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Heat Advised Monday
Jul. 29th, 2019 11:10 pmYeah, we're under another heat advisory, right through tomorrow. Temperatures back in the 90s, with high humidity and all that fun stuff. I've spent the day indoors, though my parents ventured out to try and find a side table (no luck) and do the laundry. And to take Mom to work, of course. The weird thing, though, is that it actually rained at one point -- while the sun was still shining. Which, yes, has happened in the past too, but rarely THIS HARD. I mean, it was COMING DOWN. Proper full rainstorm and everything! Apparently we had a chance at a pop-up thunderstorm today, but I didn't hear any thunder, and this was just rain with sun behind it. O.o Very odd. . . But hey, didn't have to go out in it, all I care about. :p
As for the non-weather-related parts of my day, it seemed to be primarily a day about long videos:
-->The Discworld podcast I follow, Wyrd Sisters, posted an hour-long episode late last night that I got to today -- about the book that gave them their title! And all three sisters managed to make it to talk about it, yay! It was a good discussion of both the highs (Death's stage fright, Terry's first believable romance, the development of Granny Weatherwax and her fellow witches) and the lows (some uncomfortable-in-the-modern-era jokes, some missed opportunities with characters, another case of 'chosen boy whose mother is irrelevant to the picture'). I like how their love of the books definitely shines through, but they're not afraid to point out where Terry could have done better. Makes for an enjoyable listen. (Especially since the sound was much better this time around.)
-->And I had to catch up on another OXBox/OXtra livestream, because it was the gang playing Hitman 2! Specifically, Jane and Andy playing a particular escalation in the Columbia level (which starts out really easy, and then ramps up the difficulty with lots and lots of explosion kills), while Luke manned the chat again -- Ellen was apparently ill, and Mike on leave. Mike, though, was with them in spirit, as Andy managed to royally cock up the VERY FIRST LEVEL of the escalation, which is literally "just kill this one dude," and had to flee in a hail of gunfire. XD Jane did much better on the second level (after one restart because they forgot which target had to be blown up and which didn't), and then the third level -- well, that took a lot of careful planning, a few restarts, and a return of 47's improbable drum skills to ensure three of his victims all ended up in the same place. :p Escalation WAS completed, however, which mean we got some bonus missions -- a special "kill the poacher and steal his book of associates" mission, and a return to the New York bank level, just for funsies. And, since everyone in the chat was like "let Luke have a go!", but Luke has no idea how to play Hitman 2, they decided to do a compromise and have Luke direct all of Andy's actions in the game for those two missions.
Luke, as it turns out, is somehow MORE CHAOTIC THAN "COMBAT 8 SECONDS INTO THE LEVEL" MIKE. Mostly because he wanted Andy to attack pretty much everyone he saw. With a machete, if possible. XD They actually completed the poacher level, once Luke calmed down enough to stop telling Andy to machete everyone he saw, but the bank level was a bust -- they managed to kill the target, but the actual heist part went unfinished. They ended the level punching random citizens at Luke's request before going down in a hail of gunfire. XD I now consider it a major shame that Luke doesn't know how to play the game himself, because can you imagine Mike vs Luke in Hitman 2's head-to-head Ghost Mode? My God, it would be glorious. XD
-->On the less lengthy side, I did also watch another video of "[blank]BuildforSemaj" from The Sim Supply (the series where he showcases cool Gallery builds). Some awesome island-themed stuff today, including a giant catamaran, a pair of delightful island mansions that did neat things with roofs, an "earth ship" for all your funky upcycled materials, off-the-grid needs, and a base-game-build tropical house! I am continually awed by what some people can MAKE using the Sims 4. Seriously, puts any building prowess I've managed to pick up to shame. I'm looking forward to the next set of builds -- James is looking for base-game-only stuff! That should be interesting. . .
-->I also watched another Plumbella video, this one talking about the backstories of Vladislaus Straud and the Vatore siblings in Sims 4: Vampires. Interesting stuff, especially with how invested she got in trying to figure out Vlad, Caleb, and Lilith's origins, and what their histories might actually be. And then getting annoyed with EA for not really putting any of this in the game in a meaningful way (like making the Vatores and Vlad actually enemies), which, you know, fair. Previous games have been a lot better about creating neighborhood-wide stories. . .but I personally don't pay THAT much attention to the NPCs, so it's never bothered me so much. I'm here to play with my OTPs and other favorite fandom characters, thanks. Why do you think I put everyone into the totally-blank world of Newcrest? :p I actually watched a few more of her videos last night before heading to bed -- did you know that she's got a save file where she's REMADE EVERY WORLD IN THE GAME? I'm serious -- replaced every house, every community lot, all of it. It's all extremely well done, and I am deeply impressed. And she's not the only one! I've got another video from another Simmer, lilsimsie, with HER remade save file. Hopefully I can find some time to watch that tomorrow!
-->With all this Sims talk, you might have expected me to have played the game -- but nope, today was a Masquerade Monday, and I stuck to that, playing a round of Bloodlines! Went through the Ocean House level, completing all the goodies and still getting spooked by the killer despite having already played the game once and watched it through twice. What can I say -- the game is a janky mess, but what it gets right, it gets right. Collected all my goodies, then sent Alice back to her haven to complete the "day." Then I decided, eh, might as well get a jump on the next night in the timeline, so I had her complete the "Bloody Mess" quest (though I'm a bit worried that doing so screwed over my ability to receive Malcolm St. Martin's blackmail money -- ah well, in-story Alice will get it!), then visit the Asylum and politely but firmly refuse to give Jeannette the pendant she found in the Ocean House Hotel. She did accept the "Slashterpiece" quest, though -- my in-story reasoning being that Alice is worried about what being on Jeannette's bad side will entail, since she's still a new vampire. (It won't be until later on in the timeline where she starts getting TRULY sick of everyone's shit.) I parked her by Kilpatrick's to end the play session, but I think I'm going to backtrack to the Diner and have her inquire about Lily first -- get a few more of the Santa Monica sidequests sorted. Completing "Slashterpiece" will finish up the next night, and then the end of the Voerman sister feud will be the night after that. So the opening section of the game, with sidequests, is looking like it takes about five days? Yeah, okay, seems reasonable enough. I'll take it.
-->I did do one Sims-related thing though -- got my pictures for Wednesday's update sorted! Which is good, because I'll need to get all my posts done tomorrow. Got a "starter" version of the first one up in the queue, just so I can keep that running without issue. Gonna be a busy afternoon tomorrow in general, actually -- I have to do my Valice Multiverse queue then too, and make muffins.
-->And I got my writing in -- everyone has square-danced in "Secundus 2," and now the group is breaking up again to do a few different things. We're focusing on a shooting gallery battle between Marty and Christopher, since I've kind of set that up as a thing, and I think it's a fun twist on what happened with the shooting gallery in Part III. Then everyone's going to get a quick chance to eat before the Tannens show up to cause some hell. Good times! *thumbs up*
Right now, though, it is bed times -- back to work tomorrow! At least it's a short week. And August is looming, and with it, the promise of a LOT of time off. . . :D But I gotta concentrate on the present. Which includes bed. Night all!
As for the non-weather-related parts of my day, it seemed to be primarily a day about long videos:
-->The Discworld podcast I follow, Wyrd Sisters, posted an hour-long episode late last night that I got to today -- about the book that gave them their title! And all three sisters managed to make it to talk about it, yay! It was a good discussion of both the highs (Death's stage fright, Terry's first believable romance, the development of Granny Weatherwax and her fellow witches) and the lows (some uncomfortable-in-the-modern-era jokes, some missed opportunities with characters, another case of 'chosen boy whose mother is irrelevant to the picture'). I like how their love of the books definitely shines through, but they're not afraid to point out where Terry could have done better. Makes for an enjoyable listen. (Especially since the sound was much better this time around.)
-->And I had to catch up on another OXBox/OXtra livestream, because it was the gang playing Hitman 2! Specifically, Jane and Andy playing a particular escalation in the Columbia level (which starts out really easy, and then ramps up the difficulty with lots and lots of explosion kills), while Luke manned the chat again -- Ellen was apparently ill, and Mike on leave. Mike, though, was with them in spirit, as Andy managed to royally cock up the VERY FIRST LEVEL of the escalation, which is literally "just kill this one dude," and had to flee in a hail of gunfire. XD Jane did much better on the second level (after one restart because they forgot which target had to be blown up and which didn't), and then the third level -- well, that took a lot of careful planning, a few restarts, and a return of 47's improbable drum skills to ensure three of his victims all ended up in the same place. :p Escalation WAS completed, however, which mean we got some bonus missions -- a special "kill the poacher and steal his book of associates" mission, and a return to the New York bank level, just for funsies. And, since everyone in the chat was like "let Luke have a go!", but Luke has no idea how to play Hitman 2, they decided to do a compromise and have Luke direct all of Andy's actions in the game for those two missions.
Luke, as it turns out, is somehow MORE CHAOTIC THAN "COMBAT 8 SECONDS INTO THE LEVEL" MIKE. Mostly because he wanted Andy to attack pretty much everyone he saw. With a machete, if possible. XD They actually completed the poacher level, once Luke calmed down enough to stop telling Andy to machete everyone he saw, but the bank level was a bust -- they managed to kill the target, but the actual heist part went unfinished. They ended the level punching random citizens at Luke's request before going down in a hail of gunfire. XD I now consider it a major shame that Luke doesn't know how to play the game himself, because can you imagine Mike vs Luke in Hitman 2's head-to-head Ghost Mode? My God, it would be glorious. XD
-->On the less lengthy side, I did also watch another video of "[blank]BuildforSemaj" from The Sim Supply (the series where he showcases cool Gallery builds). Some awesome island-themed stuff today, including a giant catamaran, a pair of delightful island mansions that did neat things with roofs, an "earth ship" for all your funky upcycled materials, off-the-grid needs, and a base-game-build tropical house! I am continually awed by what some people can MAKE using the Sims 4. Seriously, puts any building prowess I've managed to pick up to shame. I'm looking forward to the next set of builds -- James is looking for base-game-only stuff! That should be interesting. . .
-->I also watched another Plumbella video, this one talking about the backstories of Vladislaus Straud and the Vatore siblings in Sims 4: Vampires. Interesting stuff, especially with how invested she got in trying to figure out Vlad, Caleb, and Lilith's origins, and what their histories might actually be. And then getting annoyed with EA for not really putting any of this in the game in a meaningful way (like making the Vatores and Vlad actually enemies), which, you know, fair. Previous games have been a lot better about creating neighborhood-wide stories. . .but I personally don't pay THAT much attention to the NPCs, so it's never bothered me so much. I'm here to play with my OTPs and other favorite fandom characters, thanks. Why do you think I put everyone into the totally-blank world of Newcrest? :p I actually watched a few more of her videos last night before heading to bed -- did you know that she's got a save file where she's REMADE EVERY WORLD IN THE GAME? I'm serious -- replaced every house, every community lot, all of it. It's all extremely well done, and I am deeply impressed. And she's not the only one! I've got another video from another Simmer, lilsimsie, with HER remade save file. Hopefully I can find some time to watch that tomorrow!
-->With all this Sims talk, you might have expected me to have played the game -- but nope, today was a Masquerade Monday, and I stuck to that, playing a round of Bloodlines! Went through the Ocean House level, completing all the goodies and still getting spooked by the killer despite having already played the game once and watched it through twice. What can I say -- the game is a janky mess, but what it gets right, it gets right. Collected all my goodies, then sent Alice back to her haven to complete the "day." Then I decided, eh, might as well get a jump on the next night in the timeline, so I had her complete the "Bloody Mess" quest (though I'm a bit worried that doing so screwed over my ability to receive Malcolm St. Martin's blackmail money -- ah well, in-story Alice will get it!), then visit the Asylum and politely but firmly refuse to give Jeannette the pendant she found in the Ocean House Hotel. She did accept the "Slashterpiece" quest, though -- my in-story reasoning being that Alice is worried about what being on Jeannette's bad side will entail, since she's still a new vampire. (It won't be until later on in the timeline where she starts getting TRULY sick of everyone's shit.) I parked her by Kilpatrick's to end the play session, but I think I'm going to backtrack to the Diner and have her inquire about Lily first -- get a few more of the Santa Monica sidequests sorted. Completing "Slashterpiece" will finish up the next night, and then the end of the Voerman sister feud will be the night after that. So the opening section of the game, with sidequests, is looking like it takes about five days? Yeah, okay, seems reasonable enough. I'll take it.
-->I did do one Sims-related thing though -- got my pictures for Wednesday's update sorted! Which is good, because I'll need to get all my posts done tomorrow. Got a "starter" version of the first one up in the queue, just so I can keep that running without issue. Gonna be a busy afternoon tomorrow in general, actually -- I have to do my Valice Multiverse queue then too, and make muffins.
-->And I got my writing in -- everyone has square-danced in "Secundus 2," and now the group is breaking up again to do a few different things. We're focusing on a shooting gallery battle between Marty and Christopher, since I've kind of set that up as a thing, and I think it's a fun twist on what happened with the shooting gallery in Part III. Then everyone's going to get a quick chance to eat before the Tannens show up to cause some hell. Good times! *thumbs up*
Right now, though, it is bed times -- back to work tomorrow! At least it's a short week. And August is looming, and with it, the promise of a LOT of time off. . . :D But I gotta concentrate on the present. Which includes bed. Night all!
