9 Strand Dutch Braid

So I gave the 9 Strand Dutch Braid a try. It's actually not as hard as it looks, it's just time consuming. It took me about an hour. It's my first attempt so it's a little rough, but I'm sure with practice it'll get better. I had to put on a headband because the top was a little lumpy.

Castlevania: Mirror of Fate

I'm not sure when the last time I mentioned Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was, but there's now a sequel. I don't mean the DLC, which I still don't have, but an actual sequel. Apparently this awesome game didn't sell enough to make a regular game on the Xbox or something again so it's on the 3DS. It's called Mirror of Fate. There will be spoilers of varying degrees. I'll try to keep to minor ones.

So let's talk about characters. I haven't played any of the older Castlevania games, just Lords of Shadow and now Mirror of Fate. But I've seen Victor play a few of the others. Castlevania has a lot of pretty guys in it, and I don't mean gay pretty, I mean like Link pretty. So I was excited about this game cause, well... Gabriel instantly made the top ten hottest guys in video games/movies/books list. Not just for his long, dark hair, but also for his angst and his ability to keep going even with his whole world crashing down around him. Now, apparently this game condenses things quite a bit. So long-time players will find Simon is Gabriel's grandson and Trevor and Alucard are the same person. Are either Simon or Trevor/Alucard hot? No. I'm sorry, but no. Simon is a redhead and, no offense, but ew. lol But he is really awesome. He's fun to play as. He has a fairly unique fighting style and special moves that, at the very least, make you smile and occasionally make you laugh. I don't like his clothes much either. Trevor has dark hair, yes, but his face is ugly. He's got good clothes, though. Trevor plays a lot like Gabriel did in Lords of Shadow, at least from what I can remember, it's been about 3 years. And Alucard? He can do a lot of fun things, and is actually a little better looking than Trevor. Bizarrely enough... But, really, Gabriel is still the best, even in this game.

The game is fairly short. I seem to remember playing Lords of Shadow for 8-10 hours at a time, yet this game only took me about 10 1/2 hours to finish. I am still only about 80-some% done. But I do pride myself on playing and completing the entire game on Normal, instead of Easy. I actually didn't realize I was playing on Normal until I was on a really hard boss. And by then I figured why not, I'd gone this far. Some of the bosses were really hard. So when you get to Dracula you're all "Ah, this is going to be super hard..." But it's not. He's actually a really easy boss. Though, the final battle is a little harder but still not as bad as some of the other bosses.

Quicktime events how I hate you! I get to a cutscene, sit back, grab a drink of water or some food, set the controller down (or system, I guess in this case) to stretch my fingers when all of a sudden "X" omfg, what!? *chokes on mouthful of soda and drops candy bar in mad dash to hit the button* And then I die. I also can't enjoy cutscenes cause I'm always sitting there with twitchy fingers waiting for that horrid X or Y, or, even worse, Hold R. And then there's the ones where you have to hit the button multiple times but it doesn't tell you that right away. You don't get enough of a grace period on hitting the right buttons. Sometimes I panic and it takes me a while to find the right button. Give me an extra second or two! I always have to redo quicktime events several times before I get it right, and usually I only get through them on memorization, not because I have quick reflexes. It totally messes up what might be a good scene to watch. However, a definite plus for this game is that actual storyline cutscenes are in a different animation style so I know for sure I can relax for a bit.

I tried to use the 3D. It's the first 3D game I've played for the 3DS. I found that I instantly set it to half-way. And over the next 15 minutes I found myself turning it further and further down until I eventually just set the game back to 2D. My issue with it is I can't hold it at a good angle and the picture kept jumping.

The story is good. It's along the same lines as Lords of Shadow and I can see it being a sequel very easily. It's like a mini-game, kinda. I even cried a little at the end. The gameplay is good. The game is very addictive and once I started playing I couldn't put it down. I usually played during Tommy's naps and after he went to bed for the night. And whenever he woke up it was really hard to turn it off. It's a very, very good game.

Anyway, the reason for this review is to try to get sales up! I want a third game! If Lords of Shadow didn't sell enough for them to make a full-on game what makes anyone think a handheld game that's only 10 hours long is going to make enough for another sequel? So if this review didn't convince you to buy it maybe this fanart I found will... because, well... oh, my... *fans self*

http://gokcegokcen.deviantart.com/art/Gabriel-Belmont-Montage-260223493

Yoohoo Brownies - Fail

I made brownies with yoohoo in them. The idea sounded good, but I don't think they're actually that great. They're too rich. Maybe a different kind of brownie would do better. They're still edible, and even tasty-ish, just not something I'll make again. I am glad I tried it, though.

How to use the yoohoo.

The brownie recipe I used, subbing yoohoo for oil.

The Lightkeeper

I finished reading The Lightkeeper, by Susan Wiggs last week. It is about a man with a dark past who is a lightkeeper. He finds a shipwrecked pregnant woman who has her own past. I chose it because I realized I have a handful of her books and yet I've never read any. With another used booksale coming up in April I don't want to find myself picking any more up without knowing if I like her or not. So I picked the one I thought I'd like the least.

The non spoiler review is that it was good except for some fantasy aspects that made me giggle a little. Because you know that person, the one who talks about how she's supermom who always has time to cook, clean, do her hair and makeup, homeschool the kids, and has time to hang out with hubby and wonders why people are wasting precious time whining about how their baby isn't sleeping through the night since "it isn't hard, mine started at 6 weeks", but if you go their house it's a wreck, she's in sweats, hubby hasn't had any since before the baby was born, and dinner came from the frozen section? The author sounds like this person. Not really in a bad way but in a "roll your eyes and giggle" way. Also there's some parts that sound very convenient, but when you think about it it works and it all makes sense. I liked the interactions with the towns-people. I thought that was really well done. I also really liked how the book follows his and her perspectives, but if you picked up the book and, at random, flipped to any spot you'd know who's perspective you're in. It's subtle, but they have very distinct ways of thinking and narrating. So good job to Ms. Wiggs! Cause that's something I'm struggling with in my own (pathetic and slow) writing is the ability to make your characters sound like separate and individual people. Which is something she pulls off effortlessly.  Anyway, it was good. I liked it. Not my favorite romance novel, but not bad. I'm willing to give the other books a try, and I will go ahead and if I find myself getting more of her books at the booksale I'll go right on ahead and do so.

Spoiler review! The eyerolling part all has to do with the baby. So she has the baby, and then her milk comes in and she cries about for like 5 minutes, and then is handed a cold washcloth. Yes, a cold one. When I had this problem everything I read suggested a hot washcloth. But whatever, this takes place in 1870-something so maybe they had different ideas. And then he leaves the room for 5 more minutes, goes back in and she's somehow expressed enough to not only soak the bed but comfortably feed her baby! And after that she has no problems with it at all. She never has cracked nipples, she never has supply issues, she never has latch issues. And then, she loses ALL her baby weight and her stomach is "as though there had never been a baby there at all", which means no pouch, no sagging. And she apparently managed this in about 3-4 months just by puttering around the house. Her baby starts sleeping through the night at 2-3 months and she's so confident in this she leaves the baby with a neighbor one night! The baby lets them have sex without suddenly screaming half-way through. Also she starts doing it again at 6 weeks. Without pain or discomfort.
The convenient part is that she somehow wound up having the baby of this guy's ex-business partner. And then somehow wound up on his beach. Now this does make sense. Because this partner was looking for some lowly girl to have his baby, and she seems the sort that might draw attention. And it makes sense cause she took passage on one of his ships and it crashed at a place known for destroying ships. So it's not really too convenient cause it is all connected in a believable way.

I can't think of any good way to end this. I don't like the 5 star rating system. 3 sounds too low and 4 too high. Let's do a 10 point system. We'll go with 6 or 7.

Bought paper versions!

We went to town to do some shopping and came across this at CostCo, and it was cheaper for the boxed set from them than to order from amazon, so we picked it up! ee! Now I just need to get back to reading the 3rd book! I'll do that after I finish the one I'm currently on.

Updates - New Title

Ok, so I have a new title in mind for the blog. Desolate Tranquility. A few years ago while reading Jane Austin's Persuasion I came across the line "...Anne walked up at the same time, in a sort of desolate tranquility..." and it struck me. So there it is. I'll leave the url alone for a while to get you used to the new title and so you know where I've gone when it doesn't work or whatever happens when you change urls.

In other news Tommy is sitting unassisted some. I tried spoon feeding him rice cereal a few times and about... 2 weeks ago? I think about that long ago, he started acting like he wanted my food. He got so interested in anything I was eating or drinking. He was doing ok with cereal but I decided to move him up to solids. I mean he'll be 6 months on the 9th, and I know they recommend 6 months, but a lot of people start at 4. I doubt starting solids a few weeks early will make that big a difference. I made him pureed carrots a few times, and he liked that well enough. I gave him mashed banana twice but it made his tummy upset. I read bananas can give babies constipation. So we'll hold off on bananas again for a while. I had a coupon for gerber 1st foods so we picked some up. Prunes, apples, green beans, and sweet potatoes. I hate green beans and sweet potatoes and I'd never tried prunes. But whatever, good to expose him to all sorts of stuff. So far all I've done is the prunes. He did alright with them, I guess. Better when I started airplaning the spoon and making silly noises at him. The last two days he's been fighting his evening nap pretty hard so he got almost no solids at all. I don't know what's up with his naps right now. Growth spurt, maybe. As if he needs to grow more right now! lol He was 18lbs 03oz on the 14th. But he doesn't look fat. I mean he's a little chubby but all babies are. I borrowed an exer-saucer and ever since his leg strength has gone way up. If I sit back and stand him between my legs and he holds onto my shoulders I can let go and he'll stand against me for a few seconds. And he absolutely loves that he's finally figured out how to blow raspberries. lol The one thing he's not doing is rolling over! He's done it. He can do it. He just doesn't want to. Whatever, at least he can scoot. He hasn't gotten up in a crawl position yet but he can definitely scoot.