all made up with nowhere to go

I am at the final boss of Lost Odyssey!

I was going to beat him, and then he cheated and petrified everyone all at once and I got a bloody game over. I don't know when I will get another chance to try to beat him, but I need to remember to equip anti-petrify (I know there's an item you can get that annuls all negative status effects, but I don't have it, and I'm not going to find it).

WHATEVER MAN. I've nearly finished this game! FINALLY!

~

I know you want more music meme ;) , so here it is! (all the questions)

( Read more... )

~ Using this icon because why the hell not.

~ I made an intro post (of sorts) here, so if you haven't seen it, you can go and look (if you want).

But essentially, hello new people! *waves*

~ I am aware that some people decided to add me because I said I was writing at the moment. This is totally true! I'm just not very disciplined. If you want to check out some of what I have, there's an excerpt here, and even though that post's a million years old, you're welcome to comment on it if you want to.

~ I made the lunatic decision to walk to town yesterday! It's three miles and I'm out of practice! As a result, I'm now very sore in the oddest places (I know people say this, but seriously, it's like the right side of my arse, and the inside of my left knee that hurt the most?)

That said, if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have seen my BFF drive past (in the opposite direction) in her car, and then seen her partner outside the pub by the park. I stopped to talk to him for a bit, and we mostly talked about conventions and comics. It was all good!

(Though I was lazy and caught the bus back home, but I'd planned to do that anyway. It's all uphill going back).

~ Also we have a new TV now! It feels weird, because I'd kind of got used to not having one. I played some Lost Odyssey, and am stuck where I was stuck before (pretty much the Eastern Air Spirit Temple), and that sucks.

I did do the boss battle for that part, but I'm failing hardcore at the next part because it's timed and OMFG if there's one thing I hate, it's timed sections. THEY ARE NOT FUN. WHY DOES ANYONE THINK THEY ARE. This is not even the first one in this game! I think I'm going to have to go back and grind for a bit, because a couple of the characters are lower levels than they should be, and obviously the higher level I am, the harder I can hit things, and the quicker they will die.

That said, the game looks amazing on the new TV. Everything is so crisp! And legible! And the TV itself is so light! (I can lift it with no hassle - I'm not a weakling, but I'm not like, the world's strongest man, either. OBVIOUSLY). And it looks waaaay smaller than the old one, but it's got less surround, and does not have two massive speakers on either side. It reminds me a lot of one of the monitors from my previous job (and it's got a VGA port, so it totally could be!)

~ Jaws of Hakkon is out of XBLA finally! And it's cheaper than I was expecting! Which is good, means I don't have to find as much cash for the credit :D

On the fourth disc of Lost Odyssey. I swear the puzzle temples/areas are there to sort of string the game out a bit. I'd actually like an HD remake with an expansion on the story, but knowing my luck, it'd be on the XBone.

~

I made some stuff I've never made before!

I made banana chips, and I cooked them for too long, and they're horribly burnt (and taste kind of gross, but I sort of feel like I have to eat them now). I think part of it is down to our oven running too hot sometimes, and the bananas being very over ripe. I had to put some in the recycling because it was mush and wouldn't have held together. So next time I need less ripe bananas, and less time in the oven.

I also made tomato chutney! Because I had a glut of tomatoes (and I've still got a million left, so I'll have to make some more). I had to find a really simple one, because pretty much all the ones I looked at required things I didn't have, and that couldn't be bought at a corner shop. And I winged it on which spices to use because the recipe I used said put chilli in, and I don't like them so NOPE. In the end, I used cardamom, ginger, and garlic. So if it tastes awful, at least it smelt nice while it was cooking.

So at least that's one thing off my goals for this year, even if it wasn't onion chutney (it had onions in it, though).

~

Also I went out and was sociable!

I don't know who remembers (or if I even really said what we were up to) but, at one point last year, me and some friends were getting together once a week and doing craft stuff. We stopped around December time because the place where were meeting suddenly weren't happy about it, and because some friends had Xmas commitments (they sing in a choir and there was an Xmas concert). And then we didn't restart again after because winter and also I fell into a Dragon Age shaped hole (which they don't know about, lolololol. I mean, they know I play video games, but they don't need me nerding to them about my mage boyfriend. THAT'S WHAT YOU GUYS ARE FOR ;D ).

Anyway, I was talking to Jackie a while ago, and said that I missed us getting together. She said she did too, so we ought to start again. Only we didn't, because video games, and also Jackie has three kids and herself to look after so it just didn't happen.

Until we got a slightly more organised friend involved. So now we're meeting once a week at her house, and that's what I was doing when being sociable. Or, what I was supposed to be doing.

Because she was having a ukelele lesson when I got there (it overran, I think). Hence the post last night. ALTHOUGH. Her playing the uke is making me want to practice guitar again, so I suppose that's a good thing - I tuned my guitar for the first time in years a bit since and hearing it be in tune was amazing. Then I futzed about on it because lovely sounds. So that's good (though it doesn't help with learning to play the piano...)

Also I am working on a commission for said organised friend, which is great because that means I (temporarily) get some money! Unlike the last couple of commissions I had, I might actually remember to take photos for posterity (and showing off purposes ;) ) this time.

P.S. if interested in a commission, please check here (btw one thing I meant to mention on there was that payment plans are available to all, no matter how much you are paying me)

Still playing Lost Odyssey. On the start of disc three now. When I played before, I got part of the way through this disc, and then stopped for whatever reason, and never came back to it :(

I do know one thing that put me off ever finishing, which is that some of the EU disc fours are borked (turns out NA discs, too! Only the JP/AU discs are OK - because of storage. Ours are in paper disc holders, the JP/AU ones not. YAY!) I mean, there are fixes, and I could just get another copy and hope for the best, but I really just hope mine is OK. I'd like to finish this game, it's not long, and I'm really enjoying it.

Jansen has definitely improved. Kaim, it turns out, is a soppy ball of feels. Seth continues to be awesome. (I have no thoughts about Ming, and I only just got Sarah, so can't really say anything about her yet). I have only died once, and that was because I got a non-standard game over, because I failed to understand that when the characters said I had to knock someone out, they did not mean reduce their HP to zero; they meant put them to sleep.

Listening to the German dub track is improving my language skills, I think! Maybe next up is improving my German reading skills *sideyes Inquisition*

~

BOOKS! I have all the books to read!

I am still making slowish progress with The Drawing of the Three. I seem to whip through Detta's parts, and then it slows down when I get to Eddie and Roland, because Eddie is still constantly whinging about heroin withdrawal (I get that he's just gone through the coldest of cold turkeys, but I have little to no patience for addicts). I'm finding him less annoying than I did, but right now he just makes me want to kick him.

Other stuff I have to read:

- Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor, which is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I started reading it last night because I've been so impatient to get it, but I was so tired it annoyed me, and that made me feel sad :(

- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, which kotetsu inadvertently reminded me about.

- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, which I have previously rejected in the past (because Shiver did my nut), but musesfool has read this and the sequels, and fallen in love with them, and I am kind of curious to see why. (I would like to register eyerolling that the main character is called Blue, there is someone else called Gansey and I did want to say WHO THE HELL CALLS THEIR CHILD PERSEPHONE. Er, except that I know someone who did).

(I dislike this trend of picking out ~SUPER~SPECIAL~ names for characters in YA stories because...I don't know about you guys, but reading about someone with the same or similar name as me was always kind of a pull? Also giving your characters daft names wasn't a thing when I was a teenager and thus reading YA books constantly. Or if it was, I have blocked it from my memory).

- Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig, which is not fiction at all, but a book about the author's experiences with depression. It's supposed to be really good, or something.

(Not that I'm feeling suicidal, but I like reading about other people's experiences with mental illness because I find it interesting).

- And I requested Divergent by Veronica Roth, so I can see what the fuss is about?? Wonder why dystopian futures are such a thing right now? (I don't understand the attraction myself. Also I suppose I've had my fill of dystopian sci-fi already *aged sigh*)

(I didn't want The Hunger Games, and there seems to have been less flailing about Divergent (apart OMG THE MOVIE WRECKED IT! Apparently?) so ultimately, I don't know???)

~

Also, I don't write fanfic any more, but I saw a post on tumblr a while back where someone imagined an AU for Inquisition in which Anders was the Inquistor (I can't see it myself, but I have reasons for that), and the following popped into my head, and refuses to leave:

( behind a cut as it gives away a spoiler for the start of the game )

I have not gamed for several days, because I haven't felt like it.

Except that today I was feeling sorry for myself because I've been achy all week, and then I had bad stomach ache today (cripplingly so until about twenty minutes before I started writing this post). So because I've been feeling sorry for myself, I've been thinking about games that are easy to play and make me happy. Outside of Mass Effect/Dragon Age II/DA:I, that list is small. And I am trying to give myself a break from Bioware, damnit! (Though let's be honest, the lure of Dorian is WAY too strong, and the possibility that ( this is an Inquisition spoiler? )

(Oh yeah, talking of DA:I, I was saving up remainders of birthday money/gift money for when Jaws of Hakkon finally drops on Xbox 360 (I don't think it has yet? - release date is apparently 26th May) - well anyway, mum saw a Queen t-shirt and asked if I wanted it. Hahahahaha. I said she should get it, and I'd pay her back with my saved up cash. Now. She may renege on this in the future, but all in all, she's pretty good at getting me gifts, and it's not an expensive t-shirt, so I don't mind offering to pay for it??

Long, confusing story short: yes t-shirt, no dlc)

Anyway, I had also been discussing games I haven't finished/beaten and games I own but haven't played with a couple of friends. My list of unbeaten games is horrendous. My list of never played? Not as bad as I imagined. In a pile of 46 games, I had only not played a mere six of them. That's not even my entire game collection. That's just my Xbox/PS2/DS games (and it's not even all my PS2 games). I am actually pretty pleased with myself.

*smug mode*

I'd said to a friend I'd try to finish my FFIX replay (because it's a non beaten game, and it's cute, and I've been talking about it a lot on twitter. I haven't. I've also been thinking a lot about Lost Odyssey, so I decided today it was down to that, or try to complete The Last Remnant. The Random Number God in The Last Remnant doesn't like me very much, so Lost Odyssey it was.

I had forgotten how much I love Seth. She is awesome. Also I am much in love Kaim's impractical, kidney-exposing armour (I know he can't die, but that's no excuse! On the other hand, it's about as practical as some ladies' armour in some fantasy games so...whatever).

~

Also I started an overambitious Art Thing™ and I will maybe talk about it when I post a pic, which will hopefully be within the next few days. So then I can show you how I accidentally the Gameboy palette on it.

~ I need to scan some more stuff tomorrow, otherwise I am going to run out of stuff for the sketchblog. (I wrote this yesterday originally, and it's still valid now, because I totally fail at scanning).

~ I am now onto disc three of Lost Odyssey. I wish I could say I was surprised by the plot but, er, I read spoilers and remembered them and...there's several plot holes to begin with (the characters learn stuff, but don't share some of it with the player, ever). I'm going to stick with it, though. It has item crafting (with the weirdest items ever!*) and learning abilities from items. Which is kind of pretty much all I need to keep me happy in a game.

Plus I kind of want to be Seth when I grow up :3

~ I am actually going to dig out the record player and listen to my actual vinyl records at some point in the very near future. The only problem will be finding somewhere to put it where the cat will not try to catch the records as they revolve.

~ Now feeling guilty about not being a good moderator (i.e. not posting stuff, trying to get people to join, etc). Oh, who am I kidding, this is why I've never offered to moderate anything ever before. (And also because I thought I might get trigger happy with the ban hammer).

~ Also feeling guilty about not making art. I guess it might help if I actually knew what I wanted to do, and didn't feel so bad about colouring stuff on the computer.

~ Time to stop procrastinating and post this thing before it sits here for yet another night.

~*~

*No, seriously. A lot of them involve sticky tape, and I just imagine Kaim sitting there with a roll of sellotape, joining things together, and getting annoyed when the tape sticks to itself.