Thursday, January 31, 2013

11 Things That Make Me Happy


In no particular order:
1. the sound of rain
2. a good book
3. a cup of tea
4. a soft, cozy blanket
5. gluten-free pizza
6. crossword puzzles and Sudoku
7. my Sonic the hedgehog plushie
8. funny TV shows like Scrubs, Portlandia, and The Big Bang Theory
9. being super productive
10. gradually covering my entire wall with art
11. wonderful smelling scented candles

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Book Review: Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

 
 
A lot of people around my age (I'm 21 as of Monday!) who read this book found it trite or uninteresting.  I did not.  I loved this book.  I give it five stars out of five.  I devoured it in the course of two days.  It was thought-provoking and I could relate to the main character to an extent (I have been hit by a car but when I was 5 and I was (hopefully obviously) not killed, and also I never had boys interested in me until I was 18, and I've been depressed)  The plot of the book is that a girl gets hit and killed by a car and finds the afterlife to be very different than she ever imagined.  This next part will be full of spoilers. You have been warned.

15-year-old Elizabeth Marie Hall is the typical angsty teen.  At the beginning of the story, we find her angsting over not being asked to prom, and she rides her bike to the mall to help her best friend pick out a prom dress.  She never makes it to the mall because she is hit and killed by a taxi.  She "wakes up" on a boat and thinks that she is dreaming.  It takes her a long time to realize that she is, in fact, dead.  She has to watch her funeral before she really believes it.  She is on a boat with many other people (mostly old people) to a place called Elsewhere and to the afterlife.  She has to make some hard decisions when it's time to leave the boat.  Is she ready to leave behind the life she had before?  To never be with her friends and family on Earth again?  She learns that if she stays on the boat and rides back to Earth, she'll be stuck as a ghost and slowly drive her friends and family insane, which is not what she wants.  She gets to Elsewhere and is surprised to see that it is very similar to Earth.  She falls into a deep depression for quite a while.  She learns that in Elsewhere, people age backward until they are babies again and then they are sent back to Earth.  They might see people from their old life but will almost definitely not recognize them.  Liz spends time adjusting to the afterlife and finds that some of the things that seemed so important before are insignificant now.  She earns money from her avocation (which is like a job but is something that a person loves to do and gets paid for).  But what is she supposed to do with all of the money?  She no longer needs to save it for college or a house.  She learns that the afterlife can be just as confusing as frustrating as her life on Earth.  She also learns that nobody is all good or all bad.  I really liked the ending, which I won't give away.

This book made me think a lot.  I couldn't decide whether Elsewhere would be a good afterlife or not.  I don't like the idea of being able to be depressed in the afterlife.  It is also very sad to me that some people never get to see their loved ones again, depending on when they died.  If a mother loses her child and then dies much later, the child will have already returned to Earth as a baby by the time the mother reaches Elsewhere.  It also seemed sad that once the people age backwards until babies, they forget about everyone that they ever loved.  Sure they will love new people in their new life, but it still seems really sad to me.  I also don't like that people can still get hurt in Elsewhere.  I really don't like the thought of having lived your life to the end, and then after the amount of years old you were, having to go have another life on Earth, over and over and over.  I hate that there is still addiction in Elsewhere.  I like the fact that there are pets in Elsewhere, but I don't like that people can still be allergic to them.  I like that there is still love in Elsewhere but I don't like that there is still heartbreak.  I like that people get to choose the thing they love most and make that their job.  I like that once a person has been in Elsewhere long enough, they no longer worry about anything (because they're a child again and no longer know what worry is).  I like that aging backwards eventually heals all (physical) wounds.  I wondered where all of the criminals were in Elsewhere.  Everyone who dies goes to Elsewhere, but there were no murderers, thieves, or rapists.  When people first get to Elsewhere, they are pretty much the same as they were on Earth, and sometimes over time their ways of thinking change, but not right away.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The epilogue involved the thoughts of a dog and made me wonder if the rest of the book would be enjoyable at all.  I was pleased to find that it was.  This book was also a good break from my Dean Koontz addiction, since I can't always read his books before bed without having pieces of them in my dreams.  Since he writes thrillers and supernatural thrillers, usually involving murder, that is not good.  I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Young Adult literature or who enjoyed The Lovely Bones, especially to teenage girls.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for Kids

Do you have a granddaughter, daughter, or niece who you would like to get a gift for this Valentine's Day?  Are you looking for something that will last longer than chocolate or candy?  If the little girl on your list is between the ages of 7 and 13, you should check out the new girl's necklaces in my shop.  These necklaces were lovingly handmade to brighten any little girl's Valentine's Day.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Save Some Money if You're In College

Today I would like to tell you about something that I wish I had known about when I was in college, renting textbooks.  Textbooks cost about $100 each if you buy them from a bookstore, which is pretty outrageous, especially when you probably won't even end up reading the whole thing.  If you're still in college, you should definitely check out http://www.campusbookrentals.com/.  There are quite a few benefits to renting textbooks through their site, which include but are not limited to:
-saving 40-90% off of bookstore prices!
-free shipping both ways
-30 day risk free guarantee
-can highlight in the textbooks (this is pretty great since bookstores normally won't buy your textbooks if you highlighted in them)
-flexible renting periods
-monthly giveaways, textbook scholarships, shirts, and other prizes. Registration is free and you do not have to be a paying customer to win
-they donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rented (For those of you who don't know, Operation Smile is a great organization that fixes cleft lips for families who could not afford it otherwise.  This allows the children to go through life with more confidence and higher self-esteem.)

Another amazing program offered by this site is called RentBack.  How many of you have tried to sell back your books at the end of the quarter (for usually somewhere around 5% of what you paid for them to start with), only to be told that the bookstore wouldn't buy your books?  It's happened to me many times.  ANd then you're just stuck with all of these textbooks that you are never going to read.  Either that or you donate them to Goodwill or similar for free.  Rentback is a really cool program for current or former college students.  If you still have some textbooks taking up space, look them up on RentBack.  Ship your books to them, and every time your textbooks get rented by students, you'll get paid.  Your textbooks can be rented over and over and over and you'll get paid every single time.  And seriously, who couldn't use a little extra money?!

Check out this video to learn more.


Friday, January 18, 2013

My Experience with Fashion

I had no concept of personal style until I was in college.  I sort of experimented with style my freshman year of college, but I really figured out what I liked to wear during my sophomore year of college.  Perhaps it was because I had so much free time when I wasn't going to class because Disabled Services wouldn't take to me to class for one trimester, and then so much free time again when I could walk again but had seizures almost daily so I took a hardship withdrawal from my classes.  Maybe it was just because I was actually growing up.

But this is not about that.  Not really anyway.  This is more about what I wore before I had a style.  Up until I was maybe 12 or 13, most of my clothes were either bought by my mom at yard sales or hand-me-downs from my friends, family friends, and my older brothers.  My family was poor because my dad lost his job at the plywood mill four days before I was born after it went out of business because of environmentalists and spotted owls.  Most of the clothes I wore at home were boy's clothes.  I wore mostly girl clothes to school until I was in high school.  It made sense for me to wear boy's clothes as play clothes growing up.  I was one of those kids who would play outside all day until dinner during the summer (when I wasn't reading books).  I had two older brothers and I was a tomboy.  I loved climbing trees and fences, playing sports and made-up sports, and playing in the dirt after my mom's garden was done and we were allowed to.  When I was playing outside, I wore what my mom called my play clothes, which meant boy clothes that I could get grass stains on or rips without getting in trouble.  I wore girl clothes to school, especially in elementary school, before I figured out that I didn't care what other people thought of me, and when I pretended like my favorite colors were pink and purple so I would fit in with all of the other girls in my class.  Coincidentally I was very popular in elementary school, the most popular girl in my grade (of 20-something kids total).  Of course, that was before kids decided that it wasn't cool to be smart and helpful.  One of the things that I remember wearing to elementary school was a pair of dark purple overalls with a white heart print turtleneck underneath.  Another thing I wore was a hot pink tee shirt with a flower print and Tweety bird on one of the sleeves.  (There will be pictures on this post later, when I am not feeling too sick to scan and upload pictures, which in my room is much more complicated than it sounds.  It involves me holding my laptop balanced on the back of my desk chair.)  Anyway in middle school everyone joined cliques and decided that it wasn't cool to be smart, which meant that all of my friends from elementary school disowned me and I was left in the group of kids who didn't belong in any cliques, which is where I remained through high school.  I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else, because they were real friends.  All of us were unique and different and didn't only like each other because of the fact that we all enjoyed the exact same things, like the kids in cliques.  When I was in 8th grade my grandpa died of stomach cancer.  I think that's when my depression started.  It was accompanied by apathy.  The good thing about this was that I finally stopped caring what other people thought of me.  I started wearing guy clothes to school sometimes, because they were more comfortable than my girl clothes.  I had this one hoody that had belonged to my older brother.  It was dark red and had tribal graphics on the sleeves and a really cool dragon.  It was my favorite.

By high school I wore a mix of guy clothes and girl clothes.  I also had this weird thing until about two years ago where I refused to wear skirts or shorts that were above my knees.  Because of the guy clothes as well as the fact that I never had a boyfriend or even a date in high school, most people assumed I was a lesbian.  I didn't care what they thought of me, but I was also tired as just being "one of the guys".  I have always had mostly guy friends and by high school, I was tired of them not looking twice at me.  I was also a late bloomer who didn't hit puberty until I was 14, which didn't help.  It also didn't help that I was year younger than everyone in my grade.  To put that in perspective, I hit puberty when I was a sophomore in high school.  That year, my mom took me on a shopping spree at a thrift store.  I bought all new clothes.  I had gone from a size zero in jeans to a size 3-5 and also gotten taller and less scrawny, so I needed new clothes because my old ones no longer fit.  I bought mostly striped shirts.  I also bought flared leg jeans because I didn't realize that they looked terrible on me.  I bought one tight v-neck t-shirt and this pair of jeans that I still don't know why my mother let me buy them.  Probably because she knew I would only ever wear them once.  They were really tight fitting and had a very short zipper and then a leather tie that laced them up instead of a longer zipper.  That is a bad description.  Anyway that is the outfit that I picked to wear the next day of school to attempt to impress my crush.  He was in my chemistry class, my wood shop class, and my P.E. class.  It actually wasn't on purpose either.  He had shaggy dirty blonde hair and we were actually good friends, but he was another guy who just saw me as one of the guys.  I had met him the previous trimester in advance algebra when we sat next to each other.  I helped him with advanced algebra and the next trimester, he helped me with chemistry, the first class I ever struggled in.  Seriously that dot method thing and valences and stuff just whooshed over my head.  He was in the grade ahead of me and he was the class clown, but he was actually really smart.  Nobody ever beat him at chess and we always had random conversations about stuff like real life Peter Pan syndrome.  Anyway I wanted to make him notice me as more than just one of his friends, so I wore the tight outfit.  He came up behind me in wood shop and then when he saw that it was me, he went "Whoa, Jessi!" and then was kind of speechless, which made me happy.  What didn't make me happy was that my shirt was too short and I had to keep on pulling it down all day.  It really didn't help that the leather tie on my jeans kept loosening itself so I had to run into the bathroom all day to retie it so nobody would see my underwear.  So that was the only time I ever wore those jeans and I started wearing tanktops under the shirt, which was actually one of my favorites, despite having three-quarter length sleeves.  And as far as the crush thing, my crush never went away even though he started dating a nerdy looking new girl who somehow got accepted as a popular kid right away.  (She was actually really nice though, so I couldn't hate her.)  I had to learn to be happy with just being his friend.  And I decided that wearing clothes that I wasn't comfortable in just because I was trying to impress boys was not a good idea.  My freshman year of college, I started wearing too-big girl clothes, as well as occasional guy clothes, some normal girl shirts, and skinny jeans.  I vetoed the too-big girl clothes sophomore year after I realized that with my short haircut and guy clothes, I looked like a guy or a potentially homeless person.  Especially since I didn't wear makeup.  I started wearing mostly girl clothes, with the occasional guy's black guitar shirt because they were cool.  I started wearing makeup when I was in my wheelchair, because it made me feel more self-confident.  It made me feel pretty too, instead of just like that girl in the wheelchair.  When I dyed my hair black, I started wearing more bright colors, because my black shirts with my black hair were just too much black.  That's when guys started checking me out and making me feel uncomfortable, like the stranger on the Ave who tried to hold my hand and asked for a bite of my sandwich.  Now that my hair is brown again, I get creeped on much less, which I can really appreciate.  I have also discovered my own fashion sense, a mix of tough and feminine clothing and accesories, sort of a better version of sometimes wearing guy clothes and sometimes girl clothes when I was younger.  And sometimes I actually make a conscious effort to look good when I get dressed, which I never did until last year.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Webcomics! Romantically Apocalyptic


I love just about anything with a post-apocalyptic setting, webcomics included, so when Lauren recommended Romantically Apocalyptic to me, I knew I had to check it out.  To be honest, I was a bit wary at first because after my breakup with G, romantic comedies leave me in a puddle of tears, and this has "romantic" in the title.  This is nothing like a romantic comedy though.  It turns out that romantic is more in the poetic sense than the lovey-dovey sense.  I love Romantically Apocalyptic.  It's about Zee Captein and the few other survivors of the apocalypse.  Zee Captein is kind of insane in a hilarious way.  He enjoys having conversations with skeletons and ordering people around.  Romantically Apocalyptic is a fantastic mix of amazing art (I have one of the drawings as my desktop background now), crazy mini-plots, tea, post-apocalyptic dangers, and lots and lots of silliness.  I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys webcomics.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Friday Fashion: New Stuff

It's been a while since I've shared the new things I've bought and thrifted. Besides these things, I've also thrifted 4 pairs of jeans and bought a pair of leggings.  These things were accumulated over the last 4 or 5 months.

brand new faux leather jacket from Wish
Converse brand jacket from Buffalo Exchange.  It's actually a dark gray but the picture isn't so accurate.

It's difficult to tell from this picture, but this is a knit beanie with a bill
to keep the rain off my glasses. I bought it brand new from Wish. 
pic name pic name pic name

I thrifted the combat boots from Buffalo Exchange, the flats from Crossroads Trading Co., and the Converse from Goodwill.  The boots are Bamboo brand and the flats are Ruby and Bloom.

I purchased all of these rings for less than $5 each online,
except for the robot, which I bought from Wish.
 
I bought this hat from Wish.
 
I bought this hat at Wish too.
 
I bought this scarf online for less than $5.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Movie Reviews

I have watched a lot of movies since my last movie review post on here.  This isn't even all of them.

The Good:

Resident Evil: Retribution

Rented this one from Redbox.  I had been checking the Redbox website every single day waiting for it to be at my Redbox location.  It was finally there and I had to rent it immediately.  I loved it so much.  I don't think it's a secret that I'm a pretty big fan of Resident Evil movies.  They're some of my favorite zombie movies.  This one was no exception.  There were some new fighting techniques, lots of action, some backstory, and some heartwarming moments, plus a really cool car chase scene.  Although the one thing that I couldn't get past is that some of them were so skimpily dressed while others were bundled in parkas in the frozen Arctic.  I'm not sure how nobody froze to death.  Other than that, I loved this movie. 4.5 stars out of 5.

God Bless America

I watched this one on Netflix.  It was amazing!  Granted, it may not be the best movie to watch with all the shootings going on lately, but I thought that it was a really great commentary on the way news is reported and the assumptions people make about shooters.  The acting was really good, and the ending was realistic.  I can't really talk about the plot without accidentally giving things away, so I'll just leave it at that.  5 stars out of 5

Hugo

I watched this one on Netflix too.  From the first time I saw the trailer, I knew I wanted to watch this movie, and I was not disappointed.  The setting of the train station seems magical.  The way that people dress is sort of steampunk-ish and the entire movie is beautifully artistic.  The plot is truly unique (as far as I can tell. I definitely haven't seen every movie ever, but I haven't seen any movies like this before) and the cast is fantastic.  I really loved this movie and highly recommend it to everyone.  5 stars out of 5

Aaah! Zombies!!! (AKA Wasting Away)

I obviously love zombie movies.  I found this one on Hulu Plus and I loved it.  It's made to be like a cheesy B-movie.  The difference is that it's a zombie movie from the perspective of the zombies.  To the zombies, everyone else is just moving extra fast and the zombies themselves can get hurt without dying, so they think that they're superheroes and everyone else is zombies.  It's really unique and cheesy and funny.  I recommend it to everyone who likes zombie movies or B-movies.  4.5 stars out of 5

The Bad:

Book of Caleb

BOOOOORRRRIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!  I watched this movie on Netflix.  I managed to watch the whole movie but it was never anything other than boring.  I hated it.  Have I ever given a movie 0 stars before? I don't know, but this one gets it.  0 stars out of 5.  Lots of people love this movie, but not me.  If you're interested, IMDB summarizes it as "A comfortable underachiever and serial prankster, in the midst of their quarter life crisis, reunite against childhood enemies in a contemporary suburban epic."

The Meh:

Alice Through the Looking Glass

I found this one on Hulu Plus and I have to watch every single Alice in Wonderland movie ever, so I watched it.  It's mostly true to the book.  The costumes are amazing.  They were my favorite part of the movie.  This movie was pretty well done, but sort of boring.  I feel like there was more that they could have done, but didn't.  I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Why my Stomach Hates Me

I had another blood test, this time for gluten intolerance.  It came back positive.  I have celiac disease, which means that anytime I eat food with even a tiny bit of gluten in it, my immune system detects it as some sort of invader and attacks my small intestine.  So the reason that I have been so sick is that my body has been attacking itself.  It really doesn't help that the doctor had me on a diet of bland food and every single thing I was eating, other than the white rice, had gluten in it.  I have to never eat gluten again and after some amount of time, my small intestine will repair itself and I'll be able to eat more and more foods again.  At the moment I can handle hardly any dairy, no chocolate, no spicy foods, and the only fruit I can eat is bananas because they aren't at all acidic.

The small intestine normally has little fibery things in it called villi.  The best analogy I can find for it online is that a normal small intestine is kind of like a carpet inside.  The villi are what help you absorb the nutrients in food during digestion.  In a person with celiac disease, the inside of the small intestine are more like a tile floor, and all (or most) of the nutrients in food just slide through instead of being caught and absorbed.

Being gluten-free is tricky because there is gluten in almost everything.  Anything with breading or bread or most thickened sauces including gravy contain gluten.  I can no longer enjoy crepes, cream puffs, onion rings, chicken nuggets, or French toast, unless gluten free.  Despite G and I being broken up, we are still great friends and he is super supportive.  He doesn't grasp the fact that gluten is automatically in anything that contains flour and he's been all upset thinking that manufacturers just add this thing called gluten to food that doesn't need it.  I tried to explain but for some reason he doesn't get it.  It's weird because he's extremely intelligent.  He was all upset because last quarter he got a 3.99 GPA in his college classes instead of a 4.0.  Anyway he took me on my first gluten-free shopping trip and tried to help me find things I could eat.  He even searched the entire frozen food aisle for this one brand of gluten-free frozen dinners that I had found online called Glutino's.  They didn't end up having it.  He also found a little tiny section of the store that was all gluten-free food.  I found gluten free crackers, gluten free oatmeal (oats themselves are gluten free but one of the foods that is very likely to get cross-contaminated by being processed on the same equipment as wheat), gluten free rice cakes, and some gluten free Thaifood that I can't eat yet because it's too flavorful and delicious for my intestine to handle.  I actually ended up finding quite a bit of food that I can eat, and there will be way more once I can handle dairy and flavor and spice again.  The shopping trip took so long because I had to read through the ingredients on every single product and if there was wheat flour or maltodextrin that didn't specify what it was made from (not sure what it is but it can be made from wheat or corn or other things) or a single ingredient that I didn't recognize, I couldn't buy it.  Safeway brand products are really good about writing exactly which allergen causing ingredients are in them after the ingredients list, but most brands don't do that, so it's very time-consuming.

It's going to be a very long process.  Even some things that don't contain gluten or dairy or spiciness still make me sick, because my small intestine is messed up.  It's definitely been a learning experience and it's a real relief to finally know what is wrong and also not to have to have expensive tests that I can't afford.  My birthday is in 24 days, the big 21.  I won't be able to drink because alcohol is pretty harsh on even a normal body.  I won't be able to have cake (because gluten-free cakes are expensive) or ice cream (because dairy doesn't like me), but I am probably going to go home to spend at least my birthday weekend with my parents.  It will probably only be the weekend because otherwise I'd have to go on another gluten-free shopping trip and since they live in a very small town, I don't think that the grocery store, which is the next town over, would have many gluten-free foods.  It's a very small grocery store.  And also I want to be able to have a good time and not get all frustrated because they have hardly anything that I can eat.

So that's where I'm at now.  I'm still very very tired, sleeping as much as 12 hours a night.  I'm still having fevers, which I found out is caused by my immune system fighting all the time.  They should go away after a while.  I still haven't been able to go back to work and my Etsy shop has become stagnant.  I haven't made any sales lately, other than one sale before Christmas.  But at least now I know what I'm dealing with and that's most of the battle.  Oh yeah, there isn't any cure for celiac disease.  It's a lifelong condition.  Most adults who have it don't throw up when they eat gluten, but I do, so mine is pretty bad.  There are different levels of celiac disease too.  There aren't any medicines for celiac disease itself, but I am taking a medicine for the acid reflux that it causes me.  To make matters worse, gluten can also be in makeup and medicine, so I have to research every single food, medicine, and makeup before using it.  Also some food companies put gluten in things that it doesn't even need to be in.  For example, candy canes themselves are gluten free, but some manufacturers roll them in flour before packaging them.  This is what I'm dealing with, people.  It is not fun but thankfully there is a huge community of people who have been dealing with it for years and quite a few of my Twitter followers are gluten-free, so at least there are plenty of people I can ask for advice.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Blog and Shop of the Month

This month's blog of the month is Decoy Betty.  I "met" Deidre a couple of days ago on Twitter after I figured out what was wrong with my stomach (which I'll tell you tomorrow).  She's super nice and I checked out her blog and I loved it.  Deidre is from America but lives in Australia.  She cooks lots of yummy food and her blog is adorable.  I love the orange and polka dots (orange is my favorite color!) and the font on her header.  She writes about a little bit of everything the same way I do, which I wish is something that more people would do.  People seem to think that if they have defined themselves as a fashion blogger or a beauty blogger, they can only talk about those things, but it's not true!  It's your blog and you can talk about anything your pretty heart desires!  Anytanget, you should definitely go check out Decoy Betty because she's super duper cool and also very nice.


The shop of the month is Whispering Sweetly.  Shane is a blogger who also makes really pretty jewelry.  The jewelry is partially bohemian and partially classic and all very lovely.  Here are four of the pieces for sale in her Etsy shop right now.


Pretty right?  And very colorful too.  So if you want, you should check out the shop and maybe share it or buy something, or just check out Shane's blog or say hi on Twitter, which she actually just got last month, or go look at her pins on Pinterest.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

My Favorite Video Games I've Ever Played

Golden Sun II via

In no particular order, these are my favorite video games I've ever played.

1. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for Game Boy Advance
Partially because of the fact that this is the only Zelda game I've actually managed to beat (unless you count single player on Four Swords, which you really really shouldn't) and also because of the fact that the shrinking thing is really cool and also because of the addictiveness of the figurine collecting, this is my favorite Legend of Zelda game. Judge all you want.

2. Golden Sun 1 and 2 for Game Boy Advance
I'm not sure how many people have actually played these, but I adore them.  I also beat them both, which is a huge factor in whether I love games.  It's sort of like Final Fantasy.  I would describe it as a turn-based fighting strategy adventure puzzle game.  It takes a long time to beat and it's replayable as well.  You can focus on just beating the game, leveling up your characters as much as possible, collecting all of the Djinn, or a combination of everything.

3. Gex: Enter the Gecko for Game Boy Color
I'm pretty sure that this one is the most obscure on my list.  It's like if Mario was a lizard and the game was even more of a trip.  It's very bizarre.  There are a ton of levels and I never beat it, but I loved it anyway.

4. Spyro Season of Flame (or Season of Ice) for Game Boy Advance
I beat both of these games.  I love that are lots of things to collect.  Also if you get stuck in one world, you can just go to a different world instead of dying over and over again until you beat it like on some games.

5. Little Big Planet for PS3
Another game with lots and lots of things to collect.  It's extra fun (for me anyway because you can decorate your rocket ship with stuff you find and also wear different outfits that you collect).  It's a really great puzzle game with lots of levels of varying difficulties.  The bosses are crazy and the whole game is very artistic.  And I beat it too, with G's assistance.

6. Donkey Kong Country 2 for Game Boy Advance
This game is sort of a puzzle platformer.  There are lots of challenges like shooting out of a barrel when it's at the right angle so you don't die.  It can be frustrating at times, but I have beat it after a very very long time playing it.

7. Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy for Game Boy Color
This game is weird.  You're a worm with a gun.  You can get killed by big falls or by electricity or by lots of other things.  Sometimes you're in a city, others in outer space, others in a house.  It's always weird and kind of confusing.  If I remember correctly, the final boss is a mutant fish guarded by electricity.  You can also teleport through toilets, which is always fun.  I beat this game.  I think I love it so much because it's so weird and a huge part of the game is figuring out how to do things, like teleport through toilets.

8. Banjo Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge for Game Boy Advance
I beat this game as well but it took a very long time and some frustration.  There are lots of things to collect: honeycombs, music notes, special abilities, and puzzle pieces.  I liked but also hated the ability to mutate because I never actually figured out how to get some of the mutations so I died a whole lot more than I should have.  I liked that there were so many minigames and also the levels were all pretty open for exploration.  Also before you can fight the final boss battle, you have to win at trivia, which appealed to me.

9. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Game Boy Color
I like skating games, but I'm terrible at sports games.  I love this one because you make money for accomplishing different objectives and you can do some pretty crazy tricks.

10. Frogger Temple Adventure for Game Boy Color
It's a puzzle game with Frogger!  I loved it because while the controls were very simple (move and stick tongue out), the puzzles get pretty difficult.  There are even floors that dissolve under you during one of the boss battles.  I beat this game too.

11. Lego Star Wars
Part of why this appealed to me is that I love being able to destroy parts of my environment in video games (like cutting weeds and breaking pots in Zelda games).  The large majority of why I loved this is because it's Star Wars.  I beat this game.

12. Escape from Monkey Island 2 for PC
This game was great because it's point-and-click type of adventure where you have to figure out how to advance by using items.  It's a very elaborate game and there is also a lot of humor.  I got pretty far in this game, but I got stuck after a while.

13. Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland for Game Boy
This one's pretty old school.  I love Kirby.  It's fun to play as him on Super Smash Bros.  and also he can eat things and gain their powers which is always cool.  This game has lots and lots of levels.  It is very artistic and I beat it.

14. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade for Game Boy
Another old school one.  I love the Indiana Jones movies, which is probably why I loved this game so much.  I can't remember a whole lot about it other than crawling through catacombs and the fact that I loved it.

15. Scooby Doo for PC
I can't find information about this game online anywhere (including the title).  It was a default game that came with my grandma's HP desktop computer.  It was one of those demo games that you can only play for 48 hours and then you have to buy it.  I beat it before the 48 hours was up.  It starts out with a haunted carnival and then you end up in the wild west and have a showdown that turns out to be a pie fight after escaping from jail.  I loved it because it was a complex point-and-click adventure with lots of challenges.

16. Animal Crossing: Wild World for Nintendo DS
I loved this game because there was SO MUCH to do.  There wasn't really a way to beat it.  In the winter snow fell and you could make snowmen who talked.  You could dig up fossils, catch bugs, and catch fish, which you could donate to the museum or sell.  You could also decorate your house with things that you find, buy, or shoot out of the sky with a slingshot.  It was really fun.  Sometimes your neighbors would reward you for doing quests for them too, like delivering a letter to another neighbor within a certain time limit.

17. Super Smash Bros. for anything
I love this game because even though I button mash, I almost always win.  I like to play as either Zelda or Kirby, usually Zelda.