Confessions of a Gaming Mom

Please Vote

2010-03-31T01:05:00.001-04:00

http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/show/submission/detail/EMQAP5

Black Friday

2009-11-26T01:39:00.001-05:00

I just have to say... I am not looking forward to Black Friday. Gotta be up early to be at work by 5:30. That is all...

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

2009-11-11T10:07:00.003-05:00

I'm not going to be reviewing Modern Warfare 2, but instead I'll just talk about the midnight release of the game and the following morning. I rarely play shooters myself, but I understand that the majority of the gaming community is. This was the most reserved game in history and it showed.

Monday night I came in to work at about 9:00pm. Two people were already there and one more was to arrive in half an hour. There were probably about 15 or 20 people already waiting outside, one of our regular customers had been there since 5:30 even though I told him to come later (he's a little slow actually). That night we were going to try and do as much work as we could in the store since we had extra people and some down time. One other associate came to get his game and have pizza with us and ended up working as well. Around 10 we started to ring people up because that's how our midnight release system works.

That was when the mayhem started.
Before midnight came along I was constantly ringing people up, at times with the help of others. While doing transactions we were all trying to price game cases from our ps2 dump bins and at the end of the night only a handful got done. At midnight people were let in a few at a time to grab their games. With the system we have people were in and out but the only problem was there were over a hundred people. We probably had about 125 pick-ups including the walk in sales. That number is only the sales though, that doesn't include all the parents and friends waiting outside.

When we got through the line of people who paid before midnight there was still another line that was almost as long. We thought we would never leave but finally around 1:00am we were counting down the registers. I finished closing the store and without even finishing the paperwork I left after 1:30am.

The next morning I woke up and did my school work, played with the baby, etc. Not a bad start to the day. I went to work at 2:30 and came in to a long line. I clocked in and helped to get the line down. Long lines were on and off all night and we had to put all the trades we got in into a box to be worked on later. It even took me two or three hours to actually eat my dinner, I didn't even finish it! I described the day to a few people as worse than black Friday. If it were black Friday we wouldn't have gotten as many trades and we'd have more than two people on at a time to help.

It did slow down towards the end of the night but we still had to clean up the store. I ended up being there probably an extra 15 minutes closing up and making sure I wasn't leaving too much for the others. Hopefully things calm down once everybody has gotten their game, then we just have to prepare for the holidays!

My Etsy Shop

2009-11-07T16:55:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to let all my readers know about my etsy shop. If you're local just let me know because I can deliver or you can pick up so there wont be a shipping fee. I print everything on etsy myself on studio quality paper.

Check out my other shop and site
http://muffinpie03.deviantart.com/store/
http://www.wix.com/muffinpie03/Portfolio2

Halloween II

2009-11-01T21:53:00.005-05:00

Halloween was really fun this year. Aiden liked going to all the houses and putting the candy in his basket. Unfortunately we had almost all of our candy left so I brought some to work and I'm going to have to start exercising with all the candy I'm going to be eating and all the good food this holiday season.

Here's a picture of me and Aiden trick or treating.

Halloween

2009-10-28T17:07:00.002-04:00

So I can't say that I'm as excited for Halloween as I was when I was little but I am really looking forward to it. Things change when you become a parent, you always want to see the smiling face of your child. I know part of the time we're going around trick or treating Aiden will be upset because we wont let him eat every piece of candy he gets, but I know he'll have fun.

Last year was ok, Aiden got pictures taken in his costume before Halloween and we went out but of course he couldn't walk or have candy yet. This year will be Aiden's first real Halloween!

We are all going as sith from the Star Wars universe. I think that my costume looks good so far, for a modified leotard from the thrift store and an old skirt, just a little more tweaking. Rob got into making custom light sabers because of a couple friends so we wont have those cheap toy ones.

I'll post pictures here of us all when everything is done or from Halloween.

Click Click

2009-10-26T08:37:00.004-04:00

My apologies for not posting in a while, I've been fighting with a topic since I haven't played any new games recently. This is going to be a short post to hold you over until I can come up with something good.

Something that people never mention when talking about gaming are flash, click, and other internet games. You would not think of the word "gamer" when talking about people who play these types of games; but with the "casual gamer" being focused on a lot more these days these people can now be called gamers. I mean... if people that play The Sims all day can be casual gamers why can't the people that play games on Pogo be?

There are a couple specific games I'd like to point out with this post. The first has been a favorite of mine for about a year now. Rob introduced me to the Bloons Tower Defense games and for a few days I was trying to clear all the levels in the third game. If you've ever played a tower defense game you know what it's about. For those of you who haven't the object of Bloons Tower Defense is to pop the balloons before they get to the end of the track. You are given different tools to do so but it takes a bit of strategy.

Bloons Tower Defense from Ninja Kiwi

The next game that I was recently introduced to is called Machinarium. This is a very stylized adventure click game from Amanita Design. In this game you lead a little robot around and solve each level. Some parts get you thinking really hard but luckily there are some hints and a mini game that helps you solve things you don't know how to.

Machinarium from Amanita Design

Check out these games and others around the web and bring out the casual gamer in you!

Maid Service?

2009-10-10T22:02:00.001-04:00

Because I work in a retail store I can respect that fact that other people have to clean up the stores. When I bring my child into a store and he pulls something down or grabs things he shouldn’t I clean it up right away, especially if it’s the store I work at because I’ll get yelled at or I’ll have to clean it up later.

I see so many people putting games in the wrong spots or watching their kids pull things off shelves. I’d much rather have people hand me a huge stack of games to put away, since I know where they go, then them leaving them in random spots around the store. It makes me way happier than it should when a young child actually puts a game away in the right spot, especially on their own. I think it’s bad enough that parent’s let their 12 year old kids come up to the store alone (we’re not a babysitting service) and they destroy it because they have no respect, but it’s so much worse when they’re with the kids and the store is being destroyed.

It’s really not hard to clean up our store if we keep up with it. Knowing your alphabet and how to vacuum can make you a great employee, which brings me to another topic: trash in the store. So many times we’ll find bottles behind the interactive or people will just leave them at the counter. It’s one thing that we have to put away the games you left half way across the store, but now we have to throw away your garbage? Awesome!

Dear ignorant people who shop at GameStop I think we need to put up a tip jar for being your maids and watching your kids…. Pay us!

School

2009-10-09T12:00:00.003-04:00

The other day I realized that I would actually have to do work for my next class. This is my fourth class so far. The second class was a little involved because I had to write a paper every week but the other two were pretty much just doing things on the computer that I already knew how to do or were incredibly easy to learn. Sometimes I’m happy that I’m taking my courses online, sometimes I’m not.

Even though I’m only taking one course at a time and I have the freedom to do the work at my own pace I still seem to get assignments in at the last minute most of the time. The two most obvious reasons are because I procrastinate and I work full time and have a young child. I’ll admit I spend a good deal of time at home on the computer, but part of that is doing school work. When I’m on the computer and not doing work I’m usually getting up often to take care of Aiden. If I were to only work on school assignments when I’m on the computer I would still have just as many distractions.

The class I’m in now, History of Art in Early Civilization, is pretty interesting. I’m not opposed to doing any of the work like I was in my English class, but I will have to do a lot of research and be involved in my assignments. My next class is Basic Math which if I need help for any reason I’ve got a math whiz by my side. The class after that is *drum roll please*…. Principles of Digital Photography! I’ll finally be taking a photography course starting January 11th!

What did/do you like or dislike about school?

No matter what life throws at us....

2009-10-07T10:04:00.002-04:00

No matter what life throws at us, we'll handle it together.

Rob just sent me a text saying just that (although he forgot to change up to us). I've been really stressed and upset lately, pretty much with my whole life. There were a couple nights in a row that I was having trouble sleeping. I'm tired of our house being a pig sty... though I've been tired of that for about 8 months. I'm tired of everything at work besides the actual work. I'm tired of not having extra money, only enough for bills, rent, sometimes food, and the occasional gift. Today I'm also literally tired.

I just want to be happy but I don't want to make the wrong decision somewhere. I've been telling a lot of people about my problems and I haven't really gotten much advice, just understanding and stories of their own. I'm hoping things settle down for me soon because I don't want to go nuts.

Katamari [Forever]

2009-09-28T14:21:00.000-04:00

If you’ve never played a katamari game you should… unless you’re epileptic. This game defines the stereotype that Japanese people are crazy when it comes to entertainment. The latest game in the series, Katamari Forever, is pretty much the same as the previous games; it’s full of bright, colorful, and very random stages.

You play as the prince of the cosmos and the goals of these games are to roll up every object you can onto your katamari ball so the king can turn them into stars and planets. The ball starts small so you can only roll up objects of a certain size but as you grab more you build up the size. In some levels the katamari even gets as big as a planet! Objects range from paperclips to farm animals to whole islands, but aren’t limited to crazy things like mermen, sumo wrestlers on unicycles, and Godzilla.

In Katamari Forever the story is that the king gets knocked on the head by a meteor and falls asleep. The prince and his cousins create a robo-king to take his place but he happens to destroy all the stars in the cosmos. The robo-king needs you to roll up katamaris so he can recreate all the stars and planets. At the same time the king has woken up but he lost his memory. You need to roll up katamaris for the king so he remembers all the objects in the universe and so he can create more stars.

In my opinion the each new katamari game has been harder than the last. Though I wouldn’t consider these games “hard” as you would a shooter or an RPG. Katamari games are more challenging because that’s what each level is; a challenge to get to a certain size or collect the most of a certain type of object. I’ve always liked these games but besides the slightly different story lines and some added features there isn’t much a difference from the first game to the current one. I give the katamari series as a whole a 7/10 for repetition, and Katamari Forever an 8/10.

Working in Retail

2009-09-24T19:03:00.001-04:00

The other day at work this one woman really got to me. A lot of people take retail jobs for granted. Mostly kids who haven’t had jobs before and the adults who never worked in a retail environment. At gamestop the kids do the obvious like leaving their empty bottles by the interactive or not putting games back where they came from. The adults can be worse than the kids though.!

You can tell when somebody had worked in retail. A lot of times they’ll say “I know how it is” or just know they respect you and your job. When somebody comes in that hasn’t worked in retail it’s even easier to tell. Some adults are just as bad with leaving games sitting in the wrong sections. They don’t realize that we actually have to clean up after them. They think all we do is stand behind the counter and ring people up or ask people if they need help.

No, we have to do physical work like doing shipment (two xbox360s are kinda heavy for a weakling like me) and inventory. We have to count down the registers at night, so when people decide to stay in the store ten minutes after we close that’s even longer before we can go home.

Now I know a lot of you know where I’m coming from. I could go on more about people that shop in my store, especially the woman from the other day, though it was partially my fault she was being a bitch. Do you guys have any particular stories or opinions on working in retail?

Photography

2009-09-18T23:50:00.003-04:00

Today I got my first digital SLR camera, probably one of the happiest days of my life. It’s a Canon EOS 50D and I love it! I have an 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm lens. So far I’ve played with it a little bit but I’ll really be able to test it out within the next few days.

I had always thought I wouldn’t know how to use an SLR camera at all but this camera is quite easy to use. I don’t have to mess with the lenses as much as I thought I would. I can adjust them to the general focal length I want them at and then the camera auto focuses by itself; I didn’t even realize SLR cameras could do that! I’m sure I’ll be fine with everything that I have now (I have the requirements that I’ll need for school) but I want to get a macro lens when I can afford it. I’ve always loved macro photography, especially flowers and insects. I love the color and detail you can get when you’re taking photos of such small things. I’d also love to be able to try out macro photography on food and other small objects.

I just recently sold my older point and shoot camera, a Canon Powershot A640. I will by no means sell my other point and shoot, it’s a great camera and for being a point and shoot it’s a little more professional. My other camera is a Canon S5 IS (yes, Canon is the only brand I buy). This camera will pretty much be the one Rob will use, although he’s already had some fun with my new SLR and he’s proven to be a pretty good photographer for not knowing anything.

I’m a bit of a photography maniac but I don’t get to take photos nearly enough. I can’t wait until I get into my photography classes in school so I will have to take more photos!

Taken with my Canon S5 IS at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ

Being a Girl.....

2009-09-16T08:22:00.006-04:00

Being a female and working at a video game store is quite interesting…. especially if you’re an attractive female. I know I’m pretty good looking (with makeup on of course) and apparently so do a decent amount of the guys that come into my store. I get hit on fairly often, most of the time it’s smiles or chatting more than necessary. Occasionally I get more than the normal flirting.

Once and older man, maybe about 40, said we could discuss what game system he should get for his kids over lunch and gave me his number. That phone number got thrown away after he left. A more recent event was when a guy that had been in earlier called the store phone to ask if he could call me some time. I was a little shocked and all I could say was “uhhhh… I’m taken…” then I couldn’t really understand what he said after that. I then proceeded to tell my co-worker and text my other co-workers, a few friends, and of course my boyfriend about it. A couple of the guys mentioned how he did just call me, so what was the point of asking? I do work with some pretty witty people! My manager likes to mention how I text him all the time about how a guy just hit on me or asked if I was seeing anybody.

A majority of the time the guys are creepy or sleazy. Sometimes I do get somebody shyer who asks about me, and then I kind of feel bad that I’m turning them down. At the same time though I get kind of puzzled as to why they think a girl that works at a video game store would be single. I’m sure there are plenty of girls that are single that work at a game store, but I would never assume. I also occasionally get the thought that it might not be safe for me working there, as I said, there are some sleazy looking guys that ask about me sometimes and my mind wonders a lot. Luckily the two and a half years I’ve been working there I’ve been perfectly safe, it’s just been more like this video, which is exactly like work (except the dancing on the counter part).

Scribblenauts

2009-09-13T21:45:00.002-04:00

Scribblenauts is a DS game that comes out on 09/15 but I got to preview it a little early. This is a really cool game, even if you just fool around in the title screen like we did in this video.

Unfortunately for us immature adults you can't use any profane words because it is geared towards the younger audience. But you can do some pretty cool things fly a plane or use a jet pack, catch a mouse with a mouse trap, or shoot a butterfly with a bazooka... you can do almost anything! Another cool thing you can do is write in time machine and when you touch/sit in it you will go back or forward in time seen in this video (not done by me and my co-worker).

If you get a chance check it out, it's definitely worth it because there are so many possibilities even when you're actually playing the puzzle modes.

Mini Ninjas Part I

2009-09-10T13:41:00.002-04:00

Getting only one boss into the game I can tell that Mini Ninjas is my type of game…. easy. I’m not that good at any game that isn’t an RPG or MMO so when I find a pretty easy game that I’ll actually be able to finish I can’t put it down. Mini Ninjas is about Hiro, the last ninja in his village that gets sent out to find all the other ninjas that never returned after searching for answers about the new evil that has risen. When you start the game there is a tutorial in the village to learn the controls. When you leave the village you have control of Hiro as well as his friend, Futo, and you collect the other ninjas along the way. Each ninja has a different specialty; Hiro’s being the ability to use Kuji magic which includes entering into an animal’s body as well as fireballs, tornadoes, and more. Using your skills you defeat the evil samurai which are actually animals that were transformed. The controls are quite easy and you are given tips at certain points to help you along the way. Since I’ve only played a little bit so far I can't really review the game fully but as soon as I get further into the game or beat it (which is rare for me) I'll post the next part.

Bad things happen in sets of.... twenty?

2009-09-07T13:00:00.001-04:00

I think that's how it is for me, one bad thing just keeps happening after another.

The other night my hand went through the glass in our bedroom window because it's so old, big clean chunk of glass. I wasn't hurt, but the fact that something in this house breaks every other day sucks. The people who own the house didn't replace or fix anything before they decided to rent it out. Luckily Rob knows the landlady so she's cool about the stuff but on the other hand they aren't in any rush to fix things when they break.

This morning I thought a had something stuck in my tooth but what I eventually pulled out was actually part of my tooth! It doesn't really hurt, it actually hurts less now that the piece isn't pushing on anything, but I need better insurance because if I were to go to the dentist I would need to get that tooth fixed up (probably pulled and a bridge put in) and other cavities filled and it would be quite expensive. I did apply for different insurance today since I'm kinda low income I might be able to get better coverage outside of work.

And lastly before going out to breakfast I went to go feed the rabbits and my poor Cowtail didn't need any food because he died. He hadn't really been eating which was very odd for him but I was not expecting him to die, I thought he would just get back to eating like a pig. I'm borrowing a shovel from my friend who's also my ex-boyfriend and I think he'll be pretty upset when he finds out why I need it.

I don't really expect this to be the end of my bad luck since it's already been pretty constant. Hopefully things will get better after my dad and brother are fully moved in.

RIP Cowtail 09/07/2009

The Hilarity of Halo

2009-09-05T20:54:00.005-04:00

A couple of days ago I came in to work and saw this toy on the counter.

Everybody I know that has come in and said something about it (including my dad) mentions how Caboose is driving. Who's Caboose you ask? Only my favorite character from the machinima web series Red vs. Blue. This series uses the Halo games and is about well... the red team versus the blue team which are both filled with VERY interesting people. The group that makes the RvB series, Rooster Teeth, has many other great videos. My new favorites are their live action shorts that involve scenarios with the crew members.
Rob and I have considered doing similar videos, but they would be more like us sitting and talking because we have some crazy conversations, like who would win in a fight, a gazelle or a mongoose? I think the latter. We also had the idea of doing the same thing with a group of our friends because when you add them in it's even crazier. Now I think that would be fun to do, and maybe attract some watchers, but I'd much rather be a part of Rooster Teeth... it's just too bad they're so far away! The closest I have gotten is having a few of their t-shirts and my manager getting Matt and Joel's autographs for me at the GameStop manager's conference this past week (you're the best Bill!). Right now I will say I am pretty satisfied with just watching videos and participating in the awesome comunity on the RT website. Check it out, you'll love it! redvsblue.com or roosterteeth.com

Told ya he's my favorite character!

Monster Hunter

2009-09-02T11:23:00.004-04:00

One game that I was recently introduced to is Monster Hunter. A couple months ago the latest game in the series was released and I had it reserved because I gave in after being pestered to play. It’s a great game and it’s something I can pick up after not playing it for a while. There’s no intricate story line and you don’t level. You just kill monsters and make/upgrade you armor and weapons. The only thing you really need to play monster hunter is patience. Luckily I have some! Because you kill monsters over and over to make your new weapons it can get a little tedious. After killing a Kut-Ku seven times in a row just to make a new sword you might want to turn the game off for a while. The quests have simple instructions; you’ll hunt/slay, slay, or collect items, and because you don’t level it’s more about you equipment and learning the patterns of the monsters. Monster Hunter isn’t for everyone of course, but in my opinion it’s about a 9/10.

Wobbly Walking and World of Warcraft

2009-09-01T19:06:00.000-04:00

Aiden has been fully walking for about a month now, maybe a little less. At first, probably like any other baby, he would walk a few steps then get down and crawl to get where he wanted. Now he prefers to walk and I rarely see him crawling. He doesn't get into anything more than he did before like a lot of people said he would. In fact, Aiden walking actually helps us out more. Besides it being more fun to play with him and him hugging our legs when he sees us, we can tell when he's tired. Not that it was hard to tell before, but again, probably like any other baby, he gets very wobbly when he's tired. He bumps into things and falls over for no reason, but in the morning or after a good nap he walks just as well as you and I.

Now while Aiden is running around like a madman (or making a mess of his dinner like he is right now) I'm either doing school work, surfing the web, or playing a game. Lately it's been World of Warcraft, though soon I'll be playing some other stuff. I'm not addicted to WoW like the stereotypical player.... ok so I am right now, but for me it's actually a way to spend quality time with my boyfriend. It sounds pretty sad, but thankfully it's not the only thing we ever do. Playing together is pretty nice because our computers are right next to each other and we can just relax and chat about how our day was. I don't play alone very often but when I do it's mostly just killing things for experience of selling things to make money. I try not to do the quests alone because that's what we do together. Hopefully I'll start playing a new game tomorrow and I'll post my thoughts on it within the next couple days.

Hello World!

2009-08-31T14:02:00.000-04:00

So I've wanted to make a blog for a while... well a serious one. That means putting time and effort into it. I could never really think of anything to write about besides the things that go on in my life. The two major things are being a mom and gaming. I don't think I would be able to write a blog on either subject alone, but writing about both should give me enough content to have a steady blog.
I work at a video game store, but I don't play a whole lot of video games. I'm going to try to start playing more, but if I don't have specific games to write about I can still always write about gaming because of work and the other people that play games at home.
There will always be something about being a mom that I can write about, but it might only be a sentence or two. That's why I need to be more active in mother hood. How? By reading other mommy blogs, testing out products, and of course being more involved with my family.
I live with my boyfriend Rob, and our son Aiden. My dad and brother are going to be moving in with us for a year, so it's going to be a full house! I work full time and I go to college part time online for my bachelor's in photography. When I'm not doing either of those things I'm spending time with my family, so I'm always pretty busy.
I look forward to blogging about my passions and hearing you comments!

Shannon