indigozeal | Entries tagged with link drawer

I was offered Lost Voices, the YA tale of a girl who surrenders to despair in the icy waters of the Alaskan wilderness and instead of dying becomes a mermaid, through Amazon Vine but didn't pull the trigger. The cover is haunting, the story sweet wish-fulfillment, and the material pertinent to my interest in mermaids, but the whole bit about the heroine "hav[ing] a shot at being their queen" regarding her new mermaid friends tipped me that it was going a little too far in the wish-fulfillment direction.
And now I see it's part of a trilogy. Of course it's part of a trilogy. What isn't these days.

Synapsis 2 is billed a Manhole-meets-Silent Hill-esque abstract adventure game, but I can't get it to run on my comp and therefore can't vouch for its quality. I can, however, vouch for Tanooky Tracks, a puzzle-come-adventure game with charming art that's just the right length and difficulty for a respectable time-waster.

A collection of fan-made game covers based on the Criterion Collection style. A lot of chaff, but there are a few memorable ones that smartly reflect their games' inspiration - the cover for Outrun, the visual pun in beige for Bioshock, the clever workaround for the completely-text Zork, the second one for Mirror's Edge (to which this Frogger cover is kin - and, BTW, I love that that frog's up to skimming Harriers now). Those two photo ones for the first Zelda are almost there. Final Fantasy (you'll know which when you see it), Atari's Tennis, Braid, Silent Hill, Super Metroid...ahhh, there's enough good stuff there. I still haven't looked through them all.

A must-see piece of fanart for Clock Tower fans. And Lotte! No one does fanart of Lotte, and she rocks. It's a shame.

Interesting if it works: boost your router signal strength using only a beer (or soft drink) can.

Meat Shield is a bit newspaper-strippy for my tastes, but something about the sweetly dumb titular protagonist makes me think twice about chopping the link.

I've always found this set of Star Trek IV icons by

_running_alone_ hilarious.

Looking at the bright anime visuals of the Mega-CD Arcus 1-2-3 makes me wonder why it never caught the eye of Working Designs or another localizer to come to U.S. shores. Reading this review, I'm still perplexed. (Dungeon crawlers not in vogue, perhaps?)

Also, I know last time I said the Kunio-kun gamebook cannot be topped, but here we go: a Knight Rider gamebook. Also, one for the original Final Fantasy. And Final Fantasy II, with the scariest cover ever.
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Another ModCloth debacle: this giftwrap-bow ring wrought in silver is clever and darling, but could my alligator hands pull it off?

I was e-mailed the link to this Lunar fanart from mangaka Michirou Ueyama by a gracious individual and now pass it on to you.

The NCSX description of 99 no Namida: At the outset, the Namida software throws a few personality questions at the user and creates a sort of emotional profile from the answers. A short story then plays out on the screen which is designed to make the reader cry. This is why I wish Japanese DS games were less expensive; I'd love to be able to play around more with crazy titles like this.
NETA: Dang! It's on Amazon for only 580 yen! ...Buuuut shipping is 2700. Argh.

Perhaps the most thorough set of FFIV links out there, including a directory of Japanese fanart that's fun to peruse.

A collection of Japanese Ultima promo tchotchkes and Ultima-related books. From the cover blurb from the novel The Bride from Another Dimension, allegedly:
"Is there such unreasonable ULTIMA ?
Lord British will be get very angry
It'OK
Anyway American can not read it ! ha.. ha.. ha..!"

American Soda is a UK shop which specializes in importing U.S. foods. Their most popular in-stock items as of this writing include Mounds candy bars, cans of pumpkin pie filling, Cheerios, Necco Wafers (ehhh, but they're a distinctive regional candy, so OK), Boston Baked Beans (aren't the peanuts always rotten in those?)...Mike & Ike in lemonade flavors (someone just has overstock)...blue raspberry Tootsie Rolls...and Now and Laters?!?!?!? Someone is voluntarily paying actual money for those?!
Other oddly popular items from elsewhere on the site include Aunt Jemima pancake mix, saltines, Rice-a-Roni, Arm & Hammer baking soda, and Gatorade. It kills me that people are importing Gatorade, but I wonder if there are Japanese folks who load up J-List and think, "they're importing CalorieMate? Really???"

I don't care how the readers of Good Show Sir! voted; this is the greatest book cover of all time.
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Even with such an overmined theme as the zombie apocalypse, webcomic dead.winter proves a cut above through good pacing, a focus on character over gore, and a likable heroine (an optimistic young waitress in a miserable lot careerwise). The artist, though, is little too eager to embrace cliche - a particular problem in a genre that's nearly nothing but cliche at this point - and certain scenes trend toward the thin and cartoonish as a result. (Skip every panel that deals with the Matrix knockoff in the red sunglasses.) That didn't stop me from mainlining the entire archive within the past couple days, however. (Random thought: it's a pity the artist doesn't work with night scenes more, as the comic's style and palette lend them a certain intimacy - cf. the early hospital trip.)

An entire semester of lectures on Tolkien. I can't vouch for the quality - laptop sound problems - but will sure to hit up the Silmarillion ones once my laptop gets repaired.
ETA: I'm on a computer with sound now, and in the very first lecture, the eponymous professor a) leads off with an obnoxious pitch to get on The Colbert Report and b) spends five minutes defining the word "thrall." So never mind.

Fruit Shop is Bejeweled with missions (you have to complete groups of a certain color to proceed from stage to stage) and, thanks to a merciless timer that's impossible to refill meaningfully, shorter play sessions.

For all your inexpensive ocarina needs. Also, for your even-more-portable ocarina needs.

Given its topography, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Australia has come up with a surprisingly comprehensive suicide prevention campaign.

You'd be hard-pressed to find more sumptuous LotR movie art than the work of Bohemian Weasel, whose paintings, pencils, and pastels populate much of the Topps Masterpieces trading card line. Go for the character art, stay for the landscapes. Be sure to click through that LiveJournal link to her private site as well.

My, I didn't know there was an actual anime based on Kate Beaton et al.'s Strong Female Characters.

Fangamer at first seems like Threadless for the Chrono Trigger set: Lavos hoodies! Gate Key keychains! Magus silhouette pins, aggravatingly packaged with a not-great T-shirt! But goddamn is the site design atrocious. (ProTIP: The properly magnified images are waaaaay at the bottom of the page.) Also, the lack of proper licensing leads to some frustrating compromises: "Dark" Omen, indeed.
But this SMB pipe mug is unreservedly lovely.
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I'm not entirely sure why I have a PDF of a Japanese travel brochure for Mont Saint-Michel and Spain bookmarked, but it sure is pretty, isn't it.

Likewise, I'm not sure why I have the entry for the game Legendary Inn. It's in Chinese, which I can't read, and skimming the description, it seems like a hybrid dating game/inn-management simulator. A bit interesting, but nothing to bookmark for future reference.

I like the idea behind BagNews Notes - analyzing news photographs for the story or angle intended by the photographer through overlooked elements of composition - but it too often goes for the cheap shots politically. Most often correct, but cheap and facile, which is particularly frustrating when merely sticking to the site's supposed mission statement would provide much moer substantive takedowns (ETA: see here). Also, I feel uncomfortable with their lobbying for the release of bin Laden postmortem photos.

Man, I've tried to like (or at least tolerate) Chocablog, but the articles are as substantive as an Aero bar. Seven writers, and not one of them could pen a review suitable by even Amazon standards. It's unfortunate, considering the ridiculously lavish samples they receive from luxury chocolatiers. If you give the site a look at all, go for the photos of exotic concoctions like the mad Zotter bars in olive-and-lemon and cheese-walnut-grape or the not-luxury-but-still-half-cocked Cadbury Bar of Plenty.

Miniature old-time maps and charts. I don't have a dollhouse but find the small-scale elfin reproduction of material that was half-mystic from the start fascinating.

This person has a pretty LiveJournal setup. (This applies if s/he still has a header of cirrus clouds in a steel blue-grey sky against a pale grey backdrop and a Legolas icon in a muted palette, with the journal title "I go to find the sun.")

Dichroic glass, man, I dunno. It looks so neat in pictures - and that bracelet is indeed neat - but it never looks quite right worn, y'know? You can never find outfits that go with so many colors at once, and the riot of bright hues and metallic shine always ends up looking somewhat gaudy.

I bookmarked this to look up a certain term regarding hairstyles, but if you'd like to read a Japanese hairdresser's blog, here you go.

The recent official FFIV novelization. Don't think I'll be getting it, considering how it apparently ties into the lackluster modern sequels. (On that note, how irritating to find a reissue of a solid work graffitied over by references to a lackluster sequel in an attempt to force the public to embrace it. I'm looking at you, Chrono Trigger DS.)
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I went through a phase last summer where, inspired by Neo Angelique, I wanted to plant some lavender roses. Unfortunately, the Angel Face roses available at the nearest garden center of suitable size to carry them (thirty miles away) are a Floribunda variety, and I've never cared for the Floribunda shape. The available tea varieties aren't available where I live, it seems. I ended up getting an Easy Does It bush, which is a...er...Floribunda, but the blooms turn from yellow tinged with pink to apricot as they age, like a sunset, so they're worth it.
(In other news, discovered while search for Easy Does It pics: ha ha, I'm glad there's a vocal contingency in the gardening community proclaiming that Knock Outs suck. You can get common wild roses, Rosa rugosa, that're just as hardy and actually look decent.)
(In other other news, there're supposedly blue roses now - apparently much more lavender than that photo would have you believe, though. Also, that company's supposed to be a rip-off joint, plants always arriving late and near-dead. Still, for the price, might as well give it a try.)

This person made a Surlent doll. All but one of the photos are gone now. ((N)ETA: Wait a minute.) (Here, have a Rosalia too.)

Celeborn doll. More LotR dolls if you look around, including this Arwen dress.

Odd, revealing, or accidentally artistic shots from Google Street View.

The Diamond Key was quite thoroughly LPed so I don't need to play it myself, but if you have some time to kill, it and many other choose-your-own-adventure gamebooks are available for online play.

Finally, the origin of Mugen Gakuen?
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Man, I've sure bookmarked a lot of citation guides. Crossing i's and dotting t's formatwise always was a problem for me.

The barrette maker Olivia's Journée showed at the ever-crowded Common Ground Fair, but I didn't look thoroughly, perhaps because the booth was too close for comfort when I happened by. Unfortunately, the barrette that caught my eye, which looks like a dense forest of 3-D dragonflies, apparently isn't available online. (Failing to move on things I like is a recurring problem of mine.) I like her single dragonfly, frog, and moon barrettes, and her prices are reasonable, but I demur from ordering perhaps because I've bought two beautiful barrettes at Bar Harbor that I've yet to wear.

I'm not sure why I bookmarked this interview with Shinji Mikami about the original, canned sequel to Resident Evil. I recall trying to track down the source of the (obviously mistaken) idea that the franchise took its U.S. name from that "house of residing evil" line from Sweet Home. (I mean, come on; you don't have to know Japanese to tell that translation is obviously forced.) The interview's worth a read regardless. (I never knew Mikami worked on one of the 16-bit Aladdin titles.)
(Bioflames is an excellent Resident Evil site, BTW.)

Will I ever make cannoli cake? Man, looking at those ingredients, I should.

Multiplayer King's Quest. Well, "multiplayer" in that you're all playing simultaneously, not that you're helping each other out, but still - online King's Quest. (Wonder what the enemy pathing is like with multiple Grahams.)

My, but this person has a wealth of unique NES references in her icons.

I found a site hosting oekaki from a ridiculous range of older games, most of which don't get much fan love - on just the syllable "a" alone, I found The Outfoxies, Afterburner, and, yes, the NES Ice Hockey. There's some nice stuff on here, like Ultima: Quest of the Avatar or the second pic for Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - probably the best portrait of Lufia's Jerin I've seen, and I think the first pic on the Ultima: Exodus page is one for the ages.

OK, one more: Elevator Action. There is Elevator Action fanart.
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I wanted this rainbow-plaid top, and it's gone. I don't think it was ever in stock by the time I twigged to its existence. I'm not sure I could've ever convinced cheap me to buy it at $55, but anyhow.
(Update: Apparently, the shirt's by BB Dakota and wasn't a ModCloth exclusive. Still out of stock everywhere, though. An eBay search turned up a hand-me-down, though, albeit in the wrong size, so maybe I'll get lucky eventually.)
(Incidentally, ModCloth, the shop behind the first link, has some fabulously stylish home decor/tchotchkes through which to browse if you've got some time to kill.)

I don't wear earrings, but it's remarkable what this woman can make out of clay. Miniature Tom Servos. (And that "make any book into a mini pendant" listing - y'know, a Vheen Hikuusen charm doesn't sound so bad...)

An astonishingly large museum of tarot designs.

Will I ever need to know MLA format again? AGU is the new hotness. (Seriously, I probably will need it again, but not often enough to keep a perpetual link.)

Why did I keep this directory of knockoff My Little Ponies in my bookmarks? It's not the directory that's lacking - it's excellent; it's the ponies themselves. I think there might be an appealing new color combination that Hasbro never tried, an interesting take on a design, but no; they're always disappointing. (That blue Sweetheart Sister is rather comely, though.)

How to make Cadbury eggs at home, not that I'll ever do this. Instructions on how gradually to shrink the sizes from year to year not included.

Likewise, I don't think I'll ever make grilled pigeon or cheese pudding from this list of European WWII recipes. Honey cakes and mock goose, maybe.

The best use to which those iron-together plastic beads were ever put.
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More links that need to be cleared out:

I don't think anything named a "cha-cha ring" is really in my wheelhouse. I love bluebells, blue glass, and intriguingly-shaped beads, though, and I wish I could pull this off.

I got some homemade The World Ends with You buttons a while ago but wasn't really impressed with their quality. I'm hoping that this seller had more success. It looks, though, that I've waited too long to pull the trigger, as s/he seems to have eliminated the in-game designs from the store. I'm not sure on what I would have put the pins, anyway.

I'm not sure what compelled me to add the Amazon entry for Full Dark House to my bookmarks. The fountain-pen-and-parchment cover art? The promise of the adventures of an English Peculiar Crimes Unit? (I have no particular affection for England, yet the setting's use in genre fiction usually promises proceedings more intellectual and/or cozily personal.) I don't know if I'll ever get around to trying it, though; I read so little mystery these days that isn't Christie.

This site on how to evaluate webpages for factual accuracy is useful, but I've internalized all its techniques.

I always hope The Book Seer will be of use someday, but it's never recommended a book I want to read. Most often, it can't come up with any suggestions at all. I think it's time to pack it in.

The ideal response to an extrovert's incredulous tirade after reading "Caring for Your Introvert": "You are a wonderful person. Now please shush."
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Links that've kept a space on my favorites list for an extended period of time, usually for puzzling or defunct reasons:

I was fond of the moonlit palms in one of the user icons of

bella_sol. She apparently works with stock photography, and I believe I bookmarked this with the intention of sorting through her entries later, but her gallery is either friends-only or gone now.

There's a reason everyone has a userpic from

iconzicons. I find their animated Simpsons icons particularly inspired. Search the tags; there's something for everybody. (That goes even if you have no use for icons; they're perfect little 100x100 blocks of comedy.)

I've always had an interest in color, and it meets my interest in Japan at Iromi no Yakata, a compendium of Japanese colors with their values in hexadecimal helpfully appended. So I guess that makes it useful on three counts.

Speakng of color, only the possible poor contrast of the small gemstone size against my beefy alligator hands makes me pause at picking up this blue topaz and rhodolite ring. You can see confetti collections of gemstones on tens of rings on the shopping channels, but it's rare to see the concept tackled tastefully, with colors of genuine intensity.

I'm in the Amazon Vine program (high-ranking reviewers get free preview copies of certain books and other merchandise upon request), which has attracted some understandable criticism for possibly skewing user reviews in exchange for freebie bribes. I haven't inflated any star tallies personally - most of my Vine picks have been disappointments - but I wonder if choosing The Sixty-Eight Rooms, the tale of two kids shrink down Wonderland-like to uncover adventure and mystery at the Chicago Art Institute's Thorne Rooms wouldn't have more successfully endangered my reviewer cred. I had its Vine entry bookmarked but never moved on it, possibly out of fear of wasting my picks on kids' books - stupid, as the adult selections sure haven't worked out.

I don't know what this "Pop Wonderland" is, but I've always kept around this Play-Asia artbook entry for its cheerfully blue illustration of a mermaid. I've always been partial to mermaids, and the watercolor of the blue-haired child here seems so wholesomely happy and non-exploitive compared to other loli-themed art.
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