Shitty Weather Friday
Feb. 20th, 2026 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, it was an absolutely miserable day, weather-wise -- it was cloudy and a little chilly this morning, then around noon it started snowing hard, with big flakes, before transitioning over to freezing rain and sleet. Meaning everything was very slushy when we finally got out for the weekend. I was hoping that maybe we'd get to go home early when I first saw the snow, but sadly that wasn't to be. *sigh* I'm just glad that the roads weren't too bad -- if they'd been any icier, there could have been trouble.
Anyway -- here's the write-up for the rest of my day:
Work – I had a mostly-quiet final day at work today, with just a few bits of excitement here and there:
A) I did the GL, which took up a decent chunk of the morning
B) I finished up the obituaries I was working on, along with cleaning up some other duplicates and deceased people I discovered along the way
C) I took a credit card call to do a one-time gift
D) I took another call from a lady who was a little confused about a thank-you letter she’d gotten...which turned into a twenty-minute marathon of trying to figure out what had happened to the two checks she’d supposedly gotten her bank to send out (with the issue MAYBE being her addressing them to her PARISH instead of the Appeal generally); that eventually ended with her setting up a replacement check and me telling our processors to look out for the originals and to send them back to our office should they appear
E) And I and my coworker dealt with the time card site not properly showing Monday as a holiday – fortunately, after we reported it to Fiscal, they were able to fix it, but it was a very weird bug
*shrug* Nothing too exciting, as you can see – though I could have done without that twenty-minute call. The lady kept asking things like where the original gift had come from (I don’t know, YOU sent it) and not making it clear if the previous gifts were direct ACH payments or physical checks sent in the mail (I’m like 90% sure it was the latter, but still), and it was very frustrating. Ah well – I’m free from it all for two days! ...Possibly three, depending on what happens Sunday night – we’re due another snowstorm, apparently. >( Not looking forward to it!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – the final night on the bike this week means the final night with “Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues - Part 4 - Dog Eat Dog!” We wrapped up this episode of The Adventures Of Useless Steve, Science Edition, with –
A) Useless Steve finishing the Advanced version of the high school infiltration test! Through the power of collecting the files in the “wrong” order again, the power of using his new force-field-removal powers to drop into the library from above and avoid having to face a robot and a dog trapped near the actual entrance, and the power of running away from and jumping over cyberdogs before trapping them behind doors because they have no opposable thumbs. Yes, he got a little bitten and a lot knocked over by sonic barks, but it WORKED, damn it. Meaning he was free to walk out of the already-cleared back areas and finally level up to Level 11 after gaining a level ages ago near the start of the test (all ten skill points got dumped into melee weapons, bringing it up to 35, because as it turns out Steve is a melee character just like old P. D. Shoot Remastered).
B) Useless Steve then taking a moment right before leaving to – after a bit of a wait because you can only do so much splicing in a 24-hour period – create Roxie 4.0! Reason? Jon was hoping that having a living Roxie hanging out in X-8 would trigger one of her ending slides to play. He wasn’t sure on this point, because he thinks they’re dependent on the Courier having also met Rex, The King’s cyberdog, in the base game (because pretty much every ending slide involves them getting together and having puppies – even if the Courier got Rex killed. Roxie drags him back to the Big MT and revives him through sheer determination), but he figured it was worth the effort because Roxie’s a good girl. *nods approvingly*
C) Useless Steve successfully escaping the robo-scorpions hanging around outside X-8 and teleporting himself back to the Sink via the radar fence – only to immediately leave and raid the nearby X-12 Research Facility because he needed one more thing to make absolutely sure he had everything he needed to complete the DLC and get as many good endings as possible. That thing was the Smart Lights upgrade for Light Switch 01, which was in X-12 guarded by a Trauma Harness –
But, fortunately, said Trauma Harness was an absolutely terrible shot with its rapid-fire weapon, and Steve was able to get in, grab the holotape he needed, make a handful of stimpacks at the chemistry station nearby, and get out while taking minimal damage. He was even able to immediately fast travel back to the Sink because for once there were no enemies close enough to him to prevent that! Who would have thunk? (Certainly not Jon, who was quite grateful for the good luck!)
D) Useless Steve showing off the Smart Lights upgrade for Light Switch 01, which makes all the lights in the area green and gives Steve +2 Intelligence, +5 Repair, and +5 Science for 12 hours after initial exposure. Which is an excellent effect, we can all agree. There’s just two problems with it:
I. From what I can see, it does not stack with the “Mood Lighting” effect – that is, you can’t turn on one, then the other, to get both effects at once. Smart Lights cancels out Mood Lights and vice-versa. Shame!
II. According to Jon, it’s the uglier of the two special light options – he considers the green lighting too cold and stark. So even if Light Switch 02 doesn’t have the better processor, she at least holds a better claim on Jon’s, and thus Useless Steve’s, affections.
E) Useless Steve then showing off how much he can boost all his stats to win over the two remaining scientists he needed to get on his side now that he has all the stat-boosting goodies – which, I have to say, was very impressive indeed:
I. First, to win over Dr. Borous, he turned on Mood Lighting, put on some Sexy Sleepwear, drank a bottle of wine, had some mentats, and read the copy of Meeting People Light Switch 02 gifted him to boost his 20 base Speech all the way up to 45! This was necessary to win the speech check midway through their conversation about Gabe, Dr. Borous’s old dog (triggered by presenting him with Gabe’s old food bowl) and point out that, despite the terrible things Borous did to him, the dog really loved him. Thus forcing him to actually feel guilt about how he experimented on the pet who had been there for him through thick and thin. Which may seem like an odd way to get someone on your side, but I think the idea is that he starts to realize the research they’ve been conducting is monstrous and maybe he and the rest of the Think Tank don’t deserve to escape Big MT. At any rate, he definitely has a bit of a breakdown over it before trying to shove the feelings away. Jon cited this bit as why he thinks “Old World Blues” is one of the best DLCs of any game – the writing is so excellent, it can make you laugh with all its dark humor, then hit you out of nowhere with feels. Great stuff.
II. Then, to win over Dr. 8, he swapped back over to Smart Lighting, waited for the wine to wear off, put on Dr. Klein’s glasses and scrubs, had some more mentats (getting an addiction, but that was no big deal), and read a Programmer’s Digest to boost his 36 base Science all the way to 75. Which was necessary to pass the check to recognize that Dr. 8’s busted voice module was broadcasting RobCo termlink protocol and actually start being able to understand him! And then point out that it would be pretty easy to hack poor Dr. 8 in this state, before reassuring him that he wouldn’t (after all, he knows very well what it’s like to be experimented on). Which was enough to make Dr. 8 grateful and make sure he would also back Steve in the end! Steve also chatted to him about the fully-upgraded Sonic Emitter (noting that Dr. 8 seemed, uh, CREEPILY happy to hear it had been fully upgraded), earning himself another 100 energy cells for it –
And talked to him about his, uh, “sonjaculating,” because, uh, the way he fired up the gun when Steve just arrived was a bit – sexual to old Dr. 8. Steve told him that it was nothing to be ashamed of, just best to keep that stuff private...but Jon couldn’t help but point out that there was an option for Steven to tell Dr. 8 about how he fulfills his own “private needs” (can of Cram with some duct tape around the lid, apparently). Which would lead to Dr. 8 giving him Cram and duct tape if he took it. XD Oh cripes, “Old World Blues,” WHY. XD (If you’re wondering about female Couriers – microfusion cells set to vibrate at a specific frequency.)
F) And Useless Steve wrapping things up by making sure he was in top form for going up against Dr. Mobius, including:
I. Hitting the Auto-Doc to make sure he was in full health and addiction-free
II. Converting a bunch of his energy cells and practically of his microfusion cells to their “max charge” variants to make sure he had the best ammo for both of his guns, along with repairing Elijah’s Advanced LAER with a LAER he found of Gabe’s corpse
III. Going over to one of the Proton Axes he got off a lobotomite as his primary melee weapon after discovering that it would unfortunately be waaaay too expensive to repair the X-2 Antenna – Jon was saddened by the loss of the Electro Booping Stick, but had to admit that Steve DID swing the axe a lot faster and it actually did better damage as it was in better condition
IV. And finally buying another Proton Axe from the Sink Central AI for repair purposes, along with two doctor’s bags and a load of stimpacks to help himself survive the big final fight
And so the episode ended with Steve heading back to talk to the Think Tank, as prepared as he possibly could be for taking on Dr. Mobius and all the robo-scorpions! Next week – the Grand Finale! Should be a lot of fun.
2. Start editing Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – got another page done on this today, though it was a bit of a struggle again – though that’s because the characters kept going off on tangents from what I originally wrote. If you lot would just follow the script… ;P But I still got through another good editing session, covering:
A) Alice noting that Victor’s room is rather minimal compared to the rest of the Van Dort mansion, and Victor explaining that his parents have better things to spend their money on than him, before admitting he doesn’t collect things like they do (except books and butterfly facts) and that he prefers having a more modest room...because there’s fewer things to break (cue him remembering being yelled at for walking into one of Nell’s displays). Smiler was clearly a bit suspicious about if this was his ACTUAL preference or one he’d been bullied into
B) Smiler then noting all the butterfly sketches on the wall, and Victor proudly confirming that he’d drawn all of them (and that he’s been drawing butterflies since he was five). Alice was impressed with the level of detail, saying that getting close-ups of the heads and legs can’t have been easy; Victor confirmed it wasn’t, especially since he refuses to kill any of his specimens to make drawing easier. Smiler noted that he probably didn’t like butterfly boxes, then, and Victor confirmed he didn’t – admitting that he knew WHY people made them, but that he just couldn’t bring himself to kill the butterflies and moths because they were already often so short lived, leading into…
C) Victor going on a tangent about how a certain species of moth, the speckled flutterwing, spends its entire adult life starving to death because it develops without mouth parts (which is something that actually happens with some real-world moths, if I remember correctly). Smiler was like “why would nature do something like that,” but Victor had no answers for them (beyond “well, might not have been nature, some people think they’re a failed wizard experiment somehow hanging on”). Alice sarcastically noted that Smiler’s Advocates could use the moths in their experiments in figuring out how to survive without food, but Smiler was like “actually, that’s a good idea – at the very least, be nice if we could help the moths,” and Victor promised to lend his knowledge if they actually did try some experiments
D) And Victor trying to figure out what he wants to take – he knows he wants his butterfly sketches and his sketchbook, and maybe a couple of his butterfly books too… Alice told him to get a bag and figure it out while she and Smiler took the sketches down, and suggested to him he prioritize a change of clothes.
Yeah, that “moth facts” bit was NOT in the original draft. But somehow we got on that topic, and Victor insisted on sharing his knowledge. *shakehead* Oh, these characters sometimes...anyway, next time the gang starts packing, and Alice and Smiler get a shock when they learn just how many clothes Victor has – prompting another guilt attack for our favorite noodle-man...
3. Watch something on FreeTube: No check – simply didn’t have the time tonight between Game Night (Clue tonight – Dad won the first game, Mom won the last game, and I won the two in-between) and how long it took me to do the write-up on my workout video. *grumbles* I really gotta find a way to cut down how long those take...hopefully I can find some time to catch up a bit this weekend!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – I’m all good on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and I didn’t have anything waiting for me on Valice Multiverse, so… *shrug*
Aaaand because I ended up reading through some stuff on TV Tropes, it is officially Extremely Late and I HAVE to get to bed. *shakehead* Tomorrow, plans include playing some Fallout: New Vegas and getting Victor out on the road toward Primm; working on some Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; and watching at least ONE video over on FreeTube -- depends on how much time I have and what gets uploaded tomorrow. *nods* Night all!
Anyway -- here's the write-up for the rest of my day:
Work – I had a mostly-quiet final day at work today, with just a few bits of excitement here and there:
A) I did the GL, which took up a decent chunk of the morning
B) I finished up the obituaries I was working on, along with cleaning up some other duplicates and deceased people I discovered along the way
C) I took a credit card call to do a one-time gift
D) I took another call from a lady who was a little confused about a thank-you letter she’d gotten...which turned into a twenty-minute marathon of trying to figure out what had happened to the two checks she’d supposedly gotten her bank to send out (with the issue MAYBE being her addressing them to her PARISH instead of the Appeal generally); that eventually ended with her setting up a replacement check and me telling our processors to look out for the originals and to send them back to our office should they appear
E) And I and my coworker dealt with the time card site not properly showing Monday as a holiday – fortunately, after we reported it to Fiscal, they were able to fix it, but it was a very weird bug
*shrug* Nothing too exciting, as you can see – though I could have done without that twenty-minute call. The lady kept asking things like where the original gift had come from (I don’t know, YOU sent it) and not making it clear if the previous gifts were direct ACH payments or physical checks sent in the mail (I’m like 90% sure it was the latter, but still), and it was very frustrating. Ah well – I’m free from it all for two days! ...Possibly three, depending on what happens Sunday night – we’re due another snowstorm, apparently. >( Not looking forward to it!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – the final night on the bike this week means the final night with “Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues - Part 4 - Dog Eat Dog!” We wrapped up this episode of The Adventures Of Useless Steve, Science Edition, with –
A) Useless Steve finishing the Advanced version of the high school infiltration test! Through the power of collecting the files in the “wrong” order again, the power of using his new force-field-removal powers to drop into the library from above and avoid having to face a robot and a dog trapped near the actual entrance, and the power of running away from and jumping over cyberdogs before trapping them behind doors because they have no opposable thumbs. Yes, he got a little bitten and a lot knocked over by sonic barks, but it WORKED, damn it. Meaning he was free to walk out of the already-cleared back areas and finally level up to Level 11 after gaining a level ages ago near the start of the test (all ten skill points got dumped into melee weapons, bringing it up to 35, because as it turns out Steve is a melee character just like old P. D. Shoot Remastered).
B) Useless Steve then taking a moment right before leaving to – after a bit of a wait because you can only do so much splicing in a 24-hour period – create Roxie 4.0! Reason? Jon was hoping that having a living Roxie hanging out in X-8 would trigger one of her ending slides to play. He wasn’t sure on this point, because he thinks they’re dependent on the Courier having also met Rex, The King’s cyberdog, in the base game (because pretty much every ending slide involves them getting together and having puppies – even if the Courier got Rex killed. Roxie drags him back to the Big MT and revives him through sheer determination), but he figured it was worth the effort because Roxie’s a good girl. *nods approvingly*
C) Useless Steve successfully escaping the robo-scorpions hanging around outside X-8 and teleporting himself back to the Sink via the radar fence – only to immediately leave and raid the nearby X-12 Research Facility because he needed one more thing to make absolutely sure he had everything he needed to complete the DLC and get as many good endings as possible. That thing was the Smart Lights upgrade for Light Switch 01, which was in X-12 guarded by a Trauma Harness –
But, fortunately, said Trauma Harness was an absolutely terrible shot with its rapid-fire weapon, and Steve was able to get in, grab the holotape he needed, make a handful of stimpacks at the chemistry station nearby, and get out while taking minimal damage. He was even able to immediately fast travel back to the Sink because for once there were no enemies close enough to him to prevent that! Who would have thunk? (Certainly not Jon, who was quite grateful for the good luck!)
D) Useless Steve showing off the Smart Lights upgrade for Light Switch 01, which makes all the lights in the area green and gives Steve +2 Intelligence, +5 Repair, and +5 Science for 12 hours after initial exposure. Which is an excellent effect, we can all agree. There’s just two problems with it:
I. From what I can see, it does not stack with the “Mood Lighting” effect – that is, you can’t turn on one, then the other, to get both effects at once. Smart Lights cancels out Mood Lights and vice-versa. Shame!
II. According to Jon, it’s the uglier of the two special light options – he considers the green lighting too cold and stark. So even if Light Switch 02 doesn’t have the better processor, she at least holds a better claim on Jon’s, and thus Useless Steve’s, affections.
E) Useless Steve then showing off how much he can boost all his stats to win over the two remaining scientists he needed to get on his side now that he has all the stat-boosting goodies – which, I have to say, was very impressive indeed:
I. First, to win over Dr. Borous, he turned on Mood Lighting, put on some Sexy Sleepwear, drank a bottle of wine, had some mentats, and read the copy of Meeting People Light Switch 02 gifted him to boost his 20 base Speech all the way up to 45! This was necessary to win the speech check midway through their conversation about Gabe, Dr. Borous’s old dog (triggered by presenting him with Gabe’s old food bowl) and point out that, despite the terrible things Borous did to him, the dog really loved him. Thus forcing him to actually feel guilt about how he experimented on the pet who had been there for him through thick and thin. Which may seem like an odd way to get someone on your side, but I think the idea is that he starts to realize the research they’ve been conducting is monstrous and maybe he and the rest of the Think Tank don’t deserve to escape Big MT. At any rate, he definitely has a bit of a breakdown over it before trying to shove the feelings away. Jon cited this bit as why he thinks “Old World Blues” is one of the best DLCs of any game – the writing is so excellent, it can make you laugh with all its dark humor, then hit you out of nowhere with feels. Great stuff.
II. Then, to win over Dr. 8, he swapped back over to Smart Lighting, waited for the wine to wear off, put on Dr. Klein’s glasses and scrubs, had some more mentats (getting an addiction, but that was no big deal), and read a Programmer’s Digest to boost his 36 base Science all the way to 75. Which was necessary to pass the check to recognize that Dr. 8’s busted voice module was broadcasting RobCo termlink protocol and actually start being able to understand him! And then point out that it would be pretty easy to hack poor Dr. 8 in this state, before reassuring him that he wouldn’t (after all, he knows very well what it’s like to be experimented on). Which was enough to make Dr. 8 grateful and make sure he would also back Steve in the end! Steve also chatted to him about the fully-upgraded Sonic Emitter (noting that Dr. 8 seemed, uh, CREEPILY happy to hear it had been fully upgraded), earning himself another 100 energy cells for it –
And talked to him about his, uh, “sonjaculating,” because, uh, the way he fired up the gun when Steve just arrived was a bit – sexual to old Dr. 8. Steve told him that it was nothing to be ashamed of, just best to keep that stuff private...but Jon couldn’t help but point out that there was an option for Steven to tell Dr. 8 about how he fulfills his own “private needs” (can of Cram with some duct tape around the lid, apparently). Which would lead to Dr. 8 giving him Cram and duct tape if he took it. XD Oh cripes, “Old World Blues,” WHY. XD (If you’re wondering about female Couriers – microfusion cells set to vibrate at a specific frequency.)
F) And Useless Steve wrapping things up by making sure he was in top form for going up against Dr. Mobius, including:
I. Hitting the Auto-Doc to make sure he was in full health and addiction-free
II. Converting a bunch of his energy cells and practically of his microfusion cells to their “max charge” variants to make sure he had the best ammo for both of his guns, along with repairing Elijah’s Advanced LAER with a LAER he found of Gabe’s corpse
III. Going over to one of the Proton Axes he got off a lobotomite as his primary melee weapon after discovering that it would unfortunately be waaaay too expensive to repair the X-2 Antenna – Jon was saddened by the loss of the Electro Booping Stick, but had to admit that Steve DID swing the axe a lot faster and it actually did better damage as it was in better condition
IV. And finally buying another Proton Axe from the Sink Central AI for repair purposes, along with two doctor’s bags and a load of stimpacks to help himself survive the big final fight
And so the episode ended with Steve heading back to talk to the Think Tank, as prepared as he possibly could be for taking on Dr. Mobius and all the robo-scorpions! Next week – the Grand Finale! Should be a lot of fun.
2. Start editing Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – got another page done on this today, though it was a bit of a struggle again – though that’s because the characters kept going off on tangents from what I originally wrote. If you lot would just follow the script… ;P But I still got through another good editing session, covering:
A) Alice noting that Victor’s room is rather minimal compared to the rest of the Van Dort mansion, and Victor explaining that his parents have better things to spend their money on than him, before admitting he doesn’t collect things like they do (except books and butterfly facts) and that he prefers having a more modest room...because there’s fewer things to break (cue him remembering being yelled at for walking into one of Nell’s displays). Smiler was clearly a bit suspicious about if this was his ACTUAL preference or one he’d been bullied into
B) Smiler then noting all the butterfly sketches on the wall, and Victor proudly confirming that he’d drawn all of them (and that he’s been drawing butterflies since he was five). Alice was impressed with the level of detail, saying that getting close-ups of the heads and legs can’t have been easy; Victor confirmed it wasn’t, especially since he refuses to kill any of his specimens to make drawing easier. Smiler noted that he probably didn’t like butterfly boxes, then, and Victor confirmed he didn’t – admitting that he knew WHY people made them, but that he just couldn’t bring himself to kill the butterflies and moths because they were already often so short lived, leading into…
C) Victor going on a tangent about how a certain species of moth, the speckled flutterwing, spends its entire adult life starving to death because it develops without mouth parts (which is something that actually happens with some real-world moths, if I remember correctly). Smiler was like “why would nature do something like that,” but Victor had no answers for them (beyond “well, might not have been nature, some people think they’re a failed wizard experiment somehow hanging on”). Alice sarcastically noted that Smiler’s Advocates could use the moths in their experiments in figuring out how to survive without food, but Smiler was like “actually, that’s a good idea – at the very least, be nice if we could help the moths,” and Victor promised to lend his knowledge if they actually did try some experiments
D) And Victor trying to figure out what he wants to take – he knows he wants his butterfly sketches and his sketchbook, and maybe a couple of his butterfly books too… Alice told him to get a bag and figure it out while she and Smiler took the sketches down, and suggested to him he prioritize a change of clothes.
Yeah, that “moth facts” bit was NOT in the original draft. But somehow we got on that topic, and Victor insisted on sharing his knowledge. *shakehead* Oh, these characters sometimes...anyway, next time the gang starts packing, and Alice and Smiler get a shock when they learn just how many clothes Victor has – prompting another guilt attack for our favorite noodle-man...
3. Watch something on FreeTube: No check – simply didn’t have the time tonight between Game Night (Clue tonight – Dad won the first game, Mom won the last game, and I won the two in-between) and how long it took me to do the write-up on my workout video. *grumbles* I really gotta find a way to cut down how long those take...hopefully I can find some time to catch up a bit this weekend!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – I’m all good on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and I didn’t have anything waiting for me on Valice Multiverse, so… *shrug*
Aaaand because I ended up reading through some stuff on TV Tropes, it is officially Extremely Late and I HAVE to get to bed. *shakehead* Tomorrow, plans include playing some Fallout: New Vegas and getting Victor out on the road toward Primm; working on some Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; and watching at least ONE video over on FreeTube -- depends on how much time I have and what gets uploaded tomorrow. *nods* Night all!
