Birthday

So yesterday was my Mr's birthday. He turned 22 this year, though his dad posted on his facebook about him being 23...

All this month I was sure that he didn't get the day off. So we got up Thursday at the normal time, we went through our normal routine before he goes to work, and ten minutes before he would usually go, he told me that he had the day off. So that was exciting, though it made it so I couldn't download his game while he was at work.

We had a good lazy day. And because no one else knew he had the day off, no one was bugging him to hang out. I made my first ever apple pie instead of a cake and it turned out pretty good. I'm glad I asked what kind he wanted because I didn't know he even liked apple pie none the less want that for his birthday. I would have made a coconut cream pie.

As for the rest of the week, I have been juggling Dragon Age (There was a new DLC), Papa's Donuteria (on Flipline.com) and working on my webcomic some. I am kind of starting to try to write the first chapter so I have no excuse to put off starting. Part of me keeps forgetting that the whole point of this comic is to get better at my art. I keep wanted to wait until I have my style figured out and am better but that is literally why I'm doing the webcomic. So yes, I must get my scripts written up and some thumbnails done and just start. Whether I feel ready or not.

Sorry for another late post...

Until next time (in a long time I'm sure); have a wonderful day.

Caught Up?

Doesn't appear that my readers have all caught up but that is okay. I'll write a quick post.

I haven't been doing too much this last week. Been struggling hard core with my art. One project is going fine and I could probably finish this week. But the really project I want to be working on is being so hard. I just don't know how to go from realistic reference work to stylizing it. I know what style I want to be working toward and I keep checking it to see what little details help make the style but I still can't quite get the over all effect. Part of me is wondering if it is the pose or if it is something else.

I'm also trying to decide how I want to outline. Do I want to continue to have extremely clean line work or do I try and keep it closer to sketch work? It would certainly be quicker to not do the line art but I think I would also feel really unfinished.

Man I have stared at so many art works the last couple of days I'm not even sure of anything any more. I think for now I'm just going to do some practice sketches.

Until next time; may your day be wonderful.

Weekly Review: Settlers 7

The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom (Deluxe Gold Edition) is a real-time strategy and city building game that came out in 2010 (though it doesn't look five years old). There are several game modes: campaign, skirmish and online modes. The goal of the game is to build a thriving economy and to win the map by getting enough Victory Point, which can be earned through many different methods. You are also able to edit your castle and the maps.

I personally really enjoy this game, despite it having received fairly mixed reviews. One reason I believe I can enjoy it is because I haven't played previous Settlers games so I don't feel the need to compare to them. The graphics are amazing, the music is beautiful, the AI (computer run) characters function really well and I have yet to have any problems with the game.

The amount of detail that went into the game are amazing. All your citizens look different. You have chubby and short and lean and tall, guys and gals... Each worker worker looks different so the farmer looks different from the flour maker who looks different from the bread maker. The creators could have so easily just used plain default people who all looked identical but instead they all have these tiny little personalities you can see if you zoom in to watch.

The environment is stunning as well. The leaves on the small bushes are detailed; there are flowers and butterflies in the grasses. I could stare at the water indefinitely. You can also have it cycling through day and night and have different weathers (the rain sounds amazing).

Some people complain about the 'replay ability' of this game, but I believe that it is just the nature of the beast with these types of games. Not only that, I believe that this game has better replay value than some other games of a similar genre. There are many maps and many AI to choose from. You are also able to win each map in a huge number of different ways. You can use trading or religion/science or pure military power. There are special criteria on each map as well that you can try to meet to win. On top of all of that, you are able to edit these maps (to a lesser degree). Any of the maps can be changed by editing how resources are in each sector as well as what criteria are available to winning.

There are only a few things that I would change about the game. The first is that it has to be played through Uplay. I recently purchased this game for my computer (the original being on Mr's computer) and I had to spend a good amount of time figuring out how to get Uplay to stop crashing so I could play my game.

Another is that this game constantly requires being connected to the internet. If your internet hiccups and cuts out for even a few seconds, your game instantly pauses and all you can do is save. You can only continue actual play once you have connected again to the internet. I understand that this mechanism is to help prevent illegally playing or to keep people from cheating in someway. However, the only people who are affected by this are the people who legally play the game. Everyone else will just find a way to change the game so that it is no longer doing that check.

The final, and smaller issue that I have, it always asks if I want to post my accomplishments on facebook. It could be a fun option for those who are interested and have connected to facebook, but if you don't connect to facebook, it shouldn't keep asking.

Overall, I would recommend this game to any one who was interested in this style of game.

One week later...

Man time flies when you forget about your blog. I just know I better get one in before Saturday and J keels me. (Speaking of Saturday, I am thinking about doing a 'special' I guess on Saturdays. Each week I think I will review something, whether it is a game, a movie or a book. It will probably often cover really old products but that is okay, just cause they are old doesn't mean they can't be good.)

Tuesday I babysat my little niece. She is getting so big and clever. It was a nice easy going day; she seemed a bit tired and spent a good part of the morning cuddled in blankets. Which is fine by me, I had gotten only one hour of sleep that night. I even tried going to bed earlier than normal but I just spent hours laying there. This happens to me probably several times a year but I wish this one hadn't lined up with the day I had to get up way earlier than normal. 

Then Mr came and got me which was awesome. He took the day off because it was his mom's birthday. Though Monday he said he hadn't gotten the day off so that he could surprise me but I feel bad cause I was mopey that whole rest of the night. Hopefully it was worth my surprised look when he said he would be picking me up later.

We spent a good part of that evening trying to get a hold of his mom. When we asked his sisters if they knew where she was, they didn't know and asked if we could go to her house and check on her. Finally we gave up on her, came up, settled in for the night and started ordering dinner when she called. She had gone fishing for the day but hadn't told any of us. It was alright though, dinner was good.

Nothing much worth noting has happened since then. I did some coloring/drawing for someone's birthday on Deviantart and I bought a second copy of a game so Mr and I can co-op now (It was on sale for $5 which was so amazing!). Hopefully it won't take another week before I update!

Until next time; have a wonderful day!

Been Drawing

Saturday I sent a good part of my morning working on a landscape which I probably won't finish. Ended up being a bigger project than I had anticipated. Then we got invited to dinner over at Tawn's which was pretty unexpected. We only have a two hour warning but at least it was more time than Ella gave us...

Sunday, we had only been up for probably 45 minutes when Ella was trying to get a hold of us. While Mr thought they were still in the middle of texting the plans, he suddenly got the "I'm at your door" text. So he had to stop eating breakfast and head out. This family is awful at planning, tis like trying to herd cats.

But I was able to finish a drawing I started in August. Sometimes I surprise even myself at how bad I am at finishing anything in a timely fashion. It was a commission for someone. I offered to give it to her for free but she insisted on still paying which was super kind of her. I wish I didn't enjoy doing commissions so much. I'm so bad at getting them done but I have fun with them and I am so proud when I finish.

So there you go my one particularly art watcher, I did art for you! Two in a weekend even!

Until next time; may your day be wonderful!

Quick Post

Just going to a small (late) update because my tablet is calling my name.

Nothing really of note happened Wednesday.

Yesterday I spent a good amount of the time talking to Ro online. We were video calling though, I don't have a webcam so it like half phone call, half video call. Most the time was spent discussing Dragon Age as it has been for the last couple of weeks.

I'm surprised that it is starting to warm up enough that I am comfortable with the window open most the day. The walk this 'morning' was super pleasant though that makes me worry that soon it will to be too hot. Despite it being March (can't believe it is already and only March... That also means that we only have one more month's worth of rent at this apartment).

Alright, I'm off to do something on the tablet. Just have to answer the artists' age long question: What do I draw?

Until next time; may your day be wonderful!

Being Social

I went out side into the real world and was social... crazy. It started out with my friend and I busing downtown and getting coffee. We were at the coffee shop for a couple hours, most of which was spent talking about Dragon Age cause we are adults. I wish they hadn't closed my favorite coffee shop. They one we went to was alright but it just isn't as good. The atmostphere and drinks were better in the old shop, and that shop was special to my boyfriend and I.

Anyway, after spending some time at the coffee shop, we went to the bar to meet up with more people. My boyfriend's sisters were there along with two of their friends. I have met one before, she is really nice but sometimes hard to understand. She has the slowest speech pattern I have ever heard in my life. The other woman I have never met but she was so quiet I barely remembered she was there. Which is saying something with two really unsocial quiet people there as well. I imagine she might have felt out of place. I know I hate being in that kind of situation where you know only one person and everyone else knows everyone else.

These are really hard to write without putting peoples names.... I think I am going to have give everyone nicknames. Maybe I'll make a page with everyone's nicknames on it. Here are what I can come up with:

Mr = My boyfriend
J = My sister
Tawn = Mr's Oldest sister
Ella = Mr's second oldest sister
Ro = My friend
Vi = Tawn's Friend

Well, I'll try to think of more later.

Until next time; may your day be wonderful!

Seeing Everyone

I can not believe that it is already March! My boyfriend just did his taxes this Sunday, but if feels like he did that just a couple months ago. Time seems to be getting faster and faster! I can't imagine how it will feel once I have kids...

Anyway, catch up time (cause I suck at this daily thing it appears), Friday I babysat for my 'sister' (she isn't really related, just sorta adopted many years ago).  My niece is getting so smart and is really into her imaginary play. She pretended to go to work by putting on imaginary hat, shoes, gloves and jacket. She 'brushed' her teeth and even handed my my toothbrush, though at first I wasn't sure what she believed she was handing me until she pretended to spit into a teeny tiny doll sink. She also ended up having an argument between her to hands about not wanting to share the cracker one hand had. I can't believe I ended up trying to tell each hand that they should take turns and share.

I also got to see our friends and their two kiddos. They are getting so big and their little guy is a total flirt. At one point, the mom said "I think he likes you" and we looked over at him. He game me the most coy look before hiding behind his hair and we both just rolled; it had been so perfect.

Saturday I went out to my mom's to hang out with family. I think that was the closest we have gotten to finishing a game of Phase 10 but we still didn't manage.  We did walk up the hill to my mom's mailbox. I'm sure that doesn't seem like much but it is actually quite a hill. It was probably a ten minute walk up (20 total) but those kinds of walks are so much better with other people and a fluffy dog.

Sunday was a good lazy day as they usually are. We didn't end up at the store so hopefully we can manage to get there tonight. The weeks we don't go shopping we eat awfully unhealthy food. I probably should go get the shopping list made up so it is easier to go right after boyfriend gets home.

Until next time; may your day be wonderful!