We do so have "child benefits."  They're called tax deductions.  For every dependent child, you can take a certain amount off of the bottom line that's used to calculate how much income tax you pay.  Of course you have to make a decent living to make this economically worthwhile.  Definitely not sufficient incentive all by itself to have children. For that, you have to be deluded. *

*I love my children.  But they NEVER WASH UP AFTER THEMSELVES.

I like flushing. It makes me tingle all over.

I admire people who can play this game for fun. Me, I do it as a type of wish fulfillment. (If only I could teach my 9 year old not to pee on the floor every frigging single time).

Thanks for the suggestions, but I can't stand it when the sims don't clean up after themselves, either.  And I get a vicarious sense of fulfillment watching the kiddies scrubbing the countertops.   

Great song lyrics, BTW:

You Never Wash Up After Yourself

I must get out once in a while
everything is starting to die
the dust settles the worms dig
the spiders crawl over the bed.
Yesterday's meal is hugging the plate
you never wash up after yourself.

Roaches! That's the ticket!  I've made most of my sims uberneat because I can't stand the belching (and because it's too much like my RL family, bless their slobby little souls).

Thank you, there were roaches outside the house.

A rational response, if you ask me.

I don't understand this guy (Samuel Strauss, a knowledge sim).  He hasn't had a fight, hasn't been slapped, is on great terms with his wife and kids, isn't overtired, all bars in the green, but he stands around and weeps. Can the sims become clinically depressed?

Assuming that one has not hired any nannies yet, you don't need to go into SimPe and do whatever you just advised, right?

Thank you  for this mod.  I've just resumed playing again and have allowed my sims to breed way too much.

Wait...just had a thought related to countertops.  What was it now.

Oh yes.  I believe there wasn't enough space on the countertop for a cutting board or mixing bowl or whatever it is that sims use to prepare their food.  I made space and tried again, and got the full menu of possible meals.  Aha, just as simmiecal suspected.

And I do have lots of other hacks in my game, like the critical fixes.  I forgot about them, too. 

No wonder I'm home and online on New Year's Eve.

I get that sometimes.  The only hack I have in my game is Merola's multi-purpose painting, and I used it to make all my sims' cooking scores at 10.

Anyway, when I get the "instant meal" only option, if I try again in a few minutes, it reverts back to giving all the choices. Most strange.

Well, Motoki, I hope you get things sorted and come back.  I really don't understand why you were offended by what I wrote, but I don't dispute your feelings.

I'm bowing out, too, because I seem to have contributed to the drama, which was never my intention.

*resumes silent lurk mode*

Thanks, taichikitten, that's exactly what I should have done and didn't remember until too late.

*sings*

"Regrets, I've had a few..."

That's a great idea about the houses--you seem right on my risk-averse wavelength, angelyne.

 Just out of curiosity, is it possible that a d/l that works in one game won't work in another (assuming that the necessary x-packs and CEP, etc., are installed in each case, and that there are no hacks installed)?  Or could there be a combo of d/l's that corrupt a neighborhood? Wondering because I did do the test of taking out downloads and slowly reinserting them, but couldn't find the problem.  Also because no one else seems to have complained about any of these particular downloads.

I don't think it's my specs because everything was working great until that point.

Just to clarify things--I used, but did not delete or disable, the terrain paint.  That's when the game wouldn't load the houses  (not only the houses I'd used the terrain paint on, but any other house that I'd previously played).

I didn't disable the terrain paint until later, in a futile attempt to get the game working again.

Thanks for the suggestions--I had actually backed up my game a week ago, which I forgot about, and so was able to restore it from before the point where it got corrupted.  But I would still like to know what I did in order to mess it up so thoroughly.  Next time I'll try to remember the debug function before I wipe it clean.

My son wanted to make a Christmas neighborhood, so we started by downloading a ton of Christmas objects, from the official site and a lot of other places, and a terrain paint made by a very well known TSR artist.  We built a house, decorated it, and snowified the lot with the terrain paint.

Didn't I read JUST THE OTHER DAY HERE that terrain paints tend to FUBAR the game?  

I've been extraordinarily lucky with the Sims until now, because I'm so cautious that I don't usually install anything the least bit dubious, but my luck has apparently run out.  I can't get into any lots that I've ever played before--only lots that are  brand new or that I haven't visited, like some of the existing Maxis families. The game just hangs in trying to open the lot, until I have to force a reboot.  I did disable the terrain paint (along with all of the other objects I'd downloaded, just to be safe) but no love.

Is there anything I can do short of a reinstall at this point?

Thanks.

Is there anything I can do short of uninstalling and reinstalling? 

I do believe that both Ellis.ru and Vita sims are loaded with stuff that have extremely high polygon counts.  I never download from either site no matter how attractive the objects look.

Slap me if I'm wrong.

1.  Whether you own a computer or not, which type of computer do you access most frequently for personal use?

o   Apple/Macintosh
o   PC
o   Other (please specify)_______________________________

2. Rank the following music genres by your listening preference (1-12, with 1 being your most favored genre).

____ Folk
____ Country
____ Oldies
__1__ Pop or Rock
____ Heavy Metal
2 Dance/Techno/Electronica
____ Rap/Hip-Hop
____ Soul/R & B
____ Jazz
____ Blues
____ Easy Listening
____ World (Africa, Spain, South America, France, Asia, etc.)

You need a classical category here, as well as an "other" category. And I agree, rock and pop are not the same.   *sniffs haughtily

3.  When you decide to purchase music, where do you most prefer to shop (mark only one)?

o   Online CD store with mail delivery (Amazon, Half, etc.)
o   Music club catalogs by mail or phone
o   Major retail chain (Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc.)
o   Independent retail chain (Soundwaves, Cactus, Sound Exchange, etc.)
o   Online downloading source (KaZaA, Morpheus, iTunes, Napster, etc.)
o   Other (please specify)_______________________________________

4.  Have you ever downloaded music off the internet from a file-sharing or pay site?

o   Yes
o   No

(if No, skip to Question 9)

5.  With what frequency do you download music currently?

o   Everyday
o   At least once a week
o   At least once a month
o   Once every few months
o   Once a year
o   Only on one occasion in the past few years
o   Never

6.  With what frequency did you download music five years ago?

o   Everyday
o   At least once a week
o   At least once a month
o   Once every few months
o   Once a year
o   Only on one occasion
o   Never

7.  When you download music, what are your reasons for doing so, rather than purchasing a CD at a store (mark all that apply)?

o   Convenience or speed of product availability
o   Only one or two songs on an album are desired
o   Free or reduced price of downloaded music compared to the expense of the CD
o   Labels get too much of the royalties from CD purchases
o   To decide whether or not to buy the album from a store
o   Music downloaded is unavailable in stores
o   iPod or other MP3 system uses
o   Other (please specify)________________________________________

8.  Which of the following reasons describe why you would buy a CD at a store rather than downloading the music from a file-sharing or pay site (mark all that apply)?

o   CD case, jacket, and/or liner notes are desired
o   Gift
o   Extra features (unreleased songs or DVD extras) not available online
o   Artist support
o   Store support
o   Impulse buy
o   Other (please specify) ________________________________________

9. Describe yourself.

Gender (circle one):       M          F

Age: __54______

Race/Nationality/Ethnicity: ___White/US/Jewish___________________________________________


Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.  Please write any additional comments you feel are applicable to the context of this survey below.

[/quote]

D'oh.

Thank you.

*Hits self with Smart Milk bottle*

The official site has either been down or refusing to return my phone calls for several days, and you guys have scared me out of playing my new Xpacks without the patch.  Is there somewhere else to get it?   

TIA!

Thanks very much!  Quite helpful for newbie wusses like me.

Now I'm scared.
 


Thanks for the heads up, I'll collect the fixes right away.

Thank you, Dewshine...I may just try that.  And thank you too Bangelnuts for the explanation.

Sorry, one more thing (is there an edit button that I'm missing?)

How would I go about enabling YA skins for adults?  I like the styles a whole lot better than many of the adult everyday wear.

TIA again.

Thanks, my game seems to have survived the Uni installation.  And now off to NL.  Maybe tomorrow.

You get the smoochies, Dewshine.

OK, behind the curve as always, I've just gotten up the nerve to install Uni.

Can I wait and play a few days before I tackle the patch?  I'm only interested in Uni for the young adult meshes at this point--won't be playing the college stuff for awhile.

Also, I removed my whole Downloads folder before installing.  Can I put back everything except for the two or three mods I have?  I'm pretty sure all my downloaded objects are Uni compliant.

Is there any advantage to installing NL right away, or should I wait and see how Uni goes?

Thanks and smoochies (if JP allows me to keep my lips).

Thank you Linda, though I don't have the courage to try it yet.

Witch, uh oh, I just downloaded an entire set of terrain paints.  What exactly will happen if I use them?  Should I delete them prophylactically?  I am am extreme wuss.