#simblry tagged stuff

[spoonsthings]

Favorite TV Shows/Series

Rules: Post your 5 (or more if you want) favorite TV shows of all  time in whatever order you wish to, only in gif format (with or without a title) and tag other people to do the same!

I was tagged at least twice for this that I know of (I know @kurasoberina and @ice-creamforbreakfast did, but Tumblr is being shitty and not letting me know when I’m tagged in anything), but it was such a struggle to think of TV shows! I far prefer Internet to TV, and in general my attention span is so short that even single films make me fidgety. I barely managed to scrape together five, LOL, and most of them are juvenile in SOME way ;)

Edit: I added another one that I just remembered I do enjoy, but if I could have found a gif for it, I would have chosen Heston’s Feasts instead.

Titles below the cut, for those who are curious:

Magic School Bus (this and “Bill Nye The Science Guy” were my two favorite shows as a child)

Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Guardian: The Great and Lonely God (A Korean take on the blossoming genre of the “TV drama with supernatural themes”, and a very entertaining version at that. Also more commonly known as “Goblin”, though technically that wouldn’t be a good title, as it’s a very poor translation for the Korean folkloric creature known as the dokkaebi)

Daria

Monty Python’s Flying Circus (this is from the “Confuse-A-Cat” sketch)

I’m actually not sure what show this is from, but I do enjoy Gordon Ramsay’s trademark abrasiveness, especially since he’s talking about food. In general I enjoy British-produced shows about food and cooking, but as I’ve said earlier, my actual favorite is “Heston’s Feasts”, a show where Heston Blumenthal (the other crazy British food dude) gets even more questionably creative than usual, to devise fantastical dinner party menus themed to different periods of British history. I just couldn’t find a gif from that show, which is a real shame, as most of these dinners are visually quite splendid sights to behold.

[spoonsthings]

I’ve been tagged by @aroundthesims Sandy!

“Rules: Choose a Sim of yours, post a picture of their bag content and tag 10 of your friends/followers/favorite Simblrs! Please tag #inmysimsbag. :)”

This is for Weronika Maly, Juho’s “other half” (his post can be viewed here). I assume it is not difficult to see why Weronika's bag post was delayed, as it is so much more cluttered!

For the most part, I’m quite happy with how this screenshot turned out, with the exception of bobby pin CC which AFAIK does not exist, at least for TS3. Sandy, do you by any chance have a future bag set planned for a sim who uses a lot of bobby pins? Asking just in case our purposes align ;)  If not, don’t sweat it!

I tag: @martinessimblr, @greenplumbboblover, @procrasimnation, @mspoodle1 (I know you already did one, but I’d like to extend an official invitation nevertheless, and if you decide you want to do one more, all the better!), @buckleysims​, @nativeafua (I have no idea if this is your kind of thing, but I’d love to see what you come up with), @goatkibble​, @treason-and-plot​ (I know you’ve been having computer trouble, and you already did one for everyone’s favorite Terry, but you know I love everything you write, so no pressure!), @acquiresimoleons​, @willky12, @icy-spicy-scalpel, @bluehoppersimming, and @moonskin1993!

(Yes, I know that’s more than 10 people, but I made two posts, so I figure I can tag any number of people between 10 and 20 if I want! Also, if you want to participate in this challenge but are having trouble finding objects you want, I’ll be happy to answer WCIF or troubleshooting questions!)

Notes / WCIF links below the cut:

Tote Bag - Obviously it has to be big and sturdy, if it’s to hold everything she needs on a day-to-day basis. Weronika is a dancer, who has recently managed the extraordinary good fortune of landing a full-time contract to dance with the St. Claire Ballet Company corps. A dance career demands long hours, as well as for the dancer to be prepared for any eventuality: during the busiest weeks of the performing season, Weronika almost-literally has to live out of this bag. (Credit: “Beach” set by Around The Sims 3, with pattern by Parsimonious.)

Wallet - Her favorite wallet that she’s ever had. She bought it during a brief stop in Shanghai, returning to her then-home in Redcliffs from a trip to Japan. No one but her need know that she paid 5 simoleons for it and not 1500. (credit: You-Lust / Florence for the conversion, Adele for the original mesh. I resized and rotated the mesh for personal use.)

Objects that get her places - a backstage pass issued by her company so she can go where she needs to in the theatre unimpeded. (credit: personal creation, backstage pass mesh from “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3, custom texture using an image from the “Great Art” series by @femmeonamissionsims​.) Her house keys are on a keychain with a rock crystal charm. (credit: personal creation, put together using Sandy’s key ring mesh from an item featured in her  “Anneke’s Bag” set, and from a decor mesh by BabaYaga @MTS)

Shoes are arguably the most important among the many things carried in Weronika's bag, and she always has several pairs kicking around in her bag (pun fully intended). Both simple leather practice slippers (credit: Everlasting-Garden, though I've made extensive edits to her conversion for my own purposes) for lessons and groundwork, and pointe shoes are carried. (credit: Luna > luna1 > Bucolico 3 Vintage > zapatillas 2, though for my personal use, I’ve resized the mesh and created a new texture from scratch, besides). And finally, jet glue, scissors, and a good sewing kit (not shown because I couldn't find sewing-themed CC that looked suitably low-key and portable) will conquer most emergencies that arise from shoe malfunction. (Credit: BabaYaga @MTS)

Electronics: A Blackberry, in order to stay on top of last-minute changes in rehearsal schedules. (Credit: “Armelle’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.) To listen to music, an iPod shuffle (Credit: “Allison’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3) and a pimped-out headset (personal creation, HA2D’s accessory headset converted to a decor object).

Dancing demands a lot of energy, and contrary to popular belief, eating disorders are not considered desirable in a dancer, neither in theory nor practice (though the immense demands of the job of course mean that both male and female dancers are susceptible). The food she carries tend to be split between calorie-dense morsels such as chocolate bars or cheese cubes (credit: You-Lust / Florence for the conversions, Ludwig and 8x3 respectively for the original meshes), good for a quick energy boost as well as lifting the spirits a little bit, and healthy items like lean turkey sandwiches, salads or fruit. Apples travel well and are easy to digest so she doesn’t get cramps from dancing too soon after eating. (credit: You-Lust / Florence for the conversion, MysticRain for the original mesh) Oh, and of course, plenty of water. (credit: CycloneSue @TSR)

 Next to shoe paraphernalia, hair paraphernalia is probably the most important part of a dancer’s arsenal: hairspray (credit: “Lola Dressing Table” by ClioSims), hair serum (credit: “Addicted 2Clutter” by Repulsively Desirous... though the link at the Graveyard is mislabeled, and you actually need to download the set labeled “Clutter Addict 01″ to get this item) and a hairbrush (Credit: “Decor Updated” by ClioSims), a hair clip to make styling easier (Credit: “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3). Not to mention loads and loads of the aforementioned bobby pins.

Her makeup pouch (credit: “Allison’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3, with pattern by Murano @TSR) contains lip balm (credit: “Clementine’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3), lipstick and a tin of Nivea (credit: “Beauty Salon No.2″ set by Around The Sims 3), blush (credit: “Armelle’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3), a portable kabuki brush and any stray earrings that she may have taken off during the day (credit: LitSims for the conversion, Nemestnaya for the original meshes). Also two bottles of perfume (credit: “Body Shop” set by Around The Sims 3, One Billion Pixels), cream cleanser (credit: You-Lust for the conversion, Mari for the original mesh) to get all that greasepaint thoroughly cleansed off after performances, deodorant (credit: “Allison’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3) for those sweaty, sweaty days, and hand sanitizer (credit: “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3) to keep the germs at bay in the crush backstage.

On that health-related note, Weronika also carries compression bandages, ointment, and a massage ball for sore muscles (credit: LivingDeadGirl @TSR for the mesh, though I removed the Epsom salt carton from it, and BrittPinkieSims for the Simlish textures; the “massage ball” is actually the hacky sack toy from the Uni Life EP), as well as toe tape to prevent foot blisters and chafing... or some of them, anyway. (credit: Hekate999 @MTS)

Other miscellanies - a fresh towel to mop up sweat (credit: Suza @Simply Styling), a travel umbrella (credit: “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3), and a notebook to jot down choreography notes. (credit: You-Lust / Florence for the conversion, Mari for the mesh, Baufive for the textures which I adopted from his stacking books).

[spoonsthings]

I’ve been tagged by @aroundthesims​ Sandy!

This is for Juho Saarinen, the guy in my longtime favorite sim-couple. When I feature the both of them in simblr-memes like this, I usually post about Weronika first, but I think Juho deserves to go first for once. And also his image was finished sooner XD.

Because I’m doing two of these, the people-tagging will follow in the next post.

“Rules: Choose a Sim of yours, post a picture of their bag content and tag 10 of your friends/followers/favorite Simblrs! Please tag #inmysimsbag. :)”

Notes / WCIF links below the cut:

Bag - just a simple shoulder satchel, nothing fancy here. (Credit: “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3. Put on a 125% OMSP resizer because that was the only way it wouldn’t look too small to hold a laptop.)

Wallet - he’s carried it for a while now, so the leather is worn down to just the right degree of softness and suppleness. He likes the design: no weird hardware or unnecessary pockets, not any bulkier than it needs to be. (Credit: “Allison’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.)

Badge - He always carries it, on or off the job. Juho was never one of those kids who made up exciting future careers or prospects for themselves in their heads, but even so, police work was fairly low on the list of professions he was considering, as late as when he started college. Now, as hokey as it might sound, the badge almost feels like a part of him. (Credit: “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.)

iPhone - Juho was one of the first in his circle to buy one, way back in 2008. His friends joked that he was a traitor for not buying Nokia, but now they all have iPhones of their own, go figure. (Credit: “Allison’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.)

Other electronics: a MacBook, a USB flash drive, and earbuds. (Credit: Marky Boy @MTS; “Around a PC” set  by Louma @BlackPearlSims; You-Lust/Florence for the conversion + Sherry for the TS2 mesh.) When Juho is on the job, he also frequently makes use of a voice recording device and an audio transmission unit, of the type more colloquially known as a “walkie-talkie”. (Credit: “Business Office” by Around The Sims 3; You-Lust/Florence for the conversion + Aviolina for the TS2 mesh... though I had to put it on a 200% OMSP resizer to give it the proper scale next to the other items.) Oh, and an electric razor, because he can’t always make time in the morning to shave in front of a proper mirror. (Credit: “Delpha Bathroom” Set by ClioSims.)

Thermos - why two, you ask? One holds the drinks for when he’s out on patrol with his partner, and the other (nicer) one is strictly for personal use. His partner is under the impression that Juho’s a really swell guy for bringing drinks for the both of them, but secretly, Juho just doesn’t like sharing his own drink. (Credit: “Beach” set by Around The Sims 3.)

Keys - the single small key unlocks his desk and document filing cabinets at work. (Credit: “Armelle’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.) The other ones on the fob are his personal keys. (Credit: DOT @TSR)

A yellow legal pad for jotting down notes, and tools to do the jotting with.  (Credit: “Around a PC” set  by Louma @BlackPearlSims.) The nice pen has often been mistaken for a fountain pen, and is carried more out of habit than anything else. (Credit: “Armelle’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.) Most of the actual writing is done with a cheaper pen, for fear of misplacement. (Credit: BabaYaga @MTS)

Snacks - A lot of his work is tedious and boring, and gum often helps keep him awake when caffeine doesn’t work or starts giving him side effects. (Credit: “Allison’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.) Cookies are also very welcome, as Juho has a pronounced weakness for baked goods. (Credit: “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.)

Protection from the elements - mirrored aviator sunglasses are a cliché by now, but in situations where it pays to look as intimidating as possible, which are common in police work for obvious reasons, they really help. (Credit: Arsil @MTS). They also are very effective at reducing glare. Also, a travel umbrella, because who has the space or presence of mind to carry a full-length umbrella everywhere? No wonder most people just run around getting drenched whenever it rains. (Credit: “Anneke’s Bag” set by Around The Sims 3.)

He doesn’t have so much time to read books anymore, but Juho has always been a bookworm, and dammit he will find time to read, even if only on his daily commute to work. He’s always been partial to fantasy and detective novels, but recently he’s been on a sci-fi bender. (Credit: “Slob’s Life” set by Around The Sims 3.)

[spoonsthings]

10 Questions Meme

I was tagged in the 10 Questions Meme by @ice-creamforbreakfast! Thank you for tagging me, but I warn you, do not get used to me following up on these things!  :-P

Rules: Always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, then write 10 questions of your own, and tag some friends!

Have you ever created your crush in The Sims? How did that work out for you? - I find it rather hard to believe myself, as this sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would do, but no. I didn’t get a lot of personal space or autonomy to make any decisions for myself (including how to spend time that was ostensibly “free”) until I was nearly 23 years old and finally succeeded in convincing my mother to let me move out of her house. So despite having played Sims 1 and 2 on friends’ computers, I didn’t get around to proper simming until TS3. By that time I already had a boyfriend, but the relationship was unhappy. And then after I broke up, I didn’t want anything to do with romantic relationships for a while, only to immediately meet my current boyfriend, again making “crushes” a moot point.

Do you prefer creating sims, building or creating content? - I enjoy doing all three, but I think all of my simming activities do revolve around sim-creating to some extent... not just the CAS (although I do end up spending the most time in there), but creating personalities and backstories and the like. Most of the building and creating projects I undertake are actually motivated by wanting certain things for my sims and their lives, but either not finding it online, or being dissatisfied by what I do find... I think I created about 8 new objects just for Weronika’s handbag project.

How long have you been simming for? - I wanted desperately to play sims ever since the first game came out in 2000, and in fact often did beg friends who had the game to let me play when I was over at their homes (to the point of causing annoyance), but for reasons I’ve mentioned above, I didn’t get to actually have my own setup until 2010 or so. Since then, though, I’ve never looked back, and I rarely play other games.

Do you have any friends outside of the internet who sim? If so, is it a crushing disappointment :P - My boyfriend, who has much more omnivorous gaming habits than I do, has given TS3 a whirl, and that was nice because this means I can share some very basic sims-themed humor with him and he can understand it. My best friend IRL also played TS2 way back when, so she knows what I’m talking about if I bring up the topic. For the most part, though, my simming friends are people I met online through this community and got close to, rather than the other way around.

Has The Sims crept into your real life and caused confusion? - Not really, as I keep the two spheres of my life quite separate. Though it throws me for a loop when I watch old Key & Peele episodes, and the TS3-wish-fulfilled sound effect just pops up out of nowhere (they did that a lot, for some reason).

If you could choose a sim to be your friend in the real world, who would it be? - No sim in particular, but Morgana Wolff does strike me as the kind of person I would probably hit it off with IRL. And conversely, I would probably develop an irrational hatred for Jamie Jolina, though I am fond of her as a sim.

What’s the longest time that you’ve been able to quit playing? I don’t think I’ve ever quit of my own resolve, I more go through phases where I’m too engrossed in something else... real life stuff, or another hobby, or another game (usually Unreal World).

Do you find yourself simming in your head when you’re out and about? - Not sure what that would entail, but I guess I do now look at architecture and buildings with a mind to recreating them in TS3 builds. Actually, I doubt I would know anything about architecture or design at all if I hadn’t been exposed to the building / interior-designing subcommunity of Sims.

Maxis Match or Marvelous Designer? - I judge this is an unpopular opinion in the segment of the simblrverse I am closest to, but I honestly do not mind Marvelous Designer meshes just because they are MD. I certainly welcome a well-done Maxis-Match item, not least because I can (usually) add more of them to my game while not taking as great a performance hit. But there are only so many and so many kinds of EA meshes out there to chop and paste and repurpose, especially for me now that EA is making no new content for TS3. And there are things that can be achieved with custom meshes that can’t be done just with frankenmeshes. I also find it needlessly reductive to just lump all these custom / new meshes in the category of “Marvelous Designer” creations, especially as I imagine many of them are actually created with programs other than MD. As I’ve said at length before, it’s all about how well the creator adapts their creation to work with the TS3 engine, not about what program they used to do it.

What is your proudest simming achievement? - Learning how to build houses that are not rectangular plain boxes crammed with 1,278 OMSPs and as many clutter items. They are intelligently designed modular puzzle-like boxes crammed with under 500 OMSPs and still too many clutter items.

I’m a little tired at the moment, though, so I don’t think I’ll add 10 questions of my own at this time. Maybe later.

[spoonsthings]

I haven’t been tagged again or anything, but that won’t stop me from spamming your dashes with moar mood boards.

This one is for Juho Saarinen, the best friend, life partner, and dorkier half of my previously featured sim Weronika.

Rules: put together a mood board using at least six images for the sim most associated with your blog (simself, legacy sim, character, etc.) and then tag more people to do it.

Explanations and image credits and such below the cut:

1) Fishing was a big part of Juho’s life, when he was a child growing up: every family vacation would be spent near a lake or stream, and someone would always be dangling a line while they killed time, to see if the evening’s meal could be caught fresh. In fact, Juho was surprised to learn, years later, just how obsessive some fishers could get about their chosen hobby, because for him, it had always been more of a habit than a conscious activity. (Photo of rainbow trout in water, attributed to Douglas A. Green AFAIK)

2) For as long as Juho can remember, his parents worked at boring government bureaucrat jobs by day, in order to finance a lifelong addiction to books and literacy in their free time. It followed that little Juho also spent a lot of time reading picture books, many of them about northern European folklore and legends. Later he would move onto Tolkien, and even later to English detective novels, but he always had fond memories of those first books, with their dreamy and evocative pictures. (Illustration for the Norwegian tale “White Bear King Valemon” by Theodor Kittelsen.)

3) Birch bark crafts were another casual pastime that Juho saw being done day in and day out, on visits to his grandfather’s rural homestead. This, too, he basically learned through osmosis. (Flying goose figure, made by students of a birch bark art course taught by folk artist John Zasada)

4) Juho is not a picky eater, in general, and will happily make a meal of anything: meat stew with gravy and potatoes and garnished with homemade relishes, fish grilled in coals with a simple salad of locally foraged greens, a mess of instant oven fries covered with a mass of chopped pickles and onions and lashings of ketchup, frozen pizza, or a “sandwich” that consists of a smashed bag of potato chips and a handful of salty licorice between two slices of bread… are all equally attractive options to him. Now he has a girlfriend, who has a lot of experience looking after her own body and cooking and eating healthy food, and she has been trying to improve his diet as well. For the most part Juho has been happy to comply, but there is one “junk” food that Weronika, for all her efforts, has not been able to wean him of completely, and that is hot dog sauce. (source: Eveliina Eppu on Instagram)

5) On the other hand, unlike some of his other comfort food favorites like rice pies with egg butter (”how can something so rich have so little flavor?”) or salty licorice laced with ammonium (no words, just vehement head-shaking), Juho has had no trouble selling Weronika on omenalörtsy, deep fried donuts with an apple filling. Worth every second of pain from being scalded with hot jam, in his opinion. (source: Enni Ketolainen on Instagram)

6) Tampere, the city where Juho spent most of his childhood and teenage years… or rather, in the sim-world equivalent of Tampere (source: view of Tampere, by elukka76 at Panoramio)

7) Lest the beautifully illustrated fairy tales and the bucolic romance of birch bark crafts fool you, there are certain artifacts of a more resolutely downmarket culture that also made their way into Juho’s childhood memories (if the “hot dog sauce” was not a sufficient clue in this direction). Hey, at least it wasn’t Donald Duck cartoons.

8) In a land of metalheads, an affinity for folk music in any shape or form probably counts as rebellion, though Hedningarna doesn’t quite count as elevator music either.

9) Juho’s grandfather has long been an avid hunter, so Juho grew up playing with the hound pups his grandfather bred on his rural homestead. Even now, completely strange dogs take to him with surprising speed and eagerness. But secretly, Juho prefers cats, and has an especial soft spot for Abyssinians. He hopes to adopt one some day. (source: Molly Young, at her tumblr)

10) A preoccupation with detective novels in his early teens foretold Juho’s later fascination with crime dramas and police procedural shows like CSI. Initially, Juho thought The Wire was going to be much of the same, and was completely thrown for a loop when he found that it was most definitely not. It’s the show he credits with a crucial shift of his outlook on life and the world, as well as motivating him to shift the focus of his law enforcement career away from forensic science and towards active duty and matters of administration.

[spoonsthings]

I was tagged by @ice-creamforbreakfast, after I went ahead and did the first version. I really don’t have to, but after I posted the last ten, I had a big list of favorites still left over that didn’t fit, and I’m going to use this as an excuse to showcase some of the ones I had to leave out. (See my first top 10 here.)

Rules: Using gifs, and without using titles, list your top ten favourite movies of all time. They don’t have to be in any particular order. Tag however many people you like.

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I didn’t really intend it this way, but for some reason the more violent / scary / action-type ones went into this post.

Again, I’ve added the titles (with release dates) of the films I chose below the break, for those who want to know:

The Seventh Seal (1957)

The Throne (2015)

Little Big Man (1970, think "Dances With Wolves" if that film had been done with a properly angry attitude towards past injustices towards Native Americans.)

The Orphanage / El Orfanato (2007, the one everyone thinks was directed by Guillermo del Toro even though he only produced it... the actual director was J.A. Bayona)

WALL-E (2008)

Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

King and the Clown (2005)

Mononoke Hime (1997)

Thor: Ragnarok (2017, though for the purposes of this list, it’s meant to stand in for most of the MCU)

[spoonsthings]

I’m hijacking the movie challenge because I’ve seen it going around my dash, and it looked really fun!

Rules: Using gifs, and without using titles, list your top ten favourite movies of all time. They don’t have to be in any particular order. Tag however many people you like.

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I tag @kurasoberina, @pictureamoebae, @simsontherope, @procrasimnation @icy-spicy-scalpel and @aroundthesims.

Edit: People have expressed interest in knowing the titles of the films I chose, so I’ve provided titles (with links, where appropriate) below the cut:

El Laberinto del Fauno (2006, marketed as “Pan's Labyrinth” in English, which is a bit stupid as the deity Pan has nothing to do with the story.)

Amadeus (1984)

Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964)

3 Idiots  (2009)

Modern Times (1936)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017, though it must be said I cheated a bit with this one, as it stands both for itself and for the first Blade Runner film... both are immensely good, and it’s an absolute shame if you miss out on either.)

Interstellar (2014)

The Nun's Story (1959, a relatively little-known film, considering it starred Audrey Hepburn. Perhaps it was because she appeared as a nun whose life in and out of the convent was depicted with strict accuracy, and nuns don’t exactly lead very cinematic lives, to say the least... this film is no “Black Narcissus”. But it was actually one of the roles that Hepburn herself was the proudest of.)

Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005)

La Double Vie de Veronique (1991)

[spoonsthings]

20 Questions

I was tagged by @ice-creamforbreakfast​. Yes!!!

Rules: Answer all 20 Questions and tag 20 people

Name: Not comfortable with revealing my IRL name publicly, I’m afraid. But suffice it to say, English-speakers aren’t very good at pronouncing Korean names, so I had some strange unintentional nicknames growing up.

Zodiac Sign: Pisces Sun, Scorpio Moon, with a Leo Ascendant. Yes, I will never tell people my real name, but I feel perfectly comfortable oversharing this kind of thing, hah!

Height: 165 cm, or 5′5″ to you non-metric users.

Languages Spoken: English and Korean. I can’t honestly say that I “know” any other language, but I used to get pretty high scores on this guessing game.

Nationality: Korean

Favorite Fruit: I like most kinds of fruits... citrus, apples, drupes, you name them. Melons and anything in the melon family are my least favorite, but I’ll still eat them. My real love is for strawberries, though... in Korea, the first house-grown crop comes in season right around my birthday.

Favorite Scent: I cannot get enough of “green” scents... I paid a shameful amount of money for a few mini bottles of vintage Vent Vert perfume on eBay, the kind that smells more of lawnmower trimmings than flowers. I even used to eat grass directly off the playground when I was little.... I swear I must have died of scurvy in a past life. I also love the scent of a burning wood flame.

Favorite Color: Blue is the go-to answer for these kinds of questionnaires, so I feel lazy for saying it, but it’s true. Blue always makes me feel serene and secure.

Favorite Animal: Do I really have to choose? Animals are beautiful people, and great fun to watch. Though if I really have to choose, I do have a special soft spot for birds of any description: songbirds, crows, magpies, hawks, owls, geese, chickens, egrets, puffins, albatrosses, penguins... yes even vultures! Even emus! Even seagulls, those grubby thieving rascals of the sky.

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: Tea, please!

Favorite Fictional Character: If you’re talking about which characters I’m the most entertained by? Pretty much everyone in the MCU, +Deadpool. If you’re asking me which fictional characters I feel the most kinship with, it would have to be Maggie Tulliver from The Mill on the Floss.

Dream Trip: I’d like to visit the Galapagos Isles some day. There’s a former Soviet-era hotel in Estonia (with all the old KGB surveillance devices), now a museum, that I really want to visit. I would love to see Chengdu and as much of the surrounding area (Sichuan province) as I can. And lastly, I have promised @ice-creamforbreakfast​ that if she ever makes it to Korea, I will take her to visit Haesindang Park (also known as the “Penis Park”) and take a literal fuckload of photos there with her.

When was your blog created?: I’m not sure when I created this simblr, but it must have been in early 2013 or thereabouts?

Last Movie you’ve seen: Probably Infinity War. Yup, I’m basic like that.

Song you’ve had on repeat: "Pacific Coast Highway”, by Hole.

Favorite Candy: I don’t think I have one, I don’t like sweet things (or at least, I don’t like foods just because they’re sweet). I wouldn’t refuse one you offered me, but I wouldn’t seek them out either.

Favorite Holiday: I like life in Korea just fine now, but right around Christmas time, I start to miss living someplace where the holiday is taken seriously.

Last Book you’ve read: “Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley”. It’s an amazing book, I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about late 18th-century / Regency England, especially if you want to learn more about the countercultural elements of that society and not just the Jane Austen stuff (because as much as I love Jane Austen too, it irks me when people think that was all there was to the era).

Favorite TV Shows: I don’t watch a lot of TV (I don’t own one, for starters), but I do have a few podcasts I listen to regularly. Currently hooked on Ear Hustle and Double Love.

Who’d you like to have lunch with: Ooh, that’s a difficult one.... If I’m picking famous people, I’d say Mary Shelley (especially after reading the abovementioned biography of her!), Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Parr, and Noor Khan. How else would I get so many brilliant and accomplished women to talk to me, all at the same time? Although honestly, I’d be over the moon if I could just  get the opportunity to meet all the friends I’ve managed to make through this community, in-person!

If you know anything about this blog, you know that my account is where all the simblr chain letter memes come to die. In addition, I feel like the most popular simblrs always get a glut of attention with these things, and a lot of newcomers tend to get shut out just because no one knows they exist, even though they can be lovely in person. So as always, I am opening my taglist to anyone who wants to participate! Feel free to @ me and say I tagged you, because it’s true! And if you want a specific shout-out, feel free to send me an ask, and I will be glad to tag you (just off anon, because, you know, I won’t know who to tag otherwise, LOL).

[spoonsthings]

Seasons Tag!

Taking a bit of a break from the Cottonwood Hills WCIF project to play Sims 4, and also to do another one of these tagged things... @ice-creamforbreakfast has tagged me in about a million of them, but I’ve only done one or two! (Although... I don’t seem to be getting notifications for being tagged anymore... if you’ve tagged me in the past and I’ve ignored it, that may be why! I’m sorry!)

Alex recently tagged me to do a different one, which I will do, but I want to take the time to really do it well, so I’m doing this one in the interim (her answers are here). She actually didn’t tag me to do this one, but she did say “anyone who wants to do this”, so I’m considering myself tagged!

What is your favorite season?

I like all the seasons in their own way, but summer has to be my secret unfavorite because of the heat and most importantly the HUMIDITY. Hello boob sweat, mildew, and food going bad if you leave it out for so much as two hours. Spring is nice because of the flowers, the warming weather, and all the new greens to cook with, but it's also allergy season.

Do you prefer warmer or colder weather?

Colder weather, all the way! My happy spot is actually between 10 to 20 degrees C (50 to 68 degrees F for you Americans). Not just outside weather, I like it best when the ambient temperature where I am sitting is in that range.

What do you do on a rainy day?

For some reason, the rain motivates me to do chores: cook, do light cleaning, laundry, etc.

How is a typical winter where you live? Cold or not?

I live in Seoul. We regularly register temperatures colder than Moscow and Helsinki, and on a par with Montreal and parts of Siberia.

Have you ever experienced snow?

Yup. It's pretty the first day and then it turns into "the devil's shit-piles".

True or false? “I LOVE RAIN!”

One of my absolute favorite things in the world is sitting at the window and watching (or feeling) it rain outside. The stormier the weather the better. Walking in a thunderstorm isn't really fun (and it can also be dangerous, depending where you are), with all the wind and wet clothes / feet it entails, but I get a certain masochistic joy out of being so thoroughly “immersed in the elements”. And if I'm dressed for outdoors activity, even that doesn’t really bother me. So yeah, I'll say a resounding "TRUE"!

What is your go to food in the summer?

Old cucumbers (they have a softer, less snappy flavor than young green cucumbers, and work really well as namul, and substitute well for cucuzze / gourd / calabash in Sicilian summer recipes) and anything made with tomato.

What is your favorite ice cream flavour?

I'm a temperamental person when it comes to ice cream flavors, it really depends on my mood at the time. I do like orangey flavors, and I regularly go for the Baskin Robbins one with the pop rocks candy in it, because my boyfriend loves it.

Coffee, tea or cocoa? EVERYTHING?

I do like coffee, but if I overindulge, my gastritis flares up. (I do love me some Irish coffee as an occasional treat, though.) I love all types of tea: black, green, oolong, herbal, herbal blends, you name it. But no beverage says Korean winters to me like hot teas made out of preserves: yuzu, quince, ginger, and pear-burdock are regular wintertime favorites (not the least because they are all great for the throat and therefore great for when you have a cold).

Describe your favorite seasonal clothing item!

I don’t tend to enjoy summer fashion as a general rule, but I DO love my rubber flats from Melissa... they’re durable, comfortable, mostly non-slip, and they’re quite flattering on the foot (they come in a wide variety of styles). They’re also completely waterproof, and there’s a lasting fruity smell to the rubber that cancels out wet-foot smell (always a plus). I wear them EVERYWHERE in warm weather, not just the beach, and they’re particularly good for summer rainstorms.

What is your favorite Holiday?

Holidays have been kind of a let-down for me since I came to live in Korea... the biggest holidays here are Chuseok (the Harvest Festival) and Seol (Lunar New Years), which I don't have a lot of fond memories attached to. Plus the holidays that I did grow up with (Christmas and Halloween being my faves) are just not celebrated here to the same extent. I do like Buddha's birthday though... I love the strings of lanterns that go up weeks in advance, and the holiday always falls in late spring when the weather is lovely and great for picnics.

With these things, I’m always at a loss for who to tag... In addition, I feel like the most popular simblrs always get loads of tags, and a lot of lovely people who just don’t know a lot of people yet tend to get shut out. So I want to open my taglist to anyone who wants to participate! Feel free to @ me and say I tagged you, because it’s true! And if you want a specific shout-out, feel free to send me a (non-anonymous) ask, and I will be glad to tag you :)