Less Lost Time Thursday
Jul. 17th, 2025 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickMy morning computer time was still cut short thanks to those fucking ants in the pantry (there was another little one on my granola bar box when I took it out this morning -- cue Mom taking EVERYTHING out of their original boxes and putting them in plastic sealed containers, and later washing out the entire thing AGAIN), and I had an annoyingly-long commute home tonight followed by more "what should we do for our vacation" talk almost the moment I walked in the door, but fortunately it wasn't as long a talk as yesterday, and I was able to catch up on all my stuff properly and watch my YouTube and all that jazz. :) Which means I am officially in a better mood tonight, yay. :) But I am still running a little later than I should on getting to bed, so here's my write-up:
Work – Well, it started out as another quiet day, with me doing the usual morning reports, then keeping as busy as I could with the obituaries...then, right after lunch, we got the go-ahead to start processing again, and while my coworker put on a bunch of checks, I concentrated on calling all the people with credit card issues/payments that I hadn’t been able to reach out to before. Had to leave messages for a few people, but I got one payment and one one-time gift done, so THOSE are out of my hair, at least. *nods* Though now I’m faced with a big batch of gifts from one of the parishes that all have to go on together because they’re under the same parish check...and I only just discovered none of them have ID stickers. *facepalm* Meaning I have to go through them and look them up/add them one by one. And there’s a LOT of them. *heavy sigh* My coworker got some of them done for me right before we left, at least, but she’s not gonna be in tomorrow, so...we’ll see what I manage to get done during my half-day!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to James Turner’s for a couple of nights to watch “The Sims 4 Enchanted By Nature Build & Buy Overview!” Because it was the perfect length to watch with my final two workouts this week, and because I WAS curious what this pack had to offer, Build/Buy-wise. The half I watched today was mostly focused on the “Build” half of the equation, covering all the doors, windows, wall decorations (including friezes and floor trims and fake balconies for windows), foundations, stairs, columns, spandrels, stairs, railings, fences, gates, floor tiles, and wallpapers that came with the pack – plus all fancy plant wall decorations, some vaguely-plant-related items (like a pergola, wedding arch, swingset, and the apothecary stall), the new gnomes, and the potted plants, both regular “no maintenance needed” and new “actually you need to water these occasionally.” :P It was very interesting, with two distinct “sets” of items on display – a more mossy and whimiscal one, and a “could maybe be used in more normal builds” one – and a lot of stuff that would make a build look fun and magical. I liked it, and James did too –
For the most part. Because while he liked the general fairy-tale style of a lot of this stuff, he did still have some complaints too, namely:
I. He thought all of the doors, windows, etc. needed more fun and whimsical color swatches – the color options for them were kind of lacking, and he was confused why they didn’t just go all-in with bright colors and bold combinations and whatnot. (Though he did like the “villainous” purple-and-green swatches...and the pink-and-light-blue ones too, as they reminded him of cake. XD We might see a “building a cake house” video from him in the future!)
II. He complained how there was no need to make both a “regular” variant and a “curved” variant of one of the windows – and the curved variant didn’t even WORK correctly! Not only did the model squash and stretch in bizarre ways, when you viewed it from the inside, you could see the cut-out of the window around the actual model! That is, there were BIG GAPS around the edges of the window! Sheesh! I hoped they fixed that before release (as obviously this game out while James was playing with the Early Access version)
III. He didn’t like how stretched out the gates for the fences looked when on a diagonal (though he was glad each fence did COME with a matching gate, as we don’t always get those) – he just felt like it was lazy design. He also took advantage of the moment to complain more generally that, now that we’ve got the ability to place doors and windows anywhere on a wall, we should have the ability to place gates anywhere in a fence. (Would be nice, but I don’t think we’re getting it anytime soon!)
IV. He was kind of surprised at the lack of new floors and wallpapers in this expansion – and again, at the lack of fun color swatches for them. Whimsy! He demanded more whimsy!
V. He didn’t like that the two new roof-placeable plants in the pack were stuck into the “roof sculptures” category instead of the “outdoor plants” category, because one, they’re not really roof SCULPTURES, and two, THEY WERE THE ONLY NEW OUTDOOR PLANTS THAT CAME WITH THE PACK. Like, seriously – apparently those two, at least in Early Access, were IT. The fuck??? How can you be Enchanted By Nature if you don’t give us any nature to be enchanted by? O.o
VI. And, on the flip side, he wasn’t keen on the fact that most of the new wall art was JUST branches of fantasy wisteria to drape lovingly over your windows. Like, he ENJOYED that, he really liked the pieces, but at the same time, he’d been looking forward to new fairy-themed pictures and posters and whatnot, and the pack did NOT deliver. Hell, one of the few non-plant wall art pieces was an UNLOCKABLE – only accessible either via cheats or by maxing out the new “Naturopath” career. *shakehead* Absolutely ridiculous – I thought there was going to be a plethora of new pictures and posters myself! Meeeh.
So yeah – overall, he’s enjoying what the pack has to offer (and it all DOES look very nice – though I suspect I’m tempted by it mostly because of the “Smiler’s Fantasy Caravan” build I’m working on right now), but he isn’t afraid to criticize what he feels are dumb decisions and missed opportunities. *nods* Why we like his content! We’ll finish off with the more “house-focused” stuff tomorrow, as he put it – though I think we need to look at the new bar first. Because you can’t have a Sims 4 expansion pack without a bar! XD Granted, it is a VERY pretty bar with a VERY magical backdrop, but still. :P
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – having successfully escaped and contained another clawed ghoul last time, Alice spent today’s page in the maze examining the routes available to her from the little landing where she found herself – starting with the green corridor that the ghoul had been guarding. That led to a fancy white door, which, when picked, opened on a room containing the starved corpse of an orderly and his last scribbled message on the wall (which I implied was written in his own blood! Fun). Reading through the message revealed that he’d once been Grout’s most loyal servant, but then his master had succumbed to his growing paranoia and locked him in there to waste away. Alice was like “not a fan of you helping Grout with his experiments, but I allow this was a terrible way to go. And seeing as you missed Grout’s blood more than food, I am once again glad I don’t intend to fully blood-bond Victor.” (Insert authorial snickering here.)
Anyway – having seen all that room had to offer, she returned the main landing and went right next, which led her into a makeshift little chapel! Complete with another orderly corpse (this guy a victim of the clawed ghoul) slumped on a pew. Because as long as we’re being creepy, we might as well throw some twisted religious imagery in there too! Alice was like “I would not have pegged Grout for this kind of thing.” XD I left it with her heading up to the pulpit to examine his holy text – next time, we’ll finish up in there, and FINALLY get Alice out of this maze! I feel like the poor woman’s been in there forever...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – popped back into my Watch Later tonight to take on “Reacting to YOUR CaFae Latte Hot Takes - Part 2” by C. M. Alongi! Featuring C. M. reading a collection of hot takes/headcanons people had for the characters of CaFae Latte and talking about how she felt about them and if she thought they would work or not. Which sometimes led to interesting facts being revealed about the characters, and of course more talk about how the Heart of Iron book is going to differ from the TikTok series. Examples included:
A) Someone saying that Oscar doesn’t need another partner after dealing with his wife dying – C. M. essentially confirmed that he wasn’t looking for anything long-term or committed (especially since he’s demi and needs time to bond with someone anyway)...but that he’d be down for something a little more casual (I’m PRETTY sure this came out right before the “Oscar gets into a poly relationship with Yarn Granny and Vet Grampa” episode XD Which, yes, Oscar treats fairly casually)
B) Someone saying that the “golden retriever angel” should get his own doggo (or catto, or both) – C. M. said that in-universe, Oscar would want to get a bit more settled in his new home before introducing a pet, and out-of-universe, she is VERY RELUCTANT to get an unpredictable animal in front of the camera (cue everyone in the YouTube comments telling her to use stuffed animals :P)
C) Someone saying that Cyrus has definitely called Bob “mom” at some point and ended up embarrassed about it – C. M. confirmed he’s done that, usually when he’s sick, awwww
D) Someone saying that Cyrus and Rethu should definitely go on a date to the Southern food place in the demon dimension by the lava lake – C. M. was like “this is the problem with doing a web series for two years, you forget all these sorts of details” and then added the idea to her “filler skits” doc :D
E) Someone saying that Bob started the coffee shop because the free drinks helped keep her alive in the mornings – C. M. laughed at that and said that it was a LITTLE deeper than that, but yes, it was definitely a factor! Apparently Bob fell in love with coffee either during the Civil War, or right after while she and Cyrus were roaming the Wild West, hiding their immortal status from the normies pre all the “fae rights” stuff, and thus when it came time to settle down, she was into doing a coffee shop :)
F) And someone saying that Bob, as a former princess, struggled a bit with stuff like cooking, cleaning, what-have-you after being exiled – C. M. was like “sort of” on this one, saying that Bob was a fairly self-sufficient royal because she liked to experience what her troops experienced so she could keep them happy, so she wasn’t TOTALLY unskilled at these kinds of things...but yes, at the same time, when she had a house of her own in the human realm, she had some trouble keeping it clean without the help of servants! And keeping herself clean, apparently – she was almost grateful the Civil War broke out so she could stop worrying if she was dirty or her hair was tangled or what have you. And apparently neither she nor Cyrus are particularly good cooks – leading them to be very relieved when JC showed up!
*nods* Fun stuff as always! Though a little shorter than I would have liked – her Patreons didn’t submit enough takes! Hopefully if she does a third one it’ll be a little meatier.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – while it was another “nothing” day over on Valice Multiverse, I’m pleased to say I got my Song Saturday pick for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) sorted! “Shooting Stars” by Rival Sons, a song I’ve heard a couple of times on the radio and really liked. Both because it feels like an excellent protest song for the bullshit world and all the bullshit situations we’ve found ourselves in –
Aaand because the first time I heard it, specifically the “my laughter is louder than your/shouting will ever be” lyrics, I was like “This is totally my Valicer In The Dark Smiler taunting Bob Wickerman of the Beornen.” :P And I have since expanded it to be about the entire trio shouting defiance at anyone trying to beat them down. *nods* So yeah, gotta add that to the VITD playlist I have on YouTube at some point! In the meantime, it’s ready to be posted under the “#song saturday” and “#valicer in the dark” tags on Saturday. :)
*nods* Nice and productive, all that. And now I have to head to bed -- tomorrow, gonna get through work, then hopefully come right home and be able to get right to playing either Superliminal or Fallout 4. Because god damn it, I want to play my games again. *serious nod* Night all!
Work – Well, it started out as another quiet day, with me doing the usual morning reports, then keeping as busy as I could with the obituaries...then, right after lunch, we got the go-ahead to start processing again, and while my coworker put on a bunch of checks, I concentrated on calling all the people with credit card issues/payments that I hadn’t been able to reach out to before. Had to leave messages for a few people, but I got one payment and one one-time gift done, so THOSE are out of my hair, at least. *nods* Though now I’m faced with a big batch of gifts from one of the parishes that all have to go on together because they’re under the same parish check...and I only just discovered none of them have ID stickers. *facepalm* Meaning I have to go through them and look them up/add them one by one. And there’s a LOT of them. *heavy sigh* My coworker got some of them done for me right before we left, at least, but she’s not gonna be in tomorrow, so...we’ll see what I manage to get done during my half-day!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to James Turner’s for a couple of nights to watch “The Sims 4 Enchanted By Nature Build & Buy Overview!” Because it was the perfect length to watch with my final two workouts this week, and because I WAS curious what this pack had to offer, Build/Buy-wise. The half I watched today was mostly focused on the “Build” half of the equation, covering all the doors, windows, wall decorations (including friezes and floor trims and fake balconies for windows), foundations, stairs, columns, spandrels, stairs, railings, fences, gates, floor tiles, and wallpapers that came with the pack – plus all fancy plant wall decorations, some vaguely-plant-related items (like a pergola, wedding arch, swingset, and the apothecary stall), the new gnomes, and the potted plants, both regular “no maintenance needed” and new “actually you need to water these occasionally.” :P It was very interesting, with two distinct “sets” of items on display – a more mossy and whimiscal one, and a “could maybe be used in more normal builds” one – and a lot of stuff that would make a build look fun and magical. I liked it, and James did too –
For the most part. Because while he liked the general fairy-tale style of a lot of this stuff, he did still have some complaints too, namely:
I. He thought all of the doors, windows, etc. needed more fun and whimsical color swatches – the color options for them were kind of lacking, and he was confused why they didn’t just go all-in with bright colors and bold combinations and whatnot. (Though he did like the “villainous” purple-and-green swatches...and the pink-and-light-blue ones too, as they reminded him of cake. XD We might see a “building a cake house” video from him in the future!)
II. He complained how there was no need to make both a “regular” variant and a “curved” variant of one of the windows – and the curved variant didn’t even WORK correctly! Not only did the model squash and stretch in bizarre ways, when you viewed it from the inside, you could see the cut-out of the window around the actual model! That is, there were BIG GAPS around the edges of the window! Sheesh! I hoped they fixed that before release (as obviously this game out while James was playing with the Early Access version)
III. He didn’t like how stretched out the gates for the fences looked when on a diagonal (though he was glad each fence did COME with a matching gate, as we don’t always get those) – he just felt like it was lazy design. He also took advantage of the moment to complain more generally that, now that we’ve got the ability to place doors and windows anywhere on a wall, we should have the ability to place gates anywhere in a fence. (Would be nice, but I don’t think we’re getting it anytime soon!)
IV. He was kind of surprised at the lack of new floors and wallpapers in this expansion – and again, at the lack of fun color swatches for them. Whimsy! He demanded more whimsy!
V. He didn’t like that the two new roof-placeable plants in the pack were stuck into the “roof sculptures” category instead of the “outdoor plants” category, because one, they’re not really roof SCULPTURES, and two, THEY WERE THE ONLY NEW OUTDOOR PLANTS THAT CAME WITH THE PACK. Like, seriously – apparently those two, at least in Early Access, were IT. The fuck??? How can you be Enchanted By Nature if you don’t give us any nature to be enchanted by? O.o
VI. And, on the flip side, he wasn’t keen on the fact that most of the new wall art was JUST branches of fantasy wisteria to drape lovingly over your windows. Like, he ENJOYED that, he really liked the pieces, but at the same time, he’d been looking forward to new fairy-themed pictures and posters and whatnot, and the pack did NOT deliver. Hell, one of the few non-plant wall art pieces was an UNLOCKABLE – only accessible either via cheats or by maxing out the new “Naturopath” career. *shakehead* Absolutely ridiculous – I thought there was going to be a plethora of new pictures and posters myself! Meeeh.
So yeah – overall, he’s enjoying what the pack has to offer (and it all DOES look very nice – though I suspect I’m tempted by it mostly because of the “Smiler’s Fantasy Caravan” build I’m working on right now), but he isn’t afraid to criticize what he feels are dumb decisions and missed opportunities. *nods* Why we like his content! We’ll finish off with the more “house-focused” stuff tomorrow, as he put it – though I think we need to look at the new bar first. Because you can’t have a Sims 4 expansion pack without a bar! XD Granted, it is a VERY pretty bar with a VERY magical backdrop, but still. :P
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – having successfully escaped and contained another clawed ghoul last time, Alice spent today’s page in the maze examining the routes available to her from the little landing where she found herself – starting with the green corridor that the ghoul had been guarding. That led to a fancy white door, which, when picked, opened on a room containing the starved corpse of an orderly and his last scribbled message on the wall (which I implied was written in his own blood! Fun). Reading through the message revealed that he’d once been Grout’s most loyal servant, but then his master had succumbed to his growing paranoia and locked him in there to waste away. Alice was like “not a fan of you helping Grout with his experiments, but I allow this was a terrible way to go. And seeing as you missed Grout’s blood more than food, I am once again glad I don’t intend to fully blood-bond Victor.” (Insert authorial snickering here.)
Anyway – having seen all that room had to offer, she returned the main landing and went right next, which led her into a makeshift little chapel! Complete with another orderly corpse (this guy a victim of the clawed ghoul) slumped on a pew. Because as long as we’re being creepy, we might as well throw some twisted religious imagery in there too! Alice was like “I would not have pegged Grout for this kind of thing.” XD I left it with her heading up to the pulpit to examine his holy text – next time, we’ll finish up in there, and FINALLY get Alice out of this maze! I feel like the poor woman’s been in there forever...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – popped back into my Watch Later tonight to take on “Reacting to YOUR CaFae Latte Hot Takes - Part 2” by C. M. Alongi! Featuring C. M. reading a collection of hot takes/headcanons people had for the characters of CaFae Latte and talking about how she felt about them and if she thought they would work or not. Which sometimes led to interesting facts being revealed about the characters, and of course more talk about how the Heart of Iron book is going to differ from the TikTok series. Examples included:
A) Someone saying that Oscar doesn’t need another partner after dealing with his wife dying – C. M. essentially confirmed that he wasn’t looking for anything long-term or committed (especially since he’s demi and needs time to bond with someone anyway)...but that he’d be down for something a little more casual (I’m PRETTY sure this came out right before the “Oscar gets into a poly relationship with Yarn Granny and Vet Grampa” episode XD Which, yes, Oscar treats fairly casually)
B) Someone saying that the “golden retriever angel” should get his own doggo (or catto, or both) – C. M. said that in-universe, Oscar would want to get a bit more settled in his new home before introducing a pet, and out-of-universe, she is VERY RELUCTANT to get an unpredictable animal in front of the camera (cue everyone in the YouTube comments telling her to use stuffed animals :P)
C) Someone saying that Cyrus has definitely called Bob “mom” at some point and ended up embarrassed about it – C. M. confirmed he’s done that, usually when he’s sick, awwww
D) Someone saying that Cyrus and Rethu should definitely go on a date to the Southern food place in the demon dimension by the lava lake – C. M. was like “this is the problem with doing a web series for two years, you forget all these sorts of details” and then added the idea to her “filler skits” doc :D
E) Someone saying that Bob started the coffee shop because the free drinks helped keep her alive in the mornings – C. M. laughed at that and said that it was a LITTLE deeper than that, but yes, it was definitely a factor! Apparently Bob fell in love with coffee either during the Civil War, or right after while she and Cyrus were roaming the Wild West, hiding their immortal status from the normies pre all the “fae rights” stuff, and thus when it came time to settle down, she was into doing a coffee shop :)
F) And someone saying that Bob, as a former princess, struggled a bit with stuff like cooking, cleaning, what-have-you after being exiled – C. M. was like “sort of” on this one, saying that Bob was a fairly self-sufficient royal because she liked to experience what her troops experienced so she could keep them happy, so she wasn’t TOTALLY unskilled at these kinds of things...but yes, at the same time, when she had a house of her own in the human realm, she had some trouble keeping it clean without the help of servants! And keeping herself clean, apparently – she was almost grateful the Civil War broke out so she could stop worrying if she was dirty or her hair was tangled or what have you. And apparently neither she nor Cyrus are particularly good cooks – leading them to be very relieved when JC showed up!
*nods* Fun stuff as always! Though a little shorter than I would have liked – her Patreons didn’t submit enough takes! Hopefully if she does a third one it’ll be a little meatier.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – while it was another “nothing” day over on Valice Multiverse, I’m pleased to say I got my Song Saturday pick for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) sorted! “Shooting Stars” by Rival Sons, a song I’ve heard a couple of times on the radio and really liked. Both because it feels like an excellent protest song for the bullshit world and all the bullshit situations we’ve found ourselves in –
Aaand because the first time I heard it, specifically the “my laughter is louder than your/shouting will ever be” lyrics, I was like “This is totally my Valicer In The Dark Smiler taunting Bob Wickerman of the Beornen.” :P And I have since expanded it to be about the entire trio shouting defiance at anyone trying to beat them down. *nods* So yeah, gotta add that to the VITD playlist I have on YouTube at some point! In the meantime, it’s ready to be posted under the “#song saturday” and “#valicer in the dark” tags on Saturday. :)
*nods* Nice and productive, all that. And now I have to head to bed -- tomorrow, gonna get through work, then hopefully come right home and be able to get right to playing either Superliminal or Fallout 4. Because god damn it, I want to play my games again. *serious nod* Night all!
