Decent Enough Friday
Aug. 16th, 2024 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWhile it wasn't perfect, it was one of those days that I can't really complain about either. I will tell you all about it in a second, but first, some important real-life news – Dad had his follow-up appointment with his doctor about the surgery today. Bad News – he did have colon cancer, and it was Stage 2. Good news – he currently does not have colon cancer because it was all cut out of him as part of the operation to remove the blockage, and they can’t find any evidence of it remaining in his body at this time. There will have to be follow-up on that, of course, BUT that has to wait until he’s healed up better from his surgery. So it’s not GREAT news, but it’s also far from the WORST news. Fingers crossed they really did get it all!
And now this:
Work – Another quiet half-Friday – especially since neither of my coworkers were in (one was on vacation this week, the other was taking a long weekend with a friend). I spent most of the day getting through the two GLs I had to do, then put some checks on, had lunch, sorted through the exceptions sent back from our processors, and got the obituaries out of the paper. *shrug* Nothing particularly exciting, but that’s fine by me!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week, which saw me pedal my way through –
A) The end of “I wish I didn't have twins in the Every Life Stage Challenge! - Part 4” by James Turner! The last chunk of this particular episode can be summed up via the following:
I. James does house reno! Which consisted of moving Krystoff’s stuff into a bigger room at the end of the hall; setting up Pablo’s new Brown Cosmolux Fitness room (with fun triangle wallpaper, a Blarfy bear, and some sports equipment on the floor) besides Krystoff’s; fixing the roof; and getting the basketball hoop set up on the side of the house, with a new “driveway” of terrain paint. Nice!
II. Semaj takes Krystoff and Pablo to the new rec center that replaced the dog park in Brindleton Bay while looking for a new science baby partner – and stumbles across Nalani! :D Who, if you will recall, was the first occult Sim the Semaj of the “Every Occult Challenge” recruited, and ended up marrying him (admittedly, because Semaj had gotten that “get married and get money” phone call, but the series ended with them throwing a lovely vow renewal atop the Howling Point in Moonwood Mill). James was totally on-board with Semaj and Nalani finding each other again for this challenge and brought her home to make friends and get her to agree to science baby times – after some cloudgazing, she was on board, and Semaj went off to the baby-making lab and brought home little Camillo! Who James could NOT recall the name of at all because the poor little dude was so new. XD He’ll learn it eventually, C!
III. Semaj mass ages-up his children! Krystoff became a Hot-Headed child; Pablo an Inquisitive toddler (with the same curly hair as his older half-brother had as a toddler); and Sunny and Vivienne Sensitive and Cautious infants respectively. James also spun the wheel for the next family activity – have a lovely little park day, awww :) Much better than being forced to eat the Bizarre Fruit in Strangerville, that’s for sure – and the wheels to determine the twins’ favorite styles, colors, and hobbies. Vivienne ended up with Industrial, Pink, and Writing, while Sunny got Island, Blue, and Pipe Organ. Like, in both cases, one of those things is not like the other. XD James did not update their new rooms to reflect their interests yet, though – that will be coming next episode, since James already felt like this one was running long. (James, you should see how long that last episode goes for...)
IV. Semaj struggles with taking photographs of his children! Because shortly after spinning the “park day” family activity, James realized “crap, I never did the ‘take pictures of my kids’ one” and set about making that right before the end of the episode. Which was, uh, difficult, because only two of the kids could be asked to pose (Krystoff and Pablo); Pablo looked vaguely demonic in all of his poses; and Semaj kept getting distracted by trying to take care of his kids every time James told him to take pictures of them. XD Not even Alice, Sunny and Vivienne’s other DNA donor, showing up helped, as she held Vivienne for all of two seconds before dumping her on the floor – Semaj and James just made do with that. XD
But yes, the episode ended with a successful age-up and Semaj probably feeling utterly overwhelmed by his choices in life. XD We’ll see later if the next episode goes any better for him!
B) And the entirety of “Backyard Stuff Pack Is FREE: Here's The Gameplay That It Offers” by Petey Plays It! A short four-minute look at the gameplay-related items in that stuff pack, back when it was being offered for free. Naturally, most of the video revolved around the amazing power of the flat backyard water slides that come with the pack to improve Fitness AND Mischief skill (adding soap to the slide gives Mischief a shockingly good boost), though Petey also took the time to mention the summer drinks tray (where you can make lemonade, citrus swig, and iced tea) and the bird feeder (which you can fill to attract low-poly birds to watch) that also come with the pack. Also the cute flower windmill light, since that’s just fun. :) If you’re into that sort of stuff, then this might be the pack for you!
2. Continue editing “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of”: Check – got to it after game night (which was a bit abbreviated tonight due to Dad being in pain and us trying to get takeout, only to suffer countless delays from the place we ordered from – not to mention the food ended up being not very good), with Smiler relaying to Victor and Alice how they were blessed in a dream by Mar-Mal after they invented Joy Serum, and that’s how they got their glowing eyes! ...and then having to admit that they’re the only one so blessed because the Advocates had to ask Mar-Mal to bless fewer people less enthusiastically because the FIRST group they blessed are basically giggling vegetables who don’t do anything on their own anymore. Victor and Alice were understandably a bit O.O about that, despite Smiler’s reassurances that THEY’RE fine. XD I ended off with Smiler explaining their purple-streaked hair is actually the result of another drug they’re working on, Giggler Gas, and they just like the look of it, and Victor being like “can we just keep exploring the house” to keep the conversation off awkward stuff like over-blessed Advocates. XD Tomorrow, the gang finds a pretty bed, and perhaps a pretty piano too, depending on how much I edit!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus – used my free afternoon to catch up with some stuff in my Watch Later as well as keeping up with the latest from Gray –
A) First up, we had “Jell-O Cake, Nuka Cola & Cram from Fallout | Binging with Babish!” Yes, because I watched that video about the dehydrated pizza from BTTF II, my Recommended section on YouTube keeps offering me other videos from Babish now – and as a Fallout 4 fan, I was intrigued enough by this one to add it to the Watch Later. Though it looks like this episode was inspired mainly by the Fallout Amazon TV series, as it featured a clip of a couple of the Vault 33 dwellers passing out Jell-O cake to people, and one encouraging his friend to slip off with the leftovers as she wanted it BAD. *shakehead* Girl, please, it’s a Horrible Future-50s Dessert… Anyway, Babish made his own version of the Jell-O cake using all shelf-stable ingredients and creating a homemade Jell-O from Kool-Aid powder (that turned out horribly as Babish realized Kool-Aid tastes a LOT worse than he remembered as a kid – the cake part was decent, though, and Babish was impressed by how hard the cake was to topple once he got all the Jell-O layers stacked), then followed that up with homemade Cram (which was a bunch of pork products turned into a sausage that was then turned into a couple of loaves that Babish ALMOST left out overnight when he forgot to put them in the fridge before going out to dinner – fortunately he saved them in time and was able to fry them up the next day to have with some salad and canned beans) and homemade Nuka-Cola (which only had seven of the seventeen fruit essences the game claims are in it BUT he drank the damn thing out of a genuine URANIUM GLASS so I think he can be forgiven for forgetting the other ten O.O). Fun stuff, even if I’m not sure I’d want to actually eat any of it! XD (Ignore my Sole Survivor Victor’s food-hoarding ways.)
B) Then it was time for the OXBox list of the week – “7 Times You Screwed Your Entire Playthrough With a Single Decision at the Start!” Jane and Andy discussing the seemingly-inconsequential decisions you can make at the start of your game that can TOTALLY screw you over later. From failing to examine a suit of samurai armor in your aunt and uncle’s house right after finding a zombie leg in the toilet at the beginning of Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within (which locks you into the ending where, hours later, that same suit of armor randomly falls on your character Alyssa as she examines a blood puddle in the room below), to deciding you can save the president later at the start of the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC because it’s a video game and things are never urgent (which reveals that this mission is NOT the sort where you can put a pin in it and head back when you have more time – fail to do as Songbird says when you get the mission, and you fail it and lock yourself out of all the stuff you just paid for), to choosing the wrong color option between “Gold” and “Yellow” on the TITLE SCREEN of Devil May Cry 3 (which might see you using a continue option that’s WAY MORE PUNISHING than you were expecting – “Gold” lets you continue from the previous room, “Yellow” forces you to restart the mission – and yes, you would think it would be the other way around, wouldn’t you?), these decisions may cause you to break your controller when you realize the consequences. At least they already warned us about what the Blair Witch game pulls by trying to get you to collect its collectibles!
C) And finally, we hit the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “I became a MAX SIZE SNAKE and reached godhood” – aka Gray plays a trio of the “Be A [blank]” subgenre of games on old Roblox and rates them, as has become his wont! The three things he tried being during this surprisingly short video (just over twelve minutes!) were –
I. Snake – this was the game that took up the vast majority of the video, as Gray slithered around the play area, eating small woodland creatures and the occasional big chicken in between devouring his fellow players without mercy (though half the time they ended up going straight for his mouth, so he ended up eating them by accident). Though Gray ended up becoming fond of the little snakes, in particular one guy going by “Beachman8421,” and attempted to give them a chance to grow big and strong – and then Beachman8421 ate one of his chickens and Gray devoured everything but his head. XD Despite spending ages in the game and becoming King Snake with a galactic skin, Gray found the whole experience very basic and dull and only gave it a 2/10, ending his time there by nuking the playerbase just because the game gave him the option. XD (I mean, the button kept wiggling on his screen, tempting him...)
II. Shark – Same basic premise as the snake game, of course, only with lots of colorful cartoony fish (sharply contrasted against the more realistic shark models), the ability for Gray to wear a crown from the very start, and lots more players to torment (one of which was called “babydimps” – Gray deeply enjoyed eating them to gain the King Shark mantle). Gray considered the whole experience slightly cooler and a bit more fun thanks to the greater playerbase and granted it a 4/10.
III. Tornado – Things got genuinely a bit more interesting here, as being a natural disaster, Gray didn’t so much “eat” things as suck them up – and there was a LOOOT to suck up. There was a whole little world for Gray to destroy, from people’s pill bottles to benches to cars to trees to log cabins to entire skyscrapers! And, of course, he could still devour the other tornadoes – which, again, half the time he did accidentally because people just kept running into him. XD The guy chasing him throughout a decent chunk of the segment, seemingly not realizing that Gray just kept up sucking in buildings to become bigger and bigger, though? Oh, he was eaten VERY deliberately. XD Gray really enjoyed having a whole destructible world around that continually respawned and gave this one the highest score, a whole F8/10! So it seems if you must be something in Roblox, you should be a tornado. ...When Gray’s not online, of course. :p
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice – Did some dash catch-up this evening, and reblogged a few things – a post talking about Tim Burton stripping the Jewish elements out of Corpse Bride and how that’s a shitty thing (I love the movie, but it is important to acknowledge that); Moose’s latest McFly July fic (about Dave trying to spook Marty with stories about the old Hill Valley Insane Asylum while on a scouting trip with him, and Marty not buying it – until some weird noises happen at the camp at night…); and a post about how the Animation Guild is currently in negotiations to improve the conditions and pay of animators, who are getting screwed over like all creatives these days (give the AMPTP hell, guys!). I also got the pictures for the next Chill Valicer Save update – covering the Spookfest Group Date – sorted – 80 in all! So we’ll be working on those drafts tomorrow.
Valice Multiverse – Well, Toonsisters replied to VITD!Smiler’s reply offering help with a “yes plz” so Smiler gave her a hug and promised they’d figure it out in a follow-up reply, but other than that, nothing happening over here. So I chucked some pretty A:MR fanart of Alice floating among the butterflies and a video of someone drawing easily the best “realistic” Victor I’ve seen (I don’t normally like him in that art style – he has a tendency not to look like VICTOR if he doesn’t have the puppet’s proportions – but this was genuinely really good) into my queue. *nods* So that’s all right!
Other: Answered all of Moose’s messages thanks to getting my YouTubery done early, yaaay~
So yeah, pretty productive day overall, which is nice! And now I really have to get to bed. :p Tomorrow is a nice, non-cleaning Saturday – plans include getting my Chill Valicer Save posts drafted up on Victor Luvs Alice; working some more on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" playing Sims 4 and either doing some more building or returning to the Chill Valicer Save (depends on how many of my mods are good); and keeping up with the latest from Gray and the kind-of-latest from Jon (I will explain tomorrow). All achievable goals, I hope – night all!
And now this:
Work – Another quiet half-Friday – especially since neither of my coworkers were in (one was on vacation this week, the other was taking a long weekend with a friend). I spent most of the day getting through the two GLs I had to do, then put some checks on, had lunch, sorted through the exceptions sent back from our processors, and got the obituaries out of the paper. *shrug* Nothing particularly exciting, but that’s fine by me!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week, which saw me pedal my way through –
A) The end of “I wish I didn't have twins in the Every Life Stage Challenge! - Part 4” by James Turner! The last chunk of this particular episode can be summed up via the following:
I. James does house reno! Which consisted of moving Krystoff’s stuff into a bigger room at the end of the hall; setting up Pablo’s new Brown Cosmolux Fitness room (with fun triangle wallpaper, a Blarfy bear, and some sports equipment on the floor) besides Krystoff’s; fixing the roof; and getting the basketball hoop set up on the side of the house, with a new “driveway” of terrain paint. Nice!
II. Semaj takes Krystoff and Pablo to the new rec center that replaced the dog park in Brindleton Bay while looking for a new science baby partner – and stumbles across Nalani! :D Who, if you will recall, was the first occult Sim the Semaj of the “Every Occult Challenge” recruited, and ended up marrying him (admittedly, because Semaj had gotten that “get married and get money” phone call, but the series ended with them throwing a lovely vow renewal atop the Howling Point in Moonwood Mill). James was totally on-board with Semaj and Nalani finding each other again for this challenge and brought her home to make friends and get her to agree to science baby times – after some cloudgazing, she was on board, and Semaj went off to the baby-making lab and brought home little Camillo! Who James could NOT recall the name of at all because the poor little dude was so new. XD He’ll learn it eventually, C!
III. Semaj mass ages-up his children! Krystoff became a Hot-Headed child; Pablo an Inquisitive toddler (with the same curly hair as his older half-brother had as a toddler); and Sunny and Vivienne Sensitive and Cautious infants respectively. James also spun the wheel for the next family activity – have a lovely little park day, awww :) Much better than being forced to eat the Bizarre Fruit in Strangerville, that’s for sure – and the wheels to determine the twins’ favorite styles, colors, and hobbies. Vivienne ended up with Industrial, Pink, and Writing, while Sunny got Island, Blue, and Pipe Organ. Like, in both cases, one of those things is not like the other. XD James did not update their new rooms to reflect their interests yet, though – that will be coming next episode, since James already felt like this one was running long. (James, you should see how long that last episode goes for...)
IV. Semaj struggles with taking photographs of his children! Because shortly after spinning the “park day” family activity, James realized “crap, I never did the ‘take pictures of my kids’ one” and set about making that right before the end of the episode. Which was, uh, difficult, because only two of the kids could be asked to pose (Krystoff and Pablo); Pablo looked vaguely demonic in all of his poses; and Semaj kept getting distracted by trying to take care of his kids every time James told him to take pictures of them. XD Not even Alice, Sunny and Vivienne’s other DNA donor, showing up helped, as she held Vivienne for all of two seconds before dumping her on the floor – Semaj and James just made do with that. XD
But yes, the episode ended with a successful age-up and Semaj probably feeling utterly overwhelmed by his choices in life. XD We’ll see later if the next episode goes any better for him!
B) And the entirety of “Backyard Stuff Pack Is FREE: Here's The Gameplay That It Offers” by Petey Plays It! A short four-minute look at the gameplay-related items in that stuff pack, back when it was being offered for free. Naturally, most of the video revolved around the amazing power of the flat backyard water slides that come with the pack to improve Fitness AND Mischief skill (adding soap to the slide gives Mischief a shockingly good boost), though Petey also took the time to mention the summer drinks tray (where you can make lemonade, citrus swig, and iced tea) and the bird feeder (which you can fill to attract low-poly birds to watch) that also come with the pack. Also the cute flower windmill light, since that’s just fun. :) If you’re into that sort of stuff, then this might be the pack for you!
2. Continue editing “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of”: Check – got to it after game night (which was a bit abbreviated tonight due to Dad being in pain and us trying to get takeout, only to suffer countless delays from the place we ordered from – not to mention the food ended up being not very good), with Smiler relaying to Victor and Alice how they were blessed in a dream by Mar-Mal after they invented Joy Serum, and that’s how they got their glowing eyes! ...and then having to admit that they’re the only one so blessed because the Advocates had to ask Mar-Mal to bless fewer people less enthusiastically because the FIRST group they blessed are basically giggling vegetables who don’t do anything on their own anymore. Victor and Alice were understandably a bit O.O about that, despite Smiler’s reassurances that THEY’RE fine. XD I ended off with Smiler explaining their purple-streaked hair is actually the result of another drug they’re working on, Giggler Gas, and they just like the look of it, and Victor being like “can we just keep exploring the house” to keep the conversation off awkward stuff like over-blessed Advocates. XD Tomorrow, the gang finds a pretty bed, and perhaps a pretty piano too, depending on how much I edit!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus – used my free afternoon to catch up with some stuff in my Watch Later as well as keeping up with the latest from Gray –
A) First up, we had “Jell-O Cake, Nuka Cola & Cram from Fallout | Binging with Babish!” Yes, because I watched that video about the dehydrated pizza from BTTF II, my Recommended section on YouTube keeps offering me other videos from Babish now – and as a Fallout 4 fan, I was intrigued enough by this one to add it to the Watch Later. Though it looks like this episode was inspired mainly by the Fallout Amazon TV series, as it featured a clip of a couple of the Vault 33 dwellers passing out Jell-O cake to people, and one encouraging his friend to slip off with the leftovers as she wanted it BAD. *shakehead* Girl, please, it’s a Horrible Future-50s Dessert… Anyway, Babish made his own version of the Jell-O cake using all shelf-stable ingredients and creating a homemade Jell-O from Kool-Aid powder (that turned out horribly as Babish realized Kool-Aid tastes a LOT worse than he remembered as a kid – the cake part was decent, though, and Babish was impressed by how hard the cake was to topple once he got all the Jell-O layers stacked), then followed that up with homemade Cram (which was a bunch of pork products turned into a sausage that was then turned into a couple of loaves that Babish ALMOST left out overnight when he forgot to put them in the fridge before going out to dinner – fortunately he saved them in time and was able to fry them up the next day to have with some salad and canned beans) and homemade Nuka-Cola (which only had seven of the seventeen fruit essences the game claims are in it BUT he drank the damn thing out of a genuine URANIUM GLASS so I think he can be forgiven for forgetting the other ten O.O). Fun stuff, even if I’m not sure I’d want to actually eat any of it! XD (Ignore my Sole Survivor Victor’s food-hoarding ways.)
B) Then it was time for the OXBox list of the week – “7 Times You Screwed Your Entire Playthrough With a Single Decision at the Start!” Jane and Andy discussing the seemingly-inconsequential decisions you can make at the start of your game that can TOTALLY screw you over later. From failing to examine a suit of samurai armor in your aunt and uncle’s house right after finding a zombie leg in the toilet at the beginning of Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within (which locks you into the ending where, hours later, that same suit of armor randomly falls on your character Alyssa as she examines a blood puddle in the room below), to deciding you can save the president later at the start of the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC because it’s a video game and things are never urgent (which reveals that this mission is NOT the sort where you can put a pin in it and head back when you have more time – fail to do as Songbird says when you get the mission, and you fail it and lock yourself out of all the stuff you just paid for), to choosing the wrong color option between “Gold” and “Yellow” on the TITLE SCREEN of Devil May Cry 3 (which might see you using a continue option that’s WAY MORE PUNISHING than you were expecting – “Gold” lets you continue from the previous room, “Yellow” forces you to restart the mission – and yes, you would think it would be the other way around, wouldn’t you?), these decisions may cause you to break your controller when you realize the consequences. At least they already warned us about what the Blair Witch game pulls by trying to get you to collect its collectibles!
C) And finally, we hit the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “I became a MAX SIZE SNAKE and reached godhood” – aka Gray plays a trio of the “Be A [blank]” subgenre of games on old Roblox and rates them, as has become his wont! The three things he tried being during this surprisingly short video (just over twelve minutes!) were –
I. Snake – this was the game that took up the vast majority of the video, as Gray slithered around the play area, eating small woodland creatures and the occasional big chicken in between devouring his fellow players without mercy (though half the time they ended up going straight for his mouth, so he ended up eating them by accident). Though Gray ended up becoming fond of the little snakes, in particular one guy going by “Beachman8421,” and attempted to give them a chance to grow big and strong – and then Beachman8421 ate one of his chickens and Gray devoured everything but his head. XD Despite spending ages in the game and becoming King Snake with a galactic skin, Gray found the whole experience very basic and dull and only gave it a 2/10, ending his time there by nuking the playerbase just because the game gave him the option. XD (I mean, the button kept wiggling on his screen, tempting him...)
II. Shark – Same basic premise as the snake game, of course, only with lots of colorful cartoony fish (sharply contrasted against the more realistic shark models), the ability for Gray to wear a crown from the very start, and lots more players to torment (one of which was called “babydimps” – Gray deeply enjoyed eating them to gain the King Shark mantle). Gray considered the whole experience slightly cooler and a bit more fun thanks to the greater playerbase and granted it a 4/10.
III. Tornado – Things got genuinely a bit more interesting here, as being a natural disaster, Gray didn’t so much “eat” things as suck them up – and there was a LOOOT to suck up. There was a whole little world for Gray to destroy, from people’s pill bottles to benches to cars to trees to log cabins to entire skyscrapers! And, of course, he could still devour the other tornadoes – which, again, half the time he did accidentally because people just kept running into him. XD The guy chasing him throughout a decent chunk of the segment, seemingly not realizing that Gray just kept up sucking in buildings to become bigger and bigger, though? Oh, he was eaten VERY deliberately. XD Gray really enjoyed having a whole destructible world around that continually respawned and gave this one the highest score, a whole F8/10! So it seems if you must be something in Roblox, you should be a tornado. ...When Gray’s not online, of course. :p
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice – Did some dash catch-up this evening, and reblogged a few things – a post talking about Tim Burton stripping the Jewish elements out of Corpse Bride and how that’s a shitty thing (I love the movie, but it is important to acknowledge that); Moose’s latest McFly July fic (about Dave trying to spook Marty with stories about the old Hill Valley Insane Asylum while on a scouting trip with him, and Marty not buying it – until some weird noises happen at the camp at night…); and a post about how the Animation Guild is currently in negotiations to improve the conditions and pay of animators, who are getting screwed over like all creatives these days (give the AMPTP hell, guys!). I also got the pictures for the next Chill Valicer Save update – covering the Spookfest Group Date – sorted – 80 in all! So we’ll be working on those drafts tomorrow.
Valice Multiverse – Well, Toonsisters replied to VITD!Smiler’s reply offering help with a “yes plz” so Smiler gave her a hug and promised they’d figure it out in a follow-up reply, but other than that, nothing happening over here. So I chucked some pretty A:MR fanart of Alice floating among the butterflies and a video of someone drawing easily the best “realistic” Victor I’ve seen (I don’t normally like him in that art style – he has a tendency not to look like VICTOR if he doesn’t have the puppet’s proportions – but this was genuinely really good) into my queue. *nods* So that’s all right!
Other: Answered all of Moose’s messages thanks to getting my YouTubery done early, yaaay~
So yeah, pretty productive day overall, which is nice! And now I really have to get to bed. :p Tomorrow is a nice, non-cleaning Saturday – plans include getting my Chill Valicer Save posts drafted up on Victor Luvs Alice; working some more on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" playing Sims 4 and either doing some more building or returning to the Chill Valicer Save (depends on how many of my mods are good); and keeping up with the latest from Gray and the kind-of-latest from Jon (I will explain tomorrow). All achievable goals, I hope – night all!
