Tag Archives: TSTO CrankyOldGuy

It’s Time…Life Is Calling

This post has been a long time in coming. There are myriad reasons, but in the end, it all comes down to taking a long, hard swig of reality.

Almost eight years of TSTO Blogging needs to come to end. I’ve been telegraphing this for a while, but life, age, and the realities that a worldwide pandemic have wrought on me have taken a toll, along with the need to re-examine how I spend my valuable remaining “Life Currency.”

When all of this started, I was lured into playing TSTO by my grandsons, who at the time, were 10 and 8 years old.  We played, because it was a way to “tag one another’s towns,” as a way to let one another know that although they were a hundred miles away, I was thinking of them in a funny, shared, use of “new technology.”

That was in October…of 2012. Holy. Freakin’. Shirt!

My oldest grandson is 18. Both of them stopped playing the game long, long, long ago.  But, through a series of strange and unusual events, I ended up taking over the top-rated TSTO blog (along with another guy who also stumbled into the opportunity), and the course was set. What was at first a sideline, and a way to escape the rigors of owning a company that provided Internet solutions to more than 160 broadcasters across the country, the “sideline” became an obsessive, full-time “extra job.”

A book…thousands of posts…and the joining, uncoupling, and rejoining of the Addicts crew reads like a bad, but “can’t put it down,” real life drama docu-series. 

But, it’s time to put it down…
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Friday Filler – Don’t Try to Force Your Libido On Me!

Thank Grog It’s Firday!
So yes, I do get cranky on occasion when the game goes off of the rails. But, I really have to say that this week, with two very targeted offers coming from our good friends at TSTO/EA, I have to say, “ENOUGH! Stop Trying to Pull Me Into Your Weird Sexualization Schemes!”

Oh…so you think I am over-reacting with the “Gill Deal” and the “Libido Deal” coming within days of one another? You think that I WANT my libido rolling around with a character that makes “Booberella” look pre-pubescent? THINK AGAIN!!

So…if I have to make a choice between “Libido” and someone clearly here to mess with my Libido, I’m going to go with…
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Friday Filler – Why Do Women Need Romance (Novels)?

Thank Grog It’s Firday!

In last week’s Filler, I made reference to the fact that of all of the books sold in the world today (remember books?), a huge percentage of them fall into the “Fiction-Romance” category. When you look at how many are downloaded onto Digital Readers and Audio Books (still remember actual books?), it is clear that there are a ton of women looking to escape from their own realities and into a world of intrigue, romance and lust.

As the father of five, and a husband of almost 40 years to the “love of my life,” I am going to take on the perplex questions that surround this phenomanen, including the primary question of, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? WHY AM I NOT ENOUGH???” that ironically seems to be asked by BOTH sexes.

Let’s take a look at the stats, as “the truth” is always a great place to start any conversation about love and romance. Or not…

Oh…and a special note to our “friend,” Andrew…if you hated last week’s post, you are going to despise this one. Fair warning… Continue reading

Friday Filler – When to Lower The Bar on Valentines


Thank Grog It’s Firday!


I am going to say right out of the blocks, that I am not a fan of this event. Anyone who knows me, and my preferences for something even remotely resembling a “real, livable, Springfield,” knows I am not a fan of multiple characters of the same character, wandering around our towns. And maybe the fact that we seem to getting a plethora of skins, as opposed to doppleganger versions of the same characters, may be my fault for complaining so much. 

But, if we look at the entire offering of prizes, you are pretty much left with the feeling that EA has “lowered the bar” on their Valentines Gift Giving. And, that’s actually OK with me.

Much as Alissa dislikes Halloween, I am not a fan of Valentine’s Day.

And I have a very good reason for that…
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Friday Filler – Managing Clutter and Chaos


Thank Grog It’s Firday!


I started writing this, as I was was finishing Phase I of dealing with my Mom’s estate. These things are complicated, especially with a “collector” like my Mom. I wish I could tell you how many phases this is going to entail. But, after a week of constant sorting, trashing, and organizing, We are several phases away from being complete. 

But, while I was knee deep in sorting piles, I started thinking of things in terms of TSTO, and how we have all become “virtual hoarders,” and that in everyday life,  everything is turning into not much more than bits and bytes in a cloud that may or may not simply “evaporate” one day. Will we miss what we have stored and lost? Or will it just be like the huge collection of “salt cellars” that my Mom collected over decades…and nobody wants?

It is a dilemma, that is not easily solved…and perhaps needs a “greater power” to make the hard decisions.

Let’s take a look at how TSTO and Real Life Storage Issues compare.
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Friday Filler- I Loved This Event, Until…


Thank Grog It’s Firday!


I’m writing this a bit early as we have my Mom’s service Saturday, and have a lot to do to prepare. So, I started doing notes on this, as the Clash of Creeds event was winding down.

I loved this event. I thought it was one of the best of the year, until…

This is where I wish I could cue the “Dun, Dun, Dunnnn” music that always plays when they reveal the villain in a cartoon. Three notes…that almost always signify dread. And for me, the weird, almost lost dialogue at the end of this event came far to close to real life events that have blown up over the last 10 days.

I am going to find it. Because I really need to use it to make my points. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if we had a warning when we are doing something stupid in life, that we either didn’t see coming, or we ignored the warning signs?

In so many cases, everything seems OK, until…
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Friday Filler – So, God, Yahweh, and Moses Go Into a Bar…

Thank Grog It’s Firday!!

What a week…right?

Let’s be honest, there are weeks that make you say, “what a week!” And there are weeks that make you say, “WHAT a WEEK!” This is one of those (take your pick). But, if we are being really honest, we shouldn’t be surprised by anything that happens these days. It may be the new year, but 2021 is kind of like buying a house that has been inhabited by squatters whose living habits have left the place in shambles. It’s going to take some time to get things back in order…and some stuff is just going to remain broken for a while.  

But, as it pertains to the game, as I warned you guys a while back (when you were saying that the dialogue in this event was “sacrilegious,”), it was going to get worse…or better…depending upon whose “sac” you are carrying. And depending on your sac, it has!

I have found it hilarious. But then again, I’m wired that way. I always laugh when long-held team sport religions are compared and called into question. Because, anyone who takes the time to really think about any of it, realizes that God, Yahweh, and that guy we can’t mention without his followers lobbing fire bombs at us, figure out pretty quickly that there is no clear pecking order when it comes to “supreme beings.”

And the writers have had a hay-day with poking fun. As in loads and loads of pokes.
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Friday Filler – Looking Back At The Year That Wasn’t

Thank Grog It’s Firday!

The wonderful thing about blogging about a game like TSTO, is that most of our “reality” is not real at all. It’s mostly just reacting to the latest far-fetched plot that the writer(s) have come up with to drive the events in the game. These plot twists are about the only thing about the game that offer anything different from the day-to-day “same old” that the programmer(s) offer from EA.

If it weren’t for the insanely weird (and getting weirder) plot lines, we would be left with nothing more than an unending, mundane, series of “Acts” giving us an unending series of items and characters, to fill the very finite expanses of our Springfields.

Imagining a REAL year, in our REAL LIVES, that made even the most outrageous TSTO plot-line look boring in comparison, and you would be describing the year 2020.  Let’s take a look back at the events that made this year the insane dumpster fire that is was…and try to salvage some positive out of it. 

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Friday Filler – When Einstein Meets Jesus


Thank Grog It’s CHRISTMAS EVE!


So, right off the bat, let’s recognize that “Friday Fillers” are usually posted on Fridays (hence the name).  But tomorrow is Christmas…and I really hope that you have better things to do on Christmas, than play your game, and read a post from me. 

And I sure as heck didn’t plan on feeling the need to write a post about why Einstein needs to be in our games to make sense of what EA/Gracie have done to the time/space continuum, as it pertains to beings that are supposed to be eternal. Yes…ETERNAL (outside time/space)

In fact, I am going to lobby now (or whenever you read this…as time is relative), for Einstein to be a permanent character in our games. We need him to make sense of what is going on in our Springfields.  It’s one thing to try and have younger versions, older versions, and future versions of a single character walking around. But characters that are eternal???

Understanding this event is as difficult as trying to make sense of “Star Wars” coming out in an order that requires the first to be the fourth (or was it the fifth) until there was the Mandalorian, which tests us all to suspend space, time, and just go “Ahhh…look at that cute baby Yoda!”

And I feel that EA/Gracie are trying to pull off the same kind of slight of hand, as we now have “Baby Jesus” (or Josh as they tried to name him) buying real estate, while the older version of himself watches on, and the Dad/Grandpa/God does nothing about it…well…it makes the Mandalorian make sense. But, look at that cute baby Jesus!

But, there is a difference here.  Yoda is a being with a finite existence (unless you buy into his ability to come back as a Ghost-oda in some of the other episodes). Jesus is different…
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Friday Filler – Things To Remember When Commenting



Thank Grog It’s Firday!

OK. So…Mom got mad. I don’t blame her. She has to deal with so many whiners and tattlers and hurt feelings, that she just reaches a breaking point and “loses it.”

My Mom used to be that way every once in a while. She would get that look in her eye and say stuff like, “How many times do I have to tell you???” or “What is it going to take for you to stop doing that???” or “For the love of GAAAAAWD!!! If you don’t stop doing that, you are going to wish you hadn’t!!”

These are all semi-rhetorical questions that are best left unanswered, if you know what’s good for you. The fact is, when you are a kid, you really have no idea as to how many times it will take for something to finally change your actions, or if there is some magic solution to a clearly repetitive and annoying display on your behalf. And let’s be honest…by the time you get to that last one, you are already wishing you hadn’t done it!

But, these are the actions of children. You don’t expect the same kinds of annoying behaviors from adults who are supposed to know better. I know…I know...you are going to blame your actions on Covid, and being locked up inside. You are going to push to the limits your dissatisfaction with something that is supposed to give you pleasure, onto someone else, whether it be EA, Gracie, or the admins of this site.

But, let me assure…we ALL have a breaking point. And there are simply some things that are going to make us GO BATSHIRTCRAZY!!!!
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