TETRIS 4-EVR

My love affair with Tetris is a long one... like most Tetris lovers will tell you. But I'm going to talk a little bit also about my relationship with Nintendo... because the two are inseparable. I wish I had the memory for details, but I don't. It was after The Wizard I know that much. All that I vividly remember are the exploding feelings of joy that Christmas morning brought when "Santa" provided a total miracle... NES with stock Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt. My belief in the fat old man was waning and I thought I was pretty wise to my parents tricks... but my mom (that's you AM) had protested so INTENSELY over getting me the video gaming system that she totally outfoxed me and I was sold on Santa for at least another year. I don't think I've exclaimed anything so gleefully since I tore the paper off of that GIANT box and about crapped my pants... I couldn't even utter words- just noise and made intense double arm-pumping gestures that now that I think about it... all I can see is:

Coincidentally (I think not, I think it was fate) the Nintendo Game Boy release in Japan was on my 7th birthday 2-3 years before the Tuskan Raider incident, but I didn't get mine until a year or so after said incident. It came stock with Tetris and it was an immediate addiction. 

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We'd make long drives up I-5 to visit my brother and sister in college; the lighted head-gear apparatus clamped on top I felt sooo technologically badass. Just like this kid in the photo... staring... staring... staring into the Tetris void which was not a void AT ALL but rather like the epicenter of all life and creation forming right in front of my eyes! ACCORDING TO MY WILL! I played until the weight of that dumb light and it's four AA batteries wearied my arms and the lull of the car on the freeway lured me to sleep. We were so inseparable. I eventually had to resort to hiding my Game Boy in the bathroom drawer next to the toilet, and every night after dinner I would sneak off to "go to the bathroom" and would sit and play Tetris until my legs fell dead asleep and I'd have to waddle out on pins and needles to help in the kitchen... but having escaped the bulk of the duties, I would put condiments, leftovers, and placemats away... and windex the glass table top. *I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to my darling Anonymous Mom- as you are my most dedicated reader... sorry for being so lazy all those years... lolz! I'm pretty sure you were hip to what I was doing so thank you for allowing me to hide out with my beloved video games in those awkward years.*

In college I was obsessed with the level 99 cheat code (start+right) on the NES and would try like mad to get more and more lines completed as the pieces RAINED DOWN LIKE PHOTON TORPEDOES. First I'd clear one, then none and none and none again... then maybe clear three! I have my dearest fluffycat Katie to thank for that stroke of genius. I remember the night she showed me how to make that crazypants magic and we passed the sticks until we went blind.

Tomorrow I'm participating in a Tetris tournament at Reset Games... I'd like to think that I'm going to place in the top three (and earn some sweet gift certificates towards the purchase of my next hand held game system console... which is frankly the ONLY OTHER non-drugstore cheapo HH console I'll ever have owned aside from my beloved original Game Boy (which still works, as I took it to PAX last year and made PAX friends in line for Wil Wheaton with some super cool dudes)...

And that is going to be... The Nintendo 3DS! I'm real excited. While I think 3D stuff is mostly pretty gimmicky you WILL LOSE ME in Target if you let me wander off... and then you will find me in the electronics department bent over like a centenarian with the 3D affects cranked on high... it's like they only think really short people wanna play those demos?! What's up with that?! Hieratic knows this from personal experience. However, my realist self is telling me that I wont place in the top. The truth is that it's been a couple years since I've seriously played and my skills are not the honed 10+ level genius that they used to be. I am more distracted and I don't dominate my piece placement in those higher levels like I used to... but I'm for damn sure going to be there and give it a full go! Wish me luck! I totally have fantasies that it is going to be as awesome as the tourney scene from The Wizard... turns out you just roll in sometime when you're free and you get three shots and making the top three high scores... but I'm going to watch this and dream...

♥-L

PS... if you're looking for something Tetris awesome check out http://firstpersontetris.com/

Laying Out

I'm tweaking the blog... hang tight it will LIKELY take me a couple weeks here and there to perfect it... I'm even thinking about going back and editing all the posts I've previously created because I kind of can't stand the different sizes of all the pictures I've posted? Am I insane? Maybe. But it will give me something to do on my NEW COMPUTER instead of playing WoW past my beloved hieratic while she is at XENACON!!!! AYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIIIII!!!

♥- Lisa

Abracadabra!

So back in November I posted how I had painted a room a super deep green color... and filled it with boxes! It was our miscellaneous crap room and anything that didn't have a proper place or storage went in there. Now, this is not to say that I'm going to show you pictures of the CLOSET as it is now... or the INSIDE of the roll top desk... I'm going to just leave those two a mystery... but here is a little before and after for you!

It's like MAGIC!  Nothing whips a "guest room" into shape like ACTUAL GUESTS! My friends Laura and Brian are here this week and I'm so happy to have them! I'm also so relieved to have gotten that floor cleaned off. I'll take some cute close-ups as I finish decorating here and there. Until then All I have to say is WEEE! I'm so stoked.

♥-L

Whoa Nelly

Today is my penultimate shift at the Black Market Boutique/Spice Pantry. This weekend I sussed out the details of closing up my beautiful baby. And pretty much anyone who's ever opened and closed a small business is giving me the knowing nod and wink. Because anyone of those people will most likely tell you that this is a thing that is about 1 part sad to 3 parts relief. And that's where it sits with me.

Everything in Spice Pantry Land has been really hectic the last four months or so... mostly because of the house purchase and subsequent move... naturally the holidays were in there too... but I found myself struggling with a powerful priority shift that left me with a lot of worry about how to raise up my baby Pantry... and after my body put me down with an illness in order to give me the pause to REAAALLLY make the tough decision; I realized I had to let it go.

The final details leave me with one more shift next Sunday here at the shop, the inventory has been taken under Colleen's wing and is now embedded within the Black Market... and the changes she's made with the space are BEAUTIFUL!!! So anyone in the area, please get your fine looking booty down to the shop and squeeee over the sexy arrangements.

Today I processed the last order I'll ever do here and I've taken some shots of the new inventory and arrangement in the space.

It's been so amazing and I am SO fortunate to have worked with such talented, sweet, hilarious, empowering women as Amanda and Colleen. I couldn't have asked for a better time then I've had here. And I'm grateful that I take my exit with such ease.

And now the shop porn!

Love, Lisa.