gaming

November Gratitude: Year 2/ Week 2

/ Shannon Paige / 3 Comments

Listening now…

If you missed week 1 gratitude, start here.

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This week I’m grateful for….

New opportunities.

I got invited to attend a work fundraiser (and work it) and I am not going to lie, I didn’t want to go at first. Mainly because it was a week night (lol) and I am normally very busy with school work and other things during the week. My work friend convinced me to go and looking back I am really glad I did!

This was an event where you could “walk the red carpet” with the non profit agency I work with. The idea behind the event was to debut a documentary that was made about the clients we help (with the clients actually in the movie- many of whom work for the agency now) and tickets sold at the door benefit our programs.

I felt honored to be there and had a great time- it was also really cool to see my logo that I made for it featured on each photo taken on the red carpet!

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We also had the opportunity to throw a group for the teens we work with and baked apple pies and crisps and made thankful trees.

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thankful tree

It was really cute to see what the kids wrote and to teach them to appreciate gratitude…

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A few different kids wrote our agency on their leaves and our shelters that we run, which was really cute to see.

New Sims games!

Sims 4 cats and dogs came out this Friday and of course I made a Molly already!

It’s really well done and you can even create mixed breeds, so I created her Chihuahua- Papillon mix.

I am thinking about doing another A Sim Story series  but with the cats and dogs expansion pack.  (And I would actually continue with it this time….)

Let me know what you think!

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My Sim version of Molly acts like a goofball like real life Molly.

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A weekend to relax and getting back to routines…

Being an introvert,  I am pretty excited to have a little time “off” from having many plans.

The last few weeks were really fun with Halloween, a busy family wedding, and the work event and group. But I am kind of excited to have a few weeks that aren’t as busy for a little while until the holidays come! This weekend I had a lot of down time which included a lot of Sims time.

Getting back to routines is good, too… that includes going to the gym and back to my spin, zumba, and yoga classes. I haven’t gone in a few weeks and I feel the difference in my body, especially in how tense my shoulders are.

What are you grateful for this week ?

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Currently in March

/ Shannon Paige / 12 Comments

Listening now…

March has been a busy month! Honestly, I have been very busy lately and that is why I have not had as much time for blogging.

I did not even get to a “Currently” post in February. Check out my last Currently in January post to see what I was up to back then…

But if you live anywhere where this Nor’easter Stella storm hit, then you may be like me, and currently dealing with this…

#Sorearms #3feetandabove

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Currently doing…

I am currently doing a million things at once right now, hence why blogging is once a week at the moment, here’s why! 🙂

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Birthday celebrations for a friend were had this weekend!I left my house, hooray!

School:

Right now I am working towards an Animals & Public Policy certificate which is very focused on Animal law, Policies affecting animal laws, nonprofit administration, etc. I am still figuring school out but I think this is what I am really feeling- the skills needed to work in the animal nonprofit world- I hope! I am also considering a masters in Nonprofit Administration and would like to take both the certificate and classes for that, but school is a ton of work, time, money, etc. It is very hard to go back to school once you are working full time and paying loans and other bills- hoping I will figure this out slowly but surely…:)

Vacation Planning:

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Frankie and I are planning a big trip (his first time out of the country) and we are seriously looking at Santorini, Greece.  Guys, I have wanted to go to Greece ever since I saw the first Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie which was filmed there. (Which was actually filmed in Santorini) We are waiting for his vacation time to be approved before we can book, but we are stoked! Has anyone reading this been? If so- recommendations?!

Awesome reasons to travel to Greece: (Based on my research)

  • Safe to travel to
  • Economically struggling at the moment, so cheaper goods
  • Exploring ruins! Right up my alley… so much history and things to learn here.
  • The scenery-the cliffs, beaches and blue water, blue rooftops in Santorini, the food, sunsets of Oia (or so I’ve read…)
  • Amazing Greek hospitality is something I have read a lot about
  • Greek food!
  • Greeks love to celebrate life

Time to start learning Greek language….

Currently watching…

This is Us.

I promise you you will not be disappointed. Every single episode I cry. That good-hearty, damn I needed that-type of cry. I think it comes down to the show being about the core of family, love, loss, meaning of life, and purpose. It’s just so good, you have to watch it for yourself!

Currently reading…

When I do have free time, I have been reading…

I am not as obsessed with this book and have been taking longer to get through it than when I read my recent faves, “Behind Closed Doors,” “The Memory Box,” and “It Ends with Us.”

It’s good so far and follows the story of an ex couple, recently divorced, whose daughter Anna goes missing.  I have not gotten very far but it seems to shift between their lives and search for her and the kidnappers vague story of taking her…

Currently playing…

I recently picked up a Nintendo 3 ds with my Amazon gift care and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I used to have this game and played obsessively, then sold my ds because I needed money at the time, then immediately regretted it and missed checking on my town and my villagers. (I realize I am strange, by the way) Plus there has been an update since then that allows you to scan cards into the game with certain villagers and you can ask them to move into your town.

Anyway, I have been reconnected with AC New Leaf!

For those of you who don’t know, Animal Crossing has been around for awhile. I used to play back when I had a gamecube…

It is a game where you control your town as mayor and work to make it better- creating new public works projects and ordinances and meeting and creating relationships with your villagers (who happy to be really cute animals who talk to you.)  You can work on your house-paying off your loans and decorating, earning money to do these things by catching bugs, fish, and shaking trees for fruit and selling them. The seasons change in the game too, and there are frequently events and holidays, following real world time.

Does anyone out there play?

I also want to pick up Pokemon Moon…

What have you been up to this March?Share with me!

A Sim Story: Part 2

/ Shannon Paige / 5 Comments

Listening now…

Well, have you been wondering what’s been going on inside the world of my Sims? If you missed part 1 of Sergio, Luna, and Aurora’s life story read that first. 

Well, we moved into a new little house in good old Oasis Springs. Right on the creek which is beautiful because you can hear the creek and the summer sounds!

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Aurora has been loving gardening at the new house and we recently got our hands on a “UFO” seed- in Sim world, this means an “Unidentified fruit object” and is supposed to be a very alien looking plant. Apparently they are supposed to be hard to acquire, but we somehow just had one in our inventory- my Sim must have picked it up without me noticing.

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The very beginnings of the UFO fruit.

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Growth!

In work life, Sergio got promoted to Detective! This is only about level 4 of the career track I believe, so he still has some opportunity for advancement.

He has been loving arresting people more than ever and gets paid more to do it now.

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Aurora and Sergio love to get alone time after they put Luna to bed…and celebrations were definitely in order the night Sergio got his Detective promotion!

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They have been enjoying fishing right behind the new house too and we hope to have a whole room of different fish!

 

 

In other news, Luna’s birthday is coming up and she will turn from a toddler to a child soon! We are debating on having another baby soon, but I just don’t think Sergio and Aurora are ready yet…

Plus, they still have to plan their wedding…sometimes they just don’t want to think about it all!

 

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Must keep date night going…. #Karaoke

 

That is about all for now, but there will definitely be more Sim story to come!

Any ideas where we should have the wedding?

Stay tuned…

 

 

A Sim Story…

/ Shannon Paige / 10 Comments

Listening now…

 

 

 

Meet Sergio and Luna Roman.

They live in Oasis Springs, where summer never ends. Ahhhhhh. Oh wait, summer never ends in Sims anyway, does it?

I digress….

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Widowed dad, Sergio struggles to maintain the balance between his Detective life and his dad life. But those hugs when he gets home will always be worth it. 

Especially when your job can be this tough…

He does love interrogating Sims though and bribing them with candy bars until they confess. He gets no better joy in life… besides spending time with his daughter.

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Being a single dad can definitely be hard. And put you in a bad mood at times…

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But time spent together is just priceless.

 

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It was just Sergio and Luna for  a long time… Sergio was still healing from the death of his wife and mother of Luna. He was afraid to let anyone into his and especially into Luna’s life.

 

That is until Aurora came along…

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They met at the Spice festival. Sergio got a babysitter because he needed a night off and needed to try some new dishes! And Aurora went by herself to get some spicy food to remind her of her home land, India.

He wasn’t expecting to meet his next love…

He was not expecting to fall in love with a Secret agent with the “Villian” life aspiration, either….what kind of detective dates a wannabe villain?! He puts sims like this behind bars daily…

It’s okay, he won’t tell…he couldn’t possible put her away. Away from him- and Luna.

A first date turned into a 2nd and a 3rd and it was…magical.

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She was great with Luna, too.

When they met she had the “hates children” trait, but that’s nothing a little Sims cheat can’t fix to put a happy little family together! Time to play God…

 

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Things were going well. 

 

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So well, in fact, that he had decided to propose! He was ready to make them a family.

They already felt like it!

He was nervous as hell, though.

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She had no idea….

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I get this excited for food and martini, too.

 

He couldn’t wait any longer. Before desert even arrived, he popped the question.

(Thanks for desert waiter, but not so much thanks for photo bombing our engagement picture….)

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Success! 🙂

 

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What will come of Aurora and Sergio’s little family? 

Stay tuned… 🙂

 

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Gaming Wishlist

/ Shannon Paige / 8 Comments

Listening now…

 

So I have been slacking on the blog this week, mainly because I had my final test for my class [got an 87!] I will be finishing out the class with at least an A. Woohoo!

 

On another thankful note, I just reached 150 followers on here!

Thank you to anyone that reads what I write and follows along 🙂

 

I recently did a post about Games on the watch: Tacoma– that game is not out yet, but I wanted to write about a few games that are out and that I have been lusting over.

 

Here is my current Gaming Wishlist. When I buy these games and play them I will be sure to write about them and share my thoughts on them.

 

If you are emerged in the gaming world at all right now, you have probably seen the abundance of survival and exploration type games out right now. Personally, I have played The Long dark– and loved it. That pretty much set off my interest in finding more survival type games. If you would like to hear my experience on that game, let me know!

 

With this post- maybe I can break down a few for you that I have researched myself and watched people play online that I definitely think will be worth the buy. 

Firewatch:

 

I have been wanting this game since I watched the first Let’s play on youtube. Anyone else watch Let’s plays of games they want?

Watch the trailer here:

 

 

Firewatch is a mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness, where your only emotional lifeline is the person on the other end of a handheld radio.

The year is 1989.

You are a man named Henry who has retreated from your messy life to work as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. Perched atop a mountain, it’s your job to find smoke and keep the wilderness safe.

An especially hot, dry summer has everyone on edge. Your supervisor, a woman named Delilah, is available to you at all times over a small, handheld radio—and is your only contact with the world you’ve left behind.

But when something strange draws you out of your lookout tower and into the world below, you’ll explore a wild and unknown environment, facing questions and making interpersonal choices that can build or destroy the only meaningful relationship you have.

 

Besides the intriguing and suspenseful storyline, the graphics are really realistic and beautiful to look at.

 

Along with the wilderness exploration type gameplay I find intriguing, it has some of the point, click, and exploring objects you can pick up along the way aspect that I loved so much about Gone Home and Life is Strange– which I wrote about here. 

 

Stranded Deep:

 

 

This game has a Cast Away vibe to it. You get stranded on an island as a plane crash survivor somewhere off the Pacific Ocean.

It’s up to you from there.

Watch the trailer here:

 

I have to admit- I am a little scared of the sharks in this game. They seem to come out quite a bit from what I have seen.

 

Just like Firewatch, the graphics make the game very realistic, adding to the feeling and imagination of actually being there.

 

 

The game is so much like Cast Away, that  apparently Wilson even found his way there…

 

Homesick:

 

 

You may know if you follow my blog that I love exploring and photographing abandoned places. I have a continuing series about it on here. 

So when I found this game Homesick online, a game where the idea is to walk around an abandoned house and find out what happened [ also pretty similar to Gone Home- except, this place is actually abandoned. ] Needless to say- I was so excited.

 

Watch the trailer here:

 

Taken from Steam’s website:

Explore an abandoned building, encountering puzzles and clues as the story unfolds. You seem to have been there so long that direct sunlight is blindingly bright, at home in the serene but foreboding atmosphere. When you sleep, you are plagued by nightmares, frantically running down hallways chased by darkness, an axe in hand.

Find the remnants of the building’s inhabitants to discover who you are, what happened, and what you need to do, as you try to escape in both your nightmares and the waking world.

Homesick is a puzzle exploration mystery game with a first person perspective, in a richly detailed and atmospheric 3D environment.

 

 

 

 

This game has puzzles involved as well, which I think I would enjoy. I recently got on a Nancy Drew kick where I was playing through most of the games offered on steam, so I love a good puzzle game.

I can’t wait to delve into these games and share my experiences….!

 

Which game would you like to play?

Games on the watch: Tacoma

/ Shannon Paige / 6 Comments

 

I’m releasing a new series on my blog called “Games on the watch,” where I’ll chat about games coming out that I will be trying once they are released.

 

A little while ago I introduced gaming to my blog. I talked about my 2 most favorite games of all time Gone Home and Life is strange.

 

The makers of Gone Home are releasing Tacoma spring 2017, but the release date is still not available. Originally they were going to release it this year, but it seems it has been delayed.

 

Like Gone Home, it is a story exploration adventure like series, where you can walk around, pick up objects, and use them as clues to uncover more of the story. My favorite kind of games!

 

The game is set in space, in the year 2088. You work in a space station called Tacoma and come into your first day of work to find your crew all missing. Like Gone Home, you are trying to find out why and where they have gone. Unlike Gone Home, you are in the future instead of in the 90’s. So you won’t have the nostalgia aspect of picking up 90’s paraphernalia, but will be picking up objects you may have to figure out a little… new technology we have never seen. So that will be interesting!

Check out the trailer here:

 

 

Check out the first 5 minutes of early gameplay:

 

 

I  can’t wait!

 

What do you guys think of Tacoma so far?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diary of a Gamer: Part 1

/ Shannon Paige / 30 Comments

 

 

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Listening now…


I have been wanting to introduce gaming to my blog for awhile now, so here we go.

 

I am a huge fan of gaming ever since I was 7 years old and immersed myself into the world of The Sims. I still play, but don’t have nearly as much time to as I used to. I told you guys I was a big introvert, right?….[A letter from your introverted [hermit] friend]

My favorite games to play ever are point and click adventure games, where you explore a world of your own and the objects within it lead to the story unfolding.

Two of my absolute favorite games of all time do this so perfectly- Gone Home and Life is Strange. 

There are just some games that leave you thinking about them for a long time after, maybe even forever. These two games had stories that made you feel, like a really good book that you sink into.

Not only that, but they are both beautifully made. 

Even if you are not a gamer, I think you can still appreciate the art in the games.

Gone Home

Gome Home–

 

June 7, 1995. 1:15 AM.

“You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something’s not right. Where is everyone? And what’s happened here?

Gone home is an interactive exploration simulator. Interrogate every detail of a seemingly normal house to discover the story of the people who live there. Open any drawer and door. Pick up objects and examine them to discover clues. Uncover the events of one family’s lives by investigating what they’ve left behind.”

Go home again.

 

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The game is so well made, you feel like you are physically there, in the rooms of the house.

 

I sat up for hours exploring every little nook and cranny of the house, trying to find out where everyone had gone.

The other awesome aspect to this game is it takes place in 1995, and me being a 90’s kid, some of the things I found in the house really brought me back- I felt like I could relate to the game and that, for me, added even more to the personal feeling I got from it.

I am also thrilled because Fullbright Company, the makers of Gone Home, are releasing another adventure exploration style game this year, called Tacoma. 

Check that out here: Tacoma

As for Gone Home, no spoilers- you will just have to play for yourself.

Life is Strange

Welcome to the world of Chloe and Max. Best friends who lost touch for awhile and came back together at the perfect time, when Max discovers her powers to rewind and fast forward time.  Using this, they set out to find out about the many strange things going on in their town of Arcadia Bay.

With 5 episodes that build onto each other and differ depending on what choices you make in the game, there is plenty of time to get you hooked. And it is yet another game that I think is just stunning to look at. 

“Life Is Strange is a five part episodic game that sets out to revolutionise story based choice and consequence games by allowing the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future.”

Life is Strange

Like Gone home, you pick up random objects and explore areas of the game, building onto the story.

I also love the relatable aspect of this game too, I felt like I was physically back in high school at times [which can be as scary as it sounds in some parts] but also really nostalgic.

Another aspect I love is Max keeps a journal and writes in it regularly as the story progresses, and you can explore that, too. You can also take photographs and regularly receive text messages to read.

I have also been really enjoying seeing the fan art that is made to honor these games:

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I hope that even if you are not a gamer, maybe this shed some light on just how beautiful of an experience they can be… XOXO

Thanks for reading!