Altador Cup time!

Pardon the interruption of crafty news for some silly, (slightly) dorky news instead! It's Altador Cup time on Neopets again! So, the team I was on last year took second (stupid Pirates beat us in the finals) so here's looking for a strong showing again this year :) Come join the fun, if you're so inclined. Game play starts Wednesday 5/26!

Shenkuu Ninjas, all the way!

Yup, yup...

I have no life :)

In case there are any other Neopets fans out there, (and for people like Zach who enjoy chuckling at me), we did well in the Cup. Shenkuu took second overall. We were ranked 4th going into the finals, beat the 1st place team to move to finals, and then lost to Krawk Island in the final match.

Yes, the Pirates did beat the Ninjas.

Cracks Zach up no end.

Still, I had fun. And as summer is the busiest time of the year for me at work, and July is certainly the worst month, I have appreciated a month of silly computer games :)

And of course, as a die-hard Cubs fan, I am used to the mindset of "There's always next year!" Bring it on AC V!

Yeah, yeah

Haven't been posting much, but things've been busy here. Unfortunately, not busy-exciting, just regular ol' busy.

Summer's finally here, so work's going all crazy. Not to pieces (hopefully nothing else breaks this summer - at least let us make it through the season!!) but just busy. That's what you get for working a job with definite Seasons to it, I guess :) I do like my job, most days, (like any job, I guess) but MAN, when it hits, it HITS!

So, yes, very busy.

Surprisingly busy outside of work too. It's been unseasonably pleasant here the past few weeks, so we've been trying to do a little bit outside before the "regular" summer hits. Starting to feel like a normal desert summer now, but starting back at the beginning of June, we were having GORGEOUS weather! Almost outright chilly a few days! For those that don't know, in this area, normal June temperatures are in the upper 90s, not the upper 70s, like it was about a week and a half ago. It was really funny talking to all the families who've been stationed out here for at least a year - you know, the ones that KNOW this is unusual weather. What was funny was listening to us all talk. Every conversation had "I'm not complaining, but..." or some similar variation, as we all observed how unusual the weather was :) All of us were noting it was odd, and at the same time, trying not to jinx ourselves into normal weather! :) But, our brief respite is now over, and the weather is turning into the normal windy, cloudless, overheated oven that summer is out here. (sigh...) Well, it was WONDERFUL while it lasted!

My other big excuse for not posting: the Altador Cup.

On busy days, I relax with computer games. Not gamer-type games - that's a realm of geekdom I have yet to enter. More like Popcap and similar flash games. Give me brightly colored puzzle or arcade games and I'm happy as a clam. Like Neopets. Flash games and cute animals - what's not to like? And by "like," I mean become mildly addicted... (Blast you, Anne, for getting me started!!)

Anyhoo, Neopets has several events during the year. Plots (adventure storylines you follow in the Neopian world) or game challenges or whatever. In the summer, it's the Altador Cup, a game challenge where you join a team from the Neopian world, and play games to earn points for your team. It's all centered around a soccer/jai alai type sport called yooyuball, so there's the World-Cup-esque mindset to it. All in bright colors with tiny fictional animals playing the games, of course :) Very silly, and after a tiring day at work with lots of screaming kids and/or adults, it's a nice way to relax

I joined the Shenkuu Ninjas :) Go Shenkuu! We're actually doing pretty well - I think we're in 4th overall (of 16 teams) as I'm writing this.

(C'mon - who wouldn't want to be a Ninja?? Unless you wanted to join the Krawk Island Pirates, I suppose...)

Games!

In finding Widgetbox (the source of the Free Knitting Pattern widget down on the side below), I found that they also have games widgets. Here are two that are a little on the addicting side. :)

This first one is Bubbles. Right up my alley. Give me a basic puzzle game set-up, add some brightly colored playing pieces, and I'm good to go!

The second in Tetris, a classic from childhood. Couldn't help but add it here too :)

I continue my progress into the 21st century...

And I'm still as antisocial as ever!

I've finally joined Facebook. (sigh....). I know, I put it off for so long, but after about 4 or 5 friends made comments about it within a very short time frame, I figured I might as well. And I feel so stupid, because I actually don't really like it! I've been playing around with it a lot, over the last few days, and actually had a chance to see some of the applications, etc. Isn't it supposed to be the be-all-end-all of keeping in touch with people? I dunno....

At least, I've thought about what I don't like. As with Horrible Job, I'm trying to be rational about saying I don't like something, trying to figure out why I don't like that something. A sign of me growing up, maybe :) So here goes:

• I don't like a lot of the 'friends-just-to-have-friends' mentality. I haven't kept in touch with a lot of these people for years (some since high school, so almost 8 years now) so why is that going to change now? If I haven't kept in touch with you for 4 or 5 or 10 years, then I probably don't really care what you're up to now! And, yes, it is good for keeping in touch with people, but that doesn't mean I want EVERYone to keep up with me. (like I said - antisocial as ever!) I want to keep in touch with people that actually mean something to me, y'know? I don't want to end up on their Friend list just so that the have 2001 people instead of 2000 listed there.
  
• There are actually a lot of the bits and bobbles and application-things that are downright OBNOXIOUS! And I can't figure out how to make it go away from my page!! Why am I going to waste my time messing around with something that's irritating the heck out of me!? It's little things that you can't turn on or off, or all the little News Feeds - I really don't care about someone changing their profile picture, or adding a new group, or watching a new movie on Netflix, so why do I need it there on the page? I guess it's just another sign of me having different priorities for what I'm looking for in a site than other people, maybe?
  
• And let me just say, the Stitchmarker, or whatever that craft page application was called, is just a poor man's Ravelry. :)
  

Still, it does have it's redeeming features. Like I mentioned, it is an easy way to keep in touch with people, particularly those who might be in other time zones (pretty much EVERYONE for me right now!) or who aren't good about answering their phones (you know who you are!!) or who never check their messages (yes, you too!). Facebook does make it easy to see what they're up to.

Also, there is (drum roll, please) the BEST sets of maps and map games on there as applications. Yes, I know, I'm a dork :) The map module is really nice, because it's based on Google Maps, so it's be cities (and in some cases, neighborhoods), instead of just states or countries. Gives a much more fun picture of how much traveling you've been doing! :) The map game is awesome trivia! Like Freerice, it's a completely simple, addicting game, just sucks you right in, but you still feel like you're learning something! Like capitals and major cities in Africa, or city nicknames in the US - cool stuff, for little map dorks like us! Zach has watched me play on them in the evenings the past few days, and it's really funny to watch his face as he's trying to figure out of the fun map games are worth breaking down and getting a Facebook account ;)

So, yes... that's been my latest step into the new millennium... and I'm not quite sure if it lives up to the hype yet...

More silly fun online!

Virtual pets! Look - they even have a bat!! You can play with them too - click, and they'll follow your mouse around, and then click on 'more' and the bat has a little bug to fly after, or a fish for the penguin, or a carrot for the bunny. I wonder what the hamster has....

adopt your own virtual pet!

adopt your own virtual pet!

adopt your own virtual pet!

If you look, you'll see my names make much sense :) Stellaluna the bat, and Tacky the penguin, and of course Joey the buns.

Trivia! Whee!

Finally, a use for my absurd memory!!

Give it a try! You can change the category, too, if you want! They can get pretty tough though :)

I can quit anytime, I swear!

So was hitting up Popcap and Yahoo games again this weekend...Bad move, Lara, bad move. Homes to dozens of addicting little puzzle games, and the end of whatever productivity I hoped to have on the computer.

I'm not a gamer. I don't deal well with the multi-player RPG or video games. Something that has dozens of screen views all at once, well, I just can't track it all, and it ends up making my head hurt instead. Shows my age, maybe :) And we didn't grow up with a Nintendo set, so I don't handle complex button combinations. Do much better with simple driving games, or hack-and-slash set-ups. Ask me to walk around somewhere though, or handle a multi-button attack, and I'll end up in front of a wall unable to turn around.

But give me a simple little puzzle game, brightly colored patterns to clear or build or some such, and I'm there! The one that got me yesterday was Bricks Breaking on Yahoo Games. One of those simple little clear-the-blocks set ups that sounds really boring, but then you get to the end of the level, and you've only got 3 blocks left. So close! You can do better next time! And next time, you've only got 1 block left. So close! You can do better next time! And next time....

'Scuse me. The bricks are calling....

For all you word junkies out there...

The latest addiction: http://freerice.com/index.php Enjoy!

I've been addicted to TextTwist and Bookworm for a while now, and this is the newest word game to enter my realm. It was introduced to me by my mother (an unintentionally evil woman, completely destroying what little hope of productivity I had left), it's a really simple game that I just can't stop playing!!

But hey, it's for a good cause, and I'm learning too, so as long as I can force myself to get this report done today too, it's all good!

Must work now, so I can play my game!!