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One step forward, two steps back
Posted On Jun 09, 2008 | 13 Comments
Short and to the point, I suffered a big set-back with my health in May, but I am finally getting the better of it. Because my health has to come first, I won't be able to spread myself around like I formerly have. I am down-sizing my role in the greater Sims community and from here forward concentrating my energies only on TSR - which is deliciously drama light, content heavy.
The Sims 2 is nearing the end of its production and release arc, but I won't let that dissuade me from riding it until the wheels fall off. I have plenty of ideas and plans, the sticky part is realising them. Look for new content for both The Sims (original) and The Sims 2 from me in the coming weeks.
I may very possibly become more productive than ever thanks to being sick... go figure 
Thank you to all the many fans and friends who have expressed concern and kept me in their prayers. Godless heathen that I am, I figure I am precisely the sort that needs prayer most.
Especial thanks to Thomas and the other great folks here in the TSR Family for allowing me this time away to mend. I am more grateful than you can know. *giant hug*
Finally some good news
Posted On Apr 19, 2008 | 6 Comments
After a beginning of 2008 I might wish on a person I hate, I was told great news by the doctor on Wednesday. My various blood tests came back with almost every thing in the places they need to be. My triglycerides are a little high and my HDL cholesterol is a little low, but for the most part everything else is "spot on".
The "ugly toe" is healing nicely, only a dark spot under the nail shows any evidence it was every mangled.
Also this week, we had the roof properly repaired and the washer and dryer replaced so I can have clean underwear on a regular basis again! WOOT!
I still do not have a system that will play The Sims 2, but I have finally agreed to let someone help me with this, so I should be creating again soon WOOHOO!
So after a horrible start, 2008 is pulling up out of the nose-dive! Alleluia!
2008 hates me...
Posted On Feb 17, 2008 | 8 Comments
ANOTHER BIG WINTER STORM IS HEADING MY WAY... YAY :P
We have only barely recovered from the nasty storm that had us without electricty, phone, and Internet for several days, damaged the roof and chimney, flooded the basement to well over 70 cm with filthy water, and fried my Simming system... now, the local evening news broadcast informed us to steel ourselves for another beating by "Ol' Man Winter".
Even before we had all the repairs completed, on two different occasions this week we had freezing rain and snow begin at sunset and turn the streets here into a death trap just as people were leaving work for home. We had friends and co-workers camping out here, sleeping on the sofa, chairs, the floor.
I am a fairly hardy guy when it comes to Winter hardships, having grown up in Sankt Petersburg, but you know... when I came to the USA and started university, no one informed me that the weather here would present me with both Russian Winters and Tropical Storms in the same month. I would have thought that this would require extensive travel, but here in the USA it's all at your doorstep without ever you asking ... *grumble*
I am trying to be gracious, really, but someone needs to break Ol' Man Winter's legs or something.
Ms Barrows - surely a saint for the Sims community
Posted On Jan 29, 2008 | 4 Comments
I don't usually have a lot of nice things to say about people, or at least that's what people think; but I have to tell you, MsBarrows counts right up there with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta for her charitable work in explaining the repository method to me in clear concise language that even this thick-witted Russian could understand.
I won't deny the pretty pictures helped guide my unsteady hand through a process that had been mind-boggling for me because so many others before her had left out one tiny, yet all important, detail: You must include the custom object marker in the names when you are working with other custom objects as the source of the textures: ##0x1C050000!
One simple little detail that too many others had neglected to mention in their explanation. That tiny bit of assumed knowledge held me back in understanding the repository method for over a year.
I mention this because a great deal of the Sims Community doesn't speak English as a first language so expecting them to go crawling through 500+ posts to find one remark expressing a "commonly known" bit of information is not a reliable method to yield frequent success.
In the time since Ms Barrows went to the especial effort to explain the repository method to me, I have become increasingly reliant on the method, so her value to me as a mentor has really paid off.
I wish that more people in this world were as thorough, generous, and patient as MsBarrows. She really is a clear example of the best sort of person in the Sims Community.
Blarg - Toes and the joys of diabetic complications
Posted On Jan 27, 2008 | 2 Comments
I have spent the past week getting daily shots of vancomycin HCl because of my stupid toe (see the early blog entry "Gravity and me" for how I ended up with the ugly toe). Between fever and daily "cleaning" of the bad toe, I haven't been terribly chatty or "up". Seems I spend more time getting shots of vancomycin than not these days.
I have lots of ideas on all manner of things, but strangely none of my whimsy is turning towards making medical stuff for The Sims 2... As often as I see the inside of hospitals and doctors' offices, I have more than adequate experience and visual input for making the stuff, just no particular desire to mimic the reality of my life in the game.
I suppose I should make a medical/hospital set, it would be too good a prop set for story-writers and film-makers to ignore. Oh well, add that to the ever growing list of profession-oriented theme objects I need to make for the game.
One day at a time...
These days I make objects and post them as soon as I have debugged them, rather than holding off until I have the complete set. I know this may be a little frustrating for people who prefer to download whole sets, but this way I get it on-line sooner rather than later. Sure, whole sets are a great thing, but delaying release usually means procrastinating in the making phase, if the way is always clear for the next item... well, there is nothing more offensive to an artist than an empty canvas LOL
Casino Mazhik: Thoughts on Art Deco
Posted On Jan 24, 2008 | 2 Comments
The Casino Mazhik series of objects is strongly influenced by the Paris Exhibition of 1925, the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the 1937 Paris Exposition, and the 1939 New York World's Fair, New York City's Broadway & Radio Music Hall, films like "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Hellboy", television programmes like "The Adventures of Ellery Queen", "Agatha Christie's Poirot", "Mystery!", and books like P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series and the varied works of Evelyn Waugh.
Certainly, there are many other sources and places when Style Moderne, or as it has come to be named: Art Deco, had a flourishing. Too many to make a proper list of influences, but I will take a moment to mention the contributions of the French La Société des artistes décorateurs and the German Staatliches Bauhaus schools, as well as subsequent movements such as "raygun gothic", "streamline moderne", and "Populuxe" styles.
The beauty and multi-cultural look of high Art Deco designs borrows from a number of world cultures past and present, as well as the geodesy of the futurist Norman Bel Geddes and the mechanised Metropolis visions of Antonio Sant'Elia and Angiolo Mazzoni.
I am hoping to show the bright and happy side of this era, rather than the "metalisation of man" that represents the darker aspect of the period. In a way, this may tie into my "Lost American Highway" project. Let's hope I can get that one back on the road soon.
International Man of Mystery Stuff
Posted On Jan 24, 2008 | 1 Comments
If you've been paying attention to the figures on the survey poll on my main page, you'll see that lots of people (over 1000 at the time of this writing) have responded and the over-whelming view of the people responding to the poll is that there is not enough male-oriented content in The Sims 2.
Following my own bent for the less travelled path, I am starting my way down a experiemental series of objects for story-tellers and film-makers that will hopefully aid them in spy-thriller plots. I am partially hindered by a desire to maintain a sort of realistic look to these items, but not so realistic that it will look too much like a James Bond set. Realism is great, but I don't want to drift too far from the basic look and feel of The Sims 2.
I will be trying to recreate some of the objects in another game, Evil Genius, to fill in the opposition's array of goods. I am not certain where this will lead, but it already is adding Art Deco content and some high-end designer content that will be suitable for playboy billionaires and stylish villains.
The main goal is to fill in some of the gaps that have been left by the expansions, to make as much as possible of the new objects base-game compatible, and to keep a rather playful mood in the new objects.
The current series (Casino Mazhik objects) is being a real challenge to keep in a low-poly range. The original Maxis buffet in the base game is far from low-poly, so adding the new base didn't improve matters.
I think the hardest part of all has to be not making something someone else has already made for The Sims 2. Also, trying to make my new objects in a similar theme to the work of other artists here at TSR (Cyclonesue, Padre333, Aikea_guinea, and so many other excellent artists). Certainly, a Tokamak Fusion Reactor or a Arclite Siege Tank will not step on anyone's creative toes, but what on earth will it look good with?? More importanly, what good will they add to the game?
Hopefully, I will have better sense than to try to recreate Halo 3 in The Sims 2. LOL
Gavity and Me
Posted On Jan 17, 2008 | 3 Comments
Between always being sick and general clumsiness that comes from being fuzzy-headed because I am sick, I have managed to enjoy some of the more dramatic effects of gravity the past two weeks -- climaxing yesterday in a spectacular fall with a thoroughly bloodied toe with a bruised nail bed that hurts like all hell and a swollen knee that is beginning to look like a Jackson Pollock painting. Wheeeeeeeee!
Who needs pain pills? The USA doctors certainly don't think anyone needs them, so I will be laying in bed a lot, crying like a little girl every time my toe brushes the sheet the next few days.
This year isn't off on so great a foot, you might say.
...New SimPE... meh....
Posted On Jan 02, 2008 | 2 Comments
You'd think by this time I would be used to SimPE being constantly possessed by unclean spirits from the infernal pit. I don't blame anyone for these little, annoying... really really annoying... hiccoughs that SimPE suffers. Nevertheless, I am vexed by them.
One version clones stuff without a problem, the next version won't clone these items. Take for instance the tombstones and urns for departed Sims.
I could previously clone them in the Seasons-ready release just prior to the BV-/TSS-compatible version. But now, nopes. I end up with a package with a single item that is already deleted. Go figure.
Or let's consider the Arte nouveau armoire, in the pre-Seasons version of SimPE, it cloned without a problem; the next two versions of SimPE won't clone it properly. That's how I made my Artist's Loft wardrobe.
I don't want to seem ungrateful for all the hard work that goes into making and updating SimPE, but I'd be ever so much more grateful if it didn't constantly mean losing some functionality.
I admit, I don't know my head from my buttocks when it comes to .NET programming; but I am pretty handy with VB, C, and C++, and when it comes down to brass tacks, all programming is pretty much the same. 4th and 5th generation languages are several orders of magnitude easier than the 2nd and 3rd generation languages I was taught "back in the day", but that doesn't mean they're without difficulty or risk of error. *sigh*
I really am thankful, but -- like I said -- I'd be even more thankful if things that used to work didn't stop working with every new release.
First thoughts on Free Time
Posted On Dec 29, 2007 | 2 Comments
I have to say, this is the first EP that adds something I have wanted since the first day I bought The Sims 2 -- Sports and other stereotypically "guy" activities. I know ladies do these things too, but so much of the game is already so heavily gender-biased toward the ladies, as the recent poll on my member-page at TSR shows male-oriented content of every sort is a much needed addition. The poll clearly indicates the majority of players feel male-oriented content was/is seriously lacking from TS2.
The way I see it, only Nightlife and Seasons EPs are the must-haves released to date. They are the only ones that add to the immersion and verisimilitude of the game, FreeTime EP looks to finally add something that is equally important for game immersion and verisimilitude: Real-life activities...
Sure, the other EPs add things, I even like some of them, but I don't consider them must-have.
Other than the bugs due to inadequate QA testing -- which we all know to expect at this point, the only thing I am hating about this new EP is the return of the dreaded, miserable Sad-Clown NPC... I have been finding creative ways to kill him since the original game.
I will be watching for the first mod to nix that hateful so-and-so... I hope it involves fire and explosives >_<
I'm sure it is just a matter of time before the annoying Mime and Saxaphone player make their return. We already have Mrs/Ms. Crumplebottom, and she has all the charm of a real-life Gladys Kravitz (USA TV-series "Bewitched" reference). I have a great affection for all the NPCs... an affection I might say is equal in every way to the affection I have for bathroom tile mildew.