Hey people, what’s up? I’m Misty Ravelo, and I’m here to tell you all about our sophomore year at Academie La Tour. I gotta say, it was really quite the year, full of heartache, drama, excitement, and of course, carpal tunnel syndrome from typing those ridiculously long term papers. I can’t believe I have to write eight more of those before I graduate! My wrists hurt just thinking about it.
There’s me, typing away. Check it out — I’m not in the dorm! Yep, we decided we were sick of living with dorky guys and moved into a little house off campus. This was also the year I decided I wanted to be a rock star, so I bought a guitar and glammed myself up and wore punk-ish clothes. Did it work? Hm.
I’d have to say “not quite”. One girl with a guitar, now matter how cool her combat boots may be, can’t get very far without some help. And without knowing how to actually play. So when I wasn’t writing term papers, I practiced my guitar until I could play at least two songs all the way through. Then I called up Alvin Futa, he of the blazing mohawk, and my friend Felice, a lovely goth girl who can play a mean upright bass.
They hit it off right away, and the Band With No Name was born. (Our main influences: Blondie, Foo Fighters, and Llama Mama). For weeks we muddled through a few songs over and over until we didn’t sound terrible. I was overjoyed when the tips of my fingers calloused over in little grooves that fit perfectly over the strings, because then they didn’t hurt anymore. Yeah!
While all of this was going on, Professor Stratton and I started dating, which was a bad idea in retrospect, but at the time, I was thrilled to death. He was one hot prof! Swept me off my feet. Or tried to, anyway.
As for my sisters…you remember Anastacia, right? Here’s a picture of her standing in front of her Johnny Depp poster (we put it in the den so it could be enjoyed by all).
Ana was having a really great year until her boyfriend Damion (brother of my bandmate, Alvin) broke up with her. Damion had gone to the city to become an accountant and fell in love with his boss, some nightmarish sharp-clawed careerwoman in a business suit. Ana was upset, of course, but not as upset as I thought she would be.
Only a week after the break-up, she and Ravi London started dating (and being lovey-dovey in the living room, just like me and Stratton). Ana seems much happier with Ravi, and I have to say, they make an awesomely cute (and very blonde) couple.
As for my other sister, Kaela, she and I started a workout regimen. I wanted to get into better shape so I could look screamin’ hot while I played my guitar, and Kaela was required to study fitness for her Drama major. We bonded while doing knee bends and stretches in our tiny living room.
Kaela started out having a sweet year — she joined the Drama Club and quickly became the President, which means she gets to boss around a bunch of theater geeks. I’m kidding, of course — I don’t think Kaela could boss anyone around, although she IS becoming less shy. It’s all those acting classes. Here’s a pic of her with the Drama Club:
For their first event, the Drama Club went to see the touring company of The Phantom of the Opera perform here in town. Kaela had heard about the play from her theater buddies, but had never seen it. Well, she got totally hooked. We’ve heard nothing but the Phantom music in our house ever since. I’m not even crazy about it, and I know it all by heart.
“Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world!
Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before!
Let your soul take you where you long to BEEEEE!”
Sorry, I had a little moment there. Ahem.
Unfortunately Kaela was having so much fun with the Drama Club that she put off doing her term paper until the very last minute. She spent the whole night before her semester final typing away on that keyboard…
…but…she didn’t finish in time. She ended up with a D grade that semester, and they put her on academic probation. And that’s not the worst of it — she was told she couldn’t audition for any plays until she raised her grade level above a C. Kaela was devastated (but still continued to play Phantom music at all hours — just more loudly).
Then we had another tragedy. (At least, it was pretty tragic to me.)
(continued on Page 2)
Yay, first to comment, Misty is so cool as a rock star, haha…but I didn’t get to finish reading it yet though. And I voted for the Ravelos, yes!!! (although, an Annabel Island update would be great too!) :)
So cool… I wish my university years were that much fun…
But then, I’m graduating this summer after 6 years of hard work and law school and I haven’t been in a band (does a drama-company count?) or been to a toga party (I don’t think they even ever have them in Belgium…)
Oooh, dramatic update! :D The fellow with the mask sure is a purty one. I’m currently struggling to set up a Victorian-Legacy-Open For Business family. It’s, uh. Not easy. @.o I’m going to dump my one neighbourhood already, gah!
And, of course, trying to find 19th century bathroom stuff (not to mention toilets) is.. q.q
I LOVE Misty’s hair! It’s gorgeous! Anastacia is gorgeous too. So are all the cousins. Just a whole bunch of gorgeous Sims. Aw, poor Misty with the whole Prof. Stratton thing. But she’ll find someone better! Wonderful update, Jen. :)
Lovely update. I’m so happy the girls are getting along nicely.
I’m glad Misty was able to pull herself together after getting dumped by the prof. He was probably off romancing another student. Humph. It’s cool that you are brining the cousins in to the story. I hope Kaela gets to try out Junior year, more drama goodness! Can’t wait to hear from the third sister, now. :D Are you doing the greek house thing, or rather is the house the sisters moved to the Ravelo Greek house, or just a place to stay? Just curious.
Might I reccommend Misty try this LOOOOVELY wrist brace? It’s tan, and comfortable as silk! (I am a master business… for-open-type. Also, I like my wrist brace. She can’t have it, no matter how appealing that pitch was. Sorry.)
Man. I only vaguely remember Anastacia. Too bad about the sharp-clawed businesswoman, though. I wonder. Was she maybe part lizard? That’d be cool!
…what? :D It’s not like it was a horrible thing! She has Ravi now, okay?
Hee. Kaela and Misty look kind of silly, with the squats. Mostly because they’re in unison. Go, girls, go!
Powerpuff girls flashback… urk!
Llama Mama… wasn’t that in the Heiress? I don’t know, I have to reread it. I think it was. Cool! :D
Hee. Too bad about the finger callouses. Do Sims have hand lotion? That tends to help with things like that.
The people in the Drama Club look so foody! And fun! I meant to type goofy. I guess food is goofy? They look like… a kah raaazy food.
Ooh. I really like the hair and dress of the actress playing Christine. (I know next to nothing about the Phantom of the Opera, so, if I got that wrong, please pelt me with masks!) Reminds me of the Romeo and Juliet thing. Man. So cool. The Sim Theatre in that college must always be packed, with such cool plays going on there all of the time.
Eep for Kaela. :T Man. She really needs to get to influencing those freshman– Stat! Or was she still a freshman?
Poor Misty! Well. Part of me thinks “hey, maybe he’ll make good on the ‘after she graduates'” thing, and another part thinks “nah! She should move on,” and yet another part thinks “hey! This is a story! Quit being all like that!”
Needless to say, I ignore that last part. >_>
Misty was part of the second generation!… right? I need to brush up on my Ravelo History. Even if she was one of the last ones born, it’s not until late third generation legacy’ers that the kids start getting spoiled and uppity.
If she was late third generation, change my vote to “early fourth”. Those babies think their diapers are so great, they don’t need changing! Fie on them!
Grig looks so much like his dad, which must be great for him! I mean, dude. I remember everyone being like “Eee, Ethan! *fangirling*” For a while, I considered making a poster recolor, so my Sim teens could go “*swoon*”. That’d be fun. Really. Still kinda want to do that. XD
Also, his name reminds me of a Sim of mine, Gregory. Except I call him… Greggo. That’s really why I named him that. To call him Greggo. I guess I’m kinda cruel to my Sims, sometimes…
Eep. Maybe another thing they need to get is a fire alarm? I mean… hey! Sims can space! One day, it could be YOUR TV dinner, cousin Brody!
Also, investing in a good cooking skill point or two is a goooood idea.
Firestarters! Good name. Now all Misty needs is to get the red version of that suit she’s wearing. After the gosh-durned stores lower the price a little. ($200 for a top, then $200 for a whole suit. Man.)
Forget the campus worries about the bonfire! Though, going from stove fire to bonfire must be a liiittle unsettling.
That professor looks like she’s having quite the hard time tutoring Kaela. All like “*shakes head* Why couldn’t I have tutored my second cousin Pegasus? He wants to be my friend, not like this Kaela girl!”
…she just looks kinda like him from the side, is all.
Saying togapajamarade five times fast wasn’t bad at all. Sounds more like a marching band should be there more than the phantom, though. Someone get the tuba!
Opera ghosts definitely need vitamin C! Try being on stage and lurking around like that– you get sick without the right vitamins!
Ooh, everyone looks really spiffy in their masks. It looks like Kaela’s kind of teasing Ravi for his mask kind of looking like armor or something, and he’s like “whaaa? Meee? Hoho, she’s crazy.”
It really looks like tackling time, but I don’t think they do football. You know, though, the phantom guy looks vaguely like the professor. Vaguely. I know it’s not, because they have slightly different skintones (the professor’s looks like #3, while the phantom guy’s is #2) and they look a little different, but close enough with the mask that someone might go “OH. HEY. PROFESSOR. I have my term paper and– oh. You’re just a singer. Bah. Nevermind.”
I saw that play a few weeks ago – of course, nosebleed seats don’t give the best experience, but good nonetheless.
I really liked this Ravelo update. (By the way, here’s hoping Professor Stratton marries Misty. He was a family Sim in my game).
Wow, I LOVE the Phantom of the Opera, that would be so romantic if someone read the lines to me! But I love the update, there’s always something interesting happening to your sims! And I absolutly Love Kaela’s hair. Oh yea this is Jeanette from Simtopia but i’ve created a new blog if you want to check it out!
*sigh* wow Jen, depp, phantom of the opera, guitar playing, and awesome sims all around…what more could you put in one post? hehe. I was in bliss when reading this, because I was also eating cherry pie. Now I want cherry pie again. Or chocolate. mmm, chocolate…
Anyway, good job as usual! I just got my computer fixed AGAIN and all my families were deleted AGAIN so I have to start AGAIN and I don’t know how long it will be before I summon the energy to do that. humph. dumb laptop *mutter mumble mutter*
I can’t wait till the next update, which if I’m lucky will be a brayton one! or, er, wait, degroff? Eeek! What are we calling them now?! Oh boy, enough sugar for me…
WOW! At the risk of repeating myself…. “I loved it! It was better than CATS!” LOL. It took my breath away, all of it. The Phantom, The Band with No Name (hey, even Llama Mama was once ‘Izzy and the Twins’) Llama Mama is thrilled to have influenced a band with such promise. I’m going to go back and read it all again, in hopes of reliving the moment where I shrieked in utter delight at seeing The Phantom set. Jen! You’re incredible! And the Togapajamarade! Could it be any more fun? And the cousins. LOVE cousins! Wow. I’m truly inspired. Thanks for reminding me why I write Sim Stories. What a true delight. You’re a master simmer.
Amy
I had to skip Blu’s entry today due to lack of time… so sad. I’m sure it was awesome, Blu.
Great update! Love it! I love Blondie, too, by the way; Kaela’s skirt is fantastic in the drama club shot; and Misty’s hair/mask in the masquerade shot is smexy.
Here’s hoping Misty ends up with either Phantom guy or Professor guy!
Oh, wow Jen! You take such amazing pictures. How do you get them like that! I, for one, really don’t have the patience to set them up like that. You put such details into your stories! I get too caught up with playing, feel the need to catch up, then breeze over everything so that I can be…well…caught up. I love how you create story lines out of little things that happen in the Sims. Congrats on another great one!
Katie.
WICKED!!!!!! I love the music from that musical :D
Anna: which musical, ‘Phantom’ or ‘Wicked’? xD
Wonderful update! Have you decided who is going to carry on the legacy yet?
I want Blu’s wrist brace. :( *flails achy wrists around*
hehe niceone! love the idea of a togapajamarade! woot! hehe how did you do the stage for the drama performance and all? that bit really cool!
I loved this story, and the pictures were nice too!! I have the sims2 at home but i dont really play it that much because is a little slow. I dont know how to make it run properly. I jus got the computer last november (my borthday) and i added the sims 2 to it, but now its running a little slow, and looking a little fuzzey. Do u have any tips on how to make the graphics better and to make it work better. Also i downloaded some things for the game, like clothes and jewerly and objects, but it doesnt come out looking right. How do u get your dowmloads to be so perfect. I would really like to know where u got ur hairstlyes from and ur clothes…they r the best. I would really appreciate all the help. Just email me with the answer (if u want). U are the best sims 2 story teller…keep up the good work!! and thank you
That was great
love that phantom dude’s outfit really kewl. :)
Thanks for reading my blog jen! You would have laughed, I opened up my blog and it said one comment so I was excited anyway (being the newbie that I am) and when I opened it and it said jen I literally said, “Jen?!” out loud. It’s like having your stuff read by a celebrity! lol. I do overreact sometimes…well anyway the point is thanks for reading it when you have so many others to read and so much stuff to do on your blog.
I loved the variety in this update! Thank you so much for the time you put into making this blog such a joy to read. And now, for a shameless plug for my own Sims blog… http://dreamersims.eponym.com/blog I’m just getting started, but there is a whole plot, and pictures to go along with it ready to go. I just need to get cracking on that.
Hee hee, The Pyromaniacs. I love that!
I have Nightlife! *spin* *happy* *glee* I love it so much. I have a one-Sim family in it, and she’s pretty decent. I like her okay. Dating a lot. Pleasure aspiration. You know.
But, *squeak*! It has Lifetime Wants and Influencing! Those were some of the things from University that I wanted the most, and they’re right there! Without University! :D *swoon*
Eep! Kay, aching wrists are the worst things. But… computers! Typing! So much love for them… @_@
Verneen, I know your question wasn’t addressed to me or anything, but I recommend changing the Sim/Object detail to high, the texture to high, the framerate to 60, and reflections off. *nod* That’s what I did for my old, barely-working-for-TS2-and-discontinued-after-NL card.
The texture’s detail never really affected game speed much for me– though, that’s just me. And turning on the Sim/Object detail just makes everything look so much better, that it seems kind of worth the lag. To me, anyway. ^^;
And, as for downloads: Definitely Mod The Sims 2. You can find everything there. Seriously, EVERYTHING. Other nice sites are All About Style and 2 For U for clothing, Lyran 2.0 and Helaene for makeup, Around the Sims 2 for furniture, and SimCribbling for men’s hair. Another few good ones are Peggy Sims 2, Parsimonious, and Insimenator. Yarr.
Lyran’s also has some excellent eyes. :D
And, Keely. Dude. I didn’t even realize how long my comment was. I’m with you. I’m skipping over me! (Longbie! Try and cut down on words a bit, huh?! Huh, self?! HUH?!)
I’m loving the punk Alvin — just loving him! It fits so well.
I’m going to bring the townie kids to college one generation at a time, I think; this gen’s is Tosha Go, and wow, she is a *stunner* as a young adult…
Heyya, the phantom’s mask is so awesome… and for the record I actually had to go out and rent Phantom of the Opera and watch it… it was fantastic :) ! I love Misty’s hair in the one picture when she is wearing her mask, it’s so pretty, what site did you get it from?
p.s.- Does anyone know if I can place OFB objects on my Nightlife Legacy Challenge family? (sorry about how off topic that became, :( )
Hey guys, thanks for all of the comments! It was fun to write about the Ravelos again. Although I don’t know when I’ll be playing them or any of my other regular families again – I’m having a problems with a couple of my neighborhoods not showing up in the game (even after reinstalling them), so I’ve been playing my “clean†account until I figured out how to get them back. Mt. Geneva is one of the neighborhoods that is no longer showing up, so I’m pretty bummed about that. I’m doing research on it, though, and I posted on a thread at MTS2, so hopefully I can get it back. The Ravelos aren’t in Mt. G, but I’m afraid to play any other neighborhoods for fear they’ll disappear. So until I get the problem fixed, I’m just sticking to my other Windows account. I don’t have anything over there that is major, so it’s not as scary if I lose it. So I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but make sure you back up your neighborhoods before you install/play OFB (or any expansion for that matter), because you never know what crazy things can happen!
To answer a few questions:
Bitsy – I’m not doing the Greek House thing for my Nightlife Legacy, so they’re just living in a regular ol’ house (and not the one that their aunts and uncles lived in). Not sure why I decided to skip the Greek House thing – it can be really fun. Ah well!
Blu – Misty and her sisters are third generation, so I think they’d qualify as being fairly spoiled. ;-) And holy cow, looooong comment! I loved it!
Jeannette – I left a comment on your new blog, but it’s not showing up. But anyway, I’m looking forward to your updates and hope you’re having fun playing. :-)
Vivi – I’m sorry your families got deleted AGAIN. :-) I hope you’ll start playing again and tell us some more stories.
Janice – For the Phantom scene, I just made a stage using the foundation tool, then placed seats on different levels and shot from the audience so you couldn’t see their chairs are on grass. I had to use boolprop cheats and stuff to get everyone there who had to be there. It was fun. :-)
Verneen – Blu gave a good answer to your question in her post. I’m not really sure what else you could do, unfortunately. Blurry textures can be really frustrating. This thread at MTS2 might help: http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=97876. I had to upgrade my graphics card to get rid of my blurries, and now I’m on a new computer as well as yet another graphics card. I spend too much money on this darned game.
Christina – Great new blog, I left a comment! I love Pleasantview!
amethyst218feb – I downloaded Misty’s masquerade hair from XM Sims. And you watched Phantom? That’s too cool! I’m glad you liked it. As for using OFB objects in your NL Legacy, I have to say, I’m not sure…I haven’t checked the rules in a long time. There’s probably something on the BBS in the Challenges thread. I’ll let you know if I see anything!