The Girl Who has Everything

What? Actual Paper? Real Paint?

I got an awesome set of Watercolor paints for Christmas (thanks in-laws!) which I finally used to paint something. It's been far too long since I've painted with anything other than digital paint and I had a lot of fun. I think this turned out moderately well and I'm excited to try more.

New Year

Hello 2010, year of Greek Mythology! In the first 3 months we'll have 2 new films based greek myths and 1 new video game (Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief, the remake of Clash of the Titans, and God of War III). So I've decided to ring in 2010 with a piece of the god of sky and thunder himself.

As for 2009, it was okay I guess. At least it brought us one truly magnificent film (Drag me to Hell) and one spectacular game (Uncharted 2).

Christmas Presents

My wife has been asking me for a while for a few pieces of art and I guessed she ultimately deduced that the only way to get me to do them was to ask for them for Christmas. So above is the portrait of our son, Max, and a personalized bookplate. She seems pleased with them.

Palate Cleanser

As promised, I've done something more appealling to male sensibilities after all the Twilight stuff. I hope you enjoy viewing my sexy, bikini clad, jungle inhabiting, panther riding woman as much as I enjoyed painting it.

For the Ladies part 2: Team Jacob

The females in my family requested this and I wanted another Twilighty piece for the Avalanche blog. I did not paint it of my own volition. I think I'm going to do something tough and testosterone filled next. I need to cleanse my palate.

Kratos

The God of War Collection ships today and I've been playing the God of War 3 demo over and over so I've been in an angry greek mythology kind of mood. I have a hard time pinning down what I like so much about the games. The main character is a horrible person. The fighting system is fun, but not incredible. The narrative is frequently cheesy but always feels appropriate for the subject matter. The rush of pure testosterone laced adrenaline the game provides is nice. I also really appreciate any franchise in any form willing to tell an epic fantasy story without just feebly copying Tolkien.

I also recently had a Final Fantasy 7 marathon. I played Crisis Core, Final Fantasy 7, (watched) Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus, all back to back which was quite an experience.

Currently Playing:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Game of the year! I'm just a few trophies away from platinum (I finished it on Crushing the other day). Phenominal in every way.

Metroid Prime Trilogy - I like the Wii controls and all the games are great so I'm loving this.

Recently Finished:

Batman: Arkham Asylum - So much better than any other Super Hero game I've played. Finally someone got it right. Incredible game.

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus - The great production values and fondness felt for the characters by FFVII fans isn't quite enough to make up for the uninspired gameplay.

That's it for me, pretty dry until my birthday/Christmas next month and I get all the great games that have and are coming out this holiday season. I really want to play through the campaign of Modern Warfare 2, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks awesome. Anything else good out there?