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simgaroopThe interview went just fine. Although I was literally shaking in the waiting room, once the interview began (8 American education experts vs me) I had little trouble expressing my ideas and goals to the "jury". I even went into "verbose" mode, as I always go when I talk about my job.
Hee... if my life were a movie, I'm pretty sure the interview would be like one of those "inspirational scenes" in which the main character delivers a moving monologue, complete with "emotional" background music and lots of close ups to the audience's faces as my words change everything they knew about the Special Education field. :P
Nah...
It went well and I was able to express myself with little trouble. Of course, my pronunciation was a perfect imitation of "Speedy Gonzalez" (I also talk waaaay too fast, even in Spanish), but the board seemed to understand me just fine. They smiled all the time and in general their attitude made me feel confident about my interview. I feel pretty happy right now ^^.
Well, what's done is done, so I have to wait until August 11th (my birthday!) to get the results. Hee... I really hope that for my 29th birthday I'll get the scholarship as a present. But if that's not possible, at least I'm glad I gave this process a try.
Thank you so much for your good vibes, everyone ^^!
So... last night I didn't sleep, of course. I tried to stay in bed as long as possible, but in the end I got up at 4:30 AM. And what better way to occupy a stressed mind than doing silly shit with the Sims?
As I said in my last entry, I want to switch back to a cartoony look for my sims. I downloaded the Phasmaxis skintones, only to realize that the men looked a bit girly, as if they had eyeshadow. Compared to the Rensim skintones I had, this is a minor pet-peeve, but I still got curious about the different degrees of "girlishness" in the many "cartoony" sets around the net. So, I fired up my experimental neighborhood (the merged Maxis Hood from MTS2) and with the help of the uber-awesome Christianlov's skin selector and sim cloner, I did a little experiment with the help of some very well known Maxis sims.
Skintone Number 1: Pale
Meet experimental subject number 1, also known as Ripp Grunt and his clones: Ari, Horace and Mark (those names were generated by the cloner BTW).
From left to right, you can see the original Maxis skintone, the Maxis skintone with the Louis facemask blush, the Phasmaxis skintone and the Lyran skintone.
Mr Grunt and his Siamese brothers are modeling their underwear to show you that there's NO difference between the body textures of these four skintones.
Close up to the faces of the Maxis skintone and the Maxis skintone + Louis face mask.
BTW, these pictures weren't edited at all (just cropped with MSpaint) and I took screenshots with Gadwin PrintScreen instead of the in-game camera for better quality. Because these pics were taken on an empty lot, I could set my graphics options on "High".
These clones weren't created on CAS. It's the "real" Ripp Grunt plus 3 clones created with the Sim Cloner in the lot. I changed the skintones with the skintone selector and the only sim who had a makeover was the Ripp with the Louis face mask. There's no makeup in these pics either. And I didn't change their transition outfits either (Nah, Ripp's was too boring anyway, so no lulz from him).
Close up to the Phasmaxis skin (left) and the Lyran skin (right).
In general, other than the slightly rosy cheeks and longer lashes of the Lyran skintone, I couldn't see a difference between these skins.
With this first set I made the mistake of posing them with BV's "pose function" and their creepy smiles freaked me out. Don't they look ready to come out of the screen to murder you? DUN DUN DUUUUUN!
Let's move along before I get nightmares from these pics.
S1 on females. This time using Lilith Pleasant (sans makeup) as our experimental subject.
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
I don't see any difference in the bodies (maybe because she's wearing a bra, otherwise you'd see Lyran skin's odd niples).
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 2: Mid (Or tan according to some skin creators, WTF?)
S2 Male Subject: Puck Summerdream (sans make-up)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
S2 Female Subject: Alexandra O'Mackey (sans make-up and wearing a conversion of the "season's very short hair" for females, because the other hair covered her face).
By the way... if Alexandra divorced Gabe to follow a carefree life as a pirate (ARRRRR!), how come she still uses his last name?
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 3: Tan (or Mid for some skintone creators... WTF redux?)
S3 Male Subject: Ajay Loner.
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Hmmm... now this is when I start to notice some differences in the eyes of these skins.
S3 Female Subject: Bella Goth
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 4: Dark
S4 Male Subject: Dirk Dreamer (and his silly transition outfit)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Both the Lyran and Phasmaxis skins are lighter than the original skin. I'd never noticed that...
S4 Female Subject: Ophelia Nigmos (I guess she's implying that she wants to follow a career as a mail woman?)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 5: Alien
S5 Male Subject: Johnny Smith (who's trying too hard to look "badass")
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, the Louis Default I've used for more than a year and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
There is a "green" blush, but it looked WAY too stupid on the Maxis skins. It made Johnny look as if he had sneezed and not bothered to clean the snot hanging from his nose (yuck!). So, I'm using the "grey" blush instead.
Louis default and Phasmaxis Skin.
Yikes! The Louis skin has TOO MUCH make-up! The lips are a major pet-peeve for me, it makes them look as if they had lipgloss (even as babies). But other than that I like how they looked on Cosmo, for example. Hmmm... got to try out the Maxis skins on my alien Brokes and see how much they change with them. BTW, the Louis skins make your sims' muscles look as if they had spent a million years in the gym :P. It was so odd when my aliens became teens for that reason.
The Phasmaxis skin does look like eyeshadow with this tone, but I sort-of-like that the eyes "pop-out" with it (especially when I deal with blurry graphics). I just wish it was a bit more subtle (or "manly").
S5 Female Subject: Chloe Curious-Smith (Sans make-up and a different hair-cut)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Louis Yellow-Green skin and Phasmaxis.
Here you can see my #1 pet peeve with this skintone: I really hate the belly piercing!
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
To conclude this little and stupid experiment: I think I'll give a try to the default Maxis skintones + the Louis blush. I like that they keep the original color (especially in the dark tones) but add a bit of detail to the faces (I’m used to that by now at least). For the aliens, I'll switch to the Maxis skintone only (and use some eyeliner or the gray blush with the girls) because I don't want to see that bellybutton piercing again! :P
- See you next time!
Hee... if my life were a movie, I'm pretty sure the interview would be like one of those "inspirational scenes" in which the main character delivers a moving monologue, complete with "emotional" background music and lots of close ups to the audience's faces as my words change everything they knew about the Special Education field. :P
Nah...
It went well and I was able to express myself with little trouble. Of course, my pronunciation was a perfect imitation of "Speedy Gonzalez" (I also talk waaaay too fast, even in Spanish), but the board seemed to understand me just fine. They smiled all the time and in general their attitude made me feel confident about my interview. I feel pretty happy right now ^^.
Well, what's done is done, so I have to wait until August 11th (my birthday!) to get the results. Hee... I really hope that for my 29th birthday I'll get the scholarship as a present. But if that's not possible, at least I'm glad I gave this process a try.
Thank you so much for your good vibes, everyone ^^!
So... last night I didn't sleep, of course. I tried to stay in bed as long as possible, but in the end I got up at 4:30 AM. And what better way to occupy a stressed mind than doing silly shit with the Sims?
As I said in my last entry, I want to switch back to a cartoony look for my sims. I downloaded the Phasmaxis skintones, only to realize that the men looked a bit girly, as if they had eyeshadow. Compared to the Rensim skintones I had, this is a minor pet-peeve, but I still got curious about the different degrees of "girlishness" in the many "cartoony" sets around the net. So, I fired up my experimental neighborhood (the merged Maxis Hood from MTS2) and with the help of the uber-awesome Christianlov's skin selector and sim cloner, I did a little experiment with the help of some very well known Maxis sims.
Skintone Number 1: Pale
Meet experimental subject number 1, also known as Ripp Grunt and his clones: Ari, Horace and Mark (those names were generated by the cloner BTW).
From left to right, you can see the original Maxis skintone, the Maxis skintone with the Louis facemask blush, the Phasmaxis skintone and the Lyran skintone.
Mr Grunt and his Siamese brothers are modeling their underwear to show you that there's NO difference between the body textures of these four skintones.
Close up to the faces of the Maxis skintone and the Maxis skintone + Louis face mask.
BTW, these pictures weren't edited at all (just cropped with MSpaint) and I took screenshots with Gadwin PrintScreen instead of the in-game camera for better quality. Because these pics were taken on an empty lot, I could set my graphics options on "High".
These clones weren't created on CAS. It's the "real" Ripp Grunt plus 3 clones created with the Sim Cloner in the lot. I changed the skintones with the skintone selector and the only sim who had a makeover was the Ripp with the Louis face mask. There's no makeup in these pics either. And I didn't change their transition outfits either (Nah, Ripp's was too boring anyway, so no lulz from him).
Close up to the Phasmaxis skin (left) and the Lyran skin (right).
In general, other than the slightly rosy cheeks and longer lashes of the Lyran skintone, I couldn't see a difference between these skins.
With this first set I made the mistake of posing them with BV's "pose function" and their creepy smiles freaked me out. Don't they look ready to come out of the screen to murder you? DUN DUN DUUUUUN!
Let's move along before I get nightmares from these pics.
S1 on females. This time using Lilith Pleasant (sans makeup) as our experimental subject.
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
I don't see any difference in the bodies (maybe because she's wearing a bra, otherwise you'd see Lyran skin's odd niples).
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 2: Mid (Or tan according to some skin creators, WTF?)
S2 Male Subject: Puck Summerdream (sans make-up)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
S2 Female Subject: Alexandra O'Mackey (sans make-up and wearing a conversion of the "season's very short hair" for females, because the other hair covered her face).
By the way... if Alexandra divorced Gabe to follow a carefree life as a pirate (ARRRRR!), how come she still uses his last name?
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 3: Tan (or Mid for some skintone creators... WTF redux?)
S3 Male Subject: Ajay Loner.
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Hmmm... now this is when I start to notice some differences in the eyes of these skins.
S3 Female Subject: Bella Goth
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 4: Dark
S4 Male Subject: Dirk Dreamer (and his silly transition outfit)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Both the Lyran and Phasmaxis skins are lighter than the original skin. I'd never noticed that...
S4 Female Subject: Ophelia Nigmos (I guess she's implying that she wants to follow a career as a mail woman?)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Lyran and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
Skintone 5: Alien
S5 Male Subject: Johnny Smith (who's trying too hard to look "badass")
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, the Louis Default I've used for more than a year and Phasmaxis.
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
There is a "green" blush, but it looked WAY too stupid on the Maxis skins. It made Johnny look as if he had sneezed and not bothered to clean the snot hanging from his nose (yuck!). So, I'm using the "grey" blush instead.
Louis default and Phasmaxis Skin.
Yikes! The Louis skin has TOO MUCH make-up! The lips are a major pet-peeve for me, it makes them look as if they had lipgloss (even as babies). But other than that I like how they looked on Cosmo, for example. Hmmm... got to try out the Maxis skins on my alien Brokes and see how much they change with them. BTW, the Louis skins make your sims' muscles look as if they had spent a million years in the gym :P. It was so odd when my aliens became teens for that reason.
The Phasmaxis skin does look like eyeshadow with this tone, but I sort-of-like that the eyes "pop-out" with it (especially when I deal with blurry graphics). I just wish it was a bit more subtle (or "manly").
S5 Female Subject: Chloe Curious-Smith (Sans make-up and a different hair-cut)
In order: Maxis, Maxis + Louis Blush, Louis Yellow-Green skin and Phasmaxis.
Here you can see my #1 pet peeve with this skintone: I really hate the belly piercing!
Maxis and Maxis + Blush.
Lyran skin and Phasmaxis Skin.
To conclude this little and stupid experiment: I think I'll give a try to the default Maxis skintones + the Louis blush. I like that they keep the original color (especially in the dark tones) but add a bit of detail to the faces (I’m used to that by now at least). For the aliens, I'll switch to the Maxis skintone only (and use some eyeliner or the gray blush with the girls) because I don't want to see that bellybutton piercing again! :P
- See you next time!