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Better Time Management Sunday
Dec. 28th, 2025 11:49 pmAs in, I think I will be able to finish this entry before I go to bed tonight, hooray~ Bit sad that that's a reason to celebrate -- really gotta work on my time management in 2026, I swear. But for now, here is the write-up for the day's activities:
Dreamwidth: Giving this its own category because I did spend a lot of time on here today:
A) First, I spent about an hour before lunch finishing off yesterday’s entry because I couldn’t get everything together by the time I decided “it’s 2 AM and I have to go to bed” (you can see the completed version here) – it really does annoy me whenever I have to do that, but at least it’s easier to do during this Christmas/New Year’s break!
B) Then I spent the rest of the time before lunch (and a little time afterward) answering all of Moose’s messages, because it was about freaking time I did that. *nods* Ball’s back in your court, Moose!
C) And of course I spent the time right before this entry answering all of Gigs’s comments from earlier, including that terrifying one about someone driving on a sidewalk past a schoolbus letting kids off and the much nicer one about how my Mom is cool. :) Keeping up with things, yay~
Tumblr: Had another “nothing on Valice Multiverse, reasonably busy on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)” day over here on the tumbls –
A) First, I saw that my friend Newt posted an ask meme called “AO3 Wrapped” on his blog (full of questions like “How many works did you publish this year?” and “What WIP are you taking into next year with you?”), and – after taking a moment to leave a comment on his “hatesex turns into unrequited feelings” Charles Rowland/Cat King Dead Boy Detectives fic, because I saw it mentioned in one of his answers to a previous ask (because it contains one of his favorite lines: “You’ll look back on that as the day he snuck his hand through your ribs and clicked the safety off.”), decided to check it out, and found it was really good (not to mention I already wanted to leave a nice comment on one of his fics in exchange for the nice comment on “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” yesterday, so...) – sent him an ask requesting him to answer question 30: “Biggest surprise while writing this year?” He replied that it was the mostly-positive reception to his “fat!Cat King” DBD smut fic (since the cast is filled with skinny, conventionally-attractive people); the way the Cat King (aka Thomas) took over a large portion of his DBD All Of Us Strangers-AU fic “never fade away” (but he wasn’t complaining about it); and how he managed to carry off writing the first chapter of the big collab DBD fic “The Great Escape Debacle Of 2025” because he came in as a pinch hitter WITHOUT reading the brief’s fine print and really had to SCRAMBLE to get something together (fortunately, his love of Saw helped him come up with an appropriate scenario to stick the poor boys in XD). I commented back that I was glad the “fat!Cat King” fic got so much love; that we shouldn’t be surprised that Thomas took over so much of “never fade away,” as he seems to like the spotlight; and that he was to be congratulated for getting that “Great Escape Debacle” fic chapter done. :) Good times – tempted to do the ask meme myself now, honestly...we’ll see how I feel tomorrow!
B) Then I quickly answered an ask from multiple-characters1-acct which simply said “Hap (Late) Birt!” – I simply said “Thank you! :)” back
C) Then, later in the afternoon, I responded to a post regicidalheart, aka Marie, tagged me in about Valicer’s reaction to Cajun food (as I believe she lives in New Orleans or somewhere in that general area and thus is familiar with it) – she posited that Alice wouldn’t be able to handle the spice, Victor would love it, and Smiler would find their mouth on fire but either enjoy the burn/be too polite to say anything for fear of offending the host. I said that I personally would switch Victor and Smiler’s reactions, or at least make both of them the “ow it burns but I can’t say anything because then the cook will be sad” type – though I admitted that might be just because I personally cannot handle spice and thus would wimp out when confronted with Cajun cooking. XD Though I did agree with her second point that they would find Cajun French confusing – especially Victor, who grew up learning PARISIAN French – but insisted they’d do their best to keep up. And said that if she wanted to do a Cajun OC, like she said at the end of the post, feel free! Smiler at least was always ready to make new friends. :p Nice to see people thinking of my trio – even if I don’t always agree with their headcanons. XD
D) And finally, late tonight, I reblogged Satirical’s latest reply in our conversation (over two different threads) about my Valicer trio in the Mortasheen world, talking about the various monsters the trio would find in their company. Apparently Carerazors are incapable of expressing negativity, which is why Alice’s Carerazor Beth calls Bumby the “least best friend” (though they are capable of tearing said “least best friends” apart with their claws – I approved of this and said that Beth and Smiler are definitely going to get along great); Greef vampires are meant to invoke the Gothic castles that traditional vampires live in, complete with flying “bat” polyps and whatnot (I had to admit that’s very cool); Orlock!Victor’s vampire companion, Sir Rhodes Glitterfin, is the way he is because he’s actually a young scamp by vampire fish standards (I compared him to a bratty teen, or someone in their 20s newly out on their own and making all sorts of bad decisions :P); and Psychodromes like the one Smiler will eventually pick up are weird even by Mortasheen standards, manifesting as weird biological “feelers” coming out of an old-school CRT TV set and forming a symbiotic connection to the nearest mind, “drinking” thoughts from nearby enemies and scrambling their brains if they threaten its host (Satirical thought it was very on-brand given the coaster’s “hypno-screen” stuff, and I agreed). This all remains extremely weird, but extremely fun to hear about. :)
Portal: Yes, I returned to the bowels of Aperture Science this afternoon, because – in a fit of absolute madness – I decided I wanted to go for the “Fruitcake” achievement (beat four Advanced portal maps) by taking on the Advanced version of Chamber 16 again. You know – the one that’s supposedly a live fire course for military androids? Full of deadly turrets? Which, in the Advanced version are in cages, so you can’t even knock them over and disable them – you have to work around them? The one where I got killed more times that I could count because I couldn’t get across that hallway midway through where the two turrets are facing each other without getting shot to absolute pieces? Yeah, that one. Why put myself through that torture again, you ask? Well, one, I’d already beaten three Advanced chambers, and, as stated, I wanted the achievement for beating a fourth –
And two, my only other options for Advanced chambers were Chamber 15, the one that now involves having to set up an infinite-fall-into-a-fling situation (aka I have to perfectly fire a portal while falling rapidly between two other portals, which I am not good at) right at the start, which I didn’t feel like doing, and Chamber 18, which was hard enough in the NORMAL version and I don’t even WANT to know how bad the Advanced one is. *wince* So yeah – really my only choice for completing a fourth Advanced map was Chamber 16, where I at least knew what I was getting into and had an idea or two on how to handle it. How did it go this time around? Well –
( This is a bit long and bitchy, so… )
*wipes brow* So, ah, yes – I successfully finished Advanced Chamber 16 and got my “Fruitcake” achievement! At the cost of my sanity and patience! :D Yeah, I’m not even looking at those other Advanced maps, or the remaining challenges I can do – next Sunday, we’re doing “new year new game” and moving onto Portal 2! I will be very happy to just look at the ceiling and the floor in my relaxation chamber when directed by the announcer, TRUST me.
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight, and returned to YouTube proper to watch as much of “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 24 - Critical Condition” by Jon of Many A True Nerd as I could while pedaling, finishing off the last chunk after supper. Because if I’m going back to YouTube for Oxventure, I might as well also go back to it for Jon and see if that helps my time management on Sundays any. *shrugs* I was pretty much out of movies to watch anyway. So yeah – tonight’s episode of The Adventures of Drunken Melee Courier P. D. Shoot featured:
( This gets long too, so let's do the cut )
FreeTube: In addition to the end of P. D.’s adventures above, I also got in another one of CaitlinRC’s “best of” Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark videos for writing research purposes: “Dave, Drinks, Unions and Weekends - The OX Crew Play BITD!” The best moments from Lilith and Barnaby’s adventure stealing Darnell Ironhook’s fancy anchor off his fancy party ship the De Ballena (which, yes, is named after Corazon and his ship). Featuring Barnaby, of all people, telling Lilith to get a job when she complains about a lack of money (and then saying “oh, it’s not for ME” when Luke was like “you are the LAST person to tell anyone to get a job”); Lilith introducing the ship’s staff to the concept of unions to get them on-side and let them go wherever they wish (Barnaby telling her afterward that it was brilliant, but also he’s never introducing her to his butler); and Barnaby having to roll for “Dave! Dave?” when he gets them down into the belly of the ship and attempts to greet one of the crewmen he consorted with via flashback (he fortunately rolled well, and Dave recognized him and went for a drink with him later, clearing the room so Lilith could bonk the remaining potential witness – no, not like that XD), among other things. XD Good stuff! I’m very glad Caitlin has made these videos, they’re perfect bite-sized bits of OX:BITD deliciousness. :)
Writing: I got a late start on this, but – thanks to watching most of the latest F:NV YOLO Remastered episode with my workout instead of after it – I did indeed have enough time tonight to finish editing Chapter 2 of “The Van Dort Vacancy!” Hooray! :D The final page-and-a-half featured:
A) Barnaby trying to ingratiate himself with Victor by talking about how he’s the most interesting member of his family right now, and how his father is an awful bore who won’t stop talking about his cannery; Victor agreed that William does like to go on about it, but that it bought them this beautiful house, so he has reason to be proud. Barnaby admitted that was true...then ruined the potential bonding moment by commenting about how the Van Dorts are a perfect example of how people can make their lives better by just stopping being poor. XD Oh Barnaby...
B) Barnaby then going on about how his family has three houses, including a “cottage” in Barrowcleft that just has the one ballroom, along with a study, lounge, and vault, to Victor’s growing disinterest...and then asking about the Van Dorts’ own vault. If they had one, where was it in the house, what kind of security did it have, could he possibly go see it… As you might imagine, Victor was rather taken aback by this line of questioning, and commented that it sounded like Barnaby was trying to rob his parents.
Cue Barnaby looking horrified in an “oh shit he’s onto me” way for a split-second, before desperately covering with some prattle about how he doesn’t need to rob the Van Dorts, he’s SO much richer than they’ll ever be, he’s just so interested in security, invested in a new firm recently, just making sure they really are the best of the best, really Master Van Dort, don’t insult him like that. XD I think we can safely say that Barnaby failed his Sway roll there! Sorry, buddy, it was for the plot.
C) And Victor listening to all this, looking around the ballroom filled with rich people who will never care about him (and made by rich people who will never care about him), thinking about his friends waiting back at the servant’s entrance – and coming to a decision. A decision that involved apologizing to Barnaby for any insult, and assuring him that he knew he didn’t need to rob the Van Dorts…
But that, if he wanted to, Victor would happily help him get inside the vault, so long as he was permitted to get his things first. Cue the chapter ending on Barnaby preparing to take Victor aside for a more private talk. XD Very happy to be done with this editing pass – tomorrow, we’ll see about starting the final pass over in FF.net’s document editor so I can get this sucker posted sooner rather than later!
Hooray, that is indeed everything! And all before 1 AM, nice -- though admittedly, I did end my convo with my friend Squid earlier than normal in an effort to not totally wreck my sleep schedule, which freed up a little more time to work on all this. *nods* And because I do want to try and not totally wreck my sleep schedule, I will be heading off to bed now. Tomorrow, the big thing that's happening is a post-lunch trip with Mom out to the stores to get some new work shoes and slippers, plus maybe some new work tops -- I also hope to figure out what I want to do with Fallout: New Vegas (best mod manager to use, what mods I might need other than the Unofficial Patch, etc), maybe see about starting a few new post drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and of course, as per the above, start the process of getting Chapter 2 of "The Van Dort Vacancy" ready to post. *nods* We'll see what happens -- night all!
Dreamwidth: Giving this its own category because I did spend a lot of time on here today:
A) First, I spent about an hour before lunch finishing off yesterday’s entry because I couldn’t get everything together by the time I decided “it’s 2 AM and I have to go to bed” (you can see the completed version here) – it really does annoy me whenever I have to do that, but at least it’s easier to do during this Christmas/New Year’s break!
B) Then I spent the rest of the time before lunch (and a little time afterward) answering all of Moose’s messages, because it was about freaking time I did that. *nods* Ball’s back in your court, Moose!
C) And of course I spent the time right before this entry answering all of Gigs’s comments from earlier, including that terrifying one about someone driving on a sidewalk past a schoolbus letting kids off and the much nicer one about how my Mom is cool. :) Keeping up with things, yay~
Tumblr: Had another “nothing on Valice Multiverse, reasonably busy on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)” day over here on the tumbls –
A) First, I saw that my friend Newt posted an ask meme called “AO3 Wrapped” on his blog (full of questions like “How many works did you publish this year?” and “What WIP are you taking into next year with you?”), and – after taking a moment to leave a comment on his “hatesex turns into unrequited feelings” Charles Rowland/Cat King Dead Boy Detectives fic, because I saw it mentioned in one of his answers to a previous ask (because it contains one of his favorite lines: “You’ll look back on that as the day he snuck his hand through your ribs and clicked the safety off.”), decided to check it out, and found it was really good (not to mention I already wanted to leave a nice comment on one of his fics in exchange for the nice comment on “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” yesterday, so...) – sent him an ask requesting him to answer question 30: “Biggest surprise while writing this year?” He replied that it was the mostly-positive reception to his “fat!Cat King” DBD smut fic (since the cast is filled with skinny, conventionally-attractive people); the way the Cat King (aka Thomas) took over a large portion of his DBD All Of Us Strangers-AU fic “never fade away” (but he wasn’t complaining about it); and how he managed to carry off writing the first chapter of the big collab DBD fic “The Great Escape Debacle Of 2025” because he came in as a pinch hitter WITHOUT reading the brief’s fine print and really had to SCRAMBLE to get something together (fortunately, his love of Saw helped him come up with an appropriate scenario to stick the poor boys in XD). I commented back that I was glad the “fat!Cat King” fic got so much love; that we shouldn’t be surprised that Thomas took over so much of “never fade away,” as he seems to like the spotlight; and that he was to be congratulated for getting that “Great Escape Debacle” fic chapter done. :) Good times – tempted to do the ask meme myself now, honestly...we’ll see how I feel tomorrow!
B) Then I quickly answered an ask from multiple-characters1-acct which simply said “Hap (Late) Birt!” – I simply said “Thank you! :)” back
C) Then, later in the afternoon, I responded to a post regicidalheart, aka Marie, tagged me in about Valicer’s reaction to Cajun food (as I believe she lives in New Orleans or somewhere in that general area and thus is familiar with it) – she posited that Alice wouldn’t be able to handle the spice, Victor would love it, and Smiler would find their mouth on fire but either enjoy the burn/be too polite to say anything for fear of offending the host. I said that I personally would switch Victor and Smiler’s reactions, or at least make both of them the “ow it burns but I can’t say anything because then the cook will be sad” type – though I admitted that might be just because I personally cannot handle spice and thus would wimp out when confronted with Cajun cooking. XD Though I did agree with her second point that they would find Cajun French confusing – especially Victor, who grew up learning PARISIAN French – but insisted they’d do their best to keep up. And said that if she wanted to do a Cajun OC, like she said at the end of the post, feel free! Smiler at least was always ready to make new friends. :p Nice to see people thinking of my trio – even if I don’t always agree with their headcanons. XD
D) And finally, late tonight, I reblogged Satirical’s latest reply in our conversation (over two different threads) about my Valicer trio in the Mortasheen world, talking about the various monsters the trio would find in their company. Apparently Carerazors are incapable of expressing negativity, which is why Alice’s Carerazor Beth calls Bumby the “least best friend” (though they are capable of tearing said “least best friends” apart with their claws – I approved of this and said that Beth and Smiler are definitely going to get along great); Greef vampires are meant to invoke the Gothic castles that traditional vampires live in, complete with flying “bat” polyps and whatnot (I had to admit that’s very cool); Orlock!Victor’s vampire companion, Sir Rhodes Glitterfin, is the way he is because he’s actually a young scamp by vampire fish standards (I compared him to a bratty teen, or someone in their 20s newly out on their own and making all sorts of bad decisions :P); and Psychodromes like the one Smiler will eventually pick up are weird even by Mortasheen standards, manifesting as weird biological “feelers” coming out of an old-school CRT TV set and forming a symbiotic connection to the nearest mind, “drinking” thoughts from nearby enemies and scrambling their brains if they threaten its host (Satirical thought it was very on-brand given the coaster’s “hypno-screen” stuff, and I agreed). This all remains extremely weird, but extremely fun to hear about. :)
Portal: Yes, I returned to the bowels of Aperture Science this afternoon, because – in a fit of absolute madness – I decided I wanted to go for the “Fruitcake” achievement (beat four Advanced portal maps) by taking on the Advanced version of Chamber 16 again. You know – the one that’s supposedly a live fire course for military androids? Full of deadly turrets? Which, in the Advanced version are in cages, so you can’t even knock them over and disable them – you have to work around them? The one where I got killed more times that I could count because I couldn’t get across that hallway midway through where the two turrets are facing each other without getting shot to absolute pieces? Yeah, that one. Why put myself through that torture again, you ask? Well, one, I’d already beaten three Advanced chambers, and, as stated, I wanted the achievement for beating a fourth –
And two, my only other options for Advanced chambers were Chamber 15, the one that now involves having to set up an infinite-fall-into-a-fling situation (aka I have to perfectly fire a portal while falling rapidly between two other portals, which I am not good at) right at the start, which I didn’t feel like doing, and Chamber 18, which was hard enough in the NORMAL version and I don’t even WANT to know how bad the Advanced one is. *wince* So yeah – really my only choice for completing a fourth Advanced map was Chamber 16, where I at least knew what I was getting into and had an idea or two on how to handle it. How did it go this time around? Well –
( This is a bit long and bitchy, so… )
*wipes brow* So, ah, yes – I successfully finished Advanced Chamber 16 and got my “Fruitcake” achievement! At the cost of my sanity and patience! :D Yeah, I’m not even looking at those other Advanced maps, or the remaining challenges I can do – next Sunday, we’re doing “new year new game” and moving onto Portal 2! I will be very happy to just look at the ceiling and the floor in my relaxation chamber when directed by the announcer, TRUST me.
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight, and returned to YouTube proper to watch as much of “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 24 - Critical Condition” by Jon of Many A True Nerd as I could while pedaling, finishing off the last chunk after supper. Because if I’m going back to YouTube for Oxventure, I might as well also go back to it for Jon and see if that helps my time management on Sundays any. *shrugs* I was pretty much out of movies to watch anyway. So yeah – tonight’s episode of The Adventures of Drunken Melee Courier P. D. Shoot featured:
( This gets long too, so let's do the cut )
FreeTube: In addition to the end of P. D.’s adventures above, I also got in another one of CaitlinRC’s “best of” Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark videos for writing research purposes: “Dave, Drinks, Unions and Weekends - The OX Crew Play BITD!” The best moments from Lilith and Barnaby’s adventure stealing Darnell Ironhook’s fancy anchor off his fancy party ship the De Ballena (which, yes, is named after Corazon and his ship). Featuring Barnaby, of all people, telling Lilith to get a job when she complains about a lack of money (and then saying “oh, it’s not for ME” when Luke was like “you are the LAST person to tell anyone to get a job”); Lilith introducing the ship’s staff to the concept of unions to get them on-side and let them go wherever they wish (Barnaby telling her afterward that it was brilliant, but also he’s never introducing her to his butler); and Barnaby having to roll for “Dave! Dave?” when he gets them down into the belly of the ship and attempts to greet one of the crewmen he consorted with via flashback (he fortunately rolled well, and Dave recognized him and went for a drink with him later, clearing the room so Lilith could bonk the remaining potential witness – no, not like that XD), among other things. XD Good stuff! I’m very glad Caitlin has made these videos, they’re perfect bite-sized bits of OX:BITD deliciousness. :)
Writing: I got a late start on this, but – thanks to watching most of the latest F:NV YOLO Remastered episode with my workout instead of after it – I did indeed have enough time tonight to finish editing Chapter 2 of “The Van Dort Vacancy!” Hooray! :D The final page-and-a-half featured:
A) Barnaby trying to ingratiate himself with Victor by talking about how he’s the most interesting member of his family right now, and how his father is an awful bore who won’t stop talking about his cannery; Victor agreed that William does like to go on about it, but that it bought them this beautiful house, so he has reason to be proud. Barnaby admitted that was true...then ruined the potential bonding moment by commenting about how the Van Dorts are a perfect example of how people can make their lives better by just stopping being poor. XD Oh Barnaby...
B) Barnaby then going on about how his family has three houses, including a “cottage” in Barrowcleft that just has the one ballroom, along with a study, lounge, and vault, to Victor’s growing disinterest...and then asking about the Van Dorts’ own vault. If they had one, where was it in the house, what kind of security did it have, could he possibly go see it… As you might imagine, Victor was rather taken aback by this line of questioning, and commented that it sounded like Barnaby was trying to rob his parents.
Cue Barnaby looking horrified in an “oh shit he’s onto me” way for a split-second, before desperately covering with some prattle about how he doesn’t need to rob the Van Dorts, he’s SO much richer than they’ll ever be, he’s just so interested in security, invested in a new firm recently, just making sure they really are the best of the best, really Master Van Dort, don’t insult him like that. XD I think we can safely say that Barnaby failed his Sway roll there! Sorry, buddy, it was for the plot.
C) And Victor listening to all this, looking around the ballroom filled with rich people who will never care about him (and made by rich people who will never care about him), thinking about his friends waiting back at the servant’s entrance – and coming to a decision. A decision that involved apologizing to Barnaby for any insult, and assuring him that he knew he didn’t need to rob the Van Dorts…
But that, if he wanted to, Victor would happily help him get inside the vault, so long as he was permitted to get his things first. Cue the chapter ending on Barnaby preparing to take Victor aside for a more private talk. XD Very happy to be done with this editing pass – tomorrow, we’ll see about starting the final pass over in FF.net’s document editor so I can get this sucker posted sooner rather than later!
Hooray, that is indeed everything! And all before 1 AM, nice -- though admittedly, I did end my convo with my friend Squid earlier than normal in an effort to not totally wreck my sleep schedule, which freed up a little more time to work on all this. *nods* And because I do want to try and not totally wreck my sleep schedule, I will be heading off to bed now. Tomorrow, the big thing that's happening is a post-lunch trip with Mom out to the stores to get some new work shoes and slippers, plus maybe some new work tops -- I also hope to figure out what I want to do with Fallout: New Vegas (best mod manager to use, what mods I might need other than the Unofficial Patch, etc), maybe see about starting a few new post drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and of course, as per the above, start the process of getting Chapter 2 of "The Van Dort Vacancy" ready to post. *nods* We'll see what happens -- night all!
