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I’m in the mood to listen to Radiohead again.

Only a few more hours to go, and I’ll be off from work for two whole weeks.  TWO. WHOLE. WEEKS.  That’s the longest I’ve had off work at once in a very long time.  I don’t typically take long vacations during the summer or anything, because, well, what’s the point?  Andy gets perhaps 3 hours off a year, so we wouldn’t exactly go anywhere.  But Christmas falling where it is this year, it made it easy for me to take off the rest of the week following New Year’s, so I’m getting a long vacation.

It will probably go by too fast and end up seeming like 2 days, but oh well.

So, seeing as I will be gone for such an extended period of time, I don’t see much of a point and doing anything at all today at work.  I spent the morning cleaning out the inside of my desk, which happens to not have been cleaned in at least 2 years.  Perhaps 3.  I found tax forms from 2004 in there.  Awesome.  And old print outs of website layouts from ages ago.  Which seriously made me wonder what on earth was wrong with me back then for using such hideous typography.

And right now, just after lunch, I’m making backups of everything to an external drive for off-site keeping.  You know, just in case the building burns down.  After this is done, there’s no telling what I’ll do.

I’ll tell you what I want to do, and that’s watch Quarterlife.  A couple days ago, this series was mentioned in my Live Journal friends list, and I decided to check it out.  What an awesome decision that was!  I was instantly hooked.  Such an entertaining character drama.  If you like my Sim stories, I think you would like this show.  Kind of melodramatic, and some critics describe it as angsty, but it’s good melodrama and angst.  I like the characters, and the main girl, Dylan looks just like Courtney Cox, it’s rather uncanny.

It’s entirely on the internet for now, released twice a week, I think.  But I also think I read it’s being picked up by NBC.  Which is interesting.  After watching all the episodes out thus far, I have a hard time imagining this being on TV instead of the net.

And that’s all I have to say for now, I suppose.  1:36 PM.  Go faster, time.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Donny, please.

I very much need to respond to comments on the last entry as well as respond to some email questions. I will get to them eventually, I promise. In the meantime, I want to rant.

Rant about what, you ask?

Sims2.com guest-book signers, that’s what. I would love to know just how it is possible to actually read my stories and yet miss all the times I’ve said to come to my website for a big list of custom content sites. Or how they can miss when I say that, No, I will not upload my characters to the exchange, but they are in fact available on my website.

Jesus Christ. I love you for reading my stories, I honestly do, but I just cannot help you if you don’t pay attention to things I try to make so plainly obvious. It’s kind of like when people ask questions to things that can so easily be found on Google, like unit conversions or something. Really, it is not rocket surgery. (This is not to discourage those of you asking normal questions. It’s just these repeaters on my guest-book that make me run in crazy circles. Actually, it’s these people that made me shut off my guest-book last time. But I’m trying to focus on all the great messages instead.)

Moving on. I have not yet started Chapter 9, nor have I opened my Sims 2 game since releasing chapters 7 and 8 still. So nothing new there, and there won’t be until after the new year.

I freaked out yesterday because I realized I only have one week until I start my holidays, during which I’ll be in either Dallas or Houston through the new year visiting my family and Andy’s. Have I Christmas shopped yet? Of course not!

Stupid? Oh yes, very. But then I calmed myself later in the evening (starting around the time I should have gone to bed) when Andy introduced me to Facebook’s Flixster Application and I became beyond obsessed and stayed up after two in the morning rating movies. If you can name what movie this post’s title came from, you’ll be extra awesome in my book.

Hey Peter, what’s happening?

So I haven’t loaded The Sims 2 since releasing the last chapters of I Woke Up LA. That’s quite a long time for me to go without Sims! I haven’t felt much like playing the game, and random picture creating seems to have lost some pizazz lately. Everyone is so into editing these poses of their Sims to the point that they just don’t look like Sim pictures anymore; they look hand drawn. Which is fine, as far as a picture goes, I guess. But it’s not Sims. I miss good old fashioned Sims pictures (with properly-sized body parts, mother of God!).

I can appreciate editing and I like editing hair and poses when I really want to achieve something that the game doesn’t allow. But ughargh, it’s just spurred into something else entirely in the community lately, and I’m finding myself quite nostalgic, wishing it were two years ago in the Sim world.

Anyway, I’ll get over it. I thought about loading up my game tonight and making a picture of I Woke Up LA characters, but decided to clear some America’s Next Top Model off of the DVR because it’s become quite full (I’m still watching Days episodes from October)! I was three weeks behind, but now I’m all caught up. I’m sad at who left this last episode, though at the same time, I feel it was time for her to go. I actually like all four of the girls left quite a bit! Which is a change from my opinions of last season, I think. Jenna is my least favorite of the four though; I can appreciate her sarcastic humor, of course, however, use your head dear! Time and a place for such things! In front of Nigel is not one of them. Though I must admit, I find it hilarious when they’re together because it seems they just really can’t stand one another.

Can you tell I’ve just been watching this show for near three hours? Moving on. Read the rest of this entry »

Back to monotony.

So the wonderful Thanksgiving holidays are over and the count down to Christmas holidays begins. I want Christmas to be here quite badly because the thought of working all day right now makes me want to gouge out my eyes; however, I also don’t want Christmas to be here yet because I’m in no mood to go Christmas shopping. Just ugh.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was fun; I went to Dallas/Fort Worth to visit my parents, and spent most of the time there reading Harry Potter. Obsessed much? Oh yes. I’m now almost halfway through the last book, and I’m still pissed about what happened to Sirius in the fifth book. The only other thing I really did over the break was go to a Tori Amos concert! The weather was cold and rainy and we had to pay $15 to park and then walk in the miserable weather, but Tori was nothing short of completely awesome. And she performed Cornflake Girl. Which completely made my night right there.

This was my second time seeing her in concert, and I think I liked this time a bit better because one, our seats were a bit closer, and two, she played with her band, which I think makes it more interesting for some songs. She still did a solo section with just her and the piano, but it was nice hearing her with the band as well this time.

Moving on, I just want to say THANK YOU again to those of you who read the new chapters of I Woke Up LA. I’m happy that it was well-received and your comments make me excited to start the next part. Though, however excited I may be, I do think it will be quite some time before the next chapters are released. I do not know if I will have much time to even start working on it before Christmas. Of course, you never know, maybe me saying that will make the opposite happen.

I will say this about what to expect in the future chapters: Read the rest of this entry »

Chapters 7 and 8 Released

I Woke Up LA chapters 7 and 8 are uploaded–finally! It actually took me 3 bloody hours to copy and paste text into the game. And most of that time was spent cursing the evil character limit in slides. I think Maxis just put that in there to piss us off. There’s just no reason for a character limit like that, and it caused me to cut out chunks of text I didn’t want to cut out.

Ugh. Sigh. Grumble. Fart.

But it’s up. So I can relax now. I hope you all enjoy the chapters and that they were worth the wait! I appreciate your comments very much, and remember to visit the forum for questions and chatter.

Now I like to put myself in the Type 2 category!

One week one week one week one week one week.

Until Thanksgiving break.

Maybe, if I’m super productive, it’ll be one week until I Woke Up LA 7 and 8 come out. Oh, I shouldn’t tease you like that. I planned to be much more productive this weekend than I was, but I ended up sleeping it away as usual. I blame the shitty work week schedule for this. In fact, it is entirely work’s fault that these chapters weren’t released months ago. Stupid needing money to live!

Anyway, I might go crazy before Thanksgiving gets here. I’m taking off two extra days, the day before Thanksgiving, and the Monday after, just because I can and because if I don’t, I’ll completely lose it.

Right now, I’m having to work on the world’s worst project (and by “right now” I mean “will start when I can muster up the will power”), which involves me sifting through hundreds of pictures of DEAD ANIMALS and fitting them into a decision tree system which tells a user the best method to dispose of animal carcasses. You just don’t get much grosser than that. Unless you’re the person doing the disposing. In which case, I think you’re loony, but glad someone is there to do it. I’m fighting some strong urges to upload some of these pictures for you now so you can share in my joy. But, I won’t do it.

So anyone else think this writer’s strike sucks major ass cakes? I agree with the writers and blame the Big Guys in Suits for being monstrous (particularly for resorting to firing all staff from The Office–what the fuck is that?), but damn it all, I’m going to be major cranky when my shows stop airing new episodes. >:[ I guess it’s a good thing I’m several weeks behind on Days of Our Lives right now.

Ugh, I tried out this hand sanitizer stuff in the bathroom and it fucking smells. I’m going to have to go back in there and wash it off because this is just nauseating. I do hate that my nose is by far my strongest sense. It’s very annoying in situations like this and when Andy has garlic flavored chicken wings.

This scattered post brought to you by and inspired by Halle-I-Weaned-Myself-Off-Insulin Berry, who is now toward the top of my incredibly stupid celebrity list. It’s one thing for any random person who doesn’t live with or know anyone who has diabetes to make a statement like that. It’s another for a person who has supposedly lived with some type of diabetes for nearly 20 years, and who is supposedly a spokesperson for the disease to make a statement to the press that is so completely and utterly wrong in every way imaginable. Way to add to the confusion, ding dong.

Sleep is pretty awesome.

I don’t feel like working on the two things I need to be working on right now. Oh, I do believe I’d just rather get run over by a truck. The effects of Daylight Saving Time ending are already fading, and this is only the second work morning. Bloody hell, I hate mornings. If only I lived in a world where I could always sleep through them.

I’m currently on a roll with I Woke Up LA progress. I’m up to 47 pictures now, 13 of which I did last night. That’s huge for a weeknight. Especially considering most of the shots are pretty hack-intensive. I realized last night that nearly 50% of the pictures I’ve done so far have been on Sim beds. Ridiculous much? Oh yes. I’m not sure why exactly I wrote so many conversations on beds this time, but I wouldn’t have been able to do any of the pictures without that wonderful “posing on objects” hack at Mod. How did I live without that thing before now?

Writing is nearly complete, with the exception of Charlotte and Geoffrey flashbacks and another flashback I have planned for some other characters. I’m so ready to get this chapter out there. So much of it has been sitting in my Google Docs for far too long! Currently, it’s almost 19,000 words. Massive! I hope I didn’t drag some parts on for too long. I’ve also decided to break from my current chapter structure a little bit with chapters 7 and 8. So, neither will follow the exact formula of the past: present day, New York, Charlotte’s flashback, New York, present day, LA. Woohoo for change! I’m actually ending chapter 8 with the present day scene and that will be the only present day scene in chapter 7 or 8. Can you guess why? XD

(By the way, in case you haven’t been keeping up, chapters 7 and 8 will be released at the same time, so when I say I have 130+ slides, that’s for both chapters!)

The all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

New I Woke Up LA collage! Since I haven’t done one in a while…Ha. This is the result of my immense boredom last night. I like how it turned out though! I played with a few different poses from the norm, and I particularly like how I used Adeline’s pose to reach for Mat’s foot.

Maybe this will help inspire me to be productive for real tonight. My inspiration falters considerably when everyone manages to disappear from the internet. But maybe my playing around with the characters more will get me in the mood.

I’m home from work early today because I had a doctor appointment that didn’t last so long. Really, it was one of the best appointments ever because one, they didn’t even make me get on the scale; two, I didn’t have to wait in the secondary waiting room of death; and three, for some reason I didn’t have to pay a co-pay! Weird, but I’m not going to argue!

Obligatory Fight Club post title to go along with the image, which made me think of Mischief and Mayhem, and now I’m just going to have to go watch the movie again!

In the sea of life, you’re just a minnow

Ugh. Where does everybody go during the week? Don’t you know it’s during the week that you’re supposed to fuck around on the internet the most…because who wants to actually work? One can only read Perez Hilton and I Can Has Cheezburger so many times in a day.

Other than completely exhausting my sources of entertainment on the interwebs, I have been preoccupying myself with Harry Potter. I finished Prisoner of Azkaban last night–and it was all kinds of wonderful goodness! I’ve discovered a few things while reading the Harry Potter books. First, I don’t know why I didn’t read them before; they’re totally up my ally. Second, I sure do have a shitterific memory. I didn’t remember crap from the movies while reading the books, which, I think is turning out to be a good thing. I didn’t remember at all about the time traveling! The whole time with Hermione, I couldn’t remember why she was able to go to all those classes.

I’ve been re-watching the movies after I finish the book. So this weekend I’ll watch the Prisoner of Azkaban movie. And now I’m reading the Goblet of Fire. Good times. I’ll be sad when I’m done with these books now! Andy says Prisoner of Azkaban is his favorite, and I can see why after finishing it. I like it the best so far. But we’ll see if it’s still my favorite after reading all seven.

In other news, I have no other news because I’m rather bored. I could be working on I Woke Up LA right now, but I don’t much feel like it. Eh, we’ll see.

Three cookies to who can spot the song with lyrics mentioned in this post’s title. The song reminds me of being 18 and driving around in my old red Acura doing incredibly stupid and bad 18 year-old things. Nine years ago! Insanity. Good times. Hint: Why don’t you get the fuck out of my face?! NOW!

A Case of the Mondays.

Believe it or not, I actually made some progress on I Woke Up LA this weekend.  And by this weekend, I mean last night mostly.  I now have 26 pictures completed.  It’s amazing how long those 26 took, and while granted–they were probably some of the more difficult of the bunch, I’m not looking forward to the remaining 100+.  Picture taking used to be the best part of making the story for me, but now…it’s just too much of a pain in the ass.  I think the standards are too high for my lazy butt now, and my lots are just disgusting now after 6 chapters and nearly 2 years.

Just plain barf, really.  I have at least 800 Jills running around in that neighborhood, and as hot as that may sound to some of you, I just want to get a shotgun and start killing some of them off.  Of course, I do that, and something will screw up the neighborhood, so I’m just dealing with the mess to avoid complications at the moment.

Anyway, on a plus side, I think I’m done with ridiculous blanket editing.  I gave up and took an easy way out on one picture, but I don’t care anymore, and hopefully most of the pictures from the scene turned out alright.

Okay, new topic: it’s Monday afternoon and I’m taking a break at work right now because I just found the solution to something that was looming over my head for a while then causing me massive amounts of grief this morning with its lack of an ability to work at all.  But now it’s working and I’m super excited and rewarding myself with the treat of coming on here and blabbing away about nothing.

Today’s nothing topic will be a follow-up to my gushing on about Tool in the last post.  Today I will mention the coolest cover-mix I have ever heard.  A cover so awesome, I’m willing to listen to it at major McPoo quality because no higher quality is available that I know of.  It’s entirely possible I’ve blabbed about this song before.  It’s A Perfect Circle’s live cover combination of The Cure’s Love Song and Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman.

It amazes me how APC put these two songs together.  Completely seamless as if they were meant to be that way.  Mentions of diarrhea and all.  Listen to it; it’s all kinds of coolness.  And if you’ve been living under a rock covered in a hundred other rocks, here are the originals: Love Song and Diary of a Madman.