cat zero of the ghost of the rabbit
Monday, Feb. 03, 2003

Friday night, Aisai and I ate at Pepito�s again and then swung by Circuit City. I�d been sick that day, and I arguably still am, and when I got on the internet for just a few minutes at home, I checked PS2 memory card prices.

Wal-Mart had one card for $25 and two for $40. Same with Best Buy. But Circuit City had one for $25 and two for $35. We got two. Island blue and Crimson Red. But, really, it�s more a reddy pink.

Up until then, we were only able to have two Sims games going at once. Each save takes up 1.5 megs and our card really couldn�t even handle two games. I actually deleted the Gran Turismo 3 game I had. I�d been thinking about it since I wanted to start at the beginning. Unlike some people who think that clawing your way from poverty in any of the GT games, I love that stuff. The concept of money is one of the best things to draw me into a game.

Rage Racer is my favorite Ridge Racer game. It�s the only one with the concept of money. The other ones you unlock engines or cars. That one, you just get cash. But, honestly, the track design of R4 is much better.

Ratchet & Clank is my favorite platform game. Which doesn�t say much since I don�t like the genre, but Ratchet & Clank is great. And yes, you get �bolts� that you can buy stuff with. You can buy stuff in any order, load up on ammo, whatever.

The Sims, our current obsession, is also heavily based on money. Not really, though, but you do need it to live. Running out of energy (needing sleep), or comfort (needing to sit down or lie down), or �bladder�, or hygiene, or social�none of that ends the game. But you run out of money, and it�s all over. Well, we�ll just not run out of money. We�ll sell the spare bath�s toilet to pay the bills.

But since we got that memory card, I can play the Sims like the Sims was meant to be played. Meet Tango and Hara Aphid. Tango is a well tanned special forces fellow with red hair in a fro and clothes from SSX, another Electronic Arts game. He�s very friendly and outgoing, but not the neatest person, and a bit lazy. Hara is his companion, though I haven�t succeeded in getting them to fall in love. Hara doesn�t work, at least not for money. Hara�s job is to learn everything. She is to become perfect and then she�ll start working while Tango takes off work and becomes perfect. Currently, he�s providing enough money for the maid and gardener they�ve hired, food, and some spare to upgrade the facilities. They already have that futuristic sonic shower, but the spare bathroom is unfinished. It has no lights or a sink.

The unique feature about their house is that it�s completely surrounded by flowers. And the gardener, who only gets paid $10 for showing up every three days. Spends about 10 hours each time watering. Har har har. A dollar an hour. And I�m not even finished with the house.

Well, Tango needs friends to be able to progress in his chosen profession. And since my characters took over the �Newbie� house, and evicted the people with the last name Newbie, there were only four people existing in their town. How to get more?

Well, Aisai didn�t require any arm twisting to make her set up a house. Though where I got a pre-made one, she got to design her own. First, though, she made her freaky people.

Aurora Azerbaijan is her homemaker person. Neat to a fault but very friendly. My Hara isn�t too friendly, it seems. She has the same modus operendi as Hara, stay home and become perfect. Also, both tend to wake up and make food for their sig others and sometimes sleep while he�s at work.

Achilles Azerbaijan is Aisai�s little sim man. He has a Mohawk haircut, about 10 silver earrings all over his ears, wears a black muscle shirt and leather pants, and has bright blue shoes. He works as an extra in movies, I think.

The neat thing is that Aisai�s playing and all of the sudden my gal, Hara, comes over to say hi. Aurora still hasn�t met her since Aisai has her on some sleep from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. schedule. But Achilles has met both Tango and Hara. Hara, as mentioned before, isn�t the nicest person. Her tendency is to tease people when she doesn�t know them well.

I�m planning on making a freaky house when I get home. Since even with Aisai�s people the town only has 8 living there. I suggested a �borg house� to Aisai. I�d just make a house of male drones, all friendly as all get out, and all identical. Give them a box of a house and a phone and then they can act as extra people. However, I�m planning on making a ghost �family�. Oh, it should be freakish. I�m tempted to make one person the opposite of the other.

But who wants a mean, neat freak. Oh, besides me for my sim house. Hara runs a tight ship.