#cas ep: too young too soon

[which-hospital]

Pull Together, Push Apart (12/08/23) and Too Young, Too Soon (19/08/23)

I’ve just realised I never actually posted about these episodes, I watched them both pretty late because my mum always wants me to save watching the whole episode until she can and my dad’s been off work for the past couple weeks so we haven’t had a chance to sit down and watch them together until Monday so I just decided to post about them both at the same time. Because these episodes are mushed together in my brain from watching them one after the other, I’ll probably forget stuff but this is what is still sticking out to me:

Pull Together, Push Apart

I expected that the excessive Faith stuff would ruin this one for me, the thing about Faith is that it’s not even like I love to hate her, I just hate her. I really don’t care about this storyline but the fact that she’s dragged Stevie into it as well now is really shitty. Can’t wait until this stuff is done.

The Jacob and Iain stuff actually made this episode for me, it was all so good that it actually made up for everything else. I really enjoy the paramedics as a whole group and the dynamics that are there and Jacob really feels like he’s become a part of all of that now and I really loved their scenes together in today’s episode.

I feel like appreciate Donna in Casualty more than I did in Holby? I liked her over there but I’ve been loving her since she joined Casualty and I thought she was great in both of these episodes!

Too Young, Too Soon

I guess I expected that with Ffion and Gethin hiding what they were from Jan, she wouldn’t get to retire but it ended up being so painful, that moment of realisation! I think it’s even worse because Jan’s just had the kind of day that makes you decide you still want to be a paramedic and she’s come out of it, yeah, questioning her decision but still wanting to retire and her having that moment where she’s like “it’s all a lie”, just </3

I didn’t expect to be so on board with Rash and Rida and I think it could be this week’s spoilers influencing my thoughts and I kind of would still appreciate Rida as Rash’s permanent wingwoman but I’m on board with them as a couple just because I think they’re both so sweet!

I’m starting to see how the Donna and Max stuff will end up happening, like it’s started to make sense now. I’m so glad Donna has told the truth just for a lot of reasons, I’m very happy with the direction this storyline’s going in.

Guitar man, my favourite character.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot this. I get that for writing reasons Sah couldn’t be at Jan’s not-quite-happening-anymore retirement party BUT I AM SO SAD ABOUT THAT. I know the two of them have had their ups and downs and whatever but did “it would be lovely if you could realise how many people care about you, we’re family” mean nothing???? They should’ve been there, there should’ve at least been some vague justification.

[super-flan]

Last night’s episode, Hang on to Your Life, proved that everything I said here is right. Dean IS trying to change the story, change the world & going full circle ⭕️, leaving it up to John, who had left it up to him & Sam in the 1st place.

… Until then, I’ll keep picking the music.

When Dean says those words at the end of the The Winchesters pilot & goes off driving Baby down that 2 lane road, I initially thought it meant he was driving Baby in Heaven & that Dean is talking to us during the drive he had in Heaven before Sam arrives. (Assuming 15x20 exists, tho it doesn’t)

Now I’m not so sure. Specially since I found out that every episode’s title is also the title of a song. Meaning, he’s picking the songs we’re listening to. Meaning Dean’s the driver, we’re riding shotgun & he’s driving the story however he sees fit.

In the beginning of the pilot Dean said the story might sound familiar “but I’m gonna put the pieces together in a way that just might surprise you.” This implies that there’s more than one way to put these pieces together. More than one version of the story.

We’re getting Dean’s version. The one he’s driving. The one where he’s picking the music & the music he pics is the ep we see.

Being the music obsessed nerd that I am, I decided to carefully listen to the song that gives each ep its title to see what it tells us about the characters, the episode, where the season is going, the SPN universe in general…

Let’s begin with the pilot.

Now the pilot doesn’t have a song title.

So I listened to the songs in it & I found one that I think is the equivalent.

I’d Love to Change the World by Ten Years Later.

We listen to this song twice in the episode.

This is song that’s playing when John steps off the bus. It’s our introduction to John, to this younger version of John that just got back from the war.

The song describes the counterrevolution, the older generation complaining about social changes, about “freaks & hairies”, “dykes & fairies”. It is what the singer refers to when he says “I’d like to change the world”.

I see John as both. This present John is one who wants to change the world, but doesn’t know what to do & yet the rest of the lyrics is who he will become, which is the opposite of what he wants in this moment.

Another thing I find interesting viewing this song as our introduction to John. Is the chorus.

I’d love to change the world / But I don’t know what to do / So I’ll leave it up to you

Which is what John did. He left it up to his children, specially Dean to change or save the world the way he couldn’t or didn’t know what to do.

We hear the song again at the end of the pilot when we see Dean next to Baby on that mysterious two lane road.

Now besides us riding shotgun & listening to this story Dean is driving, we hear this song, which makes me think he’s talking to someone else as well.

Here I think Dean is the one who wants to change the world, change the past, change the story, but he doesn’t know what to do. So he’s leaving it up to…

[ao3feed-destiel-02]

I shine only with the light you gave me.

I shine only with the light you gave me. https://ift.tt/QZ658kB by Heyimbeccah John Winchester is a terrible person and parent. Castiel wants him dead. He must die . . Fuck. He got caught. Again. He was gonna be in so much trouble. "Again Dean, really?! I thought you would have learned something by now!" John yelled as soon as Dean walked in. Dean didn't fight, he simply sat down the food, glancing up at his dad, maybe he could understand it was for Sammy. "Where'd you get this crap!" "I- from the convince store... Sammy. He needed food," Dean tried to reason. "Damnit, boy! You're gonna get me in trouble or get yourself arrested!" Words: 8960, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural), Sam Winchester, John Winchester, Bobby Singer (Supernatural) Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester Additional Tags: Abusive John Winchester, Bad Parent John Winchester, John Winchester Being an Asshole, Hurt Dean Winchester, Protective Dean Winchester, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel's Nickname is Cas (Supernatural), Castiel and Dean Winchester Have a Profound Bond, Young Sam Winchester, Young Dean Winchester, Tbh Don’t know if they gonna be a ship. Or more like father figure, More like a father figure imo, but Cas still loves him, Father Figures, father figure Castiel, Parental Bobby Singer (Supernatural), Protective Bobby Singer (Supernatural), Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Child Neglect, it was neglect canonically, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Childhood Sexual Abuse, bad childhood, Dean Winchester is Bad at Feelings, Dean Winchester is Bad at Self-Care, Dean Winchester's Childhood, I’m sorry., I abuse my comfort characters instead of getting therapy, when Dean gets therapy I will, when Evan Buckley gets therapy I will, ha, I’m only halfway through with this show for the first time ever…., im only at season 7 ep 15, i watched Bobby die, i sobbed, They all deserve better, im a dean girl lol, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, I mean it, it gets kinda dark, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Castiel Saves Dean Winchester, I’m also a cas girl, and well, Sam too, I just share a mix of all their trauma, owo via AO3 works tagged 'Castiel/Dean Winchester' https://ift.tt/1RMd8Ho July 10, 2024 at 11:10PM

[natehertweck]

Shows 2013-2016

Ah! Way too many shows to keep up with… I’m performing (almost) every Wednesday with Dinosaur Tooth at Cock N’ Bull British Pub in Santa Monica and every month or so with Dawn Fades. I’m also working on some solo shows, coming soon. See main page for other show announcements. Thanks!

2016

Friday, February 19 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth (full band electric)

Tuesday, February 2 - Brennan’s Pub - 4th Annual Elvis Costello Acoustic Tribute Show

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Tuesday, January 26 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth (acoustic)

Friday, January 22 - Hermosa Saloon - Dinosaur Tooth (full band)

Tuesday, January 12 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth (acoustic)

Saturday, January 9 - Brennan’s Pub - Tom Petty Tribute Band & Dinosaur Tooth (full band)

Tuesday, January 5 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth (acoustic)

Incomplete list of older show:

2015

Tuesday, December 22 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic

Tuesday, September 1 - Brennan’s Pub - Tom Petty Tribute Show

Tuesday, August 25 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth

Tuesday, August 18 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth

Saturday, August 14 - Private Party - the Roustabouts

Tuesday, August 11 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth

Monday, August 10 - Club Trip - Devin O'Rourke and Dinosaur Tooth

Tuesday, August 4 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic

Thursday, July 16 - Viva Cantina - Dinosaur Tooth acoustic show, Free 7:30p

Tuesday, July 14 - Brennan’s Pub - EP Release Show: Blame it on the Truth - solo set plus Dinosaur Tooth, 9pm, FREE

Wendesday, July 8 - Cinema Bar - Solo set - 9pm FREE

Tuesday, July 7 - Brennan’s Pub - w/ David Bowick, Felice LaZae, and Georgia Feroce - 8pm FREE

2014

Friday, June 27 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth, 9:00pm FREE

Friday, June 20 - Molly Malone’s - Dear Deadly first show, 10:30pm $10

Thursday, June 19 - Rusty’s Surf Ranch - The Rounstabouts, 8:30pm FREE

Thursday, June 5 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday - Dinosaur Tooth and the Roustabouts, 8:30pm FREE

Tuesday, June 3 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth and Ashleigh Flynn, 9pm FREE

Sunday, June 1 - Grand Ole Echo w/ Ashleigh Flynn

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Saturday, May 31 - Maypole Festival - private event

Tuesday, May 27 - Brennan’s Pub - Bob Dylan Tribute Show - 8pm, FREE

Thursday, May 22 - Rusty’s Surf Ranch - The Roustabouts 8:30pm, FREE

Tuesday, May 20 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth acoustic show 9pm, FREE

Tuesday, May 6 - Brennan’s Pub - Songwriter Showcase #2, 8pm, FREE

Saturday, May 3 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth, 9:00pm FREE

Thursday, May 1 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday: Dinosaur Tooth and The Roustabouts 8:30pm FREE

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Tuesday, April 29 - Brennan’s Pub - Songwriter Showcase #1, 8pm, FREE

Tuesday, April 22 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth acoustic show w/ Chuck & Michele and Sean Barton 9pm, FREE

Thursday, April 17 - The Satellite - Ocelot Robot w/ Fire the Animal and Black Belt KARATE - 9pm, $10

Tuesday, April 8 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth acoustic show 9pm, FREE

Thursday, April 3 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday: Dinosaur Tooth and The Roustabouts 8:30pm FREE

Tuesday, April 1 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth acoustic show w/ John Jakubek and Ali, 8pm, FREE

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Friday, March 28 - Molly Malone’s - Ocelot Robot, 9:30pm $10

Tuesday, March 25 - Brennan’s Pub - Neil Young Acoustic Tribute Show, 8pm, FREE

Monday, March 17 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth - St. Patrick’s Day Party! 1pm-4pm on the outdoor stage, FREE

*SXSW SHOW - Thursday, March 13 - Shakespeare’s Pub - Arison Cain, 4pm

Saturday, March 8 - Brennan’s Pub - Ashleigh Flynn & Dinosaur Tooth (full band set) - 9pm FREE

Friday, March 7 - Ojai, CA - w/ David Bowick, Perry Brothers

Thursday, March 6 - Good Hurt - Ocelot Robot & Arison Cain $5, 9pm

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Friday, February 28 - White Oak Music & Arts - Songwriter Showcase, Dinosaur Tooth acoustic set 8pm - $10

Tuesday, February 25 - Brennan’s Pub - Warren Zevon Tribute Show FREE, 8pm 20+ performers

Tuesday, February 18 - Brennan’s Pub - Doug & Annette, A Certain Thing, Dinosaur Tooth acoustic set, 9pm, FREE

Tuesday, February 11 - Brennan’s Pub - Paul Zollo & Friends, Dinosaur Tooth acoustic set, 9pm, FREE

Thursday, February 6 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday: Glen Martin, The Roustabouts

Tuesday, February 4 - Brennan’s Pub - FREE, 9:30pm solo set and Dinosaur Tooth acoustic set

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Tuesday, January 28 - Brennan’s Pub - Acoustic Costello (Elvis Costello Tribute Show) FREE, 8pm 20+ performers

Tuesday, January 14 - Brennan’s Pub - FREE, 9pm Dinosaur Tooth

Tuesday, January 7 - Brennan’s Pub - FREE, 9pm John Ball, 10pm Dinosaur Tooth

Thursday, January 2 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday, FREE 9pm with David Bowick, Jeff Cleveland and the Roustabouts

2013

Tuesday, December 31 - Brennan’s Pub - NEW YEAR’S EVE SHOW - Dinosaur Tooth, 9pm-2am, FREE

Tuesday, December 17 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic 10pm Free

Tuesday, December 10 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic 10pm Free

Thursday, December 5 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday, FREE 9pm with Kellyn Jo and the Roustabouts

Tuesday, December 3 - Brennan’s Pub - Acoustic Tom Waits Tribute, 8pm Free

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Tuesday, November 26 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic 9pm Free

Friday, November 15 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth, 9pm-1am, Free

Saturday, November 9 - Busby’s East - 3rd Annual Ocelot Robot Film Festival

Friday, November 8 - Hermosa Saloon - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic

Thursday, November 7 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday, FREE 9pm

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Tuesday, October 29 - Brennna’s Pub - 9pm, Free, Dinosaur Tooth acoustic

Tuesday, October 22 - Brennan’s Pub - 9pm, Free, Dinosaur Tooth acoustic

Tuesday, October 15 - Brennan’s Pub - 9pm, Free, Dinosaur Tooth acoustic

Friday, October 11 - Brennan’s Pub - 9pm, FREE - Dinosaur Tooth and Ocelot Robot

Thursday, October 3 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday, 8:30pm, FREE

Tuesday, October 1 - Brennan’s Pub - Tribute show (TBD)

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Thursday, September 26 - Molly Malone’s - OCELOT ROBOT ALBUM RELEASE PARTY! 8pm, $10

Tuesday, September 10 - Brennan’s Pub - Kellyn Jo, Devon Eisenbarger, Jamie Thomas, and Razorface, 9pm, FREE

Thursday, September 5 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday, 8:30pm, FREE

Tuesday, September 3 - Brennan’s Pub - Beatles Acoustic Tribute, 8:00pm FREE

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Tuesday, August 27 - Tommy’s Place @ USC - Ocelot Robot 9pm, FREE

Tuesday, August 20 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic, 9pm FREE

Friday, August 16 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth, 9pm FREE

Thursday, August 1 - Sonny McLean’s Irish Pub - Safety First Thursday, 8:30pm FREE

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Tuesday, July 30 - Brennan’s Pub - Acoustic Grateful Dead Tribute, 8:30pm FREE

Tuesday, July 23 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic, 8pm FREE

Thursday, July 11 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday, 8:30pm FREE

Tuesday, July 9 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth Acoustic Set, 10pm FREE

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Saturday, June 29 - Chateau Etheldo - Private house concert

Tuesday, June 25 - Brennan’s Pub - Acoustic Springsteen tribute, 8:30pm, FREE

Tuesday, June 11 - Brennan’s Pub - Dinosaur Tooth acoustic set 10pm, FREE

Thursday, June 6 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday - 8pm, free

Tuesday, June 4 - Brennan’s Pub - Acoustic solo set (9pm), Dinosaur Tooth acoustic set (10pm) FREE

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Tuesday, May 28 - Brennan’s Pub - Acoustic set - 10pm, free

Saturday, May 25 - 23rd Annual Maypole - Dinosaur Tooth - private party

Friday, May 24 - Brennan’s Pub - Ocelot Robot, Dinosaur Tooth, more… - 8pm, free 

Tuesday, May 21 - Brennan’s Pub - Acoustic Dylan Tribute Show - 8pm, free

Thursday, May 2 - Sonny McLean’s - Safety First Thursday - Solo set - 8pm, free

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Tuesday, April 23 - Brennan’s Pub - Neil Young Acoustic Tribute - 8:30pm, free

[sixamese-simblr]

The Sims 2 Sixam Challenge: 2021 edition

NEW! UPDATED! NOW INCLUDES ECONOMY RULES!

Ever wanted to play the aliens on their home planet? Now you can! The goal of this challenge is to build a society of aliens from small beginnings. An adapted version for TS4 can be found here.

This challenge requires:

- A mod to make aliens in CAS

- A timekeeping mod

- OFB for the cheesecake/forcetwins

- FT for the “summon aliens” interaction or a mod that allows you to be abducted whenever you want.

Full rules under the cut!

Create a new empty neighborhood, with any terrain or template you think looks best as an alien planet. From there on, create six aliens to start off with:

- A birth queen, an adult woman with the romance aspiration.

- Two colony drones, adult men with the romance aspiration.

- Three caretakers, adults of any gender with the family aspiration.

Build three lots to start with: a palace for the birth queen, a house for the drones and a nursery for the caretakers. From there, play every household in the game the same number of days. The task of the birth queen is to try for baby as often as possible with the colony drones. She has super fertility, so use cheesecake or forcetwins. Every time a set of babies is born, try for baby again and neglect the babies so the social worker takes them away, or put them up for adoption with the Sim Blender. Each baby has to be adopted by one of the caretakers. The caretakers raise the children until they turn teens. If the number of sims in the nursery ever grows too large, build a new nursery and move a caretaker and their adopted children into that nursery. Once an alien turns into a teen, randomly assign them one of the base game aspirations. This determines their caste. If they have any aspiration other than family, move them into a lot with teens of the same aspiration, or on an uninhabited lot if no such lot exists. 8 days before turning adult, send the teen to university if you have that EP. One semester in university corresponds to a day in the outside world.

The castes are as follows:

Romance: The Birth Queen and the colony drones

These aliens are the only ones to reproduce, the only sim that may try for baby is the birth queen with one of the drones. There may only be one birth queen at a time, but there may be many colony drones. If there are multiple adult women with the romance aspiration, all others have to wait for their turn to become birth queen until the current queen dies or becomes infertile. They may not marry or take jobs. If there is no birth queen available, you may abduct (i.e. move in) one adult male townie or npc, more on that later.

Family: the caretakers

The caretakers adopt each of the birth queen’s babies. Caretaker teens stay in the nursery where they grew up, and help with the younger sims there. They may not take jobs, taking care of the young aliens is their job.

Knowledge: the technicians

Technicians are the most intelligent aliens. One of their most important tasks is crafting servos to help alienkind. Servos only act as live-in servants of households of Sims with their aspiration and as such may not take jobs, but Servos of family aspiration may adopt babies. Knowledge aliens may take the following jobs: Science, Medicine, Natural Scientist, Supernatural, Gamer, Education, Intelligence, Oceanography, Adventurer.

Fortune: The High Council

Fortune aliens collectively form the High Council, the alien ruling body. They have the biggest houses and most lavish lifestyles. They may take the following jobs: Business, Criminal, Military, Politics, Show Business, Law, Journalism.

Popularity: the Workers.

These aliens are the common folk and don’t have any special responsibilities. They are often artists or craftspeople. Available jobs: Athletic, Culinary, Law Enforcement, Slacker, Artist, Music, Entertainment, Dance, Architecture.

Human Sims

If there is no birth queen available, you may move in a single male townie or npc. Or, you may send a male human teen to college and graduate him as soon as there is no birth queen available. He lives in a lot of his own, and his task is to get abducted until there is a new birth queen available. You may impregnate him with by abduction, or designate one of your young adult, adult or elder Technicians Pollination Technician, who will father the babies through the Sim Blender. He may raise the resulting babies himself, or they may be taken away by the social worker to be raised by the caretakers. He does not have super fertility, and may not use cheesecake or forcetwins. His children are regular members of alien society. He may not take a new job, only keep one he may already have. 

Economics These rules are entirely optional, but I feel add an additional layer of challenge to the game.

Phase 1: Grants

At the start of the game, the Queen starts out with $20,000, the Drones start out with $25,000 and the nursery starts out with $30,000. Take care that at any moment, the nursery needs to have $3,000 to spare in order to adopt.

There are two phases in the economics gameplay. During the first phase, the Galactic Colonization Program awards grants to colonists. The Queen and Colony Drones each receive $500 per child they birthe or father, so $1000 for a set of twins. The nursery receives $1000 per birthday from baby to toddler, and $1000 per green memory birthday from toddler to child or from child to teen. This phase ends once the first born in-game alien turns adult, and after that the queen, drones and nurseries will no longer receive grants.

Phase 2: Taxes

When the first generation of aliens starts growing up to adults, the next phase of the colony starts. During this phase, the nurseries, Queen and drones are supported financially by the other inhabitants of the colony. When the bills are due, the household is to pay an amount of taxes dependent on the amount of the bill. Technicians and workers owe half their bill amount to the Queen, and half their bill amount to the nursery most household members grew up in. Councillors owe amounts equal to their bills to the Queen, a Drone household of their choice and the nursery most household members grew up in. Councillors thus have to pay 4 times their amount of bills (regular bills plus queen, drones and nursery) each time, and technicians and workers have to pay 2 times their bill amount each bill cycle (regular bills plus half queen half nursery). Additionally, rich aliens may make charitable donations to nurseries or humans in need on top of their taxes, or leave their current funds to a nursery before dying. However, they may not sell their house before dying and donate the money from that. The Queen may also reward Drones for dates if any Drones are ever strapped for cash.

Moving around:

$20,000 handouts only occur in specific situations. When moving a Sim out, pick the scenario that applies from this list:

If your Sim is moving into university, they may not move into the dorms. However, they may live in a household consisting of mixed castes. You may establish a Greek house, if you want to.

If your Sim just graduated college, and the lot they lived in as a teen is uninhabited, give them the exact amount of money required to buy that lot, and move them into the lot they lived in when they were a teen.

If your Sim just graduated college, and the lot they lived in as a teen is inhabited, set their household funds to $0, and move them into that lot.

If your Sim is a teen and there is a household with only teens of their caste available, set their household funds to $0 move them into that household.

If your Sim is a teen and there is an empty house built for their caste available, give them the exact amount of money required to buy that lot, and move them in there.

If your Sim is a teen and there is no house available, give them $20,000 and move them into a starter home or empty lot.

If your Sim is a nursery worker with kids establishing a new nursery, they receive $20,000 in grants, and move them into a starter home or empty lot.

If your Sim is an adult/elder that split off from their original household, they take with them part of the original household’s funds and use that to move into an existing house or starter home or empty lot.

When moving teens around, you will need to have them accompanied by an adult to drop them off at their new place. These adults need to be moved back into their original households immediately after, and may not bring back any money.

Whole households may move as many times as they like to any lot they can afford. You may move Sims between households, but they may only live with Sims of their own aspiration. This extends to married couples: Sims from different castes may marry, but have to live apart.

The challenge ends when a birth queen whose birth mother was born in game dies of old age.

General mays and may nots:

- Sims may marry and whoohoo whomever, although Romance sims may not marry and try for baby is forbidden for anyone but the current Birth Queen.

- Triplet/quadruplet mods are allowed, but not required. Take care that those will make the challenge much more difficult for your caretakers in the beginning, and will cause your population to be much larger in the long run!

- You may not use risky whoohoo mods.

- You may not use the elixir of life, other ways of extending life are fine (cowplant, genie, vampires etc.)

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

Okay, I have searched high and wide and do not see that this has yet been done, so I present to you - my analysis of the parallels between Destiel and Cas/Claire in Season 10, Ep .20 - Angel Heart.  TL;DR: Claire/Cas are a metaphor for Destiel and Destiel is forever.

As a reminder - central storyline is Cas finding Claire who lands in the hospital while looking for her mom and looping Dean/Sam to help him try to connect with her (and eventually all of them get roped into searching for and then finding her mom who then almost immediately dies, because Supernatural gonna Supernatural).  Dean still has the Mark of Cain with no cure in sight, and the side conflict is Cas and Sam’s concerns re: the effects because he is “getting worse” (many worried looks are exchanged!).  Also important to recall that in 10.09 during the burger date of my HC dreams, Dean asked Cas to kill him if he ever goes dark side again from the Mark.  SO - THE REAL STORY OF ANGEL HEART FOR ME IS how Cas’s feelings towards Claire present a mirror for his emotions towards Dean, and the inner conflict between allowing Dean to push him away (with Dean’s request that Cas kill him from 10.09 hanging over his head) or continuing to fight to be there for him/save him - as presented in the two separate one-on-one conversations/BM scenes between Cas and Dean - and then later Cas and Sam - in the Impala.

I’ve included them in their entirety from the script below, with emphasis on what I feel is important and my thoughts.

Conversation 1 - Cas/Dean 

DEAN

Hey, Cas, listen, what you're doing for Claire and helping her find her mom...

It's good. It's a good thing.

CASTIEL

But?

DEAN

Well, where does it end? I'm not trying to be a dick, but truth is, you're not her dad.

In fact, you're not anything to her except a-a constant reminder of someone that's gone.

CASTIEL

No, I'm...

Responsible for everything that's happened to her.

DEAN

Look, I'm just saying, she's been surviving on her own for quite a while now, and ... and then partly because she doesn't have anybody to answer to.

You know, there's... There's nobody holding her back.

CASTIEL

We just found her in a hospital. You telling me that she'd be better off on her own?

DEAN

I'm saying she might be stronger on her own. ANALYSIS: Dean and Claire have always been very similar people to me (which is why I think they initially clash so much). This is very reinforced both in 10.09 (ketchup is a vegetable!) and in the part of this episode where Dean ends up “babysitting” Claire (a moment of silence for yet another scene of Dean actually being amazing with kids and how he should have gotten his own kids dammit). I think Dean is speaking about himself in part in this discourse, relating his own journey to Claire’s (and in true Dean fashion, falling into his usual habit of pushing away those who love him because at this point he knows the end is near).  The “you’re not anything to her” is pretty blunt, even for Dean, especially after his taking special care to sit Cas down to spill his feelings re: Claire during the burger date in 10.09.  I also took the “constant reminder of someone that’s gone” as Dean’s motivation for pushing people away; he’s trying to ease their pain (not his because Dean does not care about himself at all whatsoever as we all know) upon what he thinks will inevitably be his death from the Mark.  The comment can also be related to his request that Cas kill him if he goes too far down the wrong path, and Cas’s presence is a constant reminder of that for Dean, of how not only is he going to go crazy and lose him but he also is putting him through the burden of ending his life. (Oh, and Dean is the King of Constant Reminders of Someone That’s Gone because see multiple trench coats in Baby’s trunk). Cas’s feelings of responsibility towards Claire also parallel his feelings about Dean - he resurrected him, and he has always felt responsible for the burdens Dean carried after that fact;  (even if they weren’t directly tied to Cas) he has always felt like he burdens Dean (see the iconic 6.20 - The Man Who Would Be King).  Cas’s protectiveness and urge to connect with Claire for me is a direct mirror of not only his trying to save Dean from the Mark without having to carry out his request to kill him, but also his desire to emotionally connect with him while Dean is clearly in a headspace of shoving everyone out.  These are all pretty gray parallels.  The next conversation though for me is fairly black and white.

Conversation 2 - Cas/Sam

CASTIEL

When this is over, should I... Should I leave Claire alone?

SAM

What? No, man. She's family. Well, I mean, she's not exactly family, but she's close enough. I mean, you two have history. Simple as that.

CASTIEL

So do you think she's better off on her own?

SAM

Cas, she just turned 18.

CASTIEL

You were alone when you left for college at that age, weren't you?

SAM

Yeah, but that's different.

CASTIEL

How, Sam?

SAM 

Here's all I know ... going it alone, that's no way to live. You being there for her, even if she thinks she doesn't want you to be there for her, that's good for both of you.

CASTIEL

Maybe, in the end.

SAM

In the end. ANALYSIS: This is so clearly about Dean and not Claire to me.  There is no way Cas thinks Claire is better on her own in any capacity.  It doesn’t track with anything he said to Dean earlier, and it doesn’t track with any of his actions in the scenes in between these conversations (he got her a damn birthday gift for Jack’s sake if that’s not the opposite of leaving someone alone and not trying to be their family idk what is).  If Dean didn’t change Cas’s mind on this, I have BIG DOUBTS that Sam would have anything to say that would so why would Cas even ask him?  Also, the entire thread with Sam/Cas at this point in the season is focused on their mutual worry about Dean.  Why is Cas randomly talking to Sam about Claire? And - what history does Cas have with Claire?  Yes, they have had some prior interactions but can you really call that history? Dean himself mentions in 10.09 that Cas has only met her once before that episode.  But there is someone else, someone who is “not exactly family” who recently expressed that it’s better off to be alone, who DOES have significant history with Cas, and that someone is also someone Sam has pretty good insight on.  In fact, Cas is basically parroting what Dean said to him in conversation 1 back to Sam in conversation 2, and to me it’s not because he is concerned about Claire because he has already decided he’s going to watch out for her.  The only path left undecided is Dean - and whether he allows him to push him out or continues to be there, because it is good for them both.  The “in the end” clinches it - because what is Claire’s “end”?  She’s young; she’s not going anywhere anytime soon even if she makes a few bad decisions (and Cas is an angel at this point; that protection is pretty mighty).  Dean, however, has an end quickly approaching because of the Mark, and it’s an end Cas cannot control or manipulate.  So, in conclusion, Angel Heart shows that Claire is a mirror for Dean in her mannerisms, life events, personality, and place in Cas’s heart (which is the only explanation that fits for the title of this episode, which is the same as a very disturbing 70s horror movie and that clearly does not track).

Also, let’s not forget that Claire is canonically queer, loses her soulmate/first love to an alternate reality/world until Jack saves her from it and they are reunited.  So, there’s that aka the finale we all deserved. 

**if you read this far, bless you, truly for reading my nonsense ;) Feel free to comment and reblog, or message with me.  I could overanalyze Supernatural forever here if you’ll let me.

[melien]

Simmer - Get to Know

Thank you for tagging me @cloudberry-sims​​ and @aestheicpixels​​! I love being tagged in these, even though I usually take ages to do them. Generally, I’m certain that anyone can do tags regardless of whether they were tagged or not, but I mostly do the ones that I was tagged in, unless there’s something super cool around that I really want to do. I guess it’s because I have way less time to devote to simblr now.

Your name: Regina. I go by Mel on the internet and I highkey enjoy the contrast between my fancy first name and my rather simple nickname

Languages you speak: My first languages are Ukrainian and Russian, and I'd also say Polish (I don't speak it on a regular basis but I used to go to Polish school for the first seven years of my education, and my mom's side of family is Polish so I know the language very well). Then there's English, of course, which I've been studying since very young age, and German, which I have some basic knowledge of. I used to study Spanish too but my knowledge of it is even more limited

Are you a mermaid: Nah, I'm more of an alien 👽

Your play style: For a long time I almost exclusively did legacies and some side projects branching from them. But - spoilers - I want to try a completely new blogging style and pay more attention to stories, sim making whenever I feel like it, and maybe some gameplay reminiscent of my ts2 uberhood, because it brings me SO much joy. All this stuff isn't as pressuring as legacies and is much better for my mental health. More on that soon.

Your selfsim picture:

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I'm really into storytelling, but sometimes I just like fun gameplay.

Your favorite age state: Well... I guess toddlers, teens and YAs.

Your favorite season: I just have summer on most of the time in game. In real life, that's probably my favourite season as well, though I like all of them in their own way.

Your favorite holiday: New Year's Day I guess

How was your day: It’s just getting started, but yesterday was nice for me in terms of simming, because I finished my CAS BPR and did some essential scenes in the Lilygreen legacy to end my queue on a positive note

Your favorite career: I enjoy playing with musicians

Your favorite aspiration: If I'm honest, I rarely fulfill them. I'm a kinda laid back sims player who doesn't go to great lengths for all the game challenges and sees the game more like a creative outlet

Your favorite EP, SP or GP: Into the Future ❤

How old is your simblr: It will turn seven this year!

Have you woohooed: I bought some 30 diamond scenes on Choices, does this count?

Your favorite skill: I don't know honestly, I rarely make my sims develop skills

The size of your mods folder: 8.48 GB (ts3) and 10.9 GB (ts2). I’m actually shocked because I was pretty sure ts3 one was bigger. It’s also funny because my ts2 game runs super smoothly while ts3... not so much, and note that it’s hairs that take up 90% of the folder

Your 3 favorite mods: Master Controller, Pose Player, and Time/Weather change mod

Your interests (other than sims): I love drawing, writing poetry and prose, spending time with friends, volunteering, travelling, photography. I'm very passionate about teaching English and I'm pretty sure I could land a teacher job soon which I'm super excited about

Your favorite sim (picture if possible): I'll go with my fiery queen Claret Dawn Twinkle 🔥

Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): I've played all the four parts, even though I only touched ts1 a few times and it kept crashing anyway, so it's not as nostalgic for me as for many players. For me a “nostalgic” and special game is ts2, and the one that helps me express my creativity in the best way is ts3, so I love them both. I don't like ts4 that much but it has good sides and I can play it once in a while when I have a craving. As for other games, for me everything basically started with ts2 Life Stories! I'm still not over that Naomi choice where you have to give up your wealth or she dies. Also, I played sims mobile once but deleted it quickly because it was just too much sims for me and I didn't want to become addicted (for this reason I hardly ever install any games on my phone)

Propose a crazy scheme: Let's, I don't know, be nice, understanding and helpful to each other? Crazy, right? 😂

Best part of simblr: Creative and kind people who inspire me every day

Worst part of simblr: Unfortunately, there are also toxic people who crave drama and you can't escape them even in such a wholesome community

What other games you play: I'm not much of a gamer, but I do have some nonsims favourites. I love Undertale and Deltarune very dearly, and I'm also very much into Choices (my current jams are Blades of Light and Shadow and Bloodbound). Pretty sure I've played more good games but they're escaping my mind now.

Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): I have a Twitter, where I talk a lot about the game, my plans, my fandoms and completely random stuff. I'm semi-active there because it's not as lively as it used to be, so you're welcome to follow if you have a sims twitter too, I definitely need more people to interact with!

Are you single: Yeah and I don’t really mind it, even though I wouldn’t want to stay this way forever. On a related note, this question and the woohoo one stick out among the others in a kinda weird way

[which-hospital]

Whenever I do my spoiler posts I let myself just indulge in basically only talking about Sah, Teddy and Paige, and with the spoilers we’ve had for both this week and next week’s episodes it’s looking like we might not be getting much of them for a while so I’ve not been making my spoiler posts, sorry about that! We’ve gotten stuff for next week’s episode but the Radio Times summary isn’t any more detailed than the BBC one and Digiguide is giving me nothing so we’ve basically got nothing but a cast list for next week.

My favourite Casualty character is Guitar man.

Looks like next week’s episode will deal with the Donna stuff some more and also the stuff with Jan which I won’t mind, I’m enjoying both of those. I think the names of these episodes are interesting (just seems like a bit of a pattern with like the similar format of them: Pull Together, Push Apart and Too Young, Too Soon).

Based on the cast lists, Sah, Teddy and Paige won’t all be in an episode together until at least 37x44 (which, pattern detection brain would like to point out, is interesting considering that 36x44, Survivor, was a big episode for where both Sah and Paige were at last year and also featured a reasonable amount of Teddy in Sah’s storyline and is also leaving IPlayer this week so rewatch while you can). Sah and Paige should be in this week’s ep and Teddy is in next week’s - which is why I don’t think we’ll get much of them because it doesn’t seem like we’re getting anything between Sah and Paige this week and I think at least Sah and Teddy would need to be in an episode together for the drama to properly continue.

[trnhtm]

Simmer Get To Know Tag

@trillyke tags anyone with an ‘m’ in their name so i think it’s cool to do one oh no here i go. I know i said i might not be active but hey, it happens and i think it's okay to let people know more about me a wee bit ;)

Your Name: i have many aliases and Purple/Purp/Purpretta is fine bc it’s one of the common names that people around call me (Tím), albiet Mi is another i have for my art blogs (hence @mi0702)

Languages you speak: Vietnamese, English, can read Hangul by words and not meaning

Are you a mermaid: yes, i love to swim and would want to learn proper diving after i’m healthier and have more time & resources, it was quite the experiences i had (proceed dreaming about the ocean) but i can’t lure people by singing for the life of me lol

Your playstyle: 1-2 something hours in CAS if i’m being invested or just struggle with all the cc tbh, building can be like a week project pan out for a few hours/day, i’ve had days of gameplay for roughly more than half and hour per session. For the record i’ve only done all of this (6hrs-ish) a few times last summer and it’s not healthy.

Your simself picture: The one on the faux cover up top is me :D

(the following answers has multiple bc i can’t choose)

Your favorite age state: YA, Adult, Immortally young that is

Your favorite season: Spring or summer, the scenery is perfect for screenshots

Your favorite holiday: Harvestfest, Pride and Neighborhood Brawl haha

How was your day: weird, woke up midday almost had no idea what day it is and cleaning out drives in the computer for the pj im working on

Your favorite career: Retail owner i think (if that counts), there’s a lot of wiggle room for decorating the store, if at home i prefer something freelance like photography or writing

Your favorite aspiration: from a play session last year i finished a fishing related one with Nina Caliente and it was hilarious; i quite enjoy the garden one too, the rest not so much

Your favorite EP, SP or GP: City Living, Seasons, Cats & Dogs, Get to Work, Get Together

How old is ur simblr: til this feb it’s only 8 months, i’ve been on tumblr for a long time but simblr has only in my orbit since 2018

Your Favorite skill: Handiness, Cooking, Painting, Charisma

The size of your mods folder: for testing or MM things 3-5GB at most or none, for CAS and builds i had a time of 45GB... but i had recently cut them down by 35GB and am willing to cut down more

Your 3 favourite mods: hmm.. i’d say all TMEX python mods, shortcuts mod, and UI cheats, if i can only get to have a handful these are what i’ll grab first

Your Interests (other than sims): Other than my jobs (Graphic design & MUA) i have cooking and crafting i guess

Your favorite sim (picture if possible): Victoria Lovelace my bae (featured here), and recently the girlies from my True Damage creations (only Akali here but you get what i mean)

Which sims games you have played (including mobile games): only got to watch a relative play ts2, had played simscity but I flopped because young me didn’t know s**t about urban planning, did play sims freeplay when it came out but dropped that, have been on ts4 for several years recently

Propose a crazy scheme: how about just patreon to have people backing your creativity up, release one week private patreon (or none, however suits you) then public? No adflys or weird clicky linkys?? I understand the hustle, but ya have to sit through 20-30 mins for viruses? Uh uh

Best part of simblr: seeing all the creativity, love and passion people have for the game

Worst part of simblr: i don’t know fr, maybe only the teeny tiny of people go against TOU i guess, i’m just a small dot so how do i know 🧐

What other games you play: currently Minecraft on my own, sometimes games like papers please are fun, or not tonight; i used to be on Stardoll religiously but the inflation got high and now i can’t top up my acc in my country so i guess i’m leaving it at 10yrs 🤡

Other websites or accounts (Origin, Twitter etc..): @mi0702 is my main tumblr that’s pretty old, i do use twitter but i tend to fly off radar as of recent years (@Mi_0702) tweet me and i’ll reply as soon as possible, Origin id: purpretta; other info are already on the desktop about & home page 😂

Tagging everyone with a ‘p’ in their name! ;)

[ao3feed-destiel-02]

I shine only with the light you gave me.

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/A3bK1SL by Heyimbeccah John Winchester is a terrible person and parent. Castiel wants him dead. He must die . . Fuck. He got caught. Again. He was gonna be in so much trouble. "Again Dean, really?! I thought you would have learned something by now!" John yelled as soon as Dean walked in. Dean didn't fight, he simply sat down the food, glancing up at his dad, maybe he could understand it was for Sammy. "Where'd you get this crap!" "I- from the convince store... Sammy. He needed food," Dean tried to reason. "Damnit, boy! You're gonna get me in trouble or get yourself arrested!" Words: 8960, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural), Sam Winchester, John Winchester, Bobby Singer (Supernatural) Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester Additional Tags: Abusive John Winchester, Bad Parent John Winchester, John Winchester Being an Asshole, Hurt Dean Winchester, Protective Dean Winchester, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel's Nickname is Cas (Supernatural), Castiel and Dean Winchester Have a Profound Bond, Young Sam Winchester, Young Dean Winchester, Tbh Don’t know if they gonna be a ship. Or more like father figure, More like a father figure imo, but Cas still loves him, Father Figures, father figure Castiel, Parental Bobby Singer (Supernatural), Protective Bobby Singer (Supernatural), Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Child Neglect, it was neglect canonically, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Childhood Sexual Abuse, bad childhood, Dean Winchester is Bad at Feelings, Dean Winchester is Bad at Self-Care, Dean Winchester's Childhood, I’m sorry., I abuse my comfort characters instead of getting therapy, when Dean gets therapy I will, when Evan Buckley gets therapy I will, ha, I’m only halfway through with this show for the first time ever…., im only at season 7 ep 15, i watched Bobby die, i sobbed, They all deserve better, im a dean girl lol, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, I mean it, it gets kinda dark, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Castiel Saves Dean Winchester, I’m also a cas girl, and well, Sam too, I just share a mix of all their trauma, owo read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/A3bK1SL

[aurora-daily]

For Nor­we­gian singer-song­writer Aurora, mu­sic was the key to un­lock a long-held sense of dis­con­nec­tion

Interview by An­drew McMillen for The Weekend Australian (June 1st, 2019).

Mu­sic writer An­drew McMillen meets Ice­landic sen­sa­tion Aurora ahead of her al­bum re­lease

As a child, Aurora Ak­snes grew up in a town not far from Ber­gen, in south­west­ern Norway, sur­rounded by a for­est, ocean, space and plenty of si­lence — fer­tile grounds in which to plant seeds of imag­i­na­tion.

Her two older sis­ters, Mi­randa and Vik­to­ria, were wor­ried that her strange­ness — es­pe­cially her out-there dress sense — would make her a tar­get for bul­lies. “We were so scared that it was go­ing to be tough for you to go to high school,” her sis­ters say in a video pub­lished in 2016. “But ev­ery­body loved you.”

Singing, song­writ­ing and play­ing piano be­came her three fas­ci­na­tions; all ac­tiv­i­ties she could in­dulge on her lone­some. This be­gan in child­hood and con­tin­ued into her ado­les­cence, when she was plucked from ob­scu­rity and es­sen­tially asked whether she wanted to pur­sue a ca­reer in mu­sic. She said yes, and she hasn’t looked back. In that same video from 2016, filmed in Ber­gen with her friends and family, and re­leased to co­in­cide with her de­but al­bum, Aurora says, “Mu­sic is not some­thing that you should keep for your­self. It can’t be put in a cage be­cause it’s wild and alive.”

On stage in Bris­bane on a Mon­day night early last month, the blue-eyed and blonde artist is mid­way through a pow­er­ful 90-minute set. Dressed in red and flanked by a live band that pro­duces pul­sat­ing elec­tronic pop, the 22-year-old pauses be­tween songs to ad­dress the 800-strong ca­pac­ity crowd at the Trif­fid.

“I feel like I’m in this room with friends,” she says. “It’s a nice feel­ing be­cause I feel so of­ten dis­con­nected to humans. I feel very lucky be­cause I don’t know how the hell I got here. I don’t know how I be­came an artist — but I do know that it’s 90 per cent be­cause of you guys.

“With­out you, it’s an empty room; with­out you, there’s no one that gives my words power.”

Then, with a nod to her drum­mer and co-producer Mag­nus Skyl­stad, the band kicks into the next track as the lights change colour and the crowd thrills to her mu­sic.

She does not so much per­form as in­habit these songs, as if singing them for the first time. There’s not a trace of self-con­scious­ness; in­stead, the young woman danc­ing centre stage, mi­cro­phone in hand, ex­udes a con­ta­gious free­dom and vi­tal­ity. Here, among friends, she is adored. Two days later, in the hours be­fore another Groovin the Moo fes­ti­val sideshow in Fre­man­tle, Aurora perks up when re­minded of her phi­los­o­phy that mu­sic can­not be caged.

“Oh, yes, it’s very true, and that’s why I know I have to share it,” she tells Re­view. “When I per­form, that’s why I’m so ex­cited; it’s like the mu­sic is too big for my tiny shape of a body. I feel very ex­plo­sive when I per­form. That’s the whole point in why I started shar­ing the mu­sic: if you have the gift of making mu­sic, it’s like we’re on a mis­sion, we peo­ple who can trans­late the mu­sic into some­thing that the rest of the world can un­der­stand.”

In a rel­a­tively short time, the rest of the world has come to un­der­stand and ap­pre­ci­ate Aurora’s art. While the story of her as­cent from small-town anonymity to filling clubs and play­ing fes­ti­vals on the other side of the planet is some­what typ­i­cal of the stream­ing era, the re­sults are cer­tainly not.

It goes like this: af­ter up­load­ing a song on­line in 2012, when she was 16, what was in­tended as a Christ­mas gift for her par­ents found its way to the ears of an agent, which set in mo­tion an un­ex­pected but wel­come record­ing ca­reer. Since 2015, she has re­leased an EP, a de­but al­bum — 2016’s All My Demons Greet­ing Me as a Friend — and a fol­low-up LP that has been split into two halves, re­leased last year and this year.

As well, a cou­ple of well-cho­sen cover songs have helped to high­light her ex­traor­di­nary, sin­gu­lar vocal abil­i­ties and opened up new au­di­ences.

First in 2015, her stark take on Half the World Away by Oa­sis fea­tured in a prom­i­nent Bri­tish Christ­mas ad­ver­tise­ment; it re­mains one of her most-played songs on stream­ing ser­vices. Then on an Aus­tralia visit in 2017, she recorded a spell­bind­ing cover of Mas­sive At­tack’s Teardrop for Triple J’s Like a Ver­sion segment. It has since at­tracted nearly seven mil­lion YouTube views.

In turn, the global response to her mu­sic dur­ing the past four years has led to a pleasant awakening: her work mat­ters.

“I want to do this as long as I feel like peo­ple need me to do this,” she says. “Right now, I feel very needed. It’s a job that the world needs be­cause be­ing a hu­man is so hard and mu­sic some­times makes it eas­ier. As long as I feel needed, I’ll do it. I’ll be an artist for­ever; I’m a very hungry woman, and I like to dance and paint, and I want to ex­plore and even­tu­ally share that with the world, too.”

In con­ver­sa­tion, Aurora comes across as re­mark­ably grounded and in­se­cu­rity-free. A month out from the re­lease of A Dif­fer­ent Kind of Hu­man (Step 2) — usu­ally a time of peak anx­i­ety and un­cer­tainty among record­ing artists, who will soon learn whether their lat­est work is judged to be their great­est or oth­er­wise — she shrugs and says that she doesn’t re­ally have any par­tic­u­lar hopes or ex­pec­ta­tions for it. “Whatever will hap­pen will hap­pen,” she says. “I’m al­ready work­ing on my next al­bum; I feel quite far away from this al­bum. I hope at least one per­son will re­ally love it. It is quite di­verse, with many dif­fer­ent moods and per­son­al­i­ties. I am quite ex­cited to per­form the songs live, but it doesn’t re­ally mat­ter how peo­ple per­ceive it.

“Some peo­ple will al­ways un­der­stand it and ap­pre­ci­ate it, and that’s enough.” Be­tween songs at the Trif­fid, Aurora talks a lot, and she’s of­ten funny and en­dear­ing.

‘ In the be­gin­ning I didn’t re­ally talk be­cause I didn’t have any­thing to say. But then I learned that if you do talk to the au­di­ence, peo­ple tend to feel more safe and more connected to you’ Aurora Ak­snes

“We’ve been doing all these shows in Aus­tralia, and it’s so strange we can have our own show in Bris­bane and there are peo­ple here wait­ing for us,” she says at the be­gin­ning. “From the bottom of my huge heart and small tits — ac­tu­ally, no, they are quite big — thank you so, so much for com­ing tonight.”

Later, she ad­mits to feel­ing some snotty con­ges­tion: “It’s kind of loos­en­ing up now as I’m danc­ing and making its jour­ney down my throat. It tastes like salt and I don’t know how I feel about that.” But while in­tro­duc­ing Through the Eyes of a Child, she turns se­ri­ous for a few mo­ments.

“Some­times it’s hard to find peo­ple to talk to about your pain be­cause it makes us feel like a bur­den, or we are taught to feel like a bur­den when we are not happy,” she says. “I know you’re all here for a rea­son. Maybe you’re a bit like me: you’re emo­tional or you look a bit dif­fer­ent on the in­side or the out­side. This next song is for you if you’re go­ing though a hard time.”

This con­nec­tion with her au­di­ence is real and rare, but it wasn’t al­ways this way.

“In the be­gin­ning I didn’t re­ally talk be­cause I didn’t have any­thing to say,” she tells Re­view. “But then I learned that if you do talk to the au­di­ence, peo­ple tend to feel more safe and more connected to you. You show them a spe­cial thing they don’t usu­ally see un­less they go to my show. It’s like they’re my friend or I’m their friend. I do have mouth di­ar­rhoea be­cause I tend to talk way too much, but it just hap­pens. I do what I want and, at the mo­ment, I feel like talk­ing a lot.”

Aurora’s cover of the Mas­sive At­tack hit Teardrop, per­formed for Triple J’s Like a Ver­sion segment, has at­tracted nearly seven mil­lion YouTube views

There’s another as­pect of her artistry that has changed in re­cent years, too. “I used to feel ner­vous be­fore shows, but then it stopped be­cause I re­alised it’s ob­vi­ous I know what I’m doing,” she says. “I know why I’m here; I know how to do this. Now, I find it more scary to be among peo­ple or to have a one-to-one con­ver­sa­tion with some­one. I know what to do on the stage and it feels like it’s im­por­tant.”

With shows booked up to De­cem­ber, in­clud­ing an ex­ten­sive 20date tour of Norway, her re­cent Aus­tralian trip will soon be in the rear-view mir­ror. While travelling here, how­ever, she was par­tic­u­larly in­spired by our na­tive trees, which she found to be vastly dif­fer­ent com­pared with those in her home­land, so per­haps the sights and sounds of our coun­try may feed back into her fu­ture art.

Yet watching her on stage, be­fore an au­di­ence completely in tune with her voice and body, the phi­los­o­phy she out­lined in that video a few years ago comes to mind. Aurora can’t be put in a cage, be­cause she is wild and alive. Luck­ily for us, her mu­sic is not some­thing she has kept for her­self.

A Dif­fer­ent Kind of Hu­man (Step 2) is re­leased on Fri­day via Glass­note Records.

[lilypixels]

Simmer Get To Know Tag

I was tagged by @peachy-flesh (thank you dear and also ahhhhh you follow me now😱🥺)

♡ Your name - Ashley

♡ Languages you speak - English, elementary level Freanch and Chinese, a very tiny bit of Korean and German

♡ Are you a mermaid - no...?

♡ Your play style - random gameplay where I abandon my sims as soon as they marry and have kids, story gameplay, just CAS where I make a sim them send them out into the world

♡ Your selfsim picture - posted in recent tag game, you can search for it🤓

♡ Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc - stories, gameplay, occasional edits

♡ Your favorite age state - young adult/adult + toddler

♡ Your favorite season - summer/fall

♡ Your favorite holiday - winter solstice

♡ How was your day - alright I guess? I just woke up

♡ Your favorite career - I like the scientist and actor careers

♡ Your favorite aspiration - uh idk I always pick the same ones and completed very few😅

♡ Your favorite EP, Sp or GP -  vampires maybe just for the fact I love vampires

♡ How old is your simblr - uh I think 3 or so years???

♡ Have you woohooed - only in the game

♡ Your favorite skill - mischief

♡ The size of your Mods folder - like 50GB I think

♡ Your 3 favorite mods - Slice of Life, Life Decider, MCCC

♡ Your interests (other than sims) - art, playing other games, science and history

♡ Your favorite sim (picture if possible) - probably Victor Lol hes my precious child rn

♡ Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games) - s3, sims mobile, s2 and s2 castaways (both on psp), sims freeplay, and does simcity count?

♡ Propose a crazy scheme - uh um uh

♡ Best part of simblr - the content

♡ Worst part of simblr - some people have their panties in a wad

♡ What other games you play: too many

♡ For the fun - otomes,,, Paladins, overwatch, planet coaster

♡ For the thrills or just for the need to kill assholes - dragon age, skyrim

♡ Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc.) - Twitter, Instagram, discord

♡ Are you single - for 22 yrs and counting✌️

I tag the same old team: @waysims @lunasysims @yooniesim @barlybale @sofchii and whoever else wants to!!

[vinylexams]

Heavy Heavy Low Low - Courtside Seats to the Greatest Fuck of All Time⁠

⁠ @heavyheavylowlow38 #heavyheavylowlow #hhll #deathwish @deathwishinc⁠ ⁠ I’ve been lucky as hell recently to snag insider info on some killer reissues and this one is no exception. You all already know how much I love HHLL, especially Turtle Nipple…, and through serendipity I got connected with Robbie from the band a few months back. I got to hear about how they are coming back to life after some years focusing on other projects, growing up and growing out, and evolving as musicians and artists in the process. They’ve worked with Twelve Gauge Records to put Courtside Seats on vinyl for the very first time and after they announced it on their platforms and immediately sold it out, they’re pressing another batch that you and the HHLL lovers in your life can and should snag before that pressing sells out, too!⁠ ⁠ What’s even more exciting is that I got to pick Robbie’s brain in typical VE fashion and he’s indulged me with all sorts of info about what they’re up to, whether or not we can expect new music, and some feel-good stories about huffing air duster and ripping shit up in an old warehouse on the California coast. Here it is in its unedited glory, but first…head to the website to pre-order your copy and then head to Robbie’s Indiegogo campaign to learn more about his upcoming short firm that’s scored by Nick from Tera Melos! ⁠https://deathwishinc.com/products/heavy-heavy-low-low-courtside-seats https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/morning-deliveries-short-film#/

INTERVIEW

First and foremost, it’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Heavy Heavy Low Low and then out of nowhere you sprang back to life in 2019. What motivated you all to pick up this project again? I’m not sure what motivated it. We had always been trying to jumpstart the whole thing again for some time and I think that it might have been a case of everyone’s lives slowing down and examining that time with a weird reverence. I can only speak for myself. The boys are all in school or doing their own thing.

I imagine you’ve all been working on different projects since HHLL went on hiatus. Do you have anything that you or the rest of the band have worked on that you’d love us to know about? Danny has gotten pretty popular in the Kendama world. Chris is studying various forms of martial arts. Roo is endlessly going to school and currently scoring independent films. Chip is heavily involved in competitive fishing. I’ve been making short films when the situation and my wallet allow it. We’re all crazy excited about finally owning Courtside Seats on vinyl for the first time. Aside from bringing that album onto the vinyl medium, the pre-order page notes that there’s new artwork, too. What can we expect from that? When we made the CD we weren’t expecting to sell any really.. I did the art and Matthew printed them all at his job. Him and I folded every crease, glued the o-cards and vacuum sealed them all. I think it sold out almost completely at the record release show. We made the same amount of records as we did the original cd (500). The artwork for the original CD pressing was done on sketch paper without any comprehension of what could be done with drawn art and a scanner. Matthew was the computer wizard and back then, young and silly, it was all done on the cuff. The new art is a bit more modern and plays with mortality. Court-side Seats to The Greatest Fuck of All Time being a front seat view of a an ordinary, bumpy ride through life. I’m proud of it. What’s it like to bring back an album from the earliest parts of the band’s career? Do you still identify with the music? It is odd. It was a truly surreal time and place. We were out of our fucking minds. We recorded it in Mountain View, Ca in this giant warehouse that tapered into gutted office spaces. It was a weird white collar tomb on the outskirts of Silicon Valley right before the real tech boom. In the big part of the warehouse where we’d enter there were giant mounds of clothes meant to be donated to some third world country. We’d burrow tunnels in them and do huge dramatic flips from pike to pile. There was an aisle of outdated medical equipment waiting to be sent that we’d stalk through in the dark. It was a strangely magic place. Once you got through the warehouse you’d get to these office stations that had been fashioned into recording studios and that’s where we birthed this thing. We were so misguided. The amount of compressed air that we inhaled should have killed us. I contribute a significant drop in IQ to that shit. Smoking copious amounts of weed from gravity bongs. Recording with a hip hop producer, Deegan. Never a disagreement. It still feels like it was some strange purgatory of youth. I don’t miss it, but it was beautiful. Does this mean there’s hope of having Everything’s Watched, Everyone’s Watching on vinyl sometime, too? So, there was a guy who was very adamant about putting that record out on vinyl. We had a dialogue going for the better part of a year and apparently he had been in contact with Rhino Music and Warner, the two companies that hold the licensing to that album. He had received word that it’d cost an impressive amount of money, but he still wanted to shoulder it. Mind you, this dude didn’t have a label, he just wanted to put this thing out and apparently hadnt thought that all out. Time goes by, I’m waiting, not worrying one way or the other. One day I get a link from a friend, a Christian college website detailing that dude had been arrested for kidnapping and assault. Very sad situation. Dude seemed semi normal. Anyway, that was the last effort I’d seen put into that. I’d love to contribute new art to that release if any go-getter wants to try their luck. I’ve loved everything HHLL put out, but Turtle Nipple is in my top 10 list of favorite albums of all time. What was the writing the recording process for it like and how did the band feel about the new creative directions on it? EWEW was half previously recorded material re-recorded and half material written a year prior, kind of forced into a studio with producers we had no previous rapport with. Those producers/engineers were incredible human beings (RIP Tom Pfaffle! See you in the mindfog) but we were very young punk kids thrown into a foreign land where we had our agents visiting and there were platinum records on the wall and it was a total barrage of privilege and excess. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t feel soul in that record. Turtle Nipple is a dense trip through time and the record I’m most proud of in our discography. I don’t remember how long we had to record it, I do remember that it was the only time we’d been given to experiment and layer our sensibilities in an environment that catered to them. Sam (Pura) was a perfect conduit to that vibe and time and space and it really came out just how it should have. I think about that album as a 70s exploitation directors filmography.. it veers violently from genre to genre and while most of the stories are fiction and far from personal testimony, theirs a peek into some shared insanity contained throughout. George Cosmatos wandering through a punk club on an edible. I think that that album is our bands true personality. Sam is a member of our band whether he’s playing with us or engineering for us. He gets us. I love the idea of an alternate reality where we had lasted a bit longer and did an album with Steve Albini. He’d probably hate us, but I love those ‘What If?’ Scenarios. I’ll ask the question EVERYONE has been asking so it’s on the record somewhere: Does this mean we can expect new material or a new album soon? Maybe even a tour? We have a new EP in the works. We have some of it recorded with Sam. We’ve posted a couple clips on Instagram. We’re incredibly busy and spread out in our personal lives. Chip in TX, Dan in FL, Roo in OR, Rob and Chris in CA. Adulthood is a bitter, pulpy drink! We are going to be playing again. We won’t be leaving the West Coast. We had our fill of middle America and the travel involved. We have talked to some of our buds from our early days of touring about playing alongside (opening for) them for a limited run in 2020. I think that qualifies as a tour. Also, if anyone wants to fly us to Europe to play a festival in 2020, we’d like that. It’ll be an interesting year. How does it feel to be welcomed back by so many adoring fans who still love your music and are hoping for more after a long hiatus? It’s incredibly humbling. I have heard from people throughout the years about how we had affected them and it was always just strange to me. I’m pretty self deprecating, so I just don’t understand how some shit I wrote could mean much to anyone. My mind is just a shotgun blast of panic. I guess all of ours are? I love my band mates and their talents, though. So I understand the sorta sirens draw to the greater extent. I think they only got to show themselves slightly, too. Weird existence. Give us a piece of band trivia you’ve never shared in an interview before! Gees. There is a step-in part to most 15 passenger vans. It is a black, hard plastic. It meets with where you close the sliding door. When we had no bottles to pee in, we would just piss in ‘the step’. This thing was a den of germicidal activity. Trash and piss I don’t think we ever truly cleaned that thing. What’s odd is that we so rarely got ill on tour. The Step kept us healthy on a steady diet of trash and piss and general scum. Finally, this isn’t a question but the hidden track on Turtle Nipple is a fucking masterpiece and I wanted you to know. Thank you! I think that may have been my idea to add some weird 70s funk into an old track of ours. I think it turned out cool, but I think it betrays our vibe on that album! I wish it’d have devolved into some weird, primitive Altered States shit.

[simsontherope]

Life goes on for Kale, who uses his free time to continue his videos (he bought a drone to film her yoga training). After raising is acting skill, and a few auditions, he even got a role in an advertisement, which helped him to increase his fame level.

To celebrate, he decided to go out to a popular club, where he met Faustin, a raising star. It was a bit hard to approach him, but at the end of the night, Kale got his number ! The next day, the young man signed his first autograph, things are going pretty well for him.

For the moment, I'm not sure I'm going to continue this let's play, it's a little frustrating to play without mods (especially when the game generate lots and lots of townies, it’s hard to take nice picture with them in the background.). I think I will try to build a bit, Kale's house is almost finished (I'm thinking of sharing it tomorrow), and the other buildings of Del Sol Valley really need a makeover !

If you want my impression of the EP, after some hours in game, click on Keep Reading !  My opinion is a bit mixed, but it’s not a surprise considering how I play my game.

As I felt it, it's not a theme for me. I don't think I use the celebrity system much, it doesn't fit my gameplay style (thank you a lot for the option to disable it, by the way). For the acting career, like the active careers of Get to Work, it's fun at first, but I know I'll get bored soon. It leaves me with some new gameplay objects, I haven’t tested all of them yet, but I already love the stuff you can use to increase your Media Production skill !

The new world is nice and detailed, but more lots would have been so much better. It's really pretty, but not really functional. I still don't understand why they decided to put such big lots in the starting area, it makes it difficult to create starter houses without leaving the interior and the garden too empty. Replacing the big 40x50 lot by two 20x30 lot would have made more sense.

I see there has been a lot of work on this EP. The CAS content is nice (I hope that one day we'll have really short, but not shaved haircuts for men, as well as more slim jeans options, but not cropped or ripped ones), the Build/Buy stuff is awesome (more clutters would have been nice), I can’t wait to use all this in my furure builds, with the new terrain tools.

I can't really advise you to get it or not, what you just read is only my personal opinion. If you are interested by the EP’s theme, I think you won’t be disappointed ! Otherwise, the CAS and Build stuff is nice, and the new game-play objects are interesting, it's up to you to decide if it's enough. 

We are close to the release date, many people will be able to share their impression (you can check the content of the other Game Changers if you can’t wait !), maybe it can help you to decide. ;)

[mykkymcg]

Absence

It was inevitable that Mary would die, she clearly belonged dead. I was originally so not here for Mary getting an abrupt exit but that episode was well above my expectations and I am won over.

I think they handled Dean’s reactions exactly in character. He’s irrationally angry and lashing out at the people around him to start (as always, he has a tendency to be cruel when he’s having ~feelings~). Sam (having much practice) waits him out, referees his interactions. Dean is poster boy Denial and Anger, and is so intent on things staying the way they are that he threatens Cas (and his evidence of a potentially awful reality) as though that can prevent the bad reality from being what it is.

Dean then leaps into Any-Action-Is-Better-Than-Acceptance-And-Facing-My-Feelings-Mode and is gung-ho to bring mom back without thinking it through very well. He will strike whatever bargain he needs to to set it right. Sam (having much practice) clearly has his doubts but knows it’s still too soon to turn the tide of Dean and just supports him instead..

When he’s a little less irrational Sam reminds him they all always knew that Jack might be a danger, and they all share some responsibility and puts himself on the chopping block of guilt. Dean has to find a way to absolve Sam (must protect baby brother from bad) and he doesn’t double down on Cas but comes around to the fact that they all had been given cause for concern and had avoided it.

I think Jack’s reactions here were spot on also. We can debate whether he’s soulless or not and honestly I’m just here to see where they take it. But in this episode: freaking out then trying to fix it like it never happened is such a human, in particular childlike, thing to do and it was heartbreaking to watch him panic and be afraid to admit he made a terrible mistake and have to face the consequences. His fear of their judgement isn’t unique to their situation, any child (or person for that matter) who knows they royally f*ed up has that apprehension about their parent’s (or whoever it is they love’s) disappointment, that fear of being rejected even temporarily. He’s also so young! Too young to know that broken trust needs time, effort, and consistency but can be rebuilt. He thinks you only get 1 chance. Sam and Dean have both had to rebuild that trust with each other multiple times. Jack just doesn’t know that that’s an option yet and he’s trying to mentally prepare himself for being rejected and alone.

Jared was great in this ep. Sam’s truly additive guilt and sorrow from this season were showing. As well as his ability to be sad about Mary being gone but also accept that she is, and let her rest. The way Sam’s processing happened in parallel to Dean’s was subtle but delightful to watch.

Also Hallucifer was always my favourite Lucifer so I’m not even mad about Nick/Lucifer sticking around. If he turns out to be Lucifer reaching out from the Empty though...

[sheplaysthegames]

20 Questions for Simmers

1.) Favorite Sims Game

While I have played and loved every version of The Sims, I think my absolute favorite was The Sims 2. It was the one I couldn’t put down! The little details and humor are what really stand out when I look back, and I don’t remember having any real problems with it either since the game itself was pretty solidly developed and bugs tended to be squashed quickly. Overall, I was never bored playing The Sims 2 and I still occasionally boot it up just to reminisce.

2.) Yourself in 3 Traits

Ambitious, dog lover, neat

3.) CC or No CC

I play with a small amount of CC. Everything I download is Maxis-match, and I pull pieces out whenever we get new official content that I can use instead.

4.) Preferred Part of the Game

I really like each part of the game and try to spend my time evenly among them. Lately I’ve been building and messing around in CAS more than actually playing though. Oops!

5.) Favorite Expansion Pack

In The Sims, my favorite EP was Makin’ Magic. I was so young when I played that I thought I was incredibly clever for figuring out the pattern to the spells in the dueling arena so that I’d win every time. And I had a lot of fun creating one of each type of potion and then trying them out on the poor, unsuspecting townies!

In The Sims 2, my favorite EP was Bon Voyage. I spent so much time completing every single vacation memento! Some of them were really hard to figure out too, so finishing the collection was really rewarding to me. All three of the destinations were equally fun to explore with their local dances, gestures, foods, and massages. I could really feel the difference between visiting Takemizu Village, Twikki Island, and Three Lakes.

In The Sims 3, my favorite EP was Ambitions. The firefighter career and the new inventing skill were the real highlights to me. I spent weeks creating a Simbot without cheating, and firefighting was a really exciting change from the standard rabbithole careers. Another neat feature was the ability to sculpt statues of Sims. Never-melting ice sculptures looked great in mansions, and of course stone sculptures made great monuments to ‘famous’ Sims in town.

In The Sims 4, my favorite EP (so far) is Seasons. The weather effects are beautiful, the raincoats and rainboots and umbrellas are adorable, kiddie pools are the greatest item ever created, and temperature is just such a vital addition that it's finally starting to feel like a full game for me! Seasons and weather in general also function differently in each world, which is perfect. I didn’t want snow in Oasis Springs, and Brindleton Bay desperately needed fog and rain to feel complete.

6.) Favorite Game Pack

In The Sims 4, my favorite GP (so far) is Vampires. I never really liked this life state before, but this time around they’re fantastic! The abilities help differentiate each vampire from one another, and I love that they don’t have to ask permission nicely before biting a Sim. The sticker cracks and spider webs are also something I’d been wanting to help make places seem less perfect. Overall, the life state seems so detailed and sets a much higher bar for future life states. I don’t even mind paying for each individually if they’re this well-done.

7.) Favorite Stuff Pack

In The Sims 2, my favorite SP was H&M Fashion. Honestly, I just really loved all the new clothing that kept my Sims from constantly matching each other. And building a clothing store with all the cool retail items that came with it was a lot of fun too!

In The Sims 3, my favorite SP was Town Life. The rabbitholes were more modern and added some variety since most of the others were the same building with slightly different colors. I had a lot of fun remodeling my more modern worlds with them.

In The Sims 4, my favorite SP (so far) is Laundry Day. I’m a sucker for realism elements so adding another menial chore for my Sims makes me happy. The laundry system is surprisingly complex, the furniture filled in a lacking farmhouse style I felt was missing from the game, and stackable machines look perfect in apartments. The clothing and hairstyles were also very well-done and I have to actively try not to overuse them on all my Sims.

8.) Least Favorite Expansion Pack

In The Sims, my least favorite EP was House Party. It felt like the smallest addition we were given, and parties weren’t enough for me to explore more than a handful of times before I got bored. As soon as the next EP came out, I moved on to the new content and I don’t think I ever threw another party again.

In The Sims 2, my least favorite EP was Nightlife. It wasn’t bad at all, it was just the one I used the least. My personal gameplay style at the time was incredibly family-oriented and you just don’t take your kids to clubs. I only ever went to the new Downtown subhood for first dates and a few marriage proposals since the date interactions were pretty cute.

In The Sims 3, my least favorite EP was Showtime. I don’t think I ever really played with anything from it. The ‘optional’ online connection where you would send your Sims to someone else’s game to perform really made me mad since some of the items you paid for were locked away behind it and I had no desire to participate. And the whole in-game news feed and achievement system were horrible and really caused problems. The venues were also super glitchy so even when I did give the new active careers a go, trying to complete a performance was almost impossible. Overall, the whole thing felt like more trouble than it was worth.

In The Sims 4, my least favorite EP (so far) is Get to Work. I think my expectations were just too high going into it. The active careers are okay, but none of them make me actually want to follow my Sims to work past the first few days because they get highly repetitive and there’s no real risk associated with them. The retail system also seems a bit lacking. There are very few retail items to use when building a store, although I do have to mention that the clothing mannequins are pretty cool. And actually running it is too easy since you can just instantly restock the items even if they’re unique things that you’ve made your Sims create.

9.) Least Favorite Game Pack

In The Sims 4, my least favorite GP (so far) is Spa Day. It’s not nearly as immersive as the others. There isn’t much to do outside of getting a massage or doing yoga, and both are kind of boring to do repeatedly over and over. It doesn’t expand on the gameplay nearly enough to be categorized as a GP in my opinion; I’d demote it to SP.

10.) Least Favorite Stuff Pack

In The Sims 2, my least favorite SP was Glamour Life. It added the least versatile stuff. Most of my Sims weren’t swimming in cash, so the items, particularly the clothing, were rarely used since they’d look and feel out of place. 

In The Sims 3, my least favorite SP was Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats. I didn’t even buy it and I have no idea why anyone did. The objects were all horrible and cheesy. There was literally nothing good about it. At all. Ever.

In The Sims 4, my least favorite SP (so far) is My First Pet. No matter how many times they deny it, it’s a massive money grab. The furniture set literally completes what they left incomplete in Cats & Dogs! The clothing is for the most part just recolors of what we already have! And to top it all off, there’s just one new critter. They claim four, but it’s the same thing with a different skin overlay. I am perfectly fine with some items in a pack being dependent on owning previous packs so that they can continue to expand on past content. But to release this immediately after the associated EP and for it to pretty much be the rest of the items that we were missing from said EP...certainly seems like they withheld content just to wring an extra $10 from their players. Especially since it wasn’t even mentioned in their quarterly teaser. Haven’t bought it, and will not until it’s on sale.

11.) Custom or EA / Maxis Sims

EA / Maxis Sims are the best! I adore the premades and their unique, weird stories. My favorite thing to do is make them over and put an interesting spin on their storylines while still keeping them recognizable.

12.) Households or Single Sims

Definitely households. I prefer organized chaos with lots of things going on at once! There just isn’t enough to do when there’s only one Sim.

13.)  Free Will On or Off

Free will is always firmly set to off in my game. I’m a dictator when it comes to my Sims and I make no apologies for that.

14.)  Favorite Life Stage

Toddlers. They’re just so darn cute! The expanded skill building this time around is really cool since they actually learn in discernible stages instead of all at once, and I’m still not over their ability to go up and down stairs all on their own. The little mess-makers also have some of the cutest interactions with other Sims and their environment.

15.)  Favorite Life State

Aliens. The first time I ever had a Sim abducted was in The Sims 2, and it terrified me because I had no idea what was going on and didn’t know if he was ever going to come back. Then he was finally returned and popped out an alien baby! It was just so surprising and ever since I’ve had a particular fondness for extraterrestrials.

16.) Favorite Skill

Cooking is probably my favorite skill to build. Something about getting to see what those difficult dishes look like is just fun to me. Since The Sims 4 actually includes 3 separate skills for cooking, gourmet, and baking skills I’ve been having a blast discovering all the new recipes!

17.) Ever Completed a Legacy

Only once, way back in The Sims 2. It lasted a grand total of 16 generations before I wound up making the move to The Sims 3. I’ve tried numerous times since then, but The Sims 3 was too buggy to play a single file that long and The Sims 4 is still missing a couple of key features that I’d like to have before trying again.

18.) Longest Simming Session

When I had more free time (and was significantly younger), I happily confess to wasting away a full weekend playing The Sims 2. These days I’m lucky to get a couple hours a week here and there. Ah the joys of growing up!

19.) Personal Sims Wishlist

There are a few things I’m still really missing for The Sims 4. I’m hoping universities and witches are making a comeback soon as they’re crucial to my planned storylines. Fairies, werewolves, and a beach vacation world would also be wonderful to have but they’re less important to me.

20.) Unpopular Opinion

I don’t miss the open world system from The Sims 3 at all. I’m perfectly happy trading it for every world to be connected. Every save file is a megahood and I find that preferable to a single, completely open world. I also think that it makes the game more stable for everyone, especially lower-end computers. The loading screens are worth it!