Way back when, my little brother, Porter, was a video games editor and writer for Amazon.com. Part of his job was to play all the new video games that were coming out and he would write about them on Amazon. With that said, Porter had every video games system on the market, as well as all the latest and greatest games to go with them.  He also had a built in excuse when his wife would get a bit perturbed with the amount of time he spent playing said video game, “But honey, it’s my job!”.  I remember he and I talking about this when my family was visiting his home for one of the first times. The story came out as he was setting up my then, 4 year old son with some video games to play with while we were there.

At the time I remember chuckling at the convenience of that excuse…oh how the tables have turned! Porter no longer works for Amazon, and probably only plays video games when he and my son are together…but I, on the other hand, find myself frequently using his “convenient excuse” whenever I want to read rather than do laundry, dishes, or other household chores! OK, Po, the shoes is on the other foot, you can start kicking me with it. LOL! Love ya lil brother!

Scarlet Soulsearcher

This is my alter-ego! LOL (“laughing out loud” in “text-speak”)

My darling son, David, loves to watch Cartoon Network.  One night while watching “Total Drama Island” (think a cartoon spoof of Survivor with teenagers – it’s hysterical!) I watched a commercial for an online game called “Wizard 101″.  Loving anything along those lines (fantasy/sci-fi), I had to check it out.

https://www.wizard101.com/site/home2/wizard101/page_8ad6a4041aa7b7bd011ac6f9ae9805fe;jsessionid=87E46546466195C2EE12B86F86B5E80D

Here is the deal…it’s free to get started.  You take a test (or skip it if you want) and you are assigned to a school of magic.  I was assigned to the Storm school.  You are given quests and a deck of cards for your school.  As you progress through the quests you gain experience and level up.  At certain levels you are given more spells for your card deck which is what you use to battle.  And at other points you are given training points to spend on spells in other schools.

As you progress through the free areas you win various clothing and/or weapons which effect your character’s health and spell casting abilities.  You can also determine how much you like the game and can then choose if you want to access the subscription areas.  There are two ways to access the subscription areas…you can buy a 1, 6, or 12 month subscription or you can pay a one-time access fee to each pay area which you will forever have access to.

David and I started playing before Christmas and it’s one of the things that we really enjoy doing together.  He helps me on my quests even though he is level 17 and I am level 36.  I go and help him on his quests also.  We’ve also made friends through the game that we enjoy playing with…we work together as a team and chat while doing battle with the bad guys.  We’ve had a ton of fun and I wanted to share it with you all.  It’s fun for your youngsters ages 10-110!

And if you are so inclined and are a “Survivor” fan, you should check out “Total Drama Island” on Cartoon Network…it’s a riot!

The day after Christmas, instead of shopping with the masses, I decided to try out Guitar Hero.  I watched David and thought, “How tough could it be?”.  Well, I went through the tutorial and it was a lot harder than I thought it was!

In fact, I was PATHETIC.  I couldn’t get the timing down to save my life.  Now, understand, I’ve been playing the flute off and on for over 30 years.  I have an impeccable sense of timing if I do say so myself.  And it was killing me to be so “off” on this freakin game!!!  I even called Porter to tell him what a loser I was!!!

Tonight, instead of watching the History Channel with the hubby, or watching David build with his Legos, I decided to sneak upstairs and play the Wii.  Guitar Hero was already set up so I decided to give it a try. I struggled through, “Talk Dirty to Me”, “Slow Hand”, and “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”…not doing very well.  I was about to give up completely when David and Brian walked in…OH GREAT! AN AUDIENCE!  I tried Foghat again and totally rocked it out scoring 97% correct!  YEAH!  Then it was on to Poison…92%!  By now, it’s really clicking and my finger are moving across the frets!!  So I try Ms. Benatar and get 87%…HALLELUJA!!!  I can finally move past this phase and try some other music.  I proceeded past the next 2 phases and am now officially rocking the UK!  Ahhhh!!!!  It’s so good when a plan comes together.

I finally had to put it down…I am too tired!  The brain was no longer communicating with the fingers at it’s usual lightning fast pace!  I will continue my quest for GOD-HOOD tomorrow after the laundry!