dmxrated

Took a ride to the mall yesterday, that I had arranged originally at Mom's request to try on new boots at L.L. Bean.

Got some takoyaki and gyoza for lunch at the food court. The former was so-so.

Bought Burst Angel and Tower of God at f.y.e. (Oddly enough, Meg's hair is depicted as brown on the former's cover, but almost consistently auburn on Google Images although the screenshots do also depict an actual brunette girl in the show.)

Mom made us some pizzas with some twisted Italian bread for lunch yesterday. Emily brought Maris upstairs for a nap afterwards, and I asked Mom and Brian if they'd like to see this horror anime called Another, that Emily obviously isn't gonna care for. Brian said that he's not a big fan of horror himself, and we decided instead to show him episode 1 of SpyXFamily.

Mom and I later went down to Bellport to bag up some seaweed for her garden. On the way back, she offered to stop at the library as long as we were passing right by, and I took then to pick up ChäoS;HEAd in case Brian and Emily would like to see more of that before they leave.

Feeling much better since two days ago, despite still having a slight cold.

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Brian and Emily came over for Thanksgiving yesterday.

Went with Mom to the gym mid-morning yesterday, for the first time since before I began my job at Walmart.

Managed to show Brian later, after he concluded a nap and Emily brought Maris outside from watching TV, my recent video of a magic butterfly freezing Earthbound, and then half of this year's Mother Direct.

We had this year's Thanksgiving dinner as a slightly late lunch, at 1:00. It was still quite filling, and hours later when I would have some pecan pie.

Went with Mom to the beach late in the afternoon. The parking lot was closed, and we had to park somewhere that allows a maximum of 15 minutes, before having a short walk along the shore and then climbing up the ranger station to snap a view of the ocean.

So what happened the other day is that I teleported back to Saturn Valley after getting the zexonyte, and a Magic Butterfly spawned atop an off-limits plateau and wandered right on the tile Poo occupies when you first land, before he and the others have a chance to catch back up with Ness. The first sound effect played out, but the butterfly itself was already way offscreen by that point, and I closed SNES9X itself out shortly before wondering if it might've needed more time to make its way back to the screen (assuming it didn't somehow de-spawn post-contact).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgWGo7r-PpY

Even before one person's comment so far, yes, I did find out after publishing, what a softlock actually is. I used the term based on assumption, to mean that the game does lock up, but not in the same way as locking everything still except for the audio. I had based it on ozidual's usage in relation to Getter Love!!, assuming he meant that the game is still technically working when it disables the A button at the end of certain interview (never actually saw for myself).

In general, that one video has managed to drum up quite a bit of traffic even to previous videos, almost 300 views in total so far, according to my dashboard and analytics, after things initially fizzled out several hours in. However, only one person has newly subscribed, rendering however many combined hours get validated still a moot point as far as monetization goes.

Mom and I have started watching SpyXFamily last night, after always seeing stickers of Yor and Anya on DeShawn's car back at the store.

So it turns out, it's actually an official song called The Butts Remix, by Home Free. Thought it was just some random collage song for YouTube.

Brian and Emily were still asleep upstairs in the room preceding where I had put Sugar on the previous day. I offered to put something I gave her for Christmas in her room, so that they wouldn't spot it when they'd wake up, but got unknowingly confused when she gave me directions there. I ended up going upstairs, and Mom was the one who actually showed me where it was, but I did decide in-between to fetch ChäoS;HEAd, which I had also brought up there with Sugar, as long as I was up there.

Wound up showing her a total of two episodes. Like the upstairs TV with Sugar, the one we watched on also displayed things somewhat more fluidly than on either of our TV sets back home, even on some shows we watched collectively later.

Had to pause for a while at what turned out to be just seconds before the first ended, when Emily and Uncle Ray were already up (can't remember what Marie actually had to do), but it was nice to be able to gaze at a cute brunette girl in some b-roll in Takumi's classroom, along with one more in the background.

Brian woke up at some point, and he and Emily joined us when we finally resumed, with Mom upstairs to watch over Maris. Even though Sugar was back on the table, Emily actually stated that she prefers ChäoS;HEAd.

At one point, I commented how funny it would be if this mascot unoriginally named Hoppy the Frog had instead had Pepe the Frog in its place. Brian commented that he had no idea I even knew about such a character, and also wondered if his name is meant to be pronounced "pay-pay" or "peppy", the latter being how a certain skunk's name is pronounced in his own franchise.

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It was 10:00 when Maris was finally up to have some of what Aunt Marie actually meant by crepes. I've seen the word to refer mostly to the kind of pancakes you roll up and put stuff in, but it turned out she meant thin pancakes to simply squeeze oranges and sprinkle sugar over, like we have usually on Christmas.

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All of us except Uncle Ray brought Maris to a playground somewhere around here in the afternoon.

Me, Mom, and Emily started off by trying out the swingset while Brian sat Maris in a baby swing. At some point, I also tried joining Maris in a four-seated spinning ride while the others watched.

Soon thereafter, Aunt Marie took me, Brian, and Emily for a walk through the nearby woods, to the edge by Lake Meade, while Mom watched over Maris.

Upon leaving, I joined Brian and Emily on a visit to Walmart hoping to look around while Mom and Aunt Marie went to refuel Mom's car. Upon arriving at the store, Brian told me just to head inside while he sort things out with Maris. I went over to use the restroom, but couldn't find him or Emily back at the entrance we had parked in front of, or even still at their car. I eventually texted Uguu Blue to ask where they are, before calling him (his phone soon turned out to be charging in the car), then Emily, then Mom. Emily got back to me after two successful calls with Mom, and it turned out they had also been wondering where I went and were already at the self-checkout.

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Last night was when we decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner for this early visit for Thanksgiving itself. Cousin David came over to join us, bringing his two dogs Moose (a small brown corgi) and Mouse (a large white Belgian Malinois.

Before we started serving ourselves at the kitchen counter, someone (can't remember who) suggested we put on some music in the background. I suggested Walk the Dinosaur, and David commanded Google Play to play that. Went over to the radio to command Hicktown when it was about to continue with The Power of Love, and then Brian had it just run Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald while we actually ate.

I went into the room I've been sleeping in to have a short lie down, but came out to stop it from playing What a Wonderful World, commanding Soul Meets Body instead, followed by Around the World and then Who Let the Dogs Out?

Someone then turned the radio off as David showed me this Mongolian metal band called The HU, through their video for Wolf Totem. I watched for one verse, and then checked out to lay down on the couch.

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Shortly thereafter, I overheard someone, between David, Brian, and Emily, show the others some song consisting of lyrics about butts from various pop songs, including "I like big butts", "thong thongthongthong thong," and something about "honkytonks". (Surprised it didn't include the disco songs Shake Your Booty or Shake Your Groove Thing, or that rap song Brian likes, "Back That Azz Up".)

Brian asked me if I found it funny, given how funny I used to find the word "butt" when I was eleven (such as separating the syllables in "butter", or this song I got from Dennis Marino (Mom had to watch over him for his parents before school) that mostly involved dangling Pinky the Flamingo (a Teenie Beanie Baby) back and forth and repeating "I got a big butt" until Mom got off the phone and said to him "That's enough rude-talk").

Took in context then to show them these three YouTube shorts on the TV, of various girls from these two mobile games, Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai Star Rail, swishing their butts left and right, to this song by Pyti called I Wanna Dance (itself not butt-related specifically). A hassle to find through various search terms, with the uploader's username by itself, anonymousboatfucker, being what got me there (still buried in numerous other anime dance meme videos not even all butt-focused; I actually Liked them recently, specifically for ease of access on PC).

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pxPrnjW2YxE

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Uh82LVP9DJ8

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UT2ErmE--pk

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David then went on to show us the opening sequence of this anime called Dandadan, and then episode 1 of this Amazon series called Hazbin Hotel. (Wondering if I should show them the Netflix half-anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off when we see him this evening.)

Shortly after that ended, Brian and David chatted about stuff, and Brian mentioned some choose-your-own-adventure game I supposedly played on my PC-FX, neither part of which is true.

I managed to clear things up with Brian shortly after David left, that the only two PC-FX games I ever played were Makeruna! Makendou Z (a linear RPG with zero replay value) and Chip-chan Kick! (an elimination platformer, kinda like the original Mario Bros.) As to what seemed to him like a CYOA game, he specified some game comprised entirely of full-motion cutscenes, which we deduced was actually Time Gal for the Sega CD, which I played on a Genesis emulator called Gens on our computer on Thanksgiving of 2007, after the Angry Video Game Nerd had included it among other SCD games for some mini-reviews much earlier that year. Furthermore, you don't actually choose your own adventure, so much that you're periodically given options for which action you take when your character is in a pinch, and choosing the wrong one forces you to start the scene over from a bad outcome, if you even have lives left.

Mom's favorite coffee mug used to be one with some blue whales painted on it. That was the one she'd request whenever she used to ask me to make her some coffee or tea while she was sleeping after work.

Can't remember the last time she even asked me to brew some up, or that I saw the mug itself. This morning, I woke up at 3:30, shortly before she wakes up to get ready for work. To compensate for the extra sugar I've been consuming each day by having Krave for breakfast, I've been having pure coffee to boil in our mocha pot instead of that instant coffee mix with sugar mixed in. Yesterday, I had noticed a white plastic can of some Italian mix that she told me this morning she found too strong for her tastes.

She was the first to make herself some coffee, but did ask me where this tiny wooden scoop is that she normally keeps in a copper jar of her normal mix. I showed her, and that's when she told me what the deal was with that new brand, which she said we have more of in the basement.

She went to shower off after putting the mocha pot on, and that's when I decided to fetch the blue whale mug while waiting my turn, from the top shelf in the lefthand cupboard over the stove, and even filled that for her when it finished before she came out.

She told me after asking where I found it, that she had forgotten all about it some time ago while straightening some stuff up.

Went with Mom for a walk on the beach yesterday afternoon.

Upon arriving, we went over to where we buried Dad's ashes, and unwrapped a Kit-Kat to bury for him. I told him at Mom's advice, how I have quit my job and am currently looking for a new one, before laying down alongside Mom for a few minutes.

Mom decided to hit the library after we concluded our walk. I took then to look for some anime DVDs to bring to Virginia, and got ChäoS;HEAd and Welcome to the NHK again. (Still probably going to stick to Kanon, just to have one less episode of something to be playing yet again if we see Aunt Tracy there next spring.)

I did see my bus outside the window upon getting the arrival call from SCAT yesterday, but by the time I got out there, I couldn't see it anywhere. Checked Masem Court to see if it had gone down there not for the first time, but upon returning to my driveway, I spotted it tucked into Eddie's right over.

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Having built back up to two hours of PPTO after taking Monday off, I had requested a lateness as planned. Asked the busdriver to drop me off at Tropical, and she wound up dropping me off in front of Starbucks instead. Went in there to place my planned order on the app.

Had what was essentially an early lunch, and then read the rest of chapter 6 of Magical Girl Raising Project: Breakdown.

Went on to place two orders for Starbucks. The first of those was for the usual Nitro Cold Brew, but then I figured, given how cold it's been lately, I might as well order something warm. That second order was for some espresso.

Said espresso was pretty shallow in the cup, but the barista I asked explained that two shots is the default for that drink. (That actually explains what a shot even is, which I assumed meant a shot of flavoring rather than coffee itself when I ordered a latte at Tropical, and I also recall Mom telling me before that an authentic latte is typically served in a shotglass if you order one in Italy or Austria.)

Read a section of the next chapter before making my way over to Walmart.

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Sure enough, I spotted Zinora immediately inside the pharmacy entrance, and went to retrieve her copy of my farewell letter.

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The second-to-last thing I would bring to customer service was a set of ratchet bits, that someone had left on the top remaining palette stacking windshield cleaner.

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Spotted a checkout attendant named Marcía I had already accounted for inside the market entrance. Her badge reads "Marseeya", making it seem to come from some obscure African language (her father is actually Haitian), and I had also noticed her name spelt as "Mar-see-ya" on the waiting list in Starbucks. Apologized for misspelling her name on her envelope (never picked up on it from her badge, and she wasn't wearing it previously), but she said I actually spelt it right; she spells it differently so that people don't keep mispronouncing it like "Marsha". We chatted for a bit before I resumed working.

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Shortly before my lunch hour, I spotted someone making a Coinstar deposit on my way to the restroom, and helped myself to a total of $1.29.

Right before my hour, I spotted another deposit in progress, this time with a large plastic coffee can full of change. Decided to come back for that after having lunch.

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For lunch, I ordered some gnocchi short rib ragu at Southpaw. Left a tip of around $4.85, with some singles from breaking that fifty covering the dollar amount.

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Scored $1.32 from the machine upon coming back, before buying three bags of chocolate to put my discount card to one last use towards. The total came out to $11.04, and I gave the cashier $1.04 in change before halving a twenty, the remainder left over from that protein shake transaction.

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The last item I would bring to customer service was a 2-quart carton of half-and-half.

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Had one of those shakes I had bought a box of, but despite a hint of actual flavor, it tasted mostly watery somehow.

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Shortly before my second fifteen, a customer service rep named Frankie asked what was going on, I told him about my departure, and he asked me to say one last goodbye to him before I leave. I emailed him a link to that Google doc.

Went on to order a Cranberry Bliss Bar and a peppermint mocha at Starbucks, where I also read a few more pages.

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Half an hour before my shift ended, Jeyson told me on the market side that he was going on his meal hour. I bid him what I assumed would be one last farewell, and he suggested I say goodbye to another cart attendant named Ezekiel, whom I never spoke to as much.

Went on to email Ezekiel a link.

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Back on the pharmacy side, I spotted a total of $2.12 worth of loose change just behind the cart gate.

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Upon clocking out, I asked customer service to call for Frankie. He turned out to be right behind the wall behind the counter, where stuff for online orders is stored, and we said one last goodbye.

Spotted Jeyson in the break room, and said a final goodbye to him before sitting down to have what's going to be my last Body Armor for a while.

Spotted Marcía one last time in the hallway just before cleaning out my locker and then handing Doreen my lock, vest, and discount card.

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Mom and I concluded things by heading to Stop&Shop for my flu shot (she also had some shopping to do there), before heading home.