This picture was inspired by a series of references to how Phil buys houseplants for their apartment without Dan's permission and Dan doesn't approve. I found it oddly amusing and this picture was born from that amusement.
Friday, 14 November 2014
Dan, Phil and Cowplant
This picture was inspired by a series of references to how Phil buys houseplants for their apartment without Dan's permission and Dan doesn't approve. I found it oddly amusing and this picture was born from that amusement.
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
NaNoWriMo
My chances of actually finishing are pretty slim, simply because I start writing exams on the 1st and don't finish until the 19th. But I have a story; I'm working on an outline, filling in pre-made character sheets and just planning everything out as best as I can. I want to do this.
To make it, I'm going to have to write a minimum of 1,667 words a day, but just because I'm working on building a writing routine, I'm going to aim for 2,000. This is the number I aim for when I'm writing a chapter of a story I post on Wattpad and if I aim just a little bit higher than suggested, I'll be safe.
Here's to hoping that my meagre little YA story will come to exist because of NaNoWriMo. Good luck everyone! May the pen actually be mightier than the sword!
For more info on this event, check out nanowrimo.org.
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Webcomics Worth Getting Addicted To
Letting yourself get lost in a good story is always a
great way to relax, but sometimes there just isn’t time to get through a long
book or even to go watch the latest blockbuster. The solution? Webcomics.
They’re prettier to look at than any page in a book
(unless of course it’s a graphic novel
or something with lots of illustrations), some of them update daily and
the character are so interesting, why
would you want to hang out with real people when you have them?
Here’s a list of the top 5 Webcomics I’ve fallen in
love with over the years:
5. Monster Soup
This comic tells the tale of five monsters sent to a
remote castle as punishment for the crimes they’ve committed. A zombie, a
witch, a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf all have no choice but to spend some
time in each other’s company, learning a lot about each other, themselves, and
at the same time uncovering some of the secrets their new home holds.
The creator of the comic is self-taught artist, Julie
Devin, who updates the comic whenever she can. The readers don’t mind this up in
the air scheduling though, because each page is just too beautifully
illustrated for us to care.
It’s dark and a little graphic at times, but it’s a
compelling story and something you can get lost in.
4.
Questionable Content
Questionable content is, according to its creator
Jeph Jacques, a comic about romance, indie rock, little robots, and the
problems people have.
The comic updates daily from Monday to Friday and
follows the lives of several characters, including Marten Reed, who was
introduced back in 2003 when the comic first began and is the closest thing to
a protagonist the comic has.
It may take a while to get through everything if you
want to start reading it from the start, but it will be a fun trip and even
more fun to see how Jeph’s art style has improved over the years.
3. Girls With Slingshots
Girls With Slingshots follows its two main
characters, Hazel and Jamie, through all their crazy misadventures and the
struggles they face in their adult life. The comic also dives into the lives of
Hazel and Jamie’s close friends and their own experiences.
Artist and creator, Danielle Corsetto, debuted the
comic in 2004. It started out as a black-and-white comic, but eventually grew
into the colourful quirkiness the readers know and love today.
This comic features quite a few adult themes, but isn’t
graphic in any way. The characters are not only likeable, but also really
relatable at the best of times.
2. Nimona
We start off in the lair of the evil Lord Ballister
Blackheart, a man with a head full of not-so-evil schemes. Enter Nimona, the
second main character and also the comics namesake. Calamity, heartache and
hilarity ensue.
Noelle Stevenson is the creator of this delightful
piece of art that updates every Tuesday and Thursday. Noelle, also known as
Gingerhaze, also happens to be the illustrator of one of my favourite books, Fangirl.
This is a story that needs to be read from the
beginning to understand what’s going on, so chronological order is the best way
to go. If you’re in the mood for great characters, fantasy and sci-fi all mixed
together, Nimona might be the comic for you.
1.
Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World follow Sweden, Denmark and
Norway, personified as their most common stereotypes, as they interact with (or
more often than not, offend) other countries.
The creator of this comic works under an alias, known
as ‘Humon’. The comic was first seen back in 2009 and has branched out
considerably over the years to include many other countries. It is now also
being turned into an animated series.
What makes this comic a fantastic read, is the fact
that it is often inspired by current events that are illustrated satirically.
It also delves back into the history of these countries, telling the story of conflicts
or relationships between countries by making it ridiculously funny.
Monday, 6 October 2014
Useful Tumblr Keyboard Shortcuts
Tumblr, a microblogging website owned by Yahoo, might be one of the most addictive websites on the internet. It's easy to get lost in a dashboard full of funny, relatable content. Also, Gifs. Well made Gifs are what make the world go round. But that's only my opinion.
If you're going to be spending a lot of time on the website, it only make sense that you'd want to be a pro at navigating your way around it. Here are a few shortcuts to make your time on Tumblr easier.
If you're going to be spending a lot of time on the website, it only make sense that you'd want to be a pro at navigating your way around it. Here are a few shortcuts to make your time on Tumblr easier.
Press J to move forward through posts, K to go in backwards, L to like the current post, and N to see the current post's notes.
Press Option/Alt + R to reblog a post instantly, without adding tags.
Press Option/Alt + E to add a post to your Queue. Keep you queue settings in mind for this one.
Press the Spacebar to view photosets in a lightbox (photos separate from the rest of the dashboard) or start playing a video.
Press Option/Alt + C to make a new post.
Press Option/Alt + Tab to quickly and easily switch between your Dashboard and your blog(s).
Huzzah! There you have the tips to help make your Tumblr experience more streamline.
How To Fold A Paper Plane
Imagine sitting alone in an office. You have ten minutes left before you can leave work, but nothing to occupy that time. There are papers strewn across your desk, all destined for the shredder. What better way to use them than to make them fly? It may not be the most professional use of your time, but it will make you, and probably a few of your coworkers, very happy for a few minutes.
In this post, you will learn how to fold a basic paper aeroplane, the thing of childhood wonder.
Step 1:
Take an A4 piece of paper and fold it in half length-wise.
Step 2:
Open up the paper. Now take the top two corners and fold them into the centre.
Step 3:
Fold the paper in half again, with the smaller corner fold tucked inside.
Step 4:
Take the shorter side of the paper (As illustrated above in Step 3) and fold it down on top of the longer side.
Step 5 (Optional):
To make the plane a little more child friendly, fold the tip into itself. This way, if it does end up in someone's eye, it will cause less damage and be significantly less painful.
Now you have a basic paper aeroplane!
What's great about this design is that it's easy, you can make it more kid-friendly, and it stays in the air for quite a while.
This won't only ease your own boredom. It's also the perfect activity to do on a babysitting job or if you are helping small(ish) children develop their motor-skills.
For more aerodynamic paper structures, check out Fold N Fly.
In this post, you will learn how to fold a basic paper aeroplane, the thing of childhood wonder.
Step 1:Take an A4 piece of paper and fold it in half length-wise.
Open up the paper. Now take the top two corners and fold them into the centre.
Fold the paper in half again, with the smaller corner fold tucked inside.
Take the shorter side of the paper (As illustrated above in Step 3) and fold it down on top of the longer side.
Step 5 (Optional):
To make the plane a little more child friendly, fold the tip into itself. This way, if it does end up in someone's eye, it will cause less damage and be significantly less painful.
Now you have a basic paper aeroplane!
What's great about this design is that it's easy, you can make it more kid-friendly, and it stays in the air for quite a while.
This won't only ease your own boredom. It's also the perfect activity to do on a babysitting job or if you are helping small(ish) children develop their motor-skills.
For more aerodynamic paper structures, check out Fold N Fly.
How To Organize Your Life With The Clear App
Life can get pretty hectic. When this happens and everything piles up, it's hard to figure out where to grab and where to drop things, but some things are more important than others. Because everyone lives on their mobile phones anyway, why not use an app to to help you get your life in order? The Clear app is a to-do list style app that helps you get - and stay - organised.The Breakdown
Make a list of your daily tasks in order of what needs to get done first.
The colour scheme of the heat map theme's lists makes this more appealing. The things that need to get done first should be at the top and in red. The lower down the list you get, the lighter the colours are.
This order in which you put your tasks is called prioritising.
See? You did it!
As soon as you've completed a task, just swipe it left and let the delightful ding make you feel good about how productive you've been.
You can also turn this list into a weekly one. Whatever works for you.
Bigger Picture
Here is where your monthly goals go.
It is exactly the same concept as the daily tasks list, only the goals are bigger and for the most part, the order in which you complete them is not as priority centred.
Why This Works
What also makes this system fantastic, are the quotes you get when you create a new list. They boost your motivation and inspire you to actually complete the things on your list.
Bucket lists, to-do lists, lists of ideas... If you need an app to make a list of things, Clear is the app for you.
Thursday, 18 September 2014
I Am An Adult
On Sunday I will be 20-years-old. I will have been alive for two decades. That's 7305 days, 175320 hours, 10519200 minutes and 631152000 seconds. I can’t even really wrap my head around those numbers, but I do know that it is a pretty long time.Here’s the thing though. I don't want to pass 19 years. Not that I want to end it there, I just don't want to have any of the responsibilities that come with going into the second decade. I want to stay around 166550 hours or so.
It's such a great age, because according to law and, like, social norms, I'm an adult. I can swear, I can drink alcoholic beverages, I can drive, I can vote, I can have sex (Not that that makes it more likely to happen). But according to life and numbers and general societal perceptions of maturity, I'm still a teen, so I can blame my mistakes on my lack of life experience and raging adolescent hormones. But when I turn twenty, the game changes completely.
Apparently, being twenty means being an adult and being an adult means I’m not allowed to do certain things anymore because of age.
Suddenly...
I’m too old for video games.
I’m too old for cartoons.
I’m too old for toys.
I’m too old to eat irresponsibly.
I’m too old to like things that were intended for children.
I’m too old to like superheroes this much.
And also, I can't like superheroes this much because I’m a girl. (Insert middle finger here).
Well, you know what I say? I say fuck that. Age has nothing to do with it. (Or gender). It’s about what I enjoy; it’s about what makes me happy when I’m feeling down. It’s about what makes me feel like I’m on top of the world.
So, screw it. As long as I’m happy, 20 won’t be so bad.
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
I ♥ Books: Paper Towns by John Green
Author: John Green
Pages: 305
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2014)
Summary
Quentin is a senior in high school who spends most of his time doing normal teenager things, like preparing for college, playing video games with his two best friends and obsessing over the adventurous girl next door who he used to think he knew. One night she drags him along on one of her adventures and never shows up at school the next day, leaving it up to Q to unravel the mystery that is Margo Roth Spiegelman.
Discussion
I loved this book, but in a weird way. I actually discussed this with a friend after she'd read it too and we were both torn about the ending. It was just a little unsatisfying. But now, months after actually reading the book, I realised that it is perhaps my favourite John Green book of all time, because of the supporting characters and road trip alone.
My one true critique of this book though would have to be Quentin and Margo. Quentin's fixation with Margo was a little awkward to read sometimes, but then the clues he pieced together helped me get over it. There were a few pages in which I hated Margo, because of reasons. Also, Quentin Jacobsen, Colin Singleton, and Miles Halter are all the exact same person. Or at least that's how I feel now that I know them all okay enough to compare them. The same goes for Margo, Alaska and most of the Katherines. In terms of those relationships, it's been pretty two-dimensional, but that's where the side characters swoop in and save everything.
The side characters in this were just the absolute best. They were all just really funny and endearing and real. I genuinely wanted to be friends with them, because they can just turn anything into a good time. Radar was someone I would have exploited in high school. His homework and mine would be strikingly similar. Ben though... Ben was just a barrel of laughs. If I'd known him in real life, he would probably annoy me a little bit, but then I would get over it and realise that he's actually a really fun guy.
Favourite Line
This part: “Poetry is just so emo." he said. "Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul.”
Also the made-to-quote lines, like “That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking your breakfast cereals based on colour instead of taste.” and “The town was paper, but the memories were not.”
Verdict
The sense of adventure and mystery in this story was so wonderful. It made me feel better about my own dull life, which is always great. That aside, this was a really great book full of fantastic characters. 5/5, will read again.
Rating
Saturday, 13 September 2014
The Lonesome Crowded West
I have this weird habit of listening to Modest Mouse when I'm feeling existential. I think it's a pretty good match.
I'm planning on getting my first tattoo at the end of the year; two paper planes on my right ankle. Paper planes have a ton of cool symbolic meanings, but they're also just something that immediately remind me of my childhood.
While I save for this tattoo, I figured I'd look up all the different things this tattoo could mean. Then I remembered a song. It was a Modest Mouse song I'd stumbled upon a very long time ago while I was browsing through their work and for the life of me, I couldn't remember the name. For some reason I thought that the song contained the words 'paper planes', but when I eventually found it I realised that he was actually singing 'a paper plate'.
That's a pretty big difference and not just physically. The song is called Trailer Trash off of their album The Lonesome Crowded West and quite possibly the worst thing to listen to when you're feeling down on yourself.
It was pretty hard for me to figure out why I liked this song so much and I why I wanted it to add some kind of extra meaning to my tattoo. Maybe because I'm a little pretentious that way, but it ultimately won't contribute anything to my tattoo. It will just be a song; A song by a band I love very much and whose music means a lot to me. Heck, their songs Float On and Dashboard helped me through a rough patch in high school. This is the only way in which the paper plate song will mean anything to me and that's perfectly fine.
I don't need anything else to validate my tattoo or my choices, because the meaning I gave it myself is already enough.
I'm planning on getting my first tattoo at the end of the year; two paper planes on my right ankle. Paper planes have a ton of cool symbolic meanings, but they're also just something that immediately remind me of my childhood.
While I save for this tattoo, I figured I'd look up all the different things this tattoo could mean. Then I remembered a song. It was a Modest Mouse song I'd stumbled upon a very long time ago while I was browsing through their work and for the life of me, I couldn't remember the name. For some reason I thought that the song contained the words 'paper planes', but when I eventually found it I realised that he was actually singing 'a paper plate'.
That's a pretty big difference and not just physically. The song is called Trailer Trash off of their album The Lonesome Crowded West and quite possibly the worst thing to listen to when you're feeling down on yourself.
It was pretty hard for me to figure out why I liked this song so much and I why I wanted it to add some kind of extra meaning to my tattoo. Maybe because I'm a little pretentious that way, but it ultimately won't contribute anything to my tattoo. It will just be a song; A song by a band I love very much and whose music means a lot to me. Heck, their songs Float On and Dashboard helped me through a rough patch in high school. This is the only way in which the paper plate song will mean anything to me and that's perfectly fine.
I don't need anything else to validate my tattoo or my choices, because the meaning I gave it myself is already enough.
Friday, 29 August 2014
There's No Place Like YouTube
Here's the thing... YouTube has been my primary source of entertainment for a little over two years now and not only is my love for it blossoming into something beautiful, but watching and making YouTube videos gets more and more popular every day.
YouTube itself as a platform allows for anyone with an account to post videos and this creates a variety of genres to choose from. The great thing about having an account as a viewer is that your watch history gets logged and you get video suggestions on this. Being subscribed to content creators also makes it easy to stay up to date on all your favourite YouTubers' updates and activities on the website. You never miss any new videos this way.
The many different categories or genres of YouTube videos make sure that there is something for everyone. To give you a better idea, here are a few of my favourite YouTubers from a few different categories.
Booktubing
Booktubers dedicate their time and videos to the appreciation of books. They review, discuss, recommend and showcase books.
booksandquills
This lovely Dutch lady got me excited about reading again. Sanne Vliegenthart is currently a digital coordinator at Hot Key Books, but in her free time she reviews books on her YouTube channel: booksandquills.
She is also quite famous for her fondness of John Green's The Fault in Ours Stars, having written her university thesis on it.
Some of her most popular videos include: Top Ten Books of 2012, Wreck This Journal and her Bookshelf Tour.
Little Book Owl
This lovely human being is an Australian booktuber named Catriona. Not only is she interesting to look at with her bright hair and rad makeup, but her enthusiasm for the books she reads is contagious.
She participates in a lot of tag videos, but it doesn't take away from her appeal or originality.
A few of my favorite videos of hers' are her TBR Jar, WHERE I BUY BOOKS and her 2013 Bookshelf Tour videos.
Booktube is fantastic for getting book recommendations. You also get to hear other people talk about books you might love or books you might hate and get a second opinion. Another great thing booktubers do, is bookshelf tours, which is a fantastic thing to watch if you dream of your having your own personal library one day, like me.
Let's Play
Let's Play is mainly video game play-throughs with commentary.
PewDiePie
His real name is Felix and he makes funny gaming videos. With over 30 million subscribers as of August this year, he has the largest number of subscribers on YouTube.
He is most famous for his horror game playthroughs because of his reactions to it. This began with Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
I have too many favorite PewDiePie videos. The guy just has SO much content. Some of the ones I really liked were FLAPPY BIRD - DON'T PLAY THIS GAME!, Skate 3 - FUNNY MOMENTS - Part 1 and Master Surgeon! (PewDiePie Animated).
Cryaotic
We call him Cry and we love his voice. The best things about Cry are his love of a good story and his mystery. By mystery I mean that no one knows what he looks like, but his voice is fantastic enough that we don't care.
He's best known for the series' he plays.
The best series' he's done are The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and The Last of Us.
Other fantastic games to check out are Broken Age, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons and Papo & Yo.
Let's Play videos have gotten a lot of criticism since PewDiePie's fame. Many people argue that there's nothing entertaining or talented about someone playing a video game, but in reality being able to make someone laugh or cry with witty one-liners or the way you react to games is a talent. In his PewDiePie Reacts To: Elders React To: PewDiePie... video, PewDiePie compared watching walkthroughs to sport when the elders asked why you would watch someone else playing video games if you could just do it yourself.
Vlogging
Vlogging, or video blogging, is the format of choice for many content creators. It's easier and cheaper than bigger productions or Let's Play videos because it requires a lot less time and equipment.
danisnotonfire
He tells us about his embarrassing life and we stare at his face and laugh. Dan Howell is the subject of millions of fangirls' affection and also an icon in British YouTube culture.
He lives with his best friend Phil Lester and after both of their success on YouTube, the two were offered a radio show on BBC Radio 1 that aired on Sunday evenings until the 24th of August, 2014. The show will be moved to Monday nights at the same time.
His most popular videos are: How To Speak INTERNET, THE PHOTO BOOTH CHALLENGE and I Will Go Down With This Ship.
ItsWayPastMyBedTime
Carrie Hope Fletcher is the human incarnation of sunshine and happy things. She also has the voice of an angelic choir. That is right. Her voice not equal to that of just one angel, but many angels.
She stars in the West End production of Les Miserables as Eponine and she does a very good job at it. Her trademark is her wild blond hair, but she is also known for her easygoing honesty and sincerity in her videos.
A few of her best videos are Taking Over Tom's House, Love is On The Radio Hopeful Live mix and The Guilty Biscuit.
What makes vlogs in particular so entertaining is the fact that vloggers are more often than not regular people talking about their own personal experiences. The element of relatability draws an audience, because hearing someone else's opinions on experiences you've had yourself make you feel like there's someone out there who gets you. They understand the everyday struggle, because they've been there themselves.
And there is your taste of the wonderful world of YouTube. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg though. I haven't covered beauty vlogging, daily vlogging, educational videos or animation in this post, but know that there is much more than just this.
From what I've shown you in terms of the fact that four of these people live in the UK, it's probably easy to gather that the UK has a very rich variety of content creators.
An interesting series to check out for more information on YouTube content and culture, specifically in the UK, go check out Becoming YouTube.
YouTube itself as a platform allows for anyone with an account to post videos and this creates a variety of genres to choose from. The great thing about having an account as a viewer is that your watch history gets logged and you get video suggestions on this. Being subscribed to content creators also makes it easy to stay up to date on all your favourite YouTubers' updates and activities on the website. You never miss any new videos this way.
The many different categories or genres of YouTube videos make sure that there is something for everyone. To give you a better idea, here are a few of my favourite YouTubers from a few different categories.
Booktubing
Booktubers dedicate their time and videos to the appreciation of books. They review, discuss, recommend and showcase books.
 |
| booksandquills |
This lovely Dutch lady got me excited about reading again. Sanne Vliegenthart is currently a digital coordinator at Hot Key Books, but in her free time she reviews books on her YouTube channel: booksandquills.
She is also quite famous for her fondness of John Green's The Fault in Ours Stars, having written her university thesis on it.
Some of her most popular videos include: Top Ten Books of 2012, Wreck This Journal and her Bookshelf Tour.
 |
| Little Book Owl |
This lovely human being is an Australian booktuber named Catriona. Not only is she interesting to look at with her bright hair and rad makeup, but her enthusiasm for the books she reads is contagious.
She participates in a lot of tag videos, but it doesn't take away from her appeal or originality.
A few of my favorite videos of hers' are her TBR Jar, WHERE I BUY BOOKS and her 2013 Bookshelf Tour videos.
Booktube is fantastic for getting book recommendations. You also get to hear other people talk about books you might love or books you might hate and get a second opinion. Another great thing booktubers do, is bookshelf tours, which is a fantastic thing to watch if you dream of your having your own personal library one day, like me.
Let's Play
Let's Play is mainly video game play-throughs with commentary.
 |
| PewDiePie |
His real name is Felix and he makes funny gaming videos. With over 30 million subscribers as of August this year, he has the largest number of subscribers on YouTube.
He is most famous for his horror game playthroughs because of his reactions to it. This began with Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
I have too many favorite PewDiePie videos. The guy just has SO much content. Some of the ones I really liked were FLAPPY BIRD - DON'T PLAY THIS GAME!, Skate 3 - FUNNY MOMENTS - Part 1 and Master Surgeon! (PewDiePie Animated).
 |
| Cryaotic |
We call him Cry and we love his voice. The best things about Cry are his love of a good story and his mystery. By mystery I mean that no one knows what he looks like, but his voice is fantastic enough that we don't care.
He's best known for the series' he plays.
The best series' he's done are The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and The Last of Us.
Other fantastic games to check out are Broken Age, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons and Papo & Yo.
Let's Play videos have gotten a lot of criticism since PewDiePie's fame. Many people argue that there's nothing entertaining or talented about someone playing a video game, but in reality being able to make someone laugh or cry with witty one-liners or the way you react to games is a talent. In his PewDiePie Reacts To: Elders React To: PewDiePie... video, PewDiePie compared watching walkthroughs to sport when the elders asked why you would watch someone else playing video games if you could just do it yourself.
Vlogging
Vlogging, or video blogging, is the format of choice for many content creators. It's easier and cheaper than bigger productions or Let's Play videos because it requires a lot less time and equipment.
.jpg) |
| danisnotonfire |
He tells us about his embarrassing life and we stare at his face and laugh. Dan Howell is the subject of millions of fangirls' affection and also an icon in British YouTube culture.
He lives with his best friend Phil Lester and after both of their success on YouTube, the two were offered a radio show on BBC Radio 1 that aired on Sunday evenings until the 24th of August, 2014. The show will be moved to Monday nights at the same time.
His most popular videos are: How To Speak INTERNET, THE PHOTO BOOTH CHALLENGE and I Will Go Down With This Ship.
 |
| Carrie Hope Fletcher |
Carrie Hope Fletcher is the human incarnation of sunshine and happy things. She also has the voice of an angelic choir. That is right. Her voice not equal to that of just one angel, but many angels.
She stars in the West End production of Les Miserables as Eponine and she does a very good job at it. Her trademark is her wild blond hair, but she is also known for her easygoing honesty and sincerity in her videos.
A few of her best videos are Taking Over Tom's House, Love is On The Radio Hopeful Live mix and The Guilty Biscuit.
What makes vlogs in particular so entertaining is the fact that vloggers are more often than not regular people talking about their own personal experiences. The element of relatability draws an audience, because hearing someone else's opinions on experiences you've had yourself make you feel like there's someone out there who gets you. They understand the everyday struggle, because they've been there themselves.
And there is your taste of the wonderful world of YouTube. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg though. I haven't covered beauty vlogging, daily vlogging, educational videos or animation in this post, but know that there is much more than just this.
From what I've shown you in terms of the fact that four of these people live in the UK, it's probably easy to gather that the UK has a very rich variety of content creators.
An interesting series to check out for more information on YouTube content and culture, specifically in the UK, go check out Becoming YouTube.
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
Get Your Sim On
Firstly, let me just say that I am super excited to actually play the full game at some point in the future. The Create-a-Sim Demo was enough to send me into a fit of happy bounces.
So, from what I've heard, a lot has changed in the Sim world, the most notable being that there won't be pools and toddlers anymore. I get that this is upsetting. I am upset about this myself, but I can appreciate all the other details they've added by giving toddlers and pools a miss. I like the idea that my Sims will actually have personalities this time and that those personalities will dictate their lives in a way the previous games couldn't do. However, I'm really going to miss the toddlers. Changing straight into children from babies just seems weird... and painful. The pools I can get over, because drowning my Sims hasn't been my go-to murder method since the Sims 3 came out back in 2009. I'm looking forward to seeing what new ways of killing Sims there are in the new game, if there are any.
I also heard that there won't be create-a-style or a color wheel in the game, which is honestly going to suck, because I've gotten really used to that in the Sims 3. It only makes sense that some elements had to be cut for the new system to work though.
As far as the looks of the new Sims go, I've heard a lot of people complain about their cartoonishness. Personally, I like it. I've always been a fan of cartoons in general, so I don't mind my Sims being a little less realistic. They're not called humans for a reason. I feel that if people insist on having a more 'realistic' experience, they should just go outside and stare at people on the street. The Sims is just that. A simulation. For the hardcore Simmers who just won't be able to get over this, I've already seen mods pop up to change certain things, particularly the eyes. There were complaints that the available eye colors are too saturated, so there are mods available now to fix that. They replace the original colors and don't add to the pallet of colors for more variety though, which is kind of a bummer.
In the end it doesn't really matter. When the game comes out, I'm only going to play it for, like, the first few weeks and then forget about it. Alas, that is the life cycle of a Sims game.
Monday, 18 August 2014
A brief, disappointing intro to Siridian Falls
I realised that I haven't actually posted my art on here in what feels like a very, very long time and if I'm being honest, it's because I've been in a drawing rut for most of that time. A few months ago, I came up with the perfect fantasy comic story idea and I planned out the characters to the very last detail. But then it happened. My laptop, with the 14 page outline of the story arcs and character designs, was wiped clean.
I'm not sure how it happened or why, but my Macbook somehow formatted itself and I lost everything on it. So I gave up on that idea. Well, not entirely. I still have the most important details in my head, but I just can't make myself write everything down again. I'm just not a big fan of doing the same thing twice.
But wait! I had a little bit of luck on my side. I'd saved a few pictures on deviantArt and for once I was very grateful for having that account.
So there you have two of the three main characters. Alas, I did not save a picture of the third on deviantArt. I did save a picture of him on Tumblr, but that picture is not nearly pretty enough to earn its place here.
I'm not sure how it happened or why, but my Macbook somehow formatted itself and I lost everything on it. So I gave up on that idea. Well, not entirely. I still have the most important details in my head, but I just can't make myself write everything down again. I'm just not a big fan of doing the same thing twice.
But wait! I had a little bit of luck on my side. I'd saved a few pictures on deviantArt and for once I was very grateful for having that account.
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| Nelle, The Thief |
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| Roald, The Bastard |
To give you an idea of what I planned for this comic, let me tell you the story of a far away land...
There once was a prosperous city, nestled between mountains in a beautiful valley. The king was a great ruler with a penchant for magic. As time passed, the king's love of magic overwhelmed him and he became hungry for power. He chose to consort with dark wizards, who only led him further from the path of righteousness. So his power grew and as it did, soon he was no longer the king his people knew. He became a monster. The only way to stop him was to destroy him with magic of equal strength and so every mage in the kingdom came together and sacrificed themselves to save the people, destroying the evil king and themselves. All the riches within the castle was lost with them.
Today, people speak of it as the Old Kingdom, but in its prime it was called Siridia.
Blah, blah, blah, adventure, blah. The three main characters set out and risk their lives to get this treasure. The thief wants the gold, because duh. The bastard wants to make it out of the city alive, because he wants to prove to his dad that he's more useful than everyone thinks. And the third character, a woodcutter, wants the gold because he wants to treat his elderly mother. Also, he wants an adventure, because in the same place your whole life is unbelievably dull.
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| Nelle in a shady forest looking surprised. |
There you have it! A taste of something that might never come to fruition. I do hope I can pick up this project again at some point. I'm rather fond of the characters.
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