realm of stultiloquence

Winter lies before me

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:09:07 GMT

I know I haven't been around and I apologize for that. Seems to be my MO this year as far as LJ and boolprop are concerned. But, rest assured, (for those who possibly were concerned) I'm alive and kicking. For the last month and a half, almost two months, my existence has been reduced to that of a walking talking contagion. Cold after cold and then flu which became bronchitis with laryngitis and eventually pneumonia. I'd like for it not to progress any further 'cause I'm pretty sure all that's left is hospitalization followed by death. I'm sure you can see how that would cramp my style. Fortunately, the antibiotics I'm taking are kicking the pneumonia's ass. I've been feeling a lot better and not a moment too soon on account of I need to be healthy enough to fly off to China on Monday.

You know, no big. Wake up, take a shower, brush teeth, check email, fly to China. Typical Monday.

For ha! I'm totally wiggin over here! Better be believing that I would be caps locking all over this entry if it was at all my style. It's all caps locky in my mind, I promise. I still haven't quite wrapped my mind around it even though all signs point to it being fact. I AM going. It reminds me of how when I was a kid I was convinced that I was older than my sister because my birthday comes three days before hers. She's two years older than me. See, I'm the one with the stupid. Reality and the world march on without me.

To sum it up (vaguely, for which I apologize), Andy and Diana asked me to come to help them out. Since I'm jobless and generally directionless this works out pretty well. I'll get to know Diana more, get to meet my nephew before anyone else, and still get to sightsee and be a good little tourist. I'm so excited! It's a very happy and fabulous thing. Or more a wonderful but moderately insane thing considering my general lack of money and the looming job-finding deadline I'm facing but either way I'm full of happy anticipation. (Apprehension too, but it's been my experience that the two typically go hand in hand.)

I've got my tickets and passport and my visa came just today so I'm all set and ready to go. I'll be there until Jan 13th and in both Beijing and Shenyang. I have no idea where else we'll go or what I'll actually get to do or see. I'm kind of leaving it up to my brother as, after all, he's been living there for the past nine years. I did request to go to the Beijing Opera and fully intend to see the Forbidden City and Great Wall but beyond that it's completely up in the air.

So, please, prayers (or good thoughts if prayers aren't your thing) for health and uneventful flights and safety and all that joy. I would very much appreciate it.

You told me to buy a pony

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:37:52 GMT

Love like this is hard to find

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:38:58 GMT

Don't you hate it when you're talking to someone about a movie you've never seen or a book you've never read and they ruin the ending for you? Like they mention he dies in the end. You can't pretend you don't know that! It can't be unknown! You can't... um. Erg.

Ruby Will Use Just About Any Excuse To Send Her Sims On Vacation (Where They Don't Do Much)
Part 2: Ruby Totally Ruined The Ending

Last time: Well, it all started with a magical love tent. Then there were crossed out rings and furiousness. Somehow it all turned into a date with the world's best maid who decided to move in temporarily, win everyone's friendship, and ride off into the sunset* without so much as a Hey, Thanks For Being Okay With My Random Interloping note.
Click the tag if you need more than that.

*Sunsets may not have actually been involved.

Val made Hal make the vacation reservations again. You see, Hal made them the last time and if anything was going to jinx this right off it would be deviating from the tried and true. Val is a very smart man... in what might be discribed as a really dumb way.

Consider Val's primary reason for wanting to jet off to Twikkii Island: He insisted that a good maid was hard to find.

He never once considered that he might be messing with people's lives for the sake of a clean toilet. No, Val had already come to the conclusion that Hal and Cal were meant to be together and once he decided something then surely that's the way it was. Anything else was just silly.

Paying a maid who spent most of her time mop racing with Hal when there were perfectly good maids to be had for free if only they could be found was also silly. But that probably goes without saying.

Once they got to their hotel, Cal checked in. Val immediately wanted to check out. Mary Peters may be blonde and she may be a maid but she is not Dana Coleman. He wasted no time in expressing to her just how offended he was by her very existence.

Cal thought it best to get Val away from Mary so the three of them went sightseeing. I was hanging out with Val trying to get him some Teriyaki Mahi-Mahi (because doesn't that sound fabulous?) while Hal and Cal went off to do their own unsupervised thing. So it was that I did not witness the infamous magic tent pink heart love change to the amazing red hearts of fervent devotion.

I suspect it wasn't Cal's politeness to strangers, but this is all I have to go on so now it is gospel truth. To Hal, handshakes are hot.

So hot, in fact, that he suddenly felt the need to kiss dance. Now things are really hot. I know I like making out with people in front of waterfalls of blistering hot lava. Rawwr.

Now both men had spun out their red hearts and they were all happy and swoony. Surely this means that Cal has accepted that Hal is his one true love? Scope, Cal, scope!

Prince Charming, now available in sparkly.

Joy!

Or... not.

I don't know. Cal might be right about Perdita, but I'm more interested in her friend. He's all bendy and whatnot.

After that fiasco, the three princes decided to go their separate ways. Cal wandered to the beach and brooded as he stared at the water. This was a major indicator of his state of mind. Cal did not brood lightly. Brooding was not sensible.

Cal had always stuck to The Plan. The Plan had never let him down until now. He remembered falling in love with Hal and the memory made him happy and his happiness confused him and confusion, as I'm sure you all know, sucks.

Val was going to continue his search for Dana but he had to get his tanning out of the way first. Priorities, people. He's been looking forward to this for over a year now.

I'm guessing that's not what he had in mind.

Hal was conflicted. He'd have gone with Cal, but it was clear Cal needed space. He'd have gone with Val, but he wasn't at all sure he wanted Dana to be found. He wanted Hal for his very own and, anyway, he didn't know Dana's stance on mop racing and some things are just not to be borne. So instead he went on tours. Surely my luck with chance cards in Twikkii could not be as bad as it was in Three Lakes.

Yes, yes it could.

Mr. Tour Guide loves the small of misery.

And so the days sped by. Val searched for Dana. Err, I mean, he caught butterflies.

Hal's needs took beating after beating because neither gum nor hands are effective at stopping your glass boat from leaking all over the place. And no one can navigate around the parasailing-hating flock of gulls. And don't for one second that that anyone can manage to keep the bees out of the helicopter because you know this island frowns upon hiring experienced and resourceful people and you're absurd for thinking otherwise.

Cal left a permanent butt print in the sand.

Val continued searching for Dana.

It was an arduous task.

No, really. Val continued searching for Dana.

And I considered killing Mary.

Happily, on their last day of vacation he found Dana. And Dana was happy to be found. And Val was happy to offer her a position in the home of the three princes. And Dana was happy to accept. And then happy went on strike because it's no one's bitch and it didn't have to put up with this kind of abuse.

On that very same day, Cal decided he had had enough with brooding and there was no need to choose between The Plan and Hal. Nobody'd ever said The Plan couldn't be tweaked to accommodate for princely passions.

Yes, just like that. Out of the blue. Because we don't have time for character development.

Cal vowed to ask his Hal if he would do him the honor of being Mr. Charming-Charming once they were home. Because nothing at all could happen to foul that plan in the interim. Promise.

What Cal didn't know was that Hal was still going on his suicidal tour run with four of his needs completely bottomed out and two more an alarming tomato shade.

And this, my friends, is what happens to a sim who comes home from vacation after a crazy amount of consecutive tours.

For a sim with no playful points, Val sure does find amusement in a lot of things.

Which is not to say he doesn't feel things just as deeply as others. He's very emotional for a guy without any nice points.

Wait, what? I'm not focusing on the right thing?

Of course I am. This is all just a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. It's a tiny little speedbump. Hal's only mostly dead and that's okay because he's got the greatest thing in the world to live for. You guys, this is known.

Next time: Cal and Val get a dog. Hal would have wanted it.

Makes my heart sing

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:55:16 GMT

I was playing around with my sims today, switching skins in and out, and I happened upon my simself's house when my playlist got to Aqua's Dr. Jones. I totally love Aqua and always have. Sure, their songs are fluffy, arguably stupid, and many people find them irritating, but I think they're campy and fun. I remember in college a few friends and I were driving to SR Harris in Minneapolis and Mohawk Adam was digging through my CDs. He took my Aqua Aquarium CD and threw it out the window at a stoplight. I'm not even playing here.

Anyway, despite being an Aqua fan for years, I never put together that Dr. Jones referred to Indiana Jones until I recently saw the video. Thus:

Look! Val lost his shirt!
Yes, I subjected my simself to this. And I had the outfits on hand. Scary, no?
SimRuby's outfit is really more like the one the chickadee wears in Toy-Box's Tarzan and Jane video. But I won't link to that one on account of one annoying song is quite enough.

Hee. I was amused.

But enough of that.

My computer is an absolute dream. I love it to pieces. I bought it from ibuypower.com because I liked the idea of being able to customize it according to my wants and needs. It was worth every penny. The thing is mammoth, though. It's so big that I can't even put it on my desk or I block all sunlight. It's a little ridiculuous.

And it glows blue. Which is also a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

I lost a ton of things when my computer died. I'd go into it and how frustrating it was to have to rebuild, but that's not much fun. Anyway, I'm all caught up sims-wise now so it's really not all that important anymore. I did lose some sim things completely: 2 sims and their cat, 4 generations worth of my ISBI, a skintone set, 6 toddler boy outfits, 3 child shirts, 7 child dresses, 3 teenage/adult bridesmaid dresses, and a wedding dress. I don't plan to recreate those, aside from the two sims. The only other thing I'm still trying to do is build a new legacy house. I was very happy with the one I built before, but now I can't seem to get anything the way I want it.

So how about we listen to the cut tag and switch from computers to quilts? What a helpful cut tag.

I found this quilt called Sunset Serenity in a quilting book and absolutely fell in love with it. I decided it was going to be my project this summer. Pen and Brittney asked for some pictures, so here they are.

The whole thing is a giant color swirl around a central star. (My star is actually not in the center like it was in the original pattern, but it amounts to the same thing.) It fades from color to color around the star, and from dark at the edges to light toward the star. I can't begin to describe how much fun and how many hours I devoted to laying the pieces out. It's like painting! With fabric!
The first picture shows one of the earlier incarnations. It's much nicer now.

The whole thing will be surrounded by blocks made up of white on white prints and then a black border to make it all pop.

Each block is made up of twelve pieces. Getting those curves to play nicely together took a bit of practice but I eventually got it right. The average block took me a little over a half an hour to do. But that was only if I didn't have to rip out and resew. Or if I didn't get distracted by whatever anime or tv show or movie I happened to be watching. My computer and my sewing machine share a desk. When I sew, the monitor gets pushed back and to the left making it just perfect for watching things while I'm sewing.

It's a little cramped, but my setup is actually quite nice. An ironing board won't fit in my room (I tried... the poor iron suffered great falls. This is not something irons enjoy.) but I have some small boards from when I worked at June Tailor. I just put one of those puppies on my tall laundry basket. All I have to do is swivel in my chair and I can press. And the laundry basket is on wheels, so when I'm not using it I can just wheel it out of the way.

I managed to keep the backs of the squares pretty neat. It's a good thing to do in and of itself, but I know this stems from sewing clothing. It was drilled into my head that the inside of a garment should look just as pretty as the outside. Who cares that in this case it's just going to get covered by batting and a backing? It's the principle of the thing.

I'm now in the process of stripping the blocks together. The color here is actually pretty true, aside from the blinding blues there. They're bright, but they aren't that bright.

I should be able to post a new Ruby Took Some Sims On Vacation soon. Possibly tomorrow.

Down but not out

Wed, 13 May 2009 14:08:13 GMT

So it turns out that working for a super secret agency really keeps you busy. Man, all those days taking down evil bad men with exceptionally clever diabolical plans are tough. Especially when you have no passport. And when you aren't really very physically fit. And you have a tendency to giggle in serious situtations. It would probably help if I was better at telling believable lies too, huh? Yeah, no. It just turns out that depression is mad time consuming. Who knew?

I'm so out of the loop it isn't even funny. At first I wanted nothing to do with sims just because. Their lives are far too happy. I wish I could log onto my computer and instantly be hired for one of three great jobs. Anyway, I got back to my simming and was going to post my update in April (or was it March?) when what should happen but my computer died an unnatural death. I have now been computerless for weeks. I've been reduced to snatching a few minutes here and there on someone else's computer or at the library.

The bad news is that I lost a crap ton of CC I was working on (a skintone set (and I was so very nearly happy with it!), clothing, paintings, furniture) as well as my update. However, I do have my external hard drive so not all is lost. I still have my sims. I'll have a lot of catching up to do to get them to where they were but I'm sort of looking forward to it. I don't know what else I have on the external so I'm really not sure what else I've lost, although I do know I've nothing whatever of my lines, prints, croquis, or any of the projects I had been working on to round out my portfolio. That was a blow.

The happy news is that I'm getting a new computer out of this! Bless tax returns, for they are good. I'll probably post about it once I have it. My fingers are crossed that it will get here by Friday of this week. If it doesn't get here by then there is a distinct possibly I will go out of my mind with anticipation and that doesn't sound like an overly favorable scenario. So yay Friday!

And it rips my life away, but it's a great escape

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:24:29 GMT

I'm an ass, and I'm sorry. It's very uncool to be all, "So this kinda crappy thing happened..." and then disappear for a week and a half. I didn't do it on purpose. (Toddler outfits as apology?)

I've been all over God's green earth (or God's somewhat more depressing dingy white-ish grey and brown earth, depending on where you are) visiting a ton of friends that I've not seen in forever. Some of that was because it's so easy to get caught up being busy and some of it is because I'm the world's most anti-social social butterfly. Whatever the reasons, I've had such a great time catching up with everyone again and just having fun! (And, hey, I still spent less in gas than what I would have if I'd been going to work. I won't be missing the near two hour daily commute.) Things have been pretty fantastic all around, even if I haven't sent out any resumes like I should have. My bad.

I haven't been in the mood to read anything sim-related, nor have I been home long enough to do so. Same goes for my legacy, despite the next update being 99.9% of the way done. But, I've got all social gallivanting out of my system and, anyway, I've no means to leave the house because I loaned my car to my sister, so I've suspicions that will all change and rather soon too.

I'll be cavalier... I'll be yours, my dear

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:33:45 GMT

I lost my job today.

They said it's an indefinite lay off, but as there was no timetable mentioned and I had to clear out my desk, I'm having trouble buying that. I was upset about it at first, but I'm getting used to the idea. My finances are not quite in a happy enough state that I'm fully cool with this, but it could be worse. And, really, it's times like these that I am quite happy I don't have anyone depending on me. If I can't get another job and can't pay all my bills and decide to wander the streets as a baglady, well, that's a new and interesting challenge, isn't it? In the meantime, I get to sleep in, which is awesome. I'll be able to collect unemployment as I finally get serious about my internship search, which is also pretty spiffy. I can work on developing healthier eating habits again and take better care of myself. I'll have time to sim and read to my heart's content.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with a positive outlook on this one.

How's everybody else doing today?

Words don't work like Webster says

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:58:44 GMT

I would be done with my next update if not for Ephraim. I loaded my game on Sunday and was surprised to find he had a black scalp. Changing his appearance did nothing to help. Deleting him and reentering the lot did nothing to help. I was at a loss. I admit that at one point I considered killing him off, although that would present story difficulties. Plus, I do actually like him and I'd feel bad for Theda on account of I don't think I've ever seen two sims decide things quite so naturally (and adamantly) for themselves.

I've been playing around with making my own skin defaults for some time now and it occurred to me it might have something to do with that. But no amount of switching defaults in or out would change it. What's more, no other YA S3 males displayed the same issue. Eventually it dawned on me to make a clone sim and use simsurgery. Worked like a charm. Alas, poor E Clone will be annihilated in my next townie purge. Toodles, E, hardly knew you.

The Ephraim problem ate up a huge chunk of my playing time. I'm hoping that possibly Thursday or Friday I'll be able to finish things up. It depends how good I am at avoiding phone calls and thus avoiding making social commitments. Do you ever just get the urge to chuck your phone down a really deep well? Or, better yet, I remember one year when I went polar bearing, one of my friends accidentally dropped her cell phone into Lake Michigan. I'd find a watery grave like that for the dratted thing if only it wasn't so hard to function without one.

I'm a member of the Irrational Cell/Mobile Hatred club. Also, I whine a lot.

In completely unrelated news, my Valentine's was pretty damn good, as these things go. I listened to a CD Phedre made for me (theme: loneliness... we celebrate V-day in fine style) and gathered together a group of single friends to try to conquer half the world as well as bits of the moon in a few games of Risk 2210. I didn't win any of the games, but I maintain this is because Franklin hexed my dice. It's really the only logical explanation.

Child of Venus, you're just made for love

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:44:19 GMT

Just for a change of pace, I decided to give rubella a try last week. You know, just wanted to do something different. It had run its course and I was feeling perfectly healthy on Wednesday. But when I got to work they were all, "Yeah, no. You're contagious. Go home. We'll give you sick pay for the rest of the week." I don't get any benefits, sick pay or anything else, so I wasn't about to argue.

So what do you do when you have three days of unexpected free time?

Chivalry's lifetime want of twenty simultaneous lovers had been on the back burner for far too long. I really wanted to get it done when he was a teenager. That way when he grew up all the loves would magically vanish and he'd be working from a clean slate. Plus there's the idea that an adult Romance sim who cannot fulfill whoohoo wants with any of his conquests (because of handicaps) is a sad Romance sim.

I thought the best way to go about things was to get everyone up to high friendship levels and then pick them off one by one. It worked, mostly. There was the cheating incident at the ball and then two more besides. But, hey, magic vanishing.

There were, of course, other things at stake. This wooing of girls was truly a dangerous thing. It was littered with opportunity for disaster. I mean, what if the papergirl caught him cheating and never delivered a paper again? Huh? Whose fault would that be?

Sacrifices were made. Needs were ignored. After all, it's for the greater good!

His peers already in college, time was not on Chivalry's side.  It soon became apparent that we neeeded to step things up a bit. Chiv, I'm proud to report, did not quail at the task before him. Oh, no. He applied himself with renewed dedication.

Best Friends! Check. Crush! Check. Love! check. That, my friends, is efficiency.

Getting caught cheating is such a fun and amusing moment, isn't it? I'm just guessing based on the evidence at hand.

It was very nearly a two-for-one.
I'm still trying to figure out what that +750 is all about. I'm pretty sure there isn't a Cheating Boyfriend Gets The Stuffing Slapped Out Of Him want.

My simself showed up to offer encouragement to the lusty young lush. At this point Chivalry only needed to win the love of two more girls.

Apparently that whole "locked in a tower" thing is a more fluid concept than anyone would have guessed.

The penultimate love was one of those Shoe kids. That's Sponge Shoe. Or possibly Mop. I'm not really sure. All I know is that I'm totally amused by the obvious embarrassment of all the gawkers. Were there appallingly cheesy lines? Wretched bad kissing technique?  What could have been so cringe worthy?

And then, finally, the many hours of extreme sim toil resulted in the bright glow of a permanently platinum plumbob. It very nearly brings a tear to the eye.

Ahh, the joys of being a Romance sim.

Random bonus:

Werewolves in my neighborhood really know how to strike terror into the heart.

Of a thousand rainy days since we first met

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:38:10 GMT

I was tagged by three people for meme-ness so I added in all the questions from each.

What's your vice?
Gee, just one?
Probably my lack of confidence. I'm not sure that would normally count, but I wallow in it more than I ought which perpetuates the problem and sort of turns it into self-indulgence. Which makes it vanity on some level. So maybe I should have said vanity.

Also, swearing and an inability to stay out of the gutter for substantial periods of time. The mind, it does what it will.

Make a list of things you can see without getting up:
The part number tree, a pile of finger sensors I need to write customer complaints for, my water bottle, a box of paper clips, a bunch of pens, several highlighters, an evil stapler, a yellow sticky on one of my monitors that says, "old Co2 absorbers - 10" ... yeah, it's really boring. People are always asking me why I don't decorate my cubicle.

How do you style your hair?
I blow dry it, use a bit of root boost, and flip the ends with a round brush. If I've got a bad case of flyaways I use sculpting mud. But that's only when I'm feeling ambitious. Most days I blow dry my bangs and leave the rest to air dry however it pleases. Or I throw it in a ponytail.

What are you wearing now?
A really hideous red, black, and white printed flowy top over a black turtleneck with ruching. Dark jeans, pseudo cat eye glasses, black retro inspired wedges, and my blue anti-static wrist strap.

Do you snack a lot of stick to "meal times"?
I eat a lot of small meals when I have my eating habits under control. Right now I'm pretty awful about it. I typically only eat once, possibly twice, a day.

What's the last thing you read/are currently reading?
I'm currently reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, The Tao and Mother Goose by Robert Carter, and Child of a Dead God by Barb and J.C. Hendee. I'm never in the middle of just one book although the list isn't usually that long. I've been reading Les Mis forever and I'm reluctant to finish Child of a Dead God because I don't want it to be over.

What three things would you save from a fire? (Presuming all living things could save themselves.)
Boringly, my file folder of important documents and my external hard drive. I'd also grab the cocker spaniel stuffed animal that lives on my bookcase because it has my Paczki's collar on it.

Who was the last person you hugged?
My sister.

What's your current fandom/obsession/addition?
Pushing Daisies, but, of course, it's television with whimsy and creativity so it got canned.

What was the last thing you ate today?
I haven't yet. Water, if you count that.

What was the last thing you said aloud?
"Will the rest of the Ibenches be ready for me to inspect today?"
*shrugs* I'm at work.

What websites do you always visit when you go online?
I visit Boolprop, Livejournal, MATY, Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing, the icanhazcheeseburger network, bsc_snark, and whatnancysaid with some regularity.

Last thing you bought:
Band aids and socks. Shoes hate me. It's a very sad tale.

What are you listening to right now?
I'm hearing a fax machine and someone else typing. My radio is currently playing Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio.

What's the last song that got stuck in your head?
King of Spain

"King, how are you such a genius?
There's a roof overhead and food on our plates!"
It's laisez-faire, I don't even give a care
Let's make Friday part of the weekend
And give every new baby a chocolate eclair.

What is your favorite hobby?
I guess I have to agree with Pen and say sewing. I love the creative parts and the technical and I love making beautiful things. I get all wrapped up in it.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
I want to be able to speak and understand every nuance of every language ever. Ever. I guess I'm the dorky superhero no one really talks about.

What is your favorite weather, and why?
Strong sunlight hurts, so summer is right out. I like a brisk autumn day or the first snowfall. Scarf weather.

How are you?
Generally good, thanks. Cold, but that's fixable.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Aqua and other annoying bands (smile.dk, toybox), romance novels, parentheses.

What's something you'd like to say to someone right now?
Bean has been on my mind a lot lately. I want to hug her and tell her how much I love and miss her.

Say something to the person who tagged you.
De - You seem to be so vivacious and fun it kind of blows my mind. I don't always know what to say, but I love reading what you write.
Pen - You are probably one of the sweetest people I've ever encountered. I wish I knew you better but even still I'm very happy to count you as a friend.
Brittney - You're a booger.

No, I kid! You are such a darling and such a delight to me. I could put together a list of all your wonderful attributes but I'll cut to the chase instead and say you're all around fabulous. I'm so very glad you're my friend.

I finally played my game last night for the first time since about Thanksgiving. That's forever ago. I've fired it up to take pictures (mostly in CAS) or to play around with my neighborhood setup but I haven't actually played any houses. I was really kind of dreading it because I couldn't remember exactly what was happening on each lot and I knew I was going to have to do a lot of plant deleting (forgot to delete ceilings before installing AL). Nothing exciting happened, but I had a lot of fun. I don't think I'm going to rush to get my next chapter out. I want to enjoy it more. My recap is done and I'll probably upload that some time in the next few days but that's not the same thing.

I've also been working on creating a new legacy house. I love it so far. It's been a bit chaotic though because I keep fixing things up and then realizing I want this chair in a different color or I want artwork that'll look nice in this room and I exit the game to work on those things. Then I fire it back up for two minutes, see something else, and exit again.

Here's the part where I have a question. I'm clearly missing something. How do you recolor cc? Wizards of SimPE only has game objects and I also didn't see any custom objects when I tried Object Workshop. I'm at a complete loss here. It's probably something really obvious but I don't know what.

Updatey thing

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:27:58 GMT

Update at rubybluerecolor! Don't worry, this is the only time I'll post about such things here as well. It's just in case anyone would be interested but missed the link the first time around.

Happy New Year!

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:17:40 GMT

I haven't much time to write anything as I still have a ton of things to do before we leave for Indiana tomorrow (where the wedding will take place), but I wanted to share some pictures quick. The dress was officially finished three and a half hours ago. Behold:

I look at it and mostly see the flaws or the things that I wish I'd done differently. But that's the way it always is after a big project so I'm not too worried. Actually, on the whole I'm quite happy with it. It was a lot of work but it was worth it.

.And just for the fun of it:

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes! I'll probably post about it (and Christmas) later.

I only likes hippopotamuseses

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:11:46 GMT

My computer blew up. Actually, that's probably a lie because it makes it sound exciting and it very much wasn't. I'd have been more impressed if there were sparks or maybe a rotten smell or something like that. Anyway, my life has more or less revolved around Diana's dress for the last several weeks and I loaned my sister a veritable fortune to help keep her family afloat, so I've had neither the time nor the money to do much of anything about it. It's just sitting in the corner of my room quietly dreaming about its former glory days. Poor thing.

To be fair, it's always been in the corner of my room so it isn't like it's been demoted or anything. It isn't Pluto, after all.

I'll probably be able to get it looked at sometime in the new year and then I'll be able to resume both my normal internet and sims related activities. I truly am sorry for worrying people.

In the meantime, my dears, I do have something of a Christmas present for you all. If you want to think of it that way. Which I do. Because it makes me feel less bad about showing pictures and promising to upload and then not sharing for months. Right. rubybluerecolor I briefly considered ehrubyblue or ihrubyblue to continue the trend (ohrubyblue and ahrubyblue) but ultimately decided that perhaps something descriptive would be more helpful.

What could be sweeter? Pie, of course.

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:24:17 GMT

I've been in love with making recolors the last few days. It's something that comes and goes. This time it started with just a few tweaks on some newly downloaded makeup and kind of exploded into clothing from there. Some of them have minor issues that I didn't notice until after I took pictures, but I'm still pretty pleased on the whole.

Flashpots are shootin' bright as the sun

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:06:44 GMT

Someday I think someone's going to want to give me a swift kick in the ass with the way I waffle between 's and s's. Nimbles' vs. Nimbles's.

Oh, and as long as I'm on a related topic - I have no idea why I use theatre vs. theater. I've always done so. If it massively bugs (given that I don't use British spellings for much anything else), I'll work on it.

The theatre stuff sort of freaks me out. I initially had more ideas about it than I knew what do with and that was wonderful. Unfortunately, every single one of those ideas is no longer viable. I keep trying to think of this in a positive light. It means I have lots to play around with. But my new general aversion toward the whole idea makes this a bit difficult. See, when I first thought about it I was excited because while my legacy pulls primarily from fairy tales and nursery rhymes and such, I think it all fits under the general label of oral tradition. Anyway, at the time I didn't know that so many of my readers are in involved in theatre. I feel like such a hack. At any moment I'm going to stumble headlong into a gooey pit of self-inflicted embarrassment. Ignorance, my old friend, we meet again.

Oh, I wanted to offer an explanation on my last legacy chapter title. The first part comes from J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan: "To die will be an awfully big adventure." The second is from Arthur Quiller-Couch's advice: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it--wholeheartedly--and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."

I will get to replies soon. I'm so terrible lately; I used up all my outgoing points just updating. I think I need to find a way to encourage those up.

I say there's got to be some good reason

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:16:26 GMT

Half the fabric I ordered for Diana's dress came last night. I was very excited about it and tore the box open to see the goodness nestled within only to discover that, you guys, it's off-white. The packing slip says white, but what I saw was clearly not white. Not remotely. This isn't even a matter of a blue-tinged white white vs. yellow. At a stretch I would call it champagne. But still what I would mean is 'not white'. Not white!

Much sighing. I'm going to call the company to find out if they're slow when it comes to the concept of white white in general or if it's just the one fabric. Or if they get their kicks misleading people. Or if there was some kind of mix-up. (I'm really hoping it's that last one.) Whatever the case, I'm not going to get stuck with hundreds of dollars of 'so not white my father could see it wasn't white'.

The good thing is the fabric itself is gorgeous. The beading is scrumptious and exactly what we wanted. It's just the color isn't so much.

If you're Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:29:28 GMT

Bandwagons are for jumping on.

Total comments: 485

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You done started back doing the things you used to do

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:20:00 GMT

I cannot think lately. This is a serious problem. I went to buy towels for my bathroom the other day and spent well over an hour deliberating over color until I decided that I should give it up as a lost cause and go home because no way in hell should that be a difficult decision. The bathroom is done up in a monochromatic color scheme.

I couldn't remember the words glass or curb yesterday. And I flailed around epically for chair. "The thing you sit on! They're usually around a table. With legs. I mean the thing has legs. Well, okay, tables have legs too but you oughtn't sit on them unless it's a picnic table because for some reason I hate sitting on picnic table benches although I've nev- CHAIR!"

Either I'm in the early stages of dementia or I'm having a supremely vivid and incredibly long dream. I've never updated my livejournal in a dream so obviously it's dementia because disjunctive syllogisms are never wrong.

This has been an inconsequential Ruby ramble. Now to return to your regularly scheduled programming:

I managed to play my sims twice this week (or will if I manage tonight) so that's major progress! I'm soooo close to an update. But I'd feel a little funny posting a new chapter when I'm still so far behind on others so I'm thinking I might sit on it for a little bit. After two months what's a little longer?

For sure I thought I was going to have Chivalry permaplat by this time but it hasn't happened yet. I don't even know what number lover out of twenty he's on. I wasn't in the mood to take sims downtown so the last time I played I focused more on the adults. I think Galahad is permaplat three times over now.

I'm having lots of fun with Theda in college. She's almost through her freshman year and that's when I plan to add the rest. I feel like whenever I'm in the middle of playing the college years I'd give anything to be at the marriage or baby or kid stage, but then when I get back to it I'm so relieved not to be playing that stuff. Anyway, I'm looking forward to sending the rest of the generation.

Short and pointless post is short and pointless

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:02:11 GMT

Today was my nephew Connor's fifth birthday and I just got home from his party. Now I finally (finally!) have time to sit down and read some legacies and I'm in the mood to do so and of course the exchange is down. Naturally.

I suppose if the universe is going to conspire against you that's a fairly tame way for it to go, but it's still annoying.

So, instead of just leaving it at whining, I give you my thoughts on "famous" legacies. This week's simsecret isn't likely to produce the amount of talk about famous legacies as last weeks did but it's sort of been on my mind. The word gets tossed around all the time on the forums. It's all relative and nobody's actually famous in the grand scheme of things but you wouldn't know it to read some of that. Famous authors of famous legacies with their famous sims and famous, famous, famous, blah, blah, blah. What I want to know is this - Do you get a gold plaque when you become a famous legacy writer? Sort of like the hobby plaques in FT? Because I think that's the least the Famous Legacy Board could do for their members to make sure they are aware they're famous. Otherwise how is anyone going to know?

When I'm a walking

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:37:11 GMT

Alert the press, I think I've finally decided to maybe possibly commit to a new set of skintone defaults. I know, your heart just skipped a beat so staggering is the boldness of that assertion. Mine certainly did.
Seriously, I'm thinking about switching them out when I'm finished with my next chapter. I'd do it sooner but I think that would be unhappily jarring. And I'm not entirely 100% certain. Help?

I first wrote that as angels. I'm not sure I want to know what a camera angel would be.

First up is the current defaults. Yay control group!

The first set I was seriously considering was Pooklet's Compulsion skintones over at GOS. I absolutely adore that the dark skintones are actually dark and that pale is lovely too. And they all have a nice blended quality that the Louis skins lack. Very smooth.

I think, though, that switching from the Louis skins to these would just be trading problems. There are just as many things I like and dislike about them. Also I think they may be just as forgiving so it's really more of a lateral step than a step up which sort of defeats the purpose.

Then I stumbled on these edits of the original skins from maxistraum.de. I'm not really digging the collar bones (What is up with all the pointy pointy all time? These are better in that regard than either of the others but still.) but I do very much like some of the other changes.

I don't have any pictures but the change on the previous generations is a bit harsher but livable. I think it only seems worse because I've had longer to get used to them looking a certain way.

Edited to add original game default pics:

Thoughts? Even if all you're thinking is that I'm blind and seriously lacking in judgment. That's helpful in it's own way. Or if you really don't care at all but are thinking of something else you could share that too. I'm hardcore wanting an orange right about now. That's my random thought.

Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:14:10 GMT

I got the twenty million measurements that I needed from Diana (future sister-in-law) the other day. (Remember kids, do not round numbers when taking measurements. There's a difference between 6 3/4 inches and 7 and sometimes it does matter.) I started making a block sloper. I've also done materials pricing and comparing and have made estimates on yardages. The biggie is going to be the pre-beaded alencon lace (we're talking $120 a yard here), but it's the design detail that makes the dress so no skimping there. So, hey, look at me being all on top of things! Apparently I only procrastinate on important things in my own life (see: Ruby's commitment to internship searching and moving on with life) and take important things in other's lives seriously. Self-sabotage, let me show you it.

I've kind of come to a wall with my Locks. I've played through a whole generation and a half of my ISBI family (welcome Sappho, Bhaskara, and Zellig Brighton!) and put together four chapters of that and yet have only managed maybe 30 useable pictures for my next legacy update. Not good. I've already trashed a lot of what I'd written and started over once and I don't particularly want to do it again. Add to that, I've shot the main plotty scene and deaths have happened so there's no real way to go back. But I'm just not happy with any of it. I don't know what to do other than mentally shove it under the bed. A part of me is hoping that writing this here will spark something for me. One can hope.

The mix channel I've been listening to recently has been playing a lot of John Mayer's Say. I always hear the line "Say what you need to say" x 8 as "It's totally insane" x 8. I finally looked it up because it was, quite fittingly, driving me a little insane.

My new contacts and glasses were in yesterday so I picked them up. I'm seriously lamenting that I didn't have someone come with me when I picked the frames. Made me think of News Item by Dorothy Parker (as quoted in the title) though so there's some win in it.

Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:04:42 GMT

There was a fatal flaw in my plan to read legacies this weekend. I assumed my internet connection would be working. Not so much. It was fine for about fifteen minutes on Friday and then kaput. I talked to IT Tim about it this morning and he gave me some suggestions so we'll see if I can figure it out.

In the meantime, my second eldest brother (the one who lives in China) proposed to his girlfriend this weekend. I'm so excited for them both! She asked if I could make her wedding gown and I said it's a possiblity. I'd love to do it but I don't know... she sent pictures of what she has in mind and I'm perfectly capable of doing what she wants. The problem is that it's a little hard to do fittings when you're half a world away.

They asked my eldest nephew if he would be the ring bearer or if he was too old for that sort of thing. Jacob sort of shrugged and told them he wasn't. He didn't seem very excited about the prospect so I pulled him aside and told him that if ever I get married he'll probably be too old to be ring bearer and he doesn't have to be. The kid's face immediately crumbled and I wondered what just happened. Then he brightened as a new thought occurred to him, "I can be your best man though, right?" The cute, I tell you, nearly killed me.

I judge that I only have about three more days until all the packing is out of my wound. That's exciting to me. It's itchy as all hell but I suppose that's a good sign. I'll be so happy when this is over and when I'm no longer on the antibiotics. I'm a total moron when I'm on antibiotics. I had to go the store five times before I bought the right tape (Here's a hint, the one that says 'gentle paper tape' is probably going to be the most gentle) and I bought the wrong gauze dressing pad things twice. My bathroom cabinet is now stocked with all kinds of bandaging materials. Lol, hopefully they'll never need to be used.

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:57:56 GMT

I'm not really listening to this song right now. I woke up with it stuck in my head. I couldn't even tell you the last time I heard it but it made me happy all the same. That's an all right start to a Thursday. Pretty unusual too given the general suckiness of Thursdays. I think possibly I've had a string of Thursdays the last several days though so today isn't truly one even if the calendar says it is. Calendars don't understand the Thursday curse.

I will totally stop rambling all idiotically now.

I didn't mean to unexpectedly fall off the face of the earth, honest. I had some internet connectivity issues and then a computer virus of mass unhappiness. And then! Oh then, joy of joys, I found myself dealing with some sort of infected something or other on my sternum. I didn't go to see a doctor for six days and only did because at that point it was so sore as to make the movement involved in breathing hurt. There was lancing and general pain and now I sit with a small hole in my chest packed with gauze. That's the general overview. I'll spare y'all the details.

In the meantime I haven't even touched my sims. I haven't much read any legacies either so now I'm even worse than ridiculously far behind on some of my favorites. It makes me feel like such a wretch. I'm thinking I'm going to take this weekend and just go nuts reading and getting myself back up to speed. That would be fun.

Completely meaningless blather

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:19:49 GMT

Secretly Miranda Legacina's words initially reminded me of a commercial for a game show with William Shatner. It was loud and flashy and described the show (and splashed the words on the screen) as shat-tastic! Shat-rageous! Shat-riffic!! You have to understand, this was a huge thing for my roommates and I when it aired. We were all overworked, stressed-out, and near lunacy for need of sleep. The first time we saw it we were all droning bleary-eyed in the living room. No kidding, our heads came up like startled deer. After the initial shock we laughed for days on end. To this day we debate if the people who made the commercial know what shat means. It's not really that funny by itself but to us it was hilarity defined because of when it happened and the state we were all in. Now any time I hear a made up word with suffixes like that it brings me back to that time and I get a bad case of the giggles.

Secretly I sometimes cruise the exchange for really poorly written legacies because they crack me up. It's all very MST3K.

Secretly I hate simRuby's original shepherdess outfit. I'm not going to go so far as to say I hate it with a fiery passion or anything but I wish I'd never used it (or uploaded her with it). The quality kills me. In a bad way.

Secretly anorexi-meshes (when a sim looks like she'll snap in two at the waist) and photo realistic clothing that somehow manages to defy every single rule of construction and the basic properties of fabric make me want to claw my eyes out. I cannot fathom why people use them. It will have me clicking out of a story faster than atrocious writing or appallingly inappropriate content. Hells, no.

Secretly I have enough potential themes for names for close to two dozen generations. When I'm not in the mood to work on any other aspect of my legacy I go and search. Some days I want to use names like Aingeru or Alastriona and then the next I've decided to go with Anna to take pity on my readers. I was considering Aloysius, Ludwig, or Czcibor for Duncan. Matilda was almost Svenhilde, Gytha, or Labhaoise.

It's no secret that I'm a slow writer. Sometimes it will take me an entire week to write one or two silly little paragraphs and it's not for lack of trying. Secretly whenever I read that someone wrote their entire legacy update in one evening or six hours or something it absolutely blows my mind. Obliterates, even.

Secretly I feel like a prick whenever I mention one of my sims outside my LJ or legacy thread so I don't often do it. Doesn't matter that plenty of other people reference their own sims outside such conditions if it is relevant or if it's to explain things or just to talk them up. I know that because of this I'll never have any very popular sims and I'm pretty much okay with that. After all, the alternative is feeling like a prick however irrationally.

I'm going to be very sad when Ophira and Ganesha die but secretly no sim death will ever be as traumatic to me as Constantine Valentine's. I'd had him (the very same him, no clones or anything) in my game for years. One day I was playing in my dorm room and I wasn't paying attention to his life bar. Back then I didn't know anything about elders as I hadn't played them much so it was very shocking to me when he suddenly died. Grim came for him before I could do anything about it. I was absolutely devestated! Not my dear darling Con! I, um, kinda shouted his name. I was immediately treated to barks of laughter from the hallway. A split second later Nina and Nora came barreling in my room all merriment and glee imitating my cry. Con. Wrath of Khan. Yeah. (And apparently it all comes back to William Shatner...)

One red balloon floats to the moon

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:37:58 GMT

I live less than a mile from our town's airport. There isn't much traffic so it isn't the annoyance it sounds. Actually, it's usually pretty cool. We see all types of planes and gliders and things for which I have no name (but are mad interesting to watch regardless).

Saturday morning I awoke to the sound of hot air balloon burners. The annual balloon rally! How could I have forgotten? I didn't get any good pictures during the day when they were drifting over the house like a giant synthetic flock but I snapped a number of them at the airport during the lantern show. Some are a bit blurry because my camera and I simply do not understand each other but I thought I'd share anyway.

Once it was full dark and the balloons were carted away we were treated to a fireworks show. This is the first year I was actually at the airport to see it. Usually I just watch from the backyard but you really don't get the same feeling that way. I didn't get to see any displays for the fourth and I've been craving fireworks for some time now so this was wonderful to me. I cannot get enough of the booms and the way it feels inside your chest. It's exhilerating. Anyway, it was a respectable enough show throughout. It was the finale that got me. They lit off so many of those bomb-like fireworks that don't look like anything special but that reverberate so gloriously! I was positively giddy. It was fantastic.