The Nightingale and the Rose

"What a silly thing Love is," said the Student as he walked away. "It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not true."

(From The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde)

I don't actually agree with that at all, but the cynic in me (the one that ruled my teens and the first few years of my twenties) enjoyed it.

I've been reading The Complete Short Stories of Oscar Wilde...Mostly because I loved The Picture of Dorian Gray so much. The conclusion I've come to so far is that these stories are beautiful. Normally, if I'm reading a short story, it includes dialogue such as, "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter." (Except, not THAT line, because that's actually from The Maltese Falcon, which was not a short story.) But these stories are beautifully written...And they end tragically. So in the end, I'm left feeling confused. Not confused by the stories, but confused by conflicting emotions. Still, I'm enjoying them.

This is my terrible attempt at keeping my word about more book reviews. The past two weeks were hectic. I'm trying.

It's not being a fangirl, it's knowing what I want from a gaming console.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this on here, so I'm going to now.

Up until 2007, I ONLY owned Nintendo consoles. The NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube and Gameboy Advance SP. (I own a DS now, but that was after 2007, so it's irrelevant.) I loved Nintendo, that was all I needed. The Xbox wasn't even on the radar for me, and I couldn't stand the thought of Sony. So what happened?

When I bought my Gamecube, I mostly played survival horror games on it. Resident Evil. Resident Evil 0. Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 3. Resident Evil Code Veronica X. Eternal Darkness. (I also own Resident Evil 4, but let's be serious. At what point is that ever a survival horror game? Other than the two seconds you play as Ashley.) I loved survival horror, and I wanted to try more games in that genre. Sadly, MOST of them were on the PS2, including the Silent Hill series. But, as luck would have it, Silent Hill 2 was also a PC game. So I bought it. That's when my love for Nintendo, exclusively, went out the window.

I was amazed by Silent Hill 2. It was scary and it had a really incredible story, albeit with pretty dull gameplay, but I've always overlooked that because it's completely worth it. I wanted to play the rest of the series. The only way to do that, though, was to buy a PS2. Or, the other option, a PS3 with backwards compatibility. And with Silent Hill: Homecoming announced for the PS3 (along with Resident Evil 5), the PS3 was the best option. Even if it did make me cringe.

So I got my PS3, and it was gorgeous. Best looking console I've ever owned, hands down. And it did EVERYTHING. I could store pictures, music and movies on it, go on the internet, message people, and on top of all that, play games. It was basically a computer. Now I could play all the games I was never able to play before (except for when Mana Khemia 2 came out for the PS2 last summer and it was not compatible with my 80GB PS3, forcing me to buy a PS2, which I also love now). I bought the entire Silent Hill series. Siren. Kuon. Haunting Ground. Clock Tower 3. And the Fatal Frame series. Then, something happened.

Fatal Frame 4, for reasons completely unknown, was announced as a Wii exclusive. None of the previous games had ever been released on a Nintendo console. Why start now? Oh, that's right, because I didn't own a Wii and it was still impossible to find one in stores at that point. Solution? Ask my cousin, who was a Gamestop employee at the time, to put a Wii on hold for me as soon as the next shipment came in. Problem solved! I now owned a Wii, and it was so cute and tiny next to my giant PS3. My giant, bulky PS3 that took up so much space...

For a couple months, I really loved my Wii. It was going to allow me the opportunity to play Fatal Frame 4! The Fatal Frame series is my favorite survival horror series. I was SO excited! Plus, it allowed me to play old NES, SNES and N64 games thanks to the Virtual Console. AND, I could also play my Gamecube games on there. Sure, it couldn't store pictures, music and movies. And it doesn't have the best setup for online gaming. But still! ...Then it was announced that Fatal Frame 4 was never coming to America.

What did my Wii do then? I owned Wii games, sure. But I didn't really like most of them. And some, I didn't care about one way or the other. They were decent, but not amazing. And at a time when I was discovering the Disgaea series and playing it on my PS3 (Disgaea 3 would go on to become my favorite game of all time), what did the Wii really have to offer? It offered me NES, SNES and N64 games. And the ability to play my Gamecube games, which was pointless since I already HAD a Gamecube. I was playing games on there that I LOVED, that were released for OTHER consoles. The Wii offered me what older consoles had already offered. It wasn't giving me anything new. I wasn't enjoying the Wii, I was enjoying those other consoles. And I was bitter over the fact that I bought it exclusively for Fatal Frame 4, and I would never get the chance to play it now, because apparently, it's "not [Reggie's] problem."

The PS3 kept offering me new games to play. Online multiplayer was fun, and really, there was nothing for me to complain about. Aside from my brief lapse in judgment when I first bought the Wii, I still loved my PS3.

I won't even get into the issue of the DS vs. the PSP right now, I'll save that for another post.

The point is, I can back up my opinions. I feel the way I do for a reason. It's not just, "The Wii sucks!" And that's it. The Wii doesn't meet my gaming needs. And as for my distaste for the Xbox, well...Aside from the RRoD issue, it's just not for me. I'm not interested in FPS games. The RPGs I want to play are not available on the 360. And the survival horror series I'm interested in release their games for both consoles, so it would be completely unnecessary to buy a 360. Plus, Microsoft charges you to play online, while Sony allows you to do so for free. (Granted, they're going to start charging for premium accounts, but everything that you've been able to do up until now is STILL going to be free.) I DO love my PS3, but everyone has a preference. That's mine.

Catching Fire

I finished reading this book like...A month ago? And I really wanted to review it and expand on the post I made about Hunger Games, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I will though! It was so, so amazing. But again, I was left with a feeling of wanting to throw the book across the room after I finished reading it. I cannot wait for Mockingjay to come out in August.

He's so sneaky

You don't even see him until it's too late and he's already sprawled out on the floor. Isn't he cute? :)

The cutestttt cat ever

Makeup can completely transform a person, and to prove it, let's play a game.

These pictures were taken from Making Faces by Kevyn Aucoin. Sorry about the glare. :) Anyway, the book is completely amazing, and I definitely recommend it.

I'm not going to say who these women are, but feel free to guess. I promise, you've heard of all of them before. As for who they're portraying...That might be left in the pictures. The only reason I cut some of them is because their names were in the description and I didn't want to give it away.