Easthernico - Life

Happy Halloween!  🎃

As promised, here’s a song inspired by the Spooky Lads! There are references to 10 very different songs, see if you can pick up on them all!

Background art by @wolfziedraws

(Use headphones, turn it up, and listen in the dark for the best experience!)

I was struggling with my self-confidence quite a lot over the past few months, and I can’t stress just how much the support for the AU has helped me. Consider this my thank you to you guys! ❤️️

I’d really appreciate it if you helped to share this and left a comment!

i still hate y’all bitches who say oc x canon shit is cringe like bitch you have ANY idea how flattered i would be if someone made an oc for my fantasy world? how utterly PSYCHED my ass would be they loved a character so much they fleshed out one themselves just 2 be with one of mine? fuck y’all haters

So me and my friends made a highschool au for the dsmp (with the epic smp featured) and uh - I d e a s

-Tommy and Tubbo just bring animals to school, like Tommy had a fucking pigieon in his sleeve once

-Schlatt and Quackity put pepper spray in the vents once and technically committed chemical warfare

-Techno is the one kid who reads at lunch, ranboo sometimes sits with him but only when he isnt having a breakdown in the counselors office

-Charlie just eats whole vegetables during class

-Sapnap has brought a toaster to lunch and just started making toast

-irl fruit ninja

-Dream, George, Karl, Tubbo, and Quackity all brought their cats to school once

-School wide kahoot…

-That one time Schlatt and Charlie just broke off a washroom door and walked outside with it

-Wilbur climbed onto the rafters of the bus once

-Charlie ate two ladybugs and said they tasted salty

-Sapnap just picks Quackity up bridal style and carries him around

-Same with Karl

-Wilbur also ate pepper and a mint at the same time and started crying

-Jack and Niki have chased Tommy around at lunch but stopped when he jumped across five tables

-Tubbo was playing the spongebob chase theme on his ukulele as this was happening

-Fundy broke his leg on the high jump

-And Eret sprained his wrist on the long jump

-Skeppy rolled himself in bubble wrap and when he was told he couldn't stay like it he just yelled “long live the king” and rolled down the hallway

-Dream made a ball out of a fruit roll up and named it snake, everyone worships snake and when he yells snake and throws it somewhere if you catch it you are considered “the chosen one” and you get to throw snake

-Karl drank five monsters in under a minute and had to be sent to the er

-Sam shot down a wasp with a rubber band once

-Ranboo kicked the ceiling by accident in drama

-Drista found a broken shark kite and everyone in the freshman and sophomore year spent lunch panicking and trying to fix it

-Tubbo has his ukulele everywhere and just plays it at the most random times

-Same with wilbur and charlie except wilbur has a guitar and charlie has a kazoo

-At epic high Cooper and travis put weed in the vents and almost everyone got high and had to go to the manberg high so Charlie and Schlatt were just dragging around ted who was fucking baked

-Karl pulled a typewriter out of his backpack and just started writing on it after he got banned from using the computers, techno walked past him typing out the bee movie script as quackity was sitting beside him reading barbie fanfiction out loud

-Puffy beat up dream because he took ranboos memory book

-ted will just walk into schlatt and charlies class and throw something at them and then sprint out of the school

-Wilbur made a mock bomb and practically begged phil to suspend him

-When the schoolboard wouldn’t let the teachers teach sex ed velvet just stood on the tables at lunch and started yelling out different sex positions and somehow didn’t get suspended

-Sam carries around copious amounts of pepper spray and is yet to get suspended for spraying jack niki and dream with it almost daily

-Karl accidently played cmaj on the ukulele and fundy almost broke his next with how fast he looked over

-The lunch club just adopted tubbo because schlatt and charlie let him hang out with them

-the school trip that ended with multiple people getting frostbite, Wilbur accidentally getting a stick shoved in his eye, Karl falling down a tall ass hill, Quackity almost getting hypothermia, and all the freshmen getting off lucky

-some drunken hobo (schlatt) made everyone go on lockdown because he needed like thirty bandaids

-a pipe burst and blue liquid started filling up the classrooms and everyone ended up standing on their desks

-techno brought his sword to school once

-Dream spilt Techno’s tangerines when they were 12 and techno still hold the grudge and seeks revenge

-Tommy, Tubbo, Drista, Ranboo, and Purpled just hang out every week at the skate park because Tommy Drista and Ranboo skate and tubbo has heelies fuck you

-Karl, Niki, Sapnap, Minx, and Charlie (schlatt came because he was supposed to hang out with charlie and minx) all have younger siblings in the elementary school so they end up getting dragged to literacy night but just end up fucking around on the hill

-Charlie somehow climbs through the vents at school and one time eret was in a classroom cleaning and charlie scared the living shit out of him

-He also tried to scare tubbo with it but he just looked up and went “god?”

-Tommy got pissed at wilbur one time and just bit his arm and wouldnt let go, wilbur had to drag him to the nurse still attached to his arm

-Niki came into school with an army of roombas, no one knows how she got them

-one time the school heaters weren't working so mr tdm set several fires in the chemistry lab

-Quackity, Sapnap, and George have three god damn bins full of the dining room spoons

-That time ranboo and tommy got stuck in the elevator to the dorms

-Fundy thought Wilbur and Sally’s fight was them rap battling so he walked into the living room in the dorms beatboxing

-Ted lock picks the doors to the dorms and just steals food, Ranboo walked into the kitchen one time at three am and just saw this 6'4 behemoth of a man ransacking the fridge

Academic writing advice inspired by Umberto Eco’s ‘How to Write a Thesis’:

Planning

Determine primary sources/bibliography.

Determine secondary sources/bibliography. 

Find title.

Brainstorm a table of contents with as much detail as possible (with chapters, sections and even paragraphs and sub-paragraphs - see How to Write a Thesis’ own table of contents as an example at the end of this document) (if the first drafted table of contents is good enough, it will not be necessary to start the writing from the beginning).

Do a first draft of the introduction.

Note-taking and research

Use Google Scholar to make sure you do not miss important sources.

Keep the table of contents in mind when researching and take notes of which sources could go where.

While note-taking, differentiate which parts could be used as quotations from the ones that are simply important for the argument.

Eco underlines the importance of what he calls reading sheets, which can be understood as your notes on your readings. According to him, these should contain:

information about the author if he is not a well-known figure;

a brief (or long) summary;

they should mostly consist of quotations (accompanied by all the corresponding page numbers)

any commentaries you might want to add;

an indication of which part (or parts) of your table of contents the information mentioned belongs to.

Keep reading sheets on primary sources (which should be the longest) separate from those on secondary sources (which should only be 1-2 pages long).

In the end, re-read the notes and color-code all the different parts according to where they would fit in your table of contents.

Writing and editing

A good place to start would be by redrafting the introduction.

Define every key/technical term used/mentioned unless indisputably obvious.

General writing tips:

keep sentences short;

do not be afraid to repeat the subject twice (ex: Roberta went to the shop (…) Roberta bought carrots and tomatoes);

avoid excessive details;

avoid subordinate clauses (orações subordinadas);

avoid vague language;

avoid unnecessary adjectives;

avoid the passive voice.

While drafting, write everything that comes to mind. Leave the editing for the end.

Use your tutor as a Guinea pig. Make them read your first chapters (and, progressively, all the rest) well before delivery is due. 

Ask for as much feedback as possible. Ask colleagues, friends and/or family to read your work. They will provide you with more diversified feedback, as well as allowing you to know if your writing is clear to anyone.

Stop playing ‘solitary genius’.

Don’t insist on starting with the first chapter. Start with what you know best and feel more comfortable writing about, then fill in the gaps.

Leave time for editing and try to take at least a one or two days long break in between writing and editing. 

Do not forget to fill in the gaps. When you revisit your writing, go through it with all these writing tips in mind as well as a conscience of what your most common mistakes are.

Use Hemingway in the final editing phase.

Quotations and footnotes

Since there are two kinds of sources (primary and secondary), there are also two kinds of quotations: either we quote a text which we will interpret, or we quote a text which supports your interpretation.

Some quotation rules to know:

“Quote the object of your interpretive analysis with reasonable abundance.”

 “Quote the critical literature only when its authority corroborates or confirms your statements. (…)  when quoting or citing critical [aka secondary] literature, be sure that it says something new, or that it confirms authoritatively what you have said.”

“If you don’t want readers to presume that you share the opinion of the quoted author, you must include your own critical remarks before or after the passage.”

“Make sure that the author and the source of your quote are clearly identifiable.”

“When a quote does not exceed two or three lines, you can insert it into the body of the text enclosed in quotation marks. (…) When the quote is longer, it is better to set it off as a block quotation. In this case the quotation marks are not necessary, because it is clear that all set-off passages are quotes, and we must commit to a different system for our observations. (Any secondary developments [like the quote’s reference] should appear in a note.) (…) This method is quite convenient because it immediately reveals the quoted texts; it allows the reader to skip them if he is skimming, to linger if he is more interested in the quoted texts than in our commentary, and finally, to find them immediately when need be.”

Some footnote rules to know:

“Use notes to add additional supporting bibliographical references on a topic you discuss in the text. For example, ‘on this topic see also so-and-so.’”

“Use notes to introduce a supporting quote that would have interrupted the text. If you make a statement in the text and then continue directly to the next statement for fluidity, a superscript note reference after the first statement can refer the reader to a note in which a well-known authority backs up your assertion.”

“Use notes to expand on statements you have made in the text. Use notes to free your text from observations that, however important, are peripheral to your argument or do nothing more than repeat from a different point of view what you have essentially already said.”

“Use notes to correct statements in the text. You may be sure of your statements, but you should also be conscious that someone may disagree, or you may believe that, from a certain point of view, it would be possible to object to your statement. Inserting a partially restrictive note will then prove not only your academic honesty but also your critical spirit.”

“Use notes to provide a translation of a quote, or to provide the quote in the original language.”

Floral Buzzfeed Unsolved lock screens!

Thank you @anythingbutspecial, @stardewspirit, @captainamericold for the quote ideas and thank you for everyone who asked me to make more of these! I recently hit 600 followers so this is my thank you gift for all of you!

Windbrook Save 2.0 (In collaboration with @cowboycid and @bobnewbie)- Feat. a family by @oshinsimss

DISCLAIMER: While this is a CC free save file, it is pack and kit heavy. To give more context, this save utilizes ALL EPs, GPs, and SPs (except My First Pets) as well as ALL KITS (except Bust The Dust and Poolside Splash) While you may not own every pack or kit that I used, the save file is still playable. Everything missing will be substituted.

What's new in 2.0

Willow Creek has new homes, rentals, and one new retail lot

Newcrest has been built (restaurant, gym, retail, and generic lots)

Magnolia Promenade has been built, while somewhat finished, still needs work

Every lot that's finished (including commercial) and families have descriptions, stories, jobs, etcetera

New townies from @simsontherope and @cowplant-snacks

Families from @bobnewbie

A special family, The Westfalls made exclusively by @oshinsimss

Special collaboration with @cowboycid

Other worlds are still empty, I do plan on building new worlds

SCREENSHOTS AND MORE INFO BELOW

SPECIAL THANKS

First and foremost I want to thank my good good friend @cowboycid for collaborating with me on this project. I'm so happy we met when we did because I was starting to lose light. You inspired me to keep going, and for that I appreciate you DOWN. You're a real one sis, no tea. Hugs and kisses for ever. I also want to thank @bobnewbie for coming through with families. You don't understand just how life saving they were. I didn't get a chance to use all of them, and my original concept for the save fell through due to time constraints, but I'm thankful to have had access to the diverse array of families you made for the save. A huge thank you to @oshinsimss for taking the time to create a beautiful family, The Westfalls, exclusively for Windbrook 2.0, I love them so much. Also a big thank you to @cowplant-snacks and @simsontherope for their townies. Without them, the townies would just be... ugh, you know. So, thank you for having them available on the gallery. I also want to thank @anthonydaydreamer for just showing up for me through this whole process. Like, you just get it boo! Hugs and kisses! Finally a quick apology to those I intended on sending preview copies of the save. Time was not on my side near the end, things took more time than I thought. Honestly, I needed to get this project off my computer ASAP. I really hope you guys understand. Big hugs and kisses. Thank you everyone for all the kind words and support over these past few months, your words kept me going, even if I didn't feel I had anymore left to give. This save is a love letter to you all, the simblr community.

Thank you, honestly, truly.

*terrain replacement in screenshots by K-hippie, you don’t need it, it’s just for screenshots + updated download link to include The Westfalls made by @oshinsimss for Windbrook 2.0 - please find more info here*

*updated download as of 10/11/23*

Download (SIMFILESHARE)

TOU: Don't upload any part of this save to any platform without explicit permission, thank you.

V.1: Silent Pines, 1998 Special Credit: Silent Pines is heavily inspired by and uses a very similar style to the stunning @windbrook savefile by @folkling, the gorgeous portsim savefile by @florwal, and the amazing builds by @moonwoodmillz. Thank you all for your hard work, I take a lot of inspiration from you all. Silent Pines is a base-game only save file inspired by Life is Strange with 3 major worlds, a whole new set of townies, and a complete mystery to solve.

Version 1 contains;

Willow Creek as Silent Pines

13 Community Lots

3 move-in ready homes for your sims

A total of 9 houses, 6 of which are filled with townies

18 households with jobs, story, and drama

A complete mystery to solve (should you want to)

DOWNLOAD, INFO, AND SCREENSHOTS BELOW

I used S4Studio to rename all the worlds, and I've decorated all the neighbourhoods with T.O.O.L. As I said before, Silent Pines is completely base-game friendly, absolutely no packs or kits are used. There is some custom CC, mainly posters that add to the story. The CC is one package file and adds nothing other than some customisation to the story. It is not required.

For example the missing poster of Cleo Emerson, a girl who disappeared under mysterious circumstances;

SPECIAL THANKS Thank you to my beta testers @theemodernsim, @authorspirit, @acuar-io, @aridridge for all your help! You've been amazing and I really am very grateful. And thank you to everyone who has liked, reblogged, followed, and generally supported Silent Pines. It means the world to me to be able to share my work with people!

🌲 Download (Patreon) 🌲

Gallery ID: Cosmoosims

DISCLAIMER: There have been reports of the 'build mode item missing' message popping up, especially in the downtown area. I've tried to fix this to the best of my ability, and I hope it's alright! Also, if there is anything I should fix or have left out, please let me know. Thank you for your patience <3

ALSO: Due to the Sims 4 being a broken game, I really don't recommend playing Silent Pines with Rental Units, in case the T.O.O.L objects up and disappear lol.

Silent Pines is heavily inspired by Life is Strange, the Windbrook save file, florwalsims' Portsim save file, as well as the hazy nostalgia of the late 90s and early 2000s. I hope to see you all soon for V.2!

The Mystery Update A more comprehensive outline for this update will be coming soon, but essentially it will contain;

Hopefully the fixed Harris household

More mystery clues to make the mystery more engaging and easier to solve

Better and complete lot descriptions

Love from, Silent Pines.

VESTA An open world video game concept that takes place within an abandoned Venice, a personal concept project that I’m delighted to finally bring to fruition

Since the original post was probably fake

Everyone who reblogs will receive a pokemon based off of their blog in their asks!

Follow me on Twitter for more vampire nonsense