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Somewhat Grumpy Friday
Feb. 11th, 2022 11:36 pmAs evidenced by the "work" section below --
Work – Kind of went “horrible – okay – horrible.” I had a meh ride in and arrived just in time for a flurry of activity as my talky coworker started doing projects and asking me things while I was just trying to gather the bits and pieces for the GL and whatnot, then it calmed down for a while as I actually did the GL, took care of some other things, had lunch, etc – then at the very end of the day, I got tripped up while trying to process some gifts by a sudden “hey can you run down to the mailroom with this mail? Hey can you listen to this guy’s voicemail? Hey can I make a pledge right now?” burst. Left slightly late and ended up dealing with another round of shitty traffic, including one asshole who kept slowing down and drifting just a little between lanes that made me – well, nervous to say the least. Not the best start to a long weekend!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and the end of the Oxventure Rolling In The Deep! As stated, the gang had ten minutes to wrap things up and deal with the Grells – fortunately, they also had the troll pretty much at their mercy in Octowen’s tentacles. Dob attempted to get the troll to just go to sleep with a lullaby version of the opening to a Metallica song, but no go, even with doubling the values of the dice (though admittedly Dob did not roll particularly well). Egbert initially was going to just hit the troll with his mace, but “inspiration” (in the form of Andy making the suggestion and Johnny backing it up as a good idea) hit, and he instead decided to try and boil the other tanks with the Sonberts inside via flame breath (because, sad as he was at the death of the first Sonbert, he knows they’re abominations that are only gonna cause grief). Johnny told him to roll a D20 and just not get a one.
EGBERT GOT A ONE. Johnny was like “I have derailed MYSELF, how does this happen.” XD They ruled that Egbert had a hiccup while trying to breathe fire and got a backdraft down the internals – half damage, fortunately, as he’s fire resistant, but still. That left things up to Dob, who – after confirming the troll was still helpless – just took the guy’s axe and cleaved his head in with it, using the usual powers conferred upon him by the great spell “In The Interest of Time. . .” XD (Namely, he was allowed to roll Dexterity (his better stat) rather than Strength, and he got all the D20s on the table to roll damage.) This DID leave the problem of the Sonberts, but happily Prudence already had a solution – the Pale Tincture poison she stole from Jacques Darkfall back in Out Of Order, the adventure where they had to stop him poisoning Egbert’s Paladin Order! She poisoned all the Sonberts in their tanks, which led to the tanks exploding so they could walk away from the explosions all cool-like. And the Grell? Dob quickly pretended to be the Grell King looking for successors and appointed them to rule as a council, returning them to a republic. XD And then they out! Oh dear, they really gotta figure out better time management for these live adventures. Either that or convince the venues to give them at least a half-hour longer than they think the adventure will take. XD
Anyway, all that WAS only ten minutes of my workout, so I turned to some Sims 4 videos about the new pack coming out next week to get some more news and kill some more time! First, a sum-up of the informational livestream today about My Wedding Stories, in which ErinSimmer (or SimmerErin, I don’t recall which) stated that she liked some of the ideas in the pack – all the various parties you can now throw as an engaged couple; the new world; the slow-dancing animations – but she wished they’d actually SHOWN OFF more of the gameplay, and was concerned as the wedding ceremony shown in the livestream WAS still rather glitchy. Meh. I do like that weddings have now become a bit more like a cross-breed between an event and a holiday – and they DO have a lot of customization, damn. I am intrigued. Also, “Wedding Venue” is coming as a new lot type for free to base game, so that’ll be nice! Along with some more colors for certain formal outfits and whatnot. . .we’ll figure it out once it’s here! Second, FakeGamerGirl took her own look at the trailer after mentioning the new hot controversy that, because the Sims team refuses to back down on the marketing for the pack (which prominently features two women getting married), the damn thing is now banned in Russia. Which – yeah, that’s a thing, isn’t it? Anyway, her take on the pack was amusing, but she isn’t impressed, thinking it’s not actually bringing that much in terms of new gameplay. *shrug* I get the feeling that, even WITHOUT the Russian shitfuckery, this is gonna be a divisive pack! Hmmmm. . .
2. Continue editing Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica’s Vale Of Tears”: Check – the situation with Therese and Jeannette has been successfully defused, and they’ve agreed to start running Santa Monica together, while keeping up the fiction of still being at odds to keep an eye on their potential enemies. And Therese has gone ahead and called off the feud with Tung, allowing Alice to FINALLY proceed with her main mission. Alice even got a free gun out of the deal! :p Of course, now she has to stay silent on the sisters’ true nature, or otherwise she’s gonna meet the sunrise, but hey – she’s kept bigger secrets than this. :p Good spot to leave it for a bit while I prep Chapter 4 for posting!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Check – long one tonight with four videos, but I got ‘em all watched –
A) Started with the latest Fun With Shorts – “The Shoplifter,” Part 3! The end of the short about shoplifting and how to prevent it as a sales associate! Turns out it’s being constantly in customers presence and having people spy on them from elevated platforms, hidden grates, and other peepholes so they never feel like they have the privacy to steal! And if they do steal in front of you without realizing you saw, the best thing to do is just follow them and STARE (and also alert a supervisor). Before going back to your double shift at minimum wage. XD Good short, and good riffs!
B) Then it was time for the latest from James Turner and the “Every Lot Challenge Challenge” series! Quite a lot happened today, starting with a pretty thorough house renovation! Namely, adding a couple more “shipping containers” on the side to allow the kids to have their own bedrooms, plus adding two more bathrooms, giving the laundry its own dedicated room, and adding a computer room and an art room for the kids! James had to sell all the things to make it happen, but happen it did. :) From there it was just on to living life – Micah and Grayson both joined the Drama Club, while James had Chi and Donnell just spam out a bunch of their scout badges with art and socializing and whatnot. Chi and Donnell also both became teenagers pretty early on – Chi added “Art Lover” to “Dog Lover” for his traits, so James made his starting aspiration “Painter Extraordinaire,” while Donnell added “Loner” to “Kleptomaniac” and got “Chief of Mischief” for his starting aspiration. This did not stop them from spamming more scout badges, to the point that we actually briefly left the lot to visit a gym to get started on the fitness badge. That was weird. XD Anyway, they’re all doing well – keeping odd hours to keep up with school projects and whatnot, but still. Jasmin is also doing well – her third semester of university went swimmingly, with A+s in all her classes! This raised her GPA to an A, meaning an A+ might still be in sight. . .but she’s gotta work fast, as SHE aged up this episode too, and is now an elder, yikes. And, most importantly, Semaj – still an Angel Investor – got a raise and got to spin the wheel to remove not only one of the two remaining lot challenges, but also one of the lot traits – “Cat Hangout,” “Dog Hangout,” or “On Ley Line!”
James jinxed himself and got “On Ley Line” – the reason Semaj and Jasmin have two sets of twins, and the one that is useless now that she’s too old to get pregnant. XD He’s asked the comments about other ways to clear out these final damn traits and challenges – I say, if Jasmin gets an A+ GPA after that rough start, we’ve EARNED clearing something. :p
C) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin and more Minecraft challenges – namely, he can now only move in a straight line! No turning, nor deviating, nor anything – straight or nothing! Well, okay, he CAN turn, but only on the spot to erect something next to him or turn around if he encounters an insurmountable obstacle. So how was his time walking the line?
Well, he started out in the middle of a giant sandy island in the middle of the ocean; had to swim across to a (rather beautiful) red sand desert; continued swimming periodically until he FINALLY found grass and dirt; hid away from the monsters in a little dirt hovel; got himself stone tools and built himself the world’s narrowest island house; managed to make a furnace and hid away from another nightly rainstorm inside; finally got desperate and swam back to where he saw some sheep and managed to kill a few that wandered across his path to get their wool; GOT KILLED BY A DROWNED SWIMMING BACK TO HIS HOUSE AND HAD TO WALK ALL THE WAY BACK (to a Johnny Cash parody, natch); got his wool and his axe and cut down some trees to make just enough wood to make a bed and set his respawn point; was forced to put the bed on the CEILING to keep away from Drowned – accessible by ladders or a little jumping-off point; and dug out a little mine where he found, to his own shock, quite a lot of iron, copper, and even some gold! So he’s actually managed to make himself some iron tools, yay. XD I don’t know where these line adventures will take us, but I hope to see more of them!
D) And, finally, we had GrayStillPlays once again modding The Baby In Yellow, because he loves torturing both himself and the kid. XD Today in modded suburban hell – changing the size of the baby! Mostly to absolutely gigantic, but Gray also experimented a bit with a tiny baby, just because the giant ones never fit properly in the oven or the toilet. XD We went from “big enough where sitting on his high chair looked like riding a Harley” to “BIG ENOUGH TO ECLIPSE NOT ONLY THE HOUSE BUT THE ENTIRE SKYBOX.” He also made sure to make the bottle bigger in order to properly feed the kid. And clone him dozens of times so he didn’t get lonely. XD Granted, the kid’s enormous size meant he was VERY prone to glitching (mostly in the realm of “his arms kept going through his butt whenever he was picked up,” and one time he got stuck in the floor in a rather – odd position), but that just added to the fun! I am pretty sure all the Cthulhu monstrosities now fear GRAY – and his mod team. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – no asks or thread replies, so I threw a couple of fandom reblogs into the queue from VTMB and FO4. *shrugs* Whatever works!
So yeah, some annoying moments, but at least it was a productive night, and I was able to get everything I wanted to get done, done. And now it is the weekend, yaaay~ Time to set up Saturday to-dos:
1. Clean my room
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and the two Sims-related videos in my Watch Later
3. Play Sims 4 and see about getting Smiler into Foxbury Institute
4. Write the first draft of this month's gift fic
Yes, it's one of those weekends, but at least this time I have an extra day to compensate. And I'm looking forward to getting more into Smiler's stuff (though I may swing by Victor and Alice's household VERY quickly to make sure they have the "Polyamorous" attribute in preparation for the threesome). And tomorrow's weather is supposed to be nice, though we'll see how long it lasts, given Sunday's supposed to open with some snow showers. . . *shrug* We'll take it as it comes! Night all!
Work – Kind of went “horrible – okay – horrible.” I had a meh ride in and arrived just in time for a flurry of activity as my talky coworker started doing projects and asking me things while I was just trying to gather the bits and pieces for the GL and whatnot, then it calmed down for a while as I actually did the GL, took care of some other things, had lunch, etc – then at the very end of the day, I got tripped up while trying to process some gifts by a sudden “hey can you run down to the mailroom with this mail? Hey can you listen to this guy’s voicemail? Hey can I make a pledge right now?” burst. Left slightly late and ended up dealing with another round of shitty traffic, including one asshole who kept slowing down and drifting just a little between lanes that made me – well, nervous to say the least. Not the best start to a long weekend!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and the end of the Oxventure Rolling In The Deep! As stated, the gang had ten minutes to wrap things up and deal with the Grells – fortunately, they also had the troll pretty much at their mercy in Octowen’s tentacles. Dob attempted to get the troll to just go to sleep with a lullaby version of the opening to a Metallica song, but no go, even with doubling the values of the dice (though admittedly Dob did not roll particularly well). Egbert initially was going to just hit the troll with his mace, but “inspiration” (in the form of Andy making the suggestion and Johnny backing it up as a good idea) hit, and he instead decided to try and boil the other tanks with the Sonberts inside via flame breath (because, sad as he was at the death of the first Sonbert, he knows they’re abominations that are only gonna cause grief). Johnny told him to roll a D20 and just not get a one.
EGBERT GOT A ONE. Johnny was like “I have derailed MYSELF, how does this happen.” XD They ruled that Egbert had a hiccup while trying to breathe fire and got a backdraft down the internals – half damage, fortunately, as he’s fire resistant, but still. That left things up to Dob, who – after confirming the troll was still helpless – just took the guy’s axe and cleaved his head in with it, using the usual powers conferred upon him by the great spell “In The Interest of Time. . .” XD (Namely, he was allowed to roll Dexterity (his better stat) rather than Strength, and he got all the D20s on the table to roll damage.) This DID leave the problem of the Sonberts, but happily Prudence already had a solution – the Pale Tincture poison she stole from Jacques Darkfall back in Out Of Order, the adventure where they had to stop him poisoning Egbert’s Paladin Order! She poisoned all the Sonberts in their tanks, which led to the tanks exploding so they could walk away from the explosions all cool-like. And the Grell? Dob quickly pretended to be the Grell King looking for successors and appointed them to rule as a council, returning them to a republic. XD And then they out! Oh dear, they really gotta figure out better time management for these live adventures. Either that or convince the venues to give them at least a half-hour longer than they think the adventure will take. XD
Anyway, all that WAS only ten minutes of my workout, so I turned to some Sims 4 videos about the new pack coming out next week to get some more news and kill some more time! First, a sum-up of the informational livestream today about My Wedding Stories, in which ErinSimmer (or SimmerErin, I don’t recall which) stated that she liked some of the ideas in the pack – all the various parties you can now throw as an engaged couple; the new world; the slow-dancing animations – but she wished they’d actually SHOWN OFF more of the gameplay, and was concerned as the wedding ceremony shown in the livestream WAS still rather glitchy. Meh. I do like that weddings have now become a bit more like a cross-breed between an event and a holiday – and they DO have a lot of customization, damn. I am intrigued. Also, “Wedding Venue” is coming as a new lot type for free to base game, so that’ll be nice! Along with some more colors for certain formal outfits and whatnot. . .we’ll figure it out once it’s here! Second, FakeGamerGirl took her own look at the trailer after mentioning the new hot controversy that, because the Sims team refuses to back down on the marketing for the pack (which prominently features two women getting married), the damn thing is now banned in Russia. Which – yeah, that’s a thing, isn’t it? Anyway, her take on the pack was amusing, but she isn’t impressed, thinking it’s not actually bringing that much in terms of new gameplay. *shrug* I get the feeling that, even WITHOUT the Russian shitfuckery, this is gonna be a divisive pack! Hmmmm. . .
2. Continue editing Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica’s Vale Of Tears”: Check – the situation with Therese and Jeannette has been successfully defused, and they’ve agreed to start running Santa Monica together, while keeping up the fiction of still being at odds to keep an eye on their potential enemies. And Therese has gone ahead and called off the feud with Tung, allowing Alice to FINALLY proceed with her main mission. Alice even got a free gun out of the deal! :p Of course, now she has to stay silent on the sisters’ true nature, or otherwise she’s gonna meet the sunrise, but hey – she’s kept bigger secrets than this. :p Good spot to leave it for a bit while I prep Chapter 4 for posting!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subscriptions: Check – long one tonight with four videos, but I got ‘em all watched –
A) Started with the latest Fun With Shorts – “The Shoplifter,” Part 3! The end of the short about shoplifting and how to prevent it as a sales associate! Turns out it’s being constantly in customers presence and having people spy on them from elevated platforms, hidden grates, and other peepholes so they never feel like they have the privacy to steal! And if they do steal in front of you without realizing you saw, the best thing to do is just follow them and STARE (and also alert a supervisor). Before going back to your double shift at minimum wage. XD Good short, and good riffs!
B) Then it was time for the latest from James Turner and the “Every Lot Challenge Challenge” series! Quite a lot happened today, starting with a pretty thorough house renovation! Namely, adding a couple more “shipping containers” on the side to allow the kids to have their own bedrooms, plus adding two more bathrooms, giving the laundry its own dedicated room, and adding a computer room and an art room for the kids! James had to sell all the things to make it happen, but happen it did. :) From there it was just on to living life – Micah and Grayson both joined the Drama Club, while James had Chi and Donnell just spam out a bunch of their scout badges with art and socializing and whatnot. Chi and Donnell also both became teenagers pretty early on – Chi added “Art Lover” to “Dog Lover” for his traits, so James made his starting aspiration “Painter Extraordinaire,” while Donnell added “Loner” to “Kleptomaniac” and got “Chief of Mischief” for his starting aspiration. This did not stop them from spamming more scout badges, to the point that we actually briefly left the lot to visit a gym to get started on the fitness badge. That was weird. XD Anyway, they’re all doing well – keeping odd hours to keep up with school projects and whatnot, but still. Jasmin is also doing well – her third semester of university went swimmingly, with A+s in all her classes! This raised her GPA to an A, meaning an A+ might still be in sight. . .but she’s gotta work fast, as SHE aged up this episode too, and is now an elder, yikes. And, most importantly, Semaj – still an Angel Investor – got a raise and got to spin the wheel to remove not only one of the two remaining lot challenges, but also one of the lot traits – “Cat Hangout,” “Dog Hangout,” or “On Ley Line!”
James jinxed himself and got “On Ley Line” – the reason Semaj and Jasmin have two sets of twins, and the one that is useless now that she’s too old to get pregnant. XD He’s asked the comments about other ways to clear out these final damn traits and challenges – I say, if Jasmin gets an A+ GPA after that rough start, we’ve EARNED clearing something. :p
C) Then it was onto Call Me Kevin and more Minecraft challenges – namely, he can now only move in a straight line! No turning, nor deviating, nor anything – straight or nothing! Well, okay, he CAN turn, but only on the spot to erect something next to him or turn around if he encounters an insurmountable obstacle. So how was his time walking the line?
Well, he started out in the middle of a giant sandy island in the middle of the ocean; had to swim across to a (rather beautiful) red sand desert; continued swimming periodically until he FINALLY found grass and dirt; hid away from the monsters in a little dirt hovel; got himself stone tools and built himself the world’s narrowest island house; managed to make a furnace and hid away from another nightly rainstorm inside; finally got desperate and swam back to where he saw some sheep and managed to kill a few that wandered across his path to get their wool; GOT KILLED BY A DROWNED SWIMMING BACK TO HIS HOUSE AND HAD TO WALK ALL THE WAY BACK (to a Johnny Cash parody, natch); got his wool and his axe and cut down some trees to make just enough wood to make a bed and set his respawn point; was forced to put the bed on the CEILING to keep away from Drowned – accessible by ladders or a little jumping-off point; and dug out a little mine where he found, to his own shock, quite a lot of iron, copper, and even some gold! So he’s actually managed to make himself some iron tools, yay. XD I don’t know where these line adventures will take us, but I hope to see more of them!
D) And, finally, we had GrayStillPlays once again modding The Baby In Yellow, because he loves torturing both himself and the kid. XD Today in modded suburban hell – changing the size of the baby! Mostly to absolutely gigantic, but Gray also experimented a bit with a tiny baby, just because the giant ones never fit properly in the oven or the toilet. XD We went from “big enough where sitting on his high chair looked like riding a Harley” to “BIG ENOUGH TO ECLIPSE NOT ONLY THE HOUSE BUT THE ENTIRE SKYBOX.” He also made sure to make the bottle bigger in order to properly feed the kid. And clone him dozens of times so he didn’t get lonely. XD Granted, the kid’s enormous size meant he was VERY prone to glitching (mostly in the realm of “his arms kept going through his butt whenever he was picked up,” and one time he got stuck in the floor in a rather – odd position), but that just added to the fun! I am pretty sure all the Cthulhu monstrosities now fear GRAY – and his mod team. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – no asks or thread replies, so I threw a couple of fandom reblogs into the queue from VTMB and FO4. *shrugs* Whatever works!
So yeah, some annoying moments, but at least it was a productive night, and I was able to get everything I wanted to get done, done. And now it is the weekend, yaaay~ Time to set up Saturday to-dos:
1. Clean my room
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and the two Sims-related videos in my Watch Later
3. Play Sims 4 and see about getting Smiler into Foxbury Institute
4. Write the first draft of this month's gift fic
Yes, it's one of those weekends, but at least this time I have an extra day to compensate. And I'm looking forward to getting more into Smiler's stuff (though I may swing by Victor and Alice's household VERY quickly to make sure they have the "Polyamorous" attribute in preparation for the threesome). And tomorrow's weather is supposed to be nice, though we'll see how long it lasts, given Sunday's supposed to open with some snow showers. . . *shrug* We'll take it as it comes! Night all!
