Today, I walked into One Stop to ask if my preordered Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker game arrived in the store. It has not. I need to wait another day. I feel curious to see how the game turns out. I played the past Dragon Warrior Monsters games. I found them enjoyable at first, but the games began feeling like a chore to play after winning the second tournament. Just like Pokemon, the Dragon Quest Monsters series involves lots of level-grinding to power up the various monsters I obtain. I don't like level-grinding. I hear that the latest entry of the series fixes that problem by having players apply points to skills sets, which are types of skills the monsters learn. When I would breed monsters together, their shared points for skill sets will get added together for the offspring. By doing lots of breeding, I could totally bypass tedious level-grinding. So, I'm curious to see if I will actually enjoy Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker in its entirety-unlike my experience with the prior two games in the series. My main reason for wanting to get this game right away is because doing so will earn me more mini-medals on Slime Knights. Slime Knights is an Internet site funded by Square Enix as a tool to promote games in the Dragon Quest series. Mini-medals are the currency that members earn on the site. We can spend the currency to purchase prizes from the site's store. People earn the currency from completing various challenges, such as writing about their hype for a Dragon Quest game in their blogs. I do nearly every single challenge, and I strive at being a top member on the site. Lately, there are challenges in which people earn mini-medals for proving they received Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, and future challenges and trivia will likely require owning the game. For this reason, I feel anxious to obtain the game, right away.

I finally moved to my new home in the Los Angeles area. Whoo-hoo! Now, I can look for work at video game companies, and I would be geographically qualified for any available work. (I tried sending resumes a few years back, and companies responded negatively about me living in Arizona.) I'm still getting settled in by making sure to pay my first bills, locate health services, and the like. Once that is all done, I can start job hunting. I hope to get started with the job hunt right after Halloween.

The latest mission at Slime Knights is to create Halloween art. I created an illustration of Dragon Quest monsters dressed up as human jocks. The flyguy is dressed as a cheerleader, golem is a football player, and muddyman is a basketball player. I used stock images of the monsters, I adorned them with clothing, and I created the background in Adobe Illustrator.

I want to work in the video game industry. No other jobs appeal to me. Because there aren't any game companies where I live, I resolved to move to a location where there are many video game companies. A map that shows video game companies reveals that there are many game compaines in Los Angeles. I once lived there, and I grew up in suburbs near Los Angeles. I have fond memories of LA, so I decided to move there. I already picked out a home, paid the deposit, and I will relocate on Labor Day Weekend. This will be a huge change in my life, but I hope it works out. So far, I sent my resume to three game companies. None have responded to it, but I will keep trying. I *will* enter the video game field, and I will become successful at it, because I care about it more than anything else.

Yesterday, I finally bought a Wii. Yay! Originally, I planned on buying it next year, but since I received $160 cash for my birthday, I decided to make my Wii purchase early. So far, the only game I have for it is Wii Sports, but I plan on getting Dragon Quest Swords once it launches in America, next year. I also plan on buying Zelda: Twilight Princess, but I won't get it until it gets a price reduction, and even then, I intend on buying it used so that I can get it for cheap. For now, I enjoy Wii Sports.

I am renting Prince of Persia 3. When playing it, I feel grateful that this sequel no longer has the dreadful heavey metal music. Instead, it's got more Persian music. Yay! It's also nice that there is a menu of attack combos, and reminders appear whenever I pick up certain weapons. Still, it's hard to remember all the combos. I just end up button mashing in random patterns. (I cannot imagine how this game is played on the Wii.) I beat the game on Easy Mode, yesterday. Now, I am playing it on Regular Mode. I missed a couple of life upgrades, but this time I intend on finding all of them. It's okay to miss the life upgrades on Easy, but not so good on harder settings. One section of the game was especially frustrating: the second chariot ride. It took me many hours to complete it. I probably died thousands of times. I wish that there were a respawn point in the middle of it. That would have made it easier, but no! To complete it, I have to make it through the course flawlessly. The various hazzards in the course make it seem unsuitable for Easy Mode in the game. If there wouldn't be a respawn point, then the designers should have made the course easier for easier settings and leave it alone for Hard Mode. After making it though that horrible course, I wished to save immediately. Nope! Now, I have to battle a couple extremely difficult bosses. Argh! After searching for tips, and another hour or so, I finally beat those guys. Can I save now? Still, no! I have to deal with the Dark Prince. Aye-yai-yai! Fortunately, the next save point isn't too much farther. Once I finally reached water, I got to save. Once that happened, I turned off the game for a well deserved break. The ending of the game is real nice. It's fun exploring the mind realm. The ending ties the game with the first one, in which the Prince starts telling his story from the very beginning, and he begins in the same manner he did in Sands of Time. Pretty cool. Maybe now she'll believe him, he'll get his kiss, and the two will marry.

For the past few days, I have been renting "Prince of Persia: Warrior Within." It seems more worthwhile for me to rent action games like this, rather than buying them, because it is shorter than RPGs or Adventures. However, this game world provides multiple challenge levels. I played it on "Easy Mode." It still feels hard for me. The game supposedly lets the player use various combos in battle, but I couldn't figure them out from the short message tutorials at the beginning. I ended up relying on the basic attack button and using the environments for battle. A tutorial on the combos would help, especially since rentals don't provide manuals that explain such things. The main appeal for this game to me is the incorporation of some Persian music. However, the music in this game seems more heavy metal than traditional. It is a type of metal that incorporates the rhythms of Persian music. I am not a fan of heavy metal, and the music sometimes gets on my nerves, especially when I am trying to concentrate on navigating through a level to more monsters. It would be nice if the music would mellow out, more. The metal is only fine when engaging in battle. When monsters are no longer within reach for hand-to-hand combat, I would prefer the metal to stop and return to traditional Persian music. The hero doesn't seem Persian enough for my liking. His appearance and voice could be better. I wonder what the deal is with the prince's eye color. Practically every Persian I encountered in real life have brown eyes. Anything different different from that for a fictional character seems strange, to me. I would like it if the character were to have brown eyes. He would look so much better. Also, Persians tend to have an accent that makes their voices sound soft. The voice actor for the prince may be Persian, but he sounds more American than the Persians I met. He probably grew up his entire life in the U.S. He sounds like it. I looked at the videos I acquired in the game. One of the developers looks more Persian than the prince. :-( Prince of Persia is still a fun, addictive game. I got so hooked on it that I forgot to feed myself. Near the end, I skipped a night of sleep. I wanted to beat the game. I need to return it, soon. I didn't acquire all the life upgrades or art. I first play without using any guides. Now that I beat it, I might play it again, but this time I would try to acquire all of the art and upgrades. Hopefully I could do it within a day. It took multiple days for me to first beat "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time," but after multiple playthroughs, I managed to beat it in a day. Knowing my way around a level makes it easier for me to complete it quickly. However, POP2 seems bigger and less linear than POP1, so I'm not sure how much quicker I can speed through the game.

A long time ago, I bought a used Prince of Persia: Sands of Time game from a video rental store. I never played the game until today. It seemed fine, at first, but then it began freezing at the cut-scenes. I thought that maybe scratches were causing it. My game disk certainly looked scratched up. I tried cleaning it with toothpaste. Even after cleaning it, the screen still froze at cut-scenes. I guess my game can't be helped. I bypassed whatever cut-scenes I could until I got to the point at which I first fight alongside the girl. I beat the prince's zombie dad, but then he ran straight into a save point. Right then, the game freezed. I guess I can't go any farther than that. It would be nice if I could fix my game, but now, this seems impossible. Prince of Persia was a fun game. The music and environments fit with the setting of being in Persia. My main gripe is that the actors don't have Persian accents. The game would better if at least the prince were to have a thick Persian accent. He sounds too American.

I have owned Dragon Warrior II for many years. In the game is a lottery in which participants exhange lottery tickets for a chance to win a random prize. I used to spend many hours playing the lottery in hopes of winning the grand prize: the Golden Card, but with no success... Until this past weekend. I began a new file. In the game, I won lottery tickets from monsters. Using the tickets, I played the lottery multiple times. Whenever I lost, I pushed "Reset" to try again. I wanted to make sure I at least win something from the lottery. During the weekend, I played the lottery several times. I got sick of playing the lottery, but I kept trying. And then, it happened. Three suns matched up. I won the grand prize! Yeah! Here's proof: Owning the Golden Card makes me happy, indeed!

For the past couple of weeks, I made a paper mache King Slime. I did this to earn more mini-medals at Slime Knights. Making crafts is a current quest we can complete on this site. I did this by pasting strips of newspaper onto a couple of blown-up balloons. I made the paste from flour and water. I added four layers. I let each layer dry completely before adding additional layers. It took at least 24 hours for each layer to dry. Once I finished adding layers, I covered my paper maches with tissue paper. I cut small squares from tissue paper, and I glued them one-by-one onto body and crown. This was a tedious task that took at least 30 hours to complete. For the crown's point, I cut a rectangular shape and a square shape from poster board. I used glue to make a cylinder base from the rectangular shape. I cut half-way thru the square shape, I rolled the square around to make a cone, and I used glue to secure it. After that, I glued the cone onto the cylinder. With that complete, I glued the point onto the crown. Afterwards, I added the tissue to cover the rest of the crown's top. This is the inside of the body of King Slime. I cut a hole in the top that is large enough for my hand to fit through. The body could be used to store things, such as candy. If I could connect the crown securely to the body, I would have a King Slime piñata. To complete the crown, I cut poster board into it shape, and I glued that around the base of the crown. The crown didn't fit sturdily on the head of the slime, so I glued cotton into the crown's base to make it more secure. After adding the cotton, I glued tissue wrap strips on top of the cotton and around the base of the crown to cover the cotton. I'm not sure what to do with my paper mache King Slime. I thought about auctioning it on eBay, but I don't know if people would buy it. Considering the amount of time it took to make, I think it is worth $50. That may be more than the cost of piñatas people can buy at a store, but those cost cheap because they are made in Mexico-- the dollar is worth more than the peso. (I now have better appreciation for piñatas.) I could also mail it to King Slime of Slime Knights, but shipping it can be tricky. My craft is 20 inches tall and 9 inches wide. I would have to use freight delivery in order to mail it, and than can be costly. I'm not sure what to do with it, but in the meantime, I have it sitting on my sofa at home.