Surprisingly Good Wednesday The 13th
Apr. 13th, 2022 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI mean, it had its stressful moments, but I actually had a lot to enjoy today as well:
Work – Little bit of a quieter day, but not by that much – I still had plenty to do. Like checking over all the things the credit card company STILL hasn’t fixed, and going over another QC file, and e-mailing people about their gifts (and fortunately getting replies back quickly, yay). But it was far from the worst day I’ve had at work, so I’ll count that as a win! And the ride home was SHOCKINGLY easy, so – DEFINITELY take that.
Beanbags – Nice day means nice beanbags – and while I had a rather poor start, I came back in the last game with a win. Actually, we all had a win today, which is nice – I got 3-3-W; Dad got W-2-2, and Mom got 2-W-3. :) Not too shabby.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another half-hour on the bike, another half-hour with the Oxventure Stream “The Corn Ultimatum!” After introducing Gary to the others and explaining that they now had, essentially, a living catapult, Corazon asked if Gary had any trees around that he didn’t particularly like for their bonfire distraction. Gary confirmed he hated two particular sycamores, and turned them into pseudo-treants with his treant powers (yes, this is a thing they can do), which ran around the outside of the camp (somehow NOT attracting the notice of the guards) to form into bonfire formation for Prudence. The plan was then reviewed – Dob, Rust, and Merilwen in cat form thrown into the camp by Gary, with Dob and Rust looking for McClusky and Merilwen opening the gates; Prudence setting fire to the sycamores to cause a distraction; Corazon climbing the ramparts to take care of the remaining guards; Egbert – well, he ended up choosing to hang out by the front gate, ready to rush in. With that settled, everyone just killed some time until nightfall – Egbert fed all his rapidly-aging mini-Egberts (all now in the mid-life-crisis stage); Merilwen cast Water Breathing on everyone because there will be fire, which might mean needing to make some massive amounts of water; and Corazon drew Rust a picture of them hanging out together, as “purr-ates,” which Rust treasured and put in his flintlock for safekeeping (Dob pointed out “uh, what if you need to fire the gun,” but Rust admitted he didn’t know anything about firearms, so he just keeps it for sentimental reasons – gift from another pirate he knew). Awwww. :) (Also, there was an interlude with many cat puns after Ellen made the pun “cat-tive” and got inspiration for it. XD)
Anyway, after all that, night finally fell, and Prudence doused the sycamores with corn whiskey and lit them up! And, thanks to a great stealth roll, got to walk away looking like a badass from the resulting fire without being spotted by the startled guards. An even better roll from Gary (nat 20!), meant that Dob, Rust, and Merilwen all took the most awesome ride through the air ever and landed with nary a hair out of place. :) They checked the scene, and found that the guards were going over the wall on ropes to take care of the fire with buckets of sand. Dob got the idea that they could cut the ropes – or, rather, that MERILWEN could cut the ropes. Despite being a cat. And when she pointed this out to him, he just gave her his dagger to hold in her mouth and a “I’m sure you can do it!” And so she went over, blade in mouth –
Cue two bad rolls in a row, meaning her inspiration could not save her as her cat form chose the absolute wrong moment to be loud. Corazon was allowed to climb up onto the wall as about eight guards made it over with their sand, but then it was time to roll for initiative! Corazon actually got the best result and got to go first, and so he decided to cut the ropes himself – and rolled so well he basically just sliced them neatly with his rapier without even looking. Of course, there were still three guys on the wall itself, so he may have looked badass, but he might have also been very seen. . . Egbert, without a way into the compound and unsure what to do about the bandits currently outside (not wanting to use his fire breath because the corn would just go up) made his way over to Gary and got him to command the burning sycamores to smash a couple of bandits. They, uh, flattened two of the guys, no trouble (especially since Mike was rolling super-well for their damage). So THAT happened! Prudence, meanwhile, got over to an unprotected bit of wall and Spider-Climbed her way up, checking the situation and Detecting Magic while she was there – nope, mundane as mundane can be.
And that brought us to Rust’s turn. Johnny let the others decide what Rust was going to do, saying that Rust didn’t know magic but DID have some awesome assassination skills. Dob decided to combo their turns and – having grokked earlier that McClusky was probably hanging out in the mead hall, as it was the fanciest building – told Rust to head down the chimney and take McClusky hostage (which needed a bit of explaining, as Rust was kinda stuck on just killing the guy), while he stayed outside and just rammed himself into the guards outside, pretending to be drunk as a distraction. Rust agreed to this plan, used his cat-like speed to sprint across the roof and down the chimney, and – thanks to having +10 on the roll Dob made for him – got his rapier right under McClusky’s chin! Oooo – one last half-hour to go! Exciting~
2. Continue writing “Learn To Love Again”: Check – and I have indeed wrapped things up with Alice finally realizing that she’s in love with Victor – only to immediately decide to keep it under wraps because what chance does she have with him? Wonderland isn’t happy about it, but there’s not much any of them can do about it. . .fortunate that the very next story in this sequence, “Portal To Your Mind,” features Victor and Alice confessing to each other! Among other things. ;) So now let’s let this fic rest a little while, and later we’ll see if I decide to edit it some more and share it out. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – another evening with only one video in the Subs, so I watched a whole bunch of “bonus” content –
A) Started this evening with an old YouTube classic – remastered! AKA, 14 years ago, someone by the name of “Mystery Ben” did a video of the “Boot to the Head” will-reading sketch by The Frantics with the sprites from the Phoenix Wright games. I was reminded of it on my tumblr trawls, and went to go find it, and discovered that roughly a year ago, someone else, Eldritchdraaks, had done a “remastered” version with the newer, fancier sprites from HD trilogy collection! So that was cool. :D Happily rewatched the shiny version – it’s always good for a laugh. XD
B) Then it was a quick video of the Marmalizer’s big circular screen being tested pre-The Smiler opening – short, but sweet (and trippy, given the ride looooves optical illusions and the like). :)
C) Then it was onto a quick OXBox list: “7 Worst Power Ups That Screwed You Over!” Andy took us all on a tour of some of the worst power-downs in gaming – from the classic “poison mushroom” of the Mario games (which causes damage and which has only gotten creepier and more aggressive as time goes on), to “Baldachin’s Blessing” from Elden Ring (a blessing you get from letting a deathbed companion hug you – it gives an increase to your poise, but lowers your effective vigor by one point (reducing your total health bar) as long as it’s in your inventory – apparently she DOES warn you about that effect, so it’s up to you to pay attention!), to the “Total Bummer” present from Toejam and Earl (which just straight-up kills your little alien bro). There’s a reason you shouldn’t just pick up everything you see in a game, and it’s not just carry weight caps.
D) Then it was over to Simmer Erin for another dive into “what the hell is going on with the latest game packs,” where she compares the disaster that was My Wedding Stories to earlier game packs – in this case, Jungle Adventures. Like with her previous Parenthood comparison, the results are – worrying. Overall team size is down, and the portion of the team dedicated to quality assurance is WAY down – from 36% in JA to 6% in MWS. She also noted that one of the lead producers, Lyndsay, was missing from the latest pack, and that the secondary QA team wasn’t in Baton Rouge, as per at least a couple of earlier game packs, but in India. People are talking “cheap outsourcing” in the comments. Now, granted, this isn’t a “professional” analysis – this is one Sims fan trying to count people in the credits – but it does make you wonder, doesn’t it? *sigh* I’m just glad I’m having fun with Smiler at the moment. And my mods.
E) And, then, FINALLY, we went to the Subs, for GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! Started with a very deadly bottle flip (do not touch the melons, the cleavers, the Tom-pocalypse, or any of a myriad of other different places – unless you plan to win via giblet), then moved onto Nixon flying the Yeetbird (which went off the board for quite a while before Gray finally found the line to the win again); a difficult chain swing (with a secret “drop here” win that Gray got the first time on ACCIDENT – and then again before finally managing to swing and flip his way to the “real” win); the Rocket Wheelchair Hobo having his own version of a pogo fight (versus Tom with a battleaxe and Pogo Man with a radio – also spikes on the win); a trip through Nellie’s hellscape (bumps, boosts, spikes, and homing mines – but Gray landed close enough to the win he could crawl there with the power of his glutes); a freeze-fall board that resulted in many, MANY deadly injuries as Gray tried to fall to the bottom before the freezing blocks and his own limbs (because if he didn’t beat them there, he wouldn’t be able to load himself into the cannon there to shoot himself to the win); and the world’s deadliest trip through the food pyramid (killer bread! Spiky cheese! A meat grinder of doom! And, of course, alcoholism at the end). The usual hilarious nonsense, is what I’m saying. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – reset the queue speed to one on Victor Luvs Alice, and found a Song Saturday post. Though an unusual one – I didn’t have a new song to post, and I wasn’t vibing with some of my older stuff, so I just reblogged this cute animation of a space-going cat with his keyboard with a good beat I’d found trawling tumblr. *shrug* I’m allowed the occasional “I just like this” post!
Not too bad, huh? And now I just have to get through the oil change tomorrow morning, and the long weekend officially starts! :) Let's set up a quick to-do list for tomorrow:
1. Free Writing Day -- work on whatever catches my fancy
2. Keep up on YouTube Subs
3. Play Sims 4 and more Smiler Always
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
Seems reasonable -- especially for a day where I'll be getting up early for said oil change. *sigh* Hopefully that goes well and doesn't take up too much of my morning. . .night all!
Work – Little bit of a quieter day, but not by that much – I still had plenty to do. Like checking over all the things the credit card company STILL hasn’t fixed, and going over another QC file, and e-mailing people about their gifts (and fortunately getting replies back quickly, yay). But it was far from the worst day I’ve had at work, so I’ll count that as a win! And the ride home was SHOCKINGLY easy, so – DEFINITELY take that.
Beanbags – Nice day means nice beanbags – and while I had a rather poor start, I came back in the last game with a win. Actually, we all had a win today, which is nice – I got 3-3-W; Dad got W-2-2, and Mom got 2-W-3. :) Not too shabby.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another half-hour on the bike, another half-hour with the Oxventure Stream “The Corn Ultimatum!” After introducing Gary to the others and explaining that they now had, essentially, a living catapult, Corazon asked if Gary had any trees around that he didn’t particularly like for their bonfire distraction. Gary confirmed he hated two particular sycamores, and turned them into pseudo-treants with his treant powers (yes, this is a thing they can do), which ran around the outside of the camp (somehow NOT attracting the notice of the guards) to form into bonfire formation for Prudence. The plan was then reviewed – Dob, Rust, and Merilwen in cat form thrown into the camp by Gary, with Dob and Rust looking for McClusky and Merilwen opening the gates; Prudence setting fire to the sycamores to cause a distraction; Corazon climbing the ramparts to take care of the remaining guards; Egbert – well, he ended up choosing to hang out by the front gate, ready to rush in. With that settled, everyone just killed some time until nightfall – Egbert fed all his rapidly-aging mini-Egberts (all now in the mid-life-crisis stage); Merilwen cast Water Breathing on everyone because there will be fire, which might mean needing to make some massive amounts of water; and Corazon drew Rust a picture of them hanging out together, as “purr-ates,” which Rust treasured and put in his flintlock for safekeeping (Dob pointed out “uh, what if you need to fire the gun,” but Rust admitted he didn’t know anything about firearms, so he just keeps it for sentimental reasons – gift from another pirate he knew). Awwww. :) (Also, there was an interlude with many cat puns after Ellen made the pun “cat-tive” and got inspiration for it. XD)
Anyway, after all that, night finally fell, and Prudence doused the sycamores with corn whiskey and lit them up! And, thanks to a great stealth roll, got to walk away looking like a badass from the resulting fire without being spotted by the startled guards. An even better roll from Gary (nat 20!), meant that Dob, Rust, and Merilwen all took the most awesome ride through the air ever and landed with nary a hair out of place. :) They checked the scene, and found that the guards were going over the wall on ropes to take care of the fire with buckets of sand. Dob got the idea that they could cut the ropes – or, rather, that MERILWEN could cut the ropes. Despite being a cat. And when she pointed this out to him, he just gave her his dagger to hold in her mouth and a “I’m sure you can do it!” And so she went over, blade in mouth –
Cue two bad rolls in a row, meaning her inspiration could not save her as her cat form chose the absolute wrong moment to be loud. Corazon was allowed to climb up onto the wall as about eight guards made it over with their sand, but then it was time to roll for initiative! Corazon actually got the best result and got to go first, and so he decided to cut the ropes himself – and rolled so well he basically just sliced them neatly with his rapier without even looking. Of course, there were still three guys on the wall itself, so he may have looked badass, but he might have also been very seen. . . Egbert, without a way into the compound and unsure what to do about the bandits currently outside (not wanting to use his fire breath because the corn would just go up) made his way over to Gary and got him to command the burning sycamores to smash a couple of bandits. They, uh, flattened two of the guys, no trouble (especially since Mike was rolling super-well for their damage). So THAT happened! Prudence, meanwhile, got over to an unprotected bit of wall and Spider-Climbed her way up, checking the situation and Detecting Magic while she was there – nope, mundane as mundane can be.
And that brought us to Rust’s turn. Johnny let the others decide what Rust was going to do, saying that Rust didn’t know magic but DID have some awesome assassination skills. Dob decided to combo their turns and – having grokked earlier that McClusky was probably hanging out in the mead hall, as it was the fanciest building – told Rust to head down the chimney and take McClusky hostage (which needed a bit of explaining, as Rust was kinda stuck on just killing the guy), while he stayed outside and just rammed himself into the guards outside, pretending to be drunk as a distraction. Rust agreed to this plan, used his cat-like speed to sprint across the roof and down the chimney, and – thanks to having +10 on the roll Dob made for him – got his rapier right under McClusky’s chin! Oooo – one last half-hour to go! Exciting~
2. Continue writing “Learn To Love Again”: Check – and I have indeed wrapped things up with Alice finally realizing that she’s in love with Victor – only to immediately decide to keep it under wraps because what chance does she have with him? Wonderland isn’t happy about it, but there’s not much any of them can do about it. . .fortunate that the very next story in this sequence, “Portal To Your Mind,” features Victor and Alice confessing to each other! Among other things. ;) So now let’s let this fic rest a little while, and later we’ll see if I decide to edit it some more and share it out. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – another evening with only one video in the Subs, so I watched a whole bunch of “bonus” content –
A) Started this evening with an old YouTube classic – remastered! AKA, 14 years ago, someone by the name of “Mystery Ben” did a video of the “Boot to the Head” will-reading sketch by The Frantics with the sprites from the Phoenix Wright games. I was reminded of it on my tumblr trawls, and went to go find it, and discovered that roughly a year ago, someone else, Eldritchdraaks, had done a “remastered” version with the newer, fancier sprites from HD trilogy collection! So that was cool. :D Happily rewatched the shiny version – it’s always good for a laugh. XD
B) Then it was a quick video of the Marmalizer’s big circular screen being tested pre-The Smiler opening – short, but sweet (and trippy, given the ride looooves optical illusions and the like). :)
C) Then it was onto a quick OXBox list: “7 Worst Power Ups That Screwed You Over!” Andy took us all on a tour of some of the worst power-downs in gaming – from the classic “poison mushroom” of the Mario games (which causes damage and which has only gotten creepier and more aggressive as time goes on), to “Baldachin’s Blessing” from Elden Ring (a blessing you get from letting a deathbed companion hug you – it gives an increase to your poise, but lowers your effective vigor by one point (reducing your total health bar) as long as it’s in your inventory – apparently she DOES warn you about that effect, so it’s up to you to pay attention!), to the “Total Bummer” present from Toejam and Earl (which just straight-up kills your little alien bro). There’s a reason you shouldn’t just pick up everything you see in a game, and it’s not just carry weight caps.
D) Then it was over to Simmer Erin for another dive into “what the hell is going on with the latest game packs,” where she compares the disaster that was My Wedding Stories to earlier game packs – in this case, Jungle Adventures. Like with her previous Parenthood comparison, the results are – worrying. Overall team size is down, and the portion of the team dedicated to quality assurance is WAY down – from 36% in JA to 6% in MWS. She also noted that one of the lead producers, Lyndsay, was missing from the latest pack, and that the secondary QA team wasn’t in Baton Rouge, as per at least a couple of earlier game packs, but in India. People are talking “cheap outsourcing” in the comments. Now, granted, this isn’t a “professional” analysis – this is one Sims fan trying to count people in the credits – but it does make you wonder, doesn’t it? *sigh* I’m just glad I’m having fun with Smiler at the moment. And my mods.
E) And, then, FINALLY, we went to the Subs, for GrayStillPlays and more Happy Wheels! Started with a very deadly bottle flip (do not touch the melons, the cleavers, the Tom-pocalypse, or any of a myriad of other different places – unless you plan to win via giblet), then moved onto Nixon flying the Yeetbird (which went off the board for quite a while before Gray finally found the line to the win again); a difficult chain swing (with a secret “drop here” win that Gray got the first time on ACCIDENT – and then again before finally managing to swing and flip his way to the “real” win); the Rocket Wheelchair Hobo having his own version of a pogo fight (versus Tom with a battleaxe and Pogo Man with a radio – also spikes on the win); a trip through Nellie’s hellscape (bumps, boosts, spikes, and homing mines – but Gray landed close enough to the win he could crawl there with the power of his glutes); a freeze-fall board that resulted in many, MANY deadly injuries as Gray tried to fall to the bottom before the freezing blocks and his own limbs (because if he didn’t beat them there, he wouldn’t be able to load himself into the cannon there to shoot himself to the win); and the world’s deadliest trip through the food pyramid (killer bread! Spiky cheese! A meat grinder of doom! And, of course, alcoholism at the end). The usual hilarious nonsense, is what I’m saying. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – reset the queue speed to one on Victor Luvs Alice, and found a Song Saturday post. Though an unusual one – I didn’t have a new song to post, and I wasn’t vibing with some of my older stuff, so I just reblogged this cute animation of a space-going cat with his keyboard with a good beat I’d found trawling tumblr. *shrug* I’m allowed the occasional “I just like this” post!
Not too bad, huh? And now I just have to get through the oil change tomorrow morning, and the long weekend officially starts! :) Let's set up a quick to-do list for tomorrow:
1. Free Writing Day -- work on whatever catches my fancy
2. Keep up on YouTube Subs
3. Play Sims 4 and more Smiler Always
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
Seems reasonable -- especially for a day where I'll be getting up early for said oil change. *sigh* Hopefully that goes well and doesn't take up too much of my morning. . .night all!
