Tuesday, March 12, 2013

♬ Dream Home Sims Experiment & Project ♬

GOOD MORNING! I almost pulled an all-nighter, so I'm tired, but still excited & wired from what made me pull the all-nighter in the 1st place. Yesterday was a good day. I would have finished everything & even gotten caught up on some stuff that was backed up had I not gotten completely wrapped up in Sims. As for the backed up stuff, I've decided to stop keeping track. If I miss it, I miss it. I'll either get to it next week or I won't. No sense in keeping track of how far behind I am when it's been made clear over several weeks that catching up isn't really going to ever happen. It puts too much stress on me knowing I'm backed up.
Now I can relax more & not worry about it. Yesterday I had egg salad for breakfast, crocheted, got the mail, checked facebook & took my game turns, did yearly cleaning, took the dogs out, made macaroni & cheese for Kyle & I for lunch, went through my e-mail for the week, showered, & then loaded Sims. If you don't want to end up reading a LONG blog about Sims, you can stop here ... because here is where I got all
kinds of excited to the point of going to bed at 7:30a & only sleeping 2 hours. OK! If you're still here ... here's what happened when I loaded Sims: I completed the 2nd story (not the rooms, just the 2nd story shell) of Breckenridge & got the siding put on the house (3rd pic). Then I decided to load up one of my favorite houses, Modern Mediterranean. Beautiful house, but difficult game because somewhere down
the road I ended up with Sims per generation instead of 1. That's 3 children to work with at once, followed by 3 marriages almost simultaneously, 3 pregnancies, 3 new babies ... you get the picture. It's rough. After pulling the notes sheet for that game, I sat down & had a thought. After all these years of playing Sims, I've played other people's houses that they created & I've played houses I created, &
I've even played a recreation of this house & family as it is now (my real life house & family). What I have NEVER done is created & played my DREAM HOME. So that's where it all started last night. I got super excited & decided to build my dream home. It's not my dream home as far as what I'd like my dream home to look like. I'm not that skilled in Sims. I can't build a 2-story Victorian although I've seen some people do
it & do it WELL! The finished views are pics 2, 4, 5, & 6. A full outside aerial view of the house during the day, one at night, then walls up, then walls down. What makes it my dream home is that it has EVERYTHING I could ever ever want including a pool, 3 vehicles (a truck, a car, & a motorcycle) depending on my mood, & pretty much everything else you can think of. It's loaded! The size of the house is based on necessity, not just tons of unused square footage. I put the house on the largest lot I could find, a 64 x 64 lot in Appaloosa Plains. The reason for the massive lot is because I had absolutely no idea how much space I would need. I was placing all the items IN a room & THEN putting the walls up around everything, guaranteeing that I wouldn't be using excessive square footage. Since the yard is so huge though, I went ahead & filled it the best I could so it didn't look stupid empty. That's why there's a huge fountain in the front yard, a long driveway, large garden, etc. It has everything though, inside AND out. Outside has a beautiful wrap-around front porch, a huge back porch, outdoor kitchen, grassy back yard for the pets, a pool, & a large gardening area. The largest room inside the house is my crafting room. I wanted to make SURE that everything was covered. As I was building the house, I had another exciting idea (exciting to me anyway). I decided to put Pete & I in the house along with all our pets ... no children, just us. Retired. I made us mature adults & FROZE TIME so I can both enjoy the game AND experiment without us aging up & dying on me. I'll unfreeze time as soon as Pete & I both earn enough lifetime happiness points to get the age freeze potion. Unfreezing time is important because I have more than once forgotten to unfreeze time when I play one of my other games & it REALLY screws me up when I realize that I've been taking care of a baby for a week & they never aged up because I forgot to change the setting back after a game like this. Luckily, even with time frozen, the seasons still play out as normal. I have the season in the game matching the season here in real life as I have everything match as closely as possible. Pete looks like Pete. My Sim looks like me (I REALLY need to lose weight!) & all our pets look just like all our pets. The furnished house costs $357,287. Accurate. The unfurnished house costs $107,887. NOT accurate! At least not in this neighborhood! Our (real life) house was $125K & it's HALF the square footage or less of the Sim house & the Sim acreage is at least double also. Appaloosa Plains is a very affordable place to live! I created Pete with traits I believed best fit him. It's difficult to only choose FIVE, so I did the best I could & kept the most useful ones. He's a bookworm, born salesman, computer whiz, eccentric, & genius. His lifetime wish is living in the lap of luxury (easy to accomplish with this house, so we'll get the age freeze potions sooner rather than later). He likes spaghetti (I should have made this tri-tip steak ... oops!), custom music, & the color black. He's an Aquarius. My Sim is artistic, a born saleswoman, computer whiz, green thumb, & natural cook. Her lifetime wish is the same as Pete's. She likes hamburger, custom music, the color Lilac, & she's a Gemini. I also created our pets: Bella, Browser, Joselyn, Smokey, & Xoco. Now here's where I got really excited. What if I mirrored my real life in the game? EVERYTHING! What would happen? With Sims being so accurate & close to real life (for a game), it would make a GREAT experiment to see where I'm going right & where I'm going wrong. Now there are a LOT of things I do in real life that just isn't in the Sims ... bead banners, crocheting, knitting .. so what I did was I took everything I did & matched it with something in the Sims that my Sim can do instead. Matching everything up got me as excited as creating the house & then our Sims. I ended up with a very long list & here's how it matches up ... my real life task is on the left, the Sim's task is on the right:
Apps (updating my iPad Mini apps) = Athletic (working out to gain athletic skill)
AT&T (checking the news & tips of the day) = Bass (playing the bass to gain music skill)
Banking (checking) = Charisma (practice in front of mirror to gain the charisma skill)
Beading (making bead banners) = Drums (playing drums to gain music skill)
Blogger (writing my blog) = Writing (writing books for writing skill & cash income)
Breakfast = Diner (going to the Cafe in town)
Crochet = Fishing (fish to gain the fishing skill & cash income)
Cross Stitch = Guitar (playing the guitar to gain music skill)
Daily Cleaning = Same in the Sims; dishes & laundry
Dallas Morning News = Same in the Sims; read the paper & note events & sales
DVD = Watch TV & maybe even gain a skill
eBay = Sell what I've caught/grown/made this week @ the Consignment Shop in town.
facebook = Chat with someone online (gain social & meet new people)
facebook Games = play PC games
Hand Knit = Hacking (for cash income)
Inkle Loom = Handiness (improve handiness skill)
iPad Mini = Inventing (to improve inventing skill & cash income)
Knit Wit = Chess table with Pete (improve logic skill)
Lace Doily = Martial Arts (improve athletic & martial arts skills)
Landscaping = Gardening (to improve gardening skill & for cash profit)
Latch Hook = Mixology (to improve skill)
LCFD = Nectar Making (to improve skill & for cash profit)
Lunch = Steak House in town
Mail = Pay the bills on Monday & Thursday, check for regular mail other days
Machine Knit = Painting (improve skill & for cash profit)
Mi Outlook = Party (improve social)
Monthly = dishes & laundry
Needlepoint = Photography (to improve skill & for cash profit)
Pinterest = Piano (to improve music skill)
Plastic Canvas = Sculpting (to improve skill & for cash profit)
Quilt Crochet = Swimming (to improve athletic skill)
Shower = Shower (to improve hygene)
Sims = Play PC games (to improve fun)
Spinner = Fulfill a wish (to gain additional lifetime happiness points)
Supper = Cook (to improve cooking skill & fulfill hunger)
Television = Watch TV (& maybe even improve a skill)
Yearly = dishes & laundry
Zzz = Bed
OK! Now that I've got all THAT sorted out ... it's finally time to play! Yet another moment I'm all excited about & can't wait for! I let my Sims play out Sunday on their own & just do their own thing. Neighbors came by to welcome them to the neighborhood & that's where they made their 1st 2 friends, Cheyenne & Gracy.  When my Sim needed to use the restroom, it was time for the nighttime routine. She & Pete used the restroom, Pete had a quick bowl of soup & she had a TV dinner, & they went to bed early (9:p). This would guarantee a full Monday with hopefully enough time to mirror my real-life schedule. And then it began! Monday! I mirrored my Monday based on the chart above & my Sim had a great day just as I did! Just as in real life, Pete needs less sleep than I do even in Sims. He was up before me. When my Sim woke up, she made the bed & then got on the treadmill to improve her athletic skill & weight. Then she went to the PC to start a novel to gain the writing skill & make a cash profit after she finishes & sells the book. Now here is where I learned something. My Sim, even though the last thing she did before bed was eat, was hungry for breakfast in the middle of writing. Breakfast needs to be moved to BEFORE Blogging in both real life & Sims. Done. My Sim got in her little red Prius & drove into town to the Cafe for breakfast (doing this every morning will prevent the negative stir crazy moodlet). Breakfast out is $12 for 1 person. I didn't bring Pete because he had already started cooking waffles in the kitchen. After breakfast at the cafe my Sim went fishing to improve her fishing skill & have fish to put in her aquarium & to sell. After she drove back home she sat & watched sports on the TV, then went to the PC to chat with someone & met Quincy. When she was finished chatting she played a PC game for a little while & then decided to try hacking for profit. It wasn't available yet, (you can only hack after 7:p & I started at 6, so ... oops! An hour too early. Need to move hand Knitting / Hacking hour later ... swap it with taking the dogs out (in real life). Done. Anyway, so my Sim overclocked her PC instead. Then it was lunch time so my Sim & Pete's Sim got in the Prius & drove to the steak house in town. I learned that my Sim needs to use the toilet before leaving for lunch (watch the bumps on the road!), I learned that eating lunch out costs $150 at the steak house for 2 people (WHOA!), & I also learned that my Sim wasn't even hungry yet. Eating 3 times a day is too much. Lunch can go ... completely. I'll take all the foods & places that were in the lunch spinner & add them to the dinner spinner. That also frees up MUCH needed time during the day! Done (that was a LOT of Java coding). When my Sims got back home, my Sim went to the mailbox to pay the bills for the 1st time out of what will be twice this week. How much does it cost to run this dream home? $2,778 x 2 each week. That number will drop a little with depreciation as time passes. Here's where my Sim got tired. Too much already today & still so much more to do! Let's leave that one alone for now since we did delete lunch already & that will free up a LOT of time considering how long it takes to drive into town, eat, & drive back. My Sim called Cheyenne, Gracy, & Quincy & set up a party for 9:a Tuesday morning (to improve social). She showered & then went to play PC games but had already had so much fun that she wasn't interested in more games. Ah HA! Too much fun isn't good either. Time to delete Sims out of the schedule. NOT COMPLETELY! OH NO!! What I AM going to do though is knock it down from 7 days a week to 1 with the exception of the 15 minutes per day that it'll take to play my dream home & mirror my real life ... this is FUN AND EDUCATIONAL! Done. Next my Sim was going to fulfill a wish, but there was nothing she could do at the time to complete any of them. She tried to watch the cooking channel for a bit before bed, but was way too tired. Let's hope removing lunch fixes that too. She finally got to bed VERY late & slept until 12:30p (just like real life ... LOL!). Tuesday she woke up & the party was already underway. She played Bass for her friends & improved her bass &/or music skill(s) & is already hungry. She skipped dinner last night though, so we won't do any schedule changes based on this one. And that's it! A day in the life of my real life & my Sim's mirrored life. COOL HUH?! Well, *I* think so & that's what counts the most. :) LCFD Maintenance tonight & Aaron's birthday!

Ask the folks in HR what form you need to change your ethnicity to Eskimo.

Could there be something you need to see in a deeper, more fundamental way - some paradigm within yourself that affects the way you see your time, life, & your own nature?

Countries with the highest prison populations top 10:
  1. USA
  2. China
  3. Russia
  4. Brazil
  5. India
  6. Mexico
  7. Thailand
  8. Iran
  9. South Africa
  10. Ukraine
Did you know the networks are in trouble again? The television networks. The government charged the television networks ... with faking the news. And the networks have reciprocated. They're accusing the government of producing bad news.

Dixie Chicks backlash begins (2003):
In response to the critical comments made about him by Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush offered this response: "The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say." Of the backlash the Dixie Chicks were then facing within the world of country music, President Bush added: "They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out." This music-related sideshow to the biggest international news story of the year began on March 12, 2003, when the British newspaper The Guardian published its review of a Dixie Chicks concert at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London two nights earlier.
In that review, The Guardian's Betty Clarke included the following line: "'Just so you know,' says singer Natalie Maines, 'we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.'" (Clarke left out the middle of the full quotation, which was, "Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.") That line quickly became fodder for a grassroots anti-Dixie Chicks backlash. It began with thousands of phone calls flooding country-music radio stations from Denver to Nashville—calls demanding that the Dixie Chicks be removed from the stations' playlists. Soon some of those same stations were calling for a boycott of the recent Dixie Chicks' album and of their upcoming U.S. tour. Fellow country star Toby Keith famously joined the fray by performing in front of a backdrop that featured a gigantic image of Natalie Maines beside Saddam Hussein.
The economic and emotional impact of all this on the members of the Dixie Chicks is documented in the 2006 documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing. In its opening sequence, one can see how popular and how far from controversial the Dixie Chicks were just prior to this controversy, when they sang the national anthem at the 2003 Super Bowl. The film also captures a scene in which the Dixie Chicks' own media handler is counseling Maines not to speak her mind too openly about President Bush in an upcoming interview with Diane Sawyer. "I'll tell you why," says the PR man. "He's got sky-high approval. The war couldn't be going better. By the time this interview airs...the looting will be done, the rebuilding of Iraq will be started....Two weeks from now, it's going to be even a more positive situation." And although the outcome of the war in Iraq remains unknown, the concern expressed about Maines's outspokenness on the professional prospects of the Dixie Chicks proved to be extremely well placed.

Donated party dresses make the next dance a reality for would-be princesses. The organization Donate My Dress coordinates formal-wear drives across the U.S.

Longest sentence ever handed down in the U.S. was when in 1981 a Texas judge sentenced Dudley Wayne Kyzer to prison for over 10,000 years for committing 3 brutal murders.

No wonder Ulysses S. Grant lost the Vicksburg Campaign in the Civil War! Before he went to bed, Grant took out his false teeth & put them in a washbasin full of water, which the servant threw out to the Mississippi River. he had to go without dentures for a full month.

Pick up sunglasses with 100% UV protection - ideally ones with amber, orange, or brown lenses (best for blocking the blue-violet rays at the ultraviolet end of the spectrum). The greater the UV exposure, the higher your risk of developing cataracts or macular degeneration.

Relax Melodies:
★  BEST SLEEP AID WITH 94 RELAXING SOUNDS!
❤  Read the reviews! All user RATES → 5.0 stars
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Featured in PEOPLE MAGAZINE, KNOWYOURMOBILE, MASHABLE & may other websites and magazines!
Relax Melodies is the leader in personalized relaxation and sleep assistance. No more insomnia for you! Tension is a thing of the past at any moment! Just custom mix your favorite high quality sounds from a selection of 94, then slip naturally into a relaxed state or a deep, rejuvenating sleep. Join 5,000,000 relaxed users for the ultimate and easiest relaxation experience!
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✓ 94 High quality ambient sounds, including 6 binaural beats frequencies for brainwave entrainment.
✓ Play your mix in background. Relax while using other apps!
✓ Mix your favorite sounds together with different volume to create your own personal melodies and get infinite possibilities!
✓ High quality Retina graphics with unique aurora, stars and clouds animation effects!
✓ Include 9 off the shelf favorites for easy startup
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✓ Clock display with brightness adjustment and 3 different themes
✓ Multiple Alarms & Timers system. Use your own favorite as alarm to wake up slowly.
✓ Connect with Airplay devices!
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☆  94 AMBIENT SOUNDS  ☆
♬ River Ocean ♬ Winds ♬ Flute ♬ Rain ♬ Birds ♬ Music Box ♬ Lounge ♬ Piano ♬ Orchestral ♬ Waterfall ♬ Thunder ♬ Zen ♬ Campfire ♬ Melody ♬ Night ♬ Brown Noise ♬ Pink Noise ♬ White Noise ♬ Heart Beat ♬ Astral ♬ Fountain ♬ Train ♬ Tribal ♬ India ♬ Urban Rain ♬ Cavern ♬ Wind Chimes ♬ Sailing ♬ Voices ♬ Watching ♬ Bass Music ♬ Cold Rattle ♬ Chirp ♬ Drum ♬ Storm ♬ Flute ♬ Choir ♬ Sunny Day ♬ Guitar ♬ Dramatic ♬ Butterfly ♬ Medieval ♬ Earth Drama ♬ Dreams ♬ Wind Surge ♬ Forest ♬ Abstract ♬ Spring ♬ Toskana ♬ City ♬ Sprinkler ♬ Slow Waves ♬ Light Rain ♬ Heavy Rain ♬ Rainy Day ♬ Whales ♬ Seagulls ♬ Afternoon ♬ Rainstorm ♬ Underwater ♬ Whales 2 ♬ Immersed ♬ Seaside ♬ Icy Snow ♬ Forest Rain ♬ Rain on Roof ♬ Duduk ♬ Playground ♬ Owls ♬ Humming ♬ Grandfather Clock ♬ Cat Purring ♬ BaliMist ♬ Frogs ♬ Dryer ♬ Thunder Storm ♬ City Ambiance ♬ Indian Drums ♬ Pachelbel Canon ♬ Wolf ♬ FogHorn ♬ Vacuum ♬ Loon ♬ Keyboard ♬ MonkChant ♬ Oscillating Fan ♬ Womb

Reopened recently as a National Park site, Alcatraz was named for an anglicized Spanish word that means "pelican" or "strange bird." Appropriate - it did detain "jailbirds" for more than 100 years!

Zen Brush:
We offer our deepest condolences to everyone who suffered as a consequence of the great east Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 11.
Following this disaster, PSOFT MOBILE started our project to support the affected area. We collected illustrations and words of support to the victims of the disaster, made by professionals and amateurs alike, using our "Zen Brush" iPhone/iPad app. This app is an art book compiling more than 100 art pieces kindly contributed by our users.
The goal of this project is not to profit our company, but rather to support the affected areas. We will regularly publish on our website the results of the support made possible by this project.
http://psoftmobile.net/en/fukko.html
Project Details:
PSOFT MOBILE, creator of the apps “AR Missile”, “Zen Brush”, etc. is located in the city of Sendai. Despite this earthquake, bigger than anything we ever experienced, we were blessed by the fact that no one in our team suffered any injury. However, along with the extended interruption of the daily life infrastructure and the repeated discovery of damage due to the earthquake, we felt a strong feeling of anxiety and despair.
Amongst all of this, we became aware that many people were using Zen Brush to create artwork supporting the victims of the earthquake and tsunami and send it using Twitter. Words cannot express how much encouragement these works gave to us who are in the affected area.
In the difficult conditions following the earthquake, we asked ourselves what we could do to help the recovery efforts. We reached the conclusion that by collecting everyone’s works, your messages of support could reach more people, and at the same time, help the recovery by using the proceeds to support the affected areas. This is why we decided to start this project.
This app is one of the results of the above project. PSOFT MOBILE is back on its feet and we hope that releasing this app will provide a helping hand to the recovery efforts, and pray that the victims can recover as soon as possible.
Acknowledgments:
We wish to express our deepest gratitude to the many Zen Brush users who endorsed this project and contributed their artwork.
We also feel the utmost gratitude and respect towards everyone who works for recovery in the devastated areas.
Finally, our heartfelt thanks go to everyone, in Japan and everywhere in the world, who prays and participates in support activities for the devastated areas.

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