America's Most Smartest Model - episode 7

Now that we are finally down to the really smart and really pretty models of the bunch, things are starting to get a little more interesting. This week the models were told that they would have a night off to celebrate Daniel's birthday. However, this turns out to the the Edge Challenge. The models needed to network with some important people that Mary Alice put in the club. A majority of the models didn't do so well. In the end, it was VJ that won the hearts of the networking judges. This means that he gets control of the Callback Challenge. Mary Alice tells the models that it's difficult to work with animals and children. So, of course, their Callback Challenge will involve animals. VJ gets to dole out how many minutes each model gets in front of the camera. As the winner, he gets a half hour. He gives Angela 10 minutes, Australian!Rachel 8 minutes, Pickle 6 minutes, Brett 4 minutes, Andre 2 minutes and Daniel one minute. Since Daniel's whining has been getting on everyone's nerves, it is now obvious that they are out to get him sent home.

Next the models get to choose their animals. VJ takes the horse, Angela takes the pygmy goat, Australian!Rachel takes the donkey, Pickle takes the chicken, Brett takes the pig, Andre takes the llama and Daniel is left with the ostrich. From here, things get difficult. The models aren't very good with the animals and the pictures prove it. In my opinion, none of the pictures were particularly good but Mary Alice liked Andre's picture with the llama. He is safe from elimination.

At the elimination that night, the three models called up are Angela, Australian!Rachel and Daniel. Angela is told to stop being a know-it-all and Rachel is told to step it up a bit. Daniel gets the boot. I completely agree with this decision as Daniel has been extremely moody the past few episodes. After the Edge Challenge last night, he was overturning tables and throwing things. It was definitely his time to go.

I'm really excited to see where the next few episodes go. There is now an alliance between Andre, Brett, Pickle and Rachel. Their goal is to get VJ kicked off but VJ seems to be Mary Alice's favorite. Let the drama unfold!

Game review: Hidden Relics

Hidden Relics is another hidden object game at Big Fish Games. This one is slightly different though. You are flying around the world to find antiques that have been stolen. Besides the regular hidden objects in each picture, there could be special hidden objects which require special equipment to find. There were a lot of things I liked about this game. I liked being able to choose which city you could fly to and I enjoyed the regular hidden object game. However, I did not like having to complete puzzles in order to obtain the special equipment in order to find the special hidden objects. The puzzles weren't particularly difficult, they were just tedious and you had to complete the puzzles multiple times to get all of the equipment.

Overall, the game was pretty fun. This is another one that I'd recommend you try but I don't think it would be worth buying.

Game review: Trivial Pursuit - Bring On The 90s Edition

Doesn't everyone love a good game of Trivial Pursuit? I don't get to play the board game very often so I was really excited when I saw Trivial Pursuit - Bring on the 90s Edition on Big Fish Games. The game plays like any typical Trivial Pursuit game. In the one player edition, you play against a teddy bear. I chose to play the Intermediate level but it was still really easy. I managed to win two full games before the 60-minute trial finished. While the game was enjoyable, it was pretty boring by the second game. Every move has an animation that you are unable to turn off or skip past. The teddy bear throws a little tantrum every time you get a question correct or he gets one wrong. These aren't really enough to make you want to quit mid-game but you definitely get your fill of them by the end of the first game. At least the questions in this version are good. They are perfect for those of us that were too young in the 80s to full enjoy that edition of the game.

Give the game a try. That first round is always entertaining. Just don't expect this to be a game you'll play over and over again.

Favorite Friday

I always seem to run out of things to say on Friday. So I have decided to start a new weekly feature. Favorite Friday. Every Friday I will post a video that I really like. It may be a music video; it may be a performance by an awesome band/artist; it may be something silly. Whatever I happen to come across that I like a lot. The first video I would like to post is a performance of Perfect Blue by L'arc~en~Ciel at their Grand Cross Conclusion concert in 1999. I absolutely love this song and I think is an awesome performance:

Dancewear

I haven't talked about it a lot on here but I dance. Not club dancing or anything. I'm currently taking tap classes on Monday nights. When I was in high school, I took jazz. And when I was really young, I took both tap and ballet. My daughter is currently taking a tap and a ballet class as well. So I've bought my fair share of dancewear. I seem to remember having to wear big ugly tutu's for class when I was a kid. However, my daughter ballet class outfit is just a simple pink leotard with a pink skirt. I wouldn't really call it a tutu because tutu makes you think of a lot of nylon netting. This is just like a skirt with enough room for her to move. It's a lot nicer than anything I had to wear. I'm jealous.

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Music review: Do As Infinity - Get Yourself

Artist: Do As Infinity Members: Tomiko Van, Ryo Owatari, Dai Nagao Album: Deep Forest Release date: 9/19/01

English translation: Losing myself, I grope around in darkness... It's all reckless trial and error.

I wonder how everyone else is doing?

Let's get yourself -- Let it reverberate, your soul at its utmost limits. Try again -- Break that wall down again and again.

Getting what I deserve, being forsaken -- Changing myself now is better late than never.

Are we OK just being here?

Let's get yourself -- Scream until you break down and Change your way -- Head into the changing future from your past.

Let's get yourself -- Let it reverberate, your soul at its utmost limits. Try again -- Break that wall down again and again.

Let's get yourself -- Scream until you break down and Change you way -- Head into the changing future from your past. About the song: Definitely not one of my favorite DAI songs. It has a good sound but it's a bit strange. A lot of DAI's songs have this smoothness to them that is missing here. The song is a little on the jerky side which makes it difficult to get wrapped up it. This would be one of those songs that you put on when you don't really want to listen to the actual song but you need something upbeat to keep you going.

Christmas cards

It's that time of year again! When everyone starts collecting addresses and buying their Christmas cards. At my full time day job, we've already bought our corporate holiday cards. I believe we got Patriotic Christmas Cards this year. Luckily, I'm not the one in charge of purchasing the annual holiday cards and gifts for our clients. The Gallery Collection is having a Christmas cards scholarship contest for high school and college students. The contest runs until January 15, 2008. You can submit artwork, photographs and computer graphics for your entry. I know I have some creative readers out there. I hope some of you qualify for this contest. It would be really neat to know someone who made the artwork on a greeting card.

Not Just Mama!

Tina, who is a really awesome Australian stay-at-home mom, runs NotJustMama.net. With a husband and five kids running around, she has the typical "I'm more than just so-and-so's mom!" syndrome that I think all mothers go through. (I know I have!) So she started her blog to help her remember who she is. I wish her a lot of luck. Not just with finding herself but also taking care of five kids full time!

Game review: Val'Gor - Dark Lord of Magic

A couple of days ago, I played Val'Gor - Dark Lord of Magic. This is a Spot The Differences game with a couple of mini-games tossed in. Some of the mini-games include putting a puzzle together and word searches. I really did not like this game. As a matter of fact, I disliked it so much that I didn't even finish the 60-minute trial version. I quit at about the 30-minute mark. Some of the Spot The Differences parts aren't too bad but some of the levels are almost impossible. There are "cursed" levels where Val'Gor shows up and makes both pictures pitch black. While this makes a hidden object game a little more difficult, it makes trying to find differences between two pictures impossible. You have to memorize the pictures in order to figure out where the little tiny difference is. And since the difference is usually a shadow, the blackness of the level makes it frustrating to play. There must be some other way to make this type of game fun and exciting without driving the player away.

Vacations on the beach

I absolutely love traveling. Sadly, I don't get to do it nearly as often as I'd like to. I think taking a trip for some Egypt holidays would be pretty cool. I've never been outside the United States so pretty much any trip to another country would be interesting for me. How awesome would it be to be relaxing on a beach in Greece? Then again, my husband doesn't really like warm weather so he'd probably hate a week on a beach. Though it's not like we'd spend the entire week being beach bums. There's always shopping and sight-seeing and all that fun touristy stuff. I can't wait until we're in a better spot financially so we can travel all over the place.

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