Does Superstition Run Your Springfield?

Maybe it’s the sports guy in me…or maybe I’m just nuts.  But, like it or not, I have fallen into some patterns that started out as “funny little quirks” to keep me from getting bored with the game, and have turned into full-blown “I’m afraid NOT to do it now” patterns that could be labeled compulsive, superstitious behavior.

Like I said. I might be nuts.

But, the fact is, I need Grandpa to keep feeding the black hole to keep my Springfield safe. And now…I need Mona by his side, and Sherry Bobbins in the energy field!! If I don’t, I am not sure that my day in Springfield is going to turn out OK.

It’s not all as crazy as it seems. Really. No. Really…

Let me explain…

Sports players and fans are known for superstitious behavior.  There is myriad anecdotal evidence of fans who need to wear a “lucky shirt” or players who won’t shave or get hair cuts during the playoffs. This was never portrayed better, than the head-case of a father,  in the movie “Silver Lining Playbooks” who was so superstitious about his football viewing/betting rituals, that it caused a huge family riff. Great movie…and as DeNiro’s character said about superstition, “It’s only crazy if it doesn’t work.”

And, I am convinced that it works. So much so, that I have added to my list of “Characters Stuck Doing One Thing Forever.”

It started innocently enough, when I realized that if I had Grandpa “Feed the Birds” and placed the bench near the “Little Black Hole”…it looked like he was actually feeding pigeons into the black hole. That made perfect sense, because anyone with a modicum of physics understanding knows, if you don’t feed a black hole, it can gobble up everything around it. And no…I am not wild about the news that the Chinese are building a Super Collider that is supposed to be three times as powerful as CERN. They have not proven to be responsible with technology, and the whole “rip a hole in time/space” thing bothers me. But, I digress…

The fact is…I started keeping Grandpa feeding the black hole, on a 24/7 basis. It became an obsession…and has been for more than three years. Read that line again. Three years.

Unless I am FORCED to use grandpa in an update (which is thankfully rare), he is there. And now, since her introduction, and have a task to “Feed The Birds” with Grandpa, Mona (or her ghost…or her external consciousness manifestation if you are still going with the time/space bit) is there beside him. With Sherry Bobbins floating just beyond the “Quantum Maze” near my Mapple Store and across the street from my Collider, the trio of balanced quantum forces is complete.

Grandpa has been in my town…feeding pigeons into the black hole, since my earliest playing days with the Halloween 2012 update when the Super Collider was introduced.  Sherry came along as one of the first and worst examples of the dreaded “wHell” concept that EA used to have in place back in 2013. She stays aloft…because she represents the worst of EA, and she has been floating, due to getting too close to the strange physics in that region. She will never touch the ground if I have my way.

Go with me here. If there is a supercollider in Springfield…and it is run by Springfieldians, and they let a Black Hole escape…there HAS to be some other physics weirdness in that corner of town. It is where the Mapple store sits, after all. And Steve Jobs is certainly haunting it, which would also explain why Sherry is perpetually suspended there, and why Mona can just “Hang” with one foot in and one foot out of this space/time.

Nuke My TOWN????   I don’t think so…Bub.  There is serious quantum physics going on here, and it isn’t going to change any time soon. As far as I’m concerned, it all exists because I OBSERVE IT. Just like Schrodinger’s Cat…which I swear sits on my back deck when I am of the mind to see it.

All if this would have been fine. But, then the whole, “Keep them doing what seems safe for the town” bit got out of hand…even by my standards.

It started with Cocoa Beanie. I hate Cocoa Beanie. He is Soooooooooo random!!  He was introduced along with the “Ah Fudge! Factory.”  He is argued to be “non-canon,” but he does make a really short appearance in a Simpson’s episode. But, I found him wandering around the Elementary school once he was in my game…and there is just no way to know who is REALLY in that mascot costume. He gives me the creeps, with his weird walk, and painted on smile. And so…he is perpetually pummeled by kids in front of the factory.

There are less obvious reasons (to some) that I have Herman, forever selling black market jeans in front of Herman’s Antique Military, or Agnes, in a constant state of “greeting customers” in front of the Sprawlmart.   I have Herman selling something other than firearms, mostly because his introduction to the game, and any reference to him always starts off some crazy 2^nd Amendment debate.  I have Agnes there, as a reminder to myself that if this blogging thing doesn’t work out, I always have a fallback job as a greeter in my old age.

The reason for Mindy being kept  “Working on a Tan” is simply because I think she looks hot in her bikini…and I have Radioactive man “Shirking His Responsibilities” because it reminds me that looking at hot girls on the beach, is in fact doing just the same for myself. Better him than me.

And finally…my latest addition…Teddy Roosevelt constantly stirring up the wildlife at Springfield National Park, next to the trailer that I hope to make mine after my last three weddings are paid for, and I can drive into the sunset.  Some would argue that shooting animals in a park setting is kind of crappy…but as I live right next to the REAL SPRINGFIELD here in Oregon, and gun shops, pawn shops and ammo stores are far more plentiful than forest conservation offices in that place. It just makes sense to me.

Now that I have revealed a less-than-normal approach to the game… I have to ask you, WHAT STRANGE QUIRKS DO YOU HAVE as they pertain to TSTO? What do you do to quell the “gotta do this every day” bug that starts to settle in when you find yourself in “wash, rinse, repeat” mode with the game?

Tell us what YOU do…we love to hear from you! (see…these guys are rubbing off on me!)