SBP: master list of stories

Who is Samantha Bradshaw?

Samantha Bradshaw went missing ten years ago, and none of her family or friends have seen her since. Where did she go, and what was she doing there? The Samantha Bradshaw Project will seek out her adventures, from one place to the next. Stories will be added as her whereabouts are confirmed. Find out more?

***

So, where in the world is Samantha Bradshaw?

birth to age 22: Lakeside Heights
prequel stories #4
prequel stories #5
The Samantha Bradshaw Project

age 23
1. Tierra de Legado (Lunar Fox): 3 months
Just arrived
Dinner and a show
Back where we started
Down that road
Spilling Over

(LH present: a conversation with Autumn Phillipine)

2. Kayton (Billy/bbop): 6 months
Natural Curiosity
Pleasantly Surprised, Part 1
Beginning to Feel
The Ladies Who Lunch
Autumn Breezes
Spooked
Dead Wrong, Part 2
Silent Night
(after her departure, You Never Really Know)

age 24-25
3. Richmond (Blackcat): 18 mo.
Welcome to Richmond
Pearls of Wisdom
Friday
Storybook Families
Personal Matters
Facing the Changes
Growing Up, Part Two
Different Roads, Part One
Different Roads, Part Two
Different Roads, Part Three

(LH present: a conversation with Maxwell Shaw)

The Important Part
Something Else
Happy Holidays
Happy New Year, Part One
Happy New Year, Part Two
Happy New Year, Part Three
One Single Choice
Forsaking All Others, Part One
Forsaking All Others, Part Two
The Only Right Thing, Part One
The Only Right Thing, Part Two
Healer, Part One


age 25-26
4. SimsVille (Tanja): 18 mo.
Now What?
A Second Option
On Your Own, or Not Just Yet
Exciting
On a Rollercoaster
The Story of Her Life, a Little Bit Different

age 27-28
5. Richmond, revisit (Blackcat): ~6 months
???

6. Riverdale: 6 mo.
???

age 29-32
7. Sullivan (Carla): 3 years
???

age 33
8. Apple Valley (Starrsim): 6 mo.
???

9. Millwood (Maisie): 6 mo.
???

age 34-35
10. Pine Hollow (Shana): 2 years
???

age 36
11. Lakeside Heights (home): ???
???


Extras:

Sam's Mementos:
Tierra de Legado: booth pictures of Sam and Sam
Kayton: the swallow necklace from Jeff
Richmond: Sam's photos for Cory
SimsVille: her friend Niels


Behind the scenes chatter on the Samantha Bradshaw Project at Valley Sun Sims.

The Samantha Bradshaw Project

Flashback - Lake City, August 2073.

The night was so warm and humid even the hallway dripped sweat from a cold metal pipe above her head. In front of the building, some young men stood dribbling a basketball to madness in the late hours of the evening. Samantha knocked on the door to her best friend's apartment in the South End of Lake City.

Riley answered the door and waved her in.

LH stuff: my random file

My random file, to be used in conjunction with the RandomStuff program.

(download here)

Includes things like: my random event list, the randomly selected Sim (you'll have to replace my name list with names from your own hood), the depression roll, a weighted turn-ons/offs roll, and the usual aspiration roll, gender preference and such.

I shared this once ages and ages ago over at MATY, but I've been tweaking and adding to it over the years, so I'll host the updated version here :)

Updated 2/1/10: added the career risks roll.

LH stuff: t-shirts!

This is a test, this is only a test... kind of. This is my first attempt at trying to share anything, ever, so you can tell me if I'm totally doing this wrong or whatever. I'm trying to get everything figured out so I can get this Samantha project started :)

I'll share much better stuff in the future, but I thought I'd start off small, like with cheap logo t-shirts! :) So now your Sims can be Lakeside Heights fans! Or they can wish they'd gone to LCU instead of wherever it was you sent them.

(I don't know what exactly I'll have to share, or how frequently. I know some of you wanted my graying elder hair recolors. And I've probably got a building or two worth sharing... but anyway...)

(from left to right)
April is wearing a "Lakeside Heights" t-shirt, in Simlish.
Vicky is wearing a long-sleeve college t-shirt, featuring "LCU" in her college colors.
Summer is wearing the same "Lakeside Heights" t-shirt, but in English.

(download is here)

All shirts are made on base game meshes.

So, since we're testing and all, would somebody mind checking these out for me. Did I do it right? Do they actually show up in the game? They're zipped, and file names are labeled.

You can delete them afterward if you want. You won't hurt my feelings ;)

prequel stories #5: what ever happened to Samantha Bradshaw?

A follow-up on prequel story #4: sorry, I've owed this to you guys for some time now ;)

They didn't call Samantha's mother a diva, they called her "The Diva." She came from old money. She was a proud and classy woman. She was also very busy, with her partial celebrity status, her involvement in charities, small-time politics, and little bit of stage acting. The wholesome exterior was something of an illusion, because she wasn't a wholesome woman in her heart. She wasn't available to her family much. She was a fine woman, but not an affectionate woman, and she didn't raise her daughter to be a particularly soft or affectionate girl.

author's picks (round 2080 and earlier)

I enjoy seeing other writers discussing their stories, after the fact, about what their intentions were, or what their story was meant to do. So I'm going to do something of my own.

I usually try to be pretty impartial in my notes, so that my opinions won't persuade the way you read these stories, but I thought it might be fun to share which ones are my favorites. I can usually tell which ones are your favorites, from the comments and the way you react to the entry. Your favorites and mine are not always one in the same, though sometimes they are.

It takes some time after the round is finished to look back and reflect on the ones that really stand out. So these are the ones I spent a lot of time on or felt particularly proud of. And maybe some time after this current round is over, I'll post something like this again.

And it's a good way for me to stall and take a little Christmas/mid-round/just finished a huge-ass chapter break, lol! So here, go read something I already wrote! :)

***

November 2079: Summer's place

At some point, I started writing these updates a little less commentary-style, and started shaping them into stories. I think it might have been around the time of this update. The writing of this one isn't my best, but it reflects this change, the opportunity I saw for turning these prosperity-style updates into actual stories.

And I guess I also noticed that writing these updates in any less quality than I was capable of wasn't beneficial to my real storytelling. So my pace has slowed down considerably in doing this, but the end result was a good one - a better story for you to read, and better practice for me.

But like I said, this wasn't my best writing ever, and it almost makes me want to not showcase it, but for sentimental reasons, I will.

I also wrote this story the same week I conceived the novel I'm working on (I remember, because I was thinking what the crap is up with all these tragic stories???). Which makes it a very nostalgic time in my storytelling life. *sigh* LOL!


May 2080: blissfully clueless

Even though Piper had been around Lakeside Heights since before this blog began, this was sort of her "debut" story. She'd never been a feature of her own story before, though I have no idea why I waited so long, because this one really just made me fall in love with her!

Then this was also Jodie's first real story as a side-kick since she moved to Lakeside Heights, in all her arctic cold glory, and certainly made me fall in love with her as well.

Amelia has always been one of my favorites, and then add Carly in there too, and I really found that these girls would become (and still are!) one of my very favorite groups of friends to write about. All of them are so completely different in character, but yet they're all looking for the same things, to have fun, to love and be loved, and wondering what it's all about - is that not the formula for a great sitcom or something? (Well, yeah, duh... Sex in the City? But set in Michigan, lol!) Can I sell this idea to someone? Any TV producers reading? ;)

But anyway, this was the start of many fun stories to come.


August 2080: you're doing it wrong

When you're a parent, you're not supposed to have a favorite child... you love each of them for their individual quirks and beauty, though some of them give you more joy, while others give you more grief. The Deppiesse family would be that beautiful, bright, and quirky child that gives me nothing but joy, lol!

The twins are always hilarious fun, and Dallas is always charming and adorable. And this story in particular, the start of Dallas and Lucy as a Lakeside Heights power-couple, lol! That's enough in itself :)

March 2081: the love shack

And if we were to carry on the child comparison, Maxwell Shaw would be the one who gives me nothing but grief, lol!

But I love him just the same. Being in Max's head is so much fun, probably because he's just so foreign to my way of life (any maybe most people's?). I love him for bringing color to my story, and forcing me to think outside of my own personal comfort zone. I love that even though he's quite honestly a creepy pervert, he adores his family and is madly in love with his wife. I love that even when he screws up, he manages to weasel his way back stronger than ever. But most of all I love that he does actually have a little bit of a soul in there, buried deep, deep down. Who knew? :)

I just posted a new family picture in the database for them, and I think it really captures the essence of them as a family. And I love that I couldn't for the life of me manage to squeeze a genuine smile out of Max for that picture. It was like pulling teeth! He strikes me as the kind of guy who doesn't smile willingly for pictures.


April 2081: fourteen percent

This one erupted from my brain in a flash of words and images before I'd even started up my game. Its initial form was very poem-like, and was maybe one of the first in this blog to really show off (with no apologies) my mad poetic skillz, yo! ;)

I think each manifestation of grief is a very complex and personal thing, and Hayden's head has been both a very dark and beautiful place to be. I'm happy to finally see him leaning more towards the beautiful lately though.


August 2081: outshine

I love Melissa Fortney! Who doesn't love Melissa Fortney? I love how she always manages to make sunshine out of the little bits of light she has in her life.

Well, I've always had a soft spot for her mother as well, who never meant to be such a screw up. These two are so dynamic as characters in my head that I already know they'll exist in some form or another after this story ends...

(psst, maybe novel #2?)


September 2081: headcount

This one wasn't exactly a literary masterpiece or anything, but it's always been one of my favorites. The whole Deppiesse clan are hilarious together. It was just plain fun, from beginning to end, and who can ever get enough of Fiona McCullough? And I still laugh out loud when I read it :)


October 2081: curiouser and curiouser

Well, who doesn't like dropping secret bombshells? Except for the people they're dropped on, I guess... This one was just a lot of fun to write. I always have fun bringing up history from the neighborhood that I didn't get to write while it was happening. And this one brought to light the secret past binding together two very unlikely families. Hmmm...

I also tried to weave in a little bit of a subtle Alice in Wonderland theme, though I don't think anybody picked up on it at the time... too subtle maybe, lol! :)


December 2081: in real life

I have to identify with Hailey quite a bit, a hopeless romantic writing about love. This one was maybe one of the smartest I tried to write in that round, if you were inclined to try to pick it apart, with the facade of Hailey's idealistic romance novels against all these portraits of realistic love and its failures. I had a ridiculous amount of fun writing that scene in the literary cafe... and all of the therapy scenes too for that matter. You guys should see me writing these things - I must look like a lunatic, cracking myself up, lol! :)

I loved including Jodie, Mariah, and Hayden with their smaller cameos, so that all these different love stories became interwoven, finally coming to the conclusion that what it means to be honestly happy in life turns out to be not very idealized after all.


May 2082: lost and found

Now tell me that picture of Hazel with the bear doesn't still make you spew your coffee!!! What is she doing?!?

Besides that even, it's got Dallas and Lucy doing ballet, Beau being adorable and clueless, April being fun, Robbie and Liza getting in trouble together! And all those stories seemed to revolve around this central theme that pulled it all together. What more could you possibly want from an update? :)

July 2082: Summer's place, continued, part 1 and part 2

Summer is a girl so close to my own heart, and I draw on much personal experience when I'm writing her stories. We (Summer and myself, lol) slaved over this decision that she needed to take a break from Tyler, and we still stand by it, even knowing what we know now about how it would unfold.

I love writing about choices and consequences, and that also means letting them make mistakes if they're so inclined to make them. I don't really believe in mistakes though, they're just chances to learn something. And sometimes what you discover is what you thought you knew after all.

***

So those were my favorites of round 2080, all the ones I put my blood, sweat, and tears into. Maybe half-way through the next round, I'll do this again for round 2082.

And Merry Christmas everyone! :)

come undone, extras

Psst, Lara... that's not your husband...

After what was the longest "chapter" I've ever written for this story (totally got carried away there, lol!), I've decided to start doing these extras by chapter from now on, instead of by year.

Okay, so let's see what other extras, misfits, and outcasts we might have from the spring/summer 2083, "come undone" chapter...

more than I could ever promise, part 2

August 2083 - Dallas Deppiesse is 19, Delphie and Dakota are 13. (Lucy Harris is 17.)

* soundtrack: "The Way I Am," by Ingrid Michaelson. Warnings: cheese? Dude, I tried to avoid it, but sorry, it couldn't be helped :) And maybe a tissue or two. *

Problem one, Delphie and Dakota are bored. But that isn't the most pressing problem. Things can be done about that. Problem two, they're supposed to tell Dallas before they go anywhere, where they're going, and when they'll be back. That's not exactly the problem either. The problem is, it's only twelve hours until Dallas leaves in the morning, and he's busy saying goodbye to Lucy. They've been saying goodbye for months it seems, all gross and entangled in all that affection.

Dakota says, "No way, I'm not going up there. You go up there and tell him."

more than I could ever promise, part 1

July 2083 - Orion Deppiesse is 49, Violet is 48, Dallas is 18, Delphie and Dakota are 12.

* soundtrack: "The Way I Am," by Ingrid Michaelson *

Dallas is leaving next week, and his sisters haven't wasted a single minute trying to decide who gets to move into his bedroom when he's gone. They've been sharing a bedroom since they were born, and Dakota, for one, is ready to break free into her own space. She's already staked her claim. "I'm the second-oldest," she says. "I was born fifteen minutes before her."

"I hope you don't think you're getting the stuff in my room," he says. "It's just a room. It's going to be empty. I know you just want my computer."

"You can't put it in the attic," Dakota says. "Electronics shouldn't be stored outside of room temperatures, in the winter, that attic can get down to fifteen degrees."

"It does," Delphie says.

"Only you guys would know that," he says.

Lakeside Heights, street view

(a bus stop and depot in the Lakeside Heights city center.)

In honor of this week's craziness, not only Thanksgiving, but my hubby's birthday too, I'll offer you something quick and relatively painless (for me).

I took a couple of these shots when I was putting together my new marina, but then I found I couldn't stop, lol! The camera mods I'm using allow for some very interesting angles and viewpoints. Some of these shots you wouldn't get to see from any of the houses or community lots my Sims frequent. It's been a really fun project, all the in-between places you might see if you were a Sim, walking in Lakeside Heights, from one place to another :)

This also shows you the neighborhood in long-range shots that I can't normally show you because my computer is so old and fickle. I've got it so packed full I can barely take shots on Medium view without my graphics card crashing.

So...

Lakeside Heights:

The marina again. You might have seen this before, but I wanted to have it again in one of my sidebar posts. I took these pictures before I found the new boat recolors! Because yay boats! I might have to add a few more docks to the marina for more boats!!! :)

This is Lakeshore Road, with the Lakeshore Beach boardwalk along the left. On the right are the Deppiesse (Orion) and Riley-Kim families. Cabe Deppiesse's family is a little further down on the left.

These are the arches that mark the entryway to the city center. In the middle of the city is a really cool shopping mall that I built, that you guys never get to see because it's too big for my computer to handle, lol! Ah, well, rest assured, my Sims have a mall.

An overview of the city center. Lakeside Heights, even though it is quite suburban, does actually qualify for city-status because of its population.

Another bus stop, just outside the market square. I still need to add bus stops to Lake City and Bluewater Township. This is a bit of a work in progress. And after seeing Carla's hella cool airport, I think I might need one of those too! :)

These are the apartments where Jodie is currently living. The smallish office building on the right is Berjes's cosmetic surgery office. Next to that, you can see part of the open market square. Most of the buildings in Lakeside Heights I made myself, but the glassy building behind those apartments is the library, which I downloaded ages ago, by phazetex.

This is Brant Street, and the foundation of my most popular neighborhood in Lakeside Heights. On the left are the Thompson and Lind families, and on the right are the Jackson and Roseland families. Just out of sight of this picture are the Phoenix (Hayden), Nova-Day, Buchanan, and Centowski families.

Bluewater Township:

This is Main Street in Bluewater Township - I modeled this town after a lot of the charming little country towns in Michigan, where I grew up, with the one single Main Street strip, a bank, a market, and that's about it, lol!

Summer's Place is there on the left, and Charlotte and Leila's new pie shop at the far end. Chad's Gamer's Den is on the right.

This is the flip side view of Main Street, where you can see Charlotte and Leila's shop better.

I wish you could see the cars driving by from lot view. That's one of the things I look forward to in Sims 3, the feeling that the whole neighborhood is inhabited at once. I'd love to be able to look down Main Street and see people walking up and down, from shop to shop.

Custom neighborhood creation is quite obviously one of the "dealbreaker" things I'm waiting for with Sims 3 ;)

There is a big sprawling residential area in Bluewater Township, rather than any defined neighborhoods like my other towns have. Charlotte and Paul are here on the left, and across the street are the Leila and Matt, and their Watts Family Farm.

A long shot of the road where the McCullough family live, with the Hathe family at the far end. There are only four playable families living in Bluewater Township.

This is "the field" where the kids hang out sometimes. It looks much better from lot view. The church is across the street, and out of view to the right is the Watts Family Farm Market.

And here is the two-building complex that makes up Fort Bluewater. On the hill is an on-base residence, where Alon Hutchins will be living after they return. And below are the recruiting offices and other military resources.

Lake City:

Lake City is really hard to get pictures of, but I managed a couple before my graphics card crashed.

This cross-city shot of Lake City is a complete fluke, and might be the only one you'll ever see, lol! I can't usually point the camera across the city like this without my graphics card freezing up and crashing to hell (as you'll see below), so revel in it, enjoy it while you can. The area towards the bottom of the picture is mostly commercial, while the popular residential areas are toward the top - you can see all the plumbbobs ;)

Long view of Washington Avenue, from the west. (Named Washington Avenue, by the way, because all cities in the Great Lakes area, or maybe even everywhere in the US, have a Washington Avenue in their downtown, lol!)

This is the West Washington neighborhood, and the most popular residential area in Lake City. On the left is where Bella and Cameron live - on the right are the Phoenix (Jack), Nova (Patrick), and Miller families. That row extends around the corner as well, where Amelia lives. The tallest building on the right is the Loft Apartments, where Drew and Corbin are currently living, and the second tallest next to it is the Riley Estates Company building.

Also Washington Avenue, but from the east, on the LCU campus. On the left is the sports facility, the library, and Frosh Hall. On the right is the pub, and the Offices for Study Abroad.

This is a shot from my south end. I love my south end, even though I don't have many Sims bad off enough to live there. Maybe more after the next round of taxes, lol!

I don't know why I love it so much, with its smokestacks and cooling towers, and trashy alleys with busted cars on cinder blocks, it kind of reminds me of Detroit, lol!

Ah, home sweet home :)

*******

So anyway, I may edit this post in the future with any new developments on the "street view" level. I'm looking forward to adding bus stops and depots to Lake City, and an airport is looking likely in the future as well.

Oh, and by the way, Madison wants credit for all these Community Enrichment Projects when you all vote in the coming elections ;)

And photographic evidence that Lake City crashes my graphic card all to hell! Whenever I play Lake City, I can't linger on the neighborhood screen for very long before things start to freeze up. This degree of nonsense only happens when I try to point the camera across the city and move it around though (which I try not to do except for projects like this one), so it's not usually this bad. The grass will all just turn flat green and the buildings get all fuzzy.

(But the Harris and Shaw families can rest assured that their cars still look okay? lol!)

first, part 2

June 2083 - Ashlee Deppiesse is 43, Natalia is 13. (Charlie Roseland and Hazel Monif are 13, Fiona McCullough is 15.) Last update, February 2082.

It's probably much too soon for her mother to feel lonely. It's only been three weeks since they left. Instead, she just keeps herself busy here at the restaurant, which means Natty is kept occupied as well. It isn't that she minds spending time with her mother, if she were actually spending time with her, except that her mother is working, talking, selling, and Natty is left watching old cable reruns.

Which is better than washing dishes. Because she has that option too, her mother would say, if she wants to complain of being bored.

first, part 1

June 2083 - Charlie Roseland and Natalia Deppiesse are 13, Gabby Roseland is 4.

It's summer, finally. Charlie is just hanging out in front of his house, with his sister, doing what kids do on these long, sweaty days, which is waiting for something to happen. Nothing is happening here. He can't even score some free lemonade from his baby sister!

"That'll be a dollar ninety-five," Gabby says. "Just like everybody else."

hey, dad...

June 2083 - Ryanne Phoenix is 12, Hayden is 33.

"Hey, Dad," Ryanne says, stopping her father in the living room. "Summer and Tyler, you wanna know why they were really fighting?" She doesn't wait for him to ask, why? "He had sex with another girl."

"What?" Hayden says. "Who - where did you hear that?"

"Oh..." She stammers a bit as she realizes she can't exactly admit that she had her ear pressed to the window that morning.

sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

A guide to different height kissing:

Height differences between lovers can add a lot of realistic value to a story, but the in-game standing kissing animations can get pretty wonky. This is always one of the first complaints people bring up when they consider using different heights in their game, and was also my biggest complaint until I found some work-arounds. In these romantically-inclined stories, you know how we need to get our kiss on around here!

So nobody specifically asked me to do this one, but I've been using different heights in my game for some time now, and discovered a few tricks, so I thought I would share them.

Dallas and Lucy are happy to oblige us in the demonstration of these techniques ;)

graduation, extras

*** graduation extras ***

I think I like posting the outtakes separately when they're as plentiful as this. I wish I'd been doing it all along, so I could have my concise and well-planned story posts, and then my long-winded and rambling gameplay posts... but you know, I didn't. Ah, well ;)

the rules

May 2083 (graduation) - Summer Phoenix, Dallas Deppiesse, and Vicky Garth are 18, Lucy Harris is 16, Sarah Harris is 14.

*soundtrack: "Rhinoceros," by the Smashing Pumpkins*

On the morning of their graduation, the seniors gather in the library to receive their ceremony plans. Dallas has picked up a random physics textbook, just to pass the time.

Summer says to him, "Haven't you learned enough already?"

NaNoWriMo 2009!

It's that time of year again!

I'm actually not planning on slowing down with the LH updates though, or at least not much slower than I've been recently (3-5 days or so). After missing most of September and October, I'd really like to keep this story moving. And besides, this year I'm only doing about half a NaNo, and instead striving for balance in all things, which includes this story. (I even have an update in the works to post soon.)

But my blog reading and commenting may fall short. Because the sad truth of it is that I spend MUCH more time reading and commenting on blogs than I should! There's just too much great stuff to read out there, and I can't possibly commit myself to following everything. So this month is going to have to be about priorities. There will still be leisure time (which will include reading and commenting on blogs), but maybe less of it, portioned out and better monitored.

So if I slack on commenting on your blog this month, it isn't because I don't like you, and it isn't because you smell funny (we're on the internet, I can't smell you at all!). It isn't because you offended me, and it isn't because I don't love you anymore. I love you all just the same! It's not you at all, it's me. I just need some... space. This isn't a break-up, just a break. I just need a little time on my own, to find myself, to see where I'm supposed to be going. And you know, in the end, if it's meant to be, it will be.

LOL, Summer much? ;)

But really, this month (for me) is all about putting things in priority. More novel, more teaching my kid to write his numbers and letters, more walking my chubby ass up some ass-kicking hills, more laundry (a little bit more, anyway) - less slacking, less facebook, less twitter.

I still love you all, and I'll still be here, but you know, I just can't be everywhere.

So happy NaNoWriMo! Is anyone else working on a novel this month? Good luck to everyone participating!

LH sci-fi dork-fest... or the making of a space base

After viewing this video, a tour inside our current ISS, I've had to revise my plans for my happy little space-goers. A free-floating space station wouldn't have as much space or large windows with beautiful views of space like I'd envisioned. And it would not be very aesthetically pleasing at all. It would be cramped and cluttered and every bit of available space would be used.

But they can generate oxygen from their urine! That's hella cool! LOL!

So anyway, if I want to keep this story as realistic as I usually try to, then that means staying true to the kind of possibilities we might see in the next 70 years. So I've changed my original intentions a bit, and I'll now have their "home base" built on the moon rather than a free-floating station in orbit. So from this point forward, that's where they'll be. And I'll try to go back and edit the story to reflect that.

one day, long-dreaded...

May 2083 - Cabe Deppiesse (41), Andy Bradshaw (56), Joel Harris (41), Alon Hutchins (27), Jeremiah Day (26), Keri Riley-Kim (22), Tyler Jackson (19), Stephanie Day (23).

*note: box of tissues warning!*

They felt it coming, there were rumors, there was an atmosphere in the news reports of preparation. They're getting ready for the first contact. They've built up the bases to support a troop surge, so now they need the troops.

Protect the planet is their mission, their first and most important order. They need all the help they can get, and they'll take it from every available unit around the globe. As far apart as they might be in culture or distance, they are all in this one together. Some units went ahead of them, and later more followed. Then last week, one long-dreaded day, there were these pamphlets in the mail: Your Loved Ones on Active Duty.

Soon after, Lake County unit 212 was called to duty.

one day, at Fort Bluewater...

May 2083 (mini-update) - Tyler Jackson (19), Jeremiah Day (26), Joel Harris (41).

One day, at Fort Bluewater, Tyler finds a helicopter. He's never seen one this close, the large metal monstrosity poised there on top of the roof, as if ready to spring into the sky.

more whining about photobucket

Well, Photobucket finally went through my archives and compressed everything all the way back to the beginning.

(Oh, bah! I promise I'll stop bitching about Photobucket soon. Just indulge me this one last time.)

Keri thinks this looks disgusting, and I have to agree with her.

Poor pixelated Piper :(

Dallas and Lucy's super sweet moment all spoiled :(

Some of the only pictures I have of Summer's mommy, all blurry :(

I was hoping maybe they wouldn't compress EVERYTHING. Because if they hadn't, I was just planning to relink enough to get me under bandwidth again, and leaving the archives as they are. It would have saved me a lot of work. But they did compress everything...

So not only do the archived pictures look like crap, but I'm sure they'll continue to max out on bandwidth and go down before the 13th of the month until I can get more of the pictures moved over.

So the relinking process is taking forever, but considering the sentimental attachment to some of my archive pictures, I just can't bear to leave them like that. The relinking will continue and will be finished eventually. I'm currently back through about the middle of March 2009.

LOL, only a year's worth of pictures left to go!