Bad Sandwich Saturday
Aug. 17th, 2024 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickBy which I mean I had a lousy beginning to my day, a decent middle, and then a lousy end --
Beginning: Went to bed shortly after 2 AM (which I fully recognize is too late)...and ended up waking up at 7 AM because either forgot to turn off my work alarm or accidentally reset it while heading to bed. And then I struggled with getting back to sleep (partly because I'm in that phase of PMS where my body keeps sending false alarms about my period coming, and also I kept ending up hot for no reason). And then I did actually fall back to sleep for a while but I had a weird-ass sort-of-nightmare about a spider on my closet door that turned into a sort of tumbleweed that I ended up having to kill with my comforter. Ended up finally getting up around 9:40-something AM feeling not-exactly rested. *sigh* And then, when I was changing my sheets and making my bed to the audio of the 2022 Alton Towers fireworks show, I kept having buffering problems for some reason. And right before lunch, I learned that Dad had had some issues with his stomach incision leaking earlier today, which was putting him in a not-great mood (as it would). *sigh* All VERY fun.
Middle: I got most of the stuff on my to-do list done, including working on Victor Luvs Alice drafts, playing around in Sims 4 doing some renovations on a build I downloaded, and getting lots of editing done on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of!" Plus there were fresh chocolate chip cookies for snack time! Things were feeling like they were on the up!
End: And then, after supper, Mom was helping Dad with the stomach incision, and apparently it looked to be bleeding/leaking shit pretty heavily, so they decided to head off to the hospital. Leaving me to sit and home and try to maybe watch some YouTube to keep my mind off things -- only for that to get interrupted by Mom asking me to get Dad's wallet because they needed it as they had to head to a DIFFERENT hospital to see the right doctor. *sigh* Fortunately it all turned out to be nothing -- just maybe a little more fluid than my parents were expecting to see at the time -- but they ended up not getting home until slightly after 10:30 PM. And then basically greeted me by telling me I had to clean the inside of my car windshield (because they've been borrowing my car a lot during this whole thing, since it's easier to drive than the truck). Which -- yeah, that threw off my entire night.
Soooo -- yeah. Bad sandwich. But as implied by the middle section, I did get most of my to-do list stuff done --
Tumblr: Did decently well over here today despite some of the bullshit –
Victor Luvs Alice – Despite a-later-than-I-wanted start on the whole thing, I did manage to get my five Chill Valicer Save update posts for this week – covering the Valicer Anniversary Spookfest Group Date session – drafted out with pictures and main text before lunch. Still have to do image alt text and tags, but that can wait. I also actually managed to get back into the drafts and work on the “Special Abilities II, Now For The Crew” VITD post a little more after getting my writing done this afternoon – the “crew upgrades” section is at least started now! So that’s good, at least. :)
Valice Multiverse – Had one anon ask over here talking about how it’s not if the glass is half-full or half-empty, it’s more about if you fill it up or drain it – an interesting take on the question! Cuddlepile!Alice admitted she was probably more of a drainer in the past, but she’s made an effort to be more of a filler; Smiler happily called themselves a filler; and Victor admitted he felt sometimes like his efforts to fill the glass ended up draining it, prompting Alice to tell him that that wasn’t true, at least for them, and Smiler to indulge in a bit of light innuendo about how he could fill their glass anytime :p So that was nice, at least.
Sims 4: Well, a quick check online revealed that one of my key mods, Wonderful Whims, appears to not be updated yet (as Turbodriver was on vacation when all the patches for the Lovestruck update dropped, as I understand it, and has prioritized updating WICKED Whims first), so I ended up doing another building/renovation day in my Wiped Windenburg save! Which got off to a bit of a rough start, but ended up going pretty well in the end, I’m happy to say –
A) After hopping into the game, accidentally clicking “New Game” and having to back out of CAS rapidly, and checking the status of the MOJ on the Gallery (there’s one download listed, so SOMEBODY other than me liked it), I headed into Wiped Windenburg with a mission – to see if I could get the Hill Valley Courthouse lot I downloaded to fit somewhere other than the very edge of the Windslar neighborhood! Specifically, I wanted to put it somewhere in Olde Platz (the middle neighborhood with all the cobble and the fancy chess gardens and such), since that felt like the most logical location for a courthouse. The main problem with this plan was trying to figure out if I could fit enough of the Courthouse lot (which was a 40x30) onto the smaller lots of Olde Platz (which tend to max out at 30x20), so I headed to the former location of The Narwhal Arms to test this out –
And then I looked at the position of the lot, and went “actually, maybe it would be better to put the Confession nightclub here instead of the Courthouse? Really feels like the Courthouse should be facing the chess gardens and suchlike, and the ‘church’ could be behind it.” So I went ahead and grabbed Confession out of my Library again, plopping it down on the lot to see how it looked –
Aaaand it ended up facing what I felt was the wrong way around – that is, towards the little gap in the walking path to the left instead of out toward the fake buildings on the other side of the road to the right. “Well, all right, let me use the ‘Move Lot’ feature to flip this thing around,” I thought, and did just that –
Only for that to, for some esoteric reason, remove the fence around the edges of the build. O.o I – genuinely have no clue why that happened. Worse yet, when I decided, “fine, I’ll just replace said fence,” I couldn’t find it in the selection of fences. Making me wonder if it was a legit fence I just didn’t see (quite possible, I miss stuff in this game all the time), or if it’s some sort of “hidden object” fence that I’d have to scour through the catalog with cheats to find (also quite possible given builders love to use that kind of stuff in their builds). As you might imagine, I very rapidly said “forget it!”, bulldozed the lot and made it “Generic” again (and renamed it “Not Sure” as I am genuinely not sure what I will put there), then headed to the map. We’ll work with the original Confession where it is!
B) Having been unsuccessful in my experiments over at the old Narwhal Arms lot, I instead headed to the former location of the Quad Manor library, which was a lot on the other side of the little plaza from Confession, which I figured would also be a good place for a courthouse lot. I thus headed into my Library, found the Hill Valley Courthouse lot I’d downloaded, and attempted to place it –
And discovered that the lot really was just too small. I couldn’t even fit the whole courthouse building on it! I was willing to try to make it look good so long as the building itself fit, but since it didn’t, I just backed out of the placement process and headed back to the map. Looks like the courthouse will HAVE to stay on the far side of the more rural Windslar neighborhood, as that is the only place with lots big enough for it! (Though I suppose I could have rotated the lot so that the building faced in toward the plaza? Eh, but that would have gotten rid of all the fancy park area out front, and I don’t know if I would have liked that. Plus we JUST learned that flipping lots can have weird consequences for some of the stuff on them! Might as well not risk it.)
C) With that now in mind, I headed over to the Hill Valley Courthouse lot to do a little renovation on it! Because while it is a truly excellent lot, there were a few things that I wanted to update/redo –
I. I changed the lot type! I was initially thinking that I would make it some sort of rec center, but I instead decided that the “Museum” lot type would fit better – plus, I don’t think Windenburg has any proper museums in it in its regular form (the Von Haunt estate is set up LIKE a museum, but is instead the one-off “Chapel Gardens” lot type). To my surprise and amusement, when I swapped the lot type, the lot ALREADY had everything it needed to fulfill the criteria thanks to the great decorating job the creator (whose name I cannot currently remember, will have to look it up) did. It even had an easel as they stuck one in the front walking area! Handy! XD
II. I touched up the terrain paint outside! There were a few places where the grass was overtaking what should have been pebbles or brick, so I went over those a bit with the terrain paint tool, squaring off some paths and cleaning up some things. Made it look just a little bit nicer out there. :)
III. I added some more décor around the place! Because if it’s now a museum, Sims need to be able to look at lots and lots of art. :) So I threw up some more paintings and prints and suchlike for extra flair! The workers’ “pit” office area to the right of the first floor got some Roman temple architectural prints, framed blueprints and patents, and a few more abstract pieces of art (plus a nice chair that was an unlock from the Detective career put in the far corner for visitors to chill in); the “court” to the left of the first floor got a nice framed tapestry, some StrangerVille military-themed pennants, and that Get Famous three-swords wall decoration that references the 1980s Ghostbusters; the first floor reception area got a few more paintings by the stairs going up; and the second floor general audience area got a Get Famous wall-mounted “royal artifact” collection by the stairs and some extra “antique history” prints on the front wall by the windows. *shrug* I thought it all worked out pretty well!
IV. I updated some of the activities available on the lot and added a few new things! Specifically, I replaced the City Living speaker’s podium in the second floor general audience area with the debate platform from Discover University (there’s another single-speaker podium in the “court” downstairs for any Sim’s speech-making needs); replaced all the shitty computers in the workers’ “pit” with Discover University research machines (enjoy the upgrade non-existent workers!); added a Cottage Living typewriter computer to the “court” (on the desk where I imagine the stenographer sits – I also moved in all the “audience” benches slightly so they weren’t clipping into the curtains on the windows); and added a second easel and a community voting board to the park area outside! I mean, that last definitely needed to be on there, since the local courthouse WOULD be where you discuss changes to neighborhood policy...but yeah, I just wanted to jazz the place up and give Sims a few more things to do there. :)
V. I thoroughly renovated the wedding area upstairs! Because while the rest of the lot is really nice, with well-decorated offices and such, the wedding area was just SAD – a plain wooden box of a room with a bunch of scattered folding chairs around a wedding arch. I know that when you do a courthouse wedding, you’re not planning a big party, but I just couldn’t let that stand – if any of my Sims choose this spot to get married, I want them to have something NICE, damn it. So –
a. I moved the arch back a little bit and recolored it to the nice subtle “rainbow” swatch they added around My Wedding Stories to help celebrate Pride
b. I got rid of all the crappy folding chairs and replaced them with the Cats & Dogs covered dining chair in the gray swatch (it was the one that had the best comfort rating) – there are now fewer chairs in that room, and arranged them in two neat rows in front of the arch – there are now fewer chairs in here, but they are MUCH NICER
c. I made an “aisle” for the happy couple out of one of the lighter swatches for the Victorian runner rugs you get with Vampires
d. I updated the flooring and wall paneling to something nicer – specifically, the floor became the white swatch of that parquet flooring you get with Paranormal Stuff, and the walls became a white chevron paneling from the Bowling Night Stuff
e. I moved the fancy glass table with the single rose that was behind the arch previously over to the right-hand side of the room, in front of the windows, and put a bunch more flowers and other plants on and around it – I also stumbled across a really nice planter from Backyard stuff that went on either side of the arch for color
f. I put a Luxury Party banquet table topped with a High School Years punch fountain on the left side of the room for food and drink, along with a smaller covered table from Dine Out for any cakes brought onto the premises
g. I did a little more decorating, including putting a fun Pride picture on the wall above the arch; rainbow heart wall decorations on either side of the room; a fancy painting of a cake behind the cake table; and three portraits of married couples behind the flower table, because I discovered the original old-timey swatch had been updated with some paintings of a gay American couple and a lesbian Indian couple having just gotten married too :)
So now the wedding room is a spot where Sims will actually ENJOY getting married, thank you. *nods*
VI. And I recolored the toilets in the upstairs bathrooms just because XD (I was going to replace them entirely, in fact, but it turns out the prison toilets the original creator used are actually a little comfortable, so I decided to run with them – just in a nicer “brown” swatch :p)
So yeah – Hill Valley Courthouse is now pretty much ready to go! :D Though I am still tempted to add a vending machine somewhere on the lot...and it occurs to me it might be nice to put a present pile or two in the wedding room, to represent “wedding presents” the happy couple can open. *makes some notes* We’ll see what happens the next time I hit this save. Fingers crossed that I can get back to the Chill Valicer Save next week, though! I’ve gotta celebrate Harvestfest with that lot!
Writing: Got almost two pages worth of edits done on “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of!” :D Which saw the gang discovering one empty room (which will later become a little gym of sorts for the gang, particularly Alice); one bedroom with a REALLY fancy bed in it (stolen straight from Realm of Magic – Alice wasn’t sure about the stained-glass canopy though); and one music room at the base of the tower, with a Harper upright piano (which Victor was VERY eager to try and restore). Along the way, they learned about what shitty parents the Van Dorts were and how lonely a childhood Victor had, and Victor’s love of music (with Smiler revealing they play guitar and drums in response to Victor asking if they play anything). Basically, this chapter is as much about exposition as it is about exploring their new lair. XD But I gotta get it out somehow, so here we are. Next time, the gang heads upstairs to the workshop level of the tower, where Smiler gets to find something of interest to them...
YouTube: Welp, due to The Circumstances, I only got through one of my new Saturday Two tonight – GrayStillPlays and “Testing cars vs increasingly impossible loops!” Another GTA V torture board for him to complete, this one focused on the power of the supercars versus the power of Alex’s ridiculous loops. How ridiculous were they? Well, we had –
I. Growing Waterslide Loops – a pair of large loops made out of waterslides – the first purple loop was pretty big, but then the second orange loop was TEN TIMES THE SIZE. Like, this thing could fit a small moon inside of it. Oh, and Gray had to do a corkscrew wallride to come OFF both loops because otherwise he couldn’t make the leap to the next platform. Oh, and the orange one had the very tippy-top of a tree sticking into it serving as an obstacle to dodge. All sorts of fun for Gray to deal with!
II. LEGO Loop – a loop made out of the sides of LEGO bricks, with its main problems being it was very thin – AND, at the very start, there was a right-side-up LEGO brick where Gray had to squeeze in between the bumps to actually reach the loop. Meaning any car not thin enough to get through there was likely not going to make the jump to the next challenge. Oh, and there was a weebmill involved at the end too, because of course there was. XD
III. LEGO Loop 2.0 But It’s Much More Treacherous – a loop made out of the TOPS of LEGO bricks – meaning that Gray had to loop while driving on all the little bumps. Gray likened it to a loop made out of speedbumps, and seeing it in action, man was he not kidding. It was a lucky car indeed that could keep ANY of its speed on this one! And, yes, again, there, was a weebmill involved, because of course there was. :p
IV. On The Edge Of The Sword Loop – a loop made out of the edge of giant Minecraft swords – aka the thinnest loop Gray’s ever done (possibly; one person in the comments claimed a loop from the past made out of shipping containers was thinner). This one was tricky because there was NO ROOM for error at ALL – Gray actually resorted to doing it in first person so he could keep himself in line better. It was the only way to be sure! And while this one didn’t have a weebmill, it DID have another giant sword chopping away at the end. Because of course it did. XD
V. Waterslidey Loops Inside Of A Loop Loop – aka, “loopception.” Basically, Alex recreated one of those classic “crazy straws” with this thing – it was a series of six smaller loops arranged in one giant loop. And there was a script circle at the start that would trigger the “news chopper” Chaos Mod effect so that we the viewers could get the proper cinematic experience as Gray tried all the loops. And yes, of course, at the end there was a massive jump with a weebmill in front of it. Because OF COURSE THERE WAS.
So, which of Gray’s supercars actually made the loops? Well, the Faux Batmobile and the F1 open-wheeled racer both did terribly (the Batmobile was too big to properly fit in the first loop, and the F1 too low to the ground – it caught on everything); the red “old school” supercar made it through the first loops, but couldn’t make the jump; and most of the other supercars did all right on the first couple of loops, but stumbled on either the first or second LEGO loop (either not being able to build the speed to make the first due to getting stopped by the starting LEGO bumps, or not being able to KEEP their speed on the latter). The winner proved to be a super race car with “Globe Oil” branding and a spoiler (which we learned in a previous video helps with downforce), which not only made it past the horrors of the LEGO and sword loops, but damn near CHEATED the Loopception Loops by falling out early but then LANDING IN THE FINAL LOOP. And then Gray discovered that it could do loops IN FUCKING REVERSE, meaning that he could back up and get enough speed to attempt the jump. Sadly, he was whacked aside by the weebmill at the last moment, but it was still a glorious moment. And him completing it LEGIT at the end of the video was pretty damn glorious too. :D Congrats on beating the loops without letting them beat you, Gray! Well – beat you TOO MUCH anyway. :p
So that wasn't too bad, at least. I'll take a bad day where I get shit done over one where I don't! But now I have to figure out what I want to do tomorrow. For, you see, I'm down one "Fallout: London" video by Jon (which was actually released back on Thursday because he did a birthday livestream today -- should have watched it earlier when I had the chance!), and catching up with it tomorrow might mean not playing Fallout 4 myself, simply because of the fact that I cannot be fucking concise in a recap no matter how hard I try. I just -- I don't know. I guess I just want to share everything I enjoy about these videos with you guys, and unfortunately that always takes longer than I think it's going to. I'll have to think about what I want to do. For now, I know for sure that I want to finish off as many of my Chill Valicer Save drafts with image alt text and tags as possible, keep up with GrayStillPlays and Jon's latest "Sim Settlements 2" video, and get in a workout tomorrow. Oh, and get to bed earlier tonight. And make sure my alarm is NOT set, thank you very much. So I'm gonna go see about that. Fingers crossed tomorrow has no bad sandwich elements to it! Night all!
Beginning: Went to bed shortly after 2 AM (which I fully recognize is too late)...and ended up waking up at 7 AM because either forgot to turn off my work alarm or accidentally reset it while heading to bed. And then I struggled with getting back to sleep (partly because I'm in that phase of PMS where my body keeps sending false alarms about my period coming, and also I kept ending up hot for no reason). And then I did actually fall back to sleep for a while but I had a weird-ass sort-of-nightmare about a spider on my closet door that turned into a sort of tumbleweed that I ended up having to kill with my comforter. Ended up finally getting up around 9:40-something AM feeling not-exactly rested. *sigh* And then, when I was changing my sheets and making my bed to the audio of the 2022 Alton Towers fireworks show, I kept having buffering problems for some reason. And right before lunch, I learned that Dad had had some issues with his stomach incision leaking earlier today, which was putting him in a not-great mood (as it would). *sigh* All VERY fun.
Middle: I got most of the stuff on my to-do list done, including working on Victor Luvs Alice drafts, playing around in Sims 4 doing some renovations on a build I downloaded, and getting lots of editing done on "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of!" Plus there were fresh chocolate chip cookies for snack time! Things were feeling like they were on the up!
End: And then, after supper, Mom was helping Dad with the stomach incision, and apparently it looked to be bleeding/leaking shit pretty heavily, so they decided to head off to the hospital. Leaving me to sit and home and try to maybe watch some YouTube to keep my mind off things -- only for that to get interrupted by Mom asking me to get Dad's wallet because they needed it as they had to head to a DIFFERENT hospital to see the right doctor. *sigh* Fortunately it all turned out to be nothing -- just maybe a little more fluid than my parents were expecting to see at the time -- but they ended up not getting home until slightly after 10:30 PM. And then basically greeted me by telling me I had to clean the inside of my car windshield (because they've been borrowing my car a lot during this whole thing, since it's easier to drive than the truck). Which -- yeah, that threw off my entire night.
Soooo -- yeah. Bad sandwich. But as implied by the middle section, I did get most of my to-do list stuff done --
Tumblr: Did decently well over here today despite some of the bullshit –
Victor Luvs Alice – Despite a-later-than-I-wanted start on the whole thing, I did manage to get my five Chill Valicer Save update posts for this week – covering the Valicer Anniversary Spookfest Group Date session – drafted out with pictures and main text before lunch. Still have to do image alt text and tags, but that can wait. I also actually managed to get back into the drafts and work on the “Special Abilities II, Now For The Crew” VITD post a little more after getting my writing done this afternoon – the “crew upgrades” section is at least started now! So that’s good, at least. :)
Valice Multiverse – Had one anon ask over here talking about how it’s not if the glass is half-full or half-empty, it’s more about if you fill it up or drain it – an interesting take on the question! Cuddlepile!Alice admitted she was probably more of a drainer in the past, but she’s made an effort to be more of a filler; Smiler happily called themselves a filler; and Victor admitted he felt sometimes like his efforts to fill the glass ended up draining it, prompting Alice to tell him that that wasn’t true, at least for them, and Smiler to indulge in a bit of light innuendo about how he could fill their glass anytime :p So that was nice, at least.
Sims 4: Well, a quick check online revealed that one of my key mods, Wonderful Whims, appears to not be updated yet (as Turbodriver was on vacation when all the patches for the Lovestruck update dropped, as I understand it, and has prioritized updating WICKED Whims first), so I ended up doing another building/renovation day in my Wiped Windenburg save! Which got off to a bit of a rough start, but ended up going pretty well in the end, I’m happy to say –
A) After hopping into the game, accidentally clicking “New Game” and having to back out of CAS rapidly, and checking the status of the MOJ on the Gallery (there’s one download listed, so SOMEBODY other than me liked it), I headed into Wiped Windenburg with a mission – to see if I could get the Hill Valley Courthouse lot I downloaded to fit somewhere other than the very edge of the Windslar neighborhood! Specifically, I wanted to put it somewhere in Olde Platz (the middle neighborhood with all the cobble and the fancy chess gardens and such), since that felt like the most logical location for a courthouse. The main problem with this plan was trying to figure out if I could fit enough of the Courthouse lot (which was a 40x30) onto the smaller lots of Olde Platz (which tend to max out at 30x20), so I headed to the former location of The Narwhal Arms to test this out –
And then I looked at the position of the lot, and went “actually, maybe it would be better to put the Confession nightclub here instead of the Courthouse? Really feels like the Courthouse should be facing the chess gardens and suchlike, and the ‘church’ could be behind it.” So I went ahead and grabbed Confession out of my Library again, plopping it down on the lot to see how it looked –
Aaaand it ended up facing what I felt was the wrong way around – that is, towards the little gap in the walking path to the left instead of out toward the fake buildings on the other side of the road to the right. “Well, all right, let me use the ‘Move Lot’ feature to flip this thing around,” I thought, and did just that –
Only for that to, for some esoteric reason, remove the fence around the edges of the build. O.o I – genuinely have no clue why that happened. Worse yet, when I decided, “fine, I’ll just replace said fence,” I couldn’t find it in the selection of fences. Making me wonder if it was a legit fence I just didn’t see (quite possible, I miss stuff in this game all the time), or if it’s some sort of “hidden object” fence that I’d have to scour through the catalog with cheats to find (also quite possible given builders love to use that kind of stuff in their builds). As you might imagine, I very rapidly said “forget it!”, bulldozed the lot and made it “Generic” again (and renamed it “Not Sure” as I am genuinely not sure what I will put there), then headed to the map. We’ll work with the original Confession where it is!
B) Having been unsuccessful in my experiments over at the old Narwhal Arms lot, I instead headed to the former location of the Quad Manor library, which was a lot on the other side of the little plaza from Confession, which I figured would also be a good place for a courthouse lot. I thus headed into my Library, found the Hill Valley Courthouse lot I’d downloaded, and attempted to place it –
And discovered that the lot really was just too small. I couldn’t even fit the whole courthouse building on it! I was willing to try to make it look good so long as the building itself fit, but since it didn’t, I just backed out of the placement process and headed back to the map. Looks like the courthouse will HAVE to stay on the far side of the more rural Windslar neighborhood, as that is the only place with lots big enough for it! (Though I suppose I could have rotated the lot so that the building faced in toward the plaza? Eh, but that would have gotten rid of all the fancy park area out front, and I don’t know if I would have liked that. Plus we JUST learned that flipping lots can have weird consequences for some of the stuff on them! Might as well not risk it.)
C) With that now in mind, I headed over to the Hill Valley Courthouse lot to do a little renovation on it! Because while it is a truly excellent lot, there were a few things that I wanted to update/redo –
I. I changed the lot type! I was initially thinking that I would make it some sort of rec center, but I instead decided that the “Museum” lot type would fit better – plus, I don’t think Windenburg has any proper museums in it in its regular form (the Von Haunt estate is set up LIKE a museum, but is instead the one-off “Chapel Gardens” lot type). To my surprise and amusement, when I swapped the lot type, the lot ALREADY had everything it needed to fulfill the criteria thanks to the great decorating job the creator (whose name I cannot currently remember, will have to look it up) did. It even had an easel as they stuck one in the front walking area! Handy! XD
II. I touched up the terrain paint outside! There were a few places where the grass was overtaking what should have been pebbles or brick, so I went over those a bit with the terrain paint tool, squaring off some paths and cleaning up some things. Made it look just a little bit nicer out there. :)
III. I added some more décor around the place! Because if it’s now a museum, Sims need to be able to look at lots and lots of art. :) So I threw up some more paintings and prints and suchlike for extra flair! The workers’ “pit” office area to the right of the first floor got some Roman temple architectural prints, framed blueprints and patents, and a few more abstract pieces of art (plus a nice chair that was an unlock from the Detective career put in the far corner for visitors to chill in); the “court” to the left of the first floor got a nice framed tapestry, some StrangerVille military-themed pennants, and that Get Famous three-swords wall decoration that references the 1980s Ghostbusters; the first floor reception area got a few more paintings by the stairs going up; and the second floor general audience area got a Get Famous wall-mounted “royal artifact” collection by the stairs and some extra “antique history” prints on the front wall by the windows. *shrug* I thought it all worked out pretty well!
IV. I updated some of the activities available on the lot and added a few new things! Specifically, I replaced the City Living speaker’s podium in the second floor general audience area with the debate platform from Discover University (there’s another single-speaker podium in the “court” downstairs for any Sim’s speech-making needs); replaced all the shitty computers in the workers’ “pit” with Discover University research machines (enjoy the upgrade non-existent workers!); added a Cottage Living typewriter computer to the “court” (on the desk where I imagine the stenographer sits – I also moved in all the “audience” benches slightly so they weren’t clipping into the curtains on the windows); and added a second easel and a community voting board to the park area outside! I mean, that last definitely needed to be on there, since the local courthouse WOULD be where you discuss changes to neighborhood policy...but yeah, I just wanted to jazz the place up and give Sims a few more things to do there. :)
V. I thoroughly renovated the wedding area upstairs! Because while the rest of the lot is really nice, with well-decorated offices and such, the wedding area was just SAD – a plain wooden box of a room with a bunch of scattered folding chairs around a wedding arch. I know that when you do a courthouse wedding, you’re not planning a big party, but I just couldn’t let that stand – if any of my Sims choose this spot to get married, I want them to have something NICE, damn it. So –
a. I moved the arch back a little bit and recolored it to the nice subtle “rainbow” swatch they added around My Wedding Stories to help celebrate Pride
b. I got rid of all the crappy folding chairs and replaced them with the Cats & Dogs covered dining chair in the gray swatch (it was the one that had the best comfort rating) – there are now fewer chairs in that room, and arranged them in two neat rows in front of the arch – there are now fewer chairs in here, but they are MUCH NICER
c. I made an “aisle” for the happy couple out of one of the lighter swatches for the Victorian runner rugs you get with Vampires
d. I updated the flooring and wall paneling to something nicer – specifically, the floor became the white swatch of that parquet flooring you get with Paranormal Stuff, and the walls became a white chevron paneling from the Bowling Night Stuff
e. I moved the fancy glass table with the single rose that was behind the arch previously over to the right-hand side of the room, in front of the windows, and put a bunch more flowers and other plants on and around it – I also stumbled across a really nice planter from Backyard stuff that went on either side of the arch for color
f. I put a Luxury Party banquet table topped with a High School Years punch fountain on the left side of the room for food and drink, along with a smaller covered table from Dine Out for any cakes brought onto the premises
g. I did a little more decorating, including putting a fun Pride picture on the wall above the arch; rainbow heart wall decorations on either side of the room; a fancy painting of a cake behind the cake table; and three portraits of married couples behind the flower table, because I discovered the original old-timey swatch had been updated with some paintings of a gay American couple and a lesbian Indian couple having just gotten married too :)
So now the wedding room is a spot where Sims will actually ENJOY getting married, thank you. *nods*
VI. And I recolored the toilets in the upstairs bathrooms just because XD (I was going to replace them entirely, in fact, but it turns out the prison toilets the original creator used are actually a little comfortable, so I decided to run with them – just in a nicer “brown” swatch :p)
So yeah – Hill Valley Courthouse is now pretty much ready to go! :D Though I am still tempted to add a vending machine somewhere on the lot...and it occurs to me it might be nice to put a present pile or two in the wedding room, to represent “wedding presents” the happy couple can open. *makes some notes* We’ll see what happens the next time I hit this save. Fingers crossed that I can get back to the Chill Valicer Save next week, though! I’ve gotta celebrate Harvestfest with that lot!
Writing: Got almost two pages worth of edits done on “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of!” :D Which saw the gang discovering one empty room (which will later become a little gym of sorts for the gang, particularly Alice); one bedroom with a REALLY fancy bed in it (stolen straight from Realm of Magic – Alice wasn’t sure about the stained-glass canopy though); and one music room at the base of the tower, with a Harper upright piano (which Victor was VERY eager to try and restore). Along the way, they learned about what shitty parents the Van Dorts were and how lonely a childhood Victor had, and Victor’s love of music (with Smiler revealing they play guitar and drums in response to Victor asking if they play anything). Basically, this chapter is as much about exposition as it is about exploring their new lair. XD But I gotta get it out somehow, so here we are. Next time, the gang heads upstairs to the workshop level of the tower, where Smiler gets to find something of interest to them...
YouTube: Welp, due to The Circumstances, I only got through one of my new Saturday Two tonight – GrayStillPlays and “Testing cars vs increasingly impossible loops!” Another GTA V torture board for him to complete, this one focused on the power of the supercars versus the power of Alex’s ridiculous loops. How ridiculous were they? Well, we had –
I. Growing Waterslide Loops – a pair of large loops made out of waterslides – the first purple loop was pretty big, but then the second orange loop was TEN TIMES THE SIZE. Like, this thing could fit a small moon inside of it. Oh, and Gray had to do a corkscrew wallride to come OFF both loops because otherwise he couldn’t make the leap to the next platform. Oh, and the orange one had the very tippy-top of a tree sticking into it serving as an obstacle to dodge. All sorts of fun for Gray to deal with!
II. LEGO Loop – a loop made out of the sides of LEGO bricks, with its main problems being it was very thin – AND, at the very start, there was a right-side-up LEGO brick where Gray had to squeeze in between the bumps to actually reach the loop. Meaning any car not thin enough to get through there was likely not going to make the jump to the next challenge. Oh, and there was a weebmill involved at the end too, because of course there was. XD
III. LEGO Loop 2.0 But It’s Much More Treacherous – a loop made out of the TOPS of LEGO bricks – meaning that Gray had to loop while driving on all the little bumps. Gray likened it to a loop made out of speedbumps, and seeing it in action, man was he not kidding. It was a lucky car indeed that could keep ANY of its speed on this one! And, yes, again, there, was a weebmill involved, because of course there was. :p
IV. On The Edge Of The Sword Loop – a loop made out of the edge of giant Minecraft swords – aka the thinnest loop Gray’s ever done (possibly; one person in the comments claimed a loop from the past made out of shipping containers was thinner). This one was tricky because there was NO ROOM for error at ALL – Gray actually resorted to doing it in first person so he could keep himself in line better. It was the only way to be sure! And while this one didn’t have a weebmill, it DID have another giant sword chopping away at the end. Because of course it did. XD
V. Waterslidey Loops Inside Of A Loop Loop – aka, “loopception.” Basically, Alex recreated one of those classic “crazy straws” with this thing – it was a series of six smaller loops arranged in one giant loop. And there was a script circle at the start that would trigger the “news chopper” Chaos Mod effect so that we the viewers could get the proper cinematic experience as Gray tried all the loops. And yes, of course, at the end there was a massive jump with a weebmill in front of it. Because OF COURSE THERE WAS.
So, which of Gray’s supercars actually made the loops? Well, the Faux Batmobile and the F1 open-wheeled racer both did terribly (the Batmobile was too big to properly fit in the first loop, and the F1 too low to the ground – it caught on everything); the red “old school” supercar made it through the first loops, but couldn’t make the jump; and most of the other supercars did all right on the first couple of loops, but stumbled on either the first or second LEGO loop (either not being able to build the speed to make the first due to getting stopped by the starting LEGO bumps, or not being able to KEEP their speed on the latter). The winner proved to be a super race car with “Globe Oil” branding and a spoiler (which we learned in a previous video helps with downforce), which not only made it past the horrors of the LEGO and sword loops, but damn near CHEATED the Loopception Loops by falling out early but then LANDING IN THE FINAL LOOP. And then Gray discovered that it could do loops IN FUCKING REVERSE, meaning that he could back up and get enough speed to attempt the jump. Sadly, he was whacked aside by the weebmill at the last moment, but it was still a glorious moment. And him completing it LEGIT at the end of the video was pretty damn glorious too. :D Congrats on beating the loops without letting them beat you, Gray! Well – beat you TOO MUCH anyway. :p
So that wasn't too bad, at least. I'll take a bad day where I get shit done over one where I don't! But now I have to figure out what I want to do tomorrow. For, you see, I'm down one "Fallout: London" video by Jon (which was actually released back on Thursday because he did a birthday livestream today -- should have watched it earlier when I had the chance!), and catching up with it tomorrow might mean not playing Fallout 4 myself, simply because of the fact that I cannot be fucking concise in a recap no matter how hard I try. I just -- I don't know. I guess I just want to share everything I enjoy about these videos with you guys, and unfortunately that always takes longer than I think it's going to. I'll have to think about what I want to do. For now, I know for sure that I want to finish off as many of my Chill Valicer Save drafts with image alt text and tags as possible, keep up with GrayStillPlays and Jon's latest "Sim Settlements 2" video, and get in a workout tomorrow. Oh, and get to bed earlier tonight. And make sure my alarm is NOT set, thank you very much. So I'm gonna go see about that. Fingers crossed tomorrow has no bad sandwich elements to it! Night all!
