[DarK_RaideR]

  

On 2/11/2024 at 11:30 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

Chapter 2 is about actually doing what needs to be done so I can finally make the jump abroad.

Last we left off, our main protagonist finally went from thinking, researching and planning into actually doing.  I had the roadmap of things to be done and I've cleared up the financing bit, as after the fam refused to chip in, I came up with a plan to self finance this entire project. Then my parents came around and decided to help me after all, which hasn't yet led into anything concrete but 1) it's nice to see them come round and 2) I did make it clear that I have a plan to do this without them if need be. But more importantly, I found out the UK visa process will take anywhere from 3 to 6 to who knows how many months and while the application is pending, it's highly advised to not visit the country. Thus, I arranged to make a quick trip and spend the first half of March with my girlfriend fiance before I'm stuck back here waiting for her to come visit me. This also put my previous challenge to a halt. I wasn't particularly mindful of my eating and no workouts were done, at least not in the conventional way.  Now I'm back and I need to fall in line again, which I'll be doing with the help of the Sims, since @deftona introduced me to the concept of "legacy saves", making the game once more interesting enough for me to bother with.

 

Since I'll be stuck in place for quite some time till the whole visa situation is sorted out, I'll need to look for another (temporary, but they don't have to know) job. So far I've already booked two interviews for next week. Depending on the new situation, I'll work my fitness goals around it accordingly, so I'm not yet hammering out specific SMART goals. I will however be harkening back to the halcyon days of the NF forums by marking my progress as character progression in Sims. Simply (see what I did there) put, accomplishing a relative task connected to a skill adds a notch to it and as soon as I've got as many as the current skill+1, I can upgrade it.

 

Skill List and  examples of related tasks

 Baking: Cook a meal or dessert in the oven.

 Charisma: Meet up with friends for some social time. Go through a big conversation with the family.

 Cooking: Cook a home made meal.

 Fitness: Do a workout.

 Gourmet Cooking: Cook a fancy or particularly/intentionally healthy meal.

 Handiness: Complete a repair task around the house. Achieve something requiring a certain level of technical knowledge and labour.

 Media Production: Listen to and post about an album on my IG page.

 Mixology: Make an alcoholic drink involving at least 2 different liquids.

 Research & Debate: Finish a chapter in a book.

 Video Gaming: Play a new video game. Knock a video game off my backlog.

 Wellness: Do a session of meditation. Have a beautification break.

 

Let's go!

[Jarric]

24 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

my girlfriend fiance

 

Congratulations to the both of you! Super happy for you guys.

 

Following along of course.

 

[deftona]

Following along to see if your great great great granddaughter is indeed pretty fine. 

Also, congratulations on the wedding! 

[Loveable_Bouncer]

I'm here because I saw the shiny plumbbob, and love the idea of Legacy games. But... could never get past the 2nd generation. So good luck with staying put and your realtionship level up!

[WhiteGhost]

On 3/24/2024 at 2:02 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

my girlfriend fiance

How did your parents react to this progression of events?

[DarK_RaideR]

On 3/23/2024 at 8:28 PM, Jarric said:

I had to actually start a kitchen fire in my Sims mansion in order to remember a smoke alarm, thanks for reminding me to also install a burglar alarm before someone breaks in

 

On 3/24/2024 at 12:25 AM, deftona said:

Following along to see if your great great great granddaughter is indeed pretty fine. 

You know she will be

 

On 3/24/2024 at 1:56 AM, Loveable_Bouncer said:

I'm here because I saw the shiny plumbbob

Nat to the rescue yet again!

 

2 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

How did your parents react to this progression of events?

Surprisingly positive. Initially they were a little hesitant about the complexity of this entire project and refused to financially assist me in pulling it off, but they've come around since.

 

 

Technically the challenge begins today, but there's a few (unrated) things I'd like to share in the meantime:

 

 Charisma: Did have a video call with the parents on Sunday morning (side note: funny how, despite being an only child, lately I find it sort of unpaletable to refer to them as "family" but quite ok to call them "parents"). Apparently they've made moves to downsize, something I never thought I'd see them do. Also, they're willing to back up my plan, although as mentioned I still have a version that doesn't involve them, in case they change their mind.

 Gourmet Cooking: I had two chicken thighs I've been meaning to cook with honey mustard sauce (using Nat's recipe btw) but then remembered I had half a can of pineapple slices from a while back when I used the other half on burgers. It reminded me of a few months back when I made chicken wings in a pineapple, coconut milk and curry sauce, so I decided to combine the two recipes, albeit using the pineapple syrup instead of honey to regulate the sweetness. It was delicious and quite yellow. Also, while I'd usually have those for lunch and breakfast, I pulled a @deftona trick to actually freeze the second serving for future use in order to introduce more variety to my meals.

 Media Production: I've been keeping up with my music project between challenges. While the reel posts follow a specific timeline, there's still records I discover that came out earlier, so I have those on my backlog, listening to them and adding them on the unified list I keep on Rate Your Music with commentary and ratings. Lately, I've sort of started a second, parallel timeline on the IG page using stories instead of reel posts, dubbed "Tales from the backlog".

 Video Gaming: I've been mostly playing Sims as of late, but whenever I need I change, I keep knocking games off my backlog. As mentioned last challenge, I punched all of the 652 (!) games I own into HowLongToBeat, ranked those I haven't played based on how long it takes to beat them and have been subsequently playing them in that order. Brains do this weird thing where they'll just assume everything is huge and epic, as if I have 652 different variations of Elden Ring to experience, when in fact most of those are short indie games or stuff I can't be bothered with after less than an hour into them. Tackling the shorter ones first now makes sure I can power through because it's not like I'm investing time into a bottomless pit. That way, I'm moving games from my Backlog into my Completed or Played lists, which in turn helps me discover new games I wouldn't normally take a gamble on and cut down on the list of unplayed games, which in turn reduces this illogical stress and gives me a sense of achievement, especially given how rarely I do play games to their very end. In exactly one month (I made that profile on February 23rd) I have

- Completed 15 games

Spoiler

The Forest Quartet, Wanderlust: Transsiberian, Dear Esther, Tonight We Riot, ABZU, Manual Samuel, Darq, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, CAYNE, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, The Silent Age, Tharsis, Beyond Blue, The Fall, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

- Played, but not completed 27 games

Spoiler

Black Widow: Recharged, Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior, Gone Home, Minit, LEGO Builder's Journey, Chess Ultra, Among the Sleep, Neurodeck: Psychological Deckbuilder, Teenagent, Akalabeth: World of Doom, Symmetry, Out of Line, Centipede: Recharged, A Story About My Uncle, Q.U.B.E, Blazing Sails, Never Alone, Jill of the Jungle: The Complete Trilogy, Absolute Drift, Butcher, South of the Circle, Postal, Hell is Other Demons, Terroir, Bad Mojo, Severed Steel, The World Next Door

 

I'll leave you with this

 

[deftona]

3 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

How did your parents react to this progression of events?

 

I'm quite a catch, you see. 

[Shello]

Such fond memories of my legacy family.  It's such a pain to track but this challenge does make me nostalgic and now I kinda want to play.  Following for your Sim character development.  

 

And congrats!!  

[DarK_RaideR]

17 hours ago, deftona said:

I'm quite a catch, you see. 

I feel like this doesn't get brought up as much as it should.

 

16 hours ago, Shello said:

Following for your Sim character development.  

The forum character, that is. When I posted the challenge, my videogame Sims character had two kids in school, now we're down to the next generation.

 

 

Monday, 25 March

 Baking: I did a cupboard cleanup. My ex was big on baking cakes and whatnot, she'd stocked up on loads of baking powder, self raising flour and all that jazz that had my storage space overflowing with stuff I wasn't ever going to use. It stressed me out and it took up storage space, so I cleaned it up. Because I want to somehow use it though, I looked up recipes using the stuff I had and ended up making a large tray of brownie, which I proceeded to cover with caramel. Some of it will be handed to the neighbours next door for checking on my cats while I was away, I don't want to throw this stuff away but I'm not gonna get fatter just to achieve that. Oh and while I had the oven on, I also put in a cheese pastry in to cook, which I had for dinner.

 Cooking: I made a cheese and sausage sandwich for breakfast. It's not fancy, but it's better than buying something from the bakery right next to my block of flats. I also made lentil soup for lunch. Counting that as two occasions, which takes me halfway into hitting level 2 in this skill.

 Media Production: I listened to the album of the day and did all the related tasks (IG reel, sharing it as a story through my personal IG profile, add the comments to my RYM list, add a song to my project playlist on Spotify). Then I also listened to and rated a Fats Domino album from my backlog. Those were done back to back so I'm counting them as a single contribution to the skill.

 Video Gaming: Used the holiday to chill at home and knock out a few more games off my backlog.

First was "3 out of 10: Episode 2" which is by definition problematic, because I have no idea of Episode 1 and who the characters are. The gameplay was nothing gripping, it's basically another of those games where you kick back and watch stuff happen for hours before you're asked to perform a couple of basic tasks that lead to the next long cutscene.

I then switched to "Rising Hell", whose aesthetic I really liked. Old school platform action, pixelated graphics, a 'Castlevania goes to heavy metal hell' aesthetic and great soundtrack... but couldn't see it through to the end. It's a roguelike, meaning you're expected to die several times and come back a little better, while the levels themselves are randomly generated each time. Wasn't really feeling the grind and once things got harder, wasn't feeling the required coordination that was beginning to hit SNES levels of precision, so I moved on.

Next up was Lure of the Temptress, a point and click fantasy adventure from the very early 90s. Which was serviceable, even if seriously pixelated when played in modern screens. Made sense of the first few riddles, until I started noticing it requires a bit of pixel hunting; scanning an entire brick wall with the mouse until the pop up text switches from "wall" into "crack", that kind of stuff. It was annoying back then but we didn't have other options, I wasn't going to stand for it now.

Moving up, Haven Park, which I spent about an hour playing. A very Animal Crossing vibe to it, but also a pretty big world with a very bad map to go with it. Kind of game I'd have fun spending an entire evening with, but wouldn't be interested to start up again on a following day.

Last up was Layers of Fear, which I've been curious to play for years, but kept crashing at startup. I moved that and its sequel, LoF2, to the Retired list, which is basically a list of games I'd like to come back to at some point. Right then I decided to take a break, but I did spend some more time later in the day playing Sims. Still counting all the above as a single go in terms of skill development.

As a side note, most of the PC games I own were at some point free giveaways off some platform (Steam, GOG, Epic Games etc) because besides being too poor to spend money on games for a long time, I've also found the few times I actually paid to get something, it was handed out for free a few weeks later, making me feel like an idiot, so I quit purchasing. This would explain why I have so many games, why many of them are weird or indie or I'm not that excited about and why it's so easy for me to write them off and move on.

[WhiteGhost]

19 hours ago, deftona said:

I'm quite a catch, you see. 

I think all of us here have known this for years, but to get the nod from DR's parents is, from what I understand, no easy task.

 

Given how awesome we all know DR is, can I safely assume that your folks were excited as well?

[deftona]

5 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Last up was Layers of Fear

 

I have this on Xbox, play it when you're here. 

[deftona]

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I think all of us here have known this for years, but to get the nod from DR's parents is, from what I understand, no easy task.

 

Given how awesome we all know DR is, can I safely assume that your folks were excited as well?

 

They think he's lovely and they're not wrong. 

[DarK_RaideR]

17 hours ago, deftona said:

I have this on Xbox, play it when you're here. 

Might actually have to revisit a bunch of games while I'm at it, many of them really do play much better with a controller instead of a keyboard.

 

17 hours ago, deftona said:

They think he's lovely and they're not wrong. 

For what it's worth, I too think they're lovely.

 

 

Tuesday, 26 March

 Cooking: Had some leftover caramel brownie with my breakfast, so no points for that. Did make a sausage wrap for lunch though, then fish and chips for dinner, so two more points for the tally.

 Media Production: Did my bits in regards to the album of the day, but didn't also do backlog stuff.

 

Also, you may have noticed I'm tracking skill progress on my signature. Originally used all the cute little icons too, but forum rules don't allow images in signatures.

[deftona]

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Might actually have to revisit a bunch of games while I'm at it, many of them really do play much better with a controller instead of a keyboard.

 

Console gamers the world over say duh

 

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

For what it's worth, I too think they're lovely.

 

And that my mom is as mad as a box of frogs. It's ok, you can say it ❤️

 

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

then fish and chips for dinner, so two more points for the tally.

 

I know you owe me one for the moussaka... but that wasn't fish and chips *hides*

[DarK_RaideR]

23 hours ago, deftona said:

Console gamers the world over say duh

Depends. I'd never play a real time strategy game using a controller.

 

23 hours ago, deftona said:

that wasn't fish and chips *hides*

True. Called it such for the sake of brevity, I guess technically it was fish fingers and fries?

 

 

Wednesday, 27 March

 Charisma: I had a job interview, though they don't need to know I'll only be around temporarily until my UK visa comes through. Think I got good chances to get it and they're paying what I asked for, which is what I actually need to break even and not the lesser salary I'd normally ask. Self high five for actually requesting it and not selling myself short. I did also voice some of my grievances in regards to my previous place of employment, while making sure I was respectful about it, so setting some boundaries in advance. They look ok, but then again, they all do during the interview stage and issues come up later on. Whatever the case may be, I don't really mind at this point. Last time around, it was the kind of life I'd lined up for myself, so if it wasn't good, it hit extra hard, now it's more or less a side hustle to make ends meet while I wait to actually progress on my main quest of departing. Anyway, got another interview with another potential employer lined up for Thursday, by Friday I should have one of the two booked.

 Cooking: Skipped breakfast and made me another sausage wrap for lunch. Had leftover lentil soup which I planned to revitalize with a bit of rice in it for dinner, but my wonderful girlfriend fiance talked me into making daal out of it. All I basically did (which is why I'm counting this as plain instead of gourmet cooking, despite making the recipe for the first time in my life) was add curry, chili pepper flakes, cumin, spinach and a bit of yoghurt to thicken the sauce. It was delicious and I saved two more servings in the freezer. Two more points towards levelling this skill.

 Media Production: Listened to the album of the day and made all the relevant posts, early in the day while having my morning coffee. Later on in the evening, after the interview, I also knocked two more albums out of my backlog, Sinatra's classic "A Swinging Affair!" and Woody Guthrie's "Dust Bowl Ballads".

 Mixology: Made myself a cocktail to celebrate an interview gone well, vodka with passion fruit and mango fizz.

 Video Gaming: I started and completed Mother Russia Bleeds. This was one of the few games during this run where I didn't go into completely blind, because I'd noticed it when it came out and meant to grab it, but of course it was later on handed out for free. Still, it blew my mind and exceeded my expectations, though coming from publishing company Devolver Digital, I should have seen that a mile off. Closest thing to a spiritual successor to the Hotline Miami games, which I hold very dear and strongly believe shouldn't get a sequel. Time well spent.

[DarK_RaideR]

Thursday, 28 March

 Charisma: I got a call earlier in the day from the place I'd interviewed at, saying they wanted me to start Monday if I'm available. Told them I'll let them know, because I had another interview with another potential employer lined up for later in the day. Either way, it was good to know I already have an option nailed down and won't be ending this stint unemployed. I did the other interview and let the interviewer know I'd be needing a prompt response on whether they're interested, so I could make up my mind. His response literally was "well I didn't wanna pressure you to answer me on the spot, but I'm already good with what I'm seeing, I'd like to have you here if you're ok with it". So essentially I did well in this one two and now both employers want me, it's down to me to pick. As bad as the job market is, feels good to get such positive responses and actually have options.

 Cooking: Made chicken schnitzel with fries for lunch. Breakfast was skipped and I got Domino's for my celebration dinner, so just a single point here.

 Media Production: All things related to album of the day, done. Listened to a bunch of stuff from my backlog too, which I'm glad for. 

 Video Gaming: I've been dodging Homefront ever since I got it for free without realizing what it's about. I'm not gonna get political here, but suffice to say I can only take it as either parody or a Fox News enthusiast's fever dream. After an hour or two with it, I got to a point where I could no longer tolerate its clunkiness and decided to just let it be. Out of sheer curiosity though, I did check out a video from when it was made/promoted; of course it's inspired by Red Dawn and whaddya know, the people actually played this straight. On the bright side, I was kinda seeing this ultra-patriotic FPS experience as a setup for playing Spec Ops:The Line down the road (yes, I'm aware of its twists and some spoilers) and ironically enough, Homefront also included a white phosphorus scene too. Anyway, moving on, I put Stick It To The Man on, which was pretty fun, a welcome change of pace. Took me a little less than 4 hours to fully complete, but on the downside, all this screen time gave me a headache right before my interview (which I still aced, mind you) and sent me to a rather early bedtime after dinner.

[deftona]

Well look at Raider Two-Jobs.

 

 

(Mad proud of you ❤️) 

[WhiteGhost]

On 3/29/2024 at 12:47 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

now both employers want me, it's down to me to pick

That is great!  Congratulations are in order  

[RES]

Can you do both? 

 

On 3/23/2024 at 2:02 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

spend the first half of March with my girlfriend fiance

 

On 3/23/2024 at 6:25 PM, deftona said:

Also, congratulations on the wedding! 

 

Seeing this in your thread doesn't confuse me as much as it should...

 

[DarK_RaideR]

On 3/29/2024 at 9:48 AM, deftona said:

(Mad proud of you ❤️) 

Does "Men getting their jobs" qualify?

 

On 3/30/2024 at 4:07 PM, WhiteGhost said:

That is great!  Congratulations are in order  

Thank you, congratulations on your new teaching gig!

 

On 3/30/2024 at 5:15 PM, RES said:

Can you do both?

Nah, it's same job same hours different places and employers. Still retain the opportunity to do my own case son the side tho, so hopefully I can have some extra income from that on the side.

 

 

Friday, 29 March

 Charisma: Went out for drinks with a friend of mine, same guy who was checking in on the cats while I was away. We celebrated my good developments lately, but the entire experience was a little weird. In short, he's got a smorgasboard of mental health issues anyway, now his parents just decided to come to town and do a group session with his therapist on Monday. A lot of it was similar stuff my parents would do in the past so I had something useful to contribute, but a lot of it was just him venting and being a bit manic at first, then scatterbrained later. Oh and since my job and departure abroad came up, he told me he'd like me to handle his case for a name and gender change (he's trans but still legally female) while I'm still around.

 Cooking: Think I skipped breakfast, either way didn't make any, so no point there. Grilled a large beef patty for lunch, served over some pita flatbread with yoghurt, mustard and sliced onion. Delicious. Had a second patty, but I crumbled that and made bolognese for dinner.

 Media Production: Did the album of the day stuff, then also used any extra time to get more albums off my backlog and also curate the wishlist a bit.

 Mixology: I should probably mention, did a screenshare call with deffy and finalized my visa application! She also booked a tentative wedding day for us. So yeah, I did celebrate with a drink after we'd wrapped all that up, made myself a vodka with some pink grapefruit and blood orange soda.

 

 

Saturday, 30 March

 Charisma: Met one of my WrestleFriends(TM) to go see Dune, as apparently everyone's seen it already and I had no company to go with. Really like Denis Villeneuve's grand, comics-like artistic frames so I had to see this on the silver screen. Haven't read the book, only seen Lynch's old version, so some of the narrative developments did catch me by surprise; I like this politics game they've added, feels very Game of Thrones-ey, complex enough to be intriguing but simple enough for me to follow without having to take notes (I suck at remembering names and connecting them to faces and how they're related). We also had a good laugh about the wrongful depiction of nuclear warheads and how casually that bit is brushed aside, like they're just conventional bombs but with a bigger boom factor. Afterwards we met another one of the gang for dinner at a beer restaurant and we'll likely be reuniting next weekend for Wrestlemania.

 Cooking: I grabbed a cheese pastry for breakfast, so no point there. Made me a pretty great sandwich for lunch, then dinner was had outside. Just one skill point for the day.

 Media Production: Again album of the day was done and there's an interesting story there. I took the motorcycle to be washed, because a potential buyer would be checking it out Sunday morning. When I returned to the car wash after about 3.5 hours, the man there told me he hadn't washed it because I'd locked the grips and he couldn't steer it. Duh, I'd left the keys with another dude there, but somehow they never contacted each other to find out. Either way, he told me to come back half an hour later, which gave me enough time to grab a coffee and sit in the nearby park, listening to some traditional Hindustani music in the form of "The 80 Minute Raga". Title says it all, really

 Video Gaming: Played the next game on my list, Gods Will Fall. Seemed like a good concept, but the execution was pretty console-y and nothing more than a grind, so I checked out after about an hour of playing it. Next up was The Spectrum Retreat, which seems interesting and short enough for me to try and finish within the next few days.

[Jarric]

Congratulations on the new job mate (whichever one you pick), and the provisional wedding date!

[deftona]

9 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Does "Men getting their jobs" qualify?

 

Well it's that age old philosophical question isn't it. 

 

If a man is being sexy at work and Deffy isn't around to witness it, is he still sexy? 

[DarK_RaideR]

Sunday, 31 March

 Baking: I used more of the leftover stuff from when I sorted the kitchen cupboards out and made scones.

 Charisma: Had a potential buyer for the motorcycle, he dropped by to see it in person. There was a bit of negotiating there, plus me hyping up my sale, so giving me a point of Charisma for the experience. Fingers crossed we'll seal the deal.

 Cooking: Pretty sure I skipped breakfast and had the scones with some leftover brownie for "lunch", so a single point here for the sandwich I made for dinner.

 Video Games: I finished The Spectrum Retreat, it was a fun little first person puzzle game quite reminiscent of Portal.

[Heidi]

On 3/23/2024 at 2:02 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

girlfriend fiance

Congratulations!!

 

On 3/29/2024 at 12:47 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

So essentially I did well in this one two and now both employers want me, it's down to me to pick.

Hell yes, you rock.

 

On 3/23/2024 at 2:02 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

Let's go!

LET'S GO!

 

[DarK_RaideR]

Monday, 1 April

First day at the new office! Things are looking good, but then again so they did when I started the previous one, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

 Baking: Had a cheese pastry I put in the oven. Some of it meant to be the next day's breakfast, the rest we'll see, but none was consumed on the spot.

 Cooking: Pretty sure I had some sweet leftovers for breakfast, brownie and/or scones with my coffee. Took some leftover daal to work with me for lunch, so a single point towards this skill for making chicken parm over pasta for dinner.

 Media Production: Spotify was clunky on Sunday, so I did a double listen and post to catch up.