Hurried Wednesday
Mar. 23rd, 2022 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickAs in, I'm updating rather late because of one long video on YouTube (see item 3), so let's just throw the to-do list at you and go:
Work – Quietish day – fair number of phone calls to deal with, but most of it was finishing up one spreadsheet on failing credit card payments and starting another. But wonder of wonders, some of the stuff I’ve been asking the credit card people to fix for over half a year FINALLY GOT FIXED. Now THAT was a shocker. Maybe tomorrow I can coax them into fixing something else? Wouldn’t THAT be nice. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another chunk of the Oxventure “Exhibition Impossible!” Having determined that there was a “safe route” in order to sail into the docks where all the party people (who seem to be from very varying backgrounds – there’s the usual idle rich in their finery, but there’s also notably some poor people, including one fisherman on his skiff), the gang got a little closer in The Joyful Damnation, then Octowen plunged over the side, attached herself to a ship, and started squirting an ink trail through the various dangers! An ink trail that Corazon followed with – frankly SHOCKING skill. Everyone was genuinely amazed that he was doing so well, because usually he’s just BOASTING about what an awesome pirate he is, not showing it. XD Dob suggested that it’s because, for once, they’re doing an adventure about stuff HE’S interested in, which – I mean, it’s thanks to good dice rolls, but it really DOES fit the spirit of Corazon’s character. XD Anyway, they started talking about the best way to get into the party – Dob suggesting Prudence pose as a dignitary of some kind (Prudence instantly upgraded herself to “Empress”) and they be her servants (“serfs”), while Egbert was all “look at my amazing wolf pelt coat, I will just walk in and everyone will love me” –
And then Octowen, who was starting to run low on the ink (prompting ALL the printer jokes), accidentally had an ink explosion, and suddenly The Joyful Damnation was forced to stop with one turn left to go! In a maze full of mirrored walls and sea mines! Octolwen was able to signal to them the right way to go, and Corazon WAS able to make that final turn – but not without dragging the ship against one of the walls and causing a couple of planks to buckle. Fortunately Dob shot down there with the pitch and his Mending spell (impressing Panniers, fetching a grog, because to him it looked like Dob was repairing the ship via punching it), and everything was fine. They got waved in by a servant in a smart tailored uniform, and as Octowen helped tie up the galleon (before returning to elf form on deck), the others started talking again about the best way to get in. Prudence was all for various kinds of murder (either servants or party guests for their clothes), but Corazon convinced her to let him scout things out first, see if it was an “invitations needed” deal or whatnot. After another good roll to be properly stealthy (Egbert in particular was like “where was this competence back in Mistmire?!” – to be fair, Egbert, he DID give himself perfect Rogue-O-Vision during your adventure), Corazon swan-dived into a convenient barrel and got to watch the fisherman be admitted by a servant. No REAL invitation, but you were expected to hand over a sea chart that showed the route – luckily the servant didn’t really look at it before ripping it up and putting it in a satchel. Also, apparently Victor likes to talk to each guest personally, so that’s something to watch out for. Corazon rolled his way back to the ship and informed the others, and it was decided they’d just go in as themselves, using one of Corazon’s old sea charts as a fake “invitation” – they even tore it up beforehand, just to be safe. The servant receiving everyone was a bit surprised, but Corazon and Dob insisted they were just trying to be helpful – and Dob pointed out the servant’s satchel, where he was keeping all his torn-up bits, was something of a security breach, flustering the poor guy. Turns out the dude really loves working at the Treasury and doesn’t want to lose his job over a simple mistake – though that didn’t stop Dob from lightly trying to adopt him by suggesting if he wanted a chance of pace, he could always sign on as a crewmate on The Joyful Damnation. It didn’t take, but at least the guy made himself scarce so he could deal with his satchel of map scraps, and they were able to enter without suspicion.
And that took us into the party, and into Part II of the adventure! I’ve only watched three and a half minutes of it so far, but that was long enough for Egbert to see the vast amount of canapes on offer and decide to try and eat one of each. Apparently there were 195 of them, and in his food tornado sprint, he got 64 down his gullet. XD Fortunately the other guests considered this probably part of the entertainment. XD Oh man, been a while since they had party shenanigans – looking forward to seeing what else they get up to!
2. Continue the final posting edit of Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica’s Vale Of Tears”: Check – another four pages in the can, covering Alice’s trip to Kilpatrick’s, and the fight against the Cathayan in Foxy Boxes – forgot just how short that particular one was! Though if I remember correctly, that’s because in my Alice-themed VTMB playthrough, my Malkavian got super-lucky and managed to just take him down super quick with the fire ax. :p Good times! So yeah, up to the next scene break, allowing Alice a moment offscreen to change and get Mercurio’s help in hiding the body. Next time, reporting to Knox, then facing the music with Therese!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Only one-third check today, and that one-third check is entirely the fault of one James Turner, who uploaded a 55 minute video today, meaning – due to me getting to it around 8:45 PM (post editing and consuming cookies (I can’t really watch something while eating them, the desk isn’t really set up for that anymore)) – I couldn’t watch the Kevin and Gray videos also posted. On the OTHER hand, there is a non-zero chance I will have NO new Subs videos tomorrow (Gray’s “member’s only” day, Kevin not uploading, James a wildcard), so I should be able to catch up no problem tomorrow.
And trust me, it was a pretty freaking epic video – the final episode of the “Every Lot Challenge Challenge” series! James’s goal for the video? Try to get the remaining twins, Grayson and Micah, to graduate high school as “A” students AND get to the top level of Drama Club, then have Semaj and Jasmin get married again – using the My Wedding Stories wedding ceremony.
WITHOUT ANY MOD FIXES.
Yeah, I was shocked he’d attempt it without Carl’s Mod too. . .but he just dove in and got to work! The last few days were something of a mess of chaos, with the highlights being:
I. James being so fixated on the twins doing well in school and in drama club that he forced them to go to school on WINTERFEST and solved all their needs for a while with Moodlet Solver potions – he DID manage to get the slacking Micah from B to A student, but for some reason was never able to get either boy to get to the final fourth level of drama club before their teen days ran out. *shrug* He tried!
II. James sending Semaj out on an emergency friends run while planning the wedding because he realized that neither he nor Jasmin really knew anyone other than their family members. Their butler ended up being their officiant, Clement Frost their Sim of Honor, and some randos around the world the other special roles.
III. James PLANNING on having the wedding on the upcoming Sunday (first day of Spring, and right after the boys’ birthday on Saturday) – but because he doesn’t quite understand how this game works, he planned it first directly from Semaj’s social menu, which naturally made the event start IMMEDIATELY. James was like “HEY!” and realized he had to plan it from the calendar (kicking off “New Skill Day” to do so). He also bemoaned the lack of a veil that was its own hat, rather than being part of a hairstyle. He’s just not impressed with this pack, guys. . . Also, this wedding thing seems to have stopped Clement Frost being Father Winter, as someone new showed up to actually hand out presents.
IV. James actually doing holidays! Yeah, despite forcing the twins to go to school, he did have everyone exchange presents and indulge in festive spirit on Winterfest, and did resolutions and the New Year’s Countdown on New Year’s Eve. Look at everyone, actually enjoying themselves. . .
V. James BEING FURIOUS WITH HIS SIMS FOR CONSTANTLY EATING CAKE. XD Look, the problem started with James sending Jasmin out to buy a wedding cake for the upcoming wedding, and James sticking it in the fridge because a) they spoil at the rate of normal food, ten hours, instead of the usual time for cakes, twenty-four hours (James did some food experiments to learn this) – and then realizing “oh wait, when I click “get leftovers,” someone’s probably gonna start eating some of this cake.” So he made Semaj start making back-up cakes. Sure enough, by the time the wedding rolled around, he’d made four cakes – one got set as the official “wedding cake” just an hour before the ceremony to prevent spoilage, and the others – intended as back-ups – all had a slice taken out of them. Including one at the VERY LAST MINUTE by one of the twins. His glare was EPIC. XD And when it came to the twins’ birthday cake, not only did all the back-up cakes have a slice taken out of them by the time said birthday rolled around, James then had to set up an emergency kitchen at the birthday location – Discotheque Pan Europa in Windenburg – because, after Grayson blew out his candles, SEMAJ HIMSELF took a slice of cake instead of putting the candles back on it like James asked! *pats* I’ve been there, man. It’s rough.
VI. James doing the younger twins’ birthdays – despite the cake thing, the boys grew up well – Grayson added “Bookworm” to his list of traits, while Micah added “Geek” to his. Everyone had a good time dancing, and the brothers even had a (very glitchy) dance battle! James also tried to get them to get drinks now that they were adults, but the bartender peaced out before he could, and then the new bartender didn’t have the skill to mix up their randomly-selected “favorite drinks.” *rolls eyes* This game. . .
VII. James versus the wedding – which he had to do TWICE (along with the birthdays) because, well, the first time he filmed it, his microphone was muted. That being said, though, you could see that a few things HAD indeed been fixed – most of the guests turned up in appropriate attire ("polished" in black), and James was able to get Semaj and Jasmin to cut the non-rotten cake together. Mostly by doing it as the very first activity of the day. XD But there were still a number of bugs – James kept having to reset people like his Sim of Honor and his officiant to get them to actually do their jobs after asking everyone to “please take your seats,” then reset ALL the guests to get them to join in for toasts (and even then nobody was paying much attention); his attempt to get Sims to watch the first dance was stymied when they all just gathered under a speaker and stood around (though Semaj and Jasmin DID dance); the speaker was weirdly buggy and playing two songs at once; and the pianist was a ghost. XD But he DID manage to check off every item on the list of activities he chose, which is some improvement! Semi-functional, this pack be! Though he still can’t recommend anyone buy it, especially as he doesn’t think the wedding is really any better than the base game event.
But yes, with Jasmin and Semaj married again, and all their children grown, James removed the “Cat Hangout” lot trait and declared the challenge COMPLETE! And admitted he’d like to do it again at some point in the future, which, fun! I’ve certainly enjoyed this series. . .and because he was looking for ideas on how to remove the lot challenges, I linked my own complicated mess of a challenge in my comment. XD I’m sure he won’t do it, as it’ll be too much to keep track of, but at least it’s out there in the world!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, I guess – all I did today was reset the queue speed for Victor Luvs Alice from three to one, but that’s all I really HAD to do. Besides add Newt’s story, but it might be better to do that either tomorrow or Friday to make sure I remember to swap the queue speed again Friday night. *shrug*
Whew! Yeah, one long video with a thorough write-up is all it takes to knock my evening off-track, unfortunately. . .time to speed to bed and see what tomorrow brings! Night all!
Work – Quietish day – fair number of phone calls to deal with, but most of it was finishing up one spreadsheet on failing credit card payments and starting another. But wonder of wonders, some of the stuff I’ve been asking the credit card people to fix for over half a year FINALLY GOT FIXED. Now THAT was a shocker. Maybe tomorrow I can coax them into fixing something else? Wouldn’t THAT be nice. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another chunk of the Oxventure “Exhibition Impossible!” Having determined that there was a “safe route” in order to sail into the docks where all the party people (who seem to be from very varying backgrounds – there’s the usual idle rich in their finery, but there’s also notably some poor people, including one fisherman on his skiff), the gang got a little closer in The Joyful Damnation, then Octowen plunged over the side, attached herself to a ship, and started squirting an ink trail through the various dangers! An ink trail that Corazon followed with – frankly SHOCKING skill. Everyone was genuinely amazed that he was doing so well, because usually he’s just BOASTING about what an awesome pirate he is, not showing it. XD Dob suggested that it’s because, for once, they’re doing an adventure about stuff HE’S interested in, which – I mean, it’s thanks to good dice rolls, but it really DOES fit the spirit of Corazon’s character. XD Anyway, they started talking about the best way to get into the party – Dob suggesting Prudence pose as a dignitary of some kind (Prudence instantly upgraded herself to “Empress”) and they be her servants (“serfs”), while Egbert was all “look at my amazing wolf pelt coat, I will just walk in and everyone will love me” –
And then Octowen, who was starting to run low on the ink (prompting ALL the printer jokes), accidentally had an ink explosion, and suddenly The Joyful Damnation was forced to stop with one turn left to go! In a maze full of mirrored walls and sea mines! Octolwen was able to signal to them the right way to go, and Corazon WAS able to make that final turn – but not without dragging the ship against one of the walls and causing a couple of planks to buckle. Fortunately Dob shot down there with the pitch and his Mending spell (impressing Panniers, fetching a grog, because to him it looked like Dob was repairing the ship via punching it), and everything was fine. They got waved in by a servant in a smart tailored uniform, and as Octowen helped tie up the galleon (before returning to elf form on deck), the others started talking again about the best way to get in. Prudence was all for various kinds of murder (either servants or party guests for their clothes), but Corazon convinced her to let him scout things out first, see if it was an “invitations needed” deal or whatnot. After another good roll to be properly stealthy (Egbert in particular was like “where was this competence back in Mistmire?!” – to be fair, Egbert, he DID give himself perfect Rogue-O-Vision during your adventure), Corazon swan-dived into a convenient barrel and got to watch the fisherman be admitted by a servant. No REAL invitation, but you were expected to hand over a sea chart that showed the route – luckily the servant didn’t really look at it before ripping it up and putting it in a satchel. Also, apparently Victor likes to talk to each guest personally, so that’s something to watch out for. Corazon rolled his way back to the ship and informed the others, and it was decided they’d just go in as themselves, using one of Corazon’s old sea charts as a fake “invitation” – they even tore it up beforehand, just to be safe. The servant receiving everyone was a bit surprised, but Corazon and Dob insisted they were just trying to be helpful – and Dob pointed out the servant’s satchel, where he was keeping all his torn-up bits, was something of a security breach, flustering the poor guy. Turns out the dude really loves working at the Treasury and doesn’t want to lose his job over a simple mistake – though that didn’t stop Dob from lightly trying to adopt him by suggesting if he wanted a chance of pace, he could always sign on as a crewmate on The Joyful Damnation. It didn’t take, but at least the guy made himself scarce so he could deal with his satchel of map scraps, and they were able to enter without suspicion.
And that took us into the party, and into Part II of the adventure! I’ve only watched three and a half minutes of it so far, but that was long enough for Egbert to see the vast amount of canapes on offer and decide to try and eat one of each. Apparently there were 195 of them, and in his food tornado sprint, he got 64 down his gullet. XD Fortunately the other guests considered this probably part of the entertainment. XD Oh man, been a while since they had party shenanigans – looking forward to seeing what else they get up to!
2. Continue the final posting edit of Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica’s Vale Of Tears”: Check – another four pages in the can, covering Alice’s trip to Kilpatrick’s, and the fight against the Cathayan in Foxy Boxes – forgot just how short that particular one was! Though if I remember correctly, that’s because in my Alice-themed VTMB playthrough, my Malkavian got super-lucky and managed to just take him down super quick with the fire ax. :p Good times! So yeah, up to the next scene break, allowing Alice a moment offscreen to change and get Mercurio’s help in hiding the body. Next time, reporting to Knox, then facing the music with Therese!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Only one-third check today, and that one-third check is entirely the fault of one James Turner, who uploaded a 55 minute video today, meaning – due to me getting to it around 8:45 PM (post editing and consuming cookies (I can’t really watch something while eating them, the desk isn’t really set up for that anymore)) – I couldn’t watch the Kevin and Gray videos also posted. On the OTHER hand, there is a non-zero chance I will have NO new Subs videos tomorrow (Gray’s “member’s only” day, Kevin not uploading, James a wildcard), so I should be able to catch up no problem tomorrow.
And trust me, it was a pretty freaking epic video – the final episode of the “Every Lot Challenge Challenge” series! James’s goal for the video? Try to get the remaining twins, Grayson and Micah, to graduate high school as “A” students AND get to the top level of Drama Club, then have Semaj and Jasmin get married again – using the My Wedding Stories wedding ceremony.
WITHOUT ANY MOD FIXES.
Yeah, I was shocked he’d attempt it without Carl’s Mod too. . .but he just dove in and got to work! The last few days were something of a mess of chaos, with the highlights being:
I. James being so fixated on the twins doing well in school and in drama club that he forced them to go to school on WINTERFEST and solved all their needs for a while with Moodlet Solver potions – he DID manage to get the slacking Micah from B to A student, but for some reason was never able to get either boy to get to the final fourth level of drama club before their teen days ran out. *shrug* He tried!
II. James sending Semaj out on an emergency friends run while planning the wedding because he realized that neither he nor Jasmin really knew anyone other than their family members. Their butler ended up being their officiant, Clement Frost their Sim of Honor, and some randos around the world the other special roles.
III. James PLANNING on having the wedding on the upcoming Sunday (first day of Spring, and right after the boys’ birthday on Saturday) – but because he doesn’t quite understand how this game works, he planned it first directly from Semaj’s social menu, which naturally made the event start IMMEDIATELY. James was like “HEY!” and realized he had to plan it from the calendar (kicking off “New Skill Day” to do so). He also bemoaned the lack of a veil that was its own hat, rather than being part of a hairstyle. He’s just not impressed with this pack, guys. . . Also, this wedding thing seems to have stopped Clement Frost being Father Winter, as someone new showed up to actually hand out presents.
IV. James actually doing holidays! Yeah, despite forcing the twins to go to school, he did have everyone exchange presents and indulge in festive spirit on Winterfest, and did resolutions and the New Year’s Countdown on New Year’s Eve. Look at everyone, actually enjoying themselves. . .
V. James BEING FURIOUS WITH HIS SIMS FOR CONSTANTLY EATING CAKE. XD Look, the problem started with James sending Jasmin out to buy a wedding cake for the upcoming wedding, and James sticking it in the fridge because a) they spoil at the rate of normal food, ten hours, instead of the usual time for cakes, twenty-four hours (James did some food experiments to learn this) – and then realizing “oh wait, when I click “get leftovers,” someone’s probably gonna start eating some of this cake.” So he made Semaj start making back-up cakes. Sure enough, by the time the wedding rolled around, he’d made four cakes – one got set as the official “wedding cake” just an hour before the ceremony to prevent spoilage, and the others – intended as back-ups – all had a slice taken out of them. Including one at the VERY LAST MINUTE by one of the twins. His glare was EPIC. XD And when it came to the twins’ birthday cake, not only did all the back-up cakes have a slice taken out of them by the time said birthday rolled around, James then had to set up an emergency kitchen at the birthday location – Discotheque Pan Europa in Windenburg – because, after Grayson blew out his candles, SEMAJ HIMSELF took a slice of cake instead of putting the candles back on it like James asked! *pats* I’ve been there, man. It’s rough.
VI. James doing the younger twins’ birthdays – despite the cake thing, the boys grew up well – Grayson added “Bookworm” to his list of traits, while Micah added “Geek” to his. Everyone had a good time dancing, and the brothers even had a (very glitchy) dance battle! James also tried to get them to get drinks now that they were adults, but the bartender peaced out before he could, and then the new bartender didn’t have the skill to mix up their randomly-selected “favorite drinks.” *rolls eyes* This game. . .
VII. James versus the wedding – which he had to do TWICE (along with the birthdays) because, well, the first time he filmed it, his microphone was muted. That being said, though, you could see that a few things HAD indeed been fixed – most of the guests turned up in appropriate attire ("polished" in black), and James was able to get Semaj and Jasmin to cut the non-rotten cake together. Mostly by doing it as the very first activity of the day. XD But there were still a number of bugs – James kept having to reset people like his Sim of Honor and his officiant to get them to actually do their jobs after asking everyone to “please take your seats,” then reset ALL the guests to get them to join in for toasts (and even then nobody was paying much attention); his attempt to get Sims to watch the first dance was stymied when they all just gathered under a speaker and stood around (though Semaj and Jasmin DID dance); the speaker was weirdly buggy and playing two songs at once; and the pianist was a ghost. XD But he DID manage to check off every item on the list of activities he chose, which is some improvement! Semi-functional, this pack be! Though he still can’t recommend anyone buy it, especially as he doesn’t think the wedding is really any better than the base game event.
But yes, with Jasmin and Semaj married again, and all their children grown, James removed the “Cat Hangout” lot trait and declared the challenge COMPLETE! And admitted he’d like to do it again at some point in the future, which, fun! I’ve certainly enjoyed this series. . .and because he was looking for ideas on how to remove the lot challenges, I linked my own complicated mess of a challenge in my comment. XD I’m sure he won’t do it, as it’ll be too much to keep track of, but at least it’s out there in the world!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, I guess – all I did today was reset the queue speed for Victor Luvs Alice from three to one, but that’s all I really HAD to do. Besides add Newt’s story, but it might be better to do that either tomorrow or Friday to make sure I remember to swap the queue speed again Friday night. *shrug*
Whew! Yeah, one long video with a thorough write-up is all it takes to knock my evening off-track, unfortunately. . .time to speed to bed and see what tomorrow brings! Night all!
