Garden Heights

I have two admissions.

I love Pet Stories. Or rather, I love the three neighborhoods in Pet Stories.

So, because I love them so much, I ripped the hoods from the game and put them in Sims 2.

I am sure this is a Very Bad Thing. Which, on occasion, I am known to do. 

This will then probably cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the game blows up.

I say this, because I am already seeing signs. I have two bad NPCs, and I haven't yet deleted them properly (they were dog show judges). I also decided to bring in Sabastian Deppiesse into my game. If there was ever a townie name...

He came home with Thomas Jones, a Maxis playable, and I was so smitten with his name and the fact that he's a cop and wearing that obnoxious red smoking jacket suit, I just had to bring him in. And now he's borked. I can't click on his briefcase/backpack without my game crashing. So, I have been very careful about not clicking his briefcase. Thomas' briefcase works fine and so does Gavin's. Oh, Gavin is Sabastian's fiance. He's a sexy Athlete and was a townie.

So, I'm thinking there will be tragedy in the story line at some point. Bastian's days are numbered. Poor Gavin.

But really, I just wanted to show you a few of the Maxis playable characters and some of the chilluns I've bred this first generation.

TSR: Bastard Coated Bastards with Bastard Filling

Many of us have known this for YEARS. I've only come into this knowledge for a year and a half.

They are all things that are bad about this community. They charge for mods, recolors and meshes. What is wrong with this? Well, firstly, you won't find other communities that charge for these sorts of things. Secondly, it goes against EAs TOU. It specifically says in the TOU that you aren't allow to charge for things you make for the game because the .package file type belongs to them, therefore the item then belongs to them. Pretty simple TOU to follow actually.

And yet these bastards and a few others (Rose and Peggy to name two other biggies) flaunt the TOU and charge. And mooks out there PAY for this sort of shit. And trust me, a lot of it is shit.Why EA doesn't do anything about them is a mystery. Some think EA are in cahoots, but I tend to believe EA just can't be arsed into doing anything about it.

Now there are plenty of people out there who do pay but then share these files. Of course this doesn't sit well with TSR. So TSR gets a hair up their asses and goes after sites that purportedly trade these files. This doesn't last long because these sites just move to other places.

One of my favorite sites, Garden Of Shadows, was taken down by their host Go Daddy because of TSR's claims of file sharing and hosting files that 'belong' to them. Liegenschonheit filed a counterclaim. If you want to read more about it, you can, here. You can also go to the phorum at PMBD to check out the thread there. Thankfully, Pescado had backups of the site.

GOS is not going to take this lying down and you can be sure there will be stompy boots and strap-ons for TSR.

Laundry List

What I use on my Sims.

The skin is Nukapei's "Realskin" which is Maxis Matchy and has genitalia. These can be gotten at SexySims or Insimadult. I got the alien one from SexySims and it was one Nukapei suggested. The privates aren't obnoxious. The nipples and areola are cartoony but not ridiculous and definitely not overly realistic. The pubic region is just a thatch of hair. There is no obvious vagina. I don't have "adult" skins for other supernaturals.
The eyes are oepu's Maxis Match defaults from Maxistraum.
They wear Bloom's Sexy Feet and I'm hoping to fix all my outfits that still have block feet.
Attempting to be exclusive to Simgaroop's hair retextures and recolors but have all AlfredAskew hair and a few fanseelamb and HystericalParoxysm. I have a few others I love but I'm hoping Ms Garoop will eventually get around to re-doing them.
Eyebrow replacements are by Strange_Tomato.
I have Crammyboy's Penis.
I love Beos and Marvine's various bodybuilder meshes. All the skins are or will be Maxis Match. Don't you think Frances J needs a lover with a beefy build? I know I do.

My servo is Amaryll's steampunk replacement. This isn't as Maxis Match as I would like but it's brilliant and I hate that stupid Johnny5 wannabe thing. I hated the movie Short Circuit and I wish Johnny5 was not alive. I'm hoping for some equally brilliant recolors of it. There's an futuristic artist who does amazing chrome robot paintings. I want to say HR Geiger but it could be a contemporary of his. Why isn't there more CC based on Geiger or the futuristic art of the '80s? Damn, If I were only a mesher/recolorer type person. But my art is purely and dubiously musical.

A Moment of Brilliance

I went into my hoods to consider deleting Pleasantview and to my surprise I had backed up my entire game (all 4 hoods) on the 17th of March.

This of course means I have to re-age a bunch of people and I had to re-cleanup Wishing Angel Cemetery*.  Since I'd already done that once, I knew what I needed to do. I moved all the Goth gravestones into the mausoleum and included Michael Bachelor this time. Besides, Mike was a grouchy ghost at the Goths. He would constantly think about Bella and then be all angry about Isabella Lothario. As evidenced in these photos.

I'm not sure what was stuck up his invisible butt, but he wasn't happy about it. Sorry about the quality of this composite. I'm still learning how to layer images. I think it gets the point across.

Off to the cemetery with you, Mike. I didn't want him scaring the poo out of Isabella. She's such a cutie pie.

I get so angry when my damn game decides to take a dump on me. I was in Bluewater and decided to set up Chester Gieke in a house and get him underway. I couldn't stand seeing him sitting in the Sim Bin waiting for something to happen. I put some new duds on him and gave him new hair**  and threw a ton of freckles*** on him. He was looking really stylin' (as stylin' as Chet can look). And then I clicked on his dick (I wanted to randomize his manhood) when he got out of the shower and the game crashed. It makes me chuckle to say that, btw. Now I get to start him all over. He wanted to be a Criminal Mastermind. I wonder if he'll still want to be that.







*This lot is brilliant piece of work at Mod the Sims by Pegasus. However, because it's true to the Phantom of the Opera film, it's all done in a winter theme. Since I wanted it in Pleasantview I decided to remove the terrain paints and make the trees green.
** The Long Roger Hair by Shadylady on MTS and recolored by LuciaCarlotta - There's also a hairline out there for that and the short Adam hair by Udontknow. I could have these names mixed up.
*** I totally suggest the freckles by Lagritslammas over at GOS. They are awesome.

Frightening Things Are Afoot in the House of Goth

This is a sorry and gruesome tale.

I did something bad to my game. Fortunately, I only did it to Pleasantview. Specifically to the Goths. I thought it would be a totally awesome idea to artificially impregnate Dina Caliente-Goth with Michael Bachelors seed. And it seemed to work out just fine. At first.

I had recently moved out Cass and her daughter, Isabella, with Don Lothario to move in with Darren and his servo, Figgins (I was listening to the baseball game - he's a pitcher for one of the teams). Soon after that, Dina had her baby, Michael JR. She had already had twin girls (Menolly and Mallory) with Mortimer. I was pretty happy about all this and I set up Michael in his crib and when Alexander came home from school, I made sure all his ducks were in a row for college. I quit/saved and went to the college and pulled him, Lucy Burb and Beau Broke for college to live in the dorms. I ended up putting them in with the Pleasant Twins, Dirk Dreamer and Dustin Broke. A family reunion of sorts.

So while I was playing them, I couldn't seem to get ACR and the three way romance (ala JRO from STHWC) between the three of them to stick. Lucy and Alex triple bolt and Beau double bolts with both of them. Pretty good trio. And they were all in serious love with each other before I moved them to college.

But then one will flirt and then the other will try and get rejected. Maddening! I even turned all jealousy off, but I still couldn't get the love to stick.

Didn't matter though because the game crashed. As it is wont to do. Except that my up time for the game and the computer has been extraordinarily good and long lately. *sad panda face*

I restarted my computer and reopened SimPE. I didn't throw any exceptions but I did get a message saying there were two instances of a Sim found in Pleasantview.

Uh Oh.

I knew this couldn't be good. And I knew deep down it had to do with my little experiment with Michael Bachelor. I couldn't imagine what would have happened though. I figured if he was corrupt, I would just get a Dina clone and all would be right with the world.

No. It was far worse than a Dina Clone.

It was instead a picture of a headless Sim. An elder headless Sim named Marielle. And not only had Marielle overwritten Michael JR but she had written over Yves Jacquet. I'm not even sure how this happened as I have never played the Jacquets. Now Marielle was the father (and she was marked as a male) of Gilbert. And both Marielle Sims were living in the home of the Goths. Only there was only one to be found in the house.

So, I opened up the Goth house and found this:

My laughter was mirthless. I knew I was going to find bad things in this house.

I went to the crib.
 

I recoiled and screamed with laughter. I saw in a signature on a Sims forum (GOS? MATY?) about how laughter and screaming can be mistaken for each other (paraphrase). I can tell you now, this is true. My screeching laughter rang throughout the room. The Laughter (as though it was it's own entity) frightened the cat and made my roomie ask me if I was okay.

I knew I was going to have to D2:EB this mess. Only, this was a relative. But a relative in baby form, so maybe the horrific mess that Pescado foretold would not come to pass like it might if there were loads of memories. I could delete this abortion (seriously, not a bad comparison) and then manipulate the memories of the Goths and Nina Caliente. Not that many memories in the larger scheme of things. Right?

After I finally managed the delete of the infant, which was a feat unto itself, I did all the stuff I was told in the D2:EB thread. There is still a Marielle out there. But she's no longer connected to the Jacquets. But there is no Yves Jacquet which means his parents are out there in default land without a son and no connection to their grandson, Gilbert. I have the notion that I could reconnect her to the Jacquets.

I know it would be a better thing to just delete the hood and let the game restart Pleasantview.

But, dammit, I love this Pleasantview I'm playing.

Plus Don Lothario has an alien daughter. A NATURAL Alien Daughter. And she's soooo cute. I know I could clone her, but it works so well with the stories in my head (I do write down stories from the characters pov - but will they see the light of day? Who knows?). I mean, maybe that's his 'reward' for helping the Caliente's get rid of Bella?

That's my story. My dilemma. My quandary. Do I delete the hood and regen it or do I just keep playing it until it takes a total shit?

You gotta start somewhere

I've finally come up with a few ideas. An actual direction on writing.

It started with a fight. My housemate and I fight a lot. Almost constantly. But we do care for each other a great deal. In this case it was me wanting to be online but him not wanting to give up his research on buying a new recliner. I wanted to look for a good tutorial for cloning in SimPe. So after our stupid fight, I decided I'd read something from the bookshelf I hadn't yet read. This is a good way to distract me, usually, and this was no different. I grabbed King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes. But since I've read it at least a dozen times, I just sort of browsed it. So, I thought I'd look for Everything's Eventual, because it has "1408" in it and that story tends to scare the crap out of me. It's there somewhere, but something else caught my eye. It was a book I hadn't read before. I wasn't sure if it was roomie's book or if it was something he'd gotten from his sister. I can't imagine it's not his book, because it's so up his alley. It was book of short sci-fi stories. The Best of Mack Reynolds, to be exact. I've never read anything by him, but I'm sure I've seen his work on TV in the form of TV show episodes. The reason in caught my eye is that it had a profile of a man with pointed ears. He looks a little like Puck Summerdream from Veronaville. Only with brown hair. The artist wasn't listed in the book but said artist had the presence of mind to put his inscription along the shoulder of the man. The illustrator is called Ed Soyka and I'm finding it difficult not looking at his cover. You can find the book on Amazon.

Anyway. I read the first story in the book and was very amused. The authors note at the beginning of the story made reference to the last story in how they were similar. So I went to the last story and read it. I was completely blown away. I've thought many of the same things in my lifetime. I enjoy it when concepts I think of and conclude from reading are confirmed. Even if it's in fiction.

But this makes for a good start for my writing. These stories are oiling my rusty cogs and wheels. I sat down the other day and wrote an exchange between my Fae character, Laurel Winters and her fiance. I did this so I could put my thoughts on the game's alternate life states. Aliens of course are fairly self explanatory but it didn't explain the faerie's in VV or the apparent supernatural life states. I really hate the Grim Reaper in a way. He makes it difficult to explain him away. I have some ideas, but I really dislike the whole robed skeleton with a scythe bs. I'm partial to death looking like Brad Pitt. If I could reskin the Grim, I could use a Brad Pitt looking default. Or Rod Humble (raises eyebrows and gives no one in particular a sidelong glance and makes a moue with her lips). Yeah. I went there.

If Death looked like Brad I could understand why Olive Specter would want to hit that. Or a DNA merger.

But now I have ideas! I have a place to go with the Tricou family as well. I went into to SimPe and found the Tricou teens, noted them and stuck them in one dorm at La Fiesta Tech. Annoying they are all Pleasure Sims. Well, they aren't now. I changed their aspirations with the Re-Nu-Yu Orb. When I get them all learned up I'll change them back to Pleasure Sims.

I will post the exchange with Laurel and her beau, eventually (she says to her non-existent readership). She has a story.

Oh and did you know?: Johnny Smith was the name of the protagonist in Stephen King's The Dead Zone? Interesting, huh?

ACR + My Game = OTP

I added ACR in my game and although it's a bit jump buggy at times, I will never remove it.

It's just too marvelous.

It started out a little slow and I wasn't sure it was working.

A little background on my Strangetown game.  Chloe brought Bella home from work. They aren't all flirty, but because Bella and Chloe became fast friends I asked Bella to move in. Which she did eventually.

Bella had previously sexed up General Buzz, while Ripp and Buck were at school. They double bolt.

I've gotten a lot of writing done lately, but I have obviously not committed to this blog. Much of it is actually written. No, really. Written on paper.

Plus, I wrote a huge ranty thing about people who put down fanfiction. Those people can gfts. Fanfiction is just writing about characters in some other writer's universe. I'd like you to tell Neil Gaiman that his Sherlock Holmes short story set in the Lovecraftian Cthuhlu mythos is not legit. August Derleth and Brian Lumley would probably be pretty miffed if they were told their stories weren't legit. Or all those famous writers who wrote short stories set in Andre Norton's WitchWorld.

Anyway, I'll write more later, when I have a bit of time. I'll post some funny pictures of Erin Beaker. I love Erin, btw. At first I thought she was boring, but she really isn't. Girl can get some funny expressions.

Labor Intensive Cuppa

Well thank YOU EA for effing up something else in my game.


My poor sims can't even get a cup of coffee anymore. I trucked Tiffany (Riley? Strangetown teen I decided would be an interesting addition to Tank, Kendal and Shovel-Face Ed) down to the Cacti Cafe expecting her to get some coffee and some new lovin' contacts.
No dice.
There was a big gap in the bar where the Espress-O-Matic bar was supposed to be.
So, I know this from my learnings: EA's Mansions and Gardens effed this up. Imagine that.
Except I don't have Mansions and Gardens. But Double Deluxe works on the last EP/SP engine. Because the Store Edition is included. And I'd remove it, but I can't seem to find a way to do that and find a working CD crack and really, do I want to? I have ceilings! CEILINGS, I tell you! I have some other things too.
This is why my OFB Pescado cocktail is all buggery. I may go grab the AL Directors Cut and try to Frankenstein a working set of hacks together.


Edited to add: I found a way to get back the Espress-O-Matic. Download recolors specifically for it. I have no idea why this works. I'm guessing it's magic. So, go over to MTS, find Ailias in the creator search and search for these recolors. I wouldn't imagine you'd have to install all of them. Just one will probably be enough to get this back. I doubt it will disappear when I install Pets, but it wouldn't surprise me either.

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On story news. The Davis brothers are no longer in the same dorm. They both moved to different homes with different sets of friends. But they aren't enemies. It seems Aldric is being that guy he always wanted to be. He's getting away from Almeric and becoming his own guy. He's got a girlfriend and is shacking up with her. Almeric isn't seeing anyone. He's moved into a house with Klara V and Stella T. Klara is seeing someone. So is Stella.

But who are they involved with? Will it last? Are there pictures? You bet there are.

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Tank Grunt is DA MAN. Getting out from under the thumb of The General and away from his brother Ripp, he's finally coming into his own. Not to mention in Kendal. Oh yeah... She's all over the Tankster. AND, I have pictures to prove it. Also, he autonomously showed his more sensitive side. I was so impressed I had to take a pic of that too. Yeah. I'll post them.

Oh, he's still going to be a General. He's just not going to be like his father. 

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So I have ACR and OMG it is so much fun, but it has effing jump bugs. Grrrrr
And I'm still working on the Pescado Cocktail. 

I had this idea before I had three beers

But since I'm a terrible light weight, I'm a bit tipsy-ish. Not so bad that I haven't noticed my drunken typing though.

So this idea... I can't really give away everything because OMG it's so hot. And awesome.

Unfortunately, it's going to (and is) cause me a bit of pain. The pain I'm referring to is having to fuck around looking through the Insimenator related websites for the downloads I need for my idea.

What I can say is this: It involves Frances. It involves a new student to La Fiesta Tech. That student is male. That is all I can say.

My Strangetown game is weird. Everyone gets along for the most part. Tank and Ripp are friends. Ripp and the General are not. But they aren't mortal enemies either. It's so weird seeing everyone get along for the most part. Tank is sitting in the Uni bin right about now. He's in there with Kendal and Tiffany and Edward. Tank's already gotten his teenaged freak on with Tiffany. Poor ol' Ripp brought her from work and she auto goosed Tank at Buck's transition. He was horrified. Why is my Ripp such a wall flower? Ripp can't get a first kiss to save his life. He has the desire, but he's not getting the action. So weird.

And wtf. Ophelia and Olive are friends. They aren't buddies, but they are friends. That's weird too. I haven't even stepped into the Beaker household. Maybe they'll actually be the evil ones. Even though I don't see them that way in my mind.

I do see evil, or at least wickedness, in LFT. There is going to be some serious drama with our lovely Frances.

***********

Rant: Why can't sites like GOS and Insiminator (whom I both love the content therein) would move to an Etsy or MTS style format? It's so hard to navigate these sites. There are things I NEED from these places, dammit. I wonder sometimes, how many wonderful meshes and recolors I'm missing out on because everything is so helter skelter on there.

I Wrote This

So finally, the story bug was able to burrow itself up my butt and cause a fire.

I finally found a voice for the Beaker household. I'm still working on it, but I really like where it's going.

There are no pictures. I really hate having to set up shots for them. Too much is going on in my head to do pics. I think the stories are the important part. If I see something interesting I do take shots (like when I had Don Lothario smustling in the nude - without the censor. What a hoot!). But generally I won't add pics to illustrate the story.

I don't know that what I'm about to post will be in any story I post but this is what I actually have written. It's just the first part, about Loki and Circe. 

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They were clinical and unpleasant people, but they loved each other. They were serious and unfriendly, but they weren't completely unkind. They had come together as teens, kindred spirits who were in pursuit of knowledge, wealth and fame.

They were alone together in the mansion at number one Tesla court. They liked their solitude and privacy and lived in a good place for it. They lived in Strangetown, a pitstop on the road from Veronaville to Pleasantview. But they had grown up here and after they had gone off to college together at La Fiesta Tech they came back to the family home. They had considered moving into the city but they preferred to stay at the old mansion together.

He had always loved her. He fought for her love and won it. With her, he had to prove himself. His competition was a fierce one. She had one other suitor, Vidcund Curious, and if anyone could have won her heart, it was him. He was very much like Loki. However, Loki knew he would win Circe's heart because Vidcund was just too nice. This is why Circe chose Loki. His drive and his clinical way of going about things fired deep passion in her. She told him this on a regular basis. One didn't have to look at them long to know they loved each other very much.

They kept to themselves, loving each other fiercely and looking for new ways to help the world and make their names known.

------------

So that's part of what I have. I haven't written a lot of fiction. My forte is usually personal essay and research. Researching the Beaker household was the best really. I know it doesn't seem like much to research, as we seemingly aren't given much by Maxis. However, there is much to glean from what we are given. I've read the bios and studied the photos and I see so much potential there. Circe and Loki are not nice people. They have no points in nice or playful. They pick fights and are extremely serious about everything. I think they are very all or nothing and they treat everyone like that. But I don't think they are cruel for cruelty's sake. Nor do I think they are downright evil. They only really have each other. I don't know why Loki and Circe are the way they are, yet. Their parents have fairly normal point spreads. So do their grandparents. I do know that Maxis took away their points both personally and genetically. They've never known how to be nice or playful.

I find it interesting how many people make Nervous a sweet guy even though he has no points in anything but activity. He's ripe for being just like (or worse than) the Beakers. Only worse, I'd imagine. I think this makes it easier for me to justify making the Beakers not evil.

Besides, if you have a Sim with high playful and no nice, I think that's far easier way to justify an evil character. They will be the ones annoying other Sims.


I'll post more later. Not that it matters. I don't think anyone even reads this blog.

Bless Her Heart

I so stoopid.

I forgot about the patches. That was part of my problem with Pets. Not to mention Family Fun Stuff. I knew about the patches. I knew I needed to patch my games. But it slipped my mind. My excuse is that Double Deluxe came with the patches and I didn't need to patch it. I've decided just now that I'm not going to load Pets until I get some form of OFB. I am probably going to get the one at WalMart with Kitchen & Bath and H&M stuff packs. I thought I'd ordered IKEA but I didn't. That and Teen Style is dirt cheap on Amazon right now. I'll just get them there. Hopefully, I can find the elusive Glamour Life and Mansions & Gardens on there for something less than 18 dollars. I can't believe they want that for a USED game. And not even a real game.

EA should come out with a patch CD for people to ask for. Because, OH EM GEE, 20 MG per patch on dialup is a bitch. Maybe they do have something like that, but I doubt it. That would take foresight. And they aren't all nice and shit like Linux OS devs. Ubuntu is free to anyone who wants it. They should do something like this. It won't happen, but it's a nice fantasy.

But I did load UNI and I immediately went and played with my Frances J. I have soopersekret plans for Francky. I rearranged his house a bit, kachinged him up to a reasonable amount. I wanted to put up some extra walls and whatnot. I mean come on, that bedroom is terrible. If he wants a roommate he should have his own space. And I'm going to make the TV room into another bedroom and put the TV room upstairs near the bathroom. And put up a railing. I know the Sims can't fall over the edge, but it makes me nervous. 

Okay EA bitch time. Thanks for screwing up Frances' name! Assholes. I hate that you gave him the female spelling. I have a lot of Frances/is in my family and this is a big peeve of mine. It's like you set him up to be gay or something. JERKS. If you make a Marion or Marian in a Sims3 expansion pack and give the wrong name to one of the Sims I'm going to write a letter. I don't even play Sims 3. I'm just saying.
I hate they didn't give him a family tree either. You did it on NL with the Tricous and in Pets with Tara Kat (I could look up other EP families on the Wikia but I can't be arsed). You should have done the same for the Worthingtons. Obviously, he comes from the F.J. Worthington stock. But I want to know his mother's name and if he has any sibs. I want to know MOAR about my Frances J. Worthington, dammit.
I know I'm not the first to complain about this gross oversight. Nor will I be the last. I just had to get that out there.

Since I have all the Sims Stories, I've been considering extracting the Maxis made Sims from it. They are generally interesting looking Sims and have interesting backgrounds to them. They don't have any connections to Sims 2 at all. If I do this, I'll probably offer them to the Maxis Taste community. I could even extract the hoods from Life and Pet Stories. They are good hoods. I also have considered extracting some of the better houses. I could do all of them. I think many of them are more playable and better looking than base game homes. I'd like to burn some of those Veronaville homes down. And I know those hoods and  houses are out there, but I really hate how hard it is to find some things in this community.

If you like dance, trance and ambient music: BT, These Hopeful Machines. It currently spinning in my player and it's the best album he's done since ESCM. I recommend.

The Perils of Not Having Uni and OFB are Taking It's Toll

Or: Why you should just be a sheep and buy the games in order.

Now. You don't have to buy the games in order and you don't have to have all the EPs. But it appears I need to have Uni and OFB to make my Pescado hacks work. In theory I should not have to have Uni and OFB and use the hacks to make them work. And well, I guess it's just me not finding the right combination to make the perfect Pescado cocktail.

I had gone into the Kim's house to play around with them and noticed that the pets wouldn't stay on the counters and then couldn't sleep in their pet beds. I took out all my hacks and then did just the base game and NL ones (since Double Deluxe is Base, NL and Celebrations). I had previously dug out all the OFB and Uni specific hacks from the Pets Directors Cut.

So, now I am going through the arduous task of trying to figure out the Flaming Pescado Cocktail that is just right for my game. I have downloaded the base game hacks. The Uni hacks (for the future). The NL hacks. The OFB hacks, again for the future. And the Pets hacks. Because there is no definitive list (that I can find) of hacks that were made just for specific EPs. Blah. I suppose I can make a spreadsheet on Google Docs. I always love to put together a spreadsheet (seriously). They make me feel accomplished.

And I would like to know where the hell my Uni and IKEA is! It's been a whole week.

I Gotta Feeling

A Strangetown feeling. I've been playing around with Strangetown some. And I haven't done too much with custom content or making huge connections. I'm still waiting for IKEA SP and the University EP I ordered last week. I need University for my teens.

But, with my messing around, I have the exact idea how I want to play the whole Beaker/Specter storyline. I even took screenshots for storyboards. And I used the Maxis screenshots to back up my theories. Because of course, I see other things in the Beaker family page than others do. I am sure someone else has thought of my twist, but I'm okay with that.

I'm into chapter 24 pt 2 of Strangetown, Here We Come, as I type this. I'm writing this as I'm allowing it to load. Or it's allowing itself to load. LJ hates me. I get a lot of server resets because there are so many pictures to load. And not all the pictures load. But the story holds up, even without all the pictures. I'm a wee bit obsessed with this story. I am obsessed with Peculiar too, but I can't force Mme. Ugly to write or play. But, I've got all of Strange Tomato's story to work on. Then, maybe, just maybe, I'll start putting the stories in my head into the ether known as the Internet.

Something New to Obsessively Read

I'd caught up with all of Madame Ugly's stories last month and I've been searching around for something interesting to read. I'd read two books but I really needed something that I knew I would get to immerse myself in.

Well I found it. It's called Strangetown, Here We Come and it's shaping up to be fantastic. So far, I love it.

It was refreshing to find after I read the eye-gouging Yaoi story pairing Delphy and Pescado. It was featured in the comments on Anonysim. The story was very unrealistic. Pescado would totally be the Top.

The Torture that is Francine Pascal

I was looking up something pertaining to another set of stories from my youth and I stumbled upon a blog called The Dairi Burger. It answered what I was looking for but what really thrilled and nauseated me was the theme of the blog. It was dedicated to all the Sweet Valley High books.

I am not proud to say, I have read most of them. And they were terrible. I see that now more than ever. Although, I know there were times when I was reading them and I even had to say, "What?" to some of the antics and hijinks the Wakefield twins got into. Not to mention how horrible the life lessons they were teaching girls of an impressionable age. Basically, it's good to be smart and get good grades, but if you aren't beautiful, thin and be at least upper middle class and own lots of nice things, then you are nothing. I'm sure there are a whole crapload of bad lessons in those books I'm missing.

But it gave me an idea for the tedious University section of The Sims 2. I just ordered it and Ikea from Amazon the other day. I also got the new BT album. (that album and the two games put me just over 25.00 so no s/h).

There's an entire series of Wakefield twins bullshit that I haven't yet read called Sweet Valley University. I'm going to set up a new neighborhood and university. I saw some awesomesauce looking university buildings on MTS2. I only wish I had OFB. That would be stellar.

Right now this is a mental work in progress. It's not going  to be your momma's Sweet Valley.

I'm even thinking I might want to take on the Caitlin series at a later date.

You know it's funny. There were a couple of books that Francine Pascal wrote that were actually good, like Hangin' Out With Cici and the sequels to that. And I enjoyed the made for TV movie, Hand Me Down Kid. It's amazing how crappy the moral of the SVH stories were comparatively.

What a RIP!

I'm trying to find a copy of Mansion and Garden Stuff. It doesn't matter that if it's new or used. However, I can't find it for less than 18 dollars used. I'm sure it's out there somewhere for less than this but I have yet to find it. Since it's like 20 bucks new on Amazon and they have some other stuff new for cheap on Amazon, I might buy a couple things so I can get the free shipping for over 25 dollars dealio.

Pirate cat may not pay for his games, but I prefer to. Besides. I don't have the capabilities to download a 400+MB game. So, I'm a payin' for it. If I can find it for a decent price.

I can haz Securom?

Yes. I haz it. I can't find a no CD crack that will work with my newfangled version of the game. Until I do, I have Securom, so I might as well play the game. Fuck you EA.

Troll Brain Salad

I can't seem to find very many storytellers that have written about the characters in Life Stories. This is sad, because these are fairly attractive characters with a pretty decent back story. Even the premade characters are fairly fleshed out and interesting. But it's not surprising, because the series wasn't that popular amongst The Sims 2 diehards.

My favorite playable is Sharon Foss. She's Riley's (the heroine in the first tale) aunt and we see her briefly at the beginning of the tale. At the end of the story we are given the reason for her disappearance. She ends up giving Riley her house and she is moved to the Sim Bin. It is stated in her description she made a windfall in the stock market and is a millionairess.

In the dialog with Riley at the end of the story, she makes a casual remark that she has met a man on the internet and she's off to pursue greater things.


I always build her a big home, set her up and marry her to Cole Nanale. In my mind she was stood up by her internet date. She met Cole, the punk rocker with the mohawk while she was waiting for her date to show up.

They always have two bolts for each other and they constantly fart hearts for each other (despite Sharon being a Knowledge Sim). Cole, a Family Sim is set at the top of the Slacker career, even though he doesn't have the levels for it. They do well together. Even before I set her hair red or blonde, they double bolt.

I want to write a story about how Cole and Sharon meet. And then I want to write about how she gets past her trauma from what happened in the main story. These two plot points are mapped out in my brain, but for the life of me I can't seem to write them down effectively. The lines I write seem forced and fake. Which is driving me to distraction.

+++++++++

In other news, I've been trolling "The Official Sims 3" facebook fan page. I love sporking the sheep and making the 12s indignant. I am, and will be, very vocal about not using paysites and trying to get people to think for themselves and stop acting like sheep. I suggest others do the same.

What sort of game is the Sims3 trying to be?

It seems to me it's sort of this messed up amalmagation of Simulated Life and Fantasy Game and Quest Busywork. Except there haven't been any supernaturals introduced other than playable ghosts. And while that's fine and good, how can they justify having alchemy and not have the supernatural creatures they had in The Sims 2?

I don't want to have busywork in my game. I think Alchemy and Gem Cutting and fuckall knows what else other sorts of Everquest/WoW sorts of skill crap they've added. Of course there are gem cutters in real life, but I'm pretty certain it's not a regular skill set amongst regular people in the world. How many of you go out and find gems and have them cut by a cutter? It just seems like it's no longer a real life simulation as much as it is a quest style game without the fighting monsters part. Yet.

And I'm not even going to go there with the way the characters look. They are unattractive and apparently difficult to adjust.

The Sims3 does not interest me in the least. Which is unfortunate because I was really looking forward to the entire neighborhoods aging up together like real life.
Oh well. I'll stick with The Sims2 for the time being.