Raven F

I forgot the name and the author. The book was very disturbing and dark, and the subject matter not normally something I would have read, but it has stuck in my mind for years and I would like to at least find it to determine if I do want to read it again.

It wasn't horror, more like a crime thriller or crime drama. The basic plot is this sick pedo named Arlis kidnapped an 11-year-old boy for his jollies. The only other thing I remember from the book is that he took the boy into a motel under the guise that he was his "son," and I believe it was at this or a similar motel that he was eventually caught. The boy survived the ordeal but was traumatized and twisted, and he had developed a kind of "Stockholm syndrome" attachment to Arlis.

I believe the novel was from around the late 1970s to early or mid 1980s, because I was reading a 1983 novel called Worst Enemies around the same time. (Worst Enemies was by Jack Scaparro, but I'm quite certain he wasn't the author of the book I'm seeking.)

I've heard that a character (aka "star") can get divorced, so that isn't really the question. The problem for me is sort of funny and a little sad. My star was dating the model Luke from the karaoke bar and got to the point of engagement. Then I got a game quest from Amber: Fill your dating meter until you're engaged! I'm like, WTH? She's already engaged! Fine, my star then dated Luke until he proposed, and the timer started going for the wedding (it's tomorrow, btw).

The quest didn't end or complete, and there's no way to pay diamonds to skip it. Ugh. My star dated the Marine, Lance, and at the point of engagement, the quest completed successfully. So now I'm stuck with the follow-up quest to fill the meter to a marriage proposal, all the while my star is set to marry Luke tomorrow!

So basically, after she's married, my question is can she also marry Lance and be a polygamist (?), or does she have to divorce Luke? I'd rather not go through all that nonsense, not to mention it'll take several days I'm sure for the love meter to get to the point of divorce, and otherwise, the quest will never go away. Pffffttt.

Just wondering. I'm playing the main character, and she is so unlikable. So far, not much in the way of choices as it just railroads the player along. I didn't want her to bother with Mark or hurt Shawn, but she did anyway. I didn't want her to cheat on Shawn with Mark, which I couldn't stop her from doing. And now she's having the "I'm pregnant and don't know whose it is" pity-party, and I just want to virtual slap her, LOL! Well, you cheated, AND you obviously didn't play it safe, so I feel ZERO sympathy for you, dear. Ick, what an awful character. I feel slimy playing her. :D

The very first computer game I ever played was DND. This is the 1984 DOS-based game by Daniel Lawrence (see link below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNTDedbbQLE

I know there were portals made in order to allow the game to be played on a modern PC, just like the games Oregon Trail, Telengard, Zork, and others. People have made comments they're still playing DND, and Daniel Lawrence's old website referred to a portal (the page it named is no longer active, apparently).

I have Windows 8.1. The searches I have tried resulted in very "iffy" sites that I refuse to use for downloads. I'm looking for not only a SAFE site to get the game, but one that is LEGAL. If there is a payment required of that site, I'm okay with that. I really just want to play the game again for nostalgia.

What I'm precisely looking for may not exist, but maybe I can find something close. It doesn't have to be a new game, as long as it plays on Windows 8.1. My computer is custom-built for gaming and can handle high-end graphics and RAM-demanding games. I would loveif I could find something through Steam; I searched but couldn't find it. I'm looking for a PC game that is RPG-style with pirates and/or high seas adventure. Elder Scrolls for the ocean would be close.

1. Open-world with as close to sandbox play as possible; I despise strict linear games where you go from Point A to Point B and that's it. Quests are fine, as long as the player can depart from the quest and go their own way when they feel like it, lol.

2. Single-player option. I don't have a lot of time to devote to playing and don't want other players waiting on me, or to deal with some of the world-class jerks I've encountered through MMORPGs.

3. Graphics don't have to be ultra-amazing, though I prefer not to have a cartoonish look. I don't mind Anime-style, especially Bishounen, but I don't like the blocky Minecraft look or Chibi.

4. I've had poor experience with early access games, but if there was something at the Beta stage, I would consider that as well.

5. I won't download illegally, so please no suggestions of torrent games, etc. :)

My favorite games are Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and 4, Civilization V, Sims 3. I've played Sid Meier's Pirates, Pirate Cove, and Choice of Pirates already.

Help! I've had the MC Commander Center mod installed for a few months now. It's only in the last couple weeks I've noticed this glitch. NPC Sims I see around town are randomly wearing stupid, ridiculous costumes! (I'm not a fan of costumes in the game.) Clowns, hot dogs, weird conical hats, and all age groups are doing it. I have to manually go into the Dresser on each individual Sim and change their outfit. I then use Dresser to SAVE that new, normal outfit. Yet, later on I will see that same Sim with ANOTHER stupid costume! This is not for special events or situations; they're wearing costumes as everyday clothing.

I've tried every Dresser and Cleaner setting I can think of to stop this from happening, including Blacklisting items. But there's no option to Blacklist costumes that I could find. It's driving me insane, because I just hate the way it looks, and it does not fit my personal Sim world. I don't want to remove the mod. I prefer to actively play only one household, so the mod allows for a lot of control over NPC activity and neighborhood progression. It's just this one glitch!

I love the artistry of the original music videos from the 1980s, back when MTV was a pioneer and relevant to music, and the music was fun and campy, sometimes dark and haunting. I know I can search for specific videos on YouTube, but that is only for individual videos rather than a set or collection, at least to my knowledge. I'm also more of a fan of obscure musicians and "one-hit wonders," rather than the popular and top-of-the-charts (no Michael Jackson, hahah!)

Is there an Internet site that LEGALLY streams music videos? Randomly, or as a collection, or a display where you can select the ones you want to watch? I'm not looking for the YouTube type of site in which you must enter the name of exactly what you want, because I'm not looking for just 1 or 2 artists, and I don't always know the names of the ones I want to watch. I will pay for a legitimate, reliable site if there isn't a free one. If there's any Pandora-like site that does videos the way Pandora does music, that would be awesome!

I'm an introvert who is uncomfortable in large groups, particularly if I don't know most of them very well, and I tend to have a rather wide "personal space bubble." For me, hugs are very intimate, reserved for immediate family members and my closest of friends.

When my grandmother passed a few years ago, there were many people attending her funeral. I knew some by name, and there was extended family; we're not close beyond a friendly greeting and polite small talk. In short, no one other than my parents and siblings was a person with whom I felt comfortable touching. (Judge me if you will; it is who I am and always have been.) There was a steady stream of well-wishers forcing hugs upon me, and rather than giving comfort, it intensified my already-deep grief and made my skin crawl.

Question: My parents are in their declining years, as hard as that is to face. When that time comes, I will be an emotional wreck. Would it be acceptable etiquette when people try to hug me to say, "Please no hugs, but thank you for your kind words and for being here"? Is there a better way to put it? If it were you, would you be offended? I don't want to upset anyone, but I have to self-protect when I'm so emotionally vulnerable.

Obviously, I'm bored during break, lol. I work as an associate attorney in the legal field, and I'm wearing a black polo shirt under a periwinkle crushed velvet shirt with script on it, blue jeans (it's "casual Friday"), and Van Gogh Starry Night socks with black Mary Janes that have 4-inch heels.

No need to add your intimates, unless you're really into TMI. :) And for safety reasons, you won't want to be too specific about where you work.

I know there are survivalists and "doomsday preppers" out there, and others who have experience in this area. I'm not a doomsday prepper myself, but I'm becoming increasingly and rapidly concerned, given the instability of my country (U.S.) and the likelihood of war coming to our actual soil.

Please, no political comments or trolling. I'm not here for that, and this could also pertain to simply surviving through a large-scale natural disaster as well. I just want to know, how long does canned food last on the shelf to be safe to eat? Vegetables, fruit, soup, chili, etc. Is boxed soup less likely to last long? Should they be kept in a cool environment (such as my unheated garage, which doesn't freeze due to the furnace being in it), or is room temperature better, like in my food pantry?

How long does bottled water last, also? I'm thinking like the larger jugs of drinking water. How about canned and dry cat food?

Finally, any estimate on how much food, drinking water, and medical supplies I should store at a time for 1 single adult and 2 adult cats? While some berry foraging in summer could be expected, and there is some availability of game and fish (my family hunts and fishes, though I personally don't), there wouldn't be a lot of "free" resources, and there would be competition for it if a large-scale disaster or rationing were to happen.

I played my first chapter in the fantasy (The Crown and the Flame) series. I'm ready to move on to chapter 2, but it requires a key right now to play. I only have 2 keys and really do not want to make in-game purchases (I have a bad habit of that and am trying to stop). Is it absolutely necessary to use a key to play on to the next chapter, or will it become available after a certain amount of time? Thanks!

Has anyone else had this issue? I've had multi-Sim households before, and this is the first time I've noticed this happening. This is also the first time I've played a multi-Sim household with the new expansion City Living installed (this might be the problem).

The young adult son lives at home and takes care of the apartment, while his son goes to his school and his parents both work at different jobs. When Mom and Dad are at work, I've gone into Build/Buy mode to place something in the apartment. While I'm in that mode, I'll get a message that the Dad has had a great day at work and brought home x amount of money, even though it's a few hours before the end of the day. And now I've had it happen to BOTH parents! They're both primed for promotion, so this is frustrating, because they're not getting their overdue promotions, and the father is an Ambitious Sim who is now tense because he isn't promoted, lol. This also happened once when I went into Manage Worlds and back into the household.

Is this just now a City Living problem we have to put up with until they patch it, or is there something I can do to fix it now? Thanks!

Several times when my household's 3 teens and 1 child were working on their homework and/or extra credit, the entire household will go into veeeery slow motion, almost complete standstill (the game itself is not frozen as I can go to other screens) and clicking on their queued activities to stop them doesn't make the icons go away or change the frozen/very slow Sims. Turning on cheat modes and resetting the Sims doesn't change anything either, except it stops the frozen activity.

This has happened both when there were friends in the house chatting and doing stuff, and when it was only the family there. My computer has 16 GB of RAM, so memory isn't a problem. Any idea what to do about this? Any quick fixes? It eventually sorts itself out, but it takes awhile for that to happen, and it's irritating when it happens nearly every time there is homework being done.

After spending an entire night (in Sims time) with no Day of the Dead celebrants showing up, I searched online and found that you need to leave an offering at a tombstone at night to draw them out. But where in the world are there tombstones?!? I can't find a cemetery anywhere, and I searched through the Von Haunt location thinking (because of the name) that it would have some. Nope. Nor does the Goths' lot appear to have any, unlike in Sims 3 where they had a family cemetery in the backyard.

Nowhere in any of the guides did it say where to find a tombstone! I don't want to go play some random Sim just to try to kill it (and I don't know how Sims can be quickly killed in Sims 4), and I certainly don't want to kill anyone in my brand-new family of 3. I got this DotD challenge while playing a new game in which I've only had this family for less than 1 week in Sim-time, so there are no Sims that have dropped dead in the neighborhood, nor is there likely to be anytime soon.

Did I miss a location where there are tombstones? Help, please, if you can. This game really irritates me much more than any other of the Sims games I've ever played, lol. You would think they would have improved on the series given how awesome Sims 3 is, instead of going backwards. :p

Question says it all, really. I have all of the actual *expansion* packs, but I rarely get stuff or game packs because I don't feel they offer enough bang for the buck. I did get the Spa pack, but that's the only one I have.

However, my Sim has 4 kids (3 different moms, heh), and when they age up from infants, I'll be moving them in with him. Instead of buying four separate beds, it would be nice to be able to buy 2 bunk beds.

In the alternative, can a pair of siblings share an adult bed? I know they can share WITH their adult parent, but can they share with each other? Then I might just buy two big beds.

I have a (nearly) 6-year-old Subaru Legacy, and I regularly have the oil changed. The garage where it's serviced puts a sticker on the window giving me the date and mileage the next oil change is due. I'm usually well past the date before the mileage catches up. For example, I hit the due date on the 3rd of this month, but I'm still just under 1,000 miles under the mileage they gave. So should I do it now or wait until it's closer to the mileage, or is it really not all that important?

I want to do my best to keep this car running for many years, as it's been an excellent car. For the record, it's been trouble-free when it comes to its internal parts and has never needed repairs.

Female, with straight (slightly wavy) shoulder-length hair which I sometimes grow out, usually dyed. Most everything I read indicates that washing your hair every single day is actually unhealthy for the hair. So I wash mine every other day, not skipping more than a single day in-between. However, the day that I don't wash it, my hair is limp and uncooperative, and near the scalp it looks greasy (to my eyes, at least). I use very few hair products, just a good quality shampoo and occasionally a spritz of hairspray when necessary. I don't use heating appliances on it, no hair dryers or curling irons.

Any suggestions as to how to keep my hair from looking and feeling gross on the day I don't wash? I hate going to work like this; I feel icky! And when I step outside and there's any wind or rain, I'm pretty much doomed to look even worse for the rest of the day, lol.

Problem started just a couple of days ago. iPhone 6, fully updated. I have wifi in my house and have no problems connecting and capturing the [very] few spawns. But as soon as I leave my house, it stops working, even in areas where cellular service is at 4 or 5 bars. I can't use Pokestops, see spawns, or hatch eggs.

For example, across the road from my house is a Pokestop. Until a couple of days ago, I would pass by on my walk and access the Pokestop along the way. Now, I walk across the road and approach, and I see the Pokestop but the picture won't come up and a spin produces nothing. So I exit out and restart the game, only to see the (by now familiar) message that I can't connect and try again to log in. This is using my email, not Pokemon Trainer, and the server page on the website says that all is well, green all the way. I try many times, but cannot connect at all, until I'm back in my house with wifi.

I went to an area rich in spawns and Pokestops just now to test it. Sure enough, nothing comes up, cannot even see distant Pokestops or Gyms. Restart and am told I cannot connect. This is frustrating. I'm nearly out of Pokeballs, have only two eggs left (which won't hatch because the game isn't recording my walks anymore), and cannot play because my house spawns *maybe* two Pokemon a day, and they're pretty common little guys.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem? It seems to have started after (I think) the game updated, as I no longer see a battery saver option.

I can look for mods once I get home, but it's still morning at my work place (I'm on morning break), and I've got hours to go. So thought I'd ask so I can search more specifically tonight.

Anyway, in Fallout 3, the jukebox played Three Dog's station. But in Fallout 4, all I'm getting is the slow, boring classical music. (I don't mind classical, just not constantly.) So I put in a disco ball for slow dances (not that the settlers ever dance) instead of the strobe light. But CAN the jukebox play other music, like the radio stations? All I get when I click on it is Activate.

Is there a mod that will alter the jukebox or provide an alternate? I use the Mods option on the Fallout menu and don't download from other sites at this point, so that is my preferred choice. Or is there a cheat code that will change the music?

I'm self-aware enough to know that I always want more, more, more when it comes to my PC games. (I'm personally rubbish at console controls, but I don't knock gamers who do play consoles, so I'm asking this question to ALL gamers.) What would be your dream mashups for games?

I play a lot of RPG and simulation games (among other, more casual games), and I would LOVE to see a mashup of The Sims and Fallout. I would love to see the The Sims building tools, social interactions, open game play (no "end" unless your last household member dies), item gathering, DNA-based families, and generational play ... with Fallout open-world exploration, combat, desperate survival, post-apocalyptic setting, resource gathering, and rich NPCs. My dream mashup would include being able to have large households and community settings, or to be able to go it alone if the player chooses.