I WANT THIS SHIRT!



There will be cheese - thanks shirt.woot.com and bassanimation.com!

 Ohmygosh...isn't this the most awesome shirt design EVAR?! Aperture Science and rat races never looked so adorable! I stumbled upon this by chance at shirt.woot.com and saw that this shirt was in the "reckoning" department, which means I can STILL order it for the low, low price of $15!

Check out the shirt here and be sure to read the copy; I can't make any sense out of it but there's a "solution" in the forum.

Time is a gift

Lately I've been biding my time by focusing on the more important things in life: exploring Flickr, uploading pictures from our trip to the East Coast (which I will link to at a later date), catching up on reading, hanging out with mom and a few friends, and updating my closet. Notice that none of that included playing any games of any sort - I need a LONG break! Sitting on the sidelines and watching/listening to tsudoku play is fine by me for the time being - and I'm used to it. I'm focusing on me and it's such a wonderful thing!

Since we've returned from vacation I've been bitten by the travel bug and have been going through a case of wanderlust (it's contagious). So...I booked a 3-day cruise with some girlfriends to Ensenada and I'm super excited! I've never been on a cruise - the whole not being able to swim thing kind of kept me away from staying too long on a boat for extended periods of time. But I hear that you get to eat (a lot) on a cruise and you have no access to the internet, which sounds excellent in theory. Regardless, this will be a great exercise in staying off Twitter for 3 days (oh my god I may kill someone).

Check back later for pictures from our trip to New York, and maybe a couple from our friends' wedding in New Jersey. See you later, promise!

PS: we never did get to meet tsudoku's Legion of Honor friends - jerks. Not really, one lives in Rhode Island and the other lives in upstate NY so for them to get to Midtown Manhattan would've been sorta difficult. Still! I don't like being stood up!

Closure.

"Sorry, you're at the wrong gate, Osama." - @jesus

Last night President Obama addressed our nation with the words we've all been waiting to hear for 10 long years: Osama bin Laden is dead. You can imagine the jubilation those five words created across the United States. Finally, this long chapter is over and we can now move on...perhaps even bring our troops home?

But for this moment, right this second, I want to remember where I was when the news was officially dropped (even though the advent of Twitter completely blew up with the news 40 minutes before President Obama made his official statement) because I sure as hell remember where I was when 9/11 happened.

I hadn't cried this hard since 9/11. I didn't know anyone in the Twin Towers, none of my loved ones were in New York when it happened, but that doesn't mean I, and so many others across the country, did not grieve and feel completely helpless when we watched the horror unfold on TV. And now I will remember that last night I was glued in front of my laptop anxiously waiting to hear those five words, crying the hardest tears of joy that I've ever cried in my life. And all the while I was thinking, finally, justice has been served, and I look forward to the day that I can tell my future children about this important chapter in American history.

Time may heal wounds, but time and patience will brings us closure in the end.

Life break

Ah! Hello readers :)

This blogger’s been on quite a long break, and it was really, really needed. I apologize that this space hasn’t seen any activity for quite some time, but a lot’s happened since my last entry…which was what, the ilomilo DLC? Geez, Louise…I’m sorry!

Anyway, if you’re interested, here’s a recap of what’s been going on in my life:

ilomilo DLC coming out March 9th

Weee!!!! Southend will finally release brand new downloadable content for ilomilo (the cutest, bestest, and awwww-inducing arcade game ever) on March 9th...that's three days from now!

According to the developer blog over at ilomilo.com, the DLC titled "Autumn Tale" will include:

• 2 new chapters that continue the story of ilo and milo
• 19 new levels of puzzles
• 6 new bonus levels
• 3 new achievements

Yay!! I can't wait!! If you still haven't gotten on the wagon and played this adorable puzzle game yet, well then, I guess you don't like puppies!

Reading is Sexy!! Goodreads.com 2011 Reading Challenge

Behold a sampling of our massive collection of books

As part of the 2011 Reading Challenge for Goodreads.com, I've decided to tackle some literary works that I normally wouldn't read. Usually I'm all about fiction, memoirs, classics, the occassional graphic novel, or nothing. This year as part of my 28-book reading goal, I'm going to try to change that by adding science-fiction, fantasy, and even *gasp* romance.

The photo above is only a sampling of the books we bought at our favorite used book store, Camelot Books in Fountain Valley, California. There are a few in there I received as birthday gifts, and a couple others I purchased from Barnes & Noble and/or Borders. 

Dead Island trailer: are developers putting kids in harm's way on purpose?

Image courtesy of Wikimedia/Deep Silver

Last week the cinematic trailer (probably one of the BEST game trailers I've seen in a long while) for Dead Island made its way on the Internet and into the hearts of zombie aficionados everywhere. I admit, I decided to ignore the news about this forthcoming game mainly because I'm over the zombie apocalypse and we've already decided that if zombie warfare were to happen, you definitely want to team up with me. But after reading this little opinion piece from CNN titled, Why I can't get behind 'Dead Island', I was intrigued. Writer Omar L. Gallaga sums it up by stating that game developers are taking quite a few liberties in putting young children in the face of danger for the good of the game's story.

"...I'm getting uncomfortable with how comfortable game developers have become with putting children in peril and, often, allowing them to be gruesomely killed."

I went to IGN.com to check out the Dead Island trailer and knew it was pretty serious business when they asked me to punch in my birth date to make sure that I was over 18 (something any 10 year old can easily bypass). The trailer itself is amazing; the quality of the rendering is up there, the music serves as a melancholic dischord to the chaos that ensues, and the story is told in reverse and in slow motion. You can view the trailer at the end of the entry, but please take into consideration that the content is graphic and should not be viewed by/with children under 18.

BAFTA 2011 NOMINATIONS!

OMG! You guys! The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominations for video games are in and my favorites LIMBO, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Mass Effect 2, and Kinect's own Dance Central have made the cut!! This is exciting news and such a terrific way to start my Wednesday morning!

I've never paid much attention to the BAFTAs, although I think they're like the UK's version of the Academy Awards, so to have these titles recognized by such a prestigious institution is totally off the chain! :)

I'll be sure to tune in March 16, 2011 to see which of my favorites walk away with that awesome BAFTA mask.

Visit http://www.bafta.org/ for more information.

Mini-Bibliophile Quiz!

My former Chipotle buddy, talented DIYer and Hello Kitty aficionado @LilMissTati posted this awesome book quiz a while back on her blog Tatiana Supports the Arts, inspiring me to do the same. SO, like a brownie, I snuck into her blog late one night and "borrowed" the quiz (she hasn't found out yet but methinks she soon will once I post this on Twitter, in which case, Hi Tati! When are we gonna hang out and get Chipotle like the good ol' days?) My goal for this year is to read 28 books in 12 months. Why 28? Because that's how old I'm turning in about two weeks (wah!)

After I finished the quiz, I realized that I haven't read enough:

• books written by women
• fantasy/sci-fi novels
• graphic novels
• historical fiction
• steamy romance novels that I'm too embarrassed to buy at the store myself

I'm hoping to change all of this starting this year.

Oh and while you're at it, be sure to check out @LilMissTati's etsy shop, Babushka Designs on your way out...her beautifully hand-crafted goodies are made with yarn, love and no preservatives :)

1. What author do you own the most books by? Chuck Palahniuk
2. What book do you own the most copies of? NONE but I seem to have accumulated quite a few issues of Motor Trend and InStyle
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? I’ve learned to tune that kind of stuff out when I’m not on the clock    
4. a. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? I’m not entirely in love with him, but if I could have a fictional fling with him it’d be Oliver Mellors from Lady Chatterley’s Lover
4. b. What fictional character would you most like to be? Marla from Fight Club…that girl was absolutely crazy and lived life on the edge, something that I can’t really see myself doing  
4. c. What fictional character do you think most resembles you? Max from Where the Wild Things Are. To this day I still daydream about things that could be

Current Obsession: ilomilo on XBLA

Image courtesy of SouthEnd Interactive and Microsoft Game Studios

THE BASICS

• Released on XBLA: January 5, 2011
• 800 MS points (about $10 USD)
• ESRB: E (for everyone)
• Puzzle platform
• Single and multi-player capable - however, there can be only one active character playing at a time
• Collect stuff, get prizes
• EASTER EGGS (10 to be exact)

Do you like cute things? How about real cutesy music, do you like that too?? Do you also happen to like solving puzzles? If you answered 'yes' to any of those questions, then you will absolutely LOVE ilomilo!

ilomilo was developed by Sweden's SouthEnd Interactive, the same company that brought you Deathrow and XIII. The story is simple: two friends, ilo and milo, meet at this bizarro park every day to drink tea, hang out, and enjoy each other's company. At the end of the day, both ilo and milo go home to their respective homes and meet again the next day. However, this proves to be a challenge because every day the park somehow changes and it gets progressively harder for ilo and milo to meet up. The objective is to unite ilo and milo who start off at separate ends of each level of this strange park.



"This isn't where we agreed to meet for tea, is it?" Big ups to
blog.ilomilo.com for the image!