Back To It Tuesday
Sep. 26th, 2023 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickAnd as I'm updating rather late, let's just get right into the to-do list --
Work – Busy day to start that kind of slowed down in the afternoon – my coworkers wanted my eyes on all the credit card stuff they’d done while I was out because they’re not as used to doing it as me and, as I have undoubtedly mentioned before, the credit card company’s system is kind of shitty, so there was some stuff I had to teach them that is now second-nature to me (like always checking on Give Central to make sure a pledge has properly updated). Also had a few phone calls (about credit card stuff and old pledges), and spent the rest of the day working on checking on pledges with failed payments. *shrug* I have admittedly had much WORSE first days back from a long weekend, so I’ll take this.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike again, and back with more James Turner and –
A) All of “5 stars and birthdays! Dine Out (Part 8)” – the next part of Addison and Hilary’s adventures running their restaurant and raising their new children! This was a shorter-than-usual episode, but it covered a good amount of ground, mainly –
I. As per the title, Addison and Hilary finally getting a five-star rating at their restaurant! :D This involved them having to sell their food at rock-bottom prices and do things like give out a lot of free desserts and comp the food of the visiting critic, meaning they made like next to NO profit from that service, but they did reach five stars! James promptly doubled the prices and did a day without Hilary around to help with the schmoozing (she now has her own job as an Educator! And she managed to get a promotion on her first day, nice), and the restaurant is now back to four stars. XD But they DID achieve their goal, if briefly, so that was good.
II. And also as per the title, Quinn and Rye aged up! James had them age up at the end of the episode, as Rye was already scheduled to age up them into a toddler. Quinn actually managed to make some decent progress on all her skills during her abbreviated toddlerhood and grew up well – she is now an Outgoing child with an interest in improving her Motor skills! :) Whereas Rye is an Independent toddler as that means James doesn’t have to worry about socializing or helping him with skill so much. XD James has promised some room change-ups at the beginning of the next episode!
So yeah, things are going pretty well for Addison and Hilary’s family right now! :) I look forward to seeing how their series wraps up in the next couple of episodes.
B) The first six minutes of “It's makeover time! High School Years (Part 48)” – the next part of Breanne’s adventures! Since the DOR episode was so short, I was able to get a little head start on this one – and while I’m only a few minutes in, Breanne has already completed another gig with her live-in model Kenji (doing some cool fashion shoots) and has popped over to Geekcon with her new romantic interest, whose name is actually spelled “Reyansh” (James has decided he’ll call him “Rey” for short). Hopefully it goes well, unlike all of Breanne’s other attempts at romance! XD
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has learned about Resonance, the one V5 mechanic that I’m stealing for this universe as I think it’s actually kinda cool and because it actually fits in well with a video game verse. :p It’s a system that gives vampires extra boosts to certain Disciplines depending on what the human they fed on was feeling at the time, and how strongly – Alice is currently working with a Sanguine Resonance thanks to Victor very much enjoying being fed on. XD Unfortunately, Sanguine boosts things like Thaumaturgy and Presence according to the wiki page I’m consulting, so in order to have her still get some benefit from the “wrong” emotion, I’m ruling that Resonance gives ALL Disciplines a little boost – they just amplify their PREFERRED Disciplines more. (In fact, this might be a good way to justify Alice being able to use Obfuscate WITHOUT being seen by the cameras in the museum basement. . .normally you need a pretty high level of the Discipline to trick mechanical devices, but with her constant practice and the boost from Victor’s blood. . .)
However, that’s a worry for later – because right now, Alice has to figure out how to keep Simon Milligan from being a Masquerade threat without also sending him to be devoured. I’m not sure yet myself how this is going to go down – we’ll see next time!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – two in, two out tonight –
A) First up, from Josh Way, we had “Fun With Shorts: Speech - The Function of Gestures!” A short Centron film about how being a good speaker means actually moving around and using your hands, demonstrated by eviscerating a boring guy talking about how people in Africa come in all sorts of shapes and sizes (like, you know, ALL PEOPLE) and then presenting the creepiest cartoon of a guy shaking hands with an arm growing out of his head to demonstrate how the body and mind should work together. Also Josh making some delightful jokes regarding the Trump trials, and putting the lie to the short’s assertion that you have to see a speaker to get the full effect of their words, because we all knew what gesture Josh was making at the end there. XD Good stuff!
B) And second up, from GrayStillPlays, we had “When a show gets better after 1075 episodes,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! We started with the customary bottle flip (featuring Gray learning why the dinosaurs went extinct via being crushed by a meteor and doing an awesome bank shot to get a bottle on the circular “Gray Will Find A Way” area), then moved onto a killer blue-and-green rope swing (where Gray had to swing and fall perfectly to fall into a couple of cannons and not get his various limbs stuck in walls or ripped off when he was fired out of the cannon); a relatively simple harpoon dodge with a spiky thumbnail funnel to the win at the end (Gray got cocky after he got through the harpoons first try and impaled poor Pogo Guy’s head on the spikes, forcing him to do it over a few times before getting the win); a reasonably tricky jet fall (all about the size of the jets at the bottom, baby); a harpoon dodge bank robbery (where Gray stole one coin and then had to wiggle himself perfectly into a cannon to escape); a medieval-themed pogo fight where Pogo Guy had to storm the castle via getting launched via trebuchet before facing Santa and his three sai-wielding daughters before the throne of “thrones” (and yet Gray’s biggest objection was the fact the creator had included a boombox under the great table where they were having a pineapple, pumpkin, watermelon, and beer lunch XD); and the week’s Dylan Board, with Gray taking a deadly ride on the One Piece pirate boat (which was AMAZINGLY well done, Dylan brought his ABSOLUTE A-game to constructing that thing), dodging crabs, falling fruit, angry birds, and his own tendency to fall into the ocean to get the fruit Discount Luffy needed (which immediately crushed and murdered him for the win). Fewer boards than perhaps normal, but all of them high quality, so I will more than take it. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice – Got the six posts of the Chill Valicer Save update queued up for tomorrow (as a reminder, that covers the “family reunion” I played – cripes, a MONTH back at this time of writing – to unlock the picture frames), AND added my “Discoveries” snippet of my Valicer In The Dark AU (aka Where All The Exposition Lives as Victor explains things to Emily, Nanny explains how Victoria’s already married to them, and Alice chimes in at the end with some carefully-phrased explanation about how her family tree died) as an upcoming AU Thursday post! :D So that makes me happy. :) I’ll settle Friday and Saturday tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – Just had two ask replies to put into the queue (about book-banning and how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, unless that cover is human flesh) – nice and simple!
Not too shabby -- but now I must get to bed and hopefully get some better sleep than I got last night. We shall see, though. . .night all!
Work – Busy day to start that kind of slowed down in the afternoon – my coworkers wanted my eyes on all the credit card stuff they’d done while I was out because they’re not as used to doing it as me and, as I have undoubtedly mentioned before, the credit card company’s system is kind of shitty, so there was some stuff I had to teach them that is now second-nature to me (like always checking on Give Central to make sure a pledge has properly updated). Also had a few phone calls (about credit card stuff and old pledges), and spent the rest of the day working on checking on pledges with failed payments. *shrug* I have admittedly had much WORSE first days back from a long weekend, so I’ll take this.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike again, and back with more James Turner and –
A) All of “5 stars and birthdays! Dine Out (Part 8)” – the next part of Addison and Hilary’s adventures running their restaurant and raising their new children! This was a shorter-than-usual episode, but it covered a good amount of ground, mainly –
I. As per the title, Addison and Hilary finally getting a five-star rating at their restaurant! :D This involved them having to sell their food at rock-bottom prices and do things like give out a lot of free desserts and comp the food of the visiting critic, meaning they made like next to NO profit from that service, but they did reach five stars! James promptly doubled the prices and did a day without Hilary around to help with the schmoozing (she now has her own job as an Educator! And she managed to get a promotion on her first day, nice), and the restaurant is now back to four stars. XD But they DID achieve their goal, if briefly, so that was good.
II. And also as per the title, Quinn and Rye aged up! James had them age up at the end of the episode, as Rye was already scheduled to age up them into a toddler. Quinn actually managed to make some decent progress on all her skills during her abbreviated toddlerhood and grew up well – she is now an Outgoing child with an interest in improving her Motor skills! :) Whereas Rye is an Independent toddler as that means James doesn’t have to worry about socializing or helping him with skill so much. XD James has promised some room change-ups at the beginning of the next episode!
So yeah, things are going pretty well for Addison and Hilary’s family right now! :) I look forward to seeing how their series wraps up in the next couple of episodes.
B) The first six minutes of “It's makeover time! High School Years (Part 48)” – the next part of Breanne’s adventures! Since the DOR episode was so short, I was able to get a little head start on this one – and while I’m only a few minutes in, Breanne has already completed another gig with her live-in model Kenji (doing some cool fashion shoots) and has popped over to Geekcon with her new romantic interest, whose name is actually spelled “Reyansh” (James has decided he’ll call him “Rey” for short). Hopefully it goes well, unlike all of Breanne’s other attempts at romance! XD
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has learned about Resonance, the one V5 mechanic that I’m stealing for this universe as I think it’s actually kinda cool and because it actually fits in well with a video game verse. :p It’s a system that gives vampires extra boosts to certain Disciplines depending on what the human they fed on was feeling at the time, and how strongly – Alice is currently working with a Sanguine Resonance thanks to Victor very much enjoying being fed on. XD Unfortunately, Sanguine boosts things like Thaumaturgy and Presence according to the wiki page I’m consulting, so in order to have her still get some benefit from the “wrong” emotion, I’m ruling that Resonance gives ALL Disciplines a little boost – they just amplify their PREFERRED Disciplines more. (In fact, this might be a good way to justify Alice being able to use Obfuscate WITHOUT being seen by the cameras in the museum basement. . .normally you need a pretty high level of the Discipline to trick mechanical devices, but with her constant practice and the boost from Victor’s blood. . .)
However, that’s a worry for later – because right now, Alice has to figure out how to keep Simon Milligan from being a Masquerade threat without also sending him to be devoured. I’m not sure yet myself how this is going to go down – we’ll see next time!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – two in, two out tonight –
A) First up, from Josh Way, we had “Fun With Shorts: Speech - The Function of Gestures!” A short Centron film about how being a good speaker means actually moving around and using your hands, demonstrated by eviscerating a boring guy talking about how people in Africa come in all sorts of shapes and sizes (like, you know, ALL PEOPLE) and then presenting the creepiest cartoon of a guy shaking hands with an arm growing out of his head to demonstrate how the body and mind should work together. Also Josh making some delightful jokes regarding the Trump trials, and putting the lie to the short’s assertion that you have to see a speaker to get the full effect of their words, because we all knew what gesture Josh was making at the end there. XD Good stuff!
B) And second up, from GrayStillPlays, we had “When a show gets better after 1075 episodes,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! We started with the customary bottle flip (featuring Gray learning why the dinosaurs went extinct via being crushed by a meteor and doing an awesome bank shot to get a bottle on the circular “Gray Will Find A Way” area), then moved onto a killer blue-and-green rope swing (where Gray had to swing and fall perfectly to fall into a couple of cannons and not get his various limbs stuck in walls or ripped off when he was fired out of the cannon); a relatively simple harpoon dodge with a spiky thumbnail funnel to the win at the end (Gray got cocky after he got through the harpoons first try and impaled poor Pogo Guy’s head on the spikes, forcing him to do it over a few times before getting the win); a reasonably tricky jet fall (all about the size of the jets at the bottom, baby); a harpoon dodge bank robbery (where Gray stole one coin and then had to wiggle himself perfectly into a cannon to escape); a medieval-themed pogo fight where Pogo Guy had to storm the castle via getting launched via trebuchet before facing Santa and his three sai-wielding daughters before the throne of “thrones” (and yet Gray’s biggest objection was the fact the creator had included a boombox under the great table where they were having a pineapple, pumpkin, watermelon, and beer lunch XD); and the week’s Dylan Board, with Gray taking a deadly ride on the One Piece pirate boat (which was AMAZINGLY well done, Dylan brought his ABSOLUTE A-game to constructing that thing), dodging crabs, falling fruit, angry birds, and his own tendency to fall into the ocean to get the fruit Discount Luffy needed (which immediately crushed and murdered him for the win). Fewer boards than perhaps normal, but all of them high quality, so I will more than take it. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice – Got the six posts of the Chill Valicer Save update queued up for tomorrow (as a reminder, that covers the “family reunion” I played – cripes, a MONTH back at this time of writing – to unlock the picture frames), AND added my “Discoveries” snippet of my Valicer In The Dark AU (aka Where All The Exposition Lives as Victor explains things to Emily, Nanny explains how Victoria’s already married to them, and Alice chimes in at the end with some carefully-phrased explanation about how her family tree died) as an upcoming AU Thursday post! :D So that makes me happy. :) I’ll settle Friday and Saturday tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – Just had two ask replies to put into the queue (about book-banning and how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, unless that cover is human flesh) – nice and simple!
Not too shabby -- but now I must get to bed and hopefully get some better sleep than I got last night. We shall see, though. . .night all!
