I haven't been able to post in a while, as I've been busy with work and making life altering choices on my career recently. However, that doesn't mean I can't take time out to wish this community and Niero a happy birthday.

So thank you everyone for making this site great, thanks for becoming my friend and colleague. This place has helped me personally and professionally. For the first time since college I feel like I connect with people.

Also, regardless of whatever bullshit and drama that may happen here, I ignore most of it and focus on the one thing that we are all passionate about here: video games. I know it can be hard sometimes, but I see big picture, and overall Niero has done some amazing things with this place. It's unlike any other gaming site I've visited on the interwebs.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Here's to more snarkiness!

See you all at PAX.

I got peer-pressured by the other students to share with the class, so here goes:

1. I’ve always been into computers. My Dad brought home our first computer when I was three and apparently my parents said I thanked my Dad for “buying me a computer.”

2. I used to think the age of three was the normal age for people to learn how to read, since that was when I learned how to read. When I was in 8th grade my English teacher made a big deal about Michael London learning how to read when he was only five. I didn’t know what the big deal was.

3. I was born with my ears sticking out, kind of like Dumbo or Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I chose to have the surgery when I was five to remove the excess cartilage. I still have scars behind my ears.

4. I have perfect pitch. That means I can identify any note without a reference. While it let me skip most of Ear Training I in college, I don’t use it as a crutch. It’s just helpful for me to hear things.

5. I was born in New Hampshire and lived there until I was 23. Then I moved to Minneapolis, MN and went to grad school there. I moved to Ann Arbor Michigan for six months and then to Los Angeles, CA. I like to call myself a New Englander who lives in Cali. I will never call myself a Californian. Needless to say, I’m sick of moving, and I want to settle in SoCal. Winter is overrated.

6. A lot of my friends from high school grew up to become artists and musicians. It’s one of my fantasies to do some sort of collaborative project with them for the fun of it. It will most likely never happen because they are scattered all over the United States, but it’s part of why I always like the idea of friends working together on projects. I want to extend that same love with other DToiders.

7. I worry a lot, about everything. I’ve had problems with anxiety ever since I was a kid, in a medical sort of way. I got officially diagnosed when I was 22 after trying to ignore it. I have it under control now, but I still find myself getting nervous over the stupidest of things, like get-togethers with friends.

8. I get attached to things and people. If I call you a friend, I mean it. If it’s a hobby I enjoy, I’m passionate about it. It’s probably why I play so many video games.

9. I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m meant to make the world a better place. I don’t mean becoming a famous person or anything like that, but I feel like my purpose in life is important, and when I’m not contributing (like my current state of unemployment), I feel like I’m not living up to my potential.

10. DToid has been one of the best things to happen to me in the last year. I didn’t know anybody when I moved to Los Angeles, and I didn’t get out much. When I discovered all the amazing people from the community lived so close by and started hanging out, it was the first time in years I felt like I had friends again. I think it’s been the constant moving but I haven’t been in one place long enough to get to know a lot of people. Then thanks to IRC and PAX I met more nice people. I love Zero with all my heart, but he knows how much I value friendship. I think some married people put too much stock in their spouses and forget that they need other people.

Alright, that was a bit schmoopy. I’m going to go sit back at my desk now.

I woke up tired and sad thinking I lost my keys, but then I realized it was Tyra Tuesday. Magically Tyra found my keys and I was happy.

To thank her I want to show everyone how adorable she is:




Even evil Tyra-head is adorable



Thanks Tyra for finding my keys!



The End.

I first met ZeroAtma in the fall of 1999. I was beginning my sophomore year in college and he was starting his freshman year. We both moved in early, so we pretty much had only each other to talk to, as we lived in the same dorm. I’m not sure if it was the huge dragon poster in my room or my SNES, but he knew I wasn’t like most girls. We became best friends overnight, and shortly thereafter (I was oblivious back then) we started dating. We quickly discovered the love for video games we both had and it became a huge part of our relationship.

Five and a half years later, Zero surprised me in the middle of the night in my Minneapolis apartment (he lived in Michigan at the time) with an engagement ring, a serenade, and two of our friends to capture the whole thing on film. I was surprised, and a bit groggy. It was 1:30 in the morning, and he underestimated how long it would take to drive from Ann Arbor to Minneapolis. Our own careers put off the wedding itself until after we moved yet again to California, and thought it would be nice to get married on the day we started dating, October 11th.

So what does this have to do with video games?

Like I said before we both love video games, probably a bit too much. It’s the subject of many of our conversations and our non-gaming friends know how much we love them. It was only expected that our wedding reflect that. I’m not a huge fan of dancing and always joked that we needed video games to play at our reception, otherwise I would ditch it after an hour. The joke slowly became a reality. I’m here to share the ways I geeked up my wedding, but at the same time, kept it affordable, classy, and gave the illusion that it was a normal wedding. I figured someone out there may be getting married soon and may want ideas. Either that or you can be entertained by all the geeky things we did.



The Invitations
I don’t know how many of you are married out there, but invitations are expensive. When I saw Nintendo’s press release for Super Paper Mario back in 2007 I loved the idea that they sent wedding invitations. It became the inspiration for the invitations we used. I bought cardstock and made my own, putting a picture of Peach and Bowser at the altar to put in the center of the invitation. The invitations cost about of third of what they normally would, and everybody loved them. No one had to question whether this was for our wedding or not.



The Music
DJ’s are expensive and play a lot of terrible music at weddings. I opted to pick out everything and plug an ipod up to speakers at the reception hall instead. While the main part of the reception had fairly traditional rock and jazz music for a wedding, the dinner music and ceremony music is where the inner nerd came out. I wrote an original tune for the processional, but did an arrangement of the Final Fantasy prologue music for the recessional. This is the same tune heard at the end of Final Fantasy IV when Cecil and Rosa get married and so I thought it was appropriate. One friend of ours, who was familiar with the game, cried when she heard the music, which was sweet. It made me feel like I made the right choice. At dinner all of the music played came from Dragon Quest. The composer Koichi Sugiyama has conducted and performed arrangements of all of the tunes from his games, which was great to have as background music. People unfamiliar with the games thought I was playing traditional classical music. I also threw in a little bit of music from Bioshock, because I’m in love with the soundtrack.



The Entertainment
I had music for people to dance to that wanted it, but off to the side I had a few TV’s connected up to a couple of Wiis. I had Wii Sports for the non-gamers, and Smash Brothers for the gamers (we were supposed to have Boom Blox too but we forgot the game at the last minute. Weddings aren’t perfect). Many of Zero’s older relatives enjoyed Wii Sports and it was great to have our old college friends, many with which we played Melee back in the day, to enjoy the successor.



The Cake
This is the one I know many of you readers want to see. I’ve talked about my wedding cake on Retroforce Go! asking for ideas. We wanted it game themed, but wasn’t sure which game at first. We debated everything from Mega Man, to Kingdom Hearts, to Dragon Quest. We decided on Final Fantasy IV because the game has a special place in both of our hearts, plus two of the characters get married at the end!



We went with a three layer traditional cake of which the top layer has blue crystals (which came out a bit large, but oh well), a middle layer with airships and chocobos and a bottom layer with the characters from the game. We brought in pictures of the airship, crystal and chocobo sprites for the baker. To make things look nicer, we got edible images of the characters, which we placed around the bottom layer of the cake. The crystals and ribbon around the cake were blue because it was our wedding color. Finally our cake topper was none other than our figures of Cecil and Rosa that Square Enix released in conjunction with Final Fantasy IV for the DS.



Our wedding was a fun day and unique for us. To the average stranger it looked like a typical wedding, but for those closest to us, it was nerdier than any other wedding they had attended ever. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Thanks to Square Enix and Kotaku today, I received the good news that Dragon Quest V received a US release date for February 17, 2009. For those unfamiliar with the game, this Dragon Quest title (along with Dragon Quest VI) have NEVER been released in the US before. Those who like to NOT download ROMS can NOT find a fully translated version of the original title for the Super NES, but being someone who does NOT play games like that, vows to purchase games that I NOT download from foreign lands.

From their press release:

DRAGON QUEST V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Scenario & Game Design: Yuji Horii
Character Design: Akira Toriyama
Music Composer: Koichi Sugiyama
Publisher: Square Enix, Inc.
Developer: ArtePiazza
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: RPG
ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10 and older)
Ship Date: February 17, 2009

Never before released in North America, this entry in the Zenithia Trilogy follows a journey that transcends three generations. Travel alongside your father on his quest to see the world, grow to set forth on a journey of your own and face life-altering decisions as you continue your family’s legacy. DRAGON QUEST V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride makes its way to Nintendo DS on February 17, 2009.

The official website can be found at http://na.square-enix.com/zenithia/.

Of course, there are other games, they have announced, but we know that my love is only for the slime.

Given how long it usually takes to localize Dragon Quest games, I'm STUNNED that we are getting this game as early as February.

As someone who has played this game from start to finish and love old school JRPGs I would HIGHLY recommend this game. It's different from DQIV, but does incorporate the world of Zenithia like DQIV does. You get to choose who to marry (which really only changes the hair color of your kids). This version adds a third option of ladies to choose. Who knows what the third lady may affect the outcome :O

I had my birthday on friday as many found out when Hamza spilled the beans on my Monthly Musing. I had a feeling my fiance was up to something but wasn't sure what. I come from dinner and find not only a bunch of people in my apartment (all of which are DToiders), but to find out that these people put their money together to get me this:



Yes a 32gig iPod Touch. Like with Chad a few weeks ago, Destructoid shares the love. The engraving on the back of my iPod says "With love, from your friends at Destructoid." I tried to take a picture so others could see the engraving, but the reflection was too much. I hope you guys take my word for it. I'm still pretty speechless and I have to say you guys are awesome. Even if you had nothing to do with this, it's okay. You are still awesome. I know there were at least some people who pitched in that live far away, and you know who you are ;)

Ever since PAX it's been proven time and time again that many of the community members are so friendly and so generous and I really feel like it's a strong point of this community. This birthday surprise is frosting on the cake (no pun intended).

It's been a crazy month birthday-wise and I hope that everyone who did celebrate a birthday this month had a great one! I know I did :)

Chad is right. This community rules.