I received The Sims 2 Open for Business for Valentine’s Day. It’s the perfect gift as I’m a huge Sims fan and am so behind on expanions for The Sims 2.

Open for Business is one expansion that I really wanted as it is different than what was offered for the original Sims. I still want Pets, but I have played Unleashed so am not that excited by it.

Hopefully I can fight off this cold long enough to install the game and play some.

Days of our Lives is my favorite soap opera, and I try to watch it everyday. A lot of times I don’t make it through a whole episode, or I get frustrated by their lack of story progression. One these days I turn to the web and the Days of our Lives spoilers page.

Some plots I really wonder what was the whole purpose. After reading the spoilers and learning that Max really does have feelings for Abby, why has he been going after every girl in Salem but her? Apparently there is an age difference between them that has kept Max at bay. Age is hardly ever mentioned in the soaps. It’s like age being mentioned in comic books, it just doesn’t happen. It’ll be interesting to see if this is Days’ next super couple like Bo and Hope or Jack and Jennifer.

Soaps.com has the scoop on DOOL and all the information I need to buy back my sanity from watching this show. It’s easy to get frustrated with the characters. Thank goodness for spoilers to keep my peace of mind.

Brought to you by Soaps.com.

I’ve been hearing a lot about the online social game Second Life. I’ve signed up for an account, have downloaded the game but haven’t played yet.

Being a big Sims fan, Second Life reminds me of The Sims since it’s more social gaming than strategy. You earn in-game money that you can spend to buy real estate and other stuff. Apparently playing Second Life can be addicting. I hope to play this week. That will greatly depend upon if I feel any better. Winter colds really do bite.

Ever since I first played Quake, I have wanted to host a LAN party. Playing head to head with friends on a closed network is a lot of fun. We use to play a lot at a local LAN gaming store. Sadly, they closed down and left us without a place to meet up with friends.

I have thought about hosting lan parties but several factors have been holding me back. The biggest challenge now is space. Our house is way too small to host a lan party. Even with us three at home it feels a little crowded so having friends over to game would really be a tight fit. I thought about renting a place to host one, but there are several costs to consider like the rental fee and the network capabilities of the building.

I would still like to take party in a LAN party or even host one. Now thanks to LanPartyMap.com I can locate local LAN parties that are in my area. A map is displayed that has virtual pushpins so it’s easy to spot where the games are taking place. The cool part is that I can see current and upcoming LAN parties. If I can get all the details worked out for hosting one, I can add my LAN party to the map, making it easier for local gamers to get in on the action.

Through LanPartyMap, I found a great LAN party that is coming up in a few months. Since it is relatively close to me, I can attend if I feel my frag skills are worthy enough to enter. I love playing games like Quake that allow me to blow off steam in a safe environment. Some games can get intense especially when you’ve been fragged so many times that you lost count. This is usually about the time I throw in the towel when I can’t seem to do anything right. I have to work on my frag skills before entering a LAN party, or I will surely be toast.

Brought to you by LanPartyMap.

Yeah! The tax return cometh! Oh to have some spending money again. I bought Karaoke Revolution and a PS2 microphone with some of my earmarked money.

I got home, plugged in in, and sang through a few songs. Then, the little one took over. Here is her performance. She’s a natural don’t you think? She is definitely going to be a little ham.

I recently bought an Eyetoy for the PS2. I picked up Eyetoy Play for it to see how it works. The Eyetoy was a bargain since it was used, so it was hard to pass up.

After following the directions, I had the Eyetoy set up and ready to play. Playing was a lot of fun. It was great to finally play a game that the baby didn’t want the controller since when using the Eyetoy, you are the controller. I will definitely check into other Eyetoy titles as it was wonderful to play without two little hands vying for control of the game controller.

I had read that with some tweaking and the right homebrew drivers that you can use your usb Eyetoy with a computer. One day when I’m feeling particularly geeky I may try that out. For now though, I’m just enjoying playing my PS2 with no interruption.

My nephew recently finished Final Fantasy XII and can’t wait for FF XIII. He is a huge FF fan, and after playing any of the Final Fantasy games, it is easy to see why. He will have a while to wait for ff13 as it is set to be released next December.

Final Fantasy is a long-standing RPG favorite for many. It weaves a beautiful storyline with a lot of action/adventure. It is fun to watch him play. My only real exposure to the Final Fantasy universe has been through Kingdom Hearts, which features Disney characters as well as heroes from FF. I’ve also seen the Final Fantasy movie, which I really enjoyed. I have great admiration for FF and its video game history. I hope to go back and begin playing some of the FF games soon.

FinalFantasy13.org is a complete resource for the latest FF13 news. Through the forum you can also find out what is going on with Square Enix, the devlopers of FF. There is already rumors about a Kingdom Hearts III.

I have only yet begun to play Kingdom Hearts for the PS2. The Kingdom Hearts series is one of the main factors in why I finally bought a PS2. It’s ironic that the game behind my reason to buy a PS2 has been seldom played so far.

I will have to keep up the latest news for FF13 and tell my nephew. This way I will be the way cool Aunt. I might can make the status of coolest Auntie ever if I buy him FF13 for Christmas. But with game release dates you never know if they will be out by an announced date. Luckily I can check FinalFantasy13.org regularly for updates on the game’s progress. When the game reaches gold, it will be only a matter of a few weeks until it’s available at retail stores.

In recent years I’ve become a fan of the RPG but have yet to really play RPG video games. With its strong fan base, Final Fantasy seems a good RPG video game to begin playing.

Brought to you by FinalFantasy13.

With my Yahoo!, Google, Big Fish Games, and now my Alexa toolbar, I’m surprised there is actually room for the webpage to be displayed on page. Can you tell I like the toolbars?

With Internet Explorer 7, while it is way cooler than IE 6, I’m not familiar with a lot of functions. I recently found out how to search a page. My top menu toolbar is missing. I’m not even sure IE 7 has one with such helpful menus as “File, Edit, Help.” I guess I’m old school and miss that text menu.

My newest toolbar is Alexa, which shows Romperz as well as other websites rankings. Being a gamer and somewhat competitive, I’ve become obsessed with increasing my Page Rank(Google’s patented system for determing the importance of a website) and my Alexa ranking.

I’ve been trying to implement tips to improve both, so for a while there may be a widget or other extra on Romperz that may disappear one day for no apparent reason. I still want to keep it simple, so if I add everything that tickles my fancy then Romperz won’t be. It’s ironic I’m so picky about Romperz being clean and clutter free but not my home. Probably the main reason is that it is much easy to clean up Romperz as the delete button works wonders. Ah, if there was only a delete button for the home.

I would downgrade my toolbars, but each one I use about equally. I guess I just need a bigger monitor to accomodate all the toolbars.

Here’s a cute online game where you get to play Cupid. Shoot your arrow to drop a heart onto one of the lonely people below. The more people you bring love to, the more points you score. Love’s Arrow plays right from your browser.

Crank up those speakers, and enjoy the soothing, mellow music.

Love’s Arrow Take aim with Cupids arrow and shoot down the lonely hearts club.

Play this free game now!!

The colorful, casual game AquaPark will test your fish-catching skills. It’s up to you to populate the AquaPark with exotic fish. To do that, you must go out and catch some fish.

AquaPark features 3 modes of gameplay. Story Mode shows your progress in populating the AquaPark. The first level begins simple enough with collecting one type of fish. Level 2 you will need to reel in two types of fish and catch them with the right boat. You only have a limited time to reach your goal.

You catch fish by clicking on the fish when the fish is directly under the boat. It can be very challenging using the mousepad on a laptop. It is much better suited for a conventional mouse. AquaPark is a good exercise in hand-eye coordination and reflex.

Take a break from the action, and visit the soothin aquarium. AquaPark has appealing graphics and challenging gameplay. Time to break out the mouse to see if I can surpass that second level.