Next month we'll celebrate our 2nd anniversary and 500000 hits. But what will the Simmerville web bring in 2004? Read on for highlights from some of the sims contributing to the site.

I am the websimtress of Simmerville web, but as you probably know, what I publish was often written or prepared by others. A dusin sims are contributing, and I figured; why not ask some of them what we can expect for 2004! But first, expect a cool update in February where I and Simmerville's greatest fan ever do interview each other!

FUTURE: 2004 the year of the prophecy!
Ms Mollie MacAstral experienced a sudden popularity as she announced her discovery of the ancient Simmish Prophecy. If you missed it, you can read about it here. Ms MacAstral is also a clairvoyant, and could supposedly describe the year to come pretty well:

- Friends! 2004 will be packed with good events and bad events. There will be good and bad weather, and someone will die! Peace! Talking about the prophecy I have received many comments and questions that I have not had the time to read through yet, but in a few weeks I will reply to them all in a new article. Then I might even be able to tell you some more about our future! I am convinced that the year of 2004 will belong to the prophecy!

PAST: Learning about our history!
Simmerville has recently been captured by our past. Mazaloom Historical Society has already got a total of 15 local members willing to help with their many projects that you could read about here. Sven Hornsby is the founder, and her is their next offers:

- Great, this is all just great! Well, we have been working very steadily in order to create a great web tool for investigating your simmervillian roots! This database will be released any hour, together with our first family history that is very related to Simmerville; the Mervils! This Spring we will tirelessly add more personal and genealogical information to the database, completing a couple families every single month. The database allows you to scroll generations, and read about the sims' life events! Mazaloom History Society will also write a few historical articles about 300 years of history that most hoods will share interest in. So what can I say, except; it's just great!

BABY: DNA researches!
Ursull S. Swims is one of Simmerville's sims best known abroad. As a member of the Sims Science team, in 2003 she was involved with both the SimLOOK project closing, and lately the AstroLOVE project opening. She also contributes to our knowledge af babies and kids:

- I have been rather quiet for some time, my apologies for that - but this Spring I have at least 3 projects coming up. Children research keep me too busy to contribute as much as I'd like. I'll finally complete the article about the nanny (announced since a long time), Mrs Burtland has agreed to join me in a new series where the two of us simply meet and discuss questions that sims send in to us in advance, and finally - my medical interest has fooled me into doing some research on DNA *shrug* - I can't describe how interesting it is to see how traits are brought on to our children. I'm quite excited! All this is coming this Spring!

SUN: Monthly celebrations!
The SUN (Sims United Neighbourhoods) recently had a new core group and their new leader, Carla Niven of Palatial Heights, shares some of their goals for 2004:

- We have some quiet unique ideas coming up! We're planning on celebrations or event hosting every month for this term. I'd also like to work with the other Core members to get more involved and stay in touch more with all our SUN members. I'd like to get the Core seriously on track and I've already started with a schedule that will be sent out to all Core members on a monthly basis. That way everyone is on the same page all the time, and it will be easier to reach our goal to unite all the SUN hoods and get everybody more involved in the SUN

Also Simbille Ballong is involved with the SUN, more specific he maintain the registry.

- I am really ashamed for taking too long to update whatever is sent in, especially for the past couple months. All who ask for a SUN ID have been handled within a week, but household updates have taken me way too long. I can not promise any improvements, but I do guarantee that all submissions are taken care of - in time. For 2004 I think the SUN will need to figure out a few restrictions to keep the numerous submissions down.

STUFF: Selling out from storage!
Simmerville's section for household items saw a great number of updates during 2003. Even so, for 2004 nobody seem to have enough time on their hands. But do not worry, these guys have the storage full of old items not yet advertised:

BB-design (walls):
- You know, my family moved to 57 Simmerville last Autumn, and I lost my huge studio. After I moved I have not found much time for designing wallpapers, but the good thing is that my storage is still packed with not yet released walls! Some of them you can see in my show room downtown (2nd story of the SimCity First Trust Bank). In particular I'd like to mention a new series of 3 different sets called "Old Generation", nice walls that I created for the senior sims. I know there are many old sims who just don't find what they like in the local catalogues, so I am convinced that these series are very much welcome, not only in Simmerville. I guess I will release these before I start producing new walls again, I have ordered some new technology to make it easier in a completely modern way, so this Spring I might take a break to get updated on my new equipment!

FOOD: 
Johanna Grumblin, turning 66 years old this year, has inspired many a sim to improved cooking interest this year, not the least by arranging the SimCity Food Expo and founding a local Food Club:

- Well, my food section will apparently not focus a lot on recipes in 2004, instead there will be more articles on food culture and routine. Mrs Ashfield is one of the clever authors for 2004, she will generously help me with her series of articles to be posted perhaps monthly. That is all I know for now, I might reconsider more ideas this Spring, but at the same time I do get older, lately I've needed regular rests during the day and there is no guarantee that I will be able to go on with this work for much longer.

COMMUNITY:
Hood Council leader, Juliana Valentino, reveals some very exciting plans for Simmerville's old town area this year.

- We like to welcome a lot more stores and shopping facilities, residents really shouldn't need to go downtown to get new clothes or a computer game. But we will also add a better recreation aspect to the hood. Our plan will cover all community lots, but we have given the project different levels of priority. The 8 community lots are suggested expanded to a total of 10. They will serve purposes like Hood administration, shopping, recreation for all life stages, history preservation and culture, all to be completed this Spring, and we might even share some of the ideas with other hoods on this site.

We will start with the addresses 71, 73 and 75, focusing on shopping and recreation for kids including a new play ground. The idea is to preserve as much of the existing builds as possible, but with additions or adjustments to serve new purposes.
Next we will go for addresses 50, 70 and 74, the testsims currently residing number 50 will be thrown out and we will reconstruct the old hunting hut that used to stay there in a pure nature for recreation. At number 70 we will build a good and decent house that will be used by the future spokes sims' families, including a huge hall for community events and conferences. And at 74 we will focus on culture including art and concerts etc.
Final step will be left to the next Hood Council (to be elected April 2004), but we suggest them to do minor adjustments to 58, which is assigned to sports and physical recreation. Mervil's Market (61) and Ol' Ed's Market (72) are suggested to be our historical and cultural treasures that we preserve for the generations to come.
About the Operation Space article you published without approval, I will leave it to the Hood Council whether you should be fired or not!!!