Absent.

All I've been doing is playing the Sims 3, as the [creepy] Facebook screen shots can testify. I love it. In case you're wondering - Sean and I live in a house together, we're engaged and we have two twin girls - Avalon Rose and Juliet Fey.
He's a 5 Star Chef, as well as an acclaimed artist and I am a movie music composer, as well as a best-seller writer.



Oh, I guess I should also add that on the 13th Sean and I celebrated our one year anniversary. <3 By taking a road trip to visit his family, to celebrate his dad's 50th birthday. We left the morning of the 13th, just the two of us, and it was the first I'd been back to his home town. I now can say I adore Mountain Top. So gorgeous up there.

We came back late Sunday night. I had a fantastic time, and I love my boy. It was fun to spend the weekend doing a mini-road trip and having some small vacation time. I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to do that.

Some shots I took on the trip back, during a gorgeous sunset in the mountains:

One year.

E3 so far.

Things I am personally looking forward to:

1. Sims 3 (released today!)
2. Beatles Rockband
3. Assassin's Creed 2

And that's about it.
No, that's not actually it. I'm just still mad Nintendo did not say they're releasing a new Zelda.

- Fae

A Link To The Future...

In Keeping with the Zelda theme, also the lack of posting on my end recently, I decided to upload a drawing of Link I finished a couple weeks ago.


A little background on why I decided to do this. A friend of ours recently posted a piece of pixel art of the Zelda game "Link To The Past". This made me think, what would Link look like in the future?

The Legend of My Love of Zelda.

I posted this originally on my personal blog, but since it's total geekdom I thought I'd post it here as well. Enjoy.

So Hez made the mistake last night of bringing up the topic of Zelda. This made me launch into a multiple-text-long conversation explaining how many games there were, which systems they were available for and which I deemed "necessary".

To which she called me her, "little nerd".

So I thought I'd post here, about the game I've been in love with for more than 10 years, and even had a Legend of Zelda themed birthday party for my 13th birthday. There are 23 different Zelda games in all. Now I will admit that I have not played all of them, but I will post them in chronological order anyway. I'm leaving out the more obscure games, like the ones only released in Japan and such. I'm also leaving out the Gameboy only games, because I never owned a gameboy much to my dismay. So, here goes:


Original NES:

1. Legend of Zelda (1986.... great year.)


2. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988)

For such a huge Zelda fan, I am ashamed to admit I have actually NEVER played either of these. I did have an original Nintendo growing up, but I spent my time playing games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Super Mario Bros. 3 on that. I also had the original duck hunt/track combination game - complete with the handheld gun and running mat for track. Excellent.
By the time I discovered Zelda, sadly, my NES was no longer in working order. I have never owned an original Nintendo again, much to my dismay, but maybe I can redeem myself by stating that I do have the original golden cartridge version of Adventure of Link sitting on my video game shelf. Even if I have no system to play it on. (And even if it was a friend's game I borrowed about a few years ago.)


Super Nintendo (SNES):

3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link To the Past (1992)

This game is not my arch enemy of Zelda games (I will get to that in the next decade), however - I have immensly bad luck with it. I never owned a Super Nintendo as a kid, I only ever played my cousin's on rare occasions. It wasn't until I was 19 that I first played this game, at a friends house. We would have get togethers specifically to play this game and we got all the way to the fire temple, I believe it was. We got stuck on the boss for that level and spent months trying to beat it, until we gave up. When I then later became roommates with said friend, about half a year later, I decided to try again one sunny afternoon - I beat the monster and did a victory cheer/dance. I saved, ran to tell my roommate excitedly.. and when we turned it back on, the game had glitched and erased all saved games.
It took me another few months to work up the motivation to try to play it again. I got all the way to the same level, beat it easily, got a little bit further... and sure enough, the exact same thing happened all over again.
I have never tried to play A Link to the Past again, and I no longer have access to a SNES. I enjoyed the game itself, and would one day like to attempt to play it the whole way through, but we shall see.....


Nintendo 64:

4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)

Ocarina of Time is the one that started it all for me. I rented this game on a whim, at I think 11-years-old... and from there, I was addicted. I have beat this game so many times and it still remains exciting to me, I still get really into the boss battles and still almost cry at the end. The story is the best of them all I think, creativity wise. The bosses provide the most challenge. The characters still make me feel for them. Despite the graphics, it will always remain my favorite. And why I had this as a poster on my wall for my entire pre-teen and high school career (and even when I first moved out, tattered though it was - I kept it up on my wall):

Majora's Mask I have never beaten. If you've played the game, you'll know why it's so difficult. If you haven't... well, to explain - it's timed. You have three days (game time.. every minute here is an hour there, I think?) to complete the entire game and if there's a clock ticking the whole time. If you don't, you fail. So you get the ability to turn back time, but every time you turn back time - it erases what you did. It's... confusing. Hence why I've never beaten it, even with the strategy guide. And yet, I don't hate it. I've just never fully taken the time to sit down and make myself go through it, tedious though it may be.

Gamecube:

6. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (2002)

7. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (2004)

Wind Waker..... THAT is my arch enemy of Zelda games.
I started playing this game exactly two years ago. I still have not beaten it. It's gotten to the point where I am only determined to beat it just to spite it, other wise... I would have given up on it long ago. For some reason I just really struggle with this.
The hardest part about this game is that when you put it down for too long... and forget what you were doing in it.... you're screwed. Because it does not tell you what to do next. You just have to remember... or, as I've experienced... process of elimination by spending hours traveling to previous islands to try and remember what your quest was, so that by the time you even remember - you don't want to play anymore! ANNOYING.
The one good thing about it is that it does have cool plot ideas, and I fashioned some good friendships over making people play it with me (usually until 5 in the morning and our eyes started to bleed and nothing we said made sense anymore.) In fact, Sean and I played it often when we first started dating and it is his insisting that the ending is worth it is one of the reasons I've yet to give up. However, I want to punch it in the video game face everytime I pick up the controller again. One day, Wind Waker... one day I shall best you...

Four Swords I have never played, so it has escaped my wrath and my review. However, it is next on my list of games to buy.

Of course, there's also Twilight Princess for Gamecube but that's going under......

Wii:

8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)

Oh, Twilight Princess.... how I love thee. I only played parts of the Wii version, the Gamecube is the version I own and played fully.

Twilight Princess is definitely the prettiest of the games, art wise. I certainly adored it and distinctly remember locking myself in my room for a week in order to finish it in time over Christmas break, and I loved the ending. This is my favorite depiction of Princess Zelda herself of all the games. However, I stand by the fact that I feel like the entire plot (minus the Twilight World stuff) was pretty much just a newer rendition of Ocarina of Time. Granted, all the Zelda games maintain the same theme and usually the same levels, just different variations of them, this I felt was just an updated version of Ocarina with a few extra tweaks.
That being said, it's my 2nd favorite. I've played this multiple times over as well and even if I find the boss fights to be too easy, I get super excited over the story and the fact that there are three main characters in this game - Zelda, Link and ..... Midna:

Nintendo DS:

9. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (2007)

I purchased a DS for Sean's birthday just last month, and this was one of the first games I bought. The only game I've played since we got it, actually. It was good.... I think the fact that it was on the DS - my first DS game - made it more exciting to get to draw things to make the game work (and the more embarrassing moments of having to yell things into the microphone to progress in the game). I think I was missing part of the story itself, being that I never beat Wind Waker and this is the continuation.... but I figured most of it out. Pretty short game, compared to all the other Zelda's. However.... I still like riding Link's horse better than sailing on a boat, but maybe that's just me.

So there you have it. The history of Zelda, according to me. More than you probably ever cared to know about it. I am more obsessed than most people know. I have two Zelda posters, multiple strategy guides, I've already mentioned the birthday party... I usually wear my triforce necklace daily, I have about 7 different Zelda shirts, my mom made me a Princess Zelda costume for Christmas and my brother made me a wooden shield and Master Sword for Christmas as well. I've done fan art for Zelda:

... and I'm pretty sure my next tattoo will be a triforce.

I can't forget to mention that Link was essentially the second love of my life (after Johnny Depp... he got first place, because I saw Edward Scissorhands way before I played my first Zelda game)... I could post a million pictures, because I adore the art of every single Zelda game. But I will end on this adorable note:

- Fae

Sometimes....

... I get really bored.

I was really cold while sitting on the computer, so I put on Sean's hoodie and was typing from beneath the hood, and he said I looked like a Sith. So that amused me.

Luke, I am your...... nevermind.

- Fae

Love is a mix tape.

Well it has been quite some time since we've updated.

I have been busy since last Wednesday because my best friend drove down from Canada to visit me. A brief synopsis of our relationship would be to explain that we met via the internet as 13-year-old role playing geeks, and since then we've remained best friends for nearly a decade. Around 15/16, we first met in person and ever since then - we've been visiting each other once or twice a year, whether it's my country, her country, or a different country all together.

Sean may be my soulmate, but she is my other half. It was so awesome to have her here, as it always is when we get to see each other. I wish she lived here permanently, although I'm sure she'd appreciate an actual bedroom and not just a futon in the living room. Our week and a half highlights include pottery painting, a failed roadtrip to Cleveland, karaoke, 80s night and Cantaloupe Party, reading the manuscript for our book and our favorite - speeding through the Fort Pitt Tunnels late at night with the windows down.

It's always hard when we part ways, but we're very practiced at it. We only get to see each other a couple weeks in a year, but it's part of the reason why our friendship is so awesome and has lasted so long. We know how to make it work. So here's to looking forward to the next time we get together, which will either be Canada in the summer or England next year!

Love you, Hezabelle!

Love;
Faebala
(points to anyone who can guess the reference to that nickname)

Tattoo fever.

Sean and I got into an interesting discussion today.

Hez sent me this amazingly awesome tattoo website, (which I believe can be credited back to Court) where all the tattoos are literary based. It gave me the tattoo fever and I am craving a new tattoo.

I have two tattoos. One on my hip that I got in April of 2007:


The other on my wrist, in February of 2008 with my Hezabelle:



Inspired by that website that I was looking at, Hez and I got into this discussion about particular tattoos... which I then carried over to a neighboring IM, to discuss with Sean. Some of those tattoos on that website absolutely inspired me, so I told Sean that I wanted another tattoo - most likely something scripted from one of my favorite pieces of literature.

Sean says he doesn't hate tattoos, but every time we have this conversation - he tries to talk me out of it. He says he admires the artistry and design of tattoos, but thinks that if I like something that much - I should just paint it on a canvas instead of having it permanently branded on my body.

Now, I wouldn't just get any old tattoo - but at the same time - I adore tattoos and what they stand for. They inspire me. I agree that there are absolutely horrid tattoos out there, but I like to think that I have good taste in tattoos. My reasoning behind tattoos is that they have to absolutely mean something to me (I'm also very picky about the placement, but that's just my OCD).

For example, the two tattoos I currently have both have huge meaning behind them to me. They're both inspired by songs (one from a movie), and right now - I still melt every time I hear either of the songs. But at the same time, there's a world of meaning behind each tattoo on why I got it, that goes beyond the songs.

Yes, "Imagine" is a beautiful song by John Lennon - but it was also a testimony to my best friend (we got matching tattoos - same word, different font). There's meaning behind why I got it on my wrist and why I got it on my left wrist, that is personal. But I will always be an imaginative dreamer. The tattoo on my hip stands for the idea of true love and the theory that we each have a "other half" that completes us. It's two half faces that when put together form a full circle. "The Origin of Love" is the song that it comes from, and that song comes from a movie. I could end up hating that movie, or either of those songs - but I will always love what each tattoo stands for to me (love and creativity), and that's not going to change.

Which is why I will only get tattoos that have that sort of meaning to me. I have always wanted to get the Triforce tattooed on me, but I go back and forth on it because while I do love Zelda and have for ten years now - there's not much other meaning behind it than that, haha.

So Sean's questions are, why do I have to get something tattooed? Does it make it any more meaningful to see it on my body every day? Will it inspire me, will it make me sad, will it make me happy (depending on the meaning behind it)?

[Tasteful] tattoos, to me, are inspiring and do make a difference. I can appreciate what Sean says, on painting on a canvas instead to admire on a wall, but I also think there is an entirely different artistic level to using your body as the canvas. So, I for one, will absolutely get more tattoos!

So what do you, oh readers, think on this matter? Do you believe art belongs on the body or the wall? SHARE YOUR TATTOOS!!!

Here's a few tattoos I'm considering:

"What we have here is a dreamer." - The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides (Favorite book)

"Infinite." - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky (on my right wrist)

"And the ones whose stories are over." - Wicked, Gregory Maguire

"Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt thou the sun doth move.
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt that I love."
- Hamlet

But the one I'm most likely to get next will be a quote from Romeo and Juliet (favorite play), coupled with the heart symbol from Baz Lurhmann's version of the movie (my favorite movie of all time):

Because again - I'm a sap. I'll always believe in true love, even if it is star crossed and ends in double suicide. It's so much better than that fluffy duffy love anyway.

- Fae