Between the Light and the Darkness Update

December 26, 2008

Tim takes a few minutes to fondly remember his dear friend, Gertie.

I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but I think we finally got my blogger freezing issue solved. Turns out I had some nasty malware on my computer.  So at least I can get on and update, and hopefully start getting some reading done.  

We're still working on my graphics issue.  We're thinking that when my hubby installed some more memory, the computer became more efficient than the graphic card, and it can't quite keep up.  Makes sense, since everything looks crisp and clear when I enter a lot, and 5-10 minutes later everything just 'fuzzes out'.  Sigh.  Hopefully soon, as I'm starting to get in a sort of panic mode about not being able to continue with my stories or start new ones.

Anyway, I'll shut up now and let you get on to chapter 21 - titled Fond Remembrance.  Not many of my chapters have titles, lol, something I'm hoping to one day change.

Frustrations...

December 10, 2008

To those of you patiently waiting updates on my stories, I would like to apologize for the lengthy delay. I'm having several problems at the moment. Real life keeps kicking my ass, blogger randomly freezes my computer and I don't know why, and even with my graphics cranked up to the max, my sims keep turning out blurry. I'm not even sure what to do.

And freaking blogger - sometimes just clicking someone else's blog will instantly freeze my whole computer. Rebooting does nothing, and the only way I can get things moving again is to manually restart the whole thing. But what's so weird is that it's totally random. I can go weeks with no problems, then suddenly it will start freezing everytime I try to sign in or read someone else's story. And it can do that for weeks or more, too. URG!!! So many frustrations.

I'm deeply sorry in the lack of progress.

On the Set

October 21, 2008

LOL - One of the skeletons from Part 2 of The Weekend Warriors Chronicles - hard at work during the photoshoot (before freewill was turned off). Part 2 of of The Weekend Warriors Chronicles - Piles of Bones* is coming soon!

*Renamed from Skeletons in the Basement

GRRRR!!

October 20, 2008

I have a crazy week ahead of me, so I thought I would finally finish getting my pics for Part 2 of WWC this morning while I had a little bit of time. It was a simple plan, take the fantastic skeleton skin I downloaded and make skeletons for my warriors to fight. But...the skin is not working correctly. Instead of looking like a skeleton, my sim looks like it has mismatched skin, instead, with an invisible face. So I took it out and tried it again. Same thing. Obviously, it just won't work for my EP's. So I have to use my backup idea - in which I'll use the same skeletons as in BLD and my Creature Feature - if I still have them. Gonna be pretty hard to stage a skeleton fight without the skeletons! Sheesh! Probably won't get this part done until next week.

So I jetted over to the BLD set to take some pictures with the remaining time I had. By the time everything was done loading, I got maybe 5 pictures snapped! That's it. Feels like an unproductive morning. A little advice? Don't try to snap pictures in a forest of willow trees - or any forest, for that matter, with lots of trees. Because EVERYTIME you try to move something, you'll pick up a fartin' tree instead! Then you'll put it down, rotate to get a clear view of your subjects so the tree won't be in the way - but somehow, despite the fact you try to avoid it, it you'll grab it again. Those big droopy fronds of the willows are especially annoying, because they hang down low and I always grab the tree instead of the sim, or the posing hack, or the clothing rack, or the other props, etc. Pictures are a giant pain. I swear the next scene needs to be set in the desert!

What is this?

October 8, 2008

While shooting chapter 29 of Between the Light and the Darkness, I noticed this odd thing walking around - in the air! It's clearly a skunk, but it looks like a chicken - check out the front legs, folded behind its back like wings. The position of its head looks fowl-like. The back legs are bird like. To my knowledge, there are no chickens in The Sims 2, so why, for the love of pixels, is this skunk walking around looking like one? I call it a Chickunk - a combination of a chicken and skunk. Now, I've known skunks to cause problems with the game in general - I feared a deformed skunk may cause extra problems. I shooed it away, but not before I sat here in fascination watching it walk all over the set for several minutes!

Mmmm...tastes like chicken!

My Muse is a Dominatrix

March 12, 2008

At the moment I envision her standing over me with a whip, forcing me to my computer to work on this story as much as possible. She cleared the block I had with the ending, so now I can see the path that will lead me there, rather than wander aimlessly and possibly get lost. That relieves the panic I was feeling for continuing to post a story with no ending.

I have spit out two chapters in less than a week, one with exactly 50 pictures, the other with 73! Not photoshop intensive, but still set up involved and whatnot. Considering the first chapters of BL&D are only about 18-24 pictures long, I've really starting building up the chapters around #13 or so. I have been in 'work mode' for awhile, and I must say, that I'm really enjoying it. Sometimes I'm in 'playmode' and I make little progress because I just want to play the game. But not lately.

I also wrote a love scene! And it didn't turn out mushy, tacky, or pornographic. This is an area where I struggle a lot to find the right words. I would dare to say that it even turned out tasteful and decent. It's not spectacular, but for me, it's a first.

So, while my Muse has helped me with direction and given me a tireless drive for this story (think about it constantly), she is also being ruthless. Not with creativity, per se, but with the stamina for long photoshoots and an inability to stay away from my computer for more. It's a good thing, and I'm really loving it - but my house looks like crap. ;)

Frustrations

January 29, 2008

Bad day on the set today. I spent two hours just trying to create the characters I would need for chapter 13 of Between the Light and the Darkness. My biggest problem is some of my custom content. Now, don't get me wrong, I adore all of Rosesims fabulous objects, and without them, this story just wouldn't be possible. However, many of the items are only labeled with her site address, not with what the item is. Not all of them, but many of them. Since I have quite a few of her items, it's taking forever just to set up each character with the props they need. I ended up getting frustrated, and stopped working on the story altogether. Since it's Tuesday, and all the kids are at school, I try to work on this in the quiet 3 hours that I have. But, here it is only 11:00 a.m., and I'm done. I suddenly lost my passion to work on this. I pray this is only temporary. Just a few days ago I couldn't wait to get in there and start, and now...sigh! I don't want to look at it, or even think about it. I'm thinking I may have to take a break from this story, but I really don't want to do that, because people are reading it.

It doesn't help that I have several other ideas bouncing around in my unfocused brain, some that I'm itching to get started on. I'm trying very hard not to give in, because I don't want a lot of unfinished projects laying around. I already have A Day in the Life of a Psychotic Mom, that really needs an update, BL&D, and my Avalon Legacy which I'm sharing with my friends over at PTS. Plus still another one - Every Family Has Its Secrets, which I had started a long time ago, but put on hold so I could work on BL&D. And now it calls to me again. Probably because it is not a fantasy, and I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time on costuming, set design, and searching for content to make an other worldly story. Ack! I don't know what to do...