![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Not Too Bad Monday
May. 3rd, 2021 11:10 pmHad a few frustrating moments -- credit card stuff remains unresolved, talky coworker was extra-talky -- but I also cleared a couple of other things off my plate and got some (in my opinion) good work done, so I can't rate the day below a C. Would have preferred slightly nicer weather, but I'll take rain sprinkles over out-and-out pouring, so. . .
Afternoon was reasonably productive too:
1. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike, back with “Nuka-World Level One Survival!” Finished off Episode 8 today (the episodes for this series lately are averaging about 45 to 50 minutes, meaning I can get through them in two bike rides) – caught up with Minnie as she tried to deal with the robots invading her sniper tower. . .and died again to the Nukatron, because its blasts can go through the holes in the floor and she’s turning into a melee character who needs to get close to really kill something. And since she doesn’t have Bacon’s levels yet. . .
With another death under his belt, Jon decided to switch tactics and sent Minnie down the OTHER way, through the laser turret tunnel that was now friendly to him. This brought him out by the Battle Arena, which he intended to sneak past. . .but then “Isn’t This A Good Idea” Jon took over and decided to wake up the Novatrons on the plinths by the entrance, trusting in the laser turret tunnel to kill them.
As you might imagine, this plan didn’t go particularly well, as Novatrons are ASSAULTRONS with all the powers thereof, including the giant fuck-off kill laser. Weirdly enough, though, it went better than any of Jon’s previous plans, in that Minnie didn’t die. Mostly because it appears the far end of the tunnel, near the Starport, is outside of “chase range” for the Novatrons. And while they pretty much slaughtered the laser turrets, enough of them were able to get in some good hits that Minnie – with the help of some explosives – was able to kill one. The other went back over to the Arena, where Minnie was unable to lure it out for the killing blows. Minnie decided just not being exploded by that thing was a win and looped back around to where her old enemies the Nukatron Guardian and the Eyebots were. She was finally able to take them out properly this time – smacking around the Eyebots with her bat, and grenading the Nukatron until it was fully crippled and then emptying her 10mil into it until it was dead. Whew – this is why she took a couple of levels of “Demolition Expert,” everyone!
With that out of the way, Minnie was free to collect some Star Cores! She got three just from poking around the general grounds – one from the tower she had previously climbed, and a couple more in backstage areas. With those in hand, she just needed two more to get the park properly functional again, and she knew exactly where to find them – the Nuka-Galaxy coaster! Now rendered almost completely safe thanks to her various shutdowns! I say almost because – well, Nukatron. Bane of Minnie’s existence at this point. It killed her twice before Jon decided “you know what, Minnie, why don’t we just AVOID it.” XD Fortunately for her, it wasn’t near any of the Star Cores – unfortunately, finding the last one took a bit of work, snooping through all the backstage areas and climbing all over the coaster itself. Eventually, though, she located it in a back room, and Jon nearly jumped for joy as he saw the notification that he had enough to repair Star Control. After killing a few robots for extra XP, he sent Minnie back to the Starport, plugged them in, and deactivated the “Defensive Mode” the remaining robots were in, turning them back into friendly park employees. Danger over! At least, until the Disciples move in, as that is who Jon gave the park to – he’s still trying to be fair as he’s not sure whose perk he wants to give up in the long run. Also, amusingly, the XP gained for completing the “Star Control” quest was JUST shy of a level-up for Minnie – she beat up the deactivated Mr. Frothies until she got it and was able to take a couple ranks of “Big Leagues.” Hey, her main weapon is a BAT, it makes sense! The episode ended with Minnie, after a well-deserved rest, checking out her tribute chest from the Disciples (best thing in it was the ammo for her new fast-firing sniper), and Jon making plans for the next part. Episode 9 begins the assault on Kiddie Kingdom – that should be interesting!
2. Write some more on “Londerland Bloodlines”: Check – got through that first scene with Mercurio, though I swapped the order of “can I get you anything to help” and “you gotta go pick up the Astrolite” – I figured Alice would be more concerned with keeping Mercurio alive than getting the explosives for a job she’s not even that keen on. Like Mercurio said, she’s a bit of a softy at heart. But both quests have been obtained, and Alice is heading back out into the night. Time to progress the walkthrough a little further!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Check! Got a chance to catch up on everything --
A) Started with Call Me Kevin and a general life update – poor boy’s foot has been hurting him, and apparently whatever he’s got going on down there was bad enough to need some sort of minor surgery. He’s okay for the most part, but he just wanted to warn everyone that there’s a small chance that he might miss a video or two as he rests up (he’s a daily uploader and just didn’t want his fans to worry). He’s such a sweet guy, honestly – I know his gaming reputation is “I do the evil things to make people laugh,” but the way he talks about trying to figure out his own mental and emotional health, trying to be the best Kevin he can be. . .it’s nice. I’m glad I ended up subscribing to him.
B) Then it was onto James Turner and a random number generator to decide on house-building project in The Sims 4! He used the generator to decide on his budget – $8,995 – and the number of Sims that could live there – 4 – then hopped into Newcrest and set to work! And – well, he made himself a nice tiny house that, upon playtesting, was indeed functional! He used a couple of interesting tricks to keep down the budget, such as separating the sleeping area (four bunk beds) from the kitchen with a very tall “half wall” (half the price, about the same height), and doing most of the landscaping with “debug” plants which cost nothing. Some might say the latter is cheating, but James no care. XD And it did turn out to be a very nice little house – a good home for four Sims on a severe budget. :p
C) And finally we had “GrayStillPlays Catch Up Monday!” Two episodes to get through:
I. More Minecraft fuckery – upgrading iron golems into terror machines! He created an instance where, by feeding the iron golems various crafting elements (iron, gold, and diamond), he could level them up and turn them into an unstoppable army of monsters with four arms and eye lasers. As you might imagine, they promptly got very hard to control. XD Gray had to go to great lengths to keep one Piglin alive so he could get his Ender pearls! But man, watching them absolutely wreck anything and everything in their path (including the landscape – the very first one on its very first level-up basically destroyed some villager's house just by swinging its arms) was something else. And when Gray made it to the end and spawned in 100 of the monsters. . .oh, the Ender Dragon had no chance. Yeeted into space almost immediately. Glorious. :D
II. And then it was time to check out Jolly World, which is basically “like Happy Wheels only with graphics that look hand-drawn, the ability to flip yourself around to go another way, and even more complete bastard weirdness.” XD Gray went on a trip to find a missing child that involved his character getting sliced to pieces more than once; completed a motor cross challenge course leaping through rings of fire and knocking bottles off children’s heads; traveled up the stairways to Heaven (knocking and smashing various other people to “the hell” along the way); and traveled through the ocean avoiding killer shark tongues, octopuses, and electric eels that like to hang out above spike pits. XD It’s weird and confusing and allows people to make custom boards, so I hope to see a lot more of it. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – I got all of the pictures for Eric’s latest update (two-and-a-half posts’ worth) sorted this morning, then made a point to quickly draft out the actual posts before doing my workout this afternoon. Still need to do the full text of the posts, but they're in the drafts and ready to be edited and queued!
And that's about it, really. . .just plugging away best I can. At least I don't have to worry about my muffins right away -- Mom's made so much raisin bread I can have raisin toast for breakfast for the rest of the week if I want. And I definitely have a cupcake ready for Alice's birthday tomorrow, so that makes me happy. :) Time to finish up comments and head to bed. Night all!
Afternoon was reasonably productive too:
1. Get in a workout: Check! Back on the bike, back with “Nuka-World Level One Survival!” Finished off Episode 8 today (the episodes for this series lately are averaging about 45 to 50 minutes, meaning I can get through them in two bike rides) – caught up with Minnie as she tried to deal with the robots invading her sniper tower. . .and died again to the Nukatron, because its blasts can go through the holes in the floor and she’s turning into a melee character who needs to get close to really kill something. And since she doesn’t have Bacon’s levels yet. . .
With another death under his belt, Jon decided to switch tactics and sent Minnie down the OTHER way, through the laser turret tunnel that was now friendly to him. This brought him out by the Battle Arena, which he intended to sneak past. . .but then “Isn’t This A Good Idea” Jon took over and decided to wake up the Novatrons on the plinths by the entrance, trusting in the laser turret tunnel to kill them.
As you might imagine, this plan didn’t go particularly well, as Novatrons are ASSAULTRONS with all the powers thereof, including the giant fuck-off kill laser. Weirdly enough, though, it went better than any of Jon’s previous plans, in that Minnie didn’t die. Mostly because it appears the far end of the tunnel, near the Starport, is outside of “chase range” for the Novatrons. And while they pretty much slaughtered the laser turrets, enough of them were able to get in some good hits that Minnie – with the help of some explosives – was able to kill one. The other went back over to the Arena, where Minnie was unable to lure it out for the killing blows. Minnie decided just not being exploded by that thing was a win and looped back around to where her old enemies the Nukatron Guardian and the Eyebots were. She was finally able to take them out properly this time – smacking around the Eyebots with her bat, and grenading the Nukatron until it was fully crippled and then emptying her 10mil into it until it was dead. Whew – this is why she took a couple of levels of “Demolition Expert,” everyone!
With that out of the way, Minnie was free to collect some Star Cores! She got three just from poking around the general grounds – one from the tower she had previously climbed, and a couple more in backstage areas. With those in hand, she just needed two more to get the park properly functional again, and she knew exactly where to find them – the Nuka-Galaxy coaster! Now rendered almost completely safe thanks to her various shutdowns! I say almost because – well, Nukatron. Bane of Minnie’s existence at this point. It killed her twice before Jon decided “you know what, Minnie, why don’t we just AVOID it.” XD Fortunately for her, it wasn’t near any of the Star Cores – unfortunately, finding the last one took a bit of work, snooping through all the backstage areas and climbing all over the coaster itself. Eventually, though, she located it in a back room, and Jon nearly jumped for joy as he saw the notification that he had enough to repair Star Control. After killing a few robots for extra XP, he sent Minnie back to the Starport, plugged them in, and deactivated the “Defensive Mode” the remaining robots were in, turning them back into friendly park employees. Danger over! At least, until the Disciples move in, as that is who Jon gave the park to – he’s still trying to be fair as he’s not sure whose perk he wants to give up in the long run. Also, amusingly, the XP gained for completing the “Star Control” quest was JUST shy of a level-up for Minnie – she beat up the deactivated Mr. Frothies until she got it and was able to take a couple ranks of “Big Leagues.” Hey, her main weapon is a BAT, it makes sense! The episode ended with Minnie, after a well-deserved rest, checking out her tribute chest from the Disciples (best thing in it was the ammo for her new fast-firing sniper), and Jon making plans for the next part. Episode 9 begins the assault on Kiddie Kingdom – that should be interesting!
2. Write some more on “Londerland Bloodlines”: Check – got through that first scene with Mercurio, though I swapped the order of “can I get you anything to help” and “you gotta go pick up the Astrolite” – I figured Alice would be more concerned with keeping Mercurio alive than getting the explosives for a job she’s not even that keen on. Like Mercurio said, she’s a bit of a softy at heart. But both quests have been obtained, and Alice is heading back out into the night. Time to progress the walkthrough a little further!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Check! Got a chance to catch up on everything --
A) Started with Call Me Kevin and a general life update – poor boy’s foot has been hurting him, and apparently whatever he’s got going on down there was bad enough to need some sort of minor surgery. He’s okay for the most part, but he just wanted to warn everyone that there’s a small chance that he might miss a video or two as he rests up (he’s a daily uploader and just didn’t want his fans to worry). He’s such a sweet guy, honestly – I know his gaming reputation is “I do the evil things to make people laugh,” but the way he talks about trying to figure out his own mental and emotional health, trying to be the best Kevin he can be. . .it’s nice. I’m glad I ended up subscribing to him.
B) Then it was onto James Turner and a random number generator to decide on house-building project in The Sims 4! He used the generator to decide on his budget – $8,995 – and the number of Sims that could live there – 4 – then hopped into Newcrest and set to work! And – well, he made himself a nice tiny house that, upon playtesting, was indeed functional! He used a couple of interesting tricks to keep down the budget, such as separating the sleeping area (four bunk beds) from the kitchen with a very tall “half wall” (half the price, about the same height), and doing most of the landscaping with “debug” plants which cost nothing. Some might say the latter is cheating, but James no care. XD And it did turn out to be a very nice little house – a good home for four Sims on a severe budget. :p
C) And finally we had “GrayStillPlays Catch Up Monday!” Two episodes to get through:
I. More Minecraft fuckery – upgrading iron golems into terror machines! He created an instance where, by feeding the iron golems various crafting elements (iron, gold, and diamond), he could level them up and turn them into an unstoppable army of monsters with four arms and eye lasers. As you might imagine, they promptly got very hard to control. XD Gray had to go to great lengths to keep one Piglin alive so he could get his Ender pearls! But man, watching them absolutely wreck anything and everything in their path (including the landscape – the very first one on its very first level-up basically destroyed some villager's house just by swinging its arms) was something else. And when Gray made it to the end and spawned in 100 of the monsters. . .oh, the Ender Dragon had no chance. Yeeted into space almost immediately. Glorious. :D
II. And then it was time to check out Jolly World, which is basically “like Happy Wheels only with graphics that look hand-drawn, the ability to flip yourself around to go another way, and even more complete bastard weirdness.” XD Gray went on a trip to find a missing child that involved his character getting sliced to pieces more than once; completed a motor cross challenge course leaping through rings of fire and knocking bottles off children’s heads; traveled up the stairways to Heaven (knocking and smashing various other people to “the hell” along the way); and traveled through the ocean avoiding killer shark tongues, octopuses, and electric eels that like to hang out above spike pits. XD It’s weird and confusing and allows people to make custom boards, so I hope to see a lot more of it. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – I got all of the pictures for Eric’s latest update (two-and-a-half posts’ worth) sorted this morning, then made a point to quickly draft out the actual posts before doing my workout this afternoon. Still need to do the full text of the posts, but they're in the drafts and ready to be edited and queued!
And that's about it, really. . .just plugging away best I can. At least I don't have to worry about my muffins right away -- Mom's made so much raisin bread I can have raisin toast for breakfast for the rest of the week if I want. And I definitely have a cupcake ready for Alice's birthday tomorrow, so that makes me happy. :) Time to finish up comments and head to bed. Night all!
