knarfmo

Nice location map. The night pics look good - I would love to see some daytime pics.

Very nice Continental Europe feel. I love the white cliffs!

Oooh! I'm very intrigued... but can I still have a fortune cookie?

Update: Introduction to the Nalsa Islands LONDON, July 8, 1984 Karl Kolnar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the new country of Ainkien, waited patiently at a formally dressed table in the East Imperial Hotel. His assistant, Mark Davidson, arrived with news that Bill Hayden would be joining them shortly. Indeed, it wasn’t more than a moment when the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs was ushered to the table. Both men were in London for the G7 Summit. Because neither Ainkien nor Australia were members of the G7, their roles were more as spectators. Still, this pre-arranged meeting was an additional reason for both diplomats to be in the British capital. After an exchange of pleasantries and the placing of drink orders, Mr. Hayden got straight to the point. “So. I suppose you want to discuss Site B”. Karl Kolnar was taken aback by Mr. Hayden’s directness, but wasn’t surprised that the Australian knew why he had called the meeting. If this was how it was going to be, then Kolnar would get right to the point too. “Well, yes. Ainkien has been overwhelmed with growth during its first few years. We project that we will be at full settlement within 10 years. The Ainkien Project is a huge success, and we think we might want to start looking at additional opportunities for expansion.” Bill Hayden glanced at the two Ainkienians thoughtfully with a slight grin. He couldn’t resist the opportunity to inject a little sarcasm into this conversation. “Are you sure, Mr. Kolnar, that the Nalsa Islands will meet your needs? I mean, obviously the Australian government thought it would have been the perfect site for Ainkien itself, but I know the Americans thought otherwise.” Hayden tapped his fingers on the table, then scratched his head. “Of course, a remote Ainkienian colony might be difficult to govern from half a world away – though, obviously, that never stopped the British from trying either.” Kolnar wasn’t surprised by this comment either. He had expected it, and planned to largely ignore it. Hayden wasn’t really going after two superpowers; he was making small talk. Kolnar smiled and continued with the conversation. “We’re simply exploring our options right now. As you are well aware, Mr. Hayden, the Ainkien Foundation still owns Site B and Site C. We only need to reach agreement for one of the sites to be transferred to Ainkien governance so that we can proceed with development and settlement, if indeed we do pursue this.” Hayden stroked his chin and took a deep breath. “So, Mr. Kolnar, what have the Canadians about Site C?”. “We haven’t talked to them about Site C. In fact, Site B is our preference.” Kolner was pleased with where this had headed so quickly. “Is the original agreement from 15 years ago still workable starting point?” “I think that is a good starting point. We would love to have an Ainkienian delegation to Canberra to discuss this.” “Sounds good to me,” Kolnar said, barely hiding his sense of relief. “I take it there are yet no plans to turn the islands into an Australian National Park”. “We had no plans to do so the whole time the Nalsa family owned them, and still no plans now that the Ainkien Foundation owns it either,” Hayden replied with a slight chuckle. Then he started to look a bit contemplative. “Bit of a dark history, those islands have…” Mark Davidson decided to chime in with optimism. “Let’s hope they have a bright future, then”. ================================================================= The purpose of this update is to introduce you to the Nalsa Islands, a dependency of Ainkien in the Tasman Sea. I'm going to juxtapose some overview "slides" about the Nalsas against a narrative describing the history of the Nalsas. Though these islands are an offshoot of the very young country of Ainkien, they come with a unique history of their own. In 1877, Presbyterian minister Ian Stanley led a group of 49 members of his congregation in Aberdeen Scotland, on a long voyage to establish a new colony in Australia. Stanley hoped to create a community based on the Christian principles of charity, honesty and the common good. While Stanley’s group stopped for an extended rest in Cape Town, South Africa, Jan Nalsa, the son of a Norwegian Farmer from Bloemfontein, had recently moved to Cape Town and fell in love with Stanley’s daughter Mary. With war between the Boers and the English looming in South Africa, Jan Nalsa decided to join Stanley’s group. Five months after they had originally set out from Aberdeen, Stanley’s group arrived in Melbourne, Australia. Unfortunately, Ian Stanley hadn’t made arrangements for land for his new colony. Instead, he had faith the God would provide an opportunity for his community. Indeed, only a few weeks after their arrival in Melbourne, Stanley met a wealthy New Zealander businessman, John Stanton. Mr. Stanton owned significant pieces of land in New Zealand and was intrigued by Stanley’s idea for a religion-based village. John Stanton offered Stanley the opportunity to use the land, provided that the community would buy it out-right once the community was established and productive Stanley agreed, and, with funds running low, the group bought an old sailing ship called the Mona Vale for the journey. They set out for New Zealand three weeks after that. Stanton had provided peculiar but simple directions to his land holdings. He told Stanley’s navigator to head south and east of Melbourne, but then to follow the 40 degree latitude line once the ship cleared Flinders Island. Unfortunately, the navigator had drunk one pint too many when he received those instructions and wrote down “41”. Moreover, no one in Stanley’s group and the two crew they hired had much experience with such old fashioned sailing ships as the Mona Vale. Stanley and his group were surprised when they got to “New Zealand” in half the time that Stanton told them to expect. But the weather and wind had been perfect for sailing, and the group arrived one week before Christmas 1877. Stanton credited Providence for their good fortune and thanked God for their quick arrival in his landfall prayer with the congregation. They quickly set out to construct a small village and named it New Aberdeen. They planted crops, fished for food, and erected a small chapel to use until they had resources to build a full sized church. By February 1878 supplies were running low, so Stanton sent an expedition to Dunedin, New Zealand to gather supplies. The Mona Vale, however, simply went around the island. Dumbfounded, the ship’s navigator suggested that perhaps Mr. Stanton owned a small island near New Zealand’s south island. Stanley ordered a second expedition. This group returned to New Aberdeen when they saw no sign of land east of the island after sailing for only one day. Stanley sent out a third expedition, but this time back to Melbourne, with explicit instructions to consult Royal Navy officials about their location. The minister was beginning to doubt that they had arrived in New Zealand. The expedition returned with supplies, mail and news that the group had indeed found a remote island group. The Royal Navy had to check the maps and logs of four ships before they could find a reference to the islands. Royal Navy officials told Stanley’s expedition that they were welcome to settle the islands, but that they would need to register with the Tasmanian government office. Knowing that the colonists lacked supplies, however, the expedition returned to New Aberdeen without contacting anyone in Tasmania. One year later, a Methodist minister back in Britain named Richard Milton had heard of Stanley’s idea for a Christian Colony, and decided to follow in Stanley’s footsteps. Milton and 35 from his congregation left Leeds in April of that year and largely followed the same path that Stanley did. Shortly after their arrival in Melbourne, Richard Milton also met John Stanton, who happened to again be serendipitously visiting Melbourne on business while pilgrims were in town. Stanton told Milton that Stanley’s group had never arrived on the land he promised them in New Zealand. He had hoped it was because Stanley had found alternate accommodations, but feared that Stanley’s ship had been lost in the Tasman Sea. He made Milton the same offer for land that he had made to Stanley. Milton accepted. Milton’s group hired a steam ship for the trip to New Zealand in August 1879. Milton’s ship was blown slightly off course by a storm, and they stumbled upon Stanley’s islands. Wondering if they had arrived in New Zealand, Milton asked that the ship conduct a search to locate a settlement so that they might know their location. They found New Aberdeen. Elated by this discovery, both Stanley and Milton agreed to join efforts in New Aberdeen. For the next seven years, life went on in New Aberdeen. Growth was slow – no other pilgrims came to join in – but the colonists kept connected with the outside world through trips to Melbourne or, occasionally, Dunedin or Christchurch. The Royal Navy would check in every other year. Other than that, no one visited the islands. Then, on Good Friday in 1886 two strange ships arrived in the bay near where New Aberdeen was located and changed the course of the colony’s history forever. The accounting for what happened that day has been documented by the Royal Navy and preserved in archives in Melbourne. According to the accounts of survivors from New Aberdeen, pirates sailed in to Penguin Harbour with the intent to rob and pillage New Aberdeen. At first the intrusion was not violent, but the men of the village tried to resist. The result was a very bloody battle between the settlers and the pirates. Half of the colony was killed, including most of the men who had not gone with the Mona Vale on the recent trip to Melbourne. In a follow-up analysis, Royal Navy officials surmised that the pirates may have been tipped-off by the French Navy, as a way to scare off the settlers so that the French could claim the islands. However, this assertion has never been proven. Ian Stanley died of mortal wounds a few days after the initial battle, while Richard Milton only suffered minor injuries. Knowing the extent of loss to their community and uncertainty about how safe its future would be, Stanley encouraged Milton to lead the people back to Melbourne. Milton did lead almost all of the survivors back to Australia, where they eventually went different ways. But one family remained behind to try to farm the island: that of Jan and Mary Nalsa. Jan Nalsa tried farming a variety of crops until he decided that the best approach would be to make most of his living through cattle ranching. Jan’s only son to survive the pirate attack, Peter, continued the operation through World War I. Then, Peter’s sons Abel and Jacob work the ranch. When Abel died while fighting in World War II, Jacob left in a small plane for Melbourne to bring back Abel’s body to bury on the island, but never arrived in Melbourne. No one knows what happened to him. The two surviving wives moved to Melbourne with their families after World War II. The descendents of Jan Nalsa who held title in the islands had little interest in living there. They tried to convince the Australian government to buy the islands for a national park, but the Australian government concluded that the location was too remote to justify use as a park. When the lease on a small airstrip for the Royal Australian Airforce expired in 1970, the government didn’t renew the lease. The Nalsa family had nearly given up on the idea of being able to sell the island when a group of businessmen suddenly bought the entire island group in 1974. The family knew it was to be used for a large development project – they pictured it being some sort of resort – but weren’t surprised when those plans were abandoned several years later. They heard that the resort was built in America instead.

Okay: What's up with this? Did some large Hobbit take a picture of himself at the Lord of the Rings convention and somehow attach it to custom content so it's showing up on my art museum EVERY time? Is this some monk in prayer who's attached to some aspect of the NAM? Or, is this actually original Maxis content? Is there a way to make it go away? Just wondering... Really, I am working on an update for the Nalsa Islands. The thing is, I'm going to kick it off with another story so I just need to get it written up. Stay tuned...

good start - some interesting roadwork there...

Nice work - your city reminds me of Chicago. I, too, loved the tunneled sunken highway picture.

Very interesting start! Nice work with your CJ entries.

Cool trading cards!

Quasi-update: While doing a short "let and grow" session in Barr Haven to see if some new BATs could be introduced there, I queried on the "busiest rail station in Ainkien", Lafayette Station, and found it was still busy. But I had also connected the station to bus and underground service, and look at what has happened (this is near the "four corners area" where the main parts of the Newcastle Metro area, four different sim cities, come together - I talked about the traffic problems this creates in my Manchester Downs update). Okay, yeah Lafayette Station is busy... Whoa! Where did all of these bus riders come from?? Ah - they're taking the Underground! (Newcastle Underground Rail Transit = NURT)

Great update - unique skyscrapers and cool passport. Best of luck with your Simlympics bid!

Great job. It looks just like Soviet Russia.

Very neat CJ concept. I've enjoyed what you posted so far. Nice work with the transport network.

Very, very nice work!

Good CJ concept - I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Interesting and realistic North American grid system. Good job!

Ah, mysterious Toronto... looks good so far. Looking forward to trolley cars and the CN tower.

wow - this is a big buildup for a CJ update. I was wondering what was going to happen on October 5th... I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

I like your banner and coat of arms. I can't wait to see the region.

I want to see traffic volume maps when this gets built: will the SIMS use the freeway or pick some little side street and sit in traffic....

Nice roadwork - very interesting - and good work on your pedestrian bridges too.

I have the same problem. I can't say that it happens on all custom lots, but it happens on most. The second problem I have is that it renames every copy of that file the same thing in that whole city. So, for example, if I rename at rail station East Station, all of the stations that are the same custom lot are renamed East Station (then I exit the game and come back and everything is back to the default lot name.

Well done, and very realistic!

First, New Zealand is definitely one of the most beautiful places on planet earth. I hope I get to visit there one day. Second, I completely relate to your struggles to get a bridge to build. The result looks great!

How strange. My last two posts are missing. (the update and the page bug notice). Update: Now they are back. Go figure.