my comic is up!

hi, so i didnt write about this before because i wanted it to be a surprise. but i have been working on a comic for my compay website... and now it's up! i'm kinda thinking i might not update this blog too much since i'm doing the comic now, and how many places am i supposed to write stupid stuff about myself? anyway, check it out...here is the news post, then click on "comics" at the top or the link in the article.
http://www.doublefine.com/news.php

game review: legend of zelda: phantom hourglass

overall i've had a very fun time playing through zelda: phantom hourglass for DS. there are some really cool things about the game, for example you control the entire game with the stylus which takes a little while to get used to, but ends up feeling very natural. i loved shooting arrows, using the grappling hook, and firing the cannon. probably the greatest thing about this game is how you can write your own notes on your map...i think every rpg should have this from now on. the dungeons are very well designed, with puzzles that are just the right level of difficulty.

there are a couple of weird design choices that i could have done without, for example there is one dungeon you have to go through over and over, and it's a time trial, and stealth, and i hate time trials and stealth! combined time trial and stealth is really annoying! also while i enjoyed some of the minigames (arrow & cannon shooting), others were not fun (digging game, maze time trial, salvaging). also for some reason i ended up with 9999 rupies and nothing to spend them on. the stuff in shops didnt change often enough and i kept finding the same ship parts over and over. i'm not sure if that's some way they are trying to get you to trade with your friends but i thought it was kinda weird. however none of these things were huge issues that kept me from enjoying the overall game.

one last thing, the art design and animation are fantastic and very appealing. i especially loved the paper-cutout intro. i would totally hang this on my wall.

xmas in LA

i'm back from xmas in L.A. it was pretty fun, got to see a lot of my family that i haven't seen in a long time. my step-nephews love me, i hope they think of me as the "fun aunt" hehe. of course crazy things had to happen too, it was so windy christmas eve that the power was out for our whole family dinner so we were walking around with candles & flashlights...kinda set a certain mood tho :D then on christmas day, the dogs started growling at a cat and then went nuts and started chasing each other and clawed grandma's leg, who started screeching. luckily the injury wasn't too bad and we got everything under control fast. for a second it seemed like i was in some wacky christmas comedy.

here is something i brought back from LA with me to commemorate the holidays.

hey, happy bday, self!

yeah its a little early, but i had my bday dinner on wednesday. i think pictures would describe the evening better than words could really...i think these about sum it up.

my favorite month

hi everyone! guess what. i have a cold! this sucks, because it's really bad timing... it's my favorite month, i am supposed to go on a date this week, we have our company xmas party on friday, and next week is my bday dinner... so i am loading up on the nyquil, dayquil, and zycam trying to get over this fast.

last weekend was pretty fun tho (before i came down with this biznatch) Raz and i went to the Ugly-con at the Giant Robot store which was an art show featuring Ugly dolls. we didn't realize there were gonna be so many kids there. so no scoring for tasha & raz... well it was fun anyways, the costumes were pretty funny.
what was really cool is that the store was selling dolls made by a friend of mine from school, anna chambers. i feel all special because i have a hand-made doll from her before she was rich & famous.

game review: jeanne d'arc

warning: maybe spoilarz if you care!!! anyway. i think i'm done playing jeanne d'arc. it sucks because i really liked this game, and put several hours into it, until the very end, when it got all hard all of a sudden and wanted me to level up my characters a bunch to beat the last boss. i hate when games do that. THEN i beat that boss, but it wasn't the end, it was a trick and there was ANOTHER boss after that, that i couldn't beat... and it doesn't let you save in between. so, i think i'm done with it because it's just annoying me now. but, the good parts of the game before i got to the end were: 1) gameplay very similar to final fantasy tactics which is great 2) nice graphics 3) fairly interesting storyline 4) combining skills to create new skills is pretty fun. so if you have a lot of patience to level up your characters a bunch by doing the same level over and over at the end then go for it.

but now i think i'm ready to move on to some phoenix wright 3.

happy halloween!

guess which pumpkin i carved.