Day Out And About Friday
Aug. 11th, 2023 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYes, as you will see by my to-do list, I had a busy day out in the world -- though I did manage to do a few things online as well --
Blithewold: We had a lovely time out at the Blithewold Mansions and Gardens, I’m pleased to say! The weather was gorgeously sunny with a nice breeze, and the gardens were absolutely beautiful, with TONS of flowers everywhere. There’s paths going all over the property, taking you to a rose garden (right by the parking lot, with a picnic area off it), down a wooded trail past the Great Lawn (which is exactly what it sounds like, a giant lawn), over to the bay and the Shoreline Walk (we ventured out onto the little pier there, which had some amazing views of the water and all the sailboats), around back to the rock garden and the water garden (with a lovely little pond with lots of water lilies, to the enclosed garden (full of lovely trees and for some reason a random bust of a dude), over to a giant bamboo grove (which is great if you need to stop in the shade, as the bamboo is so tall and thick it blots out the sun), to the greenhouse and veggie gardens (they have oranges, pitch black midnight tomatoes, HUGE lotus flowers, and all sorts of other stuff), and finally back to the house itself (which we toured, looking at all the furniture and possessions of the people who had originally lived there). They even have a few giant sequoias! :D Mom got some nice pictures on her phone – here’s a few of the best ones:
Nice, right? :) It was really great to wander around there for a few hours. Unfortunately, a couple of the follow-ups weren’t so great – namely, lunch at the place we went to afterward was just “all right” (the lobster bisque we all tried was too tomato-y, and my grilled chicken sandwich was all right but kind of slippery, with the bottom bun soaked in grease), and all that time out in the sun without a hat means I’m dealing with some sunburn at the moment (nothing TOO serious, but still). But it was still a nice day out, and I’m glad we went. :) Just gotta remember to bring the sunscreen and hat next time!
Sims 4: I DID actually fit in some Sims 4 stuff after we got back from Blithewold – specifically, you know how I’ve said occasionally that I need to make the rest of the Coaster Crew (aka the other Alton Towers coaster OCs I have for the remaining seven big coasters – Nemesis, Oblivion, Galactica, Th13teen, Rita, and Wickerman) in CAS so I have an idea in my head of what they should look like? Well, I got a start on that today, making my initial passes on Rita and Oblivion over about two hours! Mostly because the game randomly generated a red-haired Sim to start (and I wanted Rita to be a redhead), then a black Sim afterward (and my Oblivion is – biracial, but takes strongly after their black mother). Took some fiddling to get the faces I wanted juuuust right (and, in particular, Oblivon’s skintone right, because – WOW, do a number of the darker skintones in this game look kinda red or kinda purple. I’m not surprised the Black Simmer community is a little annoyed!), and I’m still not sure I’m good with their traits and likes and such (with Oblivion in particular I looked at the traits in-game and was like “. . .do any of these feel right for the coaster that is themed around yeeting people into the void”), but at least I’ve got their basic looks and basic outfits sorted! Here, I’ll share those with you too, in somewhat-smaller thumbnail form (though I have just figured out how to do better versions of THOSE too):
Probably still due some tweaking, but at least it’s a good start! Plan to continue tomorrow with at least Th13teen and Galactica. :)
Writing: Didn’t have a heck of a lot of time to write today, so I prioritized finishing the “Accused” snippet of my Valicer In The Dark AU stuff! Having escaped another Bluecoat with the help of Smiler’s Joy Serum (since they are an Alchemist), Victor started leading the trio down another alley to try and get to Shimmer Canal – only to do an abrupt about-face and shove Smiler and Alice in the other direction. Why became apparent when Sargent Tannen and Thomas, the only Bluecoats left chasing them, went down that alley expecting a cheap feint –
And found a horrible specter-lady who clawed Tannen’s chest open and began feasting on the life energy within. Thomas booked it, as did the trio, ending up in another alley a few streets away. Where Alice asked how Victor spotted the specter before she revealed herself, and Victor says he was just able to see her – and that he’s STILL seeing ghosts (the street they were just on has three, for example). Smiler suggested he might now have a “Ghost Mind” after a day spent in the ghost field, and is getting kind of eager to try some experiments. . .however, as Alice reminded them, they gotta get out of Brightstone first. :p Next snippet I write should be them finding Elder Gutknecht’s place, meaning it’s a good thing I’ve got my Sims 4 build to reference now!
YouTube: Just GrayStillPlays today, with “When black holes swallow a city whole,” aka Gray plays City Smash 2! The sequel to the original city-wrecking game Gray had such fun with, this one takes things into the third dimension, with an actual city that you can destroy (at least a few rendered blocks of it), a variety of things you can destroy it with (including tanks, attack helicopters, bomber planes, and alien UFOs you can drive yourself to cause chaos; as many timed bombs as you can throw down; a nuke you can drop wherever you want; natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes; and un-natural disasters like spontaneously-forming black holes), live reactions from the citizenry on the local “Twitter” equivalent, and a rising total of how much the mess you are making is costing the city. Gray adored it all and made it his personal mission to try everything out and then use it all to wipe the city off the map, making sure not a single thing was left but his own special YEET. XD Great stuff, and I look forward to seeing more of the game in the future as more and more ways to destroy the city (and hopefully more types of city) are added!
Workout: Back on the bike again for the final time this week, with some more Sim-related videos –
A) First, I finished off “We somehow have -$57… Dine Out (Part 2),” the second part of Addison’s “Dine Out Reloaded” side LP! Having had an okay day at the restaurant and spent most of their profits on training their staff, Addison spent the rest of the day cleaning up the place, FINALLY fixing the minifridge that served as the produce inventory for the place (it was broken ALL DAY and it was annoying me), and researching their various plants to get up to Gardening skill 3 so they could actually fertilize them all (using the strawberries, since those were the most-expensive fruits in their inventory and price matters when it comes to fertilizer in that case). Then it was time to get cleaned up themselves and hit the sheets. They opened a little later the next morning, while eating breakfast –
And proceeded to have a really good day at the restaurant! It appears all that training for the chef, and ESPECIALLY the waiters, has paid off, as guests are no longer annoyed by the waiters’ mere existence, and food is coming out at at least normal quality at all times. Sure, there were a few bugs and glitches, with Sims for some reason acting like they never received their food when they did, and some people sitting in weird spots, but quite a lot of people (including a number of visiting Bigwallets, like Isaiah and Hazel and Plan Tayn) gave good reviews, and Addison managed to take their restaurant up to three-and-a-half stars by closing! :D Nice~ Plus more of their crops are fruiting, and now they have nice expensive grapes to play with as future fertilizer. . . But first, they have to get through the next episode of the main HSY Rags To Riches Generational Epic LP. :p We’ll see when I get a chance to catch up with that one!
B) And then I watched through the “Complete Farm Animals Guide [Birds, Rabbits, Chickens, Cows, Llamas] | The Sims 4 Cottage Living” by Petey Plays It! Just a guide on all the different animals that come with Cottage Living, from the wild birds and rabbits you can befriend to help with your gardening, to the chickens, cows, and llamas you can actually raise and care for on your own farm. Petey went through how to befriend the wild animals, how to keep your domesticated animals happy, what various treats do to various different animals, and what some of the resultant products can do to Sims (either giving various mood buffs, or, occasionally, special powers. . .). Good stuff, and it was nice to know what exactly certain treats do to the different animals, as I haven’t really played with USING animal treats yet (just stocking them in the store) and I should probably get on that at some point. :p We’ll see if I remember! And can get the stuff I need to make all the treats. . .
Other: We did indeed play beanbags later this afternoon after getting home, with Dad having an amazing day, me having a pretty great one, and Mom – well, Mom suffered today, managing only to get second once before losing every game. *wince* How the mighty have fallen. . . Final scores were me 3-2-W-W-2; Dad W-W-2-2-W; and Mom 2-3-3-3-3. Poor Mom. . .perhaps she’ll be able to do better tomorrow, weather permitting!
Whew -- so yeah, good day, but a lot, and rather tiring. So I shall be retiring soon to my bed to try and get some sleep. Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday With Full Laundry (meeh), so that'll be taking up my morning -- in the afternoon, as stated, I hope to do more CAS stuff with the Coaster Crew in Sims 4; see if I can finish up Alice escaping Grout's burning mansion in "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland;" get my pictures prepped for the next Sims Wednesday update on Victor Luvs Alice (an easier proposition, given I'm showing off my spa build); and keep up with GrayStillPlays on the old YouTubes (being caught up with all the other stuff I wanted to watch makes THAT an easier proposition). Hopefully that's not too much to ask of myself -- night all!
Blithewold: We had a lovely time out at the Blithewold Mansions and Gardens, I’m pleased to say! The weather was gorgeously sunny with a nice breeze, and the gardens were absolutely beautiful, with TONS of flowers everywhere. There’s paths going all over the property, taking you to a rose garden (right by the parking lot, with a picnic area off it), down a wooded trail past the Great Lawn (which is exactly what it sounds like, a giant lawn), over to the bay and the Shoreline Walk (we ventured out onto the little pier there, which had some amazing views of the water and all the sailboats), around back to the rock garden and the water garden (with a lovely little pond with lots of water lilies, to the enclosed garden (full of lovely trees and for some reason a random bust of a dude), over to a giant bamboo grove (which is great if you need to stop in the shade, as the bamboo is so tall and thick it blots out the sun), to the greenhouse and veggie gardens (they have oranges, pitch black midnight tomatoes, HUGE lotus flowers, and all sorts of other stuff), and finally back to the house itself (which we toured, looking at all the furniture and possessions of the people who had originally lived there). They even have a few giant sequoias! :D Mom got some nice pictures on her phone – here’s a few of the best ones:
Nice, right? :) It was really great to wander around there for a few hours. Unfortunately, a couple of the follow-ups weren’t so great – namely, lunch at the place we went to afterward was just “all right” (the lobster bisque we all tried was too tomato-y, and my grilled chicken sandwich was all right but kind of slippery, with the bottom bun soaked in grease), and all that time out in the sun without a hat means I’m dealing with some sunburn at the moment (nothing TOO serious, but still). But it was still a nice day out, and I’m glad we went. :) Just gotta remember to bring the sunscreen and hat next time!
Sims 4: I DID actually fit in some Sims 4 stuff after we got back from Blithewold – specifically, you know how I’ve said occasionally that I need to make the rest of the Coaster Crew (aka the other Alton Towers coaster OCs I have for the remaining seven big coasters – Nemesis, Oblivion, Galactica, Th13teen, Rita, and Wickerman) in CAS so I have an idea in my head of what they should look like? Well, I got a start on that today, making my initial passes on Rita and Oblivion over about two hours! Mostly because the game randomly generated a red-haired Sim to start (and I wanted Rita to be a redhead), then a black Sim afterward (and my Oblivion is – biracial, but takes strongly after their black mother). Took some fiddling to get the faces I wanted juuuust right (and, in particular, Oblivon’s skintone right, because – WOW, do a number of the darker skintones in this game look kinda red or kinda purple. I’m not surprised the Black Simmer community is a little annoyed!), and I’m still not sure I’m good with their traits and likes and such (with Oblivion in particular I looked at the traits in-game and was like “. . .do any of these feel right for the coaster that is themed around yeeting people into the void”), but at least I’ve got their basic looks and basic outfits sorted! Here, I’ll share those with you too, in somewhat-smaller thumbnail form (though I have just figured out how to do better versions of THOSE too):
Probably still due some tweaking, but at least it’s a good start! Plan to continue tomorrow with at least Th13teen and Galactica. :)
Writing: Didn’t have a heck of a lot of time to write today, so I prioritized finishing the “Accused” snippet of my Valicer In The Dark AU stuff! Having escaped another Bluecoat with the help of Smiler’s Joy Serum (since they are an Alchemist), Victor started leading the trio down another alley to try and get to Shimmer Canal – only to do an abrupt about-face and shove Smiler and Alice in the other direction. Why became apparent when Sargent Tannen and Thomas, the only Bluecoats left chasing them, went down that alley expecting a cheap feint –
And found a horrible specter-lady who clawed Tannen’s chest open and began feasting on the life energy within. Thomas booked it, as did the trio, ending up in another alley a few streets away. Where Alice asked how Victor spotted the specter before she revealed herself, and Victor says he was just able to see her – and that he’s STILL seeing ghosts (the street they were just on has three, for example). Smiler suggested he might now have a “Ghost Mind” after a day spent in the ghost field, and is getting kind of eager to try some experiments. . .however, as Alice reminded them, they gotta get out of Brightstone first. :p Next snippet I write should be them finding Elder Gutknecht’s place, meaning it’s a good thing I’ve got my Sims 4 build to reference now!
YouTube: Just GrayStillPlays today, with “When black holes swallow a city whole,” aka Gray plays City Smash 2! The sequel to the original city-wrecking game Gray had such fun with, this one takes things into the third dimension, with an actual city that you can destroy (at least a few rendered blocks of it), a variety of things you can destroy it with (including tanks, attack helicopters, bomber planes, and alien UFOs you can drive yourself to cause chaos; as many timed bombs as you can throw down; a nuke you can drop wherever you want; natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes; and un-natural disasters like spontaneously-forming black holes), live reactions from the citizenry on the local “Twitter” equivalent, and a rising total of how much the mess you are making is costing the city. Gray adored it all and made it his personal mission to try everything out and then use it all to wipe the city off the map, making sure not a single thing was left but his own special YEET. XD Great stuff, and I look forward to seeing more of the game in the future as more and more ways to destroy the city (and hopefully more types of city) are added!
Workout: Back on the bike again for the final time this week, with some more Sim-related videos –
A) First, I finished off “We somehow have -$57… Dine Out (Part 2),” the second part of Addison’s “Dine Out Reloaded” side LP! Having had an okay day at the restaurant and spent most of their profits on training their staff, Addison spent the rest of the day cleaning up the place, FINALLY fixing the minifridge that served as the produce inventory for the place (it was broken ALL DAY and it was annoying me), and researching their various plants to get up to Gardening skill 3 so they could actually fertilize them all (using the strawberries, since those were the most-expensive fruits in their inventory and price matters when it comes to fertilizer in that case). Then it was time to get cleaned up themselves and hit the sheets. They opened a little later the next morning, while eating breakfast –
And proceeded to have a really good day at the restaurant! It appears all that training for the chef, and ESPECIALLY the waiters, has paid off, as guests are no longer annoyed by the waiters’ mere existence, and food is coming out at at least normal quality at all times. Sure, there were a few bugs and glitches, with Sims for some reason acting like they never received their food when they did, and some people sitting in weird spots, but quite a lot of people (including a number of visiting Bigwallets, like Isaiah and Hazel and Plan Tayn) gave good reviews, and Addison managed to take their restaurant up to three-and-a-half stars by closing! :D Nice~ Plus more of their crops are fruiting, and now they have nice expensive grapes to play with as future fertilizer. . . But first, they have to get through the next episode of the main HSY Rags To Riches Generational Epic LP. :p We’ll see when I get a chance to catch up with that one!
B) And then I watched through the “Complete Farm Animals Guide [Birds, Rabbits, Chickens, Cows, Llamas] | The Sims 4 Cottage Living” by Petey Plays It! Just a guide on all the different animals that come with Cottage Living, from the wild birds and rabbits you can befriend to help with your gardening, to the chickens, cows, and llamas you can actually raise and care for on your own farm. Petey went through how to befriend the wild animals, how to keep your domesticated animals happy, what various treats do to various different animals, and what some of the resultant products can do to Sims (either giving various mood buffs, or, occasionally, special powers. . .). Good stuff, and it was nice to know what exactly certain treats do to the different animals, as I haven’t really played with USING animal treats yet (just stocking them in the store) and I should probably get on that at some point. :p We’ll see if I remember! And can get the stuff I need to make all the treats. . .
Other: We did indeed play beanbags later this afternoon after getting home, with Dad having an amazing day, me having a pretty great one, and Mom – well, Mom suffered today, managing only to get second once before losing every game. *wince* How the mighty have fallen. . . Final scores were me 3-2-W-W-2; Dad W-W-2-2-W; and Mom 2-3-3-3-3. Poor Mom. . .perhaps she’ll be able to do better tomorrow, weather permitting!
Whew -- so yeah, good day, but a lot, and rather tiring. So I shall be retiring soon to my bed to try and get some sleep. Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday With Full Laundry (meeh), so that'll be taking up my morning -- in the afternoon, as stated, I hope to do more CAS stuff with the Coaster Crew in Sims 4; see if I can finish up Alice escaping Grout's burning mansion in "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland;" get my pictures prepped for the next Sims Wednesday update on Victor Luvs Alice (an easier proposition, given I'm showing off my spa build); and keep up with GrayStillPlays on the old YouTubes (being caught up with all the other stuff I wanted to watch makes THAT an easier proposition). Hopefully that's not too much to ask of myself -- night all!
