SO SORRY!!!

Borrowing my little monsters' PC right now just to say...No, I have not forgotten this place at all. Its taking me longer than I expected to scrape together the cash to fix my PC and so, most of the time I'm using my phone for all my internet needs. While its ok for reading stuff its a nightmare for writing anything more than a couple of sentences. My friend and now Co-admin on my FB page, Nocturne has been keeping shit going on my FB page....basically I am taking a sabbatical because A. I have no PC and B. Shit pissed me off but all that means is that I'm bombarding the poor guy with links to articles for him to post for me, cause i'm a pain in the ass...but a cute one. :p

I will hopefully get back online permanently soon, and I have some game codes I'll be posting here and on my FB page and some other stuff I've got planned, including some game reviews...don't expect me to review any hot new popular games, you know I never do :P
In a way I'm glad I wasn't on here for that whole Xbox One cluster fuck because my rants were epic and scary. For the record I preordered a PS4 but i'll probably cancel that...no not because I'm defecting to XboxOne but because I really don't think I want a launch console.
All a launch Console gives you is headaches and bragging rights.

So, I'll be back soon, thanks for sticking with me, if you REALLY need to hear me lose my shit on a more regular basis just click the top link there in the left hand column and head over to my FB page.

I need to start keeping a voice recorder or notebook by my bed

Last night before going to bed I totally had all this shit I wanted to write about hakuoki, woke up this morning and I can't remember any of it beyond "okita is a shithead."
Probably cause i'm  having a crap day. I'm ill and I'm like beyond broke and the one bill I couldn't pay is the one that gets directly pulled out of my acct...for twice what I have in there now. YAY.
Also, I decided best thing to do short of jumping off a bridge was kill many robots. So i'm taking my frustrations out by sucking balls at Binary Domain which is a surprisingly cool game. Well worth the $10 I paid for it when it was on sale on Amazon a while back.

So, tonight I'm about to do the unthinkable...Sell off some of my babies to the devil. By babies I mean games and by devil I mean Gamestop... QQ
God, I can't even begin to look at them and decide which ones to let go...Most of my collection is useless to take because they won't give me dick for them and the others...well ...they still wont give me dick for them ,but, I desperately need cash. Maybe I should sell my consoles too. No I'm not jesting or being melodramatic. I have 2 weeks before I see any income and my savings are all but depleted so I cant really do much to tide myself over.

On a plus...Tomorrow my Divorce will be finalized. Of course then after that I have 2 open houses at 2 separate schools for 3 kids happening all at once...brilliant planning by the schools. I better eat my wheaties.

So, sorry, I don't really like to bring a lot of my personal life here, cause stuff like this isnt what this blog is about, but, I feel like I've been totally slacking on this place and I don't want to do that, and I felt I had to explain  why I've been slacking off. Not just to you..but to myself if that makes sense.
so this is a really personal entry and probably one of the most personal aside from my original divorce announcement.

Its funny, $90 a month for my car insurance didnt seem so bad, til the date they withdraw it falls in the middle of me having money. somehow $90 might as well be $900 now.
No wonder Since the divorce drama and assuming the burdens of a house and its upkeep, 2 dogs and 3 children I lost 11 lbs. On one hand, Wow, I'm almost sorta skinny, on the other, I can't imagine stress is the best way to lose weight. Its not even intentional, lately I cannot eat. 2 bites and I feel sick to my stomach.

I was doing alright, making it work and then i thought I could breath a bit easier after surviving the past few months but...additional bills, kids needing school clothes, me needing car insurance and suddenly everything went to hell. Its my fault I know, I should have continued spending 2 hours a day working on balancing budgets and accounts but, I found myself so stressed from robbing peter to pay paul that I felt i needed to step back and focus on the things I was starting to NOT do because of my constant budget-fussing, like playing with the kids and the dogs and even just gaming or writing.

But here I am screwed because of all that. Can't even get a payday loan because i don't have a paycheck to show. I'm sure it will work our somehow once I sell off my games and maybe a console.

So quick hello here

Um... I finished a game for once... The Walking Dead Episode 1. If you havent' played it.. GO DO THAT NOW!!!! it was really really good. Can't wait til the next one.
Played a bit of Fable Heroes with my son, super cute game if a little chaotic.
I'm still trying to convince myself I like Amalur, and failing miserably. I hate Amalur.
What else?
Oh, I started Dear Esther and its...weird...pretty, but weird.
Torchlight 2 Beta was pretty great, can't wait for that to come out.
Got the Secret World Beta, spent a day installing the damn thing and then never bothered with it...I'm just not an MMO girl. (I was an UTTER disaster at Star Trek Online :P )
Wanna talk about Mass Effect...not the ending, i'm tired of hearing about the endings. Just, about the games in general, just, seems i never have the time or energy to sit down and write anymore. Way too much on my plate right now.

I'll get to it.
Soon
I hope

Soul Calibur 4

So posted 2 characters a few days ago here.
And I threatened to post another so....here it is.

This was the best I could do with what I had to make Xena:

I know I know, she usually uses a Chakram, but I felt Tira's Hoop
was too big so I went with a sword instead.

And just because I can....

This is my preferred Character, Kitty Meowmeow:

Yes, she is holding Shishkebab

She uses Cervantes' fighting style and uses Shishkebab. My husband HATES her so much because I consistently kick his ass with her, lol

Something Random

While looking for a pic  on photobucket I stumbled on some old character creation pics i had taken when I first got Soul Calibur 4 and I thought I'd post them

So this was my attempt at Deadpool (don't laugh! I tried!)

DeadPool

The second one is slightly more obscure. If you've ever heard of or read the book Wicked or Seen the Musical then you'll know who it is. for those who haven't heard of Wicked. Its a back story about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. In the book her name is Elphaba and she isn't wicked at all. Her nickname was Elphie, and this was my attempt at making her into a Soul Calibur Character

Elphaba AKA the Wicked Witch of the West

I made many other characters including a pretty good Xena but I never got around to taking a pic of her. I might do that and add her in here too if you guys wanna see her.

Because I spent all day cleaning up my Studio

 I wanna show it off...Granted its not 100% done, there's still some stuff on the desk and floor that need to be taken care of but, I'm taking a breather.

So first off I have these LoZ posters from Club Nintendo and no wall space for them. I also have tons of canvases and no storage space for them, so my daughter and I came up with he brilliant idea of using the canvases to show off the posters...and also block the neighbors from seeing into my studio at night.
My husband does not think this is such a great idea. Apparently he is very attached to our see-thru bamboo shades and my posters block the balance or some such crap. So chances are my posters will soon end up rolled up in the back of the closet for eternity, while I have no idea where I'll stick the canvases (haha very funny! yes, I know what you were thinking.)

Anyways...

My studio before: (yes I've posted these before)

And my Studio now...well til I have to remove all my posters :( :

My fave poster is the 25th Anniversary one of Link right by my desk

poor Naraku got cut off on the right hand side :(

I'm hoping one of these days to getting my DaVinci Glider from AC: Revelations hung up over my desk. 

New goodies!

To add to the never ending pile :p

Say hello to my new friend!

I was going to buy Resonance of Fate but saw this at the comic store and had to have it.

Mass Effect 3

I know I have been quiet for a time. I've been caught up in gaming ,and chatting with friends and dealing with day to day life and it seems writing has taken a bit of a backseat. I'm not giving up on this blog, I'm taking a slight sabbatical. Writing is still important to me and I still have so much I want to say and share. I know that a lot more people started reading this blog in the past few months and I thank you and apologize for it slowly flatlining. I will get it back in line, I'm thinking (fingers crossed) that I'll be able to dedicate some time to this place once the kids have spring break.
I want to say first that I appreciate all the really kind words and encouragement I've received from all of you about this blog.  So virtual hugs all 'round to start with! (((((HUGS)))))

Second, I've started considering seriously a suggestion some of you had to do vlog entries once in while just so I can get my thoughts out more often and you can all make fun of my Popeye voice and the fact my conversations splinter off on bizarre tangents like ALL the time :P Of course that means, I'd have to comb my hair and wear something other than pajamas once in a while hehe.

So now, to the actual reason for this post. I wrote this over on playfire but I felt I wanted to share it here as well....
Mass Effect 3 has been causing waves all over the place it seems and I'd like to chime in on that:

So I'm nowhere close to finishing this, someone spoiled the ending, but then I was told that wasnt exactly the true ending. and then I went to the guide and read their incredibly vague ending info because I'm just tired of hearing crap about how bad the ending is. From the super vague 1 sentence "spoilers" in the guide. I don't get what all the drama is about the ending. Some of it seemed a bit stupid but not utterly unexpected. 

I almost quit playin when it was spoiled and now, I think, I just don't care anymore. good or bad, I'm gonna finish it so, should I just read what all the drama is about?

I mean, I've heard of people not liking a game or moving ending but never all the damn drama this is causing, lawsuits, petitions, Amazon giving full refunds to people who hated it..that's ridiculous. How bad can it possibly be?

And, if games are art, and I do believe they are whether I like some of them or not, then, who are we to question an artist's vision? Would people have rioted in the streets for Mozart to re-write the second movement of the Magic Flute cause they didnt care for that one little arpeggio? 

At the end of the day, Mass Effect is Bioware's IP and artistic creation. We can be disappointed it didn't end how we wanted it to, but we have no right to impose our will on the creator. 


I just feel, this whole fiasco is setting a really bad precedent and gamers have an over-inlalted sense of entitlement. 

I'm a stay at home mom, been one for many years now, but before that I worked many different jobs, in many different situations and I have to say that "the customer is always right" is not the case. There are times the customer is decidedly wrong. 

I also think that Bioware should stick to their guns. there's that saying "you can't please everybody all of the time" 

due to this ME3 mess they've decided to ask gamers what they want from Dragon Age 3...this to me is a wrong decision. If Dragon Age 2 was a weak succesor to Dragon Age Origins, letting the gamers chime in on what they want and then trying to implement these ideas in DA3 will be an utter disaster. hundreds of people, all with their own idea/vision, demanding the game cater to them...how would this not end up an utter failure? 


As the conversation progresses on playfire, and as other things pop into my head, I'll probably come back here and post more about it, if you'd like to see what others are saying on that thread I'll include the link:   https://www.playfire.com/SihayatheFremen/updates/1100883

Update 1:

many people have pointed out that the ME series is more about the journey than the destination. its about the character interactions and reactions. One big thing I worry about as I navigate this spoiler filled ME3 drama is not so much of the ending is bad or good, or one I will hate or like. IS it true to the characters, the situation. because I think my biggest disappointment would be to get to the ending and then feel like "That character would NEVER do that" Spending so much time with these characters, doing loyalty missions, listening to their hopes and fears, walking around and watching not only my character bond with them but all the squad mates bonding with each other, sharing jokes, etc. you "know" them, and with that comes that thought that in X situation you know or think you know how they would react. 

Gaming Gaming Gaming

Between my 3ds and now Mass Effect 3 I'm all caught up in games. Man it was such a great feeling to be able to play again after 2 weeks of  not being able to hold a controller.

I have so much stuff to say and write about. but first, I must take back earth!!! :p

And I think I left off in Dragon age at Lothring where Bronwyn the mage will be finding 2 new comrades....

Delayed

I fell and merged my hand with a ceramic coffee mug...
This is impeding my gaming ability among other things...
Got stitches, its healing ok and I'd show you a pic but you'd lose your lunch

Bit of a spree

So to cheer myself since I've been sick so long I went on a bit of a spree.
Ordered a Flame Red 3DS, the circle pro attachment and Resident Evil Revelations. I also bid on Cave Story 3D and Tales of The Abyss. I also Pre-ordered Kid Icarus.
woot!

And in order to not be totally frivolous, I also got new glasses today, so I'll be able to read in game text again. Gotta pick em up tomorrow.

gonna finish my little trek through Ferelden this coming week and if anyone is still interested I'll do a "real" review of DA2.

Along with my always uncertain health I've found myself actually gaming more often which is really making me really slack off on blogging. But I'm gonna try to get back on track. I enjoy writing...well ranting lol. And I appreciate you guys that take the time to read my rambling Rants.

As far as games go, I'm enjoying Kingdoms of Amalur very much and after playing the demo to ME3 I'm even more impatient for its release.

Oh, I also pre-ordered The Witcher 2 Dark Edition for xbox. Maybe once I have it on xbox I'll actually play it, because I haven't touched my pc copy.

Dragon Age 2 Review

By the time i finished it, I hated it.
the end

I kid of course, just, writer's block is kicking my ass, somehow playing Dragon Age 2 was such a traumatic experience it has hindered my ability to write.

In case you wanted to know, and even if you didn't, I'm gonna tell you anyway. Luke is doing fine, back to his usual goofy self, no issues at all, well except he's back to peeing when i pet him....But, I have that effect on all males, lol.

I did finish a game yesterday, Iron Brigade, formerly known as Trenched. Lots of fun, looking forward tot he DLC mostly because I want to dress like an astronaut and run around the deck of the ship with my arms out going "weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee".
I'd describe the game but the story i absolutely pointless and nonsensical. You customize a "trench" a giant walking form with guns and thrown down turrets to defend different locations. Its a slightly more mobile take on Tower defense. Play with a friend, its much better with someone else. Your enemy is a man named Vlad and his "broadcast". No idea wth the broadcast is, like i said the story makes no sense, but the gameplay is lots of fun.

So yeah, Dragon Age 2...I'll get to that...

Life Happens- this is totally not game related

Yesterday I woke up to my family in a hysterical panic, our dog, Luke had been hit by a car one street over.
We rushed him to the vet and thankfully, he's ok aside from a bit of road rash on his jaw a broken tooth and cuts on his tongue. He did have to spend most of the day at the Vet for tests and observation though.
His Xrays also revealed that at some point in his previous home, he was shot. He has a bullet lodged in his back. :( poor puppy.
He came back home yesterday afternoon and is on a slew of meds, mostly to prevent his body from trying to reject the bullet as it tries to heal his new injuries. He is expected to make a full recovery, except for the broken tooth of course.

Meanwhile, Frog seems to have suddenly come down with a severe cold/flu last night. one minute he was fine, the next he was miserably sick. Odder still is that it seems to be happening to other people I know in different parts of the world. Synchronized Flu FTL :(

For the record, Froggy drank some of my soda last night, so, I'm 99.9% sure, I've got whatever the hell he has now. Good times!

So, yeah, delays, delays, delays.....

It's been a helluva week!

Not being my personal blog I won't bore ya'll with the details, I'll just say that I want a refund for this week.
Anything and everything that could go wrong has.
Worst of all is the fact that I have a mild case of writer's block. I've got one measly paragraph written about Dragon Age 2 and its terrible.

On the flip side, last night I did something I haven't done in ages, I drew something. It's not very good but anything is progress when ypu have nothin' right?
If you wanna check it out you can bounce over to my even more painfully neglected art blog. Don't expect Ingres, though, I'm pretty mediocre. It was an agreement between my daughter and me. If I drew something she would too. While my drawing isn't amazing, its a start. I'm hoping it will get my creativity going and I can get past this block.

Meanwhile I've recently played the demo to The Darkness 2, plan on playing the Kingdoms of Amalur demo this weekend and if I'm feeling masochistic I might give the Amy demo a go.

Here's hoping my bad week ends today and I can get back on the ball by Monday.

And just a reminder, still open to ideas, suggestions on changing up and improving this blog.

Laters

Just a bit of fluff

So I'm lying in bed with a horrible stomache watching my son play Dungeon Defenders and thinking about this blog. (dont worry I'm not gonna go into another one of my 'I quit!' rants)
What I was thinking about were a few other things and I'd like some suggestions from you guys (all 5 of you, lol)

First I love my template, but I feel I've outgrown it. Like it doesn't suit me or the tone of this blog, what do you think? Whether or not it stays I think the blog needs a few more changes.

lines dividing the posts so they don't all look like one giant wall of text.

Also "read more" cuts, again so the length of the posts don't frighten people away.

Another color for text, I think the current color is kinda hard to read. Also the comments section needs work its even harder to read.

I'm also wondering if I should bring back the list of tags, sometimes I want to find something quickly and then I look and realize I got rid of the tag list.

Those are some of the major issues, with the blog in general. However there are all sorts of other issues of varying importance.

My apparent fear of apostrophes. Seriously you ever notice I never write "don't", my lazy ass always writes dont. Just add that in with my list of typos.

My laziness and procrastination that leads to many promises of great stuff that I never actually get around to. (this is a big one)

The fact that while I've managed to keep the blog game related, sometimes the whole original point of this place is lost... I think I don't focus enough on writing about being a mom gamer or about the kids.

I do have an idea I've been kicking around for a while.
Remember the video I took of Sapito explaining the glitch he'd discovered in Borderlands? Well I was thinking of doing more videos with him talking about some of the games he plays and such. I think it would be cute and also bring more stuff about the kids to the blog.

My husband and I are planning on doing a joint review of F.3.A.R. so we can share our experiences as both Point Man (hubby) and Paxton Fettel (me of course).

But that's a one time thing and  I'm wondering if I should try to find someone else to come on board and write.

I think that pretty much covers all my issues and concerns. Let me know if you have any ideas, comments, suggestions. Just, be nice ok :)

Almost there

So after slacking off for a month, the kids will be returning to school soon and I'll be able to actually have the quiet time i need to write.
I've already got a short list of what I'll be posting about:
A review of sorts of my experience with Dragon Age 2 (there will be spoilers and maybe some hate in there)
A review of the second Elder Scrolls novel (spoilers and stupidity will be present)
and a review/ experiences post about F.3.A.R.

That's what i've got in the works for the coming weeks, also a little about my latest game additions, what I'm playing and my gaming resolutions.
Expect this to start around the 11th. :)

Lookie the purty games

I had to get a new rack for my games and then move them from their crowded corner.
So here is my little ps1,ps2,xbox, and xbox360 games. With Godzilla guarding them. :)
I've run out of space on my living room shelves for my ps3, gamecube and Wii games as well, time to buy more racks and put them.... I dont know where....

Post Christmas Quickie

Hello my neglected blog!
Told ya it would be a slow month. So Christmas is now over, YAY!!!!
what did we all get?

I got a very...non-gaming Christmas tbh :(

I got...clothes....lots of clothes.
I did get the FMA Pocket Watch I've wanted for over 3 years now, so that's good.

I got a Kinect for everyone, kind of a waste of money really. Everyone tried it once and then went off to play with all their new toys :(

So, Dance Central and Dance Central 2 were also money I blew pointlessly.

Bought my husband Deadly Premonition as a gag..WOW, that game really is as bad as I imagined.

I bought my son and husband Just Cause and Just Cause 2. I already own them on PC but they want to play it on Xbox.
Then the next day i had to spend my Christmas money on yet ANOTHER copy of Just Cause 2 because they wanted to play it at once..which only happened ONCE...and neither can be arsed to play it on PC. AM I pissed? YEAH. Especially since El Shaddai was on sale and I couldnt buy it because I didnt have enough money thanks to Just Cause 2.

So since I got no games for Christmas, I bought myself some games.
Not counting the Epic Steam shopping spree..YAY STEAM SALES!!!!
I bought:
Alice Madness Returns
Rage
Castlevania Lords of Shadow
and
Tales of Symphonia

Later today I'm gonna go pick up El Shaddai, because I can dammit!

I'm still struggling to finish Dragon Age 2 because I'm starting to truly despise this game. I fell asleep playing it last night after having a nice rant about one of the characters.

I'll have some actual posts coming up soon, just trying to settle back in now and Christmas break is really long in schools these days... kids are home til the 10th *sigh*

Just felt like showing some of my collection.

First my most recent addition:

Catherine Love is Over edition.

my not so impressive 32in. With my slim PS2 AND elite Xbox360 with my DeathSmiles face plate I got recently

MY Xbox360 games with a few PS1 games thrown in and half of my PS2 games

The Rest of my PS2 games

My 46in with my second PS2, Second Xbox360, PS3 and Wii. On the sides are my Gamecube, Wii and PS3 games among other things

After that we enter retro land!

My SDTV with a Colecovision, Atari 2600, Sega Master System, NES & Sega Saturn.behind a lot of junk there is my Gamecbue, N64, PS1 and various Plug and Play games. To the right are my old school game cartridges and some pc games.

And finally, some bad, blurry pics of my action figure collection. I really need better pics....and more space lol.

My pride and joy is my Marcus Statue

the room I keep my Pc, action figures and old school consoles in  doubles as my art studio so its a total disaster in there.

And finally my  pretty glowy blue PC. its not GREAT but it gets the job done . I love it.

Of course this doesn't include all my Steam, Gog, DS, PSP, GB, GBA and emulated games. Or our GB, 2GBA, and 5NDS Lites. Listing all that would take forever!We also have an assortment of plug and play games as well and kiddie consoles like the Vsmile and Vflash.
Obviously gaming is an integral part of my life and my family's life.

So this is just a general idea of my gaming junk :P
if I won the Lotto, I'd probably pay off all my bills and then go on a game spree. lol