I know it's not August for a while yet (well, where I am), but...

[hat_plays_sims]

Hokay, official notice. I make dollhouse miniatures for a living, and I have a mini show coming up the first weekend after Labor Day. I really need to switch gears and quit making stuff for Sims and make some stuff I can sell, instead, so...

Now begins Hat's official August sabbatical from Sims 2 Stuff.

Except it's a crappy sabbatical, because a) I can still play if I need a break from sewing, b) I can still download, c) I can post already-completed items, and d) no way am I going to quit socializing. I'm just not going to make any new crap for a month or five weeks. Expect a hair dump and my party-and-games defaults before too long, because I just finished twenty-one hairs and I feel bad not releasing them as soon as I get them photographed and named.

(I also have a doll show to do in November, but I don't need to barnstorm so hard for it.)

Comments

[fourth_moon]

Funny, I had some really hot markets but the heat usually wasn't so much of a problem. Of course, I always was a "menial work" character so I could simply pour a quart of water down my neck or soak the scarf worn over my head in water.

And of course it's triple as bad for the guys in armour. Padding, chain-mail, court-of-plaids, sword, shield, helmet. At one point they had to wait for 10 minutes (real, on the clock 10 minutes. Felt like 60) in the full sun shine and I was pouring water _into_ their clothing (that is, right onto the neck where the skin shows between the helmet the various collars), resulting in a short shudder and a "right, I'm awake".

> But hey, they all paid their $17.50 to get in, and it's not like there's a dress code besides 'don't get arrested, guys.'

A very commendable and tolerant stance on it. I tended to be in two minds - for one thing, the people are supposed to have fun, and yep, they just paid 3 bucks for it. On the other hand, when you're trying hard to get the image right (no lace, no pedal-driven spinning wheels, no bloody friggin' corsets, no silver-painted-wool chain mail) an elf running around or, worse, someone dressed up as a witch complete with fake warty nose telling nonsense that sounds like the worst fairy-tales just crashed into $ilver Rabidwolf's teachings ... It's very tempting to have crossbows and a counterweight catapult in moments like that.


> The 'barbarians' wearing chains and little else (whether they've got the body for it or not), the people in their Halloween costumes, Commander Riker (no really. Beard and everything, one year)...

I heard the "Captain Riker" story before though I find it incredibly hard to believe. Barbarians with beer guts? Well, okay, probably just as realistic as the fresh-from-the-gym versions. And after all, I wouldn't dream of disqualifying a girl from dressing up as a fairy/princess on weight grounds. So there.

That's the thing about the hard-core re-enactors, also called "authenticity fanatics". People who train to fight with a three pound sword in one hand and a 20 pound shield in the other tend to have upper bodies which look good naked.

It's such fun to be historical nutcase.

[hat_plays_sims]

Well, the thing about synthetic fabrics is that they don't breathe half as well as natural fabrics-- cotton, linen, silk, and even lightweight wool all let more air get at your skin than polyester or microfiber. (Rayon, if it's good rayon, is actually okay-- it's not petroleum-based, it's actually wood pulp rendered into something very similar to silk fibers. And it resembles silk very closely if you take care of it-- all that bamboo/cotton fabric they're touting these days is just rayon made exclusively from bamboo pulp, then blended with cotton thread, and it's lovely stuff. Soon as the price drops just a little more, I want sheets made from it.) So you get out there in your costume in your poly-cotton blend or your microfiber and the sun is beating down on you and pretty soon you start wondering why you feel so weird...

Hot work in hot weather. Ouch. And this is why there's no such thing as a chainmaille bikini.

Ahh, the distinction between cosplay and re-enactment. (My game uses pedal-driven spinning wheels, because so far nobody's made any other kind. Of course, I also let my witches turn green, so yeah.) ... Actually, I think I'd be less bothered by a real solid "I put effort into this nonsense and I'm not going to break character" cosplay than by the off-the-rack Snow White costumes (except on small children. Small children always get a pass). Because it's... It's a 'living the dream' thing. They may not be playing the game by the same rules as everybody else, but at least they're playing it as hard as they know how instead of half-assedly. ... The difference between a garden variety fail and failing with style, I guess?

Well, I can hardly blame the guy, really-- those Next Generation pajamas they go around wearing look pretty comfortable, and it's not the silliest thing I've ever seen at Faire. The barbarians weren't just overweight-- well, the one etched into my memory wasn't. He was wearing a chain as a thong. No tunic, no trousers, plenty of armor and fur on his front and over his shoulders, those furry boots, but from the back... just one thick chain. And I went "Whoa, what?" (And I do so love a fat fairy. And of course a princess should be plump-- she's wealthy enough to have plenty of food, after all!)

You know, I was randomly researching Roman gladiators, and apparently? They were fed in such a way that they'd get a good beer belly. Vegetarian, high-carb diets. The weapons training worked different muscles than the abdominals, I guess, and the fat was considered another layer of armor-- it was entirely possible that a strike to the belly wouldn't hit any internal organs if there was a good layer of 'useless' pudge in the way.

But yeah. It used to take some muscle power to be human-- kneading bread for hours on end, for example.