Taya

So the first three weeks of my time off were lovely, a nice mix of relaxing and productive. Then Dad came home, and a few days later I had covid for the first time and spent the rest of the month going back to bed. At least after the first couple of days of fever it was mostly just a really bad cold, but my heartrate was up and my energy levels were way down.

Got me an extra week off work though, so that's something. And a month later I'm basically fine other than the occasional tightness in my throat and chest, and even that's eased off a lot from what it initially was.

Unfortunately, all that set my cleaning back rather a lot, and since Dad's still home until he and the neighbour have finished building the fence I haven't really been able to get back into my own schedule to get things sorted out again. He's hoping only a couple more weeks and then he can head south again.

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I've also started a new character in FFXIV, because apparently I never want to actually ever finish the MSQ.

This one is... basically a challenge run? I want to at least attempt to do the endgame content for the base game and earlier expansions - in particular anything I can solo with a higher level class - and try to do it at somewhat relevant points in the MSQ. So for example, the Binding Coil of Bahamut stuff happens after the end of ARR but before the thing with the Crystal Braves, although I already know I can only solo the first Coils, and that was at... level 70 or so? And currently my paladin is at level 56 so a bit more work needed there.

Just need to remember to try to grind up levels on the paladin instead of doing MSQ, with nothing actually available at an appropriate level. I keep wanting to do MSQ so I can get to Ishgard and get the classes there, but the whole Coils thing is supposed to be the priority...

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And I finally started getting caught up on Dracula Daily, although I missed the start of it with emails and haven't gone back through the site for them, so even when I get through October's entries so far I'll still not technically be caught up.

I remember the first time I actually read Dracula, with no idea what the story or characters were like (I don't think I've even seen any Dracula adaptations, just modern vampire stuff) and watching Tumblr's reactions to it all very much reminds me of that feeling. And the chronological nature has its own charm that I'm greatly enjoying, and has given me many thoughts about the nature of the narrative pacing.

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But this has now taken at least half an hour, and it's almost 5am, so I'm going to try to get some sleep before work.

August has officially arrived and I am So Happy.

My next work day is the 31st. I intend not to leave the house or interact with a single offline person until that date.

It takes me eleven months to earn this and it's so incredibly worth it.

Meant to do another update sooner, but didn't because lazy.

Short version:
Finished sifting through the bucket for shrimp and moved them to the tank, bringing that population to a potential total of 14 adults/juveniles and 1 baby (I've seen it twice since the first sighting and it's so cute I love it), although I've only managed to count about 8-9 at a time when I try.
Did a few more water changes, and on the 10th did a full water test with tap water control tests and... 0ppm across the board! At which point... I pretty much called it a success and got on with my life? Relying really heavily on the assumption that the ammonia issue was entirely because of the jug, and not a problem with the tank setup itself.

I can now confirm that my assumption was correct. Full tests with control confirms no ammonia or nitrites, and a light but distinct shade of orange on the nitrates. The shrimp tank is fully cycled.

At some point I'll have some time during the day to clear the area to take some photos, although the whole thing is rather a mess at the moment. The planted things seem to be doing okay, but the top of the tank is just taken over with either ambulia or milfoil (I got both and can't really figure out which is which) and... some other things. Red root floaters definitely, and a cutting from something that I've forgotten what it is or where I got it, and some loose bits that have floated off from other things and just- look the point is they're growing and thus using nitrates, and I need them there until the planted stuff is established enough to do the job.

Mostly this is just for my own reference, because I've never successfully grown any of these plants and fully expect to have to replace at least some of them.

The grass along the back of the tank is Cyperus Helferi. The tub it came in listed it as a background plant, so that's where I put it, and when I finally bothered to actually find out how big it grows... It'll probably reach the top of the tank. Which isn't a bad thing, just means I need to keep an eye on it.

In the sand at the base of the middle rock is Hemianthus Callitrichoides 'HC Cuba', a short carpeting plant that is either really easy or incredibly difficult to grow depending on who you ask. There's a lot of mention of high light and CO2, and I certainly don't have the CO2 thing going on. Also, I put it at the base of the rocks and not at the very front of the tank because I figured it'd hug the rocks more and look nicer.

Grass at the front is Eleocharis Acicularis ‘Mini Hair’, which is taller than the HC Cuba but not as tall as the Cyperus Helferi, and should respond well to being mowed.

Mid-left, -centre, and -right is Lobelia Cardinalis and quite frankly I have no idea what that's going to do. Maybe a stem plant? I got a lot of non-aquarium search results and more than a few that just don't look like what I have, so I guess I wait to see what it grows into. Stem plant would be nice though.

And finally Riccia Fluitans, which I have had before, on one of those plastic moss ball frames attached to a sinker so it could float in the middle of the tank. The shrimp loved it. They spent most of a day or two plucking every strand out and left the empty plastic frame. The filter also loved it, gobbled the stuff right up. This time I've glued it onto the rocks in three clumps, separating them as carefully as possible to keep the strands sticking to each other as much as possible, and hopefully it'll be established enough by the time I move the shrimp in that they won't immediately destroy the place.



The Riccia was glued in yesterday, the water levels brought up to the top of the rocks this morning to test the grip, and so far it seems happy. I also gathered the stray bits onto the tip of the tallest rock - just slightly out of the water at this point - and I'll leave it like that for a few days maybe before I add more water, just to see if it will grip on in that time.

At some point I'll probably also add some of the Phyllanthus Fluitans - Red Root Floaters currently in the tetra tank because floating plants are cool.

Two out of my three parcels arrived today and neither of them were the one I actually needed to get started on the new tank. Gives me time to get a heater for the new tank at least, I forgot to order one, but still a bit annoying. Particularly since it came from the same area as the other two and AusPost basically just stuffed around with it for a while.

The parcels I did get were some driftwood pieces and some plants, with the plan being to make some driftwood forests, because that's something cool that I haven't had the patience to do yet. Not least because of needing somewhere to keep them until they establish, but I'm thinking that once I get the 40L set up I'll move the occupants over and clear that tank out for it.

And on the topic of the snail tank... The other week one of my flame tetras started swimming weird, and then a week or so later I found two of them just lying on the bottom of the tank with another swimming weird (and, um, with its eye not okay). Moved them all to the snail tank, fully expecting them to die, but at least one is still going. It's still just hanging around at the bottom of the tank not looking great, but when I stuck my hand in it did get moving around the tank easily enough.

I guess I'll move it to the new shrimp tank when the time comes? It's lost an eye and I don't know what went wrong in the first place, so I don't want to move it back to the main tank, even with the stress risk of it being a tetra on its own. Maybe if I had the other 60L set up I'd move all the flame tetras to that and hope for the best, but the main tank has the angelfish who in theory knows that fish are friends not food but there's a chance he got bored or grumpy and had a go at the tetras, or would see a one-eyed fish as a toy.

This sort of thing is pretty much why I want to redo my tanks - and clear the room up enough to do the other 60L - so I guess it works out in the end.

29Gb update.

Look, I have a 5Mbps download speed. Not 5Mb/s, 5Mbps. About 1Mb/s. 29Gb is at least 14 hours assuming I use the internet for nothing else and the connection stays stable. Which I won't and it won't. Letting it have 3Mbps takes it to a day and a half.

And that's not taking into account how much of my monthly limit that is.

This at least seems to be a major update, so hopefully won't be a regular event because I just straight up can't do that.



On the bright side, I guess I'm working on my blanket tonight.

I'm trying to think of a polite way to put it but basically... the game thinks an awful lot of itself, at least in terms of the story.

So on Monday I got my main character to the point in the story where there's a big dramatic storming the castle to restore the rightful king etc and so on. Of course the size of the battle and the speed of it is all a bit ridiculous, but I'll pretty much always forgive that because that sort of thing is hard no matter what.

But then afterwards there's all sort of dramatic speeches and long camera shots and it's all very celebratory. Which on the one hand sure, these people have just reclaimed their kingdom from an evil regent. But on the other hand...

I don't know these people. I don't know this kingdom. I sided against the regent because he was an asshole, not because I cared about the other guy. The game presented this as some big momentous occasion but I was just doing another quest. And while I was trying to watch the cutscenes I realised I didn't even know when the story turned into this whole kingdom saving thing, so that's a thing.

It doesn't help that afterwards the game goes "Here, have all the things. So many things. New systems, new places, have a stronghold, you already picked up gathering right, so much stuff, hope you've got the patience to read through all this with no idea what it all means or why you want it."

Look I'm trying not to compare it to Final Fantasy XIV - and Black Desert Online, for that matter - but it's hard.

Also, would love to know if the class starting story thing had any relevance to the story at all, or if that's just entirely fluff.



Then again, I've had it a week and put 36 hours into it, so it can't be that bad. I do appreciate that the stronghold seems to be for all the characters on the server, which is something I wish FFXIV would do for its housing system. (Seriously, "oh woe there's so much demand for housing" just let us share with alts why is that so hard)

This week has been... not my favourite.

Started with three days of too many orders and not being able to find the things for them, so each day was made worse by the previous.

Then two of the days had new people rostered for the closing shift, so I had to do go through end of day training in two areas, with no time for it because of the orders, and no manager in sight to help out with things. On the bright side, one of the ladies was working both days so she only needed a bit of help on day two, and the other two seemed to be picking it all easily enough. Didn't make this time any easier, but there's hope for next time!

Add the usual customer dramas, insomnia problems, and that time of month....

I'm just a bit worn out.