#collection bin program

[3rtechnology]

Responsible Disposal of Electronic Devices: A Comprehensive Guide

Understanding the Impact of E-Waste

Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to discarded electronic devices that are no longer in use. With the rapid advancement of technology, the volume of e-waste generated globally has surged, posing significant challenges for waste management and environmental conservation. Many electronic devices contain hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants, which can leach into the soil and water if not disposed of properly. Improper disposal methods, such as burning or landfilling, can release toxic chemicals into the environment, endangering ecosystems and human health.

The Importance of Responsible Disposal

Responsible disposal of electronic devices is essential for reducing the adverse effects of e-waste on the environment and public health. By recycling or properly disposing of old electronics, valuable materials can be recovered and reused in the manufacturing of new products, reducing the need for raw materials extraction and minimizing environmental impact. Additionally, proper disposal prevents toxic substances from contaminating soil, water, and air, preserving the integrity of ecosystems and safeguarding human health.

How to Responsibly Dispose of Electronic Devices

1. Recycling Programs

Many manufacturers and retailers offer e-waste recycling programs for electronic devices, allowing consumers to return old gadgets for proper disposal or recycling. These programs often accept a wide range of electronics, including smartphones, laptops, printers, and televisions. By participating in these programs, consumers can ensure that their old devices are recycled in an environmentally responsible manner, minimizing e-waste and promoting resource conservation.

2. Electronic Waste Recycling Centers

Local governments and environmental organizations operate electronic waste recycling centers where individuals can drop off their old electronics for recycling. These centers typically accept a variety of devices and may provide convenient drop-off locations or scheduled e-waste collection events. Electronic waste recycling centers employ specialized processes to dismantle and recycle electronic components, extracting valuable materials such as metals, plastics, and glass for reuse in new products.

3. Trade-In Programs

Some retailers and mobile carriers offer trade-in programs that allow customers to exchange their old devices for credit towards the purchase of new ones. These programs not only provide an incentive for consumers to upgrade their electronics but also ensure that old devices are properly disposed of or refurbished for resale. By participating in trade-in programs, consumers can reduce e-waste and contribute to a circular economy where resources are reused and recycled.

4. Donation

Donating old electronic devices to charitable organizations or schools is another responsible disposal option. Many organizations accept gently used electronics and refurbish them for donation to individuals in need or educational institutions. By donating old devices, individuals can extend the electronics lifecycle, benefiting others while reducing e-waste and promoting sustainability.

5. Certified E-Waste Recyclers

When disposing of electronic devices through a recycling service, it's essential to choose a certified e-waste recycler. Certified recyclers adhere to strict environmental and ethical standards, ensuring that e-waste is processed safely and responsibly. Additionally, certified recyclers may provide documentation certifying the proper disposal of electronic devices, giving consumers peace of mind knowing that their e-waste is being handled responsibly.

3R Technology

8002 S 208th St E105, Kent, WA 98032, United States

(206) 582-7100

[veone]

GSHADE 3.5.0 Cracked Tutorial Feb.2023

‼️Update:3/2023‼️ Due to gshade somehow being online again! You can still install the program with this tutorial but to avoid the update to version 4.2 notification keeping you from proceeding-Download the program from mediafire and then turn your pc to airplane mode and continue the process below! Note that when you turn your internet back on that your going to get the notification still ignore it. That what I’m doing.

Alright with the recent events regarding the development team of GShade figuratively going under and the current version of this program available being far from perfect. It would be lovely to back to a version of GShade that doesn't have malware, the changes that disabled the depth of field effects, and the removal of some older shaders. So here's a tutorial on how to install 3.5.0 of GShade. It's the version that we as a collective switched to all those months back, when GShade popped off in the community. Also the version I used to take this picture and got from @toskasimz who sent me the files. She's the reason why I have my pretty pictures back. It took a long time to get my preset to look like this and the modern versions of Gshade and Reshade don't have the shaders for this anymore. The suggested skill level for this is basic knowledge of how to install Reshade/Gshade and knowledge of where to find the game Bin file and Program Files on your pc.

Note: This version is before the code that shut down your PC, if you manipulated the code of the program, was introduced. Use at your own risk. I personally have no issue with using it. I'm using my laptop I do school work on and I have no money to buy a new one so that's my assessment on how safe it is.

To start download this media fire file. It's a Rar file. Unzip it.

In the unzipped version of this file, you should have a folder that's highlighted below called GShade.

Inside that file are two folders. Program Files-G-Shade and TS4 Bin Folder. These folder names correspond with where the contents of these will go on your pc.

Alright inside the folders you should have the following content in the Program Files-G-Shade

Inside the TS4 Bin Folder, you should have the following contents inside it.

Place the GShade folder from the Program Files-G-Shade into your computer's Program(x86) file. This may have a different name based on your computer.

Next Place the contents of the TS4 Bin Folder which should be the G-Shade configuration file and the folder of GShade-Shaders into your Bin folder. (note I have gshade installed already so you won't have the extra files before installation.)

Now go back to the Program(x86) file on your PC and go into the G-shade folder.

Double Click to run the program.

This is where you gonna need to pull your Reshade/Gshade knowledge. You just install the program as normal to the game. I will say I don't know if this will work with other games.

Alright, this is what you should be left with after installing G-Shade. Everything transferred to the Program Files with the exception of this folder. Leave it be and go to the Program Files file on your pc.

Once in the Program Files folder double click the GShade Control Panel.

You should get the following screen Go to the Installations tab. Delete this file path. This is a very important step. It's not gonna work if you don't reinstall the program. Delete it and click Add New.

Install the program as viewed above. Click Next and set up your screenshot folder.

Click No on viewing the guild. You should have a control panel on your desktop. You can go in a convert you reshade presets if needed.

Alright if everything was done correctly open your game. It'll take a moment to load and when it does you greeted with the following screen on start-up.

Ignore the yellow text on the top. It says that your effects are disabled because it's not online. It works I could be misinterpreting what "effect" means but my shader work so I'm not complaining.

And there you go. Installed, and works perfectly. Don't update it. I don't know what it'll do. I have not tried. I will upload an edited version of my preset later this week or tonight. I have to tweak the color of the fog and make a decent post. Enjoy! I am open to helping under this post and in dms!

[reasonsforhope]

"Of South Korea’s countless kilograms of annual food scraps, very few will ever end up in a landfill. This is because of two reasons—the first is that it’s been illegal since 2005, and the second is because they have perhaps the world’s most sophisticated food waste disposal infrastructure.

While representing a significant burden on the economy, the food waste disposal nevertheless produces ample supplies of animal feed, fertilizer, and biogas that heats thousands of homes.

As the New York Times’ John Yoo and Chang Lee reported from Seoul, South Korean cuisine tends to lend itself to creating food scraps, since many staple dishes come with anywhere from a few to a few dozen sides.

With the culture erring on the side of abundance rather than restraint, many of these small dishes of tofu, kimchi, bean sprouts, and other bites would be tossed in the landfill if it wasn’t illegal to do so.

The government put the ban hammer on it because the mountainous terrain isn’t ideal for landfill construction.

Instead, restauranteurs and street hawkers pay the municipality for a sticker that goes on the outside of special bins. Once filled with food scraps, they are left on the road for collectors in the morning who take 90% of all such waste in the country to specialized collection facilities.

At apartments and among residential housing areas, hi-tech food waste disposal machines are operated by a keycard owned by residents under contract with the disposal companies.

Once taken to the recycling facilities, the food is sorted for any non-food waste that’s mixed in, drained of its moisture, and then dried and baked into a black dirt-like material that has a dirt-like smell but which is actually a protein and fiber-rich feed for monogastric animals like chickens or ducks.

This is just one of the ways in which the food scraps are processed. Another method uses giant anaerobic digestors, in which bacteria break down all the food while producing a mixture of CO2 and methane used to heat homes—3,000 in a Seoul suburb called Goyang, for example. All the water needed for this chemical process comes from the moisture separated from the food earlier.

The remaining material is shipped as fertilizer to any farms that need it.

All the water content is sent to purification facilities where it will eventually be discharged into water supplies or streams.

While one such plant was shut down from locals complaining about the unbearable smell, many plants are odorless, thanks to a system of pipes built into the walls that eliminate it via chemical reaction.

It’s the way South Korea does it. Sure, it costs them around $600 million annually, but they have many admirers, including New York City which hopes to implement similar infrastructure in the coming years."

-via Good News Network, June 15, 2023

[plumbtales]

THREE LAKES | CC-FREE ✅

Requires: All EPs and SPs Type: Hood Makeover

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⚠️ Last Updated: August 28th, 2023

💾 SFS | MEDIAFIRE

Ko-fi ☕

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Information ℹ️

This is a full hood makeover of Three Lakes, the mountain vacation hood that came with Bon Voyage. All lots have been made over and I've also added 5 made over lots from the lot bin. The hood comes in 2 versions; with the 12 local townies or without them. All townies have cellphones and adults have 6 want slots as I think sims should have them even if they didn't attend college. The hood was made on the dirt terrain.

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Recommended Mods ☑️

🔹 Rug Fix

🔹 Ceiling Light Fix

🔹 No Fireplace Fires

🔹 Centerpiece Enabler

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Defaults & CC Shown in Pictures 📷

🔹 iCad’s Dirt Terrain Default

🔹 Mountain Tree Clumps Default

🔹 Maxis Oaks Defaults

🔹 Arid Shrub Dirt Terrain Matching Horizon

🔹 The Great Sky Project (Dusty Afternoon)

🔹The Great Sky of Totalitarianism (Alfsi Clouds)

🔹 No Overlay Roads V2

🔹Pond & Sea Water Overhaul

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Installation & credits under the cut

Installation

C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Ultimate Collection: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

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Credits:

@notsolilnobody for making me aware of language strings, I never considered them before. @tvickiesims & @lowedeus for helping me understand the language strings for the storytelling album. Super special thanks to @tvickiesims for figuring out what to edit in the webentry and for playtesting and troubleshooting with me, it must have been exhausting! I appreciate you so much!💋

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[ohtobeleah]

Jake and Iris make me feel things I’ve never felt before. The chemistry, the toxicity, the overall dynamic makes me sweat 🥵

I.R.I.S Masterlist

Brrooo, I had so much fun writing this one and I really got carried away because it’s over 5k long. So please enjoy.

Warning: Smut! Female receiving oral. Jake Seresin x Mitchell!reader. Undisclosed age gap.

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

“Dad—cool your jets alright I said it’s not what it looks like.” You groaned as you hid your face in the palms of your hands as you kicked off the covers of your bed.  

“Iris….” Mav looked at you like he was ready to combust on the spot. The little vein near his temple had risen like it was about to pop. “What are you doing sleeping in Hangman's shirt?” 

You had to think fast on your feet with this one, but this wasn’t your first rodeo. Jake, unsurprisingly, wasn’t the first guy you’d fucked around with. What could you say? You had a thing for older guys. 

“I got pretty hammered the other night alright, shit happens and I threw up on my shirt, this must’ve just been the one I picked up from the lost and found bin at the Hard Deck.” You lied through your fucking teeth as you got out of bed. Mav just stood there speechless. “Must’ve got thrown in with the washing and just ended up in the pile on the chair.” You gestured to your clean washing pile you had yet to put away. “I got in pretty late last night, but if you’d rather me not keep it, I’ll give it back. You said it belongs to Jake right?” 

“No I said it belongs to your Lieutenant Commander, Iris, Lieutenant Commander Seresin—“ Mav corrected you. “He’s Jake to you when he’s over for family events, any other time he’s your superior, address him as such or at least as Hangman.” You just paused, you rolled your eyes as you collected some things for a shower. Underwear, jeans, a normal shirt that wasn’t Jakes. 

“Uh, but I quit the program Daddio.” You reminded your dad. “So realistically he’s not my superior, and I can call him Jack Shit if I wanted to.” 

“You did not quit, Mitchell’s don’t quit.” Pete replied, he was losing his cool and you could tell, but like father like daughter, so were you. “You don’t get to quit TopGun, you’re the top one percent and of this nation aviators Iris.” Pete thought reminding you of your remarkable skills would sway you into thinking twice about your decision. It didn’t. Not even in the slightest bit. 

“They do when the whole system is rigged!” You turned on your heels as you slammed the draw you’d been looking in for a belt. “They do when they’ve been capped dad!” 

“What are you talking about?” Pete just played as dumb as he possibly could, but he knew. Oh boy did he know what you were talking about. 

“Rooster told me what some of the guys said to the Admirals! He told me what they said they’d do if I was given an ounce of a shot at this—“ You’d have to call Bradley later and tell him to take the L. You couldn’t tell the truth but you couldn’t not confront your dad. You weren’t about to say, ‘Nah l heard what you said when I was under your desk with Jake's dick down my throat—‘ Were you? 

“Iris—“ 

“Why would you not tell me that? My own dad, the reason why I’m fucking stunted in my career! This is it for me dad.” You hissed. “I don’t get to go any further than this because I’ve got Pete fucking Mitchell goddamn DNA—“ 

“Enough, we’ll talk to Admiral Simpson—“ Pete’s heart ached inside his chest as he looked at you, his daughter, every ounce of him. He hadn’t always been there and hell he’d missed a lot. But he loved you, he loved your mother in some strange amicable way too. Enough that he never missed a child support payment, he even paid more than he was required. He sent birthday and holiday gifts, paid half your schooling fees and paid for your first car. But Pete knew no amount of money equated to time lost. “I agree, this whole thing isn’t fair.” He said softly. “And we’ll figure out a way to fix it.” 

“You can maybe but I’m not going shit.” You weren’t in the mood for this. You didn’t want to be told what to do, you weren’t a child and you weren’t in the wrong here. If you wanted to quit on your own terms you were going to. “I’m not the one who thinks so low of myself that I need to stunt others to gain notoriety, that’s fucking Rebound and his ugly ass personality.” You didn’t exactly know who had put in the complaints against you but if someone had held a gun to your head and asked you to take a wild guess, you knew your answer would be pretty accurate. “So if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna take a shower, make a coffee and enjoy my morning off because I. Fucking. Quit.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

“You come to your senses finally?” Bradley asked as he flipped through his lesson plan. “Heard through the scuttlebutt yesterday that you dragged Iris into the Admirals office by her damn ear?” Jake's mind momentarily flashed to the events of last night, when he had you splayed out beneath him moaning his name. As he blinked back the X rated image he remembered he’d woken up alone, in a cold and empty bed he wished you were in. 

“She’s flunking on purpose because these guys are intimidated.” Jake looked at his own lesson plan as he lent on the table in the hanger turned makeshift classroom. “Someone had to pull her back in line.” 

“And that someone’s you?” Bradley asked, all Jake did was look at him confused. He was your teacher fisher and foremost, what else was he supposed to do? “Huh, you could’ve had me and everyone else fooled.” Bradley shrugged. “Heard you really gave it to the kid.” 

“Don’t call her a kid man.” Jake cringed. “God it makes me feel like I’m some kinda perv.” 

“You are a perv! You’re fucking Mavs daughter!” Bradley hissed. “On multiple occasions it seems? Jake, Have you actually stopped to think for a moment what will happen when he actually finds out? Because it’s gonna come out eventually and I’m gonna be so fucking far gone when it does man you won’t see the ass end of me.” 

“He’s not gonna find out, we’re keeping it casual.” Jake just shrugged it off, he couldn’t keep thinking about the what ifs when he was with you in the moment. He wanted to enjoy the time he had with you. Sneaking around, being discreet, if he kept thinking about your dad every time he was with you he was gonna form an unwanted association and Jake couldn’t have that. He’d almost lost you once and he wasn’t ready to give you up yet. “Casual and consensual Rooster, she might be Mavs daughter but she’s still an adult.” 

“Oi!” Just as Rooster and Hangman were about to start preparing their whiteboard, Mav was walking into the hangar with broad shoulders and a stirn glare. “Tweedle dee and dumbass!” 

“Who’s who?” Rooster asked through a laugh as he wrote up his status on the whiteboard, earning himself a smack in the back of the head. “Ow! The fuck Mav—?” 

“Thanks for telling Iris about the complaints some of her classmates made, Rooster.” Maverick just deadpanned Bradley, the guy had a few inches on Mav but he didn’t care. “She’s pissed off now and you of all people know how she gets when she’s pissed off!” It was true, Bradley Bradshaw was literally the closest thing you had to a brother, which meant when you were both a little younger, you in your teens and Bradley in his twenties— fought like cats and dogs.

“What are you even talking about?” Rooster asked as he looked at Jake who just kept writing on the board, he looked all kinds of guilty. “I—“ Rooster paused, what had you and Jake been up to that meant you had to lie and say that Rooster told you? He hadn’t checked his phone all morning but he regretted it now. “Did, yeah I did do that, sorry—she cornered me when I pulled a point or two when she was doing Hard Deck pull ups.” Jake let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as Bradshaw took the blame, he owed him—big time. 

“Well because she knows, apparently she quit the program.” Jake's heart sank from his chest into his ass. No you didn’t? You would’ve mentioned that last night. “I've gotta go talk to Cyclone about it now—this whole thing is a giant mess.” 

“Iris could probably still have this thing if she applied herself.” Jake hadn’t taken his eyes off of what he was writing. “She could fly circles around those losers with her eyes closed and hands tied behind her back.” Jake kinda wished he’d just said this to you yesterday instead of dragging you through the mud. The longer he thought about it, perhaps words of encouragement could have prevented you from taking an overly critical approach. “She’s a smart girl, but she’s your daughter, which means she’s just a stubborn as you so—“ 

Pete just fished the T-shirt he’d stuffed into the back of his jean pocket out and threw it Hangman's way. Jake caught it on his shoulder. He looked rather confused at the white material that cascaded down his shoulder. 

“She is smart, but she’s got her mothers rage.” Mav sighed. “Or stupidity, I’m not sure, but she damn near gave me a heart attack this morning when I went into her room and saw her sleeping in that shit.” Jake took the shirt from his shoulder to investigate, he could feel the heat sweeping across his face as he realised that you must have accidentally picked up his prized Hangman shirt after he’d discarded it last night. You know, before he fucked the shit out of you. “Wanna tell me why my daughter was sleeping in your shirt? Jacob?”

“I uh—“ Jake was panicking, Mav could tell. He was onto whatever was going on here he just couldn’t tell what exactly it was or to what extent it had gone. Did he believe your little lost and found story? No. Not in the slightest bit. “I couldn’t tell you man I haven’t seen this thing for a while.” Jake chuckled out, rubbing the back of his head as he thumbed at the cotton fabric. “Thought I’d lost it? How’d Iris end up with it?” 

“She said she thinks she got it out of the Lost and Found box at the Hard Deck?” 

“That checks—“ Rooster mumbled as Jake sent him a look. “Honest, she was a mess a few nights ago. She’s lucky I didn’t kick her out of the Bronco when she threatened to spew her guts up on my dash.” It was all fabricated. Bradley didn’t know why he was jumping to Jake’s defense when the evidence was literally in the palm of his hands. But today was not the day to be down an instructor—so if anything Bradley took it upon himself to make sure Jake Seresin could live to breathe another breath for his own selfish reasons. “What, you think they’re fucking or something Mav?” 

At that moment Jake forgot how to breathe when Pete Mitchell starred directly into Jake's soul. Just waiting for him to crack. 

“I haven’t figured that out yet, but if they are? Just know it doesn’t bode well in your favour, Hangman—“ 

“I would never touch your daughter Mav, it’s Iris.” Jake cringed like you were beneath him, like it was an insult to his character that he’d stoop so low. That’s he’d be that dumb. “She’s basically a kid—“ Bradley couldn’t believe what he was hearing, blowing air into his cheeks as he turned back to hide his face against the whiteboard as Mav continued eyeing off Jake. “You know I wouldn’t, and the fake I haven’t seen this shirt in weeks just adds up. Iris got it outta the lost and found, thanks for returning it.” 

As Jake spoke complete and utter lies, all he could hear was your soft moans and delicate whimpers. He could feel your nails dragging into the muscles that littered the expanse of his back and after last night? The track marks you’d left began to throb with anxiety. 

“Yeah—“ Mav sighed, tapping Jake on the arm a few times. “Yeah I guess you’re right, sorry, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.” 

“No hard feelings.” Jake just replied, he just wanted this conversation to be over so he couldn’t put his foot in it any further. 

The second Pete turned his back Jake went weak in the knees. Bradley’s eyes widened with endless questions and queries. But he settled on just one. 

“What exactly were you and Iris doing that she had to throw me under the bus like that?” Jake didn’t respond right away, he was still trying to process the fake he was rock fucking solid. The idea of Mav threatening him for being any way shape or form involved with you had him going feral. 

Jake liked it, and he thought maybe, just maybe, he even loved you. 

“You want the truth?” 

“Probably not—“ Immediately, Bradley regretted asking. “Nope, I actually don’t want to be any more of an accomplice than I already am.” Jake just grinned like a Cheshire Cat. Looking Bradley up and down before he spilled the very R rated and inappropriate beans. 

“She was under Mavs desk, with my dick in h—“ Bradley couldn’t let Jake finish before he was covering his ears like a child. 

“Oh my god! No shut up, I can’t know that!” He shoved his fingers in his ears and looked away. He couldn’t think of you like that, his little sister. He knew Jake was a goner, a deadman walking but Rooster was too. An accomplice to Jake's own stupidity. “No la la la la— I can’t fucking hear you!” 

“You asked!!” Jake laughed to himself. “You asked what we were doing!” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~*

Later that same day, Jake was heading to your place during his lunch hour. It was only a five minute drive from base on a good day. He should have known better than to rock up unannounced, but the line between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour was becoming far too blurry to really focus his moral compass. 

“Iris?” Jake knocked damn well knowing you weren’t going to answer—if Mav had been right about anything it was that when you were in a foul mood you were sour. Jake’s presence probably wasn’t going to make your mood any less aggravated. “Iris open up!” 

To Jake’s surprise, you answered. You couldn’t have reefed the door open any harder if you tried as Jake stood there taking in the sight of you. Clad in nothing but a little black bikini and Prada Milano sunglasses. Looking over them up at Jake as you tilted your gaze to look above where they sat on the bridge of your nose. 

“Can I help you?” 

“The fuck does Mav mean you quit the TopGun program? Are you mentally deficient or something!?” Jake pushed past you in the doorway, barreling in as his rage consumed him. “God you’ve done a lot of dumb shit recently Iris but quitting TopGun? That’s career suicide—“ You didn’t answer, you simply stood there, raising an eyebrow as you pushed your glasses up the bridge of your nose. 

“If those guys, Krod and P:E and fucking Rebound are the Navy’s top one percent than I send my hopes and prayers to their families—“ You explained as you walked your way out towards the back deck. “They’ll be burying the bastards sooner rather than later and I for one, will be there to say they should’ve worked a little harder for their titles instead of manipulating the system in their favour.” 

Jake hated to see you leave, but he loved to watch you walk away, your bikini bottoms left very little to his imagination.

“Now if you’ll excuse me Hangman, I was enjoying the sun and a nice glass of scotch before you rudely showed up at my dads house unannounced.” You turned, sinking a hand on your popped hip. “So unless you have someone interesting to say I’d shut the hell up and leave before dear old daddy comes home and finds you here, tainting his only daughter’s innocence.” Jake went to speak, he wanted to laugh and call your bluff and tell you how fucking stupid you were being. But you cut him off as he held his tongue and clenched his jaw. “And yeah—I can tell you to shut the hell up because you aren’t my superior anymore, stings knowing you’re the one who pushed me over the goddamn edge by dragging my ass into Admiral Simpson's office for that write up huh?” 

“Oh don’t act like me doing my job had anything to do with the fact you were looking for an excuse to give up!” Jake shouted as he followed you out onto the back porch. “By the sounds of things you’d already made up your mind before I even decided you’d crossed the line between brat and insubordination.” You let Jake finish his rant before you looked at him with sinful eyes. Eyeing him up and down. Was there anything he didn’t look good in? 

“What are you even doing here?” You asked through a sigh as you sat back down on the lounge chair you’d been posted up in the sun on before Jake arrived. Enjoying your day off. “Because I know you didn’t just come here to berate me for my decision to quit—you could’ve done that when I came to collect my stuff, you didn’t need to make a personal house call.” Despite wanting to pull you up by the hair on your head and drag you back to base himself, Jake just continued to undress you with his eyes as he undid the zip on his flight suit. Standing in your direct sunlight as he did so just to piss you off. “Jake, don’t be a pest fucking move your old ass—“ 

As Jake’s cock twitched against the fabric of his boxer briefs, undressing the very little clothing that covered you, he hatched a plan—a rather simple plan to have you biting your tongue and dragging your ass back to TopGun. 

“I actually came to talk about last night.” He admitted, shimmying the arms off his body as he tied them around his waist. “I wanted to ask if you really meant what you said, about wanting more.” 

“I don’t want shit from you if you’re gonna come in here ranting and raving about my problems and how I choose to deal with them.” You mumbled, pretending that you weren’t interested as Jake sank to his knees before you on the sun lounge. “But, if you must know, I wouldn’t technically be opposed to the idea of this being more than just sex, because unfortunately I’m hot for teacher.” You smirked as Jake grinned ear to ear at you as he sauntered up and hovered over you. Taking your lips hostage in a slow and sensual kiss that had you forgetting how to breathe for a second before he pulled away. 

“I came here on my lunch break you know—“ You pretended to care, looking around as if you were trying to spot something. “What?” 

“I didn’t see you bring anything with you?” You winked as you winded your legs. Looking up at Jake as he hovered over you. “You might just have to go hungry there, teach.” Jake caught your intentions as he lowered himself down between your legs. His dangerously dark, lust filled eyes never left yours as he did so. Dropping lower and lower till he was at eyeline with your just barely clothes cunt. 

“I think I’ve got a pretty delectable meal right in front of me darlin—“ Jake purred as he spread your legs a little wider, drinking in the sight of your core nearly hanging out of those little black bikini bottoms. “And I’m absolutely ravished.” You snapped your knees together just as Jake slowly made his way forward, just scraping the tip of his nose as you giggled wildly. 

“Too bad, it’s gonna cost ya.” You taunted, biting on your bottom lip as you eyed Jake off and spread your legs apart before him again, watching with awe as the crimson hume that crept across Jake's cheeks grew brighter and brighter with every passing second. “Walking Propaganda Poster Boys who pray on women half their age from conservative Texan families pay extra too.” Jake was speechless as you dragged him through the mud, the sad thing was it turned him on. 

Perhaps Bradley was right from the get go—Jake Seresin had a thing for degradation. 

“What’s a dining experience at the Iris Inn gonna cost me?” Jake growled as he slowly dragged the tip of his index finger up your calf and to your inner thigh. “Name your price—“ You hissed when Jake took the little string that kept your bottoms tied together and snapped it back against your hip. 

“Ah—“

“Words Iris, use that bratty mouth of yours and tell me what it’s gonna cost.” Jake looked at you with lust filled eyes that had never been darker, keeping his trail to your core right on schedule as his fingers grazed the fabric that clothed your core. “I ain’t got all day Iris.” 

“Your entire career, deadman.” You softly gasped as the pad of Jake's thumb danced softly over the fabric of your bikini bottoms, making your sensitive bundle of nerves ignite. “Ohhh—maybe even that won’t cover it.” 

“Guess we’ll have to find out won’t we?” Jake asked as he pulled back the fabric of your bikini to reveal your soaked pussy. “Huh, you really get off on the idea of me going straight to hell for all this don’t you?” 

“I touch myself to the thought of it every night.” You admitted as a wicked smile crept across your face. Jake chuckled to himself, he was a goner. “Touch myself thinking about all the ways I’ll ruin your life and I cum so hard when I remember you want me to.” 

“Fucking hell Iris you’d make the strongest of men weak.” Jake sighed as he crept closer and dragged you forward to his face, sinking his teeth into your inner thigh as you unfit the sides of your bikini. “You’re poison—“ 

“And yet you keep coming back for more—“ You would always beat Jake at his own game, he knew his fate and accepted it. He kissed up your inner thigh slowly before finally landing right where you wanted him, where you needed him. Against your core in a feaverish moment of sudden ecstasy. “Oh fuck—!” Jake kissed and sucked against your glistening core, drinking in the taste of your nectar. 

He’s been right, oh how you were a delectable meal and such a cuisine that was surely exclusive to the most exclusive restaurants. You were soft and sweet and all things in between as Jake looked up at you as he flicked his tongue against your clit. Reveling in the jolts of electricity he knew washed through your body whenever he flicked up. 

“Jake—“ You sighed out as you let all your thoughts go. “Fuck baby feels so good.” You told him as you reached back to untie your bikini top, Jake watched through dark hooded eyes as he made you his lunch. His heart danced inside his chest at the sight before him, you peeled off your black bikini top to expose yourself fully in the backyard of your dads house. You knew what you were doing to him and Jake fucking loved it. “Eat my pussy Jake, just like that—“ 

“You taste so fucking sweet Iris, so sinful.” Jake growled as he pulled away, reaching up to coax two of his digits into your mouth. He paused at your bottom lip, deciding that to ask you to open would give you far too much power and if Jake knew anything about you it was that you had a power complex. So as Jake gripped at your chin and looked at you with stirn eyes—he told you what to do. 

“Open.” And do it you did, without hesitation. Welcoming the two chosen digits into your mouth as you hummed and swirled your tongue around and gripped at your own tits. “Fuck Iris—“ Jake was about three point five seconds from ruining his flight suit. He had a Hop after lunch. “Good girl.” Jake praised you as he pulled his dripping digits from your mouth and slowly and ever so carefully, guided them past your dripping lips into your core. Stretching you to a nice full feeling as you arched your back and squeezed your tits all for Jake to watch as he got you off. 

“Ohh, Ohh fuck Hangman—-“ Jake had never really been a fan of the calllsign Bradley gave him all those years ago. It was more of a personal attack on him and their once strained friendship than a nod to his personality, his professionalism. But as it dripped from your mouth like a siren song, Jake found a new reason to love it. “Jake fuck—feels so good, oh god.” 

You sounded like every sin Jake had ever had. Vocalised into a reality playing out before him as he ducked his head back down to suck a pressure out of this world against your sensitive bundle of nerves, coaxing his fingers up against your velvet walls to create a feeling so pure and intense it had you singing out his name into the heavens above. Surely neither of you would be granted access after this. You’d both be sent straight to hell. 

“Ahhhh fuck yes! Yes Jake!” You moaned out as you rolled your hips to grind against Jake's face as he lapped away at your cunt. His chin glistening with your arousal as he worked to finger fuck you. Drinking up all that you could give him. 

“So fucking pretty aren’t you Iris.” Jake mumbled against your core as he buried his fingers to the hilt. “So pretty and gorgeous and fucking irritating—“ Jake moved to mark your inner thighs with love bites and bruises that would linger on your supple skin for days to come. “I’ll make you a deal.” 

“Fuck off—“ You knew what was coming as Jake slowly moved back to your core, soft kitten like licks against your clit nearly had you breaking as you whimpered and whined and arched your spine. “Jake, I’m close! So fucking close.” It was the smirk that gave it away, the devilish, oh so endearing shit eating grin Jake sent you as he pumped his fingers inside you, hitting just the right spot to send you hurtling towards the edge of insanity. “JAKE! Oh Christ! Aauugghh—“ You were so close it hurt. “Please, please I wanna cum for you daddy.” 

You saw the look in Jake's eye when you called him that. He hated that he loved it. He’d never been a ‘daddy’ guy. But with you? It felt right in the worst kind of im fucking your daughter way. 

“Say you’ll come back to TopGun and I’ll make you cum Iris.” Jake mumbled as he sucked against your cunt. Curling his fingers up inside you in a come hither motion. “I promise baby, say you’ll come back and ruin those fuckers and I’ll make you cum so hard you’ll forget everything but my name.” 

“You're a bastard!” Jake raised a hand to grip at your throat, applying just enough pressure on the sides of your neck to have your head spinning as you gasped and tried to hold onto whatever sanity, whatever control you had as your orgasm barreled towards you. “You—you fucking bastard.” 

“Is that a yes?” Jake grinned as he lapped away at your throbbing bundle of nerves. “Say it Iris.” He growled as the tips of his fingers hit just the right spot with enough force to send you flying towards the sun. You couldn’t hold it even if you wanted to, which you didn’t. 

“Ahhhh yes! Yes alright, alright you son of a bitch I’ll come back! just make me—“ You didn’t even need to finish your sentence and Jake was sucking against your clit so perfectly it had you arriving at your very dirty destination. “Ahh—oh god ahhhhh FUCK!” 

Jake, in all his years had never heard such a beautiful sound. You always managed to surprise him every time you came. Everytime your body trembled at his touch, everytime your jaw hung slack as your eyes rolled and beautiful whimpers and moans and sighs of relief escaped in their droves. Releasing your neck from his hold just as your pushy fluttered around his now soaked digits.

“Oh my god you’re such an ass Seresin.” You sighed as Jake lapped the last of your sweet sweet nectar from your dripping cunt up all for himself before he rose up to take your lips hostage with yours. 

“I gotta get going, thanks for lunch.” He mumbled as you enjoyed tasting yourself of his tongue. “I’ll see you later though when you come to reclaim your throne Mitchell.” You just rolled your eyes as Jake dropped his head, taking each of your nipples in his mouth one at a time before he pulled up and away. “Seeya soon—“ 

“What if you don't?” You called out, watching as Jake left you on the outdoor lounge chair to soak up the rest of the midday sun. Jake didn’t even look back over his shoulder to address you but you knew good and well he was smirking as you flipped him off. 

“I will.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

“What’cha have for lunch Hangman?” Mav asked as he caught Jake in his peripheral vision. “You weren’t in the Rec room?” 

“Nah I ate out today—“ Jake smirked, god he was going to hell. The only Heaven he’d be sent to, was when he’s alone with you. 

Later that same afternoon about an hour or so after Jake had left, you sauntered on into the hanger you knew your dad would be in. Doing whatever it was that he did between his lessons. Low and behold Jake Seresin had been right. 

“Hi honey.” Pete beamed, Bradley stood beside Maverick with a curious smirk on his face. Stupid mustache, hiding his upper lip. “I see you changed your mind?” Jake stood leaning against one of the empty desks. His arms nearly bulging out of black T adorning his stupidity perfect body. 

“Yeah well—“ You sighed as you took your aviators off and placed them into the neck of your shirt. You were just in a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. Nothing fancy. Nothing too extreme for your meeting with Admiral Simpson. “You can either chock it up to downright stupidity—“ You paused, tucking your hands into the back pockets of your jeans as you watched Jake wink at you from behind your fathers shoulder. “Or post nut clarity.” 

“IRIS!!” Pete scolded you as Bradley’s jaw hit the ground in second hand embarrassment as Jake's face turned a bright shade of crimson. 

“My god, she’s your fucking daughter—“ Rooster sighed as he tried to scrub the last five seconds from his memory bank.

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Dow promised to turn sneakers into playground surfaces, then dumped them in Indonesia

Dow Chemicals plastered Singapore with ads for its sneaker recycling program, promising to turn old shoes into playground tracks. But the shoes it collected in its “recycling” bins were illegally dumped in Indonesia. This isn’t an aberration: it’s how nearly all plastic recycling has always worked.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/26/career-criminals/#fool-me-twice-three-times-four-times-a-hundred-times

Plastic recycling’s origin story starts in 1973, when Exxon’s scientists concluded that plastic recycling would never, ever be cost-effective (#ExxonKnew about this, too). Exxon sprang into action: they popularized the recycling circular arrow logo and backed “anti-littering” campaigns that blamed the rising tide of immortal, toxic garbage on peoples’ laziness.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/14/they-knew/#doing-it-again

Remember the campaign where an Italian guy dressed like a Native American shed a single tear as he contemplated plastic litter? Funded by the plastic industry, as a way of shifting blame for plastic waste from the wealthy, powerful corporations who lied about plastics recycling to the individuals who believed their lies:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-crying-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html

When I was a kid in Ontario, we had centralized, regulated, reusable bottle depots — beer and soda bottles came in standard sizes, differentiated by paper labels that could be pressure-washed off. When you were done with your bottle, you returned it for a deposit and it got washed and returned to bottlers to be refilled again and again and again.

After intense lobbying from soda companies, brewers and the plastic industry, that program was replaced with curbside “blue boxes” that promised to recycle our plastic waste. 90% of the plastics created has never been — and will never be — recycled. Today, the plastic industry plans on tripling the amount of single-use plastic in use worldwide:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/26/plastic-fatalistic/#recycled-lies

You know those ads from companies like Bluetriton (formerly “Nestle Waters”) that promise that your single-use plastic bottles are “100% recyclable…and can be used for new bottles and all sorts of new, reusable things?”

Bluetriton is a private equity-backed rollup that has absorbed most of the bottled water companies you’re familiar with, including Poland Spring, Pure Life, Splash, Ozarka, and Arrowhead. When they were sued in DC for making false claims about their “recyclable” water-bottles, their defense was that these were “non-actionable puffery.” According to Bluetriton, when it described itself as “a guardian of sustainable resources” and “a company who, at its core, cares about water,” it was being “vague and hyperbolic.”

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/26/plastic-fatalistic/#recycled-lies

With this high standard for plastic recycling, Dow’s Singapore scam shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it seems to have surprised the government of Singapore. Writing for Reuters, Joe Brock, Yuddy Cahya Budiman and Joseph Campbell describe how they caught Dow red-handed:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-plastic-dow-shoes/

The method is actually pretty straightforward: Reuters hid tracking devices in cavities in the soles of sneakers, dropped them in one of Dow’s collection bins, and then followed them. The shoes were passed onto Dow’s subcontractor, Yok Impex Pte Ltd, who sent them hopping from island to island throughout Indonesia, until they ended up in junk-markets.

Not all the shoes, though — one pair was simply moved from Dow’s collection bin to a donation bin at a Singaporean community center. Of the 11 pairs that Reuters tracked, not one ended up at a recycling facility. So much for Dow’s slogan: “Others see an old shoe. We see the future.”

Dow blamed all this on Yok Impex, but didn’t explain why its “recycling” program involved a company whose sole trade is exporting used clothing. Dow promised to cancel its deal with Yok Impex, but Yok Impex’s accountant told Reuters that the deal would be remain in place until the end of the contract. Yok Impex, meanwhile, shifted the blame to the low-waged women who sort through the clothing donations it takes in from across Singapore.

Indonesia bans bulk imports of used clothes, on the grounds that used clothes are unhygenic, displace the local textiles industry, and shipments contain high volumes of waste that ends up in Indonesian incinerators, landfills and rivers.

In other words, Singaporeans thought they were saving the planet by putting their shoes in Dow bins, but they were really sending those shoes on a long journey to an unlicensed dump. Dow enlisted schoolchildren in used-shoe collection drives, making upbeat videos that featured students like Zhang Youjia boasting that they “contributed 15 pairs of shoes.”

Dow does this all the time. In 2021, Dow’s “breakthrough technology to turn plastic waste into clean fuel” in Idaho was revealed to be a plain old incinerator:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/environment-plastic-oil-recycling/

Also in 2021, in India, a Dow program to “use high-tech machinery to transform the [plastic from the Ganges] into clean fuel” was revealed to have ceased operations — but was still collecting plastic and promising that it was all being turned into fuel:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-plastic-insight-idUSKBN29N024

Dow operates a nearly identical “shoe recycling” program in neighboring Malaysia, and did not return Reuters’ requests for comment as to whether the shoes collected for “recycling” in the far more populous nation were also being illegally dumped offshore.

The global business lobby loves the idea of “personal responsibility” and its evil twin, “caveat emptor.” Its pet economists worship the idea of “revealed preferences,” claiming that when we use plastic, we may claim that we don’t want to have our bodies poisoned with immortal, toxic microplastics, that we don’t want our land and waters despoiled — but we actually love it, because otherwise we’d “vote with our wallets” for something else.

The obvious advantage of telling people to vote with their wallets is that the less money you have in your wallet, the fewer votes you get. Companies like Dow have used their access to the capital markets (a fancy phrase for “rich people”) to gobble up their competitors, eliminating “wasteful competition” and piling up massive profits. Those profits are laundered into policy — like replacing Ontario’s zero-waste refillable bottle system with a “recycling” system that sent plastics to the ends of the Earth to be set on fire or buried or dumped in the sea.

The ruling class’s pet economists have a name for this policy laundering: they call it “regulatory capture.” Now, when you hear “regulatory capture,” you might think about companies that get so big that they are able to boss governments around, with the obvious answer that companies need to be regulated before they get too big to jail:

https://doctorow.medium.com/small-government-fd5870a9462e

But that’s not how elite economists talk about regulatory capture: for them, capture starts with the very existence of regulators. For them, any government agency that proposes to protect the public from corporate fraud and murder inevitably becomes an agent of the corporations it is supposed to rein in, so the only answer is to eliminate regulators altogether:

https://doctorow.medium.com/regulatory-capture-59b2013e2526

This nihilism lets rich people blame the rest of us for their sins: “if you didn’t want your children to roast or freeze to death in the climate emergency, you should have sold your car and used the subway (that we bribed your city not to build).”

Nihilism is contagious. Think of the music industry: before Napster, 80% of the music ever recorded was not for sale, banished to the scrapheap of history and the vaults of record companies who paid farcically low sums to their artists.

During the File Sharing Wars, listeners were excoriated for failing to pay for music — much of which wasn’t for sale in the first place. But today, fans overwhelmingly pay for Spotify, a streaming service that notoriously pays musicians infinitesimal sums for their work.

Spotify is a creature of the Big Three labels — Sony, Universal and Warner — who own 70% of all the world’s recorded music copyrights and 65% of all the world’s music publishing. The rock-bottom per-stream prices that Spotify pays were set by the Big Three. Why would the labels want less money from Spotify?

Simple: as co-owners of Spotify, they make more money when Spotify pays less for music. Musicians have a claim on the money they take out of Spotify as royalties — but dividends, buybacks and capital gains from Spotify are the labels’ to use as they see fit. They can share that bounty with some artists, all artists, or no artists.

Not only that, but the Big Three’s deal with Spotify includes a “most favored nation” clause, which means that the independent artists who aren’t under Sony/UMG/Warner’s thumb have to take the rock-bottom rate the Big Three insisted on — likewise the small labels who compete with the Big Three. The difference is that none of these artists and small labels have massive portfolios of Spotify stock, nor do they get free advertising on Spotify, or free inclusion on hot Spotify playlists, or monthly minimum payouts from Spotify.

The idea that we shop at the wrong kind of monopolist in the wrong way is a recipe for absolute despair. It doesn’t matter whether you listen to music with the Big Tech-owned monopoly service (Youtube) or the Big Content-owned monopoly service (Spotify). The money you hand over to these giant companies goes to artists the same way that the sneakers you put in a Dow collection bin goes to a recycling plant.

Think of the billions of human labor hours we all spent washing and sorting our plastics for a recycling program that didn’t exist and will never exist — imagine if we’d spent that time and energy demanding that our politicians hold petrochemical companies to account instead.

At the end of Break ’Em Up, Zephyr Teachout’s outstanding 2020 book on monopolies, Teachout has some choice words for “consumerism” as a theory of change. She writes that if you’re on your way to a protest against a new Amazon warehouse but you never make it because you waste too much time looking for a mom-and-pop stationers to sell you a marker to write your protest sign, Amazon wins:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

The problem isn’t that you shop the wrong way. Yes, by all means, support the creators and producers you care about in the way that they prefer, but keep your eye on the prize. Structural problems don’t have individual solutions. The problem isn’t that you have chosen single-use plastics — it’s that in our world everything for sale is packaged in single-use plastics. The problem isn’t that you’ve bought a subscription to the wrong music streaming service — it’s that labels have been allowed to buy all their competitors, creators’ unions have been smashed and degraded, and giant accounting scams by big companies generate minuscule fines.

The good news is that after 40 years of despair inducing regulatory nihilism and “vote with your wallet” talk, we’re finally paying attention to systemic problems, with a new generation of trustbusting radicals working around the world to end corporate impunity.

Dow is a repeat offender. A repeat, repeat offender. Chrissakes, they’re the linear descendants of Union Carbide, the company that poisoned Bhopal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

They shouldn’t be trusted to run a lemonade stand, let alone a “recycling” program. The same goes for Big Tech and Big Content company and the markets for creative labor. These companies have repeatedly demonstrated their unfitness, their habitual deception and immorality. These companies have captured their regulators, repeatedly, so we need better regulators — and weaker companies.

The thing I love about Teachout’s book is that it talks about what we should be demanding from our governments — it’s a manifesto for a movement against corporate power, not a movement for “responsible consumerism.” That was the template that Rebecca Giblin and I followed when we wrote Chokepoint Capitalism, our book about the brutal, corrupt creative labor market:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

We have a chapter on Spotify (multiple chapters, in fact!). For our audiobook, we made that chapter a “Spotify Exclusive” — it’s the only part of the book you can get on Spotify, and it’s free:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/12/streaming-doesnt-pay/#stunt-publishing

Next Thu (Mar 2) I’ll be in Brussels for Antitrust, Regulation and the Political Economy, along with a who’s-who of European and US trustbusters. It’s livestreamed, and both in-person and virtual attendance are free. On Fri (Mar 3), I’ll be in Graz for the Elevate Festival.

[Image ID: A woman kneeling to tie her running shoe. She stands on a background of plastic waste. In the top right corner is the logo for Dow chemicals. Below it is the Dow slogan, 'Others see an old shoe. We see the future.']

[lottes-little-place]

Happy Halloween spooky simmers! I'm bringing gifts in the form of a new type of cauldron and a new type of spell book for your witches/warlocks (Apartment Life required).

Is your carpet covered in wood chips? Are you afraid the smoke from your cauldron is going to alert the neighbors? Is your ceiling black because you are too stubborn to put your cauldron in the garden instead of inside the house? Then look no further! 

With these modern appliances you no longer need to start fires in your own residence. The modern witch has electricity at their disposal and it’s about time they are able to use it to their advantage.

The cauldron has two optional power cord recolors, but it comes with an invisible recolor as default so you don’t have to use it. It has the same options as the Cast Iron Cauldron (original cauldron), so brew away!

Tired of reading difficult passages by candlelight? Does the design of the stand not fit your otherwise modern interior? Are you dreading the day you have to move and find three neighbors to help you carry your stand down the stairs?

The spell book changes with the witch’s alignment like the Grandiose Grimoire (original spell book). It comes with a custom accessory that is used in the animation when another sim examines the book. The one thing I couldn’t fix is that the book stays neutral in the animation. That’s a problem with the original spell book too, so if anyone knows how to fix it, be my guest! Fixed for my spell book, grab the fix here for the Grandiose Grimoire.

For the spell book I’ve used textures from The Sims 4: Realm of Magic and upscaled them a little bit. If you want the closed books, Gryning has converted them here.

I have default replacements for those who want them too, you can mix and match them so you don’t need to replace them both. You might have to replace your current cauldrons and spell books in use for them to show up correctly. I’ve made them buyable in the catalog, so if you have the default you won’t need the custom version as well. I would even advice against it, since the recolors will conflict if you do.

If you use a default version, you can also place the cauldron default replacement file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\SP9\TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins (or your latest EP folder) in order to avoid getting a custom content star for the object.

Polycounts:

Modern Witch’s Cauldron: 3870 (Cast Iron Cauldron is 3310)

Modern Witch’s Spell Book: 704 (Grandiose Grimoire is 1108)

Can be found in: Hobbies - Miscellaneous

Costs: 870 (cauldron) and 630 (spell book)

Credits: @crispsandkerosene (music stand mesh and textures), Red Fox / nokillnando (electric stove mesh), Vinoskii (cooking pot mesh), DidiSimsation (power cord and socket meshes) and MrsReval (conversion of the power cord and socket meshes)

Download (Custom objects)

Download (Custom cauldron) (Custom Potions Made Better version)

Nov. 8, 2022 Update! Custom spell book updated with @lamare-sims‘s fix for the examine animation. (You still need to download the fix for your Grandiose Grimoire)

Oct. 17, 2023 Update! I now have a version of the cauldron with Midge the Tree’s Custom Potions Made Better mod functions. Make sure to read their instructions on what the mods do. You need the midgethetree_betterccpotions-witchescancraft file in your game to make my version with custom potions work. I also made a version with faster reagents and a version that has both. Choose only one!

Download (Default replacements)

Nov. 8, 2022 Update! The default replacement for the Grandiose Grimoire is now compatible with @lamare-sims’s fix for the examine animation. It also doesn’t need the custom accessory anymore, so if you update the file make sure to delete LotteModernWitchSpellBookAccessoryDefault.package.

[catandsusim]

Mac Simmers, Rejoice!

A long time ago, Huge Lunatic extracted the content of three Stuff Packs and put them in neat package files that a Mac can use. Those three packs were: Ikea, Teen Style Stuff, and Kitchen and Bath.

You can download all three from the link at Garden of Shadows.

Installation is easy, but the package files do NOT go in your Downloads folder. They go in the Mac equivalent of your Program Files.

In Applications, right click on The Sims 2 Super Collection and choose Show Package Contents. Click to open Contents->Assets->Expansion Packs->Bon Voyage->TSData->Res->Catalog->Bins

This is where the buy and build packages go.

Almost done! Next, you need to go back a level, to Contents->Assets->Expansion Packs->Bon Voyage->TSData->Res->3D. This is where the bodyshop packages go.

Once installed, it is the same as owning those Stuff Packs. There are no custom content stars in the catalog, and recolors of the objects work just like on a PC.

There will be a folder named TSSBedding. Ignore it, or trash it. I messaged Huge Lunatic, and apparently the bedding is tied to the beds somehow. That folder seems to contain the bedding texture files, but nothing else. She does not recall what she was thinking at the time. Hey, it WAS a long time ago.

[darkumage]

Welcome to Greenwood !

GREENWOOD - V2

If you live in Greenwood, that has to mean you are something other than human, insane or even both. With its dense forests, crystal blue ponds and eclectic architecture, the town has the kind of bizarre charm that puts a spell on anyone who steps on its ground. For centuries, it has been a sanctuary for people who had been cast away from their homelands. But is it really such a quiet and peaceful place ? What kind of secrets do the inhabitants have ? Is it true that people were murdered ? Why are alien spaceships drawn to the town so much ?

You will find out as you play the neighborhood. It's ✨a mess✨.

Most of the Sims have some kind of tie to the supernatural, either being a supernatural Sim themselves, extremely into the supernatural, extremely against the supernatural or having had to deal with the supernatural at some point.

The hood just needed some changes, such as a more coherent architecture, less terrible community lots and less trees, because the neighborhood deco in V1 caused quite a lot of pink soup and crashes for some people with less powerful computers or who used an enlarged viewing distance in lot view with disabled fade distance. If you still experience pink soup, maybe try LazyDuchess's experimental fix or lower your lot skirt size / enable the fade distance.

WHAT IS IN THE HOOD ?

If you still have v1 and you've had that save for a while, then you don't need to delete it and grab v2, of course.

The hood has :

16 playable families and 4 bin families.

77 lots : 32 community lots, 38 residential lots (16 occupied, 22 empty), 3 apartment lots with 4 slots each, 2 buildable lots and 2 hidden lots.

Completely re-done hobby lots, to include stuff from all the expansion packs and with some stuff that made me go "WTF" removed (main hood only).

INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS :

• For the main hood, place the GRWD folder into your [Your Name] / Documents / EA GAMES / The Sims 2 / Neighborhoods folder. • For the subhood, place the SGWD folder into your C: / Program Files (x86) / EA GAMES / The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection / The Sims 2 Open For Business / TSData / Res / NeighborhoodTemplate folder.

REQUIRED MODS :

MidgeTheTree's Child Lycanthropy mod. Not having it won't break the game, but it will cause graphic glitches.

DOWNLOAD LINKS :

Main Hood : https://simfileshare.net/download/3698483/

Subhood : https://simfileshare.net/download/3698616/

THANKS

Many thanks to all the people who gave me feedback during development and after the release of v1, on Discord and MTS. Y'all are really amazing ^^

Stay tuned, because I am working on some pretty big stuff that will be revealed... someday, I don't really know, but I can't wait to show that to y'all. All I'm going to say is : if you like futuristic stuff, TS1's Magic Town and if, like me, you had a Monster High/Ever After High phase at some point, you may like what's coming next.

[3rtechnology]

The Ultimate Guide to Recycling E-waste

What is E-waste?

E-waste refers to discarded electronic devices, including computers, televisions, and printers, that have reached the end of their useful life. These devices contain valuable materials like gold, silver, and copper, but they also harbor toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Improper disposal of e-waste can lead to environmental pollution and health hazards.

The Environmental Impact of E-waste

Pollution of Landfills

When e-waste is disposed of in landfills, it can leach harmful chemicals into the soil and groundwater, contaminating the surrounding environment. This pollution can persist for years, posing risks to both human health and wildlife.

Air Pollution from Incineration

Some e-waste is incinerated as a means of disposal, leading to the release of toxic fumes into the atmosphere. These emissions contribute to air pollution and can exacerbate respiratory problems in nearby communities.

How to Recycle E-waste Properly

Find a Certified E-waste Recycler

When recycling e-waste, it's crucial to choose a reputable recycler that adheres to environmental regulations and best practices. Look for certifications such as R2 certificate (Responsible Recycling) or e-Stewards to ensure that your electronics are handled responsibly.

Data Security

Before recycling your old devices, make sure to wipe any personal data stored on them. Use data erasure software or physically destroy the hard drives to prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands.

Donate or Sell Working Electronics

If your electronic devices are still functional, consider donating them to charity or selling them to a second hand electronics store. This extends their lifespan and reduces the demand for new products.

Benefits of Recycling E-waste

Conservation of Resources

Recycling e-waste reduces the need for virgin materials, conserving energy and preserving natural resources.

Reduction of Pollution

Proper e-waste recycling minimizes pollution and prevents harmful substances from contaminating the environment.

Challenges in E-waste Recycling

Lack of Awareness

Many individuals are unaware of the importance of e-waste recycling and continue to dispose of electronics improperly.

Technological Complexity

E-waste recycling requires specialized equipment and expertise, posing challenges for effective recycling processes.

E-waste Recycling Process

Collection

E-waste is collected from various sources, including households, businesses, and electronic recycling centers.

Dismantling

Devices are dismantled to separate reusable components and hazardous materials for safe disposal.

Sorting

Components are sorted based on material type to facilitate recycling and recovery processes.

Processing

Recyclable materials undergo various processes such as shredding, melting, and refining to extract valuable resources.

Innovations in E-waste Recycling

Advanced Recovery Techniques

Innovative technologies enable the recovery of rare metals and valuable materials from e-waste streams.

Sustainable Design

Designing electronics for recyclability and durability promotes a circular economy and reduces e-waste generation.

3R Technology

8002 S 208th St E105, Kent, WA 98032, United States

(206) 582-7100

[fanny-hs]

Would you ever post a program of any kind for purchase teaching some of your incredible techniques? If not do you know of any resources that may be helpful for someone interested in your art & process?

This has never crossed my mind. Not sure how many would be interested.

As for resources... James Gurney's book Color and Light is great. Devin Korwin has some threads, and now courses, on fundamentals that I like. Other than that, I try to look at artists whose work I enjoy and a) collect their art somewhere (my pinterest is overflowing) so I have quick access to a bunch of art that I want to inform my current work in one place, and b) also sometimes write down in words which aspects of their art that I like, I find that makes it easier to synthesize what it is I want to learn and remember to implement it.

For plein air type paintings I look a lot at Kellan Jett, Pixelpchan, Kaye Bin, Sseongryul, Aymeric Kevin, Neo1900, and older nordic artists like Karl Nordström, Carl Larsson, Helmer Osslund, Akseli Gallen-Kallela to name a few (for environments, specifically).

[dominaharper]

Alright Tumblr, I need some opinions/ideas/advice/wisdom.

I collect(ed) Harry Potter LEGO sets for years. I have an enormous display case and 4 IKEA ones (you know the ones) full of completed sets, a storage bin full of doubles (because I didn’t need to display Version 1 AND Version 2 of things) as well as way too many sets that are unopened that I no longer have any intention of building.

These are in my Master Bedroom, and when I first put them out, I was sad they didn’t fit in my living room or game room (I already have those walls full of shelves and art), but over the last couple of years, have been relieved they aren’t out where people who visit me can see them as they no longer represent what they used to for me.

My dilemma is this: is donating the unopened ones wrong? There are kids without toys every Christmas, but is it heartless/kinda fucked up of me to donate these sets knowing full well the reason I am donating them is because of my staunch feelings about JK?

I toyed (lol) with the idea of auctioning them and donating those full proceeds to charity (my money is already in JK’s pockets), but I wasn’t sure of that message either.

These aren’t things I bought “in spite of” my knowledge. Most of these are things I bought when things were just bubbling up, and the newest sets I have were presents from people who don’t have the same strong opinion I do on JK because they noticed I hadn’t bought them for myself yet.

As for the completed sets: do I store these? F’in plastic being shite for the ecosystem, I don’t want to just throw them to a landfill if there’s a better option. I know LEGO has a program where I can send them all the pieces, so I may just do that unless someone has a better idea. I’m good with storing them in bins in my attic til the day I die, really.

[bostonfly]

It's now illegal in Mass. to throw out used jeans and worn-out socks

All types of textile items can be recycled, said Steve Lisauskas, vice president of government affairs at Waste Zero, a nonprofit that focuses on reducing trash nationally.

That includes shoes, socks, jackets, coats and cloth used in draperies or bedspreads.

"It doesn't have to be pristine off-the-rack clean," he said. "We are interested in used socks. We are interested in used underwear."

But there are limits to what can be recycled.

"If your textiles are wet or moldy or oily, you should not be putting them in a textile donation bin or collection program," Fischer said. "But everything else, including if it's worn or torn or stained, all has some value."

[chavisory]

Idle thoughts on the way cities should be able to function and overreliance on corporations to do civic good, but...

So the mayor of New York's proposed budget cuts would eliminate, among other things, our community composting programs and weekly collection sites. This doesn't mean I can't drop off my compost anymore; there's a local grocery store with a brown bin who let me if I ask (they have before when I had to miss our Friday collection slot because I was working), but it does feel extra weird and obnoxious to do a year before compost collection is going to become mandatory city-wide anyway.

And I have electronic waste I need to drop off somewhere. The city doesn't do regular e-waste pickup, despite also forbidding this stuff from being thrown in the regular garbage. There's a special collection event that comes to my neighborhood like twice a year. I can virtually never make it because I'm always working on Saturday mornings.

I used to be able to take my e-waste to Best Buy, but the one reasonably close to me closed this past year and now I'm just stuck with this stuff in my apartment until I figure out where else to take it.

A few years before the pandemic, a luxury housing/commercial development opened just south of my neighborhood, with tons of chain and big box stores that everyone was very, very excited about and I thought from the beginning were eyesores and also just entirely the wrong direction for the neighborhood to be going--Modell's, Michael's, a Bareburger, a Walgreen's, Sephora, Ann Taylor Loft... and yeah, some of the time they made shopping easier. I avoided them, but can't honestly say I never used them.

Fully half of them closed in the pandemic. Because they actually had no stakes in the neighborhood!

And it's not that I don't want Best Buy or Madewell, etc. to do electronic and denim recycling! But they become the go-to resources for doing it, so the city government doesn't make provisions for it, and then they pack up and leave because they never actually considered themselves part of the neighborhood...

[cakeboxie]

I have once again come to the realization that a lot of the reason rich folks, but particularly young rich folks don’t empathize with the poor is bc they literally can’t fathom living how we do.

For reference, I got my T5 recently (Canadian tax document for social benefits, my disability income n whatnot) and it listed my total income for the year of 2023 as 8k and change

That’s 8k Canadian btw, so less than $6000 usd.

The poverty line is at roughly 30k CAD for those interested, and I make considerably more than most disabled people in my province bc I’m considered permanently unemployable and have severe diet restrictions (I’m allergic to fucking everything)

I mentioned that to one of my irl friends who is well off (not even rich, but they have rich parents) and they quite literally could not understand how I was able to function. They make roughly 2k a month, and live rent free at their dads place (their dad is currently living in a different province too so they live completely alone)

I started explaining how me n my roommates do bills (I foot utilities, wifi, and insurance, my roommates split everything else) and they stopped me more than once to question how we managed to do things like feed 3 adults on $170 a month (food bank, the church I go to when the religious guilt gets bad always gives me food on my way out. Only shopping sales)

They couldn’t wrap their head around it, this person spends almost 400 a month on themself for food, not including occasionally eating out. They told me, word for word

“I kinda expect most people who make that little to be dead or dying.”

Ig it’s telling that the only way I could persist on so little cash to them is literally being dead? Idk man. This whole thing is something I’m passively aware of cause like, I grew up the level of poor where I was the kid they talk about in ads for breakfast programs where school breakfast is usually their only meal. I processed recently that I didn’t have “real” toys (I had a hand me down ds and a small collection of <$5 bargain bin games, and nothing else until I was 14) and that’s why my mom always wanted me to go outside and play with sticks and dirt, and wouldn’t let me bring my friends over. Bc there was fuck all to do and most parents don’t appreciate their kids being covered in mud. (My mother managed to be completely unaware that we were not the only ones living in abject poverty)

And like- I say that to people (the toys thing, living relatively comfortably on so little) and they go bug eyed like it’s not insanely common, almost everyone I knew as a kid was poor too.

A part of me wonders how much of the shock comes from me being white passing, bc when I mention the neighborhood I grew up in, and the one I currently live in, the vast majority have the same general response (“oh shit- is it true that people get shot there all the time?” No. They’ve both just a got a lot of bipoc, particularly black and native folks, and the rich white assholes that wanted to gentrify it started spreading that racist garbage bc they failed to force the people living there out, which obviously means it’s actually uninhabitable /sarc) and it’s not surprising that all my friends and neighbours are poor. But me? Someone you could mistake as very white until I stand next to my mom and grandparents? It’s mind boggling to them that I was just as poor.

I had a point to make when I started writing this but now I’m just pissed, and I want to go visit my grandma, cause it’s been a while and she still lives over where I grew up, I’m pretty sure this one really good family run donair place was able to reopen too (had to close for a while bc the owner was really old, ended up retiring and passed the place onto his kids iirc) so I might see if I can afford one when I get paid.

[potential-fate]

Ironman was capable of wandering town himself, with programming she’d added herself to collect groceries, run errands, and pick up Nicholas from school when he’d been younger. She supposed it was possible someone could have tampered with him at any point. But less people would have had the knowledge to do so. 

What was more likely, if anything, was an error in coding for fire prevention. But she couldn’t remember adding code for that in the first place, and there weren't any error logs that pointed to that either. 

She sighed to herself. If she could point out the error, Abraham wouldn’t have a reason to keep Ironman non-functional. But as it stood, she couldn’t find anything wrong. And Abraham certainly wouldn’t accept a lack of error as a good enough reason; not when he was convinced the AI had tried to burn their house down. At best, he’d be irritated she’d wasted her time working on a project he believed belonged in the bin. 

She sighed quietly. She’d been hoping to make progress in order to sway her son into helping her, but it would have to wait. She could at least still check in on him. She’d been trying to fix their relationship for months, and it still felt tenuous at best.