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I really gotta get back on the ball in relaying what's going on in my life to others. O_o To discover I haven't posted in 3 weeks (and not publicly since November!) really makes me feel frustrated at myself...
The holidays came and went at work and there was a lot learned, a lot of sweat and tears given (no blood because, ew), and the store's still standing. I'm still doing a lot at the store myself but this quarter I've been tasked with delegating and giving tasks to others. It should be good, because, seriously, I'm burning out again.
To take some of the pressure off for a little while, I visited![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ravenworks in Montreal! ...and happened to visit on a weekend where it was cold in Toronto -- so it was even worse in Montreal. We visited a few places such as the Science Centre and BioDome (but didn't go through the Science Centre, instead deciding to traipse through the Old Port/Old Montreal area in the cold), we were hit by a crazy snowstorm just before going into the tropical temperatures of the BioDome, tried real Maple Syrup Taffy in the traditional sense (being poured onto snow and rolled)... and when the temperatures hit a high of -26, we decided to stay in, play video games and watch TV. :P I have a bunch of photos, but I haven't gathered them all together just yet -- I brought my SLR camera but the zoom broke halfway through, so I started taking pictures on my phone, then realized I also had a 3DS and started taking 3D photos, so they're all over the place... (i.e. I'll put together a Montreal post later!)
Oh yes! I got a 3DS! Boxing Day Sales were kind to me. :D I had already purchased Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask and Virtue's Last Reward prior to actually owning the system, so when they were offering the 3DSXL for a steal I got it and Kid Icarus: Uprising too. However, I have yet to have taken Virtue's Last Reward out of the system since Christmas XD My friend code is 4699-5443-4377 if anyone wants to add me :D
I have been trying to relax more, see people more, get out and enjoy the life-away-from-work more. It's hard to do when the business needs a lot of attention. Speaking of which, did you hear that the Pinball Cafe closed down? There are conflicting arguments as to why it closed down, but reports were that since they had more than 2 Pinball machines, they couldn't get a license as a cafe, and then they promptly forgot to ask for a change in the zoning which meant they operated for almost a year without a license. It's a sad time to hear about this, but a cautionary tale for myself...
Christine ducking over to take a picture of the kittens reminds me that she's made a blog for them! You can see the posts over at the Rocket and Hopper Tumblr page. They're a pair of Russian Blue cats with a light mix of a Tabby -- the mom was a Tabby and they have a faint striping but otherwise their grey fur really does seem to take on a bit of a blue tinge. I'm sure there's a few people who are interested in seeing what they look like. :)
I have a whole bunch of links that I wanted to get off of Chrome, so here we go :)
- I have been playing The Binding of Issac for way too many hours. According to Steam, I've played that roguelike for 91 hours so far, and I haven't even unlocked everything! As such, I've been following the creator, Edmund McMillen, and he had a Postmortem for the game, and has been working on a remake for the game, which is funny since he hasn't really had it out for more than a year... but he's remaking it so that it doesn't have limitations of Flash. Considering all the permutations that the game could create, I'm not surprised there were limitations that came up. I'll be interested to see what he does with it when there's less restrictions.
- Professor Layton apparently is getting a limited-edition "Puzzle Break" Chocolate. It's only going to be out until the end of March, to commemorate the final Professor Layton game, and apparently has a code to be redeemed in the final game, so I kinda waaaaaaant.
- Speaking of Professor Layton games, there is the Professor Layton versus Ace Attorney game that just came out recently in Japan and had some bonus concept art with each character in the other art style. And Layton as a robot, oddly enough. XD
- It's apparently not possible to make a living as a ninja in Japan anymore. What a sad world that we're living in, where assassinations aren't as commonplace as they used to be...
- I have been listening to one song over and over for the past week, and it's a Brony-Song titled "Awoken" (warning: considering it's MLP-related, it's on the darker side of things, and is a pseudo-sequel song to the Rainbow Factory). I think I had a bit of a bad week at work so I was finding a bit of meaning, but I think I may have played it out of my system now, for the most part...
- Sketches from the Starship Titanic game. I'm so glad to see the official Starship Titanic website still alive and kicking after all these years, considering it's been almost 15 years since the game was released and wasn't a critical success. The look and art of the game, though... just gorgeous. :D I kinda want to boot the game up again just to play around in the player's cabin, which is a Mondrian Room.
- Chage & Aska are returning to making music again. Admittedly I only know of "On Your Mark" (and only then because of the winged girl) but I would be interested in hearing what new music they create. :)
The holidays came and went at work and there was a lot learned, a lot of sweat and tears given (no blood because, ew), and the store's still standing. I'm still doing a lot at the store myself but this quarter I've been tasked with delegating and giving tasks to others. It should be good, because, seriously, I'm burning out again.
To take some of the pressure off for a little while, I visited
ravenworks in Montreal! ...and happened to visit on a weekend where it was cold in Toronto -- so it was even worse in Montreal. We visited a few places such as the Science Centre and BioDome (but didn't go through the Science Centre, instead deciding to traipse through the Old Port/Old Montreal area in the cold), we were hit by a crazy snowstorm just before going into the tropical temperatures of the BioDome, tried real Maple Syrup Taffy in the traditional sense (being poured onto snow and rolled)... and when the temperatures hit a high of -26, we decided to stay in, play video games and watch TV. :P I have a bunch of photos, but I haven't gathered them all together just yet -- I brought my SLR camera but the zoom broke halfway through, so I started taking pictures on my phone, then realized I also had a 3DS and started taking 3D photos, so they're all over the place... (i.e. I'll put together a Montreal post later!)Oh yes! I got a 3DS! Boxing Day Sales were kind to me. :D I had already purchased Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask and Virtue's Last Reward prior to actually owning the system, so when they were offering the 3DSXL for a steal I got it and Kid Icarus: Uprising too. However, I have yet to have taken Virtue's Last Reward out of the system since Christmas XD My friend code is 4699-5443-4377 if anyone wants to add me :D
I have been trying to relax more, see people more, get out and enjoy the life-away-from-work more. It's hard to do when the business needs a lot of attention. Speaking of which, did you hear that the Pinball Cafe closed down? There are conflicting arguments as to why it closed down, but reports were that since they had more than 2 Pinball machines, they couldn't get a license as a cafe, and then they promptly forgot to ask for a change in the zoning which meant they operated for almost a year without a license. It's a sad time to hear about this, but a cautionary tale for myself...
Christine ducking over to take a picture of the kittens reminds me that she's made a blog for them! You can see the posts over at the Rocket and Hopper Tumblr page. They're a pair of Russian Blue cats with a light mix of a Tabby -- the mom was a Tabby and they have a faint striping but otherwise their grey fur really does seem to take on a bit of a blue tinge. I'm sure there's a few people who are interested in seeing what they look like. :)
I have a whole bunch of links that I wanted to get off of Chrome, so here we go :)
- I have been playing The Binding of Issac for way too many hours. According to Steam, I've played that roguelike for 91 hours so far, and I haven't even unlocked everything! As such, I've been following the creator, Edmund McMillen, and he had a Postmortem for the game, and has been working on a remake for the game, which is funny since he hasn't really had it out for more than a year... but he's remaking it so that it doesn't have limitations of Flash. Considering all the permutations that the game could create, I'm not surprised there were limitations that came up. I'll be interested to see what he does with it when there's less restrictions.
- Professor Layton apparently is getting a limited-edition "Puzzle Break" Chocolate. It's only going to be out until the end of March, to commemorate the final Professor Layton game, and apparently has a code to be redeemed in the final game, so I kinda waaaaaaant.
- Speaking of Professor Layton games, there is the Professor Layton versus Ace Attorney game that just came out recently in Japan and had some bonus concept art with each character in the other art style. And Layton as a robot, oddly enough. XD
- It's apparently not possible to make a living as a ninja in Japan anymore. What a sad world that we're living in, where assassinations aren't as commonplace as they used to be...
- I have been listening to one song over and over for the past week, and it's a Brony-Song titled "Awoken" (warning: considering it's MLP-related, it's on the darker side of things, and is a pseudo-sequel song to the Rainbow Factory). I think I had a bit of a bad week at work so I was finding a bit of meaning, but I think I may have played it out of my system now, for the most part...
- Sketches from the Starship Titanic game. I'm so glad to see the official Starship Titanic website still alive and kicking after all these years, considering it's been almost 15 years since the game was released and wasn't a critical success. The look and art of the game, though... just gorgeous. :D I kinda want to boot the game up again just to play around in the player's cabin, which is a Mondrian Room.
- Chage & Aska are returning to making music again. Admittedly I only know of "On Your Mark" (and only then because of the winged girl) but I would be interested in hearing what new music they create. :)