A Christmas Story

     I'm not exactly sure when it started, but I have definitely come to view this time of year as the "Season of More."

More lights.
More decorations.
More sparkly.
More frantic.
More love.
More hate.
More awesomeness.
Just basically "more" in general.

     This isn't to say that the other seasons or holidays aren't full of their own kind of energy, but there just seems to be something about this time of year that makes everything extra intense, at least to me.

    Maybe it's the way so many major religious & cultural celebrations all converge at once, or the fact that the weather around these parts (Pacific Northwest) is particularity wet & dreary (thereby forcing one to "think" more, as it's too damn crappy to go outside & frolic) but whatever the reason, it often seems that this particular time of year brings with it the ability to amplify actions & feelings to levels the other times of year just can't touch, which is both good & not-so-good.

     It's not-so-good in that few things are more heartrending than reading about a family loosing their home or a loved one just days before they were all going to go to grandma's house (or wherever) to sit down to a warm holiday dinner with family & friends.

     But it's good in that there is something about this time of year when every so often the stars aline, energy is created & something happens to turn what was initially a deep sadness into a time for unexpected joy.

I want to tell you a little Christmas story.

     Not the kind where a town council decides to outlaw Santa & group of orphans manage to change their minds. Or where a little puppy with a limp is picked out of the litter by a young boy with a lame leg of his own. Or how a reindeer with no friends & a nasal condition saves the day, or even the one where a bitter old curmudgeon learns the "true meaning" of Christmas.

     The story I am talking about is one about an English woman, a Dutch man & an American gal who found themselves faced with the terrible news that a little website they all frequented & had become good friends on was going to be closing in the New Year, as the site's owner had decided to move on to other things, as so often happens in this game we call "life." So after they had all posted their sad & shocked "good bye/good luck" posts they began to ponder what to do (and where to "go") next...& this is when the stars alined just right & that elusive holiday magic glimmered for just a moment, making the English woman send a PM (private message) to the Dutch man & the American gal saying that she had just sent a PM to the site owner asking him if he would be willing to let her take over the cost & such of running the site & if they would be interested in helping her.

     So the Dutch man & the American gal (the latter of which had been just about to ask the site owner the very same thing) both said "yes" & the English woman relayed this to the site owner & asked the Dutch man & the American gal to do the same (which they did) prompting the site owner to reply that he was not opposed to their proposal & in fact another woman (who I think may also be American but I am not certain) had contacted him about the same thing.

     So after many crossed PMs, the English woman, the Dutch man, the American gal & the other American (??) lady all got together & posted their plan "in the open" & received much advice & other help from other people who frequented the same site, included the offer to host many of the downloads from another Netherlands native. More advice followed, along with more posts of encouragement & what was once a "tragedy" was suddenly an unexpected "joy."

     In short, sometime this coming January (by the 11th unless we decided to get a month "extension" on the current server) it seems that these 4 folks will find themselves the proud "owners" of a little website about a little game that brought them all together in the first place.

     So here's another huge "thanks" to zephyerzodiac (the English woman), BoilingOil (the Dutch man), dark_author (a woman I am almost positive is from America), Leefish (the Netherlands woman) & TwoJeffs (the founder of the Simbology site) from me- Zirconia Wolf (the American gal) for making this holiday a lot less crappy than it was a few short days ago. Without you guys (& all you other Simbology fans) this holiday story would never have had the happy ending it does now.

It may not have the heart-tugging power of that puppy with a limp or that reindeer with the sinus problem, but to me it means a hell of a lot more.

Merry Fucking Christmas

         Sorry 'bout the not-so-friendly post title, but it's how I'm feeling at the moment so it's what I went with. That's the whole point of having a Blog in the first place, isn't it? To have someplace you can freely spout whatever drivel/sentimental crap you want to without any fear of *retribution* or getting yourself banned from someplace. It's hard to get banned when you're the one in charge!

So anyway, on with the post:

As I write this, I feel like I've almost literally been punched in the gut.

            As anyone who *knows* me already knows, I am a huge fan of the Sims 2 & derive untold pleasure from tinkering, tweaking & toying with the *lives* of my little pixel minions. Sitting on a shelf just above my computer monitor are four well used 3-ring binders full of information on every one of my pixel peeps, divided by neighborhood & diligently organized in a way that would likely only make sense in my own strange little brain. Next to the binders is a row of no less than 26 books of "baby names" from every culture imaginable, which I refer to frequently when either naming a new character or bestowing a new moniker on one of the more strangely named Maxis-made Sims. On my computer itself there are almost countless folders containing my self-made "spread sheets" & genealogy charts & story outlines & character overviews & "read me" files for the myriad of hacks & mods that I have downloaded over the years. And let's not forget the programs I've installed to do everything from meshing (MilkShape 3D) to custom content installing (Clean Installer & Delphy's Download Organizer) to file editing (Wardrobe Wrangler, Sims 2 Categorizer, The Sims 2 Enhancer) to graphic editing (PaintShop Pro X3, ArtRage Studio & GIMP) to manipulating the very game files themselves (via the awesomely awesome SimPE.)

In other words that crazy, silly game takes up not only a rather large chunk on my hard drive, but my *life* as well.

So why am I telling you this?

            Because hand-in-hand with my obsession has been the discovery of some truly amazing people that I have met on some truly amazing sites. People that I've come to regard as close, personal friends even though I've never met any of them face to face & indeed likely never will, as most of them are not only from out of state, but reside in completely different countries than I do. People who have got married, had babies, bought houses, lost jobs, purchased computers & a myriad of other things, all while we shared a deep & perhaps even indescribable (to non-Simmers) bond, all because of a strange game that many people either don't *get* or condemn as being *stupid* despite never having played it themselves. People I respect, people I admire, people who I look forward to *seeing* during my near daily trips to my favorite sites...people I fear I will soon be losing touch with. Because in the midst of this holiday season with it's lights & it's music & it's glitter & it's bows, I have just learned than no less than 3 sites I used to haunt will be closing for good, one in six months & the other two this very January.

            No more Ancient Castaways, no more CrazyTown & saddest of all no more Simbology- the site where I not only met some of my dearest friends, but the site that gave me the courage (and the place) to try my timid hand at creating my very own game content. 

The site that became a second home for me. 

The site that I finally broke 4,000 posts & officially became a "Whippy Whippersnapper" which made me happier than I suppose most *normal* folks would say I should have been over such a thing.

            Of course there have been offers from some folks to come *join* their sites, which is nice, but all the people extending such invitations are fans of the Sims 3, which while I understand many people are enjoying it, it is NOT the game for me & I really enjoyed having a place (Simbology) to go where I could post questions & pictures & read stories about I game I still adore & greatly enjoy & know that the people who I was *talking* to shared my enthusiasm, as much as I shared theirs.

            This isn't a *dig* at the folks who owned the sites that are closing, as I totally understand about life moving on & interest changing & I truly hope they all find joy in whatever endeavors they are moving on to...

...but it doesn't change the fact that in the midst of this holiday season, with it's warmth & it's joy & it's presents & it's message of peace on earth, the only thing I'm feeling at this particular moment is the bitter sting of reality spitting in my face as it takes yet another source of joy from what passes for my life.


So happy holidays & have a merry fucking Christmas.