that Prof Ball thing

always reminds me of Hamlet talking to the joker's skull

Me too! Alas, poor Von Ball! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy!

Damn, now I want a DR of Professor Ball for my medieval game that is a skull!

Hey everyone, long time no sim!

Literally, long time no sim. :') The past 5 months, my chronic migraines have lived up to their label, but I'm finally able to tolerate screen time again. Naturally, I celebrated by checking in with the pixel people in my uberhood.

Most of them are doing well enough, though nothing too exciting. The Pleasant twins are beginning to expand their social circle beyond their boyfriends, Isaiah Gavigan traded up girlfriends (bye, Meadow!), and Lucy Burb is finally befriending sims her own age... even if General Buzz Grunt remains her closest bud. John Burb is soaring through the education track, going from a substitute to high school teacher within a week. Similarly, Trent Traveller traded the corporate ladder for the chutes of mail delivery, and he is killin' it! I'm so glad I downloaded NPC careers to play around with. On a related note, Jennifer Burb is fully embracing the barista lifestyle: her new espresso machine is a hit with friends, colleagues, and the many random townies invited inside during their neighborhood walk. (Stranger danger? The Burbs have not even heard of it.)

Don Lothario is also doing well in his career, despite my efforts to get him canned. How is a man this sloppy allowed in a sterile work environment?? I'm trying to take him down a few notches via chance card, but his networking skills are too strong. Guess it's out with the organic and in with the engineered.

It's actually my very first time playing him. In past games, I just evicted him and stole his house, whoop. I always assumed he was an irredeemable playboy, but as it turns out, he's pretty entertaining! He befriended my town's resident manny, constantly geeks out on the telescope, and showed Strangetown's Bella Goth a great time at the local Renaissance fair. I'm not totally sure how I want his engagement to Cassandra to play out, considering he's dating her clone mom, but I suppose I have time to figure it out.

I've been trying to give all the premade families a fair chance, but it's tough to figure out which direction to take some of them. It was easy for the Gavigans, since Eliza (formerly Mary) gave birth to two more kids before dying in a freak model train accident. I let it play out since I never let sims die, and it's been super interesting watching the family come to terms. I take lots of family photos of them, since they know every moment together is precious. Also, the middle kid is planning on resurrecting her mom someday, so that'll be fun and probably a little traumatizing.

The Travellers, though? No idea. I built them a nice, tropical-themed house, took them on vacation, and gave Trent a job to save up for their next holiday. Tina has taken a liking to the easel, so at least she has something going on, but Trisha is just coasting along. I thought I'd spice it up with an affair, but Trisha's potential partner met her husband and liked him better, so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I have a list of sim challenges I'll examine, but if anyone has suggestions for this fam, I'm all ears!

Due to my own incompetence I'm having to age up all the YA's in Tinsel Town and putting earlier into action my plans for a military subset for TT.

So far I have 3 men and 1 woman in the military, with more to come. All the fitness hobbyists are eligible for this career, and a few of them actually want to become general, so the revamp of TT from a studio town into a more mainstream career oriented town is well underway.

There are about 10 more to go. Those in the military will have a 5 year enlistment, and those who wish to pursue the career of their dreams after will be allowed to. Hopefully by that time they will also have found housing and a romantic partner.

Although there will still be those who want to be in show business-notably Alec Shaw's two sons, who both want to follow in their father's footsteps and become 'icons'.

I don't know if the "college in the neighborhood' experiment is going to survive. I may have to go back to a default Uni or just cheat like hell and give the kids a faked degree when they become YA's.

I do so dislike Uni. It's just so personally tedious to me.

PS- I second that DR of Professor Ball into a skull! I wish some enterprising modder would do that! Then we could actually have "Hamlet" acted on the stage as there is now a mod for the 'dramatics' of romantic actions in the mirror available.

I have been playing Strangetown. I have to confess I was feeling a little overwhelmed by how much it had grown, so I took some executive decisions. Some of the LFT grads, odd singles, and elders got moved into communal housing so it would be quicker to play them. I deleted the subhood Sedona after putting all the babies up for adoption and townifying all four residents. I do want to play it at some point, but not now. I have an idea if would be a fun hood to play in conjunction with Shady Shores, Emerald Heights as a downtown, and Quadington University, so that will be my project if I get tired of Strangetown--which I am back in love with now. I set everyone to the beginning of winter, and to heck with synching ages.

I wanted to post this pic I took because I know quite a few Simmers don't particularly like the Grunts, but they are absolutely my favorite family. General Buzz is very close to the end of his time now, and I think he knows it because he has worked hard on repairing his relationships with all his kids. He threw a birthday party for his wife Kristen, and all four of his kids attended. Buzz became best friends with Ripp during the party after a lot of work--he had previously had the want to *drink* Ripp when Ripp was a teenager, so they have come a long way! Buzz's relationship with Tank is still on shaky ground, but Tank brought his two oldest kids to the party. Tank is also friends with Ripp now. Tank made a big effort to repair that relationship when Ripp called him on his wedding day to congratulate him on his marriage to Almeric Davis, immediately after Buzz had disowned Tank and physically fought him for coming out as gay. That was a while ago, but these things take time.

Anyway, here's where the Grunts are now. Buzz and Kristen have had a surprisingly happy and faithful marriage, and she has been very helpful in Buzz's efforts to make up with his boys. Thanks to two good chance cards, they are the wealthiest family in Strangetown, but the house's furnishing have not been updated for the most part. They do own a vacation home in Three Lakes. Their daughter, and the reason for their marriage, is now in university.

Tank lives downtown with Almeric. They do not have a lot of money but are so happy together. Tank is pursuing his dream of being an all-star athlete, and Almeric recently got a job in law. They have two teen boys: Magnus, who is Fortune aspiration and looks just like Tank, and Turner, who is Knowledge aspiration and looks just like Almeric. Almeric recently had a surprise pregnancy, and now they have a daughter, Faith.

Ripp lives downtown in a big house with his found family. That consists of his long-time girlfriend from college, Fatima; Chloe Curious, who he is in a relationship with; Aldric Davis, Almeric's brother, Chloe's partner, and Ripp's best friend; and the twin boys who were the result of a one-night stand between Fatima and Aldric and were the reason all of them decided to live together in the first place. Ripp has no children, he's happily dating quite a few women on the side, and he is a professional artist. His girlfriend and Aldric are both musicians. Chloe does whatever.

Buck lives in the Smith house with his wife Jill and has taken the Smith name. His relationship for his part with his Dad is not great because he didn't approve of how Buzz treated his brothers, but he's too nice to tell Buzz that, so he always shows up for family gatherings but never brings his wife or kids. He is in the science career and has three children with Jill, all blond: Kimberly, a teen; Kelsey, a child; and Lucius, a toddler. That feels like enough children for them, but is so tempting for me to get him abducted by aliens and he always wants to stargaze.

My challenge is to let these three boys become elders and live out their lifetimes because I don't want to see them pass, but then I don't want them to just live forever either. I do like their kids and would like to see what happens to them, so maybe I will try. This does feel like my "canon" incarnation of Strangetown, kind of like my last playthrough of Veronaville became my canon for me--I couldn't imagine it going any other way.

Well, that's only what's been happening with the Grunts! There are many other families in Strangetown, but this is already long enough.