This blog is like a digital scrapbook for my Sims creations, stuff related to the novel(s) I'm attempting to write, and other various creations. I created the Expansion Legacy challenge and you can follow my attempt at it in this tag.
I also use this blog to store anything I'd like to reference or use later, such as writing tips, blog themes, and post dividers. I tag all my non-Sims stuff as #non sims if you wish to blacklist it.
When Delia Duncan realizes that she's missed her husband's birthday, she finds herself zooming around the tiny town of Blue Jay to try and find him a present.
ummm i want to be friends with more people and make more mutuals can u lovely ladies do me a favor and reblog me. imagine you're holding me up like this
Welcome back to the Expansion Legacy challenge! Morgan Ripley is set to complete Discover University, and she has spent her teen years studying hard. All her work paid off and she was able to graduate from high school early, starting college right before she turned into a young adult.
Despite her bohemian upbringing, Morgan has always been a preppy sort of gal. She grew up wanting to be a child psychologist, and so she enrolled in Foxbury Institute, aiming for a psychology degree. This, plus the skills she learned as a teen, will someday help her in the Education profession.
Morgan moved into the Tidal Tower dormitory, but quickly discovered that dorm life was much more chaotic than she'd ever thought it would be. Since she'd grown up in serene Sulani, she wasn't used to this many people being in her space, especially when she was trying to focus.
Luckily, being a mermaid means that she always has somewhere peaceful she could escape to.
That's all I've got for now, but hopefully I'll be able to update again soon as Morgan tackles the Academic aspiration and eventually the Education career.
Morgan's first two semesters in university went by with very little incident, and she ended up discovering something unexpected: college life is absolutely boring. She spends most of her day in class or doing homework, and has very little time for anything else. For her third semester at Foxbury, she only signed up for two classes, hoping that she would have more time and energy to live up to her Party Animal potential. One of the first things she did with her tiny amount of free time was head out to the local pub just to see what she could get up to. There, she met an aspiring journalist named Scott Wylie, who had just graduated from the University of Britechester. Over many games of ping pong, Morgan and Scott developed a friendship, which then developed into a relationship.
But romance wasn't the only thing she discovered at Pepper's Pub: after a date with Scott, Morgan also stumbled upon a secret meeting of cloaked individuals. Everyone scattered when she walked up to their little ritual area, which just left her absolutely determined to find out more about them. After a semester's worth of offering sacrifices to the statue at Foxbury and scouring research machines for information on secret societies, Morgan was finally offered the opportunity to join their ranks.
Meanwhile, Scott randomly inherited an old house there in Britechester, and he invited Morgan to move in with him. Although the house wasn't really Morgan's style, she accepted, and was very glad to move out of the noisy dorms. After living together for a short while, Scott proposed, and they later had a small wedding at the ritual grounds.
Sunday was our last day in Birmingham, and we started it off with the breakfast of champions: a strawberry-blueberry-banana chocolate chip waffle from Metro Diner.
The last time we went to Birmingham, we visited Metro Diner on our last day as well, except it was a different location. The interior is aggressively green, which is kind of unique for a 50s-style diner, but I can dig it.
Our main plan for the day was the Alabama Safari Park, but we made a pitstop at the Montgomery Riverfront Park, where we did a whole lot of walking and saw a whole lot of nothing.
The Safari Park was absolutely amazing. We fed goats, pigs, and giraffes, and we got to see a tiny baby kangaroo as well as some cuddling capybaras. There was an Australian family there, and hearing their accents definitely enriched the experience, but their kids were very mischievous, ducking under guardrails to feed monkeys and tortoises. My 2-year-old, V, wanted to feed the ring-tailed lemurs, but luckily her idea of feeding them was just ripping off a tiny piece of lettuce and dropping it in their general direction.
The Alabama Safari Park is actually a drive through sort of thing, where you can purchase feed buckets and drive through the park and let the animals come to you. It's kind of like a reverse zoo, in a way. We opted for the wagon ride, which cost a little extra but was definitely worth it, as it was a guided tour where we didn't have to drive.
The first few animals we saw were the llamas, the lechwes, and some cows, all of which were very cute and very excited that we had food for them. I had honestly never heard of a lechwe before, but they kind of looked like they were smiling sweetly at us.
In one of the fields we saw a mama llama and a baby llama, and I remarked that the baby looked quite fresh. The tour guide dude driving the tractor said that the wee baby was only an hour old.
The camels were in their own little fenced-in area and next to said area was a sign saying "Beware the Bucket Bandits." The tour guide explained that the camels were notorious for stealing food buckets from visitors, and he said to feed them at your own risk. Since I have a good history with camels (I've ridden a few, fed a bunch, and I was apparently licked across the face by one when I was tiny), I thought I'd give it a go.
That camel snatched the food bucket right out of my hand faster than the speed of light. Honestly, I have no regrets.
We also got to meet and pet some zebras, which was super cool. I'm not going to post it, but I got a picture of my daughter reading the guide book about zebras while an actual zebra was right behind her.
I also fed an emu, and when I stopped feeding it it pecked at my hair. Rude.
After that we met some watusis. Their horns were really soft, and so large that I could barely get a picture of them.
We also saw an ostrich, who didn't really want anything to do with us.
After the wagon ride, we got some snacks at the gift shop and hit the road, finally bringing our vacation to an end. We had so much fun, and we can't wait to go to Birmingham and Montgomery again, but we were also quite glad to be home.
@creekfiend was very kind in sharing some writing resources with me, and I thought I'd pass along the kindness by listing them down below.
N.K. Jemisin's article 'Describing characters of color in writing'
Mary Anne Mohanraj's article on approaching characters of colour
Renee Harleston's article How to 'Write Characters of Color Without Using Stereotypes'
Working with Colour, a resource site for writers
the book Writing the Other by by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, which had a description that cut deep, because I've definitely fallen into this trap out of fear:
and then a video recommended by @sheprd (thank you!) about pitfalls in descriptive language
if anyone else has more resources to add, feel free to reblog with them! this is something I want to learn more about.
I was talking yesterday about how I should probably change the skin colour of a character in a not-yet-written book, because that character is a large, aggressive dragon-shifter and I was worried about her being read with unintentional and offensive subtext.
I haven't gotten my hands on Writing the Other yet (it's still in the mail!) but from reading my way through these articles and watching the Princess Weekes video, I now understand that 'white-ifying' a character you're worried about is a lazy and cowardly solution. so, if I do ever finish the book Eres loses Everything, I'll keep her as is, do my best to be thoughtful, and hire a sensitivity reader to pick out any blind spots.
thank you to everyone who passed on resources, I really appreciate it!
