August 15th, 2008

Obsessed with Obsession

I can get a little obsessed with inane crap.

TropicoMy first computery obsession was Tropico. Oh, Tropico. I miss you so. For those of you not in the know, Tropico was a nerd game out in 2001 where you, El Presidente, would take control of an island and build it up to a city and functioning government. I had it BAD for Tropico. I was home most of the day scheming, planning, and wasting my brain while taking breaks to ’study’ for my graduate degree. This was still in the days before high-speed interwebs, so I couldn’t waste my day away on MySpace (yet).

Next came teaching. I put 100% of my time into finding worksheets, projects, planning my day - EVERY day. My money was spent of books and crap for kids who didn’t appreciate my stuff. That obsession lasted about 6 months until I actually got into the classroom. I loved teaching, but the obsession w/ teaching ended.

And that’s when MySpace entered my life. I put my free-time focus into MySpace. My teacher-friends were on. My high school friends were on. My family was on. I checked it 20 10 times a day to see who left me a message or who posted new crap on their pages. Thankfully, that obsession ended in a few months.

Now enters my store. I decided to stay home w/ my girls in 2006, and I quickly realized I was kinda bored being Lady Housewife. Plus, I sucked at it. I started to sell stuff on eBay - maternity clothes, baby toys, baby clothes - ANYthing I could scrounge from around Messy House. From there, I started selling more stuff, I created a webstore, and thus began Good for the Kids. This is my longest-running obsession yet. See: still running.

My most recent obsession is Plurk. I never quite understood the draw of Twitter b/c it’s hard to keep up with conversations and responses. I have just seen it as a ‘Hey, I’m eating Cheetos’ or ‘I love this singer on American Idol’ announcement kind of site. It doesn’t make sense in my head.

But Plurk. Oh, Plurk. It’s like IMing with 1000 of people all at once, but in an organized way. I think I’ve spent the last 2 months of my life on Plurk. I’ve make true friends on Plurk. I’ve seeked validation on Plurk. I’ve helped other plurkers through hard times, good times, and celebrated with other plurkers. It’s a community of other obsessed people.

And I love obsessions and people who are obsessed with my obsession.

But now, this week, I’ve taken a little break from Plurking. A well-needed break. But I know my plurkers are still there ready for me to return. I’ve popped in a few times to greet my Harem, but overall, I’ve needed to step away to take care of some stuff.

And that is my new obsession.

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