I worked as a receptionist, it would baffle me when I would transfer a caller to someone who wasn't at their desk at the moment, and rather than leave a voicemail, the caller would call back to say that the person didn't pick up the phone. Full stop. Or else it was "a robot started talking" or "I got a recording so I hung up." Like, have NONE of you people heard of VOICEMAIL?! And these weren't kids that maybe aren't as used to talking on the phone, either. My general reaction after explaining to these people about how voicemail worked then transferring them again is nicely summed up thusly: I ask myself this question a lot. I do also have to occasionally remind myself not to be this person, since my comfort with basic troubleshooting for most things can sometimes mean I want to skip the simple, easy "try this first" solutions and jump right into the weird and complicated ones. Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

I learned a lot of interesting stuff about a great many things, but nothing in particular about any one subject. It was a fun 2-year degree for someone who, at one point or another, had considered the merits of pretty much every career on the planet. And off of it too; astronaut was duly considered more than once. I laughed only because I've been there myself, most recently was on Friday. I'm writing a desk reference for how to do a Thing, and I like to double-check all my steps as I'm writing to make sure my instructions actually work. Part of Thing involves scanning documents on the copier/fax machine/scanner at the front desk. So, I ran down there and quickly scanned a test page into my electronic scan folder, and ran back up to my office, ready to add that step to the desk reference. Except the test page wasn't in my scan folder. Puzzled, I went back downstairs and discovered an error message on the machine that I missed because I left too fast, the kind it throws when a scan folder isn't set up properly. So I tried it again, same result. Even more puzzled, I tried this on another similar machine upstairs, and just to be thorough, also on my personal scanner hooked directly to my computer, grumbling the whole time that IT must have "fixed" something and broke the scan folders. When even my scanner couldn't find the folder, I decided to look at the folder itself. ...I had totally forgotten that, in a mad fit of cleanliness the previous day, I'd gone through and organized my entire personal folder on the network drive, which is where my scan folder is located. As is my habit, I'd added a number before each folder to sort them according to how often I access them. Sure enough, I'd added a 4 to the front of my Scanned Documents folder, which changed/broke the path address that the scanners were looking for. Deleting the 4 immediately fixed it, and I mentally apologized to our IT for grumbling at them for something I broke all on my own. Yep, we had a helping of the same. Our garage is currently inhabited by all of our mobile garden plants, including all of our fruit trees (they are in very large pots). Given that several of the trees are in bloom, and we want to make sure we have delicious fruits later in the year, we got to pretend to be bees. I had several cheap paintbrushes on hand that I could donate to the cause. ...You're welcome? Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

I KNOW ME TOO ME TOO!! I had to call MrBoot over to see so I could be excited at him. 😄 I've wanted that sculpt in Bones since KS1, I can't wait! Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

That was something that took a lot of getting used to when I moved from California up to Washington: the fact that sunset can be anywhere from 3:30 to 9:30pm, depending on the time of year. There's something wrong about it still being light outside at 10pm. And I'm saying this as someone who has seen the wrong end of the sunrise far too often lol. Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

.....How do they know what space tastes like? Uh, you had me up until Step 7. I'm still alive! More alive now than a few months ago, even. I'm painting again, and the chaos at work has slowed down substantially. So much so, in fact, that lately I've been feeling like a racecar suddenly thrust into rush-hour traffic. I know there's a downshift option for my mental gears, but it's been awhile since I last used it and I'm kind of fuzzy on how it's supposed to work. I'm very very glad that my job got abruptly boring, though, because that means far fewer people are getting sick. Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

I will be teaching my "Beginner's guide to metallic paints" class again! I cover some very basic techniques (such as drybrushing and how to do basic shading/highlighting on metallics), then we have fun exploring colors other than silver. 🙂 Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

It's a lovely idea, and I would love to purchase one! However, as a con attendee, I (and anyone else who has to fly) will be considering luggage space while shopping. Be prepared to hand out lots of business cards for people who want to buy one but can't do it in person, depending on how big and/or fragile your beautiful calendar is. 🙂 (as an aside, using mini boxes to plan your calendar layout is brilliant!) Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄

1" tall translucent flying bases. Not pegs, but with a flat top a mini can stand on. 1" and 2" square versions please! Huzzah! --OneBoot 😄