I think this is really more a question of labelling than it is of the actual numbers. Unless your sims are well into the upper bubble, mood-wise, they're still being penalized for it at work, so tey're not THAT happy. The game just makes them seem that way to make the sheeple feel better about how they're doing. Based on the actual in-game effects, "Very happy" really correlates more with "mildly irritated", and all you really need to do is to change the labels and everything is fine.

I keep getting told that I'd love Sims 3 if I just understood that I'm not supposed to play the game the same way as I played Sims 2.  I enjoy my play style--rotating families in houses I built for them and decorated for them, in a neighborhood I designed for them.  When I try to explain this--or when I bothered--I get told, "Well I never built houses/played any family but a particular Maxis-made family/played any family past the second generation", etc. etc. with a strong sub-text that I was playing wrong all this time and I should just straighten my thinking out and do it the One True Way.

In Sims 2 if you wanted to play the way I do you could, if you wanted to play any other way, you could.  With Sims 3 you seem to be channeled into one playing style.  Why the hell should I bother with it?

Seriously?!  2.7GB of RAM is not enough?  Would another 1GB do it, or do I need even more than that?

I think this must be true. One of my One Fambly's four Gnomes is in its original position, never kicked, never moved. I gave it a name and it has never been magical.

I saw my parents having sex once. Not sure I will ever be able to think of the 'woman on top' position without briefly remembering what my Mum looks like naked.

That said, I guess I never realized that there were so many players out there that SUCK SO BAD at playing the sims. The motives are the easy part and hardly tedious compared to the skill grinding.

I use a combination of ignoring the needs bars and cheating.  Maybe I'm just averse to change, but the moodlets seem pretty "meh" to me. I like the wants/fears set up in TS2, it seems truer to life. Plus, it makes it easier to have Sims sink into a deep depression.

Delete with moveobjects?

It's really that big of a problem?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something you can do in the game, without cheats, would cause this much damage. Maybe that explains some of the otherwise inexplicable issues that have been popping up lately. Dammit. And I made a new neighborhood from scratch for the very reason my old neighborhood was getting too buggy. Grr.

EDIT: Can I salvage the buildings and the Sims by packaging them and then reinstalling them in a new neighborhood, or would they carry the errors with them?

Well I would like a breast adjuster. 

Bad
  - I really hate the neighborhood screen and the way that you have to go to certain places to be able to do things there.  For instance, you can get a part time job at the cemetary, but on the neighborhood screen, if you filter by jobs, the cemetary doesn't have an icon.  WTF?  Also, I need a cheatsheet of what you can do at each location.  I can't remember where to go for a cooking class, so I spend 15 minutes clicking every little frickin icon...grr.  Same thing with trying to figure out where your sims live.  They need a text/list based way to do what you can do from the neighborhood screen.

"First Sims 3 Expansion News?
The Game isn't out, yet we have our first possible hint at the first Sims 3 Expansion. SimBr. attended the Sims 3 Brazilian event, and spoke with an EA rep who told them that the first expansion will likely focus on Jobs and Occupations.

We have just received from our representatives in The Sims 3 Tour event in Sao Paulo information about the first expansion of The Sims 3. Representatives Weslley, Eduardo and Victor spoke to the manager of marketing for EA Games, Ian Freitas, and revealed that the first expansion of The Sims 3 exists, and that probably has something do with occupations and work. Great news! Keep an eye on OSimBR.net for more news in real time about events in Brazil!"

- This "enforced legacy play" kerfluffle is getting blown waaaaayyy out of proportion, IMO.  Wishes aren't wants.  Promising isn't locking. TS3 isn't TS2.  Don't promise something you don't have time to finish.  Granted I don't see much point to not saving them but that's a far cry from "amg they're forcing me to play legacy style".

Yeah, there is only SP 1, which I obviously have. Maybe I'm doing it wrong? I've noticed the instructions I've found are for XP and not Vista. Could that be my problem? I click mount the image through daemon, then I click the ISO, open folder to view files, and then I double click Sims3Setup (application). I tried to download the one you have but it's the same one so it just started seeding it. I've obviously got the right one but I have to be doing something wrong or my computer is just being a bitch.

With that "we're locking this down so you can't mod it, nyah nyah" attitude it sounds like they really wanted to turn this into a game instead of a toy.  The thing is, the section of the market that they are now going after aren't likely to play the Sims no matter what EA do to it.  Just look at the reviews in the game magazines - they'll usually feature a comment like "I don't play it myself, but my mother / sister / gf does".

Feel free to P&L/ignore this, but how reliable are the time estimates given by torrent programs? I'm using utorrent, and seeing a lot of fluctuation in the estimated time - anywhere from 11 hours up to 22 hours. I started about five hours ago and have about a gig and three quarters... so should I just estimate based on that?

Impatient cat is getting a little twitchy with her seemingly shitty internet connection.

Toddlers can only "Cuddle" the pets, which (at least with cats) looks more like "Squeeze Half to Death," but it still gives ++ relationship.  (Maybe there should be a mod that changes that...)  Supposedly, in AL there is a Torment interaction that children have with their toddler siblings, but I have yet to figure out how to make it appear.