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the app happy chronicles; vol 3: avatar me

Call it vanity, but the whole concept of avatars and making a mini digitized me is one that has consumed my free time lately. [Tangent: Let's call a spade a spade. All my time is free.] In keeping with my App Happy feature, I decide to share my lameness with you fine folks because you seemed to enjoy my prior installments here and here.  [Tangent: ...or you didn't and were just tolerated me. Potato/potato (by the way- that is clearly not as effective when typed and not spoken.)]

Let me preface by saying, I realize that this is not a new thing.  I'm told there are people called "gamers" who build avatars all the time. [Tangent: Since I haven't really "gamed" since I played Sega Genesis in the 90s, to me it is still a novel concept. To be fair the last time I played something with "Sim" in the title- I was building an 8-bit farm. Let me have my naive enjoyment.]

Last week, Jamie sent sent me a series of urgent text messages that he was shirking his nightly responsibilities to play on some Facebook app called Bitstrips. [Tangent: Momentarily, I was worried that he had lost his sense and had been lured into the warm embrace of Farmville/Yoville/Sorority Life/Cafe World etc.] After he had sent me numerous pictures of a gingerry bearded cartoon wearing various outfits, I decided to join him in the insanity. If you thrive on the ridiculous, like myself, you will instantly love this and waste an entire evening on this bullshit.

Everytime one of your Facebook friends drinks the Bitsrtips Kool-Aid, you can add them into a "friend comic" and you can do things like virtually walk in on them while they are on the toilet or watch them while they sleep...you know like friends do. You can also do things like use them as a hotdog topping or attack them with a box of cats (as shown with Lauren from Old Red Boots below.) or share a fart-filled hot tub.

Surely the novelty of this is starting to wear off because I have started seeking solace in other apps, which do not quite measure up....and I just keep going back to Bitstrips. While watching a Bieber episode of SNL last night, I saw that my friend Bekah was wasting her time on an iPhone app called I Made a Face. [Tangent: Clearly a girl after my own heart!] After assessing that it was free (which is my only criteria), I naturally immediately downloaded and gave it a whirl. After playing with the many options of Bitstrips, it's hard to build an avatar with just a handful. [Tangent: I know...I'm suddenly a snob.] I just couldn't for the life of me get it to look like me. I guess if I was really after photorealism, I would have dished out the pocket change for the iPhone app ToonPaint so I could look like a graphic novel. Sure I could add color, but that would mean I would just cuss a lot and be mad at my fat fingers. What are you favorite apps that you shamefully spend too much time on?

from the strange scattered mind of KIMMIE JONES at 2:58 PM