Busy Slightly Stressful Monday

Mostly because I had a bit of trouble with my Sims game, as you will see from the large write-up below -- it all worked out for the best, but it did eat up a large chunk of my day --

Tumblr: Caught up with the Victor Luvs Alice dash and tracked tags before lunch (even reblogged somebody’s post about a “The Smiler” cartoon – Dr. Kelman trying to take down The Smiler but constantly failing at it and falling in the bog – because it tickled my fancy). Hoped to get through some more drafting tonight, but no dice – have to speedrun that tomorrow morning!

Sims 4: Well. It was more frustrating than I was hoping to pull off the Valicer wedding, BUT it was also extremely satisfying in the end, so overall, a win. Even if I have SOOO many in-game pictures to sort through now. XD Let me tell you what happened –

A) I picked up where I left off after Saturday’s mini-playsession – 7:24 AM with the trio completing their various morning chores! I had Alice start the laundry (and throw in a chrysanthemum for that fresh floral scent), had Smiler compost all the compostables that they’d found in the trash, and let Victor finish his breakfast and clean up his plate before preparing to direct him to harvest the greenhouse –

B) Only to notice, to my horror, that most of the plants and trees looked pretty, uh, bare. Yeah, guess what? Saving and quitting while there was stuff ready to be harvested triggered the “all unharvested produce dumps itself into the household inventory if you leave the lot in any way” bug! *grumbles* I really wish they’d fix that, as you can’t USE this stuff from the household inventory. . .cue about fifteen minutes of me painstakingly taking all the veggies, fruit, roots, and flowers out of the household inventory, laying them in Moory’s paddock, and then putting them in Smiler’s (herbalism stuff and plasma fruit) and Victor’s (everything else) inventories. Which was not the easiest task when I was still dealing with the stupid mouse “it doesn’t always act like I’m holding down the mouse button while dragging and dropping” issue. *huffs* Okay, next time that happens, it’s just all getting sold from inventory. I can’t do this again, and they honestly have plenty in their various inventories and such.

C) ANYWAY – with THAT sorted, I had Victor hit two broken wind turbines with some Repairio and go harvest what few plants HADN’T chucked their produce into the household inventory, while Smiler put both Elmer and Bugs (their two gardening bots) to work actually tending the plants. Unsure what else to do with them at that point, I had them head upstairs to their video production station to study the trends – and, seeing tech reviews were hot, had them do a gadget review (they chose the toddler bunny iPad thing). Victor grabbed the eggs once he was done with the plants (only three, and all of them were hatchable eggs, meaning I couldn’t use them for recipes – those roosters are GOING) and chatted with the chickens, while Alice called out Moory, gave her a VERY thorough brushing (how did the cow get so dirty), fed her a quick snack, and got a “cow nugget” of advice from her. I WAS going to milk her as well, but time was ticking down toward the big event. . .

D) And so, once Smiler finished up their gadget review, I had the trio head off to the actual venue an hour before schedule! Reason being, I wanted to have all three of them work on making Victor and Smiler’s wedding cake together, because I thought that would be cute, and I thought it would ALSO go easier in the chapel kitchen, which had more free counter space than their own (no, seriously – Sims won’t use counters that already have stuff on them to cook for the most part, and all but one counter in their kitchen has SOME sort of decoration. Or a microwave). Smiler had a drink while Alice took a quick bathroom break, then I sent them all downstairs and had Alice start the “everyone come cook” process with a white-and-black cake –

Cue them all just – standing around. Idling. For no reason that I could see. Not doing SHIT as the clock ticked down and the wedding was about to start. The fuck. They weren’t proper FROZEN or anything, they just weren’t getting a move on.

E) Okay, so I’d actually saved right as they arrived on the lot, just in case shit started going wrong, and this felt like a case of shit going wrong. So I reloaded my save game and had them all go directly downstairs and start cooking right away. There was still more idling around than I would have liked, but THIS time Alice actually initiated the cooking bit, and Smiler joined in on the counter next to her as the actual event started. Victor – well, I quickly realized that he didn’t have a counter to work with, so he was kinda stuck just observing in a “you can do it” way. :p (I mean, I did try to clear a counter in the “pantry” next door, but he took too long to try and use it, so I gave up on that.) Alice also changed into her formal wear halfway through the cooking process, which was kinda funny. XD But the cake got successfully baked as some of the guests (reminder – Angela and Lilith Pleasant, Clement Frost, Felipe Sisson, Nalani Mahi’ai, and Rory Oaklow – I tried to go for people that at least Victor or Alice knew along with Smiler!) started trickling downstairs, I got a wedding topper on it before anyone could sneak a piece, and it went upstairs onto the fancy table by the buffet. :) Alice and Victor both got bathroom breaks (though Nalani ended up walking in on poor Alice); everyone got changed into their “wedding” formal wear; Smiler chatted with Rory for a bit to fulfill one of the wedding goals; and then I added as many guests as possible to the gang’s “group” and told them all to “sit here” in the chapel to force them in there so they could watch the two ceremonies! Once everyone looked like they were pretty well sorted, I gave Smiler Alice’s fancy-ass camera, and had Victor and Alice start renewing their vows. I directed Smiler to take a picture –

Uh, yeah, turns out Sims WILL take a picture from a seated position, and it will look weird. Rory Oaklow refusing to get out of the happy couple’s personal space did NOT help. I quickly directed Smiler to instead stand BEHIND the wedding arch, and got a much better shot of them looking lovey-dovey from the back (Rory having finally moved on helped too). I then had Smiler sit down again to watch the actual vow renewal, and had them catch another weird-angled photo from their new seat. It wasn’t perfect, but I was willing to go with it –

And then it was time for Victor and Smiler’s wedding, with Alice taking the pictures. And between more Sims coming in and getting in front of the camera, Alice’s idea of “attending the wedding” being to GO OUTSIDE, and a combination of a badly-timed “hey, should Alice officially Like Photography” pop-up and a badly-timed “Erratic” idle outside the front archway – yeah. Alice ended up just plain missing most of the ceremony, including the ring exchange and the kiss. I paused, took a few deep breaths, asked myself if I wanted to just keep going or try one more time –

F) “Try one more time” won out. I reloaded the game and went “right, let’s optimize this shit.” First things first – sending the group downstairs to make the white-and-black cake, with me pre-clearing the counter in the pantry so everyone could join in right away. And this time, everyone DID join in, with Victor and Alice taking the main kitchen counters and Smiler the pantry one. :) The trio finished the cake quickly, and Smiler kept Angela entertained while Victor Repairioed the fridge (which for some reason broke when Alice got the ingredients out) and chatted a bit to Clement Frost and Alice put the wedding topper on the fridge and got a much-needed bathroom break. I put the cake in her inventory and sent her upstairs, had everyone get changed into their proper wedding finery, did the “add as many guests as possible to the group” trick, and sent them all into the chapel.

G) Second things second – Victor/Alice vow renewal! I got that started, gave Smiler the good camera, and worked to get them into a good standing position to take pictures while keeping an eye on the other guests to make sure they didn’t ruin the shot (to the point where I temporarily shut off autonomy for the Sims to keep Smiler from wandering off). The first two pictures Smiler got were a little weird – smiles from Victor and Alice that looked a little strange, and Alice preparing to put the ring on Victor’s finger (in that weird “rearing way back like they’re about to throw it” way Sims do it), but they PERFECTLY got Victor and Alice kissing while confetti rained down upon them, so that was good. :) And hey, even the slightly-weird shots weren’t HORRIBLE! I can work with those!

H) Third things third – Victor/Smiler wedding! I swapped the good camera back into Alice’s inventory and began experimenting with good places for her to stand to get some good shots – the first one was cute, if a little close, so I had her back up for subsequent ones. She didn’t get the actual “putting on the ring” shot (though I did, and at least this time she was actually there to WATCH it), but she too got a great post-marriage kiss shot, so that was great. :) Oh, and yes, she still got the “likes photography” pop-up, but at a less-awkward moment – I mean, I’m more than happy for her to like it, just not when I’m in the middle of taking Very Important Pictures.

I) Okay, FINALLY we could continue with the rest of the festivities! With Victor and Alice’s vows renewed, and Smiler and Victor properly married, it was time for the reception! I had Alice fill the buffet table with goodies like roast chicken and almond macaroons – however, putting sparkling apple juice in the fountain for some reason required Mixology skill 3, so I had to have Smiler do that. Alice went to the bar to pour some nectar while Victor cut the wedding cake to general excitement – though he didn’t actually have a cute “sharing the cake” moment with Smiler for some reason! Possibly because this is one of the few times the game acknowledged “oh yeah, Smiler can’t eat food.” *shrug* Well, Victor went to have his cake, while Alice joined him for some chitchat (Rory having taken the glass of nectar she’d poured) and Smiler went to the bar to make themselves a Plasma Jane. The guests all eagerly raided the buffet and went around socializing – Rory joining Victor and Alice at their table for a bit, while Clement went to chat with Smiler at the bar. I sent Victor to renew his old friendship with Felipe Sisson (learning in the process Felipe likes blue but dislikes yellow) while Alice got to know Nalani a little better, and Smiler found Angela and chatted with her for a bit, then joined Victor at his table with Felipe and Clement. Basically a lot of Sims bouncing around and chatting and being a little goofy with each other (Victor told Felipe he was a criminal mastermind, for example XD). So long as everyone was having fun and fulfilling wedding goals, I was cool.

J) But there was something I wanted Victor and Smiler to have – a first dance! I’d added a dance floor and hired a musician just for that purpose, after all! So after a bit more chatting, I directed them onto the dance floor and then had them slow dance for a little bit, ending of course in a dip kiss. :) Thanks “Cute Romance” mod!

K) Around this time, Victor and Alice’s energy levels were starting to bottom out, but I wasn’t done with the event yet, so I had them get some sleep replacement potions and chug those before heading over to the photography area to take some pictures! Er, after I turned the tripod around to face the actual backdrop. XD Alice stuck in her camera and took a couple of snaps of Victor and Smiler doing various goofy poses in front of the backdrop. XD I decided then that I didn’t like the backdrop and moved it out of the way so I could get some more shots in front of the natural beauty of the area –

And around that time, I spotted the “Take Photo With” option on the camera. Realizing that this would allow Alice to take a photo with one of them, I pulled up the menu –

And discovered it would allow Alice to take a photo – with BOTH of them.

L) Cue me going a little nuts taking photos of the three of them in various silly poses, because using the camera on the tripod allows you to take TEN shots. In fact, I did two sessions, because Smiler had started walking away when I set up the first set of shots, and when they were teleported back, it ended up half-merging them into Victor or Alice depending on the poses I randomized. And let me tell you, all the bullshit of having to redo the ceremony to make sure I got some actual in-game pictures for the trio to enjoy was worth it to have some actual proper Valicer photos in-game. Like this one, one of my new favorites:



M) And that wasn’t even the end of my photo nonsense! XD Once I was done with tripod shots, I sent the trio over to a pretty bench under some trees strung with fairy lights nearby in the wider world (one of the big reasons I was happy to use this spot as the wedding venue) and had the gang take some selfies with each other – Victor and Alice, Alice and Smiler, and Smiler and Victor. :) So yeah – LOTS of in-game memories of this day, to be sure!

N) After that, it was just a matter of wrapping up the reception, with Victor, Alice, and Smiler going back to do some last-minute socializing with their guests before the timer ran out. The wedding ended as a gold-tier event, and Smiler celebrated by serenading Victor in the little downstairs kitchen while Alice cleaned up some of the leftover food and Victor stuck the leftover cake in his inventory. :)

O) However, the night wasn’t QUITE over yet – because, as I believe I said in my last entry on this day, the date of the wedding was also the date of a pop-up holiday, Night On The Town! A night where all venues serving food or drink allow you to get said food or drink for free. And what better way to celebrate the marriage/vow renewal than with a trip to Planet Honeypop! in San Myshuno for free drinks and some karaoke? XD Smiler got their usual Plasma Jane, Victor a Silent Film, and Alice (after a detour to grab a poster – it was a duplicate of one they already have at home, though, so it got sold) a Fizzy Fruity, and then Smiler got Victor to duet with them on a pop song, and Alice to duet with them on a country song (Smiler gaining Singing skill level 8 in the process, and Victor and Alice both getting up to level 3). Victor also snuck another slice of cake from his inventory, which, you know what, fair. XD

P) And so the playsession ended with me sending the gang home right before the end of the holiday, with Alice going to do some painting, and Victor and Smiler having a celebratory woohoo. And me starting to take all the pictures I’d taken in-game out of everyone’s inventory. . .

And discovering “oh shit, most of these are LARGE photos.” XD I mean, that’s totally on me, I wanted to take some pictures other than the standard teensy-tiny ones, but I guess I forgot to reset the photo size after taking the shots I WANTED to be large! Whoops. . .so, uh, yeah, sorting those out for the best shots is gonna have to wait until I find enough wall space to DO so! Maybe in the barn. . .I DID, at least, get both Victor and Alice’s and Victor and Smiler’s wedding certificates (yes, Victor and Alice got a new one for renewing their vows! And it was a lot prettier than the copy I had Alice order, so yeah, that one went up instead) on the wall beside the bed, and the two kissing shots on the dresser – here, have a look (ignore the “I just had sex” Victor on the side there):



So yeah, that’s something. (The pictures that WERE there previously have gone up into the attic “chilling” room, since I have some wall space there!) Like I said – I’ll figure out the rest later! Hell, maybe tomorrow’s gaming can just be “Victoria sorts out all these Valicer Wedding photos.” XD

Writing: Got to this late, but I still did something – namely, I did the first draft of the last birthday gift fic of the summer, for tumblr friend Kevin! He gave me a few different ideas for fics, and the one that ended up resonating with me the most was “your Lovecraft Jazz AU gang meeting my adopted OC Phillianne Tropy” (this is the Ducktales OC that has ended up a Ventrue vampire in an alternate version of “Londerland Bloodlines” in past gift fics). So I did a rough draft of that tonight, with the gang preparing to meet Philli after being hired by her to help with something stalking the mayor of the city she lives in (and her secret girlfriend), discussing their credentials in the process, and then Philli coming in and making sure they’d be willing to work with her by dropping a big fat wad of cash in their laps as a “down payment.” :p It’s a fairly rough first draft, but that’s what first drafts are for, and now it’s ready for refinement WELL ahead of his birthday (the 22nd, for the curious). Not bad.

YouTube: Welp, the write-up on my Sims session took quite a while (as you may be able to guess), so faced with my choices, I decided to prioritize what was in my Watch Later, with “Resident Evil 4 Remake: HATE U KRAUSER | Let's Play Resident Evil 4 Chapter 14” from the OXBox Crew! Featuring Ashley finally waking up as herself thanks to the suppressant in her system; her and Leon working their way through the old military base in an attempt to find Luis’s lab, free themselves from the plagas, and get off this damn island (involving much crawling through rather manky and rusty corridors, wading through horrible sewer water, solving weird puzzles (such as Ashley having to hold a bridge in place for Leon, or them having to time pulling and releasing levers on a door), and shooting mans and the new SPIKY regeneradors); Ashley getting to play with a wrecking ball to knock down a wall in their path while Leon fought off the endless hordes of plagas zombies coming after them; them coming across the giant globs of amber with the original plagas creatures within – and then shortly thereafter running into Saddler, who did some horrible body control to try and make Ashley shoot a frozen Leon – luckily her desperate internal struggle and shaky grip meant that she instead got the two minions behind him, and the gun jammed when she finally turned it on him; Leon pursuing the once-again-kidnapped Ashley, only to run into Krauser and have to run his horrible death maze; and Leon and Krauser finally having a boss battle once Krauser morphed himself a knife arm with his plagas parasite, with Krauser being so proud of Leon stabbing him with his own knife to finish things off. Because Krauser, as the OXBox crew so rightly put it, is a bellend. It also featured Andy complaining mightily about Leon’s contextual flashlight and how the game won’t let you take it out on your own in dark spaces, oh no, the game will decide if it’s dark enough to need the extra light to see; Mike and Jane accusing Andy of beaning poor Ashley with a flash grenade while trying to take out one of the exploded-head plagas zombies (as it turned out, she’d just gotten hurt and ducked out of the way when he threw it); Andy genuinely accidentally shooting Ashley through a barred window to stop her getting not-cutscene-kidnapped (he was aiming for the guy’s head, but she was in the way); Jane wistfully wishing they could go back to the days of fighting horrible locusts in a ballroom; Andy once again solving one of those “rotate the pieces” power puzzles in like two seconds, ignore the cut in the footage that’s a glitch, a glitch he says; the gang trying desperately to lure enemies in front of Ashley’s wrecking ball to get them crushed, and being kind of sad about the fact that it doesn’t insta-kill guys if it hits them (granted, the guy it hit was one of the big tough cow-headed guys, but still) – also Jane was like “normally I don’t like to see Leon die, but I kinda want to see what would happen if he got hit by the wrecking ball;” the gang talking about how the plagas resins are the result of someone watching too much Jurassic Park, then bringing up that the movie is 30 years old this year (I did not know that); the gang joking that the real reason Ashley was unable to shoot Leon while Saddler was controlling her was because Andy constantly forgets to reload his guns before he needs them – Andy said “if you’re good at the game and remember to reload, you die now” XD; Mike in particular finding Krauser’s semi-obsession with Leon (to the point of having one of his old RPD headshots in his tent) to be at least sort of creepy-stalker “romantic” and joking about how the fight will involve them kissing at some point; Andy getting jumped by Krauser from behind in front of one of his own bomb traps and getting to judo-throw him into said bomb trap, which was satisfying; Krauser stripping from the waist up for the second half of the boss fight and talking about Leon is “too soft” and Andy and Jane being like “well, this is your moment Mike” XD; and Jane joking about how Leon is checking to make sure his hair still looks good when he checks his reflection in Krauser’s knife before stabbing him. XD Ahhh, good stuff – gonna be a little sad to see this LP end! It’s been fun. :)

Workout: Ooof – so, my Mom picked up an old “The Firm” cardio workout DVD while out with my Dad on their anniversary this past Friday (they were hitting old antique places, and I guess now those DVDs are antique), and she insisted that we do it together. So yeah, my workout today was a forty-five minute really fast cardio session that – well. I’m STILL feeling a bit wiped as I type this. *sigh* I would have much preferred to ride the bike and watch some of an Oxventure One-Shot Wonder! Maybe tomorrow. . .

So yeah, not the most relaxing Monday, but I am VERY happy to have more cute Valicer shots from my Sims game -- I think I'm going to get Alice a tripod of her own soon for more of those. :D And I'm glad to have gotten in some writing and the OXBox RE4 video -- not sure if there'll be a new one this week, though, as some sponsored content seems to have pre-empted its usual "timeslot." We'll see what happens, I guess! If not, well, we're coming up on half day Fridays, I'll have more time to catch up on the final couple of episodes soon. . .

For now, though, I'm doing a bit more of the social thing, so I should get back to that. Plans for tomorrow are to complete my Valicer Chill Save update drafts and queue them all up on Victor Luvs Alice (hopefully I can get some stuff ready for the rest of the week too); write either some more "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" or more personal fic stuff; leave a couple more comments on a friend's fic that I'm reading (slowly); and catch up with GrayStillPlays. I think this is reasonable for the final day of my holiday weekend. *nods* Night all!