Lachesis Presents

Late Night - Vampire - Kendrick Daye

2010-12-23T16:15:00.001-05:00

Ah, vampires. I was so excited when I found out Late Night would include the vampire, but I was also apprehensive. Despite the fact I'm very fond of vampires in TS2, there are aspects of the townie vampires that drive me nuts. There are also aspects of all the vampires I hate, such as being totally out of commission during the days.

So, I approached TS3 vampires not really expecting a lot. And was I surprised. So, meet Kendrick Daye, self-employed artist who really wants to be a vampire.

When I created Kendrick, I'd already seen the vampires with the glowing red eyes, so I was curious what I'd get if I gave him dark violet eyes and freckles. You'll notice throughout the pictures that follow that Kendrick's hair keeps changing, that's because I just couldn't decide what would look best on him. The hairstyle in the last few pictures is what I finally decided on.

So, I put Kendrick in Bridgeport and started running around trying to find a vampire for him to befriend. I've discovered, however, that if you want your future vampire to make friends, it might be best not to give him the shy trait. Where I thought the new trait would be good for an artist, I didn't realize it'd make making friends almost impossible.

This is just another picture of some of the cool things in Bridgeport. I know Valpre is doing a story set here, and I can see where it'd make a wonderful backdrop for future stories.

So, needless to say, I tried to get Kendrick into the Plasma 501, the vampire bar, but no go, so off I went with him to one of the less classy hangouts. Yeah, I know there are a ton of pictures around the web of people dancing on tables, but I just thought I'd add my own to the mix.

With the shy trait, as well as just trying to find a vampire in the bar on any given night that would hang around long enough to even be greeted by Kendrick, it took me days for him to finally become even slightly friendly with this vampire. I thought I'd rather have him changed by a female, so that, too, took a while to find.

So, after at least a week of trying to build the friendship to a point where she'd even consider changing him, I finally got the option one night.

Imagine my surprise when she bit his wrist and not his neck. I really hadn't expected that, guess they weren't that good of friends that she'd consider biting his neck.

As soon as she finished biting him, he was engulfed in red haze and bats, but that's all. No change is completed that night.

The first night after she bit him, he had dreams of teeth and woke up complaining the insect bite he got somewhere itches.

The second night, he started to dream about bats, but in the morning, he was still a mortal Sim.

On the third night, however, he woke up in the middle of the night and started to change.

Overall, it was pretty cool looking.

The new vampire skin tone is much better than the grayed out tone from before, and his dark violet eyes became seriously cool looking. All in all, I was very much please with his look. And his freckles are still there if you get close enough.

No coffins for these vampires. And even cooler, he can hang around during the day and do his thing. If he's indoors, no problem whatsoever.

And when he sleeps, he can get his "V's". (eye roll)

Before he changed, he got a package in the mail that consisted of three plasma fruits. After that, he could go to the grocery store and get them.

Yup, reflections! A much improved vampire.

Okay, so once he'd gained his vampire status, I moved him out of Bridgeport and into Sunset Valley with the rest of my families. Early on, he met Leighton and I had him read his mind.

Then I decided to scope for mortals who Kendrick might be able to feed from, rather than the plasma fruit. As far as I'm concerned, Kendrick can definitely have warm blood that doesn't have to come from the fridge or a fruit. The woman glowed like a neon sign, so I had Kendrick approach her. Of course, he has to get permission to feed from her, he can't just take.

Apparently, she wasn't interested, so he was stuck with juice from the fridge. Again.

I have the Fast Lane SP and Kendrick is very rich. Not from being a self-employed artist, but because he was born that way. (Motherlode still works.) What better for a rich vampire than a sleek black car.

The new look of Sunset Valley in my world, and as you can see, Kendrick can still be out in the day. For a limited time. If left too long their needs start to fall rapidly. But it's nice to not have to rush them to a coffin every day.

More of my Late Night adapted Sunset Valley. I do need to get some subways put in, though.

So, I decided as a rich vampire, Kendrick must have one of the new butlers.

Fortunately, because he could go out during the days for limited time, he was able to take his paintings to the consignment shop from Ambitions and make more than just selling them out of his inventory.

Okay, this is Kendrick's final look. Because of his long hair, I missed the tattoo on his neck before this. All vampires have them. Comes with the new skin. Guess it's the "Mark of a Vampire."

A better look at his skin. Also notice, the new overlay doesn't pale out his tattoo on his chest like the old TS2 skin overlay did. Kendrick also makes use of the muscle slider.

During the evenings, vampires learn a skill faster. Notice the double plus signs and the bat, that's to indicate quicker learning of the piano skill.

Also, I haven't mentioned, but Late Night added the piano, drums and bass. All are learned individually and the skills are specific to each instrument. Just because your Sim can play the guitar well, does not automatically mean he can play the piano worth crap.

I can't control the butler, and in this case, she turned out to be a royal pain in the butt. Obviously she had no idea what a shower was. There must be a bed made available for butlers because they live in the home. She had both a bedroom and a bathroom. It didn't seem to make a difference to her, although she would sleep when exhausted.

Eventually, I had Kendrick fire her. She just wasn't work the hassle of dealing with her. In the case of butlers, from what I've seen, please give me back the TS2 butler, I really liked them.

Late Night - Actor Scott Phury

2010-12-23T14:30:00.001-05:00

When I got Late Night, I'll admit it, I really wanted to mess around with the vampires. Since I do a vampire story, and it's one of the things I missed from Sims 2, it seemed the most logical place for me to start. But then again, I wanted to see what the game had to offer day and night, so I created Scott Phury (I was reading J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series at the time), actor. His top is one of the new clothing choices that came with the game - quite nice, actually.

So, I started by wanting to get into one of the nicer nightclubs. This was considered the happening place for the evening, so off Scott went for a nice night out. He had one celebrity point and money so I thought he'd either get in or be able to bribe his way in. Until he came up against this bouncer. She bounced him right on out of there without his getting in.

Frankly, if I'd seen this chick, I would have ran away from the door.

He might not have gotten in with one celebrity point, but this paparazzi chick did start taking pictures of him.

So, since poor Scott couldn't get into the nice places, I sent him to one of the regular bars where he ran into his first vampire. I was curious if all vampires had glowing red eyes after this encounter and a few others, but no, red glowing eyes are not the norm.

I'll admit, I really like the looks of the vampires this time around. They got rid of the bad Gothic, bleh-spewing, cape wearing creatures. The skin tones are nicer and I really do like the eyes.

Notice that one of the two people running through each other have a need bathroom balloon. Since they can and do drink from the bars autonomously and apparently just being a Sim in this world make their bladders fail at an alarming rate, and since they don't seem to have any idea how to get to a bathroom, there are a lot of bladder accidents happening, no matter how nice the bar is.

Okay, a cool trick now is you can buy a drink for someone. Scott stayed at the bar until he received a tray with two glasses. He then took the tray over to his drinking partner and she took one drink and he took the other, the tray disappearing. They can then stand around and talk. Like sitting and talking, you can choose to change the subject to whatever you wish. It's a nice social I think adds to the game.

The elevators have a nice look and are a good addition. Unlike TS2, when you select to enter the elevator, it asks you where you want to go, giving the name of whatever floor is available to play.

The nice bars will generally have a piano player, and the ability for your Sim play an instrument. I haven't gotten around to trying, but I believe you can choose to jam with the piano player.

The bartenders, or mixologists as they're called, if they're skilled can have a nice variety of drinks to choose from. Some are mood drinks, I believe some are skill improving drinks and some will actually change the character's traits temporarily. It's a learnable skill as well, and then the Sim can moonlight as a bartender. It doesn't interfere with their day job (I don't believe but I haven't been playing much since I got Late Night so I haven't seen a lot of what the EP really has to offer). I believe it just gives them the opportunity to earn more money. I'm trying to give Mack Stone the skill because although the PI business does well enough, he's going to need some extra money if he's going to remain rich.

Don't remember exactly where I ran into the bubble bar at, but you can choose the flavor you want your bubble to be, I, of course, chose chocolate. There are some rather fun expressions and movements they have to go along with the bar. And it does improve fun very quickly.

The subway is way cool. In Bridgeport they're spaced around so Sims can easily and quickly travel from one location to the next without waiting for the taxi. I understand there is a way to add them to existing neighborhoods as well, but I haven't done it yet. I do want to get them added into Sunset Valley where my Sim families live.

Musicians can play for tips in the subway as well. I don't know if it was a bug that has been fixed, but Yuri went into a subway to play and in one day he made 8,000 simoleans.

So, as much as I like the elevators they can be a pain in the ass. Scott lives in the only available apartment in his building for a playable Sim and I'm not even sure which floor it's on, but I do know that by the time he gets out of the apartment, the elevator comes to the floor and he gets to the car pool, he can be late for work. I've found it's easier just to start him out about 15 minutes early to the front of the building.

However, if you are running late, and he gets caught in the elevator door, you'll become late enough to get the missing work warning.

This move was chuckle worthy the first couple of times I saw it, but by the 1,000th time, I was frankly beyond tired of it. It'd become simply an annoyance.

So Scott finally got 4 points in celebrity and now every time I turn around, someone wants to take his picture. Fortunately, Scott's a trooper and likes to pose for the camera.

This guy was the bartender in the bar Scott was eating at. Oh, yeah, you can eat at the bars, too. Things like hot wings, nachos, onion rings, etc.

In Bridgeport there's this food truck that'll drive around town. Sometimes you can see it parked and go up and order something quick from it. I found this one outside a bar one night.

Once I moved Scott out of Bridgeport and into Sunset Valley, I noticed the paparazzi and the bouncers were randomly created by the game, and to my amusement, they were now normal sized/looking Sims. There are a number of fat paparazzi, but the breast augmentation seems to be missing. Apparently, plastic surgeons aren't as popular in Sunset Valley as they are in Bridgeport. Scott's eating at the bar by the way, while she's snapping a picture of him.

I've never seen anything that came from the paparazzi taking pictures except a positive moodlet for being recognized. Outside of that, as far as I'm concerned, the paparazzi are just a useless annoyance.

Then, there are the constant requests for an autograph. They can get annoying as well because they will interrupt other things. You can cancel autonomous requests, however.

Oh, yeah, I didn't even go into the acting portion of the game. Oops, well, I guess I'll handle that when I do a post on Scott like I do with the other families I'm following. Getting Scott four celebrity points seemed important for an actor, but I'll admit, getting those was easy, getting it up to five seems to be taking a bit more time.

One advantage of celebrity points is Scott has an agent who calls with opportunities all the time. One was to do a commercial for Doo Peas Corporate Towers and he got paid a nice, hefty sum for that. I've found that since the acting career pays very little in the early levels, doing the opportunities for the agent can really give the Sim an advantage, and a lot of money - more than he'll earn acting.

Next up is my vampire.

Actors, Vampires and Impressions - Late Night

2010-11-24T12:26:00.005-05:00

Late Night. Many have called it the best EP to date. I'm not sure I'd go that far, since I've made it clear how much I like World Adventures, but it is better than Ambitions simply because it adds some rather nice game play features. As a teller of vampire stories, obviously the addition of vampires is beyond cool, and they're worlds better than Nightlife gave us.

Over the next few postings I'm going to cover some of my general impressions of the game, the acting career which folds into celebrity standing and, of course, a vampire.

I'll start with the big news that you now have more versatility in creating your Sim in the first place.

In CAS you now have new sliders for breast size and muscle definition. Yup, they're cool. And the boys at EA had enormous amounts of fun with the breast slider in putting together Bridgeport. Apparently they believe in silicone bodies.

The breast slider pushed all the way to left gives you a practically flat-chested lady.

In the middle is the normal Sim body.

All the way to the right.

The muscle slider is available for the female as well, I just didn't use it because I'll cover it with the males.

Okay, switched directly to male and got this.

Pushed the muscle definition all the way to the right.

Normal sized guy with the slider in the middle.

Now the slider's all the way to the right.

The game comes with a new neighborhood, Bridgeport. I don't know why EA couldn't have made it a sub-hood, essentially the vacation hoods are sub-hoods, Bridgeport could have worked just the same, but for some reason, EA feels that it has to be all or nothing these days. It would have been great for it to have been like Downtown for the Nightlife EP. But nope, not to be. My Sims play in Sunset Valley - I've tried other hoods and always send them back there.

But, I wanted to see what was new and cool in the game, so I loaded Bridgeport and created Scott Phury to test it out. Eventually, I saved a copy of him to the library and moved him into Sunset Valley with everyone else.

Bridgeport is nice, not my kind of place for either me or my Sims to live, but really nice. I need grass, not concrete. As always, there's an impressive view to be found if you just stop and look around.

The dark, cloudy, hazy sky tends to make me think weather might be on its way to the game. Usually the days are bright and blue, even if there are enough clouds to make the sun a bit less than bright.

The copper topped building you see is City Hall. One of the interesting aspects of Bridgeport is that more than one rabbit hole business can be in one building. For example, the nice expensive restaurant is in the same building that houses the business career. The military, police and city hall all are all together.

This is the view of the city from Kendrick's penthouse. The apartments are really small this time around, and as far as I can see, you can only have one playable family in any given building. The building fills up with non-playable Sims - mixologists and bouncers for example.

Looking the other way.

Same view at night. The way the buildings light up is really nice.

Pigeons! Yeah, but they're really just a decorative item that moves around in a very small tight circle. I'd say it's most likely those five are placed together. They don't do much, the Sim can't step on them or interact with them as far as I can tell, they just add a citified element to the surroundings. I noticed at one of the apartment buildings I could hear them cooing when the Sim was standing in front of the building.

The Ward Family, Part 1

2010-11-02T17:15:00.000-04:00

I'll admit, the above picture is here solely for Drew's benefit.

Fortunately, working on this blog is fairly simple, non-time-consuming since I just take pictures while playing anyway, and I can actually sneak time in to do it during any lull at work. So, since I have it easy with this, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post something for a change. I'm sorry that Guardian's Key and Wake the Dead have suffered lately, but I do hope to get back into the Sims2 game before long and build the set that I need for the next GK update.

Last week I did pick up Late Night and even though, surprise, surprise I didn't start by creating a vampire, I have been playing it. I'll post my stuff on Scott Phury, Actor, before too much longer, I hope.

Gage Ward and his family are the longest existing TS3 family I have. After I created both Gage and Meggie, I spent some time messing around with Sunset Valley checking out what kind of playable characters EA had put into the game. During that time away from them, Gage and Meggie met and when I came back, I got a popup that said that Gage wanted Meggie to move in with him. So, okay, in she moved.

Over their time in the game, Gage has become an Astronaut and Meggie is an acclaimed Romance Writer. Gage also has a lifetime want to have three Visa Points in three countries. We're in the process of working on that. Needless to say, they've also become rather rich. Meggie is also a perfect gardener and has planted every plant available in the game and takes them to the consignment shop to sell. Between that, her writing, his salary, and the money he gets adventuring, they have a boatload of the stuff.

Above, is Gage with baby Grant, and Hamilton and Meggie. Birthday time for Grant.

Hamilton's a pretty terrific kid and he really likes his brother. Meggie has red hair, Gage and Hamilton brown, I'm still trying to figure out where the black hair for Grant came from since Gage and Meggie are first generation for the genetics.

Okay, I love the read to kids ability in the game, and I've found if you do it enough, you can really give a head start on their future.

Hamilton reading in bed. Hamilton's a genius and a virtuoso just to name a couple of his traits. Seriously, he's the kind of kid I would have hated in school, and once he becomes a teenager, which you'll see eventually, he's even more "one of those kids." He's rich, handsome, talented and really well liked. Also with Late Night the game gave him one celebrity point - apparently teenagers can be celebrities even if their parents aren't.

Meggie and Grant.

I told him to sit there while I was waiting for someone to go to the bathroom so they could go out to eat. You'd think he was telling me to shove it, wouldn't you?

Just a cute dad and son picture.

A better picture of Hamilton. He has his dad's looks, but his mom's bright green eyes.

I just love the family fun things to do. Hamilton's tossing a baseball with a neighboring kid, Gage is reading to Grant and Meggie's barbecuing.

Another day, but this one's here because of Hamilton on the trampoline. It's a favorite in the family.

Grant liked to do this autonomously.

Another Grant birthday. I was experimenting with Meggie's hair - this did not last long after this picture was taken.

One of the first things Grant did when he grew to a child.

TV watching time, don't think Grant's too happy with Hamilton talking through the show.

No explanation for these, they're just pretty pictures.

The Ward Family, Part 2

2010-11-02T17:00:00.002-04:00

Ah, my all-time favorite part of this game, adventuring. Yes, I do believe in many ways World Adventures is my favorite expansion. But that's because it combines my two favorite things: adventure games and The Sims.

Beware, pictures galore of one trip Gage took to Egypt.

Typos, you gotta love them. Notice the second to the last sentence:

"A fee paid in Simoleons will be paid upon disbarment of the final trap." Yup, the lawyers are going to just toss that puppy out. :) We won't comment on the overuse of the word "paid" either.

Really should have given Gage the "Brave" trait. Every time he sticks his hand in one of those holes and comes back with creepy-crawlies he freaks. Fortunately, it doesn't stop him from sticking his hand back in. I have enough times something freaks him out and I have to have him meditate to drop the moodlet so he can move forward.

Zenport, it's really cool, actually. The best way to adventure is to start with China since it will give you everything you need to adventure in the most effective way. Zenporting allows a Sim to move around quite freely in and out of the tombs.

Wandering around that basement to "disbar" the traps. Note, traps are not always to easy to find.

"Ward, Gage Ward. Breaking and entering is my new pastime." Yup, you break into this office to get into that laptop.

Hey, Lara Croft never stripped to her swimsuit to traverse a puzzle. Maybe it would have kept her boots from being soggy.

Yup, Gage, this place was pretty cool, but gee, I'm sure you've been in other tombs - wait I know you have.

Pretty, but really, I'm not sure it's that impressive. There are neater places to be found in the three countries.

Good body skills really can come in handy. Gage is athletic, and I believe he's maxed out on body skills, but pushing walls can still be a challenge for him. At least, they don't seem to snap back and smash his hand any more.

As I said, always be on the look out for traps.

Hey, he's a Sim. Got to keep those social points up. So, a call home once the tent is set up in the tomb is imperative. Hope he has free overseas roaming charges.

This is an autonomous action when in Egypt.

However, in this case, I think there must be more than just water in that canteen since he took the swig after seeing this poor soul. Guy didn't even get the goodies before the tomb fell on him.

You can grab this hammer in China during an adventure and it's the only way to get past these boulders, so once again, it's a good idea to start with China.

Yup, he really did do this autonomous athletic trait move after breaking that boulder. Boys.

Whoops. See, I said always watch out for those traps. I missed this one and had him moving the statue from the wrong side.

An apple, a Shower in a Can and a tent for a good night's sleep and he'll be good as new. Since Meggie has perfect apples growing in her garden, I make sure Gage has a number of them before I send him on his adventuring ways. They're free, easy to make sure he has and when perfect do as well if not better than the dried food blocks you can get in the Market Place.

I think there are things in this EP that EA has excelled at. And the tombs are absolutely part of that.

What's an adventure game without something to shove/pull around? Add a maze, and you've got the perfect combo.

Yup, the man's scared to death of creepy-crawlies, but he'll stick his arm in a sarcophagus without thinking twice.

Back out of the tomb, and wow this looks like a great place to fish. He caught a mummy fish.

I love the lighting in this game.

The same table during the day this time. Gage is going home today. I actually took this picture because of the way the sand dunes are reflected in the glass, but it turns out I love his wistful look as though he's really starting to miss his family and wants to get home.

Thought I'd have Gage take a picture of the snake charmer.

Ah, yeah, and these are the results. Sometimes EA's just: "Huh?"

Lastly, there are a number of these "magic gnomes" that you find throughout the game. This is just a quick example of what they do. As far as I can tell, except for popping up in odd places and changing positions, I can find no real use for them. I should also mention, outside of moving the one from the table above because he's in the way when they grill, I never touch him.

Take care,
Lachesis

Next up: Scott Phury, Actor, and some initial impressions of Late Night. I'm getting ready to see about creating a Vampire, so we'll see where that goes. Also, I have lots and lots more pictures I've taken of the other families living in Sunset Valley.

Mack Stone, Private Eye

2010-09-01T14:00:00.002-04:00

This catches me up to what I have so far.

Unfortunately, this is Mack Stone, Private Eye, with my original default skin replacement which is not as detailed as the one I'm now using. I've also changed from EA's eyes to a new custom content default replacement. So far I haven't made it back to Mack's house to see how the new eyes look, but they're quite nice on Gage Ward so I have high-hopes for Mack.

And lastly, I've been working with my graphic settings. I have an older machine and I've been tweaking with the settings ever since I got the game trying to find the best of all worlds. Over the weekend I tried one last thing, turn smooth edges off and turn up everything else to high, and this finally worked. Smooth running game that looks good with nice reflections and good detail. About damn time. Despite what EA says, this is not a game that's easy to run on an older system with a low-end graphics card. But with messing around with it, I think I finally have something that will make nice looking pictures. But those pictures will be future ones, not these.

I can put Mack in any clothes I want to do his work in, except when he's looking for clues, doing a stakeout, digging through trash, or dusting for prints, then he'll change into the default PI clothing, which now that he's at level 10 in the Profession is different from this one. This is the mid-level clothing. The low-level clothing looks like something a two-bit cheap detective would wear.

Mack in the pool with his son, Walter, fishing. Yes, Walter's a bit odd, but he is a really cool kid, he's made about level five of the invention skill. Mack is married to Julienne Knack from a default family in Twinbrook. They also live in the family home; early on I kicked the parents out. Mack lucked out, he was really struggling before he met Julienne, now he's considered rich, and he is.

Mack after his swim and my first real look at his new skin that I'm now using and probably won't change. I haven't changed his eyes yet at this point, but with the sunglasses you don't know that. I was really floored when I saw this, I thought, "Oh, my God, a TS3 hunk." Now he really does look like Mack Stone, Private Dick, er, Eye.

Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any pictures of Julienne, but since she was from a default family in the Ambitions neighborhood, probably not that necessary. However, I really hated the Sim, she annoyed the hell out of me. Since the only death I'd ever seen in TS3 was the aborted death of Gage Ward, I decided to kill her off and make me happy and find Mack someone worthy of him.

So, first try, Mummy's Curse. Thought that would be cool, so I shipped her off to Egypt by herself, found a sarcophagus that according to Carl's Sims 3 Guide could contain a mummy and had her open it, twice. Then remembered I'd replaced her snob trait with lucky. I doubt she'd ever find a mummy with that. So, I tried to fry her with a fire trap. Although she stepped on it an fried, she didn't die and refused to step on it again.

O-kay. When that didn't work, I set her on the far side of island to starve. That didn't work, she was shipped back home at midnight of the third day hungry, stinky and tired, but alive.

Now it was war to kill the bitch. So, I walled her up in a small room at the back of the lot with a fireplace. I'd read this would be a sure-fire (pun intended) way of killing her by fire. First day, nothing so I stuck curtains in, when that failed I added a rug. By the second day I was slapping myself on the head because I'd forgotten I gave Mack the Lifetime Reward to fireproof the house.

Last resort, ignore her and let her starve to death. It seemed to take forever, I was just about to give up and save and close down the game and try again the next day when I got notice that the Grim Reaper was coming for a family member and did I really want to close down. Of course not, I'd been waiting all evening for this.

Julienne pleaded, but...

The Grim Reaper was of the same opinion as I was, no way in hell.

So, I followed the Reaper...

Through the kitchen (walls are down)...

Down the basement stairs...

Into Mack's office...

He was on the computer no more than a second - must have tweeted her death to the Underworld blog page.

Okay, yeah, I broke Mack's heart, but his stats never fell out of high green plumb-bob.

Do I feel bad?

A little, but not enough to bring her back in any way, shape or form, and it was cool to see how EA handles death these days. Besides, Julienne is still hanging around, I have some new pictures to add when I get back to the family.

Later...

(The Sims Wikia.com page for the Knack Family)

Leta and Yuri

2010-08-30T12:15:00.012-04:00

Leta and Yuri Ivanov did not escape my great start over, delete all neighborhoods frenzy. But I missed them, so I put Leta (the only Sim I did not delete out of the library) back in Riverview, and sent her to Yuri's house to meet him. My original accidental meeting and falling in love became a planned assault on my part to put the couple back together. Fortunately, the spark was still there, and it didn't take much to get things back on track to the perfect relationship.

Once the relationship with Leta reached just the right place, I sent Yuri home to tell his wife, Nadine, it was over.

Despite holding his son whom Yuri was crazy about, things did not go well with his wife, obviously. Even with a default skin replacement, this woman is not someone I'd want to go home to every night, and checking out his relationship status with her, Yuri didn't either.

Of course, even though things didn't go well with the ex, he now had something softer and more inviting to go home to. Not to mention a nicer home that does not have that horrid wallpaper.

I dress my Sims according to the weather I'm experiencing. Needless to say, Leta was dressed for the hot weather I was in. The picture just looked strange with the woman bundled for winter when Leta was dressed for summer. Yes, this happened all the time in TS2 as well before Seasons, and I even saw it sometimes after Seasons was installed. But for the most part, TS3 Sims do not wear coats. She was an oddity even for this game.

Oh, and welcome to the ugliest Laundromat. Even in my real-life town the old, dirty, tired out things don't look this bad.

This is a series of pictures of Leta making something from clay. Excuse me? This goes so far beyond ridiculous it's not even funny. Who would ever do anything with this much clay? Please give me back the potter's wheel from TS2.

And we end up with...

An unfired outdoor chair in clay? Who would sit in this? Who would consider this art? And I won't go into the fact she used a hammer and chisel.

Big, bad Lead Guitarist Yuri wanted the tats. He's the only person I've had in the chair that was squeamish.

Well, he might be proud he made it through, but apparently the tattoo artist thought otherwise.

Now these two guys, they were just having the greatest time getting down. Unfortunately, they didn't give him any money, but they were still dancing when I had to stop and send Yuri off to work.

I'm so glad Ambitions added this wonderful piece of clothing to the everyday wear. It just enhances the game.

I love Yuri's expression. He and Leta were getting married in the new neighborhood. Their outfits actually matched.

One thing TS2 can't do better is neighborhood shots. These can be beautiful and very often a pleasant surprise because something is almost always going on in the sky. I try to remember to look up from time to time.

The end of a long night on stage. Yuri came home, fed and changed his daughter and then just sat down to chill with Cassandra.

Later...

(The Sims Wikia.com page for the Ivanov family)

Been Gone Too Long

2010-08-27T09:00:00.022-04:00

This picture is straight from the game. I just happened to look out the window when I was getting Sam Sekemoto up to get ready for school. It's the entire picture of what I've used for the banner.

I haven't been here in quite a while, but I've been playing TS3 quite regularly. I decided that since I see and run across interesting things and have fun with the game, I'd share it with anyone interested in TS3 or just Sims in general.

Unfortunately, I find legacy style storytelling to be boring for me to do and I prefer TS2 and all the hacks and custom content and poseboxes for my storytelling needs, so don't expect to see any real stories here.

But when I just sit down and play, that's when I break out TS3; and that is played without hacks and the only custom content I use is default skin replacements from: TummyZa at Garden of Shadows and Aikea Guinea at Club Crimsyn. I'm looking for a good default eye replacement. I have one I've begun using, but I'm still not 100% happy with it.

I do buy from the TS3 store - that's a bit of an expensive indulgence I just close my eyes and do. I know it's overly expensive and problem-prone (not the content, the site), but recently they've come up with the Daily Deal and I check that every day and pick up things usually at half price. Still expensive? Yeah most likely, especially when there's just the same kind of great custom content out there there's always been for free. But, honestly, for once I want to play without the hassle of cc that doesn't work, isn't compatible, the crazy long load times or whatever else I've faced in the past. This is my fun-time hobby and I keep it as simple as possible. :)

Originally, I was playing one family in a neighborhood because I like the idea of story progression within the NPC's but not with characters I'm playing. But I began to really miss my play characters interacting with each other and with Late Night coming out, I knew I'd hate it more. So recently I figured out that if I play four households on a seven day rotation leaving aging and story progression off for four of those days and turning it on for three, I could get the best of all worlds. So by the time I get back to a family, they have a limited number of days where they can be free to do something stupid. :) With that in mind, I moved my households from Riverview and Timbertown into Sunset Valley were they all live happily, if sometimes strangely, together.

Anyway, along the way, I've taken pictures of odd, strange and fun things that I've decided to finally put up. So following is some major picture spamage. I've divided it up into this and two other posts. This one includes a few shots from my longest playing, but fewest pictures family Gage and Meggie Ward. If you're wondering what happened to Sireta, I'm afraid she was deleted in a fit of must start over frenzy.

Following along shortly will be pictures from playing Yuri and Leta's house and then my private eye, Mack Stone, who seems to have a ton of pictures.

Eventually, I'll put up pictures from Leighton and Kiku Sekemoto and their family, but for some reason, I don't have anything from them, and I know they do crazy stuff.

I've also added for download Mack Stone and Kiku.

As you'll see, I've added Ambitions to my game and I will be getting Late Night as soon as it comes out. I don't have the stuff pack, however, and I don't plan to get the next one either. I do hope to be a bit better at keeping this site up and running with the odd picture or download here and there than I have been to date.

Hope you enjoy what I've stuck here and get a chuckle or two. Maybe someday I might even try to tell a small story, but at this point in time, that's doubtful. TS2 takes all my time and imagination for that.

Take care,
Lachesis

Gage Ward is an astronaut who's lifetime desire is to have three visas in all three vacation spots. The beautiful pictures you can get from World Adventures never ceases to amaze me.

The game actually decided that Gage should marry Meggie. While I was off playing Leighton, they apparently became friends and fell in love. I thought a private wedding on the beach would be perfect, and it made for some beautiful pictures.

Gage and his son Hamilton. I pick names by randomly sticking my finger into a name book.

One game benefit I discovered very much by accident with Gage. Early on he was repairing his boss' stereo and he was shocked once, but since he didn't seem to be suffering any serious damage I told him to continue. Well, next thing I knew, the Grim Reaper showed up, and the poor guy was a ghost. I was so shocked and trying to figure out if I should go back or just continue playing I didn't get any pictures, then suddenly Gage was no longer a ghost and a popup came from the Grim Reaper thanking Gage for the flower. WTF? He had no flowers in his inventory. I started looking and that's when I learned about the death flower. Apparently, the seed he'd picked up at the cemetery was a death flower seed, and that was all he needed.

Now, he carries a death flower with him wherever he goes. :)

More later...

Mack Stone Sim for Download

2010-08-26T16:30:00.024-04:00

Since Mack Stone is one of the better looking Sims in my game, I thought I'd share him. This is how he's packaged with EA content. I have both World Adventures and Ambitions and he has a tattoo, so I believe you'd need both expansions to get the content, but I really don't know exactly how that works since I honestly have never downloaded a Sim for TS3.

Mack Stone:

Athletic
Computer Whiz
Charismatic
Perceptive
Genius
Mid-Young Adult

Download

Below is Mack from my game with hair purchased at The Sims 3 Store and custom default skin from TummyZa at Garden of Shadows.

TOU:
Use Mack however you wish, but please don't claim him as your own or put him on a pay site.

Kiku Takei Sim for Download

2010-08-26T10:53:00.017-04:00

Kiku Takei was her maiden name, but then she married Leighton Sekemoto. Leighton is available as a townie in Sunset Valley.

Kiku is packaged as above. Purple being her favorite color, I recolored EA content. I have World Adventures and Ambitions installed. Kiku's hair is one of the styles available through the styling mirror in Ambitions so it may not show up without the game. :)

Kiku Takei:

Family-Oriented
Neat
Hopeless Romantic
Frugal
Artistic
Young Adult

Download

Below is Kiku from in game using default replacement skin from Aikea Guinea at Club Crimsyn.

TOU: Use Kiku however you wish, but please don't claim her as your own or put her on a pay site.

World Adventures - Bon Voyage it Ain't (Review)

2009-11-30T20:07:00.006-05:00

I've spent every free moment of the last five days with my butt planted in my not particularly comfortable desk chair playing World Adventures, and since I've had the past five days off, that's a lot of time. I usually let this site speak for itself and let you decide if you want to play TS3 or not, but in this I think EA has misrepresented the game and don't want anyone who's merely looking for a place to take Sims on vacation to waste their money. I didn't have Vacation for Sims1 but I can tell you, Bon Voyage this ain't.

What this game is, in my opinion, is EA's version of Broken Sword. If you've ever played that series of adventure games, you understand what I mean. Don't get me wrong, I love this game. But, and I really do mean but, I've spent more money over the years on Adventure Company and other adventure/action adventure games than I've ever spent on The Sims (I have all EP's and SP's). Have you ever played Riddle of the Sphinx? I won't rule out Tomb Raider, either. Areas of this game, especially in Egypt, are riddled with very Tomb Raider-type puzzles. No, you don't have to kill big friggen' spiders or do back flips at the same time you're unloading a shotgun into a dinosaur that thinks you'll make a good snack, and you don't have to take out the major corp's goons; but you do have to break into the major corp's headquarters and steal something and hack into a computer. Seriously.

Also, not everything you need is in one country. You have to travel from country to country to get different things.

Now for the traps. I've been caught in more than one trap along the way. If you can't disarm them, sometimes they're not essential to completing your adventure, then you're not going to get past them. All you need is the same skill that fixes toilets; but like repairing TV's and computers, the traps are dependent on how high your skill is. Now are the traps easy to find? Early on, yes, later they become very difficult. When the floor tile is the same whether a trap is present or not, then you have to do a ton of pixel hunting, as it's known in the adventure game world. You literally have to slowly run your pointer over the area to get the cursor shape that indicates a trap is there. Traps are also in the wall, which I found out by getting poor Galen steamed a couple of times. :/

Early on it's easy to find a hidden door in the wall; but as time goes on, once again unless you do a ton of pixel hunting, they blend in.

Now to the adventures. You go to the board at your base camp (which I'll further explain later) and check for adventures. Pick one, I've been going in order that seems to be best, and get started on building those visa points. Eventually, one adventure will lead to another without the need to revisit the board, and sometimes you'll just get a phone call offering them. You can only do one adventure at a time while you're in a country. If for some reason you can't or don't want to complete it, you can cancel it by right mouse clicking in your control panel where the adventure is located. Oh, and I actually had one adventure spill over into my base game neighborhood.

So, you really don't want to go through all this adventure crap and just want to take the family on vacation and have a good time. Unfortunately, that's not what this game is about. Yes, you can take them on vacation, but unless you complete the adventures, your stay is very short. You can only stay at the base camp and besides wandering the country and picking things up off the ground, there's frankly not much to do. Sure, you can buy cameras and photography books in Egypt and run around the three countries taking pictures and putting together picture collections. In France you can buy a nectar making machine and although I haven't done it, I would assume you can start growing all sorts of plants and trees to make different kinds of nectar. Once again, you can wander around picking up and collecting things. In China everyone can learn martial arts and meditation and buy a fortune cookie machine. In all countries you can buy skill books that match the country. Egypt, photography; France, nectar making; China, martial arts.

So where do you stay and how long can you stay? Well, if all you want to do is go on vacation and not try to get yourself fried, electrocuted, speared or steamed by the traps or if doing adventure game puzzles and pushing statues around leaves you with glazed-over eyes, your choices are very limited. You can only stay three days, unless you choose a Lifetime Reward to extend your stay, then I believe you get to stay six days. Where do you stay? Well, once again if you don't do the adventures and gain visa points, you stay free at the base camp. Which is a campground in Egypt, a rather nice hostel-type place with a few individual rooms and bathrooms in France, and a nice place in China that has one private room with bath, the rest are all community rooms and baths. That's it, you have no other choice, you don't get to pick where you stay.

If, however, you do choose to be an adventurer, once you gain three visa points in the country you're in; and believe me that's time-consuming and in China I did more fetch quests than I care to do in one game, you can actually purchase a vacation home. Because I now have everything in China available to me, I think Galen can stay 18 days. I'm not positive about that, however.

Oh visa points, with 1 or less visa points, it's 3 days stay total, with 2 visa points, it's around 11 days, and with 3 it's around 18. Visa points are gained by completing adventures. Until you reach three visa points, you have no choice where to stay, either.

I don't know for a fact, but I don't really think there's much for kids to do. Also, anyone slightly showing pregnancy can't go; babies and toddlers can't go.

I will be putting together Galen's Travel Blog for here. I won't be giving away any of the puzzles, but I do hope to put together something that's at least more entertaining than a review.

Lastly, as usual the game has bugs. I ran into one where the special merchant in China was no longer able to sell his special items. I used the resetsim cheat on him and he was fixed. I understand merchants will disappear and there's a long drawn-out fix for that. There are others. If you've never been able to play with the full shaders option on, in the past that just made for funky-looking grass. However, EA mucked something up, and now pools are black and the Sim disappears into it. And for even more fun, they just pop up on the side when you tell them to get out. Oh, and pool ladders disappear as well. This isn't noticed when you're able to play with the shaders option checked.

Prior to WA and at first with WA, I was able to play with the shaders option enabled; but as I played the countries, movement became so painfully slow the more I accomplished, I had to turn that option off. :( Also, the more you do in all the countries the slower your load time becomes. I noticed the last time I was in China with three visa points, a vacation home and a ton of friends it took more than five minutes for the country to load!

Oh speaking of friends, a lot of completing your quests depends on making friends. :/ They took that out of the base game and job advancement, but they put it back. Using another Lifetime Reward that makes your Sim more appealing helps; but really, it can get to be tedious making friends to get through the quests, especially if you only have a few days in a particular country. And when your time is up, it doesn't matter where the hell you are or what you're doing, you're whisked away to your home neighborhood, and there you have to stay for a couple of days before you can travel again.

In closing, if you love puzzle games (although what I've seen so far, it falls into the easy category), if you love pixel hunting and if you love pushing statues around, this game is for you. If you're as nuts about adventure games as I am, if you thought the hours you spent playing Broken Sword The Sleeping Dragon and The Angel of Death were pleasurable, then this game is for you. If you just want to take your Sims on vacation, you might want to put your $40 US back in your pocket and wait for the next expansion.

I understand that with the way updates are now, even if you don't get the EP you'll still get the basement tool and the roofs and other building goodies. You don't have to buy the EP for the fun stuff any more, just update the game when EA makes them available.

My 2 cents worth.

Take care,
Lachesis

Sims 3 and the Mac - Patch Available

2009-11-23T11:12:00.011-05:00

Edit: November 25, 2009. Mac users, update available. Check your Launchers. Hopefully this fixes the problems listed below. :)

It's enough to burn your butt. :(

When I put Leta up for download, my husband and I became aware of an ongoing problem with TS3 on the Mac and EA's seeming inability to fix it. After my husband spent the most of the day yesterday reading Mac/Sims forums, I asked him to do the following write up for me. It doesn't have any magic answers, but I wanted to pass it on because I think it's necessary to get the word out to Mac users who don't normally frequent the forums.

Please note: I play the Sims on a PC and my husband, although he does use a Mac, has a Mac incapable of playing the game and he has never played it. So we don't have anyway of checking this problem out firsthand. :)

***
Sims 3 for Mac is afflicted with a number of issues related to the Launcher and its ability to update the game and the installation of downloaded content. The two issues seem to be related.

The updater issue is that it, the updater, is telling the player the game is up-to-date and there are no new updates. This is affecting the installation of the 1.5/1.6/1.7 update for the base game and the 2.2 update for the World Adventures expansion pack.

The installer issue is apparently related to the above in that when a user downloads content from the Exchange or 3rd party sites, the installer tells them the game needs to be updated, but there are no updates available as it also thinks the game is up-to-date and will not install the downloaded content.

If a player installs the World Adventures expansion pack from DVD, it will, apparently, update the base game (from the DVD) as well as install itself and be playable, but the updater/installer issue will still persist.

If a player has the downloaded version of the World Adventures expansion pack it will not install as it doesn't contain the updates that are included on the DVD version necessary for installation.

EA says that a resolution to some/all of these issues is forthcoming.

Here are a couple of links to discussions pertaining to this on the Sims 3 Community Forums:

The Sims 3 Community Forums - ggrrrrr - sim exchange downloads won't work

The Sims 3 Community Forums - 1.5/1.6 patch for mac - available?

Leta Sim

2009-11-21T17:03:00.013-05:00

Get Leta here. This is the one that was in my bin, so it's the first one I made, the only change is she just has long hair, not that this pulled back version.

Thank you Michelle for letting me know the link didn't work. I've tried a couple of things, and now I've got it working on IE as well as Firefox. :)

To give her the proper skin use this one at Club Crimsyn located under Default Replacements. Everything else is EA base game.

Thank you everyone who's interested in her. :)

Lachesis

Yuri's Journal - Egyptian Vacation

2009-11-18T11:31:00.033-05:00

(Some of the pictures were taken with walls down to show the most of the area Yuri is in at any given moment, so the full effect of the tomb is somewhat lost. Also, this solves the puzzles of the tomb behind the base camp, so if you're not interested in the spoiler, you might want to skip it. :) Frankly, the simplicity of the area is such that I'm sure even my pictures can't spoil it. -Lachesis)

Yuri's Vacation Journal

I had a wish to take the family on vacation. As lead guitarist I get quite a few days off, so off we went to Egypt.

After landing at the base camp, we took off directly for the market place to see what we could see and buy supplies in case we needed them.

For whatever reason, Aiden spent the entire time in the pool. I had no idea he was that fond of swimming, I guess we need to put the pool in the backyard I'd been thinking of when we had the house built. Leta bought a cookbook and then proceeded to stick her nose in every book she could find at the market.

Me, I decided to look around.

I stumbled on a stone shaped like a key and then found this stone in the wall the key-shaped stone would fit. When I hefted the thing up to the stone on the wall and pushed it in, I was covered by a blue light pulsating from it.

The chain on the door next to me disappeared, and in I went only to find a really cool treasure.

Once I took the treasure and found my way back up, it was getting late, so off we went back to the base camp where Leta and I shared a tent and Aiden had his own.

The next day I was dying to explore the tomb behind the base camp, so the three of us went in, but when I reached the bottom of the steps the door above me closed and locked me down there by myself. The skeleton in the pile of sand in the corner did nothing to make me feel better, mind you.

There was nothing to do but press forward in hopes of finding a way out. I moved through the only opening in sight only to find another locked door, a chest and another of those stones in the wall, this time shaped like a crescent moon. I found the keystone in the chest and put it in the stone on the wall; the door opened.

There was nowhere to go it was just a room, but I stepped on the square with the footprints and discovered it was a floor switch which opened a stairway.

Oh good, another skeleton; but also another floor switch. You know, now that I think of it, I should have taken a better look at that skeleton, maybe he had something cool on him. Dang, well, if we ever go back...

This time it opened the door in front of me and onward I went. Another floor switch, but this one didn't stay down when I stepped on it, so I needed something else. Oh good, the statue moves, so by pulling and pushing I was able to get it in place.

Through the door I found another room. This time another no step on switch and three statues. I had to find the one that moved. Once I shoved it in place, a step on switch appeared in the floor behind me.

This led me to an empty room except for another chest. I opened it and stairs appeared behind me. Finally, I'm hoping for a way out; but first, is that a secret panel in the wall? Just out of curiosity, I push on it.

It is, and other chest. This one was filled with an ancient relic.

I took the stairs, stepped on the pressure plate and out I went, the door back to my family had finally opened back up. Hours had passed, and they were starved, tired and worried.

Hey, look who I saw in the men's john.

So that was my great adventure. We did other things during our three days, but for the most part, they were just wandering around getting a feel for the place. Someday, we may go back and stay longer, but really, I think Leta and Aiden were bored since they spent most of their time reading.

Oh, and be sure to dress appropriately for where you're going before you leave home, because we couldn't find anywhere to change out of our hot clothes. Leta seemed to be the only one who came close to having the proper clothing.

Misc. In-Game Pictures

2009-09-30T15:21:00.018-04:00

It's been ages since I've done anything here, and I'm afraid this isn't Sireta's Blog. I play a family in the Riverview neighborhood. It's play only and I created the female who fell in love with a townie. These are some pictures I took and want to share just to show some in-game events. Above is the clown fish Yuri caught and put in the fish bowl. Yeah, I know, that's just a bit too...

If you're interested in more read on.

Since I only play this to kill time when my RL has gotten to be too much, the walls are down and the pictures aren't fancy. This was my first stove fire since I started playing TS3.

The fire truck is now this pickup - guess it's a volunteer fire department now. Yes, she did just stand there on the sidewalk before she finally decided she might want to do something about the fire, and it took so long for her to get there, Yuri started extinguishing the fire without her. :/

Once she finally made her way into the house she made a half-hearted attempt at extinguishing the fire, but eventually gave up and stepped back, letting the bugger burn.

I couldn't let his house burn down, so I told Yuri to extinguish it, and low and behold, she just stood there till he was done and then walked out telling him to be more careful. What?

The smoldering remains, but at least his house was safe. :/ And the cool part, click on the stove and it will ask if you want to replace it for the cost of a new one. Replace it and you get exactly the same stove that burnt back.

This is Leta - my created Sim. I'm learning how to make them, and she's actually quite cute. Babies now come wrapped in either pink or blue blankets and stay that way. No more grungy diapers.

Grown up to toddler stage, Yuri is teaching him to walk. The toddler steps are a bit unstable as you can see. Oh, and for an EA townie, Yuri is quite nice looking. I've done nothing to change him except using the default skin replacements.

Lastly, I kept Yuri on the course EA set for him except he divorced his first wife who now shows up in his relationship panel as his ex-wife. His children from her show up in Leta's panel as step-son/step-daughter. He's just playing in the park here, but you can have him play for tips and he opens his guitar case and they throw money in. Recently he got as around 4 or 500 simoleons. doing that. :)

I do have more Sireta's blog both pictures and written. As soon as I get things a bit stabilized on my other stories, I hope to tackle that. I just wanted to let you know I haven't abandoned either this blog or TS3. It's a good possibility that you'll see more of the same here in the near future. :D

Sireta's Blog - Part 6

2009-07-22T20:38:00.022-04:00

Sunday (Week 5)

Poor Tris, Sunday is the only day we get off together and the poor guy wound up having to repair the shower and mop the floor before he could even shower himself.

I also reminded him of the toilet downstairs that had been clogged for a week. So much for moving into a new home and getting away from the plumbing problems.

By the time he was able to get leftover apple pancakes, I’d already eaten. The poor guy couldn’t get a break; his phone started ringing before he could even eat. He wound up tell Marty he couldn’t talk

I got my first royalty check today, 50.

We just do not get enough time together, today is for us. Just us.

I checked to see if anything was showing at the theater, but the next showing is Monday at 5:00 – we won’t be able to attend that, so Tris suggested we go to Hogan’s for a bite of dinner.

That’s our Prius that Tris got from the inheritance. It’s black; can’t you tell it’s his? We had a wonderful day together, and it ended on the perfect note.

Monday

Tris is the last of his family; he so wants to the name to go on through the generations, so we went to City Hall and changed the family name to Verur. While there, Tris took a Charisma class.

Tris found a copy of Elves of Dagon in the mailbox.

What a great day. I got a promotion to Anonymous Source Handler and a great bonus.

I went to the park after work to read and saw Tris jogging around the park.

I also saw Agnes Crumplebottom. I’m still trying for that interview. I presume the child, Colette is her daughter.

I started my interview, but she called that boring so I apologized and we chatted and gossiped some more before I took off for another painting lesson. Damn, I took too long getting away from Agnes; the school was closed when I got there.

Oh well, I found an unknown seed in the park. I’m going to go home, grab a bite and then check out the gardening book Tris bought for me.

Tris is the sweetest man, he always compliments the way I look, then he told me he’s been promoted to Rookie.

Tris ordered a pizza. He may be health conscious, but he does love a greasy pizza. Now I’m going to find cold pizza in the fridge for days.

Tuesday

Nowhere near as good a day today. I came home and found the hired maid standing outside the house. No wonder the bed is never made and the house is a mess. On top of that, the woman is a kleptomaniac. I sure hope there’s nothing missing, but then, she never goes inside. I fired her and she insulted me!

I finally found an article I can write. I’ll review the movie at the local theater. But no pictures for the article Wilsonoff Community Theater is also a stickler for not using cameras.

After the movie, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items for some recipes and found a tomato seed on the sidewalk outside the store, so I just picked it up off the ground and took it home with me.

Wednesday

Went Tris’ game at 3:00 today, unfortunately, I took a nap before I left and got there a little late. I’ll write a review on this, Tris’ team won 11-6. I’m so proud of that man.

Thursday

Tris’ boss, Marty, wants the speakers on his stereo fixed. So Tris is using his one day off to fix the man’s stereo. It will bring in a little extra money, which we can use since the house and furnishings are so expensive.

We have a new maid the service sent over. Tris said he seems to be doing his job.

I’ve been promoted to Investigative Reporter making 137/hour.

Tris told me Marty paid him 600 and he and his wife were both very nice.

Sireta's Blog - Part 5

2009-06-24T19:04:00.020-04:00

Sunday (Week 4)

That’s it, the toilet clogged up again. We have to get a new home.

I love Tris to death. It’s the little things he does for me, like buy me bubble bath when he went to the grocery store. So I just put the bottle right there on the tub.

While I’m waiting for Tris to get off the phone so he can get cleaned up, I’ve gone back to work on Elves of Dagon, a truly fantasy piece of writing as there are not nor ever have been elves on Dagon despite the unfounded sightings of ranting people. I’ve seen other races, but not here in Perseus, only at home in the central part of Tyr. But I’ve never seen an elf. Pointy eared people, indeed. People with really big ears, now that I’ve seen, but there are no points involved.

My grandmother, may she rest with the Spirits, died and left me a motherlode of 50,000. Tris and I decided to buy something a bit nicer than we were originally looking at. A two bedroom (which we’ll have to convert into a one bedroom because they’re just so damn small) one and a half bath Cape Cod just one street over from where we now live. I love my bike, as does Tris his, but we have plenty of money left to buy a car we can share on the days when we don’t want to ride the bikes.

Monday

So nice to wake up in a new house with a dishwasher and a big screen TV. Thank you Grandma Aren for remembering me.

I only work til noon nowadays. When I got home, I found Tris fishing in our beautiful pond behind our new home.

Between being stressed from working on my book, Elves in Dagon, a big crash from coffee buzz wearing off and exhaustion, I just was not interested in Tris’ attempts at being amorous.

Wednesday

I’m so dead tired I’m not getting anything done but sleeping. I’m not even awake when Tris comes home. I’ve seriously got to get a full night’s sleep. I wish I could say my lack of sleep was due to good lovin’ but all it’s due to is life and not enough hours in a day to do everything I need to do.

Thursday

Maybe a goodnight’s sleep is not a good thing for me. I’m suddenly having this crazy urge for a baby. Spirits, I’m not locking that into my wants, hopefully I’ll soon forget that craziness.

I met Tris in the park today after work. He was reading a book to improve his fishing and he bought me a book about gardening when he went to the bookstore today. He told me he didn’t get any pictures because they wouldn’t allow cameras inside. :D Guess I’m not the only one with that problem.

I’ve been wanting to start a garden. Tris is such a bookworm, though, he reads twice as fast as I do.

I picked up goodies for a picnic from Buy Mode – that place has everything. It was a lovely evening for it.

Friday

Tris and I both got raises today. We weren’t promoted, but raises are good. I also finished Elves of Dagon and will be receiving royalty checks on Sundays.

Saturday

I swear this is the only magique in Perseus:

We stand at the curb waiting for our car, which is parked in the carport to our right, to teleport out front onto the street.

Then, since I’m driving, I teleport into the driver’s seat first. You don’t see me in this shot because I’m teleporting.

Then Tris teleports over and off we go. Cool huh? Confusing’s what I call it.

I thought we could go to the beach until Tris has to go play; he’s in the Minor Leagues now. Since swimming’s not allowed, I tried interviewing a teenager named River, but she thought I was boring and when I pointed out her flaws, she called me rude.

But I did find out I could go to City Hall and change my name. I love the name Verur, so I changed it. I’m hoping Tris will want to do the same since it’s his family name, and he’s the last of the line. I then took a tour of City Hall, which I found fascinating, but again, I can’t take pictures. Hell, I can’t even show you where I went to have my name changed.

I thought of trying to interview another teenager named Miraj. Things seemed to be going better this time, then nope he didn’t want to be interviewed either. I’m just not good at this. I’m not good around people, period. Maybe I should try to go back to Ms. Crumplebottom.

Part 4

Sireta's Blog - Part 4

2009-06-17T19:06:00.027-04:00

Friday, thank the Spirits, I’ve finally made it through another week. My second here in Perseus.

I’ve spent so little time with Tris. I decided to grab a quick salad then nap so I wouldn’t fall asleep before Tris got home.

I’m seriously getting tired of this toilet clogging up every time I turn around.

I had such a great time with Tris, we’re going steady. I guess that makes him my boyfriend. :D

Sunday (Week 3)

Tris has Sunday off, so I asked him to go with me to the Bistro. Such a beautiful night, we ate outside. When I finally got home, I was still feeling wide awake, so I read Street or Sidewalk a Cautionary Tale that my boss requested I read for work.

Monday

After a long stressful day, I decided to get a massage instead of going straight home. As I came out of the parlor (I would have shown you the inside, but you know, there are a lot of places in Perseus that won’t allow cameras. I find this very strange, but I guess it’s a private town) I met Mortimer Goth, and spoke with Gunther who was with him. Apparently Mortimer is his son.

Early Tuesday Morning

I finally talked Tris into a bit of woohoo, not that it was that terribly difficult to do. I’m definitely falling in love. This was a great move. I’ve found the man of my dreams in a town of ugly people.

Tuesday

Even being around a ton of people can’t completely wipe out my happy mood. I hope Tris didn’t mind waking up alone, but I just can’t afford to miss work. What a wonderful lover to go with being a great kisser. This day just keeps getting better, I’ve been promoted to Freelance Writer. I was going to tell Tris, but he had to go to work.

I need to do an interview, I think I’ll try to interview Gunther Goth. I’ll start with giving him a quick call.

Hum fun-filled and tiring, I went to Tris' house and once again we wound up in bed, apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this is wonderful.

Wednesday

Seriously, how are these for Free Lancer duds?

I couldn’t do it anymore, I had to hire a maid even though she costs almost half of my daily salary, but I can’t take it anymore, the filth is getting to me.

The dolt was not getting the hint, so damnit, I proposed to him.

Thankfully, he said yes – I didn’t want to wait another moment, so we were joined in a private ceremony. Tris moved in. Since I made the joining choice, the poor man gets my name. The laws of this world are very confusing.

Thursday

Isn’t he handsome? So muscular.

Oops – must be all that woohooing. (The pictures are courtesy of a friend of Tris' that was at the gym today while he was working out.)

Friday

What I wouldn’t give to have a vacation available! I only managed to get about half the sleep I need, got up too late to eat breakfast, so I grabbed a cup of Double Non-Fat Frothiccino with Carmel Swirl.

Tris is such a sweety. On his day off he finally did the grocery shopping I so badly needed done. He even picked me up a bottle of bubble bath. He’s so considerate. While he was there, he took a fishing lesson. He so wants to learn how to fish.

Hey, things aren’t so bad as I thought! I got promoted to Professional Blogger! Yeah, the change to journalism was perfect for me and I only work until 12:00 – more time to spend with Tris! Things just keep getting better and better.

Saturday

I rode my bike to the Goth home hoping to get an interview with Gunther. He wasn’t home, but I passed the graveyard on my way so I stopped and toured the mausoleum, sorry, no camera. Besides a lot of noise, screaming and organ music, I came out unchanged. But while at the graveyard, I found two blue topaz, one can be seen at my feet in the above picture. I sent one off to be emerald cut.

If you want to know what’s going on in Perseus, you have to read the paper.

Poor Tris, it really wasn’t fair of me to leave the broken sink, and just go to bed while he was at the community pool for a half an hour swim, but he’s so much better at fixing the plumbing messes.

We’re really going to have to see if we can find a new home. Something not too expensive, but better than this. We’re both off tomorrow, perhaps we can look around then.

Part 3

Part 5

Sireta's Blog - Part 3

2009-06-11T20:45:00.018-04:00

I’ve been in Perseus one week now, starting week two. Since I don’t work on Sundays, I decided to wander around town when I saw a sign that said I could take a painting class at the Community School for the Gifted. (Once again, no camera.:( Sorry, I really wish you could have seen this school – gifted indeed.)

After class, I walked around the square and ended up at this nice little bistro – Little Corsican Bistro and decided to eat outside since, like all days since I’ve arrived, it was beautiful. The only complaint I had about the meal was that there were too many people hanging around. I get very uncomfortable and stressed in crowds.

It was still early and I was feeling curious, so I started walking up the hill on the road out of town when I saw a name on the mailbox, Crumplebottom. There were Crumplebottoms in my hometown, so I stopped and rang the doorbell. Agnes Crumplebottom answered and invited me in.

We chatted for a while, but it started getting late, and I was getting itchy from her decorating tastes, so I called a cab and headed home. She seemed nice enough, even if she is disgustingly rich with crappy pattern choices.

Up early on Monday, as always since the carpool comes at the insane hour of seven in the morning, I put on my new Paper Girl uniform. I look pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

I’m so excited about this new job. I sure hope I like this one and do well. If things don’t pick up soon, I’m going to have to write my parents for money.

I worked hard all day; I was beginning to wonder if 3:00 was ever going to arrive. The day was seriously harder than I expected – can you say stress overload? I’ve got to improve my writing skills, maybe even get an easel just so I can paint some of this stress away. I really enjoyed that class I took.

I can’t take the thought of cooking or going out. I’m not crazy about pizza, but it’s the only takeout available, so I ordered one. Really isn’t the hair the same color as the uniform a bit much?

I hate to be a pig, but I’m starving.

Tuesday

Leftover cold pizza for breakfast, yuck. In my opinion, that’s not the way to start the day. Like all leftovers, it tasted like the fridge. Not to mention, cold with congealed grease, but I have no other choice, I don’t have time for anything else.

Today wasn’t quite as bad as yesterday, so I came home, grabbed some juice and decided to practice painting. My stress disappeared in the solitude of the paints. I had the easel delivered from a place called Buy Mode.

Wednesday

I learned today that if I increase my writing skill, I’ll be able to get that promotion I want so bad. My parents sent money to buy a cheap desk and computer so I can work on my writing skills, I really should think about taking another class. Also, I need to work on my friendship with Tris if I want to keep him as a friend. Frankly, I really need one or it’s going to get lonely around here even for a loner. I tried to visit him last night, but he was out. I guess he must have changed jobs or gotten a promotion because I could have sworn he used to come home at 3:00 just like me.

Oh, Spirits, I was feeling lucky since I finally caught Tris at home. When I saw him, I just melted again. I thought since I hadn’t seen him for a while I was wrong about my feelings, but I’m such a hopeless romantic and he’s so flirty, I just know this is so much more than just friendship.

So I thought I’d tell him how I feel about him. Then we kissed. Wow, is he a great kisser! Wait, great doesn’t begin to describe him.

Waking on Thursday, I was still feeling on top of the world when I headed off to work. So much so, I improved my writing skills while still at work and earned a promotion to Automated Spell Checker Checker – I’m now making 44/hour.

I thought I’d have Tris over for dinner, but when I opened the fridge door, I was assaulted by the stench of something rotten. So, instead, I decided to toss the crap and invite Tris out. He asked me to call him back in about five hours because he was busy. Unfortunately, I forgot to look at the time, he was still at work.

Part 2

Part 4

Sireta's Blog - Part 2

2009-06-05T10:08:00.028-04:00

(Tuesday)
This is where I work, but they won’t let me use my camera inside, so I can’t show you what it’s like here.

So, this is the pick this town has to offer? Seriously, I’m going to be a single, hopeless romantic forever, and I’m going to stop looking out the door as I pass. *shudder*

Okay, my second day at work – I really tried to be friendly with my co-workers, but it put such a strain on me that by the time 3:00 came, I was beat, all I wanted to do was go home. I didn’t even talk to Bulf who picks me up everyday.

Off to the Maywood Glen for the chess tournament. For some reason all I can hear is the lyrics to some old song running through my head.

“I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike.” *

Arriving in the park, I know I should have skipped it this time. I’m hungry, tired, and need a shower, but I really want to do this and I think I can beat this guy.

And another one bites the dust. Unfortunately a long day and hunger won out; I left the tournament without finishing.

I headed over to Hogan’s Deep-Fried Diner for a bite to eat. Seems to be a nice, family style restaurant. Cameras aren't allowed in here either, or I'd show you the place. :(

(Wednesday)
Oooh, I need someone to take care of sometimes. What better than a goldfish? I named him Bobbi; or her.

(Thursday)
If there’s one thing everyone does in a small is gossip about the important families. My co-worker, Jamie Jolina, actually grabbed me from the lab to see Gunther and Cornelia Goth. The Goths are one of the richest families in Perseus.

Later that morning, passing by the front door, I mistakenly looked out again. This time I was with Jamie so I asked her what the hell the attraction was of standing outside the hospital reading the paper. She wasn’t sure.

As my ride turned to head back to my home, I was once again stressed and overworked. This job is no longer fun. Maybe there’s something available in the science field. Perhaps if I ride over to Landgraab Industries Science Facility on my next day of, see if anything’s available.

Tris Verur moved in across the street. Finally someone not too insanely ugly, but he still leaves a lot to be desired. At least he seams to have a brain, even if he does favor black. He says he’s in the athletic field, I can sure believe that. The man has muscles.

WTF, I was just getting ready for bed when I looked out my window and saw this toddler sitting outside Tris’ house. Then even worse, I saw what I presume was his father inside with Tris. What kind of man leaves his child outside when he visits at 11:48 p.m? By that token, who visits at 11:48 p.m. with or without a toddler?

(Friday)
I know you’re going to think I’m nuts, but I cannot stand to sit on this dirty toilet. It seriously gives me the ickies.

Ah shit, this is going to be a seriously bad day. The house is dirty, I stayed too late at Tris’ and got a bad night’s sleep. Then the morning started with a cold shower and now the damn thing’s broken. What the hell else can happen?

I could try to fix the shower, but I think I’ll call someone to do it for me.

(Saturday)
Thank the Spirits, I finally have a day off from that horrid job and I can get my house clean. I’m tired of cringing every time I go near the toilet.

I’ve slept on it, and I’ve actually decided I don’t want a science job; I want a career in journalism. I want to have fun. A long way from the Science Guildmasters, I know, but I hated the medical profession and just could not work my way up the corporate ladder.

All right, I got a job as Paper Girl at Doo Peas Corporate Towers. Starting Monday at 8:00 a.m. for 38 an hour.

I’ve decided that since I’m here, I’ll take a writing class – it certainly can’t hurt my future in journalism.

A beautiful day for sitting in the park across from Doo Peas.

I brought my book along. I just couldn’t be happier. A good romance, a beautiful day, and just the birds singing to disturb me.

I went to visit Tris after I finished my book. We’ve become friends. It’s so nice to have a friend. I think I’d like to kiss him, but I’m not sure. He’s so flirty.

*Bicycle Race by Queen

Day 1

Part 3

Sireta's Blog - My First Day

2009-06-04T16:00:00.007-04:00

(This is Sireta Aren's blog, an account of starting out in a new home far from where she grew up.

It's a case where I play the game and tell the story, so I have no idea whatsoever what's going to happen. So, if you're interested in storytelling, the Sims 3 or both, follow along with Sireta and me as we check out what EA has given us. I'm not using cc, pose boxes, or a preplanned story. I haven't turned off the plumbbob, headers or balloons. It's just what comes out of the box. I'm even using the in-game camera. -Lachesis)

I’ve never done anything like this before, but what the hell. People are doing blogs all over the place. For the time being, I’m doing this from the library because I don’t have a computer at home, I can’t afford one.

Me? I’m Sireta Aren and I live on Dagon. I just completed my last session with the Guildmasters of Science. I’m unusually young to have done so, I’ve only seen eighteen springs. I’ve completed in two years what would normally take five. Yes, I’m a genius, lucky me.

I’m also a loner, perfectionist, lucky and a hopeless romantic. Aren’t I just blessed by the Spirits?

Let’s see, my favorite music is pop, but I don’t have a radio, so much for that. I adore key lime pie and my favorite color? Hot pink, hot damn.

I’ve just moved from the inner mountain region of Tyr (also known as Dragon Island because of its shape) to the northeast coastal town of Perseus. Such an insane change. Not to mention, I’ve left my entire family behind.

Okay, so I bought this tiny house on this tiny piece of land and have furnished as best I can. I even bought a bike so I wouldn’t have to put gas in a car. Magique would be nice, but very few people on Tyr know magique, and I believe it’s unheard of here in Perseus.

What you see behind me is my total living space, so first things first, a job.

Well, thank the Spirits, there was a job today for the position of Organ Donor – just perfect – that will get me started in the medical career I so want to excel in.

With nothing better to do, I decided to wander around the town for a bit. Try to get to know the area and the people.

Seriously, could that baby be uglier? Talking to Yumi, I found her boring. This does not bode well for my first day.

I stopped and talked with Bella Bachelor for a few minutes, without a doubt this entire town was hit with the ugly stick. I don’t think there’s any chance of meeting Mr. Right here. Although, I’m still younger than most people starting out, so I have plenty of time.

I have to admit, it’s quite beautiful here and what few people I’ve seen are very friendly.

I went to the park and saw a guy who at least didn’t completely look like he’d been hit with the same ugly stick as the rest of the town playing chess, so I decided to join him. We spoke very little, just enough to pass names. I must have been too good for him, though, because I looked up from concentrating on the board to find him gone. Without a word. Hum...

Okay, cool. Did I say there was no magique? Well, I guess the taxi companies know some because they teleport you into and out of the cabs.

I’ve heard tales of werewolves living in the forest regions of Tyr, I’ve never been near a forest so I wouldn’t know, but with a moon like that, I have to wonder. What do you suppose it looks like when you can see both moons at once?

Shit, burnt mac and cheese, now that just sucks, but I can’t afford to throw it out, so I’ll just have to eat it. Then off to bed as tomorrow’s my first day of work.

The Start of Better Things