(That's totally my Froglok Conjuror's catch phrase.)

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I've posted anything. It's not like I've been slacking, either…I've put in enough hours on a recent corporate project to warrant browsing for a laptop of my very own. Yvria, my Weaponsmith in EQ2, hit level 80 last week. Kharri, my Carpenter, finished her crafter epic yesterday. I'm steadily leveling up my combat jobs in Free Realms, one at a time. My Animal Crossing: City Folk town is still chugging along, and I log in daily to keep all my flowers watered and stuff.

With the weather changing from summer to fall, I've had a fibro flare-up or two that's slowed me down for a few days. Right now I'm suspicious of some intense coughing fits I've been having recently. If I feel myself passing away, I'll let everyone know well in advance. No, you can't have my stuff. :p

I've decided to move my guild's website from Dragonfly CMS to WordPress, since I've been really getting into making new themes lately. I'm even seriously considering making a WordPress port of Roster Master as a plugin, but we'll see how that goes when I have more time to concentrate on it.

I'm designing an AION website for an ex-EQ2 sig artist friend. It's going to be way cool and will be launching before the game is released later this month. The AetherNet — keep an eye on it!

I made this today on a whim…just had a picture in my head and wanted to try to recreate it. It's 1680×1050 (widescreen), but if you'd like a different size, let me know.

Bunny Day in Animal Crossing: City Folk was this past Sunday, and it was a hoot. From Zipper T. Bunny (the obviously underpaid and insincerely enthusiastic mascot) in front of Town Hall to the gazillions of bunny eggs he'd buried around town, it was easily an all-day event. I found great relief in the fact that each player in each town has his or her own "set" of bunny eggs to find, and the locations of remaining eggs change every time you login, making it easier to find those you may have missed before.

In the spirit of being festive — you all know how much I looove to be festive! — I redid my second floor bedroom in the Godawful so-cute-it's-hideous Egg furniture series (or is it a set? I get them confused!). Clockwise from top left, we have the Egg Wardrobe, Egg Toy Set, Egg Bench, Egg Lamp, Egg Table, Egg Chair, Egg Clock, Egg Dresser, Egg Stereo, and Egg Bed, all of which is complemented by the Egg Wall and Egg Floor. EGG!!

It was a load of fun, and that's no yolk. (*bah-dum-ching*)

Here I am in my Leprechaun design with the Shamrock Hat that Nintendo sent me in the mail this morning. Also pictured is the Isiston town flag, featuring the heavenly visage of Princess Isis herself!

So I realized after fiddling with AC:WW for a day or two that I had totally deluded myself about the ability to visit myself cross-platform. The truth: By using the DS's "Download Play" feature, I can pack a "DS Suitcase" and take my Wii character on the move. I just have to remember to come back when I'm finished; otherwise, I'll lose everything I've earned on the Wii. Tabula rasa FTL.

No matter how hard I try, I can't do anything along the lines of DS to Wii play…only Wii to DS, and that's only temporary. I have to say, though, it is kinda cool that the Wii and DS can find each other in "the cloud" so easily. No flaming hoops required, just click and go.

I won the big fishing tournament in WW yesterday with a 45.5" sea bass. I got a nice trophy from the mayor in the mail this morning as well as an announcement on the town bulletin board. The AC fishing tourney is this Saturday, but it's for a specific fish, so that'll be interesting.

As promised, I'm including a little pic of my AC character! On the Wii, I'm Angela from Isiston, and my friend code is 2621-8145-4501; on the DS, I'm Mona from Mimiburg, and my friend code is 0474-3487-3779.

Today I'm expecting Animal Crossing: Wild World [Flash alert] for the DS to arrive, and I'm pretty excited about it. Not only will I have a portable town to occupy me at all hours, but I'll be able to visit myself cross-platform. How much fun is that?!

I also ordered the Wii microphone, I guess so I can talk to myself. :p Nah, I'm actually hoping my mom (who will be 61 this year!) will get into it and we can visit each other…I think she'll have fun with it too. Another goodie arriving today is a memory card so I can save (and transfer) screenshots. No more nekkid AC posts!

Can you tell I finally got paid?

This week, I've been entirely addicted to Animal Crossing: City Folk. Believe it or not, my EQ2 game time has taken a serious downturn because of this cutesy little number. I know you folks have heard me mention my love for tedium and my OCD tendencies in relation to this game before, but wow, I think even I underestimated its potential power over me.

Isiston's "town fruit" is the peach. Damn peach trees are all over the place, to the exclusion of all else, except some cedars here and there. I've taken to shaking down a half dozen or so and randomly mailing them out to the NPC townsfolk, praying all the while that my dumb "A peach for a peach!" and "You're just peachy!" letters — and their attached gift — will earn me another type of fruit. So far, it's paid off: I've gotten 1 apple and 2 oranges, which of course were both immediately planted and watered thoroughly. I did finally have a coconut wash up on the beach the other day too, so I have an almost-mature coconut palm. Just need some cherries and pears, and I'll have it made!

I've also found out that my NPC neighbors apparently like receiving mail from me, and I bet the attached peaches don't hurt. I've turned around two "friendships" already, and I intend to keep fishing for foreign fruit, so I'll have more BFFs than I can shake a stick at in no time.

I'm also on my third(?) house upgrade; I now have two floors, plus the attic, and a hefty mortgage to match. I have an idea of the kind of "feel" I want my house to have, and it's taking me a while to find the right types of furniture to fill up all the space I've got now… Wish I had that problem in real life. :p

I'm hopping in and out of the game most days, and if anyone else out there in blog-reader-land is playing, I'd be happy to trade friend codes so we can visit each other!

I finally got around to trying out Animal Crossing: City Folk today. Peter gave it to me for Yule and promised that it was right up my alley. Somehow I've managed to put it off until now, and I have to say that I'm sorry I did.

As far as the art style goes, the game is incredibly cute. Everything is made of geometric shapes of various sizes, but it doesn't act as simple as it looks. If you run into a tree, it shakes; if you slam your insect-catching net down in the water, it splashes. Fish are swimming teardrop-shaped shadows in the river and ocean, but have distinctly different appearances if you happen to hook one and reel it in. The NPCs have unique personalities, speech patterns,  and home-decorating styles. Their "speech" is a kind of sped-up, garbled mash of what sounds like both Japanese and English, and while it was a little annoying at first, it did grow on me.

I visited the museum's coffee shop for the first time, and lo and behold, there was a musician warming up for his gig, apparently just waiting for me to arrive! When I took my seat to listen to his song, I was very pleasantly surprised and overcome with a Cute Overload moment when he started "singing" and playing a ragtime tune while the game's credits scrolled up the other side of the screen. I almost exploded with the adorableness of it all. The best part was that he gave me a recording of that song to play in my (in-game) house — although I'd love to get an MP3 of it somewhere and crank it out in my actual house.

One neat thing about this game is that it operates in real time; if it's 12:12am on Sunday, February 14, 2009, in the real world, that's what time it is in-game. Unfortunately, that's also one of the bad things about this game. The shops close at 10:00pm and 11:00pm, so all I was doing from 11:00pm to midnight was wandering around the town uprooting and replanting flowers. The NPC townsfolk didn't have anything for me to do at that late hour, and even the insects had all gone to bed. I had to save and exit because there was literally nothing for me to do!

That being said, I can see myself logging in daily to see what's going on in my little village of Isiston (yes, I named it after one of the guinea pigs), although I can't imagine spending the long hours — at all hours — playing it that I do with EQ2.