The tama life on the connections are so quick! I'm not able to get away with longer absences anymore. The second generation is already grown up! I named the two boys Viktor and Klaus. Guess I was feeling German that day haha. The girl, who was born the day after, was named Claire. They all grew into Kinakomotchi, and then Young Mimitchi. It was so adorable having all of those little bunnies jumping around. I was considerably less attentive this time around because I've been working pretty much everyday. I think the overall care was worse, but I wound up getting the same level characters on the boys.
I let the hearts drop down to 2 empty in both hunger and happiness twice and one time, the hearts dropped down to 3 empty in happiness. I still filled the discipline meter to 100%. I thought that this change in care would result in a lower health character, but I got Memetchi on both! I wasn't disappointed because Memetchi is one of my absolute favorite characters. I think she made her appearance on the V1. (I refer to her as female, even though these particular Memetchi are boys). I think Memetchi has a lot of personality and a whimsical flair to her. She sort of looks like a human baby at times, but then some of her animations look totally different. She's just super cool
Here's Memetchi with her hat
Here she is being kind of creepy, but also adorable
To avoid getting Memetchi on a third tama, I took worse care of Claire. I left two points unfilled in her discipline and let her hearts drop down to 3 empty in both happiness and hunger and then two empty in each on two other occasions. This resulted in Tarakotchi. Tarakotchi comes up a lot in the V1. You can get him on both generations. I think he comes about when the care given doesn't quite fit any of the other characters. Or if there is a contradiction in care...like a full discipline bar but bad general care. I think that I was unable to get a bad care character because the discipline bar was so high. Next time around, I'll keep the discipline lower.
I kind of feel myself getting bored with the connections...I don't know what I'm going to do. I had planned to run them until I left for my band tour, but I don't know if I can or not. I'll try to get through another generation before doing anything. I have been thinking about starting my Angel again, so maybe I will do that if I box the connections. Haven't run my Angel since November...has that really been 6 months ago ? Where has the time gone? I have been writing this log for 7 months! Never thought I would stay with Tamagotchi for this long. I'm glad that I have
I decided to box the connections for now. In their place, I hatched my Angel! It had been quite some time since I hatched that tama. It's refreshing to have a vintage running again, and to only have one going. Every time I go away from the vintages and then come back, I just confirm that they are my absolute favorite tamagotchi. I'm so happy that I have so many of them
I really like the speed of the Angel. I already have an adult! I decided to try getting the unhealthy teen, Takoten, since it didn't really work out the last time. I basically just ignored poor Maruten completely and never gave it one bite of candy. This resulted in its AP (Angel Power) staying at 0. It worked this time and I got Takoten! I vaguely remember getting Takoten I really long time ago when I first got my pink angel. I think I was 11 or so....so yeah a long time ago. I am completely in love with this character. Takoten has so much personality! He's funny, cute, and very lovable. Even has a little sass to him. I really love his animations. Here are some of his best faces.
So, I only had Takoten for a day and he became one of my favorite characters! I took perfect care of him and today at work he became Pukuten, the chubby angel I'd never had Pukuten before, so I was very happy to see him. Very cute tama. His eyes are very small in his normal animation, so I was very surprised by his wide eyed happy face! I laugh out loud every time I see this face.
Pukuten and I spent a nice couple of hours reading outside. The weather was beautiful today.
I've been reading books about Arnold Jacobs, the famous tubist of the Chicago Symphony. He was also a famous teacher of wind playing. My teacher lent the books to me and I have learned so much from them. I've discovered a lot of things that I have been doing incorrectly in regards to my breathing and breath support. I've already been able to incorporate some of these ideas and I'm noticing great results in my playing!
Tomorrow I have a horrible work day. I do my usual morning/afternoon shift and then the restaurant is open in the evening for a special event. So I'll be working an extra three or four hours tomorrow evening. Gross. But at least I'll have Pukuten with me
Well, here I am again. I certainly didn't plan to have a 4 month absence, but sometimes things just happen that way. As you may have noticed, Photobucket destroyed all of the pictures here. This was really upsetting for me because I feel that the pictures are the centerpiece of the blog and I invested so much time in them. Even still, this blog is something that I really care about...otherwise I would not return now. I assure you all that I have not died, been put in prison, suffered any severe trauma, or gone mad. I am perfectly fine, although so much has happened since I was last here. It's strange to think that it was the middle of the summer last time. October 1st...time really goes by so quickly. It's actually really frightening. I suppose it would only be right to fill in the void.
I embarked on my tour with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra on June 21st. It was a wonderful time of friendship, musicianship, and aggravation. The tour itself was actually horribly unorganized. The director was a very cruel man and treated the musicians, especially the international ones, very disrespectfully. Half of the ensemble was Spanish speaking, and most of them couldn't understand or speak any English. This was a very good cultural exposure, and the people were some of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with. The language barrier was a very frustrating problem when it came to rehearsals and communication in general. The director spoke no Spanish, and had no patience. He wouldn't give any time to the translators to communicate what he was asking and insisted on just screaming at the musicians, even though they couldn't understand what he was saying. Due to lack of organization and sketchy funding tactics, the tour was cut very short. It was supposed to go until August 3rd, but we disbanded on July 10th. We suffered many hardships, including sleeping on half inch mattresses in a house with no funiture or hot water, living in a homeless shelter for a week, having to give impromptu chamber recitals to the public with no warning and no rehearsal....there's just so much. On a professional level, the experience was dreadful, but I feel that I gained so much in other respects. I made some wonderful friends. I really have never been in a group where I loved every single person, but this was it. Everyone was so kind and fun. We all went out to the bars every night and drank together and laughed about the situation we were in. There were three oboists including myself. One, Analiett, was from Cuba. She was one of the sweetest people. We had many a long conversation using google translate on my phone I miss her so much. The other oboist was named Patrick. I have so much to say about Patrick. We were instant friends. The connection was so strong and it felt like we had known each other for years. Patrick is a fantastic oboist and he has one of the most amazing personalities. He had me laughing the entire trip. He goes to a school very close to mine, so I visit him sometimes. I'm very glad to have met him
The rest of the summer was passed rather quietly. I raised a few tamas, but nothing like I used to. Over the course of the summer I had a couple of Ginjirotchi, Pochitchi, and Tarakotchi. My interest in tamas waned, so I put them away for a while. My Pochitchi was around until just this past week due to all of the pausing.
I am now 6 weeks in to my graduate program. An official graduate student. I feel really old now. I like my new school a lot. I am principal oboist in both the wind ensemble and the symphony orchestra. In general, I feel that the quality of musicianship here is lower than that of my old school, but I expected that since this isn't a performance intensive program. I am very self motivated, and my private teacher is extremely intense and pushes me. This is the best teacher that I could have right now. She is improving my playing so much and I feel that I'm growing rapidly. I have a lot of work to do here, but I am really enjoying it. I'm preparing for the concerto competition, a chamber music recital, ensemble concerts, mid terms, juries, and professional auditions. Lots of music to be learned! That's what I'm here for. I have one class and it is a graduate research course. It is going to be a lot of work that I'm not used to, coming from a school that didn't stress academics. I'm also a teaching assistant for a history of rock class. I grade all of the papers....and there are over 100 students! Lots of work.
I love my new apartment. It is a million times better than where I lived last year. I even have air conditioning So, in general, life is good right now.
After Pochitchi left me, I hatched a new egg. I was going for Mimitchi, and he came to me this afternoon :mimitchi: It had been quite a while since I'd had him, so I am so happy to have him now. I just spent forever trying to figure out how to post imgur images here...so, If anyone has any tips let please let me know. Hopefully will be able to post pictures of Mimitchi soon!
I am so glad to be back. Thank you for not forgetting about me.
It was such a long week. I had my first orchestra concert last night and I think it went really well. We played Beethoven's 7th Symphony and a cello concerto by Raff. The cello professor here was soloist and he gave a wonderful performance. I had a really large part in the symphony, and also a few solos in the concerto. I think that I played well. The hall here is very nice; I really like the sound. Honestly, the orchestra sounded just as good as my old school. I think that maybe I judged too soon...we don't rehearse in the hall here, so I guess that made things sound bad. I'm used to always rehearsing in the performance space, so that really makes a difference. I had Mimitchi in my tux pocket as usual for the concert He wouldn't want to miss it.
Mimitchi is 13 years old today and showing some signs of neediness. He's gotten sick once, but otherwise everything has been fine. It's been really nice having him around this week. I've been thinking about possibly starting up some other tamas, but I'm a little hesitant to do so. I don't want to have too much going on. I have a ton of work that I need to be doing right now instead of writing this...oh well. I have 6 reeds that need to be finished by Monday. I'm selling 10 in total to the music education students. They need reeds to learn oboe for the methods class. And then a girl in wind ensemble needs 2 reeds for our concert next week. She dropped her music major and is no longer in the studio so she needs someone to make reeds for her. Aside from the reeds, I have a huge research project that's due next weekend and I have done nothing for it. I need to find 20 primary sources for an annotated bibliography about Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin . I was just about to go to the library to look for sources and realized that it closes at 5 on Saturdays....so that's unfortunate. I guess I'll try to find as many online sources as I can today and go to the library in the morning. I also need to do some written work to give to my oboe teacher on Monday for my repertory class. And I'm behind on grading papers...wow. My life is a mess. Perhaps I should hold off on starting more tamas
I still don't know how to go about posting pictures...so hopefully that can be resolved soon. I have so many pictures of Mimitchi!
It's been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks. I have barely slept the past three days or so. I finally got everything finished, submitted, and sold. I somehow managed to get all of the reeds done without any trouble and project done with a lot of trouble The project is the reason I haven't slept lately. I spent probably 20 or so hours on it in total and still didn't quite make the length requirement. I'm hoping the quality of what I do have will balance it out...but we'll see.
I had a really great lesson today. I'm preparing for the concerto competition here at school so my concerto was the focus of the lesson. I have been working really intensely on my breathing and air support and I think it is really paying off. The double reed studio had midterm evaluations this evening. I played my concerto for the double reed faculty and did some sight reading. In general, I was really happy with how it went. The sight reading could have gone better...I started off strong, but then it modulated to B major and went into 7/8 and it was just too much. But there's always time to improve.
Tamas have been my faithful companions through all of the madness lately. I have to make a sad report however. Due to my negligence, I lost Mimitchi at the age of 14. I was so sad. I slept in last Saturday and forgot to pause him like I usually do when I know I won't be up with him. I woke up at noon and he was gone I feel like the worst caretaker. I hatched a new egg with no specific character in mind. This time I got Kusatchi! It had been quite a while since I had had that guy. Kusatchi graced me with his presence for all of two days before loudly dying in the library...of all places. I really should have learned my lesson last time. If you recall, Kusatchi died during my lesson the last time I had him! The cute sickly little plant with a penchant for dying at inconvenient times. I guess it wouldn't matter if I kept the sound off, but I don't like the thought of him dying in my pocket without my knowing it. That just makes it more sad. The excruciatingly long series of death beeps can definitely cause some awkward situations though But that's Kusatchi for you :kusatchi:
I paid a visit to my parents last weekend and I picked up a couple of my tamas while I was there. I brought back my beautiful translucent dark blue P1. I hadn't run this one in probably 12 years or so. I also brought my translucent yellow P2 that housed Mimitchi not so long ago. I hatched the blue tama a little less than a week ago and got Masukutchi today! He was such a pleasant surprise. I had definitely missed that guy. He fell asleep on me a while ago...but I'm trying not to impose my horrible sleep schedule on him any more than I already have When Kusatchi died, I hatched that tama again and now have Tongaritchi. I have no idea what I'm going to get with that one. I thought for sure I was going to get Hashitamatchi. I haven't hatched the yellow tama yet. I think 2 is a good number for now. And that way I can carry them both in my little blue tama pouch. It's very convenient
I'm really happy that I am back to having a functioning tama life again. Sometimes a break is necessary though. But just glad to be back!
Grad school is a lot of work. I'm already overwhelmed and it's just half way through the semester. I don't want to be a complainer, but I just don't know if there's enough time for me to do everything that I need to do. I have another project due in a week...it's the exact same project I did last time except now I'm dealing with secondary sources rather than primary. It won't be nearly as difficult as the first one, but it's still going to be time consuming. I also need to be doing research for my teacher. She wants a 15 page paper by the end of the semester. The only thing that is frustrating to me is that she's having me write my final graduate thesis right now. Most people don't start working on it until next year! So I'm trying to balance work for that and my actual research class. All while practicing a lot and making reeds and doing my assistantship work. It's really a lot. I'm going to push through and hopefully everything will work out. We'll see....
Oboe is difficult lately. I'm in the process of freeing up my embouchure and I'm really feeling the growing pains. All this time I have been relying on my lip muscles to keep my pitch up rather than air. This works fine, but the result is an inflexible embouchure and I can't do any color changes with it. I knew that my embouchure was too tight, but I didn't know how to loosen up without compromising pitch. Now I know that I need a faster air stream. I am working through this, but my pitch is pretty flat right now. I'm trying to get the right combination of air speed and reed.... I'm trying not to get discouraged though because that's why I came to grad school...to fix what I have been doing wrong It will all be for the best.
I wound up getting Pochitchi on my P2. I was kind of hoping for Zukitchi, but it's alright. I definitely thought I took pretty average care. I think the medium healthy characters are what I get most often when I'm not trying for anything in particular. I usually wind up with Ginji or Pochitchi this way. I'm fine with my normal care style resulting in Ginji. He's the best Masukutchi is 11 years old today and he has been so much fun. He stays up late with me every night. He's really a good friend I will sorely miss him when he's gone. With my busy schedule, I let his weight max out at 99oz. It really bothers me when the weight is so high. I don't know if it's because I think it's unhealthy, or just because I have a compulsion to keep the weight at the minimum...either way it's really bugging me. I discreetly played the game with him all through my class and got his weight down to 70 oz. Not great, but at least it's something.
I need to practice some more and work on reeds. And hopefully make a dent in some of this written work tonight. I'm already looking forward to the weekend. My friend Ashley is coming to visit and we're probably gonna go out for some fun. And then Saturday is Jared's birthday! We're having a birthday party for him. Need to figure out costumes because it's also a Halloween party. Spooky
I don't really have much to write today, but I had to post because it's a very important day. This is the one year anniversary of this log! I can't believe I have been writing here for so long. It doesn't seem like that much time has passed. This means that I've also been running tamas pretty consistently for a whole year. I guess the tama fever was really here to stay this time. I must say that I've grown to love tamas even more than I did when I was first obsessed as a kid. It might not be quite as magical, but I definitely have a much deeper appreciation for them now The tama life is the life for me.
Masukutchi and Pochitchi are doing just fine. Pochitchi got sick for the first time today and Masukutchi got sick yesterday. Masukutchi is a bit on the needy side right now. 13 years is getting kind of old for him He should stick around for a while longer though.
Really nothing notable to report, but happy anniversary to me and my tamas! Long live the log.
School is so busy! I feel like I'm always doing something but never get anything done. It's really not a fun feeling I feel guilty for even stopping to write here. I had a big project and I got that finished and turned in. I performed my concerto from memory yesterday for the woodwind forum. It was a good warm up for the competition. I didn't have any memory slips, so I was pleased about that. I think I should do really well!
I found a new drag show on YouTube that I really like. It's called Dragula. It's a competition show for alternative queens. The focus is on being super creepy and weird. The title is America's next Drag Supermonster. I think it's really entertaining and since I love dark and scary things, it's perfect for me. I watched the whole first season already. I was really happy with the winner, Vander von Odd. She was my favorite the whole time! Season 2 is airing right now and it's two episodes in. My favorites so far are Abhora, Victoria Black, James Majesty, and Dahli. I'm kind of obsessed with the show right now.
My chamber recital is coming up later this month! I'm really excited for it, but also a little nervous because we aren't quite prepared yet. Once we feel a little more solid with the piece it will be fine. It's just really difficult to put together.
So the 20th anniversary Tamagotchi chibis were released in the US on the 5th! It's so exciting that tamas are here again. Unfortunately I have been unable to find any....I went to like 10 stores and no one had them. I found the display at Target but they were all gone I really need to get them. I don't know where to go. I don't even really like the chibis, but I just want the experience of buying tamas at a store again. I don't think I've picked one up since the Familitchi came out (V5). I remember seeing it and just getting it because I had all of the other versions up until then. It was the cookie dough shell that seems to be very coveted right now. I actually hated the familitchi...I don't know it just seemed really weird to me. I wanted to be able to play with each of the characters separately so it turned me off.
Anyway, time to report on tamas. Masukutchi left me at 17, his usual leaving time. I was sad to see him go, but I know that I shall have him again some day. I really enjoyed having him again Pochitchi had a rather tragic death... I had the time messed up on him and he went to sleep super early one night. I forgot to switch the time back to normal before I went to sleep, so when I woke up the next day, he was gone ;( Only 13 years old. He must have woken up in the middle of the night and I didn't hear the beeps. Poor guy.
I had my dad come last weekend and drive me all around town looking for the chibis. (best dad ever). I went home for a bit while I was out so I could see my mom. While I was there, I decided to bring back the black and orange English P2 that I bought a year ago. For some reason I had never run it. I wish I had thought about it sooner because it is a perfect shell for Halloween! I just pulled the tab and am using the batteries that came with it (I know that's really bad...I've just had really good luck with old vintage batteries). I now have an adorable Tongaritchi. I'm going for Zukitchi this time around with the goal of getting Zatchi! I've never had Zatchi before so I'd really like to get him. He seems super cool. I haven't had Zukitchi in many years, so I will be happy to have him too This is the only tama that I'm running at the moment. I may hatch my blue tama again, but I don't know. I kind of like just having one. It makes it easier to play with in class.... I know I shouldn't, but I played the game with Tongaritchi quite a lot in orchestra today. The conductor was rehearsing Catacombs from Pictures at an Exhibition and I tacet that movement. So, I guess it wasn't so horrible. Tongaritchi had fun
Tomorrow I am going to try and get up early (God help me) and go practice for a few hours in the morning. I know that I would have a lot more time if I could make myself get up early.. I'm missing so many hours because I want to sleep in all of the time. So tomorrow is the day. I have to will myself to get up. Easier said than done My teacher is away to Rio for the week, so I am helping out with the undergrad oboists. I'm helping one of the Freshmen with her audition material tomorrow afternoon and then proctoring my teacher's exam. She teaches an opera class. I'll spend the rest of the day making student reeds and some for myself. Practicing as well. Tongaritchi is due to evolve tomorrow, so that will keep me excited through the day really hoping I get Zukitchi!
UPDATE: My dear darling Zukitchi just came to me! Wasn't expecting him until tomorrow I LOVE him!
Today is kind of a weird day...it feels like Sunday to me but it's only Saturday. I don't know why! I had a nice day yesterday. Spent time working on reeds and practicing. Then I recorded a recital as part of my GA duties. After that, Ashley came over and we went out to some bars and danced. It was a lot of fun.
I'm still just running the one tama. Zukitchi has been a joy to have. He has a lot of personality and I just love watching him swim around the screen..just squidding around I really wish I could post a picture of him...oh well. We've spent a lot of time practicing and reed making lately. The students in the woodwinds methods class keep breaking their reeds, so I have to make extra ones for them. It's kind of a pain, but at least I'm making some extra money from it. Made $80 just this week! I have another batch due in a couple of weeks. I think they need 10 reeds in total. It will give me some extra Christmas money...aka Tama Money I've had to restrain myself lately...been seeing a lot of vintage shells on ebay that I want. I just can't justify the purchase right now though. I need to buy a new computer and also some reed supplies. If only my paycheck could just go to tamas....that would be the life
I have taken pretty much perfect care of Zukitchi so far. Once or twice his hungry hearts fell to 2 empty, but I don't think that's anything to worry about. I think that I have caught every call for discipline and he is at 75% now. Just one more to go! I leave the sound on when I can to make sure I don't miss it. He is 8 years old today. I've heard that if they don't change into the secret character by age 12, they probably are not going to change. I'm really hoping I get Zatchi! If I don't though, there's nothing to be sad about...I'll just have more time with Zukitchi!
Well, I'm off to go get dinner with Jared. He's almost here so I'd better get ready.
Just a quick update. Zukitchi got his last discipline a couple of days ago and he got sick last night around 8 pm. I've taken perfect care with the exception of one or two times letting the hungry hearts fall to 2 empty...but never both hungry and happy at the same time. Hopefully I will have Zatchi soon? We'll have to wait and see....Zukitchi is 10 years old today. Just as lovable as ever. He hasn't gotten demanding at all yet.
I need to make more reeds and practice a bit...also have to grade some assignments and do a dumb online training thing because I'm technically a faculty member. I've already put it off for so long that they are sending me angry emails.... It's probably time to do it
I really just want to sleep....also someone at the bus stop asked me the time today and my phone was dead so I gave him the time off of my tamagotchi. I thought that was funny. I happened to be playing with Zukitchi when he came up to me.
Ok..time to go hopefully next update will bring the arrival of Zatchi!
I decided to be a nice person and work for my friend. As graduate assistants, we are required to manage a few concerts every semester and take attendance so the undergrads can get credit. The flute grad student commutes over an hour away and didn't want to stick around school all day to do this concert so I am doing it for her in exchange for her grading a portion of the assignments that I need to finish. It works out in the end, because I've been able to sit here and do other work while still getting my papers graded After the concert is over I may go to a party...but who knows.
Zukitchi is sitting here with me while I type. Yes, Zukitchi. I didn't wind up getting Zatchi I'm not sure why because I had all of the discipline by age 9 and took perfect care. I read about someone taking average to bad care with full discipline and getting him. So maybe the perfect care method isn't completely accurate? Not sure what could have gone wrong. It's alright though because I love Zukitchi. He is 14 years old today and rather needy. I've had to pause a little bit today because of rehearsals. Other than today he has never been paused. I will surely miss him when he leaves me.
I have some sad news and some good news. I'll begin with the sad. As you may know, Bandai Japan is releasing the original P1 and P2 again!! This is such a dream for me because I am so in love with the vintage models. They appear to be exact replicas of the 90s versions with same shell designs as well. I preordered a couple (or so I thought) and I was so happy. I never got a confirmation email so I began to get worried. It turns out my preorder didn't go through at all and HLJ didn't even register my account. Now all of the tamas are order stopped. I was so upset. Hopefully there will be another round of preorders available. I'm just so mad because I ORDERED them. Ugh. Oh well. I've got to get them one way or another.
The happy news is that I now have one of my favorite P1 shells!! Someone on the facebook group bought a light blue P1 with pink numbers (of which I happen to have 2 NI. She received a red clock face P1 with blue numbers instead. I offered to trade her one of my blue P1s for the red one and I just received it today! I'm so happy. It is beautiful. I will start it up when Zukitchi leaves me.
Well, this concert should be over any minute now so I should go. Until next time....
It's almost Thanksgiving! I got home last night. It's really nice to be home again and even nicer that the drive was only 20 minutes I definitely enjoy being so close now. I didn't really do much of anything when I got home. Watched the new episode of Dragula with my parents....poor Dahli. She didn't deserve to go home...she had been in the top 3 every week and then she fell short once and was exterminated...Erika Klash definitely needed to go this week, but she totally killed the extermination challenge, I'll give her that. I just don't think it was enough to save her because she's been in the bottom every week so far except for one. I really do like Erika, but she isn't delivering. Oh well. Also Victoria Black was ROBBED. Her alien look was incredible. James Majesty was my second favorite and gave a funny performance, but didn't deserve to win over Victoria. Anyway....
As soon as I got home I hatched my new clock P1 I now have Marutchi with 50% discipline. Definitely going for Ginji on this one...I need my Ginji back.
Some sad news...poor Zukitchi is no longer with me He was 16 years old and I knew that his time was almost up. I planned to pause him so he could be here for Thanksgiving, but I had a lesson yesterday and forgot to pause him. The sound was off so I didn't know. I miss him already. I hatched that tama again when I hatched my P1 and I have Tonmarutchi now. Also 50% discipline. Not sure what I want on that one.
Exciting news!!! I checked today, and HLJ has opened up the orders for the 20th anniversary original Tamagotchi re-release! I quickly picked out a white P2 with blue characters, a white P1 with black buttons, and a blue and yellow clock face P1! The order did go through this time so I am so happy! Can't wait to get them.
I need to do a bunch of homework and make reeds while I'm home that isn't so fun. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of practicing done though. I'm also getting really excited about starting up my Santaclautch again next month! I'm going to start it on December 15th so I will have 2 weeks leading up to Christmas. Such a festive tama
I just have to keep telling myself that I can make it through this semester....I have a chamber recital, concerto competition, and orchestra concert next week. Ahhhhhhh
This has been a nice and relaxing break, but at the same time it's been really tiring. I've had so much homework to do that I haven't really had a lot of time to just enjoy myself. I have done homework all break and still feel like I don't have anything done. It's crazy. I had a massive repertory assignment to do...gathering all of the pieces written for oboe and compiling them in a big organized list. I spent probably 10 hours on it collectively and still haven't gotten to chamber music yet, or even formatted any of it with italics and things. I also have been working on my research paper for the same class. I need a 10 page paper by the end of the semester (which is frighteningly close) and I really don't have that together yet. Aside from that, I have another bibliography project due Monday and an outline and bibliography for my final project for my research class. So much. Besides academic work, I've been practicing at least 2 hours a day. I have an orchestra concert and two dress rehearsals for that, chamber music recital, and concerto competition all this coming week. I have to been in top performance mode. I also had 8 student reeds to make for Monday. SO MUCH. I don't remember the last time that I had this much stuff to do at once. It's really crazy. I think I'm most freaked out for the final research project because I really have no idea what I'm doing it on, and it also involves a class presentation. Grad school is no joke.
My 2017 20th Anniversary Tamagotchi P1s and P2 are on their way! Got an email from HLJ a couple of days ago saying that they have shipped I'm so excited! I've been chatting with Dennis from ginjirotchi.ca about it. We are both so pumped to get them because we are big vintage freaks. Let the countdown begin. I really just can't believe that Bandai is doing this after all of these years...I really thought they had left my beloved 90s tamas in the dust. This is so amazing. I saw the packaging that they are coming in and it looks just like the originals! If they release these in the US....I don't even know what I'll do. Like I can't imagine going in a store and seeing them in those old 90s boxes and opening the flap on the front and seeing the tamas inside. I think I would just die. I will seriously buy every single shell I can find if they come out in stores here. I'm ok with having missed the chibis because I know that I'm really not missing anything with those...I actually even have one that I bought in 2004 when they came out. Everyone knows they are basically just glorified keychains. But for these tamas....I will fight people for these. A lot of us are even hoping for other vintage re-releases like the Angel, Morino, and Devil. That would be so amazing. I think it's obvious that there's a market for this stuff. Not just collectors are hyped about it. Come on Bandai!
Wow, such a passionate rant. Anyway, I have Tamatchi and Tongaritchi now. They are due to change tomorrow sometime because they are both 5 years old and got sick today. I have disciplined Tongaritchi to 100% and left Tamatchi at 75%. I'm a little uneasy about what I'm going to get this time around because I feel that I haven't been the most conscientious caregiver these past few days. I've been so focused on my work and I've slept in most days leaving them up by themselves a bit. I was kind of hoping for Mimitchi on the P2, but I'm bracing myself for seeing Pochitchi tomorrow. I'm hoping I didn't mess up too much, but we'll see. I am somewhat confident about getting Ginji on the P1, but not completely sure. I let Tamatchi's hearts drop a couple of times more than I should have, but I think it will be fine. I would really really like to have Ginji back, especially on this beautiful new shell. Tomorrow will decide my fate....
Kind of dreading going back to school tomorrow Not that I really escaped anything being home though...I've been doing work the whole time anyway. I keep telling myself that this was just a short break, but not really a break because the semester is coming to a crazy end. Just have to push through until December and then I can reeaaalllly relax. And hatch a million tamas. I'm so ready to just hatch like 10 tamas. I want tamas everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
*Sidenote: I just realized that I'm an idiot and can't do math (ok, I've always known that) but I said that I would hatch my Santa on December 15th because that was two weeks before Christmas...well, that is NOT the case. I will be hatching Santa on December 11th because THAT is 2 weeks before Christmas wow.....)
I have survived my first semester of grad school. What a wild ride...particularly the past few weeks. I am drained, exhausted, depleted....just done. Where were we? I have a lot to report from my absence. First of all, I won the concerto competition! I was up against 12 other musicians in the finals, graduate and undergraduate students. There were many more that didn't make it to the final round. I am really impressed with the level of musicianship here at this school. I feel that everyone performed at a very high level and I am very fortunate to have come out on top. Two other finalists were chosen alongside me, and there were a few honorable mentions. I was the only graduate student to win. My prize for winning is the opportunity to play my concerto with the symphony orchestra. This is something I have always dreamed of doing. I am so incredibly excited. That performance will be in May. My chamber recital also went really well. I had an amazing time performing with my friends. We played Loeffler's Deux Rhapsodies for oboe, viola, and piano. One of the most beautiful pieces I have ever played.
In other news, I received an A in all of my classes. My final paper in my research class was a struggle and I didn't do as well on it as I could have. Nonetheless, I still got a solid B on it. I have to do research over winter break and write a 10 page paper, but besides that, I'm all done until the end of January! I have a massive break. From now until January 29th. Lots of time to relax, practice, and hatch tamas!
Time for tama news. I made one of the best purchases of my life a couple of weeks ago. I was looking on Facebook marketplace and happened to come across an ad selling 2 NIB English Angels for $50 each! I couldn't believe it. Obviously the person didn't know what they were worth....but that's not my fault, right? I arranged to go pick them up. It was about a 2 hour drive but so worth it. I now have these beauties! Never really thought I would get a new English Angel, certainly not 2! Such wonderful luck. The yellow shell is gorgeous.
Also, my 20th Anniversary P1 and P2 tamas from HLJ came in the mail!!!!! I'm SO EXCITED. They came three days ago and it's taken all of my strength not to start them up. I had to finish with school first or I wouldn't have been able to enjoy them properly. I had them sent to my parent's house, so I will be opening them tomorrow when I go home! My plan is this: I'm going to run all 3 of those tamas, my new red clock P1 and my orange and black P2, the new yellow Angel, my Santaclautch (yes, I hatched him!), and maybe a few more P1 and P2s. I want to have a ton of tamas running while I have the time! I'm so excited. And that means there will be so much to write about! Sidenote: I hatched my Santa on December 11th and have been running him. I actually have made a log dedicated specifically to the Santaclautch and it is being updated regularly. So, I won't really write much about it here.
As for my current tamas, last time I had teens. I wound up getting Pochitchi again on my P2. It seems like I've gotten him an awful lot the past few months. It's ok though, Pochitchi is adorable Sadly, I lost him a bit too soon. I had the time set wrong and when I went to sleep one night, I forgot to fix it. He woke up while I was asleep and died He was 14.
On my P1, I got my Ginji as I was hoping for. He lived a very long and happy life. Died a few days ago at his usual age of 17. It was so great to have him back!
So, the only one I have currently running is Santa. This actually works out because now I will have a fresh start when I do my big hatch tomorrow. and....there will be pictures!!!! I decided to use Tinypic and I must say, it is a million times easier to use that Photobucket was. Really happy to be able to post pictures again, even though I'm still so sad about all of my old ones. I have a ton of pictures backlogged on my phone, so I will just post some highlights of the past few months to try and make up for lost time. Here we go!
*ATTENTION: ALL OF THE PHOTOS ON MY LOG CAN NOW BE VIEWED BY DOWNLOADING A CHROME EXTENSION - google photobucket broken links fix chrome and click the first result. Downloading this fixes all of the broken pictures!*
Hello everyone! My break from school has been so nice. I've slept a lot, played lots of League of Legends (still stuck in Silver though), and had lots of quality tama time! I've also made a bunch of reeds and practiced. Very relaxing break And I still have a whole month left to go!
I haven't done a whole lot. I stay at home mostly, but sometimes I spend the night with Jared when he's not working. I've also started playing more flute. I was relieved to discover that I hadn't lost my high notes I'd really like to take some flute lessons though. I think I've done pretty well for being self-taught, but I really struggle with articulation. I think I have a really nice tone and vibrato and I can play the full range easily, but the articulation is just really weird for me. Maybe I'll get my flute friend to teach me a bit. It's a very fun and stress free instrument! Probably because there's no pressure for me to actually be good at it
I'm planning a trip to my old school in the next couple of weeks. I'm going to go see my friends that are still there and spend some time on campus. I really miss it. I'm so excited to see Camilla and play oboe with her! It's been too long. I'll also visit Emily. She's living in Cleveland now. Very excited! But not excited for the drive...I've never done it alone. Oh well, I'm 22 years old. I should be able to drive 4 hours in the same state. hahaha.....
Tama life has been really eventful lately! I hatched my new yellow Tamagotchi Angel and the three 20th anniversary tamas from HLJ as soon as I got home. There was a lot of drama with the 20th ann ones at first. Basically, I discovered that if you feed too many snacks, they will die early! This didn't occur to me right away because snacks don't effect the originals at all. On my first hatch, all 3 tamas died around the same time even though I'd taken perfect care and they had full discipline. The weight was also low on them. The were age 3 Marutchi. I was completely freaked out. I hatched again and the exact same thing happened! Some people on the Facebook group suggested that maybe I try not feeding any snacks. I did this and everything turned out fine! So now it is confirmed that feeding snacks will cause an early death. I'm not sure if it can happen in the teen or adult stages yet, but I'm not really interested in finding out...just no snacks All 3 changed into adults yesterday! I have Mametchi on both of my P1s and Zukitchi on my P2. I could have sworn that I took better care than that on the P2, but perhaps there are differences in how to obtain the characters. No matter, I love Zukitchi and I'm happy to have him back
I'll go ahead and note the differences between the re-releases and the originals that I've noticed so far. First of all, the button response is wonderful and there is no longer a delay. Everything is crisp and fast. The screen is easier to see. It is more vibrant than the originals. I think some of this has to do with the background being a little brighter. There are many more opportunities for discipline. Seriously, if you can't get a full discipline bar on these, something is wrong with you. In the teen stage, they called for discipline 4 or 5 times after it was already full. They also get sick more often that the originals. Normally, the originals would get sick and it signaled that they would change the next day. These just kind of get sick whenever. So you have to keep an eye on them. I've also noticed that there seems to be a bit of randomness to them. Despite being hatched at the exact same time, they have different poop schedules, call for discipline at different times, and get sick at different times. One of my P1s seemed to always be ahead of the others for no apparent reason. It changed into an adult HOURS before the others did. Identical care was given to all of them, so I don't know why. They also seem to take longer to grow. I got adults at age 7 and usually I get them at age 5 or 6. These are the biggest difference I have noted so far. I'm sure there will be more to come! In general, I really love them. The updated processor is such a huge plus. You don't realize how slow the older ones are until you experience this. I'm going to avoid feeding snacks for as long as I can to make sure they don't die early. I don't really see how it can be avoided when they start getting really needy though. We'll see what happens.
In addition to the new ones, I having been running my black and orange P2 and red clock P1. I got Mimitchi and Ginji! Sadly, Ginji left me at age 14. I slept in and when I woke up he was gone Mimitchi is still doing well at age 15.
My friend Emily bought me a 20th anniversary chibi for Christmas! I was very happy because I never managed to find on in the stores. I'm still running it. Got Mametchi and she changed into Bill a couple of days ago. No way to really track the age, but I'm sure he's pretty old now.
As for the Angel, I got Oyajitenshi and he later changed into the secret character Otonoten! I had never had either of these characters, mostly because it is so difficult to actually take bad enough care to get them. I basically just only cared for it enough to keep it alive. Then once I got Oyajitenshi, I took perfect care and kept the AP up. With the angels, I think the biggest factor is the AP. Not so much care. Otonoten left me a few days ago at age 10. Not sure if it was just his time to go or if I accidentally ignored him for too long. Oh well. I've been playing a lot of League and it makes me a sometimes forgetful caretaker. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of him before he left oops. Anyhow, I hatched again and got Taraten this time! I took the usual awful care of Maruten to get Takoten, and then took average care of him and kept the AP between 30 and 39. It worked perfectly. I really was just focusing on the AP, not so much care. This is why I think the AP is the biggest factor. I know that you can get Smiling Angel from Taraten, so perhaps I'll get him. Kat from Mimitchi.com got him by taking bad care of Taraten. I've been taking decent care and keeping the AP high. I'm not exactly trying to get Smiling Angel, but if I get him it will be a surprise!
Oyajitenshi and Oyajitenshi shakin' that booty
Taraten and his silliness
I have been running my Santaclautch all this time and it is now time to retire it until next year. I need to wrap up the Santaclautch log soon. I had a lot of fun with it!
Also here is how everyone has been transported lately...can't carry them in my pockets anymore! (I know I'm ridiculous)
Other things...I'm really excited for Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars 3! It starts at the end of January. Can't wait. Also, my favorites made it to the top 3 in Dragula! James Majesty, Biqtch Puddin', and Victoria Elizabeth Black. They are all so amazing. I think it would be really cool if Biqtch won, but I'm thinking James will take it. Have to wait until the 9th for new episodes...that's a bummer.
Well, I should probably go and make some reeds now. Ugh.
Just a little update. I have a paper due on the 7th and I haven't started working on it. What better way to procrastinate than to write? My tamas are all very happy and healthy. The new "no snacks" rule really does wonders for their physique. All super slim and looking good. It's a shame it's so cold out, I'm sure they'd love to show off their rockin' beach bods The Mametchis are very cute as always and it's a joy to have Zukitchi swimming around the screen once more. Bill is still hanging on at age....old haha. Really wish it at least tracked age on the chibis. Oh well. Dear Mimitchi is doing very well at age 17. I make sure to spend some extra quality time with him, as he is more needy than the others right now. And I just love having him sit right by me all of the time. So cute.
As for Taraten, I did wind up getting Smiling Angel! So, I suppose good care works for getting him just as well as bad. I always took good care of Taraten and kept his AP high. Smiling Angel is quite interesting because every single one of his expressions are exactly the same animation. Happy, sad, flying over shooting stars, sleeping....always the same. There is something slightly unnerving about seeing him asleep but still looking very much awake...I'll have to take a picture sometime. Kind of like how Zukitchi sleeps with his eyes open. I guess I have a little bunch of weirdos haha.
I had a lot of fun playing League last night. Made some friends and we won every game we played together! I've been playing pretty much nothing but support lately. I really like support. I have a really aggressive play style though, so I like to play high damage poke supports. Zyra is my main and she single handedly carried me out of Bronze in like 2 weeks. So good. I recently started playing LuLu and Morgana support again. They are both really fun. I like Soraka as well, but she's not the most fun champ. Anyway, I seriously need to stop playing so much because I have a lot of work to do ugh.
. She received a red clock face P1 with blue numbers instead. I offered to trade her one of my blue P1s for the red one and I just received it today! I'm so happy. It is beautiful. I will start it up when Zukitchi leaves me. 
