The Simpsons Movie night

Spiderpig, spiderpig
Does whatever a spiderpig does
Can he swing
From a web
No he can't
He's a pig
Look out, here comes spiderpig....

If there was one movie I wanted to see this year, it was this one. I'm a big fan of the Simpsons. And the movie is a big episode, with memorable things like "Spiderpig"....

Now, why is it so funny? Homer makes a pig walk on the ceiling, ink on its paws, singing the above song. Everybody laughs, everybody remembers and sings the song, but... nobody can tell you why they burst into laughs for that more than other gags. This movie has a general consensus amongst people. Everybody wants to see it, the radio mentions it, the film is showns every 20 mins in the cinema... It's like the whole world has become Simpsons mad.

We planned to see the movie on Sunday night, buying the tickets on Saturday, and we did good, as there were so many people in the cinema. We got popcorn and coke for once, and DBF got the donut keyring from the movie. In the lobby we saw the Simpsons statues you can see in the picture.

We ended the evening with a Burger King, where they had talking Simpsons figurines, and DBF had a Krusty.

We will sing the spiderpig song for quite some time...

Hobbycraft in my home town

Moving from town to town is as stressful as you can imagine. Not only do you have to find a place, move your stuff, warn every possible company that you move (and there's always someone left out), but you have to find new habits.

Where to buy groceries, where is the closest post office, etc... As a crafter, an important question was "is there a Local Needlework Shop in my new town?"

Checking in the yellow pages, the outlook was grim. Only a little place in the indoor market, for haberdashery. Of course, it isn't dramatic as the internet is usually my first source of crafts.

Thinking of Hobbycraft, the craft superstore, I often wished there was one close to me. Going to Watford is long and stressful, and we tend to get lost on the way.

Yesterday as I was driving pas a shopping center I noticed that in the shops listed there was Hobbycraft !!!! As soon as I was home I checked and it opens September 1st: just before I move !!!!

Needless to say I'm even mre excited about moving now.... My budget might not be though...

Zendoku, the other sudoku

I discovered sudoku during the big sudoku craze. After seeing a tv show with Carol Vordeman from "Countdown", I thought I would never understand the principle. Then, the following day I bought a sudoku puzzle game, the translation from the original japanese one, and spent the whole day try to figure it out. And the addiction started...

The good thing about sudoku is that it clears my head, and I like to do it in the evening as it makes me sleepy.
I love the paper version better than the electronic ones, as you can scribble around, and carry thee book in your bag without fear of breaking it. So when all the PSP and DS sudoku games came out, I wasn't really interested. But then came Zendoku, or "how do turn a basic puzzle into a wacky different game?"

First, for the purists you can play regular sudoku if you want. But Zendoku decided to spice things up by using pictures instead of numbers. And it needs some getting used to, but in the end it's very fun.

But what's really new is the "battle" mode. You can choose your character, assigned to one of the pictures, and fight against opponents. It's not turning sudoku into a 2 players game, though. You solve the grid, but from time to time you have mini games trying to disorient you, and it's up to you not to loose your track of thought...

My favourite section is the "zen", where you solve sudoku puzzles with the pictures.... It really makes me... zen !

Harvest Moon Innocent life on PSP

Of course, farm simulation isn't my idea if a fun game. And it's hard to get into this game. You can't save until you've gone through all the text and tutorial, but soon you will realise you're addicted to it. You play late into the night. You have to resist playing at breakfast time, and you feel like playing all day at work.

And while you are obsessed with the game, of course, your mind is set on something, other stuff don't really matter, and depression flies away...
So what is it about that game that is so addictive? Not only do you have to grow crops, manage the buying, planting, but you also have to explore the island, and save it from a volcano eruption. So there's a big puzzle/treasure hunt element to the game, talking to the right people at the right time, finding elements in treasure chests, etc...

Being a boy robot, ou also have the challenge to become more and more human by interacting with people, animals, acomplishing quests and learn how to cook.
This game also shows the superiority of the PSP on the DS. I recently bought Harvest Moon DS. Besides the fact that it feels like playing an old SNES game graphically, a newbie can't start to guess what you should do in this game. No tutorial. And no greater purpose than becoming a farmer, getting a wife and such.

Harvest Moon Innocent Life is now a hard to find game in shops, and I'm glad DBF had the idea of giving it to me for my birthday !!! This is an exemple of a PSP game not perceived as a typical PSP game (war, fighting, cars, etc...). If you want good games, you have to look for them...
for thwe moment, i feel I need a break from the game, but it will be interesting to see when I will come back to it.

My PSP

DBF is deep into video games. Video games have been part of my life since I was 10, but it was a superficial thing, something to do with a friend coming home, trying to find fighting combos and the like. Then 2 years ago it seemed that the Nintendo DS would be the console for me, with puzzle games, stylus and kawai characters.

In the meantime, DBF was going on and on about how the PSP was the best thing in the world. And in the begining, the PSP wasn't the console for me. It was all infiltration/war/guys games.
When Tetris DS came out, it was the last straw: it was packed with Mario/Zelda, for no reason, and as I hate Mario... I started to doubt that the DS was the console for me.

So last summer I finally bought a PSP. And I have to say it took me a long time to be addicted to it. But now I play it everyday, as now there are games like Loco Roco, Gurumin or Harvest Moon on it.

It's like having a little friend in your pocket...

The beginning

Things usually start small.

Here I am with DBF yesterday afternoon starting a discussion about all the little things (and big!) I will have to face in order to move, all the things that might go wrong, etc.... And then the discussion turned to focusing on the moment and creating a blog called "Petits Bonheurs".
Litterally, this means "little happinesses".

Of course, I already have a blog and a whole website, so why create yet another blog?
From the begining I try to keep my craft blog dedicated to crafts. I know many people mix craft and life, but I prefer to have them separate. I usually don't read "life posts". For a long time I felt comfortable just blogging about craft, with a bit of real life context, but lately I spent more time playing video games and doing other things than stitching.

This is the real me: a craft addict, who also has other interests. And it's those I want to talk about here. Have a "treasure chest" kind of blog.

Also, it's all about personal therapy. I get frustrated when I'm not in control, and I tend to imagine everything will go wrong, so it leads to dark moods, frustration and depression. So the idea is to find at least one positive thing per day, in order to take life on the bright side.

Of course, that's the intend, we'll see how it turns out. We are swimming in experimental waters here...