A Cuppa Joe

Getting Behind the Wheel

2011-12-16T01:17:00.002-05:00

New video. Song is "Drive" by Incubus. I have one version uploaded on my YouTube channel, but a better edit is on Vimeo:

"Whatever tomorrow brings, I will be there, with open arms and open eyes."

This comes from a personal place.

Vulture Kitteh

2011-09-20T16:42:00.009-05:00

It's a stare down. Neither has moved in an hour.

Contender 1: "Cricket" the gecko:

Contender 2: "Chip" the cat:

"It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time." - W. Somerset Maugham

Had to be done.

DAMN YOU AUTO CORRECT!!!

2011-06-22T15:58:00.035-05:00

This was too insanely funny not to share. Background: Last night I had been texting with two friends and making the most insane typos. Much of what I wrote was gibberish. At the time, I blamed it on the 3 glasses of wine I had with my Dad (call it a pre-surgery "celebration") - even though I was simultaneously posting on Facebook from my laptop just fine. (Yeah, had some time on my hands last night...)

This morning I discovered the REAL reason why my iphone's autocorrect was acting so obnoxiously.

Notice anything unusual, here? (Hint: I speak ENGLISH)

That little globe thing next to the space (espacio) bar switches the keyboard to spanish. How I did not notice this last night, I do not know. So, basically, my iphone was autocorrecting my english as spanish. But remember, I did not know this at the time.

So, here we go! Text convo screenshots, and the corresponding FB posts! (All real names have been edited)

Here's convo #1. Immy thought I was hammered, and I couldn't explain I wasn't! My phone was outta control!

Here's the conversation going on over on Facebook at the same time as the texting. Immy thought I was just making typos because of the wine! Nooooooo...

Immy went to sleep because, at 22, he's apparently become "old and prudish". So my aussie "Female Friend" and I got vabbly. "Vabbling" is a term my forum members came up for my chatty moments. Val + babbling. Get it?

"Female Friend" and I decided to have some fun with it, and just let the auto-correct do its job, without us correcting it back. I still didn't realize mine was in Spanish. As should be expected by now (see VRevis: Pornographer), my entrance was a memorable one. Kramer the "Assman" ain't got nothin' on me! [/Seinfeld reference] (Ha - blogspot reads html ">" as actual html...really? Seinfeld reference is an html command??) So while I spoke spanish gibberish throughout the conversation, my "Female Friend" posted random whacked-out fortune-cookie-type stuff.

(To explain that last bit with the picture of my sheet, I accidentally took a pic of my sheet, somehow got stuck in MMS mode, and couldn't get back to the regular conversation. The only way I could get back was to send her the pic, which was very random of me, yes?)

The Facebook threads follow us along.

"I meef a translatoe!"

THE END. (...or is it? )

Contact via email

2011-06-08T22:17:00.007-05:00

I just realized tonight that my contact information on acuppajoe.net had an expired email account as my contact address. I have now reactivated that account, so your messages from the site should get through. I have also added another email address which will go to my main email account.

You can contact me at

acuppajoe@fastmail.us

OR

acuppajoe_admin@fastmail.us

My apologies for any inconvenience.

Also, registration for the CJ forum has been reopened! Membership is by approval only.

Sooooo...

2011-05-15T23:38:00.010-05:00

I finally start playing and working with TS3, and discover I need to upgrade my RAM, because of random crashes due to "insufficient memory". Jeez. Luckily it's cheap to do so, but still, the system requirements of this game are ridiculous! I'm almost tempted to reinstall it on OS X because Windows is teh suxxorz, but then I saw the problems people were having with a Mac install. I guess I'll stick with the lesser of two evils and go with the RAM upgrade. Either way, it's unavoidable. I need MORE POWER. Without it, future EPs and videos will probably fry my logicboard. Been there, done that... under warranty. Applecare has officially expired. You see why the panic? (Oh yeah, I'm panicking. And I forgot how to spell "panicking". Spellcheck got me the first time. Ha - apparently "spell check" is two words. Got me again!)

For those who ask (and I get this a lot), "Why oh whyyyyyyy do you use Windows on a Mac?!": SHUDDUP.

(Seriously, it's because buying all my software for Mac would be about as much as buying a brand new MBP. So bootcamp it is! I use OS X for my general cyber needs.)

Frustrated, just venting. Wanna play. Can't. Waah.

In other news, I'm a first time aunt! My brother's wife had a baby girl on May 9. My niece is adorable. I'd show you pics, but

Just imagine a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally cute baby with LOTS of black hair! <3

~QG

And Another One!

2011-05-08T06:36:00.001-05:00

I did not plan to do another video so soon, but somehow did...

My first "full" Sims 3 machinima. Hope you enjoy!

I'm back!

2011-04-25T18:17:00.002-05:00

Hey all! I finally bit the bullet and did my first video using TS3. Of course, there's a twist... isn't there always? :-)

If this is blocked in your country, here's the Vimeo link:

Bonzo's Montreux from VRevis on Vimeo.

Noo YooToob Channel!

2010-12-28T16:43:00.001-05:00

So, I haven't done anything Sims-related in almost a year, but I HAVE been posting videos of my two cats on my VRevis channel. Back in November I opened a new channel, but just started setting things up in earnest a couple days ago.

If you're a cat lover and/or are into lol-cat-type humor, this is for you!

http://www.youtube.com/CaliAndChip

Here's a sample of what's to come. I'm using the YouTube annotations for now, but plan on making these a bit more "professional" looking in my external editor for future videos.

Happy New Year, everyone!

~VR

Hey, a hit's a hit, right?

2010-11-21T23:10:00.013-05:00

No news to report. Getting ready for the holidays, kind of in a panic about that...

Just for fun, I thought I'd post the search-engine queries leading to this blog in the last week. Kinda got a kick out of it, tonight. Because of my 2007 post Upskirt vs. Accidental Nudity, in which I posted about some of the strange places some of my videos have been spotted, I'm still getting hits from folks into... wait for it...upskirt viewing! (those clips have been deleted from my YouTube account, for TOS violation. No, really. I'm serious. Click the link to "I'm a Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here!" on that entry and see!)

No worries, no revealing info is shown in the screenshot, but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

So, since November 12, I've gotten 7 searches for upskirt stuff (guy from Yahoo was REALLY excited typing in all caps!) and a search for a Sims 2 middle finger pose (is there one?), along with a couple searches for my ol' buddy at EA Customer Service, Charles N, (which takes you to the blog entry that was months in the making), a search for Creator's Camp stuff, registration problems with EA, and a couple hits for roof repair. Eh, throw in a couple of searches for this blog for color.

Why not.

Yer killin' me, folks! But thanks for the reminder to never wear a skirt in public.

With that, I'm off to procrastinate. I've been putting that off for a while.

U.S. folks, have a happy Thanksgiving!

~VR

P.S. Blogger.com Support, it's a real pain in the ass having to keep signing in just to make a quick edit.

And now for something completely different

2010-11-09T21:30:00.004-05:00

I spent yesterday assembling a cat tree from Armarkat. It's about a foot and a half taller than I am. That was fun! <---That was sarcasm! Nah, it wasn't too bad. Aside from cat toys that are, in the fine print, "not safe for use as a toy", and a typo in the assembly instructions with one of the bolts on the hiiiiiiiiighest platform...I figgered it out! I iz intellugunt dat wey.

I now have two cats. Cali is adjusting ("little brother syndrome").If you go to my YouTube account and click "date added", you'll see a few videos with Chip, the newest member of my kitteh fambly. He kinda named himself after my beloved siamese-mix, Chip, who passed away in 2006. Chip Jr. is also a siamese mix, and would make his namesake proud.

Edit to correct post: So used to having YouTube links automatically embed on my forum and others, I forgot that I need to actually get the embed code for blogger. Oops!

Edit 2: What is up with Blogger insisting I sign in, repeatedly? That's annoying. Get on that, Blogger, puhleeze.

5 facts, dammit!

2010-09-30T00:52:00.002-05:00

Where have I been? vlog 2

2010-09-07T15:01:00.000-05:00

Update

2010-08-06T01:30:00.004-05:00

Hi all

I know I started off with a bang, earlier this year, with the Examiner articles. I will be getting back to that, but am taking time away for personal reasons. I'm hoping it won't be too long.

And, though I can't publicly post what is going on on this blog, I will ask that you please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. This has been a very rough situation that has us emotionally and physically drained. And I don't know when things will calm down. We're dealing with a lot of red tape.

Thank you to all who have been my friends through this. You've all been a great source of strength.

I hope to be back soon.

~V

The Sims Community Examiner

2010-05-21T21:50:00.005-05:00

Hello, all!

Just a quick one:

I have just accepted the position of The Sims Community Examiner, and need your support to get word out, because I get paid for this! Plus, the exposure is great.

The Sims Community Examiner

Please subscribe! It's free and painless!

I'll be writing as often as I can, now that my first article has been published. I'm aiming for 3-5 articles a week, and will cover all kinds of Sims-related topics, and will talk to some EA contacts to get some good stuff for ya. I'll also be talking about Sims machinima, and interviewing some well-known simmers in the community.

**I would like to thank the two commenters on my last post, who gave me more information than I ever would hopefully need on being "impotent". But, if you suffer from the condition, don't despair! There are medications for it. Good luck to ya!**

Creative Impotence: Life is Like a Bowl of Mashed Potatoes

2010-05-10T19:46:00.079-05:00

I am feeling completely and utterly...blank. The urge to use many, many, many points of ellipses is huge just to get a post to have a certain number of characters, to make it a post "worthy" of publishing. Yeah...like that works...

...is it working?

How about if I added one more "many" to that one sentence up there? You know...that sentence...?

I'm fooling nobody. I get it. I can't stick a bunch of nothing here and have it mean something. This is the same problem I'm having with machinima, right now.

I had two ideas for a couple of videos, very recently. With video #1, I had gone through the process of building sets, downloaded a GB of custom content, created specific characters, only to realize when it came time to put the plans into action, I was left staring at my screen. Normally, momentum pulls me through at this point; there is a disconnect between my conscious brain and my imagination, and I will not sleep or eat until I finish the video, completely unaware of time. I always pictured myself as Richard Dreyfuss' character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (except with better hair), when making a video. You know that scene at dinner when he's sculpting a mountain out of his mashed potatoes and he just keeps going, piling more on, and his family is staring at him with no clue what he's doing? He doesn't even know what he's doing, but he knows there is significance to what he is doing. "This means something; it's something important!" (Yeah, okay, my age is showing. I'll try to be much younger in a future post.)

So, after realizing I had a pile of mashed potatoes on my screen - nothing more - I scrapped the first video. The inspiration struck for a second video after hearing a 10+ year old song on the radio that suddenly had some relevance to my life. Again, I built sets, and actually did film around 40 clips, then scrapped those in frustration. I started again, slight wardrobe changes, filmed quite a bit, even tried storyboarding a bit (something I have never done! It completely goes against the "mashed potatoes" method!) and those went in the trash as well. With this particular video, I had a concept in mind right away. I made the mistake of watching the actual video, discovered it had a very similar concept, and I loved it. Unfortunately, even if I wanted to do a complete recreation of the real video, I am not sure how I would pull it off, using the Sims. I'm trying to get my own ideas back, and the official video out of my head. Impossible! Shelved. All I see are mashed potatoes all over the place, it's getting messy, and it's frustrating as hell.

I think it may go a bit deeper than simple "creator's block" with these particular videos. At the time video #1 was in the planning stages, I was at a certain point, after a very huge, very distressing, turning point in my life. I will call this "certain point" DENIAL. Video #2 could too easily be interpreted as RELUCTANT ACCEPTANCE, and I want to avoid putting my personal life out there on YouTube and Vimeo. Not possible, considering the subject matter of the song, I later realized. As I went on with the video (or tried to, anyway), I started wondering "how can I possibly be taking steps to move forward with my life, while simultaneously doing this video which is clearly focusing on a very painful - a mind-blowingly excrutiatingly painful - moment, no matter how hard I try to deny it?" It didn't feel healthy. I'd missed the window of opportunity, and doing this video now would feel like taking a step backwards. It also would feel like I was showing disrespect for the many beautiful things about the time leading up to the end, and those memories are what deserve to be preserved. Not the pain. Any "therapeutic" video I have ever done, with the exception of very few, were done "in the moment" in less than 24 hours - BANG - it's out there. It's over. It's part of the process of picking myself up, dusting myself off, and moving on. I've dusted myself off, am trying to regain my footing, and am in the mindset of "Give me a sense of simple satisfaction over tears, any day". PLEASE. Let me just get through this thing called Life, same as I was doing before, and let my imagination run, undeterred by "logic". Stupid logic! Logic - overthinking - kills creativity, places too many boundaries, rules, restrictions. This is why children can sit at a table with crayons for hours, color the sky blue, the sun yellow and give little thought to whether people really should be as tall as the house, or if the sky really is a thin strip of blue hanging overhead. Of course emotions, a product of the other side of the brain, drive creativity, and that, too, is adversely affected by logic, when you are trying to create a "therapeutic" piece. "I shouldn't do this video because this might be perceived as that, and I don't want that. I want people to see what I see!" Well, yeah, but isn't art largely about interpretation, and the viewer's perspective, too? Don't they have the right to their own perceptions, just as I take that right when using someone else's song and turning it into something I, personally, can relate to? CAN SOMEBODY TURN MY BRAIN OFF BECAUSE IT IS MAKING NO SENSE AND IT WON'T SHUT UP!!!

Yes, I've had some pretty big things happen in my personal life this year. Much has been lost: love, life, weight (though the loss of weight is more a pleasant side-effect of a very unpleasant circumstance; nonetheless, I'm gonna keep going with it!). So far, 2010 has proved it is not going to be an easy year. It's got 7 months to redeem itself, and it had better hurry up! I'm about to turn 40, too (NOT HELPING) so 2010 has its work cut out for it. Perhaps all this "real life" stuff is getting in the way of what is normally a very enjoyable hobby in the best of times, and an emotional outlet in the worst of times. I can't seem to turn off the part of my thought process that causes me to question everything and everyone, wondering why many other people my age sometimes seem so old, while I am still a kid, wondering how I got to the age I am now, considering I was much older 10 years ago. Ya follow? Questions, questions, questions...all the time QUESTIONS, and very few answers. And this nagging sense that whatever the hell it is I'm supposed to be doing, I'd better hurry up and do it, because I'm not getting any younger. "OMG who said that?!"

So, to answer the people who are wondering when a new video will be out...there is no answer, at this time. All I can offer you is a bunch of mashed potatoes that have been clogging up my harddrive, a sheepish grin, and hope I will find the mountain where the space ship will appear, the aliens and I will communicate via a giant synthesizer, and my life will become normal, again. The rest is gravy.

"This means something; it's something important!"

This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things!!! Last updated Feb 17, 2010

2009-10-31T18:16:00.071-05:00

WELCOME TO THE WORLD'S LONGEST BLOG ENTRY

Grab a cup of coffee; this will take a while.

All updates are at end of entry. Latest update: February 17, 2010.

See also:

7 Months of Frustration Dealing with EA's Tech Support on Reclaim Your Game

The Ongoing Battle with a fan and EA's Tech Support on SimPrograms

EA Support Nightmare on Sims 3 Nieuws (Dutch site translated into English)

A Long and Frustrating Journey with EA Support on SailfinSims

EA Support - What a Joke! at Infinite Sims (New!)

Thanks to everyone helping to get word out! Will continue to update this post.

Original blog post:

Hello, EA customer service? You're broken.

I had to go public with this. This is just so crazy, it's almost funny. (edit: update at end. Classic.) (edit2: Another update at end. UNREAL.) (edit3: Yes, really.)

Back story: I was invited to and attended the Custom Content Creator's Camp last January, at Electronic Arts in Redwood Shores, CA, as one of 5 "machinima artists" (means I make videos with the Sims 2 and 3 game engines), and in the company of some of the best custom content creators of the game from around the world. A dream come true, for me.

The invitation (click to enlarge):

We were all promised we would be featured artists on the official site. When my time came, my account was broken, my mashup video led to a 404 page, so I was swept under the rug. On to the next camper. The mashup video has the featured status, but I do not.

Link to mashup vid, "featured" on 4/10/09

Screenshot of my original VRevis account, which is frozen in time, from last winter/spring:

After many emails back and forth with a maxoid/Guru out at EA, who honestly did her best to help, I went to the main EA customer service page. I had to use my Sims 2 log in, since my Sims 3 log in was borkened. The problem with my account is already so complicated to explain, you can imagine my frustration at having to start over from scratch with several different tickets (5, now, total. A few were combined for "convenience").

I have been told I'm way too nice. This is true, but my patience is now wearing thin. I am willing to make a drinking game of this, and turn this into a good time, however. I'll do a shot of NyQuil for every time an EA rep says "we apologize for the inconvenience". (Heyo, VRevis is passed out on the floor not even halfway through!)

Here is what's been going on with EA's tech support since June. (Note that I am "customer" and that sensitive info has been edited out.)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Customer
06/02/2009 02:04 PM

I wasn't sure which category this should go under.

I am having a lot of problems with my Sims 3 account, which was set up when I attended the Creator's Camp in January. My username is VRevis. I can log in to my account, but it's as if I'm viewing someone else's page. There is no option to modify anything, no option to accept friend requests. I am taken to a new log in page when I try to do anything, then getting an error that says "some authentication error occurred". But I *am* logged in, because it shows my name at the top of the page. I emailed [name withheld] at EA, and she said she'd pass it along to the team on Monday. She had told me there were some problems with my account a few months ago, and that it had been "accidentally deleted". But it was not deleted, my page is here:

http://cc.thesims3.com/mypage/VRevis

I was given a serial number at the Creator's Camp, and I don't know if it has something to do with that, or not. I had to go through the registration process again, but without entering a serial number this time. I see some of my fellow Campers posting in the BBS, and nobody else from the Camp seems to be having the issues I'm having.

These are some screenshots of the errors I get:

My page, as I see it:

Member log in (even though I'm already logged in):

The error I get when trying to use the customer support link on the sims 3 site:

And when I tried the "forgot password" option, I get "invalid username":

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated! My email address is

Thank you.

Customer
06/04/2009 12:41 PM

Will someone be able to answer this for me, soon? I got my Sims 3 game, and cannot use any of the bonus stuff in the collector's edition, because it won't let me register the game.

Response (EARep Effie)
06/05/2009 02:09 AM

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Sorry for the delayed response.Because of our new launch 'The Sims 3' we are getting a little higher than normal volume.In order to assist you with this issue, we will need some information. Please provide us the following information: -

Your Full Name:-
Your EA account name:- [as per situation]
E-mail address as listed on the account:-
Your Game's Serial Number:-
Any alternate email address that you use:-

Additionally, please note that, the registration code can only be used to create one account. If you've previously created an account using the code, you cannot use it again to create a new account. Also, the account registered once cannot be unregistered. You will need to login to the game using the same account name and password with which you have registered the game.

We look forward for your reply.

Thank you,

EA Rep Effie
Player Relations
Electronic Arts

Customer
06/05/2009 01:58 PM

Thank you for your response.

My Sims 3 screen name: VRevis
My full name: edit
email: edit
The serial number that was given to me at EA to set up the account (this is not my actual game serial number, which has not been registered, yet): xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

Like I said, the account was registered with the serial number given to me in January at the Creator's Camp - it is not my actual game serial number. That has not been registered with any account, yet.

Thank you!

Response (Nalin)
06/11/2009 03:50 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for providing us the information.

Sorry for the delayed response. Because of our new launch 'The Sims 3' we are getting a little higher than normal volume

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. In order for us to assist you with this issue, first we need to confirm that you have an official copy of the game. In order to confirm that your copy of the game is official please sign and date the back of your game manual. Once you have signed and dated the back of the manual, please scan and attach an image of the back cover of your game manual to this incident.

With this information we will be able to assist you further.

Sincerely,

EA Rep Nalin
Player Relations
Electronic Arts.

Customer
06/11/2009 04:14 PM

I will send you a copy of the manual as soon as I get access to a scanner. I will give you the serial number of my game in this message. Also, I have given all my log-in information, including my screen name and password, and the serial number of my copy of Sims 3 to *name edited* at EA. Her email is *edit*. She is trying to help me out with this, as there appears to have been a mistake made on EA's end a few months back. My account was created with a serial number provided to me when I was at EA in January for the Creator's Camp. I do not know if the issue is related to this, or not.

You can verify who I am by contacting *edit*, if there is further doubt as to whether I am legitimate.

My new serial number is xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx.

I will send you the scan in the next day or so.

Response (Nalin)
06/11/2009 05:27 PM
Hi Valerie,

Thank you for providing us the information.

First of all I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you and do regret the delay in processing your request.

I have searched through the information as provided by you and found that the registration code shows unused in our database, however we suggest you to clear your browser cache. The instructions on clearing browser cache is listed below: -

http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=Q155w2sj&p_faqid=10990

Once you have cleared your browser cache, follow the given steps to register your game.

- Please visit www.thesims3.com
- Please Click on "Login"
- A pop will appear asking you to login using your e-mail address and password.
- Login using your account name and it's password.
- Enter your registration code and select an existing persona or enter a new persona in the field provided below
- Click on "SignUp"

If you still face any problem, please reply provide us the screenshot of the error message so that we can assist you further.

If there is anything else we can help you with please let us know.

Sincerely,

EA Rep Nalin
Player Relations
Electronic Arts.

Customer
06/11/2009 05:54 PM

Thank you for your response. I did clear my cache, and tried to log in. I got "invalid login information. Please try again."

I tried the "forgot password" link, and the following email was sent from EA@email.ea.com:

The link given: http://store.thesims3.com/resetPassword.html?token=INbCdD6FAe0ND8AcYXJcXILTHBcjWOYNE8C3_1WX4Azpx9OAfFaDqTyrmxPWdwtYRz5qW2sJHbEHQFeQe8_bCA..&locale=en_US

When I clicked the link in that email, I was told the link was "no longer valid". But, as you can see from the screenshot, my username shows up as logged in. However, I have no ability to do anything in my account. It's as if I'm looking at someone else's page.

When I try to go to my account to register my game, I am told "You must be logged in to do that". But my username still shows up as though I'm logged in, in the top left corner.

[Guru] said she couldn't get into my account last night, either, using my log-in information. I forwarded her the "password help" email, and she said it was coming from the Sims 3 store, but when she tried the link from her own account, she was given the right email.

Customer
06/11/2009 06:02 PM

Additional information:

I tried logging out, and using the link sent to me for the "reset password" form. I changed my login. The info, as it is, now:

My username is VRevis
password: xxxxxxxxxx

But when I tried to get into my account to register my game, I was prompted to log in again, and given the error "some authentication error occurred", but, as you can see, my username is at the top left, as if I'm logged in.

I went to the "create account" page, and tried to register my account, and was told that the username VRevis was not available.

Response (Nalin)
06/11/2009 06:08 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Due to the nature of your issue, more time is required for investigation. I apologize for any prolonged delays this might cause, but please rest assured that we are trying to handle your issue in a timely manner. During this time, you may still update your incident with additional information that might help us resolve your issue without causing any additional delay. To update your incident click the link that says, To view or update your question from our support site, click here."

We appreciate the opportunity to assist you and look forward to getting you back in the game!

Thank you,

EA Rep Nalin
Player Relations
Electronic Arts

Response (Laura O.)
06/12/2009 09:47 AM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. Your issue has been escalated to me and I will be happy to assist you in this matter. I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced. I need a little bit more information so that I can make some account changes and to hopefully fix your registration issues:

Password:
Sims 3 persona:

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
06/12/2009 01:18 PM

Hi, Laurie

As I stated in my previous message, my sims 3 persona is VRevis and my password is xxxxxxxxxxxx.

Response (David B.)
06/13/2009 09:49 AM

Hi

Thank you for choosing EA Gmaes.

We are still working to resolve your issue for you, however at this time we do not have any new information or suggestions for you to try. We appreciate your patience and one of our representatives will contact you as soon as we have new information.

Thanks again for contacting EA Games!

Regards

Electronics Arts
Customer Support III

Response (Laura O.)
06/15/2009 08:18 AM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. I apologize for the inconvenience you may experiencing still. Is there any other working e-mail address that we might be able to try and register your product under?

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
06/15/2009 09:43 AM

Sure:

My concern, though, is that I don't want to lose my original account, because all my Creators Camp work is there. It's very important that the original account be fixed, rather than a new one created, where I'd lose all my friend requests, my creators' camp machinima, etc.

Response (Laura O.)
06/15/2009 10:00 AM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. That is perfectly understandable. In order to troubleshoot your account more thoroughly, I will need to send a password rest from your account to my email and reset your password so I can test things. Is it okay to proceed this way?

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
06/15/2009 11:33 AM

Yes, that is fine. :-)

Response (Laura O.)
06/15/2009 11:41 AM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. I have made some account adjustments for you, but will need you to navigate around a little to see if you can produce the same errors. Please clear your browser cache and log in with the following credentials:

Login:
Password: xxxxxxx

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
06/15/2009 07:47 PM

Hi, Laurie

Okay, I cleared my cache, and tried to log in with the new information, but still got the same "authentication error" :

Customer
06/15/2009 07:49 PM

P.S. I tried this with both Firefox and IE. Same error.

Response (Laura O.)
06/16/2009 08:55 AM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. It appears there seems to be some hitch in our system. Please try accessing the site from: http://store.thesims3.com/index.html and now www.sims3.com

Please let me know if this works.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
06/16/2009 04:31 PM

Hi, Laurie

I tried the new link and was able to log into the store, but not my page, still.

When I tried to click on my page I was told I must be logged in, even though I was, already:

Then I hit backspace on my browser, and tried to get into my account again, and got this popup:

So, I am able to get as far as this part of my account:

But my simpage still is locked up for me:

Response (Laura O.)
06/17/2009 12:57 PM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. It looks as though this is a known issue. This error happened with user's whose email addresses were changed. We are currently working on the situation and would like for you to check our this FAQ on the issue.

This is faq # 22319. If you notice, you can log in through the store website, but not through thesims3.com. When you click on My Account, it uses pages from thesims3.com and no longer the storefront website. Please click on the 'Notify Me by Email is this Answer is Updated' button and you will get the latest updates as we receive them. I understand this may be frustrating, but we appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
06/17/2009 01:49 PM

Hi, again

I can't even log in to sign up for updates. First I got the message The username and/or password you provided are incorrect. If you are having problems, please use the "I forgot my password" or "I forgot my screen name" links provided below to retrieve your account information.

When I try now, I get "connection reset" errors. Every time.

I was using login:
pw: xxxxxxxx

as instructed

Customer
06/17/2009 01:51 PM

I also am not getting the "technical difficulties" error, as in the FAQ. I'm getting authentication errors, invalid password/username, and "you must be logged in to do that".

Response (Laura O.)
06/17/2009 02:30 PM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. I understand that the error message is not exactly the same. This stems from the same problem, however. One of the biggest indications of that is the fact that you cannot access sites to do with thesims.com vs. the storefront log in site. Please sit tight with us as we are investigating this issue to the best of our abilities. I understand that this may be frustrating, and justifiably so, but we appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

TICKET CLOSED

New Ticket

Customer
06/26/2009 02:03 PM

RE: Incident: 090602-020327

I see that the issue has been resolved according to # 22319, the FAQ link I was given in my first question, but it is still not letting me log in. I am trying to log in with:

login:
password: xxxxxxxx

This is the password you set for me. Nothing has been changed on my end, there was no change in email. The error I get upon a log-in attempt is, again, "some authentication error occurred"

Response (EARepAbdiel)
07/02/2009 10:58 PM

Hello,

Thank you for your patience. It looks as though the issue you have submitted is more complex than it seemed initially. We require more time for investigation, but rest assured we are working hard to resolve your issue in a timely manner. We encourage you to update your incident with any additional information that might help us fix your problem faster. To update your incident, click on the To view or update your question from our support site, click here link.

We appreciate the opportunity to assist you and look forward to getting you back in the game!

Please let us know if there is anything else needed.

Sincerely,

EARepAbdiel
Player Relations
Electronic Arts.

Response (Alfred)
07/03/2009 07:16 AM

Hi,

I apologize for the delay in response.

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts and letting us know about bug you have discovered while playing the game.
Though I would route your suggestion to the appropriate department, I hope you will understand that it is customer support and we can only address the issue pertaining to account and technical nature, such as error messages, game lock-ups, or game crashes.

I would appreciate you to post your complaint or game bug to the The Sims 3 game forum at http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/forums/list.page. Reason being, these forums are maintained and monitored by the community leaders and often visited by the production team. By posting on these forums you will be able to submit direct feedback to the appropriate person.

I understand your disappointment as I could not offer you direct assistance in this matter.

Should you require any further assistance, please visit our support knowledge base at http://easims.custhelp.com/ for a quick reference.

If there is anything else we can help you with please let us know.

Sincerely,

EA Rep Alfred
Player Relations
Electronic Arts.

Response (Alfred)
07/03/2009 07:21 AM

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please ignore the last response mistakenly given to you.

Due to the nature of your issue, more time is required for investigation. I apologize for any prolonged delays this might cause, but please rest assured that we are trying to handle your issue in a timely manner. During this time, you may still update your incident with additional information that might help us resolve your issue without causing any additional delay. To update your incident click the link that says, “To view or update your question from our support site, click here."

Sincerely,

EA Rep Alfred
Player Relations
Electronic Arts

Customer
07/03/2009 11:37 AM

Hi,

As I stated in the previous question, I am unable to post in the Sims 3 forums without a registered game, and I cannot register my game because my account name is already in use.

Response (Laura O.)
07/07/2009 07:16 AM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. I apologize for the inconvenience you are experiencing. Your issue has been escalated to me and I will be happy to assist you in this matter. Do you have another active email account we could register your product with?

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
07/07/2009 08:13 AM

Hi, Laurie

Do you still have access to the original incident: 090602-020327 ? All the messages I've been getting so far in this request seem to be repeats of everything I've already answered in the original (closed) incident, and I put a lot of screenshots of every error message I have been getting in that thread.

As for having another email account, I think I stated in the first incident that you can try

Thanks

Response (Laura O.)
07/09/2009 10:15 AM

Hello,

Thank you contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. I apologize for the inconvenience you are experiencing. I am going to take a few more attempts to get this working on your original account before I try account registration on the provided email. However, the password previously set doesn't even work at www.ea.com, let alone www.sims3.com, so I'm going to reset it once more for , please let me know what the temp password is, and I'll continue to work on your account.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
07/09/2009 02:57 PM

Hi, Laurie

I got two emails with two different passwords, both having the same timestamp. The first email said my password is xxxxx. The second said my password is xxxxxx.

Response (Laura O.)
07/14/2009 01:37 PM

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. Do you have another persona name I could try?

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

Customer
07/14/2009 02:31 PM

Hi, Laurie,

The only persona name I have is VRevis, which I created for the Sims 3 account at EA in January. I have no other account on the Sims 3 site.

Response (Laura O.)
07/17/2009 08:35 AM

Hello,

It looks like I was finally able to access your account after a lot of tweaking, but I'm sure, still, if this is actually working correctly. Please log into www.store.sims3.com with the following log in credentials:

Login:
PW: xxxxxx

I was able to view "My Page" for the first time since we've been working on this. Can you try this for me? I've attached a screen shot of what I think this should look like.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Customer Support

Customer
07/17/2009 02:08 PM

Hi, Laurie!

Yes, I can log into the store and I see my sim page, as shown in your screenshot.. :-) That's as far as I can get, though. I can't actually do anything on my sim page. Not sure if it helps, but when I try to log in at http://www.thesims3.com with that same new log-in information, I still get the error "some authentication error occurred".

Response (Laura O.)
07/20/2009 12:52 PM

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. I apologize for this, a request has been sent up to look into this issue further. We appreciate your patience and effort in this matter, but rest assure someone is working on this.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support

Try our knowledge base at http://support.ea.com.

TICKET CLOSED

New Ticket (I am copying this one from my email alerts, as the ticket has disappeared from my account):

Customer
Hello,

I have twice submitted questions for help regarding my account at Sims3.com. The first question is reference number 090602-020327. The second question is reference number 090626-006637.

I last received a message from Laurie O. stating:

"Response (Laura O.)
07/20/2009 12:52 PM

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. I apologize for this, a request has been sent up to look into this issue further. We appreciate your patience and effort in this matter, but rest assure someone is working on this.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Support"

When I came in to see what the status was, I got the message that the issue had been closed, and the deadline has passed to respond, but I can't see that any progress has been made on my account.

I have been trying to get help with my account for 2 months, now, and had to repeat nearly all information I provided in the second question. I have copied both closed questions (the one from June, and the one from July) into Wordpad and am attaching them, to avoid going through the same long process, again. Hopefully this can pick up where it was left off, by Laurie O.

Thank you.

Response (EARepJovi)
08/08/2009 09:04 AM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Please know that I'm escalating this issue to our senior level for proper handling. Someone should be in contact with you soon regarding this issue. I apologize for any prolonged delays this might cause, but please rest assured that we are trying to handle your issue in a timely manner.

We appreciate your patience on this matter.

Sincerely,

EA Rep Jovi
Player Relations
Electronic Arts

Response (Laura O.)
08/10/2009 01:25 PM

Hello,

Thanks for writing. I did, indeed, send off a request for your account to be looked at and have not had a response. I will send this up again, but let me first make sure if your login information is as follows:

Login:
PW: xxxxxxxx

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Customer Support

Customer
08/10/2009 02:13 PM

Yes, that was the last log-in info I was assigned in this message:

Hello,

It looks like I was finally able to access your account after a lot of tweaking, but I'm sure, still, if this is actually working correctly. Please log into www.store.sims3.com with the following log in credentials:

Login:
PW: xxxxxxxx

I was able to view "My Page" for the first time since we've been working on this. Can you try this for me? I've attached a screen shot of what I think this should look like.

Thanks,
Laurie O.
EA Online Customer Support
Customer
07/14/2009 02:31 PM"

Response (Joe G.)
08/14/2009 03:41 PM

Hi, Valerie

I'm going to consolidate these three tickets and work with you one on one from this ticket, okay?

I've moved your persona over to . Please log in to www.thesims3.com and use that email to log on.

For the password, I'm going to reset your password and that will be sent in a separate email.

Log on and see if you get any additional functionality on the site.

I look forward to hearing back from you,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Customer
08/15/2009 03:37 PM

Thank you, Joe. I still have not received the password email to try to log in. Will it be sent to the address?

Response (Joe G.)
08/17/2009 11:49 AM

Valerie,

Yeah, you should have gotten it. I sent it again. Look in your spam filter or junk email filter to see if the computer is redirecting it.
If you don't have it, reply back and we'll try a new email address.

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Customer
08/17/2009 01:15 PM

Okay, I got my password, and my account is working! Thank you so much! The only thing I can't find are my pending friend requests. When I go to http://www.thesims3.com/pendingFriends/VRevis, I get an "Oops, we are unable to process your request" error. I should have around 80 requests, going by the email alerts.

Customer
08/17/2009 01:26 PM

One other thing, I am supposed to have a "featured" icon on my page. I don't recall what the date was, though, since I apparently missed it when I was actually featured. Or it was a date I was set to be featured, before my account was messed up, but I did notice while looking at my account a week or so back, it said my video was featured. I'm not exactly sure what went on. Can that be added to my page?

Here's the "featured" info. The date was 4/10/09:

http://cc.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=106

There still seems to be a problem, after all. I am logged into my VRevis account, and I put in a friend request, which was confirmed. I was sent the "welcome" email, clicked on the "go to my page" link, and it took me here, where the person I had just added as a friend is showing up:

http://www.thesims3.com/persona.html?sourceid=ea3523

Customer
08/17/2009 01:50 PM

I'm sorry to keep adding on, but the link on that new page for "share your page" takes me to my real account: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/VRevis

So, it seems I have two accounts, now? I have no way to "manage my friends" on my real account. On the new one, I do, but have lost all my account info, my studio project, friends, etc.

Customer
08/17/2009 02:04 PM

Seems anything I do on my original account is showing up on the wrong account, instead (with the exception of deleting my duplicate video files from the real account). I just posted a blog from my real account, then when I hit publish, it said "no blog posts". I tried a second blog post, and again, I hit publish, and it said I had no blog posts. I checked the http://www.thesims3.com/persona.html?sourceid=ea3523 page, and both posts were there. I deleted one entry from that page, and it took me back to my real page. I'm very confused, and hope I'm explaining things clearly... getting closer, but something's still messed up somewhere.

Here's a screenshot of what I see from the link that was sent to me in my welcome email. I assumed it would take me to my VRevis page, but as I said, it took me to a new page, but the "share your page" link is my real VRevis page link:

Login:
password: xxxxxxx

Response (Joe G.)
08/18/2009 10:04 AM

Valerie,

What we're going to need to do is rebuild your persona from scratch. It's too messed up to be able to restore. I apologize for the inconvenience this causes you.

Login to this account: ---------------------------------------------------------------------->
Your www.thesims3.com password for that new email login is----------> xxxxxxx
Your new persona is -----------------------------------------------------------------------> NewVRevis
The Web URL for this new email account is ----------------------------------->
Your password for your email account is: -----------------------------------------> xxxxxxx

You may not need your new authorization code, but it you have to download the game to reinstall it, or something like that, here it is: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I added 3000 points to your account to compensate for the inconvenience, and restored the points you lost when re-registering.

What I need you to do next is send friend requests to from the new account (edit) to:

ManagerJosh
Simvip
TheSidDog
baconandeggzie
ehaught58
tdyannd

Also, from the email alerts, send friend requests to those pending friends from the old account.

You can still use but you won't be able to blog from it or go to the forums from it. We're going to need to eventually shut it down as soon as we figure out how much we can transfer and get it moved over as best we can.

I apologize for the additional inconvenience.

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Customer
08/22/2009 12:40 AM

Okay, I will do all this tomorrow, and let you know how it goes.

I just want to be sure I don't lose any of my work from the Creator's Camp.

Will there be any way to change my persona back to "VRevis" once everything is moved over and the original account is deleted? And, would it be at all possible to show I've been a member since Jan. 16, as it says on my original account?

Thank you

Customer
08/25/2009 11:43 AM

I have set up my new account, but am still waiting for my creations to be transferred over. When do you think this will happen?

Response (Joe G.)
08/26/2009 12:31 PM

Val,

Well, they've got us going around in circles. Please try logging in as . I've reset your password. Let me know what level of functionality you have as that user.

I look forward to your response,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Customer
08/26/2009 12:56 PM

Hi, Joe!

Thanks for getting back to me. I logged into the (VRevis) account, and I can get in and manage/edit my studio creations. I have not tried to create anything new, though. When I tried to edit "my story" and do another "test" blog, it showed up at this page, again: http://www.thesims3.com/persona.html?sourceid=ea3523 It still has a link back to the VRevis account, and if I try to post or do anything on the link I just gave you, I am taken back to the VRevis account. I'll attach a couple screenshots of what I am seeing.

Customer
08/26/2009 04:32 PM

Hey Joe, a couple more screenshots for you. I was logged into my (VRevis) account, and put in a friend request to my (NewVRevis) account. Then I logged out of the VRevis account and into the NewVRevis one. I saw VRevis as an impending friend, and accepted, but it looks like it's that http://www.thesims3.com/persona.html?sourceid=ea3523 page, again.

See pic "VRevis friend request"

And when I click on VRevis, I get an error. See pic "VRevis friend request error"

Also: When in the original VRevis account, I clicked on the sim that is there for download, and it said this item is no longer available. That's not a big deal to lose that sim, I'm more concerned about my video clips, but I thought maybe the info might help.

Response (Joe G.)
09/01/2009 07:57 AM

Hi,

Can you download your video clips from the nonfunctioning account and then re-upload them to the new account?

I can help with that if you need me to.

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Customer
09/01/2009 09:44 AM

Sure, I'm not sure how to upload the clips to my account, though. Can you tell me how to do that?

Hi,

Yes, look at this help file and let me know if you need me to walk you through it: https://easims.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/easims.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=22200

Hope this helps,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Hi, Joe

Thanks for the link. I have family in town for my Grandma's 90th bday party/family reunion, and have hardly had time to breathe, let alone go online!

So, do I need to download my clips and then put them in the folder where the game clips normally go, and then they'll show up on the uploader? I think there's a limit on the time or size of the clip IIRC, isn't there? Will there be a problem getting my finished video up there, if that's the case?

Thanks!

Hi, Val

Well, happy birthday to grandma!

I'm not sure what the limit is: let's cross that bridge when we come to it.

Hope this helps,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Customer
09/10/2009 01:00 AM

Haha, thanks, Joe. I'll pass along your message to Grandma!

I have a bit of a situation: I have to take my laptop in to to be serviced this week, and I'm thinking a new logicboard is in order (as well as a new display) so I will be without my laptop *possibly* as long as a couple of weeks. I'm in the process of backing up everything, now. Anyway, my point is that I will not have the game with me, obviously, since they will be wiping my harddrive, and I will have to reinstall. Can we keep this ticket open until I get my computer back and can install the game and try to upload the files? I just don't want to have to open a 4th ticket.

Is this, by ANY chance, something you would be able to do on your end (the transferring of the video files)?

I will be able to check my messages on another computer that I will be borrowing, but, unfortunately, it is not one that can handle Sims 3.

Thanks.

Val,

Good luck with your computer. I have to reformat my hard drive this weekend for a virus problem.

Okay, so I can try to download and upload stuff. Please remind me of the two account emails and their respective passwords,

If the ticket expires, open a new one referencing 090806-000504 and will pick up where we left off.

I look forward to hearing back from you,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Thank you, Joe!

I think I may have a virus issue going on here, as well, which is why I'm going to tell Apple it's fine by me to wipe the drive clean, though I dread a reinstall. I play on a mac, and have my games and video editing software all on a Windows partition, so have to not only reinstall OS X, but use Bootcamp to reinstall XP to reinstall my TS2 games and software. But the upside is that I can format it better, so I'll have room to install Sims 3 on Windows, as I have been doing (while juggling files around on external drives to make room. I didn't divide up the partition space well, when I first did this), but have not had any spare room for video files, so haven't been able to do any machinima.

Anyway. You asked for my log in.

Original VRevis account:

Login: edit
PW: xxxxxx

New "NewVRevis" account:
edit
xxxxxx

Thank you!

Hi, Val

I had a virus on my home computer as well. That's no fun.

I was unable to login to your old account so I'm asking my supervisor what to do next.

Sorry I didn't have better news,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Hi, Joe,

I'm sorry, it's my fault!! I forgot my email and password had to be changed.

Login for VRevis is:
edit
xxxxxxxx

I apologize. I got confused because it was changed so many times. I just looked down at the ticket and grabbed the information off of there, but it was outdated.

Response (Joe G.)
09/14/2009 12:52 PM

Hi, Val

Okay, I'm making progress on this but I'm running into server trouble. Stay tuned.

Thanks for your patience,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

TICKET CLOSED

New Ticket

Customer
10/06/2009 09:24 AM

Joe G.
RE: 090626-006637
NewVRevis account

I have had 3 questions submitted, all closed. The last questions were combined. I was told to open another ticket if the latest one was closed.

In brief, I am waiting to get my files transferred over to a new account which was created for me by EA. My original one, VRevis, created at the Sims 3 Custom Creator's Camp, is apparently irreparably broken. As I do not want to go into all the details, starting from the lowest rung on the ladder for the 4th time, please reference questions

#090602-020327

and, most recently
#090626-006637

for the details. This has been going on since June.

I was told we would pick up where we left off, should this ticket be closed before my account was fixed, and all files were transferred.

I was corresponding with Joe G.

This is the last I have heard from him.

Response (Joe G.)
09/14/2009 12:52 PM

Hi, Val

Okay, I'm making progress on this but I'm running into server trouble. Stay tuned.

Thanks for your patience,

Joe G.
Tier 3 Escalations Agent
Electronic Arts

Thank you.

Response (EARepAngus)
10/10/2009 04:31 AM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Due to the nature of your issue, more time is required for investigation. I apologize for any prolonged delays this might cause, but please rest assured that we are trying to handle your issue in a timely manner. During this time, you may still update your incident with additional information that might help us resolve your issue without causing any additional delay. To update your incident click the link that says, To view or update your question from our support site, click here."

We appreciate the opportunity to assist you and look forward to getting you back in the game!

Thank you,

Angus
EA Customer Support

Response (Charles N.)
10/13/2009 06:47 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

I have sent a request to get a status update from Joe. I should hear something back from him in 24 - 48 hours.

I apologize for any disappointment or inconvenience that this causes you.

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email or visit our extensive knowledge base online at http://support.ea.com.

Thank you,

Charles N
EA Online Support

Customer
10/21/2009 03:02 PM

Can I have an update on this, please?

Response (Charles N.)
10/26/2009 12:47 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

I am sorry for the delay in writing, our tier three support department is receiving a higher than normal email volume so we are a bit back logged but are working to correct this.

We have heard from the server team and I will need links to all of the content that you would like moved from the one account to the new account.

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email or visit our extensive knowledge base online at http://support.ea.com.

Thank you,

Charles N
EA Online Support

Customer
10/26/2009 01:14 PM

I have been talking to Joe G. about this, and I was told I was not going to have to repeat myself for a 5th time, since I have not only been referencing original questions, but even attached a text file of the questions in the last ticket. He said the files were in the process of being transferred over, but that there were server issues at the time. I never heard back, and the ticket was closed.

This issue has been ongoing since June. EVERYTHING from the VRevis account needs to be moved to the NewVRevis account: 19 studio files, including one completed mashup video done. All created at the Creator's Camp in January.

Please refer to the referenced questions for all passwords for both accounts.

Thank you.

Response (Charles N.)
10/30/2009 01:18 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Unfortunately I need links to the items that need to be transferred as this is what the server team is requesting. With out this we will not be able to get this resolved.

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email or visit our extensive knowledge base online at http://support.ea.com.

Thank you,

Charles N
EA Online Support

Customer
10/30/2009 01:45 PM

Could you please put me back in touch with Joe G., as he was already in the process of moving the links. He said he would take over again if the previous thread is closed. He has all access to my former account, as well as all the necessary links.

TICKET CLOSED

Most recent ticket:

Customer
10/31/2009 04:08 PM

ATTN: Joe G.

This is now ticket #5 (4 according to your records because 2&3 were combined)

I was corresponding with Charles N. who was apparently not willing to work with me on this ticket. I specifically addressed the ticket to you, Joe G., because you said we could pick up where we left off. I received an update from Charles N., asking for all urls to the files I needed transferred. I replied:

"Could you please put me back in touch with Joe G., as he was already in the process of moving the links. He said he would take over again if the previous thread is closed. He has all access to my former account, as well as all the necessary links."

He promptly closed the ticket without any sort of resolution.

My complaint is rapidly becoming one of poor customer service. So far, Joe G has been the ONLY one willing to work with me with a problem that has been going on since June, therefore I am addressing this to him, as he said he would continue to work with me.

I am attaching all text files of previous closed tickets, including the most recent, so we don't have to start all over with the form letter replies, again.

This was the update I was going to add to the last ticket, but the door was shut in my face before I could add it. I have a very bad connection and am on a borrowed computer. Since Joe G. had offered to transfer the files for me because of my situation, I did not see why I needed to provide the urls, as you already have all my log in info. However, I have gotten the urls, anyway, just to get this situation resolved.

Here is my update:

I found my log in info for my VRevis account:

edit
pw: xxxxxx

Log in for the new account:

edit
pw: xxxxxxx

Here are the urls you asked for. Unfortunately, some files are missing.

Somehow several of my video clips are missing, and all I have are the above pieces. I'm supposed to have a total of 19 creations, two of which are sims, which I do not care about. I have replaced them on my new page.

PLEASE NOTE: I also would like my "featured" status restored to the new page, as promised at the Creator's Camp. My account was broken a couple months before the site went live, my mashup video shows as "featured", but I was swept under the rug as a featured creator. Since I was promised at the Creator's Camp I would be featured, I am really pushing for this, as it's very important to me. I cannot tell you how nervous I was waiting for my profile to show up on the featured members page with the other Campers, just to have my hopes dashed when I found out I had to be "hidden" because of a mistake on EA's part.

Thank you.

UPDATE:

Charles N. reopened the ticket he closed, ignored the new ticket in which all the links were provided, AND he was named as the one refusing to work with me, and updated ticket #4 with this (is it just me or is his reply a bit on the sarcastic side?):

Response (Charles N.)
11/04/2009 03:02 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Unfortunately I am the one that is handling this issue so if you would please submit the links to me so I can get this corrected for you.

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email or visit our extensive knowledge base online at http://support.ea.com.

Thank you,

Charles N
EA Online Support

My response:

Customer
11/04/2009 05:13 PM

All links are in the latest ticket I submitted: 091031-020307

This is ridiculous. This is what my tech support account looks like. What a mess.

UPDATE 11/10/2009

Greetings,

Thank you for writing again here in Electronic Arts Customer Service.

After checking your contact history, I noticed you currently have another support request awaiting response in our queue for the same issue. The reference number on the pre-existing request is #<091006-009454>.

In order to provide you with better, more consistent support, I am closing this duplicate support request. I would recommend you update your pre-existing incident if you require an update or further assistance. To access all current support requests associated with your account, follow the steps below:

1. Go to support.ea.com
2. Click on the ‘My Questions’ link on the top left-hand corner of the page (under the ‘My Stuff’ section)
3. Our website will prompt you to log in to your EA account.
4. If you have multiple EA accounts, use the screen name associated with this support incident
5. You should now see the ‘My Questions’ page, where all open support requests should be listed.

Clicking on the subject of the support request will open its details. From the details page, you can update your pre-existing incident if you require further assistance.

Thanks again for contacting EA Support. Feel free to update your previous incident if you require further assistance.

Regards,

Chris
EA Online Support

I had to update BOTH tickets, because I don't know if anyone is actually reading ANYTHING I WRITE. Infuriating. I have never seen customer service this horrible.

And I sent a link to this blog:

Customer
11/10/2009 04:28 PM

I am giving a link to my blog, which has the entire history of this problem, dating back to June 6, 2009.

http://acuppajoe.blogspot.com/2009/10/this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things.html

Maybe you can see why I am feeling very frustrated at this point? It did not help to be chastised for opening a "duplicate" entry, when, clearly, the update was not even READ. I could not update this ticket, because, after asking Charles N. for the 3rd time to transfer me back to Joe G., he closed the ticket the same day. I got the message that the "deadline had passed". I submitted a new ticket, and magically the old one reopens.

Please take the time to actually read the tickets before responding.

UPDATE: December 14, 2009

Well, another ticket closed, and still unresolved. EA did write me to tell me that they were sending me a free copy of World Adventures, for my "patience" and as a "gesture of goodwill". On December 9, I received a message that it would be shipped out in 2-3 business days.

Last night I went in to check up on the status of my account, and got this message, one I've seen quite a few times, now:

My ticket list is even more of a confused mess:

A friend of mine sent me this link, saying it made him think of my experience with EA customer support. I had to include it in this entry.

Why I'd Rather Be Punched in the Testicles Than Call Customer Service.

Okay, so I'm FEMALE, and don't have testicles. But the sentiment is the same.

UPDATE Dec. 28

My 6th ticket was submitted on Dec. 13. I got the usual quick auto-response saying I should hear something within 24 hours. On Dec. 21 I had not heard anything back, so I asked for an update. Over two weeks since the 6th ticket was submitted, and I have not heard a word. I also have not received the EP I was promised for my patience, which is, by now, close to non-existent.

This is a screenshot of ticket 6. It reads from bottom to top. Notice there is NOTHING by EA.

The owners of Reclaim Your Game noticed my blog post, and asked me to do a write up for them, which is now published on their site. Here's the link to the article.

I will keep you posted.

Jan. 2, 2010, I just put in another request on ticket #6 asking for an update. The 6th ticket is now 2 and a half weeks old, and EA has not said a word. This is RIDICULOUS.

UPDATE Jan. 4 (very early am)

Today, I put out the link to this blog on my Twitter page, again, addressing not only @AskEASupport, but also @EA . I asked my followers to Retweet. I was contacted by someone who saw my post, (thank you @kovster!) and they retweeted and put up their own post about it, which was RTd. Tonight I got several DMs from EA, very apologetic. Since they are DMs, I won't reveal exactly what was said, other than they were very apologetic, said "clearly messed up", and that they will fix this.

Well, I guess there's nothing to say at this point besides "I'll believe it when I see it", and let's hope this is not another empty promise. Suffice it to say, I've become a little cynical throughout this experience.

Either way, I will keep you posted. Here's hoping!

UPDATE JAN. 6

Well, so much for that; it's back to square one. Although EA has seen this entry in the last few days, nothing has been done. To add insult to injury, EA UNFOLLOWED me at Twitter, so I cannot DM them, anymore. They asked me for my email address via DM a few days ago, but I have not received any email, yet. So, I'm back in the dark, looks like.

At this point, I'm ready to scream. People build HOUSES in the amount of time that this issue has been ongoing, and I cannot understand why EA is so unwilling to do what it takes to keep a loyal customer base happy. I have been a part of the Sims community since the TS1 days, I have a loyal forum following, am active in the community, have given EA a lot of my money, but am now feeling like they just don't give a crap.

I just wrote EA at Twitter asking for an update. In the Direct Message, they admitted they "clearly messed up", and promised me that if I did not hear back from escalated support, to contact them back, and they will find another solution. Of course, there's no way to "contact them back" since they have effectively broken off communication with me, again. And, yes, I do have a screenshot of this correspondence via Twitter. I will not show the actual messages, but will show the screenshot of the email alerts I received, consisting of 3 Direct Messages and one follow alert:

Here's what my Twitter home page looks like, today (for those unfamiliar with Twitter, read the messages from the bottom up):

And here's what ticket 6 looks like today:

SMALL UPDATE, JAN. 7:

EA has followed me again on Twitter, so at least that can be crossed off the list of gripes. Thanks to many Retweets on Twitter, EA HAS been on my blog, and they do have the full story, now. What happens next, I have no idea.

And this is the first time since the Creator's Camp that my blog has received more hits than my forum!

Quick Non-update Jan. 13:

Still nothing. I have DMd EA on Twitter, and gotten no response. My ticket currently looks like this. NOTHING from EA's side.:

JANUARY 26, 2010

I am in Chile for a few couple of weeks, and here I am, still updating this stupid blog entry, still trying to get EA customer support to show ANY sign of life.

Ticket #6 seems to be a road to nowhere. Despite multiple requests for updates, EA customer support has remained maddeningly silent. The ticket shows as "unresolved". At first, I thought it had been closed, but, no, it's just been ignored. Instead of updating a ticket that was was apparently DOA, I submitted a seventh ticket. Of course I'm expecting to get chastised again for opening multiple tickets, but, hey, at least it may get some notice.

Here is a screenshot of ticket 7:

And screenshots of the Direct Messages I received from EA weeks ago:

The ball is in your court, EA.

Update Feb. 6 2010

I am BEYOND frustrated with EA. I am just plain angry now. EA has been reading this blog. I am sure they have been reading the articles from the other sites, as well, though I haven't asked if the other sites' referring urls show this. So, yes, EA is aware, and EA is IGNORING. Anyone with any suggestions as to who I need to contact to put this on blast, hit me with it. As soon as I get back to the states next week (my stay has been extended) I'll be firing off a few letters and emails from some suggestions already given.

So, ticket 6 was ignored. EA did not have a single thing to say to explain themselves. EA told me on Twitter they have clearly messed up, and to please contact them if I don't hear from escalated support. I did just that. Two times. Their response? THEY UNFOLLOWED ME, AGAIN. Yup, just another empty promise, just like the "gesture of goodwill" EP I was promised. Just like the working account I was promised. Where the hell are Laurie O. and Joe G, EA? C'MON, the ONLY two people in the customer service department willing to actually do their jobs have been suspiciously silent. I get a very strong feeling this is a case of "Hey, maybe if we ignore her, she'll go away!!!"

Anyway, here's the latest screenshot of Ticket 7.

What do you have to say for yourselves, now, EA "customer support"? Really. I'd love to hear it.

For the rest of you, as usual, I will keep you updated!

LATEST UPDATE: FEB 17, 2009

Will be quick because right now EA is not at the top of my list of concerns:

Ticket 6 was suddenly noticed.

I have received the World Adventures EP. I have not opened it. I do not know if I will. I am rather soured on the whole Sims 3 thing, now.

I also received a message from my buddy "Charles N." (he hates me) saying that my creations cannot be moved to my new account, as the files are corrupted.

Have a nice day.

Mannequin

2009-10-25T18:55:00.002-05:00

Quick post, not feeling well. New video up!

CJ Registration

2009-10-17T02:16:00.004-05:00

Very, VERY quick note, because I am virtually typing in my sleep.

Apologies to anyone who has tried to register at the Cuppa Joe forum this past month. I have been busy offline, and there's been a sudden surge in spam accounts. Not dealing with it. I disabled registration, temporarily. I will let you know when it's open again for registration.

If you want to sign up, you can email me at acuppajoe@fastmail.us. I won't guarantee acceptance, however, if I don't know who you are. If I know you from elsewhere, make sure you give me the username I know you by.

Thanks!

I Hate the Mall

2009-09-17T18:25:00.013-05:00

So, I've been kind of scarce the last couple months because I have been staying the summer at my parents house, and my laptop would not get a good wireless connection, but maybe 3 days a month. I consulted a friend for help, and he was stumped. I consulted my brother, and HE was stumped. But, it's a known issue with the Macbook Pro, unfortunately. Some people say switching to a different brand of router works, others say it doesn't matter what router you use. The laptop connects to the router, but cannot actually connect to the internet. It's frustrating, because the wireless connection will say it's "connected" with a STRONG signal, and I feel like it's thumbing it's nose at me, because I can't connect to the internet! I don't care that I have a "very strong" connection, it does me NO good if I am stuck disconnecting, then reconnecting, for every post I make on a forum. I'll have a connection for a minute or so,then it will drop. This has made it impossible to IM or skype or anything like that. Or even watch a video on YouTube.

A few months ago I started noticing an occasional overheating issue with my laptop. I know the signs, I've fried my share of motherboards with my previous laptops. Giving credit where credit is due: I do a LOT of cpu-intensive, graphic intensive work, often running the Sims 2, and up to 2 editing programs AT THE SAME TIME. No previous PC laptop would let me do this, and they still fried. My HP (bought before I got into machinima) fried 2 days after its 1 year warranty was up, just a few months after I started doing videos. I replaced that with a Winbook, a relatively unknown model no longer being produced, but was actually a decent gaming rig, for less than $2000. Couldn't play with all settings maxed, but you could play with SOME settings maxed, and others at low or medium (shadows and lighting were both medium, reflections were off, unless I was making a video). But running Adobe Premiere Pro was a challenge, and will wear out your hardware fairly quickly if you don't have a computer designed to handle such power-hungry programs. I had 3 motherboard replacements in less than a year, at $500 a pop. It was a money pit, and obviously couldn't handle me. So I got my Macbook Pro. Although I'm now a die-hard Mac girl, Macs aren't for everyone, and I don't recommend them to people unless you're into video or audio editing, because they are pricey, and you can get a much cheaper PC for everyday usage (and gaming). But for my purposes this thing has been terrific. I can play the game with everything maxed, run my editing programs at the same time, and, although I wore out my graphics processor, again, this is the first repair this machine has needed in over two years. And, because I got the Apple-care program (Apple's extended care plan), it's under full warranty until next mid-June. Yay for that.

So, a few months ago, I was getting the weird spikes, which happen when things start to overheat. Shutting down, and letting the computer cool for a while would be enough to fix that, though I was aware that this was the "beginning of the end", and, eventually, I'd be looking at a repair. But I kept stupidly putting it off because I am a slave to my laptop. My LIFE is on this thing. And, the overheating was just "once in a while". Then it started happening a little more frequently. Ruh rohhhh... still, I put off taking it in, despite the full warranty. I'd just shut down, let it cool, and fire it up again, later.

Over the summer, however, I began getting occasional CTDs, and it became a nightly thing the last month. Sucked. I'd minimize my game, go have dinner or something, and come back to find my game was no longer running. I started thinking about making an appointment at the Genius Bar, but I was still stubborn.

About 3 weeks ago, I couldn't run the game anymore. It would CTD soon after loading. Or it would freeze. Or other fun stuff. I began preparing for back-up. Yet I still put off taking it in. I'M A DUMBASS. So, I kept the laptop with me, though I could no longer play the game, but wasn't ready to part with my "life", and would just come on when I had a lucky break with the wireless connection... I'm telling you. I was insane with the "not taking it in for repair" thing. I can't really explain why. I KNEW I had to do it, but I couldn't part with my laptop.

Right after writing my previous blog entry, the laptop froze, and would not boot back up. It would give the long beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep noise, then I would hear the apple chime, and I could feel something was stuck cycling. It was chiming one right after another, never getting past that stage, the screen wasn't lighting up, there was no apple logo... just the constant looping. So I was stuck. I was forced to take it in to the Genius Bar. I made the appointment first thing that morning.

I got to the Genius Bar, and the guy tried to boot it up, heard the repeated chimes, and said "Well, that's...special", sounding perplexed. Then he said "I'm gonna try a shot-in-the-dark thing" and took the laptop to the back room. He came back, and it was booted up! There was my Bogus desktop! Yay! He said he reseated my memory, and showed me how to do it should it happen again, patted me on the head and sent me on my way. I took it home, happily stuck my Sims 2 game disk in, and halfway through loading, the system froze. Uh oh. That's not good. The only way to shut it off was at the power switch. And then I was not able to boot into OS X. Curiously, I COULD still boot into my Windows partition, though I was now having some serious display issues. I was able to get into my Documents and back up my game files, though my cursor was about an inch long, and my icons took up half the screen. The font was huge and the colors were crazy. Psychedellic.

I backed up what I could onto a flash drive, and made another appointment at the Genius Bar, but at a store across town, since the guy I went to the first time didn't seem to know his stuff. I called tech support as well to get their input, and they had me run through some stuff, and said "Sounds like bad memory".

I got in the car, dreading the long drive, in the pouring rain, out to the mall (which I loathe). But at least it seemed like a quick fix! They'd just have to swap out my memory and I'd be good to go! Too bad someone rearranged metro Atlanta on me and I ended up 30 minutes away from the Genius Bar, and missed my appointment. I pulled over into some out-in-the-boonies shopping center, pulled out my iphone, and made another appointment for the next day (that would be today). Then I scoped the parking lot for a good lightpost to run my car into. I hate the mall THAT MUCH. And I'd have to make yet another trip out, in yet another storm. The weather here has been horrible.

Today, my mom and I went to the mall again, the first one, not the one that seemed to disappear off the map. This time, the guy at the Genius Bar seemed to know his stuff. He pulled out all sorts of gadgets and hooked it up to my machine, until finally he said, without any hint of doubt, "Okay, now I know what the problem is." I had fried my graphics processor. Wow, just like old times! So, though I was disappointed to know I would not have the "quick fix" of the memory-swap, I was relieved to hear the confidence in his voice. I checked in my laptop, and he said to expect a call in about a week.

I miss playing my game, I am dying to do some video work, and I am typing from a 1998 Thinkpad 600E, but at least I finally DID IT. I handed my laptop over to a complete stranger, for several days, but I'm totally patting myself on the back for this.

I feel like playing the Theme From Rocky.

The Madness of Sims 2 Video-making

2009-09-13T17:02:00.072-05:00

In a few days, I have to take my MacBook Pro in for repair* (see footnote). I'm thinking it will need a new EVERYTHING, so, good thing it's under warranty! I'm seriously having withdrawals from my Sims games, and was about to start on the first of two video projects when my MBP decided it had had enough abuse. So after messaging with a friend over on YouTube about the challenges while filming, I decided to put up an entry dedicated to the subject, using some pictures and video footage I have on hand of 2 of my videos. My apologies to my friend, because some of the stuff I sent her will be copied and pasted into this blog entry!

I realize that much of this will read like gibberish to a non-simmer, but if you can get past the game jargon, you'll get the gist of the quirks of Sims 2 video-making.

I'll start off slow. Back in March 2007 I did a video to Eminem's collab with 50 cent, Lloyd Banks, and Ca$his' "You Don't Know". To this day I have not seen the actual eminem video, so this is completely my interpretation. And, just to reiterate, for those YouTubers that can't seem to grasp this concept, these are the Bogus players (my Sims characters) and NOT Sims of Eminem, 50 cent, Lloyd Banks, etc.

Here is the finished video (now back on YouTube!):

I had a huge cast of playables, and each had to be controlled, individually.

A few video clips were ruined because the girls at the pool table in some of the scenes would finish their game, and then just stand there looking stupid, because free will is off, so I had to stop filming and get them back in the game. Have to keep the background action going! Other than that, I mostly had people dancing or sitting at tables/bars, where they chatted happily about goldfish and politics. Of course, motives are all cheated to remain in the green.

Back then, there weren't nearly as many hacks available as there were at the end of the Sims 2 era, so I still ran into a few "issues".

Like the "bouncer" expressing his disgust with Nina Caliente. Not cool, dude.

But the *best* part had to have been when it rained inside the club. At that time, you couldn't build a stage inside of a building, so I couldn't put a roof above the club because I couldn't add a fourth wall (only in the Sims world does that make sense...). There was a sudden downpour right as I had the camera going, (of course! Wouldn't have it any other way!), and I had no mod to stop it, so I had Scott pull out the big ugly Weather Machine object right there on the dance floor to kick some Mother Nature ass. This is one of my all-time favorite outtake pictures. Priceless.

"You Don't Know" was made back in my pre-Mac days, and I believe it's the last video I did on a PC. That video pretty much killed that computer.

Now we're gonna get trickier. Enter the MacBook Pro.

Hands down, my most challenging video to date is the video for Mr. Shy's "Super Star", which was filmed over the summer of 2008. I was using a live actor, Mr. Shy, himself, and greenscreening him into my Sims footage. Using a live actor in a Sims 2 video had never been done before, and I took on the challenge!

Here's the finished video. Be sure to watch this one in HQ. Mr. Shy did the flash animations on Sim Shy's lip-synch shots, as well as the shot of Real Shy wearing the snorkle and mask. I don't work with flash; luckily, he does!

Mr. Shy shot his scenes in front of a green screen in NYC, while I worked on the storyline and Sims 2 shots in Atlanta.

I pretty much winged this one, as I do most of my videos. I would come up with an insane idea, then figure out how to implement it. Started off with a few modest sets, and a greenscreen. Yes, sims need greenscreening, too! If you look closely at this first picture, you can see the sims were in front of a greenscreen posing for the pre-release promo shot for this video. It was also used as one of the post-release promo shots. The final product of the one shown here can be seen on this page. The lower right hand side of that set, with the diagonal brick wall, shows the remains of the mock Create-a-Sim set I built for the "creation" scenes of Sim Shy.

More sets were added as more insane ideas came to me. I was working on the "fishtank/lake scenes", here.

Somebody stop me!

My editing timeline was a fluorescent green mess.

And because of the limit on the number of layers for Vegas, I had to do more editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, render out those clips, and pull them into the Vegas timeline (I was using that as my primary editor).

Many people ask what hacks I use. Here you go.

You figure out what's what, because I don't wanna. I'll just say that without Decorgal, Jaydee, Inge Jones and Insim, among others, this video would have been *that* much harder to pull off. Oh, yeah, and that's Shep keeping himself entertained off set with the little handheld puzzle thingamajig.

The opening Create-a-Sim scene was the most difficult to pull off. It was a set built to look like the CAS set, and then overlays were used from screenshots modified in Gimp.

Here are the original overlays for the CAS scene, which I ended up redoing, because the green outline was the same color as the green walls, and made that part of the CAS panel see-through when I chromakeyed it. So all these shots were redone in different bright, unnatural colors; I had to make sure whatever color I replaced it with was not in any of the outfits in the display. Pain in the ass to do, BIG TIME. I don't have the redone files with me, so just picture all the following in bright pink, or orange, or yellow, or blue.

And here are a few random shots taken along the way.

Trees with a cartoon outline effect applied.

The "flower" shot, before the real Mr. Shy was put in:

The primary backdrop I used for the outdoor shots. I wanted something "TeleTubby-esque".

Here's a shot from around 2:45 in the video. It took me forever to catch this expression, because in the animation, it's a very quick glance. I had to slow it down and add this still to the timeline to draw it out a bit:

I wanted Scott to surprise Val with a rose in a scene toward the end of the video. That is the "smooth talk" animation, introduced with the FreeTime Expansion Pack. As Simmers know, not all animations from the FreeTime EP are available for all "aspirations" (which are the sim personality-types), and only "Romance" sims have the "smooth talk" animation. Scott is a "Pleasure" sim, so was not able to do that. But Shep, his twin brother, is a Romance sim. I took Shep's white cap off, gave him Scott's hairstyle, and so that is actually Shep playing the role of Scott pulling out the rose. If you look closely in that scene, you'll see there is a ring on his left ring finger. Scott wears the ring on his left middle finger (which is the finger Sims wear their wedding bands on. Scott is Val's husband. Shep is Val's boyfriend, so Shep wears a custom ring on his left ring finger. Yes, there's an interesting dynamic, there...but I digress) Screenshots from the Shep-as-Scott scene:

Now for the fun stuff. The stuff that didn't go as planned. These first couple pics were posted in a previous entry about Super Star, so I'll just copy and paste from that entry. (I'm shameless, I know.) Shep was moved via the "moveObjects_on" cheat to a place just inside the window, and got "stuck" there. Oh, the indignity of it.

Shep is a very unhappy camper. And this was all for naught, because I realized I had him in the wrong outfit (all the indoor scenes have them in "everyday" clothes), and had to change him and redo the shot:

A disgruntled sim-actor has the strength of a thousand. No exterior siding can withstand the power of Shep's fist!

I also had to build a set directly across from that to mirror it, purely for greenscreening purposes, because of the way the light was casting a shadow across the original set's greenscreen. This was before I thought to turn off the shadows in game. *facepalm*

This is one of the test files, when we were first testing out Shy's set-up in NYC. He is unshaven, unkempt, the lighting was off, so he's washed-out, and, as you'll see toward the end, the camera was actually set too low, and he had been squatting throughout the entire thing. Oh, and this is a .wmv re-render I did of a .mov file he'd sent me, because the .mov file was not importing into my editor correctly, and the aspect ratio problem had not been resolved, yet, so Shy looks chubby. He's actually a tall, skinny guy.

Back in Atlanta, while taking a break from filming, I put free will back on, and these three went birdwatching indoors. If I had remembered to build a roof, this would not have been an issue. I have issues with roofing, it seems.

For the inside shots, I forgot to set all the options on Inge's PY2 plant, a hack that lets you set all the motives: hunger, hygiene, energy, comfort, social, fun static, at either low levels, if you want miserable sims, or high - green - levels, if you want sims to not whine and complain at you. I set it on all green, lot-wide, so I didn't have to worry about any of them (have to also raise aspiration levels when bringing in many extra sims, or you'll get random outbursts by those who are "unfulfilled"). I do this with every video. Hygiene was accidentally left unchecked. I was filming clips with the other sims, and suddenly I heard "Ewwwww" from one of the sets. Jory's hygiene drains much quicker than everyone else's for some reason. Scott was completely grossed-out by his cousin's stench, even though he was emitting fumes, himself. Free will was off, so Scott couldn't autonomously "primp" himself clean, like he usually will.

Jory was stuck in a loop animation (from decorgal's model posing box), here, and I had forgotten to snap him out of it.

I snapped him out of it.

The shots on the stage came out looking pretty nicely, if I do say so, myself. Here's a screengrab from the video.

But getting there wasn't easy.

Originally, I had planned to use a simple backdrop, and greenscreen the sims into it.

I didn't like the looks of the backdrop, though, once in the video, because I wanted to vary the camera angles, and greenscreening on a flat backdrop wouldn't allow for that, so I built a stage set. I took the image from the above picture, made it as a hangable painting in the game, put it on the back wall of the stage. I added stage lights and shiny floors, and was much happier with how it looked. I could now film from many different angles, rather than just straight-on.

The Super Star stage set. And somebody's not happy...it's because of the pink ensemble I had them wear. Shep doesn't *do* pink formalwear.

"Kob frobbat" (For non-simmers: that is simlish for "@#&^$!!!!")

Edit April 25, 2011 For the following clips, as well as the Shy Test Shot: my actual clips are all somewhere on my external drive, so I had to download these direct from my Google video account, because Google Video will soon be unsupported. I have uploaded the files to my YouTube account. Google flash video quality is horrible, thus the artifacts. which are not in my original files.

My sims had some trouble with their sync in those early shots. First Scott loses his focus :

And Shep loses his balance:

Just to add a bit more background, I've been doing machinima for almost 4 years. I started off relying on effects in whatever editing programs I used at the time (I've used several, but have never used Windows Movie Maker!). Many new videomakers choose flash over substance. Now, I prefer to use a little more creativity, because adding layers of preset effects is pretty easy to do. You've gotta start thinking outside the box to get out of that rut. I still use them, check out my video for NIN's Only, which was my first Film of the Month winner at 99, but I didn't use most of the effects "out of the box". Much of it was done using mirrors, clones, and various other outside programs, like Crazy Talk, to get the lip sync close-ups, or Fraps for different screen-capture video shots. I'm getting better. I've come a long way since my first Sims 2 video "Hella Good" (it's Hella Bad. See my YouTube channel), but am still not *there*, yet. But that's the main advice I give to anyone starting off with Sims 2 (or 3) machinima. Don't ever assume you're *there*. Try to take it to the next level with each video. Think you can't do it? Do it, anyway. Give it a shot. Don't rely on stock animations, don't rely on flashy preset effects, just for the sake of using effects, start learning how to use camera techniques effectively, vary up the angles, adjust clip velocity, reverse clips. Learn from others' constructive criticism, and put it to use.

Man, I am REALLY wanting to do some video work right now... as soon as this laptop comes back, I'm going to work.

Well, that's about all I'm willing to put up for now. Just wanted to kill some time with a blog entry, and I'm about blogged out. But it was a fun walk down memory lane, eh, Shep?

Okay, Shep, point taken. Still not happy about the pink jacket. And I need to get cracking on the Of Angst and Shepitude blog, I've been meaning to transfer over for over a month, now.

I won't even touch the topic of Sims 3 machinima, yet. The only Sims 3 videowork I've done was with the mashup tool when I was out at EA last January. Ohhhhhhh, man. I have got a project lined up for Sims 3 that will be harder than anything I've done, so far. Hoping I can pull it off, but definitely not ever gonna say I didn't try.

Raising the bar, taking the challenge.

Always.

*edit to update: mere hours after this entry was posted, my MBP went 'splodie! and I made an early appointment at the Genius bar, where the guy reseated my memory, sent me home with a pat on the head, and now my MBP is a psychedellic trip with vividly colored patterns on the screen in Windows, and OS X won't even boot up! It just tells me to restart the computer in 4 different languages! Woohoo! So tomorrow I'm off to another Genius Bar WAY ACROSS TOWN. I am typing this update from this laptop, which is now literally duct-taped together. BUT STILL WORKS.

Auto-Tune the Kittehs!

2009-08-26T00:47:00.003-05:00

Just 'cuz. :-) From www.rathergood.com

Will the Real VRevis Please Stand Up?!

2009-08-22T18:20:00.025-05:00

Turns out, neither EA nor God was able to restore my VRevis account on the sims3 website. I now have a new one, with the awkward moniker "NewVRevis". I did not come up with that, myself. EA did.

Long story short: I created the account in January. I was set to be featured on April 10. But my account was broken by that time, and my video was linked to a 404 page, so they swept it under the rug. I contacted EA early June, everyone scratched their heads, and finally, after being escalated to "tier 3" last week, I thought things were fixed. I could log into my VRevis account. Yay! But I couldn't find my pending friend requests. Boo! I put in friend requests, and wrote a couple of blog entries. All blog entries and newly confirmed friends were now showing up on a phantom VRevis page, which did not have an avatar, any friends listed other than the few I had just invited, or my videos or sims. But the link-back at the top of the page was my original account's url. What. the. eff. I sent screenshots back to EA, and they threw their hands up in the air and said "sorry for the inconvenience, your account is beyond repair". And they gave me the log-in info for "NewVRevis". I spent a few days gagging over the horrible name, then today started setting things up, in earnest.

Here is my page. As of this posting, I'm using one of the default avatars. FYI: I would never be caught dead in a purple, argyle, turtleneck sweater. That is wrong on three levels: 1. purple 2. argyle and 3. turtleneck. I have to reinstall my game to set up a new avatar, now that I've updated my OS to set it up on OS X.

So, send friend requests to that account, NOT the original VRevis one, because it is *poof* gone. You'll get a 404.

Hopefully EA will be able to transfer over my work from the original account, and give me my featured status, so I won't be completely hosed. I uploaded the video I did using the mashup tool at EA last January to my YouTube account. Here it is on the sims 3 site, but under the broken VRevis account. I had to favorite it just to get it somewhere on my new page. I feel a little silly doing that.

So, feel free to contact me over on Sims3.com, and keep your fingers crossed that I won't lose my stuff!!

Edit to add:

I have posted an intro thread on the official Sims 3 bbs, just to jump right in, feet first. This is the gist of it, so far:

Me: Hi, I'm VRevis
Sims3 bbs (in unison): We have no idea who you are.

It's going GREAT!!!

God will fix my EA account. I have faith.

2009-08-10T04:46:00.001-05:00

Been a little while since my last update. RE: the EA borkened account situation: the second ticket was closed after being escalated to a higher authority. After 100 "escalations to higher authorities" I can only think that EA is now calling upon Divine Intervention. Ticket #3 was submitted to God, along with text files of the previous tickets, so I didn't have to go through the whole song and dance, again. I just hope the helium balloon holding the ticket made it all the way up...

Video: I got nothin'. Sorry. As much as I'd love to do a video, I gotta first make some room on my harddrive, which I actually did, so that is no longer a valid excuse. I tested a few scenarios out, have two projects planned, but got no farther than wardrobe on the female character.

In other news, I will be moving Shep's blog "Of Angst and Shepitude" to blogger. It's set up, Shep just hasn't posted, yet. Someday, children, someday. Seems we're both in a creative rut.

And because I need some "filler", here, a curious thing I have noticed in my referring url log: I have several recurring referring urls leading to my forum and this blog. The most popular recurring url for this blog, just after anything Sims Creators' Camp-related, and google searches on my name (why do you people do that? Haven't you figured out by now I'm not in the least bit interesting?), are a google search for "upskirt accidental nudity", ya pervs. Probably because of this entry. As for the forum's referring urls, I can thank my status this past year as an internet meme in a small segment of the Sims community for driving many folks to my index page. I am legend.

I have much more to update you on, a bunch of nothingness, but it's what I do best. But the time is now coming up on ... oh, hell, it's PAST 4:30 am, now! My son starts highschool today, and I must be up in a few hours to see him off. So, sleep beckons.

Before I go, Shep wanted to close with this:

"Until next time, children, peace out."

EA/Sims3: "We apologize for the inconvenience."

2009-07-15T22:08:00.017-05:00

Brief post, because some people have been wondering why I haven't been accepting friend requests at the Sims 3 site.

Short version: I can't.

Short version with some elaboration: my account is broken, I can't log in, but I can "rest assured [EA is] working hard to resolve [this] issue in a timely manner", and they have been doing so, for around 6 weeks, now. They apologize for the inconvenience.

This is my broken page!

As you can see, I have not accepted ANY friend requests since the Creator's Camp.

My last message from EA support ended with this:

"We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 144 hours."

I fired off a response in 0 hours, 12 minutes and 14 seconds, because I'm on the ball like that. If I don't hear back from them in 96.5 hours I will assume this issue has been stalled. I'm not as patient as they are, though I did tack on an extra half hour just to be pleasant.

Sims 3: My Take

2009-06-03T16:57:00.029-05:00

edit: I decided I should preface this review by saying that I was looking at the game from a creator's point of view, and not a gamer's, since I was at EA in January working with the game, specifically for machinima purposes. I do think the gameplay of Sims 3 is great, and has a lot of improvements over Sims 2. But as a creator's tool, it will take some custom content to improve the aesthetic of the game, which, unfortunately, is what I found lacking. Regular gamers will probably not be as bothered by some of the things I discuss, here.

*****************************

Like so many others, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of the third version of the Sims series on June 2, and sat around waiting for UPS to deliver, yesterday. The game came at around 4 pm, and suddenly I found myself feeling entirely UNDERwhelmed by the whole thing. Maybe it's because I'm a little frustrated with EA in general, right now, after my account was hosed a few months back, and I can't log in or do anything on the official site. (For those of you who have sent me friend requests, I cannot access them. I am waiting to hear back from EA about fixing this mess). Or maybe I was certain that installing it would bring up some error that would inevitably frustrate me and ruin my night, because I'm temperamental like that. Whatever the reason, I put off installing it until today. And, nope, no errors, except that I can't install on OS X without upgrading to Leopard. So it's a Windows install, and a temporary one, at that.

I finally got a chance to play the game and, after having some fun with it for an hour or so, I exited and put my Sims 2 disk back in. I hate to admit it, but I'm a bit disappointed.

Here is my initial impression, just after creating the four Bogus sims and putting them in an unfurnished house. As posted on my forum:

"So I've been playing a bit, and it's fun. Not a replacement for my TS2 game, but I've been saying that since January. This is an entirely different game, and one does not exclude the other.

I tried to recreate my Bogus sims, and they look nothing like them. There is a desperate need for custom content, here.

The movements are still jerky, and not fluid like TS2. Better than they were in January, though, but they still do that stupid idle stance, with the hip slung to the side.

So, I'm standing by my statement that this is something completely different from Sims 2, and I will be firing that up, later. Right now I'm actually playing Sims 3 - as in, real gameplay - something I haven't done in a while. And it's fun, in its own way.

Scott and Val are married. Val is pregnant. She wants a massage. I have no idea how to do that.

Since I don't have the huge extended family, I had to make Jory, who is really Shep and Scott's cousin, their brother. He's grumpy, and he and Shep pretty much hate each other. They've been fighting non-stop. Shep is a hot head, so he's complaining about every little thing. Val is an absent-minded, clumsy, artistic type, so giggles randomly. Scott can't decide on a career. The athletic career pay wasn't enough to buy a new kitchen table, so he is in the science track. Just temporarily. Then he'll go back to athletic, probably.

Because they have no kitchen table, I caught Shep eating on the toilet.

Jory is in the law enforcement track, and his lifetime wish is to become the Emperor of Evil.

Shep is in politics. (He's a political science major in my TS2 game.)

The house is crap, I had to sell one of the beds to buy a sink, so Jory now sleeps on the couch. He's constantly miserable."

Yes, it was fun, and I had quite a few laughs at my sims' collective expense. Yes, this is much improved since January. Yes, the neighborhood looks purty. Yes, the traits are nifty. But somewhere down the line, a step backward was taken. The animations are stiff and jerky, reminding me of a console game. The idling animations are virtually non-existent, and the sims just stand around with their hip thrust to the side when free will is off. When free will is ON, there's chaos, but it is entertaining, I'll give it that. I normally prefer to play with free will off, now, since I started doing machinima, and need absolute control over everything. But with this game, I prefer to leave free will on, and at the highest level, because I simply cannot stand the idle stance.

I do enjoy the game-play aspect of Sims 3. It is similar to the console games, in that regard. Very goal-oriented. But there's not much room for creativity, ironically, despite all the customization tools and sliders for Create-a-Sim, and buy/build mode. All my sims look frustratingly alike. One could argue the same was true for my Sims 2 sims, but that's because they were all related. The putty-like appearance from the early screenshots is still there. It improves somewhat when you set the sim detail to high (which now requires a restart), but it still looks very Toy Story-ish.

The HAIR. Wow. I was really hoping new hairstyles might be added since January. The selection is so limited, especially for the males. I gave all three Bogus men the same shaved hairstyle. And, yes, hats.

The eyes, how they shine! Much better than the default flat maxis eyes of Sims 2, but no less cartoon-y.

I will make machinima with this game, but from the looks of things right now, it will be a blending of Sims 2 and Sims 3 footage.

I'll give this another shot when I'm in a better mood, and not so tired. And, hopefully, when the custom content creators can get working on new skintones, hair and eyes, this game will vastly improve in appearance, at least. I'm not sure about those jerky motions, though. Can that realistically be fixed?

Until then, I'm very happy with my Sims 2 game and will continue to make machinima with it. As for Sims 3 machinima, yes, I'll take on the challenge and hope some improvements will be made.

New Video!

2009-05-15T15:07:00.004-05:00

I've been collecting self sims of my forum members to do a little something for them. I got the urge to do a video...(yesterday? Day before? What day is it, anyway??) and did one, but not the one originally planned. It's on YouTube for a few days (WMG, bla bla bla, read last entry to see the deal with that), but has been uploaded to Vimeo, as well. It's effects-heavy, and an experiment with different animation files.

Both versions (because one will most likely be taken down in the next few days. *cough*). And be sure to watch the YT one in HQ:

Ain't Nobody from VRevis on Vimeo.

UMG, WMG, OMG.

2009-05-04T20:10:00.035-05:00

I've been bitching enough about all this, elsewhere, I might as well BLOG about the mayhem going on over at YouTube.

Here is the deal: I have had several videos pulled from YouTube, due to copyright infringement claims by UMG and WMG. I disputed all claims, under the Fair Use Act. Yeah, I knew it was a stretch, but it was worth a shot. I'm not making videos for commercial profit, after all. This is just machinima set to a music track. Some videos were successfully disputed, others were not. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what determines whether a video will be allowed to remain live, while others are muted or disabled, completely.

WMG and YouTube were in talks to come to some sort of agreement, to allow users to use music from its catalog in their videos. WMG walked away, and demanded that YouTube pull all WMG content from its site. And a witch-hunt ensued early this year, with videos being pulled right and left. I had several videos taken down, I disputed all claims, and the results left me scratching my head:

...wait, what? "Dispute Successful"??

Okay, okay, I won't bite the hand that feeds me, even though I wonder how I pulled this off. Another WMG video was also successfully disputed. However, the claims to the two follow-up videos, which used the same song, were not successfully disputed. I went ahead and used audio-swap for one video, and chose to leave the other one, "After the Video", offline. Half the video was using audio from the game, and audioswap would swap out the entire track, and it would make no sense. But none of this makes sense.

Now, UMG, on the other hand, did agree to allow users to use their music from its catalog in their own creations. When it comes to actually implementing this plan, however, things seem a bit hazy. Confusion abounds!

Last fall, I disputed copyright claims by UMG on several of my videos, and was successful. In one other instance, I did not dispute, but UMG retracted the claim on its own. This was before any agreement had been made with YouTube.

A few days ago, 5 of my videos were flagged by UMG, but were all allowed to remain live, with links to itunes and amazon mp3 on the page. Smart move, I thought. Looks like UMG may actually be getting that this is free advertising. Not only that, with the addition of the itunes and amazon mp3 links, it's a way to get more money in their pockets, not less. But what about the artists? I'm all for helping the artists out, even the stinking rich ones. Hey, I don't penalize the rich. More power to them, I say. But this whole copyright thing is actually out of their hands, and I have heard from a reliable source that many artists are (allegedly) suing UMG to get back the master ownership of their own music. If this is, in fact, true, then wouldn't that lead one to infer that, while the record companies are getting bent out of shape about copyright infringement, this may not be the case with the artists, themselves? But I digress...

I decided to try to get a few of my disabled UMG videos back on the channel, the videos I was not able to successfully dispute, thinking that with this new "friendship" between UMG/YouTube/YouTube users, it would actually be possible to do so. Ha, not so fast, there, VR. Because these videos had already been run through the dispute process, the option to dispute, again, was now gone. I can understand this; I'm sure the last thing YouTube wants is an endless back-and-forth about copyright disputes and the average Joe. But now the only way to get the videos back on the site would be to use the audioswap feature. So I did.

But.

I did not want to give up this battle, altogether. I reuploaded the videos, which meant re-rendering new copies of the videos. YouTube runs a checksum on all new files, to make sure there are no duplicate entries. I found this out the hard way after waiting forever to get the videos uploaded and processed, only to find they'd been rejected for being duplicates. I uploaded the new videos, within 30 minutes UMG jumped on them, and they are currently in dispute. They will be live as long as they're in dispute. I am hoping UMG will decide to place ads on the page, like they did every other UMG video I have on my channel, rather than remove the video, altogether. But because of all the discrepancy in what's okay and what's not, I'm thinking I shouldn't hold my breath on this one. It's probably down to a coin toss, anyway.

However this turns out, I must admit I had some fun with the Audioswap feature, and find the results amusing.

UPDATE: UMG yanked the reuploads. The vimeo links are in the annotations of the YouTube audioswapped versions, now.

The NDA has officially lifted. "What I did at EA"

2009-04-16T15:36:00.028-05:00

If you read my last blog entry, you know I had just done an interview with simoperations (which is currently in the process of changing forums, so I copied and pasted it here) about what I did as a "machinima artist" out in EA, and I had to clamp down because of the NDA. Imagine my surprise when I saw, the very next day, that GameSpot had put up screenshots of the tool we were working with, and had a very in-depth article about it. I contacted the folks at EA and asked what, exactly, we were allowed to say, since it is pretty much all out there, now, and they told me that the NDA had been "vague" in that area, and that we weren't supposed to talk until the official announcement was made. And the GameSpot article was the "official announcement".

So, looks like we're all free to talk, now. I admit I wish I'd known this information would have been released so soon after I did the simoperations interview; I feel kind of silly with the way I was strictly adhering to the NDA, under the assumption we couldn't talk until the site goes live, or the game comes out, or June, or whatever.

Drumroll, please.

GameSpot's article.

The 5 machima artists worked with a new tool for movie-making on the official Sims 3 site, to create "mash-up" videos. Machinima will be encouraged on the Sims 3 site, the way storytelling was, and still is, in Sims 2.

So, what we did was each create a video with this mash-up tool. Easy? Notsomuch.

I'll be honest: at the time it was EXTREMELY buggy and very frustrating to work with. The camera .ini file was not modified until either late Wednesday, or possibly Thursday, and since that's what gives you control over the camera speed (like all those dramatic slow-moving pan shots), we were having to record clips in real game-time. Hard to film anything "dramatic" at the rate sims really move. Everything looks comical at that speed. And the mash-up tool was either not showing previews, or was freezing, or we couldn't upload our clips to the exchange...

The process was completely different from what we do with Sims 2 videos. We were not using ANY outside editors. The footage is captured in-game, and from there, loaded straight to the Sims 3 exchange, and put in a folder, as is. The clips could not be altered in any way. Like, if a clip was too long, normally in an external editor, you'd cut out the unnecessary parts. Well, you can't do that with these. You can in the mash-up tool, itself (choose a stop time and a start time for each clip) for your actual video, but the clip will remain in the bin in its unaltered state for the rest of the community to use. But, you never know: what's unnecessary for you, when you're filming your own clips for a specific storyline, might be of use to someone else using your clip for their own movie, because they'll be mixing it to fit their own storyline.

If you are wondering what the hell a mash-up tool is (and haven't read the GameSpot article): there was a mashup tool for Sims 2, called SimsOnstage, but it was separate from the official site. (I just tried to find the link, and found it's been closed.) With the Sims 3 mash-up tool, people will be recording clips from their game, submitting them to the exchange, and others can then use those clips to make their own videos. It's really a way to make a video without having to do the actual filming. Someone else did it for you, unless you're using your own stuff, like we did.

The clips can be mixed in any order on a very basic timeline, set to music, which is all simlish music, and also provided on the official site. People who are experienced machinima artists won't be using this to make Sims 3 machinima, because the tool is frustratingly limited. There is only one video track, and one audio track. You can't trim the audio file, or fade in, or use multiple songs. So, syncing with the video can be a tricky thing. As for the video track, there are several different transitions you can use, and effects you can apply. Much like those used in very basic editors like WMM, only even more basic. I'm not sure, but I think they said they would be adding more effects to it by the time it's released. But this is definitely something a kid can use, and that's the point: to make it possible for people of all ages and abilities to make a music video. Plus, I think that being able to make a "mash-up" video will be a talent in and of itself. I'm not underestimating it.

And the story of the "Day I Officially Cracked" (Thursday night of the Camp) for those who heard me laughing hysterically on podcast at WorldSims: the machinima artists were already frustrated by week's end, and in a state of near-panic. We'd been dealing with game glitches, and the mash-up tool was not working properly, the camera .ini file was not modified, yet. TheSidDog got a video done the first day, but he was the only one. The rest of us seemed to constantly have people surrounding our computers, trying to fix another bug, whether in the game or with the mash-up tool, itself.

In fact, by Thursday, the rest of us had yet to even USE the mash-up tool, we were having so many problems getting our shots filmed. I had my sim actors disappear every time I closed down the game. So I spent every restart in CAS, trying to recreate my sim actors, losing precious time, and having to rework a storyline to fit the ever-changing cast. To add to this, we were told that on both Thursday and Friday, we'd be leaving the lab early, to make room for testers for another game.

Eggzie sat to my right, and had been going for a very dramatic shot, all week. One that desperately needed to be slowed down for effect, and he had been grumbling and mumbling to himself for a couple days, trying to get this particular shot done. He finally got it shot on Thursday, and opened up the (I'm laughing as I recall all this) mash-up tool for the first time, late that afternoon. He assembled his clips, hit preview, we all gathered around, and the clip was so fast. After a sudden sputtering of "language", Eggzie pushed his chair back in frustration, and turned around to face the maxoids and whoever from the dev team was there and said something like "All right. Somebody's gotta say it. This mash-up tool sucks!" and I lost it. I started laughing so hard I turned red and had tears streaming down my cheeks. We had all been so frustrated, and Eggzie's words just seemed so damned appropriate. Of course, it was all out of frustration. His video actually turned out VERY well, all things considered.

HAVING SAID THAT, keep in mind that this was a VERY beta version of the tool, and that's what we were there for. To help find the bugs. I am sure the kinks have gotten worked out, now, if EA is allowing GameStop to officially announce the feature.

So, my final take is this, going from my experience months ago: This tool should be fun for those who want to try machinima, but are a little queasy thinking about all the work that goes into the actual filming and editing. Now they can mix pre-made clips however they want, and they can upload videos to the exchange. And they can also make their own clips to upload for others to use, as well.

My disclaimer for when my video goes live on the site... well, if you read all this, you'll understand why I might be a little nervous about people seeing it. If you're expecting something polished, you'll be disappointed. I hit "publish" on mine literally as I was standing up to leave the room for the last time and head downstairs for dinner. That evening, when everyone's creations were shown to the rest of the group, I was so nervous it had even published correctly, at all. I had to walk out before receiving any confirmation.

So, now you have it. That's what I did at EA.

SimOperations Sims 3 interview

2009-04-14T15:13:00.012-05:00

Hey all,

Just putting a link out there for those interested; I did an interview with simoperations about my experience at the Creators' Camp, and with Sims 3, in general.

Edit: simoperations is currently moving to a new site, so the link is no longer valid. I will update with a new link soon. Luckily, I still had the original interview in my email sent folder, so here it is, in its entirety:

******************************

Hi, Thanks for taking the time for this Q&A:

No problem!

1: What kinds of things did you make at the Creator's Camp?

Well, I'm limited to what I can say regarding what the "machinima
artists" worked on while out there. Although the other content creators
have been more free to talk about what they did, the videomakers are
still under a strict NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) with EA until the
official site goes live. So, I can't go into specifics on what I did
while out there, other than I worked with the video-making aspect of the
game. The other custom content creators were making sims, clothing, and
some really gorgeous homes.

2: You're a Machinima artist. Are the movie making tools in The Sims 3
good or do they require improvement?

From the build we worked with, the machinima tools in-game are very
similar to the ones in Sims 2. We had to modify our camera .ini file to
make a few adjustments, but that should all be fixed by the final
release, from what we were told at the time. One difference is that
there will be 5 camera presets, not 4, like in Sims 2.

3: What can you tell us about your experience of the game? Does it need
more work?

Again, we were working with a beta build, a few builds behind what the
development team was up to, so of course there were quite a few bugs
that needed to be ironed out. We were all writing down notes as we went
along, recording any bugs we encountered, things we thought could be
improved upon, and the development team was right there in the room with
us, pulling up chairs, sitting on the floor, even, writing down
everything we told them. They were very interested in what we had to
say.

4: Can you tell us a little bit about what happened over the course of
the week?

The first day, Monday morning, we had a tour of the EA campus, then
demos (demonstrations) of the game, and that afternoon we got to start
up the game for the first time. We had various meetings the first few
days that were optional to attend, depending on your specialty. I
attended the machinima meeting, but not the CAS one or build mode ones,
for instance. We spent some time in the Media Lab on the second day, and
got to sit in on a session with Nicki Rapp, who you know as the child's
voice for Sims 2. She will be continuing on in Sims 3. Most of our days
were spent at our computers, with the machinima folks doing video work
in one room, most of the other custom content creators were in the room
next door. Bloggers, journalists and a film crew followed the event, all
week long. During the evenings, the attendees were usually hanging out
in the Sofitel Lounge, or going into San Francisco, blowing off steam.
By Friday, we had our projects done, and had a presentation and awards
show showing everyone's work, that evening. It was amazing to see what
everyone was able to do in a week's time. Many of the attendees have
blogged about their experiences. I blogged about mine back in January
and February on http://acuppajoe.blogspot.com/ , so check it out!

5: Will we be seeing more machinima from The Sims 3 in 2009?

Definitely! EA is putting more emphasis on machinima with Sims 3, so it
will be encouraged. At the machinima meeting I attended, Todd (todnyc,
who now works for EA) told us EA would now be referring to us as
"machinima artists" rather than "Sims videomakers" or "Sims
moviemakers", for TS3. I am still in contact with many of the attendees,
and even a couple of people who weren't on the machinima team are now
trying their hands at TS2 machinima and wanting to work with TS3
machinima. You can count on me continuing on, for sure!

6: Finally, anything else you can say about the Creators Camp and the
game?

The Camp was such a fun experience. Everyone was really down to earth,
and it was great meeting people whose stuff I've used in my videos for
years. The Maxoids were great, too. They sat with us, ate with us, and
had a great sense of humor. It was a rather surreal experience, sitting
with people like Kate from Parsimonious, or Maxoid Drea, or Shtinky from
Holy Simoly, or Jope and Suza... I almost felt a little starstruck at
times, but everyone was so real. No longer just a name on a website or
forum. The weirdest part had to be when I was recognized at the airport,
from my YouTube vlog, though! And then again at the Sofitel, by two of
my fellow machinima crew, SidDog and Eggzie. It was sad leaving
everyone, because we'd all become pretty tight by the end of the week.
We had a party at the Sofitel lounge the last Friday night, with several
of the Maxoids, and it was a lot of fun, but very bittersweet. On
Saturday morning it was so quiet in the hotel lobby.

As for the game, I enjoyed it. I think others will, too, but they need
to keep a realistic perspective about it all. My standard response when
asked about my impression of Sims 3, is that I don't see people giving
up Sims 2 completely for Sims 3, like most did for the original Sims and
Sims 2. Rather, I see people playing it in *addition* to Sims 2. At
least I will be! Sims 2 will remain on my Windows partition, and I'll
install Sims 3 for Mac. With the original Sims, it was such a drastic
improvement, from the graphics to the AI. Genetics, family ties...all of
that was frustratingly non-existent with the original Sims. The main
difference between Sims 2 and 3 is the fact that the entire neighborhood
is playable, with one "active household", and storylines continuing on
outside of that. The graphics are amazing, too. Having said that, people
have to keep in mind when they first fire up the game, that it will be
"vanilla" (and custom-content free), so they may feel a bit frustrated.
But think back to the switch from The Sims to Sims 2, and how little
custom content was available at the time, and it's pretty much the same
deal. It'll take some time for it to really get going, and once the
custom content creators get going on it, it's going to be really cool.
It's a fun game, I can't wait to play it again, and I am dying to see
how the outside storylines go on around your sims. I didn't get that far
into gameplay, since I was only setting up scenarios for video work. So,
yeah, I'm looking forward to June!

******************************

Back to your regularly scheduled blogpost...

And for those of you coming HERE from THERE, I am editing to add links to the Creator Camp entries:

Here
Here
Here

Easy peasy.

Also, I've become a social network whore and have signed up with both Twitter and Plurk. Because myspace and facebook weren't enough.

https://twitter.com/VRevis

http://www.plurk.com/VRevis

You'll also see a widget has been added to the blog, to the right. Nifty.

(This is what happens when you get in a car accident, and are stuck with no wheels for days, and have to do all socializing online. And are REALLY REALLY BORED.)

Oh, yeah... was in a car accident Thursday. Cross your fingers for me that my car is not totaled. I'm okay, a little bruised up, but fine. My car, however...yikes.

Until next time!

~V

Voice of Music

2009-03-26T14:26:00.005-05:00

Hey all!

Check it out: new video! Hope you enjoy it!

A mysterious stranger lures the members of Bogus out of hiding and back into the spotlight.

"Voice of Music" by Quiet Force
From the 1989 album Smile.

Buy the song at amazon mp3!

Custom Content Creator's Camp: hanging out at the Sofitel

2009-03-07T20:48:00.005-05:00

Well, I promised an update on days 3-5 of the Creator's Camp in January. This is sorta kinda an update...

I don't have my external drive with all my pics on it with me at the moment (I am out of town), but I do have a short video of a few of the custom content creators goofing off in the lounge of the Hotel Sofitel on night 3.

Video description reads:

Recorded January 14, 2009, Sofitel Hotel, Redwood City, CA. Trying to figure out Josh's "Jimmy Whoops" game. Pictured: Lightside, teasingmeat, Decorgal, Darlene from SterlingSims, Ehaught58, TheSidDog, Josh from WorldSims, Ehaught's wife. Not pictured: me, filming with the ol' Canon Powershot after a couple $12 glasses of Riesling. Sorry about the camerawork. I blame strong California wine and low tolerance. Yes, it's dark. It's a LOUNGE.

I also have to add that YouTube's quality made the video darker than it should be. I have more videos to come. They have not been converted, yet, but there's some fun stuff. Good times at the Sofitel. Stay tuned for that!

World's Fastest Creator's Camp Update

2009-02-12T01:54:00.003-05:00

I realize I left everyone hanging after Day 2, but I also realize that there are a billion sites out there also broadcasting the same news. But I do have some exclusive video that I took out there during the after-party at the Sofitel, that I am excited to show everyone. It was shot with an old-school videocam (tapes!), and it needs to be digitized. Hopefully, within the week I'll have something up. There's some fun stuff on that tape!

I do plan on continuing with the Creator's Camp week. Days 3-5 will be posted within a few days. I hope. I apologize for the delay, but I was out of the country for two weeks, 3 days after my return from San Francisco.

I have updated my website, and the links section now features as many of the attendees as I could find. Please, if you were at the camp, and I do not have you up on my links page, email me (email is on my website) and I will add you asap!

I also wrote a short update on my front page. And posted a pic of my shiny new badge. Because that's what everyone else did, and I wanna fit in, dammit.

That's it for now. More later!

Sims 3 Custom Content Creator's Camp: Day 2

2009-01-18T21:56:00.006-05:00

On Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, we were back in the labs for most of the morning, then shortly after lunch, we were divided into two groups, and got to watch a voice session with Nicki Rapp. You know Nicki as the child's voice from Sims 2, and she's done voicework for MySims, as well. She is now recording for Sims 3.

I have known Nicki on myspace and we've been in touch for a little over a year, now, and so I was excited to see her in action. That voice is unmistakeable; the first time we heard her giggle into the mic, there was a collective chuckle in the room. She really talks like that! And she's as bubbly and perky as she sounds. Toward the end of the session, they asked for any volunteers to step into the booth with her and try to record something in simlish. I was surprised that Nicki was able to see me and call out "Come on, Val!", but I declined. The camera crew made me a little shy! But teasingmeat stepped forth and did a great job with her. A lot of "Bla bla bla bla..." in a man's voice, set to the animations of a child on a monitor. Pretty funny to see!

I shot a few pictures, and recorded a couple of video clips on my little Canon Powershot. Unfortunately, my memory card was full by the time teasingmeat got behind the mic, so I'm glad others were there with much more professional equipment.

The man standing in front of the glass is EA/Maxis Audio Director Robi Kauker. He gives a good history of simlish, and how the voice acting process has progressed from TS1 through TS3.

These are the video clips I shot. They are in order, but I kept shutting the camera off, unsure of how much room was left on my card, so it's not a smooth transition from one video to the next!

This is the one you want to watch if you want to really hear Nicki in action!

Sims 3 Custom Content Creator's Camp: Day 1

2009-01-18T21:13:00.015-05:00

I have been struggling with my internet connection trying to upload pictures and videos from the Creator's Camp today, but I have a few things to show you.

Day 1 started off with us all arriving at EA at around 8:30 am. The walk from the hotel was less than a mile. The weather was gorgeous the entire week.

We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Sofitel.

To show how close we were, I stood on the sidewalk and took a picture of EA, which is the building across the street from where I am standing...

And then, to my right, you can see the hotel.

And here we are. HELLO, EA!!!

Walking into the front lobby.

Inside the front entrance.

Yup, there's me.

What a sweet place to work. There are game stations everywhere. EA, are you hiring??

Before the demos (and before all cameras had to be shut off), we were taken on a tour of the EA campus. A film crew was with us.

Roxanne from Simcredible:

There's Kate from Parsimonious in the hat

A few random shots of the campus (it's HUGE!)

The building has a gym, a basketball court, a STARBUCKS!

A little history of EA, showcased inside one of the buildings

The Road Rash Ducati

The walls of one hallway is covered in platinum game disks. This is the Sims 2 one, at 5 million sold, March 2005:

Three of my machinima comrades, TheSidDog, Eggzie, and Decorgal, just before going in to see the demos. Not pictured: Tweety, from Poland. Oh, and me.

Setting up for the demos, and time to turn the cameras OFF. That's Ben Bell, the Executive Producer for Sims 3, and Sim Guru Drea.

After demos, we had lunch, then went up to the game labs to begin work. The builders and clothing designers were mostly in the "Brain Training" room, and the machinima artists and bloggers were in the next room. It was FREEZING inside. I was on a computer that was sitting between two desks, so I was straddling the legs of both, and my left foot was up against the harddrive. I had a loose cable that wouldn't let me connect, and my game wouldn't launch. I called my computer "Murphy" because everything that could go wrong did, and I got a much later start than the others!

Later that night, we all met down in the lounge at the Sofitel.

Back from EA!

2009-01-18T17:37:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note: I have so much to tell everyone, so many pictures, videos, the follow-up post from the trip is overwhelming! I am getting ready to do some more traveling, going out of the country on Tuesday, so I am not sure when I'll have everything together. Much of my video was done on a camcorder and the tapes need to be digitized. But I did get some great stuff from the party at the Sofitel hotel our last night there.

I've made many new friends. By the end of the week, it felt like I'd known these folks forever. So nice to meet the people whose custom content I've been using in my game and my videos for years! I have many updates to do on my site links page, now. My wallet is stuffed with business cards from around the world.

It was a great week, and a very busy week. The people at EA were right there with us the whole time, listening to our feedback, taking notes. I have a whole new respect for the people behind the game.

There is already a bunch of information out there about the event. Many sites were out there blogging throughout the event. You can see some great coverage of it on simviponline.

The entire experience was amazing. I feel so honored to have been invited to this event, and I'm looking forward to working with TS3!

I'm Going to EA!

2008-12-10T14:53:00.005-05:00

Hey, all

I've been keeping fairly quiet about this since I was first contacted about it last week, and I wanted to wait until I got everything confirmed by EA before going public. It's official, EA's travel agency sent me my flight itinerary this morning: I'm going to EA Jan. 11-17 for a "Custom Content Creator's Camp"! I'll be working on some video stuff for the official site, in preparation for the February release of The Sims 3.

I am unbelievably excited. This is a dream come true for me, and I can't wait to see what video-making will be like in TS3.

I'm not sure what details I'm able to give, as far as what exactly I'll be doing, so I'll err on the side of caution and keep mum, for now. I'll just say I am completely STOKED to have been chosen for this.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years. I know you know how much this trip means to me.

YouTube, put DOWN the crack pipe

2008-12-04T10:06:00.010-05:00

What the HELL is going on, YouTube?! I went to bed last night and all was well(-ish. As "well" as one can expect from YouTube, these days). But when I woke up and saw my myspace page, I was not a happy camper. I have a bunch of embedded YouTube videos on my page, and every single one now has a hideous search box covering the top portion of the still. LOVELY. I went to the YouTube forums to find I was not the only one with this complaint, it is a new "feature", and there's no way to get rid of it. At least not any way in language that I understand. I've found a couple of workarounds, but they aren't "working around" for ME.

I went to my YouTube channel, and found that all my recent activity was broadcasted in my left column. Of course you can change this in your privacy settings, but by default, they put it up there for the world to see. It's all there: who you've added as a friend, what you've favorited, what you're doing ("VRevis is watching a video!") etc. I unticked that box REAL fast. I DO value my privacy.

I was incensed, and went to post a bulletin, but helloooooooooooooooo! Bulletins have now been removed!! This is another new "feature"!

YouTube posted this entry on these new shinies.

It reads:

"Recent Activity" on Your YouTube Channel

We're happy to announce a couple of new changes to your YouTube channels, based on the feedback and suggestions you've given to us.

The first is the creation of a "Recent Activity" box on your YouTube channel. This box will provide your viewers with a snapshot of recent changes you've made to your public channel, making your channel more dynamic, fresh and timely. For example, if you recently added a new favorite to your channel, visitors can find this favorite in the new Recent Activity box (as well as in the usual "Favorites" box). The Recent Activity box will also consolidate the separate "My Recent Ratings" and "My Recent Comments" boxes into this single activity window.

As always, we give you maximum control over how your channel is configured on the channel design page. And now, the Recent Activity privacy settings page (also available in the upper-right corner of the Recent Activity box) lets you choose what activity you want to appear in the Recent Activity box. It's important to note that we've set your initial Recent Activity settings according to what you already publicly show on your channel today - so, for example, if you're not already showing the Favorites box on your channel, then the Recent Activity box won't suddenly start showing new favorites you make.

Regarding bulletins, we've listened to you, and most of you didn't see the value in bulletins as they are today. So, we're taking a first step to make bulletins more useful. Although the bulletin box will be going away, now you can broadcast a bulletin directly to your channel visitors in your Recent Activity box. This not only provides a fun place to shout out personal updates and news, but also provides an additional way to communicate and engage with your channel's fans.

We hope you like these changes, and are always eager to hear your feedback - so please feel free to share your thoughts with us!

The YouTube Team

My thoughts? The title of this entry says it all.

Only Time: Featured Video on Sim2 official site!

2008-11-13T17:22:00.005-05:00

I'm so excited! I just got the notice today that "Only Time" is the current featured video on the Sims 2 official site. Check it out on the home page! As many of you know, Super Star was featured there back in October, so this was a really nice surprise!

There is a new video on my YouTube channel, one I didn't make a big announcement about. It's a personal one. It reused some clips from Only Time, and was originally supposed to be just a remix of clips, to a song that has some important meaning in my life, now. I ended up reshooting some new footage, in the "Only Time" vein. It's "The One" by Elton John. Be sure to watch in high quality!

The One

Thanks to all who have supported my videos. I really appreciate all the great feedback I've gotten.

Problems accessing the site?

2008-10-13T09:23:00.005-05:00

Hey, yo

For any members of CJ unable to get in the last few weeks, contact me at acuppajoe@fastmail.net, and let me know what your problems are when trying to get in, any error messages you're getting, etc.

Thanks!

~V

Super Star on official Sims 2 site!

2008-10-02T12:09:00.002-05:00

Check it out!! Super Star is the featured machinima!

I was told this was going to happen last week, but wanted to wait until I actually saw it before posting it on my site. Very exciting news!

CJ is back up

2008-09-29T20:17:00.003-05:00

Yep.

Another Quick Update

2008-09-20T22:28:00.002-05:00

I have updated A CuppaJoe Productions, and it is back in action, for whatever that means.

The CJ forum is still closed to new registrations, but we are working on a solution to reopen the forum, safely, again.

This has been "Another Quick Update".

Told ya so.

Quick Update

2008-09-19T19:04:00.005-05:00

I know several people have been looking for updates.

CJ registration is closed, temporarily, for personal reasons. www.acuppajoe.net is also offline, temporarily.

Both will be up and running again, shortly.

Mr. Shy "Super Star" - Juan Belmonte Remix

2008-08-27T09:25:00.003-05:00

Here it is, the Mr. Shy, Juan Belmonte remix of "Super Star" video I've been working on for the last month or so. FINITO!

INFO:
http://mr-shy.com

"Super Star" (Juan Belmonte Remix) by Mr. Shy. (c) 2008 New Soul Records & ACuppaJoe Productions. Remix featured on "Olivia Valere's Night & Chill by Juan Belmonte", available on Blanco y Negro Records. *

http://youtube.com/mrshy

The Home Stretch!

2008-08-19T09:07:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a long, complicated little Sims 2 music video this is turning out to be! We started production in the last week of July, and here we are, three weeks later, and finally the finish line is in sight.

I am exhausted after Mr. Shy and I pulled YET ANOTHER all-nighter. I have to shoot one more small scene, then the final editing begins, which should take us a couple of days to go over everything. We are both perfectionists, and have been going over every single detail of this video, I've reshot half my stuff, Mr. Shy has had to do a few reshoots...but the video should be out by the end of this week.

And expect a behind-the-scenes look when Mr. Shy and I do a VLog together this September. I've saved a lot of fun stuff, which should embarrass us both. Mwahahahaha.

Stay tuned!

Mr. Shy: Unplugged

2008-08-13T19:37:00.008-05:00

Just a quick post to let you guys know that Mr. Shy has put up his Super Star: Unplugged performance, from June, 2008. This is the second upload of this video. For those who caught the first one, there's better audio, this time around. Guest Jahn Bonfliglio on guitar. From the upcoming documentary by Lucy Kostelanetz, "We Don't Wanna Make You Dance".

Thanks for supporting Mr. Shy!

YouTube Link

Superstar Update

2008-08-10T17:18:00.005-05:00

Hey, folks!

Just a quick update on the progress of Superstar...

But before I go there, I am having website woes. My site's home page www.acuppajoe.net is showing as a blank, black page. To see my actual page, now you have to go to http://www.acuppajoe.net/index.html.

I don't know what happened, I haven't changed anything, haven't TOUCHED my site in months...so if anyone can help me on this, I'd appreciate it. My site is linked to in many places, and it would be a huge huge pain to have everyone change the link. Anyone know how to get the index page to point to the original link???

As for Superstar:

I've done 45 test renders, and it's looking good, coming along very well. Mr. Shy has done a teaser promo for it on his site (click the banner below!), so you can see that this will be a very...unique...video!

Since my last update, which was August 2, a LOT has been accomplished. It's very much a learning process, as well as an exercise in patience, since I'm used to working on my own, and getting videos done virtually overnight. Not this one, no way!

We've switched to a new approach: I am fleshing out the rest of the video, then will have Mr. Shy do the rest of the shots I need. This will be more effective than the old way, because a.) it will save Shy the trouble of redoing shots because I asked for them before realizing the animation I was going for couldn't be done in the game, or I decided to go a different route altogether, and b.) will keep me and Mr. Shy on speaking terms because of the afore-mentioned reason. KIDDING! Mr. Shy is a good sport about all I'm putting him through.

Right now the video timeline is about 75% finished. Much of it is done with 4-5 video tracks layered on top of each other, so rendering this stuff out for the test renders is taking much longer than a single - or double - video track would!

I officially ran out of harddrive space on my macbook pro, yesterday, and had to transfer all the Superstar files to my external drive - 20+ GB, so far. The convenience of my laptop's portability is rendered null when you take into consideration that you also have to "port" along an external drive, multiple cords, an external mouse, and headphones.

I am compiling some clips and pics for an "outtakes" reel, because some funny stuff has been happening. This will come out after the video's release. Right now, things are still pretty much hush-hush as to the video, itself.

I'm hoping this will be ready for release within the next week, but I have been saying that for about two weeks, now. But I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, finally.

Where, oh, where has VRevis been?

2008-08-02T23:25:00.004-05:00

Yes, I'm still alive. I have totally been slacking on updating my website. I don't even have my last two videos up there, yet!

I'm working on a project right now. Actually, taking a break from it for a few hours because I've been staring at this laptop monitor so long my eyes hurt. This is day 4? 5? I'm doing a lot of greenscreening, so, no kidding, I'm seeing red. Everything has a red tint to it. Hopefully this is not permanent! o_o

This is the project I was supposed to have done with Mr. Shy in NYC in June, but, hell, I was in NYC and wanted to see the city. So we didn't get a single thing done on this video. Now Mr. Shy and I are doing this the hard way, over the internet. I'm filming down here in Atlanta, and he's up in NY trying to get his lighting set up for his greenscreen shots. This is definitely the most complicated video I've ever done, the most challenging, and the most fun. AND the most time and space consuming. I have, so far, about 12 GB of avi files (190 clips), .wav files, .mov files, .jpg, .mp3, .flv, .swf ... and this is without the Mr. Shy footage! I have had to move stuff to my external drive once already because I'm running low on disk space, and I'm going to have to do it again. What's frustrating is that I have about 60 GB of free space on my OS X partition, but my game and all my software is on the Windows partition (believe me, if I could afford to buy everything for Mac, I would!!), and I have a whopping 5 GB of free space left. And anyone who works with .avi or .mov files knows that ain't gonna last long...

I'll post a few shots to show what's going on, so far:

The promo pic (Sim Shy's outfit is a recolor I did, myself, to match real Shy's outfit. I also did the Mr. Shy t-shirt, modeled after the one available on his shywear site:

Overhead shot of all the sets as it looks right now (that is a LOT of green!). There is the set I used for the opening sequence, and I had to build an identical set facing the other direction. The way the light was shining on the greenscreen outside the window was messed up in the original. So the second one is purely for greenscreen purposes:

Some trees with a cartoon effect applied:

You'll see what this is all about when the video comes out:

Shep is a very unhappy camper. And this was all for naught, because I realized I had him in the wrong outfit, and had to change him and redo the shot:

A disgruntled sim-actor has the strength of a thousand. No exterior siding can withstand the power of Shep's fist!

Sim Shy, the star of the video (well, he shares top billing with real Shy):

This is a very trippy video. It's a lot of fun, and it's a LOT of work. But I'm in the Zone, so I'm focused. It's coming along pretty quickly, all things considered.

I'm hoping that this will be ready for release in a week or so. If things go well, maybe sooner. But don't hold your breath on that one!

ZOMG, U Tube Haxxorz!!!11

2008-06-14T17:36:00.010-05:00

What is UP with all the freakin YouTube hacker posts? School's out, and the kiddies are bored?

Got these three in the last two days:

1.

if someone by the name of Mark Genesis Gallardo (rugbylegend) wants to add you to their list, don't accept it. It's a virus. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds them you will get it, too. It is a hard drive killer and a very horrible virus. Please pass this on to everyone on your list. We need to find out who is using this account. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Copy and paste in a new bulletin for all your friends

Show you care. SPAM YOUR FRIENDS! Hey, it'll save your hard drive.

2.

As you know, there are many hackers on our site. One of these hackers is nickobop918.
He has been removing videos and deleting account by hacking. You do not need to report him because that also sets off the timer which you will read about soon. If you do not repost this in atleast twenty-four hours as "Youtube Hacker" we will delete your account. We have developed a timers sytem that deletes your account when the timer ends. Reading this bulletin sets off the timer and the only way to stop it is by copying this exactly and then reposting it along with this code: >&023vf10jm-1-fbfb2=bd-time=png24hrs<

This code sets off the timer and any attemps to mess with the code when reposting will get your account removed.

Sincerely, The Youtube Service

My account is in trouble. YouTube is run by 12-year-olds.

Edit June 15: 24 hours later. I STILL HAVE A YOUTUBE ACCOUNT.

3.

YouTube has found these dangerous hackers who are messing with the system...repost this to warn everyone about this difficultty...repost this or you will get suggested as the hacker and get banned from youtube forever,,,YOUR ACCOUNT DEPENDS ON IT

Sincerely, YouTube Team

P.S. Because of this technical difficulty...we will be moderating random stream chatrooms and comments for suspicion

Wait...is it the YouTube Service, or YouTube Team? How many monkeys are running this joint?!

May the Best Man Win!

2008-06-08T00:00:00.002-05:00

This is not a video I intended to showcase, but I'm doing it, anyway! All over the frickin' place. Gotta get those views, somehow.

I write a blog on Sims99, voiced as my Bogus character, Shep, and it's been quickly gaining in popularity. Shep won the very first Sims99 "Blogger of the Week" award, last week (shout-out to Dwelliford!). Shep's shtick is to be as vocal as possible, but never have anything to write about. So he makes something out of nothing.

For my...er..."Shep's"...latest entry, "Oh, It's Been Broughten!", I had been, as usual, stuck for material (Shep comes by his "shtick" honestly). And I have this self-imposed deadline that was creeping up on me. I knew I *had* to do something with the fact that Shep's feature video, "Only", had won Best Film in February, and his twin brother, Scott's video,"Only Time", had won Best Film in May over on Sims99. There was already some fraternal competition brewing because...well...Scott married Shep's girlfriend. SO, the idea of a contest of Olympic-sized proportions, to win the love of a girl, was born. Let the drama ensue! Or the comedy, as the case may be.

This was not made with the intent of ever being reviewed, so it's not polished. I literally did this, from conception to final render, in 9 hours, max. I didn't even make a proper credit roll. I accidentally left out the name of the artist who did the music, Bill Conti. I made the video just for the blog entry, but was talked into submitting it, because - hey - I'm a sucker for flattery.

Here's a link to Shep's "award-winning" blog (*wink wink*), for the background story:

Of Angst and Shepitude

Hope you enjoy!

Long time no blog!

2008-05-20T13:40:00.008-05:00

Sorry, I've been SLACKIN'!

I'm still in slack-off mode, but I did want to update everyone before the Val/Quintessential Glamrod/Brynne/VRevis is Dead rumors start.

Haven't done a project since Only Time, but it's doing well at YouTube, so I'm still riding that wave for a while. Going through a bit of a dry spell, waiting for inspiration to strike again. I do have a couple of things in the early planning stages:

1.) I'm going to be doing my first collabo with another machinima director, who is a great friend of mine, and I'm really excited. I'm not sure if he wants his name out, so I'll leave that out for now. He's a brilliant director, and I'm extremely excited to be working with him. This will definitely be a HUGE departure from anything I've ever done before! I'm listening to his ideas and just saying "Woooooooooow."

2.) I'm really getting into this independent music thing, so I'm in talks with another very good friend o' mine, Mr. Shy (link in the banner below), about doing a video for one of his songs (to be announced). Again, very exciting, because I will be doing some things with this video that I've never done before, working with live actors, fun stuff! I'm flying out to NYC in June and we'll do some filming up there. It will be a Sims video, but there will be a few surprises, too. Big shout-out to ya, Mr. Shy, and folks, check out his stuff, fo sho. And pass it along.

In other news, I have been slacking on this blog, but I've been working on another blog that's getting some notice over at Sims99: Of Angst and Shepitude. Bogus front man Shep is taking over the helm on this one. He's making a splash, and I'm having a total blast with it.

That's it for now. I need to wrap this up because I have more slacking off to do. CuppaJoeProductions needs to be updated, when I'm done procrastinating. Only Time isn't even up there, yet!

I'll get around to it.

Eventually.

Ciao.

Transatlantic Jam

2008-04-22T20:17:00.002-05:00

I have to show you all this. It's so awesome. I've watched it probably 15 times, already, sent it out to my entire friends list on YouTube, and I'm still amazed, and want this guy to get VIEWS! Subscriptions!

(I'm digging the whole "promoting YT artists" thing, can you tell?)

This is my friend, screenname Kansaslo, linked to in a previous blog entry. Here's his link, again:

http://www.youtube.com/user/kansaslo

And a transatlantic KICK ASS jam collabo with prboyd

The Making of Only Time

2008-04-21T09:34:00.007-05:00

I had a lot of questions asked about the "Only Time" video, because I'm now in with a new circle of non-simming YouTube friends. Musicians, artists, awesome folks. They've been so wonderful with the encouragement, the support, putting my video in their VLogs, sharing them with their friends lists...wow. I'm amazed at the reaction I've gotten for this video!

Since the machinima thing is new to the majority of them (as is the Sims 2 game, itself), it was suggested that I do a "making of" video, just to give an idea - a very basic idea - of how a video like this is made.

This is not a "how to make a Sims 2 video" tutorial, I don't go into technical aspects like video editing, camera techniques, or anything like that.

As an explanation, in the comments for this video, I posted this in response to one viewer who is fascinated by the whole thing, but is still confused about how it's done, even after watching this video:

About not understanding any of this: I'm not showing the technical stuff, like what goes on in the editing process; that would be a whole different video! My main point of this video is to show how much illusion is involved in these. Anyone who's played this game knows it doesn't play like this. But if you develop an eye for subtle animations (rather than stock), you can convey just about anything. Developing that eye is THE most important thing in making a convincing video.

Hopefully I've shown that it's like any form of visual art, from photography to filmography to painting. You have to have an eye for composition, for lighting, for angles, for timing, for nuance. Those subtleties make a big impact. For example: pushing in close to a character's face tends to draw the viewer in, and brings more emotion to the shot. There was a lot of that in this video.

Here's the "Making Of" video for "Only Time". Special thanks go out to a few great YouTube friends: Kansaslo, encinitasmel, and Twirretwarre. Please check out their channels. There's some great stuff on YouTube!

Edit to add:

I certainly didn't expect honors on this one!

VRevis is back in the game!

2008-04-18T17:55:00.007-05:00

Yeah, I actually make videos, too! I've been slacking in that, preferring to gush over other people's videos, instead. Not that I mind that at all!

This one is to Enya's "Only Time". Thanks to encinitasmel for passing this along to his friends on YouTube!

Gotten a couple of honors so far (I always take screenshots, because these honors are so fleeting...)

Edit:

Heh. Yeah, see? Already changed. And it says I have 3 honors. Where's the third??

Edit:

The mysterious third honor has appeared, today:

Edit: April 21

Woot! Down to one honor, but it's a weekly one:

Enjoy!

Spreading the word for a funny guy

2008-04-11T01:01:00.006-05:00

I've been a fan of OneManSho's since I saw his "Simpsons Character Impersonations" video months ago. He's doing a series that is so much fun, called "What song is this?". He actually memorizes the song backwards, tapes himself singing it (yes, backwards!), then runs what he just sang forward, revealing the song. All the while using props. It's amazing. I wish I was that coordinated!

Here are the three videos in the series, so far, and the fourth is a thank you video, and he put the link to my and two other YouTube channels up with a special thanks for getting the word out. That is so incredibly awesome of him, and I so appreciate it. So, I'm giving him this entire blog entry! Be sure to check out his YouTube channel.

What Song Is This 1

What Song Is This 2

What Song Is This 3

"A Thanks and A Post-Filming Apartment Tour"

Digg it: Spreading the word for some friends

2008-04-05T23:32:00.013-05:00

Just doing my part in getting word out! Be sure to check these guys out. I had a Digg account, but it went 'splodie, and took all my "diggs" as well as the submission I made for "Push". Sorry, Jack! Digg hates me.

I guess I'll just embed the vids, here, since I can't use the Digg link.

This has become one of my favorite Jack Conte originals. When I first heard it, I liked it a lot. Now I find myself listening to it from my YouTube VLog several times a day, and I already know the words by heart. I cannot wait until he makes these new songs available for download. Killer stuff.

This is one I just submitted, then it went *poof*. Jack's first videosong, "Push". Love it. Raw emotion.

ETA April 10, 2008

The latest in the series. This one is wild. Gonna c/p the title, cuz it's long and I'm too lazy to type it all out: Radiohead's Exit Music for a Film matched with a prelude by Chopin, Op. 28, no. 4

And another mondo-talented friend...Daniel Lee. I originally had blogged directly off of the Digg page, but since it gives a seperate blog entry for each one, I thought I'd just keep adding to this one. I'm sure Jack won't mind. ;)

This is Daniel Lee's cover of Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah". I posted some links for dleeoriginals on my links page at acuppajoe.

Check them out! He's got a very smooth sound, and I see some big talent emerging.

WTF, TOM?!

2008-03-31T21:19:00.012-05:00

Eau N'eau! Say it ain’t s’eau!

I just got a popup when I logged into Myspace tonight, saying something to the effect of "Now your myspace friends can be notified when you install an application!"

Say WHAT?!

Applications on myspace? Isn’t that a Facebook thing?

I know people argue vehemently for both sides: myspace vs. facebook. They do it with just as much passion and conviction as they do for other important social issues: politics. Religion. Nvidia vs. ATI. But the reason I came back to myspace and took my facebook account inactive was because of those daggum apps. Okay, it’s not so much that I mind the apps, themselves, as I didn't exactly have a gun to my head when I added all gazillion or so on my profile; it’s the OVERWHELMING GUILT I feel when I see I have 597 pending requests, and I know I will never finish shooting teddybears and hugs at people before dawn, so I skip over them, then wonder if my karma will be shot to fucking hell...

And, oh. my. god. My poor animals. I went on an adoption spree and adopted about 15 cyber pets. I hired a babysitter before I ran screaming for the hills. I hope she’s treating them well. My giraffe and my goldfish must MINGLE!

OY VEY, My conscience cannot handle facebook!!!

I do have to admit Pirates and Parking Wars are pretty killer, though. I played Pirates for about 48 hours straight, long enough become a level 223 Corsair Pirate (#4 in most levels gained in a week!!!), talk several friends in a chat room into getting hooked on it, and to develop a reputation as a vicious, evil, gold-stealing, bomb-throwing maniac. I found bombs personalized with my name on every island. Arr, matey, they be swabbin’ the deck with me face! But they’ll ne’er get me buried booty!!!!

Then I just quit playing. Ha.

And Parking Wars. What is it that is so interesting about it, anyway? I made $500,000 and got a new car! It’s...it’s...a towtruck? Still, it’s fun ticketing my friends. Currently none of my cars are parked legitimately. Will my towtruck get towed? There’s something to ponder...

I keep thinking maybe I’ll activate my facebook account just to see what my friends are up to over there, but the whole thing is so mind-blowingly overwhelming to me. So I play on oldschool myspace, even though many of my friends have abandoned it for facebook.

I don’t want apps on myspace! No apps! NEU! I shall whine and stomp my feet and shake my fist, bitterly. CURSE YOU, TOM!!!

So, wassup witchoo?

2008-03-13T14:45:00.003-05:00

Just a brief update on things:

"Only" won the Best Film of February, 2008 on Sims99, so that's had me pumped. I finally got my "star reviewer" status on 99, as well. All that binge-reviewing paid off! I need to get back into it, though. I tend to review a whole slew of videos at a time, write up these in-depth reviews, and burn myself out.

Been getting into the improv thing, so that's been keeping me busy, and offline. So has a really, REALLY bad router/mac issue.

That's about it for now. I tried to be as boring as possible in this entry. I think I did a bang-up job.

Random Ridiculousness

2008-02-27T11:43:00.008-05:00

It's a slow news day, and I'm in a self-deprecating humor kinda mood, so I'm posting to bring you this inanity/insanity:

First, a love poem. "Ode to Val (Eau de Val)", by Shep Broke-Bayfield:

Hallmark Cards, call me. We'll talk.

Next, a happy-happy joy-joy pic of the Broke-Bayfield boys.

A little behind-the-scenes action, showing what it took to get that picture. I call this one "Sim Whack-a-Mole". The final "Kab frabbat!" kills me, every time.

In other uninteresting news (yet a departure from the potty humor), I changed my YouTube layout to match my site!

ACuppaJoe Productions

2008-02-21T12:29:00.002-05:00

Anyone visiting my site in the last couple of days probably saw a lot of pages being yanked, put back up, redesigned, etc.

Obviously, ACuppaJoe has undergone a pretty drastic makeover. Not only did the name change to ACuppaJoe Productions (to focus more on the videos), but it now has a whole new look. Once I finally got the index page the way I wanted it, I got to work on the rest. CJ Cinema is done. Links...almost done. Still need some formatting. About Me is done. Ask Joe is making me want to pull my hair out. That page is not public, yet.

I'm tired, a bit cranky, and a lot headachy, so, before I finish up the "Ask Joe" page, I'm going to pop a few Excedrin and lie down.

I have to give a shoutout to Sinfully Liz for helping me out with the css!

Only

2008-02-06T16:00:00.001-05:00

It's funny how I'll get into a rut with videos, think I've lost the inspiration to do any more, and then BAM! I'll get into the zone. Right out of the blue. That's pretty much what happened with my latest video, "Only", by Nine Inch Nails.

This is a video I'd been envisioning for some time, but didn't get past the planning/brainstorming stage until day before yesterday. I was in a bit of a blue mood, and feeling restless, so I decided to try to film a few clips and see where it went. I wasn't committed to it, and thought I'd scrap whatever I did. Instead I stayed up all night working on it, from 8:30 pm until 9 am the next day. I uploaded the video to YouTube, and posted it at Cuppa Joe.

Then I took a nap.

When I awoke, I watched the video, again, and knew it wasn't as good as it could have been. So I yanked it off YouTube, took the link down from my forum, and did some more editing. This is typical of me. I work until I can't see straight, and prematurely put up a video. With a fresh perspective, I reshot a few new scenes. I turbo-charged it.

I think I'm done.

Only, by NIN

Only from VRevis on Vimeo.

A Sim's Life updated

2008-02-04T15:32:00.000-05:00

I have added a few entries to my Sim's Life blog. You can start here, with Scott and Val's wedding. Yes, that's right;I've decided to make my sims have a more "traditional" relationship. Which isn't to say it's without its quirks, of course. The quirks make it interesting!

Be sure to read the "accidents happen", honeymooners, and cheesecake entries. You definitely don't want to miss those!

I really hope to get a new video out, soon. There are two that I'm itching to make. I seemed to have lost my creative spark, however. Hopefully it will reignite, soon. Going through a bit of depression, so that's put a damper on things.

Maybe I need another trip to Zaxby's?

The Return of Cuppa Joe

2008-01-21T17:14:00.000-05:00

New forum is up, registration is open, Cuppa Joe is BACK! Membership is by admin approval.

The NEW Cuppa Joe

I am really enjoying the new forum. CJ is back to the way it was when it started. The mood is great, very upbeat and friendly, and the people are as crazy as ever, but in a GOOD way. And it's been hopping!

I have taken on a few more admins to help out until I get the hang of SMF. I have a great team of moderators, as well, who will help keep CJ in the spirit in which it was formed, over two years ago. It's great to see some old faces coming back, and I think everyone feels this is a fresh start for CJ. The heaviness of the old forum is gone. The drama of the past few months has been completely obliterated. It's unbelievably freeing.

We're still getting things shaped up, and I have much more I want to do with the forum (host downloads, for example), and it will be a while before I get everything hammered out. But, so far, so good!

Eau N'eau!

2008-01-06T06:11:00.000-05:00

I got my forum's anniversary wrong. It's actually the 7th. Hold the fireworks one more day, folks.

Insomnia still sucks!

To make up for my egregious error, I will post one of my favorite comedy bits of all time. Fnorky!

News flash!

2008-01-05T07:11:00.000-05:00

It's 7:12 am and I've been awake most of the night. Insomnia sucks!

Just a quick note on a couple of things:

I was notified by a friend, yesterday, that A Sims 2 Christmas won Honorable Mention for December's Movie of the Month at Sims99. I didn't even know I was in the running, so I'm pretty excited about that. Warhawke's Snow White Queen took top honor as Movie of the Month, and deservedly so, and taizhu's Sweet Dreams of Silent Earth also took Honorable Mention. Congrats to Warhawke, and taizhu!

January 6 marks the 2nd anniversary of the A Cuppa Joe forum. Two years, and still going strong. Wow. I never would have thought it would ever have taken off like it did. Thanks to all the great forum members who have made it a place many call "home". And happy birthday, CJ! Here's to at least two more great years!

Back to Business

2008-01-03T22:20:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine has asked me about collaborating on a video. It will be a big departure from anything I've done, before. She's not a Sims 2 movie-maker, but she is an awesome set designer! She is going to design all the sets, and I'll be working the video end. Sounds like fun, and I'm open to the challenge. I hope to get started on this soon. I haven't even heard the song, yet, but she gave me the general idea. Should be lovely. At least, I hope so!

I also will be switching forums, soon. I'm just waiting on my databases so I can convert. I'm not taking new registrations, right now (in fact I've had to prune down to 415 members), but once the new forum is set up, I'll have the link on my site. I'm very excited about the move. I'm not thrilled with Invisionfree, although their tech support has been great. It's easy to use, but it doesn't have enough features, as far as the admin/mod cp goes.

Happy New Year, and here's to a great 2008!

A Cuppa Joe Christmas

2007-12-01T15:56:00.000-05:00

This isn't what I'd planned on doing, but I couldn't get in the right mood to work on my other projects. On the way to Zaxby's the other night, I decided "I'm going to do a Christmas video!". The next two days were spent trying to get the daggum Holiday pack (which I had, but lost, so I could get Santa in my game), and a major MAJOR custom content downloading spree. I also moved a few of my sims into a beach lot that was slapped down in the middle of the city, and completely revamped it, turning it into a cabin, and the back greenhouse into a barn.

I did not credit the creator of the original house in the credits, because I couldn't remember who made it! Now that the video is up, and the credits have rolled, I know who it is. Of course. The original lot is by Mirelly, and is not available for download. This is what it looked like as a beach lot (pics provided by Mirelly):

And the overhead shot of the ground floor:

These are a couple of pics I took of the revisions I did to it. Cabin reincarnation:

Overhead shot of ground floor (with a tub that needs some new plumbing, and a side door that was left wide open):

And another shot of the front, because I love this house so much:

Here's why I had to be careful with my camera shots:

The view across the street:

The lot across the street is actually the lot I used for the London Bridge video:

And the neighborhood screen view (notice strategic placement of forest, which has a monorail running through it). This is the section of town in which all my filming lots are placed. The club from You Don't Know and U + Ur Hand (which used the same lot) is just down the street. :

And, finally, here is the actual link to the video on YouTube:

A Cuppa Joe Christmas

Still making excuses...

2007-11-13T20:59:00.000-05:00

I figured it was time for the next round of excuses as to why the site has not been updated in...yikes. Weeks and weeks. Why I have not done a video in...weeks and weeks.

I have Ask Joe questions all ready to go onto the site, but I have not been able to sit myself down and DO it. "It's not hard, Val! Just a little html, and you're done!"

I have two videos in the works, both in the planning stages. One is very hush-hush, and you won't be seeing any links to it, here. AND, NO, IT'S NOT PORN. The other one is for fun. Typical VRevis stuff. I'm consulting with a couple of people on both videos. Unfortunately, that's as far as I've gotten.

IN MY DEFENSE, I have been busy. And when I get home, I just want to crash. On weekends, I want to chill out with friends, and then it's back to work. Lather, rinse, repeat = no updates.

I think I can have Ask Joe updated this weekend. Don't hold me to it, though.

Aw, DAMN

2007-10-10T20:23:00.000-05:00

Holy shit! I did not mean to be away this long. Yet...I have nothing of interest to tell you.

Ha. Sorry...

I've been busy as HELL, and, although I do have another video in planning, I just haven't had the time to devote to it. When I'm not at work, I'm dead-tired. But I will get back to it as soon as some of the craziness subsides.

Promise.

About Damn Time

2007-08-26T16:32:00.000-05:00

I'm finishing up work on a new music video. I hope to have it done and uploaded in a couple of hours, at most. I'm rendering out a 7th version, and we'll see how it goes. I did add in the credit roll and "Made using Sims 2" logo to this render, so that means I'm fairly optimistic this may be the final cut. Woohoo!

Now I'm afraid I just jinxed it.

This new laptop is a DREAM to do video-editing on!

Edit:

Okay, that wasn't my final render. I did two more. *BUT* I uploaded #9 to YouTube, and posted it at my forum, so unless I see something I just have to change, I'll leave it. I'm pretty happy with it. It's a fun video, and I think I did a really good job working around those awkward musical instrument poses. I wanted to do a Bogus Unfocused band vid, so they had to get on their instruments. And Josh was the second drummer! I'm thinking of making him the 5th member of Bogus.

Here it is: U & Ur Hand, by Pink (the 9th final cut)

Creatively Stuck!

2007-08-21T16:49:00.000-05:00

I'm at work printing out a bunch of letters, so am killing some time online while that's going. I realized I hadn't updated this blog since the "stuff" that went on a while back on another forum, and didn't want to leave this on such a sour note.

Not much to update you on, unfortunately. I've been putting in a lot of hours at work and haven't had time to really sit and plan out a video. It doesn't help that I feel dead, creatively, at the moment.

I have added two new entries on the Sim's Life blog, so check that out for a quick read. I'm having a great time taking pictures with the game settings set to "high", so I can't wait until inspiration strikes and I can do some filming! I just need something to film. Ugh.

New stuff

2007-07-21T18:27:00.000-05:00

All right, so it's not quite a VIDEO video, but I did do it in the video editor...

I put up a new slideshow of old pictures on the Cuppa Joe website. This covers (mostly) the Uni part of the game, when Josh Broke-Bayfield came into his own. If you're a Josh fan, this is very Josh-centric!

I could not get flash to cooperate with me, so I ended up uploading both slideshows to Google video. I'll work on that flashplayer, though. Not sure what's up with that.

Keep in mind when you watch those slideshows, these pics were taken back when the game first came out, and when Uni first came out. The first one had pics taken using a crappy video card, and many had to be touched-up by hand. The second (Uni) one had a better graphics card, but I had not yet gotten used to putting walls up and keeping plumbobs out of the pics. As these slideshows continue to be produced, they will get better and better, because my photography has improved drastically, since then.

Hit me!

2007-07-19T22:17:00.000-05:00

How long has it been since my last video? My last "legit" video, anyway? May. Pathetic. Of course, I did have computer problems, and my personal life was kind of taking precedence over everything else, but...what the hell. I'm doing pretty good, now, and ready to get back to work. I just don't know which project to go with!!!! There are about 5 different directions I want to go in, simultaneously, and I'm at a stand-still. I need an entire production team to implement everything I've got going on in my head. ADD is a beotch.

Obviously I can't delegate, since Sims2 videos are a one-person-job (once you get into the actual production of them, that is. I am not referring to EA, itself, modders, custom content creators, etc. That would up it to about, oh, say...a gazillion.) And part of the fun is to be able to say, yes, I did the storyline/concept, yes, I did the set design, I did the directing, I did the camerawork, I did the editing, yes, yes, and yes....the only thing I can't say is "yes, I did the soundtrack". Yet. And I'm one of those people who finds it hard to delegate, anyway, so even if I wanted to tell someone else to take over part A while I do parts B,C,D, and E, I couldn't.

But, man, I have this shiny new powerhouse of a laptop, and my feet are stuck in cement, creatively. That sucks. I'm waiting for the moment to hit me, as it has with every video I've done so far: BAM! "THIS is the video I'm doing!". Nine times out of ten, it's not something that I've had on the drawing board, it was something I ended up totally winging. That's a frustrating way to go about things because I'm completely dependent upon inspiration to hit.

So, hit me, dammit.

Okay, okay, I'm a dork.

2007-07-03T16:12:00.000-05:00

I was talking to a myspace friend last night, to whom I had given the link to this blog, and I got the distinct impression from his reply that I have gotten...er...mindnumbingly boring, regarding my enthusiasm for and confusion about my new Mac.

No more techie-speak. No more rambling on about graphics-adjustments (although I was hoping to get a little HELP from some mac-users on that particular issue, but, luckily, my bro is one of them there mac users and shed some much needed light on my...

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!!!

I'm doing it again.

I can't help it. I try to be cool (hahahahaha) and funny and clever and witty, but, DAMMIT if I'm not a dork, anyway. So, I heart my computer. I spend hours learning about exciting stuff like viruses, spyware, modifications to system settings, performance-enhancers...it's like heaven.

I'm in tears at this realization. I must go emo for a sec...

I feel better.

Does the fact that I am an avid People magazine reader offer any redemption whatsoever? How about Cosmo??? Okay, the ace up my sleeve...I read the Enquirer on occasion. Okay, frequently, though I rarely buy it. I stand at the line in the grocery store and frantically look for all the goodies displayed on the cover, and if I can't find them in time (stupid confusing table of contents!!!!!) I will suck it up and buy the magazine.

I love seeing how celebs look without makeup. Angelina Jolie is wasting away. Paris Hilton...omg is she on the streets, again??? Has she been freed??? Are we safe?! Where's Nicole Ritchie? Oh, she's right over there next to Lindsay. Wait. Where's Lindsay??? I swear to god they're both there. I can see their names in the caption. You just have to really squint to see the girls, themselves. But they're there. They are ALWAYS there.

Okay, I've strayed from the topic a bit, which is a good thing since I'm writing about how geeky I am.

Update on CJ:

Forum is still public. High unexplained activity on July 1, 2007. Record number of users online: 98. I was not among them.

Videos: Still don't have my game installed. I hate the installation process, or the Disk Hokey Pokey as my good friend RT calls it. Put the first disk in, take the first disk out, put the second disk in, and you shake it all about!

I have been asked to do a secret video project for another site. It's in the works, and the files are still on the old computer. It will be done under an alias. Will resume work on that once things are properly set up on the mac, and then I'll get back to Bogus. Or porn. Or both. (I think the secret to offsetting the techni-dork in me is to follow any reference made toward my mac with a comment about porn. Or just the word "porn", itself.)

I am slacking in updating my site. I have some Ask Joe questions to put up, and, come to think of it, Joe has been slacking in his department as well. I need to put him back to work. There is a question on my forum with no reply from Joe, yet. It's been there for weeks. Tsk, tsk.

I must take off, now, and install SP2 on my laptop so that I can start installing my game files.

"Porn".

Upskirt vs. Accidental Nudity!

2007-07-02T19:46:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I'll get to the subject at hand in just a sec. Gotta few boring techie-things to say:

On the progress of going Mac: Progressing well! Still fighting with caps lock, but, hey! I got a virtual machine up and running! I have Windows XP installed, now. Unfortunately, no sp2. My dad has it and will burn me a copy.

Fuck. Probably shouldn't have said that. I might as well admit to using Shareazza. Fuck, again!

Enough with the self-screwing.

I made a few of my glitch-type videos (general sims2 madness!) public on Youtube. I also posted a few video blogs about them. The very first entry has nekkid sims. I am proud to say that I'm a Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here!, a clip showing Shep and Shawn stuck in the shower together, made #3 in the Google Video France search results for "celebrities oops". I'm sad to say that as of this writing, it sits at #4. For some reason that video has also been linked to on some UK Big Brother site (although I never could locate the video). Will someone please explain that to me? How is that even possible? What in the world do my sims have to do with Big Brother? Any info on why Big Brother is so hugely popular there would be appreciated, as well. I haven't watched the UK version, but the US version was a total snoozer.

Shep-in-the-altogether has also been linked to a site which apparently pairs search words up against each other. Or something. I followed the link, and the terms battling it out were "upskirt" and "accidental nudity". Again, I couldn't find the video, there, but I'm assuming my video was on the "accidental nudity" team, which won that day. Glad I could help out. Also interesting (and more than a little unsettling) is the fact that Shep and Shawn were also featured on a site called "last video". In the link was the phrase "big tits". Sorry, no. I'm thinking something is wrong in the linkage....

Oh! New link! You can now catch my showering sims on portaldeayuda.com! Woo hoo!

All that definitely beats out my greatest youtube accomplishment, which was actually verified by yours truly. "Let's Get It Started" was prominently displayed on the profile page of a man on Sugardaddyforme.com. The link is still there on LGIS, but the profile is no longer on SD.com. I guess his wife caught him embedding a Sims2 hiphop video on his page and made him shut it down. Either that or she had a problem with the whole "Married but lookin' to be someone's sugar daddy" thing.

I'd have kicked him to the curb for that embedded video thing, too. Totally.

I is smarter now?

2007-06-30T20:06:00.000-05:00

In my lAst blog entry (ha! I'm evidently still having the "overreaching" A/caps lock issue, and am leaving in my little faux pas as a self-deprecating jab at how I'm picking up the hard stuff, but struggling with the eAsy stuff....)

Take 2:

In my last blog entry I said I hoped my next one will read more intelligently. Does it so far?

I'm a pretty quick learner when it comes to computer-ish things, and I'm beginning to get the hang of the way things work in mac-world. I am able to be much more specific in my pleas for help. Of course, I have yet to set up Windows on a VM and work with a dual OS, so we'll see how my panic progresses as the days pass.

Right now my main WTF issue is with the graphics/resolution stuff. I have an nvidiA (jeez) GeForce 8600M GT on this thing, and I can't seem to find out how to customize it at ALL. I can change the display resolution easily, but that's all done through the monitor settings in system preferences. Default is 1440 x 900, but I would like to switch down to 1280 x 800. When I get XP and the game installed, I think I'll need to be playing on 1024 x 678, if I'm remembering correctly. Right now, though, when I change the res, things get blurry. The way it is by default, things are crystal clear, but it's killing me trying to read such small print.

I KNOW I've been through this with all my other laptops. It's been a while, but I *think* all the advanced tweaking options only became available once I upgraded my graphics drivers to specialized omega drivers. I don't even have directx, yet (do I???). Right now I can change the res, and I can calibrate the color profile to my liking (pretty much), but that's it. Nothing about pixel shaders, direct 3d, open GL, refresh rates, rotation, overlay, anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, mipmap, vertical sync...NOTHING. That's the stuff I'm trying to get to. I can't find any control panel for nvidia anywhere.

I feel a little helpless squinting at my monitor like this. Damned if I do change the resolution (blurry!), damned if I don't (tiny!), and, although I can temporarily adjust the text size to a larger size (done), it's just a band-aid solution to what I'm really going for.

But it's so cool how the monitor adjusts its brightness as the ambient lighting changes. I'm sitting here in a dark room with my MBP and my pc notebook side by side. I open up the pc notebook, its monitor lights up, and this one dims. So, here I sit, unable to change my anti-aliasing options and barely able to read the screen even with my glasses on (new prescription, too!), but perfectly content (for the moment) opening and closing the pc notebook and watching the light change on my mac.

Open.
Dim.
Close.
Bright!
Open.
Dim.
Close.
Bright!

Okay, snapping out of my trance...it may be a while before I do any work with video. Or graphics, in general. HAve patience, children.

Open.
Dim.
Close.
Bright!
Open.
Dim.
Close.
Bright!

MAcaroni!!

2007-06-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

I have a mac, now. The one I've been eyeing for...wow. Since last summer, probably. It has a lot of neat gadgetry, it's a real powerhouse, gonna be great for video-editing. I really truly love it. Now if only I knew how to USE it.

I still have my other laptop, but my dad will be taking over that one once I get everything installed on this one. And then it will be no more pc for me, except for the one I use at work.

This is completely mind-blowing to me. I'm pretty comfortable with computers. I know my way around. A pc, anyway. But today when my brother brought over the cool black box (like my Ipod Nano box, only huger!), everyone gathered around and oooohed and ahhhhed...I turned it on, got things set up, then had a little bit of trouble after I was done with the product registration. My brother helpfully explained "You close the window on the LEFT side, now." Ah. How embarrassing. So then I typed in my username on one of my accounts and messed up by hitting "caps lock" instead of "a". I can't be VAl. I just can't. I stAred blAnkly At the (bAcklit!) keyboard, And sAid "how do I go bAck and fix this???"

"The delete button", bro says. Of course. But what if I don't want to delete everything, I just want to go back and change a letter or two? You know, like the arrow keys did on my pc? I was nearly in teArs.

My brother pointed out that I use the arrow keys. Just like on my pc. It was the "home""page""end" stuff thAt threw me.

I still cAn't figure out if the cursor must be in FRONT of the letter(s) I want to delete, or if there's A wAy around thAt. Definitely going to tAke some getting used to.

I was trying to post on my forum, and I was using the built-in mouse. Somehow I kept pulling up the calculator, clock, and weather report. Noooo...don't need that at the moment, thank you. Just want to post. But it was kinda cool how it was all 3-D and stuff.

So, it's like I've never used a computer before in my life. I feel somewhat helpless at the moment. I'm learning, though. I have my bookmarks set up in Safari, and my passwords all saved, and I changed my desktop, the time zone...

I have no idea how to find the settings for the graphics card. I don't see "Nvidia" anything anywhere. I found how to change my display resolution, how to adjust the colors, but not how to tweak the graphics. Where's "computer management???" I'm losted! There's no "My Computer", no "My Documents", a whole new bunch of file extensions to figure out. "Shortcuts" are now "aliases".

I got a .wmv file to play in Quicktime by randomly clicking things until it opened. I had to download something. Or something. See how stoopid I sound? I have no idea what I'm doing! As much work as I do on a computer, I have to, at the very least, know how to minimize a window! It's a giant leap from there to video-editing. Oy.

But, hey, this thing hAs a remote control!!! How cool is thAt? And the power jAck is magnetic, so when I trip over the cord, the notebook doesn't come crashing to the floor. It's VAl-proof!!!

I hope my next blog entry reads a little more intelligently than this one does.

CJ has gone public!

2007-06-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to let you know that the CJ forum is now viewable to the public.

Vabblage!

2007-06-20T10:30:00.001-05:00

I haven't updated since the porn fiasco. I decided I probably should, if for no other reason than to get that off the first page of my blog. Yet another shining moment in the life of a self-proclaimed goofball....

I don't have much of an update, so I'll just babylon a bit, if that's okay. Or, to use the term my forum members so lovingly coined, I shall "vabble".

I have, once again, resurrected the craptop from the dead. Yeah, it died, po thang. I brought it back to life by hooking it back up to the power cable. Admittedly, that was a "doh!" moment on my part. But, dammit, this thing has no battery! When a laptop shuts off and refuses to reboot, I ASSUME it's kaput. It died again, this time with the power cable in. No little puff of smoke, no sparks, no last words, no nothing, just buh-bye whatever was on my screen. Dejectedly, I moved to the *gasp* desktop PC. It's my mom's and she was visiting her sister out west, so I was okay for a few days. Had to sit in a chair at a friggin' desk, but I was okay. Had to share the room with the litterbox, but I was okay. Had to switch everything to the other side of the desk (mom is a lefty and insists on acting like one. She puts the mouse on the wrong side of the keyboard!!), but I was okay.

Just for kicks one day, I found the Thinkpad out in the woods where it landed when I hurled it out the window, plugged it in, and BEHOLD the sight of the bright blue typically-annoying-as-hell-but-now-much-welcomed disk check! One of my disks needed "to be checked for consistency" (which I am now chanting in my sleep, along with "Myspace is free, but you must be logged in to do that!") , but hey, it looked like it was trying to work! And it continues to chug along, though I am typing this blog entry in notepad and saving at every other word, just to be on the safe side. It still kicks off, randomly.

New laptop will be here in about a month. Very excited. I'd been drooling over it for months, but had no excuse to buy it since my "real" laptop was working fine. But "real" laptop got fried by lightning, so "doorstop/laptop" (lapstop?) is substituting in the interim. I'll be back to work in no time (okay, in about a month), possibly even doing some legit flicks that I can actually show people without dragging them back to some dark internet alley, first. I feel like your normal, average, everyday, friendly neighborhood divorced suburban mom who moonlights as a trenchcoat-wearing flasher. My dirty little secret. And you know I am STILL getting responses about the PM I sent out??? I'm thinking of writing this off as one hell of a publicity stunt. It's getting my name out there, though it's not exactly how I wanted to be known...But I'll take it.

So, that's about it. It's summer, I just had a birthday (getting "you're old hahahahaha" cards from your parents is a real bummer, let me tell you), and 40 is a mere 3 years away. I looked in the mirror that day and told myself (yes, yes, I really did!) "Val, don't be a goob. In ten years, when you're 47, you'll be kicking yourself remembering how you were kicking yourself at 37, for kicking yourself at 27. Remember when you were 22, just out of college, and suddenly felt soooooo old because you were working with 18-19 year olds and felt so removed from that age group? College kids were suddenly 'kids'. Highschoolers might as well have been wearing diapers. YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE OLD AT 22!!! You're screwed at any age, let's face it." My version of a self pep-talk. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but it works for me.

My divorce became final on June 5. I'm going back and forth about this. If I could remember how to be a single person, it would help. Right now, if someone were to ask me out, I'm afraid my response would be "Let me ask my husband, first". It's not quite hit me yet. Of course, I can't get asked out unless I start going out, but none of my female friends are single. They all want to go bowling. Not one wants to cruise sleazy pick-up joints with me. Dammit, all my friends and their "happy marriages"!!

*shakes fist at the sky

I'll get there. My nightstand is full of "Rebuilding after your divorce" books. They've been very helpful. I use them as coasters while I read my People magazines and play my sims game. Looking at my nightstand right now, I am doing a little self-analysis. I have two divorce books, both given as "gifts", and my glass of iced tea is sitting atop them. Those two books are on top of a couple of murder mysteries. Now that's interesting....There's an empty box of birthday chocolates (thanks, John!), a bottle of Gaviscon heartburn medication (extra strength! Thanks, John!), and a box of tissues. Oh yeah, and a quarter bag of weed.

Haha. Just kidding about the Gaviscon.

VRevis: pornographer?!

2007-05-28T16:22:00.005-05:00

This just in! VRevis needs to pay more attention to what she's doing!

Okay, here's the set-up: I'm trying to get back into the machinima crowd, because I've been pretty much limiting myself to my own forum, moreawesomethanyou.com, YouTube, and myspace as far as getting my videos seen. I have a whole lot of machinima "acquaintances", but I want to get to know everyone better.

I am a member of a forum run by Britannica Dreams. I hadn't been there in a while, so I decided to pop in and see how everyone was doing, post a couple of my newer vids, reintroduce myself. (BOY oh boy, did I reintroduce myself!) I went to the BD site, clicked on the forum link, and thought things looked a bit different than they did the last time I was there. I tried to log in, but my username wasn't in the database. I tried several different passwords, no go. I figured the forum must have been revamped, and perhaps they didn't transfer all the members over to the new one, so I signed up, again. I posted the obligatory "Introduction" thread, and put up two videos. The admin was confused as to how I could have two accounts, since one account is allowed per IP, but I chalked that up to me living in a different town from where I was when the first account was created.

Here's where it gets fun. On MY forum, I have an adult section. One friend in particular has been wanting me to do a sim porn video, because I had downloaded a couple new adult hacks for the game and was showing pics of my sims taking full advantage of each other. It was only natural that I should bite the bullet and try a video, right? Keep in mind this is all for fun. I was laughing the entire time I made the first video. But it was such a hit on the forum, that I did a second. They're obviously not uploadable, anywhere, so the only way anyone can see them is to join my forum, be granted access to the adult section, and get the links. I've mailed them to a few non-forum friends. So, I've kept it fairly quiet that I did these two flicks, and not that many people have seen them.

Back to the Britannica Dreams forum. It used to have a section for more adult-natured videos (there's another version of "Justify My Love" that I had posted there), and I thought that with a new account, I had to get access to that section, again. I was feeling brave enough to post those videos. Only in a private section, of course. I PM'd (Private Messaged) Michelle, someone I've known for a while, asking where the adult section was. Before I hit "send", I noticed there was a box called "usergroups". I checked it. Why? Because I do things like that. I then sent this PM out to all 300-something members of the forum. Oops.

When I checked my email it was FULL of read receipts from people I'd never even heard of. And that was the moment I realized my mistake. I immediately fired off another PM and sent it out to the same group and joked about how embarrassed I was that I had just told everyone I did sim porn, bla bla bla...

I'm still getting read receipts, and this happened two days ago.

My own forum is having a great time with this. So, I'm going to present the thread from my forum to you, and you can tell by my first post that I hadn't yet realized that this forum was NOT the same forum I'd belonged to, so I basically joined a forum I'd never been to, and then told 300 people I'm a sim-pornographer. I'm trying to explain it away by saying I like to make a "big entrance"...

I feel it is important at this point to note that my custom title over at moreawesomethanyou is Big Silly.

Here is the thread from the A Cuppa Joe forum, first post was posted May 25 2007, 10:59 PM. (leaving all members' names out, save for mine):

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

I'm so embarrassed I could DIE...

I reregistered at the Machinima Premiere forum, forgetting I was already a member (it's changed so much I didn't recognize it!), and I just sent a PM to one of the admins asking if there was an adult section like the old forum, because I do sim porn. There was a box called "usergroups" and, stupidly, I checked it. Why? Because if I don't know what a button does, I'm gonna push it. EVERYONE IN THAT FORUM GOT A PM ANNOUNCING I DO SIM PORN. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

So. I immediately sent another PM to the same group, subject "Oh. My. God" explaining that that was just supposed to go to the admin, not 300 something people!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------

member1

Nice one ya big silly!

-----------------------------------------------------------

member2

OMG yay pr0n!

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

To give you an idea, I requested a read receipt for that PM (thinking it was just going to one person) and this is a screenshot of half of page one in my inbox.

-----------------------------------------------------------

member1

*member1 is rolling

That sound soooo much like something I would do!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

So far I've gotten two requests for the links to the videos, once person saying he didn't know if there was an adult section, a few people wondering why I'd randomly chosen them to ask this question, and one guy saying "That's kinda hot".

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME: (almost an hour later)

I'm still getting read receipts!!!!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------

member3:

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

Just deleted 45 more. I don't even recognize 90% of these names!

-----------------------------------------------------------

member4:

That 'bout covers it!

-----------------------------------------------------------

member5:

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

Deleted 264 more read receipts, sent links out to a few people, and now have a thread in my honor over there titled "Dear VRevis". The first post just said "Tee hee!"

-----------------------------------------------------------

member7:

Thanks Val, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. [S.O.] thought I was losing it.

-----------------------------------------------------------

member8:

Goodness. I'm not gonna laugh at you, but I am going to smirk a little....

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

[Quoting member 7: "Thanks Val, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. [My S.O. thought I was losing it."]

Anytime, member7!

-----------------------------------------------------------

member3:

This is all so funny. I want to feel bad for you, Val...but I keep wanting to laugh... Looks like they are also enjoying it in "your" thread.

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

It gets more embarrassing by the hour. This is not even the forum I *thought* I belonged to. Nope. I just joined a forum I'd never even visited before, and before I even had 5 posts to my name, mass PMd 300-something mostly-strangers divulging my dirty little secret. Reread the first post of this thread and see my innocence. It was nice, wasn't it? Awww.

I'm getting messages over at YouTube from members of MP who have gotten email notification that they got a PM from me, but don't remember their password to check it. And you can't tell by that first PM that it was sent to 300 people; I sort of know Michelle, to whom it was INTENDED, so wrote in a fairly casual, familiar style. So I'm getting a lot of confused responses as to why I'm randomly singling so-and-so out to send this PM, then a lot of lolz when they read the second PM explaining my oopsie.

Talk about your forum-n00bie faux pas!!!!!

Character-building. That's what I'm doing. Character building.

EDIT:

Just checked my email:

-----------------------------------------------------------

member4:

*hugs Val* You just wouldn't be you if things like this didn't happen

*nods* character building is always good.

-----------------------------------------------------------

member3:

This just gets better by the minute. I'm still sorry for laughing, but can't seem to help it. You are so funny.

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

Oh, I agree, this is funny! This is the kind of stuff that happens to me ALL THE TIME. It's why growing up there were two sayings around my house: "Valerie, Valerie, Valerie..." and "Things just happen with Valerie."

What's also funny is the subject of my first PM: "Have I lost my mind? LOL"

Yes, Val, I do believe you have.

-----------------------------------------------------------

member3:

No, you haven't lost your mind. The things you do are what make you so special. It also proves you are human.

I always check to be sure my grandson isn't playing Sims. I would hate for him to run into his grandma in some of the forums, especially the gutter. He's still busy with Zoo Tycoon.

-----------------------------------------------------------

ME:

[quoting member3: "The things you do are what make you so special."]

I've also been told this all my life. Now I'm thinking they meant "short bus special".

-----------------------------------------------------------

member3:

The things you do make you special, which is why we all enjoy being with you. You are truly a fun person to be around. That's why I'm here.

-----------------------------------------------------------

member9:

Aaaaugh Val! OMG, you poor woman. Yes, I'm laughing my ass off, but I'm laughing in TOTAL SYMPATHY. Hee... you're awesome for having such a good sense of humor about this. (Gotta laugh or you'd cry, huh?)

-----------------------------------------------------------

member10:

Oh, that's so...Val-ish. However, it could also be very member10-ish [insert personal anecdote here] I'm sure they're getting a chuckle somewhere.

-----------------------------------------------------------

END

Yola!

2007-05-20T21:10:00.000-05:00

I have good news, and I have bad news. Good news? New video. Bad news? Borkened laptop. Again. So it will be a while until I can start working on new projects, again. I have my game on one laptop, and internet access on another, and no easy way to transfer files. Time to start saving up for that shiny new Mac.

Anyway. I do have a new video up for y'all. It's the SECOND remake of a video I did last spring, which would also be the third completely-from-scratch version of this video. It's up at CJ Cinema, so be sure to check out Criminal, right there at the top.

This is a video I took on last spring without a whole lot of experience under my belt, yet. I was still learning the ropes on basic videography, and editing was still almost completely a mystery to me. I knew what I wanted, just not how to actually get there. A year later, I'm still learning, but I've come a long way, baby. I know my way around my editors pretty well, and, more importantly, I'm willing to take risks I wouldn't touch, before. I think I did a pretty decent job on this one. While I don't think it's perfect (is it ever?), I am satisfied with it, given my amount of experience.

For laughs, I left my original comments up on the site. You can get a pretty clear sense of how pissed off I was after this video the first and second go-rounds.

It's on my YouTube page, it's on CJ Cinema, and if you're a member of my forum, you can get the actual 35 mb .wmv file (which is so well worth it, in terms of quality. Unbelievable how badly mangled these things get when processed through YouTube or Google video).

Enjoy, and I hope it won't be too long before I can get back to work.

Re-re-re-re-re-editing video!

2007-05-05T14:02:00.000-05:00

Hey, guys, sorry I haven't updated in so long! I've been busy with a couple of projects, and I've also been dealing with some personal issues.

I've done two more videos! Woohoo! Unfortunately, I can't (okay, I won't) link you to them. They're...how do I put this delicately? Blue. It was a dare, and I can't turn a dare down! Plus it was a challenge and I think I pulled it off well. They are linked to in my forum, only, and I have a strict 18+ policy for that section. But enough about stuff you can't see without jumping through hoops if you're a non-member.

I spent a good portion of yesterday doing some editing on one of my very first videos: "Let's Get It Started" by the Black-eyed Peas. The version you see on CJ Cinema and at the bottom of this entry is the latest one. But you know what? I'm going to do some more work on it. Thus the "re-re-re-re" part of the subject line (and anyone who's played the sims enough should recognize that was a play on "re-re-re-re-reticulating splines". I hope.). Edit: NEW (FINAL!?) VERSION IS UP!

It's more difficult to edit video when you no longer have the original source .avi or project files to work from, so I'm having to separate the audio and video tracks of an already compressed video, and cut directly from the video, itself. Which means working around those blasted transitions. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, and I'm trying to keep the techie talk down, I make the videos from a series of .avi files shot with the in-game camera. These are my source files. I usually have a couple of gigabytes worth of clips that I piece together to make a 40 mb video. Each clip is rendered out through Adobe Premier Pro (one of the editing proggies I use) several different ways. I'll have speed changes, I'll do some trimming, I'll add in some effects - that kind of thing. But I still keep the old avi files on hand for a little while until I'm satisfied the urge to re-edit has passed (but it never really does), and when I do a re-edit, I can work with the original files on the timeline in Sony Vegas (the other editing program I use). The project vf file will still be intact, so the timeline will be as it was pre-render. "All" I have to do is work with the pieces already set in the timeline, add in new shots, whatever it is I wanted changed. Once I've gotten everything assembled the way I want it on the timeline and the audio track set back in, I can then rerender out a new video. You with me? This is Sims2 Video-editing for Dummies.

With "Started", I no longer have those old clips, so I had to import the actual completed video file into Vegas. Transitions (those fancy splashy things you see from scene to scene - I was fond of those in the early days) are stuck in there, so I have to carefully trim around them. I'm also at a disadvantage when it comes with material to work with. Back then I didn't shoot nearly as much footage, so I had some repetition going, which is a Bad Thing, although it works when you're doing a dance video, if you do it right.

I am going to re-edit back in the first half of the video; I feel like I changed it too much. Even though it's an early job, it was my first submission to and what got my name known on Sims99, and I like it pretty much as is. I just went a little crazy with the editor this time around. What I did change that I will keep is the ending sequence: The video originally ended with Shep "singing" what I had Jory open with. I like consistency, so that was fixed. I also added in a cool little drum riff clip with Scott just before it goes a cappella. Other fixes were removing a plumbob and a thought bubble in a couple of frames and a reassembly and centering of the individual bustamoves leading up to the group shot. Almost everything after the 3:08 minute mark to the end was totally revamped.

I'll ETA when the new one is up. You can still see the old one here.

ETA: DONE!

ETA2: MAYBE NOT! If this plays choppy for you, check back in a while. I'm going to make a smaller file to upload...

ETA3: Made smaller file. Hopefully this one will play better for those with slower connections. NOW I'm calling it "done". Welcome to my world.

You Don't Know

2007-03-27T19:49:00.000-05:00

YES, the new video is up. For the third time! The first time I uploaded it, I felt like it was just good to be getting into the practice of doing videos, again, but it wasn't something I felt was my best work. It was good, but lacked punch. Plus a lot of my forum members told me the guy shoulda gotten what was comin' to him (you'll know who I mean when you see the video), so I took it off YouTube, and shot a few more scenes. Put it back up. Took it back down, and polished it up, little things that most people wouldn't notice, but would agree things smoothed out a bit the third time around. Changing the speed on clips, remixing the clips a bit, those kinds of subtle changes. I'm proud of the final version, now. It's doing well on YouTube, has 6 honors (which are so fleeting they're hardly worth getting excited over), and 5 stars (also fleeting, but I'm happy to have them, now).

It's not on my site for download, but I have the embedded Google one up (I don't allow external embedding on YouTube). I took down my downloadable files because people have been downloading them and uploading them as their own. Grrr. Forum members, of course, always have access to the downloadable files, which are so much better in quality. Shame.

Here's the YouTube link. Enjoy!

New video

2007-03-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to update y'all really quick. I am actually actively working on a video. Not one that I'd planned to do, of course, another "whim" one, though I have known I was going to do this one for a whole two days...

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I have not died. I am very much alive, just REALLY FUCKING BUSY. I have so much correspondence to catch up on it's overwhelming. (I say things like that often to make myself sound important). Seriously, I do have many emails to return, comments to reply to and messages on various forums, and I'll probably just sweep those all under the rug or something.

"Oh, you emailed me? I'm sorry, my email account must be screwy or something..."

Anyway, I hope to have this video finished before too long. Haven't filmed a thing, yet, so that's how much progress I've made. Still building sets.

Back in Black

2007-02-17T16:26:00.000-05:00

Got the laptop back. It looks great! I have a brand-new scratch-free LCD panel, a brand-new shiny back arrow key, and QWERTY imprinted on my forehead because I can't get the damn thing to boot up. It's the BIOS, I don't understand the BIOS, and I won't touch anything to do with the BIOS.

So, I'm still on the Thinkpad while my laptop sits on the floor next to me in all its black-screened glory, waiting for the bios to be...uh...whatever you do to the bios. Or whatever.

Yeah, that.

Blame California

2007-02-16T14:42:00.000-05:00

I called Microcenter yesterday to ask the status of my laptop that was checked in back in January. Microcenter hadn't heard a word, so they called California (the whole state) to find out what the hold-up was. The Californians said they were still waiting for approval from the Georgian, who, crazily enough, had been left out of the loop for a few weeks. They needed authorization to replace the LCD panel, the heat sink, and the logic board (isn't the "logic board" the motherboard on a Mac??? Will this be a problem?). That's *pretty much* a whole new computer, innit? I mean, I have the hard drive here at home. I was then put on hold so the guy could do Really Important Stuff. I waited on the phone, silently obsessing over whether I should remind them that I am missing a back arrow key, and the guy yanked me out of my haze. I don't know how long he had been snapping his fingers before he resorted to pushing telephone buttons to get my attention, but I came to, and he said the laptop should be in on Saturday.

I really hope California gives me that new arrow key...

If a picture says a thousand words...

2007-02-12T12:25:00.000-05:00

...a word can paint three times as many pictures. Yeah, I made that up.

No laptop, yet, but a weird train of thought led me to the subject of emoticons. Uh-huh, you read that right. Emoticons. Sometimes I'm a very deep thinker.

I read somewhere that when a person reads an email, some huge percentage of it is misconstrued. Something ridiculous, like 99.9%, or maybe that's just my personal percentage, going by some of the responses I get.

I used to think it was silly to use emoticons, period. Especially the text-based ones, like ;-). LAME. After many misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and rejected marriage proposals, I decided that a little "wink" couldn't hurt, just to let people know when I am yanking their chains. I still have issues with the basic "smiley". It often seems condescending to me, which is ironic, since the whole purpose of emoticons is to clarify the sentiment behind the statement. :) Did you feel I talked down to you, just then? No? I guess that's one more for the therapist.

Since I've discovered animated .gifs, however, I've become addicted to emoticons. I can make an entire post consisting of these things. They're so powerful, and with them, I'll never be misunderstood again!

Check this out: I'm going to retype a few sentences from this post, and I'll add an emoticon. See if your interpretation changes:

I can make an entire post consisting of these things.

I can make an entire post consisting of these things.

I can make an entire post consisting of these things.

In the first example, I'm bragging. I'm feeling pret-ty damn smug that I can make a post using only emoticons. In the second, I'm blown away by the fact that I can make a post using only emoticons. In the third, I'm thinking that I probably should have added a few words to my post, since someone seemed to have misinterpreted that wink emotie.

Another example:

Sometimes I'm a very deep thinker.

Sometimes I'm a very deep thinker.

Sometimes I'm a very deep thinker.

In the first, take me literally. I'm ponderous! In the second, I am soooooo not a very deep thinker, but that's a good one! In the third example, I'm thinking impure thoughts, deeply.

One more, but this time I'll just use a simple phrase:

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

In the first, I'm genuinely sorry. In the second, I'm playing the World's Smallest Violin. In the third, I've completely lost you.

Finally, I'm going to demonstrate how an entire conversation
can be held using no text at all.

A

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Well, you get the picture.

Why didn't I just hit "Publish"?!

2007-02-08T10:25:00.002-05:00

Lost another long blog entry thanks to my closing out the preview window thinking it would ONLY close out the preview window, and not the whole damned unsaved blog entry.

*drums fingertips on desk

No laptop, yet. I'm expecting the Asshole Technician to call anytime...

Yeppers...N E time...

*looks at watch

Is this page done loading, yet?

*chews on a pen cap

*spins around in chair for fun

*bats at little birdies and stars circling her head

So, lappy is in the shop, but I do have a laptop that I am borrowing from the folks. I'm going to give you the specs, but please TRY TO CONTAIN YOUR ENVY.

Drumroll, puh-leeze:

This is a Thinkpad 600E, circa, oh, 1997 or 1998.
It has a super-powerful 363 MHz Intel Pentium II processor,
a whopping 288 MB of RAM, and a SUPER roomy 6 GB harddrive.

Can you feel it? I am nearly DRUNK with the power that is sitting in my lap.

...hang on, it's thinking I want to activate the voice-thingy
(pardon my technical terminology)...

...and what's with this borked-up formatting?! Why isn't my text wrapping?!...

So, it's a little quirky. "QUIRKY" HAS NEVER HAD TO BE SENT IN FOR REPAIR.

I can't watch videos smoothly, can't play the game, I can't do much of anything but type, really, but only if I have maybe 3 windows open, tops. By that point I'm already seeing a lag between my typing and what shows up on the screen, so I often end up typing things twice things twice.

Another fine feature of this remarkable little wonder is that it has built-in memory enhancement. I don't mean computer memory, I mean Val-memory. There are memory-strengthening exercises in this baby that would make an elephant drool.

Here's how it works: there's no battery in this thing. Batteries are for wusses. So, I type out a long blog entry (like I just did!),then I sneeze, which pops the power jack out, causing everything I've just typed to vanish into thin air. So...I must retype everything I had from memory! It's like that card game you played as a kid, only so much more intense.I can remember VERBATIM what my last blog entry said. Okay, so it was a copy/paste job, and the lyrics to a song (since taken down. Don't ask.). Even the smallest of victories is a Beautiful Thing.

Enough boasting. I don't want you all to hate me. Besides, I'm having a bitch of a time trying to get the formatting right.

Grrrrr

2007-02-01T15:00:00.001-05:00

My laptop is in for repair. Man, I am NOT happy with the IT guy that was handling this! (Notice usage of the past tense...)

I took my laptop into Microcenter yesterday, waited 45 minutes in traffic to do so, and had a new inverter board ordered. They said no problem, and that I could take my laptop back home with me. Cool. So I head back home and am almost 2/3 of the way there, about to get on GA 400, when I get a call from Microcenter. They said they were sorry, but couldn't just order the part and I needed to bring my laptop back in so they could ship it off. They said to be sure to back everything up because there was a slight chance it would be sent back with a different harddrive.

Oka-ay. So anyway. I said no problem, there's no harddrive IN it. (I had taken the harddrive out because I knew there was a chance it would need to be shipped out, and this is DEFINITELY not a harddrive issue. The LCD backlight problem can be reproduced without a harddrive. Last time I had it sent off, it was delayed because it took 3 days to back everything up. This way, I figured I'd save some time.) They said okay, then just bring it on in and they'll ship it out. I took it back, waited in the same damn traffic, which was now worse thanks to a busted gas main at rush-hour, and dropped it off.

I just got a call from the asshole technician at Microcenter. I got a message from him earlier saying what the guy told me yesterday: they needed to ship off the computer, I need to make sure to back everything up because they might have to wipe the harddrive or send back a new one. I called back, got voicemail, and left a message saying there's no harddrive in the machine, we went over this yesterday, go ahead and send it off, already.

Asshole technician calls me back saying he just got my message. He said "The thing is, we need to send in a complete unit, otherwise we're gonna send it to them, they're gonna send it back saying 'there's no harddrive in it, that's the problem', OR they're gonna try to replace the harddrive." I said "That's ridiculous! This isn't even harddrive-related." I said I don't see what difference it makes when the problem can be reproduced simply by turning the machine on. No harddrive necessary! I also told him that the harddrive that was in it was a new harddrive I'd purchased seperately from the laptop, a more powerful one, and I wasn't about to send that off if there was a chance it would be lost...

( !!!)

...or replaced with the standard 80 GB 4200 rpm piece-of-crap-harddrive it had, originally. He then said "Well, do you have the original one?". I laughed incredulously and he said "You think this is funny, ma'am?" Okay, that pissed me right off.

I told him I took the machine in so they could look at it and just have the part ordered so I could repair it myself, originally. He says "You were gonna fix it yourself, huh?" I said "Yes. It's the inverter board." He said "You're sure about that?". I said, yes, I was fairly certain. He laughed and said "Ma'am, I work on these all day long and I can't tell you how many times I thought it was the inverter board at first, then once I got in found it was the whole screen that was shot, or something." Okay, firstly, that would be my problem, not his. And secondly, WHAT EXACTLY DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HAVING A HARDDRIVE?

He explained to me that they used to send in test harddrives in cases like this, and then they either don't get them back, or they get them back broken. (AND WHY WOULD I WANT TO SEND MY HARDDRIVE IN TO THESE PEOPLE, AGAIN?! Not exactly selling yourself, here, pal...). He kept saying, "If we get the machine back and there's no harddrive in it, or the harddrive is broken, it's not our fault. Do you see my point?" No, I didn't see his point. Who *cares* whose fault it is? I sure don't! It wouldn't be my harddrive, so it wouldn't be my problem. Besides, obviously it's the fault of the people they're sending it off to, and it sounds like they're sending my machine off to a bunch of fucking monkey-heads, if you ask me. Is he insinuating that it would be MY fault if their test harddrive was lost?!

It's all good, now, though. I called back, told them I wanted to deal with a different technician, and the guy I'm dealing with now is much more reasonable.

But, won't be too much I can do on the site until I get my lappy back.

It just keeps getting better!

2007-01-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

Wrestled with html-editing software all day, ended up having to do my Links page from frickin SCRATCH on notepad. But I did get shiny buttons! Woo hoo!

I'm trying to figure out more ways to screw up my site. It's working just fine, so it's time to fuck it up again! Thinking......

Frustrated!!!

2007-01-25T00:02:00.000-05:00

Today has been the most frustrating day ever. Still sick. Then, I got free software from lunarpages for webdesign and other things. Cool stuff. You get it when you sign up for 12 months. I was messing around, uploaded the page (it was named something other than "index.html" and it overwrote my original front page! Luckily I had a back-up from over the summer.

I also lost my links page, so that sucks. I have a copy from back in the summer, as well, but I have to add all my newest stuff on there, now. For now, I've taken that offline until I get all the links I need. Oy.

Also managed to reset my brother's wireless router instead of his modem, so I had little to no connectivity all day, and my brother had to set up the network, again.

That's about all. Not in the mood to write, at the moment, just wanted everyone to know what the heck happened to my site.

Nobody knows de trouble I've seen...

2007-01-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

Eh, couldn't think of a better title. That works.

So, I'm thinking many of my posts are going to be excuses for why I'm not updating, working on projects, etc.

I'm SICK today. This sucks ass.

Maybe if I'm bored later I'll continue on with the whining...

New Bogus Group photo!

2007-01-20T01:35:00.000-05:00

Yay, I did do something tonight! It was time to update the group photo of Bogus, since they've all had some changes in custom content, eye color, etc, so I "Frankensteined" pieces of different pics to get the final shot. All pics had to be sized appropriately, which probably was the most tedious part:

Had to rotate this one a bit:

This was flipped horizontally and rotated for Scott's hand, and the ring was colored out, since it's his right hand. I used the original, with the ring on, to make Jory's left hand.

Scott's left hand was cropped from this pic, then rotated around to sit on Val's waist:

Started cutting stuff, adding stuff...

Added those hands, had to add in Val's arm to properly sit in front of Scott's hand

Cut Jory's arm off, ewwwwwwww

Slid him in there, and added another hand on Shep's shoulder

Then did a lot of painting, put it to a dark background, and voila! The new pic!

The full-size one can be seen here.

Looks like I wasn't done, yet. I wasn't completely satisfied with both hands on the shoulders, so I cut and pasted again. Came up with this one (and this one was REALLY hard):

Already slacking

2007-01-19T18:19:00.000-05:00

Yeah, here it is, the 19th of January, and I've already forgotten this blog...

Not much has happened with the site. I can't remember what I posted last, but I redid the layout on the links page, and I made some shiny new buttons for the front page, but can't figure out how to get them to show up on the page! All I get is a white box. Very frustrating. So, I'm stuck with the white underlined links until I get that straightened out. Despite the name "CuppaJoe", Java and I do not get along. (Get it? Geek joke! Oh, dear God what have I become...)

Still entertaining a few ideas for videos. Right now I have nothing concretely planned, but I do have a few things bouncing around my otherwise empty head. There are a couple songs I *really* want to do, but haven't figured out the best approach. I would love to do "Anna Molly" or "Megalomaniac". How can I get Incubus and the Sims2 to co-exist? No synchronized-dance scenes. I'm lost!

I do have some fun-type, typical "VRevis" vids in mind, too. One project I keep coming back to is a video dedicated to my forum members. I have many of their self-sims (and if I don't have a self-sim, I can make one. Bwahahahaha), so it would be fun to cast them all. Haven't decided to go with a single song (and if so, which one?) , or a medley (which would be tons more work, but fun). We'll see.

Also on my to-do list: yet another (this will be the third) remake of "Criminal" by Fiona Apple. The last one I did, I really dropped the ball. I got so fed up with it, got to a point where I literally hated the song, and I probably shouldn't have it on my site, at all. I left it there, though, because it's fun to see how I've progressed, in theory. In actuality, I cringe if I even think of watching it. I will do a much more fleshed-out storyline, this time. I have a better handle on editing, and I have a good idea of where I want to take that video. Same basic premise, but this time it should actually come through. Also, I want to re-make the very first video I did, "Hella Good", by No Doubt. I did that one a year ago, and I was so proud of it, haha. This was before I knew that Sims2 machinima was actually a *thing*. I thought I just did something really cool with in-game animations set to music (I invented machinima!!!). Now that I know there is a niche for this type thing, I'm wanting to redo some of my earliest efforts. I have started work on a re-edit of that video: cut out plumbobs, etc, but it looks like I'll have to reshoot a lot of scenes. I don't want to make it anything more than it was initially intended to be. It will remain a techno-club-dance video, but without all the newbie technical errors. I did, actually, already do a re-edit of "Let's Get It Started". I was quiet about it, because the original was so well-received. The one that is downloadable off my site is the new edit. Not a lot has changed. I like that video as is. I just wanted to make a couple slip-ups less apparent. One, I got rid of altogether. Another, well, it's still there. I couldn't really edit around it without losing the smoothness of the transitions to/from the surrounding scenes. It's in a tight spot. I'll just say it's a good thing my camera-work has improved since then, as well as my editing. Not that anything is perfect, now. No, even in the videos I'm the most proud of, I still feel they have a "rough around the edges" look to them.

Okay, just meant to write that I haven't done anything and ended up Vabbling, again.

Ennui

2007-01-12T19:37:00.000-05:00

Not a whole lot going on, at the moment. Did a few tweaks here and there on the family tree, that's about it. I've been out most of the day.

I did transfer my old LiveJournal blog to a new one at blogspot.com. Check that out. I have so many gaps to fill in those storylines. Right now I'm putting up random picture threads, just to show some of the things happening in my game. I have another post to add this evening (looks like I'm stuck inside, tonight. Hoo-ray). It's from a few weeks back, before the Bad Mood Thread, actually, but it's an interesting one. And very hard to explain.

Edit:

I just got done putting up that very bizarre thread. It took an entire blog entry just to set it up, another to introduce the characters, and then a four-part story. Whoa. That's a lot of blogging.

Let's Get It Started

2007-01-11T16:04:00.000-05:00

Okay. Bad enough I have to remember to blog, but I have to title each entry, too?!

The last two days, I've been working on my other site, which is the Bayfield Family Tree. That is going to be one hella huge project. I'm still working on the Broke-Bayfields, and the Goth-Bayfields are going to be at least as bad. Won't be finished anytime soon, that's for sure. At least I haven't had any new characters added. No plans to, either.

I haven't done any work on Sims2 movies since Sim Shady (see below!). I had a few projects going, but I scrapped all those to start new ones. Since I filed for divorce, I haven't had the time to put into doing any new projects, so it may be a while. Once things settle down in my personal life, I should be up and running, again. I may be able to squeeze in a quickie-vid, though. Who knows?

I'm slacking in the Ask Joe department, too. I have a few new questions to post, and I will get to that, soon. Soon, soon, soon. It's always "soon", with me.

Ya know, the more I type "soon" the weirder that word looks...

Will get this set up asap!

2007-01-11T13:19:00.000-05:00

This must be my 10th blog. I last updated my non-sims blog last May. Obviously I'm terrible at keeping up with these things.

I wanted to make a separate Cuppa Joe Blog just to keep everybody updated with what I'm doing. Or why I'm not doing what I would be doing. There's a lot of that going on, currently, but real life does take precedence over internet life.

I'll work on making this page more presentable once I get back, this afternoon.