Swedish Boy Collapses from World of Warcraft

Last week a 15 year old boy from Sweden collapsed and went into convulsions from playing World of Warcraft. Sounds like an urban legend, but it is true and really happened. Apparently he was playing for 20 hours straight and went into an epileptic seizure.

The boy invited seven friends over to play the new expansion of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King for PC at his house. His father told the Kvällsposten newspaper, “They played all day and all night. Maybe they got a few hours of sleep. They ate a little food and breakfast at their computers.” Sounds a bit like the episode of South Park featuring World of Warcraft doesn’t it?

According to this article the doctors said the boy’s bodily systems had been thrown off by a combination of sleep deprivation, lack of food, and too long a stretch of concentrated game playing. While the boy is expected to make a full recovery, his father said he plans on limiting the amount of time his son is allowed to play computer games. I sure hope so! What was his father thinking letting them play that long to begin with? Come on!

Roll Tide Roll

I’m not really a big sports-fan type of girl. However, after moving to Alabama I quickly learned I had to root for the local team here. My family and friends here are all big Alabama football fans. So, naturally I am too now. The games are fun to watch with them, and who doesn’t like a chance to drink and have good food?

Alabama’s rivalry against Auburn - the other team in Alabama is BIG here. Either you are an Alabama fan, or you are an Auburn fan. Quite often houses are divided and things can get pretty ugly. I haven’t personally seen this, but I have heard about it. The Iron Bowl is the game played against the two teams. Today’s game was huge. Alabama is ranked #1 but hasn’t won against Auburn in six years. They had a lot to prove – and they did!

Alabama defeated Auburn 36-0 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL. What a game it was too! Alabama played great. The first half was a bit slow, but once Alabama started scoring they were on a roll! In the second half alone they scored 26 points. Auburn didn’t even make 1 point. Alabama sure gave em’ hell!

“It was obviously a great win for our fans, and it was a great win for our players,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban. “We don’t have a player on our team who has experienced this before, so that was our goal.” Well said Nick, well said. Way to go on your excellent coaching abilities!

Auburn’s coach Tubberville on the other hand, sure sounded like an idiot that graduated from the University of Denial in his after the game interview. His faces and motions during the game were priceless. He knew he was as done as the turkey he had for Thanksgiving.

Needless to say, everyone was thrilled and cheering on Alabama at the party I was at. The game was good, the beer was cold, the food was good – what more can one ask for one mere hour after getting home for Thanksgiving?

I Survived Black Friday!

I love to shop. I actually used to call myself a 'Shop-a-holic.' However, I am now in recovery and don't nearly shop as often (not perhaps by choice, but that is besides the point). I love a good deal. Clearance, Sale, Discount and Buy one get one FREE are my favorite words to see while shopping.

Black Friday hasn't ever been a favorite day to shop of mine though. In reality, I don't anticipate ever going out amongst those crazy holiday shoppers. It is the one day out of the year where people are extremely rude and can really get away with it without getting punched in the face. Well, some do. Politeness goes completely out the window this day of the year. I just don't get it. Maybe it is the early wake-up calls, no coffee, lack of sleep, claustrophobia... something.

Today though, I got up at 4:30 AM EST (which is more like 3:30 AM to me). I went to Wal-Mart with my Dad to try and get a 10 Mega Pixel digital camera for only $69 and a 8GB USB Drive for $17. It opened at 5AM, so it was a good plan... right? WRONG! The parking lot was full. Bad sign #1. So, my Dad dropped me off at the entrance so I could try to get to the Electronics section. The whole store was cramped with people. The $2 and $10 DVD section was like a shark feeding frenzy. Bad sign #2. Then, I saw a long line that headed way past the corner end of the store and wound out by the food. Bad sign #3. As I made my way through the sea of shoppers and abusive shopping carts I asked someone in this stand-still line what it was for. She said "cameras and digital frames." Great just f'ing great. I knew the camera I wanted only had 24 in stock there (I called the night before and asked). There were well over 100 people in that line. So, I went to find the USB drive. Not an easy task there either. Eventually I got in a line with my Dad for what? I wasn't sure but it said electronics and wasn't for cameras. It ended up being for the USB drive and other random stuff they had hidden behind the counter. After about 45 minutes in a line that should have only taken 15 minutes, I bought the stupid 8 GB USB drive for $17. Yay?

Wal-Mart was hell. I'm semi-claustrophobic as it is, and with that amount of people and body heat in the store - it was terrible. Rude people shouting at others and store clerks gave me a headache. Shopping carts were being used like bumper carts all over the store, and after getting tired of having them rammed at me, I shoved them back at the rammers. Take that bitches! Every now and then there were a few fellow nice shoppers, but it was very rare.

All that and I didn't even get to see a real fight break out. Maybe if I had been there earlier to see people fight over the $199 XBOX360 Guitar Hero bundle... Ah, oh well.

After that nonsense we went to Goody's. What a relief that store was! Sure, there were shoppers in there but not a swarm of angry bees with shopping carts ready to ram you. I picked out some clothes and got rather good deals on a few items. I'm rather happy about that at least. I got 3 organic cotton long sleeved shirts, a purple sweater shirt that is dressy enough to wear for Christmas, a black long sleeved sweater that looks great on me and a dressy shirt for New Year's Eve. Not too bad huh?

All in all, the hype of Black Friday is just that: hype. Not worth it really in my opinion. I wouldn't do it again - though, I probably will. Next time though if I wake my @$$ up that early I'm just going to try to buy the stuff online.

Did any of you go shopping today on Black Hell Friday? Did you have to work today in retail? Any horror stories from years past? Share!

Inspirational Quote

Messy House Update: Living Room

Today my Mom and I de-cluttered and cleaned up the living room. We spent much more than the 10 minutes of cleaning/de-cluttering today! The living room is a disaster area usually because there was just so much stuff out that if you add one thing (and then another and another) you almost don’t notice.

We spent about 3 hours on the living room “zone” today. It looks 100% better. It does still need a few things done to it, but overall it is okay. We started in one corner and worked our way all around the room. My allergies went crazy because of all the dust. I’m still sniffly from it actually.

Anyways, I just wanted to post a little update to let you all know that Oprah’s de-cluttering plan does work – if you try!

Sex With A Ghost

Catchy title huh? Last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy titled “In The Midnight Hour” should have perhaps been called that. Okay, maybe not but it would have been catchy! I have been a fan of Grey’s Anatomy since it first aired. This episode was one of the best – seriously.

The interns went rogue and tried performing a solo surgery without the help of any residents – on themselves. Lexie (Meredith’s half-sister) and Sadie (Meredith’s BFF) came up with the great (disaster) idea to perform an appendectomy on Sadie - while she was awake! The surgery went terribly wrong and Meredith and Christina had to come to their rescue with Bailey to save Sadie’s life. Needless to say, the interns are now in serious trouble. Think Izzy pulling Denny’s L-Vat wire trouble.

Speaking of Izzy and Denny, that is where this Blog title comes from. Yes, Denny is dead. However, Izzy has been seeing him at the hospital and now at home too. Is she crazy or really seeing Denny’s ghost? Either way, she had sex with a ghost (or perhaps just herself) last night. I for one miss Denny’s character being on the show, but it is just turning into a big weird thing now. Especially since Alex is Izzy’s boyfriend now. What is with him and crazy chicks? If it is true (as I have read in rumors) that Izzy is getting a brain tumor and that is why she is seeing Denny, does that mean she is going to die? I hope not!



Christina and Meredith had a huge fight, Mark was shown to have a softer side, Mer and Der are still together, Christina and new-boy (what’s his name?) are maybe starting their relationship, Callie gets her nose broken from a patient, and George well I barely remember him in the show (what is up with that?). I can’t wait for the new episodes!

Did any of you see last night's episode? What did you think?

Energy Suckers

Are you green? I try to be. I recycle even though the closest recycle drop-off spot is about 15 miles away. I say no to paper and plastic at the grocery stores - I use the canvas tote bags. I donate things that can be reused instead of just tossing them. My Mom and I even started a compost this year.

While you may be living a Green lifestyle (or trying to), did you ever stop to think about all those electronic items in your home? Your laptop for instance or your coffee maker still uses electricity when they aren’t in use. Sure, if you have one of those smart strips on everything you are ahead of the rest of us on this. Not everyone can afford to use those on everything though – they are pricey!

The biggest energy sucker in your home is most likely your video game console. I don’t have one right now, my last PS2 died and I haven’t replaced it or upgraded to the PlayStation 3 yet. I haven’t decided if I want to get the PlayStation 3 or a Wii. Xbox 360 Console is out for me because I don’t like the controller. PlayStation 3 would be a good choice because I could play all my PS2 games on it – and it has a Blu Ray DVD player. Wii would also be a good choice because it is the cheapest – and has Wii Fit and many other games I’d like to play.

So, you may be thinking that I’m crazy and your new PS3, XBOX360 or Wii couldn’t possibly use that much energy. Afterall, you don’t play it 24/7. Okay, some may play it 20/7 but that is beside the point.

According to a report the Natural Resources Defense Council is releasing on Wednesday, video game consoles consume a “staggeringly high” amount of energy. How much is staggeringly high? They use about as much as it takes to power the whole city of San Diego. Yeah, I’d call that staggeringly high.


Image from NRDC "Lowering the Cost of Play" report

As stated on this article, “There’s plenty of room for improvement. We can cut our nation’s electricity bill by more than $1 billion and avoid 7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to the report.”

So, how much can you save? Well, if you have a smart strip on your console you’d be saving money in the long-run. That is the best bet overall in my opinion. Also, if you have a Nintendo Wii instead of the PS3 or XBOX360, you will save 9x the energy. Another good habit to get into is turning your console completely off and unplugging it when you are not using it. It might take awhile to get use to this, but you will save enough money to buy 3-5 brand new games in the course of a year if you do this!

My Fairy Name

I love fairies, it is kinda my thing. Some people like butterflies, frogs, teddy bears, etc. Me? I like fairies (butterflies are also quite nice though). I don't have many fairy items or books, even though I would like more. While looking up some info on fairies, I came across this 'Fairy Name Generatior.' My fairy name is below...

Your fairy is called Feather Hailweb

She is a protector of the lonely.

She lives in high places where the clouds meet the earth.

She is only seen in the mist of an early morning.

She wears pale blue like the sky. She has cheery turquoise wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

Betrayal

Wow. How one person I was “friends” with in an online game totally became a psychotic piece of shit is really amazing. I can’t believe that this one person, while even being totally enchanting over people can really do this with multiple people is beyond me. I mean even while playing the original MMO I played with him, he was a bit of an ass. However, he was quite nice to me. Maybe it was because I am a female, maybe it was because I was nice to him, I am not sure. However, for all of my prior friends for YEARS to become objected by this piece of shit? I mean, come on! Seriously, how on Earth do they take this idiot’s side over mine? I guess they were never my friends to begin with. I am not sure really… Have any of you played online games and suffered this same fate? How did you cope with it?

Clean Up Your Messy House!

Last week I saw the Oprah show with Peter Walsh for their new series (on the show) about cleaning up your messy house. I really enjoy taking part in some of the areas that Oprah offers her viewers. So, I figured I would take her up on this “course” with the help of my Mom. After all, it is her house and whenever I just organize and clean up a space it ends up returning to its former havoc within a month or two.

The course from Oprah’s website is really easy to signup and be a part of. Just go to her website and signup for an account (yes, it is free). Then signup for the newsletter(s) you want to be a part of. After that, just print out the “Clean Up Your Messy House Pledge” and sign it. Then each month you will get new assignments for cleaning up your home. Committing to 10 minutes each day can change the life of your home!

I am sort of a neat freak, sometimes. When I had my own apartment, everything was always where it was supposed to be and nice and clean. However, now that I am living back at “home” with my parents I have just one bedroom. My computer space, living room and bedroom are now all-in-one. Not very space-friendly.

The image I used for this blog is of my bedroom. I can only get in a few angles, so that will just have to do for now. I don’t like how it is setup and plan on rearranging it totally. My closets (yes, 2 but they are small and awkward so don’t go getting jealous or anything) are a disaster spot too. Basically, I have quite a bit I want to change in just my bedroom as it is.

I’ll post updates on this project I am undertaking with some new pictures along the way as well. I invite you all to join me on my de-cluttering journey and let me know how you are doing as well.

New Layout, Sorta

The past few hours I’ve been looking for a new blogskin for this blog. I found a few I liked, but nothing I really loved. I haven’t played around with HTML in awhile or XML ever to make my own yet. I might at some point, but not right now. After being thoroughly disappointed in not finding one to work, I just uploaded a picture I had saved on my computer for the header/title area. For those who are wondering where it is from, it is from the company Tokidoki. I love their bags, stationary and oh well everything. Fair warning though, they are a bit high priced.

Super Skinny

Seriously what is with the super skinny girls on television and movies lately? Sure, thin girls have always been in the media However, if you turn on Gossip Girl, 90210 or any other teenage drama you will find these super-tiny pint-sized version of teenage girls. Runway model skinny is just not a realistic version of what normal girls look like.

Blake Lively, who stars on Gossip Girl says she had to lose “serious” weight for the movie Elvis and Annabelle, she tells W. “I play a beauty queen who died of bulimia,” she says. “But beauty queens are still very toned. So, I lost weight, but got toned. It was the healthiest I’ve ever been!” Wow. Since when is a bulimic who dies considered healthy? What were you thinking Blake? Comments such as these are NOT role-model worthy. They are not healthy for Ms. Lively either. If she is not in therapy yet, perhaps she should be.

Pink - So What

Pink has been one of my favorite solo female artists since her debut album. Her new CD is great! Her hit single off of it titled “So What” has been on my iTunes library since it came out. It has been played about 70 times on there already by me. Yeah, sometimes I get a little obsessive with songs and have them on repeat – so what? If you are a Pink fan, or just love this song it is definitely worth a download!

Silk Road Online

“The first experience a player shall have is of one large world waiting to be explored and shaken up; a constant progressing adventure.” – Silk Road Online

After researching for various Free-To-Play games I came across links to Silk Road Online quite often. So, I decided to give it a try. As the quote above says, it is a large world waiting to explored.

The game was designed to re-enact the Silk Road trades from the 7th Century. Through the use of the game as a MMORPG, it is based on history, culture and stories of each and every Silk Road trade route. I love history and culture so I thought this would be a great game for me. Plus, the armor was pretty cute - and if you know me I love clothes in real life as much as I do in games!

While downloading the game (which took quite a few hours), I read up on their Cartoon Guides via their official website. They were rather cute and helpful to beginners and quite funny actually. Their website is very informative and if you plan to play this game, I suggest you browse through it while downloading the game as well.

While this is a Free to Play game, don’t expect it to be totally free. Sure, it could be if you don’t want any of the goodies which come via the Item Mall. It seems every “Free” game out there has these and this one is no exception. JoyMax has to make money too ya know!

Once I was finally able to make my character I was a bit disappointed. Very minimal customization was allowed. Then another big bummer came when I tried to login – the servers can be full! I haven’t read a “try again later” message when trying to login to something since the days of dial-up on AOL.

I played my character up to level 10 or so. The server was overcrowded (once I was finally able to get in) which made me quite laggy. The directions of what to do once inside the game were minimal and confusing. The map doesn’t show the full area which was highly annoying.

While I didn’t get to enjoy the possible positives of the game, I will list them here. They do offer a private and street stall to sell items. There is a message/friends tool which would have been quite nice too I am sure. There is also something called a Guardian System which means that high levels can help new players and they are rewarded for doing so.

Overall, the game looks a lot better on their website than it does while actually playing it. I was overly annoyed by this game after just a few hours. However, it is worth a try. It is free to try and who knows you may just like it more than I did.