Layout Change... Again.

It's one of those days... people...
LAYOUT CHANGE.
I know what everybody's going to say... Boys Over Flowers? Still?
Okay, I admit I still have a little of the Boys Over Flowers withdrawal / residue lurking about me so I had to make one of my favorite scenes as the header of this layout. (I didn't design the layout myself, all credit still goes to its designer. I only made the image header with Corel Paintshop.) Simple yet still nice to look at. I could have made a more elaborate piece but loading paintshop plugins in Vista is a pain to me. I still haven't figured out how to load them into Painshop using Vista, while I used to be a total addict collecting them for better graphic projects. I really have to figure out loading them in Vista one of these days.

Missing my Simmies?
Well, I haven't had the chance to play in the last couple of days lately. I'm kind of tied up with extra recording time due to my Auntie's liking for Wowowee (BLAH.) And of course, there's still my Asian dramas, lined up for me to watch. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get to play for a bit tonight.

EXCESS:
Speaking of Boys Over Flowers, I received a newsletter from YA Entertainment and their release calendar had Boys Over Flowers set for release in November of this year. I'm still deciding whether I'm still buying this version since I'm pretty happy with the Korean Limited Edition that I bought from Korea.

I have two options actually, I could buy it or if Netflix has it out for rent, I can copy it. But really it depends on the extras that will be included on the American release, since the korean version didn't really have that much extra footage on it and the little dvd extras it had didn't have English Subtitles on it. Anyway, I still have to think about it and save up if I do decide to still buy it.

Currently Taping List

A few of my friends asked me to make a sticky post on all the shows that I'm currently taping right now, so they know what they might like to borrow or copy in the next weeks or months. So guys, bookmark this post on your blogs, for future reference. I'll be sure to make a separate list for my "Previously Taped Shows"

Currently Taping List

(all titles are in DVD Quality)

Kambal Sa Uma (ABS-CBN)
May Bukas Pa (ABS-CBN)
Tayong Dalawa (ABS-CBN)
Only You (ABS-CBN)
The Wedding (ABS-CBN) - starting tomorrow, Monday
Ngayon At Kailanman (GMA)
Kung Aagawin Mo Ang Lahat Sa Akin (GMA)
All My Life (GMA)

( Take note, I am not taping all teleseryes. I only tape shows I like, so if a title isn't here, chances are I am not following the show.)

Still Coping With Being Bitten by The Sim Bug....

I just got home two to three hours ago from staying at Cassie's house for most of today. As promised, I took a look at her computer to see if Sims 3 would run on it. Well, this is one case that I couldn't do anything about it. As it turns out, her computer's video card isn't fit to run a graphic rich game like the Sims 3. I should have brought with me my copy of Sims 2 and see if it could at least run that instead, but I didn't. Anyway, I gave her a list of affordable video cards that she might end up buying for her computer upgrade, because I think she's already bitten by the "Sim Bug" ! (It's all thanks to me, she says! You're welcome, Cassie! LOL!)

We tried the game on Cassie's Dad's computer and it worked fine! (She actually drove to her parents' house 3 blocks away from her house just to borrow her dad's laptop!) I let her play the rest of the afternoon while I took a bit of a snooze myself... yep, a two-hour or more nap for me since I know I'm off limits to the game anyway!

Since I never got the chance to play with my new sim, Maxine Richards, there's nothing to update on her except for some left over captures from the last time I played with her.

(Click for bigger versions of the pics.)

Here's an overview of Max's house. Simple, huh?
Hopefully, I'll be able to add more furniture and replace the others
with better ones as soon as Max earns more money.

$68 isn't bad for her first exposure playing at one of the parks around Riverview.

She works hard for her money! Maxine's salary from her regular job as a Talent Manager
isn't that much as of now, so she has to play for tips now? Well, not really, sure, her monthly pay as a musician is kind of low, but it isn't as bad as it looks! (LOL) There was one icon on her
Daily Wants/Wishes Panel that had a picture of a park bench with a guitar and dollar signs in the background, which simply means she wanted to earn Tips while playing her guitar in the park. (This was actually very productive for her in the sense that she can earn extra money while practicing or honing her guitar skills. The gauge on the top of her head ( just barely seen on the picture above tells how she's doing progress on her playing.)

Here's the bigger scene of the cropped picture above. While Max was busy with her playing, she didn't even notice her boss, Jon Lessen (the guy sitting on the bench, reading a book.) was there until later. This was actually the first time they met outside of work. I wonder if Jon had been listening to her guitar playing while reading his book. (Max has a crush on her boss! This happened with Celestyne too, but unlike Celestyne's boss, Jon Lessen appears to be single and so available.

After a long day at the park, Max invited, Jon for an early evening night cap.

(Max really has IT bad for Jon. Why does this picture look like she's serenading Jon???!!!
AHHHHH.... Women nowadays are just so liberated! Whatever happened to men serenading women huh?!)

Starting Over...

As much as I really miss playing with the Black Family, since their unexpected "virtual demise" just the other day due to a game patch that EA released... I knew I had to start over somewhere but first, I promised myself that I won't be adding future released patches until I'm pretty sure what the after effects would be first, even if it would mean going through forum posts at the Sims 3 site all day!

So, with Celestyne and her family's demise came the birth of my second Sim off Create-A-Sim.

(Click for a bigger verison of the pictures.)

With the $16,000 "seed money" in her account, I chose the Tish Cottage off Lost Willow Road, an unfurnished, one story, 2 bedroom house for $10,572 and probably spent about $4000-$5500 on furniture. I would have taken the house furnished but the furniture in it won't satisfy my new tenant so much because they're " too cheap" (I know because when I first bought a furnished house for a "still single" Celestyne Majors, she ended up fixing almost all of the fixtures that came with the house frequently because they get broken easily.) I'm going for quality this time!

I know it doesn't look that much right now. it will get better when Max (I decided to give her a nickname. LOL!) gets a job and the dough starts rolling in.

Here's the personal stats of my newest sim, Max.

Lifetime Wish / Goal
Master of the Arts
(It means she has to reach the highest career position in Music and Arts, highest skill level in painting and in playing musical instruments.)

Currently Employed As : Roadie

( A fan who travels around with a band or celebrity, much like a paid fan who shouts and screams at concerts, movies or whatever, based on how I understand it. Anyway, is it even a real job?! As far as I know being a fan of anyone or anybody doesn't earn a thing, except when he or she becomes a PA (Personal Assistant) of his or her idol, by choice of course. )

Personality Traits

Artistic
Good Sense Of Humor
Great Kisser
Hopeless Romantic
Computer Whiz

Favorites

Favorite Food : Sushi
Fave Type of Music : Pop
Favorite Color : Black

Max's first night in her new home was pretty exciting / scary. A burglar sneaked into the house in the middle of the night! Good thing, I installed an alarm system that called the Sim Police right away. She got her TV back.

Unforgettable First Night



The home alarm system alerted the Sim police and apprehended the bungling burglar! But of course, Max had a rude awakening because of it. She rushed out of the bedroom, in her lingerie without any qualms. She must be still half-asleep. But I can tell she was "peeved" because of her rude awakening, her mood crystal (the crystal on top of her head) is yellow and not green.

After a seemingly long sleepless night because the incident the past night, Maxine's mood didn't improve the next morning so what else can put a budding musician in a better mood? MUSIC.

The Black Family Disappeared....

Okay, I feel like crying right now... (SIGH)
My Sim family are gone!
The Blacks diappeared! I can't play with them anymore! (TEARY EYED)

EA (Electronic Arts, maker of the Sims series, including Sims 3) released a game patch today which I installed with no problems whatsoever, but when I launched the game it played on as far as the opening screens and and the main menu for the saved games, I clicked on the "Black Family" saved file and it just took me to a black screen and a message that said something like : "An error occured, please restart the game. I restarted the game and it still said the same massage, I did it several times, but it still displayed a black screen with the same error message!

AHHHHHH!!! I feels like I've lost a pet!
I don't like EA right now! They virtually killed my family!
The Black family are now reduced to just a "Black" screen! I hope EA Games can do something about this... I'm saving all the old Game Saves files and Saved Sims files in case theres a way to revived "missing families". I went to the Sims 3 Forums at the Official TS3 site and a lot of players are experiencing the same problem.

As much as I already grew attached to the Black Family (and in this case none of them has virtually died in the game yet) I will have to say goodbye to them now... but I still wish there is something that could be done to play with them again!

I'LL MISS THEM!!!
MY FIRST FAMILY OFF SIMS 3!

Queen Seondeok....

I wonder if all of the viewers of the historical K- Drama, Queen Seon Deok ( 선덕여왕 ) will ever see Gukseon Munno again on the series.I just saw Episode 7 tonight and in the episode, some members of the Hwarang, led by Bojong, (Mishil's son with Won-rang Cheol. Mishil is such an manipulative tramp! she has 3-4 sons by different men, all serving within King Jin Pyeong's cabinet!) were assigned by Mishil to secretly go to Yorae Temple in Manno County to assassinate Munno, the kindom's missing Gukseon.

Yorae Temple had been ransacked and every monk slaughtered in sight but still the Gukson was nowhere to be found. Princess Cheonmyeong (now also a monk) and Deok Man got there in the midst of the chaos. Bojong ordered for them to be killed as well but they ran away. They (Deok Man and Princess Cheonmyeong) were also caught byBojong himself but one of Lord Yong-chun's trusted Hwarang men, injured Bojong by an arrow. (Lord Yong-chun is the brother of Princess Cheonmyeong's deseased husband) Because of the strong impact of the arrow piersing Bojong, he pulled with him Deok Man and Princess Cheonmyeong. All three rolled off a stiff revine.

King Jin Pyeong heard the news of his daughter, Princess Cheonmyeong disappearing at Manno County and headed to Manno himself, with Mishil. (looking after her best interests as always! HUMPH!) An all out search was dispatched with the help of neighboring kingdoms until the Princess was found.

I love the confrontation between Princess Cheonmyeong and Mishil because the princess recognized Bojong while she and Deok Man werew being chased after. Mishil's face during that scene was just priceless. She was Bojong's mother after all regardless how vile and sinister she is.

THe next episode will be somewhat of a fast forward episode as all the characters grow up. After seeing the preview. I can tell she is still looking for Munno and will somehow end up in Princess Cheonmyeong's Hwarang. I wonder if the Princess ordered someone to look for her and be brought into the palace, hence her instatement into the Hwarang.

Fun & Friendly Visit....

Two of my best friends were here this afternoon, Sam and Cassie. They were here to check out the Sims 3 game as they had promised and I can tell they loved it. I bet they'll be an addict like me before they even knew what actually hit them and I'll hear myself say one of these days... I TOLD YOU SO... (LOL!)

Anyway, let each of them make their own sim and try to make and design new homes for their new sims and let them play. (As if I really had a choice! They practically won't let me near this computer! LOL!) So here I was watching them enjoying the game, sitting on the edge of my bed, answering most of their questions. They even sneaked a peek on my sim family, The Blacks and that's when Celestyne and Nathaniel got older. Here's how they look now :

( Click on pictures for larger versions. )

Celestyne practically looks the same, still no visible wrinkles
but the glasses and long hair were a dead giveaway.


Nathaniel is looking "hot"!!! It must be all that facial hair working
on Celestyne's faminine hormones! He didn't look this cute
when he met Celestyne.

Why can't people age without wrinkles like these two did! I should probably get this two work on having another baby before they become elders, or else both of them will not be able to fulfill their lifetime wish of raising 5 kids to adulthood. Or I could wait till their eldest, Chris Nigel to move out of the household. But I don't actually need him, (Chris Nigel) to move out anymore as soon as he becomes a young adult because the household funds are enough to move the family into a bigger house. But he will definitely have to move out when he meets the girl he'll marry someday.

As for my two best buds, I'm pretty sure Sam is buying, she's been playing sims too for quite a while, but not as long as I did, eventhough she won't be able to play it a lot because of her job... she always finds time on her free time if she really really wanted to. Meanwhile, Cassie has to test my copy of the game on her computer first, because her graphics card might not meet the minimum system requirements of the game. I'm letting her borrow my game disk this weekend to test.

Time Flew By...

I never had the time to post this last night. I was a little tired yesterday after being out for most of the day with my family for Father's Day, and talked/chatted with a few friends so I am posting this early today.

Tired as I may be yesterday, I just had to have my daily dose of playing with my Sim family even it was for such a short time. Eventually, the short time I played was enough time for most of my Sim Family to age to the next stage of their lives. So here's an update...

Celestyne is near her adult stage so I let her have a bit of a make over. Nothing major, I just changed her hairstyle and maybe her taste in clothes. Don't laugh ok? I think I might have overdone it and made her look like a teenager with the clothes.

( Nice legs huh? I like her better with short hair though, I just want something different.)

The Black children also did some aging as well, which just about time I guess since Celestyne will be aging up to adult in the next few days. Her husband, Nathaniel should be aging about the same time as her too.)

Chris Nigel Black grew up from being a child to a teenager and now goes to highschool. I had him recently apply for a job and is now is working part time at Riverview's Sunflower Spa as a "Fitting Room Guard" (What the heck is a fitting room guard?) immediately after school hours.

(Click on pics for a bigger version.)

Chris Nigel did a lot of growing up, didn't he? Who would have thought he'd grow up
to be more handsome than his father! He didn't looked cute enough as a child
to grow up like this!

Updated profile for Chris Nigel

Chris Nigel Black

Loves The Outdoors
Bookworm
Friendly
*Genius*
(added on his last *stage birthday*)

Currently Employed Part time as :
Fitting Room Guard

Education :
High School Student

( He can move out on his next birthday, if the Black household funds
won't be enough to buy a bigger home.)

Now if I thought Chris Nigel came out ok, The Black Triplets were a totally different story! They did some growing up too but I assumed that they would all look like carbon copies of each other but they did not... is it some kind of a glitch within the game? Or is it really supposed to come out that way? I am not sure whether I am just imagining it or not, but see it for yourselves!

Christoph as a toddler, I think he looks a lot like Nathaniel in this screenshot.


In this pic, Cedric looks more like his mom, Celestyne, although he's got
his dad's eyes, I think he's got more from Celestyne here or else it's all
just my imagination.

Charles in diapers, just calmed down after a tantrum by his
big brother, Chris Nigel.

As for Charles, his smile in this pic reminded me a lot of Celestyne, but again the eyebrows and the eyes are definitely Nathaniel's. I am praying that they all will come out looking cute as Chris Nigel is now... or I'm just having some wishful thinking...

A Happy Father's day Indeed!

Today is Father's Day and as usual my family and I went out to have a simple yet happy and somewhat fun celebration. We went to Sunday Mass as always on Sundays and as we were looking for a parking spot up front, I snapped this picture of the church's cross. (I brought my camera along since I knew we were going somewhere after the mass.)

Looked like it came from a calendar huh?

We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant that serves Dim-Sum. My Dad sure loves his Chinese food! And since it's Father's Day, he's the boss today! After lunch, my sister wasn't about to let us go home without doing anything else but eat. She convinced the parents that we should see a movie, and that we did! We saw "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock. It was a pretty good comedy/romance flick. The leading man was handsome but I'm not really familiar with him until now, his name is Ryan Reynolds. There were preview trailers before the movie that I would like to see once they're out: Twilight : New Moon, Shutter Island, Serrogate, Time Traveller's Wife and the movie, with John Travolta and Robin Williams, that I had forgotten the name of. (hopefully I'll remember soon enough.)

We went to Cold Stone, Ice Cream Shoppe after the movie and we also stopped by at a nearby Target Store because my sister had to buy something. (but we all went in just to look around and maybe buy something we'd liked. The last stop was at my sister's place, just to drop them off. (my sister and her roomie)

It was already late afternoon when we got here. we're a little tired but we had fun!

IT WAS INDEED A VERY HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Just Simply Bored....

A phone call on my cell phone literally woke me up this morning. It was from my cousin, Mar. He left me a message on my voice mail saying hi. I guess, I haven't been online a lot lately. We used to chat /talk via Yahoo Messenger. I haven't heard from his girlfriend either, I hope she is busy in a good way. I hope she already got a job.

I just saw Episode 6 of Queen Seon Deok (선덕여왕) Twins (They didn't even know they were siiblings.) Deok Man and Princess Cheon Myung finally meet at Manno (the place where Geukseon Munno is supposedly hiding.) At first they didn't know they were looking for the same person (but they were looking for him for different reasons.) Deok Man actually got swindled by a con-artist that led her to believe that he knew Munno and got her into a wild-goose chase! Litterally! That's where she bumped into Princess Cheon Myung (who is now a practicing monk at a Buddhist Temple and is on her way to Yorae Temple to seek Munno for help to overthrow Mishil's hold over the Hwarangs and ragain control for her father.) To make the long story short, their long journey to find the Gukseon led them to be closer to each other, saving each other from danger, without even knowing that they are related to each other. I wonder when will they discover the truth and how will Deok Man end up in her father's kingdom again.

I hope the English Subtitles for Episode 7 get posted tomorrow. I'm excited as to when and how they will find Munno and stop the men who were ordered by Mishil and her co-horts to get rid of the Gukseon.

Vampire Hyun Joong?

I practically hyperventilated today when I first saw this video! Kim Hyun Joong has been reported very sick in the last couple of weeks due to over fatigue and lack of sleep. It was even in the report that he was supposedly shooting the full version of this teaser on or before he got sick. His vampire-looking attire and make up in this video just made me feel a little sorry for him. There's no denying that he is still handsome / cute but anybody could tell how overworked he is!

POOR HYUN JOONG-SSHI!

Anyway, it's been pretty obvious that he has been working like there is no tomorrow! I am alarmed at how he looks right now. A lot thinner than when he was still seen in the Reality Show, WE GOT MARRIED.

Hope he gets a much needed break after SS501's SOLO COLLECTION release.

EXCESS :

I saw Episode 5 of Queen Seon Deok tonight and it appears that I was right when I assumed that Deok Man thinks Gukseon Munno is her father, she sets off for Gyerim, (the place where she and Sohwa came from originally) to look for him and seek answers. Meanwhile, it is also in this episode that learned that Deok Man's twin, Princess Cheon Myung is married to the son of her father's uncle, the dethroned King Geumnyun, (wouldn't that make Princess Cheon Myung and her husband, cousins?) and to think she is just supposedly 15 years old just as Deok Man is.

Based from watching past drama in this genre, people of royal blood tend to marry their children off at a very young age, but I am not so sure about cousins getting married to each other... but who knows, I could be wrong. Other than that, I am excited to see the next episode, where the twins finally meet not knowing they are each other's twin.

Black Family Update....

I'm back with a major update on my Sims 3 family, the Blacks, As I've said from my last post that I've been working on Nathaniel and Celestyne to have another child since their son, Chris Nigel has grown up from toddler to a child. After Chris Nigel's birthday, I was prompted to choose another trait for him. (Each sim baby is born with one fixed trait, meaning this trait is unchangeable or uneditable, but each stage a sim enters, the player will be asked for one trait of choice till the sim turns to a young adult.) He was born with the "Loves The Outdoors" trait, when he grew up to be a toddler, I chose the "Friendly" trait. Now as a child, I added in the "Bookworm" trait. I've also chosen for him to have the Lifetime goal to become a World Renowned Surgeon someday.

After Sim days of trying to have a baby,
Nathaniel finally got Celestyne pregnant again.

Here's Celestyne letting Chris Nigel feel her belly a day before delivery date.
(Is it just me, or her belly is bigger than her last pregnancy?)

Celestyne started getting labor pains the day after, probably almost an hour after Nathaniel left for work. She came to the hospital alone, Chris Nigel got on his bus, off to school as usual. Nathaniel left work and rushed to the hospital. (a message that read, Nathaniel Black has left work, and earned $6 today, appeared, then when I looked at the Sim Map, a taxi that had Nathaniel's icon drove towards the hospital)

A few Sim hours later, I was prompted to type in a name for a baby boy. I keyed in "Christoph". Then it prompted me for another name for a boy. The word, "TWINS" popped into mind as I typed in "Cedric" for the second baby, but then, the game prompted for another boy name for third time! OMG! They had TRIPLETS! I chose "Charles" for the third child. (I wanted a girl this time! girl triplets would have worked for me too! But boys?! AGAIN!)

(Click on pics for a bigger version.)

Celestyne came out of the hospital carrying a baby cot, ( see pic above.) followed by Nathaniel, who was carrying.... NOTHING! I thought they had triplets! All the babies fit in that basket???!!!
When they came home, Celestyne put the basket down in the living room took out a baby and walked to an remodeled nursery, placed the baby in a crib and returned to the living room and took out another baby and did the same and did it one more time after that! (All the babies did fit in the cot!)

I remodeled the nursery, extended it and made a separate room for Chris Nigel. (he wakes up during the night each time any of his baby brothers cry.) All babies look the same but each is born with a different fixed trait.

Here's a list and a recap of all the traits of each member of the Black Family. Traits with * is an in-born trait.

Nathaniel Black

Bookworm
Green Thumb
Family Oriented
Good Sense Of Humor
Handy

Celestyne Majors-Black

Natural Cook
Hopeless Romantic
Great Kisser
Good Sense Of Humor
Family Oriented

Chris Nigel Black

Loves The Outdoors *
Bookworm
Friendly

Christoph Black

Genius *
Virtuoso ( Good with Musical Instruments)

Cedric Black

Clumsy *
Good

Charles Black

Friendly *
Artistic

(Cedric Black has the clumsy trait, which was his fixed trait when he was born. I wonder what kind of career I'll give him in the future?)

:: EXCESS ::

I finally saw Episode 4 of Queen Seon Deok and Mi-Shil's loyal assassin, Chil-sook finally discovers that Deok Man, the chirpy girl who tried to help him is the baby, he was ordered to kill 15 years ago by Mi-Shil. (He stealthly went to Deok Man and Sohwa's room and saw the blanket the baby was wrapped in 15 years ago. He also saw a letter with the name of Munno inscribed on it.

Chil-Sook chased after them up to the desert and that's where Sohwa fell into quicksand/ sand pit that caused her death. Deok Man was helping her mother, (Deok Man thinks Sohwa is her real mother. and I have a feeling, she still thinks Munno is her father, even though Sohwa told her that he wasn't, because of the letter she saw Sohwa has in her possession.) escape the quicksand / sand pit when Chil-Sook caught up with them, but Sohwa cut the rope Deok Man toosed to her to pull her out so Sohwa will eventually die.

GO LAKERS!

I knew it!!! Ihad a strong feeling they were going to win tonight! HA! There goes President Barrack Obama's prediction that The Los Angeles Lakers would win the 2009 championship on the 6th game of the NBA Finals... up in smoke as they did a spectacular close out to the finals, beating Orlando Magic, 99-86!

Now I want a new Laker's Shirt!

(Nothing get's me out of playing the Sims 3 right now except for watching Kobe and the Lakers!)

Kobe Bryant
2009 NBA Finals
Most Valuable Player

More Sims' Time....

Due to the overall scan checks I wanna do to this computer because of what happened yesterday, I didn't get to do much here today, except for a lot of waiting and reading while waiting (LOL) There's really nothing to watch on Saturdays so it would have been a good day to play a lot of Sims 3, but the computer scanning prevented me from doing that.

But around afternoon I did get the chance and as usual I had a blast but I think I got more than what I really hoped to "bargain" for in one afternoon. AS IN LITERALLY!

Chris Nigel aged to the child stage and is now attending school and I have chosen for him to become a surgeon someday. So with that done and over with, I thought that since Nathaniel and Celestyne still had the "Have A Baby" icon in the wishes panel, (since Chris Nigel turned into a toddler, if I'm not mistaken.) it would be the most perfect time to have another baby since Chris Nigel is just a couple of stages away from being a young adult (Sims life stages are infant/baby - toddler - child - teen - young adult - adult - elder) who can by then get a job and sooner or later move out of the house.

In A Bit Of A Panic...

I think I made a BIG BOO-BOO... it's either that or most of my daily taped tagalog teleserye video files just disappeared. I don't remember deleting any or all of them It was a good thing that I've burned most of them into blank DVD's already, well except for Bud Brothers, three weeks worth of episodes were still in my hard-drive before everything else suddenly disappeared! A few episodes of Only You, May Bukas Pa, Tayong Dalawa and Kambal Sa Uma disappeared on my hard drive too but luckily those episodes were aired within this week and I still have copies of this week's episodes on my DVR. So all is somewhat ok, but of course "Bud Brothers" series is down the drain.

I'm planning on doing a complete check of my desktop tomorrow to make sure there is nothing wrong with my harddrive. I can't afford to lose this one right now. I don't have the $$$ to replace it yet.

OH YEAH....

HAPPY PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY!

I told you so....

I TOLD YOU SO.
Yeah, I'm still here.... it's just that I'm addicted to the Sims all over again. Anyway, more about my sims later. A friend of mine sent me a text message regarding planning a summer outing among all of us. I gave her all the dates in the summer that I know I'm free (of course, all are subject to change, I still have other stuff on my calendar so nothing's final till it's all set. But I'm all for it! Let's just wait and see what we all agree on.

Back to my sims, Nathaniel and Celestyne were about to have their first baby. One of the new features of Sims 3 is the option to bring your wife to the hospital to give birth, (Sims 1 and 2 never had this option.) but delivering at home is still an existing option. Nathaniel brought Celestyne to the hospital, and after a few Sim hours, had a baby boy, I named him Chris Nigel.

Chris Nigel Black coming home from the Riverview General Hospital.

AND

Two sim days later grew up to be a toddler

(He must be taking after his Dad, he doesn't look a lot like Celestyne at all!)

I wonder if they had a girl, then it might look a lot like Celestyne. Anyway, Chris seems to prefer playing with his Dad more than Mom but Dad is always tired coming from work and while Mom, who's already promoted a five-star chef and is now a business partner at the restaurant where she works, only goes to work during the weekends now, so mom fills in for him a lot.

After Chris Nigel turned into a toddler, the "Have A Baby" icon (pacifier) appeared again on both Celestyne and Nathaniel's wish panels! (Is this the effect of choosing "Surrounded by Friends & Family" Lifetime goal?) It seems like the wanted to have a new baby one after the other!

Now I have to work at getting Nathaniel a promotion at work so he can go ahead and write a romance novel for his bormer best friend, now distant friend Janice Shallow (?) I think and go up to Level 10 of his Journalism Career. I'll have Celestyne improve her gardening skills and make her use spare time at home for profit.

Still Having A Blast...

Last night, I told you about Celestyne's boyfriend/fiancee Nathaniel Black. I got both of them married today. But I think I made the wrong choice of not having a "party" and then the wedding within the party and chose the "Private Wedding" instead. I thought the bride and groom would still be able to invite close friends, to witness the event, but no, instead they just had a non-ceremonious exchange of wedding rings and that was it. (Mind you, Celestyne was still in her chef's uniform when she tied the knot with Nathaniel! So much for seeing a lovely bride in her wedding dress... sigh.)

Anyway, right after their "so private wedding" both Celestyne and Nathaniel had the "Have A Baby" icon (A pacifier) on their wish panels, so since it was their wedding night, I had them "working" on a baby right away.

The morning the next sim day, she was barfing away on the toilet, feeling nauseacious. (DING! She's pregnant! Pregnancy lasts about 3 sim days... maybe 20-30 minutes of playing at normal pace)

Nathaniel listens up to the stranger inside. Celestyne just hours away from giving birth.

On the second day of Celstyne's pregnancy, a blue pacifier icon appeared on Nathaniel's wishes panel (He wants a junior! LOL!) while there's a pink pacifier on Celestyne's. I had a stinking notion that they could be having twins! According to the player guide, babies are a lot easier to take care of in Sims 3 than it's 2 predecessors. So I guess, it won't be that bad. Besides, with both Nathaniel and Celestyne's work sked at present, (Nathaniel's is 8am-1pm.... Celestyne's is 3pm-9pm.) I think I won't even need to hire a babysitter.)

Me, The Sim Matchmaking Guru...

As all of you can remember from my last post, I'm so totally into Sims 3 right now and I've made a girl named, Celestyne to get me into the new world of Sims 3. One thing I loved about the Sims series right from the start is the ability to "play" god over one virtual household, like setting up one sim with another and have complete control over them.

I made Celestyne to have five base traits (each new young adult / adult sim you make in Create-A-Sim has 5 character slots you have to choose)


*Family Oriented ( A Sim who wants to have a family and wants to raise 5 kids to adulthood.)

LIFETIME WISH: To be surrounded by family and friends

• Natural Cook
• Hopeless Romantic
• Great Kisser
• Good Sense Of Humor
• Family Oriented*
  

Currently Employed as : Executive Chef

(At first Celestyne had a crush on her boss at the restaurant where she works but she learned that he already had a wife and kids so I made them be just good friends instead so her career won't suffer. ) I can't find anyone that can go well with her to have a family with... so I had to take matters in my own hands. :: EVIL GRIN::

Now let me introduce to you, Celestyne's boyfriend/ Fiancee:

Nathaniel Black

I haven't figured out yet how to put 2 separate sims in one neighborhood yet. (because one of the many differences between Sims 2 and 3 is each househould have different save files.) So I still don't know how to make them meet each other the natural way. Nathaniel isn't one of the "townies" in Riverview. I made him and merged his household with Celestyne's and their relationship when he first moved in... they were "Housemates".

Nathaniel has these main traits.

LIFETIME WISH: To be surrounded by family and friends

*Family Oriented ( A Sim who wants to have a family and wants to raise 5 kids to adulthood.)

• Bookworm
• Green Thumb
• Family Oriented*
  
• Good Sense Of Humor
• Handy

Currently Employed as : Freelance Writer

After 2-3 hours, I've made both of them have a lot of "friendly interactions" which led them to become close friends and a single kiss from Celestyne made Nathaniel fall for her. Another hour passed by and their relatonship meter reached Boyfriend/Girlfriend stage and one "WooHoo" later, one of Nathaniel's lifetime wishes was to get engaged with Celestyne while Celestyne had the "get married" icon in her lifetime wishes.

I just hope having the same 2 main traits are enough for them (compatible enough) for them to wanna have kids together.

Let's see how good a sim matchmaking guru I can be...

Simple Birthday Greeting....

Today is Matthew's Birthday, for most of you who remember him as my ex. Yeah, the same guy who can't seem to stop smiling/laughing whenever we guys are all out. My bestfriend, Sam always calls him "bungis-ngis" (smiles a lot type in Filipino) Well, I gave him a call today this morning just to greet and he was actually surprised that I still remembered his birthay! He said, I was the first one to greet too!

THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR!


:: SIDE NOTE ::

LA Lakers won Game 2 against the Orlando Magic! Score is 2-0 in the best of 7 of the NBA Finals.
GO LAKERS!

Sims 3 Collector's Edition DVD Game

I finally got my Sims 3 in the mail today!!! ( YEHEY!!!) I've been waiting for this for quite a while now. As a matter of fact, I pre-ordered the game November 8 of last year (2008) to be exact thinking that I would get it a a much lower price and arrives earlier than most (as most pre-orders do.) but mine came late actually, but I assume that's because I chose the collector's edition over the standard one. But hey, it's ok, because since the game came in late, I had the chance to flip through the Sims 3 Strategy Guide that came in the mail first.

Despite my earlier worries, that this desktop of mine won't be able to play the game due to video card problems, installing the game had been a breeze and playing it was even a lot better than I had anticipated! THANK GOD! Good thing, I tried it on the desktop first because if things came to worse, I'll have to install it on my laptop just to be able to play it. ( playing on a laptop is no fun even with a wireless mouse!)

Anyway, I haven't done anything major yet, (as in make a sim for each of my friends and maybe relatives too to play with inside the virtual neighborhood of Riverview) I just made someone totally right off the bat to test the game and it's new features and do far, I'm having a blast playing it! (I didn't get to do my "Korean drama nightly habit" because of my addiction to this game ALL OVER AGAIN! (LOL!)

(I'm playing with no cheats, other than turn off aging, so that I could see how long / far my sim can go in her virtual sim life.)

Celestyne Majors

( My very first sim on Sims 3)

Doesn't look anything like me huh? Celestyne is a combination of my sister's name and my old name (Christine) but I spelled "stine" differently and went with "styne" instead, and for my sister's, I used "Cele" instead of "Celi" for Celina, which is my sister's second name.

Well, Celestyne is my "test sim" since it's my first time to play and go into most of the new features! I love the new CAS (Create A Sim) interface and ALL of the new and old features especially the 5 traits system wherein the player will be able to choose 5 traits their new sim could have. Traits could range from good to bad so you could play an evil character too! So far my only rant about CAS is it's very few hair style choices... but it's expected, it's a NEW GAME afterall.

More on her, tomorrow...


:: MORE ::

Happy birthday, Hyun-Joong!!!

Tomorrow is Matt's birthday.

Prophecy....

I just saw the third episode of Queen Seon Deok (선덕여왕) and I think I understand what the prophecy meant about having twins in the royal bloodline and the curse it sort of has... that it will break the royal bloodline.

King Jin-pyeong and Lady Maya, later known as Queen Maya had twins, Princess Chung Myung and Princess Duk Man, (later will be known as Queen Seon Deok when she assumes the throne of her father.) Princess Chung Myung remained a princess, while her twin, Duk Man was entrusted to the king's chambermaid/servant, So Hwa and was ordered by the king to stay as far away as she could, to raise the child as her own and to protect her.

The King and Queen had 3 other children ofter the twins, all of which were boys and all perished through some kind of sickness. So prophecy meant is that, any male child of the king and queen after the birth of the twins will die, therefore, severing the royal bloodline.

The episode then, fast forwards 15 years later and tells what happens to the king's chambermaid So Hwa and Princess Duk Man after their escape from Mi Shil and company's clutches with the help of Munno, King Jinheung's (King Jin-pyeong grandfather) trusted Gukseon (General). Duk Man and the king's former chambermaid, whom she knows as her real mom, is living in chinese territory. 15 year old, Duk-Man meets Chil Sook, ( the same guy Mi-Shil ordered to look for So Hwa and baby Duk Man and bring them to her. but Munno got the best of him and rescued So Hwa and the baby.) and Chil Sook never reported back to Mi-Shil, fearing that Mi-Shil might kill him for letting them escape.) a wandering traveler, who is seeking employment and wants to be employed by Romans. Duk Man brings Chil Sook to where she and her mother works/stays without even knowing the danger just waiting to happen.

I could only bet that Chil- Sook never really stopped looking for So-Hwa and the baby. He most likely swore that he'll never come back to Mi-Shil until he finds them.

Things are heating up!
Episode 4 should be interesting to watch!

:: MORE ::

Tomorrow is Kim Hyun Joong's Birthday!

Saengil Chukha Hamnida!

♥ SO CUTE!!! ♥

My Daddy... My Genie...

Remember last night, I had a craving for cow and pig intestines that Jan-Di and Gu-Jun-Pyo were eating at a scene in Boys Over Flowers? Well, my Dad sort of made my wish come true. He came home today with a bag of barbecued pig intestines!!!! Wow!!! Gotta love dad!!! He could be a real genie sometimes! I had to hold off getting dressed for a dental appointment this afternoon just so I could eat "isaw" barbecue still hot right off the bag!

LOVE YOU DAD!!!

:: EXCESS ::

June 5 is my cousin's birthday. He'll be 34.

LA Lakers won against Orlando Magic today! Go Lakers!

Craving for...

Oh my gosh! It just came out of the blue. Here I was watching Episode 9 of Boys Over Flowers again (the privilege of having crisp clear DVDs to watch over and over again! LOL!) and there was this scene where Gu Jun-Pyo and Geum Jan-Di went on a double date with Ga Eul and her boyfriend of a jerk, Gong Soo Pyo, they went to a drinking stall were soju and other korean liquor were served, they were having fried pig and cow intestines (isaw in tagalog) to go with their soju drinks! It's been a while since I've eaten "isaw"! I loved the barbecued kind being sold in the streets, near we used to live in the Philipines! I even showed my Dad the scene because now I'm craving for it big time!

AHHH!!! I watch too many Korean Dramas!!! Now I even like to taste what they're actually eating!

So Excited!!!

As most of you know, I've been an avid "The Sims game fan" since the game started. I could play for hours on end if I can! I got all expansions packs of The Sims and Sims 2 and at one point even got into designing my own content, which was fun but I have to admit it can be also time consuming if you turn out to be a picky person like I am.

Today, I received my Official Prima Game Guide to Sims 3, and I'm very excited about what I've read so far about the game! Too bad, my pre-ordered copy of the Sims 3 Limited Collector's Edition hasn't even shipped out yet or else, I'd be already busy playing! You know, checking things out testing the features! etc.

Actually, the game officially went out to stores today but since mine was pre-ordered I assumed I would get my copy earlier, but I didn't. (SIGH) But I probably didn't because I ordered the Limited Edition. But's ok, reading the player guide just got me all worked up I guess!

BUT I HOPE IT GETS HERE SOON!

I CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY!!!

:: MORE::

I just saw Episode 2 of Queen Seon Deok (선덕여왕), and just as I first thought. it just got more exciting. The newly proclaimed king, Jin-pyeong (Queen Seon Deok's father, the rightful heir of King Jinheung) and his queen, Maya are in quite a dilemma, when Queen Maya, gave birth to twins... and to make matters worse, both are girls. (According to the story, it has been foretold that twins born of royal blood will break the royal blood line.) Although, the king wasn't that troubled, about the fact that his newborns are girls, he knew about the prophecy and had to make a drastic decision to secretly send one of his children away, to protect it's life and to keep Queen Maya to remain queen. (having twins is sort of a bad omen it seems that if it were known that the king had twins, Queen Maya would be dethroned and the evil sinister Mi-Shil,who's been lusting to rule as queen will marry the king.)

Can't wait to see episode 3 I hope the English subs will be available tomorrow!

Just Another Ordinary Day...

Today was less tiring than the last weekend, since my auntie (and also godmother) and the rest of her family drove back to San Jose, CA. after their 2-day 1 night stay here with us (They actually even attended the birthday party of my sister's second dog, Miko.)

Nothing much happened today, maybe because all of us are still recuperating from entertaining our guests all weekend long. I did my usual stuff and maybe a little bit more than what I'd first planned out, but it's ok I guess. I still owe a few friends response e-mails for the e-mails they sent within the week and I'll get on to answering some of them after I'm done posting here.


I finally got to watch the first episode of Queen Seon Deok (선덕여왕) and I must say it was pretty interesting even though, it is said that the first two episodes of the series would be solely focused on the history of it's real plot and main characters of the past. Of all the characters, Mi-Shil, (character played by Go Hyun Jun) stood out among the rest. I'm pretty sure she will be Queen Seon Deok mortal enemy in the future.

The description of her character at the drama's official thread at Soompi fits her to a T. Mi-Shil is the third person to the right in the drama poster seen above.

Go Hyun Jung as Mi Shil

Archenemy of Queen Seondeok. As a beautiful seductress, she held sway over kings and the elite Hwarang corps. Her duty was to promote the children of the noble class to high positions, but instead she used her beauty to seduce King Jinheung and King Jinpyeong to wield enormous power. But Princess Chonmyong and Princess Deokman opposed her and stopped her from becoming the ruler.

Basing from what I've seen so far, I'm definitely looking forward to watching episode 2 tomorrow. Queen Seon Deok airs Monday and Tuesday in S Korea. and the English subtitles get released a little bit after that. I'm actually a week late in viewing the episodes, but I'll catch up quick because I watch an episode an night. Tomorrow Episode 4 will be out.