Watching, Playing, Reading #10

Since I was so sick from September through December I've watched even more things than usual!  I'll just share my favorite movies I watched, as well as the TV series I have finished.

Watching:

Netflix:

TV series:

Jessica Jones: I honestly watched this because it's going to be my name once I'm married, but I loved it!  It's about a superhero who has quit the superhero life and is now a private investigator.  It's a dark and gritty show with a lot of emotional stuff going on, and the season finale is really great.

Grace and Frankie: Two older women's husbands tell them their wives they're leaving them...for one another.  Grace and Frankie start out hating each other but form an interesting friendship through the sudden loss of their husbands.  It's a really interesting show and I really liked it.

Bates Motel: I am forever in love with this show, and the latest season is no exception.  Norman Bates is slowly becoming more disturbed and his mother is finally starting to worry about it.  And more bodies are showing up all of the time.

The Following: The serial killer cult never fails to disappoint.  This show remains interesting and surprising.

X Files: I finally watched this show and I have no idea why I waited so long to watch it.  It's pretty much everything I love all wrapped up in one amazing show.  There are serial killers, paranormal events, monsters, aliens, and a huge government conspiracy.  Oh my goodness, I loved it!

Love: Netflix usually does a great job of every original series they make, but I found this one a little lacking.  It was kind of funny at times, but the main characters were both horrible people, which I guess was the point, but I didn't love it.

Animal House: Not to be confused with the movie of the same name, this is a documentary series about rescue dogs and super cute puppies being rescued and adopted by loving families.  I love it because all of the dogs are so cute forever and there is always a happy ending.

Movies:

After: After a bus crash two strangers find themselves back in their small hometown.  But nobody else is there and there is a strange black cloud closing in all around.  This is a great thought-provoking surreal movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It felt like it could be an episode of X Files.

House of Wax: Psycho serial killers in what turns out to be an "abandoned" small town.  This movie is action-packed and will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole thing.

Playing:

Steam (If you are already addicted to buying games on Steam swing by the Humble Bundle store to get great deals while doing good.  I'm not an affiliate.  I just love getting great deals on games while doing good.):

Divide by Sheep: This game was cool but ending up infuriating me after a while, because I am not good at math, and it is essentially a math game.

Cook, Serve, Delicious: I discovered this game when Felicia Day played it on Youtube.  It's really fun, but also super stressful.  I haven't played it in a  while because I don't need more stress.

Dreaming Sarah:  I loved this game so much!  It has great visuals and really satisfying gameplay.  It's cute and creepy.  It took me about 3 or 4 hours to finish the game and I enjoyed every second (except for the time I spent trying to fall just right on the clock level to move on).

Image via

Android:

Alphabear: This is a fun word game with super cute collectible bear characters that you can use to help you beat levels.

Monument Valley: This is a sweet little game that sort of reminded me of Fez.  You play a princess traveling through different rotatable 3D worlds that get progressively harder to traverse.  It's a puzzle game with very relaxing visuals and pleasant gameplay.

God of Light: This is an interesting game where you use different mechanisms to direct light through three stars and into a portal.  It gets harder the more you play and adds more mechanics to direct the light.  It's pretty fun but also sometimes frustrating.

Reading: 

River Town by Peter Hessler: I've been working on this book for 4 or 5 months.  I used to read every day on the bus to and from work, but I haven't worked since September so I haven't been doing as much reading.  It is a very interesting book about an American's time teaching abroad in China in a small river town.  There is social and political comparisons to American ideals and also some interesting Chinese history.

What have been watching, playing, and reading?  Do you have any recommendations for me?

Watching, Playing, Reading #9

It's back!  The semi-monthly-ish post series which I haven't written since December.  Yes that's right, December.

Needless to say I've been watching, playing, and reading a lot since December.  And I'm definitely not going to remember all of it.  So let's get started!

Watching:

Netflix:

TV series:

Goosebumps:  I never actually watched this show as a kid, but I love it now.  It's the perfect amount of cheesy and predictable, but I'm often very wrong about what I think is going to happen.

The Wonder Years:  I had seen a handful of episodes of this show growing up and I liked it, so Jordan and I worked our way through the whole series.  It was good and worth the watch.  I like how the ending didn't ruin the whole show by being too happily ever after.

Third Rock from the Sun:  This show is goofy and ridiculous.  It is a great show to have on in the background for white noise and there isn't really a lot of plot to follow.  For those of you who don't know, it's about four aliens posing as a human family in order to learn about Earthlings.

Twin Peaks:  I've been hearing about this show for ages, so I finally started watching.  It is way to slow for Jordan so I haven't quite finished it yet.  I like the colorful characters but I have trouble telling some of the main characters apart, so sometimes I get confused.

Red vs. Blue:  This is a silly Youtube series that is now on Netflix.  It's Halo gameplay with hilarious dubbing.

Bob's Burgers:  This series is amazing and I cannot wait for more episodes.  We are constantly quoting lines from it, especially "But do you season?!" and when we get a dog in the future we are going to name it KuchiKopi.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:  This show was amazing!  We powered through all of it in two days.  There are so many funny lines and it's just great.  If you haven't watched it you definitely should.

Taboo:  This show is super interesting.  Each episode focuses on different things that Americans might consider taboo and how they are handled by other cultures.

Movies:

House of Last Things: This movie was weird and confusing, but I kind of loved it.  I don't even know how to describe it without spoilers.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart:  This movie reminded me of Hugo if it had made less sense.  It was visually breathtaking and the story was incredibly sweet with great characters.  Definitely worth a watch.

Stand By Me:  This movie is a classic for a reason.  It's a coming-of-age story about four childhood friends going to find a dead body, and so much more.

The Babadook:  This movie scared me a lot at first but then I found out that the villain is really silly looking.  I think the Babadook is supposed to be a metaphor for her grief over the loss of her husband and how she has to come to terms with the fact that she'll always miss him but life goes on.

The Imposter:  This movie is based on the true story of an adult who pretended to be a teenager and was placed into various homes under so many identities as their missing child.  It's really insane that this actually happened and he got away with it so many times.

Hercules:  We hadn't seen this movie in years and we watched it during a Saturday of lazy cartoon movie watching.  It did not disappoint.

Pontypool: A zombie movie I hadn't seen yet!  Well now I have.  It's a very interesting treatment of a zombie situation where nothing really happens, but the creepy part is the anticipation.

The Big Lebowski:  I hadn't seen this movie so I finally watched it so I would get the references.  I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.

Fight Club:  I was surprised how good this movie was!  I always thought it was just an action beat-em-up type of movie but I was so wrong.

Besides that we watched a bunch of Tim Burton movies that we got on Amazon, as well as a Studio Ghibli box set, also from Amazon.

Image via

Playing:

So many video games!

I went to see my parents for a weekend while my brother was home on leave and I played the Wii while I was there.  I played this game called Death Jr. which was super fun.  I had never heard of it before.  It's nice and dark and creepy but still pretty lighthearted and fun.

I had purchased a Humble Bundle last year because it had Fez and then I found out that my computer can't handle the 3D environments so I couldn't play it.  Well Jordan bought Fez for me on Xbox and it's everything I wanted and more.  There are so many worlds to explore that I sometimes get lost, but it's still really fun.

Besides that I got a Game Boy Advance SP off of eBay just so I could get Gex Enter the Gecko from a store on The Ave called Pink Gorilla and experience the nostalgia.  Since it was the store's anniversary they had a buy 3 get 1 free sale on video games, so I also got Tak and the Power of Juju, Spyro Orange, and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, because I love the show (but it turns out that I kind of hate the game; oh well it was free).

And once again I have become somewhat addicted to Candy Crush Saga.

Reading:

Icebound by Dean Koontz, The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn, Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr., Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred by Donald Tyson, Winter Moon by Dean Koontz, Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen by Arin Andrews

I have branched out a lot in my reading selections this year.  These books were all really good except for The Harbinger, which I picked up at a thrift store for next to nothing.

Do you have any Netflix recommendations for me?  I'm always looking for new things to watch.

Watching, Playing, Reading #8

It's back!  The semi-monthly-ish post series which I haven't written since July.  Whoops.

The only Christmas things I watched were the Christmas episode of Supernatural and The Night Before Christmas, which is actually a year-round movie.

Some of my favorite things I watched on Netflix were:

funny:

Jewtopia (you really need to have a good sense of humor to appreciate this one)
Camp Takota
In a World

creepy:

Darknet
The Ward
The Stepford Wives

classic:

Bonnie and Clyde
Batman
Batman Returns

TV shows:

The Twilight Zone
Sons of Tuscon
Psych
Adventure Time

other:

In Your Eyes
American Mary
Neverwas

I would recommend all of these movies and television shows.  My favorite was probably American Mary (Trigger Warning:  This movie contains content about sexual assault and/or violence which may be triggering to survivors.)

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Playing:

Super Mario World for N64 (this is one of  my favorite video games, read about some of my other favorite video games in this post)

Super Smash Bros. for N64

Mario Kart for N64

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for SNES
- I just beat the Desert Palace, which my boyfriend has never beat, so he thinks I'm the coolest girlfriend ever.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest for SNES

Reading:

Ticktock by Dean Koontz

Gideon's Corpse by Preston and Child

Darkfall by Dean Koontz

Contact by Carl Sagan

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Mr. Murder by Dean Koontz

I loved all of these books but Deception Point was definitely my favorite.  I highly recommend it!

What have you been watching, playing, and reading lately?  Feel free to use this post idea on your own blog.

Watching, Playing, Reading #2

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 Watching:

Once Upon a Time (on Netflix):  I found out that season 2 is on there now and I've been marathoning it.  It's gotten strange this season, but as far as I can tell I like it.  Who else is super excited for the Alice in Wonderland spin-off series?!  It involves a mental asylum!  (I'm not sure if I've told you this but I love mental asylum settings and mental illness themes.)

Our Idiot Brother (on Netflix): This was a really great indie comedy movie with one of my favorite actresses (Zooey Deschanel).  G and I both thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it to people who like funny things.

State of Emergency (on Netflix):  This is the worst zombie movie I have ever seen and you better believe I have seen a lot of zombie movies.  The number of zombies can be counted on your fingers and there is never any actual danger.  Never watch this movie.  I am serious.  It's not even so bad it's good.  I love those kinds of zombie movies, but this one is just slow and boring and awful.

Playing:

new (used) video games! from Al's Music Video and Games in Seattle.  This is a cool place I haven't been into for awhile.  It's just a small store with walking spaces narrow enough that you can't go past people when you're going down the aisles, but it's worth it.  There are CDs, records, video games, consoles, movies, and even guitars for sale.  I bought Tak and the Power of Juju and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, both for PS2.  When we were leaving the store, I spotted The Legend of Zelda board game in a display case!  But alas, it was not for sale.  Not that I could have afforded it if it had been, but still.  I am very pleased with both of my video game purchases.  They will give me hours and hours of enjoyment for less than $10 each.  Not bad at all.  Tak and the Power of Juju is completely silly and ridiculous, yet sometimes difficult.  I find it so hard to swing on the ropes!  Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is amazing and sometimes frustrating.  I just got the dagger and then unlocked the hourglass thing, so I can go back in time when I mess up my wall running and jumping stuff.  Plus the graphics are incredible!

Reading:

still Watchers by Dean Koontz:  It's still really good and getting better with every page.  Right now the suspense is building and foreshadowing is occurring., so I think something very exciting will happen soon.

lots of comics

lots of webcomics

as always blogs

What have you been watching, playing, and reading lately?  Anything good?

Watching, Playing, Reading #1

Welcome to my new post series.  It should be pretty self-explanatory.  I'll be sharing what I'm watching, playing, and reading lately, and what I think about those things.

Watching:

Monk (on Netflix): It's a show about an OCD detective and I love it.  It's funny sometimes and sad sometimes, but always good.

So many movies.  Some of my favorites are: Identity Thief (from Redbox; I love Melissa McCarthy in everything ever and this movie does not disappoint), Cabin in the Woods (on Netflix; It's a movie written by Joss Whedon and it is not your typical teens in a cabin get murdered story; I loved it to death (and there are zombies in it!)), House at the End of the Street (on Netflix; This movie seemed really predictable but I was actually completely wrong and it kept me guessing until the end.)

Playing:

Magic the Gathering (the card game)  I've been playing for almost a month now.  I played against a person at my happy place, the comic book shop which I'll be sharing in its own post at some point, for 2 hours.  A single game took two hours!  We were both playing with life gain decks and the way the game works is that whoever loses all 20 life first loses.  So it took FOREVER (to be read the way it is said in The Sandlot, and if you haven't seen that movie stop reading this and go watch it right this instant!) despite the fact that I was using a 20-card beginner deck and my opponent was using a full 60-card deck.  I think I would have won if they had actually used a 20 card deck, but I did hang in there for awhile.

Linger in Shadows: (downloaded from Playstation Store) This game is like nothing you've ever played before.  The game is essentially a 6-minute movie that keeps stopping and rewinding.  Gameplay is very interesting.  You have to move the controller in different ways to progress to the next part of the movie.  Sometimes you have to shake it from side to side.  Other times you have to turn the controller in circles.  It's a very interesting system of controls that would not work in a fast-paced game, but is pretty perfect here.  The first time I played through, I just finished the movie.  The second time I played through, I accidentally stumbled upon a secret and then found out that there are a whole bunch of secrets that give you trophies when you find them.  So the third time I played through I was all about finding the trophies.  I still missed three though.  This game is very replayable and well worth the, I believe, $2.99 that it cost.  Plus the movie itself is pretty cool.

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Free Realms: (Downloaded from Playstation Store) This game is an RPG.  The free version, which I have, will provide hours upon hours of entertainment.  The environments in this game are incredible.  There's a snowy environment with a North Pole feel to it, a beach environment, and even a fairy tale land environment, just to name a few.  You go around exploring places and completing quests.  You can earn coins to use to purchase stuff to either make your character better at their skills or just look really cool.  This game allows you to try lots of different jobs.  So far I have played as an adventurer, archer, a miner, a brawler, and a chef (I'm not very good at that one).  Some of the other jobs are postman, race car driver, sorcerer (that might not be what they call it) and fisherman.  It's a really fun game.  My favorite jobs so far are adventurer and brawler.  I like being an adventurer because it's basically just exploring the environments as much as possible and trying to find every single secret or hidden place that exists.  You find explorer coins which go in your collection.  You can also collect lots of other things, like wildflowers, insects, and seashells.

My Singing Monsters: I downloaded this app for free on G's phone because I don't have a smartphone but I love monsters.  You get to buy, breed and hatch different monsters.  The different monsters play different sounds that mingle together to sound pretty cool.  You can feed the monsters baked goods to level them up and put them next to their favorite things to make them produce coins faster.  It's a really fun game and I play it for a little bit every time I hang out with G.

Reading:

I just finished reading The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti.  I don't remember exactly where I got it, probably a thrift store or yard sale.  It was really good.  Hannah Tinti has been called the Robert Louis Stevenson of the modern age and she lives up to that title.  Her words paint vivid pictures of ghost towns filled with vagrants and wrongdoers.  This book focuses on an orphan boy and his adventures with a man who takes him from the orphanage, claiming to be his brother.  This man turns out to be quite a con artist and puts the boy, Ren, in all sorts of dangerous situations.  It's a really good book that I highly recommend.

Now I'm reading Watchers by Dean Koontz.  So far it's about a depressed man discovering an extremely intelligent dog and realizing that life is worth living after all and there are still wondrous things to discover.  There are also two side stories, which I'm sure will all converge later.  One involves a hit man being hired to kill doctors, and the other involves a woman who is basically a hermit because of her aunt teaching her that most of the people in the outside world are harmful and dangerous.  This book is very good so far and has made me laugh out loud at quite a few of the dog parts.

I'm also reading webcomics and real comic books which I'll share in two separate posts.

All Work and All Play

Makes me a well-balanced person, I guess.  I've been doing a lot of work lately, staying extra at work and then working on my own shop stuff when I get home.  But it's fun work.  I'm making flower crowns for my shop!  So before they're crowns, they're a pretty bouquet in my room.

fake flowers in a vase that I thrifted today for $1!, plus a sneak peek of my art wall

And I got my new game the other day, so that's awesome.  (It's one of the ones that needed funding help, Pandora: Purge of Pride)  The weather was finally nice enough to go hacky sack in the park yesterday, so I did that for almost an hour.  Then I accidentally made new friends who live in my house and one of them made a big dinner for all of us, that I could actually eat :)  (Let's call him The Chef)  It was really tasty.  There was chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce, and potatoes.  And The Chef also commisioned a necklace from me, which is super cool.  Then I hacky sacked with the other friend, who did alright despite not hacky sacking since 8th grade.  (We'll call him The Rollerblader, because he roller blades.)  And then I went to bed, because that was a whole lot of human interaction and it made me sleepy.

And in other notable events, I discovered the wonder that is Desura, and specifically Desura's free games, and downloaded a bunch of them.  So far I have only played (and completed) The Kite.   That game will make you feel feelings.  It is intense.  Seriously.

And I've also discovered that I don't hate documentaries; I just hate boring documentaries.  Now I am that person who says, "Oh, I actually just watched a really interesting documentary about that" during conversations.  Here are some documentaries that I have watched and enjoyed on Netflix recently (with handy dandy links and my ratings, out of 5 stars):

• Happy 3 stars
• Nerdcore Rising (I'm actually watching it right now, so no rating yet, but I love it so far)
• Indie Game: The Movie 5 stars
• Afterlife 4 stars
• The Human Experience 5 stars
• Bomb It 5 stars
• Dive! 4 stars
• Buskers 3 stars
• The Antics Roadshow 3 stars

I also watched two documentaries that are no longer on Netflix, but I still highly recommend them: What the #$*! Do We Know!? and What are Dreams?: Nova.  I give them both 5 stars.

Game Review: Blue Toad Murder Files

Image via Adventure Corner

You should know by now that I love free stuff, so it should as no surprise that I enjoy downloading free video games from the Playstation Network.  I downloaded the game Blue Toad Murder Files the other day because as you'll recall I enjoy murder stuff.  I also really enjoy games where I get to play a detective and solve mysteries, so this seemed right up my alley. 

I'll go ahead and tell you right now that I didn't enjoy the game.  I think that I'm older than the target audience or something.  Most of the puzzles are ridiculously easy.  And then there's this one puzzle where you're supposed to remember exactly what an old lady you talked to earlier looked like.  Instead of staring at her face when I was talking to her, I was waiting for her to stop babbling.

one of the more enjoyable puzzles, image via Adventure Corner

So basically your character is a detective on vacation in the town of Little Riddle.  He arrives just in time for a murder to happen.  Then he has to solve it.  He does this by solving puzzles.

I'm sure that there are people who will enjoy this game, but there isn't enough exploring and investigating in it for me.  When I'm playing a detective game, I like to have to look around and spot small details.  This game basically makes you follow a set path, and I don't like such rigid structure in games.

This game is available as an app.  I think it makes more sense as a smart phone game.  It doesn't take a whole lot of brain power, but it isn't too repetitive.  But if you are going to play this game, you need to be observant in order to pass the pop quizzes throughout it.

The one thing that I liked about this game is that one guy voiced all of the characters.  I thought that was pretty cool.

I give Blue Toad Murder Files 1.5 stars out of 5.  It wasn't my favorite, but it was alright to play for about a half hour.

Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph

This is one of my new favorite movies.  I rented it from Redbox and I loved it.  A lot of people think that it's a movie for kids, but I actually think that adults will enjoy it more than kids will.  There are so many video game references that kids won't get.  One example of a reference that will go right over kids' heads is the Alcoholics Anonymous style group for video game bad guys.  There are lots of recognizable characters including Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik, Pacman and a Pacman ghost, and Bowser.  This is a movie about a bad guy from a video game who wants to win a medal instead of being thrown into mud at the end of every game.  So he goes on a quest to win a medal so the other characters in his game will love him as much as the game's hero, Fix-It Felix.  He ends up finding more than he bargained for, and finds out that there might be more to people than just whether they're good or bad.  The movie is mostly hilarious, partially heartwarming, and occasionally shocking (I'm talking about twists, nothing that will make you have to cover childrens' eyes).  I think that everyone should watch this movie, especially adults who like video games.  I give it a 5 out of 5.

Introducing Nerdish Delight!

Welcome to the first Nerdish Delight post ever!  What is Nerdish Delight?  It's a post where I share some of the nerdy things that I've found around the internet lately that I find delightful.  These things include, but are not limited to: webcomics, video games, technology/gadgets, and science.

I adore the game Coma on Kongregate, by Thomas Brush AKA wittyhobos.  It is a point-and-click game, which is my absolute favorite kind of game ever.  It is not a difficult game.  That isn't the point.  It's beautiful and artistic and slightly creepy.  I also really like that the game doesn't just tell you outright what it means, but lets you draw your own conclusions.  I feel like that's something all good art does.

The Hubble telescope found a galaxy that supposedly looks like a Space Invader.  I think it looks more like a skull with glowing eyes.  To me, it would look like a Space Invader it it had the antennas and longer arms.  Nice try, galaxy, nice try.

A man had 75 percent of his skull replaced with a 3D-printed piece!  This makes me ask so many questions, but the first one is, 'How?!'  75 percent is a lot of a person's skull.  And skulls have eyes and noses and lips and ears on them.  I just don't even know how they did it.  I have always thought that 3-D printing was really cool, but I never even thought about something like this as a possible application.  It's super cool, but I wish that the article was more elaborate.

Here is a cool gadget in the world of 3D printing.  It's the first ever 3D printing pen.  It is by far the most affordable way to print in 3D.  The Kickstarter campaign for it still has 13 days left and over 2 million dollars has already been pledged, which is well over the $30,000 goal.  This thing is just cool.  I can't wait to see what amazing creations people make with it.  It works in a similar way to a hot glue gun.  You put in plastic and the pen heats and extrudes it.  The plastic cools so fast that you can actually draw in the air!  It kind of reminds me of that episode of Spongebob Squarepants with the magic pencil, only the drawings don't magically come to life and attack people.

And last, but certainly not least, is Codecademy, which I discovered through one of the people I follow on Google+.  I've been meaning to learn CSS and refresh my HTML knowledge for quite a long time.  I had found a few different sites that offered free online courses, but none of them that I really loved.  Enter Codecademy.  First of all, you earn badges when you complete lessons, and I am instantly drawn into any site that lets me earn badges.  (See Kongregate.)  They have lessons in CSS, HTML, PHP, jQuery, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and APIs.  I can't really comment on the other lessons because I haven't done them, but the HTML and CSS lessons are really good for beginners.  I completed the HTML lessons last week.  It was really interesting to learn about lots of basics that I was never taught and also some basics that I was taught incorrectly.  I have moved onto the CSS lessons, which are new to me entirely.  I have been picking up CSS really quickly and I wish I had learned it earlier.  Each Codecademy lesson is made up of a number of exercises based around a concept, such as tables.  The first exercises teaches you the absolute basics, including any new syntax, and tells you exactly what to type and where to type it.  The following exercises do the same thing, with more advanced steps and less guidance until you can do it by yourself.  If you can't remember how to do something, you can go back to the exercise that taught you how to do it, or you can look at the hint.  It's a really great free resource for coders and programmers.

My Favorite Video Games I've Ever Played

Golden Sun II via

In no particular order, these are my favorite video games I've ever played.

1. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for Game Boy Advance
Partially because of the fact that this is the only Zelda game I've actually managed to beat (unless you count single player on Four Swords, which you really really shouldn't) and also because of the fact that the shrinking thing is really cool and also because of the addictiveness of the figurine collecting, this is my favorite Legend of Zelda game. Judge all you want.

2. Golden Sun 1 and 2 for Game Boy Advance
I'm not sure how many people have actually played these, but I adore them.  I also beat them both, which is a huge factor in whether I love games.  It's sort of like Final Fantasy.  I would describe it as a turn-based fighting strategy adventure puzzle game.  It takes a long time to beat and it's replayable as well.  You can focus on just beating the game, leveling up your characters as much as possible, collecting all of the Djinn, or a combination of everything.

3. Gex: Enter the Gecko for Game Boy Color
I'm pretty sure that this one is the most obscure on my list.  It's like if Mario was a lizard and the game was even more of a trip.  It's very bizarre.  There are a ton of levels and I never beat it, but I loved it anyway.

4. Spyro Season of Flame (or Season of Ice) for Game Boy Advance
I beat both of these games.  I love that are lots of things to collect.  Also if you get stuck in one world, you can just go to a different world instead of dying over and over again until you beat it like on some games.

5. Little Big Planet for PS3
Another game with lots and lots of things to collect.  It's extra fun (for me anyway because you can decorate your rocket ship with stuff you find and also wear different outfits that you collect).  It's a really great puzzle game with lots of levels of varying difficulties.  The bosses are crazy and the whole game is very artistic.  And I beat it too, with G's assistance.

6. Donkey Kong Country 2 for Game Boy Advance
This game is sort of a puzzle platformer.  There are lots of challenges like shooting out of a barrel when it's at the right angle so you don't die.  It can be frustrating at times, but I have beat it after a very very long time playing it.

7. Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy for Game Boy Color
This game is weird.  You're a worm with a gun.  You can get killed by big falls or by electricity or by lots of other things.  Sometimes you're in a city, others in outer space, others in a house.  It's always weird and kind of confusing.  If I remember correctly, the final boss is a mutant fish guarded by electricity.  You can also teleport through toilets, which is always fun.  I beat this game.  I think I love it so much because it's so weird and a huge part of the game is figuring out how to do things, like teleport through toilets.

8. Banjo Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge for Game Boy Advance
I beat this game as well but it took a very long time and some frustration.  There are lots of things to collect: honeycombs, music notes, special abilities, and puzzle pieces.  I liked but also hated the ability to mutate because I never actually figured out how to get some of the mutations so I died a whole lot more than I should have.  I liked that there were so many minigames and also the levels were all pretty open for exploration.  Also before you can fight the final boss battle, you have to win at trivia, which appealed to me.

9. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Game Boy Color
I like skating games, but I'm terrible at sports games.  I love this one because you make money for accomplishing different objectives and you can do some pretty crazy tricks.

10. Frogger Temple Adventure for Game Boy Color
It's a puzzle game with Frogger!  I loved it because while the controls were very simple (move and stick tongue out), the puzzles get pretty difficult.  There are even floors that dissolve under you during one of the boss battles.  I beat this game too.

11. Lego Star Wars
Part of why this appealed to me is that I love being able to destroy parts of my environment in video games (like cutting weeds and breaking pots in Zelda games).  The large majority of why I loved this is because it's Star Wars.  I beat this game.

12. Escape from Monkey Island 2 for PC
This game was great because it's point-and-click type of adventure where you have to figure out how to advance by using items.  It's a very elaborate game and there is also a lot of humor.  I got pretty far in this game, but I got stuck after a while.

13. Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland for Game Boy
This one's pretty old school.  I love Kirby.  It's fun to play as him on Super Smash Bros.  and also he can eat things and gain their powers which is always cool.  This game has lots and lots of levels.  It is very artistic and I beat it.

14. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade for Game Boy
Another old school one.  I love the Indiana Jones movies, which is probably why I loved this game so much.  I can't remember a whole lot about it other than crawling through catacombs and the fact that I loved it.

15. Scooby Doo for PC
I can't find information about this game online anywhere (including the title).  It was a default game that came with my grandma's HP desktop computer.  It was one of those demo games that you can only play for 48 hours and then you have to buy it.  I beat it before the 48 hours was up.  It starts out with a haunted carnival and then you end up in the wild west and have a showdown that turns out to be a pie fight after escaping from jail.  I loved it because it was a complex point-and-click adventure with lots of challenges.

16. Animal Crossing: Wild World for Nintendo DS
I loved this game because there was SO MUCH to do.  There wasn't really a way to beat it.  In the winter snow fell and you could make snowmen who talked.  You could dig up fossils, catch bugs, and catch fish, which you could donate to the museum or sell.  You could also decorate your house with things that you find, buy, or shoot out of the sky with a slingshot.  It was really fun.  Sometimes your neighbors would reward you for doing quests for them too, like delivering a letter to another neighbor within a certain time limit.

17. Super Smash Bros. for anything
I love this game because even though I button mash, I almost always win.  I like to play as either Zelda or Kirby, usually Zelda.

Things I Say When I Play Racing Games

I love playing video games but sometimes I'm not very good at them.  The two types of games that I am always bad at are racing games and first-person shooters.  The things I say while playing first-person shooters are either not very family-friendly or plain screaming every time I get shot (usually every 5 seconds to 1 minute), so here are the things that I say while playing racing games.



Obviously this isn't a screenshot of me playing because I am always in 8th place

1. Is this one of those games where your car repairs itself when you take enough damage?

2. I didn't go fast enough for that jump to help.

3. Wait, am I going backwards?!

4. How have I still not completed a full lap?!

5. I'm stuck against the wall.

6. How do I go in reverse?

7. Everybody just lapped me again.

8. Everybody already finished but I am almost done with my first lap now.

And these are the things that I say specifically while playing Mario Kart.

1. Yay, I'm in 7th place! Nope, 8th again.

2. I got a blue shell : )

3. I was too far behind everyone for the blue shell to actually help.

4. I fell off Rainbow Road again.

5. Stupid snowman!

So if you want to seriously beat someone at video games, play a racing game against me.

Throw Up Your Rocksmith

...If you're feeling it when I drop this.



I couldn't resist the pun and I like the song, plus I hadn't embedded a video on here in a while, so there you go.

I started learning to play guitar what seems like a lifetime ago, and I would still classify myself as a beginner.  It was actually more like 5 or 6 years ago.  My brother taught himself how to play and he caught onto it really quickly.  Then he tried to teach me how to play.  I learned a few chords and how to read guitar tabs, but that was about it.  His teaching style doesn't really work out for me, and he would get frustrated when I didn't catch onto something right away that was really basic for him.  But I kept trying.  I got my first guitar on my 16th birthday, an acoustic-electric Esteban guitar that my ordered off TV.  But I loved it and played it acoustically more often than plugging it into the amp, because my mom didn't like the noise when it was plugged in.  This was an added challenge because the songs I was learning to play from my brother were meant to be played electrically, since they were hard rock and metal songs.  I learned to play some Metallica but I was too invested in school to ever devote enough time to practicing.  Fast forward to before I leave for freshman year of college.  I went to a yard sale that summer and that's when I found my electric.  Despite the spot where the paint is chipping, it was beautiful.  It had pearl insets on the fretboard and I knew right then that I had to have it.  The guy who was having the yard sale was so nice.  He had about 6 guitars and he was downsizing.  He sold me the guitar and threw in a free stand, amp, and gig bag all for just $125.  I was more determined than ever to learn how to play well.  And I did practice for a while.  But then I met people who hacky sacked after the first month, and we formed a club.  And I was way more devoted to hacky sacking than I was to guitar playing.  I would hacky sack with the club for an hour or two three times a week when we met up, and then I would practice hacky sacking by myself to make a total of about 4 hours every single day.  And it worked.  I got way better at hacky sacking.  And the added benefit was that all the exercise made my asthma problems practically non-existent from getting used to a lot of exercise.  And then I stopped being able to walk.  And I couldn't hack sack then or even go to class for a while.  I really wanted to play my guitar during that time, but it was all I could do to get into my high bed, let alone carry anything up there.  Because I lived in a dorm room, and that was the only place to practice, on my bed.  These were the smallest dorm rooms you can imagine.  And after that, I never really got back into guitar playing, but I did get back into hacky sacking just as soon as my legs started working again.  Fast forward to now, well two or three months ago, when I first heard of Rocksmith, a game like Guitar Hero but where you plug in your actual guitar and learn to play it.  I wanted that game from the minute I heard of it.  And guess what? G got me that game for Christmas and I am slowly becoming a rockstar, very slowly, because after not playing for almost a year, it's pretty much like starting all over again.  Unlike my flute, which I can pick up after not playing it for a long time and after about 5 minutes, I'm back playing all my favorite songs, like Legend of Zelda music and classic rock.  If you didn't know, I also play keyboard (like piano) but I'm even more of a beginner at that than at guitar.  And my instruments all have names, except for my first guitar.  My flute is named Annabelle, after a song my roommate freshman year played beautifully, and my keyboard and electric guitar are named Sally and Jack, respectively, after Jack Skellington and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, because that movie is awesome.  So I said all that to say that I really love the Rocksmith game and before you know it, I should be pretty good at guitar.

Jack and my amp, in my old room at my parent's house

Busy Today

Last night G and I went to the mall and traded in some old video games and bought some new ones.  G finally got his NBA Live 2010 game, and informed me when I woke up this morning that he stayed up until 4 in the morning playing it.  I got Resident Evil 5, because I love zombie movies, so why not get a zombie game? I didn't play it until I got the second Spiritual Stone on Ocarina of Time.

I found out that zombie games are hard.  I only had one grenade when I got attacked by a seemingly endless horde of zombies in the African village, and not nearly enough ammo.  Plus, my computer-generated partner is way better at needing rescued from blood-thirsty zombies than she is at blowing their heads off.  So after those zombies murdered my partner three different times, I gave up for the night.  I watched some Futurama on Netflix, then went to bed.  And apparently G stayed up late playing baskestball.  I didn't know because I am a ridiculously sound sleeper.  I once slept through an earthquake, true story.

Anyway, today I am going to the Ave for a shopping adventure.  I intend to only spend free money.  I have quite a large rebate from the University Book Store.  I plan to get a hat and new slippers from their apparel section, and then see what the art supplies section has for things I can make jewelry with.  I also want to get some fabric there to use in my new jewelry organizer I am going to make.  Then, with the money I discussed yesterday, I intend to do what I said I would, except instead of buying jewelry supplies with the remainder, since I'm getting that stuff at the bookstore, I am going to get some stuff at Goodwill.  I want to get at least one shirt, skinny jeans, and maybe a cute scarf.  We'll see how that goes.  But first I plan to go to two different stores and attempt to sell all my CDs, some DVDs, and some books.  So that's the game plan, and of course I'll share with you if I'm successful or not, probably tomorrow, or Thursday, since G has tomorrow off and we might go bowling.

Video Games and Geeking Out

As I mentioned recently, G and I purchased Little Big Planet 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 recently.  Little Big Planet 2 was intended as "my game" and COD MW3 as "his game".  But he told me last night that he doesn't like it when I sit and watch him play video games.  So we played MW3 on multiplayer and I seriously suck at aiming, but we managed to beat 2 co-op missions.  And then he decided that we should play his basketball game on multiplayer.  It's the demo for NBA something or other...Live Jam something? 2010.  He plays this game religiously.

Every night, after he gets home from work, he plays a tournament.  And this game is a demo, so there aren't a lot of options.  For example, you can only choose between two teams.  He is always the Lakers playing the Magic.  And you can only play at home, so he sets the difficulty higher for the last two of 5 games to simulate an away game.  Of all the things that he has or does, this one is the one that I see him being the most particular and ritualistic about.  So it was sort of an honor to be asked to play it with him.  I soon found out that it only looks easy.  It took me way too long to realize that the extra people on the team are not controlled by the computer and that you can switch to them.  Also, you switch to controlling whoever you pass the ball to, which is weird and frustrating.  I ended up making one shot the entire game, sort of like my 8th grade JV season.  But I did get quite a few steals, and G complimented me on my defense skills.  It was super confusing for me though, and G probably got about as frustrated as I did with trying to remember what button does what, and it's extra hard since the button functions switch depending on if you're playing offense or defense.  I want to get good at playing it so it can be another fun thing we do together but right now it's just confusing and frustrating.  G also let me play The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time on his N64.  He even let me use his special gold controller that he's never let anyone use.  I am a Zelda nerd.  I was drawing pictures of Link and Zelda and trying to get the lettering on the title perfect back when I was in elementary school.  I have played every single Zelda game made for the old Game Boy all the way up to the Nintendo DS (which I sadly had to sell at the start of the summer to pay my rent).  I have only ever beaten the single-player quest mode on Four Swords, which was made mainly to be a multiplayer game, and The Minnish Cap, which was made for the Nintedo DS.  Somewhere in the home I grew up in lives an old gray Game Boy with a cartridge for Link's Awakening in which I am stuck at the final boss.  I am a Legend of Zelda purist.  I refuse to use walkthroughs when I am stuck.  Instead I run around harassing chickens until a giant chicken army appears and murders me.  I do this until it gets boring and then I find a different Zelda game to play, then play that until I get stuck, and cycle through them all until I have a brilliant revelation and get just a tiny bit further and then get stuck again.  All this backstory exists to explain why I played Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time until 2 in the morning last night.  I had to beat the first dungeon! I only started it at like 11 though, and we had a break for dinner.  Anyway, I feel like I'm finally experiencing an important part of Zelda geekdom that I did not have the chance to experience previously, and it's pretty cool.

Incoherence

If sandstone is made out of sand and siltstone is made out of silt, why isn't limestone made of limes?  They would give it a lovely green color.

I blew the heads off some zombies today and got a guy's number.  My Facebook stalking of him shows that he has a girlfriend, but I need someone to hang out with and be my friend, since C is avoiding me and my awkwardness.  Oh, and the sun was shining brightly today and the skies were blue, which was exciting.

I've got Sunshine on a Sunny Day

It is cold outside though, no month of May for me, but it's so sunny. It makes me wish I could go for a walk.

I forgot to share the best news about yesterday. I got a totally unexpected birthday present. It was a $10 iTunes gift card from my friend who I happened to run into yesterday and hadn't seen for a while.  And "run into" is being used as an expression, I didn't literally run into him. Anyway, I get to download some new music, yay!

I'm all done with classes today and I'm eating some delicious pita bread with roasted red pepper hummus.  I'm actually going to do some schoolwork too. I have to pick a topic for my physics paper and work on my half of the presentation for my Finnish class.  And tomorrow I'm hanging out with my friend Monica from physics. And tomorrow is my weekend.  And my mom mailed me my new phone so I'll get it soon.

All this good stuff almost makes me forgot how much it sucks to be single on Valentine's Day. Almost, but not quite.  Because guess what, it sucks. Not that I have ever not been single on Valentine's Day, or not been single at all.  Of course, there is C, but I'm still not ready to tell him how I feel about him.  I really don't want to get rejected again.

Wow, for being such an optimist, I'm being a real Negative Nancy today.

I had a pretty good day after all. I made some new friends and killed some zombies in Call of Duty: Black Ops, which I've never played before but I'm actually pretty good.  I actually got first place every time except three.  We played like 20 games of it.

I'm learning my Latin. I know all of my numbers 1-10 and my colors are still a little bit shaky but I'm working on them. The numbers are: unus, duo, tres, quattuor, quinque, sex, septem, octo, novem, decem.  I also subscribed to a Latin word of the day to be emailed to me along with a sentence.

What's new

I have a new roommate. She seems nice. My old roommate switched places with her because each of them had friends in the other's building that they visited all the time and it was about a 20 minute walk to go there.  I will probably be getting a more accessible room sometime soon. I have a meeting set up.

The word of the day is penumbra. The definition of it that I like best is a shadowy or indefinite region. The word just sounds really cool in my opinion.

I would like to talk about my nerdy anti-social behaviors.  I am pretty much on my computer all day long, except when I'm in class or reading a book.  I have lots of things that I like to do on the computer. For one, I like to write a new blog post every day and read everyone else's new posts.  I like to watch movies illegally.  I like to download photoshop brushes and find fun photoshop tutorials. Yes, I am a design nerd.  I also like to find cool pictures, because I really hate having the same desktop wallpaper for more than a week. I usually change it about every 4 days.  I have recently discovered the match color tool in photoshop and have become quite enamored with making my photos look more surreal or stormy or vibrant. I also learned how to create vectors by tracing photos. This is still a slow process for me, so I haven't actually finished a vector yet. I am currently working on making a Converse shoes vector for a shirt I'm designing.  There's another nerdy hobby. I love Threadless.com. I never buy anything but I like to design and critique and get critiqued and score submissions and try to enter contests but never finish on time. Okay, confession time, I like to play computer games.  I like pretty much any type of computer games but my favorites are point and click. These are often escape the room games but sometimes there are other storylines. I'm not sure what I love so much about these games, but I could play them all day. I used to play Runescape. I forgot my password and never made a new account. I like to play pretty much any kind of computer game, so if you have one that you really like, feel free to share it with me.

In case you are not yet convinced of my nerdery, I will inform you that I can solve a Rubik's cube in under 3 minutes. I also have a Rubik's pyramid that takes a little longer to solve. I know how to say hello and/or goodbye in English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish. I am teaching myself Latin. I know basic HTML.  I read novels for fun. I also do Sudoku and Kakuro and crosswords for fun, though not as often anymore. I enjoy doodling Mario and Pacman and Zelda. I also enjoy playing all of those. I really enjoy RPG games such as Golden Sun and Final Fantasy. I also like Halo, even though I'm really bad at it. I can play the Legend of Zelda main theme on my flute. I can the main Mario Bros. song on my flute, guitar, and keyboard. I used to collect Yugioh cards but my brother traded them all to a friend for some video game and I was really mad.

In conclusion, I am a nerd and proud of it, for the most part.