Yay Jia! Welcome. I loved Dodai and I loved you at the Hairpin... different flavors, both great.

His stuff is delightful, gaming or no, so glad to hear it! I love how he writes about what's weird and interesting happenings in Japan without falling into the "Look how weird the Japanese are!" trap of doom.

Heh, that is also very possible!

I said this above to a similar comment - but I really do think he's eyeballing politics. Prankster Clooney, (supposedly) kinkster Clooney, Game-for-a-good-time-and-a-contract waitress-dating Clooney... all gone. Now we get ultimate political wife material who is perfectly comfortable with the limelight. I wonder what…

I am increasingly thinking that he is indeed looking towards politics.

Untrue, at least to those of us who like it. I also by nature don't have specific attachments to particular things (like pools and toddlers), so don't care that they're gone.

Oh, no, not at all (but you are talking to someone who thought fully-expansioned Sims 3 was a clusterfuck and that Sims 4 is really lovely and nicely made); I think that this is just the way of Simmers. Has been going on from the first one!

Most women are very heavily socialized to be polite, friendly, comforting, and not disappointing. It took me well into my 30s to be able to deliver a solid "No." without feeling like a horrible person afterward. It's the flip side of how many men aren't trained in Disappointment Management.

This has been answered many times on the internet, but I'll wade back in: That is hard for women to do because often, some weeks more often than not, a polite "not interested" is met with a barrage of demands for reasoning, abuse, begging, wheedling, and general horror. Something about opening the door to any…

It really is a winner.

Heh Yes check it out! Now, I may be crazy, but he was my first crush (sister and dad are big musical fans), and I've seen the hell out of all of his greatest hits. Then when I saw "Me and my gal" I spent the whole time going "something is diiiiiiiiiiifferent...."

I agree! So young to tweak... but it's the industry, I guess. I also find it fascinating how defensive her fans are about her having surgery, as you can see in the comments:

Nose job (deeeefinitely on that one) and possible brow lift! Also her lips are a smidge pumped.

Heh yesssss as we gawp at some piece of storied oldness they're (understandably) rather 'pet pet pet you're so cute my house is older than this pile!'

I'm glad I'm not alone! And I have been prolific Sims player. 1 was fun, but I moved on quickly. 2 was fantastic and I played it to death, but after a while the interactions became incredible rote.

Oooo, it looks really lovely, thank you! *Puts on next trip itinerary*

Ah, I see, interesting! Being an self-proclaimed obnoxious American herself she likes how upfront many of them are; she lives in a village south of Colchester, and the locals are very nice and have been really welcoming.

My sister lives near Colchester, and they have this beautiful largest-surviving-in-Europe Norman Castle there surrounded by an amazing rose garden. Recommended for anyone in the area! (She tells me Essex gets a bad rap in the UK, which is too bad, because a lot of it is beautiful.)

I am seriously pro-Motherlode whenever I play The Sims, although I continue to send them to work. But I play the game as a giant sandbox experiment so I can do things my socially able self would never do in real life, and one of those things is say 'screw you' to a well-paying job in order to become a career criminal…

It's really sad and really true. Both items, but especially about the whole Metro Detroiters claiming they're from Detroit thing. It just sounds so badass! I did it myself as a young asshole from Oakland county well into my 20s.