Stuff In No Particular Order

[orikes]

The Dark Knight

Attempting to be spoiler free, I'll say that the movie was as good as the hype has been. Heath Ledger was spectacularly frightening as the Joker (as another friend of mine posted, he made me afraid of pencils) and I'll be disappointed if they don't throw an Oscar nod that way. There were so many little subtleties woven into his rampant pscyhoticness, it would take several viewings to catch most of them.

I recommend it.

Work

Work has sucked this past week. Part of it is that we're closing in on the end of our fiscal year and shit rolls down hill. The suits are stressing about year-end numbers which means they're pressuring the folks below them to get stuff done, which means me and my co-workers are also getting pressured.

On top of that, one of my other duties had me trying to communicate a new idea to a couple of people who are very adverse to new ideas or anything that makes it seem like they have to do work of any sort. When you've got two people on one shift not able to handle the job that one person on the other shift handles with ease, there's a problem.

Dr. Horrible

I loved it. Ending and all.



I've heard some folks complain about the ending. Usually I would be right there with them, since I am not a fan of unhappy endings. I'm still pretty bitter about the ending of Serenity. It seems like Joss Whedon is incapable of giving a happy ending unless it's a flat out Phyrric victory. It's one reason I've held off on watching Buffy even though I've been borrowing the first season from a friend for the last year and a half.

That said, Dr. Horrible is a story about a villain. It's about someone who wants to be a bad guy and get into the Evil League of Evil. Sure, he was actually a sweet, shy guy who only wanted to create anarchy to bring about some change in the world, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a bad guy.

What we got to see was the creation of the back-story. About why Dr. Horrible became so.. horrible. The love of his life, mowed down by the ego of his arch nemesis and his own faulty equipment. Noooo!

So, in the end, he got everything he said he wanted except for the girl. Would the girl have accepted him if he'd succeeded in killing The Hammer? Probably not, even though she realized that The Hammer was really just a shallow prick.

All in all, it rocked. With music and songs!

Besides.. Bad Horse was a horse!

Sims Stuff

I've got the next part of the BC "almost" done. Part 3 is also queued up to be written with only some plotty scenes needing to be shot. Because of work, though, I've not really been in the mood to do much writing. I want to get the stories out so I can get back to playing my neighborhood, but I'm not really in the state of mind to actually write them.

To blow off some steam, I fired up Maxistonia, which is my combined neighborhood (created by HystericalParoxysm at MTS2). I rotated through the entire neighborhood and played everyone to Winter. Well, almost everyone. The Oldies I got bored with and used the weather device to make it winter.

On one hand, I feel a bit guilty for neglecting my legacy and related stuff (especially when other folks are being much more prolific than I am), but on the other, it's been a nice pressure release.





I started off with the Goth house. When I initially installed the neighborhood, I only played long enough to give Cass a make-over and have Don leave her at the altar. I had played the Dreamers a bit before and even though Darren had other choices, he still went after Cass. So, they got married.

This helped combine two houses. Dirk's a little out of sorts, but he and the newly teenified Alexander have been getting along (Alex rolled Fortune).



I've been having the most fun playing the teens. It always irritates me when simmers skip the teen years and immediatley ship them off to college. I suppose everyone has their own facet of the game they enjoy, but still.

The only neighborhood that wasn't represented at this particular party was Veronaville. This was Lucy Burb's weekend house party. There's Dustin Broke, Alexander Goth, Lillith Pleasant, Ophelia Nigmos (who hasn't gotten a makeover yet), Rick Contrary, and ... kid from Riverblossom whose name I can't remember. He lives with his dad and two pervy old ladies.

<

While playing this mega-hood, I've also had two firsts. Above, you'll see Mercutio playing on the Broke's fridge. I'd seen pictures of this before, but never actually seen it in game. It about cracked me up.

So far, I've been all about intermingling the teens. If a teen walks by, I jump on them to introduce them to the kids in the house. Tybalt walked by the Oldies house, so I had them greet him, then invite over the Pleasant Twins so they could meet him. Lillith took more of a shine to Tybalt than Angela did, but at least they've now both got him as a contact.

Speaking of the Pleasant Twins, I finally got pissed at them and used Insim to fix their relationship. I tried doing it the non-cheaty way, but forcing them to play chess until their relationship was repaired, but Angela undid this the moment I let them out of the game.



The second thing I saw that I'd never seen before was a bag of poo. This is Dina Caliente. This is Don Lothario's house. I still don't understand what happened to their date.

Their relationship was in the positives with the crush and love symbols still in place. Don invited her on a date. When she showed up, he grabbed her for a make-out. She went along with it and did not reject the kiss, but the next thing I know, there's breaking heart sounds. No slapping, no bad memories, but they're suddenly out of love and their relationship dropped from 100/100 to 60/60. Before I could fix anything, the date ended and she went home.



I suppose it's all for the good, though. Don has never been good for Dina, even if she's obsessed with him. Right now, she's got a real relationship forming with General Buzz Grunt.

Don ended up with a stinky foot, but quickly moved on to the next babe. So far, he's had Dina and Nina, Chloe Singles, Florence Delarosa, Kalynn Langerak, and two townies. With the way Cass keeps stalking his house, I'm wondering if she's looking for an affair.

Comments

[ndainye.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Dark Knight yet, I'm interested but it'll probably be put off till DVD I just don't do theaters all that often.

I agree with you on Dr. Horrible, happy endings are great but this didn't need one and it most likely wouldn't have been all that happy any way.

I've been having the don't wanna write blahs lately as well I keep doing other things instead. I have that combined neighborhood sitting on my desktop I might have to fire it up and check it out I keep seeing what other people are doing with it and it interests me. Bag of poo for Don is funny I've only had that happen once, btw unless you gave Dina red hair I think that was Nina in the picture. I love the various teens! The boy from RB is Jacob Martin he was Elle's teen crush. I used to not give the teens enough time before UNI but now I'm getting over my elixir reluctance and I just dose everyone else up and let the teens have fun.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you about Dr. Horrible. The ending was very sad, and it's going to be hard to re-watch it, but I never thought he was going to get the girl. Essentially, it turned out to be a supervillain "origin" story, which made sense.

When I was trying to figure out what was going to happen next, getting the girl wasn't on the list of possibles, but I did think it was possible that she would turn out to be some kind of super and deeply unimpressed with both him and Captain Hammer. And I too was very pleased that Bad Horse was an actual horse.

The end of the work year always sucks. People realize that stuff doesn't look good and race to fix it, and money and tempers run short. Our equivalent is in May, and it stresses me out, too, so I hear you on this.

I can't wait for the next installment of your BC. But I will :). Don't compare yourself to other writers. Some people, like me, have lighter schedules right now and we're taking advantage of it, but you don't, so. . .

I usually ship off the teens early partly because my houses are *so darned full.* I wind up having to alternate the cat and human generations--the cats breed when the kids are at college. Back when I was having bad luck getting girls, I pretty much had to ship the teen males to college OR kill them. Hawkins Goodytwoshoes is still there.

And Mercutio is one of my very favorite Maxis-mades.

PB

[writeraissa.livejournal.com]

Dark Knight is definitely on our must-watch list for the year. But we need to see the previous one first. And Wall-E.

The end of the year where I work actually comes during the slow season for my department, so the only stressed person winds up being my manager. And she's a good manager in that she doesn't shovel the shit down the totem pole (at least not as far as my level). But when we are busy... then, tempers get short and the whole place can be pretty miserable. So you have my sympathy.

Don't feel guilty about doing 'fun' simming. Sometimes you just need to lose yourself in the game and not have to worry about taking a billion pictures, setting up scenes, and writing. I played Desiderata Valley for two months straight without releasing any writing. Your combined 'hood sims look like they're having a ball, as well. I've got that installed on my computer but I haven't actually done anything with it yet.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

You're right! I keep screwing up Nina and Dina's names. They're very different from one another, but the names are so similar that I mess them up.

DINA is dating Lazlo Curious, but did let Don have his way with her. NINA is dating General Buzz, and gave Don a bag of poo.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

The worst part about work is that it's NOT our busy season. The busy season winds down in June. So, for the most part, there really isn't much to do for the majority of the staff. Those of us who do the final product projects have to wrap our stuff and get it out the door, but a lot of what we do is computer time. Set up a process, let it run. Set up the next process, let it run.

I end up with a lot of dead time on my hands, which I could use to write, but my supervisor freaks out because the deadlines are coming up and it looks like we're not working. It shouldn't matter.. we ARE working, we ARE getting stuff done, and on night shift, there's no one to impress. But still.. One more week of this and then it's done until next year. August should be a breeze.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I really want the Dr. Horrible songs for my ipod. Some of them were really really catchy. Even though I don't know the rest of the lyrics, I keep singing to myself, "Bad Horse! Bad Horse!". The other song I really want is 'Brand New Day'. This made me love Neil Patrick Harris more than I already did.

My teens don't get shipped off to college until they've got 5 or less days left on their life bar. I think I sent Persephone and Miranda couple of days early because they were the youngest and I didn't want them too far behind their older sibs, but that's about it. I do understand the over crowding issue. :)

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean by end-of-year madness at work. I recently had to deal with that in June, because it was the end of the school year, so there were reports, evaluations and a lot of things to do before the classes were over. Since I work as an external teacher, I was not as involved in the administrative stress as my co-workers, who were ready to shoot themselves O_o. I hope things flow smoothly for you in the next few weeks.

I want to see Dark Knight too. As soon as I get better (and find tickets), I'll see it with my sisters :).

I have that MegaHood too. I've not played with it because I prefer to spend my "sim time" with my legacy hood. As soon as I'm done with them, I'll spend a long time playing with it without thinking of pictures or storylines. It'll be fun! And your pictures are very nice! I've never seen a poo bag in action!

[robinoli.livejournal.com]

I guess I agree about Dr. Horrible. I'm still a little disappointed with it, because 1) the ending seemed so abrupt! and 2) I like it when the villain wins. But you're right, this is pretty much a backstory, plus the songs are great (I'm actually looking around to see if anyone recorded them as mp3s so I can download them). I just wish it ended a little differently.

[honorkid54.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet gotten to see the Dark Night yet. But my dad is talking us all this coming weekend, since New York City traffic and sold out tickets are always the events of a popular movie premiere. Meh.

I agree with your irritation on people skipping through the teen years. I myself regret having done it to my Gen. 2 heir, since I get annoyed with the college years; they're a bit too tedious for me.

[cori-chronicles.livejournal.com]

Totally agree with you about Dr. Horrible. Yes, yes, yes!

I can't wait to see Dark Knight.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

Dr. Horrible was a pretty Joss-esque ending. Nothing ever comes without sacrifice. Personally, I love his willingness to do bad things to beloved characters. It means that no one's safe, and it keeps you on your toes. Mind, that doesn't mean I love it when, say, WASH DIES, but in the long run, it's more exciting to watch a big battley fight scene when you're not sure if all the main characters will survive it.

Bad Horse? Not a Thoroughbred. It was a nice twist having him an actual horse, though!

This is the first time I've rushed many Teens off to college. Rocky and Coco were a day from aging, and Indy was maybe three days shy, but Chad had over a week, and Dora was a Teen for a grand total of maybe four days. I normally play Teens through most of that age before moving them away, but, given the "Tom" situation, I didn't want to shortchange him with his grandkids, so giving Dora the bum's rush early was sort of the best option there.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I just need to deal with one week of stress at work, then it will be over. Our deadline is next Monday, so we have to get it all out by then. After that, August will be very, very boring.

I love the Mega-Hood. If it had been made (and I'd discovered it) before I started my legacy, I probably never would have started. As it is with my legacy, I can't let myself play too far ahead, so there are times when I just WANT To play and can't really touch the legacy hood.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

If you find the songs, let me know. I would really love to get my hands on them too. Especially 'Brand New Day'.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend it. You and Scott should go see it ASAP. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I just made a post about it earlier. :)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Bad Horse did get a credit at the end, though. :) I'd have never been able to tell you what type of horse other than, "Hey! Bad Horse is a horse!" At least I'm not shouting, "Hey! Bad Horse is a cow!"

And yeah, I still haven't forgiven Whedon for Wash. Grrr. I could live with Book dying, but Wash?!? Come on, man.. take my heart out and stomp on it a little more, why don't you.

[robinoli.livejournal.com]

Robin is a genius who forgets to sign in a lot.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Orikes always reads her comments first, then reads her flist. Which sometimes makes her seem like a clueless dork. :)

Thanks Robin. I'm downloading them right now.

[smoothiesims.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go see Dark Knight with my friend Mark when he comes up for a day sometime this week. We're both really excited about it. My sister saw it last night and she says it's amazing as well, so with all this good feedback I'm even more stoked.

So the Maxisverse by HP works well for you? I was drooling over it when she first uploaded it but I was a little hesitant about using it. It would be nice to play with all the Maxis characters together, though. If you recommend it I might try it out.

Playing the Apoc in the days I couldn't send my kids to college made me appreciate teens a lot more than I used to. Ivy's youngest kids aren't going to get much teen time because she and Kieran are already well into elderhood and I have no legal way of giving them more time...plus, I want Music lifted before Ursula dies so I can send her on a vacation, and she hasn't got a lot of time left. I like teens, though. That's when Sims really blossom into their own characters, for me anyway.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

The Maxisverse has worked fine for me. I've had a few odd bugs here and there, but nothing that seemed game breaking. I don't know if I'd recommend doing a legacy in there since I'm not sure how it would hold up over ten generations, but as a chance to get to know the Maxis sims, it's a wonderful thing.

I agree with you on the teens as well. They really do start to blossom as teens, and then come fully into their own as young adults.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I loved The Dark Knight, it was amazing. I agree, The Joker was a bit on the scary side, but it fit the darkness of the movie.

I've been looking at the combined hood for a while, I'm afraid of it though. Are the bugs bad? Just wondering.

And I loved the fact that Bad Horse was a Horse, His songs were my favorite- the letter and the call, I mean. xD

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Also, it's nice to see someone who also uses InSim to fix the Pleasant girls relationship, it annoys me how they stop everything to try and attack one another.

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

I looked into the Maxisverse, but I don't think Mac players can use it. It looks as though it requires Free Time.

PB

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of your older pictures don't show up.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my site that hosts has a broken translation link, so the address I used to use before is kerput. I've fixed these images. I've gone back and fixed some of my older posts, but not all of them.