purple_stardust

I had the weirdest people come here today. One was a seriously creepy toothless teenager in Hilfigger shorts who wanted to know if he could mow my lawn for $20. I told him to come back and ask Rusty. He was far too creepy for me to deal with, and Rusty is large and imposing.

The other was a woman who talked to me for a very long time... she explained to me - a total stranger - that she was here from Florida to take care of her mother who has altzheimers and father who has prostate cancer, and she herself has lupus, and her brother is crazy, and she wanted to know if the house for sale next door was nice, and did I think she should buy it?

She talked for a really long time, and then she hugged me, which was freaky as shit. I'm not a hugger if I DO know someone, so huggy strangers are really out of my realm of comfort. The weird thing is, she said she was from a fairly prominent family in this area, the daughter of a local judge (and seemed to be telling the truth), but if she hadn't told me her last name, I'd think she was drunken and/or insane. Maybe she was, anyway...

purple_stardust

Breakfast - large cappachino from Sheetz.
Lunch - honey cinnamon raisen bread, Coke.
Dinner - pasta alfredo with broccoli, Coke.

Exercise - none.

purple_stardust

Tired-sick-hot-crampy-blah.

I called and made a hair appointment for tomorrow evening - my mom had a colouring scheduled, and Rhonda said that she could squeeze me in for a trim. This frizzy mess certainly needs it...

And that concludes the productive portion of my day. I am now going to lie down, moan dramatically, and play Animal Crossing until my brain explodes.

purple_stardust

Eh, who cares.

purple_stardust

I did all the usual every-other-Thursday stuff (post office, bank, Petsmart), and stopped at Walmart and bought a book on knitting, as well as three pairs of needles (6, 8, 10) and three skeins of purple yarn. So yeah, I'm going to attempt knitting. I will probably put an eye out.

Also, I picked up an E-Reader, some more Animal Crossing trading cards, a GC/GBA link cable, and a much-needed GameCube controller extension. Rusty has a three-day weekend, so there is much gaming to be done. He's so funny... he left me a note yesterday telling me to check my inventory; he'd gone out and caught me a rare (coelacanth) fish before he went to work! =)

My head hurt, so I came home and took some aspirin and a nap, which was interupted by my not being able to breathe (very annoying!). So I got up and played Animal Crossing until Rusty got home, and then I went and got my hair cut - it's a bit shorter than shoulder-length, long layers. It's a bit more bang-ish than I'm used to, but I think I like it.

purple_stardust

We went up to visit my grandmother; she wanted some company. It was cool, except, she has kittens too - most of them are feral. She has one litter that is pretty tame though, and one of those kittens is a sweet little long-haired orange tabby girl. I covet this kitten, truly I do.

It's way too hot, and I have a headache.

purple_stardust

Posted especially for the_never and grimkitten: I found something that cracked me up this morning. It should be called

One look at a screen shot of the game is enough to make your teeth hurt for a week. Think of it as the Sims if it were made by the people who sell those collectible figurines of kids with puppies and balloons. It is so adorable it makes you want to jump out a window because you know you will never witness anything cuter for the rest of your life.

With the hearty approval of my girlfriend Michelle we decided to get a Game Cube and Animal Crossing. We researched the best ways to play the game together, how our towns would interact, when the best time of day was to catch fish and give them to the owl in the museum. Five minutes after I sat down to play any pretense of machismo I had evaporated as if I were rolling around on the floor with a baby, three puppies, and a kitten all at the same time.

For those of you not up on your extremely cutesy Game Cube games, Animal Crossing is a "real life" simulation with a cartoonish angle. You play a human that looks like a cross between a baby with hydrocephalus and a Raggedy Ann doll in a town full of talking animals. You have to raise money to expand your house and buy furnishings by doing things like picking fruit, digging for treasure, catching bugs (hot market, I know), and fishing. You interact with all the animal villagers in your town in a sometimes-logical way. Each has a distinct personality taken from an admittedly limited pool of personality types, and you can woo them into liking you by doing things like sending them presents and letters, or helping them out with menial tasks.

What the Sims got wrong in many ways Animal Crossing seems to get very right. The town you live in is much more fluid, with animals moving in and out at a sometimes ridiculous pace, and all kinds of timed events like sports contests and traveling merchants. The catch with Animal Crossing is that there is no fast forward button. For those of us who like our gaming fix quick and steady Animal Crossing can be a bit disconcerting. There's only so much you can do in a day, and even on the best days squeezing more than three hours out of the game starts to get boring. Then comes the next day and you fall in love all over again, with completely new and fun things to do, rumors and gossip, and seasonal events. Animal Crossing is the sort of game you would make fun of your friend for having and then obsessively play after he passes out from doing shots.

My personal experience in Animal Crossing has been to create my rag-doll freakbaby named "sparkle" and send him off to his little town of "sassyton". Upon arriving in the cheery berg of sassyton I set up my home with the help of local shopkeeper Tom Nook. Tom Nook apparently has access to either dimensional gateways or illegal human raccoon-man cloning technology as he appears in every game under the same name. The trees on my town grow peaches, which I picked clean, only to discover that Tom Nook is only offering 100 bells (the cute Animal Crossing currency) for peaches, but 500 for every other fruit. When Michelle (AKA "fisty") made her town of "kittie" she discovered that her trees grew pears. Quickly a trade agreement was hammered out and we began taking the train between our towns to sell fruit at incredible markup in the nearby village.

Whenever you take a train ride in Animal Crossing you invariably encounter another character on the train. Usually this is a very emotive cat by the name of "Rover", who I have spoken with so many times I would like to gut with a meathook and sell to Tom Nook. You are also able to design your own clothing and decorations using a simple art tool built into the game. My efforts to emblazon my door with a swastika were shot down by Michelle, but I've had my mean fun with plenty of the townspeople. You see they enjoy getting letters and having you post bulletins on the bulletin board, but they can't actually understand what you write. They can tell when you write nonsense and they can comment on the length of your letter, but my repeated death threats and warnings about Tom Nook plotting to kill people have led to nothing but confusion and requests for shorter letters. Good old Tom once asked me to post an advertisement for his shop that would generate buzz and I proceeded to write a bulletin about Tom Nook's bedwetting problem. He congratulated me and paid me for a job well done.

That is by no means the limit of the fun things you can do around town to harass and provoke your saccharine townspeople. Try some of the following to see if you can get them to leave town:

* Dig a network of trenches outside their home and write them a letter informing them that their grave awaits them. If you've caught a bee then attach it to the letter as a "gift".

* Flowers can be trampled by repeatedly running or walking through them. Your house deserves to be the best one in town, don't let those showoffs think they can outdo you.

* Contrary to their comments and what the manual and strategy guide might say, townspeople absolutely love being hit with the shovel and/or net. Run around and have a party with them seeing how many you can enrage.

* If you have two memory cards chances are when someone moves out of your town they'll be moving into the town on the other card. That means they cannot escape your wrath. Hop on the train and continue the shenanigans in a neighboring town.

* Whenever someone gives you a job to do what they're really saying is "take this and throw it in the wishing well". So when Grumbly the bear tells you to return his Gameboy to Portia, what he actually wants you to do is throw it down a well and go catch fish.

* People in town enjoy playing with balls. If you see one having fun with a soccer ball then you should immediately kick the ball into the river or ocean.

* When it starts to get late people tend to go into their houses to get ready for bed. If you see a house with the lights on then feel free to head on in uninvited and shove their furniture around enclosing them against the wall. If they're listening to music turn it off and if they have a toilet then use it repeatedly while they watch, trapped by the furniture, unable to stop your rampage.

I hope these tips help you become the man about town that sparkle is! Word about him is out and the buzz points to him being the next big thing.

If you own a Game Cube and do not own Animal Crossing then what are you doing reading this article when you could be out buying Animal Crossing?! Get going! If you don't own a Game Cube but enjoy spending a lot of money just to play one game, then go get a Game Cube and Animal Crossing!

[http://www.somethingawful.com/archives/daily/news-archive-27-9-2002.htm]

purple_stardust

I want this cat.

purple_stardust

Rusty finally stopped watching the Planet of the Apes marathon(!), and now we're gaming.

I visited my first town and brought back apples to plant, as well as a fancy pinwheel (it's still July 4 there), two fossils to sell, and a chair that I really liked. And I finally got the Gameboy hooked up and visited the island (Et Mon!) and brought back several coconuts to plant.

An unfortunate side effect of having the second town: Bob decided to move there, and I'm really bummed out. He was my favourite villager, and I don't know if I can get him to move back to my main town. In an effort to convince him, I went to his new house and dug holes all around it, and left junk and weeds there. Later I will have goons go and thrash him repeatedly with the butterfly net. I hope he decides that it's a bad neighbourhood and moves back to Starburg.

I miss my groovy purple cat.

purple_stardust

I'm going to kill Rusty if he doesn't finish his turn soon, so that I can play. Also, it occurs to me that if I did kill him, it would be my turn all the time. Mwahaha.

purple_stardust

Another entire day has been sucked away by Animal Crossing.

purple_stardust

So Rusty called me this morning, his demon-in-law sister-in-law called his office and left phone numbers, because he had to call them. Sounds important, right? Maybe Rusty's mother is sick, maybe someone had an accident? So he gives me the numbers (like I'm gonna call her). I was going to call Rusty's parents and make sure that everything was okay (we need to give them the new address and phone number anyway), but before I could do that, Rusty called me back. He already called Marsha, and here's the big emergency: they need for Rusty to sign over a title for a stupid motorcycle that Rusty's father and/or other brother said they could have.

And guess what! - they're coming here this evening! Oh happy fucking day.

I can tolerate Jim, even though he's loud and obnoxious, but his wife is a royal pain in my arse. She actually says things like "Oh, what with my long legs and my tiny little waist, it's so hard to find jeans that fit." ...oh, cry me a river, bitch. She wears way too much makeup, way too much hairspray, and thinks she's some sort of prima donna because Jim makes good money (he's a contractor) and they have a nice house, when really she's just a rude, inconsiderate, snobby, annoying bitch from Bridgeport WV. I don't much like her, no. And now this bitch - have I mentioned that she's a bitch? - is coming to my house. My pretty house, and no doubt she will turn up her pointy little bitch nose because the house isn't new, and I may have to kick her fucking ass, and have I mentioned that I really don't like her? Grrrrr...

purple_stardust

So they never did show up... they didn't get into town until 11:15pm, and then called here and wanted Rusty (who gets up at 5am to go to work) to go out and meet them at their hotel to sign the papers. Worse yet, he was spineless enough to do it. Ugh.

purple_stardust

I made drapes, and we hung them. No, I'm not being all Martha; the big window was causing a glare which interfered with my fake-fishing, so it had to be covered. They're a greenish-tan colour (olive?) and they go well with my throw pillows (which ARE Martha's). They're not bad for a first attempt at drape-making, by someone who doesn't sew, and they get the job done.

Whatever.

And I can feel one of all my turns coming on...

purple_stardust

1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it?

Yep, Kelly Rogers, second grade.

2. Are you still in touch with this person?

Nah. She moved to Germany (her dad was in the military). We kept in touch for a while, and eventually she moved back, but then we lost contact as both of us were moving a lot at the time.

3. Do you have a current close friend?

Laurie, Joell, Sandy.

4. How did you become friends with this person?

I met all of them via the Ratlist.

5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why?

Oh hell no. Well, I occasionally talk to one person, but not if I can help it.

[fridayfive.org]

purple_stardust

I set up an Animal Crossing filter for people who play (muridae, rattyluv, the_never) or will be playing soon (grimkitten, artmomz). If you don't want to read about the ongoing saga of Starburg, let me know and I will remove you from this filter.

Anyway, today was travel day - I don't like to travel, ever since Bob left, but sometimes I have to. Okay, I don't have to, but ya know, it's handy for getting new fruit and fossils and stuff. I have a 700,000+ Bell mortgage to pay, you know - every little bit helps. Anyway.

* Sent Qwerty from Buzzard to Starburg with two loads of peaches and seashells. Daisy (a freakishly happy dog) moved to Starburg, but Roald (my freakishly cute penguin) moved away. That upset me; I really liked Roald, and I was always extra-nice to him. Ingrate penguin.

* Sent Nimrod from Peartown to Starburg with a load of pears and stuff. Nobody moved.

* Sent Starr from Starburg to Peartown for more pears (Bob likes pears!), fossils, and other stuff to sell, and caught a purple butterfly while I was there! Fang moved to Peartown. That bummed me out too; Fang was a grouchy old bastard, but I kinda liked him.

* Sent Nimrod to Starburg again. I was hoping that Mitzi would move to Starburg, but alas, I got Boris the pig, instead. I already have one pig (Hambo) in Starburg, and I'm trying to get rid of him. Now I have two stupid pigs to get rid of. I wouldn't mind Pinky the bear leaving, either.

* Sent Starr to Peartown again. Stupid Hambo finally left Starburg!!! Hooray!

* Moved the date up two months so that the weeds took over Peartown, and sent Nimrod to Starburg again... and Mitzi (a little blue-faced cat) finally moved to Starburg!!! Hooray!

* So. Starburg now consists of fifteen villagers. They are (in order of preference): Bob, Mitzi, Kitty, Pango, Bunnie, Daisy, Tabby, Alli, Rollo, Biff, Weber, Deena, Pinky, Boris, and Jambette.

I am never travelling again.

purple_stardust

1. Duran Duran or Culture Club?

Duran Duran... Culture Club was gross.

2. "We Are The World" or "Do They Know It's Christmas"?

We Are The World.

3. Adam Ant or Bow Wow Wow?

Adam Ant. He was purty...

4. New Romantic or New Wave?

There was a difference?

5. Hair Bands or Heavy Metal?

Hair bands.

6. Transformers or Go-Bots?

Transformers.

7. Teddy Ruxpin and Grubby or Cricket (talking girl doll)?

Eww, creepy talking things. No.

8. Fingerless lace gloves or bandana around the ankle?

Fingerless lace gloves - black.

9. New Coke or Classic Coke?

Classic Coke.

10. Simply Red or Crowded House?

Simply Red. I liked that red-headed dude.

11. Did you ever do "The Rock"?

Huh? No, I guess not.

12. Can you "Safety Dance"?

I can dance if you want to...

13. Would you consider yourself Darling Nikki or Dirty Diana?

No.

14. Did you have plans to party in 1999?

No doubt.

15. Did you HEAR "1999" right after midnight, January 1, 1999?

I was probably asleep. I did age by then.

16. Were you sick to death of that song by January 1, 2000?

I was sick of that song the year it came out.

17. Did you identify more with Clare (Molly Ringwald) or Allison (Ally Sheedy)?

Allison, definately. I still remind me of Allison.

18. Were your teenage years more "Sixteen Candles" or "The Breakfast Club"?

The Breakfast Club.

19. What was your wildest Day Off, a la Ferris Bueller?

Most of my high school days were wild days off.

20. "All Night Long" or "Caribbean Queen"?

Ewww, neither.

21. What would you have done differently to save Julian ("Less Than Zero")?

Who???

22. Mogwai or Gremlins?

Gremlins, fuzzy little buggers.

23. Cyndi (fully poseable doll) or Jem?

Cabbage Patch Kids.

24. Madonna or Cyndi Lauper?

I liked both of them.

25. Corey Feldman or Corey Haim?

Oh hell, which was which again?

26. Atari, Intellivision, or Coleco?

Atari, baybeee.

27. K-Tel or Ronco?

No.

28. Mullet or Mohawk?

Spikes, ala Billy Idol.

29. Poison or Skid Row?

Skid Row. Sebastian Bach, yummy.

30. Ratt or Brittney Fox?

Ratt, by default. I saw Brittney Fox in concert; they were dreadful.

31. Rick Springfield or Corey Hart?

Umm... Corey Hart. I liked that sunglasses song.

32. The Police or Sting solo?

The Police. But I like Sting solo, too. Sting, yum.

33. Color of favorite legwarmers?

Pink. I was such a dork.

34. Color of favorite big-ass 80s hairbow clip?

Black.

35. How many times did you shoplift at Claire's Boutique?

Never. I only stole cigarettes.

36. "Valley Girl" or "Punk Rock Girl"?

Valley Girl, totally.

37. If you could go back to the 80s knowing all you know now... would you?

Oh hell no... my hair could never survive it again.

purple_stardust

As I said, I went outside today. The problem is, I'm allergic to outside, and now my throat hurts and my nose is stopped up and my sinuses may implode... so I took two Allegra, and now I'm even more jumpy than usual. Dammit. Maybe I'll go take a nice bath.

purple_stardust

Despite my questionable reflexes (or maybe because of them!), I've had an awsome night of fishing! I've caught three coelacanths, several barred knifejaws, and a whole bunch of red snappers - well over 100,000 Bells worth of fake fish! Woot!

purple_stardust

Dear Starr,

How can you give your love to that rat bastard Bob, instead of me?!?

Heartbroken & jealous,

Korg

purple_stardust

We were semi-productive. We watched our Sunday morning talking heads shows, played the game for a little while, and then I washed the kitten bedding and gave them baths (they have fleas but are too young to treat with medicated stuff), and Rusty cleaned the dog room.

It's way too hot, and my throat still feels funny.

purple_stardust

Have any of you read Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock?

purple_stardust

Sometimes I wonder how much of my problem really is an internal chemical imbalance and how much is exacerbated by external situations. Or maybe it starts with one and feeds off of the other. Or maybe I really am just crazy and self-destructive. I do not discount that possibility.

In other news, I am fascinated by watching Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham together.

And I have to pee. Again.

purple_stardust

I paid off my final loan, woot! Now it's just a matter of filling out my fish and bug collections, finishing a couple of dinosaurs, and getting a better HRA rating...

purple_stardust

Peter, guess what! Remember you gave me those two codes and I took them to Nook and he said they were wrong? Well I found the paper today, and decided to try again, and they worked just fine! I don't know what the difference was (I'm sure I typed them in right the last time). I have a new town (same name and username, but new) on a different memory card since then, but I wouldn't think that would make a difference. Do you suppose you have to get the statue before you can use codes? I didn't think so, but that's the only other thing that's changed. Anyway, I am just happy that it works now. Need anything from Starburg?

purple_stardust

I went to Target and bought more kitchen stuff, including awesome stainless steel measuring cups that match my awesome stainless steel measuring spoons. Also a cutting board, a set of pastry brushes, wire whisks, and a cheap set of Rubbermaid cannisters, because I couldn't afford to buy the stainless steel cannisters that I liked, and couldn't justify them anyway.

It's really hot in here, and I don't like it.

purple_stardust

A question for the_never:

I bought an E-reader, and connected to a GBA (original model), and connected that to the GameCube via an Intec cable. I go to the post office, where it tells me to prepare my E-reader for communication. I tell the E-reader that I want to communicate to the GameCube, and then it claims to be "connecting" ...for, like, ever. It never gets past the "connecting" screen, but it never tells me that it's failed, either. It DID connect once, so I know the thing works.

Ze question is, how long does it normally take to connect? If this isn't normal, do you think that the cheap 3rd party cable is to blame? Should I try to find a Nintendo-brand cable (they didn't have them when I got this one) and see if that helps? I have two other Gameboys, too, but one is a GBC and the other is a GBA SP, and I don't think the E-reader will work with either of those.

I also have the Gameboy Player (that fits on the bottom of the GameCube), and it would be super sweet if I could plug the E-reader into that, but I *think* I already tried that with no success.

Any other suggestions, O Gaming Guru? =]

purple_stardust

I HATE BEES!!! I have knocked down FOUR hives today, and gotten stung FOUR* times. I have tried everything that I've heard advised; run around trees and then swing the net, run and make a u-turn and then swing the net... I just can't catch these little bastards. I also can't catch that damned banded dragonfly, who is the flitty little bane of my [character's] existance.

I did catch a spider today, though. Blathers was suitabley appalled.

*Edit: make that FIVE times. I hate these fucking bees.

purple_stardust

I went out to get the mail, only to find a flier left by a local fundementalist church, wanting me to send my kids to their bible school. I called the church, gave them my address, and told them not to leave their crap on my porch any more. If they do leave another one, I'm going to report them for trespassing and littering, and if I find out from the police that they'reallowed to distribute religious propeganda to private homes (I suspect they are), then I'm going to start leaving satanic propeganda in their door handles.

purple_stardust

From Amazon:

Griffin and Sabine
Cooking for Dummies
Knitting for Dummies

From Artistic Checks:

Art Lines Duplicates

purple_stardust

We had a hell of a scare this evening; Sarah shoved too much cheese in her mouth and started choking! We turned her over Rusty's legs and I managed to knock it out by whacking her back, but we were REALLY freaked out. She was a bit shaken up, but she's fine now. No more hard cheese for her. In fact, I may give her nothing but applesauce until she's of driving age...

I'm going to take a nice cool bath. And check on my baby.

purple_stardust

I finally caught the damned banded dragonfly, as well as the giant beetle!!! Hooray!!!

The proper bee-catching technique still eludes me, however. =\

purple_stardust

I got screenshots of my fish and bug charts, in case anyone would like to see. I took a picture inside the Design Shop, too: evidence of why they won't let me be a real fashion designer.

Pretty little fishies... I think I have all of the ones in season, except the Arowana.


Ewww, bugs... sadly missing the Dreaded Bee.


Fashion! Turn to the left!

purple_stardust

Buckle up. It won't be long now...

purple_stardust

1. First grade teacher's name:

Sister Denise.

2. Last words you said:

Carrots?

3. Last song you sang:

The Spongebob Squarepants theme, I think.

4. Last person you hugged:

Sarah.

5. Last thing you laughed at:

The kittens.

6. Last time you said "I love you":

This morning, to Rusty.

7. Last time you cried:

I don't remember.

8. What's in your cd player?

Bob Marley and Santana.

9. What colour socks are you wearing?

White, oddly.

10. What's under your bed?

Dust bunnies.

11. What time did you wake up today?

A little before 7am.

12. Current taste:

Coke.

13. Current hair:

Blonde and falling into my etes.

14. Current clothes:

Purple tee-shirt and shorts, white fuzzy socks.

15. Current annoyance:

The heat.

16. Current longing:

Money, so I can pay off my Bronco.

17. Current desktop picture:

Little purple stars.

18. Current worry:

Fleas.

19. Current hate:

Summer.

20. Story behind your LJ username:

It's a purplised David Bowie reference.

21. Current favorite article of clothing:

Purple Geoffrey Beene tee-shirt, Liz Claibourne jeans, Chuck Taylors.

22. Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex:

Hair. And noses. But mostly hair.

23. Last cd that you bought:

Something by Matchbox Twenty.

24. Favorite place to be:

Home.

25. Least favorite place:

Outside.

26. Time you wake up in the morning:

Between 7 and 8 am, usually.

27. If you could play an instrument, what would it be?

Piano. I dig adagios.

28. Favorite colour:

Purple. And then green and black.

29. Do you believe in an afterlife?

I dunno. It's possible.

30. There's no number 30!

31. Current favorite word/saying:

Ummm... I say "It's the Mad Moxie!" a lot.

32. Favorite book:

Alice in Wonderland.

33. Favorite season:

Autumn.

34. Favorite scent:

I have no scents. :-P

35. Favorite day:

Saturday.

36. Where do you want to go?

England.

37. What is your career going to be like?

Non-existant, G-d-willing.

38. How many kids do you want to have?

I'm guessing three.

39. What kind of car do you have?

An ugly one - 1990 Ford Taurus.

40. What colour is it?

Stupid tannish-goldish non-descript POS colour.

41. A random lyric:

"Whooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

42. Identify some things surrounding your computer:

Griffin and Sabine, Hello Kitty UNO, cell phone, nasal spray, Allegra, 486 chip, hair scrunchies and chopsticks, kitten vitamins, Animal Crossing trading cards, rat pedigrees, grocery list, purple hair colour, Rusty's checkbook.

purple_stardust

Will update at some point, if my head doesn't explode in the meantime.

purple_stardust

No, not really. I guess I don't feel like it afterall.

purple_stardust

No. Still nothing. Suddenly, I am immensely bored with the internet.

purple_stardust

I've never had so little to say in all my life.

purple_stardust

I went to Target and bought a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan (I didn't know that they came in different sizes!), as well as a small cutting board, condiment dishes, a dry Swiffer (with a free Swiffer duster!) and a bunch of other boring house stuff. Wheee.