How very frightening.

I think it's the variety of options that keeps me going. There is no one way to play with the sims. Some people simply enjoy building houses and rarely play with the sims themselves. Some like building people - my grandson is notorious for that - always leaves me with a few new families to care for. Some people like to get their sims into problems or in bed with everyone. On occasion I like to make them fight!

I maintain four different communities. There are some common aspects to each but they function with no relation to each other. A sim can move from one to another but will lose all ties and memories of their past lives if they do!

the way I play is rather serious. I try to make my sims successful at both work and family. Thus I make them study what they need to advance in the job and I try to satisfy their lust or other desires as much as I can. some are simply easier than others that way; depends on their "aspirations". I also enjoy mating sims that I have created to see what happens genetically, and then to take the babies through life, achieving as well as they can.

All this means that I do in fact strategize quite a bit. I map out how to satisfy a sim's desire to "make out with ten different sims", for example. I will often build a home and put in a couple of live ones just for the benefit of another sim I am trying to satisfy. I get them to meet, to become close, to end up in bed. And I rather enjoy having my "romance" sims propagate the neighborhood. Interestingly, if they go to the other's house, their mates won't necessarily find out about their behavior. BUT there is such a thing as gossip in simworld. And word does get out.

There was a sim that came with the game, who was the neighborhood Lothario (in fact that was his name). He was set up to marry someone. I introduced her to a new guy, got her to fall in love and marry the new one, and in the meantime I invited all of Lothario's lovers to his house for a party...oh, the sparks!!

I love the "knowledge" sims, as you might expect. They want nothing more than to learn. That's fairly easy to manage if they are just kept fed and get enough sleep and so on. This also makes them, ultimately, creative, able to play the piano and paint well and if their logic skills are up there they do really well with darts. And chess.

I have learned a lot along the way. I now have standard moves when I move sims into a new house (what I buy, what kind, and so on) and I am better at taking care of pregnant sims. The twins have been terrible to get through the toddler years (days, actually, but it does seem like years at times).

Although I installed the University expansion pack, I haven't yet found the colleges themselves very much fun for me. I am only gradually dipping into there. I do like the additional options the pack gives to everyone, though. Pillow fights, for example, and some funny new stuff.

Oh yeah, and speaking of stuff. I have learned how to make custom wallpaper and flooring and have made a few changes to clothing. I have not done will with hair or skin. But I will undoubtedly figure that out, too, adding yet another dimension to personalizing the game. As it is, I have some of the clones - I made sims that look like my daughters - living in homes decorated with wallpaper and flooring that looks like them (taken from actual photographs). Every now and then family members will ask how they are doing. My Mary sim chose the criminal career path and did really well in it, achieving "criminal mastermind" by the time she retired. My Elaine sim has married an Ed sim (her real bf is named Ed) and they made a baby.

And yes, sometimes there are transfers in both directions, from real life into simland and vice versa. I find myself looking at people and seeing them as sims or seeing those little indicators over their heads when they talk or study. I can often relate a person's needs to the needs of a sim. It does make for some strange and yet often accurate comparisons.

More than you wanted to know!

It's an addiction. It's a computer "simulation" game. It's a game of communities of sims, which are like people, only not. The player can create and play sims or can simply play with those that come with the game. Players also build houses and commercial buildings, move their sims in, then lead them through their lives.

It's an offshoot of SimCity, which is also still available, but which involves playing with communities themselves - building roads, dams, sewer plants, making political decisions. In the sims game, the roads are already created and the player only is involved in building or playing on one lot at a time.

If you are interested in a better explanation, you might find it on the home web site: www.thesims2.ea.com

It never ends and nobody really "wins", rather like life. Good days and bad days for everyone. In this game the sims can start as babies, grow through toddlerhood, childhood, teen years, and then college years, then become a full adult and finally an "elder". Then they die. They make babies, they make love, they make friends, they follow career paths, they have many different "aspirations".

It probably sounds not particularly interesting, and to tell the truth, individual sims can be maddening and irritating and not very smart. But their lives tend toward the soap opera and it can be very funny. Players make a lot of decisions for them but cannot control everything.

If you are interested in the Master Chorale concert this coming Saturday, I would be delighted to pay for the ticket - or two, even! In the nosebleed section or the one just below - gallery or balcony. Let me know and I'll grab the tix! If you give me your name - email address judith@judithlautner.net - I will put your name on them and you can pick them up at will call.

Oh, needless to say, I am in the chorale. I think it's going to be a terrific concert. I'm a wee bit prejudiced but even so...