Several Things

[orikes]

I discovered Freak Angels last night. I believe I'd heard it mentioned in passing, but hadn't looked it up. Last night I came across a link to it, and in just a couple of hours, read through all 17 episodes. It's good stuff. (Some swearing and occasional nudity for those concerned.)

Warren Ellis is a big name in comics, but I'm actually not that familiar with his work. My bad. This is an interesting set-up and I'm definitely hooked enough to want to find out what the heck is going on storywise. They're some interesting characters with an intriguing background. I've always been a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories, and seeing London half under water is a cool visual. I'm really liking the artwork too. It's almost pretty, but not so pretty to hide the ugliness of some of the characters.

Anyway, it's worth checking out.

Today is Father's Day and I might actually get to spend some time with my dad. He's driving in from Connecticut to spend the week. He should be getting into town at a good time for us to have dinner. I'll have to take a long dinner break, but considering the three hour dinner breaks my supervisor sometimes takes, I don't think I'll get too much flak for it.

In simming news, I've been working on the next Pseudo update. I'm almost halfway done writing it, so I'm hoping to have it out sometime this week. It'll be a huge relief to get this one out. The writing is going easily (knock on wood), which is a good thing. I'm hoping to really push out the updates this summer so I can gain some ground. I was looking through old updates to reference a couple of things, and I realized that I've taken almost a year to play Gen Four to this point.

I'm torn. On one hand, I feel like I'm playing at glacially slow speeds compared to other players, but at the same time, I like the story I'm telling and I think that other people are liking it too. I need to find some sort of compromise between the two so I can advance things a bit. I know I have to start leaving out bits about the extended branches of the family tree. I've got one more storyline I want to tell about the Thompson branch in the main update, but after that, I think they're going to end up relegated to live journal updates and cameos.

In other simming news, I've also played through to Day Three of the Bachelor Challenge. Something very unexpected happened and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I came up with a way to handle it storywise, but it still threw me for a loop. Up until that point, everything had pretty much gone how I'd expected it to. Now things are different. I'll probably take a break from playing the bc house until I get at least one more bc update out. That way, I'll have come to terms with what happened and be able to move forward. It definitely changed the dynamic in the house.

No pictures today. :)

Comments

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Just my opinion, but I like the story you're telling, too. Once there get to be lots of families and branches, it starts to go slower. I'm not nearly as careful and plotty as you are, and I've still dropped way down from an update every couple or weeks to once a month or less. LJ updates are great for not feeling that you're neglecting some sims you like, and if they become important to the story later, there's nothing wrong with re-introducing the character. It's completely credible. I come from a gihungous extended family and was always running into people who turned out to be fifth cousins or something.

Don't feel bad about the slow play. I've been playing Gen Six/Seven since November--Emerald graduated in early November and Sophia was born in--I think--December? Also, remember you installed some new EPs in that time, and that adds weeks, or at least it does for me.

As for the BC--you have me really, really curious now! You hinted about one thing, but I don't know if it's connected, and I can sort of guess from the kind of things that do happen in BCs. Now that one you *do* need to move forward on, because the suspense is killing me :)


PB

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I'm probably going to try and cut back a little on some of the side family, but not too much. I've got too much invested in the Waltons, the Turners (Nathaniel specifically) to just forget about them in the background of the story.

It's just, as De would say, they're all my babies. I want to show them all off and talk about what they're doing. :) I'm actually hoping to marry some of the Thompson kids back in this time around. I don't want to marry second cousins (or third, however that's figured), but I figured the Thompsons (and Toyanagas) are branched out far enough now that they could safely marry any of the current gen 5 kids.

I plan on getting at least one more BC update out before the end of hte month. Before the 25th, actually. I've got the house itself played, but I need to figure out what extraneous scenes I need. Day two is pretty predictable. Day three, on the other hand.. I will say that there was no cheating witnessed. Someone rejected an interaction that really surprised me and it changed the whole game.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Huh. Still curious. And even if I thought I knew, I wouldn't speculate in public :)

PB

[silvainsims.livejournal.com]

I'm probably going to try and cut back a little on some of the side family, but not too much. I've got too much invested in the Waltons, the Turners (Nathaniel specifically) to just forget about them in the background of the story.

As long as you keep the Waltons in, I'm happy. They're possibly my favorite branch aside from the main family (I possibly like them more than the main branch, honestly... not sure, it's pretty close).

And you are a tease. Now I desperately want BC updates. Gah.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I think the Waltons will stay in the foreground for a while yet. There's still some stuff to come for them, some of which is revealed in the next update.

I'd actually like to keep all of them in the foreground, but that's just not possible. The current update I'm working on is already bursting with slides, but if I'd included everything I'd wanted to about the Thompsons and the Thayers and the Toyanagas, I'd be currently writing a triple update. And still only have gotten to the beginning of summer.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

LOVE Warren Ellis (*coughSpiderJerusalemcough*). Will definitely check out Freak Angels.

I wouldn't worry too much about the speed at which you play and update. Everybody goes at their own pace. It's all good. And very plotty stuff definitely takes longer than less-plotty stuff, especially considering the time that goes into building the sets (and Hi, yours always look freaking amazing) and setting up the shots, and putting the whole thing together.

Teasing a surprise in the BC? Well, now you've got me curious.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I knew he had writtten Transmetropolitan, but I haven't gotten around to reading that one yet. Graphic novels are so expensive, I've been picking my way through them slowly. I'm currently buying/reading Willingham's 'Fables'.

And thanks on the vote of confidence. :) I do want to play/write faster, but I suppose I can only speed up so much without losing something.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

I just bought the latest collection of Fables starring Flycatcher. It was amazing--I love that Willingham didn't leave him as the janitor. The whole thing's really starting to ramp up to the big confrontation.

If you like Freakangels, you'll like Transmet. I see a lot of Spider Jerusalem in those characters, plus the "dystopic future" aspect of it.

[ndainye.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check out Freak Angels

As long as you are happy with the way your story/play is going I wouldn't worry to much about the pace, just don't get too upset if we prod you from time to time :D Trying to determine who to cut and when to cut them is always difficult. I pretty much started my LJ account cause I wanted to talk about the folks that I couldn't justify highlighting in the real updates. I think doing that has made it easier for me to focus and has made the who's who less confusing over all. I still have too many in the main story but there's a heck of a lot less than there could be.

Teasing us with BC info is unfair and will get you poked *poke*

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Ow. Quitit. :)

I wish I had time to write about all of them, and I had the writing speed to do it so I could keep up with playing them at the speed I want to, but that's not going to happen. I think LJ will have to suffice for some families.

[penguingirl03.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go with everyone else and say that I love the story you are writing and I feel invested in most of your side families as well because you have made them such an integral part of the story so far. That said I do understand not having enough room to tell all of their stories (9 spares! Why did I do that in generation 3?) I do want to know more about what happened to all of the cousins in generation 4 but I can understand some spares having to go by the wayside. And don't worry about playing slowly. You at least made it a generation further in a year than I did and I don't write anything nearly as elaborate as you do. :-)