Present and Unaccounted for

I am remembering! Seriously, I am surprised how much I have forgotten. Remembering the flow of posting a bunch of images as painlessly as possible now though. On with the challenge shall we?


( Read more... )

Finally.

When I first posted pics of this, I was asked to share when it was finished. It has only taken me since April to be completely happy with it, and I kind of accidentally deleted the whole thing once so I had to start again, but it is done now!



All premade (excluding Uni and Vaction) 'hoods in one SimCity 4 Region.

( Let's have a look at what you are getting, yes?  )

Founded by Benjamin "Binky" Roberts, Binky's Bend offers the best features of quiet riverside living. Stunning vistas, serene forests, clean air ...

( ... )

First I have a confession.

I totally did not get the concept of why anyone, ever, would want to watch someone else play sims. This seriously confused the hell out of me. I could not have thought of anything more pointless, boring or such a complete waste of time if you had paid me to do it.

But (you knew there was a but in here) because I really do try to not outright judge things I have never experienced first hand (yes, I fail at that sometimes. I admit it. I am human and sometimes, OMGASP! wrong.) when I saw holleyb76's announcement of an upcoming (actually in progress) livestream I thought "What the hell, at least then I will know", and off I went to see what was going on.

I learned two things, The first, I have gotten way more reclusive than I thought I had. No, seriously, I know it doesn't seem like it, but I have. Watching the chat scrolling by on the side I actually had a moment of terror when I thought about joining in. Cold, sweaty palms and everything. This is a bad thing. Sure, I seem fine here, I know here, this is familiar. Kind of like I know for absolute certain I could go stand in front of a room full of strangers and give a presentation. Depending on the topic I could even do it cold with minimal to no prep. Yet when faced with having to directly interact with those same people ... just thinking about it is making breathing difficult.

If anyone else who was there tonight noticed I was really quiet, now you know why. Bear with me in future okay?

The second, and far more relevant to the topic at hand here, it was actually interesting. I can't say it was fun, probably in large part due to the issues mentioned in my first point, but it was interesting. I was surprised and I think I will be stopping by to watch another livestream next time one pops up on my f-list and I can make it.

So, after that eye opener and still a little shaken I did something really stupid. Dumb. Completely disregarding any semblance of intelligence I like to think I have. I went to read this weeks simsecrets ...
( long, some might say opinionated, wall of text under the cut )

I am nearly confident enough, given that this is the last day of voting and baring a rush of new voters (which you can totally do, and should, because if you go vote and change the results you will cause me a mild moment of panic induced hyperventilating, it will be fun!) that I know what my genre will be for Go Fish.

I am also relatively confident (all previously mentioned things that could screw with said confidence aside ... you guys so want to screw with that don't you?) that I have a rough, very rough, idea of what I am going to write.

It will have new characters, possibly a few simselves (amochan8878! Get online please! Unless you have completely broken the netbook as well! I needs to ask your permission!) and some familiar characters from at least one story.

What I don't know yet is if I will be posting as I go or if I will wait until I have it completed and then toss in a few images as well and then share.

I am really worried about the images. I have tried staging a few scenes for Pleasantries and it has felt really awkward and way more difficult than I remember it being.

Thoughts?

Right, so I kind of fell off the net again. Couple reasons for that:

( Pretend I said something clever here. )

I was supposed to have this up days ago along with that outfit Lil is wearing in the shot I posted a few days ago. Lil's outfit is giving me pixelated nightmares along the edge of the tie and I kind of got sidetracked by that. But then, after talking to bolob about it a few days ago I suddenly realize this sharable might be relevant to the current dare over at maxis_taste. SO, I finished the last of the cleanup on the textures, tested it in game, grabbed the first 5 available teen girls I could find and Voila!

Genre: Drama, Modern, Sci-fi, Dark, Crime
Word Count: 1200 (and counting)
Rating: NC17 / M for story as a whole.

Advisories:  Course Language, Course Language (it needs repeating), Misbehaving Minors, Really Misbehaving Adults, Death, Nudity (if I get my game running again before the chapter ends), Implied Violence, Annoying Little Shits, Male bonding (not that kind! Okay, some of that kind too), Prostitution (no, not implied this time), and Winston gets his dork on.

*notes*: There are no images in this update. More details can be found here.

Yes, I know it is short. Had to "get it out there" so it stops being so ... painful and this was this was the portion I had which I was okay with. New characters coming in, one set of them sooner than I was expecting. Lack of images though has it making more sense to bring them in now. Those you have not met before are present in the cover image (go obsessive snapping of useless pics!).

Now, before I change my mind again and decide I really can't do this ....


(  Pleasantries - Chapter 6 - In the line of Duty - Part 1 )
On to Part 2

No, I still do not have an update ready to go mostly because I am basically a chickenshit. No, really. I listen to the nagging voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me what I have sucks and won't make any sense because I "can't do this without the pictures there to tell half the story" and get really, really depressed about writing in general.

Which is just stupid. I know this and eventually I will get really, really pissed off instead and tell the voice to sit the hell down, shut up and leave me alone. That stage doesn't usually take long to get to. I just have to get to it. Everything that comes before I get there? Yeah, that is why I will never write for anything other than fun (I am having fun, I swear!) because if I had to go through this with the added pressure of deadlines and editors and all that other stuff? Just ugh, no. My personal standards are enough thanks.

So, what have I been doing instead of writing? Well ...

( Cartography and why you will never get -and don't want- a complete history of Pleasantries )