Archive for February, 2009

February 26th, 2009

Can’t get you out of my head

Last night I discovered Flower. Today I can’t focus. All I want to do is go home and play. At the same time though, I don’t want to rush it. I want to take things nice and slow and enjoy the experience.

I think Annette is doing the review on GA. I’m only three levels in and I can say that it’s quite extrodinary. There is nothing about Flower that is typical. The title doesn’t even fit in any game genre that I can think of.

In Flower you are the petal. Eventually you are a stream of petals. You race through landscapes making sure you tap each flower or group. You are succesful when the flower opens up and you hear a note. Each flower seems to have it’s own note which adds to the classically simple and beautiful score.

By holding down x you can increase the speed of your petal or group of petals. At times I found I gained too much speed and I would suddenly halt causing all the petals to swirl all around me like a moment in American Beauty. To be honest, I did this a few times just to watch it.

The beauty in Flower is that it’s almost not a game. There is an objective, but no time limit, forced path, enemies to fight. It just exists. Flower is a place for you to explore, no right or wrong. As someone that stresses all the time about anything, the stressfree environment of Flower almost seems wrong. Like I’m cheating.

I look forward to playing it again when I get home tonight. I hope that I don’t finish it all. I really enjoyed flOw from ThatGameCompany and they have accomplished something special and unique with Flower. Playstation Network seems to be a breeding ground for experimental, original, and beautiful games. I hope that Sony is able to continue to encourage such original creations in the future.

Now back to hoping it’s 5pm so I can play Flower.
Trina ^_^

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February 21st, 2009

Bad internet, bad economy equals bad weekend?

Friday was pretty stressful. Not to be excluded from the bad economy, my company had it’s first round of layoffs. While I made it through this round, I don’t feel secure that I have a place or a job there. I feel like a second round is coming and I better get ready for it.

I came home ready to search the web for any opportunities out there when I discovered that our Internet kept falling out. After a 45 minute call with Verizon, they discovered there is a problem with the line and they have to come out to fix it. Of course they don’t work on weekends, so the technician will come Tuesday between 8am-5pm. Really? I mean is Verizon the last company in the world that doesn’t work on weekends? Wouldn’t they get more done with their customers if they closed a few dates during the week and opened on the weekends?

Until Tuesday, I have scattered internet access that is up for 10 and down for 15. It’s inconsistent and sucks. Especially when you run an online website. Kindof hard to get work done on it when your connection keeps dropping out.

Instead I spent Friday night playing video games. Something I haven’t done for a few weeks. I declare this weekend, gaming weekend. I started with Halo Wars and then Fable 2, until that froze on me.

I refuse to have a bad weekend due to lack of consistent internet. I’m going to have fun gaming and not worry about the world. Not yet anyway.

Have fun gaming!
Trina ^_^

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February 19th, 2009

The weight of running a site

GamingAngels.com is my dream. I actually thought of the website over 10 years ago. In college I felt like the only girl playing MUDs and playing other games online like You Don’t know Jack. I would have played my consoles, but I left them at home to make sure I actually did homework. After college, I went to gaming as my sole form of entertainment because it gave you the most entertainment for your dolllar. I quickly got hooked on Phantasy Star Online. I put so many hours into that game and eventually tested out my GA theory by making an all-girl clan. Back then you just had to have a female character. It was fun. We had a close knit group and worked hard.

Fast forward and I finally decided to try and launch GA. We have the most amazing group of women writers. Every day I thank that they believe in what we are trying to accomplish and what our goals are. We work hard and it’s been for the love of everything.

This week has been tough for me. Matt started working nights, which means he gets home at 7am when I go to work. I’ve had to start making my own dinner and I don’t cook. It feels really empty and lonely at home, so I’ve started working out. It feels great to work out, but in doing so, I’ve missed two podcasts. Tonight, Naomi stepped up and covered for me and I’m so thankful for that. Every night I’ve been working on the dev site. I also started playing Halo Wars for a review. I’m trying to keep myself focused and busy while Matt is gone. But I do miss him. It’s weird to go from when he’s around all the time to basically getting 20 minutes a day with him. I just need a little time to get used to this.

I couldn’t do GA without my wonderful staff. I know that the harder I work on the site, the closer I get to being able to reward them for their hard work. Just have to keep doing it better, be stronger, and more focused.

I love GamingAngels.com and the woman it’s made me.
Trina ^_^

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February 18th, 2009

What time to play?

Cooking while watching American Idol/Lie to Me leaves me very little room to concentrate on GamingAngels updates. Nevermind twitter. lol I really need to upload all my Street Fighter footage, so why am I just sitting here? AUGH!

At least I started working out again. Workout number 2 tomorrow!!
Trina ^_^

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February 15th, 2009

Lazy weekend

Wow I just asked Matt if today was Saturday or Sunday. That’s how crazy things have been. It also shows how I haven’t accomplished much this weekend. Last night I downloaded and installed the Phantasy Star Portable demo and Left 4 Dead on Steam. Left 4 Dead is 50% off this weekend on Steam, so I finally made the plunge. Mind you, I have always wanted Left 4 Dead, but I wanted it on the Xbox 360. The problem is that my local friends all play on their PC, so in the end Steam won out.

Most of my gaming has been on consoles. After being on the PC all day from work or school, the last thing I want is to have to play on a PC. Although now, I mostly spend all night working on GamingAngels.com.

Today I played Left 4 Dead. Definitely lived up to the hype and is a really fun game. But I have a strong feeling that it’s only fun if you play with friends. A couple of the rounds a random person would come into the game and that person was rude or didn’t play as a team. I definitely anticipate hosting a L4D gaming night at my apartment for some local LAN action.

I’m hoping to check out Phantasy Star Portable next tonight. We have to do some grocery shopping for the week. Otherwise, today I have been sending emails, setting up some future events, and working on GamingAngels.com 2.0. lol

Tomorrow I have the day off which is nice. I’m going to use one of my AMC gift cards and see He’s just not that into you. Then the rest of the day will be GA. Oh and laundry. Possibly a vacuum of the apartment. For now back to work..

Have a great weekend!
Trina ^_^

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February 8th, 2009

Thinking back on the last couple of days

I need to start taking pictures to add to these posts. Not of me, since I don’t really like that, but just of the things or events I write about to include here. Friday I went to Startonomics which is an all day event put together by the wonderful women of Dealmaker Media. The event was a blast of information, so much that I really had to sit an digest it afterwards. I believe the event was definitely worth going to, but I do believe they may have to include less speakers for the next one. A few speakers said incredibly interesting things, but there was no follow-up Q&A because the event was behind schedule. Julia from GamerVixens went with me and we both agree that it was a ton of information to take in. I learned that it is going to be tough to get money in this economy. Before you try and get funding you now have to have a product that is proven. I also learned some SEO tips that I pretty much knew, but had it confirmed. Xoops, GamingAngels.com prior CMS, has no ability to work with SEO, so GamingAngels is taking quite a hit in terms of SEO. That is why we are having a site re-design from the back-end to the front-end.

This morning I bought some domain names. Sean from Lalawag made the suggestion to buy your own name as a domain name. Very smart suggestion that I had never thought of. Good thing it was available. I’ll probably have it point here, but it’s a good practice. If you are making an online brand of yourself, why not have your name as a valid domain name? I know people search my name. I see it bring people to GamingAngels.com.

Which brings me to GamingAngels.com. I have not worked on the site much this weekend, like I had planned to. But with Matt’s birthday and a cousin’s wedding I guess I was fooling myself thinking I would have spare time. Matt’s birthday was Friday, but we’re going to our favorite restaurant tonight, The Bottle Inn. It was our first date and will probably be a part of our lives forever. Amazing food, amazing wine and the best staff a restaurant could ever have. I’m definitely looking forward to indulging tonight and then I’ll have to start the diet tomorrow. Why am I on a diet? Because I would like to lose about 20 pounds before E3. E3 is my goal since it will be a huge convention for networking.

Yesterday we attended my cousin’s wedding. Very interesting mix of people. Stillettos and miniskirts will not be allowed at my wedding. Nor will guns. Memo to self, don’t have a wedding at a house and not expect people to have sex in the bedrooms. Yes, people will be in the mood given enough alcohol and will not respect your house.

Today I got an overdue oil change and am waiting for the Killzone 2 beta to download. It’s taking freaking forever. I have updated one gadget blog and a news item but I have quite a few articles to put up still. Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow though. We should see a slew of NY comic con posts from two of our editors that attended the convention. April and I will be at a God of War III event this week as well as Street Fighter IV launch party. Two amazing events in one week. I can’t wait!!

Anyway, this has been far too long for me to be away from GamingAngels.com. The Killzone 2 demo is only at 60%. le sigh. I’m going back to answering emails and posting about games this week. Have a great Sunday night!

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February 5th, 2009

Just when you need cheering up

Just when you need cheering up, friends always show their love. My friends put a surprise together for Matt and I congratulating us on our engagement. You can view it here  Amazing. I actually cried a bit when Naomi first showed me during the podcast.

It’s been a tough week. Got “spoken to” at work. Matt has been a bit sad because it’s been so difficult for him to find a job. I want to help him so bad but it’s difficult since I’m not in his industry. Btw if you need an avid or final cut pro editor and can pay, email me! lol

So yeah, it’s been an emotional roller coaster from thinking you are going to get laid off to being told off, to feeling helpless. It’s so great to know there are friends out there that care.

In the meantime, I am working hard at GamingAngels.com. I have a few announcements in the works, and I’ll be going to a startup even to learn how to get GA some fundage. I’ll be blogging about what I learn and if I think it will be possible. In my world though…all things are possible.

Have a great night.

*hugs*

Trina

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