<snip>
Post by s***@deathquaker.orgMy muse is Terpsichore, because the muses associated with writing and
poetry were too busy to bother with me. So I tend to want to get up
and boogie when I have an idea for a story.
It always annoyed me that there was never a Muse of painting. Maybe the
ancient Greeks considered painting as "craft", not as "art"? *fooey*
I think it's largely because the Muses are associated as a whole with
*poetic* art--even Terp while generally considered the muse of dance
also is associated with choral song. All of them have some association
with verbal/musical expression in some way (although Urania is a bit
of an outlier).
And they would all ultimately be associated with Apollo, god of music
and poetry.
The other fine arts, the more physical ones like sculpting, weaving,
etc. would be associated with Athena. (And the more practical crafts
with Hephaistos).
Post by s***@deathquaker.orgI briefly found similar inspiration when I just wanted clean off my
hard drive of old stuff and was opening things to remember what they
were.
Oh yeah. "What does *this* file name possibly mean?"
*lol* Exactly.
Or three almost similar ones, like "Anthy-Mikage Thing," "Anthy Mikage
Other Thing", "Anthy Mikage and the Kitchen Sink."
(And no, none of those are romances involving Anthy and Mikage. They
were just significant characters in the plot.)
Post by s***@deathquaker.orgPost by E. LiddellPost by s***@deathquaker.orgI did finally finish that R.O.D fic I was working on awhile ago. If more
of my beta readers would get back to me, that would be good. *wonders if
Milo is reading and if she would want to look at it again, now that it's
finished*
A bunch of people at the livejournal read or die community volunteered
to beta but were antsy about giving me their email address, so I have
http://www.angelfire.com/id/deathquaker/rod/beta.html
Got it! Thanks. We'll see what happens when I have something to send
back to you. This new machine has Office 2007, but I'm sure we can find
the compatible file format if you don't have Vista yet.
Actually, there is a compatibility upgrade for Windows 2003, so I can
(theoretically) open Office 2007 files. Although if you can save it
as .doc rather than .docx that'd probably still be preferable.
<snip>
Post by s***@deathquaker.orgPost by E. Liddell(I'm currently in the middle of experimenting with the current season's
new anime offerings. Finally, another season of Slayers!)
Yes! I am excited about that. Of course, the old question rears its
head: will Amelia and Naga ever appear on screen at the same time? :)
I think these episodes have arrived at our house
Wait, is the new Slayers series actually OUT? *runs to look*
but we've been watching through "Kamichu" (a very cute story)
I *love* Kamichu, and I discovered it immediately after declaring to
myself, "I am NEVER, EVER watching ANOTHER anime about a junior high
school girl with special powers who can't tell the boy she likes she
likes him, blah blah blah."
But it's nicely original (it's made by the R.O.D people dontchaknow),
and perhaps I prefer the moe-moe/seinen style to shoujo (though
obviously, I love good shoujo--*nods at Utena*).
And before I forget: I think in an earlier post you mentioned that you
now had Utena characters for Sims 2? I really want to see the pics!
I will get some uploaded when I get a chance. Bug me if I don't post
in a few days.
And any Sims 2 you've done for R.O.D. too.
This badly needs updating, but here's some (warning, there's a little
silly shoujo-ai nonsense within, although I will note that much of it
was on the autonomous part of my Sims. Mostly.):
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=80302
I have some better pics and have tried working on some custom outfits.
Do you find it more difficult to create customized characters in Sims 2?
Yes and no. The base game+expansions come with enough hair and
clothes, and the face creation system is very detailed, so you can
make a lot of detailed Sims even without making or downloading a lot
of custom stuff.
Making custom skins is harder, or rather more time-consuming, because
you have more files to deal with. Hair can be especially annoying
because there are multiple files to change and for every age group,
though if all you're doing is changing the color, you can go through
it relatively quickly. The offset is that you can obviously make more
detailed skins and patterns. You can also *mildly* change the shape of
some of the hair and clothes by editing the alpha pattern--nothing
major, but say if I wanted to make a haircut a little shorter, I can
alter a file so that the bottom of the hair doesn't show up (but I
can't, say, add bangs if they aren't already there--that requires mesh
editing).
Some things are harder to do than others. Recolors are as always easy;
altering patterns takes a lot of time--you can make something that you
think will look fantastic only to have it show up on the 3-D model
weird. You can do custom face makeup which is really easy--I made a
bindi for Anthy in about 5 minutes. Custom eye colors are fairly easy
too.
I know nothing about editing/making custom meshes, though I imagine
likewise it's similar--a few more files to edit, more details to add.
If I had time/patience to learn 3-D editing I'd go for it.
The games all come with a "body shop" that allows you to export any
Sims files you want to edit into a nice neat package you can open up
with a graphics editor, and allow you to preview your work--it's easy
to switch between your graphic editor and the body shop to see how
your changes look on a 3-D model. The only downside to the body shop
is it takes FOREVER to load--and my machine while by today's standards
is getting old, is well beyond what it takes to run Sims 2 products.
That said, once it loads it's fine--I think the idea is it loads
everything up front, so then once you're in the program the speed is
normal.
I haven't gotten the game yet, although now that I'm passing through my upgrade travails,
it may be time.
There are a few package deals out now--I think there's a couple
different deluxe versions that will give you the base game plus a few
expansion packs.
Warning--I realize you are far more computer savvy to worry about
this, but I feel the need to note: the later expansion packs (Bon
Voyage and Free Time) employ versions of the copy protection software
SecuROM which has been known to cause some various problems on PCs--
disabling CD burning software and the like (some folks have had
problems running the game for just having run-of-the-mill, came-with-
the-PC-when-I-bought-it CD creation software on their PCs). The
version that comes with FreeTime (that is updated with a patch to be
even more) is especially belligerent, though mostly ironed out with
patches at this point. It runs fine on my comp, but you should be
aware.
A good deal of the Sims-fan backlash towards SecuROM is WAY more
hysterical than is warranted, but it should be known, as many of the
problems had are legit. I have friends who computer pros who don't
want to deal with SecuROM and don't want it on their machines (I think
largely because of the rootkit factor).
The final expansion, Apartment Life is apparently coming with an even
more "protective" version that restricts numbers of installations and
the like.
That said, the first several expansions (University, Nightlife, Open
for Business, Pets, Seasons) use the less invasive SafeDisk and are
fantastic (I especially love Seasons). There are "stuff packs" too; I
think "Teen Style" was the first to have SecuROM on it.
On the other hand, Bon Voyage has a TON of Japanese stuff (wallpapers,
new roofs, kimonos, etc.), and Free Time's hobbies and hobby items are
a lot of fun, so it's something to weigh. The Sims2 site is opening up
a store where you can buy individual items from expansion and stuff
packs that you don't own; that might be a solution if you didn't want
the full expansions but wanted some of the stuff.
And all of this is more than you probably wanted to know, but there we
are.
DQ
