Decently Productive Friday
Jul. 26th, 2024 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickMmm -- maybe not my MOST productive Friday, but I feel like I was able to use my extra afternoon hours well, catching up on stuff that needed to be caught up on --
Work – Quiet day, I am pleased to say – one of my coworkers was out, and the other one was busy with a project, meaning I could just get on with things. I did the GL, I looked through the failed credit card payments, I checked a few obituaries and updated profiles, I was annoyingly delayed in starting my lunch by a credit card update, and I put on the checks that came in the day’s mail before heading home right on time. *nods* Quite the improvement over LAST Friday!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week, pedaling through the following –
A) The second half of “I have two babies and many regrets in the Every Life Stage Challenge! - Part 2” by James Turner! Featuring Semaj becoming active, fending off more advances from Bernice, aging Krsytoff into a Sunny infant (who unfortunately is also very gassy and sneezes a lot), and welcoming his next son, Pablo (chosen by the in-game randomizer because James forgot to ask for baby name suggestions last episode), into the world before kicking Mei out –
And becoming the world’s most tired man as he found himself without any time to sleep between taking care of a newborn and an infant. XD Doesn’t help that his bed is pretty shitty too… But yeah, even with just two kids in the house and a lot of Parenting skill, he is STRUGGLING. Not helping matters is that he has like no money right now – while James can help him out by dragging dirty diapers and used bottles to the magical money-giving trashcan, and he’s picked up some dust bunnies in his house that can occasionally find him stuff like big old eggplants to sell, he still hasn’t gotten enough to build Krystoff the red French Country painting-themed bedroom that James’s beloved wheels have demanded he make (as James is spinning up every kid’s favorite color, décor style, and hobby to make things more interesting as they age up). He barely had enough to adjust the current nursery and extend the hallway to the other side of the house! Fortunately, despite his continuous exhaustion, he did pass his latest audition, so he’s got a gig coming up that could earn him and his slowly-growing family the cash they need to survive and thrive. If only he can stay awake for it… We’ll see what happens in Part 3!
B) The entirety of “11 Ways To Improve Gameplay For Children And Teenagers | The Sims 4 Guide” by Petey Plays It! As indicated by the title, this was a list of ways to help give kids and teenagers in this game more to do (as it is basically a “young adult” life simulator). Suggestions involved having kids start specific collections that went with their personalities (and not just the Voidcritter cards either – fossils, crystals, and all sorts of other stuff is on the table); picking up specific skill-building hobbies (musical instruments are a classic); joining after-school activities (just Scouts and Drama Club, though – this was clearly done before High School Years added a few teenager-specific options); and attending festivals (the Festival of Youth in Mt. Komorebi is a must!). Oh, and finding ways to reduce homework time so kids and teens have more time to do cool stuff (being mentored and joining a homework club work wonders). Good stuff for the family players in the Sims 4 world!
2. Continue editing “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of”: Check – things have turned from bad to worse for the trio, with the discovery of the partially-melted remains of a Spirit Warden mask on Barkis’s corpse. Spirit Wardens are a big deal in Duskwall, being the first and best line of defense against the ghostly menace threatening everyone, so being found near a dead one, especially one you just claimed was killed by a ghost he himself murdered…well, maybe it’s understandable that Tannen immediately decided that Alice and Smiler were the ones who killed the guy. Not good, but understandable. Fortunately for Alice and Smiler, Victor is more than willing to speak up in their defense – unfortunately, it’s soon going to come to light that he’s lacking a very important piece of “evidence” in that defense… (Specifically, remember how I highlighted before that he forgot his wallet when he left his house earlier?)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – used my afternoon off to catch up fully with all the non-compilation videos in the old Subs, in fact –
A) First up, we had a double dose of GrayStill Plays, with –
I. The weirdly-long video from Tuesday – “DO NOT download this game,” aka Gray plays KinitoPET! A psychological horror game about being a computer owner in 1999 with one of those desktop assistant things that the game forces you to download by spamming your virtual desktop with pop-up ads until it crashes. XD Kinito Pet (who is a pink orb that’s supposed to be an axolotl balanced on two long spindly black legs) just wants to be your absolutely bestest friend in the whole wide world – he’ll send you to play games with his other friends (where you can drag a dead body in a body bag into Sam’s room, and click on a beating heart in Jade’s toy factory, both of which trigger jumpscares – not to mention how this creepy fucker plays hide-and-seek); try to get to know you better through a “best friends” quiz (where you can draw weird pictures, learn that he knows you’re recording him, get to show off your face (except Gray’s camera was unplugged, haha), and have him learn your location (though the game is polite enough not to actually doxx you if you’re recording – he’ll just note that he COULD); and even make you a whole virtual world based on what he’s learned about you (complete with a funfair, a house with all your favorite games, and no option to leave)! ...Yeah, basically, if you’ve played Doki Doki Literature Club or – what’s that “computer buddy” game Kevin played – Buddy Simulator 1984, that’s right – you know what’s up with Kinito – he’s a virtual creature obsessed with being your friend, and he will do anything to keep you with him. I honestly didn’t find the game that scary, though that’s probably because 1, Gray was playing it and he never takes anything seriously; 2, I’m used to this bullshit because I’ve seen LPs of the two previously aforementioned games (and now I want to see Kinito, Monika, and Buddy all duke it out for the player’s love); and 3 – I did actually do the “scrolling down to only see a tiny bit of the screen” thing I tend to do whenever I might be hit with too freaky a jumpscare. Because I know me. XD But yeah, I’m glad I had the extra time today to watch this, and I’m looking forward to any follow-ups Gray might do! Because apparently we haven’t actually reached a proper ending yet…
II. And today’s much shorter video – “Hitting random countries with a 1000000 Gw laser,” aka Gray plays – Universe Sandbox 2? Yes, apparently laseringEarth Target Practice is something you can do in this game too, and not just Solar Smash! Hell, it gives you options ranging from your standard laser pointer to the Galactic Empire superlaser. XD Gray decided that he would start with a 100km radius laser with 10 kilowatts of power, then start pumping it up to ridiculous levels as he lasered random countries chosen by a random country generator (because we have generators for everything on the internet). For about the first half of the video, his lasers didn’t do anything to places like the Philippines, Nauru (off the coast of Australia), and Madagascar – it didn’t even raise the temperature. It wasn’t until Gray got himself a 100,000 zettawatt (ZW) laser and fired it at poor Nigeria that anything major happened –
But when it happened, it HAPPENED. That particular hit created a crater so giant it basically flooded most of the rest of the continent and changed the landscape of Africa forever (Gray likened it to the Earth having a big old pimple). Venezuela got off a bit lighter despite getting hit with a more powerful laser (not as big an impact crater, though the heat was off the charts), but the rest of the countries Gray hit – including Turkey and Croatia (though apparently he actually hit Hungary according to the comments), and the entire top half of the planet when Gray did an oopsie – did not have good days as Gray just kept adding more and more zeros to his ZW laser. Culminating in him going as powerful as the game would let him go, hitting Sao Tome and Principe off the coast of Africa (or, well, at the edge of the crater that was once Africa), briefly achieving Positive Infinity temperature, and basically vaporizing Earth. XD The only named particle left was like 4 centimeters big. XD So yeah, lasering the earth is safe until a certain point, and then it gets REAL BAD, REAL FAST. Good to know!
B) And then, after Game Night (Trivial Pursuit, Mom won after lagging behind me and Dad for quite a while) and dessert, we had today’s Josh Way offering – “STREAM TIME: Beverly Hills Cop - Axel F!” Which was kind of a double review of the original Beverly Hills Cop and its new fourth installment/legacy-sequel-reboot thing, Axel F! Josh’s thoughts on both could be summed up as “original still MOSTLY holds up, it’s funny and a good romp, even if it’s nowhere NEAR as edgy as we thought it was when it first came out” and “this new one is fine for what it is, excellent homage to the original, but you can see how creaky some of the jokes are and they can’t seem to decide if Eddie Murphy is still cool or old and out-of-touch” respectively. He only recommends the latter if you’ve seen the former and are already a fan of the franchise. So – yeah. If you’re a Beverly Hills Cop fan, new one is apparently worth checking out; if not, then give it a skip!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, or as check as possible under the circumstances –
Victor Luvs Alice – No queuing stuff for me to do over here tonight, but I did reblog some things – someone’s virtual tour of a vintage 1956 house with original furniture and appliances (reminded me soooo much of Fallout 4 and Sanctuary Hills...and I loved how all the bathroom fixtures and kitchen appliances were fun bright colors); a post about listening to a song and having a music video for your favorite characters pop into your head (SUCH a mood); Moose’s latest McFly July fic (featuring her adorable Doc Brown dad Emil sneaking a puppy into the house for his wife Sarah’s birthday :D); and a tumblr friend’s commission post. So that’s all good, at least.
Valice Multiverse – Nothing happening over here, so I just popped my latest set of Valicer In The Dark Not-Incorrect Quotes into the queue. *shrug* It’s something!
*nods* Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that -- means I'm all caught up on YouTube and suchlike for the weekend. :) As for tomorrow, it's a full-on Cleaning Saturday With Laundry (meh), so that's my morning done -- as for the afternoon, my hopes include playing Sims 4 in building mode and maybe finishing off the Ministry of Joy Nightclub (the recent patch has been -- glitchy, but I think I should be safe to build); working some more on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" keeping up with the latest GrayStillPlays nonsense; and maybe seeing if there's any tumblr drafting I can do (gotta decide on this week's Wednesday post, after all). We'll see how this all goes! Night all!
Work – Quiet day, I am pleased to say – one of my coworkers was out, and the other one was busy with a project, meaning I could just get on with things. I did the GL, I looked through the failed credit card payments, I checked a few obituaries and updated profiles, I was annoyingly delayed in starting my lunch by a credit card update, and I put on the checks that came in the day’s mail before heading home right on time. *nods* Quite the improvement over LAST Friday!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week, pedaling through the following –
A) The second half of “I have two babies and many regrets in the Every Life Stage Challenge! - Part 2” by James Turner! Featuring Semaj becoming active, fending off more advances from Bernice, aging Krsytoff into a Sunny infant (who unfortunately is also very gassy and sneezes a lot), and welcoming his next son, Pablo (chosen by the in-game randomizer because James forgot to ask for baby name suggestions last episode), into the world before kicking Mei out –
And becoming the world’s most tired man as he found himself without any time to sleep between taking care of a newborn and an infant. XD Doesn’t help that his bed is pretty shitty too… But yeah, even with just two kids in the house and a lot of Parenting skill, he is STRUGGLING. Not helping matters is that he has like no money right now – while James can help him out by dragging dirty diapers and used bottles to the magical money-giving trashcan, and he’s picked up some dust bunnies in his house that can occasionally find him stuff like big old eggplants to sell, he still hasn’t gotten enough to build Krystoff the red French Country painting-themed bedroom that James’s beloved wheels have demanded he make (as James is spinning up every kid’s favorite color, décor style, and hobby to make things more interesting as they age up). He barely had enough to adjust the current nursery and extend the hallway to the other side of the house! Fortunately, despite his continuous exhaustion, he did pass his latest audition, so he’s got a gig coming up that could earn him and his slowly-growing family the cash they need to survive and thrive. If only he can stay awake for it… We’ll see what happens in Part 3!
B) The entirety of “11 Ways To Improve Gameplay For Children And Teenagers | The Sims 4 Guide” by Petey Plays It! As indicated by the title, this was a list of ways to help give kids and teenagers in this game more to do (as it is basically a “young adult” life simulator). Suggestions involved having kids start specific collections that went with their personalities (and not just the Voidcritter cards either – fossils, crystals, and all sorts of other stuff is on the table); picking up specific skill-building hobbies (musical instruments are a classic); joining after-school activities (just Scouts and Drama Club, though – this was clearly done before High School Years added a few teenager-specific options); and attending festivals (the Festival of Youth in Mt. Komorebi is a must!). Oh, and finding ways to reduce homework time so kids and teens have more time to do cool stuff (being mentored and joining a homework club work wonders). Good stuff for the family players in the Sims 4 world!
2. Continue editing “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of”: Check – things have turned from bad to worse for the trio, with the discovery of the partially-melted remains of a Spirit Warden mask on Barkis’s corpse. Spirit Wardens are a big deal in Duskwall, being the first and best line of defense against the ghostly menace threatening everyone, so being found near a dead one, especially one you just claimed was killed by a ghost he himself murdered…well, maybe it’s understandable that Tannen immediately decided that Alice and Smiler were the ones who killed the guy. Not good, but understandable. Fortunately for Alice and Smiler, Victor is more than willing to speak up in their defense – unfortunately, it’s soon going to come to light that he’s lacking a very important piece of “evidence” in that defense… (Specifically, remember how I highlighted before that he forgot his wallet when he left his house earlier?)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – used my afternoon off to catch up fully with all the non-compilation videos in the old Subs, in fact –
A) First up, we had a double dose of GrayStill Plays, with –
I. The weirdly-long video from Tuesday – “DO NOT download this game,” aka Gray plays KinitoPET! A psychological horror game about being a computer owner in 1999 with one of those desktop assistant things that the game forces you to download by spamming your virtual desktop with pop-up ads until it crashes. XD Kinito Pet (who is a pink orb that’s supposed to be an axolotl balanced on two long spindly black legs) just wants to be your absolutely bestest friend in the whole wide world – he’ll send you to play games with his other friends (where you can drag a dead body in a body bag into Sam’s room, and click on a beating heart in Jade’s toy factory, both of which trigger jumpscares – not to mention how this creepy fucker plays hide-and-seek); try to get to know you better through a “best friends” quiz (where you can draw weird pictures, learn that he knows you’re recording him, get to show off your face (except Gray’s camera was unplugged, haha), and have him learn your location (though the game is polite enough not to actually doxx you if you’re recording – he’ll just note that he COULD); and even make you a whole virtual world based on what he’s learned about you (complete with a funfair, a house with all your favorite games, and no option to leave)! ...Yeah, basically, if you’ve played Doki Doki Literature Club or – what’s that “computer buddy” game Kevin played – Buddy Simulator 1984, that’s right – you know what’s up with Kinito – he’s a virtual creature obsessed with being your friend, and he will do anything to keep you with him. I honestly didn’t find the game that scary, though that’s probably because 1, Gray was playing it and he never takes anything seriously; 2, I’m used to this bullshit because I’ve seen LPs of the two previously aforementioned games (and now I want to see Kinito, Monika, and Buddy all duke it out for the player’s love); and 3 – I did actually do the “scrolling down to only see a tiny bit of the screen” thing I tend to do whenever I might be hit with too freaky a jumpscare. Because I know me. XD But yeah, I’m glad I had the extra time today to watch this, and I’m looking forward to any follow-ups Gray might do! Because apparently we haven’t actually reached a proper ending yet…
II. And today’s much shorter video – “Hitting random countries with a 1000000 Gw laser,” aka Gray plays – Universe Sandbox 2? Yes, apparently lasering
But when it happened, it HAPPENED. That particular hit created a crater so giant it basically flooded most of the rest of the continent and changed the landscape of Africa forever (Gray likened it to the Earth having a big old pimple). Venezuela got off a bit lighter despite getting hit with a more powerful laser (not as big an impact crater, though the heat was off the charts), but the rest of the countries Gray hit – including Turkey and Croatia (though apparently he actually hit Hungary according to the comments), and the entire top half of the planet when Gray did an oopsie – did not have good days as Gray just kept adding more and more zeros to his ZW laser. Culminating in him going as powerful as the game would let him go, hitting Sao Tome and Principe off the coast of Africa (or, well, at the edge of the crater that was once Africa), briefly achieving Positive Infinity temperature, and basically vaporizing Earth. XD The only named particle left was like 4 centimeters big. XD So yeah, lasering the earth is safe until a certain point, and then it gets REAL BAD, REAL FAST. Good to know!
B) And then, after Game Night (Trivial Pursuit, Mom won after lagging behind me and Dad for quite a while) and dessert, we had today’s Josh Way offering – “STREAM TIME: Beverly Hills Cop - Axel F!” Which was kind of a double review of the original Beverly Hills Cop and its new fourth installment/legacy-sequel-reboot thing, Axel F! Josh’s thoughts on both could be summed up as “original still MOSTLY holds up, it’s funny and a good romp, even if it’s nowhere NEAR as edgy as we thought it was when it first came out” and “this new one is fine for what it is, excellent homage to the original, but you can see how creaky some of the jokes are and they can’t seem to decide if Eddie Murphy is still cool or old and out-of-touch” respectively. He only recommends the latter if you’ve seen the former and are already a fan of the franchise. So – yeah. If you’re a Beverly Hills Cop fan, new one is apparently worth checking out; if not, then give it a skip!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, or as check as possible under the circumstances –
Victor Luvs Alice – No queuing stuff for me to do over here tonight, but I did reblog some things – someone’s virtual tour of a vintage 1956 house with original furniture and appliances (reminded me soooo much of Fallout 4 and Sanctuary Hills...and I loved how all the bathroom fixtures and kitchen appliances were fun bright colors); a post about listening to a song and having a music video for your favorite characters pop into your head (SUCH a mood); Moose’s latest McFly July fic (featuring her adorable Doc Brown dad Emil sneaking a puppy into the house for his wife Sarah’s birthday :D); and a tumblr friend’s commission post. So that’s all good, at least.
Valice Multiverse – Nothing happening over here, so I just popped my latest set of Valicer In The Dark Not-Incorrect Quotes into the queue. *shrug* It’s something!
*nods* Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that -- means I'm all caught up on YouTube and suchlike for the weekend. :) As for tomorrow, it's a full-on Cleaning Saturday With Laundry (meh), so that's my morning done -- as for the afternoon, my hopes include playing Sims 4 in building mode and maybe finishing off the Ministry of Joy Nightclub (the recent patch has been -- glitchy, but I think I should be safe to build); working some more on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" keeping up with the latest GrayStillPlays nonsense; and maybe seeing if there's any tumblr drafting I can do (gotta decide on this week's Wednesday post, after all). We'll see how this all goes! Night all!
