FORTY-FOUR - THE APARTMENT

So I decided to take some photos of my new sims' apartment since I finally finished it.

This is his kitchen... well more precisely it's a picture of his back door because I caught a glimpse of the view outside and couldn't resist even though it's a pretty crap shot of the room itself.


His bedroom; crappy shot is because I hadn't really bothered to put up much wall-decor.

Bathroom. This room is tiny and it was the best shot I could get without the walls collapsing.

Spare room. I just filled it with junk.

I still don't remember the poor guys name ^_^;

FORTY-THREE - SLEEP DEPRIVATION

THE POST BELOW IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DARK DOESN'T GET ENOUGH SLEEP.

Caps lock was entirely necessary for this announcement. Thank you.

FORTY-TWO - WHOA TIME FLIES

Wow... so I ditched this thing longer than I intended.

Spent almost a week off work sick in the end which was not fun and got stuck with a needle by a nurse who called it a 'blood test' uh-huh. People will tell you anything to steal your bodily fluids eh?

Anyway I haven't been updating much for two very good reasons.

1. Honestly? I couldn't be fucked. I had nothing to say, so I didn't. Sorry but it's the truth ^_^;

2. RL being a bitch. Busy-busy-busy. The last thing I want to do when I come home from work is spend more time planning out every last detail of a city that I've recently learned will be redundant with the coming of Nightlife... oh sorry, Late Night (still though, I'm excited for the return of INSTRUMENTS and whilst I know it's futile I'm hoping that EA stops molly-coddling us enough to add some kind of 'drunk' trait or animation to the bars. I know it'll be juice but can't sims act a little bonkers on a sugar high at least or will that push the game above a 12 rating?

While I'm on the subject of ratings (and I don't mean to offend anyone) what is with the American rating system. The Sims in the UK has generally been rated between a 7 and a 12 yet in America it always seems to get a T. Now whilst I will accept that twelve year olds might as well be teenagers for how fucking moody/twatty they act (god I sound old ¬¬) a seven year old is still at that tender age where they can be twats but generally don't cause any harm (unless they're of the chav variety but lets give the British population some grace here).

Then again, the English way is very inconsistant. Heavy Rain; a game containing nudity (of the boobies variety), multiple opportunities to snort a powder/liquid-based drug (lest you suffer some kind of brain anurism and bleed out your eyes or get your ass handed to you and thrown into a car crusher ¬¬), self-mutilation (the Lizard Trial. Oh FUCK the Lizard Trial), alcohol (in fact you have several opportunities to get a character absolutely shitfaced for your own amusement), real drugs (of the white and powdery variety in neat little lines at a house party), swearing (Jayden, your swear jar would like a word with you - you owe it some serious moolah), more drugs (hello Dr. Death), more violence (hello again Dr. Death), almost!Rape (although at least Dr. Death was rather creative about it... there's a lot to be said about a guy who wants to ram a power drill into a womans... ahem) and many other instances of things that are no doubt highly inappropriate - the game is rated 15 here in the UK

I suppose we assume that by the age of 15 you've probably seen all that shit anyway so having a hand in mutilating a playable character through a series of QTE events and disturbingly realistic gestures (soon to be more realistic, hello Move!) amongst other things (then again back at the tender age of 15 I wouldn't have reacted any differently than I did at the age of 22 when I played Heavy Rain for the first of many times).

On this train of thought for a moment; Heavy Rain has all this yet it's a 15 and to my knowledge nobody really bitched about it too badly. GTA on the other hand is rated an 18 and as far as I'm aware it's TAMER than Heavy Rain.

Maybe I'm missing a trick but how is paying a prostitute for sex that you don't even get to watch properly before shooting her and taking your money back (or never paying her in the first place) or going to a shitty strip club that's as entertaining as duct-taping my eyelids shut, acting like the American (or stereotypically-European) version of the British chav whose just trying too damn hard to convince you that they are 'well 'ard' whilst letting you shoot anyone you want knowing damn well that you'll eventually be gunned down en-masse by a bunch of PMSing police officers that get uppity if you accidentally brush against their dent-ridden cars any different? Hell one of the Heavy Rain characters gradually ruins her party outfit to make herself look as slutty as possible, dances just so a lecherous pervert will pay attention to her, AGREES to go upstairs with him to his private place for fun times only to realize that oh shit he really means it and he has a gun then (if the player chooses) strips down to her bra and pants whilst doing another sexy dance before finally getting the opportunity to break the guy's balls (literally).

...you know what? Fuck it. My conclusion is that the British ratings board is absolutely fucked in the head.

ANYWAY before I got completely distracted on that long and pointless tangent I was intending to show you my latest sim - call it something of a compensation for sitting through most of this bullshit post and for me being gone far too long.

Is it just me or does it look like he is thinking dirty thoughts in this picture? XD

MY HAIR OBSERVES THAT MY WRIST IS HORRIFICALLY DISJOINTED :D

I think I've wasted enough of your time ^_^; so I'll just say that he's a new sim whose name I don't remember (I made him before my hiatus to the game and as usual I gave him a Japanese-themed name so bugger if I can remember it right now).

I had intended for this post to go somewhere but it looks like I just posted all the shit I probably would've posted had I been bothered into one big nonsensical ramble that no one will read.

Oh well. Few things ever go according to plan - especially given my tendency to completely stray off the point I was initially trying to make.

FORTY-ONE - DOUBLE STANDARDS?

Alright first of all I'll admit that I am having a lot of fun in the Heavy Rain thread over on the TS3 forum. It is incredibly off-topic I know but aside from Altai attempting to stir things up for a brief moment it's been an amicable, friendly thread.

I'm a huge fan of Heavy Rain and I love talking about it so the fact that the thread is there is pretty awesome for me but I do have to question why it's still there. It appeared several hours ago, it's had quite a bit of activity (8 pages and counting) and the topic of the conversation is a game that is rated M in America (15 here in the UK) that contains strong violence, swearing and sex (as well as drug use - but that isn't indicated on the box for some reason).

Are the Gurus sleeping on the job? I'm not complaining because the thread itself is friendly, I'm enjoying the topic and it's nice to have things off topic once in a while but it does seem a little unfair that a thread that is so blatantly off topic has not had any action taken against it when people were recently banned for less :/

FORTY - NEEDLES SUCK :(

I've been sick as a dog all week. Started out as a stomach complaint and turned into complete and utter physical exhaustion. I feel like I've got the flu but without the cold part ^_^;

Went and had a blood test today to try and get to the bottom of why I've been feeling so drained. It was fine at the time, nothing I haven't experienced before since I've given blood in the past. Now my arm is aching like a bitch.

THIRTY-NINE - COMPLETION FEELS GOOD

I finished the interior of both apartments and moved my sims in. Unfortunately there was a um... planning error with one of the apartments so I won't be uploading it. Basically the taller apartment has 3 floors that I intended on using with the ground floor just acting as an empty room I could put junk in since the other rooms are so small. I made the hallway 2 squares wide but widened it at the end so I could fit in two sets of stairs (one for the floor below, one for the floor above) that could still be navigated around.

Yeah... I widened the corridor in the wrong place. I could go and fix it but that'd mean tearing out everything I'd done, since I furnished it before putting in the stairs. I can't be bothered doing all that work for a top floor that my lone sim really doesn't need to use, so I'm not but that's why I'm not going to fix it.

I also made an error with the kitchen in her apartment. I put the kitchen units in front of where I had intended to put the back door which was an annoyance I just couldn't bother rectifying since her kitchen is tiny and I'd already spent ages finding some way to fit everything in there.

This'll teach me for furnishing a house before putting in doors and stairs XD

Anyway! This is Noda, rockin' out in her apartment :D


I don't know why but the way she's sitting here reminds me of a doll.



Shinichi was being very studious... or trying to be listening to Noda's racket.

Cooking calms the soul ^_^

So far everything seems to be going fine, although for some reason Shinichi has a complete obsession with Noda's apartment. I'll admit his is crappier due to my poor design but he has better furnishings than she does, he even has a great big space to play his guitar but every time he goes to play, he leaves his apartment and goes next door to hers. Except he can't because I locked both doors so there would be no apartment swapping.

I don't understand why he's so insistant on using all her stuff, including her floor space aparently :/

UGH one of these days Blogger will recognise a paragraph as a paragraph instead of lumping all my writing together or creating space where there shouldn't be space ¬¬

THIRTY-EIGHT - PATCH 4.2

So apparently EA brought out another patch. Fair enough. My launcher still likes to throw a hissy fit and after the bullshit that was 1.7 I never-ever install a patch until I'm sure its safe. Word on the TS3 forum is that this patch is a game-killer. As usual people are blaming CC but I'm inclined to believe that if someone who does not have any CC has ended up nuking her game due to accepting the 4.2 patch update... then this is EA's fault, not theirs.

Way to go EA. Keep raising the bar of incompetence. I'm sure the community will continue to be behind you 100% :D

THIRTY-SEVEN - RIP NEIGHBOURHOOD

...just when I thought I had the order of how blogger uploaded images, it messes it up again ¬¬

Anyway! Due to a tragic incident involving my idiocy and the Awesome Mod I've lost my neighbourhood so I've had to start from scatch. It's not too bad though, I've found a better neighbourhood more suited for what I want to do - haven't finished emptying the houses out yet but I've built my first lot:

...and here was supposed to be the front, instead blogger has insisted that it puts the rear picture first and I can't move them around because that screws up the whole thing. Next time I'll upload them one at a time ¬¬

But yes, this is the rear of the new lot I've built. I actually bothered to add plants and stuff this time! Go me :D

-and here is a shot of the front (stupid blogger ¬¬). Again I feel rather proud of myself for adding plants. It's sad I know but I don't normally bother so... yes XD;

-and these are the sims who will be living there. Though they'll have to wait outside until I finish furnishing their homes. I'm planning to hook them up together but for the moment they're neighbours who are both into music.

She's a childish hopeless romantic, he's a seirous workaholic.

And yes... poor Ryutaro has lost his new home. Poor guy.

THIRTY-SIX - MOAR RANDOM STUFF

So with my recent bout of activity in the game I have decided to have another go at modelling. Since my own failed attempt at a competition (which I am SO sorry about - after the forums bugged out I just kind of lost the creative steam to carry on with it ^_^;) I hadn't really had much to do with it.

The first challenge was to depict a romantic moment but there was a random stipulation dependant on the number you asked for; I was told that my shoot had to be done in a park. I don't really go for all that flowery crap; not only do I live on an ex-council estate in the North-West of England (meaning I am more acustomed to seeing crude graffiti proclaiming that 'Leanne <3's Spencer 4eva!' 'OL2 sux' or 'Sweeney woz 'ere 2010', abandoned and broken park equipment and broken beer bottles) but I just fail miserably at trying to make anything that looks 'pretty' - no idea why but tell me to add flowers and trees and make it look beautiful with a load of landscaping and shit and I just... can't do it XD

This is the entry I posted:


Heine (my blue-haired sim) is the model, I still haven't uploaded the girl onto the exchange (because I'm clearly made of fail). I'm a bit concerned that my picture doesn't look 'edited' since there is a mark out of 10 for editing - they did say you don't have to be a master editor which is good because I'm not but I probably should've added a boarder or something. The trouble is that I suck at adding boarders so I just used my usual cropping/resizing/screening/colour overlay/sharpening that I do to all my pictures. Wish I'd gotten rid of that dodgy shadow on his forehead... I blame the girl's stupid hair for that XD;;;

For those of you interested here is the competition: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/227652.page

After taking the shoot I decided that I really didn't like Ryutaro's house so I demolished it and built him a new one. No exterior shots because it currently doesn't even have windows but I did finish his 'apartment'.

The painting was made by me but I took the art from Deviantart - I'm not sharing because I haven't asked permission. I figure it's OK to privately use it for my own game without permission but I really wouldn't want to share someone elses's artwork.

Needless to say, Ryutaro was exhausted after the move.

THIRTY-FIVE - HEAVY RAIN NERD

I have been kindly informed by a friend of mine that someone has actually turned the Triptocane drug from Heavy Rain into an alcoholic drink. I'll have to bug her for the link again tomorrow; I'm an idiot and forgot to bookmark it ^_^;

Why yes, I am a dork, thanks for asking ^_^;.

You know what's worse though? I'm not someone who really drinks all that much yet the fact that it's a Triptocane drink means that I have to try it.

(Note: I realize that this will make no sense to anyone who hasn't played/heard of Heavy Rain yet I stand by my belief that it is important you know this XD).

Edit: Woo! I found it! :D http://www.thedrunkenmoogle.com/post/492194599/triptocaine-heavy-rain-cocktail-ingredients-1

THIRTY-FOUR - THE GIRL BEHIND THE BLOG

I'm sure none of you have been wondering what I actually look like but I got a new camera phone and I haven't had a picture taken of myself in forever (I loathe cameras with a passion but I got up far too early this morning and I was bored ^_^; ) so.... yeah, this is me. I apologise in advance if I frighten small children who may be in the same room XDDD

THIRTY-THREE - RAVER SIMS!

With the club built I needed some revellers to enjoy it, so I knocked up a couple of sims in CAS. Heine (the guy) is up for download on my studio. I'm an idiot and forgot to export the girl (Makoto) and I need to let my computer cool off again before I go back on the game. I'll upload her next time I run it.

Needless to say they are boyfriend and girlfriend though Heine isn't what you'd call a faithful boyfriend ^_^;

UGH! One of these days Blogger will upload things in the same order I upload them in ¬¬

Heine can be downloaded here: http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2626889

THIRTY-TWO - RAVE! RAVE!

I decided to take a break from the apartments I was building to knock up this little lot. It's a community lot; a rave club to be exact but to give the area more of a downtown/urban feel I attached the club to a shell apartment. The club itself is located in a warehouse around the back ;)

This is the 'apartment' (I might actually replicate this on an actual residential lot since I really like the design I did here). It has rooftop access and is two stories (technically three but I hadn't intended on using the ground floor at all).

Lanterns are subscription from TSR or you can get them for free from All Paysites Must Be Destroyed ;)

FYI - I'm using the darker nights mod, hence why the nighttime is so... night-y XD


The same exterior but during the day.

The ground floor of the club, this is a lounge area where ravers chillax with a hard drink or something much stronger ;)

Just another couple of shots of the exterior ^_^; I wish Blogger would upload these in the order that I upload them but it doesn't and it's such a faff moving the pictures around.

The club can be downloaded here: http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2626857

THIRTY-ONE - IT'S COMING TOGETHER

I've done a little bit of extra work on the lot I built yesterday. I'm not quite ready to show a finished interior but here's the rear of the laundromat which is also the entrance to the 2nd floor apartment located above it.

Computer was being an utter bitch today but I managed to make another sim. His name is Kenji Hachimaki and despite all appearances he is a socially inept computer nerd.

He can be downloaded here: http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2621195

THIRTY - CONSTRUCTION COMMENCES

So I gave up on Twinbrook. As beautiful and industrial as it is there are far too many big lots, the roads tear when I remove them to put in smaller lots and the rest of the terrain is so uneven I haven't got a clue what to do with it without making everything look horrendous. Such a shame too - Twinbrook is so awesome but I don't have the knowledge or patience to build on it.

I've moved my new project to Riverview; nice small lots (mostly), flat terrain (mostly) - hopefully this'll be a success!

After 3 random crashes to desktop (I'm sure I don't have dodgy CC, the dashboard isn't picking up on any and I don't install sims3packs because my launcher is made of fail) I cleared out a section of Riverview and commenced building.

This is what I came up with: It's a small apartment building and a 'laundromat' with a small apartment on the second floor. OK so it's a residential lot so the sims that I move in here will just have the biggest laundy place ever but meh, I wanted a home above the laundromat and the only way to do that was to make it a residential lot. Hopefully someday EA will give us the option to have both on the same lot.

This is the lounge area of the apartment above the laundromat; I haven't tweaked the textures/fabrics yet but this is the basic look I'm going for.

The exterior of the laundromat; I'm pretty much finished here but I might add one or two things, it's looking a little bare.

The exterior of the apartment building which is by no means finished (it doesn't even have interior floors ^_^; ) - the game kept kicking me off and my computer is throwing another fit about how bloody hot it is (I know alright?! You don't have to grind like crazy after having the game running for an hour ¬¬)

So far I'm liking it far more than my Twinbrook buildings.

Also - hurrah I'm off work for a week! :D