A few updates for now. Boring day for the most part, but I ended up getting my muse back recently, which is really nice since I hadn't really written since camp started. I'm a little shaky, but I'm getting there. I also made myself a background for my desktop, Hoobastank theme. It's no Picasso, but it's nice to look at for me.

I'm going to do some major gaming tomorrow, I'm psyched. I'm going to a friend's house with 2 other friends, and we're going to have a gaming extravaganza. I'll probably bring over SSBM and FF:CC with saves on an extra card. I haven't gotten to do multiplayer on consoles in a while, so I'm psyched about that. I love gaming alone, but sometimes I just really need to own one of my friends :D. Hopefully it won't be vice versa.

I've become an Officer in the Addicted Gamers Union, wohoo! It's a fun little union that just started for more-than-casual gamers, and so far it's turned out to be awesome. I invite all who read my blog to join us over there and help us grow :) (Oh come on, did you think I wouldn't push you there a tiny bit? :P)

I leave you tonight with some sites worth checking out. Sorry for the obvious self promotion, I've gotta make ends meet somehow ;).

And on a last note, everyone must download the song "If Only" by Hoobastank. SO FREAKIN AWESOME!!!


WARNING, SOME SELF ADVERTISING AHEAD :O

www.nookbay.com - if you're still addicted to the Animal Crossing Universe, come join us over on the larges AC auction site on the web. Our forum is always bouncing as well as our Livechat system, and we've got a friendly community. Plus I'm a board moderator. How much friendlier could you get? ;)

http://www.fanfiction.net/~nighthawkmoonshadow - For those of you who are into fanfiction, I write a lot of Will and Grace fanfic, mostly WillxJack. I've also got a Tales of Symphonia oneshot stuck in there ;)

http://www.ugoplayer.com/animation/declineofvideogaming.html - this is probably the best series of flash animation I've ever watched. It's basically a team of guys parodying various games and systems, but all in good fun. Start with this first one and move on through Decline 2, Decline Christmas, and Decline 3, you'll enjoy the inside gaming jokes and maybe learn some new ones.

www.askaninja.com - Ever have questions that no one could answer? Ever had questions about ninjas specifically that you wish a real one could answer. Well, now's your chance to hear a "real" ninja talk about what it's like to live a ninjay life. Seriously, this is a great podcast that shouldn't be missed, it takes PG humor to a new level. Plus the ninja suit is awesome  oo/ >.< oo/

www.urbandead.com - A simple zombie infestation game. You become a person trapped in Malton a city recently infected by a zombie virus. Your object? Simply survive. There is no way to "win" so far, but you won't play to win, you'll play to kick zombie (or human, if you decide to go with the zombies) ass.

It's annoying when people hover around you when you're trying to use the computer. I like to be isolated when using the computer, able to be in my own world and concentrate on what I'm doing. Instead when I'm at Dad's house I get bothered by nosy relatives and the like.

Then, when I'm about to settle into a nice, relaxing online routine, I put on launchcast for some music, and their stupid commericals come on. This new one is annoying the crap out of me, it's by some internet watchdog group warning people about online predators. It wouldn't be so bad, except the commercials NEVER CHANGE. You hear the same frikin BS commercial after every 3 songs, and this commerical seems so self righteous it's not even funny. "Don't talk to strangers online or bad people will come and hurt you". Then they come out with all these amazing "numbers" about how 1 in 5 teen girls are apparently solicited sexually online. What they don't tell you is that poll numbers are so easy to fake it's ridiculous.

My point is, I've heard these types of things over and over and over and over again from every friggin source imaginable, and I'm tired of it. Now instead of being able to listen to some nice music, I have to put up with these BS ads that are pounding the same message in my ear. So here's what I have to say to all of you agencies who force this message down peoples throats. GET A LIFE. You've been poking and prodding me with this message for years, and I'm tired of it. I just want to surf my internet in peace. I know the risks, and I'm willing to safeguard myself enough but also take enough risks to have an enjoyable time. I don't want to end up like one of my parents, afraid to put their credit card number online because the big bad credit frauders will steal their number, and yelling at me to not say anything about myself to online people.

I'm not about to reveal my address, school, GPA, SS number, hell, I don't even give out my name. I'm not the type of person to go into a chatroom of people I don't know and start cybering or showing off my picture. In fact, I really doubt there are as many people who would do that as people think. So I don't need to be scared off the internet. But what I do want to do is to enjoy my time talking to people from all around the planet, learning about their ideas and opinions, and hopefully expanding my knowledge of the global community. We're at a great time on this planet, when it's easy to connect to the entire globe, and we should use that to bring ourselves together, not to push each other apart. And trying to make us scared of the internet is just what that does.

So I'm going to stop listening to Launchcast for a while, at least until this ad disappears. Because I want to enjoy my time on the internet, not be reminded every second of the minute chance it could kill me. If the internet watch groups want us to listen to them, don't shove it down our throats with annoying ads.

~Nighthawk Moonshadow, citizen of the global community~

One thing I've been wondering for a while, why the hell are you all awake at eight oclock in the morning? I look at my friends list and like half of it is lit up as being online! Normal people do not go online this early! And yes I include myself in this.

I haven't done gaming really in the past day or so, but I did download Narbacular drop on Sunday. For those of you not in the know, it's the game everyone has been comparing to Portal, it's basically the origin of the idea, created by DigiPen. I tried it out, but the thing kept freezing on me, I'm surprised, I would've expected something from DigiPen to have less bugs in it. From what I did play however, it was pretty interesting, if I can get it to stop freezing, I'd like to do the whole thing through, maybe a speed run if I ever get recording devices. It's worth a download if your computer is really working well, I think part of the problem was with my hardware, it's never been that good.

And to the children that are currently reading this outloud over my shoulder, especially the one sitting on Mike's lap (Mike, you're a moron :P) you all need to get a life and figure out something more worthwhile to do than to read blogs over someone's shoulder.

~Nighthawk~

So I got into an artsy mood over the weekend, and after inspecting my profile, found my current banner to be pathetically weak in terms of design concept and in overall ability to beautify my profile. Therefore I set about to the task of making what you see above you now. All in all, it was pretty easy. I found the Link/Sheik part on the net and just pixelated the colors into the other character pictures. I also made a banner for the Addicted Gamers Union because blank banner space annoys me.

It's nuts how many people have been friending me here over the week. If I keep this rate up, I'll have the popularity emblem in no time :D. I'm going to get a highly rated game for my collection next so I can get the good taste emblem. If I ever get a webcam, I'll try to get the speed run and walking commercial emblems as well, because my emblem space is currently very small.

I think I'll start ending my blogs with a question for you all. Here's today's question:

I'll do the "Pick Five" for this week, since I want to know my friends' individual answers. If you were stranded on an island, which 5 games would you bring with you? (Internet access available :D) Here are mine:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition (4 games in one, bwuhahaha!)
2. Tales of Symphonia
3. Mario Kart DS
4. Kingdom Hearts 2
5. Golden Sun: The Lost Age

That's all for now, comment me, thanks!

(And to the kids currently watching me blog behind me, you're all horribly pathetic human beings :P)

~Nighthawk~

Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom animated is 25% creepy, 75% AWESOME.
Why did it take Yen Sid talking about Sora's clothes for him to actually realize "HRM, I'M KINDA TIGHT IN THESE!"
Having dreams about how I'm going to lay out my next GS blog post is a tad disturbing.
Things are scariest when accompanied by the appropriate suspenseful music (Why the hell else would playing Resi Evil on the DS make a rational person scared?)
The Arctic Monkeys are overrated. I just don't get why people seem enamored with them, they're like the Killers except their music really sorta sucks.
A Classic is something people enjoy. If most people no longer enjoy them, they should no longer be a classic (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, BRONTE SISTERS).
Eating McDonalds 3 meals a day will eventually make you fat. Anyone who cannot understand this should be banned from fast food in general, so as to save them from their obese fate.
Globes and maps have a staying value of about less than a decade. Anyone who uses a globe from before 1990 should be clobbered with it repeatedly.
Stephen Colbert + Paul Dinello (Strangers with Candy)= Hot.
Having an inground patio which leans slightly towards the back door and has drainage problems is not fun during a rainstorm.
Coming up with witty observations is hard.

So I've been bugging mom to take me to Best Buy so I could pick up a few new games. We finally went last night, and I picked up Kingdom Hearts II and Resident Evil: Deadly Silence. I only played a little of RE last night, and I have to say, I find it kind of amusing to see actual character actors on the DS screen. The opening cut scene was one of the most hilariously badly acted things I've ever watched. I've also been told that the voice acting for the game is crap. Ah well, I'll still try to have fun with it. The only problem is that I have to restart because I died before I could save. Stupid save system. I can already begin to see why gamespot gave this game a "meh" review, the controls are a little wacky, it just didn't transfer too well to th DS in that sense. I'm surprised however that something like this could actually give me goosebumps. I'll have to play this in the daytime >.>

Now onto Kingdom Hearts II (slight beginning of the game spoilers await). DAMN, the Roxas stuff in the beginning takes a while. I never completely finished KH: COM, so I'm a little lost, I'll have to read up on the ending of it. But it's  fun so far. When I saw the KH II logo about 3 hours into the game, I was like, "FINALLY!" And I'm glad someone other than me realized that Sora's old clothing was just a wee bit tiny (Thank you Yen Sid, it was getting weird to look at X_X). The only thing that has annoyed me so far is the decision to switch the action panel buttons from the right control stick to the left D pad. I'd druther be able to control that with my right hand while my left is moving Sora around. Although the camera is quite nice on that stick, having it on the L2 and R2 buttons wasn't so much of a pain. Ah well, I guess I'll have to get used to it. Back to the game, I can't wait to get into the new levels, they were always so much fun to see. I'm desperately wanting to get to the Lion King level, since it was always my favorite Disney Movie (They've got one, right?). I can already see that this is going to take a looooong while to beat, hopefully I can get it done before I have to leave for Canada. I'm not going to Cali after all, so that gives me a little time.

That's all for now, I'll report on new progress later!

~Nighthawk~

Nothing like a bunch of 8 year olds to make you feel like an old woman. These kids I'm watching at camp are wearing me out. We have, literally, the WORST group in camp. We had to take them to the camp directors for a "talk", and they're still being horrible. Ah well, at least the pay's good, and I get to hang out with my friends.

Little to no gaming in the past few days. My DS is out of power and I'm too lazy to recharge it. I think I'll do some Fire Emblem on it tonight and finally get level 19 done, after like 8 months. I'm pathetic :D

I'm so bored right now, it's not even funny. I ended up drawing the Google, Youtube, and Firefox logos on my arm in marker. I'll take a picture of them and upload them to deviantart tonight, since I've got next to nothing on there :D

I want to try some FPS for the PS2. I need suggestions. Also, if you want to suggest some RPGs, go ahead, just look at my wishlist first and make sure I don't have it on there already, I was pretty thorough.

~Nighthawk~

So this August I'm going to be doing a lot of traveling. I finish work on the 5th, and I might be going to California from the 6th to the 11th because my aunt wants us to go there to see her. My mother is most likely going, but I have a dilemma, I'm going to Canada from the 12-25 or so, which means I'll have no time for anything in August if I go with mom to Cali. Which means I have to pick up Kingdom Hearts II this week so I can complete it before I leave! I've got the funds, I just have to push the parental unit to get me to Best Buy. I finished the first KH in 3 weeks or so, and that was along with me playing Tales of Legendia at the same time, so it should take me less hopefully to complete the 2nd. Otherwise I'll have to wait till the end of August to finish it, and I really don't want to wait that long.

I ended up collecting as many star coins as I could in NSMB yesterday, and I have to say, using mini mushrooms is annoying. The whole concept just really adds a way to drag out the game for a little while longer, as you struggle to first get a mini and then survive the level long enough to collect the coin or defeat the boss to get to the new world. It took me about 30 tries on the level 3 castle to defeat the boss so I could enter world 4, and it really got more annoying than fun after a while. If you're going to add minis, do it right like on that level and put minis in the actual level instead of making you go to mushroom houses to get them.

I also played both Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance yesterday. The first FE I'm half stuck on level 19, I finally figured out my strategy though, using Fiona to rescue Matthew and take him up to where Legault will meet him. It'd be a lot easier if you didn't have to run after Legault, but once I get him finally I'll feel accomplished. In Path of Radiance, I'm on level 11 or 12, and I'm really glad that they added the new concept of bonus XP. It was annoying in the original FE to not really be able to keep your whole party at the same level and have to let some characters just stay at a really crappy point so that others could be bulked up, with the new system, you can make sure characters not being used are at least gaining some experience, and it allows you to have a broader range of use in terms of characters. Another thing I love about the game are the battle animations, though I know they're eventually going to get boring, for now it's fascinating to see.

I finally got to the Convival Emblem, wohoo! Thanks to everyone who started tracking me, without you I'd still have the lonely butterfly. I really need to learn how to make videos to upload so I can get the Walking Commercial and Speed Runner emblems. I also need to update my collection with some high rated games to get the "good taste" emblem. I'm .3 points away from it, according to the guide on the newbie forum.

You know when you find something that you shouldn't get addicted to, but do anyways? I have found that thing, and it is called pokemoncrater.com. It's a brilliant SIM for the pokemon game, and while not as developed as the real game, is still fun for some reason and is a good way to pass the time. I guess I just can never get over my pokemon addiction. Despite the "uncool" factor it now retains, I still find the games to be wonderful entertainment. It got a bad rap from the anime and card game, but the video game is still good. Ah well, back to catchin em all!

~Nighthawk~

I finally beat New Super Mario Brothers today, and after writing this, I'm putting up a review for it. I'm starting to find that I complete games more easily now, maybe it's because I've gotten back into gaming, maybe it's just because I'm getting better at it in general.

I also found out that I'm ridiculously close to beating Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance. I'm literally on the last battle area, and I've apparently been there since last I put the game down. I tried to beat the final boss today, but I got up to Remedi's final form and that Magi move just killed me. It's so unfair, she doesn't even use up MP when casting it, and she casted it every friggin turn. It didn't help that I messed up and lost my paladin in the first fight because of a stupid law card. The copycat law is so annoying, I always forget and mess up.

I've got a question that's been bugging me for a while. I'm trying to find out who my avatar actually is. I liked it when I found it in the Gamespot gallery, but I don't know what it is exactly. I know that it's a character from Final Fantasy X-2, since I've found a screen shot from there similar to her, and I've got a hunch that it's Yuna, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

~Nighthawk~

I've started playing over various video games that have long since been forgotten on my list. I've started on Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and Fire Emblem once more to see if I can finally complete them. I want no game uncompleted by the time the year is over, and hopefully I'll have ample time to accomplish this.

Luckily I got outbid on ebay for the FF7 game, I'm glad, I didn't want to pay $60 bucks for it. I'll search game stores, or if worse comes to worse, borrow it. They should start producing it again, it's a ripoff to buy it nowadays.

I got mad sunburn today. I work at a camp, and we took the kids to a waterpark. Genius me forgot sun tan lotion, I looked for it this morning but couldn't find it (It was in mom's car! >.< ). My neck is seriously burnt, as are my face and lower arms. I was wearing a staff shirt and shorts over my suit, so my torso/back/shoulders are fine, but my neck is killing me, it's tomato red. I'll be out of whack for a few days, but at least it's the weekend, and maybe I can convince mom to get me to Best Buy to pick up KHII, I've got a gift card for there :).