From "As You Like it":

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.

Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

"Life's a bitch-
And then you die."
simsample, 2026.

"Life's a bitch and then you're raped by wild boars!" - J.M. Pescado

I think this is why I play The Sims with "Aging off".

Yes, it's escapism. But it feels good to escape to a place where we know that today is better than yesterday. And where my Sims and I can work together in the hope of building a future which can be better yet. I think this is what I mean by "Utopian Simming". I hope I'll never be content with "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow . . ." When I really get to feel that way, I than that will the time for the Grim Reaper to take me.

And since the Sims 2 is such good life simulation, maybe, just maybe, I can hope that one day somebody can do the same, or similar, in Real Life.

Does anyone have any tutorials, cheat codes or mods for real life? Is there a god mode I can enable? :D

Joking aside, life will always throw something at you - you can't stop that, the world isn't nice.

But, you can alter how you react to it, and what you do about it. Life may not always be perfect, but you can and should take time to make yourself happy and enjoy what you can have.

I think everyone should have a 'familyfundscheat' enabled for their lives.

It would make life a whole lot easier!

And lotteries would become redundant.

At the risk of veering off topic, because when is this ever gonna be contextually relevant again in my life...


I actually have this from the Silent Hill 3 Shakespeare puzzle tattooed on my arm:

There's nothing like contemplating this mortal coil in these dark days while awaiting spring, but fortunately, The Sims serves as a good distraction from all that!

What's happening--Strangetown continues to be strange, and reminds me yet again why this is my favorite neighborhood. I managed to sort out the messes that Johnny, Ophelia, and Tank had made of their love lives, and then I got to my next set of young adults.

For context, Jill Smith is a Romance Sim and Buck Grunt is a Knowledge Sim. Jill and Ripp started seeing each other in high school, and that continued through college, to the point where they moved out of the dorm and into a house together. Ripp loves Jill but has the 20 Woohoo LTW, which I am letting him fulfill as he sees fit. Jill has had a few flings with college guys, but most of her romantic wants are for Ripp, so I gave her the Hopeless Romantic trait, and I planned for them to live together after college and have a couple of kids.

Ripp was a couple of years ahead of Jill in school, so he asked his brother Buck to move into the shared house when he graduated so Jill had someone to help with bills. Things were very awkward between Jill and Buck for a long while, but they gradually warmed to each other. They only have one bolt together, while Jill has two with Ripp, and Buck had been developing a friendship with Stella Terrano that I was hoping would go somewhere. Then, ACR took over. Just one of those late-night, shouldn't-have-done-that kind of things, except Jill got pregnant.

I had been planning for Jill to move in with Ripp after graduation, but now that would put him in the awkward situation of having to raise his own niece/nephew--which I don't think he would really mind. In the meantime, I moved Jill back home with her mother to think about her options.

To further complicate matters, Jenny (Jill's mother) is quite good friends with Buck from when he was a teen, and she booty-called him after PT#9 died. So Buck has now woohooed with both mother and daughter. This is not something I condone, but to be fair, there are not a lot of options for her around Strangetown. I let her adopt the orphaned alien child of Nervous Subject, who was frightened to death by ghosts, so she has something to do, and I'm hoping that will distract her from further romantic entanglements.

I've been playing my hood long enough that the first generation sims are dying from old age.

But- the second generation sims are mostly adults, and are moving out and marrying, and even thinking about starting their own families.

I've seen Grimmy a few times, but at least one of my sims has lived to meet their grandchild. I'm hoping a few more hold on long enough, but not many of the young people want to be parents!

My sim Pasha (an adult) raised his own brother after his elder father got his adult girlfriend Yonca pregnant and then proceeded to die almost immediately afterwards. Pasha and Yonca ended up in a relationship (Pasha didn't want his brother to grow up without a father figure) and had two children of their own. Surprisingly, several rotations after their youngest son had moved out, Yonca decided to spontaneously propose to Pasha and the two got married. They're now on the verge of elderhood and just as happy as they've been throughout their 33 years together.

Also, what mod do you have that gives the notification in your second picture?

Your story is so sweet.

It is ACR. Bear in mind that I am using version 1 of ACR because I am playing on a Mac. You need to have the try for baby notification dialog turned on to get the risky woohoo pregnancy notification. The mod that causes pregnancy for young adults via risky woohoo is actually Two Jeffs' pregnancy for all genders. It was an unexpected side effect of that mod but one I quite like because it adds an element of uncertainty for my young adults.

Ah, gotcha. I always have the TFB dialogue turned off so I guess that's why I've never seen it before.

They're just afraid that you'll give their kids embarrassing names. XD