Chameleon Update

Update at Chameleon Chapter 7 - Regret. Although this piece is not long, it took a lot longer than I expected to finish the shots and make the text work. That's what I get for seeing it outside the confines of the game.

I'm babbling. Go read the update instead.

A Tangled Web

A powerful update is posted at Passages. Just when you think things could not be more complicated...

I am completely blown away by it. You will be too.

Passages 12

Rising Above Update

And so we draw one step closer to moving past Christmas. This update took much longer to shoot than I anticipated because everyone kept popping out of position and of course I already explained the Santa madness in a previous post.

This piece is called More Than Words. Song #1 in the playlist because I have been pretty random with the songs on this blog and it is performed by Extreme. One of my favorite acoustic rock ballads ever. You may remember the lead singer Gary Cherone did a short stint as Van Halen's front man and lead singer after Sammy Hagar split.

But I digress. The piece is short, in fact the song will last longer than reading it will take, the shots are average at best and I am not happy with a couple but whatever, but I like how the writing came out.

Plugging Along Slowly

I am slowly taking the shots for an update to Rising Above. I can see it pretty clearly in my head but executing the shots has been tedious not to mention a few distractions here and there that cropped up. And I got sick which didn't help so my ability to even look at a computer screen was challenging.

I'm trying to move past Christmas but this piece has to happen in order for the other storylines to progress. Christmas cookies were required and of course when you least expect it, who shows up? Why, Santa of course bringing with him of all things, a stereo. Like they don't already have one...ok I suppose they could have ended up with coal. The good thing that came of it was that I realized Wyatt wasn't dressed according to how I wrote the scene.

I was perusing the GoS list of poses that is maintained by goodbye_sun in search of links for pose boxes I wanted to use and stumbled upon this one. (And by the way, huge thanks to her for keeping this list updated; it isn't an easy task). I saw the link originally in Dinuriel's latest post and meant to follow it at some point but had no idea what a treasure it was! Suffice it to say a certain horse loving character and her man are going on a mini vacation in horse country. I tried this once before but having the additional tools to really make it work will hopefully produce a better shoot than the last one. And yeah, I know that makes absolutely no sense.

Realizing I placed a moratorium on downloading but the pose boxes in question will make shooting this piece easy peasy and since they don't take up a lot of space I am cutting myself some slack and downloading them.

And that is all.

I've Got Nothing

I took a little walk down memory lane today. This shot is from the first Dark December chapter I ever posted and remains one of my favorites. No Photoshop effects, taken with the in-game camera, and, since I had no idea how to even adjust the settings on the game, it was only 400x300. It doesn't look half bad re-sized.

I was reminded the other day about where all this started. It does help to go back and re-read even if it does make you cringe in places. Touching base with the heart of the work, what it was all about in the first place, is grounding. I admit it used to make me cry but today I was able to look back and smile even if it was just a small one.

My planned update for this weekend obviously did not happen after all. I have a serious case of the blahs with a side dish of no sleep. I didn't know how to get a certain character to logically be where she needs to be. I'm thinking about it but it just wasn't happening. And now that Beth got me over that hump, I am too tired to finish.

So hopefully I can finish the writing and start taking shots tomorrow after work and get something posted by mid-week. Not making promises but it would make me happy to move forward.

Fleeing the Scene

Imagine a newspaper in this child's hot little fist and you pretty much have the picture of what was going down here. Autumn Taylor, criminal mastermind stealing the newspaper off of Ryan McDermott's porch, while he was at home no less, a daring effort I must say. Girl's got some cojones.


The pool on Ryan's lot runs right up against the edge of the property line. I couldn't begin to tell you why or how the creator did that but I have been trying to demolish it so it could be fixed. Strange things happen when he swims in it. Bubbles ooze out of his...backside shall we say? I blame that stupid wall. So I downloaded (before my self-imposed moratorium) the Lot Adjuster.

After struggling to take from the left and add to the right I ended up adding 10 tiles to the right side of his lot and fixed the pool, adding a playground for Riley to play in. Not my strong suit but it works for him.

Next thing I know, here comes Autumn right up on the porch, nabs the paper, and runs off giggling...in mid air! WTH??? Have you ever seen that before? And just what is a toddler doing out and about without a parent? Not saying I blame the LotAdjuster, my game has been acting strangely for quite some time, people who were long deleted still show up for kicks but seriously this was strange.

I have managed to write half of the next update for Rising Above. I hope to have it posted this weekend but no promises. I also have the opening of the next Chameleon update written but I think that has been done since November so it doesn't count. Unless I finish it and then it counts. I just need to finish both and take shots. We'll see how it goes.

I was looking at some drafts that have been sitting in Blogger for quite awhile. Came across my NYE draft from last year that I never posted. Aside from the commentary, I say "Ditto" to last year's resolutions. Maybe I will post them some other time; this post is much too long already.

Ciao!

More Like a Guideline

I feel your pain baby girl...I'm tired too...

Special shout-out *does anyone use that expression anymore* to The Lunar Fox of Ruin and Tierra de Legado fame for helping me rotate my banners! Thank you! Please, if you haven't done so, check out her stories; she is a wonderful writer. *makes note to add to blog list*

In what seems like a never-ending effort to chronicle the heck out of my life I came to a sort of decision about my various and sundry blogs/journals. From now on I plan to post Sims related posts here on Storybook Haven. It is, after all, a storybook haven...

Of course this is by no means a hard and fast rule since I don't follow rules much so yeah, a guideline, and like the many new year's resolutions I have made and broken over the years, I expect it will change. I am going to try to post non-story related stuff on either my LJ or Dreamwidth. Or Wordpress. Or not. Indecisive much?

I also thought it would be fun to throw a little goofy cartoon or sage words of wisdom in the little box on the top right of this blog. So I did. I love LOVE Calvin and Hobbes don't you?

I just picked my son up from a friend's house. Their front door looks suspiciously like a Sim door...hmmm. I know I am not the only one who sees all things Sim in real life...come on, I know you've wanted to Sim that house down the street or the bitchy neighbor so you can torture her...