More jewelry is better

I've recently cut my hair short. Really short. Really really short. So that means I've been wearing more jewelry. There is some beautiful designer jewelry out there! I wish I could afford to purchase more jewelry, specifically earrings. I don't have a lot of earrings right now and I feel like I need more. I accept jewelry donations if anyone feels the need to send me random pieces ^_^

Game review: Magical Forest

Once in awhile, I get an urge to play a Sims type of game. It doesn't happen to often but it does happen. This time I got the urge, I decided to try Magical Forest. It's a game where you raise magical sprites. There are different types of sprite and each one gives different coins. You use these coins to buy food or upgrade your caretakers or buy new sprites. I honestly thought this game was going to be a lot like Insaniquarium over at Pop Cap Games. In a way, it is. You are basically feeding a critter and trying to get them to level up. However, in this game, there are a ton more upgrades to your weapons and you can obtain spells to help you defeat your enemies faster. There are also more types of sprites, which you can buy and resell as you wish.

Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun playing this. I'm not sure why I enjoyed it, I just did. It's one of those unexplainable things in life. Give it a try, it's very fun.

Zerollin' rollin' rollin'

As sad as it is, I do not own a proper set of luggage. I usually just borrow pieces from family members when I'm going away. However, I'd really like to own a nice Zero Halliburton Zeroller. Preferably in red. I probably won't ever get one because I am cheap and they are expensive but they are really pretty. One day I will own my own luggage. Then I can go wherever I want, whenever I want.

Music review: REM - Losing My Religion

Artist: R.E.M. Members: Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Bill Berry Album: Out of Time Release date: 3/12/91 Video link: Via YouTube

Lyrics: Life is bigger It's bigger than you And you are not me The lengths that I will go to The distance in your eyes Oh no I've said too much I set it up

That's me in the corner That's me in the spotlight Losing my religion Trying to keep up with you And I don't know if I can do it Oh no I've said too much I haven't said enough I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper Of every waking hour I'm Choosing my confessions Trying to keep an eye on you Like a hurt lost and blinded fool Oh no I've said too much I set it up

Consider this The hint of the century Consider this The slip that brought me To my knees failed What if all these fantasies Come flailing around Now I've said too much I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream That was just a dream About the song: I'm sure everyone has their opinions about what this song is about. It's not as religious as most people think it is. 'Losing my religion' is a phrase that means something along the lines of 'end of my rope' or 'running out of patience.' In the context of this song, it's basically the singer following/stalking the subject to the point that it drives him a bit crazy. He's looking for a sign that the subject will accept or love him but it just isn't happening.

Musically, it's an interesting song. Instead of a lead guitar, the main instrument here is a mandolin. It gives the song a bit of a 'crazy' feeling to it. As if the strings will suddenly break and drive Michael Stipe insane. It's also interesting that this is considered one of REM's biggest hits. After all, how many pop songs have mandolins?

Game review: Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year

Last year, I really loved playing Build-A-Lot so I had really high expectations for the sequel. Luckily, the game not only met my expectations but exceeded them! The gameplay is pretty much the same from the first game. You are given a variety of tasks and you need to get the materials and workers to complete them within the time limit. This time around, there are new buildings for you such as a playground. These buildings will effect the buildings around them. For example, if you build a playground between two houses, those houses will each get an extra "happiness" rating. However, if you build a factory near the houses, they will receive negative "happiness" points. This actually makes the game a bit more fun because now you have to figure out how to rearrange your development to make everyone as happy as possible.

This will probably be my favorite game of the entire year.

Game review: Cooking Quest

I have played a lot of hidden object games but none of them have been as weird as Cooking Quest. It actually mixes a hidden object game with a tiny bit of time management in an attempt to make it interesting. As with most hidden object games, you are given a level and a list of objects to find. In each list, there is at least one object that you need to make the food item you picked. Once you gather all the items in each level, you need to cook the food and serve it. However, they don't tell you which objects go together and which go to which cooking device. So you may, for example, have a knife, some onions and some carrots. The knife will only work on one of those and it doesn't tell you which. The same goes for the cooking devices. You might have a steak, an oven and a pan on a stovetop but it won't tell you which device needs to be used to cook the steak. It makes that part of the game annoying.

In the hidden object part, the items are difficult to find. Some of the items are hidden behind other ones so you might only see the tip of an item you need. I'm not sure why these games have started leaning toward this trend but it's not fun. It's annoying when you need to use a hint because you can't find an object only to find that's because it's hidden behind something else! Put them all out in the open. Make the game fair.

I can't say I'll play this game again. There are way too many other hidden object games that are a lot better.

Music review: Cats - Journey to the Heaviside Layer

Artist: The cast of CatsAlbum: Cats soundtrack (1982 Broadway Cast) Release date: 10/82 Video link: Via YouTube

Lyrics: Up, up, up, past the Russell Hotel Up, up, up, up, to the Heaviside Layer

Up, up, up, past the Russell Hotel Up, up, up, up, to the Heaviside Layer

Up, up, up, past the Russell Hotel Up, up, up, up, to the Heaviside Layer

Up, up, up, past the Russell Hotel Up, up, up, up, to the Heaviside Layer About the song: A lot of people think Cats doesn't have a storyline. That's untrue. Cats is about a group of cats getting together to decide which of them will be reborn into a new life. A majority of the songs are simply introductions to the various cats who are in the running for the big rebirth.

Journey to the Heaviside Layer is the big piece for the play. Yes, Memory is the most famous song but Heaviside Layer has the biggest production value. The choice has been made and now that cat (I won't give spoilers!) is basically going to heaven. In most productions, this song has a lot of smoke and white lights coming from the ceiling as Old Deuteronomy and the chosen cat are lifted to the ceiling. It's a quiet song. There aren't a lot of lyrics and the singing is very hushed. This is a religious experience for the cats. As such, the song is set as a sort of hymn. Sadly, this is not the ending song for the musical. In my opinion, it should be but I wasn't consulted when the play was written.

Movie review: Iron Man

My husband, my daughter and I went to see Iron Man on Saturday. At first, I was worried about whether or not my 6-year old would enjoy the movie. She liked Transformers but it was too loud for her and I was concerned that this movie would have the same problem. Luckily, it did not and she had a great time. For those of you that live under a rock, here is the basic plot. Tony Stark is the billionaire owner of Stark Industries, a company that mostly makes weapons for the United States government. He truly believes that his weapons are protecting people by removing terrorist threats. After a demonstration of one of his new technologies, his transport is attacked and he winds up being kidnapped. During his captivity, he finds out that his weapons are being used by the terrorists. The terrorists force him to replicate his newest weapon. Instead, he creates a huge iron suit so he can escape. Once he is back home, he tries his best to change his company into a more responsible entity. However, the board of directors overrules him and forces him into vigilantism. He creates a new, better robotic suit, transforming into the superhero, Iron Man.

In my opinion, the movie was wonderful. Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice to be Tony Stark. I even liked some of the small changes they made to the characters. Of course, there are some people that would nitpick at the choice of villain for the movie. On the contrary, I think that it was a really good decision since this movie needed to establish Tony Stark and his motives for becoming Iron Man. He isn't like Spiderman or Batman where most people are at least vaguely familiar with the character. There needed to be a villain that wouldn't overshadow the transformation of Tony Stark the businessman to Tony Stark the superhero.

I hope that everyone stayed to watch the scene after the credits. All I will say is that I am very excited for the future of the franchise and some of the other Marvel franchises.