a couple helpful links

Crinrict helps to save us
EA admits that you shouldn’t save during a full moon


Yeah, they're right off my tumblr. Sorry!

Also, I installed one of the no zombie mods and it saved my current game.

Augh, I am so disappointed.  Seeing the first zombie at the cemetery during a full moon was fantastic.  Then having them spawn day and night right by the front door?  Took the wind out of my sails, that's for sure.

I really liked how mummies were NOT in every single sarcophagus, and didn't just randomly appear all over town.  I was hoping zombies would be like that, but with graveyards.  So seeing one would be a surprise and actually a bit scary. It seems like EA likes to make sure players experience the "special" events each and every time they play, but that defeats the purpose of special events, doesn't it?

Plus, you know...it would be nice if the zombies actually bit other sims.   So....extremely low chance of one appearing, but high rate of spreading infection - that's how I would have done it if I were in charge. :D

Edit:
I decided to put in some picture so it's not just me being a sourpuss.  When I'm not annoyed, it's fun.  I guess that's a good life lesson, if you're in the market.  (P.S. Mares...speaking of fun...I think you got the wrong booze.   Green and mysterious?  It's clearly from Switzerland...not from boring ol' US...)

she turned gold from a jelly bean

a porcini :D

Alfred Hoppsomething...I think. He's the changeling.  Also, EA SP moved him away :(

Organize, Blather, the Danger of Knowledge

Do you know what I love?  Free trials.

So...the great Organize Screenshots Project has gone like this:

1.  realize I have a problem
2.  use the ancient (I say ancient, but it's really only 4 years old) and clunky software I have to try to fix the problem
3.  for about 3 hours
4.  and then I realize I've managed to tag 123  23 ( D:) screenshots
5.  realize I have a problem
6.  caved and downloaded the 30 day free trial of Adobe Lightroom
7.  ran away to the Bahamas with it because I love it that much
8.  resigned myself to a harsh, moderately spendy, reality 29 days from now :(

Oh sweet covetous pastry, this program is easy to love.   Adobe, you are evil and conniving and I love you.

In other news: supernatural creatures

To be honest, the only supernatural creatures I really don't mind are the mummies and the graveyard ghosts.   I know, I didn't expect that from me either!

I don't mind ghosts in the graveyard or mummies because I hardly ever see them.  So...that makes them more fun - the oh hey! something weird is going on! factor.  The bots are buggy, the vampires are like a mild mannered plague, and  the imaginary friends would be one of my favorite things if they were rare.   I mean, I do find them squee worthy and adorable, but not when they are everywhere.   I know there's mods to fix the vampires and the IF frequency and so on - but I didn't get the mods until after I was good and annoyed.

I would rather the supernatural creatures started off like meteor crashes - rare.   I've only had one space rock come rocketing towards the Miliner house, and in the end it was about puppy sized and it landed politely next to a tree.    I would have loved to have played in Bridgeport for a generation or two before spotting a vampire,  or played for several generations before getting an IF.   The instant gratification takes all the fun out of it, for me. 

Luckily, there's still the fun of pouting.

And, since I was thinking of meteor crashes, I appreciate how honest TS3 is about the pursuit of knowledge directly leading to death and dismay.   Not of that beating around the bush with the yuck factor or whatnot - just good old fashioned discovering of planets leads directly to burning hot rocks crashing on you.


Edit:   Look at how cute this new town looks.   I think even if I started moving the Miliners every generation, I still wouldn't make it to all the cute towns that are now available.    Sure, they run the gamut from merely adorable to jaw dropping - but even the merely adorable ones are worth playing for a generation or two.

Awww! ♥

I knew I was focusing on art and CC and PT and trying to relearn all the drawing skills that I now feel like I've lost, but I didn't think I'd totally lost focus on other things that matter.   But no! I am a distract-able mess.   I've missed several updates of Chimera, and I'm sure other stories as well.   I will have to focus and hunt them down. :)

Also, Seaweedy found my story and added me to his Today in the World of Sim Stories.

Ok, I love that synopses so much I got a bit weepy eyed.

My tattoo set also ended up on MS3B.  I appreciate the huge amount of work that must go into maintaining a blog with that many daily updates, but honestly after reading troll comments before seeing my tattoos took all the fun out of it.  Which stinks.

But! Now that I've slept on it I don't think that making tattoos designed to work well with others was that stupid of an idea.   If other people start to make them I would be thrilled out of my gourd.   Plus, for whatever reason there are not many translucent, shaded, or 4-color tattoos out there.   I don't know why that is, it's not hard. If I can do it, when trying to learn new programs feels like getting poked in the eyeball with a migraine, then surely most people can.  I am basically a lunatic with art programs and access to the internet, but I'm a friendly lunatic and am happy to either answer questions or...admit to not knowing the answers.

Ok, back to taking pictures for the next update.  Oh and reading stories.   And working on projects.

weird pep talk

This got me thinking.

I haven't really commented on it, even though the pictures of Ashen with a mustache are, perhaps, some of the most lovable pictures I have ever seen.    And the whole thing gets me riled up.

And anxious.

Though making me anxious is a little like making the sky be up above, it really doesn't take that much outside help.

There's all sorts of questions that I start to ask, like...what if one of my sims has a baby with someone else's?  Whose sim is that?  Can I share that new baby sim's file? Is that a big enough reason to keep other people's sims out of my legacy?  What if story progression generates a townie, and I have no idea who the ancestors are?

Though that's different then taking someone else's sim, changing the hair, and then announcing that anyone else is able to take and change as they see fit - when it's not your work to give.  That's just being bad at the word Community. 

How would I feel if I saw someone else post Bennett or Ocelot or the carrot cake or the brain tattoo?

And that is the point where my husband interrupted with a weird, but helpful pep talk.

Me: anxie ie iei eieieieeeetyyyyy....
Husband: Do you know when you've gotten good at playing an on-line game?
Me: When you...win?
Husband: When someone calls you a hacker.
Me.  What?
Husband:  It's just like that!
Me: No.
Husband: Ok, umm...if someone steals your work that's like... a compli...
Me: No.  It means they think I'm obscure and can be taken advantage of.
Husband: But you haven't lost your ability to make new things.
Me: Illusion of safety!   My worst case scenario is someone steals something, and then I get blamed as a thief.*
Husband: If it's something you drew you can always send a DMCA Takedown Notice.
Me:  Illusion of safety NOT restored.   But I do like to file things.

It's true.   I'm a filing fiend.

So that was my weird pep talk.   But it kept me for anxietifying myself out of sims existence.

*another thing I'm thankful for, since TMN posted a picture of the carrot cake people might recognize it.   I should maybe be more social, but I'm shy and it's not easy. Thank you Mares.  <3

In other news:
I can usually narrow the number of pictures down to about 30 when making new comics, but this time around I got it down...to....90.

And this was going to be the update where I try a new format, one that allows for faster updates and more information.   But....90! Screenshots!   And that's after I discarded a bunch - it took almost 15 minutes just to open them all.

High hopes

First of all, apropos of nothing, other then I was just looking at it, the image adding thingermabob is now in Russian, and it only works if I constantly wave my mouse pointer around.  If I stop waving my mouse, it stops uploading images.   I feel like a wizard.

Anyway.   I had a problem where first there were infrequent mixologists, and then none, and then all of my service sims vanished, except for an elder consignment specialist.

new mixologist (and terrifying bouncer)

So, as always, I turned to Twallan, and The Register fixed everything up for me.   Plus, I nervously hit reset everything in MC, and that also seems to have helped with lagging.    I'm going to find a way of making someone marry that mixologist.   Maybe not in the current Bridgeport universe he inhabits, but somewhere, somehow - mixologist pupae.

Next up on the high expectations list: this girl.   She is a born in game child of my phony sim self.   When I have real teenagers? They will be this awesome, or I will dye their hair while they sleep.   I'm a little scared that I'll tell stories like, "When I was your age I had a hot pink faux hawk."   and they'll be like, "Yeah, well, it's business up front and party in the back, wassuuuuuup."
...

...

:(

And... that green hand?   Gets my hopes up for aliens every single time.   It's even wearing a nerdy Star Trek shirt! 

Maybe it's a Twinbrook zombie.   Yeah, that's it.  Zombie.   All is well.

:D the new Library

Due to various reasons we dropped cable, and are using that money for fun money instead.   So I bought the new goth library.

Here is why:

1: Grotesque columns - and with sufficient abuse of a fog emitter they could probably make decent gargoyles.   Maybe.   Worth trying.   Waterfalls might all be too big.   STOP JUDGING ME
2.  I can finally make science fight magic.

I don't understand some of the instant hate, or why people are assuming that this will be it for magic in the Sims 3 for all time.  There is no way to understand EA, they clearly release so much Wonderland stuff because they are all mad as hatters.   I think it's best not to play the "Try to think like EA" game, because it will give you mercury poisoning.

I like the library - it is beautifully decorated and many parts of it have acceptably attractive lighting for snapping pictures.    All it needs is computers and some toddler toys in the graveyard and it will be a lovely place to spend the day.  There's even a place to eat burnt chow, and a bathtub - in case books make you stink.

Edit to add: I do wish the remains had been full of Goths.   It would have been awesome to have ghosts reading at night.    Also, it looks like it was set up to have a caretaker, like in the Nectary.  Though with the weird release time, maybe the Library team just ran out of time?  Oh wait...playing the think like EA game...mercury levels...rising.

I took some pictures, but they all have new characters for the comic, so..umm...back to the digital drawing board.  <3

creeped out

Heehee.

I wish imaginary friends were less likely to barge into the bathroom.

Though right now I do think they are adorable - though I might be in the minority.   They remind me of helpful robots - codependent, helpful robots.

___

Also, once I turned notifications off, I don't mind memories.   Though it is one more thing to remember to do- deleting useless memories after an hour of playing.  Otherwise the scrapbook gets very cluttered.

I'm loving the custom memory system.  Though, like others, I'm having a hard time figuring out the point of uploading them to my studio.   Is anyone looking at them?   And, unless they are custom memories the image quality is very poor.   Also, the actual images are much larger then the ones they are showing - how does that make sense?   Try right clicking on a memory image and selecting View Image - see what I mean? Why not just take a better, smaller screen capture?

AUGH! BLURRY IMAGE LOOKS LESS BLURRY!

Though if I had a facebook I would use the memory system for uploading a post-as-I-play legacy.   I would call it a SPAMacy.  And possibly only I would find it funny.  But, I would find it really, really funny, every single time I uploaded a memory.

___


Also, because Poida is a hatless cupcake and a water buffalo I will say here - good luck.  I am highly resistant to change, but I do understand the dangers of distractions, and I hope we still get to hear about your successes.

it's in my brain

:D

Some thoughts:
Tea party!   And there is a tea clock.   I would have liked it better if a tea party was an actual party, and there was a scones recipe, but I'm pretty delighted just to see that little moodlet.   In fact, I make the poor pre-made kid in the unsuspecting test family I've been playing have constant tea parties with his teddy bear just so that moodlet is usually there.  The other wishes are just pie in the sky type wishes.  As in, I'd also like to win a bazillion dollars, but I'm not going to fret over that never happening.

Tea = large mood boost

So far I like Generations much more then I thought I would.  First of all, it came with a free OLS pack.   Which I thought I would hate, but it came with clothes that are both plausible and very attractive.  And a new art easel.

As for the expansion pack... it's nothing jaw dropping, it just boosts the entertainment value of romance and children. 

Also, the new toys make going to the park significantly more entertaining.  Watching random townies fail at hopscotch,  play in the sand, and generally congregate much more willingly is much better then realizing your sim is stuck watching someone play for tips- every single time you leave them alone in the park.

Also, my sims don't have the bad mood bed bug any more.

And I'm not positive, but I think homework is much less time intensive.   Especially when getting help from a parent.

Edit:
I forgot to mention that there is new maternity wear, and Octocat is on one of the shirts.   Awesome.

Also.

How have I not seen anyone mention any of the pre-made houses?  They look great.  I am completely loving the McMansion with the garage converted into an in-law apartment.  Also, a little adorable 2 person castle is available.

I wonder if, right at this very moment, that little castle is being used in a post-as-you-play vampire legacy on facebook?