Oh yes, that's one of the paneling textures that came with AL I think!

An architectural aesthetic I've kinda wanted to play around with for a long time is a kind of "Golden Age of Hollywood" or retro early-20th-century Broadway theater, kinda like the big studio in TS1 Superstar- but I'm not sure what actually makes sense to use as the functional basis for that kind of project. There's no actual movie theater functionality in TS2, it somehow doesn't feel right for a concert space rather than film or theater, and I do still want a venue of some sort as the centerpiece of the lot's interior... I want that kind of "glitz and glam" effect to actually be justified somehow!

A sim can perform on an empty stage. The more charisma points, the better the performance will be, and other sims will join the performance as well. An empty stage is functional in that way.

Soms shops which can be used unowned can also add to playability - a book shop makes sense in my head. I probably will not put a grocery in there myself, but even some clothes and jewelry could fit in.

Other things: a buffet could be enough to get sims interested, since they do enjoy eating with other sims (I would not put in a restaurant) - as well as coffee and a bar, perhaps some nice art for the arty ones to view (the ones who have Arts and Crafts as a hobby really love to do that). For a bit of extra fun, a photo booth perhaps, coffee and always enough seating.

What do frustrating dummy levels, hypocrisy, the World Cup, wall limits, and potential repetitive stress injuries have in common?

If you guessed "Z's latest experimental project" that's somehow moving at hyperspeed, you are correct!

I did what I thought was cleanup of sims' character files after using the modify facial structure dialog by deleting the old facial structure. Turns out this should not have been done as there sometimes is interdependency between the two structures. I spent the last day fixing my NPCs to restore their ability to change makeup.

The method of using the Body Shop still remains superior albiet tedious. Because it only produces one structure that is a replacement and the unwanted one is not seen anywhere.

I love making skyscrapers and downtown urban steel/concrete/glass buildings, and my megahood is kinda getting its downtown full... I need to start considering more about which projects could actually be adapted to my tentative Far East vacation destination, so instead of being a disneyland-ified caricature of east Asian aesthetics, it winds up being more of an attempt at a Sim-ified version of Singapore or Tokyo instead- blending the Takemizu Village items into a modern urban design seems like a fun challenge, and suddenly gives me a whole new downtown to start filling with skyscrapers, just as hotels and spas and entertainment venues instead of apartments!

I usually buy 2 cellphones, sometimes 3 if I expect to gift one. This solves a few problems without modding because I ain't got time to mod everything. I can still do calls in case one cellphone is associated with a still existing call object. I can queue another call while I have a cellphone in hand. If I save the game with a cellphone in hand, other people can still call me. Should the person crash with a cellphone out, he has a spare.