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Snowy Snowy Friday
Dec. 20th, 2024 11:53 pmYes, what was supposed to be "rain/snow showers this evening around 5 PM or so" evolved into "pretty steady snow starting at 11:30 AM and going on until about 8 PM." Fortunately it didn't actually AMOUNT to much -- when Dad went out to shovel he found only about a half-inch on the driveway, thanks to it taking a while to actually stick to the pavement -- but it did make everything very cold and slippery! And the real danger now is everything freezing overnight, thanks to some arctic air arriving over the weekend...good thing I don't have anywhere to go! :P Even with the miserable weather, I had a pretty decent day overall --
Work – Pretty quiet day to end out the week, happily – I did the GL; I went through all the failed credit cards of the past week and got those sorted; I did some roster maintenance; I got a cupcake and a birthday card from my coworkers; and I got to go home at 3 PM! Though our assistant director (who’s filling in for the boss since he’s out on paternity leave) let us all go a little bit earlier because, well, as stated, it started snowing earlier than expected, and things were starting to get slick out there. Which I’m very grateful for, because yes, the roads were beginning to get a little messy. Fortunately there were no idiots during the commute back – everybody was driving at a reasonable speed for once – and I made it home safe and sound. *nods* And now I’m free for TWELVE WHOLE DAYS. Hooray! *blows noisemaker*
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – last night on the bike this week, finishing off “Build Buy Overview - The Sims 4 Life and Death” by James Turner! Which saw him complete his very odd little house, with its weird hallway room at the back with the fancy bookcases and a shelving unit that almost nothing can actually FIT IN (suuuuch a pet peeve with shelves – fix your slots, EA!); its formal dining room with giant rug and giant fancy chairs; its living room with two different styles of couch (James mentioned earlier that he’s a little annoyed that we don’t often get matching two-seaters and three-seaters), pet crow in the corner, and giant wall decoration “curtains” over the windows; its front hallway with a dresser standing in for the hallway table; its cramped upstairs bedrooms with no room for the dresser he used downstairs, hilariously; its surprisingly-cute-yet-slightly-macabre baby room with spooky giant skeletal bunny plush; its tower office space with modern desk and Reaper-career-themed decorations on the wall; and its backyard cemetery and matching swing set. Oh, and its terrain paint that keeps vanishing because apparently that is a bug that has still not been fixed! XD But despite the slightly-odd-and-cramped layout of the interior, it still turned out to be a really nice house – this pack comes with a lot of good Build/Buy stuff! :D I am looking forward to playing with it once I receive my present code. :p
2. Keep working on Christmas gift fics: Check – edited Nebby’s fic (the one that essentially serves as a “bonus scene” for her “Medievil Resurrection II” fic, with Dan asking how Kiya’s doing after she got her guts clawed by the Spring-Heeled Ripper, and that leading into a discussion of what he would have done if she’d really died a second time (culminating in him saying he’d make Kift build him a time machine to rescue her, which is what happens in the actual game this fic is very loosely based on)) this afternoon with my extra free time! Which means, I am officially DONE writing gift fic! :D Still gotta get them all POSTED, of course, but that’s the easy bit. (Well, relatively...getting the eight that have to go up on tumblr queued up for Christmas will probably be a bit of a job! But if I can get them all in my drafts this weekend…) Hooray!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus – thanks to getting home early and thus having a little extra free time, I was able to get in a bonus video along with my required two –
A) First up, before my workout, we had the latest from OXmas – “XMAS CHALLENGE Day 8: ELLEN VS JANE! 🎄 Tournament of Champions 2024!” We had the clash of the boys yesterday, so now it was time for the ladies to go head-to-head in the “Shadow of the Erdtree Nude Santa Survival Challenge!” Shadow of the Erdtree being the recent, extra-hard DLC for Elden Ring, the latest pain simulator from From Software. The girls were required to play as Nude Santa (a dude in a posing pouch with a white beard and an oversized red hood Jane accused of being Xenomorph-like), and their task was to survive as long as they possibly could against the DLC’s final boss, Promised Consort Radahn! A dude who apparently used to just teleport across the room and kill you instantly, but they patched him, so you’re actually allowed to survive just long enough to attempt to fight him nowadays. :p Anyway, as this challenge was no joke, Jane and Ellen each got three attempts (alternating between them), and were allowed to summon Pureblood Knight Ansbach and Thiollier (the two NPC gold summons waiting outside the mist gate into the boss arena) to help pull aggro – though Andy DID warn that doing so would make the boss hit harder. With that in mind, the coin was flipped; Jane won the toss but chose to go second; and Ellen took the controller and started the pain train! Here’s how it all went for them:
First Attempt: Ellen made her first attempt solo in order to get a feel for what Radahn was like – turns out, the dude can pull you in to wail on you with his massive swords, or throw you into spikes, or leap into the air and send meteors at you. She lasted a respectable one minute twenty-four seconds – not bad for someone running around in a posing pouch with no weapons! Jane, however, saw this, was like “I want friends,” and grabbed the summons before making her attempt – and a combination of having some NPCs to distract the boss plus some better rolls meant she lasted two minutes thirty-five seconds!
Second Attempt: Ellen smartly grabbed the summons as distractions for her second run, and it paid off, with her adding two whole minutes to her time! She ended this run with a final “score” of three minutes and twenty-seven seconds! Jane then took her turn with Ansbach and Thiollier – but unfortunately, they weren’t as good at distracting Radahn for her as they were for Ellen, and she fell just shy of Ellen’s “score” with three minutes and nineteen seconds.
Third Attempt: Going for all the marbles, Ellen picked up her new besties and went up against Radahn for the final time...and thanks to some VERY careful kiting, rolling, and use of healing flasks, she was able to last nearly five whole minutes against the boss, going down at the four minute fifty-two mark. Jane knew she had some big shoes to fill there, but summoned the summons and gave it her best shot –
And despite some good footwork, a couple of poorly-timed heals did her in at the three-minute thirty-nine mark. Meaning Ellen won this challenge and got her third Christmas point, putting her in the lead, and ensuring that poor Jane stayed very firmly at zero. Ooof. *pats her* I really hope you get on the board soon, Jane! Be kind of sad if you lost EVERY CHALLENGE you were in.
B) Then, after Game Night (Sequence tonight – Dad and I both won two games, while Mom won one), I hopped back on the YouTubes to quickly watch the next video in the CaFae Latte series – “CaFae Latte Season 7 - TikTok Compilation!” Featuring Cyrus selling Shamrock Shakes to raise funds for endangered leprechauns during St. Patrick’s Day; the faeries being invited to JC’s sobriety birthday (five years sober!) and getting them to invite Nicole too; the party, featuring Nicole showing up with a giant cake and Cyrus destroying JC’s friend Ryan in Mario Kart (with Bob’s blessing, as Ryan’s office sent her a prank bouquet once that burst into glitter that she STILL can’t get out of the counter); and the main cast plus Yarn Granny (the lady knitting a bunch of stuff for Bob and Cyrus in exchange for a fae blessing for her husband) taking on a book snob who considered any genre outside of “classic lit” and nonfiction trash AND didn’t consider audiobooks “real books” (earning themselves a curse of three years of dyslexia from Bob when they were rude to Cyrus about his condition). Fun times as usual! :)
C) And finally, it was over to the Subs for the latest from GrayStillPlays – “When you dig to the center of the earth,” aka Gray plays more Happy Wheels! Today’s Best Boards included –
I. The opening “reverse bottle throw,” where the bottle was flipping Nixon XD (Gray found this utterly hilarious – and also rather hard to win, given he had to land in just the right spot to haul himself up onto the right platform)
II. Segway Nixon taking on a tricky green obstacle course where the goal was not to get katanas up the butt (as you might imagine, Gray got a katana up the butt once)
III. The world’s fastest meteor run over spikes and gaps and all sorts of other dangers, for pros only (and Grays, apparently, as he managed to miss the boosts but still win)
IV. “Pogo Fight Winter,” where Pogo Guy had to bounce his way past enemies such as the kid who threw a snowball at him, his ex who broke up with him on Christmas, and the hobo who stabbed him with an icicle before climbing the present castle to defeat Evil Santa (featured a lovely background with the Northern Lights and actual falling snow – Gray was impressed)
V. A mine run where Bike Dad and Tom Hardy had to outrun a whole bunch of homing mines on their bikes, avoiding spikes and cannons along the way (as is usual for these boards, Bike Dad made it to the end, Tom did not)
VI. And a pair of linked boards by “StupidIdiot550,” which saw Pogo Guy first having to traverse a military base, avoiding being shot by the soldiers living there; then, in the second board, having hitched a ride out of the base on a truck, having to traverse to the Forgotten Caves, avoiding being murdered by the scenery. That one ended with him getting on a submarine, so I presume that there is another underwater level Gray will have to find and play! It’s neat to see someone make a whole series of boards that share a “storyline” – hopefully we’ll see more of SI550 later!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – didn’t have anything to do on Victor Luvs Alice tonight, but on Valice Multiverse, I had two things for my queue:
A) An anonymous ask stating that “‘party city’s going out of business’ would be a good line right before you kicked someone in the nuts” – High School!Alice said that it probably would be, but not for her, while Smiler said that the line suited them, but they didn’t usually kick people in the nuts. Meaning the next time Alice needs to kick someone in the nuts, she’ll call in Smiler to say the line XD
B) And the Day 4 fic for Polyship Week 2024, featuring my Severance AU! Another AU that is not actually part of the Valice Multiverse RP set, but eh – my blog, my rules. :P
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with all that. :) And now it's time for me to hit the sheets. Tomorrow, I'm flipping the script a little bit -- rather than doing any Sims 4 stuff, I'm gonna play Fallout 4 and get as far as I can through Greentech Genetics. Reason? That means I can update the FO4 Playthrough Progression tomorrow, then have all of next week to finish "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded," instead of working on it for one day and then switching to the FO4 PP for a day. :D Other plans include working on getting the tumblr gift fics into my drafts so they'll be ready for queuing on Christmas and keeping up with OXmas and GrayStillPlays -- and maybe sneaking in some more CaFae Latte if I can, we'll see. Night all! :)
Work – Pretty quiet day to end out the week, happily – I did the GL; I went through all the failed credit cards of the past week and got those sorted; I did some roster maintenance; I got a cupcake and a birthday card from my coworkers; and I got to go home at 3 PM! Though our assistant director (who’s filling in for the boss since he’s out on paternity leave) let us all go a little bit earlier because, well, as stated, it started snowing earlier than expected, and things were starting to get slick out there. Which I’m very grateful for, because yes, the roads were beginning to get a little messy. Fortunately there were no idiots during the commute back – everybody was driving at a reasonable speed for once – and I made it home safe and sound. *nods* And now I’m free for TWELVE WHOLE DAYS. Hooray! *blows noisemaker*
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – last night on the bike this week, finishing off “Build Buy Overview - The Sims 4 Life and Death” by James Turner! Which saw him complete his very odd little house, with its weird hallway room at the back with the fancy bookcases and a shelving unit that almost nothing can actually FIT IN (suuuuch a pet peeve with shelves – fix your slots, EA!); its formal dining room with giant rug and giant fancy chairs; its living room with two different styles of couch (James mentioned earlier that he’s a little annoyed that we don’t often get matching two-seaters and three-seaters), pet crow in the corner, and giant wall decoration “curtains” over the windows; its front hallway with a dresser standing in for the hallway table; its cramped upstairs bedrooms with no room for the dresser he used downstairs, hilariously; its surprisingly-cute-yet-slightly-macabre baby room with spooky giant skeletal bunny plush; its tower office space with modern desk and Reaper-career-themed decorations on the wall; and its backyard cemetery and matching swing set. Oh, and its terrain paint that keeps vanishing because apparently that is a bug that has still not been fixed! XD But despite the slightly-odd-and-cramped layout of the interior, it still turned out to be a really nice house – this pack comes with a lot of good Build/Buy stuff! :D I am looking forward to playing with it once I receive my present code. :p
2. Keep working on Christmas gift fics: Check – edited Nebby’s fic (the one that essentially serves as a “bonus scene” for her “Medievil Resurrection II” fic, with Dan asking how Kiya’s doing after she got her guts clawed by the Spring-Heeled Ripper, and that leading into a discussion of what he would have done if she’d really died a second time (culminating in him saying he’d make Kift build him a time machine to rescue her, which is what happens in the actual game this fic is very loosely based on)) this afternoon with my extra free time! Which means, I am officially DONE writing gift fic! :D Still gotta get them all POSTED, of course, but that’s the easy bit. (Well, relatively...getting the eight that have to go up on tumblr queued up for Christmas will probably be a bit of a job! But if I can get them all in my drafts this weekend…) Hooray!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check plus – thanks to getting home early and thus having a little extra free time, I was able to get in a bonus video along with my required two –
A) First up, before my workout, we had the latest from OXmas – “XMAS CHALLENGE Day 8: ELLEN VS JANE! 🎄 Tournament of Champions 2024!” We had the clash of the boys yesterday, so now it was time for the ladies to go head-to-head in the “Shadow of the Erdtree Nude Santa Survival Challenge!” Shadow of the Erdtree being the recent, extra-hard DLC for Elden Ring, the latest pain simulator from From Software. The girls were required to play as Nude Santa (a dude in a posing pouch with a white beard and an oversized red hood Jane accused of being Xenomorph-like), and their task was to survive as long as they possibly could against the DLC’s final boss, Promised Consort Radahn! A dude who apparently used to just teleport across the room and kill you instantly, but they patched him, so you’re actually allowed to survive just long enough to attempt to fight him nowadays. :p Anyway, as this challenge was no joke, Jane and Ellen each got three attempts (alternating between them), and were allowed to summon Pureblood Knight Ansbach and Thiollier (the two NPC gold summons waiting outside the mist gate into the boss arena) to help pull aggro – though Andy DID warn that doing so would make the boss hit harder. With that in mind, the coin was flipped; Jane won the toss but chose to go second; and Ellen took the controller and started the pain train! Here’s how it all went for them:
First Attempt: Ellen made her first attempt solo in order to get a feel for what Radahn was like – turns out, the dude can pull you in to wail on you with his massive swords, or throw you into spikes, or leap into the air and send meteors at you. She lasted a respectable one minute twenty-four seconds – not bad for someone running around in a posing pouch with no weapons! Jane, however, saw this, was like “I want friends,” and grabbed the summons before making her attempt – and a combination of having some NPCs to distract the boss plus some better rolls meant she lasted two minutes thirty-five seconds!
Second Attempt: Ellen smartly grabbed the summons as distractions for her second run, and it paid off, with her adding two whole minutes to her time! She ended this run with a final “score” of three minutes and twenty-seven seconds! Jane then took her turn with Ansbach and Thiollier – but unfortunately, they weren’t as good at distracting Radahn for her as they were for Ellen, and she fell just shy of Ellen’s “score” with three minutes and nineteen seconds.
Third Attempt: Going for all the marbles, Ellen picked up her new besties and went up against Radahn for the final time...and thanks to some VERY careful kiting, rolling, and use of healing flasks, she was able to last nearly five whole minutes against the boss, going down at the four minute fifty-two mark. Jane knew she had some big shoes to fill there, but summoned the summons and gave it her best shot –
And despite some good footwork, a couple of poorly-timed heals did her in at the three-minute thirty-nine mark. Meaning Ellen won this challenge and got her third Christmas point, putting her in the lead, and ensuring that poor Jane stayed very firmly at zero. Ooof. *pats her* I really hope you get on the board soon, Jane! Be kind of sad if you lost EVERY CHALLENGE you were in.
B) Then, after Game Night (Sequence tonight – Dad and I both won two games, while Mom won one), I hopped back on the YouTubes to quickly watch the next video in the CaFae Latte series – “CaFae Latte Season 7 - TikTok Compilation!” Featuring Cyrus selling Shamrock Shakes to raise funds for endangered leprechauns during St. Patrick’s Day; the faeries being invited to JC’s sobriety birthday (five years sober!) and getting them to invite Nicole too; the party, featuring Nicole showing up with a giant cake and Cyrus destroying JC’s friend Ryan in Mario Kart (with Bob’s blessing, as Ryan’s office sent her a prank bouquet once that burst into glitter that she STILL can’t get out of the counter); and the main cast plus Yarn Granny (the lady knitting a bunch of stuff for Bob and Cyrus in exchange for a fae blessing for her husband) taking on a book snob who considered any genre outside of “classic lit” and nonfiction trash AND didn’t consider audiobooks “real books” (earning themselves a curse of three years of dyslexia from Bob when they were rude to Cyrus about his condition). Fun times as usual! :)
C) And finally, it was over to the Subs for the latest from GrayStillPlays – “When you dig to the center of the earth,” aka Gray plays more Happy Wheels! Today’s Best Boards included –
I. The opening “reverse bottle throw,” where the bottle was flipping Nixon XD (Gray found this utterly hilarious – and also rather hard to win, given he had to land in just the right spot to haul himself up onto the right platform)
II. Segway Nixon taking on a tricky green obstacle course where the goal was not to get katanas up the butt (as you might imagine, Gray got a katana up the butt once)
III. The world’s fastest meteor run over spikes and gaps and all sorts of other dangers, for pros only (and Grays, apparently, as he managed to miss the boosts but still win)
IV. “Pogo Fight Winter,” where Pogo Guy had to bounce his way past enemies such as the kid who threw a snowball at him, his ex who broke up with him on Christmas, and the hobo who stabbed him with an icicle before climbing the present castle to defeat Evil Santa (featured a lovely background with the Northern Lights and actual falling snow – Gray was impressed)
V. A mine run where Bike Dad and Tom Hardy had to outrun a whole bunch of homing mines on their bikes, avoiding spikes and cannons along the way (as is usual for these boards, Bike Dad made it to the end, Tom did not)
VI. And a pair of linked boards by “StupidIdiot550,” which saw Pogo Guy first having to traverse a military base, avoiding being shot by the soldiers living there; then, in the second board, having hitched a ride out of the base on a truck, having to traverse to the Forgotten Caves, avoiding being murdered by the scenery. That one ended with him getting on a submarine, so I presume that there is another underwater level Gray will have to find and play! It’s neat to see someone make a whole series of boards that share a “storyline” – hopefully we’ll see more of SI550 later!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – didn’t have anything to do on Victor Luvs Alice tonight, but on Valice Multiverse, I had two things for my queue:
A) An anonymous ask stating that “‘party city’s going out of business’ would be a good line right before you kicked someone in the nuts” – High School!Alice said that it probably would be, but not for her, while Smiler said that the line suited them, but they didn’t usually kick people in the nuts. Meaning the next time Alice needs to kick someone in the nuts, she’ll call in Smiler to say the line XD
B) And the Day 4 fic for Polyship Week 2024, featuring my Severance AU! Another AU that is not actually part of the Valice Multiverse RP set, but eh – my blog, my rules. :P
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with all that. :) And now it's time for me to hit the sheets. Tomorrow, I'm flipping the script a little bit -- rather than doing any Sims 4 stuff, I'm gonna play Fallout 4 and get as far as I can through Greentech Genetics. Reason? That means I can update the FO4 Playthrough Progression tomorrow, then have all of next week to finish "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded," instead of working on it for one day and then switching to the FO4 PP for a day. :D Other plans include working on getting the tumblr gift fics into my drafts so they'll be ready for queuing on Christmas and keeping up with OXmas and GrayStillPlays -- and maybe sneaking in some more CaFae Latte if I can, we'll see. Night all! :)
