28/12/2012

Castle Crashers Stole My Pants

from gamerzines.com
As some of you may know, there's a sale on. The big Steam Holiday Sale! (insert dramatic music here) Being the nerd that I am, I've been following it closely and voting twice each day so that I can get my holiday sale badge. Being broke like I am, I could only get Rocketbirds for my bf. I would like to think it's just me being all loving and caring, but I also wanted the achievements for buying and gifting a game. A few days later, the sale in full swing still, a conversation like this happened:

Him: Have you heard of Castle Crashers?
Me: Nope.
Him: I hear it's a good two-person co-op.
Me: I'll look it up.
(2 minutes later)
Me: Holy cr.ab! That's awesome! And the wee knights are so adorable! Look at their little funny hats!
Him: Would you like to give it a try?
Me: OH YES!

And so, on the n-th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me four little knights! We were all pumped up and ready to go when the game crashed. Ok. No matter. Try again.

The opening scene was that of our two knights partying middle-ages style in a tavern. Useful note here: Player 1 gets the cooler dance. If you're player 2, you get to dance like a dork. Don't be player 2. When all of a sudden a soldier comes flying in through the door, bloody and then dies. All our fellow knights rush out to see what is happening and of course, I, despite my dorky dancing, run out as well, looking for enemies to slay!

This is the part where I would like to say that it would be great if the cut-scenes could be skipped. After the game crashing about the fourth time, I was sick of looking at the big white rock being stolen from my (shivering and scared) king's throne by a tiny ninja-wizard. The game was first released on Xbox, then on PlayStation 3 and even at the start of the game, it tells you that you'd be better off using a controller, instead of a keyboard.




Once we make our way past the barbarian hoards, we saw what the true, horrific, most heinous problem was: The barbarians were kidnapping our beautiful princesses! The nerve! We, of course, give chase, hunting down the fiends who dare lay their grubby hands on these precious examples of (rather big-eyed) perfection. Over the castle walls, through fields of muck and destruction we put down every barbarian who dares cross paths with us. Me, I get shot in the face by an arrow about every 5 steps, but where I lack in skill and coordination, I make up for with zeal. Fighting a canon goat (I swear, I'm not high, there is a canon goat), the barbarian lair is reached, with our princesses tied to poles and displayed by the arena where we face the final boss of this section. 




And what a boss he is! Masked, gigantic and carrying a gigantic shield. I died! I don't mean I died of fright. I meant my little orange knight got owned by the hulking fur-ball many a time and had to be resuscitated by my bf's green knight. That shows real devotion, ladies and gentlemen: Giving CPR to your fallen comrade in arms, while a horned behemoth is trying to turn you into a waffle. Not only that, but he also chugs some very flammable liquid and gives the deadliest burp of all times, sending himself and you and the other attacking barbarians flying across the arena. 

Though we didn't mean to, we both ended up dying. I was too slow delivering CPR and received a death blow from The Waffler up there. This made the game save our progress. Which was great, really. You know why? Because we had fought this boss three times before, having to go through all his minions again and again and again because right when the bastard is about to kick the proverbial bucket, the game would crash and we would lose any progress. But it doesn't crash like a normal game. Oh no. This one is so much more evil than that: It says your session is cancelled! It doesn't die completely, BSOD, block your computer, freeze your screen. No, it continues running, but all your progress goes up in smoke.

This was just a description and my impressions of the first mission. I loved the game, despite it's infuriating crashes, smashing all manner of buttons, aiming for any sort of effect. It's great fun to play with the option to talk to your team mate too, because it's a much faster way to let them know to "GO ON WITHOUT ME! SAVE THE PRINCESS!!!" So if you're looking for something to giggle at and enjoy in a carefree and very silly manner, then by all means get this game!

20/12/2012

Getting a head start

I had spent a lot of time on Etsy, before my Chrome started crashing it and read quite a bit of the Seller Handbook. I found it immensely useful and would recommend it to anybody who would like to try and make a go of their crafting skills. It's written in a regular, human way without preaching or patronizing. The Seller Handbook (ESH from now on) is the reason I started this blog and also one of the motivators to take the time and learn to be better with my hands :)

Anyway, ESH says that you should prepare for the coming season before the season actually hits. So, for example, December 15th is not a good day to post your new Christmas themed designs, since, with settling orders, payments and shipping, the item might be late arriving. If you still want to risk it, here's a useful bit of reading for you, my fellow procrastinators. Still, better to avoid the stress, right?


I had wanted to do something holiday themed and even got in a bit of drawing in. Yes, as always, it was hamsters. This particular little guy was going to be a little ninja, trying to hit another hamster with a candy cane. I hadn't quite figured out what the other hamster would be doing to fight off the attack, but it would have been something epic, by all means.



The next idea was for a hamster stealing some chocolate chip cookies. I quite liked his happy little face and the one damaged ear was a little tribute to my current fluffy buddy, Treesha. I thought to myself that ok, this is too many hamsters, isn't it? I'm really pushing it. So I decided to take a hamster chill-pill and just not do anything for this holiday season. Yes, they're fuzzy and adorable, but you *can* have too much of a good thing.

Two decisions were made. One - the number of hamster designs should be equal to or less than 1. Two - I will prepare for each holiday/event/markable occasion on time. For 2013 (unless the world ends tomorrow), I've made a list of dates that require some sort of marking, when they are and when to start preparing themed products for them. You'd think this would be easy, but I assure you, it isn't. Many different holidays are marked throughout the world. I'm sure I'll be leaving much out, so please, let me know if you think I should add something. Also thanks to these guys for keeping their super fun site.

FEBRUARY

Groundhog day - February 2nd - January (just for giggles, I had to list this one)
Valentines day - February 14th - January

MARCH

Women's day - March 8th - January
Pi day - March 14th - February
St Patrick's day - March 17th - February
International Earth day - March 20th - February
Easter - March/April - February

APRIL


Mathematics Awareness month
Sexual Assault Awareness month
Autism Awareness month


MAY

Lupus Awareness month
Asthma Awareness month

World Press Freedom day - May 3rd - April
International Nurses day- May 12th - April
Mother's day - May 12th - April
International Museums day - May 18th - April
Towel day - May 25th - April

JUNE

LGBT Pride month


World Environment day - June 5th - May
Father's day - June 16th - May

JULY

Bastille day - July 14th - June

SEPTEMBER

International Literacy day - September 8th - August
International Talk Like A Pirate day - September 19th - August

OCTOBER

Breast Cancer Awareness month

World Vegetarian day - October 1st - September
Halloween - October 31st - September

NOVEMBER

Movember
COPD Awareness month

Thanksgiving - November 22nd - October

DECEMBER

Seasonal Depression Awareness month

World AIDS Awareness day - December 1st - November
New Year's Eve - December 31st - November

13/12/2012

Remember the fuzzy



Two and a half years ago, this little guy came to live with me and bring joy to my life. His name was Betelgeuse, but he was soon affectionately renamed either "little B" or our equivalent of "Brutus", from the Popeye cartoons. My dad was the one to come up with Brutus, because the little fuzz ball would stand on his hind paws and try to make himself appear biger than he really was, strutting his stuff much like Brutus would in front of Olive. 

Brutus was a kind and patient little Syrian hamster. He never bit and enjoyed sitting on my shoulder, munching on lettuce or apple slices. He was also a bit of an escape artist and daredevil, getting out of his cage and jumping off my desk when I wasn't looking. He loved to roll around in his plastic ball, so much so that he wrecked two. He was a picky eater, opting more for sunflower and wheat seeds than anything else. 

Two months ago, my little fuzzy love died. One day, while I was away, he slowly stopped breathing. My mum buried him and said that he looked very tiny and was very still.

This little ball of fuzz was a great joy and a nice little companion. He also inspired some of my work and will probably stay the inspiration for any of my hamster drawings yet to come.


This is the drawing that started it all. The "Plooshkin" hamster. I don't know how we (my bf and I) came up with the name, but it sounded so adorable, it had to stay. I tried and failed many a time to transfer the actual drawing into digital form and finally, the little golden hamster was born! Little B did not appreciate my art much, choosing to nibble on the paper instead :)


Though strictly vegan, this little guy did at times appear bloodthirsty. The poor apple core didn't stand a chance! One day, the hamster decides to take a nap, not in his nest, but in the middle of the cage. I almost had a coronary, thinking he had died. It turned out he was alive and well and just sleeping happily. This is when the Zombie Hamster arrived into my head ad had to be put on paper and subsequently, in Illustrator as well.

06/12/2012

Ye ol' grande opening



And thus most social media was conquered! 

A few days ago I got a message from the nice folks over at zazzle.com. I've seen this mail before, "Your item has been sold". Yeah, yeah, give it a rest already, I know I only sold one t-shirt. And that was to a friend who was being kind. "Curse you, zazzle!", I think and promptly proceed to their page to edit my account settings and stop all this once an for all. Imagine my surprise when the "Royalties" section opens up and I see that the messages were, in fact, informing me of different purchases by different people! I was overjoyed, to say the least. Even now, two days later, I still can't stop smiling when I think of it. 

Somewhere out there there is a little piece of my design being shared and enjoyed... Does it get better than that? 

Riding this emotional high, I decided to finally open up my pages. Thinking about it and planning and just doing nothing was left behind.'About' sections updated, ID images cleaned up and sorted, banners adjusted, I took a deep breath and clicked...





Twitter is a bit of a sore spot for me. Why? My Chrome doesn't like it. Most online advice says to erase your cookies, but that won't help if there are no cookies to be found. The page would become red, I would be informed that my certificate was all wrong and all I could do was turn back. But where one browser fails, another will pull through. Faithful old FireFox to the rescue! In a few short clicks, my Twitter was updated and running. All that remains is to find some good accounts to follow and connect with friends. 





The Facebook page has a somewhat unfortunate history.  I had a spare account and started making the page with that one. When that account got shut down, the yet unpublished page was lost somewhere in the ether, taking the domain name with it. Writing to Facebook's help center provided no help. I still feel wonky about using zeros instead of Os. Hopefully, people will still manage to find it and not think badly of the shop just because of a bit of 133t speak :)
My friends have been very supportive of this endeavor, giving little mentions and liking the page. Thanks, guys!



The Zazzle page has been in operation for quite a while now. I had this little hamster design and I felt it would make a good t-shirt, so I posted it, never really expecting it to amount to much. Seems other folks thought differently and bought that same design.


When you stop by the page, make sure to go to the "Hamster Rainbow" link on the left hand side of the screen. There are many colourful little guys available there. I didn't want to post them all on the front page because even hamster cuteness can be overwhelming in those numbers. The available colours are: aquamarine, blue, brown, cyan, green, grey, lime, original (orange), pink, purple, red and yellow.
The page will go under reconstruction to match the other pages some time before Xmas.



About 7 years ago I was pointed in the direction of deviantArt, to a friend's gallery. Some 3 minutes later, after I'd figured out what the page was about, I was signing up for an account. My old page is very close to my heart, it shows how I've learned and grown, practiced different media, sucked and rocked all the same. If you wish to visit it, here's a link.
The current page, though sparse in content, has more finished works that were done with more care and attention to detail, not in a rush to just post something! 


Oh my dear Etsy, how my heart longs for the day when you and I will join together. Alas, our love will have to wait for me to get a credit card and PayPal account.
It is unfortunate when you are a struggling student with no regular source of income and hence no way of getting your mits on a credit card of your very own. Local policies are very strict on this count, so there is no way around it. What's more, in each and every bank I've been to, online transactions with anybody except the bank itself were highly discouraged, followed by hushed warnings of "It's unsafe...".
For now the Etsy shop is open but sadly vacant, devoid of all possibilities for growth and joy until I can hitch a ride on one of my friends' accounts... with their knowledge, of course ;)