Now that's what I call quick work.  Consider the invisible "Thanks" button well and truly hit.  Will try this out first thing tomorrow and see what happens when Lazlo Curious invites Crystal Vu (VU?  Who is called VU?) to move in.

I remember seeing the original thread about this and laughing myself silly at the thought of a scary lamp.  Now I'm laughing all over again.  Somehow, this strikes me as really funny.  I would love to find a way of engineering this in my game.  Might be interesting to choose objects they can be scared of, such as the toilet. 

I didn't vote for Blair either.  If I had, it wouldn't have made any difference as I am unfortunate enough to live in a staunch Labour area.  I have to admit that his reaction to the London bombings did impress me, but it wouldn't cause me to vote Labour.  I have never forgiven them for abolishing grammar schools and I never will.  Biggest mistake they ever made - biggest mistake the country ever made.  I'm one of the proportional representation crowd, not that it's ever likely to come about.  I don't understand the voting system anyway and politics bore me to distraction.

Now, about that SimVac ...

It can't be that - as I said, it worked PERFECTLY for ages, this has happened suddenly with no structural changes whatsoever.   I also noticed it in a neighbourhood house and tonight it's happened in another, the Spectre house.  Again, no structural alterations.  It happened twice there, once outside and once in the kitchen (near the fridge again).  I think the chances are it's something I've downloaded.  It definitely ISN'T the size of the rooms or anything like that, otherwise it would have happened from the start.

Well, I swear this started off as a harmless, innocent little thread ... all we need now is sex and we've probably covered everything.

Have you made him the father in Family Ties and also Relations?

Well I thought of that, but this has only started recently, it was fine before that.  I've already graduated four students from this dorm and am almost through with graduating the next batch and there was never a problem with the fridge or the counters until now.  It all started after the ghost mascot started mucking about in the fridge, as I've said before.  Anyway, it's a Maxis-created dorm, for crying out loud!  Not that I should really trust that fact, I don't suppose ...

Oops, silly me.  Blame it on the fact that I've been trying for so long to solve this mystery that it is now 6.04 am and I haven't been to bed yet.  Will try attaching it now ...

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I've managed to get a picture showing the strange lines that they are getting either prior to the footstep things or instead of them.  I did take two, one of the dorm cook and one of a YA, to show the different positions they were standing in, but the game saved one over the other.  The one here is of the YA's reaction when I told him to check the contents of the fridge.  The dorm cook was standing to the left of where he was standing, perhaps slightly further forward, trying to put a plate of food in the empty space you can see (that counter is the offending one).  I watched carefully and the offending area seems to be in front of the counter rather than the fridge (or maybe somewhere in between, because there doesn't seem to be a full two tiles between them anyway).  The dorm cook will put meals on the end space, then walk to the left past the fridge and back to the right, avoiding the space in front of the counter. The weirdest part is that when I stand them there, they don't bat an eyelid.  They just won't go there on their own.

Photo: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/jools1953/William.jpg

As for the error log, I can't post it because it makes the post exceed 20,000 characters (not surprised, it's VERY long, but I don't know what are the relevant bits and what aren't).  I did notice one odd thing in it, although I doubt it's connected.  It shows my "Starting Neighbourhood" as Pleasantview but I haven't played in there for about 2 weeks.  The neighbourhood the problem is in is Strangetown.  Let me know what you want me to do about the error log.  I can look for specific things in it or whatever if that might help.

What do you want me to force?  I can try the fridge and the counter if you like?  Not sure if you can force an error on a floor tile (and anyway, I've changed them twice since it started, ditto the fridge come to that).  Haven't changed the counters, though.  Also, where do we post error logs, or do we email them to you?

This confused me at first.  I remember seeing a memory in Cassandra's file of something that had happened to Herb Oldie even though he'd been dead for ages and Cassandra had never even met him.  I thought "Wow, she really IS weird" and I was quite excited about it, until I found out that someone else had passed the memory on to her.  Since then I've seen quite a few Sims get memories about dead people.  Mainly, it's about them burning food (in fact, most gossip seems to be about people burning food).

One thing about the cheating side of it puzzles me.  From what I can gather, if a Sim passes on a memory of someone cheating to the 'wrong person', they will react as if they witnessed the cheating.  This makes no sense, because how do they know it happened after they became involved with the cheating Sim?  It could have happened before they even met them, or they could have been cheating on someone else.  The memories don't say who they cheated on, just who by.  As an example, if Cassandra were married to Don and Mortimer passed on a "Caught Don Cheating" message to her, how would Cassandra know the details?  He might have been cheating on Dina with Nina or on Nina with Kaylynn, possible before he even met Cassandra.  Or do they pass on the details in some 'hidden' way?

This has happened to me and I've seen other people mention it.  I don't recall anyone coming-up with an answer, but I think it had something to do with the Sims concerned being seen as visitors, not residents, because of course visitors can't use exercise equipment.  I had it happen to a Sim in a Greek house, who'd been there from the time Uni was installed (she was one of the original Maxis characters).  One minute she could use it, then she couldn't.  I had to cheat to get her the body point she needed because there was no way she could get it otherwise.

I'm loading up the game now as we speak to see if the new thing works.  Maybe it will help if I mention that I can place things on this tile with no problem.  Also, I can move the Sims and stand them on it.  Sometimes they sort of twirl round and move off it, then complain that they can't stand on it again, but on other occasions they will stand there quite happily.

Anyway, I will wait for the game to load to report on whether they new fix worked ... unfortunately, it didn't, mainly because no option mentioning fridges came up on the Debugger.  I tried a few experiments and I'm even more puzzled now.  It's not just the fridge that can't be used (which I think I said at the outset), but also the counter opposite it.  When I replaced the counter with the fridge, the fridge was still unusable, ditto the mini-fridge.  However, when I moved the mini-fridge back one space it could be used, but the larger fridge couldn't.  When I replaced the original fridge (in its usual position opposite the counter) with the coffee-machine, a Sim was able to stand in front of it and juggle the cups.  If I moved the fridge one space to the left or right, it could be used as normal.  This suggests to me that it isn't something on the floor, but something in mid-air, at a level higher than the mini-fridge would reach, that is blocking the opening of the fridge door.  I am still wondering if somehow the mascot ghost has something to do with it, as it's only started happening after he appeared and began messing about in the fridge.  Maybe he spawned a replica of himself and it's stuck there, or something equally silly.

Whatever it is, it looks to me as if it's there to stay, so I suppose I'm going to have to replace the lot with the original and re-furnish it.  I'll probably have to say goodbye to my mascot ghost, because bringing him back and messing about making him an NPC again wouldn't be worth the hassle.  I'd rather find out what is causing this problem though, because it's really puzzling me now. 

I tried the Buyable Fire, didn't work.  All that happened was that one of my students got fined for calling the fire brigade when there wasn't a fire!  They fire burned for quite a while, then eventually the sprinkler across the way kicked-in.  The game also let me delete all the floor tiles and replace them with new ones, which I wouldn't have expected it to if something was stuck on one of them.  I noticed today that the dorm cook had another object in his thought bubbles before the one with the footsteps, which was a collection of vertical lines, some broken some not.  They were always gone too quickly for me to get a picture, but I will keep trying. 

To be honest, I'm wondering if it's possibly a download I've recently added that's somehow causing it, because I also saw this footsteps thing in someone's thought bubble on a lot in the actual Strangetown neighbourhood today and I'd never seen it at all until a couple of days ago.  Whatever it is, it's on the tile directly in front of the fridge because they can't access the fridge and also they walk round this tile instead of over it when they are getting food from the counters. 

Anyway, I will try the stuck fridges addition, although I've changed the fridge several times already so I don't think it's anything to do with the actual fridge. 

Hmmm ... I think I know the site you mean, but there actually is a site rentech.com.  Can't see any reason to ban anybody from that, looks very boring to me.

Below is a link to a picture.  I'm having a weird problem in one of the dorms, in the cooking area.  Whenever the dorm cook wants to lay out the food, he insists he can't do it from where he's standing and walks round the counters to lay it from the other side.  He normally lays out just one meal, then goes back and lays the others out from the original side, which makes little sense.  Then tonight two Sims insisted they couldn't get food out of the fridge (even though they managd perfectly when I moved the fridge).  Both the Sims got the same weird image in their thought bubbles as the cook does.  It looks as if they're saying their path is blocked, but by what?  There are no stuck kicky bags according to both the lot debugger and TwoJeffs hack, so what's blocking them?  There's nothing there!  Could it possibly be connected with the ghost of the llama mascot who frequently goes in the fridge?  I can't see how though, because it's happened while he's been floating about outside and also when he's not been there at all.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Here is the link to the photo, which shows the weird image in the thought bubble of one of the Sims: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/jools1953/MysteryObject.jpg

I used to use this hack, then I took it out because I realised I missed sniggering when the nasty ones kept throwing-up everywhere.  As I recall, it does work on visitors.

OK, I can appreciate that, but the food is often cleared-up seconds after it was cooked and put out!  No way is it going to go bad in 4 hours.  I then end-up with several of my own Sims all trying to cook at the same time when there were 4 meals sitting there they could have eaten.  Most annoying.  In any case, since I put a hack in for visitors to not leave at the normal time, the dormies have gone all nocturnal.

Yes, I know it's an Aspiration Reward object, but does that mean the code can't be altered so it can serve a better purpose?  All that happens to the 'vacced' Sim is that they run off the lot, leaving someone platinum instead of gold, or platinum instead of platinum.  I would rather see a Sim who was previously red turn green or gold, or a green one turn gold or platinum.  It seems totally wasted otherwise, because when you've seen one Sim run off, you've seen 'em all.

I noticed this in a dorm the other day, but it also happened in a regular house.  What annoys me most though is the way the stupid dorm cook clears all the meals before he/she leaves for the night.  I have to hover around so I can delete them before they do it, sometimes even having to remove a plate of food out of their hands.  I did ask for a hack for this a while back somewhere or other but I don't think anyone noticed.  Sigh.

I have recently started using the SimVac on obnoxious townies, but I am somewhat confused by it.  The only Sims who can use it are those with Gold or Platinum aspiration, who in aspiration terms are doing OK thanks very much.  The ones who NEED aspiration points and would actually gain something by sucking them out of the obnoxious townies can't use it!  Is there any way the rule can be altered for this object so that Sims on green (or worse) can use this object to get themselves back into a more acceptable position?  I would have thought that was the whole point of using it in the first place (apart from watching the obnoxious townies suffer, of course).

Not sure whether I'll be able to use this as I enjoy seeing people scared to death by ghosts, but I love the idea of using aspirational points.  My Sims accumulate hundreds because I hardly ever spend them as I can't resist using TwoJeffs' aspirational rewards collection.  The only time I do spend them is when they haven't enough money to buy the items in it because for some reason, although they're free, you still need the specified amount to actually get the reward.  Anyway, I would really love to see more objects made like this, it's a great idea.  I didn't even realise it was possible.

Yes, I rather guessed there was something going on like that.  She had just sold a still-life, so maybe that triggered it.  Quite how she got almost $600 for it I don't know.  It was meant to be a bowl of fruit, but I am hopeless at getting these things right and in the end there was no bowl of fruit to be seen, just part of a window and a blank wall.  I've seen better paintings done with feet.  I have the same problem with the photo aspiration thingy.  I centre it perfectly, then when it comes out it's all lopsided.  Maybe it's my glasses.

What I find odd is that they will jump into the pool at the slightest opportunity when they're classed as visitors, but never go anywhere near their own pools unless they're very active.  I suppose it's in the coding, but it seems that when you make a pool you're making it for everyone BUT your own Sims, which is rather silly. 

For the first time today, I saw the "Quit Job" want.  The strange thing about it is that it was a Fortune Sim who wanted to do it!  The Sim in question is Stella Terrano, the alien YA that Maxis so kindly provided in the Student Bin of La Fiesta Tech.  She's already achieved her first Lifetime Want to be a Business Wotsit and is now almost 3/4 of the way towards her second, earn $100,000.  She recently got married and became pregnant on her second attempt the following day and rolled this want just after getting her second bump.  The odd thing is, she also has a want to "Go To Work".  Her other two relevant ones are "Earn $75,000" and "Sell a Great Novel" (the latter two being locked).  All through Uni she did nothing but paint masterpieces whenever she possibly could and sold loads, but since then hasn't asked to sell anymore.  Could she be trying to tell me that she thinks she can earn more from selling paintings and novels than she can from working?  After she achieved the Business career want I switched her to the Artist career (her degree is in Art) and she went straight in at Level 9, but had only worked one day when she had to stop due to the pregnancy.  I am very confused as to what she is trying to say here!