#her character is basically about promoting good hygiene and staying clean

[clownhavoc]

I made a smiling critters oc that I've been wanting to draw since like the start of April (my motivation to do anything at all SUCKS)

I'm really happy about how she came out :D

[vocatharsis]

Cogs’ TS2 Apocalypse Run (IX)

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Earlier this year, I started revisiting The Sims 2. After a bit of messing around, I decided I’d take a shot at doing an apocalypse challenge run (specifically Phaenoh’s tiered, mod-enforced version). I didn’t succeed the first time, and didn’t document it with screenshots etc. anyhow, so in this second attempt I’ve resolved to do both. 

(Lots of screenshots & commentary below the cut. If you’re into Sims, nostalgia, challenge runs, and/or silly reflective commentary, feel free to read on!)

THE SMITHS’ FREE STATE, PART 9 - SO LONG, SHELMERDINE

Two mercifully-timed birthdays -- i bet he steals answers on homeworks too -- bidding the founder farewell -- oh goodie, some crap I can clean off the floor -- Muuuum, stop plaguing my sleep -- people in uniforms -- I imagine Foucault would be proud (or not).

Welcome back! Now, this is a sad chapter. The character I started this run with, Shelmerdine, is going to die of old age pretty soon. She’s had a fantastic go of it - managed to max all skills before elderhood, survived the terrible interval in which greyhairs had complete free will, reached perma-platinum for her aspiration. But now it’s time to bid her farewell. 

As a small mercy, she’s set to pass on the day after the two toddlers Aaron and Forseti are eligible to age up via birthday cake, so I won’t have to deal with the toddler ‘relative dies’ fear tanking both of their aspiration meters the day before they start childhood. 

First, let’s do Forseti--

He looks nice when he’s happy ^^

And I waited until morning to age Aaron up, since everyone was kind of tired at that point. 

Yippee!

Love Forseti’s little jump there. 

As I’ve established before, kids & teens aren’t currently allowed to go to school, nor use any skill-building object that isn’t also simultaneously fun. So childhood in the apocalypse is all about grabbing whatever skill points you can, with whatever objects aren’t banned. The most obvious of these is playing chess, for Logic: 

It seems that, with his really low Niceness score, Forseti is inclined to make unconvincing attempts to cheat while playing with others. Attempts of the “hey, look over there” variety, which always end with the other person turning around just as he’s moving he pieces around. I’ll need to find a way to make sure he doesn’t tank his friendships with father and/or brother while he earns his smarts.

Age-rollover time is fast approaching. It’s time to say goodbye to indomitable old Shelmerdine. 

Of course, I had to get a photo with all of her descendants in it. Then she said goodbye to each of her children individually.

*sniff*

And here comes bonesy... 

You guys remember how the death sequence for fulfilled Sims goes, right? It’s a hell of a thing. The Grim Reaper hits on you...

... tells you to pick up an unexplained suitcase (which might contain anything from what was in your Sim’s personal inventory to their emotional baggage, I dunno)...

... and hands you an extremely ethnic-looking alcoholic cup-thing.

And then you become a ghost.

BYE-BYE, SHEL, YOU WILL BE MISSED.

poor, poor Kent

Back to business; I decided on a solution to the “Forseti pissing people off during chess” problem. Basically, he plays on his own in a corner of the basement,

although I will say that this has a second benefit: Juan needs to level his Logic, too! It’s the only skill he needs maxed to be a master architect. 

Both of the careers I’m intending for Aaron and Forseti also require some Logic, but even if this weren’t the case, maxing Logic actually increases the skill-gain rate for everything that isn’t Body or Charisma by 25%, so it’s still worthwhile. 

Get a load of this guy:

Name’s Amar Ku. I was completely blindsided by this guy walking down the street, since I’ve never seen him before. Is his hair dyed, or...? Upon greeting him, he did the ‘Kiss Kiss Darling’ gesture, which means he’s a socialite; he must be Juan’s replacement, rolled randomly to fill the gap in the townie roster when he married in.

Panoptica’s got all the skill points she needs to win that final promotion, so I just have her building some other skills to fill her aspiration meter. Like Body skill!

(Note: They can’t do Yoga until they have 3 points in the skill, which means they have to level it by doing radio exercises. These are annoying because they drain Hygiene and Energy, and build the skill more slowly than pretty much any other method. im not gogna have fun)

Meanwhile, Forseti, as our first absurdly-neat descendant, gets to experience the joy of building Cleaning skill really quickly from actual cleaning, as opposed to reading books:

You can’t see it in this picture, but he’s smiling. His Fun need actually increases a little while he’s scraping crap off a toilet seat. Jeez, Forseti.

Oh, minor thing for any 90s kids and/or incidental Homestucks that might be reading this -- the household’s crappy stereo was on while Panoptica was working out, and I had it set to the ‘Techno’ station ‘cos the classic default Salsa mix was getting on my nerves, and then I hear, of all things, a no-vocals version of Chromeo’s ‘Fancy Footwork’ come on.

(I mentioned Homestuck; it was the song used in this fandom meme that I didn’t discover until after the comic had ended [*slight sniff*]. Gods, it’s catchy.)

Upon discovering said song’s presence in the game, I promptly moved the table with the stereo on it up a floor so I could hear it better. Here’s Panoptica doing her jog-on-the-spot routine.

And getting buff, apparently.

Looking good, looking good

Oh, I seem to recall saying back when Kent died that ghosts usually take a night to register that their remains have been moved elsewhere, so Shelmerdine’s debut as a ghost was unlikely to take place on the roof. 

Unfortunately, unlike Kent, she did clamber down the ladder from the attic to the floor with all the beds on it, making it really impractical to send anybody up there for some shuteye tonight. If I send them to bed, they’re guaranteed to cancel out of the action at some point, and let the ghost do its Scare action, which drops each of the victim’s needs a bit.

I realised at this point that I actually have more Sims than I do beds, so I worked out a solution to this one-night problem: buy a bed for the basement.

John starts work earlier than Panoptica, so he had priority here. Otherwise, they took it in turns to kip underground until dawn broke and Shelmerdine buggered back off to the Styx, at which point everybody who didn’t have a job collapsed into their own beds.

Well, today’s the day that Panoptica, with any luck, will get promoted up the final rung of the Intelligence ladder! There’s a chance it might take two shifts, even with an almost-full mood. Here she leaves the house in... I don’t know what kind of coat, while Forseti falls victim to my ever more ambitious experiments with the in-game camera:

(I honestly need to brush up on my vocab for types of clothing, I think. When I do write creatively, it’s quite often urban fantasy-type stuff, and it’ll help me to form a clearer picture of how characters look...)

This here below would be a great picture, if only the yellow sports car didn’t have a wonky interior that didn’t show up when you moved the camera inside

Like seriously Panoptica has a great photo face, it’s a shame

The snow actually thawed for a little while (since it’s always Winter, this only happens when it doesn’t snow for a couple of days in a row) leaving behind some puddles... which of course I sent Forseti to mop up so he could get more experience.

Night falls, and both goasts come out to play, in this rooftop graveyard of empty fridges. (I can’t sell them right now, due to restrictions - I just buy a new one and dump the old one up here.)

And does Panoptica get her final promotion? She does!

Time for some lowkey family celebrations! Here’s Aaron coming outside to give her an after-work hug:

And here’s Juan, being all romantic, though I swear he looks more like he’s just grinning rather than puckering up...

Now I can do lots of new things! Including:

> Let people come inside the house, even if they aren’t already a family friend

> Redeem Popularity aspiration perks (letting John build friendships faster)

> Use the Ask pie menu to scout out townies with good skills/jobs, and

> Chat on/answer the phone! 

This makes things much easier. Also, Panoptica’s got a snazzy uniform.

Heh, now both second-generation kids have dark green uniforms.

So, Panoptica has succeeded in living up to the name I gave her! A pleasant development. It’d have been a shame if I’d given her that name only to see her fired by a chance card or something. (I’d probably have thought about Law Enforcement for her, but that’d have required her to max Body, which would be annoooooying, at least until Juan lifts Architecture.)

So, another successful update, another restriction lifted, another gravestone for the roof... hm. I’ve covered a lot of ground here; I think two more updates maximum before I catch up to where I’m currently at with the run.

Stay tuned, and thanks for reading! 

(If you’ve read through this and/or any of my other updates, please let me know if there’s a particular style in one that’s more enjoyable to read than the others. It’s fluctuated a little as I figure out how best to do it. Thanking you in advance!)

[mountjewls]

Elementary kids changing the world through service

In the world today there are many places that lack the quality of life, the schooling needed, and the basic things needed to survive. Such as clean water, shelter, and food. There are other things needed in a country such as a schooling system and a functioning government in order for it to progress. The subject and idea has always interested me and to know how big of an impact it can make on the country where the humanitarian aid is taking place, the person doing it, and the help that it can change the world.

In the past years the need for humanitarian work has increased. There are options to serve and help others, those around the world and those in your own community.

The need for humanitarian work something that has always interested me, why we have it and how we can progress it more. In the world today there are many programs to help the causes around the world to help those in need, to help others and progress the third world countries and how to progress world unity and the wellbeing of others in the world. There have been many people who find the benefit of humanitarian work, those who receive it and those who are giving the service.

One aspect of the humanitarian work that has also interested me is to teach kids at a young age about humanitarian work and help the world will increase their lives after and how to help the world and to teach a young child how to implement service at a young age will influence their entire lives to focus on others and to look for ways to improve the community, outwardly show light and service to others, which will help them as a human being develop and improve their overall well being, happiness and in the long term, will help the world.

There are many organizations around the world that promote humanitarian help, projects, and helping others. There are different ways to help others, and through my research I found successful ways, benefits, and success stories of humanitarian need and ways around the world. Although when someone says the word humanitarian help the first thought normally goes to foreign third world countries, this is not always the case. There are opportunities to serve in the community around you and can bring humanitarian aid to other countries without having to travel across the world to help another soul.

A real case that put it to the test is named Mann, She is a mother of five children in Washington and she had a goal and vision to create a club that would excite service to elementary kids. She had children in elementary and she wanted to create a club that built character at the elementary age and helped the development of the children. She came up with the idea of the after school helping hands and it was such a success.

With the sacrifices she found that the kids were willing to give up their social hour, a time to play at recess, and come to service for either another kid in a hospital or an underprivileged family. She found that this greatly benefitted the children in the long run.

She also found that the sacrifices that the kids made at a young age helped them in the long run. As I have done some research on sacrifices in general, It is shown as we make sacrifices for a good cause it benefits us down the road. Before the times In my paper I will show the science behind sacrifice, and in specifically sacrifices on behalf of others.

As I interviewed Meggin I was able to find out many things about her project to create a club to help the character of those elementary children. In her first project she planned for about 30 children to stay after school, but in her first service project she had 180 elementary kids! Which later turned into an after school activity to 300 people once a month friday super successful first year. The 3rd year had a movement changed to lunch time options taking helping hands service to lunch time opportunities. Every kid could participate during the lunch and open opportunities. The kids were asked to sacrifice one lunch recess a month to serve. It has now 10 years in the making and still benefiting the community grately. The club taught the kid to treat others kindly. The purpose was to teach kids to think of others and not have bullying and help them become more compassionate and promote empathy and to talk to others in need and other locations in the community to have projects to involve and teach the kids more about where they live and what they can do to help their city.

Meggin wanted to make it possible for the kids to make their own donations and to involve the kids more to make a personal sacrifice. She decided to make it possible for the kids to donate their Halloween candy to ship the candy to military places. It was a super success and they collected 500-600 pounds of candy to ship to others to send it to other military places. Through this club the kids could learn and become aware of the needs of others giving recess time, collect donations, and sacrifice to help others around. Repackage things to give to others. These projects made it possible to have many different projects and those kids who couldn’t celebrate Halloween to make cards and send cards. These projects were made to appeal to kids and to make projects that kids could give and come from their hearts.

Meggin noticed if they learned to do service it while they were young they would and they became the needs of others empathetic hearts it would endure and develop character at a early age and impact their future. She said, “If you teach kids to look for others it helps in those awkward years to look outward in those outward years to continue into adult years”

Within in the young years they are willing to give when they are young, you don’t need to rope kids into service when they are 6 or 7 years, they are willing, when they are doing a natural transition they knew how to natural service or different service hours they were more familiar. Now there are 20 organizations in the community and aware, more connected, educate the community of the groups to create awareness of the need for service.As families learned about it they would be aware of different groups in the community and created a more unified community. She also noticed that if people are willing and to make service was easy and convenient made it easier for people to serve.

Many people have the service, but some of the convenience of it that keep it from giving, and giving effort and to take the energy while they are young to know that they can change the world and change them to how to make it easier for people to serve others.

Her gift to the community to do something that guided and community effort to create a climate of students eager to serve. Being aware of the needs around you and whenever you have extra, they are ways to give it, and to give to others who are protecting you. She had a dream to create a generation where service oriented, and when you teach them when they are young they are more open to give they are willing to give and enjoy and have fun when they serve. She also found some who chose to do birthday parties unique parties, “bring something to give to give to others and a lot of momentum to small friend groups and other times when the junior high kids baked cakes and gave them to others in the community. By starting the service project in the Elementary phase of life she created teenagers who chose to serve instead of socializing and kept the kids doing it during middle schools and high schools.

There were also cases where the kids who came to the program that are normally the receivers were still able to give some service even though they are normally the ones who receive the hygiene packets or the sub for santa. The kids would make projects and see the receivers and practice to do piano solos and the kids would give the gifts to the interactions to have “grandma and grandpa” to influence and have those experiences at a young age. “If you teach them when they are young it will stick with them and it will have more energy and goodwill if you channel that energy that they have when they are young it.

She found many benefits to her club in the Elementary level and influenced the community and the children greatly. She found the positive influences of service on elementary kids at what impact it had on the kids throughout later stages in life.