Elin's Journal

I'm posting this here because I know I have a lot of friends who play The Sims 2 also. Apparently, the new expansion pack, Bon Voyage has SecuROM encoded in it to prevent piracy (which it has already totally failed to do, by the way, there are cracked copies all over the net). So, if you buy a legit copy of the game and install it on your computer, it installs the SecuROM files secretly in a hidden folder on your hard drive, and can possibly cause your CD/DVD drive/burner to stop working entirely.

More on this here in the Sims 2 community. And more about SecuROM itself can be found here. Apparently, Bioshock had it also, and it was found to install rootkits on people's computers (while doing absolutely nothing to prevent the game from being cracked or pirated).

I know a lot of people who play this game on computers they also depend on for work purposes (and thus, CD/DVD drives/burners are essential for backing things up or making discs to send out to clients/publishers), so this is a horrible issue.

I also find it to be invasive and just think it's wrong on principle. A company shouldn't be allowed to install hidden files on my computer that access the internet without my permission (SecuROM can bypass firewall protections), or install files that will make important pieces of my computer stop working entirely. It's extremely uncool. I am waiting to see what EA has to say about this, because from the talk in the communities I frequent, it seems a lot of people are planning to buy a copy of Bon Voyage, but actually install illegal downloaded copies (since the cracked versions naturally do not contain the SecuROM stuff). Seems like the only way to avoid potential problems.

In other video game news, I have been enjoying the Brewfest event in World of Warcraft. This coming from someone who doesn't drink at all! There was some trouble with people spamming macros and area-of-effect spells during the Dark Iron Dwarves events, meaning I got disconnected a few times and the game lagged out completely. But Blizzard simply took out that part of the event until they can hotfix it so the griefing jerks can't mess it up for everyone else. This is why we can't have nice things, sheesh. I already got my pet Wolpertinger on Zugs (my main), and it's easily one of the cutest pets in the game. I'm now trying to get enough tickets to get a St. Pauli girl style dress and a ram mount. It's fun. More fun now that I don't have to constantly report people for spamming, anyway.

First, a belated happy birthday to my sister, hecatemahadevi! It was on the 17th, but I didn't have time to post then. D'oh!

Friday was pretty much spent dealing with mail and going to the post office. We got more mail order and subscriptions out, and I got more auction stuff shipped off. Saturday was mostly taken up with errands to get various stuff done (bank, various stores to pick up supplies, etc.) and some auction stuff and paperwork. Sunday, I did various time-consuming and dull tasks around the house, like changing cat boxes, doing dishes, cleaning the fridge out (frightening!), sorting Magic: The Gathering cards for auction, sorting mail, and answering email. Fairly late Sunday evening, suarez, dustmeat and JAR came by, and we watched the first season DVD of Lucky Louie that Suarez brought over. That show is both painful and funny, Louis CK is great. A thrilling weekend to be sure! I was hoping to go see Factory Girl at a matinee, but then I read my friend Jamie's review, and now I don't think I want to see it at all. Or, if I do see it, I'll wait for the dollar theatre to get it in. How is it possible to make a movie about Edie Sedgwick boring? Oh yes, put Hayden "Wooden Post" Christensen into it...

I have a ton of new auctions up on eBay, including all my old issues of Action Girl and some Blue Monday specials (I have all the trade paperbacks with the reprints, so I don't need the stories twice...), plus a metric ton of the afore-mentioned Magic cards. More stuff to go up on a daily basis, as usual. Plus, we updated the Radio Comix store with some new stuff, plus some more of the value packs. Gotta clear more stuff out of the storage units, it's getting ridiculous in there!

Lots to do this week, manga deadlines are coming up fast, and of course, we have our own books to worry about, plus some other behind the scenes stuff I need to get handled. Of course, this is the best time for me to have Girl Time. Woot. -_-; So, it's off to hit the Midol Extra Strength and get started on my day. Oh, and P.S., I updated my Sims2 journal, doronjosima, for those who are interested.

And oh yes, Gong Xi Fa Cai for Chinese new year! I celebrated by eating some very red, very greasy, and kind of crappy tortilla soup from Taco Cabana. (It's only $1.99!) It's a Pig year, and for ages, I thought I was born in Year of the Pig, but actually, I am on the tail end of Year of the Dog. Those placemats in restaurants don't take into account that the new year starts in February...

It's been go, go, go, work, work, work around here lately, so there hasn't been much time for posting. We finally caught a minor breather yesterday, so we spent hours in the storage unit pulling restock comics for the mail order inventory. Sadly, we didn't finish pulling it all, after six boxes of stuff, and so we have to go back again today at some point. After I finish the June solicitations for Diamond, anyway.

Other stuff done these past few days: paid some bills (official stuff and the printer), wrestled back and forth with CCBill faxes (just tell me the full info you need and then I only have to fax you once, people, sheesh), turned in Furrlough #167, posted more auctions (extremely important, since not only am I really fond of the concept of "groceries", I really need to shift a lot of this stuff out of the apartment), updated the online store and sent out a newsletter for it, made arrangements with matthigh for our SDCC rooming situation, answered a ton of email (even though there is still a ton more to go), did a pile of paperwork, processed orders, did the mail order, shipped a bunch of stuff out, finished going over the script for Manga Project X with DD, and of course, did a light inventory and pulled restock. Whew!

This week, we have to get four books together to go into the printers next Monday, so my posting might be slightly sporadic. Eek. There's also more work on the new adult website to be done, more email (I'll never be done with it, I fear), and of course, more mail order and auctions. And those pesky solicitations and the rest of that restocking. I will be a busy monkey this week, for sure.

I haven't really had time to play any video games (and I miss them, a lot!), but I did get a chance to post a new chapter of one of my Sims2 stories over at doronjosima, for those parties which are interested.

Currently reading: Just finished: Socrates in Love by Kyoichi Katayama; just started: Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey.
Currently watching: Just finished: Torchwood (thanks, theuberbob!) and Brother, Dear Brother (again, finally got the tapes burned to DVD; I wonder if they ever finished fan-subbing it?); still in the middle of: Carnivale

My old friend insomnia came by for a visit again last night, so today, I am feeling pretty darn beat. This is on top of two nights of waking up in a panic from vivid nightmares. Why does my brain hate me? (Or, why does my brain hate sleep?!) Alas, there is still much to do!

To do today:
--go fax information to CCBill for the adult site
--finish preparing sales tax info and paperwork
--pay sales taxes (this might end up getting done on Monday...)
--answer email
--post daily auctions
--process orders and deal with order paperwork <---partially done
--help pack mail order and subscriptions, pack auction items <---partially done
--go to post office <---sort of, I mailed some small things
--work on Manga Project X rewrite some more <---will consume my brains tomorrow
--mail out box of books to superhappy
--mail out some revised corporate forms
--get interview done for the Radio Waves
--hammer at Furrlough #167 and one of the three adult books that needs doing; need to be done before Monday
--desperately try not to zone out <-----FAILING MISERABLY -_-;

(Alas, it looks like much of this will have to be done tomorrow. So behind....)

Personal:
--PAY RENT!!! (which means, find out why they didn't send us our water/gas bill for this month)
--do dishes again
--empty vacuum and vacuum living room <---will probably not get touched until Sunday
--finish unpacking from the con <---who knows when this will happen
--thaw something for dinner tonight (which can't happen till those dishes are done...) <---half-thawed some ground beef, ended up eating canned soup when I realized it wasn't done thawing yet -_-;

So, I am off to get started on all of that. AG called before I was truly awake, and I think she wants to hang out tonight, but I just can't. I've got too much work, unfortunately.

Oh, and I updated doronjosima again with a new chapter of my Sims2 storyline, in case anyone is curious.

Sucktastic, it looks like my weekend is going to be non-stop work with no time for socializing. Pooh.

I broke down and made a journal specifically for my Sims2 obsession pictures. helmine went and made one specifically for hers, so I succumbed to peer pressure. I figure I will post about my Sims over there, to save everyone on this journal from having to read the gory details about my video game habits. (Who knows, my WoW stuff might end up over there too, I have no idea yet.)

The new journal is doronjosima. Har, I am so very clever! But Helmine already got simsofe so all the good names were taken. At any rate, please feel free to friend that one if you want to read my silly little Sims stories. There's a new chapter of the whole Rosales Legacy and everything.

In other things, my cold keeps tricking me into thinking it's going away, then coming back and blowing me a giant raspberry. Stupid cold.

Again, skip it if you are not interested! It's something to do while I wait for my cold/allergy meds to start working so I can function and get my work done. ^_^

( Read more... )

I've been playing The Sims 2: Pets since the end of November and like it very much. I don't get to play as often as I'd like (this goes for all the video games I enjoy), so I try to make my playing count. In working out the ins and outs of the game, I made a couple of Sims based on dustmeat and JAR, which I use as guinea pigs to learn How Things Work. Sadly, this means it sometimes seems like I am experimenting on my friends, like some kind of crazy mad scientist or something. People have started jokingly referring to me as "The Puppet Master", and I keep thinking of that Bela Lugosi quote from the Ed Wood movie... "Pull the string!"

Anyway, I take screenshots in the game. Apparently, it's quite the popular thing in the Sims 2 community to share these screenshots with friends via LJ, so I am posting them here under a big fat cut tag to save everyone's browsers. Don't make with the clicky unless you are interested in seeing my little Sim puppets. Big pictures and lots of them in the link.

( Read more... )

Anyway, there's the fun I have with the game. I've been reading up on Legacy Challenges, but going by their rules, I am not really participating in one of those; I just play for fun and thought the pictures would be funny to share.

Also, a note to dustmeat: I friends-locked this post, in case you didn't want pictures of a Sim version of you out there for the whole world to see. Let me know if it's okay to unlock this post. EDIT: done!