NakedSushi

Me vs. Stacy the Manager

Don’t laugh at my Game Face ™! This weekend was the Ladies of Street Fighter tournament at Arcade Infinity. It was the first tournament I’d ever seen in person, much less played in, but it was a good experience. I hadn’t imagined it would be so nerve-wracking.

I came in 5th place out of 15, which I was happy about. My only goal was not to come in last, which I didn’t, so it was a pretty successful tournament for me. I just wish I practiced doing ultras more on the joystick by pressing three buttons at once instead of the shortcut button. I guess I should have realized the arcade machines only had the three punch and three kick buttons, on the extra two. Oops!

Although I had apprehensions about joining an all girls tournament, it actually turned out okay. All the girls were very nice and not too “Yay girl power,” which was what I was afraid of. It was also nice seeing all the guys who came out to support the girls, or to just yell at the screen.

Thanks Scott, who let me borrow the arcade stick to practice on. I’m taking a break from SFIV for now, but I think if I ever get the hankering to play it some more, I’m going to get my own stick. Also thx to the BF for taking pictures of me and my Game Face. I didn’t realize I looked so serious!

Links:
Results @ Arcade Infinity
Images by Karaface

I dove right into Dead to the World (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 4) after finishing the previous book, Club Dead. In Dead to the World, Eric gets cursed with amnesia, witches appear, and more were-animal stuff happens. It’s good that Charlaine Harris paced the introduction of all the supernatural characters separately. Readers would be overwhelmed if the book all of a sudden threw werewolves, vampires and witches at them at the same time.

This is the book that endeared me to Eric even more. Now, I’m rooting for Eric + Sookie rather than Eric + Bill. The amnesia bit is tired a cliched, but it does lend to some steamy scenes. The ending big fight (without giving too much away) seemed a little far-fetched with the way how no one other than the ones involved noticed it happening, but I guess it requires a lot of suspension of belief.

I’m voraciously going through the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, if you can’t tell by now.  This weekend, I finished Club Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 3).  The change of scenery and the introduction of werewolves was refreshing in this book, but Bill’s fall from grace was not. To say I was disappointed in his actions is an understatement.

This third book seems more like a soap opera than a mystery novel.  Even though the mystery is still there, it’s clear that the focus of the book are character interactions and reactions to what happens.  I liked the book, but I’d rank this as the weakest one so far from the series.

(before & after)

It’s only been 10 days but my little tomato plant is really taking off! Not to mention the two basil plants cohabiting the container. Looks like I’m going to need to stake the plant soon though. There are already a handful of blossoms on the plant and you know what the blossoms lead to: tomatoes!  I guess fertilizing plants really does do good things to it. Who would’ve guessed?

The Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris moves right along, as evident by how quickly I finished the second book, Living Dead in Dallas. This time, Sookie Stackhouse takes on a small job in Dallas for the the vampires, or more specifically, Eric the sheriff of Area 5. But that’s not all. There has also been a murder in her own town which she has to get to the bottom of.

Living Dead in Dallas builds more on the handful of main characters than the previous book. I found myself liking Eric more and more as the book went on. While the first book sets up the town and fictional world Sookie inhabits, the second book makes readers more familiar with Eric, Pam, Sam, and Bill.

The plot, or more specifically, the mystery in the second book engaged me more than the first one, but that may be because I knew about the first one before I read it. I liked that there were actually two story arcs which were both resolved by the time the book ended. While cliffhangers are good to keep readers wanting more, closure is more satisfying.

Review of 1st book in this series