Just for the sake of my OCD, I sat down and took a long look at the way this blog is shaping up.. now that it is actually getting some  content, and starting to at least go somewhere. Last September (2012) I posted a brief outline of the challenges I was working on or planning to work on. Things are the same on some of them, but way different on others. So, for the sake of .. continuity..? .. perhaps, I'm going to run through a list of what I'm still working on, or getting started on. (some of these have been scattered through other blog posts on here, not just that September one.)

Beyond all that, my current goal is to make sure to post a chapter section in each challenge at least once a week. That being said, that goal will have to include "catching up" on the stories I already have started - because for most of them, I've kept playing even though I slacked off on blogging. I made sure to keep what I call "play journals" - notes of what was going on each day/week so I know where the story went, and can find the pictures in order through my memories and screenshots. The challenges not currently linked below... will be soon. All part of my "reorganizing sims" campaign I started on a couple days ago.. hehe. Meantime.. at least the few people who follow my blog will know where things are going!

Projects

• "Project One" - Cataloging and organizing all my items in Sims 3. I've finally gotten a fairly comprehensive set of "Collections" set up for these, and they're about half full. It really does save me a lot of time when doing theme builds (which tends to be most of my builds)... so I do want to get this done. However, it's extremely boring and time consuming, so I tend to work on it in little spurts when I get annoyed over not finding something or other. And the Sims Store keeps complicating matters by adding new content all the time.. 0.o .. so I keep having to add more stuff. This is not a project I have any intention of publishing or blogging about, just a little personal mission of mine.
• "Project Two" - Sunset Valley Remodel - This is a fun one, but again, it's been very time consuming, so I tend to work on it in bits and pieces. I've put hours upon hours of work into it, however, so I have no intention of stopping until it's done. I'm finally starting to get some of the finished product up onto the exchange, though, and expect to see more soon. I really like the look of what I've got done, and all the pending ideas for builds I haven't finished or started are really exciting. (the not started ones are very few in number.. the town is mostly built up, I'm just doing a lot of testing and refining now...)
• "Shady Oaks Trailerhood" Project - this is a new project for me, and one I'm more or less just dabbling in at the moment. Whether it actually ends up in a publishable custom world.. well, we'll see. Being a perfectionist has it's downsides.. and if it doesn't turn out well, it will likely just get scrapped. However, I figure I'd mention it, and as it's being worked on, post some pictures and such.. just because I can.
• "Mystery" Project - This was mentioned last September too. I just have had it "shelved" for quite a while. That's not to say I haven't still been thinking of it.. I've got half a small notebook and a few computer files of lists of ideas for this, and I'm still working on it. Suffice it to say.. I'm dabbling with creating my own Sims 3 Challenge.. in the form of a story. And it involves Gnomes. Those are the only clues you get. 😉 I have recently resurrected the affiliated game-save file, though, and there's a good possibility I'll start blogging about it soon. (I just really want to get some other stuff caught up on here first.)
• More projects?? Nooo.. I have too many things going already!! However, I will mention that I am also still working on collecting achievements/badges. Have some 170ish badges left to go (I'll update this with an exact number when I get back in game here in a few..)

Challenges

• "Spectres of the Past" (NiF/Apocalypse) - My most important/story driven challenge to date. It's long overdue for me catching up on the story, since my game save is WAY ahead of what I have blogged (but never fear, I have it journal'ed and lots of screenshots taken to write with!)
• "Falcon Apocalypse" Challenge - Yeah, I know, this one should probably have a better name.. but I never came up with one, and have been calling it this for long enough that it just stuck. The family name is "Falcon", and it's a straight-up Apocalypse challenge, so that's where the name came from. I've been playing it for quite a while now on and off, and have a nice daily journal on it in my sims notebook, so it shouldn't be too hard to set up a mini blog following what's going on with some pictures. Not going to write a story about it, but a gameplay journal with pictures is easy enough to do, and fun to look back on.
• "Castaway Shores" NiF Challenge - This is the newest of all of these challenges.. and one I'm really looking forward to. I've been missing the "NiF" challenges for such a long time, and the whole idea of doing one in the Island Paradise world as a castaway was too much to resist. I have the very beginnings of the story published now, and plan to continue with it as time allows.
• "Those Crazy Irish" MacRae ISBI Challenge - This is the oldest of all the challenges I still have running. Or, well, recently unearthed. ISBI stands for "I'm Surrounded By Idiots" and it's a fun little exercise in being as "hands off" micromanaging my sims as I think I could possibly stand. Easy to play (except for always wanting to fix things going wrong when I can't because the rules forbid it!!), it's a good break from other challenges and daily life stresses, so I finally pulled the save out of my backup file and am busily updating it. Overall, it's by far the funniest game I play, so it makes for a fun story with silly pictures.
• "All My UN-Natural Children" Supernatural Orphanage Challenge - the premise of this one hasn't changed much in the last year. It's a victorian-themed “Supernatural Orphanage” challenge – to be blogged in commentary style. Daughter picked this challenge out for me to do and helped make the characters – I wanted to really get to know the new supernaturals. Major goal is to survive generation one and get all the munchkins married off with an heir – but I may extend it to a 5 generation challenge just for fun. I keep having trouble getting my game to not crash with mods in the last few weeks (months) and since it's an over-stuffed household, it's sort-of on "hold". Fairly sure I've still got all the old pictures and such laying around, though, so I'll see if I can't get them posted here soon.
• "Gardner LTW" Challenge - This one I'm working on side-by-side with my daughter's Sims 2 LTW Challenge, and scoring against each other, so I don't work on this one all that much, just when we're both playing together. I may end up posting a "little" scorecard for this, but it won't be really blogged about. We've complete the first generation, and are just getting started on the second generation, so there's a long way to go yet.
• Random Legacy Challenge - completely un-started, I have too much going on already. Since I plan to put it in Sunset Valley, this will not get started until my "Sunset Valley Remodel" project is fully complete (see above for more info on that).
• 50 Foals Challenge - This will be the next challenge I start when I have a slot open up for it. I keep myself to only five challenges actively running at a time (plus the one with my daughter).