strangetomato | Updates and rambling on about various things

It's a grab bag of topics, folks...

So, what is this... Wednesday? *scratches head* Could I post the next chapter by the end of the week? I haven't actually taken any photos for it yet, but maybe I could put it together in a couple of days.

I'm thinking of taking a different approach to some of the upcoming chapters, and making them more centrally focused on one character or group of characters. The next chapter will have two parts (was originally going to be one, but I thought I'd add a little look at Erin and Circe before I got to Nervous - that side of the plot needs to catch up with itself). After that, I'm going to take all the college kids up to graduation (well, not Buck, Jill, etc.), but I think I'm going to tackle them seperately. There'll be a chapter on the trio, one just about Frances, one about Tank (yeah, I could combine those, but maybe not...). There'll be some overlap there with events in those sections, but I think this will work. I'll probably send Vidcund to Veronaville in there somewhere too.

So... it's good to have a plan of action. Next up: get some momentum back.

Oh, and squirrel_tamer has been feeding my creativity in a big way with some new drawings, and she REALLY outdid herself on the latest one. (Seriously, I'd like to print this out and frame it... and maybe I will.) It really captures the whole J/R/O thing so well for me, and it's a gorgeous drawing. Scroll up for some other sketches, and she posted this set recently too - also very cool. (I'm pretty sure those are the only ones I haven't linked to yet.)

Thanks a BILLION for these, ST (hey, we have the same initials. How... confusing). ^_^ You're super cool. I liked your suggested soundtrack for that latest drawing, but I'd also like to suggest Illuminated by Weird War. Have a listen (it's on Youtube)... I think it really works. *adjusts nerdly glasses*

Speaking of nerds, If you'll allow me to nerd out about characterization a little here, I love how she's drawn their bodies in this one. It really exaggerates the differences in heights and builds in the way I imagine they differ. Ophelia is so cute and pear-shaped. And short... or, at least, she's short compared to Johnny. Johnny is tall (I think of PT as being tall too, so perhaps it's an alien thing) and thin. He's athletic, and not really underweight, but maybe bordering on it. Ripp probably tells him that he needs to eat more meat. *snicker* I really like the image of Johnny as this willowy, green, vegan athlete. It's pretty kickass to me.

Ripp is physically average, but has a hint of those solid "army guy" genetics, and you can tell he could be really well built, like Tank is, if he bothered to try (though, of course, he doesn't). He's somewhat broad-shouldered and it all looks pretty good, but get closer and he feels... kinda flabby.

I told you this would be nerdy. ;)

I also sometimes think about how their voices would sound, and I've made reference to it here and there in the story (same goes for those body types too - I've mentioned it a couple of times). Some characters give off really definite "voices" like that when I'm writing their dialogue. I'll spare you the details for now... unless you're really interested.

I've been playing with Apartment Life a little, and I do enjoy a lot of the new features. There are some issues with it, of course, but MATY has provided some fixes (be sure to get the critical fix and the updated notownieregen - that fixes an NPC spawning issue similar to the one from BV - both hacks are in the updated Director's Cut). I'm happy to have the Director's Cut again, since there are some real sanity-savers in there, though I always spend some time weeding out all the hacks I don't like. Traditional Marriage? Umm, no thanks... I can decide who's name gets taken myself.

Speaking of the Director's Cut, there are always a number of hacks that are unlisted in the hack description thread. Does anyone know how to find information on those? I know it's part of the whole "director's cut" thing and I don't get to know what they do because I'm not "awesome" enough, but most actual director's cut dvds come with hours of commentary that over-explain the movie in question. I don't see why we can't get a simple one-liner about what those mystery hacks do.

But anyway... I'm lucky to have the Director's Cut at all, aren't I? I shouldn't complain.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Woohoo naked Jills! I'm totally ready to do more Buck paintings.

Don't worry, I love this story too much to not draw the characters from time to time.

I love the differences too. I'm especially fond of Phi, because I got to give her my favorite body type to draw. It's the shape that my favorite creations usually end up having.

I think I'm maybe being psychic again, because I don't recall a conversation and i don't remember the facial hair comment! Though, it's possible that I remembered sort of unconsciously. I just can't imagine hair on Johnny.

But yes to backhair Ripp.

Love the voice bits and how expressive you imagine the boys to be.

It does take a long time to load the neighbourhood, and to load the first house in a session. After that, switching houses isn't SO bad, but yeah, all loading is pretty slow. It's got 600-something characters and almost half of them are dead EAxis relatives. I don't understand why they feel the need to add two complete sets of (dead) GRANDPARENTS for every single playable they make. We should probably have deleted some of them. Anyway, yes, I hope the new computer should speed things up. :) Then I might go on a crazy add-custom-content spree too... <_< I found an old thread some time back on MATY about SimPE and how Quaxi wasn't updating it anymore (I think Inge has taken charge of that now). In the whole 10+ page discussion, Pescado's only contribution was 'Clearly, Quaxi has failed us. YOU must not!' (to Inge) He posted this at least 7 times throughout the thread. Cracked me up. Appearently, businesses can be very, very profitable but I've never played enough with them to be able to do that. On average, the income seems to be very little. It's fun though! I've never tried selling paintings before... that seems interesting.

I hope nothing will compel you to drop the story anytime soon! It's one of my favourite things on the Internet. :) I hope you get to do all the things you've planned for its future, too.

I wonder if the Romance mod has been adjusted to the secondary aspirations of FT? Probably not. In that case you could have a Family/Romance sim who's less jealous... I'm curious about how all these things will work in TS3, the traits seem like they'll either be really cool or really faily (a sim obsessed with only a few things). We'll have to wait and see, I choose not to trust any information that comes from EAxis yet - I mean... look at the early previews/trailers of TS2. Completely different game.

Ooh, a sexuality meter would be the best. I think EAxis made it the way they did to offend as few people as possible. Unless you have your sim intentionally have a romantic interaction with someone of the same sex, you never have to see any gay in your game if you don't want to. Heh. I hate how gay sims get "joined" instead of married, thankfully we have a hack to fix that. :D

Oh good. I'm glad my bluff is working. :P (I do have some things worked out, so maybe that's what gives that impression... it's just the other things that fall a little short, but I'll deal with them.)

That's how I intend to deal with the Curious brothers. They're important to the plot, but I don't want to try to focus so intensely on too many characters. I get deeply into the heads of the "teens", and I don't want to do that with everyone, but I do like to go there ocassionally. It's such a big cast. It would take away from the story as a whole if I tried to do that too much, I think. You know what I'm getting at, right? You obviously do. Your fabric metaphor explained it better than I just attempted to. :)

I really like Lazlo too, and I feel terrible that I've given him so little face time thus far. (I'm also uneasy about his plot with Crystal. I was unsure about it, and now I'm just sort fo regretting it altogether... but I do have a better plan for him now.)

I'll deal with the clone thing a little in the next chapter. ;)

Oh, that's so nice of you to say. :) Thank you.

I hope to continue this as long as I can (and hopefully "end" it with some closure one day too), but you never know what might happen in real life, etc., and I have dropped a similar project or two in the past (but I've also come back to them later and finished them). I'm going to try my best, and I have no intention of leaving it hanging, like I said. Having so many people that are actually reading it is just amazing to me, so that's incentive to keep it going, for sure.

Well, if the mod has been updated to be compatible with FT, wouldn't it have to include secondary aspirations? *scratches head* Hmmm...

I would have liked to see Sims 3 having that new traits system, but also retaining the personality profile system. There's nothing wrong with that system, and the traits could just be an extra layer. But we'll see how well it works...

They definitely tried to please everyone with the way the game handles sexuality, and that leaves it a little lacking for someone who's more liberal about it. You can't please everyone, so it was a good effort. They handled it pretty well, aside from that joining thing. *eye roll* I've had an argument with someone on a sims 2 community thread about how that isn't very progressive (they thought it actually was, and I thought it was a half-measure). For the US, and the year the game was released, it is pretty good. It's not enough, though. I settle for nothing less than equal rights.

Sexuality can be very random. I know a guy who has been in a committed relationship with a man for almost ten years, and he suddenly fell for a woman (but he chose not to follow through on it). He had never thought of himself as anything other than gay.

For myself, I know I've been all over the map with it, even though I've mostly been involved with men. To an outside observer, I would be considered straight, but I don't consider myself limited by that. So, unless they ask, they don't know, and it's the same way with fictional characters. There are often things beneath the surface that we don't see, and they might not even see it themselves.

That's an interesting analysis of Johnny and Ripp, and who knows... you might be right (or maybe not). I have to let it work itself out as I go. The characters keep changing things for me, so I'm never completely sure if my plans will stick.

(I quite like that sort of scenario too. The idea of a relationship that is that close, but stays just short of sexual. There's a beauty in it for me. And the idea of two guys working together to please a woman is very appealing. It's interesting that this supposedly does often happen with two guys who identify as straight, even though there's that element of same-sex contact to it.)

It seems like people react even more to fictional characters, since we can get so deeply into their hearts and minds. Nobody ever knows that much about anyone else in real life. We barely know that about ourselves. But in fiction, we can explore that in a character.

I like all the grandparents, if only for the back stories you can make up for them. (But yeah, the character files suck, especially if they're useless for resurrecting.)

Businesses are better when you sell big-ticket items. I'd love to try a car dealership some day, and I have plans for Malcolm Landgraab to open an art gallery (he'll be the rich Saatchi-type art patron in my sims world).

(I just noticed the connection with both of those names having that double A too... pretty cool.)

Edited 2008-09-05 18:25 (UTC)

If you want to try a couple of nude Jills, you can send me the images at any time. I love using them for the custom paintings (yeah, sims in other hoods draw Jill sometimes too, but they just sell them right away).

Awww, thanks. ^_^

Yeah, I can't see hair on Johnny at all. I mean, maybe he has pubes... maybe. :P Nahh, he probably does, but he doesn't have much body hair, if any.

I've always thought of Johnny and Ripp and being really animated, especially with each other (and Ripp would be more reined in and sarcastic with his band, for example). The drama major adds to that, of course.

Awww what a great picture. She's so fabulous for doing those. :)

Also, totally agree that Johnny is all willowy green alien guy. :) Totally fits him! And ditto for the other two.

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