go to www.midnitefaery.com and fill out the “subscribe now” box on the left hand side. There will be a pop-up box from “FeedBurner”. All you have to do is fill in the verification code and you’re set!  I will be disabling wordpress shortly as I have my own host.

Thank you so much for subscribing!

I’ve also bought a new domain name www.epicgirlygamer.com I am going to be transfering all my “gaming” posts there and then keeping www.midnitefaery.com as my more personal blog. So readers can choose which blog they would like to follow. Perhaps both!?

I know I’ve been rather busy and haven’t blogged much lately, but I had a bunch family come out from Ontario! It’s been loud, crazy, and outrageously fun! I don’t know how I would have made it through the holiday’s without them. I think that they came at the right time and I will forever love and appreciate their brightness that they brought with them.  I was afraid of the holidays. It was the first time we would be “celebrating” without my Dad or eldest brother.  Sometimes chaotic fun is necessary! I had an amazing holiday! …and they were both with us, the whole time

I suppose that’s it for now, thanks for reading and I promise…TOTALLY promise, that this year will be filled with many ups-and-downs in my life which you might find amusing, and dammit I will write some fantastic game reviews!

Enjoy your weekend!

I’ve played a couple good games of Risk and won the first one (with my girlie cousin). We dominated the other 3 boys and watched them try to create treaties and back stab each other. You definitely need the right group of people (and amount of beer) to sit through a few hours of strategic planning and pure luck of the dice! I couldn’t have asked for a better group! The second game had 7 people although Risk was developed for 6. We took a set of “coloured pieces” from the 2-player Risk game that I own and established a value system.

On Christmas morning, I was surprised to find out that I have a new family member. When I was 10 years old I was given a picture of a small boy, who was incidentally known as my little brother. We had the same biological father. So, sure enough, I was commenting some “merry Christmas” love to my cousins and I saw a post after mine wishing “cousins” a merry Christmas. Hmmm… could it be? It’s been more than 15 years since I’ve considered this small boy. I never  anticipated meeting him, seeing him, or talking to him as an adult. I sent a private message to my cousin asking if he was my brother. This was what she said (edited for privacy):

Huh, that’s indeed an unexpected question! He is, in fact, your brother. He lives with his mom. He doesn’t see the biological father either, as far as I know. I haven’t seen him in years, I think he was probably 5 or 6 when I saw him last, but my mom and his mom were kind of friends much in the same way that my mom considers your mom a friend. I think that your aunt may have seen him more recently than the rest of us but not consistently.

I hope this helps, and if I can think of anything else, or if you have any other questions, I would love to talk about it. I enjoy talking about our crazy family

…so I have found my little brother. I got another brother for Christmas! I sent him a message on facebook and added him as a friend. He accepted the friend request and didn’t say anything in response. But not to my surprise, he is a gamer! LOL of course… his status’s have to be about gaming!

It was very weird and I felt awkward about telling other family members, especially after everything that we’ve been though this year. But it seems to have come across as ok, and I haven’t talked to the new brother yet. Hopefully we can meet up on xbox and kill some stuff together!

Guess that’s about it! My Christmas holidays have been filled with family, friends, food, and beer!

Happy holidays everyone!!

I will be around for the next couple days… visiting family and such. If you want to grab a coffee let me know!

~*Merry Christmas*~

Sending loads of virtual love to everyone! <3

Having experienced such great loss, it changed the way I saw life. If you’ve read my previous posts you would know that I have focused a lot of my energy on helping people and doing random acts of kindness. It was something that began when I gave a homeless man a bagel at the same time someone else was giving him food. I saw kindness. I knew that it was in me to give, so what the hell was I doing keeping it all for people in my immediate family and friends.

I was nervous and sometimes genuinely afraid of the reactions I would receive from people. But I put myself out there and I felt good about what I was doing. So, I created a challenge that including “giving back” and of course my other love, “gaming”.

I was pretty faithful to each challenge, but they seemed to get more tricky and I was dealing with some rather unfortunate people at work, which left me feeling defeated and broken so I stopped writing. Not to worry though, I kept doing kind acts! I just didn’t have the motivation to write about it. I suppose that happens eh.

That said, I am back! Be prepared to be bombarded with posts about gaming and my life!

Christmas

….I haven’t been into the whole commercialized Christmas for a while, but I don’t discredit the happiness that it may bring to others. It just wasn’t for me.

With that, I decided that this Christmas I would sponsor a teen parent family. This was my way of doing Christmas. No more gifts to or from other people. I told everyone that this is what was happening for me and so far it’s been wonderful. I know my brothers and sister don’t fully understand why I wanted to do this, but that doesn’t matter to me because I am happy.

Before wrapping the gifts...

After wrapping the gifts...and picking up a few more!

I have spent time volunteering at the mall to collect donations for families in need and I have continued to buy coffee and food for strangers. There is a homeless man I see whenever I go to the grocery store, and I make sure to get him something. What is a couple extra dollars really!?

On twitter, I was contacted by someone requesting I look up the “Go Pay it Forward” challenge online. So I did. It is an interesting concept and I love that there are people out there who really want to make a difference in other people’s lives. I seriously considered signing up, but I would rather focus on my daily experiences and just watch how everything unfolds for me. Please feel free to check out the site. It opens with a video explaining their project.

Go Pay it Forward Online

As for my rocking… I am ranked #10 in the world for total vocals on Rock Band 3. You can check out the latest video that my good friend lowieee posted up on her You Tube channel. It’s a bloody amazing song and we rocked it

I’ve decided that I would make it my personal mission to spread the word about how GREAT The Tea Party is!!

I was talking with lll KiRa lll about The Tea Party and he said that only Canadians and a couple Aussies like them. That is so sad. They are an amazing band! I was listening to them about 15 years ago and my heart melts when I hear their music! It’s so passionate and … well… awesome! I asked my good friend Lowieee what she thought of their music, but she had never heard of them!

I would love it if Rock Band would include some of The Tea Party in the DLC or RBN songs! Check out the following videos to see if you like them, and if you do… then start requesting in on the Rock Band forums!! Or you could just comment here about how amazing they are

Sims 3:

I was debating purchasing this game. I bought it for the PC and spent endless hours building families and living their lives out. Usually games that are designed for the PC are better on the PC so I didn’t know if it would be worth it for the XBOX.

The graphics are in 1080p. It looks a lot prettier on the XBOX. Plus I’m playing on a 55 inch television, so that’s nicer than my 32 inch monitor.

The sound is classic Sims. The cheesy music that is repetitive. You will have the occasional blurps and quirks when your Sim wants something or is “enjoying” themselves!

The characters and storyline are whatever you want it to be. It’s the Sims. You create the character(s) and you watch how they interact with their environment. For people who haven’t play previous Sims games, they might find this amusing, but it’s really quite boring. I suppose if you play the game merely for the XBOX achievements, then it would give a bit of direction. I just can’t stand the idea of creating a character who subconsciously represents me and then living my life out through a game. I would rather live my life and spend any time I can playing a game!

I think the Sims were destroyed for me when I read Chuck Klosterman’s book “Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs”.  As he goes into explicit detail of the Sims and what it means to create one and live in the game. Really amusing analysis. The games just haven’t been as much fun to play after reading that book. Plus I’ve played way better games

I played the game for just over an hour and I am sure it will grow dust on my game shelf. I think Best Buy might buy it back for half of what I paid. Nah, dust can grow…

Should you buy it? If you want to… but it’s really not worth it for me. I think it was a waste of $50.

I thought of this one well in advance because Christmas is coming up, and I know a couple parents who don’t have enough time to spend a few hours together on a date. It is so important for couples (especially after they have children) to remember to date!! Dating is what keeps passion in the relationship and keeps it fun. I know that the daily ins-and-outs are wonderful and they build stability

and commitment, but passion comes from alone time!

Childcare in the evenings is rather expensive. I have been paid 80-140 for a few hours of work. I hate accepting the money, but I know that I am agreeing to get paid when I am asked to work for them. I know that people consider it their night out and they budget for a babysitter. That’s why this is a part of the Giving Back challenge. Parents often avoid going out as much on dates because they can’t afford the outing plus childcare. That bothers me. I want people to be as happy in their relationships after children, as they are before. It’s so important to spend as much time with your partner as much as possible.

I provided child care for two children (18 months and 4 years old). I adore these children! …plus their parents are pretty sweet too! They insisted that I needed to be paid, but I made it very clear this was a challenge of mine. So instead of paying me, they donated $90 to the teen parent family that I am sponsoring this Christmas.

I was afraid of yesterday. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew December 13^th was due to come and I knew I would have to face the anniversary of my Dad’s death.

I remember every moment of the day. Every phone call. Everywhere I stood, sat, and finally fell to the floor sobbing. The drive to Chilliwack and the snowy roads. The phone calls I had to make and the complete veil of uncertainty and strength I knew I had to face. I remember parking the car, stepping over snow and ice and walking into the hospital.

Looking for my family members. Knowing that he died already. The hospital was waiting for me to get there to say goodbye. They needed to send his body away. There was nothing more they could do.

It was 12 days before Christmas.

That’s what happened. My mom and sister were at his bedside and he was already gone. My little brother was storming the halls and my other brothers were just sitting quietly. Processing what just happened. I had to to think of what to do next. I had to stay strong for my family. Or at least that’s what I felt I had to do.

It’s in my characteristic to make sure that everyone else is okay before letting myself feel what’s really going on. If I fell apart I wouldn’t find the logic to help me through. I focus on reason, and it’s virtually impossible when thrown into an emotionally driven situation.

I’ve had bad days in the past, and I’ve had bad days since my Dad died. Nothing compared to this. Nothing could have prepared me or comforted me. I just had to go through it.

My Dad was 50 years old and he died from cardiac arrest. My little brother was with him. At the same moment that my dad was dying my two older brothers slid off the road and drove into a ditch. They were okay.

In the past year, since my Dad’s death, I’ve also had to deal with the death of my eldest brother. Hypothermia in August. My 2^nd eldest brother was with him. He tried everything to save him, but couldn’t. A few months before Derek’s death, I lost an old friend from highschool (Jess). She committed suicide. And finally,within the past few months I’ve found out that my baby brother (who is 22) has cancer. He was in denial for a month. Or he was processing it. Either way, it took him a while to admit what was happening and start treatment. He has been going through chemo for the past 2 weeks. He is so strong and I fully support him and love him more than he knows.

So… this year has had it’s fair share of crap. I’ve had enough and I am not going to let anything else happen. To the best of my ability of course!

Everything that I’ve been through has made me stronger. I’ve grown from each experience and I’ve come to realize things about life that makes sense to me. There is a reason I smile at strangers and created a blog challenge that focuses on helping people in the community. It’s not just a challenge for me. It’s a way of life. Whenever I buy a coffee or go into the grocery store and I see someone who could use a cup of coffee or a hot meal, I never hesitate to get it for them. All the money and stuff in the world means nothing. It’s only good for here and now and it’s selfish. Unless you can use it to better the lives of other people. That’s my mission. That’s why I think everyone is here. To work together and help the people who need it.

I don’t mean going to Red Cross and donating a lump sum of money. Although I’m sure that’s fantastic and everyone should do whatever they can. But, I mean go to your local food bank and sort through their packages of food. Offer your time to help a charity. Time is valuable. People need it and sometimes you have excess so get out there and give it away.

We only take with us AND leave behind what we put in the universe. Our actions matter. Our words matter. Our thoughts matter.

I chatted, danced, played “pat-a-cake”, hugged, kissed, and then proposed marriage to my villager! Oh fun!

After which I had to find a suitable house to live in and decide what type of wedding. I bought a house in Brighwall Village. Each city had their own type of wedding ceremony. In Brightwall, the best wedding you can have is an “Academy Wedding”. Hmm… I would rather something outside!

The most expensive wedding is a “Canal Wedding” in Bowerstone Industrial. It’s a rather dire city, so I’d rather not get married there. I found a “Lake Wedding” in Millfields. Perhaps I shall marry my villager there! It will be a gorgeous, luxury ceremony in the gazebo that stands on Bower Lake. Sounds divine!

This is my first marriage in the game. I’m pretty sure that you can be married to multiple people at the same time. I am wondering… Who in their right mind would want to do that!? An upkeep and maintenance fee for all those lonely house wives/husbands (depending on who you marry of course)! Nah, one is plenty for me thanks!

The ceremonial music was lovely! Wait… what! It’s over! That’s it! $5000 and I get a 10 second marriage. Yea, I guess it’s pretty close to reality eh!

Uhh my wife wants to have sex now! She wants to procreate. I would like to know how she is going to do what with my female character!

…back to my game! I am really enjoying Fable 3. It’s a fantastic game!