Seconded. To a point. A human's very presence in nature alters nature. So there is definitely an "otherness" with people and animals. Case in point-- our anthropomorphizing of animals. We can't help it-- how can we not? We don't know what it's like to be a bear for example-- with a sense of smell many times greater than a bloodhound. There is no point of reference, physically and mentally for that.

Also, we tend to vilify or romanticize certain animals for how they reflect back on us. A very mammal-centric, human-centric rubric which always irks me. Not too long ago, someone was telling me that they saw an animal in trouble and had to rescue it-- not for the sake of rescuing it- but because it was beautiful to her. Well, how ego-stroking was that? Did she want a cookie or something? She should've just pat herself on the back like my sims do.
Heh. What I have NEVER understood is when the news covers the story of a break in where the poor yokel just never locked their doors. No one deserves to be broken into, but lock your goddamn doors, people. If I hear another "we don't lock our doors in this neighborhood" line again, I'll scream.

Not that I'm trying to convert you into a bird lover or anything, but try checking out the "Life of Birds" series by Sir David Attenborough. It has the power to make any anti-bird person at least look at them in a new way. The man is just magic and has not been nor ever will be equaled by other naturalists. He has a way of making you see the grand scheme of nature that just *clicks*

I've been drooling over that new Adele set ever since the preview. MY GOD, the detail is so rich. I want to take a color theory class from her. And she's what-- 19? 20? That's just a baby!

Also, dinosaurs are awesome! To counter the "creepy" image some might have, dinos may have been the pioneers of "cuteness" that we mammals so lurve. Dino hatchlings were the first animals to have features we think of as "cute" and mammilian-- large eyes, small noses and mouths, blunter faces. Some scientists think it was what helped wittle dinos survive and what fostered the motherly behavior that paleontologists increasingly attribute certain dino species.

Are you crazy? I wouldn't wish her on pirate enemies, let alone want her here. She's a vector of emotional, verbal  and sims -custom-content diarrhea. But at least she was relatively contained in one pen. Meaning, of her own will, she *chose to stay in the TSR area*. the thought of her branching out terrifies me.

That is the stuff of nightmares! Expect a bill from my therapist.

Wasn't there a story by Kipling about a similar sort of circumstance? (but instead of bees, it's a deadly snake?)


I take it everyone's seen this, right?
http://linna.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=328344

This reminds me of when a parent makes their kid smoke an entire case of cigarettes after catching them with one.

I'm too lazy to open up bodyshop again and verify-- it takes like 15 minutes for it to load. But I'm fairly sure it's the male "for all texture" lips. Don't hold me to that, though.

Another great set of bare-unglossy lips can be found on AtomicSpaceKitty's MTS2 page, as well as her profile on GOS, and her website "World's Apart". A bonus with AtomicSpaceKitty's are that they match all sorts of skintones, from pale, ethnic, to vampire/elf/drow. I think they look semi-realistic, or kinda maxis-like if you choose to see them that way, so it probably looks good in *everyone*'s game. She thought of everything!

It's taken me goddamn forever, but I downloaded and tried out ALL of the lipsticks in bodyshop and in game.

The different shapes and shading/highlighting of the lipsticks *are* undeniably fantastic. Each set can make the lip structure look different-- as in the lip's musculature. Some are even shaded to look like a woman has penciled outside of the lipline to make her lips look fuller. Some accent the top rim "cupid bow" even. Really, a great eye for facial anatomy.

Jeebus, some even make the lips look dry, bare and matte. (where some skintones fail to cover) All in all, a great way to make the sims look unique. Also, I think they'd come in handy for those folks who like story making. The same folks who download dozens and dozens of pose boxes. I don't make stories, but the majority of my female sims do have an everyday lipstick, and a formal lipstick.

The only drawback I can see is that some shades within each set look almost exactly the same. Does "lip glaze" need two shades of lilac? Does "Sweet Lips" need three shades of salmon that aren't even a half shade apart?  I spent a lot of time deleting specific shades that had a near duplicate.

I haven't tried this out yet, but as I understand from this:
is low poly, and it WORKS!!!! The storage compartments are usable with OMSPs, and the stairs seem to remain functional with a fair amount of stuff encroaching on the stair treads, as well. There are 10 OMSPs included, several of which are practically the same height as one another, but each one does match up with a specific plane of the object.



Am I getting this right? It's an dresser tansu. It can be used to place objects on (with omsp) AND it's a staircase? MUST HAVE NOW

I hope I did this right.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=10288983ca1626cdd2db6fb9a8902bda
Stefan/Anva hybrid eyes.
My graphics card is not the best, so if someone could pretty please try these out and take screens of different expressions,(so I can continue to tweak) that'd be appreciated. 

I've wondered about that too.

I guess its always going to look a little weird. It's just what kind/level of weirdness can you tolerate? I guess you can lessen the unrealistic hues by making it grey. Sclera's are never true white. They're greyish yellow or blue or pink.  They look even darker if the eye is deep set. I think the effect on figures three and four make for the best result

http://cgtut.ru/sphere/komp-light.jpg The dark part of the shadow is broken up by light reflecting back up so its less severe. An added plus is that if you go with that look, it makes for a dark rim that just happens to fall under the lid, where the lid would shade it.

I hope that makes sense. I think I'll add that effect to these eyes and let you know how it works out.

Fern, we're in the same position! I have an old computer on its last legs. I wish I could download large lots, but as of now I try to have my sims live on the smallest lots available in the game. That lot will be among the first things I download when I get my powerful, sexy new computer. If I can get one, that is.

I've been making eyes lately. Actually not making eyes. Just tweaking eyes that others have made. I don't like black areas showing when my sims open their eyes wide or look in any direction that isn't directly in front of them. Also, many of the scleras look too bright to me so I dial them down a bit or add some blue to it. Lots of people do that already, but I make mine a tad darker

A blend of Stefan eyes on an Anva base

The fabulous Adele updated
http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=321620

All hail the recovering and hopefully stronger MTS2!

I'm ashamed to say that this news has put me in a panic. I thought they were just doing routine maintenance!

I get it. It's a fail haiku.