EDIT: I don’t have my own domain anymore!

I can only think of one New Years resolution at this point: to save up some money for grad school.  I’m counting on my tuition being paid for by fellowships and TA jobs, so by some I mean enough for books, food and entertainment.  And plane tickets should I end up somewhere distant.  I should mention that grad school is two and a half years away for me, so I have some time.

In order to help me with this resolution, on New Years Eve I went down to Philadelphia to a PNC Bank branch and set up a Virtual Wallet.  You should check it out, although I’m not sure of it’s availability in different parts of the country.  You get three different accounts called spend, reserve and growth.  Spend is a noninterest earning checking account, reserve is an interest earning checking account and growth is a savings account which earns a very competitive rate.  I can save in the growth account and not be tempted to just blow it all.  There are all sorts of other features with the three accounts, my favorite being free overdraft to the second account and then the third.  As you know if you know me personally, you know that I need that.

I had an interesting conversation with my grandfather, who is rapidly approaching his 80th birthday, about how we often refer to this year as ’09, but his mother was born in ’07.  1907, of course.  This confuses him occasionally.  It’s all about perspective.

Incidentally, a digital camera also recently came into my possession, but that’s another post.  I’ve been working feverishly when I have nothing better to do for the past week and two days, and this is the progress I’ve made:

My favorite part of the canvas is the “dry clean only” instructions.  As if I’m going to spend several months stitching individual strands of yarn into a canvas and then throw it in a washing machine.  I started in the upper right corner and I’m slowly working my way down and left.  I fear that I’ve filled in some colors incorrectly.  This thing came with six different shades of yellow!  I also started using just one strand when I should have been using two, and I cannot bear to do three days of work over again.  I’ll just call it a practice round, as I also recently came into the possession of another kit, this one a lovely country cottage.  So we’ll see.

I am faced with quite a dillema here.  There are several different ways a conversation such as that can go, and here I will lay out these options and try to decide which is best for me.

Situation #1

“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you to.”

Result: Hypocracy I try to aviod.

Situation #2

“Merry Christmas.”

“Thanks.”

Result: Who ever says that?  Awkward.

Situation #3

“Merry Christmas.”

“Actually I don’t celebrate Christmas.”

Silence.

Result: Perfect strangers feel incredibly awkward, and maybe they even apologize.

Situation #4

“Merry Christmas.”

“Oh, no, I’m an atheist.  I believe that…blah blah blah.”

Result: Although the response I would like to make, it would get me into arguements with perfect strangers.  And that’s just no good.

Situation #5

“Merry Christmas.”

Ignore.

Result: Now I’m a jerk.

Bottom line: Stick with “Happy holidays.”

I am very, very excited that the third edition of the game, The Sims 3, is coming out on February 20th 2009, just a few short months from now.  On the official website there is a sneak-peak video of what the game looks like and loads of information about what it will play like.

In this version of the game, sims can explore the rest of their neighborhood while still under your direct control.  This is the big new feature.  This means that other sims will be on automatic while you play that one, and they will age at the same rate.  I have to admit that in The Sims 2 it did bother me that sims in the same neighborhood who were supposed to be the same age would suddenly be years apart, but I am also not sure about this feature.  Will they be having entire lives without my playing them at all?

I always find it a relief to send my sim off to work or school and not have to worry about them for a few hours so I could concentrate on their family members.  It seems that now you will have to actually get your sims to work in a car or on foot instead of just telling them to get into a car.  They can also work overtime and take work home with them.  I don’t know how I feel about that as far as my gameplay goes, but kudos for trying to simulate real life more closely.

Sims will be a lot more physically customizable in this version, which seems to be a trend followed from the first to the second versions as well.  I see this as continued improvement.

The Sims 3 will sell for $49.99 for the normal version and $69.99 for the collectors’ edition which includes a plumb bob (read: floating green diamond) USB drive key chain, sticker sheet, downloadable European sports car and tip and reference sheets.  I know I’m getting one, how about you?

Seriously?  I’m blogging about Neopets?  Yep.

Never heard of it?  If you’re under age 20, you have no excuses.  But if you’re not, I guess I could fill you in.  For a more complete description, check wikipedia.  Neopets is a free virtual pet website in which users create cute cartoonish virtual pets and feed, play with and even dress them.  This virtual world has a currency called Neopoints which users earn from playing games or selling items.  Neopoints can get you items, which can feed, entertain and “paint” your pets.  Pets come in many, many colors from the basic solid colors to the more expensive exotic ones such as baby and desert.  You can interact with other users in messages and trades.  It’s basically a giant game with more aspects than I can think to list here.

In some ways Neopets is geared toward kids, but in other ways it isn’t age specific.  This may very well have been the first website I ever visited by my own will when I was in fourth grade.  As you can imagine, many hours of my life have been invested in this.  I still log on occasionally and check things out.  Things are constantly being updated and improved.  If you’re already a player, I do have a pretty impressive account (if I do say so myself) right here.  I tragically lost the password to my first account in a computer switching incident, so this account is slightly newer than described.  If you’re not already on, you should totally click this banner and sign up.  All the cool people are doing it.

Maybe I should introduce myself a little.  My name is Sarah and I’m currently a sophomore mathematics major in the wonderful city of New York.  Yes, I love math.  I’m a vegetarian, I have been for years and you’re not going to change my mind about it.  Believe me, dozens of people have tried.  I knit for fun, but not sweaters.  They’re too intense.  I like rolling coins into those little paper tubes and knitting clothes for my stuffed animals.  I hate winter in general.  I’m an Aquarius, if that means anything to you.

So, a few words about what I’ll be blogging about, you ask?  Well, just about anything that comes to my mind I guess.  I hope it’s mostly intelligent.  Math, kntting, cool stuff, complaints…we’ll see.