This Would Have Been Many Thanks

Danica's most recent photo shoot

I had something else I was going to post here but instead I am going to complain. At the rate I am going I may never be able to take another screen cap or even use my game. So let's call this a post of anniversaries. Milestones. The good, the bad, the ugly.

• It has been nearly two years since my game has been stable
• It has been 4 years since the first post for Dark December

I had intended to offer up a gift for those of you who have been there since the beginning and for all the new readers but if I can't stabilize my game I won't be able to follow through.

I really hate wasting time and loading and crashing and loading and crashing is a definite time suck.

Welcome to my black hole.

Biting the Bullet - Maybe

Taking shortcuts to save time and effort is not always the best course of action. I think in my desire to "fix" the many issues I am having with my game I have made things worse. I have tweaked everything with every tool at my disposal, simPE, Clean Installer, etc. and I think I have caused more problems than solved them. Honestly I think I might be better off reinstalling, something I really really wanted to avoid but may not be able to at this point.

I am definitely not the first person to moan about their downloads folder. It isn't the size of the folder so much as it is the individual files. I've jacked it back up to almost 9 gigs and with over 42,000 files that is too much. I have a ridiculous amount of recolors of mailboxes, trash cans, and whatnot which has gotten me to the point that packaging lots just compounds it. There are files I don't even recognize but they keep showing up. Ever see those recolors with the _0002, _0003 and on and on at the end? WTF??? It is nearly impossible to know what to delete and what to keep.

How did I end up making such a mess? I can't even organize them anymore since I have NO IDEA what I have. I suppose I can afford to lose "stuff" in the process. It isn't like I know what each of those over 42,000 files are. I don't know what will break as a result but I know I can't go on like this. I can't even move my people back into their homes anymore. Things are missing. Lots are crashing or lagging. My university NB was the only NB that ran smoothly and now it is a mess.

And don't even get me started on the clothing that got ruined because of sexy feet. I want to redo them on a proper mesh. Yeah right, like when??? And with so little spare time to try and fix it, shortcuts were my friend...or not apparently. I don't even want to try and reinstall things because it just makes it worse. I cannot start over. That isn't even an option. And there is no easy and safe way to cull downloads. Talk about a catch-22...and yet I continue to download crap...

Forgive my moping. I'm just very frustrated and needed to vent. Let me return you to your regular programming.
END RANT

Lightning Strikes Again

A representative shot of what just happened in my NB.

I had big plans for this weekend, several things I wanted to accomplish that were important to me. Unfortunately I chose a most inopportune time to try and clean out my game files, specifically the nearly 700 character files. I didn't attempt it the way I would have done it in the past. My old way would have taken the better part of a week given my insane work schedule and need for sleep. So I tried a different method, one that I know has worked for others. Not so for me however. Many of my key lots are corrupt now. I reinstalled them and still cannot get into them. Bad timing and bad planning as I had a very special photo shoot planned that I highly doubt I can pull off now.

The bottom line is that I restore my back-up and do it the old way, the long, tedious way. I don't see any way around it. It is either that or I begin again and I just don't think I have the energy left for that task. Still confused over the fact that I can access the lots in the backup but not when I re-install. I'm guessing there must be some residual that stayed with the lot from the families that moved out. Sucks for me since I will have to rebuild some of them. One family is going to be moving as opposed to getting the same lot since I cannot redo it. Hopefully I can make it work for their storyline purposes.

I am 2-3 months behind posting any updates. I don't like that fact, not one bit. It is what it is. A year and a half ago this would have been a debilitating blow. Now it just pisses me off.

END WHINE

~ Ramblin' Rose ~

I promise to have an update posted this weekend. The piece is written, the shots are taken. I am however struggling with the heavy amount of Photoshop that needs to be done. No way around it; it absolutely has to be done for the shots to work. So I've been working on them ad nauseam this evening and my wrists and hands are screaming at me to let it go. Did I mention I have repetitive stress injury? Not good for a person who makes a living using a computer. Shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands.

I've really been up and down this week, extreme highs and lows, not that I haven't been every other week, but this one has been...worse than usual I guess. No reason, it just is. So this is me, laying on the couch and feeling blue.

And this is a preview, a teaser, one of the shots that didn't make the cut. It was really just a preliminary shot anyway. Just to see how this thing was going to work. But the man is hot, hot, hot! He really rocked the house for me last night. Now if I can find that spark I need, I'll get the rest done.

Tell me you wouldn't throw your lingerie at him, or your hotel key, go on, tell me, I dare you.

*I'll probably end up deleting this post when I finally come to my senses*

Stupid Frigging Blogger

I can't even post a comment on my own blogs. WTF is up with that????

*as if you could post a response to answer*

The Best Intentions...Gone Awry

Suggested listening while reading this post: I Hate Everything About You ~ Three Days Grace

Good intentions...I always have them...they tend to backfire on me though. I can totally screw up the simplest things. I could burn water. Or a sandwich.

You know how the plumber's pipes are always clogged? Well this tekkie's PC is hosed. I got a humongous back up hard drive and threw all my precious files on it for safekeeping, my images, my writing, all my game backups, all my zip downloads...the whole kit and caboodle. And it crashed and burned.

So I tried to fix it as any experienced tekkie would do but to no avail. It gave me glimpses of my files as if to taunt me. "Lookie lookie! Here's your stuff! Come and get it!" Then it laughed...low, sadistic laugh as it froze my system. Then my main HD would not boot when the thing was turned on. It didn't recognize that it was the start up disk.

Finally got into the BIOS setup to set the boot order after opening the box and checking all my connections. Hard crash right in the middle of my BIOS setup. And now it won't boot at all. Sputters, coughs, dies.

I am so disheartened and depressed. All my images are on that drive. My Corinne story is on that drive. All my DD writing, all of it, ALL OF IT, is on that drive. The drive that taunts me. I don't even know why I am reliving this via a post. Glutton for punishment I daresay.

And to top things off, I booted my work laptop to see if I could google my drive to see what I could do and it is being pissy as well. At least it works though (hence this post).

So...I won't be writing for awhile or doing much of anything else. Dark December, Rising Above, and anything else I was working on is on hiatus for awhile (hopefully a short while). With any luck, by the time you read this, maybe I will have it up and running. I mean it isn't fried (all right, it was hot but everything looked as it should, no melted parts, no flames) it just refuses to start. I hope.

Life is full of ups and downs. When compared to what is happening around me, what other people have to deal with, this is small stuff. But it's my stuff. I give up.

Very Frustrated~My Rant of the Week

As much as I love the look of my new templates they are increasingly frustrating to work with. They don't format text correctly and are very problematic for posting chapters. I don't want to have to tweak the text as much as I need to for each chapter and I am just about ready to post. The template is designed primarily for photo blogging so minimal text would normally be used with it. As a story blog, it isn't user friendly.

There are so many features I love about it but I just don't know. If I could figure out how to get the features that appeal to me on a more friendly template, I would jump at it. I like the look of Wyatt's blog but miss the boxes at the bottom. Adjusting the span of the columns would be nice too. But I look at the html and my eyes cross just before they glaze over and I turn to something else.

Patience is a Virtue...

...so I am told. I, apparently, am not virtuous since my patience is frayed beyond belief right now. I finally bit the bullet and ordered the graphics card I desperately needed. I paid extra for faster delivery only to find that it is STILL going to take the requisite 3 days to get here.

I have been checking the UPS tracking number every 5 minutes (I told you I'm not patient) and it has been stuck on DESTINATION SCAN since last evening at 9:39PM. In transit. Does that mean it is on the truck? So I called. I got a recording. An interactive recording. Can I say that I hate those as well? I really miss the days when humans answered the phones...maybe there is a story in that down the road.

For all I know it is sitting on my front steps. Or a yellow tag is pasted to my door. "Sorry you weren't home when we decided to deliver your package. We'll try again tomorrow." I hope they just leave the package. I really don't want to do this again tomorrow.

Everything I am doing or ever planned to do is on hold right now. First order of business (after this lengthy rant) is a backup and an install of the new, shiny graphics card followed by the reinstall of the game. I am tempted to go with empty neighborhood templates. At least the character files won't overflow if I decide to clone the entire world population and have them all interact with each other.

I would love to insert a pretty picture here. But I can't. I'm at work. And if I was home, my sim world won't let me stay in it anyway to get a pretty picture. Or a bad one.