Lost Less Of My Saturday Than Expected
Jun. 4th, 2022 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWell, that proved to be the fastest dentist appointment ever. O.o I was in and out in about twenty minutes! Granted, it was just a cleaning, but still. . .making it through the traffic getting there and back almost took longer than actually getting through the appointment! (Not sure WHY it was so busy, but it was – I mean, I know it’s Saturday, but generally there’s like NO ONE on the road when I head out there.) At least it’s all done and good until December now! And I even had enough time after getting back to do a quick dust of all my “problem areas” (computer and computer desk, CD player/radio, alarm clock, nightlight, and the display case for my signed BTTF crew jacket). So it won’t be TOO dirty when I do the proper clean next week!
As for my to-dos. . .
1. Write the first draft of the birthday fic for tumblr friend Nebby: Check – said tumblr friend has a birthday coming up on the 22nd, so naturally I wanted to get a jump on writing her gift fic! She asked for something with Victor accidentally releasing and befriending her favorite Disney villain, the Horned King from The Black Cauldron (now at least partially reformed after being sucked into the cauldron at the end of that movie and having to suffer for however long) – I went with Victor accidentally stumbling upon and activating the cauldron while looking for Alice during the later parts of “Forgetting You,” and the Horned King summoning Alice to them, right as she realizes Bumby’s the one who set the fire. I think a certain psychiatrist is gonna get stuffed in a certain cauldron. XD
And actually, while I’m on the subject of gift fics – as your birthday is right after hers, Gigs, do you have any requests?
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and get what I can out of the Watch Later: Check! Ran a bit longer than expected, thanks to supper being later than expected, but I got through both my Subs videos, and four WL videos –
A) Started this afternoon post-Sims with a Plumbella I hadn’t yet got to: “Ranking every pack in The Sims 4 so you don't have to!” We are back to playing with tier lists, w00. Plumbella went through all the packs for Sims 4 and ranked them from “amazing, wonderful, would buy a million times” (Get Together, Vampires, Spooky Stuff, Paranormal Stuff), to “if you’d had more development time” (notably Parenthood for not including more activities for kids and teens, Realm of Magic for having most of the magic world be a set, and Island Living for having some great concepts, but surface-level execution) to “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” (My First Pet Stuff, Journey To Batuu, My Wedding Stories, Toddler Stuff). I agree with most of her rankings, though even with the ball pit I’d bump Toddler Stuff up a notch – it wasn’t as embarrassing/broken as the previous three in its tier! And I’d probably bump Realm Of Magic up one too, because I like the spellcasters and want to really get into that more. But yeah, other than that, pretty much agree with how this turned out!
B) Then it was over to onlyabidoang for his latest: “The Sims 4: 11 BASE GAME OBJECTS You Have to Try Out!” Inspired by a different Sims YouTuber, Petey Plays It, he decided to do a list of 10 Base Game objects (plus one from the free Holiday Pack upgrade) that Simmers ought to use more. This included the Lin-Z Smart Speaker (an object like an Alexa or Google Home that plays music, does trivia, and can even start your day off with an affirmation if you have enough relationship with it); the Holiday Crackers (the Holiday Pack item, which contains a variety of random stuff, including a unique collectible plushy – I have to remember to buy these for my next Winterfest!); the Digitalistic Sketchpad (since you can “paint” on it much faster than the easel – I keep meaning to get one for the Chill Save Victor!); and the items from the Sims Sessions festival, because it lets you have stuff like tents and selling tables in base game (not actually available in the game anymore, but Abi himself and others put all the debug objects on the Gallery for people to download and use!). A good way to remind yourself that Sims has a lot more stuff in it than you might recall!
C) Then after supper, it was time for a couple of OX videos:
I. OXtra, “7 NPCs Who Are So Done With Your Bulls***” – those times when the NPCs lost patience with the player character constantly bothering them because the player wanted to exhaust all dialogue. XD From a random guy in the fancy hotel in Earthbound eventually giving Ness $50 to go away if you talk to him enough times, to The Shopkeeper in The Messenger going philosophical on the nature of happiness in an unskippable dialogue if you poke his cabinet enough times, to the security AI in the Half-Life tutorial just STRAIGHT UP SHOOTING YOU TO DEATH if you try to go through a door without getting a guard’s help enough times, these NPCs are just not putting up with anymore! Though the saddest one might in fact be making Eevee mad at you if you touch it in a way it doesn’t like enough times in Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee – the critter will literally attack you straight back into the main menu, then refuse to play until you give it enough apology pokes. Poor Ellen suffered to get that footage. XD
II. OXBox, “7 Time Fans Had to Fix the Game: Commenter Edition!” Because the fans had lots of comments on the previous video, and those comments were “EVERY BETHESDA GAME EVER.” XD Though other projects were mentioned – “Project 06,” for example, which is a full-on rebuild of Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) that is improving pretty much every aspect of the game. Or the Mother 3 fan translation, because apparently Nintendo can’t be arsed to release the game anywhere but Japan despite a VERY DEDICATED fan base. Or someone who is actually working to fix Aliens: Colonial Marines as best he can, even despite dumb patches from the creators with typos that undo all his hard work. But yes, this time? Video ended on the Skyrim: Special Edition Unofficial Patch, because they didn’t have time to go over every Bethesda game ever. XD We just applaud you for noticing the elephant in the room this time, guys! (And pointing out how its companion is doing an idle animation at the forge in the middle of a funeral.)
D) Then it was over to the Subs and James Turner for his latest: “These are the tallest builds you can make in The Sims 4!” Yes, he is finally following up on his “ultra-tall tower shell challenge” video, which had him build the tallest spire that is possible in The Sims 4, then put on the Gallery for people to make over. And make over they did! James showed off someone who made an entirely-base-game lighthouse build; someone who recreated the damn Eye of Sauron tower from LOTR; someone who made a Batuu-based nightclub that doubled as a space hotel (though James was really enamored with the outdoor cantina on that one); someone who did another lighthouse build, only this time with a little village all around it (shell buildings, but still very beautifully detailed); and someone who used a bunch of debug buildings around the tower to create a whole damn castle! They were all very lovely and I am once again impressed by the creativity on display in this community.
E) Speaking of creativity in a community. . .finished on GrayStillPlays and his latest: “I found a 9,863,827,097 mile high water slide in GTA 5!” Or rather, Alex and Danny e-mailed him about one that they’d built, incorporating more suggestions on how to torture him from the comment section, and making sure that he will hate “space boards” for the rest of eternity. XD I mean, for starters, Gray had to CLIMB UP A LADDER to the board itself, dodging the pulsating windmill, the punchy fists, and the BLOWTORCH Danny had put there to stop him. Then it was down a series of water slides – first going through the rotors of a couple of military helicopters, then through a thumbnail hole occupied by Satan, then past a “shark shotgun” (a thing firing sharks at him), then through some bouncing WHALES, then over the windmill alcohol spouts (both vertical AND horizontal). And then, to wrap things up, Gray had to bike around the rings of Saturn that they’d built, avoiding all the motorcycles coming at him at high speed, before he could reach the win. Because Danny wanted him to learn how it felt to be a BMX biker. XD The sheer number of tries it took for Gray NOT to be launched into space by the speeding motorcycles before he reached the win. . .it is no wonder he calls Alex and Danny “Satan and his Sith Apprentice.” XD
3. Play Sims 4 and get Smiler through Winter Sunday: Check! Did this pretty much right after lunch, as I was eager to get through another day with my Smiley boy (nonbinary). They had a pretty busy day, too, starting with – after finishing all their homework and planting one of their dragonfruits – a visit over to Plumbella’s Pub! Because I had them start the repeat process on that damn “Water Conservation” NAP, and I was going to get those signatures, darn it. Smiler hung out there for a while, chatting with various Sims and practicing vampire powers (mainly Detect Personality, since that’s easy and provides useful information too). They managed to get repeal signatures from their friends Paka’a, Becca, and Angela Pleasant – they also met and befriended Mao Ishii, but she refused to sign the clipboard. Possibly because she’s an aspiring chef at Britechester, and Smiler started their conversation by taunting her because, well, Spirit Squad goals. :P They also practiced their darts and got a drink from Paka’a, which was nice. :)
After that, it was time to hit the Utili-Bot contest over on the Foxbury Quad! Though Smiler was mainly there to work on their own robotics skill – tinkering for more salvage parts and constructing a mechanism so they can actually attempt one of the more complicated bots eventually! They did swing by the actual contest for a bit, though, bopping to the tunes from the party bot and meeting, befriending, and drinking from the judge, Kohei. XD Look, all this drinking is consensual – you just gotta make sure to do enough friendly interactions beforehand so they agree to it. XD
With that all sorted, Smiler headed home, showered up, and then – as I’m still trying this damn Party Animal aspiration – threw a house party! I invited over mainly Sims they weren’t very good friends with yet – Lillie Benitez, Knox and Blossom Greenburg, Brent Hecking, and Lilith Pleasant. They also bought a bar to make some drinks as necessary, though the only one that ended up being drunk was their own Plasma Jane. That was all right, though – while the sub-goals basically all went unfilled, Smiler’s friendly nature meant that the main goal of socializing was slammed out of the park! They chatted up everybody and made better friends with them all – and even scored the last two repeal signatures they needed from Lilith and Knox! Nice! That Water Conservation plan and it’s daily $100 fine is GOING. *grumbles* Everyone enjoyed dancing to the stereo and eating the leftover grand breakfasts and spooky cookies in Smiler’s fridge, and the party ended on Gold Level, snagging Smiler a new stereo –
And another tick on the “throw three parties” goal of Party Animal! Freaking FINALLY! I guess house parties are the way to go. . .and a bit of Hallucination and Mesmerize got Smiler’s power points up to the point where they could purchase the “Tamed Thirst” power and advance another level in the Good Vampire aspiration. :) So yeah, very good day for them! :) Next week, we finish another semester of university – and then after that, Werewolves comes out and I’ll probably be building for a week or two as I wait for mod updates. *nods* Sounds good!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check – maybe not as much as I would have liked, but I’ve all caught up on my tags, and I did get the pictures for the next Wednesday Chill Save update (Smiler celebrating Harvestfest) into the drafts of Victor Luvs Alice with some starter text. Tomorrow I can polish those up and see about where I want to go for the week.
Additionally:
-->The day started out really chilly and gloomy and terrible, but finally cleared up after my dentist appointment, so out we went for beanbags! We each won once, which is good because I didn’t have a great day otherwise. Was a little off on my throwing game – not helped by me landing a beanbag on edge RIGHT next to the edge of the board on the second game, and paralyzing myself with a fit of laughter over it. XD Final scores were me 3-2-W-3-3; Dad 2-W-2-W-2; Mom W-3-3-2-W. Like I said, glad I won once!
*nods* Not too shabby, even if my evening was a little more cramped than I would have liked thanks to the late supper throwing me off. But I got everything I wanted to get done, done, and that's the main thing. And now it's time to set up Sunday to-dos:
1. Keep up with the FO4 Playthrough Progression
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, get something out of the Watch Later, and watch Jon's latest Fallout video
3. Play Fallout 4 and send Victor and Piper to explore Goodneighbor
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
Pretty standard Sunday stuff, honestly! We'll see how it all goes. Night all!
As for my to-dos. . .
1. Write the first draft of the birthday fic for tumblr friend Nebby: Check – said tumblr friend has a birthday coming up on the 22nd, so naturally I wanted to get a jump on writing her gift fic! She asked for something with Victor accidentally releasing and befriending her favorite Disney villain, the Horned King from The Black Cauldron (now at least partially reformed after being sucked into the cauldron at the end of that movie and having to suffer for however long) – I went with Victor accidentally stumbling upon and activating the cauldron while looking for Alice during the later parts of “Forgetting You,” and the Horned King summoning Alice to them, right as she realizes Bumby’s the one who set the fire. I think a certain psychiatrist is gonna get stuffed in a certain cauldron. XD
And actually, while I’m on the subject of gift fics – as your birthday is right after hers, Gigs, do you have any requests?
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and get what I can out of the Watch Later: Check! Ran a bit longer than expected, thanks to supper being later than expected, but I got through both my Subs videos, and four WL videos –
A) Started this afternoon post-Sims with a Plumbella I hadn’t yet got to: “Ranking every pack in The Sims 4 so you don't have to!” We are back to playing with tier lists, w00. Plumbella went through all the packs for Sims 4 and ranked them from “amazing, wonderful, would buy a million times” (Get Together, Vampires, Spooky Stuff, Paranormal Stuff), to “if you’d had more development time” (notably Parenthood for not including more activities for kids and teens, Realm of Magic for having most of the magic world be a set, and Island Living for having some great concepts, but surface-level execution) to “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” (My First Pet Stuff, Journey To Batuu, My Wedding Stories, Toddler Stuff). I agree with most of her rankings, though even with the ball pit I’d bump Toddler Stuff up a notch – it wasn’t as embarrassing/broken as the previous three in its tier! And I’d probably bump Realm Of Magic up one too, because I like the spellcasters and want to really get into that more. But yeah, other than that, pretty much agree with how this turned out!
B) Then it was over to onlyabidoang for his latest: “The Sims 4: 11 BASE GAME OBJECTS You Have to Try Out!” Inspired by a different Sims YouTuber, Petey Plays It, he decided to do a list of 10 Base Game objects (plus one from the free Holiday Pack upgrade) that Simmers ought to use more. This included the Lin-Z Smart Speaker (an object like an Alexa or Google Home that plays music, does trivia, and can even start your day off with an affirmation if you have enough relationship with it); the Holiday Crackers (the Holiday Pack item, which contains a variety of random stuff, including a unique collectible plushy – I have to remember to buy these for my next Winterfest!); the Digitalistic Sketchpad (since you can “paint” on it much faster than the easel – I keep meaning to get one for the Chill Save Victor!); and the items from the Sims Sessions festival, because it lets you have stuff like tents and selling tables in base game (not actually available in the game anymore, but Abi himself and others put all the debug objects on the Gallery for people to download and use!). A good way to remind yourself that Sims has a lot more stuff in it than you might recall!
C) Then after supper, it was time for a couple of OX videos:
I. OXtra, “7 NPCs Who Are So Done With Your Bulls***” – those times when the NPCs lost patience with the player character constantly bothering them because the player wanted to exhaust all dialogue. XD From a random guy in the fancy hotel in Earthbound eventually giving Ness $50 to go away if you talk to him enough times, to The Shopkeeper in The Messenger going philosophical on the nature of happiness in an unskippable dialogue if you poke his cabinet enough times, to the security AI in the Half-Life tutorial just STRAIGHT UP SHOOTING YOU TO DEATH if you try to go through a door without getting a guard’s help enough times, these NPCs are just not putting up with anymore! Though the saddest one might in fact be making Eevee mad at you if you touch it in a way it doesn’t like enough times in Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee – the critter will literally attack you straight back into the main menu, then refuse to play until you give it enough apology pokes. Poor Ellen suffered to get that footage. XD
II. OXBox, “7 Time Fans Had to Fix the Game: Commenter Edition!” Because the fans had lots of comments on the previous video, and those comments were “EVERY BETHESDA GAME EVER.” XD Though other projects were mentioned – “Project 06,” for example, which is a full-on rebuild of Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) that is improving pretty much every aspect of the game. Or the Mother 3 fan translation, because apparently Nintendo can’t be arsed to release the game anywhere but Japan despite a VERY DEDICATED fan base. Or someone who is actually working to fix Aliens: Colonial Marines as best he can, even despite dumb patches from the creators with typos that undo all his hard work. But yes, this time? Video ended on the Skyrim: Special Edition Unofficial Patch, because they didn’t have time to go over every Bethesda game ever. XD We just applaud you for noticing the elephant in the room this time, guys! (And pointing out how its companion is doing an idle animation at the forge in the middle of a funeral.)
D) Then it was over to the Subs and James Turner for his latest: “These are the tallest builds you can make in The Sims 4!” Yes, he is finally following up on his “ultra-tall tower shell challenge” video, which had him build the tallest spire that is possible in The Sims 4, then put on the Gallery for people to make over. And make over they did! James showed off someone who made an entirely-base-game lighthouse build; someone who recreated the damn Eye of Sauron tower from LOTR; someone who made a Batuu-based nightclub that doubled as a space hotel (though James was really enamored with the outdoor cantina on that one); someone who did another lighthouse build, only this time with a little village all around it (shell buildings, but still very beautifully detailed); and someone who used a bunch of debug buildings around the tower to create a whole damn castle! They were all very lovely and I am once again impressed by the creativity on display in this community.
E) Speaking of creativity in a community. . .finished on GrayStillPlays and his latest: “I found a 9,863,827,097 mile high water slide in GTA 5!” Or rather, Alex and Danny e-mailed him about one that they’d built, incorporating more suggestions on how to torture him from the comment section, and making sure that he will hate “space boards” for the rest of eternity. XD I mean, for starters, Gray had to CLIMB UP A LADDER to the board itself, dodging the pulsating windmill, the punchy fists, and the BLOWTORCH Danny had put there to stop him. Then it was down a series of water slides – first going through the rotors of a couple of military helicopters, then through a thumbnail hole occupied by Satan, then past a “shark shotgun” (a thing firing sharks at him), then through some bouncing WHALES, then over the windmill alcohol spouts (both vertical AND horizontal). And then, to wrap things up, Gray had to bike around the rings of Saturn that they’d built, avoiding all the motorcycles coming at him at high speed, before he could reach the win. Because Danny wanted him to learn how it felt to be a BMX biker. XD The sheer number of tries it took for Gray NOT to be launched into space by the speeding motorcycles before he reached the win. . .it is no wonder he calls Alex and Danny “Satan and his Sith Apprentice.” XD
3. Play Sims 4 and get Smiler through Winter Sunday: Check! Did this pretty much right after lunch, as I was eager to get through another day with my Smiley boy (nonbinary). They had a pretty busy day, too, starting with – after finishing all their homework and planting one of their dragonfruits – a visit over to Plumbella’s Pub! Because I had them start the repeat process on that damn “Water Conservation” NAP, and I was going to get those signatures, darn it. Smiler hung out there for a while, chatting with various Sims and practicing vampire powers (mainly Detect Personality, since that’s easy and provides useful information too). They managed to get repeal signatures from their friends Paka’a, Becca, and Angela Pleasant – they also met and befriended Mao Ishii, but she refused to sign the clipboard. Possibly because she’s an aspiring chef at Britechester, and Smiler started their conversation by taunting her because, well, Spirit Squad goals. :P They also practiced their darts and got a drink from Paka’a, which was nice. :)
After that, it was time to hit the Utili-Bot contest over on the Foxbury Quad! Though Smiler was mainly there to work on their own robotics skill – tinkering for more salvage parts and constructing a mechanism so they can actually attempt one of the more complicated bots eventually! They did swing by the actual contest for a bit, though, bopping to the tunes from the party bot and meeting, befriending, and drinking from the judge, Kohei. XD Look, all this drinking is consensual – you just gotta make sure to do enough friendly interactions beforehand so they agree to it. XD
With that all sorted, Smiler headed home, showered up, and then – as I’m still trying this damn Party Animal aspiration – threw a house party! I invited over mainly Sims they weren’t very good friends with yet – Lillie Benitez, Knox and Blossom Greenburg, Brent Hecking, and Lilith Pleasant. They also bought a bar to make some drinks as necessary, though the only one that ended up being drunk was their own Plasma Jane. That was all right, though – while the sub-goals basically all went unfilled, Smiler’s friendly nature meant that the main goal of socializing was slammed out of the park! They chatted up everybody and made better friends with them all – and even scored the last two repeal signatures they needed from Lilith and Knox! Nice! That Water Conservation plan and it’s daily $100 fine is GOING. *grumbles* Everyone enjoyed dancing to the stereo and eating the leftover grand breakfasts and spooky cookies in Smiler’s fridge, and the party ended on Gold Level, snagging Smiler a new stereo –
And another tick on the “throw three parties” goal of Party Animal! Freaking FINALLY! I guess house parties are the way to go. . .and a bit of Hallucination and Mesmerize got Smiler’s power points up to the point where they could purchase the “Tamed Thirst” power and advance another level in the Good Vampire aspiration. :) So yeah, very good day for them! :) Next week, we finish another semester of university – and then after that, Werewolves comes out and I’ll probably be building for a week or two as I wait for mod updates. *nods* Sounds good!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check – maybe not as much as I would have liked, but I’ve all caught up on my tags, and I did get the pictures for the next Wednesday Chill Save update (Smiler celebrating Harvestfest) into the drafts of Victor Luvs Alice with some starter text. Tomorrow I can polish those up and see about where I want to go for the week.
Additionally:
-->The day started out really chilly and gloomy and terrible, but finally cleared up after my dentist appointment, so out we went for beanbags! We each won once, which is good because I didn’t have a great day otherwise. Was a little off on my throwing game – not helped by me landing a beanbag on edge RIGHT next to the edge of the board on the second game, and paralyzing myself with a fit of laughter over it. XD Final scores were me 3-2-W-3-3; Dad 2-W-2-W-2; Mom W-3-3-2-W. Like I said, glad I won once!
*nods* Not too shabby, even if my evening was a little more cramped than I would have liked thanks to the late supper throwing me off. But I got everything I wanted to get done, done, and that's the main thing. And now it's time to set up Sunday to-dos:
1. Keep up with the FO4 Playthrough Progression
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, get something out of the Watch Later, and watch Jon's latest Fallout video
3. Play Fallout 4 and send Victor and Piper to explore Goodneighbor
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
Pretty standard Sunday stuff, honestly! We'll see how it all goes. Night all!
no subject
Date: 2022-06-05 04:44 pm (UTC)By the by, did you see that apparently the next Sims thing may or may not be be High School?
no subject
Date: 2022-06-06 03:25 am (UTC)And apparently so, according to that one survey? If it is real, I hope they decide on a better final name. I mean, the survey had Eco Lifestyle misnamed as Eco Living, so. . .