Not Great Wednesday
Jun. 3rd, 2026 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickDad's been feeling really sick all day (Mom blames all the drugs they pumped into him when they did his MRI and CAT scan yesterday), so that's cast a pall over things -- we're hoping that he feels better by tomorrow. I also had a not-great ride in (though the commute home was okay), and a pretty boring day at work -- though that shall be covered in the write-up below:
Work – As per the above, it was a pretty boring day at work, consisting mainly of me scrounging for roster maintenance stuff I could do while also solving puzzles I pulled out of some old newspapers. The only interruptions to this were:
A) Pulling the morning credit card reports – I didn’t do any check deposits because there were no checks in the mail yesterday
B) Contacting a lady about her double credit card pledge again, and her finally calling me back to shut down one of them (apologizing for missing my first e-mail – I assured her it was fine)
C) Having the Useless Check-In Call with the credit card people (barely lasted five minutes this time)
D) And printing out the last-minute credit card batch my coworker had to do when someone called in near the end of the day with a credit card gift (fortunately it wasn’t EXACTLY the end of the day, but it was still a little annoying)
So yeah. *shrug* What are you gonna do. We’ll see how Thursday goes, I guess!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “My first house build in Paralives!” by James Turner! The creation of a mid-century modern split-level home with 70s vibes continued tonight, with James –
A) Finishing up furnishing the kitchen! Which involved:
I. Putting some mini-curtains halfway up the window over the sink
II. Switching to night mode and adding lights so his Para could see at night (and complaining about how the lighting in this game DEFINITELY needs tweaking, as each lamp somehow emits both too much and not enough light (they all basically act like really bright spotlights on one specific area – there’s very little properly diffuse lighting))
III. Adding a broom and dustpan, a hanging apron, some hanging hats, and a shoe rack to the far wall
IV. Turning the floor from hardwood into linoleum (custom-shaded to look a little old and beige)
V. And cluttering up the side table behind the counters with photos and plants! It was very nice – I am quite pleased with the level of kitchen clutter for this Early Access game. :)
B) Creating and furnishing the dining room! Which involved:
I. Playing around with table sizes to get his desired six-seater without it being absolutely giant (and putting another, little circular table in the kitchen to serve as a “breakfast table” by the back wall – he couldn’t fit two seats onto it so they were both usable (one wouldn’t snap to the opposite side), and he had to move some of his other clutter around as a result, but the end result was nice)
II. Deciding to add a front hall so visitors didn’t walk IMMEDIATELY into the dining room and rearranging things accordingly layout-wise (the kitchen lost its nice archway looking in over the counters, but what could you do)
III. Discovering that, since he’d done two stacked half-walls to make a whole walls, he could paint the bottom wall with paneling and the top wall with paint to create wainscoting (which he really liked)
IV. Slapping a rug under the dining table, then discovering it was probably the one rug where he couldn’t change the pattern/colors (of course XD)
V. And sticking a plant in the corner, after finding one that didn’t clip through the wall (which was a bit of a problem, as many of the plants were QUITE bushy). End result was entirely adequate, though!
C) Creating and furnishing the downstairs bathroom! Which involved:
I. Putting in a little, slightly-open window at the back to let in fresh air (and let out hot shower/bath steam, presumably, as he put the shower/tub combo right in front of it)
II. Showing off how you can not only resize blinds, but also control how far they’re rolled down with the sizing tools, sticking a couple in the room he’d later designate as a teen bedroom as he did
III. Putting in a toilet and a sink in a pink cabinet...which inspired him to turn the toilet and the shower the same shade of pink, because why not, it got him away from the beiges he was so favoring in this build XD
IV. Making sure to include a proper toilet roll beside the toilet this time – along with a toilet brush, and 13-in-1 body wash in the shower (seems like some of these items have very amusing names) XD
V. And putting a mirrored cabinet with a shelf above the sink, before sticking some clutter on the shelf...while noting that some of the object textures seemed oddly low-quality, compared to their thumbnails (he did later discover that he had “environmental textures” turned down to medium, but he’s not 100% sure that was the problem)
D) Creating and furnishing the living room/den area! Which involved:
I. Sticking some bookcases along the back wall by the door, then cramming in an upright piano in the corner next to them and putting some clutter (like a lamp and some books) atop it with the ability to raise and lower items
II. Attempting to use the advanced transformation tools to turn a guitar case on its side and prop it up against the bookcases...only for the case to disappear just as he got the angle right, and the controls to activate the advanced tools to immediately stop working. *facepalm* If that isn’t proof this game is Early Access, I don’t know what is
III. Creating a TV area on the other side of the room, laughing about how certain stands and other cabinet-type items can look very silly when stretched out (the ones that just infinitely stretch their drawers instead of adding new ones at least)...and then suddenly remembering “hang on, I put a chimney on this build” halfway through and going to rearrange the dining room so he could fit in a fireplace XD
IV. Sticking a deer head up on the wall because he could, and SOMEHOW resisting the urge to add an even bigger moose head to the wall (the front hall has a mounted fish in it, by the by, so I guess this version of Semaj hunts, or at least likes novelty taxidermy)
V. And taking advantage of his ability to resize stuff to make nested coffee tables, because he was embracing those 70s vibes, damn it XD
E) And creating and furnishing the “teen” bedroom downstairs! Which involved:
I. Getting a very plush-looking bed with some eye-bleedingly bright colors...and promptly toning them down to green and beige, because theme :p
II. Finding a fun giant-die-shaped bedside table and sticking that beside the bed, because he could (there’s also a Rubix Cube table, for the interested!)
III. Putting in a nice wardrobe and a set of drawers by the bed (which he admitted might make it hard to actually get INTO the bed, but he was basing this on his memories of cramming as much stuff into his OWN teenage bedroom as he could)
IV. Adding a nice desk to the room just because and giving the hypothetical teenager a laptop and a sweet gamer chair
V. ...and then discovering the green screen and the giant light box and turning the hypothetical teenager into a streamer and rearranging everything to fit the kid’s clunky set-up as well as the wardrobe XD
Fun stuff all around! You can tell the mode isn’t FULLY finished, but at the same time there’s so much to recommend it. You have to commend them for going all-out with the clutter – I’ve grown very fond of cluttering up my builds, so knowing I’ll have a good selection for when I start building houses in the game makes me happy. :) We should finish this off tomorrow – I’m quite looking forward to seeing the completed house!
2. Continue writing Chapter 1 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Hollywood’s Deluded Depths”: Check – though, hilariously, despite getting another page done, Alice still has not actually met Isaac. XD Instead, today’s writing session covered –
A) Alice and Victor making their way to the entrance of the Luckee Star Motel, with Alice squinting at the sign and commenting that the name sounded familiar...then deciding she would have to puzzle it out later and asking Victor if he’d be all right checking in alone. An amused Victor said that he had managed in Santa Monica, so he was pretty sure he could manage here...then asked if he should try checking in under a fake name, given Alice didn’t want people to know who he was. Alice admitted that he should probably try to pretend to be at least Victor Not-Van-Dort, but not to worry about it if it didn’t work – they could find other ways to keep him out of the public eye. Victor assured her that he didn’t want to be in the public eye, then told her he planned to go look around a bit after getting checked in and asked if there was anywhere in particular she wanted to meet. Alice’s first thought was the convenience store where the cabbie had dropped them off –
But Cheshire instead noted there was a “bastion of deliciousness” between the hotel and the jewelry store, with Carpenter agreeing that it would be “a perfect theater for a play on plates.” Alice thus informed Victor that Wonderland had informed her there was a restaurant nearby, and said they could meet up there – even if she couldn’t partake, he could have a nice meal. Victor agreed that sounded like a good idea. *nods* Gotta get ‘em over to the Cavoletti Cafe somehow!
B) And Alice holding the door for Victor so he could get into the Luckee Star with both their suitcases, then setting off down the road and taking in the sights, which included a hotel (though given the sign just said “HOTEL,” Alice wasn’t sure which one it was); the Cavoletti Cafe, right where Cheshire and Carpenter said it would be; a printing shop called Sunset Print; the ancient remains of some theater behind a concrete wall decorated with faux-Chinese artwork (you’ll be going there eventually, Alice!) –
And, at the very end of the block, Abrams Golden Age Jewelry! Alice paused a moment in front of the store to note that the window displays didn’t exactly draw in the customers (given that each one was just a single display of jewelry in a little cubbyhole of brick), then attempted to walk in the front doors –
Only to find they were locked. Cue her being confused for a moment before Cheshire pointed out the side entrance in the alley to her. XD Alice had to admit, it probably made more sense to have Important Kindred Discussions someplace other than a jewelry shop any old human could wander into at any old time. :p I left off with her preparing to enter Isaac’s office – tomorrow, she FINALLY meets and FINALLY gets pissed off by him! Hopefully, anyway. XD
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check, shockingly enough – I had just enough time tonight to watch the latest from Josh Way: “Fun With Shorts: Excretory Systems in Animals!” Which was about – exactly what you think it was about! From single-celled organisms diffusing carbon dioxide and ammonia straight into the water around them (Josh was like, “so these things pee in the pool, is what you’re saying”), to worms releasing CO2 through their skin and urea through special little holes in their bodies (“flame cells” and excretory ducts were involved – neither Josh nor I could keep up with the science), to insects having a more complicated web of excretory tubes to whisk away uric acid and tracheal tubes to get rid of carbon dioxide (Josh: “So breathing is a form of pooping – I’ve never thought of it that way before”). It was all somewhat confusing and gross, as you might imagine, though Josh complaining about the grossness was amusing. And “best” of all, this is one of those shorts Josh has chopped in half for some reason, so we can expect more “Excretory Systems in Animals” at some point in the future! Yaaaay...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – it being Wednesday, I only had to worry about Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) and getting my Song Saturday pick into the queue tonight. And, after a bit of thought, I chose to reblog again a post I reblogged about this time last year by ororium-z, featuring a video of one mkik808 from Instagram! Where he parades about in a pair of rainbow swim bottoms with a rainbow train behind him, lip-syncing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut To The Feeling” as he removes a series of rainbow-themed wigs (one for each color of the pride flag), fans himself with a big old rainbow fan reading “Gay As Fuck” on the side, before removing his final full-rainbow wig, showering himself with confetti before throwing it at the camera. XD This video pops up all over tumblr at the beginning of June as a way to welcome in Pride, and, well, who am I to buck the trend? :p Certainly made figuring out Song Saturday nice and easy!
So yeah -- at least I managed to check off everything on my to-do list tonight! That's something, I suppose. But now I have to wrap up and hit the sheets. Fingers crossed Dad's feeling better tomorrow!
Work – As per the above, it was a pretty boring day at work, consisting mainly of me scrounging for roster maintenance stuff I could do while also solving puzzles I pulled out of some old newspapers. The only interruptions to this were:
A) Pulling the morning credit card reports – I didn’t do any check deposits because there were no checks in the mail yesterday
B) Contacting a lady about her double credit card pledge again, and her finally calling me back to shut down one of them (apologizing for missing my first e-mail – I assured her it was fine)
C) Having the Useless Check-In Call with the credit card people (barely lasted five minutes this time)
D) And printing out the last-minute credit card batch my coworker had to do when someone called in near the end of the day with a credit card gift (fortunately it wasn’t EXACTLY the end of the day, but it was still a little annoying)
So yeah. *shrug* What are you gonna do. We’ll see how Thursday goes, I guess!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “My first house build in Paralives!” by James Turner! The creation of a mid-century modern split-level home with 70s vibes continued tonight, with James –
A) Finishing up furnishing the kitchen! Which involved:
I. Putting some mini-curtains halfway up the window over the sink
II. Switching to night mode and adding lights so his Para could see at night (and complaining about how the lighting in this game DEFINITELY needs tweaking, as each lamp somehow emits both too much and not enough light (they all basically act like really bright spotlights on one specific area – there’s very little properly diffuse lighting))
III. Adding a broom and dustpan, a hanging apron, some hanging hats, and a shoe rack to the far wall
IV. Turning the floor from hardwood into linoleum (custom-shaded to look a little old and beige)
V. And cluttering up the side table behind the counters with photos and plants! It was very nice – I am quite pleased with the level of kitchen clutter for this Early Access game. :)
B) Creating and furnishing the dining room! Which involved:
I. Playing around with table sizes to get his desired six-seater without it being absolutely giant (and putting another, little circular table in the kitchen to serve as a “breakfast table” by the back wall – he couldn’t fit two seats onto it so they were both usable (one wouldn’t snap to the opposite side), and he had to move some of his other clutter around as a result, but the end result was nice)
II. Deciding to add a front hall so visitors didn’t walk IMMEDIATELY into the dining room and rearranging things accordingly layout-wise (the kitchen lost its nice archway looking in over the counters, but what could you do)
III. Discovering that, since he’d done two stacked half-walls to make a whole walls, he could paint the bottom wall with paneling and the top wall with paint to create wainscoting (which he really liked)
IV. Slapping a rug under the dining table, then discovering it was probably the one rug where he couldn’t change the pattern/colors (of course XD)
V. And sticking a plant in the corner, after finding one that didn’t clip through the wall (which was a bit of a problem, as many of the plants were QUITE bushy). End result was entirely adequate, though!
C) Creating and furnishing the downstairs bathroom! Which involved:
I. Putting in a little, slightly-open window at the back to let in fresh air (and let out hot shower/bath steam, presumably, as he put the shower/tub combo right in front of it)
II. Showing off how you can not only resize blinds, but also control how far they’re rolled down with the sizing tools, sticking a couple in the room he’d later designate as a teen bedroom as he did
III. Putting in a toilet and a sink in a pink cabinet...which inspired him to turn the toilet and the shower the same shade of pink, because why not, it got him away from the beiges he was so favoring in this build XD
IV. Making sure to include a proper toilet roll beside the toilet this time – along with a toilet brush, and 13-in-1 body wash in the shower (seems like some of these items have very amusing names) XD
V. And putting a mirrored cabinet with a shelf above the sink, before sticking some clutter on the shelf...while noting that some of the object textures seemed oddly low-quality, compared to their thumbnails (he did later discover that he had “environmental textures” turned down to medium, but he’s not 100% sure that was the problem)
D) Creating and furnishing the living room/den area! Which involved:
I. Sticking some bookcases along the back wall by the door, then cramming in an upright piano in the corner next to them and putting some clutter (like a lamp and some books) atop it with the ability to raise and lower items
II. Attempting to use the advanced transformation tools to turn a guitar case on its side and prop it up against the bookcases...only for the case to disappear just as he got the angle right, and the controls to activate the advanced tools to immediately stop working. *facepalm* If that isn’t proof this game is Early Access, I don’t know what is
III. Creating a TV area on the other side of the room, laughing about how certain stands and other cabinet-type items can look very silly when stretched out (the ones that just infinitely stretch their drawers instead of adding new ones at least)...and then suddenly remembering “hang on, I put a chimney on this build” halfway through and going to rearrange the dining room so he could fit in a fireplace XD
IV. Sticking a deer head up on the wall because he could, and SOMEHOW resisting the urge to add an even bigger moose head to the wall (the front hall has a mounted fish in it, by the by, so I guess this version of Semaj hunts, or at least likes novelty taxidermy)
V. And taking advantage of his ability to resize stuff to make nested coffee tables, because he was embracing those 70s vibes, damn it XD
E) And creating and furnishing the “teen” bedroom downstairs! Which involved:
I. Getting a very plush-looking bed with some eye-bleedingly bright colors...and promptly toning them down to green and beige, because theme :p
II. Finding a fun giant-die-shaped bedside table and sticking that beside the bed, because he could (there’s also a Rubix Cube table, for the interested!)
III. Putting in a nice wardrobe and a set of drawers by the bed (which he admitted might make it hard to actually get INTO the bed, but he was basing this on his memories of cramming as much stuff into his OWN teenage bedroom as he could)
IV. Adding a nice desk to the room just because and giving the hypothetical teenager a laptop and a sweet gamer chair
V. ...and then discovering the green screen and the giant light box and turning the hypothetical teenager into a streamer and rearranging everything to fit the kid’s clunky set-up as well as the wardrobe XD
Fun stuff all around! You can tell the mode isn’t FULLY finished, but at the same time there’s so much to recommend it. You have to commend them for going all-out with the clutter – I’ve grown very fond of cluttering up my builds, so knowing I’ll have a good selection for when I start building houses in the game makes me happy. :) We should finish this off tomorrow – I’m quite looking forward to seeing the completed house!
2. Continue writing Chapter 1 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Hollywood’s Deluded Depths”: Check – though, hilariously, despite getting another page done, Alice still has not actually met Isaac. XD Instead, today’s writing session covered –
A) Alice and Victor making their way to the entrance of the Luckee Star Motel, with Alice squinting at the sign and commenting that the name sounded familiar...then deciding she would have to puzzle it out later and asking Victor if he’d be all right checking in alone. An amused Victor said that he had managed in Santa Monica, so he was pretty sure he could manage here...then asked if he should try checking in under a fake name, given Alice didn’t want people to know who he was. Alice admitted that he should probably try to pretend to be at least Victor Not-Van-Dort, but not to worry about it if it didn’t work – they could find other ways to keep him out of the public eye. Victor assured her that he didn’t want to be in the public eye, then told her he planned to go look around a bit after getting checked in and asked if there was anywhere in particular she wanted to meet. Alice’s first thought was the convenience store where the cabbie had dropped them off –
But Cheshire instead noted there was a “bastion of deliciousness” between the hotel and the jewelry store, with Carpenter agreeing that it would be “a perfect theater for a play on plates.” Alice thus informed Victor that Wonderland had informed her there was a restaurant nearby, and said they could meet up there – even if she couldn’t partake, he could have a nice meal. Victor agreed that sounded like a good idea. *nods* Gotta get ‘em over to the Cavoletti Cafe somehow!
B) And Alice holding the door for Victor so he could get into the Luckee Star with both their suitcases, then setting off down the road and taking in the sights, which included a hotel (though given the sign just said “HOTEL,” Alice wasn’t sure which one it was); the Cavoletti Cafe, right where Cheshire and Carpenter said it would be; a printing shop called Sunset Print; the ancient remains of some theater behind a concrete wall decorated with faux-Chinese artwork (you’ll be going there eventually, Alice!) –
And, at the very end of the block, Abrams Golden Age Jewelry! Alice paused a moment in front of the store to note that the window displays didn’t exactly draw in the customers (given that each one was just a single display of jewelry in a little cubbyhole of brick), then attempted to walk in the front doors –
Only to find they were locked. Cue her being confused for a moment before Cheshire pointed out the side entrance in the alley to her. XD Alice had to admit, it probably made more sense to have Important Kindred Discussions someplace other than a jewelry shop any old human could wander into at any old time. :p I left off with her preparing to enter Isaac’s office – tomorrow, she FINALLY meets and FINALLY gets pissed off by him! Hopefully, anyway. XD
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check, shockingly enough – I had just enough time tonight to watch the latest from Josh Way: “Fun With Shorts: Excretory Systems in Animals!” Which was about – exactly what you think it was about! From single-celled organisms diffusing carbon dioxide and ammonia straight into the water around them (Josh was like, “so these things pee in the pool, is what you’re saying”), to worms releasing CO2 through their skin and urea through special little holes in their bodies (“flame cells” and excretory ducts were involved – neither Josh nor I could keep up with the science), to insects having a more complicated web of excretory tubes to whisk away uric acid and tracheal tubes to get rid of carbon dioxide (Josh: “So breathing is a form of pooping – I’ve never thought of it that way before”). It was all somewhat confusing and gross, as you might imagine, though Josh complaining about the grossness was amusing. And “best” of all, this is one of those shorts Josh has chopped in half for some reason, so we can expect more “Excretory Systems in Animals” at some point in the future! Yaaaay...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – it being Wednesday, I only had to worry about Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) and getting my Song Saturday pick into the queue tonight. And, after a bit of thought, I chose to reblog again a post I reblogged about this time last year by ororium-z, featuring a video of one mkik808 from Instagram! Where he parades about in a pair of rainbow swim bottoms with a rainbow train behind him, lip-syncing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut To The Feeling” as he removes a series of rainbow-themed wigs (one for each color of the pride flag), fans himself with a big old rainbow fan reading “Gay As Fuck” on the side, before removing his final full-rainbow wig, showering himself with confetti before throwing it at the camera. XD This video pops up all over tumblr at the beginning of June as a way to welcome in Pride, and, well, who am I to buck the trend? :p Certainly made figuring out Song Saturday nice and easy!
So yeah -- at least I managed to check off everything on my to-do list tonight! That's something, I suppose. But now I have to wrap up and hit the sheets. Fingers crossed Dad's feeling better tomorrow!
