More Awesome Than You!

Hooray!  A new site!  This calls for a party!

Hey, I even brought some site-warming gifts for you, JM!  I'll just put this nice almost-unused zebra-striped sofa over here.  You'll like it; it's a classic, very few of the springs poke through and the patches hardly show except where the stitching came out.

While I'm at it, I'll just put this kudzu plant right over here so you'll have some greenery to brighten up the place.  ;D


Greg

Ack!  OK, dumb question: My avatar is scaled up from 64x64 to 128x128.  Is that some thing the board is doing or a problem with my source image?

Maybe it's a weird type of file.  Mine's a JPEG.  Or mabye you just need to resize it again--my avatar, again, is 100x100, and by the looks of things, everyone else's is the same or similar.  Size it to that and see what happens.

Or you could try to clense it of evil spirits.  That's a sure-fire way to go.  Use Drano and turpentine.

Oddly enough, I fixed it by uploading the image to the board instead of remote-linking it from my site.

Or maybe it was the Drano and turpentine.  I added a little chicken blood to the mixture just to make sure.

See, I was going to suggest the blood as well, but with that, there's always a remote chance of a complete meltdown.  But I'm glad it worked for you.

I think Pescado's place is the one place on earth where kudzu wouldn't dare grow. And Greg, your southerness is showing.  ;)

So I'm guessing kudzu is a parasite (I'm having one of my brighter evenings, I guess).
By the way Reg, talking about southern things, I just inspected one of your brilliant southern houses more closely. I'm getting ready to move a sim into it; how on earth did you get the porch to hang out over the water like that. I am simply amazed. I'm really beginning to wish there was more greenery available so you (cough) can build even more houses.

G.

Well, being from the south myself, I know what kudzu is, and most people don't want it.  I looked it up in our favorite site, Dictionary.com, and it says it well:

An eastern Asian vine (Pueraria lobata) having compound leaves and clusters of reddish-purple flowers. It is grown for fodder, forage, and root starch, and is a widespread weed in the southeast United States.

I have never seen any flowers though.  It was originally planted to help cover the bare patches of red clay dirt that is commonly seen around Alabama where I grew up.  In Japan, I was told there was a beetle that keeps it under control there, but here it just grows wildly out of control.  I have seen pictures of houses covered in it.  A fine example of what happens when you remove something from its natural habitat.

I tell you people, kudzu wouldn't a problem if you simply got more goats. As a side benefit, you could then sacrifice the excess goats to me. Goats love kudzu.

And the dictionary.com failed to mention it chokes the ever-living daylights out of anything it creeps onto so you end up with tree shaped kudzu topiary and the underlying trees are dead.  Heeeeeyyyy, maybe Greg was thinking of making a JM topiary??? :o

Chris

GOATS, I tell you. The answer is GOATS.

Oh my. We have climbers and vines over here too (mostly grape-vines, and we like those), but nothing like this. It sounds like a terrible horror movie from Hollywood. And a little depressing :P

Goats, hmm. We don't have many of those in my region either, just a lot of deer and those nasty, bloodthirsty, and brutish wild boars.

G.

old goats?

At least until you discover goats will eat the stuff. Goats LIKE to eat the stuff.

Hey, don't diss wild boars. You know the saying, "Life's a bitch, and then you're raped by wild boars!". Well, that's no joke. And it's also really funny to watch.

A JM topiary.  I would like to see that one. :D

Do y'all have kudzu up there in Montana?  I didn't think you did.

No, but I'm familiar with the stuff.

Hiding all goats in barn until this thread dies. :o

Is there anything goats don't like to eat?

::Blush:: The pole deck will do that automatically. Just start from land and drag it out as far as you want over the water.

I have a couple that are done, but I built them in my regular hack-filled game. I need to draw out the plans and build them in the hack-free zone. I kind of go about it in a backwards fashion. I don't draw up plans until after the house is done and I decide if I like it. I also need to go and take some pictures of Anne Rice's house. I've been wanting to build it for quite some time, but I want to make sure I get it right. :)

Anne Rice's house? How great, yes please do that. I hope it works out, I hope you have lots of time, and I hope you can build it(I'm full of hope are'nt I). Do you need anything? A cup of coffee, a drink, etc.? If you need a tester, ask no more, hacks and all. I use the clean-installer anyways, and get rid of what I don't want before I install. I might never make it to NO, but at least, with your help, my simmies can.


Don't diss wild boars? Have you ever seen one of these brutes in action? They attack just for the hell of it, they just like to wreak havoc. A friend of mine told me that a mortally wounded wild boar attacked their high-stand and kept at it for at least five minutes before it finally realized it was already dead. If you can't kill them with a single shot, you better be a very fast runner, a good climber, or an exceptionally calm person so you can shot it again and do it right this time, otherwise you're dead. May I recommend a tank for boar hunting purposes? :P

G. 

True.Goats will eat anything...including things that you don't want them to eat. They are also incredibly dumb.My bother had eight of them on his property just to clean out the undergrowth. He spent most of his time rescuing them from small disasters such as getting stuck in fencing and falling in the river. He finally bought a weed_eater!

Actually, you'd be amazed at what a good flamethrower can do. Doesn't get stuck in the fence. Of course, some people don't seem to like the idea of everything south of the Mason Dixon line being lit on fire, which is what it would take to get rid of the kudzu. Funny, that.

The scariest thing about kudzu is that it grows like 2 feet per DAY. You can basically see it grow. Here in the D.C. area we're having problems with snakeheads, so whenever they do an article on that they have to mention the great god of invasive species that is the kudzu vine.

Speaking of which, we should stock Pescado's pond with a snakehead or two.

Oh, and get three ceiling lamps, rope them togethor into a triangle, attach thrusters to them, and hang them from the ceiling. Then JMP will have his very own "Rave Room of Doom!" And any Half Life 2 players should get Gary's mod, try that in the dark room, and turn bloom way up. It's very cool. But make sure to turn god-mode on first, or you'll discover why it's called the Rave Room of Doom.

Aha!  Goats!  I'll have to add goats to my shopping list!

Right now my little piece of Texas is in Wylie (near Dallas) where kudzu isn't so entertaining, but I'm looking at lots of jobs down in the Southern Swamps of Houston.  Even if that doesn't work out, the U.S. space centers are mostly in the swampy South, so knowledge of kudzu combat techniques could suddenly become an essential survival skill!  ;D

Oddysey, what's a snakehead?  I'm guessing that it's the kudzu of the fish kingdom.  And I agree; a guy named Pescado must have a fish pond.  I'm sure JM can find just the right fish to keep snakeheads under control.  Perhaps pirahna; they'd be fun to watch!

Greg

Although I'm not Oddysey we seem to live in the same area. The snakehead is a fish of asian origin and a master parasite. It devours ponds and lakes inhabitants and has become a returning news issue in the Greater Baltimore/Washington region. Someone seems to have released those fish into the lakes and  streams and they were fruitful and dutifully multiplied. Every now and then we are treated to sightings and news items related to the snakehead. It is a newroom standby, or so it seems.

G.

I get it.  Snakehead must be Family sims.

That is very funny, it made me laugh and I am grateful (it's been a trying day). But you are right. Release a few of those, and they will have devoured your pond/neighborhood in no time at all to the point of being unusable :P

G.

We have those types of boars down here, too. They are the meanest thing that ever lived. A group of them used to terrorize an apartment complex's dumpsters. One night a group of my friends were going home when one of the boars attacked their car. When he was done, the car looked like it had been involved in a major collision.

One of my dogs is a Catahoula hound (the Louisiana state dog). They're called "Hog Dogs" because their original purpose was to bring these boars down. And these things are not little Babe-like pigs. They are as big as bears and much, much more ruthless.

Yes, I have seen them in action. I do, in fact, own a tank. And I've killed these things before. With a spear. They taste great. Kinda tough, chewy texture.

Yes, they're quite persistent. This kind of bloody-minded persistence can make then surprisingly predictable and easy to dispatch if you remain calm and do not panic.

Yep, veilchen, we live in the same area. Now, the snakehead would be bad enough if multiply like heck was all it did. But no. It can BREATH AIR. It can WALK OVER LAND from one pond to another that happens to be MILES AWAY. They're actually a delicacy in certain parts of Asia, because you buy them live, take them home wrapped in paper, and kill them right before you cook them, so they're very fresh. In fact, that's another reason to give a few to JM. It also means that they can escape from fish markets and people who buy them, and then use their mad land-walking skills to get to the nearest pond.

JMP, are you that guy who got arrested for driving around in his neighborhood in his tank, and "accidentally" knocking over people's houses? It sounds suspiciously like you.

Of course not. I know better than to get caught. Besides, there aren't any houses here to hit even if I wanted to hit them.

Okay, I bought myself a goat. It won't climb the tree.

When I was a child, our family had a couple of goats to eat the long grass & weeds in the section. My brother and I were standing on the back doorstep one day when our mother came running past, hotly pursued by Billy. (give you one guess at his gender :p )

'Help me' mum shouted. Well my brother and I just about wet ourselves, we were no help at all.

By the time mum came round for the 3rd or 4th time, with 'help me' dopplering out behind her, Billy still in hot pursuit, my brother and I were just helpless howling heaps on the step. Nearly forty years later the memory still makes us laugh. Thanks for reminding me. :)