Alexander Shen's Art Blog

Listening to: Nothing.
There are many tales of wonder and eatery that happened this past weekend in Seattle, but I thought I'd just share the one story about flying fish and fish juice. Basically, the Pike Place Market has a fish market called Pike Place Fish where they throw fish (just once) when you order.

During these daily fish throwing festivities, the employees also throw a test fish for tourists. During our walking tour, we got to see this test fish (a "T.T." for test throw) in action. When it was thrown back to the thrower, Josie and I ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Granted the main was able to catch the fish, but he wasn't able to stop fish juice and scales to continue traveling forward.

It was a great time had by everyone.

Related Link: Pike Place Fish

Wants to Listen To: Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up

Yep! I'm 27 years old and according to the illustration above I created with my new Intous2 (thanks Josie!), I'm pretty happy about it. Granted I haven't reached the tipping point of 30 quite yet, I feel that it won't be much different except I may have a little Shen running/crawling around the house by then. I'll probably also, somewhat hopefully, have a mortgage to pay. It's all stuff to look forward to.

Overall, the birthday experience went without a hitch. I played many fantastic arcade and pinball machines at California Extreme 2010, ate some finger licking good KFC, watched Dawn of the Dead (on HD-DVD) and played a game of Last Night On Earth The Zombie Game where I chainsaw'd three zombies in a row. That, unfortunately, is nothing compared to the Sheriff Brad's impressive eight zombie headshots. The man was basically standing in the middle of a field, drinking malt liquor and discharging his firearm haphazardly (once per turn). In the end, it saved us all. I may have to pick up the game, but only after I figure out how to play my newly acquired All Things Zombie board game.

So, yes, I'm 27 now and I'm looking forward to another year around the sun.

Related Link: Arkham Horror (I want this board game)

Listening to: Nothing.

We've been having unseasonable weather fluctuations in California lately. It was hot and humid last night, colder this morning, overly heated this past weekend and so on.

Related Link: Opinion Time: Hot or Cold on Awkward Reference

Listening to: Nothing. It's too warm to listen to music.

Personally, I use the memory eating internet browser known as Firefox.

Related Link: Firefox

Listening to: Nothing.

Doesn't this guy from The Road look like Harold Perrineau from Lost? Seriously!

Related Link: Lost: The Complete Collection [Blu-ray]

Listening to: Nothing. I forgot my headphones.

I got Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies the other day and I must say that it's pretty fun so far. Nothing about it story-wise is setting itself far beyond other games of the genre, but the gameplay is nice and I really do enjoy the customization aspect of the game. Granted you don't actually spend time changing the colors and styles of the armor you're wearing, but changing armor and weapons is reflected on your in-game character. I think little things like that, though I'm sure the asset department and programmers would say it's not so "little", really make the experience that much more engaging.

Anyway, this is the game I'm playing now. Bask in its warming glowing warming glow.

Related Link: Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

Listening to: Nothing.

Go and check out my newest game! If you are remotely a fan of dice games, then this one is for you. If you hate dice games, there's plenty else to play on the site.

Related Link: Going the Distance 6: Too Scared on Shen Games

Listening to: A tiny fan.





I did a little bit of crafts last night by designing and die cutting a bookmark. It's even got a paperclip-ish design where you can place it over a page to it's more securely in place. I'm thinking about making a handful for APE this year, but with different designs. Maybe a skull, an arcade cabinet, Theodore Roosevelt and so on.

Oh, and the book in the photo is Casual Game Design: Designing Play for the Gamer in ALL of Us. It does a pretty good job at breaking down the main genres you see in the casual game space and what makes them tick by citing essay-like opinion as well as short dives into popular games of that genre.

Related Link: Casual Game Design: Designing Play for the Gamer in ALL of Us

Listening to: David Choi - Won't Even Start

I came up with this idea when I was walking down the street and noticed that the sun was burning a hole in my retinas. Well, I only noticed for a brief moment and then everything went black.

Related Link: Oversized Adult White Ruffle Umbrella Parasol

Getting Ready: For a friend's wedding rehearsal.

Deciding to take a break and work on some crafts before a wedding rehearsal, I decided to do a little wall decor with my Cricut Expression. For those who are not familiar, this is Mr. Game & Watch. I figured his character design would be the best fit for some silhouette wall decor.

This is actually just black scrapbooking paper. If I had the materials, I'd have used black contact paper. It has a relatively low tackiness, which results in good sticking, but does not leave residue (or remove paint) when taken off walls. It's something I'll eventually want to invest in since I have a string of ideas for more things non-comic related to sell at the Alternative Press Expo this year.

What would you like to see?

Related Link: Mr. Game & Watch on Wikipedia