Recovery Thursday
Aug. 8th, 2024 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWent to visit Dad in the hospital this morning, a little while after getting up -- he was doing okay at the time, though in pain from the incision and dealing with some breathing issues. According to Mom (who spent most of the day with him, as you might expect), he was doing better by this evening though, drinking apple juice and able to move from the chair back to the bed, so that's good. Hopefully the improvement continues tomorrow! *fingers crossed* Anyway, I spent the majority of the day alone at home again, getting through a few things --
Tumblr: Didn’t get much done on here, as to be expected (since I went to visit Dad in the morning, and my afternoon was largely spent bumming around doing other stuff), but I did make sure to reblog Moose’s latest two McFly July fics (about why Jennifer’s house has a porch swing – her dad put it up for her as a birthday present after they moved there, since he knew she really wanted one – and Marty worrying about his siblings getting erased from existence during his initial week in 1955 and feeling guilty about every time he said he wished they didn’t exist :( ) over on Victor Luvs Alice. So that’s not nothing. Maybe I’ll be able to do some more drafts of potential posts over there (or get an ask I can actually answer over Valice Multiverse) tomorrow – we’ll see!
Portal Reloaded: Yes, I wasn’t feeling another round of working on the MOJ in the Sims 4 today (ironically, this coincided with them releasing ANOTHER patch to fix all the bugs introduced with the pre-Lovestruck patch and Lovestruck itself), so instead I decided to load up this old fan-game mod for Portal 2! This is the one where you play as Test Subject 4509, a redheaded Chell variant (I have taken to calling her “El” to go with “Chell” and “Mel” from the other popular Portal 2 fan-game Portal Stories: Mel), who is woken up to participate in special tests involving a time-travel portal as well as the standard ones! The puzzles all involve going back and forth between the pristine present and the wrecked future, placing portals and playing with cubes in order to find the solution for each test chamber – and in which time period said solution will actually work. Always remember, future stuff – like cubes and portals – can be moved independently of their past selves, but moving past stuff will always reset the future selves! Which is something you WANT to happen every so often… Anyway, it’s a fun game, and I hadn’t played it in a while, so I wanted to give it another go-round. I’ve gotten through Chambers 1 through 10 so far – mostly on my own brainpower, though I had to look up walkthroughs for 9 and 10 after not QUITE being able to figure them out on my own. (Dealing with Emancipation Grids, which fizzle cubes and destroy placed portals, tends to screw me up, I’ve discovered.) I’ll probably play a bit more before my vacation ends – it doesn’t take that long to play, and it’s just nice to have another game option while I’m hanging out here at home!
Writing: Got another good chunk edited on “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of,” with Smiler briefly having to admit to having had some experience with asylums in the past (not as a patient, though), and Alice explaining how she had to kill the Queen of Hearts and restore Wonderland to get out of Rutledge Asylum – then explaining that, unfortunately, a mental illness can’t really be killed and thus she’s still got to deal with the bitch making comments. As she put it, the Queen lives again simply because “off with their heads” is occasionally the right course. :p I ended with Smiler talking about how their parents and the Advocates would surely help them...and then remembering that they’re all back in Silkshore, and they’re currently in Six Towers, on the other side of the city. XD Fortunately, the trio are about to stumble across a place that will become very very important to them in the future, and will offer at least a chance to stop wandering the streets in the present...
YouTube: Got to this later than I hoped for, but I still got a few things out of the Watch Later (since the only Subs upload was another GrayStillPlays compilation – planet-destroying games, nice) –
A) First up, we had the latest from Petey Plays It – “Complete Romance Consultant Career Guide | The Sims 4!” A look at the new ten-level career that comes with the Lovestruck pack, which has both regular “go to the work rabbithole” and work-from-home options. Petey went over the skills you’ll need to progress in the career (Romance (obviously), Charisma, and Logic); what work tasks you can expect to get to help improve your performance (both regular and work-from-home); and what new interactions and items you unlock by progressing through the career and eventually specializing into being a Matchmaker or a Relationship Counselor (it’s surprisingly less than you think – a lot of levels only give you a pay raise. Though you do get a nice certificate at Level 5, and if you’re a Relationship Counselor, delightfully tacky heart-and-lips-shaped furniture at Level 10). A good overview of what to expect if you decide to have your Sim enter this career!
B) And then we had the OXBoxtra lists for the week –
I. “7 Bad Endings You Can Easily Get by Accident: Commenter Edition” – Ellen and Andy talk more about bad endings you can just stumble into, as suggested by the commenters – at their new studio location! Yes, they actually have a BACKGROUND now, instead of just a white void. It’s WEIRD. XD Anyway – games with easily-obtainable bad endings included Dredge (where if you just give your artifacts to the collector instead of talking to some other, less-easy-to-find NPCs, you will summon an abomination that burns everything in the end), Detroit: Become Human (where if you’re not good at quick-time events, important characters will die and all androids will end up destroyed), and Blair Witch (where if you interact with a SINGLE collectible in the game, or kill your enemies, you become the very bad guy you sought to destroy at the end. And your beloved dog abandons you. Harsh). Makes me glad that I don’t actually play games with multiple endings that much!
II. “7 Times Developers Knew You Were Going to Try That” – Andy and Jane talk about those times when the developers had the foresight to know you were going to try some shit (with Mike waiting for them back at the old studio void XD). From Philomeen the deep gnome acknowledging if you use another character to steal the runepowder she’s threatening to blow up mid-conversation in Baldur’s Gate III (though according to one commenter, that was patched in later), to the fight with Theseus and Asterius the Minotaur getting new cutscenes if you manage to get and bring the “Yarn of Ariadne” itme to their arena in Hades (because that is the yarn Asterius’s half-sister used to guide Theseus to the minotaur in the original myth), to all of Snake’s allies lecturing him over the codec that “I know you think you can fake switching controller ports to confuse Screaming Mantis like you did Psycho Mantis back in the day, but changing the controller number just means you won’t be able to move” in Metal Gear Solid 4 (because the fourth wall is for scrubs – and apparently, how you actually beat her is by attacking specific dolls in the arena? I don’t know, the MGS series is confusing XD), these developers look at you and say “I knew you were gonna do that.” And it’s always great fun. XD (Well, unless you wear the helm of a specific enemy to a specific boss fight in Dark Souls 2, which in fact makes it much harder...)
Workout: Another night on the bike, pedaling my way through the following –
A) The end of the GSP Happy Wheels compilation “When you live a life of constant suffering!” Featuring Gray participating in a downhill “tonk” race into some spikes; Segway Nixon playing non-copyright-infringing “Angry Fowl;” Bike Dad taking a ride down the very violent Cliff Street; and Bike Dad taking Tom Hardy to school, only to have to deal with spinning spikes, freeze-wall report cards, falling pencils, and a woman who failed fourth grade 32 times. XD AKA an excellent summation of why we love Happy Wheels!
B) The first half or so of “I have no time to myself in the Every Life Stage Challenge! - Part 3” by James Turner! We’re back to the series where James is trying to get one of each life stage living in the same house, and let me tell you, Semaj is SUFFERING. Mostly because he cannot get any sleep between one or both of his kids (Krystoff the infant and Pablo the newborn) needing him for something. It’s rough, being a single parent to two small children – and things are only going to get rougher from here as he seeks out new baby mamas! He did accomplish a few things, though:
I. Thanks to James deciding that Krystoff needed to live on his play mat for a while until Semaj had the funds for a new room (so that his crying wouldn’t wake Pablo, and Pablo’s crying wouldn’t wake Krystoff), and Semaj managing to fit in a bit of tummy time with the kid on said mat, Krystoff has gotten the milestones “Reach” and “Lift Head!” Meaning he’s a little bit closer to being able to age up. (Kiddo also got another social milestone, but I don’t recall what that was off the top of my head.)
II. Semaj completed another gig, starring as a vampire pirate in an episode of a long-running pirate-themed TV series! He did well and got a good chunk of change from his appearance...but, thanks to his exhaustion, he also picked up a dislike of acting. James was thoroughly annoyed. XD This is what happens when you can’t keep up with your Sim’s needs while they’re doing the activities you want them to love!
III. Using the money he picked up from the gig, Semaj was finally able to add another room onto the house for Krystoff! As per his wheel-spins, it had to have a French Country theme with a red color scheme and include something relating to painting – James found a nice red French Country wallpaper, threw in some nice curtains (on the singular window), gave the kid a drawing table for when he became a child, and put up various red decorations so Semaj could officially spend $1,000 on kid’s stuff. Meaning Krystoff has a room and Semaj has completed an aspiration task, yay. :) We’ll see if the kids having their own rooms helps Semaj out at all or not, and how the eventual trip to Plumbite Pier with an infant goes (since James has to do that as a “family activity”), tomorrow!
Yeah, not too shabby -- I at least accomplished everything I hoped to accomplish today! Tomorrow is probably going to be much like today in terms of what happens -- goals include getting a bit of tumblr drafting done if possible; playing either Sims 4 and doing more building, or more Portal Reloaded; working some more on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" keeping up with Gray and trying to get more videos out of my Watch Later; and finishing up my workouts for the week. We'll see what happens! Main hope is just that Dad continues to improve -- night all!
Tumblr: Didn’t get much done on here, as to be expected (since I went to visit Dad in the morning, and my afternoon was largely spent bumming around doing other stuff), but I did make sure to reblog Moose’s latest two McFly July fics (about why Jennifer’s house has a porch swing – her dad put it up for her as a birthday present after they moved there, since he knew she really wanted one – and Marty worrying about his siblings getting erased from existence during his initial week in 1955 and feeling guilty about every time he said he wished they didn’t exist :( ) over on Victor Luvs Alice. So that’s not nothing. Maybe I’ll be able to do some more drafts of potential posts over there (or get an ask I can actually answer over Valice Multiverse) tomorrow – we’ll see!
Portal Reloaded: Yes, I wasn’t feeling another round of working on the MOJ in the Sims 4 today (ironically, this coincided with them releasing ANOTHER patch to fix all the bugs introduced with the pre-Lovestruck patch and Lovestruck itself), so instead I decided to load up this old fan-game mod for Portal 2! This is the one where you play as Test Subject 4509, a redheaded Chell variant (I have taken to calling her “El” to go with “Chell” and “Mel” from the other popular Portal 2 fan-game Portal Stories: Mel), who is woken up to participate in special tests involving a time-travel portal as well as the standard ones! The puzzles all involve going back and forth between the pristine present and the wrecked future, placing portals and playing with cubes in order to find the solution for each test chamber – and in which time period said solution will actually work. Always remember, future stuff – like cubes and portals – can be moved independently of their past selves, but moving past stuff will always reset the future selves! Which is something you WANT to happen every so often… Anyway, it’s a fun game, and I hadn’t played it in a while, so I wanted to give it another go-round. I’ve gotten through Chambers 1 through 10 so far – mostly on my own brainpower, though I had to look up walkthroughs for 9 and 10 after not QUITE being able to figure them out on my own. (Dealing with Emancipation Grids, which fizzle cubes and destroy placed portals, tends to screw me up, I’ve discovered.) I’ll probably play a bit more before my vacation ends – it doesn’t take that long to play, and it’s just nice to have another game option while I’m hanging out here at home!
Writing: Got another good chunk edited on “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of,” with Smiler briefly having to admit to having had some experience with asylums in the past (not as a patient, though), and Alice explaining how she had to kill the Queen of Hearts and restore Wonderland to get out of Rutledge Asylum – then explaining that, unfortunately, a mental illness can’t really be killed and thus she’s still got to deal with the bitch making comments. As she put it, the Queen lives again simply because “off with their heads” is occasionally the right course. :p I ended with Smiler talking about how their parents and the Advocates would surely help them...and then remembering that they’re all back in Silkshore, and they’re currently in Six Towers, on the other side of the city. XD Fortunately, the trio are about to stumble across a place that will become very very important to them in the future, and will offer at least a chance to stop wandering the streets in the present...
YouTube: Got to this later than I hoped for, but I still got a few things out of the Watch Later (since the only Subs upload was another GrayStillPlays compilation – planet-destroying games, nice) –
A) First up, we had the latest from Petey Plays It – “Complete Romance Consultant Career Guide | The Sims 4!” A look at the new ten-level career that comes with the Lovestruck pack, which has both regular “go to the work rabbithole” and work-from-home options. Petey went over the skills you’ll need to progress in the career (Romance (obviously), Charisma, and Logic); what work tasks you can expect to get to help improve your performance (both regular and work-from-home); and what new interactions and items you unlock by progressing through the career and eventually specializing into being a Matchmaker or a Relationship Counselor (it’s surprisingly less than you think – a lot of levels only give you a pay raise. Though you do get a nice certificate at Level 5, and if you’re a Relationship Counselor, delightfully tacky heart-and-lips-shaped furniture at Level 10). A good overview of what to expect if you decide to have your Sim enter this career!
B) And then we had the OXBoxtra lists for the week –
I. “7 Bad Endings You Can Easily Get by Accident: Commenter Edition” – Ellen and Andy talk more about bad endings you can just stumble into, as suggested by the commenters – at their new studio location! Yes, they actually have a BACKGROUND now, instead of just a white void. It’s WEIRD. XD Anyway – games with easily-obtainable bad endings included Dredge (where if you just give your artifacts to the collector instead of talking to some other, less-easy-to-find NPCs, you will summon an abomination that burns everything in the end), Detroit: Become Human (where if you’re not good at quick-time events, important characters will die and all androids will end up destroyed), and Blair Witch (where if you interact with a SINGLE collectible in the game, or kill your enemies, you become the very bad guy you sought to destroy at the end. And your beloved dog abandons you. Harsh). Makes me glad that I don’t actually play games with multiple endings that much!
II. “7 Times Developers Knew You Were Going to Try That” – Andy and Jane talk about those times when the developers had the foresight to know you were going to try some shit (with Mike waiting for them back at the old studio void XD). From Philomeen the deep gnome acknowledging if you use another character to steal the runepowder she’s threatening to blow up mid-conversation in Baldur’s Gate III (though according to one commenter, that was patched in later), to the fight with Theseus and Asterius the Minotaur getting new cutscenes if you manage to get and bring the “Yarn of Ariadne” itme to their arena in Hades (because that is the yarn Asterius’s half-sister used to guide Theseus to the minotaur in the original myth), to all of Snake’s allies lecturing him over the codec that “I know you think you can fake switching controller ports to confuse Screaming Mantis like you did Psycho Mantis back in the day, but changing the controller number just means you won’t be able to move” in Metal Gear Solid 4 (because the fourth wall is for scrubs – and apparently, how you actually beat her is by attacking specific dolls in the arena? I don’t know, the MGS series is confusing XD), these developers look at you and say “I knew you were gonna do that.” And it’s always great fun. XD (Well, unless you wear the helm of a specific enemy to a specific boss fight in Dark Souls 2, which in fact makes it much harder...)
Workout: Another night on the bike, pedaling my way through the following –
A) The end of the GSP Happy Wheels compilation “When you live a life of constant suffering!” Featuring Gray participating in a downhill “tonk” race into some spikes; Segway Nixon playing non-copyright-infringing “Angry Fowl;” Bike Dad taking a ride down the very violent Cliff Street; and Bike Dad taking Tom Hardy to school, only to have to deal with spinning spikes, freeze-wall report cards, falling pencils, and a woman who failed fourth grade 32 times. XD AKA an excellent summation of why we love Happy Wheels!
B) The first half or so of “I have no time to myself in the Every Life Stage Challenge! - Part 3” by James Turner! We’re back to the series where James is trying to get one of each life stage living in the same house, and let me tell you, Semaj is SUFFERING. Mostly because he cannot get any sleep between one or both of his kids (Krystoff the infant and Pablo the newborn) needing him for something. It’s rough, being a single parent to two small children – and things are only going to get rougher from here as he seeks out new baby mamas! He did accomplish a few things, though:
I. Thanks to James deciding that Krystoff needed to live on his play mat for a while until Semaj had the funds for a new room (so that his crying wouldn’t wake Pablo, and Pablo’s crying wouldn’t wake Krystoff), and Semaj managing to fit in a bit of tummy time with the kid on said mat, Krystoff has gotten the milestones “Reach” and “Lift Head!” Meaning he’s a little bit closer to being able to age up. (Kiddo also got another social milestone, but I don’t recall what that was off the top of my head.)
II. Semaj completed another gig, starring as a vampire pirate in an episode of a long-running pirate-themed TV series! He did well and got a good chunk of change from his appearance...but, thanks to his exhaustion, he also picked up a dislike of acting. James was thoroughly annoyed. XD This is what happens when you can’t keep up with your Sim’s needs while they’re doing the activities you want them to love!
III. Using the money he picked up from the gig, Semaj was finally able to add another room onto the house for Krystoff! As per his wheel-spins, it had to have a French Country theme with a red color scheme and include something relating to painting – James found a nice red French Country wallpaper, threw in some nice curtains (on the singular window), gave the kid a drawing table for when he became a child, and put up various red decorations so Semaj could officially spend $1,000 on kid’s stuff. Meaning Krystoff has a room and Semaj has completed an aspiration task, yay. :) We’ll see if the kids having their own rooms helps Semaj out at all or not, and how the eventual trip to Plumbite Pier with an infant goes (since James has to do that as a “family activity”), tomorrow!
Yeah, not too shabby -- I at least accomplished everything I hoped to accomplish today! Tomorrow is probably going to be much like today in terms of what happens -- goals include getting a bit of tumblr drafting done if possible; playing either Sims 4 and doing more building, or more Portal Reloaded; working some more on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" keeping up with Gray and trying to get more videos out of my Watch Later; and finishing up my workouts for the week. We'll see what happens! Main hope is just that Dad continues to improve -- night all!
