The Thessaliad Redux

Watched Saw III this evening. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much, and at first I was justified in that expectation or lack thereof. But then ... then it all turned around. Then it was like, "Wow. Workable sequel. How'd that happen? Oh, who cares? Yay for the sequel!" This just goes to prove that Leigh Whannell is far too fucking talented for his own good. My only consolation in this is that I get the general idea that he starts writing, wonders how the hell he came up with that particularly twisted climactic bit, then reads back and realises that he's been setting it up all along without realising it. Why, you ask, does this comfort me? Because I do the same godsdamned thing. Usually with RPG plot. Definitely in recent RPG plot. So ... you know ... there's hope for me yet. I have a vague idea that I'm mentally refining - I have until November. This year's NaNo target will be 75k words minimum. 50k? Not so much a challenge anymore.

I managed to make Sims 2 Bon Voyage work properly. A hack that made those stupid public phone booths look less plastic and fake was making them unusuable, which meant I couldn't get my Sims back to their respective hotels, which made them tired and cranky. I eventually weeded through my prodigious Downloads folder and pulled the damn thing out, and now it works again. So I've now explored two out of the three available holiday destinations, with the third upcoming tomorrow, most likely. And then I'll be ready to build my own! (Heeheehee - finally a good way to use my Silent Hill downloads...)

So ... you know, apart from unemployment and the recent character application I received (oh gods, don't even get me started), things could be worse. Circadian rhythm fuck-upedness and persistent migraine notwithstanding.

And speaking of, as I've been RPing a lot longer now, a revived and very old RPG character meme: ( This is going to get LONG... )

The Deathgnome lives!

Yeah, now that I'm getting paid regularly again, I can finally justify renewing my Content IDs, and thus Satomi the Deathgnome (and Lifegnome, and Chefgnome, and All-Singing, All-Dancing Buffgnome) is now running rampant through Bastok. Why Bastok? Well, mostly because of the old "bug broth = monumental gil return" dodge - Deathgnome was also Skintgnome. Again. Still. Whatever. So now I'm currently ensconced in Bastok making bug broth and earning vast amounts of gil for it (2.5k to 12.5k in about a half-hour? I'd call that a win) so that I can afford spell scrolls and suchlike. Then I help dodgyhoodoo get to Jeuno (I know weaselbitch did it on her own, and dodgyhoodoo could probably manage equally well, but it's bound to be easier with three, particularly when one of them's using Sneak and Invisible for the last leg of the trip; for me, this is a farming mission, plus with the three of us we can nuke those bloody tigers and get the stone monument impression we need in Jugner Forest), and then it's back to Bastok and into that bloody tunnel. Deathgnome will advance past level 30, godsdamnit! Someday, I'm going to have to advance Bard past whatever the hell level it's at, but not right now - I want to level Black Mage, then White Mage, and get to a point where I can do the whole Telewhoring thing, and then I want to go and camp out in Buburimu, nuking leeches for that damnable ruby for the Summoner quest. Plus I could do with a Buburimu farming excursion anyway - nuking Bull Dhalmel for meat and giant femurs tends to be a good thing.

Today was nice and relaxing - mainly involved me giving Deathly Hallows a second chance (I didn't want to punt it out the window quite so much this time, but I still don't think it's a particularly good book), cooking steak subs for dinner and watching a few episodes of Buffy. It's so much more fun watching it with dodgyhoodoo than alone; laughing's always better in company, and I really had forgotten how good an episode "Doppelgangland" is. On the whole, a nice relaxing Sunday. Just what I needed, really. Must do more of that. Tricky sort of thing to manage, what with rediscovering Sims 2 and FFXI at about the same time, but I'm sure I'll sort something out.

Speaking of Sims 2 - Sims 2 Bon Voyage looks like so much fun! I got into the Sims quite late, all things considered; after I lost interest in consoles (at around the original Nintendo stage) I wasn't much of a video game person for quite some time. When I did get into the Sims, I pretty much stopped at Unleashed but always rather wanted to have a look at Vacation, even if Superstar and Makin' Magic didn't really do it for me. Then Sims 2 came along and kicked the living crap out of the original, and I'm not even sure I could take original Sims graphics anymore. Still, I did always want to send my Sims on holiday, and now I can! And I bet you can build your own resort hotels and stuff! Whoopee! Though the new 'Stuff' expansion coming out amuses me - Teen Style Stuff. After the horrendous disappointment of the H&M Fashion Stuff EP, this looks like it should at least be more fun, and the outfits shouldn't be hideous this time. So yay! More things to spend my paycheque on.

There's not a whole lot to say about stuff like work - it's ... well, not all that much like work, really. It's nice to have a reasonably low-pressure job for a change, you know? Without total fuckwits in the workplace? Most of the time? Seriously, if the worst I have to deal with are a couple of secretaries who don't keep me appraised of what's going on in my bosses' diaries, then I'm doing very, very well.

The headache. Is not. Going away.

I'd forgotten about these ones - the week-long bouts of misery and strife where there is no moment where my head doesn't hurt at least a little. I will, I promise, start appreciating my migraine-free states more.

I don't think that it helped that, within about four hours of making Changeling ST, I got the full wrath of R flung at me. Something about me being unwelcoming. Apparently this was due to my explaining that I'd rather not look at her character idea right then, as it was 1am and I was tired and I wanted to give the idea my full attention to give it a decent opinion. Thankfully, I ran it by the admin and was informed that no, I was not rude and unwelcoming. This pleases me - I'd hate to think I fucked it all up in the first few hours.

Well, never mind. Today, I have vegetating time - nukeable fajitas for lunch, probably some Sims 2, followed by the not-quite-so-welcoming-cos-the-guy-we-were-welcoming-tried-to-kill-one-of-us party at Potion over on JusNoctis. And Sunday? Sunday tithenai, Jess and Ollie come back through London so I get to tour them around. Must pull out my comfiest shoes for this one...

I have Harry Potter OSTs. And am currently listening to "Do the Hippogriff". I just thought I ought to point that out. You know, because ... well, the funny, maybe?

I have pain. I don't like pain. It hurts me. See, I developed a couple of moderate to nasty blisters on the bottom of my right foot - must've been Wednesday, I guess. So I've been favouring my right foot for the last several days. This has caused everything from my knees down on both legs to hurt like fuck, because I'm putting extra stress on my left leg, my right calf has been put under stress with the whole thing and then there's the arthritic knees in the muggy, humid weather we've been having. I really want to go out and get the new Sims 2 stuff pack that's been out for ages, but I don't want to hobble all the way out to Game or Woolworths. Because, y'know, the pain. I didn't even want to go as far as the Heffalump for lunch; I'm going to want to go out several blocks further why? *sigh* Well, at least I'll have to go out to the Waitrose or something, thus satisfying my 'fresh air' quota for the weekend. Stupid feet.

Oh, job of boredom. I'm applying it for it permanently. I figure, I'm fairly good at it and it's paying £24k per annum, and I get to use the computer as I see fit as long as there's not work to be done. What's not to like? I'll give the interview a shot anyway, though there might be better applicants on the whole 'talking people into representing the College at working groups etc' end of the job.

So that's all the news that's fit to print, leaving aside various whinges relating to JusNoctis. Put it this way: My character can be out of the damn city and her life becomes difficult. And now, I go contemplate lunchfood, Sims 2 stuff packs and back to work on the JusNoctis Sim neighbourhood - I was so nearly done with Hawthorn House and the entire damn game crashed on me so I am pissed right the hell off at having lost four rooms' worth of stuff but I suppose at least I got to download more stuff that might fit better so that's okay. Ish. Maybe I ought to just do Rhys' flat first - it's smaller.

I literally could not get out of bed this morning. Pain plus exhaustion = inability to move until 9:15am, whereby of course I was far too late for work. At which point, I decided "Screw this" and called in sick. I feel somewhat better for it - still achy, but not with the bone-deep exhaustion. That job really is going to kill me one of these days.

However, I finally managed to rouse myself a bit at about half-twelve and did the Sims 2 downloads shtick. I've just switched it on to let it load and ... my gods, it actually loads. Within a minute! Even with two evenings' downloadings' worth of custom content! Looks like the problem really was the Frankenbox's age and general borkingness. Wow.

Blech. Tonight is going to be dinner, hot bath, something fun on the DVD player, and more sleep. I'm still tired, surprisingly.

My music, she loads. She loads slow. I am eternally grateful for my brand new 300GB hard drive.

So, yeah, it was definitely something borking seriously on the Frankenbox, and I'm still betting it's the mobo. Either way, having the new box has solved a whole lot of problems. Probably all of them, but I can't say that conclusively until such time as I get everything installed and moved over from the Frankenbox. Still, FFXI runs smoothly and there hasn't been even the hint of a freeze, and iTunes hasn't even threatened to skip while playing off iStress. So ... yeah, for the most part, looks like problem solved. Still, it's going to take a good long while to get all my music from the Frankenbox over to the new box, never mind the rest of my stuff, so I'm currently running both boxen simultaneously - they're both connected to the network so I can just sit back and let things run their course in that regard.

I'm currently debating whether or not I want to shunt all of my Sims 2 downloads onto the new box. I mean, some of them, not to put too fine a point on it, suck rocks. And then there's all the stuff I don't even use. I'm beginning to think that my best bet is to install all the games, then go back onto my favourite sites and download only the stuff I actually use and like. That'll certainly help with the load time issues, anyway. Not to mention that a fair bit of the old stuff isn't compatible with the new EPs, while some of the better sites are updating their stuff to accommodate, for example, pets. I can get all the stuff I really wanted back easily enough (for example, search Mod the Sims 2 for the term "Silent Hill" - hee!) and the stuff I don't get back ... well, we'll just see if I miss it, shall we?

Now all I need to do (apart from installing that many Sims 2 EPs, not to mention spend a good day or two going through favoured Sims 2 custom contents sites - always kinda fun, really) is decide on a name for the new box. It's currently listed as Palahnuik (dodgyhoodoo says this is because he had to call it something), and in a way that fits - twisted, wordy and kind of disturbed. However, I think I'll be calling the new box Eshu. Wandering storyteller box. Works for me.

So give me a day or two to sort out the brain transplant, and I'll be rarin' to go on my brand spanking new box! Huzzah!

I don't generally like being awake at this time of morning, particularly not on a weekend, but circumstances are such that I really don't mind today. dodgyhoodoo went out this morning and came home with a copy of Sims 2 Seasons for me. Which of course is cause for *squee*age and generally shouting from the rooftops "BEST. FIANCE. EVER" because I desperately needed cheering up.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to back up my download, collection and camera folders, do some installation, and then go see if I can get Sim!Lucius pasted in the face with a snowball.

Oh yeah - Sims 2 Seasons is out tomorrow. *whimper* This is the problem with being skint - even when some money does look to be headed your way, it tends to be committed elsewhere and spent before things like this can be properly considered.

For example - upon receiving money from Mum, the lion's share of it's going to household expenses (though things are looking up because two agencies have made appointments to sign me up and my regular one has some possibilities for which she is putting me forward). After that, though:

1) I still have some Mage books reserved with angusabranson, for which I must pay.
2) I need to renew my FFXI subscription lest I lose my deathgnome (but that's three months away at least so I may wait).
3) I ought to at least chip something into the kitty to buy the new router.
4) I need to upgrade the Frankenbox. I might be able to run Sims 2 Seasons on it, but on the whole I'd be well miffed if I bought the damn game and couldn't even run it on my rapidly borking computer. Not to mention that my one operational hard drive is getting a wee bit full.
5) Miscellaneous personal expenses.

So on the whole, I think I'm going to have to wait a bit on the next Sims 2 expansion. Much as it sucks. I'm getting a little sick of missing out on everything due to job idiocy, but that can't possibly last forever so I'm just going to have to suck it up for the time being.

...I still want the EP, though...

Okay, so I have things to do in FFXI. However, after watching this, I think to myself, "Hell with this; I'm going to make SimHogwarts. Slytherins dancing. Whee! Besides, I've got enough meshes now to do houses properly. I think.

Besides, Vana'diel will still be there in a few hours...

Go, watch the link. See what I mean. Now, must pull out the books and see how many descriptions of places I can find.

I'm holding off on posting my word count for awhile. Not that I'm doing badly - I've cleared nearly 3k words in the last two hours, after all. It's just that now I'm stuck for a descriptive passage so I need to fire up Sims 2 and design a sorcerous strip club ... or at least the anteroom and bar. Well, I could do it all in my imagination, but where's the fun in that?

I swear, this is all I ever use my Sims 2 stuff for anymore. Sure, Pets is great, and I do play with it from time to time, but in the main it's just a character and set design tool. Well, at least it's a good character and set design tool, particularly with all the downloads I've got. So off I go. I'll get back to writing when that's done. But I suppose I ought to check my downloads bookmarks first, make sure there isn't anything out there that would make my club perfect.

Oh, and I need more coffee. Or a break to go to Waitrose for cola. Or both.