I've been spending a lot of my free time playing "virtual" games lately. The latest one I'm hooked on right now is a combination of plush and virtuality: Littlest Pet Shop (LPS) Virtual Interactive Pets.
Shawn and I have been up to our necks with stress over buying new furniture and necessities for our new apartment, and while on our search for that stuff, I came across some incredibly adorable plushies with big eyes and pretty fabrics. I think the reason I was attracted so much to them was because of their big eyes and sweet faces. (Shawn said I have a thing for toys that are top heavy, haha.)
I first came across the LPS bunny when Shawn and I were at Kohl's a few weeks ago. I saw that there were more animals available so I started searching for them at the stores we went to. I immediately fell in love with the panda, and after noticing how rare it was in my area (I had only seen one in all the stores we visited), I snatched her up when I realized I couldn't live without her. Normally, I go for the pink plushies, but there's something about her dark oriental print that really draws me to her. I've named my panda Moshi Moshi (which can mean "hello" in Japanese in certain contexts).
Plushies aside, I found that I could delve even more into Moshi Moshi's world by visiting littlestpetshop.com to interact with her virtual character. I just plugged her special access code in the LPS: VIP system and Moshi Moshi's life started coming together.
Even though the games and plushie sales in general are geared more towards younger, teenage girls, I'm actually not that great at all of the activities, haha! In fact, Shawn had to help me out for a while until I got the hang of it. As I play more games, I gain more points to spend in the stores for clothes, furniture and plants for my garden.
There are some features I haven't accessed all of the features yet. There's an option where I can "meet" other people on LPS, but I'm thinking that I'll rawk out Moshi Moshi and her friend, Chiisai (a pink mouse) and their houses first so I won't look too silly in the LPS virtual world. ^__~
Chiisai (which means "small" in Japanese) is the newest addition to my LPS family. I looked up all of the plushies online, and I thought the mouse was very similar to Yukimo's build (tee hee). Of course, I couldn't resist.
This last Sunday, Shawn and I made it our mission to hunt down and find the mouse. I really didn't feel like ordering her online when I knew that at least one could be found in stores just a few miles away from me. >__> I think I have a kawaii sickness or something.
Anyway, we ended up finding Chiisai at the very first store (a Toys 'R Us) we went to, and there happened to be only one mouse on display. Just like Moshi Moshi, Chiisai was one of a kind for me.
I'm still working on building her wardrobe and room in my house.
Besides playing my newfound LPS love, I've been working on a new Maple Story character. Kathleen decided that she wanted to try playing on a new server, so our friend and I decided to try it out with her.
Now, I'm not a huge Harry Potter book fan (the writing style seems too simplistic and I get bored easily), but I do enjoy watching the movies. So when Kathleen said that she wanted to create a guild dedicated to Harry Potter characters, I was in. I would take a bullet for Luna Lovegood and Kathleen was nice enough to let me take that character while she took Nymphadora Tonks, and our friend taking Professor Moody. We had to think up names that sounded similar to the book characters, yet were original enough to enter into the MS system. As it turned out, Luna Lovegood became LunieLove; Nymphadora Tonks became NymphyTonks; and Professor Moody became MadMoodDood.
I don't think I'm as attached to LunieLove as my other MS characters (Minkka and Roonies), but it's been fun starting working on a character of such a low level. ^__^
I've also gotten into the routine of playing Animal Crossing after I finish my work shift every day. There's something extremely relaxing about sitting down and playing in a world that contains absolutely no worries. I can get money for my house's furniture just by collecting fruit around the village, and I can pay my mortgage at any pace I want. In fact, I don't even need to pay off my house if I don't want to! Living a simple virtual life is so much more enjoyable sometimes.
These are the most recent photos I've used as wallpaper on my iPhone:
Currently, my wallpaper is this:
If you have arthritis and need pain killers, you can refill your prescription by email.
If you need heart medication or anti depressants you can do the same.
But by god, if you just want to fuck for fun and not get pregnant - you must be punished!! No matter how long you've been on the pill or on the same prescription, the only way you can get a refill is by going down to the family clinic and waiting...and waiting...and waiting...and waiting...
It's not as bad as going to a Planned Parenthood where you could end up being there for 4 hours- but you still have to wait a long time. But worst than the waiting, you have to put up with the other people who go to these clinics.
The trashy teenagers who need to travel in packs to get their pills. The nasty couples who are all over each other who want you to know just how badly they need that bag of free condoms, and the teenage mothers who, yet again, need to bring a posse with them to wait. It's just depressing.
I actually had a woman in there last time yelling at the staff that they didn't give her enough free condoms in her bag,
"Hello!! Can you fill this bag up! I tell ya! You people really skimp on these and never give me enough. It's your fault I have 8 kids!!!!"
I swear to god.
So today, I go. I wait. I wait. I get called into a room.
I step on an ancient looking scale, fully clothed and with my shoes on.
I go sit in a room where the lady pulls up a screen on a computer and says, "So last time you were on this....OK, six more months...OK."
She takes my blood pressure and says that it's good. And then she looks at me and says,
"Your weight is over the top. You should try to lose the weight any way you can."
And then I couldn't speak. I quietly took my prescription and zombied my way out of the clinic.
MY WEIGHT IS OVER THE TOP!?!?!!
Had I been living in a world where when I thought I was a bit heavier and a bit curivier than I had ever been before when I was actually dangerously over weight and unhealthy?!
Are the UK size 12 jeans I wear actually plus sized jeans and I just didn't notice?
Perhaps it was somebody else going to the gym at least twice a week since April.
Maybe it's some other girl that's been eating fucking vegetable soup and god damn Special K snack bars every day for the past two weeks.
Maybe that girl doing push-ups each morning and sit-ups before she goes to bed is just a figment of my unhealthy, lard-filled, fatty McFat-fat imagination.
WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?!?!?!
How unbelievably, retardedly irresponsible of her!
Do you want to know how much information she had on me?
My weight. What birth control medication I've been on. My blood pressure.
THAT IS ALL.
She didn't have my chart, she didn't know how tall I was, my BMI, what my diet was like, if I exercise at all, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING.
She didn't know if I had an eating disorder or not!What if I was bulimic and she just flippantly said that my weight was "over the top" and that I should "lose it anyway I can".
How about binging and purging, does that sound like a good idea to you, you fucking idiot!!!!????
I'm sorry, but from what I've learned about body image and health, WEIGHT doesn't not equal HEALTH.
You DO NOT tell a young woman that she has a weight problem without knowing ANYTHING about her! Especialy if you're a fucking NURSE.
So, FUCK YOU nurse lady.
I don't have a god damn weight problem. I'm curvy. I weigh more that other girls my height because I have a different body type than they do. (OK and I like to eat pizza.)
I've been trying really hard to eat better lately. I've been trying to lose weight before I go back to California in September. I exercise. I take vitamins every single day. I drink a lot of water. And I don't drink as much as I used to, and I've really cut back on junk food.
I am healthy. So, if being curvy and healthy makes me fat, than you can kiss my fat ass, lady.
It's a panel on transparency and they haven't let Scoble speak yet. FTW!
Docking station, PLEASE!
Book #24 in 2008: The Girl's Guide to Surfing, by Andrea McCloud
Definitely worth picking up if you're a kook (beginner surfer) like I am. Even though it's geared towards girls - it wasn't over-the-top. (I saw another book called "Surf Diva" or something and I had to pass - I mean, isn't the point of learning to surf to NOT be a diva?)
Anyway - this book had lots of useful information including what to pack in the car before a surf trip, different types of boards, how to load your boards on the car (fins face front - I definitely did this wrong the first couple of times), surf etiquette etc.
Sure, it can't actually help me CATCH waves, but it gave me a good sense of what to expect when I get out there and advice on when it's time to call it a day.
No nonsense. No talking down. Just the facts, ma'am. The illustrations are pretty cute also.
On Sunday I got engaged. Honestly, one of the best days of my life. I showed up to work this morning and found this...
My desk-mate, Brooke, totally surprised me with a fun bottle of California Petit Sirah. Totally awesome and quite touching.
