But here’s sometime that I consider rather odd. For the last few months, those hours of playtime are only spent on a grand total of two games (sorta): Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy VIII.Two games for a few months may not seem strange to you, but it is for me. I can get bored rather quickly and easily, so I tend to switch games often. It’s not like I don’t have a kazillion other unfinished games ready to be played when I’m bored with a new game.

Dissidia 012's boxart, with almost all of the characters

But Dissidia 012…. Man, this is the first game I ever had that can suck me in so much without inducing boredom. Even after the main stories are completed, after it already showed a big THE END phrase on the screen, I still kept on playing. This is rare. I’m not a completionist and, most of the time, will happily throw a game I have just beaten to the back of the shelf, not playing it again for a long time.

Dissidia 012 broke the tradition (albeit not the first). This game is too much fun. Even just playing Free Battle (versus stupid AI, no less. Or not.) using random character is fun. Even messing around the customization screen for whatever reason is fun. Even repeating the same action over and over again (for the lulz or otherwise) is fun (and real men do it!). Even freaking grinding is fun, for hours. Oh, let’s just leave it at this: This game is fun. Hours of fun.

This game has used over 170 hours of my life. Okay, it may not seem impressive for you (or is it?). But since I’m the kind of person who likes to switch games around and I don’t have much time or patience for fake longetivity… 170 hours is more than the amount of time I spent on every Pokemon games I have. Combined. For my records, that’s highly impressive.

Heck, I won’t even play FFVIII if it’s not because of this game, so I guess you can just merge the two together or something.

Tifa fighting Kain. Just general gameplay example

Obligatory info corner: Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy is a prequel-expansion of its first game, Dissidia Final Fantasy, both are made for the PSP system. They’re both pseudo fighting game with a lot of RPG element. This is a non-main Final Fantasy game, but contain mascot characters from main Final Fantasy game.

The game has complicated gameplay mechanic, so don’t expect to understand anything in its GameFAQs board unles you have played the game. Its story, although simple on the surface, is also complicated (as is the trademark of every other FF games) and ties with the first Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy characters cross-over and meet each other. Yep.

TV Tropes sums this game up nicely for you: Dissidia 012 is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover Mascot Fighting Game for the Final Fantasy series.

And it is also very very fun. Like, really fun. You won’t believe how mind-bogglingly fun it is.  Have a PSP? Go and buy this game. Now.

Oh, and don’t bother buying the first game. 012 have everything the original has, plus a lot more.

US' first edition of the first book

To be precise, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Although if you want to talk about precision, it’s not really a book. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (long name, I know), is a basically a series of story all made by Douglas Adams, told through a variety of different medias. It was originally a radio program, then Adams made it into a book, then it was made into a game, then a movie. There’s also some plays, TV Series, there’s a bunch of them really.

But the only ones that I have experienced is the book and the game. The game is basically a text adventure game, which follow the first half of the first book of the first series. You can play an improvised with-graphic for free here. It’s pretty short, but if you can beat it without looking at a guide (and before reading the book), well….. that is plain impossible >.>.  It’s a pretty neat game though. Lots of extra hilarity here and there.

As for the book… I’ve only read the first book and only halfway through the second, and so far, there’s one sentence that sum up my experience: The book is a pure comic gold. It’s so funny, and the humour happen so often you’ll laugh every few seconds or so. If you’re into funny things, go read it. Now. Period. Why are you still reading this? Don’t have the books yet? Oh, okay then.

But if you’re into plot and serious narration, the Hitchhiker Trilogy (that is what the book series is called) is not the books for you. The story is a bit messy, chucked together, and basically just there to serve the humour, not the other way around. Well, at least that’s the way for the first two books. I heard the rest are much more serious, and that the fifth book is rather bleak.

Book two of the Hitchiker's Trilogy

All in all, reading it (the first book, I mean. The only one I have read fully) was a wonderful experience. It’s nice, creative, and absolutely hilarious. Sure, the narration is a bit lousy, the plotline is messy, and the story is just not fully there. It’s still awesome though. And funny. Definitely funny.

Conclusion? I repeat: Go. Read it. Now. Just don’t expect a poetic or serious narration.

Oh, and yes, I do notice that the books are quite old. And that there might not be no way that you can get a hold on it legitimately. If you’ve searched and you still have no way to get any edition of the book. Drop me an e-mail, telling me why and how you can’t get it and your version of Ms. Word/OpenOffice Word. I’ll give you a digital copy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the first book) in HTML format and the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (the second book) in doc/pdf format for free. But, mind you, I’ll only do it if you provide a good reason. I will always support the publishers in any way I can, except when they don’t let me. For me, at the moment, they don’t.

My e-mail is aliya.nisa-(at)-yahoo-(dot)-com. Remove the dashes and replace (at) and (dot) with the appropriate symbols.

I’ll keep this brief. It’s  11 p.m and that Science competition thing is not a joke.

Right! So, I’ve been thinking about what this blog is about. I don’t remember why I made this blog in the first place, that was only two years ago. I think it was because I need a place to freely rant without anyone disturbing me. But it sounds really dumb, especially since I can just keep it all in my head, where things are much neater than a place in the internet. Internet is a messy place.

It’s been two years since I have made this blog, and I don’t post much. I purged the whole blog on January, and it just lessen my post numbers. Now I’m just not sure what to post about. Maybe random things that happen in my life? Sounds boring. I’m not the kind of person who have fun, random, or otherwise internet-worthy going on. I don’t go out often, I don’t have fun best buddies or anything, I just like to do things alone, kind of.

Games? Sure, but about what? I never have the patience to make a full walkthrough, too biased to make a review of anything I’ve played, and don’t have the guts to show a video or playthrough of my games.

Art? Although I try, I’m rubbish at drawing/painting. I can make graphic/photo-edit that doesn’t looks like it’s lumped together in Photoshop by someone who don’t know how to use it, but I’ll admit I’m not motivated enough to do even this anymore.

Books? Hmm… Too boring. It doesn’t fit with internet blogging well. And I don’t find it that interesting.

The internet? … Well, this actually sounds appealing. I live half of my day in the internet. Surely, I’ll have millions of things I can write about that, right?… Don’t think so, but I’ll think about it.

Well, would you look at that. I just spend a quarter hour of my life whining and ranting in the internet. At this rate, I’ll be listing all of my hobbies, and whine about how there’s nothing interesting enough there. I have always hated people who whine too much, funny how it’s I who did it now.

Brief. Yeah. I tried to keep it that way. I’ll have to go and try to finish my studies for tomorrow now. Thanks for reading this silly post.

I just played (kind of) Pokémon White a few minutes ago. It. Is. Awesome. Seriously, you have to see it, up close in real life,  to believe it. The graphic is really well done, and the animation are as smooth as…. I’m not sure. Water? Are they smooth? Heh….

And the gameplay: It’s the same o’l formulas that has been recycled for 14  years (counting the original Pocket Monster Red & Green, mind you), but it still feels somewhat new and different. Then again, I’ve only been to the 4 location so far, so I’m not one to judge, yet. So far, so good though. Really good…

…. Dang, now I can’t wait until Sunday… Despite the whole countdown thing in this blog that is for the European release, I’m actually getting the North American Pokémon Black. That European Pokémon White I mentioned earlier? That’s my little sister’s game. She’s getting that version, which means she get to play the game earlier. I’m not complaining, though. I have my reason for sticking with the version that come later.

And that “(kind of)” I said earlier? That’s because all I did was watching my sister playing it, pointing to (sometimes obvious) things and helping her out at times. She’s new to Pokemon, and she’s still a child as well. Her first Pokemon game was Pokémon Red, and she played and lost it more than half a year ago (don’t ask about why and how she’s getting that version in the fourth gen).

Anyway, since the game is already out. This basically means my countdown thing is done and finished…

Nope!

I still have one more graphic. One more to end the countdown. And I’ll show it… on Monday! It’s late night right now. And I’m going on a (sudden) family trip on weekend (as in, tomorrow). Only change I get to actually show the final countdown graphic (without the extra XIII titles afterward) is Monday. No promise, though. If things get way too busy, I’ll probably postpone it indefinitely, not that anyone care about it.

And… That’s all for today! Thank you for reading, and good night (morning? day? evening?).

The title is not a typo! (unless you’re American, in which case…) It’s real, alright. Just. One. More. Day… And I’ll finally get my hand on this freaking game. Gah… I’m way too excited… Way too over-reacting….

Any~way, today’s graphic will be a little bit different than the previous days. It’s not a single graphic that is bursting with special effects. This one is a set-like combination of an avatar and a signature. They’re both simplistic in nature, simplistic in its concept, and simplistic in… well, they’re just simplistic. The games that these are based on is pretty simplistic. These two graphics feature the new Tao Trio from the latest generation of Pokémon: Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem.

…
Fine. They aren’t that simple. But hey, it only took me less than half an hour to make these, so they can still be called simplistic.

You may use these (or just one of them) for anything you want. Your own avatar? Sure. Signature? Why no? Site header? Erm… if possible. But you may not say you make these. Credit to me and/or a link to this blog is not required (at all). And don’t forget, don’t use this to gain real money.

Credits:
SigTutorials Starter Kit (again)
Artwork by Ken Sugimori (you know, the original Pokemon artist)

Yes, yes I do realize that today is supposed to be “1 day to Pokemon Black & White.” I’m just in a some kind of terrible Schedule Slip (for a 7 days only thing, this is terrible), and can’t post this yesterday. The graphic for this post wasn’t even made yesterday, it was made today, a few minutes ago. Horrible, isn’t it?

Well, it’s happened, so I’m going to say “screw it. I’ll just post this today.”

Today (fine, yesterday) graphic is a large wallpaper banner thing featuring a Legendary Pokemon from Hoenn. An uber-level Flying Dragon Pokemon that is a master of its trio. Yeah, this sounds painfully obvious, doesn’t it?

It’s Rayquaza! As usual for thumbnails, click for full view (which I highly recommend, since this is just a, you know, thumbnail). You may use this for anything you want, no credit or link to here is required (although it’s highly appreciated). You may not steal this and call it your own, and you may not use this for commercial means.

Credits:
SigTutorials Starter Kit (I need to stop using this…)
Official art, promotional art, and Dream World art by Ken Sugimori

So… yeah, 3 days to go until I (we?) can play Pokemon Black &White. Dang it, I can’t wait anymore. This is just too much.

Ah well, I suppose nobody want to hear me saying “I’m excited” over and over again, so let’s just move on to today’s graphic. Today’s graphic is a banner/signature that is only slightly bigger than the previous one. However, this one contain a lot more than one small Legendary. This one contain three, a trio, the first legendary trio. I present to you a banner containing the Legendary Birds: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.

I pick these Pokemon for today because they are the first Legendary Trio. A trio, because there’s only three days left. Get it? Incredibly lame, doesn’t it?

The usual apply. You may use this for anything you want, you may share this with whoever you want (a link to this blog is appreciated.). You may not steal this and say you made it. You may not use this for commercial gain.

Credits:
SigTutorials Starter Kit
Art by Ken Sugimori.

Right… Only 4 days left until Pokemon Black & White is out. I’m excited for it. Really excited. I’m not sure why. I wasn’t excited when Gen IV was out, why am I excited now? Darn it, I need to get my hands on these games, right now!

Anyway, for today’s countdown thing, I present to you a smaller sig-sized banner (about time I made something this small)  featuring a Legendary that fit with the small size, Celebi!

I think this looks reasonably better than the previous graphic. I guess I’m just good with smaller things, huh?

The usual apply. You may use this for anything you want, you may share this with whoever you want (a link to this blog is appreciated.).  You may not steal this and say you made it. You may not use this for commercial gain.

Credits:
RoseCabriolet
SilentDeath22
SigTutorials Starter Kit
Art by Ken Sugimori.

This post is late late late. As I’m writing typing this, it should already be “4 Days to Pokemon Black & White.” But, for ordering sake, I’ll put yesterday’s graphic ( that was made yesterday) in this post, and today’s graphic (which will be made today) in the next post.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Go to the previous two post.

So, today’s (yesterday’s, actually) graphic is featuring Giratina (Origin)! Why Giratina? Because I like it, and I think its Origin Forme design will fit the graphic I wanted to make.

Preview image to the left. Click for full view.
The usual apply. You may not use this for commercial business. You may not steal this and call this your own. You may share this, but please also put a link to this blog.

Credit:
Photoshop’s default brushes
SigTutorials Starter Kit
Giratina art by Ken Sugimori

Okay. So… This is the second out of seven countdown posts to the (European) release of Pokémon Black & White. I don’t have much to say but… well… actually I don’t really have anything to say. Just want to post today’s graphic.

Today’s graphic is a large banner… wallpaper… thing… that features Lugia! Why Lugia? Because I started making this when the internet connection was down, and the SS boxart Lugia is pretty much the only Legendary Pokémon image I have in my hard drive. So, Lugia it is! This was rather random in the making process. I basically just mess around the canvas with random brushes, not planning a single thing. I think this looks…. decent :/. Could have been better…. It was a long time since I last make graphic edit, okay?!

This image is free to use (though I wonder what you’re going to use it for). You may share it, but please give also put a link to this blog post. You may not sell this, for real money or otherwise. And you may not steal this, not that it’s actually worth to be stolen.

Credits:
All brushes from this here.
Original Lugia art by Ken Sugimori.
Click for full view.