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Happy Easter Monday!
Apr. 5th, 2021 11:06 pmYes, this is technically what this is, though I didn't get any more Easter chocolate. :p Though there were leftover eclairs, so I can't really complain. Another pretty quiet day just hanging out -- the wind was terrible for most of the day. I swear it's gotten windier around here lately. . .ah well, left me plenty of time to work on my to-do list:
1. Keep up with YouTube Subs and the Plumbella video in my Watch Later: Check! And even got in another video, as you shall see below –
A) Started with Plumbella, checking out a very early alpha build of Little Sim World! It’s literally just some basic build/buy, the character creator, and the ability to wander around a bit. Despite that, Plumbella thoroughly enjoyed her time, making a ginger version of herself and building a little home (while coming to grips with the controls and blocking traffic constantly). I have to say, I really like their take on the personality-building aspect of their “CAS” – you start with a point-build system for stuff like niceness, health, luck, what have you, then supplement it with traits, quirks, and the like. I think this would work super-well for Sims – have the classic point-build system from the original two games for stuff that can be ranked on a spectrum (niceness, neatness, outgoingness, etc), and supplement that with more specific traits (like Dog Lover, Snob, Music Lover, etc). Maxis, take notes!
B) Then it was onto James Turner returning to The Tenants! After his old game glitched out a bit, he started a new one, with some new tenants, and a recently-purchased apartment! Today’s episode was all about doing various renovation jobs to earn the money to turn that apartment into a two-bedroom delight where he could earn a lot of money from rent (as he’s EXTREMELY close to being able to unlock the next district you can rent in). The place turned out really nice – it’s got a bathroom with separate bathtub and shower, a little laundry room, and a decently-sized kitchen/living area, along with very-well-decorated bedrooms – and he was able to find a couple of tenants willing to pay the big bucks to live there. Along the way he renovated a number of apartments, and even a captain’s cabin on a ship (twice – game, uh, does tend to repeat jobs if you stay in one district for a while). It’s a pretty fun little building sim, and I’m curious as to what the next “level” of buildings look like. And he seems eager to show us, so. . .
C) This evening, we started with Call Me Kevin and King of the Nerds – another TV Show that Kevin has chosen to share with us! Mostly because he found an episode FULL of cringe, and that cringe is named Zack. Zack is an asshole who is totally full of himself, likes revealing people’s special talents when they’ve specifically asked him not to (the task on the show was to create the best science volcano – partially judged by Bill Nye the Science Guy! -- and he revealed who the chemist in the group was after she asked him not to), pretends to get drunk off a single shot of tequila, and is basically every terrible nerd stereotype in the book. He and another teammate, Josh, got chosen for a “nerd off” – locating and placing three alien organs in the correct slots on the host’s body – to determine who got to stay, and his own teammates tried their damndest to help Josh because NONE of them liked Zack. Of course, the other team (a much more, uh, THEATRICAL group – you should have seen the volcano presentation) helped out Zack, and he ended up winning. Probably because ratings. The whole thing was just “eugh,” though Kevin’s reactions were hilarious. XD First time he’s said he’d punch a person in real life (in reference to Zack constantly invading personal spaces)!
D) Then, of course, we had GrayStillPlays and more “inflicting all the zeroes on Minecraft!” Today’s experiment – literally farming Lucky Blocks, blocks that cause random weird effects on the world! Gray made it so you can grow them with wheat, and proceeded to unleash chaos. A LOT of chaos. He was hoping for awesome temporary invincibility and over-enchanted diamond gear – and while he got that, he also got MOB UPON MOB UPON MOB. Mostly of spiders. He also got launched into the air, created random floating houses, and exploded some villagers without actually meaning to. XD The Ender Dragon did NOT appreciate it when he flung like 100 into the air in its realm and then proceeded to fight it with his uber-powerful fire bow from the mansion it created. XD Not another one-hit kill, but it was pretty damn epic nonetheless!
E) And, because I had some time and he actually managed to upload on what was once his usual day, I watched the latest episode of Atop the Fourth Wall from Linkara – “Star Trek #9 (Gold Key),” one of those goofy old Star Trek comics from the Gold Key comic company! This one involved the crew visiting a planet that proved to be populated by android duplicates of famous historical figures (including George Washington and Hitler), created by a mad earth historian who was storing the brainwaves on punch cards. Also he was bored with his creations, so he wanted to drain and destroy Spock’s brain so he could create Vulcan historical figures. Also also, when he’s accidentally killed by his own equipment after a fight with Spock, his computers explode so hard they destroy the planet. Linkara called this hilariously bad, and – yes. Yes it is. Love it. XD Especially since he had another rapid-fire joke section on the comic’s take on the 45th president of the United States, “Anton York. . .” Let’s just say Linkara does some good impressions. xD
2. Either write some more on my snippet projector start Chapter 5 of "In A World Of His Own": Check on the first half – mostly because holy hell did I have a burst of inspiration for the former! One that actually started pretty late last night and went through most of this morning. . .yeah, okay, a lot of it was largely retyping what was already there, but there’s definitely some new stuff too, and – yeah. Let’s just say I’m very happy with the new version of that snippet.
3. Play Sims 4 and do Mt. Komorebi Harvestfest with the McFlys: Check! Though what a Harvestfest it was. . .it started off poorly with Marlene managing to upset the very first holiday gnome (luckily Jennifer and Marty were able to appease the two others), and then proceeded to near-disaster when I decided to have the family hang around the campfire I bought them –
And both Marlene and Jennifer caught on fire. Marlene hadn’t even REACHED the damn thing yet! She was practically on the other side of the house! Jennifer managed to put herself out, while Marty extinguished Marlene. Turns out there’s a sentiment for one Sim saving another’s life – would have preferred to find out a different way than that! O.o
Fortunately, things calmed down after that – the family had a snowball fight, shared a ham dinner, then took a quick trip to the Onsen for a short soak in the hot springs. They all ended up having an excellent holiday, somehow – just more proof that Sims 4 Sims cannot be brought down by FREAKING ANYTHING. Not even nearly dying cracks their cheer for long. Man, I wish I could be that happy.
4. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike for the second part of the Grand Finale of Jon’s Fallout 4 Survival Playthrough! Caught back up with Grills and the other members of the Brotherhood as they defended Prime while he broke into the Institute – a process that involved a giant eye-laser followed by the tossing of a nuke. Would you expect anything else from this robot? At any rate, the Institute just sent a bunch of level 13 synths to oppose Grills and company, and they were easily taken care of. Grills prepared to drop down the hole with his team –
And then “Form Ranks” appeared on his screen as – completed. Not failed. Completed.
And so Grills decided to take a little pre-storming-the-Institute break to go back to Hangman’s Alley and figure out what the hell was going on (and to get some food, water, and sleep while he was at it – no point not dropping a save!). He also took the time to hand over the holotape to Sturges – completely unnecessary at this point, but it completed “Inside Job” and gave him some extra XP, sooo. . .yeah. So what was happening with “Form Ranks?” The Minutemen quest to bring more settlements into the faction so they could take on the Institute?
No freaking clue – Grills couldn’t actually ask Garvey about it. He just got a standard affinity talk because Preston ended up admiring him after he gave the tape to Sturges. I guess the good old crappy Bethesda code counts “cracking open the Institute with Liberty Prime” as a viable end state for that quest! Jon’s of course not going to say no to more XP, but the hell, Fallout 4.
ANYWAY, the next morning, Grills headed back to the hole and finally led his team inside the Institute, starting with the teleporter relay room! Ingram was left behind to get the teleporter working for their escape, while Grills and the others – including, to Jon’s delight, Paladin Brandis from “The Lost Patrol” quest – stormed the Institute itself, heading in through the rather dingy old Robotics lab before coming across a back entrance into BioScience. Amusingly, judging by his in-game reactions to this lab and the old FEV area, Elder Maxson hates the BioScience division trying to make a better crop, but had no opinion at all on them making Super Mutants. They murdered the first wave of synth defenders, then Ingram informed them there was a security lockdown that needed to be lifted, and the only way to do so was to use the terminal in the Director’s quarters. Grills promptly went over there to confront Father, telling him that he just wanted to watch the place burn, and that if he wanted a minimum of Institute casualties, he’d tell him the access code for the terminal. A disgusted Father gave him what he wanted thanks to some Persuasion checks, and Grills – well, being Grills, promptly hit him with a Molotov and then shut down most of the synth opposition left before overriding the lockdown and pointedly not issuing the evacuation order. Grills is – kind of a bastard, honestly.
With that out of the way, all that remained was to wipe out the remaining synths (both active and not) and scientists. . .and as usual, karma hit Grills and Jon for the bastardy, as Grills got a little too happy with the Molotovs and firebombed his own men at one point. Killing Paladin Brandis. Jon was genuinely upset by this, given he’d spent a decent amount of time convincing this guy to rejoin the Brotherhood. He took his holotags as a mark of respect before killing his way to the reactor room and taking out the super-tough named Legendaries in there. I left it just as he was clearing out the last of the synths – tomorrow should see the end of the episode, and thus, the series.
5. Prep for tumblr queues: Check! Did pretty well too –
-->I did indeed get an early start last night, doing the pictures for both the next Newcrest Adventures update and the next Chill Save update! Though, admittedly, it wasn’t hard – Chill Save updates are so far always a single post, and this Wednesday’s Newcrest Adventures is only two because they just went on a hike and did some snow sports.
-->Then, today, I managed to get the actual posts done for the Newcrest Adventures update – pictures AND text – the post on Fallout of Darkness I plan to queue up for Thursday (dealing Victor and Alice’s traumatic encounter with Ug-Qualtoth), and my post for this upcoming Song Saturday! Nothing for Friday yet, but I’m already planning on that being another progress report stating I’m starting edits on Chapter 5 of “In A World Of His Own.” So I’m a little bit ahead, yay~ And I have some other posts ready for reblogging if I need them, so. . .not bad.
Pretty productive Monday off! Feeling nice and ahead on things. Have to say, it's been a good long weekend. :) I don't expect any of these feelings to last after a single day at work, but at least they're here now! And, if nothing else, choosing to work on my snippet today means I've got some mental comfort food ready for the inevitable return of the intense stress.
Okay -- and I've just answered most of the DW comments in my inbox, so time to clear out the last one and then prep to hit the sheets. Gotta be up a lot earlier tomorrow, after all. . .I really should have tried to go to bed earlier last night, but then I started doing that writing, and -- yeah. Wasn't happening. Oh well, it's not like I'm not used to insomnia. . . Night all!
1. Keep up with YouTube Subs and the Plumbella video in my Watch Later: Check! And even got in another video, as you shall see below –
A) Started with Plumbella, checking out a very early alpha build of Little Sim World! It’s literally just some basic build/buy, the character creator, and the ability to wander around a bit. Despite that, Plumbella thoroughly enjoyed her time, making a ginger version of herself and building a little home (while coming to grips with the controls and blocking traffic constantly). I have to say, I really like their take on the personality-building aspect of their “CAS” – you start with a point-build system for stuff like niceness, health, luck, what have you, then supplement it with traits, quirks, and the like. I think this would work super-well for Sims – have the classic point-build system from the original two games for stuff that can be ranked on a spectrum (niceness, neatness, outgoingness, etc), and supplement that with more specific traits (like Dog Lover, Snob, Music Lover, etc). Maxis, take notes!
B) Then it was onto James Turner returning to The Tenants! After his old game glitched out a bit, he started a new one, with some new tenants, and a recently-purchased apartment! Today’s episode was all about doing various renovation jobs to earn the money to turn that apartment into a two-bedroom delight where he could earn a lot of money from rent (as he’s EXTREMELY close to being able to unlock the next district you can rent in). The place turned out really nice – it’s got a bathroom with separate bathtub and shower, a little laundry room, and a decently-sized kitchen/living area, along with very-well-decorated bedrooms – and he was able to find a couple of tenants willing to pay the big bucks to live there. Along the way he renovated a number of apartments, and even a captain’s cabin on a ship (twice – game, uh, does tend to repeat jobs if you stay in one district for a while). It’s a pretty fun little building sim, and I’m curious as to what the next “level” of buildings look like. And he seems eager to show us, so. . .
C) This evening, we started with Call Me Kevin and King of the Nerds – another TV Show that Kevin has chosen to share with us! Mostly because he found an episode FULL of cringe, and that cringe is named Zack. Zack is an asshole who is totally full of himself, likes revealing people’s special talents when they’ve specifically asked him not to (the task on the show was to create the best science volcano – partially judged by Bill Nye the Science Guy! -- and he revealed who the chemist in the group was after she asked him not to), pretends to get drunk off a single shot of tequila, and is basically every terrible nerd stereotype in the book. He and another teammate, Josh, got chosen for a “nerd off” – locating and placing three alien organs in the correct slots on the host’s body – to determine who got to stay, and his own teammates tried their damndest to help Josh because NONE of them liked Zack. Of course, the other team (a much more, uh, THEATRICAL group – you should have seen the volcano presentation) helped out Zack, and he ended up winning. Probably because ratings. The whole thing was just “eugh,” though Kevin’s reactions were hilarious. XD First time he’s said he’d punch a person in real life (in reference to Zack constantly invading personal spaces)!
D) Then, of course, we had GrayStillPlays and more “inflicting all the zeroes on Minecraft!” Today’s experiment – literally farming Lucky Blocks, blocks that cause random weird effects on the world! Gray made it so you can grow them with wheat, and proceeded to unleash chaos. A LOT of chaos. He was hoping for awesome temporary invincibility and over-enchanted diamond gear – and while he got that, he also got MOB UPON MOB UPON MOB. Mostly of spiders. He also got launched into the air, created random floating houses, and exploded some villagers without actually meaning to. XD The Ender Dragon did NOT appreciate it when he flung like 100 into the air in its realm and then proceeded to fight it with his uber-powerful fire bow from the mansion it created. XD Not another one-hit kill, but it was pretty damn epic nonetheless!
E) And, because I had some time and he actually managed to upload on what was once his usual day, I watched the latest episode of Atop the Fourth Wall from Linkara – “Star Trek #9 (Gold Key),” one of those goofy old Star Trek comics from the Gold Key comic company! This one involved the crew visiting a planet that proved to be populated by android duplicates of famous historical figures (including George Washington and Hitler), created by a mad earth historian who was storing the brainwaves on punch cards. Also he was bored with his creations, so he wanted to drain and destroy Spock’s brain so he could create Vulcan historical figures. Also also, when he’s accidentally killed by his own equipment after a fight with Spock, his computers explode so hard they destroy the planet. Linkara called this hilariously bad, and – yes. Yes it is. Love it. XD Especially since he had another rapid-fire joke section on the comic’s take on the 45th president of the United States, “Anton York. . .” Let’s just say Linkara does some good impressions. xD
2. Either write some more on my snippet project
3. Play Sims 4 and do Mt. Komorebi Harvestfest with the McFlys: Check! Though what a Harvestfest it was. . .it started off poorly with Marlene managing to upset the very first holiday gnome (luckily Jennifer and Marty were able to appease the two others), and then proceeded to near-disaster when I decided to have the family hang around the campfire I bought them –
And both Marlene and Jennifer caught on fire. Marlene hadn’t even REACHED the damn thing yet! She was practically on the other side of the house! Jennifer managed to put herself out, while Marty extinguished Marlene. Turns out there’s a sentiment for one Sim saving another’s life – would have preferred to find out a different way than that! O.o
Fortunately, things calmed down after that – the family had a snowball fight, shared a ham dinner, then took a quick trip to the Onsen for a short soak in the hot springs. They all ended up having an excellent holiday, somehow – just more proof that Sims 4 Sims cannot be brought down by FREAKING ANYTHING. Not even nearly dying cracks their cheer for long. Man, I wish I could be that happy.
4. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike for the second part of the Grand Finale of Jon’s Fallout 4 Survival Playthrough! Caught back up with Grills and the other members of the Brotherhood as they defended Prime while he broke into the Institute – a process that involved a giant eye-laser followed by the tossing of a nuke. Would you expect anything else from this robot? At any rate, the Institute just sent a bunch of level 13 synths to oppose Grills and company, and they were easily taken care of. Grills prepared to drop down the hole with his team –
And then “Form Ranks” appeared on his screen as – completed. Not failed. Completed.
And so Grills decided to take a little pre-storming-the-Institute break to go back to Hangman’s Alley and figure out what the hell was going on (and to get some food, water, and sleep while he was at it – no point not dropping a save!). He also took the time to hand over the holotape to Sturges – completely unnecessary at this point, but it completed “Inside Job” and gave him some extra XP, sooo. . .yeah. So what was happening with “Form Ranks?” The Minutemen quest to bring more settlements into the faction so they could take on the Institute?
No freaking clue – Grills couldn’t actually ask Garvey about it. He just got a standard affinity talk because Preston ended up admiring him after he gave the tape to Sturges. I guess the good old crappy Bethesda code counts “cracking open the Institute with Liberty Prime” as a viable end state for that quest! Jon’s of course not going to say no to more XP, but the hell, Fallout 4.
ANYWAY, the next morning, Grills headed back to the hole and finally led his team inside the Institute, starting with the teleporter relay room! Ingram was left behind to get the teleporter working for their escape, while Grills and the others – including, to Jon’s delight, Paladin Brandis from “The Lost Patrol” quest – stormed the Institute itself, heading in through the rather dingy old Robotics lab before coming across a back entrance into BioScience. Amusingly, judging by his in-game reactions to this lab and the old FEV area, Elder Maxson hates the BioScience division trying to make a better crop, but had no opinion at all on them making Super Mutants. They murdered the first wave of synth defenders, then Ingram informed them there was a security lockdown that needed to be lifted, and the only way to do so was to use the terminal in the Director’s quarters. Grills promptly went over there to confront Father, telling him that he just wanted to watch the place burn, and that if he wanted a minimum of Institute casualties, he’d tell him the access code for the terminal. A disgusted Father gave him what he wanted thanks to some Persuasion checks, and Grills – well, being Grills, promptly hit him with a Molotov and then shut down most of the synth opposition left before overriding the lockdown and pointedly not issuing the evacuation order. Grills is – kind of a bastard, honestly.
With that out of the way, all that remained was to wipe out the remaining synths (both active and not) and scientists. . .and as usual, karma hit Grills and Jon for the bastardy, as Grills got a little too happy with the Molotovs and firebombed his own men at one point. Killing Paladin Brandis. Jon was genuinely upset by this, given he’d spent a decent amount of time convincing this guy to rejoin the Brotherhood. He took his holotags as a mark of respect before killing his way to the reactor room and taking out the super-tough named Legendaries in there. I left it just as he was clearing out the last of the synths – tomorrow should see the end of the episode, and thus, the series.
5. Prep for tumblr queues: Check! Did pretty well too –
-->I did indeed get an early start last night, doing the pictures for both the next Newcrest Adventures update and the next Chill Save update! Though, admittedly, it wasn’t hard – Chill Save updates are so far always a single post, and this Wednesday’s Newcrest Adventures is only two because they just went on a hike and did some snow sports.
-->Then, today, I managed to get the actual posts done for the Newcrest Adventures update – pictures AND text – the post on Fallout of Darkness I plan to queue up for Thursday (dealing Victor and Alice’s traumatic encounter with Ug-Qualtoth), and my post for this upcoming Song Saturday! Nothing for Friday yet, but I’m already planning on that being another progress report stating I’m starting edits on Chapter 5 of “In A World Of His Own.” So I’m a little bit ahead, yay~ And I have some other posts ready for reblogging if I need them, so. . .not bad.
Pretty productive Monday off! Feeling nice and ahead on things. Have to say, it's been a good long weekend. :) I don't expect any of these feelings to last after a single day at work, but at least they're here now! And, if nothing else, choosing to work on my snippet today means I've got some mental comfort food ready for the inevitable return of the intense stress.
Okay -- and I've just answered most of the DW comments in my inbox, so time to clear out the last one and then prep to hit the sheets. Gotta be up a lot earlier tomorrow, after all. . .I really should have tried to go to bed earlier last night, but then I started doing that writing, and -- yeah. Wasn't happening. Oh well, it's not like I'm not used to insomnia. . . Night all!
