Yes, he's been quite helpful there, too.  I think he's spreading himself pretty thin.

I read over at MTS2 that there was a bug with love potion 8.5 (?)

Yay! - My husband's late Uncle, said they did this as kids a long time ago.  They called them 'Meadow Muffins' and would put them in a paper bag on someone's front porch, knock on the door and run off into the bushes to watch the fun.  If they really didn't like someone they would set them ablaze on the front walk.

I am so glad you said that about NL.  I bought it the day after it came out and have been hesitant about installing it and debating on whether to uninstall Uni.  I have been reading about problems with Uni not working after NL was installed.  I have several teens I need to move from campus, if that's the case.  I guess I will just take a test drive and hope I don't lose anything.  I have several babies on the way and I'd like to get them at least to toddlers before things get hinky.

I always had the problem of removing a pool and the water tiles remaining behind.  I had to lay another floor tile on top of them and then delete it in order to remove the 'water'.



Sorry, I have never had this happen, nor have I seen it mentioned before.

Love it!  That should become the new name for Retardo Land.

Ooo, I really like the sound of this, not just for the story lines, but the actual concept for game play.  I can't wait to see how the events build and unfold.  You have such good ideas, Reg, always original.

Welcome back and you should check with your insurance company on the loss of literary creation and tangibles, at least for future protection.  Afterall, you are only playing the Sims to prime your creative genius and give embodiment to your prolific imagination.  We could all vouch for your contributions, not to mention all the people who hit the EA site to read your stories. ~smile~

Glad to know you are OK and getting things back together.

I wonder if you can put the basket of food in inventory instead of the fridge?  Someone at MTS2 had a hack for leftovers.

Found it - there's one for Pizza and one for Turkey: MTS2. 

We should be able to put any unused bottles of Smart Milk in inventory, too.  If you can put a grave in inventory, than it must allow just about anything that is moveable.  So much to play with and try.

Well, there is the death of Sims interacting in play with Toddlers, specifically the Rabbit Head.  TwoJeffs became interested in our find and did some checking into this phenomenon.  He found that the game does not check for motive failure and so he came up with a fix to correct this.

Basically anything using the code for '0x85' (set to next Sim/Neighbor) that causes 'Too Many Sims Overflow'  - such as age transitions, final exams, going steady, Pollination Tech, corrupt death involving no tombstones or inheritence, birthday party wants, computer chatting, incorrect accounting for Secret Society friends causing no abductions, moving out bug.

Pregnant Sims unable to visit Community Lots without dropping dead.

Hopefully some of these have already been addressed with the upcoming release of the Stand Alone Patch, but you may wish to visit and compare notes with this thread at the official site (The Sims 2 BBS > Expansion Pack Discussions > University > "buglist version 7") where 135 bugs, glitches and the infamous critical overflows were identified.

That is a great tip, Dave, Thank you.

Inge has a special Cake, too - It will actually add a day back to their life and she has updated it for NL.

Find it here.

I know you are kidding - Girl, this is the age of handheld technology! ~wink~

I know that Greg/SimsHost, just relocated to a new job in Houston, but for now his home is still North of Dallas.  I pray that he makes it safely home to his family and that he is well on the road.  If he gets here, I know he will check in as soon as he can.

Rita is due to hit us here in North Texas by tomorrow and I am afraid Greg may be chased by the storm all the way home.
   

Look at this article that appeared (unsolicited) in my personal email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

An Objectivist Review

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

September 2, 2005

It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster. If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild. Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting. But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster. The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by  Hurricane Katrina.
This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has the story wrong. The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view. The man-made disaster is the welfare state. For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New  Yorkers to September 11).

So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?
To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story: "Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on. "The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire.... "Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders. "'These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the streets,' she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.' "

The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this article shows National Guard troops, with rifles and armored vests, riding on an armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them. It looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad. What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to drive away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Super Dome? Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them? My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage last night on Fox News Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She studied
architecture at the Illinois Institute of Chicago, which is located in the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime and irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.) What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"--the informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most news channels--gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional, crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so they just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa. There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.
All of this is related, incidentally, to the apparent incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. But in a city corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to ensure the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political supporters--not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of emergency. No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan.
The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism. What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do hey worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them. The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans.
 
And that is the story that no one is reporting.

JM, you should be going for the liver anyway, not the spleen - There's at least a market for the livers.

I'm an eye person, specifically direct eye contact.  I can make men very uncomfortable by just maintaining my focus this way.  I have noticed though, that men can't talk and maintain eye contact at the same time - Why?  Is this considered multi-tasking, like when they try talking and driving at the same time?

Judgecat - I would love to live in one of the vaults they have in the mountains there in Salt Lake. 

I know there are replacement eyes, but I seemed to remember seeing some contacts for the black alien eyes, too.  Hold on a minute...

Here is the link and a picture:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=66023&highlight=Alien+eyes
http://216.32.95.38:81/images6/MTS2_67377_brainchildvn_Contacts_CollectionA.jpg

This is a new game feature - Rivalry.  One of the things a rival Sim will do is try and steal your Sim's Date away with some unsolicited flirting and then provoke your Sim into a fight in hopes of taking your place.

Do you have the 'pee yellow' hack?  I read that this creates problems with the headstones all becoming platinum regardless of death type and other death related things.  I don't know how, but I read about it over at MTS2.

Here is that link:

http://www.insimenator.net/viewtopic.php?t=403

Someone mentioned JM's hack and said that it removes All free-will from Sims in Night Life.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=90156&highlight=hacks+Night

How about a Vampire/Zombie/Alien?  I heard you can have those, too.

Ewww, the thought of the skin color alone makes me nauseous.

Breastfeeding would be a bitch.


I guess Inge will have to tweak her 'no sleeping in...' hack, or come out with a Reservable coffin.

Carrigon has done something along this line - She's so into that stuff anyway.

Yeh, but look whose eyes are behind those glasses!  Danni, you don't have a male brain, you just think like a man should think if they could and it drives them crazy.  That doesn't make you a freak, it makes you powerful.

I am not Mormon, but I do have something to say in their favor.  They are very family oriented and whenever the head of household is unable to work, their family is cared for.  They are completely supported by their Ward, until they can get back on their feet again - but during the other times they are expected to tithe a specific portion of their income.  They encourage large families, but they also help send those children to college when the time comes.  The other thing that I can't help but admire and at the same time find a bit disturbing, is their lifelong commitment to learn, practice, plan and survive a World-wide devastation of Biblical proportions.  I am serious, they hold classes on survival through preparation technique and stockpiling of reserves.  Did you know that you can survive on grass clippings put through the blender with water?  Since they are also largely to thank for the mass volumes of Genealogy data to which we have access for researching our family trees throughout the world, I have little to complain about in their beliefs.

Greg,

In college I was accused of being just a tiny bit in favor of Socialism whenever I wrote a paper - but I had a notorious family name, so I could not escape the obvious bias.  I have always liked this approach, though you do need an administrator you can trust and who will be equitable and above corruption.  Herein lies the real problem and the reason this plan would struggle as a viable option.  However, as an example I will use my husband's grandfather - the most honorable man I have ever known.

Just before the Great Depression hit here in the US, Grandpa achieved his goal of becoming a Fire Fighter.  It wasn't the life dream of a little boy, just a practical approach to the times.  He had worked hard towards this goal both for himself and his younger brothers, who would follow his example.  He was very patient and as soon as the City announced openings, he applied, took the examine and passed the physical requirements.  He was a newlywed and though children were not yet in the picture, they soon would be and before the Depression ended.

His two brothers by this time, both had families of their own, but were not yet on the Fire Department as was planned.  Naturally, the FD like everyone else had to put a freeze on new hires - at least current jobs were not cut, for which so many had suffered this loss.  The two brothers worked at whatever and as many jobs as they could get, but it was still not enough to support them and their families.  After much consideration of logistics, Grandpa came up with a plan and called a family meeting with his two brothers.  Since he had a secure job with benefits he proposed that they should all pool their earnings and support their families as a unit.  They did not all live together, but there would be no squabbling about 'mine' and 'theirs' - it was now 'ours' - and though no one would go without basic needs, they all understood that necessities now had a new meaning.  Since Grandpa was the eldest and had the most 'money sense', he agreed to handle all their finances.  He paid all their bills, put food on the table, bought the clothes they needed and paid the doctor for services when they were ill.  

I am happy to report that they all made it through the Depression with self-esteem intact and renewed enthusiasm for their future.  As soon as the FD was hiring again, Grandpa's brothers were able to apply and both were hired.  Even though this is a small-scale example, this idea, in my belief, does work.

Don't worry about your Sims.  My youngest daughter is in college living in a dorn and she says this is not at all unusual in real life.  There are kids that wear their big fluffy slippers, too, especially during exams week.

The old-fashioned doughnuts here are denser and cake-like and also deep fried.  They are quite a bit heavier and not glazed like the lighter, soft yeast-risen doughnuts.  They are usually just coated with granualated sugar, sugar and cinnamon or powdered confectioners' sugar.  Some places still make the old style with an extra side piece so it can be used as a handle for dunking in your tea or coffee and these are not usually coated at all.

We also have the yeast-risen, filled doughnuts, that have every artery clogging ingrediant that can possibly be incorporated into any one food.  They generally have at least a glaze, but most bakeries and consumers are not satisfied with stopping here.  The jelly-filled doughnuts, particularly with lemon curd, and a light granulated sprinkle of sugar are just fine in their simplicity.  The typical ring doughnuts are the same as the filled in respect to all the extras on top.  I don't know how they can get some much stuff on it and still hold it's shape.

I am not a doughnut fan, but I do like shortbread with my tea and yes, I admit I am a tea drinker not coffee.  My mother has made a pot of tea every morning for her entire life, this is one part of my heritage I can't let go.  Every Christmas I make her a Seed cake and she always gets a little teary-eyed with memories of home and her mother.