Bad habits

I haven't met anyone yet that hasn't got a bad habit of some sort. I'm not talking about drugs, alcohol or nicotine addiction, although I've seen plenty of that. I'm talking about other things like things we collect, or things we do. I think we all have something, some of them might be shameful and dark, and hidden from others, others hilarious.

I am no different, and I'm addicted or collect a few things.

1). Icecream
2). Lipsticks
3). Camera Equipment and shops that stock those
and 4). Cactus Bruce and the Corporate numbers and Mr Driller (4th equal)

Icecream is my biggest downfall. I dare not have any in the house, as I cannot stop at one scoop. I have to have 2 or maybe 3. I've been known to have four. And then there's the different toppings too - caramel sauce, real choclate melted over it, milo, coffee powder, or even kahlua. Sigh. Best I leave it at the supermarket where I cannot be tempted. However, I still crave it every day.

Lipsticks is my next thing. I had managed to keep this one a secret until a few weeks ago. Actually I thought all females had lots of lipsticks so I put up a poll on my deviantart site to see if I was any different. Sad to say I'm really in the minority when it comes to lipsticks. 137 people answered the poll 55 males (40%) and 82 females (60%). Three of the males said they were male but still had lipsticks, but they didn't tell me how many. (5%).

Of the 82 females, the majority owned just 1 to 5 lipsticks (48% and 1 to 2 lipsticks and 27% had 3 to 5 lipsticks). I feel really bad now, but at least I wasn't alone in the number I did have. Ok ok - I'll own up. At the time of the poll I had 52 lipsticks. I've since gone out and bought 2 more, and got another one for Christmas - so I know have 55 lipsticks. In the poll there were 2 others with that many so 4% of females have over 50 lipsticks.

The first question I get asked is - what do you do with them all? Well - I use every single one. Just not all at once!! I do blend in several colours sometimes getting a colour I truly like and I like the colours to match the clothes I'm wearing at the time. And no I probably don't need over 50 to do that - but it really did get out of hand when I went to the USA. Lipsticks are sooooo cheap over there. The L'Oreal brand that I love costs $22 for one here. In the US at any CVS Pharmacy they are always on the sale - 2 for $8. The exchange rate back then was $1 us was $0.80c NZD so I stocked up. In both 2006 and in 2008. Hence my lipstick collection truly grew. I actually did buy for others but couldn't bear to part with them when I got home!!! It's the thought that counts right? Heck - if I lived it the US I would probably buy the whole range!!!

Thats probably the only 'female' or 'girly' thing I do as I hate shopping for clothes, and I don't collect creams or lotions for the face or body like my other friends.

But I let myself down again when I go anywhere near a camera shop. Come to think of it, I can't walk past any shop that has appliances, computer equipment, or cameras. I'm drawn to those like a guy is drawn to anything on wheels. And I can't just walk in and out, I have to compare prices, look at everything, compare specifications, drool, drool again, take a long hard look at something else, before I can walk calmly out again, hopefully without breaking the bank.

B&H Camera & Video in New York is the best place in the world. I could live in that store. If I'm ever homeless, that is where you'll find me. Amongst the cameras of course - Canon SLR section with all the lenses. Drool. We spent a day in New York in August this year, and several hours was spent in that store alone. I nearly broke the bank that time, it took alllll my strength to walk out of there only spending $600 and only $200 of that was for me. My Visa card was absolutely SCREAMING to be used, it kept leaping out of my wallet and clutching at my hand pointing to the canon 40D, the MPE65mm Lens, and the 400mm lens. I had to bury it in the bottom of my handbag and stuff it with tissues to stop it from screaming. The noise of it was affecting the other shoppers!

Lastly, there are two computer games I'm addicted to. Both are absolute time wasters. Mr Driller was a playstation one game we had way back and I learnt to play it, and play it well many years ago. Fortunately the playstation is old and we hardly use it now - we never were tempted to buy playstation 2 or 3. My friend Broni reminded me of Mr Driller a few weeks ago, so I googled it. Very unfortunately, I found it and now play it over the internet. Broni has a lot to answer for. I'm thinking of billing her for my drilling time!! I definitely would if she could afford it!! It's all her fault. The game is simple, you have to drill through blocks, but you have to be careful of lone blocks falling that can crush you, and you can't run out of air - you must drill down, find the trapped air and grab that so you can keep going. I can get to about 1000 metres before I die. And then I try again, and again, sigh!

The other game is my brothers fault He put it on my laptop when I bought it. It's called Cactus Bruce and the corporate monkeys and it's really really addictive. YOu have to catch monkeys and fire them at different obstacles and make your way through 90 levels. You have to avoid being hit by coconuts that the monkey's are throwing at you, grab at blue socks to make your arm faster, and avoid green turtles which will slow you down. If a coconut hits you, you die and the monkeys giggle. The giggling is so annoying I have to play with the sound off. If you fire a monkey and it doesn't hit anything it screams as it goes out to space - which is hilarious. Once you are through the first 90 levels, you can go to the next level of hardness. Their are four hardness levels - of which bonanza is insanely difficult - and I've gone from having one million points then being stuck on one level, and ending up with minus 1 million points in a matter of hours.

I thinking of taking it off my computer, as I have 60gb of photographic files I have to work on. And there's the gardening, and the housework that needs to be done as well. There are blogs to write, and people to see.

Oh heck - I can't hear anything anyway - I think I"ll go and play another game of Mr Driller!