Coded green.

Monday 23 September 2002

Screenshot The Sims

Pic of the day: Gamerrz, Chaos and Kikki in "Let me be your muse". (For some reason I vaguely recall a song where the chorus was like "two girls for every boy"... I guess it was politically correct in the 50es or 60es or whenever it was popular. I've only heard it once. Sadly, this is the actual proportion of students at Norwegian universities.)

The muses in my head

I have mention this funny little bunch already. Sometimes I jokingly call them the "voices in my head", but I don't actually hear them. (Not unless I am so tired I can barely stand on my feet.) They are more like independent thoughts, and not in a rebellious way. I am so lucky, these thoughts are friendly and humble and eager to please. They usually stand out of the way unless I seem to be idling. But don't be fooled – they may stand out of mental earshot, but they are doing their stuff.

For instance last Saturday as I came out of the supermarket with my groceries, As my mind wandered, it must have passed near a couple of these muses talking to each other, for I suddenly picked up the following statement: "And that's when I realized they were all dogs – there was no one else there."

It's a safe bet such comments have no deeper meaning. They are probably more or less automated processes putting together parts for my fiction. Certainly it seems that when I even consider making some fiction, there is a steady supply of ideas. I guess this happens in a lot of people, but I'm not sure how conscious they are of the processes that lead to the ideas.

To me, these idea supplies take the form of fairly coherent thoughts in my head, telling me the story as I tell it to myself. Often I am surprised myself by how the story develops, even if I had plans for it beforehand. The characters seem to take on a measure of free will and run away with the plot. And since I tend to genuinely like my named characters, they can usually get away with quite a bit. Sometimes I think that I would have been a benevolent god, if I had been a god at all. Certainly my Sims seem happy enough, even though they don't get as much snacks as I do.

***

Oh yes, Sims. Let us not forget them. As I mentioned yesterday, I stumbled into making a Sims story. This is not quite the same as playing The Sims and writing what happens. Or even to make the Sims act out the story. Rather I harvest the game for screenshots that I can use to illustrate the story, or possibly to make a comic (though that is more difficult). Even so, the muses in my head were present from the very start. I'm not sure if they came up with the whole idea, but they certainly helped me pick out the heads and bodies of the characters, and even the weird names. Only Chaos was my own choice, as is good and proper since this character is vaguely based on me (or rather a clone of me that would have been young today).

(Unless I am devoured by flesh-eating bacteria or a similar horrible fate, I hope to introduce you to my new Sims one of these days.)

There is practically a sub-genre of online comics that deals with college students. There's the crazy (and brightly colored) College Roomies From Hell!!!, and the funny yet well characterized The Class Menagerie, also well drawn even if not in color. The there is Zeek 2.0 which I now mention on the third day, even though it isn't so exceptional. There's the well drawn black & white Everything Jake which I don't read anymore, but it was very very college when I read it. I'm sure there are more ... I believe Venus Envy is also set in college, though it may be high school. Unlike the others, the characters here don't live in dorms or with roomies, they live with parents. This set it apart from the classical college comic. There are certainly more, this was just off my head.

Why college? My best guess is that this is the last time in their life that art-infested young people have the time to think up comics. The lazy bums! After that, real life intrudes. Well, except that some of us try not to let it get too much in the way ... ^_^


Yesterday <-- This month --> Tomorrow?
One year ago: Appropriate games
Two years ago: Can a nice guy get laid?
Three years ago: Doubting myself

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