Hello everyone!

Once again, I must apologize for not getting a post out sooner. Let me just give you a little update on my end.

First off, I thought I’d give you all a pretty Sim to look at before we get into it. This is Grace Kildare, part of the first installment of Meet the Families, which is a companion to the main story Forever in Time. You can read about her in my previous post in case you missed it.

All is well here, just have been a little busy with other projects and some Spring/Summer cleaning. I decided to dig out my sewing machine and do a bit of sewing/quilting. It seems I have more patiewnce with it than I did years ago when I gave it a try and figured I was absolutely hopeless. LOL! I’m slow and have a lot of practicing to do, but I think there is hope for me yet. I went through a similar process when I picked crocheting back up as an adult after many an epic failed attempt to learn while in High School. Sometimes, something in the brain clicks and it works out better at a later time. Whatever it is, I’m embracing it. I’ve also been working on some knitting and crochet projects as I get time.

I think the big thing I should talk about is my Sims game, as that is a vital part of me getting my chapters and posts up. As you may have read sometime back, I was having major issues with my Sims 3 game. When EA forced our hand in using the new app and Origin was shut down, it really played havoc with my game. Basically, all my TS3 Store content disappeared; even the worlds I’d installed were no longer accessible. As you can imagine, that put a huge monkey-wrench into things. It’s hard to get screenshots when you can’t load your families to play or get screenshots. I won’t bore you with all the sordid details but the long and short of it is, after a LOT of cussing, a good amount of screaming, some tears, and many hours of research, I was able to fix it and at least load properly. Most of my content, with maybe the exception of a few pieces, is back. Such a relief! I still have yet to see how some other save files are affected. I have a lot of them and it’ll take time to check them all out and see what kind of shape they’re in. For the most part it seems, my story files are okay.

In the hullaballoo, I also had to redo my EA folder a bit. Some of my CC was giving my game indigestion, so that had to be seen to. Well, when I got that done, I thought my problems were over. WRONG!

Imagine being in CAS and trying to create some Sims both for personal and story use. I’d be going right along – CAS was running great with my fixing things and using the Smoothness Patch – and then…BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH! Yep, every darn time. I was beginning to wonder if the nightmare would EVER end. More cussing, growling and muttering darkly, and MORE research later, I was able to get the necessary driver updates to get things running as they should. At least I avoided the tears that time but barely just. So after all that, things seem to be running pretty well now. If there is one piece of advice I can give throughout this painful ordeal, it’s to backup, backup, backup! Backup your stuff fairly often. Many years ago, I learned the hard way that it’s a necessary MUST if there’s important and crucial things you want to keep. I’m quite certain my headaches would have been so much worse had I not backed up my folders several times over.

While all this was going on, I did manage to write up a few posts ahead of time. This means that all I have to do is make some small editing changes if need be, open the game and get screenshots, insert the screenshots, then post. Because of that, I should be able to get the next couple chapters, at least, out fairly quickly. There is so much story to tell, and I’m really chomping at the bit to get it posted.

I do have a couple things I’m planning in the meantime to keep you all going in between chapters of Forever in Time and all its supplementary parts. I have a 100 Baby Challenge I started a number of years ago that I made a separate blog for during my days on Blogspot. It’s mainly screenshots with just a bit of commentary, which can be published quite quickly. I’ve called it Kira’s Keep and I’m thinking about moving it over here and continuing it. It will be labeled accordingly so as not to be confused with my other stories. Although you may see characters from that series show up in Forever in Time and vice versa, the two are set in completely different “universes.” Kira’s Keep is more of a lighthearted commentary – no story elements as we know it – and most Sims are there for one purpose alone – to be baby daddies!

Another idea I have that I’m still mulling over is to incorporate Tarot and Oracle readings for characters. I have a rather large collection of Tarot and Oracle decks and love using them for many purposes, including as a writing tool. What I have in mind is to have a Sim (perhaps maybe a witchy lady who owns a small magical/alchemy shop) who will do readings for other Sims. There’s SO much I can do with this with my own characters, but it would be fun to make it more interactive, like doing readings for others’ Sims upon request. I’d have to work out the details and probably make a little questionnaire to fill out. Photos won’t be fancy – just the reader, a picture or two of the Sim client, and a picture of the cards and spread. The rest would be text to explain the reading. To participate when/if this goes interactive, you would not have to give/send me your Sim but a picture would be nice. I likely won’t do screenshots of clients in the shop since we all use different games; you can’t bring Sims 4 Sims into Sims 3 and so forth.

As I said, this will take some thinking and a bit of doing, but I love the opportunity to practice and improve my reading skills and this would be a great outlet to do it. I’d love to hear what you all think. Also, please note that religion/religious debate regarding the tarot will not be permitted here. This is a very sore subject for a lot of religious folks, so if it’s something that makes you uncomfortable, I’d highly suggest skipping over those posts when/if I get this going. I’m a big proponent and firm believer that an inanimate object itself is not evil and that something becomes evil only if used for nefarious purposes. Even then, it’s the intent behind it and not the object that is evil, as it cannot act of its own accord.

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough. I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your week.

Happy Simming!