Well, that's life...

[hat_plays_sims]

So my father has pancreatic cancer, Christmas is looming, the rat gnawed a hole through the hospital cage, Mom and I have the less-than-fun challenge of figuring out whether or not we can keep the house once we lose Dad's income (the goal with pancreatic cancer is to make it a treatable condition instead of a beatable condition; the survival rate is not awesome), I've had, like, zero creativity since November, and to top it all off, about a week and a half ago, the dog died. She was old, though-- eleven or twelve, there is some argument on that-- and we were mostly prepared, because eleven or twelve is OLD for a big dog... but we weren't quite prepared for it to happen NOW.

So that's why I dropped out of the Garden of Shadows Secret Santa on the eleventh, I think it was.

I've been trying to catch up with comments over the past few days and get back in the swing of keeping up with Garden of Shadows, but on the whole I can't really let myself feel too guilty about falling off the internet for a while.

On the plus side, I finally forced some Sims to hit elder at various aspiration stages, and I got a good range of lifespans-- the youngest would've died around 69, the oldest just before 97. So it appears the aging mod works! I just need to figure out if I want to try and tweak the bit that says if you've been X long in Platinum, you get Y bonus years, to try and lower it a little. My 97-year-old didn't actually spend THAT long in Platinum, comparatively, so for Sims who weren't made in CAS and had longer than 29 days to live, it might still be too easy to live to a hundred.

There will probably-- only probably!-- be a hair dump before the first of the year; I've been sitting on a bunch of Rose hairs hoping someone will fix the gaps in them, but I may just upload the stuff where I didn't alpha-edit off the bangs, because I'm pretty sick of sitting on all these hairs. (Some of them are for Cynnix, who wanted long hair that fell back over the shoulders instead of in front of them, and provides Medieval pregmorphs in trade.)

Comments

[eefje00704]

*hugs Hat*

I don't get the one about the rat, but the rest seems horrible enough. I really hope your dad is one of the ones who makes it. And I'm so sorry to hear about your dog dying.

Is there still any use in fixing the gaps after you've retextured the hairs? I wouldn't mind giving it a try, even though I've never done anything with hair, but that would be when I have some time to do it. Meaning, no sooner than March.

[hat_plays_sims]

*hugs back* Thank you so much.

The thing with the rat... every rat owner needs at least two cages; a big main cage and a smaller hospital cage. I got surprised with a baby rat when my big cage was in pieces (from my last two rats passing on a few months ago), so she had to go into the hospital cage. 'Hospital' just means it's suitable for a sick rat, for quarantining new rats, or for taking to the vet. Both cages have plastic litter trays connected to wire uppers, and... well somebody decided she wanted to gnaw through the plastic litter tray, which means it's time to put the big cage together and find her some more challenging chew toys, before I have a ratlet on the loose. (It also means I need to either jury-rig a patch for the hole, find out if I can replace the litter tray, or get a new hospital cage. And rat cages always seem to be more expensive than you'd expect.)

Ideally, a gap fix should work with a hair's existing alpha, so that everybody's retextures still work with the fixed mesh. I can totally ignore a small gap at the back of the head if I like a hairstyle enough, but with the Rose hairs, what I wanted to do was alpha-edit some bangs away... and the gaps are on the FOREHEAD. (Actually, some of her meshes have forehead gaps without even having bangs. I don't even. What.) I'm not in any real hurry for the fixes, I can always release the meshes that don't have gaps and the versions with concealing bangs just to end my hair list progress stagnation. There's more info in the thread I made ages ago, right before people started getting busy with holiday stuff. My timing is AWESOME. /sarcasm

I do know anything more than retexturing hair is deep magic, but the whole world loves gap fixes. If you want to take a bash at it when you have some time, even if nothing comes of it besides you finding out that you never want to touch a hair mesh again, I'd appreciate it.

[eefje00704]

Aww baby rat. You should post a picture. I have a friend who keeps going on about how great rats are as pets.

I saw Aquilegia's answer, so I'll just see what didn't get done by the time I have some time. Maybe you'll be lucky and she'll do all of them ;) I'd clearly have to read up on hair first, since I don't even know what an alpha is exactly ... I've only done objects, you know.

[hat_plays_sims]

Well, she's a roof rat, not a Norway rat, which means she's about as agile as a double-jointed spider monkey and as fast as greased lightning. I'll give photography a shot, but I can't promise to get anything but a blur-- or an expression of 'whyinhell are you staring at me?' from one of her hidey-holes. (The big cage has more hidey-holes, and more room to climb, and a bigger wheel. She's a pretty happy ratlet, just super-shy. And she needs buddies but for various reasons this is not a good time to deliberately get new critters.)

I can explain alphas! An alpha is the semi-transparent visible shape of the texture applied to the mesh. Good example: my plantsim hairs. Especially the oak ones. Ordinarily the leafy hairdos on plantsims are just big simple leaves, but I wanted to play around with that idea-- making the leaves a different shape while still working on the same mesh involved tweaking the alpha and changing... well, in Body Shop, changing the black and white areas of the alpha itself, but if you were building an object, it would be where you had empty space on the PNG you extracted from SimPE. Making invisible objects involves alpha-editing them in a rather drastic fashion. On hair, an alpha edit can make a long hair appear shorter or make the ends of a hair look more realistic-- or make a flat hair look curly, but you need good textures for that, too.

[crabofdoom]

I truly hope your dad's health recovers, Hat, and I'm sorry to hear about your dog. I've missed seeing you around GoS, but real life matters do of course take precedence. I hope the holidays go much better for you and your family, and that there's nothing but good luck and good news in the coming year.

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you so much for your understanding-- I've missed hanging around GoS, myself. And thank you for the good wishes-- we could use some good luck, any time it wants to trip on over us.

[pinketamine]

Hat, I'm sorry about the loss of your dog. I understand you, ask I don't know what I'd do if my little doggie died.
I hope you father recovers, pancreas cancer is difficult, but you should keep fighting and expecting for the "miracle" to occur.
I really wish things get better for you, hugs.

[hat_plays_sims]

He's in a study, actually, using breast cancer medication to help treat pancreatic cancer. I've heard good things about it, and even if it doesn't get him into remission, the study could still help other people eventually.

Blaze wasn't the nicest dog, and she was definitely getting toward the end, but... I think we all thought she'd make it another month or three. We were prepared but still caught by surprise. Thank you so much for your sympathy.

[nymphy]

Oh Hat. 2010 is going out with a sting for you. I'm so so sorry. If you need to back out of the advent I would entirely understand as you have so much on.

I hope things get better for you. We will be here to cheer you up as best we can when you need it.

[hat_plays_sims]

I finished the BIG parts of the Advent maybe two or three weeks after you tapped me for it-- well, the creative parts. There's a third part that was just mindless button-pushing that I finished yesterday (because I felt bad about not having something base-game compatible ready, which I would've done if *points at entry* all that hadn't happened), but... aside from uploading, I am golden. ... Also all the mindless button-pushing made me want to play my game again, so that's not too bad, really-- I just didn't get it back in time to be a good Secret Santa.

Thank you so much for the sympathy, I really do appreciate it. It's just kinda draining out here in the real world right now.

[aquilegia]

Oh, I'm so sorry. :( You and your family will be in my thoughts.

Re: hair -- I will finish fixing that Rose braid once the holidays are over and I have time/can stand to look at Milkshape again. Would you still like those other mesh fixes as well? Lots of things are very nearly done -- at the very least I could have the male long hair with teen through elder stages ready for you very quickly. If any of this would brighten your spirits a little, just let me know.

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you for your thoughts. We're... okay but we're awkward. Dad's been treating my sister's dog like a grandpuppy for the last week or so-- she visits, she gets a lot of attention and playtime and treats, and at the end of the day she goes home and we're not responsible for feeding her.

I see no reason not to distract myself with shiny toys, if I can get myself in the mood-- it's better than distracting myself with food, right? (We haven't done ANY baking this year yet, but there are a ton of very tempting Ghirardelli chocolate squares in the kitchen, and Mom made the delicious mistake of getting candy cane scented air fresheners, so we're all desperately craving peppermint instead of home-made cookies.) Ahem. I figured it had just gotten to a busy time for you-- yay for androgynes and when there are sexy feet, those are going right into my game. Heck, I nabbed the regular-footed version for the alien invasion game that I really will get back to someday. If you get the time, the male long hair would be an utter, utter joy to have... and I'd planned to hold off on releasing Rose's braid until you had a chance to finish tweaking it, because somehow every age for both genders was messed up SOMEHOW and no matter how much I like the style, I can't release a hair that mangled.

[aquilegia]

While I believe in the healing power of good food, I realize that some of it depends on one's relationship to food. All the same, I wish I could send you a batch of cookies so you could have a little something without having to deal with baking if you didn't want to.

Anyhow, shiny toys -- there will be sexyfeet versions soon; I had wanted to have them done for the advent gift, but due to overestimation of my speed and tolerance for a big project, I was very nearly late as it was. XD

Male long hair -- check your inbox. :D

[hat_plays_sims]

It's not so much my relationship to food as my relationship to exercise (but at least I admit it). As always happens when we get kind of a late start on the holidays (or when I fail to ship things in a timely fashion), I remind myself there are twelve days of Christmas, and they start on Christmas Day. Jesus had to wait until Epiphany to get his presents, after all, and if you're going to spend the first half of December cleaning and decorating and baking, why shouldn't you enjoy it for two weeks instead of two days?

Yay for incoming sexyfeet! and I know the feeling on being nearly late-- I got my hiders finished a day ahead of time, and it was a near thing... and a good thing, I don't know how long it took to get all that stuff uploaded, cos I started it and then went the hell to bed.

Inbox checked and reply coming your way!

[zoiey_may]

So sorry Hat. Two years ago my family lost our dog on Christmas and my grandfather had prostate cancer in addition to his constant heart trouble; its not exactly what you are going through, but I do understand some of how you feel. I will hope and pray that things get better for you and your family.

[hat_plays_sims]

... It's not exact, no, but it's weirdly close. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and I'm... gobsmacked and deeply sorry that you had a holiday this uncomfortable, too.

[morgaine2005.wordpress.com]

Oh, Hat, I'm so sorry to hear all that. :( You and your dad and your dog are all in my thoughts. I hope that the rest of the holidays get better for you.

And hey, don't worry about not updating or chatting too much -- RL always takes precedence. We'll still be here when you're ready to come back. :)

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you so much-- I have been reading, if not regularly enough to comment on every chapter. I heard about Bors vanishing, apparently not even your computer likes him. Or likes him enough to eat him, or something.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh no, I'm so sorry for you, Hat! I hope your dad will get better.

I was wondering why you'd vanished and half afraid that something awful had happened. I didn't imagine it was this awful. But when it rains it pours, I guess. So sorry to hear about your dog. Take all the time you need, alright?

Sending lots of good thoughts your way
- Ann

[hat_plays_sims]

So far he doesn't seem to be in any pain (except from some medication side effects that have been corrected now-- if you're ever on cancer medication, don't take all-day allergy meds like claritin), just tires out more easily.

Thank you so much, and I did sort of want to let people know why I'd been so scarce for a while. Thank you for the good thoughts.

[russianspidercat]

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. I hope you'll get hrough them in best way possible.

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you. So far we're coping okay-- and even if it was a little angsty I'm glad I made this post. Just hearing from people has helped a lot.

[(Anonymous)]

You're in my thoughts - I hope things get better for you...

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you for your thoughts, anon!

[kinsley]

All of this sucks, Hat. :( I hope things will get a bit better for you!

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you-- and honestly, trying to be more sociable (if not more productive) is helping, at least emotionally. You guys are great.

[meshys_sims]

I'm sorry all that happened! I was getting worried that life had crept up and bit you in the ass, seems it did. Sorry.

As a rat owner myself I have at least 3 extra cages! (and a few reptile/fish tanks if need be too!) Now I'm curious as to what kind of dog you had, I've got a 140 pound ST. Bernard/Newfoundland 1 year old puppy! I'm hoping she lives to be that old!

So sorry to hear about your dad. Both I and my hubby are dealing with an uncle (my family) and an aunt (his family), that has cancer and it's not looking so great for either of them. The aunt was given a few months to a year to live and my uncle is in the hospital recovering from surgery and radiation.

I really hope things get better for you & your family and that your dad pulls through! You'll all be in my prayers. God Bless. Try to have a Merry Christmas!

[hat_plays_sims]

Life can indeed bite a bit.

It's not that I didn't have the cage, it was just that the cage was in pieces in preparation for being flat-packed and stored... and then there was a baby rat up on the window sill and a couple of cats going 'is that for me?' I do know keeping a roof rat borders on insane, but I've done it before-- my first rat ever was a roof rat. (Then there were seven pet store rats in groups of two and three, then I decided I wanted a break from rats, then there was babyrat.) I do have one other spare cage, but I hate it. And anyway, she's finally in the good big three-and-a-half-foot-tall main cage, with good big hidey holes and I'm trying carefresh litter for the first time. Her first decision was to bury her carrot in it. And Blaze was a Weimeraner-sneaky-neighbor-dog mix, with some fairly obvious Chow features (curly tail) who weighed... seventy or eighty pounds? She used to weigh less, but that was back when she was young enough to chase the ball, not just walk after it. Good luck with your giant puppy! I hope you live somewhere cool because that is a lot of fur.

Dad's oncologist won't give us any estimate, but I think that's because it could be five years or three months and at this point, they can't tell. He's got a hell of a cold at the moment, and seems to be actually suffering more from that. It just doesn't seem fair to have cancer AND a miserable cold. Cancer should automatically give you immunity to getting normal-sick.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

[curiousb]

Oh, Hat, I'm really sorry to hear that life has been really kicking you in the teeth of late! I must admit, I had noticed that you weren't around, and was just hoping that good stuff was keeping you busy, but sadly I was wrong. And you certainly shouldn't let yourself feel guilty at all for your absence - it's not at all surprising, with all you've had to deal with.

I just really, really hope that your dad is one of the lucky ones and makes a full recovery. I don't want to give you false hope, as I do know how low the odds can be (my father-in-law had pancreatic cancer), but it is possible (that same father-in-law is still with us and in good health five years later, and is a case in point).

Anyway, I too would love to see pictures of the ratlet, blurred or otherwise - I'm a big rat fan, and would love one (or more) as a pet.

[hat_plays_sims]

Well, the doctors won't actually give us a solid prognosis, and he's in a study for a new drug combination... So I guess we'll see. Thank you for your good thoughts.

I'll try to get a reasonably clear picture of the ratlet-- she gets a bit cheesed off at me for looking at her, and is back to chewing on cage corners, the little... er, rat. I don't know if she's determined to get loose or just mad at me for managing to touch her yesterday. Or if she just likes to tear up plastic. Some rats are just fond of the texture.

[(Anonymous)]

I am sorry to hear about your dad and all the other stuff happening. I hope things start looking up soon and I wish you all the best.

[fantasyrogue]

Ok so that was me, I hadn't noticed I wasn't logged in. Fail on my part. Sorry!

[hat_plays_sims]

I tend to do that a lot, but usually on posts I've maid-- then I get an email alert. "Who's this anon commenter-- oh, it's, um. Me." Thank you so much for your good wishes.


... I appear to be typing around my cat this afternoon. She's not making it easy.

[(Anonymous)]

I just wanted you to know, that I wish you and your family a lot of strength.

Then I also want to thank you for all the amazing downloads - because I thank creators too seldom and you're one of my favorite creators. I believe I wouldn't even have a medieval game if there wasn't your creations - they add so much to the game. But it's a game, and thus I think you really shouldn't feel guilty at all. I'm nothing but thankful no matter when those Rose hairs are uploaded. And I believe a lot of people agree.

Please take time when and to where it's needed and take care.
*sends a hug*

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you so much for your support, and you're so welcome for the downloads. I know I'm not the only creator who really appreciates hearing from... whoever, whenever. It's always so awesome to hear from somebody who likes whatever goodies you're sharing.

[sunni9676]

Hi Hat...I'm sorry to learn about your troubles. A year ago my very healthy father started having seizures in his sleep. He has been in and out of the hospital mutliple times. They discovered he has Lyme Disease. He's pretty sick, can't work and because of the seizures not there mentally all the time. We have to literally watch him every minute. It's been traumatic to us all, so I definitely sympathize with having a sick family member and having to care for them. I was able to get him on disability...wondering if you have tried that for your father? If you need any help in that area let me know. We were able to get my father on it within just a few months...otherwise there would have been a serious financial disaster. Anyway, I will send some positive energy your way for you and your family.

I do also want to say a big thank you for the wonderful advent stuffs you made. Those hiders are the best ever and I plan to use them asap as I clean out my dl folder and get some organization going. Everything else is wonderful as ever. And I am eagerly looking forward to your aging mod.

I hope things are looking up for you and yours

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Hat,

I just discovered your site and have since been on a massive downloading spree. My thoughts are with you and your family and I hope things are looking up for you now. I want to thank you, for although I do not have a Medieval Neighborhood, the hairs and the elven dress are both muchly to be used when I begin playing Sims 2 again. I will, if I can, send you pics to let you see who has what if and when I do make a Medieval Hood. I give you hus, and cinnamon spiced rum cookies and a tall glass of milk in a poor attempt to brighten your day.

Phoenix_Candy

[(Anonymous)]

edit: hus was supposed to be hugs