strangetomato | Lurk no more...

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Lurk no more...

Did you know that today is Delurking Day out there in the blogosphere?

That's right. So, let this be an invitation to anyone who'd like to introduce themselves and say hi. You know I'd love to hear from you. No pressure, of course, but you may as well delurk on Delurking Day, right? Come one, come all. Get a conversation started. I'm all ears.

This was a great day for me. I made some real progress on the next update, and there was RL good news all over the place. I was asked to interview for a job that had over 50 applicants and was pleasantly surprised to be offered another job that will stretch my experience significantly. I was also asked to be a bridesmaid in my "brother"s wedding this summer (actually a cousin, but we grew up together like siblings). I'd fully expect to win the lottery too, but I don't actually ever buy tickets.

Now, I should go out there and delurk too, shouldn't I?

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hi :) I'm Angela! I'm sorry I'm too shy to comment you, but I read everything you post :( I am Italian and English is my favourite subject at school, but I can't stop being afraid, I don't want to write wrong :| anyway, I wanted to say to ya that you're great! :D if you allow me to, I'll always comment, I only need to know :D

btw, I'm happy that your day has been great! :) I've just gone back home from the hospital and I'm still a bit tired, but my day's been quite okay, too.

I guess I'm more late to the party than a lurker!

I *swear* I left a comment earlier today, but apparently I didn't.

Congrats on real life stuff! Hopefully it will be fun bridesmaiding instead of crazy amounts of responsibility (and helping the bride pee a la madame ugly) bridesmaiding. And the job is always good too!

And I'm glad you got ideas flowing again - it's often easier once the trickle starts to keep it going nicely.

I officially delurk myself, which I havn't done before since i don't have a livejournal account.

But to get an idea of who I am : I'm 17 year old guy from England and a massive fan of Strangetown Here we come. The writing of it is great and especially with the JRO scenes, I love them.

Actually, I remember you making at least one comment before. I recognize your icon. But, either way, it's very nice to hear from you.

Thank you for reading the story so far, and for all the kind words. I was pretty unfamiliar with the backstories of Strangetown when I first read sim stories about it, and it really piqued my interest, so then I went into the game to dig up the backstories. It was a lot of fun. Trying to make a coherent story from it can be difficult at times, but I'm enjoying the attempt.

It's great to hear that you've been working on your own stories. I really enjoy the sim story format, because it stretches you to think about both text and images, like in graphic fiction. I agree with you about the fatigue too. I've lost a lot of my momentum, compared to when I started, but I hope to keep it going until I get out what I want to get (at the very least, there's one good gag I need to get out of my system, and it happens later, so that's my goal).

Thank you. :) That's so nice of you to say. I'll have to try to live up to those words.

Hi, there. Nice to meet you. :)

Thanks for the awesome MS Paint (!!!) secret. That was so nice of you, and it did brighten my day considerably.

Crashing games can be annoying. When that happens to me, I get so frustrated. For me, It's usually related to deleting cc and then playing a lot that had it (like the Mercy hospital), so watch out for that. Also, don't forget to delete accessory.cache and groups.cache. That's often the culprit for the game not loading. I hope you get your computer to behave.

Thanks for reading (and delurking).

Thanks. I received the two job phone calls within an hour of each other, which was pretty exciting. I was like, "Anyone else want to sall with good news?" Everything just seems to happen all at once like that.

My bridesmaids dress, I am told, is cornflower blue. It's not a bad colour for me, so depending on the style, I'll be fine. I just might cut my hair into a pixie to avoid an updo (or just keep the bob really short, but that's not a sure bet). As longs as there are no "bubbles" I'll be happy. Remember bubbles? *shudder*

I had pretty decent bridesmaids dresses at my own wedding, I thought. They were black and lavender (I wanted all black, but I had to make concessions to my mother). My SO's sisters added little black cardigans and black pearls on their own. I made no demands in the hair/accessory department, and I think they ended up looking quite good.

I'll have to share some stories and pics, for sure. Weddings always end up having the funniest moments.

Thanks. It really was a great day. The bridesmaid thing was awesome, because I thought I was going to be passed over (his fiance has two sisters and we've yet to meet). I told him I'd be disappointed to be left out, but I would deal with it, which is true but it would've bummed me out something fierce. He's my brother, so I want to stand up for him.

Now I feel awesome! :D I'm trying to decide what to make them for a wedding gift, since I want to do something special. There's always a painting, or I could make some sort of crocheted/knitted afghan or a quilt. Hmmm...

It's nice to meet you! I'm glad you've enjoyed the story so far.

Heheh. Creeper. I find that word so amusing for some reason. Don't worry about commenting all the time, or anything, but I will appreciate it when you do decide to drop me a note.

Thanks for reading!

You're supposed to use your Psych abilities, I guess? That sounds even more uncomfortable than telling something about yourself. It's almost better to introduce someone else, but what if you mess up the details?

He does have a lot of details and hard edges, and you're right about the problem with making him seem to be all those different things. I think maybe it would be best to make him seem slightly nervous (teehee) and unstable.

Bubbles? You mean actual bubble soap so you can blow bubbles as the bride/groom leave? *snicker* If that's what you're afraid of, I have to admit I had bubbles at my wedding. And the little containers were shaped like churches and the cross at the top of the steeple was the handle for the bubble wand. *taunts you with bubbles*

My SILs attendants were in red. A nice color for all three women (none of whom were really pale) except the style didn't really work on the one woman (the other SIL). The dress was more picked out for the other girl (sister of the groom) who is shorter and has a more boylike build. So the poor bridesmaid (the other SIL) looked a bit like a hooker. The dress was really short and every time she had to bend to fluff the wedding dress train she was worried she'd flash the guests. Pair the tight and short red tube style dress with rather high heels and it was hooker-tacular.

No, I mean hair bubbles (the soap kind is fun - I had some too). It's like a short, tight little curl that's just about the most hideous of things that are supposedly "fancy" when you come from a small town.

Your bubble wands were shaped like church steeples? *snort* Was that your own idea?

A friend of mine went with red too. With the white and black, though, I found it a little Valentines-esque. My cousin used the same colour this summer, but with yellow accents. Her SIL jokingly referring to it as ketchup and mustard (that BITCH *snicker*), but I liked it better than SIL's own pale pink selection. My cousin wore a Japanese kimono wedding dress in the same colours, and I think it all looked rather nice (she's not Japanese, she's just really into the culture).

It's sad when a dress is selected that doesn't flatter all body types. I was going to let the maids select their own style, but it would end up too inconsistent, so I went with something pretty classic. they all seemed to like it well enough (some changed for the reception dance, but again... I didn't care about that at all).

What did you do? You had a small wedding, right? Did you have many attendants? I often thought about how nice it would have been to just have two witnesses. So much easier.

I'm only a sometimes lurker. I also didn't see this until a day later. Anyways, *waves* hi! Congrats on your great day! I hope your week continues on in this fashion.

Right, I don't think I'm lurking but I thought I'd drop you a line or two. Uhm, I've actually had this thing on my mind: I LOVE SHWC! I hope to read more great adventures of your characters. You just write this story very well.

And I've always wanted to ask: have you ever thought of publishing it? I mean, really - I think that Amazon (?) prints a even small number of copies for those who are interested in publishing their books. And I'd be the first in line to get it!

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/1922/bubbles.html

Scroll down a bit and there they are, the church bubbles.

I think I know what you're talking about with the hair. "Bubbles" also made me think of the hideous dresses with poofed sleeves (or worse, where the skirt is poofed, like something Judy Jetson would wear).

The dresses (for SILs shindig) weren't UNflattering, it just needed to be about two inches longer on the bridesmaid (her shape went well with the dress and all that).

There were no attendants at my wedding. Just me, the wife and the pastor. It was about five minutes of "do you?", "do you?", "it's done, kiss" then LET'S EAT! We all know that's why people come to weddings (that and free liquor, which my wedding didn't have--kept it cheaper and kept the riff raff side of the family away).

Yes, indeed. Church bubbles. Well, I'll be.

Hmmm, but don't you need two witnesses to sign for the marriage to be legal? Or maybe it works differently in the U.S.

Sounds like a fun time, but my SO wouldn't hear of anything that casual for our wedding. He was about the "go hard or go home" approach, but not in a frilly, tacky sort of way. It worked out well, I think. People had fun, so what more do you need?

It's not actually that common to have an open bar at a wedding around here. When I read that in U.S. Wedding magazines I was amazed that people would consider it wrong to not offer free booze (and I would seriously go broke, with the drinkers in my family. Yeesh.)

Wow you have a lot of lurkers. Another one here, been hanging round so long I can't even remember when I first found SHWC. Love the story :D

This had good timing, I've been trying to delurk at as many places as possible lately. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up and comment more often!

I'm a lurker at heart! But I'm really trying to comment on stories lately. I even created this account.

Right now I've been really busy with schoolwork and stuff. Just yesterday I found out that I had to give a presentation AND learn for a exam. Both were ~today~. Waah! But they both went well though :)
I really would comment more, but you know, I haven't got much to say, or someone else has said it already.

But I did want to let you know that I really like all the random stuff you post. A chapter may only come out every once in a while, but it doesn't matter at all. The chatter and peeks in your game and other things, are very entertaining! It's like listening to a friend gabbing about their process. (Like someone once said before in a comment! Very true.)

It really helps the journal to remain alive and kicking! It's very easy for a story to slip into silence because of lack of updates. Because everyone always also has other priorities! I know I find it very hard to update and it usually ends up to be once a month.
You, on the other hand, have very frequent posts so people keep checking!
SHWC won't ever slip into the quiet realms of silence :D

If you need witnesses to sign, then my marriage isn't legal. (I know what you mean, my wife had to sign something for my SIL since he was the best man)

Did you have a wedding in a church? Maybe that's the catch. I wasn't married in any type of religious building. My marriage license just has the sigs of me, the wife and the pastor. It must be ok since I used it to get my passport updated.

My wedding was completely dry. It was held in my parents backyard and they're not drinkers so it would be rude to demand a keg or something. And if someone didn't want to come because they wouldn't get free booze then no big loss to me. (oh, I lied, it wasn't completely dry, my sister had a wee bottle of rum in her boobs!)

(all this wedding talk made me realize my wedding was a lot like a sim wedding--just BAM, lets get married in the yard)

...Delurking...is....so.....hard.....it..hurts...

Ok Delurking because you asked nicely!
I was recommended to read your story several months ago. I got ADDICTED! I think I read it all thro within 1 week. You have a wonderful imagination, and I loved everything about the story.
My only one wish, that they would get out of college! LMAO

I want to see some babies! lol Tho Ripp would probably die.

*goes back to lurking*

Just wanted to say hey - I've been reading S,HWC for ages now and it's awesome =)
Also, congrats on having such a good day!

Hi Strange Tomato!
Well, it's not 12th anymore, but we live in different timezones and I didn't see your post yesterday. Anyway, it's better late than never, right?
I've been following your story since... well, since you posted Merry Christmas from Strangetown chapter (December 23rd, 2007, had to check your archive for the correct date). I needed to go back then and read all from the beginning of course - that was about a week of every night reading. I keep on checking your journal since then. Am I the worst lurker here?

Your story is more than any sims story ever written. All of the sims are alive, they have such strong and different personalities. The way they talk and appear on your screenshots makes the reader believe they're real people with all their complex inner life.

Also, had to say this. Strangetown is my favorite neighborhood from the moment The Sims 2 was released. Alas, all of the original citizens passed away years ago in my game. I didn't ever reset Strangetown - I love them and their grand-grandkids too much for it. So, that was another reason why I love your story so much. I love looking at them living another lives in your game - and lives, pictured so perfectly!

Thank you. You're the best!

*Coughs* Well, fine then...I guess I'll delurk ;)
Been reading this for awhile now - I think I started back last March. And anyway, I really love it. The "big plots" are a lot of fun (the aliens, and especially all the stuff with Nervous Subject), but what I really, really love are your character studies and simple scenes. You have such a gift for taking seemingly mundane and ordinary scenes and really showing the deep and profound connections between people. Seriously. Beautiful, beautiful job.
So don't stop writing! Please! This story and your characters are SO wonderful!

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