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crossover_chickGranted, as I put on my Victor Luvs Alice tumblr today, that first mention was of me going "WTF" at myself. XD Who knew then that the ship would take over my life -- or that it would expand out to so many different polycules, including my current favorite with the roller coaster? :p Good times. . .
Anyway -- it hasn't been the happiest of anniversaries, thanks to my gushing blood from my crotch, but it hasn't been the worst either --
Work – It was a mostly quiet day – which is a very good thing, as I was definitely in a mood from my period. Spent most of the day doing duplicates or obituaries, with a few interruptions for credit card stuff and leaving messages and suchlike. Had a few moments of sheer annoyance, though, like the usual utterly pointless call with the credit card people (nothing EVER gets done to fix shit) or the printer refusing to print my last couple of batches before I left for the day. *sigh* Hopefully tomorrow will be all right!
Oh, and no beanbags today – my dad was busy doing yardwork, both for us and for friends (mowing lawns and watering). We’ll see about tomorrow, as we’re SUPPOSED to enter a rainy stretch now, but then again TODAY was supposed to be cool with showers and it ended up being pretty hot and sunny, soooo. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, with the following three videos –
A) The end of the Live Oxventure “Baking Bad!” Having realized that Dob’s plan to try and sneak past the lizard folk in their protective gear was not going to work, Egbert suggested just getting out through the fire exit – leading Dob to declare that they could make their OWN fire exit by using the orb to melt through the walls! Johnny didn’t immediately call for a Wisdom/Insight check to have everyone realize this was shit, so they went at it, locking the door behind them and using all their strength to shove the orb into and then through the walls. Merilwen’s Control Water came in very handy here – not only did she use it to provide a protective barrier around the orb, and to cool the glowing edges of the holes it tunneled through the walls, she also was able to send a bit of it under the door and flush the lizard-folk banging on it and trying to get in down the corridor. XD Johnny said that they didn’t know if they’d ended up just in a different part of the citadel or been swept off the side, and True Neutral Merilwen didn’t seem to care. XD Also, Egbert actually took a moment to figure out how to use Cure Wounds on himself and managed to drag back 17 hit points, hooray! Everyone was very proud. XD Team Boiler eventually got the orb outside, where it rolled off the edge of its own volition (turning visible again in the process – yes, Dob had left it invisible all that time, meaning that their big push had looked like a particular convincing mime from all of them) –
And shattered to reveal a GIANT fire elemental with a big >( face on it, who thanked them for freeing him and said he was gonna go fuck around in another part of Geth before zooming away. Turns out this is Imix, a Neutral Evil fire elemental that is worth 22,000 XP if you kill him. Egbert asked what they got for freeing him. XD Johnny pointed out they tend to do milestone-related leveling up anyway, which is good, because I don’t think there’s ANY way to track how much XP any of them should have by now. XD And so the adventure ended with Prudence, Dob, Egbert, and Merilwen leaping into the nearby river to cool off (Merilwen becoming Bearilwen to do an epic cannonball), Team Boiler reuniting with Corazon (who, upon seeing the lizard-folk rushing toward the boiler room, simply went the other way and climbed down his grappling-hook rope to eat his croissants on a stump XD To his credit, though he was willing to share them), and the bakers taking advantage of the chaos to overpower their attackers and turn the citadel into a new town – Saint Crois En Legs! XD Another successful adventure in the can!
B) “They removed the best way to make friends in The Sims 4” by James Turner! Which was basically James testing out new ways to make friends super-quickly in Sims 4 now that the “photo friendship bug” (where you could take a bunch of photos of someone to become friends with them really fast, and which James abused on the regular) has been fixed in a recent patch (it still raises friendship, but only by a very small amount). James thought that getting the “Incredibly Friendly” reward trait would do some good work, as would putting in the work to raise Charisma up to the point where he could get the “Cheerful Introduction” and “Flirty Introduction,” and both of those did help – you don’t become INSTANT friends, but it’s close enough! But you want to know the key to making really good friends INSTANTLY in this game? Get “Incredibly Friendly” for that initial relationship boost –
And then take a trip to any Micro Home lot (available if you have Tiny Living Stuff), where all relationship gains are doubled. You don’t even have to LIVE there – as long as that lot is the one you’re loaded in on, talking to ANYONE with that boost and that trait will INSTANTLY FILL the friendship bar. XD Cripes, and I thought Smiler did well when talking to new Sims. . . But yeah, that’s the key for true instant friendship. And if you don’t want to go that route because it feels a touch too cheaty, then “Incredibly Friendly” and Charisma is the way to go. (Oh, and in my personal experience, cultivating a Pristine Reputation helps too!)
Oh, and bonus tip – if you want to build the Fitness skill fast (which James was doing to get aspiration goal points to buy the reward trait), find or place a basketball hoop somewhere (available if you have City Living) and use the “Dream Big” interaction a few times. For some reason it gives you a MASSIVE boost to your Fitness. (Nobody tell the Sims 4 team. XD)
C) “The Smiler Alton Towers full game play all upadates HD version” by Nic White! This is something I’ve seen before – just someone showing off what the game looks like and how it plays once you’ve gotten all the upgrades for The Smiler in the Smiler Game. It was three minutes and thus filled up the time at the end of my workout nicely. And I’ve finally remembered to add it to my “Smile Always Alton Towers” playlist for cool Smiler stuff. :)
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has made it down the stairs, though the green room and its ghouls without being caught, and into the sitting room with the fireplace, the fake mirrors, and the two ghouls – one tried to fight Alice and got drunk from (as Alice needed the blood), while the other, upon seeing this, decided to just straight up donate rather than even try to bean her with the fireplace poker she’d grabbed. Alice quite appreciated it, honestly. :p Next up, Alice gets to listen to Grout’s rendition of how he first met the LA Camarilla and figure out the fake mirrors and how she gets into the next room. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check DOUBLE plus today, as – thanks to my Subs stuff being really short – I was able to get through a whole load of videos –
A) First up, we had “The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion Pack: Official Reveal Trailer!” I watched this before my workout, and then again after I had my dessert. :) It looks fun enough at first glance – I mean, the trailers pretty much ALWAYS do, but still. :p I think anyone who really wants horses in their game should enjoy this first look, and I personally really like the mini-sheep and mini-goats. Not sure WHY they have to be mini, but they are adorable. :) I look forward to learning more about how they work!
B) Then, naturally, we had to follow the trailer with a reaction video – “I am heading to the ranch! The Sims 4 Horse Ranch!” by James Turner! James took us through the trailer and the various blog posts and write-ups so far released on the pack. He’s half-convinced that “ranch” might be a new residential lot type, and he’s very excited to run one, raising horses and mini-sheep and mini-goats and making nectar – with all the different opportunities to make Simoleons, this pack seems well suited for his favored “Rags To Riches” LPs! Though he is nervous about horses being proper Sim animals instead of object-based ones, meaning they’ll take up a slot in Sim households. . .maybe they’ll be nice and raise the upper limit from eight in response? *shrug* However, the thing he seemed most excited about was the possibility that we may FINALLY be able to paint ceilings. XD Only took them, what, eight and a half years? *shakehead* Oh, and fun fact, James apparently did not know until after he recorded this video that “foal” is not pronounced like “fowl,” meaning he kept referring to baby horses like they were chickens or something accidentally. XD Yeah, uh, he got ragged on a lot for that in the comments. XD But hey, no matter what happens, I’m sure it’ll be fun to watch him play through this! Once I finally get through his OTHER LPs, of course. . .
C) Then it was over to the latest OXBox list video – “7 Heartbreaking Details You Didn’t Notice at the Time!” Andy’s back, and he teamed up with Mike and Jane to tell you all about super-sad details you may have missed in games. Like the mourning raider in the unmarked graveyard in Fallout 4 (he has all the standard raider “barks,” but they do hit a little different when said by a guy kneeling above a fresh grave). Or the Westie in Grand Theft Auto V who roams the graveyard before going and sitting at the grave of what you presume to have been the little guy’s owner. Or the corpse of escaped slave Elijah you can find near one of your camps, carrying a note that indicates he managed to just free himself from the slave-catcher house you can find in a different part of the map, and was trying to get to Canada to join his uncle and cousin and continue his schooling. :( Basically there is a lot of sad shit around in video games, so be careful of your feels!
D) After that, it was time for a pick-me-up, so it was over to the Subs for the latest from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem!” Four pictures covering Dr. Teeth, Janice, Floyd, and Zoot, since Josh likes to do groups of four to post on social media. He’s aware that Animal should be part of this group too, but he’s drawn him elsewhere, so it’s fine. XD They were very nice little portraits, with Josh praising the personality in their designs and how, despite him always saying to himself that he’s going to put more of his style into these drawings, he can’t bring himself to mess with said designs because he wants to draw the Muppets like they are in his head. :) Good stuff!
E) And finally, we had the GrayStillPlays Thursday Minisode – “Busting 5 Insane Myths in GTA 5 #shorts!” Myth One: A plane prop can repel grenades while spinning – false! While the prop will STOP a grenade, it doesn’t truly REPEL it – the grenade just drops to the ground to explode. Myth Two: There is only one type of cactus that can be meleed – true! Most cacti can’t even be properly hit (they’re at least semi-fake), but the catci with the most amount of “fingers” can be smashed to pieces. Myth Three: You won’t die if you skydive into a ped – false! Yeah, this one was kind of obviously wrong, and Gray showed off that it’s in fact an insta-kill (probably on both you AND the ped). Myth Four: There is one set of exposed rebar at the construction site that is not real – true-ISH. There is a set of rebar right at the entrance that Gray showed a human could phase through – but for some reason the bars still stop weapons and can have sticky bombs attached to them. So yeah. O.o Myth Five: The chain and anchor on the cargo ship at the docks is fake ONLY below the water – true! Gray demonstrated with a swim – above the water, it’s a real prop; below the water you can swim right through both chain and anchor. Bizarre. Thanks Gray!
F) Okay, yeah, I suppose it’s worth mentioning that I also made a point before coming here to update to watch a Corpse Bride clip (Victor practicing his vows) and an Alice: Madness Returns one (Alice meeting with the Queen of Hearts). For the anniversary, don’t you know. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check –
Victor Luvs Alice – reset the queue speed to one per day and found my Song Saturday – a reblog of Tom Petty’s “Alright For Now” that I stumbled across looking through my tag and got the feels about. Look, sometimes you just want a song that makes you think of your OTP/OT3 all curled up happy and safe and warm in bed together.
Valice Multiverse – No thread or ask replies, so I reblogged a Corpse Bride gifset and a couple of screenshots from the Web Archive version of the old American McGee’s Alice website (The version of Cheshire from the “characters” section is a biiiit freaky). *shrug* It’s something!
*nods* Not bad, not bad. Still got the period grumpies, but it could be a lot worse. And now it's time to head to bed and get some sleep before having to do this all again tomorrow -- at least it's Friday! Hopefully it's a half-decent one. Night all!
Anyway -- it hasn't been the happiest of anniversaries, thanks to my gushing blood from my crotch, but it hasn't been the worst either --
Work – It was a mostly quiet day – which is a very good thing, as I was definitely in a mood from my period. Spent most of the day doing duplicates or obituaries, with a few interruptions for credit card stuff and leaving messages and suchlike. Had a few moments of sheer annoyance, though, like the usual utterly pointless call with the credit card people (nothing EVER gets done to fix shit) or the printer refusing to print my last couple of batches before I left for the day. *sigh* Hopefully tomorrow will be all right!
Oh, and no beanbags today – my dad was busy doing yardwork, both for us and for friends (mowing lawns and watering). We’ll see about tomorrow, as we’re SUPPOSED to enter a rainy stretch now, but then again TODAY was supposed to be cool with showers and it ended up being pretty hot and sunny, soooo. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, with the following three videos –
A) The end of the Live Oxventure “Baking Bad!” Having realized that Dob’s plan to try and sneak past the lizard folk in their protective gear was not going to work, Egbert suggested just getting out through the fire exit – leading Dob to declare that they could make their OWN fire exit by using the orb to melt through the walls! Johnny didn’t immediately call for a Wisdom/Insight check to have everyone realize this was shit, so they went at it, locking the door behind them and using all their strength to shove the orb into and then through the walls. Merilwen’s Control Water came in very handy here – not only did she use it to provide a protective barrier around the orb, and to cool the glowing edges of the holes it tunneled through the walls, she also was able to send a bit of it under the door and flush the lizard-folk banging on it and trying to get in down the corridor. XD Johnny said that they didn’t know if they’d ended up just in a different part of the citadel or been swept off the side, and True Neutral Merilwen didn’t seem to care. XD Also, Egbert actually took a moment to figure out how to use Cure Wounds on himself and managed to drag back 17 hit points, hooray! Everyone was very proud. XD Team Boiler eventually got the orb outside, where it rolled off the edge of its own volition (turning visible again in the process – yes, Dob had left it invisible all that time, meaning that their big push had looked like a particular convincing mime from all of them) –
And shattered to reveal a GIANT fire elemental with a big >( face on it, who thanked them for freeing him and said he was gonna go fuck around in another part of Geth before zooming away. Turns out this is Imix, a Neutral Evil fire elemental that is worth 22,000 XP if you kill him. Egbert asked what they got for freeing him. XD Johnny pointed out they tend to do milestone-related leveling up anyway, which is good, because I don’t think there’s ANY way to track how much XP any of them should have by now. XD And so the adventure ended with Prudence, Dob, Egbert, and Merilwen leaping into the nearby river to cool off (Merilwen becoming Bearilwen to do an epic cannonball), Team Boiler reuniting with Corazon (who, upon seeing the lizard-folk rushing toward the boiler room, simply went the other way and climbed down his grappling-hook rope to eat his croissants on a stump XD To his credit, though he was willing to share them), and the bakers taking advantage of the chaos to overpower their attackers and turn the citadel into a new town – Saint Crois En Legs! XD Another successful adventure in the can!
B) “They removed the best way to make friends in The Sims 4” by James Turner! Which was basically James testing out new ways to make friends super-quickly in Sims 4 now that the “photo friendship bug” (where you could take a bunch of photos of someone to become friends with them really fast, and which James abused on the regular) has been fixed in a recent patch (it still raises friendship, but only by a very small amount). James thought that getting the “Incredibly Friendly” reward trait would do some good work, as would putting in the work to raise Charisma up to the point where he could get the “Cheerful Introduction” and “Flirty Introduction,” and both of those did help – you don’t become INSTANT friends, but it’s close enough! But you want to know the key to making really good friends INSTANTLY in this game? Get “Incredibly Friendly” for that initial relationship boost –
And then take a trip to any Micro Home lot (available if you have Tiny Living Stuff), where all relationship gains are doubled. You don’t even have to LIVE there – as long as that lot is the one you’re loaded in on, talking to ANYONE with that boost and that trait will INSTANTLY FILL the friendship bar. XD Cripes, and I thought Smiler did well when talking to new Sims. . . But yeah, that’s the key for true instant friendship. And if you don’t want to go that route because it feels a touch too cheaty, then “Incredibly Friendly” and Charisma is the way to go. (Oh, and in my personal experience, cultivating a Pristine Reputation helps too!)
Oh, and bonus tip – if you want to build the Fitness skill fast (which James was doing to get aspiration goal points to buy the reward trait), find or place a basketball hoop somewhere (available if you have City Living) and use the “Dream Big” interaction a few times. For some reason it gives you a MASSIVE boost to your Fitness. (Nobody tell the Sims 4 team. XD)
C) “The Smiler Alton Towers full game play all upadates HD version” by Nic White! This is something I’ve seen before – just someone showing off what the game looks like and how it plays once you’ve gotten all the upgrades for The Smiler in the Smiler Game. It was three minutes and thus filled up the time at the end of my workout nicely. And I’ve finally remembered to add it to my “Smile Always Alton Towers” playlist for cool Smiler stuff. :)
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has made it down the stairs, though the green room and its ghouls without being caught, and into the sitting room with the fireplace, the fake mirrors, and the two ghouls – one tried to fight Alice and got drunk from (as Alice needed the blood), while the other, upon seeing this, decided to just straight up donate rather than even try to bean her with the fireplace poker she’d grabbed. Alice quite appreciated it, honestly. :p Next up, Alice gets to listen to Grout’s rendition of how he first met the LA Camarilla and figure out the fake mirrors and how she gets into the next room. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check DOUBLE plus today, as – thanks to my Subs stuff being really short – I was able to get through a whole load of videos –
A) First up, we had “The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion Pack: Official Reveal Trailer!” I watched this before my workout, and then again after I had my dessert. :) It looks fun enough at first glance – I mean, the trailers pretty much ALWAYS do, but still. :p I think anyone who really wants horses in their game should enjoy this first look, and I personally really like the mini-sheep and mini-goats. Not sure WHY they have to be mini, but they are adorable. :) I look forward to learning more about how they work!
B) Then, naturally, we had to follow the trailer with a reaction video – “I am heading to the ranch! The Sims 4 Horse Ranch!” by James Turner! James took us through the trailer and the various blog posts and write-ups so far released on the pack. He’s half-convinced that “ranch” might be a new residential lot type, and he’s very excited to run one, raising horses and mini-sheep and mini-goats and making nectar – with all the different opportunities to make Simoleons, this pack seems well suited for his favored “Rags To Riches” LPs! Though he is nervous about horses being proper Sim animals instead of object-based ones, meaning they’ll take up a slot in Sim households. . .maybe they’ll be nice and raise the upper limit from eight in response? *shrug* However, the thing he seemed most excited about was the possibility that we may FINALLY be able to paint ceilings. XD Only took them, what, eight and a half years? *shakehead* Oh, and fun fact, James apparently did not know until after he recorded this video that “foal” is not pronounced like “fowl,” meaning he kept referring to baby horses like they were chickens or something accidentally. XD Yeah, uh, he got ragged on a lot for that in the comments. XD But hey, no matter what happens, I’m sure it’ll be fun to watch him play through this! Once I finally get through his OTHER LPs, of course. . .
C) Then it was over to the latest OXBox list video – “7 Heartbreaking Details You Didn’t Notice at the Time!” Andy’s back, and he teamed up with Mike and Jane to tell you all about super-sad details you may have missed in games. Like the mourning raider in the unmarked graveyard in Fallout 4 (he has all the standard raider “barks,” but they do hit a little different when said by a guy kneeling above a fresh grave). Or the Westie in Grand Theft Auto V who roams the graveyard before going and sitting at the grave of what you presume to have been the little guy’s owner. Or the corpse of escaped slave Elijah you can find near one of your camps, carrying a note that indicates he managed to just free himself from the slave-catcher house you can find in a different part of the map, and was trying to get to Canada to join his uncle and cousin and continue his schooling. :( Basically there is a lot of sad shit around in video games, so be careful of your feels!
D) After that, it was time for a pick-me-up, so it was over to the Subs for the latest from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem!” Four pictures covering Dr. Teeth, Janice, Floyd, and Zoot, since Josh likes to do groups of four to post on social media. He’s aware that Animal should be part of this group too, but he’s drawn him elsewhere, so it’s fine. XD They were very nice little portraits, with Josh praising the personality in their designs and how, despite him always saying to himself that he’s going to put more of his style into these drawings, he can’t bring himself to mess with said designs because he wants to draw the Muppets like they are in his head. :) Good stuff!
E) And finally, we had the GrayStillPlays Thursday Minisode – “Busting 5 Insane Myths in GTA 5 #shorts!” Myth One: A plane prop can repel grenades while spinning – false! While the prop will STOP a grenade, it doesn’t truly REPEL it – the grenade just drops to the ground to explode. Myth Two: There is only one type of cactus that can be meleed – true! Most cacti can’t even be properly hit (they’re at least semi-fake), but the catci with the most amount of “fingers” can be smashed to pieces. Myth Three: You won’t die if you skydive into a ped – false! Yeah, this one was kind of obviously wrong, and Gray showed off that it’s in fact an insta-kill (probably on both you AND the ped). Myth Four: There is one set of exposed rebar at the construction site that is not real – true-ISH. There is a set of rebar right at the entrance that Gray showed a human could phase through – but for some reason the bars still stop weapons and can have sticky bombs attached to them. So yeah. O.o Myth Five: The chain and anchor on the cargo ship at the docks is fake ONLY below the water – true! Gray demonstrated with a swim – above the water, it’s a real prop; below the water you can swim right through both chain and anchor. Bizarre. Thanks Gray!
F) Okay, yeah, I suppose it’s worth mentioning that I also made a point before coming here to update to watch a Corpse Bride clip (Victor practicing his vows) and an Alice: Madness Returns one (Alice meeting with the Queen of Hearts). For the anniversary, don’t you know. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check –
Victor Luvs Alice – reset the queue speed to one per day and found my Song Saturday – a reblog of Tom Petty’s “Alright For Now” that I stumbled across looking through my tag and got the feels about. Look, sometimes you just want a song that makes you think of your OTP/OT3 all curled up happy and safe and warm in bed together.
Valice Multiverse – No thread or ask replies, so I reblogged a Corpse Bride gifset and a couple of screenshots from the Web Archive version of the old American McGee’s Alice website (The version of Cheshire from the “characters” section is a biiiit freaky). *shrug* It’s something!
*nods* Not bad, not bad. Still got the period grumpies, but it could be a lot worse. And now it's time to head to bed and get some sleep before having to do this all again tomorrow -- at least it's Friday! Hopefully it's a half-decent one. Night all!
