oooh, VACATION ISLAND!
Okay, most of you know I'm a geek. In OH SO MANY WAYS. I love to play video games - I still have a Super NES. Super Mario World is STILL one of my favorite games. And Resident Evil on the Playstation? Well, I can't play it late at night when I'm up by myself because it creeps me, but I love it.And online, I
I KNOW. STOP IT.
So for Christmas, my daughter got a Nintendo DS.
I.LOVE.THIS.GAME.SYSTEM.
Plus I love to play the Pokemon games. Shut up.
I'm glad
Overall? My daughter and I both liked it, it was fun. I like games where you have to unlock areas to explore, there are games to play & earn shells ($$), and adopt pets and dress 'em up.
You also start with a little "bungalow" that you can decorate with rugs and chairs and a fishbowl and curtains & other cute little things.
You can 'pet' your pets - and other people's pets too (and bathe them, and feed them)! You can communicate with other 'islanders' by Iku - which consists of little symbol cards with which you can make little haiku type messages.
What I DIDN'T like is that when you make "buddies" out of the villagers, you get INUNDATED with Iku messages. I mean like spam-in-your-email inundated. And if you try to answer all of them (just to be polite, for goodness sake!) some of your 'buddies' get mad and send you nasty Ikus. Like "NO MORE MESSAGE ! !"
Sort of rude. I didn't care for that part.
A couple things...
Maybe because I'm a grownup I struggled a little more with it than my daughter did, at first. I mean I had to actually READ all the instruction booklet to make sense of some things - to figure them out. And the Iku thing. And also? In the game area (OH, some of the games are REALLY FUN, like making food!!), one of the games has a big red "X" on it and we've yet to figure out if that even CAN be unlocked as a single player game.
BUT.
We haven't tried this feature yet, but you can do the multi-player thing if you've got wi-fi! Hook up and make new online friends, play with more pets, earn more shells, buy more stuff!
I likee.
Unfortunately, I don't have wi-fi so... we're hoping to try that out eventually. I'll let you know how it goes.
If your kid (or YOU) likes to play the pet games, like Dogz or Catz or Webkinz or one of those other Z things, I think you'd have fun with this game. It would be better if there was more stuff to do on the single-player game, though.
Still, I'd buy it.
Now, I have to go trump up some reason to ground my daughter from the DS so I can play.OH and PS:
If you missed last night's FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE, feel free (and encouraged!) to go get the podcast.
That is all.
Have a day.
Labels: Book Review, games people play, mom central.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Because you BETTER NOT FORGET.
9pm Central, 10pm Eastern, 7pm Pacific
It's BILLY-PALOOZA!!
We'll be playing Billy all night long, baby.
Which Billy? I guess you'd better tune in to find out.
Time to tune it in and TURN IT UP: EMPIRE RADIO (or click Listen Here)
The Mosh Pit will be open!
Come and bring me a live request.
Hey, some of the other reasonably cool kids are doin' it.
Labels: friday night live, mpyrradio.com, Radio
Posted by aka_Monty @ 7:49 PM
Monday, May 26, 2008
I'M NOT DEAD! I'm feeling better! I don't want to go on the cart!
Two imaginary bonus points if you get the title reference.Wow, it is all dusty and neglected in here! I have no particular reason, except for the normal things like "I NEED MORE TIME!" and "I HAVE NOTHING MORE TO SAY TO YOU!".
Poor little blog.
I think I've given it an inferiority complex or something.
I DO have things to say, but I didn't want to just fill the space with the same old shit regurgitated in different words. BOOOOOORING!
Okay, it may ALWAYS be a little boring, but at least it'll be boring on a different topic.
Although I love twitter.com, the amount of social climbing, "star" fucking, brown-nosing, and fakery makes me almost physically ill.
Especially when you find out that people you really thought were sweet and caring and...relatively well-adjusted are really NOT LIKE THAT in real life.
In real life they are rude and thoughtless, selfish and uppity. AND LIARS.
And old enough to know better.
SHAME on you. SHAME.
I got an email from someone who said I was "scarily intimidating".
I don't see it.
Am I?
I don't even know what that MEANS.
Apparently (according to the same individual), the person worries that they can't live up to my expectations of them, my expectations of people in general.
WHAT?
What do you know of my expectations?
I expect people to be decent human beings, is all. Is that so hard?
I say what's on my mind. If I'm wrong, so be it.
I don't expect my friends to always agree with me, nor I with them. It's okay to have your own personal opinion and not be a "yes-person".
Just because I have low tolerance for constant whining or being a quitter or your little clique of holier-than-thou pals or the people who think they're the intellectual elite doesn't mean that you're wrong and I'm right
although I probably am, it just means I don't like those behaviors or the people who embody them.If you don't mind, then more power to you! Doesn't mean I can't like YOU.
So give me a fuckin' break, okay? Srsly.
and now for something completely different...
Get your GUILTY PLEASURE-PALOOZA podcast now!
I was 'outing' people left and right, playing the songs that they're embarrassed for people to know they listen to.
AND I NAMED NAMES.
Hey, guess what? I got nominated for a Best Of Blogs award, in the BEST PODCAST category!
Could I have your vote, please? There might possibly be wild monkey* sex involved!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
And PS You can vote EVERY SINGLE DAY. Is all I'm saying.
*this may mean sex with wild monkeys, unless none can be caught, in which case there might be a secret, stealthy trip to the zoo.
Labels: awards, bribery, flotsam, life, podcast
Posted by aka_Monty @ 10:45 AM
Friday, May 16, 2008
The scoop.
If you listened to last week's show, you may have noticed that right at the end of the show all my music disappeared from my winamp library.As of yet, I haven't figured out how to get it back.
I tried to drag it back in like I usually do when adding new music, but it was only adding ONE song at a time & opening it up in Quicktime.
WEIRD!
I have no idea what to do.
ANYWAY.
Hopefully some of my hot geek friends will help me get it back on track...but unfortunately this means there will be
NO FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE TONIGHT
:( Boohoo.
Posted by aka_Monty @ 6:41 PM
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Every day is Mother's Day. Or it should be.
"God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers." - Jewish ProverbI don't know how to write flowery, prose-y things without sounding like an insincere asshole. So I'll just say...
Happy Mother's Day.
Y'all keep up the good work.
Posted by aka_Monty @ 10:57 AM
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Great Expectations. And some other crap.
I love to read. Read read read read. I don't have many requirements of a book, except that it entertain me in one way or another. And as silly as it sounds, it can't be too wordy.You know?
Like Danielle Steele's paragraph-long sentences with fourteen commas.
And Anne Rice. Did you know it took me six years to finish "The Witching Hour"? YAWN-FEST. I thought it was going to be my downfall; become the only book I started but didn't finish.
BUT I DID IT.
Then I made the mistake of trying to read "The Hunt For Red October", which, with all the technical stuff and choppy scenes, has been half-finished for about three years now. But I refuse to give up.
ANYWAY.
One thing I really hate is a badly edited book. Typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, poorly constructed sentences...they distract my eye from the story as my mind tries to arrange them in proper form.
Really, really, really hate that.
I expect better.
Strangely, however, most of those things don't bother me in the least when it comes to blog reading...or writing.
I'm way guilty of all that stuff, and I don't proofread because if it looked right the first time, chances are I'll miss it the second.
But if one of you guys publishes a book, make sure your copyeditor does a good job.
And yes, I get the irony.
I'm thinking of homeschooling my daughter next year. Well, actually, my mom would do it.
She's a terrible student. Oh, I know, she's not the only one...but I also dislike her school.
If you've listened to my radio show or the podcast, you're aware of the current situation with the Band Candy and the trip to Six Flags Over Texas (the conclusion of which will be vented tomorrow, live on the show).
Dealing with the teachers, two principals, and a member of the schoolboard lodged the seed of discontent even deeper in my heart.
But my daughter is still not a good student, either way. She doesn't turn in her work. She doesn't do her
stupidbellwork. She doesn't, despite the fact that she's grounded and yelled at, remember to take two seconds to put the homework in a folder that is specifically labeled for that purpose. She doesn't remember to write in her agenda, on which she is graded.She does, however, get her nightly reading done. But then she doesn't write THAT in her agenda and have me sign it, so that she can receive a grade.
I know some of it is typical...but I also know that when she was born, the bleeding in her head caused some slight damage.
It's hard, if not impossible, to separate which might be the result of birth and which might be the result of teenageritis.
Oh, I can continue to sit with her as we go through her backpack, and she can continue to quail from the look I know appears on my face when she tells me - yet again- "I forgot".
I tried to abdicate and let her wing it.
Unfortunately I don't have that thing in me that other people have, that allows them to accomplish that.
She's a good kid. A thoughtful, sweet kid. A truthful kid. A smart kid. And in so many other ways, very responsible. She's well liked by her teachers and principals.
But the stress level isn't good for my heart OR for hers, which is already oversized.
So. Homeschool. Maybe for a couple-three years.
I need help. I know a lot of you are homeschooling moms...I could REALLY REALLY use some advice.
I have absolutely no idea whether or not I'm doing the right thing.
and now for something completely different...
MY SISTER: "What does 'refute' mean?"
ME: "Repudiate."
I laughed. She didn't.
If I ever predict your death, you can trust that it'll be completely accurate...because obviously I plan to kill you.
DO.NOT.MISS my show tomorrow night!
It's YOU BE THE STAR OF MY SHOW PART II!!
There's still time for you to record your song and email it to me.
And as an added bonus...
MR. FABULOUS co-hosts!!
Labels: anger management, flotsam, kids, life, mpyrradio.com, Radio
Posted by aka_Monty @ 7:17 PM
Monday, May 05, 2008
A delicious review...and some other stuff
Well, some things are cooler than others, but hey - FREE GOODS. Right?
This time was a total score.
You know I love my coffee. I also love to try energy drinks - especially when I'm gearing up for the Blogathon and 24 hours of straight blogging. I tried a lot of coffee the first year & MAN it tore up my stomach. I had acid reflux almost until the next blogathon.
Last year I tried a variety of energy drinks, and I have to say that: TAB ENERGY DRINK tastes like a can off ass juice.
Also the Monster drink with the red writing, and some weird off-brand I bought for 89 cents at Walgreen's.
THE.SUCK.
So Mom Central asked if I'd like to try an energy drink made by Ocean Spray, and since I like their Cran-Grape, I was all for it.
What I got was a couple bottles of Cranergy, in Cranberry Lift and Raspberry Cranberry Lift.
First of all? YUM
Second of all? It didn't give me a huge rush, it didn't give me the jitters, and it didn't make me clench my jaws--which is what I do when I'm all jazzed up on caffeine and/or energy drinks.
What I liked about Cranergy (besides the delicious flavor) was that it did give me a gentle boost and sort of...unfuzzed my tired brain. I felt more alert and awake.
The first bottle I drank in the morning-time in lieu of coffee; I KNOW, right? But it seemed to do the trick, and I didn't even have to wait for it to brew.
The second bottle I tried the next day in the late afternoon (around 4pm I usually start fading & need a lift), and it boosted me nicely so that I didn't yawn my way through dinner. Also? Did NOT make it hard for me to sleep that night.
It's got green tea extract, antioxidents, the all-important B vitamins and - here's the good part if you're a calorie counter - 50% fewer calories compared to other energy drinks and sodas.
Since I'm in the midst of dieting right now (BLAH!), that was a bonus.
Is all I'm saying.
in case you missed it live...
You can get the podcast!
FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE - YOU ARE THE STAR OF MY SHOW!
It's one you don't want to miss - some of my friends from twitter.com sang some songs! They were awesome. I also had a fantastic and very funny co-ho, PseudoJoe.
It wants to be heard. It NEEDS to be heard.
This coming Friday will be YOU ARE THE STAR PART II.
Record me a song (with YOU singing, naturally), email it, and I'll play it for tens of people! Woo!
Hurry up though, I won't wait forever.
**BONUS! This week's guest co-ho is none other than Mr. Fabulous himself!
You'll really, really want to be there.
Labels: friday night live, mom central consulting, mpyrradio.com, Radio, Review
Posted by aka_Monty @ 10:34 PM
Friday, May 02, 2008
FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY
9pm Central, 10pm Eastern, 7pm Pacific
It's the YOU BE THE STAR show!!
That's right, we've got some excellent singers I found in my twitter.com stream
(PART II next week - won't you sing me a song? Be the star of Friday Night Live!)
Time to tune it in and TURN IT UP: EMPIRE RADIO
The Mosh Pit will be open!
Come and bring me a live request.
Hey, everyone else is doin' it.
Labels: friday night live, mpyrradio.com, Radio
Posted by aka_Monty @ 8:46 PM