Another Nice Sunday
Jul. 19th, 2020 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickSpent in the house in the AC, as it was another scorcher, of course. Gotta love a heatwave, or at least close enough to. . .and hey, tomorrow I get to be out in it for a brief time because of having to walk from the parking lot to the building and back! Bleh. . .at least it's just a couple of minutes! And I think Monday's the last day of the worst heat too, so fingers crossed on that front.
Anyway, had a fairly productive day:
-->Smoothie for breakfast this morning, and I managed to get dressed before noon, which doesn't always happen on the weekends XD I mean, granted it wasn't much before noon, but still. :p
-->Also, made an effort to listen to happier music while making my bed and getting dressed this morning, largely because I think it does make a distinct difference in how I feel. I've been listening to a lot more angry or depressing stuff -- but when I let my "likes" play yesterday and heard "Uptown Funk," it genuinely made me feel better (mostly because I was thinking of Victor and Alice dancing, which always makes me smile :D). So I did stuff like Carly Rae Jepsen's "Run Away With Me" this morning, and -- yeah, it was nice. Definitely need to add more positive music to my daily routine!
-->Made my muffins after lunch -- unfortunately, we were out of brown sugar, so I had to omit it from the recipe. Hopefully the muffins don't taste TOO different without it! (And even if they do -- well, gotta eat 'em. Waste not want not.) But at least I'm set for workday breakfasts for another twelve workdays.
-->Watched a lot of YouTube, again mostly with Victor Plush and Alice Dolly (again, it's something that makes me happy, and I'm trying to do more of that to help lessen the impact of The Anxiety (tm)):
A) As prophesied, I caught up on the OXBox videos in my Watch Later:
1. 7 starter weapons that proved to be the absolute best, as told by the commenters – BioShock's wrench made the list (along with its constant companion the Electrobolt plasmid), along with a pair of twin Sellsword blades you can get if you start as a mercenary in Dark Souls 3 that turn you into a whirlwind of death. Luke tried to outline how to get them relatively early on if you pick a different class, but – well, it's Dark Souls 3. Probably better just to pick the right class and go from there. XD
2. 6 ways that the upcoming Resident Evil 8: Village (teaser trailer just dropped, actual game is out in 2021) will be breaking away from tradition. Namely, looks like we're getting more classic movie monster infectees (viruses that make werewolves, and possibly vampires), more occult stuff, and the possibility of Evil Chris Redfield! Oh, and we're still following Ethan from the last game, which is the bit that surprised me the most – I was fully expecting a protagonist switch, as that's more or less how RE always does things (if a character does show up in consecutive games, it's generally a case of ensemble protagonists and you won't be playing as them for the WHOLE game). I am intrigued~
3. And finally, 7 games with twist endings that really threw you for a loop! . . .four of which I already knew about from other sources. XD What can I say, either I'd researched them out of curiosity, or I'd watched them in a very thorough LP by a certain Helloween4545. I was genuinely surprised by the three others, though. Particularly the one on Final Fantasy VII, which – well. Seems like the team behind that were never interested in an actual remake. :p
B) The latest Fun With Shorts, where two kids bringing in a camera for their dad before going to pay baseball instead get an eight-minute lecture on how amazing the human body is from Uncle Bob. Mostly about how cameras are patterned after our eyes, with a few extra facts about ears and hearts and brains afterward. Oh, and never forget that God is responsible for all this perfection, kids! XD Josh had some good riffs for this one – I particularly liked the last one, where the guy went to go play baseball with the kids and he was like "now everyone will have to go to one of the other fundamentalist scientist shops on the block!" XD
C) Another video from JuiceHead regarding stuff modders have put into Fallout 4 based on cut content, or other games from earlier in the series. As is usual for him, there was a lot of focus on weapon mods (he does love a good gun!), but there was some stuff that appealed to me as well. Namely, a mod that restores a cut (but still technically in the game, if you can get through the wall it's hidden behind) chunk of the Museum of Freedom, and another mod that adds some more interiors into Concord with raiders and bits of lore. Also "Hot Diggity," a mod that revamps the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system of Fallout 4 to bring it more in line with Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. Intriguing, but I'm a touch iffy about slotting it in for my future restart playthrough – dunno how well it works yet, and I'm trying to keep the truly big mods to a minimum. (Hence why I'm limiting myself to one big quest mod, and one big faction overhaul mod. Also why it took me so long to decide I'd try a weather mod – and the main reason I came down on the "yes" side is because it's from the same guy who made two other mods I quite like.)
D) And I decided to catch up on my GrayStillPlays over Linkara tonight (sorry Linkara! Tomorrow, I promise!):
1. Accident: The Pilot – a demo version of a game where you go investigate various traffic accidents, trying to save people's lives and piece together what happened. Gray being Gray, he happily let a mother and her child burn after they smashed into the back of a tractor trailer that had collided with another car. (To be fair, the mother was already dead, but. . .) He DID eventually save everyone he could, simply because the game wouldn't progress otherwise, but the "scenario failed" screen actually provided him with a great tagline for his channel: "You did more harm than good." He's thinking of putting that on a t-shirt! XD
2. The Baby In Yellow – it looks like a baby-sitting simulator, it's actually a horror game starring a possessed human version of a bush baby. And it would have been a lot scarier if Gray hadn't been the one at the controls, putting the baby on the stove and stuffing him in the fridge. And then giving him crap about his levitation and whatnot. XD Disturbing baby is indeed disturbing, but Gray nattering on about how the family likes to put Powerpoint backgrounds up as artwork does undercut the horror a leeettle bit. :P
3. More GTA V – and this time, we were using planes to smash through NPCs hovering in the air in the hopes of catching one of their bodies in a truck bed! XD Gray put himself through a looot of shit to get that to work, including having a plane basically try to tunnel into the earth across a highway, with the vibrations flinging cars that hit it into the ether. XD Eventually what succeeded was putting the truck on the plane itself, then falling to the earth with the unfortunate NPCs, exploding on impact (because he hit the roof), then a bunch of the bodies falling into the truck bed by sheer luck when Gray got the truck back on what remained of the wheels. XD I'm probably a bad person for laughing at all this, but still. You gotta be there, I think.
-->Played some more Fallout 4 -- kinda tested two mods today, since the "CWSS Redux" mod I use (the one that gives me bathroom and kitchen stuff that the PC and NPCs can actually use) had an update with some new goodies, so I went ahead and installed that update. I also installed the "Wearable Backpacks" mod, with some of its associated files, and checked that out. Seems to be working fine so far -- I was able (after some determined killing and looting in Jamaica Plan) to make the Backpack crafting bench and a "Traveler's Backpack," and upon returning to the Red Rocket outside Sanctuary, upgrade that backpack to 100 Carry Capacity. So with this on I have the ability to carry 100 more pounds of stuff. This mod is already the greatest. XD
As for "CWSS Redux," I built a few bathroom items out in the parking lot -- a prefab outhouse stall, a shower, and a bubbler sink. (I also set up a powered water pump for "realism.") I was able to use both without much issue, though for some reason after using the toilet, Piper (my companion of the moment) had reverted back to her usual red coat (I'd put her in some road leathers and armor). Not sure what happened there. O.o I reequipped her stuff, and it stayed on as she proceeded to use the various objects, so. . .not a HUGE deal, I guess, but something to keep an eye on?
-->Wrote some more on "Secundus 2" Chapter 10 -- part of Barkis's plan has been revealed (grab the girls and get a train), and now the gang is trying to either a) save Jennifer and Clara before they can be taken or b) stop them before they do whatever it is they're doing at the train station. Obviously, they're not going to succeed, but they're giving it a good effort! And, if nothing else, Gordon has officially given up the fight, so yay. :P
-->And I've just gotten thirty of the pictures for my upcoming Newcrest Adventures update sorted! Though I'm still not quite done. . .gonna have another ten or fifteen (or possibly twenty!) to go, it looks like. The Winterfest play session was busy, as holidays usually are. Ah well, at least I'm mostly prepared. . .
Anyway -- time to wrap things up by answering comments, finishing up my Valice Multiverse queue as best I can, and then heading to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a decent Monday apart from the weather. I'm already planning a day off for the Friday after next to help with keeping my sanity -- be nice to end July with a three-day weekend that isn't because a) I need to go to the dentist or b) my stomach isn't feeling great. Hey, they're giving me an extra vacation day as a bonus, might as well use it. (Or half of it, given what Fridays are like in summer.) But I gotta get through this week first. *nods* Night all!
Anyway, had a fairly productive day:
-->Smoothie for breakfast this morning, and I managed to get dressed before noon, which doesn't always happen on the weekends XD I mean, granted it wasn't much before noon, but still. :p
-->Also, made an effort to listen to happier music while making my bed and getting dressed this morning, largely because I think it does make a distinct difference in how I feel. I've been listening to a lot more angry or depressing stuff -- but when I let my "likes" play yesterday and heard "Uptown Funk," it genuinely made me feel better (mostly because I was thinking of Victor and Alice dancing, which always makes me smile :D). So I did stuff like Carly Rae Jepsen's "Run Away With Me" this morning, and -- yeah, it was nice. Definitely need to add more positive music to my daily routine!
-->Made my muffins after lunch -- unfortunately, we were out of brown sugar, so I had to omit it from the recipe. Hopefully the muffins don't taste TOO different without it! (And even if they do -- well, gotta eat 'em. Waste not want not.) But at least I'm set for workday breakfasts for another twelve workdays.
-->Watched a lot of YouTube, again mostly with Victor Plush and Alice Dolly (again, it's something that makes me happy, and I'm trying to do more of that to help lessen the impact of The Anxiety (tm)):
A) As prophesied, I caught up on the OXBox videos in my Watch Later:
1. 7 starter weapons that proved to be the absolute best, as told by the commenters – BioShock's wrench made the list (along with its constant companion the Electrobolt plasmid), along with a pair of twin Sellsword blades you can get if you start as a mercenary in Dark Souls 3 that turn you into a whirlwind of death. Luke tried to outline how to get them relatively early on if you pick a different class, but – well, it's Dark Souls 3. Probably better just to pick the right class and go from there. XD
2. 6 ways that the upcoming Resident Evil 8: Village (teaser trailer just dropped, actual game is out in 2021) will be breaking away from tradition. Namely, looks like we're getting more classic movie monster infectees (viruses that make werewolves, and possibly vampires), more occult stuff, and the possibility of Evil Chris Redfield! Oh, and we're still following Ethan from the last game, which is the bit that surprised me the most – I was fully expecting a protagonist switch, as that's more or less how RE always does things (if a character does show up in consecutive games, it's generally a case of ensemble protagonists and you won't be playing as them for the WHOLE game). I am intrigued~
3. And finally, 7 games with twist endings that really threw you for a loop! . . .four of which I already knew about from other sources. XD What can I say, either I'd researched them out of curiosity, or I'd watched them in a very thorough LP by a certain Helloween4545. I was genuinely surprised by the three others, though. Particularly the one on Final Fantasy VII, which – well. Seems like the team behind that were never interested in an actual remake. :p
B) The latest Fun With Shorts, where two kids bringing in a camera for their dad before going to pay baseball instead get an eight-minute lecture on how amazing the human body is from Uncle Bob. Mostly about how cameras are patterned after our eyes, with a few extra facts about ears and hearts and brains afterward. Oh, and never forget that God is responsible for all this perfection, kids! XD Josh had some good riffs for this one – I particularly liked the last one, where the guy went to go play baseball with the kids and he was like "now everyone will have to go to one of the other fundamentalist scientist shops on the block!" XD
C) Another video from JuiceHead regarding stuff modders have put into Fallout 4 based on cut content, or other games from earlier in the series. As is usual for him, there was a lot of focus on weapon mods (he does love a good gun!), but there was some stuff that appealed to me as well. Namely, a mod that restores a cut (but still technically in the game, if you can get through the wall it's hidden behind) chunk of the Museum of Freedom, and another mod that adds some more interiors into Concord with raiders and bits of lore. Also "Hot Diggity," a mod that revamps the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system of Fallout 4 to bring it more in line with Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. Intriguing, but I'm a touch iffy about slotting it in for my future restart playthrough – dunno how well it works yet, and I'm trying to keep the truly big mods to a minimum. (Hence why I'm limiting myself to one big quest mod, and one big faction overhaul mod. Also why it took me so long to decide I'd try a weather mod – and the main reason I came down on the "yes" side is because it's from the same guy who made two other mods I quite like.)
D) And I decided to catch up on my GrayStillPlays over Linkara tonight (sorry Linkara! Tomorrow, I promise!):
1. Accident: The Pilot – a demo version of a game where you go investigate various traffic accidents, trying to save people's lives and piece together what happened. Gray being Gray, he happily let a mother and her child burn after they smashed into the back of a tractor trailer that had collided with another car. (To be fair, the mother was already dead, but. . .) He DID eventually save everyone he could, simply because the game wouldn't progress otherwise, but the "scenario failed" screen actually provided him with a great tagline for his channel: "You did more harm than good." He's thinking of putting that on a t-shirt! XD
2. The Baby In Yellow – it looks like a baby-sitting simulator, it's actually a horror game starring a possessed human version of a bush baby. And it would have been a lot scarier if Gray hadn't been the one at the controls, putting the baby on the stove and stuffing him in the fridge. And then giving him crap about his levitation and whatnot. XD Disturbing baby is indeed disturbing, but Gray nattering on about how the family likes to put Powerpoint backgrounds up as artwork does undercut the horror a leeettle bit. :P
3. More GTA V – and this time, we were using planes to smash through NPCs hovering in the air in the hopes of catching one of their bodies in a truck bed! XD Gray put himself through a looot of shit to get that to work, including having a plane basically try to tunnel into the earth across a highway, with the vibrations flinging cars that hit it into the ether. XD Eventually what succeeded was putting the truck on the plane itself, then falling to the earth with the unfortunate NPCs, exploding on impact (because he hit the roof), then a bunch of the bodies falling into the truck bed by sheer luck when Gray got the truck back on what remained of the wheels. XD I'm probably a bad person for laughing at all this, but still. You gotta be there, I think.
-->Played some more Fallout 4 -- kinda tested two mods today, since the "CWSS Redux" mod I use (the one that gives me bathroom and kitchen stuff that the PC and NPCs can actually use) had an update with some new goodies, so I went ahead and installed that update. I also installed the "Wearable Backpacks" mod, with some of its associated files, and checked that out. Seems to be working fine so far -- I was able (after some determined killing and looting in Jamaica Plan) to make the Backpack crafting bench and a "Traveler's Backpack," and upon returning to the Red Rocket outside Sanctuary, upgrade that backpack to 100 Carry Capacity. So with this on I have the ability to carry 100 more pounds of stuff. This mod is already the greatest. XD
As for "CWSS Redux," I built a few bathroom items out in the parking lot -- a prefab outhouse stall, a shower, and a bubbler sink. (I also set up a powered water pump for "realism.") I was able to use both without much issue, though for some reason after using the toilet, Piper (my companion of the moment) had reverted back to her usual red coat (I'd put her in some road leathers and armor). Not sure what happened there. O.o I reequipped her stuff, and it stayed on as she proceeded to use the various objects, so. . .not a HUGE deal, I guess, but something to keep an eye on?
-->Wrote some more on "Secundus 2" Chapter 10 -- part of Barkis's plan has been revealed (grab the girls and get a train), and now the gang is trying to either a) save Jennifer and Clara before they can be taken or b) stop them before they do whatever it is they're doing at the train station. Obviously, they're not going to succeed, but they're giving it a good effort! And, if nothing else, Gordon has officially given up the fight, so yay. :P
-->And I've just gotten thirty of the pictures for my upcoming Newcrest Adventures update sorted! Though I'm still not quite done. . .gonna have another ten or fifteen (or possibly twenty!) to go, it looks like. The Winterfest play session was busy, as holidays usually are. Ah well, at least I'm mostly prepared. . .
Anyway -- time to wrap things up by answering comments, finishing up my Valice Multiverse queue as best I can, and then heading to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a decent Monday apart from the weather. I'm already planning a day off for the Friday after next to help with keeping my sanity -- be nice to end July with a three-day weekend that isn't because a) I need to go to the dentist or b) my stomach isn't feeling great. Hey, they're giving me an extra vacation day as a bonus, might as well use it. (Or half of it, given what Fridays are like in summer.) But I gotta get through this week first. *nods* Night all!
