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Great, this website is still up! This is the first time I’ve logged in since my last post. Why? Because a couple days after that post, I went into labor and eventually this little girl showed up:

I’ve been tending to Ellie nonstop, and that’s been unsurprisingly exhausting. I haven’t had more than five hours of consecutive sleep since I went into the hospital, and I’ve only had two five-hour periods between feedings so far. The vast majority have been two or three hours. Even though things are still very challenging right now, I think I’m starting to figure things out more now and can maybe get back into doing some things I enjoy, like blowing the dust off this blog.

Look! I managed to go outside! And eat a croissant!

Not sure how I’m going to succeed with my goal of blogging more this year. I’ve already started playing games again (<3 Fire Emblem), so maybe there’s hope. Or maybe I should quit my job and become a mommy blogger.

New thing I learned today: Babies have blue or grey eyes when born because of the lack of the protein melanin, which they gain during their first year.

An early picture of Ellie, though her eyes
still haven’t turned brown yet.

2012 wasn’t too bad. It had its ups and downs, but overall I would say it was a pretty good year. Two trips to Hawaii, a new dog, a new job, and a door opening to a new chapter in my life… 2012 was eventful, and it was much better than 2011. I’m really looking forward to 2013, which I’m certain will be an interesting year.

In terms of my resolutions from last year, I had periods of success for some of them. I definitely ate more fruits and veggies, but never a time when I finished everything with the Farm Fresh to You box. Exercise was better; I had taken a class for the first 4 months of the year. Then we got Pecan, and then I was walking her fairly often until recently when the weather got cold and life and work sucking the life out of me. I drink water everyday, but I need to drink more as my lips are still constantly chapped.

So what do I want to improve for 2013? Honestly, with all the things going on, I don’t think it’s realistic for me to make a list of things to accomplish when I’m going to be busy rolling with the punches. I’ve already been forced to make adjustments to my diet and lifestyle, and there’s just more to come.

One thing I do want to make a resolution is to blog more. I’ve been so neglectful of this personal project, which I wanted to do to keep an active voice and force myself to do or look for interesting things to blog about. But maybe I’ll just go to two posts a week? Of course, January’s already over, and this is my first post of the year…

Looking at my posts, the last half of 2012 was only video game tabs even though I did go to places a couple times and had stuff I wanted to blog about. I’ll just do a one-pic summary here in case I never get to them:

1. I went to Oahu for Kelvin’s sisters wedding, and then we went to Maui afterwards for fun.

At Kimi’s wedding site, in front of Chinaman’s Hat

2. For our fourth year anniversary, we took a quick trip to Vegas. We got our vows renewed with Elvis and took knocked up wedding photos and lost lots of money to slots and poker.

I like Kelvin’s outfit.

3. Oh yeah, I got knocked up. Baby girl ETA middle of February.

I think I see… my lips? Kelvin’s nose? Definitely a smushed face.

4. This past month, Kelvin turned a year older. I turned a year older. Pecan turned a year old.

I’m glad Pecan went for the right treat.

5. Because I have this thing gestating inside of me, Kelvin’s family threw me a baby shower a couple weeks ago.

Guys drawing on onesies

6. My dog is still cute and sleeps in funny positions.

Not sure how this is comfortable

Of course once I finish folding the laundry…

I thought corgis were cold weather dogs.

Flying in her sleep

Let’s see what February and onward will bring!

New thing I learned today: Front license plates are required in California.

I lost my front license plate back in June in a fender bender. I always thought the front license plate is optional, but it’s not. I finally got replacement plates last month (which is annoying since I no longer have my license plate memorized), but I still don’t have the front one on because I didn’t realize I also don’t have the screws to fasten the plate to the front…

Okay, I’m officially caught up now.

Video games and related purchases:
Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption preorder – $20 at Kickstarter
Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS) – $32.16 from NewEgg
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS) – $21.69 from Amazon
Nintendo Wii U Deluxe System – $479.74 from GameStop
New Super Mario Bros U (Wii U) – $40.09 from GameStop ($59.99+tax – $25 GameStop credit)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC) x2 – $56.24 from Green Man Gaming
Total: $649.92

An unexpectedly brutal month, but I really should not be surprised based on previous November tabs. The only purchase I had planned for was the newest Paper Mario game; the rest was an impulsive assault on the wallet.

Even though I had watched the original Wii U Nintendo presentation live, I was too busy/lazy to preorder it in store. I figured it would be easy enough to order online at some point. As time passed, it became clear that the online preorders would disappear quickly, and all the instore preorders ended up doing the same. I gave up on preordering, and the idea of getting up early on a Sunday morning to wait for a system didn’t seem worth effort, especially since the only Wii U title I was interested in, Pikmin 3, wouldn’t be released until Spring 2013. So release day came and went… and I still kinda wanted one. While out and about Black Friday, I checked the local Gamestop, and lo and behold, Wii Us had been restocked. I’m so glad this console was a lot easier to get; waiting overnight for the first Wii was pretty obnoxious.

Since I got the Wii U within a week of launch with no deal, I figured I might as well get the Wii U Super Mario Bros game, even I’m terrible at these kind of games and it’s almost identical to the Wii version. I would usually wait for a deal for a game like this, but launch is a special time. :P

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is another 3DS I had been anxiously awaiting, and I had preordered it from Newegg using the $10 off coupon deal. Theathrythm Final Fantasy was the only Black Friday deal I was interested in, aside from the Sly Cooper Collection for $10 deal on Amazon (which was friggin’ IMPOSSIBLE to get… stupid Amazon deals).

I’m actually not that interested in Hero-U even though it’s by the creators of the Quest For Glory series, which is probably my favorite Sierra series (tied with Space Quest). The project doesn’t remind me much of Quest for Glory, and it has those eight-legged creatures I don’t like. I figured I should support it anyway, especially since it was pretty close to missing its goal.

I originally had no desire to play XCOM: Enemy Unknown when it came out. I had assumed it was the crappy first person update of the brand, but hearing several of my friends praise its similarities to the original games changed my mind. I was itching to play it during Thanksgiving break, so I looked for Thanksgiving/Black Friday deals all weekend. There were $25 deals for the console version, but $28.12 was the cheapest I could find for the PC version. I played the original one on PC, can’t imagine playing it on anything else. The cheapest price was on Green Man Gaming, a site I’ve seen referred to on Cheap Ass Gamer several times. I expected the purchase to be easy peasy since many people had partaken in deals there in the past, but it turned out to be a pain in the ass just to pay. It wouldn’t take my personal Amazon card, and when I used my Capital One card, I got an email alert warning about an international transaction, which is good since Capital One has no fees for international purchases. Most annoying of all, Amazon ended up having it for $25 on Cyber Monday.

Games I beat:
…

Life is too crazy right now. It’s a lot easier to buy things than actually play anything. I thought I would be actively playing the latest Professor Layton, but instead I just go to bed early like an old person.

Unfortunately, I don’t know enough non-East-Asian girls in real life, so the women
on my team include Leslie Knope, Lana Kane, and Kelly Kapoor (which I apparently
spelled incorrectly)

My Thanksgiving weekend did pretty much disappear due to XCOM though. Bought it Friday night and all of a sudden it was time to go to bed Sunday night.

New thing I learned today: The Ukrainian flag is half blue and half yellow, lengthwise.

For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what nation one of my best guys in XCOM was from. I couldn’t think of any Ukrainians, so I just named him Piotr Rasputin.

I didn’t get a new iPhone… it’s just representative of my iPhone purchases.

Video games and related purchases:
Indie Royale Fall Bundle (PC/Mac) – $4.83
Project Eternity preorder (PC) – $65 at Kickstarter
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (3DS) – $32.16 from NewEgg
Ticket To Ride Pocket (iOS) – $1.59
A Bard’s Tale (iOS) – $1.59
Indie Royale Halloween Bundle (PC/Mac) – $4.50
Total: $109.67

There were a lot of impulse buys this month. I haven’t paid much to all the indie bundle deals that pop up every now and then, mainly because I don’t pay much attention to what’s going in indie games. Even though I still haven’t finished the Tales of Monkey Island, I was still itching for more adventure games after playing Machinarium. A couple Indie Royale bundles caught my eye. The Fall bundle had To The Moon and a game in the Blackwell series, though in hindsight, I probably should have waited I got the three games before Deception. The Halloween bundle had the entire season of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, so I got that. Have I played any of these games yet? Of course not.

I paid for iOS games for the first time while stuck in a waiting room. I first got Bard’s Tale, but then was super disappointed when I couldn’t install it without WiFi. Then I got Ticket To Ride Pocket, which was worth it since it actually installed and allowed me to kick Kelvin’s butt multiple times.

I contributed enough to the Project Eternity Kickstarter to get a physical copy of the game. I heard “blah blah blah Fallout blah” and was sold.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the new Professor Layton game. It’s the first game since March I’ve been wanting since its announcement, so I think the uninterrupted string of unplanned impulse buys is finally over. I used NewEgg’s $10 off $39.99+ coupon several times to get all the 3DS games I’ve been looking forward to and are coming out in the next few months, and this was the first. I’m looking forward to all the pointing in 3D.

Games I beat:
Sleeping Dogs (PC)

Finally beat this game. It’s good. I want to dedicate an entire post to it, but who knows if I’ll get to that. Basically if you like Hong Kong movies and enjoy Grand Theft Auto even a tiny bit, you’ll like this game.

New thing I learned today: The Professor Layton movie, The Eternal Diva, takes place after Last Specter and before Miracle Mask.

I’ve had the movie sitting on my hard drive for a while, but I never watched it since the US games were so far behind. I didn’t realize I’m caught up to the movie now.

This post is a formality.

Video games and related purchases:
…
Total: $0

Games I beat:
…

I didn’t beat any games, but I got back into Sleeping Dogs (again) after getting over a vacation hangover from Hawaii.

New thing I learned today: Justin Bieber’s song “Beauty and the Beat” is in Just Dance 4.

I’m not a Bieber fangirl, and I don’t play any of these casual dancing games. However, I did think this Justin Bieber promo video for the game was really cute:

It also got the stupid song stuck in my head, and now I can’t stop listening to it. Cuz alllll I neeeeed… is a beauty and a beeeeaaat…