Win a 42" HDTV and more!

Maxxed Energy Pop are these energy lollipops. They equal about a half an 8oz. can of your typical energy drink or a full 12oz. can of regular soda. I've never been a fan of energy drinks. They just don't taste very good. However, I do love Coke. Maybe I should give these a try in an attempt to shake my soda habit. Anyway, the lollipop people are running a contest. The prizes include a $250 GameStop gift card, a 42" HDTV and an Xbox 360 Elite system. That's not too bad. Though I can only imagine what my husband would do with $250 at GameStop. I'll be swimming in video games forever! What am I talking about? I'll be swimming in video games anyway. The gift card would just mean that we wouldn't actually be spending any money.

Good luck!

Game review: Kindergarten

Way back in October, I played Carrie the Caregiver 2, which was nothing spectacular. Figuring it was going to be along the same lines, I tried Kindergarten. Let me start off by saying that my daughter is currently in kindergarten so I have a pretty good grasp on what kids that age can do. This game should have been named Daycare or Babies or something. Parents drop off their little darlings and it is your job to feed them bottles (?), change their diapers (?!) and put them down for naps. While kindergarten kids do take short naps, they definitely are not bottle-fed nor are they wearing diapers. It's rather offensive to kids to put a kindergarten title on a game about babies.

The game itself is boring. In the early levels, you spend a lot of time standing around waiting for one of the babies to want something. Then it gets annoying when, for example, one child is playing in "the box" and another one immediately wants to play in it. Well, the thing only fits one kid at a time so you have to wait for the first kid to stop playing in it. Of course, this upsets the second one. It is also annoying to have to click on the rug to put one child on the floor before picking up another. You should be able to click on the second child and have them switch places. It would have made the gameplay a lot more streamlined.

Also, about this clicking on the rug thing, there are no "slots" for the kids to fit in. They basically sit wherever you click. This makes it possible for you to have two children sitting directly in front of each other. Then, if the child in the back wants something, you can't click on him/her. You need to move the front child in order to get to the back child. This could have easily been avoided by dividing the rug into invisible slots. Each child would automatically fit into the slot closest to your click. Since the children don't move around on their own, there is no reason to not have a specific spot for them to sit in.

I think that there were a lot of good intentions with this game. However, the developers just didn't pull it off very well. There were so many problems with the gameplay that I quit the game halfway through my 60 minute trial. That says a lot right there. While I would like to see the problems listed here fixed, I'd rather see them fixed as an entirely new game instead of a sequel. They need to get rid of the Kindergarten title on this one.

Music review: Gackt - Noah

Artist: Gackt Album: Moon Release date: 6/19/02 Video link: Via YouTube

About the song: Noah, the first track on Moon, is a beautiful instrumental piece. There is such a variety of sounds that I couldn't even place what instruments were played where. It really sets an almost supernatural feeling for the album. In my opinion, it's perfect as an opening track.

Tankless water heater

I wonder how a tankless water heater works. With our current water heater, there's an overflow tank thing that my husband has to empty every once in awhile otherwise hot water pours out of it. Would that be avoided with a tankless heater? I've tried to read about it but it's awfully confusing. We live near Philadelphia so we do have cold winters where water would freeze and it looks like these go outside. Does that mean that only people in warmer climates can use them? They definitely look convenient though. I want one!

Game review: Sprill: The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

Despite it's cartoony appearance, I decided to play Sprill: The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle without my daughter. This was a good thing. Sprill is a sort of cat-looking creature. It's possible that he is a cat but I'm not sure why a cat would be doing this. What is he doing? He's searching the sunken wreckages of boats that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. You need to find objects in each wreckage in order to open new boats and planes.

This was so much more difficult than it needed to be. Each location is jammed full with various objects so there are times that an object on your list will be mostly hidden behind another object. Of course, that makes the game extremely aggravating. There are some easier levels, which are pretty fun. But overall, the game just isn't worth all the unnecessary effort it needs. There doesn't seem to be an end to it....you just keep searching more and more sunken boats and they all seem the same after awhile. There must have been a better way to do it.

To makeup or not to makeup?

A couple of months ago, I decided to do a complete makeover on myself. First, I cut my hair really short. Then, I thought I'd try to buy some mineral makeup to me to wear every day since, currently, I only wear makeup on special occasions. Well, that never happened. I still think about it every once in awhile but then I figure it's too much hassle to put on and take off every day. I don't want to be that complicated, you know? Though I would like to look pretty....

Movie review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

My husband and I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall today. Here's the premise of the movie: Peter (Jason Segel) has been dating television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) for the past five years. One day, Sarah suddenly breaks up with him. It turns out that she has been dating rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). In an attempt to forget about Sarah, Peter goes on a Hawaiian vacation, only to find out that Sarah and Aldous are at the exact same hotel. Peter befriends most of the hotel staff, including customer service rep Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis). With their help, he realizes that he is more than just "Sarah Marshall's boyfriend." I expected Sarah Marshall to be funny. However, I didn't expect it to be this funny. The script, which is absolutely brilliant, was written by Segel. There are also a few original songs he wrote for the movie as well. All of the actors gave amazing performances, though I have to admit that I loved Russell Brand the best. This isn't a movie that you can go see with your kids though. There are a lot of sex jokes and quite a few penis shots. (It is rated R, in case you weren't paying attention.) But if you are of age and have a good sense of humor, I think you will really enjoy the movie. I know I'll be buying the DVD the day it comes out.

I am a girl and I like tools.

Thanks to growing up with a mechanic for a dad, I'm a bit of a tool nerd. Despite the fact that I haven't had to fix anything in a long time (I let my husband do the 'manly' work), I still enjoy the feel of a good heavy hammer or the clicking noise of a nice socket wrench. Though I kind of want to give air tools a try. I don't know a whole lot about them. I'm guessing they run on air pressure instead of electricity? That might be handy if you have a dead battery on your electric screwdriver. I wonder if I can find a demo of one somewhere...

Plan a trip for me

Since it is Friday and you are probably as bored as I am, I have a challenge for you! Maybe not a 'challenge' but a 'game.' I spend a lot of time daydreaming about vacations I never get to go on. While it's fun, sometimes it gets kind of boring. So your challenge - Check out some Branson resorts and plan a theoretical vacation for me. It can be a week-long thing or just a weekend jaunt. Make sure you include any entertainment plans as well as which hotel you think I should stay in. There aren't any prizes and most likely I won't actually take the trip but it'll be a good time waster for you.