Good-Bye!

I'm writing this for the very few of you who are still logging into this blog on a regular basis in the hopes that I would update it. I know it's been over a year since I wrote my last entry. One of the reasons why I've gotten around to writing this new entry is because I was suffering from a long-lasting cold at the time when I wrote my last entry and I didn't want to leave the impression that the reason why I haven't updated this blog in a long time is because my cold was really some serious disease that killed me.

I also wanted to provide some closure to this blog since I'm no longer interested in Webkinz and I have since moved on in my life to other things that have nothing to do with Webkinz or virtual worlds.

Here is what I've been up to since last year. I did suffer from health problems (which was unrelated to the lingering cold that I suffered from last February) and last November I underwent surgery to correct those problems. It has been over six months since my surgery and I now feel much better than before.

As for this blog, I really couldn't keep up with updating it. Besides, once I reached a certain point in my gameplaying things didn't really change quite as much as in the first few weeks I logged on to the Webkinz.com site. At first I decided that I would update the blog only if major changes happened to my virtual pets. But I ended up falling out of the habit of updating it entirely.

As for Webkinz.com, I continued to log on into it for another month or so after my last entry but I eventually grew tired of it so I stopped. My membership in Webkinz.com expired back in January. I could've extended it by an extra year by purchasing another Webkinz stuffed animal but I decided not to so I let it lapse. Granted I was still in recovery from my surgery at the time but even if I was in perfect health I still would not have purchased another Webkinz just to keep my membership in Webkinz.com active.

Basically I grew tired of Webkinz.com. If you wanted to do anything for your pet, you had to procure Kinz Cash. Feeding a pet and keeping it healthy and happy required Kinz Cash to purchase the food and other necessary products. Expanding the Webkinz's home beyond the default room and bed that each pet gets required Kinz Cash. Adding an outside yard required Kinz Cash. (That's right, a Webkinz virtual pet was stuck indoors unless you forked over some Kinz Cash to buy a yard.) Purchasing toys and other things (such as a swimming pool) that had the potential to improve the pet's quality of life required Kinz Cash. Even educating a pet required Kinz Cash for tuition.

I spent the bulk of my time on Webkinz.com procuring Kinz Cash. I would get a job through the Employment Agency, play various arcade games, spin the Wheel of Wow, visit the Wishing Well, and play Wacky's Bingoz in an effort to earn Kinz Cash. All of these efforts earned low wages. The most amount of Kinz Cash I ever earned was the time that I purchased two packs of Webkinz Trading Cards and I entered the codes of some of the codes and I earned hundreds of Kinz Cash at once. I also earned more Kinz Cash when I purchased my Webkinz (Floyd the Pig). But I really hated the idea that in order to earn lots of Kinz Cash I had to go to a store to purchase a Webkinz product that I really didn't need (such as a Webkinz mouse pad or a pack of trading cards) in the hopes of being able to score lots of Kinz Cash.

After a while I realized that Webkinz.com was just like real life in that adults have to find ways of earning money in order to survive. From an adult's perspective, it was too much like real life and I grew tired of it. From a child's perspective, it's sort of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's good to teach children that if they want anything out of life, they have to work to earn money and save that money in order to afford to but it. But, on the other hand, I'm not sure if it's good to teach children that earning money in order to be good consumers is the only thing in life. I mean there is more to life than just the continuous cycle of working to earn money in order buy stuff which then makes you broke so you have to repeat the cycle. (For example, there is less of an emphasis on making and spending time with friends on Webkinz.com than earning Kinz Cash to buy stuff for your pets.)

The best part of Webkinz.com was the arcade games. Not only did I earn Kinz Cash for playing them but I did have fun playing them for a while. But, after a while, I even lost interest in playing arcade games, especially since I can play arcade-style games without having to log into Webkinz.com. (For example, I can go to iTunes and purchase arcade games for my iPod Touch. Or I can play my collection of classic arcade games--with titles like "Namco Museum--from the 1970s and 1980s on my Sony Playstation 2. Or I can play games on my Nintendo DS.)

I attempted to educate my pets in the Kinzville Academy but not only did I have to cough up the tuition but I had to do all the work for each class. And that was just for one pet. For my second pet I had to sign up for the same classes and do the same work. It got very repetitive. And I never understood why I needed to educate my pets in the first place. I finished a couple of classes for my two pets and neither one of them behaved differently from before.

I also felt frustrated with the virtual world at Webkinz.com. For example, there was this Magical Charms Forest that was locked to members unless you purchase at least 1 Webkinz charm. Once you gained access you got more rewards for your pets when you purchased more Webkinz charms. The big problem is that none of the stores in my area ever carried the Webkinz charms. They carried Webkinz lip balms, Webkinz mousepads, Webkinz bookmarks, and Webkinz clothes for the large Webkinz stuffed animals but not Webkinz charms.

The closest I ever got to being able to access the Magical Charms Forest was the one time that one of the local stores got a shipment of Webkinz charm bracelets. Of course it made sense for Webkinz to make charm bracelets so you would have a place to put your Webkinz charms. But that store didn't have the Webkinz charms--just the Webkinz charm bracelets. I purchased the bracelet thinking that I would gain access to the Magical Charms Forest.

Except when I got home and entered the code, I didn't gain access to the Magical Charms Forest. Instead I got this piece of furniture where I could store my virtual charms. I placed the furniture in the main room of my pets' home but I never found any Webkinz charms so it was moot. At one point I even searched some of the authorized Webkinz stores in New York City while I was on a trip to visit relatives and the ones I visited didn't have the charms in stock. They had everything else marked "Webkinz" but the charms.

I think the fact that I was unable to find any store that sold Webkinz charms so I could access the Magical Charms Forest online was another reason why I lost interest in Webkinz.com.

I never got a chance to visit the Magical Charms Forest so it's useless to speculate whether I would've stayed longer as a member of Webkinz.com if I had gained access to it or if it would've been another part of Webkinz.com that I would've grown bored with quickly.

The biggest frustration was that I purchased a second pet only because I thought it would be cool to see my two pets interact together--just like the characters in The Sims did if you ordered them to do so with a few keystrokes. (The Sims was a videogame that I played with for a while a few years back but I quickly grew bored with it and haven't touched it since.) But Magic the Unicorn and Floyd the Pig never interacted together--even if they were in the same room facing each other. They both only cared to interact with me and they ignored each other even if they stood face to face with each other.

Then there were the frequent bugs on Webkinz.com that would sometimes log you off while you're in the middle of doing something or the times when you tried to log on but the screen would just freeze before you successfully logged on or it would crash your browser.

So I basically stopped logging into Webkinz.com after last March and I never looked back. I don't regret letting my membership laspe. To be honest, I don't think Webkinz is quite as big a deal as it once was, especially since the economy started tanking last fall. In recent months I've seen more stores having clearance sales on Webkinz along the lines of "Buy 2 for $25!" or "Buy 1 Get 1 Free!"

Besides, there have been other companies that have copied the Webkinz concept. Ty, the manufacturer of Beanie Babies, have come out with Beanie Babies 2.0 where the purchaser can join a special virtual world with these new and improved Beanie Babies. Ty has also come out with a line of female bean bag dolls called Ty Girls that have their own virtual world made just for girls. Build-A-Bear Workshop also has a virtual world that one can join with a purchase of any stuffed animal from that chain.

Then there's Disney with its Disney Fairies.com. This one is unique in that membership is free (that's right, you don't even need to purchase any real life products to become a member) and you even get to create three virtual fairies with this free membership. If you want to create more fairies, then you have to pay a fee.

But there's a catch. Even if you choose to stick with the maximum free three fairies, you can purchase stuff for your fairies only if you go shopping in the real world and buy specially-marked Disney products that contain codes that you can enter so your fairies can get a nice gift from you.

Now you know why I haven't been in a big rush to get a free account with Disney Fairies.com.

I know there are other virtual worlds geared more towards adults like Second Life and Wizard of Warcraft. But I've been leery about trying either one of them because I figured that I would grow tired of those worlds just like I grew tired of Webkinz.com. Or I would become totally addicted to the point where other things in my life would suffer (like doing housecleaning on a regular basis).

It doesn't help that I was unnerved by a film that I saw at a local film festival last fall called Second Skin. It was a documentary that focused on people who became totally hooked on World of Warcraft and it was scary. There were relationships and marriages that broke up over that game and people who got fired from a job because their obsession with the game interferred with their on-the-job performance. There was even a mother who tearfully talked about her son who took his life over a similar game called EverQuest. There were independent programmers who made money by doing things (like searching through a virtual world finding virtual cash or weapons for a player) or making things (like a special weapon) on behalf of World of Warcraft players in that virtual world. In other words, these players paid others people for virtual services or virtual products that were only used in that virtual world. The players spent a lot of money on Wizard of Warcraft and, in some cases, it led to financial problems.

I was grossed out by the scene when some guys had just purchased an add-on software for World of Warcraft and they were so engrossed in it that they chose to pee into empty bottles rather than take a short break to make a trek to the toilet. They even decided to forgo sleeping because they were too engrossed in that game to go to bed. There was footage of guys sitting in front of computer screens in the middle of the night who were nodding off while they were fighting the urge to go to sleep.

I'm glad that I never got THAT hooked on Webkinz.com. In fact, my time in that virtual world has made me decide that I would rather spend more of my time in the real world in a virtual one.

I still have my two stuffed Webkinz animals lying somewhere around my home. I may eventually donate them to Goodwill but right now I'm too busy doing other things in my life to look for them. I know that one day they will turn up when I least expect it so I'm not too worried about not having seen nor held them in a long time.

It has been over a year since I last logged into Webkinz.com but I don't miss it. I've moved on in my life. I've had my experiment with spending time in a virtual world but I would rather experience real life than spend the bulk of my life in a virtual world.

This marks the last entry in this blog. I'm going to leave it online as a review for anyone else who's thinking about joining Webkinz.com or a similar virtual world. My final verdict on Webkinz.com is this: It was cute, colorful, and fun at first but it became time-consuming and repetitive as time went on--especially when it came to earning Kinz Cash--and it eventually led to my boredom and I ended up quitting.

I'm going to close this entry and this blog by putting up the last few screenshots I ever made of my pets and their home before I lost interest in Webkinz. The yard was taken last February soon after the virtual snow melted and I purchased a new swimming pool. The screenshots of the main room (which was a combination living room, dining room, playroom, and kitchen) were taken last March, just a few weeks before I grew bored with Webkinz.com and stopped playing.

Good-bye!

This Week on Webkinz.com

The cold that struck me last month is still lingering. At first it entererd my head and I felt extremely tired. Then it went into my chest and it was determined to stay there and it even affected my voice. Right now I'm almost at the end of the second week of this extended cold hell and I'm at the point where I have partially regained my voice and I have cut way back on coughing. Every day I make a little bit more progress but my biggest enemy is fatigue. I'm glad that this cold is waning on its own because, at one point, I thought about going to the doctor. But just when my husband and I discussed the doctor, I started to feel better.

In any case, I was too sick to visit Webkinz.com until today so I missed that Winter Festival entirely, which ended yesterday. (Based on what I read on Webkinz Insider, that festival was similar to the Goo-Goo Berry Festival where random snowflakes would cascade down the screen and if you clicked on one, you got a prize of some sort for your pet.)

So today was the day that I made my one and only visit that week. I noticed that the main page of Webkinz.com has changed again (which is just as well since Christmas is long over).

Since I still felt tired from my recent illness, I decided not to push my luck too much and spend a lot of time on that site. Several weeks ago I got some tips from the Webkinz Insider forum on what to do if you want to earn Kinz Cash quickly but don't have a lot of time to spend on Webkinz.com. I finally decided to follow that advice.

I checked out the Wishing Well for the very first time. It's pretty cute. As I looked down into the Wishing Well, I kept on thinking about the first musical number in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where Snow White kept on singing "I'm Wishing" into this well and she would hear her echo in the well.

Basically I made a wish by pressing the "Make A Wish" button and I got random prizes. I won some Kinz Cash, which was pretty cool. (I ultimately won 50 Kinz Cash.) I was only entitled to five wishes per day but at least I got some money out of it.

I checked out the Wheel of Wow as well. I won 20 Kinz Cash spinning that wheel (which I can only do once a day), which was okay.

I also decided to try my hand at Wacky's Bingoz. I picked the 3 ball game version where I was entitled to just three balls. I only got one match out of the three.

Once I went through the three balls, that was it. I would have to wait another day to see if my game further progressed, which is kind of lame. I mean, I've played Bingo in real life and the game just continues until someone in the room yells "BINGO!" and the game judges verify that Bingo. You're not limited to just three balls then told to come back tomorrow to continue.

I also completed a job at the Employment Agency but, for once, it was something other than putting burgers together. The burger job wasn't available so I decided to work in the doctor's office where I had to match the right course of treatment to the right affliction each patient was suffering. (It was an ice pack for a bump on the head, a bandage for a scrape on a limb, and cold medicine for a red nose.) I successfully completed that job with no trouble at all.

I gave the Kinzville Academy another shot. I found that if I get Magic to complete the same classes five times in a row, that little unicorn will eventually earn badges. So I took the same classes, which had the same games as before and I passed them all.

I also decided to enroll Floyd as well since I wanted him to be as educated as Magic and I really don't want to show any favoritism towards any of my pets. So I enrolled him in a painting class and a weight training class and he passed them both real easily.

At that point I began to grow tired from my illness so I cut my visit short. Well, there's always next week where I'll feel better (I hope).

This Week on Webkinz.com

Yes, I know I skipped last week. That's because I was busy preparing for a craft show last Saturday that I was involved in so I didn't get a chance to log in at all. I managed to get a few hours of checking out the site only on Monday (Martin Luther King Day). I did the daily Calendar Quiz only to find out that, for some weird reason, the site had me as not doing any of this month's quizzes, even though I had done some of them before. (The only thing I can figure out is that it must've been some server glitch.) So I ended up re-doing the quizzes for this month up until Monday.

I went back to the employment agency and did the burger job again. It's cool that I got a raise for that job so I'm able to bring home more Kinz Cash these days. I played a couple of arcade games. I did some shopping and I purchased a few yard chairs for the backyard.

The only new thing I really did was check out the Kinzville Academy. I was starting to get bored with doing the quizzes, arcade games, and jobs so I thought it would be something interesting. Basically you pick a pet then select a course for your pet to finish. You can try any course for free but you won't get credit and you're only entitled to three free tries total on the classes. When it comes time for paying for classes, I could take the class myself for 50 Kinz Cash or hire a tutor to take the class for me for 250 Kinz Cash. I was a cheapskate so I selected the lower cost option.

I had to select which pet could go to class so I picked Magic since she's technically older by a few weeks. I was limited to taking three classes for credit per day. On top of that, I had to do the actual required tasks but my pet got the credit. At times I felt like I was playing a glorified arcade game and there were times when I felt that this was the equivalent of having my mother doing all of my school projects for me during elementary, middle, and high school.

First, I enrolled Magic in a Fashion class where I had to memorize what outfits a poodle model was wearing while she was walking down the runway. I did pretty well on that.

Then I enrolled Magic in a Language class where I had to solve a series of word puzzles. I did pretty well at that as well.

For the third class I picked Weight Lifting because I thought that Magic should learn how to be healthy. I had to "lift" weights with a mouse while making sure that it stayed within a certain set of lines (which you can see in the picture above the "Lift" button). After a false start, I learned it quick and I also got Magic to pass that class.

Here is Magic's report card at the end of the day. It's nice to see that she did great on her first day. But, on the other hand, I have to wonder what's the purpose of giving my pet an education. Will it encourage my pet to be more independent-minded? Will I get free virtual goodies for completing a certain level of coursework? Will I have to enroll my other pet (Floyd) as well in order to have a well-educated household or could I get by with having Magic tell Floyd what she's leared at school? I'm going to have to read up more on the Kinzville Academy before I venture further because I really don't want to be throwing my hard-earned Kinz Cash at something that's not going to be a real long-term benefit for my pets.

Monday was the only day that I was on Webkinz.com because, that very day, I developed a scratchy throat that has developed into a full-fledged head and chest cold. At one point I completely lost my voice. I've been feeling extremely tired and I just didn't feel like having anything to do with Webkinz. Right now I go through periods where I cough like mad for several minutes. This coughing has started to affect my sleep and I hope this all ends for me soon.

This Week on Webkinz.com

First of all, I'd like to wish everyone reading this a belated Happy New Year. It took so long for the laptop to get out of the repair shop so I haven't been able to get on Webkinz.com since my trip to New York City last month, when I borrowed my in-laws' computer. (Yes, there was that time on Christmas Day when I made an attempt to log on from my dial-up account at home but it turned out to be an exercise in futility.) So I basically have a lot of catching-up to do since I added a lot to my home but I wasn't able to get screenshots until now (mainly because my in-laws' computer had no free USB ports so I couldn't plug in a memory stick to transfer any screenshots).

I finally got the computer back on Monday. The first thing I did was go to a local place with Wi-Fi and I was able to check out what I missed on Webkinz.com along with taking screenshots. The big hassle with getting on that site is that I encountered the same problems that I did when I was logged into the site during my New York City trip. I would frequently get logged out due to a system overload. For the first several minutes, I kept on encountering this message:

I ended up checking out various videos on YouTube then trying the site again. Just when I was about to give up after being logged out again, I gave it one more try and I was able to say on the site for an hour. The first thing I did was to figure out what Santa Kinz had left my pet Unicorn, Magic on Christmas Day. The only thing I found was this Christmas letter in my inbox (which is the first message I've ever gotten through Webkinz.com since I joined that site).

Since the Christmas season was officially over as of last Sunday (January 6, which is variously known as Little Christmas, Twelth Night, Three King's Day, and Easter Orthodox Christmas), I decided that it was time to put away all the Christmas related stuff. However, I did take a final look at both Magic's green Santa hat and the Christmas tree.

What was really cool about the tree was the fact that it lit up whenever you clicked on it.

On top of that, Magic's birthday is January 3. I missed out on visiting on the actual day itself because the laptop was still in the repair shop. However, Webkinz.com remembered Magic's special day because I got this message in my inbox.

Sure enough, there was a slice of cake in the dock. I fed it to Magic and she seemed to like it.

Monday was also the day that I finally registered my new Lil' Kinz Pig, which I purchased about three weeks ago but I wasn't able to register until now. I had to pick a name and gender. Since I chose Magic to be a girl, I decided to even things out and register my pig as a boy. In additon, I had named Magic after Bruce Springsteen's latest CD Magic (which my husband keeps on playing in his car CD player) so I decided to give a rock-themed name to my pig as well.

Yes, I named a pig after Pink Floyd because, well, pigs and Pink Floyd always seemed to go together. As I read Floyd's biography, I noticed something. He says that his best friend is a black Lab. In Magic's biography, she said that her best friend is a yellow Lab. I guess those two have one thing in common--they both love Labs.

I was then directed to my home where a small addition had already been built on to my home. Floyd has his own bedroom. I also got this welcome screen.

I opened Floyd's present and I got these things:

The first thing I did was to feed the mud burger to Floyd, which he ate it up. The second thing I did was to decorate his new bedroom. I purchased wallpaper and flooring that I thought would be suitable to a pig and I also purchased a bed that matched the room. Floyd seemed to appreciate it.

Of the three welcome presents that Floyd got, the coolest is the Fortune Telling Pig Statue. Whenever I got Floyd to come near that statue, it would tell fortunes, which are pretty cute.

The Fortune Telling Pig Statue works for other Webkinz pets as well. Or, at least, it worked when Magic went near it.

I got Magic and Floyd together in the same room and I tried to get them to interact with each other. I thought that it would be like Furby where if you got two or more Furbys in the same room to recognize each other, they would talk to each other for a few minutes. Well, it didn't quite work with Webkinz. Each pet seemed to be off in his/her own world mentally and they didn't seem to notice each other. In fact, they were heavily dependent on me telling them what to do via the top menu buttons. It's too bad in a way because I think it would be pretty interesting to see the Webkinz interact with each other for a few minutes.

A few days after I registered Floyd on Webkinz.com, I found this news items on Webkinz Insider about how they found out that the Lil' Kinz Pig will be the March Pet of the Month. Argh, if I had known that, I would've hold off on registering Floyd on the site until then. I hope I can still get something from Webkinz.com for owning a Lil' Kinz Pig during its upcoming reign as the Pet of the Month.

The only other major activity I did this week was answering all the back Daily Trivia Quizzes. I'm now as far back as August, 2006 and I hope to eventually finish all the back days. While answering trivia questions can get tedious after a while, I can rack up a lot of Kinz Cash so I can financially support Magic and Floyd. I attempted a job at the Employement Office but when I clicked on a job, the Webkinz.com site froze so I never reached that job. (I think I closed that browser window and logged in again but I didn't attempt another job.)

I'm going to end this entry with a tour of the expanded home. Here is Magic's bedroom, complete with a new bedside lamp.

Here is Floyd's bedroom with a cute bedside lamp added. (It's shaped like a cow jumping over a moon and it lights up when you click on it.)

Here's the bathroom with a lunar-themed design. It includes a bathtub, sink, and toilet.

Here's Magic sitting on the toilet.

Here's the main room of the house, which is a combination living room, den, dining room, playroom, and kitchen. I intend this to be the largest room of the house and it will be a common area where both of my pets can hang out with each other.

The large room includes a skateboard where the pets can glide around from one side to the other.

The room also includes a treadmill where a pet can get a workout and increase his/her health meter.

And, last but not least, here is the yard.

Not only does it include a vegetable garden but there is also a pool that a pet can use to either cool off or get some exercise.

The yard also includes a trampoline for a pet to jump up and down on.

Now that I got the laptop back, I hope to be able to spend some more time on Webkinz.com. However, it's going to be quality time rather than quantity time because I have a lot of other things going on in my life at the moment and I really can't visit that site every single day. I know my pets would prefer that I spend lots of time with them (I notice that Magic cops an attitude by saying stuff like "Where were you?" if I log into the site after spending too much time away) but I'm not some small child with tons of time on my hands. I have responsibilities that take precedence over Webkinz.com.

Christmas Day on Webkinz.com

Okay, I'll admit that I was curious as to what kind of Christmas present Santa Kinz had left for my Magic so this morning, after my husband and I exchanged our own presents, I logged on to Webkinz.com only to see this message at the top of the homepage:

Webkinz World is currently experiencing a large volume of traffic. We are working hard to accommodate the load.

Maybe Ganz should've thought about this possible complication before it started to encourage members on the main news page to visit Webkinz.com on Christmas Day to see what Santa Kinz has left each and every pet. In any case, the website has become overloaded.

I decided not to log in this morning due to that warning message. This evening I decided to give Webkinz.com another try and found that the message was still at the top of the homepage. This time I decided to disregard the warning and tried to log in anyway. I waited at least 15 minutes and I didn't get anywhere. Between the large volume of traffic and the fact that I attempted to log in from a dial-up Internet account, it was pretty much impossible to log in.

I can't wait for the laptop to get out of the repair shop so I can go back to the nearby wireless coffeehouse and take a look at that site. In any case, this entry will be my last blog entry until the laptop returns from the repair shop.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Everybody!

This Week on Webkinz.com

There aren't as many graphics for this entry as previous entries for reasons that will soon become clear to you. The end of last week seemed promising. I managed to find a local store that not only sold the Webkinz pets but also the harder to find Webkinz trading cards and even a charm necklace. I wasn't able to find any Webkinz charms but I hoped that using the code that came with the official Webkinz charm necklace would be enough for me to gain access to that Magical Charm Forest.

I even broke down and purchased a second Webkinz pet--a Lil' Kinz Pig. I haven't gotten around to taking this critter's picture yet due to a lack of time.

So just as last week ended on a promising note, this new week began with laptop problems. If you've been reading this blog from the beginning, you would know that I got into Webkinz because I was killing time at a mall waiting for my appointment at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store because our four-year-old Mac laptop had stopped recognizing its internal battery yet it still ran fine if it was hooked up to a power cord that was plugged into a wall outlet. The so-called "genius" at the Genius Bar suggested that the problem wasn't a dead battery but some major problem that he suggested that it would be easier to just buy a new laptop.

My husband and I decided that we would go to an independent repair place for a second opinion. But we had both put off on taking the laptop to that place mainly because we were both so busy with preparations for the upcoming Christmas holiday. So we continued to use the laptop connected to a wall outlet as a temporary stop-gap measure until we could find the time to take it to a repair place.

The only problem is that this week the laptop began to have more problems. The laptop screen would frequently freeze up after using it for several minutes and the freezing was so bad that you had to reboot the entire machine. This happened to my husband when he was using it at a local cafe. The same happened to me at a local cafe while I was logged into Webkinz.com. I became concerned about the freezes because that site frequently posted ads warning users to always log out because not doing so would cause your pet to lose health, food, and happiness points on its meter. I managed to reach the Webkinz.com's FAQ page and I found out that the system will automatically log you out after being inactive for 15 minutes. I felt relieved when I read that.

Since my husband and I had planned to go to New York City to visit his father and step-mother for a few days, we had to quickly get the laptop in the repair shop before the trip. Since I knew that my husband's parents have a high-speed Internet connection, I decided to pack the Lil' Kinz Pig, charm necklace, and the trading cards along with my USB memory stick for the trip to New York City. I managed to spend a lot of time on Webkinz.com inbetween socializing with my in-laws and checking out Fifth Avenue as it was all decked out in fancy Christmas decorations.

The only sad thing was that my in-laws' two computers did not have a free USB port so I had nothing to connect the memory stick to. I decided not to register my new Lil' Kinz Pig yet because I really want to have screenshots of the adoption just like when I took screenshots of Magic's adoption papers. So Magic is going to remain an only pet for a little while longer.

I did manage to enter the codes that came with the trading cards. I won about 2,000 Kinz Cash plus a Dice Kinz, a poster, and some clothes. That was pretty cool.

I entered the code that came with the charm necklace. I had hoped that I would gain entrance to the Magical Charm Forest but, no, that wasn't the case. Having an official Webkinz charm necklace is not enough to gain access to this place, I still needed to purchase the actual charms. I did get this display case for my virtual charms as a reward for entering the charm necklace code but I think it stinks that I still don't have access to the Magical Charm Forest. I've been trying to find those charms but I have yet to find a store in my local area that actually sold them. I tried looking in a few shops in New York City that carried Webkinz and I didn't find charms in those stores. I even looked in the two giftshops in Rockefeller Center that carried Webkinz and neither one of them had the charms. I don't know what's taking Ganz so long in shipping those charms to the stores because it seems frustrating that I can't even check out this place if I can't buy the needed charms because I haven't found a store that actually stocked them.

I managed to earn more Kinz Cash using a tip that I got from perusing the forums at Webkinz Insider. I've been doing the daily calendar questions for the past several months. I've managed to get most of 2007 finished (with the exception of the December questions because December isn't over yet) and I got at least half of 2006 finished.

I also played some more arcade games. I tend to focus on whatever game Webkinz.com has designated as "Game of the Day" because the payout tends to be slightly higher than the other games. While many of the arcade games are fun to play, the pay is pretty low.

I also did a few jobs this week. I focused mainly on the hamburger job when it came up (mainly because it's about the only job that I've been able to successfully finish) and I did so well that I got a notice saying that I'll get a raise the next time I do the hamburger job. Awesome!!!

I kept on seeing ads for the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie but I haven't gotten any more offers for free waffles. It seems like now that the film is actually in movie theaters, the offer for free waffles is now gone. I think the Goo-Goo Berry Festival is also over because I haven't seen any more goo goo berries float across the screen at random intervals. So I ended up having to purchase all of Magic's food this week. I really miss the freebies (sigh!).

At times the Webkinz.com system was so overloaded that I would get this dialogue box saying that I was being logged out due to a system overload. I was forcibly logged out at least five or six times during my stay in New York City.

It's too bad that I couldn't take screenshots because I managed to add wallpaper and flooring to the bathroom along with a toilet and sink. (I already had the bathtub installed there.) I added a lot of new stuff to the large room, which serves as a den/playroom/living room/kitchen. I purchased a treadmill, a skateboard, a countertop, a sink, and a refrigerator. I even managed to add something new for the outdoors--a pool. It's pretty neat seeing Magic exercise on her treadmill, skating around on the skateboard, and go swimming outside (despite the fact that there is currently snow on the ground).

While I was poking about Webkinz.com, there was a notice encouraging people to log in on December 25 to see what present Santa Kinz has left for your pet. The only problem is that my home desktop is on dial-up, the laptop is still in the repair shop, and my husband and I will be visiting my mother on Christmas Day and she doesn't even own a computer. Oh well.

I've been away from Webkinz.com since Friday morning (just before my husband and I left for home). I noticed that the front page of Webkinz.com has been changed to something that's Christmas-themed. (I took the screenshot on my own desktop after the New York City trip.)

It's pretty cute, isn't it? In any case, between the laptop being in the repair shop and the upcoming Christmas holidays, this will be my last entry to this blog for the time being.

This Week on Webkinz.com

This week I was focusing on building up Magic's living area and her array of stuff. I managed to snag another free plate of waffles for Magic when the Alvin & the Chipmunks movie ad came up again on my screen but that only happened to me one more time this week. (Since the movie opens this Friday, I have no idea how much longer this free waffles promotion will last on Webkinz.com.) For the past few days I have been getting free goo-goo berries for Magic because this week happens to be the Goo-Goo Berry Festival where a giant goo-goo berry floats across the screen at random. If you click on that berry, you get a free berry added to the Dock. I got at least four free berries that way, which Magic loved.

I kept on trying to get a new job with the employment agency only to frequently strike. I tried a variety of jobs with miserable results. At one point the burger job that I had mastered before was available and I flunked that one. The next day I went back to the employment agency where I picked the burger job and I managed to succeed this time while I earned 100 Kinz Cash. I don't know what's wrong with me regarding being able to finish a job. What's really frustrating is that I have to wait at least eight hours before I can try for a new job and I can't even re-try the jobs that I had failed.

I've been playing various arcade games but the payout isn't too great. Even on the Game of the Day, when you can get more Kinz cash than usual, the pay is pretty dismal. The only time I make a substantial amount of Kinz cash is when I play one of Quizzy's quiz games, where I have been known to get as much as a thousand Kinz cash. The only drawback to doing the quiz is that it can get pretty time-consuming, especially if you're trying to amass as much money as possible.

At first the main reason why I wanted a lot of Kinz cash is because I wanted to buy some more major appliances for Magic. I purchased a lovely television set that resembles Cinderella's coach. I'm serious--the cabinet of the TV set looks like a horse-drawn carriage complete with wheels on the bottom. It matches the overall fantasy theme that I have in mind for the home. This TV set also works. If you click on it, you this remote with a button menu where you can select television shows and actually watch them.

I also added a decorated Christmas tree for the home and I even purchased my first article of clothing for Magic--a green Santa hat. She looks incredibly cute in it and the tree is lovely as well. I even purchased a new toy for her, a jack-in-the-box.

Magic even expressed her opinion while I was shopping.

The only problem with my recent purchases is that Magic's room quickly became very crowded.

Well, I clicked on the Map button on the top left side of the screen and found a map of Magic's room along with room for expansion. I discovered that adding extra rooms requires extra Kinz cash. I decided to go with adding two rooms--a large room that would function as a playroom/living room/den/dining room/kitchen and a small room that would be the bathroom. Given the lousy luck I had with getting jobs and the low pay I got playing arcade games, I focused on spending much of my time answering Quizzy the Bear's quizes. I did very well at that, although it did get tedious answering trivia questions for long periods of time. Ultimately I managed to earn enough Kinz cash to add both rooms. I also managed to scrape enough money to add wall paper and flooring to the larger room.

Here is the playroom/living room/den/dining room/kitchen combination room:

I know it looks large and empty at the moment but I will gradually fill it with all kinds of stuff. Here is the new bathroom:

So far I managed to relocate the bathtub to the new bathroom. I ran out of both time and money before I was able to finish decorating it.

I also added an outdoor area. It's weird that when I first started my membership on Webkinz.com, Magic only came with one room and no outside at all. I found it pretty outrageous that I had to spend 1,000 Kinz cash just so I can install an outdoor area. At least there's snow on the ground so Magic can actually have a white Christmas instead of just dreaming about having one. I also bought two garden plots (a tomato plot and a carrot plot) for outside mainly because they were relatively cheap and I'm hoping that the garden will produce healthy food that I can feed Magic with for free so I won't have to pay so much for her food. It looks pretty weird to have tomatoes and carrots growing while the rest of the ground is covered with snow but if my idea of growing food works in the long run, I'm willing to put up with a certain amount of weirdness.

This is the current size of Magic's home:

I would like to buy more things for both indoors and outdoors, especially kitchen appliances. Recently I've learned that the reason why fellow Webkinz.com members have been trading recipies is that one can use them to create meals for a Webkinz pet using kitchen appliances. So I guess that means I'll have to buy kitchen appliances eventually and learn how to cook in a virtual world.

My ambitions will require lots of Kinz cash. I've been reading posts on Webkinz Insider about how to earn money and one answer is to adopt another Webkinz pet and enter that code. Apparently there is a big payout everytime you adopt a subsequent pet and, if you happened to adopt a certain pet while that critter is Pet of the Month, you'll get even more Kinz cash and other free goodies. One can save money by having two or more Webkinz share the same bedroom. The only thing they won't share is the same bed so you'll have to buy a separate bed for each Webkinz pet. Right now I'm still so busy trying to get a handle on Webkinz.com that I don't even want to consider adopting a second or even third pet until I learn more about this unique virtual world.

But, at the same time, I really don't want to spend all of my free time at Webkinz.com. It's just that whenver I spend lots of time playing videogames or hanging around one forum for hours at a stretch, I end up feeling tired and cranky. Last night, when I spent two hours trying to play Quizzy's quiz games just so I can earn lots of Kinz cash, I really felt like I was at the end of my rope. I really don't want to burn out on this too soon after purchasing my Lil' Kinz Unicorn. Now that I got the major stuff purchased (outdoor area, two rooms, bathtub, TV set, Christmas tree), I want to slowly earn Kinz Cash and accumulate stuff. I want to explore the features where you can chat online with other Webkinz owners. I hope that one day I'll find a store that sells the Webkinz Charms so I'll see what that Charms Forest looks like. But I also want to balance this with other things in my life. I don't want to be one of those super-obsessed people who spend long hours online at the expense of relationships and other things in the real world.