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Happy Birthday Back To The Future!
Jul. 3rd, 2024 10:04 pmYeah, it's the anniversary of the release date of BTTF today, so I figured I ought to try and go for the 10:04 timestamp. :) I may not really be in the fandom anymore, but I AM still a Backie at heart, so...
And now I am back after doing all the other stuff I was trying to do this evening (mostly), to give you a proper update with the to-do list and everything --
Work – Back to a quiet day before the long weekend – I ran the usual reports, did some exception stuff (including calling some people about credit card things), then bummed around doing whatever roster maintenance stuff I could find along with some puzzles out of the paper. And taking a couple of credit card calls (one asking why a payment failed the first time around, another updating a card). And then they let us out early. :D So yeah, not a bad way to start the long weekend! And now I enjoy four days off, yay~
Beanbags update – again, little hotter and stickier than the past couple of days, but still quite reasonable, so we went out around five for the usual three rounds – and I did EXTREMELY well, winning the first two games before finally losing my rhythm in the third. Dad by contrast did well enough in the first two before coming back to take the third, and Mom...did her best. XD Final scores were me W-W-3; Dad 2-2-W; and Mom 3-3-2. We’ll see how things shake out over the long weekend – especially since we’ll likely be having longer games!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, pedaling through the following –
A) The end of the GrayStillPlays compilation “Exposing every way to make $1,000,000!” Which saw Gray finish off the “cheaters” video (where his girl continued doing things ranging from “stealing a guy’s lottery winnings” to “giving someone a shitty (literally) smoothie” to “GUNNING DOWN COPS,” again all for $100 a pop) and get through another “money runner” video, only this time he was literally making money (collecting various coin blanks and having them flattened, cut, stamped, edged, dipped in precious metals, and valued before dumping them in his piggy bank and getting cash for all the ones that were real money – it worked mostly like that “coffee runner” game he played before). Which Gray found less lucrative and more annoying than just having a job, though he did appreciate getting his line of potential coins so long that he couldn’t do anything useful with it. XD Good stuff!
B) The beginning of “I fixed my mistake in the Every Occult Challenge! - Part 7” by James Turner! Yes, we’re back to the Every Occult Challenge at last, with James working on getting the final Occult he needs (the ghost) and getting Semaj transformed into the two temporary occult states (PlantSim and Skeleton). The first ten or so minutes, though, were largely dedicated to building Lou the Werewolf’s special hangout on the lot – an oversized faux-doghouse with stairs leading down to a secret sewer home (referencing the underground tunnels that are supposedly under all of Moonwood Mill). James spent pretty much the entire family’s money on it, but it looked good, so that’s all that matters. :p I left off with him having just traveled to Moonwood Mill’s bar in an effort to get the Night Wraith that won the lottery to appear for befriending purposes, and setting up the “Semajers” club so that all the occults could join and do stuff together (he’s a few slots shy of being able to have EVERYONE join, but he’s working on it). We’ll see how that goes tomorrow!
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has been told about the existence of one “Fat Larry” down by Confession by Jack (so she can check in and see if he can help her with her firepower problems) and discussed the necessity of the Camarilla with Skelter (who thinks that the rules they enforce are just common sense and that they shouldn’t be allowed to just slaughter people for breaking them, which Alice does pretty much agree with). Left it with Skelter giving Alice another sidequest, should she choose to accept it – about a certain whiny pain-in-the-ass ghoul named Patty, who I am determined to make people feel sorry for...
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just GrayStillPlays again tonight, with “Lego Cars vs GAPS in GTA 5!” Yes, we had fun with LEGO in GTA V today, with Gray having to take on a gap-based course made of LEGO with a bunch of different LEGO cars, seeing which one could get through the following –
I. The Gaps Are Getting More LEGOized – A series of three gaps – the first featuring Gray jumping from smooth plastic to smooth plastic (like the LEGO was on its side), then smooth plastic to bumpy plastic (with the LEGO “buttons” now making an appearance), then bumpy plastic to bumpy plastic. Not horrible, but all those “buttons” served as speedbumps, making control a LOT more difficult for poor Gray.
II. Flipped LEGO Gaps – Two gaps featuring upside-down corner ramp piece LEGOs (one set perpendicular to the course, the other set parallel), with all the circular gaps inside them, ready to catch tires. Getting over these was mostly a matter of speed and getting everything nice and centered so no tires could be caught.
III. LEGO Ramp Gaps – Another couple of gaps featuring ramps made of LEGO – though, hilariously, in the first one the ramps went DOWN, meaning to get across it Gray had to actually launch himself off the nubbins at the top. The second one featured two PROPER ramps, a longer one and a shorter one, and an empty middle “aisle” in case Gray wanted to try that – Gray had to pick which one he wanted and try to launch himself off it. As you might imagine, the nubbins did not make this easy at ALL. XD
IV. LEGO Gaps Get More Tricky – Another trio of gaps, with Gray having to make it through a LEGO thumbnail hole (fortunately without a huge gap on the OTHER side of it as well), a gap with a cylinder brick teleporting rapidly to either side (meaning he had to cross his fingers and hope he didn’t hit it), and a gap with a short squat square block on one side and a large cylinder block on the other (meaning Gray had to pick which one he want to try and ramp off of to make the jump). As you might imagine, he suffered here rather a lot. :p
V. LEGO Windmill Gaps – Two gaps featuring Gray’s favorite thing ever! XD Specifically, we had a “windmill” that consisted of a small, thin plate piece rotating atop a rod of cylinders, where Gray had to get the timing PERFECT to land atop the plate and then drive to the other side of the gap, and a “windmill” that consisted of another, smaller thumbnail hole spinning atop a rod of cylinders, where Gray had to again get the timing perfect so he could get through the middle without losing all control before he reached the other side. As fun as stepping on a bunch of LEGOs!
VI. Just A Chill Harmless Gap But A LEGO Tornado Had To Ruin The Vibe – And of course, the boss challenge, set after the traditional checkpoint – a giant swirling tornado of LEGO pieces, that Gray had to jump through to clear a ginormous gap and reach the win. Because Alex doesn’t do anything by halves.
So, which of the LEGO vehicles won the day? Well, Gray tried ‘em all in the end – the half-built tank and what I think was supposed to be an EXTREMELY discount Sherp made out of Technic did OKAY but could barely make it past the initial gaps; the firetruck couldn’t make it past the initial gaps at all; the police car made it to the downward-facing ramps but no farther; and what I think was a mini rescue vehicle made it all the way to the trickier gaps, but couldn’t get past the last one as it couldn’t launch itself correctly. Leaving the ultimate winner as the LEGO sports car, which Gray initially thought wouldn’t even be a contender! But as it turns out, sometimes you just gotta go with the bad option and tumble your way to victory! XD And that’s why we test ALL the cars.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Sort of a substitution check here, as I didn’t have any queuing to do today on Victor Luvs Alice – but I still had a busy afternoon over there, thanks to the extra free time I got coming home early –
A) Reblogged a McFlyJuly fic by knickynoo (someone I follow for BTTF stuff) of Marty wondering where his copy of “A Match Made In Space” went – only to find George took it to give it a special dedication for him (aww)
B) Reblogged a post stretch-time (someone I talk to occasionally, one of the first people to get into the whole Valicer thing) tagged me in, which in itself was a reblog of a post about how The Sims 4 is going to have the potential for base game polyamory in the future (the free update before the new Lovestruck patch has a “Romantic Boundaries” system that should allow this), letting them know yup, I’m aware of that and I’m glad it will exist as a new base game system (even if I have no intention of giving up my polyamory-focused mods)
C) Reblogged a “WIP Guessing Game” post from dont-offend-the-bees (aka my friend Newt over there) where people send you words and you see if you can find them in your current WIPs – if you can, you post a sentence the word is in. As is polite, I then sent Newt the word “hug” to find in his stuff, which ended up in a sentence about “hugging the wall” because the actual hug in his latest fic was called an “embrace” by the POV character XD. I also sent Satirical “hug” after he reblogged the game from me (no “hug” sentences, though he did have a “huge” one as a consolation prize) – and happily, both of them sent me an ask in return! :) “Kiss” from Newt (which ended up being a sentence from “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” about a blush “kissing” Victor’s face while talking about his butterfly bots, because Victor and Alice don’t PROPER kiss in this story), and “Horror” from Satirical (which was a sentence from “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” featuring Victor shoving Smiler and Alice down an alley with eyes wide with horror – because he just spotted a HELL of a specter lurking in the other direction, yeeps). So yay there. :D
Other: And I’m currently in the process of answering all of Moose’s messages, which is a bit tricky with the character limits, but I’m getting there! :p
So yeah -- pretty decent day overall, as you can see. Very glad to have gotten all that done on tumblr -- nice to have people seem interested in my stuff! :p And now I need to wrap up answering Moose's messages and all the other social stuff I'm doing. Tomorrow, we celebrate the Fourth with some Fallout 4 (exploring more of Lake Cochituate and working our way back up toward Victor's Red Rocket home); update the FO4 playthrough progression appropriately; work some on some of the posts I have sitting in Victor Luvs Alice's drafts; see if I can get some videos out of my Watch Later; get back to "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" and get in a workout with more Every Occult Challenge. *nods* Hopefully all achievable goals -- night all!
And now I am back after doing all the other stuff I was trying to do this evening (mostly), to give you a proper update with the to-do list and everything --
Work – Back to a quiet day before the long weekend – I ran the usual reports, did some exception stuff (including calling some people about credit card things), then bummed around doing whatever roster maintenance stuff I could find along with some puzzles out of the paper. And taking a couple of credit card calls (one asking why a payment failed the first time around, another updating a card). And then they let us out early. :D So yeah, not a bad way to start the long weekend! And now I enjoy four days off, yay~
Beanbags update – again, little hotter and stickier than the past couple of days, but still quite reasonable, so we went out around five for the usual three rounds – and I did EXTREMELY well, winning the first two games before finally losing my rhythm in the third. Dad by contrast did well enough in the first two before coming back to take the third, and Mom...did her best. XD Final scores were me W-W-3; Dad 2-2-W; and Mom 3-3-2. We’ll see how things shake out over the long weekend – especially since we’ll likely be having longer games!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, pedaling through the following –
A) The end of the GrayStillPlays compilation “Exposing every way to make $1,000,000!” Which saw Gray finish off the “cheaters” video (where his girl continued doing things ranging from “stealing a guy’s lottery winnings” to “giving someone a shitty (literally) smoothie” to “GUNNING DOWN COPS,” again all for $100 a pop) and get through another “money runner” video, only this time he was literally making money (collecting various coin blanks and having them flattened, cut, stamped, edged, dipped in precious metals, and valued before dumping them in his piggy bank and getting cash for all the ones that were real money – it worked mostly like that “coffee runner” game he played before). Which Gray found less lucrative and more annoying than just having a job, though he did appreciate getting his line of potential coins so long that he couldn’t do anything useful with it. XD Good stuff!
B) The beginning of “I fixed my mistake in the Every Occult Challenge! - Part 7” by James Turner! Yes, we’re back to the Every Occult Challenge at last, with James working on getting the final Occult he needs (the ghost) and getting Semaj transformed into the two temporary occult states (PlantSim and Skeleton). The first ten or so minutes, though, were largely dedicated to building Lou the Werewolf’s special hangout on the lot – an oversized faux-doghouse with stairs leading down to a secret sewer home (referencing the underground tunnels that are supposedly under all of Moonwood Mill). James spent pretty much the entire family’s money on it, but it looked good, so that’s all that matters. :p I left off with him having just traveled to Moonwood Mill’s bar in an effort to get the Night Wraith that won the lottery to appear for befriending purposes, and setting up the “Semajers” club so that all the occults could join and do stuff together (he’s a few slots shy of being able to have EVERYONE join, but he’s working on it). We’ll see how that goes tomorrow!
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has been told about the existence of one “Fat Larry” down by Confession by Jack (so she can check in and see if he can help her with her firepower problems) and discussed the necessity of the Camarilla with Skelter (who thinks that the rules they enforce are just common sense and that they shouldn’t be allowed to just slaughter people for breaking them, which Alice does pretty much agree with). Left it with Skelter giving Alice another sidequest, should she choose to accept it – about a certain whiny pain-in-the-ass ghoul named Patty, who I am determined to make people feel sorry for...
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just GrayStillPlays again tonight, with “Lego Cars vs GAPS in GTA 5!” Yes, we had fun with LEGO in GTA V today, with Gray having to take on a gap-based course made of LEGO with a bunch of different LEGO cars, seeing which one could get through the following –
I. The Gaps Are Getting More LEGOized – A series of three gaps – the first featuring Gray jumping from smooth plastic to smooth plastic (like the LEGO was on its side), then smooth plastic to bumpy plastic (with the LEGO “buttons” now making an appearance), then bumpy plastic to bumpy plastic. Not horrible, but all those “buttons” served as speedbumps, making control a LOT more difficult for poor Gray.
II. Flipped LEGO Gaps – Two gaps featuring upside-down corner ramp piece LEGOs (one set perpendicular to the course, the other set parallel), with all the circular gaps inside them, ready to catch tires. Getting over these was mostly a matter of speed and getting everything nice and centered so no tires could be caught.
III. LEGO Ramp Gaps – Another couple of gaps featuring ramps made of LEGO – though, hilariously, in the first one the ramps went DOWN, meaning to get across it Gray had to actually launch himself off the nubbins at the top. The second one featured two PROPER ramps, a longer one and a shorter one, and an empty middle “aisle” in case Gray wanted to try that – Gray had to pick which one he wanted and try to launch himself off it. As you might imagine, the nubbins did not make this easy at ALL. XD
IV. LEGO Gaps Get More Tricky – Another trio of gaps, with Gray having to make it through a LEGO thumbnail hole (fortunately without a huge gap on the OTHER side of it as well), a gap with a cylinder brick teleporting rapidly to either side (meaning he had to cross his fingers and hope he didn’t hit it), and a gap with a short squat square block on one side and a large cylinder block on the other (meaning Gray had to pick which one he want to try and ramp off of to make the jump). As you might imagine, he suffered here rather a lot. :p
V. LEGO Windmill Gaps – Two gaps featuring Gray’s favorite thing ever! XD Specifically, we had a “windmill” that consisted of a small, thin plate piece rotating atop a rod of cylinders, where Gray had to get the timing PERFECT to land atop the plate and then drive to the other side of the gap, and a “windmill” that consisted of another, smaller thumbnail hole spinning atop a rod of cylinders, where Gray had to again get the timing perfect so he could get through the middle without losing all control before he reached the other side. As fun as stepping on a bunch of LEGOs!
VI. Just A Chill Harmless Gap But A LEGO Tornado Had To Ruin The Vibe – And of course, the boss challenge, set after the traditional checkpoint – a giant swirling tornado of LEGO pieces, that Gray had to jump through to clear a ginormous gap and reach the win. Because Alex doesn’t do anything by halves.
So, which of the LEGO vehicles won the day? Well, Gray tried ‘em all in the end – the half-built tank and what I think was supposed to be an EXTREMELY discount Sherp made out of Technic did OKAY but could barely make it past the initial gaps; the firetruck couldn’t make it past the initial gaps at all; the police car made it to the downward-facing ramps but no farther; and what I think was a mini rescue vehicle made it all the way to the trickier gaps, but couldn’t get past the last one as it couldn’t launch itself correctly. Leaving the ultimate winner as the LEGO sports car, which Gray initially thought wouldn’t even be a contender! But as it turns out, sometimes you just gotta go with the bad option and tumble your way to victory! XD And that’s why we test ALL the cars.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Sort of a substitution check here, as I didn’t have any queuing to do today on Victor Luvs Alice – but I still had a busy afternoon over there, thanks to the extra free time I got coming home early –
A) Reblogged a McFlyJuly fic by knickynoo (someone I follow for BTTF stuff) of Marty wondering where his copy of “A Match Made In Space” went – only to find George took it to give it a special dedication for him (aww)
B) Reblogged a post stretch-time (someone I talk to occasionally, one of the first people to get into the whole Valicer thing) tagged me in, which in itself was a reblog of a post about how The Sims 4 is going to have the potential for base game polyamory in the future (the free update before the new Lovestruck patch has a “Romantic Boundaries” system that should allow this), letting them know yup, I’m aware of that and I’m glad it will exist as a new base game system (even if I have no intention of giving up my polyamory-focused mods)
C) Reblogged a “WIP Guessing Game” post from dont-offend-the-bees (aka my friend Newt over there) where people send you words and you see if you can find them in your current WIPs – if you can, you post a sentence the word is in. As is polite, I then sent Newt the word “hug” to find in his stuff, which ended up in a sentence about “hugging the wall” because the actual hug in his latest fic was called an “embrace” by the POV character XD. I also sent Satirical “hug” after he reblogged the game from me (no “hug” sentences, though he did have a “huge” one as a consolation prize) – and happily, both of them sent me an ask in return! :) “Kiss” from Newt (which ended up being a sentence from “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” about a blush “kissing” Victor’s face while talking about his butterfly bots, because Victor and Alice don’t PROPER kiss in this story), and “Horror” from Satirical (which was a sentence from “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” featuring Victor shoving Smiler and Alice down an alley with eyes wide with horror – because he just spotted a HELL of a specter lurking in the other direction, yeeps). So yay there. :D
Other: And I’m currently in the process of answering all of Moose’s messages, which is a bit tricky with the character limits, but I’m getting there! :p
So yeah -- pretty decent day overall, as you can see. Very glad to have gotten all that done on tumblr -- nice to have people seem interested in my stuff! :p And now I need to wrap up answering Moose's messages and all the other social stuff I'm doing. Tomorrow, we celebrate the Fourth with some Fallout 4 (exploring more of Lake Cochituate and working our way back up toward Victor's Red Rocket home); update the FO4 playthrough progression appropriately; work some on some of the posts I have sitting in Victor Luvs Alice's drafts; see if I can get some videos out of my Watch Later; get back to "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of;" and get in a workout with more Every Occult Challenge. *nods* Hopefully all achievable goals -- night all!
