Simmish Cultures

I was asked to give a little bit more detail about my simmish cultures and heritages of my simmies. I love learning about different cultures and since the world is full of them, here are a few of the current cultures in my hood. There will be more cultures as I delve deeper into my simmies lives and build the corresponding locales for them to visit as well. Feel free to steal/borrow/use these in your games as well. I hope to start adding downloads of the buildings in the future for those who are interested in recreating the locales in their game.

Inherited Cultures
These are cultures that I inherited from other simmers when their sims moved to my hood.

Sokitumi-Nicole Humphrey was originally from Sokitumi, an island nation that had several goddesses including the famed goddess of love, Goddess Lahubutaniya and the god, Anghj. This simmer did an excellant job of fleshing out Sokitumi from native words such as Melihari (hello), government names (Peaceful Regency) and a beautiful background. To hear this simmer discuss Sokitumi it seemed like a magical society untouched by modern spoils. You can check out Nicole's former blog and Nicole and Lyndon's conversations for more insight on this culture. I created Sokitumi on one the islands of my tropical subhood which uses the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. Sokitumi is also the only tropical island where the default Maxis tropical vacation clothing makes sense.

Simborough-Sandy Warwick and Jadhira Shazad arrived in Apple Valley after a Gender Swap with Simborough. Simborough is a FSBS hood and because this simmer is from the UK, that's what I envisioned Simborough as. You should browse through the website and learn more about Simborough's multicultural hood.

Native Cultures
These are cultures that I developed for my simmies based on gameplay options. Most of these are a result of Bon Voyage and not wanting to use the standard vacation hoods that shipped with the game.

Kimikuria: this is my "asian" vacation hood using the Ellis Island from Amber's Journey. It's loosely based on the east asian countries like Japan, China and Korea. Kimikuria is the land of zen gardens, old wise men, and mahjong . The lots are mostly the oriental series downloaded from wolfsim68 at TSR. The lots that I built use the same exterior wallpaper and roof color so that all the lots are uniform in apprearence. Li Yoo is originally from Kimikuria and the Warwick family spent three simyears there on assignment. The name was chosen based on the "asian" sound of it.

Hacienda Bay: this is the hometown of the Herendez family, starting with Alfonzo and Margurita Herendez (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the bay. It is loosely based on the caribbean islands like Puerto Rico with it's british colonial style buildings, lush plants and ocean views. Currently this is only one lot in my "tropical" vacation subhood. I am in the process of rebuilding it since my first version will not "place" on the neighborhood thanks to the fact that it's a beach lot. The goal is to make it one complete island as my tropical subhood is the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. I don't remember exactly how or why I chose this name since it was during TS1 days (2004).

Tiki Isle: this is the hometown of the Kent family, starting with Toby and Veronika Kent (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the isle. The isle is loosely based on the caribbean islands of Cayman Islands and Jamaica. The isle features a rich culture in terms of food, dance and "juice" exports. Currently this lot is in the planning stages and will eventually take up an entire island in my tropical subhood (Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey) as well. This name was chosen based on the shipped Tiki sets with the game.

Ozian: this is the birth place of Elphaba Mendenhall, who was born with a rare skin disorder that made her pigment a bright green. For those familar with the Wizard of Oz and Wicked, then you will recognize Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the West. This place doesn't exist in the game yet, but I might consider creating this locale for Anthony and Susie to explore.

Thaindia: this is the hometown of Jadhira Shazad and I'm very excited to be starting the building of this island that is loosely based on the south east asian cultures like Thailand, India, Singapore and the Phillipines. Currently it's a single island set as a "asian" vacation subhood. I've included a sneak peek of one of the structures on the island. This name is basically a combination of Thailand and India :P

Starr Grey Administration Building

I've been begging for a lot tour and just realized that I haven't given one of my own recently. Here's a brief lot tour of the Starr Grey Administration Building following it's remodel. The building was originally designed by Wolfsim68 as a bank and was retrofitted to operate as the administration building. The building is named for the first spokessim of the hood-Starr Grey, who was the spokessim for years of Greymount (~2003)

The county council recently alloted a nice chunk of simoleans aside to remodel the administration building. Li Yoo headed the project and offered to give the tour before the building was reopened to the public.

But first she needs to get rid of some pests.

Here's an aerial view of the first floor. There is the gift shop and archives library, conference room and offices for county members Carmela Herendez and Rebecca Wilsonoff. There's an empty office as well.

An aerial of the second floor. County Council President Fiona Kent's office, a small wedding chapel and a auditorium for press conferences. Also a few snacks and the loo.

The Gift Shop sells deposits on vacation trips. The gift shop has posters of different travel locales (in addition to the Bon Voyage posters, I also use posters from MTS2 and I am currently creating similar vacation destinations to match). If a sim purchases a poster, this is thier indication to me that they would like to travel to that location. The cost of the poster serves as thier deposit for the trip.

The Archives Library is a little corner with some books and computers for research. Eventually, Jadhira Shazad would like to see a public library for the hood, but at the moment there isn't a need for it.

The offices contain a desk and chairs for visitors and there's a photo outside the door for easy identification.

Carmela's office is where residents would go for complaints on neighbors and questions about cultural events.

Rebecca's office is for financial situations, loans and tax payments for example.

Upstairs is the county council president's office which has the best view.

Fiona's office is for the remainder or if residents simply want to talk to the top woman.

The Conference Room is for county council meetings or legal proceedings such as adoptions and divorces. Legal proceedings will start to be moved to the law office once I finish remodeling it.

The Auditorium is for press releases and speeches

The Wedding Hall is very simple, just the basics for a low key wedding.

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I'm not satisfied with the building yet, I want a custom Apple Valley flag and simlish signs for outside. Also, I feel that the wedding hall is too fancy for a simple place to get married. I would like it to look more courthouse like in apprerance. I'm also debating adding a courtroom since I have law offices on another lot.

Calendar 2006

Spring
Hapar Yoo
Hood President's Plans for Term
Hapar McMillian
Hapar AVA update
Hapar Humphrey
Lovar Wilsonoff
Lovar PU
Lovar PU
Lovar PU Graduation
Lovar McMillian baby due

Summer
Patar Peterson-
Education Director Plans
Patar Grey baby due
Patar Carr
Patar Apple Festival
Remar Warwick
Medical Director Plans for Term
Remar Sweeny baby
Remar Grey
Remar mini update
County Council Comp Plan

Fall
Havar Humphrey-Faith baby due
Havar AVA update
Havar  PU
Financial Director Plans
Havar Humphrey-Faith
Resar Medical Centre update
Resar Kent
Resar mini-update
Resar Sweeny
Resar County Council Meeting

Winter
Givar  mini-update
Community Director Plans
Givar Dawson
Givar mini-update
Givar  MacAstral
Peacar mini-update
Peacar Herendez
Archives/Technology Director Plans
Peacar mini-update
Peacar Shazad

ROS

• Opps-knocks up next sim you woohoo with
• Yikes, there's a flood in your house
• Suffer depression
• Fulfill biggest want

Extras 2005

Susie isn't a fan of the mascot hitting on her. Doesn't he know that she's off the market?

I got tired of seeing this

and this

and Bill's groveling didn't work-neither did strawberry juice, they kept kicking his butt. Thus, a new home.

Lainey was all over Verde during basic training and he kept denying her. However he chose a strange way to do so.

Why strip down and cuddle on the couch only to put the brakes on things-at least the game recognizes that no means no, even if you're in your undies.

Poor Lainey, she's so confused

and sad :( Imagine this happening several times during the course of basic training with Lainey's ACR driving them to the bed and sofa and Verde turning her down at the last minute.

Had to move Uma in for the birth and as soon as I did, this happened.

Thank goodness Bill had a high enough relationship with her to save her life. I was doubtful since he had already moved on with Emma.

Anthony tries to get used to his future family. Awkward first meeting your future sister-in-law as she announces her pregnancy. Susie's not helping, instead she's distracted by the cat.

Si'Enya stayed in the gym. Everytime I went to the lot, she would arrive and work out. I guess she was more self concious about the extra weight she had picked up during her growth spurt.

Jorge wouldn't leave well enough alone and instead has started to stalk poor Grex. I guess it's pretty easy considering that they're basically neighbors.

Here are some shots of the Frankson family, a non-playable family. Jasmine and Harris met at some party Faith had and they fell in love. They were so cute together and I would always find them in the photo booth-not taking photos :P

So I snatched them up to be my tester family and they spent most of their time testing out my apartment lots

over and over again.

Soon afterwards they wanted to get engaged, married and have babies. I should have seen it coming considering their family aspirations.

so I indulged them (this is their oldest, Erricson) since otherwise they wouldn't have much of a life.

Their oldest son, Erricson turned out to be a cutie

and then he quickly developed a crush on Harriet Mendenhall (the daughter of Grex's sister, Giselle Mendenhall and Jolie & Johan's brother, Joey (Dawson) Mendenhall-hmm, that means Jolie woohoo'd her brother-in-law) and I found them in the movie room in their undies. Yikes!

You'll see more of Jasmine as she's working at the school now and Harris works in intelligence. They are so cute and I'm really enjoying the whole non-playable playable townies.

Changes in the Blog

Good news, I've been accepted into the doctoral program that I applied for. I'm excited about starting the process for my PhD.

Bad news, studies and research will take up a lot of time. As a result, postings won't be as frequent. Instead of three posts a week, I will have to start doing one post a week. According to my plan, there should still be plenty of posts stored in the hopper that will allow me the freedom to continue to play the game in the rare cases of free time I have, yet still provide timely posts. I will also continue to update the BTS blog, so if there are items that you're curious about, leave me a comment or email and let me know.

I hope you understand and continue to visit and comment. If you haven't signed up to subscribe or follow, go ahead so that you don't have to anxiously check everyday for posts.

How Big is Yours?

Ok, round up! Time to compare!

How big is your download folder?

Yep, that little folder that we shamelessly fill to the brim with goodies for our simmies. Please note if you used some great program-like the compressorizer, or keep additional files in your download folder that would help other simmers out.

Stable Couples

It's the hubby and I's anniversary and in celebration here are my top 10 stable couples in Apple Valley. I only did 10 since I have only 18 couples and that included former couples as well. I ranked them by overall score instead of attraction score. Since we all know that attraction doesn't always lead to a stable relationship. Also, this only includes current couples-cause if you were a stable couple, you'd still be together.

 

10. Jolie and Jorge Dawson, 137

They met during university. She liked his assets and he liked her assets. Mutual appreciation of each other's assets lead to an engagement and fairytale wedding. Five kids, three cookbooks and one unexplained and very much secret affair later, they are still going strong.

10. Tobi Sweeny and Cameron Smith, 137

Maybe Tobi finally got it right, third's time the charm, right? No engagement ring yet, but they are parents to a newborn baby boy.

9. Fiona and Jesse Kent, 138
They might not have the highest attraction for each other-she harbors a secret sexy crush on a neighbor, but this couple is the power couple Apple Valley. Nothing can shake them, political scandal or unexpected pregnancy. Behind every powerful leader is a dedicated spouse.

8. Sazo and Sandy Warwick, 154
She was a part of the revolutionary gender exchange with Simborough and he was looking for a wife. Opposites not only attract, but produce stable relationships as Sandy's party-loving ways bring nothing but pleasure to her financially minded hubby. Besides, their coupling produced one of my favorite sims.

7. Suzanna and Bradford McMillian, 171

Suzanna traveled from Eden to visit little brother, Jesse, and to take a break from her stressful career. During her stay, Fiona introduced her sister-in-law to her "hottie coworker" and her brother made her promise not to drool over the man.  Who wouldn't fall in love with the handsome man and his cute daughter. The couple was fire from day one and quickly discovered that their fire had produced a pregnancy. Suzanna immigrated to Apple Valley and the duo has been on fire eversince, proving that you can find love later in life. Not only are they on fire, but they support each other.

6. Brandon and Ilila Peterson, 178

Together for almost five years, Brandon and Ilila are the newest couple to immigrate to Apple Valley. They met while he was in basic training, she was the daughter of his drill sargent which also meant that she was off-limits, not to mention the fact that she was still a senior in high school. After her college graduation they bumped into each other at a different military base in the commisary's produce aisle. She walked away with more than a bag of apples that day.



5. S'Ahmisa Warwick and Verde Herendez, 182
Best friends since the beginning of junior high school and soon afterwards they were exclusive. Not too soon, S'Ahmisa declined Verde's first proposal to go steady-claiming they were too young. Even now, S'Ahmisa's  shooting down any talk of marriage as they're still too young. Hopefully their romance will last during the turbalent university years.

4. Susie MacAstral & Anthony Wren, 202
They're a new love, so new that Susie is still scared to call it love. Anthony on the other hand knows exactly what he wants and he wants to be with Susie. Again, it will be good since this couple made both countdowns. (97 attraction score)

3. Julio and Rebecca Wilsonoff, 203
They liked each other as teens, but his age kept her at a distance. When Rebecca entered university and was finally legal, Julio wasted no time in claiming her. They've remained one of the most stable (and sometimes boring) couples in the hood.

2. Ginger and Grex Grey, 203

Their romance started as teens and during the great flood they couldn't help but build thier love while spending time in the close quarters of the shelter. Four children, six pregnancies, two affairs and several deaths later, this couple is still working on building their marriage.

1. Antonio and Carmela Herendez, 232
Somethings father does know best. Antonio accepted an arranged marriage so that he could gain the family business. It's an unconvential type of love, in fact they wouldn't even call it love, but it's working and they're still together after all these years.

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Any surprises?

EDITED: Included #4 which is no longer top secret