Playing The Sims. It is extremely fun, and I love it. Sometimes it also feels like a second job.
I have never in all my born days encountered a game as buggy as Sims 3. It's possible the earlier versions were buggier for Windows users than for us Mac users -- the game was ported to Mac by a separate company, so they could have smoothed some out. Now that Electronic Arts is releasing both versions simultaneously, there's no wait but also no bug-fixing grace period. I don't think it's just that, though. This shit, I am telling you, is BUGGY.
I have a new expansion pack called Late Night. In it your sims live in a city, with apartments, and they get to be famous, all of which is very exciting. What's not exciting is the lag. There is a CRAZY amount of lag in the new expansion pack, which I played with heavily this weekend. When I found myself, instead of relaxed enjoying my delightful Sims game, tensed up, clenching my teeth, and screaming at my stupid sims to stop standing around thinking about ghosts and get in the fucking shower already, I decided it was time to quit for a while.
WHY it's so laggy I don't know. They will probably issue a patch at some point; they usually do, eventually. In the meantime, though, it's making gameplay difficult to say the least. The lags only occur in between actions; it's not a slowed-down pace overall. The sims will stand in "idle sim" mode -- doo dee doo, tapping their feet, thinking about that time they burned the waffles or whatever -- even though there is an action in their queue that they're supposed to be doing. This has always been the case with this game, but the lags between actions have been minuscule until now -- a quick pause before they hop to. Now they sometimes last several game-hours. My sims keep missing work, peeing their pants in public because they won't go to the bathroom (as you can imagine, this is particularly scandalous when you are famous, as my sims now are, and they are constantly miserable because they keep being publicly disgraced), refusing to get in the elevator, etc. This is all compounded by the fact that the new version of the game has elevators and trains -- which is cool! -- but which means that to get somewhere the sim now has to take a bunch of steps. Each step is a new opportunity for him to forget what he is doing and stand around like the dumb little robot he is, while I tear my hair out in frustration. Is it any wonder that sometimes they're not only late to work, but don't make it there before work ends?
Oh, there's also the issue of the fast speed not working. The game speeds up when your sims are asleep so you don't have to sit there staring at the walls for eight game hours. When the base game first came out, the fast speed wasn't fast. This was eventually fixed by a patch. It is now un-fixed, so I was back to having a magazine at my desk so I had something to do while they were slowly, slowly sleeping. Bit of a momentum-killer.
Perhaps all this wouldn't be quite so annoying, even, if I hadn't had to jump through hoops to install the damn thing in the first place. Trying to play after installing the expansion pack initially gave me something helpfully named "unknown error" before the game even started. The EA forums (my second home at a time like this -- and populated by helpful users, not by EA staff, who rarely appear) suggested a full reinstall. So uninstall and then reinstall I did -- over the course of a few days, because it was very time-consuming -- the base game, followed by the three expansion packs, one after another, including serial numbers, followed by a restoration of all my data. After this painstaking process (and after one "unauthorized disc" error causing me to quit the game and start it again, which I barely noticed because that happens about half the time), it FINALLY worked. I was very tired of fixing the game and very ready to PLAY the game, and it was great to be able to play it for a while and then perhaps doubly infuriating to be slowly drowned under lag.
After I finally came to my senses and quit, I went back to the EA forums to see if anyone was complaining about THIS error. Plenty were, of course. I posted a grumpy rant about it in one of the threads dedicated to this issue, and then logged off. And had a drink. Because I needed to relax. After playing this game. Which stressed me out quite a bit. Which is not how a videogame is supposed to work.
This morning, I logged on to see if there were any responses to my post. Indeed, someone had posted a possible solution -- user-created, of course; again, we rarely hear from EA on these issues. It was from another user, who'd heard it from a third user, who'd heard it from a fourth.
Reinstall the game? Delete custom content? Increase RAM? Nope. In a nutshell, the trick to putting a stop to the infuriating game lag, apparently, is:
Delete the fire station. Change the old fire station lot to residential. Change a different lot to commercial. Put the fire station there.
Yup. I haven't tried it yet. But four people have said it fixes all the lag issues and makes Bridgeport run smoothly. Even before trying it, somehow this has melted away most of my animosity toward the game, AGAIN. Because it's HILARIOUS. Of course moving the fire station fixes everything. Of course it does.
THIS GAME IS SO SILLY. And the amount of mental energy I expend on it is so ridiculous. But...it's my Sims. I CAN'T HELP IT. IT IS A SICKNESS.
It's been not quite 24 hours since I quit playing the game in disgust, and now I can't wait to go in there and see if moving the fire station works. WHY WOULDN'T IT?
Monday, November 15, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
I am recovering
from a MONSTER DOUGHNUT BINGE. Man. I barely REMEMBER the last two days.
OK, that's an exaggeration. But yesterday I did have a total doughnut binge. There's a doughnut place near me, a nice townie place that has gotten a lot of rapturous Yelp reviews but which I'd never been to. Someone in my office, who lives kind of far away but had once made a special trip to this very doughnut place just to try the doughnuts, got super excited when he found out I lived near there. I said I'd pick some up on the way in. He kicked in the cash, which was awesome. I got a dozen. Half honey-dipped (that means glazed) and assorted others. The place is right on my bus route, so I just hopped on my usual bus. When I got to work, I was greeted as liberators. Dick Cheney would have been proud. We plunked the box down and started housing.
These doughnuts are fantastic. The Yelp people did not lie. And if you've ever read Yelp reviews, you know that those people will deduct stars if like, a dog outside the restaurant gives them a slightly chilly look. Or if once they went to India and the Indian food there was slightly better. Or if the chairs are too comfortable. Yelp Nation is a bunch of petty, power-crazed wannabe-foodies most of the time. Yet these doughnuts somehow escaped their ire. And I can understand why. They were huge. They were floaty and doughnutty. They were all that a doughnut can be and more. They didn't taste like old coffee and the depressing feeling of unrealized potential like Dunkin's. They didn't taste like an atomic bomb of eye-bulging sugary fatty insanity that perhaps would be better left in its specially designed containment case like Krispy Kreme. They tasted just right, with just right dialled up and up. If these doughnuts were a first-season Star Trek: TNG episode, they would be "The Big Goodbye." Which is a really good episode. For Season 1. I could have tried to pick the best ep of the whole series but I barely remember them all and that felt like too much pressure. Anyway. Those doughnuts were delicious.
I probably only had a total of like, two and a half doughnuts yesterday. It's just that I was eating them all day. My blood was never clear of them. I ate one right off the bat, then throughout the day would eat sections of them. Mostly it went like this:
ME: I don't feel good. I kind of have a headache and I feel all jittery.
ME: It's probably from the doughnuts.
ME: Doooooouuuuuughnuts. Hey, I wonder if there are any left?
ME: *eats more doughnut*
This happened about 75 times throughout the course of the day. At least so I assume, since the day is a sugary, delicious blur.
Anyway, I woke up this morning with what I literally think was a doughnut hangover. True, I also had a glass of wine after dinner. But either there was some tequila in that wine (I THINK I would remember spiking my own wine with tequila), or it was the doughnuts. Had a bit of a time rolling out of bed.
Of course, I got to work and the first thing I did was check if there were any doughnuts left.
Which there were. And I ate another one.
Now they're all gone. The plague has run its course. Hopefully tomorrow I will be back in fighting form.
Good thing that doughnut place is far away so I won't be tempted ever again. Oh, wait.
OK, that's an exaggeration. But yesterday I did have a total doughnut binge. There's a doughnut place near me, a nice townie place that has gotten a lot of rapturous Yelp reviews but which I'd never been to. Someone in my office, who lives kind of far away but had once made a special trip to this very doughnut place just to try the doughnuts, got super excited when he found out I lived near there. I said I'd pick some up on the way in. He kicked in the cash, which was awesome. I got a dozen. Half honey-dipped (that means glazed) and assorted others. The place is right on my bus route, so I just hopped on my usual bus. When I got to work, I was greeted as liberators. Dick Cheney would have been proud. We plunked the box down and started housing.
These doughnuts are fantastic. The Yelp people did not lie. And if you've ever read Yelp reviews, you know that those people will deduct stars if like, a dog outside the restaurant gives them a slightly chilly look. Or if once they went to India and the Indian food there was slightly better. Or if the chairs are too comfortable. Yelp Nation is a bunch of petty, power-crazed wannabe-foodies most of the time. Yet these doughnuts somehow escaped their ire. And I can understand why. They were huge. They were floaty and doughnutty. They were all that a doughnut can be and more. They didn't taste like old coffee and the depressing feeling of unrealized potential like Dunkin's. They didn't taste like an atomic bomb of eye-bulging sugary fatty insanity that perhaps would be better left in its specially designed containment case like Krispy Kreme. They tasted just right, with just right dialled up and up. If these doughnuts were a first-season Star Trek: TNG episode, they would be "The Big Goodbye." Which is a really good episode. For Season 1. I could have tried to pick the best ep of the whole series but I barely remember them all and that felt like too much pressure. Anyway. Those doughnuts were delicious.
I probably only had a total of like, two and a half doughnuts yesterday. It's just that I was eating them all day. My blood was never clear of them. I ate one right off the bat, then throughout the day would eat sections of them. Mostly it went like this:
ME: I don't feel good. I kind of have a headache and I feel all jittery.
ME: It's probably from the doughnuts.
ME: Doooooouuuuuughnuts. Hey, I wonder if there are any left?
ME: *eats more doughnut*
This happened about 75 times throughout the course of the day. At least so I assume, since the day is a sugary, delicious blur.
Anyway, I woke up this morning with what I literally think was a doughnut hangover. True, I also had a glass of wine after dinner. But either there was some tequila in that wine (I THINK I would remember spiking my own wine with tequila), or it was the doughnuts. Had a bit of a time rolling out of bed.
Of course, I got to work and the first thing I did was check if there were any doughnuts left.
Which there were. And I ate another one.
Now they're all gone. The plague has run its course. Hopefully tomorrow I will be back in fighting form.
Good thing that doughnut place is far away so I won't be tempted ever again. Oh, wait.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Groceries and blog posts
Well, I think I'm off the blog-every-day train. I had a busy weekend and I'm not going to spam up a storm to catch up. I'm calling it good. However, I still intend to blog OFTEN. Just not every day necessarily.
I am reporting on two money things that have made me happy over the last couple of days.
1. I'm buying a new refrigerator!
OK, that doesn't sound like a money-saver, it's true. But my fridge has been old and leaky for a LONG while, and I have been meaning to buy one. It is last on a list I've had since I bought my condo of Big-Ticket Items I Need And/Or Want. This list has included: a new bathroom (that was the biggest ticket), a rug for the living room (done), bedroom furniture (bed, bureau, matching bookshelves -- all done), bedroom rug (done), tapestry thing to hang behind bed so I don't wake up in the night worrying that the heavy frame above my bed is going to fall on me -- neuroses, I has them (done), new electrical (not done, but if I ever have money again that will likely be the next big thing I tackle), kitchen island and chairs ('STOOOOOOORRRRP) (done), new stove (someday, maybe, but mostly what I want is a range hood, and I think what I really need to do is look into getting my kitchen entirely redone, and that is not going to happen right now, so the 'Storp will do very nicely for the moment).
The fridge became more urgent recently because my neighbor told me there was a bit of water coming through her ceiling. This may be because of how the last person who owned my place INEXPLICABLY WALLED IN THE PORCH to make A LARGE BUT OTHERWISE USELESS CLOSET (no electricity, no insulation). I know closets are great, but I happen to have plenty of them (that's what comes of living on the third floor where the edges of all your rooms are sloped in such a way as to be largely useless as living space), and I would SO rather have a porch. Where the porch used to be, on the outside of the house, there is a square, the size of the porch, that's set in about six inches. Like, they filled in the porch but didn't make the wall flush with the rest of the house. Why? I don't know.
Anyway, this weird ineptly constructed corner area might be the source of the water. OR, it might be my fridge. Because, you see, my fridge leaks water, and has since I got the place. Not all the time, but often. This has worried me for a long time, yet I have continually put off buying a fridge. Because the water will stop, or because I need to clean it out and haven't done it, or because I need to measure doorways, or because buying a fridge is boring and buying bedroom furniture is fun. Now, of course, getting a new fridge has risen in importance. But my lack of money has also risen in importance.
Enter the Best Buy e-mail circular, which happened to be promoting a 30% off sale on a fridge that I had looked at before (the regular freezer-on-top kind -- I'm not messing around with your fancy unconventional fridges), that was cheap already, that had reversible doors, and that will fit through the doorway, which I measured a few months ago when I was half-assedly planning to get a fridge then. Thus I am able to get a fridge that I had already looked at and basically decided I wanted, for $370 instead of $599. This did not seem as if it was likely to get any better, so I went for it. So I'll have one more heavy credit-card month. BUT it needed to be gotten, I'm satisfied that I got a sweet deal (it was another $70 for delivery, but I'd call that well worth it, especially since they'll take the old one away), and after this I will stop worrying about the fridge leaking, and if the neighbor still has water in the ceiling at least I'll know it isn't that and is probably the $%#*ing porch/closet.
2. Yes, 2! This is a list! I had a 1 up there. Remember? That was like nine paragraphs ago. 2 is, I have wholeheartedly committed to a lifestyle in which I had merely dabbled in the past. This lifestyle is a lifestyle of SANDWICHES.
You see, I really QUITE enjoy a nice lunchmeat sandwich. Meat, cheese, mustard and a couple of tomato slices and I am very happy. I could eat that quite a lot. Yet I don't eat it very often, and mostly that's because I am a complete spaz about having any more than one or two of the hypothetically required number of perishable ingredients for anything on hand at any given time. Sometimes I'll buy lunchmeat, but I won't have any bread, or the bread will be stale even though it's in the freezer (this is utterly unfair because everyone knows that the freezer stops time), or I'll have bought whole wheat bread out of guilt but it's too gross and I don't want it, or the bread pieces are too small and hence the sandwich is too small, or the cheese will be moldy, or the mustard will be old, or I won't have any tomatoes. Occasionally I think "I should take a sandwich to work once in a while," but I never get it together to make one.
I know this makes me sound like the most pathetically lame person ON EARTH, and I can't really disagree. It's not that I'm incapable of making a sandwich. It's that I'm usually too disorganized to complete all the steps necessary prior to making the sandwich, and then remember to actually make it before I go to bed, or alternatively get up in time to make it, and then remember to bring it to work, and then not abandon it in favor of a burrito bowl or something. And even if I do bring it, I'm always worried that I'll still be hungry, because I have some sort of deep-seated caveman fear of not having enough to eat at lunch.
So yesterday at the store I bought:
I plan to do this every day, or nearly. And I know this is like, halfway-house levels of sad self-sufficiency, but I'm proud of myself. It's not that I learned to make a sandwich, it's that I learned to be happy with a sandwich.
My alternate sandwich is going to be peanut butter and banana. Because this is the best sandwich of all time, and yet I hardly ever make it because I never have any bananas. Now I plan to outfit myself with a steady supply of bananas, so I will have one on hand when I need one. I will also have bread, and I will lay out a bit more cash for some peanut butter that is less than three years old, and then the magic will happen.
I spent way more money at the grocery store than I wanted to. But with any luck, it will provide me with like, a month of lunches.
Baaaaaaby steeeeeeps.
I am reporting on two money things that have made me happy over the last couple of days.
1. I'm buying a new refrigerator!
OK, that doesn't sound like a money-saver, it's true. But my fridge has been old and leaky for a LONG while, and I have been meaning to buy one. It is last on a list I've had since I bought my condo of Big-Ticket Items I Need And/Or Want. This list has included: a new bathroom (that was the biggest ticket), a rug for the living room (done), bedroom furniture (bed, bureau, matching bookshelves -- all done), bedroom rug (done), tapestry thing to hang behind bed so I don't wake up in the night worrying that the heavy frame above my bed is going to fall on me -- neuroses, I has them (done), new electrical (not done, but if I ever have money again that will likely be the next big thing I tackle), kitchen island and chairs ('STOOOOOOORRRRP) (done), new stove (someday, maybe, but mostly what I want is a range hood, and I think what I really need to do is look into getting my kitchen entirely redone, and that is not going to happen right now, so the 'Storp will do very nicely for the moment).
The fridge became more urgent recently because my neighbor told me there was a bit of water coming through her ceiling. This may be because of how the last person who owned my place INEXPLICABLY WALLED IN THE PORCH to make A LARGE BUT OTHERWISE USELESS CLOSET (no electricity, no insulation). I know closets are great, but I happen to have plenty of them (that's what comes of living on the third floor where the edges of all your rooms are sloped in such a way as to be largely useless as living space), and I would SO rather have a porch. Where the porch used to be, on the outside of the house, there is a square, the size of the porch, that's set in about six inches. Like, they filled in the porch but didn't make the wall flush with the rest of the house. Why? I don't know.
Anyway, this weird ineptly constructed corner area might be the source of the water. OR, it might be my fridge. Because, you see, my fridge leaks water, and has since I got the place. Not all the time, but often. This has worried me for a long time, yet I have continually put off buying a fridge. Because the water will stop, or because I need to clean it out and haven't done it, or because I need to measure doorways, or because buying a fridge is boring and buying bedroom furniture is fun. Now, of course, getting a new fridge has risen in importance. But my lack of money has also risen in importance.
Enter the Best Buy e-mail circular, which happened to be promoting a 30% off sale on a fridge that I had looked at before (the regular freezer-on-top kind -- I'm not messing around with your fancy unconventional fridges), that was cheap already, that had reversible doors, and that will fit through the doorway, which I measured a few months ago when I was half-assedly planning to get a fridge then. Thus I am able to get a fridge that I had already looked at and basically decided I wanted, for $370 instead of $599. This did not seem as if it was likely to get any better, so I went for it. So I'll have one more heavy credit-card month. BUT it needed to be gotten, I'm satisfied that I got a sweet deal (it was another $70 for delivery, but I'd call that well worth it, especially since they'll take the old one away), and after this I will stop worrying about the fridge leaking, and if the neighbor still has water in the ceiling at least I'll know it isn't that and is probably the $%#*ing porch/closet.
2. Yes, 2! This is a list! I had a 1 up there. Remember? That was like nine paragraphs ago. 2 is, I have wholeheartedly committed to a lifestyle in which I had merely dabbled in the past. This lifestyle is a lifestyle of SANDWICHES.
You see, I really QUITE enjoy a nice lunchmeat sandwich. Meat, cheese, mustard and a couple of tomato slices and I am very happy. I could eat that quite a lot. Yet I don't eat it very often, and mostly that's because I am a complete spaz about having any more than one or two of the hypothetically required number of perishable ingredients for anything on hand at any given time. Sometimes I'll buy lunchmeat, but I won't have any bread, or the bread will be stale even though it's in the freezer (this is utterly unfair because everyone knows that the freezer stops time), or I'll have bought whole wheat bread out of guilt but it's too gross and I don't want it, or the bread pieces are too small and hence the sandwich is too small, or the cheese will be moldy, or the mustard will be old, or I won't have any tomatoes. Occasionally I think "I should take a sandwich to work once in a while," but I never get it together to make one.
I know this makes me sound like the most pathetically lame person ON EARTH, and I can't really disagree. It's not that I'm incapable of making a sandwich. It's that I'm usually too disorganized to complete all the steps necessary prior to making the sandwich, and then remember to actually make it before I go to bed, or alternatively get up in time to make it, and then remember to bring it to work, and then not abandon it in favor of a burrito bowl or something. And even if I do bring it, I'm always worried that I'll still be hungry, because I have some sort of deep-seated caveman fear of not having enough to eat at lunch.
So yesterday at the store I bought:
- three kinds of lunchmeat (ham, roast beef, salami)
- provolone (a HUGE THING of provolone -- 44 slices -- which was $10 but was a WAY better deal than 8 slices for $3.99)
- two sliceable tomatoes
- some whole wheat, but not gross, and generously sized, bread
- some green bananas that will not be all brown and gross in a day and a half
- some pretzel chips
I plan to do this every day, or nearly. And I know this is like, halfway-house levels of sad self-sufficiency, but I'm proud of myself. It's not that I learned to make a sandwich, it's that I learned to be happy with a sandwich.
My alternate sandwich is going to be peanut butter and banana. Because this is the best sandwich of all time, and yet I hardly ever make it because I never have any bananas. Now I plan to outfit myself with a steady supply of bananas, so I will have one on hand when I need one. I will also have bread, and I will lay out a bit more cash for some peanut butter that is less than three years old, and then the magic will happen.
I spent way more money at the grocery store than I wanted to. But with any luck, it will provide me with like, a month of lunches.
Baaaaaaby steeeeeeps.
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