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An Extremely Distracted Boxing Day
Dec. 26th, 2021 11:38 pmSeriously, I do not seem to be able to concentrate at ALL on the stuff I mean to do, particularly in the mornings, these days. O.o I'm putting it down to a) the holiday season messing up what might be my "usual" day-off groove, and b) having been under a fair amount of stress before getting my little vacation and just -- needing to chill. Still, would be nice to get some more productive stuff done. . . *shrug* Ah well. Did reasonably okay on the to-do list --
1. Do some writing (private project, "Learn To Love Again," "Londerland Bloodlines", etc.): Again, the tiny bit of a check I got yesterday for adding to my and Squid’s “group project” of sorts. But, hilariously, I didn’t do anything with my own writing because I got caught up in REREADING some of it – “Learn To Love Again,” as it happens. *shakehead* I assume that is a good case of irony? I really gotta get back in the saddle here. . .
2. Watch the OXBox Christmas Tiebreak and Jon's F:NV Utter Chaos video; decide between Sunday Subs videos and Watch Later, or Kevin's Rewind video: I’m gonna say three-fourths check – I watched the first two, and the Sunday Subs, but nothing I already had in the Watch Later because I started really late today – as usual, got distracted (bit of TV Tropes, more of rereading my own fic, as seen above). But I got SOMETHING done, and that’s good –
A) Started this evening with Call Me Kevin and his latest Project Zomboid challenge – yup, it’s “can’t leave your spawn” again! Kevin’s really committing to the hermit life with these challenges. He created Hermit And Proud (strong and a light eater, but agoraphobic and short-sighted), spawned into his favorite little house, and began survival! Hermit’s version of survival? Find a frying pan, open his doors and windows, scream for a few minutes, murder the zombies when they come investigating. XD And then loot all their cool clothes. Like a cowboy hat! And a heart-print bra! XD Unfortunately, he only lasted a day and three hours before a “horde” of four managed to chase him into the bathroom and overwhelm him – though he did kill 15 zombies, so that’s a thing! Kevin tried again in a different area with “Fashion Icon,” who not only picked up some sweet clothes (leopard print AND red frilly underwear, plus a fireman’s hat and pants!), but turned out to be a BEAST at killing zombies with a variety of improvised weapons (umbrella, griddle pan, meat cleaver, and an ax – the last two grabbed from zombies). 32 kills over six days and five hours! What eventually got her was the lack of food, because you’re not allowed to cook the corpses. Ah well – Kevin’s best run ever in this game, and that is saying something! XD
B) Then it was over to the (according to his twitter) returning-from-Christmas-Cookie-Coma GrayStillPlays, for another ridiculous “drawing” puzzle game – Brain Nurse Story! This one, as you might be able to guess from the title, had a “nurse” theme to it, requiring you to draw things like hand sanitizer to protect a nurse in a pandemic (or guns that BECOME hand sanitizer, to Gray’s bafflement); erase women’s clothing to reveal hidden tattoos of Playboy Bunnies and tigers (also you can erase cats to find small dogs within them, and men’s crotches to reveal – a carrot (the nurse was in a bunny suit)); and move alcohol to the attending nurse to get her to do a POLE DANCE WITH A GUY’S IV (or, slightly less terrible, a spider to her location to get her to jump on his bed). It was so weird and kinda fucked up – aka, the perfect GrayStillPlays game! XD
C) Then, of course, we had to hit up OXBox for the final Xmas Tiebreaker Challenge – Andy and Jane going head to head in Gang Beasts for the “Shark The Herald Angels Sing” Tiebreak! The rules were simple – whoever wins best out of three fights in the game is the winner, with Mike being the referee! But why the punny name?
Why, because the first level up was “Trawler,” which features random sharks throwing themselves onto the boat every so often! Jane and Andy battled mightily to feed each other to said sharks, but it was bad luck that ended up doing Andy in – after breaking a clinch with Jane, he ended up trapped between two sharks and eaten. From there they moved onto a high lighthouse, where Andy and Jane briefly beat each other up with Mike by accident before Andy was able to tip Jane over the railing! So it all came down to a final level in an aquarium, where lurked a giant tentacle. . .and while the combat was tense as hell, it ended with Andy yanked away to the depths after getting too focused on trying to drown Jane in a shallower pool. Though, in an amusing turn of events, Jane jokingly followed Andy in after he was tentacled away, and MIKE ended up winning as she died before him. XD But yes, Jane received the crown of Christmas Champion – after a VERY long drought, according to the comments. The last time she got it was in 2017, and this is only her second win! (If you’re curious, Andy’s won the most with 4, and Mike next with 3). So yeah, long-awaited, well-deserved. Congrats Jane! :D
D) And finally, of course, we had Jon’s Fallout: New Vegas Utter Chaos video! Because why not? XD Jon’s trouble with doors continues, though he did get a few lucky breaks – he found a way to get into and out of the Old World Blues DLC via sneaking into the general area to mark a location, then starting the DLC in the typical manner before using the marked location to fast-travel. This allowed him to pick up some fun perks from the DLC (increasing damage resistance and the like from having his brain, heart, and spine replaced with advanced tech) without getting TRAPPED in the DLC! Plus he found a door that led to the upper area of The Tops, which might later give him an edge with Benny! PLUS he got back to the Gamorrah casino, Stealthed his way through, then got out a front door and got his precious gear back!
On the MINUS side, he ended up repeatedly going into chunks of the Dead Money DLC, and one of them, er, locked Jon in. Because that’s what the NPC you have to either reason with or kill, Christine, does in that particular level – and oh, the game just assumes you have a bomb collar that will kill you in this part. Jon was forced to stumble around a DLC he is NOT particularly familiar with to kill Christine and then escape before being exploded, all because he checked the wrong manhole cover. Whoops. XD And he also accidentally brought some raiders from one location into an NCR base, then accidentally set one of the NCR bigwigs on fire, leading him to get chased merrily through a variety of locations, including a gift shop, until he could distract the people chasing him with some NEW raiders, and get out before getting nuked. And somehow his relationship with the NCR is still neutral. Go figure. *shrug* Anyway, he’s on the move again, to another location full of doors – we’ll see where THOSE all lead next week!
3. Play some more Fallout 4 and meet the Abernathys: Check! Picked up with Sole!Victor late in the afternoon of 10/29/2287 as he came up on the back of the Abernathys’ farm – circling around the front introduced him to the family, and he had a nice chat with Blake about setting up a farm and the local raiders, with Victor agreeing to retrieve Mary’s locket from USAF Station Olivia. He also traded with Connie, getting a nice healthy shipment of fertilizer for Sanctuary before retreating into their house to hide from a dust storm. Once that had largely passed, it was back to Sanctuary (killing a few bloatflies along the way) to plant a couple of fruit trees, assign Mama Murphy to one, and then drag himself to bed.
10/30/2287 was largely about finishing up the “Sanctuary” quest – and me building a nice picket fence around the community garden. XD Anyway, Victor got that all nice and put together, then built some defenses at Sturges’s request – a heavy machine gun turret by the front bridge, and a lighter one between a couple of the houses. That got him a good chunk of XP, and building his backpack bench, a backpack, and then modifying it at the armor bench to carry 50 extra pounds got him even more – plus Codsworth’s admiration, yay. :) After that was a shower, the building of the portable workbench – and then a run down to the Red Rocket, as Victor had used all his adhesive in Sanctuary and could only build a Scrapper Kit and a Weapon kit FOR said portable workbench down there. Whoops. XD On the plus side, I was able to store a couple of his magazines in the little stand there, drop off a few unwanted holotapes, and build a bobblehead display for his Perception Bobblehead – which got him up to Level 7! Took Locksmith Rank 1 to get him able to pick advanced locks. :) Then the rest of that day was spent cooking up some of the meat he’d picked up, hiding from YET ANOTHER dust storm (these seem to be a daily thing in my game!), and playing some “Atomic Command.” Left it off with Victor having just woken up on 10/31/2287, ready to start venturing out farther into the Commonwealth with Codsworth! Time to actually start doing some proper Minutemen stuff! :)
4. Get in a workout: Check! Didn’t start the next Oxventure, though, as I’m not sure if I’ll be working out tomorrow or not (birthday, after all!). So instead I watched:
A) A B. Dylan Hollis video about homemade peppermint patties (apparently they came out really good!)
B) A video from Pleasant Sims about whims, how the regular Sims 4 game kind of abandoned them, and a nice whim overhaul mod she uses to update whims for newer packs and make them less random and more suited for the individual Sims
C) A video from WhinyBrit about some romance mods, including “Wonderful Whims” (which I have right now), a wedding overhaul mod where you can actually do some interactions regarding wedding planning if you like, and a “Sugar Daddy/Mommy” mod. Also the return of the Vibrating Heart Bed from Sims 1. XD
Yeah – good stuff, and not bad to ride the bike to! Though obviously I’m eager to get back to Oxventure. :)
Additionally:
-->Mom and I attempted to play the Back To The Future: Back In Time board game this afternoon – bit of a disaster, honestly. There is a LOT to keep track of (we’re not used to cooperative board games, much less ones with multiple phases per turn), and the dice kept rolling Biff symbols, meaning our love meter was constantly garbage and we lost both games to having to flip over the entire McFly sibling photograph, erasing Dave, Linda, and Marty from existence before we could even think about prepping the DeLorean. *grumbles* My personal feeling is that the two-player starting position doesn’t give anyone enough time to actually attempt enough challenges before the end of the game looms. Mom’s suggested we each play two characters next time and see if that makes a difference – we will see, I suppose!
Okay, yeah, so that BTTF game ALSO took up a lot of my afternoon, I will admit that. . .and it may do so again tomorrow, depending on circumstances. As it stands though, I'm not doing an OFFICIAL to-do list tomorrow, as it happens to be my 35th birthday, and I don't want the pressure. XD I will say that I HOPE to purchase and play the first couple of levels of Unpacking; watch Kevin's 2021 Rewind video; and MAYBE actually do some damn writing. We will see. :p As it stands, though, I've been waking up early, so I may as well go to bed earlier -- night all!
1. Do some writing (private project, "Learn To Love Again," "Londerland Bloodlines", etc.): Again, the tiny bit of a check I got yesterday for adding to my and Squid’s “group project” of sorts. But, hilariously, I didn’t do anything with my own writing because I got caught up in REREADING some of it – “Learn To Love Again,” as it happens. *shakehead* I assume that is a good case of irony? I really gotta get back in the saddle here. . .
2. Watch the OXBox Christmas Tiebreak and Jon's F:NV Utter Chaos video; decide between Sunday Subs videos and Watch Later, or Kevin's Rewind video: I’m gonna say three-fourths check – I watched the first two, and the Sunday Subs, but nothing I already had in the Watch Later because I started really late today – as usual, got distracted (bit of TV Tropes, more of rereading my own fic, as seen above). But I got SOMETHING done, and that’s good –
A) Started this evening with Call Me Kevin and his latest Project Zomboid challenge – yup, it’s “can’t leave your spawn” again! Kevin’s really committing to the hermit life with these challenges. He created Hermit And Proud (strong and a light eater, but agoraphobic and short-sighted), spawned into his favorite little house, and began survival! Hermit’s version of survival? Find a frying pan, open his doors and windows, scream for a few minutes, murder the zombies when they come investigating. XD And then loot all their cool clothes. Like a cowboy hat! And a heart-print bra! XD Unfortunately, he only lasted a day and three hours before a “horde” of four managed to chase him into the bathroom and overwhelm him – though he did kill 15 zombies, so that’s a thing! Kevin tried again in a different area with “Fashion Icon,” who not only picked up some sweet clothes (leopard print AND red frilly underwear, plus a fireman’s hat and pants!), but turned out to be a BEAST at killing zombies with a variety of improvised weapons (umbrella, griddle pan, meat cleaver, and an ax – the last two grabbed from zombies). 32 kills over six days and five hours! What eventually got her was the lack of food, because you’re not allowed to cook the corpses. Ah well – Kevin’s best run ever in this game, and that is saying something! XD
B) Then it was over to the (according to his twitter) returning-from-Christmas-Cookie-Coma GrayStillPlays, for another ridiculous “drawing” puzzle game – Brain Nurse Story! This one, as you might be able to guess from the title, had a “nurse” theme to it, requiring you to draw things like hand sanitizer to protect a nurse in a pandemic (or guns that BECOME hand sanitizer, to Gray’s bafflement); erase women’s clothing to reveal hidden tattoos of Playboy Bunnies and tigers (also you can erase cats to find small dogs within them, and men’s crotches to reveal – a carrot (the nurse was in a bunny suit)); and move alcohol to the attending nurse to get her to do a POLE DANCE WITH A GUY’S IV (or, slightly less terrible, a spider to her location to get her to jump on his bed). It was so weird and kinda fucked up – aka, the perfect GrayStillPlays game! XD
C) Then, of course, we had to hit up OXBox for the final Xmas Tiebreaker Challenge – Andy and Jane going head to head in Gang Beasts for the “Shark The Herald Angels Sing” Tiebreak! The rules were simple – whoever wins best out of three fights in the game is the winner, with Mike being the referee! But why the punny name?
Why, because the first level up was “Trawler,” which features random sharks throwing themselves onto the boat every so often! Jane and Andy battled mightily to feed each other to said sharks, but it was bad luck that ended up doing Andy in – after breaking a clinch with Jane, he ended up trapped between two sharks and eaten. From there they moved onto a high lighthouse, where Andy and Jane briefly beat each other up with Mike by accident before Andy was able to tip Jane over the railing! So it all came down to a final level in an aquarium, where lurked a giant tentacle. . .and while the combat was tense as hell, it ended with Andy yanked away to the depths after getting too focused on trying to drown Jane in a shallower pool. Though, in an amusing turn of events, Jane jokingly followed Andy in after he was tentacled away, and MIKE ended up winning as she died before him. XD But yes, Jane received the crown of Christmas Champion – after a VERY long drought, according to the comments. The last time she got it was in 2017, and this is only her second win! (If you’re curious, Andy’s won the most with 4, and Mike next with 3). So yeah, long-awaited, well-deserved. Congrats Jane! :D
D) And finally, of course, we had Jon’s Fallout: New Vegas Utter Chaos video! Because why not? XD Jon’s trouble with doors continues, though he did get a few lucky breaks – he found a way to get into and out of the Old World Blues DLC via sneaking into the general area to mark a location, then starting the DLC in the typical manner before using the marked location to fast-travel. This allowed him to pick up some fun perks from the DLC (increasing damage resistance and the like from having his brain, heart, and spine replaced with advanced tech) without getting TRAPPED in the DLC! Plus he found a door that led to the upper area of The Tops, which might later give him an edge with Benny! PLUS he got back to the Gamorrah casino, Stealthed his way through, then got out a front door and got his precious gear back!
On the MINUS side, he ended up repeatedly going into chunks of the Dead Money DLC, and one of them, er, locked Jon in. Because that’s what the NPC you have to either reason with or kill, Christine, does in that particular level – and oh, the game just assumes you have a bomb collar that will kill you in this part. Jon was forced to stumble around a DLC he is NOT particularly familiar with to kill Christine and then escape before being exploded, all because he checked the wrong manhole cover. Whoops. XD And he also accidentally brought some raiders from one location into an NCR base, then accidentally set one of the NCR bigwigs on fire, leading him to get chased merrily through a variety of locations, including a gift shop, until he could distract the people chasing him with some NEW raiders, and get out before getting nuked. And somehow his relationship with the NCR is still neutral. Go figure. *shrug* Anyway, he’s on the move again, to another location full of doors – we’ll see where THOSE all lead next week!
3. Play some more Fallout 4 and meet the Abernathys: Check! Picked up with Sole!Victor late in the afternoon of 10/29/2287 as he came up on the back of the Abernathys’ farm – circling around the front introduced him to the family, and he had a nice chat with Blake about setting up a farm and the local raiders, with Victor agreeing to retrieve Mary’s locket from USAF Station Olivia. He also traded with Connie, getting a nice healthy shipment of fertilizer for Sanctuary before retreating into their house to hide from a dust storm. Once that had largely passed, it was back to Sanctuary (killing a few bloatflies along the way) to plant a couple of fruit trees, assign Mama Murphy to one, and then drag himself to bed.
10/30/2287 was largely about finishing up the “Sanctuary” quest – and me building a nice picket fence around the community garden. XD Anyway, Victor got that all nice and put together, then built some defenses at Sturges’s request – a heavy machine gun turret by the front bridge, and a lighter one between a couple of the houses. That got him a good chunk of XP, and building his backpack bench, a backpack, and then modifying it at the armor bench to carry 50 extra pounds got him even more – plus Codsworth’s admiration, yay. :) After that was a shower, the building of the portable workbench – and then a run down to the Red Rocket, as Victor had used all his adhesive in Sanctuary and could only build a Scrapper Kit and a Weapon kit FOR said portable workbench down there. Whoops. XD On the plus side, I was able to store a couple of his magazines in the little stand there, drop off a few unwanted holotapes, and build a bobblehead display for his Perception Bobblehead – which got him up to Level 7! Took Locksmith Rank 1 to get him able to pick advanced locks. :) Then the rest of that day was spent cooking up some of the meat he’d picked up, hiding from YET ANOTHER dust storm (these seem to be a daily thing in my game!), and playing some “Atomic Command.” Left it off with Victor having just woken up on 10/31/2287, ready to start venturing out farther into the Commonwealth with Codsworth! Time to actually start doing some proper Minutemen stuff! :)
4. Get in a workout: Check! Didn’t start the next Oxventure, though, as I’m not sure if I’ll be working out tomorrow or not (birthday, after all!). So instead I watched:
A) A B. Dylan Hollis video about homemade peppermint patties (apparently they came out really good!)
B) A video from Pleasant Sims about whims, how the regular Sims 4 game kind of abandoned them, and a nice whim overhaul mod she uses to update whims for newer packs and make them less random and more suited for the individual Sims
C) A video from WhinyBrit about some romance mods, including “Wonderful Whims” (which I have right now), a wedding overhaul mod where you can actually do some interactions regarding wedding planning if you like, and a “Sugar Daddy/Mommy” mod. Also the return of the Vibrating Heart Bed from Sims 1. XD
Yeah – good stuff, and not bad to ride the bike to! Though obviously I’m eager to get back to Oxventure. :)
Additionally:
-->Mom and I attempted to play the Back To The Future: Back In Time board game this afternoon – bit of a disaster, honestly. There is a LOT to keep track of (we’re not used to cooperative board games, much less ones with multiple phases per turn), and the dice kept rolling Biff symbols, meaning our love meter was constantly garbage and we lost both games to having to flip over the entire McFly sibling photograph, erasing Dave, Linda, and Marty from existence before we could even think about prepping the DeLorean. *grumbles* My personal feeling is that the two-player starting position doesn’t give anyone enough time to actually attempt enough challenges before the end of the game looms. Mom’s suggested we each play two characters next time and see if that makes a difference – we will see, I suppose!
Okay, yeah, so that BTTF game ALSO took up a lot of my afternoon, I will admit that. . .and it may do so again tomorrow, depending on circumstances. As it stands though, I'm not doing an OFFICIAL to-do list tomorrow, as it happens to be my 35th birthday, and I don't want the pressure. XD I will say that I HOPE to purchase and play the first couple of levels of Unpacking; watch Kevin's 2021 Rewind video; and MAYBE actually do some damn writing. We will see. :p As it stands, though, I've been waking up early, so I may as well go to bed earlier -- night all!
