simgaroop: (Default)
Thanks for the good vibes and wishes, everyone :). Things are still a bit tense right now, and according to the news, we shall have a confirmation on when will the schools be reopened or, in the worst case scenario, if there'll be an official quarantine in the city.

For now, I went to the market as early as possible (to avoid crowds) and bought enough canned food, water and vitamin C supplements in case something bad happens (but we're trying to remain positive). I also got some antibacterial gel (which is worthless since this is a virus, but it's good to have anyway) and surgical masks from a dental store, so we can wear them if we go outside.

So for now we're set for the following week, and we'll just hope this menace will fade away as soon as possible (and if possible, it'll remain here instead of propagating around the world, as the experts fear). None of us are experiencing any of the swine flue symptoms yet, and I pray things will remain that way.

I guess I shall spend the next few days finding creative ways to not go insane during this forced lock up. Well, at least my sisters are in the same situation, so we'll have time to catch up (there are days in which we barely have time to chat!), read, do more planning for my upcoming move and mastering the Guitar Heroes game. I'll also try to finish Pokémon Pearl, because thanks to the new Platinum game, the kids at my work are obsessed big time and since I'm still stuck in 1998 regarding these games, I need to catch up on the 400 Pokémons I don't know yet :P.

So, I'm still worried, but now that we've taken some preventive measures I feel a lot safer.

And as a way to pass time while I listen to the news during this long, long and boring day, here's a new hair retexture:

New XM Hair for girls under the cut )

...

Apr. 24th, 2009 06:56 am
simgaroop: (Default)
Last night, the President and the Health Secretary of my country ordered to suspend all classes in my city, from preeschool to University, both public and private schools:

«From the news»
Mexican authorities on Friday closed all schools in the capital and central Mexico as the WHO announced hundreds of human cases of swine flu in the country, including 57 suspected deaths.

The outbreak has killed at least 20 people in the past month, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said in announcing the school closures.

"This afternoon, the epidemic was confirmed by Canadian and US labs to be a new influenza virus," Cordova said in a televised statement late Thursday in which he urged people to avoid large crowds, shaking hands, kissing people as a greeting, or even using the subway.
AFP.


So, here I am, not working today. My sisters are also staying home because classes at both her Universities were suspended too. We're all fine, don't worry. And I've just talked with my student's mother and he's all right too.

Oh well, I'll get to spend this unexpected lock up working on my update. More exactly, a very evil and long teaser that's coming up today :).

P.S. I'm extremely thankful for your support regarding my last entry. Now that I have expressed this decision, I can focus on giving the Brokes my full attention until the time I'll let them go. :)
simgaroop: (Default)
The EAxis store has just released two new objects for infants that should have been part of Apartment Life but evidently they kept them out so they could charge the fans again later. The Awesome place already have them and obviously, I wanted to try them out as soon as possible :).

Problem is that none of my Brokes have infant children at the moment, and Gen 6 is still a little bit away (but it's coming soon... or so I hope!). So, I had to give the honor of trying these new toys to a different family.

simgaroop: (Default)
So I was looking at my downloads folder and realized I had 1.87 Gb of stuff in one of my subfolders.

And that's just my "objects folder"!!!

WTF?! No wonder my game takes forever to load lately.

So, in an abrupt movement, I deleted all my stuff. No more 80000 clutter files and a gazillion wall recolors I never use.

Good thing I was anal retentive enough to keep the CC for my two lots apart, otherwise they'd be completely screwed up now.

So now, I ask you, my fellow simmers who have managed to keep your downloads folder in a manageable, tiny size: Which are the basic buy and build stuff you have? I think I'll get some Holy Simoly stuff and a few recolors. And that's it, but I'm probably missing something.

So... which are your (Maxis Match, preferably) must haves?

When I'm done with that, I'm going to nuke my clothing folder. But the fact of having to play detective with all those meshes is a huge turn off. Meh, I'm lazy. I can live with the 1.70 Gb of clothes for now... :S
simgaroop: (Default)
So, while I wait for my Sims game to load, here's a small picture post as proof that I'm really working on my Legacy Story :D. There are small spoilers in here, nothing too revealing about the main plot. I'll probably won't be able to include all of them in the official updates, anyway.

As you already know, the main story has temporarily moved to Belladonna Cove, where the Gen 4 Heir and his children moved after the tragic loss of his wife. I do plan to move them back to Strangetown, because to me that's the Broke's main town, but that will happen by the time the only kid of Gen 6 is born (yup, all my Broke's will be born in Strangetown too).

Tom is still a teenager in my game, but I've decided he's gonna have only one kid (or two, if he's "blessed" with twins :D). I'm putting both him and his future spouse on eternal "pill" via ACR as soon as that kid is born. These last two Generations have been too large to handle, with so many characters to develop at the same time and right now I'll admit I won't focus on all the Gen 5 children in the story. They'll still be mentioned, of course, but the plot will fall only on Tom and Chip (plus Edward to an extent).

I hope that with only one "official" character for Gen 6 (plus his/her cousins), I'll get out of the current slump of the story and move on faster. I'm worried once I begin my master's studies I won't be able to continue the Legacy at all, so I want to get as far as possible in the next few months.


simgaroop: (Default)
So here's my take on [livejournal.com profile] maxis_taste 's third challenge. This time, we had to give two makeovers to a well-known Pleasantview townie (September is Pleasantview's month at the community). One of those makeovers had to improve its looks, while the other one had to make them look worse.

We had the choice between Sandy Bruty and Goopy Gilscarbo, whose awful fashion sense is recognized around the Sims community ;). In my case, I decided to do the challenge with both of them.

And here are the pictures! )
simgaroop: (Default)
I've just joined the [livejournal.com profile] maxis_taste community, which focuses of course on the pre-made Maxis sims. There are also a few challenges for the members, and I wanted to try the second one, because it seemed quick and easy to do.

The challenge consisted in giving a makeover to up to three pre-made Maxis sims. Of course, I have a couple pics in my hard drive, but those are massive spoilers for what's coming up, so I decided instead in featuring in two well known Pleasantview townies.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to re-create a good background for them, so for now you could consider these pictures are "pre-production" designs for the Studio City's summer blockbuster: Go Gerbitz! The Musical :D.

And let's meet the stars of the movie! (8 Pictures) )

In other news, I updated my Download a Broke Page with Monica and Bianca Broke.

And Mexico just won another gold medal in Tae Kwon Do! Wooo! :)

See you next time!
simgaroop: (Tommy toddler)
First of all, thank you so much for all the nice words and comments you left in my last (and very lame, now that I look at it) entry. I'm still a bit numb from the shock, because I really didn't expect to win the scholarship. Yesterday, I was playing my sims when I noticed that I had a new e-mail (I have the web mail notifier plug-in). When I saw the subject, "Interview Results", I nearly lost my breath.

Two minutes later, I broke down in front of the computer in tears. I'm afraid I scared my family with my reaction, but once I was a bit more calm, we celebrated together. I've been getting phonecalls from my relatives all day, it feels as if my birthday took place five days earlier this year.

This also improved my mood a lot, for I was quite depressed last week. My office plans went down the drain due to a misunderstanding with my former partner, and things got very ugly. Well, I guess the saying "When a door is closed, a new window is opened" is true in my case.

I got more info from the foundation today. I have to go to an orientation in the Foreing Affairs Secretary of my country next week, where I'll be told the instructions to begin the admission process to the two universities I chose in my application, and the two the Fullbrith comitee will recommend to me. I want to go to the University of Texas in Austin and the Peabody Vanderbilt College in Nashville, TN. I have no idea which other two universities they'll select for me.

The scholarship consists in a 15,000 USD grant per study year, medical insurance of 100,000 USD and the foundation will aid me with the admission process, where they'll look for a discount of the tuition fees (so, if I'm lucky, I won't have to pay that either). They'll also help me with the visa process. Meanwhile, I was asked to work on my statement of purpose (I already wrote it for the scholarship, so I just have to edit it the best as possible) and I have to repeat the GRE exam, because I got 1080 points last time, and I need at least 1100. Good thing is that I no longer have to pay for that either. I also have to translate my papers and... well, a lot of things to do this year, as you can see.

But before all that, I'm gonna celebrate both my scholarship and my birthday this weekend :).

I've been playing a bit with the Brokes too, because I said I'd get to Gen 6 before my vacations were over (in 10 days). Frankly, I don't think I'll make it, because I still have a lot of ideas I want to develop and my Gen 5 sims are still kids (especially my heir!), but I'll try to advance as much as possible.

I hope things go much quicker now that I moved Rosie, Chip, Lyla and Monica to the Specter lot. That was my original plan when I chose two heirs for Gen 4: As soon as the Gen 5 heir was chosen, I'd move the spares (and their parents) out of the house. Since Chip is not heir, Rosie had to leave the Broke lot, but you'll still see her a lot in the story.

So now I have six sims in the house: Tim, Cody (2 days away from becoming an adult and therefore leaving the lot), Tommy, Ed, Puck and Wanda (who are very old now), so I guess I'll just have three sims very soon. So, I moved them to a new, smaller house and spent a couple hours decorating it with lots of useless clutter thanks to Lord Darcy's awesome "slot enabler" for most of Maxis furniture.

Here are a couple pics for the next update. Well, not really, for most of them won't make it to a story update, so consider them as "extras":

Five Extra Pics )
simgaroop: (Default)




I'm pretty sure this is the most stupid thing I've ever written, but I had so much fun I'm eager to do it again in the near future.

If you've been following the fourth and fifth generation of the Broke Legacy, you already know about Tim's show business career, from his beginnings as a teen comedian to the film that made him a "movie star" a few years later.

That movie is "ARR! The Search of the Hidden Booty", a pirate movie about the incredible adventures of an ex-hacker, Salomon Bridges and his best friend, Dr. Lily Jones, as they search for the hidden "booty": A treasure of custom content files stolen by the evil pirate, Captain Tobias Greed.

I was planning to make a short spin-off story for this movie, but that would take me a long time and I'm already too busy with my job (of course) and my two stories to start yet another project. So, I settled for a silly trailer, open enough to let you imagine your own version of the Arr! Movie.

This has no relation to the Broke Legacy (besides the identity of the main actor), so anyone can read this without risk of spoilers.

I hope you enjoy it ^^.



ARR! The Search for the Hidden Booty Trailer: 56 pics + 6 movie posters )
simgaroop: (Default)



Previous update: Helena's Story

One of the worst habits I have while playing my legacy is that I take too many pictures. I have my left hand ALWAYS close to the Tab and C keys (and the 0 key for pausing) to take a snapshot as soon as I find a hilarious face or an interesting situation. Of course, because I want to make sure I get the best angle or close-up as possible (so my readers can clearly see the expression or interaction I'm trying to show through the pic), I take a lot of snapshots of the same scene.

That leaves me with around 2000 pictures to sort out per update. I usually divide them in "scenes" or "days" (so I don't have to deal with 2000 pics in a single folder and kill my PC at the same time) and then choose the best picture from each interaction/expression. I then delete the rest of the pictures and that leaves me with 300 pics to work with. I end up deleting more pictures that I don't need for the story until I'm left with the final 200 pics that I rename (with numbers), edit at Photoshop (Actions are my best friends :P) and upload.
In short, I usually have a lot of "behind the scene" pictures that I end up deleting to keep my poor PC sane. Now I regret doing that, because there were a lot of hilarious pictures that I'd have liked to share as a sort of "Commentary" entry. Oh well...

I saved a few pics from Gen 4, though (well, the final update of Gen 4) and a couple from the annoying process of restoring Strangetown. I took some pictures to talk about the first three Generations as a special "Yay! I'm finally on Gen 5!" entry, but I decided to save them for the Storytellers Spotlight that I'll post on Monday at [livejournal.com profile] simstorytellers.

I've returned from my job early (the classes were suspended because of the current heat wave we are dealing at my city), so I'll post my notes for Gen 4.7 (and 5.0) in the mean time.

Behind the Scenes of The Broke Legacy (Gen 4) )

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