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Pretty Good Saturday
May. 8th, 2021 11:26 pmThe weather wasn't the greatest, but I had a pretty solid, productive day overall (apart from waking up at 7 and then having trouble getting back to sleep. . .). Shall we check out the to-do list?
1. Edit some more on "In A World Of His Own" Chapter 4: Check – actually got this done before lunch! The Paino fight has officially started, with it breaking into the theater and charging at our heroes. The Conductor’s taken refuge on his stage while Victor and Alice battle the thing – Alice has had some luck with her Vorpal Blade, and Victor with his Quill Bow, but the Paino’s also gotten in a hit on Victor with some violent notes. Fortunately, we’re not far off Victor getting the perfect weapon to fight an instrument with. . .
2. Watch Plumbella, onlyabidoang, and OXBox in Watch Later, do best to keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – in fact, I did even better than expected on the Watch Later front –
A) Started with the Plumbella videos in the old WL:
I. “NINA AND DINA CALIENTE WERE ROBBED BY THE SIMS 4!!!!!!” – Plumbella rants about how different Nina and Dina Caliente are in Sims 4 versus their iconic looks in Sims 2 – which includes some rather embarrassing (if probably unintentional) white-washing. And then she takes a moment to fix these injustices, including correcting their skin tones and adjusting their styles to be more in line with their original selves. During this process, I realized that while Dina doesn’t look TOO different from her previous self when you fix her hair, NINA – that’s an entirely different Sim. They didn’t even TRY. Sheesh. At least Plumbella’s makeover gave them a chance to be more themselves again!
II. “The Sims 4’s diagonal walls can go BACK TO HELL” – Plumbella wants to build, so she grabs a random floor plan from Pinterest and starts building! With the title being a reference to a good chunk of the house being on a diagonal or having diagonal bits, and Plumbella not liking the look. (And liking it even less when she had to ROOF it. . .she spared us that agony, and I thank her.) But she actually ended up vibing with it by the end, turning it into a “modern suburban” for a family that obviously has some cash – pond in the front, pool and kid play area in the back. . .she hasn’t actually done the INSIDE yet, but that’s for another video. XD I’m curious to see how it’ll all turn out in the end!
B) Then it was onto onlyabidoang doing a quick video to showcase a lot of the updates to traits that the Sims team made back in March – they finally told us for SURE what they changed, so Abi showed off what the interactions actually look like in game. It’s good stuff! . . .Except for the “Sims who Hate Children or are Noncommittal will agree to Try For Baby if they’re Dazed” thing, but that’s getting taken out in the next patch, so. . .
C) Then it was onto the OXBox lurking in my WL –
I. “Resident Evil 8 Village: VAMPIRE CASTLE! (Resident Evil 8 Castle Demo)” – the final half-an-hour demo pre-RE8’s release sees Ethan – well, inside the vampire castle! In a way, it’s kind of the demo with the Maiden, only backwards – Ethan starts in the main living areas, gets chased by the vampire bug lady (how the hell are you going to explain THAT as some sort of genetically-engineered virus, game?), and ends up falling down a hole into the basements from that demo and fighting his way out through the sad zombies with swords and axes down there – before getting caught AGAIN by vampire bug lady, because, well, she’s vampire bugs, she can get into places very easily. The most notable addition to this demo was introducing the merchant, Duke, who just seems to show up everywhere he can sell something (if Andy’s video gushing about the game is to be believed). He seems a jolly sort, and Andy was very excited to see upgradable guns and whatnot. :) A very worthy successor to RE4, it seems! Could do without vampire bug lady putting her bugs into Ethan’s BODY, but – Resident Evil. You have to expect the body horror. (Besides, this is the protagonist from RE7 – he’s had worse.)
II. “Hitman 3 BODY DOUBLE Elusive Target! Hitman 3 New Zealand Elusive Target The Politician” – Jane and Andy return to Hitman 2’s New Zealand tutorial level to take care of a returned Elusive Target – The Politician! There’s a corrupt politician by the name of Barbara in the beach house, along with her body double – Andy and Jane’s job was to figure out who was who and take out only the real Barbara. This wasn’t a “3 Ways To Play” situation – Mike wasn’t even present – which made me sad. . .until the comments reminded me that we actually HAVE seen them do this in a more “3 Ways” style before, in a livestream. (Mike and Jane apparently failed, with Andy succeeding). But apparently Andy and Jane had totally forgotten that, so they had Andy go in to try and get the kill. And get the kill he did – rather sloppier than usual (getting spotted by a guard the moment he tried to coin somebody for their outfit – to be fair, he did get their outfit), but with a Mike-worthy explosion thanks to sabotaging a patio heater that Barbara (who is distinguishable from her double by having a persistent bodyguard, by the by) smokes next to. The pyrotechnics netted Andy only a 2 Star, Volatile Assassin score, sadly – he was a bit annoyed, despite saying earlier he relaxes his usual “silent assassin” rules on Elusive Targets because you can’t retry them normally. XD He just doesn’t like to settle for anything less than perfection, you know?
D) Then, this evening – huh, no Call Me Kevin in my Subs. Guess he needed another day off. So instead I decided to knock the longest thing out of my WL – Linkara’s Patreon-sponsored review of The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller’s magnum opus! . . .in this story, Batman is an old asshole who ends up convincing a gang of murderous assholes to do overly-violent vigilante work in his name and later uses them as an army to more or less take over Gotham in the wake of a nuclear bomb going off in the desert (thanks to Superman just barely stopping it hitting a populated area) and setting off a mini-nuclear winter. And then he fights Superman, fakes his own death, and retreats underground with his new Robin and the remainder of his army to start planning more “crimefighting.” Yeah, this thing may be of historical interest, but you can tell this is the start of Miller loving fascist-leaning no-fun Batman, and Linkara is not shy in pointing that out. On the plus side, though, there was a whole segment dedicated to Linkara’s “Crazy Steve”-style Batman and all his shenanigans due to dumb stuff in comics. So that was worth it, at least. :p
E) After that comic, though, I really needed some fun – and fortunately, while Kevin wasn’t around, GrayStillPlays was, with another GTA V stunt course! This one was largely bike-based (with one car segment near the middle), and also largely flight-based – as in, every ludicrous parkour section was separated by MILES-LONG jumps that Gray had to fly across upside-down (because I’m pretty sure that’s the only way to keep your bike in the air). There was a lot of wondering where the hell he was going to land in each board, let me tell you. Not to mention the lunacy of the parkour itself – you know a board’s gonna be good when the first obstacle is a very tricky under-the-wall slide. And naturally there were a few wall rides, some truly fiendish tightroping sections, a bunch of “dodge the support beams sticking out through other pieces of the scenery. . .” Basically it was a new level of pain. Which I know I say a lot with these boards, but trust me – the makers ALWAYS seem to know how to up their game.
3. Play Sims 4 and continue advancing Eric's new Medium skill: Check, though I didn’t get too far on the actual medium skill advancement. Eric’s actual big thing of the day was visiting Geekcon – and having to take refuge in the local karaoke bar because it was the middle of a blizzard in San MyShuno. Also the bar had snow on the ground INSIDE because this City Living lot was clearly not designed well for Seasons. XD He didn’t win any prizes, but he got to game for a while and got a nice picture of the sky from the observatory, so that was good. He also successfully taught Laserwolf to fetch and had a good conversation with a specter, yay. Now if only Guidry would stop making cakes every five seconds. . .on the other hand, finishing up one of those got Eric to max Cooking skill, so I probably shouldn’t bitch too much. XD
Also, just like last week, I took some time near the end of the session to visit my “building save” and give my ice-cream-cone-shaped ice cream parlor another shot. Ended up bulldozing my previous attempt and starting from scratch – and take two is going better! I’ve got everything wide enough to accommodate what needs to go inside, I’ve got all the levels stacked, I’ve got the proper color scheme for the outside – I even found some wall decorations that at least kinda help me get the slope from the bottom bit to the top. Hopefully things will continue to go well as I keep working on it! :)
4. Get in a workout: Ah – no check. I’d INTENDED to, but my parents actually went out this afternoon to browse an outdoor garden space for stuff, and I wanted to wait for them to come back before I went into the basement (where the stationary bike and treadmill are). But when they DID come back, Dad went down to work out, and by the time he came back up. . .well, it was close enough to supper that I figured “okay, I think I’m just gonna skip.” Won’t kill me – and maybe I can try getting on the treadmill for a somewhat longer workout tomorrow. Haven’t done that in a while. . .
Additionally:
-->My aunt and uncle came by this morning to drop off a plant for Mom for Mother’s Day – they’re both vaccinated, so we could stand around out in the backyard and talk. They also brought their dog, who is very fluffy and tries to eat things he shouldn’t – we had to stop him eating a leaf while they were here. I didn’t see them for too long, though – it was CHILLY and gray this morning, brr. Never really improved weather-wise either. Hoping tomorrow is nicer!
-->And just found and sent Mom an e-card for Mother's Day, so that at least is sorted.
*nods* Not too shabby -- and I had a whole bowl of popcorn to myself earlier, which was nice as well. Just glad I was able to conquer the YouTubes before they conquered me!
Anyway -- nothing much happening here at the moment, though I do have a DW comment to answer as per usual. Let's set up what should happen tomorrow:
1. Edit at least one of the gift fics I owe for next weekend
2. Clear out my Watch Later, keep up on YouTube Subs as best I can, and watch Jon's Fallout 4 YOLO episode
3. Play some more Alice: Madness Returns
4. Get in a workout
I think this is all reasonable -- especially if it's nicer out and we end up playing beanbags. So yeah, gonna go piss around on the web and answer that comment now. Night all!
1. Edit some more on "In A World Of His Own" Chapter 4: Check – actually got this done before lunch! The Paino fight has officially started, with it breaking into the theater and charging at our heroes. The Conductor’s taken refuge on his stage while Victor and Alice battle the thing – Alice has had some luck with her Vorpal Blade, and Victor with his Quill Bow, but the Paino’s also gotten in a hit on Victor with some violent notes. Fortunately, we’re not far off Victor getting the perfect weapon to fight an instrument with. . .
2. Watch Plumbella, onlyabidoang, and OXBox in Watch Later, do best to keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – in fact, I did even better than expected on the Watch Later front –
A) Started with the Plumbella videos in the old WL:
I. “NINA AND DINA CALIENTE WERE ROBBED BY THE SIMS 4!!!!!!” – Plumbella rants about how different Nina and Dina Caliente are in Sims 4 versus their iconic looks in Sims 2 – which includes some rather embarrassing (if probably unintentional) white-washing. And then she takes a moment to fix these injustices, including correcting their skin tones and adjusting their styles to be more in line with their original selves. During this process, I realized that while Dina doesn’t look TOO different from her previous self when you fix her hair, NINA – that’s an entirely different Sim. They didn’t even TRY. Sheesh. At least Plumbella’s makeover gave them a chance to be more themselves again!
II. “The Sims 4’s diagonal walls can go BACK TO HELL” – Plumbella wants to build, so she grabs a random floor plan from Pinterest and starts building! With the title being a reference to a good chunk of the house being on a diagonal or having diagonal bits, and Plumbella not liking the look. (And liking it even less when she had to ROOF it. . .she spared us that agony, and I thank her.) But she actually ended up vibing with it by the end, turning it into a “modern suburban” for a family that obviously has some cash – pond in the front, pool and kid play area in the back. . .she hasn’t actually done the INSIDE yet, but that’s for another video. XD I’m curious to see how it’ll all turn out in the end!
B) Then it was onto onlyabidoang doing a quick video to showcase a lot of the updates to traits that the Sims team made back in March – they finally told us for SURE what they changed, so Abi showed off what the interactions actually look like in game. It’s good stuff! . . .Except for the “Sims who Hate Children or are Noncommittal will agree to Try For Baby if they’re Dazed” thing, but that’s getting taken out in the next patch, so. . .
C) Then it was onto the OXBox lurking in my WL –
I. “Resident Evil 8 Village: VAMPIRE CASTLE! (Resident Evil 8 Castle Demo)” – the final half-an-hour demo pre-RE8’s release sees Ethan – well, inside the vampire castle! In a way, it’s kind of the demo with the Maiden, only backwards – Ethan starts in the main living areas, gets chased by the vampire bug lady (how the hell are you going to explain THAT as some sort of genetically-engineered virus, game?), and ends up falling down a hole into the basements from that demo and fighting his way out through the sad zombies with swords and axes down there – before getting caught AGAIN by vampire bug lady, because, well, she’s vampire bugs, she can get into places very easily. The most notable addition to this demo was introducing the merchant, Duke, who just seems to show up everywhere he can sell something (if Andy’s video gushing about the game is to be believed). He seems a jolly sort, and Andy was very excited to see upgradable guns and whatnot. :) A very worthy successor to RE4, it seems! Could do without vampire bug lady putting her bugs into Ethan’s BODY, but – Resident Evil. You have to expect the body horror. (Besides, this is the protagonist from RE7 – he’s had worse.)
II. “Hitman 3 BODY DOUBLE Elusive Target! Hitman 3 New Zealand Elusive Target The Politician” – Jane and Andy return to Hitman 2’s New Zealand tutorial level to take care of a returned Elusive Target – The Politician! There’s a corrupt politician by the name of Barbara in the beach house, along with her body double – Andy and Jane’s job was to figure out who was who and take out only the real Barbara. This wasn’t a “3 Ways To Play” situation – Mike wasn’t even present – which made me sad. . .until the comments reminded me that we actually HAVE seen them do this in a more “3 Ways” style before, in a livestream. (Mike and Jane apparently failed, with Andy succeeding). But apparently Andy and Jane had totally forgotten that, so they had Andy go in to try and get the kill. And get the kill he did – rather sloppier than usual (getting spotted by a guard the moment he tried to coin somebody for their outfit – to be fair, he did get their outfit), but with a Mike-worthy explosion thanks to sabotaging a patio heater that Barbara (who is distinguishable from her double by having a persistent bodyguard, by the by) smokes next to. The pyrotechnics netted Andy only a 2 Star, Volatile Assassin score, sadly – he was a bit annoyed, despite saying earlier he relaxes his usual “silent assassin” rules on Elusive Targets because you can’t retry them normally. XD He just doesn’t like to settle for anything less than perfection, you know?
D) Then, this evening – huh, no Call Me Kevin in my Subs. Guess he needed another day off. So instead I decided to knock the longest thing out of my WL – Linkara’s Patreon-sponsored review of The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller’s magnum opus! . . .in this story, Batman is an old asshole who ends up convincing a gang of murderous assholes to do overly-violent vigilante work in his name and later uses them as an army to more or less take over Gotham in the wake of a nuclear bomb going off in the desert (thanks to Superman just barely stopping it hitting a populated area) and setting off a mini-nuclear winter. And then he fights Superman, fakes his own death, and retreats underground with his new Robin and the remainder of his army to start planning more “crimefighting.” Yeah, this thing may be of historical interest, but you can tell this is the start of Miller loving fascist-leaning no-fun Batman, and Linkara is not shy in pointing that out. On the plus side, though, there was a whole segment dedicated to Linkara’s “Crazy Steve”-style Batman and all his shenanigans due to dumb stuff in comics. So that was worth it, at least. :p
E) After that comic, though, I really needed some fun – and fortunately, while Kevin wasn’t around, GrayStillPlays was, with another GTA V stunt course! This one was largely bike-based (with one car segment near the middle), and also largely flight-based – as in, every ludicrous parkour section was separated by MILES-LONG jumps that Gray had to fly across upside-down (because I’m pretty sure that’s the only way to keep your bike in the air). There was a lot of wondering where the hell he was going to land in each board, let me tell you. Not to mention the lunacy of the parkour itself – you know a board’s gonna be good when the first obstacle is a very tricky under-the-wall slide. And naturally there were a few wall rides, some truly fiendish tightroping sections, a bunch of “dodge the support beams sticking out through other pieces of the scenery. . .” Basically it was a new level of pain. Which I know I say a lot with these boards, but trust me – the makers ALWAYS seem to know how to up their game.
3. Play Sims 4 and continue advancing Eric's new Medium skill: Check, though I didn’t get too far on the actual medium skill advancement. Eric’s actual big thing of the day was visiting Geekcon – and having to take refuge in the local karaoke bar because it was the middle of a blizzard in San MyShuno. Also the bar had snow on the ground INSIDE because this City Living lot was clearly not designed well for Seasons. XD He didn’t win any prizes, but he got to game for a while and got a nice picture of the sky from the observatory, so that was good. He also successfully taught Laserwolf to fetch and had a good conversation with a specter, yay. Now if only Guidry would stop making cakes every five seconds. . .on the other hand, finishing up one of those got Eric to max Cooking skill, so I probably shouldn’t bitch too much. XD
Also, just like last week, I took some time near the end of the session to visit my “building save” and give my ice-cream-cone-shaped ice cream parlor another shot. Ended up bulldozing my previous attempt and starting from scratch – and take two is going better! I’ve got everything wide enough to accommodate what needs to go inside, I’ve got all the levels stacked, I’ve got the proper color scheme for the outside – I even found some wall decorations that at least kinda help me get the slope from the bottom bit to the top. Hopefully things will continue to go well as I keep working on it! :)
4. Get in a workout: Ah – no check. I’d INTENDED to, but my parents actually went out this afternoon to browse an outdoor garden space for stuff, and I wanted to wait for them to come back before I went into the basement (where the stationary bike and treadmill are). But when they DID come back, Dad went down to work out, and by the time he came back up. . .well, it was close enough to supper that I figured “okay, I think I’m just gonna skip.” Won’t kill me – and maybe I can try getting on the treadmill for a somewhat longer workout tomorrow. Haven’t done that in a while. . .
Additionally:
-->My aunt and uncle came by this morning to drop off a plant for Mom for Mother’s Day – they’re both vaccinated, so we could stand around out in the backyard and talk. They also brought their dog, who is very fluffy and tries to eat things he shouldn’t – we had to stop him eating a leaf while they were here. I didn’t see them for too long, though – it was CHILLY and gray this morning, brr. Never really improved weather-wise either. Hoping tomorrow is nicer!
-->And just found and sent Mom an e-card for Mother's Day, so that at least is sorted.
*nods* Not too shabby -- and I had a whole bowl of popcorn to myself earlier, which was nice as well. Just glad I was able to conquer the YouTubes before they conquered me!
Anyway -- nothing much happening here at the moment, though I do have a DW comment to answer as per usual. Let's set up what should happen tomorrow:
1. Edit at least one of the gift fics I owe for next weekend
2. Clear out my Watch Later, keep up on YouTube Subs as best I can, and watch Jon's Fallout 4 YOLO episode
3. Play some more Alice: Madness Returns
4. Get in a workout
I think this is all reasonable -- especially if it's nicer out and we end up playing beanbags. So yeah, gonna go piss around on the web and answer that comment now. Night all!
