I spend more time downloading items for Sims 2 -- clothing, hair, walls, floors, tables, etc. -- than playing the game. (Partly this is because I have to reboot my computer just to be able to load the game. Sims games are *incredibly* demanding on my system. [I can't believe I'm running on only 384 MB of RAM. Even my computer at work had 512. I just ordered a 512 chip online...])

One of the things I like about the Sims games is being able to create my own version of reality and then doing funny things with it. I can interpret events that happen in the game as something that means something.

It was really funny when I was last playing Sims 1, SimJohn and SimPaul talked a lot, and it was almost always about computer stuff. I took screenshots.

Since I've gotten Sims 2, though, I've yet to create any but fictional characters.

This is in part related to the downloading -- only yesterday did I finally find some hair that might work for SimJenny. I still have yet to get truly long hair for guys, though I've found a tutorial on how to do so...

SimJenny should be one of the easiest ones to create, yet it it is not, especially with the way the people in Sims 2 can be better manipulated -- I can be a lot more precise about creating faces and such, so I'm able to be more picky. But also, for *me*, it's hard to pick a way to be me. Do I dress SimJen in Hello Kitty clothes? Sexy and such, the way that I'd *like* to be? Boring jeans 'n t-shirts like I usually wear? Some other idealized version of me?

Sims 2 also adds a level of complexity because there are "ambitions" -- instead of just needing to eat and pee, I can also make a sim want to have kids, lots of sex, knowledge, etc.... and I see myself as having parts of a few of the different tracks. But in the game, I can only pick one.

Perhaps I should create several of me. And then watch the way we interact with each other, as well as with everyone else. Hah.