When I reinstalled my game, I put in clean templates for everything except Strangetown. So tonight, when I went to start screen-capturing the images for this chapter, I realised that I don't have Gilbert Jacquet - from Bluewater Village.
[headdesk] Thinking ahead; I do it well.

I've tried to export him before & he's gone strange. Is that the case for everyone? Has anyone successfully exported/cloned/remade him that would possibly share him with me?

If not, I'll just attempt to remake him in bodyshop. In which case, I'll make sure to share him so that anyone who wants his evil little self in their game can have him with or without Bluewater.

I officially finished college on Thursday. My final exams were the three theory sections of my internationals. I get my results in late January, early February.

So I've been working on typing out my scribbled version of ASLDT's chapter 13. I'm ten pages into it so far, with a couple more to go. Then I'll sit down to shoot the scenes, & then I can post it.

But today I was telling someone that I was working on it & they wanted a short summary of the chapter to understand why I was saying it was 'heavy'. Hidden behind the cut is my very short sum up.

Warning: contains story spoilers, though no names are mentioned.

( red, rancid & spoiled )

Hopefully it wont be too long, but there's a lot marked down on our calendar between going away & having friends arrive from interstate over the next 3 weeks so I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have for working on this.

Woah.... last post was in July. Sorry guys, I guess I've been busier than I expected.

Needless to say, I haven't had the time to play my game... but I've not given up on my ongoing storylines.

The Tohno family is undergoing a slight change as generation 3 hits puberty. Nyuu finds herself in the middle of something big. Very, very big. The sort of big that has proportions fulfilling the epic description. Not being able to play due to endless assignments & photography work is actually quite hellish.

A Strange Little Desert Town has been in a bit of luck. I've managed to break my writers block & have been scribbling out more of chapter 13 while on the train in the mornings. Obviously this is easier on the days that I manage to score a seat, but I'm getting much neater as I practice my standing while writing in an A6 notebook. [grins]
Unfortunately, it is still going to be a very heavy chapter. Consider yourselves warned.

I'd give you a preview picture, but the chapter's words are not as yet complete... which means that the images are still only existing as an in the pipeline thing. Soon though. As soon as I can, without failing my exams from lack of study or late assignments.

If you're interested in my non-sims stuff, which is still pretty staggered but not quite as ignored as this journal has been during this semester, you're welcome to go look at my personal journal; draganin. It's mostly photos & the occasional rant.... plus a few bits & pieces from my college work.

Okay... so going back into full time study kicks your previous time management in the proverbial. Gah. However, I'm having a metric f***ton of fun both studying & getting to do a photo documentary on the class/semester at the same time. Not to mention the networking.... picked up a couple of new models, possibly gotten a job photographing for a modelling agency & also getting to do a shoot for the college next week =)

So why am I writing this in this journal? Because one of the girls in class did special occasion / glamour makeup on my face today & I managed to get the shots all up to date online from class.... & a friend messaged me to tell me that I looked like Carrie Stripe (generation 5).

( While she looks so sad in photographs, I absolutely love her when she smiles )

I'm still around.  Honest.  I've been working on chapter 13 of A Strange Little Desert Town, though I'm still stuck on a section thats giving me grief.  Kinda helps that the characters aren't enjoying it & that makes me hate writing it, but it needs to be written.  Maybe I'll try working on it during my lunch breaks at college (I start on monday - [bites nails] - its been 9 years since I last studied).  I'm also still playing the Tohno family.  There is an update from them on its way - hopefully I'll get time to put it together on the weekend.... & I've been kicking around in WoW a bit lately (& got Lich King for my birthday along with collectors ed TS3) with lemon_lime35 & brilliantcat .  It's rather amusing over skype.

Meanwhile I'm planning a new start on my apocalypse challenge.  I didn't technically fail the last one... but I lost the save file amongst a heap of dvd backups & harddrive stores & I can't be bothered looking through 4TB of data for a challenge that was only up to g3. 

Why does this matter?  I'm wanting to make this further difficult - it's going to only be made up of pixel_trade sims.  So once I reinstall ts2 on my laptop, I'll battle the empty hood idea & then start the townifying process.  But here is the thing.... I want you to tell me which of your sims you want to see make their way into the hood.  Please leave me a comment with the two boy & two girl sims of yours that you'd like me to install (& if you could link me to the page you've got them for download on that would be lovely).

[grins]
Thanks in advance!

So I decided, in my infinite stupidity, that I wasn't going to use old shots of the various Stripes for the "family photos" & that I would give them all a nice shoot when I set up the storytelling hood.

But I've mostly got them all in there now. Mostly. Generations five & six still need to go into that hood, but the story isn't there yet so I'm not in too big a rush yet. Especially as they are in the play hood. [grins] Keeping those separate was a wonderful idea.



I've posted the images to my site rather than here as there are story spoilers. If you don't want to know what generation four look like as adults or who they marry, (& so on & so forth once I finish shooting the next three generations) then don't click the link. =)

Okay, so they aren't technically my original family, but they're acting right (thank you SimPE) & they're almost all settled into their new Strangetown.
It's taken far longer than I hoped, & I'm not entirely finished yet, but here's a couple of "Hurrah!" flags being waved.

The hardest part was not CAS.

( I'm as corny as Kansas in August..... )

I have been procrastinating again. While my main data backups have been done of the drives I intend to format, I still feel like I've missed something. So I've put off the killdisk for the moment & am passing the time going through files (mostly photographs) with fine tooth combs to make sure I will lose nothing.

I've also spent about 12 hours working through sims backups to see who I can save. I've gone through 41GB of neighbourhood backups (most of those are just N002). However there is good news.

Of the 54 sims & pets that make up the Stripes, I've managed to save 50. Esmerelda, Mason & Lanei, all generation 6, are unable to clone. I'll see how I go rebuilding Ezzie, but Mason & Lanei were only toddlers, so I'll just replay those years. The other sim I can't get out properly is Gilbert Jacquet. So I suppose I will just have to use his subhood & get him back that way instead of building a custom shopping district.

Once I've ensured that all my lightroom processing has been exported to my completed photos drive in both sizes, I'll start that format. The list of installs I need to do, not including drivers or games is a page long.

~*~*~*~
Edited to add:
Format went well. Reinstall is slow going.

Also, I hate serial keys. Numerical dyslexia & serial keys do not a good team make.
It's not like they work anyway. People still pirate & get around DRM.

My favourite game doesn't even HAVE a serial key. You just stick the disk in & go. *&* it's written by Terry Pratchett's daughter. ♥ Overlord

I can't extract most of generation 6 of the Stripes.
Each set of twins is frakked. I can get Adam but not Eric, both Nadine & Esmerelda are borked, & I can get Lanei but not Mason. Sarah isn't a twin & she's fine.
More than half the character files, viewed through SimPE, for both Strangetown & Angkor 'hoods are incomplete.

I feel like I've been kicked in the guts.

Miranda Stripe was created in March 2007. Almost 2 years ago to the day. Her descendents have gone through countless re-installs & new computer builds.

Every single one of them got full play time; infant to death & they all moved home to the main lot before they died.No one got stuffed in the bin or made into a townie, though townies were made playable. Not even the pets were sold.

I'm going to need to re-play all of generation 5's adulthoods, marriages & get them to beget their progeny all over again & they wont be the same one's I've been playing til now.

Technically, they wont be the same Stripes at all. Just very good look-a-likes.

I don't really care about the Latrodectus', Karma or Tohno families. They're easy to recreate. But the Stripes have been through so much.... & I've put in so much.
I shouldn't feel so crushed. Hell I'm not the sentimental type, certainly not with video games.
Damn it.

My game is corrupting itself.

I played the Stripe lot at 93 Road to Nowhere, Strangetown, night before last & both sims on the lot as well as both dogs (all four of whom were elders) were erroring every time they finished something. Nothing I tried would fix them.

Today I played the Tohno lot in my custom hood, Angkor, & the same thing was happening.

Looking at those error messages, that's the end of this install. In fact, the end of those hoods entirely. There's no point in reinstalling broken hoods.

What I'm going to do today is extract all of them, screenshot their DNA & write them all to DVD. It's going to be a huge task. There are the Stripes... which is well over 30 living sims across 3 generations (4-6), then the Tohnos (5), Karmas (9), Laridian (5), Latrodectus (15), & all my simsperiment kidlets (18). The other families I run aren't on this pc, so they aren't as urgent.

Then I'll screenshot all their homes so that I can recreate them in the fresh hoods.

Whil I'm at it, I'm going to format this install of windows. It's been on my mind, I just haven't wanted to go through & reinstall everything. Gah. That is a couple of days on its own.

Perfect time to start my downloads from scratch though.
[sigh]