The Sims 2

The Sims 2 is a computer game simulation of life. You are in control of some sim people and you direct them about their daily lives, detailing food (which you can burn), bladder needs, relationships (including marriage, divorce etc). You can raise a family (have kids via "woohoo" with your partner, or adoption), dress and decorate every aspect of your simmies lives to suit you. In fact, there are countless options which grow even more with the various expansion packs.
I never really realised how difficult to explain this was before I tried. Here is wikipedias info on it.

Anyway, I have to say it - I am addicted to the sims. I love my sim family I am working on at the moment. There is Farin Heather who I made in CAS (Create a sim - the programme where you create your sims down to every last nose stud and black eyeliner. CAS is mentioned a lot on the Sims 2 website forums and I must admit it is only recently I learnt this acronym). Farin then married Regan Capp and had two twin daughters Toby and Maxy (is it obvious I was expecting boys?). Toby and Maxy have finished university and Toby is going to marry Cornwall Capp.
I generally find other peoples sims stories less interesting without pictures, but I'm afraid I don't have any. Maybe some other time.

Sims, for me, is a programme on which for me to splatter my creative ideas. I can make a beautiful house, or a complicated storyline with marriages and children. I like to play with my sims. They cheer me up. They relax me. Time simply flys by...
I am one of those people that uses the calendar and to do list functions on their phone, and I know as well as anyone that after a day of work and staring miserably at those lengthly lists and number and pixels I can relax after as little as one hour playing sims.

Now it isn't for everyone, I understand that. Some people need action - loud blaring guns and noisy machine fire - in order to "relax". Some people need blogging. Some people need strategy, sending cavalry across gorgeously graphical open plains and fields to clash with other men on horses. My little brother likes internet games, such as the ones on onemorelevel.com and miniclip.com. Or youtube. In fact, there are countless ways, but I'm happy enough with shopping for a dress for my new sim.

If any of you ever do stray over to the official sims 2 website (a must if you actually do play sims. You can upload your stories, share your creations, discuss with other people and more.) You can find my sim page here and my immense Caliente story parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Actually it isn't immense. I got bored of writing it after about part 3 and it's very rushed and difficult to follow (particularly if you don't play sims and aren't familiar with the vocab). The pictures are colourful and quirky though.

So why is the label at the bottom of this post Moany grumble as opposed to Easyopen Smile? Well, obviously it'd be unreasonable to suggest you all to go out and buy sims 2 (although I'm sure EA and Maxis would appreciate this), but more importantly in the PC Gamer magazine that my brother subscribes to Sims 2 is often slagged off for taking over the market.
In their top ten list for each month, commonly 3 or 4 are sims 2 expansion packs. I understand this might be annoying for all those die-hard one person shooter folk out there, but I don't think that merits calling sims 2 "a problem" particulaly after they rated the game over 90% originally. After all, fewer women like these kinds of games. What else is there really to appeal to us? These big games makers are missing out on aprox 50% of the market.

Poor sims 2. A misunderstood quirky brilliance of a game.
In case you are still not reassured of this game's brilliance, here is 3 Sim children jumping on a double bed in a red room.

Smarties

It has been an entire week since I posted anything. I have little excuse but the same old same old how busy I've been. I'm mostly blaming my Silver and Bronze Duke of Edinburghs award, my article and schoolwork.

Anyway, lets talk about smarties.
Does anybody properly appreciate the beauty of a smartie? I have just finished eating a packet, and I know for sure that I did not fully appreciate the 174 calories. It's not even the calories that bother me. It's how quickly they vanish.

If I had all the time in the world I wouldn't sit at the computer and absentmindely pop one into my mouth, maybe thinking "Oh orange. Those ones are nice."
First of all, I'd tip them all out of the cute little hexagonal tube (which alone you can play with for at least 10 minutes). I'd line up all the colours, first in a beautiful rainbow pattern, and it would be amazing. Then I'd make a picture with a yellow yellow sun and a very orange tanned person standing on oddly circular green grass with a few dots of blue circles for clouds/sky ("blue is back!"). I'd take some photographs of it from weird angles and flick them about a bit.

This has already taken up the time it would have taken me to solidly crunch through the packet.
By this time the poor chocolate sweets might be getting a little sticky, so I'd begin to eat. Firstly the smarties with the colour that begins with the first letter of your name or the second, or third of fourth if you have no letters that begin with smarties colours. I would for example not have any letters, so I'd have to take a small nibble out of each smartie to begin.

Then I'd suck each one until they go white (possibly make a sheep picture). Then I'd eat each one, in a kind of sucking and crunching manner.
And then they are gone. You are sad. Until you discover all the lovely pictures of smarties on google images, and the official smartie website and even buying smarties on ebay (or smartie related items). Actually that smarties official website is a really good website. Good information, ideas, good design, pretty colours.

Honestly, there is a lot of happiness in one small 174 calorie tube, and if you can just unlock it, you will never ever be bored. You might gain a few pounds though.
Unfortunately I have yet to do this. Good luck to you all on your smartie quest, I'm sure you can think of dozens more cool smartie games!
More Smartie Appreciation

Practicals in Chemistry

Instead of something to cheer you up today: something bad!! See Moany grumble label at bottom of post.
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Practicals in chemistry are really quite horrific. Some of you may have left your school days behind you long ago, but I'm sure you can still remember the terrible experiments we had to do in chemistry.

I have heard many people (about my mums age) telling me horror stories about unsafe experiments with chlorine and open air explosions with caesium and pottasium, but I don't think this is the problem any more . I think the actual problem with chemistry experiemnts today is the sheer boredom and fuss.

Let me take you back (or forward). These days, in a chemistry lesson with a practical, the teacher will cry out that we are doing a practical today! "Hurray!" the class shouts! (We don't have to listen to her drone on about elements etc). But anyway, basically the practical consists of 10 minutes of rushing around with bunsen burners and mats whilst we set up the experiment so we will be in no danger at all.

We often have to fetch acids (diluted), wash our hands, tuck chairs in, tie hair back, remove bags, pack up books, pencil cases, draw results tables and more, until we are really bored and exhausted. We then eventually switch on our bunsen burners (we have to fetch the flame from the front with a tiny wooden stick. Noo, no matches for us). Eventually we begin the burning or melting or whatever (not, of course, forgetting our safety googles). And then, the small white piece of metal we've been burning turns grey.

Ooh.

And then perhaps your experiment goes wrong, and the metal does nothing. But don't worry, the teacher writes her own results on the board for everyone to copy. Afterwards, the hurried packing away is followed by a two page write up. Why exactly did the white turn to grey? Does it always turn grey? Did it want to??

In year 7, we are trusted even less with the bunsens burners and acids, but that doesn't stop us poor 11 year olds getting frightened to death carrying the small piece of wood from the front of the class to your own bunsen. It doesn't even stop everyone cowering when we turn on the gas.

Just generally I don't like practicals. A recent one in biology (this is for GCSE remember) we had to count the oxygen bubbles coming off this underwater plant. I kinda failed that experiment too. Our group got 3 bubbles, and everyone else got 50 - 100. luckily, the answers were on the board at the end of the lesson.

It's much better when the teacher does a demo, then we can all watch something decent like lithium fizzing, instead of another non-existent oxygen bubble.
I hope your chemistry experiences are/were much more fun than mine!
OFSTED tomorrow at school.. Cue the scary music...

Raspberry Herbal Tea

Well, just as I predicted, school life is slowing dragging me away from the keyboard. Luckily I am still clinging on tight enough to type okay.
In news in my life, I won an article in our local magazine! The website for the magazine is here, the blog for the magazine is here, and I will post I link to my page when it appears in maybe October. The magazine is called All Things Local, and I wrote an article on the Eurovision Song Contest to win it!

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Herbal tea in general is wonderful stuff.

I love the tiny packets they give out free at hotels, that have excess packaging and look intriguing. I love the amazing smell that wafts pungently from the cup when you pour on some boiling water. I love the flavours and the maturity of drinking fruit tea. The aisles in Morrisons with the coloured boxes of tea and promising names like "Vanilla and Ginseng" and "Orange Spices" or even "Cranberry Raspberry and Elderflower" (Which tastes surprisingly so).

Often the taste lets people down here, as the build up to the cup is so amazing. But does it even matter? Tea looks good, smells good, feels good and tastes bearable or better. So what can you lose?That purple tea will liven your day.

Tea in general is pretty amazing. The idea of creating a drink by letting it's flavours diffuse into hot water is absurd. obviously you can buy teabags but the same princlpe can really be applied to anything.

What does grass flavour tea taste like? What about paper tea? Or leaf tea? I read in a magazine once that if you keep a mint plant in your kitchen you can pull off a sprig and make cheap mint tea easily at any time of day. For all you know if you pour boiling water over geraniums and drink it, it tastes like chocolate. (nb: probably not the case).

So, maybe you should try some pretty packaged stuff from supermarkets, or invent your own! It'll cheer you up - and please drink it, even if it tastes foul!

School Tomorrow

Hi! School begins tomorrow so I won't have much time to go visiting blogs and writing in my blog. I'm going to aim for one post a week.
It's going to be a busy year (year 11). I'm doing my GCSEs at the end and a whole bunch of work (coursework and otherwise) in the rest of it. The work won't stop until next Summer. I think I'm going to have to draw on this online collection of pick-me-ups a fair bit!
I hope not to vanish into oblivion-

Going to Bed Early

So you've painted your toenails, sent a few lengthly postcards and some bizarre emails. And now you're exhausted. Normally you might wait up until 11:30 or midnight to see if they're going to show another episode of Seinfeld. But don't! Go to bed now at 10:30pm and feel more loved and refreshed.
When I got the idea for this post on holiday, I was sharing a residence inn hotel suite with my very noisy family. This is an ideal time to retire to bed a little earlier than normal.
Your family, still watching television in the lounge, care about you. They will turn down the volume and talk quieter. And you'll drift off with a content smile on your face.
If you're going to sleep with "a sniffer" or "a snorer" then obviously there are other peaceful benefits to climbing into that lovely bed a bit before everyone else.
Going to sleep when you are actually tired does wonders to how you feel in the morning and sorts out your bodyclock.
A girl in my class, Elly, went to sleep earlier last year. At school the next morning she was so awake and alive! The rest of us couldn't even keep up when she was talking about "sorting out her bodyclock and feeling great".We would have had to glug a litre of red bull to get those kind of effects at half ten in the morning.
I also remember her saying something like she'd woken early to have a run?? Don't we all want those kind of results? Ellie actually is usually complaining about how tired she is. Perhaps some caffeine drink did play a part - who knows?
Next time you're sitting on the sofa and yawning and blinking, stop waiting for Seinfeld re-run #28, that probably won't be on anyway, go to bed, snuggle down, drift off to sleep and feel just that bit better about yourself.

Pine Trees and Email

At the Grand Canyon:
Mum: "Mmm. I like pine tree smell. Do you like pine tree smell? I do."
Me: "Yes I do like pine tree smell. Mmmm. Do you?"
Mum: "Yes. I do."
Me: "So do I."

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Emails
You know when people give their email address to anyone who could see it, on an online profile or something? Why do people do that? They must get some awful spam, and probably some creeps too. Fair enough if it is a specific email for a blog or something - but what if you give your private email to the world? Why would you do that?

My theory is that these people want their inboxes to be spiced up. Just think of them - maybe they don't get any email. So maybe you should send them one.

My idea is sending one (just to say hi) and introduce yourself. It's free and you could make a new friend, and someone happy. As long as you give no personal information (address, phone number) no harm could come of it. And you can always block their email if they are mean.

Here is an example email:
"Hello! Just saw your email and thought I'd say hi. Love your _____ (Blog? Neopet? Profile? Pictures? Music? Only pick one if it's true.) I'm having a great time here in _____ (the UK? The US? Europe? Keep it large scale.) Doing lot's of relaxing and work in between. How are you?
(Optional quirks: What is your second favourite vegetable? Would you like a bagel? Do you have a pet?)
Lot's of love, _____ (name or nickname) xx"

See? Easy! of course, you might be offended if you recieved that. Perhaps throw in something in some way related to the reason they put their email on the internet in the first place e.g.
"I see you are a fan of Jeff Kinney, the author. Same here! Which of his books do you like best? Have you visited his website? Let's discuss Diary of a Wimpy Kid."

Break the mould! I bet you'll make yourself some new amusing friends, earn a name for yourself on the internet, liven up some inboxes and cheer yourself up!

Website Spotting

Hello! If you are unclear what Website Spotting is you can find out more here.
Do you remember keebler.com? I visited that site and was really disapointed - no dancing leprecauns. Keebler is a breakfast cereal. Please nobody buy that cereal. They spoilt my lovely leprecaun dream.
On a brighter note I've spotted some new websites for you to visit!

• www.kcrw.com/tothepoint I was listening to this on the radio and guess what? They have a radio station website! Lots of places to discuss and make your point heard here.
• www.pfgoldfish.com Don't you all just love that advert with "the snack that smiles back"? Well, they have a website too! I found it on the goldfish packet.
• www.seattlecenter.com All the touristy bits of Seattle rolled into one website.
• www.royrodeo.com I don't know anything about this one, and I've forgotten where I heard it, but the name is intriguing.

Website spotting isn't quite as interesting as I'd first thought. There are few treasures out there, and a whole bunch of rubbish. Has anyone spotted anything decent?

Trying on Shoes

Now don't get me wrong: I adore clothes shopping - the looking and trying on. However there are some serious flaws with this as a cheering up technique.

• If you don't have any money you'll be pretty much tearing your hair out on the floor in pain and agony as you gaze on that pine green top you desperately need but can't have. You will rarely bring enough money, so will probably end up with the above predicament. Unless you have a magical credit card!


• Seasonality is a big issue. If you wander into Target 2 weeks before you have to go back to school, you'll find little reason to convince youreself to buy a pretty dress. And you'll get annoyed, angry, sad...


• Shopping with someone else, i.e. your mother often fails. Although there is the plus that she may buy stuff for you, she will have urges of her own and you really don't want to be dragged away to buy mens shorts in the middle of some good sock trying on.


• Not finding/buying anything you like generally makes you deeply depressed. If you have a good time looking, then fine, but you'll likely feel unproductive.


• Wear nice clothes and make-up when buying nice clothes. Don't go feeling ugly. Go in your best dress, your smart jeans and jewellery because shopping centres have mirrors in their mirrors. If you go in wearing even slightly unmatched trousers and tank top, again, you might be depressed.


• (Please don't take me as some sort of psychopath when it comes to shopping. I'm just, um, very specific.)

How to easily overcome all these problems? How to jump the potholes? Well, go shoe shopping! Or actually, shoe trying on. By all means bring cash and lots of it, but don't expect to buy anything.
So why does shoe trying on work when you've gotten tragic buying a winter wardrobe?

Firstly, since shoes are generally a bigger deal (and more costly) than clothes, when you go shopping you won't feel inadequate if you don't purchase.

Shoes are easier to try on and quick too so unlike a hoodie you won't have to a) queue up for a dressing room, or b) get static hair. It's just a slip on, parade around and slip off.

Which brings me to point three, shoe trying on is more lighthearted. No one really expects anything from you, except not to completely stink up their stock. Shoes are often weirder and wonderfuller and will suficiently tick all your adventure boxes.

Short people (like myself) will adore trying on mile-high dagger heels.
There's bunny slippers and cute flats and beach wear and a little ego-boosting something for everyone.
Have some fun! Buy some new heels! Don't buy coffee in the morning - save up and get some red stilettos - far more uplifting than a mere caffeine boost!

Postcards

Sending postcards can be really stressful. You have to buy them, asign each one to different people, write them and figure out the postal service in a foreign country suficiently enough to buy stamps. However, for an hour or two of hard work I think the good things that come from sending postcards are excellent value - and really great for cheering you up!

When posting your cards the fun begins (unless you enjoy writing them. Sometimes I do, but not when I'm writing 14 odd to family, friends and those inbetween. They all begin to merge into one giant "wish you were here"). If you have a post office where all the people are grumpy and you have to queue for hours you can have a good time shamelessly showing off about your trip to Britainy. And if the people are nice you can have a decent chat with a stranger - always uplifting!

Once postcards arrive, people read them, prop them up on the mantelpiece and chuck them after a month. But in that time they make people feel loved, remembered and happy. It serves as a decent reminder to your holiday too (for yourself) as people will thank you for them. Also a conversation starter about your holiday!

Postcards are fun and friendly, even if you choose not to send the postcard and simply admire the shiny picture on the front. Like a smile, if you give one you are more likely to recieve.

So next time you are cursing the pain on your wrist on your 11th postcard, try and concentrate on what a good person you are.

I adore the postal service. Recieving a meaningful letter is so fun! When was the last time you got an envelope with a handwritten address? If it was this morning, you should be on a high all day!

Ice Cream and Rain

Radio person: Yes, although these "geeks" are often the highest paid people in the world.
Mum: Hear that Jonathan? You can be one of the highest paid people in the world.
Dad: Do you like the sound of that?
Jonathan: -Grins Widely-

-PAUSE-

Ben: Hello geek.
Me: -ROFL-

Two things that can completely uplift an evening and make it much more fun: ice cream and rain! Let's see how it might work.You are in Seattle, Bellevue, staying at a Residence Suites Hotel opposite Bellevue square. You nip across the road to the mall. perhaps you eat at Red Robin, or peruse the deliciously coloured bricks in the pick and mix cave at the lego shop. Pinks flowers, green bits, tiny windows...

Anyway, if ice cream and rain weren't included, the rest of this scene would play out as follows:

After exiting the lego haven you walk past the Clear Wire broadband shop. Past the Mcdonalds and the Baskin Robbins you march.
You go across the road into the stuffy evening air and return to the hotel room. You then watch Beijing 08 olympics on NBC. Shawn Johnson wins a gold medal on balance beam. A poor chinese girl falls off - she nearly cripples herself.

"This thing is lethal." You think.
Then you go to bed.

Where is the spice? Where is the sparkle? The zing?! It is absent. Nay, it is gone.

But imagine if you'd wandered into the Baskin Robbins and admired the ice cream flavours. The blue, purple and green one and the flourescent pink bubblegum one stand out. The creamy cheesecake and the fruity tones -already your eyes are shining!

A crumpled $5 note is produced and you wander from the store licking an orange sherbet sugar cone. Everyone laughs and shares each others. You try strawberry, jamoca and vanilla chocolate chip, yet nothing compares with your explosive sorbet.

You all slowly dawdle across the road and fat warm drops begin to fall on your face and neck. It smells like leaves and summer. Soon enough you are pleasantly damp and smiling, hurriedly slurping the softly melting ice.

You return to the hotel to finish your cone with sticky fingers and a cool tongue. You watch the olympics and snooze off the sleep.

Sweet dreams!

Washing the Windscreen

There is little more enjoyable than the washing of a really dirty windscreen. In America, at the gas stations, there is often a bucket of soapy water with a sponge and scraper to clean with . The sponge soaks up the water and you slowly swill it across the surface of the glass, scrubbing away the dirt and mashed flies. From inside you can watch the colours grow brighter and clearer and the rainbow suds drip teasingly away.

Then you use the scraper and glide away the water. The glass is fresh and new again, if only for a while.
Of course, the final view is never as perfect as the still damp glass. Once the soapy smudges that avoided your sweep have dried it leaves a streaky appearance.
The slow provocative cleaning of the glass is far more enjoyable than the debateable results.

The above picture is me on my American holiday. I'm afraid I didn't get much practise cleaning the cars dirty windscreen, so am still an amateur at this fun and uplifting chore!
I'm doing more info for website spotting on Friday so stick around!