#and controlling 20 sims SO HARD!!

[estebunny]

esteban ocon sharing 10 things he loves

via GP Racing August 2024

Marvel Cinematic Universe - I'm a big fan of superheroes and all the Marvel films. I've watched them many times, recently with my girlfriend. We caught up on 20 years of Marvel movies in one month, which was pretty good! I've also used them as inspiration for some of my special helmet designs. Like the one with Spiderman in Austin a few years ago or Deadpool in Vegas last year. And there's more to come, for sure.

Diabolo Fraise - This is my favourite drink. It's very French. You may not have heard of it, but in France you can go into any bar and order it. They'll know what it is. It's a strawberry syrup with lemonade: very sugary, but very, very nice.

Table football - I like table tennis a lot and table football - foosball - as well, which is very French. I got a table football set for Christmas and I'm always very competitive.

The smell of fuel - It's hard to explain, but I just love the smell of fuel. Not diesel, not kerosene, not ethanol. But unleaded, 98, no ethanol in it - I have a weird addiction to it. I grew up in a garage because my dad was a mechanic and I just loved that smell, always. And I remember once he saw me trying to take a sip of it - when I was five or six years old - but fortunately he managed to stop me because I was really about to drink it! It hasn't changed to this day. It just smells so good…

Five Guys burgers - Burgers are my cheat meal. And when I want a proper one, I go to Five Guys because it's awesome. Double bacon cheeseburger with mushrooms and medium fries - nothing beats it! And if it's Saturday night, the Five Guys on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, with friends, it's just perfect.

Bowling - I'm good at it. In the town where I grew up there weren't many things to do in your spare time. And on weekends it was a simple choice: either go to the cinema or go bowling. More often than not we went bowling. Of course it got competitive. I'm not a pro, not even close, but my personal best is 190, which isn't too bad. That's where I am at the moment, but hopefully I'll get to 200 one day - it won't be easy, but we'll see.

Sim Racing - Of course it helps. A lot of drivers use it as a training tool, but I like it a lot too. And even if I wasn't a professional driver, I think I'd still do a lot of sim racing. I like to compete - and Gran Turismo is always fun.

Drifting - We sometimes organise something with Mick Schumacher and my friend Thomas Neubauer, who drives for Ferrari in GT - and have a bit of competition. It's all about who can reach the maximum speed at the maximum angle, so it's always fun. I also like off-road buggies. That's what we do a lot with friends - take a day off and go through a track in the woods, stop and have a snack, enjoy the scenery. I like motocross - but I can't really do it, because it's a bit dangerous. My dad broke his leg when he was younger so I know it's not a joke. But I'm sure I'll get on a bike one day.

Tuning cars with my dad - I really like cars. It may sound like an obvious statement from a racing driver, but there aren't too many petrolheads among us drivers. But it's one of my passions. I didn't like it so much before, but now I love putting my hands in cars. It gives you a better understanding of things if you're really into it. With my dad we love to tune cars every now and then, experimenting to make them go faster. It's great because we have no restrictions, or rules. So we can make something that wouldn't necessarily be allowed on public roads, but could be a great track car.

Radio-controlled cars - This is something I do a lot, also with dad. It reminds me a lot of the times we did karting together. It's very similar, only the cars are smaller. I like the 1/8 scale TT category, nitro version, not electric, and find it interesting because you can do it on all terrains. I love the setup side and the competition. I'm not a pro, although if I'm honest I'm not too far away - and one day I'm sure I'll be competing at a more serious level. In F1, there are a few drivers who are very good. Lewis Hamilton, for example, you could see he did it as a kid and he hasn't lost it. And Oscar Piastri is also good. Of the three of us, he's probably the best because I think he's competed at a national level in Australia. I've had the chance to race against pros, but only during test sessions. But in the future I'm going to compete for real.

[lingyunxi]

4t3 Simandy Larsson Hair

Hi! I convert this sims 4 maxis match hair, because I want to keep my game smooth with cc hairs that have under 13k polycount. But alpha hairs' polycount is often between 20-40k. So here I am! Trying to convert some clay hairs~

Info

Original sims 4 post here by @simandy

Converted by me

Polycount: 12k (reduced from 14k by me)

The roots and the tips are not recolorable, but the main hair and the highlights are recolorable.

Pigtail problem fixed

Credits:

@simandy for mesh, texture and the generous TOU, @nightospheresims, @gruesim and @maryjanesims3 for their wonderful tutorials, Anubis360 for control base.

DOWNLOAD

Simfileshare / Patreon (free)

NOTES seen below

1. There are some scratches in the sims 4 mesh, brought to sims 3 as well because I don't know how to fix it. It seems hard to be noticed in sims 4 game, but sadly can be seen in sims 3.

2. The top of the head might not look good with Mxao effect on in Reshade / GShade, so better to turn Mxao off.

BONUS:

That Don was making snow angel besides us, when I tried to make screenshots for preview. Scroll down to see his innocent, happy face (yes, this is the bonus).

[darkopsiian]

after seeing your take on Inv and the dating simulator, I would like to ask a question, in the most respectful manner possible

so, you said you don’t like the dating sim because Rainworld has a majority audience of minors, yes?

as far as I’m aware, Rainworld is never advertised as a game for kids nor for adults, so the fact that it does have this audience wasn’t the intention of the devs

your channel isn’t either, I don’t believe

to raise a theoretical, would you change the content you made to cater to children if your audience was also mainly minors?

I feel like expecting the devs to do so seems somewhat unfair, if not

again, this is all entirely respectfully, I’m a huge fan of your work, I just wanted to know your perspective on this

thanks!

If my audience was mostly minors I don't think I would continue uploading as frequently as I do now. I think if I really tried hard enough my content could be rated PG13 at best if I started catering to the more 13-16 age range. A majority of my jokes, themes, and snarks are usually aimed at people in their 20's like me, the 90s and 2000s babies.

My jokes as of now tend to just revolve around violence, and swearing. The only subject I try to stay away from as often as possible is sex jokes or implications. If I do make sex joke™ I try to keep it subtle enough to pass over minors heads. Because I know kids already watch my content, and if I'm going to filter out any thing it would only be sex jokes. The last thing I want is to go "haha FUCK ME JERRY" and little Timmy gets into places he shouldn't be because of it... I'm okay with showing game violence and swearing, because that won't cause as much emotional confusion as nsfw implications will. That and I just think sex jokes are tasteless, but that's just me. But if I had to change my content from PG13 to PG if I really had too, that's fine, because PG content can still be enjoyed by adults if written properly. Rainworld exists in that grey middle-ground, being able to implement stuff like colourful scenery, cute characters, and a simple movement system. Stuff that children are usually drawn too. While also having spiritual symbolism, difficult platforming and religious iconography. The game itself is rated E10. Now if Rainworld was rated M, and it catered to only mature audiences, then I could see the dating sim maybe being functional even as a shitpost. It's why I can excuse games like Dead by Daylight having that function. Fandom stuff is complete chaos however, there's no controlling that. One can try but it doesn't always work.

Essentially what I'm saying here is that Rainworld is a rated E for everyone. While sadly minors was not the intended audience, the games general aesthetic and rating allows a bigger audience of kids to join, because of that it means that certain subjects shouldn't be included even if an adult fanbase does in fact exist. The Inv dating sim should've stayed fandom territory.

[sleepyserena]

demos i've finally gotten around to playing recently

steel judgment: what if ultrakill was a roguelite? you've got your dash and your parry and your style meter and weapons with cool alt-fires, but also a hub where you can buy new upgrades and unlock items after each run! the main mechanic is taunting enemies, which when killed, will give you health, and taunting augments your basic movement abilities if you time them after a taunt. really cool stuff! i am quite bad at it! game does not have a release date

metal eden: majoring in doom 2016/eternal, minoring in ghostrunner, this game struggles to run on my aging PC but it's still pretty cool. weapons feel fantastic and are appropriately punchy, but combat flow is a little weird in that i'm just running around waiting for my core cooldown so i can get my super punch back to strip armor, when i think i should just be shooting? i don't know, when a game introduces a mechanic to me, i want to use that mechanic as much as possible, sometimes to my own detriment. game comes out in Q3 2025

reignbreaker: isometric action roguelite, if you like hades, you'll like this. spray paint artstyle is really sweet, characters are... okay i suppose, not really compelled by any of them from the demo, and the main gameplay loop of keeping your combo up and balancing your fists and javelin is engaging and fun. and the full game is available now for only 10 bucks!

unbeatable: ohhhhhhhhhhh i have a bias because i backed this game on kickstarter in 2021, however i played the new demo (not white label) and it's soooo cool. each character has a distinct personality, presentation and cinematography is striking and evocative, there's side quests and minigames and optional dialogue everywhere. and that's just the story mode! there's also, ya know, the traditional arcade rhythm game mode, which is excellent. the only bug that bothers me is that the controller just... stops working in the arcade menu? other than that, pretty much flawless two button rhythm game, backed by an incredible soundtrack. game comes out sometime in 2025

haste: i think if i were to describe this game in one word, it's "joy". like woody from toy story said, it's not flying, it's falling with style! one of those games where it's easy to learn, hard to master. you run fast and you control your falls so that you hit the slopes of hills just right so you can gain even more speed! the levels are just challenging enough to make you think about your trajectory, but not to break your momentum. character art and colour palette is wonderful, dialogue is pretty charming, soundtrack is banging. bonus points for having unique dialogue specifically for the demo. genuinely a really good time! game is out now for about 20 bucks

peripeteia: immersive sim very much inspired by ye olde deus ex (no clear objective markers, complex mechanics, multiple ways of interacting with the world and accomplishing tasks, interesting worldbuilding and characters), you play as a cyborg woman waking up in a scrap pile in poland and scrape together whatever you can to survive. game is in early access, so it's a little barebones, costs about 30 bucks, but it was rejuvenating to play this kind of game again

--

playing through these demos today brought me back to when i was younger and i was browsing the PS3 store and downloading whatever demos were available, and my dad subsequently yelling at me for exceeding the data cap

i'm glad i got around to these, and i hope you check out some of them too

[lazycowboah]

Obey Me play League

Diavolo's Team

Simeon - Top - Gwen: Has one build he uses every game, doesn't know how to itemize so he uses an outdated build Leviathan made for him. Terrible at trading and doesn't understand most matchups. Tilt proof. Honestly just wants to hang out with the brothers, mostly Lucifer.

Leviathan - Jungle - Bel'Veth: Super confident jungler and frequently invades and / or starts the enemies buff. 100% owns every Champion and has played them all at least once or twice. Has multiple skins for every character he plays. Is too competitive and easily tilts.

Lucifer - Mid - LeBlanc: Hyper aggressive and all ins level 3 100% of the time, regardless of the matchup. Will track the enemy jungler and harass them. ONLY gets tilted when he isn't doing well, regardless of the team.

Diavolo - ADC - Miss Fortune: Terrible at farming / under 5cs a minute. Only uses the recommended runes and builds. Frequently cancels his ult on accident by walking. Tilt proof. Mostly just loves playing with the brothers, more specifically Lucifer. Also gets him out of paperwork (sometimes.) Will try and get everyone to match skins with him.

Barbatos - Support - Soraka: AMAZING at supporting Diavolo / has adapted to his playstyle. Good vision and map awareness, but will hold his ult for Diavolo / doesn't care if someone is dying on the opposite end of the map. Lowkey tilts but won't say anything.

(May or may not use his future sight for Diavolo’s favor. This was an after thought.)

Uh- Beelzebub's Team (?)

Beelzebub - Top - Cho'Gath: Is the definition of "top lane island" you don't see him until 20 minutes. AFKs under tower or in a bush to eat, and frequently leaves to grab more food.Tilt proof.

Belphegor - Jungle - Lillia: Safe jungler, only counter ganks / makes easy plays. Won't go for objective steals without the team. Untiltable until someone says something to him.

Mammon - Mid - Pantheon: Spam emotes and HARD egos his lane / will tank autos early game over giving up cs. Roams bot lane the moment he hits level 6, regardless of lane state / forces the fight. Tilts easily.

Asmodeus - ADC - Kai'Sa: Good at csing but gets too caught up in it to make trades / very passive laner. Gets confused on itemization and calls Leviathan. Doesn't tilt in the usual sense, instead he becomes disheartened / sad when doing poorly.

----------

Satan - Support - Yuumi: Starts Support item and a Control Ward over Health potions, doesn't think he needs them. Constantly hopping off to get passive shield. BACKSEAT GAMER, think Remy and Linguini. Most likely has all of Yuumi’s skins and chromas. Picked the pink chroma to match with Asmodeus. Will genuinely be upset if Lucifer survives a big team fight and he doesn’t. WILL flame in chat, VERY tiltable.

My sister and I thought of this randomly. We have more ideas and they'll be posted here! We have Phasmophobia, Baldur's Gate/(Work on Progress), RDR2, and Sims 4. We might take request but no promises.

[simslegacy5083]

Not So Berry (Straud Descendants) Gen 9

Today's (9/20/2024) Episode: Bad Habits Die Hard

“Hey – I need to talk to you!” Luigi called out to the Papparazzo who had just taken the unsavory photos of his family.

Stowing her camera, she turned to him with a put-upon look “What do you want Mr. Lawbourne, and can you make it quick? I’ve got places to be.”

Luigi took a deep breath before responding: “Those photos you took of my family, it would mean a lot to me if you would delete them. My wife and grandfather are very private sims, and my boy is too little to have his image floating around randomly on the web.”

The photographer just rolled her eyes. “Occasional embarrassment is the price you pay for fame. You and your misses are flaming hot right now. Add your reclusive granddad into the mix? That’s gold right there! There’s no way I’m deleting anything, so you can just go on and get out of my face.”

Luigi, infuriated by her harsh words, lost all control of his temper and his only chance to negotiate with her to use the least embarrassing photos. “You paparazzi are the worst!” he cried, “Bottom feeders harassing sims smarter and better looking than you for an easy simoleon! I hope you get eaten by a cowplant!”

“Shove it, you plumhole!” the pap replied “Just for that I’m going to call up my friend at SimNation Weekly. Your little family drama will be splashed across the front page, and any other skeletons in your closet are about to become relevant news.  We’ll see how much better you really are then!”

Luigi stood shell shocked by her spicy retort as she strode away towards the market, pulling out her camera to look over her catch again.

Her mention of skeletons immediately made him think of his early relationship with Beau and their long-ago fight. His friend wasn’t nearly as famous as he was, but he didn’t think it would be good for either of them, or Rainy Day, to stir up any new controversy so soon after the mouse incident. Desperate to find a way to fix things his vision refocused on the camera the Paparazzi had foolishly exposed.

In a flash of fury, Luigi lunged forward, quickly catching the pap from behind and trying to wrestle the device, and its poisonous contents, away from her.

“Get off!” she cried, fighting him with more strength than he’d anticipated.  “Delete the pictures!” he responded, pulling back harder.

The camera, stressed between them, made an ominous cracking noise and she let go with a look of horror. Suddenly released, he stumbled back, throwing a hand wide to catch his balance. At the same time his prize slipped from his grasp and went crashing to the ground.

The fight went out of Luigi as he gazed at the clearly expensive, and just as clearly broken, piece of equipment on the pavement. What had he done!?

He turned back to apologize and offer to pay for the damage but as he opened his mouth the wind was knocked out of him by a punch to his gut.

Doubling over in pain, all the remorse he’d felt flew out the window. If she wanted a fight, he’d give her one! Luigi came up swinging and in no time the two sims were battling it out amid a sea of interested spectators, including a few other paparazzi who’d come running from the busy market.

In the end Luigi proved stronger than his adversary and sent her reeling. While she was collecting her wits, he looked around frantically for the camera that had been at the center of this whole torturous debacle. Somehow, it was no longer anywhere to be seen.

Only then did he realize that similar, but still fully functional, cameras were busily recording his every move, held by paparazzi who had captured his fight with one of their own.

“You arrogant little woohoocker!” the women he had beaten but clearly not defeated spat out. “You may have cracked up my gear, but a gamer like you knows that data doesn’t die so easily. All your epic little tantrum did was make the images on my data card even more newsworthy. Don’t think this is over. Mark my words, you’re going to regret being such a raging plumhole for a LONG time to come.”

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 20 (Life-Changing News!)

Almost two months later Heather was feeling better about the breakup – but she wasn’t feeling all that well. When her period was late, she started to worry. Her first instinct was to call Everett when she saw two lines on the test, but she didn’t expect him to drop everything to visit.

"Are you sure you're okay?" As they relaxed on her made bed, he looked at her so earnestly, with a concern Malcolm never managed.

"I'm shocked, I think. But I'll be okay. I never would have planned it like this, but I'm going to have this baby on my own."

"I know how much you love your independence, but you don't have to do this by yourself." He placed a comforting hand on her stomach. He'd never felt more protective of her.

"I don't want to tell him. My family will help if I need them."

"Your family lives in Henford. Malcolm should know you're having his kid. I know he's an ass, but what if he steps up?"

"I don't want him to."

"Heather, it's his kid. He has a right to know."

"You tell him, then."

He frowned. "You're too stubborn."

"Excuse me? Malcolm and I haven't spoken in weeks and I. Don't. Need. Him."

"This is just like the night we kissed on Spooky Day. I asked you if you wanted be with me, and you chose your friendships with me and Spencer instead of us. You thought you were doing the right thing then, too, but you just put up walls up when you don't need to."

Heather blinked. "Everett, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying sometimes I think about what if you had said yes."

He leaned in to kiss her as the moment overtook them. His hand caressed her small stomach. But just like when they were teenagers, Heather pulled back. "We can't do this, Everett. You have Spencer and Greyson waiting for you in Oasis Springs."

He looked away with guilt in his eyes. "I'm a phone call away whenever you need me. I mean that."

(NOTE: These two autonomously flirted and kissed and I had to stop them from autonomously woohooing. 😱 None of the above was part of my plans! I invited Everett to come over and I'm the reason for their little pink romance bar that's lasted since high school, but they went too far even for me!)

"No one can help me with my biggest problem." Heather sighed. "Having Malcolm Landgraab's child could ruin my entire future. But I won't let Malcolm or Nancy or anyone else stop me with my clinic, and if, by some chance, Malcolm wants anything to do with me or this kid, I won't let him stand in our way."

"I believe you. You can do anything you set your mind to. But raising kids is really, really hard, and you should want a village as large as you can have surrounding you."

Heather laughed pitifully to herself. "The first thing I thought about when I saw the positive pregnancy test wasn't how I might succeed as a single mother, owning my own business with a half-baked vet tech on my roster. My first thought was of Mortimer Goth’s tale of cursed Landgraabs."

"There's no such thing as curses." Everett laughed her off.

"Curse or not, and I'm skeptical, this is Nancy Landgraab's grandchild." She looked anxiously down at her stomach. "Even if I can eventually find a way to extricate my clinic from Landgraab control, I'll never be rid of her."

"Is she the reason you're thinking of not telling Malcolm?"

Everett knew her well, and she looked away from his judgment. "You shouldn't be away from your wife and son too long," she said.

"Any time you need me. I mean it, I'll be here," he said before he walked out the door, leaving Heather to get used to her new future.

Everett left to return to Oasis Springs, but he was flying out of the San Myshuno Airport, and he couldn’t stop himself from paying a visit to Malcolm before his flight. He confronted him in a boardroom at Simlandia National, the news channel where he served as a reporter.

"You're abandoning Heather when she needs you the most."

"What the hell are you talking about? We broke up."

"She's pregnant. With your kid. And she doesn't want to tell you."

Malcolm recoiled from the news. "So why are you telling me? She's always been in love with you. How do I know it's not yours?"

"You wish it was mine because you're afraid of facing fatherhood."

"I'll bet you wish it was yours, too," Malcolm hissed. "You always kept Heather at arm's length even though you chose Spencer, instead. You don't think it's obvious to anyone who looks at you that you regret it?"

Everett clenched his hands into fists but kept his arms at his sides. He suddenly second-guessed his compulsion to come and backed away. "You're going to be a father whether either of you like it or not. Now you know, you can't blame Heather for trying to keep you in the dark. What you do now is on you."

He left bitterly before the two men came to blows, leaving Malcolm contemplating what he’d learned, and Everett searching feelings of his own. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

[nothing0fnothing]

Hey! So I have some lived experience in being poor and mentally ill I had to learn the hard way in my adulthood after growing up with abusive neglectful narcissistic parents. Maybe it will help someone else.

1. Instant pot. Crock pot. Rice cooker. You only need one, but all 3 are versatile, can use very little electricity to run, and are perfect to dump ingredients into and come back later to a healthy, cooked dinner.

You can research which is best for you by looking up "crock pot recipes" "rice cooker meals" to get a feel for what types of meals you can prepare in each and how it's purposes can best fit your cooking style.

2. Get your electronics secondhand. Phone companies make so much off of poor people bc they contract us into pay plans that mean that by the time our phones are needing replacing, we've paid for it 2 or more times over. Consider going Sim only and getting your phone secondhand.

Websites like backmarket and envirophone sell refurbished phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, TVs, consoles, headphones, all sorts like new and for a fraction of the price point you'd usually get them at. I've not bought an electronic new since 2015 and the products I get refurbished last just as long as if I'd bought them new. Plus it's better for the environment. Even if I had money I don't think I'd go back to buying new honestly.

3. Static charger. If you're Autistic and can't sit still, like me you might be finding that the first thing to go on your electronics is your charge port. It's really annoying because it's not a cheap fix and I have had to replace phones early when they won't charge any more.

Last year my girlfriend and I got static chargers. It's an adapter that sits in your phone/tablets charger slot that magnetically connects to a universal charger. Its great for us because now everything rechargeable (phones/tablets, but also headphones, game controllers, keyboards/mouses) takes the same cable. It's really handy, but for me the best part is that the adapter doesn't move. So even if I'm fidgeting with my phone on charge it won't wear down the charger pins over time. We paid £20 for 3 and it's paid for itself because I've not had to take my phone for it's yearly fix since I got it.

4. Make a cozy space outside of bed. As a bedrotting girlie I know the allure of just saying "fuck it" and curling up in bed is so strong. I also know that when I do it for days at a time my sleep quality gets worse, my days blur together and my mental health gets so much worse. Especially if I'm working, watching TV, eating all my meals and doing my hobbies all from my bed.

One thing that helps me break up the bedrotting and at least helps me get some decent sleep so I might wake up feeling better tomorrow, is having a cozy spot that isn't in bed I can spend at least some of my day in.

For me, it's the couch in my living room. I've furnished it with pillows, blankets, and a little coffee table I can rest my stuff on so I can feel as comfy as I do in bed, but not actually be in bed most of the day. For You it could be a book nook, or a floor bed, or a desk with a chair in your bedroom.

5. Giant water bottle. This one is really simple. We need 8 glasses of water a day to be healthy and hydrated. Basically nobody depressed has the energy to fill up a glass of water 8 times a day. If you can get a water bottle that holds 2 litres (65oz) of water, now you only need to fill one drinking vessel once a day to be healthy and hydrated.

It's really simple and sill but it honestly saved my life. I buy those drink flavor packets because I drink more when it tastes nice. Is it as healthy as plain water? No. Is it healthier than no water? Yes. Easy peasy.

My bottle is from Meoky, its the 64oz stainless steel camping bottle with a flip straw I got for under £20. I like it because it keeps my water cold and I'd rather walk on hot coals than take a sip without a straw, but I've bought same size BPA free plastic bottles for like £3 and they have lasted me 2-3 years too so the budget options are absolutely worth it too.

6. Reconsider what's worth getting second hand. Generally when thinking about buying secondhand we mean clothes at the thrift, and that's great, but buying pre loved can be anything, and you can buy some high ticket items at an affordable price point that way.

If I ever want an appliance I always look second hand first. My rice cooker is secondhand and it is my favourite appliance. I've also bought a popcorn maker for a fraction of the price I'd buy it new, and I'm looking for a Kitchen Aid mixer for no more than a third the price they usually sell at. My vanity houses my shark air styler, I got it refurbished second hand and it was like new when I bought it. I use it every day and it still has so much wear in it.

Generally, the bigger and heavier something is, the closer to free you can get it, because the people getting rid of it just want it gone. If you ever need a washing machine or some furniture, look on gumtree or local no buy groups first. Type "free ___" followed by where you live into Google to get an idea whats available. If you're furnishing a space it's very likely you can get everything you need for the cost of the van you hired to collect it all.

7. Frozen vegetables. Fresh produce is getting more expensive and because we neurodivergent and mentally ill people can have a habit of letting fresh produce rot in the fridge, wasting money and making more mess to clean up, it's usually not worth it. The thing is, frozen produce is cheaper because it is picked in season, healther because it is frozen at optimum ripeness, and can be safely stored in your freezer for months, it's so worth doing.

They're usually pre-cut and can generally just be chucked into your dish frozen to defrost while cooking, making them easy and accessible. You can buy mixed vegetable packs (in the UK the most common is sweetcorn/peas/carrots and broccoli/cauliflower/) for some variety too, which I like to just dump a portion into soups or broths for some added vitamins.

8. Medication delivery. I've been medicated for mental illness for years, and a regular problem I used to have was I would neglect going to pick up my meds because I was depressed, then I'd run out and be unable to collect them because the lack of meds was making me more depressed.

Now however, I'm signed up with an online pharmacy. They processes my prescriptions exactly the same way any other pharmacy would and dispense them through the post in a box that fits through my letterbox. I never have to leave the house for meds again which is actually a lifesaver, the shipping is super cheap, like free for 3 day delivery and £2.99 for next day, and it's all processed through a super simple app that I only have to use like one a month when I request my refill.

It's so worth it and if you struggle to get out like me I absolutely recommend it. In the UK it's called Lloyd's Direct Pharmacy, but I'm sure it's a service you can find in other places of the world too.

9. Laundry separation is a lie. Which isn't a big deal for people who don't care about throwing money away on extra loads or people who have the spoons to faff around separating their clothes arbitrarily, but for poor neurodivergent people, it is.

So here's the thing, the rules of separating laundry by colour came about when clothes were made of all natural materials that would stick to each other when agitated and natural dyes that would run in water. Nowadays, clothes are made of synthetic or blended materials that can handle the friction of a modern machine and synthetic dyes that hold up to basically anything. 99% of clothes on the market, and therefore probably 99% of your wardrobe, is polycotton or some other poly-blend. So generally, everything you have can just all go in together on a warm wash.

Now, if you have woolen, linen or cashmere pieces, you should be separating them and following the care instructions on the label, but everything else, just shove it in mate, nothing bad will happen.

10. Protein powder. Protein powder is cheap, it's stored dry to it basically never goes bad, it's obviously protein so it's a really good addition to your diet, it tastes of whatever flavour you buy it in so it's a good meal substitute if you're depressed and your appetite is low, and it comes together really easily.

I usually get it in big tubs because they're cheaper per gram that way and I just add them to my coffee/hot chocolate for a boost or stir it into some Greek yogurt for a quick healthy snack. Thats actually my favourite way to get protein in because it's like 2 minutes and it covers up that sour taste yogurt has. I've also stirred it into milk for my cereal to varying success but it's good because the fat in the milk and the carbs and fortified vitamins in the cereal make it basically a meal. If I'm struggling for breakfast I usually add a scoop or two to an instant porridge pot and I have a ready to eat nutritional meal ready in the time it takes to boil the kettle.

[somer-writes]

I meant like Zelda games but if you wanna talk about like R6 or something then pop off king

Lmao i got you homie

Excluding the CDI and Japan exclusive stuff, I've played every Zelda game except for Triforce Heroes and the Warriors titles.

Four Swords Adventures was my first Zelda game <3 I was like 9 or 10 the first time I played it and I've beat it more times than I can count. I used to play it on sick and snow days.

Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game. It has my favorite art direction, my favorite dungeons, and my favorite bosses. Plus I love its dark tone and the way it demonstrates good and evil being a willful choice.

Currently working through TotK but I have an arm injury thats caused me nerve and tendon damage so holding a controller is hard after 20-30 min :( I like TotK more than BotW for gameplay.

Also on my "currently playing" list is FE Three Houses which is incredible btw (dmitri my beloved) and Baldur's Gate 3 (astarion my beloved).

I play a lot of sims. Like multiple thousands of hours of sims. I've been playing since sims 2. Sims 3 is my favorite for gameplay but Sims 4 has an amazing build mode (except i miss auto roofing). im jellypop on the gallery if anyone wants to check out my builds!

and bc its a snow day and im feeling Nostalgic and Wistful, as a kid my older sister and I used to play games together. We've beat Battle for Volcano Island (i want a switch rerelease) so many times. She always played as Sam once we got her and I always played as Danny. we used to watch each other play games by one of us having a walkthrough pulled up in case the other needed it. I watched her play Epic Mickey multiple times this way XD

regarding R6 i actually dont like shooters save Crysis, Deus Ex, and Half-life. I like dungeon crawlers and single player rpgs. i also enjoy point and clicks, match 3, and puzzlers. I hate online games although Guild Wars 2 is pretty dope.

I really enjoy stardew valley and skyrim/oblivion. Also Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch are both incredible games

non video game wise i play a lot of Magic the Gathering. Primarily commander but sometimes pioneer. I dont play arena and i'm not into the lore XD my most serious edh deck is a rat colony deck and my least serious deck is an esior/falthis voltron build. my first build was kalamax <3

I also really enjoy board and card games! Azul, pitch, canasta, hanafuda.

i play killteam sometimes too but im more into the hobby side of warhammer than the actual game

[werkad7]

MBTI LEGACY CHALLENGE

Rules:

1. All cheats except those for building and resetting a Sim are prohibited.

2. When you don't do something because you forgot or make a stupid mistake and you could have done it better, you can use cheats or mods to fix it (just that) so you don't feel guilty. But only if there was a real possibility for it to happen without codes.

3. The first sim must be a teenager.

4. Lifespan must be set to normal.

5. Season length must be set to 14 days.

6. CC is allowed, but mods that make gameplay easier are not (exception: points 2 and 7, shorter university mod).

7. You can have more sims in your family thanks to MCCC.

8. All options included in expansions such as dust from Bust the dust, voting from Eco Lifestyle, weather effects from Seasons etc. must be enabled.

9. Each sim can only get pregnant once (unless otherwise stated).

10. Don't leave without saving if something goes wrong or something happens that you don't want.

11. Neighborhood stories must be included for both played and non-played families.

12. When a sim calls with a question, e.g. about pregnancy, job change or promotion, you always have to click "yes".

13. When a sim asks your sim to be your friend, girlfriend/boyfriend or proposes, you must always agree and you cannot go back on it, e.g. break up or become enemies.

14. Always click "yes" when your Sim realizes they like or dislike something.

15. Always agree to overnight stays, rooming with someone, changes in traits, new traits and family dynamics.

16. The name of each generation must be the MBTI it represents, e.g. "ISTJ" and the surname is "MBTI".

17. Aging of unplayed families must be disabled.

18. You cannot change the genetic features of your Sims' appearance, you can only change the eyebrows (but not the color), hairstyle (but not the hair color), makeup and clothes.

19. You must start the game with an empty lot and 0 Simoleons.

20. It is recommended to always take all the spouses' property after marriage.

21. If a sim who is supposed to be a husband or wife is dead, you can download it from the gallery.

22. Teenage pregnancy is allowed.

23. Money tree is allowed.

24. Rejuvenation potion is not allowed.

25. Generations can be performed in any order. You can also skip or replace tasks when you don't have the packs that are needed.

26. Don't get discouraged when you fail at something. The important thing is that you tried. As long as you try, even if you fail, you can consider the challenge a win.

27. Ghosts cannot be sent to the afterlife and tombstones must be on a residential plot.

28. The challenge ends when the ENTJ dies.

29. You can post your Sims and your houses for this challenge in the gallery under the hashtag #mbtilegacy. I will like your works and follow everyone who does post something on this hashtag.

First generation: ISTJ

CAS:

- Man

- Glasses

- Asian beauty

- Gray eyes and clothes

- No hair

- Polo blouses

- High-waist trousers

- Ties

Traits: neat, perfectionist, proper

Aspiration: any of the "Nature" categorie

Wife: Lily Feng or Supriya Delgato

Career: Doctor

Goals:

1. Have a hive and take care of it.

2. Get an A in school.

3. Never drink any drink.

4. Have a German Shepherd dog.

5. Complete an aspiration.

6. After death, be a ghost in the family until the death of the second generation.

7. Reach career level 10.

8. Become friends with the Grim Reaper.

9. Always study hard when you are at school.

10. Collect at least one entire collection.

Second generation: ESTJ

Traits: mean, hot-headed, overachiever

Aspiration: public enemy

Wife: Judith Ward or Eliza Pancakes

Husband: Victor Feng, Sergio Romeo or Chack Cenzo.

Career: lawyer

CAS:

- Bob cut / Karen haircut / ponytail / comb over / Draco Malfoy cut

- Brown clothes

- Blue eye-shadow

- Open toe shoes

Goals:

1. Own a store and open it at least twice a week.

2. Live in the Magnolia Promenade.

3. Complete an aspiration.

4. Reach career level 10.

5. Have a Chihuahua.

6. Be a very controlling parent.

7. Don't like video games and never play them.

8. Always work hard when you are at work.

9. Reach fitness level 10 just by swimming.

10. Have a very bad relationship with your dog.

Third generation: ISFJ

Features: family-oriented, squimish, animal lover

Aspiration: big happy family, super parent or successful lineage

Career: veterinarian (unofficial)

Husband: Dirk Dreamer

Wife: Sachiko Nishidake (can be rejuvenated)

CAS:

- Braid

- Blue clothes

- Checkered skirts

- Dungarees

- Pearls

- Strawberry dress

- Kimono

- Ballets

- White shoes

- Cat eye glasses

- Loose sleeves

Goals:

1. Live in Brindleton Bay.

2. Complete an aspiration.

3. Run a 4-star veterinary clinic.

4. Reach level 10 in knifting, gardening and flower arranging.

5. Always have successful holidays.

6. Have a cow, llama or chickens.

7. Go with teenager to school every time.

8. Climb Mount Komorebi.

9. Acquire all stages as a inflant.

10. Have maximum skills as a toddler.

Fourth generation: ESFJ

Traits: outgoing, foodie, proper

Aspiration: any of the "Popularity" categorie

Husband: Geoffrey Landgraab or Lucas Munch (can be aged)

Wife: Clara Bjergsen, Mila Munch or Mary Greenburg (can be rejuvenated)

Career: educator (as an adult), nanny (as a teenager)

CAS:

- beach waves

- pink clothes

- cowboy boots

- mom jeans

- Santa hat

- wedding dress

Goals:

1. Level 10 baking and cooking.

2. Organize lots of parties and events.

3. Complete an aspiration.

4. Career level 10.

5. Record makeup tutorials on a video recording station.

6. Start a club and organize meetings every week.

7. Run a 4-star restaurant.

8. Have at least one trait resulting from inclination.

9. Live in these three towns throughout your life: Willow Creek, Newcrest and Copperdale.

10. Have a dog.

Fifth generation: ESFP

Traits: materialist, glutton, self-absorbed

Aspiration: serial romantic, party animal or friend of the animals.

Career: store worker (as a teenager), actor (as an adult)

Wife: Lilith Vatore, Candy Behr, Kaori Nishidake, Sofia Bjergsen, Penny Pizzas or Baby Ariel

Husband: Joaquin Le Chien or Mitchell Kalani

CAS:

- afro

- jeans

- makeup

- Hawaiian shirts

- mini skirts

- lots of jewelry

- heart-shaped glasses

- tunnels

- black and white clothes

- pink nails

- princess dresses

- yellow clothes

- red clothes

- pink lipstick.

Goals:

1. Buy the "great kisser" trait with satisfaction points.

2. Have a dog and be his best friend.

3. Go to Selvadorada for at least 7 days.

4. Go to a party at least once a week.

5. Complete your aspiration

6. Career level 10.

7. Become a siren.

8. 5th level of dancing.

9. Go shopping at the stores in the Magnolia Promenade or those built by you.

10. Live in Windenburg or Tartosa.

Generation Six: ISFP

Features: music lover, art lover, foodie

Aspiration: freelance botanist

Career: painter

Husband: Kiyoshi Ito, Lou Howell, Taku Akiyama or Jay Bhatia

Wife: Venessa Yeong, Catarina Lynx, Alice Spencer Kim, Blossom Greenburg (can be rejuvenated), or Olivia Kim Lewis (can be aged).

CAS:

- Man bun / emo hairstyle / Wolf cut

- black nails

- no socks

- sweatpants

- no shoes

- beanie hat

- nose ring

- rings

- choker

- purple nails

- fishnet stockings

- blouses

- bucket hats

- round glasses

Goals:

1. Maximum level of painting, photography, singing and guitar playing.

2. Run a zoo.

3. Live in Sulani.

4. Watch only sport on TV.

5. Have a dog, a cat and a horse.

6. Have rabbit holes on the lot.

7. Collect the entire frog collection.

8. Have a hamster.

9. Complete an aspiration.

10. Career level 10.

Seventh generation: ESTP

Traits: noncommittal, kleptomaniac, bro

Aspiration: bodybuilder

Career: fast food employee (as a teenager), bodybuilder (as an adult)

Husband: Don Lothario, J Huntington III, Max Villareal (can be aged), Eric Lewis, Paolo Rocca or Akira Kibo

Wife: Dina Caliente, Morgan Fyres or Grace Anansi

CAS:

- Slicked back hair / sleek ponytail / sporty ponytail

- nothing

- Sunglasses

- tops

- sport shoes

- leopard print clothes

- flip-flops

- Red nails

- cold weather shorts

- unbuttoned jacket without a shirt

- shirtless

- skinny jeans

Goals:

1. Swim in the pool every day.

2. Be outside more often than inside.

3. Reach the highest level of fame.

4. Experience the entire jungle adventure.

5. Complete your aspiration.

6. Career level 10.

7. 10 level of fitness.

8. Only use the bathtub, not the shower.

9. Watch TV for at least an hour every day.

10. Live in Del Sol Valley and Mount Komorebi.

Eighth generation: ISTP

Traits: evil, loner, self-assured

Aspiration: angling ace

Career: detective

Husband: Wolfgang Munch or Jacques Villarreal (can be rejuvenated)

Wife: Nina Kaliente or Darling Walsh

CAS:

- buzzcut

- beard

- leather jackets

- cargo pants

- caps

- denim shorts

- tattoos

- slippers

- eyebrow piercing

Goals:

1. 10 level of handiness, fishing and fitness.

2. Collect one collection.

3. Become a werewolf.

4. Go roller skating once a week.

5. Have a cat.

6. Have siblings.

7. Career level 10.

8. Complete an aspiration.

9. Go to Granite Falls at least once for at least a week.

10. Live at Moonwood Mill.

Ninth Generation: INFJ

Traits: paranoid, eco-friendly, lazy

Aspiration: spellcraft & sorcery

Career: ecologist

Husband: Bjorn Bjergsen

Wife: Cassandra Goth or Elsa Bjergsen (can be aged)

CAS:

- floral dresses

- sweaters

- hairpins and bows

- long skirts

- bells

- boho dresses

- shorts

- bracelets

Goals:

1. Live in Glimmerbrook.

2. Always get out of bed between 5am and 8am.

3. Buy the Early Bird trait with satisfaction points.

4. Never eat sweets or drink sweet drinks.

5. Complete your aspiration.

6. Career level 10.

7. 10th level of logic, singing and charisma.

8. Become a spellcaster.

9. Go to university (you can use shorter university mod).

10. Go to the spa once a week.

Tenth Generation: ENFJ

Traits: jealous, good, romantic.

Aspiration: any of the love categorie.

Career: Farmer (unofficial)

Husband: Caleb Vatore or Brant Hecking

Wife: Bella Goth, Summer Holiday, Catrina Caliente, Julia Wright or Kyra Anello

CAS:

- redhair, wavy hair

- purple clothes

- black turtlenecks

- green nails

Goals:

1. Level 10 in charisma and flower arranging skills.

2. Complete your aspiration.

3. Own a farm with vegetables, fruits, flowers and animals and earn money from it.

4. Have a Golden Retriever dog and a cat.

5. Go camping once a week.

6. Forgive your lover's betrayal.

7. Give a rose to your lover every Monday.

8. Eat an apple everyday.

9. Only watch romances on TV.

10. Live in Evergreen Harbor.

Eleventh generation: INFP

Traits: gloomy, animal lover, socially awkward

Aspiration: best-selling author

Career: writer

Husband: Bob Pancakes, Jeb Harris, Salim Benali, Hugo Villareal, Gunther Munch, Simeon Silversweater or Claude Rene Duplantier

Wife: Becca Clarke

CAS:

- pastel hair with bangs

- loose T-shirts

- sweaters

- unusual eyeliners

- frills

- long sleeves

- one-piece swimsuit

- shoes that cover the toes

- unusual wedding dress

Goals:

1. Go to Granite Falls for a week.

2. Complete your aspiration.

3. Career level 10.

4. Listen to music every day.

5. Write at least one book a week.

6. Write a blog about feelings.

7. Climb Mount Komorebi.

8. Become a plant sim.

9. Be in a relationship with both genders (it doesn't have to be at the same time).

10. Make friends with a selected Sim from the listed spouses (except your spouse).

Twelfth generation: ENFP

Traits: creative, cheerful, childish, clumsy (3 of these)

Aspiration: any from the Eco Lifestyle expansion pack

Career: YouTuber (unofficial)

Husband: Paka'a Uha or Knox Greenburg.

Wife: Zoe Patel, Miko Ojo or Luna Villareal

CAS:

- highlights hair

- braces

- socks and sandals

- rainbow socks

- scary makeup

- witch costume

- tights under shorts

- glasses with colored lenses

- leggings

- without trousers

Goals:

1. Level 10 media production and Level 5 dance and photography.

2. Become famous for making videos.

3. Complete an aspiration.

4. Have pets and spend time with them every day.

5. Travel somewhere every other day (may be more often).

6. Visit an amusement park at least 3 times.

7. Have a same-gender spouse (you can adopt a child, but it must be a newborn).

8. Live in Oasis Spring and Henford-On-Bagley.

9. Have sibling.

10. Always vote for local action plans.

Thirteenth generation: INTP

Traits: Genius, bookworm, geek

Aspiration: Any of the Knowledge categorie

Career: tech guru

Husband: Mortimer Goth, Alexander Goth (you can age him) or Erwin Pries.

Wife: Liberty Lee, Yuki Behr, Lana Mckinnon or Nanami Ito (can be aged).

CAS:

- long and sleek hair

- no makeup

- glasses

- headphones

- long pants for hot weather

- hoodies

- the same every outfit

Goals:

1. Always go to bed between 0-4.

2. Buy the Night Owl trait for satisfaction points.

3. Have the most expensive computer.

4. Avoid leaving the house and cleaning.

5. Never enter any water (except bathtub and shower).

6. Live in Britechester.

7. Defeat the Mother Plant from StrangerVille.

8. Become an alien.

9. Career level 10.

10. Complete an aspiration.

Fourteenth generation: ENTP

Traits: erratic, goofball, self-absorbed

Aspiration: chief of mischief or joke star

Career: entertaiment

Husband: Morgyn Ember, Johnny Zest, Travis Scott, Gavin Richard or Cameron Fletcher.

Wife: mint sim from Not So Berry Challenge (if you haven't done it, you can download one from the gallery).

CAS:

- bowed baby buns / curtained hair

- natural makeup

- baggy jeans

- platform shoes

- necklaces

- torn jeans

- T-shirts

- earrings

- tattoos

Goals:

1. Complete an aspiration.

2. Career level 10.

3. Become an occult.

4. 10th level of guitar playing.

5. Go to a water park once a week.

6. Never be very sad.

7. Spend as little time in nature as possible.

8. Never use a computer, TV or tablet. You can use your phone, but not for entertainment purposes.

9. Live in San Myshuno.

10. Set your calendar for Halloween with 5 traditions and complete them all.

Fifteenth generation: INTJ

Traits: loner, hates children, snob

Aspiration: friend of the animals

Career: architect (unofficially). For each house you build, add 450 Simoleons with the code. You can only build 1 house per day (but not on Saturdays and not on Sundays).

Husband: Count Vladislaus Straud IV or Rohan Eldelberry

Wife: none. Have your Sim adopt a newborn.

CAS:

- curly hair

- black clothes

- turtlenecks

- suits

- little black dresses

- short sleeves

Goals:

1. Become a vampire.

2. Level 10 logic only through chess.

3. Complete your aspiration.

4. Build 10 houses.

5. Have a cat and make friends with it.

6. Buy the Iceman trait with satisfaction points.

7. Paint 3 wall murals.

8. Have sibling.

9. Give birth or adopt a child only on the last day before the elder's birthday.

10. Live in Forgotten Hollow.

Sixteenth generation: ENTJ

Traits: ambitious, evil, self-assured

Aspiration: public enemy

Career: politician

Husband: Diego Lobo or Dario Lampa (must be downloaded from the gallery)

Wife: Nancy Landgraab or the red sim from Not So Berry Challenge (if you haven't done it, download one from the gallery)

CAS:

- Peaky Blinders cut / Justin Bieber's 2010 hair / Vintage Curls / Slicked back pony

- suits

- high heels

- crown

- Red lipstick

- leather clothes

- watch

- crop tops

- dresses with one sleeve

Goals:

1. Complete an aspiration.

2. Career level 10.

3. Not having any child.

4. The highest level of fame.

5. Not having any friends.

6. Argue with someone every day and never apologize.

7. Live in San Myshuno.

8. Collect one million simoleons (including the value of the house).

9. Run your own business.

10. Have a Rottweiler dog

THE END

[telail]

☆ *~.❤ Who's Telail?

TAE! nineteen. she/they prns + pls don't forget the they yall I go by both. african american + pacific islander (🇼🇸🇺🇸) psychology / neuro-sci major. estj #1 ATEEZ fan chick, running on teezer content & a dream.

yo! i'm tae, one of the most inconsistent writers to ever exist. here's some rando info abt myself-- i can speak fluent french, japanese, and portugeuse. outside of ateez & kpop in general i'm a heavy metal head and i'm really into the emo aspect of music. i've been on tumblr since '20 and i’m really here js to practice putting my imagination into words. only in my spare time tho.

+ dbs to moot me if you're 18+ js send an ask :P

LOVES ! eating, traveling, cooking, realistic writing/writers, brains, fashion, roller skating, gentleness, makeup, bad omens, the ladies, my ateez albums, life is strange II, twdg, my nintento switch, the art(s). HATES ... watching tv, ignorance, like excessive ignorance, flat pillow, roller blades, loud shit, constant negativity, the media, politics. GAMER CHICK ! the walking dead game, life is strange 1 & II, little nightmares full series, fnaf, poppy playtime, resident evil, puppet combo, the last of us, sims 4, minecraft, cod warzone, diablo, sifu, animal crossing, mario kart, legends of zelda, heavy rain, spider man, etc. TASE IN TUNES ! ATEEZ, txt, enhyphen, tbz, billie eilish, chase atlantic, tyler the creator, kendrick lamar, rihanna, brent faiyaz, kanye west, donald glover, bts, Xscape, skz, NCT 127, p1harmony, the weeknd, erykah badu, sade, wave to earth, jaehyun, dawn, evanescense, radiohead, korn, deftones, bad omens, slipknot, young thug, future, lil baby, seventeen, G-eazy, lana del ray, xikers, the neighbourhood, frank ocean, ice nine kills, starset, limp bizkit, metallica, OLD drake, 21 savage, pink pantheress, michael jackson, post malone, indila, migos, girls generation, xxxtentacion, kehlani etc. xtra: i have adhd and im not off a single med so my procrastination and writers block often jump me simultaneously and it can be hard for me to gain control over it especially when it comes to my hobbies. i apologize for the empty promises and slow updates in advance. love ya.

nice meeting you, mwah.

[nowoyas]

It's fun seeing you talk about hyperfixations, so what are your favorite non-HM / RF farm sims? :3c

*breaks fingers* you've activated my trap card

okay SO! I'm actually still developing a favorite because there's so many in the genre to pick from and they're all so unique! so I'm just going to ramble about non-bokumono and bokumono-adjacent farm sims that I think are good and worth bringing up!

Stardew Valley is the obvious one everyone jumps to. It's a solid harvest moon clone--not in a derogatory way, I mean it was literally created to be a clone of an earlier harvest moon game, and it does that job extremely well and then proceeds to build on the formula in a way that clearly resonated with a lot of people. It is not, however, my favorite. Don't look at my play time on steam. I am slightly burned on it due to how many people slap the label "stardew valley but [core aesthetic]" on every fucking farm sim because they're Guy Who's Only Played Stardew Valley, Playing His Second Farm Sim. BUT it IS really just a great farm sim with solid mechanics.

Graveyard Keeper gets a mention here because, while it doesn't quite match up tonally with the rest of the genre and is only sort of even IN the genre, if you like farm sims as a whole, chances are great that you'll like Graveyard Keeper, as it scratches the same gameplay loop itch that you'll get from any good farm sim. This is a game that was recommended to me by no less than seven people when I was looking for a new farm sim to play, and for good reason! Loosely, you get Issekai'd into another world to be that world's graveyard keeper, and spend the game trying to get back home. Not a farm sim in the truest sense, still worth mentioning here.

Coral Island. Ohhhh my god Coral Island. It's still in the creation stages and being polished, but holy SHIT the vibes are immaculate. Nature and environmentalism-focused farm sim with one of the most diverse casts I've gotten the pleasure of seeing in a farm sim. The characters are beautiful, the concept is gorgeous, and the focus is not just on farming and community, but on cleaning up the environment and taking care of the world we live in. Kind of like another farm sim, I think, but I'm blanking on which one I'm thinking of right now?

PUMPKIN DAYS is absolutely worth mentioning here. It's a super super charming proper farm sim. I wouldn't recommend it to people new to the genre, but rather to genre vets who are already sure they like the core gameplay of farm sims. Much like Coral Island, Pumpkin Days has a MASSIVELY diverse cast. There's three towns you can live in on the island the game is set on, each with their own characters. While it's hard to definitively point to any one character as a specific breed of queer, it's actually the only farm sim I can name where you can be truly poly! Also extremely nice, there's a town on the island called Spoonie Island that's a lovely little community of variously disabled and neurodivergent characters. The reason I wouldn't recommend this as a starter farm sim is one thing: tank controls. This game has tank controls. This is the most interesting decision I've ever seen in a farm sim. Once you settle in with them, it works and I hardly noticed the difference anymore after about 20 hours of gameplay, but if you're a newcomer to the genre? You'll want to start with a game that controls like 74% of other games in the genre. (This is also why I don't recommend Island of Happiness or Sunshine Islands to newcomers to the genre. Touch screen movement is another you get used to but should not start with.)

Another not-technically-a-true-farm-sim game I absolutely fucking NEED to bring up here is Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin. It's developed by XSEED games, which you'll note is an American subsidiary of Marvelous, the company that makes the bokumono games. They're really fucking good at farm sims. Sakuna is not technically a farm sim--there's a set plotline, the game is much more combat-oriented, and there's no dating system, but this game is still very much about community, and one of the main mechanics is farming rice to grow your strength as a harvest goddess. This game is SO fucking technical with the farming aspect, in the best fucking way. In learning more about how to properly grow the rice, I actually ended up looking into actual fucking real life rice disorders and being able to translate that into in-game mechanics to be able to treat them. I still get advertisements for farming equipment and fertilizers from how much research I've done. I only got 100 hours out of this game, but I chalk that more up to the plot and progression having a more definite end than, say, Rune Factory 4 and its endless dungeons in the endgame. If there were more plot to work through and more progression to gain, I would easily get another 300 out of it.

This post is starting to get long (it's like I'm talking about farm sims or something) so this'll be my final mentions here: My Time at Portia and My Time at Sandrock. Again, not true farm sims in that you're not technically a farmer. Absolutely a farm sim. In these games, you're a Builder who comes to a town (Portia or Sandrock, depending on the game [wow]) and works to build up the community. It took some adjusting to settle in to the art style, but once I did, holy shit these games are fun. These are also more combat-oriented and DEFINITELY less farming-oriented--while you can grow crops and have animals, it's absolutely an afterthought to gathering materials to build things for people. You can get married in these ones, unlike Sakuna or Graveyard Keeper, and it's definitely the closest to true farm sim out of the "kind of but not really but definitely in the genre but also not really" category. My Time at Sandrock sees a full release in September, and I am SOOOO excited. I haven't been playing it as much because I literally have So Much Of Everything to get done while working full time and obsessing over my boys, but any game I've talked about here is well worth it.

OH MY GOD I DIDN'T MENTION ATOMICROPS. Atomicrops counts. It has the farming sim tag on steam so it counts. Okay so like imagine the apocalypse. Now imagine running a farm after the nuclear apocalypse. Much much more combat oriented. This one's a roguelike. You can and should get married in this one. Hands down the best farm sim to recover from dental surgery to. I associate this game with the taste of mashed potatoes.

Okokok I'm pretty sure I'm having an allergic reaction so I'll stop digging through non-bokumono farm sims for now BUT THANK YOU SM FOR ASKING I LITERALLY LOVE TALKING ABOUT FARM SIMS WHEN I WAS A KID MY MOM ALMOST TOOK ME TO THERAPY BECAUSE I PLAYED HARVEST MOON FOR LIKE 18 HOURS STRAIGHT AND FORGOT TO SLEEP

[andreimsjsu]

Blog Post 4:

First game that I played was "This is the Only Level," which consisted of a character moving around the level, which is randomly generated every time you play it in terms of map function or player attribute. It took many tries to figure out the controls until I realized that they change every time you play it.

The game 2 I watched my partner play Puterful Adventure Demo

which was a game about a small TV running and jumping to pick up green batteries. The functionality reminded me a lot of the Mario type games, but the level and animation variety made it very entertaining going through the obstacles.

Game 3 I watched my partner play Streets of Rogue from Fall 2016, which was a very impressive top-down pixel fighting game. It had a large functionality and a lot of engaging visuals. 20 years ago this game would have made a lot of money.

Game 4 was Trick or Treat made by one of the Fall 2024 students, which was very stylistic and had unique functionality involving mouse movement. We didn't have much time to figure out what to do in the game, but it had a lot of cool animation and character design.

Couldn't find the game itself, but my partner played the Cluck Cuck Corn, which was about collecting corn from island to island to prevent starvation of chickens, I guess. It was a simple but interactive game.

Lastly, my partner and I both got to play the dating sim John Doe+, which, as described by my partner, was a "weird game about leading on John Doe". I was never a fan of dating sims so this one was very hard to follow.

One thing that I notice throughout playing these games is that it can be frustrating to watch your partner play, especially when the time is limited and you want to see as much of what game has to offer as possible, though with the time we had I think we got a grasp of what other students were able to make. I was inspired by the functionality of each game, a decent level of content, and well-drawn art, especially in the Streets of Rogue. Overall, it was a new experience to play the games from an analytical standpoint rather than just entertainment.

[simslegacy5083]

Not So Berry (Straud Descendants) Gen 9

Today's (8/23/2024) Episode: Gaming and Goodbyes

As everyone settled down for dinner after Skye aged up, Luigi snagged a seat across from Jade and wasted no time launching into 20 questions. 

"I'm one of the only sims around here who believes in The Watcher" he told her, "other than some real crackpots on the internet anyway." He shuddered. "So, what's it like for you, living under their direct influence? My Papa always said The Watcher could control just about anything but if that's true the one around here has a sick sense of humor!"

He then went on to describe some of the many misfortunes that had befallen him and Noemi in the past.

"Oh…my…that's a lot " was all Jade could think to say when he'd finally wound down. Well, Isra did warn me… she thought before responding.

"I don't think our Watcher controls everything. For example, my mom's friend Summer died quite unexpectedly recently, it was really hard on her. Being a legacy family may mean The Watcher keeps a closer eye on us, but in general more crazy things happen when we're around, not less!" 

"Do you know the legacy family here?" she asked "Isra and Par haven’t heard of one, but I thought The Watcher had favorites in every nation.”

"Well, actually…" Luigi began, before Noemi cut him off. "No. We've never heard anyone even mention a legacy family." she said, glaring at him. 

Jade could tell she'd stepped in something with her question, though she wasn't sure what. Now more ready than ever to extract herself from the awkward conversation she rose "It was nice chatting with you, but I think I'm going to go inside and get out of this heat for awhile."

"Hey! If we’re going inside, I’ll fire up the gaming console and start the real fun.” Rhys said. "Anyone else ready to join us?”

“You know that’s my jam." Luigi stood too, causing Jade to suppress a groan. At least if we’re playing he’ll stop talking so much! she thought.

“My foot has a prior appointment with Darth’s ass," Beau chimed in “Just give me a minute to visit the bathroom for the hundredth time today first." 

After a great session of gaming with the chatty e-sports pros Jade was almost sorry to see them off at the end of the night. “It was great to meet you, kid” Luigi told her. “Sorry about all that doom and gloom earlier. I have a tendency to get wrapped up in myself, but you were a trooper about it, and a pretty good video gamer to boot! If you decide to explore a career in E-Sports look me up, I can introduce you to some people.”

“I’ll do that” Jade fibbed, trying to be nice despite having no interest in becoming a professional nerd herself. “It was nice to meet you too.”

“Luigi, I know you believe yourself to be a legacy heir the same as Jade's sister and mother do, but we both know that isn't a "thing" here." Noemi reminded him once they’d returned home. "I thought we agreed we were going to keep that little piece of Lawbourne lore to ourselves." 

Luigi sighed "I know. I just got so excited meeting someone from another legacy; I got carried away. Thank you for reining me in, as usual."

"Happy to do it" she chuckled “now, how about you get Skye to bed while I get started on my latest side project? This one wants all their phone icons updated to penguins! The things sims come up with to do with technology…"

"Thank you again, so much, for having me. I had a blast!" Jade gushed the following morning. "I've got the pictures we took, the gifts you made for everyone, and your donation for Sims United in my inventory. I'm sure everyone will love them." 

"It was so wonderful to see you again" Wren smiled "I'll be stalking you on social media; I can't wait to see those graduation photos!"

Isra chimed in, “All Elyse wanted to talk about this morning was how much she loved hanging with "silly Auntie J!“, making Jade blush happily.

"I'll be sure to send along any fun kid appropriate memes I find for you to share with my little nieces and nephew.“ After one final hug and kiss she headed towards the teleporter that would take her home, her family watching her retreating back until she blinked out of sight.

Once Jade had disappeared back to her homeland Isra’s quietly weeping par buried their face in her shoulder and whispered, “It was wonderful to see her, but so hard to watch her go.”

“I know” Isra agreed “You want to come home with me and give your grandbabies a snuggle?"

Wren nodded, grateful for Isra’s loving support as they stepped out into the warm paradise of a sunny Sulani day.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[gadgetrevive]

xiaomi 14 ultra better than samsung. This is xiaomI's brand new 14 ultra and after almost 14 years of xiaomi phones having the same old mui software. This is where they reinvent themselves. The phone spec sheet is absolutely jacked. It's got new ai features, some of them genuinely mindblowing. It's got their nextgen, hyper os operating system and it's arguably also the most decked out camera system on the planet. So in the 2024 smartphone market, how does xiaomI's best compare to samsung's best the phone that I've been using every day since launch the galaxy s 24 ultra? Well. For starters, the unboxing experience is just leagues ahead for three reasons, so we got an insert on top, which has the sim ejector tool but, more importantly, one a frosted plastic hard. Shell case. It's nothing fancy, but it's functional. Assuming that you're going to buy a decent quality case for your phone online anyways, then it's a $ 20 saving and, ironically, better for the environment. You got the phone obviously, and a cable like every phone comes with, but this also has number two a 90 w charging. That's two times the maximum power that samsung is able to charge with, and the final thing is well when you peel the phone. You will also notice a preinstalled screen protector which, as with the chargers samsung, does not come with, I mean don't get me wrong, screen protectors, extremely cheap, but the main benefit from it being preinstalled. Is that, let's be honest, the company are going to do a better job than we are and we're not actually done yet. There's a whole separate photography kit, which is this pretty indul package, containing a nicer looking textured case. This one is leather, with a specific coating that highly resists bacteria and dirt. It's got a mount that allows you to attach physical filters, and that also looks like a slot for a lanyard. It's all a bit excessive for most people, but I can't deny it's cool. Like these two are just decorative camera rings to style your weird phone camera hybrid, as you please, and then this is a grip for that case, which plugs into your usbc port. To give you proper hardware, camera controls, as well as three very cool features which will get to and then oh there's the lanyard, but even putting all this photography kit stuff aside cuz, it is a separate purchase. Just the core package contents of the xiaomi do wipe the floor with what the samsung comes with. So that's one point to no points, but then, as soon as I picked the xiaomi up, I i started laughing. Don't get me wrong. There is absolutely merit to xiaomI's design. I really like these leatherlike finishes. It feels clean and grippy and hasslefree, and also having a central, symmetrical camera is nice and practical for using the thing on a flat surface. However, these cameras have become so big, so deep and so weighty that it feels like they've started to invade the core phone experience to the point where most of the people I've handed this to it's the first thing they notice and they are completely put off by It especially compared to the samsung, which is so great for brighthued, almost any position and still avoid the cameras to quote joseph in my team here. It feels like you're holding holding a piece of tech stuck onto a piece of tech, and, while I can tolerate it, you know I'm always someone who wants to make sure I'm using the best tech. There is, and I'm willing to be a little bit uncomfortable to do so. This right here is my issue. This phone is so topheavy. I genuinely feel like I'm having to exert extra grip strength just to keep it in my hands. You feel the urge every single time you pick it up to hold it higher up than usual to balance out that weight distribution. But you can't do that because the camera protrude so much and takes up half the phone, and so you just end up with this continuous sense of dredge, knowing that at any time one wrong hand over and it's a vista. It gets in the way of wireless charging. The camera

lifts the phone up so high that in quite a few situations it no longer makes proper contact with the charger or the phone that you're trying to charge with it. If you're reverse wireless charging, I really needed this thing last week to save my dying samsung. While I was out traveling and about an hour into delicately fiddling with these two phones trying to perfectly match the coils to actually get charge from here to here, while avoiding this massive camera module the size of the moon. I just wanted to chop the thing off. Also this bezel on the back. I hate it clearly, this whole thin on the top thick on the sides. Thing is a purposeful decision that xia's made, but I just don't understand why cuz to me, it just looks like they took this leather strip and misapplied it. So pretty clear point for samsung with the build and the usability which makes it 1 one so far, but then you turn the phones over and you'll see that xiaomI's done something pretty unique with the screen. A long running complaint that I've had with their past phones is they've, always had this thicker bottom bezel, and these weird bunny rabbit looking corners, but in one phone they have fixed both of those things and taken it further. They're calling this an allaround liquid display, which is indicative of well a how companies are running out of ways to describe glass and pixels but b, how the panel kind of melts into the edges and the corners equally in all directions. It's subtle, but I think it's a really aesthetic effect. It's kind of like how, 10 years ago we used to sketch out what we'd imagine our future phones would look like, and it's definitely cooler than samsung's flat display it's more unique and it's more interesting, but that doesn't make it better. Both are top of their game. In most aspects, bright, a high refresh rate that can fully adapt on the fly and ultra high resolution, but I would actually side slightly with samsung for this one, because for gestures, you have to use the very edges of the screen and that ends up being on The curve for xiaomi, so it doesn't register quite as reliably two that even though samsung's max brightness is technically rated lower in all the lighting conditions, I've tested it in it seems to be brighter. Brightness is a weird stat these days and then what seals it for me is this antireflective coating that samy slipped onto the s24 ultra. It is so good that you almost forget about the surrounding light, and that makes your screen experience way more legible, as if you had even higher brightness, but without the extra battery drain. That comes with that which leads us to a score of 1 2 now. But we all know that more and more every single year, the battle for the best smartphone, it's a software battle way more than it is a hardware battle. So let's talk about that and because it's such a massive category now we're splitting it into three user interface. Software support and ai okay, you might remember xiaomI's mii. It's the software skin they've had on every phone ever since the company first started, but I'm guessing that since mI's reputation was always fairly mid and potentially holding their hero, flagship phones back. They finally decided that it's time for a redo, a new skin called hyper os with a ton of new features, new animations, greater efficiency and built to work, particularly well with other xiaomi products. So yeah we're talking about the first full software remake from a company whose entire foundation was based on its software. Now that sounds awesome, which is why I was slightly underwhelmed when I booted it up for the first time and realized well. That just looks like my last xiaomi phone and that's okay. I've never hated the way that xiaomI's os looks, but it is also far from my favorite right now. It very much feels like it's trying to be ios, but just without the attention to detail or the consistency of ios, and I particularly do not appreciate the builtin adverts cuz, you would almost

assume, given that hyper oss is meant to be xiaomI's, big breakaway from mii And its advert filled reputation that this would be the opposite their way to overcorrect and to make it right, but that does not appear to be the case like the mus have recommend mended apps, that it shows you before you go to xiaomI's app store, how it Takes just one swipe from your lock screen and you're in an ad, it calls itself a wallpaper carousel, but really it's an ad in disguise cuz. As soon as you click on anything, you will be taken to a page with so many popups it genuinely makes you want to throw up even on the home screen. One swipe and you see news, but it's news in like the worst possible way to consume news with two large banner ads on screen at any point in time, and that's on top of the fact that you already have the google news feed with which actually does Take you to the sites that you want to go to, oh, but the worst is the notifications. Why why on earth does the mi browser need to specifically ping me to tell me I need to see this random article again with about 40 adverts baked in now. Of course, these are all easy to avoid and you can disable almost all instances of advertising in the phone. So I don't think it's a reason to not buy it, but I just don't like the feeling that, clearly to shia me, I am as well as the customer, I'm also the product that they can sell to their advertisers. Okay, so that was my pretty bleak. First impression of the software, but the more I've used it, the better. It has got it for starters, you realize that hyper os is ultra lightweight, like just, for example, samsung's os takes up around 17 gb of your data. This is less than 10 and within that there is still a little bit of blow wear, but the good news is, you now have complete control over it. Basically, anything on the phone is uninstallable. The lock screen customization has now opened up, and it not just allows you to in instantly nail one type of look really well, but like a whole, suite of very different aesthetics, with also room to add your own personal touches to them. It reminds me of the kind of variation that would have previously required you to use third party apps and workarounds, but it's built in, and that makes it work so much smoother, but it is still lacking on the lock screen. Widgets front they've cleaned up the control center when you swipe down just like ios they've got rid of all the text. That tells you what each icon is, which means it takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you're used to it, it feels clean. Now you can fit more icons on screen and instead of swiping between pages you just scroll down now, there's new animations and the whole thing is really fluid. I only really clocked this on, like my third full day of using the phone, but it was a sudden moment of realization of wait a sec. Have I had a single bit of lag in my entire experience? No, it feels reliably almost unbreakables and you expect it to stutter a little bit. Nothing or like this is the camera app relative to most camera apps. This is slick. There's new gallery features like some very quirky portrait mode effects, probably a little too quirky for me, but they're, fun, oh and also cutout, which can instantly just chop your background out or swap it for something else. Hyper os also has this dynamic island like feature on top for little things like charging and silent mode, and I actually think it's done pretty well because of the screen's ability to portray deep blacks. It genuinely feels like your phone bezel itself, is extending down to create this separate area within your screen. It's a convincing illusion, but it is also early days. Something like this is only useful in so much as there are apps that support it and well not many apps support it. So yeah hyper os is a good step in the right direction. It is better than the mii it's replacing, but I still prefer using samsung's 1ui. I think this new version of samsung's os. It feels like a really good balance of playful, but mature.

I like how you can swipe your notifications away both ways as opposed to xiaomI's. One way or how you can expand those notifications in all cases, with a little swipe down that feels so intuitive to me, the customization is absolutely absurd. Thanks to samsung's goodlock suite of apps - and you can do it all without any need to get into the nittygritty of installing custom firmware and the vibrations samsung's vibration motor is so good that you forget there is a vibration motor. It almost fuses the hardware and the software, so that typing, for example, feels really tactile, and you don't even immediately know why. Now that is not quite the case with xiaomi, so I wouldn't call this a landslide win for samsung. Both phones will absolutely do everything you need them to do and more, but it's just I think, samsung has improved this generation more than xiaomi has with hyper os, even though xiaomi is supposedly the one who's had the big rebrand and the whole thing with the ads. In the software, while it isn't a deal breaker for me, it does leave a bad taste in the mouth, but hey I've waited through them for the last 2 weeks to make this video, so a sub to the channel would wow me: okay, here's the thing with Xiaomi though one of the biggest complaints - that's often leveled at them, is the software support. In recent years, samsung has massively revamped theirs. They went from promising 2 years of major android updates to 4 years and now 7 years on this phone, this s24 ultra will get updates until android version 21 and that's not a cheap thing to do. I was actually talking to someone I know in the phone industry, someone who actually makes the decisions for how many updates their phones get, and they were telling me that they spend an average of a million per major update per model of phone. They want to get those updates for, and this is where xiaomi does save a bit of cost, there's a fair few of their flagship phones in the past that they have completely just left high and dry, which was extremely sad. It's better now they're offering four full years, which not that long ago, to be fair, would have seemed incredible, but hey I mean the benchmark keeps moving and xiaomi is consistently catching up. So this one goes to samsung too. Let's talk artificial intelligence with the launch of the s24 ultra, it felt like one of those mic drop. Ai is here moments. There's around 10 different ai features, all weaved into various parts of the software and all available on day. One I'd say about: half of them are gimmicks like fun party tricks that are cool to try, but you won't really use after the first week, and half of them are either already game changers or they have a good chance to become game changers in one way Way, the entirety of hyper os is built around the ability to use ai like there's this big incoming feature called hypermind, which apparently uses ai to understand your needs and then execute things automatically across all your xiaomi products, but hyperm mind is coming in a few weeks. Apparently, as of right now at this point in time, there aren't nearly as many discrete ai features on the xiaomi as samsung, but that doesn't mean there aren't any I mean for one hidden away in the gallery is an absolutely enormous ai feature called video effects. You pick a clip and then you just tap and hold on whatever effects you want to apply to that clip and it automatically tracks them to that person. In that footage, there was a time not very long ago at all where this would have to be drawn in by hand, and it would take like a full day just to edit a 30 second video. So the fact that I can now completely without internet literally tap and hold my screen to edit an effect into the video for, however long I want feels like I have just been granted a superpower, and if I was a little better at the robot, this would Look absolutely awesome. I tried okay, it can even use its awareness of where you are to place text behind you, which

is a complex effect that, if you're doing it manually with a traditional video editing program, it takes way longer and requires much more skill than it does here. On your smartphone, there are some ai features baked into the camera too, but I'll get to the camera separately. For this ai category, I would say: samsung still takes it just for the sheer breadth of ai features, but the fact that what xiaomi has done they have done so well, it does get me excited for what might be next, oh dear, the scorecard is not looking Very good for xiaomi right now, but how does the performance measure up well? Both phones have the snapdragon 8 gen 3 processor, with samsung's advantage being that they always get custommade versions just for them that are slightly overclocked and specifically optimized and xiaomI's perk that this goes up to 16 gb of ram instead of samsung 12. So if we're talking numbers samsung is a little higher on cpu and a pretty decent amount higher on graphics, xiaomi is going to be able to keep a few more apps suspended without having to force close them. But I tell you the much starker difference between these two is. The thermals thermals, I would say, are even more important than a bit of extra ram or a chip being made for galaxy, because in theory it only matters if your phone is powerful. If it can be powerful, while staying cool and xiaomi does not seem to be very good at doing that check this out, so this is the wildlife extreme stress test. It basically puts the phones through 30 minutes of pure pain and in that samsung's internal temperature goes up to 44°. Xia's 52° samsung feels way cooler too on the outside, whereas this especially on these metal rails on the sides, it feels like you could cook an egg on there. Here's the really weird part of it, though I have run four of these tests now and every single time xiaomi, while always getting hotter, also manages to keep its performance higher, there's way less of a drop off after long strain, which is good. But considering that I can see - and I can absolutely feel that it's getting hotter is also unusual and maybe not good the way I'm interpreting that result - it's it's almost like xiaomi is being less conservative with protecting the chip and the battery in the long term, like Allowing the phone to go full throttle and stay at full throttle, even if potentially reducing its lifespan, so I'll give performance a draw just because who wins really depends on what you're prioritizing, but where I think you feel this looser power management more directly is battery everything About xiaomI's battery experience sounds like it should be better. I mean both phones have 5000 mah batteries, but xiaomI's wired charging is 90 w of power versus samsung's 45 xiaomI's wireless charging is 80 ws versus samsung's, 15 and xiaomI's ability to reverse charge. Other phones is 10. W versus samsung's, 45 and yet samsung still takes it for me for the simple fact that the lasts longer and not even by an arbitrary amount, it's a full 10 to 15 % difference. So for the way that I use my phone I charge overnight, and then I want my phone to last all day. Samsung has enough of the battery life improvement that honestly, none of xiaomI's, fast charging chops can win this point back. But if there's one redeeming factor of the 14 ultra one thing that could still make it worth it, even though it's down bad on number of categories, one, it's got to be the camera right. I mean the thing is massive: it feels like it weighs more than me, and this is the key area where all of these ai features are focused. So every single camera on the back here is a 50 megap camera and, more importantly than resolution. The reason that these cameras are so much bigger than these cameras is sensor sizers. These phones have the exact same combination of camera types, but every camera on the xiaomi is bigger than the respective camera on the samsung, and that's a good thing. That should mean that providing the software is as good.

This will wipe the floor with samy over here. So does it do that? Well, it's got really good fundamentals like look how smoothly you can transition between your lenses and most impressively with zero color shifting this phone? Really understands your scene and, yes, your photos aren't 100 % true to life of color because of this leica collaboration that xiaomI's doing leica definitely has a style, and you definitely notice it appearing in your shots, but I don't mind it here. What bothers me is when phones get colors wrong because they don't know. What's right, we had something pretty much like this with the oneplus 12, whereas here you have the confidence that the phone gets it, but it's just choosing a style, and that makes it fun to shoot with the filters and the automatic vignette. That's applied the huge camera sensors, meaning that, whether you use your main camera, your three time, zoom camera or your five time, zoom camera - you are getting mive natural cinematic background, blur much more than samsung. It makes me feel like such a hipster, and I actually find myself using the camera way more on this phone. Just for the pure thrill of it. Stylewise xiaomi goes for to smooth images. Meanwhile, samsung goes for vibrant sharpened images. Both are good, but the soft old film style look of xiaomi, combined with its high power optics, is a really cool combo, because it specifically makes photos, look like they were shot on a big proper like a camera and by comparison samsung shots more often than not. They still feel to me like phone photos, great phone photos but phone photos and what I'm really glad to see is xiaomI's video performance. The phone is a pretty clear demonstration that they know how to take good video video, that's detailed, video, that's color, accurate video! That's pretty good at keeping noise levels in check now. One thing that I will hand to samsung is that their focusing is better than xia's and that's really starting to matter when you've got big sensors, which will blur anything that isn't immediately in focus, but the xiaomi 14 ultra's camera is just too cool to not give The point to them like it's, got four microphones instead of three, which gives it one more channel to both pick up better audio and also remove background noise. It's got a variable aperture, so you can manually restrict light intake. This camera grip for a certain kind of user is the best for three reasons: one it's also a battery. It gives the phone an extra 1500 mah hours of juice, taking the phone's total capacity with it to an eye watering 65k milliamp hours. It funnily enough, actually improves the phone's weight distribution and makes it more ergonomic, and then three is the accompanying software. This is not just a slapon accessory they've, clearly thought about the different things, things that you might want to use it for. The final addition, then, is the ai, and it's mostly used in the background on xiaomi. You don't really see it, except when you zoom in as soon as you get beyond 30 times magnification. You know when most phones start to look like potato cameras. That's where you see this little red icon come up. You see that, and you know that you're about to see magic, because after capturing that photo, your phone isn't just going to do what it can with what it has it's using extremely powerful ai ai, sophisticated enough that you can take photo. Is it even something stupid? Like 120 time zoom and the phone turns it into a legible result, this blew me away and when it works, it is by far the most detailed zoom camera I've ever used, but yeah. I do have to caveat it because the ai upscaling it doesn't always activate it, raises questions like given that detail here isn't being extracted, it's actually being invented. Is that even photography, and also it can make some photos? Look a bit weird like in the process of inventing that detail. You'll find yourself with shots that a decent amount of the time. Don't quite have the texture that you know they should.

There is also a movie mode on xiaomi, which is great cuz. The core video quality is so high and this mode specifically it nails the fundamentals of cinema, but who shoots a movie in 1920x 800 resolution. Let's probably talk again when it can do 4k, like the other phones can. Overall, though I would say, cameras are a win for sham, which leaves us with a score of 3 seven. Obviously, not all categories are going to matter the same amount. So the reason we've done this graphic is so that it's an easy way for you to decide. What's important to you and prioritize that but yeah, I do think that in the battle for the 2024 flagship, samsung is ahead. Unless you really want the xiaomi camera experience and you're happy to sacrifice to get it. ``

[mrshcloset]

Confronting in Love

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry?” Genesis 4:6

READ Genesis 4:1–12

LISTEN ONLINE

He did many things well, but there was a problem. Everyone saw it. Yet because he was so effective in accomplishing most of his role, his anger issue wasn’t adequately addressed. He was never truly confronted. Sadly, this resulted in many people being hurt over the years. And, in the end, it led to the premature close of a career that could have been something so much more for this brother in Christ. If only I’d chosen to confront him in love long ago.

In Genesis 4, God provides the perfect picture of what it means to confront someone’s sin in love. Cain was infuriated. Being a farmer, he’d presented “some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord” (v. 3). But God made it clear that what he brought Him wasn’t acceptable. Cain’s offering was rejected, and he was “very angry, and his face was downcast” (v. 5). So, God confronted him and said, “Why are you angry?” (v. 6 ). He then told Cain to turn from his sin and pursue what was good and right. Sadly, Cain ignored God’s words and committed a horrific act (v. 8).

While we can’t force others to turn from sinful behaviours, we can compassionately confront them. We can “speak the truth in love” so that we both become “more and more like Christ” (Ephesians 4:15 NLT). And, as God gives us ears to listen, we can also receive hard words of truth from others.

By Tom Felten

REFLECT & PRAY

Why is it vital for us to confront others in love? How do you receive hard but helpful words?

Father, help me to have the courage to others in love and to receive hard but true words with grace.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

The Bible has much to say about anger. God warned Cain that anger is a response that must be reined in quickly (Genesis 4:7). The psalmist David warned, “Stop being angry! . . . It only leads to harm” (Psalm 37:8 NLT). Solomon, the wisest man on earth, likewise said that an angry man will do foolish things (Proverbs 14:17, 29). The New Testament warns, “Don’t sin by letting anger control you . . . for anger gives a foothold to the devil” ( Ephesians 4:26–27 NLT) and “human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires” (James 1:20 NLT).

K. T. Sim