When simulation's lost its fun

I reinstalled The Sims and the first expansion pack on my computer last night, and played the game for a little while. It's still kind of fun, but it's very much just going through the motions at this point. There's really nothing new to do. I guess I still haven't really explored the last two expansion packs, but they didn't run very well on my computer. That was shortly before the hard disk crash, so maybe they wouldn't have as many problems now. Maybe I'll try reinstalling them, but as of now I'm thinking that can wait until the mysterious and possibly never-to-exist time known as When I Get A New Computer. Superstar really didn't strike me as that much fun anyway. It seemed to be too much work for very little reward. I'll probably still try making a Sim famous someday, though. Makin' Magic had more potential for fun, I think. I kind of long for the days when just playing the regular game was interesting and exciting. Then again, I remember not getting much else done back then. I've heard that The Sims 2 is coming out soon. I wonder what they've changed for that.

In other news, Camper Van Beethoven is scheduled to play at the TLA in September. At least, Pollstar says they're supposed to; the concert isn't listed on the band's own site. I guess I'll have to keep checking for information. I was hoping that a combination CVB/Cracker show would make it to Philadelphia, since I still haven't seen Cracker live, but CVB alone isn't too shabby. (Hmm, the letters "CVB" are right in a row on the keyboard. Never noticed that before.) If all goes as scheduled, this should be after their new album is released. It's annoying that so many shows I want to see are at the TLA, though. I guess that's because they're all too big for the Trocadero, but too small for the Electric Factory or Tower Theater. The Trocadero and Tower are close to public transportation, though, while the Electric Factory has relatively convenient parking areas. The TLA really isn't that close to anything. More convenient than the North Star Bar, I suppose, but still.

Today, I got e-mail notifications of really old replies to my livejournal comments. I'd seen them before, but I don't think I'd gotten the notifications through e-mail for those particular replies. Some kind of system glitch, I guess.