June 2085: kissing frogs

Lily Riley-Kim and Claude McCullough are 13.

There was one week before school let out for the summer, and Lily wasn't impressed with the season's offerings so far. France was all she could think about. She was going to France. Sure, it was two months away still, but a girl could dream, about the clothes, about the art, about the boys. Certainly there would be boys in France. But that wasn't the only reason she needed to break up with Claude McCullough.

Lily called Claude and told him to meet her at the park near his house. Her Aunt Mariah had to drop off Quinn at her new job, so she had exactly 25 minutes, no more and no less. That was fine. She didn't think she'd need longer than that anyway.

"We have to break up," Lily said.

"What? Why?"

let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens...

Revised stars. I am very happy with them this time. They are so tiny and twinkly and perfect!

If you've been using the default game stars for a while (which look like snow to me, lol!), these might be hard to get used to at first. But once you get used to them, they are so brilliant! Especially when zoomed out a bit. They are made to approximate the way RL stars look to the naked eye... well, from a remote location at least. You probably wouldn't see even this many stars over a city IRL, but you know, artistic license. ;)

In this revision, I have made them even smaller, and managed to fix the stretching thing that was going on.

Note, I have a "darker nights" mod in my game, but I have been told these work without lighting mods too.

(click pictures for bigger)

goldfish, pt. 2: approximating the TS2 personality matrix with TS3

Warning: Nerd alert! Much dorkiness ensues! Proceed at your own risk. :p

Following on from this discussion, part 1, about the particular vacancy of TS3 Sims.

First thing: You need this mod.

You need more than 5 traits per Sim. We were lamenting the reason TS2 Sims felt more developed, and that's because in TS2, you had 5 personality points, 2 aspirations, 1 natural hobby/talent, and several other talents and interests. That's a lot of personality for a little Sim! So it's no wonder having only 5 traits pales in comparison. It's not enough when you've been spoiled on so much personality.

So take more. I like 10, but this mod comes in different flavors, some more, some less. (Note: you will need a mod like Twallan's Master Controller to set all 10 traits.)

goldfish: random and inconsequential thoughts on TS2 vs. TS3

Lately I’ve been going around with my TS3 Sims wanting to assign them TS2 aspirations and secondaries, thinking in my head: Charlie is a knowledge primary and family secondary, Benny is popularity primary, Ingrid is a classic romance Sim primary. What would Sophia be? Or Josh? I hadn’t yet created them in TS2. And how about many of my teens, most of whom were too young for aspirations in TS2, or were never Sims in TS2 at all? I remember how knowing that about them, their primary aspiration in life, helped me form so much of how they looked at the world and approached life as they grew up, because dorky as it sounds, I truly think it’s very relevant to how real life people approach the world and life. People ARE family Sims or fortune Sims or romance Sims. They really are, lol!

May 2085: five days

Natty and Charlie are 20. 

Soundtrack: "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by John Denver, as performed by Chantel Kreviazuk

Warnings: totally, totally NSFW! ;)

They had five days, and because they only had five days, they would spend them in bed. They would sleep more than they needed, refuse to get dressed, never stop kissing, never lose touch. They would cry when they felt like they wanted to, and neither would make the other feel like a wuss about it.

May 2085: crazy for you, part 6

Natty and Charlie are 20. 

This was Natty’s idea. She didn't know that, but it was, because she’d mentioned some little thing about working on helicopters, and then he remembered an old toy helicopter he used to take apart and put back together. She remembered that, not him, because she was so incredibly smart, and she noticed things, and she knew him in ways he didn’t even know himself sometimes.

So Charlie blew off studying in the twenty minutes before his Biology exam. He'd studied hard enough already, and he didn’t really care about the genus of frogs right now. He ducked into the electronics lab and he picked up the tools he remembered playing with so many years ago. These were more powerful than the ones he played with as a boy, but he knew what they did. He grabbed a few scraps and put something together, a battery at its heart, electricity, life. It worked.

It was crude, but it worked, and that filled him with more joy than he could explain. Fuck yes. He felt refreshed and alive and excited like he hadn’t been in a long, long time. He couldn't wait to tell Natty.

May 2085: crazy for you, part 5

Natty and Sophia are 20, Benny is 22, Josh is 18.


Natty wore a silk blouse and some earrings Charlie had bought her for her last birthday. She didn't want to overdo it, but she'd never been to a recital before and she honestly didn't know what to wear. She'd also never been this dressed up without Charlie, and it made her think of all those school dances and proms.

She looked okay, she guessed, but she didn't feel okay. She felt nauseous and anxious and angry and sad.