sansimeonsims

[sansimeonsims]

Bagama't nasabi na ito, pero kailangang itong sabihin muli.

Hindi niyo kailangang humingi ng paumanhin kapag hindi kayo bihasa sa Wikang Ingles.

Bagama't ang Ingles ang pinakakaraniwang ginagamit na wika sa Internet, hindi ibig sabihin na kinakailangang niyong alamin ito ng perpekto.

Mahalin niyo rin ang kagandahan ng sarili niyong wika.

Maraming mga tao sa website na ito ay nagtatiyagang magsulat sa wikang Ingles araw-araw para sila'y maintindihan.

Bigyan natin ng suporta ang mga kapwang hindi Wikang Ingles ang pangunahing wika. Huwag silang maliitin dahil hindi sila bihasa sa wikang banyaga sa kanila.

Itaguyod natin dapat ang mga sari-saring wika.

Pairalin natin ang pagkakaiba-iba ng wika sa mala-impyernong website na ito.

Maraming salamat po.

(Paunawa: May dinagdag ako sa ilalim ng guhit na nagsasabi na ituloy ang pagbasa)

Congratulations! You made it to the part where I over-share. If you are a Tagalog speaker, you will notice the following:

Although I speak the vernacular version of the language just fine (or at least the Anglicized dialect spoken in Manila by middle-class Millennials), I write in Tagalog in a way that sounds archaic or academic. It is important to note that due to some reason even I can't adequately explain, my primary language is actually English.

Seriously, nobody speaks like this outside a language class, PSA, or period film. Which based on what I'm known for in meatspace, is kind of on-brand, I guess.

You can probably notice that I tried to avoid European-language loanwords whenever I could. This is deliberate on my part as I decided to kind of lean on the above tendency. I even had to use Google Translate to get a few words since modern spoken Tagalog is so darned reliant on loanwords.

Notably, this is not a word-for-word translation of the original and would sound more flowery (or pretentious, however you want to cut it). It stems from what I learned in college from my late Tagalog-language rhetoric professor: word-for-word translations don't always carry the same meaning across.

I used "this hellsite" (literally, "this [particular] hellish website") instead of "Tumblr" to end this to add levity at the very end. I was tempted to write a very trollish translation, but opted against it.\

It took a bit of scroll-down that I couldn't do before but someone has already done this in conversational Tagalog before I did.

probably i just said it but i want to say it again:

- don’t apologise if you don’t know english.

- yes, english is the most common language on the internet but you are not forced to know it perfectly.

- your own language is beautiful.

- non-english people make a huge effort to write in English everyday on this website.

- support non-english people and don’t make them feel bad if they do not know English. 

- actually support all the languages.

- spread more language diversity on Tumblr.

thank you. 

#announcements #translation #language diversity

[sansimeonsims]

Muralla Street and Casa de Leon Oro

Muralla Street takes its name from the similarly named street in Manila's Old City and takes visual cues from the structures built in Plaza San Luis on Luna street in the same district (fittingly, i was just there last Holy Week) as well as some of the ancestral houses in the historic district in the town of Taal in Batangas Province. It gets its name from the fact that it's literally the road near the wall.

The house I'm featuring first is the third house I built (yes, this monstrosity is a residential), the Casa de Leon Oro, so named for both its owners (the parvenu Principalia De Leon family, who despite their rank, actually began as a peasant family) and for the lion corbels they had placed on top of the masonry second story of their house. The family itself lives in the luxurious top floor, while the second and first floors are used as offices, rented to tenants, or occupied by servants and horses.

This house was based heavily on the Casa Manila Museum in the Old City (the reconstructed Mendoza house, originally from the district of San Nicolas). I originally made a similar multi-building lot called Parian de San Simeon, made around the time I could only fit a few buildings in a world at a time. You can see the similarities and contrasts by checking out the original posts.

#sims 3 historical #sims 3 san simeon #historical sims #sims 3 #spanish colonial architecture

[sansimeonsims]

A preview of things to come.

#sims 3 historical #sims 3 san simeon

[sansimeonsims]

Time to Hop on the Bandwagon Again.

#Polls #Memes #Just For Fun #Philippine History

[sansimeonsims]

Back when I was in school, students from the elementary and high school level used to dress in national costume only during major cultural events, usually in August for what we knew then as Linggo ng Wika (National Language Week).

This stuff takes it to a new level, though. School versions of Philippine national costume (Filipiniana) tend to be the heavily modernized versions of the outfits, the kind worn for folk dance performances or as formalwear. Seldom do I see people take it to the next level the way historical re-enactors do, and those are few and far in between down here. Always nice to see people go through the effort of making things more historically authentic.

#historical re-enactment #period clothing #precolonial Philippines #non-Sims

[sansimeonsims]

If you would note, I have deliberately chosen my words carefully for some history-altering events. If you know, you'll know. If you don't, then you're probably wrong. Remember kids, there was no Maharlika state.

#polls #memes #just for fun #Philippine history #non-Sims

[sansimeonsims]

You'll need The Sims 3 base game, patch 1.67, and all other expansions up to Island Paradise. Items from stuff packs were not used in this build.

It’s been a couple of months since my last update. In the interim, I dealt with work, computer problems, financial issues, and the typical headaches that come with being lorded over by morons. You know, the usual. I’m still recovering from Covid as I type this but am on the track to recovery. By now, I’m just doing this to help me pass the time.

i am finally done with the routing of the world and will now be working on the finer details such as filling the empty lots with trees, adding spawners, and finishing the lots wherever the settlements may be. So far, the island has one large settlement, pictured above. I plan to make a few more inner-island villages, including one that basically acts as a pirate stronghold.

I can’t make any promises of when it would be ready for testing, though.

#The Sims 3 CC #Sims 3 Worlds #Sims 3 Downloads

[sansimeonsims]

Elephants and their relatives became extinct in what would become the Philippines before the ice ages ended. That there hadn’t been wild indigenous elephants here for millennia was the subject of a children’s book. Due to the size of the islands, the elephants and stegodonts indigenous to the Philippine archipelago were much smaller.

I took a few pictures of the fossil remains of the endemic proboscideans (elephants and relatives) over the past few years:

Jawbone of a member of the genus Elephas (Asian elephants). Only one species, Elephas maximus, survives to the present. National Museum of Natural History, Manila. Note the model of the dwarf elephant behind it.

Elephas sp. depicted at a diorama of extinct Philippine megafauna at the National Musuem of Natural History, Manila.

Tusk of a stegodontid. Note the parts that had been filled in. National Museum of Natural History, Manila.

Stegodontid jaw and molar, National Museum of Natural History, Manila.

Stegodontid molar. Mind Museum, Taguig

To round it all off, here’s the only living elephant currently in the Philippines, Vishwama'ali of the Manila Zoo. She came to the zoo as a gift from the government of Sri Lanka. Here’s a photo I took of her on November 2022.

Elephas maximus at the Manila Zoo

The word for elephant in various Asian languages.

In the Philippines, the Spanish word has pretty much replaced the old Malay word (in turn from Sanskrit), apparently. I assume there are no wild elephants in the Philippines? Three different forms from Sanskrit survive.

by @Oysteib

#History #Prehistory #Linguistics #Elephants #non-Sims

[sansimeonsims]

History Posts You Should Always Fact-Check: a non-exhaustive list

- “here’s the Secret Real Meaning behind this piece of traditional media!”

- “here’s the Secret One Single Practical/Biological/Oppression-Related Reason a certain clothing style or garment got popular!”

- (see above, but also for “etiquette rule” or “pattern of behavior”)

- “here’s the Secret Lone Person Responsible For A Widespread Social Issue or Form of Systemic Oppression!”

- “here’s the Secret Worldwide Conscious Conspiracy Being Enacted By All Modern Historians To Keep You From Knowing About [insert historical topic here]!”

#non-Sims

[sansimeonsims]

This is the official Discord server for both Kedatuan and San Simeon. Accept no substitutes.

(Reblogged to update the invite link.)

Kedatuan/San Simeon Official Discord Launch

Today, Republic Day, is the date I formally open the Kedatuan, San Simeon, and More official Discord server. Expect a few more updates in the coming days and weeks.

Here’s the invite. Hop on, read the rules, and enjoy your stay.

#Announcements #Kedatuan: Let's Build #San Simeon Sims #Official Discord

[sansimeonsims]

Welcome, my friends, to the Kedatuan

Kedatuan is San Simeon before the dawn of the colonial era. I’ve gotten as far as a complete map that’s partially built over. However, having others to help me out will make the project easier to finish. Thus, I decided to open up a Let’s Build invite and make this a community project to interested Sims 3 simmers.

The project formally opens on Republic Day, 4 July. By then, I would’ve finished the map and have everything set up.  I will be hosting the build’s discussions on a dedicated server on Discord.

It is open to all interested Sims 3 simmers on ModTheSims, Tumblr, and Discord. If you want to join in, drop me a line and I’ll have an invitation on or before the 4th of July. Learn more about the project here. Expect further details on the project will be available on opening day.

#Announcements #Kedatuan: Let's Build #Sims 3 Kedatuan

[sansimeonsims]

i saw a post today where someone stated that they often can't tell real information from misinformation online. i am not here to make fun of that person. that being said, the ability to figure out if information is real or not is a critical skill for everyone who uses the internet. you need to be able to do that on your own. it's great if you can get help or if people will tell you what's real and what's not, but you also need to be able to do it by yourself. simple, easy tips under the cut.

the most common style of misinformation i see on tumblr is the fake news headline. it's an image or multiple images of a headline and sometimes an attached story. easy tips to discovering whether this is real or not:

is there a link in the post? click it and see where it goes. no link? possibly fake, possibly the poster just didn't include it.

google the full headline, not just key words. even better, google the headline with the full headline in quotes so you get exact matches. can't find a match? probably fake.

is there a clear url/website attached to the headline? if so, go to the website and search for the headline. can't find a match? probably fake.

is there an author? google them. see if they're real. see if the subject of the article matches the stuff they usually write about. see if they have social media where they may have posted the headline. can't find an author, or they seem way off-track? probably fake.

is there a date? a story written in 2002 may have very different ramifications than a story written in 2022. it depends on the subject, but some subjects change rapidly and even a 5-year-old story may be out of date. see if you can find anything recent. if not, it may be fake or out of context.

go to google news and do a quick scan. this is going to work better for headlines that are about world news, but it's still worth a try. google news also allows you to search stories and limit by date. see if you can find a matching headline. if you can't, it may be fake or old news.

general tips:

don't trust social media. just don't. please. people can and will say literally anything they want. anything you read on social media that has real-world implications, you should fact-check.

you may think it's overkill, but google everything. even things you're mostly sure of. reading more headlines and more news can help you get better at discerning between real and fake headlines.

every source of information is biased in some way. try to seek out less biased sources. look up the bias media chart (here's a link) and use it to find sources that do less biased and more original reporting.

think about bias as you're reading. who is the author writing for? why are they writing? what do they want the audience to feel? what facts are they choosing to include or omit? how might the presentation of the facts change if someone with a different perspective was writing?

there are also websites dedicated to fact-checking. this works best for major world news, but try snopes or factcheck. the rand corporation has a huge list of tools for rooting out disinformation as well.

there's nothing wrong with asking for help, but if you genuinely cannot figure out if something is real or not on your own, and you give up trying to figure it out without help, you run the risk of believing and even spreading misinformation. some misinformation is essentially harmless (a celebrity's favorite color, for example). some misinformation is incredibly dangerous. please please PLEASE check your facts. it is quick and easy and worth it.

if you need more help, let me know.

#public service announcement #disinformation #fake news #helpful hints

[sansimeonsims]

An Announcement

Magandang araw po, mga kaibigan.

These past few months, I haven't done a lot of updates to San Simeon and my other Filipino-themed worlds. I've been going  through a few things in real life and current events aren't helping at all. Thus, I had to focus on my mental health and professional commitments. What little time I had for simming, I reserved for low commitment projects like the Praaven Cathedral.

To put it in the  most delicate possible words, shit happened. And the build up to it sucked the joy out of many of my projects. Our current social climate isn't exactly friendly to faithful depictions of history. This goes double for contemporary history past the Second World War. And this atmosphere is likely to get even more hostile moving forward.

What Now? 

While these events have made it rather stressful to make my content, it didn't dent my love for it. I would like nothing more than to share my country's history and culture with others. I am honored to share my work to both to my fellow Filipinos and to the international Sims 3 community. The work and goodwill I've earned from making San Simeon and its sister projects makes it all worth it.

I've already made 2 commitments that I plan to see through to the end. One is the a remade  San Simeon and the other is a precolonial version set before Spanish rule. Although I couldn't muster the mental energy to work on them, I can commit to at least finish them for everyone’s sake.

What I cannot promise is if I can continue my other world building project, Camayao. This is set in a more contemporaneous Philippines and had elements of social satire. At present, I live in a cultural zeitgeist where I could get a lot of grief for doing so. And that is putting it lightly.

This, coupled with the difficulty involved in its creation, makes Camayao a tall order on its own.  Events in the past few months was the final nail in the coffin for this project and others like it. I will not make any more contemporary Filipino-themed builds in the Sims 3 set in a time past 1945.

What Next?

That said, I've already done a lot of the individual buildings. It would be a crying shame to see them languish in some folder. Maybe they can find a good home with someone else.

What am I to do with the content already created?

Some will be released as individual lot files, depending on their level of completion.

Others will be released alongside San Simeon to fill in some of the newer lots I've added to the much larger world. This has the added benefit of making that other project less of a pain to finish.

If nothing else, my past efforts will hopefully not be consigned to obscurity.

Will I ever come back to Camayao as a full world building project? I can't say. Maybe someday, but then again maybe not. I’ve a lot on my plate personality-wise. I also have other things that interest me that won’t give me as much grief. After I finish, I will resume work on the Roman world and a few others I've had planned. 

Would I allow someone else to pick up where I left off? I'm not sure, but I am open to the idea. Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in adopting it yourself. As for my other, still active projects, that is a subject for another day.

On the Matter of Facebook

My projects first became truly popular on Facebook, where I enjoyed a brief moment of Internet fame as “the guy who made a Filipino-themed Sims 3 world.” Since then, I’ve created a page to have the Facebook people see some of my newer builds and appreciate Filipino history and culture.

In the past few months, however, I found it better for my mental health to ignore Facebook. Indeed, I find interacting on that site a mentally taxing chore. As pleasant as my success there was, I am not overly attached to my following there at all. In any case, the majority of any meaningful engagement I’ve had had been on Tumblr anyway. However, since part of my real-world jobs involve managing a Facebook page, I cannot disengage completely, even if I can ignore it for health purposes.

In the interest of my followers there, I will set things up so that they get alerted for my Tumblr uploads moving forward. I should have it done in a few days after this is published.

Closing Thoughts

I’d like to thank you all for being part of this journey of discovery with me. What began as a simple set of builds for a Filipino-themed legacy challenge eventually became an obsession that lasted nearly a decade. I enjoyed learning new things about my country’s history, and it felt nice knowing that it had an impact on not just myself but the Sims 3 community and my fellow Filipinos who stumbled upon it. The appreciation you all gave certainly helped keep me going.

We live in a time where knowing the truth of our past is in jeopardy. As the old Tagalog proverb goes, whoever can’t look back can never truly move forward. I’d like to close this statement with a line from Doc J. himself:

“But the generation that deciphers these characters will be an intelligent generation, it will understand and say, ‘Not all were asleep in the night of our ancestors!’“

#Announcements #It's been a Don Anastacio kind of week

[sansimeonsims]

we shouldn’t trust historians to teach us history because they are people with biases. instead we should learn from instagram influencers, who would never lie to us.

#food for thought #public service announcements

[sansimeonsims]

The Manila Cathedral rang its bells to the tune of Bayan Ko (”My Country”), a melancholic protest song from the dictatorship era that encapsulated the Filipino yearning for freedom during the dark days of the Marcos regime.

Now, if you feel attacked by this song (or indeed any content that marks Ferdinand Marcos as a cruel and rapacious tyrant), this tumblelog may not be for you. If you are open-minded and want to know more about this dark chapter in Philippine history, feel free to peruse this compendium of documents shared to me.

#Current events #Philippine history #36th Anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution #Martial Law Era #Marcos dictatorship #Never Again #non-Sims

[sansimeonsims]

Thanks to @grandelama‘s conversion of HolySimoly’s Old Mason architecture set, I finally have squarish half-columns that look exactly like the kind of architectural detail I would find in the masonry floors of old colonial-era buildings. And with this around, I can finally capture the appearance of some of those street scenes.

I’m still kind of looking for textures that match the preset in the conversions (alternately, I could try to remove it) but that’s an easier hurdle to overcome, especially given how object-intensive my colonial builds tend to be.

#sims 3 historical #Sims 3 San Simeon

[sansimeonsims]

And now for something completely different. The so-called Kingdom of Maharlika is a pseudohistorical conspiracy theory that posits a precolonial kingdom of the name that spanned the entire Philippine archipelago, North Borneo, and several Pacific islands. It’s basically an Austronesian irredentist fantasyland and it was made as political propaganda.

In truth, Maharlika referred to the Tagalog warrior classes, subservient to the aristocracy (maginoo in the Tagalog regions). No historical document from the time of the contact or earlier (see the bibliography) indicated anything of the sort by the time of Spanish colonization. Instead, pre-European contact Philippines was the site of several polities, often centered on a fortified city-state, and various indigenous cultures who eked a subsistence living alongside them.

Although the city-states could be very wealthy and sophisticated, they often did not exert anything other than soft power to the surrounding communities and tribes. The city-states and various smaller communities were largely independent of one another. Although smaller communities may be subservient to the paramount ruler of a larger state, they are legally the rulers of their own lands.This followed the Southeast Asian state model called the mandala, which differed from the traditional models of sovereignty used in Europe, the Middle East, and the Sinosphere. 

This is an exceptionally dicey thing for me to post here as the “Kingdom of Maharlika” and its chief proponents are tied to the propaganda machine of a specific political family. But far be it for me to let pseudohistory lie undisturbed.

#philippine history #pseudohistory #conspiracy theories #kingdom of maharlika #fact check #non-Sims