Pretty Decent Friday
Sep. 3rd, 2021 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickGood fall-like temperature, not too stressful a day at work, got my to-do list nicely sorted. . .yeah, I gotta say, this was a good last-half-day Friday. I'm glad I got to enjoy it. :) So without further ado --
Work – Happily, last day before the long weekend was pretty quiet – did the GL, did some obituaries, did a few reversals, got out right on time, yay. :) Always happy to just get it done and leave it behind me!
Beanbags – Yup, got these in because it was a nice, early-autumnal day! And since it was a short day for me, we got in five rounds. I got 3-2-W-2-3; Dad 2-3-2-W-2, and Mom W-W-3-3-W – you can tell who was having the best day. Hell, in the first and last games, Mom managed to beat Dad by a mere point thanks to a good throw. XD But hey, everybody won at least once, so I can’t complain. :)
To-Do List –
1. Play some more Bloodlines and finish Grout’s mansion: Check! I did end up doing the creepy maze, just because I like the creepy maze. XD Though I also did some backtracking through the “normal” level so I could make sure that I got all the recordings and whatnot. Discovered that the one time that “Blood Shield” is handy is when you’re flinging yourself through a beam of magical sunlight to pull a lever and open a door to the creepy mannequin house! Also, two orderlies suddenly showed up after that happened and attacked me, which – feels new? I don’t recall that from my last playthrough, anyway. . . Also, Grout’s wife didn’t actually rotate as she’s meant to when I opened up the door to Grout’s bedroom and his remains, but I dunno, maybe that’s just the game being jank.
Anyway – made it through the rest of Grout’s mansion, making VERY good use of “Blood Theft” all the while. Seriously, that thing is better than “Vision of Death,” if only because it costs nothing to use – you always get the blood back! Though the cooldown did get a bit worrying when trying to escape the flaming ghouls. . . Crystal still made it through, though, and reported to LaCroix like a good girl, telling him about Nines (though admitting things were very weird) and getting paid with a little persuasion. Once that was over with, I decided to try something and ran straight to the Last Round to see if there was any way to talk to Nines before the Blood Hunt was called.
Nope! Seems like the minute you get back from Grout and report to LaCroix, Nines goes into hiding. Interesting. (Note to self – try visiting Last Round BEFORE talking to LaCroix if and when you do an Anarch character and see what happens.) I had Crystal tell Skelter she only said she SAW Nines, talk to Jack about the Camarilla and Blood Hunts, drop by Strauss’s to see if he had any new dialogue options (nope), then swing by Confession to get her money from Venus and drink from the blood doll there (as I sunk a bit more experience into her Appearance – it amuses me to make her the seductive sort). Then I had her go back down to Santa Monica to check e-mails and check in with Heather – turns out there’s an option to get her to keep her money and stay in school when she offers you her loan check and says she’s gonna drop out! Just explain that you have to remain a secret and you’re good. :) Ended the session by swinging by Mercurio’s and asking him about weapons (maybe this’ll guarantee he has some new stock when I see him next?) and buying some ammo. Next up, the museum!
2. Edit some more on "Londerland Bloodlines": Check – Alice has found the key to the burned room, the room itself, and successfully dropped into the hotel bar without any issue, claiming the next paper along the way. Now she just has to figure out how to get out of the room, as the door’s boarded up from the outside. XD Also, managed to throw in a quick nod to the fact that the bottles in that room all have ridiculous names like “Don’t Sue” by having Hatter sneer disdainfully at some “Copyright” beer. XD Look, I had to! It’s one of my favorite little new details from Crystal’s run!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Again, a very easy check as there were only two videos (James is apparently busy with other stuff, which is why his update schedule has slipped). Not that I didn’t have other things to keep me occupied, mind –
A) Started with the trailer for the Spa Day refresh (that was confirmed yesterday) – which had a song that I did not expect, given that it talks about working for your money as a “dancer” among other things. XD Mostly just Sims dancing, doing yoga, all that fun stuff, though they were VERY keen to show off that nails are now supported! Proud of your acrylics, Sims team? :p Ah well, as per the description of the video, we’re getting TWO new aspirations and a new trait, along with the ability to make money from teaching yoga and whatnot, so – can’t complain about this update! Especially since it’s free if you already own the pack. Drops next Tuesday, so we’ll have to brace for that!
B) Then, this evening, we had Call Me Kevin and Farmer’s Life, a game about being a drunk Russian farmer! No, seriously – the beginning of the game has your character, Kasmir, losing just about everything thanks to constantly selling his tools and animals for vodka, and then having his barn burn down in the middle of the night. You have to help him get back on his feet, rebuild the farm, and beat alcoholism!
. . .Kevin had him booze it up with random strangers to get the location of a bunker the very first day. Then started stealing tools and food from people’s stalls. And then got himself accidentally locked in the general store overnight, to the point that the game glitched out and the shopkeeper turned invisible, forcing him to reload lest he be trapped forever. Then he went hunting for deer in a field of landmines. Then he beat up a priest hopped up on liquid courage. Then, realizing things weren’t getting any better, he went for another prance in the landmine field. XD Somehow, the game interpreted this as surviving for five months. That feels like a VERY generous estimate. XD
C) After that was GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! We had a return of Gray’s ultimate bottle flip with all the things (he became Satan, God, himself +, and after many tries, finally found a way into the hardest area); a board with a super-easy win and a hidden secret area that was just to kill you in a very Among Us way (Gray spent SO LONG trying to jump the murder rockets, only to find nothing there); the pogo jump of what was SUPPOSED to be harpoony doom, but Gray somehow managed to rocket the guy to the end in one shot (GRAYSTILLPLAYS BITCH); the race to take Tom Hardy to school (which involved Tom falling off a lot and many, many deaths in this one couple’s living room); a fairly epic spike fall (Gray needed all the speed to get to the end); a very fast “human run” that just pulped you against the back wall via boosts (Gray somehow managed to get the bike down soon enough to register a win); an escape from those “dotted line” trap areas where his head was between two homing mines (Gray got it second go); and “holy hell someone actually put a ton of time and effort into animating this Spongebob level” (Spongebob not only looked like Spongebob, he walked back and forth correctly, and the other characters on the background looked like themselves – and their eyes even followed you around the board! Gray found it both very impressive and very creepy). As usual, very entertaining. :p
D) And finally, because it is Bloodlines Friday, I went ahead and listened to the Sabbat episode of Lore By Night. Apparently the Sabbat political situation isn’t dissimilar to the UK political situation of 2019. XD But yeah, some interesting information there about how the Sabbat are organized and their beliefs about freedom and whatnot – when I could HEAR it. The background music remains a problem in these early episodes – fortunately I saw a comment on this on the video, so I’m hopeful it gets better going forward.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check! Two ask replies and two reblogs for Valice Multiverse, not bad, not bad at all.
5. Get in a workout: Check – another thirty on the bike, and more of Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! Caught up with Miss Jon apologizing to Fahrenheit, Hancock’s right-hand woman, for the stronghold break in – Fahrenheit said it was fine, Miss Jon didn’t know what she was doing, and even handed over the Ashmaker minigun (sets people on fire) for doing the right thing. Past!Jon was quite pleased, and sent Miss Jon over to apologize to Hancock personally. Hancock admitted to some fears about becoming “the man” and figured it was time to roam the earth for a little while, which clued in Past!Jon that he could be a companion. Miss Jon said that if he felt like it, he could travel with her, and Hancock said that could be good – he just needed to make one of his grand speeches to let the people know. While Miss Jon was waiting on that, she had another affinity talk with MacCready, who gave her his history (confirming that yes, he is indeed the MacCready from Fallout 3, all grown up) and thanked her for letting him stick around with her, as he doesn’t like being alone. Past!Jon’s reaction was to be annoyed that he hadn’t gotten MacCready’s perk yet so he could dismiss him. XD
That and Hancock’s speech closed out Episode 22, and Episode 23 saw Miss Jon FINALLY enter the Memory Den to restart the main quest! Though not without some distractions – trying to talk to Irma (she doesn’t have much dialogue if you’re in the middle of the “get into Kellogg’s brain” quest), getting Nick a little annoyed with her for stealing (while MacCready liked it), and finding Kent Connolly and agreeing to get the Silver Shroud costume for him. :) But eventually she went downstairs to meet with Dr. Amari, and figure out how to get Kellogg’s brain implant working (Past!Jon said “I can do this, I’ve played enough Assassin’s Creed”). Left it off with Miss Jon walking through Kellogg’s memories (we’re up to him becoming the Institute’s mercenary, after seeing a bit of his childhood, his VERY brief time as a family man, and his regular mercenary work), with Past!Jon commenting that it’s very weird to do this in THIRD person when the dialogue suggests you’re supposed to be seeing it in FIRST person, and that the “tragic backstory” isn’t winning Kellogg any sympathy points from HIM – far as he’s concerned, Kellogg is responsible for the misfortunes of his life and he’s fine that he’s dead. It is good to see how the memory section actually WORKS, at least. I like that activating different impressions via the prompt pauses the main memory so you don’t miss anything. Very thoughtful of the developers!
*thumbs up* Not too shabby at all. And now I've got a three day weekend to do with what I will. Let's set up some to-dos for tomorrow, shall we?
1. Clean my room and do the big laundry pile
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs; watch Carl's "Spa Day Refresh Livestream" highlights video
3. Play Sims 4 and take Chell, Wheatley, and Geeker to GeekCon
4. Work some more on the Fallout 4-themed Sims Challenge
Given cleaning my room always takes a decent chunk of my day, and we're certain to play beanbags again tomorrow, I think I shall leave things there. We'll see if the Friday Night Writing Thing happens or not (friendo is playing Resident Evil 8 atm) -- think I'll play another round of SimsGuessr to entertain myself. :p Night all!
Work – Happily, last day before the long weekend was pretty quiet – did the GL, did some obituaries, did a few reversals, got out right on time, yay. :) Always happy to just get it done and leave it behind me!
Beanbags – Yup, got these in because it was a nice, early-autumnal day! And since it was a short day for me, we got in five rounds. I got 3-2-W-2-3; Dad 2-3-2-W-2, and Mom W-W-3-3-W – you can tell who was having the best day. Hell, in the first and last games, Mom managed to beat Dad by a mere point thanks to a good throw. XD But hey, everybody won at least once, so I can’t complain. :)
To-Do List –
1. Play some more Bloodlines and finish Grout’s mansion: Check! I did end up doing the creepy maze, just because I like the creepy maze. XD Though I also did some backtracking through the “normal” level so I could make sure that I got all the recordings and whatnot. Discovered that the one time that “Blood Shield” is handy is when you’re flinging yourself through a beam of magical sunlight to pull a lever and open a door to the creepy mannequin house! Also, two orderlies suddenly showed up after that happened and attacked me, which – feels new? I don’t recall that from my last playthrough, anyway. . . Also, Grout’s wife didn’t actually rotate as she’s meant to when I opened up the door to Grout’s bedroom and his remains, but I dunno, maybe that’s just the game being jank.
Anyway – made it through the rest of Grout’s mansion, making VERY good use of “Blood Theft” all the while. Seriously, that thing is better than “Vision of Death,” if only because it costs nothing to use – you always get the blood back! Though the cooldown did get a bit worrying when trying to escape the flaming ghouls. . . Crystal still made it through, though, and reported to LaCroix like a good girl, telling him about Nines (though admitting things were very weird) and getting paid with a little persuasion. Once that was over with, I decided to try something and ran straight to the Last Round to see if there was any way to talk to Nines before the Blood Hunt was called.
Nope! Seems like the minute you get back from Grout and report to LaCroix, Nines goes into hiding. Interesting. (Note to self – try visiting Last Round BEFORE talking to LaCroix if and when you do an Anarch character and see what happens.) I had Crystal tell Skelter she only said she SAW Nines, talk to Jack about the Camarilla and Blood Hunts, drop by Strauss’s to see if he had any new dialogue options (nope), then swing by Confession to get her money from Venus and drink from the blood doll there (as I sunk a bit more experience into her Appearance – it amuses me to make her the seductive sort). Then I had her go back down to Santa Monica to check e-mails and check in with Heather – turns out there’s an option to get her to keep her money and stay in school when she offers you her loan check and says she’s gonna drop out! Just explain that you have to remain a secret and you’re good. :) Ended the session by swinging by Mercurio’s and asking him about weapons (maybe this’ll guarantee he has some new stock when I see him next?) and buying some ammo. Next up, the museum!
2. Edit some more on "Londerland Bloodlines": Check – Alice has found the key to the burned room, the room itself, and successfully dropped into the hotel bar without any issue, claiming the next paper along the way. Now she just has to figure out how to get out of the room, as the door’s boarded up from the outside. XD Also, managed to throw in a quick nod to the fact that the bottles in that room all have ridiculous names like “Don’t Sue” by having Hatter sneer disdainfully at some “Copyright” beer. XD Look, I had to! It’s one of my favorite little new details from Crystal’s run!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Again, a very easy check as there were only two videos (James is apparently busy with other stuff, which is why his update schedule has slipped). Not that I didn’t have other things to keep me occupied, mind –
A) Started with the trailer for the Spa Day refresh (that was confirmed yesterday) – which had a song that I did not expect, given that it talks about working for your money as a “dancer” among other things. XD Mostly just Sims dancing, doing yoga, all that fun stuff, though they were VERY keen to show off that nails are now supported! Proud of your acrylics, Sims team? :p Ah well, as per the description of the video, we’re getting TWO new aspirations and a new trait, along with the ability to make money from teaching yoga and whatnot, so – can’t complain about this update! Especially since it’s free if you already own the pack. Drops next Tuesday, so we’ll have to brace for that!
B) Then, this evening, we had Call Me Kevin and Farmer’s Life, a game about being a drunk Russian farmer! No, seriously – the beginning of the game has your character, Kasmir, losing just about everything thanks to constantly selling his tools and animals for vodka, and then having his barn burn down in the middle of the night. You have to help him get back on his feet, rebuild the farm, and beat alcoholism!
. . .Kevin had him booze it up with random strangers to get the location of a bunker the very first day. Then started stealing tools and food from people’s stalls. And then got himself accidentally locked in the general store overnight, to the point that the game glitched out and the shopkeeper turned invisible, forcing him to reload lest he be trapped forever. Then he went hunting for deer in a field of landmines. Then he beat up a priest hopped up on liquid courage. Then, realizing things weren’t getting any better, he went for another prance in the landmine field. XD Somehow, the game interpreted this as surviving for five months. That feels like a VERY generous estimate. XD
C) After that was GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! We had a return of Gray’s ultimate bottle flip with all the things (he became Satan, God, himself +, and after many tries, finally found a way into the hardest area); a board with a super-easy win and a hidden secret area that was just to kill you in a very Among Us way (Gray spent SO LONG trying to jump the murder rockets, only to find nothing there); the pogo jump of what was SUPPOSED to be harpoony doom, but Gray somehow managed to rocket the guy to the end in one shot (GRAYSTILLPLAYS BITCH); the race to take Tom Hardy to school (which involved Tom falling off a lot and many, many deaths in this one couple’s living room); a fairly epic spike fall (Gray needed all the speed to get to the end); a very fast “human run” that just pulped you against the back wall via boosts (Gray somehow managed to get the bike down soon enough to register a win); an escape from those “dotted line” trap areas where his head was between two homing mines (Gray got it second go); and “holy hell someone actually put a ton of time and effort into animating this Spongebob level” (Spongebob not only looked like Spongebob, he walked back and forth correctly, and the other characters on the background looked like themselves – and their eyes even followed you around the board! Gray found it both very impressive and very creepy). As usual, very entertaining. :p
D) And finally, because it is Bloodlines Friday, I went ahead and listened to the Sabbat episode of Lore By Night. Apparently the Sabbat political situation isn’t dissimilar to the UK political situation of 2019. XD But yeah, some interesting information there about how the Sabbat are organized and their beliefs about freedom and whatnot – when I could HEAR it. The background music remains a problem in these early episodes – fortunately I saw a comment on this on the video, so I’m hopeful it gets better going forward.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check! Two ask replies and two reblogs for Valice Multiverse, not bad, not bad at all.
5. Get in a workout: Check – another thirty on the bike, and more of Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! Caught up with Miss Jon apologizing to Fahrenheit, Hancock’s right-hand woman, for the stronghold break in – Fahrenheit said it was fine, Miss Jon didn’t know what she was doing, and even handed over the Ashmaker minigun (sets people on fire) for doing the right thing. Past!Jon was quite pleased, and sent Miss Jon over to apologize to Hancock personally. Hancock admitted to some fears about becoming “the man” and figured it was time to roam the earth for a little while, which clued in Past!Jon that he could be a companion. Miss Jon said that if he felt like it, he could travel with her, and Hancock said that could be good – he just needed to make one of his grand speeches to let the people know. While Miss Jon was waiting on that, she had another affinity talk with MacCready, who gave her his history (confirming that yes, he is indeed the MacCready from Fallout 3, all grown up) and thanked her for letting him stick around with her, as he doesn’t like being alone. Past!Jon’s reaction was to be annoyed that he hadn’t gotten MacCready’s perk yet so he could dismiss him. XD
That and Hancock’s speech closed out Episode 22, and Episode 23 saw Miss Jon FINALLY enter the Memory Den to restart the main quest! Though not without some distractions – trying to talk to Irma (she doesn’t have much dialogue if you’re in the middle of the “get into Kellogg’s brain” quest), getting Nick a little annoyed with her for stealing (while MacCready liked it), and finding Kent Connolly and agreeing to get the Silver Shroud costume for him. :) But eventually she went downstairs to meet with Dr. Amari, and figure out how to get Kellogg’s brain implant working (Past!Jon said “I can do this, I’ve played enough Assassin’s Creed”). Left it off with Miss Jon walking through Kellogg’s memories (we’re up to him becoming the Institute’s mercenary, after seeing a bit of his childhood, his VERY brief time as a family man, and his regular mercenary work), with Past!Jon commenting that it’s very weird to do this in THIRD person when the dialogue suggests you’re supposed to be seeing it in FIRST person, and that the “tragic backstory” isn’t winning Kellogg any sympathy points from HIM – far as he’s concerned, Kellogg is responsible for the misfortunes of his life and he’s fine that he’s dead. It is good to see how the memory section actually WORKS, at least. I like that activating different impressions via the prompt pauses the main memory so you don’t miss anything. Very thoughtful of the developers!
*thumbs up* Not too shabby at all. And now I've got a three day weekend to do with what I will. Let's set up some to-dos for tomorrow, shall we?
1. Clean my room and do the big laundry pile
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs; watch Carl's "Spa Day Refresh Livestream" highlights video
3. Play Sims 4 and take Chell, Wheatley, and Geeker to GeekCon
4. Work some more on the Fallout 4-themed Sims Challenge
Given cleaning my room always takes a decent chunk of my day, and we're certain to play beanbags again tomorrow, I think I shall leave things there. We'll see if the Friday Night Writing Thing happens or not (friendo is playing Resident Evil 8 atm) -- think I'll play another round of SimsGuessr to entertain myself. :p Night all!
