A Late Start Saturday
Mar. 6th, 2021 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWent to bed shortly before 2 AM, didn't get out of bed until about 10:30 AM -- though I kinda woke up a little before then, and was more half-asleep then properly asleep for a while. Still, it was nice to be able to just sleep in and not really worry about it. Needed that as sort of a reset after my insomnia troubles earlier. But with not actually getting properly up and dressed until noon (partially because of my need to change my sheets), did I manage to conquer my to-do list?
1. Catch up on the OXBox/OXtra in my Watch Later and stay current on Subscriptions: 99% Check – I managed to watch all the videos in my Subs, and MOST of the OXBox and OXtra – but a new video ended up replacing my planned watch of the Hitman 3 “3 Ways To Play” video that came out recently. That’ll have to be pushed back until tomorrow. But in the meantime –
A) Started with a new Plumbella video – her jaw’s on the mend, and she decided to give us a life update over a speed-build of her building a houseboat in Sulani (she found something in the buy-debug objects that could hide a stilt foundation, so she was able to even make it look like it was floating). She’s deleted Twitter for her own mental health, working on a new save file that’s supposed to be all Sims 2 builds, and complaining that it’s hard for her to remember she has food in the house because a closed door to her brain means “there’s nothing there” even when it's on the fridge. XD Poor Jesse. . . But she seems to be doing okay, which is good – and the houseboat came out well! She managed to squash a bunch of stuff in there for Sims to actually live with, and even put a front porch with a ship’s wheel on it. :) Yay fun builds!
B) Then it was over to the Subs with James Turner playing more Bust the Dust and revealing something very unfortunate – game broke. Game VERY broke. Specifically –
I. The dust levels build up WAY too fast – in two hours, your home comes from sparkling clean to dusty. If you’re trying to complete the aspiration all about staying in a pristine home and you have more than one level to the house? You’re going to spend all of your time using the vacuums.
II. Dust bunnies spawn too quickly AND are too good at finding valuables. As in “can give you 800 simoleons straight up, and find Omisican treasures from Jungle Adventures randomly.” James got one frog and two calendar plates from that pack, meaning his Sim had like $30,000 from just a couple of days on the lot.
James was openly disappointed as he liked the concept, but the execution is EXTREMELY flawed. The only way to truly “bust the dust” is to – well, turn off dust, and then what’s the point of buying the Kit? Makes me glad that I wasn’t planning on getting the cash grabs anyway. . .
C) Next up in Call Me Kevin land – more Irish TV! An Irish dating show, to be precise – with the format being a guy goes out in front of a large panel of ladies with lighted podiums and buttons. They press the button, the podium goes pink, and they officially reject the guy. The guy is also allowed to eliminate a few girls from contention via pressing their button. Eventually, he’s paired up with whoever’s left, they go on a date, and the next episode shows how it went. Kevin considered the whole thing rather cringe, but got rather invested in the last couple on the show – a guy who did magic tricks and had a phobia of crisps getting together with a girl who was allergic to crisps – and was very disappointed when a Wikipedia trawl revealed they didn’t ultimately get together. XD It was very goofy and stupid, as all reality TV Shows should be. :p
D) This evening I finally got around to getting to the OXBox and OXtra list videos! In order –
I. “7 Most WTF Sports Games That Improve on Actual Sports” – hey, who remembers QWOP? You know, the predecessor to all those “the control scheme is garbage and that makes it fun” games? Where you had to control a 100-meters-dash runner’s thighs and calves separately? Ahh, memories. . . We also had Behold the Kickmen, a game about soccer made by someone who has no interest in soccer and just wanted to do a fun parody game; Regular Human Basketball, a game about basketball played by aliens piloting giant mechs and – I mean regular humans; and Japan World Cup, a game about horse racing except if a normal horse came anywhere near this track it would be shot immediately and then trampled by the elephant. All amazing things that should be real sports.
II. “7 Times We Tried To Do The Right Thing but the Game Wouldn’t Let Us” – aka, the game is going to railroad you into doing something you personally don’t feel comfortable with. Examples ranged from the silly – Portal and the burning of the Companion Cube – to the heartfelt – Demon Souls Remastered and HAVING to kill Maiden Astraea and her bodyguard when you enter their boss room, despite her being someone trying to heal the sick and wounded – to the “this would be horrifying if it wasn’t for the hilarious ragdolling” – The Last of Us and Joel either killing the surgeon about to operate on Ellie, or getting killed by the guards if he waits too long and thus doing the hilarious ragdolling. Never fun to be forced down a certain path, but the game will do what the game will do. (And it’s probably worth it to see Joel’s ragdoll.)
III. “7 Times Games Mocked You for Cheating” – though, honestly, the list contains a mix of mockery and outright painful punishments. Like, having cheese thrown at you for finding a safe corner to stand in to avoid lions in a Roman Colosseum in Crash Bandicoot: The N. Sane Trilogy is one thing. Getting a completely worthless weapon after skipping to the end of a treasure hunt in Fable, or a chip set for your future suit that actively hampers your ability to use your flashlight and move quickly in vents after skipping to the end of a treasure hunt in Prey is quite another! . . .though exploding a gambler whose game you’ve been cheesing with save scumming after the twentieth win in a row in Jade Empire is kinda funny.
E) And then, after a brief break to answer a thread, it was time for GrayStillPlays and – Solar Smash! Yes, it appears Gray is a bit tired of torturing himself and is back to torturing innocent planets with giant space-lasers and the like. :D And since the game received a nice big update, there were whole NEW ways to torture the innocent planets! Lasers that cut the earth in half! Drills that core out the planet! A mini-laser that acts like a mini-gun! A lightning storm worthy of Thor! SOME GIANT SPACE ASSHOLE JUST STRAIGHT UP PUNCHING THE PLANET! Ooooh yes, I’d missed this Gray. Seeing him torture himself is hilarious, but sometimes you want to go back to the days where HE was the cruel and jealous god. XD
2. Play either Sims 4 or Alice: Madness Returns (dependent on whether or not I can find out if the latest patch for the former is compatible with MC Command Center): Check! A late-night Ecosia search let me learn that MC Command Center was indeed compatible with the latest patch, so I was able to fire up Sims 4 and actually play another round with the McFlys! It was Prank Day today – I managed to fulfill everyone’s need to cause mischief by having them prank each other, supplemented with a quick visit round to the Browns. (Who – apparently had some items removed from their house, but damned if I could spot WHAT, exactly. . .) The idea was for Jennifer to clog their toilet, but I didn’t see the option – maybe she’s not high enough in Mischief skill? Well, she probably shouldn’t be going after their friends anyway. . . I also sent Marty and Jennifer to the Starlight Accolades that evening – as usual, the ceremony was kinda buggy due to nobody being able sit in one place for five seconds (and fans fighting the bouncer at the door XD), but Marty did win an Accolade for Best Song! A nice shiny silver one, to go with his recording room. :p So that was satisfying. :) Next play session is Spookfest, and after that the family vacation to Mt. Komorebi!
3. Write some more on "Londerland Bloodlines": Check! Things have kicked off in the tutorial with the Sabbat raid – Alice and Jack have taken refuge inside the nearby garage, and Alice has picked up her lock pick (which I made into a sort of Swiss Army knife-style lock pick set with a pick AND a torsion wrench, since you need both to properly pick a lock). I’ve left them on the verge of seeing the Sheriff absolutely wreck a few guys with his Disciplines – which Alice, naturally, is going to have a few questions about. Namely, “Can I do that?” XD Sorry, honey, but you don’t get that particular bit of magic. At least I know you’ll be quite satisfied with the invisibility!
4. Get in a workout: Check! Got back on the bike today, and back with Jon’s Fallout 4 Survival Playthrough! Caught back up with Grills immediately post-killing Erickson and stripping his corpse – for no reason, as it turned out, as not only was all the stuff STILL marked as owned, Grills didn’t even WANT any of it. And then he found the bin where Erickson kept all of his dog toys and whatnot and got sad, because he always has a soft spot for dogs. Darn it, Jon!
ANYWAY, with that bit of murder over with, Grills swam over to Echo Lake Lumber to see how the settlers there were getting on. Three people there, making their way in the world – Grills promptly conscripted one to set up a supply line between the mill and Dalton Farm, then built the others a nice little barn home after stripping the place, complete with good beds, a sitting area, a water pump, and a heavy machine gun turret. No food, mind you, because Grills had none on him, but that’s part of the purpose of the supply line, so. . .
With that sorted, Grills started toward the Nucleus – but then remembered, oh yeah, there’s a Behemoth locked up in the Vim! Pop Factory! So he swam back over there, found his way to Grun’s door, popped it open with his Advanced Hacker perk, aaaaand. . .
Grun was a level 50 Behemoth against a level 70 PC. Grills took him out with one shot from his Gauss Rifle. This is not the karma for Erickson’s death I was expecting from this fight, but you know what? Jon being super disappointed he didn’t get to show off an awesome big fight, I will take. He didn’t even get much good loot from it – just a bit of ammo. Frustrated, Grills burned the corpse and returned to the Nucleus to consider Division. Being a good little Child of Atom (and in possession of an excellent dress), he was able to find Tektus and convince him that he was Atom’s messenger, there to let them know that Division was their way forward. A jubilant Tektus went out to preach to his people, leaving Grills to use the launch key – which Jon didn’t REALLY want to do, considering he himself didn’t want to be exploded. Fortunately there is a grace period before the one good missile launches, and Grills was able to get out of there and watch the explosion from outside. Children of Atom dealt with, he received the “Far Harbor Survivalist” perk – +5 to all resistances! Which, given Grills’s already high resistances thanks to his gear and his level, isn’t that great. Mmm. At least it’s a little more radiation resistance too?
Well, with that over with, Grills went back to Far Harbor, where Allen was telling everyone the good news about the Nucleus’s destruction. He complimented Grills on his good work, paid him a whopping 1,600 caps, and said he would always be considered a friend by the harbormen. Which I guess is sweet? Grills seemed happy, anyway. . . Anyway, with the land cleansed, Grills took a moment to swim over to Longfellow’s and reorder his kit, leaving behind most of the crappy legendaries he’d picked up, though taking most of the armor just for display purposes. He also found some spare fusion cores for his Power Armor, so he happily hopped back into that for his trip home. I left just as he was getting on the boat to return to Boston.
And the Nakanos.
Yeah, THAT’S going to be an awkward conversation. I’d leave out the fact that you were the one to blow the head off their daughter, Grills!
Additionally:
-->Made myself a nice parfait this morning -- used jelly instead of cut up fruit for some of it, since we have strawberry and raspberry jam in the house. I prefer actual fruit most of the time, but it was decent enough. And used up the last of our old yogurt too.
-->Finally answered my friend’s FF.net PM! It’s tough sometimes to find the time when they’re on the longer side, but I put my mind to it before lunch and got it done. *nods*
-->And I'm currently in the middle of juggling some tumblr RP and messages with some DW comments that need answering. Let's set up tomorrow's to-do list and get back to that --
1. Watch the "3 Ways To Play," the Late Night Double Feature Linkara released earlier, the latest Call Me Kevin video, and Jon's latest FO4 YOLO episode
2. Play some Alice: Madness Returns and at least finish off Tundraful
3. Write something (it's a free day!)
4. Get in a workout
Again, should be doable for a Sunday. Night all!
1. Catch up on the OXBox/OXtra in my Watch Later and stay current on Subscriptions: 99% Check – I managed to watch all the videos in my Subs, and MOST of the OXBox and OXtra – but a new video ended up replacing my planned watch of the Hitman 3 “3 Ways To Play” video that came out recently. That’ll have to be pushed back until tomorrow. But in the meantime –
A) Started with a new Plumbella video – her jaw’s on the mend, and she decided to give us a life update over a speed-build of her building a houseboat in Sulani (she found something in the buy-debug objects that could hide a stilt foundation, so she was able to even make it look like it was floating). She’s deleted Twitter for her own mental health, working on a new save file that’s supposed to be all Sims 2 builds, and complaining that it’s hard for her to remember she has food in the house because a closed door to her brain means “there’s nothing there” even when it's on the fridge. XD Poor Jesse. . . But she seems to be doing okay, which is good – and the houseboat came out well! She managed to squash a bunch of stuff in there for Sims to actually live with, and even put a front porch with a ship’s wheel on it. :) Yay fun builds!
B) Then it was over to the Subs with James Turner playing more Bust the Dust and revealing something very unfortunate – game broke. Game VERY broke. Specifically –
I. The dust levels build up WAY too fast – in two hours, your home comes from sparkling clean to dusty. If you’re trying to complete the aspiration all about staying in a pristine home and you have more than one level to the house? You’re going to spend all of your time using the vacuums.
II. Dust bunnies spawn too quickly AND are too good at finding valuables. As in “can give you 800 simoleons straight up, and find Omisican treasures from Jungle Adventures randomly.” James got one frog and two calendar plates from that pack, meaning his Sim had like $30,000 from just a couple of days on the lot.
James was openly disappointed as he liked the concept, but the execution is EXTREMELY flawed. The only way to truly “bust the dust” is to – well, turn off dust, and then what’s the point of buying the Kit? Makes me glad that I wasn’t planning on getting the cash grabs anyway. . .
C) Next up in Call Me Kevin land – more Irish TV! An Irish dating show, to be precise – with the format being a guy goes out in front of a large panel of ladies with lighted podiums and buttons. They press the button, the podium goes pink, and they officially reject the guy. The guy is also allowed to eliminate a few girls from contention via pressing their button. Eventually, he’s paired up with whoever’s left, they go on a date, and the next episode shows how it went. Kevin considered the whole thing rather cringe, but got rather invested in the last couple on the show – a guy who did magic tricks and had a phobia of crisps getting together with a girl who was allergic to crisps – and was very disappointed when a Wikipedia trawl revealed they didn’t ultimately get together. XD It was very goofy and stupid, as all reality TV Shows should be. :p
D) This evening I finally got around to getting to the OXBox and OXtra list videos! In order –
I. “7 Most WTF Sports Games That Improve on Actual Sports” – hey, who remembers QWOP? You know, the predecessor to all those “the control scheme is garbage and that makes it fun” games? Where you had to control a 100-meters-dash runner’s thighs and calves separately? Ahh, memories. . . We also had Behold the Kickmen, a game about soccer made by someone who has no interest in soccer and just wanted to do a fun parody game; Regular Human Basketball, a game about basketball played by aliens piloting giant mechs and – I mean regular humans; and Japan World Cup, a game about horse racing except if a normal horse came anywhere near this track it would be shot immediately and then trampled by the elephant. All amazing things that should be real sports.
II. “7 Times We Tried To Do The Right Thing but the Game Wouldn’t Let Us” – aka, the game is going to railroad you into doing something you personally don’t feel comfortable with. Examples ranged from the silly – Portal and the burning of the Companion Cube – to the heartfelt – Demon Souls Remastered and HAVING to kill Maiden Astraea and her bodyguard when you enter their boss room, despite her being someone trying to heal the sick and wounded – to the “this would be horrifying if it wasn’t for the hilarious ragdolling” – The Last of Us and Joel either killing the surgeon about to operate on Ellie, or getting killed by the guards if he waits too long and thus doing the hilarious ragdolling. Never fun to be forced down a certain path, but the game will do what the game will do. (And it’s probably worth it to see Joel’s ragdoll.)
III. “7 Times Games Mocked You for Cheating” – though, honestly, the list contains a mix of mockery and outright painful punishments. Like, having cheese thrown at you for finding a safe corner to stand in to avoid lions in a Roman Colosseum in Crash Bandicoot: The N. Sane Trilogy is one thing. Getting a completely worthless weapon after skipping to the end of a treasure hunt in Fable, or a chip set for your future suit that actively hampers your ability to use your flashlight and move quickly in vents after skipping to the end of a treasure hunt in Prey is quite another! . . .though exploding a gambler whose game you’ve been cheesing with save scumming after the twentieth win in a row in Jade Empire is kinda funny.
E) And then, after a brief break to answer a thread, it was time for GrayStillPlays and – Solar Smash! Yes, it appears Gray is a bit tired of torturing himself and is back to torturing innocent planets with giant space-lasers and the like. :D And since the game received a nice big update, there were whole NEW ways to torture the innocent planets! Lasers that cut the earth in half! Drills that core out the planet! A mini-laser that acts like a mini-gun! A lightning storm worthy of Thor! SOME GIANT SPACE ASSHOLE JUST STRAIGHT UP PUNCHING THE PLANET! Ooooh yes, I’d missed this Gray. Seeing him torture himself is hilarious, but sometimes you want to go back to the days where HE was the cruel and jealous god. XD
2. Play either Sims 4 or Alice: Madness Returns (dependent on whether or not I can find out if the latest patch for the former is compatible with MC Command Center): Check! A late-night Ecosia search let me learn that MC Command Center was indeed compatible with the latest patch, so I was able to fire up Sims 4 and actually play another round with the McFlys! It was Prank Day today – I managed to fulfill everyone’s need to cause mischief by having them prank each other, supplemented with a quick visit round to the Browns. (Who – apparently had some items removed from their house, but damned if I could spot WHAT, exactly. . .) The idea was for Jennifer to clog their toilet, but I didn’t see the option – maybe she’s not high enough in Mischief skill? Well, she probably shouldn’t be going after their friends anyway. . . I also sent Marty and Jennifer to the Starlight Accolades that evening – as usual, the ceremony was kinda buggy due to nobody being able sit in one place for five seconds (and fans fighting the bouncer at the door XD), but Marty did win an Accolade for Best Song! A nice shiny silver one, to go with his recording room. :p So that was satisfying. :) Next play session is Spookfest, and after that the family vacation to Mt. Komorebi!
3. Write some more on "Londerland Bloodlines": Check! Things have kicked off in the tutorial with the Sabbat raid – Alice and Jack have taken refuge inside the nearby garage, and Alice has picked up her lock pick (which I made into a sort of Swiss Army knife-style lock pick set with a pick AND a torsion wrench, since you need both to properly pick a lock). I’ve left them on the verge of seeing the Sheriff absolutely wreck a few guys with his Disciplines – which Alice, naturally, is going to have a few questions about. Namely, “Can I do that?” XD Sorry, honey, but you don’t get that particular bit of magic. At least I know you’ll be quite satisfied with the invisibility!
4. Get in a workout: Check! Got back on the bike today, and back with Jon’s Fallout 4 Survival Playthrough! Caught back up with Grills immediately post-killing Erickson and stripping his corpse – for no reason, as it turned out, as not only was all the stuff STILL marked as owned, Grills didn’t even WANT any of it. And then he found the bin where Erickson kept all of his dog toys and whatnot and got sad, because he always has a soft spot for dogs. Darn it, Jon!
ANYWAY, with that bit of murder over with, Grills swam over to Echo Lake Lumber to see how the settlers there were getting on. Three people there, making their way in the world – Grills promptly conscripted one to set up a supply line between the mill and Dalton Farm, then built the others a nice little barn home after stripping the place, complete with good beds, a sitting area, a water pump, and a heavy machine gun turret. No food, mind you, because Grills had none on him, but that’s part of the purpose of the supply line, so. . .
With that sorted, Grills started toward the Nucleus – but then remembered, oh yeah, there’s a Behemoth locked up in the Vim! Pop Factory! So he swam back over there, found his way to Grun’s door, popped it open with his Advanced Hacker perk, aaaaand. . .
Grun was a level 50 Behemoth against a level 70 PC. Grills took him out with one shot from his Gauss Rifle. This is not the karma for Erickson’s death I was expecting from this fight, but you know what? Jon being super disappointed he didn’t get to show off an awesome big fight, I will take. He didn’t even get much good loot from it – just a bit of ammo. Frustrated, Grills burned the corpse and returned to the Nucleus to consider Division. Being a good little Child of Atom (and in possession of an excellent dress), he was able to find Tektus and convince him that he was Atom’s messenger, there to let them know that Division was their way forward. A jubilant Tektus went out to preach to his people, leaving Grills to use the launch key – which Jon didn’t REALLY want to do, considering he himself didn’t want to be exploded. Fortunately there is a grace period before the one good missile launches, and Grills was able to get out of there and watch the explosion from outside. Children of Atom dealt with, he received the “Far Harbor Survivalist” perk – +5 to all resistances! Which, given Grills’s already high resistances thanks to his gear and his level, isn’t that great. Mmm. At least it’s a little more radiation resistance too?
Well, with that over with, Grills went back to Far Harbor, where Allen was telling everyone the good news about the Nucleus’s destruction. He complimented Grills on his good work, paid him a whopping 1,600 caps, and said he would always be considered a friend by the harbormen. Which I guess is sweet? Grills seemed happy, anyway. . . Anyway, with the land cleansed, Grills took a moment to swim over to Longfellow’s and reorder his kit, leaving behind most of the crappy legendaries he’d picked up, though taking most of the armor just for display purposes. He also found some spare fusion cores for his Power Armor, so he happily hopped back into that for his trip home. I left just as he was getting on the boat to return to Boston.
And the Nakanos.
Yeah, THAT’S going to be an awkward conversation. I’d leave out the fact that you were the one to blow the head off their daughter, Grills!
Additionally:
-->Made myself a nice parfait this morning -- used jelly instead of cut up fruit for some of it, since we have strawberry and raspberry jam in the house. I prefer actual fruit most of the time, but it was decent enough. And used up the last of our old yogurt too.
-->Finally answered my friend’s FF.net PM! It’s tough sometimes to find the time when they’re on the longer side, but I put my mind to it before lunch and got it done. *nods*
-->And I'm currently in the middle of juggling some tumblr RP and messages with some DW comments that need answering. Let's set up tomorrow's to-do list and get back to that --
1. Watch the "3 Ways To Play," the Late Night Double Feature Linkara released earlier, the latest Call Me Kevin video, and Jon's latest FO4 YOLO episode
2. Play some Alice: Madness Returns and at least finish off Tundraful
3. Write something (it's a free day!)
4. Get in a workout
Again, should be doable for a Sunday. Night all!
