Thank Grog It’s Firday!
I always felt kind of smug when I saw the pollution pics of Beijing, China. All of those people moving around in a thick haze, wearing masks, and scurrying from building to building.
And then the West Coast fires hit…and our area, most especially the “Real Springfield,” is still chewing the air in small doses, as we run from one AC haven to another. If we are lucky, we are supposed to be down to just “unhealthy,” from “you would be an idiot to go outside,” by midweek…next week.
We joke about toads and locusts being next. But, we don’t joke much anymore.
**Update…as I write this, we got a few hours of respite after a night of coast air blowing things out for a bit. But, we are predicted to go back to awful for the weekend. Yes. I am golfing today while the air is less chewy. I will only play nine. I’m not a complete idiot.
However…the hideous smoke has forced me away from my last home improvement chore of rebuilding our deck, and made me take time to do some “Digital Tap-Worthy Remodeling” of my town.
After deciding to store some of my “Bonus % Items” so I could design a bit within the Item Limits…I am kind of pleased at how the organization and designing has gone.
It really comes down to mastering and executing the ability to purge, design, and place. Let’s take a look at how things turned out.
As I wrote about a couple of posts ago, my wife and I are in the middle of de-cluttering our own house, which amounts to doing the “keep, sell, donate, trash” routine on decades of accumulated “valuables.” We have also figured out that this is a useless exercise if we continue to accumulate crap. So our new rule is, “If You Bring Something In, You Have to Get Rid of Something.”
Because of the item limits…I pretty much use this method in TSTO. And with the addition of a lot of clutter from this update, some “made it,” others did not.
Here’s a mini- WDIDWT (What Did I Do With That).
Here’s the stuff we won…less the Characters, Skins and Tokens
- Go-Go Ray (Deco w/Animated Job)
- Milhouse Balloon Archway (Decoration)
- Milhouse Bounce House (Decoration)
- Milhouse Squishee Machine (Decoration)
- Gelato stand (Decoration)
- Sjoelbak Table (Decoration)
- Milhouse Chinese Dragon (Decoration)
- Milhouse Pool and Zipline (Decoration)
- Milhouse’s Scooter (Decoration)
Most of this stuff ended up In Storage…
With the exception of the GoGoRay, which I placed in the tennis court, next to my other huge “Playground Death Ray.” I figured kids could shoot one another while trying to play tennis. Sounds like fun to me.
But a lot also ended up in Storage…because it was Stupid. More stupid than the Milhouse Chinese Dragon you say? It was a close call…but it made the cut. Kinda.
I placed the Milhouse Chinese dragon as a reminder of just how stupid and lazy EA/Gracie can be in this game. It is soooooooooooooooo random.
But, this was also about the MAJOR catching up I did to get rid of the huge “Southern swath of nothing” that had become a waste site for the last year and a half. (And no…I’m not going to argue about North and South in our games. The Water/Ocean is WEST…go from there…as it is in the REAL SPRINGFIELD…so I am the authority).
Let’s start with a reminder that I had created a large area that I dis-affectionately called “Plopper-Ville.” It’s where I dropped stuff I “earned” during the updates over the past year and a half, after I hit the Hard Item Limit.
To free up some space, I deleted a TON of tennis courts (along with their Bonus % earning power), and a then started getting serious about storing buildings and decorations that I deemed “meh” or “completely useless and silly.”
The Before and After show a lot of new water, some organization to the chaos, and some “mildly creative” locations for stuff I wanted to keep, after I got rid of even more buildings that I didn’t.
Zooming in from there… I have three new areas of building clusters with their own themes:
a. Life Therapy Lane
b. The Theater District
c. X-Cessive Sports Zone
I know. Not that creative. But, come on…I have been in a smokey haze for almost two weeks! A perpetual state of brown gets to you after a while!
The Theater District is admittedly uninspired. Mostly just buildings that have to do with the theater (duh!). But let’s face it…during Covid, all live theater is shut down anyway.
X-Cessive Sports Zone is pretty much what you would think. Exorbitant, homages to our X-treme need for sports, at any cost…as we have seen witnessed during the pandemic. We have turned into a nation of gladiator patrons…with so little actual testosterone flowing (watchers don’t do more than watch), we need a Hard Lad donuts to keep us…well…going.
And finally...Life Therapy Lane…which is skirted by “the Final Path Blvd.” If you follow either path Left to Right…the outcomes for where you end up are kinda self-evident.
I especially like the way Marriage Counseling and “Moving On” are across the street from the League of Extra Horny Gentlemen…and the way the Shapes workout club sits right next to the counseling Stripper Pole. There is a lotta life in this little strip.
Click to Zoom to play along.
It’s not great, yet…especially when compared to how I used to design with loads of trees and shrubs, and natural accouterments. But it will have to do for a while.
Compromise seems to be the nature of things these days. Compromise is going to have to be the solution for most of what we are dealing with in the world. If we can’t find a way to get along, and reach a consensus, at least on what is worth keeping and what is worth changing, I fear that 2020 may not be just a horrible anomaly…but the shape of “the new normal.” But, from where I sit…in yet another “record year for heat and fires,” believing science seems like a pretty basic thing to do.
But, then again…we shape our worlds, and over time, just like the frog in the pot who doesn’t know he is being cooked because the water heats up slowly, it is sometimes too late to fix it. Clutter…laziness…and being afraid to do the hard things, so that life is better in the future. Makes sense to me. NOT!
And come on… Who the hell needs a Truck Truck Truck or a Shower Computer in their town? Not me.
It’s All About Choices. Just because it is easy and free, doesn’t mean it is a good thing. THAT is a good lesson to learn in life.