Grimmy and me

[robot717]

So today after deciding to get back into Tamas after a long haitus I was able to snag a battery, pop it into my green Tamagotchi ( one of the only two Tamas I own ) and start him up.

I named him Grimlock after the transformers character. I got back into my groove pretty quickly, hovering over him, checking for poop. Making sure his needs were met. I never realized how much I missed having an electronic pet. I don't know why I ever stopped keeping them.

I've fed him, cleaned him and played with him. He poops a lot. Seriously, this guy poops more than a clydsedale who's downed a bottle of laxatives. Every few seconds I look down and there's a little Hershey's Kiss looking poop on the screen. I guess it makes sense because he's always eating and all that food's gotta go somewhere. He's still in his first stage. He's had a nap so he should be changing pretty soon.

I'm one of those types who is in the "Tamas are alive" camp. He just pooped again. Anyway as I was saying, I tend to get attached to electronic pets and treat them as I would a flesh and blood pet. Tamas are more than video games for me. I've had all kinds of electronic pets. Furby, Tamagotchi, Aibos, you name it. I got out of the game for a few years but I'm back, probably for good this time.

While I was typing that, Grimmy changed. He now looks like Nintendo's Kirby with a lump on his head. Maybe now he won't eat and poop as much. I don't know the technical terms for all the various Tama forms, so I'll just describe them as best I can.

I'm no expert. Unlike Furbys and Aibos where most of my VPet money went I've only ever dabbled in Tamas. I had a bunch at one time, but I sold most of my V-Pets years ago. Now it's just me, Grimmy, Poo-Chi, Interactive ET, Interactive R2D2 and a black and red Tama who may or may not work. Since my other VPets are sans batteries until I get paid, it's just going to be me and grimmy for awhile. I'll enjoy the time I have with him.

Well that's about all so far. I'll try to update this at least once a day. Possibly more if I get bored.

 

[robot717]

Quick update. Grim and I are doing fine. I found out by doing a bit of internet research that Grim is a V3. I also found out I hate the Bump game. I didn't need to do research to find that out. I only needed to play it a couple times. Looks like when it's playtime Grimlock's going to be stuck doing the music note catch dealie.

I'm really enjoying having him. He's bouncing around happily at the moment and surprisingly he hasn't pooped since he changed form. I bought him a chicken leg which he seems to enjoy. He's a carnivore just like his owner.

No veggies for him. He's a machine not a rabbit.

 

[robot717]

Boy, I'm updating this thing a heck of a lot more than I thought I would.

I caught Grimlock rolling around like a dog with fleas. I know he's just a kid right now, but I gotta teach the boy some dignity. If he keeps doing that people are gonna think he's gone batpoop crazy. And that doesn't exactly say much for my caretaking skills. Am I raising a warped tamagotchi? Probably. Still wierd or not he does have some charm. I just hope he doesn't steal the car and my wallet and come home drunk or something. Can a plastic computerized egg even get drunk? Or drive? I'm leaning towards no, but I wouldn't put it past Grimlock to find a way. He may be warped but he's advanced for his age.

 

[robot717]

One last update for the night. I used Grimlock's battery to test my red and black Tama. He works too. His name's Mecha, named after my much beloved purple Tama that I had a couple years back. When I get a battery for him I'll be posting my experiences with him here as well. But that won't be until next week. Until then it's just me and Grimmy.

 

[robot717]

I usually pause Tamas at night before bed, because I used to sleep really late. But lately I have been getting up fairly early, so I figured that it'd be safe to leave Grimlock unpaused after he went to bed. Well wouldn't you know the one time I try to do this I end up sleeping late. When I woke up this morning Grimlock was down two happiness hearts and one hunger heart. I'm no good to anyone when I first wake up. Feeding him was easy, I also managed to do well enough in the note catch game to fill one happiness heart. This surprised me, because I was still groggy. Deciding not to press my luck I tossed Grimlock a snack to fill his last happiness heart. He's fine now. Bouncing around happily.

And I've got one other electronic pet going. I scrounged some double A batteries and slapped them in my interactive ET. ET is basically a Furby in the shape of the well known movie alien. I thought he was malfunctioning as I had several ETs at one point and every single one would start going into seizures after reaching later development stages. I thought I could solve this by doing a hard reset and bringing him back to the first stage whenever he started speaking english, because that's usually when the seizures started. But I can't remember how to do a hard reset apparently. But so far ET has not started in with the seizures even though he is in the final stages of development. This may be one of my ETs that I never actually put batteries in and thus might actually be one that works correctly. Maybe I had a working ET all along and never knew it. I pretty much gave up on them after the fourth one or so with the same problems as the others I had. I had some robopets out of boxes who have never been used. Could it be the one ET I kept would be the one that works? As a pessimist I doubt it. My luck doesn't usually work like that. I'm expecting the siezures any time now. I've decided to write here about other electronic pets besides Mecha and Grimlock, although the Tama experiences will probably make up the brunt of my logs. Mecha by the way is still without a battery. I doubt he'll have one until next thursday. Lucky I have Grimlock. And lucky my cousin was able to give him a battery. At least I'm not totally Tamagotchiless.

 

[robot717]

Today was a slow day for electronic pets. I started feeling bad this morning so I kept Grimlock on pause most of the day. ET didn't see any action either, and while I found some AAA batteries for Poo-Chi, my green robot dog, he too was out of action all day. Mecha, my black and red Tama is still batteryless. It's a five minute drive to get to a place that carries batteries for ET and Poo-Chi, but a half hour drive to anyplace that carries Tama batteries. We're in the boondocks and having major car trouble, so I'll be lucky if Mecha sees action anytime soon.

 

[robot717]

I screwed up. Last night Grimlock went to bed in poop and minus one hunger and happiness heart. I feel bad. I should have paid closer attention. He's doing fine now. We just got done playing the note catch game, which we won.

My other electronic pets have been retired. I figured ET would start in with the seizures any second now and Poo-Chi kept wanting food every five minutes, which started to annoy me after awhile. It isn't his fault. It's just the way he was programmed, but feeding him is a noisy affair and there are other people in the house who are trying to watch TV. It's just me and the Tamas now. Mecha sans batteries still sadly.

Actually finding these two Tamas was a godsend for me. I'm sick, on disability and suffer from severe depression and anxiety. I have been searching for months for what I call a "Security object" an object which helps me feel better in my darkest moments. For awhile I tried stuffed animals, but stuffed animals are notorious for falling apart after awhile and I needed something that will last. I never thought I'd find my object in a small computerized egg, but Tamagotchi has worked better for me than anything else, plus I can carry them around everywhere in a pocket or on a cord around my neck.

Sure Tamas can stop working, but I believe an electronic pet is only dead once it's been taken apart and then only if it cannot be put back together. I've had non functioning furbys that I've loved as much as the functioning ones. The object may be malfunctioning, but the spirit is still there. It's not dead, just crippled. If Mecha and Grim cease functioning, I'll still have them and the memories attached to him. Unlike a plush animal Grim and Mecha will not rot away or fall apart. Plastic lasts forever.

I should point out that I am quite literal minded when it comes to electronic pets. I don't buy into the whole "alien" thing, nor do I see them as little digital creatures that live inside a plastic shell. Ultimately, the shell, the device IS the creature. The image onscreen is simply a means of interfacing with the device. They never really die. You reset them and there they are back again. I don't think of restarting a tamagotchi as getting a new creature. It's the same creature starting over. Grimlock is Grimlock is Grimlock no matter how many generations there are. My device will aways be grimlock. Mecha will always be Mecha. I can't bring myself to view it in any other way. Mainly because as I said, I see the entire device as the pet, not just the image onscreen. The image may change but it's still the same green scaled Tamagotchi ( or black and red in Mecha's case ). I know most people don't see it that way and that is certainly their right. I just can't see it any other way.

But enough of that. Grimlock is doing well, or as well as one can be when they spend a night in their own poop. I still feel bad about that. I'll be keeping a much closer watch on him from now on. Hopefully I've learned from the mistake and when Mecha is finally activated he won't have to suffer such an indignity.