December '08.2

Well, my colour theory course ended on a positive note. My instructor told me that I had the ability to become a successful illustrator, if that's what I chose, and referred me to the portfolio site of Nikki McClure. It meant a lot to me. I've also gotten some very nice comments on Deviant Art, as I posted my final project there, as well, and it's not a style that I'm used to doing.

So! GameStop has continued to cut hours, but I'm trying not to dwell on that. I've decided to be happy that I have the job, and hopefully I'll be able to move up the food chain since our third key holder is in search of another job. I'm not holding my breathe, though; I've been told similar things in the past.

I picked up a few games over the weekend. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors is a fun Wii game that utilizes the motion sensor in the Wii remote. The controls take a little bit of time to get used to, since you don't use the Wii nunchuck at all, and the movement of your character is controlled by the D-pad on the remote. It was surprising to both Ian and I just how much fun the game is. Normally I'm not a fan of first-person games (they actually give me headaches) and a first-person RPG just sounds odd, but the story is good, the graphics are fine, and it's fun swinging your arm around at the television, slicing slimes in half!

I also purchased the first Luminous Arc for the DS, and am about an hour into the story. What can I say? I'm a sucker for 2D tactical RPGs with anime openings. The story reminds me of something like Disgaea mixed with La Pucelle; just a general good vs. evil plot with the whole twist of 'is good really good/evil really evil?' and the setup is very reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics. Perfect recipe for an RPG, in my opinion.

We also got Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the DS, which I have sworn not to play until I actually beat FFXII. I have had every intention of finishing XII, but somehow it's been placed on the back burner when other games came out. I've decided to make it a priority (however much a priority a game can be) now that I'm on vacation from my classes. Revenant Wings is different from other FF games, as it's a real-time strategy game, similar to Grim Grimoire, with the player micro-managing the battlefield and troops.

Ian and I have been playing Left 4 Dead, lately. It's full of zombies...and we get to shoot them...so, what more could you want? With the cooperative play and different levels to choose from, it has high replay value. It really brings people together, as odd as it sounds, because the four of you have to stick together and help each other out. No 'every-man-for-himself' attitude is tolerated in this game. If you wander off alone, chances are you're going to die. The game is all about survival, and in order to survive, you need to cooperate with the other three players. Simple as that.

Ian and I have also been spending a lot of time rearranging the upstairs of the apartment, since we now have a guest bed and an extra dresser. My art desk has been moved, our bedroom has become the extra room and vice verse, and the downstairs is still full of boxes of action figures and art supplies that need to be put away. Hopefully that can all be done within the next couple of days.

While sorting through things and rearranging our living quarters, the two of us reached a new level of geekdom; we spent two and a half hours creating an Excel spreadsheet categorizing all of our systems, their serial numbers, and every game that we own. And while that may sound ridiculous, consider this: we're not done. Those two hours weren't enough. We haven't touched the Gameboy, Super Nintendo, N64, Genesis, or Saturn sections...and we already have over three hundred games listed in the spreadsheet. Granted, we have practically every system from the original Nintendo up to the XBox360 and Wii (and we're working on getting a PS3, but they're just so stinking expensive). So, that spreadsheet is only going to get bigger!

Anyway, I've prattled on long enough. I have a lot to do over the next couple of weeks, and I should get started on today's chores.

December '08.1

I've been busy these past few weeks, and unfortunately, my artwork doesn't show for that. I'm nearing the final days of my colour theory course, and have been spending the last few days in front of my laptop hammering out final design ideas. My four black and white design images can be viewed in my Deviant Art scraps. My favourite of the four was the second one, with the bamboo and the rising sun, but it didn't provide much opportunity to use a lot of the concepts I had learned in class, so I went with the third design (the girl and the cherry tree) which was the most praised in my classroom. I used it for the next part of the assignment, which was to take the black and white design and create several coloured images using a multitude of colour harmony options. I have uploaded those images, as well.

I'm looking forward to having a holiday after this course ends. Classes resume in mid-January, so in the meantime, I'll be finishing my Chun Li costume and clean the apartment. Ian's parents are supposed to be giving us a couple of pieces of furniture next week, and I need to make room.

I've also finished making the armbands for my sister and the other club officers to wear, showing their ranks and names. I also included a little "Anime Club" caption, which reads anime kurabu, in kana. Kurabu, however, not only means club, but crab, as well. My sister found this humourous, and said that anime crabs were an ATD (Anime Transmitted Disease).

Due to the economic crisis (for lack of a better term) work has not been going so well. GameStop has decided to cut hours this week and hold an emergency stockholder meeting. Originally, I was told that our company was surviving the economy because while consumers couldn't afford things like expensive vacations and travelling cross-country to visit relatives, they could afford to buy thier children video games to make up for that. And yet, hours have been decreasing gradually, and our store was only able to hire one seasonal employee...while our company buys a French franchise of game retailers and continues to build new stores across the U.S. I'm a little worried about the amount of money corporate has been spending in the last few months, and I just received a call about an hour ago from my manager telling me that my hours have been slashed this week (in half), and now I'm afraid of losing my job alltogether.

Enough of that.

I get to see my family this weekend and celebrate the holidays. This isn't a time to be dwelling on the negative.