Hi! (waves vigorously) Finally! A chapter! Pretty cool, huh? On a more serious note, it’s been ages since the last college chapter. That’s really a shame, but at least the deficiency has been fixed now.

Because there is only one household to follow, there is no Goldberg & Silent Lady episode this time around. I hope you aren’t too disappointed. Also, partway through the rotation I changed my picture-taking technique, so some of the pictures are not as high quality as others. For these deficiencies, I apologize.

And now, without any further ado, let’s join our story, which is Already in Progress…

Skye was the first of our three Teens to make the transition to Young Adult. She actually aged into her face well, with less ’splodey-face syndrome than either Jo or Cecil exhibited. (happily) Aren’t genetics interesting?

The clothes, though, have to go.

You may have noticed Bryan in the midst of his own set of sparklies in the last picture. Apparently, his custom hair doesn’t transition nicely, since this was the result. Oddly enough, I rather like the look on him. I may let him keep it generally, although I think that he needs a top that isn’t purple. Fortunately, there are plenty of other colors available.

Was this look popular in 2004 or something? I don’t remember it, but nobody would ever mistake me for a fashionista…

Tamara ended up with an outfit and hairdo that absolutely screams “TOWNIE!” and that will be changed as soon as is humanly possible.

Seriously, I played some other households after sending the college crew to college, and when Tamara showed up on the same community lots, I though “Huh, that’s weird. That townie randomly has the same name as one of my Sims!”

So a trip to the clothing store is definitely in order.

First, though, everyone had to claim dorm rooms. They’re all in Gilbert Hall, and their rooms are all nice and close to each other.

BRYAN: What? I wanted a lot of windows. I didn’t know that would leave you with the small room!

There’s a fair amount of money in the household: both Tamara and Skye earned the Sim City Scholar’s Grant, and Bryan earned both that and the Tsang Footwork Award.

They can afford plenty of decent clothing, is my point.

I know I’ve mentioned before that my campus has a lot of doppelgangers. I’ve been making over the ones that come within my reach using the makeover chair, but it still isn’t enough to help me tell them apart. However, I recently downloaded christianlov’s Sim Boutique Clothingrack, and here is the proof that it works: this is a cc outfit, and no self-respecting dormie would have generated in it.

It looks like this self-respecting dormie doesn’t like it, either, but that’s just too darn bad.

With the Sim Boutique Clothingrack and the makeover chair, the Uni crew -- mostly Bryan -- have been busy differentiating the dormies.

Bryan’s not very good at it.

Bryan’s not the world’s most successful Pop Sim, either. I have decided to try playing according to my Sim’s Wants this time through, instead of simply forcing them to get good grades. It does make things more interesting, I suppose. Anyway, Bryan has basically autonomously permalocked the Want to Be Friends With Colby, but every time I send him over to talk to the guy, Colby goes to class. Or starts talking to someone else. Or goes to the bathroom. This was a rare success… and then Colby went to class.

I suspect that the main motivator for wanting to be friends is the facial template…

For the two semesters of Freshman year, the main interesting things happening were all about Skye. I was initially hoping that she would end up liking this guy, but nope -- negative chemistry.

(I have my reasons for wanting her to like him. They are very shallow reasons.)

She was attractive to certain of the ladies, but since ladies are not attractive to her, that didn’t work out all that well.

Skye paid top dollar for a nice matchmaker date because she is a Pleasure Sim and wants fifty of them if at all possible. She ended up with Venkat Jalowitz, whose portrait you can see on the date meter there. Notice that you can’t see him anywhere in the actual room, because no sooner had the matchmaker introduced him then he disappeared into the dorm.

Since I couldn’t find Mr. Jalowitz using normal methods, I went into Buy Mode, which lets you actually see into dorm rooms. And there he was in Colby’s room, with Colby, headed straight for the bed!

Skye was eventually able to retrieve Mr. Jalowitz, but the date never got above “Okay” and he refused a hug at the end. Skye was somewhat less than devastated. Mr. Jalowitz was Date #4, and Skye’s next mini-goal is Five First Dates, so it’s all good.

See the stylish young lady back there in the maroon jacket and the nifty boots?

That very stylish young lady is Tamara. The boots were a must, naturally, and the hairstyle (Maxis-matched by amylu1988) was one of the few that didn’t make her look like the spitting image of her mother. Tamara keeps rolling up Wants to study, preferably with someone else.

DON SCOTT THE DORMIE: Say, do you know how much torque you apply to a nine millimeter adjustable spanner when you’re at 150 psi?

After finishing her studies, Tamara rolled the Want to Throw a Party. (happily) I love the way this game will throw stuff at you, even after seven years!

Tamara strongly approved of Don Scott the dormie, and I approve of the match.

Skye vetted him, and seemed to approve as well. (Fortunately, Skye has zero bolts with Don. Having best friends fight over a dormie would be Not Cool.)

Everything was going swimmingly, until at the end of freshman year, I made a mistake.

I allowed Skye to have Date #5.

SKYE: I’d like a date, please!

MATCHMAKER: (in mystic tones) Cross my palm with silver, and I will provide you with your perfect match. (normally) For today, anyhow. And for a limited definition of “perfect.”

SKYE: I don’t have any silver. Would you accept folding bills instead?

MATCHMAKER: Oh, absolutely! I take anything except American Express.

And Skye got Professor Creepy here.

SKYE: Gee, are you really supposed to be dating students? I thought that was against the rules.

PROFESSOR WHO SHOULD REALLY KNOW BETTER (disgustedly): Oh great, another one who’s read the handbook.

Skye ended the date and said goodbye, and I thought that the professor left the lot. I quit the game, and came back later, only to find that Professor Questionable was still on the lot.

Even worse, everywhere Professor Sleazebag walked, he appeared to leave a trail of invisible objects. All of a sudden, dormies were stealing invisible gnomes, playing with unseen remote control cars, dancing to incorporeal stereos that all played the salsa station and that could not be picked up and deleted. I used the Stuck Objects Remover from MATY and… well, you can see the results.

Nobody could get the professor to leave the lot -- any time they tried to Say Goodbye or Ask Him To Just Leave, Already! the action dropped out of their queue.

Then there was this fellow. When they moved into the dorm, his name was Blake and Skye had two bolts with him. (That’s actually why I took this picture: it was supposed to be Tamara vetting Blake just like Skye vetted Don.) After Professor Skeevy, his name was something that wasn’t Blake, and Skye only had one bolt with him. Blake was still in the phone book, and could be called over, but somehow the one that was living in the dorm was switched.

As you may recall, the last rebuild left my Uni full of doppelgangers, so having two Sims that look exactly the same is not necessarily a danger sign.

But swapped dormies, glitched professors, invisible stereos, and some other symptoms have convinced me that this ’hood is on the verge of exploding. I’ve had the jagged-lines gossip thing for a bit now, in the main ’hood, there’s a Sim who has the option to call the Social Bunny on the phone, and before I restored from backup I had kids taken by the Social Worker who then were not readoptable.

I did lose a food in the switch from Hobbes (who could handle Happy Holiday Stuff) to Novo (who refuses to acknowledge its existence). I also tried putting in Rebecah’s animated farm animals and then pulled them from the game six months before we found out that was a Bad Idea. I knew a rebuild was going to be necessary, I just didn’t think it would be this soon.

Naturally, the first thing I did after realizing that I couldn’t get rid of Professor Glitchypants was move the crew to another dorm.

I’m sure you’ll understand that I didn’t feel much like documenting things for a little while. It does feel sort of pointless when you know that whatever you do for these Sims now won’t actually matter, since after they graduate, you’ll be playing their clones in a clone of the ’hood.

Although if you want to be strictly accurate, the clones won’t show up instantly after graduation. I think Sandersville will hold together long enough for me to finish the rotation, and they’ll go home partway through that. So I let them finish up Uni and gain skill points, which I will restore to the clones using one method or another.

But I did resort to speed three a lot. And for the first time ever, I played according to the Want my Sims were rolling up rather than what would earn them a 4.0.

Pleasure Sim Skye almost never Wanted to earn a skill point. She steadfastly refused to Want to write a term paper, and only rarely chose to do her homework, although she went to class without complaint. She declined to pick a major, and was shunted into Philosophy.

Wearing her jammies at all times, playing darts or chess, and slap-dancing to the stereo in the upstairs lounge, though? Count her in!

Skye did not pick anyone specific to go out with, and I was not inclined to give Skye any additional matchmaker dates, especially since I will have to start her LTW of Fifty First Dates over again.

Tamara, being a Knowledge Sim, had no problems with choosing her major: Mathematics. She cheerfully rolled up Wants to Write Term Papers and Go To Class and Do Some Homework Now, Please. Make Dean’s List was autonomously perma-locked until first semester senior year, when it was replaced by Graduate With Honors.

Once in a new dorm, Tamara appeared to lose all interest in poor Don Scott. But if she had to go to bed before she finished her homework, the first thing she’d do in the morning was go finish it.

Autonomously.

Bryan chose to major in Drama, and I have to say that it was pretty apropos. He did manage to make friends with Colby, and ended up on fairly friendly terms with multiple dormies in the new hall.

This unfortunate fellow was not one of them. I have no idea why Bryan took a dislike to him, but take a dislike he did. Their every encounter ended with person-person minus-minuses flying left and right.

Like his mother, Bryan rolled one or two Wants a semester for learning new skills or doing homework, generally the minimum of what was needed to fully open the progress bar.

The second half of senior year still did not bring Twu Wuv, or even any crushes. The gang finished up clases and graduated uneventfully.

I do admit to forcing Skye to earn one skill point she didn’t want to, just so she wouldn’t go on academic probation. I couldn’t face an extra semester of Uni.

Tamara graduated Summa Cum Laude, with an A+ average. Skye and Bryan both managed C+ averages.

The girls did pretty well in the Clothing Transition Lottery. Bryan… not so much. He’s not a member of the Brotherhood at all, let alone a full brother!

Please accept my apology for such a rushed chapter. You will see our Uni crew again (briefly) in the next Already in Progress chapter before the rebuild. After that… (conspiratorially) you’ll just have to wait and see!

Until next time, Happy Simming!