#in which typically i have a teaching job in a college town and my spouse makes art and we have a house

[dionysus-complex]

been thinking about Ohio lately

[thepettymachine]

A Different Kind of Jam Legacy Challenge for TS3

Honestly I just wanted to make another challenge that involved colors and had a theme but then it changed into something completely different so I thought I share. 

The Jam Legacy is a 9 generation legacy challenge based on fruits you can put into jams/jellies and has a specific color palette if you choose to go with it. Each generation is a quirky bunch and meant for some weird gameplay. So if you enjoy weird gameplay, nice fall colors, and maybe 9 generations of fun, this might be your jam.

For those who wish to do this in TS4, @nadzicle​ created an excellent conversion  of this.

Tag: jam legacy or “@” me

Rules:

All requirements that are needed for the generation are in the “Ingredients” section. 

Have fun and do what you want.

Gen 1: Strawberry

Everyone loves strawberries. They are sweet and popular just like you. You love getting to talk and meet new people at every chance you get and everyone loves how friendly you are. But your desire to help people has been the main driving point in your life. As you tend to others, you also tend to neglect taking care of yourself. As a workaholic, your house is a mess, your children don’t get to see you anymore, and your personal life is in shambles. Need to take some PTO if you ask me. 

How to make Strawberry:

Ingredients:

Career: Doctor

LTW: Super Popular

2 Traits - Workaholic & Slob

20 Friends

Skill - Charisma

Directions:

Must have the Workaholic and Slob traits

Have 20 friends and maintain those relationships until the next generation.

Neglect your children’s skills (No teaching toddler skills, helping with homework or teaching teens to drive)

Can only clean the house once a week.

Must cancel any other interaction and no outside help

Master the Charisma skill

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Gen 2: Peach

Peaches are nice and juicy, just like your creative process. You enjoy creating as it brings joy to you and those around you. But as a child, your parents neglected you as they were focused on anything and everything but you. So you found love from others and in other places where you felt like you mattered. You deserve a treat and you also treat your children to whatever they want. They’re spoiled rotten.  

How to make Peach:

Ingredients: 

Career: Self Employed (Painter/Writer/Sculptor)

LTW: Illustrious Author

3 skills - Painting, Sculpting, and Writing

10 Lovers

Found Family

5,000 dollars

Children

Directions: 

Master the Painting, Sculpting, and Writing skills.

Have 10 different lovers throughout your lifetime/at the same time

Go to the spa/stylist once a week because you deserve it

Have a maximum of 5,000 in household funds. Any amount over you spend on unnecessary items/furniture/activities

Have a close relationship with your children (spoil them rotten)

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Gen 3: Grape

You’ve always had a dream where you had a big beautiful ranch that would allow for you to take care of your horses in peace as you flaunt your wealth to those who envy you. But working hard for that money is just too much of a hassle unless someone has already done the work for you. If you want to maintain your dream, I guess you gotta marry big or have them die trying. In the meantime, you invest your money into the local businesses around town and have a side gig for nectar making. Then invite those haters to your ranch only for them to be reminded just how much better you are than them. Have a sip of that wine.

How to make Grape:

Ingredients:

Career: Equestrian

LTW: The Jockey

Skills: Nectar Making, Mixology, and Riding

3 pieces of property

2-3 horses

A ranch

Directions:

Own a ranch/farm that’s worth more than $150,000+

Have 2-3 horses

Master the Nectar Making, Mixology, and Riding skills

Host a big party at least once a week

Own 3 pieces of property in town

Win a competition on the highest level for Racing

Marry a rich sim and have them mysteriously die from unknown circumstances

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Gen 4: Plum

You’ve always believed that the universe has the answers to the questions you’ve always wondered. Like why is the sky blue? What really happened to Bella Goth? Was my parent really killed for the insurance money or the inheritance of the ranch? Sometimes these questions are left unanswered which is why you investigate the truth, supernatural or not, because it is waiting out there to be solved. Might as well document it for the views. 

How to make Plum:

Ingredients:

Career: Private Investigator

LTW: Pervasive Private Eye

Skills: Logic and Social Networking

A 5 star blog

1 death

1 death flower

A death cure (ambrosia & death fish)

Directions:

Master the Logic and Social Networking skill

Have a 5 star blog

Have a death flower in your inventory so you can meet the Grim Reaper and beat death once

Have a sour relationship with your living parent and bring back your dead parent (if you can/applicable)

Be turned into a supernatural and then find the cure to be turned back (optional to be human again)

Be abducted by aliens and have an alien child.

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Gen 5: Pumpkin

There’s always been an obsession with finding ways to tinker and fix things with you. You’ve always  found comfort in creating something with your bare hands and you tend to enjoy your own company and make few friends since you live far away from everyone else. It’s mostly because you need the space for your inventions and experiments with time travel. Wait what?!You also pride yourself by living off your own land and deciding not to feast on your animal companions you find in the wilderness as they are your only friends.

How to make Pumpkin

Ingredients: 

Career: Inventor

LTW: Renaissance Sim

Skills: Inventing, Handiness, and Science

3 children

5 woodland creatures

Trait: Vegetarian

Directions:

Master the Inventing, Handiness, and Science skills

One of your children have to be from the time machine

No more than 3 kids in the household

House must be as far away from the town as possible

Own at least 5 small pets in your home.

Everything you cook must come from your garden, so no grocery shopping from the fridge

Must have the Vegetarian trait.

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Gen 6: Pomegranate

As a child, you’ve always wanted to see the sights and travel from your little corner of the world. But your heart has always yearned for a big family you never received for when you were younger. To have two worlds come together, you decide to do most of your traveling in spring/summer and stay at home in the fall/winter seasons. When you’re at home, you spend time with your children and cook their favorite meals all while joined by the fire. And when you’re not at home, you are traveling those big adventures you’ve always dreamed of doing and to bring home the stories and souvenirs your loved ones will enjoy. What a good life indeed.

How to make Pomegranate:

Ingredients:

Career: Stay at Home Parent

LTW: Seasoned Traveler

5 children

Skill - Cooking

Directions:

Spouse has to be from a different world than you

Have 5 children and have a great relationship with all of them

Master the Cooking skill

Celebrate each holiday at least once.

Cook everyone’s favorite meal at least once

Own a complete collection of artifacts from any destination

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Gen 7: Orange

Listening to stories growing up about meeting new people and exploring new worlds has put the call of adventure into your heart. But with the limited time in this world and so many resources on your hands, you’re kinda indecisive about what to do. So basically you just do about everything on an impulsive whim. Joined a band, check. Streak in public, check. Fought a shark, check. Got eaten by a cowplant and lived, check. Turn everybody into a zombie, thought about it. Go to the future and create a dystopian future, oh there’s an idea. Yeah you’re not settling for a while. Not until you find your greatest adventure.

How to make Orange:

Ingredients:

LTW: Jack of all Trades

1 best friend

10 skills

10 jobs

3 moves

1 great adventure

Directions:

Know 10 skills but never master any of them

Spend your life finding the greatest adventure that no one else in your family has done before.

Greatest adventure is defined by you and what you believe is an adventure.

Marry your best friend as an adult

Move 3 times in your lifetime

Have at least 10 jobs under your belt (but you don’t have to reach the highest level in any of them)

Do the most dangerous inappropriate stuff at least 3 times a week.

Streaking/Skinny dipping/making out with a married person/fighting a child/etc

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Gen 8: Kumquat

You can’t stand the status quo of things and you definitely can’t stand the injustice that society normalizes. So something has to change, rather through art or always fighting the system, you believe in changing the world. One step at a time. 

How to make Kumquat

Ingredients:

LTW: Street Credible

Rebel Status

2 local protests

1 skill - Street art

3 enemies

1 change to the world

Directions:

Pull pranks as a teenager on all your neighbors

Get kicked out of college

Reach level 10 of the Rebel status

Protest at least 2 times a week

Master the Street art skill

Have 3 enemies

Can not have a typical career/9-5 job

Contribute to the future - create a utopia/dystopia for the future, become a politician as an adult or become a teacher to teach the youth. Up to you. 

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Gen 9. Blackberry

Growing up, you’ve learned how to always fight for the things you love. Through the strums of your guitar, you’ve created a melody that others can get behind when they are sad, angry, or happy. It’s the battle cry of your performance and the applause of the crowds that keep you going. It’s just that sometimes you wish you had someone to keep you going when things get rough as well. At least you have your bandmates, right?

How to make Blackberry

Ingredients:

LTW: One Sim Band

Career: Band member/Singer

4 Skills: Guitar, Drums, Piano, and Bass

2 failed relationships

1 comeback tour

1 true love/soulmate

Directions:

Master the Guitar, Drums, Piano, and Bass Skills

Create/Join a Band

Have 2 failed relationships before finding the one

True Love Checklist - Attractive, Compatible Sign, 2 similar traits, and the Virtuoso trait

Become a 5 star celebrity

Quit the band to have a solo career as a Singer

Reunite as elders for your comeback tour

Thank you for trying this challenge. Feedback is always welcomed.

Edit: 10/22/21

[deerskewl]

hi my name's ozzy and I had a bunch more medicspy thoughts, except this time they're high school au flavour and some of these ideas were from a dream I had?? wild

ludwig is a biology and german teacher (teaches different lessons on alternating weeks)

rene is head of the languages faculty and teaches literally all the languages the school offers

yes theyre already married

they occasionally crash each other's lessons to talk while the kids are working or to deliver something

the kids know that they're both married but not to each other & think that they're cheating on their spouses until ludwig slips & calls rene "liebe" in front of his bio class

there's only one kid in that class who ludwig also teaches for german (he's called Peter, he's important) and calls him out on it

cue ludwig and rene breaking down into laughter because they had no idea there was this huge conspiracy about them??? they thought everyone knew

they both have older kids from previous relationships

rene has jeremy, who he actually had a hand in raising before he and jeremy's ma split

ludwig has meredith, who's mother died in childbirth and was raised by her mother's family so ludwig wasn't involved in raising her (which crushed him)

uhhh talking about age they're probably 30s/40s?? maybe?? jeremy would be about 18 maybe and meredith would be a little older, about 20??

Also: Peter is important, he's about 12/13 maybe

Anyways about Peter: he's the only kid that they both teach - in both of Ludwig's classes and in Rene's French class

They start to notice that something is wrong with him and offer support and such

The truth is that he has a very abusive household and they help him get out of it

You can tell where I'm going with this and yes they adopt him and all is well in life

Jeremy is so glad to not be the youngest anymore and Meredith definitely choses favourites between her younger brothers

Along with the typical "dad", Peter calls Rene "papa" and Ludwig "vati" bcs cute

For the other kids, Jeremy calls Rene either by his name or "dad/pops" and Ludwig by his name while Meredith calls them both "dad/papa"

Jeremy and Meredith don't live with them but they visit often when they're in town since I'd imagine that they're both in college

Ludwig is the most likely to do dad jokes while Rene always gets the kids stuck in endless loops of "go ask your father"

Also!!!!! Ludwig keeps doves!!!! Sometimes he brings them into class because they're cute. He brought Archimedes to his biology class once. Never again.

They have a fairly decently sized house despite them both being teachers (from previous jobs cough cough 👀)

A room for each kid and one room for the doves

Also a small music room where Rene keeps his piano and Ludwig keeps his violin

Each dad has an office too

Yes, what I'm insinuating is that they used to be mercenaries

Aka in a world where they're young and the war did not go on for years and years and Rene & Ludwig parted ways with each other and retired to a domestic lifestyle and got married

They still keep in touch with the rest of the team!!

(Obviously this means Jeremy would've been too young to be Scout so uh. this team did not have a Scout. thanks.)

They have reunions every now and again. Ludwig and Misha are pen pals. In this house we love and support platonic heavymedic.

OH ALSO

LUDWIG AND RENE HAVE TOTALLY MADE OUT IN THE SUPPLY CLOSET AND THEY HAVEN'T BEEN CAUGHT ONCE

yes that is what i am ending this list with thanks for reading

[odaatlover]

Oddly enough, I’m also a band teacher and I am not out to anyone but a few close friends. I teach in my home town which is very, VERY conservative...how have you “dealt” with any negative parents, fellow teachers, administrators, etc in the field? And if so, how have you dealt with them? Thanks!

Wow this got really long 😬 

Well, I’m a freelance percussion instructor, which means I’m hired by the band programs and not by the county. At my previous school I spent the entire first year building up the relationship with my students before coming out to them (Also, I was single at the time). Then the following year, that band director retired and one of my friends from college (who is a gay man) got the position. Also, I met my now wife. I knew he wouldn’t have a problem with it, and I knew he wouldn’t fire me or anything, because that wouldn’t make sense lol. So it was just a matter of the students being okay with it. And they were very supportive the first time I brought her to a game! As for parents, they didn’t really know unless the kids told them. It’s not like I was parading her around like, “Look everyone! This is my girlfriend!” We weren’t holding hands or anything, or showing any affection, so nobody really knew unless they asked, or unless the word got to them. In which case, that wasn’t a big deal because, again, it’s not like we were shoving it in anyone’s faces you know?

Then the next year, I got a lot of new students in my section, some of whom were LGBTQ. In fact, 7 students on the drumline were LGBTQ, including the drum captain - who was a gay male. All of those kids, even the non-LGBTQ ones, were obsessed with us lol. They were really supportive of our relationship. And when we got engaged, they were like “OMG WE BETTER GET INVITED TO THE WEDDING!” A lot of the parents were supportive too! So, I was lucky enough to never have any problems with it at that school.

Last year I got a new job in a different cluster, where I now work for one high school and two middle schools all in the same cluster (the two middle schools feed into the high school, so I teach all of the percussionists from 6th-12th grade). Again, I’m hired by the band programs, so I only have to worry about the directors, parents, and students having issues with it. And out of the 5 band directors, the 3 men are all gay (2 are married and have husbands), and the 2 women are just very open minded because fine arts people are typically open minded people. So I don’t have any issues there! As for the students, The high school kids know and they’re all super cool with it, but I haven’t come out to the middle schoolers yet. And with the parents, I haven’t talked to that many parents so I don’t even know if any of them know. But it’s kind of like, if a kid’s parents aren’t supportive that kid isn’t really going to want to tell their parents you know? Because the kids are all supportive.

As for how I come out, I always build a connection with my students first. I make sure they know me as a person and a teacher before knowing anything about my personal life. I have a pretty chill personality and I strongly believe in talking to my students like fellow people as opposed to trying to come off as someone that holds power over them, so I often don’t have trouble building trust and respect right away. That’s usually when the kids will start to ask me about my personal life, because they feel comfortable enough to do so, and usually they ask if I’m in a relationship or married, and I’ll say I’m married. And then they usually say something about my husband, and that’s when I’ll casually correct them. I never make a big deal about it, and I never bring it up first. I think that’s very important, because then it shows that it’s not really any different from straight teachers who bring up their spouses you know? The only reason I’m not out to the middle schoolers is because nobody has asked me yet. But if anyone does ask me, I’ll be honest with them. I won’t give this huge speech or anything, but I’ll just casually say “Yeah I have a wife.” And leave it at that. 

I’m EXTREMELY lucky that I’ve never had any negative reactions. I teach in Georgia in a suburban area about 30 minutes outside of Atlanta, so there is a lot of diversity there and the majority of people in my area are very open minded. I know there are some people who don’t agree with it, but nobody has ever complained about it. I think the fact that I don’t make a big deal about it or bring it up without someone else bringing it up first is what really helps. And the thing that makes the biggest difference is that I let them get to know me as a teacher and as a person first. Because then it’s more like, oh this is my teacher ‘so and so’ that I really trust and really like and she just so happens to be gay. It makes it so that me being gay is just one part of me that has nothing to do with my teaching abilities or changes who I am, as opposed to “Oh this is a gay person. And they’re going to teach me,” which I feel like would happen if I came out before establishing that relationship. ...hope that makes sense haha.

Sorry this was incredibly long 😂 But I hope you found it helpful!

[schraubd]

Hi, I'm David, and I Don't Drink Almond Milk

Michael Tomasky gives us the latest installment of an everflowering series: crudely caricaturing "coastal elites" while purporting to educate them on middle Americans:

[E]lite liberals need to recognize a fundamental truth: All of these people in middle America, even the actual liberals, have very different sensibilities than elite liberals who live on the coasts.

First of all, middle Americans go to church. Not temple. Church. God and Jesus Christ play important roles in their lives....

Second, politics simply doesn’t consume middle Americans the way it does elites on the coasts.... They talk kids, and local gossip, and pop culture, and sports....

Third, their daily lives are pretty different from the lives of elite liberals. Few of them buy fair trade coffee or organic almond milk. Some of them served in the armed forces. Some of them own guns, and like to shoot them and teach their kids how to shoot them. Some of them hold jobs in the service of global capital and feel proud of their work.

Fourth, they’re patriotic in the way that most Americans are patriotic. They don’t feel self-conscious saluting the flag. They don’t like it when people bad-mouth our country. They believe that America is mostly good, and that the rest of the world should look more like America.

I find these very frustrating, not because of what they say about middle Americans, but because of what they say about me -- born inside the beltway on the east coast, currently living in the ultimate liberal bubble of Berkeley on the west coast. I don't drink almond milk (I've tried it, once, and think it's disgusting). I don't buy fair trade coffee or sip lattes of any variety. I've fired a gun, and while I don't have any real interest in doing it again, I don't begrudge others who do. I have friends from both high school and college who served in the armed forces. I can chat pop culture with the best of them (ask me about my breakdown of  Gordon Ramsay shows). There is plenty that I find great about America, and am quite happy to kvell about. Admittedly, I talk politics a lot (I am a political blogger), and I go to synagogue, not church. But I just got back from a funeral (my fiance's grandmother) which was held at a church in a town of less than 2,000 in rural Minnesota (Goodhue County went for Trump by 18, FYI). I survive such locales just fine. And while I always knew of how important her Christian faith was to her life, when I found out that she had specifically included me in her deathbed prayers, I was deeply moved. Maybe this feels like protesting too much. But it's not just about me. It's also about the folks here at UC-Berkeley -- yes, hyper-lefty Berkeley -- that falsify that coastal bubble hypothesis. When I started at Berkeley Law, my most liberal student was an alum of the University of South Carolina, and my most conservative was literally the scion of a wine dynasty. In between I taught decorated combat veterans and the daughter of an inland empire county sheriff. This is typical. UC-Berkeley is one of the world's great public universities, and our students accordingly come to us from all over the state and all over the world. They come from suburban Orange County, yes, but also inland ranch towns and impoverished LA neighborhoods. It is no surprise at all that Berkeley ranks ninth in the New York Times college access index measuring economic diversity amongst enrolled students, nor that UC schools comprise the entirety of the top 5. So maybe we're asking the wrong questions. We know that students come from a wide range of backgrounds and geographic locations and pedigrees to attend to Berkeley. Indeed, I suspect that more Berkeley students and alumni know a sizeable chunk of folks who grew up in small towns than persons who grew up in small towns know a sizeable chunk of folks who attended schools like Berkeley. And we know that the resulting campus culture here at Berkeley is very liberal. And yes, self-selection plays a part in that, as does the relative ideological uniformity of the faculty. But maybe, just maybe, it's also evidence that when you expose people to a rich tapestry of human diversity encompassing people of a wide range of backgrounds, hometowns, and pedigrees -- the result is a tendency towards liberalism. The fact is, our students aren't born on the Berkeley campus. Some of them come from those rural towns (in California or elsewhere). Or they don't, but their parents did. Or their best friend. Or their roommate. Or their future spouse. To act like Berkeley students have never met anyone who doesn't eat gluten-free is a grotesque parody of who actually comprises our "bubble". So of course we should respect each and every part of America -- urban, suburban, and rural, north and south, coastal and middle. But the "coastal elites" who supposedly sniff down upon middle Americans from atop their soy lattes? They weren't born in a Starbucks. They might have been born in that small town in rural Minnesota that they supposedly cannot possibly understand. via The Debate Link http://ift.tt/2rzZBtL

[magdalenaewald7-blog]

Tucuman Hostel, A Cheap Place in Which To Stay In Tucuman, Argentina

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