AOK Ranch

Passes Custard test:

There are a few empty rooms you can decorate yourself if you have a large family, and lots of options to change things around on the second floor (as far as rooms go)

Download here
 4shared

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming Confession #10: With the exception of two sims, I have never played any of the "celebrity" sims I've made.  Meaning, I have never played a household with my: Snookie sim, Tracy (from "Jerseylicious") sim, Harry Potter character(s) sims, Jennifer Aniston sim, Lauren "Lo" Bosworth sim (from 'Laguna Beach and The Hills), Edward or Alice Cullen sim etc.

The exception to this confession is my Kim Kardashion V.2 sim and my Kate Middleton sim.  I have played both sims before.  Kim didn't last long, and Kate (whom married a very quick and badly made William) made it as far as having a child.  Then I got bored of them and stopped playing them.

Real Life Confession #10: I hate being late.  I hate people who tell me to meet them at a certain time and they are late.  Five minutes late is fine, but 20 or more minutes is unacceptable in my book. If I agree to meet up with someone at 10am...I'm there at 9:50am or even 9:40am.

 I had a friend once who could never meet me on time.  It annoyed me to no ends.  Her excuse was always, "The traffic was really bad".

  Because I came from 40 minutes away and managed to make it here 10 minutes before the time we agreed on. You live in the same city we are meeting in and are 20, sometimes 30 minutes late--so tell me, why is traffic really bad where you were, when you are only 10 minutes from the meeting place, but the traffic was good for me when I was 40 minutes away from our meeting place, and I managed to make it here 10 minutes early?  If the traffic was as bad as she used to claim, shouldn't it been I who was late?

I  hate when I have an appointment, that my bf is taking me to, and we leave 10 minutes before the appointment when I know it will take us about 15-20 minutes to get there, making us 5-10 minutes late.  Drives me nuts.

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming Confession #9:  I have only ever entered 2 contests.  The first one was a "sim-celebrity" modeling contest that I used my Kim Kardashian V.2 sim for.  The competition died after the 3rd or 4th assignment.

The second was more of a "show" for MummyGaga/x_MG_x's "The Battle of Mummification". This is still going on, but I was voted out a few weeks ago.  It was fun while it lasted and I still enjoy reading each episode.  :)

Real Life Confession #9:  When I make hot chocolate at home, from the packets like "Swiss Miss", I add two packets to my coffee cup.  Not because I like it to be more chocolaty, but because my mugs are bigger than a standard mug.  The package says to add 6oz of water to the cocoa powder.  6oz is not even 1 whole cup...literally.  1 cup = 8oz.  I know not a big difference, but when you have mugs that hold 12oz of liquid...you feel like you are being cheated by only adding 6oz of water to the cocoa, and if you add more water to only one packet...it waters it down; therefore, I add two packets to my mugs.

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming Confession #8: I am terrible at decorating and color coordinating the rooms in the houses I build, so I go looking for pictures of rooms that resemble what I try to do for each room.  I use google images to find each room and when I find a room I like I use it as a reference.

So for instance.  I'll google, "sitting room", and find this picture:

So then I try to make my room in my game look similar to that (which obviously it's not going to look exact to that pic, but it's just a reference to get my imagination going), and this is what I came up with:

Real Life Confession #8:  I love photography and have 2 cameras (I used to have 4 but I broke down and sold one and the other one died so I threw it away--it was a cheap little camera). Now I have a Cannon Digital camera that my dad used to have (he gave it to us) and my Nikon FM 10.

I almost decided to pawn this one recently due to us desperately needing money for Christmas.  The camera alone cost me $500 (this doesn't include the bag, filters, flash, film, or lenses (which I have none of, lenses I mean--I have 4 or 5 filters, the flash etc.--but if I did have other lenses...it would make it more valuable).  I just couldn't do it.  I would only sell it if I were getting a better camera than this one.

And my digital:

Between using the digital camera and using my graphic design skills I was able to make a really good picture of my daughter during Christmas time last year.

We have it enlarged and framed in our living room, and everyone who see's it asks where we had it done.  

Jennifer Aniston

I had already done her before, but I decided to take her back into CAS and do some tweaking.  Well, what do you think?

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming Confession #7: My favorite simmies that I have made, by far, are my three HP characters: Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Harry Potter

 Harry Potter -- more pics here

Hermione Granger

Hermione Granger -- more pics here

Ronald Weasley

Ronald Weasley -- more pics here

Real life Confession #7: I am a huge Harry Potter fan.  Never really read the books (don't really have the time), but the one book I did read was Order of the Phoenix (the longest book in the series at that time that I read it).  Until I saw the final movie, OOTP was my favorite out of the series with Prizoner of Azkaban coming in a close 2nd.  If the Harry Potter Exhibition ever came back to Seattle, I'd go (didn't go the first time it was here). Daniel Radcliffe is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors.

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming confession #6: I have never made a berry sim.

Real Life Confession #6:  I enjoy grocery shopping.  I will take the car early in the morning, like 8am, and go to my favorite grocery store and spend an hour or so there.  The only exception is that it must be early in the morning because any other time of day it's a mad house at this grocery store and being claustrophobic...it doesn't go well with me. So, 8am is good because there is hardly anyone there, and the lines are super short.

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming Confession #5: I have not sent my sims on "vacation" since the release of Generations for fear they will disappear or become corrupted.  Speaking of traveling...I usually do not accept tasks that result in my sim traveling to another "country".

Real Life Confession #5:  I remember going to see E.T. in the movie theater with my parents.  I was only 5 years old.  I was too small to see over the persons head in front of me by sitting in the seat "correctly".  My parents came up with this idea, since no one was behind us,  to keep the seat flipped up, and then put the coats on the edge of the seat for me to sit on (they were the old fashioned wooden seats without the cushion) so that I sitting high enough to see the screen over the people's heads in front of me.
Seats were flipped up like this:

  Anyway, when the time came that Elliot first found E.T. , Elliot screamed, E.T. screamed, and I screamed causing the seat to flip down with me and the coats falling into the seat. lol

To this day I don't like E.T.  Not because of that... it's just not a movie I can sit through.

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming confession #4: I prefer to build small houses compared to large houses.  Preferably cottages.  I love the Thomas Kinkade portraits and try to make cottages look like they are from his paintings, but cottages get boring after a while and I will make large houses.  The largest house I've built so far is my "Aisling House" that cost about $500,000 furnished; although, my French Chateau that I'm currently working on is giving "Aisling House" a run for its money.  After the French Chateau I'll most likely go back to building some small cottages.

Real Life confession #4: I didn't get my learner's permit until I was 18 years old and didn't get my drivers license until I was 19 years old.  When I went for my drivers license I failed the first time (the DMV lady---whom I knew personally, and disliked a lot) said I had taken a right turn too wide and went into on-coming traffic.  I don't know what she was looking at, but that didn't happen, and I, as well as my private trainer, tried to appeal the decision--it didn't work.  The second time around I got another DMV lady, that I knew of--I went to HS with her two sons--and she passed me adding that I was probably one of the few testers she's seen pass the test perfectly. I have never gotten a ticket, or been the cause of an accident.  Also, I love parallel parking--I find it fun.  :p

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming Confession #3: I can't seem to "complete" a legacy.  Meaning I can't get to generation 10, hell I can't seem to get past generation 2 or 3. I seem to lose interest after generation 2 or 3.  I was doing well with my prior legacy family:

But after the pets patch, something really messed up my computer and I ended up having to delete them in the long run.  So now I'm trying a simself legacy.  I tried this a long time ago (back when I first got the game) and was interested in how the family turned out, but I don't remember what happened...I ended up getting the daughter to an adult stage and starting generation 3 with her, but again, lost interest and stopped.  Hopefully my new simself legacy will prove to be more interesting for me.

RL Confession #3:  I hate talking on the phone.  Even as a teenager, I didn't really like it that much.  If I can do my corresponding through email then I will.  I don't know why, I just prefer to email someone, or if I have to talk to the person directly, I'd rather talk to them in person so I can see their facial expressions.

Confessions of a Simaholic

Simming Confession #2:  I've never had a simbot in my simmies families.  I don't know, they just seem useless to me....and since I like to keep my families as realistic as much as I can, the simbot doesn't fit in with the families I play.

Real Life Confession #2: I hate having my bed made so that the comforter folds over the pillows, like this:

I prefer to have my pillows propped up against the head board like this:

This is because I worked as a housekeeper for 12 years and folding the comforter over the pillows is how we made up the beds.  If my bf makes the bed, and pulls the comforter over the pillows before throwing the shams and throw pillows on the bed, I will pull it apart and redo it. So seeing my bed made up in that manner drives me nuts. P.S.--I ♥♥♥ that bedset in the second pic.

Confessions of a Simaholic

I saw Leggokatz do this on her blog a while ago, and now MummyGaga is doing it as well.  I've been meaning to do one myself, so why not start now.

How it works:  For the next 10days days I will post one sim confession as well as one real life confession, until I reach 10 confessions. (I may or may not do this on  the weekends unless I find time).

Sim Confession #1:
I love creating sims from real people (celebrities) or movie characters. I love the challange of trying to get the sim to look like the person/character they are created from.

Real Life Confession #1:
My daughter is a Hispanic-mix.  I am Caucasian, and her father is Colombian.

The Jones Legacy~Prelude

I don't remember anything before the age of five.  Most people don't.  I remember it was Sunday, and night time.  My older brother, Landon,  had just left to go to his high school prom.  Apparently going to his prom with his girlfriend was more important to him than staying home to celebrate my fifth birthday.  I remember feeling sort of numb to his non-existence that night, almost like I didn't have another sibling.  On that night I had to remind myself I had an older brother.

Landon wasn't the type of teen to want to hang out with his baby sister.  He used to play with me when I was a toddler, or so that's what I'm told by my mom.  Usually, though, he just did his own thing.  He didn't really have a strong relationship with any of us; me, my mother or my father.  He seemed more concerned on getting himself through school and moving out. On days that he did spend with our family he would just hang out on a swing, or a slide, or doing some other independent thing like talking to girls.  If he couldn't do any of those he would play chess with our father. Anything to avoid holding a conversation with any of us, and playing chess with our father was close enough for him.

My father was a hard working man.  He worked at the hospital and was on call a lot.  He had a better relationship with my brother than I ever did, and that wasn't much.  He always wanted a boy, and his wish came true with his first born, but I will always be his 'princess'.  He struggled with my brother.  Always encouraging him to be more focused on school or whatever. He was always disciplining him for behavior that was less than what was expected of him.  My father was a kind man.  He was well known and loved by the community for his kindness and gentleness, you could see it in his eyes.  He was never the type of man to raise his voice, let alone his fist.  He was the type of person you wanted to meet and become friends with.  His charm won over even the crankiest person.

He met my mother while doing some routine flu-shots when he was first starting out at the hospital.  My mother was the last person to get a flu-shot from him that day, and they got to spend more time together talking than the people before her. My mother told me it took him a while to muster up the courage to ask her out, but once they were on that date, it was like they knew each other always.

My mother was a school teacher.  Going to school and knowing she was one of my teachers was hard on me.  It was weird.  I felt I had no freedom even though I did.  Most kids find freedom from their parents when they go to school.  Not me.  I felt I was always under surveillance because she worked at my school. This was my biggest complaint with my mother.  It's never easy for a kid who's parent is their teacher.  I got picked on by my classmates, but I didn't care.  My mother knew when to butt in and when not to.  She stayed out of my personal life and allowed me to experience being around my friends like she wasn't there.  It was when I was out of line that it became an issue.  She was the next person after the principal to be notified, and since she was right down the hall, she could be there in a blink of an eye.
 My brother doesn't understand.  When he was going to my school our mother was just a substitute teacher, so she wasn't always there.  He had more freedom to rebel than I did. He wasn't under constant surveillance which is odd to me because I am the "good" one.

My mother and I had the strongest relation.  She was my best friend.  As I got older I was able to talk to her about anything like she was one of my girlfriends, which I had a sparse amount of.  She was the one to teach me to talk, walk and use the potty.  She was the one that stayed home with me when I was a toddler. She was the one that would make time for her family and make the family spend time together.  She was the glue that held this family together.  She was quiet yet stern, friendly yet honest, when needed, and everyone in town loved her. She was the "girl next door" type, very open and approachable.  I could see why my father fell in love, and married, her.

I never gave much thought of the man I would marry when I got older.  I wasn't the typical type of girl who dreamed about her wedding day, or what my life when I became an adult would be like.  I never played house, never wished for a child.  Hearing my parents tell me the story of how they met made me wonder, "am I the black sheep?".  My brother would even talk to his girlfriend about what their marriage would be like, where they would live, and how many kids they'd have.  Sometimes it made me wonder, did genetics mess up and take a wrong turn somewhere during the process?  Was he meant to be the girl, and I, the boy?  Even at the young age of five, I felt this overwhelming feeling that I would never have that giddy feeling that they call love.

Little did I know, that everything I was sure of at that time in my life was going to drastically change . . . forever.

Thanksgiving and Birthday

Tomorrow, Novemeber 24th, is Thanksgiving for us in the U.S.A.  It is also my birthday.  I was actually born on Thanksgiving Day. I get to spend tomorrow with my boyfriend, and his family. It'll be fun, but it will also be a very busy day.  If I counted correctly there will be about 30 people at his parents house tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner.

I got my birthday gift from my boyfriend last week, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on blu-ray.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating it tomorrow!

High quality grass WITHOUT Advanced Rendering--also reduces lag

ONLY DO THIS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE PETS!!! YOU NEED TO HAVE A.R. CHECK IN-GAME IN ORDER FOR YOUR PETS TO NOT BE "TRANSPARENT".


So this is a picture tutorial of Rockermonkey999's thread here: High quality grass WITHOUT Advanced Rendering.


This is really rather easy, but I decided to make a tutorial anyway for those that are unsure or having problems, and some do better with a visual. :)


So lets get started.


The very first thing I want you to do is start up your Sims 3 game.


Then go to Options:

*note--click on the pictures to see the original size*


Under "Graphics" I want you to un-uncheck "Enable Advanced Rendering"

Click the checkmark to accept the change, and "quit and save (or save, then quit--however you do it)


Next I want you to go to start then "computer"

Go to where you have installed your game.  It is usually under program files, or program files (x86)

Electronic Arts

Sims 3

Game

Bin

Once you are in your "bin" folder you are going to look for a file called, "GraphicRules" it is an SGR File

Double click on it to open it.  If it asks you to choose a program to open it with, choose "Notepad".  One you have it open you should a lot of script writing, but don't let that freak you out.  We're only looking for one part.  What you want to look for is:

option AdvancedRendering

    setting $Off

   prop $ConfigGroup RenderForceMinspecShaders 1

prop $ConfigGroup TerrainLODMode 1

prop $ConfigGroup RenderPostProcessEnabled false

prop $ConfigGroup RenderShadowsEnabled false

prop $ConfigGroup CullUndergroundBuildBuyStructures 0

This is a little more than half way down as you can see from the pic below.   The highlighted part that reads, "

prop $ConfigGroup TerrainLODMode 1" is what we are going to change...and that is all we're changing.

But before we do any changing, what I want you to do is save this as it is.  Just click on "file" and "save as".  Name it something that you will remember and put it in a safe place. (example--I named my backup file "sims 3 graphic rules original".  You do this in case there is any problems, then you can just copy the backup and replace it with the one we're changing in the bin folder.

 Now that you've got the original file backed up in a safe place I want you to go to the "

prop $ConfigGroup TerrainLODMode 1" part and change that "1" to a "0", so now it will look like this:

option AdvancedRendering

    setting $Off

    prop $ConfigGroup RenderForceMinspecShaders 1

prop $ConfigGroup TerrainLODMode 0

prop $ConfigGroup RenderPostProcessEnabled false

prop $ConfigGroup RenderShadowsEnabled false

prop $ConfigGroup CullUndergroundBuildBuyStructures 0

Now that you have that changed, go to "file" and "Save".  It will ask you if you want to replace the original--click "yes".

Now--if you have other EP's, you need to do this with every single EP.  What we did above was for the base (which needs to be changed as well--but if you just followed this tutorial--you don't need to worry about doing the base because you just did it!)

So the steps for the EP's are the same.  However, if you can remember that the original file has a "1" instead of a "0" you do not NEED to make backups of all those EP files, but it's up to you if you want to do it (just a suggestion if you do it--make sure you save the backup file according to EP.  Example: Sims3 Generations GameRules Original; sims3 Late Night GameRules Original etc.

Now a IMPORTANT note:  Each EP you add you need to do this to that new EP, and while you are doing that, check the base game file to make sure that it didn't bounce back to a "1"...if it does, just change that "1" back to a "0" and save, overwrite? Yes. As with the new EP's added, you may notice that a update from the site/Origin may also bounce the "0" back to a "1" in the base game file.  This has only happened to me twice.  The first time was with Generations (which was my last EP installed as of 11/21/2011) and with the Pets Update. Both bounced my base game file back to a "1", so I had to go into that file and change it back to a "0".  

If you are unsure if has bounced it back or not, just look to your game for the answer.  If it hasn't the grass will look like this on all the grass (I mean grass that is not on your lot): 

If the file has been bounced back then the grass shown above would look like it was painted in paint...it would look flat, like this:

(photo's courtesy of 

xMathy found here: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/378789.page )

So if your grass looks like the above pics after an update AFTER you've successfully changed the file , then you just need to go through the files and check  to make sure the base game file and each EP file has the "0" and not the "1".  Once you find the culprit, change it, save it, and it should fix it.

You will also notice, from following this tutorial, that the game will run a bit smoother.  

Hope this helped!  :)