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The Red Curse Has Finally Arrived
May. 2nd, 2025 11:49 pmSnuck up on me near the end of the work day -- but fortunately, thanks to another false alarm I had this morning, I already had a pad in and thus did not ruin any of my clothes, hooray. Just glad to finally be getting it over with! *shakehead* That time of the month is always such a pain in the ass... Anyway. Here's how my day went, for any of you who might be interested:
Work – I am pleased to report that today was NOT a shitshow and in fact was nice and quiet and low-stress. I did the GL; I corrected the GL from a couple of days ago because I finally figured out what the problem was with the help of the person I was e-mailing before (reversal batch was included with some regular batches in error); I put on as many of the checks that came in today’s mail as I could (a couple were matching gifts with no obvious matches on the guy’s record); and I did a little bit of roster maintenance. Not a bad day to end the week, yay.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – pedaled my way through a couple more Baldur’s Gate III tips videos during my final night on the bike this week, because why the hell not, they looked interesting:
A) “Baldur’s Gate 3 Guide – Best Early Game Spells (Most players Don't Know How Good These Are)” by Fextralife! Because I enjoyed yesterday’s “Warlock Overview” by the channel and – as I am perma-stuck in the early game – I figured I might as well see what they had to say about what spells you should absolutely make sure your party has in the early game. And what they had to say was quite interesting – did you know that “Sleep” is actually a pretty OP early-game spell? Mostly because you can target multiple enemies with it (so long as you don’t target any over the “max HP” limit in the spell description) AND there’s no saving throw against it – if your enemies are weak enough, they’re going to sleep! And then all attacks against them have advantage, and are GUARANTEED crits if you’re close enough. *whistles* Okay, somebody in the party needs to have that… Other good early spells included “Longstrider” (a spell that, if cast outside combat, does NOT eat up a spell slot, gives everybody a bit more movement, AND lasts until long rest); “Healing Word” (a healing spell that can be used at range and consumes a BONUS action instead of a main action, meaning your healer can also do something else in the same turn); “Guidance” (a cantrip that adds the results of a D4 roll to skill and speech checks – I’ve used this as part of passing speech checks before, but the video reminded me that “hey, you can have Shadowheart cast this on people OUTSIDE of chatting too to help spot traps and such”); and “Sanctuary” (keeps enemies from directly attacking you unless you break the effect by attacking them – just good for keeping spellcasters alive!). Good stuff – now I can optimize my next attempt at a playthrough a little more. XD
B) “15 Mistakes You Make in Baldur's Gate 3 (Beginner's Guide) 🛑” by WolfheartFPS! A list of fifteen things that you might do as a beginning player that you don’t realize are actually screwing you over a bit. Some of these I already knew about/had guessed were mistakes on my own – like using equipment (weapons, armor, special clothing) that you’re not proficient in and thus hampering yourself, not inspecting enemies to see what their resistances are, and not using your short rests to heal up in between long rests – while others were stuff that I hadn’t really considered before, or just didn’t know how they worked – like making sure to use certain spells that last until the next long rest right after finishing your PREVIOUS long rest (especially if they’re “ritual” spells that don’t eat up a spell slot outside of combat), making good use of weapon skills (which refresh on a short rest!), and taking advantage of the ability to “ungroup” the party to have someone act as a scout in certain areas (and, if they get into trouble, taking advantage of the fact that all combat is turn-based to use their “turn” to get the rest of the party and move them into advantageous positions to help). Oh, and reactions – I had NO idea how those damn things worked until Wolfheart explained it. Now I feel like I understand them a bit better. :) Very useful stuff – just hoping I remember it all for my next playthrough! XD
2. Continue editing “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded”: Check – I have finished editing Chapter 4! :D A plan has been made to contact Elder Gutknecht (involving Smiler getting Sooty to carry a message back to his house in Six Towers) and to drop the ledger off with Piper Wright in Coalridge (who, Matt and Carol are sure, will spread the news far and wide once she sees what a horrible man Bumby was), and the trio are heading back to the Ministry of Joy with Smiler’s parents, ready to partake of the pleasures there (mainly music and drawing – Smiler had already guessed they wouldn’t be interested in the drug rooms) and finally get out of their stinky clothes. :) Tomorrow, we start the process of getting this sucker posted!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just the one GrayStillPlays video in the Subs today: “When food fights back,” aka Gray plays Food Run! This was a “runner” game of the “collect a bunch of friends and try to get enough of them around the obstacles to bust through all the barriers at the end and unlock a new type of friend” stripe, where you played as various kinds of food – starting with burgers, and unlocking such things as fries, kiwis, cinnamon buns, lettuce, mangoes, and milk cartons! All adorably cartoony –
And all at least vaguely murderous, because this runner game also has “storytime!” levels, and those levels start with the burgers beating up a cat (the one from that weird fishing game, Fishing Food, since apparently this is the same developer) for no reason, then forcing their way down the cat’s gullet, then beating up the ambulance that tries to take the cat to the hospital. And things don’t get any better from there, as the food then watches as a doctor cat gives the ambulance first a fake jar of “thoughts and prayers” to heal itself with, then a REAL jar when the “placebo” doesn’t work, which the ambulance eats, becoming WAAAAY too happy. Then the doctor cat makes the ambulance sad again by reminding it of the cat it was transporting, which it then proceeds to VOMIT UP. Then the cat emerges from the vomit just fine, only for the doctor to give them a present – a huge medical bill. THEN the cat agrees to try a highly-experimental weight loss treatment to earn the money to pay the bill – and that’s where Gray quit, as the video was going on too long. XD But yeah – for a cutesy food-based runner game, Food Run is slightly fucked up. And also making some pointed commentary about “thoughts and prayers” as a way to help people and the new weight-loss medications on the market. XD Here’s hoping Gray does a sequel video so we can see more of just how fucked up this game is!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – while there was again nothing to do Valice Multiverse, I took a moment to copy the “how I realized Tav!Smiler should be a Warlock as their base class, not a Bard” write-up I did back on Sunday into my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) as a sort of start on the post I want to make over there about that whole thing. Not much, but it’s something! Maybe I can work on it tomorrow, depending on brainpower...
Speaking of which, I really need to head to bed if I want to have any tomorrow. :p Main goal tomorrow is to get Chapter 4 of "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded" posted, or at least a good chunk of the way there -- hoping to also catch up on the OXBoxtra lists of the week, and maybe just maybe get some drafting done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). We'll see how the brainmeats feel! Night all!
Work – I am pleased to report that today was NOT a shitshow and in fact was nice and quiet and low-stress. I did the GL; I corrected the GL from a couple of days ago because I finally figured out what the problem was with the help of the person I was e-mailing before (reversal batch was included with some regular batches in error); I put on as many of the checks that came in today’s mail as I could (a couple were matching gifts with no obvious matches on the guy’s record); and I did a little bit of roster maintenance. Not a bad day to end the week, yay.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – pedaled my way through a couple more Baldur’s Gate III tips videos during my final night on the bike this week, because why the hell not, they looked interesting:
A) “Baldur’s Gate 3 Guide – Best Early Game Spells (Most players Don't Know How Good These Are)” by Fextralife! Because I enjoyed yesterday’s “Warlock Overview” by the channel and – as I am perma-stuck in the early game – I figured I might as well see what they had to say about what spells you should absolutely make sure your party has in the early game. And what they had to say was quite interesting – did you know that “Sleep” is actually a pretty OP early-game spell? Mostly because you can target multiple enemies with it (so long as you don’t target any over the “max HP” limit in the spell description) AND there’s no saving throw against it – if your enemies are weak enough, they’re going to sleep! And then all attacks against them have advantage, and are GUARANTEED crits if you’re close enough. *whistles* Okay, somebody in the party needs to have that… Other good early spells included “Longstrider” (a spell that, if cast outside combat, does NOT eat up a spell slot, gives everybody a bit more movement, AND lasts until long rest); “Healing Word” (a healing spell that can be used at range and consumes a BONUS action instead of a main action, meaning your healer can also do something else in the same turn); “Guidance” (a cantrip that adds the results of a D4 roll to skill and speech checks – I’ve used this as part of passing speech checks before, but the video reminded me that “hey, you can have Shadowheart cast this on people OUTSIDE of chatting too to help spot traps and such”); and “Sanctuary” (keeps enemies from directly attacking you unless you break the effect by attacking them – just good for keeping spellcasters alive!). Good stuff – now I can optimize my next attempt at a playthrough a little more. XD
B) “15 Mistakes You Make in Baldur's Gate 3 (Beginner's Guide) 🛑” by WolfheartFPS! A list of fifteen things that you might do as a beginning player that you don’t realize are actually screwing you over a bit. Some of these I already knew about/had guessed were mistakes on my own – like using equipment (weapons, armor, special clothing) that you’re not proficient in and thus hampering yourself, not inspecting enemies to see what their resistances are, and not using your short rests to heal up in between long rests – while others were stuff that I hadn’t really considered before, or just didn’t know how they worked – like making sure to use certain spells that last until the next long rest right after finishing your PREVIOUS long rest (especially if they’re “ritual” spells that don’t eat up a spell slot outside of combat), making good use of weapon skills (which refresh on a short rest!), and taking advantage of the ability to “ungroup” the party to have someone act as a scout in certain areas (and, if they get into trouble, taking advantage of the fact that all combat is turn-based to use their “turn” to get the rest of the party and move them into advantageous positions to help). Oh, and reactions – I had NO idea how those damn things worked until Wolfheart explained it. Now I feel like I understand them a bit better. :) Very useful stuff – just hoping I remember it all for my next playthrough! XD
2. Continue editing “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded”: Check – I have finished editing Chapter 4! :D A plan has been made to contact Elder Gutknecht (involving Smiler getting Sooty to carry a message back to his house in Six Towers) and to drop the ledger off with Piper Wright in Coalridge (who, Matt and Carol are sure, will spread the news far and wide once she sees what a horrible man Bumby was), and the trio are heading back to the Ministry of Joy with Smiler’s parents, ready to partake of the pleasures there (mainly music and drawing – Smiler had already guessed they wouldn’t be interested in the drug rooms) and finally get out of their stinky clothes. :) Tomorrow, we start the process of getting this sucker posted!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just the one GrayStillPlays video in the Subs today: “When food fights back,” aka Gray plays Food Run! This was a “runner” game of the “collect a bunch of friends and try to get enough of them around the obstacles to bust through all the barriers at the end and unlock a new type of friend” stripe, where you played as various kinds of food – starting with burgers, and unlocking such things as fries, kiwis, cinnamon buns, lettuce, mangoes, and milk cartons! All adorably cartoony –
And all at least vaguely murderous, because this runner game also has “storytime!” levels, and those levels start with the burgers beating up a cat (the one from that weird fishing game, Fishing Food, since apparently this is the same developer) for no reason, then forcing their way down the cat’s gullet, then beating up the ambulance that tries to take the cat to the hospital. And things don’t get any better from there, as the food then watches as a doctor cat gives the ambulance first a fake jar of “thoughts and prayers” to heal itself with, then a REAL jar when the “placebo” doesn’t work, which the ambulance eats, becoming WAAAAY too happy. Then the doctor cat makes the ambulance sad again by reminding it of the cat it was transporting, which it then proceeds to VOMIT UP. Then the cat emerges from the vomit just fine, only for the doctor to give them a present – a huge medical bill. THEN the cat agrees to try a highly-experimental weight loss treatment to earn the money to pay the bill – and that’s where Gray quit, as the video was going on too long. XD But yeah – for a cutesy food-based runner game, Food Run is slightly fucked up. And also making some pointed commentary about “thoughts and prayers” as a way to help people and the new weight-loss medications on the market. XD Here’s hoping Gray does a sequel video so we can see more of just how fucked up this game is!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – while there was again nothing to do Valice Multiverse, I took a moment to copy the “how I realized Tav!Smiler should be a Warlock as their base class, not a Bard” write-up I did back on Sunday into my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) as a sort of start on the post I want to make over there about that whole thing. Not much, but it’s something! Maybe I can work on it tomorrow, depending on brainpower...
Speaking of which, I really need to head to bed if I want to have any tomorrow. :p Main goal tomorrow is to get Chapter 4 of "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded" posted, or at least a good chunk of the way there -- hoping to also catch up on the OXBoxtra lists of the week, and maybe just maybe get some drafting done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). We'll see how the brainmeats feel! Night all!
