So after about 3 times of that, I finally pulled out Sim City Societies. I bought this quite a while ago for $10 off Amazon. Reviews for this game were pretty bad, and that fact that it was only $10 a few months after being released is never a good sign. When I first put the game in after buying it all that time ago, I couldn’t get into it. Mostly, I was just in a Sims phase and didn’t feel like it at the time. But also for some bloody reason they decided to make the navigation tools fucked up beyond belief in Societies. I do not understand why they would stray so far from previous Sim Cities in this regard. It’s just awkward. I have to use the arrow keys to pan, which drives me nuts because I’m used to right clicking with the mouse and dragging. And the zoom is ridiculous. You can’t zoom out very far at all. And unless you’re turned a certain way on the map, the edges of your city get hidden. Whoever designed this aspect of the game should be fired.

Anyway, despite all that, I got over it a little bit this weekend and actually tried to play past the tutorial. And it’s actually quite fun! Ridiculously different than any previous version of Sim City, but I knew that going in. I really miss zones. Placing every single house gets a little bit old. But I like placing individual work places and venues. (The combination of this is of course City Life, haha!) The graphics are cute, and the variety of the buildings is entertaining. So far I’m just loving creating areas that produce lots of spirituality. I made a totally cool Amish-like area in my city yesterday. LOL.

If I wasn’t at work procrastinating, I would show a picture. Maybe I’ll add it later.

The other thing I’ve been eating up all my free time with is reading Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter novels. Oh these are so much fun! Haha. They’re a little silly, and I say that mostly because the endings are all over-the-top happily-ever-after for the main characters involved. And they’re all very similar in that regard. But man these things are entertaining to read! I absolutely love the world she’s set up. Vampires and Greek mythology? HOW FUN! I just finished reading Seize the Night. And I’m already super stoked to read Acheron’s book, but I’ve got a few more before that one. So yeah, that’s my guilty pleasure as of late. If I could spend the entire day just reading these books, I’d be happy.

In other news, I still hate work. Maybe it’s the time of year and the fact that I’m preoccupied with other stuff. Maybe I just need a serious career change. Which is scary, because I’ve never had thoughts like that before. I’m just sick to death of what I’m doing right now. It doesn’t interest me anymore. It might also be just that I haven’t had any new and interesting projects fall into my lap in several months. Whatever it is, I’m struggling to make it through the eight hours every day big time. Last week, I didn’t show up until 10am a couple times. I should be grateful I can get away with bullshit like that. Sigh.

Countdown to a 2-week Christmas break starts now. It won’t be long enough, it never is, but it will be something.

Anyway, BREAKING DAWN. If you haven’t read it, just stop reading this post now. I’m going to talk about spoilers, so last chance to get out.  I managed to avoid all spoilers about the book, and I’m incredibly glad I did.  It was very, very tough for me to avoid all Breaking Dawn topics on the internet, so I’m quite proud of myself.

I never in a million years thought the book would take the turn it did with introducing Renesmee. I didn’t know how SM was going to handle turning Bella into a vampire, because I didn’t believe Edward would do it willingly under normal no-stress circumstances, no matter what deal he made with Bella.  But I must admit, this was a good turn of events!  To be honest, I also didn’t think he would have sex with Bella while human, and that was a humorously pleasant surprise as well.

I will say, somewhere along the way during Jacob’s book I figured Bella was going to have a girl and Jacob was going to imprint on her. It fit in perfectly, and finally I got to stop being annoyed with Jacob. I still haven’t checked out the internet’s opinions on this yet, and I VERY much wonder what all the Jacob fanatics think of this! Do you guys like the fact that he didn’t end up with Bella and ended destined for her daughter instead?

I LOVE IT. This is one of my favorite parts of the book, to be honest.  And I want a sequel about Jacob and Renesmee badly now.  The idea brought forth here is actually a similar plot (a bit anyway) brought up in the Black Jewels Trilogy. Man destined to be with a very unique individual, who is just a young thing when the meet.  I just find the whole idea interesting, and I want to know what it will be like in a few years when Renesmee is older.

Overall, I found Breaking Dawn ridiculously satisfying. Just happy-ending galore. Even a happy middle! I was glad we got a real good heavy dose of Edward and Bella happiness, and it seems like such a good spot to end the series. Well, Bella and Edward’s series anyway, with them as the main focus. I must know what happens in the future with Jacob and Renesmee.

Bella turning into a vampire was funny. Before Breaking Dawn, I thought more than I didn’t that somehow SM was going to find a way out of turning Bella into a vamp. I was dreading that big time. SUCH A RELIEF. And her super-power! How brilliant! Should have seen that being it, but I totally didn’t.

Okay, I think that’s all the gushing I have for today. There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like about the book, but then, as I’ve said before, I’m rarely critical of entertaining stories.

I finished Eclipse this weekend.  Good. God.  What else can I say about that series?  HOW, no really, HOW am I going to wait until August to read the last one?  I can only imagine the torture my patience would have had to endure if I read all the books when they first came out.  I’m completely in love with that series and I cannot stop gushing over it.

I began reading The Host, and it’s quite interesting so far!  I also started another Vampire series (LOL), the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books by Laurell K. Hamilton.  I read the first book, Guilty Pleasures, after Twilight, while waiting for New Moon and Eclipse to arrive in the mail.  I very much enjoyed this book as well!  It reminds me more of Buffy than any other vampire verses I’ve come across.  And the main character raises zombies for a living.  Very entertaining.

So I’ve ordered the next few books in that series (it’s a long one, started in early 1990s and up to like 16 so far).  The first ones all get great reviews on Amazon, but toward the middle-end, they start getting horrible reviews—which is interesting.  But I’ll probably read them anyway and still like them.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people are just more finicky about entertainment than I am.  I’m not too picky when it comes to books and movies.  TV shows either, as long as they’re scripted–I generally do not support reality shows and think they are killing TV.  Except America’s Next Top Model.  Guilty pleasure.

Anyway, what a lot of people bitch about, I generally enjoy, so hopefully I will like the Anita Blake series through to the end, or present, rather, as she’s still writing new books.

Yes, I’m very obsessed with reading lately.  Which unfortunately conflicts with my desire to finish my Sims story.  Haha.  Well, one of these days that hobby is bound to pick itself back up, isn’t it?  I didn’t even play the Sims at all this weekend. >.<

By the way, on Saturday, Andy and I had a bit of a Sesame Street extravaganza, and that is where this post title is from.  Bert and Ernie are the coolest.

Which is amazingly stupid of me, all things considered. I mean, who am I kidding? It’s totally acceptable to read Harry Potter, so why not this? LOL. Besides, it’s not like I’m any more grown-up that your average teenager. I like so many of the same things I did when I was that age, and hold many interests similar to those teens in our Sims community now. And let’s not forget, more often than not, I act like a three year-old, and still carry around my teddy bear pretty much everywhere. So I don’t know why I was trying to fool myself into thinking I was too much of an old fart to enjoy this book.

And oh boy. I do absolutely understand the obsession with this book! I was hooked after the first couple pages. I realized that I shouldn’t be surprised by this in the slightest. Just like so many teen girls today, I’ve been vampire-lore ga-ga since before puberty, and that really hasn’t changed at all. This book is very much up my ally!

I started it Tuesday night, and am now almost finished with it, which is a pretty big feat if you consider the fact that I work all day, and still managed to play the Sims for a few hours each of those nights.

Yesterday, I hurried back on Amazon to order New Moon, Eclipse, and her novel that was just released, The Host. Yes, I’m a little bit obsessive when it comes to authors. I find one I like and I’ll read everything they write.

So anyway, if you haven’t checked out Twilight yet, I highly recommend doing so, even if you’re an old fart like me. You’ll still enjoy it, because it’s just that awesome.

For the record, in case you remember previous posts where I talk about reading Anne Rice books, Harry Potter and the Da Vinci Code and think to yourself–”good god, what is wrong with this girl just now getting around to reading these already-popular-for-many-years books?”–it is because I didn’t read novels for quite some time. I used to read obsessively until during late high school (THE NINETIES!), when I just got too busy with calculus, drill team, and friends and just stopped reading outside of school altogether. This continued through college and even after, up until a couple years ago when I finally picked up an Anne Rice book. And the old hobby has been back full-force ever since.

So, if you were wondering why I was so behind in everything, there you have it. Sometimes I feel like I’m on a mission to catch up, which is partly why I’m so drawn to these big titles, because they always seemed so appealing before.

Okay, new topic: I totally just got the most amazing email at work. Totally complimentary, asking for my “talents” to help with things higher up on the food chain, so to speak. This really just made my day that they would think of me for this. *Excited*