🎃 Happy Samhain! -- I'ma be gone for a few days. We're moving (again). -- [12/2] 🔌 I LIIIIVVVVEEEEEE! <CACKLES FINALLY> And just in time too, I see we have another update!
⚠️ I might not be online for the next official game update scheduled for November 4th [🌐]. If anything stops working, just remove it from your game for the time being and I'll update it as soon as I'm back.
🎃 Also, there are a bunch of spooky, scary, creepy, and/or just fun stories in the playlist, starting at "Halloween With The Addams Family". Enjoy!
⋆ ── ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ⋆ \\⚡// ⋆ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ── ⋆
⚡// ⋆ [11/20] STILL NO INTERNET, BUT...:
I FINALLY got everything set up with... not the ISP I intended to go with, but the least irritating other option. I paid my installation fee and the representative told me that I should be online before the end of next week - it could happen this weekend, but no promises.
It took me a week to get the documents I needed, then the second week was wasted running in circles with the preferred ISP, then Kitchen Doody recommended I check out this other ISP, who I wasn't intending to bother with, but here we are! The wheels are finally turning.
<WHALES> WHAT MACHINATIONS I AM UNABLE TO WROUGHT WITHOUT INTERNETS! 🐋
On the bright side, my "sanity" is still intact... and I'm still alive. Pfft. 😹
I should be thankful since there are people who can no longer say either due to... circumstances outside of their control, like genocide, political unrest, starvation, crime, domestic violence, gender-based violence, fascist regimes, terrorist organizations, religious extremism, anti-vaccine lunatics who don't just want to convince you that vaccines are bad, but also ban them all outright, and anti-abortion lunatics who don't actually seem to give a shit about the quality of the lives of children, but seem to just want to strip women of all autonomy, because they really, really, really want to go back to the days of burning all free-thinking women while calling them witches!
Yeah... you missed me. I know you did. At least one of you missed me. 😹
Don't worry, it won't always be like this. They're gonna know where I live very soon. 💀
Dank humor! Ha-ha-haaaaaaaaa! What would we do without it? 😹
📰// ⋆ [11/18] CLOUDFLARE CAN KILL US?!:
Cloudflare_com is currently experiencing issues, and apparently a fair bit of the internet runs on Cloudflare_com, including Patreon! Yay! 😹
[🌐] 11/18/2025 @ ITPro. -- A massive Cloudflare outage has taken down X and OpenAI – and even bricked outage tracker site Downdetector.
[🌐] 11/18/2025 @ The Times of India -- Cloudflare down: Twitter, ChatGPT and hundreds of other websites facing disruption.
Twitter and ChatGPT can get !@#$ed, but hay, I'm working here! 😹
⚡// ⋆ [11/16-2] I POKED AROUND SMALL BUSINESSES:
I figured out how to:
Enable disabled Activities (I wanted WooHoo, but we can do anything).
There are also some available Activities that aren't enabled for both customers and employees, which is... I don't understand - did EAxis half-arse it or was it intentional? Businesses and Hobbies has been out for a while... though that's not saying anything because Lovestruck's Costume Box is still an incompetently flagged, tagged, and coded, mess.
Create custom Activities.
*Create custom Small Business Presets.
Increase or decrease the number of customers (which has been done by someone else already, but I've been offline and had to figure it out myself).
*Enable icon artwork already in the game for use as Small Business icons.
*Add custom icon artwork for use as Small Business icons.
The (3) with asterisks (*) require modifying (1) specific Tuning resource and you can only have one of these overrides in your Mods folder at any given time, similar to how "CAS Filters" works.
⚡// ⋆ [11/16-1] I'M BARLEY ALIVE, BUT I'M UPDATED*:
Hi! Okay, so... I'm STILL waiting for the internet provider to get me set up, but I managed to revive my dead smartphone and I bought a 3-day cellular data plan.
Here's the plan:
I'm updating the game.✔️
I'm updating Sims 4 Studio.❌ Deer's no update?! 🦌
Is Better BuildBuy the only thing that updated?! Pfft! ✔️
I'm going offline to conserve data.✔️ I'm gone again.
I'ma update mods. 🕒 IN PROGRESS!
I'ma be back either in a few hours, or tomorrow with updates.
Confetti!
I have no time to check notifications right now, I'm sorry.
If there's something urgent that can't wait, please comment on this post.
Also, welcome to the new folks! There's at least (100) new people.
And thanks for sticking around and waiting for me. 💜
⋆ ── ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ⋆ \\🕒// ⋆ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ── ⋆
☆// ⋆ WE'RE MOVING AGAIN:
Yes, again.
We can get into the details another time, but the silver lining is that with the money I'm getting from the volunteer job that I started on October 2nd this year, I can now afford to pay for my own internet. I just need to get a few documents from the owners of the new place.
I might be able to get those documents by November 3rd, and I might be able to get back online by November 4th, but don't hold your breath. There's a chance that might not be back until November 7th.
I'm "going dark" either today (shortly after this post), or tomorrow, but I'll be back soon... providing "Bruno" doesn't kill me first. <SQUINTS>
☆// ⋆ SOMETHING'S HAPPENING WITH "BRUNO":
October 31, 2025 -- TRINIDAD NEWSDAY [🌐]
SEVERAL schools across Trinidad have appealed to parents to pick up their children early on October 31 amid reports that the Defence Force has been placed on high alert [🌐]. According to an internal memo, all military personnel were ordered to report to their respective bases by 6 pm on October 31.
In case you missed it, I'm in Trinidad, and Donald Trump is using Trinidad as his "forward operating base" to threaten military aggression against Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, and Nicolás Maduro has threatened retaliation against Trinidad for our role in this whole fiasco.
Trump pretends its about stopping drugs, but he's really just after oil. He tried to "regime change" the Maduro administration during his first term and failed, and now he's doing it again, because he wants the !@#$ing oil and doesn't want to pay for it.
What's odd is the geopolitics.
Trump and Putin are considered allies (despite current "tensions") - they're so ring-on-finger that Trump and the Republican Party in America tried to rewrite the narrative to say it was Ukraine, the U.S. ally, who invaded Russia, and not the other way around, and that Ukraine should surrender to Russia, and, and, and, up until Zelensky agreed to give Trump whatever he wanted for him to stop being a !@#$, if I'm not mistaken - and Putin and Maduro are allies, if I'm not mistaken, just like Putin and Xi over in China are also allies, if I'm not mistaken, which would make all of them allies, is what I'm saying.
So my question is, what !@#$ing game are we playing here?
Are Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jingping playing us all for fools the way Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are playing us for fools?
Maybe.
Maybe.
My legal first name is Sejian, by the way, and I'm not suicidal. Just saying. 😹
I've also never owned (or had) a gun and I've never done any kind of illicit drugs.
─
I tend to point out the worst that society has to offer, like Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh in the next section. Here are two examples of maybe more responsible people.
November 1, 2025 -- TRINIDAD NEWSDAY [🌐]
MY GRANDMOTHER talked about post-war rationing of food. I have a vague memory of seeing an actual card, but at the time it was just an interesting piece of information about something that happened a long time ago. I soon forgot about it.
Then, this week, I was bombarded several times by a meme featuring a roach wearing the TT flag, positioned in the middle of two very large chickens. One chicken was dressed in the US flag and the other in Venezuelan colours. The effect was as disturbing as it was brilliantly creative.
"Cockroach ent [don't] have no right in fowl party" is a local saying that cautions against meddling in affairs that do not concern you. Most times this is sound advice. However, the popularity of the meme suggests to me that this time the people of TT do not agree.
In the midst of reports about stockpiling of food and essential items, I was drawn into another conversation about the importance of growing our own food. They were fascinated when I told them about my grandmother growing corn and other items in milk tins in the narrow space on our fourth-floor balcony. In their eyes and the words that were not openly expressed, I realised that mentally some of us are preparing for war.
Of course, in our blood and memory, we have been here before. We understand now that indigenous warriors did not massacre priests, but were simply defending their way of life from complete eradication. We recognise that enslaved Africans who led countless rebellions across the region were engaged in an existential war for dignity, respect and humanity. We know that in 1884, this was the mission for East Indians who endured being shot at as they peacefully defended their right to religious and cultural expression.
So when it is necessary, we meddle. [...]
Maybe even "more responsible" than me? Shirley less "unhinged".
October 31, 2025 -- TRINIDAD NEWSDAY [🌐]
IN ONE of PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s earliest news conferences as the re-elected head of government, she said something that was misinterpreted by many – "I was too nice." Some comments online suggested folks took that to mean the PM was too soft on errant ministers. This time around, she would take a firmer hand; she did say words to that effect shortly after her election win.
That interpretation is probably false. During the PP’s tumultuous term in office, the PM fired several ministers after questions were raised about their behaviour in office and reshuffled her cabinet so frequently it was like an all-fours tournament. She never displayed a timorous nature in reckoning with scandal-spinning ministers at that time.
I believe her reference to being too nice is related to the way the PP administration wilted under an unremitting barrage of attacks from the PNM and how she was plagued by Machiavellian elements within her own party. This distinction is important as it explains the version of Persad-Bissessar we’re seeing today, one that seems to have learned the wrong lessons from her time at the helm. Consequently, she and her government are operating with flawed intelligence, and it shows.
During the election campaign, it had become increasingly clear that Persad-Bissessar had taken a hard turn rightward. Her peculiar, fawning adoration of Donald Trump was the first cringey giveaway. This right-wing sensibility has metastasised to a style of leadership infinitely more bellicose than anything we’d seen from her predecessor, Keith Rowley.
Many seem to think this government had no choice but to side with the US in the brewing conflict with Venezuela. I don’t agree that neutrality was non-optional. Moreover, there was certainly no need for inflammatory talk like "kill them all violently" referring to alleged drug traffickers.
Indeed, rather than deploying language that could diffuse tensions and put the population at ease, the PM has doubled down on her hardline responses, widening the chasm between TT and our closest neighbour. Those who are defending the government say the aggression against our country originated in Caracas. That is schoolyard reasoning.
If we are to argue that the regime in Venezuela is volatile, mercurial, and prone to incendiary rhetoric, then matching that energy from our side exhibits the same qualities of this so-called rogue regime. The PM appears to be exorcising the regrets of her past by taking hardened postures that aren’t in the best interest of this nation.
The opposition PNM is also showing signs of misreading its failures. After the election loss, the PNM endured a period of adjustment, one which never ended, given that there doesn’t appear to be any clear leader of the party. Its perceptions of the factors behind its resounding defeat are entirely different to those that actually caused its support to shrink and support for the UNC to expand.
Pennelope Beckles, Colm Imbert and others, in their retrospectives, spoke about a failure to connect with the people on the ground and "poor communication." There were also references to inner turmoil in the PNM – Rowley’s sudden abdication and Stuart Young’s hurried coronation. These hollow assessments point to much more than a grave misreading of the PNM’s electoral defeat.
In laying out their trajectory of failure, they’re telling you that soaring crime, a rising murder toll, continued economic stagnation, infrastructural collapse, the Paria diving tragedy, arrogance in the face of a public buckling under the weight of rising costs of living – none of these factors played a role in the trouncing at the polls.
In the eyes of the PNM, its loss was owed merely to poor communication and leadership struggles. The only way to interpret that is that the opposition is telling the population it did nothing wrong. This is as sure a sign as you will ever have that the PNM will do it all again when it returns to office.
With leaders who demonstrate no capacity to learn from their mistakes, what we have (and have always had) is this interminable loop of regression – different players using the same methods, devoted to their incompetence and pride in the achievement of attaining office, rather than of being of any use in it. We’re saddled with the same fools posturing in Parliament and online, deepening the toxicity that divides the public.
It’s often said that there are lessons in our failures. If we misunderstand the nature of those failures or deny their true causes, then the lessons we learn will be the wrong ones, and a repeat of those failures is all but assured.
Unfortunately, it doesn't take long to find the ignorance again...
October 31, 2025 -- TRINIDAD NEWSDAY [🌐]
[...]
The driver believes if anything were to happen “with leftist countries like Russia or China, the US is the one that can respond.”
Russia and China are "leftist"?! 😹
Let me guess, Stalin and Hitler were also "leftist", right? 😹
I wonder if this individual even has a definition for "leftist" or if it's just "whoever I don't like", like how "woke" has been bastardized to become "whatever I don't like".
He further chastised journalists, adding, “They are afraid to question those in power. The press has a big role to play in society, but they’re not doing what’s required!”
What year is it? 😹
☆// ⋆ IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR:
Every year, on or before this day, I make a post on social media concerning the history of Halloween... ☢️ because I'm beyond fed up of religious folks shit-talking Halloween (All Hallows' Eve), especially when it was their religions that co-opted Samhain in the first place.
Heyo! Is me! Your friendly neighborhood anti-theist. 😹
Y'know, the world existed before the Abrahamic god, before Jesus, before Moses, and before Muhammad, and just because something is of "pagan" origin, doesn't mean that it's evil.
What's "evil" is demonizing something just because it ain't from "your culture".
You know what gets me about all the ignorant fearmongering around Halloween?
It's that All Hallows' Eve (as I generally refer to it) precedes All Saint's Day (All Hallows' Day) and All Souls' Day. You'd think folks would put one and two together and come up with three, or at least ask their religious leader why "a demon-worshiping holiday" (as they've been brainwashed to believe it is) precedes All Saint's Day and All Souls' Day.
In the event that you were one of the many folks who doesn't know the history of Halloween or how "All Hallows' Eve" and "All Hallows' Day" came to be "Christian things", don't take my crude way of discussing it personally.
My crude way of discussing these things, especially these things that concern religion, is partially due to the frustration of it being 2025 and the fact that we still need to talk about these things.
Just consider yourself informed now.
─
October 30, 2025 -- TRINIDAD NEWSDAY [🌐]
[...]
I wouldn’t be surprised if Halloween is eventually included in the curriculum of our schools. And, maybe in the next century, Halloween will be on our calendars or be a public holiday.
I can't remember if I've spoken about Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh here (on Patreon) yet.
He's the guy who eventually got "International Men's Day" to be a thing.
Yeah, you have a Trinidadian to thank for that. 😺
He holds a position of influence here in my country - influence over our youth as an educator, and influence over our young men by being involved with "men's movements" that target disillusioned young men and/or young men with "behavioral issues".
He's also a misogynistic piece of shit who blames women and "women's movements" for all men's problems. He's one of those "#MeToo was a witch hunt", "suffrage, inequality, and gender-based violence (against women) aren't real issues", and "women are just out to get men"-type fellas, but I am paraphrasing, so don't quote me on any of that.
You'd think as an educator he'd understand the history behind feminism, but no, he instead pulls a... what's the name of that "famous" atheist who doesn't understand shit about transgender people but insists on shit-talking them? You know what I mean - he insists on being willfully ignorant about this because he wants to indulge in his bigotry without consequence or remorse.
Now, instead of educating people on the history of All Hallows' Eve and its significance, he's out here fearmongering about the horror genre, because ghouls and goblins are the real evil in the world, ☢️ not the religious zealotry that drives men and women to justify butchering children, right?
When I departed it dawned on me that this joyous celebration of Halloween did not suddenly emerge. For more than five decades we have been fed a diet of horror. And it is not confined to movies but also in novels by authors such as Stephen King.
Can you imagine if Halloween was taught in schools?!
Maybe folks like Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh would actually know what it's about, instead of thinking it's about horror literature, glorifying violence, and candy! Maybe folks like Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh would get a grasp on the effect wanton capitalism has on everything, oh my!
The popularity of this genre of movies is so widespread that the sequels and prequels have been profitable. Is there an impact on the human mind? In 1999 an article, “Tales from the screen: Enduring fright reactions to scary media,” was published in Media Psychology. It was based on a study that revealed that some participants who viewed these types of movies displayed “residual anxiety.” Yes, mental health is also affected.
Does he know that, outside of this 1999 study, consuming horror media isn't mandatory in the real world?
Does he know that the concept of a spending an eternity in Hell for not submitting to a god causes "residual anxiety" in billions of people around the world?
The fear of Hell causes so much "residual anxiety" that there are a number of folks who will claim it is the one reason they will not give up religion, no matter how much harm that religion causes them or the people around them.
That fear of Hell is groomed into children, as young as they can get them, and in some denominations, that threat of Hell does not have anything to do with whether or not you're genuinely a good person. In some denominations, it's all about submitting to what some random person tells you a god wants - have faith and don't question it because whatever my god says is right and moral, regardless how immoral it might seem to me.
Remind me how much you care about the safety and well-being of children... while religious organizations continue to be exposed for rampant child abuse and/or the failure to protect children from rampant child abuse, every fucking year.
Y'see, it's actually very easy to be an angry anti-theist like me, but I tigress! 🐯
Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh is a "Senior Lecturer in History" at our university. He has a Ph.D., an M.A., and a B.A., and this is the level of half-arsed trash he's writing in our local newspaper for the entire country to read.
Fuck me sideways. Is almost 2026, bruh!
For folks like Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, it's easier to blame someone else for all of our social problems, than address the corruption and greed that fuels wealth inequality, crime, and poverty, or the religious toxicity that makes men believe the world and women of all ages are theirs to do with as they please.
He blames "behavioral issues" in feeeeemails on "transgender ideology", because y'know, those "behavioral issues" in feeeeemails only began when transgender people became a "hot topic" in America, right?
I suppose then that mmmaaaaaaaails with "behavioral issues" just want to be girls too, right?
Is that not how that type of dumbarse logic works?
Yeh, bruh! Everyone wants to be transgender, don't you know?! Is a global trend!
<HEAVY SIGH>
Y'know, it's right there in his face.
If he really believed our young women (we're referring to teenage school kids here) wanted to "be boys", you'd think he'd have the higher brain function to ask himself why on Earth would any woman "want" to be treated like a man (outside of gender dysphoria, since I assume he doesn't believe that's a legitimate thing), and maybe, just maybe, he'd fall down the feminism and suffrage rabbit hole and finally understand that those things happened for a reason, and that they still exist for a reason, or y'know, maybe he'd just learn how to talk to some feeeeemails respectfully, and ask them, as an educator, what their problems are, but no!
F.Y.I. I have never met this man in my life. I have only ever heard him speak and read the stuff he writes. I only give a shit about his opinion because he has influence in my country.
Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh is not a fucking idiot incapable of understanding complex social issues, he just pretends to be when it comes to women (and now Halloween), because bigotry... or maybe a woman wronged him during the course of his life and y'know, he just can't not blame all women, ☢️ or maybe he was just groomed by religion to believe women are lesser than men on a fundamental level. Who knows?! It could be all of it combined.
As for the Halloween nonsense, that's just him wanting to demonize another culture and censor our media.
His profile states "masculinity and religion" as some of his research interests (they are the only two mentioned), so... am I supposed to believe that he doesn't know a fucking thing about Halloween outside of its links to the horror genre in literature?!
Folks like Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh want to exist in a bubble of their own design, but every time they encounter an issue in that bubble, they want to pluck something from outside of that bubble and claim that it is the cause of absolutely all of their problems:
Women's rights.
The #MeToo movement.
Transgender people.
The Horror genre in literature.
Etc., et cetera, A.K.A. everything except the underlying issues that we should have been addressing for decades, but choose not to because "muh religion's public image is more important, so let's find a new scapegoat every year instead".
There are a number of reasons why I'm never really proud to call myself a Trinidadian, but this man makes me extra ashamed to do it whenever he pops up.
I'd be less offended if he was an ignorant politician or a bigoted religious leader saying this shit, because I'm accustomed to that, but he's an educator and an "influencer", so his willful ignorance offends me a tad bit more - because educators are supposed to know more than me in their specific fields, and they're supposed to be more responsible with their knowledge or lack thereof.
But hey... maybe that's just the Cringe Idealist in me talking.
I'm not an expert in any of the "Bruno" topics I discuss. I have no B.A.s, M.A.s, or P.h.Ds.
But I do have a desire to learn more about those topics... usually BEFORE I open my mouth to talk about them. Is it too much to ask that "the experts" (in general) do the same?
Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh is not a fucking idiot.
He knows what he's doing.
Which is why I have no qualms about pushing back on his bullshit every time he pops up.
─
One sad aspect about all of this is the folks who enjoy partaking in Halloween traditions, but also don't know the history of Halloween because all they've heard for years is "WAAAHH! DEEEEEEEEEMON WORSHIP!!!!", so much that they feel the need to defend their participation in those traditions, because they fear being ostracized for it.
Oh how I wish we valued knowledge and the sharing of knowledge as much as we say we do.
☆// ⋆ NEW PATREON POST FEATURES:
Add exclusive work or insights below a paywall to encourage members to upgrade.
Is it time for "Mews For All"?!
Yeah, no.
However, we can now do "Newsletter"-type posts, or something.
There's a whole template!
I... wasn't paying attention, because I do not care! 😹
☆// ⋆ TBC...?:
I'll be back. 🚁
