Last we left the Shanleys of Shanley Hall, both Mia and her aunt Aurora had left home to attend college at Sim State University. Since Mia is the founder of my new legacy for the Legacy Challenge: University, I’m going to tell her story separately, though Aurora may make an appearance from time to time. Aurora’s college story will be posted at some point in the Shanley Family category.
Now for the update! As you may know, Mia was the first child born in the 10th generation of my Legacy Challenge family. After my last update, a few of you commented that she was pretty, which made me chuckle a bit, because I think she’s scary-looking. But that’s really only when she’s just staring into space with no expression on her face, as in the picture below:
“Mmmm….college….aghghhh…”
When she’s talking or laughing or doing pretty much anything else, she looks fine. But as soon as she stops being animated, she looks evil, like she’s sizing someone up so she can figure out the best way to smack them down. I think it’s the combination of smiling mouth, downturned brows, and intense eyes. My poor Sims, I’m so hard on them.
I had Mia move into the “big dorm” on campus, the aptly (and boringly) named Sim State Dormitory. I figured that living in a big dorm would give Mia, who is a Popularity Sim, many opportunities to meet new people, make friends, and throw gigantic parties. Oh, and get started on that “Woohoo with 20 Sims” Lifetime Want.
“OK, how soon can I move out?”
I had Mia claim a sweet corner room on the second floor, right next to the TV lounge. In a real life dorm, having the TV blaring on the other side of one’s wall would be a detriment, but that doesn’t bother Sims. Mia had to be close to all the action! And by “action”, I mean “constant group studying”, because that’s about all that happens in that room.
“This is MY door. MINE!”
Mia had a decent amount of money from scholarships, so I went about decorating her dorm room. Here’s before redecorating (I had already moved the dresser out into the hallway):
And after:
I probably spent too much money on art, but hey, I had to make the room look nice for the impending woohoo pictures! Plus I didn’t know what else to spend it on.
Since Mia was in a good mood and no one was around for her to socialize with, I had her write her term paper. This takes several hours to complete but increases a Sim’s Class Performance Meter (which determines her grade at the end of the semester). Since I wanted Mia to have more time for socializing, I figured she might as well get as much homework as possible out of the way.
“Do I have 25 pages yet? Maybe I should widen the margins…”
By the time Mia had finished her paper, the dorm’s 13 other rooms had all been claimed and the cafeteria worker had arrived to whip up some chili con carne. She didn’t have time to mingle, though, because she had to get to her first day of class.
“La la la…wish I had an MP3 player…”
After Mia returned from class, she ate some dinner and zeroed in on a potential candidate for some future woohoo. His name was Chase Zhang. With his blonde ponytail and black turtleneck, he looked like your stereotypical pretentious beatnik college student. He was a bit on the shy side and didn’t seem to like Mia very much at first, though he listened politely to her dumb jokes.
“And then the shrink says, ‘The problem is that you’re too tense.’ Get it? ‘Two tents’?”
(continued on Page 2)
OMG. Another update! Yay! I love this blog. And the Shanleys. lol…. someof these captions are hilarious! Keep it up, Jen!
Hey Jen! This is so awesome! Mia seems to be such a good heir. Especially with her aspiration change. It’s a good thing you don’t have to try for that WooHoo with 20 sims anymore. I had a tough time getting 5! I think she has a much better Lifetime want now. Also, I don’t really think she looks that bad. But I agree, she looks better when she’s doing something. And Political Science sounds so boring to me. Lol, but whatever those crazy sims want, I guess, right? ;-) Well congrats on everything and I hope that it gets more exciting for you! Can’t wait to see your next post!
Looks great, once again the captions keep me laughing.
How do you manage to get such clear and sharp photos?
I just managed to start a blog on my family, not nearly as enjoyable as yours but I’m learning.
Take Care, V
Thanks, you guys!
PRMami – First off, I checked out your blog, and I love it so far! Can I link to you from my site? Also, I left a comment, but I’m not sure if it showed up or not. I had to leave an anonymous one since I don’t have my own LJ.
As for my pictures, I think lighting helps a lot. Sometimes I add a gazillion lights before I snap a photo. I also have my camera settings on high, and I use the “Sharpen” feature in Microsoft Photo Editor to make them a little less blurry. But I think sometimes the sharpening doesn’t look as good. Blurries make the Sims look more natural and less cartoony, I think. But I’ve gotten in the habit of sharpening. Did that make any sense? Heh.
if someone like mia had a baby with a man can mia have an afair with a women
This was hilarious! LOL! You had me laughing out loud with your captions ^_^ Mia seems to be havng a great time in college these days. I have to agree with you that she’s not the best looking Sim… at least she looks different, it would be boring to have all look the same… Wonderful update, I wish Mia good luck with making friends and on that lifetime want!
Hi Jen;
Please by all means go ahead and link. All us Simaholics need to stick together ..eh? as anyone who isn’t a simmer has no clue how addicting this game can be.
I’ll be adding you to mine(if it’s also ok) once I figure out LJ options.
That llama suit gets them every time… I love it! Seriously, I haven’t got a problem with the similarities in the story (it’s not like I have a patent on wooing the llama).
College gets much more fun with the next generation, as they’ve had more time to get skills and scholarships and you get more time to go hustle pool and play in a band.
All of my sims are like zombies! Its so weird! I once had to grab a guy, using buy mode, and bring him out of his dorm. My girl had a crush on him and he would not come out. I waited for like 90 sim hours! I have had a person graduate, it is cool. The new carrers are sooo awsome. Have fun!
Hi Jen. Great update as always!
Assuming most of the skins are Maxis-made since Uni has just been released, I wonder what’s so seriously wrong with Maxis people when it comes to designing clothings and hairdos… especially the guy’s stuff. But somehow they look cute and funny in your pictures with your narration on! Having beatniks and hippies around may not be so bad, now coming to think about it.
I don’t know if it’s the right place to post but I bought the Guster CD yesterday. I kept forgetting (I seriously need to organise To-Do list) but finally managed to slip into a nearby HMV store and found it. I really enjoy it. Thank you, Jen, for introducing! I’m not rushing you or anything but when’s the next installment of “Christmas in the City” coming?
Another random question… I think I saw a “High Fidelity” poster in your blog a while back. Do you mind if I ask you where or how you got it? It’s one of my favorite movies and I’m thinking about having the reproductions of the characters, especially the one played by Jack Black, when I have TS2 (Yes I’m a lousy Mac user and have to wait till May). Thanks!
hey jen! I love the funky green room! Especially the bed covers! I guess there’s a lot of feaures in Uni that we haven’t explored yet. Are you planning to satrt a greek house? and send all the YAs there? it’s be cool. as for me, I haven’t got a clue how to start a greek house. btw… I’ve gone back to updating my blog so if you have any time, don’t hesistate to drop by ^^ cheers
Hiya Jen;
Just a quick note to let you know that I switched blog formats. I could not find a way to fix comments made by non LJ members to anonymous..drove me batty. Here’s hoping this service is a bit better.
So Moonlight’s Legacy stories will be here:
http://prmami.blogspot.com/
Well I’ve found that the droms are boring! So very very boring. You won’t get much done if you just have your sims live there. What I have done for Jared Starchild, is to basically have him living on the community lots. In fact I have him living in only one (Campus Lounge) make sure a lot has all the nessesary stuff on it and have them drink coffee to stay awake. This allows you to do so much more, as a few cups of coffee keep a sim awake longer than a night asleep. Use influence to get other sims to do all your work for you, term paper is the best to get them to do. The problem is, is that the lot gets very slow as alot of sims start coming in.
I haven’t tried a Greek House yet, might be ok as you might get enough friends to influence sims to do all of your schooling for you.
chie – I downloaded the High Fidelity movie poster in a pack from Mod the Sims 2. You can find them on this thread. As far as I can tell, the creator hasn’t released an EP-ready version of the set, so I had to delete mine for now. Hopefully he’ll update them at some point (will Mac users be able to use the same downloads?). And you bought Guster! That’s so cool. I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’m not sure when I’ll do another episode of “Christmas in the City” — I’m still searching for the right song!
Janice – Starting a Greek house is pretty easy — you just move your Sim into one of the rental houses and have them apply for a Greek charter over the phone. I didn’t have any trouble with it, but I don’t have the Prima Guide for the EP, so I don’t know if there are other factors involved. I’m glad you’re updating your blog again!!
PRMami – Thanks, I updated the link! I hope Blogger works better for you.
Aner-Dyfan – Yeah, the community lots in University are pretty cool. Good strategy! You’re so right about the dorms being boring. Try a Greek house, I bet you’d have fun with it. :-)