mmmfobbs

10:55 am: The Asylum Begins!

Okay, sorry, I don't have pics or a chapter ready to go yet, but...

I'm sorry.  I must already apologize to my participants.  I've played less than a sim-day, and I've had one fire with a triple aspiration failure already!  (I was not the one cooking, I can at least say that)

I figured, oh, it won't quite be like an Asylum, since I gave them nice clothes and a pretty environment.  Well, apparently that doesn't matter to some aspirationally low folks.

Oh, here's the official list of participants, it changed a bit from the idea in Nerd's topic:
Spider Jerusalem
Cassidy  (these two are set as brothers)

Brody Legacina
Orikes (Legacina)  (created together, not related)

Prof. Butters Simself
Marina Simself (created together, not related)

Michelle Fobbs (playable)
Dante Gabriel Fobbs (set as siblings to avoid strangeness)

Gotta run to work!

Tags: asylum, sims

09:39 pm: Well, everybody else is doin' it...

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them

( List and Discussion... )

Tags: books, library, meme

09:12 am: Happy [fill-in-the-blank] Day!

Friday was Friday the 13th, ooOoooh.  Lots of fun.  It's amazing how people still seem superstitious about it.  I make small talk with lots of the patrons at the library, you know, "Oh, great kid's book, love the illustrator", "Hey, didn't know this author had a new book out" that sort of thing.  And the ones getting horror or astrology stuff seemed much more aware of the date.  I'm such a voyeur.  Only a single bad thing happened to me.  The freezer broke.  Not horrendously, just enough so we had to move fast to save all the stuff in it.  More on that later...

Tags: anniversary, father's day

09:21 am: Lot Debugger?
Hey, everyone.  This is a call out to my fellow simmers for some good info on MATY's Lot Debugger.  I've never used it, but I'm thinking I might need it before too long.  I've been getting more little errors, mostly graphic stuff but I hate to take a chance with a neighborhood like Planet Revolution.

Like, I was at the House of Cheese, and everyone eating grilled cheese suddenly was sitting behind their chairs on air.  Then they were instantly standing, and sat down again to eat.  At the Nebula Tower, when Quint bathed his new baby, the baby was floating over his head, not in the sink, until the bath was done.  That one could so easily be a lolSim:  Washin da babee, ur doin it wrong!

Stuff like that gets me slightly worried.

On to what's going on in my sims' lives.  I'm trying to write up some scenes with Rhys, only to discover that he has none of the necessary people on his contact list!  So I've got him hanging out at community lots to try to meet the right household.  One very telling bit of info, when I opened up his Want panel, it involved one Want to Max Enthusiasm, and three others to interact with Cherryh!

The Picaso's have a cute son (named Pablo, of course) and are excessively happy and don't know anyone in the neighborhood.  Just townie pool.  Which works well, since they're my "Must get away from Apoc limits!" family right now.  Even families such as Julia, Malcolm, and Rhys are too involved in the plot for me to play them freely right now.  So it's been good for me to play the Picaso's.  I think that at this point none of you want to see me burn out on the story, right?  The Picaso family is my preventative measure.

Tags: glitches, rhys, sims

07:46 pm: Grrr, downraters.
So, I uploaded Cherryh, since I got a request.  It was useful, since I figured out how to get adult-Cherryh there without bothering with SimPE or CAS.  And I know some folks have snapped her up!  Goodness sakes, 20-some downloads?  Thanks, folks.

But then, I notice the star rating.  I shouldn't bother looking, but I do.  I know she was at least 3.89 at some point, but now she's not even 3.75.  Maybe some folks downrated her because she wears costume makeup, or has Maxis-made clothing.  But can't they even cut her some slack because she's a character?  This isn't some model that I'm trying to show off my mad CC skillz on, it's someone from my stories!  There's a reason she looks the way she does!I think they hit my latest chapter too.  It's rare that my chapters don't hit 4.7, and this one hasn't moved much past 4.5.

The whole idea of downrating bothers me.  I'll generally only do it if they're pretty deliberately rude, breaking the rules (gets 'em reported too, usually) or truly awful in their spelling, grammar, and pictures.  And, not or.  Surely everyone has something redeeming about their stories, right?  I never downrate sims that are uploaded, either.  But I think a lot of people do it just because it's their chance to get revenge, somehow.  To take out their frustrations on someone else's creation.  To be PMSey and not get told to buy some Motrin, I dunno.

So, that's got me feeling down, just slightly.  So I found some pictures of some of my favorite events off the main lot!

More fun events!


Tags: downraters, rant, sims

08:30 pm: I've got some pics to share...
This is actually a mini-episode that never made it into a Planetary Apocalypse Chapter.  It's still funny, though...


I based it on a chance card that Orson got and thankfully, successfully answered.  Hope ya like it!


Tags: julia, orson, sims

10:37 pm: Progress slow...
I keep trying to write, but the computer keeps crashing!  Ugh.  It only seems to do this when I'm writing up chapters, and it seems to happen at least once every chapter!

The first time was Monday night.  I'd just finished writing a really emotional scene between Ursula and Quint, after having switched some pictures so the emotional expressions were absolutely perfect, and BAM!  Crash.  Big paragraphs lost.  I said a censored word so loud that Michael startled awake from a nap!  I could hear it all the way in the computer room.  I would have beat up my computer but my sensible side did point out that it wouldn't do any good.  So, even though it was almost midnight, I just started up the game again and tried to recreate all that wonderful dialogue.  I got pretty close, I think.  I hope.

The next time was just a few minutes ago.  I'd gotten some good stuff in, but a tad more fluffy.  It won't be so important to get it exactly the same.  It's still frustrating, as the game takes forever to load up the placeholder lot.   I've got about 56/120 slides done.

On an unrelated (and much more positive) note, I've had a bush in the front yard for three springs now.  I've made sure the lawn guy does not mow it down, because I was sure it would be something neat someday.  This year, this WEEK in fact, it blossoms!  I have a ROSE BUSH!  A freakin' b-e-a-utiful rose bush!  I really wish I had a working camera, I'd take pictures of some of the (multitude of) blossoms to show all of you.

Now, I can't exactly hang around outside admiring it because of my allergies, but I know it's there.  Yay.  Speaking of the allergies, I sneezed so hard at work that I pulled a muscle in my upper back.  I didn't even know it was possible to pull a muscle there!  But it's hurtin', believe me.  Luckily, I had a Dr. appt already set up, so I just added that to my list of complaints.  The nice doc-lady confirmed that it was just a pulled muscle, and that my asthma is flaring up and causing me most of my other health grumbles.  So I'm back on the ol' inhalers, as much as I hate them.  And a lovely heating pad for the back pain.  It's helping, I can tell already.

Tags: allergies, apocalypse, back pain, computer problems

12:10 pm: Cher's Fashion
Okay, so I promised pics a while back. I've been cleaning out the Storytelling folder, and it is HUGE! I've got lots of material to sort through. I didn't even find the ones from Robin's house that I wanted to show her. Ugh, what a chore. But anyway!



I'm going to start on Chapter 18 soon. Michael has been complaining just a tad that I haven't really spent time with him, even though it's a holiday weekend, so it'll be after I settle in for movie-time with him.

Have a good holiday, everyone!

Tags: cherryh, nebulas, ursula

06:12 pm: Chez Michael's French Toast
When Michael was sick, or recovering, I took care of him.  I am not a cook, so we had lots of microwave meals, easy-to-fix stuff.  This week, I've been rather sick, and he's been well enough to really care for me.  Oh, the benefits!

This morning, he made french toast.  He used Oat Nut Bread, which stays wonderfully textury even when soaked with egg!  As if that wasn't enough egg, he put a perfectly fried egg and a sausage patty on top of it!  Even with serious allergies, that looks good enough (and I could sort of smell it too) to tempt Gandhi to eat.  Now that I write it out, it seems so simple, but oh, how tasty it was!  I wish I could share with you the delicious crunch that was the Nut in the bread, and the perfect fluffiness of the egg.  He asked if I wanted syrup (we only have about four kinds in the fridge) and I thought how could anyone ruin such a masterpiece with syrup!  It was that good.

Tomorrow his sister and brother are coming to visit.  I'm so glad they're staying in a hotel.  I don't have the energy to freshen up the guest room.  I hope she's not in a chatty mood.  Or at least that I feel a whole heckuva lot better by the time they get here.  Thank goodness for the long weekend to sort of recover from all these allergies!  And for the Claritin-D that seems to have knocked them into submission!

07:26 am: Allergies, I haz dem...
Last week, even on the weekend, I'd sneeze and snot a bit, then I was fine.  This week, all bets are off.  Breathing is a major pain, since my poor lungs want to cough right as I'm hoping to inhale.  My nose is emitting lots of yellow stuff.  My head hurts because I've been blowing said nose too much.  And Benadryl is not a work-friendly drug.



Tags: allergies, nebulas, sims

11:53 pm: And there goes the chapter, into the great outdoors!
Wow, I got it done!  I still can't believe it, it was going so slowly yesterday, and today I did some trimming and just burned through some really tough scenes!

http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=220377

There's the linky!  I'd like it if you comment over on boolprop.com, if you belong there.  If you're just an LJer, it's fine to comment here, but you should really consider joining boolprop if you like sim stories!

It's actually going to be hard to sleep, I'm so excited about what you all might think of it!

Tags: boolprop, nebulas, sims

10:26 am: Plugging away...
So, 30/110 slides done.  But now I have to go to work!  Blegh, work on a nice Saturday.  And after that is the Preakness!  I try to catch three horse races every year, and this is the second!  Still, though, if everything works well, I should get the chapter out this weekend.  Maybe tonight.

07:08 pm: Iron Man
I just saw Iron Man.  It was Michael's idea, mostly.  He said we deserved a movie break (he's getting cabin fever again.) and I pointed out that we could very easily have a break with Prince Caspian.  But he insisted.  And really, it was worth it!  He'll take me to see Caspian next week, and I do have quite the soft spot for Robert Downey Jr.  


I'm gonna fire up the game now and see what I can do to get y'all the next chapter.

Tags: iron man, michael

11:13 pm: Soo, I'm not so much of an LJ user. I go through stages. I feel like I should post every day, free-writing or whatever. Then I feel guilty when I miss a day and I avoid it like the plague. Silly, I know.

On Friday, I was sooo lucky! I called in to one of those radio station things, you know, be the 10th caller and win something. I didn't think it'd actually happen, but I won tickets to The Police/Elvis Costello concert! Michael couldn't go, so I had three days to find a concert buddy. Then, the next day, my cousin graduated from college. My baby cousin, who I remember cradling as a baby. I feel so old. And, I ask him if he'd like to go with his old cousin to a concert, and he did. We had a blast Tuesday night! Elvis and Sting seriously rocked (Sting... drool!) and I had no idea how talented the other members of The Police really were (Cousin Lyle was raving about the drummer. He should know, he's a trained musician, esp. percussion.)

And then came the drive home. Two and a half hours, starting at 11 pm. Did I mention I had to work all day Wednesday? Starting at 9 am? It was not a fun day. But I think I'm caught up on sleep now.


( Here's some sim goodies! )

Tags: apocalypse, concert, nebulas, police, sims

10:05 pm: Happy Thanksgiving? Eh, could be worse.
Michael's blood sugar crashed, right before I was about to leave. I'm glad I hadn't, I was able to help him get a sugary drink and some crackers, and he was much better when I finally had to leave. Before that happened, we watched The Incredibles together. I love that movie!

His brother and sister are visiting (staying in a hotel, no work for me!). We went to a restaurant for our big dinner. It was nice, if not traditional. I talked more with his sister than we usually do. That was a very good thing. His brother hardly ever talks, but that's nothing personal towards me.

I'm really quite pleased that we were able to chat so well. She wasn't happy when Michael married me. No, she's not a bad person or anything, but her generation wasn't one where you saw many interracial couples really make a go of it. And she didn't stand up in the courtroom and forbid us to marry, or toss me out of her house when we visited. She just, struggled I guess you'd say, with accepting me. Quietly. So for us to just sit and have a nice dinner and conversation is a big step. I'll take it. I know I can't force her to be my best buddy or anything.

Tags: diabetes, hubby, incredibles, sister in law

09:48 pm: Radio and Socks
I got new socks. There's just something nice about fresh comfy socks. Kind of a pick-me-up.

The radio station I always listen to plays their entire library once a year, alphabetically by song title. They call it B to X, which is totally prejudiced against A, Y, and Z, but hey, they are KBXR, so it makes sense, I guess. Right now, it's much Better than their regular line-up. Literally. They played "Better Days", "Better Man", "Better Now", and "Better Than". The whole format makes for a nice variety, some really interesting mixes of styles of song. I'm surprised more stations don't do it, but they'd probably have teenie-boppers complaining that they haven't heard -insert name of overplayed song here- in the last two hours.

Tomorrow I'll mostly spend with Michael. His brother and sister are coming up. The puppies will be sadly neglected! Not really.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks. Drive safe out there.

Tags: radio, socks

04:25 pm: Simmerific news!
I have de-stressed a bit about Bon Voyage. It does seem to do okay on regular lots, just uber-slow on the vacation itself. I am still leaning toward uninstalling.

But my test is going fabulously! Remember my BC? Well, Toby is getting that promised getaway!



By the time he left the Far East, he was quite the experienced traveler.



And the next vacation, to a tropical spot, he brought a special friend!



I'm going to write up a story from Toby's perspective, but my free time is filling up, so no guarantees on when.

Tags: bachelor challenge, bon voyage, smarter, the sims

06:56 pm: Who Killed the Electric Car?
I just watched the documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" FIND THIS MOVIE. WATCH IT. And don't get defensive when they say consumers are some of the ones guilty for killing cars such as the EV-1. Not the only, thing, obviously. They also laid the blame at the feet of car manufacturers (the very ones developing-but-failing-to-market the EV-1s), the government (who helped kill laws to raise fuel economy and mandate zero-emission vehicles) and big oil, who bought rights to the magnificent battery technology that's been developed.

When they were describing it, I wanted to run out and grab one of these cars! So it wasn't huge, and its range wasn't long (60ish miles). Well, guess what? I don't have anyone to carpool with, so size isn't a big deal, and I don't drive more than 30 miles a day anyway! We've got the van for trips, so this car would have really worked well for my lifestyle.

What about you? If you could charge up at work or the grocery store, wouldn't a short-range, highly efficient car work just fine for almost everything you do? I mean, even my parents, who live in the boonies and need several different vehicles for various farm purposes, usually have a car that is the "quick run to town" vehicle. They also have a larger, more comfortable one for long trips. Okay, I'm rambling...

Anyway, this documentary was an eye-opener on how so many factors came together to unfairly kill the best market for the electric car. Hybrids are a step, but not enough of one. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are unrealistic, a pipe dream. What happened to those EV-1s that were on the roads? Their leases were canceled, their engines disabled, and all but a scant handful were taken to the desert and pulverized. By the car company that made them.

If you get a chance, see this movie, loan it to other green-minded folk, and show more interest in alt-fuel vehicles than in the next huge SUV, okay?

Tags: car, electric car, environmental, ev-1

08:19 am: Blue Man Group, and typing away at captions
For some reason, Michael thought it would be a good morning to watch our Blue Man Group DVD. I'm just glad the DVD player is working again.

It must take some talent to be one of those guys. First of all, they really are talented percussionists. Then, they have to be willing to wear that makeup, which probably includes a skull cap (I don't think all the Blue Men shave their heads). They also must be fairly good actors, to clown about on stage with their peculiar motions. They are the mimes of today, except I don't think they're quite so creepy. I really want to see their NYC show sometime.

In Sim news, I'm working on the next Apocalypse chapter. I want to get caught up to where I've played before I install Bon Voyage. This may result in multiple chapters being posted at a time, if I can maintain the pace I've set. I was really hoping it would happen this weekend, but I was so sick on my afternoons off this week! Ugh.

My proposed chapters are:
Career Topping Time (hosted by Denise Avidreader, who I have yet to work into the plot)
Wedding Belles At Last (hosted by Lois, parties, yay!)
Baby, Baby, Baby (hosted by Susanna, with several surprise events)

And so far, I'm really hoping for a girl this next generation. Oh, here's a little plotty preview. I love it when things happen accidentally that are just perfect!


Tags: apocalypse, blue man group, nebulas, sims

07:36 am: Work and play flip flop
I get to play in the morning today! Or sleep in, but clearly I'm up already. The puppies have no sense of when is a good time to sleep in. I swapped work hours with a guy who is going to take a GRE practice test tonight. And tomorrow, a vacation day, yippee! So, maybe I'll sleep in tomorrow.

I'm gonna play the Nebulas some more today. Last night I fired up the game because Heroes and CSI: Miami bored me. Really, it wasn't so much bored as, the network stations are all staticky and I can't understand the dialogue. That really irritates me. I'll just watch them online or something where I can get clear audio or subtitles. Anyway, I got off track there, didn't I? So, I start up the game, figuring I'd work on undoing clothing changes from the Halloween Party, and get everyone home and doing boring things in prep for installing Bon Voyage. But, gameplay sucked me in, and next thing I know, I'm tracking just how much money the Nebulas can make in a 24 hour period.

One restriction lifted, two sims perma-plat, and $60,000 in earnings later, I had to go to bed because it was 1 am! Wow! I'm getting so close to moving people out, it's awesome. I don't know if everyone reading it realizes, but it's not just Military (Susanna's job) that is vital to it. I also have to get Lois to top Journalism (or Science, if she'd found that job) to get moving out unrestricted. It just makes sense for the "twins" to both be so vital to freedom for the family.

I better set an alarm so I know when I have to leave for work tonight, I just might forget in all the fun of playing!

Tags: apocalypse, nebulas, sims, work