01/15/2016: Happy New Years to you and yours.. :-)

I realize these are my Tamagotchi logs section and yet somehow I always end up writing personal things here. Since I have written so little in the last 9 years, I guess you may find I speak more about personal things rather than Tama things. Though I will always do my best to involve both.. if you only have interest in Tama related things you'll wanna skip down to the bottom half. :-)

So here we are. A new year filled with new dreams of hopes and aspirations.

Do you ever make out your list of resolutions? A lot of people find that silly. I was, in fact, one of those people for many years. The only resolutions I ever had were to lose weight, get healthy and do better in life. So vague, so unspecific.. and it never happened when I would say it. I guess because the media treats it as a joke it was always hard for me to take it seriously. Still year after year I wished for those things.

Back in 2011 I learned many things. One of those things I learned is.. I will never know how much time I have in this life and nothing is certain or promised. I thought a lot about how time passes by faster each year and how so little happiness I found in each year leading up to that point.

I realized very sharply that I had wasted a lot of time and a lot of the best years of my life. And I had wasted it on things that weren't worth spending time on and people that didn't love or appreciate me. It is quite a realization to think back 20 years and go.. 'really, what have I done that I'm proud of?' and come up with a list of so few things.

One thing about me is that I do well with lists, with organized tasks, and with solid 'to-do' items verses vague ideas and generic statements. So when 2012 rolled around.. for the first time in my life I made a new years resolutions list. A real list, not some nine word sentence.

The important part of the list was to make sure not to be vague. I wanted to improve my health so instead of writing that, I wrote "go to the doctor and get a checkup". And instead of saying I wanted to lose weight.. I wrote "lose at least 20 pounds". If I were to make things too harsh.. I would give up and I knew it. So I needed a list of things that I could accomplish simply by putting in the effort especially since depression was killing my motivation. I included items for self improvement as well as fun items and items that would affect other people in a positive light.

At the end of 2012 I looked over my list.. and I found there were quite a few items I could put a check mark next to. I was surprised really. While the items are simple, they represent progress which was something I greatly needed right then.

All of the items I did not finish I just moved over to my 2013 resolutions list. And again I wrote several more, and again I had many to check off at the end of that year too.

I have continued doing this through to this day. Sure I have not changed the world, but I have found more reasons to smile.. and I have made others smile. I have made some real improvements in my life too. I even taught myself to crochet.

That resolution I always had to get healthier.. I am happy to say that I have improved my health dramatically in the last few years. I have to take medication and I still have progress to go, but I have truly and greatly improved my health and my progress continues. My doctor went from telling me I might not live to see 40 to being very proud of my progress.

The resolution I always had to lose weight.. I have lost a lot of weight over the past year, much more than I imagined I could lose. I stated a number of pounds I was going to lose at the start of 2015 and people laughed thinking I was joking. They are laughing no longer since I accomplished what I set out to do. People have started treating me with more respect than before. Things have really changed. And this all has had a very good effect on my life in general, I am much happier these days with my health.

So I said again this year.. I will drop the last of my weight to get to the number I feel would be ideal for me. And no one is laughing this time. I don't want to be a super model (that isn't me at all) but I do want to be healthy so I can live longer and be happier. So it's happenin'.

The third generic resolution I used to have about doing better in life.. I cannot say that in some areas life is better than it was at other times - mostly I refer to financial situations. But there are some things that have happened that I feel have caused me to be doing better in this life. For example.. I know who I am, I know where I want to be in five years, I know the direction I'm going, and I know who I love. A whole world has opened up to me in the past years that has greatly helped me find direction. I never was really certain on these points even in my best days (back when I was first making this website). I feel like I have some very important answers to things I was lost on years ago.

So why is it after allllll these years that suddenly I can have resolutions and succeed? Because I am now doing the two things I was never doing before.. I was never making a specific list.. and I was never putting in the effort. Mostly the effort. Things won't happen if I don't make them happen.

One of my resolutions this year was to start writing on mimitchi.com again. Not in the other blog section.. but in this Tama logs section. And that lead to another resolution about getting back in touch with the things I have always loved but had to let go of for so long.. like Tamagotchi.

I have my friend Dennis to thank for the encouragement to start writing here again. We hatched a Tama last year and then another not too long later.. and by then, with Mimitchi here, I decided I would include writing here in my resolutions. While I don't think I'll ever be as frequent as I ever was, I still will not let 9 years go by ever again.

If ever that amount of time goes by and you don't hear from me.. it means something is wrong. Something was wrong for a long time.. very wrong indeed.

I am still baffled.. 9 years. Even I don't know how that happened. The days go by.. too fast.

Anyway, sorry if that was all mega-cheesy.. but if you have or are suffering with depression and lack motivation.. making lists like the above has really helped me get my life moving along so maybe the idea could help you too.

In regards to Tamagotchi I have had some bad news.. I did find my two other Digimon and just like the other one, they too had leaking battery acid. I tossed them in the plastic bag with the first one. I really am not sure how to clean them well enough, but the smell they have is very very strong. I will have to figure out something eventually. However I am pretty sad about that still.. I miss my Digimons, I did not play with them as much as I wanted in the past and when I did I had a great time with them.

Just so you know.. Mimitchi is still here with me. The power of pausing has it's good points. However he is very very needy and demanding of my attention. And he just took a poo I see. I just know his time is near, he will be leaving me soon. I drew out his life extra long because I did not want to lose him on Christmas or New Years.

It is January though and so I am playing with him more again and I can feel that he will soon say his goodbyes. I will see him again though and he knows it.

So you may ask me.. what happened to Mimitchi Tama, my yellow and black first Tamagotchi.. my beloved Mimitchi. Well right now that Tama sits on the nightstand next to the bed. There are dead batteries in him. After years upon years of being carried around and doing everything with me, the chain had broken the plastic ring at the top of the egg so I had the chain weirdly taped to the top. I am not sure how to really properly fix that honestly, but I'd like to find a way. His screen has some miner scratches as well. One of the buttons didn't work as well as I'd like.

These things tho.. they are not so important. The Tama itself was in still good working order when I last saw him running, but it's been years. I obviously need to seek out some new batteries.

I will have more to say about him at a later date no doubt. For now.. his egg is here and while not in perfect condition.. he still has the same value as he always did to me. Imperfections are just signs of experience. I believe in Wabi Sabi.. that is the appreciation of beauty in imperfections. Such as loving something when it is new.. and loving and appreciating it's imperfections it gains over time as it ages. My Mimitchi Tama is still quite special to me.

So where do I go from here? Well last year I hatched a P1, and now I still have my P2 here. I can't hatch a Digimon as mentioned. I do want to play with another but...

Several hours have passed since I wrote that last bit.

I have found that most of my Tamas (so far) have fallen into one of these categories:

1.) The Tama is completely functional and clean even with 20 year old batteries (very few)
b.) Battery is dead (most)
2.) Battery leaked a tiny bit of acid but the Tama is okay, easy to take care of (more than half)
7.) Battery leaked some acid and is still wet and leaking but it's not much so the Tama is okay (many)
c.) Battery leaked quite a bit of acid and is wet in some parts and dry in other parts and the Tama may not be okay without much cleaning (some)
q.) Battery leaked entirely and it's completely dry now but it realllllly went everywhere and these are easy to identify as the screws are an odd color, so the Tama needs cleaned and not sure if the Tama will function (a few)

I have only opened up less than half of them though so the list above is likely inaccurate for the estimated amounts.

Honestly I am saddened. It really makes me sad that my 20 year old self didn't know that when something is not being used for a long while that the batteries should be removed. If I knew it, I sure did not practice that knowledge, at least not with my Tamas.

I guess I need to sort through all the Tamas and clean them up/remove batteries/etc. It is a slow process though, battery acid is not something I want to get on myself or anywhere really. After that I really really need to find some batteries to try them all out. I do not have any more batteries and even if I do have some hiding somewhere here.. they are just as old as the ones occupying the Tamas right now. I can't really afford more batteries at this moment and most certainly not in the quantity that I have Tamas, so I'll just have to figure it out somehow.

My full intention was to hatch something else this morning. Since I did not find any Tamas with working batteries last night, I waited until this morning while writing this. And now I find myself still without a second Tama going.

It makes me sad though to think of my poor Tamas all these years alone with leaking batteries...

I can wish all I want for things to have been different but it is what it is. All we have is now, so I gotta make the best of the now we have. So be it.

Objects need people as much as people need objects. As weird as that may sound it is really true. My view on that is a log of it's own for another day. But when you look at your little Tama pal.. you know it's true from that basic standpoint. You need them as much as they need you.. :-)

So for now I have Mimitchi and he is very demanding of my attention. That's okay.. he brings me a smile.. even still now 18 years later.

I have rambled on enough though.. so until next time.. don't forget to display your Tamas proudly in public and keep snowballs in your freezer for your ammunition in the summer. Take care of yourself and your Tama pals.

PS: Regardless of rather you read some or all of my posts... rather you just found me or you've been here since 1998.. I just wanna say thank you for the support, this page would not be here if you weren't here too.

An old song I have always loved, even though I know the meaning is meant to be literal, it has many other meanings to various people including myself. Enjoy.. :-)