I'm Finished With Tweaking This Blog For Now

For the past week I've been doing some tweaking of this blog as well as trying to publicize this blog among my friends and other Webkinz sites. I've managed to get this template set up so it'll accept ads (I'm using Google's Ad Sense and it's doing a good job at putting up Webkinz-related ads so far). I now have the following Webkinz sites among the Links list (located on the side margins of this blog):

Official Webkinz Site

Webkinz Insider

Play Webkinz World

Kinz-Land

The first link is for Ganz's official Webkins site. The other links are to unofficial Webkinz sites that I was personally impressed with.

If there is anyone who also has an unofficial Webkinz site, forum, or blog and wants to trade links with this blog, please either make a comment after any of the entries in this blog (I'll be more likely to actually find your comment if you make it after a recent entry instead of an earlier entry) or send an e-mail to kstark at erols dot com. (Just remember to replace the word "at" with an "@" and replace the word "dot" with a "." and write it all as one word or else I won't get your e-mail.)

There are two criteria for your link to be included on this blog:

1. Your site/blog/forum must be related to Webkinz.

2. Your site must be free of hard-core pornography, racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-Semetic remarks, and unrelated spam.

If your suggested link fails either or both criteria, it won't be listed in this blog. It's just that simple.

Day 4 on Webkinz.com

Yesterday morning I was helping out with doing some volunteer work at this local non-profit cooperative coffeehouse that has free wireless. When my shift ended, I decided to briefly check out Webkinz.com. Magic was still doing fine. I decided to go back to the employment agency for a job. I re-tried that fence-painting job that I flunked at the other day. I was doing much better but then me and several other people were being ushered out the coffeehouse because the morning shift was closed and it wouldn't re-open for the evening shift until 5 p.m. I got so distracted that I flunked that job again and I wouldn't be allowed to work another job for eight hours. (Man, I hate that eight-hour time lag.)

On top of that, my husband totally hogged the wireless laptop the rest of the day as well as today and my home Internet account is dial-up only so I had to take some more enforced time away from Webkinz.com. If it weren't for the fact that the weather is rainy outside and many places tend to close early on Sundays, I would head out somewhere to catch up on my Magic.

Tomorrow will be the one-week anniversary of my purchase of my Lil' Kinz Unicorn. On that note, I think that instead of writing new blog entries every time I log into Webkinz.com, I'm just going to do a weekly update of the highlights of my time on that site. I find that writing a new blog entry every time I spend anytime on Webkinz.com can get time-consuming.

My Brand-New Unicorn is Already Retired?!? YIKES!!!

Four days ago I made my first Webkinz purchase--a Lil' Kinz Unicorn. I've been checking out the various unofficial Webkinz fan sites and Webkinz Insider is now saying that Ganz has retired the Lil' Kinz Unicorn. Oh, man, I'm really glad I made that impulsive buy when I did, especially since that unicorn was the only one I saw for sale at Wockenfuss.

I hope this doesn't affect my online status at Webkinz.com since that unicorn is the only Webkinz creature that I own so far. Right now I'm working on the second day since I've been online at Webkinz.com since my husband has the laptop. I'm going to try to nick it from him sometime this weekend so I can go to a local high-speed wireless place and check out that site.

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.

Day Two on Webkinz.com

Yesterday I went to another local coffeehouse for high-speed wireless. I had less time than the day before so, while I managed to remember to bring that Webkinz bookmark with me this time, I wasn't able to find where I could input that included code where I could get some more goodies for Magic. So I guess that bookmark will have to wait a little while longer.

I saw on the News screen that the new Webkinz Pet of the Month is a chihuahua. Apparently if you purchase a Webkinz chihuahua during the month of December and register that pet online, you'll have even more Webkinz cash. In addition, I went to the arcade where I saw that a game featuring the chihuahua, "Candy Bash 2", was noted as "Game of the Day". If I play that game, I would earn 25% more cash. I decided to go for it.

It was basically a shooting game where you play a chihuahua shooting tacos at piñatas falling down from the sky. If you hit a piñata, a treat pops out and you have to catch the treat for points. The more points you get, the more Webkinz cash you earn. It was a pretty cute game that got kind of repetitious after a while. But I managed to earn some money.

I also played another round of "Stack'Em Solitaire" for even more Webkinz cash. Once I was done, I did some shopping. I purchased this really cute fantasy wallpaper and flooring for Magic's room because I thought it would be appropriate for a unicorn. When I got to Magic's room, I found that her room already had a new look that was far better than the plain room she had before.

I saw a wrapped gift in the "My Stuff" list and I realized that I had forgotten to open it. So I clicked and slowly dragged the wrapped gift to Magic's room where it popped open and I got this screen:

The only problem was that I had already purchased a bed for Magic. This Magical Meadow Bed looked far nicer than the plain yet colorful bed that I had already purchased. I poked around the shopping mall and I found that I could always put things up for sale so I sold the bed that I purchased yesterday (I got my Webkinz money back, yay!) and replaced it with the Magical Meadow Bed.

I also purchased a bathtub for my pet mainly because the online Webkinz instruction book said that Webkinz love to take baths. I ran out of time before I was able to install the bathtub in Magic's room so that is going to have to wait for another day.

I noticed that the site has ads but they are either ads for Webkinz products that you can buy in the real world (such as Webkinz backpacks) or are ads for other parts of the Webkinz.com site. I became intrigued by an ad for the Magical Charm Forest. So I clicked on it only to encounter the entrance screen with this warning:

I don't have any Webkinz Charms so I was out of luck. I did notice this subliminal hint regarding these Webkinz Charms at the bottom of the screen:

I was starting to have my misgivings about the whole Webkinz.com experience because I really didn't like having to go back to the store to purchase Webkinz stuff just so I can see another part of Webkinz.com.

I went back to Magic's room, where I decided to try talking to my pet. Speaking to your pet is done by clicking on the "Speak" button at the top of the screen and selecting one of the available questions. I selected "How are you doing?"

Here's Magic's reply:

I felt my misgivings regarding Webkinz.com melt away when Magic said that. She is really such an adorable pet. Before I logged off for the day, I selected the "Walk" button, and clicked on the bed. Magic went to sleep immediately.

Magic's room is a definite improvement over yesterday but it still needs more furniture. And I have to get around to installing that bathtub.

The First Day on Webkinz.com

After I came home from Columbia Mall the day before yesterday, I took my new unicorn and the laptop to a local coffeehouse that has high-speed wireless Internet since I'm on dial-up at home. I plugged the laptop into a wall outlet (since the battery situation was still messed up) and logged into Webkinz.com.

I signed up for an free account where I had to go to Ms. Birdy's Adoption Center, pick out a User ID, and punch in the special code that was printed inside my unicorn's hang tag. The site determined that I had purchased a unicorn so I all I needed to do was specify a name and gender.

Since my unicorn had embroidered eyes with long eyelashes, pink inner ears, and an irredesent pink color that shimmered through the unicorn's horn and hooves, I decided that my unicorn was a female. Then it was time for a name. Lately my husband, who's a total Bruce Springsteen nut, has been playing The Boss' latest CD, Magic, nearly non-stop in his car for the past several weeks since it was released. So I decided to name the unicorn "Magic". After all, unicorns have long been regarded in folklore and myths as being magical beings, right?

After the registration, I received this adoption certificate that was signed by Ms. Birdy herself.

I was also given a biography of my newly adopted pet.

Note the sentence "One of my best friends is a yellow Lab." Is this some kind of subliminal message that I should consider buying a yellow Lab Webkinz in the future as a pal for Magic?

I went to my new pet's room where I saw this screen:

I saw in the "My Stuff" list (located at the bottom of the screen) that I was immediately given a gift-wrapped present and a few food items. I went to Magic and her room and I saw that it was empty. I poked around the shopping mall part and I found that I would need to buy furniture and that would require Webkinz cash. While I did have some Webkinz money as part of the initial registration, I would have to earn more.

At the same time I realized that I forgot to bring the Webkinz bookmark with me so I couldn't use the code that came with it so that'll have to wait for another day. So I had to look for other ways of earning Webkinz money.

I went to the employment agency and I got a job where I had to assemble burgers in a certain order within a certain time frame. The job was over in a few minutes and I was given cash for my efforts. (If only jobs in the real world were this short, easy, and profitable.)

I also went to the arcade where I played something called "Stack'Em Up Solitaire". This game was slightly different from the version of Solitaire that I've known since I was a child but I managed to clear enough of the cards to earn some more Webkinz cash.

I also decided to try my hand at "Quizzy's WhizKinz" quiz game. I picked the all-ages level then selected the "Green Thumb" category because of my past interest in gardening. Here's a sample of the questions that I was given.

Some of the questions were pretty hard, such as the one that asked, "Which vegetable is a member of the Nightshade family?" (The answer is "potato".) Actually the questions are pretty educational and this quiz game could be beneficial to children for that reason.

I managed to collect enough Webkinz cash to do some shopping in the shopping mall. All I could afford at that moment was a simple bed and a chair, which was placed in the "My Stuff" list once I paid for the items. I went to Magic's room where I spent most of the time figuring out how to move furniture from the "My Stuff" list to the room. After several unsuccessful tries, I figured out that you have to click on the item, them drag it into the room very slowly. If you drag too fast, the furniture will drop back into the "My Stuff" list and you have to start all over again. I also had a hard time moving the furniture once I placed it in the room but I decided that I wanted it in a different location in the room. Ultimately I had to move it back into the "My Stuff" list then re-drag it into the place I wanted the furniture item to go.

The easiest part of interacting with my pet was feeding her some food. All I had to do was drag the food item from the "My Stuff" list to a picture of Magic located in the bottom left corner of the screen. A bubble comes up where she expresses her happiness at being fed while her Love, Happiness, and Health meters go up.

It was time for me to leave the coffeehouse and go home so I had Magic go to her new bed where she fell asleep and a cartoon balloon with "ZZZZZZ" popped up over her head. I was given reminders to always log out when I had to quit for the day because failure to do so will cause the Love, Happiness, and Health meters to run down to zero.

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.