My university looks like the setting for a horror movie most of the time.
I honestly wish I was joking.
Especially the arts building, where there is no ceiling and strange lights hanging from the rafters/skeleton. And the passage from the Business building to the library. Where I do so expect a zombie attack within the next corner.

Oh. And artsy and writy stuff will be coming soon, I PROMISE. I just got my tablet installed in this beauty and I have been writing like a maniac ever since I lost all of my files last week.
That is, if I don't spend my entire weekend on Bayonetta and possibly Bioshock 2.

Writing:
-Restart my given up NaNoWriMo project--AGAIN. No, I did not give up on it, I just lost the file when I did a System Recovery (a full one, might I add) to fix my internet and audio.
-English and Arts essay. Agaaain.
-Marionette Unbound. Now that I have some inspiration to work on that thing and a possible ending
-Work on script writing. Since well...self-explanatory if you know me well enough.

Drawing:
-Valentines pic? Y/Y? Of which couple, I do not know.
-I want to draw something Devil May Cry related since I've sold me soul been really into the series.
-Draw at least something related to my stories and novels and whatnot.
-Someone at JustinTV requested a few concept sketches. Need to finally get to work on those again

1. One book that changed your life. Lord of the Flies. It was the first piece of literature that made me want to go into writing and introduced me into the beauty of the whole forking field. Okay, it was also part influence of my AWESOME gamer teacher, but whatever--I like....want to huggle the freakin twins for the remainder of mylife kthnx.

2. One book that you've read more than once. I always re-read books, unless I have this absolute hatred for them. Probably any book by Brian Jacques or Howl's Moving Castle--because that book is so charming~.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island. How to Survive on a Desert Island by the eventual author that will write the book. Come on, expect it to happen.

4. One book that made you laugh. See: Howl's Moving Castle. And possible Choke in a morbid kind of way. Oh, and Good Omens. Gosh darn, that was a good book.

5. One book that made you cry. If there is one, I don't remembeeeeeeeeer...Redwall. Mortimer's death = Julie crying. Maybe because of the fact that I was so attached to Mathias' character that I could feel the father figure attachment he had.

6. One book that you wish had been written.  I-I...don't know.

7. One book that you wish had never been written. I'm extremely tempted to say Twilight, but the fandom wars that's been going on have been absolutely hilarious and I love hearing it being ridiculed so much. Remember folks, Nightlight is sooo gonna be getting a lawsuit too. Also, City of Bones by Clares/The Sharing Knife by Bujold. Two horrible, horrible books. The former being the most obvious thing ever with no forgivable characters, but the writing is simple and slightly better done than Sparklepire series to contrive for some easy reading. The latter of which is a fantasy novel brought to you by Harlequin yet not by Harlequin. I don't know, really, I just didn't care. As soon as they were able to, the main characters just started boinking each other.

8. One book you're currently reading.   His Majesty's Dragon by Novik--who was a game programmer before she went into writing, so I kinda look up to her in a sense. It's an interesting read, since it sets place into an alternate Napolean era where dragons exist and are usually used for combat. The writing style is pretty well done as well as Temeraire and Laurence's relationship is so. Freaking. Cute!

9. One book you've been meaning to read. Sooo many. I have a small pile beside my bed with the books I have yet to read. But I have no time thanks to classes! D:

Bonus question 1: What book scared you the most? Twilight. Hands down.

Bonus question 2: Tell something about the reading habits of the person who tagged you. (Please do not quote from his/her meme.) I stole this meme. No Tag. c:

Bonus question 3: What are some other favorite books that you want to pimp out to your flist? Mistborn by Sanderson, which is some fantasy love with a (FINALLY) decent female lead. Choke by Palahniuk, which is a hilarious dark comedy with the most interesting first person writing style. Anything by Neil Gaiman, but particularly American Gods and Good Omens (along with Terry Pratchett). Across the Nightingale Floor by Rubenstein/Hearn, an interesting read set in a Japanese-style fantasy world and it is apparently being made into a movie. Memoirs of a Geisha by Golden--a total "chick" read, but it's sooo good. Lord of the Rings, no doubt. Any works by Brian Jacques, although I'm rather fascinated with his Castaway of the Flying Dutchman series. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, the cruelest fantasy book I've read to far, but that's the entire point of it.
And I'll think of more once my mind is up to it.

I need more reading and gaming related icons. Forserious.

Okay. So. I keep on losing attention in class and end up writing my now given up NaNoWriMo project in order to keep myself awake. (How am I going to stay awake tomorrow? I have no idea, believe me.) Since I've been mentally hounded by probably Kris to post some excerpts of some writing that I do once in a while. Now, I usually write by hand in my little-handy writing book that I carry everywhere with me. But, since I brought my laptop, I thought I'd give typing a chance again. Do note that this is pretty drafty. I kinda wrote is all slapdash in the middle of my Anthro lecture.
( Cut. Cut. Under the cut. ) ( Cut. Cut. Under the cut. )

This game. Just. Ah my gawsh.

I slammed about it a couple of times to those whom listened to it, especially about the controls and the awkward chemistry between Prince (only by name!) and Elika. Despite that...
The game was breathtaking.
                                      
First off, let me slam about the controls again. They get awkward at times. It might be because I'm rather adjusted to the trilogy's controls, such with R1 (Ps2-control-wise) being the whole wall acrobatics made it much more easier to control. So probably that initial bias kinda killed the mood for it. It took me a while to get adjusted to the newer one's, especially in terms of platforming and battling. To wall-run and climb, you have to hold a specific direction and hold the jump button, which led to confusion so I kept on jumping off the wall. Luckily, there's never really a game over (which saves a bit of frustration with the game) so there's no real consequence.
Yeah. There's no possible way of dying in this game. As much as it makes the game easier, it's still a good method of keeping you from throwing the controller across the room. And with a wireless controller like the PS3's, I think I may have saved my damage deposit for my dorm room.
Other than that, it's a really simple platforming game. The whole "power plate" concept tries something new for it, but doesn't really add to the platforming. It's basically the only thing you spend a chunk of the game on. Revisiting areas you JUST cleared (i.e. Ubisoft's way of makingthe game longer) so you can collect light seeds and get new powahs(without the price of sanity all that much).

Now, the one thing that took my breath away was the artistic values. I can still listen to the music to this day and be in near tears at the sheer beauty of it all. They really pulled all the stops at the visuals and music of this game. Zur and Chartwood (Chatwood?) make a return--originally they did the composition of the first and third of the SoT trilogy, although, I must admit, that those soundtracks lacked the oomph tpo make it a memorable soundtrack. Even with the capabilities of that time, they could have still made it into something beautiful, like Beyond Good and Evil did at around the same year.
But, thanks to the next gen abilities without pushing it to the max, they pulled all the stops to making it the "1001 Arabian Nights" feel to it, which is the basic premises of the artistic values of this game. The manage to pull the feel from the music with heavy use of woodwinds and strings, with the brass as either a countermelody or the accompaniment. Despite my awesome bias of being a brass musician, I can still say that the strings are incredible in some of the themes and manage to create an epic feel to them at the beginning of the game, but then as the soundtrack progressed, it's clear that woodwinds wear the pants in the relationship.
The artwork is nothing to shake a stick at either. Some of the art is done in a rather impressionistic style, which, if you know me well enough, causes me to squeal like the little fangirl that I am. There's a big play on the contrast in the game, done with the stereotypical "light and dark" motif. So like, land corrupted= muted, gray, black colors and stuff. Land healed= Woah hey! Of course, the use of bright blues during the former makes for some pretty magic effects dealy and I'm getting really tired of trying to explain this. Just...watch some videos or something.
Now, in terms of writing, I will say it right now, that, despite the awkward portrayal of Prince and Elika, it was plain amazing to the point where I want to find the writers of this game and kiss them. The story itself was played out rather well and brought interesting concepts and rather sympathetic villains, despite the fact that it's the fate that they chose for their own selfish(or not) needs which lead them to be mindless servants of a dark God. The main thing about this game is the interaction of both main characters and the clash of their beliefs. On one side, we have the cynical Prince and, on the other side, there is the Princess/Priestess Elika who is determined to save the land and bring back her people. They're often arguments can be heard throughout the game, but there is some chemistry that forms along the side, which leads to the ending that left me somewhat wrought with grief (and I felt so bloody bad for the Prince by the end of the DLC epilogue, despite the predicament being his fault) and basically sets it up for a sequel.
...
Hi, Ubisoft Montreal. Can we get a sequel for this game and not the movie-tie-in thing?             

...

Thud.

Anyway, fatigue aside, I got a brand spanking new laptop after my old one kept on crashing during class. Which means I am too lazy and too blinded by some strange love bug to install my scanner to show you some pics.

Yes, I have this crush on a guy in Chinese. I can't help it that he basically fits the trope for everything I find attractive in a guy and have the burning desire to find out if he's a jerk or not.

- ask questions about my characters, my stories, or me as a writer.
- i'll answer you to the best of my ability.
- post this meme, and let me ask YOU questions.
- answers can be typed or recorded NOPE, no mic
- be nice. don't ask something you know is going to be impossible for someone to answer.
- for some, it might be wise to put a limit on how many questions one person can ask, since they might add up if a lot of people ask questions.

So uh...insert drabble about new years here. D:
I actually tried to think of a resolution and decided that my ultimate goal for the year is to spend at least two hours five days a week writing. This means a lot coming from the fact that I need to study practically constantly for English and Arts class, but now that Astronomy and Paleoanthro are FINALLY out of the way, I can focus on not pulling my hair out and panic attacks.
Okay, the latter of which is still going, but eh--half a nerve med helps.

I might actually post my writing here if no one would mind. Actually I don't care if anyone'd mind. You guys hear my wangst all the time, so something that's semi-cheerful would be a rather nice change, ne?

Art post will be sometime next week. Most of the stuff I've been drawing are little concepts here and there, and blah blah blah, I don't feel like finishing the rest of this paragraph.

Gaming! Gaming! I love talking about the games that I'm playing right now. Most of my winter break was spent by rotting away on the couch, cuddling my sweet, sweet PS3. And Devil May Cry 4. Dear goodness gracious, Nero wins the badass award for simply being built on moments of awesome. I mean, like, drop kick freaking Dante? You got that right--it's plain sexy there. And probably the fact that this is my favorite role that Johnny Bosch voices for, it doesn't help the fansquealing.
I've also been adventuring in the first Drakengard game. Now, as much as I can fangasm over Nowe (Nowai) from the second game, there's just something about the first one that I can't help but ridicule. Maybe it's the fact that Wendee Lee voices the most irritating character I have seen so far. I mean...like...
Okay.
Take what's annoying about Navi.
And then, elevate it by a thousand. That's how horrible the fairy is in this game.
My ears, they still bleed. D:

I got a PS3.

And Devil May Cry 4.

My soul is officially sold to it.

I'm alive!

...

Somehow.

I manage to survive exam period thanks to mom visiting on the day of my last exam and dragging me shopping, where I managed to finish my Christmas shopping and buy a few little things for myself with the gift cards I got for my birthday. Fortunately, those gift cards were from my two favorite stores, EBGames and Chapters. With the former, I managed to buy a copy of Drakengard. You know, the one with the implied incest and the flying mutant babies. And with the latter, I got Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and some other fantasy book that I'm too lazy to remember the title of. All I remember is that the woman that wrote it was a programmer for Neverwinter Nights before she decided to switch to writing full time. And that's it's an alternate universe in the Napolean era with dragons and stuff.
Yes, I am squealing with joy.

Art and writing has been rather productive, really. Now that I can manage to get more than three hours of sleep (no thanks to noisy neighbors), I have better concentration and focus on my writing a lot. Heck, if I produce something decent and I proof read it, I might...you know....post it here.
Art will only be coming at a later date. Probably after classes start again (with my Intro to Mythology claassss. <3) I'll start scanning some stuff and post it. Unfortunately, the scanner here at home is a feed scanner (since it's a fax too) and I feel heartbroken whenever I rip off a page in my sketchbook to scan something.

...
Insert conclusion to this post he--Oh! Gaming!
I haven't been gaming as much as I used to. Especially here at home, where everyone is in the living room and that's where the Wii console is and there's not enough room to hook up my PS2. So, every chance I get, I start playing Zelda: Twilight Princess until someone comes back. It works pretty well in the night, when everyone else goes to bed, but in the day, I can pretty much expect about half an hour of play time.
During the exam period, I've been replaying Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Kingdom Hearts 2. KH2 is...okay? It's easier than I remember it to be and I'm being rather apathetic towards the plot.
Except for one bloody scene that melts my heart every time. Guess it and you get a cookie. Hint: It's within the first oh...four hours of the game? I managed to get to that scene within two hours and fourty five? I'unno, that prologue is rather long.

Post English exam:

Cookie: *comes back into room with the fire alarm beeping* ...D:!
*hurries and opens the window in case there's smoke*
Fire Alarm: *stops*

-fifteen minutes later-
Fire Alarm: >D *starts beeping again*
Cookie: D: *runs to Proctor Nicole's room to tell her of the problem*
Nicole: Mmmaaybe you should to see Norm?
Cookie: *runs up three floors to find Norm*
Norm: Umm...I'll call security.

-five minutes later-
Security: Umm...Call us when it happens again and we'll cut the power off.
Cookie: ...That means I have to wait till it happens again and call you. Meaning I won't have lunch if I want to wait for it to happen to keep myself from getting fined in the future.
Ffffffff....

Cookie's progress on Shadow Hearts: From the New World:

"..."
-random encounter-
"...Okay."
-INSTADEATH-
"WHAT?"
...
-Victory!-
"...Okay."
-Two steps, RANDOM ENCOUNTER SURPRISE ATTACK-
"...-twitch-"
-INSTADEATH-
"Okay, NOT funny."

Rinse and repeat several times and then I go switch to DMC3, where I get owned by the second boss for the third freakin time.

And now, can I take a break from studying? Please? o-o
*sobs*

I just finished class for the term today.

Oh yes I am relieved. D:
Which means that there will also be arts and possibly writing soon.

And I need to finish my Astronomy assignment tomorrow, while it is DUE tomorrow.
Tonight, though, I cuddle up with a bottle of pepsi and play Shadow Hearts 3 and Devil May 3.

x3

Ladies and Gents, it is now 7:40 pm as I write this. Quiet time won't be until an hour from now, where I will finally have the program to write (i.e. Microsoft Word). By tomorrow, I have to write two essays: one arguing that Futility by Owen is one kickass poem (which it is) and the other showing how Aristotle, Augustine, and Pico are religious bastards that either think humans are doomed or that we're awesome.

Do you know what this means?
All-nighter numbah TWO this week.


I so won't be conscious tomorrow. xD

Also, since I can't stop fandorking over Shadow Hearts, I'm gonna have fun and write a character study about the main characters from Covenant and From the New World. As well as pimp the forking battle theme of FtNW since it is the most epic thing I could listen to.

Edit: So Aristotle says that we should live by taking the middle of two extremes, Augustine says we're screwed unless God likes you so we can so anything we bloody want, and Pico says that we're cool.
Now I just need another thousand words. :D

Consisted of walking to Game Zilla and getting Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

Why yes, I am squeeing of glee. xD

Friday, since I'll be done my self titled "week-of-hell-where-I-need-to-finish-a-project-in-one-day," I'll be spoiling myself silly by going to Prospect and buying something from the Game Zilla in Fredericton and the EBGames. Hopefully, I'll finally get a copy of Radiata Stories or Onimusha 3.
Really, I saw practically all the games I wanted in Moncton, but I felt too guilty asking for a second game. :c

Also, expect two pics in the coming week. One of them is a totally Western-inspired piece (thank you, Wild ARMS) and a pic for myself for my birthday. c:

Cookie's progress this week:

-Lost my ID card, meaning I don't have any meals other than a can of beans.
NOR any way of getting my bus ticket back to Moncton unless I pay for a regular ticket. Which is about 60$.
-Computer crashed while I was well underway my English essay, which was totally rocking.
-There is no kitchen.
-I decided to walk barefoot, without any knowledge that the carpets were removed, in the hallway. My feet are sticky.
-Missed two classes today because my body refused to get up.
-I possibly ruined my DS when I accidentally spilled pop on it. It permanently ruined my FFIV game, which was well under way and my DS sometime has trouble reading the cartridges.
-My tablet pen fell and I don't think it's working. Fffff...

The end of the first term is coming. :D

Personally, I am stoked for exams. Especially since Astronomy will be OVER!
Ahahahahaaaa! No more bloody math and physics! Yeehaa!

*cough*
But, of course, I still have one project, two essays*, and an oral presentation to finish by the next two weeks.
Shoot.
*One of said essays I am asking for an extension for. Hopefully she'll be nice enough to grant me one.

I am warm and cuddly in my big, fluffy sweater. Sitting in the coolest desk chair ever and watching a livestream of Arc Rise Fantasia.
I have a cup of tea in one hand and a pencil in the other, sketching my life away.
I am planning to whore my little DS in thanks for being such a good sport and not dying on me during the week.
Also, I am considering to livestream on justin.tv for all my buddies.
Finally, I am back in my regular dorm room, the mess completely intact.

Life is being good to me right now.

:D