G4TV has put up an interview with Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono from last month’s EVO 2009. He gives insight on his experience while at EVO, differences between Western and Japanese audiences, game balance, what’s next, etc… Ono even talks about TEKKEN 6 and Namco Bandai! Check out the interview by clicking below!

Source: Capcom-Unity

PNG Bro-down Episode 26 – PNG and Hugh

Looks like it’s trainwreck o’clock again!  Welcome to another night of wonder and excitement with the regular crew of the PNG Bro-down.  We get down to business with a myriad of topics including but not limited to:  The board game TARA, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Soul Calibur 2, Dave vs. James, TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, Huge Grant, Hookers, Metal Gear Solid 4, Mortal Kombat vs. DC, HAY-BRO, Final Fantasy XI & XIV, Flesh Spiders,  Hello Kitty Online, The New NXE, Pathfinder selling like hot cakes, Starcraft II’s delay, and ‘Splosion Man.  I apologize for the audio quality, it was apparently amateur hour for my editing and mixing skills.  Jim is back at the helm next week while Dave, Pete, Josh, and I are out and about at Gencon ‘09.

PNG Bro-down Episode 25 – Robots are Scary

Welcome to another episode of the PNG Bro-down.  I assure you that despite what I say on the podcast, this is most definitely episode 25.  We keep it low key with a 3 member crew this week and talk about Soul Calibur 4… again; call Dave out for his big cheats in Marvel vs Capcom 2; calibrate our Wii Motion Plus’ in Wii Sprts Resort; ask who is driving to only find out that bear is driving then wondering how that could be; concur that ’sploding is way more cool than exploding in ‘Splosion Man; get crunk with Jay-Z and Eminem with our Renegade Editions of DJ Hero; and terrify ourselves with discussion about man eating, gun toting, cockroach driven, hobo beating, breast fondling robots.  The world will never be the same.

Am facut cateva cercetari si am facut un top 10 al celor mai sexy femei din jocuri , desigur dupa gusturile mele :

Locul 10 : Triss – Witcher

Locul 9 :Ivy – Soul Calibur IV

Locul 8:Sorceress – Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning

Locul 7 :Kasumi – Dead Or Alive 4

Locul 6 :Christie Monteiro – Tekken 6

Locul 5 :Ashe – Final Fantasy XII

Maine veti afla care sunt primele 5 locuri .Part 2 Maine 30 iulie .

PNG Bro-down Episode 24 – Reach Down and Touch the Future

It’s that time again, PNG fans – the Pixels & Grids Bro-down has landed!  On this week’s episode we talk Battlefield 1943; debate the differences between Street Fighter IV and Soul Calibur IV; ask ourselves if we ain’t afraid of no ghosts; answer the Call of Juarez – and get Bound in Blood; debate the tactical advantages of riding a horse through a glass wall or three; rap about some upcoming releases such as Scribblenauts, Borderlands, and Need for Speed Nitro; hug it out and reminisce about Time Cop; hold a logical and researched discussion of the ramifications of time traveling sexual encounters; cover the upcoming Castlevania and World of Warcraft shit piles feature films; reveal this year’s updates to the Xbox dashboard and Rock Band; and ice the whole cake off with date rape.  Which you shouldn’t do.  Ever.  And don’t even think about mentioning James’ Xbox.

Enjoy!

I wanted a new game to play and I found Soul Calibur IV on Play.com for £12 so now I’ve snapped it up. I really like the other Soul Calibur games so I’m looking forward to playing this. I loved the character customization in Soul Calibur 3 and I really want to make some characters again. Solid Snake, Pirates and Samuel L Jackson are on top off my list. However I’m going to finish Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway first but I though I should order it now in case it goes up in price.

DEVASTATION is going on RIGHT NOW!  Make sure you check out the live stream for some high level fighting game action and some hot TEKKEN 6 footage!  Top players from all over the world are in attendance including SDT’s very own FilthyRich, Le0C, got s0ymilk?! and Korea’s MaDDoGJiN!  Click below for more info/details!

UPDATE – Sun. June 21, 2009 – Recorded Stream!

TEKKEN 6 grand finals start at around 44 minutes in!  Click here.

For the live stream please visit ustream.tv/channel/djwheat !

For additional coverage also check:

Get Your Tournament and pics from karaface !

Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham returns to broadcasting while Scott “SirScoots” Smith returns behind the mixer for this weekend’s Devastation fighting game tournament.

This weekend’s Devastation event will be streamed live through uStream.tv for three consecutive days, 8-10 hours a day, featuring all-day coverage, expert commentary, exhibition matches, player interviews, special guests, and special features. The event will be dubbed a Live On Three production, and mark the return of Live On Three’s Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham and Scott “SirScoots” Smith to a live gaming event. djWHEAT hasn’t covered an event since the Championship Gaming Series fell through, and SirScoots hasn’t either since last year’s MLG PC circuit for GotFrag TV. Both have been itching to get back to live streaming competitive gaming and eSports, and Devastation is the perfect event to start with. They will be joined by Live On Three co-host Rod “Slasher” Breslau, author and journalist Bryan “DrDogg” Dawson, as well as former CGS player and WCG Ultimate Gamer contestant Adande “sWooZie” Thorne.

Every game at the event will get air time including Tekken 6, Guilty Gear Accent Core, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Guitar Hero: World Tour, SF3: 3rd Strike, Marvel vs Capcom 2, SSF2 Turbo HD Remix, King of Fighters XII, and of course the main event, Street Fighter 4. The video feeds for all the games will be hooked up directly to the cabinets for great quality. This will also be the first Tekken 6 tournament in the US, and the first major KOFXII event.

The Street Fighter 4 tournament will be the largest so far this year, with major competitors flying in from all around the country and on both coasts. GameStop National champion Justin “Marvelous” Wong and his SBO partner Martin “Marn” Phan will be flying in from the east coast along with Flash Metroid, and Ari “fLoE” Weintraub from the midwest. The west coast will be representated nicely with SBO qualifier winner Peter “Combofiend” Rosas looking to extend his win streak, along with Ryan “gootecks” Gutierrez, Mike Ross, Ricky Ortiz, Edward “EdMa” Ma, Mike Watson, Ken I, and Eliver “KillerKai” Ling. Guest commentary porovided by Gootecks, Mike Ross and others will come as the tournament progresses.

Tekken 6, Marvel vs Capcom 2 and SF3: Third Strike will start on Friday, while Street Fighter 4 won’t start till Saturday.

All the action will start around at 11:30 AM EST (17:30 CET) each day and last until 10:00 PM EST (05:00 CET). For the live stream, tune into http://www.djwheat.tv (being worked on right now) or http://www.ustream.tv/channel/djwheat.

Odkryłem spisek, tak wiem – nic na to poradzę, że widzę więcej swym okiem no.3 – to dość niesamowita wiadomość, jednak jak najbardziej prawdziwa. Okazuje się, że Capcom przemycił do Street Fightera 4 podprogowy przekaz propagujący postawę homoseksualną! Na szczęście istnieje jeszcze dobry duch, jakim okazało się być Namco-Bandai wspierający podstawowe rodzinne wartości. Podstawy do takich stwierdzeń mam gigantyczne niczym ja Yeti i ukazuje je poniżej:

Chyba nie uważacie, że wrzucanie nadnaturalnie wielkich stóp do Street Fightera było przypadkowe… w ten sposób nie tylko wykonano ukłon (omg!) w stronę mniejszości homoseksualnych ale i zaczęto kusić niewinne duszyczki by zainteresowały się tym na co tak właściwie przekłada się wielka męska stopa. Dowodów na to jest jakiś trylion.

A teraz klasycznie przegięcie pauy: PŁONĄCE STOPY SZATANA:

**********

Całe szczęście, że w opozycji do tych szatańskich planów znajduje się propagująca prawo & sprawiedliwość firma Namco Bandai. Ich produkt – Soul Calibur 4 to idealna gra dla dziecka, pobudzająca je do myślenia na tematy zdrowe i prorodzinne (takie jak np bufory, modlitwa, zdrowa żywnosć). Sami spójrzcie:

God bless Namco-Bandai.

Soul Calibur Broken Destiny es la adaptación de SCIV pero para el PSP. Como pueden ver en el video se ve bien, como siempre habra que esperar al producto final . . . pero . . . honestamente el SCIV no me parecio tan bueno, el hecho de tener finales animados, muchos personajes, creaciones de personajes y contenido descargable lo hacen una buena compra, pero no un juego excelente . . . de este titulo de PSP lo unico que espero es una secuela más con extras . . . que seguro incluiran nuevo contenido descargable y personajes, pero desafortunadamente no creo que innove o muestre algo diferente . . . ya veremos si me equivoco.

Namco revelo en primer video de Soul Calibur Broken Destiny, y por lo visto el juego tiene unas gráficas muy buenas, aunque eso no le quita que sea totalmente igual al IV.

Title: Soul Calibur IV

Nuevo Personaje 'Dampierre'

Pondré solo lo mas importante, mas detalles en la fuente. Hoy ha sido anunciado oficialmente Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny  para PSP (Junto con Tekken 6 para PSP) y sinceramente ha sido una de las mejores noticias que ha dado Namco últimamente.

Según Gamespot esta versión portátil de Soulcalibur contendrá personajes nuevos, pero por ahora solo se ha confirmado el que ven arriba de nombre Dampierre. Por el momento nada de Darth Vader o Yoda, pero si un nuevo modo exclusivo de esta versión que tendrá como objetivo pasar varias misiones o desafíos (los rumores dicen que serán 80) algo parecido al Weapon Mater de la segunda entrega.

Y nada más, solo queda esperar mas detalles de esta mini version de Soulcalibur IV. Ah sí!, fueron reveladas unas imágenes del juego. Saquen sus propias conclusiones:

[Fuente: Gamespot]

GameSpot reports Soulcalibur will also be making its way to the PSP.  While not an exact port of Soulcalibur IV (we won’t be seing Yoda, Darth Vader, or the Apprentice) we will see the introduction of at least one new character and several gameplay enhancements for the series’ handheld debut.  Read more by following the link below…

SOURCE – GameSpot – Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny First Look

Incense smoke fills the air of the temple and makes it hard to concentrate upon the battle at hand. Mitsurugi is looking more peeved than ever, and before him stands the strangest combatant he’s ever laid eyes upon. His foe is only half his size, has green skin, and yields an odd sword of light. What the hell is this weird little goblin? Outside the temple soldiers on horseback ride down the hillside toward war, but Mitsurugi doesn’t notice. He’s too focused on just how the heck he’s going to chop this bizarre creature down to size… er, so to speak.

Some comments about my cosplay:
- I still love this cosplay (character) a lot and for a first try-out it was not THAT bad!
- I am still going to redo the painting (skirt) part because the first one was not so good (due to the deadline) and I will try to make it more accurate
- taking photos of a TV-screen when you have the same was a mess for accurate (huge!) pictures was not very successful
- I am still not giving up on the red ribbon with the REAL patterns. Aside that I last time lost 8h of work due to the painting difference (the designs are drawn, each time the same measurements)
- because I never worked before with fabric paint, I worked until 3 A.M. at Saturday to get it finished. 3-4 layers of paint and then I realized at MiA that the paint was coming off (cracks).

Comments about Made in Asia:
The first day I wore a wig and due to the weight it slightly slided of my head a couple of times. My Scarlet Thunder had an accident when we wanted to go home with the car. Because I only slept about 5h I was tired and I even put on my knee patch etc on the wrong leg!

On the 2nd day I used my real hair and I was obliged to use the Scarlet Thunder of my first version. On top of that I forgot to wear my bracelets on Sunday…

Saturday because of the skirt, I did not enough time to practice and study my act. So I decided not to participate the contest because cosplay must be fun (and stay fun!). If I was a participant I would only be very nervous and stressed out due to the time frame…

Afterwards I still like the wig photos more although the shield, leg stuff were on the wrong side.

So what needs to change:
- skirt + paint
- red ribbon
- headband (I found a huge close up picture!) *big happy eyes*
- maybe altering the top a little? (bodice part)
- fix my Scarlet Thunder
- find a solution for the heavy wig
- remade the attachment of my “amulet”

DEVASTATION 2009 is going down on June 19-21st, 2009.  To be held at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, THOUSANDS of dollars will be up for grabs in some of today’s most popular competitive titles! Follow the link below for more details.

DEVASTATION 2009

GAMES:

- Madden NFL 09
- Street Fighter IV
- Marvel vs Capcom 2
- SoulCalibur IV
- Tatsunoko vs Capcom
- Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
- Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
- Super Smash Brothers Brawl
- Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
- Tekken 6
- Guitar Hero World Tour
- Gears of War 2
- Street Fighter III: Third Strike
- Mario Kart Wii
* Other titles may be added
** Current list based on game availability; title changes may occur

WHEN:

June 19th, 20th, and 21st, 2009

WHERE:

South Ballroom
Phoenix Convention Center, South Building
100 North 3rd Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85004 USA

DEVASTATION is a three-day gaming event in Phoenix, Arizona. Players have the opportunity to compete in fifteen different tournament events for thousands of dollars as well as enjoy casual and exhibition console games along with free-play arcade machines hosted by one of our Supporters, Castles N’ Coasters. Adjoining the DEVASTATION event area is another Supporter, the Big Boys and Their Toys Expo, offering over 160,000 square feet of expo floor space that our Registered Players may enjoy at their leisure.

For more information, follow the links below:

DEVASTATION 2009 – OFFICIAL SITE

DEVASTATION 2009 – PLAYER REGISTRATION

I’ve always been a fan of the Soul Calibur franchise. I thought Soul Edge was good. Soul Calibur was revolutionary. Soul Calibur 2 was excellent, and one of the best examples of a multi platform video game launch ever. The third installment faltered a little… and the fourth game is an embarrassment. Are we going on a Soul Calibur retrospective? Oh yes…

Soul Calibur has been accused of being a mindless button masher, and I’ve always rushed to its defense. Sure, a monkey smashing buttons madly as Kilik can occasionally beat an average level player, but he wouldn’t stand a chance against someone good. A good player would absolutely smack down button mashers… and if you DID have a monkey, wouldn’t you rather dress him in a li’l engineer’s outfit instead?

Another common accusation is that it’s all about boobs. As the series has continued, this has been a harder and harder one to field… since Taki seems to have been using her ninja magic on her cup size. I always feel the need to justify playing as Ivy, the pale chick in the fetish gear with the whipsword thingy. No dude, she’s the best at FIGHTING!

With Soul Calibur IV, I’m officially off the bandwagon. Namco added a lame ass statistical leveling system, which seems like it would really extend replay value, but it seems like they spent way more time on this than the actual game design.

The “all about boobs” complaint is now more prevalent than ever before. They gave many of the characters different “destructible armor”, so you can now watch as bits and pieces of the ladies clothing gets smashed off by some cleaving axe strike or something. I have nooooo problem with boobs… but it leaves you feeling like the game is talking down to you and trying to appeal to the 13 year old boy in everyone.

Oh and here we go… they added Darth Vader, The Apprentice (from force unleashed) and YODA to the game as playable characters. WHAT? Soul Calibur has had cameos from other franchises in the past. Some worked better than others, but never once did a character from a science fiction franchise enter into the fray. Certainly not a well known franchise like Star Wars. How is that even supposed to work? The lightsabers would just go through all the other swords! It’s stupid, and it opens the door to further experimentation with Soul Calibur… something I’m not looking forward to.

Also… they only added two other new characters. I’m not really sure why… Maybe it’s because of their stupid insistence on having a “make your own fighter” option. The thing is, outside of dressing a fighter up, which is a stupid way to spend time already, you can’t really design a balanced movelist for them that will work nicely with the other characters. You definitely can’t create a character with a new style of play or weapon… so what’s the point?

I’m not going to use the phrase “jumped the shark”… because it didn’t. It just sucks now. I’ll stick with Soul Calibur 2 from now on… and if you mess with it, I’ll whipsword ya.

GAMES ON played host to the Southern California Soulcalibur IV Regionals.  In the end, it was Aris of SoCal who came back from losers and ultimately took 1st using Cassandra and Siegfried!  Along with other prizes, the top four placers earned seed spots for the Soulcalibur IV Nationals in July.  Follow the link below for more results.

ViciousSuicide (2nd), Aris (1st), OffbeatNinja (3rd), PendragonsFall (4th)

Results:

1: Aris (Cassandra, Siegfried)
2: ViciousSuicide (Lizardman, Sophitia)
3: OffbeatNinja (Siegfried)
4: PendragonsFall (Raphael, Kilik)
5: BeefyLoveLord
5: CrackMamba LDG
7: SPMan
7: KingSalmon
9: Shinobi01
9: WhiteRob
9: DanyK.
9: NoFaceKiller
13: -_- (SAB)
13: BL
13: LunarAura
13: BigWalt87
17: Izluden
17: SPQR
17: Lobo
17: NitNit
17: Dr.Dogg
17: Mystik

Full Bracket can be found HERE.

Special Thanks:

Special thanks again to GAMES ON for having us at their venue, GETYOURTOURNAMENT for providing a live feed and video coverage, and all tournament staff for another smoothly run event.

The Soulcalibur IV Nationals is hosted by the NVGA and will be taking place July 24-25th, 2009 during this year’s NVGA SuperCon in Denver, Colorado.  More details for the event can be found HERE.

Be sure to watch this space as we update with media from the event.

Links:

• SoCal Regionals Official Thread at 8wayrun
• SoCal Regionals Results at 8wayrun
• Results Article at GetYourTournament
• Pictures – SDTEKKEN Flickr
• Pictures – PSP Camera Flickr
• Videos at GetYourTournament YouTube
• Finals at GetYourTournament Multimedia

GAMES ON will play host for the Southern California SC IV Regionals on Sunday, February 15th, 2009.  Follow the link below for more details and an image of the announcement flier.

Soulcalibur IV Regional Tournament

When: February 15th, 2009 @ 12:00 PM
Location: Games On
Address: 953 Garnet Ave, San Diego CA 92109
Entry Fee: $25 ($20 to the pot / $5 venue)

Detailed Rules:

- PlayStation 3 version only
- Guest Characters are banned
- Algol is banned
- Yoda is banned
- Double Elimination
- Bring your own controller / stick / converter / usb cables

Links:

• Tournament Announcement on Caliburforum
• Tournament Announcement on 8wayrun

Discuta esse artigo no Fórum Omega Geek

Se você esperava a retrospectiva de premiados como Jogos do Ano dos últimos anos, vai ter que esperar um pouco mais. A listona bonita e charmosa ainda está em produção. Pra essa semana eu trago uma olhada em outro “best”: a de melhor ano dos games.

É aquela coisa, ano vai, ano vem mas com certeza em um ou outro ano da sua vida você foi bem mais feliz gamisticamente. Se você é fã da série Warcraft, cada ano que representa um lançamento novo na série é um marco na sua história pessoal. Se você é fã das franquias da Nintendo, cada novo lançamento de Metroid, Mario ou Zelda tende a marcar as coisas pra você, mas com certeza um olhar menos subjetivo traz pra gente uma visão de anos que foram mais importantes pro mundo dos games que os outros. Será?

Veja bem, o background desse raciocínio: tenho amigos que afirmam (e eles com certeza não estão sozinhos) que 1998 foi O “SENHOR ANO DOS GAMES”. Como as chances de você não lembrar de muito do que aconteceu naquele ano são enormes, eu te trago três nomes que com certeza você conhece que marcaram aquele ano: Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time e Half-Life, para o PSX, N64 e PC, respectivamente. As duas primeiras franquias já existiam em plataformas anteriores e se reinventaram, definindo novos padrões técnicos, criativos e visuais e recebendo notas altíssimas. Half-life, você sabe, é o jogo que fez a Valve decolar e que no Brasil e no mundo serviu de base para o sucesso Counter-strike, mod famosíssimo do jogo.

Pra ajudar, surgiram naquele ano que mereceu choro de felicidade títulos de peso inquestionável como Resident Evil 2, Gran Turismo,  Fallout 2, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, Starcraft, Tekken 3, The King of Fighters 98, Unreal e Xenogears. A lista de jogos históricos é quase interminável, foi um ano DO BARALHO!

Aí pensei: porque não dizer que o melhor ano dos games foi 1972. Pombas, o Odyssey, o precursor de tudo, nasceu naquele ano em que meus pais nem sonhavam me conceber. A razão mais plausível (que muitos já devem considerar a ideal) que considerei para isso não ser verdade é: a maneira mais adequada para se classificar um excelente ano pro mundo dos games é: os games que ele teve! Genial não? Eu sei que não. Em todo caso, convenhamos, que grande ano de cocozinho foi 1972, onde o super jogo era PONG e quase ninguém podia jogá-lo. Me desculpem os nostálgicos, esse ano nem de longe foi o melhor dos games, ele só foi importante historicamente!

Claramente as coisas começaram a ficar realmente boas quando os consoles caseiros chegaram à geração 8 bits na década de oitenta (mais especificamente 1985), com grandes empresas como a Nintendo e a Sega na jogada e quando o potencial do PC para games começou a ser devidamente explorado, também na década de oitenta.

Mas, acredite,  associar títulos a anos não é fácil escolher um ano realmente fodástico pro mundo dos games, porque todos, invariavelmente tiveram excelentes títulos. Pra provar isso também estou desenvolvendo uma lista bem gorda que você verá nas próximas semanas. E aí você que agora olhou feio e disse pra si mesmo “esse nerd idiota tá querendo me passar a perna com esse papo tiozão de todo ano foi bom”, vai ver que qualquer gamer mortal tem sérias dificuldades em fazer como um amigo meu e dizer que “1998 foi o melhor ano dos games”.

Até porque, pasmem ou não, “há quem diga” que 2008 tem cacife pra ser considerado um ano tão maravilhoso para os games quanto o bem estimado 1998. Convenhamos, como não considerar um dos melhores anos dos games um ano em que tivemos o lançamento de hits embasbacantes como GTA IV, Halo III, Fallout III, Braid, Valkyria Chronicles, Soul Calibur IV, Left 4 Dead, Metal gear Solid 4, Little Big Planet, Fable 2, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Rock Band 2, Spore e tantos outros.

Quer saber a minha conclusão bem sincera disso tudo? As coisas só ficam melhores a cada dia. E, melhor ainda, os jogos do ano anterior não desaparecem! Isso significa que a cada ano que passa eu e você temos mais jogos excelentes pra jogar. Então no começo de 2009 o melhor ano dos games é 2008. Tá decidido. Só que  assim que chegamos em 2010 o melhor ano dos games… será 2009!

Discuta esse artigo no Fórum Omega Geek

so, here is the update post i promised. at first i thought about doing this in order, but my brain doesn’t work that way. so this is a bit out of order, but i’m pretty good with dates so that won’t change. oh, and because there’s so much content i have to throw into this, it’s going to be pretty random and jumbled…again, that’s just how my brain works.

so last week on saturday [1.3.09] in celebration of my cousin being on the west coast [she goes to school in Maine] i took my little cousins out ice skating and out to eat. seeing as how i’m pretty tight on money, i told them they just need to pay for their ice skating tickets, and i would get food [lunch and dinner]. BIG mistake! i forget how much these kids can eat. Lunch and dinner for the 4 of them set me back $150. but it’s ok, i had an awesome time with them. first off, let me say that i haven’t been ice skating since middle school, which was like a decade ago for me. and at that, i only went once. needless to say, when i got onto the ice i looked a bit out of place. vivian and kelvin had never been ice skating but everyone did pretty good. of course as we’re all inching across the ice in the beginning, phuong goes and skates circles around us…..backwards! damn maine. anyway, anyone in the south bay area, i HIGHLY recommend going to one of the outdoor skating rinks we have. the one i took my cousins to was seaside lagoon in redondo beach. the day i took them, the sun had been out and it was a bit warm so the ice was kinda melting so there’d be huge puddles in the middle of the rink. but as the day went on, the puddle iced over and we didn’t even notice. the other ones i want to go to are the ones in santa monica and downtown l.a. *[by the way, if you go to the one in santa monica, since it's sponsored by starbucks, if you take your admission bracelet to any starbucks, they'll give you a free tall hot beverage]

phuong, denney, kelvin, vivian

slowly but surely kelvin makes his way across the ice...he got it eventually

conga line on ice

if you've ever been around us, we get retarded when we're together

this was their pro pairs figure skating photo

i hope everyone had a great christmas and new years. christmas i got some great gifts, but definite standouts were my 120 eyeshadow palette from the best friend, my smokey eye brush set from let-let and joed, and my new purse from jobert.

let me first start off with the eyeshadow palette. i’ve been watching this thing on ebay FOREVER, but was too afraid to buy it. 1- it was coming from china so i wasn’t sure what the quality of it was going to be, and 2-what the f— would i do with 120 different eyeshadow colors? so i did what anyone would do. i told someone else to buy it for me. verdict? I LOVE IT!!!! seriously- as of right now, this thing is like my bible which has totally got me back into my makeup kick [i'll save that for another post though]. when i got it, it was aboslutely perfect. none of the colors were cracked or broken [which i was afraid being that it was being shipped overseas] and it was cheap! $25 for 120 colors? at MAC you could get 2 eyeshadows for that much. anyway, here’s pictures

it almost looks like a watercolor palette

the eyeshadows are definitely smaller than MAC [they're about the size of a dime], but they are seriously pigmented so they should last quite a while. you seriously just need to touch your brush to the color and your set. it’s also a mix of being matte, satin and shimmer colors which is pretty cool, here are some close ups

the colors are AMAZING and i swear they're just as pigmented as MAC

you KNOW i've been using those purples

i’ll go into more detail about my brushes in the next post, but they’re the smokey eye brush set from sephora and i love those too. and here is my new purse

kathy van zeeland

it has LOADS of space inside

and its not too big...can you tell i still like purple?

anyway, for new years i didn’t do much, although new years was really never a big deal for me. we ate at my grandparents house, took pictures the way only asians do, and then ditched our parents and played with the wii. which is pretty similar to what we did on christmas, except exchange the wii for the ps3.

video games on the big screen? yup, looks like christmas to me

soo concentrated. i'm pretty sure we spent like 5hrs playing soul calibur IV

since my aunt has been here from australia, we’ve been blessed with good eatin’. and i’m talkin REAL good eatin’. no longer will i have to drive my ass down to o.c. to get some good authentic vietnamese food. at least until monday night when she goes back. sadface.

i honestly think that this year, me and my mom may have to forgo our extravagant trip(s) and just head down under. i miss my cousins. i thinks its been around 10 years since i’ve last seen them. and for my mom its been almost 20years since we’ve both been down there to see them together [ok, so it's more like 16yrs]

back to holidays, i’m pretty sure for thanksgiving we did absolutely nothing…yeah. we did NOTHING! I did something, but we as a family, did  nothing. Ended up going to a dinner thing with jobert and his cousins cause Let and Ruth were performing a dance. It was lots of fun, mostly because it gave me a reason to throw on a dress and get all dolled up. and if anyone really knows me, you know i don’t pass up a chance to throw on a dress put on some makeup and get all girly.

let-let, ruth, me...we LOVE any reason to go dress shopping

my REAL date Mikey

oh yeah! i forgot to say congratulations to Noella! [well, i've said it in person, just not on the blog] say hello to the precious Elora Rae Serrano:

8lbs 5.5oz born on Jan. 3, 2009 at 2:52pm

she is soooo cute and super girly. she has long curly lashes and the most perfect finger nails. seriously, she looked like she had a friggin french manicure.

aside from that stuff, nothing extravagant has happened. aside from work and school my life is relatively calm. i mean i did do another dland trip [what else is new...oh the best friend did make it out this time though, she seriously needs to get an annual pass], i went to my little cousins second birthday, had a drunk sushi night [which i have a funny video from], and i think that’s it. nothing to big. that, or i don’t have pictures to document. i DO have loads of videos, some that go with the pictures i posted, but youtube just doesn’t want to cooperate with me. it seriously takes forever just for me to upload a video that’s a few seconds long. half the time i’m not sure if its frozen or if its even uploading cause youtube doesn’t give you any kind of status bar. after you click ‘upload’ it just says uploading forever. i recently put up a video that was 21 seconds long and it took me an hour. anyway, once the videos are all up, i’ll either edit this post and put them in, or give them their own post. most likely the latter because its the lazy way to go.

anyway, i’ll stop here cause there isn’t too much more to write about. again, i’m working on getting those videos up, and one of my new years resolution is to update this thing a little more often. hopefully go back to normal where i was updating about once a week. merry christmas and happy new year to those of you i didn’t get to say that to!