Dream of Mirror Online

Dream of Mirror Online, also referred to as DOMO is a free Aeria Game. According to their Introduction, it is based on ancient Chinese mythology, “the world of Dream of Mirror Online exists as an alternate reality inside the ‘Kunlun Mirror’ which is a sacred artifact.”

Character creation on this game was quite nice. Races offered include: Humans, Shura, Sylph, and Sprites. Customizations to the character’s sex, hair, face and head, chest and body size were nice. It isn’t often we get to change how our characters look like that! The option to zoom in and rotate helped guide me on which options to choose. Characters also choose their zodiac signs which affect their gameplay too.

Sadly, characters don’t have a profession until they reach level 10. Players 10 and under are just “Commoners.” Once past level 10, you can train to be a Martial Artist, Wizard, Blademaster, Hunter, Thief, Doctor, Mercenary, Shaman, Fencer, Musician, Dancer and Merchant.

My adventure guided me to be a female Shura. I did some quests in the starter area, and eventually reached level 6 before I stopped playing. The game was just too cartoony for me. It actually quite reminded me of Maple Story. Another drawback for me was the movement controls. It just annoyed me too much.

Overall, I think the game is cute. It is great for kids. Looks like they have events. FREE. Easy enough to play and figure out, but just not enough stimulation for those over 12.

The Choking Game

While watching Oprah yesterday, I was informed of something called “The Choking Game.” I’m not that old, but I had never heard of it. Perhaps you haven’t either. It is not a “game” at all. It is suffocating yourself for a high. Which makes me wonder, are kids getting stupider each generation?

Children, teens and even adults are dying from this. They are cutting off the blood flow to their brains in exchange for a few seconds of a “high.” This warm and fuzzy high is really just the brain dying, thousands of cells at a time. They are doing this by strangling themselves with a belt, rope, chain, plastic bags, or even their bare hands. When done in groups or “choking parties” they have others push on their chest so hard they can’t breathe, or just watch one another (or even help) others to pass out.

This deadly game is not new. It has been around for generations. Due to the fact that when done alone, it looks more like suicide than a “game” the actual number of lives taken by this is unknown.

It has many other names too. Here are a few to be on the lookout for if you hear someone you know saying them: Blackout, Flat Liner, Fainting Game, California Choke, Dream Game, Airplaning, Suffocation Roulette, Space Cowboy, and Pass Out Game.

Here are some informative links about this deadly game.
http://www.stop-the-choking-game.com/
http://www.chokinggame.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_choking_game

Children International

Children International is an organization I have been involved with since 2001. I sponsored a child in Columbia for about a year when I was a freshman in college. However, due to circumstances at the time I had to stop sponsoring her. Not too long after that though, I jumped right back in!

In 2004, I started sponsoring again. This time, I picked an adorable little girl named Camila from Chile. I have been sponsoring her ever since. The pictures below are of her. The one on the left is her in 2004, and the one on the right is from 2007.

Today, I made a Lift One Project website on her behalf. I urge you to check it out and donate or even sponsor a child of your own. Don’t let this post just become another commercial you look away from. Do something about child poverty and get involved!

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate." Albert Schweitzer

Celebrity Circus

I started watching this show almost by accident. It was on one night and I just got hypnotized and couldn’t help but be sucked in. It also didn’t hurt to have Antonio Sabato Jr. and Stacy Dash as two of the celebrities.



The performances each week were really quite great. Most of the celebrities really tried hard each week to get the top score and win votes from viewers. Stacy Dash was a natural as a trapeze artist. Antonio Sabato Jr. had extreme strength and was hot doing everything. Wee Man didn’t try as hard at first, but became quite good. Rachel Hunter, Blu Cantrell and Janet Evans tried, but weren’t memorable. Sadly, Christopher Knight had to withdraw from the competition due to two injuries.

Here is a video clip of Aurelia Cats performing on the finale show. She is AMAZING!


Antonio Sabato Jr. and Stacy Dash were my two favorites throughout the entire season. However, I voted for Antonio and really pulled for him to win – and he did! Congratulations to Antonio on his “Wheel of Death” trophy. I hope to see more of him on General Hospital’s Night Shift, which starts tonight!

***Update*** The videos were deleted from fox, so I uploaded new ones from youtube.

RIP Bandit

On July 8, 2008 my pet lizard, a bearded dragon named Bandit died. He was about 7 years old, which is quite amazing because he was a bit of a runt and came close to dying a few times when younger. His brother, Smokey lived with him for about a year and a half when they were babies/juveniles. While they were the same age, Bandit barely grew in comparison. This is a picture of Bandit and Smokey (Bandit is the little one).

I was quite fond of Bandit because he was a pet I could take with me from apartment to apartment in my college days. I even took Bandit with me for shelter when Hurricane Charlie blew through Orlando, and my roommate and I had to leave our 3rd story apartment. Bandit was fussy and only liked certain people for quite a few years, it was cute. In his last few years though, he was great with everybody. My nephews especially loved coming over and seeing Bandit. He even let them hold him without hesitation.

Bandit was a great, laid back pet and will be missed very much.

Another Bachelor/ette Letdown

DeAnna Pappas was a great pick for The Bachelorette. After last November’s The Bachelor Brad broke her heart and ended up not picking either of the final two women, it was nice to see a sweet, down-to-earth woman picking the man this time!

I was a big fan of this season’s The Bachelorette. I watched every episode and was cheering DeAnna on to find that special someone for her. How could you not? She is like everyone’s best friend and surrogate sister.

From the time Jason Mesnick had his first one-on-one date with DeAnna, he was my instant favorite. He is 31 years old, very romantic and is already a great father (he has a 3 year old son named Ty). I so wanted to see them together in the end and live happily ever after.

Last night’s ending of The Bachelorette was dramatic - as promised by the commercials leading up to it. However, it did not end how I wanted. Jason’s heart was visibly broken from DeAnna. Ironic because she kept insisting how she never wanted to make someone else feel how Brad made her feel. Maybe she should have thought about that before leading some of these guys on so much. Simply not saying “I love you” back isn’t going to make them think they weren’t lead on. Tsk Tsk.

DeAnna ended up choosing the 25 year old professional snowboarder, Jesse Csincsak. While he seems like a great guy too, I just don’t get it. She didn’t either. She even said she never thought she would have picked him (in the beginning). But, maybe opposites do attract. Maybe you do find love in the strangest of places. Either way, I do wish them well. I also hope Jason is able to find love again after this very public breakup.

DeAnna and Jesse announced on After the Final Rose special that followed The Bachelorette finale that they will be getting married on May 9, 2009. “I think we’re planning the Bahamas – it’s where we fell in love, it’s where we got engaged,” DeAnna explained.

Lady Cottington's Fairy Books

I recently bought quite a few books (mostly on sale) from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Opening the boxes as they arrived was much like Christmas to me – I love books! Immediately I read the Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Books. I hadn’t planned on this being the first books I read from the order. However, flipping through the pages and seeing the beautiful, whimsical artwork of the faeries – I was enchanted!

Lady Cottington is a young girl who writes in her journal about catching, or pressing faeries. As she grows older, her handwriting improves and her stories become even more hilarious about these amusing faeries she presses.

I thought this was going to be a more kid friendly book than it is. Luckily, I did not purchase these books for anyone but myself, and no kids are looking at them. There are nude faeries in the book, and some journal entries are of a sexual content. This should have perhaps been stated somewhere in the book description area.

The Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book: 10 ¾ Anniversary Edition and the Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Letters are the perfect addition to anyone’s library that loves fairies!