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Hello, and welcome to the first of (hopefully) many reviews in my new "Fun and Games" section!

The first game I want to talk about JUST opened up in it's "Closed Beta Testing" phase and so far it's ROCKING!  It's called Shaiya and has been brought to us by Aeria Games.

So far, I would consider Aeria Games to be "hit or miss", based on other games I have TRIED to beta test for them.  Love you guys but not every MMORPG (massively multi player online role playing game) is to everyone's tastes...  and that goes for game style as much as it does for the game itself.

This one, however, is a DEFINITE hit with me at least!  Bringing familiar elements/styles similar to those of World of Warcraft  and Ever Quest makes it easy to adjust to.  The graphics quality is wonderful.  TONS of quests and lots of monster bashing PLUS "social" skills make the game fun for just about anyone who enjoys this "kind of thing".

Oh, there are a FEW "iffy" things still...  sometimes the mouse controls are a bit "twitchy" (double clicking on skills in the quick bar many times causes you to start moving to a new location instead of using the skill you were going for)...  some spots are simply NOT translated at all, and much of it is poorly translated from it's original language.  Luckily, being a fluent speaker/reader of "typonese" I can get a good idea of what they are SUPPOSED to be "saying".

Other than those minor glitches (so far) this game is DEFINITELY worth a play or three...  especially since it is FREE!!!  Yep, you heard me...  free to download, free to play!  LOL!

Go forth and slay some monsters!

On a side note, my 4 year old LOVES to watch me "beat the monsters" and, so far, his favorite by far is the "bad monkeys"...  *grin*

In the aftermath of my birthday, nothing earth shattering happened!  LOL!

I received some WONDERFUL gifties from my online Sisters and Friends.  Some are being "shown off" in my photo album here.  Others (not shown) are an AWESOME Tube Pack (also from Sicara), and a membership to Lovelight Pixels from the sweet Katja (Berliner Baerin).

The hubby gave me (yet another IOU) and a cake he bought with my money cause he's as beyond broke as I am, of course!  LOL!  DD and Jme bought me a brand new mouse, which made me VERY happy...  because, um, it actually WORKD, which is more than I could say for EITHER of the ones I already owned!  *giggles*

Other than that, well, not all that much happened around here.  Life is pretty much, as always, "same old/same old".  I keep hoping to have good - or at LEAST interesting! - news to put on up here one day.  Sorry my life is rather boring!  LOL!

Luc is SUPER smart and becoming a most excellent speller!  I mean, he was slow to begin speaking but his vocabulary is now HUGE and he can consitantly spell words some 1st and 2nd graders have problems with right.  He was quicker to pick up math concepts than speech, but now he's chugging along like a little bullet train!  LOLOL!

Honestly, he is my bright rainbow in a very grey world...  and if it wasn't for him there are days I just wouldn't even bother getting up.  That's how rotten I feel far too much of the time.  So I guess it's a good thing I got the little monkey, eh???

Anyway, all for now dear reader...  or dear self if no-one else is bothering to read!  *grin*

So...   once upon a time a vaguely frightening person wanted to trade memberships with me.  She just kept emailing me, over and over again until I figured "ok, she's new and I was new myself not long ago, so I'll trade with her and give her a chance"...

BIG mistake!  She never EVER really put anything UP on her site (hosted free on pizco *shudder*) and changed her link, membership concept, etc like 5 times.  Eventually, one of my dear "sisters", Kay, got conned into setting up a forum for her to host her membership site on, figuring to get her the heck OFF the horrors of a pizco site...  Well, this woman screwed things all up, and then just decided, without telling Kay, that she was going back to pizco, and other such insanity.  To be honest, I only know a teeny PART of their story, but I do know that Kay was thoroughly messed over.

At around this time I contacted the woman to terminate the traded membership agreement with her as, frankly, I was getting NOTHING for the trade...  she never actually MADE anything and, at that time, the only outlines she had on the forum were pretty much Kay's.  I had just had enough, ya know?  She then kept emailing me over and over again, wanting to be my "site sister" and couldn't understand why I had kicked her outta my membership site, even though I had been VERY clear as to why.

Now, a word of warning, it looks like  she's BACK and starting all over again.  AOT of my friend's site's have recently been approached by her requesting to "trade memberships".  I also saw an add go through just the other day for her site, and it's STILL hosted on pizco, although it has a new name (yet again).  If she contacts you run FAR away as fast as you can.  She gives me the willies, and I don't get creeped out all that easily!

Yes, there ARE psycho stalkers out there, and I swear they're gunning for whomever they can!

Two of my dear friends are having trouble with the same psychotic candidate for the loony bin.  She's virtually cyberstalking them, sending threatening emails and leaving messages on tag boards and the like.  She got caught as a "pixel thief" and many of us were willing to give her a second chance.  Cause that's what ya do, ya know?  Everyone is entitled to make a mistake and DESERVES a second chance, after all.  However, during her "second chance" she was once MORE proven to be a thief and many pixel sites went so far as to change their terms of usage to disallow the use of THEIR work with any of HER stuff.  Needless to say, she discovered herself removed from pretty much every membership site she belonged to due to her behavior.

Instead of being "adult" and just saying she was wrong, and sorry and all that she began threatening the person SHE stole from, blaming HER for all her troubles within the CGC.  Yeah, right...  the b**** brought this on herself, through her very OWN actions, but of COURSE can't be HUMAN enough, let alone ADULT enough, to admit SHE was at fault.  She is, apparently, one of "those people" who must blame every one ELSE for THEIR actions.

Now she's threatening and harassing ANOTHER friend of mine...  *sigh*

We are all saving pretty much ANYTHING this person sends to any of us as evidence against her, because she is now terrorizing one poor woman and REALLY ticking the other one off.  Luckily, the idiot doesn't seem to realize that she is breaking MULTIPLE federal laws, at the very least, and kust keeps putting her threats in writing...  if we're REAL lucky the LAW will take care of her for us, as it should!

Sometimes I really wonder just what the "Pixel World" is coming to...

OK, so today is my 42nd birthday.  Yep, today is the answer to the eternal question of "Life the Universe and Everything"...  at least, according to "The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series...  The only answer I have, however, is, well, will today be ANY better than yesterday???  LOL!

Honestly, I'm just tired...  tired of wondering how we're gonna pay the bills, buy food, whatever...   Sometimes I wish I didn't HAVE to wake up every morning just to face those same questions yet AGAIN, just like I hate the fact that those questions run through my brain every night until I feel like I hardly ever sleep any more.

Yeah, I know there are people with worse problems out there, and I truly feel for them...  but it's MY problems that are bothering me the most.  Luckily Luc is still little, and thus birthdays and "Winter Holiday of Choice" are easy to provide for him, at least somewhat.  *sigh*  Ah, well, if I just keep telling myself things could be worse, sooner or later maybe I'll finally convince myself that things aren't THAT bad after all...  LOL!

Some real sweeties in the pixel world have given me gifties (Thank you Tanya and Katja! you SO rock!) and sent me little notes to wish me a happy one.  The hubby hasn't called yet to wish me one, but I'm kinda used to him getting "too busy" to remember to call.  He DID buy me a nummy chocolate fudge cake yesterday, though, so I know he remembers it's my "day"!  LOLOL!

Other than that, pretty much "same old/same old" here in out little nut house...  which is neither good nor bad, it just IS...  *grin*