Day 3 on Webkinz.com

I spent an hour on that site yesterday while sipping a mug of hot chocolate at a local coffeehouse (it was snowing outside) and I learned one major thing--it is so hard to earn Webkinz money. The first thing I did was try the Employment Agency. I had hoped to be able to get that burger assembly job again but I found out that that position was not available. So I picked one where I had to paint virtual fences in certain color scheme. On the surface it seemed easy but the controls were so wonky that I got no fences painted in the limited amount of time that I had to get the job done. I attempted a retry of the job but I wasn't allowed to try again. I attempted to get another job but I discovered one thing about the employment agency--I am only allowed to work a new job every eight hours. Once my job ends, I have to wait eight hours before I can get another one, which is pretty frustrating.

So I attempted to use the arcade games and quiz contests to earn money and I found that, for the most part, the pay is miniscule. There was one arcade game where I only got one Webkinz bill for every 15 points I got in the game and this game tended to be a low-scoring one. The good news is that I can retry an arcade game over and over again to my heart's content. As for the quiz contests, there are some quizzes that I can only participate in once a day.

But I did manage to snag a freebie for Magic. I saw this ad that was promoting the upcoming computer animation re-make of Alvin and the Chipmunks by offering free waffles.

So I clicked on the ad and I got this pop-up screen:

I kind of groaned when I saw that it was an ad for the official website of the movie. I decided to check it out briefly so I opened a new browser window, typed in the URL, and took a look at the front page where I was so unimpressed by what I saw that I closed that window. When I took a look at the "My Stuff" dock, I saw that a plate of waffles had suddenly appeared.

So I fed the waffles to Magic, who seemed very pleased.

I finally did something about the code that came with that An Air of Mystery bookmark that I purchased at the same time as my Little Webkinz Unicorn. I figured out that I had to go to the Code Shop in order to input any codes that I get with any Webkinz product.

Here is what I got after I entered the bookmark code:

So I went back to Magic's room and dragged the Bookmark Bag from the "My Stuff" doc to the room and I found out that I won a book. All I had to do was to choose which book I wanted. I picked "An Air of Mystery" since that was the bookmark I used to unlock that code.

I began to thumb through my new book and I realized that it's basically a storybook. I didn't read it all the way through because I wasn't in the mood to read a virtual book at the moment so I briefly browsed the pages.

I also got around to installing the new bathtub in Magic's room. It seems strange to have a bathtub and a bed in the same room but, then again, this is an unusual virtual world. I also managed to give Magic her first bath, which was really cute.

Today I managed to buy a table and two cute chairs for Magic's room. This is what Magic's room looked like after being online at Webkinz.com for the third day in a row.

Magic's room is now starting to get that nice homey feel to it.

I decided to skip going to Webkinz.com today mainly because my husband took the laptop for his own use and I have dial-up at home, which is way too slow for that site. It's just as well because I can use a break from that site. I briefly stopped by the local mall because I wanted to see if the latest issue of the free alternative weekly The Washington City Paper had arrived at FYE yet (it hadn't) and I saw a display full of Webkinz. I even saw a chihuahua among the pile of Webkinz, which happens to be the Pet of the Month for December. I briefly thought about purchasing that dog to see what would happen if I did register it during its reign as Pet of the Month until I realized one thing: I've never been into chihuahuas at all. They tend to make annoying high-pitched yappy sounds when barking, they are totally scrawny, and they tend to tremble alot. Once December ends, I would be stuck with something that I would have never bothered with purchasing otherwise. So I put the dog back on the pile and walked out of the store.

There was a major snowstorm yesterday which resulted in a winter wonderland. I took a few brief pictures of Magic's real-life counterpart in the snow early this morning.

I also placed a tiny five-inch doll on the unicorn's back.

In case you're wondering about the doll in the photos, this was one that I purchased from a South Korean-based site called The Orient Doll. This particular doll is known as Ji. The doll came nude with the white wig that you can see in the photos. I painted her face, fingernails, and toenails myself and I also added eyelashes. She originally came with navy blue eyes but I didn't like them too much so I purchased a pair of brown eyes from a different site (I forgot which one). I made the dress by taking a Barbie dress pattern and reducing it by 50 percent. I made the fairy wings out of polymer clay then glued them to the back of her dress. I think this doll would look really cool if I could somehow fashion a necklace that I can strap her into and she would turn into funky jewelry but I haven't gotten around to figuring that one out yet. But this doll does look really cute with the unicorn.

My Introduction to Webkinz

I'll admit that I've been pretty slow in getting acquainted with Webkinz mainly because I don't have young children at home. I first saw them in a local a gift shop a few months back and, while I was sort of intrigued by their tag with the secret code inside, I thought of them as latter-day Beanie Babies knock-offs and walked past the store shelf after taking a brief look at them. A few months later I began to hear about them in the news and the controversy that has surrounded them. (There are charges that Webkinz encourages children to become massive consumers and to spend long hours in front of a computer when they could be doing other things like reading a book or playing outside.)

Yesterday I was at the Columbia Mall in Columbia, Maryland for a reason that had nothing to do with Webkinz. The laptop battery seemed to stop working and the computer could operate only if there was a cord attached to it (which defeats the whole purpose of having laptops in the first place). I decided to go to the Apple store in an attempt to get it fixed and I arrived early at 11 a.m. in the hopes that I could quickly consult one of the technicians working the Genius Bar. I registered only to discover that the next available time was at 3 p.m. Since I live a half-an-hour's drive away from that mall, it didn't make sense for me to return home then back again. So I had a few hours to kick around the mall.

I've always loved Wockenfuss, a Baltimore-based chocolate candy company, so I decided to walk over to that store. While I was perusing the various candy items for sale, I came across a shelf space that was loaded with non-edible goods. They were the Webkinz. I spotted a unicorn among the bunch and I took a closer look at it mainly because I've always had a thing for unicorns. I looked at the hangtag again and felt intrigued by the secret code once again. I'll admit that I've always had a thing for high tech novelties if they impressed me and this one had the potential to impress me.

I looked at the $9.99 price tag and I thought "Oh, what the hell!" and purchased this unicorn along with a few chocolate goodies and a tiny package of Milk Bone dog biscuits dipped in vanilla. (The latter was intended as a Christmas present for my mother-in-law's dog.) Here are a few photos of this unicorn that I took after I got home from the mall.

When I went to the counter, I also saw that the store sold special Webkinz bookmarks for $1.99 each, which also had its own special code. I decided to buy that one as well for the hell of it.

For the next few hours I ate lunch, browsed a few stores, then took sitting breaks where I kept on taking out the unicorn and stroking its soft fur. Since I was such a newbie, I went to Borders Express where I purchased a Webkinz-specific magazine titled I [heart] Webkinz and Other Playful Pals because I wanted to learn more about what I had just purchased. As I was reading it while sitting on a bench, I discovered that most of that magazine was almost totally useless. (There was an article titled "Fun Ideas for Cold Weather" that included instructions on how to engage in a snowball fight with a friend. I'm serious about this. There was actually instructions on how you and a friend can throw snowballs at each other, followed by instructions on how to build a snow fort. I realized that children were the magazine's target audience but the editors and writers assumed that their readers are total imbeciles. As someone who has taught Sunday School at my church in the past, I can tell you that a group of children can be pretty resourceful when it comes to coming up with their own ideas for fun and games if you let them loose outside on a playground or a nearby wooded area.)

The magazine did provide a list of all the current and retired Webkinz. I originally saw that the Unicorn Webkinz was retired until I walked into a Hallmark store, which was also selling the Webkinz, and I found that they had both the bigger Webkinz and the smaller Little Webkinz on sale. I looked on my unicorn's tag and saw the "Little Webkinz" designation and I realized that Wockenfuss only had the Little Webkinz on sale. But I didn't mind buying the smaller stuffed animal since it would be easier to store in my modest home.

While I was in the Hallmark store I saw a couple of adults walk past the shelves containing the Webkinz and Little Webkinz and both of them petted them before walking away. I'll admit that they are soft.

After enduring a few hours in that mall waiting for my appointment at the Apple Store, I was happy when I finally left for home. (I got a recommendation that I replace my three-year-old laptop, which I'm reluctant to do so, as of this writing, I'm in the process of contacting an independent authorized Apple repair place for a second opinion.)

I did check out the Webkinz site for the first time but I'm going to write about it in another blog entry since I've already writter quite a bit here.