Flashback + the Bizarre Bazaar

Last night was a lot of fun! My family and I went to a restaurant we'd never been to before, the Flashback Diner and Coffeehouse. It's a fun family place, a friendly atmosphere. On Fridays and Saturdays, there is Karaoke from 7:30-10:30, and anyone brave enough can pick a song from this huge binder, write it down for the DJ, and sing their heart out. Even little kids.

One of my secret resolutions (one that I didn't publicly post on my blog, that is) was to find a cool place where I could get up and sing comfortably to a good-sized audience. I'm a person who loves to sing. I like singing along to songs on the radio, or along to the iPod in my room when I have free time. But singing to an actual audience... I haven't done enough of that. I wanted that. I'm so glad that this place, the Flashback Diner, gives you that. ^_^

I sang a Jonas Brothers ballad, "When you look me in the eye", and a rap song from House of Pain, "Jump Around". (Don't ask me how I know all the words to this one. =P) I also did a duet with my brother Adam, "The Girl is Mine", but it was in a different key than what we were used to...

I don't want to say we embarrassed ourselves, because I didn't feel embarrassed... but we definitely didn't do the song justice. *_*

My brother and sister each gave a couple great performances as well. I hope we can come to this diner again next week. Maybe we can turn this into a sort of weekly thing. I'd really enjoy that. ^_^

2 days ago I found a new game to be addicted to, a sort of guilty pleasure. It's called Echo Bazaar, and I found out about it because it was mentioned in this video. It's a very strange game... and I mean very strange. It's set in a really odd world, and a whole lot of mystery surrounds the gameplay, but there doesn't seem to be much of a... point to it. There's no special keyboard/ mouse manipulation skills needed, and no interaction between other players. The object of the game is simply to level up, explore this world, called Fallen London, and basically to "seek your fortune."

I don't know what makes me want to keep playing this, but one thing I find really interesting about it is that, to an extent, the game actually limits your playtime. It keeps you from being glued to your computer all day by giving you a limit of actions to use at a time, which is also part of a daily quota of actions. There's a little countdown that'll tell you when there are more actions available, but eventually, when you run out of all your actions for the day, you can't do anything except walk away from the computer, find another way to occupy yourself, and wait for the next day. I like that a lot.