Better Saturday
Oct. 16th, 2021 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickNice, fairly summery weather, delicious calzones for lunch, and plenty of time to work on my to-do list:
1. Clean my room: Check – and done really quickly too! :D Started about 10:50 AM, managed to get the whole thing done by 1 PM, not too long before lunch! :D Fortunately it wasn’t too dusty in here this week, and I didn’t have any of the laundry to worry about. Glad to have that over with for another couple of weeks!
2. Watch the stuff in my Watch Later and keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – granted, there is still one thing in my Watch Later, but I literally added that today, so I’m just counting the stuff that was in there when I made the list. :p But I did get through all the stuff I meant to get through –
A) Started with a pair of Plumbella videos:
I. “i tried (and failed) to fix an EA build by only changing swatches” – Plumbella pops into one of the expensive houses in Oasis Springs (the one across from the Landgraabs) and tries to make it better by only changing the swatches of everything – nothing new added, nothing taken out, just different colors. It proved to be a very tedious process, if only because she picked a big house with a decent amount of clutter and FIFTY MILLION WINDOWS (okay, about 53, as per Declan, which – STILL), and the end result – she wasn’t sure if it was actually better or not. She changed a lot of the bolder colors to more neutrals, at least downstairs, and did her best to personalize the bedrooms, but ran into the issue of lots of rooms using the same items, thus limiting what she could do. She had a few fun ideas, though, like turning the very topmost floor into a goth bedroom with an extremely pink bathroom. XD All in all, I think we’ve learned that these builds CANNOT be saved just by changing the colors. But it at least helps.
II. “The Sims 4: Get to Work has main character energy” – Plumbella decides, “you know what, I’ve never done any proper ‘LP’ stuff for most of the Sims 4 packs, let’s change that” and dives into Get To Work to check it out! She was actually rather impressed by some of the stuff in Create-A-Sim – namely some very bold make-up looks that she feels have aged better than they ought to have. After giving her new self-Sim some nice pink sparkles and a house made out of pre-built rooms in the middle of Magnolia Promenade (which she said she usually uses as a sort of catch-all ‘downtown,’ which – I should do that more often), she went on a short shopping spree at the local shops, then got herself a job in the Detective career! Played the first couple of days of that, going to crime scenes (and noticing something on an arson job that I never did – a book of matches on the floor!), issuing citations to Sims daring to fight her, flirting with local criminal Raul because he looked like Sirius Black, and getting super-frustrated when trying to track down a suspect via APB because she could not for the life of her find the notebook (having forgotten that it’s been separated out of the cell phone). She resorted to trying to arrest Mortimer Goth, who told her off. XD Despite one terrible day, she did end the episode on a promotion to Officer, so good for her. We’ll see if this trend continues with more old Sims 4 packs!
B) Then it was onto the OXBox list of the week – “7 Insultingly Obvious Product Placements That Nearly Ruined the Game!” From Jake From State Farm making an unwanted cameo to chat with your adoring character in NBA2K22 (and allowing you to dress up in one of their outfits, which admittedly looks hilarious on Andy’s character), to Verizon Wireless shilling their phones and their GPS capabilities in Alan Wake: The Signal (no word if that’s in the remake), to the H&M Fashion Stuff pack for Sims 2 (particularly egregious because that one you had to buy yourself), these were not subtle and not welcome ads! I threw in Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats (Sims 3) and Journey to Batuu (Sims 4) in the comments if they ever want to make a commenters’ edition – hey, it’s more product placement you yourself buy, and the latter one is a GAME pack – one which is only not universally loathed because James Turner kinda likes it. XD
C) Then, after supper, it was time for Call Me Kevin and The Outer Worlds – as a TOTAL MASS MURDERER. Yes, rather than being peaceful and nice, Kevin went on a killing spree, inspired by a comment he saw in an interview stating that the game allows you to kill any NPC and not have quests break. So he decided to kill ALL of them! The starting area wasn’t too difficult – took out the people in buildings first (starting with the Constable) before moving onto the guards and anonymous residents – but the next area had better-armed guards, and more people in general. Kevin made it work for him, though, sending “Ugly man thing” to find a lady’s missing son (and then kill him, claiming it was self-defense), then going to SOLVE a murder (by killing the gang that murdered the guy after getting a confession through direct accusation). His attempts at more murder didn’t go quite so well, though, eventually getting the attention of a guard with a shiny sword who hurt Ugly man thing quite a lot and made him flee to the ruins and a cult out there. Where he killed a few members to make sure that there was enough space for him to join! XD Ah, random death and dismemberment – how we have missed you on this channel.
D) And then it was time for GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! We started with a Halloween-themed bottle flip (complete with a spooky shoutout atop a pumpkin, which was Gray’s goal for the day – he made it), and then moved onto such things as an extreme rope swing (where Nixon had to throw his first rope into the freeze zone to make sure he could swing to the conveyor belt and progress to the end – took a couple of tries, but he got there), a pogo course of doom (climb the incredibly steep mountain via invisible platforms, climb the numerous black balls, don’t go flying down into the hole of harpoons and crossbows, bounce for ages until you reach the ellipses, then fling yourself to the finish line and win by the literal skin of your teeth), a multi-level everything run (which STARTS YOU immediately on the jets, then moves to tables, bottles, and TVs – Gray spent most of this one crying), a “flutterkick” board (where Gray had to fly on his bike to make it to the end – three times, no less! “Expert” was once again by the skin of his teeth – or maybe the rubber of his front tire), a very unfair pogo hop board (full of harpoons, crossbows, flailing jets, and various other unpleasantry – fortunately the creator also provided two hobos for Gray to use as a shield to eventually make it past), a ride on Reginald (taking down all in his path to get to Targot and pick up some Bud Lite), and another Squid Game, this time with Hobo In Wheelchair (flying over the shapes, carefully navigating the glass tightrope, and flinging himself over the marbles before rocketing to victory with all the coins). My favorite, though, was an impossible “fall through wheels of axes” board that was apparently so impossible the board creator said they’d pay anyone who managed to complete it $500 – not only did Gray complete it FIRST TRY by finding the exact right place to fall so he’d still be alive to hit the finish line, he put in his comment for the creator to give the $500 to their local animal shelter. :) He’s such a goofball monster in his videos sometimes (and trust me, I love it), it’s nice to be reminded he has a sweet side.
3. Free Writing Day – work on either my idea for the "all lot challenges challenge" or more Hypnosnippet stuff: Check – went for the Sims 4 challenge, which I have decided to entitle “The Worst Lot In The World Challenge!” I’ve gotten all the basics down – premise, Sim creation, lot set-up – and now I’m just coming up with the challenges you have to complete to remove the various lot traits and challenges. I’m doing this as more of a “Super Sim Lite,” with the Sim having to complete specific goals and aspirations to remove stuff, as opposed to James’s method, which is randomly removing challenges whenever Semaj gets promoted. Though I AM planning on having a “James’s Rules” section, based on what’s been happening during his own LP. . .
4. Decide between playing Sims 4, playing Bloodlines, or doing prep work for trying Fallout 4 again: Check – ultimately went for Sims 4 and worked some more on my house build, adding some more decorations to the little office nook and the main “hallway,” and doing more with the outdoor area, mainly the patio (adding a big grilling station and whatnot). I feel like it’s coming along really well! :) It’s nice to have this to come back to sometimes when I just want to chill out and decorate.
And, for what it’s worth, I DID have another look at my potential mod list for Fallout 4, and clean out a few more mods I’m not planning on keeping once I try again. I’m just worried about “Appletree Bakery,” because it’s something I do really want for all the cool food options, but it’s looking like it’s a tad buggy, and LeahTheUnknown hasn’t been by in a bit to update it. . .hmmm. . .
5. OPTIONAL – Get in a workout: No check – to be fair, I wasn’t really expecting one. I don’t generally work out on cleaning days, if only because going around cleaning is enough of a workout!
Additionally:
-->Played early beanbags today (right after lunch), as it rapidly turned very cloudy and gloomy as the day went on (and then got sunny again -- and now it's raining off and on, and who knows what this weather is) – and despite my hopes that I’d do better with five rounds to work with, I only improved to getting second occasionally. :( *sigh* Got 2-3-2-3-3 in the end, with Dad getting W-2-3-W-2, and Mom making champ with 3-W-W-2-W. I mean, good for her, but it’s frustrating to suddenly be this bad.
Yeah, the frustration was the one bad thing about this day -- I've been getting annoyed easily, and I'm starting to suspect PMS, meaning my period may be coming a bit early. I shall have to monitor. (Though I wouldn't say no to not having to deal with it on Halloween. . .) Hopefully it's not too bad when it comes!
At any rate, I'm still working on that Sims challenge, plus having conversations and catching up on tumblr and whatnot, so let's set up tomorrow's to-dos and work from there:
1. Write some more on "Learn to Love Again" OR start doing a final skim of Chapter One of "Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica's Deluded Depths" in preparation for that being posted on Thursday
2. Watch the latest AT4W, keep up on YouTube Subs, and watch Jon's latest F04 YOLO episode
3. Play Bloodlines and get over to Chinatown OR do some prep for Fallout 4 (like a reinstall)
4. Get in a workout
5. Work on tumblr queues
You know, the usual for Sundays. :p With some options, depending on how I'm feeling about things. (And I may be rethinking the title for the Santa Monica section, because I'm starting to wonder if Hollywood fits the Deluded Depths more -- Santa Monica has a beach, but Hollywood fits with Carpenter's show business theme. . .)
Anyway, time to answer more stuff -- night!
1. Clean my room: Check – and done really quickly too! :D Started about 10:50 AM, managed to get the whole thing done by 1 PM, not too long before lunch! :D Fortunately it wasn’t too dusty in here this week, and I didn’t have any of the laundry to worry about. Glad to have that over with for another couple of weeks!
2. Watch the stuff in my Watch Later and keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – granted, there is still one thing in my Watch Later, but I literally added that today, so I’m just counting the stuff that was in there when I made the list. :p But I did get through all the stuff I meant to get through –
A) Started with a pair of Plumbella videos:
I. “i tried (and failed) to fix an EA build by only changing swatches” – Plumbella pops into one of the expensive houses in Oasis Springs (the one across from the Landgraabs) and tries to make it better by only changing the swatches of everything – nothing new added, nothing taken out, just different colors. It proved to be a very tedious process, if only because she picked a big house with a decent amount of clutter and FIFTY MILLION WINDOWS (okay, about 53, as per Declan, which – STILL), and the end result – she wasn’t sure if it was actually better or not. She changed a lot of the bolder colors to more neutrals, at least downstairs, and did her best to personalize the bedrooms, but ran into the issue of lots of rooms using the same items, thus limiting what she could do. She had a few fun ideas, though, like turning the very topmost floor into a goth bedroom with an extremely pink bathroom. XD All in all, I think we’ve learned that these builds CANNOT be saved just by changing the colors. But it at least helps.
II. “The Sims 4: Get to Work has main character energy” – Plumbella decides, “you know what, I’ve never done any proper ‘LP’ stuff for most of the Sims 4 packs, let’s change that” and dives into Get To Work to check it out! She was actually rather impressed by some of the stuff in Create-A-Sim – namely some very bold make-up looks that she feels have aged better than they ought to have. After giving her new self-Sim some nice pink sparkles and a house made out of pre-built rooms in the middle of Magnolia Promenade (which she said she usually uses as a sort of catch-all ‘downtown,’ which – I should do that more often), she went on a short shopping spree at the local shops, then got herself a job in the Detective career! Played the first couple of days of that, going to crime scenes (and noticing something on an arson job that I never did – a book of matches on the floor!), issuing citations to Sims daring to fight her, flirting with local criminal Raul because he looked like Sirius Black, and getting super-frustrated when trying to track down a suspect via APB because she could not for the life of her find the notebook (having forgotten that it’s been separated out of the cell phone). She resorted to trying to arrest Mortimer Goth, who told her off. XD Despite one terrible day, she did end the episode on a promotion to Officer, so good for her. We’ll see if this trend continues with more old Sims 4 packs!
B) Then it was onto the OXBox list of the week – “7 Insultingly Obvious Product Placements That Nearly Ruined the Game!” From Jake From State Farm making an unwanted cameo to chat with your adoring character in NBA2K22 (and allowing you to dress up in one of their outfits, which admittedly looks hilarious on Andy’s character), to Verizon Wireless shilling their phones and their GPS capabilities in Alan Wake: The Signal (no word if that’s in the remake), to the H&M Fashion Stuff pack for Sims 2 (particularly egregious because that one you had to buy yourself), these were not subtle and not welcome ads! I threw in Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats (Sims 3) and Journey to Batuu (Sims 4) in the comments if they ever want to make a commenters’ edition – hey, it’s more product placement you yourself buy, and the latter one is a GAME pack – one which is only not universally loathed because James Turner kinda likes it. XD
C) Then, after supper, it was time for Call Me Kevin and The Outer Worlds – as a TOTAL MASS MURDERER. Yes, rather than being peaceful and nice, Kevin went on a killing spree, inspired by a comment he saw in an interview stating that the game allows you to kill any NPC and not have quests break. So he decided to kill ALL of them! The starting area wasn’t too difficult – took out the people in buildings first (starting with the Constable) before moving onto the guards and anonymous residents – but the next area had better-armed guards, and more people in general. Kevin made it work for him, though, sending “Ugly man thing” to find a lady’s missing son (and then kill him, claiming it was self-defense), then going to SOLVE a murder (by killing the gang that murdered the guy after getting a confession through direct accusation). His attempts at more murder didn’t go quite so well, though, eventually getting the attention of a guard with a shiny sword who hurt Ugly man thing quite a lot and made him flee to the ruins and a cult out there. Where he killed a few members to make sure that there was enough space for him to join! XD Ah, random death and dismemberment – how we have missed you on this channel.
D) And then it was time for GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! We started with a Halloween-themed bottle flip (complete with a spooky shoutout atop a pumpkin, which was Gray’s goal for the day – he made it), and then moved onto such things as an extreme rope swing (where Nixon had to throw his first rope into the freeze zone to make sure he could swing to the conveyor belt and progress to the end – took a couple of tries, but he got there), a pogo course of doom (climb the incredibly steep mountain via invisible platforms, climb the numerous black balls, don’t go flying down into the hole of harpoons and crossbows, bounce for ages until you reach the ellipses, then fling yourself to the finish line and win by the literal skin of your teeth), a multi-level everything run (which STARTS YOU immediately on the jets, then moves to tables, bottles, and TVs – Gray spent most of this one crying), a “flutterkick” board (where Gray had to fly on his bike to make it to the end – three times, no less! “Expert” was once again by the skin of his teeth – or maybe the rubber of his front tire), a very unfair pogo hop board (full of harpoons, crossbows, flailing jets, and various other unpleasantry – fortunately the creator also provided two hobos for Gray to use as a shield to eventually make it past), a ride on Reginald (taking down all in his path to get to Targot and pick up some Bud Lite), and another Squid Game, this time with Hobo In Wheelchair (flying over the shapes, carefully navigating the glass tightrope, and flinging himself over the marbles before rocketing to victory with all the coins). My favorite, though, was an impossible “fall through wheels of axes” board that was apparently so impossible the board creator said they’d pay anyone who managed to complete it $500 – not only did Gray complete it FIRST TRY by finding the exact right place to fall so he’d still be alive to hit the finish line, he put in his comment for the creator to give the $500 to their local animal shelter. :) He’s such a goofball monster in his videos sometimes (and trust me, I love it), it’s nice to be reminded he has a sweet side.
3. Free Writing Day – work on either my idea for the "all lot challenges challenge" or more Hypnosnippet stuff: Check – went for the Sims 4 challenge, which I have decided to entitle “The Worst Lot In The World Challenge!” I’ve gotten all the basics down – premise, Sim creation, lot set-up – and now I’m just coming up with the challenges you have to complete to remove the various lot traits and challenges. I’m doing this as more of a “Super Sim Lite,” with the Sim having to complete specific goals and aspirations to remove stuff, as opposed to James’s method, which is randomly removing challenges whenever Semaj gets promoted. Though I AM planning on having a “James’s Rules” section, based on what’s been happening during his own LP. . .
4. Decide between playing Sims 4, playing Bloodlines, or doing prep work for trying Fallout 4 again: Check – ultimately went for Sims 4 and worked some more on my house build, adding some more decorations to the little office nook and the main “hallway,” and doing more with the outdoor area, mainly the patio (adding a big grilling station and whatnot). I feel like it’s coming along really well! :) It’s nice to have this to come back to sometimes when I just want to chill out and decorate.
And, for what it’s worth, I DID have another look at my potential mod list for Fallout 4, and clean out a few more mods I’m not planning on keeping once I try again. I’m just worried about “Appletree Bakery,” because it’s something I do really want for all the cool food options, but it’s looking like it’s a tad buggy, and LeahTheUnknown hasn’t been by in a bit to update it. . .hmmm. . .
5. OPTIONAL – Get in a workout: No check – to be fair, I wasn’t really expecting one. I don’t generally work out on cleaning days, if only because going around cleaning is enough of a workout!
Additionally:
-->Played early beanbags today (right after lunch), as it rapidly turned very cloudy and gloomy as the day went on (and then got sunny again -- and now it's raining off and on, and who knows what this weather is) – and despite my hopes that I’d do better with five rounds to work with, I only improved to getting second occasionally. :( *sigh* Got 2-3-2-3-3 in the end, with Dad getting W-2-3-W-2, and Mom making champ with 3-W-W-2-W. I mean, good for her, but it’s frustrating to suddenly be this bad.
Yeah, the frustration was the one bad thing about this day -- I've been getting annoyed easily, and I'm starting to suspect PMS, meaning my period may be coming a bit early. I shall have to monitor. (Though I wouldn't say no to not having to deal with it on Halloween. . .) Hopefully it's not too bad when it comes!
At any rate, I'm still working on that Sims challenge, plus having conversations and catching up on tumblr and whatnot, so let's set up tomorrow's to-dos and work from there:
1. Write some more on "Learn to Love Again" OR start doing a final skim of Chapter One of "Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica's Deluded Depths" in preparation for that being posted on Thursday
2. Watch the latest AT4W, keep up on YouTube Subs, and watch Jon's latest F04 YOLO episode
3. Play Bloodlines and get over to Chinatown OR do some prep for Fallout 4 (like a reinstall)
4. Get in a workout
5. Work on tumblr queues
You know, the usual for Sundays. :p With some options, depending on how I'm feeling about things. (And I may be rethinking the title for the Santa Monica section, because I'm starting to wonder if Hollywood fits the Deluded Depths more -- Santa Monica has a beach, but Hollywood fits with Carpenter's show business theme. . .)
Anyway, time to answer more stuff -- night!
