I am not planning on being around all that much tomorrow or Friday so I thought I should post a season's greetings to everyone and wish them a happy new year! Hope you all get what you want and spend as much time with loved ones as you can.

~Sibs

As I did last year and the year before I would like to get Secret Santa up and running again.

What is Secret Santa and what can the gift be?
Secret Santa is a event where the participants are randomly assigned someone. The person then has to make a gift for that person. The event is totally optional. Don't feel pressured that you HAVE to participate, although it would be appreciated as the more involved there are the better it turns out. Like last year and the year before, there can be no store bought gifts nor real money exchanged between the two. So participants will have to get creative and either create their present from scratch or use some kind of webservice to create their gift(webcard, etc). Of course, please try to put effort into your gift.

When is it?
Secret Santa starts now. Please post in this blog saying you want to participate if you want to be involved in it this year. On the 8th we will start sending out who your going to be creating the gift for. You can still apply to be apart on this but after the 15th you won't be able to participate. Please pm your gifts to me by the 20th. Gifts will start being handed on on the 25th.

But I don't know the person..
Their profile is a great way to find out what they like. You're gift doesn't have to be a autobiography about that person - a signature of their favorite character is more then enough.

I am not that creative..
You don't have to be a artist to create a great gift. There are plenty of things you can find on the web that'll help.

Do we get any stuff for participating?
You're gift and a possible friendship..

Who am I getting a gift from?
It's randomly chosen from all the people already participating.. And is meant to be kept secret until the 25th..

What if I never submit a gift?
You're removed from Secret Santa and the gift you were meant to get will be given to someone else.

I hope we get a lot more players then the past years. Have fun and have a great week!

~Sibs

Lately all I've been doing is working. Work work work. I completed Dragon Age: Origins a while ago and throughly enjoyed it. The only really challenging boss was the final boss.
***SPOILER***
I haven't picked it up since though. I enjoyed it but I just don't think I could replay it again. 60 hours a run through really eats up time. Instead I picked up Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story because I enjoyed Superstar Saga. Although this one is great it's just not as great as SS. Still a great game though. How have you all been doing?

~Sibs

Absolutely love Oracle Of Ages. Finished Seasons a while ago but didn't bother to record anything..Oh well. Ages will be drawing my attention for the next little while. If you have not played this game and don't wish to be spoiled do not watch.

I've put about 20 hours into Dragon Age: Origins so far and I am very impressed so far even though I never planned on even buying the game at first. One of the best things about it is the freedom of choice - you are free to customize your character as you see fit. You are also allowed to make your own decisions, unlike many other rpgs. If you want to kill everyone in your path you can. If you don't want someone tagging along you are free to send them away. However this makes the main character kind of dull. The character is essentially a shell that is capable of making his / her own decisions but that's about it. He / she can't talk or make any gestures that other characters can but this is to be expected.

Character development is pretty deep. You can talk to them on a individual basis and learn more about them, which is very interesting(Morrigan in particular). By talking to them their affection meter either goes up or down, depending on what you say to them. You can offer them gifts which brings their approval up by a lot if they love your gift. Because the main character is the one calling the shots and is usually the one to be addressed by other characters the others don't usually have a chance to be the center of attention so they add their 2 cents in, which can also affect their affection if you do something they disagree with. I am only playing on Normal and am enjoying combat so far. I decided to make my character a blood mage with arcane magic. I only got it a while ago and it works pretty well so far. One thing that annoys me though is the lack of re spawns..Leveling is difficult when theres only a set number of enemies around.

Overall the game is pretty fun. It is surprising how many glitches made it in considering the amount of time the game has been in development though.

And it was disgusting. I was really hoping that lobster tasted different then other seafood since I HATE seafood but it didn't...Like a mix of salt water with extreme bitterness.

I am getting Dragon Age today so I'll let you know my impressions eventually. It looks really good from trailers and reviews and stuff. Anyone else have it? Let me know your impressions.

Level 41 - Thunder Force - A series of side-scrolling action games for the Commodore 64, Genesis and Saturn.

I really like the name for this level even if the reference isn't that great. This level took a realllllly long time.

Seems kinda small for how long I've been here.

I plan on sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping. Going to try to beat Kingdom Hearts 358 days then start on Kingdom Hearts 2 again..I ordered Kingdom Hearts 1 to replay since the other one got broke so hopefully going to start that in the next little bit.

How about you guys?

~Sibs

I was going to pick this game up on release date which was September 29th but.. I forgot. Anyways Kingdom Hearts 358 / 2 Days centers around Roxas and is set around the time of Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories. The game has two modes: Story Mode and Mission Mode. Story Mode relies heavily on the mission system - which is basically being assigned a mission or two then going from world to world completing them. Afterwards your treated to a small chunk of the story. Mission mode is just replaying these missions with a character of your choice(theres 13 available at the start, you need to unlock the rest). Overall I feel a little disappointed with Story Mode. You simply go from world to world killing heartless and barely get to interact with the worlds inhabitants. Although the story, while kind of drawn out, is still excellent. The games battle system is similar to Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. Attacking, jumping and casting magic is done with the buttons and moving is done with the the directional buttons. No complaints over the combat really. It's fun.

The graphics are really good for the DS. Some very good cutscenes in this game. The game is great and is definitely recommended. I am going to buy KH 1 and play 1 and 2 over again now.

Annoying: That Roxas, Axel and Xion need to meet EVERYTIME after a mission to have ice cream. Seriously..it's good to let players know that those scenes are important but showing it everytime?

~Sibs

Seriously...Thinking of buying a couple hundred frogs to kill these annoying pests

It's realllly long

I find it funny how he says not to mess with it..But he's messing with it>.>. I really find ocean creatures fascinating. Although I really hate fish and would likely freak out if I saw anything like this their really interesting. Anyways don't really have anything to blog about these days. Been working Monday-Friday pretty much and work isn't interesting enough to blog about. Might post a few blogs about things I find interesting so the blog isn't dead for nearly a month.

~Sibs

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I started a Anime List. Feel free to add me as a friend or recommend some series.

I really haven't felt like blogging lately. Most due to the fact that I don't have much to blog about. I start working for Co-op now(I work at the place I am co-oping at so it'll basically be the same thing every day). Plus I have to put in a heft sum of hours every week so I won't be around much.

I got my Gameboy Advance SP in the mail today and have started up The Legend Of Zelda: Oracles Of Seasons and have loved it so far. Next up is Oracles Of Ages. Oh how I love these games. I was thinking of maybe recording it and uploading it up to Gamespot, although I probably won't. I might order a few more gameboy color games so the SP doesn't feel like such a waste of money. I have a few games I would like to replay again in mind.

Have a good week!

~Sibs

I got Final Fantasy VI in the mail a few days ago and have enjoyed it so far. Until I got to the Vargas fight that is. I seriously redid that battle 20ish times because I kept screwing up on the button commands(no I do not suck that much..I was pressing A twice thinking that you had to do the button command after you already attacked). So I had a bad impression of Sabin due to this..I really like him now that I got his moves down though. I am not very far but the game is really good so far. The game had two save files on it already that was near the end but I didn't play it. I just played around with the characters and a lot of them just seem like extra characters that don't really have a purpose..Seriously 14 playable characters not counting extras?

Anyways now that school has started I've started to hate teachers(not every one of course..)even more. I would go on a rant about them but I really shouldn't..

Probably going to re-watch Death Note sometime. Yay for more Misa!

I would write more but I don't really feel like it right now. Feeling a bit down this week.

Have a good week!

~Sibs

Yea..Couldn't think of any better name to call my new hamster so he shall be known as Bacon N' Eggs for now. Because he thought of the name Iowastate wins a no expenses paid trip to sunny tropical..Siberia! .

Anyways he looks like this kind of. He's cute but he's already earned himself a enemy since he enjoys biting people. He's fun to watch when he gets on top of his wheel and tries to run though. Or when you give him a carrot and he tries to shove the whole thing into his mouth at once.

I haven't been doing much this week. School is boring even though I only have to go for ~2ish hours a day. It's more of a inconvenience then anything since I have to get all ready for it then it ends up being over before I notice. It's also messed up my sleeping scehdule since I can be more lenient when it comes to school. More often then not I end up wasting the night because I am tired. I've been reading some of the Inuyasha Manga recently. Never bothered to look into it after the anime ended. Never noticed that the story carried on in the manga.. I also ordered FFVI a while ago. It's taking it's time to get here but hopefully it's here soon. Can't wait to play it. Have a good week!

~Sibs

Level 40 - Abobo - Name of the boss in Double Dragon for the Neo-Geo.

Pretty glad to be out of the 30's. Next step: the 50's.

Anyways I just noticed that KFC(I work there)has got a bunch of new Simpsons buckets / boxes / toys in. They look pretty cool and the box meal is a pretty good deal($9 for a piece of chicken, a drink, salad, fries). KFC food makes my stomach ache 99% of the time though. Happy 20th anniversery Simpsons! Hopefully another 20 more to go! oh god no

~Sibs

My birthday. I am now 17 No plans really. Just having pizza for dinner and that's pretty much it. Might play FFVIII a bit later.

School has been going alright. The school messed up my schedule yet again but we got it fixed today. I actually stopped trying in school a little bit in the past few years so I fell behind and failed a course so I was not going to graduate with my class. But me the guidance counsellor and my mom sat down and talked it over and we decided on a game plan that would get me the remaining credits. For first semester I am in Co-Op(kinda like a student volunteer program where students help out at a store or business of their choosing). It doesn't start for a while so I get the afternoons of school off to. I don't know where I am going to choose yet..I will probably volunteer at a kennel or at the vets since I love animals. The bad part of this is that I need 600 hours along with another 40 community hours to pass with my class. Yes I know...My fault that I let it get that way. I probably won't be around much in the past little while because of this. This. work and the community hours thing is probably going to have me exhausted since I'll probably need 35+ hours a week to get the 600. Good news is I don't really have school work to tie me down.

I haven't been gaming much. I am occasionally turning on FFVIII and I am enjoying it. Ordered FFVI to since I haven't played the majority of it. Can't wait to get into it.

Have a good week!

~Sibs
PS: Gamespot spacing issue = annoying.

A copied and pasted version of the other 3
Duration: About a hour and a half.
Recommended?: No

The story is the same as the other three, this time taking place at a racetrack. After a horrific premonition Nick convinces his friends and even gets a few strangers to follow him to escape the inevitable.They all think he's crazy until it actually happens however their still doubtful of him resulting in them not being careful and getting killed in some way. Like the other 3 it shows chain effects(character does one thing, another does something else resulting in the character getting stabbed / sliced / diced / etc which could of been avoided using common sense).

Now I've never been that big a fan of the Final Destination series. They are all very generic and are almost exactly the same except for the main characters / situations being mixed up. That being said I didn't mind the last 3. They had some interesting, although very unlikely death scenes and I grew attached to some of the characters. However the newest one is simply a copy of the other 3. The resemblance is to obvious to say otherwise.

The main draw of Final Destination is it's death scenes and the feeling of suspense it can build up. The last 3 each had a variety of these which made the film worth watching. Final Destination 4 fails to do this. While it introduces a few new scenes it mainly just copies the other 3 in some way or another. The resemblances are clear as day and fans of the series will not be impressed. The series has also degraded to the point where the deaths can't happen. The series was good when it showed things that could actually occur, making us feel a bit more scared of everyday objects. A majority of things that happen in this movie can't happen because the human body is not as fragile as a piece of pudding that a fence can slice a human to pieces by barely touching it.

Character development is also something this film lacks. When you watch movies you'll obviously pick your favorite characters. They also include some background information on the characters which make it even more horrible when / if the character dies. Your not given much information on these characters at all. All that's present is parts of their personalities thus making their deaths not having as much of a impact as they should. It's pretty bad how movies like this makes you not care about a majority of the characters.

I would say Final Destination 4 is only worth seeing if you haven't seen the last three, and if you haven't you should probably pick those up rather then this.

Today is my last day of summer vacation. It went by really fast. So I won't be around as much as I was but I'll still check in whenever I can. Have a good week!

~Sibs

If you know me then you'll know how much I love Okami. The game was just fantastic in every way possible. And like every other Okami fan, I had given up hope for ever seeing a sequel to the game since Clover studio's shut down. I didn't really mind not getting a sequel though. The game had been great the way it was and I felt that it was better to just leave it there rather then making one that insulted the great game that is Okami.

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But no. This game is on the DS so it could never live up to it's predecessor. The game also apparently gets rid of Ameratsu in favor of Chibiterasu which seems to be a chibi version of Ameratsu. Not only that but apparently Susano(who was more or less just there for comic relief)also had a kid named Kuninushi and pairs him with Chibi for periods of time. I don't know about you but I can see this game becoming this where you just haul around chibi versions of past Okami characters for the whole game. But I digress.

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Okami was a truly beautiful and charming game. Since this was just announced a while ago and nothing more is really revealed they still have time to pull it around. Hopefully they can make this game as great as the original.

Red version..

Another one..liked how this one turned out more then the other one.
3rd one is from a tut. I think it turned out pretty good(only used Haruhi because I couldn't think of any others. Probably going to go edit this one later.)
I followed a really easy tutorial and came out with this. It isn't much but I think it turned out alright. And two blogs in one day?