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.

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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.

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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.