Hey everyone, I have good news: there will be an update TONIGHT! I have all the pics in order, so all I have to do is write up the text. I’m dedicating my entire evening to it, so it will be up! By midnight at the latest. I’m making a promise this time, that’s how much I believe in this update occurring.

Now for some more news, although whether it’s good or not, I’ll leave up to you to decide. The reason why I’ve been a bit quiet the past week is that I’ve been having a kind of Sims crisis. You may be familiar with this concept. It comes from having about a billion things I want to do with the game and not enough time to do them all. And when I try to do them all, I lose focus and don’t get anywhere with anything.

You may remember me having this same problem awhile back, when I had the Braytons, Shanleys, Maude’s Tales, and Annabel Island all going on at the same time. It was too much, and I had to streamline. The Braytons ended up going to Annabel Island, Maude’s Tales were put on hold, etc. At any rate, I am feeling the need to streamline once again. I pondered the possibilities all week long, and here’s the plan:

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Hey guys, generation 3 of the Burrs FINALLY graduated from college last night! I’m hoping to do an update on them tonight or tomorrow. I just wanted to share the wonderful news (well, it’s wonderful to me, anyway. I did a little dance in my chair last night). I don’t know why it took me three weeks to play them through University, but it was almost painful at times. It did get easier at the end — I rolled back to a much older driver for my Nvidia card and was able to play in triple-speed without getting the dreaded bluescreen/hourglass spin. The Burrs are going to be very busy bees what with their flower shop, preparation for Gen 4, and of course, their new furry friends. Heehee. Stay tuned!

Also, if you haven’t already, check out Mao’s Knock It Down stories. She’s taking a break from her wonderful ISBI challenge commentary and doing an urban fantasy/supernatural kind of story. It’s really awesome so far. Her characters are fascinating and her pictures are amazing!

Happy Simming!

Has your Sims 2 gameplay become a bit stale? Are you wishing you could add more unpredictability to your Sims’ lives? Then you might want to check out Jade’s Random Occurrence Scenarios (or ROS)! She has created a huge list of random events that can happen to your Sims and spice up your storytelling and/or gameplay. To pick an event, you roll a set of numbers using online dice, then find the numbers on the list and follow the instructions. The situations run the gamut from a minor things like winning a small cash prize to major life-changing events such as kidnapping, alien invasions, and even death (which is quite life-changing, you must admit). Just reading through the list is highly inspiring. I personally can’t wait to try these out, and will most likely be incorporating them into my Shady Bluff stories. I also think it’d be cool to come up with a storytelling challenge involving the ROS. Maybe I’ll work on that after I finish the fifteen other projects I have going on…

Jade’s also doing a tutorial on how she set up her neighborhood, Thyme. She has posted the first part of the tutorial, which covers choosing a terrain for your ‘hood, installing it, and cleaning it up. In future installments she’ll explain how to set up your own Sims economy. She has her player Sims doing NPC jobs and the like, and I’m dying to know how she does it. Anyway, if you haven’t checked out her site, you really should! It’s totally unique in the world of Sims 2 storytelling.

Also, one of my favorite Sims 2 storytellers and all-around awesome person Amy (known to some as the Evil Overlord, mwaha) has posted a really touching episode of Confessions of an Heiress (make sure you watch the video!). What can I say — it made me cry. Maybe I’m just a big old sap, but I have to give Amy credit for being so close to her characters and presenting their lives in such a way that they feel real. If you’ve been following her stories at all, her latest installment is a must-see. And if you haven’t been following her stories, then you’re missing out on some awesome stuff (The Heiress should be required reading for all fans of Sims 2 stories).

Happy Simming!

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Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I had hoped to post a Burr update before the weekend, but they’re giving me a bit of trouble (which may or may not be related to University being a pain in the kiester).

So…I’m going to shift gears slightly and tonight give you Part I of the introduction to my Shady Bluff stories. Shady Bluff is the new ‘hood I’ve been working on feverishly for a few weeks now, and it’s a bit different from my usual stuff. I hope you’ll enjoy it. And I will get back to the Burrs very soon — I’m not abandoning them by any means.

Thanks for continuing to read my silly blog, and please do stay tuned…

Just a random snapshot from gameplay:

It’s sad. So very sad.