Lurk no more...

[strangetomato]

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?

Comments

[zepheera.livejournal.com]

Darn, I delurkified to early huh

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Not too early. You we're just ahead of everyone, I guess. ;)

[zepheera.livejournal.com]

Yay for being early! I brought the deviled eggs.

[ilovekeithurban.livejournal.com]

I'll join the bandwagon and delurk :)

i check your site pretty much every day for updates (woo I sound like a stalker). anyway, i LOVE your stuff :)

[omgzdani.livejournal.com]

Hi! I've been a fan of Strangetown HWC since around last Spring. It's safe to say it's one of my favorite sims stories out there. Your characters are truly brought to life in the story, and I'm totally envious of your writing skills. Just wanted to take advantage of delurking myself (if that really is a verb) seeing as I've been meaning to for sometime but not only am I a creeper but a procrastinator as well. =)
-Dani

[karisma-black.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Courtney and I've been a lurker on here for quite a while now. I can't quite remember if I've ever even commented...

Really, I lurk because of the massive quantity of people reading this. People always make such great comments or suggestions or observations and I always feel as if I'd just be another random comment. I prefer to write a comment when it really means something as opposed to commenting for the sake of commenting. I'm a writer myself, and while I once tried the genre of Sim-writing, I find that I fail far too often at posing them the way I want to. I get too impatient with the pictures and just want the story to continue without the effort to take the pictures. I could explain all the details to all sorts of characters in my game, stories that speed through my head when I'm playing, but I just gave up on the picture-taking part.

I applaud you on how successful this has become. I happen to really appreciate your writing and the fact that people continue reading even when you've got a little bit of writer's block. Having a fanbase has to be an incredibly uplifting thing! I'm a writer myself (although sadly not involving Sims anymore) but I tend to keep my writing to myself, not because I'm afraid of sharing, but because every time I try to share something I've written, no one reads it. I tell my friends, people insist they will, that they need something to read, and then I offer up my writing and everyone just finds things to do other than read my writing. So my writing LJ, secondary_muse, goes relatively unused. Stopped updating it because, sadly, no one really reads it.

I also have to say... I stole Ophelia's name for a character. While the name Ophelia in itself is not really "yours", per se... I use the nickname "Phi" for a character of mine on a text-based roleplaying environment called a MUSH. My Phi has her own wiki-page for the MUSH:

http://heroesmush.wikidot.com/Ophelia

That's about all I have to say. Oh, and I'm a day late because yesterday I spent six or seven hours driving back from my parent's house to my dorm at college and got very little sleep. So I didn't really do my normal things, such as checking blogs I keep up with.

[purpleseas.livejournal.com]

Hi! I love the story. You really have a way with characterization, especially with the male characters and the way they interact with each other. I'm a woman who writes mostly about male characters myself, so I like seeing other women do it well, and other people in general who can write outside of their own experiences and points of view without being judgmental or lapsing into stereotypes.

Besides making me appreciate Strangetown more, you've inspired me break out the SimPE and put at least two Ripp clones in all my custom neighborhoods. I love his nose and feel compelled to breed the hell out of it at every opportunity, yet I also like to have a townie Romance Sim version of him running around freely, so I just make two. Family "Ripp" is happily married and currently alien-pollinated, and Romance "Ripp" gets heartfarts from just about everyone downtown, even in the previous neighborhood where he was turned into a smelly, surly zombie. :D

[a-gates.livejournal.com]

Hi. Well my name is Stephanie and I live in Vegas. I'm a college student, I have my A.A. in English (2 year degree) I love, absolutely love your SHWC, it's my fav sim story ever. I also love Jayne, oh Jayne <3 I love her so much I put in her in two of my hoods. I think you are doing a magnifescent job and hope you keep writing!

[chibi-kachi.livejournal.com]

Hi! ^^ I believe I've commented a few times (I do love your story and characterizations so much) but I think its really cool there is a delurking day... and there's a picture for it!

[(Anonymous)]

Late Delurking, yay!

I caught up on your story some time ago but have failed to comment because a) I'm a natural lurker and b) I don't have an lj account so it seemed weird. Needless to say, you and your story are awesome.

I've really been wanting to share this anecdote and Delurking Day seems to have given me the courage! I was doing a crossword puzzle sometime ago and a 4 letter word had the clue: J-O connection. I immediately screamed RIPP! in my head (luckily not out loud as I was on break at my new job). Unfortunately the writer of the crossword puzzle was lame and the answer was KLMN, but at least it made my night!

Can't wait for whenever you feel like posting some more SHWC!

Delurking

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,
I have been reading this over a year now and it's one of the few good stories of sims community. It's maybe even my favourite. *peeks out from her lurking closet and goes quickly back inside*

[simsnowcherry.livejournal.com]

I'm late to the party, but I'll delurk anyway. I found your story this fall, and have been hooked ever since. I love your story. While I enjoy reading many kinds of sim stories, from commentary legacies to carefully planned stories like yours(? I don't know how much you plan this, but it seems like you really do put a lot of effort and thoughts on this), I think your story really stoods out from the crowd. The way you write your characters is amazing, I just love it. You make them very "real" with strong personalities and all little details, and they all interest me in one way or another. I can't really name just one favourite character, but I like Jill, Buck and JRO probably the most. Your story has start to felt kind of "canon" to me - I've never played much with the Maxis neighbourhoods, and I doubt I never can, because your storylines have struck so strongly into my mind that it's hard for me to make my own...:D(Though I love Ripp so much that I have extracted him and have him in my custom neighbourhood as townie, lol.)
Keep up the good work, you're awesome! And I can't wait what happens next and especially can't wait to see JRO finally graduate! :D

Last but not least:)

[oookonxooo.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm Aili and joining the delurking party.
Don't remember when I first discovered SHWC, but from that moment on I've been a loyal lurker:) when you can say something like this.
Just love the way you use words and keep on creating this fascinating story about friends, family and love.
Wish you all the best!

I actually missed this by a few days but oh well.

[bowling-otaku.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm actually really terrible about lurking sometimes, which is pretty obvious here since I've actually been reading this since I randomly discovered it a while ago...like when you first started it, haaah! I really should've commented a long time ago, but yeah. I really love this story! I always get super excited when I see new updates! You really bring the characters to life with your storytelling, and whenever I read I always want to go back to my game and somehow start over my Strangetown and just play with the original characters there (at first, at least), since I didn't really do that before so much...

Anyway. Hi! :)

[simsbarbie.livejournal.com]

Of course i'm always last to comment. LOL Well besides The Sims, I enjoy collecting Barbie dolls and other fashion dolls. So I read Barbie stories, and related blogs.

Sims and Barbies are pretty much the same in my eyes. I guess you now know how I came up with my name.