October '08.2

A fun little game came out a few days ago for the DS. "My Japanese Coach" is an interesting way to learn Japanese grammar, numbers, kana, and vocabulary. You are given lessons starting with basic words, and progress through writing tutorials, pronunciation help, and easy-to-play games that help you remember past lessons as well as the new material. Ubisoft publishes several of these games, including "My Spanish Coach," "My Chinese Coach," and "My Word Coach," and I think that they're at least worth a look.

I'm sad to say that my Deviant Art page is getting a bit neglected now that school is picking up. I've been uploading class assignments into my scraps, but drawing what you have to draw isn't the same as drawing what you want to draw. I have lots of new ideas for Happy Flavour, and I'm in need of working on character sheets for the first Ruling War book, not to mention I still need to colour Noo-sensei's commissions. I've had to put a lot of stuff on hold, which I really don't like to do.

In other news, Fable II is coming out on Tuesday. Originally it was to be released simultaneously with Little Big Planet, but due to an offensive song, LBP was recalled and will be launching a week later. The GameStop where I work is one of the slower stores in the area, so we're not doing a midnight release, which is perfectly fine by me. I've worked one of those launches. Not fun. Too many geeks geeking out about the same thing and trying to prove their geekdom. Normally I don't mind (I'm pretty geeky, too), but at midnight? That's too late in the day for me to put together a conherent argument about why I like to play as Link in Super Smash Bros.

October '08.1

I will be attending Ohayocon '09, come January, and have decided to (finally) finish my Chun Li costume to wear there. I have procured boots, dark brown tights, and have created a swim-suit-like undergarment to wear under the main costume itself. The bracelets are giving me a lot of trouble, but from what I've read, any Chun Li cosplayer has difficulties with the bracelets. I need to add the yellow trim to the costume (it's only 1/3 done), add a pocket to the inside of the white waist band (so I don't have to carry a wallet), and sew the hairbun wraps together. I'm confident that I'll have it all done on time.

Other than that, I've been working on Noo-sensei's latest commissions; a girl with an empty glass of water to teach the verb "drank," and a boy with an empty plate to teach the verb "ate." They are both drawn and inked, and I am currently colouring them with coloured pencils.

I also have a FFXI project underway. Originally, I was going to draw several members of my linkshell's characters, but one player quit the game, two haven't been able to afford playing over the last couple of months, and several others have left the linkshell altogether. So I'm doing a smaller series that includes Mab, Jorah, Ian, and SvenForkbeard. Right now I'm finishing the pencil work for the Mab drawing, which was heavily inspired by Shirow Masamune's work.

I'm also attempting to get a few lineart pieces coloured so I can post them onto DeviantArt, including a chibi picture of Mab, a berserker picture I recently completed, and a picture drawn by SpongeXD, a girl I watch on DA. I don't know when I'll get around to finishing that all, though.

In other news, I finished my first quarter at Ai. I completed my intro class and my basic computer course, and am now ready to tackle my drawing class which begins on Monday. There's been some communication crossovers, but I've gotten my financial aid problems fixed, and a few people are working on why I'm being listed as the wrong major, so hopefully everything will be set before I get into major-specific classes.