Reasonable Monday
May. 12th, 2025 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickLike, nothing spectacular, but the weather was nice, and my day at work wasn't particularly annoying, and I got some stuff done this evening, as shall be laid out below:
Work – Had a reasonably-quiet start to the work week today, I’m happy to report – I did the GL; I took a few calls to update credit cards and look things up (including one for a check that happily showed up at the end of the day as part of the exceptions); I did some roster maintenance; and I looked through the exceptions at the end of the day and got everything sorted away to deal with tomorrow. Nothing particularly exciting – I even had excellent rides in and home! We’ll see what happens tomorrow, I suppose...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Baldur's Gate 3 But it's Only Bad Choices” by OXtra! Shove Fighter Luke and Newbie Warlock Ellen made it through the tutorial in today’s chunklet, all the while making all the worst decisions they could – including:
A) Refusing to loot anything of value (well, Ellen pocketed a bit of gold, but after that, they only picked up trash items like quills and mugs)
B) Going up to talk to Us, trapped in the head of the dying elf Myrnath, only to immediately leave the conversation – and then Luke went ahead and dealt Myrnath a killing blow, which I am pretty sure killed Us as well. D: Nooooo, brain friend! :( I have to hug my plush Us now
C) Murdering Lae’zel during the imp fight after meeting her by having her go stand near a hole in the floor so Luke could shove her off the ledge – and then, when Ellen using a restoration machine to heal them all up (a rare good decision just to keep them all alive) actually brought Lae’zel back to life, Ellen walked her over to the side of the ship so Luke could shove her out to her death AGAIN
D) Wailing on Shadowheart’s pod to see if they could destroy it and her – and, once that proved impossible, just leaving her trapped in there (with Luke accidentally initiating conversation, but then just leaving because nope, worst decisions only)
E) Changing the woman in the pod in the other room into a mind flayer, of course
F) Hunting down a wandering intellect devourer who told Ellen she was beautiful to kill it (noooo, brain friends :( ...okay, yes, any other than Us aren’t ACTUALLY friends, but still)
G) Getting involved in the big old fight between Zhalk and the mind flayer in the helm – on ZHALK’S side, with the pair getting up nice and close to the action, Luke healing Zhalk with a thrown healing potion, and Ellen using her Eldritch Blast to murder the mind flayer. Zhalk was of course not grateful, and that first run through the helm ended with both Luke and Ellen dying to him and his hellish minions; they had to reload and redo the fight again in a way that would let them continue the game XD
That is a lot of bad decisions in a short amount of time! XD Though it is kind of nice to see the little differences in cutscenes and such that you get when you don’t have Us or any companions with you, just your fellow feral multiplayer bud. XD At any rate, I left things off with the pair on the ravaged beach, with Ellen having just picked up and equipped a lyre she can’t play because she doesn’t have any musical instrument proficiency. XD Next time, we’ll see how they handle the opening area of the main game! Which I suspect will include having to deal with an understandably angry Shadowheart...
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – after accidentally spooking the unfortunate ghouls in the atrium, Alice managed to listen to Grout’s very first audio diary, and now immediately and fully hates this man who still believes in phrenology and the like. I mean, she was already going to dislike him the minute she learned he was a psychiatrist, but him being an old-timey quack of one was just the cherry on the shit sundae here. But she managed to tamp down on her rage for long enough to make it around the ghouls and down the side hallway to try and find him. Left off with her on the verge of entering the library and finding the first of Grout’s bizarre little candle puzzles to open up the various secret passages in his house – I’m sure she’ll have fun with THAT tomorrow!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just the one GrayStillPlays video to worry about tonight: “Testing bikes vs impossible ramps in GTA 5!” Another point-based challenge, pitting a bunch of the motorcycles in the game – including such contenders as the backwards trike (with two wheels in the FRONT), the chopper, the zombie bike (which was a disaster Gray tried twice and wiped out with both times), the drag bike, the TRON-esque bike, and a nice sporty bike with a purple paint job – against some truly tough ramps. Each ramp was worth a point, and the bike with the most points at the end won! You know, as these things usually go. :P So what did Gray face, and who ended up the winner? Well, in order, we had:
I. An absolutely huge ramp that narrowed to a tightrope right before the actual “ramp” part, with Gray having to come off the end and get all the way onto the little amusement park on the nearby pier to reach the checkpoint – and shockingly enough, two bikes won this challenge! What happened was, Gray made it all the way to the park with the Chopper, but then crashed into some peds and wiped out...causing the Chopper to go skidding through the checkpoint near the end of the pier on its own. The problem is, the checkpoint also functioned as a teleporter, so the minute it hit the checkpoint, it got whisked away. Without Gray. Who couldn’t go through the teleporter unless he had a vehicle. So he had to go back to the beginning of the challenge and find ANOTHER motorcycle that could make it to the bottom so he could chase after his original bike. XD Eventually, he managed to get the Drag Bike down the ramp and onto the pier – it ended up heavily damaged, but it kept working long enough for him to drive through the checkpoint and get teleported to the next challenge. So that challenge gave both a point to the Chopper AND a point to the Drag Bike! Who would have thought, huh?
II. A long bumpy ramp that had large emoji signs (from Gray’s membership area) hanging over it at intervals, meaning Gray had to find a bike that was both low enough to go under them AND hugged the road really well so he didn’t fly off the ramp into them! And then, of course, he had to punch it at the bottom of the ramp and basically fly over a mountain to reach the landing area on the other side. The Chopper and the Drag Bike both proved unable to make the grade – they gained speed too fast, meaning he couldn’t control his descent well enough to get under those emoji signs – but the Purple Sporty Bike proved to be both short enough and controlled enough to get him to the bottom, and then to the landing area. It nearly skidded OFF said landing area when he crash-landed on it, but the important point is that it didn’t. XD Earning it a point in the race!
III. A super-wavy neon ramp that Gray had to get down at maximum speed, then launch himself over the swamps to the landing area, making sure to land on the ONE NEON STRIP that didn’t have any slow-down strips attached, so he could reach the checkpoint in the forty seconds he was allotted in this particular challenge. The Purple Sporty Bike ALMOST made it, but proved a little too slow to get to the end in time, so – after spending some time just trying to get the awful Backwards Trike down to the bottom as a personal challenge – Gray decided a TRON-style challenge needed a TRON-style bike and busted that one out. And, sure enough, it had the speed and the handling to make it to the bottom, then all the way to the landing area, in under forty seconds. *nods* Just goes to show, always make sure your bike style matches your ramp style!
IV. And finally, a giant rotating block of a ramp going down into the heart of Los Santos that had a few secrets – namely, a gap Gray had to jump, some walls Gray had to dodge, and then a gap he had to GO INTO and then come back out of right before hitting the bottom, ramping off, and then flying to the next building and doing another tiny ramp so he could actually reach the win. This one was all about having good handling and going at JUST the right speed so Gray could get the timing right – and the one that fit that bill out of the four bikes that had earned points was the Sporty Purple Bike! I was kinda rooting for the Chopper, as Gray had admitted to thinking it was a meme vehicle before it did the first tightrope ramp so well, but I’m not displeased that a bike painted my favorite color won the day. :P Though I would have liked to have seen how the Proper Trike from the last GTA V video handled all those ramps, now that we know how good it is on sheer drops! Maybe someday...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – as per usual on Mondays, since I didn’t have anything to worry about on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), nothing got done over here. Doesn’t help that I was quite tired, so focus was a problem...really gotta start getting to bed earlier again.
Other: As it was a nice, non-windy day (unlike yesterday), we did indeed play beanbags – I had a good first game, a middling second, and then kinda crashed and burned in the third (though I did come back from back-to-back 0s to score a ten), while Dad had pretty consistently good games and poor Mom had to claw her way to a second-place in the final round. Final scores were me W-2-3; Dad 2-W-W; and Mom 3-3-2. We’ll see if things end up a bit more equitable tomorrow!
*nods* Yeah, nothing particularly exciting, but also nothing horrible. And now it's time for me to head to bed so I can prepare to do it all again tomorrow. Night all!
Work – Had a reasonably-quiet start to the work week today, I’m happy to report – I did the GL; I took a few calls to update credit cards and look things up (including one for a check that happily showed up at the end of the day as part of the exceptions); I did some roster maintenance; and I looked through the exceptions at the end of the day and got everything sorted away to deal with tomorrow. Nothing particularly exciting – I even had excellent rides in and home! We’ll see what happens tomorrow, I suppose...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Baldur's Gate 3 But it's Only Bad Choices” by OXtra! Shove Fighter Luke and Newbie Warlock Ellen made it through the tutorial in today’s chunklet, all the while making all the worst decisions they could – including:
A) Refusing to loot anything of value (well, Ellen pocketed a bit of gold, but after that, they only picked up trash items like quills and mugs)
B) Going up to talk to Us, trapped in the head of the dying elf Myrnath, only to immediately leave the conversation – and then Luke went ahead and dealt Myrnath a killing blow, which I am pretty sure killed Us as well. D: Nooooo, brain friend! :( I have to hug my plush Us now
C) Murdering Lae’zel during the imp fight after meeting her by having her go stand near a hole in the floor so Luke could shove her off the ledge – and then, when Ellen using a restoration machine to heal them all up (a rare good decision just to keep them all alive) actually brought Lae’zel back to life, Ellen walked her over to the side of the ship so Luke could shove her out to her death AGAIN
D) Wailing on Shadowheart’s pod to see if they could destroy it and her – and, once that proved impossible, just leaving her trapped in there (with Luke accidentally initiating conversation, but then just leaving because nope, worst decisions only)
E) Changing the woman in the pod in the other room into a mind flayer, of course
F) Hunting down a wandering intellect devourer who told Ellen she was beautiful to kill it (noooo, brain friends :( ...okay, yes, any other than Us aren’t ACTUALLY friends, but still)
G) Getting involved in the big old fight between Zhalk and the mind flayer in the helm – on ZHALK’S side, with the pair getting up nice and close to the action, Luke healing Zhalk with a thrown healing potion, and Ellen using her Eldritch Blast to murder the mind flayer. Zhalk was of course not grateful, and that first run through the helm ended with both Luke and Ellen dying to him and his hellish minions; they had to reload and redo the fight again in a way that would let them continue the game XD
That is a lot of bad decisions in a short amount of time! XD Though it is kind of nice to see the little differences in cutscenes and such that you get when you don’t have Us or any companions with you, just your fellow feral multiplayer bud. XD At any rate, I left things off with the pair on the ravaged beach, with Ellen having just picked up and equipped a lyre she can’t play because she doesn’t have any musical instrument proficiency. XD Next time, we’ll see how they handle the opening area of the main game! Which I suspect will include having to deal with an understandably angry Shadowheart...
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – after accidentally spooking the unfortunate ghouls in the atrium, Alice managed to listen to Grout’s very first audio diary, and now immediately and fully hates this man who still believes in phrenology and the like. I mean, she was already going to dislike him the minute she learned he was a psychiatrist, but him being an old-timey quack of one was just the cherry on the shit sundae here. But she managed to tamp down on her rage for long enough to make it around the ghouls and down the side hallway to try and find him. Left off with her on the verge of entering the library and finding the first of Grout’s bizarre little candle puzzles to open up the various secret passages in his house – I’m sure she’ll have fun with THAT tomorrow!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just the one GrayStillPlays video to worry about tonight: “Testing bikes vs impossible ramps in GTA 5!” Another point-based challenge, pitting a bunch of the motorcycles in the game – including such contenders as the backwards trike (with two wheels in the FRONT), the chopper, the zombie bike (which was a disaster Gray tried twice and wiped out with both times), the drag bike, the TRON-esque bike, and a nice sporty bike with a purple paint job – against some truly tough ramps. Each ramp was worth a point, and the bike with the most points at the end won! You know, as these things usually go. :P So what did Gray face, and who ended up the winner? Well, in order, we had:
I. An absolutely huge ramp that narrowed to a tightrope right before the actual “ramp” part, with Gray having to come off the end and get all the way onto the little amusement park on the nearby pier to reach the checkpoint – and shockingly enough, two bikes won this challenge! What happened was, Gray made it all the way to the park with the Chopper, but then crashed into some peds and wiped out...causing the Chopper to go skidding through the checkpoint near the end of the pier on its own. The problem is, the checkpoint also functioned as a teleporter, so the minute it hit the checkpoint, it got whisked away. Without Gray. Who couldn’t go through the teleporter unless he had a vehicle. So he had to go back to the beginning of the challenge and find ANOTHER motorcycle that could make it to the bottom so he could chase after his original bike. XD Eventually, he managed to get the Drag Bike down the ramp and onto the pier – it ended up heavily damaged, but it kept working long enough for him to drive through the checkpoint and get teleported to the next challenge. So that challenge gave both a point to the Chopper AND a point to the Drag Bike! Who would have thought, huh?
II. A long bumpy ramp that had large emoji signs (from Gray’s membership area) hanging over it at intervals, meaning Gray had to find a bike that was both low enough to go under them AND hugged the road really well so he didn’t fly off the ramp into them! And then, of course, he had to punch it at the bottom of the ramp and basically fly over a mountain to reach the landing area on the other side. The Chopper and the Drag Bike both proved unable to make the grade – they gained speed too fast, meaning he couldn’t control his descent well enough to get under those emoji signs – but the Purple Sporty Bike proved to be both short enough and controlled enough to get him to the bottom, and then to the landing area. It nearly skidded OFF said landing area when he crash-landed on it, but the important point is that it didn’t. XD Earning it a point in the race!
III. A super-wavy neon ramp that Gray had to get down at maximum speed, then launch himself over the swamps to the landing area, making sure to land on the ONE NEON STRIP that didn’t have any slow-down strips attached, so he could reach the checkpoint in the forty seconds he was allotted in this particular challenge. The Purple Sporty Bike ALMOST made it, but proved a little too slow to get to the end in time, so – after spending some time just trying to get the awful Backwards Trike down to the bottom as a personal challenge – Gray decided a TRON-style challenge needed a TRON-style bike and busted that one out. And, sure enough, it had the speed and the handling to make it to the bottom, then all the way to the landing area, in under forty seconds. *nods* Just goes to show, always make sure your bike style matches your ramp style!
IV. And finally, a giant rotating block of a ramp going down into the heart of Los Santos that had a few secrets – namely, a gap Gray had to jump, some walls Gray had to dodge, and then a gap he had to GO INTO and then come back out of right before hitting the bottom, ramping off, and then flying to the next building and doing another tiny ramp so he could actually reach the win. This one was all about having good handling and going at JUST the right speed so Gray could get the timing right – and the one that fit that bill out of the four bikes that had earned points was the Sporty Purple Bike! I was kinda rooting for the Chopper, as Gray had admitted to thinking it was a meme vehicle before it did the first tightrope ramp so well, but I’m not displeased that a bike painted my favorite color won the day. :P Though I would have liked to have seen how the Proper Trike from the last GTA V video handled all those ramps, now that we know how good it is on sheer drops! Maybe someday...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – as per usual on Mondays, since I didn’t have anything to worry about on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), nothing got done over here. Doesn’t help that I was quite tired, so focus was a problem...really gotta start getting to bed earlier again.
Other: As it was a nice, non-windy day (unlike yesterday), we did indeed play beanbags – I had a good first game, a middling second, and then kinda crashed and burned in the third (though I did come back from back-to-back 0s to score a ten), while Dad had pretty consistently good games and poor Mom had to claw her way to a second-place in the final round. Final scores were me W-2-3; Dad 2-W-W; and Mom 3-3-2. We’ll see if things end up a bit more equitable tomorrow!
*nods* Yeah, nothing particularly exciting, but also nothing horrible. And now it's time for me to head to bed so I can prepare to do it all again tomorrow. Night all!
