I wouldn’t make the site neon, I’d never be able to get through coding it. (And I’m very not a fan of comic sans. Or blinking gifs for that matter.) But I do occasionally employ them so I can see where this color displays or what changing that font does. If my color scheme is say black and navy and silver, putting in neon pink briefly is really easy to see. Besides, I wouldn’t want to distract you guys from the text, you might figure out how much of it sounds like a soap opera. *bats lashes*

Yeah, Reggie’s face is about reason 1 million and counting why I wish I didn’t think Milkshape would drive me crazy. I think it’d be about the only way to make his face match up to how it looks in my head. But I’m not quite that desperate yet…

Your wish was granted. I have all three tunics for all three ages (I did a bit of tweaking to the neckline on “Blake” and now it will work for CM as well as the older boys.) in my smaller Disney palette. I may do some of those tunics I did for the bar defaults too. Only without the aprons and bar accoutrements, reading your update reminded me I have those. I’m hoping, as I said to Van, to get those shot later this week.

Anyway, thanks, Winter! I appreciate the support and encouragement from you guys.

There are things about this layout I don’t mind, it displays very well for one, but it’s a little too mod-ish for my personal taste. (I only like that era in music, not in clothing, colors, or styles. I think it’s because of the weird color sensitivity I have due to being partially colorblind. I’m kinda hyper aware of other colors and a lot of mod colors and styling tend to grate because of that.)

But I do at least have an image for the top banner, now I just need to insert time to work on the layout into my day. (My brother lent me Dragon Age Origins and Skyrim…)

I’m with both you and Winter on bodyshapes. I truly admire people who use them and it is one of the things I really do like about TS3 (There’s not a lot.) I love being able to have those other shapes, but the meshes are REALLY limiting. *shakes head*

I hope that I can get Reggie to a place I’m happy with. But I’m glad that you guys will understand if every time you see him he looks a little different.

Yeah, depression is one of those things that is not helpful, to accomplishing anything at all. And it’s definitely not fun to have things all piled up at once. Thankfully I only really have one at Christmas, this just past one, and one in the middle of June and once I get through them, I don’t have to think so much about them from here on out.

I went with Winter’s Disney Colors suggestion for those tunics and have the recolors done. Now’s just the shooting pictures part. But I’m gonna try and work on that the next couple of days. (If I don’t get lost in other games… *blushes*)

Inspiration did sort of strike this afternoon (and on my update day even!) While playing other games could be viewed as a distraction to getting stuff done, I actually think I work better when I’m playing something other than just sims. Maybe it’s the influx of interesting story or maybe it’s just I’m not so focused on six steps down the road.

Thanks again, Van!

Real life was invented in the 1980s to boost sales of video games. Today, 95% of the western world would be behind bars or in straitjackets if we didn’t have ways to headshot our friends and dress pixel people up in frock coats and hosen. More seriously, though, I’m sorry you had such a lousy week(end). Those sorts of anniversaries suck to begin with and all the more when they’re clustered like that. If you have depression issues, you really, really don’t need “legitimate” reasons to be depressed heaped on to the usual.

I wouldn’t blink if you re-did the entire site with neon Comic Sans and blinking gifs, but reader quality =/= creator quality. (My site will forever be whatever Blogger wants to bestow upon me that I don’t have to code myself.) Just the same, if there’s a picture you’ve taken that sucks, it’s hiding out of sight somewhere.

Bodyshapes are a bloody nightmare in the TS2 system. The idea is awesome, but the implementation can be so limiting if you like lots of options and don’t mesh. The line has to be drawn somewhere. Neither Josh nor Reggie will be any less amazing in Maxis form. And, looking at those pictures, I can see why you want to screw with Reggie’s scuplt. That first actor has a pleasingly broad, not-fat face that Maxis doesn’t want to give you without an arm wrestling match.

I think the world could use those tunics in Disney colors… ;).

If your own space would make you more comfortable, go with it. When you create as much as you do, you’re bound to develop your own system of how things should be organized and presented. And with a lot of it being not-quite-Medieval, it’s not such a bad idea to put it somewhere where you’re not worrying about whether it really belongs there or not. I’ll be drooling over your stuff wherever you post it.

Don’t let the cursor stress you out too much!

I guess I’ll respond point by point:

1. While I like the site as it is, I’m sure whatever new design you come up with will be even better. And I can definitely understand getting sick of the way a sight looks! In truth, I have been considering redesigning my site for quite some time, but ever since Blogger got “upgraded”, the thought of fighting with the coding has become about a hundred times more repulsive.

And I’m sure your pictures are great–they always are–but you wouldn’t be the first storyteller to retake pictures and I’m sure you won’t be the last.

2. BodyShapes are a great idea but make for difficult execution. It would be so much easier if EA had come up with body sliders with Sims 2 instead of waiting for Sims 3 to give them more than three possible shapes. I know I have a few characters that definitely would not have the standard Maxis shape if there was a more practical way to go about that, so I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to switch Josh and Reggie to standard shape. Plus, power of suggestion or whatever, the writing can really influence what a person sees in the picture; I know Leofric in Lothere always looks like a large, broad-shouldered man and Malcolm looks lithe and lanky, even though neither of them appears to be using a BodyShape.

As for tweaking faces and CC, knock yourself out! Reggie should look the way you want Reggie to look, and if he looks different in his next appearance, the readers will revise their idea of Reggie to suit his revamped look.

3. Sorry to hear about the depression. Depression sucks. Anniversaries of tough events just make it suck worse. If you ever need to vent, my inbox is always open, though don’t take that invitation as an obligation. I hope things get better for you soon.

4. Well, I am looking forward to the recolors! Especially recolors of those tunics. I’ve been meaning to make some conversions of those, actually, just so the adults have all the same colors that the teens have and vice versa (I prefer the color Lucien was wearing as a teen for him personally; the one he’s currently sporting would look fantastic on a Wythleit). Personally, I prefer color sets inspired by stories and characters to the standard color actions, though those certainly have their uses as well and I’m not about to complain either way. And I’ll download from the Keep, or a new site of your own, or pretty much anywhere.

5. I hope the inspiration strikes soon on one front or another, but if you’re not feeling it, don’t force it. When it does come, whatever it inspires will be awesome, and it doesn’t matter how soon it happens.

Best of luck with everything. I hope you feel better soon.