GAMES
My arms hurt. Which is understandable after 'jamming' it out for like a few hours. No, I wasn't playing in a real band. And I can't play guitar/bass/drums in real life. So yeah. What was I playing? Indulging myself with the new Wii, of course! GUITAR HERO III, where you get to sort of rock your way to fame, DDR style. Granted, you don't jump around, but you move your fingers around quite a fair bit. It's really fun, once you get the hang of it. And there are just tons of songs to choose from, ranging from real old stuff like Aerosmith and Sonic Youth, to newer stuff like AFI and The Killers.

I'm also currently playing addicted to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on Nintendo DS. It's a logical puzzle game where you're a lawyer and basically, you need to solve crimes and find contradictions in testimonies to help your clients be declared NOT GUILTY. It can be a little annoying sometimes, because you can't progress without sufficient clues, and sometimes you end up wondering what the heck was it that you missed and you have no choice but to search the same place or and over again to no avail. Blah. But the Miles/Phoenix yaoi angle is just to scrumpy to give up on. Haha, leave a SLASH obsessed fangirl to make pairings up. Even though this pairing is pretty popular from what I have seen online.


BOOKS
HOLLY BLACK may not be the best writer nor does she have the most fascinating imagination, but for some reason, I simply adore the modern faerie tales that she has written. Namely, TITHE, VALIANT and IRONSIDE. All three books have strong female protagonists that are in some way or another, unfortunately wound up in some spot of trouble concerning the fey folk. As many know, I'm a giant sucker for these fantasy stuff, especially on the crueler nature of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Aka, the more... believable faerie tales than Tinkerbell and stuff. Even though the romance are het, I still am able to tolerate them. Although there is a spark of gay romance in IRONSIDE. Lucky, lucky.

BLOOD BEAST, book 5 of the DEMONTA series, is as usual fantastic, DARREN SHAN delivers the goods swiftly and sharply. The prose is albeit simple as the fare is meant for younger readers, but the themes that he whips on are... well, I'm pretty sure I don't want my child to be reading this before... say... bedtime? The master of horror who first acclaimed fame with the SAGA OF DARREN SHAN reworks his horror formula once more: Main character with a tormented past/future. In this case, Grubbs has both. Throw in mentor figures. Though I'm not too sure whether Dervish makes a good mentor... Add monsters and blood and gore. Aahh, Lord Loss. Weird name though. And weird hobby for a Demon Lord. Toss in a whiff of plot and mix it thoroughly. Stir well, serve hot.

I have been reading other books as well... but they are simply not very good... like MELINDA MARR's WICKED LOVELY, another... modern faerie tale... it was... not exactly convincing, but nevertheless, it's still readible. And of course, I have been reading slash fiction online by some of the better writers that I have seen. They too apply winning formulas, but the stories are always very well thought up. Namely, TYGATI, SKYLARK97, MADERR and RYKAINE on livejournal. They apparently all know each other or something... because they have an entire book discussion community for themselves. Blah. They also tell me something: I really really need to work on my own writing. Because just reading their stuff... makes me feel a littttle... useless.

Labels: long post, rant