Scared of the dark...

I decided that I didn't like playing any more, last week. Those of you who already know me already know that I'm no great player of The Sims (after all, it is a game about people, and I don't DO 'people' very well at all). But last week, I WAS playing. I was having great fun - actually PLAYING The Sims! It all started to go horribly wrong when I started to be a bit creative with a couple of the Nightmare Sims creations I'd made for this week's theme. I'd placed my Grey Lady ghost at the window of my haunted house: Knell's End, and I noticed it was as though the ghost was sadly gazing at the Jobling Gibbet (you can just about see it through the window on the right - sorry about the bad image). Isabella Jobling had apparently been able to see the gibbeted body of her hanged husband from her home, and I rather fancied that this ghost could be like Isabella, come back to haunt the window where she suffered such misery... Oh, STOP IT! That's what I said to ME! For I realised that I wasn't liking this thought very much any more. It was nearly 3.00am here and my old house (over 400 years old, which means some of you weren't even born when it was built) was being a bit draughty and there was the odd creak or two from the beams. It got worse as those draughts suddenly seemed like very chilled INEXPLICABLE draughts, and some cracking sound in the wood not being at all like any noise I'd heard here before... And, in 400 years, a lot of people have lived and died here, and then my imagination really was starting to over-react! So, now I'm not playing. There! I shall wait until I grow up a bit (and have the nerve to rescue my family from "Knell's End" without looking too much out of that upstairs window...). Oh, and sorry about all the links. For once, I wasn't hammering you with shameless plugs! No, I just imagined there would be many of you wondering what on earth I was going on about with knells and Joblings and gibbets and grey ladies. Well, now you know. I recommend you don't play with any of these items - not if you're easily spooked like me!

What else is to come?

My calendar has stopped working correctly. I'm sure this is only a glitch, but in the meantime, here's a quick list of what else is to come for this week's Nightmare Sims theme...

Ghost no longer in the pink!

Oh, how many of you have been cursing me?!

I don't know WHAT went wrong, but some of you said that the 'Grey Lady' ghost was a PINK lady (well, flashing pink square to be more accurate). I'm delighted to say she is now fully repaired and updated (and the filesize is much reduced too!) so please redownload her.

My sincerest apologies for butchering yet another could-have-been-great creation.

At least I'm consistent - guaranteed error in every download, and all that.

Amazed and delighted!

You like her! The ghost (The Grey Lady), I mean.

And yes, I'm shocked, amazed and delighted all at once because I was so very much in two minds about whether to submit her. I very nearly didn't (only uploaded her late last night, in fact). The problem was trying to make something 3D out of a 2D graphic - and I wasn't sure whether my attempt was so bad that I should just abandon it along with my haunted tree (now in my recycle bin - trust me: it was BAD).

But the brilliant thing is that you really don't care! You like her anyway. THANK YOU all who have commented; you've made me very happy indeed.

Off with it

I made this for anyone thinking of moaning about my creations. As usual, please let it run a few times so that the animation has chance to load in your browser proerly.

Basically, it removes your head. By removing your head, your mouth can no longer utter gripes and whines about why I make rusty pipes instead of wedding dresses.

You have been warned.

Bleeding Walls

If English is your first language, you're probably wondering whether I'm cursing. No, the title isn't a curse, though it could well have been earlier, for animation is not my strong point.

Some say that I have yet to find MY 'strong point'. I wouldn't like to tell you what will happen to these 'some people' (but if you're not easily offended or squeamish, look no further than my Gibbets & Stakes set for a idea). Anyway, moving on...

Bleeding walls. Yes, I can make your walls bleed. A single object that can be placed on any wall, can share the wall with pictures or windows without using any building cheats, and it's ANIMATED! Well, it wouldn'#t be much of a bleed if it wasn't animated, I guess.

Wanna see the animation? Well, clicky here!

Let it play a few times (it will be jerky at first whilst the GIF loads). Something nice for granny's cottage.

Amazing words lost forever...

So... I managed to delete a few blog entries.

Well, be glad about it. It was waffle, after all. Now that I'm satisfield that DELETE works (rather TOO well), I shall now exercise caution in clicking the 'delete' word from now on.

Of course, me being SO thoroughly entertained by my pearls of wit, I will rewrite my best bits again. And you will read them again - WITH JOY!

The Glass Ceiling

I'm not convinced about this entry's title. I'm trying to make something of it without feeling the need to talk about gender equality in the workplace. Therefore, onwards with the REAL reason for this title...

Floor tiles. Fairly useful things, aren't they? There is one minor glitch with them though: they're only visible from one side (the top). Position the camera view beneath a floor tile, and you'll find it's invisible. For ordinary buildings, it's not that important, but if you use the CFE cheat to build fancy roofs with floor tiles, or balconies, or glass domes, it can be a little frustrating to find that your efforts are not visible when you're shooting your Sims story set or movie.

Well, you all sit up and take note! For I have just put in my calendar a set of glass floor tiles that ARE visible from underneath too - and the results in glass domes are spectacular (my esteemed and deadly accurate opinion, of course). REAL ceilings! Glass, admittedly, but I've also been looking at the possibility of achieving the same with ordinary floor tiles. However, for now, pictures of the glass floor/ceiling tiles...

My Number 1 Fan...

If you were expecting me to egotistically extol the fact that I'd found a person who liked my idiotic creations, then you'd be wrong (there are several out there who do!). No, the fan I refer to (yes, another glib blog title) is here. You'll need to wait for the page to load, and note that the animation in-game is much quicker and smoother than the web graphic shows.

For those who hate clicking on links defined by nothing other than the word 'here', it's a 2-tile industrial window with a huge, rotating fan in it. The graphic image posted at the link is not brilliant, but that is the web for you: squash it up, mangle it, shake it about a bit, then display the tattered result in the hope that you will still be impressed.

I expect this will be slotted in with the aforementioned vents and shafts.

The art of good pictures

Do you upload your work here? If so, you might be like me and DREAD the moment of putting the set together. Don't get me wrong: it's fun creating, but I can end up with a hard drive full of creations and find myself starting another rather than uploading what I've already got.

The problem? Putting together nice screenshot pictures. But there are some people SO good at it that they've turned it into an art form. I want you to check out My_Sims_Reality whose work is, put simply, breathtaking. Her primary portfolio of art can be found at at this site and a few more in the screenshots section of her TSR profile too.

Please go look, be astonished and then hide away your own sorry attempts under a mat. At least, that's what I'll be doing!