Random acts of encouragement

[strangetomato]

 

I just received a very encouraging comment that really made my day, and maybe my whole week. It's funny how that works. Not to say that other comments are of lesser value, because I appreciate it when anyone says anything at all about something I've created, but this was just so random and heartfelt. :) It makes me want to jump back in, full force. Hiatus smiatus... it was a weak one to begin with (and I saw you all LOLing at me because I couldn't really stay away). I'm quite honestly afraid I'm going to mess the whole thing up by mangling up my own plot, but I'm going to just try my best and ask that you to ignore my failings. Well, please do point them out so I can try to fix them, but forgive me if get tangled up.

Booyeah! This week was amazing. First the cultofrances and now this. :D Oh, and this drawing also made my day earlier in the week. It's an embarrassment of riches.

Comments

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're coming back! You're such a presence in the Sims Community, we'd miss you if you ever ACTUALLY left. :P

Also, the drawing is amazing! When I saw the link I almost thought it was of Coppertone Frances. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I'm going to try to be a better pressence in the community. I've been so terrible at actually commenting on stuff lately, though I've been lurking around. I'd probably get more actual story done if I stopped participating so much, but you're all such a great bunch, ya know?

Isn't it lovely? I just got the warm fuzzies all over from that. I think the big rainbow effect just puts me over the edge. (And the Coppertone Frances was awesome too. All in all, a very good week. :P)

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I'm really curious to what this encouraging comment was. I'm so glad it made you so happy. :D

And it's great that my little (okay, it's not so little now considering that it now has FORTY PEOPLE. O_o) cult made you happy too. It sure is a fun place- and I hope it stays that way come simsecrets. Oh man, I have a feeling there's going to be a bunch of really entertaining ones because of us!

I think that an embarrassment of riches would be more fitting if you were talking about the Frances drawing that she did! :P That one was cute too though.

I'm so excited that you're not going on haitus too. :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

If you search around, I'm sure you'd find it. I don't want to draw direct attention to it, just so the person doesn't feel embarrassed or something (though maybe they wouldn't).

Your comm is certainly NOT little. :D It caught on like wildfire. I'm expecting some of the Frances spam secrets to be filed under "not a secret" but it will be interesting to see people point and laugh at our nerdfest. (They just don't understand... but they WILL. *snicker* Look into my icon...)

That drawing was also very awesome. It didn't hit me in the heart like the JRO one did. (An odd aside: Ripp actually resembles the guy I had a HUGE crush on growing up in that drawing... and I based the whole Jill/Ripp incident on my experiences with that guy. Weird.)

How could I stay away for long? I'm obviously hooked here. This series of events has just given me the push I needed to get back into it. The only thing that would make this week perfect for sim stuff is if pixel_and_bean poked her head in. Damn, I miss her. She was such a bright spot in the community for me.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I've been laughing like crazy seeing how many people have been joining each day! And I wouldn't be surprised if more than 25% of the secrets are frances-related in some way. I bet it's going to appear in the warnings like some other random things have in the past. :P

It's such a silly community and I didn't know it was going to be how it is.

I MISS pixel_and_bean TOOO!!! I may not have known her as long as you have, but she made comments that just made my day. (And her aliens and and eye defaults are kickass and I think of her whenever I play with them. Even my multi-pts are made from her sims.)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

The secrets weren't so bad, were they? And no anti-Frances secrets, but that did come up in the comments a lot. :P We probably shouldn't post so many next time. People will get pissed off. Though there aren't as many secrets on there as usual, so without the Frances ones it would have been a really poor showing this week.

I love the Ripp secret the best. That one made me laugh so much. I don't know if it was about the poster or just Ripp in the pic, but either way it killed me.

I agree. She did make really great things, even though she didn't consider herself a cc creator. She always made really insightful commnents and I loved her stories, but I understand how she would want to move on. She's was around here for years before I even started playing the game. I'd love to know what she's up to, at least.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I made a post in the Cult about what I thought about the secrets- but it was at around 2:00 AM so I don't think anybody saw it. (yeah, I'm somewhat of an insomniac) Anyway, I said the same thing. There's probably going to be some anti-cult secrets next week anyway. And if we fight back that would be pretty silly. It's a silly community and therefore I want it to be as drama-free as possible.

Exactly. I don't mind her not being into the sims, but at least I would want to know how she's been. Last thing I knew she moved to a new house, and I'd love to know how she feels about it.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I found the comment. Definitely would have made my day too! :D

To be honest with you, I could have said the same exact thing. But I couldn't have worded it better than she had. You are so inspiring. You see it in my story, you see it in my cult, and I'm sure other people feel the same way about you too.

Now I really want to read the story she is planning on making.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it reminds me a little of that first comment I left for simantics, where I expressed a similar sentiment. Her story just struck a chord with me, and made the game more creative and exciting. Before that, I hadn't even considered that I could make something like that and share it with people. I was hooked. (And her plot was all character-focused, so maybe I should worry less about trying to make the action stuff work for me, since it worked for her.)

Thanks. :) I'm sure you don't need to take any inspiration from me. You seem to have your own brand of creativity well in order.

Yeah, me too. I'll bet she'd make a great story, based on her comment alone. She was pretty eloquent.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I haven't read much of simantics' story but what I did read was great. If I wasn't doing all these other things I would sit down and read everything.

That's what I meant by you being an inspiration. I've always been into writing. I was actually thinking of starting a comic book- but I'm not too confident in my drawing skills.

Your story was the first sims story I ever read (I actually found it via squirell_tamer/beyondheroism__ through a random search on deviantart and one of the pictures she did inspired from the story pooped up) and it opened up a whole world for me. I was like, I could do that! How come I hadn't thought of the sims being a tool used in storytelling before?! Of course, it being character driven and you being skilled at getting us to feel the emotions that the sims are feeling made me hooked.

Hehe, yeah I seem to have my own unique brand of creativity NOW. But before I was some little mary-sue in a world that you created. The time skip had to be the best thing I ever did. I really need to get the next chapter posted. I have part 1 almost finished but half of it is missing pictures and I like those to balance the text out. And I don't want to post the first half because then it would be four parts! Meh.

I'm quite proud of what I have for chapter 3 too. And *surprise surprise!* a lot of it actually revolves around Frances and Guy. I'm having a lot of fun writing Guy- fleshing out a character nobody ever uses. And I can't wait to show his sister! (I have this little feeling that one of our mutual LJ friends would LOVE her. :P)

Quite recently I was actually listed as an inspiration for someone too. It really made my day! And one of her characters in the story is going to be one of mine. Hehe, she's completely smitten by him actually.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

OMG POOPED UP?! Wow, that's one awesome typo. XD

[showercapfrog.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm so glad your hiatus didn't actually last. Don't make that mean that you have to push yourself to update though - it's harder to write when you *have* to, isn't it?

I loved that picture from beyondheroism :)

Don't worry about mangling your plot - if you do that, you can fix it later on and be all *ALTERNATEUNIVERSEGUISE* even though we'll know it's because you stuffed it ;)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) Don't worry, I'd never do that. I have to take my sweet time with updates. Today, for example, I went in and redecorated a hospital wing. That's it. *snicker* It will come together eventually, but at it's own pace. It's not even a long update, so I have no idea why it's so slow.

Yeah, it was a great drawing. Very nicely done in general, but all the sweeter for the subject matter. I love how she can take what I've done with the characters and just take it to a different level like that.

Heheh. I greatly appreciate that you'd play along. ;) I'll try my best to keep it straight.

[petite-sim.livejournal.com]

I'm so super happy that you're back! Your story is one of the most awesome stories EVER! Yay for no more hiatuses! WOOOOOOO! YEAH! (I'm kinda hyper right now) WOOHOO! STRANGETOWN! YEAH! I can't wait to see more JRO. And even if your plot gets horribly mangled, we'll still love it. Don't worry. Alternate universes are awesome.
*is very happy*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you so much. :) I don't know how serial writers pull it off, really. I've been trying to keep certain things vague and have all these balls in the air until I know for sure which way I'm going with them, but eventually you just have to commit to something. So, yeah... either I throw my hands up, or I just do it and let it be what it is.

[tanathir.livejournal.com]

You are loved and appreciated in the community. People really enjoy your story! You were one of the Sims story writers that inspired me to try my own story. <3

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That means a lot to me. :)

[lalalaleigha.livejournal.com]

This picture reminds me SO MUCH of propaganda from the world wars. I see Ripp wearing a bonnet and an apron and saying "We can do it!" and/or "buy war bonds!"

...Minus, of course, the making-outage in the background. That's somewhat less reminiscent.

Glad to see you back.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Sort of like this? ;)



(Yeah, I made a simlish recolour to hang on the wall of Jill Smith's apartment at LFT.)

I've been cracking up over that BV idle animation. They just do it randomly while they're in Three Lakes, and with the spontanious make out in the background... well maybe it is Ripp's sort of propaganda for more makeouts.

Thank you. It will be good to continue the story.

[draggingbluelake.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

*Squee* That drawing was so adorable. It warmed the cockles of my heart.

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

I am popping in for a bit to say AWESOME. I'm glad that you'll be moving forward again. Haha, I love that you can't stay away. The Sims comm holds little interest for me if you just totally disappeared one day.

I'm glad that I could help make your week a little more awesome. :D

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're back. How many times have you went on hiatus again? ~just kidding~

Hmmmm your failings...

You make Ripp say "fuck" too much. Ophelia has a blonde hair, that is unnatural! DO YOU EVER SEE THAT IN REAL LIFE. There are aliens, obviously, because you're cliquey and that's the only kind of story you'll read. You have an alien clique. ALSO ALIENS AREN'T REALISTIC EITHER! You're WAY too obsessed with your characters. There are probably more things I find wrong about your story, but I'm going to make secrets of those!

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

And Johnny should totally have alien eyes. And PT should have died a million years ago! And Jill? She should totally be green. And the bubble blower blows bubbles! It's not supposed to be anything BUT bubbles, quite corrupting our minds! Same goes for the JUICE bar. And Bella Goth should not be living in Strangetown! And Pascal and Vidcund shouldn't have had those alien babbies- thats sooo unnatural. And Stella is a GIRL! How dare you say that she has both male and female parts! And your story should totally not be written the way it is. Why can't you make it all commentary like the NORMAL people?!

And most importantly, Frances Worthington should have an I in his first name and he should be STRAIGHT goddamnit!

Okay, I'm done.

[(Anonymous)]

I think my heart just pitter-patted a bit. Ripp! My favorite. And I'm so glad it made you happy (was a bit afraid I'd come off like random internet stalker), I meant every word.

...I really should make an LJ so I don't have to keep up with this anon poster nonsense..

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

I'm so ashamed that I could read what Ripp said. I think it only took so long because I'm exhausted.

Yay for things that make you happy! We need more of that!

[sadieg79.livejournal.com]

LOL I know what you mean :D

That Ripp secret cracked me up XD I swear, I've never known a sim story to earn so many tributes - you're fully entitled to be proud ;)