Huh, two plumb bobs kinda?

[joymatthews]

I only have Sims 2 and Pets.  One of my sims has a green plumb bob like usual, but now also has a blue capsule over his head, the kind you get when the sim is learning a skill, and it bobs around in whichever direction his head is pointing.  What have I done to myself? Heeeelp

[mhbuck21]

I sometimes get that same blue shining dot overhead, not very often though. It seems to coincide with sims sleeping for some reason... but as soon as I switch to other sim and back, it goes away. I never thought it was something serious... now you got me wondering 
Mari

[joymatthews]

 Well it's kind of like the thing that fills up when they are gaining a skill - and it's like it's attached to an invisible antenna.  it sits higher above the sims head than the plumb bob ... and kind of bobs and weaves around in the air to whatever their head is doing.  very distracting - plus i don't know if it's attached to this, but all the appliances and plumbing are breaking every day so something is weird, because it's only this sim and only this lot.  the other sim in the house isn't affected and switching back and forth between them doesn't seem to help.  sheesh

[Engram]

For the objects breaking, activate debug mode while in neighbourhood view (boolprop testingcheatsenabled true) then enter the house. Shift click on a sim and select Spawn... Break Suppressor. Sounds like you spawned the Break Inducer. The Break Suppressor will stop the objects breaking.

As for the second plumbbob, a picture would be useful to let us identify what it may be.

With debug mode still activated, try using Force Error on the sim. Select to delete the sim, then save and exit to neighbourhood. Re-enter the house - is the second "plumbbob" still there? You can also use the cheat moveobjects on and delete the sim in build or buy mode, then save and exit, then re-enter the house. This is perfectly safe as it does not delete the sim permanently but resets them. The sim will be standing by the mailbox when you re-enter the house.

[ancienthighway]

It sounds to me like the blue "plumbbob" is actually a skill progress bubble that didn't get cleared properly after doing some skilling.  My guess is if the sim works on skilling an attribute, the bubble will reset it self, then clear properly once skilling is finished.

I'd delete the Break Inducer if it's present before spawning the Break Suppressor, but I like having things break in my game.

[joymatthews]

ok, i'll try these things...i've never taken a picture before but i'll try, thanks all