Welcome to Danjaley's cluttered and curious blog about historis(i)m, stories, and cc-making adventures. Most of my custom content can be found here, as well as archived content from retired creators.
Glennkill (Three Bags Full / The Sheep Detectives) by Leonie Swann.
This is one of my very favourite books that came out in my lifetime. I've lost count of how many times I read it. I know large passages by heart. I can start over the moment I'm finished and still enjoy it.
What initially appealed to me was the obvious fun of the story: A flock of sheep investigate their shepherd's murder. Over time I also came to realise the mastership of plot, language, imagery - everything basically. Although the main characters are sheep, they are deeply relatable personalities: Maple, the investigator; Othello, the survivor; Zora, the deep thinker; Melmoth, the wanderer; the winter-lamb, the misfit; Mopple, the memory-sheep who loves eating. And although it is a humorous sheep-story, it touches on the serious questions of life: Death always lurks close, especially if you're a sheep. God seems to be responsible for a lot of deaths, but you can't really charge him with murder. Sometimes, being alone is an advantage.
Another important theme are stories. George liked to read stories to his sheep. And although it wasn't exactly a wide range of literary masterpieces, they set the sheep thinking what makes a good story. In the sheep's minds it becomes visible how even the simplest of stories help us grasp the world around us. A sentence that always stayed with me (one of many) is: "A story is over when it is over. Like an intake of breath. Now." Made me immune to our time's obsession with sequels. Another sentence, "In Melmoth's story it was bitterly cold", was my key concept inspo for The Six Ravens 2020.
I'm very excited that the book is being adapted as a movie, coming out in May. It looks super cute and I'm definitely going to watch it. But I'm not sure if it's going to be quite as good as the book. The trailers seem to be overstressing the funny and chaotic elements; but a lot of trailers do that. I couldn't spot much of the actual murder-plot so far. I'm very amused about Hugh Jackman playing George the shepherd. When I first read the book, he was Wolverine and the very last person I would have thought of as George. We're all getting older...
Especially for this post I also read the English translation Three Bags Full. Although I don't like the title, it's quite faithful, except for a few missing half-sentences. However, a lot of the melody and imagery of the German version was probably impossible to carry over. What I liked better in English was the name of the sheep Heather. It always bothered me that it's "Heide" in German, while all the other sheep have English names. I always wondered if it was "Heather" translated, or supposed to be "Heidi". Now I know.
Quite aside from the content, I strongly recommend the German edition for its adorable animated illustration that moves when you leaf through the pages.
The only thing about Glennkill I'm not happy with is the sequel, Garou (Big Bad Wolf). I've read it twice and I still can't tell you what the plot and its solution was. I could have told you the plot of Glennkill after one reading, but I won't because it's a spoiler. The only thing that stuck were some further developments within the flock. I loved that the winter-lamb picks Heathcliff as his name (bonus point for Wuthering Heights reference!). In fact the famous "Haunt me" speech plays a key-role in Glennkill.
For years I've read every new book by Leonie Swann and I loved Dunkelsprung and Gray. Sadly I couldn't warm up to her current series about elderly detectives at all. I'm still not old enough to enjoy jokes about how weird and stupid young people are. And I'm determined never to become that sort of self-centred crank. And it makes me so sad that the very author who wrote the best funny murder-mystery, joined the ranks of 'cosy'-crime writes who have to bring on a gross murder every 100 pages, just for the fun of it. Perhaps I may say something spoilery after all: What makes Glennkill so touching is that it's the story of the life and death of George the shepherd. Remembered and investigated by his sheep, many of whom owe their lives to him. And in the end it's heartbreaking that he had to die the way he did.
Looking in to say I'm doing well, and I loved the movie The Sheep Detectives. It was a different story, but a good one in its own right. Quite a refreshing change to see the cast in a plot of which I didn't know the outcome. Still, as I see so many people saying how much they cried over the movie - the book will make you cry even more.
Do you use the NRaas mods? Has the information on the NRaas website and forum ever been useful to you? If so, a moment of your time please!
I’d like to share the current situation with Simblr – which you can also read about directly from the site owner here:
https://www.nraas.net/community/topic15428
While it seemed like we were entering an era of old-internet revival and indie websites in the fight against the dead-internet, a significant road block has emerged. Prices have inflated drastically for server parts, memory, storage, and server-hosting itself. This puts all non-profit online communities in peril.
As a result, the site owner has opened a Patreon so that the community can help cover the costs of keeping us online.
Important clarification:
The NRaas mods are NEVER going to be paywalled.
The project will remain open-source and free for everyone. Donations are optional.
These mods are still in active development!
The site and mods have been maintained by Chain_Reaction since Twallan's retirement, providing countless updates and support. Lots of cool stuff over there if you haven't updated in a hot minute.
There is no pressure to donate if your situation does not allow for it. Thank you for the consideration!
Long post ahead with information on the situation and some incentives for reaching membership goals.
If you've had some trouble accessing the site over the past week or so:
The situation is directly caused by the greed and encroachment of something we’re all uncomfortably familiar with: AI companies and the companies investing in them (of simmer relevance, that includes EA and Krafton (InZoi)).
NRaas is not the first nor will it be the last to be affected. Website servers already suffer from bots trawling and scraping their content – including your content that you write and share just about anywhere. Now they’re being bought off entirely.
Archives and file-hosting are at high risk. Myrient is a recent example of an archive that went offline for this very reason.
It can feel a bit grim, but I want to assure you that the burden isn't yours to bear as an individual. As a community, it's actually quite easy to become hostile - and more important, unprofitable - to these invasive species as it were.
The past 26 years of modding and storytelling was OVERWHELMINGLY built upon free software, non-profit websites, and shared resources. A few unscrupulous paywallers and corporate greed isn't going to rewrite that history. Greed is the minority - but it does try to eat everything in its path.
That's all I ask - if you enjoy the fruits of The Sims community or enjoy being a part of it, make it just a little more inconvenient to swallow us.
Do not tolerate GenAI in our community spaces.
Do not support EA or Krafton. Let obscurity and irrelevancy devour them.
Do participate in the community wherever you think you'd find a little piece of purpose - make a blog for your stories, come chat with us in the Chatterbox forum at NRaas, make your first mod.
Lastly:
In a separate post, I'll be posting some CC incentives that will be released as milestones are reached. This content will not be paywalled - it will be posted for free as thanks to the community.
This is being offered on my own accord and is not the official reward for any particular tier. None of the proceeds are going to me!
Please look out for that over the weekend, I still need to take all of the preview screenshots which is perhaps the least exciting part of making CC.
And thank you, on behalf of the volunteers at NRaas.
I managed to draw it out so long that it's probably coming out of nowhere for many - but for now Matt has settled back into his comfortable home-life and will spend the next years being a wonderful father to his children. Alongside Alice being a very diligent mother of course! :)
Part 4.5 takes place in 1801, so yay for the 19th century! In the next part, which I'm still debating to call Season 5, focus will shift to the next generation.
That being said, nothing has changed at my end. Computer- and game-problems persist. I'm very busy with real life things. At least a timeskip is always a good time to set up an entirely new save-file...
At the same time I still feel connected to these characters and their story. I have large parts written, up to 1813, and there are so many scenes I'm really excited about. Realistically, looking at my rl plans for the next years, Matt's children will be the last McCarric season to be posted here. Really I haven't written anything past Matt's lifetime. He's come to mean so much to me, I'd like to write "The End" with him being a wonderful grandfather.
There'll be WWI drama anyway, because the next thing to post would be the much more text-based Veronaville 1914. So I'm certainly not done with storytelling.
Matthew (beaming): Ah learned it. Lishy lovesh mushic.
Lilly: (still singing)
Fiona: I’m glad she makes you so happy. And you know that your father would be very proud. In fact I think he'd be singing to her whenever you don't have time.
Matthew: Ah wan’ ‘o shee her ash happy ash you shee me.
Matthew (sings, occasionally joined by Lilly): Oh, do you hear yon shepherdsh, Ash they walk along, Wi’ their plaidiesh pulled aboot them And their sheep they grashe on. Bushk, bushk, bonnie lashie And co’e along wi’ me And Ah'll ta’e ye tae Glen Isla Near Bonnie Glen Shee.
_____________
[Author's note: Bonnie Glen Shee only became widely popular in the 20th century. But since it's said to be based on a traditional song, we'll pretend Matt heard it somewhere. It's just Lilly's song on my playlist.]
Glennkill (Three Bags Full / The Sheep Detectives) by Leonie Swann.
This is one of my very favourite books that came out in my lifetime. I've lost count of how many times I read it. I know large passages by heart. I can start over the moment I'm finished and still enjoy it.
What initially appealed to me was the obvious fun of the story: A flock of sheep investigate their shepherd's murder. Over time I also came to realise the mastership of plot, language, imagery - everything basically. Although the main characters are sheep, they are deeply relatable personalities: Maple, the investigator; Othello, the survivor; Zora, the deep thinker; Melmoth, the wanderer; the winter-lamb, the misfit; Mopple, the memory-sheep who loves eating. And although it is a humorous sheep-story, it touches on the serious questions of life: Death always lurks close, especially if you're a sheep. God seems to be responsible for a lot of deaths, but you can't really charge him with murder. Sometimes, being alone is an advantage.
Another important theme are stories. George liked to read stories to his sheep. And although it wasn't exactly a wide range of literary masterpieces, they set the sheep thinking what makes a good story. In the sheep's minds it becomes visible how even the simplest of stories help us grasp the world around us. A sentence that always stayed with me (one of many) is: "A story is over when it is over. Like an intake of breath. Now." Made me immune to our time's obsession with sequels. Another sentence, "In Melmoth's story it was bitterly cold", was my key concept inspo for The Six Ravens 2020.
I'm very excited that the book is being adapted as a movie, coming out in May. It looks super cute and I'm definitely going to watch it. But I'm not sure if it's going to be quite as good as the book. The trailers seem to be overstressing the funny and chaotic elements; but a lot of trailers do that. I couldn't spot much of the actual murder-plot so far. I'm very amused about Hugh Jackman playing George the shepherd. When I first read the book, he was Wolverine and the very last person I would have thought of as George. We're all getting older...
Especially for this post I also read the English translation Three Bags Full. Although I don't like the title, it's quite faithful, except for a few missing half-sentences. However, a lot of the melody and imagery of the German version was probably impossible to carry over. What I liked better in English was the name of the sheep Heather. It always bothered me that it's "Heide" in German, while all the other sheep have English names. I always wondered if it was "Heather" translated, or supposed to be "Heidi". Now I know.
Quite aside from the content, I strongly recommend the German edition for its adorable animated illustration that moves when you leaf through the pages.
The only thing about Glennkill I'm not happy with is the sequel, Garou (Big Bad Wolf). I've read it twice and I still can't tell you what the plot and its solution was. I could have told you the plot of Glennkill after one reading, but I won't because it's a spoiler. The only thing that stuck were some further developments within the flock. I loved that the winter-lamb picks Heathcliff as his name (bonus point for Wuthering Heights reference!). In fact the famous "Haunt me" speech plays a key-role in Glennkill.
For years I've read every new book by Leonie Swann and I loved Dunkelsprung and Gray. Sadly I couldn't warm up to her current series about elderly detectives at all. I'm still not old enough to enjoy jokes about how weird and stupid young people are. And I'm determined never to become that sort of self-centred crank. And it makes me so sad that the very author who wrote the best funny murder-mystery, joined the ranks of 'cosy'-crime writes who have to bring on a gross murder every 100 pages, just for the fun of it. Perhaps I may say something spoilery after all: What makes Glennkill so touching is that it's the story of the life and death of George the shepherd. Remembered and investigated by his sheep, many of whom owe their lives to him. And in the end it's heartbreaking that he had to die the way he did.
Cathy: I have a question: How can the people of Lilliput be named after Lilly, when it was I who named her? Didn’t you say Mr Swift, who wrote the story, died long ago?
Thomas: Why did he die?
Matthew: It’sh a co-in-shi-dence, Cathy. Thom’sh, Ah’m afraid Ah don’’ know wha’ Mr Swift died of.
Matthew: An’ now hush! Gram’ is going ‘o read ush a shtory.
Graham (reading): “When I found myself on my feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never beheld a more entertaining prospect. The country around appeared like a continued garden, and the enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many beds of flowers. These fields were intermingled with woods of half a stang, and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high.”
Business continues; state of the computer and the story
I'll be starting a new job on Monday, which I'm very excited about. Also the PhD defence will take place some time this summer, so I'm going to be busy.
After last year's drama upgrading the CPU, it turned out my graphics card is also entirely outdated ("Of course I have a good graphics card! It's been running The Sims 3 for ten years!"). So with an increased income I'm going to get a more recent one. Only then I first need to play Anno 117 (which I bought last year and haven't been able to run), and Legend of Khiimori (my brother works for Aesir and had a big part in designing the characters and environment).
As an aside: With my brother working on a horse-game, I got back into that genre a little, and discovered Horses of Hoofprint Bay. It's a 2D stable simulator inspired by Mein Pferdehof, which was the best 2D stable simulator of the 2000s. They currently have a free demo on Steam. I've been playing that last week (finally a new release my graphics card could handle!) and 100% recommend.
Now, coming back to The Sims and the McCarrics - we're close to the end of part 4.4 and I'm trying to get that wrapped up soonish. After that there's a timeskip to the year 1800. It will be a much needed fresh start and shift focus to the next generation. There are some storylines upcoming which have me excited every time I read the script. I guess it's Béatrice's fault, though I can't really be mad at her, that we have simply too many characters and storylines now. I'm gradually cutting back to refocus on the main family, but of course we need to see what becomes of our sensitive unconventional scholar. I'm wondering if I should call it a new season - but this would mean Season 4 only covered six years.
That being said, I'm still struggling with setting everything back up after wiping my computer; and I have a feeling that getting a stronger graphics card might add to the problems. We'll see how it goes.
Since I reinstalled the game and moved my old documents The Sims 3 folder over, I can't edit a household with more than 8 Sims. I get the original warning "too many Sims" (also households needing an adult etc.) and can't confirm. Allowing more than 8 Sims is still activated in Mastercontroller. I tried switching it off and back on. The only noticeable result was that the Sim who was active now can't open the computer's menu any more. Any ideas?
(Every time I want to shoot an update one of those surprise-bugs pops up! 😖)
(partly about the book, partly about the new adaptation)
(I don't own any interesting copies, except that I pasted this Waterhouse painting onto the German translation.)
I first read Wuthering Heights at 18, and I think this qualifies as a teenager. I knew a few famous quotes from other books beforehand. That's why, along with The Hobbit, Wuthering Heights was one of the books in which I reached 50% and all the famous lines had been delivered and I wondered what was going to happen in the other half.
I always saw it as a story about death, and nothing else. Death that will come to everyone, rather sooner than later. Also part of the experience was that I was completely alone with it. I was the only girl in my year who read English classics. What we were actually reading in school at the time was Sansibar by Alfred Andersch. Also an excellent novel. It features a character named Helander. Every time I was to mention him, my brain went: "Hindley? Hareton? Heathcliff? ... Helander!" Somehow he's still part of the gang to me. Horrible things happened to him too, but he took them more gracefully.
My mother was worried about my mental wellbeing when I announced my reading-project. When she was a teenager, her US cousin told her Wuthering Heights was a story about necrophilia. She didn't quite believe me when I said, although it kinda is about loving a dead woman, this doesn't exactly take place physically.
I was reading the novel in English, to prove that I could. Yes, in that brick of an Collected Edition (not annotated) pictured above. Of course I didn't understand a thing Joseph said. I guess it also took the edge off some of the violence. However, it was hard work and I was glad when I was done. I still feel one of the most amazing things is how it does take a turn for a positive ending, with the change coming almost unnoticeable at first.
The second time I read it two years ago when I went to visit Haworth. In German, which was much more efficient. It's only now that I actively think about it, but of course I would have missed dozens of jokes and references if I hadn't worked my way through Wuthering Heights so early. So that was definitely worth it.
Now, what I LOVE about the current buzz is that suddenly everyone in the (virtual) streets is talking about Wuthering Heights. As I said, at 18 I had this unsettling feeling "This is a world classic, but somehow I'm the only one who knows it. Might be a sign of madness." At university I made it a habit to ask, when someone told me they studied English, "Do you know the Brontës?" and you wouldn't believe how many had never heard of them.
It was really endearing last week when my Instagram feed was flooded with people trying frantically to get this book read until the weekend, and other people making more or less helpful info-posts to assist. This is so like back in school, when everyone tried to do their homework last minute! When it came to reading novels, I was usually the one doing the info-talks. I mean it's not like we weren't informed in advance about the upcoming adaptation. In fact, I took the opportunity three months ago, to finally convince my mother to read Wuthering Heights for herself. I'm glad to say we could clear up the necrophilia story. She took a firm liking to Nelly Dean instead.
I hadn't actually been planning to watch the film, especially not on the opening weekend, but I was invited. As I said above, it had never been my reading that Cathy and Heathcliff are seductive sex-symbols. I wouldn't have minded the eclecticism, if it hadn't been so over the top. The general idea of the love-story going through all times does appeal to me. But I'd have done it much bolder; I'd actually have placed it in different time-periods, a bit like Orlando. In the end, what amused me most were the two girls sitting next to me in the cinema. Throughout the flim they were waiting for a murder to happen and whispered their suggestions. Isabella murdering Nelly would have been quite an original twist! The depiction of Nelly was the only thing I solidly liked, first to last, in this adaptation. Finally, in the rather long interval between the last scene and the credits, I was fervently hoping this was indeed the end. I was half fearing Cathy's unburial would come jumping at us after all. Then one of the girls whispered "Scheißfilm!" and they left. I was laughing all though the credits. So, while it was rather grotesque, it didn't feel empty the way the last Star Wars and Hobbit trilogies did. At least I could tell it enjoyed being grotesque.
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