thirty gaming questions answered (some with pictures)

okay, Kyu found this and figured it's something that i'd really enjoy doing, so he passed it along. i realize that a lot of you aren't really gamers, but i am- so i'm totally embracing this. i am condensing it to one post though to make it marginally easier on all of you.

1: Very first video game.
the first i remember are Super Mario Brothers 3, and Dragon Quest/Warrior on the NES
2: Your favorite character.
Luigi, i adore the gangly coward
3: A game that is underrated.
Myst (PC)
4: Your guilty pleasure game.
Pokemon. or Harvest Moon- which i tend to abandon before much happens, it's just fun to run a farm into the ground in a matter of days. without needing a social network to play.
5: Game character you feel you are most like (or wish you were).
Luigi. kinda easily spooked, and on the lazy side, but i get things done when they matter, and i don't let people mess with my family.
6: Most annoying character.
Navi from Ocarina of Time. Aeris from Final Fantasy 7.
7: Favorite game couple.
Mario/Peach
8: Best soundtrack.
Zelda as a franchise.. which explains my efforts to design a Zelda's Lullaby music appreciation tattoo
9: Saddest game scene.
in Dragon Quest 4 (DS) when your hero's best friend transforms into your doppelganger and goes to die in your place and you read the dialog as the monster army slaughters her off-screen and you're unable to move at all until they leave the scene of the crime. you emerge from the hidden basement to see the once idyllic villi age decimated, heaps of rubble and poisonous swampy puddles mar the landscape and you have to leave the only home you've ever known as your journey begins.
10: Best gameplay.
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass worked particularly well with the DS touch controls
11: Gaming system of choice.
Nintendo DS. it's just so convenient!
12: A game everyone should play.
Dance Central on Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral. it's astoundingly fun and impossible to fail. it's possible to do badly, but you can't actually fail out of a song.
13: A game you’ve played more than five times.
Dragon Quest 4. Pokemon (most of them actually, but Ruby/Sapphire in particular).
14: Current (or most recent) gaming wallpaper.
cutesy FF13 fan art of the characters in their vehicles

15: Post a screenshot from the game you’re playing right now.
Dragon Quest 6 (DS)

16: Game with the best cut scenes.
best-integrated visually? Blue Dragon (360). most emotionally impressive? FF13 (360). most amusing? Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)
17: Favorite antagonist.
Bowser (playable in the aforementioned M&L:BIS
18: Favorite protagonist.
Luigi/Link
19: Picture of a game setting you wish you lived in.
Lego Batman (360)

20: Favorite genre.
RPG/Adventure. battle-parties, Mario & Zelda are my mainstays
21: Game with the best story.
Dragon Quest 8 (PS2) is nice in that it gives you more story if you put more into it. there's levels of story you can get from it that are entirely hidden if you just push though blindly, exploring the world makes the whole thing SO much deeper.
22: A game sequel which disappointed you.
i suppose comparatively speaking since Final Fantasy 2 is the only one i don't like it could count, but it's not a sequel strictly speaking. more accurately FF12: Revenant Wings wasn't great. i still prefer it to some other games though.
23: Game you think had the best graphics or art style.
Zelda as a franchise has innovated the medium time and again. i adore Wind Waker/ Phantom Hourglass/ Spirit Tracks and Minish Cap- the cute cel-shaded cartoony look of them is fantastic. the painted impressionistic design being used for Skyward Sword looks fantastic too though.
24: Favorite classic game.
Super Mario World (SNES)
25: A game you plan on playing.
Zelda Skyward Sword (Wii)/ Ocarina of Time (3DS)
26: Best voice acting.
most of my games don't have voice acting.. i suppose Kingdom Hearts? (PS2)
27: Most epic scene ever.
most of God of War (PS2) feels like this the first time you see it. for sure the Chernobog fight in Kingdom Hearts since the Night on Bald Mountain segment of Fantasia used to give me nightmares.
28: Favorite game developer.
umm.. i have a few. publisher would be Square/Enix or Nintendo. developer.. i don't really know? Arte Piazza did great with the DS versions of the DQ games, basically the groups that put out the games i play most.
29: A game you thought you wouldn’t like, but ended up loving.
the Shin Megami Tensei games, which Kyu initially bought. they seemed a bit dark for me at first, but ended up a little more optimistic than first impressions would suggest.. kinda like a demonic version of Pokemon.
30: Your favorite game of all time.
Dragon Quest 4.

State of the Neko address: week 84, part 2

song+ Science and Faith- the Script- Science and Faith
book+ nothing presently
quest+ working more on the apartment cleaning
upper+ recent drama has been peaceably resolved
downer+ i'm still having trouble working consistently on anything
attire+ pajamas. comfort. word.
drink+ water. i've already hit my milk quota for the first half of the week. *sigh*

(if the tenses in this get squiffy it's because it was drafted from 10:30pm Monday through 7am Tuesday off and on)

okay so, we've returned from the shop (and dinner at mommy2's) and as may already be realized by his Facebook status (for those of you that are his friends) Kyu's decided to finish out his promised year with the shop. as a compromise of sorts, he'll be working less hours. from every day to Thursday-Friday-Saturday, with the realization that he's allowed to take days off for family events. he was never told otherwise, but his obsessive drive to not let anyone down had him working to exhaustion and burning out. the last few weeks having time off to breathe and think has really improved his disposition. at the end of this year we'll see how he feels about continuing to do it in general.

also i'm thinking about having Vance do a tattoo for me. he's offered before, but there's never been anything i really wanted (or a space i'd be willing to put it). now i'm thinking he could do either my music tattoo, or the Zelda one i think i want. or i may combine them into one design, probably for my arm. i'll talk to him this weekend in any case. xD as it is he's talking about me maybe trying to tattoo, or just design flash. i have no ambition for it really, but i'd be okay with selling a collection of the doodles i do for fun. xD as it is i think i'll focus on refining my Zelda/music ideas so i can show them to Vance this weekend to see if he's willing to try any of them out. xD

for some reason our apartment started smelling like burnt marshmallow today. no idea where the smell is coming from, but it's starting to be kinda annoying. X.x i kinda just wish the smell would go away. on the bright side, the smell is curbing my junk-food cravings pretty effectively. whoo. it's hard to want to eat anything at all actually when the whole apartment smells so strongly of burnt sugar. i'm really hoping that the smell goes away soon on its own since we can't figure out where the smell is coming from. the smell's less intense now than it was like 6 yesterday afternoon, so that's good. the only thing that's changed is that we unplugged the microwave. i somehow don't think that's it though.. xD

just so everyone knows, i found a ride for my birthday concert (probably)! Moose is gonna ask off early that day so she can take me and we're gonna have an AMAZING time, i am SO excited about this! though if anyone else wants to go we can still plan to do a group thing, that'd actually be pretty awesome, Kyu just won't be paying for tons of us to go. xD he'll for sure pay for me and Moose, but at one point he said if someone else also wants to he'd pay for three people, possibly four. it's something that can be worked out, if it needs to happen. xD

but yeah, unrelated- i've made it into the beginning of the fifth season of Ace of Cakes. xD it has remained awesome and amusing. i have it playing in the background while i work on other things.

my complete inability to read sheet music has put a substantial wrinkle in my idea to chart Zelda's Lullaby on bars as part of my nerdy/musical potential-tattoo undertaking. i want it depicted accurately enough for someone to be able to play my tattoo if they wanted to. it's relatively obscure on the surface, and subtle enough that it could just be viewed as a music appreciation thing. xD i suppose there's a chance that someone nerdier has already charted it and i'll find it online. it'd be simpler though if i had the capacity to do it myself.

there WAS sheet music of it online! the hard part was finding a simple piano version and not the super brain-explodey mega-complicated orchestral version used by the actual Nintendo orchestra. but yeah, mission accomplished, a piano version was found and successfully transcribed into my design. yay! xD i do think that due to the size required to keep the music notes from being all blobby and smooshed together the only place this design will really fit will be on my forearm. i mean there are plenty of other places it'd fit, but not many that would really look good with my body type, or that i'm willing to try for placement of it. xD i'll definitely be taking the draft i've done for it up to the shop later this week to see what Vance thinks though. if he's in the mood i may even see if he'll do it this Thursday or Friday, who knows? xD

State of the Neko address: week 84

song+ Science and Faith- the Script- Science and Faith
book+ nothing presently
quest+ finding a companion for the concert
upper+ i'm kinda working again on my project
downer+ it's going pretty slowly
attire+ pajamas. i'm not getting dressed just to hit up the tattoo shop
drink+ milk. yay milk!

so tonight is when Kyu is going up to the tattoo shop for (hopefully) the last time to do a promised tattoo on Vance (the owner of the shop), and to have the "i seriously don't wanna do this anymore, could you please stop calling me?" conversation in person. he's requested i go along as moral support, so i'll be at the tattoo shop tonight. whee. i suppose the upside to losing my night to spending the evening at the shop is that i'll have time to draw and ignore everyone and i may finally make progress on my arcana designs again. i did get one and two thirds done at grandpa's this weekend.. that's one done (High Priestess), and one drawn and inked (Heirophant) waiting for coloring. i'll just go up with my art stuff and iPod and ignore anyone that walks in (and probably some tv) while i hole up in a corner and see how much i can get done. xD it depends on how long we're actually up there really.

i've had an urge to watch my Ace of Cakes DVDs lately, but they got misplaced somehow shortly after mom returned them to me.. like close to two years ago. Kyu thinks i loaned them to Tiff, but since i initially borrowed season one from her (then bought it, two, and three for myself) if i had loaned it to her, i'd still have season one lying around somewhere, right? it's making me crazy, but to get by for now, i just downloaded all ten seasons and i'm working my way through them on my computer. i'm just about through season three, so soon i'll be into the episodes i haven't seen, until i hit like season 8, which was the one on tv when i was watching it enough to buy the DVDs. really though i just wish i knew where they went. there's been a gap in my DVD shelving for like two years now. X.x

random quote of hilarity from Ace of Cakes (S03E08): "King Tut was kinda a lesser pharaoh, he's only a big deal because his tomb wasn't raided." *blank stares* "he was like the Martin VanBuren of pharaohs". *laughter*
..i dunno, it was funny when i heard it. xD

State of the Neko address: week 83

song+ Musical Ride- Hanson- Shout It Out
book+ Sailor Moon v1 (Kodansha ed)/ DQ6 guide
quest+ sewing and selling my finished tarot arcana designs
upper+ i have material on-hand suitable for most of them
downer+ i don't know if i'll be able to earn enough fast enough
attire+ pajamas. i'm a firm believer in comfort facilitating creativity
drink+ water.. maybe milk in a little while

so the last week hasn't included much productivity on my part, i actually spent most of it re-playing the Zenithian trilogy (4/5/6) of Dragon Quest games. so at least i had fun, and i reaffirmed that DQ4 is easily my favorite game ever. it may only be half as long as 5, and less than a third the length of 6, but it's made of undiluted awesome and i adore it. xD i get other games and i briefly enjoy them, but i have fun every time i play DQ4 and nothing ever manages to dull the shine of it for very long at all.

since i spent the weekend seriously thinking about it and weighing my options, i think i'm gonna see what i can do to make enough money to order Iple Bibiane after all. i want her for Eve's sister- Lilith (mother of all vampires). yeah, she may be released as a standard sculpt later on, but i really want her outfit and rifle/knife set too, so i'm gonna see if i can sell stuff to earn what i'll need for her (see the screen cap of my mock order below). if i do i'll be ordering her for my birthday, since her order period closes the day before it, so that's cool. Kyu wants me to sew up (and sell) the Arcana dresses i already have designed before i draw up any more. he figures if i do that i can easily manage the amount that i need. i just have doubts that i could manage to earn it in time. he could be right, but i'm reluctant to bank on my evident awesome magically pulling in just what i need right in the nick of time. xD Kyu figures that if i can make half of what i need for her by Oct 10 i'll be able to make the other half by the end of the order period, or close enough thereafter to do a short layaway. it's a goal to work toward at least. xD


i suppose that if i'm gonna try for her i should stop playing on my computer and head up to the office to start sewing things to sell. xD there's still a bit to move around so i can work comfortably up there, but i should be ready tomorrow to get to work on it all. whee!


there's one other thing to mention though, and it only applies to the local people, really (because as awesome as it'd be, i don't really see Roro flying down, finagling us a ride, and hitting a concert with me just to fly home after). for my birthday this year all i've told Kyu i want from him is to go to the Oct 15 Hanson concert at the State Fair (that's a Saturday, and it's slated to start at 8:30pm). he's willing to pay my way, and the admission of whoever takes me, but he'd really rather not go himself. he'll admit that their stuff got much better later on, but he'd prefer not to listen to it all the same. does anyone want to take me and enjoy a free concert and my company? i figure if i throw this out there now i'm likely to get a reply in time to actually plan something. xD

State of the Neko address: week 82

song+ I Do Not Hook Up- Kelly Clarkson- All I Ever Wanted
book+ In the Garden/ DQ5 guide
quest+ finishing my tarot arcana designs
upper+ inspiration has returned!
downer+ i did like.. nothing for the last week
attire+ pajamas
drink+ root beer float of AWESOME

it's late in the week for this. i have no good excuse, inspiration just abandoned me last week after i finished Jenni's paintings. i hadn't thought of a single clever thing, anything at all worth noting or sharing since then until i woke up today with 3/4 of my High Priestess design just sitting in my head waiting for me to notice it.

after waking i took a few moments to scribble what i had for refinement after i walked Harley. xD now that i'm kinda back in the swing of things i do feel much better. fiddling with the remaining details of High Priestess has started sparking ideas for the corresponding Wise One outfit. i think that with the ideas i have percolating getting back on-track this weekend should be relatively simple. yay!

i suppose that i should share other news here too since that's what some of you come for. xD Kyu is officially no longer tattooing. this is his second week of not working two jobs and the change in his mood has been phenomenal! i waited a bit to share the news with everyone because last week Vance (the shop owner) kept trying to convince him to come back for touch ups or to work again, or even to get free work. this week that seems to have stopped after finally communicating his dissatisfaction with tattooing as a career choice. the way the not-doing-it came about influenced his desire to stay not-doing-it too. about two weekends ago Vance told all the apprentices that the shop was closing, then asked Kyu to come by the next day to talk about something secret. the secret wound up being that he wasn't actually closing and just didn't feel up to firing the others directly. X.x that pretty much drove the nail into the coffin of Kyu's desire to do it. he doesn't mind the actual work of tattooing, but he hates the drama and backstabbing in the shops around here, and it's colored his perception of the field to the degree that he has no desire to look for another shop elsewhere in spite of his being really good at it.

i just want him to be happy, and since he's started making noises about wanting to draw comics again, i'm encouraging that. it's been his dream since Superman was killed to draw comics that influence young minds like that one touched him. if he's ready (again) to start trying for that i'm happy for him. it was fear and inconvenience that halted his last effort, combined with dissatisfaction over the direction superhero books were heading, but he's tried harder (far more inconvenient) things in the meantime and the fear has lessened greatly, so he's feeling ready to try again. yay him. it does help that he's realized he'd rather draw a monster book than a cape book. that realization seriously alters his aim heading into things. xD

when he was growing up there wasn't really a market for supernatural books, they'd fallen in sales and been canceled every time they'd been attempted, but Hellboy (then BPRD) really changed that. it made people realize that a monster book didn't have to be a cape book with monsters, it could be crime procedural, or buddy-cop, or historical drama.. any number of things really, now there's actually enough of a market that doing one isn't just for established creators looking for something different. these strange books are actually how some people are making their names. in the last few years more and more non-standard books came out from smaller publishers, and sold well enough to actually finish the initial storyline out. these books were frequently the first books put out by their creators and the successes left them with openings to do MORE. i firmly believe that Kyu is good enough to do the same, if he can just stick with it. he doubts his talent, and his perception of SELF shifts often enough (taking his art style with it) that he discourages himself from thinking he'll ever be able to succeed. X.x since nothing i say to him ever makes a difference i need to say it here. i believe in him.

also, the teaser up for Iple's newest limited girl- the Old West one? she looks stunning and i can't wait to see the whole doll, even though there's better odds of ice-skating in a volcano than being able to order her for myself. xD

State of the Neko address: week 81

song+ On the Floor- Jennifer Lopez (ft Pitbull)- Love?
book+ the Nora Roberts Brides quartet
quest+ finishing my tarot arcana designs
upper+ inspiration is plentiful
downer+ expected but annoying issues post avocado encounter
attire+ pajamas
drink+ milk, my fondest love..

this isn't a Monday post, but seeing as i was delayed by socialization and not laziness i think it's forgivable. xD i spent my Monday with Jenni hanging out and talking and it was great. the only thing close to a smudge on the day was the smidgen of guacamole still in the loaded queso we had for lunch/early afternoon snack. we did remove the generous scoop before mixing up the rest, but it left vague remnants. not enough to leave me in anaphylactic shock, but today my tongue is swollen enough to cause me to lisp and my throat is so raw it hurts to drink anything at all. as breathing is unimpeded i consider the calculated risk worth it. it was damn good queso and conversation. xD

let's see, what else is going on? after my early-Sunday post (that felt like late Saturday to me) i headed upstairs to read for several hours and it occurred to me that even though i showed no other symptoms, the persistent (mild) fever and bouts of chills i'd been dealing with for a few days probably meant i was sick, so figuring a nap would help, i went to sleep something around one on Sunday afternoon and woke up about 7:30 Monday morning. since i felt considerably better i'll assume i needed it. i still feel better aside from the (expected) avocado difficulties. that's kinda what i get for willingly eating something visibly tainted by food i'm allergic to. xD except for lisping and a sore throat i feel fine today though, and i'm looking forward to heading back upstairs in a little while to either plug away on designs for my arcana project or to see what i turn out painting.

i've agreed to paint something for Jenni to complement the design aesthetic she already has going in her room, and also to complement their new bedroom set. i'm relatively sure i can turn out something that will please all involved, and something that i won't be ashamed to admit to producing. i have colors in mind, and a few nebulous ideas, but i don't think i want to plan this too much beyond mixing the colors, i'm thinking instinct rather than planning will produce the best results in this instance. in any event i'm happy to be working through more of my music, as soon as my iPod is done syncing the new playlist.

have i mentioned that i reached the Js for artists in my alphabetical listening to everything i have quest? xD my most recent playlist is most of J (starting with J.Lo) through the beginning of L (Lady Gaga) with the bonus of my rather hefty chunk listed for artist as Cast Recording (which somehow evaded an earlier playlist). Cast Recording is my default label for all my show tunes and soundtracks, unless there's one specific composer. it's easier than iTunes listing who's actually singing each song and making it list as a bajillion albums, and easier to navigate than "Various". it's the one i use on almost everything except for August Rush (which came listed as August Rush as an artist) or the Labyrinth soundtrack (which credits itself as a David Bowie album) or the Josie and the Pussycats movie soundtrack which is actually Letters to Cleo but credits itself as Josie and the Pussycats. i can only hope this playlist goes smoother than D through the beginning of J did. that was a good chunk of my summer between Enya, Goo Goo Dolls and Hoobastank each having several albums. xD this list includes all my Kylie Minogue and the Kings of Leon i got from Moose so there'll be hangups but K should be the only letter i spend more than a day or two on. i don't think i have a single artist who released an album prior to 2009 where i only have one album from them. xD generally i get ALL OF IT then listen to every bit and get rid of the things i don't care for. i just hate thinking that impatience could keep me from discovering something fantastic that just never got radio play. of course, i'd hardly know the difference since i don't listen to the radio. i pretty much rely entirely on recommendations and word of mouth to discover new music. xD

i've got other things tumbling in my mind, but nothing i'm ready to share, so i guess this post is done. xD

State of the Neko address: week 80, part 2

song+ Easy Breezy- Hikaru Utada- Exodus
book+ the manual that came with my tarot deck
quest+ finishing my tarot arcana designs
upper+ inspiration is plentiful
downer+ the dog's behavior is increasingly bizarre
attire+ khaki pants and a green tee
drink+ milk, my fondest love..

i've been hard at work on my Arcana themed outfit project since my Wednesday post. i re-did Moon and am now satisfied, so i've moved on and i now have 13 of 30 designs completed, and i'm likely to continue designing all weekend at the shop and at home. to the best of my recollection my completed themes now are: Fool, Empress, Lover, Strength, Devil, Tower, Stars, Moon, Sun, Judgement, World, Queen of Chalices, and Queen of Swords. there's still quite a few to go, but the ideas are plentiful and i'm feeling motivated. i've given each of the suits an elemental correspondence picked as carefully as possible after carefully considering meaning and equivalents in a modern deck of cards (which many people don't realize evolved from tarot after removing the major arcana except for the Fool; which became the joker, as chalices/cups became hearts, pentacles/coins became diamonds, wands/staves became clubs, and swords became spades). this elemental arrangement feels the most right to me. for the purposes of this project Chalices are water, Pentacles are air, Wands are earth, and Swords are fire. i'm gonna finish the Queens next and then move on to the Knights before hitting the rest of the major arcana. i'm hoping that inspiration continues to flow freely.

it helps that i FINALLY have working headphones again. mine died about two months ago, and my really good pair of metallic hot pink & white Skullcandy DJ headphones were eaten by Harley more than a year ago, so i'd been making due with cheap ear bud sets since then. upon (finally) realizing that 20 bucks every few months is in no way cheaper than spending 40 bucks for a good replacement set, we waited for Kyu to have a good week at the shop and bought me another set of Skullcandy DJs Saturday afternoon. this pair isn't the same color scheme as the last set, they're a muted navy & black, but they sound just as fantastic and it's wonderful to be able to take my music with me again. it makes it WAY easier to ignore the garbage perpetually on the TV in the shop and play things that keep me in the mindset i need for whichever theme i'm attempting to capture. it certainly helps that they're not ear buds, so they do a pretty awesome job blocking out other noises. even at low volumes there's very little competing with the sound of my music, so it's more comfortable in fit and noise level.

i've discovered in the last year that being entirely unable to afford fun side projects is actually pretty good for me. it's made me make lists and do comparison shopping for the best possible deals on everything so i can price things out. i save my findings in word documents then look them over after a few months, and for most of them, i've realized it's not something i really care about after all. xD it's bound to save me money when i actually have it again, since the habit's one i can see myself maintaining. i do have something like 8 dolls on that list, but only 6 count i think. 2 are re-shells (Rosalie and FaithAnn want the updated joints), and thus their original versions will be sold off after replacement and they won't increase my doll count. 2 complete that mini-family (with Kyu and Umi represented since i still love her- even in absentia), and i eventually wanna get a JID to be Roro, but the right facial sculpt hasn't been released yet. 2 will be character dolls from comics i like (as Xavin technically is), they'll be Stephanie Brown's Batgirl, and Cassandra Cain's BlackBat versions of their characters. the last 2 will be my Amphitrite-and-Son modding projects. this kinda seems like a lot of (eventual) incoming dolls, but there were three or four other concepts that were stricken from the list after careful consideration and loss of interest. not having space to display things didn't curb my impulse-spending, but a lack of funds is working wonders. xD it's also encouraging me to work with the things i already have, so i'm clearing out some of my cache of random stuff.

even with all that on my list of awesome stuff i can't afford (yet) it's at the bottom of the list. i did the responsible thing and prioritized by how much the stuff on the list will actually improve the quality of life for me and Kyu. at the top are things related to our living situation (car, better living situation), followed by wardrobe choices we'd like to eventually work toward and awesome shoes, then at the bottom something like 5 grand (rounded up, but including shipping costs) in dolls i eventually want. xD when i'm finally bringing money into the house, it'll pay off the bits i owe people, then be saved pretty much exclusively to make a down payment on a car. there's no point hurry on this, since neither of us drives, but the thought of having a decent cache saved up for a down payment makes trying to learn seem more important. as things stand now other things keep getting in the way of driving lessons, but if we're actively saving for a car maybe it'll seem more urgent to learn and things will finally come together for us in that regard. there's no point in thinking too hard about that though since i'm not yet bringing any money in. xD hopefully i'll be changing that soon.