How to hide the Sims 4 plumbob for more immersive play, plus books!

📚 Book content following the Sims info...

This is a cheat, which means cheats have to be enabled first, which is an easy fix.

• On the Mac, press Shift-Control-C.
• On PC, press Shift-Command-C,
• On a console, hold down all four trigger buttons.

The cheat window will appear. In it, type

testingcheats true

and the game will confirm your request.

Then type

headlineeffects off

and the game will again confirm your request. Easily reversable, just perform this process again, and type

headlineeffects on

Spinning mood ring plumbob ahoy!

With it off, you get much nicer immersion, and saved photos and video, like Clara's paranormal encounter. Here's the before and after of her trying to commune with some of the spirits haunting the Intentional Ink house.

Another angle, because how cute is this? Now, no more red thing hovering over her just because she has fibromyalgia and Everything Hurts.

Currently reading:

hardcover:

trigger warning for CSAM and SA for the next book--skip down to Never Flinch by Stephen King, the next book, if you wish:

The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester, a slim book by an esteemed historian attempting to address the issue head-on: the hows and whys of one particular photograph that Lewis Carroll took of Alice Liddell as a child. It was a bold move to put said photo on the cover of the book, given that today it would be classified as CSAM, no matter the argument about the photograph's intent (and the intention behind all the other photographs).An intriguing and yet disturbing beginning to the book, because it does dive right into That Photo, explaining where it is stored and who may and may not carefully access its archives, and its effect upon first-time viewers. This book is sending me (I have to write the obvious pun) down the rabbit hole of good art produced by bad actors. There are those with which I can definitely never interact again--Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, Marion Zimmer Bradley come immediately to mind. The decision is easy and comfortable. But what of Lewis Carroll's photography and inappropriate friendships with only children, especially girls? What of J. M. Barrie's conduct with his own Lost Boys? In these cases, the art is the thing. Am I part of the bad acts for loving Wonderland and Neverland? I can never go to Neverwhere again, so why does this feel murkier and more confusing--because Bradley's and Gamain's and Palmer's victims are here today to speak, and not in the filmy past? If so, that's patently not fair on my part. I feel an episode coming on on this topic. Stay tuned, and let me know how you feel about this topic. Hopefully, I haven't ruined your childhood with these revelations.

Also: Never Flinch, Stephen King's seventh book about his autistic character, Holly Gibney. Holly makes me feel seen and heard as an autistic woman. Currently watching the third season of Mr. Mercedes as well (my Serialized account, one of my only remaining online accounts), and the actress Justine Lupe understands autism. There's this ongoing subplot throughout season two concerning rejection sensitivity dysfunction, where Holly is feeling out if Bill and Jerome love her, without saying so, and it's so masterfully done...because it's never said outright. Holly cautiously creeps around the edges of it just the way I would, careful not to shake the status quo but scared not to find out...Thank you, Justine and Stephen.

audio: Just starting the Great Courses class on The Odyssey, taught by Professor Elizabeth Vandiver, so that I can that reread Homer (college was a long time ago), this time on audio read by the magical Ian McKellen! Can you imagine. Thank you, libro.fm. 13 hours of goodness just waiting for me. So much knitting bliss is going to go down on that voyage.

ebook: Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark is ongoing--it's 1184 pages. Sylvia's in her second year at Smith College right now, so things are about to...happen. I keep taking breaks to the surface, not wanting to spend too much time in the depths. It's beautiful down there, with much to discover, but I have to remember to breathe.

'I am a damn good high priestess of the intellect,' she wrote her friend Mel Woody in July, 1954.

also in my ereader, I'm finally reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, and wondering what has taken me so long. I'm reading the 50th anniversary edition, translated by Christopher Conn Askew, Boris Fishman, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhosky. It's a little too on the nose given the situation right now, but I guess that's cathartic, so I solider on through this magnificent and bleak novel.

'Among other things,' the prisoner recounted, 'I said that all power is violence over people, and that a time will come when there will be no power of the Caasers, nor any other power. Man will pass into the kingdom of truth and justice, where generally there is no need for any power at all.'

I picked these thoughts out of the air when they came flying by on winds.

--Sylvia Plath

Holly Gibney books in order:

first, the Bill Hodges series:

1. Mr. Mercedes
2. Finders Keepers
3. End of Watch

Then read

1. The Outsider
2. If It Bleeds (which also contains The Life of Chuck)
3. Holly
4. Never Flinch

🧁 I have been building the podcast's bookshelf at Bookshop.org, adding books mentioned in each episode--and labeling them as such--and books I have mentioned here on the website. The accompanying movie list is on Letterboxd. So if you are ever looking for a resource I have mentioned, it will be on one of those lists. If you purchase a book on the Bookshop.org shelf, or purchase another book while browsing after clicking through, you support the podcast, the best independent bookstore on the internet, and my independent bookstore of choice, Judy Blume's own store, Booke & Books. Thanks! Win-win for everyone! All of my book links on the website link to Bookshop.org as well, and help to support the podcast, paying for the website and podcast hosting, etc. I really appreciate your support lo these many years. 💓