I have been killing every Tamagotchi I raise lately... it's embarrassing and disheartening. It has also been pretty much exactly a year since I last wrote here on Egotchi — weird coincidence! So let me tell you super fast what's new in my life: I was fired from my terrible job which made me wake up for 5am shifts (thank god), and for the past year I have been working at much more fun jobs in the music industry. Regular hours Monday to Friday, walking distance from my home... just awesome. I've been SO much happier, I can't even tell you. But still bad at raising Tamagotchis. My boyfriend moved in with me (), and... I got into graduate school!!! I was accepted into the Masters program at the art history department at the University of Toronto. I am so happy, it's like a dream come true. But it means I will have a lot on my plate this year: both of my jobs want to keep me on, I am founding and running a new semiprofessional a cappella group, I will also probably be in an executive position of another choir, plus this is supposed to be an extremely intensive Masters program... so naturally I want to add more, ha ha ha! Little Beeps has moved to a new home on Grou.ps because Ning is shutting down its free services, and we just had our first group hatch. It went really well and I am so glad to have such amazing friends in the Tamagotchi community who are willing to come hang out and chat and hatch at the drop of a hat. I had a hard time choosing what to hatch, because it's been so long since I haven't killed a Tamagotchi and I didn't want anything that would be too discouraging. So I decided to open a TamaSuku for the first time. I've never run this type of Tamagotchi before, and I thought it was appropriate since I had my graduate program orientation today. In preparation for going back to school after three years (!!), I am running a TamaSuku. And the best part is, the TamaSuku doesn't die!!! I have had a lot of fun getting to know this Tama type tonight. The games are all SUPER fun twitch games, except the Japanese word game, which is also fun because it exercises my Japanese vocabulary! It doesn't beep that often and when it does, it doesn't require much thinking to take care of it. So far it's just been new students joining my class, so you just need to hit the 'accept' button (I guess the equivalent of 'B'). So basically you can choose how often you want to play with it — as long as you keep the hearts up more or less! I'm excited to play with this new Tama, and to log about our adventures together. As a Masters student I am discouraged from applying for teaching assistantships — they say my program is too demanding for another job and also they want to guarantee teaching assistantships to the doctoral students — so instead I will get my teaching experience from my Tamagotchis.

I struggled to get this post up... the only time I have to blog is from work, and even then, only in snatched moments here and there. I swear I've gotten halfway through this blog post at least five times. Eventually I gave up and forgot about it. But today I've got a second thing to report, so I'd better get through both of them right now!!

My old news is that Mesutchi grew up into a Kikotchi. If you follow my Twitter you'll have received this news in real-time. The new news is that I have finally hatched her mate-to-be! It's taken me long enough... I hauled out my trusty Osutchi and I ju-uuust hatched him.

I took a big step forward today in the experiment: I reached a teen stage!!! Aren't you proud of me?

My dear Mesutchi has been paused off and on throughout the days. As I get to know my new job a little bit better, I feel more confident about having my Tamagotchi at my desk - with the sound off, of course. Today she was a little playful, and did something odd that I don't recall ever seeing a Mesutchi do: she got grumpy and had a little black cloud over her head, just like the Connections do when they're asking for a Praise. She didn't like it when I selected the Discipline icon though. I ended up having to stuff her with candies to cheer her up. Dennis couldn't figure it out either. Mysterious!

I've been at work since 5AM and about an hour ago she reached her teen stage. She became a Hawaikotchi! I'm excited because this is a character that is unique to Mesutchi (as far as I know), so I've never gotten one before. She is really adorable, especially in her pink shell.

I got to hatching my next Tama right away, on Saturday morning. I decided to hatch my Mesutchi. You know, I don't remember if I've ever played with my Mesutchi before in my life…! I got my Osutchi/Mesutchi pair when I was in first year university. I gave the Mesutchi to my roommate to raise, and I raised the Osutchi. She kept killing her Mesutchi so we never managed to mate them. Years later, I hatched my Osutchi… but I don't remember if I ever played with my Mesutchi again. Well, I'm playing with her now! I figure if I can keep her alive long enough to reach adulthood, I can switch over to Osutchi and then hopefully mate them.

I spent the entire day in an LSAT prep course, so I kept my Mesutchi paused and on silent while I spent the day making my brain hurt. Logic games are really hard!! I am terrible at them. Luckily I'm scary good at the rest of the LSAT, so it all evens out pretty well in my favour.

After class, I went home and cared for Mesutchi until having an early bedtime. I was so tired and we were writing a simulated LSAT the next day, so I needed to be well-rested.

Mesutchi was paused and silent during my Sunday class and the simulated LSAT, which went really well. My score turned out quite high enough to be eligible for pretty much any law school in Canada, and that was my first try, after a full day of class, and without having practised at all. If only LSAT score was the only thing they looked at…!

Today I took Mesutchi with me to work. She sat on the edge of the cash register with me and was really great. She's a Mohitamatchi right now. I was able to Tweet the action that happened today with her while I was at work. Not much really, just some discipline calls and feedings. It was fun to get back into the swing of things though.

The experiment hasn't been a total success though… J-M came in to town to visit this evening, and as soon as he arrived I almost forgot completely about my Mohitamatchi. He visited me at the store, and we went together to my choir rehearsal. It's our last rehearsal before the show next Monday, so I needed to focus a lot (we are not ready to perform!!). Afterwards, I went out for dinner with J-M before he had to go back to camp. So all that time, Mohitamatchi completely slipped my mind! At the dinner table, I suddenly squeaked and checked my purse. My darling Mesutchi was asleep next to poop, and with all empty hearts. I felt bad and turned off the lights for her.

I said goodnight to J-M and went home. The first thing I did was switch the time on Mesutchi so that I could clean her up and feed her yummy meals and snacks. Then I put her back to bed. It's not cheating, I swear!

I hope she wakes up healthy tomorrow. At least I've broken my previous record with Angelgotch. She's lived two whole days now! Let's make it three! Tomorrow I'm going to visit J-M at his camp, so Mesutchi will be riding a Greyhound bus with me! Fun fun!

My life has recently gotten really, really busy. Right now, I am working two jobs, studying for the law school admissions test, and having a whirlwind romance with a new beau named J-M who seems very much to be the love of my life...! But while he is working this summer as a music instructor at an arts camp, I find myself to be rather lonely on the days when he is out of town, and I have come back to Tamagotchis - more or less.

I have killed more Tamas in these past couple months than I care to admit. I've been running around so much that they whimper and die neglected while buried in their secure Tamagotchi pocket inside my purse. But my new project is to raise one successfully and not give up.

Day 1 of this experiment was yesterday, and I have to admit that it was not a success. I brought my Tamagotchi Angel to work and hatched it in the morning. Things went alright for the first little while - at least she was alive, although it was probably the most haphazard baby stage I've ever experienced.  I brought her from work to the gym and then to Toronto Screamfest, a film festival for independent horror movies. I met my new friend Erika - we're working together on a magazine/blog called Sharp Objex - and she saw my Angel and got all excited. She is also a secret Tamagotchi fan, with three of her own at home (mostly paused). I said it was an Angel and she immediately knew what it was and exclaimed, "Oh, those ones are expensive!" I feel very lucky to have encountered so many Tama-friendly people in my travels.

My Angel survived the film festival with infrequent checking - the lights turned on every three movies, but the movies were usually no longer than fifteen minutes. But it was the next event of the evening that sealed Angel's fate... (I told you my life has gotten insane!)

My very good friend Shayna has been traveling in Europe for the past two months, and was scheduled to come home last night. Her boyfriend Elliot organized a welcome home party and invited all our friends. We were all at her apartment by ten o'clock, eating snacks and getting ready to surprise her. But then we found out her flight was delayed; it was meant to be a direct flight from London, but someone on her plane got very ill and they needed to make an emergency landing in Quebec City.

I had been awake since 4am because one of my two jobs has a 5am-1pm shift, so I was EXHAUSTED waiting for Shayna to arrive. I fell asleep in J-M's lap, and that was the end of Angel Tama... we were waiting for her until nearly 1am, and near the end of the wait, I heard Angel Tama's sad, slow death beeps. But it was all totally worth it when she arrived; just as she was reeling from the shock and surprise of having all her friends be waiting in her apartment to welcome her home...

...Elliot PROPOSED to her!!

We all knew it was going to happen, and probably so did she, but he made such an incredibly cute speech - it was an amazing thing to watch. Shayna was so happy that it happened in front of everyone so we could all share the moment with her. I was just totally emotionally overwhelmed and cried almost as much as she did.

I'll have to try again with another Tamagotchi and see if I can get it to survive the night. ^_^ But I'd trade a Tama for a beautiful moment with friends like that any day.

I let it happen: I let my Mametchi die on my way to work. It was very preventable. I had let him chill in my purse all night - he may even have had the lights on while he slept - and I barely had time to check on him before grabbing my purse and heading out the door in the morning. I heard his dying beeps as I walked t work, and held him in my hand, feeling quite remorseful. Terrible! Terrible!

I have my P2 all ready to go. It's just a matter of finding the time to hatch him. I'll let you know when I move forward to the Mimitchi level of Tamagotchi Boot Camp!

What happened to my Tamagotchi lifestyle?? I found myself asking this question a couple weeks ago, when I was letting my Tarakotchi die in my purse of neglect. My life has been a whirlwind of bad luck, covering for other people's bad behaviour, getting sick twice in a row, going on trips, struggling to do my work, taking care of foster cats, commuting three hours every day, getting involved in musical projects that I have no time to do, but my heart has also been swelled with hope and excitement and my mind has been full of ideas.

While I was fostering two kitties, I think my Tamagotchi urges were stemmed. There were two little bright-eyed, furry creatures who depended on me for life and food and love and shelter. I spent my days off walking around the city to pet stores to get them premium cat food. While I had them, my apartment wasn't lonely at all. It was a rambunctious place. I hardly got a full night's sleep while those cats were messing around my little apartment.

Yesterday morning, one of the other volunteers picked up my two kitties to take them to an adopt-a-thon in another town. If they are not adopted in a week, I will get them back, but until then, my apartment seems terribly empty and lonely.

Fortunately, I had started myself on a Tamagotchi Boot Camp program before that.

I needed to know that I still had the mojo to raise a Tamagotchi. I had had so many pointless deaths from neglect because I've been running around, traveling, working, being sick, whatever. But having Tamagotchis is a part of my personality now, and it's a part of my lifestyle, and it's a litmus test for myself to see how busy or crazy I am. And it's therapy, forcing me to take regular breaks from whatever I'm immersed in, and forcing me to care about something, to feel love in my heart. The love can push out, temporarily, any anxiety or pointless dwelling or worrying. It's a physical object that can be the object of a moment's caring and tender feelings. And it goes with you everywhere!

I decided that I wouldn't be able to get back into my previous Tama lifestyle if I didn't apply the same goal-oriented priorities to it as I have been doing with everything else in my life. That's how the idea of Tamagotchi Boot Camp was born.

I am going to go through all of my Tamagotchis, from oldest to newest, and get the Best Character on each version. I cannot proceed until I achieve that. No more lazy snack-feeding! No more leaving it in my purse until it cries for attention! I have to get serious!

So far, Tamagotchi Boot Camp has gone more smoothly than I could have asked. I hatched my P1 a little while ago, and I got a Mametchi on it on my first try. He's still chilling in his shell. I admit I got a little bit lazier once I actually got my Mametchi, because my goal was reached. But he's still chilling and he's not needy at all, at age eleven.

Next I have to hatch my P2 and get a Mimitchi. I've been wanting to do this for a number of days now, but I haven't been getting home until ten or eleven at night, and I need to go to bed right away. And now I'm sick again so I'm languishing in my parents' house where there is lots of nutritious food and cold medicine and everything is warm and clean and it's downright impossible for me to do any chores because I'm not physically in my apartment, so all I can do is read and rest.

I just finished the book I was reading (In The Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente, which was glorious and left me aching for more), and decided to take this opportunity to hop on my mom's computer and update this blog.

I want to update more often, just like I want to hatch my Tamas more and really spend time with them, but I've been dashing around trying to plug up holes in this ship I'm sailing. I love you all, and I love my Tamas, and I'm also completely congested and my nose hurts from blowing it so much, so I think I'll conclude here and find some cheese and crackers to munch on.

xoxo

When's the last time I types this log on an actual keyboard? Hee hee. I pulled Denny-tama out of his pocket when I was settled on the bus just now and I saw that he had grown into... A Kuchitamatchi! Low on the character chart I go, yippee! Will he be an adult by the time I get to Boston? Maybe I'll want a secondary Tama for the car ride home?

Last night's hatch was low key but a lot of fun! Most of us were tuned in to the Academy Awards so it was like an Oscar party hatch. ^_^ I hatched my P1, Denny-tama. I chose him for a number of reasons. First of all, I'm going to Boston this weekend with my choir, so I need someone chill to keep me company on the long car ride. He needs to be tolerant of neglect, but good company, and not something insanely expensive like my Devil - I'd be paranoid and insane if I brought my Devil on a trip!

I have been so freaking busy that I've been sleep-deprived, not to mention Tama-less, for almost three weeks! I'm fostering cats at my apartment, and commuting to work is a huge adjustment. I'm getting used to it though. I'm glad I thought to sneak in an update here while I'm on the bus home from the gym! I miss everyone and I miss having Tamagotchis. I hope a get a cute character that is low on the character chart from this Marutchi. I love the needy characters on P1/P2!

Can you believe it? My Devilgotchi died AGAIN, at the exact same age and stage as he did last time! It's these darn Wednesdays at work, it's the busiest day of the week (we get our new shipments) and it's killer for my Devils! Or maybe they just take advantage of how distracted I am to sneak away without me noticing... clever things they are! I'm either going to have to pause on Wednesdays, or be REALLY serious with my Devil while I'm working.

I didn't reset my Devil right away when I saw he had died, because I needed to sit back and reformulate my strategy before starting again. Meanwhile, I find myself semi-unexpectedly downtown for the weekend, and I left my Devil at my parents' house. Luckily, a good half of my Tamagotchi collection is here with me, and my Angel was resting next to my bed with its "Thanks!" screen still showing. I reset her and now I have a Maruten here with me.

Look at the horrible glory of my $19.99 webcam, and say hello to my new Maruten!

I have so much I want to tell you but I only have time for this quick update from the bus!

I got my Devilgotch in the mail and I've been putting all my Tama-energy into it since I got it. It is just such an amazing Tamagotchi, well worth the money it costs. Alexa described it as having real personality, and she was bang-on. This Tamagotchi is designed to be naughty and defiant! Sometimes he won't feel like eating or playing the game or even letting you go to the status screen! He's totally unpredictable. He doesn't even drop hearts at a regular rate. My favourite tricksy thing he does is make an incredible amount of noise in the middle of the night, just to wake you up! I love it. Whenever he beeps at an inopportune time, I just smile and think, how fitting! That's just like him! You have to love him.

He even outwitted me by suddenly dying in his teen stage. He was at work with me and I was astonished. I reset him right away. I'll master this Devil, mark my words!!

I'm almost at the bus station so I'll talk to you later!! Love ya!!

Today I received not one, but TWO packages in the mail with Tamagotchis in them! And not just regular Tamagotchis, but two hugely special little packages.

In one UPS package I received my fabulous Devilgotchi!!! Don't tell anyone how much I spent on it because I can't exactly afford it right now. Chalk it up to Alexa's bad influence!!

The other package was our regular monthly package from my grandparents and great-aunt in Japan. They always send us arare snacks and videotapes of TV. This month's package is especially exciting for two reasons. First, they taped the Red and White competition off the TV and I'm really excited to watch that. It's kind of like a popularity contest among all the celebrities of Japan, voted on by NHK, which is like the BBC or CBC of Japan (a government-sponsored media network). It's been a really big deal that happens every year at New Year's for decades. This year, Joe Hisaishi conducted a live orchestra performing all kinds of music from the Studio Ghibli repertoire. I'm sure you all know what a huge Studio Ghibli fan I am. ^_^

But the most extra-special thing that came in the package today? I'll let you watch this video and find out. ^_^


Find more videos like this on Little Beeps

Time really flew with my dear Totoro-san. He reached ten years old today. It seemed so fast because so much happens with an En-Tama. Yesterday something interesting happened, but I couldn't understand the Japanese so I couldn't decipher what exactly it was. I think it was graduation from university, but then I got a menu with three options in Japanese. The Council of Three that I've seen on the V4 when on the job search were there, and I got two o's and one x. Apparently Totoro-san was turned down from something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe it's university applications? I don't know. I need to go consult the manual again.

I know with the V4, you need to have a job before your Tama becomes fertile, but that is apparently not the case with the En-Tama because the Matchmaker came today! When I saw her familiar face, I decided I wasn't yet ready for Totoro-san to have a baby, because I hadn't spent enough time with him learning about all the things that there are left to do with the En-Tama adult stage, like getting a job and stuff. But then I saw that the Matchmaker had brought a Mimitchi. You don't say no to a Mimitchi, am I right?? I know that there are different character families in the En-Tama, and I have hopes for upward social mobility, so a half-Togetchi, half-Mimitchi baby sounds good to me.

So now Totoro-san has a little Memeputchi bouncing with him on the screen. ^_^

I got a new character!!

Totoro-san actually transformed yesterday, but I didn't have time to write. He was in his new form when I checked on him for the first time at work. He became... a Togetchi!


Sorry about the weak photo. I can't find the cable for my digital camera so I have to make do with my iPhone, and it doesn't focus properly on Tamagotchi screens.

When I first saw Totoro-san's new form, I interpreted his appearance as an adorable fluff-ball. This means, of course, that I fell in love with him instantly.

But I went home and asked my mom what the pun is in "Togetchi" and she explained to me that it means thorns. So his fluffiness is actually spiky thorns! Interesting.

He's still seeing the same sunflower teacher. I hope he graduates soon!

Totoro-san has been keeping me company during my sick days for the past three days. I caught a nasty virus and it has kept me from work since the new year started. But it means a lot of time spent together with my En-Tama, which is great! He had the chance to grow into his teen form. He became a Gurumetchi, which looks kind of like an ice cream sandwich. ^_^



He's being taught by a sunflower-shaped teacher, and has three pencil points, 32 sparkle points, and... zero flower points, oops! Oh well!

I also have some fabulous news that I wasn't allowed to report officially until now. My grandparents found a white TMGC+C while they were out shopping one day, and they bought it!! They're sending it to me in the next package that they're sending us. We get packages from them at regular intervals, maybe monthly, with stuff like yummy arare snacks and videotapes of Japanese TV. The next package will have a TMGC+C for me!!! I'm so excited to blog about it. I know K-StateFry on Little Beeps already has one and has been writing extensively on it, but he was looking forward to comparing notes with someone. I'm so happy to be able to help out!

Sleeping Beauty is hands down my favourite Disney movie of all time. It's all the music. Did you know that it's all directly from the Tchaikovsky score for the Sleeping Beauty ballet? I love that music so much.

Ulfa the Masktchi on Pink Tama was my Sleeping Beauty. She has been in love with Cozy the Matsuritchi on Leopard Print V4.5 for ages, but she was too young to mate. I was trying to let them spend some unpaused time together so that they could have some Tama babies, but I've been a mess for the past month! Work has been out of control, and I've had a bunch of other commitments, and I have been TERRIBLY disorganized. Taking a Tamagotchi to work would have been an instant death sentence, because when I'm not being swamped with customers, I'm covered in filth from trying to recover space in the back rooms... toys and junk have been piling up back there for YEARS before I became manager and it's a huge undertaking to clear it all out and make proper use of it. Not to mention all my other usual responsibilities. So I've been a mess and my Tamagotchis would have surely died. Even when I'm at home, my brain is so fried that after finding them with empty hearts too many times, I decided to pause them for their own good.

My parents have been out of town for about two weeks, so I've been taking care of the cat and generally making a mess of the house. I'm really a ridiculous person. But I managed to get it together enough to organize Little Beeps' Festival of Lights group hatch. We had it on LiveVideo, so it was actually a webcam party hatch! It was basically the ultimate group hatch experience, hee hee. We had a blast. My favourite part was when we all told stories about times when we nearly lost our Tamas. It was a glorious time. Hopefully we can do lots more video chats in the future.

I hatched my En-Tama for the first time. I named my baby boy Totoro-san and he's a Memebotchi now. I've had to pause him while at work because I want to experience his life (not to mention not kill him!).

Today I managed to accidentally blow off my friends for a jam session, so I spent the whole day sulking and watching Friday Night Lights. It's important research because Taylor Kitsch was cast as Gambit in the upcoming Wolverine movie. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a long-term and passionate crush on Gambit, and that I think Taylor Kitsch is king of dreamland... I'm so excited for that movie, but I have to wait until May 1! So I'm trying to sate my appetite with some TV with the same actor in it. So far... dreeeeammyyyyyyyyy.

In the midst of my TV marathon, I decided it was time to unpause some Tamas. I unpaused Ulfa and Cozy. I connected them, and literally on the first connect, they did their wiggle dance! They must have been dreaming of each other while in stasis, because they could not wait to boogie. They had beautiful twin daughters.

I'm happy to be back on track with my Tamas and this blog, at least for tonight. Tomorrow is Boxing Day, and if you live in the Commonwealth you know that Boxing Day is possibly the biggest shopping day of the year! Only Christians freak out about buying Christmas gifts, but EVERYONE freaks out about Boxing Day sales. My shop will be having a pretty big sale, so I'm going to be a little bit frantic for the next few days while the sale is in effect. So I may have to go Tama-free for a few more days at least.

I realized late last night that I had never recorded Sulfata's growth from Maruten to her child stage. She became a Kodoten, which is one of those heartbreakingly cute characters. It's a winged baby. Ee!

Last night was a Little Beeps hatch, which was quite a success because I messaged all the Tamagotchi fans on my IM contact lists and a lot of people swung by. ^_^ Everybody hatched something interesting. I hatched my Deka Tamagotchi for the first time, and it is SO COOL. I'm thinking about doing some instructional videos with it, because there isn't much information about it online. Tama Square has translated instructions, which were a big help. I'd like to use the Deka Tamagotchi to teach some Japanese vocabulary, since there is a lot to read. It's a good way to learn words, because when you go shopping you can see the item and its name underneath. And it's EXCELLENT reading practice for hiragana, because every conversation that happens at every location is printed in hiragana that scrolls up the screen at a medium pace. I read it aloud to myself before it scrolls off the screen, and even if I don't understand most of it, it's still very very useful reading practice.

It's a huge, oversized Tamagotchi and it comes with a little plastic kick-stand so that it can sit upright on your desk. I have it on my nightstand. The time screen makes it a pretty handy little clock, but it's always fun to look over and see my little girl doing her thing on the screen. ^_^ I named her Natsumi, which means "summer". I always thought that was a very pretty Japanese name, although it wouldn't work very well in an English-speaking country... I don't think any little girl wants to be named "nuts me".

The idea of the Deka Tama is you have a little girl living in a house, and you explore your little town, try to save up some Gotchi Points, and spend it on lots of cool stuff! You can buy TONS of different furniture, toys and decorations for your house, and you can buy upgrades for your house too. Once the house is upgraded to a certain point, you can buy PETS for your house! That's right, PETS for your PETS!!! Can you see why I'm so psyched about this Tamagotchi??

You can buy Keitai items on the Deka and then transfer them to your Keitai. You can also send GP to your Keitai, but not vice versa... which is unfortunate because I have 9,999 GP on Pink With Hearts Keitai and presumably a lot on Milk Tea Keitai too. I wish I could send that money to my Deka to buy house upgrades and furniture!

The way you make money is by playing games. You go to the Tamagotchi Game Centre and one of two games is randomly selected. There's a bow and arrow game, and a face-matching game. They're both pretty challenging at first, and are completely timing games, so your adrenaline really starts to pump to try to win! They're very short games, and payoffs are between 50 and 300 GP depending on what character was on the screen at the time. I can go into more detail about the games if people are interested, but I'll probably do it on Little Beeps instead of here.

You can also gamble money in a double-or-nothing spin game at the Gotchi Bank. It looks like about a 50:50 ratio of wins and losses when you play that. There's probably some mathematical formula  you can apply to manage your betting increments to maximize your winnings... I have a friend who's doing a Ph.D. in math right now, I think I'll ask him, hee hee hee.

So far I've upgraded Natsumi's house once, and I bought her a little broom to help her clean up, and a goldfish in a bowl to decorate her house. ^_^ So far items just sort of sit on the home screen and don't do much, but I haven't been watching my Deka for enough hours to see what might change... There are a lot of interesting and VERY expensive items in the shops, I'm sure some of them must have secret animations associated with them!

On the home screen, Natsumi seems to rotate through a sequence of resting animations that are very cute. She cycles through different bouncy dances (kind of like regular Tamagotchi characters do), and she also eats from a little bowl with chopsticks sometimes, and goes to bed in her futon sometimes too. Each mini-animation lasts about two seconds, so they're very quick. It's kind of like watching her blast through a bunch of days, so that you sense that time is passing much more quickly inside that little Deka shell.

I am really excited about my Deka. It's not like a regular Tamagotchi in that I don't think there is a life cycle. She won't change, age or die as far as I know; it's just building more and more and collecting more items. Since the game payoffs are so small relative to the cost of items, it could take a looooong time to accumulate enough GP to collect all the items that I want from the shops. This Deka will be on my nightstand for a long time, I think.

Today at work, I've had two growths. Two, because, after yesterday's death, I have instated a two-Tamagotchi policy. ^_^ Sulfata and Tsunehisa both came along in my purse today.

Tsunehisa was the first to grow up. He became a Debatchi. Next was Sulfata. She became... a Ginjirotenshi!! I don't remember who it was, but I told someone that I was hatching my Angel, and they said, "I hope you get Ginjirotenshi!" Throughout raising her, I had that character in the back of my mind. Last time I raised my Angel, I got Kuriten and then the twins, so this is an exciting new development for me. She is MEGA, MEGA cute. The Angel has quite the reputation as being the Tamagotchi with the cutest characters, and it's really hard to argue with that.

She did an angelic act today: she danced in a sparkle shower while she made sparkly beeps. It was so adorable, I almost regretted having to ring the bell and praise her because it meant that she would stop.

I am really happy and excited with the crop of Tamagotchis I have running right now. Four or five Tamas seems to be the golden number for me. I feel comfortable, happy, and not overwhelmed. It seems like having only one Tamagotchi active at a time loses a little bit of momentum and excitement. It's easier to forget about them when there's only one. And carrying two with me at work seems comfortable so far too. Before I became involved in the online Tamagotchi community, I used to have two around with me all the time: Pink Tama and Purple Tama. So maybe this is the level of Tama-raising that my Tama-raising style "grew up" with.

I'd love to add pictures later but I'm writing from work at the moment! Catch you later, my darlings!

Cozy has reached his adult form on my leopard print V4.5. He became a character I've never seen before... a Matsuritchi!!!! He made me giggle when I first saw him, because he looked like a sushi chef to me. But just now I looked up the character name for this blog and freaked out with delight when I found out he was called Matsuritchi. "Matsuri" is the Japanese word for "festival"; there are lots of fun traditional seasonal festivals throughout the year in Japan, and they have the best music and really fun activities. Many of them are local to a particular township or region. People dress up in traditional yukata and go down to a part of town that is all decorated and eat takoyaki and play carnival games...! The main event of the matsuri depends on where and when it takes place and what the theme is. There's an interesting Wikipedia article that can give you a taste of the variety of Japanese matsuri! And I Google Image Searched for some pictures to show you what they can be like:

Some matsuri have magnificent floats:



Some involve taking the local shrine out for a stroll around town. ^_^



One common game is to try to fish out a goldfish from a stream/tub, and if you succeed you can take it home!!!!



The last time I was at a matsuri I was too young to appreciate it... I don't even really remember. I think I saw floats being walked down the street, and I think I got to wear a kimono... I think I was five years old? I should ask my mom, she'd remember.

There are lots of matsuri scenes in episodes of anime, and they're always drawn with care and are full of nostalgic memories. They are usually very romantic scenes too!

So I am super pleased to have a Matsuritchi. He's wearing a little headband and a traditional yukata and he looks like he's ready to have a good time!

My other news is kind of sad... my Kuchipatchi on Denny-tama was starting to show signs of aging and neediness. I guess I was in denial because I wasn't keeping up with his hearts dropping. He didn't survive the walk to work this morning. I was a little bit pissed, because his dying beeps started the second I stepped into the store. If he'd hung on a bit longer, I could have put down my bag and found him and tended to him. But instead I went the whole day without a Tama. It sucked! I have to start carrying backup Tamas!! At least two at a time from now on!! Or is that crazy?

In about two and a half hours, we're meeting at the Little Beeps chatroom for tonight's hatch. I went through quite an ordeal last night to pick up my Deka from my apartment, but I'm sure it'll be worth it! It's been ages since I started up a Tama that I've never played before. I've been doing my research and I think I'm pretty well-prepared to try out this Tama that is still not very well known due to its price and rarity. There is a lot of Japanese to read in it too, lots of menus, so I'll be expanding my brain a bit for this Tamagotchi! It's so worth it!!!

I'll update again after the hatch and tell you all about my Dekatama!

Right when he woke up, Tsunehisa the Kuribotchi on Pink With Hearts Keitai grew into his teen form and became a Ringotchi. I'm really pleased about that because it means that I took fairly good care of him. It's a relief to know that, because it's been a while since I've run multiple Tamagotchis! Granted, it's only when I'm at home, but it's still some nice positive reinforcement. Anyway, it's good to see him progressing. I think by this stage he's already capable of connecting with a Deka; as far as I know, once past the child stage, a Keitai is ready to connect with a Deka. So we're all set for Thursday night's hatch.

Today I took my Kuchipatchi on Denny-tama to work with me. I've been very aware of how quickly he's dropping hearts, worrying for the first sign of neediness that comes with age. My expertise is with Connections that never gain neediness when they get old, so whenever I'm running a 90's Tamagotchi, it's always an anxiety in the back of my mind the second they reach their adult stage. How many more long, healthy days do we have together? When will I start seeing tons of empty hearts? It's a little exercise in fear of mortality every time I raise one of these.

Tonight was Dylan's birthday hatch at Little Beeps. It was a small event, with just me, Dennis and Dylan, but that was to be expected for a small event that was planned on pretty short notice. Dennis and Dylan are a party though, so it was a great time!

Dylan hatched a P2 and a Digimon, and I hatched my Angel. I had planned to hatch my Angel with Dennis last month, but I ran into problems with the batteries and then the screw stripped. It was the night before I went on a weekend retreat with my choir, so I didn't have time to deal with it. Today I had plenty of notice, and I sat down in the afternoon with my Angel and a screwdriver, put on Cardcaptor Sakura, and worked on boring through the head of the screw for a couple hours.

After about four episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura, I managed to pry off the backing of my Angel. It didn't go perfectly, unfortunately. I accidentally snapped off one of the teeth on the bottom of the backing that fit into those slots to keep the backing locked in place. I snapped it off on the side with the stripped screw, too, so that side is especially insecure now that I've bored a hole to pop the backing on and off the shrunken screw head. I've attached a piece of masking tape on the back to try to keep the backing snug. Dennis came up with the idea of replacing the backing on my Angel with one of a healthy Tama, but I'd rather use that as a last resort. I don't like the idea of another Tama hanging around with no backing at all!

Dennis has a bit of experience with stripped screws and busted backings, and his experience shows that tape is only a temporary solution. My Angel seems to work fine even without the tape there, but the backing isn't perfectly snug and pops up a little. So there is contact with the batteries, it's just not totally secure the way it should be. The tape is just there as an extra measure so that it feels just as secure as a healthy Tama. I'm prepared to replace the tape as often as necessary when it loses its adhesiveness.

The hatch went really well. It's been years since I played with my Angel, so I had a few questions about how it works. ^_^ Luckily Dennis and Dylan are well-versed in 90's Tamas and could answer all my questions.

I invented a name for my Angel baby: Sulfata. I think it's quite romantic-sounding. ^_^ Like the name of a jinni or something. She's a Maruten now.

While the three of us were in the chatroom talking about Tamas and things, we talked about having another hatch on Thursday night. I've been really stressed out at work lately, and I've been kept really busy with all of these choir gigs and things. Tamagotchis are a great hobby that help me unwind and think about trivial things for a little while. They really cheer me up and relax me. Now that I don't have any choir gigs coming up in the immediate future, I'd like to give myself a chance to really play with some of my Tamas, especially the ones I haven't played with before. I have a pretty extensive collection and most of them are still in their packages. As Christmas gets closer, work at the store is going to get more and more insane, and I am going to need this calm centre more and more. Thinking about hatching new Tamas that I've never played with is something that I can really look forward to with excitement, and it doesn't cost me any more money than I've already spent on collecting them. ^_^

The next Tama I would like to play with is my blue Deka. I bought it years ago and it's still in the box. It's a magnificent Tamagotchi. I'm experienced enough with my Keitais now that I think it's time to add a new dimension to my Keitai experience, and activate my Dekatama and collect all the items. I was reading the instructions and I got myself all excited! So that is what I am going to hatch on Thursday night.

Thinking about hatching my Deka, I decided that I should probably have a character on a Keitai that is ready to connect with a Deka. I took out Pink With Hearts Keitai and named the baby boy on there. I named him Tsunehisa, who was the son of Prince Yoshihisa, which is a name I used a number of generations ago on Pink With Hearts Keitai. He's a Kuribotchi now.

Once I got started, it was hard to stop. I poked through my paused North American Connections to try to find a mate for poor Ulfa who's been waiting so long on Pink Tama. I found a teenage boy on my Leopard Print V4.5, Cozy the Ura Young Mametchi. I should give him a chance to grow, and he can eventually become Ulfa's mate.

I won't be able to handle all four of these Tamagotchis when I'm at work or otherwise occupied, but they're at least out on my nightstand and in regular rotation for the time being. Denny-tama will continue to be my main Tamagotchi for the next few days at least! He's still a young and strong Kuchipatchi. ^_^

And of course there's my Pocket Pikachu, that I'm always too scared to wear because I'm afraid it'll fall off and I'll lose it...