Liebster Award

I was nominated for a Liebster Award by a few people. Thank you FutureCarrie, Urunwa, Heatherfeather, Twinsimskeletons, and Nocriel! Efelkay and MommyIce also nominated me, so thank you! :D



Rules

1. Say thank you to the person that has nominated you for the award.
2. Answer the 11 questions the person has asked
3. Nominate people (comment on their blog to let them know)
4. Ask the people you have nominated 11 questions

Nominating
Okay, so there's a lot of people who've already been nominated on this list. XD Sorry about that. Also, if you've already answered a bunch of question don't feel obligated to answer mine (or alternatively, you could answer them as a comment instead of making a new post).

1. Sleitinn Legacy by Urunwa
2. Matthews' Random Legacy by FutureCarrie
3. SOL and The Quest by TwinSimsSkeletons (seriously The Quest is so good, and there aren't enough sci-fi stories out there)
4. Winterly Legacy by Marcy
5. Golbeard RLC by NutsandDolts
6. Anything is Possible by Heatherfeather
7. The Secrets of the Sixkillers by Sunny (has anyone seen her around recently?)
8. Koyangi Legacy by Nocriel  this one is so fun guys! You need to read it, and there's five million cute cats in it)
9. Chaos Theory and Pleasant Oaks Asylum by Annie
10. Hiding Out in Sunset Valley by MommyIce

My Questions:

1. Who's a historical figure you think is neat? Why?
2.  I've invited myself over for dinner. What are your making for me?
3. If you were a sim, which neighborhood would you like to live in?
4. Who is your favorite premade sim? How about your least favorite?
5. If you could program a robot to do one task for you so you'd never have to do it again, what would it be? It doesn't matter how complicated the task is; it just has to be something you could do yourself (so you couldn't program it to make gold out of water unless you can do that yourself, so no cheating!).
6. Okay, so now irony kicks in: what do you miss out on by programming the robot to do that task? (ex: you programmed the robot to tuck your children into bed at night, and now your children love the robot more than you)
7. What would you like to improve about your writing, and what do you think you already do well?
8. What object from TS3 would you like to have in real life?
9. What's your vice? You can tell me. I'm cool.
10. Where's your favorite place to be?
11. Are we--as humans--enacting order in a chaotic universe, or are we enacting chaos in an ordered universe?

My Answers:

Nocriel's Questions:
1. Who's your favorite sim?
That's so hard to answer. ;_; In my current household, probably Nikolas. He's really fun to play.

2. Do you stage a lot? How do you do it?
Define "a lot." I usually have a least one staged picture per chapter, which is bonkers. Typically I stage stuff to fill in gaps in gameplay. For example, if I want to show a flashback to childhood for a sim I made as an adult, or if I want to show what happened while a sim was in a rabbithole. I do also plan plots for each generation, and stage stuff around those plot ideas.

3. Is there a roll you'd really hate to play?
I've actually rerolled when I got deadbeat parents. I know that's against the rules, but I honestly hate the idea of a child having bad parents. It upsets me so much I don't think I would enjoy that generation.

4. How about a roll you'd love to play?
After fiddling around with plumbots, I'd really like to play a bot-maker. It'd be fun to add bots to my save.

5. What is your favorite Sims EP and why is it Pets?
XD It is *not* Pets, sadly. Pets is up there, but my favorite is probably Supernatural. I really like witches and werewolves.

6. What parts of yourself as a person in real life do you recognize in your sims (personality, experiences, appearance or whatever) or your story in general? Don't say nothing, I'm convinced there's always a little bit of yourself in your sims! :P
Well like Lark, I dated a guy who was a thief (shoplifting mostly, nothing professional. XD) and a talented liar. And Dominic's word choices and language is closest to mine (I rewrite most of my characters' dialogue after the first draft, except his so he sounds most like me, if that makes sense). I think most of my sims have bits of my personality or history.

7. What lifespan do you play your RLC on/how many sim days?
185 days. Baby: 5 days. Toddler: 10 days. Child: 15 days. Teen: 30 days. Young Adult: 45 days. Adult: 45 days. Elder: 35 days.

8. Would you play Sims 3 without any CC or mods?
No. I remember that dark few months right after it was released where it was really, really difficult to play the game due to all the crashing and SP problems. I'd have to at least have Story Progression and MasterController to enjoy the game, methinks.

9. What other games do you play? Do you know Heroes of the Storm (I do not get paid by Blizzard, I'm just curious...)?
I'm familiar with Heroes of the Storm because my husband told me about it but I've never played it. I don't really play any other videos games other than Pokemon. I don't have a ton of free time so I like to spread out my hobbies. I do, however, play tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.

10. What's a hobby of yours other than gaming/writing?
Hiking, reading, and crocheting. I used to draw, but I don't do that so much anymore.

11. Is eleven questions too many?
No, but any more than that is outrageous. OUTRAGEOUS.


Carrie's Questions:
1. Who’s your favourite sim?
I'm still unsure even after being asked this again. Nikolas! Maybe! I don't know!

2.Favourite film?
I like a lot of movies, so it's hard to pick a favorite. Snowpiercer, probably.

3. Bright lipsticks: Yay or nay? (i’m yay if ur nay fite me)
Yay.

4. Uhhhhhhh I’m running out of ideas so: Favourite song?
A song I consistently come back to is "Birdhouse in your Soul" by They Might Be Giants. My dad bought their album Flood for me and my sister after we saw the Tiny Toons episodes that have some of the songs.

5. What got you into writing for sims?
I had read sims stories ever since The Sims 1, but I decided to write my own when I was sort of in-between jobs. I had just decided to drop out of a graduate program, I was adjuncting (which is a terrible job), and I was trying to keep my mind off of the fact that I got a useless degree. Oh, and I stumbled across the Random Legacy Challenge thread.

6. Favourite Holiday (like Easter, May Day, Christmas etc)?
Thanksgiving, probably. I like food and there's no presents to deal with, unlike Christmas.

7. Best trash TV show?
UnREAL.

8. Fast food or healthy stuff: what’s better?
I like both. ;_;

9. Worst subject at school?
I did really well in college EXCEPT for the very first math class I took (just to justify--3.8 undergrad, 4.0 grad!). I barely passed. But in my defense, the professor would miss several class periods, then come back and give us a test without going over any of the material first. She is literally the worst teacher I've ever had.

10. How do you feel right now?
Hot.

11. If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? (I did an AS in this, I know the answer :P)
Yes.

Carys' questions:
1.What or who inspired you to start writing SimLit?
Although I've read a bunch of sim stories, it was the Random Legacy thread that really encouraged me to write something. I have *always* come up with stories whilst playing the sims ever since the first game. But I always got bored of gameplay, so the RLC helped with that. Also, everyone left really nice comments on my first blog post so that really helped. XD

2. What’s your favourite animal?
I like octopods.

3. Do you have a favourite trope in writing?
I love the trope of "they hate each other and now they're in love!" I'm an awful person. :[

4. Do you have a least favourite trope/cliche in writing?
I really dislike "chosen one" storylines in fantasy/sci fi writing. More specifically, I hate when a character becomes suddenly good at something because they're chosen. It annoys me.

5. Do you write other stories outside of sims?
Nope. I outline ideas for stories and then never write them.

6. Do you play any other computer/console games?
Not really. I was not allowed to play video games growing up, other than Pokemon (my mom thought they were cute) and the Sims (she thought it was like playing with dolls, lol) and so once I was an adult and able to afford games and such, I didn't really have an interest. I've played a few MMOs but that's about it.

7. How long have you been writing using the sims games?
Since 2014.

8. Do you have a favourite story line in the legacy/story you’re working on?
I have one I'm looking forward to! It's coming up in a couple of chapters like a suckerpunch. :)

9.Do you listen to music while you write?
Yes, usually. I usually listen to certain artists when writing specific characters.

10.What book has most impacted you in the last couple of years, and why?
So I'm going to give you a complicated answer. I re-read Maus last year, which is a graphic novel about the author's father, a Polish Jew who suffered through the Holocaust. You might have heard about the artistic style: Jews are drawn as mice, Germans cats, Americans dogs, Swedes elk. It's an interesting visual metaphor because there's examples of things like a background character being a cat in one panel, and then a mouse in the next when it's reinforced he's Jewish and therefore not truly German according to the SS. Anyway, I read it first in college, again in grad school, and a third time last year before I went to see the author, Art Spiegelman, speak at a lecture.

I've been to several literature lectures but his was the most affecting. He talked about a lot of things, including how his aunt killed his older brother so he wouldn't be gassed, and his relationship with Si Lewen, who was a Polish-American artist who fled the Nazis only to face anti-semitism in the US (for my fellow Americans, please remember that we weren't *that* ignorant about what was happening before and during WWII). Anyway, it was just a lot of really heavy material--for example, he discussed Lewen in his later years trying to cut his own hand off, and he described in detail some of what his father experienced and how he had to fit that into an artistic medium. I left the lecture thinking to myself, "how could I have brought a child into this world?" It's hard to describe. Maus has always upset me, but the accompanying lecture was just downright brutal.

Also, when I got home I found my husband watching Hogan's Heroes and I lost my shit. If you're unfamiliar, Hogan's Heroes is a goofy comedy about several Americans who are being held in a German POW camp during WWII.

11.Do you have any writing rituals?
Usually caffeine for one. I also pick out a playlist before I begin writing.

Heather's Questions:
1. What trope are you actively avoiding or embracing in your story?
Hmm. Maybe not a trope, but I'm trying to avoid the trap of "OTP." In my original legacy, I feel like Crux and Polly's relationship was too ideal, and the decisions they made romantically were clear cut. I'm trying to make romantic and personal decisions this generation more "gray," so to speak. I also think my characters come across as having very few flaws, so I'm trying to fix that with Lark and Nikolas.

2. How long have you been playing Sims?
Since the Sims 1--I want to say a few months after it came out. I believe I got it as a birthday present for my 12th birthday, so that would have been July 2000. I always had a hard time with that game, though, until I downloaded mods that helped me manage my sims' moods. I played the Sims 2 A LOT more than TS1, but TS3 has outpaced both of them I think.

3. What inspired you to write? (in general or for Sims)
I've always liked writing. I wrote my first story (which was about my guinea pigs) when I was six or seven. I have it somewhere. I think the Sims provides a good outlet for my writing because I'm not really motivated to ever want to do it professionally, but I also don't want to keep it to myself. Also, playing the Sims provides me with writing prompts--I can write a story around what happens in the game.

4. Who’s your favorite Sim to play?
Right now, Nikolas. I like playing a kleptomaniac.

5. Who is your favorite to write?
I most enjoy writing scenes with Elysia, Crimson, Bastian, and Dominic. I don't know why I enjoy those four so much. Bastian is probably my favorite sim to write even though he's hardly shown up. I tend to like secondary characters more than primary characters.

If we're counting outside this legacy, Polly will always be my favorite sim to play and to write. She was amazing.

6. What has been your favorite generation?
I'm only on the second generation, but I'm enjoying it more. I like Lark and her rolls are more interesting.

7. How long does it take for you to create a new chapter?
Too long. I do my writing over several days, usually, and some days I just *can't* get anything on the paper. Sometimes I make myself set a timer for thirty minutes and write everything that comes to mind, and then I just revise it flow better. I honestly spend more time revising than writing. I was the same in college, though I didn't usually get writer's block. I'd start essays like a week or two before the due date and write over several days as opposed to the night before (now that I teach, I realize that it's rare for students to do that).

8. Do you makeover the townies or just leave them?
I make them over. ALL of them. Even the ones that don't show up. But I also enjoy picking out outfits and such.

9. Winter, spring, summer, or fall?
Spring!

10. What movie are you looking forward to seeing?
Hmm. I kinda want to see Wonder Woman, I guess.

11. How are you doing lately?
I'm doing well, thank you!

Urunwa's Questions:
1. Do you let how your sims act in game affect what happens in the story?
Yes, definitely. A lot of the times the way they act in game affects how I write their personalities.

2. What is the worst incident you've had happening in your current RLC?
I think I've been pretty lucky with this RL. No accidental deaths or anything! Luna did set a bunch of fires in the first few sim days of the save, though.

3. Best incident whilst playing RLC?
This is dumb, but I was REALLY happy when Crimson and Elysia ended up together without any prodding on my part. I like when SP works in my favor.

4. Favourite sim to play?
Nikolas!

5. Staging pictures or writing the story- which do you like better?
If I'm only staging a couple of sims, then I prefer staging. If I'm posing a ton of sims though, like I did a couple of chapters ago, I much prefer writing.

6. Are you planning on yelling "get off my lawn" to kids when you get old?
I already have, actually. But they were upsetting my dogs!

7. Fringes/bangs in haircuts (for yourself)- yes or no?
NO bangs! Nope. I have a long face and it looks much better framed than with bangs. And I hate people who can pull of bangs because I've always wanted an Amelie haircut but my face sucks. :[

8. What's your favourite piece of clothing?
Right now, these pants:

The picture doesn't do them justice. They're nice because they look good with sandals and a t-shirt (standard summer wear for me) or with pointed flats and a blouse. So I can wear them to work, and then after work I only have to change my shoes and shirt to be comfy.

9. Addicted to popping bubblewrap?
Nope!

10. Coolest insect?
Megaponera analis. They're ants that "raid" termite colonies. They demonstrate helping behavior--during raids they help defend each other, and injured ants will release a pheromone to call for help. Their nestmates will often save them, and they'll even help the injured ants recover so they can partake in future raids. That's awesome, right???

11. Current haircolour?
Right now it's mostly ash blonde. I've dyed it back after having red hair for awhile. Hopefully I've matched my natural color well so I can be lazy for awhile.


Becky's Questions:
Okay so Becky didn't do nominations, but by reading her questions I contracted the plague and am thus obligated to answer them. (:

1. Favorite board or card game?
I must be boring because I don't like board and/or card games. Oh, wait! Nevermind. I played Zombicide a few times and it's pretty fun.

2. A computer game you'd recommend besides the Sims?
Ummm....:[ TS3 is my only game in my Steam library. How about you recommend a game for me?

3. Favorite party game?
Does Secret Hitler count? Or is that a board game? Either way I played it at a party and it was really fun. I'm good at being Secret Hitler. (Note: we also played it once as Secret Trump. The rules didn't change, it just made us feel deviously happy and then sad when reality hit us)

4. If you had to make up the rules for an original (ish) party game, what would it be?
What if I don't make up rules? Am I punished? I might just take the punishment.

5. You must take either a wish granting genie or a talking dog. What do you choose, and why?
Talking dog! Genies are jerks, whereas dogs are awesome and I've always wanted to be able to talk to my dogs.

6. What film, book, or other media you've consumed contained the most alien alien? (Think starfish alien trope.)
Hum. The aliens in Galaxy Quest were pretty alien, weren't they? Though I guess Xenomorphs (from Alien) would be pretty different since they're silicone based as opposed to carbon based. Idk. Idk!!

7. Do you prefer to think of your sims as basically living in the real world, or do you work the strangeness of gameplay into your stories?
It's somewhere in the between for me. I like being able to make pop culture references, which indicates some real world elements, but I also like to include things like teleporting lawn gnomes and strange sim behavior. I do imagine my games taking place specifically in Simnation, which seems to exist on a different planet that has *some* of the same locations as Earth but not all of them, but they also have some of the same cultural artifacts as us.

8. If you had to destroy one holiday you currently celebrate every year, which one would it be?
Christmas.

9. What color do you normally gravitate towards for shoes?
Black, usually.

10. Coolest-looking plant?
I think silk trees look cool.

11. The last movie you watched?
I watched the MST3k episode of "The Mole People" last night.

Efelkay's Questions:

 1. I hear most people use mods and CC in their games - which ones do you consider to be the absolute necessities, and why?
Story Progression and Master Controller. SP keeps my town from dying, and MC allows me to 1) make changes to the population that helps my story and game goals and 2) change settings for tools like CAS. I also really dislike the standard EA skin and eyes, so I download CC for that. I love CC (I had to merge files with SimPE because I had so much CC it was bloating my game), but I could probably live with just SP, MC, and a couple of overrides.

2. How long have you been playing the Sims for?
Since a few months after the first game came out. I was 12 and I'm almost 29, so I've been playing for over half my life. XD

3. Out of all of your Sims, which do you find to be the hardest to write and why?
Oh, good question! I have a really, really hard time writing Nikolas. Goddamn he's difficult. XD Which is funny because he is my favorite sim to play!

4. ^And who is the easiest?
Probably some of the minor characters, like Bastian. Though Luna, this legacy's founder, was also really easy to write. I think it helps that I'm emotional like her, and I have a similarly bad self-esteem.

5. Moving away from the topic of Sims temporarily, do you read often? What's your favorite book?
I read a lot! I have two degrees in reading. ;) I have a bunch of favorite books. I wrote my thesis on Jane Eyre. I really like Margaret Atwood, especially Oryx and Crake and The Blind Assassin. Moby-Dick is up there as well. I also like graphic novels. Saga is my favorite ongoing series.

6. What kinds of music do you listen to whilst writing for your legacy, if any?
I always listen to music whilst writing, and I associate certain bands with certain characters. Mostly I listen to indie rock, anti-folk (which is a term that makes me laugh XD), ska, sometimes hip hop and rap. Some bands/artists: The Decemberists, Murder By Death, The Mountain Goats, Kimya Dawson, M.I.A., Regina Spektor, Hot Hot Heat, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Arctic Monkeys, Pixies, The Slackers, Streetlight Manifesto. I will always associate Janelle Monae with my original legacy founder, Polaris Bee. And I associate Lark with M.I.A. since that's normally who I listen to when writing her stuff.

7. On average, how long does it take for you to write an update?
Several days, an hour or so a day. So in all a chapter can take me a couple of hours of writing and a couple of hours of editing. I am a very slow writer and I get distracted easily, plus I like to look over my notes, screenshots, and previous chapter while writing.

8. Are you a cat person or a dog person? Or neither?
Dog person! I love dogs. I have three because I can't say no to strays. I have had dogs literally my whole life, except for the first year after I got married (which was so lonely, btw).

9. If you could add one thing to the Sims that isn't already in an expansion, what would it be?
Hmm. This is a good question. I would love more interactions between toddlers and other ages. Boring answer, I know. XD

10. And if you could remove one thing, what would it be?
I don't like the insane trait as it is. I think it's kind of a rotten way to depict people with mental illnesses.

11. Why do you think its eleven questions and not ten?
To make you ask questions. :p

Annie's Questions:
1. What other Sims challenges have you played besides a Random Legacy? Which one is your favorite?
I've played a few. I started ones like dilute the ugly gene, etc. but I get kind of bored. My wishacy is fun-ish but I keep coming back to the RLC. I think it's because I have a story to go along with it.

2. When do you roll for the next generation and how do you determine the heir?
I do my rolls two generations ahead of time (so I rolled for first and second gens at the beginning, third gen right after second was born, fourth gen after third was born, etc.). gender and appearance is a large part of my reasoning. I try to pick female sims for rolls like single parent, for example.

3. Does your story follow the gameplay or does the gameplay follow your (pre-planned) story?
A mix of both, I think. I have events planned for each generation, and I direct sims to do things based on these events (make friends or enemies, for example). But sometimes something happens in game that I just have to include.

4. Kind of a follow up to the previous question: What is your writing process like? Do you write first and then take fitting pictures, or do you try to weave the screenshots you have from playing into a story?
It depends on the chapter. If I do a very story-oriented chapter, such as one with a fight or any of the ones with faeries or dumb shit like that, chances are I wrote it first and then posed it. If the chapter is mostly gameplay pics and very few poses, I wrote around the pictures. Sometimes I go back and take extra pictures via posing if I want to convey something in my story that didn't arise from my screencaps.

As for my writing process itself: I start writing by writing the introductory and then concluding lines. I then go through and fill out the chapters with actions in all caps (ex, "LARK FIGHTS WITH LUKE"). I then go back through and add in the dialogue. I try do dialogue in chunks, and sometimes I time myself as I write bits (so for example, ten minutes to go through and write the whole conversation between two characters). So when I first write dialogue, it usually looks something like this: "Lark: 'something funny re: faeries.' Nikolas: 'asks how faeries are real.'" The idea is I write the cadence of the conversation first, and then I go back and "fix" the dialogue to have complete sentences. I usually revise dialogue the most, and I try to use vocabulary those characters would use based on what I assume their intelligence, charisma, and literacy is. After I finish dialogue, I write exposition, removing those all caps phrases in the process. Sometimes I jump around a bit--write a little dialogue, then exposition. Also, if I ever have an idea for ANYTHING even a single line of dialogue, I write it down.

Revision takes up a good amount of the time I spend writing. When I finish a chapter, I read it and highlight anything that bothers me. Then I read through it again and remove or change what bothers me. If I get stuck, I keep moving and I just come back later. I read through it as many times as it takes to remove or edit the highlighted parts. Once I'm done, I proofread it! There's always at least one typo in my chapters so this is something I'm really bad at. But ideally a good piece of writing should hide all of the work I put into it. That's a goal of mine, at least. I don't always reach it. XD

I know I took a long time to answer this question, but you've expressed interest before in how I teach (even if it's just polite interest). I try to convince my students of two things: 1) If you get stuck writing, KEEP MOVING.* Never, never stand still while writing. If you can't write the intro first, start with the body or conclusion. Professional writers tend to understand that process should be fluid, and they tend to use recursive revision strategies. 2) Everyone is a writer. There's no such thing as a bad or good writer; just an inexperienced or experienced writer (this is more just me playing cheerleader for them--a good number of my students are non-native English speakers and have been mocked for their English skills, so I want to make them realize they're smart, capable people). :)

*I get stuck a lot so I'm kind of a hypocrite.

5. Are there any foods you hate? Why?
Eggplant! I hate it, and it's a staple for a lot of vegetarian food. The texture gets to me and no matter how it's cooked, I can't eat it.

6. What is the longest you’ve ever been away from home?
About a month. When I was a kid every other year or so my mom would send me to stay with my grandmother on her farm for four weeks. It was nice because I got to know my grandmother and my cousins (they lived with her), but I think it was also a way for my parents to save a little bit of money every couple of years since they wouldn't have to pay for my food, activities, or anything like summer camp.

7. Would you rather live in a crappy place with lots of awesome people around or a really nice place with just one or two people you love?
This is hard. I'm going to go with the first because that's kind of my situation right now and I like it.

8. Now for something scary: What would it take for you to forever abandon The Sims 3?
I think the community would have to die. If the RLC thread withered and all the people on Tumblr I liked moved on, I probably would too. I might occasionally play (I even pop in TS1 every once in awhile) but I wouldn't write anymore. It's not as rewarding if there's no audience.

9. Which Sims 3 neighborhood do you find yourself using most often?
Right now, Aurora Skies. XD But I've made a lot of families in Lucky Palms.

10. Is there anything in the Sims 3 you’re dying to try but you haven’t yet because you’re waiting for the right rolls and/or want to keep the game interesting?
Hmm. Not really? I have things I want to do, but honestly I've played around with a lot I'm interested in (time travel, mostly).

11. Did I come up with 11 questions yet? Can I go to bed now?
Go to bed! Get rest! Avoid jet lag! 

MommyIce's Questions:
1.  What would your Generational Goal/Miscellaneous Fun roll be if you were a Sim?  Try to pick your best fit! ;)
Probably Fashion Diva (I like shopping for clothes but I'm not always super fashionable tho) or No Strangers.

2.  Which is your favorite generation in your RLC?
Right now, generation two. Though I'm excited for the rolls I have next gen!

3.  Favorite Sim to play?
Nikolas, especially now that he's gone through some changes. ;)

4.  Least Favorite Sim to play?
Probably Bjorn, since he's a toddler. I also never really liked playing Quentin because his job was boring.

5.  Worst (or best) RLC roll?
Hypothetically? Probably something like Dumpster Diver with a single marital structure, five children, living in the lap of luxury, etc. My first random legacy roll was hard: single, collector, five half siblings, and property mogul.

6.  Where would you love to go on vacation if money & time weren't an issue?
Iceland! Though I might actually go next summer.

7.  You have 5 minutes to escape your burning house, what is the first thing you decide to grab?
This is legit a nightmare of mine. My daughter, definitely, though I would warn my husband first and try to go back for my dogs if possible.

8.  What are you currently reading right now?
These questions!

9.  Windows or Mac? Laptop or Desktop? PC or Console (then which one?)
Windows, desktop, PC.

10.  Coffee, tea, or none of the above?
Coffee! Black please.

11.  What’s one thing you want to let your readers know?
That I love and appreciate them, and I wouldn't write this if it wasn't for their lovely comments and their readership. (: