Less Chill Sunday

Warmer outside (though still pretty cold), and a little more stressful inside (morning grocery run for my parents, trying to get my breakfast around my mom cooking AND talking on the phone, dropping my fork while taking some cake into my room for dessert and getting cake crumbs over a good portion of the hallway. . .). Meeeh -- do not approve.

I do approve of getting the majority of my to-do list done, though:

1. Continue playthrough progression in "Fallout of Darkness" master doc; Free Writing Day otherwise: Check – after playing through today’s FO4 adventures (see below), I did the “more fanficcy” notes in the “Fallout of Darkness” master doc. Always good to have a record of your adventures! And as for Free Writing Day stuff, have done more complete notes on my ideas for Smiler humanization/vampirization/roboticization, because, well, still into that damn roller coaster. *sighs*

2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, watch further two "Theme Park History" videos in Watch Later, watch Jon's next F:NV "Utter Chaos" video: Check! Started a bit late because of early-morning mucking about and whatnot, but I covered everything I wanted to cover –

A) Started with my double dose of “Theme Park History” videos featuring my favorite Universal rides –

I. “The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man” at Islands of Adventure! AKA the ride that I nearly didn’t like because our first trip on it fell prey to the expensive and delicate timing system going a bit haywire. Fortunately the employees let us ride it again once we came back around, and thus we got to experience it in its full glory. It really is amazing, and it’s one of my favorites. :) Though it nearly didn’t exist – apparently Islands of Adventures was originally going to be toon-based throughout (instead of just having the one island), with Looney Tunes characters and a DC comics-based land, with Batman and Superman rides – but when the deals with Time Warner fell through, Universal revamped their plans and instead turned to Marvel, who allowed them a deal to use the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk for their Marvel Superhero Island. And for everyone who loves those rides (I’m thinking mainly the Spider-Man ride and the Hulk coaster), it was a relief Disney agreed to honor the deal when they bought Marvel, despite Universal being a competitor. (The terms mean that Disney World in California can’t do anything with the Marvel name, but Disneyland can, so long as it doesn’t feature the specific supers mentioned above – hence the focus on the Guardians of the Galaxy at their park.) Also, apparently Spider-Man got a real nice upgrade back in 2012 – fancy graphics and everything. Amazing to think the ride is over 20 years old at this point and still going strong! :D (Also, fun trivia – the garbage truck driver who nearly crashes into the Scoop vehicle? Stan Lee! Never knew that before!)

II. “Back To The Future: The Ride” – yes, of COURSE I’m going to watch the video on the ride that actually introduced me to my favorite movie series of all time. Apparently the ride was first planned in 1986, because Spielberg wanted to show up his friend George Lucas regarding Lucas’s “Star Tours” ride over at Disney MGM. XD Which ended up helping reignite interest in MAKING Universal Studios Florida in the first place! And production started in 1988, which means I’m pretty sure they must have filmed the ride movie around the same time as the two sequels! I thought it came a bit afterwards. . .and when the ride officially opened in May of 1991, it raised attendance levels at Universal Studios Florida PAST those at Disney MGM, which no one expected – especially since apparently the park had a DISASTER of an opening the previous year (which seems to relate to the Jaws ride, if the footage showing that was a hint). So BTTF: The Ride basically saved Universal Studios Florida TWICE, and now I am extra-salty about it having been removed from all the Universal parks. :( (And apparently Earthquake/Disaster! is gone too, replaced with a The Fast and the Furious ride, and now I am sour.)

B) Then, after supper, it was time to hit the Subs for Call Me Kevin and Hardcore Minecraft – Pacifist Challenge? Yes, having completed the One Chonk Challenge, Kevin decided to set out for nicer lands and see about exploring as a pacifist, instead of as a chicken torturer and mob farmer. XD After gathering his supplies (and accidentally destroying his bed, because he was in the wrong mode), he grabbed a boat and rowed away to the island across from his, dodging mobs until he was able to escape into a village and steal someone’s bed to sleep in. XD From there he located a nice patch of land and made his own house, then descended carefully into the nearby caves to mine iron and make himself an iron golem! Which – required shears to be brought to life for some reason (I’m not up on my Minecraft mechanics or lore), so he kept wandering, finding more villages to pilfer from (including a very cool “floating islands” village near the end) and a few caves to venture into and entomb Creepers in to keep them from killing him. XD Hey, he’s only a PACIFIST – he never said he was a good person! As his many pieces of stolen iron armor demonstrate. XD Most of the video was Kevin marveling at how deep the caves go and how neat the world is when you can explore more than a single chunk, which – yeah. XD Though admittedly the game has apparently had a lot of updates recently. . .I guess we’ll see if he continues this series! For now, we can just enjoy the image of him on his homestead, planting his crops as his iron golem friend beats up baby zombies. XD

C) Then it was over to GrayStillPlays for Stickman Fall Legends – aka back to the OTHER kind of stickman game, where you are specifically torturing YOUR OWN stickman with death courses, instead of using them to clobber others. Today’s death courses included tunnels full of mashers and arrows; pits full of sawblades, steam, and crossbows that shoot exploding shuriken; and towers that shoot you to the sky through even more ridiculous obstacles. Gray had a load of fun trying to get his stickperson (or, once, stick-Predator) into ever more baffling positions in an attempt to get infinite points. XD You know a game is good when you can launch your stickperson into a death course lying down on the back of a Trojan Horse, with a missile strapped to their back to make sure the agony doesn’t stop when they finally clear the steam vents sending them back up into hell. And then check the stats board to see how many times they’ve broken their head, spine, arms, and legs. XD

D) And after all that, it was time for Jon and Fallout: New Vegas “Utter Chaos!” Which was very chaotic indeed, because Jon had to go running around looking for Caesar’s tent. Because everyone in the world wanted him to talk to Caesar for quest progression, but while Jon was able to get into his CAMP okay, his tent flap actually lead to a Securitron deprocessing plant. Which was a problem. And so began The Great Hunt for Caesar! Which was conducted in two stages:

I. The Trip Through Big MT – Jon decided to head into the Old World Blues DLC world to check out as many of the doors there as he could, using the fact that the perimeter is a force-field to teleport himself back to the starting balcony if necessary. This proved to be a GIANT MISTAKE because – well. While the monsters might have been shuffled into less-intimidating forms (sort of – bloatflies now shoot lasers), the more human enemies, like the Lobotomites and the – Harnesses? People with skeleton heads, I don’t know my F:NV – had MUCH BETTER GEAR. Like power armor (classic version where it’s just an outfit)! Or plasma rifles! Or HOLY FRAG GRENADES THAT JUST INSTA-MURDER YOU. Jon ATTEMPTED to check out a few doors in between running for his life, but eventually had to turn tail and evacuate back to the main game.

II. Screw This Time To Kill Some Fiends – After that mess, Jon decided best thing to do was to get some more ammo (and a couple new guns too), then go hunting for some items that he could sell for more money. And he knew just how to do that too – a while back, he agreed to help hunt down the leader of the Fiend gang with a recon team from the NCR, so all he had to do was pick up that quest again. It didn’t start great – mostly because, in one of his first fights, he accidentally shot one of the NCR Rangers helping him and gained infamy with the group as a result – but things improved from there! From watching a half-naked NCR agent with the Red Glare Rocket Launcher get killed, before nuking the hell out of the Fiend who picked up to grab it for himself; to meeting back up with the recon team and nuking the hell out of the Fiend hideout (er, after a reload when he misjudged distance and accidentally killed one of the members); to taking down leader Driver with some nice hollow-point bullets; to getting LOADS of good weapons off various Fiends he murdered (like a guy in a Tuxedo having a good grenade launcher called Mercy); to stumbling across Caesar’s tent door in the area and bouncing around the tent in glee at seeing a tiny Caesar sunk into his chair. XD Yup, as it turns out, sometimes helping people is the greatest reward. In that it gets you loads of good guns and the plot progression you need. *Vault-Boy style thumbs up*

3. Play Fallout 4 and complete Corvega: Check – didn’t go quite as smoothly as I’d hoped, but Victor got through it without actually dying once, so that was good! He and Codsworth staged an assault on the raiders out front, with Victor picking off as many people as possible with his sniper rifle, before heading inside via the lobby. Why the lobby? I was following the advice of this one tumblr post which gives you a good route to get quickly to Jared, the leader of the raiders, and kill him without too much fuss. Victor encountered more fuss than I think the author of that post expected, but then again, he’s not the sneakiest, poor guy. XD At least he had some good guns to protect himself, including his powerful double-barreled shotgun! And Codsworth backing him up with a buzzsaw. That’s always nice. XD

Anyway – fought my way through a few rooms, occasionally getting surprised by raiders before blowing them away. Found a bunch of good loot (this place is great for desk fans and typewriters!), Gristle’s terminal beside a turret in one of the main rooms (turns out HIS motivation for attacking Preston’s group was a desire for Preston’s hat), and the Corvega storage room, which I already had the key for, so it was just a matter of picking the lock on the explosives box and claiming all the ammo. :) Finally made my way to the main assembly floor, where Jared and his cronies waited – made sure Victor was out of sight, then put the tumblr post plan into action!

Namely, I tossed some explosives at the cars that were being assembled at the time of the bombs, which are RIGHT IN FRONT OF Jared and his crew, and let the explosions kill the majority of them. XD Victor also successfully hacked the terminal for the local Protectron and set it to patrol as a Subway Steward to help mop up any stragglers, but it ended up turn on Codsworth once it spotted him and had to be put down. Took out the turrets and remaining raiders, figured out how to extend the bridge to the office, did lots of looting, picked up the Grognak comic on Jared’s desk, and then (as he was already showing signs of tiredness) had Victor bunk down for the night on what I assumed to be Jared’s old mattress.

Turns out Advanced Needs 2 only lets you sleep five hours on an unowned dirty mattress! Huh. . .well, it cleared Victor’s fatigue ENOUGH, so I had him read through Jared’s terminal, kill another couple of raiders, finish looting, then head outside onto the roof. Where, of course, MORE raiders waited to take potshots at poor Victor and Codsworth – I spent most of my time out THERE trying to figure out where I was being shot from and trying to figure out where Codsworth had got to. On the plus side, found the Repair Bobblehead, so that’s cool! :) Victor ate some Grilled Radstag to heal himself and up his carry weight, then – after finally finding their way back down to the ground – he and Codsworth started heading back to Tenpines Bluff. I had them pop into a Slocum Joe’s donut shop along the way though, to loot and whatnot – and turns out the place has a basement. Hmmm. Well, it’s raining outside right now in-game, so maybe Victor will investigate that when I next play. . .

4. Work on tumblr queues (specifically pictures for Winterfest Chill Save update): Check – did the pictures after finishing up all my FO4 stuff, above, then put them in the VictorLuvsAlice drafts with some starter text after finishing up with Jon’s “Utter Chaos” video above. So that’s a good start! And as for Valice Multiverse – two ask replies, w000.

5. Get in a workout: No check – spent a little too much time mucking around, and ended up watching the “Theme Park History” stuff right before an earlier-than-usual supper. Ah well – just have to get back into the saddle tomorrow!

Four out of five ain't bad, right? Especially for a rather distracted Sunday, I must admit. And hey, it's a three-day weekend, I could be a little distracted. :) But, that being said, I do have some to-dos for tomorrow:

1. Continue editing Chapter 4 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica’s Vale Of Tears”

2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, watch Chess-Anna's Sims 4 video with boyfriend Call Me Kevin

3. Play the final level of Unpacking

4. Work on tumblr queues

5. Get in a workout

Hopefully I can knock off all five tomorrow! Might depend on how long the Unpacking final house takes me. XD Night all!