Hello, everyone out there. As you can see, I have returned. Thanks to those who are still following! I’m sure you’re wondering, why now? Well, part of it is that I wanted to. But one reason I decided to was that someone messaged me through the website contact about a commenter on another website, telling me I should do something about them, like I had control of that website. I didn’t click on the link, because I’m not stupid, but I did look up the website and honestly the mistake was understandable. The website is mattreadingtranslations.com. Let me be clear here, similar naming aside, I have nothing to do with that website. I don’t have the time, inclination, or skills to translate anything from another language. I have some knowledge of Spanish, French and Japanese and very little German from classes and reading/watching many stories, but definitely not enough to translate. I enjoy the fruits of those who do translate but am not one of them. Now that I know of this website, I might at some point look into what he’s translating, but not currently.

Moving on, things are mostly the same with me. I’m still in the same position at work. The position I didn’t get in my department opened up because the person who got it over me left, for no reason that those of us who weren’t there at the time have been told. Well, Matt, you ask, did you apply again? Yes, yes, I did. And as mentioned I didn’t get it, again. I did a lot better in the interview, and I know because my interviewer, my supervisor’s supervisor, told me so, but I didn’t get it because they ‘decided to go in a different direction’. From my few interactions with the lady who got it, the different direction is that she can speak Spanish fluently and I can’t.

Am I thrilled about this? No, I’m not. I’ve indicated my willingness to learn Spanish, in fact, I had been working with the same supervisor about my work paying for a class so I can relearn Spanish or even get a basic computer proficiency certification. The third option I had, which I’m not going to mention other than I would have been able to teach people a skill, fell apart when I found and mentioned that the paperwork I was filling out said I had to teach 10 people a year or potentially lose my license to teach them. We don’t have 10 people a year to teach this skill, sometimes we don’t even have one. So it was dropped.

After this, I was busy, but a month or so ago I sent an email asking them about the other two and they said they’d look into it, but I haven’t heard anything. Quite frankly, I’m pretty fed up with the lot of them as my supervisor is also being very nitpicky. He gets annoyed when I even seem to be telling my newest coworker (in my same position) information or suggestions because he wants her to make her own mistakes. One day my coworker and I were doing a certain job and similar things showed up near when I was leaving and I jokingly said she could do them if she finished what we were working on after I left. When I was mentioning where certain things were in the next morning, as both me and my supervisor had to be out for the day, he came in and blasted me for what I was saying and for telling her to do more the day before, right in front of her. (To be clear, she knew it was a joke and told me she was the one who told him what I had said as a joke, also in a joking tone, the day before and was very annoyed he took it out on me). I walked away and he and I didn’t talk except about work things for the rest of the day and I’ve never mentioned it again.

He seems to get angry with me whenever I do something that infringes on his position or I use knowledge that I gained when I had to do things for him while he was off to solve issues when he’s doing things away from the office. For example, when doing my job, I found a discrepancy, I knew he would be away for a few hours, so I went to someone who had paperwork that he to given them to see if I could find out what went wrong. As I’ve done this before, she didn’t bat an eye at it and in looking at the paperwork I found he had made the mistake. She gave me the paperwork, so he could fix the issue when he got back. So, I let him know that I found an issue and he told me to put it on his desk and so I put both paperwork on his desk. When he got back, he got angry at me that I had went to the other person and gotten the paperwork. What I got from it was that he was angry that I found a mistake he had made. A relative mentioned that he may be afraid I’m trying to take his job. I don’t want his job, just a better paying position, to not have to be on eggshells to see how he’s feeling that day and to not have to deliberately not do things I can do to make him feel better.

To be frankly honest, I’m getting tired of my treatment there. I’m only even there and not seriously looking for a new job because the summer is the busiest time in my position and I’m not heartless enough to bail on them in the middle of that. My relatives have been pushing for me to get a new job for a while now, but I have my pride, in that I won’t leave until it won’t cause a huge problem. If things get better (as in I actually get a new position I apply for, not that there are currently any available that are worth my time or I am qualified for and/or my supervisor stops being overbearing), I may stay but that’s not likely.

For those of you wondering, but Matt, what if a coworker finds this blog. I laugh and say, not likely, I’m following my work’s Facebook page, but I’m not Facebook friends with any coworker. I’m fairly sure that the link on my profile to this page has always been friends only, but I’ve just made sure it will be from now on and I’m fairly sure none of them is subscribed to the blog. If someone at work already knows about it and comes here to see my rant, then come what may. I’ve only aired my opinions and not said anything indicating my job, position or names of anyone involved.

Okay, moving on from That, I’m still working on my quest and I’ve actually reached the Rs now. Of course, the next three letters will take a while, but I’m close to ¾ths of the way done! However, what I’m listening to is first.

The one I’m currently listening to in my rotation is Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship. It’s an audio book and I’m listening to the 11^th volume and the last available on Audible. If I haven’t mentioned it before, it’s about Hiro, a Japanese salaryman who loved playing a sci-fi game where he played as a space mercenary. One day he wakes up in the cockpit of his beloved spaceship and has no idea what happened. The universe he finds himself in is similar, but different from the one of the game and he has to figure out how to survive. Space mercenary is the way to he decides to go and it follows the adventures of him and his increasing crew of beauties. It’s an amusing light novel with action and some romance. I definitely recommend it. I’ve read the webnovel too, but that was in the reading quest, so I’ll get to it eventually there.

Next is going to be Angry Harry and the Seven by Sinyk, I’ve talked about it before, here. It’s still good and an interesting Misled Dumbledore story, of course most of Sinyk’s stories have that. After that is the light novels for Death March in a Parallel World Rhapsody. I’m just using text to speech with the novels, not an audiobook. Yes, I’m comparing them as I mentioned it would. It’s, hm, lighter, so far? Like for example, in the webnovel, Satou only saves one homunculi from the Elf made dungeon and can’t save the rest. But, in the light novel, they’re all saved, but the rest go on a journey and don’t even come back up except in passing until 10 or so volumes later. The author also added a few new light novel only stories and introduced a bad guy earlier in a different form. I’m currently on volume 14 of 23 (out in the US), but we’ll see how it turns out.

After that in the rotation is Taylor Varga, an old favorite of mine. I even talk about it in my second post on this blog, here. Unfortunately, it hasn’t updated a chapter in years but I still like to get back to it every once in a while. After that is Super Gene or Super God Gene, a fan translated Korean webstory. There’s a version on Kindle Unlimited, not that I’m sure how that got there, but it exsists, but it’s also on other sites. I’m only listening to a certain point, that I’ve already read to. The rest I’ll read when I get to it on the reading quest. It’s a sci-fi fantasy where humans are interstellar, but when they get transporters working they end up in a parallel dimension (?) where tech doesn’t work other than to get back. In the other dimension, there are monsters that, when you defeat them can give you a monster soul with an ability if you’re lucky. If you eat that animal, you can get geno points and become stronger. Han Sen becomes an outcast right after he gets to his shelter in the other dimension because he attacks a shapeshifted person in the butt. This turns out to be one of the strongest people there and no one likes him after that. He accidentally finds a gem that causes monsters to evolve and manages to become very strong. Then he finds out about the 5^th hidden gene, the super gene. Follow him as he becomes stronger and takes revenge on those who wrong him.

Following that is Yesterday’s Tomorrow by Umei no Mai. It’s a completed side story to Black Sky that I’m actually surprised I haven’t mentioned yet. It’s set in the 320s of Black Sky and follows Tsuna when he’s sent to the ‘future’. He immediately realizes it can’t be the future and this changes things drastically. It’s interesting for only being three chapters. Finally, another old favorite, Desperately Seeking Ranma by PixelWriter1. I first mentioned it, here. As before, the author hasn’t updated in years. In my first post I mentioned they hadn’t updated in 2 years, well that was 7 years ago now, so it’s 9 years now. They posted on their profile in 2022 pretty much saying the same thing, so we can only hope they eventually post again.

Moving on to talking about my current quest, this is going to be a longer one because I want to finish off the A’s sooner rather than later. To start off with, is A Day of Boredom also by PixelWriter1. It’s a longer Ranma ½ one-shot set after the series ended. Ranma is left completely to his own devices for a day for the first time in a long time. He heads to a park and meets a guy doing metal detecting. Intrigued, he decides to see if he can do the same thing with a new technique. This sets off a series of events that are very interesting, I definitely recommend.

Second is A Deal Made in Good Faith by sakurademonalchemist. I’ve talked about it before here. An interesting fem Harry with a Supernatural crossover.

Third is A Demon’s Curse and an Angel’s Blessing by Apex Soldier. It’s an older Naruto fic, I mean it came out in 2010 and was last updated in 2017. Yes, unfortunately it’s incomplete. In it, Naruto’s seal malfunctions when he’s young and he becomes more animalistic. Fortunately, Hinata can hm, not tame him, but he’s protective of her. It’s interesting but is unlikely to ever be completed as they haven’t posted anything since 2018.

Next is A Devil’s Bijuu by fg7dragon. It’s a Naruto & High School DxD crossover where in The Last movie Hinata kills Toneri and in his final moments he opens a rip in space that sends all the Konoha Shinobi into the High School DxD universe. They end up becoming devils and the Bijuu get their own bodies too. It’s interesting, but incomplete. It’s only 10 chapters and the author hasn’t posted on any fics since 2018.

After that is A Different Beginning by Breanie. It’s Harry Potter fanfic where the Potters survive and that changes things drastically. James wakes up after the attack and finds Lily is amnesic. Harry still goes to the Dursleys, but James gets him out once he finds out how he’s treated there. It’s a Harry/Ginny stories, but it’s a long time to get there. Oh, and Harry isn’t the only young Potter. It’s a complete 89-chapter story with sequels. A really good long read.

The next one is A Different Course by Aliandris. This is actually a discontinued fic (that wasn’t before I started my quest). It’s a My Hero Academia fic where Himiko Toga is found by Izuku before she’s too far gone and is adopted into the Midoriya family. Izuku still gets One-For-All, but decides to still act like a quirkless hero in mindset and abilities. The author discontinued to rewrite it under a new name with changes. The old fic is still up, but the new one is Family Beyond Blood.

The one after that would have been, A Distant Storm by TheBeardedOne, but I talked about is on my last post because the last fic in a series was up first. Following that is A Dragon’s Prerogative by sakurademonalchemist. This is another story that I’m surprised I haven’t mentioned before, but maybe it was posted after my sakurademonalchemist quest. It’s a crossover between High School DxD and Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Fem Tsuna is the Red Dragon Emperor and she and Vali have a thing. She even manages to help Rias. Like most of this author’s stories, it’s incomplete. There are 9 chapters and it hasn’t been updated since 2019.

Then there is A Dramatic Reading by White Squirrel. It’s a Harry Potter characters reading the books that manages to survive by putting minimal quotations from the books. It’s only the first book, but it’s worth a read. There are three sequels and the most recent was updated earlier this year!

Continuing my mentioning what we were reading for the currently defunct manga club I was in, we starting reading the next two the meeting after the last three. Both were recommend by the club leader. I had already read some of both of them an seen the animes for them. The first one was One Punch Man. Yep, he was a big fan of the background art that the author drew. One Punch Man is about Saitama. He was an ordinary salary man until he tried to defend a young boy from a monster. The defeat and the boy laughing at him he decided to train to become stronger. He did a daily workout of 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10km run for years. Now he’s so strong, he can defeat any enemy with, wouldn’t you know it, one punch. Even though there’s a Hero Association, he is unregistered and is a hero for fun so many people don’t know how strong he is. It’s an action comedy. There are two seasons of anime and I think a third season was recently announced.

The second was Youjo Senki or The Saga of Tanya the Evil. This one was from a light novel and then became a manga and anime. It’s about a Japanese salary man who was murdered by a subordinate that he had fired early that day. He talks with God or as he calls him, “Being X” who berates him for being an unbeliever. They have an argument and Being X sends him to be reborn in a new world to make him into a believer. He is reborn as a girl in world similar to pre-WWI Germany, but with magic. She enlists at young age and becomes an ace by accident in the first battle of the war. She has to deal with Being X and other Godlike beings interfering and her own delusions about things messing things up. It’s amusing. Sadly, there is only one season and a movie. However, a second season is supposedly to be released next year. Looking forward to that!

Finally, I have finally finished my planning out of the capture of all the Sakura Cards in my own fanfic. I’ve started writing again and am on chapter 5 currently. Remember I want a padding of 10 chapters before I post and I want my writing group to edit and I hope to get a little bit looked at in a few weeks.

Also, sadly, Square Enix cancelled Missing Link after months of nothing. I was very sad to hear it, but hopefully it’ll be a regular game eventually instead of a mobile game. I’m still looking forward to Pokemon Legends Z-A and surprised with the October release.

Before I say my ending phrase, I want to add one thing. I have a shirt with this phrase on it and I found it while looking through my clothes. Unfortunately, it was faded so I bought a new one. My current plan is to make sure I wear it once a week and that day I’ll start writing that week’s post. I wore it yesterday and am posting today when I finish this. So, thanks to those who continue to follow and as always – May Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key.