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Not The Saturday I Expected
Feb. 1st, 2025 11:55 pmMostly because a certain activity this morning took way longer than it needed to take -- here, the write-up will give you the skinny --
Cleaning & Laundry: Not a great day cleaning-wise, I’m sad to say – I got started a little past 10:30 AM, but various factors (mainly having to take a break partway through to not only bring down my own laundry, but bring up the stuff already in the dryer...and then bring back DOWN some stuff that got tangled in a sheet and thus didn’t dry, and try and find one of my missing socks (it was down with the white stuff for some reason), and getting perhaps a little too thorough with my dusting in spots while listening to “The First Flight Of The Sparrowhawk,” which is admittedly one of my favorite Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episodes – Barnaby and Kasimir doing balloon racing equals SHENANIGANS :D) meant that I wasn’t even fully finished with the DUSTING by 1 PM, when we broke to have lunch. I ended up not actually finishing the cleaning until about 2:30 PM, and the last load of laundry didn’t come out until almost 5 PM (though, admittedly, part of that was because I started watching YouTube before collecting it – see below). Oh, and I actually forgot to throw a dryer sheet in with my first load, so that was all staticky and I had to peel all my blankets off each other and whatnot. *sigh* But at least it’s all done again, and I saved one of my socks from getting accidentally bleached, so that was all right. Still, hoping the next Cleaning Saturday goes a little smoother and quicker!
Tumblr: Well, in the reverse of the usual situation on Cleaning Saturdays, I didn’t do anything over on Valice Multiverse (no activity over there), but I did end up working on my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts tonight! Specifically, I got a bunch of the scenes in my “Valicer Not-Incorrect Quotes Valentine’s Day Edition” post sorted – Victor and Smiler’s gift exchange, Victor and Alice’s gift exchange, and Alice and Smiler’s gift exchange, complete with any relevant links to explain the gifts they were giving. I still have one more scene to do, with Alice and Smiler slightly worried about the fact that they gave Victor far less-expensive presents than he gave them – only to spot him setting up his new stuffed dragon so it looks like it’s playing his new antique piano-phone on his desk, but hey – at least now I’m feeling a lot more sure that this will be done in time for Valicertine’s Day!
Writing: Between the cleaning above and the YouTube below, I got to this a lot later than I wanted, but I was determined to get something written on “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded,” so I made SURE to squeeze in a page. Featuring Victor asking Smiler how the heck they just talk to people like they do (they like talking to people! They want to make friends!) and Alice complimenting them on managing to pretend they wanted to partner with Bumby (“Oh, I was dying on the inside the whole time I was saying it”); the gang commenting on the “Earn Your Keep” cross-stitch right outside Alice’s room (with Alice admitting she thought it was a mean joke even before she learned what Bumby’s actual business was); and Alice opening the door to her room and seeing everything undisturbed and covered in dust – EXCEPT Lizzie’s face on her family portrait (noting bitterly that Bumby had his priorities straight as she wiped the rest of it off). Next time, the gang gets her things, and talks about what will happen after they expose this dickhead! Because I gotta set up them moving in together somehow...
YouTube: As I got on the computer much later than anticipated, thanks to how long it took to do all my cleaning and laundry (above), I ended up ditching playing BG3 in favor of clearing out my Watch Later and getting all caught up on my Subs over here. Which, granted, I did very much want to do, so I guess that worked out all right. Anyway, we got through –
A) The two OXBox lists I hadn’t yet had a chance to check out (the only OXtra list so far has been one on exercise games that I wasn’t really that interested in) –
I. “7 Hidden Areas You Were Never Meant to See” – Jane, Andy, and Mike talking about those secret areas in games that were never meant to be accessed by players because the developers never finished them (the “Mexico” area in Red Dead Redemption 2), they’re a secret developer testing room (the Developer’s room in Fallout 76), or they’re only intended for corpse storage (the “Dead Body Cleanup Cell” dungeon in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). Of course, being forbidden from places has never stopped the most enterprising players, and all of these areas have been accessed, either via glitches, console commands, or mods. Hell, one unfinished luxury casino out of bounds of the normal map in Cyberpunk 2077 is getting modded into an actual location by one person over on NexusMods! Just goes to show that if you build it, the players WILL insist on poking around in there. Even if it’s just to make sure the corpses are thoroughly looted. XD
II. “7 Game Ideas You Won't Believe Are Patented” – Jane and Andy talking about those game ideas and mechanics that you might not have realized were patent-protected! Plus one dystopian “say the name of the advertiser to stop their commercial from playing” patent by Sony they found and apparently had to share. Patents featured include “how we display Sonic doing the cool corkscrew paths in Sonic 2” by Sony (a series of carefully tilted sprites deployed at just the right time); the “target arrow” system used to show when to do what steps when playing Dance Dance Revolution by Konami (which is why all future dancing games need to use a legally distinct version that doesn’t have the arrows that the moving ones land in at the top of the screen); and the technology for “force feedback” (aka gameplay-related vibration) in controllers by Immersion (actual name of the company, which kicked Sony’s ass in a lawsuit around the time the PS3 was released when Sony tried to say “no, we’re not licensing your damn technology.” They ended up licensing their damn technology). Interesting stuff, though I am very worried about that advertising patent. Please never let that see the light of day.
B) Then it was onto two Petey Plays It videos –
I. “I Got Into 5 Relationships At Once... It Was A Disaster | Super Sim Series 17” – the latest in the life of Tina, Petey’s chaotic icon of a Super Sim! And oh, did this particular episode bring the chaos, because this one was almost entirely about Petey’s attempts to complete the Villainous Valentine aspiration that came with I believe the Neighborhood Stories base game update. This aspiration is all about destroying relationships, both your own and others, and requires your Sim to be caught cheating ten times, become exes with five Sims, and break up ten couples. Petey had made a little progress toward this aspiration in previous episodes (helped by Tina often loving ‘em and leaving ‘em), but it was proving to be a tough nut to crack. So, after taking a moment to have Tina complete her Soul’s Journey and gain the “Burning Soul” trait at the very start of the episode (via having her turn herself into a ghost via the séance table and then auto-complete the Fabulously Wealthy aspiration (as she’d already done everything that aspiration required) to fill up the last two ticks on the bar), he had Tina break up with the Grim Reaper (reassuring everyone who called for her to have a baby with them that he’d find a way to fit it into the storyline later), quit her job, and head back to Foxbury Institute to pursue a Physics degree, a membership in the Bot Savants organization (with the in-story excuse that she was investigating why deaths via getting electrocuted by the robotics station had gone down – turns out the Sims Gods, aka EA, had finally patched how often the damn thing shocks you), and romantic chaos. How did this all go?
Quite well – at least for Tina. XD Not only did she get her usual Distinguished Degree With Honors by acing all of her classes via determined study, she also became a senior member of the Bot Savants fairly quickly, despite having to deal with extremely buggy organization meetings (basically, no one ever came to the bot building sessions, and nobody ever actually played with the bots during the Utili-Bot contest). And as for romance...well, see the title. XD In fact, add one to the title, as Tina had a very brief relationship with Ted Roswell, mayor of StrangerVille, after convincing him to break up with his wife Meredith – only to break up with him and nope out after seeing him get possessed that night. Her other relationships, however, were much more successful (even if it did tend to take her a few tries to get her married partners to agree to leave their spouses) – at least, until she decided to invite all five of her lovers on a night out to one of Cuidad Enamorada’s nightclubs and start getting her flirt on in front of all of them. Said night out ended with three of the paramours breaking up with her, and her breaking up with the other two in a snit – which completed the “get caught cheating ten times” and “become exes with five Sims” goals of the aspiration! ;) So all that remains is for her to break up five more couples, and she is set. XD And her descent into villainy isn’t stopping there, as she ended the episode buying herself a secret criminal base hidden under some shipping containers in Oasis Springs, which has all the things she needs to be a true criminal mastermind. About the only nice thing she did this episode was make herself a new friend – a Servo named Wheelo, who was created with the parts Tina made as part of the Bot Savants. And I’m sure Tina will find a way to turn that to evil as well. XD I’m looking forward to the next episode – and I’m hoping Petey reads my comment and agrees that getting Tina the “Villainy” degree from Foxbury (which I believe is actually the last degree she needs from that particular university) during this period in her life is the way to go! Probably should try to do the Public Enemy aspiration as well, come to think of it...
II. “Guide To Having A Funeral With The Sims 4 Life And Death” – his latest guide video, talking about how to hold a good funeral with the new “funeral” event in the Life And Death expansion pack! Though there’s apparently no reward for having a gold-rated funeral, so don’t stress out too much about getting it perfect. The video covered, in brief, how to set up a funeral (including making the mourners show up in particular clothes – which he warned did run the risk of the funeral suffering from Townie Fashion Roulette), what activities were available and how to complete them (everything from giving eulogies and mourning the deceased to dancing and using ghost powers for good or evil), and where to hold the funeral (prioritize lots that have the items you need to complete your activities, natch). A nice, informative guide, as usual – don’t know how useful it will be for ME, who tries to avoid having Sims die, but still. XD
C) After clearing out the Watch Later, it was over to the Subs to catch up with the Josh Way video I missed yesterday – “Fun With Shorts: The Secretary – Transcribing!” A classic scratchy Coronet offering about a woman talking about how she transcribes stuff for her boss, with a special focus on writing a special delivery letter and how VERY IMPORTANT it is that she NOT WASTE TIME making mistakes. :p Josh was in fine form, delightedly harping on the “never making mistakes” thing and asking someone to invent HR already for this woman. Good stuff – I am glad that the shorts are making a small but notable return. :)
D) And finally, we ended with the GrayStillPlays video of the day – “Lawnmowers vs waterslides in GTA 5!” This was a ranked torture board featuring a variety of meme vehicles – including the lawnmower, the luggage caddy, the Sherp, a very fragile blue car with a “FEAR” license plate, a strawberry-banana-flavored taxi, a forklift, and a hidden trike – against various water slide challenges. Each challenge apart from the last was worth a point, with the final challenge being worth two and thus definitively deciding the winner. And as for the challenges themselves...well, you had a big looping mess of waterslide wallride jumps floating in the air (complete with a flaming hoop at the beginning); a moving multiple choice waterslide challenge where Gray had to keep up with the flying waterslides and pick the right tube to go down to reach the end in the 66 second time limit (because not everything had to be 69 :p); a test to see which vehicle could clear 120 units on the measurement wall after a big waterslide jump down a skyscraper (and also get through a weebmill at the same time, of course); a big tube that you had to essentially corkscrew through to avoid all the little barriers inside and reach the end in the 30 second time limit (nothing more special than that – just kind of a breather challenge compared to the others); and a “mile long” waterslide ride that kind of combined some of the jumps and wallriding from the first challenge with a bit of corkscrewing from the fourth challenge (along with some upside-down loops) and a tiny bit of multiple choice from the second. Oh, and a 69 second time limit. Because of course. :p Not exactly the easiest courses to complete – and as you might imagine, the lawnmower from the title didn’t do shit. XD Instead, the fragile “FEAR” mobile completed the first challenge; the luggage caddy the second; and the strawberry taxi the third AND fourth – but then the caddy came out with just enough speed and handling to get through the fifth challenge and pick up TWO points, ending things with three points to its name and thus a win! *nods* Congrats, luggage caddy – enjoy being officially designated as One Of The Meme Cars That Is Actually Kinda Good! XD
So yeah -- I didn't get to do something I wanted to do because of bad timing, but I did get every other video I wanted to watch over the past couple of weeks watched (well, any that weren't CaFae Latte -- the next episode of THAT that I need to catch up on is now in my Watch Later), managed to squeeze in my writing, and had a surprise burst of inspiration for my Valicertine Not-Incorrect Quote collection. I was initially kind of annoyed, but -- that's actually really good for a Saturday! And now I have to hit the sheets, because I am most tired. Plans for tomorrow include finishing up that Not-Incorrect Quotes collection in my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; playing Baldur's Gate III because I didn't get the chance to today; getting in a workout; and keeping up with GrayStillPlays and Jon. And hopefully getting a start on actually answering Moose's messages, which I meant to do tonight but it did not work out that way. And do something writing-related, though I'm not 100% what yet. We'll see what I manage! Should be more now that I don't have to clean. *nods* Night all!
Cleaning & Laundry: Not a great day cleaning-wise, I’m sad to say – I got started a little past 10:30 AM, but various factors (mainly having to take a break partway through to not only bring down my own laundry, but bring up the stuff already in the dryer...and then bring back DOWN some stuff that got tangled in a sheet and thus didn’t dry, and try and find one of my missing socks (it was down with the white stuff for some reason), and getting perhaps a little too thorough with my dusting in spots while listening to “The First Flight Of The Sparrowhawk,” which is admittedly one of my favorite Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episodes – Barnaby and Kasimir doing balloon racing equals SHENANIGANS :D) meant that I wasn’t even fully finished with the DUSTING by 1 PM, when we broke to have lunch. I ended up not actually finishing the cleaning until about 2:30 PM, and the last load of laundry didn’t come out until almost 5 PM (though, admittedly, part of that was because I started watching YouTube before collecting it – see below). Oh, and I actually forgot to throw a dryer sheet in with my first load, so that was all staticky and I had to peel all my blankets off each other and whatnot. *sigh* But at least it’s all done again, and I saved one of my socks from getting accidentally bleached, so that was all right. Still, hoping the next Cleaning Saturday goes a little smoother and quicker!
Tumblr: Well, in the reverse of the usual situation on Cleaning Saturdays, I didn’t do anything over on Valice Multiverse (no activity over there), but I did end up working on my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts tonight! Specifically, I got a bunch of the scenes in my “Valicer Not-Incorrect Quotes Valentine’s Day Edition” post sorted – Victor and Smiler’s gift exchange, Victor and Alice’s gift exchange, and Alice and Smiler’s gift exchange, complete with any relevant links to explain the gifts they were giving. I still have one more scene to do, with Alice and Smiler slightly worried about the fact that they gave Victor far less-expensive presents than he gave them – only to spot him setting up his new stuffed dragon so it looks like it’s playing his new antique piano-phone on his desk, but hey – at least now I’m feeling a lot more sure that this will be done in time for Valicertine’s Day!
Writing: Between the cleaning above and the YouTube below, I got to this a lot later than I wanted, but I was determined to get something written on “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded,” so I made SURE to squeeze in a page. Featuring Victor asking Smiler how the heck they just talk to people like they do (they like talking to people! They want to make friends!) and Alice complimenting them on managing to pretend they wanted to partner with Bumby (“Oh, I was dying on the inside the whole time I was saying it”); the gang commenting on the “Earn Your Keep” cross-stitch right outside Alice’s room (with Alice admitting she thought it was a mean joke even before she learned what Bumby’s actual business was); and Alice opening the door to her room and seeing everything undisturbed and covered in dust – EXCEPT Lizzie’s face on her family portrait (noting bitterly that Bumby had his priorities straight as she wiped the rest of it off). Next time, the gang gets her things, and talks about what will happen after they expose this dickhead! Because I gotta set up them moving in together somehow...
YouTube: As I got on the computer much later than anticipated, thanks to how long it took to do all my cleaning and laundry (above), I ended up ditching playing BG3 in favor of clearing out my Watch Later and getting all caught up on my Subs over here. Which, granted, I did very much want to do, so I guess that worked out all right. Anyway, we got through –
A) The two OXBox lists I hadn’t yet had a chance to check out (the only OXtra list so far has been one on exercise games that I wasn’t really that interested in) –
I. “7 Hidden Areas You Were Never Meant to See” – Jane, Andy, and Mike talking about those secret areas in games that were never meant to be accessed by players because the developers never finished them (the “Mexico” area in Red Dead Redemption 2), they’re a secret developer testing room (the Developer’s room in Fallout 76), or they’re only intended for corpse storage (the “Dead Body Cleanup Cell” dungeon in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). Of course, being forbidden from places has never stopped the most enterprising players, and all of these areas have been accessed, either via glitches, console commands, or mods. Hell, one unfinished luxury casino out of bounds of the normal map in Cyberpunk 2077 is getting modded into an actual location by one person over on NexusMods! Just goes to show that if you build it, the players WILL insist on poking around in there. Even if it’s just to make sure the corpses are thoroughly looted. XD
II. “7 Game Ideas You Won't Believe Are Patented” – Jane and Andy talking about those game ideas and mechanics that you might not have realized were patent-protected! Plus one dystopian “say the name of the advertiser to stop their commercial from playing” patent by Sony they found and apparently had to share. Patents featured include “how we display Sonic doing the cool corkscrew paths in Sonic 2” by Sony (a series of carefully tilted sprites deployed at just the right time); the “target arrow” system used to show when to do what steps when playing Dance Dance Revolution by Konami (which is why all future dancing games need to use a legally distinct version that doesn’t have the arrows that the moving ones land in at the top of the screen); and the technology for “force feedback” (aka gameplay-related vibration) in controllers by Immersion (actual name of the company, which kicked Sony’s ass in a lawsuit around the time the PS3 was released when Sony tried to say “no, we’re not licensing your damn technology.” They ended up licensing their damn technology). Interesting stuff, though I am very worried about that advertising patent. Please never let that see the light of day.
B) Then it was onto two Petey Plays It videos –
I. “I Got Into 5 Relationships At Once... It Was A Disaster | Super Sim Series 17” – the latest in the life of Tina, Petey’s chaotic icon of a Super Sim! And oh, did this particular episode bring the chaos, because this one was almost entirely about Petey’s attempts to complete the Villainous Valentine aspiration that came with I believe the Neighborhood Stories base game update. This aspiration is all about destroying relationships, both your own and others, and requires your Sim to be caught cheating ten times, become exes with five Sims, and break up ten couples. Petey had made a little progress toward this aspiration in previous episodes (helped by Tina often loving ‘em and leaving ‘em), but it was proving to be a tough nut to crack. So, after taking a moment to have Tina complete her Soul’s Journey and gain the “Burning Soul” trait at the very start of the episode (via having her turn herself into a ghost via the séance table and then auto-complete the Fabulously Wealthy aspiration (as she’d already done everything that aspiration required) to fill up the last two ticks on the bar), he had Tina break up with the Grim Reaper (reassuring everyone who called for her to have a baby with them that he’d find a way to fit it into the storyline later), quit her job, and head back to Foxbury Institute to pursue a Physics degree, a membership in the Bot Savants organization (with the in-story excuse that she was investigating why deaths via getting electrocuted by the robotics station had gone down – turns out the Sims Gods, aka EA, had finally patched how often the damn thing shocks you), and romantic chaos. How did this all go?
Quite well – at least for Tina. XD Not only did she get her usual Distinguished Degree With Honors by acing all of her classes via determined study, she also became a senior member of the Bot Savants fairly quickly, despite having to deal with extremely buggy organization meetings (basically, no one ever came to the bot building sessions, and nobody ever actually played with the bots during the Utili-Bot contest). And as for romance...well, see the title. XD In fact, add one to the title, as Tina had a very brief relationship with Ted Roswell, mayor of StrangerVille, after convincing him to break up with his wife Meredith – only to break up with him and nope out after seeing him get possessed that night. Her other relationships, however, were much more successful (even if it did tend to take her a few tries to get her married partners to agree to leave their spouses) – at least, until she decided to invite all five of her lovers on a night out to one of Cuidad Enamorada’s nightclubs and start getting her flirt on in front of all of them. Said night out ended with three of the paramours breaking up with her, and her breaking up with the other two in a snit – which completed the “get caught cheating ten times” and “become exes with five Sims” goals of the aspiration! ;) So all that remains is for her to break up five more couples, and she is set. XD And her descent into villainy isn’t stopping there, as she ended the episode buying herself a secret criminal base hidden under some shipping containers in Oasis Springs, which has all the things she needs to be a true criminal mastermind. About the only nice thing she did this episode was make herself a new friend – a Servo named Wheelo, who was created with the parts Tina made as part of the Bot Savants. And I’m sure Tina will find a way to turn that to evil as well. XD I’m looking forward to the next episode – and I’m hoping Petey reads my comment and agrees that getting Tina the “Villainy” degree from Foxbury (which I believe is actually the last degree she needs from that particular university) during this period in her life is the way to go! Probably should try to do the Public Enemy aspiration as well, come to think of it...
II. “Guide To Having A Funeral With The Sims 4 Life And Death” – his latest guide video, talking about how to hold a good funeral with the new “funeral” event in the Life And Death expansion pack! Though there’s apparently no reward for having a gold-rated funeral, so don’t stress out too much about getting it perfect. The video covered, in brief, how to set up a funeral (including making the mourners show up in particular clothes – which he warned did run the risk of the funeral suffering from Townie Fashion Roulette), what activities were available and how to complete them (everything from giving eulogies and mourning the deceased to dancing and using ghost powers for good or evil), and where to hold the funeral (prioritize lots that have the items you need to complete your activities, natch). A nice, informative guide, as usual – don’t know how useful it will be for ME, who tries to avoid having Sims die, but still. XD
C) After clearing out the Watch Later, it was over to the Subs to catch up with the Josh Way video I missed yesterday – “Fun With Shorts: The Secretary – Transcribing!” A classic scratchy Coronet offering about a woman talking about how she transcribes stuff for her boss, with a special focus on writing a special delivery letter and how VERY IMPORTANT it is that she NOT WASTE TIME making mistakes. :p Josh was in fine form, delightedly harping on the “never making mistakes” thing and asking someone to invent HR already for this woman. Good stuff – I am glad that the shorts are making a small but notable return. :)
D) And finally, we ended with the GrayStillPlays video of the day – “Lawnmowers vs waterslides in GTA 5!” This was a ranked torture board featuring a variety of meme vehicles – including the lawnmower, the luggage caddy, the Sherp, a very fragile blue car with a “FEAR” license plate, a strawberry-banana-flavored taxi, a forklift, and a hidden trike – against various water slide challenges. Each challenge apart from the last was worth a point, with the final challenge being worth two and thus definitively deciding the winner. And as for the challenges themselves...well, you had a big looping mess of waterslide wallride jumps floating in the air (complete with a flaming hoop at the beginning); a moving multiple choice waterslide challenge where Gray had to keep up with the flying waterslides and pick the right tube to go down to reach the end in the 66 second time limit (because not everything had to be 69 :p); a test to see which vehicle could clear 120 units on the measurement wall after a big waterslide jump down a skyscraper (and also get through a weebmill at the same time, of course); a big tube that you had to essentially corkscrew through to avoid all the little barriers inside and reach the end in the 30 second time limit (nothing more special than that – just kind of a breather challenge compared to the others); and a “mile long” waterslide ride that kind of combined some of the jumps and wallriding from the first challenge with a bit of corkscrewing from the fourth challenge (along with some upside-down loops) and a tiny bit of multiple choice from the second. Oh, and a 69 second time limit. Because of course. :p Not exactly the easiest courses to complete – and as you might imagine, the lawnmower from the title didn’t do shit. XD Instead, the fragile “FEAR” mobile completed the first challenge; the luggage caddy the second; and the strawberry taxi the third AND fourth – but then the caddy came out with just enough speed and handling to get through the fifth challenge and pick up TWO points, ending things with three points to its name and thus a win! *nods* Congrats, luggage caddy – enjoy being officially designated as One Of The Meme Cars That Is Actually Kinda Good! XD
So yeah -- I didn't get to do something I wanted to do because of bad timing, but I did get every other video I wanted to watch over the past couple of weeks watched (well, any that weren't CaFae Latte -- the next episode of THAT that I need to catch up on is now in my Watch Later), managed to squeeze in my writing, and had a surprise burst of inspiration for my Valicertine Not-Incorrect Quote collection. I was initially kind of annoyed, but -- that's actually really good for a Saturday! And now I have to hit the sheets, because I am most tired. Plans for tomorrow include finishing up that Not-Incorrect Quotes collection in my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; playing Baldur's Gate III because I didn't get the chance to today; getting in a workout; and keeping up with GrayStillPlays and Jon. And hopefully getting a start on actually answering Moose's messages, which I meant to do tonight but it did not work out that way. And do something writing-related, though I'm not 100% what yet. We'll see what I manage! Should be more now that I don't have to clean. *nods* Night all!
