Farmville is Seriously no Joke!!

Happy Halloween! I have more pumpkins in front of my virtual house than I've EVER had in my entire lifetime!! Sweet!

This morning, a friend of mine sent me an article from Business Week discussing "social game" apps and how they are making a ton of money and basically changing the economy...guess what favorite app of mine was prominently featured??

You guessed it! Farmville!!! That's right folks, apparently I'm not the only one with a farming addiction! According to this article, 60 million people played this game last month and their virtual digital sweet potato seeds, which sell for $5 a packet, made $400K in just 3 days...DAMN! Obviously, people like me who are unemployed did not shell out such cash for these sweet potatoes, but damn! Imagine if the economy was good!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures of my favorite virtual world! They've added some fun stuff for Halloween and also a bunch of new flowers. I literally cannot stop laughing when I look at my lame ass pictures!

My Plant Monster that's caged up in my Gothic fence!

Red Tulips!!

Yellow Daffodils, Pink Roses.

Sunflowers....hey, if my husband doesn't send me flowers, at least I can plant virtual ones!

Random Cabbage and Ghost Chilies.

Do You Party?

About 9 years ago, I was interviewing for a position in sales at a television network. One of the questions that the SVP of the group asked me was, "Can you handle your alcohol?" Apparently, there were a lot of client dinners and events and stuff associated with the job and the person in the role would have to be able to socialize with the best of them. At the time I was 22, so of course as soon as I heard this question, I was like, "Fuck yeah! OPEN BAR!"

Fast forward to 2009...I'm way older, I'm married, and I've outgrown drinking like a fish and puking my guts out on Friday nights/Saturday mornings...well, let's just say that I've only done that once in the last year, which is a huge improvement since my 20's...Anyway, last week I was asked at an interview, "Can you handle your alcohol?" What did I say? "Well, let's just say I could handle it a lot better before I was married!" Yikes! If I actually get an offer for this job, are they going to be cool with me drinking Diet Coke at parties? Am I going to have to order tequila shots and pretend to drink them by tossing them over my shoulder!?

Housewives....

Dear Family and Friends...and New Acquaintances,

Please do not use the term housewife to describe me. It's neither aspirational nor flattering. Thanks.

xoxo,

Chrrrrrs

I <3 Trojans

I must say, I used to be a doubter of USC. You see, I went to UCLA for undergrad and I think I was just brainwashed into thinking that you can't spell SUCK without the letters USC. However, after going there for grad school, I finally realize that USC is actually pretty great and has helped me way more than UCLA ever will!

First, there's the alumni network. The nickname for this network is called the "Trojan Mafia." And it's SO true. Whatever company you're interested in, you can look it up on the Alumni network and find someone there who went to USC and is willing to have an informational interview with you. I thought it was crazy that in business school they told us that you could cold call the alums at these companies to ask them about their jobs etc. I totally thought that if someone did that to me, I'd hang up on them! But after meeting all these really helpful and nice alums who are always saying that they want to help you, I've drank the Kool-Aid and will totally help anyone who is a fellow Trojan and asking for help...and sign off on my emails with a "Fight On!"

Second, the USC Alumni network also has a lot of events. Since I've moved up North, I've been going to the monthly USC Alumni lunches to build up my network and meet new people...it's totally helped in that I've met a lot of helpful people who have set me up with meetings with a lot of different people who I would not have met otherwise. I've gotten a few leads for jobs too, but in the current job market, a few = a lot!

Most recently, I went to a "USC Pink Slip Mixer" up in the city. It's pretty obvious, but this event was basically a mixer put on by the career center at USC business school for alums who are looking for work. They had career coaches who would take a look at your resume and give you tips, and throughout the night, they also had two seminars as well. I went to one of the seminars...it was 45 minutes long and I don't remember what the seminar was called, but the point I took away from it was that you have to let go of doubt, fear and worry in order to find happiness in your career, no matter what point you were at. I thought about it and it's hard to imagine, but when you don't work for a while, but want to, you DO have a lot of doubt, fear and worry! For instance, I doubt that I can find a job, I fear that if I do find a job I'll hate it and I worry about this cycle incessantly! It's ironic but it's true! Anyway, the point is I finally realized this and I'm really going to be more conscious of this in the future and be more optimistic because in the end, because there were over 200 people who went to this event, I realized that there are a lot of people in my situation and the best we can all do is stay positive!

Well, now that I've finally realized what a valuable asset my Trojan network is, I'd like to take this moment to apologize to my friend Louisa. Louisa went to USC for undergrad and we backpacked in Europe together for a few weeks back in 1998. Everything was going great until on a train from Geneva to Milan, we got into a screaming match about USC vs. UCLA....FOOTBALL. We scared the shit out of an old couple who were like um, we like Ohio State and then quickly scrambled out of our train compartment. We spent a day together in Milan and a day together in Florence PISSED at each other but still hanging out and shopping and eating for 24/7 without speaking to each other. In retrospect, it's hilarious, because in over 20 years of knowing each other this was our ONLY fight...but I'd still like to apologize...you were right about the football, and I guess you were right about USC too...it's great!

Once Again, I Present to you, My Farmville Farm!!

You have GOT to be kidding me. There are people online who are even crazier about Farmville than me!!! There's a whole blog dedicated to this game and all the features of it!! It's called Farmville Freak!! It's hilarious!! There are all sorts of photos that are crazier than mine and there are also videos of fans ranting about how much they love this game. About 2 months ago, I would have seriously doubted that anyone would ever read something like this, but these days, (obviously) I'm sold. Although, when I really think about it...if I like this game so much, does it make me a freak too?!?!

Anyway, for those of you interested...here are a few recent pictures of my farm!


My Cottage and all my Edward Scissorhands topiaries!!! Hmm...perhaps I should create a Johnny Depp avatar?

Corn

Watermelon

Elephants and a Pink Cow. Ok these last two are pretty unrealistic for a farm, but um, it's a virtual world, so I guess I can deal!

Crazy Things People Do For Attention!

I came across this story today about a Taiwanese blogger who is going to Paris with the goal of kissing 100 strangers and taking a picture of each kiss. Am I a total square these days? My first thought was ew, gross, herpes! Really, what's wrong with going to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower? Or the Louvre?? Or just eating a dozen baguettes??