Preface: this post was inspired by a friend’s review of the game I am about to discuss.

Let me be perfectly and completely honest here: I am shy.  In person, I have a hard time making friends, being social, and “opening up.”  That’s how I am and that’s okay.  It’s me.  Once I make a friend, and “open up,” however, it’s really very hard to actually shut me up.  No really, ask my mom.

Throughout my life, I have turned to the internet in more ways than one, just to be able to interact and socialize with people.  It’s worked.  I have made some life-long friends and even my boyfriend, doing just that.

Now here is where I admit I have become a gamer nerd.

When I first started talking and really dating Justin, he was playing an MMORPG (multi-media online role playing game) called FFXI (Final Fantasy Eleven).  In my growing up, I had played many video games both online and not, but this was a game above the rest.

After selecting a character, naming her, and starting the game, I dove right into killing monsters, gaining experience, and learning the “ropes” from Justin.  While it was interesting and fun, I didn’t really get into it much until I received an item from him that allowed me to get into his “linkshell” (which, for those who aren’t familiar with FFXI or MMORPGs, is like a chat room of sorts).

The people in the linkshell were overwhelmingly helpful in everything that I needed to do in the game.

But the real fun wasn’t in doing missions or fighting monsters, but in hanging out with the people.  Talking and laughing and making jokes.  There were three of us girls in the linkshell, and only us three for the longest time.  We would hang out in one area, be silly, and harass the boys in the linkshell. Click for an example. :)

There are videos of our randomness on YouTube.  Memories embedded in the minds of all who we have had the pleasure of knowing.  Here is a video of a random chat in our linkshell from back in the day.  If you don’t know what half the acronyms mean, it’s okay.  It does take some getting used to.

I’ll admit, when someone would leave the game that I was close to, I would tear up, and often you would find me shed a tear or twenty.  When you spend months and months getting to know someone and spending time with them on a daily basis, it becomes rather difficult to say good-bye.  From marriage to divorce, having babies to dealing with death, we have been down every path imaginable.  The bonds in this game are deeper than the make believe stories and the pixelated characters we play.

The friendships I have made in my course of playing FFXI are life-long.  When this games dies and the servers taken down, they will still be a part of my life.

If any of my FFXI friends read this, I love you guys!! Thank you for making my time on the Fairy and Sylph servers so much better!

Holy macaroni, people!!!! It’s been like halfway to forever since I’ve blogged, right?  So it feels!

Well, I have been here and there and really not anywhere outside of my own bubble in this world.  Summer just kind of took me and the fam and whooshed us away into a land of fun!  :)  Oh yes, we have had lots of fun.  I guess I had a summer vacation away from the blogging world.

I suppose losing the computer and access to my blog for a while doesn’t completely constitute as fun, but I have really enjoyed just being able to enjoy my kids and friends and…. life!

Oh and my mom dropped a bombshell………….

Another sister.  She is 20.  But that is a post all in it’s own.

I promise to fill you all in on my fantastic summer with tons of pictures soon!

You can always find me on Twitter if you need me:  www.twitter.com/theJAKAmommy — if you follow me, make sure you @ me, so I know you are a real person!

Well it was here.  The sun has now begun to set, so we say good-bye.  For tomorrow, there shall be rain.  Again.  In June..

Anyone else see something very wrong with that… There should never be rain in June.  However, I am an Oregonian, and when you live in Oregon, things like rain in June, while very annoying, can be considered semi-normal.

I hope all of my fellow Oregonians got out and enjoyed the sun today.  Tomorrow, like I said, brings rain, again.  Then we are suppose to have a couple nice days, followed by yet more………….. yes, you guessed it, RAIN!!!

Really, I just wanted to share a couple pictures of our fun in the sun today.  Ariana and I ventured out with one of my BFF’s and her son to a playground to get out and enjoy the sun!

The little boy in the right picture is my BFF’s son.

Wow.  Hello!!  Welcome to my itsy bitsy teeny tiny bit of the web’o’sphere.  Please, don’t mind my scatter brain, I swear it’s normal.  I’m a tad flustered as this is my first ever large blog party.  Well, that’s what it is anyways, right?

Also, don’t mind the mess that is currently my blog.  The layout is not ideal, but we are working through it. 

My name is Alex.  Short for Alexandra, but after 18 years of my mom insisting that my name is Alexandra, and not Alex, I had to rebel. 

Mommy of 4 year old Konnor, always and forever my baby, and 10 month old Ariana, the baby girl I have always dreamed of having.  My children are hands down my life and the reason for my being.  To most of you, it will come as no surprise for me to tell you I would give the world for my babies.  They are my rocks, whether they know it or not. 

Working full time as a customer service representative at the local electric company is my day job.  A repetitive job that is not nearly as rewarding and fulfilling as I would like a job to be, it pays the bills.  That’s all I have to say about that.

Writing has always come natural to me.  I can change my style from serious to funny, laid back to professional, and anything in between without much thought at all.  

Blogging/writing since I was in middle school, I have owned 3 diaries, one online diary, 4 blogs, and one online journal.  The random short stories and no less than one dozen unfinished plays and auto-biographies sit buried in all of the above places listed.  At the moment I am in the process of compiling all my thoughts and life snip-its into one big book.  A story of my own life, which I refuse to call an auto-biography (I just despise the term).

If I’m not playing mommy, working, or writing, I am most definitely taking pictures.  Photography is a passion that falls dead even with my passion for writing.  On a bad day I take no less than 20 photographs of anything and everything that inspires me.  Some say I have a knack for the hobby and should go pro, but a hobby (to me) is more fulfilling than a job.

Living with my kiddos and my boyfriend, Justin, in our apartment in Oregon couldn’t be more amazing.  Well, a house would be more amazing, but that’s a different story.  The Pacific Northwest is known for its beauty, but you can never really understand that beauty unless you live here.  Who wouldn’t want to live an hour from the mountain and two hours from the ocean?

Well, I think you are probably tired of listening to me, so go and find some other fabulous bloggers who are participating in the 2010 Ultimate Blog Party.

Want more of me?  Or, I suppose, in a sense, it’s less of me.  I live my life 140 characters at a time on Twitter.  You can follow me @theJAKAmommy but I’m warning you now, I am not all peaches & cream.  My life is not perfect, nor am I.  I can be rude, harsh, and my filtration is not always top notch.

By the way, I’m not entering to win any prizes.  :)  But good luck to all those that are!  Happy blogging!

Ever since I had Konnor, I have never been at the top of the priority list.  Purposely putting myself after others, I don’t often have the newest clothes, the coolest phone, or other spiffy things.

Yesterday, I bought a laptop.  Four hundred dollars of something just for me!  After purchasing my new Toshiba, I am feeling the normal guilt that I feel after buying something for myself.

After battling with myself, “oh that $400 could have gone here or we could have done this,” I took a step back.  No, really, this was a good investment.  With Justin on the computer as much as he is, I need this. 

What do I need a laptop for?

Well I really need it to keep up on JAKA365, which is my photo blog.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out!

But I also need it to keep up with this blog.  If I have the desire to start reviews, the need for my own computer is pretty obvious.

More than anything, though, I wanted my own computer so that I could access the internet when I wanted to.  My phone’s internet isn’t fast nor reliable, and to be honest, typing with a Blackberry isn’t fun.  Haha.

So here she is.  My new computer.  Nothing grand.  Nothing fancy.  Nothing to drop your jaw over.  Honestly, though, I don’t need any of that.  Just something simple to blog and edit photos with. :)