Farmville and Obsession

Over 47 million people are playing Farmville on Facebook. So, it's not just my obsession apparently.

 

I started a little over a week ago, and I've been going crazy every day since. Send me a gift! I'll send you a gift! No, I don't want any damn gazing ball! Send me stuff that makes money! Grow some strawberries, but watch the time! They are only 4 hour crops and they wither quickly! Crap, they died!!! Lost $$$$!! Arghhh!

 

Okay, create a spreadsheet to track all the crops so no more die! Shoot, that crop won't come in until midnight! Now I have to stay up to harvest it...setting alarm.

 

Ooooo, the rice and eggplant are pretty. Darn, but the pumpkins turn around quicker and are cheaper. Hmm...

 

Adding to spreadsheet: what's the most lucrative crop? Ah...at this level it's cotton. But wow, look at pineapples! Haven't gotten to that level yet...how can I level up?

 

Google "Farmville cheats". Hmm...

 

Then last night Farmville starts fritzing and it didn't look like I was going to be able to harvest my 140 plots of pumpkins. I was about to lose everything!!!! (Yeah, not just crops either.) Then all my neighbors disappeared for some reason...<pulling hair out of head> Call sister! Holy crap! Are you neighbors still there? Make her get out of bed and sign onto computer. Nope, hers still there. It's just MINE!!! Ack!!!

 

Sign off. Reboot. Sign back on. Still screwed up. Holy effin'...for the love of...FRANTIC!!!

 

An hour and many reboots and retries later...(way past when I was going to get up from here and go to bed.) Finally manage to harvest crop. Neighbors still missing, but I'm taking a deep breath. The crop is saved...phew.

 

Look up from the computer. Realize everyone's gone to bed and it's after midnight. Have to get up at 4.

 

All right. Have officially lost mind. Plant cotton--that's what I'll do. It's a 3 day crop. Write harvest date/time on calendar.

 

Time for a little mini vacay from Farmville--straight to a mental hospital. Hope they don't make me eat vegetables.

New Moon - Post game analysis

Saw the movie...it was a beautiful film to watch. That pouring rain scene was dark and lovely, and the cliff jumping and the underwater scene—just gorgeous. Oh, and the parade of people and all that red...excellent cinematography.

 

But...the dialogue...oh the dialogue.

 

Surprisingly, the one actor who had some decent lines and delivered them incredibly well was Taylor Lautner, the werewolf. I hadn’t expected that, but him I believed. And the kid is like 17 years old. Oh, and now he’s all buff, too. Like “whoa buff.” When he pulled his shirt off in this one scene, I officially mortified my 10 year old by gasping. LOL

 

But...

 

If I had to watch one more “silent and meaningful breathing” moment of Bella's...I'm thinking the director was in love with her or something. That’s unkind...sorry. Let me admit this: Kirsten Stewart is absolutely beautiful—flawless skin, lips to die for...just fabulous looking. Not many faces could survive the scrutiny of a camera that close, and not once did she look anything but gorgeous. Honestly, though, I was really over it by non-talking close-up #20. Not her fault. Give the woman some decent lines, I say!

 

And Robert Pattinson...he has the face of a much older actor, like a really cool Sean Connery as James Bond, but he’s officially become Keanu Reeves in my mind—better to look at than listen to. I don’t blame him—it’s that dialogue. Robert’s voice is fabulous, but the lines...oh the lines. Man.

 

You know who had great lines? That chick playing Jessica, Anna Kendrick! She is completely believable, and her dialogue was great. Funny, too. Also, I love the dad played by Billy Burke. He didn’t have the greatest lines, but he did manage to make me believe most of them.

 

So, that was my movie experience. Going to have to preview the next one before the kid can see it. This one was on the cusp of what a 10 year old should be watching (maybe even over the cusp as I did cover her eyes a couple of times... LOL)

New Moon! Going at 1pm!

New Moon came out on Thursday at midnight, but I'm a little old to go with the teeny bopper/date crowd, so the kid, Mom and I are going to the matinee today at 1 p.m. The popcorn is just as good, and there are a lot fewer young girls screaming at the screen while their boyfriends roll their eyes. :-)

 

I thought I should post something after seeing the movie but decided it might be better to post it before. This way, I can talk about expectations. I've tried not to look at any posts or read any reviews about the movie, but I did see a couple. Appears those who are not rabid fans didn't think much of it while the true "Twilighters" or whatever they are called loved it. (What are they called? New Mooners, maybe? Although that reminds me of someone sticking their butt out a car window for the first time...)

 

So what am I expecting? Summit Entertainment produced this movie, and according to their website they do 10-12 movies a year. They have that logo with the blue background and the sketchy white mountainside across the top. I remember seeing it on movies I've liked before. That's a good sign.

 

Melissa Rosenberg wrote the screenplay. She also did Dirty "Go Ahead...Make my day" Harry and The Year of Living Dangerously (which I just saw on TV yesterday--love that movie!). Good signs.

 

Robert Pattinson has mastered the brooding look--thick, dark-eyebrows and all. Good sign since Edward is all about the brooding. Kirsten Stewart basically has one facial expression which is "teen angst" if I had to name it, and for the part of Bella, it fits. The new cutie on the rise (my kid has posters of him everywhere) is Taylor Lautner. Looks like he's buffed up for this movie (as much as a teenager can be buff). That wig they had him in for the last movie was not good...maybe they've found a better one this time.

 

I read all the books, and the second was my least favorite, but I understand this movie is the second and third books together. I liked the third book. The fourth book is where all the real action happened, though, so they've got me hooked for one more trip to the theater, I'm sure.

 

So what are my expectations? I'm not imagining Gone With the Wind quality for sure, but as a romp through Vampireland, I expect to be entertained. If all goes to crap, Star Trek is out on DVD, and I might stop on the way home and pick it up. THAT was a fun movie.

 

 

Ript!

Now this thing is just cool!! You gotta go try it.

 

This is just stuff from my blog that I did in a couple of minutes…but I can really see how this could come in handy…hmmm.

 

http://www.ript.com/

 

 

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/s4MCd5n0Aoj6UmXd

The Annual Christmas Cards! Yay!

Yep, it's past time for me to work on my Christmas cards! Every year since 1986, I've sent out Christmas letters and cards to a growing list of people. The list has around 150 people now (my culled list, actually), and printing them and mailing them out every year runs me around $200+. But it's my favorite thing!!! I've done them on solid cardstock, professionally-designed papers, Kodakgallery.com, snapfish.com, Wal-Mart, did a postcard one year...you name it. I like to try new stuff, but always I include photos and a summary of all the things I (and later "we") have done during the past year.

 

The collection of these has come in handy multiple times when I have to go back and remember what happened when--kind of like my own short autobiography complete with photos.

 

Some people *love* getting these kinds of holiday greetings--I get at least one note every year telling me how much they always look forward to reading it. Well, I'm one of those people, too. In the days before Facebook and Twitter, it was one of the few ways I could keep up with what the people I know are up to (and for them to keep up with me). Now, I've got this blog, too, to help me keep up with things, but I use it mostly for my writing stuff. Very seldom do I talk about my personal life here--okay, yeah, sometimes I do. But that's generally only the really embarassing stuff for pure humor value. LOL

 

The hardest part is picking something new and different. This year, I'm thinking I'd like to do a "pop-up" kind of card, but I haven't come across any yet. Might have to make them from scratch myself. We'll see.

 

Meanwhile, Snapfish hasn't sent my password to me yet. (I've forgotten it, sadly, and can't find it anywhere.) So, until they do, I'm still shopping around...

Onward and Upward!

It's the 18th of November, which makes me a little sad. Half of the nano is over! When I look forward to something all year, it's so hard to watch it going by!! Kind of like that trip to Fort Myers, Florida this summer. Waited and waited, then the time was finally here. For the first half of the trip, I was just having FUN! The second half, in the back of my mind the whole time was the fact that it was going to end soon. (Thinking that this is why I look fondly back on my 20's and 30's--they were the first half.)

Then I remind myself that living in THIS moment is the important part. Today is really all I have anymore. Today and memories and hopes for tomorrows. Memories and hopes are kinda not here, though, so today is what I've got.

When a new day starts (and mine generally start very early), I have high hopes. Never fails, every new day looks full of possibility. I imagine that day will be the one I don't screw anything up, my hair will behave itself, my skirt won't rip up the back seam (see previous post for that fun day), and I'll be yes, PRODUCTIVE! The clouds will part and everything I've been confused about will become clear. Yes, this is the day I will be kind to everyone I meet, won't say anything hurtful or stupid, and will actually make a difference for a change.

By the end of them, I'm generally about to fall over from exhaustion having lived through various stages of success on each of these items.

Today is no different...it's still early enough that I can get some writing done before I go to my day job. At work, I'll be massively productive, everything will add right up for me--debits and credits all netting to zero (accountant by day), and this evening I'll cook something fabulous for dinner. (Yeah, hardly ever get that item accomplished.) I'll get my bills paid, get the dishes in the sink washed and maybe even do some laundry. I'll read something really good with the kid tonight. Or maybe we'll get our Christmas decorations up early. (Yeah, that was Sunday's plan...what's today? Wednesday? Hmm.)

Onward and upward everyone!

Oh favorite book...you are soooooo fab

Reading (actually listening to on CD) one of my favorite books again. I've read so many books lately that I didn't like, I was starting to stress on nano. This is not good. Time for a book that inspires me! I had to go to the library and find my favorite again.

Can you guess what it is?? Excerpts:

Todd knew it wasn't true. Roark always wrote--drunk or sober, tired or wired, sick or well. He wrote when he was happy and when he was sad. He wrote just as much when he was in a good mood as he did when he was pissed over something. He wrote when it was flowing easily and when the phrases simply would not come. He wrote no matter what.

And my other favorite:

I can teach students the basics of writing, acquaint them with the rules of fiction, familiarize them with the writers who have mastered these techniques, but only God dispenses talent. That indefinable and elusive quality cannot be taught or otherwise acquired no matter how earnestly one desires and seeks it. I learned this sad truth from my own experience. Were talent attainable, I would be writing my own novels. Thank the God to whom you pray, Mr. Slade, for you were blessed with that magic.

Oh yes, Envy by Sandra Brown. How that book has not been sucked up by some studio and made into a movie, I'll never know. Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides made a fantastic film--this could do the same.

Don't bother with the paperback (although I own that, too). Buy the book on CD...read by the amazingly fabulous Victor Slezak. His voice is chocolate and wine and my favorite songs.

I've borrowed this set of CDs from the library so many times now, they are starting to give me weird looks. I wish I was joking.

Computer Woes & Geeks

Took my miserably slow laptop to the geeks at the Geek Squad today (at Best Buy). They ran a test on it for viruses, which I was pretty sure it didn't have. It didn't.

I asked if it could a memory problem. The geek said this model only has two slots, and the limit for the machine is 2 megs of memory. Both slots are already filled with 512's in each of them (apparently totaling 1 meg, although it really sounded like 1024 to me?)

Now, I'm like, "Can't I just buy two 1 megs, unplug the 512's and put the 1's in there?? (To me, the nongeek, it's like "unplug that and plug in this, right?" One plus one is still equal to two, right? Or 2048...whatever.)

He said, "Sure, but you've got to (bunch of English words that when put together sounded like a foreign language), so you'll need to spend $175." (THAT I understood perfectly.) I said, "Is that going to make it faster?" He said, "Well, a little, but you really need to invest that $175 into a new one, in my opinion." I thought but DIDN'T say, "And you need to get real. Unless you've got $500 in your pocket protector for me there, buddy, then that ain't happening."

Then they checked what was loading when it boots up (which was a ton of stuff). They told me how to get rid of all that stuff and charged me nothing. Sweet Geek. I do love geeks.

But I didn't buy the memory or another laptop...still thinking on that one. (And I didn't have $175 anyway.)

I came home, did what he said, and it's still slow, although maybe not as slow.

Now, keeping in mind that it is over 6 years old, how fast can I really type anyway? I'll worry about this thing later. As long as it doesn't crash for good, I'll be fine. I need to get the nano done before I go trying to switch over to something else. This old gal and I have become fast friends.

Well, not fast friends. Slow friends. That's what we are.