A Not Ideal Saturday
Apr. 26th, 2025 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickLike, it wasn't HORRIBLE, but it wasn't GREAT either. Could have used some improvements. But I still got a fair bit done, at least on the writing and "catching up on YouTube" fronts --
Cleaning & Laundry: As usual, this took up my entire morning, though it didn’t bleed too heavily into the rest of the day, at least. Started the dusting around 10:20 AM; paused to go throw my load of sheets, blankets, and bathrobe into the wash around 11:20 AM; finished the dusting and put the laundry in the dryer around 12:40 PM; got the Swiffering and vacuuming done shortly before lunch at 1:10 PM; grabbed my laundry out of the dryer around 2:05 PM; and finally properly finished after folding all my blankets and whatnot around 2:30 PM. *shrug* Pretty typical for a Cleaning Saturday, frankly! And at least I had a good time listening to the next episode of Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark I had to catch up on while I dusted – “To The Depths,” where Barnaby and Edvard use a diving bell and a Submersible Mechanical Frog-Man to get Amadeus Astor’s safe out of the Volis River after he collapsed his own building into it to make sure they couldn’t get at the important documents inside. Unlike the last episode with Zillah and Kasimir, nearly everything went perfectly during this little endeavor, with a small snafu at the end where a giant eel got into their diving bell – don’t worry, though, while Barnaby failed to strangle it, Edvard managed to punch its lights out. XD You see why I love this series so much? And next Cleaning Saturday is Kasimir and Lilith infiltrating Bellweather Crematorium, which I recall as being loads of fun as well...
Sims 4: Yes, Sims 4, not Baldur’s Gate III was my game of choice today. Why? Well, my late night check of the mods I have in my BG3 game yesterday (well – earlier today, I did it after midnight) revealed that, while a lot of them HAD been updated (within the last couple of days, in fact!), one of the keystone ones, my Artificer mod, had NOT – though a submod for that mod that allowed you to pick a feat every other level, made by the same creator, HAD. Which was very confusing. O.o Also, I’m not entirely sure WHAT’S going on with ImpUI, another keystone mod – it looks like SOMEONE has updated it so it works with other people’s class and subclass mods once again (there were apparently issues with it not displaying them), but the person who did the update said they are ALSO not maintaining the mod – this was a one-time update. And then, while I was reading the comments on said mod, that same person ALSO told someone having issues that, if someone started a modded playthrough before Patch 8, they should RESTART upon upgrading to Patch 8, which – okay. I am admittedly not very far into the game, but I would like not to have to restart YET AGAIN. It would be my fourth time on the Nautiloid! *facepalm* I just – I dunno. I have enjoyed what little of this game I have gotten to play, but getting to play as the character I want to play as – my Bard/Artificer Smiler – has proven to be something of a pain in the ass. >( And after doing all my cleaning, and dealing with my parents being in grumpy moods because the program they use to keep track of the books they sell online was being a little bitch again, I was like, “You know what, I don’t want the stress of figuring out my BG3 mod situation this afternoon. Let’s just do some building in Sims 4 instead – after all, I want to try making that ‘upside-down-ice-cream-cone’ ice cream parlor that I came up with the other day!”
...I then spent the better part of an hour failing to make that “upside-down-ice-cream-cone” ice cream parlor that I came up with the other day! XD Yeah, uh, long story short, I didn’t realize when I came up with the idea that you couldn’t do super-pointy roofs in The Sims 4, at least not at the scale I was building at. The game simply wouldn’t let me raise the roof up to the extreme shape I needed when I first attempted the build with an octagonal room and matching roof. (I did also try a conical roof atop a more round room to see if that would work, but I couldn’t get the roof to sit correctly atop the room. Which, admittedly, I’d made the room a bit more oval to make sure I had a flat spot I could put a door on, so – yeah. Mea culpa there.) I found a few roof patterns that at least simulated a waffle cone pattern nicely (the Life & Death Gloomy Weathered Tile roof was particularly good), but the roof itself was just too stumpy – all I could think was pseudo-tropical hut. “Well, okay – maybe we can try to do the ice cream cone laying on its side instead?” I decided after not seeing anything helpful on the Gallery when I went looking for inspiration. “Do it so it looks like an ice cream cone from the sky, like how I did the Freezer Bunny Arcade?” And so I experimented with that concept for a little while –
Aaand yeah, that didn’t work either. The problem there was that, if I wanted the right “cone” shape, I had to do a right triangle shape – a regular triangle just got too wide too fast. But when I did that, I quickly found there was really no way to make the “scoop” on top that didn’t look at least somewhat lopsided when compared to the cone. Like, my initial experiment with my original octagonal room and a right triangle coming off it didn’t look TOO bad, but all my subsequent attempts to do something that looked better just – did NOT work. I tried using rounded rooms to get the right “scoop” shape; I tried diagonal square rooms to get my angles right; I tried building a little “drip” off the side to disguise some of the lopsidedness; I tried busting out the custom room tool to draw a custom shape. None of it worked, and I eventually abandoned the build. *sigh* Yeah, I think the only way to do a proper ice-cream-cone-shaped building in Sims 4 is to do what I did before with my original Ice Cream Conery – build a cake cone with a domed roof. That’s what all the “ice cream cone” builds I found on the Gallery looked like too. Shame – I really wanted to do that upside-down ice cream cone! I was gonna call it “Splat! Ice Cream” and everything. Ah well…
However, all was not TOTALLY lost in my Sims 4 session today – before quitting for the day, I quickly swung by the Polyheart OT3 House to see if I could at least put some ceilings on some more rooms. And I could! :D The following three rooms now have ceilings:
I. The M-shaped bathroom – this one took a while, as I couldn’t find a tile I liked – the shimmery blue floor tiles didn’t look right as ceiling tiles, and none of the while tiles (or, in one case, white wooden flooring) I tried looked great either (a lot of them had a big grid pattern between them for some reason that I didn’t dig). I eventually ended up in the “Miscellaneous” section instead, where I decided to try that one “fake sky” ceiling tile we got with Horse Ranch on the basis of “well, it’d go nice with the mural” –
And it did! In fact, I thought it looked really good indeed! So good, in fact, that when I moved onto the NEXT room I wanted to put a ceiling on –
II. The Bedroom – I decided to use it in here too! Specifically, I checked through the other swatches of the tile, and was delighted to find a “night sky with constellations” swatch that I thought fit well with their dark butterfly-themed wallpaper. So I slapped that up there for Victor, Alice, and Smiler to look at at night. It does feel like the kind of thing Smiler would encourage them to do!
III. The Kitchen – And then, by contrast, I decided to just use the same Life & Death parquet flooring I’d used for the ceilings in the hallways and living room (and Victor and Alice’s rooms, in different shades) in here. Figured I might as well stay consistent! Though it is subject to change if I freecam in there later and decide I don’t like it. *shrug*
So yeah, at least I got that done. That only leaves the front entrance needing a ceiling – which is a bit tricky, given I need something that goes well with the rainbow-block wallpaper. Hmmm. *strokes chin* A question to ponder the next time I pop in here!
Writing: Edited another page of Chapter 4 of “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” today – featuring Alice, Victor, and Smiler informing Matt and Carol of their status as wanted murderers of a Spirit Warden (emphasizing that they did not actually do said murder) – and Matt and Carol informing them in turn that “oh, we already know you’re innocent – the Spirit Wardens made it very clear that the man who died was a) killed by a ghost and b) NOT a Spirit Warden, just a conman who infiltrated their ranks, so you’re free and clear! :D” As you might imagine, Alice was less-than-happy to learn that, if she hadn’t started stabbing everyone at Wonderland’s insistence, they might have been allowed to walk after about an hour at the station. XD Carol was like “oh, it’s fine, it’s not like you’ve murdered anyone else, right?”
Cue silence, and poor Carol going “...right?” Fortunately, the minute Victor handed over Bumby’s ledger and she and Matt getting a good look at it, they were like, “Oh, totally justified murder.” XD I left things off there – depending on how things go tomorrow, I might be able to finish this chapter off! Then again, looks like I have closer to two pages to go, not one...we’ll see happens!
YouTube: I am pleased to say that I got through all FOUR of the videos I wanted to get through today, yay~ :D A rare occurrence, but always a nice one!
A) First up was the OXBox list of the week – “7 Most Misleading Mobile Game Ads!” Andy, Mike, and Jane talking about those mobile ads that in NO WAY represent the game they’re actually advertising! The ad for Evertale that makes it look like a horror take on classic Pokemon games? FAKE – the actual game is a cel-shaded turn-based adventure that DOES feature capturing monsters in crystals (which is Legally Distinct from catching them in balls) but no horror elements that I can see. The ad for Evony that makes it look like the latest mobile-game-trend-of-the-week? FAKE – it’s a city-builder with occasional mini-games of those stripes. The ad for Warpath that makes it look like a fucking Steven Spielberg movie about the horrors of World War II? FAKE – it’s a fucking top-down strategy game. And don’t even get them started on the weird fetishy ads for Hero Wars...point is, when it comes to mobile game ads, never believe what you see!
B) Then it was time for more CaFae Latte by C. M. Alongi with “CaFae Latte Season 42 - TikTok Compilation!” Today’s video featured JC and Rethu asking Husniya if it would be insensitive to sell crescent moon cookies to celebrate Ramadan (Husniya: “No, but, um, I don’t think they’d sell well because this a month of FASTING”); Drek experiencing his first Karen who demanded he stop “listening to music” (because he was wearing noise-canceling earbuds) and Husniya stepping in to make the lady back down before Bob got involved (she did not, and got cursed with mirroring Drek’s ADHD for two years); Husniya comforting Drek after the experience and assuring him he could stay in the back – only for Drek to see a rush and jump back into helping because his mom didn’t raise a coward (aw); Rethu getting called out by a customer for being on their phone when them had a book in their hand – only for them to inform said customer they were looking up a word they don’t know and also e-readers are a thing (with Cyrus pointing out that Patrick uses those, both for environmental reasons and to avoid getting bullied for liking romance novels by people who don’t realize they’re picking on a military commander); Cyrus and Drek serving the ER nurse regular, who stopped in for coffee and to meet with her boyfriend before a movie they were supposed to see together – only for said boyfriend to never show because he was too busy trying to build his Twitch gaming stream (poor Drek was like “Reminders on your phone, dude,” not understanding the guy was just selfish); ER Nurse showing post-break-up with a huge order for the gang (for her and her friends going to clear his shit out of her apartment) and Rethu and Nicole having to deal with an asshole customer accusing them of being sexist for not reading male authors (they attempted to explain “hey, uh, we’re looking for books that actually represent US and not cis white male experiences, your opinion is not wanted here,” but then he got whiny and got cursed by Bob to HAVE to read women and queer authors if he ever wanted to read any of his precious male authors again). Delightful stuff as always – I do love a good Bob cursing. :p
C) Then it was over to the Subs for the Josh Way video I missed yesterday – “Fun With Shorts: Fundamentals of Acoustics!” Seven minutes of facts about sound, including how fast it travels (and why you can sometimes see something before hearing the sound it produces); how we hear sounds (the usual explanation of how the ear works); and what the uses of supersonic and ultrasonic sounds are (mainly for blowing up enemy submarines). Josh was of course great with his riffs, starting out strong with calling the study of acoustics “the taxonomy of whistles and farts” and making sure to get in shots against Imagine Dragons and Panic! At The Disco. XD I do enjoy when he gets his riff on!
D) And finally, smooshed in at the very end, we had the latest from GrayStillPlays – “Can triangle wheels climb stairs?” Yes, the Weird Wheel nonsense in GTA V continued today, with Gray forced to figure out if TRIANGULAR wheels were good at, well, anything. XD As is usual with the Weird Wheels boards, Gray was given three vehicles – the Triangular Trike, the Triangular Super Car, and the Quad-Triangular (as in four triangles mounted around a square making up the wheel) Hummer – and four challenges to beat with them. Each challenge was worth a point, and whoever got the most points at the end won. So what did we get, and which of these monstrosities actually claimed a victory? Well, in order, we had:
I. A turning challenge along two levels of twisty-turny roads above the local beach (first portion had guardrails, second portion did not), which Gray had to complete in 47 seconds – the Trike and the Hummer proved to be absolute GARBAGE at this, with the Trike basically refusing to turn at all and the Hummer constantly drifting like it was on ice. The Super Car, though? Only reason it didn’t get it first try was because it was MILLISECONDS too late to beat the wall coming up. It got it on the second run and earned a well-deserved point!
II. A climbing challenge where the cars had to get up an extremely steep slanted staircase in 24 seconds – here the Super Car just could not keep up its momentum long enough to make it up all the steps, and the drifty horror that was the Hummer simply couldn’t do it at all. The Trike, though? That thing BLASTED up the steep slanted steps and managed to FLIP over the wall when it came up, making it even after the time limit! And then Gray went back and did it legit as well, just to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. :p But he wasn’t, and the Trike scored a point!
III. A SECOND climbing challenge, but this time the cars were tasked with going up “stairs” that were just the thin edges of a bunch of platforms, with wider and wider gaps between them as you went further and further up. The Trike alternated between failing miserably to even get on the challenge and doing okay until about halfway up because its wheels kept getting stuck in the gaps, and the Super Car did great RIIIIGHT up until the end, where it finally lost too much momentum in the widest gaps. Meaning the Quad-Triangular Hummer finally managed to earn a point by being the only one able to climb to the top! With enough of a run-up, anyway. And yes, it still fucking drifted even on this challenge. XD
IV. And the grand finale challenge, featuring a rising ramp covered in small harmless speedbumps that Gray had to get up at JUST the right speed so he could get off the ramp and through a thumbnail hole at the top at the exact second the two were actually lined up. Gray thought the Super Car would have this in the bag, because, you know, fast, but as it turned out, it kept bouncing on the speedbumps and losing all its momentum at critical moments. And the Trike was back to being useless when he tried it here –
Meaning that, for all its weird drifty faults, the Quad-Triangular Hummer was the one to take the win! Once Gray got the speed and timing right, because, hilariously, his first attempt to get up the ramp saw him go up it TOO FAST and get off BEFORE it reached the thumbnail hole. XD Just goes to show, that even the worst, jankiest piece of shit with weirdass wheels might have something it does well! Only one thing, mind, but still. XD
Tumblr: Had some surprise productivity over here today, which was nice –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Normally I don’t do anything over here on Cleaning Saturdays (as the cleaning takes up the time slot I usually use for working on drafts), but I was hit with some inspiration tonight and actually ended up doing a bit more on the second half of my Mega Ghostbusters AU post! Covering the gang reuniting after Gozer’s death; them meeting with Mayor Wilson again, who assures them that Edna’s been fired for her role in the whole mess and offers them a new facility to work from (Doc says “I’ll take something just for containing ghosts if you’ve got it”); and finally arriving back at the firehouse, cleaning up, getting settled –
And then grilling Smiler about the whole “wtf you’re an ELDRITCH GOD” thing. XD Complete with Alice revealing she’d already guessed they were Mar-Mal, and Smiler explaining that they took a human form after being horrified over how they’d accidentally killed their followers, and ended up enjoying it so much that they just stayed in human form until Gozer forced them to break out the eldritch stuff again. Currently ended it with them offering to leave if they make the others uncomfortable, and everyone being like “no don’t go that far” – dunno if I’ll finish this off tomorrow or instead work on some posts featuring the Pride Update EA gave The Sims 4 at the beginning of April, but at least it’s a little closer to done!
Valice Multiverse – Over here was another quiet Saturday night, with just one anon ask – another entry in the “Salamander people in Secundus!Victor’s greenhouse” saga, with the salamander guy leading the constable who showed up with their rocket over to the salamander girl (still petting Lightning in the greenhouse), and the constable thanking Victor for his cooperation and saying they’ll get everyone and everything moved to a more appropriate area after they get his statement. Victor was like “fine, though I don’t think it’ll be much of a statement,” while Lightning just enjoyed the continued pets. :)
...you know, looking at all of that, I got more done than I thought. It was just the video gaming that was kind of a disappointment. And even then, I'm pleased that I got more ceiling stuff done on the Polyheart OT3 house. :) So not an ideal Saturday, but a better one than I assumed. But now I have to get to bed, as it's starting to get kind of late here. Tomorrow -- okay. I know that I am going to do some more work on the Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; keep up with the latest from Jon and Gray; and get in a workout (which will help me keep up with the latest from Jon and Gray). But I'm not sure what I'm doing gaming or writing-wise, because -- okay. I can't get into it in full now because I DO have to go to bed. But while my intent was to try and figure out my mod situation for Baldur's Gate III this weekend -- I'm starting to think that I do need to start over with Patch 8. But not because of the mods, necessarily. More because I did some reading on the wiki tonight --
...and I think I made Smiler the wrong class. Or, rather, I think there's a THIRD class I absolutely need to throw into the mix for them that should be their actual primary class. *facepalm* I'll -- I'll try to explain later. For now, bed. Night all!
Cleaning & Laundry: As usual, this took up my entire morning, though it didn’t bleed too heavily into the rest of the day, at least. Started the dusting around 10:20 AM; paused to go throw my load of sheets, blankets, and bathrobe into the wash around 11:20 AM; finished the dusting and put the laundry in the dryer around 12:40 PM; got the Swiffering and vacuuming done shortly before lunch at 1:10 PM; grabbed my laundry out of the dryer around 2:05 PM; and finally properly finished after folding all my blankets and whatnot around 2:30 PM. *shrug* Pretty typical for a Cleaning Saturday, frankly! And at least I had a good time listening to the next episode of Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark I had to catch up on while I dusted – “To The Depths,” where Barnaby and Edvard use a diving bell and a Submersible Mechanical Frog-Man to get Amadeus Astor’s safe out of the Volis River after he collapsed his own building into it to make sure they couldn’t get at the important documents inside. Unlike the last episode with Zillah and Kasimir, nearly everything went perfectly during this little endeavor, with a small snafu at the end where a giant eel got into their diving bell – don’t worry, though, while Barnaby failed to strangle it, Edvard managed to punch its lights out. XD You see why I love this series so much? And next Cleaning Saturday is Kasimir and Lilith infiltrating Bellweather Crematorium, which I recall as being loads of fun as well...
Sims 4: Yes, Sims 4, not Baldur’s Gate III was my game of choice today. Why? Well, my late night check of the mods I have in my BG3 game yesterday (well – earlier today, I did it after midnight) revealed that, while a lot of them HAD been updated (within the last couple of days, in fact!), one of the keystone ones, my Artificer mod, had NOT – though a submod for that mod that allowed you to pick a feat every other level, made by the same creator, HAD. Which was very confusing. O.o Also, I’m not entirely sure WHAT’S going on with ImpUI, another keystone mod – it looks like SOMEONE has updated it so it works with other people’s class and subclass mods once again (there were apparently issues with it not displaying them), but the person who did the update said they are ALSO not maintaining the mod – this was a one-time update. And then, while I was reading the comments on said mod, that same person ALSO told someone having issues that, if someone started a modded playthrough before Patch 8, they should RESTART upon upgrading to Patch 8, which – okay. I am admittedly not very far into the game, but I would like not to have to restart YET AGAIN. It would be my fourth time on the Nautiloid! *facepalm* I just – I dunno. I have enjoyed what little of this game I have gotten to play, but getting to play as the character I want to play as – my Bard/Artificer Smiler – has proven to be something of a pain in the ass. >( And after doing all my cleaning, and dealing with my parents being in grumpy moods because the program they use to keep track of the books they sell online was being a little bitch again, I was like, “You know what, I don’t want the stress of figuring out my BG3 mod situation this afternoon. Let’s just do some building in Sims 4 instead – after all, I want to try making that ‘upside-down-ice-cream-cone’ ice cream parlor that I came up with the other day!”
...I then spent the better part of an hour failing to make that “upside-down-ice-cream-cone” ice cream parlor that I came up with the other day! XD Yeah, uh, long story short, I didn’t realize when I came up with the idea that you couldn’t do super-pointy roofs in The Sims 4, at least not at the scale I was building at. The game simply wouldn’t let me raise the roof up to the extreme shape I needed when I first attempted the build with an octagonal room and matching roof. (I did also try a conical roof atop a more round room to see if that would work, but I couldn’t get the roof to sit correctly atop the room. Which, admittedly, I’d made the room a bit more oval to make sure I had a flat spot I could put a door on, so – yeah. Mea culpa there.) I found a few roof patterns that at least simulated a waffle cone pattern nicely (the Life & Death Gloomy Weathered Tile roof was particularly good), but the roof itself was just too stumpy – all I could think was pseudo-tropical hut. “Well, okay – maybe we can try to do the ice cream cone laying on its side instead?” I decided after not seeing anything helpful on the Gallery when I went looking for inspiration. “Do it so it looks like an ice cream cone from the sky, like how I did the Freezer Bunny Arcade?” And so I experimented with that concept for a little while –
Aaand yeah, that didn’t work either. The problem there was that, if I wanted the right “cone” shape, I had to do a right triangle shape – a regular triangle just got too wide too fast. But when I did that, I quickly found there was really no way to make the “scoop” on top that didn’t look at least somewhat lopsided when compared to the cone. Like, my initial experiment with my original octagonal room and a right triangle coming off it didn’t look TOO bad, but all my subsequent attempts to do something that looked better just – did NOT work. I tried using rounded rooms to get the right “scoop” shape; I tried diagonal square rooms to get my angles right; I tried building a little “drip” off the side to disguise some of the lopsidedness; I tried busting out the custom room tool to draw a custom shape. None of it worked, and I eventually abandoned the build. *sigh* Yeah, I think the only way to do a proper ice-cream-cone-shaped building in Sims 4 is to do what I did before with my original Ice Cream Conery – build a cake cone with a domed roof. That’s what all the “ice cream cone” builds I found on the Gallery looked like too. Shame – I really wanted to do that upside-down ice cream cone! I was gonna call it “Splat! Ice Cream” and everything. Ah well…
However, all was not TOTALLY lost in my Sims 4 session today – before quitting for the day, I quickly swung by the Polyheart OT3 House to see if I could at least put some ceilings on some more rooms. And I could! :D The following three rooms now have ceilings:
I. The M-shaped bathroom – this one took a while, as I couldn’t find a tile I liked – the shimmery blue floor tiles didn’t look right as ceiling tiles, and none of the while tiles (or, in one case, white wooden flooring) I tried looked great either (a lot of them had a big grid pattern between them for some reason that I didn’t dig). I eventually ended up in the “Miscellaneous” section instead, where I decided to try that one “fake sky” ceiling tile we got with Horse Ranch on the basis of “well, it’d go nice with the mural” –
And it did! In fact, I thought it looked really good indeed! So good, in fact, that when I moved onto the NEXT room I wanted to put a ceiling on –
II. The Bedroom – I decided to use it in here too! Specifically, I checked through the other swatches of the tile, and was delighted to find a “night sky with constellations” swatch that I thought fit well with their dark butterfly-themed wallpaper. So I slapped that up there for Victor, Alice, and Smiler to look at at night. It does feel like the kind of thing Smiler would encourage them to do!
III. The Kitchen – And then, by contrast, I decided to just use the same Life & Death parquet flooring I’d used for the ceilings in the hallways and living room (and Victor and Alice’s rooms, in different shades) in here. Figured I might as well stay consistent! Though it is subject to change if I freecam in there later and decide I don’t like it. *shrug*
So yeah, at least I got that done. That only leaves the front entrance needing a ceiling – which is a bit tricky, given I need something that goes well with the rainbow-block wallpaper. Hmmm. *strokes chin* A question to ponder the next time I pop in here!
Writing: Edited another page of Chapter 4 of “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” today – featuring Alice, Victor, and Smiler informing Matt and Carol of their status as wanted murderers of a Spirit Warden (emphasizing that they did not actually do said murder) – and Matt and Carol informing them in turn that “oh, we already know you’re innocent – the Spirit Wardens made it very clear that the man who died was a) killed by a ghost and b) NOT a Spirit Warden, just a conman who infiltrated their ranks, so you’re free and clear! :D” As you might imagine, Alice was less-than-happy to learn that, if she hadn’t started stabbing everyone at Wonderland’s insistence, they might have been allowed to walk after about an hour at the station. XD Carol was like “oh, it’s fine, it’s not like you’ve murdered anyone else, right?”
Cue silence, and poor Carol going “...right?” Fortunately, the minute Victor handed over Bumby’s ledger and she and Matt getting a good look at it, they were like, “Oh, totally justified murder.” XD I left things off there – depending on how things go tomorrow, I might be able to finish this chapter off! Then again, looks like I have closer to two pages to go, not one...we’ll see happens!
YouTube: I am pleased to say that I got through all FOUR of the videos I wanted to get through today, yay~ :D A rare occurrence, but always a nice one!
A) First up was the OXBox list of the week – “7 Most Misleading Mobile Game Ads!” Andy, Mike, and Jane talking about those mobile ads that in NO WAY represent the game they’re actually advertising! The ad for Evertale that makes it look like a horror take on classic Pokemon games? FAKE – the actual game is a cel-shaded turn-based adventure that DOES feature capturing monsters in crystals (which is Legally Distinct from catching them in balls) but no horror elements that I can see. The ad for Evony that makes it look like the latest mobile-game-trend-of-the-week? FAKE – it’s a city-builder with occasional mini-games of those stripes. The ad for Warpath that makes it look like a fucking Steven Spielberg movie about the horrors of World War II? FAKE – it’s a fucking top-down strategy game. And don’t even get them started on the weird fetishy ads for Hero Wars...point is, when it comes to mobile game ads, never believe what you see!
B) Then it was time for more CaFae Latte by C. M. Alongi with “CaFae Latte Season 42 - TikTok Compilation!” Today’s video featured JC and Rethu asking Husniya if it would be insensitive to sell crescent moon cookies to celebrate Ramadan (Husniya: “No, but, um, I don’t think they’d sell well because this a month of FASTING”); Drek experiencing his first Karen who demanded he stop “listening to music” (because he was wearing noise-canceling earbuds) and Husniya stepping in to make the lady back down before Bob got involved (she did not, and got cursed with mirroring Drek’s ADHD for two years); Husniya comforting Drek after the experience and assuring him he could stay in the back – only for Drek to see a rush and jump back into helping because his mom didn’t raise a coward (aw); Rethu getting called out by a customer for being on their phone when them had a book in their hand – only for them to inform said customer they were looking up a word they don’t know and also e-readers are a thing (with Cyrus pointing out that Patrick uses those, both for environmental reasons and to avoid getting bullied for liking romance novels by people who don’t realize they’re picking on a military commander); Cyrus and Drek serving the ER nurse regular, who stopped in for coffee and to meet with her boyfriend before a movie they were supposed to see together – only for said boyfriend to never show because he was too busy trying to build his Twitch gaming stream (poor Drek was like “Reminders on your phone, dude,” not understanding the guy was just selfish); ER Nurse showing post-break-up with a huge order for the gang (for her and her friends going to clear his shit out of her apartment) and Rethu and Nicole having to deal with an asshole customer accusing them of being sexist for not reading male authors (they attempted to explain “hey, uh, we’re looking for books that actually represent US and not cis white male experiences, your opinion is not wanted here,” but then he got whiny and got cursed by Bob to HAVE to read women and queer authors if he ever wanted to read any of his precious male authors again). Delightful stuff as always – I do love a good Bob cursing. :p
C) Then it was over to the Subs for the Josh Way video I missed yesterday – “Fun With Shorts: Fundamentals of Acoustics!” Seven minutes of facts about sound, including how fast it travels (and why you can sometimes see something before hearing the sound it produces); how we hear sounds (the usual explanation of how the ear works); and what the uses of supersonic and ultrasonic sounds are (mainly for blowing up enemy submarines). Josh was of course great with his riffs, starting out strong with calling the study of acoustics “the taxonomy of whistles and farts” and making sure to get in shots against Imagine Dragons and Panic! At The Disco. XD I do enjoy when he gets his riff on!
D) And finally, smooshed in at the very end, we had the latest from GrayStillPlays – “Can triangle wheels climb stairs?” Yes, the Weird Wheel nonsense in GTA V continued today, with Gray forced to figure out if TRIANGULAR wheels were good at, well, anything. XD As is usual with the Weird Wheels boards, Gray was given three vehicles – the Triangular Trike, the Triangular Super Car, and the Quad-Triangular (as in four triangles mounted around a square making up the wheel) Hummer – and four challenges to beat with them. Each challenge was worth a point, and whoever got the most points at the end won. So what did we get, and which of these monstrosities actually claimed a victory? Well, in order, we had:
I. A turning challenge along two levels of twisty-turny roads above the local beach (first portion had guardrails, second portion did not), which Gray had to complete in 47 seconds – the Trike and the Hummer proved to be absolute GARBAGE at this, with the Trike basically refusing to turn at all and the Hummer constantly drifting like it was on ice. The Super Car, though? Only reason it didn’t get it first try was because it was MILLISECONDS too late to beat the wall coming up. It got it on the second run and earned a well-deserved point!
II. A climbing challenge where the cars had to get up an extremely steep slanted staircase in 24 seconds – here the Super Car just could not keep up its momentum long enough to make it up all the steps, and the drifty horror that was the Hummer simply couldn’t do it at all. The Trike, though? That thing BLASTED up the steep slanted steps and managed to FLIP over the wall when it came up, making it even after the time limit! And then Gray went back and did it legit as well, just to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. :p But he wasn’t, and the Trike scored a point!
III. A SECOND climbing challenge, but this time the cars were tasked with going up “stairs” that were just the thin edges of a bunch of platforms, with wider and wider gaps between them as you went further and further up. The Trike alternated between failing miserably to even get on the challenge and doing okay until about halfway up because its wheels kept getting stuck in the gaps, and the Super Car did great RIIIIGHT up until the end, where it finally lost too much momentum in the widest gaps. Meaning the Quad-Triangular Hummer finally managed to earn a point by being the only one able to climb to the top! With enough of a run-up, anyway. And yes, it still fucking drifted even on this challenge. XD
IV. And the grand finale challenge, featuring a rising ramp covered in small harmless speedbumps that Gray had to get up at JUST the right speed so he could get off the ramp and through a thumbnail hole at the top at the exact second the two were actually lined up. Gray thought the Super Car would have this in the bag, because, you know, fast, but as it turned out, it kept bouncing on the speedbumps and losing all its momentum at critical moments. And the Trike was back to being useless when he tried it here –
Meaning that, for all its weird drifty faults, the Quad-Triangular Hummer was the one to take the win! Once Gray got the speed and timing right, because, hilariously, his first attempt to get up the ramp saw him go up it TOO FAST and get off BEFORE it reached the thumbnail hole. XD Just goes to show, that even the worst, jankiest piece of shit with weirdass wheels might have something it does well! Only one thing, mind, but still. XD
Tumblr: Had some surprise productivity over here today, which was nice –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Normally I don’t do anything over here on Cleaning Saturdays (as the cleaning takes up the time slot I usually use for working on drafts), but I was hit with some inspiration tonight and actually ended up doing a bit more on the second half of my Mega Ghostbusters AU post! Covering the gang reuniting after Gozer’s death; them meeting with Mayor Wilson again, who assures them that Edna’s been fired for her role in the whole mess and offers them a new facility to work from (Doc says “I’ll take something just for containing ghosts if you’ve got it”); and finally arriving back at the firehouse, cleaning up, getting settled –
And then grilling Smiler about the whole “wtf you’re an ELDRITCH GOD” thing. XD Complete with Alice revealing she’d already guessed they were Mar-Mal, and Smiler explaining that they took a human form after being horrified over how they’d accidentally killed their followers, and ended up enjoying it so much that they just stayed in human form until Gozer forced them to break out the eldritch stuff again. Currently ended it with them offering to leave if they make the others uncomfortable, and everyone being like “no don’t go that far” – dunno if I’ll finish this off tomorrow or instead work on some posts featuring the Pride Update EA gave The Sims 4 at the beginning of April, but at least it’s a little closer to done!
Valice Multiverse – Over here was another quiet Saturday night, with just one anon ask – another entry in the “Salamander people in Secundus!Victor’s greenhouse” saga, with the salamander guy leading the constable who showed up with their rocket over to the salamander girl (still petting Lightning in the greenhouse), and the constable thanking Victor for his cooperation and saying they’ll get everyone and everything moved to a more appropriate area after they get his statement. Victor was like “fine, though I don’t think it’ll be much of a statement,” while Lightning just enjoyed the continued pets. :)
...you know, looking at all of that, I got more done than I thought. It was just the video gaming that was kind of a disappointment. And even then, I'm pleased that I got more ceiling stuff done on the Polyheart OT3 house. :) So not an ideal Saturday, but a better one than I assumed. But now I have to get to bed, as it's starting to get kind of late here. Tomorrow -- okay. I know that I am going to do some more work on the Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; keep up with the latest from Jon and Gray; and get in a workout (which will help me keep up with the latest from Jon and Gray). But I'm not sure what I'm doing gaming or writing-wise, because -- okay. I can't get into it in full now because I DO have to go to bed. But while my intent was to try and figure out my mod situation for Baldur's Gate III this weekend -- I'm starting to think that I do need to start over with Patch 8. But not because of the mods, necessarily. More because I did some reading on the wiki tonight --
...and I think I made Smiler the wrong class. Or, rather, I think there's a THIRD class I absolutely need to throw into the mix for them that should be their actual primary class. *facepalm* I'll -- I'll try to explain later. For now, bed. Night all!
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Date: 2025-04-28 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-28 03:51 am (UTC)