No art, you say? Yeah, well, get used to it. I do have some sketches put aside but I am waiting for certain characters to be revealed (officially) before posting anything I've previously done.

Been trying to catch up on my massive list of video games that I've had on the backburner, and I must say that I am the slowest gamer in the world. Okay, scratch that, second slowest gamer in the world. One of my friends takes forever as well. And while I still have a huge list left to complete, I still try to make time for what recently came out.

As an employee of a nation wide retail store, I get to check out games every so often (used one, of course) and I've been trying out a lot of JRPGs. I tried Last Remnant, Eternal Sonata, Tales of Vesparia, Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Symphonia, Star Ocean: Last Hope, and Blue Dragon. Of those listed, only Eternal Sonata and Last Remnant have lasted longer than a day, and Tales of Vesparia is a possible purchase, once it's released on the PS3. I think I came to the conclusion that I might just not like JRPGs, at least not as much as I thought I would. They're too similar to one another, character wise. Too anime, which I know this is going to peeve a lot of you off, but I've fallen out of favor with a lot of anime, at least the stuff that's mainstream nowadays. The only anime I do watch are either guilty pleasures, or random stuff that I watch with a few friends... stuff that'll never be popular or mainstream in America.

Enough about anime, onto JRPGs. A lot of them are too story-driven, which is nice, but either the story is too complex, or I just don't feel 'in the mood' to continue the games. That's an issue I'm actually having with a lot of games these days. It's why I can't finish Folklore. I put it aside for so long that not only have I forgotten how to play, but I can't remember what I was doing. Oh, wait, I do. THAT DAMN DRAGON BOSS IN THE UNDERWATER LEVEL. HMMMMMMM. But I'll probably have to start all over. Again. I want to finish the games, but I can't stick with the story... I think it's why I like games like KOEI's Warriors series, the Katamari series, or older games that you can just pick up, play a little while without having to get emotionally involved with the story (optional) and just have a little fun. Ugh, any tips on helping me stay motivated to at least FINISH these games?

Now, onto recent games. I loved the hell out of Batman Arkham Asylum. Not game of the year, but it is definitely the best comic book hero based video game made recently, perhaps ever. Played Katamari Forever and loved the hell out of that too, even though I'm done with the main story and currently hitting the wall in Katamari Drive levels. And then there's Brutal Legend.

Not to piss off any fans here, but I feel like I was lied to. Downloaded the demo and really enjoyed it. Seemed like the start of a good hack-n-slash adventure game that would be entertaining, satirical in humor, and just downright just have some fun thrown in. Got the game, got past the part with the demo, and suddenly it turns into a RTS (Real Time Strategy). Not to say it's horrible and ruins the game (killed the excitement for a little while but I am getting back on the pony to try again), but I really didn't think the RTS part was going to play such a big role in the gameplay. Maybe I am one of the few people here who will proudly admit that I'd rather mash buttons than come up with some kind of strategy... HELLO, I PLAY THE DW AND SW SERIES?

Besides that, I do like it, if only for its story and humor. Not the biggest heavy metal fan, but there are several songs I enjoy and the satyr is just delicious at times. Come on, you fight emogoth zombies who wield shovels and lolitas. YOU. FIGHT. LOLITAS. How can it get any better then that? MOSHPIT THEIR ASSES!

Movie wise, saw some pretty good ones recently. Surrogates was nice, for a modern science fiction story, and had a pretty nice message. But the movie I've seen recently (twice) was Paranormal Activities. Once with my sister on opening night at our theater, and again recently with my friend, who flew in from Oklahoma (and almost ended up in Lake Pontchartrain). Both times were very enjoyable, and while the movie itself wasn't too, too scary, I really enjoyed the experience and the audience interaction. I'm going to sound terribly racist here, but seeing this movie in the dead of night, with a theater full of wiley teenagers and African Americans really makes this movie worth the money. The first night, there was literally a girl in the back rows screaming like she was being attacked or something, and hearing other people get genuinely scared really pleases me. You don't get that, nowadays. Go see it, if you can. And bring a lot of your brothers from another mother, or sisters from another mister, with you.

Last bit of news, one of the stray cats abandoned her kittens under our carport, and now we're taking care of them. They're maybe two, three weeks old, need to be fed via bottle, and are constantly in high demand of attention. ANYONE WANT KITTIES?