One thing I've disliked about the direction of video games for the past few years is the near extinction of 2-D games on anything except handheld systems. And I'm not just talking about games being played from a 2-D perspective, I also mean games featuring old sprite based graphics.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those old fogies who thinks that video games have been ruined forever since they went 3-D, nor do I shun recent 2-D games that use polygons instead of sprites. I just would like the older formats to have a new home in today's market. Fortunately, it seems that someone out there is listening to me since there seem to be a couple titles that could trigger a retro revival.

The first is Wario Land: Shake It!, which features beautiful hand-drawn graphics and cut scenes by Production I.G., the same studio that's behind all the various incarnations of Ghost in the Shell. Even if what I just said means nothing to you, all you have to understand that the game looks gorgeous in motion:

So, right now Tree and I are in Seattle in a little place known as the Cyber Dog Cafe. They serve vegetarian hotdogs, and are also a net cafe. I have to say when I read about places on guide books I am often a little bit skeptical. But, I admit, I really dig this place. The ambiance really suits my mood, and is the place that I like. The Decoration makes it a place that I really feel comfortable, and the music they place in the background is pretty good.

The "Hot Dog" I have is a greek one, which has Hummus, avocado, onions feta cheese, and other assorted goodness. On Tree's meal she has, a "california" dog... avacado, salsa (really good) cheddar cheese and fake bacon. good whole wheat buns too. and Blue Moon BEER! I got a bottle of water because I felt a little dehydrated and wanted a cold drink.

After we are done here we are going to watch the "Sea-Fare" Torchlight Parade. Thenride on the ferry back to Bremerton and walk or taxi back home from there. The ride here wasn't terrible on the Ferry but Tree has warned me it's going to be Asspacked on the way back home. I guess we can only play things by ear.

P.S. I love Seattle.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Newest member of the household....

( More pics! )

Current Mood: happy

 Blind swordswoman assassin in Victorian or 1920s steampunk setting who lives by day as the poor but provided for genteel relation of a reclusive noble* and dictates horrid novels** to her companion/assistant.***  Gets invited to a lot of gatherings as a charity case, of course.

I'm the only person in the world who would ever want to read this, aren't I...

*Most likely, he was a very unpleasant person she offed some time back, and nobody had kept in touch with him for decades.

**Except I'm pretty sure they weren't called that anymore by then.  Which is a pity, as I do love saying "horrid novels."

***Companion/Assistant is her assistant in both lives, but not an assassin him/herself.  

ETA:  context here 

ETA 2:  I suck and left out the vital "steampunk" word originally... 

ETA 3: Sometimes, I forget just what kinds of people read this LJ...

Take 3 of 5 on Reserve (it only took 473 takes to get from 2 to 3!) is posted on MySpace.

It's a train wreck, but it's *our* train wreck.

I did the bass track to the drums. We did a bunch of attempts to play sax-guitar-piano live, failed, and proceeded to do a bunch of attempts to do the tracks one by one. After that, we played live again, and it mostly worked. noone234 switched to a better mouthpiece, and did another take, and the rest is history.

Better versions coming soon.

Hopefully.

Current Mood: accomplished

bad habit: i keep looking at patterns, thinking, ooh, i could use (and therefore get rid of and never have to see again) that nasty-ass cotton that i hate for that thing! and then i remember: oh wait i don't have the nasty-ass cotton anymore! it's at the thrift store! with the equally nasty chenille! and i rejoice.

so, yeah, we still have cable. it was supposed to get cut off like a week ago, right? then they called and said, okay, we'll let you slide till the 28th. then they called and said, oh, no, wait, TODAY. and it's still on. i'm waiting for them to call and tell us "you know your cable got cut off two weeks ago? what do you think you're doing still using it?"

finished knitting: pretty semi-made-up cabled mug cozy for grandma; mostly-made-up worked-the-given-pattern-backwards-actually basketweave red bag for uncle (to be stuffed with toys). yep. i didn't know the party tomorrow was for their birthdays until two days ago, so i think that's pretty good.

finished packing: nearly everything, except the kitchen, bathrooms, and oddsnends. good stuff. and it's all going to fit in the car! because we're going to strap the two biggest bags (...and a vacuum cleaner?? what if it rains??) to the damn roof. rene says he hopes i know some strong knots. i don't know what he thinks i'm going to tie things to. the car does not have a luggage rack. the most i can think of is opening the doors, wrapping duct tape around the roof and bags, and closing the doors over the tape, hoping it doesn't sever it. or closing the doors, tying the rope around the bags and onto the hanger handles (aka "oh shit handles") and having to untie them when we want to get out. gah. anyway, we've also taken stuff OUT of the house--all but a couple of thrift store boxes, and a third to a half of the stuff that's going into storage (not counting furniture). on the cleaning-out-my-freezer front: found a bug in the last of the frozen corn. hurrah. at least it was the last of it. the last of our popcorn (not freezery, but oddly-shaped) was stale (or possibly overcooked?) so that's gone, too. nonsarcastic hurrah!

speaking of food, apparently the State Cuisine of CO is prairie oysters. and if you don't know what those are by now, you've gone long enough that i think you can survive without the information.

i'm unsure of what to knit next. i'm feeling chicken about my socks, so i should probably just start on those--but shouldn't i just wait till i have the grey/dark red yarn, and do the simpler ones first? also i'm a little bored at the thought of the angelhair wrap, but then again i'm never bored with it when i actually pick it up. in fact we went to see a drag race for some reason last night, and i knitted on that wrap for a little while there. no reactions from the audience. and i don't understand why anyone would go to a drag race anyway. but that's just me and my homebody mild-aspergery self. i really want to figure out what to do with this white sparkly wool blend i have. i'm gonna see if i can dye it; i only tried with food coloring last time, which, as we all know, sucks. dunno what color, though. maybe blue and green (NO WAY) for a sparkly mermaidish thing? probably. i should make my aunt something from the red bamboo, because she would like it, but she doesn't need or want anything. i think another mug cozy would be best for her. in one of those mitered-square dragonskin patterns. but it is not her birthday so i'll probably do her one for christmas.

*points to pages 179-180*

I do not understand…people deny Toya/Yukito? Uhm…how?. I mean, there’s no “sub” to that…

Moving on…

SYAORAN! He…he is so little! And grumpy! And cute! And determined to be mean! Except, you know, that doesn’t quite work when you go around saving your future girlfriend romantic and professional rival every chance you get. And the mutual crushing on Yukito!

Who, uhm, seems to have some cluelessness going for him, with all the “but why do you let me talk to Sakura when you all but murder anything else that’s moderately male who goes near her?” stuff to Toya.

I remain amazed at how Sakura and Tomoyo can both be so amazingly pure and innocent and sweet without being annoyingly saccharine. For that matter, I’m amazed I can call Tomoyo pure and innocent and sweet when she dresses her crush up in cute and frilly outfits-including a maid costume with cat ears-so she can videotape the fights and watch them in her room (and even talk about skirts flaring up).

While I realize I can be kind of a bitch, some of my actions, words, tone of voice, and facial expressions are grossly misinterpreted. Now I am not a patient woman nor do I wish to be...and right now, the little patience I have is being severely tested!

Know what. I'm gonna go for a little walk and finish this post when I come back because I may seriously break someonething.

 A while back, telophasedid a writeup of this book that, in complete honesty, pretty much says most of what I would say.  So go read that.

Set 400 years after the normal Great Epic Fantasy Story wherein some hero or other (ok, the White Rose) trounced the evil Dominator and his Lady, and locked them up.  Except, this being a normal (if slightly darker0 fantasy world, all those wizards and what-not running around have caused the spells to wear thin.

Enter the Black Company, the last true mercenary bands of what was once twelve bands, the group's current contract is running out, and they're hired by a person named Soulcatcher to track down all of the Lady and the Dominators old flunkies.  Along the way, they hire two new people, one of whom, Raven, is an extra ruthless and badass mercenary, who, as tends to happen with the sort, seemingly randomly takes in a little girl named Darling.  We all know that type is prone to random attacks of "must take in and protect this little thing that's out of it's league ad kill any who threaten to harm it" in fiction.  And then all sorts of fun things happen.

 The book is told exclusively through the POV of Croaker, the chronicler and doctor of the band.  He has more than a bit of a crush on the Lady, and event writers what amount to Gary Stu self-insert fanfic with her, something he probably regretted even before the band had working for her as taunting ammunition.  Instead of your standard first person past tense POV, the book is written almost as if it were what Croaker is writing in the company's annals, so massive parts of the story are his briefly narrating events, and important characters are mentioned only in the context of his saying "and so-and-so was sent to do this and this happened as a result."  Scenes that are "normal" scenes are events he decided to write out in more detail.  In short, it's telling instead of showing actually working and being the stronger narrative choice.

I know this is kinds of Plurk-like but I got used to typing little snippets of thoughts rather than long-winded musings - I guess from my last posts you wouldn't think that :)

But here I am at the con, there's thousands of people walking around, they're dressed up, wearing spacesuits, gone Goth, got the t-shirts of their favorite characters and shows, moms who have no idea of what's going on but they brought their kids because it looked fun, I was behind Seth Green yesterday - I mean this is the shit I love, I absolutely love the energy and the feeling you get when being around so many people who all pretty much like - in this case LOVE - the same thing. It's the same energy you feel at a baseball game (Uplander knows this), the same energy you feel at Disneyland, or even a graduation ceremony - it's just about all the POSSIBILITIES.

And I am getting ready to burst into tears as I sit here. Hardly anyone here is alone. Ok, a woman with an axe just walked by alone, but she has an axe. But there are so many groups of people who are dressed up together, so many couples. I just can't understand it, how I could end up here by myself.

A friend from work did come, I was wondering if I was interested in him but I stopped before this weekend. He was dorky enough to be into Mario Bros. and have a different comic book t-shirt for every day of the year, be he told me once I was acting like a kid - he did not mean it nicely. That was the whole point about my last post: "Don't throw stones" - if you want to collect beer cans don't bitch about my spoon collection, fair is fair, and on top of all my other issues, I hold (or try to) to "do onto others". He also kind of pissed me off. I had a nightmare drive down to LA, and he was sweet enough to call me several times to let me know what he was up to. The last time we spoke on Thursday afternoon I told him to let me know his dinner plans as I would need a drink when I got there/here. I know he was in a presentation till 9, so I sent him a few text messages - why call? and around 10, when I had been consumed by hunger and had just walked into a restaurant (Fillipi's in Little Italy) he called and said "I started drinking without you." I was like WTF? I told him I had had a bad day and would catch up with him. Haven't heard from him, but I don't miss him. He is a bit... elitist when it comes to his interests. I'm more of a "Why do you do this? Why do you like this?" until I get my own bearings on what I like, so if you cop an attitude because what you think you like is so cool, then you're not cool. I think he needs an audience for his interests, which is OK, but I can't cater to him.

I have an old co-worker out here too, she called me this AM, she's been down here since Wednesday. We live and work near each other, but I haven't seen her since January. She hasn't returned a single call since then until today. She's nice, she has a kid and a hubby and a crappy job, and I understand, but I'm not sure how many more months I can "understand" without a cup of coffee you know? She's not avoiding me, at least I hope not, her job changed recently, and really she was there when I needed her back in January. Anyway, she hasn't answered her phone yet.

I am having fun though, however, there is living proof in front of me that there are some things fat girls (of which I am one of the club) should NOT wear. And there are some women who simply CANNOT pull off that Princess Leia bikini from Return of the Jedi. Ladies, know your limits! A good attitude for your body size does not mean if the size on the label fits you that the outfit will look good. I have found comfort in knowing that next year if I wear my slutty schoolgirl costume a la Britney Spears, I will at least look decent in it.

Ok, I am now mocking other chubby gals, I must be feeling better :)

I'm writing for a site called "The Pulse" http://www.comicon.com/pulse reporting on events at Comic Con. This is what I do, I like to write. I know shit about comics though. I'm doing what I want to do. I'm just not doing it the way I wanted to do it. Being a writer is somewhat of a lonely world, I knew that. Guess I didn't know how much though.

So I'm here with 100,000 other geeks and nerds, people who always feel alone, and here we're supposed to be "home", here at Comic-Con is where we can be who we are. I guess if I'm sad, I don't know who I am yet.

I'm getting there.

Current Mood: sad

What Bush and Batman Have in Common


...


...


!


...

Here I am at Comic-con covering a panel of DC industry members in a room of a few thousand people. And I'm alone. I'm having fun, but I'm alone. I don't like how this feels...

Okay, don't have much time, only six minutes left on library computer. Highlights:

- haven't been around much lately, taking a Medical Office Training Class (mentioned previously)

- have three tests next week; please to be keeping fingers crossed

- suspension on car's registration has started; am walking and bussing everywhere (HATE IT!!!)

- will try to do voice posts to keep y'all updated; if not, will try and get to library every Friday or Saturday

I think that's it. Hope everyone's doing well (from scanning Flist, it seems like you all are:)).

Take care, and {{{{{HUGS}}}}} to all.

Current Mood: okay

Those of you who have known me long enough may remember that around 2000-2001(maybe as late as 2002) I tried my hand at writing.  Not fanfic-I gave that up at around 17 or so-but original fic.  But then the perils of being an English major with philosophy and psychology as double minors (full minors, not a split minor) took over my life, and I was, at any point in time, working on 2-3 papers for school with no time to write anything for myself, and when I finally graduated two years ago, the thought of writing when I didn't have to gave me hives.  (For that matter, I had no time to read.  A Regency or category romance could take me a week and a half, if not longer.  I remember that it took me a month to read an Elizabeth Peters book at one point.  Probably why I started reading so much manga.  I could squeeze in time for manga and comics.  I also remember that it took me a week to watch the first disc of Wolf's Rain.)

But back to the point!

The last few weeks, I've been kind of wanting to write again, but having trouble thinking of anything where I thought I'd actually be happy with a result.

So, anyone want to give me prompts to see if anything can get me motivated?  If fanfic instead of original fic, I doubt I could write anything but canon based gen or crackfic.

Somebody could also try to get me to write that Saiyuki crackfic I keep not being able to start where Kougaiji and Sanzo learn that Gojyo taught Goku and Lirin strip poker.

For the Torchwood fans on my Flist who, like me weren't able to go the the San diego Comic Con, I give you this:



Originally found on barrowmanfans, posted by kneadyrn

Current Mood: wistful

I had no idea who this was, but when Google puts up a link to someone's YouTube video, I figure it's important, so I gave it a try last night and ended up watching the whole hour+.
Check out the 'Last Lecture' if you have some time to spare. It really is inspiring.
http://www.google.com/
and follow the 'In Memoriam' link.

Also in the news - the kids and I were glued to Dr. Who last night. Yes, I'm watching on SciFi so I'm behind y'all. But we loved it, and I can't wait for Journey's End.

Have fun, all you Comic Conners!!!! Wish I were there!

I was at Big Lots awhile ago and I saw one of these:
Giant Remote Control

I don't know why - but it struck me as funny. :)

I sometimes think that part of the fun is having to look for the remote. I could be wrong.

Current Mood: amused