Work Tomorrow = Return Of Anxiety
Jul. 12th, 2020 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickOr at least a return of "I'd really rather not go, thanks." *sigh* Quarantine ruined me for going back to the office, and it did so in two ways:
A) Making me anxious about the coronavirus and thus making me not want to go out at all, which I believe is a reasonable level of paranoia given where we're at.
B) Giving me a taste of a life where I didn't HAVE to go to work and instead could stay home and intersperse work things with stuff I wanted to do (like at the beginning of the furlough) or just cram work into one day per week (like at the end of it). I had roughly a month and a half of freedom in that sense, and -- well, my customary week-long vacations were bad enough of reminding me of life before I had to get an office job! I am the kind of person who, if I had the chance to just stay home and watch YouTube, read fanfic, and play video games all day, I would. My parents kept insisting I had to be getting bored during the quarantine and -- no, I didn't really. I had plenty of shit to watch and stuff to work on, sooo. . . (Admittedly, though, now that it's summer, I do miss being able to go out minigolfing, or anticipating a trip to Canobie or another amusement park. I was actually hoping to go back to Southwick Zoo this year, that was fun. . . And I do miss my occasional mall trips. It would be nice to get out occasionally -- but I am primarily a homebody, so my point still stands.)
But I have bills to pay and a society to live in, so going to the office remains a must. At least I have the pleasure of having half day Fridays. And I think I can sneak in an extra day off (or half day off, since I'm planning on making it a Friday) near the end of the month. Long weekends are good for helping me maintain my sanity!
Case in point -- pretty good Sunday today! Here's the usual round-up:
-->Got up at a pretty decent hour, and had a different breakfast than normal -- I'd been thinking about our Hershey Park trip a few years back, and how I'd gotten an awesome parfait at the restaurant where we went for breakfast during our brief stay. So I decided to make my own! Used the smoothie drink cup we never use for smoothies (Mom and I always drink ours right out of the mixing thing), threw some bran cereal in the bottom for crunch, then layered on some vanilla yogurt, bananas, blueberries, and strawberries! It was actually really nice, and I appreciated having something a little different and special. And Mom ended up ordering me some granola chunks from Walmart as part of some online shopping she was doing, so I'll be doing it again in the future. :)
-->Started the YouTube a bit early and managed to finish off what was waiting in my subscriptions and a good chunk of what was in my Watch Later:
A) The latest episode of "Rags To Redevelopment" – told you yesterday that James had uploaded another one. And this one was, essentially, The Search For a Counter – most of it was Ambrose dumpster diving near-constantly to find himself a counter so he could have a proper kitchen. And after many, many, MANY tries (and many, many, MANY other items – he has like twelve sinks, six beds, and four of the special Sims 1 tables in a rainbow of colors) he succeeded! It's an ugly Brohill island counter that needed eco-vacuuming, but between that and one of his sinks, Ambrose now has an actual kitchen! :D He also successfully repealed the "Roughhousing Encouraged" Neighborhood Action Plan, as James was sick of the fighting. His secret? Literal bribery – James gave everyone he could $100 to get them to support the repeal. XD He also BRIEFLY found a money plant, but it ended up deleted from his inventory somehow, so no cheating during this Rags to Riches! Still, he's doing decently for himself, and when he eventually buys the Dump lot and turns it into a store, he's got a shitload of stuff to refurbish and sell.
B) Another two from GrayStillPlays:
1. Draw Puzzle – "Kill Me" edition! (I'm not sure if Gray put that there to fill in his name, or if the game genuinely had that. XD) A game all about drawing the solutions to stick problems, as moderated by Google Translate. Also, most of the problems were felonious in nature, including helping a voyeur hide behind a bush; starting a grease fire in a guy's kitchen to steal his missing wallet; drawing a lollipop to lure someone over a pit; and drawing a cactus for some stick to shove on another stick's chair! What is it with Gray and dark stick-figure games these days??
2. More Stickman Annihilation 4 – speaking of which. . .yup, Gray's back at it, destroying as many sticks as possible so he can unlock new ways to destroy as many sticks as possible. XD Today's episode featured figuring out how to turn an upside-down monster truck into a meat grinder; unlocking the awesome catacomb level which, despite being a bunch of tunnels, ALSO features one of the best ways to get air time in a large cave; getting a "Mad Max" car with a rocket booster; and unlocking the final "TOP SECRET" level – which turned out to be kind of disappointing (relatively flat arena with raining stick men – nice, but nothing on the catacombs, or a war-time scene). Still, very satisfying to see Gray smash, crush, and dice sticks with NO MERCY.
C) A quick pop back to Sims with a mini-comparison video from The Red Plumbob on the subject of Murphy beds! Yes, these things have been in more generations than just the Sims 4 – Sims 2 and Sims 3 both had a variation. Interestingly, both of theirs were manual, which is a feature I think should have stuck with the Sims 4 version – what good is a bed where, if your power goes out, you can't use it? All three can murderlate Sims by smashing them, though. Just the Sims 4 one makes it extra painful – and creates the most annoying ghost. More reasons not to use the damn thing!
D) The latest Fun With Shorts short – about a duck named Howard who misses his chance to fly south for the winter with his flock, instead ending up in New York where he befriends a sewer frog and three garbage mice. Soundtrack was awful, and the animation far from top-notch, but the creatures themselves were actually pretty cute, and it was perfectly serviceable story. Far from the worst we've had on this show! Though we still got plenty of good riffs (including, yes, a Howard the Duck reference XD).
E) A video exploring why the world of Fallout still looks like the bombs only recently dropped two centuries on – primary culprits, according to the creator, are a) people prioritizing keeping themselves alive and safe from raiders over some old standards of cleanliness, and b) the fact that humanity's back in the food chain thanks to the appearance of things like Deathclaws and Super Mutants. Essentially, most of humanity has either been too busy trying to survive, or stuck in the Vaults and unable to affect the surface, and there's no guarantee we'll come out on top in the struggle to make it. (Personally, I like the idea that at least some of the skeletons and whatnot are being posed deliberately by Raiders for the Aesthetic, but – yeah, there's really no way to fully explain it apart from "Bethesda wants the wasteland to look a certain way, logic be damned.")
F) One of FluffyNinjaLlama's companion reaction videos – this one all about confronting Mayor McDonough after his big secret is officially blown. It's good stuff, though damn does my heart go out to poor Danny Sullivan! Poor guy got shot twice and FELL down the elevator – good thing stimpacks are such solid healing items in this world! And the various ways you can deal with the mayor – I think I like telling him he'll stand trial, which leads to you needing to shoot him as he disagrees with the idea. Preston has a delightful "Karma's a bitch" line in response. XD And of course Strong is his usual self. Hopefully I'll have the Charisma with Victor to make sure he releases his hostage when I play the encounter!
G) And a fellow by the name of Corbeano's "best of" moments from his Fallout 4 playthrough, including lots of fun battles (including the Mirelurk Queen at the Castle, AND a horrifying Nukalurk battle in Nuka-World (so many 'lurks!)) and an ongoing storyline centered around a teddy bear he found early in the game who proved to be in cahoots with the raiders in the Commonwealth and trying to take the place over. XD Also he calls Dogmeat "Brutus." Just lots of great stuff – and he has a full playlist with even more moments! 25 videos, but they're all short. . .maybe something to occasionally binge on during weekends. :p
-->Played a bit of Fallout 4 -- installed one of my bigger mods, one that gives people more dialogue and adds special side quests to some of the companions. Tested it on a save where I was hanging out with Piper, and got a quest from her to clear out a certain area near Graygarden! The area was a park, and the clearing out consisted of killing a Yao Guai bear there. Still, nice to have something to do with Piper -- and it's free affinity, yay. :) Plus she's actually rather more chatty now, which I like because she has a lot of fun comments. :) So that's all good! Slowly but surely coming to the end of the mods I want to install. . .though I still want to see about maybe getting a backpack mod. Doesn't have to be fancy; it's just my own personal immersion thing. And there is one weather mod from the guy I got my "Mobile Mechanic" and "Campsite" mods from that I'm tempted to try. . .that'll be the last one in, though. I also went through and endorsed/commented on a bunch of the mods I already have installed -- want to show my appreciation for all the good stuff!
-->No beanbag game -- it was decent enough this morning, but by the time we'd usually play, it had gotten pretty hot and sticky out, so we all stayed inside. But I DID get in a workout, so go me. :)
-->Wrote the first draft of the gift fic for my tumblr friend -- his birthday is next week, so I figured I'd book-end this week with my drafts. On the plus side, he basically treats the fic like a form of commission and lays out exactly what he wants to see, so all I have to do is follow his outline, more or less. I'm pretty sure I hit all the beats he wanted me to hit in this first draft -- on Saturday I'll go back and clean it all up!
-->Currently getting the pictures for my Newcrest Adventures update this week sorted so I don't have to worry about it tomorrow, then it's time to answer comments and asks and hit the sheets! Trying to keep to getting off the computer around 11:30ish on work nights -- dunno how well I'll do or how long it'll last, but an effort must be made to get at least a LITTLE more sleep. Also have to look out this week for my period. . .do NOT want another incident like I had in June where the damn thing snuck up on me in the middle of the day! Bleh. . .
So yeah, better get going as it is now 11:21 as I write this sentence. Trying to be a good Vicky and make sure I get my rest! Fingers crossed it's a decent day tomorrow -- I'm trying NOT to think about how it's a Monday the 13th. Please don't be an omen. . . *deep breath* Don't work yourself up about it, Vic. Night all!
A) Making me anxious about the coronavirus and thus making me not want to go out at all, which I believe is a reasonable level of paranoia given where we're at.
B) Giving me a taste of a life where I didn't HAVE to go to work and instead could stay home and intersperse work things with stuff I wanted to do (like at the beginning of the furlough) or just cram work into one day per week (like at the end of it). I had roughly a month and a half of freedom in that sense, and -- well, my customary week-long vacations were bad enough of reminding me of life before I had to get an office job! I am the kind of person who, if I had the chance to just stay home and watch YouTube, read fanfic, and play video games all day, I would. My parents kept insisting I had to be getting bored during the quarantine and -- no, I didn't really. I had plenty of shit to watch and stuff to work on, sooo. . . (Admittedly, though, now that it's summer, I do miss being able to go out minigolfing, or anticipating a trip to Canobie or another amusement park. I was actually hoping to go back to Southwick Zoo this year, that was fun. . . And I do miss my occasional mall trips. It would be nice to get out occasionally -- but I am primarily a homebody, so my point still stands.)
But I have bills to pay and a society to live in, so going to the office remains a must. At least I have the pleasure of having half day Fridays. And I think I can sneak in an extra day off (or half day off, since I'm planning on making it a Friday) near the end of the month. Long weekends are good for helping me maintain my sanity!
Case in point -- pretty good Sunday today! Here's the usual round-up:
-->Got up at a pretty decent hour, and had a different breakfast than normal -- I'd been thinking about our Hershey Park trip a few years back, and how I'd gotten an awesome parfait at the restaurant where we went for breakfast during our brief stay. So I decided to make my own! Used the smoothie drink cup we never use for smoothies (Mom and I always drink ours right out of the mixing thing), threw some bran cereal in the bottom for crunch, then layered on some vanilla yogurt, bananas, blueberries, and strawberries! It was actually really nice, and I appreciated having something a little different and special. And Mom ended up ordering me some granola chunks from Walmart as part of some online shopping she was doing, so I'll be doing it again in the future. :)
-->Started the YouTube a bit early and managed to finish off what was waiting in my subscriptions and a good chunk of what was in my Watch Later:
A) The latest episode of "Rags To Redevelopment" – told you yesterday that James had uploaded another one. And this one was, essentially, The Search For a Counter – most of it was Ambrose dumpster diving near-constantly to find himself a counter so he could have a proper kitchen. And after many, many, MANY tries (and many, many, MANY other items – he has like twelve sinks, six beds, and four of the special Sims 1 tables in a rainbow of colors) he succeeded! It's an ugly Brohill island counter that needed eco-vacuuming, but between that and one of his sinks, Ambrose now has an actual kitchen! :D He also successfully repealed the "Roughhousing Encouraged" Neighborhood Action Plan, as James was sick of the fighting. His secret? Literal bribery – James gave everyone he could $100 to get them to support the repeal. XD He also BRIEFLY found a money plant, but it ended up deleted from his inventory somehow, so no cheating during this Rags to Riches! Still, he's doing decently for himself, and when he eventually buys the Dump lot and turns it into a store, he's got a shitload of stuff to refurbish and sell.
B) Another two from GrayStillPlays:
1. Draw Puzzle – "Kill Me" edition! (I'm not sure if Gray put that there to fill in his name, or if the game genuinely had that. XD) A game all about drawing the solutions to stick problems, as moderated by Google Translate. Also, most of the problems were felonious in nature, including helping a voyeur hide behind a bush; starting a grease fire in a guy's kitchen to steal his missing wallet; drawing a lollipop to lure someone over a pit; and drawing a cactus for some stick to shove on another stick's chair! What is it with Gray and dark stick-figure games these days??
2. More Stickman Annihilation 4 – speaking of which. . .yup, Gray's back at it, destroying as many sticks as possible so he can unlock new ways to destroy as many sticks as possible. XD Today's episode featured figuring out how to turn an upside-down monster truck into a meat grinder; unlocking the awesome catacomb level which, despite being a bunch of tunnels, ALSO features one of the best ways to get air time in a large cave; getting a "Mad Max" car with a rocket booster; and unlocking the final "TOP SECRET" level – which turned out to be kind of disappointing (relatively flat arena with raining stick men – nice, but nothing on the catacombs, or a war-time scene). Still, very satisfying to see Gray smash, crush, and dice sticks with NO MERCY.
C) A quick pop back to Sims with a mini-comparison video from The Red Plumbob on the subject of Murphy beds! Yes, these things have been in more generations than just the Sims 4 – Sims 2 and Sims 3 both had a variation. Interestingly, both of theirs were manual, which is a feature I think should have stuck with the Sims 4 version – what good is a bed where, if your power goes out, you can't use it? All three can murderlate Sims by smashing them, though. Just the Sims 4 one makes it extra painful – and creates the most annoying ghost. More reasons not to use the damn thing!
D) The latest Fun With Shorts short – about a duck named Howard who misses his chance to fly south for the winter with his flock, instead ending up in New York where he befriends a sewer frog and three garbage mice. Soundtrack was awful, and the animation far from top-notch, but the creatures themselves were actually pretty cute, and it was perfectly serviceable story. Far from the worst we've had on this show! Though we still got plenty of good riffs (including, yes, a Howard the Duck reference XD).
E) A video exploring why the world of Fallout still looks like the bombs only recently dropped two centuries on – primary culprits, according to the creator, are a) people prioritizing keeping themselves alive and safe from raiders over some old standards of cleanliness, and b) the fact that humanity's back in the food chain thanks to the appearance of things like Deathclaws and Super Mutants. Essentially, most of humanity has either been too busy trying to survive, or stuck in the Vaults and unable to affect the surface, and there's no guarantee we'll come out on top in the struggle to make it. (Personally, I like the idea that at least some of the skeletons and whatnot are being posed deliberately by Raiders for the Aesthetic, but – yeah, there's really no way to fully explain it apart from "Bethesda wants the wasteland to look a certain way, logic be damned.")
F) One of FluffyNinjaLlama's companion reaction videos – this one all about confronting Mayor McDonough after his big secret is officially blown. It's good stuff, though damn does my heart go out to poor Danny Sullivan! Poor guy got shot twice and FELL down the elevator – good thing stimpacks are such solid healing items in this world! And the various ways you can deal with the mayor – I think I like telling him he'll stand trial, which leads to you needing to shoot him as he disagrees with the idea. Preston has a delightful "Karma's a bitch" line in response. XD And of course Strong is his usual self. Hopefully I'll have the Charisma with Victor to make sure he releases his hostage when I play the encounter!
G) And a fellow by the name of Corbeano's "best of" moments from his Fallout 4 playthrough, including lots of fun battles (including the Mirelurk Queen at the Castle, AND a horrifying Nukalurk battle in Nuka-World (so many 'lurks!)) and an ongoing storyline centered around a teddy bear he found early in the game who proved to be in cahoots with the raiders in the Commonwealth and trying to take the place over. XD Also he calls Dogmeat "Brutus." Just lots of great stuff – and he has a full playlist with even more moments! 25 videos, but they're all short. . .maybe something to occasionally binge on during weekends. :p
-->Played a bit of Fallout 4 -- installed one of my bigger mods, one that gives people more dialogue and adds special side quests to some of the companions. Tested it on a save where I was hanging out with Piper, and got a quest from her to clear out a certain area near Graygarden! The area was a park, and the clearing out consisted of killing a Yao Guai bear there. Still, nice to have something to do with Piper -- and it's free affinity, yay. :) Plus she's actually rather more chatty now, which I like because she has a lot of fun comments. :) So that's all good! Slowly but surely coming to the end of the mods I want to install. . .though I still want to see about maybe getting a backpack mod. Doesn't have to be fancy; it's just my own personal immersion thing. And there is one weather mod from the guy I got my "Mobile Mechanic" and "Campsite" mods from that I'm tempted to try. . .that'll be the last one in, though. I also went through and endorsed/commented on a bunch of the mods I already have installed -- want to show my appreciation for all the good stuff!
-->No beanbag game -- it was decent enough this morning, but by the time we'd usually play, it had gotten pretty hot and sticky out, so we all stayed inside. But I DID get in a workout, so go me. :)
-->Wrote the first draft of the gift fic for my tumblr friend -- his birthday is next week, so I figured I'd book-end this week with my drafts. On the plus side, he basically treats the fic like a form of commission and lays out exactly what he wants to see, so all I have to do is follow his outline, more or less. I'm pretty sure I hit all the beats he wanted me to hit in this first draft -- on Saturday I'll go back and clean it all up!
-->Currently getting the pictures for my Newcrest Adventures update this week sorted so I don't have to worry about it tomorrow, then it's time to answer comments and asks and hit the sheets! Trying to keep to getting off the computer around 11:30ish on work nights -- dunno how well I'll do or how long it'll last, but an effort must be made to get at least a LITTLE more sleep. Also have to look out this week for my period. . .do NOT want another incident like I had in June where the damn thing snuck up on me in the middle of the day! Bleh. . .
So yeah, better get going as it is now 11:21 as I write this sentence. Trying to be a good Vicky and make sure I get my rest! Fingers crossed it's a decent day tomorrow -- I'm trying NOT to think about how it's a Monday the 13th. Please don't be an omen. . . *deep breath* Don't work yourself up about it, Vic. Night all!
