Merry Christmas!
Dec. 25th, 2020 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI can't say I didn't have a good holiday -- here's my haul (apart from the early present of my computer):
1. Two Fallout 4 T-Shirts from my aunt – one with Dogmeat on it, the other showcasing the “Intelligence” stat of “What Makes You S.P.E.C.I.A.L.?”
2. The Victor Van Dort (and Scraps) Funko Pop, released back in August, also from my aunt
3. A double-pack of Burt’s Bees chapstick from my parents
4. A variety pack of Ferrero Rocher from my parents (contains dark chocolate Rondnoir and white chocolate/almond and coconut Raffaello varieties)
5. A big old bag of Ghiradelli hot chocolate mix (with its own measuring spoon) from my parents
6. The dramatic reading of part of “Finding You” from my tumblr friend Marie
7. Some sketches based on the Christmas fic I wrote for her from my tumblr friend Nebby
Yeah, perhaps a bit lighter than some Christmases, but, as stated, my new computer was my big present this year. It was just nice to have a couple of things to open -- and a fresh supply of hot chocolate. My previous one has almost run out! And the t-shirts are great -- I wore the "Intelligence" one today, and it is super comfy. :D So yeah, I'm pleased.
As for the rest of my day -- spent most of the day watching movies with my parents (A Christmas Story and It's A Wonderful Life, colorized version) and working on the new puzzle they got from the library (a Norman Rockwell illustration of a babysitter having a bad day; it's been tricky to get together!). But I did manage to get my to-do list sorted!
1. Post all the Dreamwidth gift fics (natch): Check! I hope you all saw my previous post with the stories. And enjoyed them too. :)
2. Watch the latest Fun With Shorts in my Subscriptions: Check! We had a claymation short called “A Christmas Gift” this year – fully half of it was just a claymation kid wandering around looking at various claymation Christmas displays with the implication he was homeless and sad he couldn’t join in the fun. The other half was Paul McCartney singing about this kid finding the home of a sad old woman with no food and sharing his own meager Christmas dinner (a hunk of cheese and half a loaf of bread) with her, with the implication this is supposed to be heartwarming. Josh didn’t fall for it, and neither did the commenters. :p Also, the final Christmas display featured a terrifying bear family that reminded me of Five Nights At Freddy’s – nothing more Christmas than THAT!
I also got in the following "bonus" videos:
A) A very short video about why it’s not a good idea to wear a cone-shaped metal hat in Bloodborne – namely, when you slide down a ladder, the hat actually bonks against it. Quite rhythmically, in fact. XD Probably hell on the hunter inside, but quite amusing to us in the meatspace.
B) A double feature from a reviewer of animated features, Cellspex, about animated Christmas Carols – worst to best! Worst in her view was the All Dogs Go To Heaven take on it; best was, of course, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, with the Animaniacs short coming in a close second. One of my own liked versions, the 2009 Jim Carrey version, got a middling score, which I totally understand – that one you have to see in IMAX to properly appreciate a few of the sequences, and the human designs are horrifying. :p
C) And a quick look at an older video of hers covering Klaus, which the title of the video called a “Beautiful Christmas Classic except for THAT ONE THING. . .” Turns out the “one thing” is the story – while she loves the animation, the story has a few beats that fall flat for her, including the climax (it’s a classic “city boy shoved into country setting” with “liar revealed” elements, and she felt the actual revealing part was really overdone dramatically). But it’s still a decent flick, at least according to her, so. . .maybe next year?
(If you're wondering -- I didn't see Gray upload, suggesting he's taken all of Christmas off, which is fine; Kevin DID upload -- but its his own personal "Rewind" compilation video, meaning it's an hour and a half long. Need to make some time for that one!)
3. Play some Fallout 4: Check! And I gave into temptation and installed one last (I am MAKING it the last) mod, “Squirrels of the Commonwealth.” As you might imagine, it adds squirrels, to justify all those “squirrel bits” you find on people. I took the “docile” version, so that most of them will run away from you if provoked, and – rather glad I did, since those suckers are FAST! And tough, as I later found out. . . My main problem when I first started out was wolves, however. Curie and I kept running into packs as I wandered around my original modded save looking for squirrels, and they are pretty relentless when they decide you’re prey! I did find my squirrels eventually, though – fought a few other things wandering around as well. . .
And then I ran into a strange issue where, whenever I tried to fast travel or even regular travel anywhere near Sanctuary, my game just crashed straight to the desktop. I was naturally rather concerned by this and I tested a couple of different save states – kept happening. So I decided to switch over to my more recent “Victor Van Dort” save (my original one is just “Victor” as I wasn’t sure how last names worked at the time), since he was IN Sanctuary, and see what was going on.
HE seems to be fine -- could roam around Sanctuary and related environs without a hitch. I am thoroughly puzzled. O.o Though it’s definitely not outside the bounds of possibility that my previous save, which I was using to test mods and whatnot, is now, you know, kinda glitchy and failing. I have had it for a while, and I’ve rather abused it. . . Starting to think the best thing to do might be to follow GamerPoets’ guide to a “clean install.” I was planning on starting over again because of the whole “FO4Edit Kinda Breaks Nuka-World” thing, so having a totally fresh game might be just the ticket. *shrug* We’ll see!
And that, along with catching up on webcomics and currently working to answer whatever's left in my tumblr/Dreamwidth inboxes is my day! And I did say I'd try to do some of the writing thing with one of my tumblr friends tonight, so let me wrap things up here. . . Tomorrow's list:
1. Watch all Sim-related content in my Subscriptions and Watch Later on YouTube (James Turner, Red Plumbob, Plumbella)
2. Play Sims 4 (Newcrest Adventures file)
3. Get in a workout (I've skipped the past couple of days because holidays)
4. Find something to do on the writing front (even if it's just revising my rules for those personal challenges I'd like to do eventually)
I think that's everything. Hope you're all doing okay this holiday season! Night!
1. Two Fallout 4 T-Shirts from my aunt – one with Dogmeat on it, the other showcasing the “Intelligence” stat of “What Makes You S.P.E.C.I.A.L.?”
2. The Victor Van Dort (and Scraps) Funko Pop, released back in August, also from my aunt
3. A double-pack of Burt’s Bees chapstick from my parents
4. A variety pack of Ferrero Rocher from my parents (contains dark chocolate Rondnoir and white chocolate/almond and coconut Raffaello varieties)
5. A big old bag of Ghiradelli hot chocolate mix (with its own measuring spoon) from my parents
6. The dramatic reading of part of “Finding You” from my tumblr friend Marie
7. Some sketches based on the Christmas fic I wrote for her from my tumblr friend Nebby
Yeah, perhaps a bit lighter than some Christmases, but, as stated, my new computer was my big present this year. It was just nice to have a couple of things to open -- and a fresh supply of hot chocolate. My previous one has almost run out! And the t-shirts are great -- I wore the "Intelligence" one today, and it is super comfy. :D So yeah, I'm pleased.
As for the rest of my day -- spent most of the day watching movies with my parents (A Christmas Story and It's A Wonderful Life, colorized version) and working on the new puzzle they got from the library (a Norman Rockwell illustration of a babysitter having a bad day; it's been tricky to get together!). But I did manage to get my to-do list sorted!
1. Post all the Dreamwidth gift fics (natch): Check! I hope you all saw my previous post with the stories. And enjoyed them too. :)
2. Watch the latest Fun With Shorts in my Subscriptions: Check! We had a claymation short called “A Christmas Gift” this year – fully half of it was just a claymation kid wandering around looking at various claymation Christmas displays with the implication he was homeless and sad he couldn’t join in the fun. The other half was Paul McCartney singing about this kid finding the home of a sad old woman with no food and sharing his own meager Christmas dinner (a hunk of cheese and half a loaf of bread) with her, with the implication this is supposed to be heartwarming. Josh didn’t fall for it, and neither did the commenters. :p Also, the final Christmas display featured a terrifying bear family that reminded me of Five Nights At Freddy’s – nothing more Christmas than THAT!
I also got in the following "bonus" videos:
A) A very short video about why it’s not a good idea to wear a cone-shaped metal hat in Bloodborne – namely, when you slide down a ladder, the hat actually bonks against it. Quite rhythmically, in fact. XD Probably hell on the hunter inside, but quite amusing to us in the meatspace.
B) A double feature from a reviewer of animated features, Cellspex, about animated Christmas Carols – worst to best! Worst in her view was the All Dogs Go To Heaven take on it; best was, of course, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, with the Animaniacs short coming in a close second. One of my own liked versions, the 2009 Jim Carrey version, got a middling score, which I totally understand – that one you have to see in IMAX to properly appreciate a few of the sequences, and the human designs are horrifying. :p
C) And a quick look at an older video of hers covering Klaus, which the title of the video called a “Beautiful Christmas Classic except for THAT ONE THING. . .” Turns out the “one thing” is the story – while she loves the animation, the story has a few beats that fall flat for her, including the climax (it’s a classic “city boy shoved into country setting” with “liar revealed” elements, and she felt the actual revealing part was really overdone dramatically). But it’s still a decent flick, at least according to her, so. . .maybe next year?
(If you're wondering -- I didn't see Gray upload, suggesting he's taken all of Christmas off, which is fine; Kevin DID upload -- but its his own personal "Rewind" compilation video, meaning it's an hour and a half long. Need to make some time for that one!)
3. Play some Fallout 4: Check! And I gave into temptation and installed one last (I am MAKING it the last) mod, “Squirrels of the Commonwealth.” As you might imagine, it adds squirrels, to justify all those “squirrel bits” you find on people. I took the “docile” version, so that most of them will run away from you if provoked, and – rather glad I did, since those suckers are FAST! And tough, as I later found out. . . My main problem when I first started out was wolves, however. Curie and I kept running into packs as I wandered around my original modded save looking for squirrels, and they are pretty relentless when they decide you’re prey! I did find my squirrels eventually, though – fought a few other things wandering around as well. . .
And then I ran into a strange issue where, whenever I tried to fast travel or even regular travel anywhere near Sanctuary, my game just crashed straight to the desktop. I was naturally rather concerned by this and I tested a couple of different save states – kept happening. So I decided to switch over to my more recent “Victor Van Dort” save (my original one is just “Victor” as I wasn’t sure how last names worked at the time), since he was IN Sanctuary, and see what was going on.
HE seems to be fine -- could roam around Sanctuary and related environs without a hitch. I am thoroughly puzzled. O.o Though it’s definitely not outside the bounds of possibility that my previous save, which I was using to test mods and whatnot, is now, you know, kinda glitchy and failing. I have had it for a while, and I’ve rather abused it. . . Starting to think the best thing to do might be to follow GamerPoets’ guide to a “clean install.” I was planning on starting over again because of the whole “FO4Edit Kinda Breaks Nuka-World” thing, so having a totally fresh game might be just the ticket. *shrug* We’ll see!
And that, along with catching up on webcomics and currently working to answer whatever's left in my tumblr/Dreamwidth inboxes is my day! And I did say I'd try to do some of the writing thing with one of my tumblr friends tonight, so let me wrap things up here. . . Tomorrow's list:
1. Watch all Sim-related content in my Subscriptions and Watch Later on YouTube (James Turner, Red Plumbob, Plumbella)
2. Play Sims 4 (Newcrest Adventures file)
3. Get in a workout (I've skipped the past couple of days because holidays)
4. Find something to do on the writing front (even if it's just revising my rules for those personal challenges I'd like to do eventually)
I think that's everything. Hope you're all doing okay this holiday season! Night!
