Virtual Tourist - My Time at Portia 6/3/18

Morning!

Windows did an update last week, and it took all the time I had to do the Sunday post. Boo! The update did warn me it would take longer than usual, but it went on way longer than I ever expected. Oh, well...

Mini Movie Reviews

SOLO - Meh. That was the feeling we walked out with after the film was over. Just meh. With the millions of dollars they are spending on these movies, you'd think they'd make sure they had a decent script. This was another "let's grab scenes from the originals and use them again because fans are stupid and will watch anything." There's no reason for it. They pretty much lost me when they had Val commit suicide for NO REASON! They'd already been discovered, so blowing up the bridge was unnecessary by that point! Hello?

I also thought it was a bad idea making Han be in love as fervently as he was with Qi'ra. It belittles what he has later with Leia. And have you noticed that the farther back in time we go the smarter and more independent the androids get?  The only bright point was Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian - he was fab! Rating: 3 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

My Time at Portia

The gravesite for the people who'd been dead 300 years but had been Ack's companions up in the space station that fell from the sky.

Winter around the area of the Hazardous Ruins. 

Inside my Level 2 House - During the weekends the Commerce Center now has inspections rather than commissions. That giant Llama statue is one of the gifts you can get (they seem to be random) for helping out. Suckers are HUGE!

In winter, towards the end of the month, cute decorations and snowmen begin appearing. It is all leading towards a Hot Pot celebration. (The first year I did not realize when they said Hot Pot they meant hot pot! The spicier, the better. Eek)

There are a couple of higher end animals that will randomly appear (often after a massive culling). This is the Cutton Llama. Note his spiffy sunglasses, antlers, and fake bunny ears. Lol.

The game has added a photo-taking mode so you can take photos of yourself, with NPC's, and also with no one in the frame. When you take the pic, you can add a caption, and the game puts it into a photo album you have inside the game. This is Sophie's Ranch wheat field after I've installed a sprinkler system.

Construction of the town's museum. Once built, you can donate equipment you've made for display and also reconstructed artifacts.

Here's the museum construction further along. You can also see Pinky the town's cat.

The finished museum building. It went up pretty fast! (Martha and Carol are performing their morning exercises.)

The main room of the level 2 house after I've applied new wallpaper and flooring. You can see the red clock (found in mines), the reconstructed telephone (4 pieces from the mines), a tea set (huge!), the music box (built it myself!), a small painting, and the Rat Prince's ratty pink couch. You never know how big something will be. Always a surprise!

There probably won't be a post next week. Chibi Chains and I will be in the Artist Alley at A-kon! We'll be in booth I25. Drop on by and say hello!

Have a great week!

Virtual Tourist - My Time at Portia 5/20/18

Greetings!
Hope all is going well for ya'll. I am still steeped in chaos. Bwahahahaha!

Mini-Movie Reviews

Batman Ninja - the first half of this was great! The second half was awful. Batman and several villains and heroes get sent back in time to Japan. Ignoring the fact everyone seems to know fluent Japanese; they did some lovely work giving them a Japanese flare. However, later, when all five castles turn into giant robots and monkey for up into a giant monkey, they just went off the deep end... Which was too bad, this could have been great. :( Rating: 2.5 out of 5)



Deadpool 2 - a totally fun ride. They sucker you in with something serious then whack you with unexpected commentary. A ton of in-jokes on all things Wolverine, other films, etc. All our old friends are back, and we meet several new ones. Not sure it surpassed the original but was a lot of fun all the same. Rating: 4 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

My Time at Portia

The view outside the church, which sits on a tall spire of a hill. Molly is one of the kids from the town. 

The view down from the church. You can barely see one of the hot air balloons. 

Each month is a new season. So this is month four and winter. You can see a bit of the church straight ahead and up.

A winter wonderland! A better view of the hot air balloons, too!

You can't get to those ruins, but this is a more detailed side view.

You can see my level 2 house sitting down there! :) (Currently set sideways so it would fit the yard! lol)

The fields owned by Emily's grandmother lay empty in winter. Also a view towards the entrance to town.

View from the upper porch of my house. All the snow and the waterfalls in the distance make it quite beautiful. 

Part of an old space station as it falls from orbit! Eek!

This is Ack and AI robot. He's been partially damaged. Had been in standby mode on the station that just crashed for 300 years. Luckily the town realized he was harmless and didn't destroy him. He's an excellent cook! :)

Have an awesome week!

Picture Kaleidoscope 12/11/13 - The Icemaggedon Edition!

Yes, last weekend was Dallas/Ft Worth Icemaggedon!
And I have a few pics of the event to share.

It started innocently enough. Thursday temps started to go down and the sleet started to fall. Noticed it collecting on the car at work. Left a little early and had to defrost the car and scrap it off so I could drive.

By the next morning, this was what we had!

Saturday we tried to clear the steps. This chunk shows we had over 2 inches of ice/sleet accumulate! Mind boggling in Texas.

Icicles from our roof. (Yeah, I know all you Northerners are laughing - but we just don't get this kind of thing often and NEVER this severe.) 

The highway was in decent shape so we went looking.

The ice collected on only one side of these threes, but the weight was enough to disfigure them.

Lots and lots of ice covered bushes and leaves. I think a lot of plants won't survive this. Downed power lines and tree branches from too much ice weight.

Ice Wonderland.

This freaked us OUT!

There's a new golf place in The Colony. They have giant poles to hold up nets to catch the balls. The ice stuck to mesh and made the fabric a solid wall. Between the weight and the high winds, it BENT the giant struts! BENT THEM! 

Yes, BENT THEM!

Coming back was harder than going. Eek! First and only time we ventured out into the world. Heh heh.

And it will all probably be gone by this point.