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Reasonably Good Start To Vacation
Jul. 31st, 2021 11:33 pmI did have a hard time actually getting myself up this morning, but I found out the reason for that after lunch -- guess whose period started today! I mean, I'm super-glad I caught it early, and I was expecting it to happen over my vacation (just later next week), but yeah. Currently battling some extra tiredness and brainfuzz and whatnot. Had to put active replies on hold for Valice Multiverse tonight and put it all in the queue -- at least so far it's just one thread reply and three asks!
As you might imagine, this also affected the to-do list:
1. Work some more on my potential Sims 4 challenges or finish up my rewrite of that one future "Londerland Bloodlines" snippet: No check, though I’m giving myself a break on this because a) I just started my vacation, and b) I ALSO just started my period. No wonder I was too distracted to properly concentrate this morning! We’ll see if I can do better tomorrow.
2. Get the three Atop The Fourth Wall episodes out of the Watch Later, listen to the Wyrd Sisters podcast, and keep up on other YouTube Subs: Two-thirds check – I didn’t get a chance to do the AT4W marathon because of said distracted morning, and then wanting to do Sims 4 and the other videos. But as for the rest –
A) I did listen to the latest Wyrd Sisters podcast episode on Night Watch! A book that has somehow simultaneously aged well and poorly thanks to it being about revolutions, remembrance, and the evils of people in power. . .while simultaneously starring a cop as its protagonist (granted one that would happily call all cops bastards) and being kind of hard on the idea of reform or revolution as a good way to actually change people’s worldviews and the system. I think his actual point was to try and mock people who idolize “big ideals” without taking into account how they’ll work on “ground level” (aka Reg Shoe trying to convince everyone of the beauty of Truth and Justice without answering most of their practical questions and finding good answers for people who are Very Used to capitalism), but it doesn’t feel right these days. Though one cannot deny it has some amazing moments – it’s one of the darkest Discworld books, but there are good reasons people call it one of the best. (Some of my favorite Discworld moments of all times are in this one, including Reg Shoe’s EPIC death and Sam Vimes’s reaction to the birth of his son (particularly since there’s some drama regarding that – the “sun came out” moment as he realizes both Sybil and the baby are okay is just – *chef’s kiss*)
B) Then, after supper, it was time to catch up with the Subs from today, starting with James Turner and another episode of the Cottage Living LP! Chaz and Trenton paid for their lovely DHD renovation from Hazel, then set about earning some more money from their gardening and the local Finchwick Fair! Chaz completed a few more errands from Kim for livestock upgrade parts (parting with Golden Wool and Pumpkin Spice Milk), and also went back to the old barn to gather up his Nightly Mushrooms as they were growing again due to the change in seasons to winter! They were added to the greenhouse, which was also rearranged to have the plants grouped more reasonably. He also added, with the help of seed packets and purchasing from the stalls in Finchwick peas, onions, potatoes, pineapple, taro root, and plantains to the small crops! That greenhouse is getting a liiiittle crowded. . .
Anyway, those were planted, the oversized crop fields re-seeded, and Lenny – jazzed up with a nice rainbow neckwarmer and star sunglasses – entered into the Saturday Fair, along with his wool! Sadly, his wool only earned a participation trophy, and he himself came in second to a completely plain llama. Poor guy. But on the plus side, Chaz got a cowberry to make cowberry jam, to make a Midnight Treat and get himself an as-yet-unnamed Evil Rooster to go with his evil chicken Hennibal. XD On the minus side, Grim is here to take at least one of the animals (Henmione is dying, and Cowlene is on her way out), but he seems to have glitched out for reasons unknown. Possibly because Hennibal can’t fight him, possibly it’s just something that happens with this game sometimes. Meh. We’ll see how it all turns out next episode!
C) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin and Luck Be A Landlord! It is basically an unholy combination of playing slots and renting an apartment – you play the slots to win money, but you have to pay rent out of your winnings after a certain number of spins or get evicted. The rent keeps going up, though it gradually gives you more spins to win it in, and you can add and adjust the symbols on the slots to get more money based on what symbols land next to each other. Also a communist will occasionally e-mail you aid so you can reroll what symbols are available and whatnot. Kevin struggled with finding a winning strategy at first, but through a combination of spinny arrows and card suits, he eventually was making so much money rent wasn’t even a problem! To the point where he completed this early access version of the game and got his landlord trampled to death by rabbits. XD What a strange little game. . .
D) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and Guess Who?, a game all about watching little stories and then picking either who dies first in any given situation, or who wins in any given situation. Situations included a guy accidentally killing a girl by luring her with his car and money over a spike pit; a guy going to rescue a princess from a castle, succeeding because the two in front of him died taking out the two monsters guarding her, and then getting yeeted to space because he didn’t have a fancy ring for her (and later, after obtaining a fancy ring, ended up getting her to fall in one of the convenient spike pits); a guy getting interrupted by chatty coworkers to the point where he got a rocket launcher and blew them away; a guy being held out of a public toilet deciding to grow giant and crush the whole building with a giant poop; and multiple mini-recreations of scenes from 300. Yes, I am dead serious – they even used one of the voice clips in one scenario, which Gray had to revoice himself to avoid copyright claims. XD Some of this felt weirdly similar to another game Gray has played in the past, but there was enough fresh stuff to make it a good watch nonetheless.
E) . . .and then Kevin surprised me with a second upload today! It’s another one of his acoustic guitar covers of a song, “Death Bed.” Never heard it before, but it’s as depressing as the name suggests – all about saying goodbye to a loved one as you pass away early, trying to encourage them to move on and thanking them for all the good times. Kevin sang it with his usual loveliness, and damn did it make me want a hug. :(
3. Update MC Command Center and Sims 4 Studio and buy Cottage Living: Check! I got the mod and S4S updates before lunch, had the game patch itself during lunch, then bought the new expansion after lunch! (It offered me Dream Home Decorator too, but I’m definitely waiting until the next bug patch for that one, in the possibly-vain hope it’ll fix a few things.) Once that was downloaded, I started a new “tester” game, made “Plaice Holder” using the CAS Story feature (she got “Friend of the World” for an aspiration and “Good, Cat Lover, Dog Lover” for traits – oh, btw, found out something interesting about that – you can’t actually set Preferences/Likes & Dislikes in CAS if you use that), and moved her into Henford-On-Bagley during a rainy summer to test out a little of the gameplay there! Didn’t get through anything major – started a couple of errands for Kim and Latvina, but didn’t get a chance to finish them due to bad weather preventing Plaice from leaving the house. Didn’t even bother to save the “tester” save, I just wanted it to make sure everything seemed to be working well. Either tomorrow or Monday I’ll put my updated Mods and CC folder back in and maybe go back to Newcrest or the Chill Save to see how they’re going!
4. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, and back to Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! Miss Jon, having killed the Deathclaw, went back to report to Preston and learn that he and his crew are heading up to, of all places, where she used to live! Also that Mama Murphy has vaguely-defined, semi-psychic powers, which Past!Jon didn’t approve of (he doesn’t like the bits of mystical mumbo-jumbo that get put into the series – probably hate my Fallout of Darkness AU, then). Miss Jon escorted them (partway) there, then caught up with Preston, revealed her backstory, and then agreed to help him with Tenpines Bluff to start off the Minutemen questline, before doing some settlement stuff like getting plenty of water, almost plenty of food, and putting a bunch of sleeping bags under the stars for them to end off Episode 3. (AKA, Jon has always been a bit of a dick to his settlers, and this amuses me probably more than it should – he complained mightily when Sturges insisted on beds UNDER ROOFING XD) Episode 4 had her strike out with Dogmeat towards Tenpines, though first she spent some time exploring Concord and going into some of the separately-loading areas (like the speakeasy and the workhouse), where she was repeatedly stymied in the acquisition of goodies by her paltry lockpicking skills. Honestly, I personally think she made the right choice prioritizing Sneak and Gun Nut, but I understand the frustration. :p She also ventured into the sewer tunnels where the Deathclaw exploded out of, killing more mole rats and her first Mirelurk! So that was interesting. Left it with her on the road, looking for the safest route to her destination – Past!Jon, I can tell you from watching your future self the “safest” roads are the ones most likely to get you murdered. XD
Additionally:
-->Played beanbags today as the weather was so nice. . .but Dad was clearly in a mood (no clue WHY, he wasn't offering anything up), so it was probably the most awkward game of beanbags I’ve played in a long while. We did actually do the whole five rounds – I got W-2-2-W-W, Mom got 3-W-W-2-2, and Dad got 2-3-3-3-3. It’s a lot easier to win when he clearly isn’t trying very hard, so. . .not feeling great about it.
Yeah, between ending up on the rag and whatever the hell pissed him off, it wasn't a PERFECT start to the vacation. . .but the weather being pleasantly early-spring/early-fall-like and getting my new expansion pack and watching those videos made it better. And I suppose I could still tool around with the challenges if I wanted. . .I DID poke at the "matching up vampire powers between Sims 4 and Bloodlines" section a tiny bit, but no REAL progress made, I think. We'll see what happens tonight!
In the meantime, I do have a comment to answer on here, and a couple of conversations I'm trying my best to keep up with -- let's set up tomorrow's to-dos and then get going:
1. Work on the Sims 4 Challenges, or any other light writing I feel I could do
2. Watch the three Atop The Fourth Wall episodes and Jon's FO4 YOLO episode -- if possible, also keep current on YouTube Subs
3. Either properly play some Sims 4 or figure out what other games I would like to play this vacation week
4. Get in a workout
Huh -- two "either-ors" and one "do this and this and if you CAN, this" entries. Given my current physical state and the fact that one of the AT4W videos is an hour and 16 minutes, this feels reasonable! :p Okay, let's get going on some of this other stuff. . .night all!
As you might imagine, this also affected the to-do list:
1. Work some more on my potential Sims 4 challenges or finish up my rewrite of that one future "Londerland Bloodlines" snippet: No check, though I’m giving myself a break on this because a) I just started my vacation, and b) I ALSO just started my period. No wonder I was too distracted to properly concentrate this morning! We’ll see if I can do better tomorrow.
2. Get the three Atop The Fourth Wall episodes out of the Watch Later, listen to the Wyrd Sisters podcast, and keep up on other YouTube Subs: Two-thirds check – I didn’t get a chance to do the AT4W marathon because of said distracted morning, and then wanting to do Sims 4 and the other videos. But as for the rest –
A) I did listen to the latest Wyrd Sisters podcast episode on Night Watch! A book that has somehow simultaneously aged well and poorly thanks to it being about revolutions, remembrance, and the evils of people in power. . .while simultaneously starring a cop as its protagonist (granted one that would happily call all cops bastards) and being kind of hard on the idea of reform or revolution as a good way to actually change people’s worldviews and the system. I think his actual point was to try and mock people who idolize “big ideals” without taking into account how they’ll work on “ground level” (aka Reg Shoe trying to convince everyone of the beauty of Truth and Justice without answering most of their practical questions and finding good answers for people who are Very Used to capitalism), but it doesn’t feel right these days. Though one cannot deny it has some amazing moments – it’s one of the darkest Discworld books, but there are good reasons people call it one of the best. (Some of my favorite Discworld moments of all times are in this one, including Reg Shoe’s EPIC death and Sam Vimes’s reaction to the birth of his son (particularly since there’s some drama regarding that – the “sun came out” moment as he realizes both Sybil and the baby are okay is just – *chef’s kiss*)
B) Then, after supper, it was time to catch up with the Subs from today, starting with James Turner and another episode of the Cottage Living LP! Chaz and Trenton paid for their lovely DHD renovation from Hazel, then set about earning some more money from their gardening and the local Finchwick Fair! Chaz completed a few more errands from Kim for livestock upgrade parts (parting with Golden Wool and Pumpkin Spice Milk), and also went back to the old barn to gather up his Nightly Mushrooms as they were growing again due to the change in seasons to winter! They were added to the greenhouse, which was also rearranged to have the plants grouped more reasonably. He also added, with the help of seed packets and purchasing from the stalls in Finchwick peas, onions, potatoes, pineapple, taro root, and plantains to the small crops! That greenhouse is getting a liiiittle crowded. . .
Anyway, those were planted, the oversized crop fields re-seeded, and Lenny – jazzed up with a nice rainbow neckwarmer and star sunglasses – entered into the Saturday Fair, along with his wool! Sadly, his wool only earned a participation trophy, and he himself came in second to a completely plain llama. Poor guy. But on the plus side, Chaz got a cowberry to make cowberry jam, to make a Midnight Treat and get himself an as-yet-unnamed Evil Rooster to go with his evil chicken Hennibal. XD On the minus side, Grim is here to take at least one of the animals (Henmione is dying, and Cowlene is on her way out), but he seems to have glitched out for reasons unknown. Possibly because Hennibal can’t fight him, possibly it’s just something that happens with this game sometimes. Meh. We’ll see how it all turns out next episode!
C) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin and Luck Be A Landlord! It is basically an unholy combination of playing slots and renting an apartment – you play the slots to win money, but you have to pay rent out of your winnings after a certain number of spins or get evicted. The rent keeps going up, though it gradually gives you more spins to win it in, and you can add and adjust the symbols on the slots to get more money based on what symbols land next to each other. Also a communist will occasionally e-mail you aid so you can reroll what symbols are available and whatnot. Kevin struggled with finding a winning strategy at first, but through a combination of spinny arrows and card suits, he eventually was making so much money rent wasn’t even a problem! To the point where he completed this early access version of the game and got his landlord trampled to death by rabbits. XD What a strange little game. . .
D) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and Guess Who?, a game all about watching little stories and then picking either who dies first in any given situation, or who wins in any given situation. Situations included a guy accidentally killing a girl by luring her with his car and money over a spike pit; a guy going to rescue a princess from a castle, succeeding because the two in front of him died taking out the two monsters guarding her, and then getting yeeted to space because he didn’t have a fancy ring for her (and later, after obtaining a fancy ring, ended up getting her to fall in one of the convenient spike pits); a guy getting interrupted by chatty coworkers to the point where he got a rocket launcher and blew them away; a guy being held out of a public toilet deciding to grow giant and crush the whole building with a giant poop; and multiple mini-recreations of scenes from 300. Yes, I am dead serious – they even used one of the voice clips in one scenario, which Gray had to revoice himself to avoid copyright claims. XD Some of this felt weirdly similar to another game Gray has played in the past, but there was enough fresh stuff to make it a good watch nonetheless.
E) . . .and then Kevin surprised me with a second upload today! It’s another one of his acoustic guitar covers of a song, “Death Bed.” Never heard it before, but it’s as depressing as the name suggests – all about saying goodbye to a loved one as you pass away early, trying to encourage them to move on and thanking them for all the good times. Kevin sang it with his usual loveliness, and damn did it make me want a hug. :(
3. Update MC Command Center and Sims 4 Studio and buy Cottage Living: Check! I got the mod and S4S updates before lunch, had the game patch itself during lunch, then bought the new expansion after lunch! (It offered me Dream Home Decorator too, but I’m definitely waiting until the next bug patch for that one, in the possibly-vain hope it’ll fix a few things.) Once that was downloaded, I started a new “tester” game, made “Plaice Holder” using the CAS Story feature (she got “Friend of the World” for an aspiration and “Good, Cat Lover, Dog Lover” for traits – oh, btw, found out something interesting about that – you can’t actually set Preferences/Likes & Dislikes in CAS if you use that), and moved her into Henford-On-Bagley during a rainy summer to test out a little of the gameplay there! Didn’t get through anything major – started a couple of errands for Kim and Latvina, but didn’t get a chance to finish them due to bad weather preventing Plaice from leaving the house. Didn’t even bother to save the “tester” save, I just wanted it to make sure everything seemed to be working well. Either tomorrow or Monday I’ll put my updated Mods and CC folder back in and maybe go back to Newcrest or the Chill Save to see how they’re going!
4. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, and back to Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! Miss Jon, having killed the Deathclaw, went back to report to Preston and learn that he and his crew are heading up to, of all places, where she used to live! Also that Mama Murphy has vaguely-defined, semi-psychic powers, which Past!Jon didn’t approve of (he doesn’t like the bits of mystical mumbo-jumbo that get put into the series – probably hate my Fallout of Darkness AU, then). Miss Jon escorted them (partway) there, then caught up with Preston, revealed her backstory, and then agreed to help him with Tenpines Bluff to start off the Minutemen questline, before doing some settlement stuff like getting plenty of water, almost plenty of food, and putting a bunch of sleeping bags under the stars for them to end off Episode 3. (AKA, Jon has always been a bit of a dick to his settlers, and this amuses me probably more than it should – he complained mightily when Sturges insisted on beds UNDER ROOFING XD) Episode 4 had her strike out with Dogmeat towards Tenpines, though first she spent some time exploring Concord and going into some of the separately-loading areas (like the speakeasy and the workhouse), where she was repeatedly stymied in the acquisition of goodies by her paltry lockpicking skills. Honestly, I personally think she made the right choice prioritizing Sneak and Gun Nut, but I understand the frustration. :p She also ventured into the sewer tunnels where the Deathclaw exploded out of, killing more mole rats and her first Mirelurk! So that was interesting. Left it with her on the road, looking for the safest route to her destination – Past!Jon, I can tell you from watching your future self the “safest” roads are the ones most likely to get you murdered. XD
Additionally:
-->Played beanbags today as the weather was so nice. . .but Dad was clearly in a mood (no clue WHY, he wasn't offering anything up), so it was probably the most awkward game of beanbags I’ve played in a long while. We did actually do the whole five rounds – I got W-2-2-W-W, Mom got 3-W-W-2-2, and Dad got 2-3-3-3-3. It’s a lot easier to win when he clearly isn’t trying very hard, so. . .not feeling great about it.
Yeah, between ending up on the rag and whatever the hell pissed him off, it wasn't a PERFECT start to the vacation. . .but the weather being pleasantly early-spring/early-fall-like and getting my new expansion pack and watching those videos made it better. And I suppose I could still tool around with the challenges if I wanted. . .I DID poke at the "matching up vampire powers between Sims 4 and Bloodlines" section a tiny bit, but no REAL progress made, I think. We'll see what happens tonight!
In the meantime, I do have a comment to answer on here, and a couple of conversations I'm trying my best to keep up with -- let's set up tomorrow's to-dos and then get going:
1. Work on the Sims 4 Challenges, or any other light writing I feel I could do
2. Watch the three Atop The Fourth Wall episodes and Jon's FO4 YOLO episode -- if possible, also keep current on YouTube Subs
3. Either properly play some Sims 4 or figure out what other games I would like to play this vacation week
4. Get in a workout
Huh -- two "either-ors" and one "do this and this and if you CAN, this" entries. Given my current physical state and the fact that one of the AT4W videos is an hour and 16 minutes, this feels reasonable! :p Okay, let's get going on some of this other stuff. . .night all!
