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Bit Of A Meh Saturday
Aug. 5th, 2023 11:51 pmDidn't get the breakfast I wanted because I didn't realize we were out of cereal; our electric bill was super expensive because we had to use the AC so much in July; and I didn't accomplish everything I wanted on my to-do list -- though I DID manage to knock out quite a lot of stuff in the "YouTube" section, at least --
Tumblr: Didn’t do much on here today, but I did my best to keep up with the dash on Victor Luvs Alice, and while things are quiet on Valice Multiverse, I did find and store in my queue a “starter lines” post (themed around lack of sleep) so everyone knows I’m still around. :P Also working on getting the pictures for the next Chill Valicer update sorted now – see about getting those into the VLA drafts tomorrow!
Sims 4: So I didn’t end up playing today, because – well. I spent most of my time before lunch today checking on all of my various mods. And while most of them were either compatible with the new patches or had an update I could download, I had a few that were of “unknown” status – two bugfixing mods from LeRoiDeTout (related to relationship culling and various errors that might pop up if the game tries to check something on a Sim that doesn’t exist); the “Arcade Fan Stuff Pack” and “Sims 3 Romantic Interactions Converted For Sims 4” from Cepzid (I could probably safely ditch the interactions, and I don’t do THAT much with the arcade stuff, but some of the shelves and such from that pack I use in the Valicer house – specifically for the séance room crystal collection); and – most importantly – the “Simsco Canning Factory,” “Perfumery,” and “Apothecary Kit” mods from Simsonian Library. You know, the three crafting mods that are kinda key to the Van Liddelton grocery store. *sigh* Plus there’s a new update to Sims 4 Studio (I don’t use it for making CC, but I do use it for batch-fixing OTHER people’s CC as necessary) that apparently has new system requirements, so I don’t want to install THAT right away until I’m sure I’m good there, and – meh. *sigh* I ended up dithering around for a while, trying to figure out if I wanted to play without my mods and do more building; if I wanted to put in some limited mods and do something in CAS; or if I wanted to maybe play a different game entirely, but nothing ended up appealing to me. I just wanted to get back to the Chill Valicer Save, and nothing else would do for my brain. *shakehead* At least I have all the mod updates that I actually needed in my downloads folder (along with the installer for the new Sims 4 Studio).
Writing: Did another page on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland,” with Alice encountering Grout’s creepy curio room containing objects of interest to himself and his wife – and his dead wife. Who is dead because one of those bell jars contains a brain, and there’s nothing saying it isn’t hers. (And another one might contain the remains of her heart – it’s a little hard to make out.) Yeaaaah, Alice was not pleased to see that, as you might imagine. Fortunately she figured out the lock once Cheshire pointed it out to her, and has just burst into Grout’s room –
To find him already very, very dead. As in he’s a pile of ash with a stake sticking out of it. Oh dear. And her night’s only going to get worse from here, let me tell you. . .
YouTube: Since I didn’t end up playing any video games today, I instead decided today was going to be “catch up on my Watch Later list” day! And so we had all the YouTubes –
A) First up, an OXBoxtra marathon of sorts (broken up by beanbags and dinner) –
I. “7 Surprising Ways Games Were Changed for Other Countries” – Mike, Jane, and Andy giving us the business regarding the way games throughout history have been altered for different regions! From the commercial – such as Biker Mice From Mars having a fuck-ton of Snickers branding in it in the European version, to the point where buying Snickers replaced buying armor for your car – to the confusing – the Crazy Castle series going through SO many different licensed characters (Roger Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, The Real Ghostbusters, Garfield, an original “Kid Clown” character from the studio, and Woody Woodpecker) during its lifetime over multiple regions that it took Glasses!Mike doing a mini-rant to explain them all – to the kind of criminal – the console version of Enduro Racer shipping in the Western market at half the size and thus with half the levels of the Japanese version. Good stuff, and I want more Glasses!Mike semi-angrily explaining stuff to us. :P
II. “7 Times You Failed by Being Too GOOD at the Game: Commenter Edition” – Mike, Jane, and Andy giving us more times the game punished you for being too good at it, as skimmed from the comments on the last video! Involving such things as passing a QTE you were supposed to fail (particularly nasty in Shenmue II, where pretty much everything you do is a QTE and thus you’re primed to press that button); passing a speech check you were supposed to fail or avoid altogether (Fallout: New Vegas Dead Money fans, if you DON’T pass that Barter check with Dean during your initial conversations, you might actually get to AVOID murdering him?); and passing a final boss fight where – okay, you could WIN, but you were supposed to take damage, otherwise the earth gets destroyed (X-Men: Next Dimension, I’m looking at you and your “if you do perfectly with Phoenix/Jean Gray in the last boss fight against the villain, for some reason he gets to kill Cyclops and Jean goes all Dark Phoenix and starts destroying everything” ending). Sometimes, games expect failure – and will punish you if you subvert those expectations. Damn games.
III. “7 Unexpected Boss Fights That Came Out of Nowhere” – Ellen and Jane taking us through those boss fights that surprised players who were NOT expecting that bullshit, please and thank you! From returning to the Undead Asylum after you’ve leveled up some in Dark Souls and visiting the Asylum Demon arena, only to fall through the floor and have to fight the STRAY Demon all of a sudden (because you can never savor your old victories in this game), to Sans of Undertale kicking your ass if you decide to kill everything else in the game (yes, okay, that boss fight is probably one of the most well-known things about Undertale NOW, but it was a surprise at one point!), to Necron of Final Fantasy 9 just – kinda showing up at the end, taking the place of the EXPECTED boss fight against the actual main villain (prompting the comments to explain that everything that would have foreshadowed the arrival of this tentacled bastard was cut and Ellen and Jane to do an amusing “character swap” joke at the end of the segment), these boss fights didn’t bother telegraphing themselves properly, which is only good boss fight etiquette. Naughty bosses!
IV. “7 Idiot Heroes Who Created Their Own Villains Through Sheer Stupidity” – Mike, Jane, and Andy taking us through those heroes who managed to create their own villains to fight – though calling them “idiots” is a bit harsh, as most were just ignorant of the consequences or didn’t have all the information. Chell in Portal 2 is no dummy, she just thought Wheatley being in charge of Aperture instead of GLaDOS would give her the best shot of escape! Leon Belmont of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is no fool, he just thought his friend Mathias was a good guy, and hadn’t given himself over to the forces of evil while he was busy fighting a vampire! And Mickey in Epic Mickey – actually, no, wait, The Mouse climbed through a mirror and started messing around with a model and magical paint just because he could, without any thought of the consequences. And also appeared on the red carpet for a movie premiere because the actual actors wouldn’t due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. So he’s an idiot AND a scab! Tsk tsk, Mickey. Tsk tsk.
B) Then, after writing, it was back to the Watch Later for “Complete Guide To Mini Sheep And Mini Goats In The Sims 4 Horse Ranch” by Petey Plays It! I may not have PLAYED Sims 4 today, but I can sure WATCH stuff about it! And while I don’t have Horse Ranch, the mini sheep and mini goats are a bit of a draw for me, so I was open to seeing a quick video about how they worked. They’re pretty adorable little animals, though they apparently do tend to roam, and they work pretty much like the livestock in Cottage Living – you gotta make sure they’re clean, fed, and have plenty of attention so that they’re happy and thus you get the max payout for their items. If you only have Horse Ranch, you can only shear sheep or milk goats for an immediate simoleon payout, but if you also have Cottage Living, you can get the actual products (looks like sheep produce two globs of wool, and goats two bottles of milk). They can even help you with gardening by nomming on weeds (sheep) or devouring bugs (goats). Oh, and since they’re technically objects, you can resize them if you like, making them regular-sized or even giant. The animations will be a little broken, but that’s the price you pay for messing with Sim nature. :p A short but fun video – it’s good to know how these animals work, should I ever pick up the pack! I dunno if I could fit them on the Chill Valicer Save farm, but goats are a big thing in Blades In The Dark, so if I did THAT save with THAT Valicer trio. . .but we’ll see!
C) Then it was onto a James Turner video that my friend Cas from tumblr recommended to me – “This REAL floor plan has 19 bedrooms!?” Yes, James found the floorplan to an Australian house stuck out in the suburbs that has NINETEEN FREAKING BEDROOMS. Apparently the place used to be a NURSING HOME, and then moved onto being student accommodation before the owner died. There’s a sort of “main house” area, and then fifteen bedrooms in a separate add-on, all of them tiny and horrible. James clearly considered the whole thing cursed while he was trying to build it, and refused to do more than build the actual walls and roof, put in the walls and windows, slap down some paint and floorboards and lights, and do the absolute basics in furnishing (putting in all the beds and toilets and suchlike – oh, and all the fireplaces. One of which is next to a fridge in one of the kitchens). It was a HELL of a build – and let me tell you?
The real house is worse. Who the hell puts a PICKET FENCE in their KITCHEN?! Seriously, the only thing this place had going for it was apparently super-cheap rent. Damn, I just – I ended up sending that link to Mom so she could goggle over it too later. It’s just – yikes. Though as James noted, it would be an interesting renovation project. :p
D) And finally, we moved on the Subs and today’s GrayStillPlays – “Cars vs Giant Dips in GTA 5!” Another Alex Torture Board, and one that proved to be ESPECIALLY cursed. Gray had to find his way across “Baby Dip, Mama Dip, Papa Dip” Dits (sic) (a trio of dips that went from reasonably shallow, to much deeper, to much MUCH deeper very very quickly), “Wet” Dips (a pair of dips that went into the water – one with an invincible static swimmer in it, the other with an invincible static SAILBOAT in it that Gray had to find a way around or under), “Stocking (sic) Windmill, Rapid” Dips (the reason for the “sic” being Alex meant it was a STALKING windmill – as in, he managed to program a windmill to CHASE GRAY AS HE MADE HIS WAY OVER A SERIES OF SHALLOW DIPS, rotating on the spot all the while), the “Dip In Your Finger” Dip (the name is non-indicative, this was just a big dip with a SHREDDER in it – Gray’s theory was that it was patterned on the intrusive thought of putting your finger in a blender), and “Dips Are Getting Deeper” Dips (a nasty little V-dip, followed by an absolutely GIANT dip that was tilted at JUST the right angle that you couldn't really ride the wall down properly, you instead just fell). Gray tried a number of cars with these – the transit bus was too long even for the first dip; Mom’s cute little Bug made it past the initial dips but stalled out in the water; the Wastelander made it to the stalking windmill but proved too big a target to get past it; the side-by-side got past the windmill AND the shredder but got stuck in the V dip; and the purple super car made it all the way to the end, but couldn’t climb the final wall to get out of the final dip. So which car won?
The purple super car. Because, as it turns out, Alex had INTENDED that to be the right car to beat the board, but had forgotten to put the correct TIRES on the damn thing so it could grip enough to go up the side of the final dip. They only found out when Gray called Alex and asked him if any car really COULD beat this ridiculous board. So he sent Gray the CORRECT version, and Gray managed to get through the board AGAIN and THIS time go up the side of the dip and beat the board. *shakehead* Alex, buddy, we love when you make a board NEARLY impossible, but please try and make sure you hit that “nearly,” okay? Gray’s paying you for these heart attacks after all.
Other: We did play beanbags today, thanks to it being pretty nice weather – Dad did great up until the final game, and Mom and I were about evenly matched until the end, where she managed to get the better of me. But we each won a game, so that’s good. Final scores were me 3-3-W-2-2; Dad W-2-2-W-3; Mom 2-W-3-3-W. *shrug* I’ll take it!
So yeah -- while I would have preferred to do something in my Chill Valicer Save, knocking out almost all of my Watch Later playlist is also acceptable, I must admit! Hopefully I can either get some updates on those mods on Monday, or convince myself to just give them a shot in my game regardless of "unknown" status (I've done it before, and so far nothing has exploded). Tomorrow, though, is Fallout Sunday, meaning I have to play some Fallout 4 and get Victor on the road back to Goodneighbor! Also have to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression appropriately; keep up on GrayStillPlays and Jon of Many A True Nerd; and do some tumblr drafts! And get in a workout -- maybe the next episode of Addison's Dine Out Reloaded series? We shall see. . .in the meantime, I gotta do some social stuff. Night all!
Tumblr: Didn’t do much on here today, but I did my best to keep up with the dash on Victor Luvs Alice, and while things are quiet on Valice Multiverse, I did find and store in my queue a “starter lines” post (themed around lack of sleep) so everyone knows I’m still around. :P Also working on getting the pictures for the next Chill Valicer update sorted now – see about getting those into the VLA drafts tomorrow!
Sims 4: So I didn’t end up playing today, because – well. I spent most of my time before lunch today checking on all of my various mods. And while most of them were either compatible with the new patches or had an update I could download, I had a few that were of “unknown” status – two bugfixing mods from LeRoiDeTout (related to relationship culling and various errors that might pop up if the game tries to check something on a Sim that doesn’t exist); the “Arcade Fan Stuff Pack” and “Sims 3 Romantic Interactions Converted For Sims 4” from Cepzid (I could probably safely ditch the interactions, and I don’t do THAT much with the arcade stuff, but some of the shelves and such from that pack I use in the Valicer house – specifically for the séance room crystal collection); and – most importantly – the “Simsco Canning Factory,” “Perfumery,” and “Apothecary Kit” mods from Simsonian Library. You know, the three crafting mods that are kinda key to the Van Liddelton grocery store. *sigh* Plus there’s a new update to Sims 4 Studio (I don’t use it for making CC, but I do use it for batch-fixing OTHER people’s CC as necessary) that apparently has new system requirements, so I don’t want to install THAT right away until I’m sure I’m good there, and – meh. *sigh* I ended up dithering around for a while, trying to figure out if I wanted to play without my mods and do more building; if I wanted to put in some limited mods and do something in CAS; or if I wanted to maybe play a different game entirely, but nothing ended up appealing to me. I just wanted to get back to the Chill Valicer Save, and nothing else would do for my brain. *shakehead* At least I have all the mod updates that I actually needed in my downloads folder (along with the installer for the new Sims 4 Studio).
Writing: Did another page on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland,” with Alice encountering Grout’s creepy curio room containing objects of interest to himself and his wife – and his dead wife. Who is dead because one of those bell jars contains a brain, and there’s nothing saying it isn’t hers. (And another one might contain the remains of her heart – it’s a little hard to make out.) Yeaaaah, Alice was not pleased to see that, as you might imagine. Fortunately she figured out the lock once Cheshire pointed it out to her, and has just burst into Grout’s room –
To find him already very, very dead. As in he’s a pile of ash with a stake sticking out of it. Oh dear. And her night’s only going to get worse from here, let me tell you. . .
YouTube: Since I didn’t end up playing any video games today, I instead decided today was going to be “catch up on my Watch Later list” day! And so we had all the YouTubes –
A) First up, an OXBoxtra marathon of sorts (broken up by beanbags and dinner) –
I. “7 Surprising Ways Games Were Changed for Other Countries” – Mike, Jane, and Andy giving us the business regarding the way games throughout history have been altered for different regions! From the commercial – such as Biker Mice From Mars having a fuck-ton of Snickers branding in it in the European version, to the point where buying Snickers replaced buying armor for your car – to the confusing – the Crazy Castle series going through SO many different licensed characters (Roger Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, The Real Ghostbusters, Garfield, an original “Kid Clown” character from the studio, and Woody Woodpecker) during its lifetime over multiple regions that it took Glasses!Mike doing a mini-rant to explain them all – to the kind of criminal – the console version of Enduro Racer shipping in the Western market at half the size and thus with half the levels of the Japanese version. Good stuff, and I want more Glasses!Mike semi-angrily explaining stuff to us. :P
II. “7 Times You Failed by Being Too GOOD at the Game: Commenter Edition” – Mike, Jane, and Andy giving us more times the game punished you for being too good at it, as skimmed from the comments on the last video! Involving such things as passing a QTE you were supposed to fail (particularly nasty in Shenmue II, where pretty much everything you do is a QTE and thus you’re primed to press that button); passing a speech check you were supposed to fail or avoid altogether (Fallout: New Vegas Dead Money fans, if you DON’T pass that Barter check with Dean during your initial conversations, you might actually get to AVOID murdering him?); and passing a final boss fight where – okay, you could WIN, but you were supposed to take damage, otherwise the earth gets destroyed (X-Men: Next Dimension, I’m looking at you and your “if you do perfectly with Phoenix/Jean Gray in the last boss fight against the villain, for some reason he gets to kill Cyclops and Jean goes all Dark Phoenix and starts destroying everything” ending). Sometimes, games expect failure – and will punish you if you subvert those expectations. Damn games.
III. “7 Unexpected Boss Fights That Came Out of Nowhere” – Ellen and Jane taking us through those boss fights that surprised players who were NOT expecting that bullshit, please and thank you! From returning to the Undead Asylum after you’ve leveled up some in Dark Souls and visiting the Asylum Demon arena, only to fall through the floor and have to fight the STRAY Demon all of a sudden (because you can never savor your old victories in this game), to Sans of Undertale kicking your ass if you decide to kill everything else in the game (yes, okay, that boss fight is probably one of the most well-known things about Undertale NOW, but it was a surprise at one point!), to Necron of Final Fantasy 9 just – kinda showing up at the end, taking the place of the EXPECTED boss fight against the actual main villain (prompting the comments to explain that everything that would have foreshadowed the arrival of this tentacled bastard was cut and Ellen and Jane to do an amusing “character swap” joke at the end of the segment), these boss fights didn’t bother telegraphing themselves properly, which is only good boss fight etiquette. Naughty bosses!
IV. “7 Idiot Heroes Who Created Their Own Villains Through Sheer Stupidity” – Mike, Jane, and Andy taking us through those heroes who managed to create their own villains to fight – though calling them “idiots” is a bit harsh, as most were just ignorant of the consequences or didn’t have all the information. Chell in Portal 2 is no dummy, she just thought Wheatley being in charge of Aperture instead of GLaDOS would give her the best shot of escape! Leon Belmont of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is no fool, he just thought his friend Mathias was a good guy, and hadn’t given himself over to the forces of evil while he was busy fighting a vampire! And Mickey in Epic Mickey – actually, no, wait, The Mouse climbed through a mirror and started messing around with a model and magical paint just because he could, without any thought of the consequences. And also appeared on the red carpet for a movie premiere because the actual actors wouldn’t due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. So he’s an idiot AND a scab! Tsk tsk, Mickey. Tsk tsk.
B) Then, after writing, it was back to the Watch Later for “Complete Guide To Mini Sheep And Mini Goats In The Sims 4 Horse Ranch” by Petey Plays It! I may not have PLAYED Sims 4 today, but I can sure WATCH stuff about it! And while I don’t have Horse Ranch, the mini sheep and mini goats are a bit of a draw for me, so I was open to seeing a quick video about how they worked. They’re pretty adorable little animals, though they apparently do tend to roam, and they work pretty much like the livestock in Cottage Living – you gotta make sure they’re clean, fed, and have plenty of attention so that they’re happy and thus you get the max payout for their items. If you only have Horse Ranch, you can only shear sheep or milk goats for an immediate simoleon payout, but if you also have Cottage Living, you can get the actual products (looks like sheep produce two globs of wool, and goats two bottles of milk). They can even help you with gardening by nomming on weeds (sheep) or devouring bugs (goats). Oh, and since they’re technically objects, you can resize them if you like, making them regular-sized or even giant. The animations will be a little broken, but that’s the price you pay for messing with Sim nature. :p A short but fun video – it’s good to know how these animals work, should I ever pick up the pack! I dunno if I could fit them on the Chill Valicer Save farm, but goats are a big thing in Blades In The Dark, so if I did THAT save with THAT Valicer trio. . .but we’ll see!
C) Then it was onto a James Turner video that my friend Cas from tumblr recommended to me – “This REAL floor plan has 19 bedrooms!?” Yes, James found the floorplan to an Australian house stuck out in the suburbs that has NINETEEN FREAKING BEDROOMS. Apparently the place used to be a NURSING HOME, and then moved onto being student accommodation before the owner died. There’s a sort of “main house” area, and then fifteen bedrooms in a separate add-on, all of them tiny and horrible. James clearly considered the whole thing cursed while he was trying to build it, and refused to do more than build the actual walls and roof, put in the walls and windows, slap down some paint and floorboards and lights, and do the absolute basics in furnishing (putting in all the beds and toilets and suchlike – oh, and all the fireplaces. One of which is next to a fridge in one of the kitchens). It was a HELL of a build – and let me tell you?
The real house is worse. Who the hell puts a PICKET FENCE in their KITCHEN?! Seriously, the only thing this place had going for it was apparently super-cheap rent. Damn, I just – I ended up sending that link to Mom so she could goggle over it too later. It’s just – yikes. Though as James noted, it would be an interesting renovation project. :p
D) And finally, we moved on the Subs and today’s GrayStillPlays – “Cars vs Giant Dips in GTA 5!” Another Alex Torture Board, and one that proved to be ESPECIALLY cursed. Gray had to find his way across “Baby Dip, Mama Dip, Papa Dip” Dits (sic) (a trio of dips that went from reasonably shallow, to much deeper, to much MUCH deeper very very quickly), “Wet” Dips (a pair of dips that went into the water – one with an invincible static swimmer in it, the other with an invincible static SAILBOAT in it that Gray had to find a way around or under), “Stocking (sic) Windmill, Rapid” Dips (the reason for the “sic” being Alex meant it was a STALKING windmill – as in, he managed to program a windmill to CHASE GRAY AS HE MADE HIS WAY OVER A SERIES OF SHALLOW DIPS, rotating on the spot all the while), the “Dip In Your Finger” Dip (the name is non-indicative, this was just a big dip with a SHREDDER in it – Gray’s theory was that it was patterned on the intrusive thought of putting your finger in a blender), and “Dips Are Getting Deeper” Dips (a nasty little V-dip, followed by an absolutely GIANT dip that was tilted at JUST the right angle that you couldn't really ride the wall down properly, you instead just fell). Gray tried a number of cars with these – the transit bus was too long even for the first dip; Mom’s cute little Bug made it past the initial dips but stalled out in the water; the Wastelander made it to the stalking windmill but proved too big a target to get past it; the side-by-side got past the windmill AND the shredder but got stuck in the V dip; and the purple super car made it all the way to the end, but couldn’t climb the final wall to get out of the final dip. So which car won?
The purple super car. Because, as it turns out, Alex had INTENDED that to be the right car to beat the board, but had forgotten to put the correct TIRES on the damn thing so it could grip enough to go up the side of the final dip. They only found out when Gray called Alex and asked him if any car really COULD beat this ridiculous board. So he sent Gray the CORRECT version, and Gray managed to get through the board AGAIN and THIS time go up the side of the dip and beat the board. *shakehead* Alex, buddy, we love when you make a board NEARLY impossible, but please try and make sure you hit that “nearly,” okay? Gray’s paying you for these heart attacks after all.
Other: We did play beanbags today, thanks to it being pretty nice weather – Dad did great up until the final game, and Mom and I were about evenly matched until the end, where she managed to get the better of me. But we each won a game, so that’s good. Final scores were me 3-3-W-2-2; Dad W-2-2-W-3; Mom 2-W-3-3-W. *shrug* I’ll take it!
So yeah -- while I would have preferred to do something in my Chill Valicer Save, knocking out almost all of my Watch Later playlist is also acceptable, I must admit! Hopefully I can either get some updates on those mods on Monday, or convince myself to just give them a shot in my game regardless of "unknown" status (I've done it before, and so far nothing has exploded). Tomorrow, though, is Fallout Sunday, meaning I have to play some Fallout 4 and get Victor on the road back to Goodneighbor! Also have to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression appropriately; keep up on GrayStillPlays and Jon of Many A True Nerd; and do some tumblr drafts! And get in a workout -- maybe the next episode of Addison's Dine Out Reloaded series? We shall see. . .in the meantime, I gotta do some social stuff. Night all!
