That was fun

I was over at the Sims 3 store. I decided to update my wishlist with a better variety of things - it was getting down to only expensive sets left. :)

I found several freebies I'd previously missed by using the Sort by [price lowest to highest] which puts the free stuff on page 1. About the only freebies I'm still missing are the New Years Eve hats - which I just can't imagine using.

And sorting by price meant I bought several small cute and very inexpensive items while I was there.  I can recommend doing that if you are in a bit of a shopping mood.

EA/T-Mobile

There's new free stuff on this site including some great glass furniture and sports themed objects. There's a basketball hoop hamper that made me immediately think of Travis Kane.

EA T-Mobile

The code is getConnected

On special request

Phillip, Vanessa, Vincent, Stephen, Penelope and Veronica are now on the exchange.

http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=3505935

For Kal

I can't decide if Jeb's been tutoring or misdirecting the blame for certain activities.

Twallan's new mod

CAF - He's making it possible to do some more and different linking when you are doing the Create a family stage of CAS.
"    The restriction that a young adult must be part of the family has been changed to include teenagers
     The "Edit Relationships" window has been adjusted to remove many of the age-restrictions on family links"

It is V 1 so I'd wait a couple of versions for the obvious bugs to be ironed out. But it sounds like a) you will be able to create a family that has only a teen and b) that there will be more ways to link since some of the age restrictions are gone.

New random topic - share musicians/bands you like that others might not know

Long topic line - but that's the gist of this idea. Share some music you think not everyone is well acquainted with.

Now I'll start with the same one I was sharing with Kaleeko yesterday - Peter Gabriel. If you've seen her video of Sammy Stride with Pride, you've heard at least one of his songs but here are a few more

Rhythm of the Heat
San Jacinto
I Have the Touch
I Grieve

That's a good starter for Peter.

My suggestion is to only do one artist per post.  But a couple of different songs to show their style.

A Quick Sim Survey!

So, there's something I've been curious about for a while, so I figured I'd throw this out there as a brief topic of discussion while we hit the lull of the holiday season.

Just a few questions, each Sim/trait related:

1. Of all the Sims that you've created/had born in your game, which is your favorite, and why?

2. What's a kind of Sim that you'd like to try out, but haven't gotten around to creating yet?

3. Is there any trait that you avoid/never use? Why?

4. If you could Simify yourself and be transported into the Sim universe, which Sims would you first want to meet? What Sims would you avoid?

PiB added:
5. What are your favorite lifetime wishes for a Sim?

6. What kind of career do you like?

7. What do you hope to accomplish from one of your EPs that you haven't done yet?

---

As a starter, here's Kaleeko's answers:

1. Favorite Sim?
I've got about 3 Sims right now that I absolutely adore, but I think I'm going to have to hand it to Jebidiah Kane as my favorite. He's the kind of guy that's rather pleasant on the outside but absolutely poisonous on the inside -- he rarely shows his evilness, and he seems to love his family to no end, but there's just something always 'off' about him. He kind of reminds me of what it would be like if an evil nerd took over the universe. He's also probably the least predictable of my Sims, which means he's a huge catalyst for my story; I wouldn't be anywhere without him.

Jeb is also, quite obviously, the main character of my blog; Brad takes a close second, but Jeb's still the King Cheese.

2. What would you like to try out?

No Kane has ever had the 'Green Thumb' trait, so that's something I'd like to try out someday in sort of a Freebird-Hippy type of Sim.

Also, while I've had a Bookworm sim before, I'd really like to have one again.

3. What trait do you never use?

Aside from all the 'little' traits that are mostly useless, I think the BIG one I terminally avoid, despite how obviously awesome it would be, is "Insane"; it's an incredibly interesting and story-changing trait, but I just can't bring myself to use it.

4. You are a Sim; who do you meet, who do you avoid?

Well, first Sim I'd want to meet hands-down is my own Bradley Kane, just to give the darn boy a hug. But, I honestly think that of all the Sims out there in our blogs, the Sim I'd most get along with would be Rosaline from MJ's blog, because she is an absolute sweetheart. She's the kinda girl I'd love to hang around. Though, I think PiB's Thomas and Chrysame's Gwen would also make fantastic pals.

Sims I would avoid? Dee's Carolina and Raisin's Katalina. I'm pretty sure they would both scare the bejesus out of me, since in-person I am a very timid, shy gal. Also, the Big-Hat lady from MJ's story, because she's... well, creepy; Cheezy's Angie because she would eat me for dinner; and Meredith from my blog, because she would drive me absolutely bonkers.

There's obviously more, but those are the ones that immediately strike me off the top of my head. :)

---

There's my answers! Feel free to be equally as long winded as me, moreso, or less so! I just like hearing opinions like these from other people, because it'd be fun to see how we all differ in our Sim-Tastes. :)

Feel free to tack on any other questions you might be curious about, too.

Have fun! Happy holidays! Whee!

Well, if we've discussed this before, it's been quite a while ago.

I think I've found a particularly good way to work on my blogs.

1. Title the blog post - notice that I'm generally horribly lazy about it and most of them require minimal effort these days.
2. Get the pictures into the blog post and size to large
3. Put a few words to a sentence or two below the pics
4. Let ideas stew
5. Now go back the next day (generally) and fill in the details.

If I try to do it in one sitting, the writing tends to be really short and few details. It's when I've thought about a pic for a bit that I add details. Like Phillip is helping his son with homework in the kitchen because he's promised the boy a treat and his son wants to be close to that fridge. 

There have been exceptions when the plot I have in mind writes the words and I have to go find pictures to illustrate those words. But generally this works for me.

What works for you?

Check it out

Awesomeness from our friend Muleskinner.
First one is meeting the band.
Second one is the girls playing in the band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGg9pTE6Xuw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3JD0vZIjyE

More holiday snaps up

I've done about half of the pictures from Florence. I should be able to do the other half tomorrow.

And after that it's on to Milan (not many pics) and Venice.

I knew I shouldn't do it

I put a new post on the blog no one follows - the Sims 2 blog.

And I discovered that the biggest folder of pics on the photobucket account that I put Sims 2 pics in needs work. I had never finished titling and tagging the 400 pics there so searching on a name via tag only brings up some of their pictures.

So I've just spent a lot of time tagging pics that I may never get around to blogging about. LOL

I just hope that the other folders were tagged properly as I dropped the pics in. I think they were.

Hey Pib

When you have time will you put the link to my new blog on her and remove the links to my old ones?
http://simtimeinsimville.blogspot.com/

Pics!

Uber buff Ollie with his uber fashionable hair.  This is just wrong.

Mabel getting her groove on in her home party room.

 O.M.G.

 Jamie Hamilton - son of Josh Hamilton and Shannon Sprague Hamilton.

The new sale code

You all do know about the new store point code don't you? NOV15OFF. There is supposed to be some huge sale Monday. I read on the forum this morning about many items in the store being marked down already. The lower price isn't showing up until you click on the item though.
I bookmarked this link this morning because I didn't have time to go shopping.
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/299773.page

Which of your Sims

Should be joining Mr Sam Grant in Bridgeport? I've moved a few in but only a few.

This time, they should be fairly safe. Sam is going for stardom - so I don't anticipate death or overt evilness for the volunteers. Unlike their last outing with Sam, which was fatal for so many.

Tidbit for PiB

As another teensy b-day present, I bring to you yet another excerpt of the action between Sam and Thomas... Courtesy of Twallan's new Cops and Robbers addition to Story Progression.

For once, it appears that Thomas has been given the short end of the stick, instead of poor, guinea pig Sam! Looks like Sammy's kicking some serious butt. ;)

Hope you had a great birthday, PiB!

If Late Night's Giving You Problems...

... Here's a possible reason why.

I got Late Night last night (yay!) and I discovered when I loaded up a copy of Bridgeport, my game crashed instantly. I'm not sure how my usual save was faring (I didn't check), but it wasn't looking promising.

But, while I was checking out what might be the issue, I discovered two things:

1.) The Late Night .exe was not on my DEP list (because I forgot to re-add it after installing, stupid me).
2.) One thing that EA patched was that the Sims game is now *automatically* allocated <2GB, so you don't have to set it manually anymore.

If any of you have had to use the trick of increasing TS3's memory allocation before, then you'll know what I'm talking about; it's something that prevents a lot of crashing issues, and it's about damn time that EA made that automatically set so that people don't have to download CFF Explorer to fiddle with their program's settings.

But what it also means (I'm assuming) is that, particular in Vista/Windows 7 systems, this makes the program look unstable and unsafe, so Windows automatically shuts it off when it starts drawing too much memory. I could be totally wrong on this, but, it seems logical -- and it also means that people who weren't <2GB'ing their program previous weren't aware that it now is, and so they don't know how to tell their computer how to not wig out about it.

In a nutshell:
If you're having crashing issues immediately upon start-up, particularly in Bridgeport, you probably need to add The Sims 3 to your DEP Exception List.


The DEP List (DEP: Data Execution Prevention) basically just tells Windows what programs NOT to shut off if they look insecure.

To add Sims3 to your DEP Exception List, here's a few sites that explain how:
For Windows XP: http://www.updatexp.com/dep-exceptions.html
For Windows Vista: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/65790-dep-turn-off-programs.html
For Windows 7: http://www.itechtalk.com/thread3591.html

The Sims 3 EXE file you'll be looking for, if you are doing this for Late Night, is:
C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Late Night\TS3EP3.exe

Anyways, I hope this helps anyone that's having crashing issues. If not, make sure to do the usual things, such as checking for mod incompatibilities, mods that haven't been updated yet for Late Night,  yada yada.


Have fun, y'all!

Josh with Slider help.

I still don't have the game but the sliders and lots of other things came with the recent update.
Big difference.
I took two because he decided to move around while I was taking the first one.

Report from holiday

We are still going well. Zurich was lovely but cold. We are about to leave Rome for Florence. Have lots of pics in camera but no chance to upload for a while.
Rome is amazing. Tons of history everywhere you look.
I've been following posts and comments. Looks like MJ and Dee are the active bloggers at the moment.

New house uploaded

My new very old house that I uploaded to the exchange.

Here's the link.

http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=3252310

New sets are out

New and cute addition to the Animals Abound
Two more sets related to the Loud, Fast and Clash
Transport to the future - boring two vehicles and nothing more
A pretty bedroom set  Glitter and Glam

Free set Kallopi's gift

Barnacle Bay

So last night was spent moving someone to my brand new gifted Barnacle Bay. A kind and apparently rich soul noticed I said in the general forum that I was thinking about getting it and gifted it.

In order not to start a new blog, I used Twallan's Porter to move Brooke and John Edward over. I got two surprises when I did.

First surprise, I had left the game at Brooke's house. I needed to go to Johnny because he needs his relic collection and he had JUST put Ripley's paintings on the wall. John Edward and Alaina divorced at some point in the past day - though she still lives there. She does have multiple lovers, Johnny must have noticed.

Surprise two - when I unpacked the families, I was back with Brooke. And who the heck is the red head toddler? Oh, the game decided Leonardo was due to age up. Same hair as all the men in that family. I did end up moving them to a house they couldn't officially afford, they were moved into a one bedroom shack and that's just ridiculous.

New Sims Up

Camille Tomasi and a CC-free Shannon Sprague are now on the exchange. 

A challenge for you all

Some of our Sims seem to have ultimate - this is their best match pairings. Others not so much so.

So who do you think would be the ultimate match for Thomas Leman? He's had a rather large range of wives (and a husband). I'm still not sure which would be his best match. Any prospective brides (or husbands, he is *very* open minded) that you think would be the one?

Posting drought

Need more posts to read! Help!

Forum Fatigue

The forum has never been a bastion of intelligence but it seems like it's slipping even further down the slope of idiocy.  It's rather stunning.  Before I lose what little I have left of my mind after sifting through the endless "gimme" threads, I think I'll step away from Sims 3 forums for a while.

Sorry for getting carried away here but....

I just put another Plum Puddle Park on the exchange. This one is for BB. I placed a 40x 40 lot on the beach across the street from Goldbeard Galleon Gallery and put it on there. I played around with the terrain and tried to make it look right.

On the exchange I'm calling it Ye Olde Park.

Attention Raisin Hale and Kaleeko

First a warning. I didn't change anything about Armando, Tatianna or the kids. Tatianna is now old and they are all wearing whatever they aged into.

They are now on the exchange.

In case anyone doesn't remember; I'm SelahFreeAtLast on the forum.

More BB pics

One of the smaller houses.

Another house.  I dig the bridge.

A small park.

The main beach area.  The building houses a bar, stereo, foosball table, etc.  Lots of bathrooms.  :P

Another small house. 

A large home with an elaborate pool in the front yard.

Overview of a very modern glass home.  It's on a tiny island separate from the main island.

Front view of the glass house.

Click to enlarge: Barnacle Bay

Just a few pics. Sorry, these are night pics.

Alicia at the hangout place. Can't remember the name of it.

From one of the beaches

Found the death flower bush.

Really cool waterfall with a little park and pond at the top.

Found a gnome at the museum.

Barnacle Bay is available now

Yeah, it's in the store now.

I've found the disadvantage of short story blogs

Once I get started doing a Hi Mum or a Short Story, it's nearly impossible to do updates on the other games. If I don't have one in progress, then switching games seems quite natural.

So I doubt there will be much progress in any blog until this Sammy story is finished.

Copied/pasted from simprograms

SimFans tweeted a number of Late Night tidbits on their Twitter Page when they were able to check out the game for themselves from the Munich Event. Here’s a compilation of what they had to share. If you have Twitter, be sure to follow them!

•You will get 4 exclusive objects if you register Late Night on thesims3.com
•New Metals: carbon steel, smithsonite, tungsten carbine, vampires eye
•New Bugs: Spider, Termite / New Fish: Kissing Gourami, Sea Sludge, Sewer Trilobite
•new community lot types: dive bar, fusion lounge, vampire lounge, exclusive lounge, dance club, poolside club, disco club, sports bar, hangout, local watering hole
•sims 3 late night screen options: enable reflections (yes/no) turned into a slider named: mirrors & water – you can set “reflection quality”
•fountain: like pools, many “rounded” options – 12 different fountain-types to place, available on rooftops, in gardens, in closed rooms
•marketing manager (late night) said “the producers would add weather/seasons, but than they tought it would be better if they add it with a expansion pack, that makes more sense to weather than this “late night” theme
•the new water reflections are just amazing! first, the producers just added the whirlpools, and than they expand water effects of whirlpools and add it to pools and normal lakes and the sea (> karen tong, ea marketing manager, the sims 3 late night
•why the wall fish tank is digital? celebrities have no time to care about real fishes. you can add all sorts of real fishes digitally
•your sims can rent location (costs simoleons) for their private party. you can choose “exclusive access” if just friends should get in.
•cas: you can choose now every lifetime wish (added feature “customize lifetime wish”), not depends on choosen traits
•new lifetime wishes: Master Mixologist, One Sim Band, Super Popular
•The new gnome is called “Blingaboo” – Its a Hip Hop Gnome!
•Levels of the FIlm-Career: Background Extra, Best Boy, Key Grip, Personal Assistant, Production Manager, Commercial Actor, TV Actor, Teen Star – There is also a part time working possibility for the Film Career
•numbers of new buildmode objects: 12 x Fountains, 6 x Half Walls, 7 x Windows, 4 x Doors, 1 x column, 1 x chimney, 3 x Trees, 1 x Gate
•example of a new lifetime reward: Always on the List-17,500 Points Sims will never be refused entry into bars, clubs, and lounges.
•buy/build mode: you can expand the window, so you see more than two rows of objects thumbs at one time
•the dancing floor object in available in 3 sizes: 3×3, 5×5 and 7×7 quares

cheezy has a second blog

http://cheezysimscorner.blogspot.com/

I got to be follower one! Let's support cheezy

Ok, I'm excited

For the first time in month, my store content seems to be back and working. I can load old riverview saves and start a new riverview game. I have the hair styles I downloaded.

The trick turned out to be simply, delete the dc cache and rebuild it. It's looking good.

So tomorrow, I may celebrate by bestowing pressies on my friends with wish lists. Polish it up for me!

Sammy Sighting

Sammy

User feuhfdjkhdfihsdfhf is using Sammy as his/her avatar.  Sammy Sighting!

I had a hunch and took a gander at the default avatars.  Seems Mr. Sam Grant is a default avatar, vest and all. 

For fans of The Guild

Felicity Day and the Guild article about The Guild and its success and how she has kept creative control. I haven't read the linked things but I must look up The Guild now that I'm up with Dr Horrible!

September's Store Items

For those of you who haven't seen yet, Septembers Store Items are now in:

• Loud, Fast, Clash! (consists of Bedroom and Attire) – 37 items @ 1800 SimPoints
• Oktoberfest Celebration – 8 items @ 500 SimPoints
• Speedy Styles – 4 items (FREE)
• More Halloween Treats – 5 items (FREE)

Plus a few extra freebies you should grab quick:

• Hair and Top
• 2 Wall Hangings

Info & links obtained from Sim Programs.
Discuss!

blogger adds another feature

I suddenly realised this afternoon that I have a new blogger tab in *all* my blogs. Stats. You get a stat page like the Google Analytics without specifically signing up and creating an analytics account.

I know you don't need to install analytics because this blog has a stats tab and I've never made an analytics profile for this blog. Nice to have the stats right here, no popping to a different place.

New male sim on the exchange

Oops. I'll be right back with the link.
I'm back. Here ya go.
http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2992424

Dalton Davis is now available for your pleasure, torture or whatever you want to use him for. He says he loves being used. He is ready, willing and able.
Dalton is an excitable, snobby, innappropriate, kleptomaniac, party animal. Best to keep an eye on your valuables when you invite him to that party. He plans to be swimming in cash one fine sim day. He loves Lobster Thermidor, soul music and the color black.
One more thing I'm supposed to tell you. He doesn't care how much you change him to suit you.

I forgot to take a picture. :/

Exchange stuff

I've decided that I'm clearing out any of my exchange items with less than 10 downloads over the weekend. So if there are any of them you vaguely thought you might want someday, grab now.

The exchange can be so weird. For safety, I uploaded the hair colour of Sam and called it by the stunningly unfindable name of Grant hair. And yet it managed 30 downloads in spite of that. :)

New Blog

Hello everyone! I'm here to announce the arrival of a brand spankin new blog by yours truly... follow the adventures of Katalina Craft in Twinbrook at Keepin It Classy With Katalina Craft

Well, hello there.

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Hi, guys! Wow, what a lot of new faces. I'm not exactly "back" yet; I just wanted to poke my head in the door and wave hello.

Back in something - January, February, who remembers? - I was hospitalized for a while for high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. When I got home, I didn't feel like playing games for a while. Also, I've lost my CD key and, until I find it or buy a new copy, I won't be playing.

Besides, being without the Sims has done two things, neither of them good for me. (heh). It cooled my Sims Fever (actually, I guess that IS good), and it forced me to find other gaming outlets. So I've been playing stuff on the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, which is all new to me and weird, and MMORPGs on the PC. The really bad news? Dungeons and Dragons Online, the MMO version of a couple of generations of gaming geeks' secret obsession, finally went free-to-play. I'm doomed. So far, I at least remember to take regular bathroom breaks and sleep breaks, although I don't bother to stop for food. LOL.

Off to read some blogs ...

T-Mobile Free Stuff

T-Moble currently has a free-stuff offer going on, not sure how long it's going to last -- there are 6/7 items to choose from for download, but can only download one per 24-hr period (so I assume it'll last for a few days at least).

For more information on how to obtain this stuff, visit:
http://www.simprograms.com/20720/free-exclusive-sims-3-downloads-pc-from-t-mobile/

Yay for Sim Programs!

Major update for Twallan's woohooer mod

The new phase of development

• allows you to set options in game, not just via tuning mod
• has a new trait based scoring system that lets you gage how attractive another Sim is to your sim (and vice versa) 
• unlocks teen stuff without the need for a separate mod (woohoo and pregnancy apparently)
• unlocks romance/woohoo for near relations

Personally, I'm not the least interested in the last two. My teens rarely get much dating time, they aren't getting any bed time.  And I'm not particularly interested in near relations being able to get into a bed either.  But the trait based scoring system and the options can be set in game sounds very nice indeed.

Linking to your forum posts

Hey Kaleeko, MJ, Kai, Raisin and everyone

You may notice that there is a little widget on the right that jumps to some of our recent forum posts.
To do this, you need a link like http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/listByUser/xxx.page

So what I need from you to add you to this list is the xxx.page. The easiest way to find your id on the forums is to go to your bookmarks page which will be something like
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/bookmarks/list/xxx.page and tell me the number there.  my id is 61145 so my recent forum posts can be found at http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/listByUser/61145.page

So if you post your id or the full link http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/listByUser/xxx.page, I'll be able to add you to the list and we can bump up each others posts from time to time. :)

Potentially an excellent new thing from blogger/blogspot

Two of my horde of blogs have a new tab - Comments. Blogger is trialling a new comments service that detects Spam.  I hope that it works well, I'd love to volunteer all my blogs for the service.

It might also mean in the long run I can do things like not moderate comments on older posts because they tend to be spam every time but when they aren't, it takes me a while to notice and approve them.

Call for families

I don't know if I'll ever quite get this world to a usable stage but I'm currently slowly developing Rflong's Longview.

I quite like the world, it has several 'districts' with many many lots to fill. There are a 1/2 dozen near the military base. There's a lot of lots in two different areas and a scattering of lots elsewhere. Including a few select lots near a little beach cove.

But it's empty, and I can dump every Sim I have in the bin without coming close to filling it. So if you feel inclined to make a family or three - I can certainly use them. :) From baby to elder - all life stages to make it feel like a town.

I won't promise that you'll ever see them, but if the town does get to a usable stage, it might be a backdrop for Sammy stories.

Free Store Items

These items can't be downloaded yet (there's a system error) but we can keep an eye on them and grab them when they're available. 

Warm Wishes Bundle

Cela Bear

Rainbow Balloon Sculpture

Birthday Balloons Bouquet

How to Alter The Nraas's Woohooer Tuning Mod

As Chrysame have requested this is a simple (I hope) explanations of how to change the tuning of the Woohooer package.
 I put it here because there are links and an image.
Full Credit: Nraas Industries.

Addicted to Sims?

I'm a chronic insomniac.  So much so that my doctor has prescribed medication to help me sleep when it gets too bad.  It's been very helpful.

Last night, I took a pill and went downstairs to read until the pill took effect.  I remember putting my book down, turning off the lights and going upstairs. That's the last thing I remember before waking up this morning.

Hubby told me he woke up at 2:30 and watched television until he felt sleepy, again.  He did this in our bedroom.  I was sure I was in bed before 2:30.  He said the light was on in the office and he assumed I was in there.  Huh?  What?  I don't remember this at all so I decided to see if I could figure out what the heck I was doing.

I was playing Sims.  I have new saves for the Gwen game.  I have screenshots (some are really, really bad).  Apparently, Gwen slept with at least four sims (made out with?  Woohooed?)!  She had at least one party.  Gavin is a toddler!  I...don't remember any of it.  What the heck did I do?! *snorts*

I'm greatly amused.  I'm adding a couple of the screenies.

I was taking screenshots in buildmode. 

 Head?  Who needs the top of their head?  Pfft.

Um...okay.

 It's a broken computer.  How riveting!  And what an interesting angle and distance!

What?  Nice building shot.  Gwen is featured so prominently.  As are the backs of those sims.

admin type stuff

a) if someone runs across a blogspot blog with a half decent chat, let me know so I can install it. I looked at three and hated all of them.

b) if anyone wants to add to the new About our Contributors page - feel free. Or I can change the name and let everyone know I'm an egotist... :)

The drooling over Late Night may now resume.

Late Night Twitter

Have you all read the info that came from Grant's Twitter session re: Late Night? Wow!  So much goodness.  I'm stunned by everything they're including.  I'm so excited!  I kept running down the stairs to tell hubby all the new stuff.  I'm so excited, I'm Dee excited!

 Thanks for the list, Kaleeko!

* Elevators are being added
* There's a new Romantic Interaction: Make a Move
* Guitar, Drum, Bass, and Piano each have their own Skill
* New "Film" Career: Branches into Director and Actor Paths
* Vampires can pass on their Vampirism to their offspring
* You can actually live in the super tall buildings, and buy the luxury high rises
* There will be a new Town, like Twinbrook, Riverview, etc.
* Vampires will age, but slowly
* New Objects: Shuffleboard, Darts, Bubble Bar, "Professional" Bar, Instruments, Hot Tubs (3 Variaties)
* New Sliders: Breast Slider for Women, a new "Muscle Definition" slider for Men/Women
* Improvements to Chatting while sitting down, drinking (?)
* The "Apartments" will function like the Shell buildings in WA, such as the Pyramids (where the rooms pop up into view and the outside disappears when you choose to enter)
* Mixology will be a new Skill, and you'll be able to work for money, similar to a Tattoo Artist
* You can form a band and perform at Night Clubs (and apparently can perform 'gigs'?)
* There are Acting Auditions in the neighborhood, and shoot B-Roll footage
* Addition of Subways, aka Undergrounds, which are free transportation system; free unless you get Mugged, that is
* New Traits: Shy, and "Star Quality" (Possibly to be renamed?) Star Quality trait will provide an 'Edge' in becoming a Celebrity.
* New Woohoo Places: Hot Tub and Elevator
* The Paparazzi will follow around celebrities; Paparazzi are NPCs only.
* A New FX Machine: can shoot snow, fire, glitter, bubbles, and more!
* Vampires can read minds! Hunt Others! Suck blood! Grow Plasma Fruit! Get burned in the sun!
* It's going to be less of an 'Opportunity' based EP, unlike how the PI career and WA works. (Yay!)
* New Build Tools: Pools on any level, circular pools, Fountain tool, move paintings up and down the wall, half-walls, ability to build inside "Shell" buildings, Stage Platforms, Dance Floor
* New ability to form groups/romantic groups while out on the town, to hang out together
* NPCs (non-active Sims, I assume) will now be able to host parties of their own, which you can 'Crash'
* You can sneak in, bribe, or hack your way into a Night Club -- or just use your Celeb status to get in.
* Water reflections are being added
* You can hire a Butler! (Who will have an 'Ask for Advice' interaction)
* New Music, possibly new Station -- Vampires will have a favorite food, "O Positive"
* There is no DJ Booth in the Nightclubs; it's focused on Live Bands playing instead
* New Facial Hair (such as the Goatee in the video)
* Different clubs will have different degrees of coolness; VIP clubs will have more celebrities, cooler people, better drinks and objects... "Overall higher quality."
* You do get paying playing as a Musician in the club.
* Teen children of Celebrities can get an exclusive job as a "Teen Celebrity"
* The new drinks made by mixologists will have various different 'effects'
* Being a Celebrity isn't a seperate job -- it's earned through schmoozing, doing things in careers, and more.
* Lots of new hairstyles, clothes, etc.

Drooling commencing!

Blogging Tips

I'm seeking tips on uploading photos.  Currently when I start a new blog, I hit the add an image button and upload directly from my computer.  I know the pictures should look much better then they do on the blog.  How do you all load your pics into a blog post?

OMP!

The amazing Kaleeko has already created an incredible custom header for my Mayweather Report Blog.  I luvs it!  Thank you so much!

Free EA Store Stuff

There's lots of different places that post up new free items in the Store as they appear, like one Forum post I know of, but you have to check them regularly to actually catch when they're announced.

But, looks like Snooty Sims is finally "back in business" so to speak (the sites had a bit of a lull lately), and the owner has updated the site with a new page showing all the free items you can download at the Store.

I actually ended up seeing a lot of items I didn't know were free -- hopefully you see one or two yourself.

Click here to go to Snooty Sims' EA Store Free Stuff List.

I almost messed up.

http://lifeintwinbrook.blogspot.com/
I changed the name of the blog "liferebelstyle" to the one above so now you can't get to the twinbrook blog through the old link. Sorry if it causes problems for anyone. I didn't know it was going to be such a hassle.

The story is about my new sim Sarah Bradley. Right now I'm just plain frustrated.

Welcome aboard Marty!

Our newest member. We expect big things from you. Like talking about stuff. :)

My goodness what a frustrating morning

So I go ahead and finally update to the latest patch.

Problem 1 - the icon for High-End Loft is gray ???
I go to reinstall it and it says the base game is incompatible - it's too new.

Right so I start the game - and it freezes trying to load one of my saves.
Force Quit and try again. Same result.

Brain finally kicks in and says 'Hey, maybe Twallan's older mods aren't compatible with this patch' Yep, brain was correct. Taking out mods == load ok.

So I went forth and downloaded the new MasterController, StoryProgression, StoryProgression extras, The Dresser, and Dreamer. Try again and yes it all starts.

Oh, and I can see and use high-end loft items too. They are in buy mode, and there's at least one in the house.

Kaleeko is our newest official contributor

Now that you're on the contributor list, you can start your own posts as well as answer ours.

I was going to add Marty too but alas, I have no email addie so no invite.

Confirmed EP

The rumors are true.  Sims 3 Late Night is confirmed.

New nightclubs, new things to do and vampires are back!

Twallan's Mods

Twallan is creating more and more tunable mods.  I have no idea what that means other then it's not a core mod or a scripted mod (which he has been using).  He's implemented an Overwatch Mod and made other changes.  Would anyone who moves to the new mods let me know what they think?  How easy is it to change defaults, etc?

Thanks!

New Free Car

http://store.thesims3.com/fiesta?intcmp=eaint505&sourceid=eaom695

It's a Ford Fiesta and a few other goodies.  Yay for freebies!

Announcing

Yet another blog

Sims 3 short stories

The reason for another blog is that this story will *seriously* not fit into any of the current ones. It shouldn't be too long a story, I have no idea if there will be one to follow.

So what have you put on the exchange lately?

My first pattern
http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2609453
:)

Hey everyone - two things

Item one - I posted a page about the genetics of my uploaded Sims. If anyone wants to add to the page or create a separate one - go for it.

Item two - if any of the followers wants to be added to the author list, send me an email (find that in my profile). It's not required of course but you are more than welcome to ask to post.

Sometimes, I swear the Exchange is such a strange place

I uploaded a hair colour the other day. It's the colour I did for Thomas, ages ago now.

http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2505331

It has popped up to my third most downloaded item. Not featured, not advertised and not the flashiest hair colour around. Wow.

Recipe - Lemon Sunshine Cupcakes

I got this recipe from a competition show on a cooking channel.  My family and friends love them.

Ingredients
For crust and topping:

1 1/3 cups shortbread cookie crumbs (Lorna Doone Shortbreak Cookies)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Batter
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 small box (3.4 ounce) instant lemon pudding
1 (18.25 ounce) box lemon cake mix (recommended: Betty Crocker Super Moist)
1/3 cup lemon curd

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 standard muffin pans with foil cupcake liners.

Place shortbread cookie crumbs, sugar, melted butter in medium bowl; stir until well combined

Use the paddle attachment on your mixer to mix together cream cheese and sour cream until smooth.  Add eggs one at a time, mix until combined.  Add vegetable oil, water and box of pudding.  Mix until combined.  Add cake mix and beat on medium speed for two to three minutes.  Batter will be on the thick side.

Place a heaping tablespoon of cookie crumb mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner.  Pack the crumbs into the bottom of the cupcake liner.  Reserve remaining mixture for topping.

Scoop batter into each muffin cup.

Make a depression in the center of each cupcake using your finger or the end of a wooden spoon.  Fill the indentation with up to 1 teaspoon lemon curd.  The recipe recommends piping it in but I just spoon it in with a long narrow ice tea spoon.

Sprinkle the cupcakes with the remaining shortbread cookie crumb. 

Bake for 20 - 23 minutes, rotating the pans half way through baking until cupcake edges are lightly golden brown.

Serve cupcakes warm or at room temperature.

They are incredible warm.  Still very good at room temperature.

My new Sim

I call him Blueberry Hill

http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2501367

Colour for your hood. :)

GAH!

I'm still exiting to the desktop or it will try to save and get caught in a loop.  I checked my processes and memory consumption.

What's happening is Sims 3 is suddenly spiking and gobbling all the free memory in the system, massive amounts of memory.  It's astonishing. 

I've looked online and found a possible solution using CFF Explorer which edits the .exe file.  You set the .exe file to allow for more than 2GB as the app won't utilize the memory a computer has over 2GB.  I'm very hesitant to do this but at this point the game is not playable.

I'm loathe to reinstall yet, again.  I have a computer that is less than a month old.  I have 4 GB ram and an  Intel Core i7 processor 3.20 GHZ.  I'm at a loss.

The toddler challenge

I just want to say that at this time I am trying that toddler challenge.
I'm doing pretty well. I learned a lot from watching Pib.
The game is cheating me out of days. I think it is 3 but maybe 4 toddlers only have 3 more days and the rest have 4 more days. That's not fair.
They are all potty trained. I have a very good but very tired sitter. I started the game at 8PM on a Tuesday and it is now 11PM on Thursday. I'm going to try to get through all of this today or I may never go back to it. :)

Back to the challenge. See ya, if I survive with my sanity intact.

A New Sim on The Exchange - Antonio

Hi Everyone,
This is my first post here. I've upload Mr. & Mrs. Chevalier to the exchange and then created a sim. I hope you will like him. His name is Antonio, his last name is.... I forgot to give him his last name. He could be anything you want him to be.
His current traits: Charismatic, Great Kisser, Hopeless Romantic, Daredevil, Slob.
His LTW           : To become an International Super Spy.
You can change his traits or LTW if you want to.
Here's the link: Antonio


M.J.: "Turn over, Antonio! I want to take more of your pictures"

Antonio: "Why do I feel like a criminal or something? Can we do more cool shots than this?"

Antonio: "Now, that's feel better! Ladies, here I come!"
M.J.: "Wait a minute there, Antonio! Don't you want to apply for a job at the police department first?"
Antonio: "Oh, yes I almost forgot. I could not interview those chicks, if I didn't hurry up soon, right?"
M.J.: "Chicks?" (sighed).
M.J.: "Dear Friends, you can do whatever you want to him, let him running around your neighborhood ;) or torture him ;) "
Antonio: "What??!"

He does remind me of my brother (except for the beard and the fact that my brother is very neat)

Carolina North is up now.

I couldn't think of a name to save me so I reversed the name of the state I live in.
Here is the link to the forum post that has the pics and the links to the sim.
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/201427.page#2464764

Need your input

I'm going to make a new female sim today, I hope.
I have a list of traits from Chrysame already. What I want to do is get a list of 5 traits from everyone and then I will randomly choose from those to give them to the new female.
I will dress her in clothes from the base game and you can all dress her the way you want to, if you download her. Of course you can also change anything else about her that you want to.

I may or may not upload her with other clothes and hair from the store too.

Come on now, give me that list of traits for a new girl.

Chrysame, if you want to change any of yours, now is the time.

I know she will be blonde. That's all I know at this time. I haven't even decided on eye color yet.

An experiment - if you will

Last night, I successfully downloaded and installed Travis Carson from Dee. I failed to get Oliver Mayweather.

So what I'd like to try is to download a couple of Sims that

a) have no deliberate CC
b) have no store content
c) do have hair and clothing using standard base/WA/HEL items and recolours.

Anybody want to provide Sims like that for me? Or have a sim in their studio who qualifies?

Kai!

I've been reading your posts, Success and the announcement of Rick.  But, I can't comment on them.  It asks for a verification code but there's no box to input the code.  I wanted you to know I'm reading and I downloaded Rick. 

I hope you can fix the issue so we can comment on your blog.

On the exchange - Hans

Yes, I packaged up Hans and put him on the exchange. He has that bright red hair and deep blue eyes. And a special bonus, he is not of the Grant bloodline at all. :) Although two of his true grandparents are from the exchange - Chrysame's Celia and rflong's Christian (since removed, what a pity.)

His link http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2320013

Simon Rebel

Here's a link to my blog # 2. I'm going to try having two blogs because I want to keep the Josh blog going and he's getting a little boring. I needed a little time away from him.

If you want to receive email notices of new post and/or new comments, let me know.

http://liferebelstyle.blogspot.com/2010/04/teaser-simon-rebel.html

There are no downloaded sims in the game at this time. There will be later. I won't be rotating in this one though. Yep, :) it's another poor sim just trying to survive.

Chrysame's new blog

I've started a new blog. You can find it here http://mayweathersims.blogspot.com/.  If you want to get automatic updates let me know and I'll add you.  Thanks!

Previous 3 blogs and now introducing number 4...

New blog on the block Art Flows Through which is actually a spin-off from the Hi Mum, it's Sammy blog.

Now to see if I can sustain them all. :)

Splash of Color

Hello! I am new contributor here. Some of you I know. Hi MJ!! lol Any who I am not sure how or where I am supposed to share my story since it is on Wordpress, but I guess I will link it here and hopefully someone can help me out :)

thanks!

~Berry

Splash of Color

I think Sam Grant downloads have peaked

He seems to have stopped leaping up in downloads now. It's been 515 for some days.

Phillip is slowly creeping up on 400.

Darius Pendragon has managed 125 and never been advertised in any way.

The Sam and Celia family have managed 120.

I definitely have some dudes as well. Like poor Callie who has only managed 6.

Need a bit of help

I need you guys to tell me that it is really ok to delete Sam and Rachel's graves from the Indiana Grant blog. I'm trying to steel myself up to do it

a) Rachel's ghost and presence is busted. At some point, there was a glitch and no one from the family remembers her properly.
b) When Sam comes out, if he was the reason for some of my glitching, then the ghost is probably not an improvement.

But it's hard to delete their tombs. Really hard.

Josh

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/0/187562.page#2244934

Josh Hamilton is now on the exchange. The link is to my forum post.

Hope you like.

Can we comment here?

Or does this blog eat comments too?

Stuffs

I'm still having saving issues.  The game will shut down to the desktop or get caught in an endless loop when I try to save. Not always but often enough to be frustrating.  Mason and Ripley have both died but a screwy save game gave them more life.  They still are kicking in my game. I guess they took the reprieve seriously. I've lost countless birthdays (including the boys aging to teen last night), births and everything in between. 

I did get to see something funny, though.  After Mason's "death" I saw this...

This happened the day after the boys turned child.  I got a kick out of it.  Then I saved and boom!  Oh well, at least I got these pics!

Updating to Windows 7

I'm finally moving from XP to Windows 7.  It's going to require a clean install.  I'm transferring everything I need and can to a portable disk drive and I'm going to run this on Saturday.  If all goes well, it will take a while to re-install all my programs.  I'll be able to use my laptop to chat but no play time for me until everything is cleared away.

Farewell

To all my blogger friends and acquaintances, it's time for me to say goodbye. I'll be cancelling ALL blogger services as well as my grandpa gmail account.

I've enjoyed sharing and spending time with you. Sadly, for me anyway, it's time to move on. Happy simming and storytelling (blogging).

Cheers!

Don (Grandpa Muleskinner)

PiB, Please unplug me from this "Sims 3 group blog". Thanks! don

Sims3 Ambitions is coming!!!

Now that's an Expansion Pack I will buy for sure.

I'm excited!!!

Featured!

Macy has been chosen as a featured creation.  I'm really surprised and pleased.  Maybe this will lead to more downloads for her.  Yay for my redhead!

Strange things happening.

I have very strange things happening. I have sims being cloned. I have many sims aging to adult and ending up with the same hairstyle. Men and women. They are aging into the hair style Alicia used to have. I saw a sim one day in the park who was pregnant. The next day I saw her at the bistro, old. I knew I saw her from edit town view in her house with an old man but she was adult age and still pregnant at the same time she was at the bistro old. She also had the same hairstyle. One of the males aged to adult and now has the balding hairstyle.
My game has gone crazy. I don't know what to do. I've never had any of these things happen before.
Am I going to have to start over again?

Chrysame - Celia Pendragon

Celia's children are really popular on the exchange. Bryon (87) and Camille (93) have both done extremely well for downloads (for me anything over 50 is extremely well...) and now Darius(95) has popped up as one of my top downloaded Sims.

I still hope that someday Celia, Sam and their 3 children will reach 100 downloads. Not quite but so very very close.

I really need to reupload the triplets with proper pics. Henry did fine with 45 downloads but the other two missed out.

A request from Muleskinner

For those that have Muleskinner on the auto-email comment and new post list, he's just asked to be removed. I've asked if he really wants to be removed from new original posts but we should all remove him from auto-comments.

We can be pretty disgustingly chatty sometimes, I'm not surprised it's a bit much.

FYI - Culling

Did you see that EA is going to start culling the exchange?  Items will be culled after two weeks if they do not do well.  They do not specify their threshold to retain an item.

Still Here...

Yes, I still get all stories/comments in my email. Have been dealing with a snafu in my dashboard and/or email that's giving me double everything.

Grrrrr!

Anyway, don't be surprised if you see my cold/old stories go away too.

I've been trying to figure out the problem through google's help desk. A complete dump would be a last resort choice.

Hmm!

BTW, your stories and especially your photos and lot content (composition) keeps getting better and better all the time.

You rock!

New Sims

Per our chat on Dee's Freewilling Sims blog we're going to load some new sims to the exchange.  Perhaps three or so.  Some born in game Sims and a new creation if you're so motivated. 

List any requests for sims you've seen in each other's games.  Dee's Christi has already been requested.

I suggest that if the sims already have the same last name of some of our other characters (i.e. Grant, Walker, Lessen) that we give them new last names to avoid confusion.

Still attempting to get Indiana's neighborhood back on track

It's too quiet in blog land so I thought I'd tell you guys my plans for Indiana at the moment.

a) Turn off aging and sp NOW!
b) Let Judy have baby 3 (this is supposed to happen without aging on)
c) After the baby is born, travel the neighborhood.

I hope to get Bella Bachelor preggy with her boyfriend Malcolm before she turns elder.

I also plan on noting the born in games I do have. I may put out a call for small families with a teenager to meet up with some teens I do have in the hood - the Leman boys and Ernesto for starts

I may try to get some of the families back into town by moving one in with the Grants then moving them to a home. Then they can get the rest of the family to move in.

Delete some elders and especially anyone who shouldn't be around by now. I think Micheal Bachelor still thinks Jocasta is alive and she shouldn't be by now.

Then I will have put off the inevitable long enough - back to the Grants with aging back on for our farewell to Sammy. :(

Dee's Gym

Dee's Gym has been uploaded to the exchange. I was trying to post pics at the forum and wasn't able to for some reason. I'm posting them here and then I'll try to copy them to there.

Caw community lot sizes

I don't remember who put this on the sims3 forum but I save it for future reference.

Commercial Building/minimum sized lot needed for it

Any Mausoleum/ 10x7
City Hall (Big)/ 50x21
City Hall(small)/ 32x21
School/ 35x21
Hospital/ 33x26
Bookstore/ 15x10
Corporate Towers/ 23x22
Supermarket/ 17x13
Military Base/ 42x42
Diner/ 18x11
Glass Dome/ 58x51
Science (or soil and water research)/ 35x21
Bistro/ 15x14
Stadium/ 50x32
Warehouse/ 22x22
Police/21x19
Spa/ 14x12
Community Theatre/ 24x17