Wildcat Junction

[Schulmanator]

More awesome pix! The town looks like the cooolest one in Texas!

And, as for the artist in question (re: post above)


I believe I have seen his work before...

[Jmouse]

Replies

@All: I haven't forgotten about you. It's just that the harsh reality of college finals is hanging over our house like a dark cloud this week as I try to help my daughter study for hers which begin tomorrow morning.

But let's get down to business now!

@Jamie (keyboardconfessional): Thank you. But "who'da thunk it?" You must have gone to school in Texas!

@Paul (paroch): Thank you.
I love that picture you posted, and had no idea there was a pretty red UK phone booth in W.J.!

^Here's what we used to have. You could go inside, shut out the background noise and talk as long as you liked for a dime, but I haven't seen one in 30-40 years.

^Now we do well to find an ugly thing like this, probably because of cell phones as you said.

Glad to hear you like the way things are developing, and I'm growing rather fond of the ped tiles myself.
I create my scripts and replies in MS Word ahead of time so all I have to do is copy and paste. If you want the Simoleon symbol, just use the Alt+I shortcut in MSW, click on the symbol and press Enter twice.
And I hope you'll show us your work with ped tiles.
BTW, Mustang Sally has left the building, but she'll be back!

@Dave (tooheys): You are just too good to me!
I don't know about ever making it to classic status, but I never thought I'd get this far either.
As a cockeyed perfectionist, I was shaking all over when I made my grand entrance and tripped over my own angst. Within a few days, I'd figured out how I could cover up the worst mistakes, but by then they were a part of the MD and I decided they should be left alone.
So if I rise to classic status, I will be pleased. If I finish the region, I will be both pleased and proud. If I enable a would-be MDer to realize you can stumble and still be successful, I will feel that I have reached a small measure of greatness.
Thank you for your continued support and encouragement.
Now, get back to work!

@bat: Thanks for stopping by. We'll be going west and north in the next few updates, so fix that squeaky wheel on the covered wagon and get ready to move 'em out!

@Mauricio (figui): I love the night shots, too. Thanks for stopping by.

@tkirch: Glad to hear you like the overview and the small towns. When I look at an MD I like to know what's going on behind the pretty pictures. So I try to provide a little extra info for those "enquiring minds" that want to know.

@Schulmanator: Mmmm. Wish I could paint upside down. Bet I'd be rich instead of gorgeous!
Unfortunately, the graffiti has disappeared into the night, leaving behind a mystery which may never be solved. But you never know, maybe C.G. will come back for another visit. I'll leave the light on for him and a banana in the mailbox.

[Pat]

@Pat (Pat): You’re the one who got me into this MD mess, and now all you can do is nag about the next update!
Still, I’m always pleased to see you (for some reason! ), I'm glad you like the work and I thank you for being a loyal supporter.

Joan its been awhile as i said in a PM to you... WOW you are my friend truely are and you have done some wonderful stuff here!!! With your daughters exams coming up and hogging the puter well needless to say im sitting and waiting patiently for the next update of Wj to come to a puter screen near me soon lol.... Your Friend in the northwoods pat

btw i loved the pat (pat) thingie lol heheeh

[FrankU]

Beautiful work. Can't wait for a new update.

The Simoleon symbol: it is the old fashioned pragraph symbol. I find it on my keyboard (win XP, keyboard settings US international) under ctrl-shift-alt-s! Easier and available everywhere.

§ § § § § Yeah!

[Jmouse]

Replies

@Pat: Hey there, my friend, hope all is well in the north woods.
Julie's last two finals are tomorrow, and since her brain is saturated, I found a bit of time to do an update. Hope you enjoy it.

@FrankU: Well, your wait is over. Hope you enjoy your visit to Meridian.
And thanks for the heads-up on the Simoleon symbol. It doesn't work on my keyboard, but it's certainly a helpful tip for folks to try.

^C 9-1: Meridian is a mixture of necessary elements just like any other growing town.

^C 9-2: The city has only one school which is large enough to accommodate young Sims from age 5 to 18. Classes cover every subjects from world history to worm farming – from art to agriculture.

^C 9-3: To the east is a unique idea Mayor Hooter Hillcrank set in motion to promote family values. It is a park where workers can join their children for a picnic lunch. Gazebos provide shelter in bad weather.

^C 9-4: One of the park trails ends at the hospital on the right, and the other leads to Meridian's industrial area on the left. Parents are encouraged to spend their lunch hour in the picnic area, or students may join their parents at the workplace.

^C 9-5: For now, most of the workforce is engaged in industrial manufacturing. The mayor is already negotiating with high-tech companies as the overall EQ improves, however.

^C 9-6: The Meridian General Hospital is located on one of the highest points in the city. Due to the sloping terrain visitors and employees are urged to set the parking brake on all unoccupied vehicles.

^C 9-7: The Hillside Mall, appropriately named for its multi-level design, offers a variety of spending opportunities. Council members are confident that Meridian's rapid population growth will spawn much more commercial growth. In fact, they have already given themselves three raises this year in anticipation of a broader tax base.

^C 9-8: The upper tier features Burger King and Chuck-E-Cheese Restaurants for the kids, and a Circuit City for parents. How about that, everything a happy family could want in one convenient location!

^C 9-9: On the lower tier, Michael's satisfies the hunger for creative pursuits while Piggly Wiggly satisfies the other kind of hunger.

^C 9-10: To the west is a modest community church.

^C 9-11: The old cemetery above it dates back to the early 19th century, and rumor has it the Bonnie and Clyde are buried here. Researchers have been unable to confirm or deny this claim.

^C 9-12, 13: At dusk, the helicopter pilot was kind enough to make one final pass over the hospital and the Mall.

^C 9-14: Then he hovered over the church for several minutes and explained what appeared to be disembodied headlights on the roundabout. Actually, it's just a Jeep painted in camouflage colors, he said.

And to all a good night!

Until next time...
Joan

[figui]

nice update Joan!

lovely little town, and it has every necessary element to live there.. it only needs a football (soccer) field 

love the retaining walls, esp that stairs at the church's back.

mauricio.

[Pat]

Joan fantastic Update here my friend... Hey have been doing some lot work there on micheals and the Pig???  Where did you get that church its very catholic? I do love the stairway... Ive been a busy little bee lately but other then that Im sooo glad you got in and updated... - pat

[threestooges]

That's some good camoflauge. Perhaps done by the same person that did the wall-less graffiti (just painted a camoflauge wall)? Your school grounds continue to be well laid out. I would suggest adding a staircase between the levels of the shopping area, the drive may not be that long, but it might be faster to just go right up the hill. Hope your daughter's finals are going well, law finals are under way now so I should be wrapping up the semester next Monday. Hope her last two finals go well, and I'll see you next update.

[FrankU]

Joan,
You put so much effort in especially your nice parks and the cemetary, but also everything around them.
I like the way you try to create a place where parents and children can meet for lunch. It's an idea that would really be nice in the real world. Pitifully my workplace is too far away from my daughter's school...

[bat]

That's another fantastic update there! Great work on that hill!

[nedalezz]

I love the picture with the hospital and the cemetary! Great update, and wish you daughter luck from me! Sigh...college exams.

Meridien is classic Jmouse, and looks absolutely gorgeous. I love your choices of trees...its something you get to play around with that I dont with Qumma! Cant have trees in the desert!

Overall, your presentation was great and the pictures were awesome.

[paroch]

Hi Joan,

Thanks for showing your US phone booths.  The silver shiny ones are more common in the UK now, but you still see the red ones about.  And thanks for the tip re the Simoleon symbol.

Meridian is looking good, I like the overview, it looks a very leafy kind of town.

I love your approach to schools.  You always give them an interesting twist and your schools always manage to look different from other people's.

Your use of the retaining walls at the hospital looks really good - something I've not got to grips with yet.  I like the slopey parking spaces

And the Hillside Mall is a neat idea.  As for the suggestion that you should put a staircase between the two levels, well my experience of shopping in the US is that shops seem to make it as difficult as possible to leave their property, with the assumption that everyone will drive everywhere, even if it's a few yards (No offence meant to ANY American shopping planners out there).

The church and stairs leading up to the bone yard are really nice.

Nedalezz made the comment that this is "classic Jmouse" and I agree with him 100%, you can tell it's by Jmouse and it is a classic!

Good luck to your daughter and catch up soon,

Paul

[tkirch]

Joan,

I love the way you build the cities on the hills.  Its great.  Its something I struggle with but you make it look great.

I love C9-3.  I love baseball.

The graveyard with the steps leading to the church is INCREDIBLE.  No other words could describe it.  WOW.  I am speechless, I love that.  That might be the best cemetary and church area I have seen ever in an MD!

[Ennedi]

Hello Joan, I'm back! 

I should spent some time looking at your MD (and not only here, I must visit more friends ) - I missed a lot.
But I see everything is well here, Wildcat Junction is a great place to visit!

Meridian is really a nice town, do you know what are my most favourite places? Of course the hospital and this charming little cemetary
Great work with slopes and attention to details

Cheers
Adam

[tooheys]

Another great update Joan.

Do they still use a hearse after a funeral service, or do they just carry the coffin up the ramp to the cemetery    (the dead centre of town is nicely put together by the way)

The school caught my eye, that school building fits in well.

The shopping area, again well done, with the terrain used nicely which you seem to have a knack for. The plazas however do look a little quite.

Joan, you are doing a wonderful job here and your fan base continues to grow. Keep up the great work.

Cheers

Dave

[Schulmanator]

Another beautiful little town. The monkeys would love to swing over sometime! Does the market has a large shipment of bananas? 

[Jmouse]

Replies

@mauricio (figui):  Glad you like Meridian, and you'll be happy to know the second-stage school has a soccer field built in (see below)!
I'd never worked with walls before, but I admired Dave's (tooheys) work so much I decided to try my hand at them.

@Pat: My but you do have some sharp eyes, don't you! Yes, I've been doing some very simple things in LE, and I'm already addicted! Move a tree, add a fence, take out an unwanted detail – the power to do more than wish is awesome. Read on and you'll see some of the changes up close.
To answer your question about the church, the file title in the menu is simply "small church," so let me do a bit more research.
Thanks for stopping by, my friend, and I hope all is well with you and your family.

@threestooges: You know, you just might be right about the camouflage and graffiti – I'm pretty sure there's a furry little artist swinging around here somewhere!
And the mayor liked your suggestion about the stairway so much that he financed some changes. Read on.
BTW, Julie did OK on her finals, thank you, and I hope you did well, too.

@FrankU: Thanks for the kind and encouraging words.
Ideas just kind of present themselves when elements and shapes provide possibilities. I often ask myself, "What can I do with this hill, cliff, neighborhood or building?" but I don't really plan ahead very much.
For example, the idea for the school/factory picnic area has been around a long time, but I didn't know when or where it would appear.

@bat: Thanks for stopping by. I'm starting to like working with hilly terrain even though sometimes it makes me want to see how far the SC4 disk will sail on a high wind! Will it break if you jump up and down on it (I hope, I hope!)?

@nedalezz: You are just too kind, especially considering your unique talent for creating "a rose in the desert!"
We do have a lot of pine trees in the south, and I have a couple of very old red oak trees in my yard. It takes two people holding hands to reach around their trunks.
I didn't realize there was such a thing as "classic Jmouse," but I guess all of us have our own style. Yours is the one that's really distinctive, though!

@Paul (paroch): I can remember times as a child when I would go on a car trip with my parents and pass through mile after mile of timber land (forest). It must have belonged to someone, but I just remember the trees – mostly pine and oak.
So that's what I have in mind for WJ – plenty of open spaces.
As for decorating schools and other civic buildings, I'm always on the lookout for new ideas.
And you are so right about American commercialism. The longer you stay in the store, the more money you'll spend – at least that's the current strategy.
I did like threestooges' staircase idea, though, and you will see the results in this update.
Actually, I'm having a good time experimenting with a lot of elements I've never tried before. It slows me down, but who's counting!

@tkirch: Working with hills and slopes just takes a little practice. Pretty soon you'll develop a feel for the terrain. Just save whenever you get something you like then go on to the next area.
Thank you for the compliment. I do love adding something extra to civic buildings, and that particular church/cemetery combo almost designed itself!

@Adam (Ennedi): Coming from someone with such superior talents, your words are a high compliment!
I like the hospital, too, but by itself it is very ordinary. The secret is in the setting, and I have really come to enjoy creating interesting details.
Glad you liked what you saw!

@Dave (tooheys): I think they drive the hearse to the north entrance and carry the coffin in from there. Dragging it up the stairs made too much noise and the neighbors complained.
The school is part of the DEDWD set which includes three lots, and each of them has a larger student capacity. Also, it covers an entire medium quad and educates Sims from first through 12th grade.
I'm always honored when you stop by, and hope you'll read on to see the latest LEs and changes in the mall arrangement.
As for a fan base, I appreciate the loyalty, patience and kind words of each one!  Y'all are my inspiration.

@Schulmanator: You tell those monkeys they can swing by any time, especially that cute little artist with the yellow hat! Meanwhile, having you swing by is always a treat, and we have more bananas than you can shake a stalk at!

Chapter 9 continued:

threestooges presented a logical suggestion to help unite the multi-level Hillside Mall. When I presented the idea of building a staircase in the mall to Mayor Hillcrank, he slapped his forehead so hard his teeth flew clear into next week.
So after enjoying a bowl of chicken noodle soup for lunch (hold the crackers), he asked me to come up with some ideas.
I agreed, and used the revolutionary "Location Enhancement" software, more commonly known as the LE. Here are the results:

^C 9a-7: This is how Hillside Mall looked when The City of Meridian bought it. The mayor said there was something about it he didn't like, but he couldn't quite nail it down.
After much discussion, it was decided that the idea of installing a stairway had merit. Having shoppers wandering through the loading dock area, however, was unacceptable.
That's when I recommended rotating the two stores, and this is the plan I came up with:

^C 9b-1: With Michael's facing east and Piggly Wiggly facing west, it was possible to construct a safe passage for shoppers away from delivery areas.

^C 9b-2: Changes made in the LE included security fences around loading zones with a sliding gate at the back, far from public access.
(Author's note: The stairway appeared to hover above ground, probably because the wall was so high. So I put some of the BSC trails lots in the LE and moved a few trees around to disguise the gap and add some variety.)

^C 9b-3: "Pigs" got the same security setup, and in both cases, it was just a matter of adding fences to some of the construction lots.

^C 9b-4: And just for you, mauricio (figui), a photo of the stage-2 school, complete with a soccer/football field!

And we'll top off this update with a "postcard from the edge:"

^C 9b-5: A recent traffic study showed residents of the house on the left walking 13 tiles to catch a bus - passing up a much closer bus stop. Then they rode it across the street, got off and walked another four tiles to reach the workplace.  The folks next door to them walked 11 tiles, but otherwise took the same route.

Currently Meridian has a population of 23,200 with 15, 500 C-jobs and 3,000 I-jobs. Residents recently held their 12th New Years Day celebration and positive change is in the wind.
A small CBD is developing on the river's north side along with a new industrial park. The terrain holds promising possibilities, and there is plenty of room for expansion.

The author hopes to post one more update before Christmas, but whether it happens or not, she wishes each of you a Merry Christmas.
May you find peace, joy, happiness and the fellowship of dear friends and family during this holiday season.

Until next time...
Joan

[bat]

Wonderful continuation there! And great stairway!

[figui]

ok Joan, now i'm ready to move into meridian (i'm 26, but i guess i can join the students for a match at their field )
btw, great update, and the changes made at the malls look perfect! great use of LE

mauricio.

[Pat]

Joan just simply wonderful WOW    You have a true eye for detail and its stunning... Kudus to you and Mayor Hillcrank for the restructer of the area to Mikes and the Pig and the added stairway.... mmmmmmmmmm perfect!!!  If you dont update and i dont see you anytime soon Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!! Make sure you tell Juile congrats on getting them exams done.... - pat