Cookies Before Dinner

No Sunshine and Rainbows in Sceneria

2009-07-19T02:53:11Z

Here's the sitch-a-roo...

1) I'm sorry I haven't posted an entry in about five months, for those of you who might actually read this journal.

2) For those of you who might actually read this journal and keep up with the Novella Legacy, I have bad news: I'm declaring a hiatus. A vacation. A break. This may not sound like anything new, seeing as how I seem to take hiatuses all the time, albeit unannounced ones. But this is different, because my foresight means some planning went into this one. I need to have a hiatus for several reasons, which I'll detail in a minute; in short, I have nothing planned for the Legacy at the moment. That's right - I've been planning to not plan.

The gist of it is this: A month or so ago, I discovered that several character files in Sceneria had been shredded. Sims vanished without a trace. Gone. Poof. It was like no one had ever none them, and yet they left glitchy tire tracks across my neighborhood. The kicker is that the sims in question were none other than Sim Me's twin daughters, Charlotte and Cordelia.

The irony of this was not lost on me - who else would screw up my game but my own digital spawn? Still, I was left in quite the predicament. If I wanted to keep the neighborhood, I had no choice but to recreate it. I'd done this before, but back when it was in its infancy. It was a real treat this time around packaging sims via Sim PE, recording their traits, copying lots. And then, once I'd deleted the ticking bomb that Sceneria had become, I had to CAS up everyone and move them into their old houses in the new, improved doppelganger neighborhood.

What fun!

I had barely started to edit the clones of the old neighborhood's inhabitants in Sim PE and refurbish their homes when I set my mouse down. This was a giant pain in the ass, and I needed a break. So I turned to Riverblossom Hills and my apocalypse challenge. I'd been working on it on and off for...let's just say "for some time" and generation two wasn't even out of diapers. Hopefully I'll come out with chapters for that soon, but no promises. Even if I do, I definitely won't be updating regularly, that's for sure.

Not to sound like a broken record, but....I'm going to. It's summer now and I still have a lot to do - a part time job, college visits, summer reading, chores, etc. I feel like I owe people some apologies for my habit of sporadic updates and never being online, namely Marina and Kyle, whose own stories I haven't been keeping up with. And on top of all this, the last Novella chapter concluded with a bit of a cliffhanger! I'd been planning to segway that into the apoc - we'll see how that goes.

Thanks to anyone who's put up with me this far. ^_^

- Kit

Keyboard Mash

2009-06-08T15:13:19Z

I was reading over my school's lit/art magazine, for which I was Junior Editor this year and will be Editor-in-Chief in the fall. My photographs and my best (IMO) short story are all looking good, but I just discovered that one of my other prose pieces is...not. There are little pieces missing - effectively, the published version is an earlier draft.

The worst part is that I was in charge of proofing the magazine for errors like this. L#*U$*#&$JFHDEDH

It's not obvious to anyone besides my nitpicky self, though. The piece is missing one sentence (one I quite LIKED) and the tense shifts in some spots, but other than that, it's not so bad. Moral of the story, always proofread. In a few months when I'm really Edz-in-Chief, I promise to do a better job of that.

Back Down the Slippery Slope

2009-05-21T00:59:57Z

Weeks without update: 5 1/2

Yeah, so I'm a bad girl, but I think we all knew that already. I can't pull out the "busy" excuse as usual either, because frankly, I'm not that busy anymore. Finals start in about a week, but APs and my major papers are done. What am I doing then, besides not updating?

Watching stupid videos. Eating junk food. Reading. Going for so-called "runs." Eating more junk food.

Today, I was dancing in my living room. I was wearing socks and I slipped on the polished wood floor, falling square on my back and twisting a foot and a hand beneath me. I have two major ceremonies to attend tomorrow. FML

Thankfully, I didn't hurt myself too badly. I thought I broke my foot for a moment, though. A good thing, since I do have to be formally inducted as Editor-in-Chief of my school's art / lit magazine tomorrow, and receive a few other honors at two ceremonies tomorrow. (My friend accused me of being a cult member when I told him I had to attend "ceremonies.") It would not do to show up with a cast.

Off to work on the next chapter now. Scout's honor.

Novella Legacy XV ii: The Heir Affair Pt. 1

2009-04-13T02:45:52Z

Hoorah! I'm just a month or several late. [Insert the busy excuse here.]

Everyone does his best to cope with the tragedy which has befallen the relatively tragedy-free Novella family. The details of Jude's gang involvement are revealed. But it's far from over, for Jude spends his last two years at college plotting elaborate revenge...

[url=http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=264354]Novella Legacy XV ii: The Heir Affair Pt. 1[/url]

Bon Voyage!

2009-03-15T01:30:01Z

So here's the scoop, wonderful and few readers.

I'm pregnant. And it's a boy.

Ahaha, no. No, no, that was terrible of me...but really, here's the deal-io. I'm going to be away for a week - in France, actually - and obviously I won't be updating the Novella Legacy or whatever else. Why I'm bothering announcing this I don't know, since I have once again been on unannounced hiatus the last two months, and no one would be the wiser if I was truly away or just away from my computer.

But! I won't make any pinky-swears or blood-vows, but I foresee a 68% chance of update the week afterward. I did all the playing of the "anticipated" Generation 5 college tour, Part 2 almost before Part 1 was on the shelves. Most of the playing for the first real chapter of Gen 6 is done, too. When I return from mon vacances, I'll write up Part 2 and make a spiffy cover. Remember, that's not a pact or anything, though.

Mostly I've been busy writing colossal English papers and trying not to fail out of Precalculus, because *I* would like to go to college, plzthx. And I don't mean rooming at Elsewhere College with Chrystal Colabelli. (Can you even imagine? Horrors of horrors.)

Thanks again, loyal readers! Updating at all is quite a feat for me.

With a tongue burnt from hot cocoa,
Kit

Extreme Home Makeover Does Sigma Gamma Nu

2009-01-05T03:05:16Z

I was playing Sigma Gamma Nu House and I just couldn't resist taking pictures of every room from every angle imaginable, now that Apartment Life has given us glorious ceilings. There's not too much of a "makeover" involved in this, unless you consider what the house looked like way in the beginning and what if looks like now.

Here's the Greek house from the street. Note the Greek letters on the side.

...and a different angle. The two side wings were new additions. I added the one on the right back in Gen 2, but the upstairs part and the west wing were new in Gen 4.

The back of the house. Pool, karaoke machine, fake palm tree. Life's a party.

Front hallway. The mouth couch, checkered table, and stack of books are all brand-new additions. And none of it goes together.

The computer lab/term paper workstation. You can see portraits on the walls and the camera they were taken with.

The kitchen, decked out in luau theme...

...and here it is again. I don't know why Pippa felt it necessary to put her photobooth pic with the Prof in here above the hot chocolate maker.

Dining area, also luau style. The photo of the jewel-laden badger adds a nice touch.

The west wing, a.k.a. the reading room. It's fairly average-looking until they added the mannequin and the panda chair.

You can see the 'Novellas Nouveau' bookcase reflected in the mirror. And look! Allie got a portrait, after all.

The second floor hallway, with Generation Four/Three's portraits and the original Bust of Tylopoda.

Now, here's the real makeover! I think the paint job makes the space a little livelier.

The upstairs addition to the east wing. Leper and Annie slept here and the beds are *still* unmade from their tenure at SGN.

One of the primary bedrooms....

...and the other. I really ought to change the carpet in here. All of the bedrooms have dream catchers, thanks to Gemma and her beliefs in spiritual practices such as that.

The third floor study area. A hot pink couch, a lucky cat, a rug with a molecular model...what a mix. You can't really tell, but there's also a chess table and a treadmill up here in the attic.

The servant's quarters, I mean, the placeholder's room. There! That's just about everything, except the bathrooms, because they're all really small.

OK...I couldn't resist. The one in the attic is the largest. It also happens to be the one that constantly floods.

Novella Legacy XV i: Sophomore Slump

2009-01-05T02:02:15Z

What an optimistic way to begin the first half of the college years!

Eight sims, one household? No, thank you, I've been down that road before. Leper's kids stay in the old dorm and their cousins head to one of my failed attempts at architecture. And although things seem sunny, if dramatic, with the cousins, everything begins to turn sour for Callum, Jude, and Persephone. Time and again, the people we love most are the ones we hurt most.

Novella Legacy XV i: Sophomore Slump

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-23T17:10:36Z

I'm going on a short vacation away from home, so this will probably be the last time I post prior to Christmas. I ran the 1600 (the mile) at the NY Armory last night, and I'm so sore! It didn't help that my doofus coaches forgot to give us pins for our race cards, so I had to sprint back upstairs to ask for one. And my friend and I almost got busted for drinking a smoothie near the track. Yup, I'm a troublemaker by nature. I can't even help it.

A few things...
1) I'm going to try to get the two Novella Legacy college chapters up over break. I split the kids up this generation, so it's easier to manage them all. As of yet I've mostly played Finny's kids + Scarlett.

Dance party! Poor Ravi...I don't think our dormholder likes it very much.

Chase, Charlotte, Cordelia, and Scarlett (I love saying their names like that!) moved to this dorm I built ages ago, before I even started this legacy, if you can imagine that. But I've never used it before. It's not very user-friendly -- the hallways are too narrow and the dorm rooms are too huge -- but otherwise, it's pretty nice.

2) I just reread the last Novella chapter to refresh myself and I noticed a BIG mistake at the end.
Finny is speaking to Kit about Pippa and says something along the lines of "Grandma was like none other." Um, hello, Phineas! That's your mother we're talking about, not your granny!

3) Admittedly, I've been spending more time playing my apoc neighborhood than Sceneria. So bad of me! But the apocalypse has been in the cards for quite some time...it's embarrassing to say how long (*cough*ayearandahalf*cough*).

This guy is the founder...

...some familiar faces will have big roles in the story (SATU!)...

...some non-apocalypse, non-legacy, non-townie characters come into the story (sorry, this was the best pic I had of the family)...

...and DOOM will come to Riverblossom Hills!

Novella Legacy XIV: Fortune Favors the Bold

2008-12-15T02:49:41Z

I released this chapter over a month ago. I could blame it on NaNo, or just use the old "busy" excuse, but to be honest...I'm lazy.

Novella Legacy XIV: Fortune Favors the Bold

What is fortune, and how has it played out - and how will it play out - in the Novella family? We explore these and other deep philosophical questions in this chapter.

March Madness? November Neurosis

2008-12-06T04:34:03Z

I can't believe it. I won NaNoWriMo 2008? Did I really manage to bang out 50,000 + words of a manuscript in 30 days? YES I DID!

Ah. Thanks, I'm done gloating now. I told my parents and friends I won (and I even showed them the pretty certificate) but I never got a chance to properly applaud myself. Every WriMo - whether she hit 50K or not - really ought to give herself a big pat on the back. What really amazes me is that I wrote a "novel" while spending half the month soldiering through the most grueling weeks of cross country season, and devoting the rest of my evenings to English essays and Biology labs.

And between all of that and NaNo chugging away my free time, I didn't get an opportunity to post weekly updates about November. So, in true Kit form, I'm going to do it now.

Week One
On November 1st, I wrote the following short plot synopsis as a way to condense all of my notes about my NaNo novel, tentatively-titled Words into a few sentences that could help guide me through the month. Slash I just thought it would look cool to have a shoddy back cover-esque synopsis on my NaNo page.

When Mollie fled the island town of Perdita one balmy July night, she left behind her sister, Francesca; a burning building; two romantic entanglements; and a hundred-year-old mystery. Now she's back on the island ready to pick up the loose ends. But this time, she's forced into proximity with the enigmatic Peter when she would rather forget what passed between them. Her sister is bed-ridden with an unknown illness. Her friend strikes up a dangerous new acquaintance. And Mollie realizes that she must discover her own connection to words if she is to understand the people around her.

I wrote about 2,000 words the first day. At about ten of midnight, I was preparing to enter my first word count. But because so many other writers were crowding NaNo's servers, the site didn't enter my count until after midnight. I banged out another 4,000 odd words later that day. So the graph on my page makes it look like I wrote 6,000 on Day 2 but nothing at all on Day 1. That, in short, is why statistics can be misleading. (Math class applying to real life!)

Another slightly bizarre thing that happened to me that week in relation to NaNo had nothing to do with actual writing. My XC team was milling around in the field house before practice one afternoon when my head coach came up to me.
"So, Kathryn," she said "I hear you wrote a novel?"
I almost choked on my tongue. Of course I had some idea what she was talking about, but how did she find out? I wondered if she was stalking me. Then I remembered that I once had a conversation with my former English teacher about how I participated in National Novel Writing Month in 2007. As it happens, Coach is tight with that teacher as well as my current English teacher. They all live and work and run in the area. So much for the writing runner stereotype being a fallacy. I myself meet it to a T.

Anyhoo, Coach marveled at my commitment for awhile and I told her that I was doing NaNo again this year. The real question is, why were she and English Teacher A talking about me? Uhhh...

Week Two
Some really great plotty stuff happened during this week. I don't recall what the workload was like, but I must not have had too much homework if I wrote about 10,000 words over seven days. I raced in this terrible meet and I read two terrible chapters in my bio textbook (photosynthesis and cellular respiration FTW!). We went on a class field trip to New York.
Week Three
This week had a lovely beginning. My team was supposed to race in the NJSIAA Group Championships (a.k.a. the infamous New Jersey cross country course at Holmdel Park) on Saturday and it got postponed to the next day. Joy. But it turned out okay in the end, and my time wasn't too bad. It was a satisfying end to a great season.

I seemed to spend the whole week working on this long, complex scene. Our new trimester had just begun and I was already swamped. It was a lousy week for writing. I had terrible writer's block at several points. I had to resort to [NaNoWriMo Director] Chris Baty's pep talk suggestion to have a character sing the entirety of "American Pie" if that's what it took to get inspired and get some words. Okay, so I didn't do exactly that...but one of my leads, Peter, sang Keane's "Hamburg Song" in place of me writing lyrics to his own composition. Music clearly is not my forte.

Sigh. November was already half over and I had yet to reach the halfway point.
Week Four
Thank goodness for Thanksgiving. Yes, I know what the purpose of the holiday is. Yes, I know what else it represents (imperialistic behavior, oppression, etc.). But among other things, this year I was wholeheartedly grateful for five whole days off, where I had no place to go but my desk and nothing to do but finish my novel. I essentially wrote half the stupid book in five days.

But it was all worth it for the euphoria I felt on Sunday night. I tried to follow the instructions for scrambling your manuscript to safeguard against novel piracy. Then when I checked the word count on the "scrambled" copy, it was only at about 7,000.

Hahahah very funny. I did not spend a month doing this only to finish with 7,000 words. So I said "screw this", and submitted the original manuscript in all its rough-hewn glory. I celebrated with some cookies and a little happy jig. Until that evening, I hadn't given much thought to how I was struggling to reach 50,000 words through writing a novel called Words.

I made a few new BFFs during NaNo: 1) the word count tool on Microsoft Word, 2) tea, and 3) Mollie, my dear MC. But mostly tea.

Aggghhh!

2008-11-01T03:12:51Z

There are few things in this world more frustrating than the sealing stickers on a new CD.

The kind that comes on the top edge of the case, where the artist name and album name is printed? Yup, that's the one. Those things make me want to bang the case against the wall until the darn disc falls out. Clearly, I'm exaggerating, but really, something must be done about those stickers. I bought two new albums this week (Snow Patrol's "A Hundred Million Suns" and Keane's "Perfect Symmetry") and I was just opening them in prep for NaNo.

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! [Cue overly dramatic moaning.]

It's not exactly the writer's block I'm worried about. It's the time constraints. This past week, I've been trying very hard to improve my work ethic, and I have a fairly good one to begin with. It'll be tough finding time to write, that's for sure. The good news is that the XC season is ending soon and indoor track doesn't start until December. The bad news is that I'm currently trying to pull my grades up in Precalculus and AP Biology before the trimester ends. From what I've heard, the first trimester of Junior Year is in some ways the toughest because you're still trying to adjust to your classes. I just wish that would have been over before November!

I wrote a little outline for NaNoWriMo this year, and there's no doubt that I thought about my project a lot. I didn't realize how much the story has changed and expanded since Nov. '07 until I reviewed my notes from the past year. I might have to post a wee plot synopsis and character descriptions soon. Don't expect tons of detail, though -- I'm always wary about revealing too much about myself or writing ideas online. That's how I roll. (laughs)

All of this means there will be even less time for the Novellas this month. I'm going to work on the cover right now. The chapter is pretty much in the bag. Yes, I know I said that to someone last weekend, but it's not so much a matter of commitment as it is time. Patience, grasshopper.

BTW...you can view my NaNo profile here. I'm Nonsense Facts there as well.

I'm going to start drinking more tea.

Novella Legacy XIII: Take Me To Your Leader

2008-09-06T01:59:14Z

Hokay, so I actually uploaded the chapter four days ago, but it was the night before our class trip and I didn't feel like making the complicated LJ entry. The real reason it takes me so long to write "update" entries is because I continually forget my Photobucket password.

You could have seen it coming from miles away, like a UFO -- the sci-fi genre parody chapter. Or maybe not. The Novellas seem to be going in a new direction....with a crop of new book zealots? The kids grow up, but Leper doesn't. Beam me up!

Novella Legacy XIII: Take Me To Your Leader

Writer's Block: You and A Fictional Character of Your Choice

2008-08-28T01:33:29Z

If you were stranded on an island with a fictional character, who would it be and why?

Submitted By mesnyder_92

View 500 Answers

Ooo, good one.

Hmmm...maybe Gemma Doyle from Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty (and the other two books in the trilogy). She and I would probably get along.

Novella Legacy XII: Naught but a Curse

2008-08-04T01:13:41Z

Another update two weeks after the last one? (The recap chap isn't a real update.) The regular legacy doesn't take as long to play or write as the college chapters...provided I have the time to do either.

Novella Legacy XII: Naught but a Curse
Outtakes/gag reel under the cut.

"Even I'm a teensy bit conceited."

"Don't forget to say your prayers at dinner, Callum."

"What should I be grateful for, Grandma?"

"Plenty. In particular, that the food you're eating right now isn't grilled cheese."

"So how's it living up to your expectations, Gene?"

"I can't even begin to tell you how many penguin NPCs I've seen in video games. But not a single one of them had eyes that looked possessed like that."

"I still do trickz for coffeh nao."

Novella Legacy: Recaption! Part One

2008-07-27T02:54:39Z

The general consensus after my last update a week ago was that it was tough to remember what exactly had happened five months ago. And even who these characters were. So I decided that I would have to release a recap chapter a generation earlier than I'd been planning to.

Recaption! Part One

An abbreviated (but not too abbreviated) play-by-play of the happenings so far. I narrate, as usual, and Serafina tries to add side entertainment that pales in comparison to her rapping.

I can explain myself...

2008-07-21T20:49:10Z

Or at least I'll try.

In the five months since I updated the Novellas, I did have loads of things going on: The usual homework (including chemistry, the bane of my existence), regular track practice and then meets where I didn't get home until 7 PM, essays and a huge research paper, weekend errands and events, final exams, a writers' workshop, and a conference of sorts. Besides, I usually don't do a lot of recreational computer use during the week.

So when I did play the sims, I gave priority to the SSI Joint Legacy because I wanted to hand it off to the next person in line in a timely manner. I would get bored the times when I did play the Novellas -- I couldn't get past the mundane aspects of Uni. I was unable to put on my "photographer hat" to look at the things the kids did from another perspective, so I barely took photos. I had a spot of writer's block and couldn't think of anything interesting to say for whatever pictures I did take. And of course there was this issue of seven sims on one lot. Granted, it wasn't a very large lot and it didn't lag, but I have a tendency to micromanage.

Obviously, I wasn't getting much done on the Novella frontier.

After about a week of vacation, I got the creative juices flowing again. I applied my coach's motto to playing Sigma Gamma Nu: "let's get this done." I began viewing ordinary happenings from a creative standpoint -- suddenly I could write something funny about the most average picture. Plus, I taught myself to micromanage less.

Right now, among other things, I'm thrilled to just have this chapter done and the kids out of college. I will be updating again very soon with a recap chapter. Several people have mentioned that they kind of forgot who everyone was. Even I was playing a lot yesterday and Gemma (Pippa's sister) walked up and I literally went, "Who are you?" (laughs)

Novella Legacy XI ii: I Can Haz GrilledCheez?

2008-07-19T23:46:02Z

From the first slide:
Welcome back to the Novella Legacy! Wait, did I hear that right? Did I just use the words "welcome back" and "Novella legacy" in the same sentence? I did.

Novella Legacy XI ii: I Can Haz GrilledCheez?

A preview of the new chapter below the cut!

Generation Four finally graduates Uni! Dairy-loving Leper leads the way - if spending most of his time in the kitchen counts as leadership. Meanwhile, his brothers, aunt, cousin, and friend get up to the typical college crazies.

SSI Joint Legacy 2.2

2008-07-19T18:06:23Z

Ta da! Here it is, the final installment of my share of the SSI Joint Legacy! I uploaded it a week ago, but it was 11 PM and I had to leave for a conference-type thing (which was fabulous) the next morning and I was too lazy to get everything on LJ. Yup, that's pretty much me in two words: lazy and busy. What a combo.

SSI Joint Legacy 2.2

Preview: The Islanders go on another island vacation, experience a streak of success, and Marshall meets a strange character. More candid photos under the cut.

I'm still partial to the "hang loose" gesture. The sea chantey, not so much.

Kuper gets his groove on.

Sim Kit and sons at the beach house.

Yeah, Thedy! Show Pender what it means to punch like a girl!

Marshall takes funny drinking pictures.

SSI Joint Legacy 2.1

2008-06-17T01:50:07Z

Ohemgeez, I posted an update! No wai! Maybe I'll update the Novella Legacy sometime before the turn of the next century?!

EDIT: I've got all the broken links working. Apparently other people were having the same problem. Love ya, Firefox.

SSI Joint Legacy 2.1
Marshall takes up more than one wheel on the Islander ship of life. The ocean's a sailor's dream so far, but are rough waters ahead? Meanwhile, Kit attends a writing workshop to learn how to stay away from bad analogies.

Candid photo dump below the cut!

Substitute nanny. o.O

Trisha Traveler: secret pastimes uncovered!

SSI Joint Legacy 2.0

2008-04-05T03:19:31Z

It's up! I actually had this done almost two weeks ago, but the Exchange on the Sims2 site was down and I didn't get a real chance to fire up Ol' Bessie (my slow computer) to try again until now. In short, it's up and I didn't disappear off the face of the earth with the joint legacy.

(Look, it's me after I finally uploaded this chapter!)

Simmer's Story Island Joint Legacy 2.0
I take charge of generation 2/3 of the joint legacy. Marshall, Samoa, and Fiji go to Uni with my simself. Crazy stuff happens, as it is prone to in college, such as me dedicating just one chapter to Uni. Yeah boizz!

College. College. College. UGHH.

2008-03-17T02:11:18Z

No, no, I don't mean *real* college. I'm only a high school sophomore...but I do get loads of college spam email and brochures in the post, thank you for asking.

What I mean is playing sim college. I'm home on spring break, and most of my friends are gone, so there's not much to do most of the time besides reading, running, writing, and playing sims. I have three projects I'm working on: a) the Novellas (bien sur), b) the SSI Joint Legacy, and c) the pre-doomsday part of my Apocalypse Challenge. And I have to play Uni for all of those. The Novellas are about halfway through their first semester of Junior year, the Islanders have recently started Junior year, and my apoc boy (more on that later) is almost done with Sophomore year.

They're all fun and different in their own ways - like I have to play 7 sims for the Novellas and just one in the Apoc - but college is college. Supposedly, I'm really good at spicing up the college years in my stories. There's definitely unique features about each college experience, even with the Novella Legacy. Like for Generation 2, Seasons was brand new and the kids were spazzing out about the snow, and now in Generation 4, everyone's cuckoo for coffee.

But sweet God, if I have to listen to any more college rock, force my sims to their freakin' term papers, watch the cafeteria worker burn any more mac n' cheese, or see the guy in the fugly llama mascot uniform, I'm going to rip the nearest dormie whose BO emanates from his body in visible green waves from the computer screen and grab him by his throat. And that is a threat.

Yes, methinks that Kit needs some Advil. Maybe a picture teaser will make things better?

Novella Legacy

SSI Joint Legacy

Apocalypse Odyssey

Novella Legacy XI i: Because Normalcy is Relative

2008-03-03T02:52:09Z

See? See? Update! I actually uploaded it late on Friday, February 29 (leap year day!), but my official "press release" type thing is right now. Link, cover, and preview under the cut.

Gene, Finny, Leper, and Ann, plus Paige and Opal at Elsewhere College for another infamous Novella excursion onto the university scene. Another "charming" dormholder and a trio picked right out of the creepy dormie grab bag join the kids for the first two years at the dorm. But things aren't quite as clear cut as they seem....

Novella Legacy XI i: Because Normalcy is Relative

excuses, excuses

2008-02-25T01:43:28Z

I was going to put up a new chapter of the Novella Legacy today. I swear. I have almost all of the writing done and only two sim days left of playing. Even though I didn't have much homework this weekend, I usually spend the better part of my weekend doing hw and then I have free time late Sunday afternoon. Thing is, my brother procrastinates and does any homework he has late on Sunday afternoon when I'm done with everything. And of course he has to do all of his assignments on the computer that has the sims on it. I mean, he has to do it, but still. BLARGGHHH.

The cover for this chapter will be worth it. I made it last week and, in all modesty, it is hands-down, my best cover EVER. It's so spiffy I'm going to recycle it for part 2 of this chapter.

Playing college takes freakin' forever, but I really do enjoy it. I think that shows in my college chapters. All of the kids have been a lot of fun thus far. And I was excited to play Opal and Paige some more. Paige and I are best friends, only she doesn't know it. :D Her name is the same as my middle name, too. And we will find out who is heir this chapter! My only clue is that it will be a boy. *snort*

We had a snow day on Friday! Snow days like this are the best when you're only half-expecting it and then you get a ton of snow. My brother brought out the sleds and we went sledding down the hill in our backyard. I tried out the fast one and even went down on my stomach several times. There was this huge fallen tree branch at the bottom of the hill and it quite nearly got rammed up my butt. Which would have been bad. I haven't gone sledding in years. (*cough*ljneedsanostalgicmoodtheme*cough*)

I spent a sizable part of Saturday and Sunday shopping for a birthday present for my friend. I owe her something halfway decent (even though "it's the thought that counts" and all) because a) it's her 16th, b) she and I pitched in and got my other good friend an iPod nano for her Sweet Sixteen, and c) 'cause we're friends! I ended up getting her a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from Victoria's Secret Pink, fuzzy socks, a silver necklace, a notebook made from recycled paper (hah), a Barefoot Contessa brownie kit, and this paper doll of Al Gore where you can change the stupid phrases on his t-shirt.

Wow. I just realized that's a pretty typical teenage girl birthday present. But not really. The Al Gore thing is kind of an inside joke because my friend did this little project on him last year and then this wallpaper collage about him and global warming on her laptop for a week after that. And the birthday card is this picture of Dorothy, the Good Witch, and the Wicked Witch of the East's feet where Dorothy is saying "dibs on the shoes."

In other news, my friend who's having the birthday and I are applying to a summer writing workshop at a certain prominent college. We also found one at another university in case we don't get accepted into our first choice. She mostly writes poetry and some short creative fiction and nonfiction, while I mostly write long and short creative fiction and nonfiction and the occasional poem.

OH OH I've also been ordering used CDs on Amazon.com. I've become a real music junkie. I think it started in November during NaNoWriMo when I wrote for hours each night and needed something to listen to. And eventually I got tired of having like 115 songs to listen to. Amazon.com is really great for used CDs because you can buy stuff for almost brand new at uber low prices like $3 sometimes. And so I end this epic length entry with another plug for something I don't get paid to advertise. TTFN.

Joint Legacy - - News Flash 1

2008-02-16T01:01:06Z

We're doing a Joint Legacy at Simmer's Story Island. Marina (smoothiesims) had the first generation, and now I've got the second. I started playing a couple weeks ago, but I finally got some free time to put some pictures up and whatnot.

Here's Marshall. He has this really nutty habit of dancing by the boombox in the dining hall after his meals. Dude, c'mon, did no one ever explain to you that rule about waiting 30 minutes before exercising after you eat?

Voila! Samoa! She grew up really pretty. I found the link to her hair and Fiji's but I decided to change them anyway. (Let me know if they really irritate you or anything, Marina. xD) The other thing is that everyone now has my default eyes. It's not a problem for whoever's next in line for the legacy, since I'll be taking my Downloads folder out anyway when I upload.

And finally, Fiji! I realized that the kids all have semi-beach-inspired clothes. 'Twas an accident...I just picked stuff from the H&M stuff pack that wasn't totally wacky.

Marshall with his future wifey, SimMe. Oh, arranged sim marriages. She got super po'd when he cheated on her at chess. Their chemistry isn't fabulous as of yet, but I'm going to work on it. (I love her shirt. :D)

I played the Islanders a little bit before I sent the kids off to Uni. I gave SimMarina this cute hairdo that comes with Bon Voyage. It's similar to her old one and island-themed, too. (Yeah, once again, let me know if you really don't like it, Marina.) She's perfectly werewolf-ified, which was fun for me because I've never played a werewolf before. I need to get the updated version of SimPE so I can re-permaplat her and Pacific, though.

SimMarina started a fire when she was trying to cook like spagoo or toaster pastries or something. I swear, the pop tarts are the #1 cause of simmy kitchen fires. And when it happens, it's almost always because they were cooking them in the oven. Nobody cooks their pop tarts in the oven! Get a grip, stupid sims.

Writer's Block: Chinese New Year/Mardi Gras

2008-02-05T23:21:37Z

I was born in the year of the monkey. Woot, woot, go monkies! Ha. I don't think that's even the proper plural for monkey. The whole Chinese zodiac thing reminds me of Fruits Basket. So year of the rat would be Yuki, I guess. He's one of my favorite characters. As for year of the monkey, Ritsu is a cool dude. He doesn't get much face time, though. I feel like he's just in the series because there needed to be a monkey. I'm not positive about that, since I haven't read to the end of the series yet.

As for Chinese New Year itself, it seems like a fun holiday. And speaking of holidays, happy Mardi Gras! My school always has an assembly for Mardi Gras where the grades compete against each other in limbo and dance competitions and other stuff. Then we have that excellent king's cake. *drools* Mardi Gras is the reason why I take French class (kidding).

I told Mom that the best part of Mardi Gras is the cake and she was like, "Um....most people like the whole getting tanked part. And maybe the cheap plastic beads." I've never gotten a baby in my cake, though. One of the Student Affairs representatives was telling us what to do if we found a baby in our cake: "Give your babies to Ms. [insert teacher's name here]!" My friends and I thought that was hilarious.