Pinstar's new Apocalypse challenge

[Sketch Elder]

I still don't see how you all are maxing the teen's skills so easily.

My founder brought a Smart Milk dispenser with him from college, so my kids are learning faster than normal. Thanks to the Smart Milk effect, my Toddlers have been managing 9 Logic and about 4 to 5 Charisma. The Children have added at least 3 Body, 7 Cooking, 7 Cleaning, and 7 Mechanical. Maxing the Body skill has taken about one day using Yoga, the Lie Finder took care of Creativity, and that just leaves a few skill points in each of the other skills. Logic has been the difficult one until now, but they just bought a chess table. I've been doing my best to keep the protection costs down but the businesswoman my heir married needs the Logic.

I can't even work on creativity unless they get a teen career in criminal and they can't do that until they have 10 body.

Teens can get a job without max Body skill as long as they don't actually go to work. The purpose of taking the job is learning the skill that goes with it, so I don't mind if my Teens have to skip work.
Any Sim can max skill pretty quickly with the Lie Finder or most other career rewards. Ask another Sim for a lesson. When the lesson starts, ask for another lesson without stopping the first one. Continue asking for more lessons until you are satisfied with the learning speed.

As soon as my simkids grow into teens (and I do mean, the day they grow up), they're off to college with whatever scholarship money they have...Since I know they will leave as soon as they're teens, I don't worry about the 10 body requirement for teens...It'll really be moot when Law Enforcement unlocks.

I believe Teens need 10 Body skill to leave the lot for any reason, including college, until the Law Enforcement restrictions are lifted.

[rhodaloo]

Jello was disallowed?   I don't remember reading that anywhere! 

[Sagana]

Alvaron, I think what you're saying only works if you have unlocked science (or natural science and aspiration rewards) with the founder/spouse or if you brought elixir from college (and have enough of it). I'm just starting week 6, which means I'm around day 35/36 or so. I unlocked medical and culinary and didn't bring either elixir or smart milk from uni (another dumb mistake, but still

My founder hit the top of her career and started having kidlets as fast as she could - so there's 6 of 'em basically 3 days apart - baby born, immediately pregnant again. The oldest was stuck with the entire teenage period - no Uni and no elixir either, and her siblings will be as well untill she unlocks military. As they're only a few days behind her, at least 2 of them will have to go through the whole period (one's almost there, and the other right behind him).

The 4th child has also already transitioned to teen so will not be leaving the day he transitions either As I didn't have any way to force age the teens, I'm wondering if I wouldn't have been smarter to space them out more and give the eldest time to grow up.

Since you've unlimited room in college for YAs, there is no need for more than 3 generations.

Why do you need 3? Seems like 2 should do it easily. (Or are you counting the founder as 1?) Founder and spouse and 6 kids = 8, one child's spouse = 9, that child needs to have 4 kids, one of whom has a spouse and that's all 14 unlocks. Once military is unlocked, as each of the generation unlocks something, they move out, leaving room for the heir to have the 5 babies. And if you have elixir, the heir has plenty of time anyways.

From other posts:

Teens can get a job without max Body skill as long as they don't actually go to work. The purpose of taking the job is learning the skill that goes with it, so I don't mind if my Teens have to skip work.

If they skip work for any reason, they have to quit their job and if they quit, they aren't currently working in the career so they can't use the career reward. Could fudge around and get several days, but I'd put that on my personal 'cheating' list myself.

I believe Teens need 10 Body skill to leave the lot for any reason, including college, until the Law Enforcement restrictions are lifted.

Until military is lifted. If I'm correctly understanding, when his eldest child hit teen, he had him/her drink elixir in green or red or something and lose years of their life... does that really make 'em turn into an adult immediately? (has never tried it) but anyway, he made them an immediate adult in military and then ran through that career quickly enough that the rest could move on to Uni as soon as they transitioned (they must have been farther apart than 3 days tho - I don't believe it took less than 3 days to max the military career

[daedreem]

As soon as my simkids grow into teens (and I do mean, the day they grow up), they're off to college with whatever scholarship money they have. Unless you're playing the Apocalypse Challenge as a Legacy handicap, it serves no purpose to crank on skills your sims don't need for their unlock. The exception might be those sims who need to teach their siblings and their children but, since I use elixir to keep my permaplat founder alive, I don't need other fully max'ed out sims in the house.

..... Since I know they will leave as soon as they're teens, I don't worry about the 10 body requirement for teens.

Here's a clarification from pinstar in this thread...

9. The "Can't Leave Lot without a 10 body" restriction on Law Enforcement applies to teenage sims who wish to attend college. The challenge is designed to make it hard to return to college. After all, higher learning isn't possible until society as restabilized a bit.

So, unless you are ignoring it because it's not on the official site yet... You made an oopsie.

ALSO

Someone else mentioned they hadn't gotten their sim up to the top level of a career before they turned elder, and that they'd forgotten the elder would have to quit the job.
Untrue.
Elders can KEEP their job... they just can't RETIRE. It's keep the job, or quit.
That is actually clear enough in the original rules as I have them printed off the site.

I'm glad I perused the rules today... My simteen firstborn CAN'T go to college.. But I'd planned to get him a job and actually let him attend. I'd forgotten about the 10 body requirement applying for jobs too. (I rememberred it applied to college) I don't think that lazy (2... and both his parents a 6 or above) good for noting can build up to 10 body points in his LIFETIME much less how much (a week maybe?) teenhood he has left...  I'm trying to get him a spouse that already has body to unlock military for his much younger siblings.

[Sagana]

Sorry about that, there's a lot of rules

The 10 body thing is law enforcement, going to uni is in military, so I guess they need both to go to college?

I was the one talking about the elder having to quit his job. He's a spouse, started at the top of his career, and I wasn't paying attention to him. He had to quit because he doesn't have 10 body. I could have had him get it, but like I said, I wasn't paying attention.

[daedreem]

Sorry about that, there's a lot of rules

The 10 body thing is law enforcement, going to uni is in military, so I guess they need both to go to college?

I was the one talking about the elder having to quit his job. He's a spouse, started at the top of his career, and I wasn't paying attention to him. He had to quit because he doesn't have 10 body. I could have had him get it, but like I said, I wasn't paying attention.

Ah! Gotya.

I thought you were referencing the "can't retire, must quit" rule without remembering the "If they want to stop working" part.

Yeah, to go to college, they need either Military and 10 body points, or military and law enforcement.
As I said, since my teen's spouse is to unlock military for me, I wasn't worried about body points...  But I do need to remember he can't get a job either. His dad wanted an overacheiver, so I thought I'd get him a job at about 4 days to adult.

Now to decide if to torture him trying to get body, or just let him wait until he's an adult before getting a job. (except maybe for getting a criminal job on his day off so he can get some creativity, If I'm lucky. His mom's going to get a criminal job to get him the reward, I think.)

[rohina]

Your teen's spouse? I smell a hack that could be defined as giving an advantage...

[vcline]

OK, I'm confused.  What good does it do for the founder to bring back the smart milk dispenser or the elixir since no one can use any aspiration reward until alien technology is unlocked, which needs natural science unlocked so someone can use the telescope to be abducted, or stargaze/watch clouds to get the satellite?  It seems to me the first job should be natural science.

I'm in the middle of my second try, because my first founder didn't graduate perma-plat and was always coming home from work in the red, so he seldom got promoted.  I didn't have him date in college, which was a big mistake, but my next one is doing better.  In fact, is it even possible to do this challenge without the founder being perma-plat?

[rohina]

You can use aspiration rewards brought back by the founder. You just can't replace/recharge them when they run out.

[vcline]

Gotcha.  Thanks, Rohina!

[daedreem]

I have 2 careers unlocked, and (admittedly I made an error and used the PC to get his job) my founder wasn't permaplat... neither is his spouse. their firstborn is a teen.

I haven't had any issues with their aspirations. Even tho they can't date any longer, if you pick an 'attractive' spouse, flirt/check sim out generally will add at least one acheivable want that can add more as it's done. my sims have rarely hit green.

--As per the aspiration rewards from the backpack.. I did think only the founder could use those... no one else. - smartmilk could be used if he made the bottles, but otherwise I thought other sims couldn't benefit.

It may be however that the same rules don't apply to them as apply to the personal electronics.

[daedreem]

Your teen's spouse? I smell a hack that could be defined as giving an advantage...

Or else you're smelling like you didn't read the previous post where I spoke of this.

My simteen firstborn CAN'T go to college.. But I'd planned to get him a job and actually let him attend. I'd forgotten about the 10 body requirement applying for jobs too. (I rememberred it applied to college) I don't think that lazy (2... and both his parents a 6 or above) good for noting can build up to 10 body points in his LIFETIME much less how much (a week maybe?) teenhood he has left...  I'm trying to get him a spouse that already has body to unlock military for his much younger siblings.

Followed by:

As I said, since my teen's spouse is to unlock military for me, I wasn't worried about body points...  But I do need to remember he can't get a job either. His dad wanted an overacheiver, so I thought I'd get him a job at about 4 days to adult.

I can see the confusion.. but as you see, no hack is involved.. I simply omitted the word 'future' as an 'understood without saying'.

He's now friends with his FUTURE spouse, working on best friendship, so that he will be able to invite her over, flirt, and propose within a day or 2 of adulthood.

[Sagana]

About platinum founders:
My founder and her spouse aren't permaplat either. She's a family sim with the LTW to reach golden anniversary or whatever that silliness is. She came home with all skills maxed except one, full platinum and a locked want to max cooking, and the gain a cooking skill point want that just kindly rerolled up (I left the last on purpose so she'd have a nice big boost if she needed it.)

The first week and a half, while she was getting to the top of the medical career (took a few days to find the right job, then she jumped 2 levels on the same day twice, but there was some 'not working time in there), she really didn't do anything but meditate. And I played it all on speed 3 :p. She didn't even sleep, much except if she was really tired when she came home. If she needed to top up, I invited her hubby to be (they were already engaged) over and filled a few 'flirt' and 'kiss' or whatever wants, and let her finish up the last cooking at some point.

Her hubby's Fortune (which I could have done without) but he was already at the top of his career, so I didn't care very much how happy he is, really. And he hasn't been so bad. I bought him a couple of things that were legal and he asked for (a frig, a shower (after she unlocked medical), a chess board, a high chair for the baby, junk like that - oh I think I put a bar down face to the driveway at some point, and I've never been able to decide if they're allowed to play pinball, so I gave him one but don't let him play it) and he's not too bad otherwise, though he insists on rolling "get the kids into private school, kids be overachievers, kid go to college junk - I let them apply for scholarships even tho they aren't going to make him happy and he's good about rolling a want to write a best-selling novel and some flirt stuff for his wife here and there :) He'll never get his LTW as he's the one I messed up and didn't get to the top of criminal before he became elder without 10 body pts. Oh well.

About rewards from Uni:

I looked and looked in the rules and all the boards and didn't find anywhere it says only the sim that brings them can use the aspiration rewards (though I could easily be missing something) - it just says when they're gone, they're gone and you have to delete them (suits me, what use is a used up energizer taking up space? :) I thought that way at first though, so I had my sim drink all the elixir (so she had enough time to have lots of babies) - if it would work to age them up past teen quick, it'd been smarter to give the oldest child some of it. But oh well. I've done lots of dumb things now :) An energizer was really almost no use at all - I'd *much* rather have smart milk.

As I said, since my teen's spouse is to unlock military for me, I wasn't worried about body points...

So the teen is unlocking Law Enforcement and the spouse-to-be is unlocking military? I guess that's what I'll have to do if I want some of them to go to Uni, but it's not what I intended <sigh> too many things to take into consideration :)

I haven't even decided for sure which kid is going to be heir. I think I'll have the oldest, a female get to the top of her career as her mother did, then marry and start birthin' babies, as I have to get some of the folks out of the house anyway before I can have the other 5 kids - by that time, either Uni will be open, moving will be, or at the very least, the founder and her hubby will die and then she can (like her mom) quit her job and take care of the little ones. Tho if her mom's still around, she could do that and the heir can get a 2nd job for the reward items.

Another question - good strategic use of being poor and buying the right things back first to pay the mob will let me not have enough money to buy back stuff I don't want anyway and is just taking up space. Is that cheating? It doesn't say (so far as I can see) anything about what order I have to buy them in (I'm not using the money thing, I'm literally deleting and rebuying) so when the spouse showed up with 3 expensive telescopes and I didn't have that much money, obviously I bought those back last and only kept 1, and then when I had a 3rd crib and wanted to get rid of it, I just didn't finish the novel until after I paid the mob and bought everything else back first - so I didn't have enough to rebuy the extra one. It'd even be possible to, for example, buy some expensive 1 tile counters (so you can move them around) to make yourself too poor to rebuy a bed or some other big thing so you can't buy it back and later buy a new one and put it where you want it.

[Queenofsimtopia]

If you have a female founder, before hopelessness is restricted, can you get her pregnant?  Or do you need to wait til their spouse moves in with them?  Sorry if this is a stupid question, I was just wondering...

[Sagana]

You can get her pregnant, but you can't hire a nanny, and you can't miss work for any reason (including the pregnancy days and toddler days) or you have to quit your job and can't take that career again. If you time it right, you can go to work the first day, have the next two days be weekend days for that job (whatever they are, in the right careers) and immediately go back to work, but you need someone to take care of the baby or she won't go.

PS: There's nothing that says your founder has to lift a restriction at all. If you wanted, you could just get her pregnant and let her quit jobs and have babies at appropriate times and not lift any restrictions until the babies were old enough... but I think that'd be hard

[daedreem]

As I said, since my teen's spouse is to unlock military for me, I wasn't worried about body points...

So the teen is unlocking Law Enforcement and the spouse-to-be is unlocking military? I guess that's what I'll have to do if I want some of them to go to Uni, but it's not what I intended <sigh> too many things to take into consideration

Actually, he's probably going to do politics. Maybe slacker. Something that doesn't require body points.
His younger siblings have more activity points, so should be able to build a 10 body.
His dad (now an elder) HAS 10 body.
His Mom doesn't, but is bugged so she cannot get a job anyway. (sigh) I even tried on the computer to see if it was just the newspaper that was bugged, after she'd tried repeatedly to get a job.

[Alvaron]

Alvaron, I think what you're saying only works if you have unlocked science (or natural science and aspiration rewards) with the founder/spouse or if you brought elixir from college (and have enough of it).

That's correct. My founder unlocked Medical and her spouse unlocked Science, choosing the elixir as the unlocked aspiration reward.

I'm just starting week 6, which means I'm around day 35/36 or so. I unlocked medical and culinary and didn't bring either elixir or smart milk from uni (another dumb mistake, but still

Medical+Culinary is a good pair of initial unlocks, so long as you've a plan to get the first heir through puberty quickly so that Military can be unlocked. Lack of computers makes me crazier than I already am  so Science is a must for me. Being stuck with only level 3 jobs for non-college adults and only three job offers per day is maddening. Gotta love it when you grab the paper and the only offer is one job, and one that  is in a track already blocked by the Slacker restrictions. After that happened to me in my second attempt at the challenge, I swore I'd unlock Science as soon as possible.
 

As I didn't have any way to force age the teens, I'm wondering if I wouldn't have been smarter to space them out more and give the eldest time to grow up.

Maybe. Unless you've unlocked computers, there's not a whole lot of difference between college graduates and high school graduates with respect to job hunting. Were I in your shoes, I'd've done the same thing: had sim kids as fast as possible.

Why do you need 3? Seems like 2 should do it easily. (Or are you counting the founder as 1?)

Yes, I'm counting the founder as the first generation and your math is dead on.

Until military is lifted. If I'm correctly understanding, when his eldest child hit teen, he had him/her drink elixir in green or red or something and lose years of their life... does that really make 'em turn into an adult immediately? (has never tried it)

That's correct. It took longer than I thought it would because I couldn't get him to spin off "Grow Up Well". His aspiration meter was hovering near red and zoomed up when he grew into a teen. It was painful having some of his fears come to pass but necessary to get him into the red so it wouldn't take a zillion tanks of elixir.

It works just like you expect: once his age bar hits zero days left, "Grow Up" appears or you can use a birthday cake to transition him into an adult.

but anyway, he made them an immediate adult in military and then ran through that career quickly enough that the rest could move on to Uni as soon as they transitioned (they must have been farther apart than 3 days tho - I don't believe it took less than 3 days to max the military career

Close. He was Culinary and his wife was Level 9 military. She unlocked the Military track the day after they got married by going to work in platinum aspiration.

[Kyna]

I don't think that lazy (2... and both his parents a 6 or above) good for noting can build up to 10 body points in his LIFETIME much less how much (a week maybe?) teenhood he has left...

I used encourage when my sims had kids that lacked the ability to meditate or spongebathe or were just too damn lazy.  Fortunately it was only one or two that needed encouragement.  Later in the challenge when the remaining restrictions are reduced to mere irritations, it wasn't necessary.  In my second attempt there was one spouse that I really wanted to encourage as he couldn't meditate ... and I was worried I wouldn't be able to send him to the rooftop on his dying day to join the rest of the family, but this was late in the challenge and fortunately his kids lifted the remaining restrictions before he died.

Ah, gelatin. That explains a lot. I followed Pinstar's dictum (made somewhere, don't remember where) that gelatin was disallowed. Had gelatin been available, things wouldn't have been quite so desperate in my challenge household of four adults and three children without Culinary being unlocked.

Pinstar said that gelatin wasn't permitted?   He's made some clarifications and rule changes in this topic, but I haven't seen that one.  It also wasn't on his site last time I checked, which was today.  If gelatin is no longer permitted, that does boost culinary into the top few to be lifted first.  (In my third play of this challenge it was the 8th one I lifted ... or if you only count careers, 6th).

[rohina]

I don't know where this rule is, but I have seen people quoting it. I wish Pinstar would update the rules on his site to match all the changes.

[Sagana]

Alvaron, I just meant it won't work for any other strategy but that specific one I do wish I'd used elixir for that though... those painful teen years were beyond useless for the first kid. At the very least, when I try again (I intend to try several different ways and this is still my first one - I'm slow), I'm *not* trying to build all that body for the first kid or kids. I'm quite enjoying your posts, btw

Other topics:

His Mom doesn't, but is bugged so she cannot get a job anyway. (sigh) I even tried on the computer to see if it was just the newspaper that was bugged, after she'd tried repeatedly to get a job.

If one of my founders were broke, I would use any hack or cheat necessary to fix them without feeling the slightest bit guilty. Did you try deleting her and resetting her and the lot debugger and everything? <has the lot debugger on every lot and refuses to do without it in much the same way others can't live without the phone hack - sorry but a broken game is *broken* not an "advantage">

Pinstar said that gelatin wasn't permitted?   He's made some clarifications and rule changes in this topic, but I haven't seen that one.  It also wasn't on his site last time I checked, which was today.

It's on Shoo Flee. Link here:

http://z13.invisionfree.com/Shoo_Flee/index.php?

You hafta sign up to read the posts. Some people apparently can't just sign in for a few days or something but I personally had no trouble - filled out the form and there I was, so I dunno... maybe it's cuz I used the same nick I use everywhere - that's supposeda work right.

Anyways, there's 'modifications' and 'expansions' on the rules all over the place. I've traked down some, but I know there are other boards I'm missing. I wish there was *one* place where Pinstar put everything. It's fun to have him discussing it here, but it's hard to tell which parts to pay any attention to and what to ignore. I'm kinda... independant... anyways though, so I just play by the rules I like. I don't want snapdragons (too easy), I do want jello (too hard without) <shrug> so that's the way I'll do it (I had culinary all along tho, so I mean for next time).

Also, is there any rule against using the changing table to change the toddler's clothes? When I've got 6 kids, Maxis at least gave me 6 outfits (1 for each of them), and as medical is unlocked, I've got the table, and I can't find anything in my printed rules that says I can't choose different ones for them so I don't have silly bear head suits or whatever they are...

[Alvaron]

My founder brought a Smart Milk dispenser with him from college, so my kids are learning faster than normal. Thanks to the Smart Milk effect, my Toddlers have been managing 9 Logic and about 4 to 5 Charisma.

Yep. I blundered in my challenge by bringing back two thinking caps to help my first 2nd gen heir get the creativity he needed by writing novels on the computer. A smart milk dispenser and something else (probably an eclectic energizer for real emergencies -- like your pregnant founder is almost starved and you can't eat for another two hours) would've been a better choice.

Teens can get a job without max Body skill as long as they don't actually go to work. The purpose of taking the job is learning the skill that goes with it, so I don't mind if my Teens have to skip work.

So long you remember the Slacker restrictions, sure. The teen has to quit that job when they miss work and are locked out of that career track as teens, adults and elders until the Slacker restrictions are lifted.

I believe Teens need 10 Body skill to leave the lot for any reason, including college, until the Law Enforcement restrictions are lifted.

Another fine example of Pinstar speaking out both sides of his mouth at once. On the one hand, he says "Teens and elders cannot leave the lot for any reason..." but then he turns around and says, 'but it's okay for them to leave the lot to take the bus to go to school.' So we find out that "cannot leave the lot for any reason" doesn't really mean "for any reason", it just means for some reasons. Since I'd rather play the game than spend countless hours searching three different forums for all of Pinstar's vaunted pronouncements because he hasn't deigned to update the official rules, yeah, I sent my first two teens to college without lifting Law Enforcement first. And it doesn't bother me one bit. If he really wanted the Law Enforcement restrictions to matter, he'd have "for any reason" mean for any reason with no exceptions. That would certainly make Law Enforcement and Athletics more important than the also-ran restrictions that they are now.

Had I felt the need, I could've held them back one day and had them trained to level 10 on the punching bag. Their intended careers don't need the skill so I didn't bother with it.

While we're on the subject of ambiguities in the rules, anyone want to hazard a guess whether or not the alien technology restrictions are auto-magically lifted if your founder gets abducted by aliens in college? 

[Kyna]

[While we're on the subject of ambiguities in the rules, anyone want to hazard a guess whether or not the alien technology restrictions are auto-magically lifted if your founder gets abducted by aliens in college? 

Probably not, since the disaster hasn't happened yet.  Unfortunately.

Sagana, thanks for that link about the gelatin, I'll be heading over there later to take a look.  I probably won't be playing this challenge again for a while though, as I've been reading the topic about establishing a Sim Economy and yesterday I started work on establishing one in my game.  Maybe by the time I get back to playing this challenge again the official rules will have been updated.

EDIT: I just went to that link and when I tried to register I got "The board administrator is no longer accepting any new registrations at the moment."  So I guess I won't be able to read any rule variations that are on that site.

[Sagana]

Oooh, if you're doing an economy thing, there's another challenge in playtesting right now called the Real Life Challenge that sounds perfect for that - the idea being to make a neighborhood that closely resembles a real town with some other challenges and restrictions to add to the fun. I'm looking forward to trying it.

It occurs to me it would have been politer to link to the thread with the info, here:
http://z13.invisionfree.com/Shoo_Flee/index.php?showtopic=5221&st=70

and copy the quote, here:

I don't know if it made it onto the website, but there "No desserts" is part of the culinary restriction, meaning no Jello. If it didn't pop up on the site, it will by this weekend. (If your sims have dined on Jello, don't worry, you won't fail).

and not just provide the website link.

[Kyna]

I've got some half-formed ideas of my own I'm working on.  I think I'd like to develop those first, see what works, and decide which ones I want to keep, before trying a new challenge.  But thanks for letting me know.

Thanks for the direct quote.  I would still like to read that thread in it's entirety and see what other rule clarificiations and variations are over there but not here or on his website.  Guess I'll have to try again later to register.

[daedreem]

His Mom doesn't, but is bugged so she cannot get a job anyway. (sigh) I even tried on the computer to see if it was just the newspaper that was bugged, after she'd tried repeatedly to get a job.

If one of my founders were broke, I would use any hack or cheat necessary to fix them without feeling the slightest bit guilty. Did you try deleting her and resetting her and the lot debugger and everything? <has the lot debugger on every lot and refuses to do without it in much the same way others can't live without the phone hack - sorry but a broken game is *broken* not an "advantage">

I don't have the lot debugger... actually have never heard of it.. I currently have a fresh install of the game with NO additions, after having to reinstall due to defunct hard-drive.

I'm not sure it's worth fixing her at this point. she most certainly does NOT have a level 10 body, and due to the glitch and zombie issues has been unemployed about 2 weeks, and ages to elder in 4 days. In order to get her LTW of Mayor, I'd HAVE to use the computer...  Then again, she would have had it by now if it wasn't for the bug. I'll have to think.

It was really weird how the newspaper was working. (or NOT rather)

The first day she had a problem, there was only *2* jobs in the paper...  I thought that was odd, but that it might be a 1 time glitch due to it wanting to offer a college job, and her being a non-grad adult.
The next day, she was tired and I thought when she looked at the paper and then put it away without it showing job offers that she was just too tired to job hunt.
The next day or several a zombie stold it out of the yard before she could look for a job.
The next day, as she carried the newspaper into the house a zombie walked by and picked the paper off the ground, and it disappeared out of her hands. (THAT was annoying)
By that point i'd forgotten that the paper had glitched on me previously, and only rememberred after another day of thinking she was simply too tired.
When I realized what had happened, and verified by testing that my other sims could look for a job, I was going to try the "delete her and reload the house" fix, but A) I had a sim once that hadn't worked on, and B) my Mother called me needing a favor done ASAP, so I exitted the game.
I may try tomorrow.. and see if I can race to get her 9 body points with the radio in 3 days. (yeah, right.. even though she does have 5 or 6 lazy/active points.)

Yeah. I bet she'd have been mayor by now. All appropriate skills are maxed.

I DO hate bugs.