When I get an opportunity to be creative, I jump on it! Even if hours later I find myself regreting it and manage to get only about five hours of sleep. (I realize some people consider that a lot, but I demand 8+ hours of beauty rest!) Anyway, the end results:

Bookmarks for little kids! Jackie teaches a third-grade class every Wednesday, and seeing as last Wednesday was going to be the last time for this year, she wanted to make them something special for them to keep. She is usually swamped with work, and I am usually playing video games and poker. Sooo she asked if I wanted to make these bookmarks, and I replied with a way-too-enthusiastic YES, even though she was probably just joking. The two on the right are for the kids in the class, the quote says, "No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big." The two on the left are for Ben and Ashley, and I realize the dinosaurs are supercool and I should have done that for all the boys, but man are dinosaur scales and limbs tedious, so I guess Ben is the only lucky one. If anyone wants a bookmark, ask me now while I still have access to a lot of construction paper! Haha.

Classes are aaaaall over with! Unfortunately, that means this coming week is finals week. Unfortunately, this also means I have to study, which I haven't really done all semester except for the nights before midterms. Bleh, actually let's talk about something else.

So I have this idea. It's completely unoriginal, and I'm sure it's been done, but I have this idea. I've been reading Pink Is The New Blog for a while now, where this guy named Trent dishes the latest celebrity gossip everyday. What started out as some small personal blog is now wildly popular, and he's gotten TV spots, magazine articles, and has met a ton of celebrities. There is a website called Old Grandma Hardcore about this guy and his 80-year-old grandmother who are avid gamers. What also started out as a personal blog has gotten mentions in magazines and TV shows, and they regularly receive lots of free swag from game companies. In a related story, Ben and Nick have gotten the opportunity to go to E3 this year through Nick's friend John. Now John is this guy who goes to school with Nick at NKU, who also maintains the site XE360. It's a website that he started up a while ago, and now he gets opportunities like going to E3 (which I would love to go to) and get backstage passes to this concert that we're all going to in Chicago. So I sez to myself, I want these opportunities too. I should start up my own website of something. I should start my own video game website!

See I told you, completely unoriginal. This is probably the most oversaturated website theme out there, but I feel like a good number of them are still somewhat successful. I was thinking I should do a website about something else, maybe food, maybe arts and crafts (haha, well that was thought up while making the bookmarks; did you know there is an arts and crafts major??); but I feel like a good portion of my life has been dedicated to gaming as of late, so it's probably my best bet. However, I don't consider myself to be anything near an authority about video games, and while I think I'm pretty savvy about games, I am no where near as immersed in video game culture as I should be if I run this site. But I have noticed that girls are still in the minority when it comes to gaming, and I'd say that a majority of THOSE girls (including me) only play games like Katamari and Kingdom Hearts and some RPGs. I don't know, I could be wrong, but I haven't met many girls who actually play first person shooters.

So I wanted to make a video game review website that catered to these girls, just reviewing cutesy games and whatnot (I will be baised if I want to!), some classics, and maybe really good games (that, you know, don't require lots of bloodshed, but then again I'm a wimp). I've had a few days for this idea to stew around in my mind, and it's sort of fizzled out a bit, but I'm going to attempt it once finals are over. I'm hoping to get a group of girls to contribute, so far I think Ashley and Anna are willing to help a bit. I know Ben and Nick want to help too. This website idea might be completely different come one month from now, we'll see. Who knows, it really might end up being about food! But I wonder what benefits I'd get from that, free pasta? A Food Network t-shirt? Do they even sell those? Maybe a website about drinks? I digress. Board games?

Making those bookmarks put me in something of a charitable mood, I'm not really sure why. When Jackie came back from school and said that all her kids loved the bookmarks, I then wanted to make bookmarks for every child in America! Seriously guys, I don't know where all this Joanna ambition suddenly came from. Opening this food place, starting up a website, brightening the lives of all children... I've also added to the list: becoming an environmental activist, and saving the women of China. Why the women of China? Well simply from the fact that being a woman in China is a terrible thing. First of all, you're a disappointment to your parents because they wanted a son, and then when you're a mother yourself, you can't have more than one son, or one more child if you have a daughter or a handicapped child first. There are so many horror stories of women being forced to have abortions just days before their due dates. These women have no voice in the Chinese government, but with my super powers, and my awesome Chinese-speaking skills, I will save these women!

:sigh: I feel so insignificant. But it's a goal, you gotta give me that.

Well as for children, I've been reading about Child's Play for a few years now, which is this charity set up by the guys at Penny-Arcade. It's this toy/game drive usually around Christmas time, but they accept donations year round. I haven't contributed in the past two years, mainly because it never really crossed my mind to, but I just noticed that one of the hospitals they sponsor is Kosair's Children's Hospital in Louisville! So I plan on donating a ton of stuff this holiday season, and I think everyone else should too. It's entirely the wrong season to be starting this, but hey any PR helps. I think I'll give my first paycheck this summer to them too. Yay! (Someone needs to remind me of that, btw.)

Okay, well if I'm going to do this website, I need to FULLY immerse myself into this gaming culture. Ben might dump me while this happens, and I might lose all my friends. But if I can get free video games, then I don't care! (I totally kid.) Anyway, this is all fascinating. I have too much ambition. Someone kill me before I have a heart attack.

Listening: Gnarles Barkley - St. Elsewhere (this cd is hot!)
Playing: Kingdom Hearts II (I beat Chrono Trigger yay!)
Watching: Algorithm March