themaresnest-dumblr

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Hard luck Sweden, although it has to be said to throw away a 2 goal lead in the last ten minutes is unforgivable, even for the Always The Bridesmaid, Never The Bride team of women's international football. England were diabolical until - to no one's surprise - Michelle came on and the Swedes got well and truly Agyemanged. (Why is she always left on the bench until it is almost too late - why mummy why?) The penalties were appalling - and surely this should now be the end of that fat thug Lauren James - but trust Chloe Kelly to save Eng-Ger-Land by the skin of her rotten teeth with one of the most perfect penalties of all time - that's how you trick a goalkeeper. But the stats don't lie: Jennifer Falk saved four, Hannah Hampton only two. It was Sweden's three misses - Falk's the most ludicrous of them all - that cost them, and with it probably the best chance they've had of winning a tourney. Yes, yes, well done the Lionesses, but even if by some miracle another final beckons, reckon Spain's name's on the trophy.

[themaresnest-dumblr]

For Anyone Watching the Euros ...

... the drinks are on Cororon tonight! (Small tip for Germany. It helps when you have a goalkeeper who actually attempts to stop the ball going into the net. Just saying ...)

[themaresnest-dumblr]

It's half six in the morning and already roasting to death. This is going to be a long day.

[themaresnest-dumblr]

What Would Happen If The Lord Of The Rings Was Done By Pixar

This is so accurate, it's beyond scary, especially the way they'd manage to take all the force out of the scene when Galadriel loses her shit and all the characters look like they're from a Nintendo Switch game.

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Pffft! People do ten times worse just to stay on as Britain's Prime Minister. And don't even start us on the U.S. Presidency ...

You have an opportunity to become a god. You would:

Be immortal, even able to come back from death

Rule over your country

Have the power to do everything you ever wanted

To get all of this, you just have to kill one or two people and break an oath. Do you do it?

[themaresnest-dumblr]

The One Good Thing Jimmy Swaggart Did

He was the inspiration for this wonderful ditty:

Oh, and this one:

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Mikayla Raines RIP

Expect some pathetic bastards out there are happy now, the ones that bad mouthed, invented complete packs of lies about Mikayla and spent every waking hour they had disseminating them far and wide across the web (we had some of them talking their bullshit last time out we sang her praises).

Why? Because they were so torn up with their own pathetic envy they couldn't handle that someone else - instead of talking a good game (like all too many of the loudest mouthed types who wanted the world to know how 'caring' they are whilst doing utterly fk all) - was actually doing something about animals brought up in the living hell that is a fur farm. Instead of lives of misery and a fate worse than death (some are skinned whilst still alive), they were brought to a place where they lived full and happy lives - indeed utterly spoit rotten.

So what in all the gods' names was so wrong and evil about that to these twisted fuckers?

One less good egg in a world of far too many rotten ones.

And before any of those fkers open their mouths about how much they care for animals, think on how Dixie and the others she gave love and affection to will feel as the days and weeks go by, and they can't understand why their special human 'sibling' is no longer around to play and pet them?

[themaresnest-dumblr]

That wanting to scream the walls down moment when you've tried everything, but CAS refuses point blank to save anything properly into the main game, so what you get are Sims that look like they're trying to find their inner drag queen only to look more like dragged through a hedge backwards before being gently tactically nuked a few times. (Think Dame Edna Everage if she'd become a zombie crack whore to give yourself the best case scenario of some of the end results)

Tried the old removing the Sims 3 folder from My Documents gambit, but the regenerated one did not work either.

So, staring down the possibility of having to reinstall the base game again to see if that fixes it - ugh!

[themaresnest-dumblr]

You actually care about a Glitterturd pack? Go straight to your room young lady and think about what you just did! They're not even trying here - and it is beyond embarrassing that Strawberry Shortcake, whoops we mean LilSimsie knocked up a fairy house more worthy of the title than EA seem capable in the entirety of something they're about to charge big bucks about (assuming nuclear war hasn't started by the time it comes out ...)

Thing is, why would any Glitterturder even bother when they can simply download Palia (the lovechild of a drunken f**k by Skyrim and Animal Crossing) for free and get something that looks the same, but better?

Okay, you don't get fairies, but you get the whole prog Roger Dean - Tolkien - Lewis in pastel puke, which is ultimately what they want - and just wait for it to proffer fairies instead ('cos it will).

The Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature | Official Reveal Trailer

As usual, the Build/Buy content looks amazing AF, but I was hoping to see way more of the CAS stuff, the wings, the magic–you know, the FAIRIES?! 

Y’all made us sit blue-balled thru this dry boring trailer for…meh. 🙄😒

These are the only wings I like. PLEASE tell me EA is finally gonna let us HIDE the wings when the fae is around normies? 

Did her wings go away cuz that’s an actual ABILITY fae have, or was that just for the trailer cuz the girl was just dreaming? If yes, that’s AWESOME–same way I love how TS4′s vampires have a normie look AND a vamp look, the way werewolves do; it’s one of my fave thingf about TS4 occults; hiding in plain sight.

But why bother hiding, when the fashion is from the kiddie section at Halloween-R-Us?! The clothes are a hard NOPE for me–the dude looks the best of all, which is NEW for EA; I’m shook! 🫨  

Flower Beards–YAAS, KING! 😍 

But you’d think after seeing what an epic fail the TS4 Plantsims are that EA’d do all out on making Fae really look more plant/bug-like: cool skintones & makeup/tattoos & antennae & leaves & petals & roots everywhere–real High Fantasy Nature Couture Realness. 

This looks more like a Halloween costume. It’s just basic Prom dresses and a lazy AF top/skirt combo that pales in comparison to TS3′s counterparts–

–let alone the incredible CC the modding community’s been making for the past DECADE since this effing game came out. No, the best you get is this guy who looks like he fits better in ITF’s Utopia than in the land of the fae!

What in the High School Prom Night in Whoville are these shoes, EA? 🤦

Ok, lemme stop being mean–the CAS stuff doesn’t matter; the modders always do FAR better than EA ever has in that department; so why am I even surprised? 

On to the GAMEPLAY. 

EA kinda sorta listened to my call thru the ether way back in the Werewolf pack about making the occult lifestate & world flora/fauna work together to cure magical ailments & such (x x).  

Seems like gardening, potions & herbs will be a real focus–which is recycled content with another coat of paint, sure, but this is EA after all. So instead of SN EP’s Elixir Shop, TS4 will have a Potions Shop–that better not be a rabbithole EA! 👀

There’s so much Build/Buy goodies though, ngl. 😍 😍 

The Shire roofs~! 😍 😍 😍 

But I don’t really care about any of that–these gardening/foraging skills look like something any sim can do. What is unique to the FAIRIES? 

These pestering sprites look exactly like TS3′s LN EP Will-O-Wisps, which is cute for continuity, but lame compared to what the fae sprites look like in SN.

I’m seeing a lot of old interactions from the SN EP return, but what is new and INNOVATIVE here, to push the franchise FORWARD?

This animation is so stupid–she looks DEAD. 🤦 Once again, EA’s mistaken Nature-Buff with Homeless:

I would’ve at least had a magical patch of flowers/moss grow all around her as she slept, kinda like the trail of flowers that appear wherever TS3 Plantsims walk. And no MUSHROOM RING?! That’s rule 101 of the fae, duh, EA! 🤦

Not a single mushroom in sight. This is a Hedgewitch, EA. A cluttered greenhouse/treehouse does NOT a faery make! DO MORE. 

Speaking of trees–

I despise that the new Faery Treehouse has such a basic plain design, and has to sit on a table, instead of being it’s own plant-like growth. Even the giant burrow tree in Country Living looked more fit for fae than this crap. 

There’d better be more options & prettier treehouse choices, EA, istg. 😤This design sorely lacks imagination & creativity, esp. when TS3′s look so much better.

I hope this is a treehouse, though it’s giving more SN EP Jellybean Bush–but as a harvestable plant for ingredients. I wonder if it’ll kill/affect normie sims.

Grandfather Willow, come through? I love that there’s a Jack-in-the-Green, but I hate that it’s a dead-looking tree stump, and not legit Grandmother Willow with an iconic huge foliage canopy. 

What would be REALLY cool is if there was an NPC Plantsim Jack / Old Man of the Woods who could help sims with stuff. Not whatever’s going on with the cooky gnome angle they’re leaning towards. 

Jesus.

What on earth–you know what? Nevermind, forget I asked.

And don’t you dare show any mermaid motifs, when TS4′s mersims were barely a step above TS4′s plantsims in the Lame Department. 

Yawn. I’d rather see the forest for the trees, cuz this is a FAERY pack–why TF would I care about some seaside portside fishing village? That was Island Living’s job, DUH.

And I said I’d stop being mean, LOL. 😅 But what ticking me off most about this whole expansion is that it’s giving TS3′s Hidden Springs–which had a MUCH stronger concept even years before we ever got SN. 

That’s what’s killing me. Cuz you could easily tell that there was the normie side of town, but the deeper you went off the beaten path, the more obvs it was that there were legit ELVES living in Hidden Springs, too, chugging whatever meth was in that magic fountain of theirs that turned their skin green & blue & whatever.

So like, is this glowing stone the entrance to a magical realm, like Realm of Magic’s portal gate that led to Diagon Alley? Or is this just a hidden corner of the nornie world, like Hidden Springs’ area where the Fountain of Youth was, Tuck Everlasting style? Ngl, it had better be a magical realm portal, EA; I hope there’s whole Hobbit Town Shire where fae live, separate from the muggles; the way I’d hoped RoM would be. 

I am SO SICK of EA being scared to go the distance and really do the occult lifestates justice, and really give them a High Fantasy expansion that takes place in a different time, the way the SN EP was obvs more Victorian/Vintage, and ITF was ofc scifi. Stop with the generic hipster millennial garbage, and take us to another world already! These are FAERIES, ffs! The one time y’all should’ve literally done a full-fledged Fairy World! And instead we get MAINE!? 🤦

TL;DR: Underwhelmed, but still curious. 

*sigh*

I’m still lowkey excited, okay? I hope this pack works out, cuz  this is the 2nd TS4 lifestate I’ve BEEN waiting for after Witches. But EA really better make sure there’s WAY more to this EP than what they’ve showed, cuz they had 13 YEARS since TS3′s SN EP to get faeries right, and so far I’m just seeing an awful lotta hedgewitching and very little fae shenangians. 🤔

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Sometimes The Darkness And I ...

After what we said to Da Sim Luver aka Ms Artzy Gurl aka Short-Sims-Wayz last month, we weren't too happy with our own effort and decided to try again, but decided to leave off printing it here until we'd got matters straightened out over there (let's just say we've been living in 'interesting times ...' and likely to get worse ...).

To be honest, this particular parody idea's been rattling about with us for literally years (as long as MedleyMisty's been doing this, to be exact), partly because it was so bloody obvious - at least if you're from the British Isles, and especially with anyone who is familiar with that band - who thought they were the next Queen but really were just the next Spinal Tap ...

(It's also a good excuse to namedrop Black Shuck, who even for a ghost is effing awesomesauce)

Anyway, it's tongue-in-cheek, no offence meant, blah-de-blah, if you want the full story where she got the idea for what's a Simming community meme in its own right, go here.

Besides, it's Monday morning, so we could all do with a laugh ...

[themaresnest-dumblr]

The Real Reason The Police Split Up

You've probably heard of all the whitewashed stories about how the band and why, at the very point they were in terms of sales the biggest band in the world, they fell apart? Well for those of you who have never saw the following, here it is, in full technicolour.

To give you some background, the band was in the middle of a world tour, yet Sting insisted on them recording miming a song for Kenny Everett's Christmas Special due later that year - Kenny Everett being a DJ with a even more successful sideline running a series of alternative comedy shows. Kenny had been very generous to the band in their earlier days when most mainstream DJs had been lukewarm, and Sting wasn't too big for his boots to feel that they always owed him one, especially as the Christmas Special was to be themed in defence of Everett's naughty humour, which now had him in danger of being what people would call today 'cancelled'. A new controller had taken charge of the BBC, Michael Grade, and was openly reconsidering Everett's entire employment with the corporation.

(In the early 1980s, a combination of what later was deemed 'political correctness' along with an increasingly militant Christian lobby in the UK that had supplanted the tea room tut-tuts of the likes of Mary Whitehouse, was to put a lot of acts reliant on comedy considered lewd or irreverent in serious danger of being finished) To let you know how influential a DJ Kenny Everett was, he was the man largely responsible for turning 'Bohemian Rhapsody' into one of the biggest hits of all time by saturation playing it on his Capitol Radio show, even though Queen's record company EMI said it was too long and listeners 'would get bored'.

However the other two, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, as Americans, really didn't give a toss - as far as they were concerned the band as international superstars had long outgrown needing to be chummy with parochial celebrities.

But the band's manager (and former CIA agent) Miles insisted Sting was right and they must do the show, the UK was a big record market in those days and the vanishing of all their musical peers from the punk/new wave era was a sharp reminder that in a fickle business they always needed to keep their friends close.

It already exacerbated tensions with Copeland and Summers feeling Sting was treating them too much like they were his backing band (The Jam had already split messily earlier that year amid similar circumstances, along with recriminations and legal writs concerning non-payment of royalties by Paul Weller's dad, who just happened to be their manager) and had held back good material for his own solo record project (a charge Sting in turn labelled at both of them)

Thus the stage was set for a bit of a disaster ...

Afterwards, the band completed their world tour by March 1984, but it was clear something had changed, and it came as no surprise to anyone in the UK that, apart from a few charity concerts, some rather awkward appearences at music award ceremonies, and a half hearted meeting about recording new material, they were never to record together ever again.

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Bella Ramsey Soccer Aid 2025

Apparently Bella Ramsey is playing on the left wing for the World England squad tonight. Which means they will win ...

... OR ELSE!

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Brian Wilson R.I.P.

Brian Wilson wasn't just one of the Beach Boys ... he WAS the Beach Boys, and as the Beatles said with incredulity, it is beyond belief they were never held with the same esteem that the Beatles and Stones were.

Their music was a strangely timeless soundtrack of California, or at least of a kind of California all aspired to, carefree, fun, and innocent in all its exuberance (and decadence).

In many ways, the sort of the world the Sims series tries to capture.

[themaresnest-dumblr]

Little kitty doing her Greta Thunberg impression, "How dare you!"

Pictured: An Alfiq investigating the local lorebook collection.

[themaresnest-dumblr]

The Trump Vs Musk Spat On Social Media Tonight

[themaresnest-dumblr]

You're reading this in his voice, aren't you?

"Drem Yol Lok [Peace Fire Sky]. Greetings."

--Paarthurnax

[themaresnest-dumblr]

That's Daedraphobic, that is! So long as they identify as Daedra, then Daedra they are.

Did You Know: Mortals who have been corrupted into the form of a daedra have been described as "mock-Daedra"? Despite their appearance, they are not truly Daedra in any capacity.