Snag the hi-res version HERE!!

Well, I spent the last two hours working on this in PhotoShop, trying numerous ways to get it to fit Youtube's stupid standards... *sigh* And, as is, it stands at 364 KB. :/ Even if I ditch the icons, it only drops down to 314 KB. Youtube's limit: 256 KB.

Back to the drawing board, I guess... *pfft* Use it as a background for your computer or something if you want...

Damn, Youtube restrictions...

In other news:

I beat AC2, and am currently at 93% complete! I've gotten all the glyphs, but haven't solved four of them... damn the code wheel! *shakes fist* The ending was *spoiler-free* CONFUSING as hell! But, whatever... AC1's ending sucked when I saw it the first time, but Ubisoft made it make sense in AC2, so AC2's ending will make sense in AC3... :] Which I've heard that AC3 is supposed to be about a female assassin during World War II? Is that true, because I thought the last game was going to be all about Desmond. I mean, Altair began it all, Ezio was the ***** (cut out to avoid spoilers... :P) and then Desmond will be left to finish the series.

But, a WWII assassin maybe kiling Nazis...?

I'm cool with that. :D

BUT, I will say... AC2 is far superior to AC1, just in so many ways. Yes, Altair is still a sexy bastard, and Ezio's not too bad himself (especially by the end *drool*) but in terms of plot, AC2 really opened my eyes and I started to understand everything, within the terms of it being fiction, of course. :] The glyphs are really fun, and I suggest you try to get them all...

Plus you'll want to hear Subject Sixteen yell "FUCK!" across the room at two in the morning...Okay, he didn't yell it (I just had the volume too loud), but as I was reading the subtitles, I thought, "He's not going to say that!" But, he did... :/ Just wait until you get to that glyph... you'll see what I mean. :] It was a rather interesting discovering...

A perfect game is 300, so at 153, it means I suck. BUT, why I'm bragging? Look at those four sexy strikes at the end! And, the CP matched me... :P I still beat him though... :]

This game seriously rocks! *thumbs up* It's so much fun! And you thought Wii Bowling was fun... :/

If you wanna play, you can download a 60 min. free trial HEREor at Yahoo!Games. And, if you want to buy it, which I may have to (it's that fun!) then definitely uy it at BigFishGames instead. It's $20 at Yahoo... :/

Figured it'd be good to post an uplifting post after that last one...

Bowling with zombies is uplifiting, right?

:D

P.S. My "gamer" name is Dillon because I like that name. :P And, yeah thanks to Desperate Housewives, it's a girl's name now too...

P.P.S. The zombie arm in the pic is reaching up to *literally* tear down the loser. :]

I actually don't remember all that much about the game, except that it was really awesome! Let's hope they don't screw up the movie... I'm a bit worried Jake won't work as the prince, but we'll see... :P From the trailer, it looks like it'll be pretty nifty, especially the way they're working the sand in... *nod* Plot-wise, I dunno...

First, I freaking love The Big Bang Theory! It's that goofy show on CBS Monday nights that's about four scientists and one bubbly blonde and how they all get along. It's seriously too funny, and it just is a blast to watch... seriously! I look forward to it every Monday... :] Take a peek!

Second, my classes suck, but what else is new? Tonight I was stuck in Computer Science lab for a whole TWO hours, asked for help twice, and still barely know what the hell I was doing...? *sigh* I'm so fried that I actually just broke down crying in front of my laptop on Sunday because PhotoShop wasn't working... :/

It's not a good situation I'm stuck in...

So, how about some upbeat news? Sims... :] I'm a picture whore and these guys make me ubberly happy, so I went a little overboard. The girl is Addie, and the guy... still unnamed... :P

( Down the Rabbit Hole... )

Ugh... classes tomorrow... and it's approaching two a.m. here... :/ What to do? Sleep? Nawh... Let's goof off in Sims 2 and PhotoShop! Yay!

:] Sudden Artistic Outbursts don't come to me all that often, so when they do, I usually listen to them, work, and see them through until they're finished. Besides, school sucks, and I really don't want to go tomorrow. It's the same boring crap everyday... *sigh* Anyway, here's what I goofed around making? Remember Adele? Course you don't. :P Well, I mentioned her a little while ago HERE. And, long story short, I was trying to revive her story from the brink of death when I realized that it was beyond saying it. It has some okay plot parts in it, but overall, the story is very flat, weak, and really incapable of being written. So, ditch it, keep the parts I liked, and start fresh. :] This is where Sims and PhotoShop come in handy!

( Check it out!! Isn't it purdey!! )

Oh, and Ana, remember how you said you were searching for animes to watch, yeah, and I gave you LovelyComplex and Ouran. Well, if you're looking for an intense anime that takes itself very seriously, then go watch Ergo Proxy. You can watch the entire series HERE (she's got them arranged one episode at a time by playlists) in English. :] It's really good, though not as good as Death Note (the best anime I've watched yet, hands down), and while it can be majorly confusing at times, it is still pretty awesome to watch. Anyway, enjoy it if you want. :]

...that would make an awesome kid's storybook! Just imagine a kid named "Uber!"

Anyhoo... little life update because it's almost two in the morning here and I'm bored but not at all tired. Might have something to do with the fact that I slept in until one in the afternoon today, but eh... School seriously drains me of all I have, so on Wednesdays and Mondays, I pretty much just come home and collapse, only to fall asleep a few minutes later, only to wake up the next day pissed about... :/

It's a fatal cycle.

School update first, because it sucks for the most part. Computer Science has seriously fried my brain! Yeah, I understand it, now, for the most part, but still... damn... o.O C++ is not my forte... it's too scary! :P Seriously, though, it is hard. But, hey, if you understand it and get a job in the CSCI world, it's a buttload of cash for doing hardly anything... who wouldn't want that!? And, in other classes...eh, they're all lame, except Storytelling. I had to deliver my first telling to the class last Friday, and I. Kicked. Ass!! *dances* The only two complaints were that: 1. I could've been louder (but they heard me just fine), and 2. I should've made the wife's voice (in the story, duh) sound more desperate. Still, the compliments were lovely and a definite stroking of my ego, which I'm all for. :] And, one of the girls requested that I tell it at this Haunted Weekend thingie that the city does every Halloween. Yeah, I'm nervous as hell about that, but also kinda excited... we'll see how that goes later... :P

Okay, so in life-life updates... planning a vacation with my friends for the middle of October, same as last year. Super excited about that because we always have a blast! :] Long story short, we travel upstate to visit another friend because she went to a differen college then us. *nod* It was her dream school, she works her ass off to stay enrolled (money-wise, not because of her grades. She's smarter then she looks. :P), and she loves the place. It sucks that she's kinda far away because she is, in every sense of the word, my best friend, but whatever. She loves it. *nod*

Oh, and movie love! I saw The Time-Traveler's Wife in the theatre. It was cute, I guess. Different then what I expected. Not sure if I liked it or hated it by the end, but I definitely wouldn't choose to sit through it again. :/ I rented and watched Horsemen, which sucked because it had such potential, and then a shitty ending. And, this weekend, I rented and watched My Bloody Valentine, which was eh-okay, not the best, but hey, it's "horror" date movie. I didn't expect much from it. But, staring at Jensen Ackles for two hours wasn't too difficult... :P Also finally got around to see The Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher. I will admit it was hard to see him in that role since I was used to him as Michael Kelso from That 70's Show, but damn if he didn't play demented and creepy well. Overall, it was a really great movie. Next up on my "To See" list is Donnie Darko. I've heard it has strong ties to things like Silent Hill, so it's only natural for me to see it... :]

Um, yeah, I guess that's all...

Bye!

[06] Dead Space
[21] Lovely Complex (warning! spoilers!!)

Dead Space, after beating it, is now ranked among my top four favorite video games of all time (the other three being, from top favorite I-can't-live-without-this-game-series to the ones that I love, but not as much as the others, Silent Hil, Resident Evil, and then Bioshock). So, needless to say, it was a damn good game. A lot of the moments were painfully obvious rip offs of stuff from RE4 and RE5, but still... Isaac's tale was nothing short of epic.

And, over the past three days, I've become absorbed in Lovely Complex, and anime unlike any other anime I've ever watched, but it was so freakin' adorable! I just fell in love with the story and the characters, and of course, Risa was my favorite. The girl's got guts, determination, and a hell of a lot of spunk. It was kinda goofy and corny in some places, but I laughed and loved it even more. Any anime fans just have to watch this one! It's so cute...even if romance/love stories aren't your thing (they aren't mine, believe me!) you'll still love you. You can't help but love it! And, LoveCom is definitely one of my favorite animes sitting among Death Note, Wolf's Rain, and despite its creepiness, Elfen Lied. :]

Anyway, to honor them, I used my boredom to make some icons for 'em. :]

+Rules/credit+
-Credit is appreciated, but not required.
-Textless icons are NOT bases!
-Comments are love... ^-^
-Take 'em and enjoy!
-Textures were provided by lifeisdolce, the_preamble, and icon_textures!
-Images provided by Bing.com, deviantART.com, CreativeUncut, DeadSpaceHorror, and ConceptArtWorld

( Not just another high school love story... )

Okay, wow... one and a half weeks into my first semester as a junior, and... so far, most of its good, some of it sucks, but I have to live with it all regardless, but... here we go, taking it class by class.

~First, it's U.S. History (why not World? That's not a required GE. Stupid yeah, but I'd rather take U.S. anyway since it's still that help build the country that affects me directly, but if there was Spanish, Italian, or even Islamic History I'd totally take those classes instead!) Well, first thing's first: the professor. Honestly, I didn't think I could get a better History professor then the one I had last semester, but wow! This guy rocks. He's so energetic, which really helps to keep us awake in class, but he's not shy about cracking off a few jokes here and there. He's just comfortable and happy in what he's doing, and even though I love History (of any kind), it still helps to have a fun professor.

~Second, it's Storytelling. Yep, Storytelling. It's my bs class of the semester, and it's way too much fun! The professor is so fun, and the class (though I kinda dread it a little because I don't know what's going to happen, and I perfer to follow a schedule) is just a blast every day. And, the only downside is, there's a lot of group works (mainly just one on one with a partner, which I absolutely hate) but I ended up getting paired with a really hot guy the first day (I mean, as Brittany would say, he's "perfection,") and we had each other laughing so hard by the end of class. And, today, I got paired up with a different, but equally delicious guy. :] He was more fun, actually, then the first guy because he wasn't shy about talking. :] Yeah, this class is definitely the fun one for the semester...

~Third, it's Professional Writing. Eh... The professor's kinda dull, but the topic of the class is dull, so what can he do? But, he does look like someone SO familiar! I just can't place him, and it's driving me insane! Anyway, other then the dullness of his lectures, I'm stuck staring at a computer screen for an hour and a half twice a week waiting on the rest of the class to finish the work that took me ten minutes to do. I know I'm not the only one that works a computer daily, so what's taking them so damn long...!?

~Fourth, it's Business Communication. Wow, it has a dull name, and before the semester started, I dreaded this class. But, the professor is so much fun! Just an example: It's the first day, the class' intro, and he's talking about not texting in class. To prove his point, he says, "Even if you never speak a word, you're saying something." And, right off the bat, I'm thinking, "Yeah, because of body language." Anyway, so, he wanders over and pulls a chair up to a table and sits down. Tucking his hands under the table, he bows his head and pretends he's texting under the table (if you've been to public school in the last five years or so, you can picture this stance.) So, after a minute of dead silence, he says, "This is obvious. Either you're texting or you're a pervert. Regardless, I don't want it in my classroom."

Well, maybe you had to be there for it to be funny. But, it goes on. The other day, he was talking about the age differences between us and him and how words carry a far different meaning to him then to us. And, of course, he opens with a joke: "When I was a kid, crack was what you saw when the plumber came over. Nowadays, it's something you snort, inhale, or inject."

Yeah, you'd have to hear him say it, but he has the entire class laughing for the full hour and a half. He's just awesome!

~Fifth, and finally, it's Computer Science. All I can say is, OUCH! MY BRAIN HURTS! >.< Seriously, today, in lab, I was staring at the computer screen completely lost, thinking, "If this was written in Latin, I'd probably have a better chance of understanding it!" It's hard, and since my day starts at 10:20 a.m. (time of my first class, but I get up at 8:30 a.m.), by the time lab rolls around (at 5:55 p.m.) I'm exhausted. All that damn learning is getting in the way of my sleeping... And the professor, she's okay. No specific comment one way or the other I guess.

~In conclusion: I'm ready for vacation... *passes out**drools**sleeps for ten hours straight**drools*

I've been hording these for quite sometime, just slowly building the horde one icon at a time, but my icon-making time is going to be shrunk majorly for a while, so here we go... And all of these were mainly practice in using/manipulating textures and colors. Some, I like, some I hate... but I learned a lot, so... yeah... :]

[19] Stock
[09] Mortal Kombat (Scorpion, Mileena, Kitana, and Sonya)
[22] Resident Evil (mostly fanart, RE5, ChrisxJill, Battlesuit Jill)
[23] Dead Space

( How I wander what you are...  )

Well...that's how Brad Pitt says it anyway. :P

Saw Inglorious Basterds last night with my friends, and I gotta say, other then the few moments where it was more then obvious that Tarantino was just trying to stretch the movie's time limit (mainly with the three looooooooong conversations in the beginning that all led up to about 3 sec. of action that was over in, you guessed it, three seconds), the movie was quite good, and for being my first Tanantino film, I have to applaude the man. He's a good director, maintains good control, and is an expert at close-ups and extreme close-ups. He uses them a lot, but not too much, you know, and captures the mood perfectly with them. His action shots are easy to get lost in, but that can be said about pretty much every director, except maybe M Night Shyamalan (but his action is usually pretty tame).

So, for a break down, I say definitely go see this movie! It's so funny (yeah, funny!) and gory, which is to be expected with Tarantino. But it's really good, even despite the long convos. Yeah, I know they were meant to build tension, but hey, there are easier and much faster ways of pulling it off. And, every time Pitt's on screen, you'll be laughing. Hard. And, I'm not one that's shy to violence, blood, body parts flying around on screen, but there were several moments when I had to look away. Granted, I always did like four double takes because I was curious, but still... wow... Some of the scenes are not for weak stomaches (and if you have one, why are you in a Tarantino film to begin with!?)

But, the best part is that when you leave the theatre, you'll walk out laughing (as ironic as that sounds). It's a definite must-see! :]

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And, in other news, after work yesterday, I headed over to GameStop to blow my entire paycheck in the span of about ten minutes! *head rush* So, I walked out of that store with Dead Space (PS3) and Dark Sector (PS3) for a grand total of $40, which is none too shabby! I played the demos of both games and just fell in love with both titles. Dead Space was a given, but when I saw Dark Sector for $10! It was a no brainer! :] I'm about halfway through chapter two of Dead Space (which is not that far in) and I've already jumped numerous times and dropped a few F-bombs. When I read that DS was a survival horror title, I didn't really believe it, but wow, I do now. :P I love the game so far. Too bad all of its downloadable content comes with a price tag...

And, I found out that Portal was available on PC and that supposedly GameStop has it for $10 as well. I checked the racks, found nothing, and just I stupidly forgot to ask if they had it. Though, if I bought it now, my computer wouldn't be able to run it, so it doesn't really matter... I just wanna play it so bad and maybe get that "Still Alive" song out of my head... :P

Well, back to Dead Space for now, I suppose...

Sony's boosting this idea for real. I still say the old design looks far better then the new "slimmed" down version. Plus, with the old version, there's more to love... :P I wouldn't dare trade mine in, but the thing that bugs me is that Sony (as most corporations) are quick to screw over the consumer at the first sign of a large cash flow. Apparently, Sony is pushing for all of the businesses that currently house old versions of the PS3 to sell out of the 80GB versions (which is the one I currently have) since the 80GB are going to be discontinued and make way for the slimmed down versions, which (not sure if this is true or not, but...) could store as much as 160GB of info. That, plus a huge price cut that is rumored to happen, I take that as a major slap in the face.

Granted, I wouldn't have changed my mind about getting the PS3 had I known this new version was coming. I've had the PS3 for two years (come this November) since I bought it the same day I purchased Assassin's Creed on it's release date. :] Nothing was going to hold me back from playing AC right then in there (it nearly killed me waiting in GameStop for those four hours for the game to be delivered).

I can understand Sony's angle here. They're trying to recover from all the bad-mouthing that went around about the PS3 when it was first released. People complained about its price and everything, but then there were those like me who bought it, regardless of price, and proudly walked out of GameStop carrying that massive box and didn't mind the $600 price tag for one reason or another.

Well, whatever... At least I can say mine is sexier. *huggles PS3*

...I'll try to update with something interesting later, maybe some graphics, but after work and heading to the movies, who knows...?

So, randomly, I was watching Spiderman earlier today (sadly, not the old school cartoons, but rather the movie with Toby). Anyway, in the movie the Green Goblin says that the one thing people love more then to see a hero succeeded is to see him "fail, fall, die trying." And, it started me thinking... we so do! We love to watch the hero (who we supposedly love, root for, and want to succeed in the end) get the crap beat out of him every once in a while. We are sick! But, part of the reason is because we don't want to see our heroes fall prey to the Mary-Sue disease, but a good beating improves morale. (Just like that pirate bumper sticker, which I love, "The beatings will stop when morale improves.")

Anyway, the point to all of this is that, not only do we watch movies and play games to root for the hero, but we also watch and keep watching for that brief moment when he is put to the test and usually gets the crap beaten out of him. Take Resident Evil 5 for example. *points to icon* I love Chris, but it was pretty sweet when Wesker approached him, "Your future hinges on this fight," *awesome ninja/matrix kick* and Chris goes flying through that door, leaving a massive dent from his steroid muscles. Hell, even in the original REbirth, once you learned Wesker was the cause of everything, you wanted him dead, but then (in Chris's scenario) you meet him in the lab, and he proceeds to beat the shit out of Chris... And we LOVE that moment... or at least, I did... :P

But, maybe it's also the classic good vs. evil idea and the idea that we love violence and just stick around long enough to see the fight. If it's something more then that, it would mean that we're sick, which I'm fine with. :P We're all sick in our own right, but... this little idea made me think about stories/novels that are based around the idea. I mean ones that focus the entire plot on a man (usually it's a male role that leads the show...sorry, ladies...) falling, usually because of horrible circumstances, and then the latter half of the book is about him struggling to get back to half the man he used to be. And, to do this, he usually goes evil and has to rack up a body count that Scorpion would be impressed by (speaking of my man, he scored #3 in GameInformer's Top 10 Best Fighting Game Characters, or as I like to call it... the Top 10 Badasses of...badass-ness.)

But, the "Fall From Grace" is an interesting story, always a crowd-pleaser (though, you should write for yourself and not others... *snaps ruler*), and a fun way to fuck with people's emotions. *shrug* Which, I for one, love to so. *evil laugh*

See what I think about when I'm bored...? :/ I miss Sims...

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In "Life" news, I went camping for the first time in my life! We roughed it in one of my friends' backyards. *flexes arm muscle* Yeah, we're tough! And even though we slept outside all night, we spent a lot of the hours inside the house. Basically, it was like, "We should go to bed. It's nearly one in the morning." *marches outside*

It was fun. The night was cold, so I bundled up in my sexy army jacket (the M65 Field Jacket...it's much thicker then it looks on him...) and huddled into my flannel sleeping bag. Flannel? Yes, flannel. That's important, remember that! So, cold night air, huddled in flannel and a thick ass army jacket, and in the morning, bam! 80-90 degree weather greets me when I wake up at nine in the morning. And it wasn't a calm waking, oh no! It was a wild, jump up, flailing to get the jacket off of me and to escape the fiery clutches of the sleeping bag. Once I achieve sweet freedom, I fall back onto my pillow, literally coated in sweat, every inch of my skin on fire. The tent was only meshed at the top, but we had covered it with the rain guard thingie, but as the sun hit it, it just pushed the temperature in that tent through the roof, literally... *sigh* That was absolutely miserable. But, once I was able to escape to the air-conditioned paradise inside the house, nothing was going to force me back outside into that tent... nothing...

:] Our next planned vacation: I voted for going to play paintball...

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In "Gaming" news... *sigh* Bad news all around. Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams, originally set to be released November 2009, has been delayed until (get this!) October 2010... a whole freakin' year (almost)! Needless to say, I'm bummed. In other bad news, my demo code for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the multiplayer thingie (wanna play, Ana?) didn't work today, when it was supposed to, so if it doesn't work tomorrow, I have to call and bitch... It was a free code, but still! I want my demo! *huddles in the corner*

For some good news, Assassin's Creed 2 (and Uncharted 2 for that matter) are still set to release on time, and I'm pretty darn sure that I'm going to cough up the extra $20 and get the collector's edition because: 1. it's sexy, 2. I bought the CE of Assassin's Creed 1 (had to have the little Altair figure because I'm a nerdy fangirl), and 3. ever since I didn't give up the extra $20 for the RE5 CE, I've hated myself for being cheap. I so badly wanted that art book and the Tricell bag, and a part of me almost wants to buy the whole game again just to get everything (an $80 expense). That's how sad I am... :/

Anyway, look at the adorable awesome-ness of the AC CE! Click me! Ain't Ezio's pose sexy as hell?

----------------------------------------

More "Life" news: Classes start back up on August 31st. Got mixed feelings about the classes I've got set up, but hopefully, they'll be fun. The generic line-up: U. S. History II, Storytelling (that's right!), Professional Writing, Business Communication (for my advertising major, I think...), and Computer Science +Lab.

Ugh... I just want Christmas to come around. Maybe I can horde enough money to cash in for my new computer too... So many expenses, so little time...

My friend and I had an idea for an Alice in Wonderland theme. The glasses would come with little tags that read "Drink Me," the food would come with ones that read, "Eat me," and all the items on the tables, like salt and pepper, would say "Shake me," and so on. The hostess would dress as Alice, and the maître d' would be the Mad Hatter. All of the waiters/waitresses would be the playing cards from the Queen's place. And, the top floor of the restaurant would be the large world, so giant forks, plates, chairs, etc. Not sure how to work in the Queen of Hearts or the Cheshire cat... :]

I've given RoR another shot, and after researching it and actually understanding the game, I find myself liking it now. :] So, in honor of that, I threw some icons together. And, the other nine (labeled as such) are some entries I made for vgawards. They were failed attempts and none of them won, but, hey, why not put them out there again?

( ashes, ashes, we all fall down... )

The vacation I want but will probably never get... I so badly want to see Istanbul, Turkey! :]

Several years ago, it had started to get stormy outside, but it rarely caused problems, so I stupidly kept working on the computer regardless. And, of course, I had about three applications open and a ton of work going, and then, bam! Power goes out. The computer screen went black so fast... A few seconds later, the power zapped back on and through some miracle everything was still onscreen, but life never fails to play games with you, so the power went out for a second time and stayed off for a few hours. My work was gone for good then... :/