My heart is still pounding and I can't stop shaking. Karl is asleep and there's no one online to talk to. Why am I so scared? Well...

I had been sitting here at my desk working on some sketching. Quite into it and not paying attention to anything around me. No music, just silence. All of a sudden I got this terrible feeling like an anvil of doom was dropped on me. I mean a heavy energy with an all around bad vibe. Within seconds of feeling this the right side of my hair blew back and something or someone whispered very loudly in my right ear "Tell them." I've mulled over whether it was actually "Kill them" but It was quite loud and clear for just a whisper and it definitely said "Tell them." It sounded either female or child like. Not manly. I just about gave myself whip lash turning my head to the right to look beside/behind me. Right after it said that it seemed as though something brushed very rapidly across the back of my computer chair headed left.

I'm not a schizophrenic (at least not in the hearing voices respect). I don't have any idea who or what that was. My house is certainly not haunted and paranormal activity doesn't follow me around. There are no open windows around me and the room is very quiet. I simply have no idea what it could have been. It was definitely a crystal clear and loud whispering voice though and it wasn't mine or in my mind. I'm very freaked out right now.

Let's say it was a "ghost" or whatever... Tell them? Tell them what? And who is them?

Been almost five minutes now since it happened and I'm still shaking and scared to death to even move. I have no idea what to make of this. 

I've always been one to put a lot of effort into my halloween costumes so I thought planning a couple of cosplay costumes would be cake for me. I have costume assembly experience afterall. Well, turns out I was way wrong. It costs a lot of money first of all, and seconly, you don't want to go too terribly cheap because chances are someone else at the con will have the same costume and have done it way better. So there's an element of competition involved. This is my first time actually attempting to cosplay so I'm sure I won't hold a candle to anyone else there.



For Selphie Tilmitt costume I need:
Yellow jumper dress - You'd think there would be a million of these floating around. But it's yellow every other type of dress you can think of and jumper in every color except for yellow. So this will have to be custom made. I've sent a request to a custom seamstress so we'll see how that pans out otherwise I may be stuck having to make it myself and that will be disastrous.

Brown boots - It's winter so this one isn't too hard, but boots are fucking expensive (unless they suck complete ass) and not only do I need brown boots for Selphie, but I need green boots for Saria. TWO pairs of overpriced flat plain ugly ass boots. There are tutorials on how to wrap boots to pretty much change their color but oh my god, the results these people are jumping up and down about look awful.

Blue ribbon - Sounds easy. I'm sure with my luck though I'll find ribbon in every color except blue. Haven't looked yet though.

Silver necklace with "some" sort of pendant or charm - This one is just lovely. In all the pictures of Selphie I have studied closely I cannot for the life of me tell what the fuck is on her necklace. Every picture looks different, every screen shot, every fanart drawing, every action figure. And not surprising, no other hardcore Selphie fan or cosplayer can tell what the fuck it is either. So, to keep with tradition of Selphie's unknown necklace charm, I'll be choosing randomly whatever the hell is most convenient and detail nitpickers can suck it.

Oversized giant nunchucks or "nunchaku" - This one has me a bit flustered. I can't see walking in there without these but A-Kon's weapons policy is really strict. I have done arts and crafts enough so ideas for how to make these safe and by the rules came pretty naturally. It's the chain connecting the 'chucks that's boggling my mind right now. Even something light and fur covered like pipe cleaners have those little wire pointed tips and could potentially harm someone by scratching them. It can't be metal OR any sort of hard plastic. If I go too light it's going to break the first time I drop them or snag them or pull too hard on each end. So this is going to take some real thought but I'm determined. I swear though if I go to great lengths to make sure these things follow the rules and I get told to ditch them at the door anyway I'm going to poke someone in the damn eye.


For Saria costume I need:
Sleeveless green short dress - Accurately speaking, Saria is wearing a sleeveless tunic like top and shorts but that's two pieces too many in my opinion. I think a dress of the same look would be just as identical and even cuter. AND I think this is something I could thrift for as this would be a million times simpler a dress than Selphie's. There really isn't any detail and the split on the front of the collar can be done with scissors.

Long sleeved dark green turtleneck - A good possible thrift find as well. It doesn't absolutely have to be a turtleneck either, just something with a really high prude neckline that's tight and form fitting.

Green Belt/Headband - I may find these in a thrift store as well seeing as green belts and headbands are sitting on the tacky fashion shelf these days. I HOPE I can find them both in green, but brown would probably work just fine as well.

Green boots - See my complaint above for the boots thing. Green boots are a hell of a lot harder to find but I DID find a couple of pairs on ebay. Last time I bought shoes on ebay they broke in about three days (Thanks hong kong!) so I don't know if I'll be buying footwear on ebay anymore. I'm in a huge city with a lot of options though so I'm not gonna rule this piece out yet.

Green wig - This will probably be the biggest pain in my ass piece of all. There are green wigs galore, but I've dealt with wigs before. They make them look absolutely beautiful in pictures but when you get them, you have a knotted ball of synthetic hair that's misshapen from the packaging and a list of rules that basically tell you you're fucked as far as fixing it. "No hot or warm iron styling, no warm or hot water washing, no gels hairsprays or creams, etc etc etc" So how do you get the damn things to look as good as the pictures? I'm really scared of this piece because wigs are not cheap (even the cheap ones aren't cheap) and if I get one and it's fucked, I can't afford to replace it.. thus.. Saria costume will be ruined IMO.

Ocarina - I ordered an ocarina but it's an ocarina of time and every die hard Zelda fan knows that's a Link/Zelda thing. Saria owned the fairy ocarina and passed it on to Link. Any ocarina is better than nothing though and this one comes with a song book so whether it ends up being a great prop or not, I'm getting a freakin ocarina I can learn to play! How kewl is that? I'm excited about this. It is NOT a weapon in any way shape or form and it's smooth and rounded but if I'm not mistaken, it's blown ceramic. I have no idea if this will be considered among the no-no's for A-kon props. It really shouldn't be and if it is, then they are insane and way too picky.

Fairy - To the fairy fountain to jar us a fairy! Oh if it were only that easy. Saria is a kokiri and all kokiris have fairies (except for Link until Navi the most annoying fairy in the world is appointed to him by the Deku tree). So I've been mulling this one over for a while and I have some pretty damn good ideas. So good, I must write them now. I won't know how I'll be making the wings until I have a chance to skim the arts and crafts isles at some stores, but I've been thinking about how authentic I could get the core or body of the fairy to look. Kokiris' fairies are basically balls of light with wings. Something round, puffy, and sparkly would probably work just fine but why not add some sort of small battery powered LED light? There's tons of tiny things that light up out there, and probably a way to hollow out something orb shaped. If I can pull off an actual glowing/lit up kokiri fairy and then pin it to my shoulder I will be simply beaming, no pun intended. I'm excited to see if I can pull this off.

Elf ears - I already have a pair but they are way too long. I'm gonna try and find a pair that are a bit shorter but if all else fails the ones I have will suffice.

As I get these costumes rolling I will try to post some pictures of my progress. I'm going arts/crafts shopping tomorrow and if my luck holds out, I may have prop pictures up soon.

ALSO, Karl's business trip to Japan is rolling up soon. I still don't even have a passport and I need to go get another birth certificate before I can even apply for one. According to the interwebs, passport applications are being taken care of rather quickly at the moment seeing as it's the winter season so if I want mine on time I really need to get on the ball. I'm still doubtful the trip will even happen though so I think that's why I keep putting it off. Better safe than sorry I suppose. I should just go get the damn thing and then whatever happens happens. At least then I'm prepared right? I would be terribly disappointed to have to miss out on it over something this small. It would also help if we didn't only have one car and Karl didn't work during the times businesses are open. It requires taking long lunch breaks or time off for us to even get anything daily living requires done. I sometimes wonder how anyone with an 8-5 job does things. You go to work when everything opens and you get off when they close. And if you go to these places on your lunch break, you've just lost your time to eat. What a bunch of bullshit. And keeping the car is not much use anyway as I can barely stand to drive in this Alb traffic. It scares the hell out of me and I have to pep talk myself to get out there and do it.


ALSO, jam session happened this last weekend and I destroyed my thumb playing bass and strumming wrong. After a break the guys started playing again and I decided to record them on video. There were several clips but I put one on youtube which you can see here. The whole beginning of the jam is cut a different clip so forgive how it starts up right in the middle of the song. It's Karl on drums, Brice on bass, Max on lead guitar, and Woody on harmonica.

Are you sure you want to quit?
           [Yes] or No

Ugghhhh...

Well, Syberia 2's arrival at gametap and the anticipation I felt leading up to it were more exciting than the day I spent beating this game. And I am really sad and disappointed on many levels.

I started at about 8:30am and I'm finished already (5pm). I realize I only took a couple of breaks to grab a drink, grab some food, and let my dogs outside, but I don't think I'd have been done with Syberia by now if I had played straight though like I just did with Syberia 2. Overall it seems to have been much shorter. The story did not captivate me. I'm the biggest crier during a good game but this one didn't jerk a single tear out of me. I suppose I'm glad I played through it.. if not for any other reason than to find out if Kate and Hans would actually find Syberia if it truly existed. This review explains it all better than I can. It hits the nail(s) right on the head.

Next time you make a game, Legacy Interactive, take your time! You obviously soared through the making of Syberia 2 and you only hurt the game by doing so. Dreamfall: TLJ 2 took a long time to come out. You only took 2 years to come out with Syberia 2, and it's likely you didn't even start putting it together until less than a year before it was released by the way it looks.

I think the only thing that could possibly lift my gamer spirits at this point is a holy shit awesome Syberia 3 kicking Syberia 2 right in the cool nuts or Ragnar Tornquist announcing "DREAMFALL TWO! ZOE AND APRIL'S RETURN!" but I ought not hold my breath for either one of those.

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Karl bought a really nice Ludwig drum set yesterday. This tying into the dream he and Brice have of us being some sort of badass rock cover-band. We're supposed to "jam" together with Max this weekend. Brice and he will be on guitars, I'll be on bass, and Karl on drums. Brice and I will probably split the vocals or duet. If I remember, I'm gonna be making some video recordings. Karl and Brice were practicing together last night and I was amazed by how "not like complete shit" they sounded. Brice is fairly good on the electric guitar and Karl is some sort of savant who can pretty much pick up ANYthing and be a master at it in a matter of days. Like a slightly lesser version of the rain man. I hear Max is pretty good too and I can sing decently and keep a rhythm on bass.

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There was a bit more WoW guild drama last week. Casuals, the guild I've had my priest in for well over a year is starting to worry me. I recently brought my hunter over into it from Night Rain because Komo was letting a bunch of douche bags in the guild without having to app. It took an act of congress for me to get in, why not these guys? And they're assholes, all the more reason to wonder "why, Komo? why?" So over in Casuals things are looking good... but I notice that a couple members who haven't been in the guild even a fraction of as long as I have on Umiki are officers. AND they don't do anything. Thalios is pretty strict about letting people become officers. It's a position you earn by stepping up and taking the initiative to lead raids and learn boss fights and recruit and just be a big help overall when he can't. Pre-WotLK, I hosted Kara raids and was pretty much stuffing any extra stuff I had into the guild bank. I put gold too.. a lot of it. I hosted heroics as well and was in high demand, being a healer and all. I did that stuff for a long time and when I inquired as to why I hadn't been promoted to officer yet, I was blown off. I found out from Karl later that Thalios had mentioned something about my attitude and a fear that I'd kick everyone out of the guild. I absolutely NEVER gave Thalios that impression and I know exactly who did, and why and where it came from. I had made a guild for a short while on my hunter with my friend Steven and we were growing in numbers really rapidly. Well, guys on WoW don't like to take orders from females... hence the lack of female guild leaders. You might have high ranking second in command females of guilds, but rarely a full on first in command. Guys just don't take it seriously. Well, Steven pretty much told me it was my guild.. so I tried to run it like a first in command. Not bossy or mean, just in charge.. keeping order when need be. Well, finally the overthrowers (all guilds have these) showed up and tried to.. yep.. you guessed it.. overthrow me. I was in no mood to fight so I told Steven I was gonna take my contributions to the guild bank and just split. We'd say it was a nice try and avoid making a scene. Well, when I headed to the g-bank, it had been put on lock down. There were only three of us who had the power to do that. Myself, Steven, and his roommate Alex. Now I thought Alex was as much my friend as Steven... but when he found out I was taking my 500 gold back from the bank, he didn't like that very much and thought he was gonna go ahead and make sure I couldn't get it. Not only did he lock the gold in, but he TOOK all of the enchanting materials I'd put in there. Shards and dusts worth more than the amount of gold I had in there. So I told Steven very sternly over vent "I want what I put in. Nothing more. Nothing less. Now." and he argued.
Probably because Alex was looming over his shoulder. Whatever the reason, I had to get REALLY pushy to get my shit back. And afterward, for a long time, Alex and I didn't speak. Well.. Alex likes to talk shit and embelish things to make himself a funny guy. A game of telephone began until finally Thalios got a twisted version of the story. That I was some kind of psycho who freaked out and tore apart guilds when I got angry and stole from the guild bank.

So back to Casuals, Thalios had officers who I still think don't deserve the position. Two of them are people who are rarely online and don't do anything. I mean nothing. Not a damn thing. I think the positions were given as bribes to keep them in the guild and that's shady to me... once a guild leader starts doing crap like that, you can bet the scandels will only get worse. On top of all this, Thalios busted up a raid the other night refusing to pug. I held back and bit my tongue but I wanted to point out some of the first news he wrote on the guild website about pugging for a kara raid and finding the greated pally tank ever by doing so... my husband! He sat right there and told us "I DON'T pug. EVER." Blatantly lying for the sake of his pride and being stubborn. We are just a few short of having a full in guild 25 man naxx raid and because of Thalios's refusal to pug just a few people (who could have ended up being awesome) several of those people who we NEEDED left the guild. One of which I recruited. I was really pissed off.. at Thalios especially. I went and swore up and down to my recruit that Casuals was the best guild ever and less than a week into it, he witnessed our guild leader throwing the biggest dramatic tantrum I've ever seen, thus I looked like a huge liar. If Thalios thought pugging a couple of people was so horrible, hate to see what he thinks of the result of his fit. That is, losing members and having the ones who stayed stop getting online anymore and playing alts instead so as not to have to deal with the drama. Luckily, I have plenty to do on alts myself, and now the privelege to play with Julien on his horde server as his Rogue.. or the other dk I made there. That should keep me busy until Thalios either implodes the guild altogether or at least pulls the stick out of his ass. Whichever comes first.

Pictures above are from today's (technically yesterday's) trip to Santa Fe. Brice, Karl, and I rode the Rail Runner (The RAGE Runner!!!!) there. My first time on a train! I took a fuck ton of pictures but most of them are of stuff only I would find interesting. So besides all the wacko pictures I took of Brice, here are the ones I like the most. There were a lot of statues and I took many many more than the ones you see above, but those are my favorite. It was a pretty fun trip. Can't wait until we decide to do it again.

Found out after my last entry in here there is a Syberia 2! GameTap will have it on the 22nd. Can't wait! I heard from one source it's not as good as the first one. Shame on them for telling me something like that. I will love it!!!

It's a rare gem like "Syberia" that reminds me why I absolutely adore my GameTap subscription. If not for GT I may never have known Aveyond even existed, or Return to Mysterious Island. But I fell in love with those games, just as I now have Syberia. It reminded me a LOT of The Longest Journey, the prequel to Dreamfall. Just to give you a quick idea and mental image. The control style was exactly the same and the graphics were about the same as well in quality.

You're Kate Walker, a rather self assured lawyer from America who's just arrived in Valadilene, a very small industrial tourist town in the french alps.
It's business as usual as you settle in and prepare to close a sales deal of a toy/automaton factory for your firm and gruff boss "Mr. Marson" back home in New York.

The steam punk addition to a rather current feeling atmosphere worked out brilliantly. Rusty brass looking robots seem to be implemented into everything. Gates, entry ways, machinery, vehicles, and even as stand alone androids. The tiny cogs, gears, and mechanisms were so interesting to me. It's all so clangy and clunky and rustic. I liked it more than I thought I would.

You end up with a huge problem on your hands. The woman who was to finalize the sale with you, Anna Voralberg, has died two days before your arrival. A brother she "had" would have been the heir but he was believed by everyone to have been dead for decades. The deal should have closed smoothly even without Anna's presence. But things never are that simple. Just before Anna's death, she confides to a close source that her brother, Hans, is still quite alive. And thus, quite the heir. And also, quite... nowhere to be found.

Beginning, I always felt a bit lost. NOTHING was very explanatory, even things that should have been and I was constantly retracing my steps. Sometimes I would have to revisit an area ten times over before figuring out what I'd missed. And I rock at point and click adventures. This one has a rough start though and Kate's movement speed could have been much faster. You spend a lot of time just watching Kate slowly jog across your screen from one point+click destination to another. Luckily, the story was capturing me. The slow running Kate was a small price to pay when I just had to know what would happen next. The voice acting was also impressive. As usual, they (as in point and click adventure game creators in general) chose ever so wisely Kate's voice and I was soothed and lulled every time she spoke. Much like I was by Zoe Castillo's voice in Dreamfall. *drools*

Running up and down cobble stone roads, wondering if she'll ever get home, helping a poor unfinished automaton get a pair of legs. I was feeling a bit like Dorothy on her way to OZ for a bit there. Once you get on the train with Oscar the automaton you've helped, the real fun begins.

At face value it's a woman just trying to do her job getting the run around from everyone. Underneath, which is where I really like to look, it's so much more. Everything from her gradual change in attitude, to her new found obsessions and curiosities, to the phone calls from home.... you begin to see the changes in Kate. Many of us "think" we want to wake up and go to work and just do what we do to make our living, but as Kate shows us, we would all give anything for a normal routine day to turn into a great and unexpected adventure.

Along the way, Kate begins to reflect and realize the REAL reason she's still overseas on the never ending chase to find Hans. It's not really because of her job, or because she needs to do it to keep her boss happy. It's because she wants to be there. She seems to thrive on the mystery of it all. And she becomes more and more spirited every step of the way. She bonds with a few supporting characters and a new adventurous Kate seems to help and inspire them. Something you just know she probably hasn't done for anyone in years of living in NY. You really get a good feel for how she's changed when her friend Olivia calls with some bad news. Olivia who has sporadically called to check up on her dear friend Kate has slept with Kate's fiance Dan after getting too tipsy with him one evening. And Kate finds it difficult to care. She's in the midst of a fantasy that is somehow her reality and it means more to her than the hum drum dead end bull back in NY, including Olivia and Dan. And who would need them anyway when you've got Oscar the eccentric automaton or Madame Romanski the old feisty russian opera singer. Or Professor Pons the paleontologist. And finally a dream to chase that doesn't seem to make sense. Hans.

I knew I was getting close to the end of the game. I played as much as possible and was hours into day three. All at once though it was upon me. Back in Aralbad and it's snowing.. and Oscar's acting a bit peculiar... and a bit sentimental. Some last words are shared with Madame Romanski and she, as well as her nurse automaton James, hint that I should go out to the pier. So I do. And there he is. Hans. A homeless looking old man who converses like a child due to a head injury when he was little. And suddenly he signs the sales form without a thought and Mr. Marson calls conveniently and Kate assures him everything is just perfect now. It's back to NY asap. I was literally thinking to myself "No... no.. no" this isn't right. After all the times Kate had said she'd miss Oscar, and after all that trouble to find Hans... only to speak with him for maybe five minutes. But that was it, and Kate headed for the small plane at the end of the pier, Hans heading for Oscar and the train to head on yet even more adventure. The cutscene shows the unsure expression on Kate's face and just when you think you're about to hate the game forever over it's ending, Kate spins around and starts running back along the pier. She runs inside the hotel and nearly slips, knocking over a chair, running as fast as she can. She makes it out the front to the train station and the train is just leaving. She runs along the side and you get Hans' point of view from inside, watching her try to catch it. And she does. And you get a clear sense that she won't be heading home ANY time soon. Nor will Mr. Marson, Mom, Dan, or Olivia be hearing from her for a long, long time. Call me a baby but this cutscene was so beautiful and the notion that Kate would choose Hans, Oscar, the wind up SP train, and more adventure over New York just made me burst into tears.

Loved it. I've played a LOT of games this month and last month... go figure an old point and click from 2002 that hardly anyone has even heard of takes the cake as far as I'm concerned. It's overwhelmingly sad that because of how unpopular this type of adventure game has become, creators can hardly pool the funding to make them. It's a miracle we even got Dreamfall. In a society who is so jaded they won't even read a fucking book anymore, you'd think a game that is pretty much an interactive novel with non-stop pictures and chapters you can actually hear would be clamored for. I just don't get it.

Is it too late to say ***spoiler alert*** ? Hehe.