Shibuya Streets

So, apparently I'm gonna be asked questions or something on this thing called a podcast. I wonder what that's all about?
 
You should all totally send me some questions about it.
 
Or something.

So... what has been going on in my life for the past month?
 
Well, we've been running around to appointments almost every day for various things. It has been very exhausting and there hasn't been much time to relax. Needless to say I haven't been on BZPower much, nor have I been able to finish something I've been meaning to get done.
 
Sadly, the government still sucks at getting us aid regarding Sandy. FEMA money for housing is going to run out soon... and insurance is still trying to not pay anything. Needless to say money is running out and I will be honest I am freaking terrified of what might happen.
 
Terrified.
 
In my limited free time and relaxation time I have been playing a few video games on the Wii U and 3DS, in part thanks to a birthday gift of an eShop card from a friend. That went to Animal Crossing/Fire Emblem DLC/The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages. I have also been enjoying my 2nd Super Metroid playthrough. So gaming has been a good way to relieve a bit of stress. Heck aside from a few other places on the internet it has been the only way of stress relief for us.

Hopefully I can get my big gaming related project online soon. This is something that I've had in my heart in various forms for years. Seeing it come to life has definitely helped keep me going.
 
I would also like to thank Jedi Master J. He is still awesome and seriously one of the best people I know.
 
Anyway, I'm going to hope that I can be online a bit more this month. If anything I will be posting my E3 thoughts... if I'm not playing Animal Crossing.
 
Can we just move to an Animal Crossing town? It seems really peaceful and stable and we could really use that.
 
My avatar on here and my twitter avatar have something to do with my secret project... I wonder what it is?

The past month has been very busy for me. I've been exhausted most of the time and have only been home in the evenings. That said there are some (very short) highlights.
 
I've been playing a lot of Lego City: Undercover for the Wii U... I wonder just how good that game is?
 
The Rayman challenges app on the Wii U is a lot of fun too.
 
I got to hang out in NYC with my boyfriend and an awesome friend yesterday. My legs hurt from all the walking.
 
Iron Man 3 is awesome go watch it.
 
As for life things... still nothing new on the house front and we can't fix things until the insurance company gives us money. And we can't accept the small offers they have given us as you can't fix a house with the numbers they are offering and ahhhhhh.
 
Free Comic book day brought us free comics.
 
The project Aleks and I are working on now has a mascot character and I am so excited for it.
 
Jedi Master J is an awesome friend and one of the coolest people ever.
 
Also it is my Birthday and this month feels good. This month feels good to me.

Guyssss there is a Wifi access point that says this:
 
 ┓┏ 凵 =╱⊿┌┬┐
 
I'm scared
 
I
 
Don't
 
Know
 
Where
 
I
 
Am

So, Aleks and I talked with the guy in charge of New York Comic Con. And by talk I mean emailed.
 
You see with Hurricane Sandy that has obviously hurt us in many ways, especially financially. (Not to mention the unlivable house.)
 
So after explaining the situation, he authorized the most awesome thing ever.
 
Two four day passes for us. For free. Which helps us financially and it gives us an incredible weekend of happiness and fun to look forward too.
 
Which is something we need so badly.
 
We are so excited and blown away by the generosity.
 
We are very thankful for this as it is just so nice. Having something to look forward to makes things easier.
 
New York Comic Con is seriously the best convention ever!
 
(Sorry Brickfair, but NYCC has you beat.)

I must like pain. I have Bionicle: The Game on three different systems.
 
Three of them.
 
PC, PS2, and now Gamecube.
 
You see a week ago, Gamestop had used copies without boxes for less than $2 each. I bought one.
 
I LIKE PAINNNNNNNN

Yay, it is time for a Hurricane Sandy update. Unfortunately that is where the good news pretty much ends. As you all know we’ve applied for FEMA and for insurance. Insurance is one huge argument that we are dealing with and they are only covering the house Aleks and I live in. FEMA will also only cover us for that one house.
 
We have nothing coming in for the house that Aleks’ grandfather lives in. This is the main reason we are raising money and have been to a handful of town meetings to get the Town of Hempstead to actually apply for federal help. Overall the town has been pretty useless. Hopefully we can get some change going on.
 
The main issue right now is in regards to FEMA. They pay for rental assistance which allows us to a have a roof over our head. Or at least they are supposed to be paying for that, but they are fighting and being difficult and at one point they had the gall to say we didn’t have any damage from water. The tons of photographic evidence we have disagrees with that.
 
Needless to say FEMA has only paid out for 1 month plus security deposit. We’ve managed to scrape by as we hope for a payout but things are getting very dangerous and close to when rent needs to be paid. We have been on the phone constantly trying to make things happen but…. Things are getting close. We are still asking for donations to help, once FEMA does come through donations will continue to be used for Aleks’ grandfather’s house.
 
We are still working on getting permits to actually have his house torn down. The town and various organizations we need permits from have been very difficult to work with in this regard. The town can actually make a lot of money off it if they tear it down themselves and charge us.
 
The ripout has been done on our house however no progress can be made for rebuilding until we can find out what money will be available to us.
 
Once again and continuing from earlier we are asking for donation of anything to help us. Thank you very much!
 
-Joseph

 
 
Oh... that's why. Thanks Iwata!

So as a few people know my mother went into the hospital a few weeks back. It wasn't very good and we were all worried.
 
Her condition got a lot better and as of today she is in a really good nursing home.
 
During that period I asked a friend known as Cammiluna(she has an awesome webcomic and is an all around awesome person) to make an image that I could print out and send to my mother.
 
I chose a theme of the Legend of Zelda because my mother got me into Zelda. It was something we bonded over. And ages ago she could be the original game in about 2 hours. The Legend of Zelda created a special connection for us.
 
Here is the amazing work of art she created.
 
Thanks Cammiluna!
 
I can also report that she loved it.

Here have a gif of our Sugar Gliders going after our cat:
 

Sooo... I saw it coming from a mile away.
 

 
Gallery for a few more images.
 
I’ve owed you all an update on this for awhile. We got the final ripout of our house done and… well it is freaking depressing.

We also have heaters and dehumidifiers to try and dry the place out, but with the weather how it is, they aren’t very effective. We are trying to save the subfloor, but I’m not sure if we can. We are also working on permits and so much more information about programs to get money. We also want to try to get the house raised to prevent this from happening again.

So yeah, not much can happen because it is winter, hence the lack of updates.

Once again, we ask that if you can, please donate to help us here.
 

 
 
A Reggie is forever.

Today has been an eventful day in gaming. There was a lot of good and bad that happened today.
 
The Good
Lego City: Undercover now has a release date in the UK thanks to today's European Nintendo Direct. You guys can pick it up on March 28th.
The Wii U lineup just got a lot better, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, and an Untitled Zelda were announced.
Untitled 3D Mario and Untitled Mario Kart will be fully unveiled at E3.
Super Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS will have the first details and screenshots shown at E3.
Yarn Yoshi, or Yoshi's Epic Yarn looks simply adorable.
Miiverse will be getting new features. The ability to create user communities, more than one official communities per title, usability improvements, filtering function, the ability to browse Miiverse from smartphones beginning this spring and it will have a special smartphone app in the future
Virtual Console will be getting GBA games! Also if you transfer games over from the Wii, upgrades will cost $1 to $1.50. The games will have more features such as off TV play.
Monolith Soft has a new game coming tentatively titled X.
Fire Emblem and Shin-Megami Tensei crossover game will be coming here too.
Wii U will get needed system updates in the Spring and Summer.
 
The Bad
Virtual Console games are getting a slight price increase.  For NES: $4.99 – $5.99 SNES: $7.99 – $8.99
THQ is officially no more with most of the studios and IPs having been sold off to various companies.
G4 which was once a gaming giant has aired the final episodes of XPlay and Attack of the Show today.
 
 
 
A lot was announced today by Nintendo as it was almost a mini E3, I'm personally looking forward to their E3 showing even more. I am very excited for what is coming on the Wii U this year.

 
 
Yeah... we're doomed.