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Relatively Okay Tuesday
Apr. 15th, 2025 11:52 pmLike, work wasn't great (as you will see shortly), but my evening was pretty good -- and, better yet, I don't have to stress so much about when I'm going to bed because I took tomorrow off to take care of the remaining stuff my parents and I have to do to get our passports! Extra free time is always a balm on my mood. :p Anyway, here's the write-up on how the day went --
Work – Well, I was hoping for a quieter day, and for a bit it looked like I was going to get one – I spent the morning pulling the usual reports, going through more of the exceptions we received the other day, and starting a QC file for the next set of thank-yous we’re sending out. And then, after lunch, I saw I’d gotten an e-mail from someone at one of the parishes asking about a donor’s gift that hadn’t shown up on the reports yet...
Which led to me finding out that the damn credit card company apparently wasn’t including everything in their batches that should be there. *facepalm* Cue me stressing out as I tried to figure out what exactly was going on so I could send my supervisor an e-mail about it and try to get it handled. I mean, I got it done, and he handed it off to the correct parties, and I was able to finish up everything else I needed to do (namely, the QC file) before the end of the day, but – fucking hell. It really never ends with them, I swear. >( At least I don’t have to deal with it tomorrow thanks to the personal day, but ugh. I guess we’ll see what happens on Thursday!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight, and back with “Trying to get rich from nectar in The Sims 1 (Part 2)” by James Turner! The second chunklet of three of this episode featured the following –
A) Semaj surviving the fire that he accidentally set while trying to make breakfast before work (mostly by getting out of the way and letting the firefighter run in to do their thing), then – after work and a power nap – going on another date with Iled Downtown, buying her flowers and having a nice one-course meal at the local alfresco dining area – which went well despite the kitchen flooding from a faulty dishwasher. XD. But yes, they had a lovely time, though Semaj did make things awkward when he tried to get too passionate too fast with the kissing. Gotta build up that lifetime friendship meter first, Semaj!
B) Semaj hitting Magic Town to stock up on more nectar-making ingredients (namely sugar, though he got a bit of honey too for a special honey nectar), and then hitting the books to study cooking after James, wondering why his nectar wasn’t selling for very much even when he made the fancier kinds, looked up the original comment that directed him to try nectar-selling as a “career” and realized that you had to max out your cooking skill to get the best price per bottle. By the end of the chunklet, he’d earned four skill points, and started getting $200 per bottle! Nice. :)
C) Semaj inviting Iled over to his house a couple of times to hang out, prompting James to buy him some new stuff so they’d have more ways to have fun together – getting a chess table (and some nicer chairs) during the first visit, and a foosball table during the second. They continue to get along well, though Iled is still a bit lukewarm on how passionately she wishes to kiss Semaj. XD Good thing the REAL Deli isn’t like that, eh, James?
D) James discovering that the real way to get rich fast in this version of the game is to buy Japanese fan wall art for $81 simoleons, wait a few days, and watch it basically go up in price TEN TIMES. James decided this was a bit cheaty and resolved not to use it anymore after the second time he did it, but he put the money to good use, buying things like a much nicer bed, a dresser (so Semaj didn’t have to shower if he wanted to change clothes), and a workout machine. Oh, and actual lights for the house. *nods* I mean, if you’ve got the simoleons…
E) And Semaj – after another run to Magic Town to stock up on sugar (which nearly ended in disaster when the game crashed upon him trying to visit one of the amusement park lots afterward – fortunately when James reloaded it turned out that it had saved the part of the visit where he’d bought all his ingredients) – quitting his job by not going to work for two days in a row because, as stated, at four Cooking skill points he’d reached the point where making and selling two lots of nectar per day earned more than him being a nurse. Granted, he then immediately got a bunch of bills and had to make more nectar to cover them, but isn’t that always the way in this life? :p
So yeah – things are going reasonably well for Old Semaj in this episode! I mean, yes, he continues to struggle mightily with his Social need, and his house always has flies and/or cockroaches in it, and his bills are huge because of all the new stuff he bought, but given how easy it is to accidentally kill Sims or put them in permanent bad moods in this iteration of the game, “reasonably well” is about the best you can hope for. XD We’ll wrap this up tomorrow and see what happens (and if there’s a specific reason why James only ever made two episodes of this “LP” – beyond “The Sims is fucking hard” :P)!
2. Continue final edits on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 4: Check – didn’t get quite as far as I’d hoped to tonight – only up to page 15 out of 36 – but that still covered Alice’s trip through the sewer (including leaping over a giant drainage hole to avoid Carpenter monologuing); Alice meeting and then murdering Brother Kanker (making good use of those horrible meat hooks dangling from his ceiling); Alice finding the Brotherhood flier (and being confused because THIS cult uses LEAFLETS??); and Alice finding Brotherhood headquarters – and being very sour about the fact that it’s DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE TREMERE CHANTRY. XD I mean, seriously, when you think about it, you HAVE to wonder how Strauss missed that. :p Left off with her finding her way inside – tomorrow, we should cover her meeting Jumbles, Jennifer, the zombies, and Bishop Vick himself!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Substitution Check – another Tuesday with nothing in the Subs meant I had to find some other ways to keep myself entertained – and find them I did –
A) First up, we had “Baldur’s Gate 3: The Final Patch - An Animated Short” by Larian Studios! Yup, uh, apparently Patch 8 officially dropped today, and so Larian marked the occasion, as they so often do, with the animated adventures of the Origin characters! This time with them finding the treasure of the Final Patch at the end of their adventures – which lead to them having a big nasty fight with a terrible dragon after getting sucked into the box where the patch was held. On the plus side, this allowed them to show off some of the features of the new subclasses added into the game! ...on the minus side, they got their asses kicked. XD Fortunately, founder and CEO of Larian Studios Swen Vincke showed up to destroy the dragon with his army of bees (...no, I don’t understand it either) before claiming a fancy sword and buggering off, and the whole thing was revealed to be a co-op campaign by modern AU versions of Wyll, Astarion, Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Karlach (Gale was stuck in the game world because his voice actor, Tim Downey, apparently doesn’t play the game like the others). XD Just – it was delightfully weird and wacky like all the other shorts were, and an excellent send-off to Larian’s time with the game (apart from patching bugs). Now I just have to hope that Patch 8 didn’t nuke all my mods from orbit…
B) And second up, we of course had more CaFae Latte from C. M. Alongi as I watched “CaFae Latte Season 39 - TikTok Compilation!” This video featured:
I. JC asking Nicole to explain more about how magic worked in the wake of the whole “love spell” incident with Jenny and Rethu (not because they were worried about their feelings for HER being false, but because magic weirded them out and they wanted to know better how it worked – Nicole explained it as “good” witches cast spells on themselves and let the universe adjust around them, while “bad” witches cast spells on others and create things that aren’t really there)
II. Amyth dropping by the cafe to give JC a badge showing they were under her family’s protection because of all the good work they did with getting her dragon egg back when it was stolen, helping Rethu with Jenny, and making excellent ghost pepper cookies for her fundraiser (they raised like twice as much as they’d hoped!) – came with a side of Amyth telling Drek that her family beats up people threatening selkies and other paranormal beings as a side gig XD
III. Nicole and Cyrus discussing favorite black authors during Black History Month, and Vet Grandpa showing up and talking about the black history that doesn’t often get discussed during said month with Nicole (specifically Nicole mentioning the Great Migration of black people out of the South to northern and western cities; Vet Grandpa relating an anecdote from his childhood about a black sharecropper he knew, Sam, who disappeared one day to move to Chicago with his family; and Nicole revealing her grandfather did much the same to get away from a terrible vampire boss who liked to eat her employees)
IV. A short silly little meta video celebrating the series’ first anniversary and revealing the Kickstarter for the book (with a message added about how much the campaign raised and how the book will be coming out in late 2025!)
V. Another short video of Nicole, at JC’s place, finding a Valentine’s Day gag gift that JC decided NOT give her after the whole mess with Rethu and Jenny – because it was a scented candle called “Love Spell” (roses and sugar scent); Nicole agreed it would have been in bad taste then, but was very eager to take it home now that she’d discovered it
VI. And a collection of clips of Janine joining Patrick’s D&D group for a session (playing a human fighter to make things simple for the newbie – Cyrus is an artificer, Toothy the tooth fairy a wizard, Kenny the goblin is a rogue, and Drek is a cleric), helping a town cursed by an evil wizard and fighting a dragon! Janine, who was initially rather “why am I here” about the whole thing, got VERY into it at the end. :P Sort of same, Janine – I may not be into D&D proper, but I am enjoying Baldur’s Gate III! :p
Fun times, as always – I do enjoy this series! Hoping I can watch a bit more tomorrow, since I’ll have a bit of extra free time. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check, I’m happy to say –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Threw a trio of reblogs into the queue for the next few days:
A) A Hattress-dress-themed A:MR moodboard made by “rainbowmatic-stumpomatic” for Wednesday
B) A short video of Victor clips from Corpse Bride set to “Angora Hills” by Doja Cat, created by “wifey.llarusso” on TikTok and uploaded to tumblr by “swanlady25” for Thursday
C) And an informational post on the old Sanctuary scare maze at Alton Towers, complete with a photo set of shots from the maze, by “theforbiddentowersarchive” for Friday!
*nods* That’ll do for now – just gotta figure out what I’m doing for Song Saturday, and I will be set!
Valice Multiverse – Had two things to drop into the queue tomorrow over here:
A) A follow-up anon ask regarding the salamander people that Secundus!Victor found in his greenhouse the other day – they have an egg with them (like a cricket-ball-sized “jelled sweet” with, uh, “skim milk” on it), and they apparently do NOT speak English, as one of them tried to say something to Victor in a language he did NOT understand, before giving up, getting their clothes, and rummaging around for a first aid kit. Victor was a little “now what” when it came to the language barrier, as you might expect – but then noticed what the salamander guy was looking for and is now concerned he’s hurt. Lightning, meanwhile, is still interested in the tub that came with them. :p I wonder if this will turn into a psuedo-thread of asks now...
B) And another reblog on the “Forgotten Vows!Alice meets Richard Lewis” thread I’ve got going with The Coven Wars, with Richard commenting that his brother normally tells him not to talk about his hallucinations with other people, but he felt like he could trust Alice – prompting the man who’s been watching this conversation from the beginning to start walking over. I had Alice reply that that was probably because she and Richard share the same affliction, then notice the man and comment that she really hoped that was Richard’s brother. :p Hopefully so! And hopefully he’s not a dick. We’ll see, I guess!
Yeah, not too shabby! And now I'm off to chill out for a little while before heading to bed. Now, tomorrow's passport shenanigans preclude me playing any video games (the appointment's at a bad time for that), so my goals tomorrow are to answer Moose's latest messages; see about doing some sort of drafting on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); continue my edits on Chapter 4 of "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland;" see about watching the OXBox stuff in the Watch Later while keeping up with the Subs; and get in a workout. *nods* I believe those are all achievable goals. Fingers crossed, folks! Night all!
Work – Well, I was hoping for a quieter day, and for a bit it looked like I was going to get one – I spent the morning pulling the usual reports, going through more of the exceptions we received the other day, and starting a QC file for the next set of thank-yous we’re sending out. And then, after lunch, I saw I’d gotten an e-mail from someone at one of the parishes asking about a donor’s gift that hadn’t shown up on the reports yet...
Which led to me finding out that the damn credit card company apparently wasn’t including everything in their batches that should be there. *facepalm* Cue me stressing out as I tried to figure out what exactly was going on so I could send my supervisor an e-mail about it and try to get it handled. I mean, I got it done, and he handed it off to the correct parties, and I was able to finish up everything else I needed to do (namely, the QC file) before the end of the day, but – fucking hell. It really never ends with them, I swear. >( At least I don’t have to deal with it tomorrow thanks to the personal day, but ugh. I guess we’ll see what happens on Thursday!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight, and back with “Trying to get rich from nectar in The Sims 1 (Part 2)” by James Turner! The second chunklet of three of this episode featured the following –
A) Semaj surviving the fire that he accidentally set while trying to make breakfast before work (mostly by getting out of the way and letting the firefighter run in to do their thing), then – after work and a power nap – going on another date with Iled Downtown, buying her flowers and having a nice one-course meal at the local alfresco dining area – which went well despite the kitchen flooding from a faulty dishwasher. XD. But yes, they had a lovely time, though Semaj did make things awkward when he tried to get too passionate too fast with the kissing. Gotta build up that lifetime friendship meter first, Semaj!
B) Semaj hitting Magic Town to stock up on more nectar-making ingredients (namely sugar, though he got a bit of honey too for a special honey nectar), and then hitting the books to study cooking after James, wondering why his nectar wasn’t selling for very much even when he made the fancier kinds, looked up the original comment that directed him to try nectar-selling as a “career” and realized that you had to max out your cooking skill to get the best price per bottle. By the end of the chunklet, he’d earned four skill points, and started getting $200 per bottle! Nice. :)
C) Semaj inviting Iled over to his house a couple of times to hang out, prompting James to buy him some new stuff so they’d have more ways to have fun together – getting a chess table (and some nicer chairs) during the first visit, and a foosball table during the second. They continue to get along well, though Iled is still a bit lukewarm on how passionately she wishes to kiss Semaj. XD Good thing the REAL Deli isn’t like that, eh, James?
D) James discovering that the real way to get rich fast in this version of the game is to buy Japanese fan wall art for $81 simoleons, wait a few days, and watch it basically go up in price TEN TIMES. James decided this was a bit cheaty and resolved not to use it anymore after the second time he did it, but he put the money to good use, buying things like a much nicer bed, a dresser (so Semaj didn’t have to shower if he wanted to change clothes), and a workout machine. Oh, and actual lights for the house. *nods* I mean, if you’ve got the simoleons…
E) And Semaj – after another run to Magic Town to stock up on sugar (which nearly ended in disaster when the game crashed upon him trying to visit one of the amusement park lots afterward – fortunately when James reloaded it turned out that it had saved the part of the visit where he’d bought all his ingredients) – quitting his job by not going to work for two days in a row because, as stated, at four Cooking skill points he’d reached the point where making and selling two lots of nectar per day earned more than him being a nurse. Granted, he then immediately got a bunch of bills and had to make more nectar to cover them, but isn’t that always the way in this life? :p
So yeah – things are going reasonably well for Old Semaj in this episode! I mean, yes, he continues to struggle mightily with his Social need, and his house always has flies and/or cockroaches in it, and his bills are huge because of all the new stuff he bought, but given how easy it is to accidentally kill Sims or put them in permanent bad moods in this iteration of the game, “reasonably well” is about the best you can hope for. XD We’ll wrap this up tomorrow and see what happens (and if there’s a specific reason why James only ever made two episodes of this “LP” – beyond “The Sims is fucking hard” :P)!
2. Continue final edits on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 4: Check – didn’t get quite as far as I’d hoped to tonight – only up to page 15 out of 36 – but that still covered Alice’s trip through the sewer (including leaping over a giant drainage hole to avoid Carpenter monologuing); Alice meeting and then murdering Brother Kanker (making good use of those horrible meat hooks dangling from his ceiling); Alice finding the Brotherhood flier (and being confused because THIS cult uses LEAFLETS??); and Alice finding Brotherhood headquarters – and being very sour about the fact that it’s DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE TREMERE CHANTRY. XD I mean, seriously, when you think about it, you HAVE to wonder how Strauss missed that. :p Left off with her finding her way inside – tomorrow, we should cover her meeting Jumbles, Jennifer, the zombies, and Bishop Vick himself!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Substitution Check – another Tuesday with nothing in the Subs meant I had to find some other ways to keep myself entertained – and find them I did –
A) First up, we had “Baldur’s Gate 3: The Final Patch - An Animated Short” by Larian Studios! Yup, uh, apparently Patch 8 officially dropped today, and so Larian marked the occasion, as they so often do, with the animated adventures of the Origin characters! This time with them finding the treasure of the Final Patch at the end of their adventures – which lead to them having a big nasty fight with a terrible dragon after getting sucked into the box where the patch was held. On the plus side, this allowed them to show off some of the features of the new subclasses added into the game! ...on the minus side, they got their asses kicked. XD Fortunately, founder and CEO of Larian Studios Swen Vincke showed up to destroy the dragon with his army of bees (...no, I don’t understand it either) before claiming a fancy sword and buggering off, and the whole thing was revealed to be a co-op campaign by modern AU versions of Wyll, Astarion, Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Karlach (Gale was stuck in the game world because his voice actor, Tim Downey, apparently doesn’t play the game like the others). XD Just – it was delightfully weird and wacky like all the other shorts were, and an excellent send-off to Larian’s time with the game (apart from patching bugs). Now I just have to hope that Patch 8 didn’t nuke all my mods from orbit…
B) And second up, we of course had more CaFae Latte from C. M. Alongi as I watched “CaFae Latte Season 39 - TikTok Compilation!” This video featured:
I. JC asking Nicole to explain more about how magic worked in the wake of the whole “love spell” incident with Jenny and Rethu (not because they were worried about their feelings for HER being false, but because magic weirded them out and they wanted to know better how it worked – Nicole explained it as “good” witches cast spells on themselves and let the universe adjust around them, while “bad” witches cast spells on others and create things that aren’t really there)
II. Amyth dropping by the cafe to give JC a badge showing they were under her family’s protection because of all the good work they did with getting her dragon egg back when it was stolen, helping Rethu with Jenny, and making excellent ghost pepper cookies for her fundraiser (they raised like twice as much as they’d hoped!) – came with a side of Amyth telling Drek that her family beats up people threatening selkies and other paranormal beings as a side gig XD
III. Nicole and Cyrus discussing favorite black authors during Black History Month, and Vet Grandpa showing up and talking about the black history that doesn’t often get discussed during said month with Nicole (specifically Nicole mentioning the Great Migration of black people out of the South to northern and western cities; Vet Grandpa relating an anecdote from his childhood about a black sharecropper he knew, Sam, who disappeared one day to move to Chicago with his family; and Nicole revealing her grandfather did much the same to get away from a terrible vampire boss who liked to eat her employees)
IV. A short silly little meta video celebrating the series’ first anniversary and revealing the Kickstarter for the book (with a message added about how much the campaign raised and how the book will be coming out in late 2025!)
V. Another short video of Nicole, at JC’s place, finding a Valentine’s Day gag gift that JC decided NOT give her after the whole mess with Rethu and Jenny – because it was a scented candle called “Love Spell” (roses and sugar scent); Nicole agreed it would have been in bad taste then, but was very eager to take it home now that she’d discovered it
VI. And a collection of clips of Janine joining Patrick’s D&D group for a session (playing a human fighter to make things simple for the newbie – Cyrus is an artificer, Toothy the tooth fairy a wizard, Kenny the goblin is a rogue, and Drek is a cleric), helping a town cursed by an evil wizard and fighting a dragon! Janine, who was initially rather “why am I here” about the whole thing, got VERY into it at the end. :P Sort of same, Janine – I may not be into D&D proper, but I am enjoying Baldur’s Gate III! :p
Fun times, as always – I do enjoy this series! Hoping I can watch a bit more tomorrow, since I’ll have a bit of extra free time. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check, I’m happy to say –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Threw a trio of reblogs into the queue for the next few days:
A) A Hattress-dress-themed A:MR moodboard made by “rainbowmatic-stumpomatic” for Wednesday
B) A short video of Victor clips from Corpse Bride set to “Angora Hills” by Doja Cat, created by “wifey.llarusso” on TikTok and uploaded to tumblr by “swanlady25” for Thursday
C) And an informational post on the old Sanctuary scare maze at Alton Towers, complete with a photo set of shots from the maze, by “theforbiddentowersarchive” for Friday!
*nods* That’ll do for now – just gotta figure out what I’m doing for Song Saturday, and I will be set!
Valice Multiverse – Had two things to drop into the queue tomorrow over here:
A) A follow-up anon ask regarding the salamander people that Secundus!Victor found in his greenhouse the other day – they have an egg with them (like a cricket-ball-sized “jelled sweet” with, uh, “skim milk” on it), and they apparently do NOT speak English, as one of them tried to say something to Victor in a language he did NOT understand, before giving up, getting their clothes, and rummaging around for a first aid kit. Victor was a little “now what” when it came to the language barrier, as you might expect – but then noticed what the salamander guy was looking for and is now concerned he’s hurt. Lightning, meanwhile, is still interested in the tub that came with them. :p I wonder if this will turn into a psuedo-thread of asks now...
B) And another reblog on the “Forgotten Vows!Alice meets Richard Lewis” thread I’ve got going with The Coven Wars, with Richard commenting that his brother normally tells him not to talk about his hallucinations with other people, but he felt like he could trust Alice – prompting the man who’s been watching this conversation from the beginning to start walking over. I had Alice reply that that was probably because she and Richard share the same affliction, then notice the man and comment that she really hoped that was Richard’s brother. :p Hopefully so! And hopefully he’s not a dick. We’ll see, I guess!
Yeah, not too shabby! And now I'm off to chill out for a little while before heading to bed. Now, tomorrow's passport shenanigans preclude me playing any video games (the appointment's at a bad time for that), so my goals tomorrow are to answer Moose's latest messages; see about doing some sort of drafting on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); continue my edits on Chapter 4 of "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland;" see about watching the OXBox stuff in the Watch Later while keeping up with the Subs; and get in a workout. *nods* I believe those are all achievable goals. Fingers crossed, folks! Night all!
