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Another Halfway Decent Day
Aug. 17th, 2021 11:14 pmUsual with the weather -- decent humidity and heat during the day, slow enough to cool down that you need the AC on at night. Tomorrow's supposed to get hotter and stickier -- and then we have rain coming in Thursday, which I believe are the remnants of Fred the storm? We'll see how that all turns out. . . In the meantime, updates --
Work – Another fairly quiet day – spent the morning looking over old problems and seeing which ones I could just solve and have done with on my own, then the afternoon was more or less about obits and finishing off the exceptions from last week. Nothing too dramatic!
Beanbags – Another decent day means more beanbags – and happily, we each won a game today! I had 2-3-W (finally got good enough to throw a ten on my third throw in that last one); Dad had W-2-2, and Mom had 3-W-3. Not bad at all!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: with Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! After picking up the Useless Wasteland Survival Guide (I promise the other ones tend to be better) at Gorski Cabin and reading Wayne’s rant on his computer against “government mind control” (the pathetic thing is that he’s right to be suspicious of the government, but the pylon outside was probably fine), Miss Jon continued on her way to Walden Pond (Past!Jon apologizing to any poetry fans in his audience because he was unfamiliar with Walden). After a bit of excitement outside the raider camp between a synth and a Super Mutant Behemoth (guess what won that fight), Miss Jon got inside, gunned down the raiders. . .and found the 10mm from the note was in fact a very basic weapon. Past!Jon was quite disappointed, though it was mitigated a bit by finding Big Jim the Legendary pipe wrench (cripples legs easier) and a bunch of other stuff to loot). At least it made for good parts when he broke it down!
With that out of the way, Miss Jon finally found her way back to Diamond City, where she continued her “avoiding the main plot” adventures by visiting the schoolhouse and talking to the Miss Nanny, Miss Edna, within. Edna wanted her opinion on love, and Past!Jon, realizing she had a crush on the teacher and finding that very cute, told her that love conquers all and she should hold onto it. And then he descended into the basement to steal things and found the “Live & Love” magazine that boosts robot companions’ damage by 5% – it’s called “I Married A Robot,” which feels very appropriate to find under Miss Edna and Mr. Zwicky’s classroom. :) Even more amazingly, they happen to have a cat, which completely blew Past!Jon’s mind, as apparently the lore has hinted before now that cats were generally a dinner item in other parts of the wastes and thus no longer exist there. XD He was thrilled to see the kitty, especially since it looked like his own cat. :) How sweet!
After that, it was up onto the roof to explore up there a bit (including the school bus full of, um, drugs on the school roof), and accidentally break into Piper’s home and office. Miss Jon promptly stole a bunch of stuff because Piper wasn’t there and read some of her terminal entries (mainly her personal sarcastic responses to reader complaints and whatnot). And the moment she exited –
Well. The game saw fit to trigger the special scene you get if you tell Miss Edna that love conquers all, where she and Mr. Zwicky get married and thank you for getting her to say something. :D Past!Jon was absolutely thrilled. :D
With that out of the way, Miss Jon finally went up to Mayor McDonough’s office to get Kellogg’s house key, to find Piper there berating the secretary, Geneva. Miss Jon got out of Piper why she was there (suspicious of the couriers McDonough keeps meeting so privately), then took over in trying to get the house key out of Geneva and Mayor McDonough himself. Unfortunately, her amazing tuxedo was not enough to pass the speech checks – so instead she just robbed McDonough’s safe for it, because he has no security in his office and it’s surprisingly easy to hide from him in there despite the fact his safe is right next to him. XD In fact, she took everything in his safe, a bunch of telephones from his personal quarters, and read his terminal entries, which – to my personal delight – mentioned a “Mr. Ayo,” aka – as Past!Jon will learn in a future episode – the Institute director in charge of the Synth Retention Bureau. Nice touch! Miss Jon decided it was worth seeing Piper at her office after this, and went ahead and did the little interview with her.
And after that, she finally got back to the main plot by bringing Nick the house key and going inside to search. They found Kellogg’s secret room and secret cigars, and got Dogmeat to get the scent and start the “Reunions” quest! :D Miss Jon initially invited Nick along as her companion – but then couldn’t run anymore because she’s taken the first rank of Lone Wanderer and thus her carry capacity is reduced if she has any companion other than Dogmeat – and as Dogmeat was taking point on this mission, he no longer counted. So she asked Nick to instead head to Sanctuary, and we finished off Episode 13 with her following Dogmeat out of Diamond City! Next up in Episode 14, the trip to Kellogg, and possibly a fight against the man himself! We’ll see!
2. Write some more on “Learn To Love Again”: Check – we’re almost done with the movie recap, with Victor telling the ladies about Barkis’s reappearance at the church, his connection to Emily, the fork-and-sword fight (June joking that the fork must have been vorpal), and Barkis’s eventual end with the poisoned wine. And how he was dragged screaming off to the Underworld, a detail Alice very much likes, as you might imagine. XD Just Emily’s ascension to go – and then we start getting into how this verse is “Forgotten Vows Verse but if things had gone better for Victor in ‘Losing You.’”
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Check – again, only two videos in the Watch Later thanks to James’s post-vaccination video break, so I was able to get in something else to keep the Watch Later light –
A) Started with the latest AT4W uploaded today – “Batman and Elmer Fudd & Catwoman and Sylvester and Tweety!” Yes, really – apparently in 2017, someone decided “we ought to do some crossovers between DC Comics and Looney Tunes” and thus made six issues of just that. And – well, at least the two Linkara looked at are good! Especially “Batman and Elmer Fudd,” which is a noir story about love, murder, and heartbreak – narrated by Elmer Fudd. WITH THE SPEECH IMPEDIMENT. Like Linkara said, it’s like someone’s dark gritty AU fanfiction, it leans into the ridiculous “seriousness” hard, and it is amazing. The “Catwoman and Sylvester and Tweety” is more standard “Looney Tunes characters are brought into the DC world via dimensional portal” fare, with some witches deciding to settle the Sylvester and Tweety fight once and for all by having them battle it out with every cat-themed and bird-themed DC character to see who wins – and who dies. Naturally, it ends with both sides teaming up on the witch who came up with the idea. XD Great stuff, and a good reminder that comics can be good, silly fun if someone just lets them be.
B) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin and a game apparently called The Invisible Hand (Kevin never actually said the name, so I had to learn it from the comments). It’s a “playing the stock market” simulator – after failing the first question by saying he’d happily open an account with people who don’t want to pay taxes and asking what “integrity” means in his employee survey, Kevin got a job at the Ferios stock company and proceeded to learn a lot about how to manipulate the stock market – specifically, how to use a bit of insider trading and a ton of lobbyists to drive the prices of Dark Roast Co. and UnoEats up and down, up and down. . . He made a ton of money and managed to only cause ONE PR incident before the police showed up for an investigation and he decided to quit for his own good. XD Wolf of Wall Street, is Kevin! Or maybe the Irish Setter of Wall Street, given his nationality. XD
C) And then it was over to GrayStillPlays for another run through 100 Years Life! Back with everyone’s wacky life simulator where you can marry a gorilla and it’s probably the best ending. XD Though, actually, Gray did pretty good this time around – his character, “helpme,” followed a life path closer to the one Kevin chose in his video – disdaining social contact, being slammed to the ground by a Batman cosplayer the Halloween he dressed up as a clown, getting fired from his job and getting arrested for being homeless, escaping prison into the desert after helping the priest clean up the yard, running away from his childhood home (after a brief interlude where he tried to settle in, only for the police to show up and shoot him), becoming a famous comedian, and suffering a plane crash on a deserted island. The difference is, Gray went with the threesome with the sisters, and ended up a happy polygamous father, who enslaved a bunch of shipwrecked people to build him a farm before he died at about age 61. King of the Island once again! Only a much more prosperous island this time. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got most of the queue set up for Victor Luvs Alice, including both Wednesday posts, Thursday, and Friday; and on Valice Multiverse, three ask replies. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. :p
Yeah, nothing too interesting, but I got a fair bit done, so I'm happy there. Hopeful the streak will continue as the week goes on! For now, I gotta wrap things up and head to bed. Night all!
Work – Another fairly quiet day – spent the morning looking over old problems and seeing which ones I could just solve and have done with on my own, then the afternoon was more or less about obits and finishing off the exceptions from last week. Nothing too dramatic!
Beanbags – Another decent day means more beanbags – and happily, we each won a game today! I had 2-3-W (finally got good enough to throw a ten on my third throw in that last one); Dad had W-2-2, and Mom had 3-W-3. Not bad at all!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: with Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! After picking up the Useless Wasteland Survival Guide (I promise the other ones tend to be better) at Gorski Cabin and reading Wayne’s rant on his computer against “government mind control” (the pathetic thing is that he’s right to be suspicious of the government, but the pylon outside was probably fine), Miss Jon continued on her way to Walden Pond (Past!Jon apologizing to any poetry fans in his audience because he was unfamiliar with Walden). After a bit of excitement outside the raider camp between a synth and a Super Mutant Behemoth (guess what won that fight), Miss Jon got inside, gunned down the raiders. . .and found the 10mm from the note was in fact a very basic weapon. Past!Jon was quite disappointed, though it was mitigated a bit by finding Big Jim the Legendary pipe wrench (cripples legs easier) and a bunch of other stuff to loot). At least it made for good parts when he broke it down!
With that out of the way, Miss Jon finally found her way back to Diamond City, where she continued her “avoiding the main plot” adventures by visiting the schoolhouse and talking to the Miss Nanny, Miss Edna, within. Edna wanted her opinion on love, and Past!Jon, realizing she had a crush on the teacher and finding that very cute, told her that love conquers all and she should hold onto it. And then he descended into the basement to steal things and found the “Live & Love” magazine that boosts robot companions’ damage by 5% – it’s called “I Married A Robot,” which feels very appropriate to find under Miss Edna and Mr. Zwicky’s classroom. :) Even more amazingly, they happen to have a cat, which completely blew Past!Jon’s mind, as apparently the lore has hinted before now that cats were generally a dinner item in other parts of the wastes and thus no longer exist there. XD He was thrilled to see the kitty, especially since it looked like his own cat. :) How sweet!
After that, it was up onto the roof to explore up there a bit (including the school bus full of, um, drugs on the school roof), and accidentally break into Piper’s home and office. Miss Jon promptly stole a bunch of stuff because Piper wasn’t there and read some of her terminal entries (mainly her personal sarcastic responses to reader complaints and whatnot). And the moment she exited –
Well. The game saw fit to trigger the special scene you get if you tell Miss Edna that love conquers all, where she and Mr. Zwicky get married and thank you for getting her to say something. :D Past!Jon was absolutely thrilled. :D
With that out of the way, Miss Jon finally went up to Mayor McDonough’s office to get Kellogg’s house key, to find Piper there berating the secretary, Geneva. Miss Jon got out of Piper why she was there (suspicious of the couriers McDonough keeps meeting so privately), then took over in trying to get the house key out of Geneva and Mayor McDonough himself. Unfortunately, her amazing tuxedo was not enough to pass the speech checks – so instead she just robbed McDonough’s safe for it, because he has no security in his office and it’s surprisingly easy to hide from him in there despite the fact his safe is right next to him. XD In fact, she took everything in his safe, a bunch of telephones from his personal quarters, and read his terminal entries, which – to my personal delight – mentioned a “Mr. Ayo,” aka – as Past!Jon will learn in a future episode – the Institute director in charge of the Synth Retention Bureau. Nice touch! Miss Jon decided it was worth seeing Piper at her office after this, and went ahead and did the little interview with her.
And after that, she finally got back to the main plot by bringing Nick the house key and going inside to search. They found Kellogg’s secret room and secret cigars, and got Dogmeat to get the scent and start the “Reunions” quest! :D Miss Jon initially invited Nick along as her companion – but then couldn’t run anymore because she’s taken the first rank of Lone Wanderer and thus her carry capacity is reduced if she has any companion other than Dogmeat – and as Dogmeat was taking point on this mission, he no longer counted. So she asked Nick to instead head to Sanctuary, and we finished off Episode 13 with her following Dogmeat out of Diamond City! Next up in Episode 14, the trip to Kellogg, and possibly a fight against the man himself! We’ll see!
2. Write some more on “Learn To Love Again”: Check – we’re almost done with the movie recap, with Victor telling the ladies about Barkis’s reappearance at the church, his connection to Emily, the fork-and-sword fight (June joking that the fork must have been vorpal), and Barkis’s eventual end with the poisoned wine. And how he was dragged screaming off to the Underworld, a detail Alice very much likes, as you might imagine. XD Just Emily’s ascension to go – and then we start getting into how this verse is “Forgotten Vows Verse but if things had gone better for Victor in ‘Losing You.’”
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Check – again, only two videos in the Watch Later thanks to James’s post-vaccination video break, so I was able to get in something else to keep the Watch Later light –
A) Started with the latest AT4W uploaded today – “Batman and Elmer Fudd & Catwoman and Sylvester and Tweety!” Yes, really – apparently in 2017, someone decided “we ought to do some crossovers between DC Comics and Looney Tunes” and thus made six issues of just that. And – well, at least the two Linkara looked at are good! Especially “Batman and Elmer Fudd,” which is a noir story about love, murder, and heartbreak – narrated by Elmer Fudd. WITH THE SPEECH IMPEDIMENT. Like Linkara said, it’s like someone’s dark gritty AU fanfiction, it leans into the ridiculous “seriousness” hard, and it is amazing. The “Catwoman and Sylvester and Tweety” is more standard “Looney Tunes characters are brought into the DC world via dimensional portal” fare, with some witches deciding to settle the Sylvester and Tweety fight once and for all by having them battle it out with every cat-themed and bird-themed DC character to see who wins – and who dies. Naturally, it ends with both sides teaming up on the witch who came up with the idea. XD Great stuff, and a good reminder that comics can be good, silly fun if someone just lets them be.
B) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin and a game apparently called The Invisible Hand (Kevin never actually said the name, so I had to learn it from the comments). It’s a “playing the stock market” simulator – after failing the first question by saying he’d happily open an account with people who don’t want to pay taxes and asking what “integrity” means in his employee survey, Kevin got a job at the Ferios stock company and proceeded to learn a lot about how to manipulate the stock market – specifically, how to use a bit of insider trading and a ton of lobbyists to drive the prices of Dark Roast Co. and UnoEats up and down, up and down. . . He made a ton of money and managed to only cause ONE PR incident before the police showed up for an investigation and he decided to quit for his own good. XD Wolf of Wall Street, is Kevin! Or maybe the Irish Setter of Wall Street, given his nationality. XD
C) And then it was over to GrayStillPlays for another run through 100 Years Life! Back with everyone’s wacky life simulator where you can marry a gorilla and it’s probably the best ending. XD Though, actually, Gray did pretty good this time around – his character, “helpme,” followed a life path closer to the one Kevin chose in his video – disdaining social contact, being slammed to the ground by a Batman cosplayer the Halloween he dressed up as a clown, getting fired from his job and getting arrested for being homeless, escaping prison into the desert after helping the priest clean up the yard, running away from his childhood home (after a brief interlude where he tried to settle in, only for the police to show up and shoot him), becoming a famous comedian, and suffering a plane crash on a deserted island. The difference is, Gray went with the threesome with the sisters, and ended up a happy polygamous father, who enslaved a bunch of shipwrecked people to build him a farm before he died at about age 61. King of the Island once again! Only a much more prosperous island this time. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got most of the queue set up for Victor Luvs Alice, including both Wednesday posts, Thursday, and Friday; and on Valice Multiverse, three ask replies. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. :p
Yeah, nothing too interesting, but I got a fair bit done, so I'm happy there. Hopeful the streak will continue as the week goes on! For now, I gotta wrap things up and head to bed. Night all!
