You Are About as Cute as an Aardvaark

Did someone really say that? Yes, they did. Don't ask; it's a long story. What is not a long story is that I beat Grid today. Grid is one of many addicting games on candystand.com and it recently garnered some attention on my hall. I believe Cameron started it. Anyway, I tried it, and like everyone else, became enthralled. I love the word enthralled; it's fun to say. Anyway, back to the story, it's a logic game essentially and some of the levels towards the end had me stumped for a long time. I got stuck on level 32 for instance last night and left it until a few hours ago. Andrea, Cameron and I were playing in Mimi's room (she refused to try it) and I finally managed to beat it. I was rather proud of myself. Finishing a game like that, which is solely a matter of mental effort, gives one such a feeling of accomplishment. I highly recommend it.

Another thing I did today was write out my birthday list. My birthday is Valentine's Day and my mother had been bugging me for a list for weeks now. On the top of that list was of course the Sims 3. I am a major fan of the Sims. I've thought about it and decided there are two essential reasons why I like the Sims games. First, I'm a control freak. I can't control the actions of people around me in real life, but I can control everyone in the Sims. Also, while it would be unwise for me to take revenge on people in real life for the little annoyances they cause me, I can do whatever I want to a Sim without worrying about consequences. Instant gratification. Second, and this somewhat goes along with the control freak business, Sims is like a grown-up way of playing dollhouse. The Sims is like a giant dollhouse in which you can completely customize every detail of the dolls and the houses. Plus, with the goals and life wishes and etc, it never gets boring.

I loved playing Barbies when I was little, and I loved the idea of a dollhouse. The dollhouse I had was too simple and not intricate enough for my tastes. It was also not big enough to house the barbies, and I rejected the dollhouse dolls as too ugly and unfashionable. The problem with the barbies was that they had no house. My parents (in retrospect quite rightly) would never buy the huge expensive and tacky Barbie house. I had to build them houses out of books, chairs, and small plastic tubs. I never had enough materials. Sometimes the top of my bed would serve as the house and rules and pencils would mark off where the rooms were. So my games would be limited and constrained. The Sims allows me to play out any story that comes to mind. I can build people exactly as I imagine them and decorate an infinite variety of houses in an infinity of ways. Hand over the game, my imagination is ready. Unfortunately my birthday falls 6 days before the game's release, so I'm hoping someone will preorder it for me and it'll get mailed to my local address. Fingers crossed from the desk of

Jackie