I love the Sims!

My love for the Sims began a little over 13 years ago.  My daughter's birthday was in March and a few weeks before that we were at Costco.  As we perused the book and movie aisle she saw a game she was interested in called The Sims.  She asked for it for her birthday.  Little did I know, when I purchased that game, what changes it would bring to our household.

Shortly after she opened that gift, we gathered around our only computer and watched as the teeny world of the Sims appeared before us.  My daughters and myself were instantly captivated.  Within hours we were fighting over the game.  I would set aside 2 hour blocks of time for each of us to play.  Of course, I could play all day long on my days off, while they were at school. Muhahahahahaha!  Before long, those blocks of time weren't enough and we purchased another computer and another Sims game.  Soon that 2nd computer turned into three and yet another Sims game.  And so, an obsession was born!

Since that time the original Sims game had multiple expansions, that I bought in triplicate.  Then there was The Sims 2.  That included multiple expansions and stuff packs.  For a while I could buy only one stuff pack and we could put it on all of our computers, but then Maxis/EA became money obsessed and we had to each play off our own copy of the stuff packs, so three of those were purchased as well.  Then came The Sims 3 with their expansions, stuff packs and so on.  Oh and don't forget all of those items you could buy from the online Sims store to add to your wonderful game!  

Needless to say the Sims has cost me thousands of dollars over those 13 years, but I don't regret a single dollar!  It has provided, my daughters and myself hours of entertainment and a great bonding experience too.  No matter what's going on in our life, we always have the common interest in the Sims.

 Most people that know me have heard about the Sims.  There are those that ignored me. Then there are those that thought "what the hell is Sims?" and then ignored me.  Lastly there are the very few people that I know that know what I'm talking about and like them too. Mainly my daughters and one coworker who plays occasionally.  You know who you are!  So imagine my delight when I found a whole online community of Sims enthusiasts!  And believe me it is a very large, world wide community!  

I had been playing the original Sims game for a short while when I found the online Sims community.  There were a few forums out there that would share their Sims experiences or links to great sites that had Custom Created items that I could download and put into my Sims game.  There are so many creative people in the Sims world!  I became addicted to downloading new items or houses for my game.  I would spend more hours doing that and then organizing those downloads, than I would spend playing.  I had to have that refridgerator or sofa or chair and so on in 40 different colors!  Or I would download beautiful houses that I was never patient or talented enough to dream up and build myself. This was all back when I had dial up.  Those downloads would take forever, but that didn't stop me!

After a few months of lurking at the Sims forum Neighborhood 99 or N99 as we call it, I got up enough nerve to actually comment.  It's a great place, full of wonderful, giving and creative people.  I feel like many of them are my friends.  I also joined another forum called CIS Clubhouse.  I made friends there too.  Over the years there has been lots of drama in the Sims community, especially during the Sims 1 days.  Now it's pretty mellow and we just have a good time sharing Sims stories,  ideas and  the excitement when a new expansion has been announced, counting down the days together and sharing all of the tidbits we can find about said new expansion.

Now a new Sims game has been announced.  Sims 4.  We knew it was coming and I'm actually dreading it.  After all I've invested over the years, I hate starting over, yet again!  But I know that by the time it comes out I'll be anxiously awaiting it and the very day it's released I will be buying it, installing it and starting a whole new adventure!

There's a little something for everyone in the Sims games.  You can play a premade sim or make your own.  You give them the personality traits you want.  If you're a control freak, like me, you can pretty much control every little aspect of their lives.  If you would rather watch  life happen you can just sit back and let their free will take over, sometimes with chaotic results and a visit from the grim reaper!  Here are some screenshots from The Sims 3.

There's plenty of gardening opportunities for those gardening enthusiasts!

Playing in the ocean with your toddler.

If you want to fly you can play as a fairy or ride a broomstick as a witch!

You can fight fires or just stand and scream at them.  In this unfortunate fire 3 sims met the grim reaper.

You can even have a meteorite hit  your neighborhood or your home.  Sometimes your Sim won't make it out alive.

My computer.

This morning I had an idea of what I wanted to blog about today.  I had it planned in my mind as I went to take a shower after my usual facebook check in.  After showering I came back to my desktop computer and moved the mouse to wake it up, after it went into sleep mode.  Nothing...black screen.  I moved the mouse some more.  Still nothing!  The computer was on.  The monitor was on.  I felt a little panic setting in as I turned the monitor off and then back on.  NO SIGNAL it said.  Uh oh!  I checked all of the plugs etc. and then turned off and then back on my computer.  It started up as usual but still nothing on the monitor.  My computer is only a year old.  It can't be dead, where as my monitor is several years old.  That has to be it!  My monitor is dead!
About that time my hubby appears on the scene. " HELP!!!  My computer or monitor is dead but I don't know how to tell which one."  I see the look of dread on his face because my family knows if my computer dies it's not a good day.  My daughter shows up about then and upon hearing what the problem is she quickly leaves the area.  My hubby, who is good at diagnosing most computer problems, tells me to disconnect the monitor and pass it over to him.  He hooks it up to his computer and it's fine.  That can only mean one thing!  It's my computer!  I'm already mentally planning where I am going to rush out to, to buy my next computer, when he tells me to hand my computer over and he'll look at it.  He hooks my computer up on his desk and it starts up just fine.  Hmmm, so my monitor is fine and my computer is fine??? What is going on?  He thinks that maybe one of the connections was loose or maybe the power supply messed up for a little bit.
After handing my monitor and computer back to me, I hook it all back up and it works just fine.  *big sigh of relief* from all of us.  Keep in mind that I do have a laptop as well, but it just isn't the same to me as my desktop computer.
At that time I decided to change my blog subject to computers and how some of our lives seem to revolve around them.
My love of computers started many years ago, and when I say many I mean more than 30 years ago.  My husband, who at that time was only my boyfriend, had a little Texas Instrument computer.  He had one of those little mystery games on it that had no pictures or anything like that on it.  It was just words.  No sound, just words.  It would tell you about a scene and then you would type in instructions, like go left, open the cupboard, run like hell, or something like that.  I loved that game!
Later on, after we were married and had kids, we had another computer.  The games on this computer were similar but they actually had pictures.  I loved those games too.  Over time more interesting and involved games appeared like Sim Coaster and assorted Brain Games.  My daughters and I loved those games.  Soon the actual Sim game came out (a lot more on that in a future blog) and that was a huge turning point in our household.  Suddenly, one computer didn't work for our family of four.  One computer turned into two and then three and then soon everyone had their own desktop computers.
 We had another phone line added to our home so we could be on the computer and still make calls at the same time.   Remember dial up?  That awful connecting noise it made.  It is something best forgotten.  Thank God for cable!
Over the years the computer became our link to the world.  The girls did their homework research on it, because who goes to the library anymore, as well as their reports.  We played online games.  Joined online forums.  Made online friends.  Sent emails.  Played games on our computers, some of those were online and others weren't.  Searching the web became a daily event.
When those computers acted up, it was a tragedy.  What about the music we listened to on them?  Or the papers that we stored in them?  Or those games we had installed that literally took hours to reinstall?  What events on Facebook were we missing?  Hubby, would painstakingly work on them or we'd have to buy a new one and then all was good again in our home.
My Mom thinks that our computers are the root of all evil.  She has never understood our love of them.  She can't understand the friends we've made through our computer use, or the games we play.  But we all know that they've become a part of our lives for better or worse.

A little bit about me.

   Hello and welcome to my life!  I'm Laura and as you can tell by my title, I'm fat.  Morbidly Obese might be a better term for my current weight.  I'm not proud of it but I have no problem with saying it like it is.  It's kind of funny how uncomfortable people get when a fat person makes fat jokes about themselves.  I have no problem laughing about my love of food and size, but I see the looks on others faces and they don't know whether to laugh or not.  It's rather awkward.  I just want them to laugh along with me.

If you found this blog and are hoping for some interesting weight loss info, you might be sorely disappointed. I created this as kind of an online diary.  I plan on sharing my loves, hopes, goals, dreams and life on these pages, like a diary.  Writing in diaries was a longtime obsession of mine from childhood until my later twenties when raising children took a priority.  I still took the time to jot down cute or humorous stories about my kids or vacations we went on but daily entries in a journal became tedious and just another chore that needed to be done.  So, it was time to quit.  Now that my daughters are adults and I have a lot more time, I thought I'd give blogging a try.  Why blog over writing things down in a journal?  My handwriting is atrocious!  Over the years it has gradually declined.  I blame working in a hospital.  I have to translate the scribbles of doctors and eventually I began to scribble too.  I spend a lot of time on my computer so typing comes much more naturally to me, so here I am!

Today I'll share with you some of my loves.  I have many.  You can probably guess one of them.  Yes, I love food!  I'm not a choosy eater.  I love all kinds, although I'm a little picky when it comes to veggies.  Fast food, deli food, restaurant foods, different ethnic foods and homemade.  I love them all!  In large quantities, because we all know if I don't get enough of my favorite foods now, they might not be available tomorrow...

Another thing I love, of course, is family.  I have two wonderful daughters and a very understanding, patient and long suffering husband.  I also have my Mom and 3 siblings all living in the area too.  So, I'm surrounded by loving family.  I'm very blessed.

Animals!  I love animals!  I currently have 3 cats and 2 dogs.  You'll be hearing about them in detail throughout my posts, because they are a big part of my crazy life.

Traveling is another love of mine that also falls under my hopes and dreams category.  I hope to share my trips I've been on and trips I hope to go on some day.

Cooking is one of my loves!  I'm not a gourmet cook but I like to try new recipes, which I find on shows I watch, blogs, facebook posts and so on. 

I love TV, which I watch way too much of and my DVR, which allows me to watch way too much TV.  We'll have to discuss some of our favorite shows, or you can read about me discussing mine. ;o)  

I also love reading.  So many books, so little time.  My favorites are mysteries.  I have many mystery authors I follow. I also like romances.  It's always nice to read a light, carefree, totally predictable romance.

One of my loves is computer games.  My favorite of all times is The Sims.  I've played it since it came out several years ago and have enjoyed The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3 and will probably like the soon to be released Sims 4.  I will discuss this passion in more detail than you could ever want to read in the future, which makes me think of their next expansion for TS3, Into the Future!  Love those Sim games!

I also like some of the facebook games too, even though they are addicting and frustrating, at times!

Well, as you can see, I do like to rattle on sometimes.  So, I'll close now with the wish that you come back to see me again and share your thoughts with me.