Thursday, January 10, 2008

Hood Census

I finally got off my butt and did a census. I've added tags to all of my profiles so all I have to do is look at the tag to see how many female/males, aspirations, ages, etc......It's SO much more simple this way! And as I update their profiles I can change the tags :).......so here is the census as of 2042:

Total Playables: 82

Male: 39                   Female: 43

Babies: 1                   Toddlers: 11

Children: 19              Teens: 6

Young Adults: 0          Adults: 44                  


Elders: 1

Aspirations

Family: 14                 Fortune: 10

Pleasure: 5                Romance: 2

Knowledge: 8            Popularity: 5

Grow Up: 31

Humans: 70
Aliens: 6
Elves: 6

Custom Content

Geez where to begin?! Once I got my new laptop, I became a downloading loon! I have so many things from so many different places that I can't name them all! But I'll give a few of my favorite ones:
Hacks
ACR- I'm using version 2
Inteenminator
Community Time Project
Sim Blender
Visitor Controller
Monique's Computer
Postponed Silver Years
Monique's Child Support
College Adjuster

Paladin's Palace
Season Adjuster
Hack Conflict utility

I download my CC from a variety of places which makes it hard to pinpoint where some things come from! But here are some of the sites I frequent regularly, much to my computer's disgust lol:

WCIF - if you've never been here, make sure you check out their weekly themes, lots of great stuff!
Modthesims - A whole lot of everything
All About Style - Best maternity and Elder clothes around!
Sims Urbania - Lots of urban lots and clothing
Simply Styling - Nice object sets
Liana Sims - Beautiful female clothing

Defaults
Skin: Ephemera
Eyes: Shady
Pollination Techs: Brilliant Cat

There is LOTS more but I think this gives a good idea of where most of my stuff comes from. As always, let me know of any specific things you're interested in and I'll see if I can find it!

Keeping Up With My Simmies!

I've seen other people's posts on how they keep up with all that is going on in their hoods. The flashnote programs sounds very useful, but I really wouldn't take the time out to type all of my info in it. I'm on a computer typing things all day for work and class and it makes home feel like work if I do it there lol. I do most of my posting at work as it is! So I've created a few forms that I use to keep up with everything. I made copies and just write in what I need as I'm playing. To give you an idea of how much of a nerd I am, I actually have a 3 ring notebook divided into sections that I keep all of this information in. Dorky, yes I know! So here are my forms:

Sim Profile

Every one of my playables has their own profile sheet. I have all of their inportant info on this one sheet and they only have one for their entire life. I keep up with their ages by just marking off their two years every round in the age box in the bottom right corner. I even keep up with what level they are in at their jobs for blogging purposes. All of their college info goes on here as well (GPAs per semester, any honors they achieve, etc.).

Major Events

I'm not going to post my round sheet because it's pretty basic. Of course when I arrange my rounds, I put birthdays and marriages on the calendar. This sheet just gives me a look at all the specific events that take place every year. The year is listed at the top, followed by the season it happened in and what the event was. In the blank box I give a description. On my round log I would just say "Coner Twins Birthday". On the events sheet I would have their names and what age they turned. So as I play more and more rounds, I can look back and see what events took place in any given year.

Hood Fees

I haven't been very good about keep up with this, but starting next round I'm going to pay more attention to the fees and taxes charged in my hood. This just allows me to take a quick look at how much of the city budget comes from fees each year. I've decided that Christian Brown (the mayor) will open up a bank account for the town. I know that most people have the town's budget in the mayor's family funds and the mayor's personal money in a bank account, but that seems too complicated to me when they need to buy something or want to spend some of their own money. I haven't decided how to account for the interest it will accrue each day yet.

Hood Budget

Again, something I haven't used yet. This is of course how I will keep up with the city budget. I plan to just multiply the tax collected from playables by 3 to account for the townie population. I may change how I address the townie issue later, but for now that works for me. I'll total the fees up from my fee sheet and add them in with the tax collected. I also have another sheet dedicated to projects. These include building new buildings or renovating old ones. Their costs will be subtracted from the city budget.

School Roster

I'm in the process of recruiting (creating) sims to serve as teachers so that I can have working schools. Once I get them up and running, I will use this sheet to keep up with them.

It seems like a lot, and it is! I have the residents in my notebooks tabbed off alphabetically, so it's easy to find the family I'm playing with and adjust their ages or career position or whatever that may change during their turn. This is easier for me than typing it all up. I just scribble it down of these sheets as I lay on my butt with my laptop and play!

SimSational Quarterly

I realized after reading a comment from Apple Valley that I have just completely disregarded my little newsletter! I'm still very interested in doing issues of it as I think it's a fun way for bloggers to come together and create something great! So I have an idea for a new issue: What if everyone picked a few of their favorite, maybe misunderstood sims and created a poll on their blog that allowed readers to decide who they would love to hear more about. After the poll is closed and the winner is chosen, we could each do an interview with said sim. I don't know if it would be better to have everyone answer the same questions or allow sims to answer questions that would be more specific to them. In addition, each sim could have their own little photoshoot in a place of their chosing and the pics could be included also. So this would be like a two or three page spread for each sim with the interview taking up one or two pages and the pics taking up another. It could be called Infamous Sims: The Real Deal, or something equally cheesy lol. This is all a really rough idea and I'm completely open to any suggestions, even to a completely different idea :). I figure the planning, poll, and creation of pages would take up enough time that by the time we all have our pages, I'll be in a place where I can create the newsletter and get it out in a timely fashion :). So please think about what you would like to see and let me know. We'll also need more ads for filling so if you have a business or event you want spotlighted from your hood, then please feel free to also create some ads. It would be something like this interview I did on AJ Taylor in this issue:



So let me know what you think about it and any ideas you might have :).......and thanks Apple Valley for reminding me about it!!

Education in LaQuest Beach

* Rules & Regulations page has also been updated

Here are my notes on how education effects the residents of LaQuest, more will be added as the hood progresses and changes:

Elementary, Junior High, and High School

LaQuest Beach Elementary and LaQuest Beach Preparatory School will be public schools and are therefore free. Qualifications for graduation include achieving 7 skill points, C or above average, 3 hobby points, and completion of a senior project (borrowed from Pine Hollow):