Floating, Speeding

[The netbook is in, so I am delivering what I promised. Enjoy the beginning of the Titania Chronicle.  If you want to reply to this entry in character/universe, feel free to do so with IC in parentheses in the beginning.]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

HEA 10.12.406
I'm awake again, and I'm typing this up not sure when it will get to you all, but I figured I should make a first post for when I out in the middle of space.

They're right, your bones ache. I think Georgia told me that in her vid. No amount of stretching makes me feel better.

These little pods are a joke. They keep you in here, so you can't see anyone else the entire time. Some liability thing. But then they give you enough space to walk about when you're not strapped into your awkward bed thingy. It's the weirdest thing. It's like there's a bed to the wall and nothing else. My only company is my luggage.

By the way, I need to thank my mom for giving me this ridiculous peacock pattern on my suitcase. I wake up every week in a haze and and spook myself because I think some monster is across from me.

Dad, you're reading this right? Thank Mom for me, as long as she doesn't find out about this thing.

Same for the rest of you. I only wanted a few of you to read this. I'm serious, Alick, not a word to anyone else. Not your girlfriend of the week.  Not even your sister, Lexia.  I know she won't tell anyone.  But if I find out across galaxies that she knows, you will  lose access to this thing.  This is not something I want to share with everyone.  Just some people.  Just someone.

I don't want everyone back home to know my new debutante life. It's embarrassing enough that you're parents raise you only to ship you away so that they never see you again. Whoever thought of that? Mom cried and everything, but she never said she would miss me. I don't think she will.  Don't argue, Dad.

There's no stars out here. Not many. It's kind of empty.

So I'm going to meet Georgia and Garrisson in two more weeks. Or one. I think this is my third time out of stasis.

How should I take it that I'm going the farthest suggested to go in stasis because my mom insisted? She just wants to marry me off. Like Georgia. Except I think Georgia wanted to.

It's been six years. And we were really good at keeping apart. Send a vid, catch up on petty stuff, and move on. I don't know if I can live with her again. And I barely know Garrison. He's apparently some hot shot for… something that makes money. I'm not sure what. Apparently he makes a lot of money, they have a 2 story loft so he must know what he's doing.

There's no open space where I'm going.  No yard.  No sky.  No plants I can watch grow.  No wild pigeons or squirrels to see eat my trash.  And there's no space whatsoever.  The room I'm getting is smaller than the one I'm leaving, and it's considered luxurious.  What scam is that?  Is my stuff going to fit?  Is Georgia even got a closet for me?  Dammit, now I'm worrying.  Maybe I will clean this up before I post it.

But then you guys would get mad at me.  You know how I think.  Dad would call me out in a minute.

There's the blue warning light. I got 15 minutes. A couple more naps and then I'm done and on Titania. I'm lucky I had enough brain power to type this.

Wish me pleasant dreams. And no more peacock luggage frights.

VIRGINIA

Help Out Extra Lives!

Every gamer should know about Extralives.org.  I've talked about them before, but this time I'll spend a little more time about them since weather may impede their good deeds.

Started when a group of teenagers decided to be giving and awesome, the guys of Extra Lives decided to play video games for charity.  Now in college, the guys have raised over 60,000 dollars that went directly to charity.  They don't touch a red cent.  They have played everything from speed races of favorites to the dreaded Zelda videogames on the CDI, merely for your entertainment and the hope of building school and cleaning water for those less fortunate across the globe.

This current marathon of bootlegged games may be interrupted this weekend due to Hurricane Irene.  They're going to stream until they lose power, but may I suggest donating regardless.  These guys are actually entertaining to watch and will respond to the IRC chat set up in their website.  So donate!

Feel free to watch the marathon while it lasts below.  After the marathon, they'll show clips from marathons past if you still want to watch.



Free desktop streaming application by Ustream

Warning: Fiction will appear

Because of my promise, the day I get my netbook set up I already have my first fiction post ready.  I'm just going to start writing about Titania, hoping to get two posts up a week.

You'll be reading the posts from Virginia, an unwilling debutant living in a world where it's about who you know and how you breed.  She's leaving everything she's ever known in hopes of pleasing her family with a suitable husband on one of the most elite planets colonized.  Will she let herself be pursued, or will she try to strive for something more?

Sure, it doesn't sound like a standard scifi story, but I don't want to reveal everything now, do I?

It's not going to be super refined, it's going to be raw writing.  I don't have an editor.  It's going to be an experiment of sorts.

To be honest, readers, this week has stunk.  My car needs repairs, auto shops have been bogus, and then yesterday I twisted my ankle at work.  I'm hoping to get some normality in this chaos, and writing has always been with me.  The netbook is almost on its way (and thankfully my mother was able to make it an early birthday present) so it's time to get back to the real job.  And I hope you guys like it.

Fan movie of awesome

Today, I don't have much to write... right now.  But I definitely do think you will appreciate this fan movie, titled Portal: No Escape.

A promise to myself

I said in an earlier post that I'm looking for a netbook to replace my mac that is insistent on destroying itself.  But I need to make a promise to myself if I'm going to make such a huge purchase. 

I have to write something that is at least either a page long or complete EVERYDAY that I have this netbook.

Writing is a hobby that you have to make into a habit, something that you have to continue doing every day.  And I'm not doing it enough.  I figure with a laptop that I can actually take places, I should be able to keep to this habit and refine my skills, let alone get back to all the projects I have put to the wayside. It's a lot of project guys, and I'm determined to start working on ALL OF THEM.

Yes, my job is kind of sucky right now, and I'm looking for a new one.   But as a resident told me a while ago, that's the second job.  The writing is the dream.  How am I going to achieve it if I never do it?

So readers, I know I've given you this right before, but please feel free to nag me about it.  When I get the netbook, remind me to write.  Every. Single. Day.  Should make more blog posts on top of that if that happens.

In the meantime, back to the grind.

Only seems like a good idea

I recently watch Adam Ostrow's Ted Talk about death and social networking.  He brings up so pretty interesting points, about the continuation of existence online through social network after death.  And then he got to the end of his talk, and I got scared.

Ostrow mentions that hopefully in the future we can take everything that someone put on the internet and recreate an image of them from all their output.  Basically, say if I were to go tomorrow to the big MMO in the sky, you could take all my blog posts and twitter feeds and forum posts to compile a virtual version of my personality, where I could exist on after death.

Sure, for people who are like me and have blog posts that actually reflect your personality, that's fine.  But there are some people who are going to be remembered quite differently.  Do you think everyone wants their family and friends to remember them as the raiding elf lord in their favorite RPG?  Or what if you secretly checked out fetish sites?  Great, now your image to everyone you knew after life involves you licking feet every five seconds.

Ostrow's idea is not the worst in the world, but it does make me think of what the hilarious results would be.

Possible awesome zombie movie

I didn't find out until last night that they're making a World War Z movie.  

THAT'S RIGHT!  A movie about one of the most realistic fictionalizations of a zombie apocalypse.  Part of the reason I like it so much is that it is so thoughtful about what would happen on a global scale.  And now they're doing a movie about it.

Some of you would be like Mystic and somewhat skeptical about how they will redo the movie, knowing that they'll have to cut out something.  But I do have some hope.  The movie is still keeping the interview style of the book, as Brad Pitt as the UN appointed author that conducts the interviews.  There will be flashback.  Sure, they're not going to use every interview in the book to tell the story, but there are definitely going to be some awesome moments.

Set to open December 21st, 2012.  One of the few movies I'm definitely doing a midnight showing.  Who's with me?

She's still Shepard.

By the always entertaining Penny Arcade, I was alerted to something that has become an unnecessary shitstorm when it comes to the marketing of Mass Effect 3.  Fans are allowed to choose the next FemShep that would be on some of the advertising by voting for their favorite of 6 choices.  You like the picture (or pictures) on Facebook, and each like is a vote.  Whichever one has the most votes will "win", I guess.  Here are the 6 ladies you can choose from.

I made them big enough so you can get a good look at the differences.  Again, if you care,  you can "like" the one you want on their facebook page.

Apparently there is some controversy over the blonde one winning.  Which she is by a large margin.  I'm not surprised.  I am surprised that people are that concerned about it.  Anybody who has been engaged in western media should not be surprised that the blonde Shepard is the one that is preferred.  What makes it outrageous is that the people who are vocally opposed to blonde femShep say it's because she's too "Barbie" and suffers from a "personality vacuum".  How do you get that from one picture?  I see no high heels or designer prada bags, and right now the only personality point I get from any of these pictures is that Shepard is on the verge of using her gun on someone.

Penny Arcade recently posted their disdain for these opinions.  I have to agree.  To be perfectly honest, I'm not going to vote for one of those Shepards.  I have two female Shepards that I love to play.  Neither one of them look anything like the ones that are on facebook right now.  And my male Shepard looks just like Obama, because why not?  So why should I care what is on the advertising?  It obviously didn't affect my purchase or my enjoyment of the game.  It shouldn't affect anyone elses.

Maybe people are relating it more to how in American culture (and maybe others, but I'll speak about my own) the perception of what's beautiful tends to be somewhat anglo-fied.  Sure, maybe you don't like how that works.  But getting mad at a vote on facebook that is essentially "pick your favorite pretty picture"is not going to change the world.  You're expecting too much at this point.  Bioware has everyone right to figure out what people would prefer to play as in their video games.  They try to keep statistics on that stuff all the time.  God forbid they listen to what the majority of voting public would like.  Again, we're getting mad at a business for being a business when you do something like that.

If you want to push for heroes that are not always the standard pretty, go ahead and do something more proactive about it.  But if you're going to call one model of Shepard "Barbie" and a void of personality merely by hair and skin color alone, you're being just as prejudice at the culture you are trying to rebel from.  Shepard is still going to save the universe from the reapers*, regardless of his or her looks.  Mass Effect 1 and 2 proved that with every play-through every fan experienced.  One blonde model of Shepard on the advertising is not going to change what already happened in the story.  Only you as the player can.  Play with your Shepard, and move on.  The box art is not going to hurt.

Final thought: would these critics be saying this if is was a male blonde Shepard?  I think not.  Looks like ideals of beauty are not the only things we have to work on.

*That is, as long as your choices in the game didn't already fuck it up for your Shepard.  Which I can't predict right now.