30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 26

- Day Twenty-Six -

Favorite Place to Download Custom Content

One of the biggest problems I had using CC in my game was that, as beautiful as some of the hairs CC-creators have made are, the shading and shine on them just wasn’t my style; I like the more ‘matte’ finish of EA’s hairs… I just hate the bland meshes and weirdly painted texture.

Retextures are a perfect middle ground for what I was looking for. I like Anubis’s too, but if I have a choice I tend to go with Lotus’s Retextures; they have very subtle shading, and that just fits my style!

(If I had choose a runner-up, though… I am starting to get a *ridiculous* amount of Pose Packs, these days.)

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 24 & 25

- Day 24 -

A video you made yourself with Sims

This was my second machinima; it’s not perfect by any means, but it really helped me see the direction I need to take to improve. The premise for the video was a story near and dear to my heart, too, so it’ll always be very special to me. <3

- Day 25 -

Something that happens in Sims you wish happened in real life

I live over a thousand miles from any family, any of my old friends, and even greater distances from the internet friends I’ve made who are near and dear to my heart. I can’t be there for any of them the ways I wish I could because of distance, and being able to do that would just be… amazing. Nuff said.

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 23

-Day Twenty-Three -

The most awesome Sims you’ve ever had without cheating

Oh my is this belated or what… Oh well!

Anyways, Kaylee and Karamel were my first set of twins—unintendedly, too—and left diapers just in time for the World Adventures release. With them I max’d nearly every skill available between them, on top of Kaylee conquering every tomb that came with WA… and this was before I started playing with 500+ Day lifespans.

Even though their accomplishments are mere numbers, their awesomeness isn’t just that—they were the first Sims in my family that I REALLY bonded with, and 100% cemented my commitment to the Kane family once and for all.

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 21 & 22

Since I've fallen quite a bit behind on the 'do one a day' I swore to myself I was going to do (just to prove I was capable... guess that fell through!), I'll be doing two today...

... and guess what: they're both Amelia-related! Hang on to your Cowboy Boots!

- Day Twenty One -

Something that happened/could happen that made you quit without saving

There's nothing like Story Progression getting a little over-zealous in hooking up single sims, and a couple weeks ago I had THIS little doozy happen because of the Crazy Cupid.

Before I'd officially set Amelia's relationship to 'steady' status (they were still Romantic Interests, I wasn't sure if they were ready to be an item yet), I moved Junior Notorious into the hood, and SP was *insistent* that he and Amelia start dating. Even after I restarted the save, it happened *AGAIN*...

I'm sorry, Junior, but she really ain't your type. XD

In the end I just fixed everything with Master Controller, but seriously... W. TF.

- Day Twenty Two -

The most scandalous thing you’ve done with Sims

No, being gay is not scandalous. It never SHOULD be scandalous. The whole idea of it being something other than normal is totally preposterous--and given the fact I've made no secret about my own sexual interests, clearly adding a Lesbian couple to my story was anything but 'scandalous'--at least, to me.

For a lot of people, though, it is. Not only did I hook them up, I wrote a very drawn out story of a girl in love with her best friend since High School, and then about a girl who's been abused and mislead by men and ends up falling into those best friend's arms for a last hope at love. Their story isn't a clean cut "happy ever after" love-affair. It's still awkward, it'll always be awkward, and to me, THAT'S the scandal. It's a relationship that had no business working out, and yet somehow it manages to teeter-totter along on the edge of a blade, waiting for one little push to shove it into disarray.

Still, the most scandalous thing I've done with them is made them wait until today for their first Woohoo--and got some really sexy shots of it that no one will ever see because society has a problem with nudity. So, I guess, if anything, getting some nude shots of my les-girls getting it on is pretty scandalous. XD

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 20

It appears that whoever designed this challenge neglected to add in a 'Day 20'--so I'm just going to make up my own! Which means, today's challenge is:

- Day Twenty -

Favorite Screenshot That I've Taken

Long before I knew how to use camera mode or how to get rid of thought bubbles or any of that cool stuff, I took this shot. It's simple, but I think the reason I'm always drawn back to it has nothing to do with the composition of the picture (though I did do some editing to it, obviously), but the story behind it.

Karamel was a hopeless romantic; a genius author, but too lazy and too timid to do much of anything but sit in her office wasting away, writing romance novels about the loves she wished she had. Her sister, Kaylee, was always off galavanting with various men over distant lands, but despite all her envy Karamel did nothing.

Until, that is, Kaylee dragged Karamel with her on one of her explorations in Egypt. After seeing Kaylee with her lover, Karamel decided, on a whim of courage, to flee to France and try to find her true love. She did: Gaston. However, it wasn't until after they rushed into marriage and moved back to Sunset Valley that Karamel discovered her new husband was a clumsy hydrophobic; not long after their son was born, Gaston tripped into a swimming pool and drowned.

Karamel began to waste away, as her heart belonged only to her husband and without him, she was devastated. Desperate to keep him near forever, she kept his ashes near her pillow--and at night, while everyone was asleep, she would wait for her husband to appear, where they would secretly spend hours wishing to be reunited once more.

In the end, Kaylee discovered what was going on and pulled her sister from her frantic obsession with her husband's ghost, and they gave him a proper burial--but those nights, when Karamel would wake up to spend those precious few moments with Gaston's ghost, are some of the favorite moments I've ever had simming, despite the fact I never wrote about them.

Now, why exactly did Gaston die? He wasn't interesting--until he was dead.

Moral of the story: Boring sims are drastically improved by killing them. ;)

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 19

- Day Nineteen -

One Thing You Would Change About the Game

Fairly self explanatory; I don't particularly MIND Rabbit Holes; don't get me wrong, I understand why they used them! And I agree that it was a good idea in order to get the open neighborhood to work smoothly--but if I had the brainpower to come up with a way to easily change Rabbit Holes into fully-functional buildings? EA would be being hit with a petition, baby!

At least at this point, I've invested a lot of time to building sets underneath them--I just wish those sets were a bit more functional.

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 18

- Day Eighteen -

The longest family tree you ever had/the Sim you played with the most and why

Several days after the Sims 3 came out, I installed the game and made one sim. My goal with making that sim--Issa--was that I was going to attempt to play the game as long as possible with that family, without cheating for money, and see how far I could get.

I guess I got pretty far: I never did end up playing anything else.

The surname has changed a couple of times--and it will continue to do so--but I do call them the 'Kanes' as that's what they've been for the past 6 generations. This was never really meant to be a "Legacy", so I never stuck to any sort of rules like that; I just sort of went with the flow.

Now, WHY I've stuck with the Kanes is a relatively easy question to answer: they have history. Why start something new when I have a family with flaws and quirks and a past that has thousands of screenshots to look back on? I honestly love my family as an author loves the characters in their novels: they're all extensions of myself with personalities I put a lot of love and care into designing. I can't see leaving them behind for something else.

This family is definitely nothing special compared to some families out there, especially now that I play with such long lifespans that have moved it's progression to a snail's pace, but that's not really important to me, anymore. What's important is that they're special to me--something that will never change. :)

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 16 & 17

Due to pretending I have a social life, I missed my window to update yesterday: which, naturally, is very heartbreaking. It's okay to cry--the tears ease the pain!

Seriously, though--here's yesterday and today's questions:

- Day Sixteen -

A music clip/YouTube video of the background music you enjoy most

I'll happily admit to tuning my Sim's radio station to Electronica just to listen to this song, which I will backtrack onto several times because it's easily the best dance song included with Late Night. But I guess you can disagree with me if you want to. ;) /kid

The song they used in the World Adventures trailer was a close runner-up (can't remember the name off the top of my head), shortly followed by OK Go's unnoticably Simlish ballad. I was also tempted to track down some Sim's 1 Build Mode music too, because the nostalgia factor every time I hear it is pretty intense, but Brave is pretty hard to beat in my book.

And--I neglected to post the Simlish version of this song because now I can point out how insanely sexy Kelis is. <3

- Day Seventeen -

Your Favorite “Special” Sim Species

It might be a slight under-exaggeration to say that I'm a sci-fi nerd, so I've been fascinated with robots ever since my Dad and I used to sit in his shop for hours, building those simple walking 'spider' constructs that looked like a weak version of the Replicator from the Stargate universe. The idea of creating a mechanical life form seriously intrigues me to no end, so the Servos/Simbots in the Sims games have given me a little taste of what I've always wanted.

The Simbots/Servos get a lot of flack I find rather undeserved, considering they're rather adorable looking metal constructs and they have a lot of functions designed to make them helpful, buuutt, whatever; I guess that just means more simbots for me! :D *raises army!*

(Oh, and I used the insanely poorly altered above image from I, Robot because it's definitely one of my favorite movies. I <3 you, Sonny!)

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 15

- Day Fifteen -

The Aspiration/Wants/Fears Your Sims Most Commonly Have

When it comes to LTW's, I'm insanely boring. Since I don't really play the game for the challenge (that's what the other 30+ games on my shelf are for), I tend to pick the LTW that the sim will most easily fulfill in their lifetime, so I'm accomplishing it while focusing on more important things. Because most of my Sims follow a career path, I pick these.

There isn't a specific one I use the most, though; at this point, I haven't repeated any LTW's that I can recall--at least, not within my family--so I had to pick a more broad category.

I actually tend to prefer the Skill LTW's, though, because I feel 'locked in' with Careers; I can't change my mind about their job until they max it, and that irks me a bit. Not that that's really stopped me; I mean, if you look at Jebidiah Kane, he's maxed three careers so far...

(But, at least with my long lifespans I do use SP's settings to increase the difficulty on career advancement, as well as have a mod installed that makes it more difficult to get Sims in good moods. It doesn't even things out, but at least it's not TOTAL easy mode. XD )

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 14

- Day Fourteen -

Favorite / Least Favorite Sim Life Stage

I guess it would make a bit more sense to start off with why I like Young Adult the least, and that is because they are everywhere. When you first make a sim, it's always a YA. So, most stories are about YA's. Sure, it's the "coming out" age of a sim, where the world is their oyster... But I don't particularly like how that suddenly uproots and changes the story: suddenly they have to find a job and find love and get married and make babies, which is basically part of the plot of every Sim's story out there, which makes it feel a little bit redundant. Not to say I dislike those things--I just don't find them particularly "new" anymore.

And then you have kids. When a Sim hits the child stage, it's a rather huge turning point in their life; they still require a bit of taking care of, but for the most part they're now self-sufficient and also able to leave home on their own. They're no longer a little blob that needs taking-care-of! A Sim Child's job is to make friends, to have fun, and to spend time with family--three things that, as simple as they are, I super-duper enjoy. I just don't feel a family is complete without a child running around, either!

Unfortunately, the Child stage is also the most neglected it seems; by the time one kid reaches Child there's a toddler around that everyone is more fascinated with, and when there's no more toddlers to steal the spotlight, there's Teens around. I always feel like it's easy to miss out on giving kids a full life-stage experience, which makes me increasingly motivated to try to fix that.

This is also why Generations will probably end up being my fave EP. ^^ Sleeping bags! Ghost stories! Reading to kids in bed! /dance!

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 13

- Day Thirteen -

Favorite Piece of Custom Content/Mod (Or the reason you don't have any.)

Since it'd be fairly redundant for me to gab about Twallan's mods--since I obviously use all of them and love them, like probably 80% of the active Sims community--I decided to go for something I really love that gets a lot less attention. And that is, of course, these absolutely fantastic pants!

Until the announcement of Generations, the Child stage has always *seriously* gotten the short end of the stick, especially clothes-wise. So, even before I really felt okay with CC, I went out searching for some better garb for my kiddies, and found these wonders.

Not only is the mesh awesome, but even the premade style options are super adorable--though I always end up recoloring them anyways. Honestly, even if you don't like CC much, I highly recommend them because they look like EA-wear and they are super dooper cute: you can download them here.

I should probably take the opportunity to say that, until recently, I didn't have hardly any CC in my game because I wanted to prove that you don't NEED CC to write a good story, or to get good screenshots. I feel that many writers out there rely on it to look 'cool', and then neglect trying to improve their writing; people obsess over how smokin' hot their sims are... and then forget how stale their sims' personalities are. It's obvious which is more important to me.

Why'd I decide to go back to using CC, then? Well, at this point I feel I have little to "prove", and I was bored with the current options. It feels nice to change things up now and then, anyways. :)

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 12

- Day Twelve -

The Community Lot You Visit the Most

The Steel Stallion's appeared in the blog numerous time now, and there's a good reason for that--it's just an awesome lot. (If it isn't egotistical to say that of something I built!) It's definitely no image of beauty but, that's the whole point--it's a bar/dance club built to service the redneck folk of Twinbrook, so if it's messy, gritty, and small and simple, that's the way it's supposed to be.

I'd say that the Red Rendezvous and the community Pool also get a decent amount of visitation as well, but the Stallion's the place to go when Sims need to get away from their kids. And as a bonus, it's got a nice little arcade area that my teenagers will enjoy using later on. ^^

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 11

- Day Eleven -

Favorite Sim Living in your Neighborhood that You Did Not Create

This is Marta Tomasi: flirty, kleptomaniac, handy, athletic, charismatic. She's been featured in many blogs--as have her offspring--but, in my universe, she's the crafty right-hand woman in Jebidiah Kane's empire of evil. She swindles money and she swindles hearts--but in her hands, who wouldn't fall to pieces? She's quite the foxy lady.

I haven't gotten to feature her as much as I would like to--because she's a VERY fun sim and actually quite important to Jeb--but unfortunately the opportunities to do so are few and far between. Still, I was never as excited to install a Sim into my game as I was to install Marta. The wittiness of her "Original", aka the blog written about her by her creator, made her too irresistable!

And of course, Marta's creator is none other than the lovely Chrysame! (Though, I did take the liberty to give her a bit of a makeover for these shots!)

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 9

- Day Nine -

Favorite Expansion Pack / Least Favorite Expansion Pack

I'll first say, I really do love all the expansions. I can't go long without buying them after they go out, because any new content for the game is good content.

That being said... I played through all the tombs and crap included with World Adventures within the first two weeks of buying it. Sure, I can replay them (meeh) or just travel for the exotic experiences, but honestly, I would prefer content that doesn't funnel you into doing "Quests". This is supposed to be a sandbox game, afterall. Still, kudos to the EA team for trying something different... I just wish it'd been something that had better replay value.

Ambitions, on the other hand, tends to be equally as "pigeon-holey", but to this day I still haven't played through all the content that came with it. The careers, the skills... I still feel like there's things from Ambitions that are new and sparkly. Are they the *greatest* things? Not always, but hey. It gave me Twinbrook, and for that I easily love it the most.

Late Night's pretty cool, but I really hate the celebrity stuff and I'm not really into vampires. The bars? Awesome. Hot tubs? Awesome. Dancing? Awesome. But... that's really it for me.

PS: I'm pretty sure that once Generations comes out, it'll be my favorite, buuutt... Since it's not... ;)

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 8

- Day Eight -

The Most Common Reason Your Sims Die

I will say that yes, I've had a lot of sims die of old age. At least, in the past, they did. However, if you look at the course of my story over the past year, there was one death from old age (Farah Kane). The rest were all forced upon them by things beyond their control. Let's see:

During Desperate Sims:
Carl Strummer: Murdered by Chandra Hawkins
Chandra Hawkins: Accidentally Killed by Meredith Kane
Emerald Greenwood: Car Crash
Jerod Grant: Mercilessly Beheaded by Jebidiah Kane

Off-Season/Yet to Happen:
Gaston Kane: "Accidental" Drowning
1+ Sims: Murdered in Desperate Sims' Current Season

So that's at *least* 6 sims that have died for the sake of story, over the last year-and-a-half. It's not even for amusement, though. Every choice I've made to kill someone off was NOT made because they annoyed me, but because that's the way the story needed to unfold, and they had no choice but to suffer the whims of my tale-spinning. Some of the deaths were extremely painful for me, even, and it took all my initiative not to back out of them. But, at the end of the day: the story is more important.

And if there's one thing I can swear to: there will be more to come. /Mwahaha!

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 7

- Day Seven -

Favorite Interaction or Facial Expression of a Sim

Okay, so, I've never had an Insane sim so this face does not appear ANY where in my story. But it's freaking *hilarious*. I seriously love it. It reminds me of these goofy faces my sister and I used to make at the camera when taking pictures of ourselves. We tried to look as preposterous as possible... Ach, those were the days.

Closecloseclose runner up is the Absent-Minded 'confused' expression. Close third runner up is the faces Sims make when they die of starvation, because they are epically painful, and so useful in so many ways.

Per Request:

Here's a picture of my sister and I making faces. ;D

Close enough, right? ^^

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 6

- Day 6 -

Something Sims Do That Annoys You

Maybe I'm ultra nice, but I like giving my Sims multiple stereos. One in the family room, a boombox in the kid's room, maybe another one on the second floor if there's a study or something. However, since I usually play with my music on, I only like to have one on at a time.

And yet. AND YET. Sims see a stereo that's not on and MUST TURN IT ON, as if their lives depended on it. It's one of the few things that I can count on free will doing; making sure that my house sounds like the hallway in a college dorm.

Oh, and they ESPECIALLY must turn it on if a baby is sleeping in the room! God forbid the baby not have their poor little ears blasted off!

Because of this, I've gotten in the habit of putting my Game Music on Mute, and just listening to iTunes in the background... Which just makes me sad. Sims, why?! WHY?!

Also, because this one was a day late, I'll be doing two today; the other will go up later tonight if I can actually remember. I don't wanna take more than 30 days to do this!

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 5

- Day Five -

Your Favorite EA Object in the Game

When I first saw there was incense holders included with World Adventures, I was pretty psyched. I used to be a pretty big incense lover until I moved in with my husband (his schnozz is too sensitive for it), so, way cool right?

AND THEN I DISCOVERED YOU COULD ACTUALLY LIGHT IT.

So, the object could be slightly cooler if it came in any variety that didn't look like it got ninja'd from some ancient overlord's grave, or if the moodlet it gave had to do with the type of incense being burned and not the holder itself (I mean, duh?!) but still, I really like these puppies even if I don't buy dozens of them and clutter my houses with them.

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 4

- Day Four -

The Skill Your Sims are Most Commonly Learning

IRL, I'm a pretty miserable photographer; probably because I have little experience with it (as well as owning a horrible horrible camera), so I guess you could say that my sims are always 'living my dream' of actually being able to use a camera.

At the same time, I ALWAYS find that there's something going on I want to photograph, but--ACK--the only sim in the family with the Photography skill is the one I want to take the photo of!!

The solution: ALL my Sims are photographers, now. Yes. I cheat. I've legitimately gotten the Photography skill to max on 6 Sims; I ain't doing it again. They also all get nice cameras. Spoiled Sims are Spoiled! ;D

I think this one would be pretty obvious though, considering how much I love cluttering my houses with picture frames. I LOVE taking pictures in-game. I can never have enough!

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30 Day Sim Challenge: Day 3

- Day Three -

Your Favorite Neighborhood

Everyone always has mixed feelings about Twinbrook, and I don't blame them. It's not an idyllic town. It's cold, dirty, and the entire town--from the residents to the houses to the community lots--are all in need of a serious make-over.

But me? I love it. It's mysterious, intriguing; like any good set, it sets the tone for the entire play. It stretches the imagination, it forces you to fix it. Because it's broken. Like any good character, it has flaws--and I think that the set is as much a character as any one of the players.

To me, it's also the most realistic of the neighborhoods. I don't like fluffy-happy stuff. I like things that are real, not fake; tainted, not pure. Don't get me wrong, I think both Sunset Valley and Riverview are beautiful towns, but they're boring. I don't particularly enjoy boring.

Though, there IS one thing about Twinbrook that drives me absolutely NUTS: the outdoor lighting. Whoever decided that Twinbrook needed to have periods of extensive shadowing that looks in NO way realistic needs kicked in the shin. Seriously. If I ever come across a mod that fixes that, I will kiss the maker.

Anyways: Twinbrook. I <3 U.

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