We're not building skull thrones

I've been doing a lot more Sims-playing as of late. One of my Sim couples (Cid and Jara Jamb-Smith) had a baby and successfully raised her into childhood. Taking care of babies in the original Sims was kind of irritating, or at least it was until I found out that it's six game-hours in between when you finish calming a baby and it starts crying again. In The Sims 2, I really don't know how long it is, but it actually seemed a little less difficult. And raising a toddler in the game is pretty easy, because you can see their needs, and have a certain amount of control over their actions (I had to keep stopping this particular one from playing with the toilet). The parents potty trained her and taught her to walk and talk. I'm not sure what would have happened if she'd grown to childhood status WITHOUT learning those things.

Anyway, what with all of my recent Simming, working, and convention-attending, I just got around to listening to the They Might Be Giants Valentine's Day podcast, and I must say it's a good one. Both John Flansburgh's "Valentine" and John Linnell's "Microphone" are cool songs, probably among the best new ones I've heard in recent podcasts. (Actually, I'm pretty sure I've heard "Valentine" before, but it was a while ago.) "Mexican Drill" sounds kind of like a whispered version of "Tigerella." "Contraption" is incredibly short, but fun. It reminds me of the songs they did for McSweeney's. And the Eugene Chadbourne song isn't bad, although I still haven't been particularly thrilled by anything of his that I've heard. The fact that he's worked with both TMBG and Camper Van Beethoven is definitely a point in his favor, but that doesn't automatically make his music good.