Since children can’t use any of the exercise machines, which activities can they do to increase enthusiasm in fitness? I know adults can “offer lessons to..” children using the punching bag (reward from Athletic career). I found that children swimming in a pool build up their body skill and fitness enthusiasm. Children can use the Ballet bar to build body skill, but it increases the music and dance enthusiasm rather than fitness. They can’t work out using the tv either. Are there any other fitness activities for children?

I had one of my students move in to a Greek house (in La Fiesta Tech) she was a member of. Her performance meter was lowered as if she had to build up 2 more skills, but the skill level that was highlighted had already been filled. There is no way to expand the performance meter, so I have a feeling she’s going to be on academic probation at the end of the quarter! When I moved her back in a dorm or a non-greek house, the meter was back to fully expanded. I tried moving her to the greek house two different ways: using the phone, and having one of the existing members invite her to move in. Both resulted in the erroneous performance meter as seen to the right. She originally was a math major, and I switched to Drama since it needed 3 body skill points while she only had 2. But after she gained a body skill point, the meter didn’t move.

Her dad is part alien, and I used a cheat to get her mom to have green skin. So maybe that is causing the problem. If she goes on probation, I guess I’ll try moving the whole family to a different lot to see if that helps. I guess I can try inviting her sister to join the Greek house to see if it happens to her too.

Sims who graduate college will not only have access to 4 other careers, but be able to start the older careers at a higher level since they’ve had time to develop their skills. I think the specific level a Sim is able to start at depends on the skill level of relevant skills. For example, if a sim has level 2 creativity, 3 mechanical, and 2 charisma after graduating, they can start at the 4th level of the Musician career. They’ll need to increase some skills in order to be promoted. It’s probably also dependent on the number of friends he/she has.

My problem recently was: How do I start at the very beginning level of the graduate-level careers, when I’ve had to build up the skills in college and I’m likely to skip over the first level? I have recorded the hours and skills needed for each career, and needed to get the first few levels of the Show Business and Paranormal careers. But most of my graduated students already had a few skill points of charisma and body. I’ve also recorded which skills are needed for each college major, so I picked one that only requires one charisma. When the time came, I never got the charisma skill point, and luckily it wasn’t a requirement the next semester! So I now know the hours of the 1st level of Show Business, and I still need to get the Paranormal. See the list of all Sims 2 Career Levels (up to FreeTime), along with their hours and skills here:  http://www.leakybagel.com/products/all_careers.php

I created my first Plant Sim today with one of the pre-made sims in Freetime, Julien Cooke. He has a mustache and goatee, but wears a green skirt and leotards I guess. See picture below.

To achieve plantsimism, I planted 13 fruit trees and sprayed them whenever they needed it. I began in the middle of the summer and he became a plant sim in the middle of autumn. It didn’t seem like he had sprayed that much, but as I understand, Sims become plant sims when they spray for bugs a certain number of times. He earned a bronze Gardening talent badge while tending the trees, and when he became a Plant Sim it must have jumped to a Gold badge! Now he can talk to the trees (which need it since most were sick). Since Julien’s hobby is cooking, I’ll have him cook with all the fruit that he’s grown!

Not only is it fun to grow your own fruit and vegetables and use them to make healthy meals and juices, but each of the juices has a special effect! Here’s the list:

• Apple Juice: 3 apples; faster homework
• Beauty Cocktail: 2 oranges, 2 cucumbers; love potion
• Eggplant Juice: 2 eggplants; random skill point
• Lemonade: 6 lemons; cools Sims down
• Orange Juice: 6 oranges; cures cold
• Orangeade: 4 oranges, 2 lemons; random badge
• Pepper Punch: 2 pepper, 1 pole bean, 1 apple; energy boost
• Pureed Boot: 1 boot; sim acts nutty
• Strawberry Juice: 3 strawberries; less furious
• Strawberry Lemonade: 2 lemons, 2 strawberries; platinum mood
• Tomato Juice: 6 tomatoes; warms Sims up
• Vegetable Cocktail: 1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 1 pepper, 1 pole bean; build skills faster

Source: CompSimGames.About.com

I would assume tasty and mouthwatering fruits and vegetables have a greater effect than bland ones. When you have produce in your inventory, click on the Juicer or Fridge to stock. You can also remove produce from each appliance.

Warning! Put a smoke alarm or sprinkler system near your Round and Round Model Train set! When it catches on fire, a sim is usually right next to it operating it, and so the Sim will also catch on fire! The amount of flames that it produces is so large, any Sims that come by to investigate may also catch on fire. I didn’t notice it when the fire first started, so I was a little late in calling the Fire department. Several sims had very low energy, hygiene and bladder, but luckily no one died.

I built a greenhouse with several fertilized garden plots, and installed some sprinklers and tiny borders/divides to put lights in. The plants would do find in some plots, but in several the plants were not growing at all! The weeds would pop up, and hovering over would indicate they were healthy, but no leaves would show. After several days of waiting with nothing, I composted and tried again, but with no luck, until I removed the sprinklers, divides, and lights that were nearby and on the same square of land. I only found one forum topic on the subject, which just advised to check any hacks or custom content you may have installed. But since they started appearing after I removed the objects nearby, I don’t think custom content is the problem. And I don’t have any hacks (or cheats activated).

There’s a new Grilled Cheese Aspiration in the latest Sims expansion pack, FreeTime. It’s pretty funny. Wants include making grilled cheese, eating grilled cheese, talking about it to another sim, serving it, and influencing another sim to make grilled cheese. Fears include eating bad grilled cheese and burning it. I first found this aspiration when choosing a Secondary Aspiration. In the new neighborhood, there’s a sim named Natasha Una with this aspiration. She had 6 aspiration points to spend, so her Grilled-cheese related benefits are: Bottomless stomach (doesn’t get overweight easily), slower bladder decay, able to paint grilled cheese on an easel, and Conjure Grilled Cheese. That one is pretty neat; she shouldn’t need to spend money on food, and can eat on the go!

I always thought that playing the Sims online with other people would be fun, but didn’t want to pay a monthly fee for something I could play offline for free (after paying for the PC game). Now that EA has launched a free version of The Sims Online, I wanted to give it a try. My first impression is that it’s just a chat room with a bunch of actions and gestures your Sim can perform. It seems that you can’t enter certain types of lots with the free service, but you can go to a job and make simoleans. I think only paid subscriptions can own land/lots, and therefore sell items and provide free services (such as exercise machines and food). By going to lots you can build your skills up (although it takes a MUCH longer time to build up a skill online than in the PC game). And you can build up relationships with other Sims online, but this seems to take a long time too. You can get promoted at your job the same as the PC game – building skills and making friends. I guess it’s possible to buy items, but I don’t think they’d be useful unless you had your own land. It’s nice to chat to other Sims, but I don’t see a purpose to the other things available to the free players. I guess they need to entice the free members to upgrade to the pay service. If the monthly fee isn’t too high, I might think about it. But I don’t think I’ll become addicted with the free service.

Here’s an article I read that introduces it: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/25/ea-turns-the-sims-online-into-free-ea-land-second-life-competitor/

I just added my blog to Blubrry today. Maybe this will help increase traffic. Let me know if you have any ideas, questions, or problems you’d like to see addressed here. And feel free to add your comments!