Fairly Decent Friday
Jan. 26th, 2024 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWhich I appreciate, as it starts the weekend on a good note. It wasn't perfect (no workday is), but at least I didn't end it quite as annoyed as I did yesterday --
Work – Better day today, fortunately – I kept busy in the morning with stuff like the GL and checking on failed payments and suchlike, and did some puzzles in between helping out with calls and such in the afternoon (more credit card nonsense, of course). And the credit card people actually DID fix yesterday’s major nonsense, so that was at least SOMETHING. Very glad to have that sorted, at least for now. We’ll see how everything goes moving forward. . .not my problem for two days, though!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – last night on the bike this week, with a couple more Baldur’s Gate 3-focused videos –
A) “BG3 - 10 Things I Wish I Knew Sooner! ( Baldur's Gate 3 )” by Lucky Ghost! Another video of tips and tricks for people new to the game, it included information like “if you pan the camera around and then click and hold the left mouse button, not only will it return you to the character you’re controlling, you can also move them around and have the camera follow them as long as you’re holding the left mouse button;” “if you get a failed Perception check out in the world and have a shovel, just start digging – you might still find the buried treasure the game was trying to tell you about;” “you don’t have to travel to a waypoint to fast travel to ANOTHER waypoint – you can just open up the map screen;” “you have an option to send camp supplies directly to your camp if you right-click on them, save yourself the carry capacity;” “make sure to approach battles tactically, and always look to see if the enemies are standing on exploding barrels;” “don’t forget to make good use of both short AND long rests – seriously, do not skimp on the latter, the game will be giving you PLENTY of camp supplies;” “abuse the Guidance cantrip to help with your dice rolls, either by having Shadowheart around (she already knows it and will cast it on you if she’s part of the party) or by finding this specific pendant that lets you personally cast it;” and “examine enemies to learn their strengths and weaknesses.” *nods* All good stuff that I am now glad to know – though, admittedly, I’d already figured out the “Guidance” cantrip thing. XD But yes, good tips indeed.
B) “Baldur's Gate 3: The BEST DnD 5e Mods | Races, Classes, Spells” by Tibone! A short video on some D&D 5e-focused mods that he enjoys – specifically the “Fantastical Multiverse” mod that adds more playable races and subraces to the game (like adding sea elves, bugbears, minotaurs, etc – plus a race or two from one of the later Final Fantasy games XD); the ever-important “5e Spells” mod that adds a bunch more spells to the game (this mod is how my Smiler got “Mind Sliver” as their Half-High Elf cantrip); and the “Cleric Subclasses – Release” mod which adds a bunch more, well, Cleric subclasses (or “Domains” as they are called – you can get stuff like “Death Domain,” “Forge Domain,” “Twilight Domain,” etc). All good stuff, especially if you want more race variation or better clerics – and “5e Spells” is REALLY great for adding new spells to the game, and a lot of other mods are enhanced by that, so I would DEFINITELY recommend picking that one up if you buy BG3!
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – back to the vampire reality today, with Alice following Rabbit to The Last Round, only to get a pretty shitty greeting by Skelter. Seriously, dude is so rude when you first walk in – and even ruder if you’re a Malkavian. There are reasons that Alice goes independent at the end instead of siding with the Anarchs, and Skelter’s shitty first impression is one of them. But she’s doing her best to get past that (and him) so she can go see Nines – left it with the reappearance of Smilin’ Jack on the scene, ready to get caught up on his brief protege’s Santa Monica adventures. XD Should be fun!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus, thanks to getting in a short bonus video –
A) First, from my actual Subs, we had GrayStillPlays and “When food causes endless pain,” aka Gray plays Sandwich Runner! You know those “runner” mobile games he used to play all the time, where you’re going around a course collecting things and trying to get as much of something to meet a specific goal? Well, in this particular one, he was a sandwich, and he was collecting sandwich ingredients (which ranged from the standard, like cheese, tomato, lettuce, and various meats, to the bizarre, like poop, old socks, fish skeletons, and KRAKEN HEADS) to make bigger and bigger Dagwood-style sandwiches to dump into the mouth of a weird misshapen head at the end of the course, getting absurdly long special names for each sandwich and earning stars and money for them. The money could then in turn be used to unlock new bread types and buy new heads to dump food into. Gray’s journey through the game started at “what happens if I make this head eat a sandwich that is entirely chili peppers or poop” and ended with “I MUST GET ALL THE THINGS AND EARN ALL THE MONEY SO I CAN BUY ENOUGH AVOCADOS TO UNLOCK THIS WEIRD BRONZE HEAD THING OVER HERE.” XD Not that he ever stopped feeding the guy poop, you understand – no, the sandwiches just picked up more and more garbage as Gray grabbed as much stuff as possible to later sell at the shop for money to exchange for avocados to unlock his special head. XD It was a very weird little game, but it was definitely fun to see Gray play it. And to see just how long the names for all the different sandwiches he made got. XD
B) And then, on a recommendation from WeirdKev from tumblr, I also watched “Would you raise the baby that ate your siblings? - Francesca Barbero,” a TEDtalk video about the lifecycle of a specific parasitic butterfly whose caterpillar form mimics a baby queen ant through certain noises and pheromones in order to be adopted by an ant colony, basically. It also touched upon other parasitic caterpillars, like one that essentially brainwashes ants into being protective zombies via getting them to eat the sugary secretions it oozes out. *shakehead* Insects are EXCEEDINGLY weird, man.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing going on over on Victor Luvs Alice again, but over on Valice Multiverse, Marie managed to come back to answer at least one thread (one where her character Madeline is hoping to get a free ride to the Land of the Dead with an OC I made up for this purpose, Clarence, to meet her Liddell grandparents and aunt, since, you know, she can’t meet them any other way!) – stuck my answer in the queue! So that’s sorted. :)
*nods* Not bad. And now I should get to bed, as it's a Cleaning Saturday AND Mom's Birthday tomorrow, and thus it would probably behoove me not to stay up all night. :p Other planned activities include working more on "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland," getting some videos out of my Watch Later, and either doing some building over in Sims 4 or doing inventory management and lute-playing in camp in Baldur's Gate III. We'll see which way the pendulum swings. Night all!
Work – Better day today, fortunately – I kept busy in the morning with stuff like the GL and checking on failed payments and suchlike, and did some puzzles in between helping out with calls and such in the afternoon (more credit card nonsense, of course). And the credit card people actually DID fix yesterday’s major nonsense, so that was at least SOMETHING. Very glad to have that sorted, at least for now. We’ll see how everything goes moving forward. . .not my problem for two days, though!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – last night on the bike this week, with a couple more Baldur’s Gate 3-focused videos –
A) “BG3 - 10 Things I Wish I Knew Sooner! ( Baldur's Gate 3 )” by Lucky Ghost! Another video of tips and tricks for people new to the game, it included information like “if you pan the camera around and then click and hold the left mouse button, not only will it return you to the character you’re controlling, you can also move them around and have the camera follow them as long as you’re holding the left mouse button;” “if you get a failed Perception check out in the world and have a shovel, just start digging – you might still find the buried treasure the game was trying to tell you about;” “you don’t have to travel to a waypoint to fast travel to ANOTHER waypoint – you can just open up the map screen;” “you have an option to send camp supplies directly to your camp if you right-click on them, save yourself the carry capacity;” “make sure to approach battles tactically, and always look to see if the enemies are standing on exploding barrels;” “don’t forget to make good use of both short AND long rests – seriously, do not skimp on the latter, the game will be giving you PLENTY of camp supplies;” “abuse the Guidance cantrip to help with your dice rolls, either by having Shadowheart around (she already knows it and will cast it on you if she’s part of the party) or by finding this specific pendant that lets you personally cast it;” and “examine enemies to learn their strengths and weaknesses.” *nods* All good stuff that I am now glad to know – though, admittedly, I’d already figured out the “Guidance” cantrip thing. XD But yes, good tips indeed.
B) “Baldur's Gate 3: The BEST DnD 5e Mods | Races, Classes, Spells” by Tibone! A short video on some D&D 5e-focused mods that he enjoys – specifically the “Fantastical Multiverse” mod that adds more playable races and subraces to the game (like adding sea elves, bugbears, minotaurs, etc – plus a race or two from one of the later Final Fantasy games XD); the ever-important “5e Spells” mod that adds a bunch more spells to the game (this mod is how my Smiler got “Mind Sliver” as their Half-High Elf cantrip); and the “Cleric Subclasses – Release” mod which adds a bunch more, well, Cleric subclasses (or “Domains” as they are called – you can get stuff like “Death Domain,” “Forge Domain,” “Twilight Domain,” etc). All good stuff, especially if you want more race variation or better clerics – and “5e Spells” is REALLY great for adding new spells to the game, and a lot of other mods are enhanced by that, so I would DEFINITELY recommend picking that one up if you buy BG3!
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – back to the vampire reality today, with Alice following Rabbit to The Last Round, only to get a pretty shitty greeting by Skelter. Seriously, dude is so rude when you first walk in – and even ruder if you’re a Malkavian. There are reasons that Alice goes independent at the end instead of siding with the Anarchs, and Skelter’s shitty first impression is one of them. But she’s doing her best to get past that (and him) so she can go see Nines – left it with the reappearance of Smilin’ Jack on the scene, ready to get caught up on his brief protege’s Santa Monica adventures. XD Should be fun!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus, thanks to getting in a short bonus video –
A) First, from my actual Subs, we had GrayStillPlays and “When food causes endless pain,” aka Gray plays Sandwich Runner! You know those “runner” mobile games he used to play all the time, where you’re going around a course collecting things and trying to get as much of something to meet a specific goal? Well, in this particular one, he was a sandwich, and he was collecting sandwich ingredients (which ranged from the standard, like cheese, tomato, lettuce, and various meats, to the bizarre, like poop, old socks, fish skeletons, and KRAKEN HEADS) to make bigger and bigger Dagwood-style sandwiches to dump into the mouth of a weird misshapen head at the end of the course, getting absurdly long special names for each sandwich and earning stars and money for them. The money could then in turn be used to unlock new bread types and buy new heads to dump food into. Gray’s journey through the game started at “what happens if I make this head eat a sandwich that is entirely chili peppers or poop” and ended with “I MUST GET ALL THE THINGS AND EARN ALL THE MONEY SO I CAN BUY ENOUGH AVOCADOS TO UNLOCK THIS WEIRD BRONZE HEAD THING OVER HERE.” XD Not that he ever stopped feeding the guy poop, you understand – no, the sandwiches just picked up more and more garbage as Gray grabbed as much stuff as possible to later sell at the shop for money to exchange for avocados to unlock his special head. XD It was a very weird little game, but it was definitely fun to see Gray play it. And to see just how long the names for all the different sandwiches he made got. XD
B) And then, on a recommendation from WeirdKev from tumblr, I also watched “Would you raise the baby that ate your siblings? - Francesca Barbero,” a TEDtalk video about the lifecycle of a specific parasitic butterfly whose caterpillar form mimics a baby queen ant through certain noises and pheromones in order to be adopted by an ant colony, basically. It also touched upon other parasitic caterpillars, like one that essentially brainwashes ants into being protective zombies via getting them to eat the sugary secretions it oozes out. *shakehead* Insects are EXCEEDINGLY weird, man.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing going on over on Victor Luvs Alice again, but over on Valice Multiverse, Marie managed to come back to answer at least one thread (one where her character Madeline is hoping to get a free ride to the Land of the Dead with an OC I made up for this purpose, Clarence, to meet her Liddell grandparents and aunt, since, you know, she can’t meet them any other way!) – stuck my answer in the queue! So that’s sorted. :)
*nods* Not bad. And now I should get to bed, as it's a Cleaning Saturday AND Mom's Birthday tomorrow, and thus it would probably behoove me not to stay up all night. :p Other planned activities include working more on "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland," getting some videos out of my Watch Later, and either doing some building over in Sims 4 or doing inventory management and lute-playing in camp in Baldur's Gate III. We'll see which way the pendulum swings. Night all!
