Yeah, temperatures never got above freezing today -- apparently it was like 13F this morning, but only felt like 5F. *whimper* Fortunately I was able to bundle up pretty effectively against the chill, and the Chancery has really good heat when it's on, so I was able to stay comfy all day, but still. Not enjoying this cold weather! *shakehead* At least it's supposed to be a little warmer tomorrow, I suppose... Anyway, here's the daily write-up:

Work – Had another boring day at the office to end the workweek – the GL fortunately was complex enough to take a couple of hours, but after that it was basically all obituaries and roster maintenance stuff again. Nothing particularly exciting! Though, on the plus side, I got to leave about five minutes early because the internet mysteriously conked near the end of the day, taking our phones with it. O.o Not sure what happened, but at least it happened late on a Friday! Hopefully it’ll be all fixed by Monday morning. (And if not, maybe they’ll let us come in a bit later. :P)

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week, and final night with my Liar Liar DVD! Which saw me pedal through –

A) The end of the movie itself, featuring:

I. Fletcher arriving at the airport and catching a ride on the baggage carousel clinging to someone’s luggage in order to get to the plane Audrey, Max, and Jerry were leaving on all the faster – all while Audrey clearly became more and more uncomfortable on the plane and Jerry started realizing something was wrong

II. Fletcher then escaping the bag he zipped himself into and stealing a recently-fixed set of mobile stairs to chase the plane as it taxied toward the runway, extending it so he could look in the windows so he could find his son – cue a baffled Jerry, a shocked Audrey, and a surprised-but-pleased Max when he appeared outside theirs

III. Fletcher successfully getting the plane to stop by throwing his shoe at it and making the pilots realize there was a madman on a hijacked set of stairs on the tarmac – only to then crash into a barrier, get flung from the stairs into a baggage train, then end up in the middle of a baggage train crash as the guy driving his train had to veer hard to avoid smacking into another guy

IV. Audrey, Jerry, and Max tracking Fletcher down as he was loaded onto a stretcher (having broken both his legs), and Fletcher telling Max how he never realized how lucky he was to have the opportunity to see him whenever he wanted and how sorry he was and how he was going to try and do better now...to the point of revealing that it was actually past the truth curse’s 8:15 deadline and he’d been able to lie for a half-hour when he looked at his watch, because he genuinely wanted to be honest with Max; cue Max asking Audrey if they had to go to Boston, and Jerry gracefully saying they didn’t, even if he personally did (and I know he gives Audrey an open invite to join him there later, but I have always headcanoned that in that moment he looked at all this madness and went “nope, I’m OUT” XD)

V. A cut to one year later and Max’s very sedate family-only sixth birthday, with him making a wish on his birthday candles...and then turning on the lights to find Fletcher and Audrey kissing; Fletcher then asks if he wished for them to get back together, only for Max to say that he wished for rollerblades. XD Cue the movie ending with Fletcher doing the claw for Max and Audrey this time

VI. And the fun part of the ending credits, featuring a bunch of outtakes from the movie – including Carrey making the actress playing Samantha Cole, Jennifer Tilly, laugh by pretending to make his water jug talk at her, and cracking up himself when Swoosie Kurtz, the woman playing Mr. Cole’s lawyer, yelled “overactor!” at him during the scene where the pair insult each other after Fletcher makes a moment about Samantha weighing 105 pounds in her bra. XD Good times!

B) “Bridging The Comedy Chasm,” which – I think was intended to be a making-of special of sorts with interviews with the cast and crew, but broke down roughly into:

I. One-third actual behind-the-scenes stuff (including stuff like Carrey saying that when he initially read the script, he liked it because it didn’t require him to do anything wild with his air or turn his face green or anything that...only to discover that a lot of the internal stuff Fletcher goes though was just as physical as what he’d done in previous roles, and the gang zipping Carrey into a duffel bag for the baggage scene and saying they could help get him out if necessary – only for him to prove to be very adept at getting out very quickly for the shot)

II. One-third Carrey playfully lying about what was in the movie (pretending it was like other movies that were coming out at the time, like Independence Day)

III. And one-third just straight-up clips from the film

Fun stuff, to be sure, but I was expecting some meatier behind-the-scenes bits! Though it was amusing to learn that Maura Tierney (Audrey) ended up having to bribe Justin Cooper (Max) to stop stealing her mark between scenes. XD

C) More outtakes, including stuff like Greta dropping her pen during the “Fletcher dictates how she should lie to all the people calling him” scene and Carrey flubbing his lines a few times – funny, but they definitely put the best ones in the end credits

D) The theatrical trailer, which probably showed more of the movie than it should have but also made excellent use of the song “Would I Lie To You” by Eurythmics (apparently not THE Eurythmics, like I always thought – thanks Wikipedia)

E) And a deleted scene from the beginning of the movie, showing Fletcher in court successfully defending a mugger by painting it as all a massive misunderstanding (claiming the mugger thought the muggee’s bank card was a weapon) with his antics – didn’t come with a commentary track, but I am reasonably certain that I heard they cut this as just unnecessary – all the other scenes, especially the initial one with Samantha Cole, gets across what a scumbag lawyer Fletcher is just fine. (TV Tropes also indicates that they might have cut it due to it making Fletcher look too unlikable, which, fair enough – he is very scummy during this sequence)

And that was that! Next week, we move onto the next movie in my list – A Series Of Unfortunate Events! Time to see how that one has held up over the years!

2. Work on Christmas Gift Fic: Check – ended up editing Nattie’s fic tonight! Which, if you need a reminder, was the Atlantis: The Lost Empire fic with Milo, Kida, her OC Izzy, and the crew spending Christmas at their friend Mr. Whitmore’s house. Featuring Milo and Mr. Whitmore watching Izzy and the crew construct a snow fort outside, and Milo rambling on about how he never expected all of this and how he’s not sure what his relationship to Izzy is quite at the moment (as he and Kida have kind of adopted her, but he and Izzy used to play with each other like siblings in the past (as per Nattie’s write-up on her RP blog), so…) – only to have Mr. Whitmore tell him that it doesn’t matter, family’s family, and everything that’s happened to him has been good, so why not stop worrying and just enjoy it. :) This was another fic where I felt the central concept was sound, it just needed to be bulked it up a bit with better dialogue and descriptions, so that’s what I spent my time doing tonight. Was a little tougher than expected here and there, but it got there in the end! Hopefully Nattie likes the end product. :)

3. Watch something on FreeTube/Invidious: No check – though I kind of expected that, given that Game Night ran long tonight (Sorry – I won two games and Mom won two games, though they were all pretty damn close). And I had nothing pressing waiting for me in my Subs (that I know of, anyway), so...not a big deal. We’ll see what’s there for me to catch up on tomorrow!

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tonight, but I did find something to stick into the queue for Valice Multiverse – a gif set by prettydeadoll of various screens from the A:MR Storybook app! All very well done too, I must say. :D As someone who loves that app (and can still play it thanks to my ancient iPad Mini), I had to throw it into my queue. Unfortunately didn’t find any Corpse Bride or Smiler-related stuff to go with it, but at least I have one thing.

Pretty quiet Friday, all things considered! But now I really have to force myself to go to bed, since it is a Cleaning Saturday tomorrow. Unsure what my plans are beyond the cleaning just yet, though -- Baldur's Gate III? Fallout 4? Something else? I guess we'll find out. Night all!

The weather was better today, at least (though I will admit, I kind of wish it had been a little cloudier -- only because sun glare in the morning is REAL, ugh), but Dad's still in a bad way -- the painkillers help a LITTLE, but -- well, he didn't eat much at dinner, and he's clearly not doing so hot. :( It's going to be really tough until the muscle starts healing up, I think. *shakehead* Always something...

Anyway. Here's the report on the rest of my day:

Work – It was a fairly mundane Wednesday at work today:

A) My ride in fortunately wasn’t too bad, as it wasn’t nearly as icy as everyone had feared – just really trafficky

B) I had two messages on my phone when I arrived at the office – one from a guy who calls in regularly to do payments on his pledge using his bank account (he doesn’t like automatic deductions), the other from the daughter of the woman who I called about an overpayment the other day (the one person who did not get back to me). I called and left messages for them in turn in the morning, and they both got back to me over the course of the day – the guy to do his payment, and the daughter to say that we could send the overpayment back as a refund (I drafted up a memo and brought it to Fiscal – hopefully the check will materialize by Friday)

C) I helped my supervisor pick out which “thank you for your support” image she wanted to put in the Diocesan paper (she apparently hadn’t noticed that two of the images had the Diocesan shield slightly overlapping the picture on the side until I pointed it out)

D) I spent pretty much all the rest of the day working on yesterday’s obituaries and other related roster maintenance tasks

E) And then I drove home and somehow encountered more traffic than I had yesterday, when it was actively pouring. O.o That’s not right – I don’t like it.

So yeah – not THAT much to report, honestly. And I’m sure tomorrow will be more of the same. We’ll find out, I suppose!

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight, this time starting the next movie in my mini-Jim Carrey marathon – Liar Liar! This is the one where he plays sleazebag lawyer Fletcher Reede, who lies as easily as he breathes – until a birthday wish from his newly-five-year-son makes it so he can’t – in fact, it forces him to tell the truth, often as awkwardly as possible. Which, as you might imagine, causes all sorts of problems for him… I got through a little over the first half-hour of the movie today, which included:

A) Fletcher showing off the kind of person he is by happily prioritizing talking to some reporters about his latest win in court over going to pick up his son for his visitation day, then lying that he ran out of gas when he finally shows up

B) The introduction of his ex-wife Audrey’s new boyfriend Jerry, who is nice and all but kind of weird in a “he’s trying too hard” way, and the reveal that he’s moving to Boston to take a hospital administrator job

C) More of Fletcher being an asshole, including the reveal that he totally forgot about his son’s birthday the next day (fortunately his secretary Greta has him covered); giving Greta a bunch of lies to tell the people who have left messages for him; stealing the present Greta bought herself to kiss up to one of the senior partners, Miranda; taking on a case Miranda gave him and doing work instead of taking Max to wrestling like he promised; and the next morning giving Max his present (baseball stuff), but declining to play with him because he’s busy working (which, yes, he’s a lawyer and they are busy people, but Max is FIVE and he’s clearly done this a LOT to the poor kid)

D) While all the above is going on, Jerry proposing to Audrey in the most awkward, unromantic way imaginable and trying to convince her into moving with him to Boston; she’s not keen

E) Fletcher chatting with his new client about her divorce case (trying to get half her husband’s estate despite a pre-nup stating she gets nothing if she commits adultery) and somehow twisting her cheating on her husband seven times into HIM wronging HER, firing her up for her court date – and impressing Miranda so much she drags him into having sex with her...which causes him to have to call and say he’ll be missing Max’s birthday party (ironically, immediately after Audrey told Jerry she didn’t want to move to Boston because it would be unfair to Fletcher)

F) A despondent Max making his birthday wish that for just one day, his father couldn’t tell a lie...fading to Fletcher and Miranda post-coitus, and Fletcher, when asked if he thought it was good, going “I’ve had better” to his own intense shock

G) Fletcher having an extremely bad day after waking up the next morning, including repeatedly insulting a new tenant in his building by talking about her huge rack; telling a homeless person that he does have change but he doesn’t want to give him any because he believes he will buy booze with it and because he’s cheap; finding himself completely unable to lie when he arrives at the initial hearing between him, his client, and his client’s husband and her lawyer, and as a result being unable to get a continuance or force his client to settle; insulting all the people who work in his office; and struggling so hard to lie about the color of a blue pen that his own hand ends up attacking him and writing “Blue” all over his face (which is some truly EXCELLENT comedic acting by Carrey)

H) Fletcher then having to call Audrey and admit that he can’t pick Max up from school (like he promised during his call the other night), and accidentally revealing to her that he missed Max’s party thanks to having sex with Miranda; this plus Max being sad over his birthday wish seemingly not coming true causes a disgusted Audrey to decide they will be moving to Boston, because fuck Fletcher

I) Fletcher calling Audrey back, learning the “moving to Boston” news, and driving like a maniac out of his office to go talk to her – unfortunately for him, he’s caught by a motorcycle cop, and thanks to his truth curse, has to tell him not only how many laws he broke during this drive, but that he also has unpaid parking tickets – cue him showing up at Audrey’s house in a cab because his car’s been impounded and needing her help to get it out

J) And Fletcher, after admitting to the impound guy who scratched his car driving it around to the exit that he wasn’t going to do anything more than piss and moan about it because it wasn’t worth his time to seek damages, talking to Audrey about the move and trying to dissuade her – only to blurt out in response to her talking about how he’s not really even in Max’s life anymore that “I’m a bad father,” which shakes him pretty badly

Good stuff – Jim Carrey is very talented at playing both nice guys and total assholes. :p And seriously, the scene with him fighting against his own hand is a delight. Though I’m more looking forward to an even more epic scene of him fighting himself coming up...

2. Work on Christmas Gift Fic: Check – after a surprise message from her tonight (apologizing for not responding earlier as she’d been busy), I ended up writing the gift fic for tumblr friend Marie this evening! She told me that she had no preference this year, and to surprise her, so I let her know that I’d look to previous gift fics for inspiration then –

And promptly wrote a follow-up to last year’s Christmas fic featuring the Valicer In The Dark version of her OC Madeline (usually Alice and Victor’s daughter, but not always – this version, for example, is just a kid they found and saved from being mugged, as per the last fic). Because if you let me go off on my own, I WILL start writing VITD fic. :P The previous fic, as stated, involved the trio saving Madeline and her dog Scout from a mugger, learning her tragic backstory (thrown out by her father for having hallucinations), and deciding to let her stay with them for a bit, at least for the length of a hot meal – this fic picked up after said aforementioned hot meal, and featured:

A) The group walking the streets of Six Towers and telling Madeline about how they’ve broken into Rowan House three times – once to get the deed to their greenhouse; once to steal a Dragon’s Bane fruit for Chef Roselle; and once to steal leftovers from a Gratitude party he was hosting. Alice admitted that last one became a bit of a clusterfuck and said she still couldn’t believe Smiler took a snack break in the middle of that score (“it was supposed to be a snack break for all of us!” Smiler protested)

B) Victor and Smiler then telling Madeline about their greenhouse, and the radiant energy butterflies Victor came up with (with some help from Smiler’s chemical expertise), and Madeline saying she’d love to see it – only to be spooked by a hallucination of a specter (which Victor confirmed with his Ghost Mind wasn’t really there)

C) Madeline complaining about how her hallucinations are so annoying (Alice sympathizing and admitting you only ever sort of get used to them) and how she’d like to get rid of them – but the two doctors her father was going to send her to before kicking her out ended up dying; cue her revealing that she was going to go first to Dr. Bumby, then to Dr. Kelman, and the group having to admit “uh, yeah, we’re the ones who killed them, because they were monsters,” with Smiler suggesting they get into the full stories at the greenhouse, since they might as well have nice surroundings for these terrible tales

And there we have it! I thought it was nice, anyway – and I just kind of liked the idea of poor Madeline having had TWO close calls, and the Three Pillars having saved her from them without knowing. We’ll see how this is received when Christmas actually comes around!

3. Watch something on FreeTube/Invidious: Check – I watched a bunch of short Omega-Mart-related videos from Meow Wolf tonight, as I have gotten into this absolutely bizarre grocery store, including –

A) “The Omega Mart Experience | Meow Wolf” – a quick ad for the Omega Mart art installation, with an initial look at the bizarre grocery store, before showing people poking around the backstage areas and enjoying the extra weirdness there (along with the bar that is also on the premises). I thought it was more of the in-universe ad weirdness, but I suppose I will take an ad for the actual attraction. :P

B) “404 Chocolate: Install the Flavor” – the in-universe ad weirdness I was looking for before, advertising 404 Chocolate.jpg, a glitch-filled flavor sensation for people who are tired of regular chocolate, or just tired in general. Your taste buds will definitely feel this – install the flavor! XD Still missing the Omega-Mart jingle, though – but on the other hand, this isn’t actually labeled “Omega-Mart,” despite being in their playlist for it. Hmmm...

C) “Nebula Loaf – Omega Mart” – ...I’m not sure you can call this one an ad, since the product was barely advertised (there was a BARELY second-long ‘title screen’ of sorts for the loaf saying it was “Theoretically $6.99 lb!”) – it was mostly just 13 seconds of the loaf splitting open to reveal its multicolored insides (think a more spacey version of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”) and the universe freaking out before a gloved someone pushed the pieces back together and (very poorly) taped them shut. Very bizarre, even for Omega Mart. O.o

D) “P-2000 Cracker Spackle – Omega Mart” – okay, this one was definitely an ad. XD Specifically, it was an ad asking if you were tired of your crackers crumbling under regular peanut butter and offering up P-2000 Cracker Spackle as a “heavy-duty high viscosity quick-set answer” to your cracker crumbling problems. Buy one or three – Omega Mart respects your choice. Or, if you wanted the mini spackle knife (for tiny crackers), you could call the special direct number 1-200-DONT-EAT. They take MonsterCard, Viva, and American Espresso! XD I do love these silly commercials – they really capture just how ODD Omega Mart and its universe are. :P (Though I do also agree with the comments that the older-style ones with the jingle are the best – the somewhat more-retro vibe really suits the store.)

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got two things done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) this evening –

A) First, I straight-up reblogged a poll by polls-justpolls that I found on my friend Squid’s blog: “Could your icon kill someone?” with the options “Yes,” “No,” and “They have.” As my icon is one of my pictures of Victor, Alice, and Smiler together in Sims 4, I picked “They have” and explained in the tags that Alice has canonically murdered someone (multiple someones if you count her Wonderland kills, but I was thinking mainly of Bumby), and that Victor and Smiler I believed to be at least capable of the act – after all, the VITD ones helped their Alice kill that Bumby! Alice may have struck the actual killing blow, but they were definitely accomplices. :p

B) And second, I went through the videos I’ve posted/reblogged over the years via the VLA(NS) archive and eventually found my Song Saturday post for Straight No Chaser’s “12 Days Of Christmas,” which I added to my queue for this week’s Song Saturday, as it’s one of the few pieces of Christmas music which I don’t think is completely and totally fucking overdone (probably helps that they don’t play it much on the radio)

So that was good, yes. *nods*

And now I should head to bed, as I still have two work days to get through this week. *sigh* We'll see how they go...night all!