Nintendo DS Starter List

Using Wikipedia as one source for game lists, I will be reviewing Nintendo DS games in the near future (probably in the fall) as a measure for my sanity once the overloaded schedule comes up....

I'm omitting games that are Bejeweled clones unless there is a specific reason to include it, like Puzzle Quest.

I will not be reviewing by release date, as in only the latest games. Since RPGs usually take a while to complete I'll save those for weekly or biweekly reviews if possible, while maintaining reviews on other games like Age of Empires and anything that is interesting, even games like Babyz or Horsez... I guess the "z" is for the target audience whom may have trouble pronouncing their "esses" and "ells."

Perhaps I'll review games based on developer and then on import availability..like a monthly "Hey, Let's Look At Imports!" Ideas are developing...

Video Games or BioArt?

So I'm thinking I should start a bioart or video game blog. Something I can have my little niche in...

If I go with bioart, I'll be commenting and posting on the general news I find surrounding the subject. Unfortunately much of what I find is not in English. Perhaps I can post about how my own studies are going and how successful I plug the bioart bug throughout the art department... I'll review and share the latest of Eduardo Kac's works, like his project here.

If I go with a video game blog, I'd need an angle. Too many writers out there advertise the "grrl gamer" type, which is pretty annoying. Leigh Alexander is one of the few (and an actual professional) whom I respect for her writing and persona, if only because she doesn't lavish everything in pink and exclaim how her "girlitude" makes her a competitor amongst the primarily angsty-male crowd. More on the girl gamer rant later...

As for me, I think I'd like to start with a certain genre on a certain system... let's see- the Playstation has definitely been done, as well as most any other major home console since the 1990s (and retrogaming is pretty small in comparison). There's only been one big community I know of that focuses on portable games (where I've done a couple of reviews already) from any generation, so I could start with that. I could begin with a Nintendo DS review blog, with a special interest in anything dolphin, dinosaur, amphibian, or Tetris-like that is released...

Regardless, both subjects will eventually lead to me posting some inspired artwork, and as I'm going on an Ecco binge at the moment I'll probably be trying to paint some underwater dolphin scenes (again). Which by the way, I love The Girl Gamer's 8-bit artwork, and I will buy a keychain from there soon...

List of girl gaming sites:
The Girl Gamer
Lesbian Gamers
GayGamer
Gay Girls Who Game on the After Ellen blog
Girl Gamers Unite
Girl Gamer
Girl Gamers UK
G.I.R.L.
gen
My favorite name for a site: PMS Clan
...and there are plenty of "girl gamer" sites that cater for the horndogs of World of Warcraft and the like. Ugh.

After searching a bit I stumbled upon a site that's NOT steeping in black and pink and cursive letters, just a good community of all types of gamers that actually seem real and not made up to be some kind of "hot girls" den just waiting for some fool to give them gold for showing their tits... at PSNteractive

Weird Dream- (sorry for switching back and forth between past and present tense)

This nightmare/thriller dream was obviously inspired by marathon viewing of TrueBlood, the southern-vampire HBO series based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels (and my own weird imagination). I chose to rent the DVDs at the local Hastings, not knowing the premise or novels, and watched the entire first season yelling and laughing at a series that's just too big for its pants (and I don't like admitting I watched the whole season, but you know what they say about train wrecks...)

Anyway, this dream seemed to "start" at night in a shoddy apartment building in a big city that is very familiar. Imagine cracked walls, moldy ceilings, and dank corners with broken glass sparkling by dim amber lights outside. I'm there with a small company of people, perfect for a horror setting, and everyone is on edge. Someone I know lives here, I think, but they are missing. I'm usually thinking in steps way ahead of my company in these dreams, so I'm already assembling weird facts together that I can't remember now. It gets later and later, and we explore the building until we go down below the basement.

We find a musty old office with a worn wine-red rug (I am so saving that!) with a dusty filing cabinet and a small window streaming cool moonlight into the room. There is a girl in our party, young with long yellow-blonde hair and wide eyes- she's the first. Before we notice anything else some stranger appears and begins talking to us. He's saying strange things and dressed funny, like he severely mismatched some thrift store clothes. I remember he both stood by the door and/or sat in an old lounge chair while talking to us, telling us about himself. All I remember is that I knew he was a vampire, pale skin and fangs. The tension fills the room, and the poor girl starts getting confident and talks to him. The vampire pulls something long, thin and silver from somewhere and flicks it toward her. She is confused for a moment, wondering if she is okay. The vampire clearly states she is not. He pulls the string, revealing lines on her body where it had wrapped around her face, neck, and shoulders, and it makes a strange whispering sound. She stands for a long moment, looking alarmed, and I hope to death that nothing is going to happen.

We first notice her hair starts falling in odd places. The lines on her body where the string had been were bleeding, very slowly opening her up. She seemed to feel no pain as we watched her slip apart, for she would say, "Hey, I think it's okay," as a third of her body fell away. For every second she was alive I thought, "There's no way my dream would allow this." The vampire held out his gleaming wire with no expression. She was still alive as only shoulders, neck, and head, saying, "Hey, I'm still alive--" then her face broke into meaty pieces.

After her weird death we moved from room to room, finding more in this underground area much like the Umbrella Corporation. Blah blah blah, there's a secret organization that uses vampires as weapons/experiment subjects, blah blah more people get killed in the same manner, blah. Somehow I'm still alive, and eventually we find a way out.

We find we are stranded in a forest on some island, miles away from whatever city we were from, and we run through the forest attempting to swim back home. Overhead we see lights from helicopters searching for us and there are cameras and floodlights all around. They catch us and take us to some other location, which happens to be my grandfather's house in town.At some point we gather in the living room, the part of the house I return to the most in my dreams, and the CEO or president of this organization has spared us for some reason. During our escape trials I start thinking that it wouldn't be so bad to join them, either for security or to root them out from the inside. The whole time I dread facing the vampires, so I never get a good look at their face. I started to feel confident in my survivalist skills and tried to leave the house- quickly he flashed the deadly wire around me and my stomach plummetted. I can feel the bite of the thread in my flesh ever so lightly, then abruptly he pulls it back with a quiet whisper and I feel all different parts of me start to cleave. I remember thinking, "No, no, I'm okay, this can't happen, it's not supposed to happen," the kind of thinking I'd imagine I would think if I were really about to die. I experience my pieces falling out, my neck and chest spreading open and neatly sliced in two, my blood spurting out onto the floor and then my head splitting out like a cubist portrait gone mad. There was pain, but mostly fear, and then darkness.

Then I get up, still inside the house, and somehow I'm a vampire. My thoughts change completely and I am free to live as part of their group. I am now walking through he house in new clothes and a new pattern of thought. "They're not so bad," I think, "I can deal with this just fine."

I'm pretty sure the vampires are just fear itself, the organization is the career options I've considered, and the violent deaths and such represent transition. The setting seem influenced by the Condemned video game, Lovecraft, and my own memory of San Fran, El Paso, Atlanta, and New Orleans at night. The forest island is influenced by the Tuskeegee woods. Everything else is a blur, and too much speculation may make it false.

The Hell?!

Jeez, I was doing so much better only one year ago. What happened to me?

Anyway, the other night I walked past some chubby girls lying on a bench and a partially-constructed brick wall, listening to Christian rock music and singing out loud. While walking I also remebered I like how the big roaches of the campus seem to purposely walk in front of your feet instead of going another way.

I feel like absolutely everything is pointless- and I don't care if that's a paradox or not- shut up. I want to learn but I'm tired of suffering for pointless things. REALLY TIRED.

I try not to start every sentence with "I," to keep things fresh. Something is wrong with me- I haven't dieted for months. I don't go outside much. I'm skipping out of doing work at the yard because everytime I go I get rashes and bug bites on my arms and legs. It's just too depressing. What the hell is wrong with me?!?!

Fruity Hybrid Computers-Techart meets Bioart

Once again from the We Make Money Not Art page an interesting article detailing the (rather inevitable) inclusion of organic matter for technology- remember those potato light bulb experiements in grade school? How about the fruit-powered processor?!

"...the use of pH levels of fruits for storing binary information has proved to be effective..."

Who knew the pH levels in lemons and mandarin oranges would be used to represent binary? At the moment they are shooting for small ASCII code storage, then "observe how it could change in time (or not) according to the natural processes of degradation."

Called "Garage Science" from the workshop of Interactivos? the hybrid concept runs parallel with sustainability projects such as the one being trialed at Auburn University. This is by far not the first instance of fruit-powered technology, however. This site sells a fruit-powered digital calendar and clock inspired by Alessandro Volta (an awesome name, in my opinion) for his electrical storage battery experiment in 1800. You simply supply your own fruit and assemble the device for an accurate digital clock!

I have to learn someday that I am the product of hippies and this conservation movement does truly appeal to me... but I'm not interested in the moral bonuses. I simply like the idea of efficient energy and less resources used for myself and especially some larger provider such as an electric company. I will someday use solar power and, if my significant other is mostly agreeable, fruit-powered electronics all around!

We Make Money Not Art

If you are still not familiar with bioart or even techart, check out this site. It's updated rather frequently and has many interesting articles covering specific artists of the genre and their methods.

This site is how I found out about Alexander Vermeulen. He has also done an exhibit called Blue Shift. His work combines inspiration from science, experimentation, nature, and sociology to create an expansive art form for audiences who are not typically considered "art fans"- that is, scientists.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Also, I wrote a poem as part of a free assignment for art class. We had to describe an object we are like and why...*ahem*

I am like a candle,
Waning like the moon
Taking up a space in darkness
Adding to the gloom

A flame that does not sear,
A scent that cannot stay,
I wish to be reduced to
A stick of wick to cling to
And never face the day.

Air and Fire, Earth and Water
These are my domain,
But to have and hold it all
I must turn to pain

All the living I can handle
S'waning like the moon
Taking up a space in darkness
Adding to the gloom.

One Minute Writer and Robert M. Place

First off, the OMW:
Today's Writing Prompt: Energy

With fossil fuels dwindling, create a plan (realistic or fantasy) for ensuring there is enough energy for generations to come.
I like the idea of running off of our own energy. If wristwatches are capable of working just from one's own body heat (from Hamao Takanori, OHM Techno-Guidance. (62). Wrist Watch Generating Power Using Body Temperature Heat)surely we can develop thermoelectric devices to work from the energy the human body can release! We'd definitely think more about conservation, literally because it could kill us otherwise! Then again, people could easily enough buy bicycles and walk instead of use vehicles...

I've always thought the idea of using the dead (meaning fossil fuels) as a means of fueling our travels was a bit perverse. Does that also mean wearing diamonds ignores animal rights? After all, if the animals should have the rights as humans, shouldn't we respect the dead? This is ridiculous, of course, in the same way that eating plants is simply indirectly consuming animal life (which some argue is "bad"), but it is a thought.

Robert M. Place wrote on the occult in his book The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination which covers my specific deck, the Rider-Waite or Waite-Smith deck commissioned within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The author has designed his own tarot such as The Alchemical Tarot and the Buddha Tarot, (the Locana shown in the picture).

I would greatly suggest his book for someone interested in learning of the major influences on tarot divination that began after the Italian card game. If you haevn't heard of Cornelius Agrippa, the Chinese and Egyptian decks, the Sola-Busca, or the Book of Thoth (all of which excite my imagination GREATLY)then this comprehensive guide will surely educate and entertain.

The cards of the Waite-Smith deck strongly resemble stages and backdrops, which makes sense due to the artist Pamela Smith's background as a theatre designer. In this way the cards present the information in both an entertaining and didactic form.


There is so much to explain! I'm learning that I may need to branch out into other styles of decks to satisfy my curiousity. I've now seen three others that were used- the Crowley deck (whom I believe to have been insane), a faery deck, and a modern surrealist deck designed by an artist also commissioned for Sandman art (I'm not sure who).

I have only seen listed some decks made in America labeled as, ahem, "Cartoon Network tarot", "Buffy TVS tarot", and, a deck which I wish to collect for pure nerd joy, the "Cthulhu Tarot" by Hite. Someday I may even make my own as many others have done. The most I can hope for is to remain vigilant and reasonable. I am not so blissfully unaware of the self-fulfilling and self-empowering nonsense that is attached to the practice of "New Age" divination. In this way the practice can be seen as the negative side to Romanticism, as in the narcissistic side. What the hell- Rousseau may have been a wanker, but he at least found happiness in simpler things. It's the free spirit in me.

Tarot Misinterpretation

This past fall I practiced some tarot divination, and after some bumbling around I put it on hiatus. I pondered questions like, "Is college right for me?" and "Will I get through this?" or "Will Evan and I stay together?", and throughout all the responses I kept getting negative messages of death, despair, miscarriage, fighting, unpreparedness, and etc.

Many of the cards can be taken as negative in certain situations or it may only include some connotation that makes sense only to the reader, so I let slide some of the unanswerable "variables" that came out. One message plainly came as "losing support of a motherly figure," or rather "a supportive female will no longer be available." This I figured to be either my own mom or my future mother-in-law, which made little sense to me at the time. Occasionally I got cards (especially when I did a reading for this future mother-in-law) that represented a domineering husband or man-of-the-house, which I related to my own father but which also seemed to represent this woman's own husband. I should have concentrated more on the matter even though whatever happened was likely to happen regardless of my intuition.

Not to go into detail, but this loss of a supportive female figure has occurred after an inevitable conflict. Afterwards, this being the new year of 2009, I finally did another reading. With the memory of these past revelations (that I could not have heeded with any more wisdom had I known the exact details), I found that this outcome was the reason I kept getting the Death card- a necessary "evil," an inevitable end to a volatile and uncomfortable relationship. I always assumed this card represented my college ambition or the relationship with my own family, as the Christmas break was soon upon me and I usually fret about the holidays anyway. What I should have realized were the warning signs of this real downfall instead of the imagined problems I make for myself during the season. Granted, it was very insightful, but I should know by now that the cards can and will represent more in layers than I may assume.

What happened has happened, I know that for sure, yet the tarot readings were vastly incomplete. I obviously have more studying to do.

The New Year (so far)

This year has started with a sucker-punch. In nearly all areas of my life I have dealt with the stress, loneliness, bitterness, anger, and injustice of the failing systems of all social and practical spheres. Families dividing, friendships breaking, finances dwindling, jobs disappearing, energy dissipating, beliefs crushed, lack of self-control, and to top it off: GRUDGES have filled my days since the end of my fall semester.

Ok, so the positive light is a bit dimmed. What are the things that are consistent?

1. Evan and me
2. Mom and me
3. A form of income
4. Funding for tuition (after some hiccups)
5. Social exercises

Well now, it's not so bad then! I'm still attending classes, which is the major point in staying in this damned town anyway, and I still have people I can call to hang out with (though that list is getting shorter). I try to give people something in return for favors or acts of kindness, like presents or help with cleaning or moving their stuff. Those are things I can do to help someone out, right? I don't have to feel bad for eating their food if they offer it, right? If I'm stressed out I don't have to sulk alone all the time, right?

My drawing and reading could be more frequent, even if I think it is poorly done. All I've got to do is keep doing something.

No More Koreans

As some may know, I was tutoring a young Korean girl during the fall. She attended a private school, the very one which I attended years ago, and her mother had her stay at close friend's home until the girl went back to Korea. She was bright, energetic, thoughtful, creative, spunky, and childish- and I got sacked by her mom.

I'll never know exactly why she didn't want the lessons anymore. It couldn't have been the girl's opinion, for she really enjoyed the 1 hour sessions, and I don't think it was the woman's opinion who she was staying with. While on the phone the girl's guardian couldn't explain in English why I couldn't go back anymore, but at the end of the conversation she said,

"It's not my opinion."

I felt terrible. I really enjoyed the whole experience and my time with her, for she was literally the brightest part of my day. Unfortunately, as I have been told many times now, the Korean culture doesn't appreciate anything outside of rigorous, soul-killing doctrine. It doesn't help when the girl you are trying to tutor is not too cooperative or focused everyday, yet I never felt that was insurmountable. I let her talk to me about anything she wanted to, provided she use enough English words to make me understand. The biggest problem this girl had was having the confidence to speak and think in English amongst those who would criticize her greatly, like her schoolteachers, her mother, and her guardian.

The reason I am even bothered by the whole situation is that the entire time I felt like I was failing her when she didn't remember words or sentence structure. The books she was given to work in were meant for a 1st grader, not an 11 year old Korean girl. I wasn't associated with the ESL, so I didn't have an open source to get better suited materials, yet I did go to the library to find books for her she would like. However, each week was the same. She didn't focus, she pouted, she wanted to play all the time, etc. Just as I was going to go back to tutoring her, to pick up on something we left off, I get the call that her mother doesn't want lessons anymore. I taught her songs, nouns, grammar, verb tenses, and had to explain why she shouldn't write or say the word "fuck." She had confidence with me, damnit, and that's really important when you've got a clusterfuck of education thrown at you.

Oh well. Maybe I really was too lax and all those lessons had nothing to show for it. I really hoped I could make something of the experience, but now all I've got is the reminder that I fail even at simple stuff that I really enjoy.

Delayed

2009 finally, and Watchmen is still going to be delayed. Thanks, Fox.