Quieter Thursday
Jul. 6th, 2023 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWhich I am very happy about, let me tell you --
Work – Another quiet day – did some reports, called a few people about various items (one credit card update), cleared up some duplicates, organized all the stuff I have outstanding on a fresh piece of paper, and had another check-in call with the credit card people (they are CLAIMING some stuff is fixed, I will believe it when I see it). Not bad, not great, just – there. Fortunately, the drive home was much better, with way lighter traffic – just straight up onto the highway and home. Whew – I don’t think I could have taken a mess like yesterday again!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, with two videos this time –
A) First up, the end of the Oxventure One Shot Wonder “Teatime Adventures!” Having selected their (sponsored) tea blend for the afternoon cuppa at the milk shop (with goat milk for Tabitha and fancy crystalline sugar sticks for Posy – James takes his black, like a good cricketer apparently XD), Tabitha began talking about how they need to make their veggie dogs extra-special – and what better way to do so than by honoring Daffodil the dog somehow? After all, if she hadn’t ruined their intended food items, then they wouldn’t have been brought together on this lovely supply-chain adventure! Her thought was making a marzipan daffodil to go with the veggie dog – obviously not ON it, that would be disgusting, but maybe somehow with it as a dessert option of sorts. James and Posy were keen on at least trying it, and so the gang gulped down their tea and rushed out the door to the confectioner’s!
Well – Tabitha and Posy rushed out the door, Tabitha ambling along with Daffodil herself in tow and Posy taking advantage of her wings to make a more direct route. James, however, rolled a critical one. Meaning that the entire milk bar got to watch as he tried to pull open the “push” door and then proceeded to get his lovely antlers tangled in the bell above them. James attempted to distract everyone by shouting out about how mudkips are able to “walk” on land with their fins (because apparently asking the GM to roll a random fact for you to recount is a thing in this game), but all that got him was the proprietor quietly coming up and untangling him from the bell – or, at least trying to, as she got him free but the bell stayed on his antlers. He actually got out the door just as Posy and Tabitha, having successfully noticed he was NOT with them, circled back around to fetch him (Tabitha assuming the bell thing was just part of the festival), and the three managed to get into the confectioner’s just before closing, where they encountered –
The baker, actually, since I think Ellen got a little confused on the shops. At any rate, she had her cookies, freshly out of the oven, and thanked them profusely for getting the candies for her. Tabitha said that if she wanted to repay the favor, she could help them acquire marzipan or something similar to add to their “Daffodil Dogs,” explaining their idea to honor Daffodil in the veggie dogs. Fortunately, the baker explained that they already had a treat in town to honor Daffodil – basically, daffodils made of veggie bacon and painted with edible yellow paint. Everyone agreed those would be even better than marzipan and used their gold to buy up a bunch, before rushing off to the Sage Sausage shop, just in time to fetch their sausages and buns. They then got assembling the Daffodil Dogs with a Cooking roll – Tabitha rolled super-well and made exquisite dogs; Posy rolled very well and made almost-as-good dogs (with maybe a lost petal or two on the bacon daffodils) –
And James got a ten, cooking by Wits alone (and apparently blindfolded), and his, while edible, were not nearly as pretty as the other two (Daffodil having gotten to some of his daffodils). Tabitha said they could use those as structural support, and the even dozen they’d made were brought to the magical pot in the town square! Poor Tabitha rolled poorly to actually PUT her dogs in the pot, but fortunately this pot being magical slurped them in before they could hit the ground. :) Everyone then milled around and chatted for a while until it was time to make their initial pulls. James and Posy both rolled well and got the lovely Tabitha dogs; Tabitha rolled well enough to get a James dog, but not well enough that Daffodil didn’t immediately bite hers in half. XD Fortunately, Posy had a nice Duplicate Food spell to restore the hot dog to a whole condition (quietly waving off Ellen pointing out she could just duplicate her own nicer hot dog). And so the festival ended with everyone praising the Daffodil Dogs, the reveal that Madge the head gardener was in fact the creator of last year’s beloved veggie dogs (and they were very impressed by the trio’s version!) – and the reveal that, for whatever reason, someone had chucked the original ruined treats into the pot as well. Daffodil ate very well that night as everyone who got a half-eaten English muffin covered in dog hair immediately gave it to her. XD What a nice, cosy adventure! :D Next week, it’s back to Blades In The Dark. >D
B) And second up, we had another Petey Plays It video – “Glimmerbrook [And Magic Realm] World Secrets And Features | The Sims 4 Guide!” A short look at Glimmerbrook and The Magic Realm from Realm of Magic, showing off any little things you might have missed. There is, admittedly, not a LOT to miss here – Glimmerbrook is unfortunately kind of an empty world, though it does have a lot of dig piles that a Sim might find treasure in and some picturesque views – and the river that runs along the edge of town has a couple of fishing spots, a fancy bridge, and even a shallow area Sims can cross if they’re not into bridges. The Magic Realm also doesn’t have that many secrets, though there’s a fishing spot in front of the greenhouse in the garden area, and of course everyone just likes the look of Caster’s Alley. :p Good way to end off the workout!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has made it through the electric death room and opened up the passage into Grout’s inner sanctum! She is – not exactly thrilled, but at least she feels like she’s making progress. :p Though given that this part of the house is even WORSE than the previous section. . .yeah. Alice is NOT going to be happy when she sees the holding cells and the labs and all that. Or the Malkavian Maze, since I’m definitely doing THAT bit of creepiness. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus – finally caught up on my Subs again, yaaay!
A) First things first, though – EA released “The Sims 4 Horse Ranch: Official Gameplay Trailer” today, so I had to check that out! Usual “Sim narrating their experiences in the new world while showing off some bits of gameplay” experience – it looks charming enough if you really like horses! I would have liked some more on the mini-sheep and mini-goats personally, but then I’m weird like that. :p But yeah, it’s not a killer trailer by any means, but it gets the job done – showing off the world, the horses and how you care for them, and some other bits and bobs. If you like horses, you’ll probably like the pack!
B) Then it was over to the Subs for yesterday’s Josh Way – “Life, Channel, Patreon Update - Losing My Job!” Yeah, this was a quick “here’s what’s happening” update for us all, and as it turns out, poor Josh is losing the job he’s had for 25 years at the end of this month. Damn. So while he looks for new work he’s going to be trying some new stuff on YouTube and Patreon – and some old stuff too, as he’s committing to two riff videos per month (one for the general public, one for patrons only). But yeah, he plans to upload more “Sketchy” videos, plus some more on-camera stuff, though he’s still figuring out what he wants to talk about in those. So that’ll be interesting to see as the month goes on! Just glad the riff videos aren’t going anywhere – I do like his art stuff, but I subbed to his channel back in the days when it was all riffs, and I still love ‘em. :)
C) Then, finally, I caught up on GrayStillPlays –
I. “Testing Spongebob Cars vs MASSIVE Speedbumps in GTA 5” – yesterday’s offering, another Alex Torture Board, this time with Spongebob Squarepants-themed vehicles! Because that is apparently a thing we needed. XD Alex’s latest speed bump course included such things as “Speedbump” Speedbumps (basically speed bumps made out of slowdown sticks, either placed in front of a gap or arranged into hills for Gray to climb), “Timbeeeer” Speedbumps (as you might imagine, increasingly-high piles of logs), “Drinks On Me” Speedbumps (speedbumps made out of various drinks, including Sludgie-brand frozen drinks and a beer bottle that periodically fired a Meaty Bits deer halfway across the map), “Fine Marble” Speedbumps (increasingly-high bumps made out of, well, fine marble props), “Sea Titans” Speedbumps (a bunch of those giant person statues arranged around the roadway, having a party and getting various body parts in the way of Gray’s progress), and Noob-Pro-Legend Speedbumps (a simple set of three eye-blinding red speed bumps that just got bigger and bigger as Gray got over them). Gray tried out every Spongebob car, with varying results – Plankton, Sandy, and Squidward couldn’t even make it past the wood, while Pearl and Patrick got stuck in the drinks. You’d think the Spongebob car (a nice solid Canis) could have made it to the end, but nope – he got trapped amongst the Sea Titans. No, the car that made it all the way was the Larry the Lobster Car!
A MODIFIED WASTELANDER. XD With super-grippy tires for extra awesome climbing power! XD This thing not only made it over most of the obstacles with barely any problem, it also executed some awesome saves – including one at the very end where Gray hit an invisible wall Alex put up in front of the win, and was able to climb back on and get it properly thanks to a nearby hill. *pumps fist* Wastelander supremacy!
II. “Busting 5 Myths in GTA 5 #shorts” – today’s minisode, which – as the title indicates – was back to the traditional myth-busting! Myth One: If you hit a pedestrian with your body while parachuting, the parachute will break – false! The parachute only breaks if anything touches the PARACHUTE – you can knock pedestrians off buildings with your own flesh (as Gray did to demonstrate) and the parachute will be fine. Myth Two: Supercars are better than off-road vehicles at climbing steep angles – true! Gray demonstrated that the sheer speed of a supercar is just better at that steep climb than an off-roader (as previously demonstrated in one of Alex’s Torture Boards). Myth Three: On the canyon bridge, the support bars on one side are fake, and the others are real – true! Gray went climbing around on them – it seems like the right side set is real, and the left side set is fake. Myth Four: You can explode grenades by shooting at them in mid-air – false! Gray demonstrate both with a regular gun and a sniper rifle – no explosions at all. Myth Five: A towed boat is not a real vehicle and cannot be used as such – false! Gray drove someone’s “volunteered” truck with towed boat attached into a nearby body of water, and was able to turn on and drive the boat once it was freed from its trailer. *nods* Thanks Gray!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – with Victor Luvs Alice sorted for the remainder of the week, I only had Valice Multiverse to worry about – and the only thing waiting for me there was some DMs, no asks or thread replies. Ended up reblogging the “Smiler gif stamps” post I reblogged onto Victor Luvs Alice today into the VM queue – it’s something! And of course the Valice(r) Anniversary masterpost will be reblogged on there tomorrow. :)
*nods* MUCH less stressful that yesterday's hell-ride home and resultant crappy mood. And now it is time to head to bed and prepare for Valice Anniversary tomorrow! :D (Also now Valicer Anniversary, and also House Anniversary.) Hoping I can sneak in some Simming time when I get home tomorrow, but that'll depend on how the afternoon goes -- we'll see! Night all!
Work – Another quiet day – did some reports, called a few people about various items (one credit card update), cleared up some duplicates, organized all the stuff I have outstanding on a fresh piece of paper, and had another check-in call with the credit card people (they are CLAIMING some stuff is fixed, I will believe it when I see it). Not bad, not great, just – there. Fortunately, the drive home was much better, with way lighter traffic – just straight up onto the highway and home. Whew – I don’t think I could have taken a mess like yesterday again!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, with two videos this time –
A) First up, the end of the Oxventure One Shot Wonder “Teatime Adventures!” Having selected their (sponsored) tea blend for the afternoon cuppa at the milk shop (with goat milk for Tabitha and fancy crystalline sugar sticks for Posy – James takes his black, like a good cricketer apparently XD), Tabitha began talking about how they need to make their veggie dogs extra-special – and what better way to do so than by honoring Daffodil the dog somehow? After all, if she hadn’t ruined their intended food items, then they wouldn’t have been brought together on this lovely supply-chain adventure! Her thought was making a marzipan daffodil to go with the veggie dog – obviously not ON it, that would be disgusting, but maybe somehow with it as a dessert option of sorts. James and Posy were keen on at least trying it, and so the gang gulped down their tea and rushed out the door to the confectioner’s!
Well – Tabitha and Posy rushed out the door, Tabitha ambling along with Daffodil herself in tow and Posy taking advantage of her wings to make a more direct route. James, however, rolled a critical one. Meaning that the entire milk bar got to watch as he tried to pull open the “push” door and then proceeded to get his lovely antlers tangled in the bell above them. James attempted to distract everyone by shouting out about how mudkips are able to “walk” on land with their fins (because apparently asking the GM to roll a random fact for you to recount is a thing in this game), but all that got him was the proprietor quietly coming up and untangling him from the bell – or, at least trying to, as she got him free but the bell stayed on his antlers. He actually got out the door just as Posy and Tabitha, having successfully noticed he was NOT with them, circled back around to fetch him (Tabitha assuming the bell thing was just part of the festival), and the three managed to get into the confectioner’s just before closing, where they encountered –
The baker, actually, since I think Ellen got a little confused on the shops. At any rate, she had her cookies, freshly out of the oven, and thanked them profusely for getting the candies for her. Tabitha said that if she wanted to repay the favor, she could help them acquire marzipan or something similar to add to their “Daffodil Dogs,” explaining their idea to honor Daffodil in the veggie dogs. Fortunately, the baker explained that they already had a treat in town to honor Daffodil – basically, daffodils made of veggie bacon and painted with edible yellow paint. Everyone agreed those would be even better than marzipan and used their gold to buy up a bunch, before rushing off to the Sage Sausage shop, just in time to fetch their sausages and buns. They then got assembling the Daffodil Dogs with a Cooking roll – Tabitha rolled super-well and made exquisite dogs; Posy rolled very well and made almost-as-good dogs (with maybe a lost petal or two on the bacon daffodils) –
And James got a ten, cooking by Wits alone (and apparently blindfolded), and his, while edible, were not nearly as pretty as the other two (Daffodil having gotten to some of his daffodils). Tabitha said they could use those as structural support, and the even dozen they’d made were brought to the magical pot in the town square! Poor Tabitha rolled poorly to actually PUT her dogs in the pot, but fortunately this pot being magical slurped them in before they could hit the ground. :) Everyone then milled around and chatted for a while until it was time to make their initial pulls. James and Posy both rolled well and got the lovely Tabitha dogs; Tabitha rolled well enough to get a James dog, but not well enough that Daffodil didn’t immediately bite hers in half. XD Fortunately, Posy had a nice Duplicate Food spell to restore the hot dog to a whole condition (quietly waving off Ellen pointing out she could just duplicate her own nicer hot dog). And so the festival ended with everyone praising the Daffodil Dogs, the reveal that Madge the head gardener was in fact the creator of last year’s beloved veggie dogs (and they were very impressed by the trio’s version!) – and the reveal that, for whatever reason, someone had chucked the original ruined treats into the pot as well. Daffodil ate very well that night as everyone who got a half-eaten English muffin covered in dog hair immediately gave it to her. XD What a nice, cosy adventure! :D Next week, it’s back to Blades In The Dark. >D
B) And second up, we had another Petey Plays It video – “Glimmerbrook [And Magic Realm] World Secrets And Features | The Sims 4 Guide!” A short look at Glimmerbrook and The Magic Realm from Realm of Magic, showing off any little things you might have missed. There is, admittedly, not a LOT to miss here – Glimmerbrook is unfortunately kind of an empty world, though it does have a lot of dig piles that a Sim might find treasure in and some picturesque views – and the river that runs along the edge of town has a couple of fishing spots, a fancy bridge, and even a shallow area Sims can cross if they’re not into bridges. The Magic Realm also doesn’t have that many secrets, though there’s a fishing spot in front of the greenhouse in the garden area, and of course everyone just likes the look of Caster’s Alley. :p Good way to end off the workout!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has made it through the electric death room and opened up the passage into Grout’s inner sanctum! She is – not exactly thrilled, but at least she feels like she’s making progress. :p Though given that this part of the house is even WORSE than the previous section. . .yeah. Alice is NOT going to be happy when she sees the holding cells and the labs and all that. Or the Malkavian Maze, since I’m definitely doing THAT bit of creepiness. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus – finally caught up on my Subs again, yaaay!
A) First things first, though – EA released “The Sims 4 Horse Ranch: Official Gameplay Trailer” today, so I had to check that out! Usual “Sim narrating their experiences in the new world while showing off some bits of gameplay” experience – it looks charming enough if you really like horses! I would have liked some more on the mini-sheep and mini-goats personally, but then I’m weird like that. :p But yeah, it’s not a killer trailer by any means, but it gets the job done – showing off the world, the horses and how you care for them, and some other bits and bobs. If you like horses, you’ll probably like the pack!
B) Then it was over to the Subs for yesterday’s Josh Way – “Life, Channel, Patreon Update - Losing My Job!” Yeah, this was a quick “here’s what’s happening” update for us all, and as it turns out, poor Josh is losing the job he’s had for 25 years at the end of this month. Damn. So while he looks for new work he’s going to be trying some new stuff on YouTube and Patreon – and some old stuff too, as he’s committing to two riff videos per month (one for the general public, one for patrons only). But yeah, he plans to upload more “Sketchy” videos, plus some more on-camera stuff, though he’s still figuring out what he wants to talk about in those. So that’ll be interesting to see as the month goes on! Just glad the riff videos aren’t going anywhere – I do like his art stuff, but I subbed to his channel back in the days when it was all riffs, and I still love ‘em. :)
C) Then, finally, I caught up on GrayStillPlays –
I. “Testing Spongebob Cars vs MASSIVE Speedbumps in GTA 5” – yesterday’s offering, another Alex Torture Board, this time with Spongebob Squarepants-themed vehicles! Because that is apparently a thing we needed. XD Alex’s latest speed bump course included such things as “Speedbump” Speedbumps (basically speed bumps made out of slowdown sticks, either placed in front of a gap or arranged into hills for Gray to climb), “Timbeeeer” Speedbumps (as you might imagine, increasingly-high piles of logs), “Drinks On Me” Speedbumps (speedbumps made out of various drinks, including Sludgie-brand frozen drinks and a beer bottle that periodically fired a Meaty Bits deer halfway across the map), “Fine Marble” Speedbumps (increasingly-high bumps made out of, well, fine marble props), “Sea Titans” Speedbumps (a bunch of those giant person statues arranged around the roadway, having a party and getting various body parts in the way of Gray’s progress), and Noob-Pro-Legend Speedbumps (a simple set of three eye-blinding red speed bumps that just got bigger and bigger as Gray got over them). Gray tried out every Spongebob car, with varying results – Plankton, Sandy, and Squidward couldn’t even make it past the wood, while Pearl and Patrick got stuck in the drinks. You’d think the Spongebob car (a nice solid Canis) could have made it to the end, but nope – he got trapped amongst the Sea Titans. No, the car that made it all the way was the Larry the Lobster Car!
A MODIFIED WASTELANDER. XD With super-grippy tires for extra awesome climbing power! XD This thing not only made it over most of the obstacles with barely any problem, it also executed some awesome saves – including one at the very end where Gray hit an invisible wall Alex put up in front of the win, and was able to climb back on and get it properly thanks to a nearby hill. *pumps fist* Wastelander supremacy!
II. “Busting 5 Myths in GTA 5 #shorts” – today’s minisode, which – as the title indicates – was back to the traditional myth-busting! Myth One: If you hit a pedestrian with your body while parachuting, the parachute will break – false! The parachute only breaks if anything touches the PARACHUTE – you can knock pedestrians off buildings with your own flesh (as Gray did to demonstrate) and the parachute will be fine. Myth Two: Supercars are better than off-road vehicles at climbing steep angles – true! Gray demonstrated that the sheer speed of a supercar is just better at that steep climb than an off-roader (as previously demonstrated in one of Alex’s Torture Boards). Myth Three: On the canyon bridge, the support bars on one side are fake, and the others are real – true! Gray went climbing around on them – it seems like the right side set is real, and the left side set is fake. Myth Four: You can explode grenades by shooting at them in mid-air – false! Gray demonstrate both with a regular gun and a sniper rifle – no explosions at all. Myth Five: A towed boat is not a real vehicle and cannot be used as such – false! Gray drove someone’s “volunteered” truck with towed boat attached into a nearby body of water, and was able to turn on and drive the boat once it was freed from its trailer. *nods* Thanks Gray!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – with Victor Luvs Alice sorted for the remainder of the week, I only had Valice Multiverse to worry about – and the only thing waiting for me there was some DMs, no asks or thread replies. Ended up reblogging the “Smiler gif stamps” post I reblogged onto Victor Luvs Alice today into the VM queue – it’s something! And of course the Valice(r) Anniversary masterpost will be reblogged on there tomorrow. :)
*nods* MUCH less stressful that yesterday's hell-ride home and resultant crappy mood. And now it is time to head to bed and prepare for Valice Anniversary tomorrow! :D (Also now Valicer Anniversary, and also House Anniversary.) Hoping I can sneak in some Simming time when I get home tomorrow, but that'll depend on how the afternoon goes -- we'll see! Night all!
