Veronika Kent Medical Centre

The Veronika Kent Medical Centre is located on the 39th Street block in Apple Valley Metro.

The 39th Street block us also home to many other local civic buildings

including the police department and a reputable hotel.

The centre was named after Veronika Kent, a successful architect and supporter of medical technology from the TS1 era of Greymount.

The clinic boasts of a recent renovation that added an a second level. The renovation has allowed for additional doctor offices, exam rooms and patient beds to be added.

The first level features several doctors' offices, waiting area, lobby and employee cafeteria.

The second level features exam rooms, surgery room, lab and patients beds.

Patients are greeted with a set of double glass doors that open into a spacious lobby.

Beyond the lobby, patients check in with the nurse on duty

and have a seat until they are called for their appointment.

Patients will either meet with Dr. Julio Wilsonoff, current Medical Centre Director (2005-2009) and General Family Medicine,

Dr. Suzanna McMillian, head of Obstetrics & Gynecology

or Dr. Donna O'Dale, head of Pediatrics.

Patients are seen in either one of two exam rooms,

depending on their age.

For patients that need sugerical care, a state of the art surgery lab is in process,

as well as the famous lab that discovered  the cure to the Plumbbob Virus.

While recovering patients can stay in comfortable beds before returning home.

Career Choices for Simmies

Sometimes my simmies have career related LTWs...other times, it's up to me to decide what career they go into. How do I do this? Several ways:

1. Look at the wants panel. Sometimes they'll roll a want for a specific career. If so, then I chose from one of those and they take the first one available and the one that fits their personality and lifestyle.
2. Look at a combination of personality, aspirations, interests and hobbies-which is what this post will talk about. Of course the usual, feel free to borrow/steal/use these in your game and tweak for your own hood.

Usually by the time my sims are teens, I will start thinking about their career and what they want to persue as their career. Here's the list that I use to think about which careers would work for each sim. It is not necessary for a sim to have EVERYTHING listed, but it's more like a score. The more qualities a sim has for that career, then the better suited that sim is for that career.

Athletic
-Personality = Active, Outgoing
-Aspiration=Fortune, Popularity
-Interests = Sports,
-Hobbies  = Sports, Fitness
-Traits = n/a

Business
-Personality = Serious, Outgoing
-Aspiration=Fortune, Family
-Interests  = Money, Work
-Hobbies = n/a
-Traits = workaholic

Criminal
-Personality= Active, Mean
-Aspiration =Fortune
-Interests = Crime, Money
-Hobbies = Fitness
-Traits = brave, rebellious

Culinary
-Personality = n/a
-Aspiration = Popularity, Grilled Cheese
-Interests = Food
-Hobbies = Culinary
-Traits = food addict,

Law Enforcement
-Personality = Active, Serious
-Aspiration = Family
-Interests = Crime
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports
-Traits = brave

Medicine
-Personality = Serious, Neat
-Aspiration =Fortune, Knowledge
-Interests = Health
-Hobbies = Fitness
-Traits = n/a

Military
-Personality = Active
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Work
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports
-Traits = brave, disciplined

Politics
-Personality = Outgoing, Serious
-Aspiration =Fortune, Popularity
-Interests = Politics
-Hobbies = n/a
-Traitsu = activist

Science
-Personality = Neat, Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Animals, Environment, Weather
-Hobbies = Science, Tinkering, Nature
-Traits = eco-friendly

Slacker
-Personality = Outgoing, Playful
-Aspiration =Pleasure
-Interests = Travel, Toys
-Hobbies = Film & Literature, Games
-Traits = rebellious

Artist
-Personality = n/a
-Aspiration = Pleasure, Family
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment, Fashion
-Hobbies = Arts & Crafts
-Traits = n/a

Natural Science
-Personality = Neat, Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Animals, Environment,Weather
-Hobbies = Science, Tinkering, Nature
-Traits = eco-friendly

Show Business
-Personality = Outgoing, Active
-Aspiration =Fortune, Popularity,
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment, Fashion
-Hobbies = Film & Literature
-Traits = trendy

Paranormal
-Personality = Neat
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Paranormal, Sci-Fi
-Hobbies = Science, Tinkering
-Traits = brave

Adventurer
-Personality = Active
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Culture, Weather
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports
-Traits = brave, adventurous

Education
-Personality = Outgoing
-Aspiration =Knowledge, Family
-Interests = School, Toys
-Hobbies = Science
-Traits = patient

Gamer
-Personality = Playful
-Aspiration = Pleasure
-Interests = Toys
-Hobbies = Games
-Traits = rebellious

Journalism
-Personality = Outgoing
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Travel, Weather, Work
-Hobbies = Film & Literature
-Traits = n/a

Law
-Personality = Outgoing, Serious
-Aspiration =Popularity
-Interests = Crime
-Hobbies = Film & Literature
-Traits = n/a

Music
-Personality = Outgoing
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment, Fashion
-Hobbies = Music & Dance
-Traits = n/a

Architecture
-Personality = Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Environment
-Hobbies = Arts & Crafts, Tinkering
-Traits = n/a

Dance
-Personality = Active
-Aspiration = Popularity
-Interests = Culture, Entertainment
-Hobbies = Fitness, Sports, Music & Dance
-Traits = n/a

Entertainment
-Personality = Active, Outgoing
-Aspiration =Fortune, Popularity
-Interests  = Culture, Entertainment
-Hobbies  = Music & Dance, Film & Literature
-Traits = n/a

Intelligence
-Personality = Neat
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests = Work, Travel
-Hobbies = Film & Literature, Tinkering, Science
-Traits = brave

Oceanography
-Personality = Active, Serious
-Aspiration =Knowledge
-Interests =Animals, Environment, Weather
-Hobbies = Fitness, Nature, Science
-Traits = eco-friendly

Let's use Si'Enya Warwick for this example. Her OTH is nature, aspiration is popularity and her traits are insecure, trendy and perpetual bachelorette. Personality: Neat 5; Outgoing 3; Active 7; Playful 3; Nice 7. Topic three interests: Environment=10; Weather=10; Animals=9

So we're looking for a career that needs a sim with an Active, Nice, Shy and Serious personality, that loves the environment, weather and animals; persues popularity and their OTH is nature. Which is actually strange that Si'Enya is popularity, she is better suited for Knowledge. I may have assigned her aspiration back when I was looking at the surrounding family members to pick aspirations. Ok, let's fix that.

So NOW we're looking for a career that needs a sim with an Active, Nice, Shy and Serious personality, that loves the environment, weather and animals; persues knowledge and their OTH is nature. Whew, makes more sense. Now it's time to start narrowing down the careers. We're going to narrow it down by Personality, Aspiration, Interests, OTH and traits (if applicable). You will see that you get a different list depending on how you narrow it down.

By narrowing the careers down according to aspirations we get:
Medicine

Science

Natural Science

Paranormal

Education

Architecture

Intelligence

Oceanography

By narrowing the careers based on OTH we get:
Science

Natural Science

Oceanography


By narrowing the careers down according to interests we get:
Oceanography

Architecture

Natural Science

Science


[one match only]

Journalism

Adventurer


By narrowing the careers based on personality we get:
Law Enforcement

Oceanography


[one match only]

Military

Athletic

Business

Criminal

Medicine

Science

Natural Science

Show Business

Adventurer

Architecture

Dance

By looking at all the lists we get a few career choices that stand out for Si'Enya

• Oceanography
• Natural Science
• Science

This is where it get's interesting and you have to get your creative juices stirring, let's look at Si'Enya's life so far. She's been hard at work trying to complete her bug collection and she has worked two summers as a camp counselor leading nature trails. We also have to look at the career caps (currently 2 playable sims per career with few exceptions)-thankfully all three careers are open.  We can eliminate oceanography as Si'Enya hasn't shown an interest in marine life during her teen years.

"I know what I want to do!"

"Excuse me, Si'Enya, you're interupting the process."

"Isn't this process about me?"

"Well...yea..."

"So shouldn't I have an opinion?"

"Um...ok...?"

"I would like to be a project leader."

"What?"

""I would like to lead researchers and students in entomology studies concerning the effects of the changing environment on our insect population and how the changes in insect population effect our environment. It's a very serious issue you know, why do you think I've been trying to catalog the insect species in Apple Valley?"

"Ugh...I thought you were collecting them."

"No and can you believe that I can't find the Paratrooper Spider, they used to be abudant in this environment, but I can't find it. Don't you think it has something to do with the changing environment?"

"Umm, yea...sure."

Well, it looks like Si'Enya has chosen the science career. Looks like a good choice.
If you perfer to have someone else do the work for you, then try Simmerville's Career Planner. You answer a series of questions for your sim and they provide a list of recommendations based on skill level, personality and family situation. I don't think they have the free-time career tracks added to the database.

Montalcino

Montalcino Vineyard and Resort is located several hours from Apple County.

The lower level features a world class resturaunt, on site market and breathtaking courtyard.

The upper level features several rooms that overlook the surrounding vineyards.

Guests are greeted with the vineyard's onsite market with local postcards and posters

as well as tables heavy with the freshest produce, milk, seafood and eggs delivered by local farmers each day.

The world class resturaunt boasts of an extensive nectar bar with vintages from the TS1 era

fresh nectar tasting stations for guests to sample the nectar of the day under the guidance of the host. After tasting such nectars, guests are welcome to view the process of nectar making and even try their hand at stomping the tender grapes to coax thier sweet juice out.

The resturaunt consistently serves delicious food that utilizes fresh herbs from the vineyard garden.

The chef prides herself on maintaining a fully stocked kitchen and offers cooking classes to vineyard guests. Guests can learn how to cook nectar crepes, chicken with black figs and lavendar, or even fresh basil salad.

The resort is one of the best, it has superb service that anticipates guests' every need including books from local author Elaine Mautneryia, customized tours of the surrounding area and a comfortable ride to the local airport.

The resort features clean and comfortable rooms that feature en-suite dining

or smaller rooms that adequately service your sleeping needs

and the spacious suite, also known as the Montalcino Suite

with private balcony dripping with plants that overlooks the vineyards. This suite is reserved months in advance.

When guests are not enjoying their lavish accomadations, they can be found in the breathtaking courtyard listening to the local radio.

The courtyard is complete with an area for weddings

and lavishly catered receptions

a space to relax in the hot tub

and plenty of seating areas and gaming tables shaded with hanging plants and grapevines heavy with fruit.

The courtyard is the jewel of the vineyard and resort.
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Download the 4x3 lot here!

Poll Results

The recent poll has closed and the results were very interesting.

The behind-the-scenes tidbit that you'd most like to see is:

Gameplay Background, followed by a tie bewteen Lot Tours and Technical Gameplay.

With that in mind, I plan on posting at least one gameplay background post a month with either a lot tour or a technical gameplay post once a month as well. I have also linked some important and much used game-play documents in the sidebar.

Since you want to see more gameplay posts, is there anything in particular that you would like to see? Post a comment and I'll do my best to present it in a post.

Simmish Cultures

I was asked to give a little bit more detail about my simmish cultures and heritages of my simmies. I love learning about different cultures and since the world is full of them, here are a few of the current cultures in my hood. There will be more cultures as I delve deeper into my simmies lives and build the corresponding locales for them to visit as well. Feel free to steal/borrow/use these in your games as well. I hope to start adding downloads of the buildings in the future for those who are interested in recreating the locales in their game.

Inherited Cultures
These are cultures that I inherited from other simmers when their sims moved to my hood.

Sokitumi-Nicole Humphrey was originally from Sokitumi, an island nation that had several goddesses including the famed goddess of love, Goddess Lahubutaniya and the god, Anghj. This simmer did an excellant job of fleshing out Sokitumi from native words such as Melihari (hello), government names (Peaceful Regency) and a beautiful background. To hear this simmer discuss Sokitumi it seemed like a magical society untouched by modern spoils. You can check out Nicole's former blog and Nicole and Lyndon's conversations for more insight on this culture. I created Sokitumi on one the islands of my tropical subhood which uses the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. Sokitumi is also the only tropical island where the default Maxis tropical vacation clothing makes sense.

Simborough-Sandy Warwick and Jadhira Shazad arrived in Apple Valley after a Gender Swap with Simborough. Simborough is a FSBS hood and because this simmer is from the UK, that's what I envisioned Simborough as. You should browse through the website and learn more about Simborough's multicultural hood.

Native Cultures
These are cultures that I developed for my simmies based on gameplay options. Most of these are a result of Bon Voyage and not wanting to use the standard vacation hoods that shipped with the game.

Kimikuria: this is my "asian" vacation hood using the Ellis Island from Amber's Journey. It's loosely based on the east asian countries like Japan, China and Korea. Kimikuria is the land of zen gardens, old wise men, and mahjong . The lots are mostly the oriental series downloaded from wolfsim68 at TSR. The lots that I built use the same exterior wallpaper and roof color so that all the lots are uniform in apprearence. Li Yoo is originally from Kimikuria and the Warwick family spent three simyears there on assignment. The name was chosen based on the "asian" sound of it.

Hacienda Bay: this is the hometown of the Herendez family, starting with Alfonzo and Margurita Herendez (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the bay. It is loosely based on the caribbean islands like Puerto Rico with it's british colonial style buildings, lush plants and ocean views. Currently this is only one lot in my "tropical" vacation subhood. I am in the process of rebuilding it since my first version will not "place" on the neighborhood thanks to the fact that it's a beach lot. The goal is to make it one complete island as my tropical subhood is the Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey. I don't remember exactly how or why I chose this name since it was during TS1 days (2004).

Tiki Isle: this is the hometown of the Kent family, starting with Toby and Veronika Kent (Greymount TS1, Apple Valley TS2) who immigrated from the isle. The isle is loosely based on the caribbean islands of Cayman Islands and Jamaica. The isle features a rich culture in terms of food, dance and "juice" exports. Currently this lot is in the planning stages and will eventually take up an entire island in my tropical subhood (Emerald Isles from Amber's Journey) as well. This name was chosen based on the shipped Tiki sets with the game.

Ozian: this is the birth place of Elphaba Mendenhall, who was born with a rare skin disorder that made her pigment a bright green. For those familar with the Wizard of Oz and Wicked, then you will recognize Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the West. This place doesn't exist in the game yet, but I might consider creating this locale for Anthony and Susie to explore.

Thaindia: this is the hometown of Jadhira Shazad and I'm very excited to be starting the building of this island that is loosely based on the south east asian cultures like Thailand, India, Singapore and the Phillipines. Currently it's a single island set as a "asian" vacation subhood. I've included a sneak peek of one of the structures on the island. This name is basically a combination of Thailand and India :P

Starr Grey Administration Building

I've been begging for a lot tour and just realized that I haven't given one of my own recently. Here's a brief lot tour of the Starr Grey Administration Building following it's remodel. The building was originally designed by Wolfsim68 as a bank and was retrofitted to operate as the administration building. The building is named for the first spokessim of the hood-Starr Grey, who was the spokessim for years of Greymount (~2003)

The county council recently alloted a nice chunk of simoleans aside to remodel the administration building. Li Yoo headed the project and offered to give the tour before the building was reopened to the public.

But first she needs to get rid of some pests.

Here's an aerial view of the first floor. There is the gift shop and archives library, conference room and offices for county members Carmela Herendez and Rebecca Wilsonoff. There's an empty office as well.

An aerial of the second floor. County Council President Fiona Kent's office, a small wedding chapel and a auditorium for press conferences. Also a few snacks and the loo.

The Gift Shop sells deposits on vacation trips. The gift shop has posters of different travel locales (in addition to the Bon Voyage posters, I also use posters from MTS2 and I am currently creating similar vacation destinations to match). If a sim purchases a poster, this is thier indication to me that they would like to travel to that location. The cost of the poster serves as thier deposit for the trip.

The Archives Library is a little corner with some books and computers for research. Eventually, Jadhira Shazad would like to see a public library for the hood, but at the moment there isn't a need for it.

The offices contain a desk and chairs for visitors and there's a photo outside the door for easy identification.

Carmela's office is where residents would go for complaints on neighbors and questions about cultural events.

Rebecca's office is for financial situations, loans and tax payments for example.

Upstairs is the county council president's office which has the best view.

Fiona's office is for the remainder or if residents simply want to talk to the top woman.

The Conference Room is for county council meetings or legal proceedings such as adoptions and divorces. Legal proceedings will start to be moved to the law office once I finish remodeling it.

The Auditorium is for press releases and speeches

The Wedding Hall is very simple, just the basics for a low key wedding.

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I'm not satisfied with the building yet, I want a custom Apple Valley flag and simlish signs for outside. Also, I feel that the wedding hall is too fancy for a simple place to get married. I would like it to look more courthouse like in apprerance. I'm also debating adding a courtroom since I have law offices on another lot.