Em's Random Sim Pics and Projects

 

Match maker boot camp is hard! The Sims seems to have a mind of their own and don´t understand why I would like them to hang out with someone else.  

You have lot to juggle with here.   

Ulli wrote:

Match maker boot camp is hard! The Sims seems to have a mind of their own and don´t understand why I would like them to hang out with someone else.  

Mostly I prefer to let sims pick their own partners.  My problem comes when they don't seem interested in doing so and I have to nudge them.  With that particular hood, they're starting to run into the problem that most of the sims they meet are their first cousins or closer relatives.

I started something new (as if I don't have enough to play with already.)  I was inspired by this challenge I saw on tumblr.  The premise sounds interesting, but the specifics didn't really suit me, so I made my own guidelines.

Basically, I started out with one sim for each of the supernatural characters I could think of and have available with my particular EPs.  I have an alien, a vampire, a zombie, a werewolf, a plant sim, and a servo.  Each one starts out as a family of one, I cheat to make them the type of supernatural character (if required), move them each onto their own 2x2 lot and build them a home that suits them with the money they have left after moving in.

The goal is for each founder to try to add to their supernatural group and see who can end up the most populous.  (I'm not sure when I'll make the challenge end.  Maybe when the last original sim dies or when the first does, or whenever I get tired of the challenge or have too many sims to handle.)  Each sim has different methods by which they recruit individuals and there are specific restrictions and limitations to create an even playing ground among the groups.

I play each household in an even rotation.  I use a mod that makes each season last three days, which is generally a decent amount of playing time for me in one sitting, so I play each household for one season before I switch to the next.  At the beginning of each household's play session I roll a die to determine how many sims they are supposed to recruit each session.  This helps keep things even and random, because some groups have the ability to multiply much more quickly than others.  If they meet but do not exceed their goal, I add three extra days to the founder's lifespan (or in the case of immortal creatures, I subtract 3 days if they don't meet their goal exactly.)

Each group has it's own methods of recruitment and their own specific guidelines.

Aliens

• I use "boolprop testing cheatsenabled true" + Shift N in CAS to make a sim with alien genetics.  Alternatively one could use any cc they wish to create their alien founder
  
• New aliens can be added to the hood when the alien founder or any other sim in the hood is abducted by aliens and has an alien birth
  
• If you have the EP that adds aspiration benefits, you can give knowledge sims the ability to summon aliens.  If not, you may use cheats to increase the odds of alien abduction.  You may also cheat to allow female sims to become alien pregnant after abduction
  
• New aliens can also be added when your founding alien or any of their descendents has a child with any other sim in the hood.  Since alien abduction normally results in male pregnancy, I'm pretending aliens are hermaphroditic, so aliens of either gender can become pregnant or impregnate sims of either gender
  
• I'm considering allowing pregnancies and the growing up stages for alien descendents to be accelerated, because the process is so slow compared to recruitment for other groups.  I would limit pregnancies to no more than one each 24 hours and age transitioning can occur for each alien once every three days, if you want to accelerate the baby to teen years.
  

Vampires

• To create a vampire, start with a regular sim in CAS and use mods (like Insiminator or the Sim Manipulator) or cheats to make them a vampire
  
• Vampires recruit new vampires by biting the necks of other sims.  Vampires may have children, but their children don't count to the total number of vampires until they are turned into a vampire
  
• Vampires are at a disadvantage because their needs drop so quickly in the daytime, they can only be active for long at night and at night most other sims don't walk by the house and get mad if you call them too late.  Also vampires, according to the game have to build up a relationship with their victims recruits before they can bite them.  To help them out, vampires get the benefit of being allowed to visit community lots as often as they like.  No other supernatural creatures are to visit community lots when you are controlling their households, but they may show up while your vampires are out and get into trouble on their own.
  

Zombies

• To create a zombie, create a regular sim in CAS and use cheats or mods to make them a zombie.  Zombies should be sloppy and lazy
  
• Without cheats to make new zombies, you would have to kill sims and then resurrect them with the career reward object, you may cheat to cause their deaths and unlock the career reward object
  
• I prefer to use the zombie apocalypse mod which makes zombies attack sims, eat their brains, and turn them into zombies.  Since they have the advantage of not needing a relationship with their victims/recruits like vampires do, zombies can not visit community lots or invite their victims over before attacking them.  They have to catch walkbys and friends brought home from school or work.  Also body skill makes the zombie's attacks more effective, so zombies may not work out to gain body skill, they can get it only body points from winning fights.
  

Werewolves

• Create a regular sim in CAS and cheat to make them a werewolf
  
• Werewolves add new members to their packs by savaging them at night
  
• Like zombies, they don't need a relationship with their victims/recruits to turn them into werewolves, so they can not visit community lots (while being controlled), they cannot invite other sims over to attack, they have to catch passersby and can take advantage of sims brought home from school and work.
  

Plant sims

• Create a regular sim in CAS and cheat to make them a plantsim
  
• New plantsims can be created by spawning plantsim babies or by having a non-plantsim spray plants until they turn into a plantsim.  
  
• Plant sims cannot spawn plant sim babies in the winter, but they can try to create new plant sims by having another sim spray plants.
  

Servos

• To create a servo, I used a placeholder sim in the bin, temporarily moved them into a lot and used the boolprop cheat, shift clicked on the mailbox and spawned a new servo, then moved the temporary sims out
  
• Servos create new servos by building them from workbenches.  They can also move in other sims to have them help build more servos, but those sims will not count to the total number of servos
  

When the households get full, individuals can move out and start their own households.  I haven't decided definitely on how I want to handle this.  I think each household will roll for how many individuals they need to recruit.  I may do each lot separately or I may have each household of each group do the same number each round.  I think all households will have to meet their goal for the founding member to get the age bonus.  I haven't decided if each household should have a member that gets the bonus or if it should just be the original sim for each group.

I also haven't completely decided what should happen if a supernatural creature gets turned into a different type of creature.  I like the idea of stealing members from other groups, but so far I've just avoided the practice.  (I get attached to them staying as a certain type.)  I think if say a vampire were turned into a zombie, they would have to be cured of their vampirism, and be considered just a zombie, unless a vampire turned them back and they could have be cured of zombism.  Of course aliens and servos would always be aliens and servos even if they were turned into something else.  In that case I guess they would be both.  I still haven't made up my mind how to handle that aspect.  If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Looks like a fun new challenge!

Em, this sounds like a very interesting challenge. Thanks for the screenshots, I do love to peak into other Simmers games to see what they are doing therein.

This Challenge sounds like fun, Em.

I really would like to start a new one but ...I have a lot of other challenges to finish first.   

Thanks, everyone. I have been enjoying it so far. Ulli, I have far too many unfinished challenges on my computer too, but once in awhile one idea takes a hold of me and I just can't seem to wait until my others are finished. If I remember, I usually end up going back to the challenges I left behind sooner or later.

I checked my game to see how each of my groups were fairing. At the end of one simyear (12 simdays) I had 6 aliens, 11 vampires, 11 werewolves, 11 plant sims, 9 zombies, and 4 servos. When I started to check the founders' ages I realized I forgot a rule about plantsims which I added above. Sometime soon I'll try to sort my pictures and share some more.

Em wrote:

Chase is interested in everything I'm doing lately.  "What are you writing?" "What are you doing on the computer?"  I told him one day I was looking for carnival downloads for The Sims, so then of course he wanted to play too.

Awww! I love it! Such a bright, curious boy!
I was thrilled when Baylee became interested in Sims 2.
How is he these days, Em? Your little man doing well, I hope?

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I had 20 girls and 21 boys born in the second generation.
I wish I had taken family pictures, but I did make a family tree to try to keep them all straight.

That family tree was a cool idea. I've never seen Family Echo before.   

Have I asked you whose hair Colin's is? Cute style.

All that Jay & Ray stuff...
My eyes were crossing after awhile.
Those fellas have got an enormous schnoz on them, doesn't they?   
Let's hope they don't pass it down to the next generation.   

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One of the downsides of not having regular toilets is that sick and pregnant sims throw up where ever they happen to be, even if it's on their romantic partner's feet.

Ewww!   

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I was inspired by this challenge I saw on tumblr.  The premise sounds interesting, but the specifics didn't really suit me, so I made my own guidelines.

Cool! I'm diggin' the hood you have to use with it.
Em, have you ever thought about offering one of your challenges here, even if it's a renovated/revamped one?
Elle has a special area in The Challenge Arena:

Remakes & Retakes
Some old favorites unchanged or redone for your simming pleasure

It's just a thought. You could work with Elle to share your version of the World Domination Challenge at SP.
No pressure, of course!   

I, for one, LOVE the idea of doing a challenge with supernatural creatures.
I only play with NL, BV, FT, AL (some SPs) and in this new puter, I've installed Pets.
So, does this mean I am limited to vampires, werewolves and aliens?

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I like the idea of stealing members from other groups...

In a challenge of world domination, if it were genetically (or scientifically) possible, I would think there would be stealing of and/or mating with other species.
If they were stolen, would they be used as slaves though as a hated enemy?
If one was inadvertently changed, would they seek to find a cure to get their own species back?
If they mated, would it be for love or purposes of improving (rather than diluting) the new race with the strength/positive qualities gained from each species?
What would most benefit the new world order?
Just some stuff to think about as you decide which direction to take with it, m'lady.
(I've watched too many sci-fi movies in my day obviously.   )

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At the end of one simyear (12 simdays) I had 6 aliens, 11 vampires, 11 werewolves, 11 plant sims, 9 zombies, and 4 servos.

  

Can't wait to see some more snapshots! This is a fascinating challenge.
I've no doubt you're having fun with it so far.   

   

PS I finally had a chance to catch up last month with your Black Heart Challenge HERE.  

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How is he these days, Em? Your little man doing well, I hope?

He's doing better now, but he's had a rough couple of months at school with a lot of behavior problems in class, but he's doing better lately and has had a much better attitude. His teacher sends home a chart with either a smiley face or a frowney face for the day. So far this month he's gotten all smileys and one frowney. I'm hoping he can keep up the better behavior and good attitude.   

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Have I asked you whose hair Colin's is? Cute style.

No, I don't think so. I'll try to look it up sometime.

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Em, have you ever thought about offering one of your challenges here, even if it's a renovated/revamped one?
Elle has a special area in The Challenge Arena:

I might do that sometime, if I can get the kinks worked out.

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I only play with NL, BV, FT, AL (some SPs) and in this new puter, I've installed Pets.
So, does this mean I am limited to vampires, werewolves and aliens?

I think you could do Servos since you have FT and witches came with AL, didn't they? I don't have AL and don't know anything about sim witches, so I couldn't comment on how they might work. I would imagine you would need Uni to make zombies even when using mods to make a sim a zombie.

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If they were stolen, would they be used as slaves though as a hated enemy?

I didn't mean literally steal, but turn a sim from one creature to another so that they count towards another side. It gets kind of tricky though since you can't turn a sim into an alien or a servo, so they can't convert others to their kind and even if they get turned into something else they still will be an alien or a servo. I have to think about it.

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If one was inadvertently changed, would they seek to find a cure to get their own species back?
If they mated, would it be for love or purposes of improving (rather than diluting) the new race with the strength/positive qualities gained from each species?
What would most benefit the new world order?

Good questions! I've had some mating occuring, mostly within species, but I did have two of my founders fall in love, so I let them get married and have babies together. I think for all types, except aliens and plantsim babies that are spawned from a single plantsim, their offspring are regular sims, until they get bitten or savaged or whatever.

Thanks for reminding me about your comments to my Black Heart challenge. I'm sure I saw them at the time but forgot to come back and comment.

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...he's had a rough couple of months at school with a lot of behavior problems in class, but he's doing better lately and has had a much better attitude.

I am glad to hear it, Em.   

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I might do that sometime, if I can get the kinks worked out.

That'd be great!   

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I think you could do Servos since you have FT and witches came with AL, didn't they?

I think Servos came with OFB, but don't quote me on that.
I've never seen one in game.
And yes, witches came with AL.
I need to find that mod that gets rid of witches' aura when I start playing again.
It's annoying and distracting to me.   

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Good questions!

 

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I think for all types, except aliens and plantsim babies that are spawned from a single plantsim, their offspring are regular sims, until they get bitten or savaged or whatever.

Interesting! How is your challenge going of late, Em?

 

Sugah wrote:

[quoteI need to find that mod that gets rid of witches' aura when I start playing again.
It's annoying and distracting to me.   

Luckily, I recently found it myself! http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=299567

Sugah wrote:

I need to find that mod that gets rid of witches' aura when I start playing again.
It's annoying and distracting to me.

I don't actually mind it, it adds to the   atmosphere...

But then, I'm  

Thank you, Cher! I went to the link and that's it! Yaaay!   
Elle found it for me about a year ago but I never had a change to download it before my puter died.
I even commented @ MTS2 on how much I appreciated Black_Spirit's mod last March.

  

Mac wrote:

But then, I'm   

    

mac wrote:

Sugah wrote:

I need to find that mod that gets rid of witches' aura when I start playing again.
It's annoying and distracting to me.

I don't actually mind it, it adds to the   atmosphere...

But then, I'm  

I used to not mind it, but when I took the picture of my sim sticking a pool cue through his arm, I noticed his housemate being all glowy and distracting in the background. I thought I'd play for a while without it and see how I like it.

Cher wrote:

...but when I took the picture of my sim sticking a pool cue through his arm...

 OUCH!!!

Sugah wrote:

I think Servos came with OFB, but don't quote me on that.
I've never seen one in game.

You might be right about that. I'm not sure.    I guess I was thinking FT since you build them from the electronics/ robotics (I think) crafting bench, but only after your sim has a gold talent badge. I haven't seen any running around in my game either, but I tend to delete the premade neighborhoods after exploring them briefly, so there may be one in the hood that came with whatever expansion they were introduced in. Otherwise they have to be built.

Sugah wrote:

Interesting! How is your challenge going of late, Em?

I haven't played much at all lately. I thought about working on a story update the other night, but barely got past loading up my game. I'll get back to it sooner or later, I'm sure.

Not much has been going on in my game lately, well, until this week. I really wanted to get my stories updated before Chase got out of school and summer semester started. I actually got the pictures taken, but then I couldn't find the notebook (or rather the place in the notebook) where I had written the text, so I didn't get an update in. But at least I got some pictures taken.





I thought I'd shared pics of the decorating I did on Andrew and Shayna's bedroom (in the pic above), but I guess I posted that on tumblr instead.

This week my game has been taken over by my son. Apparently he either saw me browsing here or on tumblr or just noticed the icon on my desktop and decided he wanted to play the sims. I set up my second (mostly hack free, ACR free) game folder for him and started up the game for him. He had been looking over my shoulder one time when I scrolled past a pic of Sugah's "otherworldly sims" and as the game was loading asked if I could make those sims for him. Since the game was already loading it was too late for me to download them for right then, but I told him I knew how to make vampires and werewolves and zombies in the game. So he's been making lots of pets and I've turned some sims into supernatural creatures for him. I forgot I had the zombie apocalypse mod installed in that game, so I ha to go back and remove it once his zombie started attacking her roommates and turning his werewolf and plantsim into zombies.

One day he decided to play on his own while I was at work, despite my suggestion that he wait until I got back so that I could help him. Awhile later (fortunately my class was on a break, getting settled between activities) he calls me and I ask him what's going on, then there's a long pause and he says, "Um, I kind of have an emergency . . . my guy is all green and stinky, but I can't get him to go in the bath and the cat is starving . . ." Later, after I was home, maybe it was the next day he told me he was stuck on the sims and that's what he wants to go to when he goes on the computer and that it's the best game.    He's planning on giving my parents computer lessons next week, I think primarily because he wants someone to help him play the sims when I'm not home to help him.   

I visited my supernatural character challenge hood last night. I have a lot of households now as I've been moving the new recruits into the primary households and then moving them into their own places as the households get too crowded. I decided I'm only doing the original households as part of the challenge and only making them recruit new individuals. I'm only playing the other households for fun, but I'm still going to play them and try to keep them caught up with the main households. I've been focusing on playing more than taking pictures this time, so I don't have a lot to share. Most of the pictures I took are really similar, someone getting bitten/savaged/attacked or pictures documenting the budding romances between sims. I can introduce you to some of the characters though.

Here's my neighborhood at the start. The houses in order are alien, vampire, werewolf, plantsim zombie, a blank community lot, and my servo lot (around the corner). I since added some prebuilt community lots for my vamps and I now have households that have branched off, filled up the empty lots on the side street and the other side of the street across from the original houses.




My alien is Ursula Starseeker. (In hindsight it probably would have made more sense to have a male alien, so I wouldn't have to cheat so much for pregnancies) She has a career in politics, either as an ambassador from her own world or maybe she's trying to rule over the Earth from within the political system.



She spends a lot of her time pregnant as she's trying to bring more of her own kind to this world.



Her first pregnancy results in boy/girl twins, Quark and Nebula.



Everything was going according to plan at first, but what she didn't expect to find on her mission to this planet was love . . .



My vampire founder is Contessa Bloodrose.



I discovered a new interaction with her. I think it's called "smooth talk" and it's available to romance sims by using their aspiration points. It reminds me of this downloaded object I had for TS1. It was a flower vase that you could put on a lot. Autonomously sims would give another sim a flower, sometimes resulting in the sims falling in love, other times the receiving sim would toss the flowers on the floor and stomp on them. It was a really fun object.    Anyway, Contessa can be seen around town after dark seducing innocent bystanders.



Her first victim is Aiden Chan.







He moves in with her and becomes her main man.



Though, of course, there are others. They need to keep spreading the vampirism through the land. Vampires through awesome parties to lure in unsuspecting sims.









Some sims are able to resist the vampires charms at least for a little while.



Contessa and Aiden have a baby together. I don't think I took a picture of him when he was born (or at least I'm not finding it) but it's a baby boy named Vladimir.



(I'll share more about the others later as this is getting long.)

Em wrote:

This week my game has been taken over by my son...
I scrolled past a pic of Sugah's "otherworldly sims" and as the game was loading asked if I could make those sims for him ...
he's been making lots of pets and I've turned some sims into supernatural creatures for him ...
I ask him what's going on, then there's a long pause and he says, "Um, I kind of have an emergency . . . my guy is all green and stinky, but I can't get him to go in the bath and the cat is starving ..."
...the next day he told me he was stuck on the sims and that's what he wants to go to when he goes on the computer and that it's the best game.  laughin  He's planning on giving my parents computer lessons next week, I think primarily because he wants someone to help him play the sims when I'm not home to help him.  

  

  That kid kills me!!!  He is really something, Em!   

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Her first pregnancy results in boy/girl twins, Quark and Nebula.

Love those names (Quark and Nebula). I like the wallpaper you chose for that room, too.
I am lovin' that little plant Sim. I have never seen a wee one before.  

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I think it's called "smooth talk" and it's available to romance sims by using their aspiration points.

Yes, I noticed that as one of the talents Romance Sims can earn if they get enough aspiration points.
I haven't had one get that far yet, but I am looking forward to seeing it in action!
(I just now started playing a couple of Romance Sims this time around.)
Contessa Bloodrose is a beautiful blood sucker.

I enjoyed catching up with your Supernatural Character challenge, Em.
Fun stuff!

 

What fun! You have a Simmer in the making, too. How sweet, wish I could get my grandchildren interested.

Em wrote:

I wish I had taken family pictures, but I did make a family tree to try to keep them all straight.

That's cool. I've never done it that way, but after a couple of generations I do end up keeping a sheet of paper with the particulars of each household on it for reference. I play my lots in rotation, so I also use it to keep track of where I am in the rotation.

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(She may or may not have just been in that bed that Ray is now making up while his brother is flirting with her.)

  

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Raya is the first to go and James takes it pretty hard.

Awww.  

You have some very interesting challenges going on. So far, I've only done an asylum challenge and that was tough enough!

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then there's a long pause and he says, "Um, I kind of have an emergency . . . my guy is all green and stinky, but I can't get him to go in the bath and the cat is starving . . ."

Oh yeah, I've been in similar situations a time or two.   

Andrew and Shayna are such a cute couple!
Love your supernatural Sims, they look like fun!!   

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Love those names (Quark and Nebula)

Those tend to be my go to names for aliens for some reason.

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I am lovin' that little plant Sim. I have never seen a wee one before.

I'll have some more pictures of little ones running around when I get to my plantsim household.   

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Yes, I noticed that as one of the talents Romance Sims can earn if they get enough aspiration points.
I haven't had one get that far yet, but I am looking forward to seeing it in action!

I noticed the talent before too, but I guess I didn't know what it was or how it worked.

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What fun! You have a Simmer in the making, too. How sweet, wish I could get my grandchildren interested.

But now we have to compete for computer time.   

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That's cool. I've never done it that way, but after a couple of generations I do end up keeping a sheet of paper with the particulars of each household on it for reference. I play my lots in rotation, so I also use it to keep track of where I am in the rotation.

I've done that too. For one of my neighborhoods I took a lot of time going back after the fact and trying to sort out what sims ages should be in relationship to each other, making a sheet to keep track of how many days I played each household and then later details about each sim. I haven't played that neighborhood in a year or two, but I still have my papers around somewhere.

Thanks for all of the comments, everyone!   

Cher wrote:

...but after a couple of generations I do end up keeping a sheet of paper with the particulars of each household on it for reference. I play my lots in rotation, so I also use it to keep track of where I am in the rotation.

Em wrote:

...making a sheet to keep track of how many days I played each household and then later details about each sim.

Great minds, ladies!  
I was tired of trying to recall details of Sims in my newest (Tres Lagos) hood.
I recently found a cute tin box in clearance for .25 cents.
I'm using it to hold index cards with all the important info & progress of my Sims.
I meant to take a snapshot of it last week, when I had all the index cards spread out by the tin!  

Anyhoo, it's really coming in handy so far! I refer to the cards a LOT!  

Sugah wrote:

I recently found a cute tin box in clearance for .25 cents.
I'm using it to hold index cards with all the important info & progress of my Sims.

Looking forward to the pic of the tin box... and its contents!

As many of you know, I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my sims. It's actually much easier than it sounds.   

Spreadsheet is a great idea, too, Mac.
I keep a couple of notepads by my desk to record things as they're happening, including which pics I take of my Sims, their career advancements, what I need to recolor for their individual abodes, interesting game antics to share here, etc., etc.
This weekend, I bought some "InkJoy" pens in multiple colors on sale.
I'm going to designate certain colors when recording on my notepads for quick reference (for example, orange might be for snapshots taken. Pink might be for objects I need to recolor, etc.).
I'm hoping to stay really organized this time around.
I still have to go through a ton of old downloads that need sorting from my old puter's game, but that's a whole different (ongoing, never-ending, tedious & very boring) project!!!  

You all have no idea how much joy it brings me to hear about all this note-taking and office-supply-purchasing.   
I can't wait to see pictures of that expensive tin box, Sugah!