Pokemon Conquest

So I picked up the newest Pokemon game last week and have been playing it on and off for a few days now.

Pokemon Conquest is different from the normal Pokemon games by quite a bit. In this one you're a warlord of a small, centralized, kingdom. The point is to take over neighboring kingdoms, while collecting new troops, and figuring out who to keep with you and who to leave in certain cities to "protect" them from other kingdoms once you've conquered them yourself. 

You only get one Pokemon, which you have no choice over, and leveling them up is completely different from how it works in all the other games. Rather than EXP, and levels, you get "Link Percentages", energy, and strength. None of which I'm really even sure about. I just know that I have so much HP, and I need to not die.

Each troop in your party also only has one single pokemon. And did I mention that your pokemon only know one move, and have one special that needs to be triggered to be useable. And by triggered, I mean you have no idea when it'll kick in and if it'll even be useable. Example: I'm stuck with an Eevee. She knows Quick Attack and a special called, according to Serebii.net, Buddha Strength, which allows her to play another move if she defeats the enemy in one shot. Sometimes. You can link with some wild pokemon, and I have with a few of my team members, but I still don't know what the point is. Once that team member's main pokemon faints, you don't see the other one pop out and finish the battle. Maybe I'm missing something still, but so far it seems pretty useless....

Every time I end up in a battle I think of chess. Each pokemon can only move a certain number of spaces, and in certain directions. Also, certain pokemon have to be a set number of spaces away from the enemy to attack them. Where Eevee needs to be right next to the enemy to attack, a team mate's Carnivine needs to be 2 spaces away and to the left or right of the enemy to attack it. Each pokemon is obviously different, so you need to figure out where to move them so that it wont interfere with your other team mates, and will inflict the most amount of damage. Battles only get so many moves. Some cases they assume you should be able to win a battle in less than 10 turns, some more, some less. Also, in order to recruit new troops you have to beat them in less than 4 turns.

Luckily they keep the basic "water is strong against fire" and other type advantages and disadvantages. I don't know if the game has that kind of AI in it, but I went as far as putting warriors in each of my cities with the thinking "If this city's main focus is water types, and grass is strong against water, I should put fire types to protect it in case the invading forces bring in grass types". Probably way over thinking things....

I'm still torn on whether or not this game is fun or monotonous. You don't have a continual time clock. Each "month" you can only do things once per team member. So if you have 6 members and 3 members go to battle, that leaves you with 3 members who can go to the store. Once everyone has done one thing, you move along to the next month. There's no grind training, so you just have to hope that your pokemon gets something out of the one battle a month its allowed.

So yeah. That's Pokemon Conquest. If you're big into putting thought into your games you'll probably like it. I'm more of a "bust out my lvl100 Typhlosion and burn everything to the ground" type person. Brawn over brains I guess... 

The Legend of Korra

So it's been a few months since this show started. A few years since it was announced. And quite a few years more since the end of its predecessor The Last Air Bender. Everyone who was a fan of the LAB had mixed feelings about the new show. Would it live up to the LAB? Would it fail miserably as most sequels usually do? Or would it be amazing and everything we hoped for?

If you're one of the millions of LAB fans, most of us are proud to say that it might even be better than the LAB. It's been a very long time since I've gotten so into a show that I look forward every week to see the new episodes. Hell, this week I even got sort of squee-ish when I finally figured out who Dante Basco was getting to voice. Way earlier, before the show started, he put out a hint that he was asked
back to voice someone "very close to Zuko". That made everyone wonder if maybe Zuko had a son, or maybe it was a grandchild or something. I got to see that character today and I'm going to be in the "grandson" group, especially with the name the character has. 

But this cartoon has so much stuff that pulls you into it. Familiarity to the old show, you know the rules of bending, the types, who created them, the history of the world. Newness, as the old cast is no longer really there, new places to see, and obviously new villains. Characters that you can't help but love or hate. The designs of everything and every place is great. And a story that is amazing. 

Mike and Bryan, the creators, are doing an absolutely wonderful job at keeping who the bad guy is a secret. No one has any ideas who Amon could be. We just know he's male, he can Chi-bend (which only Avatar Aang could do), and that a fire bender destroyed his face (thus the mask). I am really, really looking forward to finding out who he is. Usually by this far into a show you kind of already know who it is, if you're not told out right at the start.

I have to say that when this show is over, I'm going to be very sad. I never get this excited over TV shows anymore, and who knows how long it'll be before another one this good comes out. I've got all of the LAB, and will need to have this show in its entirety when its over. 

A Collection of Pin-ups

So a few weeks back, Mike got me a new Wacom Tablet. Namely the Bamboo Create. Very nice thing. Even has the new "touch" abilities, which allow you to use your hands on the active area to do things. With it came a small voucher for a free 20 page, 8X8 photo book through Shutterfly.com. Pretty cool since those things cost $30.

But what to do with it? I've always wanted to make a "professional" looking set of my drawings. So I thought about it and was originally going to make a story book. 10 pages of text, and 10 drawings to go with it. After spending almost a month trying to write a story, I quickly tired of the project. I also could not think of the right way to draw the pictures. I've always been a fan of simple things.

Then I thought again. I wanted a book of something I enjoy drawing. Something I could draw that wouldn't be forced and make me angry. So I'll be sticking with something that I am very good at- pin-ups. I have always loved the simple and classy style of  retro pin-ups. And it's no secret that I prefer drawing the female form far more than the male form. Females are smoother and easier to draw. They're a lot funner to draw with all the curves and flow-y hair.

Mind you, mine will probably don pointy ears, very strange clothes in varying amounts, and probably have insane colored hair and eyes. But they'll be based very much on those old, classic pin-ups. I have 10 already loosely sketched up, and two of those 10 are already at inking stage. I was thinking of doing things one of two ways: 10 pin-ups, and showing each in the sketch stage and the finished color stage next to it OR 20 pin-ups all in color and or sketch. We'll see how far I am by June 20th (I have to order it before June 26th to get it free)...

I plan to sneak some of my OC's into the book in a few of the poses. Just need to pick which gals and which poses. 

So here's hoping this comes out as good as I think it will.... 

The Avengers- A Review

So last night I hit the mall with Damon and Barb to go see The Avengers. I've been slacking on my Marvel movies, having not seen Iron Man 2, Thor, etc. I really do need to run out and start getting them on blu-ray or seeing if I can find them on Netflix or.... "other" options...

I was not going to miss this one in the theaters. There was far too much awesome for it to be watched, a year later, on a TV screen with sub-par surround sound. 

I will try not to go into details about the movie, so that the two people who actually read this don't get spoilers. Though I'm sure one of them is going to go, or has already gone to see it.

They did good with this one. It started out at a run and kept going. At no points was there ever a slow or boring spot. There was always something going on, be it funny or action-y. There was always something to look at. If you weren't busy paying attention to Tony Stark cracking jokes about Steve Rogers, there was something shiny in the background to oogle over. 

Ever since Iron Man I have drooled over those floaty touch screen computers of Stark's. So every time they came into play I was busy watching those and the people's hands run over them. And all the CG in that movie was amazing. I really don't think these movies could of been made in any other time but the current.

I did not though, stay till end of credits. I had, like a retard, chugged a large soda right at the start of the movie in all my kiddie excitement. That'll teach me. I did though use the power of the google and look it up. While I didn't find a video, I found some write ups which were funny in themselves. I'll have to remember to sit through the creds if I get another chance at the theaters or when I get it on blu-ray. Or just keep checking YouTube and see if someone manages to get it up.

So my final verdict is that if you have not seen this movie yet, spare the left arm and pay for a theater ticket. This one is worth the big screen. 

System Cleanout; Take 2

So Mike and I have decided to try out this 10 day cleanse thing. Yeah, I tried one of those earlier in the year and it did jack squat as far as I'm concerned. This new one, though, I have seen used and work the way its supposed to. My brother in law, his girlfriend, and some buddies tried out the Advocare line of dieting supplements and did the "24 Day Challenge" with pretty good results.

The diet plan is broken up into 2 sections: A 10 day cleanse and a 14 day "power diet". The 10 day cleanse is pretty much fiber drinks, lots of fruits and veggies, and adding probiotics to your system. The idea is to flush out your system of all the crap that's been building up over the years so that when you start the 14 day part your body is using the foods you eat properly. Mix that with a crap ton of working out at the gym, and boom, lost pounds and a healthier working body. Simple enough, if you can deal with the extremely strict food allowances and all the stuff you have to take along side of it. And by "extremely strict food allowances" I mean eating food that actually takes time to think about and prepare and not stuff out of a box. Such as no frozen fried chicken and french fries. More like grilled chicken with no sauces, only seasonings, and steamed veggies or salad. BUT, the salad has to have either fat free dressing at a very small serving size, or olive oil and seasonings. The steamed veggies cant have butter or anything to dip them in. So plain, grilled chicken, plain veggies, and a bowl of lettuce. Mmmmm...

So today was day one. Mike woke me up with "You're not going to like the morning fiber drink. I should get the camera ready to take pictures of this". I should of taken this as a real warning. I figured he was over exaggerating just to test me. Not so much. I open up the little drink mix packet and it looks like saw dust. No joke. It did though smell like oranges. I figured "alright, it smells pretty good. maybe I can just chug it and the orangey taste will cover up the gritty texture some how..." Not so much, again. Let me explain how this stuff looked in the mixer cup. Take saw dust, add 8oz of water. Shake the living hell out of it for a few minuets. You now have the consistency of extremely watery looking apple sauce with saw dust pieces floating around in it. Except said watery apple sauce doesn't smell like oranges anymore. It smells like weird, slightly off water. Apparently I had a pretty disgusted look on my face because Mike was already laughing at me. 

This was one of those cases of "you better just take it, because its not going to get any better by standing here glaring at it". So I took a deep breath and swigged a mouthful of this gross concoction. Luckily I was able to hold back because I nearly spit it out in the sink. A quick reread of the packaging says that you can also mix it with some kind of fat free drink. While I was digging around my pile of Crystal Light water mixes, Mike was pawing through the fridge. He finds a carton of Peach Orchard Tropicana juice that's fat free and I deem it useable regardless of the diet rules. It says Fat Free, so it counts in my book. I mix the swill into some juice hoping for something better to come out of this mess. Again.. Not so much. Now it's just sickeningly sweet gritty saw dust grossness. And now theres even more of it to drink. Great. After 15 minuets of sipping this stuff down, I finally finished the glass. Promptly afterwards I chugged a rather large glass of water to wash down the taste. This alone is pretty impressive to me because I hate water. 

Its been about 2hrs now since I drank that swill. My stomach is pretty confused. I don't think it knows whether or not its hungry or just trying to get past what I just dumped in it. I should though probably go down and try to eat something. Though with my options of apples, pears, grapes or salad, it's not wonder the diet says you'll eat about 5 times a day. I just hope this crap does something useful in the long run and we didn't waste our money....

BTW- Just for reference, on day one I weighed in this morning at 155lbs.     

 

 

How NOT to get a ferret

 OR: Why Nicole Hates Kids and Their Stupid Parents

So for the new people on here, I work for Petco. I've been with the company for nearly 4.5yrs, and I'm the "ferret person" at the store.

So tonight was like any other night. I get in, mom is telling me what needs taking care of over in the fish dept, and I'm yawning in boredom at the prospect of scrubbing 100 tanks all night. A couple hours into the shift I hear keys rattle at the ferret hex and make a bee-line over to see whats going on. Barb is there with a woman and her daughter holding the ferrets, so I offer to take over. I start talking to the woman as she struggles to hold one of our little kits.

Her daughter wants one, and needed to know what it took to care for one. Now, I wont lie. I have this issue with judging people's intelligence by how they look/dress/speak. The way the woman looked and how her daughter was acting registered as "herp-derp-McTardson" on my intelligence scale. So I start off with "how much do you already know about them? Have you ever owned one?". This is the following conversation that was had--

Mother: well, I had one like.... 15yrs ago? It was before she was born. So a long time ago. But I got rid of it.
Me: Alright, well, a lot of info and care have changed in that amount of time. So, I guess I'll start at the beginning.
Mother: *looks at her daughter, who cant be more than 12, but dressed like an 18yr old hooker at a nice club* You better be listening, because YOU have to take care of this thing.
Me: Alright, so. You'll have to take her out for at least 4hrs every day. You'll have to clean their litter pan--
Girl: I'M NOT CLEANING A LITTER PAN. MOM YOU DO IT!
Me: ...YOU'LL have to clean the litter pan EVERY DAY. YOU will have to make sure that the cage stays clean, take her to the vets every year for a wellness visit and rabies shots, which btw are now mandatory by state law in NY.
Mother: Are you serious?!
Me: Yeah. Like I said, things changed quite a bit. Anyways. Just so you know, ferrets have a VERY high chance of getting forms of cancer by the age of 5yrs. So you'll want to be prepared for that.
Mother: Ferrets dont get cancer.
Me: Tell that to my 2 boys at home who both have adrenal disease. So, do you understand that ferrets are NOT hamsters? YOU WILL need to play with it every day for the next 6+yrs of its life. YOU will be in charge of teaching this little one to not bite, not poop on the floor.
Girl: *Literally bursts into tears. I mean literally. She pulls her hood over her face and starts balling her eyes out stomping her feet*
Me: And all the whining and crying in the world WILL NOT teach your ferret how to act. Again. Theyre not play toys. Theyre not hamsters. You need to be capable of caring for this animals. And it seems like you're still too young to do that.
Girl: I WANT A FERRET I WANT A FERRET NOW NOW NOW *stompy crying hissy fit and storms away covering her ears*
Mother: Do you understand what the lady is saying? Get back over here and listen to her because she knows what shes talking about!
Me: Well, if she's so dead set on one, how about you bring her by Sunday between 2-3pm. We're having a ferret workshop. She can see and meet different ferrets and their owners and I will even personally bring in one of my boys so she can see what a bald, old, sick ferret looks like.
Mother: Bald? That's gross.
Me: Well what happens when your ferret gets sick and ends up bald?
Mother: I'll just take it out back and shoot it. God, Never mind. I'll just come back tomorrow and buy one.

NOT if I have anything to do with it. I've already warned the staff and told managers that if she comes back NOT TO SELL HER ONE. I swear to the gods that if I come to work tomorrow and find out she bought one, I'll be turning whoever sold it to her into animals services.

I hate kids to start with. But ones that act like that just to get what they want, I wanted so badly to just smack her in the face. The mother too mind you. I was extremely angry after that, but just the fact that I made that girl cry and messed up her pre-teen terrible make up job made my night better. Obviously I'm twisted if I get joy out of making kids cry, but sometimes, they need an adult to be flat with them. It almost made me think that I should have one just so I can raise it right and show it off like some rare species of animal.

I still plan to take Titus to the workshop, just to see if they DO come by. And take my word for it, if they insult my Titus because he's old and bald, I may loose my job. And they'll probably loose their teeth.

END ANGRY, SLIGHTLY DRUNK NICOLE RANT.
Have a good night.

Nicole VS Her First Mocha Latte

As a child I remember always being given caffeine free soda. I wasn't allowed to have a lot of chocolate. And by no means was I supposed to have tons of sugar. Why? Because I was very caffeine sensitive. I remember the smallest bits of sugar would make me even more hyper than I already was. Over the years I sort of created a small tolerance to things like Pepsi and chocolate. I was able to eat them in pretty large of quantities without getting as hyped up. I was still slightly buzzy, but not to the point where I was put into a sugar induced psychotic fit.

I was never a fan of coffee to begin with. The smell alone was pretty gross to me. So all this time I've never drank it. That is until this passed Saturday. Mike took me to Tim Hortons for some quick breakfast and he commented on this picture of a pretty looking coffee drink. It was made with tons of chocolate and, according to him, was phenomenal tasting. My curiosity piqued, and the fact that it had tons of chocolate in it, I asked if I could try one. If I didnt like it, no big deal, Mike would drink it. He quickly agreed (probably wanting to see if my head exploded from the caffeine) and bought me one. It actually tasted pretty damn good once I got past the strong coffee taste.

Que 20 minuets later on the way to the mall. I realized that I did not feel quite right. My head hurt badly, I felt sort of sick to my stomach, and my body felt jittery, shaky, and a mix of very tired but exceedingly wide awake. I felt like I NEEDED to be up and moving. I figured it would pass sooner rather than later. It was a little more caffeine than I was used to, so my body was going to be a little more active than normal. Not so much. By the first hour after I had consumed the drink I felt like this:





But with the same explosive energy as Daffy Duck in that one episode with the crazy invisible animator. My brain felt like everything was changing, nothing was right, and everything made me very quick to react in a very loud and sometimes belligerent manner.

 


Lesson learned: I'm not drinking coffee ever again. I dislike feeling like that, and no tasty drink on earth is worth that. I'd rather be drunk and or hung over before being that sugar buzzed ever again...


Ever...

Lost with rats and lazer tag theaters

I just woke up from this dream where Mike said he'd take me to the mall to get my new phone. So we get in the car and leave the house, but I notice we're driving through some city I don't recognize. And Mike is like, really angry with everyone on the road, driving like a nut case, yelling.. So He pulls over and tells me to get out of the car, we can make it faster if we go on foot. So I get out and he grabs my hand and we start running towards this group of old buildings with little shops and coffee places. We stop in front of one because there's a huge line. but then Mike takes off after someone through one of the buildings. I try to chase after him and finally catch him and ask why the hell he ran off like that? He says because the guy tried to steal his camera from his back pocket. At this point I realize I'm carrying a white rat in a small plastic carrier, and that we're standing in a giant mall that has nearly zero stores and still looks like its being worked on. Mike takes off again and I try my hardest to keep up with him, but I keep loosing him. I remember talking to rat at some points, saying things like "I don't understand why he keeps running off" and "god damn it, I wish he would stop moving so I can keep up with him".. I do finally catch up with him in a glass elevator that brings us down to the basement level. All there is though is a set of stairs ahead of us that look like they're blowing and there are tons of people heading towards them. So mike run towards the group, leaving me alone again. This time though, I don't chase right after. I feel like going with the group is a bad idea.. But then I look down at the rat and he looks up at me, and I head towards the crowd. They lead me through all these halls and stairs that end up leading to a massive, multi level theater. But everyone is carrying lazer tag guns. I find out that the screen is actually one of those 3-D lazer tag games that you shoot at the screen. But I'm more worried about finding mike. The lights go out on me and I see someone yelling and waving at me, so I think its him and head there. I sit down and the lights come back up, but its not mike. Its some guy I don't know... So I sit there, talking to the rat again, just looking around, and he's not there... then I woke up because the dog needed out...

Legend of Nicole?

Had a dream this morning that I was the main character in a near "Zelda" type world. Only difference was that some of the characters around me were Mickey and Minnie (Mouse). I had to find and finish the Book of Seasons and was missing the Winter Chapter, which was actually the story of Mickey's A Christmas Carol. It was being hidden under a large round stone with a key hole in it, and on top of that, a guardian that I had to beat. I had the key, and Minnie was walking with me telling me about it. She warned me that it was very fast, but easily confused, so as long as I moved around all over the place it would probably trip up and I could give the finishing blow to kill it. Then only would I be able to continue on my quest. Mind you, I'm actually sporting a female version of Link's classic green outfit. I'm even sporting a sword and shield. And the entire dream, including me, was all cartoon styled. As soon as I was about to step foot into the clearing my alarm went off to wake me up, but I do remember seeing a suit of armor just standing there on the round stone I needed to get into. So I'm guessing that was the guardian.

Aquarium

So I had a dream last night that I got to work and the store had been completely remodeled. More so the fish dept. I've always liked fish stores where the area with the tanks has no over head lighting, just the lights from the tanks. I think the fish and the tanks look better that way. Specially large tanks. Either way, I get to work the fish dept was remodeled. The ceiling was some how made much higher, there were partial walls across the front to block out the main store's lights, and where the tropical wall usually is was a giant bow front aquarium built up into the wall. This thing had to of been in the thousands of gallons range.There were lots of really big fish swimming around a very awesome looking fresh water set up. Lives plants, huge rocks, tree trunks for drift wood. The rest of the tanks had been made over also. Most of them were just larger, but we still had Oscar Island and Goldfish Island. In the middle of the area was a circular, almost column tank, but it was sectioned off for things like live plants, drift wood, etc. Tropical wall had been moved to the right side of the massive tank, and salts were on the left. But all I did in the dream was stand there in front of the large tank and just stare. People that I don't know, but were wearing petco uniforms were asking me things for customers, and I was answering, but I never took my eyes off the tank. And that's all that happened the entire time, until I got woken up by Mike to let the dog out..

Two new books

So for a V-day gift to myself, I got two new books to stuff onto my book shelf. They were actually on clearance at Barnes and Noble.com so I got them for a pretty good price (and free shipping!).

I keep saying I want to put more "classical" stuff on my book shelf. Stuff that will be around forever, or is just a general staple to have on any book case. I'm amazed I haven't gotten more than what I have now, but I'm a cover nerd. I want my books to look good. I want them to have a cover that actually gives some kind of hint as to whats in the book rather than some plain old black, empty leather cover. These two fit the bill perfectly. Even if you don't know who or what the Odyssey is, or who King Arthur, just by looking at the covers you can go "Oh, that must be about the Greeks" or "Oh, that's about the whole sword in the stone thing and knights and dragons". This is probably why I've yet to get my own copy of the Grimm's Fairy Tales and the like. I just haven't found the right book cover yet.


I really can't wait to start reading these two. I haven't read these since about Jr. High age and remember them very well. Hopefully they'll keep me busy for some time..

Tumblr

So I got a Tumblr account. Mostly so that I can follow updates from some people who don't use facebook. Partly because I want to see how it works for a mini blog. I'm actually not even sure what tumblr is for. I know a lot of artists use it to post up their art. Others use it as sort of a snapshot blog. So I guess I'll have to decide what to do with it, other than just watch people. Hell, if its anything like THIS blog, I'll have zero to no watchers and just as many comments and feed back to anything I post. There is a small section called "Curiosity", where people can leave me questions to answer however I see fit. But I doubt anything will show up there...


If anyone is actually interested in seeing it, or following it, or whatever, its @ Tales of Darklight- The Tumblr Edition

Ball gowns, hot rods and troll-Depps

Normally for a dream post I would use that little key image at the start, but this one needs a few images, so They'll be scattered through out this. This was one of those "wtf" dreams that were also a very.. enjoyable dream I guess. I did not feel stressed out, or angry, or sad, or the like through out this dream. Rather, I felt sort of excited to see where it was going. Like a cool action flick.


Firstly, I need to explain who the main person in this dream was. Gamzee Makara. Yeah, I'm sure that looks like I just slammed a bunch of keys, but its a specific character from a web comic I read. He's a troll. In fact, he's my "patron troll" (that means he wears my zodiac symbol). Sadly, my patron troll creeps the bejeezus out of me, as he's a clown and likes to paint himself in other troll's blood. Blood+clowns does not = a happy Nicole. When he's not killing people and eating their legs, he's pretty much like a stoner hippie. He like's his best friend, and lives in a world all his own where he drinks Faygo and everything is a "mother fuckin' miracle". So now that we're past introductions, I can continue on with this.


The dream starts in front of a huge mansion. I'm talking like hotel huge. Extremely posh, gorgeous place. I'm standing on a stone path way that leads to the giant front doors. I can hear a party going on somewhere inside. I'm wearing a huge, black ball gown and my face is done up in a lot of black, sparkly make up. I head into the house and am greeted by Gamzee. Except he doesn't look like the example up there. He looks more like a human, actually handsome through that clown make up. Actually, take the 2nd example and make him more..... Johnny Depp. There we go.

He leans down and gives me a kiss, which I return. I get that back of my head feeling that in this dream he's my boy friend or lover or something. There's just that weird, familiar feeling about him. We head into the party, which turns out to be a costume gala ball. There's a very short time that we dance around, but its ended by a scream in the background. Everyone stops and there's a woman standing in the door yelling about a murder in the garden. For whatever reason, everyone turns to me and starts yelling that I did it. So Gamzee grabs my hand and drags me from the ball room to a small hall way that no one else seems to be able to find. He tells me I need to get away from there, hands me car keys, and says to go to his bedroom to change into some of his clothes. After that, I'm to go to the parking garage and take his car and go. So I make my way there, change into his classic black tee and grey polka dotted pants, and purple converse. I make my way quietly to the garage, find his car, and notice that it's being guarded. I run up and start begging them, as his best friend, to please let me take his car like he wants. They shake their heads and say that they're very sorry but they have a job to do. One of them gets the phone and calls some guards down. I take off like a shot, crying, trying to think of someplace to hide, when I'm grabbed by the arm and dragged into a stairwell. It's Gamzee. He looks down at me, sad look on his face, and starts trying to wipe the runny black makeup off my cheeks. He tells me to be calm and starts leading me through some back halls. Finally we stop at a door. He opens it, looks outside and pulls me with him. We're in a parking lot behind the mansion. He grins at me and takes another pair of keys out of his pocket saying "You thought I only had one car? This one is even faster". He leads me up to a cherry red sports car and we hop in. 

I remember the sound of the engine roar, but at that point Mike woke me up for breakfast...

A few small things

So this update actually consists of a few things. Projects mostly, that I'm going to try and accomplish this year. Also, a few snippits from some short dreams I had last night (that I think are a side effect of my having no caffeine in my system for 3 days). So, let's get the to it...

Firstly; My diet. Or "Nicole's crash course in trying to loose weight". I've not had soda in 3 days and apparently it's showing. Not weight wise, but mood wise. Day one was fine. I had to fight going to the fridge and crabbing at the soda case and opted for OJ and water all day. Day two I started getting those tight chested "I'm gonna die" feelings. Day three though was enough to make me want to hit things. All day I was miserable, everything set me off, and all I wanted to do was crawl into a corner and lash out at everyone and thing by me. Luckily Mike handled this well and tried to keep me busy enough that I forgot why exactly I was being a vicious attack bitch. Today is day four. Let's see how this works out with a birthday party where the drink of choice is SODA. On top of my drop of soda, I've been doing 1/2hr of yoga on my wii fit every day. Mostly because the wii fit has a built in scale and keeps track of my weight and such things. And I think the fact that in 3 days I've lost 1.5lb and my little avatar looks a little less chubby is keeping me going. I am though thinking of going to like GNC and picking up some metabolism boosters or something. My goal is to be closer to the 125-130 mark by late summer when we'll most likely be going back to the ocean. We'll see though.

Secondly; One of two art projects for this year. My aunt has in her house this very large and very lovely and very expensive frame on her wall. Inside said frame though is the most atrocious mess of scribble to ever grace the Earth. One of my old drawings from high school art class. I hate this drawing with such a passion. The very first time I walked into her house and saw it hanging there on the wall, I freaked out and demanded it removed or I'd burn it off her walls. To no avail, the woman demanded it was good and she liked it. No. Not at all. And from that day I swore I would draw her something better. This is the year I'm going to try and do that. Only issue? I don't know what to draw. I have a good starting place, and that is her love of fairy tales, Cinderella, and the like. So I could just go with that. I plan to make it original by using my characters in it, rather than Disney characters. Make it obvious to what the subject is, but change the people in it. Nate gave me the idea of Rini in rags scrubbing the floor with soot on her face, looking up at one of the boys dressed as a prince holding a slipper down to her. Something like that is what I'm going for. You obviously know its Cinderella, but I'm not using Disney characters. We'll see though. Kinda wish she would of like Sleeping Beauty. Which actually brings us to the second big project for the year.

A little Nicole trivia for you guys. Ever since I really got into cartoons and drawing I have always wanted to see my characters dance. And not like.. Some stupid "carmella dansen" thing, but a full out ball room waltz. Case in point, the end of Sleeping Beauty. I have always adored Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty waltz. I'm actually in the process of breaking down the frames to a chunk of that section of the movie with the help of CS5, and I'm going to use them as a base of sorts to try and animate two of my characters doing that dance. According to CS5, just a small part of that dance is almost 200 frames long. That's 200 drawings I'm going to have to try and get as close as possible to each other. 200 papers I'll have to scan and try to time perfectly in the animation studio. I don't really know if I'll be able to add music though, but that's fine. At this point, all I want to see is them moving. I'll start with getting the sketches moving, and then move onto colors. I really hope I can pull this off. It won't be as grand as I've always dreamed, but I'll of done something close. Maybe if I win the lotto some day I'll fly down to Disney Studios and pay them to animate it for me.

Dream time! I only really remember chunks of the dreams. One of them I remember better than the others. In this one it's Halloween night. I'm running door to door, dressed up, yelling trick or treat and getting candy. Mike and some other random people are following me. At one house though we stop and go inside. We start talking about a girl across the street who is trying to decide on either staying human or marrying her boy friend and becoming a werewolf. So I go over and start talking to her and we come to the conclusion that she does want to be a werewolf. But she doesn't have a dress to wear. So I catch a ride down to my parents house, find my prom dress and this older, black velvet dress I used to own and race back to her place. I try on my prom dress to show her what it looks like and then everything sort of fades away. Another dream started up, I'm actually still in the dress and I'm in the woods. I recognize this place actually. I've dreamed about it before. It's a clearing, really tall dark trees all around it and I KNOW there's a river if I start walking forward. So I do. Because last time I dreamed of here there was a guy standing in the water throwing paper. I find the river but there's no guy. So I start following the river and sort of walk into nothingness. Just black air. And there I stay for a while, just sort of floating. Then I touch down, still in that dress mind you, in the dark, but there's something there. I don't know what it was, but there was something in the dark. Apparently now I have a bow and arrows and I take aim into the dark and fire a flame covered arrow at whatever is out there. I hear it thunk into something and the ground moves under my feet. And then I ended up waking up at that point..

A Little Early But....

This is actually sort of round-about. It starts last night, and with something not to do with the image for this post. Actually it starts with Inuyasha. 

I was watching Inuyasha: The Final Act last night in my typical "cant sleep" fashion. And as I was sitting there sucking up the story I realized that I feel insanely stress free and happy when I'm watching cartoons. Maybe thats why I was so stress free as a teen. Because I spent all my time watching cartoons and ignoring real life. That brought me to thinking about my very first anime ever, Sailor Moon.

I started watching Sailor Moon back in 1995, I was 10yrs old. I remember getting ready for school one morning and flipped on the TV in the kitchen to see this... strange looking cartoon. It didn't match the rest of what I watched. The style was different, the voices didn't really seem to match up with their mouths, but my god was it amazing. I was officially introduced to the world of Anime. I was 10yrs old! 10! I'm 27 now and guess what I still have on DVD and watch from time to time? Yep, Sailor Moon. Who got me to start drawing and show me that I had some mystical talent? Sailor Moon. And who was the basis for all my characters, who have obviously changed a bit over the years? Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon was also my first Manga. Downloaded on the computer, mind you, but still. Sailor Moon taught me to read something pretty much backwards. A pretty useless little talent, but people seem intrigued when I tell them "yes I can in fact read backwards Japanese manga".

But then I thought of something else. Again, I started watching when I was 10yrs old. Obviously the show was being aired in Japan before the US, which was 1992. The show is turning 20yrs old March 2012. That makes me feel old as hell. Sort of like people who stop and go "Man, I've been watching Looney Tunes since they were first aired on TV"..

So before I forget, and more of a reminder for the future, Happy 20th Anniversary to Naeoko Takeuchi and her amazing creation. Without it, I probably wouldn't of figured out I could draw, and would never of spent so much time watching such amazing cartoons. I will have to remember to figure out what day exactly it was first aired and make sure to have some kind of fanart ready to go for my gallery. Maybe 20 different drawings for the 20th anniversary?

Eternal Ferrets and Everlasting Hamsters

Firstly, this was done on the mobile app. So excuse any weirdness. And I would like to start with a reading from the book of lolcat.

First there was Limecat. Behold, he was mighty. And he did say "Meow" and life was created. Now humans did sin and Clock Spider shalt be borneth. Evil and Limecat did so fight. Limecat did tore off Clock Spiders appendage and flung it into the sun and thus it did became the gods of many religions. And Clock Spider did shalt try to strike Limecat on the lime. But behold, the lime of Limecat did was unbreakable. Yea, Limecat did swat ye Clock Spider and killed it. Behold, Eternal Ferret did arose from ye Clock Spider's body. Limecat and Eternal Ferret did fight on thou video. Behold, the fight was great and Limecat did win.Then came LUEshi who smited Limecat before his time. Behold, a carbon rod fell and the universe did collapse upon itself. Some examples : And the universe did say KABOOM!

Now onto the topic at hand. Stupid people who should neither own animals or breed.
As tonight was Tuesday night, it was truck night. This means I had work. And after the bettas in the food freezer and the flooding of Oscar Island, I was ready to call it a night. And then this woman comes in with her son. Let's call them Derpy and Derp Jr. She is a prime example of the type of human who should neither breed nor be allowed to care for any living creature. Be it fish, a hermit crab, a cricket....

So I'm standing by the ferret hex talking with one of the ferret regulars. Derpy is just behind her looking at fish chems, and she over hears the regular saying she lost 2 to cancer over the holidays. As I'm giving my condolences we hear "ferrets can die?!" from behind us. We turn to see Derpy looking at us and she asks again if ferrets do in fact pass away. I look at Regular, she looks back. Loss of words is obvious.
Just then Derp Jr comes racing over from the small animal wall screaming that he needs a hamster or he'll die. So I excuse myself from Regular and get snagged by Derpy who now wants to know what it takes to keep a hamster. I start with the normal basics; cage, bedding, food, water, chewing sticks, and a play wheel. Derpy then asks "hamsters need cages? I can't just stick it in a ball and let it loose in the house?" I say no, it needs a home. The ball is for short play times while you clean their cage up. Also, how will you feed it and give it water if its in the ball? To this I get "you have to feed them too?"...

By that point I asked the woman if she had ever owned a pet and if she fed her kid. I quickly got a "no" and a "well humans are different. Not all animals need to eat."
Normally I have some witty comeback, or something to point out the fact that they're retarded without actually saying it. But this time I was struck silent. I just stared at this woman and her son and wanted to ask that she never breed again and do us all a favor and never own any type of pet.

Another chapter from Nicole's dream world

So I had a doozie last night. Lets see how much of it I can remember. There was a lot going on, and I think it might even of been multiple short dreams, but they seemed to melt into each other some how. This is also a massive mix of weird, erotic, and angry. So don't mind the massive jumps in whats going on. None of it seems to connect at all in my head....

It starts with me at a weird antiques store/pawn shop. Very dark, lots of weird, old things. I'm looking around for something and see an old china cupboard full of Jack Daniels related things. Old bottles, cups, etc. An old man comes up and asks if I'm looking for anything specific, if he can help me. I tell him I'm just looking for a gift for my husband and that he likes Jack Daniels stuff. So the old man pulls a key out and unlocks the cupboard and lets me paw around in there. Finally I settle on a really old looking bottle, still full and unopened. As I'm walking to the front of the shop though the bottle goes missing, and I realize that I'm not wearing what I came in wearing (jeans and a shirt). Now I'm in my black hippie skirt with a low cut black shirt and black high heels. And the store changed over to what looked like stadium seating on a stage. I guess it was a game show. And now I'm paired up with some girl and a guy I recognize from high school (his name escapes me, but I recognize him). I notice there are other other groups of two girls and one guy scattered through out the place. Then some man walks onto the stage and says that it's our task to see which teach can get their man to blow their load first. Well apparently I was all for this, because me and that girl were all over him and apparently just the sight of me laying on top of him, and the peek of a neon pink bra was enough. I said something to the girl like "He hasn't had any since the 9th grade, this will be easy". Needless to say, our "team" won.

And then Poof, now I'm in some small town. I'm with Mike now, still in that same outfit, and we're watching a big town party in the square below. (btw, this is where it starts to get sort of fuzzy and scattered) I remember lots of people dressed in traditional and very fancy Indian garb (Indian as in the country of India). All the ladies are wearing very sparkly bead covered outfits, there's lots of dancing. I notice there are some guys behind us in Navy uniforms. One of them is carrying a big cartoon turkey shaped cake. They're all laughing about something and I'm watching them. But then me and Mike are down in the square with all these people and there's some people asking Mike if we can help them. They needed something moved over to a small stone pillar in the middle of a small pond. So Mike goes to help them, and now he's wearing a Navy uniform. I'm standing back with a few of the ladies thinking in my head "wow those outfits look very pretty". Then I see the turkey cake go flying by and smash into the back of one of the Indian men. I turn to see one of the other 'navy' guys laughing his ass off. I snap and charge him and start yelling "And you're in the Navy?! You have no right to wear that uniform, you have no respect, and are a complete failure as a sailor" and I punch the guy, hard, in the face. Mike comes over and tries to hold me back, but I fight away from him and tell him I'm going home.

Now I'm in some part of Syracuse. It's night time, raining, and I'm walking out of a small house on a crowded street (almost like Stubben Ave). I'm really angry about something, probably that whole navy guy thing. And I storm away into the streets trying to walk home. I know where I'm supposed to go, and I make that general path, but I keep getting side tracked. I think I actually ended up on Tip Hill because every corner had an Irish pub or diner of one kind or another. I ended up inside one called Kelley O' The Green Shirts. The sign was a picture of a cartoon Papillon dog wearing a silly green tshirt with a shamrock on it. Inside, there are tons of dogs laying around on the floor and I'm jumping around trying to get past them all and not wake them up. Finally I get outside and I notice a sign that says James St --> and Genesee St <--. Which made no sense me to. I didn't think they touched. So I started walking in a direction that just seemed right. I ended up coming out near State Fair Blvd on Hiawatha. So I knew how to get home from there and started my trek thinking "When I get home, my parents are going to kill me".. 

Then the dog woke me up to go potty...