Animal Crossing Wii

My new obsession... It is a silly, silly game and I can't get enough. I love all sorts of video games but generally, anything to do with Mario tops my list. On the PC, I adore the Sims games. As for the Wii, Super Mario Galaxy was everything I thought it would be, I loved it. I have never really managed to find other games series, or even games, that I liked as much.

Enter Animal Crossing, now I won't say that I like it as much as Mario Galaxy or anything, but what is it with this game? I can't stop playing!! I need to get all the fish for my museum, I need to get all the kinds of fruit, I want every bug and fossil!!! I am obsessed! Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this? I think I have all the kinds of fruit, I am making an attempt to grow all the trees anyway. I visited someone today (for the first time) and they had all the fruit! I got to take some of each to plant!! Cherries, pears, apples, peaches galore! I already had oranges and coconut.

If you want to visit me, my friend code is:
1762-8140-1244 My name is Anna and I live in Mootown. Leave me your info, we'll be new neighbors!

Haha, silly name I know, but I had to think fast and who would have thought I'd be obsessed enough to blab it all over the internet??

Don't knock it until you've tried it. It looks like a silly little game, but I can't stop....

My poor neglected blog...

It is hard to decide what to write about in a blog. Well, it is for me anyway. I think of all kinds of crafty, creative things I could write about, but never get around to actually doing it. Since I don't update often, I think it is safe to assume that I don't have a regular readership for my blog. That being said, I can pretty much write what I want eh?
I tried doing this before and I really am going to try to have a little more stick-to-itness this time. Yes, I know, I say this every time...
I want to share some sites that I find cool and stuff that I like from around the internet. I find the sites through various sources like: Digg, Stumble and CBC radio's Spark, with Nora Young.
I found these two sites after listening to Spark. I was driving at the time and made myself voice notes with my blackberry so I could remember what they were when I got in front of my computer. I have a horrible memory for these kinds of things.

First: Grooveshark. It is a website where you can listen to almost any music you can think of in streaming audio. Just type in the name of the artist you are looking for(or the song) and you get a list to choose from. Very fun.

Next: Seatguru. If you are taking a trip by plane, you will love this site. You go to the site, find the plane you will be traveling on and it tells you all kinds of things about the plane and your seat in particular. It tells you if you have a power port, a TV, what kind of legroom you get and all kinds of interesting information.

Hope you enjoy checking out these websites.

The Potato Blog

I am NOT a happy camper. I live in PEI, land of the potatoes. I own 3 acres of land, I live on one and the other 2 are used for hay by a farmer friend. I am bordered on 2 sides by fields owned by a neighbor, guess what was planted in those fields this year? Hmmmmm POTATOES.

The problem is not with the potatoes themselves of course, I like potatoes. There are 2 problems, the pesticides and the harvesting methods.

Problem number one: Pesticides.
There is supposed to be a buffer zone between public property and where a farmer would spray pesticides. The farmer who farms this ignores this rule, spraying ON my property. He turns the sprayer on as he turns around on my land because he did not leave a buffer space.

Problem number two: The harvest.
Today was the last straw for me. I watched as someone in a truck drove and parked on my property while they went to work on a tractor in the field. I went and left a note on the windshield that said: "for future reference, this is private property, if you would agree not to spray pesticides so close to my house, I wouldn't mind if you drove on it." Perfectly within my rights I think, after all I own the property! After that, I watched (and took pictures) as countless potato trucks, tractors and harvesters drove over my property time and time again. They drove over my survey pin many times, burying it, they drove over and "stole?" another marker I had at the other end of my property. Can't find it, gone.

At the end of the day, I noticed the owner of the farm, out there looking for something (my marker that they "lost") so I seized the opportunity and went to chat with him. I said "you made quite a mess of my property". I told him about the note I left on the truck. He said he knew and fed me a bunch of excuses of why he HAD to drive on my property. When I brought up the pesticides issue, he had excuses for that too and told me that the fact that our well water here on the Island is mostly contaminated with nitrates has nothing to do with farming. fertilizer or pesticides. He said it's all made up by the government.

I tried to end the conversation there, I told him I understood that it had been a rough year for farmers. I asked him just to reassure me that it would be different next year. He said it would. Then he told me there are just a few people who are CRANKY about this and that it's only the English people that complain about the pesticides!!!!! As much as saying if I was a GOOD Acadian that I would not be saying this. I walked away feeling kind of sorry for him and feeling like I did something wrong. Now I am just boiling mad!!!

My biggest concern from this is that there is a spot where the water runs down the field and creates a ditch on my property. When it rains, water runs down the field to this area. Part of the reason I am letting grass and hay grow is to help stop some of this run off. The trucks drove over and over this area today, making it deeper than ever and destroying the grass that was on it.

I am adding some pictures of the days activities. Feel free to comment, am I just cranky? Or do I have a right to say what goes on on MY property.

March Break?

March Break, is that a joke? No March Break for me, work, work, work! That's good though I guess. I am working on this project that I adore. Collecting contemporary Acadian fiddle tunes. Today I am going to Moncton to meet with Megan Bourgeois. I can't wait to hear her tunes and of course to see Megan because she is a good friend! The fiddlecase website is kind of on hold, but if you are reading this and need a tune transcribed, try me!

I am loving the http://www.stumbleupon.com/ website these days. What a fun way to waste time! And I am good at wasting time. I am also still trying to do updates for my own website, but that is a very slow process. I got a little bit of grant money to record a demo next month. I am looking forward to that. It helps to have such great musicians as Mylène Ouellete and Brent Chaisson to work with. I am going to try and get over myself and be brave enough to record a few of my own tunes. We'll see....

Guess I better update!

I just read the site meter notice and I realized that people actually read my blog...so I guess it would only be fair to update! Lots of news on my end. I have a new job! Yay! Well, hahaha I'm not getting paid yet, but that is supposed to come...soon! I am working on a research project to collect, record and transcribe original fiddle tunes from contemporary Island Acadian composers. I, along with others (Big thanks to Tanya and Monic) have been trying to get this project going for a couple of years now. Finally I am starting! Today I am working on tunes from Marie Livingstone.

Also, it is my fall project to re-work my boring website, haha. I have been working on a totally new look with Microsoft Publisher. I am actually almost done, so expect a new look soon at www.anastasiadesroches.com

My other site, www.fiddlecase.com is also still on the go.

I will still be teaching fiddle lessons this fall, starting the first week of October and keeping up with a few bookings for gigs and workshops!

Send me a message or comment if you have thoughts about the new website or the new project I'm working on. I'll try to update more often...promise!

Easter Weekend

I thought the snow was finished! We went to Halifax for the Easter weekend. We took my little Echo with all season tires and not the Matrix with four wheel drive and winter tires because it's supposed to be spring now! Wellllll, big mistake. The biggest snowstorm of the winter hits. Crappy drive home from Halifax, but the worst part was when we got to PEI. After almost getting stuck in a drift in a whiteout on the highway, not knowing which lane I was in or even if I was on on the road... We decided that we weren't going to make it home to Mont-Carmel. We aimed for my mom's and dad's place in Wilmot Valley. The Blueshank was fine, but on their road, 2 houses before their house, I got stuck in a drift so big I could hardly open my door. Luckily, the neighbor across the road works for John Deere and he got me out of there. He opened the road and I got my car into the driveway at my parents place. Pretty exciting.

We watched the game Saturday night at Boston Pizza, happy to see my leafs win, but short lived thanks to the Islanders. I'm posting a picture of the bridge before we left PEI (See, no snow) and a picture of the beginnings of the storm in Halifax, Nadine and Vero in front of the Halifax Public Gardens. All in all, a good trip.

What's New?

I haven't posted in awhile, so I decided that it's time for some updates. I have been "youtubing" today. Lots of fun. I can't believe the stuff that's on there. Type in someone's name and voila! I am going to try to put some videos on there soon. Looks like fun.

I started a new website http://fiddlecase.com where I offer fiddle tune transcription services. How does it work? You send me a recording...or video of a tune, I write out the notes. This is a bit of a passion for me, It all started when I decided I want to transcribe all the tunes from my favorite albums and I realized that there are plenty of people who would love to have the notes for these tunes. So, I decided to start the website. So far, I have had a little interest and I have been introduced to some interesting music! My main challenge is to figure out how to get the word out. I did decide to do a bit of advertising on the fiddlefoum.com website. Anyone have ideas about where I should be spreading the word?

So, that's the rant of the day. Happy Tuesday.........