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Sunday, April 2nd, 2017
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11:01 pm - Brunch Sunday
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Yup, today was the brunch charity event for me and Mom! The whole thing was organized by a friend of one of my coworkers -- she found something called a "disappointment's room" (basically a room in which a disabled or otherwise different child would be hidden in so they would not embarrass the rest of the family) in her house a while back, and after researching the story of the little girl who lived there, was compelled to make something positive of it. So now she's running a charity called "Ruthie's Room" (since the girl was Ruthie) which helps make sensory rooms for kids with special needs. My coworker was selling tickets, and Mom and I bought two. For a good cause, and you got a free meal out of it!
And, in my case, a driving lesson -- back on the highway, though it wasn't anything too new. Though it was WINDY this morning -- I had to keep a close eye on where I was in the lane to make sure I wasn't drifting into anybody else. Made it up there without incident (though Mom and I had to switch when it became clear that finding a parking space was going to be veeeery tricky). Brunch itself was good -- there were a variety of things on offer, from pasta to potatoes to a crunchy french toast (Mom thinks it was rolled in graham cracker crumbs). I had some potatoes and some french toast, and a small cup of tea. Tea tasted mostly like sugar water to me, but the food was good. We sat with some of my coworker's other friends, and chatted for a while. A couple of my other coworkers came over to say hello, and it just pretty nice all around. I even got a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie out of it when they set out the desserts. :P
After that, Mom drove us over to the fabric store (she's got a project that requires felt), we hit the Warwick Newbury's (got the first and second issues of "Biff To The Future!" Which are funny but also pretty dark -- which I guess fits, seeing as it's a miniseries about how 1985A from Part II came to be), and then I drove us home again. Smooth, quiet ride, and we got home around two, which I appreciated muchly. Good day out!
Other things of note today:
-->Wrote another page on "Fixing You" while waiting to head out to the brunch -- Victor and Alice at a Hatter, Hare, and Dormy tea party. Fun stuff, even if it does involve Victor eating a candied snail :P
-->Played some Bloodlines -- got through the Fu Syndicate stuff, with a little help from walthroughs. Harry managed to not be killed by fake sunlight, lasers (the, uh, second time around when I remembered to put on Fortitude ^^;), spinny blades (which I think were supposed to move but didn't?), the Belmont team (again, the second time around), electricity, or fire. Amusingly, after triggering the event that lets the PC escape the deadly testing track and go after The Mandarin, I chose to muck around for a bit instead, looking for goodies --
And when I finished with that, I came back and found The Mandarin waiting for me in front of the door he was SUPPOSED to have fled through. XD I guess he got sick of waiting for me! I drained him dry and completed the quest -- though it took a little extra doing to find the extra goodies I wanted (quest item and some e-mails that I could use to convince another friendly character to skip town before he was killed). Got my next quest lined up, told said friendly character to get out of dodge. . .and then went to Hollywood to pick up an old porno mag for another side quest. XD Hey, I'm trying to get things done here! I'll swing back by Downtown briefly to get that cleared up, and then resume the main quest with a raid on the Giovanni mansion. Fun!
-->Watched Helloween's Chrono Trigger and DS3 sets -- CT remains amusing, cute, and full of fun, while DS3 remains hilariously derpy and silly, especially with Hells and Rufert at the helm. XD They're constantly mocking each other and their characters, it's great. Oh, and belated justice for Rufert, who was regularly messing up quicktime events in their RE5 playthrough -- this time it was Helloween who missed a prompt and got them both killed. XD Of course, Rufert also did the Helloween thing of going the complete wrong way at one point, so. . .
-->Watched Linkara's Fist of the North Star Chapter 1 review, which was pretty short! But good -- it's a manga about a guy who knows how to kill via pressure points, and wanders a post-apocalyptic wasteland defending the innocent (at least, that's how it looks from the first story). Linkara's snark was as usual on point, and it's nice when he gets to recommend something rather than full-on trash it.
-->Did my queue on my main blog and Valice Multiverse -- former runs straight through the beginning of Thursday! Nice to be so ahead. :)
And now I really need to get to bed, as it's a normal workday tomorrow. And I know I've got a lot waiting for me, so. . .night!
current mood:  content
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| Saturday, April 1st, 2017
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11:46 pm - Automata Saturday
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As promised, a good chunk of my day was spent watching Helloween's LP of Nier: Automata! It's been a good run so far -- the story concerns an android fighting force trying to take back earth from an invasion of alien machines while the humans wait on the moon. Except that these "machines" are looking less like enemies and more like people now. . . Also there's a bit where a bunch of them are simulating an orgy, then attack the heroes, then form a sort of womb and "give birth" to another android -- and another android climbs out of HIM when the heroes manage to kill the first.
It's THAT sort of game, much like the original Nier. I'm enjoying it, and I'm looking forward to just how much weirder and depressing it's going to get (because the studio that does these games rarely does happy -- I was honestly shocked when a sidequest ended with someone safely being returned to their sibling). Glory To Mankind! (Also, thanks to a comment referencing the "Android Hell" bit from Portal, I'm already fighting off AU thoughts with Chell and Wheatley. My brain, seriously. . .)
Things I have managed to do aside from the N:A marathon:
-->Write some more on "Fixing You" -- Victor got jumped by a Slithering Ruin; Alice killed it and then felt bad because she promised him he wouldn't get hurt. He assured her it was okay, and the Vorpal Fork was reintroduced. :) Next up, montage sequence! I already know all the places I want to hit. :)
-->Play Sims 4 -- Eric Embers finally had a day on the job again! Wasn't TOO exciting, but he got some fingerprinting and evidence analysis done, and took Victor's crime report about somebody playing with matches near a playground. The real draw of the day was the romance festival coming into town -- once Eric was out of work, I had Nikal take advantage of it to have a sort-of-date with Emmett. Went well, mostly -- for some reason, Nikal got jealous just as I was getting their romantic relationship up to a decent level! I didn't SEE Emmett flirt with anyone else. . . But I made her get over it enough for them to have their first kiss. And she got a new t-shirt out of the deal too, which ended up in a whole new outfit. So yeah, that's cool.
-->Watched an April Fool's video from Helloween -- he more or less recreated one of his early F.E.A.R. sets, right down to the crappy video and audio quality. I thought he'd sneakily reuploaded one of his older videos until I read the comments. XD (Though I did start to wonder when he made a comment about the enemies moving when you kicked or punched them after death on higher physics levels, a clear reference to the famous "party bodies" of his reLP. . .)
-->Watched another Sims 1 set from The Sim Supply -- he finally repaired his shower, and got his adult sims into the crafting business -- his "father" makes paintings, his "mother" makes gnomes and gargoyles. He seems to finally be getting the hang of the game again. We'll see how long he lasts!
And I'm currently finishing up catching up on tumblr and doing some things there. . .will have to go to bed soon, though. I have to get up early thanks to the Sunday brunch thing with my coworkers I'm attending with Mom. Over in West Warwick, 10 to 1 -- and then Mom wants to stop at the fabric store and maybe pass by a house on the way back. Hoping we can also stop at a Newbury's so I can see if I can catch up on my Biff To The Futures. . . At any rate, it should be a decent day out. I just kinda miss not getting to stay up late and then sleep in. Ah well, get the chance next weekend. . .and then I have an extra-long one after that thanks to Easter, yay :)
But that's for the future. For now, I should do my final few messages and then hit the sack. Night all!
current mood: cheerful
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| Friday, March 31st, 2017
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11:02 pm - Neither Wind Nor Rain Nor Random Muscle Cramps At 5:30 In The Morning...
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Yeah, that's how I first woke up today -- with my leg suddenly screaming in pain because a muscle in it had cramped up. Somehow I managed to get back to sleep once the worst of it had abated. . .only to be woken up at 6 because I'd forgot to turn my main alarm off. -.- And then I went back to sleep again only to briefly wake up at 7:30. My brain, ladies and gentlemen. And my body too, come to think of it. (The back of my leg STILL aches a bit, and I've got a bit of a knot in the side of my neck. Bleh.)
Despite all that, and the generally gloomy weather today, I still made it to the mall! Report of my time there:
-->Newbury's has rearranged itself yet again -- at least it means there's always something new to look at. My trip to the comics section yielded the last two comics of the "Who Is Marty McFly?" arc I wanted, but only the second issue of "Biff To The Future," the new miniseries. Since I still need issue 1 of that, I left that one behind and just got the end of "Who Is Marty McFly?"
( Did I Discuss This Arc Before?Collapse )
-->Went to go have lunch -- and found they'd taken out the Subway! O.o I have no idea why, since I haven't been there in months. I ended up going to Charley's Philly Cheesesteaks instead, which was next to it. Had a pretty damn tasty chicken "cheesesteak" sandwich with fries and a strawberry lemonade (with bits of real strawberry in it!) Might make them my new regular for these visits.
-->Dave and Buster's next -- recharged my card and hit all my usual games. Just the same good fun that I usually have there. :)
-->And I ended with a stop at Dairy Queen for a mini Ultimate Chocolate Brownie blizzard -- chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie bits, and a squirt of fudge. Om nom nom.
So yeah, that was fun. :) I needed a day like that, I think. Just something where I could sit back and relax for change.
Things I accomplished after my trip:
-->Another bit of "Fixing You" -- Victor and Alice have gone down the slide and are now splashing around together in one of the pools. Unfortunately a Slithering Ruin is about to chomp on Victor, so Alice will be needing the Vorpal Blade shortly. After that -- montage!
-->Got through the last of the "Tangled Web" quest in Bloodlines -- Harry successfully raided Kamikaze Zen and set up the network hub without being noticed. I actually managed to sneak around the legs of a guard without setting him off! Also grabbed a special name plate from the vault for an extra experience point and got Mitnick to let me out through the air vent. Back to the main quest next time, entering the obvious "Fu Syndicate" trap!
-->Watched the next of Helloween's RE7 sets -- more glop monsters, more futzing around, no big deal. One minor jumpscare that Hells knew was coming and thus was unaffected by. Seriously, the difference between this section and everything that came before is night and day. You could see some campiness sneaking in with Lucas's stuff, but that remained fairly tense for the most part. This is just standard Resident Evil goofy. Not that I mind that much -- makes it easier to watch.
-->Watched The Sim Supply build a bowling alley, because he builds neat stuff. :) While he likes the pack (less for the actual bowling and more for the furniture and wallpapers and such), he and LGR seem to agree that more aracadey stuff (like the games you'd see at Dave & Busters, actually) should have been included. I'm in full agreement -- I miss the old pinball machines and such. Hoping those will come back in some future update!
-->Got my queue set up for The Valice Multiverse -- it's not much of a muse day for me, RPing-wise (going to the mall tends to send my mind in non-RP directions), but I had enough to at least get some stuff prepped. And I did get a nice piece of fanart to put up: Queen Wins Victor is not having a good day :)
*claps hands* All right -- need to catch up on my main tumblr and answer a couple of messages. Tomorrow, weather is supposed to remain shitty, so my main plan is to do a Helloween Nier: Automata marathon (he has three sets plus a side mission video up now, and they're all pretty long). May fit in either his DS3 co-op LP with Rufert or Linkara's latest review depending on time. We'll see. I also have a lot of WhatCulture gaming videos I'd like to watch too -- probably should get those out of the way tonight. *nods* So yeah, let me get on that. Night all!
current mood:  busy
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| Thursday, March 30th, 2017
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11:04 pm - Mall Trip Is Go
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While it isn't supposed to be pretty tomorrow, it seems the worst of this upcoming storm is headed above Rhode Island -- we're just supposed to be mainly slush. It's also supposed to be worst in the later afternoon/evening hours. So I'm risking it and heading out tomorrow for my mall day. (Helps that my parents have offered to bring me up -- although I'm not sure if that's just to the bus stop, or to the mall itself. Will get clarification tomorrow.) I just -- I really want this day out. I haven't had a fun trip like this in ages.
Work today was all right -- I had plenty to occupy my time between a big import with maintenance, doing the GL, and finishing up a big duplicate merge project (which got complicated near the end thanks to there being duplicates of the duplicates). Made the day go by, at least. This evening was pretty busy too -- I had a LOOT of tumblr to catch up on. Plus more "Fixing You" to write, with Victor making friends with Cheshire via head scratches. XD Also he and Alice are gonna go down one of the big Wonderland slides, because I think it's cute. And, as Alice mentions, I did put the first Victor memory at the top of the one in the Vale of Tears, so appropriate too! And I did my queue for The Valice Multiverse, which was pretty hefty. Getting a lot of anon questions, which is fun, but requires a lot of careful tag copy-paste. So yeah. At least I found the time to watch LGR's review of the bowling stuff pack for Sims 4. (Yes, really. He's as baffled as anyone else.)
Okay -- can't stay up all night if I'm planning a trip tomorrow, so I'd better finish up my final few messages. Then I can probably sneak in one more YouTube video. Or possibly two; we'll see. :p Night all, and wish me luck tomorrow!
current mood: busy
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| Wednesday, March 29th, 2017
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10:39 pm - Kinda A Rough Start To Wednesday
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Something of a frustrating morning -- there was a check thing I was hoping to clear up but couldn't, one of my coworkers went home not feeling well (which, you know, worries me), I had another big import to do, and to top it all off I was still feeling sour about the weather situation this upcoming weekend. *grumble*
Fortunately things improved as the day went on -- another coworker brought in some delicious homemade barbecue chicken pizza, so I had that for lunch; I got all caught up on the current maintenance for my imports; my supervisor found a better way of merging in a huge stack of duplicates we found; and I was able to get a first draft of the verse post for one of my exclusive verses done on my lunch break. So yeah, all in all a productive day, I suppose.
This evening's been pretty good too. Had nice pasta and sausage for dinner; watched some classic Whose Line? (the Salute To American Television episode); wrote more on "Fixing You" (have dropped Victor and Alice into Wonderland!); and got my tumblr queue for VictorLuvsAlice done up to the first Sunday post. :) Which included posting another shortfic from my past -- anyone remember the game Journey? Well, this fic's based on the last level: A Dream Journey Fluffy sweetness for all!
Not much else to say about the day, beyond we finally saw the sun today. Amazing, huh? Supposed to be out tomorrow too. . .and then go back in again Friday. -.- Mall trip is a bit up in the air, though the parents have offered to give me a ride if they end up going in that direction themselves looking at houses. We'll see what happens, I suppose. Right now, I have a couple last things to answer, then a bed to get in. Night all!
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| Tuesday, March 28th, 2017
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11:03 pm - The Weather Conspires Against Me
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Another miserable, rainy day today. This morning was more just foggy (hella foggy, in fact), but the rain moved in this afternoon and has been on and off ever since. It's coming down pretty heavily right now. Tomorrow's supposed to clear up and be reasonably nice, same for Thursday --
And then Friday they're calling for rain and possible wet snow.
Did I mention that I took Friday off SPECIFICALLY SO I COULD GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING FUN?
*headdesk* And it's supposed to rain Saturday too! Sunday's the only decent day of the three, and I already HAVE something happening that day! *grumble* It's not like I haven't taken mall trips in less-than-decent weather before, but wet snow sounds like a bit much to wade through. Mom's telling me they might change the forecast -- cross your fingers, I guess!
On the plus side, it was a pretty productive day today -- we got the weekly reports out pretty smoothly, which is good. And I managed to get a ton done on my lunch break -- namely, writing up real summaries for my Forgotten Vows and Secundus explanatory posts on the Valice Multiverse. So those have been edited, and the Queen Wins verse post queued up. Holy crap, I can see the finish line for getting my Verses page done over there. . .
I also started a new chapter in "Fixing You" -- Victor and Alice are off to Wonderland! The beginning's a bit rough, and I'm feeling like I there should be more of a buffer between the Land of the Dead bit and Wonderland, but I can fix that later. For now, I'm gonna concentrate on the fun times that are coming up. And the more angsty times, since this brings up the plot point that Victor's not quite over what Bumby did to him. . . But first funtimes with Wonderland costumes. :D
And I did some more queuing on my main tumblr -- got another snippet of Londerland Bloodlines up. It's a darker one than some of the others, but I hope people will enjoy it nonetheless. And for those that won't, I did try to tag the hell out of it.
So yeah, even with the lousy weather making me grumpy, I suppose this was a good day. Hopefully tomorrow will also be decent. Better get to bed and see -- night all!
current mood: productive
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| Monday, March 27th, 2017
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11:06 pm - Busy Monday
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Though fortunately not to the level of full on "oh God why" busy -- just a lot to do and less time that I thought to do it in. But I made it through (mostly -- spreadsheet I have to complete tomorrow morning), and that's another day in the bag. And another day closer to the weekend --
Which I have decided, in my infinite wisdom, to make one day longer! Yeah, I went ahead and took Friday off -- mostly because I want to go to the mall. I haven't been in months, and it's been a while since I took a trip just for the fun of it. (Rather than, you know, driving all around Cranston looking at houses while hungry.) Of course, the current forecast for Friday isn't looking so friendly, but -- eeh. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up. (Or possibly move the trip to Saturday. I really just want a day to sleep in since I'm also doing something with my coworkers on Sunday -- brunch get-together -- and that'll necessitate getting up earlier than I usually do.)
Other things which happened today:
-->Finished up Chapter 4 of "Fixing You" (which is likely to become at least two chapters in the editing stage -- I think it ran long). Ended on the gang starting on cute childhood stories in the bar. Downstairs Houndsditch stuff is currently looking like it'll be part of the last chapter, as the gang were talking about having a post-wedding reception down there (yes, the fic ends with Victor and Alice getting married -- I had to!). Next up is back to the living world for a bit, before tumbling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland! Booyah~
-->Caught up on main tumblr and did some queuing -- Sims posts and a really cute OTP piece that sums up how I feel about Valice. :)
-->On my lunch break, I basically finished the Queen Wins universe post for The Valice Multiverse, so that's good! Another one in the can. :) Though I'm thinking I'm going to have to edit my two primary posts (Forgotten Vows & Secundus), as they don't really have proper plot summaries for the newbies at the moment. . .do that this weekend, perhaps.
-->Watched a short Hells made comparing Mass Effect: Andromeda to Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines in terms of facial animation. The older game is actually better! I've heard the reason for this is because the ME:A team is a bunch of newbies that were basically left in the cold by the experienced folk. . .but I would like further explanation regarding who the heck thought "my face is tired" was acceptable as a hardboiled NPC's line. O.o (Or was it a random comment that just made it into the game? Either way...)
And that's pretty much it -- time to wrap up things and hit the sack. Still got three days of work to go! Night!
current mood: busy
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| Sunday, March 26th, 2017
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11:22 pm - ~I'm Running Behind
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Mostly because I had somewhat less free time than expected today -- went out for a drive with Mom that started out with a trip up to Shaw's (we had to pick up some groceries, and some Monopoly tickets (they're doing a "collect this stuff and win prizes!" thing), plus a free donut we won through the Monopoly tickets), then proceeded to the beach parking lot to practice backing up. Sloooowly getting better at that -- it's a matter of keeping track of just what's behind me and on either side of me. Still have a tendency to end up crooked, but I made some progress on that today. But between over an hour of that, and other little things eating away at my time. . .yeah, not everything I wanted to get done got done. In particular, I have not started Helloween's Nier: Automata LP. I'd planned to, but -- the first set is 40 minutes long, and the second, released today, is an hour. What with needing two hours to watch his OTHER videos, plus wanting to do other stuff, I decided it was best to wait on those. Maybe I'll just have a marathon sometime this weekend...
Things I DID get done today:
-->Writing more on "Fixing You" -- and coming up with more stuff for them to do Downstairs, such as visit the Downstairs version of Houndsditch. Of course, that necessitates them getting back to Houndsditch, but it might be nice as an extra chapter? It would allow me to introduce Bonejangles and June as well, and show off something that I might not get to in this current scene -- namely, that the Ukrainian Haunting Spell doesn't work quite right on Victor anymore. We'll see!
-->Playing a little Bloodlines -- Harry has confronted and killed Johnny, leader of the Chinatown Tong, and been contacted by the Mandarin in regards to getting back Nosferatu spy Barnabus. He's also killed an entire club full of Tong, and had his Humanity unfairly lowered by a guy he was fighting shooting and killing the DJ behind him. Harry didn't kill the guy, so why should Harry be penalized? *grumble* Next task -- finish off the Schrecknet "Tangled Web" sidequest before advancing the main quest at the Fu Syndicate. Want my experience points!
-->Watching Helloween and Rufert's DS3 sets -- more faffing about (including Helloween getting them briefly lost), more party bodies (some very enthusiastic torsos in space!), more trying to ignore the actual plot in favor of calling each other "ustless." XD Also a side mission that could have been cool in showing how markers screw with people's heads if it had lasted more than ten minutes. This game. . .at least Rufert and Helloween are having fun being silly with each other. :P
-->Watching Helloween's next Chrono Trigger set -- there was some going around killing things in the future with a robot, a trip to the End of Time, and learning how to use magic! Good stuff. Game continues to be a cute and intelligent RPG that is fun to watch, especially with Hells's commentary. :) Fun change of pace from stuff like RE7.
-->Catching up on tumblr and doing my Valice queue. I really have to do a better job of the former on weekends -- I'm just so easily distracted the moment I have any free time. . .
And now I've stayed up rather too late for a work night, so I'd better get to bed pronto. Night all!
current mood:  rushed
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| Saturday, March 25th, 2017
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11:35 pm - Somewhat Cloudy Saturday
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Temperatures were decent, though, which is nice. I thought it was going to be a lot worse. No driving though, as my parents first went to see a house in Smithfield (verdict from outside -- looks okay, on a hill but isn't steep on both sides, seeing the inside on Monday), and then went grocery shopping as we basically had almost no food. We'll see what tomorrow brings, since I believe it's supposed to be icky-awful.
Rest of the day has been pretty good:
-->Reunited Victor and Scraps in "Fixing You," and brought Elder Gutknecht into the bar so I didn't have to bug him in his tower. I think Chapter 4 is close to wrapping up now -- Chapter 5 will focus on Wonderland stuff, mainly Victor and Alice exploring some of the domains (including the intro of Victor's Wonderland outfits). And then we'll move onto getting into Victor's head. . . So far it doesn't look like there's going to be a lot of chapters, but I'm fully expecting a lot of rejiggering and possible additions of extra adventures (one half-formed idea -- introducing June and Bonejangles somehow) once the first draft is done. We'll see how it goes!
-->Watched Helloween's RE7 sets of the week. Which included a giant gloppy boss monster with obvious glowing weak points.
IT'S A RESIDENT EVIL GAME AFTER ALL! :D No, seriously, the game has suddenly taken rather a hard swing, at least in Hells' and my eyes, from pants-wetting to kinda campy, and I am totally on board. Suddenly I feel like I'm actually watching a Resident Evil game. Hooray, I don't have to worry so much about this series giving me nightmares! (It hasn't, actually, but the early stages, PARTICULARLY the mother's bug-themed area, are not stuff I'd watch without Helloween's commentary. Yick.)
-->Played some Sims 4 -- well, after getting the game to patch itself after the update got stuck "in queue." Just another day on the job with Emmett -- he's upgraded his Sim Ray to make people change clothes (though I haven't actually tried that out yet), and created a satellite dish to contact aliens! And mind control the neighborhood, though since I chose the "just be happy" option there, I didn't see much effect. Ah well. I also took a moment to place a Maxis-made nightclub, Club Slate, in Forgotten Hollow to give Sims a reason to visit beyond dropping in on someone's house (which -- I have not actually done yet since you couldn't in Sims 2 and I'm not used to having the option). I made it a Vampire Nexus to encourage the bloodsuckers to patronize it -- now any of my Sims who visit can make vampire friends! :) Though I don't think Marty will be wanting to go down there anytime soon. . .
-->Watched Linkara's latest review -- "Reagan's Raiders," a goofy-in-concept-but-kinda-bland-in-execution "parody" comic that makes Reagan a superhero going up against rather incompetent terrorists. Linkara was not particularly impressed. XD There was also storyline, yay! . . .Not particularly pleasant storyline, as Linkara is getting pissy beyond all belief about events in his life, but still.
-->And I've been spending a good chunk of time on TV Tropes, because -- well, you know me. I have free time, I have to fill it with tropes. :P
So yeah, typical Saturday I suppose. Nice to just have a quiet day to enjoy with games and videos. :) And now I'm off to Valice Multiverse to answer a few things. Night all!
current mood:  calm
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| Friday, March 24th, 2017
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10:52 pm - Shockingly Productive Friday
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Work was busy, but in a not-too-stressful way -- just me cleaning up my big import, handling some questions, doing a little maintenance, and then helping out with a spreadsheet for a project one of the guys who handles big gifts is doing. Stuff that makes the time pass but doesn't drive me up the wall. I appreciate it.
Better yet, I had time on my lunch break, so I got my Valice Multiverse replies done, AND completed the information post for the Catch Us Verse, AND drafted my Secundus Sunday post! So my Valice Multiverse queue is done, and my Victor Luvs Alice queue good through next Tuesday. :) Plus I got another page done on "Fixing You" (Victor feeling kinda down because he thinks he's being a burden thanks to him still struggling with what happened to him under Bumby -- fortunately this is the part where I bring in Scraps again), caught up on my websites, and answered all current comments.
So, in more classic Friday tradition, I'll be spending the rest of the night watching YouTube videos. XD To be fair, I have a good chunk of stuff in my "Watch Later" list, including more WhatCulture and Outside Xbox gaming stuff, and new episodes from The Sim Supply's Vampire and Sims 1 LPs! And I should get it watched, because I've got plenty of Helloween to catch up on, including the start of his new Nier: Automata LP...plus Linkara's latest episode. So much to watch, so little time...
So yeah, better start now. :P Night all, sleep tight!
current mood: cheerful
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| Thursday, March 23rd, 2017
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10:39 pm - Very Quiet Thursday
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No major fires to put out today -- I spent most of the day working on various bits of roster maintenance. Also visiting the "benefits fair" set up by the companies that provide our health insurance and such downstairs. Not much to it, just a few tables with reps, but I got my blood pressure taken (110/75), saw my face was basically one big freckle under a special light, and got some free goodies -- a toothbrush, a fold-out thing of recipe cards, a glasses-cleaning cloth (for the parents), and a jar opening thing (also for the parents). While combining various duplicates got a bit boring near the end of the day, at least it was better than the stressed-out mess I had at the start of the week. And I've already got activities lined up for tomorrow, including a pretty massive new donor add from our processing company. Bring on Friday!
As for this evening, I have:
-->Written more on "Fixing You," FINALLY getting up to Victor talking about what happened to him as Thirteen to the Liddells (it has been a long and rambling road to this point, making me suspect my muse is trying to get me NOT to make him talk about it -- sorry, Victor, but that's kind of part of the PLOT)
-->Watched a few WhatCulture videos since I had a bit of free time
-->Caught up on my main tumblr, including reading a quite funny "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" (TV Show) fic from my friend Auntie Keith based on a prompt I gave her: Dirk gets a muffin. Adventure somehow ensues. Even if you're not familiar with the show, it's a good read all on its own.
-->Did my queue for Valice Multiverse
So all in all, a productive and fun night. Just have to clear out one remaining message, and I'll be ready for bed. Just gotta get through one more day before the weekend... Night all!
current mood: calm
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| Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017
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10:45 pm - Quieter Wednesday, Whew
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Credit card problem has been resolved, more or less -- took my supervisor hours upon hours on help chat (which proved not to be that helpful), but apparently there was a bad record somewhere in the batch that was causing the whole thing to fail. So she whittled down the batch into a bunch of smaller batches until she could finally get everything to run. Problem is, we're not sure which record was causing the failure. We DO have three exceptions, so it could have been one of them, but still. At least everything's settled THERE now!
On my end, I was able to get everything I needed to get done in the morning done (imports and whatnot), get a bunch of maintenance completed, and even do a second afternoon import and get it out of the way. So that was nice. Stress levels way down today, which is much appreciated.
At home, I got another page of "Fixing You" done -- Victor's making himself talk about what Bumby did to him, poor guy. I think I've got the main crux of his issues settled down now, but we'll see how it evolves in the writing. I also got a bunch of queuing done for my main tumblr, which is good. Less to worry about as the week goes on! Part of queuing involved refinding this tumblr gift fic I wrote back in 2014 -- take a gander if you're interested. Also if you're interested, more Victor and Alice Sim goodness, with their daughter Emma becoming a toddler! I particularly like the family dance party. XD
And now I'm feeling really quite tired, so time to answer a few last things and hit the sheets, I think. Night all!
current mood: accomplished
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| Tuesday, March 21st, 2017
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11:05 pm - Another Stressful Day
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Credit card batch STILL isn't working, which is turning into a major problem. There was an issue with "fake" paycashes being credited from direct debit pledges. And it was parish weekly reports day, which meant I spent the vast majority of my day trying to get those ready (and then having to rerun a few that had issues). Ugh. *flops facedown on bed* I need a vacation.
On the house front, we've officially lost out -- the seller went with an all-cash offer. C'est la vie -- just have to get back to the hunt now. I still find it kind of hilarious that all this happened without me ever seeing the place in person. Happily my parents seem to get this was a bad idea now and have promised that, if they see a really good house one day, they'll make sure I get to see it that day before we do anything else. And we're only buying from people who actually own the house at the time. Logical, right?
On the plus side, I got a good chunk written on "Fixing You," and I have an idea for bringing Elder Gutknect to them instead of them going to the Elder -- guy has to leave his tower sometimes, and I know just the way to get him out and about. And I did a little more on my personal queue, and filled up my Valice Multiverse queue, including a post on my "Victor's an employee at Aperture" AU. Ah, feels good to get another one done. . . Still need to answer a couple things, but at least I've been mostly productive tonight! AND found the time to watch an Outside Xtra video and a video on how OK Go made their "Upside Down & Inside Out" video (it's pretty freaking cool). So that's good at least.
Right, time to answer some stuff and hit the sack -- night all!
current mood:  thirsty
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| Monday, March 20th, 2017
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11:07 pm - Busy Busy Monday
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Most in terms of credit cards -- a lot of people made CC-based gifts over the weekend! Lended my coworker a hand in matching them all up with the right people. . .and I had my own import to do, plus the monthly direct debit and credit card payments on pledges. . .the latter of which decided not to work for some unknown reason. *grumble* I left it with my supervisor to play with when I went home this afternoon. Hopefully she can figure out what happened!
Evening has been pretty busy too -- writing more on "Fixing You," catching up with comics, tumblr, finally answering a long DW PM, doing some queuing on VictorLuvsAlice (my Sims post for the week, which features mainly Victor and Alice being cute with their daughter), and all that good stuff. Better to get it done now than later, of course, but I wish I'd had a little more time to breathe. Maybe tomorrow will be a little better in that regard.
Still no word on the house, btw. Kind of annoys me that the guy would set a solid deadline for "final offers" and then not get back to anyone. *grumble* I guess I'll find out about that tomorrow too. As it is, I really need to get to bed -- night all!
current mood: rushed
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| Sunday, March 19th, 2017
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11:09 pm - Long Videos Sunday
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If I didn't do everything I had in mind, it's all Helloween's fault -- two videos just over an hour, and one just over forty minutes! On the other hand, those videos were more reading "The Eye of Argon" with Rufert and Kikoskia (which remains hilarious -- they keep claiming all the various misspellings and jammed-together words are new characters, and they're taking the absolute piss out of the main character); more Chrono Trigger (we have seen the future and it kind of sucks, but we've gotten a robot companion out of it), and A NEW GOLDHAWK BOOK WAHOOO! For those not in the know, Goldhawk is one of those "choose your own adventure"-type dealies, and Helloween and his friend Kiko MOCK IT MERCILESSLY. It's hilarious-awesome, even if the schedule is -- erratic. (Most of the opening jokes of this segment was them making fun of their inability to figure out what a "week" means for this series. XD) Seriously, stuff like this is the reason I love Hells so much. You can't help but feel like he's having a blast with just about everything he does. (Except the bad games, but his anger over them tends to be pretty hilarious too.)
Other things that happened today:
-->Wrote more on "Fixing You" -- they're talking a bit about what the Liddells and BJ know and don't know about Victor and Alice's situation Upstairs. Time to fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge! Also, Arthur is still pissed off at Radcliffe for saying his daughter might have started the fire. No surprises there.
-->Played some Bloodlines -- advanced the main storyline by talking to Zhao and survived the resultant Tong ambush -- after about four tries. Look, I'm still getting used to the gunplay! Wasn't able to save Zhao, obviously -- I think you can if you're quick enough, but that's sure as hell not me and Harry. Eventually managed to slaughter them all and get out of there. Headed back into the main drag and decided to knock off Mr. Ox's side quests, as they get you good items and are pretty easy to complete. Harry's currently in the Glaze club, ready to advance the main storyline some more (though I'll probably make a detour before the next bit to see if I can set up the final Nosferatu hub).
-->Watched a bunch more WhatCulture video game videos, which -- yeah, okay, getting distracted there is all on me. They were funny, what can I say.
-->Learned there are other offers on the house we may want -- after some discussion, we're sticking with our original offer and just letting the dice fall where they may. If he accepts, great, I'll see the place and we'll see how things roll from there. If not, there are other houses in the world.
-->Did some queuing, both on The Valice Multiverse and my main tumblr.
So yeah, not the world's most productive day, but as I said, Helloween's fault. Mostly. Now I've got to get to bed -- another workweek ahead! Night all!
current mood:  silly
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| Saturday, March 18th, 2017
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11:33 pm - Videos and Home Depot
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Let's have the usual round-up of my Saturday:
-->Got up, had breakfast, had Mom say we should take a drive up to Home Depot and look at appliances so we can have some estimates in mind for putting it all in if and when we get the new house; it was agreed we'd go after lunch
-->Wrote about a page and a half on "Fixing You" -- Ma Thatcher has been introduced to the group, and we're getting into Talking About The Painful Stuff
-->Went driving -- took the back way we usually use to get to Wal-Mart, since Home Depot is right nearby. The parking lot was a bit of a maze, but I got a space right near the end without any problems. We wandered around Home Depot, looking at stuff -- Mom took a few pictures of stoves and fridges she liked -- and chatted about cool stuff we could do to the house. Then it was across the street (well, highway) to Stop & Shop to pick up some stuff for spinach pies and smoothies, and some more ice cream, then back home. Driving went well, so that was good.
-->Watched Helloween's thoughts on the Nier: Automata PC port (most everything is good, but there's some severe graphical issues, sadly -- namely nasty texture pop-in, certain cut scenes having horrendous frame rate issues, and -- crap, what was the third? Well, at any rate, Helloween wasn't impressed), and his latest RE7 set (Clancy, one of the guys from the demo, popped up again only to officially die in a trial run of a puzzle, but through recording his death, spared Ethan the same fate -- which is good, as his fate was BURNING TO DEATH), then proceeded to watch a bunch of WhatCulture gaming videos just because.
-->Had supper, then popped onto Sims. Slapped in my friend Nebby's "Tarts and Flowers Chapel" lot in a spare spot in Windenburg -- I added a fountain to one side, and gave it the Chef's Kitchen, Great Acoustics, and Party Place lot traits (since it has little kitchen for making stuff, a piano for music, and -- well, it's MEANT for wedding parties!). I also made it a Nightclub at her suggestion, since apparently leaving it a generic lot doesn't make it party-worthy. Had to stick in a couple of speakers to meet the "stereo" requirement, but I have nice new ones that play wedding-appropriate Baroque music, so no big. I also evicted the Reardon family in Willow Creek and moved them to a different lot so I could put down her huge Sims Hotel and Resort lot (classed as a spa, since we don't have real hotels, at least not yet). Upgraded the basement movie theater with my Movie Hangout Stuff movie screen (scaled up), then went ahead and sent Marty and Jennifer there on a date for funsies.
I don't think I can ever use that lot again, at least not in its current form. I don't know WHAT happened, but everything slowed WAY THE FUCK DOWN while on that lot. It would take AGES for queued-up actions to fire -- I was seriously convinced for most of the date they were going to get a bad score because of how long it took to do anything! They just stood around and stared for the most part! Even PAUSING took longer! I'm assuming the lot is simply too big and has too much crap on it, at least for my game/specs, but it was FRUSTRATING AS ALL HELL. If I ever go back, I'm first getting rid of a bunch of stuff. I just CANNOT go through that again.
-->Watched Helloween and Rufert's next DS3 set -- there was much exploding each other, much bitching about dumb enemies, much inventory fullness, and much joking around about how each partner needed more space. :P It's quite amusing to see Helloween just being silly with a friend. And even better to know I'll be getting more of it tomorrow -- his and Kiko's Goldhawk series is back! :D
-->Evening has been spent catching up on main tumblr and doing some RPing on RP tumblr. Nothing too strenuous.
So yeah, my day in a nutshell. Been a pretty good Saturday, honestly, even with the damn Sims slowdown. And that really just might be my computer not being able to handle such a complex lot. . . I'll figure it out next weekend. Right now, I gotta finish up some replies and suchlike. Night all!
current mood: content
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| Friday, March 17th, 2017
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11:21 pm - Most Unproductive Friday
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Or, well, I should say Friday evening, as I got plenty done at work -- another chunk of a pile of roster maintenance, billing files, sorting out some of the CAP PeopleFinder stuff, a few obituaries. And even earlier this evening I got a page of "Fixing You" written (Alice finally back with her parents, and we're about be reintroduced to Carolina Thatcher, Bonejangles's ma). Both my lunch break and most of my night here though have been rather distracted, thanks to two factors:
-->Me deciding to do some research on UK show Black Mirror and its "San Junipero" episode, thanks to a BTTF fanfic I saw that adapts the plot of said episode. Black Mirror is a sci-fi horror series that really enjoys making their protagonists go through hell (and oftentimes the protagonists are very, very shitty people to boot). Fortunately for my favorite sci-fi movie characters, "San Junipero" is the series' sole HAPPY episode. I mean, it's still got depressing elements, but it's definitely leagues better than anything else. If I was going to watch any of this show, that would be the only episode I'd even consider looking at.
-->You know that house deal that I said looked fishy the other night?
Yeah, apparently it's legit. The guy doing the selling is buying a foreclosed house, and for some reason he's allowed to offer it up for sale despite the fact that he doesn't technically own it yet. So we're going ahead with making an offer -- I signed some paperwork saying that we're tentatively interested, barring an inspection and all that, when I got home from work. I am still not entirely convinced this is all good (especially since I STILL haven't seen the house yet -- we have an appointment for me to do so this upcoming Tuesday), but I have been reassured repeatedly we are still fully in the "we can back out anytime with no loss of cash" stage, so. . .yeah. We'll see what happens!
So yeah, my brain has basically gone "LOL nope" at a lot of things after all that, and I've spent my evening largely reading the aforementioned BTTF fanfic (not precisely my cup of tea but I at least like the idea behind it and the episode), watching The Sims Supply sweat through another episode of his Sims 1 Let's Play, and watching a few Outside Xbox videos because why not. It is Friday evening, so I can get away with that sort of thing, I suppose. :P Still, I should make some attempt at productive work -- or even different kinds of fun, considering I haven't even caught up with my comics yet. Let's see if I can pull some focus out of my behind. *salutes* Night all!
current mood:  indescribable
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| Thursday, March 16th, 2017
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10:55 pm - Iffy Thursday
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Started with a crash on the highway making traffic drag -- that wasn't where the signs said it was when we finally got to the right exit (I'm guessing it was cleared by the time we reached where it had been), continued through discovering my PeopleFinder submission from a couple of weeks ago for CAP had been returned to my SUPERVISOR'S e-mail address despite me being the one who sent it, and ended with my parents seeing a house, liking it enough to make an offer (without me giving my opinion on it, mind -- I didn't even see pictures of the place until I got home) -- and then discovering the guy who listed it may not actually own the house, and. . .yeah, it looks like we may have very narrowly avoided being scammed. *sigh* I didn't even get a full page on "Fixing You" today -- I was just too unmotivated after supper to keep going with what I wrote before it.
On the plus side, I've caught up on my Valice Multiverse tumblr queue; read this rather interesting and hilarious folktale; and found out what was wrong with those reports that needed adjusting (turns out one of the other reports was double-counting gifts from last Friday, so once that was sorted it turned out a lot more of them matched up than I thought). So some positives to the day, at least. Still, I'm glad tomorrow's Friday. Just three days and I still need a weekend. Which may have some more snow showers in it thanks to it being colder than the norm. . . *sigh* I just need to go to bed, really. Hopefully tomorrow will be somewhat better. Night all!
current mood:  grumpy
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| Wednesday, March 15th, 2017
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10:50 pm - Delayed Wednesday
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Both in going to work -- as I said yesterday, I had an hour's delay this morning -- and in one of our tasks -- certain parish reports had to be held back because they need adjustment reports. . .except I'm having a hard time figuring out what the adjustments ARE. Need my supervisor to help me, and she's only getting back tomorrow (storms stranded her for an extra day). :( Well, hopefully tomorrow we can clear all of this up and get it moving again. Fingers crossed.
Also some delayed news for you -- I forgot to mention I bought some more Sims 4 stuff packs! Specifically, Perfect Patio Stuff (necessary for those lots my friend Nebby made), Romantic Garden Stuff (since I felt it fit in well with the former), and Kids Room Stuff (as one of my couples DOES have a small one now who would benefit). I am holding off on the others, though Origin was really pushing Vintage Glamour Stuff on me. Funny how I managed to never buy a stuff pack for Sims 2. .but then again, you get a bit more this time around with these. I still think the ice cream maker from Cool Kitchen Stuff is awesome. :) Really need to try out the popcorn maker too from Movie Hangout. . .
But that's for later. Today:
-->I got more of "Fixing You" written (on their way to the Ball & Socket to reunite with Arthur and Lorina, while chatting about stuff like why June is at Houndsditch -- as you can imagine, Bonejangles nearly panics when he learns Bumby hired her and Alice has to quickly calm him down)
-->I found the time to watch the next Sims Supply Vampires video (rapid-aging the baby born in the last video because James apparently hates toddlers and didn't consider the fact that kids and teens had to go to school, then building her new little cell apart from the others)
-->I did more of my tumblr queue, including another Londerland Bloodlines snippet and getting this old Christmas fic up on the website (which has clued me into the existence of a RELATED Christmas fic that I AGAIN have to track down. . .it's Victor and Alice revisiting Houndsditch for the holidays, only to hear Charlie's being adopted)
-->I answered all my PMs and comments (thanks to the power of "having some break time at work to draft things out")
Doesn't look like a heck of a lot, but I feel quite productive nonetheless. And as I do have a normal day of work tomorrow, I'd best to get bed. Night all, sleep tight, here's a cool music video to enjoy either before bed or when you wake up!
current mood:  sleepy
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| Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
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10:50 pm - Tuesday Feels Like A Sunday
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That's what most of these extra days off feel like, honestly, depending on placement. I'm cool with it -- free time is free time. I'm also cool with the storm ending up shifting its path a little north of us, so we ended up getting more rain than snow -- it was already changing over by the time I woke up this morning at about 10. Things are very slushy outside currently -- and unfortunately will probably freeze overnight. Happily I do have an hour's delay in the morning, so I can sleep in a bit and take a later bus in, when things hopefully will have melted slightly.
Things I have done today:
-->Gotten a couple more pages written on "Fixing You" -- Alice and Lizzie have reunited, awww. And Bonejangles has had his first name outed officially. XD Poor guy.
-->Played Sims 4 -- Victor had a quiet day at home with Emma, writing another song (which is again taking forever, cripes. . .tempted to look for a mod to speed up the process), while Alice managed to max out her painting skill and got a promotion at her job which got her a new easel. I also aged up Emma -- I WAS going to do so via birthday cake, but then it turned out I couldn't. O.o WTF, Sims 4? Alice went through all that effort for nothing? Fortunately birthday candles are just something you add to regular cakes now, and you can remove them if you want -- I had Alice do so so she could actually enjoy the fruits of her labor. Emma was instead aged up via her bassinet, and she turned out to be the most curly-haired toddler ever. XD I made her Silly, since that promotes Imagination skill, and I figure any kid of Victor and Alice's is going to have that in droves. I've remodeled her bedroom a bit to be more toddlery, and have already had a family dance party with the lot of them XD
-->Watched Helloween's latest RE7 set. . .which actually featured less gross stuff than before. Yes, there were some disturbing bits of rotting meat hanging around, but Lucas's thing seems to be more tripwire bombs and pendulum traps. It's a nice break, even if he is a crazed psychopath. Helloween being accidentally competent one moment and getting himself blown up the next is great too. XD
-->Watched the second half of Linkara's "Exile's" retrospective. More good multiversal stuff, including the big plot twist. . .and then Chris Claremont came along and kind of ruined it all. Meh. :( Still, it was good to listen to Linkara sum up what made the book great, and what made it less-great in its final years, and why he thinks the premise itself is awesome. Good stuff. Even if it did lead me to another TV Tropes binge. XD What can I say, I like multiverses. (If my penchant for AUs hasn't tipped you off already.)
-->And then it was the usual catching up with tumblr (Linkara had a HUGE stream of updates after all his international fans decided to say hello at once; I chimed in once people from different American states started joining in and said how his NFL Superpro review once reduced me to helpless laughter XD) and doing my Valice Multiverse queue. Usual nightly stuff.
And now, I should see about getting to bed -- though at least I have a larger cushion of time to work with tomorrow morning. And can get up a smidge later too. :) Night all!
current mood: content
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