I didn't know it was possible, but I have a favorite 7-11. I go there almost every morning on my way in. The people who work there are just great! Here's a little video I found on YouTube that includes one of those awesome employees...

It's funny...

My son has a Disney DVD player (specifically, the DVD2000C) that was a gift. It's totally cute, but doesn't work well at all. I finally got sick of it and I brought it in to work to take a look and see what the problem was. I couldn't find anything specific and so I'm left with a sort of junky dvd player. I took a few pictures while I had it open and found it sort of interesting. No wonder it doesn't work well, it's kind of flimsy. So, if you've ever wanted to see what these look like opened up, here you go. [Oh, and yes, I know my desk is a disaster...it's just how I roll]

Taking the feet off (not sure why I did that)...


Taking a little panel off the drawer (not my hands)...


The backside of the faceplate...


An overview...


And looking inside...


Finally, a little trick I learned. A second problem with the unit is that I can't find a remote control that works for it. I've purchased 2 Disney dvd player remotes and neither works. I'm guessing either the remotes aren't compatible or the infrared reader on the unit itself doesn't work. Either way, I'm over it. At first I thought the remotes were broken, but I learned a trick on how to check. Because neither remote has any lights, the only way to see if it works is to aim it at a camera, press a button and look at it through the camera. Wow, a light! You can't see it with the naked eye. At least I know that the remotes aren't the problem now.

According to New Scientist, a study was done that asked Everquest II players some questions pertaining to their physical and mental fitness. It would appear that gamers are slightly more fit (physically) than the average American. The downside of that study shows that there are slightly higher incidents of depression and substance abuse. Pretty interesting stuff!

Lolz

Found here...I have nothing more to say.

So I have one of the coolest toys for my kids. It's the Fun n' Foam Factory by Buzz Bee Toys. I bought it last year on a clearance and I LOVE it. The thing is hilarious. Every time I fire that thing up, I wish that I had one when I was little. Here's a "review" video of it...



Now, I've found a new gizmo that I NEED. It's a bubble fogger! It fills bubble with fog. I'm not sure why I need it, but I do. The video below is kind of grainy, but you get the picture.

So, my cousin has been chosen as a contestant on an upcoming reality tv show. It's got me thinking, what makes a good reality show contestant? If you've got any tips, leave them in the comments, I'd love to hear them.

From the New York Post...

Gym's Wii-zy Money
"A Manhattan gym is charging customers $110 an hour for a personal training session - with a Nintendo Wii."

On a personal note, I finally got a Wii Fit and I love it. It's become a little bit of a competition between hubby and I. Our main goal is to beat any records the other holds. Lame, but super fun.

2. Female ninjas
No offense to Leia and Padme, but on the scale of princess to ninja they were pretty far to the princess end of things. In Clone Wars, we're going to get some seriously kickass female ninjas mixing it up with the Jedi Knights. Anakin's padawan Ahsoka is fearless and strong, and Obi Wan Kenobi will meet his nemesis, the powerful assassin Asajj Ventress.

See the rest at io9.com.

Found at My 2 Second Shelf Life

It's inevitable: soon we will all be gamers

50 Skills That Every Gamer Should Master

1. Give a game a review score without ever actually playing the game
A cursory glance from 20 paces of a grainy postage stamp-sized super lo-res scanned-in screenshot pinned to the ass-feathers of a headless chicken in a sandstorm should be all you need to confidently attribute an authoritative and infallible review score to any game. It's how professional reviewers have been doing it for years.

2. Be able to spot whether a game is running in 720p
Just by looking at it.

Gallery: Tainted Tie-Ins — Worst Movie Games Ever

My grandma sends me many emails every day, most of them are jokes. I thought I'd share today's sampling.

Living Will

Last night my sister and I were sitting in

the den and I said to her,

'I never want to live in a vegetative state,

dependent on some machine and fluids from a

bottle to keep me alive. That would be no

quality of life at all... if that ever happens,

just pull the plug.'

So she got up, unplugged the computer,

and threw out my wine.

She's such a bitch.

GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE

A Polish man moved to the USA and married an American girl..
Although his English was far from perfect, they got along very
well until one day he rushed into a lawyer's office and asked
him if he could arrange a divorce for him.

The lawyer said that getting a divorce would depend on the
circumstances, and asked him the following questions:

Have you any grounds? -
~~Yes, an acre and half and nice little home.

No, I mean what is the foundation of this case?-
~~ It made of concrete.

I don't think you understand Does either of you have a real grudge?
~~ No, we have carport, and not need one.

I mean What are your relations like? -
~~All my relations still in Poland.

Is there any infidelity in your marriage? -
~~We have hi-fidelity stereo and good DVD player.

Does your wife beat you up?
~~ No, I always up before her.

Is your wife a nagger?
~~ No, she white.

Why do you want this divorce?
~~- She going to kill me.

What makes you think that? -
~~ I got proof.

What kind of proof? -
~~ She going to poison me.

Why do you say she is going to poison you?-
~~She buy a bottle at drugstore
and put on shelf in bathroom.
I can read, and it say:
"Polish Remover"

WHY MEN LIKE GUNS....

FOR ALL OF YOU GUYS THAT LIKE GUNS AND BELIEVE IN THE 2nd AMENDMENT.
WHY MEN LIKE GUNS BETTER THAN WOMEN!!

Subject:
Top 10 Reasons Why Men Prefer Guns Over Women

#10 - You can trade an old 44 for a new 22...

#9 - You can keep one gun at home and have another for when you are on-the-road...

#8 - If you admire a friend's gun and tell him so, he will probably let you try it out a few times...

#7 - Your primary gun doesn't mind if you keep another gun for a backup...

#6 - Your gun will stay with you even if you run out of ammo....

#5 - A gun doesn't take up a lot of closet space...

#4 - A gun functions normally every day of the month...

#3 - A gun doesn't ask, 'Do these grips make me look fat?'...

#2 - A gun doesn't mind if you go to sleep after you use it...

AND....
the #1 reason a gun is favored over a woman...............

YOU CAN BUY A SILENCER FOR A GUN

Girlie Wisdom

* Women over 50 don't have babies because they would put them down and forget where they left them.

* One of life's mysteries is how a 2-pound box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5 pounds.

* My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.

* The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.

* The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you are doing, someone else does.

* The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.

* Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.

* Sometimes I think I understand everything, and then I regain consciousness.

* I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my knickers.

* Every 7 minutes of everyday, someone in an aerobics class pulls a hamstring.

* Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks 2 sizes!

* A friend of mine confused her Valium with her birth control pills...she has 14 kids but doesn't really care.

* The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing and then they marry him.

* I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are - eating too much; impulse buying and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day!

* Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like...

"You know, sometimes I forget to eat!"
.....Now, I've forgotten my address,
my mother's maiden name and my keys.
But I have never forgotten to eat. You have
to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!

WOMEN'S ASS SIZE STUDY

There is a new study about women and how they feel about their asses, the results were pretty interesting:

30% of women think their ass is too fat............

10% of women think their ass is too skinny......

The remaining 60% say they don't care,
they love him, he's a good man,
and they wouldn't trade him for the world.

Transformers shirt gets jet ban

From The Sun via Topless Robot

Well, I think I've made a decision. Rather than pay for 2 MMO's and only play one, I realized I need to decide on just one. For now, the winner seems to be Star Wars Galaxies. Vanguard was fun while it lasted, but I've basically maxed out my character and was finding the whole thing to be getting a little boring. I am by no means dogging the game. It's a lot of fun with a loyal, if not small, community. Even though I was bitterly disappointed by SWG in the past, it's made a bit of a resurgence. The devs have tried very hard to make the game more appealing and while the game I once loved is gone forever, what they've done to "fix" it has earned a second chance from me. It's with a heavy heart that I lay Vanguard to rest, but I'm afraid I must. I love ALL the friends I've made there and I'll miss each and every one of them. I'm lucky to have crossed their paths and hopefully, we'll all reunite again. Maybe I can convince one or two to join me in the Star Wars universe. This may be a tough task as some of the friends I met in VG were SWG refugees like myself. Who knows, maybe in a year or two I'll get bored with SWG and I'll try Vanguard again (if it's still around). Time will tell.
____________________________________________________________________


MMO Armageddon: What do you do when they nuke your home?
I know the feeling.
____________________________________________________________________


Video games activate reward regions of brain more in men than in women
What does this say about me?
____________________________________________________________________


Harrison Ford Vows Never To Return To "Star Wars"
whatev...

I've never had any delusions that I'm the only mom in the world who plays video games. In fact, I'm actually surprised there aren't more of us out there promoting the fact that we are "Gamer Moms". Fact is, I grew up in the perfect time to be absorbed into video gaming and so did a lot of other moms. I had an Atari 2600 (actually, I still have it), then NES (also still have it) and so forth and so on. Gaming was a huge part of my life. I'd go to school, go to dance lessons, come home and play Mario. One of the funniest photos of me as a kid is one my mom took of me playing Nintendo while still wearing my dance outfit (no I won't post it...ugh...how embarrassing). So, today I thought I'd share with you links to other "Gamer Mom" websites. We're all a little different, but there's a kinship for sure.



Gamermom.com got the best url and she's been blogging for a few years now...at least that's what I can tell from her archives.



This Gamer Mom is the "mother of all news, views and casual game reviews". While not updated recently, there is still a ton of good stuff there.



There was a nice little article on WomenGamers.com called "Confessions of a Gamer mom". At the end there are a couple of links to more Gamer mom articles as well.


Now on to your regularly scheduled geeky links...


An ex-Jack Sparrow spills on his life at the Magic Kingdom
Read the above article. It's pretty cool. I may or may not have mentioned that way-back-when, I worked at Disney World. While I wasn't a character, I had an unusual job and I performed all day long. Granted, I got to be myself, but still, I was in my own mini-spotlight. The oddest thing about the article is when he talks about the Annual Passholders. It's odd because I had almost forgotten about them. It's so true though, these people would come to the parks day after day and they quickly became regulars. I didn't like or dislike them more than any other guests, but I always found it a bit odd that they came to the same attraction so ofter and regularly.



Did you know there's a Pac-Man movie in development? Apparently, it's true.


And finally, 25 Ways to Tell You're Grown Up.

How did I miss the fact that I have been floating at 99 posts for so long?!? This better be a good entry full of entertainment and special guest star appearances...

...

...

Um, well, you see the thing is, I hadn't really thought this through. I was just going to throw up a random post about the state of my video gaming life. Now, it just seems lame. Well, here are your celebrities, then you have to suffer and hear about me :)



Great! Soooo, onto gaming. I've been playing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes for over a year now. I've maxed out my main character and decided to start a new one. That's all well and good. But, it's getting a little boring. I think I've made a decision. I'm going to add Star Wars Galaxies back into the mix. I know, I know, it sucks, they ruined the game, blah blah blah. I can't help it. A good friend of mine has never given up on the game and still plays PLUS hubby would like to give it another shot. I think that now is the time to start all over with it and see what it's all about now. It's been so long since I've played that it'll be like playing a new game. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'm actually a little excited to give it another whirl.

Oh! And on a personal(ish) note. THE RED WINGS ARE IN THE STANLEY CUP FINALS!!! And, I'll be getting paid to go to the games...I love my job.

I made some super delicious blueberry pancakes this morning and suddenly the devil appeared...
Or is it a cat? Maybe I should sell it on ebay.

A cool photo project at various locations using souvenirs as the subjects.

_________________________________________________________________
Green Team!

_________________________________________________________________
OMG! I WANT THIS!!!


_________________________________________________________________
The Most Inappropriately Named Sports Teams

White Men Can't Dance
From: My 2 Second Shelf Life


Trapped in an Elevator...With Diarrhea

Geeks vs Nerds

Top 10 Sexually Suggestive Lines in
the Original Star Wars Trilogy

A recent post on Cynical-C made me look into airfare for our next trip to Florida. The post basically pointed out that flying is cheaper than driving. The point I was going to make in my comment to it was that if you're a family of 4, driving is definitely cheaper. I searched for airfare cost for our upcoming trip to Florida to prove my point and...I was wrong...at least this time. When I worked the numbers, the airfare was actually cheaper because of rising gas prices. I was shocked! To fly 4 people is actually very close in price to paying for gas/hotels along the way.

That's one of the great things about reading blogs. They make you think, sometimes they even make you change your mind on ideas that you are sure of.

So...thanks to Chris at Cynical-C for making me think. It's bloggers like him that prove the value of blogging to me.

Way back when…long, long ago, I took a semester off from college and drove down to Florida to work for The Mouse. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’d go back to work there in a heartbeat, but the stars won’t seem to align that way for me. Instead of working there, I visit at least once a year. I look forward to that trip all year long. My kids look forward to it all year long. My husband [won’t admit that he] looks forward to it all year long. It’s a million things at WDW that make me love it. The weather, the smiles on my kids’ faces, the break from work, the rides and especially the cast members.

The whole atmosphere is, well, magical. I even find myself slipping back into cast member role and doing things that hubby finds rather odd, like offering to take pictures for strangers so the whole family can be in the shot. Hubby has suggested more than once that I get a tattoo that says “CM4L” (aka Cast Member For Life). I guess if I ever got a tattoo, that’s probably what it would say.

NOTE: Not a real tattoo

I’ve visited a ton of Disney sites and I belong to a mailing list which offers tons of great tips and news from the World. Today I was looking at a site I had been to many times before and I noticed something that I had never seen there before…I have no idea how I missed it…it’s as big as day on the main page! It’s just really cool, they have “Cast Member Appreciation Cards” that you can print. I know that in the past, if I’ve come across a great cast member, I’ve gone straight to Guest Relations and let them know about that person. I think in the future, I’ll do that AND give the cast member a little note.

I think that part of what I like about that is it seems that no one appreciates anything anymore. “Thank you’s” are in short supply lately. I think things would be a lot nicer if people expressed their appreciation more often.

I am such a slacker lately with the blog! To explain a little, when I was blogging more often it was because I had nothing to do at work. Lately, that's all changed...which is great!

These photos were taken at some basketball games I worked at. The one above is a flaming pyrotechnic thing they do...I'm amazed I even got this shot because I used my phone to take the pic. The photo below is what my view looked like during the game that night.



So, funny story! I was looking at my annual raise from my day job which is usually 3%. I noticed that it wasn't quite right this year. I found out that instead of 3%, we got 2.25% raises. I shouldn't complain because some people in the world never get raises. I'm only amused by this fact because our new boss gave himself a 17% raise, now I know why they needed the .75% from us, sheesh!

How Do I Get a Raise?

Desired Salary Range

Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Person asked the young MBA fresh out of MIT, "And what starting salary were you looking for?"

The candidate said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."

The HR Person said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every 2 years - say, a red Corvette?"

The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow!!! Are you kidding?"

And the HR Person said, "Certainly, ...but you started it."

How to Ask for a Pay Raise