AMATUS!!

I have some exciting news!

A short story called AMATUS (latin: beloved) will be published on this blog October 31st, aka Halloween. It was originally meant to be a part of the in-game project I've previously referred to, but the mood of the story clashes with the mood and environment of the project. Sooo, it gets its own short series!

I wanted to wait to announce the series, since I wasn't sure if it would work, but it seems to be going well so far and hopefully it will continue to. I've written some chapters in advance so I can focus on school. The chapters will be released once every week for multiple parts, and once every two weeks for complete chapters.

Story Overview:
Name: AMATUS
Setting: Bridgeport (outskirts)
Narration: Third-person
Genre: Thriller
Naming Theme: Latin, Mystic
Rating: Teen/PG-13 (language, unsettling scenes, some sexuality and possible non-frontal nudity)

And now, a completely unrelated (yet adorable) teaser for the story:

Can't wait to hear your feedback. :)

Random and Infrequent Posting

 ***This is going to be a really short and random post, because I started writing it about four days ago and never finished. Unfortunately, I think I will only be able to update once a week at most for the next five months because exams are approaching, I only have a few months of school left until my next vacation, and I really need to put my nose to a book. Also, I need to devote some time to my new "business" and other creative pursuits. Of course, this means I won't be on Blogger as much, but I'll still be around. Thank you for understanding! :) ***

Remember the bright and cheery village of Greensborough?

Well, welcome to Desolado Valley, home of the Death faeries!

Drastic change in scenery, no?

 The Death faeries, for whatever deed they did, have been punished by the Lyron Kingdom and banished to an unbreakable bubble (the butterfly pavillion) for all eternity. I still have to build the dungeon/prison/castle/whatever you want to call it, but I'm not looking forward to it since it's hard to build in a giant-yet-suffocatingly-small bubble. Something tells me I won't be playing the Death faeries often.

Off-topic, but something I love to do is just pull up Notepad while in-game and jot down a whole bunch of random notes. For instance, what buildings I want/need in a world's district and what roles the citizens of that area have:

I also use NotePad to document what "specialty" rooms I need to build, and what colors/hobbies/whatever the people in the household enjoy.

Really, this is the only way I stay organized. So how do you guys jot down your notes? Do you use a program, or do you prefer the old-fashioned route with a pen and paper? I used to use pens and paper, sheets and sheets of paper, but then it all became too much and I became increasingly paranoid of an "outsider" stumbling across these vague sheets of paper with cryptic notes all over the place and declaring me to be mentally insane.

So, I switched to digital. :)

That wasn't a very strong ending, was it? Ermm....check out the Dillard's new house if you haven't already. And to all a good morning/noon/night! *tips off hat*

Casa de Dillard

(can I just note that this freakin' house ate up ALL but 452 of their simoleans, and they had 300k?)

I should probably show you the house before they mess it up with booze, parties, and empty plasma juice boxes no? Alrighty then, so welcome to...

~Casa de Dillard~

Finally finished...for now.

I couldn't finish the house because I ran out of money and ideas of how to occupy the extra space. However, I did manage to get most of it done, so I'll show you the "major" rooms as well as the floorplans. I won't bother you guys with the not-so-important rooms, because there are MANY of them. I seriously underestimated the size of the plan. For a second, I actually thought it wouldn't be big enough. Silly me.

Also, I tried something new: furnishing a sim's room by their favorite color. I'd say the hardest by far was Jacob and Trudy's room. Do you know how hard it is to make hot pink and lilac look "mature"? Very.

First up: The Basement

Yes...their basement is seriously this large.

Not an important shot, but I love the way it looks.

Angie's Lounge, aka her "happy place".

Exercise Room, aka Jacob's "happy place".

Angellique's Nursery

Jacob and Trudy's bedroom

Creepy stairs in the hallway. I wonder what it leads to...

ZOMG VAMPRIES!!!1!!!ONE!!

ZOMG A CREEPY DOOR THAT YOU HAVE TO SQUINT TO SEE!!! IT JUST GETS WORSE!! Behold, the eeeeviiiil....

...Day Spa, aka Angie's other "happy place".

 And if you're wondering why Angie would need not one, but two happy places, you're about to find out.

First Level:

Traditional homes are kryptonite to evil, club-hopping, city-slicker vampire socialites.

A view of the living room from the foyer

View of the fireplace

View of the TV

The study

The kitchen/dining room

Kristina's bedroom

The bathroom that Kristina and Angellique will eventually share

Second Level:

Thame's Bedroom

Thame's Bathroom

Angie and Beau's Bedroom (bathroom not shown because I ran out of moolah)

Bookmark this post, because you won't see the house in this good of shape for awhile. ;)

**Some Notes**

-I've decided that there is indeed something interesting about Kristina, that I never noticed because I was too busy ignoring her: I mixed up her traits. While I was hoping for a party animal to rival even her mother, instead I got an anal-retentive sim who has absolutely no sense of humor. So we're looking at Perfectionist, Neat, No Sense of Humor, Genius, and Neurotic. Goody.

An update on everyone's favorite colors:
*Trudy - Lilac
*Jacob - Hot Pink
* Beau - Black (of course)
*Angie - Purple (of course)
*Thame - Yellow
*Kristina - Orange (the color of geniuses!)
*Angellique - Green

Testing and Moving Out

*cries hysterically*

So now that we have that out of the way, methinks Noble Hills is gone. Forever. As in, completely. Can I load it in CAW? Yes. Can I boot it up in EIG? Yes. Does it crash in EIG? Yes. Am I growing impatient with building the same lot 3x in a row and not being able to save it before it crashes? Yesyesyesyesyes.

I am going to try and upload it into the game after I've made some terrain changes, and if it doesn't crash in game, we're good to go. If it does crash, then I have to say goodbye to NH and try to find the energy to crappily create yet another world. Go me. I'm getting sick of this.

So in the meantime, I'm taking extra special care of New Shamaar. I want to be able to load up this world when I'm feeling depressed and think "hmm, maybe I can build worlds!" 

Right, so, onto the speedy testing! 

Cypress Ivory taking in the scenery from her Green Residence

Tending the garden

Fishing, fishing, just keep fishing...

Apparently, sim-vegetarians can eat fish guilt-free. Doesn't that make them pescetarians?

That looks like such a comfy bed

The area of New Shamaar I tested is named "Greensborough", home to the Green faeries. I like it so far, I can't find any routing issues so I'll move onto the next area. :) I'm thinking of starting on either Hellion Village (Fire faeries), Lyron Kingdom (Water faeries), or Desolado Valley (Death faeries).

***[Now, onto the originally scheduled program]***

Love this house. So pretty...

This is Trudy Francois' house. Because she and Jacob are dating, Jacob now lives here as well. I'm ashamed to say that I followed him here shortly after he moved out because I missed him. The homestead seemed empty without him.

Workin' on his pecs

So now I'm left with three choices: A) I can keep him here with his girlfriend, B) I can move him out and leave her behind, or C) I can build a new homestead for the creepy vampire family so they can all comfortably reside with one another instead of stepping on each others' toes like they are now.

Is it sad that I'm seriously considering option B?

Trudy, aka The Girl Who Ruined Christmas Everything

Why hello there, Ms. Grace

Trudy - "What are you doing here? Jakey promised me you wouldn't talk to me."

Don't talk to me like you're Angie, you are not in my good graces right now. I could kill you right here. Nothing's stopping me.

Trudy - "Except Jakey."

Especially...Jakey.

Trudy - "If you killed me off, Jakey would cry. And you wouldn't be able to take that."

What makes you say that?

Trudy - "I saw you choke up after witnessing Jakey cry over releasing Tucker, you wimp. It was just a stupid lady bug."

But his tears were so convincing! :'(

Trudy - "Gag me."

And this, dear friends, is why I'm considering option B.

Stone-cold face of EVIL!

So why are you interested in Jacob, anyway?

Trudy - "His stepmom is famous, he's rolling in cash, he's a vampire, and he gives me inside access to the inner workings of the police department. What else could a girl want?"

Oh, I dunno, love? Lust, at the very least.

Trudy - "Love and lust are weak emotions. They get in the way of things. This is purely business."

...I see.

Trudy - "Shh- you're interrupting my soaps!"

Just keep running, running- wait, I feel like I've used that joke before...

Jacob, your girlfriend is a pain in the @$$.

Jacob - *wheezing* "I know."

So why do you keep her around?

Figures.

***A few magic clicks of omnipotence later***

....what have I gotten myself into?

**Two Hours Later*

It was just a matter of time before the EA bachelor pads wouldn't cut it.

The new homestead, based off of this floorplan. Pretty cool, eh? It's gigantic. I hope I can make proper use of the space when I get around building the interior.

Anyway, it's after 2AM, I'm exhausted, and my eyelids are drooping. Goodnight, all! :)

Update: Here's a few more pictures of Greensborough I forgot to toss in:

Overview

Welcome to Greensborough!

My favorite building, Tinka's Lumber Shoppe

Graphics Cards and other fun stuff

 ***If this post seems disjointed, that's because it is. I wrote half of it yesterday, and half of it today. Sorry!***

I opened up the game today and found this:

A view of Public School 67...I need a new card.

I hate to say it, but I think TS3 has taken its toll on my Nvidia 9500. I don't understand why, or HOW even, since the Nvidia 9500 is supposedly a great graphics card to have. Sigh. Anyway I've given up, I'm going to give the computer some more RAM (since we have some spare RAM laying around anyway) and I'm going to bite the bullet and scan eBay for some new graphics cards. I found some used Nvidia GTX 280s laying around eBay for less than $100, should I bite the bullet and purchase those or settle for smaller? My biggest fear is that my computer can't handle the almighty force of the GTX 280. And yet, I feel like it'd be a waste of money just upgrading from a 9500 to a 9800. Grr.

eta: Found out last night (when I was typing this) that most of my 3 gigs of RAM and 1 gig of video card memory is being eaten by TS3, or something like that. Holy cow!

My poor, poor computer. I bet it's on its last legs. I can hear it wheezing. Anyway, onto cheerier stuff.

Thame playing the piano @ The Prosper Room

Posing for the camera right before getting arrested for being out past curfew

Pregnant Club Dance of EVIL

Sims can indeed dance on tables! I believe the table is that pub table-thingy in Buy Mode, not a regular table.

Little Angellique comes into the world

Jacob grows up

Red Sparkles of Technical IMMORTALITY!!!

Question: is Jacob any less creepy as an adult? Answer: No, not really. Depends on who you ask.

More evidence of my epic graphics fail, although this actually looks kind of cool.

Now that Jacob is club-chasing for his first victim special friend, Thame has to be the filler guinea pig.

As soon as Thame is a YA, he will be a vampire. Simple as that. His creepy eyes are begging for vampirification.

Remember when I said Jacob grew up? I was wrong.

*Stuff I Forgot To Talk About*

• In case you were wondering, Jacob did find his first prey. Her name is the-mixologist-at-plasma-501-whose-name-I-forget. (Meredith Liang, I think?) I came up with a fun "reward" for the Dillard vampires: they must catch their first prey on their own, and cannot use cheats or lifetime rewards. If they succeed in catching their prey, I will give them the "Master of Seduction" reward. If they also manage to turn their prey at the same encounter, I will give them a bonus reward. I haven't decided what the bonus reward will be yet, but let's just say that Jacob didn't get it. 
• The guy with the creepy eyes is a maid whose name I forget. I gave them a maid because butlers are too expensive and the Dillards are incredibly messy.
• I haven't killed off Kristina yet, she's still alive. Could have sworn I took a pic of her, but I guess not. Maybe next time...?

As usual, thanks for reading! Going to go catch up on blogs now. :)