Working: Runaway Sky

Right now I'm working my way through my second book, a story of two friends surviving a catastrophe and the resulting civil uprising. Want to help out? I do need to find an illustrator for this book and this book's cover. If you want to be a part of it, just ask!

The Sims Experiment 1: The Second Week

So the second weeks of the lives of the No Diner family was begun with a house renovation: With all the money from their successful jobs they got a second floor!

All the members of the family soared upwards in their careers, even with Rachel's arrest her mafia boss chose to promote her:

It also came time to have everyone grow up! Victoria was first, so she got the first birthday party. A cake was bought and many people came over. Unfortunately Ben blew out the candles instead, jumping ahead in age instead of Victoria, who had to blow out candles on a second cake to everyone thinking about Kye:

Soon enough it was time for everyone to celebrate. The resulting number of cakes and party guests left a mess that cost $200 to clean up. Alternatively the guy who cleaned up everything was cute and Samantha got along with him famously.

The only person who never celebrated was Kye, who was at work. So that night he snuck into Ben's room to celebrate his adulthood like so:

Then what happened was a collective mid-life crisis: With only a handful of time between now and old age, who would carry on their legacies? The house was at full capacity, so no one could have children. The only option was for people to leave the house for good reasons, in order to make room in the legacy household.

The first attempt was sarah, whose interest in cook Molly French was nothing but unrequited. The next attempt was between Ben and his co-worker Hank, who was straight. Then Samantha was given a shot with Grady Elfman, the cute cleaning guy from the birthday party. Unfortunately when he wasn't in his cleaning gear, he appeared as he was: Really old. So Samantha still tried for it, but he died that very same day of old age right in front of her. Everyone came out to console her but Victoria, who was busy eating.

From then on there would be a gravestone that said, "Grady Elfman: Samantha hugged him and he died of old age." In a similar vein, Matt published two successful books: A fiction peice called "Once Upon a Plane Ticket" and a non-fiction hit called "Tits or GTFO" Ben ended up ordering and reading both.

The major development, of course, was that of Will, who got a call from a co-worker we didn't know he was very close to. He invited Zelda Mae over and began flirting with her immediately. She described him as irresistible, so thus he had hit the jackpot:

He went on to woo her the rest of the day, even though every member of the household also felt attracted to her and tried to cockblock Will. Nonetheless he was successful at getting her into a bed specially purchased for the occasion:

With that, we had good reason for Will to go out on his own, but he wasn't going alone. Sarah would go with him, as she has a crush on Zelda. They will now enjoy their own dramatic adventures together, leaving us with six members of the household to breed weirdly.

The Sims Experiment 1: The First Week

So of course when the No Diner family moved into the house, it was haunted. As various members explored their new home (which had one bedroom and one bathroom) Victoria played tag with one ghost. She later complained that it smelled bad.

The family funds were drained in order to make the one big bedroom into two smaller ones, with a total of three ugly beds. The bathroom was split in half to make two smaller ones. Almost immediately Samantha made waffles and everyone gorged themselves. A ghost-buster showed up and charged a lot of money to suck all the ghosts and their graves into a vacuum. Samantha and Matt spent the evening calling the ghost-buster, rather than deal with the family.

That night was a battle for the beds: With three beds, a couch and a bench it was certain three people wouldn't get sleep that night. Since Ben picked up a job as an office bitch (Business), Rachel got a job as a decoy (Criminal) and Kye became a snitch for the police (Law Enforcement), it was expected they would get beds. Unfortunately Rachel and Victoria took the beds meant for Kye and Ben, who went after the couch and the bench to find Matt and Will sleeping there.

Sleep deprived, Kye, Sarah and Ben just stood in the bathroom. Eventually Sarah started telling off Kye about nothing, and then Ben snuck up behind Kye and scared him shitless. Then Ben fell asleep standing up. Kye continued his night showing off his favorite wrench to anyone he could find, even waking up Matt for the occasion:

Matt, once up, let Ben take the couch. Then Matt did what he would do at least once a day for the following week: Stare at the toilet for no reason.

Once everyone woke up the next morning for work and school, they went outside to find Kye had collapsed walking to the car. Also, Rachel chose to wear a dress to her job as a decoy for the mafia:

As the unemployed stayed at home, they started picking up hobbies. Samantha made more waffles and put them in the fridge to be consumed later. Then Victoria was found in the bathroom, skipping school to do this:

Once everyone got home they once again ate all the waffles. Samantha also went to a nearby restaurant to get a job as a kitchen bitch (Culinary). With everyone's first day of pay, three more beds were purchased, bringing the total of sleeping spaces to eight. With the proper number of spaces, everyone slept okay, except Rachel, who got up in the middle of the night to weed the garden in a bathing suit:

Everyone woke up and had waffles together, even though Ben apparently slept in a tuxedo. Kye sat and read a book for fun and Matt got a job as an organ donor (Medical). A computer was purchased and as soon as Ben saw it, he spent five hours on it. When Victoria got home from actually attending school, Matt helped her do her homework:

Kye also worked on fixing everything in the house, gaining skill in handiness. Matt watched Kye angrily while he fixed the bathtub, as Matt needed to use the bathroom. Regardless of the second free bathroom mere feet away, Matt peed himself.

Will and Sarah finally got jobs, Will becoming a band bitch (Music) and Sarah becoming an army bitch (Military). A guitar was also purchased for the house, so that in the middle of the night when everyone had a place to sleep but Will, he could be groggy and play the guitar to his hearts content. That night, as everyone slept, Rachel got the munchies and there were no more waffles. She attempted to make mac and cheese, although it resulted in a disasterous night that only pictures could tell:

The hero of the night was Ben, who was the only one calm enough to use the extinguisher. Also half the kitchen was destroyed. Once everyone went back to sleep, a bad placement of a new bed caused Matt to be stuck, forcing him to pee himself once again:

Matt, who was both dirty from pee and really tired, was then trapped in an infinite loop of misery until work the next day: His piss funk would wake him up, but he'd be so tired that he wouldn't be able to make it to the shower, thus he'd fall back asleep again. Rinse and repeat.

Over the next four days everyone settled into a routine, with Matt pissing himself only one more time. Kye set fire to the kitchen during one night, but everyone knew what to do this time and it was out in minutes. Kye and Ben switched their occupations, with Ben becoming the snitch (Law Enforcement) and Kye becoming a political bitch (Politics). Samantha soared in cooking, gaining the first promotion in the house and baking for various community events. Sarah's ability to yell at people got her a raise and a promotion, as well as Ben going from serving coffee to having a shitty desk job. Samantha cooks a meal each night before going to bed so that the idiots with midnight munchies would stop torching the house. Rachel also picked up yet another strange hobby:

The income of the house is being saved up for a major house renovation giving everyone their own bedroom. Problems in the house are now only reduced to walking space, a lack of things to do for fun and Mess Hall Sarah's incredible pit funk:

So now it is up to you, real life people, if you want to make any commands before they move forward.

The Sims Experiment 1: No Diner

So, utilizing the Sims 3, I have made replicas of eight members of the Bard No Diner Cast (four 'guys' and four 'girls'). What happens to them in this little world will be reported and based on those reports, their real life counterparts may submit commands for their in-game selves (a.k.a. Ben wants to switch to the Criminal career track). All of the reports will show up on andjono.blogspot.com.

They will be allowed to run by in-game free will and I will only push them to do things occasionally as long as they would be applicable to real life (a.k.a telling Will to go play the guitar). Each person has five traits that determine their personality:

Sarah L: Good Sense of Humor, Dislikes Children, Heavy Sleeper, Grumpy, Frugal

Ben S: Insane, Good Sense of Humor, Excitable, Computer Whiz, Childish

Will S: Absent-minded, Virtuoso, Neat, Heavy Sleeper, Friendly

Rachel F: Insane, Good Sense of Humor, Inappropriate, Excitable, Childish

Matt H: Insane, Flirty, Bookworm, Neat, Charismatic

Samatha R: Loner, Vegetarian, Good, Natural Cook, Friendly

Kye E: Absent-minded, Workaholic, Party Animal, Handy, Friendly

Victoria K: Absent-minded, Over-emotional, Good, Childish

-Victoria also starts out as a teenager instead of a young adult

The home that they will live in has brought their collective funds down to almost nothing, but it has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a tiny kitchen and a couch. As they earn money they can buy things like bikes, computers, guitars, etc. Until then, no dice. Let's see how it goes.

Completed: In Lands Unseen

So a few days ago I finished the final draft of my book. In two months it'll be available to the public. In the meantime, go become a fan of it on Facebook:

oh social networking

Completed: Hipster Video

So yeah, check it out. It's about hipsters:

SKINNY JEANS

Working: Hula Hooping

Everyone needs some form of self-discipline. Mine is to hula hoop. It is certainly more fun when the hoop is on fire, but not today. Today was just practice.

Maybe I'll find a way to do something weird with this skill...

Working: In Lands Unseen

What am I up to? Writing. Writing, writing, writing. I'm trying to finish this proofreading so I can self publish. Then I can move on to other work. Huzzah!

Plan: Urban Odyssey Video

For one of the weekends that I'm in the city (probably the weekend of Feb. 6th) I want to make a video about an odyssey location, whether it is Industrial Complex, Graffiti Highway, Farmland or (god forbid) Spare Stop. I leave this open to people who want to go and help contribute to the understanding and experience of the location, including stories you have of the place.

Comment if you want to be on board and where you want to go.

Thoughts: World of Warcraft the Board Game

Ben and I have decided to invest in this board game because it is downright complicated as hell. We want to see if we can play it successfully. Video will probably ensue.

Completed: Rural Madness Video

i pulled up all the old footage from Rural Madness, a camping trip from the summer and edited it. It's long, but funny. I'll probably use it to promote this year's camping trip to the same location.

SMORES ON MY DICK

Thoughts: Bard Shadow Theater 3000

The Bard Rocky Horror Picture Show is thinking about expanding into an interactive movie club. Shadow casting Rocky Horror would only be the tip of the iceberg.

Movies that have come under consideration:

-Scooby Doo

-Young Frankenstein

-Zoolander

-Repo!

-Shock Treatment

-Damn Yankees

It should work out. We shall see.

Attempt: Blog

I'm gonna give it a shot. Let's see how things roll.