Top Posts Tagged with #i spent like 4 months learning how to create cc | Tumlook (2025)

"Hime Gyaru Set!" by alerii

surpriseee!! I finally learnt how to create meshes so uhhh *quietly hands over this set*. This set is based on the Hime Gyaru substyle translating to "Princess Gal" which combines the flashy and expressive element of Gal with a princess-like, elegant and girly flair. It's one of my fav substyles of Gal and I hope you will all like it too!! ^_^

psst i also made a ytb process vid so pleek check it out: https://youtu.be/ZVizQ5Fa2Rs

Basic info

• A set of 10 items based off the Hime Gyaru Subculture• All LODS • Custom Thumbnails• BGC• Made with fem frame but should work for masc frame• Accs + nails have abt 5 swatches each and hairs have all EA colours• High poly-ish. Highest polycount items (hairs) go up to ≈25-30k. Lowest poly acc is "Hime Acc 1" with 3.2k polys. General item polycount is 5k - 30k. Please be careful with polycounts. • If there are any issues, please tell me• Respect my TOU• Consider supporting me on Ko-Fi!

📂DOWNLOAD:SimFileShare |Google Drive[free, no ads]

Credits!

A really big thank you to these creators as without them, I couldn't have made this at all.

@nolan-sims for the flower acc@femmeonamissionsims for the ribbon@tekri for the hair textures and base for poofy twintails hair

Sul sul! I'm making this post to introduce myself! I've been storytelling on tumblr for about a month and have loved the reacts and engaging with other simmers like myself! I'm still trying to figure out what I like in terms of story-telling and drama -- but I've enjoyed what I've done so far!

I've been playing sims since like 2008, playing sims 2 on a friends computer after school. When I tell you the way my entire world changed once I discovered this little simulation game. I went home and asked my parents immediately for the game to play on my own PC. From then on, I was hooked -- Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4. I wanted every pack, every birthday, or Christmas present was spent on Sims, including chore money! As an adult, I've grown into my habit while learning how to download mods and TONS of CC. Recently, even discovering how to install gshade and using posing - life changed!

Outside of sims, I have a wonderful husband [We've been together for about 10 years] and an 8 year old Border collie/Australian shepherd. If I had to describe myself with traits from sims 4 (no mods or cc), I would give myself Bookworm, Creative, and Family-Oriented. For a couple years, my creative outlet was GTA roleplay, which was fun for me as I love to create stories but it got too much -- interacting with other people and not respecting boundaries. I even assisted in a community helping out with applications -- that was fun! But I realized that the most fun part of roleplay, for me, was creating stories that I got lost in or viewers (I streamed LOL) would enjoy! I decided that I liked to create stories on my own terms and without the [need] to interact with others controlling the story.

SO, thus this tumblr came about - or Simblr [I think I'm using that term right, hopefully or this is oddly embarrassing].

Below I'll have links to my challenges - and maybe more in the future!

Current Challenges:

Vault Tec Legacy Challenge: Season 1 |

Struck by Love Legacy Challenge: Generations Overview | Outfit Look Book(G3) | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4

with hermitcraft season 7 slowly coming to an end, i figured it was time to consolidate all of the Informative Posts about hermitcraft that i and some of the other members of hermitblr have made over the last several months.

if you enjoy:

minecraft youtube content, but want to see more traditional vanilla minecraft gameplay like building and redstone

fun, lighthearted interactions between genuine friends including Elaborate pranks, collaborating on massive projects, light roleplay, proximity voice chat mod

weekly 20 - 40 minute long youtube videos and consistent upload schedules

chill grind stream weekends where CCs interact with chat and each other

an entire youtube channel dedicated to weekly 20-minute recap videoson what all the hermits have been up to so you don’t have to piece it together from the posts on your dash/timeline

insanely talented people who have been doing mcyt for nearly, if not more than, a decade and essentially built minecraft youtube from the ground up

give hermitcraft a try!

you will find all of the information you will Ever Need below the cut. it’s Very Long so view it on desktop.

and if you ever have any more questions, just shoot me an ask :)

what is hermitcraft?

the Basics: what, who, where, how

more details on the Basics

bonus:the historical impact many hermitcraft members have had on mcyt

where do i even start watching?

start with grian.

good mix of Incredible builds and fun server shenanigans. instigator of many server-wide events. interacts with many other hermits. generally entertaining to watch. but zero redstone knowledge.

check out hermitcraft recap.

great way to be introduced to other hermits and learn what everyone’s up to. if you find what a hermit’s been working on interesting, go watch their video and maybe give them a like and subscribe.

official hermitcraft website with links to every member’s channel

more information on every hermit’s attributes and general vibes

do hermits every stream?

short answer: yes, most do! but these streams are mostly chill grinding or buildling streams. and you don’t have to watch the streams to be caught up on content. check the official hermitcraft website for each member’s twitch links.

long answerthat covers most of the hermits

what do they do on hermitcraft?

let’s start with some examples of their incredible builds.

hermit cribs:some of the megabases in s7

goodtimeswithscar’s s7 magical village with shaders

stressmonster’s bakery and ren’s star wars world

Capitalism

they have a shopping district where hermits can set up shops and sell items and resources that other hermits can buy with diamonds. here’s season 7 shopping district set on a mooshroom island:

some of the most advanced redstone you’ve ever seen

if you’re more into the technical side of minecraft, you can be rest assured that hermitcraft has some of the Biggest Brains in redstone.

tangotek: a fucking madlad. Singled-handedly created the minigame Decked Out. im Begging you to watch his tutorial video on how to play. currently finishing up his Among Us but in minecraft minigame. all of this was built Entirely in survival vanilla minecraft. get this man to 1M subscribers.

mumbo jumbo: the man himself. built a 128 x 128 block industrial district in both season 6 and 7 packed to the Brim with mechanical farms. half the brain behind the masterpiece of engineering that was Sahara in season 6. currently working on Pacific, the sequel to Sahara, in season 7.

iskall85: the other half of the brain behind Sahara and working on Pacific with mumbo in season 7. also has an industrial district like mumbo’s in season 7.

xisuma: built an automatic potion brewer in the second half of season 7. this thing churns out potions by the Shulker Box. can also turn a shulker box full of potions into splash potions and extend duration all with a press of a button.

impulseSV: incredible example of form + function. farms are scattered throughout his base. he has a farm for nearly every farmable resource in vanilla minecraft.

etho: the pioneer of some of the most widely used redstone mechanisms to date. content isn’t super redstone-focused. mostly does compact modules that serve a specific function.

zedaph: makes strange contraptions. he’s basically if grian knew how to redstone. impeccable vibes and fairly underrated.

bdoubleo100: he occassionally does this segment called“redstone with bdubs” and it’s the only redstone i understand so that’s why he’s here.

what about roleplay? and lore?

yeah they have Plenty of that too.

it generally comes in the form of self-contained storylines that involve most members on the server and take place over the course of several weeks in multiple videos. it’s fairly light roleplay, if that’s not your thing. but the plotlines also have a Massive Potential to be angsty and whatnot if you really look into it, which a lot of people also do.

here’s a more in-depth look into the Major Plotlines over the last 2 seasons (season 6 and 7). huge spoiler warning though.

um also there’s this post that highlights how truly cursed hermitcraft can be if you dig deep enough hahaha.

so do the hermits only make hermitcraft content?

nope!! many of them are involved in other mcyt content as well and are friends with other prominent members of the mcyt community!!

MCC

mcc9 blue bats video essay: the time the hermit team won the whole damn competition. a wonderfully made video worth Every second of your time. especially if you don’t typically watch the hermit teams.

falsesymmetry: mcc10 ace and mcc’s First Back-to-Back Winner

lord grian dreamslayer: that time grian Popped Off, killing dream, tubbo, and fundy in mcc9 survival games

Vault Hunters

a modded minecraft server coded entirely by iskall85′s team. all the content is streamed live on twitch.

current members are:Iskall85, AntonioAsh, Stressmonster101, HBomb94, CaptainSparklez, Fundy, CaptainPuffy, 5UP and Tubbo

more info on the series

3rd Life SMP

hardcore minecraft server with a twist that started on 4/20/21. all content is posted to each member’s respective youtube channels.

every member has 3 lives, as indicated by the color of their name: green for 3 lives left, yellow for 2, red for 1. if they lose all three lives, they can only spectate the world (like in hardcore mode). the series ends when all members have lost all three lives.

the twist: once a member is on their 3rd and final life, as indicated by a red name, they are Hostile and their goal is to take the lives of the remaining players.

the members (hermits are italicized): BdoubleO100, bigbst4tz2, Etho, GoodTimesWithScar, Grian, impulseSV, InTheLittleWood, Renthedog, Skizzleman, Smajor1995, Smallishbeans, SolidarityGaming, Tango, ZombieCleo

the tumblr tag for 3rd Life is“#3rdLife”, “#3rdLifeSMP” and“#3LSMP” if you wanna see more content, as it’s Not supposed to be cross-tagged with“#hermitcraft”.

do you have any free serotonin to spare?

here’s a bunch of posts that’ll make you smile

scar’s friendship with a bunch of the hermits

grian, false, cleo, bdubs, iskall: why they deserve so much respect

same post as above but with an addition about ren

small hermit things that give you serotonin

why you should watch tfc

if you’ve made it this far you are Contractually Obligated* to watch one (1) hermitcraft episode and reblog this post.

*for legal reason, this is a joke. you’re not contractually obligated but consider this: Please. i spent way too much time on this.

shoutout to everyone who’s posts i’ve linked and anyone who has helped answer a question about hermitcraft. this all started because i was frustrated that people were writing the hermits off as cannon fodder in mcc and im genuinely so glad that many of you have given hermitcraft a shot.

hihi! I love your work so much! <3 I was wondering how you ended up deciding to do sims 4 custom content creation full time? I make CC occasionally for the past few months, and am still trying to figure out how to strike a happy medium (between creating for fun, but also pushing myself to get better, but then trying not to get stressed and feel like it's a 'job'). Thanks =)

Hi !

The transition for me between my previous job (art director for TV commercials) and creation cc for the Sims 4 came very naturally because of the pandemic context. During the first lockdown, I started creating CC because I didn't receive any projects for several monthes and had a lot of free time. I was liking a lot the cc creation process and spent all my days (and nights 🙈) creating, learning and improving myself. At the end of the year, when business was slowly starting again, I realized that I didn't miss my old job at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite: all the stress came back, and after working for 12 years for the advertising industry, I was sick of their ethics, the sexism, the racism, the greenwashing and all the battles of ego.

I kept the two jobs for a few monthes until my patreon was enough to pay my bills and I stopped the other job with NO regrets. Even if it meant making less money, even if I'm working WAY MORE hours as a cc creator, the joy and the freedom is enough and imho, worth it.

So now, when I'm starting to feel stressed because my numbers are not good enough or else, I just remember why I chose to make the switch, and that was because creating is making me happy. That's also the reason I don't do commissions because I want to continue creating what I want, and not for others.

The only thing I need to improve now is my ability to balance this new occupation with my life. It's taking me too much time (I'm on my computer 10h/day, 7 days a week...). I'm still having fun and it doesn't feel like work, but others responsabilities are catching up with me and I need to schedule and slow down a bit or I might burn one day 😅

Hope it answers your question :)

Hey you lovely Simmers! It is time for our new Spotlight of the Month. Please give a warm welcome to@ravasheencc​​ 😊 I myself discovered RAVASHEEN through the Retro Smeg line. And like many of you, I was sold on the bunk bed set. What is your favorite cc?

I started playing sims waaaay back in the day when it came on a CD (that’s a compact disk for all you kids). I stopped playing in high school and didn’t start playing until late 2018 when I was trying to find a way to connect with my older sister who lived far away. She is a completely different type of simmer than me and has played her family for generations while I was always a die-hard builder. Our playing styles matched perfectly together and I would spend my time building her families new homes, restaurants, or whatever else she wanted. I would keep up to date on her family and help her make crucial life decisions like how should her sim respond to that weird text and where should they go on vacation.

Up until this point, neither of us had never heard of CC. I stumbled on it one day while browsing the gallery and seeing the custom content option and obviously my mind was blown. I downloaded all the CC much to the dismay of my poor laptop. Somehow I still couldn’t find everything I wanted and thus began my obsession with making CC. I started making CC just for my sister, but then decided to upload it to TSR since that was the main site I downloaded from.

Since I was a player before I made CC, my intention from the beginning was to make CC that was customizable, easy to use/place in game, and make things I always wanted but could never find. Although my quality has improved immensely, I feel even my early items reflected my mindset. That being said here are my favorite CC items/sets I have made so far:

1) Couldn’t Chair Less Sectional

One of the first things I wanted to make when I started creating CC was a sectional couch. The Couldn’t Chair Less Sectional many of you know today, is not the original version. I actually spent TWO MONTHS working on the original version of this couch only for it to be rejected when I uploaded it to TSR because it did not meet their strict guidelines. I started over from scratch, redid the whole set, and finally published my first piece of modular furniture. As of today, this couch wouldn’t meet my standards because of several things I didn’t know when I created it (making the corner piece functional, more mm style, etc). However, it is still one of my favorite sets because it follows my original intentions, is easy to use/place in game, and gives simmies the customization I always wanted. I want to note I am currently working on a new sectional couch which has so many more features and is reflective of the progress I have made in the year since my Couldn’t Chair Less Sectional was first released.

2) Sip Back & Relax Functional Bar Cart

This set is when I finally learned the fundamentals of making CC and expanded into changing/adding functionality to items. My sister actually suggested this set to me because most bars were those huge 2-tile wide monstrosities or the globe bar which wasn’t very stylish and was only available with an EP. So I set out to make a bar that was looked like something you would use in real life, but also had all the functionality of a Sims 4 bar. This ended up being a 1 tile bar cart with tons of slots to clutter up while allowing sims to use it as a fully functional bar in a much smaller footprint.

3) Do It Your-Shelf Modular Cubbies

The Do It Your-Shelf Modular Cubby set was reflective of my love for custimizable furniture and functionality. Cubbies are so versatile for almost any room. For the first cubby set, I added in empty cubbies as well as cubbies filled with toys that worked as functional toy bins. I thought this was reflective of something you would see in real life and reduced the footprint of items like the toy bin while maintaining functionality. Since this first came out, I have gotten soooo many requests to make different add-ons for it and I want you all to know not only am I working on add-ons but a totally new and improved cubby set that improves the in-game usabiltiy and aesthetics of the set!

4) Peg To Differ Pegboard Series

Although this is technically a few sets lumped into one, it is one of my favorite sets to date! I love using pegboards in real life and thought there were so many opportunities to use them in Sims. It took me weeks to figure out how to make the pegboards customizable with items and I am so happy I stuck with it! Since the original set I have come out with add-ons which have pieces that are both decorative and functional including: kids defender light, speakers, dresser, and umbrella rack just to name a few. I still have so many more ideas to expand on this set and can’t wait to share more in the future!

5) That’s What She Bed Bunk Bed

Although this was the second bunk bed set I made, this was included an entire set with versions for toddlers, single beds, loft bed, and coordinating furniture. I knew there was a need for bunk beds and tiny living only delivered a murphy bed. I set out to fill this gap and came up with this set! One question I have gotten since day 1 is if I can add ladder animation to the set and I want to all let you know I am working on it!

I wish I had 10 sets to cover cause there are so many more I want to feature but I hope this was a good sample of the CC I like to create! I have so many more ideas and can’t wait to create more for you all in the future!

We probed Santorini's volcano with sound to learn what's going on beneath the surface

byEmilie Hooft

Sound waves let researchers visualize what’s happening below the surface. Emilie Hooft, CC BY-ND

The island of Santorini in the Mediterranean has attracted people for millennia. Today, it feels magical to watch the sun set from cliffs over the deep bay, surrounded by cobalt blue churches and whitewashed houses. This mystical place attracts about 2 million tourists per year, making it one of the top destinations in Greece.

The Greek islands of Santorini form the perimeter of a volcano whose last major explosion happened about 3,400 years ago. Now the center of the crater-like caldera is filled with seawater. NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team, CC BY

Not all those visitors recognize that Santorini is an active volcano. In 1630 B.C., the volcano exploded and collapsed leaving behind an almost circular hole. This is the caldera – visible today as a bay filled with seawater and lined by cliffs. The large explosion covered a Bronze Age town, burying buildings in volcanic ash two stories deep.

The latest lava flows erupted in 1950 and expanded the islands that have grown at the center of the caldera. Recently, in 2011-2012, the volcano went through a period of unrest. The ground bulged up and out, and many small earthquakes occurred. Scientists concluded that a small amount of magma was injected about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) under the northern portion of the caldera.

What attracted me to this iconic place is that most of the volcano is submerged under water. I am a geophysicist interested in how magma moves deep in the Earth. Over the past decade, I’ve been using advanced technology to improve how we “see” magma’s otherwise hidden pathways below volcanoes around the world.

Get a glimpse of how researchers conducted their seismic experiment to understand the volcano of Santorini.

Using sound to see what’s beneath the surface

In the 1780s, French scientist Ferdinand Fouquet traveled to Santorini to view an ongoing eruption. He was the first to realize how the volcanic surface depression known as a caldera was formed. As magma emptied out of its underground reservoir during the eruption, the roof of rock that had been covering it collapsed. The flanks of the volcano that remained form the ring of islands visible above water today.

My research project aimed to delve deeper, literally, than what we can see from the surface to figure out what’s going on within this still active volcano. A blanket of water over everything except the very top of the Santorini volcano meant I could use deep-penetrating marine sound sources to “illuminate” the subsurface structures. My international collaborators and I wanted to find the location and depth where magma was collecting and how much magma there is right now.

R/V Marcus Langseth within the Santorini caldera with an ocean-bottom seismometer floating in front of the ship. Doug Toomey, CC BY-ND

We conducted our work from the R/V Marcus Langseth, an American marine seismic ship. It is the only academic ship with a sound source capable of imaging the deep insides of a volcano. This technology is controversial because of the potential impact of loud sounds on marine wildlife and its intensive use by oil exploration companies.

We spent months doing environmental permitting and finding the optimal design for the experiment. The ship carried a team of experienced biological observers who surveyed the sea both above and below water for sound-sensitive or endangered species. If any were observed at a distance, we were to follow a prescribed set of actions to ensure they wouldn’t be disturbed. After all this preparation, though, we saw almost no wildlife during the expedition.

One of the airguns. It has a volume of 180 cubic inches and is about 18 inches long. Emilie Hooft, CC BY-ND

Our “active source seismic imaging” method is like making a CAT-scan picture of the inside of the Earth. Instead of building an image using X-rays, though, we use sound waves generated by 36 heavy, metal canisters – called airguns – that are towed deep in the water behind the ship. When the airguns open, compressed air pushes on the seawater, creating a sound wave that travels through the Earth.

In this instance, the sound travels through the rocks beneath the volcano. Then seismic sensors resting on the seafloor on the other side of the volcano record when the sound reaches them. The team installed 65 of these stations on land, across Santorini and the nearby islands, and dropped another 90 stations to the seafloor.

The team installing one of the land seismometers on Anafi. Joanna Morgan, Imperial College London, CC BY-ND

We have to use very accurate timing to measure how long it takes the sound energy to go through the different parts of the volcano. The energy from the sound source will travel more slowly through rocks that are broken or that are hot and contain magma. When we probe the structure from many different directions and at many different depths, we can recover a detailed picture of the interior of the Earth.

University of Oregon graduate student Brandon VanderBeek capturing an ocean-bottom seismometer after it resurfaces. The caldera cliffs of Santorini are in the distance. The black fresh lavas of the island inside the caldera are in front, on the left. Emilie Hooft, CC BY-ND

To get the data back from the seafloor, we send a special sound signal to the sensor – like a bird call – that commands the instrument to drop its anchor. Then everyone scans the sea looking for the instrument. During the day we search for a cheerful orange flag, at night a strobe light makes this task easier. Our ship maneuvers alongside the instrument and a crew member leans over the side, hooks the instrument on a long pole and pulls it back on board. The data is in hand.

Scientists gather around the map table in the R/V Langseth’s main laboratory. PROTEUS Science Team, CC BY-ND

Filling out the subsurface picture

Analysis of the seismic data is an enormous task. It required experienced inspection by Ph.D. student Ben Heath and master’s student Brennah McVey. We then used seismic tomography to make the first detailed “photographs” of Santorini’s subsurface structure. The term tomography comes from the Greek words “tomos” for slice and “graphos” for draw. Basically sophisticated computer code makes a three-dimensional digital model of the object of interest based on the speed sound waves traveled through it.

The grey volume is the column of porous rock beneath the northern caldera. This is the zone of the initial collapse during the Bronze age eruption. As the plumbing system refills, magma (red in this schematic) accumulates directly beneath this region. Brennah McVey, University of Oregon, CC BY-ND

Surprisingly, we found a narrow zone of collapsed rock hiding within the broad caldera at Santorini. Geological studies of the eruptions at Santorini hadn’t led us to expect there would be a confined volume of rocks in the northern part of the caldera that sound traveled through more slowly. Rather we thought the entire caldera would be filled with this type of broken rock at shallow depths. Our finding meant that the collapsed portion of the caldera was much narrower and deeper than it appears from the surface.

This column of disrupted rock is less than 2 miles (3 km) across – small compared to the size of the 6-mile-wide (10 km) caldera. The structure goes down into the ground 2 miles (3 km) below the bottom of the bay. These rocks must contain lots of water-filled gaps to have sufficiently slowed the seismic energy we recorded.

3D visualization of Santorini’s caldera and magma plumbing system.

To figure out how this unique volume of disrupted rock formed, we drew on existing knowledge of Santorini’s most recent large explosion, the Late Bronze Age eruption in 1630 B.C. As magma erupted from the subsurface, it caused the overlying rocks to break up. At the same time, underground explosions fractured the rocks when magma and water came into contact. Then, above this collapsing column, the seafloor depression filled with porous volcanic deposits from the eruption itself. Finally, the entire bay dropped down and rapid flooding formed a tsunami wave.

What is particularly interesting about our findings is that magma continues to accumulate directly beneath the column of disrupted rock – thousands of years after the explosion that originally created the caldera. My colleagues and I think the rising magma comes to a halt beneath the reduced weight of the broken rock in the collapsed column.

Our research helps explain how magma systems are reset and regrow after major volcanic episodes.

About The Author:

Emilie Hooft is anAssociate Professor of Earth Sciences, Volcanology Cluster of Excellence, & Oregon Hazards Lab at theUniversity of Oregon

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Gratitude: The Barnard Library Wall

I was in the Barnard library at a desk facing the window when I decided that was where I wanted to go to college. I wrote my first paper at another desk facing the window in the library. It was about June Jordan and Phillis Wheatley (I handed it in, but clearly I never stopped writing it.)

When the Barnard College archives used to be one room in the basement I spent hours and days in there looking for pictures and information about Black women at Barnard to share and remember. That library was always my favorite, even while it was in deep need of renovation.

I always visit the library when I return to Barnard’s campus. One time I even visited the alumae authors shelf and imagined where my book(s) would go someday. http://ift.tt/2iQ3y9C

All that is to say, that being honored this way on the wall of the Barnard Library, with my words about how we can love each other to liberation alongside Zora Neale Hurston, Grace Lee Boggs and Ntozake Shange is making me cry because it is a physical manifestation of something that has been true for a long time. I am always in the Barnard Library. When I first saw it, I knew I had been there before.

The Barnard students who decided to put this on the wall did not do it because of the feelings it would make me feel. They put it there because they know what I know. We create sacred space with words, and we must create sacred space for words. We need desperately to see writers, because we need urgently to be writers. They put this there because they thought it would make their own words and worlds more possible.

And that’s why I’m feeling it all. Everything.

My mom gave me my first copy of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls…” She said: “This is important to me.” I read it as a sacred text. That text, Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo and Betsey Brown were books that shaped my experience and understanding of my own black girlhood. Ready or not.

When I was a first-year at Barnard College I went to the archives to make a timeline of the presence of Black women at Barnard for BOSS’s celebration of Black Womanhood Week. I looked through the year books of the time when Ntozake Shange and Thulani Davis were at Barnard and the beautiful poetic spreads they made in protest of the limits of the institutions and in brave celebration of themselves and other Black women. I plastered my dorm room wall with quotes from “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow is Enough.” In the summer I went home and looked at Thulani Davis‘s papers at Emory to see how she and Ntozake documented their time doing the same things I did at Columbia. Fighting for black studies and ethnic studies, using poetry as a tool for clarification, struggling to build unity between black folks at the different colleges within the university, loving each other as sisters and comrades.

The summer before I graduated from Barnard I went to Berkeley’s Bancroft Archive to write my writing sample for my grad school applications, a study of the dynamics of Ntozake Shange’s early work with Shameless Hussy Press and other experimental groups in California. (It worked! I got into grad school!)

In Durham, when brilliant Black girls asked me to create an afterschool program where they could cultivate their magic together, I knew that Ntozake Shange’s character Indigo would be our spirit guide. When grown black women needed ritual space to gather, when it was time to create a week long gathering of warrior healers, I turned to Shange’s work again and again.

I came back to Barnard the year that Africana Studies dedicated to Ntozake Shange to be part of the beautiful conference in her honor:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9XMBgIm3-4and to contribute to this video about her legacy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9XMBgIm3-4

Really these are just the highlights. The point is, I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have my words, name, picture on the wall of the Barnard Library alongside Ntozake Shange. Not just because she is one of the most influential artists of our time, but because her work has shaped my relationship to myself, my relationship to Barnard, my relationship to my work and my relationships to spirit and possibility so deeply.

The fact that current Barnard students looking for affirmation and reflection would put me in the same sphere with Shange, lands on me like a sacred trust. If my work can offer them a fraction of what Shange’s work has offered me, then I am keeping my agreement. Gratitude unending.

Meeting Grace Lee Boggs was one of the best things that has ever happened in my life. I didn’t know about Grace when I was at Barnard, but after I graduated I met her in Detroit at my first Allied Media Conference. Grace was in her 90s and just went to the sessions and was as eager to learn as anyone. What Grace said about education in the first session of the AMC that year inspired me to create Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind as an intergenerational solution-based learning space. I am grateful for ever.

I am grateful to Grace’s family of mentees especiallyJenny Lee, Invincible Ill Weaver, Adrienne Maree Brown, and Mike Medow for giving me so many opportunities to listen to Grace, to be with Grace, to celebrate GRACE!

It wasn’t until I watched the documentary “American Revolutionary” that I learned that Grace was a Barnard alum. I excitedly shared the info and the link to the film with my sisters in the Fierce & Fabulous {Barnard College Alumnae of Color} group. And I played the recording that I heard in the film over and over again where Grace matter-of-factly tells a group of white liberals that black people don’t want to be like white people.

When Grace became an ancestor, I knew immediately that it was up to all of us to embody the values that Grace carried for us for more than a century. Every day for the month after Grace passed I started my day by Embodying Grace. I meditated to the sound of her voice. Those of you who are connected to me on social media might remember, I shared a different piece of her writing or speaking every day.

I refuse to live in a world without GRACE (or a world without CHARITY for that matter.) At this time Grace is called for, Grace is called on daily by those of us accountable to the evolution of this species.

The fact that Barnard students would put me in conversation with Grace by putting my words and face on the wall of the library alongside her is a gift, transcended only by the original gift of Grace’s revolutionary life and the gift of my comrades in Detroit who brought me into her world. I am honored to be part of the necessary multitude embodying Grace right now.

I was reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God when I decided I HAD to be a writer. That book showed me how with words, the dead can move the bodies of the living. That connection, through language beyond life and death shapes every moment of my work.

At Barnard, I quoted Zora Neale Hurston almost everyday. I reminded my classmates about her reflection on tokenization: “I became Barnard’s sacred black cow,” she once said. I said it so often that my friend and comrade Elodi Dielubanza (CC 04) would quip back “How now?” I had her words all over my dorm room walls.

I was honored to be part of a dramatic rendition of Hurston’s short story collection Spunk. I was blown away when I heard Valerie Boyd speak on campus about Hurston’s life and the ancestral communication and presence she felt while writing the biography Wrapped in Rainbows. I was humbled when my advisor Monica Miller asked me to introduce Hurston’s longtime champion, archeologist and legacy builder Alice Walker at a huge gathering celebrating 75 years since Hurston’s time at Barnard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUyOQ3DpqzM

When Ebony Noelle Golden taught at North Carolina Central University and when Zelda Lockhartannounced she would be teaching there, I thought right away YES. In the legacy of Zora Neale Hurston. I am so honored to learn from sisters who teach and have taught in her legacy right here in Durham.

Even now, today I am writing about Alice Walker’s relationship to Zora Neale Hurston’s legacy and the actual digging it required in preparation for the Dig: Womanist Archeologies Intensive next week.

I am so honored that my words, name, face appear on the wall at Barnard College alongside Zora Neale Hurston’s. Not because it means I have arrived, but because through their knowing, the current students at Barnard have manifested one of my oldest and most consistent desires.

I just want to be with Zora.

And the beautiful thing is that the students have taught me that, in a way, I am.

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Hey you lovely Simmers! It is time for our new Spotlight of the Month. Please give a warm welcome to MLysaka @mlyssimblr​. 😊

Hello!

I’m MLys, I’m a 27 years old French simmer and I’ve been sharing maxis match custom content for The Sims 4 for three years.

I’ve discovered the game with The Sims 1 back when I was 9 and I immediately fell in love. I still remember when I’ve unwrapped the base game and Vacation EP at Christmas! Thereafter, I’ve been a huge Sims 2 player (gameplay wise it’s still my favorite of the franchise), skipped The Sims 3, and out of curiosity and nostalgia, came back to the game with The Sims 4 without a lot of expectations. I just wanted to play time to time in my corner, mostly as a builder, and didn’t have any intention to start a blog and create CC.

The need of creating my own custom content quickly came up because I felt frustrated to not find the items I needed to design my builds the way I imagined them. I already downloaded CC as a kid, and was sooo obsessed about it back then! I ingeniously wished I could be able to do the same and run my own sims download website, but it wasn’t easy to find proper tutorials in French (and I most likely wasn’t mature and skilled enough ahah) so I had no idea how all those things worked. I just accepted that it was some computer magic. Several years and more experience later, that sweet memory contributed to make me want to give it a try and take my revenge!

Into the Simverse!

Pic: Exhibition set (Part 1)

My Exhibition set, specially made for the museum I was building, was the first CC I completed and shared on my blog. The set was very simple, but it was already foreshadowing what I would particularly love to do ever since: trying to expand the lore of the Simverse! As it can be deduced from this set, I was very inspired by the creative @femmeonamission’s Great Art Serie and the principle of only using resources from the game. Simlish fonts weren’t enough, I wanted to embrace the fact that the Sims live in a similar but alternative world to ours, with its own peculiarities and silly historical background.

Pic: Sim’Pop culture Tucked-in Tee

I’ve started to become a build mode catalog and Sims Wiki nerd, trying to collect Sim cultural references from all the games and brainstorm head canons that I could exploit for my builds backstories and CC design. I just need a consistent universe!!

I loved to imagine swatches for my tucked tee, which illustrates that approach pretty well. The TS4 concept artists have created so many cute and creative little gems in the game that need a second life, like the base game paintings and the movies from the Movie Hangout SP.

An other example is of course my baby Pufferhead Stuff, that was initially supposed to be a tiny set inspired by a base game poster, but that ended up being a liiiiittle bit more ambitious, whoops. I spent an outrageous time working on all the details I could think about to make the pack cohesive and refer to Harry Potter without losing the maxis match spirit. I am so so touched when I see simmers considering some elements from Pufferhead as canon in their game! During the process, I genuinely thought that I spent a useless time on things that most simmers would barely pay attention to, such as the Harnock sorting test, so it was really rewarding to discover that people actually appreciated the effort!

(If you like Simverse headcanon CC, my simblr crush @bottsbotts​ had also made a very creative set inspired by base game posters!)

Pic: Pufferhead Stuff Pack

We do love collaborations

The second part of the Exhibition set that I’ve made with @aroundthesims has a very special spot in my heart. I’ve been a big fan of Sandy’s work since day 1, and downloaded everything she did. When I’ve started to share CC, I needed to fangirl in her DM to tell her how she inspired me. It must sound silly, but when she proposed to collaborate, I felt so crazy happy and proud! If mini-MLys playing sims in her bedroom full of dolphin and HP posters had heard about that, her brain would have been like “Can’t… compute…”

Pic: Exhibition set (Part 2) / Screenshot features items by Sandy and me

I can’t introduce myself either without talking about my friends from The @Plumbobteasociety! They’re the first friends I’ve ever made online and I love them (I’ve even met some irl!). Working on Cottage Garden Stuff with them was a blast. There was a real team spirit and it definitely made me progress. Never I would have been able to work by myself on Pufferhead without the Cottage Garden experience and without their support!

Pic: Cottage Garden Stuff pack / Screenshot features items by @magnolianfarewell @femmeonamissionsims @teanmoon @nolan-sims @litttlecakes @simlaughlove and me

There is something very fulfilling in collaborating with someone that got skills that you don’t have, and managing together to create something cool. I had that feeling with those projects, but also with the talented @illogicalsims who accepted to make the render of Pufferhead. It really was out of my current ability and his final render is fully part of the identity of the pack and I’m sure contributed to valorize it, so I can’t thank him enough for that!

Other stuff

“Sorry, I’ve been quite absent recently…”

I update my simblr very irregularly, and my content can be quite random. To be honest I don’t feel like I have produced that much? I really wish I did! I have so much ideas condemned to stay in my notebook forever… RIP. Here are my favorite editing and building projects:

31 years of Simblreen (2017)

The Windenburg Old Town Square

Forever grateful…

…Like for real. I don’t try to be mushy or something. That simblr really helped me at times when I needed it. I definitely have a creative profile, but without a specific goal in mind, I tend to want to do and learn so much things at the same time, that I end up feeling overwhelmed and uninspired, and don’t practice anything. And then I feel frustrated and can’t manage to have a consistent hobby. When I started the blog, I totally underestimated all the various skills it would actually make me work on: 3d modeling, texturing, editing, illustration, storytelling, my English… and even video editing for the Pufferhead trailer! I admit that I haven’t talked about that blog to a lot of my irl friends, because I’m afraid they wouldn’t understand that it’s not “unworthy”. And well, I myself also devalue a lot what I produce in general. I’m working on feeling more confident and share with them all the good memories and touching moments I have from my simming experience! All the adorable support I’ve received here through those last 3 years really really helped for that, and I can’t express how much it means to me <3

Thank you Kerstin for the Spotlight (and aw sorry for the delay) ! Especially for the month of my birthday, such a cute coincidence :)

Thanks for reading, have a great week, and happy simming everyone!