20 Sided Woman

Character Week: Simonstern

2012-01-26T22:30:00.000-06:00

In college, I played in this DnD campaign that is the reason I went back to table tops and became passionate about great settings. It was an Eberron campaign, and in it I played a warforged named

Simonstern

He wasn't the bigger combat warforged that most people think of in that setting. He was more of a scout build who had artificer levels. And he rocked the artificer levels, let me tell you. Making your hand it's own deadly weapon is fabulous. As is rocking a bell that does 6d6 damage 3 times a day. He would've gotten to the point of duel wielding wands had the campaign gone that far. My friends I played with jokingly called him the "Martin Luther King" of warforged. He was all for union, since his fleshy friends had always helped him.

___________

Simonstern didn't like entering the Mournland at all, not even the border. The death of flesh and construct was still thick in the air. However, he still needed to meet his adversary.

He cloaked himself as a person would. He had been injured previously in a small riot and didn't want to reveal what state he was in. Not everyone in Sharn had been ready for his ideas, and he was ready to suffer for it. His radical movement was still smaller than he wanted, but it was gaining momentum. Precisely the reason why the Lord of the Blades wanted to meet with him, or so he thought.

He could see his fellow warforged approach through the grey mist that covered the wasteland. Unlike Simonstern, the Lord came with guards behind him. Simonstern wasn't afraid.

The Lord was still covered in the adapted swords all over his body. Any fleshy race would be hurt to touch him. The point of his adornments, really, to be untouchable.

The guards stayed a couple yards behind while the Lord approached. His steel face would've grinned if capable. "Old friend, Simonstern, I hope time has treated you well."

"It has, Blade, it has." Simonstern knew he hated being called simply Blade. He intended to call him that as much as possible.

"Bitter still?" The Lord got within a foot of Simonstern, and broadened his stance. He was even bigger than the typical warforged, his fists the sized of Simonstern's head. "Your words mean nothing here."

"Of course a brute wouldn't care about words. That's why we've come here to talk, haven't we?"

The Lord slamed his fists together. "I told you I would be alone and you believed me, you fool. You know you need to help the resistence."

"I refuse to become a monster."

"Either you are the monster or you are his pet. I refuse to be anyone's pet. We can live forever and crush those flesh people into pulp. Why take heed of their orders?"

Simonstern shook his head. "I haven't heeded any orders in quite some time, Blade. Not even from other warforged that are power hungry. Not even from you." He wrapped his cloak tighter.

The Lord laughed up to the sky, "That's what they want you to think, whether you're adventuring with that hodge-podge of miscreants or giving speeches to rioters, out there to them you're under someone's command. We can change that together."

"What are you saying?"

"You're good at recruiting. Bring the warforged to the winning side, where they can be with their brethren in arms."

"And if I don't?"

The Lord took a step closer. "You know you have to."

Simonstern quickly took a step back. The Lord lunged for him, but Simonstern had gained a quickness in an instant. He uncloaked himself to reveal two wands. The one in his right hand sent a fireball to the Lord, pushing in on his back. The guards instantly ran over to defend their leader, only to see the second wand summon a dire bear right in front of them. By the time the Lord got up again, another fireball was sent to knock him down.

Simonstern ran across the boarder, where past the fog he saw his changeling ally casting teleport, next to their rogue compatriot with another wand in hand, yelling "Hurry it up!"

Within mere seconds, they were gone, leaving the Lord of the Blade wondering how to squash the ideological competition.

Character Week: Ellen Peters

2012-01-25T18:21:00.000-06:00

I rarely do post about the characters I play at larp, but it seemed fitting that this week, I do pay attention to my vampire

Ellen Peters

She is a character near and dear to my heart. You know you've done a larp character right when there are several different opinions on the character. Half of everyone loves her astuteness and the way she politely handles situations. The other half believe she has the hugest stick up her ass. Some consider her a valuable asset. Some just see her as pretty girl taking notes. All are somewhat true. But I think the greatest thing about Ellen is that only a small few know her true ambition, and that is something that she has chosen to reveal to very little, including her mortal retainer Darren.

_____________________________

Ellen was not one to slouch, so when Darren saw he up in the attic on the purple and gold upholstered couch slouching and looking to the ground, he was actually quite frightened.

"Yo, Ellen, how are you?"

She looked up to see him and straightened her back. She held her chin up. "It's early to see you around."

"You mean late, man, it's 3 in the morning. I ain't one to wake up this early if I don't have to, but I'll stay late to party."

Ellen rolled her eyes. "You've said that before. Do you require something?"

Darren took a few steps into the room. He wanted to sit down, but he never trusted Ellen to not get the jump on him one day, so he stayed only a couple feet away from the door. "Nah, actually. I was gonna tell you whoever got rid of that krok nearby should get a pat on the back or somethin'. Business is startin' to bounce back."

"We'll see how long that deal can last." She scooted softly to one side. "Do sit down, Darren, we should have a serious talk."

"Uh, nah I'm fine. It's good."

"Not to worry, I won't bite." She smirked.

Darren had only seen her fangs a couple of times, but when he did it scared the shit out of him. He knew she could get rid of him in a second. He didn't want it to be tonight. Then again, if she really wanted to kill him, there was no reason to lure him over with a joke, was there?

He cautiously sat down. "Alright, what's up?"

"You were on your way to the top before I took it, right? In the business?"

She really meant gang, but Darren let her be polite. "Yeah, I guess."

"How about you call the shots for a while."

He gave a suspicious look. "Yo, you for real?"

"There are certain matters I need to attend to that if I were to stay here, could cause needless harm to you."

"I got a glock for that shit."

"That's not what I'm talking about."

Darren knew she was talking about her people's business. Business that had been going on for eons before he was born. Ellen was a newbie to it too, but the difference was Ellen could have a chance to deal with them before becoming someones dinner. He shivered. He hoped that vampires didn't eat other vampires. That wouldn't make sense, would it?

He knew Ellen wasn't going to tell him, for his own benefit she claimed. He wasn't sure.

"Let me guess, you ain't sharin' shit about what you're in, and I just gotta roll with it. Dammit, you know the last time that happened you were across a dude that was three times our ages combined--"

"Older."

"See what I'm sayin'? I don't need surprises like that, no matter how smart you are with pushin' this product."

"Believe me, people who know about this world don't live long. We have a rule about not letting humans in on this whole facade. The only reason you know is because you were smart enough to figure it out on your own. I never told you a thing, and no one else in the business needs to know."

"Except your business partners."

"Even they don't know everything I have planned. And believe me, you knowing less is the reason why I can keep you around running everything." She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but her touch was so cold that Darren flinched.

He still didn't trust her, but he was able to pay off his grandmother's second mortgage with the money she helped bring in. She wasn't going to fuck him over just for the hell of it, and if she wanted him to know nothing, it was less about her and more about her people.

"Darren, I'm not going to be staying here for a while. At least not consistently." She removed her hand and stood up. "In fact, I should leave tonight. It's a while before I should be in bed but I should get a head start. Tomorrow I'll get more of my things and I'll be staying somewhere else. But you'll always know how to contact me. "

Darren shook his head. "And now you not stayin' here? I don't believe this shit. People take me seriously when you're around."

"No, people take me seriously when you are around. Let's be honest, in this business I am culturally disadvantaged. Use my ideas, but you've always been the face of the leadership. Now it merely means more."

Darren's frustration got him up from the couch and started for the door. "Whatever. You gonna abandon us like all the other people who pretend to give a shit around here."

"With any luck, I will still be alive to help you after a change in the season or two."

He stopped. "Wait, you'll be alive with luck?"

"Everything has an end, just some of us can postpone it longer."

Darren must have imagined her take a deep breath in. She didn't need to, but that was a statement you took a big breath after. "You plannin' on getting killed?"

"Darren, that's enough. I am not planning a thing that far out. Now let me leave tonight. Tomorrow, I'll give you further instruction, I just have to think it over."

"Promise you're comin' back here." He rubbed his lips together in anxiety. She may be right about not looking the part, but she was the best thing to happen to his little gang in years. This was a business partner not worth losing. Not like the rest.

"Whenever I can, I will. Besides, I never said I was going to stop receiving my cut."

Darren was relieved. If she was still expecting a cut, she would definitely be back to help the guys.

Character Week: Sandahla

2012-01-24T21:38:00.003-06:00

Although some of my more memorable characters have been in my table top games, it doesn't stop me from making little stories for my video game characters too. Right now I can't stop playing my dunmer in Skyrim

Sandahla

Unlike a lot of the other video game RPGs I've played, your character doesn't necessarily have a lot of a chance to make a personality in Skyrim. Some of it you just assume along the way. And there isn't any "romance" in the game either, in the sense that there's no story built around it. You want to marry someone? Just complete a favor and wear this amulet and bam! You can get married. It's more economical, really. Although I am not fancying anyone in this game, it seems Sandahla has been gravitating toward a fellow dark elf who keeps a shop at Windhelm.

________________________

Sandahla slammed the door shut right behind her, the sound booming through the shop. Revyn as always was behind the counter. He was shocked to see her.

"Rushing to get in before I close?" He checked to make sure the garnet pieces he had been inspecting before had not fallen away.

Sandahla brushed away the snow on her shoulders and took off her hood, revealing her new moonstone circlet. "You could say that. I had a question for you, friend."

Revyn raised an eyebrow. With the short time they had been doing business, she had yet to call him friend. "Certainly." He had no reason to tell her no. Not only had she brought him rare things that sold for quite the profit, she was also a lovely dunmer. Having her to look at made the time pass agreeably.

"I was hoping I could stay here tonight, Revyn. I only stayed in Candlehearth Hall one night, and that innkeeper didn't trust the way I breathed in her place, let alone me sleeping in one of her rooms. I can't stand that place."

"Oh yes, Elda. She does have no problem taking dark elf coin, though she'll stare you down the entire night. I've only been there once, after that I stuck to New Gnisis."

There was a pause as Sandahla waited politely before asking, "Does that mean I can stay here for the night?"

"Oh, well, of course. I don't think I'll be needing my bed tonight anyway." Revyn quickly put away the garnet on the counter. "I think I have a spare bearskin to keep you warm tonight."

Sandahla gently put a hand on his, her gold ring still cold from the outside. "No rush, please. I do have some things to sell you first. And I don't need to sleep right away. I have books to read."

Revyn looked into her eyes, red and bright. There was no reason for him to trust her initially, but a couple weeks ago when he needed someone to discretely return a ring to the affluent Viola, Sandahla was eager to help. He could tell that it wasn't for the gold. The gleam in her eyes was the one of someone who sought out adventure, no matter how small.

Revyn let the gems drop from his hand. "Alright, what would you like to sell?"

Sandahla realized she left her hand linger too long, and slowly removed it to bring her bag on top of the counter. It looked especially fully today. Could it be more mage robes, Revyn pondered, or possibly elven armor? He tried to hide his anticipation.

Slowly Sandahla reveled what seemed to be over-sized claw bones, which she neatly arranged in the order nature had intended on the counter. She whispered to him, "Dragon bones."

"Dragon bones?!" Revyn gasped. "Where did you find these things?" He picked up a knuckle and began to scrutinize it.

"It's... a trade secret." Her face was stoic with that answer. Revyn could tell she was hiding something, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to pry. She hadn't tried to hide anything before. She had been very forthcoming about retrieving her items from assassins and imperials. She had even mentioned an infiltration job where she had stolen Thalmoor boots out of necessity. Revyn was willing to let that slide since he knew of a buyer who would keep her mouth shut.

He raised his brow. "I hope you're not offended if I ask--"

Sandahla shook her head. "It's not stolen. I wouldn't do that to you."

Again with the familar phrases. What had changed? "Considering what you've done for me before, I will honor your word."

"Thank you. And if you like that, I also have scales from the same dragon."

"You must have been very close to the beast," Revyn supposed.

"I was." A decidedly short answer. Revyn stopped prying.

"Well thank you for these finds. This is a rather lucrative bounty. Right now, for everything, I can offer you 900 gold."

"950?"

He smirked. "You do remember I'm the one who taught you to haggle?"

She smiled back. "950 so you know your lessons taught me well."

"910 at the most and I'll be satisfied with your progress."

"I'll take it then." She left the scales and bones on the counter, took out a spell tome and went toward the fire in the adjacent room. "You can give it to me in the morning. I'll be leaving early, before the sun is up."

"Making yourself at home so quickly?" Revyn organized his new merchandise behind the counter. He wasn't offended by her actions, just surprised.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to start studying this spell before I went to bed. Could be useful for tomorrow."

"And what, may I ask, is the adventure tomorrow?"

"I have to go kill an ice wraith."

Revyn stopped his sorting and leaned over the counter to question, "Are you certain?"

Sandahla walked back out to him, tome still in hand. "When did you start questioning my actions?"

"I'm sorry, it sounds dangerous. Wouldn't want anyone to get hurt."

"Only the wraith." She walked back up to the counter, her circlet now off, her black hair framing her face. "I'll be fine. I'll take a potion of healing from you in the morning if you're so concerned."

Revyn sighed. "On the house. I would hate to think my shrewd practices would be the death of you." It surprised him how much he meant it. "Shall I get that bear skin for you then?"

She nodded. "Thank you, I still have a chill." She went back to the side room. Revyn finished putting away the bones, scales and garnet, and then went to the cupboard for the skin. He entered the side room to see Sandahla deep in study.

Knowing it may be stepping over unestablished bounds, he gingerly place the bear skin over her shoulders. Sandahla noticed and looked to him, but didn't protest. In the fire light Revyn noticed something typically hidden under her war paint. "Sandahla, may I ask how you got that scar?"

"When I was young on my own I was chased up a tree by a bear, and he swiped a paw at me before falling down eight feet onto stones. I then used the dagger my father lent me to put him out of his misery."

"How old were you?"

"But a child. Why?"

In honesty, Revyn didn't like hearing she had been put in harms way. But he couldn't say that. "I now understand why the ice wraith does not phase you."

Sandahla grinned. "I'll be back with more trinkets at the same time tomorrow."

"And feel free to stay here whenever you like." He was surprised he said that. He was not one to offer up his home so freely.

"Thank you, friend."

"Of course. Someone who helped me so eagerly needs to be repaid."

"I've already spent the gold, Revyn."

"Having a good soul does not get repaid enough."

Her grin lessened, and she looked to the fire. "Thank you for the flattery. I don't know what to do with it." She looked to him, with the question that neither had the answer for behind her eyes. She then went back to her tome.

Before he went back to check his figures, Revyn stood and looked at Sandahla for some time as she studied on his bed. The fire revealed the courageous demeanor hiding behind her eyes, the beauty in her marked face, and the strength under her robes.

Revyn could get used to seeing her there every day.

Character Week: Amy Valencia

2012-01-23T19:57:00.000-06:00

I've had the writing bug in me, so I want to use it for productive things. This week I'm going to have a fictional story about an RPG character I played (video game or table top) posted Monday through Friday. That's right, I'm giving myself homework! Woot!

It actually all started with

Amy Valencia

Amy is a character I am playing in a table top RPG, the game being called Obsidian. Obsidian is this great mix of a post-apocalyptic world with future technology. Demons have taken over everything except this one tiny spot in America, which is a literal pillar of humanity. There are good mystics who fight demons and then there are "bad" kultists who worship them. Amy is the latter, a worshiper of the Kult of the Chemical. When I was thinking of motivations for her, I suddenly had this scene in my head.

______________________________

Amy wasn't entirely sure what she was smoking. Why should she care. It was at that magical part of the evening where only a couple people had lasted to the end. The ones where sleep was something that could be postponed, and good company was better than caffeine.

She took another hit of the hookah, and carefully blew the smoke toward Alik, a short, smart man with a muscle tone that was just enough. Amy hadn't decided if she would sleep with him tonight. It could go either way.

Alik's eyes had a longing, but not lustful. He sighed, barely parting his lips. "This is all pointless, isn't it?"

Amy pouted. "Oh, poor dear, I knew this moment would happen. She lay her head on his lap and looked up to him. Her long dark hair blanketed his legs. "You thinkers can get in a funk. Tell me about it."

"We're all in a funk, Amy. Humanity's locked up inside this tiny tube, and the whole world is taken over by everything evil! Why bother living? Why bother surviving? Haven't we already lost?"

"Well, yes, but why focus on that?"

Alik sat up straight. "I thought you a more hopeful type."

Amy giggled. "Why? Because I'm not as smart as you? Oh, you sweet thing, just because I'm not book smart doesn't mean I can't see the truth."

"And what is the truth?"

"The long run game is already won. We got to appreciate the now, any way we can." Amy took another draw of the hookah.

"You're giving up?"

"No, my dear," she exhaled, "I've found a new way."

"To win?"

"To enjoy."

Amy had ensnared his attention. She sat up but kept her face close, keeping their gaze. Alik couldn't look away. She continued.

"So you've figured out the truth: we're screwed. We can't expect to keep this up forever. So what do we do with ourselves? Lay down and die?" She paused. "That was your answer, wasn't it? Just end it all?"

"What else is there to do when life is pointless?"

"We still have things to live for. Appetites to sate, thirsts to quench. Ones you've probably never thought of before. Imagine not eating for a week and then finding a full meal with real meat and everything. Imagine how good it feels. Close your eyes and think about how that would taste."

Alik closed his eyes, leaning toward her, an inch between their noses. "Nothing could taste better."

"I can get you something that would make you feel twenty times better than that meal."

He opened his eyes. "You can?"

"Yes. I have many ways to make you feel better than that. And you'll forget this 'meaningless' stuff and really start living. For the things that make you feel the best."

She wrapped her arms around him. He put his hands on her hips. "How?"

"I've made friends with great power and connections, mystical you could say. I can introduce you to them, see how much you like us."

"Are they all like you?"

"Like what?"

"Beautiful?"

"Oh no, you got lucky on that one."

She knew by the end of the night, the demonic affiliations would no longer bother Alik. She had shown him the only rational path for his rut.

There was no longer a question of whether they would sleep together.

Some more thoughts on Skyrim

2012-01-16T22:37:00.000-06:00

Mystic mentioned as a joke that we could just both hang out and play Skyrim on our respective computers when he comes over to visit tomorrow and I was excited about the idea.

I have serious issues.

But let me show you a little of what I've been wasting my time on. When I first started playing, I made a character that is a Khajit. They're desert-based feline people.

I ended up making her a sneaky spellsword that is heavily into alchemy. In most games you end up ditching your first character because you had no idea where to go with it. In Skyrim since you only get better at the skills you use, it's easy to make a character that you want to play. Akousa may sneak up on you with lightning and surprise poisons, but I also have a friend who proudly said he can beat dragons by punching them with his fists! It's all about how you want your character to be, not about what the game lets them be. And Akousa is great to play. Though it's really funny now that the best armor doesn't cover her very well.

Somewhere there is a happy furry looking at this.

But I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge now that I knew the game. I made a new character named Sandahla, who is a Dunmer, also known as a dark elf. I don't really have a good picture of what she looks like, so instead here is a picture I took that probably makes a fantastic background for someone's desktop.

Another great thing about playing a second time is that you can make your own background for your character. The game doesn't focus on the past, but much more on the present. Therefore in your head you would have to make up most of the personality of your character. Knowing what I know now, I'm going in a path that makes Sandahla a "self-hating" Dunmer: she supports the rebels in the country of Skyrim, even though it means supporting a bunch of people that only want Nords (human natives) around and no one else. But the rebels also didn't try the execute her; the Imperials did. And Sandahla hols grudges deep. Even if it means going against a group that may welcome some diversity in Skyrim, Sandahla's going to make the Imperials pay for almost chopping her gods-damned head off. I really like being able to write some of the backgrounds in my head.

You may be able to expect some short stories about Sandahla and Akousa soon. Also, yes I will get back to the Titania Chronicle too. But of course, only when Skyrim stops sucking my soul dry.

Skyrim. Blame Skyrim.

2012-01-08T09:52:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry dear readers that I haven't posted anything of late, but my brother did me the disadvantage of buying me Skyrim, the latest of the The Elder Scrolls video game series, and dear sweet merciful Tolkien did they ever make a fabulous game. I usually not as much of a fan for something this superiorly open-ended in a fantasy RPG, but this is AMAZING! It's a beautiful world that is constantly engaging and unique.

My steam account is d20Sapphire, if you want to friend me on their just say you're a fan of the blog when you do and I'll friend you, and then you'll get to see the tons of screenshots I have taken from that game with my Khajit named Akousa. I'll post some pictures up here on the near future.

Other awesome nerdy Christmas gifts: More RAM for my netbook thanks to Mystic, Batman: Arkham Asylum also from my brother, and zombie slippers courtesy of my friends in central IL. Overall, it was an awesome haul. Did any of you get awesome nerdy presents? Feel free to let me know in the comments so I can tell you how jealous I am.

A new year, new posts and hopefully more time toward table-top is my new years resolution. Hooray for 2012!

An Angry Letter

2011-12-29T22:43:00.000-06:00

Dear Games for Windows Live,

I have no clue why you decide you are important in my single player game, or why you must force your update upon me when I finally have a chance to taste the awesome in Batman: Arkham Asylum with the threat of NOT BEING ABLE TO PLAY THE GAME I JUST RECEIVED.

Your DRM practices are atrocious and I'm sure millions of stolen copies of this game have been distributed around the globe. Just like roaches, online pirateers never die. And insulting their intelligence is only going to make them work harder at hacking your game.

You have now successfully made you games harder for legit purchasers to play for the small profit you might receive for being a jerk. And knowing you, that profit is a pitiful amount compared to what you grossed off this game. I mean, you still made it for consoles, right? Then what the hell is your issue, you greedy twits?

In conclusion, Games for Windows Live, I sincerely hope you die in a fire.

With hate,

d20 Sapphire

Christmas in the Future

2011-12-25T10:11:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, readers!

The only reason I'm writing on Christmas is because the rest of my family is sleeping away, including Mystic who was nice enough to join my immediate family for Christmas morning this year. Being the first one awake means you wait until everyone else is up to open presents.

Writing my Titania Chronicles story has had me pondering in the future if there will be a Christmas? Will it be culturally significant? Will it fade away?

There are plenty of holidays that have remained through time and have merely evolved for the needs of the people. Christmas is actually a good example of that. Christmas used to be a simple holiday where you ate with friends if you were lucky enough to have the day off. The super conservative Christians didn't even celebrate Christmas, and even tried to outlaw it in Britain. Although the holiday had been around for a long time, it wasn't until the 19th century that it culminated into something close to what we have today. It was molded into a day where one could spend time with family and friends with dinner and dances and games. Gift exchange became popular at that time too. In an era where strict rules on children seemed necessary (depending who was doing the raising, of course), it was nice to have a day where one could spoil one's family.

I think in this fashion, Christmas in the future will exist on Earth, and will probably evolve even more. There may even come a day where there is a strict division in the kind of celebrations families have. But I think as long as we remain on Earth, there will be some form of Christmas celebrated.

I think it's when you leave Earth, and start to colonize other planets, that the tradition of Christmas will probably fade away. Christmas is strongly associated with the winter season, and to lose that change of season is to lose a lot of it. Also, who will know how long it will take to establish the kind of community who can afford the gift giving on Christmas on a new planet. It's going to take decades of investment to colonize planets, and they're not going to be ready for the kind of commercialism we have on parts of Earth right away. On top of the fact many of the traditions are rooted in thinks unique to earth--snow, Christmas trees, holly, mistletoe, poinsettias--that recreating it all is going to be artificial, and I'm sure the first colonialists will feel that way. Feasts won't be readily available. Christmas, in it's entirety of the experience, will not be available.

Now I need someone from the future to tell me if my predictions are correct.

Nerd Christmas Questions

2011-12-17T14:45:00.000-06:00

Is the star on the top of your tree a red dwarf? White dwarf? Is it a giant? Bigger than the sun?

Does it have planetary bodies circling it? A lot? Asteroid belt? Is there anything in the habitable zone? Is it inhabited? Natives? Or alien colonialization?

How far is it from earth? How many light years away is it?

How old is it? Just out of the nebula? About to become a black hole?

Just something to think about as you decorate for Christmas.

A short discussion on biases in video game production

2011-12-15T11:41:00.003-06:00

I was bad and I didn't write every day. I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you somehow.

In the meantime, let's briefly talk about something that has been on my mind for a while. Cracked.com is a great source for amusing articles that make you think. One that got me thinking was this one about prejudices that still exist in mainstream movies. It got me thinking about video games, namely because the two are always compared to each other. To be honest I don't think it's a fair comparison, but that's a different essay for a different day.

My first thought is that video games are better than movies when it comes to some of those stereotypes. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that video games tend to have their own problems, for different reasons.

One of the things that has been pointed out before (and of course as I write this I can't find the image I'm thinking of) is that many modern video game heroes look the same: Well built Caucasian male with brunette hair and dashing good looks. Unfortunately, like most of the opinions I'll be sharing, here, I'm not able to determine anything with any research. But my assumption would be that it's because many of the people who have started in the video game industry, and many of the people who work in the cvdeo game industry, are white males. Even if you have the marketing demographics in intense details saying that he demographic is leaning toward another audience, it's hard for someone creating something to create something that he or she would never be interested in. And with video games, the appeal is that you are the hero. If the "you" is a white guy, you're going to idolize what you can relate to--a more handsome white guy.

I will say though, that a lot of good video games have been good at letting the player decide who they are idolizing. I have never played a "white" character in any bioware game because I haven't had to play one. I made the hero to whatever specifications I wanted. Hell, I had Barack Obama Shepard save the universe in ME2. This doesn't, however, mean that the developers are forward thinking. This merely means they are willing to have their audience shape their own experience, and even then to a small extent compared to everything that they have shaped for their audience that won't change. This isn't necessarily a sign of forward thinking. This is however, a sign of acceptance that different people, for whatever reasons, want something different out of their gameplay experience.

Even then, sometimes games that mean well can use stereotypes and old ideas to shape the stories they tell. Or they don't realize exactly what they're doing and what horrible history they're tapping into. I've spoken about this a couple years ago when I was belatedly addressing the Resident Evil 5 objections. It's not the only game to have touched upon that either. I'm not real pleased that the evil Karma side to Cole in inFamous 2 is black swamp tribal lady Nix. I can tell they tried to make a complex character in Nix, but the problem is that she plays to many of the stereotypes that western society has had for centuries about black people, and stereotypes that people still play to this day. I'm not going to say these developers are inherently racist, that would seem unfair to label a whole team of people like that. But I do think they are unaware of the societal norms they've played into, and how best to fight them for the betterment of mutual understanding among every human being. It makes breaking stereotypes hard when they are validated over and over again in the media.

Speaking of stereotypes, lets not just pick on racial issues. Gender is also something that video games has a hard time dealing with in a neutral way. Again, I'm not trying to say the whole industry is (intentionally) sexist. There is a lot of stuff that is buried in our societal norms that are going to be hard to fight. Like the severe attraction to waify women who in reality are not strong enough to hold huge dense metal swords or traverse in caverns with arms that have no upper body strength. I have no problem with women being able to do these things. It's just these women have arms like me, and I know I can't do that stuff. Maybe a woman built like this could do all that stuff, but they're not idolized in these games. We're still going for the frail frame build when women are in video games, because in video games women are sexualized 95% of the time. The kind of sexualization process that mass media will do is making women weaker and more frail, something that you still want to protect from something. Games do that stuff because it helps sell the game to their mostly male demographic. In fact, you'll find in some games when they don't intentionally do that to the character, there is a fanbase who will. Dont' believe me? Talimancers.

Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya, now in the cannon Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, is probably one of the strongest, independent female characters in the video game industry, possibly up there with Jade and Alyx Vance with female characters who were not put in just to be sexual objects to oggle at while teen boys killed things. Okay, maybe not that revolutionary, but she's up there. When you meet here in Mass Effect, she is a pilgram looking for something that would help her people in fighting the geth, willing to take big risks on her own. She's nerdy, sleeping in the engine room and able to hack AI from a mile away. And by Mass Effect 2, you find her confidence and her duty has only grown. You first meet her young and hopeful, then you find her again determined and steadfast. She grows up to be an independent woman who chooses to help humanity fight the reapers merely because Shepard is a good friend. Sure, you can romance her, but it's a mutual respect, a love that grows out of admiration that Tali and Shepard have for each other. It's not all about allure, it's about deep feelings. It has to be when you can't even see her friggin face!

Seriously, are you automatically attracted to a space suit? Because you may want to speak to a professional about that.

On top of that, when her family's honor is on the line she has not problem cursing out her elders while in court. She a tough, smart woman.

But that is not what you get when you read through some of the posts of her most "loyal" fans, the talimancers. They talk about how they want to protect her, how she's shy, how she needs to be comforted. Excuse me? This girl has fought the geth off on her own and you think YOU can protect her because she occasionally stutters? It's like they only are attracted to this intelligent woman if she's socially awkward and needs to be nurtured. Don't worry, Bioware boys, you got you wish, just in a different universe.

No need to project on Tali, Merril will help you with your insecurities.

It's frustrating. The archetypes of what makes a woman attractive have become so ingrained that if we can't find on that fits it in our preferred fictional universe, we project what we want on one of those characters that would seem to fit it the most. Why wouldn't the industry cater to that if it gets them money?

This is one where even the choices still don't affect the build of the character. You can have a different look in the hair, skin tone, and face, but the body will always be the same, and it will always appeal to the male demographic, or what the developers will feel appeal to that demographic. I know that not all men want to oggle at small waists and big boobs, and it's not a crime to like that. I'm merely asking for some better variety and support complex characters.

Like movies, video games have their tropes that they stick to, some of them prejudiced. However, because of the custom aspects that games have introduced, and how it's more integrated with feedback from the fanbase, it'll be easier for games to evolve past these things in some respects. Then again, it's hard to fight industry norms, especially when you're in an industry ruled by giants (console and developer-wise). What's really going to matter is what we, the gamers, enjoy over time and end up going back to. If we don't like what's become the standard, we'll just have to gravitate to games that break that standard. Video games have thrived in a capitalist structure, and we'll have to choose what we want in that structure.

With that in mind, support all kinds of games, the big and the small. Choose the big production games carefully, and sing praises to the indie developers who are doing something you love. This is true for all aspects of video games, not just the prejudice issues I've just discussed. It's the only way the industry is going to have what you want to play.

Great Life Update

2011-12-12T23:12:00.000-06:00

I have a new job!

Still leasing, still working on weekends, but I got a great feeling about the career potential. I start next week, and have this week to get ready. Yay!

This week will be devoted to nerd pursuits, including this blog! I have a few things to write, so I'm going to try to write something every week day. I need to get back into practice of continuously writing about something, and there is a lot of stuff to write about. In fact, this is always true, but I'm finding more to write about myself. But I wanted to let you all know my good news first!

In other updates, I think I am going to start playing Star Trek Online with my mother. She is the one who asked about us playing an MMO together. My mom is awesome like that.

Tonight is light writing, so I leave you with a video from George Takei.

The Mosh Pit Rule

2011-12-06T15:07:00.000-06:00

I totally lucked out on winning tickets to an intimate concert of Chevelle, one of the best rock band in the world from the Chicago area. I give thanks to 95 Will Rock for not only know being the only modern rock station in the Chicagoland Area now (R.I.P. Q101) but getting tickets to me and some other awesome people last Tuesday.

Mystic and I attended and stayed on the second level. Mystic doesn't like big groups and even though the Subteranean is a great intimate setting, second level was a bit better if you just wished to spectate. Which we did, and Chevelle put on a fantastic show, and we got to hear a song from their new album (and coincidentally, that album comes out today, so I guess go crazy and buy Hats Off to the Bull right now!)

There was another show we could watch--the mosh pit. I've never been in one myself but I fully support the idea of this controlled chaos. There are a lot of people out there who scoff at the idea of a mosh pit being one of the friendliest things you can do, but it is! There's a little system to it, like it's own law, that everyone in the pit understands. Well, everyone who wants to stay in the pit, that is. I'm sure some of you out there have had different experiences but these have been mine.

There are three different positions you can have in a mosh pit. Two of them actually involve being in the circle. I call them the Smashers and the Statues (terms I literally just made up, so don't think this is official lingo). Smashers are the ones who go all out, looking for people to run into. It's hard, yes, but it's not to injure. They'll usually use the sides of their bodies, and not do a lot of limb flailing, instead just running around like pinballs in a machine. Then you have Statues, who are not necessary for a mosh pit but they add a little umph. They'll stay in the middle of the mosh pit, solid and secure, and push any Smasher that bumps into them. The one I saw used a little bit more arm than any of the Smashers, but you can also just make it a torso thing. Smasher want to bump into everyone. Statues want to show how solid they are.

Finally you have the people standing around the pit, which as a collective I refer to as the Boundary. People in the Boundary are responsible for pushing Smashers back in the circle, keeping the mosh in one singular place and making sure it doesn't spread too far. People in the Boundary don't necessarily want to be dragged into the pit, and that usually isn't an issue.

With the position are some simple rules. You keep the pit in the pit. You do not drag people into or out of the pit. If someone falls in the pit, you pick them back up. If you get smashed into, you do not take it personally; the pit is there for the enjoyment of horseplay and you should know that going in. No weapons in the pit. And do your best not to be drunk in the pit, because that is a great way to forget about all the other simple rules previously established. Like I witnessed one guy do...

I can determined if he was drunk since he was a story beneath me, but I could see he was a trouble when he decided it would be a fun idea to pull the Smashers out of the circle while he was part of the Boundry. He was this tall guy picking fights, and decided to really mess with one Smasher. The Smasher almost gave him a fight but other people part of the pit pulled them away from each other, giving security at the club time to keep things cool. After that the pit was back in action for a while. The tall disrupting guy almost came back to start another fight, this time with anyone in the pit. Security took him aside ASAP. Mosh pit continues, with smiles and awesome music in the background.

It's just funny how something so violent can actually be an example of spontaneous governance.

In defense of nerd happiness

2011-11-28T21:56:00.000-06:00

In my last post, someone responded they have never seen a nerd that is happy. Bollocks I say! Here is where I will list all my circumstantial evidence:

-Nerds know what makes them happy, and they pursue them without much hesitation
-It is now cool to be a nerd, so you can't claim they're lonely anymore
-Nerds are more likely to have close friends since not everyone is into their hobbies
-Nerds don't need people to reaffirm their awesomeness, they're used to being called out as weird and most life-long nerds learn not to care
-Depressed people are not as influential or successful as Gene Roddenberry, Isaac Asimov, Madame Curie, or even Christopher Nolan. You got to be dedicated to the nerdiness for that kind of success.
-Obama is a Trekkie and he's a genuinely happy guy in the public eye.

If you have never encountered a happy nerd, either you haven't looked, you don't know any nerds, or you're such a debbie downer you never see happy people. Nerd pride.

Graph Analysis. I promise it's fun!

2011-11-21T20:24:00.000-06:00

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weiner:

Now, why would this even be true? Why do nerds have more fun when they're older?

Well, when you are younger it's hard to be into something that is misunderstood, but you get a good close group of friends that way. Over time, you get used to having your own fun without having to depend on the mainstream ideas of what's ideal. Do you know what you want? Do you know what you think? Do you care if anyone else validates it? No? Then you're more likely to be happy than the guy who needs to be reaffirmed about his life choices.

Over time, doubts occur in life because the unexpected happens. You can do you best to plan out everything the way you've been taught it's "supposed" to be, but it never really turns out that way. And I think nerds, or people that our more independent of thought in general, know that. Knowing that makes it easier to take the punches and move on.

Also, nerds are better making their own fun. My mother taught me that one and she's right!

Rules of Acquisition fair?

2011-11-17T08:19:00.001-06:00

The Occupy Wall Street Movement is now a staple of culture, and is probably something that will be fleetingly mentioned in my children's 7th grade text books, but we're in the middle of it right now. And that means there will be humor, like this nerdy meme.

Hilarious, yes, but then it got me to thinking: Is this fair?

For those of you who don't know, the Ferengi of the Star Trek world, when not being horribly misogynist, are capitalists to the extreme. The Rules of Acquisition are essentially a capitalist code to live by, where clever selfishness is rewarded, and getting ahead is considered the ultimate goal in their culture. It's something for a lot of viewers to look at and reply "Oh my that is soooo savage!"

However, when you think about it in multiple ways, it's very fair. For one, it's Darwinism evolved. In a trade based society having the best connections and more ownership guarantees survival. Mercantilism, within the Ferengi at least, is still somewhat valued within an intergalactic society. Trade will always be necessary.

Also, one of the things that make it fair is how ruthless the system is. There isn't any laws protecting anyone, so it's all fair game. You can get to the top from being on the bottom if you're ruthless and cunning enough. When there are no rules set by no one person, anyone can win.

But those are the cultural values of the Ferengi, which may be rooted in some scientific reason for why this cut-throat race to the top has survived. And also, they have gone to the furthest extreme of capitalism. The system works merely because no one is safeguarded. This also gives more incentive to "work ahead".

I'm a dirty hoo-man who likes to look out for my own, and even when we're having discussions about the elite protecting themselves, they're still protecting themselves as a group, not necessarily on the individual level. I think as time goes on, the definition of "our own" will widen to include the entirety of the human race, and it's a slow progress. It makes figuring out a democratic system that benefits everyone harder, but it's not impossible.

So in a way, the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition are fair, but we as a culture have to decide what we value and how that can help our survival as a species. We're some of the most complex organisms to ever live, alter, and explore Earth. There's definitely a possibility that we can finally find a way to exist on it together without being ruthless.

Grimm

2011-11-16T07:43:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry I haven't been writing much, but luckily after the disappointment of Terra Nova, I've found a better show. Grimm!

Now is Grimm super duper fantastic? Well the first episode was giving me some doubts. They gave a lot of background in a short amount of time, letting the audience know as much as our hero Nick did before seeing his aunt take on a monster with her bare hands. Turns out Nick and his family are Grimms--they can spot the supernatural threats to human society, including werebeasts and such. First episode was based on Little Red Riding Hood, and that at first turned me off. I fon't want to be reliving all the old fairytales ill fit for modern Oregan.

But the second and third episodes took care of that. Werebears and bee-people are not something I expected. And Nick, being a detective, has the know-how necessary to truly investigate. He gets a little help from his aunt before she passes and he's off on his own with only her notes. He also enlists the help of a werewolf named Monroe who has reformed his ways. We haven't, 3 episodes in, have something that would endanger his girlfriend Juliette yet, but hopefully the writers will be creative with the trope. Come on, we all know it's coming.

The cast is pretty good. Phenomenal? No, but they definitely get you hooked enough to the stories. The setting in Oregon is perfect, the forest and urban areas intertwining is believable and not forced. The writing is shaky in the first episode, but it gets better as the show goes on. I will say on all fronts the show isn't shit-your-pants amazing, but I feel like that there is finally a good amount of nerdy shows and this is one is well done and not just milking the from the current nerd popularity teat or ratings.

4. Sneaking. Listen.

2011-11-02T18:00:00.001-05:00

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10.35.406

I was bad.

Don't be surprised, not like I was going to be obedient this trip. I just snuck out without an escort. Back home that wasn't even a thing, but apparently when you're part of Titania society, you must always have an escort.

I didn't learn that until I talked to Georgia and Garrison. Georgia had mentioned this little jazz club that she thought I would like and she said she wanted to go but two women alone wouldn't be proper.

“Proper?” I said.
“Right, proper, you can't be out without an earning escort when you're in high society. It reflects poorly on the head of the household.”
“I never heard of that before. That's...really weird.”

Apparently around here if a person doesn't have the free time to treat his spouse it's a big deal. Or children, or anyone really. It's all a whole head of household thing. You want a job where you're important but you still have time. That explains Garrison's messed up schedule. I never know when he's going to be home. I guess that means he should be able to treat her to a meal every once in a while.

Garrison offered to take us but then he started complaining about jazz. “I would much prefer a classical show, the theramin is much more soothing and I hear blah blah blah blah blah” Yeah I made up the blahs but you see where I'm going with this. He just kept going. And it was all monotone too, like he was complaining but he didn't want to sound like he was complaining. It was weird. Georgia gave a face. Garrison is an only child, and it definitely shows.

This is not the only time he's done this. He tried to explain to me the other day why it was more logical for me to keep my shower soap outside the shower. This went on for 20 minutes. He's one of those guys.

Not someone I want to see a jazz show with.

I looked up the club that Georgia mentioned on the stream. It's open until really late. Alick knows, I'd drag him places until 3 a.m. Oh, I guess you weren't supposed to know that Dad. Oops.

So I decided to go when they were asleep. Garrison goes to bed early and Georgia usually follows soon after. Garrison also gets up early too, so that's the problem. I couldn't stay out too late, but at least I could leave the house early.

I waited a couple of days after I talked to them to do it, and it was totally worth it. First, I made sure to get a fashionable hat to hide my face. Hats aren't that popular here though. I guess when you stay away from the sun all day you don't need a hat. So it's really more like a fashionable brim across your face. You're supposed to style your hair over it. I did something “simple”, and by simple I mean something that took merely an hour and a half. Women here have way too much time on their hands.

Georgia and Garrison didn't notice, and by the time they must've been asleep I snuck out of my room and out of the apartment.

Took the el over to the club. It's literally just called The Club. I guess it was one of the first one's here, built when the company who started Titania was trying to look inviting. So I guess they only needed to call it The Club. It does look a little older inside, some of the walls need to be replaced, the edges are rusting and they have a collection of dents and punctures. The stage is an old-fashioned cabaret thing, but it has a grand piano. I didn't know they had grand pianos out here. It's kind of funny, I know they don't make wooden instruments out here so someone must've shuttled that thing over, possibly over a century ago.

They had some background music, I got myself some weird sounding drink made from some exotic liquor and some exotic juice. I just told the tender to make me something sweet, I was new. He did. It also was kind of strong, so I didn't drink anything else. Not ordering from that tender again, if I go back.

I sat close to the back. All the lighting was dim so no one would recognize me. And then around half an hour after I got in, I hear some dorky guy's voice announce “The sensation across Titania, Erin Kay!” There was some modest applause, and then this tall, slender woman with way too much orange hair on top of her square face came out. She had a simple short tunic and leggings, but they sparkled a bit and she had a little cape on too. I think that's something I forgot to mention, I guess people love capes here. It's like an evening wear must. I don't know why, they don't even have weather. Maybe they like to pretend they'll pump in some wind every once in a while.

This Erin chick could sing though. It's sounds like the old earth jazz singers, and I mean OLD earth jazz singers. The light voice and the high cooing and all that stuff. I never heard it in person before. Everyone back on earth is busy being loud in wide open spaces. I guess when everyone is cramped in together, you don't have to be loud. It's to everyone's benefit, I tell you. I could hear her so well, she had no mic or speakers or anything and she was playing the piano. It was great. I barely remember what she looked like because I closed my eyes to hear her sing, focus. One of those songs is stuck in my head.

I try to leave my past behind
Forget the day I walked away
But the cracks still show
And now I know
I'll be leaking forever

I'll try my best to save the tears
Another dance in the rain
And I'm crumbling
I'm still stumbling
And leaking forever

I think that song was my favorite. They way she sang it, I choked up a bit. I'm not a super emotional person, but she hit me in the ticker.

I got home way before Garrison would wake up. Before I got in I rode the elevator with the neighbor next door. Or one of them. The guy that was arguing. He looked tired Sunken eyes and messed up dark hair. Tall and slouched.

Why's he staying up? Cheating on his wife? I don't know. I'm so bored here that I'm sneaking out of the apartment and making up stories about my neighbors. I think I'm going to see Erin sing again. Got to figure out how. Maybe I can buy some of her music on the stream. I hope so.

Now to find another romance novel. Georgia's watching her vids all today.

Oh! New Year soon! Maybe I should schedule a hair appointment.

VIRGINIA.

Life Bullet Points

2011-10-30T23:24:00.000-05:00

And once again I'm thrown through a loop. Here's a little taste of what I'm doing and dealing with.

-Job is getting really bad. To the point where I think the EEOC may want to do an investigation. I don't want to get into details, this is a nerd blog and when I bitch I'll bitch about interesting stuff. With that being said, I'm working on making my situation better by whatever means logically available. Unfortunately that can distract me from my writing pursuits. I'm sorry I've been delaying, but I hope soon my situation will improve, which means your reading material from here will increase.

-Mystic and I are motivating each other through the crazy. He is still working on his video game, and if you would like to help him go here and donate to an innovative video game project. Keep up with his blog, he's been working, but having 2 jobs (one you love and one you need), things are just moving slowly.

-Nerd life is excellent! Mystic and I are trying our best to watch through Deep Space Nine and catch up with Next Generation. LARP is going great with both characters Ellen (who's survived her first Prince as seneschal and is working with her second) and Rose (my sabbat vampire who now has a pack), and I even brought my nerd mom to a game and she loved the people! I'm not sure if she'll come again.

-I'm going to wait some time before running another game, but one of my LARP friends is going to run a campaign and I'm excited to try something new. It's not D&D, it's something ridiculously different and indie and no longer published. Yes, I shall keep you posted.

-I know I'm late in the game, but I'll soon be getting into The Witcher, which I heard was based on a pretty good book and had some interesting story choices. I hope to then start The Witcher 2 soon after that.

-The podcast will happen again soon, but I'm also hoping in the summer my brother and I can work on some nerd raps... what? Why are you looking at me like that? Not like it hasn't been done before. I know I have a problem of starting projects and not finishing them, but this is something I want to finish, I think it would be good for me and my brother.

-And speaking of finishing projects, I will be continuing the Titania Chronicle, I'm not sure when I'll have time, or make time to write, but I'm not quitting the story.

Zombie in a Penguin Suit.

2011-10-22T07:15:00.000-05:00

It really is that simple.

It gets poignant when you get to the credits. P.S. This is a short film by Chris Russel, who luckily has tapped into my re-burgeoning zombie love.

The Walking Dead, Season 1.

2011-10-19T22:09:00.000-05:00

You would think that by now, I would've watched this series already. I am a fan of zombie genre, and especially the modern incarnations of it. But it wasn't until a friend of mine was talking about how he was excited for season 2 that I was finally compelled to see season 1.

Totally. Worth. Your time.

You don't have to be into zombies to appreciate the themes in the story. It mainly follows Rick Grimes, in his quest to find peace in this new zombie world. Throughout the story you not only follow Rick and the group he's surviving with, but there are also little vignettes of other's lives and sacrifices, and it's tears through your heart.

For those of you looking for a general review, I highly suggest it. I always go on and on about how well written TV is in short supply, and the Walking Dead gives me hope. Characters that have depth, setting that doesn't feel forced, and dialogue that isn't ridiculous. If there are cliches, they are hidden very well.

It's a well produced show, gross enough for a zombie epic without trying to be over the top. Nothing is done merely for spectacle, even though spectacle is a tool used.

If you haven't seen it, and you like a good story, watch it. Consider the zombies as an extra bonus.

SPOILERS AHEAD

For those of you have watched the show... I am seriously saddened that I can't watch season 2. Season 1 was brilliantly executed, which although started the way many zombie sagas start: Guy waking up in a coma in the hospital, doesn't know all about zombies. However Rick Grimes is smart enough to survive the first 2 hours to get to home, and then almost gets eaten.

Throughout the series, helpful strangers seem to be the theme. We first meet a father and son team that teach Rick about the world. Then Glen introduces Rick to the idea of escape. There's the "gangsters" that took over the abandoned old home, the group that took in Rick after he screwed up their escape plan, the scientist that lets the group into the facility on a whim. Kindness is not lost in this world.

Nor are the stresses of regular life. Siblings squabble. Spouses argue. Bigotry infects. It's all just amplified with the new stresses of having the undead trying to eat your face off. And there's no therapy session to help you work through it. The people who end up surviving in this situation are tough not only on the outside, but on the inside too. Their convictions are keeping them through.

There's also a good mix of characters to "like" and "hate". There aren't ones specifically designed to feel one way or another, throughout the 6 episodes you can empathize with them all. Shane just wants the comfort of a family, and took it from Rick when he was "dead". With Rick back, his opportunity of having that is now completely gone. Who's going to be making a family now? Jim was probably never going to be fully sane anyway with his survivor's guilt on top of his general traumatic experiences. Darryl flies off the handle, but he probably has the best survival skills out there. They get on your nerves, but you can never fully hate them.

And now I'm kicking myself for not being able to see season 2. Season 1 made it sound like there's no hope for an actual cure, or at least a sanctuary, but I'm still hopeful. The bullets will run out, the cars will stop moving, and I'll still think they have a chance with their bare hands. That's just me. And the show helps you have hope too.

So if you're watching Season 2, don't tell me a thing. I'll hold on to hope until the last minute of the series.

Congrats to Quinto on coming out.

2011-10-16T10:12:00.001-05:00

I'm a nerd who appreciates people of all different backgrounds, so when I just read this morning that Zachary Quinto has come out of the closet, I want to say "Hooray! Congrats! Here's to knowing what you are and being proud of it!"

But to be honest, my first thought was "Aww! I'll never make out with Spock."

Yeah, I was disappointed a bit at first. But let's be honest, not like I would've been able to make out with Quinto in this universe. I'm sure I'm not the only nerd girl who felt that way.

However, now there are another group of nerd girls who are excited for the new possibility of their fan-fiction fantasies becoming true. I'm not sure how scared I should be now.

Uh... well congrats anyway Quinto!

3. Bored. Reading.

2011-10-13T12:41:00.000-05:00

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HEA 10.29.406

I’m trying to write this but there seems to be a fight next door. I didn’t realize the walls were thin, but Mom always said I was horrible at listening. There is a couple living next door, hetero, and the guy is very upset about something. He’s not speaking loudly but he’s slamming something around. Stomping a little bit. It could be a tantrum, I don’t know. But I didn’t even think about the fact that I lived next to anyone. Back home you have some space and a yard, with a tastefully hidden compost heap so you and your neighbors don’t have to smell like filth. But here everything was pretty isolated until I heard some stuff happening over there. Sounds kind of serious. Maybe not. I don’t know. It’s the most interesting thing that has happened to me today.

Things are horribly boring here. Georgia and I went on another shopping trip, this time to more boutiques on the other side of downtown, a little father away. Not as chic as the place with Hetha, but still lots of shop keepers and workers with ridiculous curl sculptures on top of their heads. So it was trendy.

Georgia wanted to make sure that I had a dress I felt fit me. I got to say, even though she’s helping Mom marry me off, she’s doing it a lot better than Mom did. Georgia is not insisting I’m entirely trendy, she says that at least marry a husband that appreciates your style. That means I’m going to be the exotic beauty with how everyone likes to dress here.

I’ll be introduced to high society on New Year’s Eve, at the annual Entrepreneur Ball. Businessmen hold it so that they can thank government officials, and the rest of the big people. It’s a lot of people with old and new money. And a good number of them are single.

So, Dad, tell Mom I’ll be meeting potential husbands soon. I’m sure she thinks I am going to run off and become a vigilante or something, go to some other colony like Progress Point or some other liberal place with free woman that dance all night and have careers during the day. I’m sure she’d find me and drag me back to civilized society. She doesn’t have to now.

I got another nice dress, but I think I’ll stick to the one I bought before. It’s simple, got colors that look good on me and I don’t need it tailored. And yesterday Georgia and I got jewelery for it. Stellarous. Since it’s not on trend on the planet it’ll enhance the fact that I am an exotic import. Like a coconut or something. I should say a fresh coconut, I don’t think they have anything fresh here.

But other than the shopping I’m bored. I’ve finished three romance novels in a week. I don’t read. Ever. I am kind of surprised that I even thought of it but Georgia can hog the projector for hours either watching vids or bidding on art. I don’t even think she really likes the art I just think she tries to seem cultured.

She’s a little homesick from time to time too. Yesterday she talked about how she missed biting into the apple. They have apple juice and apple treats here but it’s not the same. Fresh fruit has a different smell or texture. I’m sure they have some around here somewhere, how else do they make stuff taste like apples?

I gotta get out of the house. I’ll ask Georgia and Garrison what there is to do tonight. I hope something. Anything. SAVE ME!

VIRGINIA

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T20:33:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't heard, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple and technological visionary, died today. He's been fighting cancer for years, so it's not super surprising.

I have to say, as much as I have become less enamored with Macs, without the progress that Jobs had made, the idea of making computers accessible to the general public and marrying the form and functionality, have made computers and other electronics the way of the future. If electronics were not easy to use, then very few people would use them.

I'm not saying that Jobs was the one who invented easy-to-use gadgets, but he popularized them, which makes them more viable options in the future.

With that said, may I suggest anyone with Apple stock consider selling it, not a mad dash though. Jobs kept that place afloat, and I'm very wary with what Apple will do next.

Terra Nova fails... kinda.

2011-10-02T13:06:00.000-05:00

Real Sci-fi these days is hard to come by, so hearing about Terra Nova gave me a little bit of hope. I didn't expect it to be hard sci-fi like Star Trek, but I figured it has the potential for some good story telling that makes the view think a little bit.

The premise for the hour and a half long premier is at least somewhat interesting. Jim and Elizabeth Shannon are trying to raise their children in a world where the environment is shot to hell and there's a quota on children, which of course they've decided to break. Jim's in jail when the family has been given the opportunity to go to Terra Nova, a settlement 85 million years in the past, accessible due to the fact that it's a split to a separate universe. They conveniently sneak everyone through to a paradise surrounded by dinosaurs and fresh air.

So I watched the premiere. It's decent, I guess, but I don't think I'm going to go past that. Its not the acting. It's well cast (take a look, they all have decent careers), and I'm definitely loving Stephen Lang as Nathaniel Taylor, the tough leader of Terra Nova who survived in the Jungle 181 days before any other civilization joined him. Stephen Lang brings some smarts to a character that could easily be brushed aside as a musclehead in the wrong hands. Also so happy to see Allison Miller back after her great short showing on Kings.

It's not really the setting either. There's a lot of interesting stuff you can do when you go all they way back 85 million years, where humans have a plentiful jungle and countless resources alongside some hugely dangerous monsters. The way cultural naturally evolves would be interesting to look at too. There is a lot I can think of that would be great to think about in the show.

But right now it seems like it's kinda full of cliches in the writing. A lot of the cliches are in the character relationships, and they're not all ones that you would recognize in a heartbeat (thankfully no star-crossed Romeo and Juliet b.s. just yet), but you definitely could sit at the story and think "huh, I've seen that a hundred times before." You probably have. And it's something that I'm discovering on a lot of new shows, that now certain things that used to be considered unusual are being played out. Again, it's mostly in the character relationships, but you also feel it in the threads of separate plots that spill out of this first episode. They just give 5 different ideas of what could be popular, and you can tell they're just waiting to see which ones will increase ratings.

Of course there's little nitpicky things too that you wish weren't glossed over. The Shannons never really explain why they decided to break the child quota with their aptly named daughter Zoey. They never show how Jim breaks out of prison even through he was stuck their for 3 years. There's not a lot of build-up for the glory that Terra Nova is in this not-so distant future. And part of me is willing to gloss that over, but another part of me is reminded that this is a symptom of lazy writing.

It could just be the pilot, but I honestly don't care enough. There are smart shows out there like Fringe that I need to catch up on and fulfill my nerd tv needs. If you want something entertaining, I'm sure Terra Nova can fill that void. The cast carries the show well and of course parts of it look GORGEOUS. But it doesn't have the brains I'm looking for in particular.

You are NOT an original schemer, Mr. Reality TV Star

2011-09-30T00:22:00.000-05:00

First of all let me apologize for the absence. Work once again has me worried, so I'm looking around. My writing has been focused on less public mediums.

Second, this is the nerdiest of blog posts but I felt I had to share. I've been dragged into watching Top Shot, all of the third season on hulu. It's a marksmen competition that hasn't been around long, but it's definitely compelling. It's young enough that Top Shot is not focused on superb drama. Many a good reality tv shows have fallen victim to this, included my once favorite Project Runway. We can talk about Project Runway was ruined by moving to Lifetime later, but that's not the point of this post.

Lately some drama has worked its way on Top Shot, which considering the kind of competitiveness that this show invites it's a little surprising. Other than sometimes leaning a little sexist, it's a very honorable sport on the show. But then you have Jake, who decides that boasting about his abilities and underestimate everyone else. He gets pouty when people don't call him a team player and try to vote him out. He decides he doesn't need his team and then sleeps outside. He teases weak players and encourages to keep them on. And he tries to get one of his own team members to hit him so he has a strong competitor out of the game.

And that is not what annoys me most about him.

In this last episode that aired, Jake tries to sound all original, and that he's brilliant like Atilla the Hun. He's a schemer and a planner and you should be impressed with that.

I'm sorry Jake, but no. You see I remember when Reality TV was cool, when Richard won Survivor from being a huge dick, when Omarosa was the reason you watched anything with Donald Trump in it, when Big Brother was entertaining in America and Britain. I'm sorry, but you your tactical maneuvers have been done and played out.

So I hope that even though not a lot of people check this blog, "sneaky" game players in reality shows will SHUT UP about being original and smart and realize every other show has done it. Ever.

2. Shopping, Looking

2011-09-26T10:23:00.004-05:00

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HEA 10.27.406

I did something I never did on Earth today.

I went to the library, pick up an upload chip and started reading a book.

Believe me it’s some ridiculously trashy romance novel that takes place on Earth right when they started they had this thing they called “internet”. It’s like the stream, except with wires that went everywhere. Anyway, this chick lives in Japan and she’s chatting with this businessman in France she’s never met, and he’s actually going to a business trip in Japan but they keep on missing each other online to set up when to meet and OH STARS IT’S SUSPENSEFUL.

Why am I reading? Georgia does nothing but clean the house and watch vids every day. I think she has a couple of friend visit every once in a while, but she likes to be home. Apparently Garrison’s job involves weird hours. This week he’s been working a lot but some days he is only in his office two hours and then he comes home, and Georgia likes to be ready to pamper him. I haven’t seen much of it. When she started with a head massage technique she learned here I got creeped out. Garrison seemed to really enjoy it and neither one seemed to remember that I was in the same living room, so I rushed over to my room and closed the door and hid. I don’t need to witness foreplay. You guys are probably laughing at this right now but let me tell you Garrison seemed a little too excited about index fingers on his collarbone.

So, Dad, to answer your question, I think Georgia is happy with her hub here.

Georgia did help me find some new dresses yesterday. Went on the el to this boutique that was on 10 minutes away. We could’ve walked there but Georgia insists we’re above that. The el stops at any intersection you need to, if you know which line to take. They’re numbered, and the numbers have color coding too. A red means express, which won’t stop at every intersection, and a yellow is standard. Out of service is blue. We took a red el to the boutique. It’s called Katzy’s or something crazy like that. The outside wall looks like a bubble, with screens displaying the dresses inside on models. The shop had a lot of clothes, but it was super tiny.

There weren’t a lot of people in there so we had this crazy looking chica named Hetha with ridiculous curls in her loud blonde hair. Apparently the big thing to do here is to sculpt your hair into these complicated curls, and that’s what Hetha has done. It’s like a statue of half bubbles arranged as delicately as a mountain range. Did she sleep on them? I don’t know, the curls looked neat but they were jumbled all over the place.

So Hetha decides that my color is green and she gets me this green spotted dress with all this flotsam around my feet to trip around and frills on my shoulder and sheer stuff on my arms and spots that make me look like I’m wearing the skin of a sick leopard. As much as Hetha thought that it looked good, Georgia kindly put it to her that green was not a color I flocked to, saying there was a long family story. She may not know me well, but it’s good to know my sister has my back.

Georgia proceeded to watch Hetha closely as possible. She knows i gravitate toward simplicity, even though it seems on this planet that is not what’s in style. There is extra fabric hanging from everything and patterns that mismatch all over the place and I don’t even know! Dresses are still slinky but they’re slinky with extra garbage attached and I am so afraid I am going to trip over it. Georgia knows because that was the one thing we would both complain about in our vids to each other, and even though she is more in fashion with what’s going on in Titania she definitely doesn’t want to trip. Like our father, we’re clumsy.

Finally Hetha (with a lot of help from Georgia) finds this black and red dress with not much going on in the skirt area but it has this nice sheer overlay, covering my arms and it has some light, sparkly beading that usually isn’t my thing, but I’m realizing most stuff isn’t here in this shop. So Georgia gets it for me and Hetha the entire time is shaking her curls and going “That green would’ve been interstellar on you!”. She’s crazy.

Georgia promises me we’re never going to that boutique again.

We went to another one that had more casual clothes for when you go to the country club. Georgia says she knows women that spend all day there. They say they watch the men play racquet ball and other sports but really they’re drunks. Apparently that is why Georgia spends a lot of time at home, she’s not a drunk. Good to know.

Food out here in the restaurants doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as home. You can tell they faked it to some extent. Earth is able to get a lot of stuff fresh these days, but here on Titania I don’t think they know what a farm looks like. It’s all stuff that’s either grown in a tube or has been freeze dried across space, and that second one is what the rich people eat, so I get to have a lot of freeze dried fruit for dessert. There’s apparently a bunch of other stuff they do as well to get food to taste like something. Georgia says Garrison knows all the techniques but she wouldn’t share them with me. He is a very technical guy, apparently, learns things in every little detail. I guess that’s why he’s so uninteresting, he is too focused on the small stuff.

It was a nice sister’s day out I guess. Georgia talked a lot about herself and how Titania is, but I don’t want to bore you with it. I don’t even remember half of it. The restaurant had fake pictures of the old french rvieria circa 2105 C.E, well before even the H.E.A, as if it’s supposed to be like a window to look out on. But windows change, and this wasn’t, and all I cold think about was how much I thought my window at home was boring when it looked out to the desert with cacti and my neighbors. But there were some animals and people to look at.

Out here, no one misses that.

I didn’t think I would.

Which is why I’m reading this historical book I guess, even with less nature than Earth has now, this Japanese woman can still think under a tree in a park. I got to go across town to see one flower.

I didn’t think I would miss this stuff.

I need to stop ending these things on a bad note. Next time I’m going to do something exciting. I don’t know what, but something. Make suggestions, guys!

VIRGINIA

Mystic's Project

2011-09-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

My boyfriend, Mystic, or "The Boyfriend" for you long time readers, is working on a project that he can do mostly on his own. Unfortunately it's what happens when you're trying to start a business and can't even pay yourself. He has a dream for a really smart game that is going to be much more about choice and it's affects on the story. Bioware games do not meet the amount of choice that Mystic wants to put in his episodic scifi adventures.

Read more about it here, and please see if you can help him out. As things come out you know I'll post about it here. I hope with enough help you'll be watching the beginning of a great video game dev company.

1. Stopping. New.

2011-09-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

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HEA 10.24.406

I guess I settled in.

Should I start from the beginning? Yeah, let’s do that.

I thought flying sucked, but that’s only two hours of cramped space with a stranger. Try 4 weeks in a chemical sleep by yourself. You’ll take no armrests next to the tall guy any day. They didn’t tell me I could have headaches for a week.

So you finally wake up for the last time, you get your bags together and you’re ready to go, and then they totally make you wait for 2 hours while they inspect and disinfect every. single. pod. All 80 of them. They put this powder around everything, so now I go out with my peacock powdered luggage, that is way too heavy for not having really walked in five weeks, and the air tastes like soap and metal. Apparently this is biodegradable and isn’t going to make me sick, but it doesn’t make up for the fact I haven’t showered in over a month. They probably lied. They probably put that powder on everyone to make sure that it doesn’t smell like ass. God, if I smelled as bad as I think I did, I can’t imagine how it smells to go out in the terminal without that powder. Oh wait, I can. I gagged a bit. Don’t imagine that.

You exit one at a time, because a good number of the people suffer from hyper-strain. I don’t know why it’s hyper. Probably something to do with physics or something stupid like that. They send you out one at a time in the hopes people don’t topple over each other, and that way it’s easy to figure out who’s going to take an hour to walk. Thank stars I could walk. I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to, so I would be a bumbling debutante. My mom had me wear this really nice dress with sheer layers on the trip, just in case I met some rich guy right at the terminal. I think when she looked around the terminal back at Earth she realized it was nothing but laborers and young graduates. Because she thought I would get engaged right away I got this powder streaking over my black and red dress with the sheer thingy. Mom says it looks good on me, but it didn’t anymore.

Georgia barely recognized me. Last time she saw me I didn’t even have tits, and I was half a foot shorter. Now I have heels and a fancy dress, blearily stumbling with a ton of luggage that looks like monsters eyes and all of it and me are covered in this forsaken powder. And she just breaks out laughing. She’s practically tearing up with how hilarious I look. I didn’t even realize it until shuttle back because I was on auto pilot. She sat across from me in the shuttle, and I finally wised up enough to ask why she was crying. She just said “The image of it all. What a reunion.” She started laughing again.

Garrison looks like what aliens would draw if they needed a stereotypical human male to describe us. If we ever do find other life out there I’ll point them his way. He’s medium; his build, coloring, height, even the tone of his voice is just average. I have never met someone who I would never be able to pick out of a crowd. It’s almost eerie to look at him. He doesn’t talk much either. He gave a bow and said “pleasure to meet you” and that was it. I don’t think he’s said a word to me since.

Georgia and Garrison kept their distance from me. They got really dressed up. Or I think they did, maybe they dress in fancy clothes all the time. I guess purple and green are fashionable on Titatnia because that’s what Georgia was wearing, with her hair pinned close to her face and her bracelets jingling along. Garrison had a nice suit on in an olive color. It looked like a bog puked him out. How’s he supposed to know though? He’s never seen a bog. He’s never seen nature.

I already miss tress. Every walkway here has high ceilings and bright lights and light colors. It’s not sterile white like some of the other colonies I’ve seen through vids. They have pale blues and pinks and purples as you walk along. There’s no graffiti. The walls are asking for something more but they just sit there, happy to be one color.

We weren’t on the walkways for long. Georgia and Garrison led me, the powdery embarrassment, to the El station. The cars go around above most of the colony, hence, “el” or elevated train. How original. Half the time you’re on the edge and you get a view of the planet outside. It’s totally desolate out there. Golden craters and recycling depots left outside civilization. In space no one can smell your funky trash, so there is sits. A faint atmosphere exist so that you an have a yellow tinge to the sky above. Apparently they thought there was enough H20 to help terraform this place years ago. That’s what Georgia told me. Who thought water was up in that sky? Especially enough to harness for people? You can still see every star when the sun is out.

Oh yeah, looking into the sun on earth is painful, but here it’ll make you puke. I almost did. The shades they put on the El help enough to give you time to turn your head if the sun is up. It’s tiny but it will kick your head out of your eyeballs if you try to look at it. Apparently it keeps the colony warm enough without any extra man-made heaters, considering what the biodome is made out of. Biodome is a weird name too, considering a lot of this isn’t strictly circular. It’s more triangular. Biotriad, however, is not as easy to say, so biodome it is.

The ride to Georgia’s neigborhood was only 30 minutes, so I got there fast. I was still carrying my own luggage when we walked to her building and took the lift up to the 31st floor, only 3 floors from the top. Apparently that means something. They have one of the two flats with a bay window out there. When I first walked in I’m introduced to all this earth art Geogia collects. It costs a fortune out here and Garrison is happy to buy her all of it. But the living room is kind of small. It has just enough space for a couch, a love seat, and a coffee table. Not much else going on but the view, and of course the projector. they have a screen that drops down from the ceiling to project what’s on the net to watch. I guess Georgia can keep up with all her Bahn Estrada vids from years ago. Not like any of it is new.

My room is skinny. It feels like a long closet. The sheets are nice, but Georgia forced me to change in the bathroom before I got powder on anything. As soon as I did I went to the bed and slept like death. When I woke up breakfast was ready the next morning. Georgia had bots doing it for her. It was food, I guess. Still good. My eggs were a little too runny. They’re not really eggs anyway. Those you save for baking here. On Titania there’s a lot of synthetic food that looks and tastes pretty legit. The waffles were not so bad.

By the time you guys see this thing, I think I’ll been here a week. Don’t matter, I’ll definitely keep you updated. Let me know how life is back on Earth. Especially the weather. I’m thinking I’m going to miss seeing different weather out my window. It helped paint the day. Each one unique. Like a cloud or a snowflake.

Didn’t mean to get into preschool territory there. Anyway, when something exciting happens I’ll let you know. Let’s see if I can find me a rich husband, preferably one who knows how to dance.

VIRGINA

My New Sabbat Character

2011-09-05T09:58:00.000-05:00

The last LARP game I wasn't able to go because I had twisted my ankle at work, driving to and from LARP wasn't going to be easy with two crutches. I realized I missed my peeps too much so I decided to try Sabbat, knowing that I would probably get pulled into going every game and now gaming 3 weekends out of the month. Is that such a bad thing? No.

So up to the night before I wasn't sure what to make for a character. Luckily a friend of mine told me a general idea of Sabbat. It's not related to my Vampire: The Requiem character or world at all. That's new World of Darkness, with different rules and a different setting. New World of Darkness doesn't have the presence of Sabbat, just the Camarilla with smaller sects of off groups that go against the, like the Brood and Seven. Old World of Darkness had the Camirilla, a group of Vampires who were extremely hierarchical by age and were about being hidden from mortal society by almost hiding in it, and the Sabbat, who were about freedom and earning your status and being proud of the fact that you are Vampire and not hiding it. You still couldn't reveal to mortals you were a vampire and make it obvious, but killing a mortal when drinking or eating them is not a bad idea. Ripping people's faces off with your brute vampire force is cool if you know the fucker is going to die and not tell anyone. Have some fun, just don't be stupid.

Now with this in mind I decided that for once I wanted to play a character who could actually kill somebody. I love Ellen, she's a brilliant quiet power player who kind of fell into being Seneschal of Chicago (and gladly), but she is not a fighter and she rarely uses any of her powers. With that in mind I made a character that wouldn't mind getting her hands dirty. Also, my friend asked me "what kind of monster do you want to be?" And my reply was "motherly". With that, and mostly on the car ride over to game, I figured out the story of Rose, my Sabbat vampire.

Rose had always lived in the woods, near a river and a bog, always lived off the land. Her parents were originally from city life and decided to rough it in the woods. Rose was an only child, and her family was extremely isolated in there cabin. They were self reliant and knew only a few neighbors. They were pretty happy with only the three of them.

Rose had seen her father hit her mother sometimes, but only after her mother had been hysterical. Rose never thought much of it, so when she finally married Peter from three houses down, she tried her best to be a team with him. At nineteen she was happily married with child, and still able to talk to her family. Peter didn't start hitting her until after the boys were born, beautiful identical twins with blond hair and brown eyes. Rose named them Andrew and Anthony. She loved them. Peter was jealous of the attention, something Rose never really thought about until she was already embraced.

Any time Peter felt that the boys were coming before him, or that Rose wasn't listening or moving fast enough, she would get some sort of hit. Possibly to the face, but usually on her torso. When the boys were just one her mother asked about a bruise on her arm. Rose didn't tell, but that was when Peter insisted she didn't see her parents anymore. Letters would have to suffice.

Rose was alone with the boys a lot, gathering food and water while they were nearby. She didn't have the internet or even a telephone, nor did she have any news outlet. She hadn't been to the town center since she married Peter, with him pleading that he could not live with her that far away. Rose didn't know any better, and her only comparison was now shut away from her.

When Anthony and Andrew were four, they were little explorers. They would touch anything that Rose didn't already say don't touch four times. So it wasn't any surprised that Anthony found an old thing of Peter's to play with. Rose never remembers exactly what it was, but it was something Peter had treasured since he was a child. Rose can only imagine the rage that Peter had after coming back from butchering a chicken to see Anthony had broken one of his favorite things, in pieces on the floor.

Rose heard the screams and rushed inside to see Peter had swiftly chopped Anthony to pieces in the kitchen, his butcher knife spraying the blood along the walls. She feared to make a sound, just rushed over to Andrew, covered his eyes and looked away. When Peter was done, he took the pieces of their son out and burned them. Rose tried to wash the walls, but she was thinking. Would Andrew ever survive this life? When would be the next time Peter would snap? Rose had no problem with dying by Peter's hand, but she only wanted the boys to go in her arms if they had too.

The next morning Rose took Andrew out to the bog. She told them that they were going to take a nap under the water, something no one had tried before. They laid in and Rose kept him under. His nature caused him to struggle, but Rose held him tight and close under her until he stopped, whispering "Trust me". She stood there for hours, grieving, crying. When her eyes were dry enough and her nose stopped running, she went back to the house and cooked dinner. She stayed away from Peter, who made a stand for his butcher's knife.

That night noises came from outside. Peter always slept like a rock, but Rose shot up and got a lantern to look out. She walked around, first to the chicken coop, then south of it into the forest. She saw shadows moving, trying to follow them. Who knew they were here? Not even the mail man came by more than once a week, who would stop by here? And then suddenly she was knocked back into a tree. The lantern went out. She felt the blood leaving her, a pain in her neck, a hand holding her on her waist. She passed out.

She awoke abandoned in the middle of the night, a pain coming over her entire body. She knew something was different, something was wrong. She felt hungry, but nothing she knew would satisfy her. She went back to the house, and she saw Peter, sleeping. Instinct that had never been there before kicked in. She jumped on his back and chomped on his shoulder. She held on as he tried to get up. She was stronger than before, the blood was helping. He struggled, she sipped. It wasn't a lot, but she didn't want much from him. She jumped back and ran out the house. Peter yelled out to her, threatening to get the knife. She knew he couldn't kill her though.

Right before sunrise she made a shelter, but as the sky lightened it was now obvious what she had become. She dug swiftly into the earth and made a canopy of leaves and dead branches. It worked. The next night she decided to head west. Her mother always hinted the west was where people seek freedom. Rose didn't know if she needed freedom, but she knew she had it.

Rose would walk or run for miles, trying to stay near wooded areas and follow highways. She would run when she knew no one could see. When she was starved nearby animals would be ripped apart and sucked dry. Hunting them kept her focused. She got to route 66, and stayed outside a rest station, where she heard somebody arguing. He was saying something about being a Cainite, being more than human, needing to protect that. And that's when Rose came up to him, explained her story, explained her urges, and hoped he understood. He did

He was the leader of a pack, a ductess they called him. They were The Defensive Line, fighting against anything that threatened the Sabbat. What was the Sabbat? Vampires who were proud. So we are vampires? Yes, didn't your sire tell you? What is a sire? The vampire who made you this way.

The pack taught her everything she needed to know. What to avoid, how to hide, and even what her lineage was--Lasombra. Everyone seemed confused that she was left to fend for herself and that she survived as well as she did, but they were happy to help. And she was happy to help them when they said they would help with the siege of Chicago.

Rose had never been in an urban area before but she fought well. Her newfound comrades, however, were cornered in the fight and all perished. Afraid of what was to become of her, once again Rose fled, finding the nearest wooded area and sleeping there. She got out to feed once in a while, hunting animals, keeping to herself. Was there more sabbat?

After a year she went out to hunt only to careless miss a human that had been looking around the area late at night. She didn't need him to know she was there, so she feed on him. It was much more satisfying sucking his life out of him than it was a bird or a coyote. But the woods didn't have enough people. She decided to find the Sabbat again, maybe find some other pack. Did they still need fighters? What if all of the Sabbat perished? What if she could've stopped that.

One old contact was still around, a Revenant named Zoey. And with her help Rose came back to find that the Sabbat was still around, but fighting petty fights amongst each other over hats and still quibbles. But maybe she can still help. There are some that need some guidance, some that need some teaching. Maybe she can help. It still seems to be better than being alone in the woods forever.

There isn't really a good reason for this.

2011-09-03T08:23:00.000-05:00

Mystic found this website, and when he sent me the link he goes "I hope this is a joke". It's advertising Slavery the Game. I'm not going to post the video they put up there, I'm already supporting the site too much by linking it.

It's advertising Slavery the Game, where you can buy, manage and exploit slaves, during the time of European colonial expansion. There's no real game footage (at least nothing convincing) and there's no company that's supporting it other than Red Javelin, that Mystic discovered was an advertising agency.

So now people are going to assume that gamers are sick twisted individuals because some company is "producing" this and instead of focusing on the product or idea Red Javelin was hired to sell, the focus is going to be how sick gamers are. Great.

I might be wrong and they won't focus on that, but when was the last time they let gamer culture over something that gamers have no hand in?

I hope I'm proven wrong.

Floating, Speeding

2011-08-31T21:24:00.001-05:00

[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!

2011-08-27T09:13:00.000-05:00

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

2011-08-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

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

2011-08-23T20:56:00.001-05:00

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

2011-08-20T14:37:00.000-05:00

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

2011-08-16T07:58:00.000-05:00

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

2011-08-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

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.

2011-08-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

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.

Escapism

2011-07-31T07:29:00.000-05:00

I'm not saying this as an excuse, but more as a fact. Work has sucked so hard recently, it's made me ill. My job shouldn't be that hard. So instead of doing the things I usually do outside of work to keep sane, I've been playing the Sims. Kind of obessively.

But it's really for the same reason a lot of us play video games. It's an escape. It's a world where everything is perfect. Where heros win and villans die. Where the goal is crystal clear and known to be achievable. Where every triumph is recognized.

Sometimes when life sucks, you need that if only for a couple hours a day.

I want to apologize for not writing as much. I've been escaping this ridiculous job I've been in (coworkers and I feel like we've been caught up in a soap opera) with a world where people's live are successful and easy with the click of a button. And even that's not always true with the Generations expansion pack, but still, it's easier than this.

Also, when you're brain is swiss cheese at the end of the day, what do you write? I don't want to become a "look at this cool video" blog, so I just wait until I have something I can write when I'm not going to mentally melt away. Though I am in generally in support of cool video on the internet.

I'm going to try and fight through this barrage of extreme situations at work and give you guys more to read. Just, thanks for your patience. And thank god for video games, books, well-written tv and friends. They make life easier.

Disillusioned with Macs

2011-07-22T05:46:00.000-05:00

Anyone want to get me a job that doesn't zap me of all energy by 6pm?

In other news, I've been thinking about my laptop a lot recently. It's a Mac, which I do like and have been using since college. It was very convenient in college to have because of the fact there was a mac store on campus and if anything got messed up, you could just take it there. Expensive? Of course. But it was a Mac campus practically. Not to say you were totally out of the loop with a PC laptop, but the probability of having a Mac was way higher than normal.

When I went into the real world I stuck with Macs, getting a Macbook almost 2 years ago. I thought it would be something that would serve me well.

I'm not here to complain about proprietary software or hardware. I can live with that as someone who doesn't feel the need to upgrade or adjust everything on a computer to my will. To be honest, only recently did I not fall into the "OMG it's pretty" trap when it comes to what I care about for my programs.

I'm not here to complain about how it's now popular and there's now nothing unique about Macs. Who cares. Apple is a business, they want to get popular and it's not my problem.

I'm complaining about every since case I have that's been easily broken. These things are not durable! First it was before they had the magnetic power cord, the ac adapter's connection to the wall was SO sturdy that if a trip incident happened, the whole thing was taken out. Ugh. And that is how my first Powerbook's screen got totally ruined. Ivy was then replaced by the recent intel Ivy II, a Macbook which had everything I needed. Except a flimsy DVD drive that almost stopped working because the opening was soft enough that holding your computer by the DVD drive it would squish. Who leaves something that malleable in a laptop unprotected? Anyway, then there was the time I spilt juice on that one and the key didn't work. Yeah, that one is my fault, so I had no problem replacing it with another Macbook.

But with this one, I can't replace the battery on my own anymore. Excuse me?

Also, when I got it I realized that the bottom of it was soft thick latex that was screwed into the bottom. I can dig it. That is, I can dig it until the heat of the laptop itself starts WARPING THE LATEX CASING. Now it's practically falling off. Are you kidding me? What kind of design flaw is this?

Also, the joint where the screen is has two cracks already. I haven't dropped this, I've always carried this in a laptop safe case, and other than the occasional bump I've been much better to this laptop than to any other one I've ever used in college. WHAT THE HELL, APPLE?!?! Why are you making laptops that obviously should not be transported? This thing is falling apart and I treated it right!

I really wish I could keep the OS and just ditch the case, but Apple doesn't work like that and I'm not going to become a 1337 haxorz to try it. I just want a laptop that I can have for more than two years at a time without it BREAKING ITSELF.

If any of you know of any good netbooks I should consider in the future, please let me know. Because the plan now is the save up to get one, and then have Mystic to put Linux on it.

Because Windows can still suck it.

Some thoughts on Terraria.

2011-07-16T10:56:00.000-05:00

When I'm not busy drowning in the woe that my job seems to be full of these days, I'm escaping with video games. One of the ones I was surprised I even got into was Terraria.

Mystic and I bought a four pack or Terraria in hopes of being able to enjoy the multiplayer. We haven't been able to hook it up but I decided to try it on my own. At first it's very slow. Like Minecraft, you start out with nothing and there are no real instructions as to what you can do in the world. I played for 30 minutes and gave it a break for after a week.

I decided to give it another try. But this time I decided to use the help of the Terraria wiki whenever I got tripped up. And that has made the difference.

Sure, you may be a person who loves to discover stuff on your own, but then you'll be missing out on some very vital information. And although I love exploring things I don't like getting killed all the time. With the wiki behind the window playing Terraria, I was able to fully enjoy the game.

You do get all the materials to make everything you want to make, which forces you to explore. And exploring is half the point of this game. There are multiple terrains and dangerous areas to explore. Sure you could walk side to side, but if you want any kind of significant swag you have to dig underground. If you don't explore underground, you're missing out on most of the game.

Crafting the things you need to becoming the best fighter available is easy to do, since you don't have to memorize how to make stuff. If you find something that you think might be useful, go the the Guide NPC go through the prompts to ask what you can make with it. And your crafting table will tell you everything you can make with your inventory.

So gearing yourself up is one part, but the other part is making a little town. As you fulfill certain parameters, more people will flock to where you live. But they need houses. So you have to make them houses. however, you also have to protect these houses. This is a great thing to find out when a horde of zombies is overrunning what you built and you have to protect it from all sides. Depending on how you built everything, it's not that easy. Multiple doors mean multiple deaths, which means losing half that money you earned from traversing those caverns. Keeping people in your town is totally worth it too. They're not just random people. They can heal you and sell you extra goodies that are hard to find. They're useful, so don't just let them die on you.

Except the Guide, he is totally annoying.

Like Minecraft, Terraria is a game about what you as a player would like. Here's a world full of stuff--now do something with it. It's definitely fun if you're good at making your own goals and enjoying the excitement of finding something you've never seen before. Is it a Minecraft clone? No. This is definitely more about fighting monsters and getting hidden treasure then Minecraft originally intended to be. I personally like that more. Also, I am more partial to the 16bit 2D world for some reason. Nostalgia maybe, but it's still my preference. Regardless, explorers and crafters in video games will like this one, and should definitely give it a try.

Parable of the Sower

2011-07-08T19:35:00.001-05:00

In hopes of engaging in some literature, I went to my library not too long ago and actually only got one fiction book: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler. Butler has a reputation for writing really thoughtful science fiction, but I hadn't read anything of hers. Some of her books are even in part of my mother's huge sci-fi collection and I just never had a chance to touch any of it. But I read the summary on the jacket cover in the library, and decided that this would be a good start for her work.

It's a great piece of first person. The main character, Lauren Olamina, is writing in a journal, which is what the reader is experiencing. The gaps in time actually work in the narrative's favor. The style is not trying to hard to be a journal, which in some way I appreciate more. Having a main character that is a good writer is actually a better idea than some other sophomoric attempts I have seen before (including my own in the past).

The general story is about how Lauren is growing up in an hostile United States that becomes more and more fractured over time. Drugs and crime are rampant, and the only defense people have against violent drug abusers is to hide within communities. Early on Lauren realizes her community is going to fall apart, she doesn't know when but she does decide to plan. The first half of the book you're waiting for everything to fall apart merely because Lauren is convinced it will. As things get worse and worse you keep on thinking it will be on the next page, and when it finally does happen you still kicked in the face with it, it still feels sudden. Lauren's journey, and her ways to cope with a violent world along the old highways of the west coast, becomes even more enthralling, and the end is bittersweet and befitting for the dystopia Lauren has lived in.

I don't want to call this a review merely because I know I enjoyed a book when I actually finish it. I'm really good at starting a book and never feeling compelled to pick it up again. That was not a problem with Parable of the Sower. I had to stop myself from reading it so that I could sleep. What that really means is the pacing is excellent. Pacing is key for my enjoyment of a story, and if it's not at the right equilibrium you've lost me. Not so with this story.

I appreciate how thoughtful Butler is with characters, and her honest with how cruel humanity could be. Everyone wants a future like Star Trek, but to be honest it takes a long time and a lot of work and luck to get there. As much as I hope Butler's world in this book is not the future, I appreciated how realistic government reactions and individual responses were. Butler know people.

There is a sequel, Parable of the Talents, that I'm not as tempted to read. The ending to Sower was so good and perfect in my head that I kind of don't want to touch it. Maybe in the future I can be convinced of otherwise.

The Nerd Couple, Episode Six

2011-07-05T22:20:00.000-05:00

Did you miss us? Sorry we're late! Real world is working against us!

Download here! Stream here!

Every other week, hear the discussions of The Nerd Couple, starring d20 Sapphire and Mystic. They discuss geeky news and topics, and approach it from our unique nerd upbringings.

This week: When not worried about butter sticks, the Nerd Couple has video games on the brain. We discuss how race is depicted in video game characters and how sometimes we're disappointed with it. Awesome: Video Games qualify for First Amendment Protection! Not so awesome: Fans of Star Wars Galaxies sues Sony for petition nonsense. Biweekly B.S.: Operation Rainfall gets dissed by Nintendo.

Special thanks to EsTeeKay of Binary Protege Productions for supplying the intro music, and for promising us video game remixes in the future.

Also thanks to John Morgan for making the song at the end of our podcast, Happiness, which many have heard from the the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack. Once again, I can't find a site for John Morgan, so if you have a link let me know so we can spread the awesome!

Have you read Mystic's blog yet?

Email d20sapphire@gmail.com for topic suggestions and feedback! The Nerd Couple would love to hear from you.

Brainstorm!

2011-07-04T14:31:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't be surprised if this idea has been used before, but bear with me.

Again, thinking about my Titania idea and character concept so captivating just grabbed me.

Imagine a world where you are genetically calibrated before you are born to have the optimal genes of both your parents. Any "bad" genes that carry genetic disorders are taken out, and only "neutral" or "beneficial" genes are kept in. Imagine growing up knowing that your genetic coding was the optimized splicing of your parents, your are considered to be one of a few perfect possibilities due to the luxury of modern science.

And then imagine having a gender dysphoria in that world.

Thoughts?

Opening door for video games

2011-06-29T18:47:00.000-05:00

Yay a day off work! Now I can talk about something that happened a couple days ago.

If you haven't heard, the United States' Supreme Court overturned a law in California banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. Under what grounds? Free speech.

We can think of this as a big step in the video game industry. First of all, one of the three branches of the U.S. government recognizes video games as free speech. This is akin to broadcasting, journalism, and art. ART people! It helps in that argument, that video games are an expression of ideals and feelings, not just a mindless entertainment box (thought there's nothing wrong with those either).

Also, although for certain things there will be appeals and ignorance to the law, there will be some arguments stifled by this. There is nothing illegal about a violent video game, no matter how you feel about how immoral they can be. It's not akin to committing murder or rape, it's a medium that is experienced as a cerebral experience. Consumers must protective themselves from mediums they don't like to view, not the government doing constant surveillance or monitoring.

This doesn't mean that video games are home free. We do need to have more games that are thoughtful, artful, and make the players engaged intellectually. Because even if the Supreme Court says something is protected by freedom of speech doesn't mean that people will take it one hundred percent seriously. Hopefully, developers, big and small, can produce something that will captivate people with something more substantial and lasting than overworked spectacle. Prove it, industry!

Burnout: When the paying job doesn't pay enough

2011-06-25T06:50:00.001-05:00

This week has become a stressful week for me at work. I have come home so tired somedays that in the middle of doing something on the couch I will fall asleep for an hour. This is not normal. I think last night I got 12 hours of sleep and my body doesn't feel any worse from it. Yikes. It's a combination of the brain power, social interaction and physical exertion of this job. Also dealing with interesting management and an understaffed office.

Mystic has had overtime at work too, so we unfortunately have to delay our podcast for a week. However, I'm hoping that soon I'll have tons of stuff to write and podcast about when I can recover.

In the meanitime I wanted to link you guys to a cracked article that shows my fears are about the be realized: 6 Shocking Ways Robots Are Already Becoming Human.

Nothing against robots, but if they become their own sentient race with their own rights that going to get messy. Let's hope Asimov's 3 laws of robotics staves anything like that off.

And now I get ready to go to work, and then LARP, and then hopefully I will not pass out. Later, readers!

Ode To Father

2011-06-19T21:21:00.000-05:00

It's father's day, and usually I don't talk about my dad on this blog, but to be honest he is an undercover intellectual. I feel like a lot of the time I talk about my mom, since she's the one where I get my overt nerdiness from, and raised me on Star Trek and Asimov. But my dad definitely helped. I also don't write about him enough. My mom's life has inspired a lot of fiction, a lot of it I loved writing, but I would have to write a cerebral 1,000 page novel to capture. That is a task that may have to wait when I am more seasoned. But he helped me become who I am in a lot of ways.

One of the things that I will always remember of him is how if I didn't know the answer to a question, he would make me look it up. Before the days of wikipedia and google, we had an encyclopedia set my parents bought from the year I was born. I would ask questions and my dad would tell me to look it up. That's how I learned what a spleen was, and I think where some different countries were as well.

In fact, one year I visited his side of the family in Maryland, and on the road trip over I asked "Hey Dad, why are toll roads called turnpikes?"
"I don't know."
A day later, driving in the car with my grandparents and cousins, I hear him ask, "Dad, do you know why tollways are called turnpikes?"
"Why, no I don't."
Immediately after that trip to food or wherever, they looked it up on a visual thesaurus. Turns out turnpikes were a way to make sure people paid the toll way back in the day. And they printed out the info and gave it to me.

My dad was also willing to let me try new stuff, and quit stuff I didn't like. He let me know it was okay for me to stop taking french in college, even though it was his major. He took me fossil hunting once when I was in third grade just because I was super curious. He even let me try a sip of Wild Turkey when I was about seven, just enough to know I would never ever ever want to drink it again.

Still haven't touched it, and I've been legal.

He also trusted I was smart and relatively mature for my age. He and my mom let me join in on adult conversations when I was younger, and I learned a lot on how to converse effectively with people by starting early. He also trusted that I would learn to be better at things, so he never let me "just win" anything when I was younger. Chess, Scrabble, Monopoly--even my Magic the Gathering starter set was not safe! He was a master strategiest and wanted me to learn by seeing how an adult plays. I do think he can kick my butt in half of those games, but maybe not as easily as it was then.

Finally, he is one of the bravest people I know. He doesn't fear death. Not in the climbing-mountains-daredevil way, not in the peace-with-his-god way, but literally no fear in not existing. My dad believes, honestly and truly, that nonexistence is what is waiting for him, and he is at peace with it.

He is ready to boldly go where no one has gone back.

I love my library!

2011-06-17T21:54:00.000-05:00

I finally got to my local library, and oh man isn't it a fantastic library. The thing that has me most excited is the fact that it has a HUGE nonfiction section. I couldn't stop grinning as the woman who gave me my card explained to me what I can check out and what was where in the library.

Audiovisual area is pretty big, and the fiction area had me accidentally meander into the Scifi area. Deliciousness. But the Nonfiction... yeah I think in 2 minutes I grabbed 2 books and then decided I couldn't continue at that rate and checked them out.

In hopes actually reading these books, I'm going to mention them here and you, my dear readers, should bug me to update you on what I thought. Or not. I can't really give you homework, but forcing me to read more books would be great!

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
One of those authors I'm told time and time again that I should read. Considering the main character has a problem I think I could relate to, I'm interested to see what Butler does with hyperempathy as a built in character flaw.

The "S" Word: A Short History of an American Tradition... Socialism by John Nichols
As a liberal and an economics major (a pairing that rarely goes hand in hand) I'm really interested to see a historical take on socialism in America. More for the economics, though, because I want to see if there's any focus on unsuccessful ventures as well.

Beyond Boundaries by Miguel Nicolelis
I got it for the subtitle. "The new neuroscience of connecting brains with machines--and how it will change our lives." Basically the infant stages of a cyborg race. Why not read about it before we become the borg?

Wish me luck reading! I'm hoping I can finish these by the time the books are due.

The Nerd Couple, Episode Five

2011-06-15T20:03:00.001-05:00

We're sorry it's late again, but super duper editing had to be done, so here it is!

Download here! Stream here!

Every other week, hear the discussions of The Nerd Couple, starring d20 Sapphire and Mystic. They discuss geeky news and topics, and approach it from our unique nerd upbringings.

This week: We diverge from our usual format to bring our E3 extravaganza. Watching everything from the comfort of home, we tell you what we think about the big three presentations, and all the games that are coming out. What are we excited for? Who sucks at presenting? And for once, Mystic and d20 Sapphire totally disagree on something!

Special thanks to EsTeeKay of Binary Protege Productions for supplying the intro music, and for promising us video game remixes in the future. (Yep, still bugging him. Help me pester him!)

Also thanks to Saki Kaska for making the song at the end of our podcast, Callista, which many have heard from the the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack. Saki Kaska, if you see this, please link me to your site so more people can appreciate your awesome from the direct source.

Email d20sapphire@gmail.com for topic suggestions and feedback! The Nerd Couple would love to hear from you.

P.S. please forgive our random cheap mic noises, we're getting our original mic back soon!

Things to consider in writing sci-fi.

2011-06-13T22:42:00.000-05:00

Recently the ideas that sprang from the DeWitt in Titania have been coming back, not necessarily with the same focus or main character, but with the same ideas that were whirling through my head. I'm realizing what was running through my head wasn't necessarily clear in that little tidbit, but there's a lot of stuff. And surprisingly, a lot of it are necessary answer to questions. Here are somethings that you should think of in your sci-fi setting. And yes, totally feel free to add in the comments.

HOW RECENT.
Even if not set in this universe, you have to figure out how far in the "future" the technology is. Have we mastered space colonization? Long distance travelling? What is the next evolution for the internet? Cell phones? Entertainment? If it's recent, you may want to look at what people predict for the next ten, twenty or fifty years. When you go significantly past that, it's easier to be a bit more creative. I would still suggest research what tech people are researching now, but expanding on that sometimes is great inspiration.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOMEWORLD.
With a lot universes, this means Earth, but for any story setting every people has a place of origin. Is it still where they stay? Does it still exist? Do they even remember it? That last one was a great premise I first saw from Asimov. But it's important to know what happened to the biological home. If you're not traversing space in the story, it's important to know how the world started and how the tech has changed the world, for the better or worse.

SENTIENT SPECIES.
Even if you're staying on one planet, even if there are no extra-terrestrial beings, you have to decide what the origins and values are of the race you're writing about. And if there's more than one, what's the relationship? Sometimes looking at the historical relationship of neighboring countries is great inspiration. Also looking at different cultures throughout the world, maybe even further back in the past when globalization was less present, and people were more isolated.

WHY IS IT A SCIFI?
If it's a story that doesn't need to be set in the future, do not write it in the future. The same can be said for adding extra tech or extra species. The setting has to enhance the story, and if it doesn't just keep it in modern times or historical fiction. Sci-fi doesn't make things extra exciting by merely being in space or in the future. It takes elements of the story that already exist and reveals them in a new light.

You can't "win" at E3.

2011-06-09T13:10:00.000-05:00

It's a little tiff that's getting me late at night but the more I think about it, the more annoyed I am that we have to declare a "winner" for E3 anytime someone talks about it.

For those of you who are out of the loop on this tradition, after the conferences of the "Big Three" (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo), every gaming new sources discusses and asks the public who "won" the conference. Who is the company who is better than the other two?

I say this whole premise is bull.

Now, I say that possibly deciding on my podcast later this week that someone has "won" the conference, but note that with all sincerity I know there is never an actual winner at E3. It's like Charlie Sheen winning--it means absolutely nothing. It's merely immediate impressions.

Why can't someone win? Because in reality there no actual competition of sales between the Big Three at the conference. Sure, they're competing to have some of the best advertising, but at the conference that's it. Who's got the better booths, presentations and business plans for investors? That's what's being decided. After the conference or outside the conference, where sales drive the growth of a company, that when a winner is decided. And nine times out of ten, that's determined months or even years down the line, when you see sales and how the electronic entertainment industry has changed. We can't figure out if there is going to be substantial success for Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo just yet.

That's not to discredit E3 entirely. It still is vital to the industry. It is a great way to excite the fan bases these heavyweights already have, and it's also an essential tool to keep investors interested in the products. Technology has to continuously evolve, and tech for entertainment has to show how these progressions are going to be fun. You can't just put a console on a toy shelf and put out some commercials to get sales. Especially with the new innovations like touch screens and new controller interfaces.

But no one wins E3. Yes, you can do better than your competition, but E3 will not decide whether your not you're the company to beat.

Comments on Nintendo's E3 Conference

2011-06-07T23:21:00.000-05:00

Check out the podcast later for more thoughts.

-I love Zelda, but this is taking a while.... eh I'll shut up.

-Miyamoto! I'll wash your feet with my hair!

-Already more entertaining than the other one. Not a lot of info though.

-I guess they know Skyward Sword wouldn't work for the presentation. They learned from last year.

-Iwata needs to grow his hair out, he looked better last year.

-Deeper and wider: LIKE YOUR MOM. *ahem*

-THE 3D IS EVERYWHERE!

-First word stumble, better than Sony.

-Alright, Mariokart is just different enough.

-Yay! Something substantial on the 3DS.

-Tanooki suit forever!

-Multiplayer? In my Icarus?!?!

-Luigi's Mansion 2 should be renamed Underwhelmington.

-The pokemon concept is pretty cool

-WEEEEEEEYUUUUUUUU! It's fun to say!

-It's a console! *smack* It's a handheld! *smack* Console! *smack* Handheld! *smack*

-You said Super Smash Bros. I've instantly cum in my pants.

-Delicious graphics, you haters stop hatin' now.

-Can you only use one WiiU controller at a time?

-ARKAHM CITY YEAH! I came in my pants again. I need new pants.

-NINJA GAIDEN! I need a shower.

-Sad thing is I won't play half of these, they're just simply awesome.

Comments on Sony's E3 Conference

2011-06-06T21:37:00.002-05:00

Joined near the end of the presentation, but I will go back later to watch the rest and edit this post.

UPDATE: Thanks internet for posting that fast! Now with the whole conference being commented on. Again for full commentary, The Nerd Couple Podcast is where it will live later this week.

-Thank you for addressing the obvious issue instead of ignoring it. We thank you for it Sony.

-Though, we prefer to be called fans and loyals than just "consumers".

-Yeah, getting hulu and netflix was a super smart move.

-I love how Uncharted is never looking the same as the last one. Good job Naughty Dog.

-Outrun that water!

-Still using the glasses for 3D? Lame!

-Resistance 3 dude needs to stop sucking at presenting

-PlayStation's presentation is just as boring as last year... yuck.

-3D in college is just going to increase ingestion of illicit drugs.

-DELICIOUS split screen without the split screen.

-Ladies and gentlemen, an NBA player who cheated on his wife!

-Medieval flay-your-wii2.0 around. More accurate and responsive than the Kinect though.

-I'm old school, I like my inventory system.

-Can no one speak for this conference? Holy crap more stutters than a studebaker in quicksand.

-Also, do you always need to use numbers?

-Yay Sly Cooper!

(... more when d20 Saphirre won't fall asleep on the presentation. Which after a couple tries, seems to be never.)

-Video feed of your handheld is not suggested

- So it is called Vita... I would prefer vitae.

-TOO MANY TOUCHSCREENS. I personally am too clumsy for that.

-You sure you want to marry anything to the Playstation Network? She seems a fickle bride.

Comments on Microsoft's E3 Conference

2011-06-06T20:50:00.000-05:00

I won't be saying too much of what I think of everything because the Nerd Couple Podcast will cover it, but I don't want you to be denied of my opinion until Sunday. So here are some thoughts about the presentation as I watch it as I relax after work.

-Slow intro, took forever for me to get excited about shooting things, and that should not be an issue.

-Tomb Raider or Heavy Rain?

-Yay ME3! What a preview should be.

-Guns are cool, making guns... cooler?

-Pay-Per-View on XBox, not surprised

-Gear of War didn't define shit, liar.

-No physical exertion please!

-That racing game music totally makes me sad for King Crimson

-NYAH! That's all I know of Fable right now. And horses.

-So I can vacation at home? This much closer to Surrogates becoming a reality.

-Never call out a fist bump little one, never.

-These games are looking too easy on Kinect.

-YOU'RE DOING THE SAME BAD THINGS YOU DID LAST TIME XBOX! WHY?

-Okay the avatar stuff is kinda cool.

-So you have to know how to golf to play video game golf?

-Like they were ever going to stop making Halo Games. Nice little taste though.

Lazy Sunday: Nimoy Version

2011-06-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

This is Leonard Nimoy improving upon the original Lazy Sunday music video with his own:

The Nerd Couple, Episode Four

2011-05-31T20:28:00.002-05:00

Due to Moving and Technical Issues, we're a bit late, but we haven't given up!

Download here! Stream here!

Every other week, hear the discussions of The Nerd Couple, starring d20 Sapphire and Mystic. They discuss geeky news and topics, and approach it from our unique nerd upbringings.

This week: LARP experiences and sci-fi actor careers aside, we have a beef with Multiplayer in the videogame industry. See how we think it's failed, and how it can be improved. Awesome: Water on the Moon. Not so awesome: Study linking agression and violent video games. Biweekly B.S.: Review of the new Warhammer Space Marine. (Picture that annoyed d20 Sapphire forthcoming)

Special thanks to EsTeeKay of Binary Protege Productions for supplying the intro music, and for promising us video game remixes in the future. (He's off for the summer, he should have more time.)

Email d20sapphire@gmail.com for topic suggestions and feedback! The Nerd Couple would love to hear from you.

Redeeming Borderlands over a year later

2011-05-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

Over a year ago I tried Borderlands and concluded that it stunk. You can read the original article for clarification as to why, but I think there were a lot of factors that lead to me thinking the targeting system sucked and missions were lame. And a lot of it is because I didn't have the patience to try it again later.

The Boyfriend, or I guess I should call him Mystic now due to the podcast, urged me and a friend to give it another try. So we did, and we did it with a friend who did all 4 co-op before. And it definitely got better.

This is definitely a game where you're not going to get a good taste of the experience in the first 30 minutes or so. You have to level up decently and be sure to avoid over-challenging missions for your group. Don't attempt anything too many levels above unless you're all superb tacticians knowing what you're up against. Also, make sure everyone has a different job. It does make the game a lot more fun.

Why did I change my mind? Well to be honest this time I think the file I had was less buggy, so I felt I had actual control over my character. Not like I was suddenly a hundred times better, but I felt that my (lethargic) reaction time was accurately portrayed. Also, the special powers you get when you are finally at level 5 are definitely worth the wait. With the people I'm playing, we have 2 hunters, me and another friend. I focus more on my attack bird's bonuses and stick to my sniper rifle. My friend is becoming a bit of a Jack of all trades, but focusing on revolvers. We will never be doing the same exact thing at once. And it makes for a better game and better teamwork.

I like how you can have your teammates save you but you can also save yourself when you're pinned down in case your team is on the other edge of the area you're fighting on. The vehicle travel is pretty sweet considering the scope of the maps. The music is pretty good. And over time you do notice a difference as you level up, it's not just meaningless numbers.

I'll be playing it, hopefully finishing the game with my friends. I'm glad I decided to revisit this one there was a lot more potential fun than I had anticipated.

Ellen Peters: married to the Carthian Movement

2011-05-19T09:34:00.000-05:00

I know some of you are aware of my LARP goodness. But something big happened in the Chicago Domain in general, and in turn something big happened to Ellen Peters, my former boston socialite turned prim and proper Mehket Carthian.

To be honest, Ellen Peters was somewhat of a laid back Carthian. She was more invested in the heroine trade she became a part of when she first found harbor in the South Shore. With that in mind, she invested most of her time into her business, building up her gang and expanding her territory. She gained some respect in the city, making strange allegiances and gaining the South Shore as her domain. She participated in Carthian affairs around Chicago, but usually stayed back. She was named Prefect by accident.

Throughout all of it, she looked up to one of the most prominent Carthian in the city, Marten Flagg. When Prince Grace Hartford was named, Marten was named first Harpy, then Seneschal. However, Ellen was most impressed by his vast influences in the mortal world, keeping himself informed about news that would affect vampires, and how vampires were influencing the world around. This helped keep these worlds separate. In many ways, even though Flagg did not rule Chicago, he owned Chicago. That was something he admitted to Ellen once as he tried to take her under his wing, teaching her about ways to invest in mortal projects.

He was the Carthian with the connections, and no one ever stopped to think how far behind the Carthians would be without him.

During the Midwest Prince meeting (the non-con Chikalb), Marten Flagg, along with Prince Hartford and Lady Cassey Twain, was murdered, receiving final death in a mysterious set of circumstances. Ellen did not receive the news until the next night, having been distracted in the South Shore with business (I was moving that weekend).

Almost instantly Ellen felt lost and adrift. She had never been close to anyone who had experienced final death. Politically not only had she lost a Prince that she knew to be egalitarian regardless of political beliefs, which is very important for a Carthian in an Invictus ruled city, she lost one of the strongest members of her convenant. Personally, she felt guilty that she had not been there to be observant during the Midwest Prince meeting. Maybe she could've seen something and prevented all of it. Particularly to save Marten, who she knew she wasn't particularly close with, but had always looked up to.

And then came the overwhelming guilt. She knew she had the power before to make the Carthian Movement stronger so that if something had happened, they wouldn't have lost the one vampire with the best resources. She should've seen that weakness, and as Prefect she had sat idly by while her heroine empire continued to grow. Never had Ellen thought she would've felt so mortal after turning, or so weak after leaving the Invictus in Boston.

On saturday was the memorial service. Ellen dressed appropriately but wasn't as particular about her look as she had previously been. She wore sunglasses to hide her eyes. She tried not to cry and through most of the service was able to hold back, especially when a kindred decided to set himself on fire in the middle of the service. She followed he instincts and ran to the Cradle where the ceremonies were. She thought about was Marten would've said about the whole dramatic event. She got teary.

She tried to keep a level head after a while, knowing that this was the perfect time for a Carthian meeting. She now had to rally the troops, build up what they lost. They had to make up for everything Marten had done for them. She went around to every Carthian she could find, which wasn't many during the meeting. Meanwhile keeping up banter, though she was more curt than usual.

Then Evengii called for her for the new Prince Donovan McQuin. She had not expected anything from the Prince. Maybe she's finally be officially recognized as Prefect. Maybe he would promise to let her keep the South Shore as her domain. Maybe he would take it away. Ellen thought she was prepared for anything.

Prince McQuin merely held out a ring with a single diamond on it and said "Marten Flagg."

Ellen gingerly took it, almost sobbed, and with more gratitude than her voice conveyed, spat out a shaken "Thank you," before rushing out of the Cradle to cry. It wasn't a long cry, it wasn't a loud cry. She never though she would cry again after she turned, and there she was, feeling grief and in mourning.

She couldn't replace Marten Flagg now. She let herself becoming a selfish black market dealer instead of a good Carthian.

After a moment, Ellen put the ring on her right hand and went back. After thinking about it, she felt more appropriate to put it on her left hand. She was still upset, but now was not the time to dwell. She had to get the covenant together, she wasn't sure of the speech she would make. But now was the time to sink in their connections, to move forward. Now was the time to regain anything and everything they had lost with Marten, and then some.

It was time to be a better Carthian.

Over 100 followers!

2011-05-18T22:50:00.001-05:00

Oh man I am so honored guys. When I started this blog I never imagined I would have so many awesome people reading and even enjoying this blog. And now I notice I have OVER 100 FOLLOWERS!

With that, I'm glad to see how things have expanded. We have the podcast with The Boyfriend, I have gotten more into the gender issues realm, and now I'm keeping up with more nerd news than ever.

With that, I promise more nerding on a consistent basis.

That is, if we survive May 21st. Haven't you heard? It's the coming of the Rapture.

So if we survive, I promise more consistent geek goodness. If not... I'll provide it in the hereafter. I'd feel bad breaking my promise.

Why Can't My Video Games Be Movies?

2011-05-11T21:33:00.000-05:00

Before anyone get's scared, I'm not suggesting we make a movie about any video game. I'm talking about replay value.

I'm trying to go through another play through of Dragon Age II, with a good hearted warrior, and I'm finally at the point where I'm finding things to be repetitive. Now it takes me longer than the average gamer to care about things repeating. I played the original Dark Cloud over and over and that is nothing but repetitive hack and slash dungeon crawl.

How is that tunic enough protection?

But then again, I didn't feel the desire to replay this game. Dragon Age II has some of the same pitfalls the original Dark Cloud did: dungeons that look the same, enemies you fought 2 minutes ago showing up again, not too much variation in fighting tactics as you level up or progression in party fighting style is slow. Or at least that's how I feel now.

Part of it may be that I played a mage the first time in DA2, which means there's a lot of variation in my battle decisions. Choosing to be a warrior straight from that isn't as interesting. It's less about the flash and more about the smack down. Not that I don't like the smack down, but I think I've always been one to be a little more attracted to spectacle when it comes to fantasy fights.

However, that's not the problem. The problem is I want to go through the game for the story and the characters and the choices I have to make, and the fighting feels like it's in the way! Screw you coterie thug, I want to get to the dialog!

I don't know if it's just me. It's not like I want all the fighting gone. Maybe if I had a fast forward version I could do when I beat the game the first time I'd be more satisfied with my experience now. Then again, I'm not one to play Heavy Rain either. I want a real video game. Scratch that, I want a video game with violence. We can debate the definition of "real video game" later. I still want to kick ass though.

And thus the title of this post. Unfortunately I can't end with a solution, which I would prefer to do, but I'm afraid this is just me being a weird nerd.

Bad Surprises for the GM.

2011-05-08T07:49:00.000-05:00

First of all Happy Mother's day! I hope you all are giving your mother or special women in your life candy and flowers and hugs.

Second, I was hoping to do a proper recap of my DnD campaign yesterday, but things apparently exploded on me. I'm not going to get into details, because it's not necessary, but unbeknownst to me the group of players in my game we're fizzling away due to personal problems with each other, and it came to a head last night in what would've been the beginning of a dungeon crawl. Well, cave crawl, but the specifics aren't necessary. It ended with me flabbergasted with a maker in my hand still trying to draw the entrance area of the first level of the cave as people left because they were mad at other people.

I'm not going to blame anyone for it, sometimes things just happen, and I'm not going to rant about upset I was, because I'm sure many of you have been in similar situations and have been similarly frustrated. But I figured I can use this to make some sort of plea towards some... I'm not sure if game etiquette is the right word for it, but I will go with that for now.

If you have a good GM, one who listens and is genuinely making a game for you to enjoy, let them know if you're not enjoying it for any reason. Good GM's want to give you a fun challenge. Good GMs want to have a fun time with everyone. If that's not happening for some reason on a consistent basis, let them know so the GM can try to rectify it. Sometimes he can't, or he can't immediately, but a good GM will try to make sure the game is fun for the players.

I know this isn't always an option, but there a lot of GMs out there, like myself, who put in the work they do to make a fun, enjoyable world who want to know if what he or she is doing isn't working. It's really disappointing to try to make a fun game and realize no one is having fun out of the blue.

I've seen situations like this that would be rectified by a good conversation with the GM before, mostly in other games though where I wasn't running anything. This, to be honest, was the first time something had to break up completely mid-game over any kind of issue when I was participating. And now part of me is kicking myself for not seeing it and trying to fix it sooner, or wishing someone could've told me so I could've helped.

I need to see what to ret-con and where to go from here, and I'm really hoping to get back to the campaign, especially with characters that are engaging in the world I gave them and want to find out more. I'm hoping to work around my recent move, because I would hate to start out with a new group again. After a while you get attached to the PCs, no matter how ridiculous they are or how much they may annoy you with finding the chink in your GM plans. It's actually kind of more fun when that happens.

In the hopes of ending this post on a lighter note, I'm going to share a video that Dan Eastwood was nice enough to share with me earlier this week. Enjoy!

Managing Battle

2011-05-06T21:44:00.000-05:00

With any RPG, you're going to have to manage battle. I'm running D&D two Saturdays in a row, and considering last week was uber investigation time (part of the reason why I'm recapping after tomorrow night) I'm going to do battle.

Oh battle.

The thing is, in any RPG, it gets complicated. D&D has a lot of rules to manage, but in games with less rules you have to figure out how certain things work together. Even if everyone knows exactly what they're doing in battle, it can get confusing. So how do you keep all of it together?

I'll offer a few of my tips, but I know some of you who've played longer probably have you're own to share. Please do so in the comments! I think anyone can benefit from them.

1) Grids for Initiative. Using them not only to establish turn order but knowing when certain sustained effects go way are great. Graph paper is your best friend.

2) Maps are also great. Even if you don't have a battle map with miniatures, use graph paper to draw out where everything is as the DM. That way, it's easy to say how far something is when a PC asks.

3) No distractions during battle, especially laptops. This is one I'm recently deciding on, but computers are multitasking machines that can delay battle if you're looking up your email.

4) Clarity is something that the DM must convey. Be clear about what is going on, who is hitting whom, and why certain things happen.

5) Planning the next move is something every PC playing should do. Have a good idea what you're going to do when the DM comes to you, don't look up spells and effects at the last minute.

The Nerd Couple, Episode Three

2011-05-02T23:45:00.000-05:00

Please excuse our lateness, but we appreciate you listening! We're back with another episode.

Download here! Stream here!

Every other week, hear the discussions of The Nerd Couple, starring d20 Sapphire and Mystic. They discuss geeky news and topics, and approach it from our unique nerd upbringings.

This week: When not discussing Enya and alien abductions, the nerd couple discusses how they approach RPGs. How different are the roleplaying goals of d20sapphire and Mystic? The answers and discussions may surprise you. Awesome: Project Cafe. Not so awesome: SETI array closing. Biweekly B.S.: The recent failures of the Playstation Network incident.

Special thanks to EsTeeKay of Binary Protege Productions for supplying the intro music, and for promising us video game remixes in the future.

Email d20sapphire@gmail.com for topic suggestions and feedback! The Nerd Couple would love to hear from you.

I'm out of superhero supplies.

2011-04-27T22:31:00.000-05:00

A long time ago, I went to the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. I should clarify a long time for me is like almost four years ago or something like that. I got myself a bucket of X-Ray vision for later use.

Unfortunately I found it today and it went bad (aka the kool-aid powder I didn't realize was there crystalized) so now I'm out of X-Ray vision...

Anyone want to get me some from brooklyn? You never know what crime fighting awaits at my new apartment.

Old writing

2011-04-24T08:43:00.000-05:00

One of the weird experiences you have when you're a writer is if you find old work of yours. The older it is, regardless how good other people may feel it is, the worse you look on it. You want to edit it, or pitch it all together. Writing is a skill that grows and evolves with the writer, whether or not they admit it.

So packing and getting ready for my new place I have found a ton of writing from when I was from ages 11 to 18. Some for school and some for my own enjoyment. And let me tell you, it's embarrassing to read some of it. But some of it is actually quite good. Things I have noticed:

-At least back then, my short stories were well written. I think since I didn't have a lot of time, it was easier to make short stories great.

-I am definitely over my Mary-Sue phase, and I'm so much happier for it.

-Poetry is not my strong point, but it's good enough that if I wanted to write lyrics for a living it's possible that I could.

-Deciding to think about plot and character motivation first is one of the best decisions I ever made in my writing process.

-Writing for a webcomic and trying to be funny is a lot harder than it seems when it's just you and your good friend talking about the scripts.

-Also, a webcomic premise based in a "not-mall"is not a good setting. Especially if half the comic is based around that premise.

-I get pretty profound ideas, great philosophical concepts, but I need to work on making them tangible and understandable to the reader. At least, I needed to work on that then, I'm not sure how much I need to work on it now.

-I don't think I'm going back to first person ever again. I love the powers I have in third person.

-I've gotten much better at making characters complex, especially antagonist. Not to say I can't get even better.

-No matter how long of a gap I may have, I will always be a writer.

It's really funny to think that through most of my life, I never saw myself as a potential author until recently, because I was always writing something. Even in college I would get play ideas and stories that I had to put on paper. I just wished I had been more observant sooner. Not that it would've changed much, but it never hurts to know yourself better.

Also, thank you for the laughs, past self. Some of this stuff, although good for where I was, is still funny to think I wanted to do.

The Nerd Couple, Episode Two

2011-04-18T21:37:00.000-05:00

Another dose of geek for the week.

Download here! Stream here!

Every other week, hear the discussions of The Nerd Couple, starring d20 Sapphire and Mystic. They discuss geeky news and topics, and approach it from our unique nerd upbringings.

This week: Going to our official format, goofiness and nerd talk abound, and Mystic has seen the light about Star Trek 5! How far is too far when you're nerdifying your residence? d20 Sapphire ponders as she readies for her new apartment. Awesome: The new Mortal Kombat series. Not so Awesome: The death of Jerry Lawson. Biweekly BS: Hating on Jeri Ryan and ridiculous expectations of women in video games (but just a taste of that debate).

Special thanks to EsTeeKay of Binary Protege Productions for supplying the intro music, and for promising us video game remixes in the future. As soon as he's done with finals, more music will come.

Email d20sapphire@gmail.com for topic suggestions and feedback! The Nerd Couple would love to hear from you.

Things for the New Place

2011-04-16T19:23:00.000-05:00

Some of you who follow my twitter (@d20sapphire) may have noticed I now have my own place! I'm excited to say I can now afford to move out on my own and into my own apartment, and I even have money saved up to buy furniture! The next step is to make sure that the digs are to make sure it's respectably geeky.

Think Geek has some great stuff that I know I'm going to get. Most of it is for the kitchen:

Nice little details here and there. The next thing is something I promised I would hang up in my next place merely because it is such an awesome poster:

By LegendaryTigerHero on Etsy

I would love to have a bunch of refined art up, but I feel that this represents my personality more than some of the fine art available.

Coming up in the the next Nerd Couple podcast I'll talk about the debate I had with myself about how far to go, but these things will definitely be gracing my new home.

DnD Recap: New Additions

2011-04-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

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

The PCs decided to stay in the superbly urban Ouestpolis to find Jareth, having to leave Roto behind across seas to pursue other growingly important life pursuits.

Atreyu did some reconnaissance to find a place where Jareth was known to hang out. Instead, Escrow found an old (and strange looking bat-like) druid friend of his named Pippy, who was travelling with Oakland Bash, cleric of many missions. Escrow invited them along, though the urgings of Atreyu and Bram prevented them from revealing their true reasons as to why to seek out Jareth. Pippy had seen Jareth the other day in another inn, and the PCs head over there. Indeed Jareth was there, and he was joined by two bodyguards, who didn't seem to be natural creatures. After observing him for a while, Atreyu approached him and with a little help from Bram, learned a little bit about who may have bought young Teleport Mavericks for nefarious reasons. The team was sent on the trail of a coin.

A particularly thin coin of Vidrigan origin was found in a shop where Jareth restrung his ukelele, that was originally from a brown haired gentleman. The druids did scrying to find that the man was someone who was talking to a notable man in Vidrigan politics. The team decided it was best to not follow the man and start acts of war.

Instead, they headed back to the capital, where Pippy and Oakland were introduced to Queen Elish before being excused while the other three shared their findings. They were dismissed and after a couple hours the group was about to meet up where Atreyu was enjoying his house arrest on the Hughes estate when there was an attack in the front of the castle. More undead with long arms, talking and preaching, before the team, old and new, defeated them.

Dwarves... what to say?

2011-04-07T23:46:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I ask people what I should blog about, but then I get suggestions like dwarves. And not any elaboration on that. Just: "Dwarves". And I take it because I really want to write something, I'm just not sure what.

What is there to say about dwarves really? Well I guess there are a few things...

We need to decide as a nerd collective whether or not dwarven women have beards. Seriously, I'm tired of this insinuated guessing game. Many places decide they dont (Dragon Age, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder) but it's still alluded to time and time again. Let's get consistent on that. Either give them beards or have them be beardless.

Dwarves, I think of all the fantasy characters, tend to be the most consistent with how they're perceived. Elves may possibly be more popular, but they get a reboot from time to time. Dwarves are almost timeless. As soon hear dwarf you know immediately they're short and broad and probably making something out of stone/metal, or defending the honor of something.

However, dwarves are the ones you'd least expect in the future. Maybe because we tie them so close to the earth, that anything above that gets "unbelievable. I do use that term loosely, since we're talking about fantasy. But imagining dwarves in space is (funny and) incomprehensible.

Alright, I've rattled on enough aimlessly about dwarves. Do you all have anything to add?

The Nerd Couple, Episode One

2011-04-04T20:34:00.001-05:00

The Boyfriend and I have decided to make a podcast!

Download here! Stream here!

Every other week, hear the discussions of The Nerd Couple, starring d20 Sapphire and Mystic. They discuss geeky news and topics, and approach it from our unique nerd upbringings.

This week: Introduce ourselves, how we met, and introduce our 2 segments: Awesome/Not So Awesome and Biweekly B.S. Awesome: Nintendo 3DS. Not so Awesome: live action adaptions of anime. Biweekly B.S. will discuss why Bioware shouldn't make homosexual possibilities "optional".

We thank you for giving our first episode a listen! Please spread the word if you like what we talk about.

Links:

Ashens- mentioned for his hilarious reviews

Special thanks to EsTeeKay of Binary Protege Productions for supplying the intro music, and for promising us video game remixes in the future.

Email d20sapphire@gmail.com for topic suggestions and feedback! The Nerd Couple would love to hear from you.

Happy April First

2011-04-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

In the central time zone the April Fool's day jokes are almost over. I wasn't feeling super creative today, but I figured I would at least give you a link to this old gag. It's an old one I know some of you are tired of, but it's still a favorite of mine.

In somewhat the same vain, I can't wait to post up some music from my brother, EsTeeKay, when he does some video game remixes I've prompted him to do. If you want a sample of some of his likes and work, his facebook page for him and his company is here. Enjoy!

A Plea to Watch the Original Akira

2011-03-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

I feel so out of the loop, because I only found out today through an article on Cracked.com that they're going to try to do a live movie of Akira. For those of you not in the know, Akira is a brilliant anime film based on a manga series of the same name. And I do mean brilliant. It's a story that focuses on the corruption of power and the painful metamorphoses of adolescence through a plot focused on secret government testing and psychic powers. As many years as it has been since I last saw it, I still remember it being a great film. It was also one of America's first taste of what anime had to bring as a medium, and thank god because it's a brilliant piece of work.

So now, before any of you see the live version, I URGE YOU to watch Akira as soon as possible. Now. Before it's ruined for you. Before you can only think of it as the movie release that's slated in 2013.

Because the brilliance of this movie will not be repeated in a live action film.

The cracked article I link to above makes some valid points that I don't want to repeat here. My point is that you can tell with the way that the producers are going about this adaptation, the substance of the original piece is going to be lost. Casting is a little more focused on who's popular right now, even if some of the actors mentioned could definitely do the parts justice. But also, they're going to strip away the setting and essentially the background that made the story and characters powerful. I'm not saying you can't talk about the themes presented in a post-nuclear future Japan in a story set in the United States, but you definitely can't talk about them in the same way. Japan has a history that is plagued with natural disasters and large-scale attacks in a tiny amount of space, on an island of people who (mostly) share similar ancestry. America is an expansive country full of diversity that was necessary to make it survive, with different geographical cultures that only recently have consistently started to interact with each other and the country hasn't had to fight any war on it's soil on a large scale in over a century. Unless you count vague propaganda wars on Terror and Drugs. You cannot get the same story.

This is where I think a lot of producers fail to adapt their products correctly when it comes to acquiring foreign properties. You lose a lot when you flip the setting so unceremoniously. As much as you may feel you can just change the background and have the story be the same, it's very rarely true. Shakespeare was able to produce stories that can do that... not many other writers have. And it's not a failing on the writers part. Some stories can only be told from a certain place.

This is one of those times where it would possibly make more sense to be inspired from the original work but then admit you are doing your own story. Inspiration sometimes works best. I think I would be lesss frustrated if that was what's going on. But I think they're hoping to slap the name Akira on the movie in hopes of getting nerd sales on top of the regular sales because it's been working for the comic book industry. Hence why I am extremely suspicious.

Regardless of even if this live action movie exists later on, watch Akira. You shouldn't need an excuse to watch a great piece of film.

Writing Experiment Idea

2011-03-23T12:19:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about a way to make sure I am consistently writing something, and it's hard because usually I need something to help me keep focused on task. Usually that involves an end goal or an incentive.

At the same time I am interested in economics and the now changing economy, how the idea of the "middle man" is slowly fading in certain industries, including the publishing industry.

On top of that, I still have the universe of DeWitt in Titania dancing around my head. And I want to play with is.

So now I have an idea: A blog that pays for each short story!

It's a little experiment that will keep me either preoccupied writing or preoccupied with economic questions to ponder.

I would start a blog associated with a PayPal account. For every $5 (or whatever fee I decide later) I receive, I would write a short story that I would post on the blog. Of course, I would start one for free, and then see what happens. The stories would all be set in the same universe, but not following the same characters. And requests here and there would be allowed.

This may not be big, but it's something I'm pretty interested in. Of course, I would like to see what you dear readers think. Opinions? Suggestions?

In defense of fan fiction.

2011-03-22T07:56:00.000-05:00

This is a tough one to write.

You see, as a writer who totally isn't one who wrote a universe that sparks fanfiction, it's really easy to detest it. Especially when you focus on all the bad ones written out there by teenage girls fantasizing about being in that universe. I remember admitting I've been there before when I first wrote about my previous DA:O crush.

I know, I'm such a girl.

Anyway, fanfiction with Mary-Sues and that are poorly written definitely make fan-fiction seem like a horrible idea. Sometimes, it is. But sometimes, it's a fantastic tool for writing.

Here me out, please.

When you've graduated enough in your writing talent, you realize there are essential parts to every character, every single one, that help you write the scene. Motivations, goals, flaws, histories, yada yada yada. What's even more important is that you know how to utilize those components to make a complex character that is relatable. The same goes for setting--different components, but the same basic idea of using the tool effectively.

Writing a fanfiction, you already have that set out in front of you, which is one of the hardest parts of writing any story. You don't have to flesh out as much, and you've been given a lot of details to work with. This gives you some flexibility to hone your craft. You now have something that helps you, as a writer that is, work on delivery and your use of the (hopefully extensive) vocabulary and style you've come across over the years.

It comes to being a great way to practice. People in all other sorts of professions practice somehow, why not writers?

I'm sure some of you are figuring out I'm only writing this entire thing to defend any fanfiction I may decide to write soon. Believe me, I am not posting it here. As much as I can justify its existence, I still feel a little shame when I come across the idea.

Not as much shame as reading my original series Star Trek fanfiction from when I was in highschool. *shudder*

Beat Dragon Age 2!

2011-03-18T22:15:00.000-05:00

Hey readers! You missed me didn't you? Yeah, well once again I was sucked into another Bioware game, and on top of all the other things happening in my life, it soaked up a big chunk of my time. Literally, this game soaked up 47 compelling hours of my life. And of course, I'm going to review it. You ready to listen?

Well Varric is going to tell you anyway.

WARNING: IF YOU DON'T LIKE ANY HINT AT ANY PART OF THE STORY BEFORE YOU PLAY, DON'T READ FURTHER. IN OTHER WORDS, SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD.

Story: Oh many the story. I have to say, this is the first time in a video game where there was a scene that made me cry. Like really cry. From the get go, you play Hawke, male of female, who is trying to survive and avoid the blight in Ferelden. You try to find safety in Kirkwall, and over time you do gain more notoriety, but not without huge sacrifices. Death is a constant fact of life. Conflict is inevitable. And the choices you make are gut-wrentching. There were definitely points when I had to fight people, and I felt horrible having to do it.

The game's story is a tale of freedoms over safety, and it's amazing how strong that theme is and how is enhances the game because of it. And your characters all have their own story that has it's own built in conflict within the game. Are you going to help with a project that may bring back a demon? Are you going to save someone's life if the entire city's well being on the line? If you're like me, and you love video games because it's an interactive story device (with fictional violence for fun!), you won't be disappointed. Bioware does deliver.

Only complaint? Like much of Bioware's stuff, it's very binary. No middle ground. Someday there will be a video game that allows that option.

8.75/10

Gameplay: Similar to the previous game, where pause and play rules the day, you command your Hawke and three other companions in battle. Strategy is a must, especially if you're playing at the harder difficulties. Be ready to be selective about who comes with you, balancing everyone's strengths.

Selecting Attributes and Abilities is less guesswork now. Attributes, in the style of DnD's abilities, clearly show what about gameplay will change if you raise them. Abilities can not only be added but modified, allowing you to be a master a a couple of specialities rather than a jack of all trades that you stumbled into the first game.

The part that I personally hate? WAVES of enemies. You finish one set of baddies and suddenly out appear from nowhere another set, and then another set! Especially in the beginning of the game, it totally cramped my style because it affected the way that I would plan my battles. You get used to it, but it's just a little frustrating sometimes when it's not even a boss battle and you've killed the baddies and then six more of them show up. Dude! Party's over, the chips are gone and the hosts are going to bed! In a boss battle I fully expect it and prepare for it, but it got repetitive when I'm just walking down the street.

8/10

Design: First of all, we must admit that it's not going to take a lot to look better than the last game. But it does look good! Especially if you don't mind looking at the same cave in a different part of the map over and over and over again. Everything looks good possibly because they scaled it back and focused. I'm for that to an extent, but I don't like every warehouse or cave looking exactly the same for all of the side missions. But they do look good, and would be believable if you didn't see everything all the time. The details do make everything awesome, including making your family look more like your Hawke when you change your preset base face.

However, you can tell that the game was rushed. It glitches more than it should. I just upgraded my motherboard and it definitely is not the issue. Cut scenes were cut off and there was a whole side mission that I could not complete and cannot be completed across all platforms. What the hell Bioware? A lot of people are complaining that they rushed production, and I'm sure EA put pressure on the team. This makes me sad, because it shows. If this is the reason, Dragon Age 2 is a great example how taking the time to polish makes a big difference.

7/10

OVERALL: 8.25/10

Play it! It's a good story and a good game. Is it perfect? No. But it's better than the majority of what's out there on the market. It's a high quality game that has a great story and great characters. Enjoy it!

What kind of Champion will you become?

Dragon Age II: New Crush (and short review)

2011-03-13T09:53:00.000-05:00

In the first game I was totally falling for Alistar, the awkward templar who had a good heart and was the only other Grey Warden in all of Ferelden with you. You bonded over loneliness and using flowers as weapons.

I'm now playing Dragon Age II, and who do I find myself enamored with? The exact opposite of Alistar.

This Adrien Brody look-alike elf is super hot. Do not deny that.

Crazy, right? I go from a dorky sincere knight to a dark and brooding escape slave. Why can't I be consistent?

Oh yeah, it's fiction, why should I care?

Review so far: I like the story and I want to get more of it, and I like how it's a bunch of little pieces that will eventually come together, but... the fighting is getting in the way. As in the cooldown times are way too long for such quick battle actions and wave upon wave of baddies. The story is good enough that I'm still going through it. Hooray for playing a snarky apostate! I'll keep you all updated, I'm only in Act I and almost ready for the deep roads.

DnD Recap: The Saboteur Confesses

2011-03-10T10:11:00.000-06:00

My campaign last Saturday had a couple of good twists, and now I finally have time to write about it! (Don't ask, work this week is friggin' bizarre).

Legal Jargon!

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

The PCs had just recovered from a random attack of what seemed to be large metal ramming beasts, unlike anything they had seen before, all while capturing Teleport Mavericks who had been transporting boxes from the port they had just visited. They secured the TMs in cells that would be protected from magic. Bram and Atreyu decided to retire early while Escrow and Roto did a little more investigating by questioning the TM in her cell. Both were interrupted by a huge attack within the capital with a dozen of those metal chargers. The party woke up and took half of them out of the capital, the town guard able to take the other half out. Some were captured and taken back to be questioned and studied. Finally, the party had some time to rest.

The next day the party spoke to Councilman Hughes to report their findings and how next to proceed. And then Atreyu confessed that he was acting as a double agent for Vidrigez. He stated that these acts of war are not going to help Vidrigez or the Cornwellian Kingdom, so he wanted to stop a war before it was started. Atreyu was immediately escorted to the Queen to report his confession, and the rest of the party spoke about what value he has. Queen Elish was willing to give Atreyu a second chance, where Councilman Hughes would keep close watch on him through his agents in the city. Atreyu did meet with one of his contacts and is now keeping an eye out on Councilman Pullman, seeing if he can be bribed.

Meanwhile, the questioning of the Teleport Maverick revealed that a man named Jareth was recruiting Teleport Mavericks straight from the university and giving them reasonable amounts of money for transporting things that they had no knowledge about. The party is thinking of going undercover to discover Jareth and his connections, but they're still figuring out exactly how....

_______________

This may seem a little short but battle and deliberation can take up a lot of time in a game session. Also, we lost the person who plays Roto this week, so we're on the lookout for another player. We'll see who joins, and how it may change the dynamic of the game.

The Real Job

2011-03-03T09:34:00.000-06:00

The other day at work I was talking to my boss and I told her she should start a blog (on what I'm not super entirely sure but she wants to write). A resident picking up a package overheard and I ended up admitting I'm writing. And then I said it's what I do on the side when I'm not in the office.

"No, this is what you do on the side. The writing's the real job. Don't ever forget that."

I started thinking about it and he's right in many ways. The true passion is the one that's the hardest to pursue. It's the one you have to work on to make the time, especially when you're recovering from the 9 to 5.

So here's to the real job, and hoping the side job doesn't get in the way.

Recap Session 7 though...???: A clear enemy emerges

2011-02-25T23:12:00.000-06:00

So It's been forever since I posted about my D&D campaign, but it has not died off! We had a couple of unfortunate long breaks and lost one player, but the story still forges on with some interesting developments.

Again, legal jargon for all characters and setting that I, d20sapphire, have created.

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

Last time, it was quite apparent that Ingard, the head of the city guard, had Prince Aeriche in his custody. The next session Atreyu finally confronted him, when Ingard said the man was found drunk in the woods, recovering from a stupor. Atreyu called him out for his treachery and sent him along to the capital, where he privately talked to the King Aust. Ingard was executed, with his wife and child sent to opposite ends of the country, and the party was handsomely rewarded before heading back to the Cornwellian Kingdom, where Queen Elish asked some questions about the state of the Vidrigez kingdom.

After a couple days of rest, Samsana, the holy fighter blessed from a relatively unknown goddess, wanted help from the party to investigate the organization of the Yuan-ti armies. The party was willing to investigate for the good of the crown, even without the promise of pay. Samsana navigated the jungle with them, bumping into a couple of monsters and taking a rest at a tribe before they found themselves at half power after a tussle with some Yuan-ti. Dreamatar and Roto had to head back early due to complications, and the rest of the team realized they weren't strong enough to do it on their own. They headed back to see the tribe they had stayed with had been attacked, and Samsana found one lone scared child to save. Another Yuan-ti scuffle on the way before they could go back to the capital and report their findings.

Continuing with their investigation when the first king of Cornwell's body had been stolen, the party made way to the Xephs lands, which border the Monster's Forest. With the help of one of Bram's old adventuring friends, the adventurers traveled deep into the forest and fought some monsters. They talked to some minotaurs about people in black robes, and were pointed in the direction of the dangerous range, the thick jungle that no empire or kingdom has ever been able to conquer due to dangerous flora and fauna as well as disease. A couple days more journeying and they were in the jungle, one that is thicker and more dangerous than the Amazon. A perfect hiding place.

There they found individuals, later proven to be connected to the Yuan-ti and the Vidrigez Kingdom, training tweens and teenagers of previously unknown origins to be spies. In fact, these young people could easily change their appearance, and the training improved their metamorphoses as well as their strength. They killed most of the trainers, sparing one to take back for questioning. The children went off on their own, except for one who is almost a young man, and decided to follow Escrow back to the Cornwellian Kingdom. The party went back to Queen Elish to report what they found, only to find Queen Elish would only greet them veiled, gloved and completely covered. She didn't reveal what ailed her but was very appreciative of the information.

In the meantime, Escrow gave the changeling child a new family, Roto started a temple for his rare dragon god, Atreyu began to court Swan Hughes with Councilman Fox's close eye, and Bram began to miss the taste of seafood while inland.

Councilman Fox Hughes asked the party to investigate shipments that had been coming in around the South-Eastern ports, in ships seemingly small with cargos reported from all over the place. The PCs travelled to what was called the "beard" of the continent. They set up shop very close to the coast and kept watch. In the wee hours of the morning they noticed a strange shipment come in. Following it, they lead to an empty building that should've been stacked with 20ft cube boxes. Finding ribbon to scry made locating the foreign Teleport Mavericks in the Cornwellian Kingdom easy, and the surprise attack on them in the slums of the capital even easier. And the Warforged Chargers bursting out a floor below to attack our heros, proving to be the cargo in the crates, only was a minor setback.

______________________________________________________

Oh man, that was a lot of typing. Luckily next session will be less catch up and more "Oh, so about Vidrigez... what are we going to do about it?"

Yeah, I love being a DM.

My First (amazing) experience with Hero's Banner

2011-02-21T00:14:00.000-06:00

The great thing about RPG Chicago (gotta plug my awesome group) is that you get a chance to meet new people and try new games that you'd probably never find out about before. That's the real reason I decided to step up and run it when the previous leader stepped down--it's a resource that not a lot of nerds have in a hobby requiring you to be social. With that in mind, a few Friday's ago I decided I needed some nerd time with new people, so I showed up to GamesPlus to play Hero's Banner.

Hero's Banner: The Fury of Free Will is an RPG where the mechanics are there to drive a story along. There are a lot of games that claim this, when they really mean mechanics aren't based around Dungeons and Dragons style battles. Hero's Banner actually succeeds at that goal. Each person plays a character who is a young noble, in a land of four countries who are constantly at odds with each other. They're at a point in their life where they have three possible paths to take, and someone pushing them towards one or another. While your story unfolds with the rest of the group, your character is forced to make choices that will eventually sway them to one cause more than the other. After a certain point, your character will have to decide on one path, and tell the epilogue of how that path went.

There were three of us, so three characters who's stories did intertwine, affecting each other in little ways. There was Victor, who's fighting family's tradition was clashing with his desire to stay home and write. There was Uriel, who's mother was a notable Guildmistress, though he thought of leaving the family spice trade for heroic glory. And there was Danica, my character, who was ready to marry but had the skill to be a great advisor.

Throughout over 6 hours of gaming that happened over 2 session, Victor, Uriel and Danica found their paths, although none of them were without losses. Victor teetered the line between brazen fighter and comfortable coward, pursuing an army assignment from his father but not to completion, finding information about a spy and taking that back to the information while allowing the court to believe that high general Dragos was killed He didn't admit to not being able to torture subjects and letting Dragos abandon Victor's leadership to pursue the original mission. After a tall tale of victory, the traitor was found to be the brother in law of the King, Mihale. After Mihale was almost publicly executed and awaiting the cruel judgement from the King of Prodan in a jail cell, Mihale's wife pleaded with Victor to recant the story, and with a heavy heart and a convenient distraction due to other more pressing political matters, freed the traitor that he had named, running away from his family and homeland and instead settling down far away to write a a tale that warned of the dangers of lying.

Uriel, after once again being on the run with his mother from a shipment gone wrong , settled in Prodan for a while to sell the spices that he had saved from a burning ship. Although heroics had helped him before, they later sent him the jail when he and a friend were arrested from a bar fight that got way out of hand. Apparently Uriel had friends who thought using chairs in a fight was awesome, and not capable of bringing someone close to death. In jail he heard of the possibility of slaying a "demon" and was released to the church's custody to hopefully become such a hero, only to find the church wished him to slay his own mother. Stabbing the one priest that was in his way and about to make a run for it, he finds his boyhood crush, Magda, as a stable girl married to a less than desirable husband. Uriel ended up punching the husband, saving the girl, and with the help of a convenient lady of the court, escaping the capital of Prodan and meeting up with his mother, only to have his mother leave town without him to save her own hide. Uriel settled down with Magda and had a family, finally finding the love of his life.

Danica's story started out with an attempt of love, from the Prince of Prodan no less. After her father, a close and trusted advisor to the King, introduced to two and everything was going splendidly at a court function, the King intervened and made sure that both the Prince and Danica's father knew that such an affair was not to be decided on a whim. The Prince sent a note to Danica later to meet her at night, where he not only confessed his attraction, but that he needed her help in assassinating his own father. Danica said she'd helped, but towed the line in court when apologizing to the king about what happened between her and the Prince in court. Danica planned a couple of events to keep suspicion away from her Prince, including a reconciliation between father and son for all to see in church. She thought she had found a sucker to commit the murder when helping the church preach to those stuck in the local prison, convincing one prisoner that the king was a demon and releasing him to the custody of the church. She discovered how this plan backfired when she found Josef stabbed through the gut, and through prayer a miracle occurred and she saved his life with the power of the Ancients. Offended that her Prince never respected the church, she immediately went to the King and confessed the sins of the heir, renouncing everything she had done and preaching the truth of the Ancients, in the hope of unity across all the four kingdoms.

In the end, this game is ridiculously rewarding because it allows the player to become a character with goals and conflicts that they have to figure it out. Now, the only downside is that this isn't a game for people new to RPGs, especially when it comes to the GM. The GM has to be ready to take something and make a scene out of it quickly. Like within a minute or less. That said, once you have a GM who can master that art, you're bound to have a engaging experience that is unlike any other RPG out there.

I already know this is a game I'm going to be playing and GMing again and again and again for years to come.

Breakfast of Awesome... Or is it?

2011-02-15T23:29:00.000-06:00

The Boyfriend disagrees, but this weekend I think I had the best breakfast ever concocted: The Chocolate Bacon Waffle Sundae:

Look at the glory!

The waffle is actually chocolate with bacon IN it. That's delicious enough on it's own, but then I decided to top it with chocolate ice cream, homemade chocolate sauce and pieces of bacon. Let me tell you, it is one of the better breakfast ideas I've ever had, along the same line of having breakfast late at night and having a breakfast milkshake.

But I want your opinions, reader. Do you agree with me, that this is a breakfast for deities? Or do you agree with The Boyfriend, who thinks that the flavor combination makes no sense?

I want your opinion! Please respond, I am curious.

A Great Nerd Tribute: The DnD epsisode of Community

2011-02-13T13:01:00.000-06:00

This episode came on about two weeks ago, and I've been meaning to share it. I always thought that there would be a great way to incorporate RPGs into a tv show without it all being about RPGs played by anti-social nerds who can only be tolerated by each other. It's an unfortunate stereotype that has been perpetuated by multiple sources of media. I'm not going to call out against it because hey, a lot of it is really funny. There's a lot of it made by people in the hobby who know what some of the truths are. But when it's made by people who don't participate in it, they miss the point and make the joke more about how the people are pathetic in general, something that you don't need RPGs as a template to do. Many other nerd hobbies suffer this fate, but I feel RPGs are one hobby that makes the least sense to outsiders.

Anyway, it's nice to see the show that uses the RPGs and fantasy setting more for continuing what makes the show entertaining in the first place. I'm a fan of the comedy Community, partly because I think Joel McHale is hilarious and also because it's so goofy without relying on entirely awkward humor. This show was able to take Dungeons and Dragons and instead of making it the butt of the joke, the background for the funny story it was telling. If something mainstream is starting to use it that way, it means that DnD is seen as less of a weird thing and more as a legit hobby. And that, as a gamer in the real world, makes me smile.

Also, this episode is great all around.

Let's Categorize Gamers: Internal and External Explorers.

2011-02-09T22:11:00.000-06:00

I was going to start this a different way, but then I realized that this works better in a dual-relationship sort of thing. With RPGs, I'm realizing that there are two different types of personalities, that of course work more in a spectrum than just one or the other, but it something that exists. On either end of the spectrum is essentially the kind of games I find exciting, and the kind of games the Boyfriend finds exciting.

With most RPGs, in the traditional western sense and not exactly JRPGs (or at least not in my experience) there are the Internal Explorers and the External Explorers. Some of you may have an idea about what I'm getting at, but since I'm blogging about it the whole point is explaining what I think.

The Internal Explorer is very interested in understanding the main character's motivations and goals. This is the player who loves a deep detailed backstory that influences decisions later on. This is also the player who is more likely to mingle with other characters in the world and make bonds with them, whether its romance or political allegiances or even declared enemies. Through these relationships and past experiences, the main character will make choices and grow, making them a dynamic character reacting to social and emotional stimuli.

The External Explorer is more intrigued about the world around them. The main character is a vehicle for the player to understand more of the material world around them. Sometimes this is through fighting strange monsters and gaining rare treasures, sometimes it's a little more anthropological in the intrigue, finding out everything concerning history and traditions of the world around them. The main character is more about discovering something grand and (mostly) tangible.

I'm sure some of you are thinking that you do some of both, which is why I suggest it's a spectrum. There are a alot of players that do both, but very rarely does a player do both to so much detail due to just pure joy and not just because they're completionist, which applies more to video games then RPGs. And I can understand using certain games to enjoy both sides of the spectrum. As much as I consider myself more of an Internal Explorer, I prefer doing more External Exploration goals in Dungeons and Dragons or SLA.

I think the point is to be honest about what kind of game play you're actually doing, and knowing how in depth you want to be. This is important as a gamer because if you know exactly what kind of experience you're looking for, it's easier to get it. If you know you enjoy characters that have a tortured past, make sure that tortured past is something that works with the GMs world. If you know you love rewarding your players with massive amounts of treasure, be upfront as a GM with you players about creating a materially motivated campaign.

This is not to say, however, that a game can only exclusively cater to one explorer or another. Sure, there are games that are more linked to one of the other. But with many games, RPGs or video games, you can easily cater to both. The first example that comes to my mind is Dragon Age. It is litered with rewards and surprised for both gamers. The completionist External Explorer can find some of the best treasures, and rare goods with fantastic bonuses are in every level. The Internal Explorer can communicate to all his or her compatriots and through befriending them gain bonuses. And both paths can change the story in monumental ways.

I think herein lies the challenge to many game designers: Sure, you can easily make a game that caters specifically to one of these players on either extreme of the spectrum. But it takes a very thoughtful designer to make a game that is fun and lets both types of players the discover the world both ways.

I'm writing this realizing I don't really have a conclusion for the end of this, but more of a suggestion. For gamers, realize what kind of game play you prefer more, and the figure out how to use as a strength if it's part of your RPG style. For designers, catering to both is going to be more profitable over time... why not explore these choices in games and reward smart players from either camp? Let both the Internal and External Explorers have something to look forward to. You may be surprised how appreciated this can be.

Things that prevent me from writing

2011-01-25T12:21:00.000-06:00

Overtime

Colds

Leasing Agent Classes.

Not only that, I haven't had a lot of time for the things I love to write about. When I do have free time I'm usually recovering from something, not planning my next nerd-venture. Hey, that's a cool new word, nerd-venture.

I miss writing, and I miss you guys! I know that saying that over and over is not going to help, but now that I've made some headway in at least 2 out of 3 of those things above (overtime is still up in the air) I'm going to try to catch up on stuff.

I will say that one good thing in my life is that my family bought a new tv that I can actually connect my gaming rig to, meaning I will soon be playing Mass Effect on the big screen with the controllers I know I can use! PC SUPREMACY! I mean *ahem*, I will enjoy it.

Now back to this silly correspondence course I gotta pass.

Apologies!

2011-01-17T11:11:00.000-06:00

Dear readers,

I'm so sorry I haven't written in a while. The problem is this entire week I've been fighting off a cold on top of still going to work. It's one of those colds where it won't stop you from operating, it'll just stop you from operating at one hundred percent. I've fallen asleep pretty early some nights this week, and I think that's part of the reason it didn't take me fully out of commission.

The next couple of days I'll be catching up with a few things I've wanted to post on here. In the meantime, in hopes of redeeming myself, I'm going to post an amusing video called Llamas With Hats. There are sequels to this video, but I'll let you guys discover them on your own if you desire.

What I Try Never To Be

2011-01-06T21:41:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, in any hobby but prominently in RPG games, you find someone who takes the hobby a tad too seriously.

A LARP friend of mine found this atrocious example of one such individual.

Part of me hopes this is a joke, but part of me knows this could be all too real. A note to all readers: people play RPGs for fun. When it stops being fun anymore and it becomes a lifetime investment of doom, just stop. You'll be doing everyone a favor.

The "Necessity" of Replay Value

2011-01-04T22:20:00.000-06:00

Spontaneous rant strikes again!

Replaying Mass Effect 2 had me start thinking about replay value. It's something that has become a standard measurement of game success. A year after ME2 coming out, I can still play it and discover something new. There are a lot of games that desire that affect. But is it really necessary to add that element to every game?

I think a lot of us see video games as overpriced and under-supplemented. I think it's because of a lot of the big video game developers focus on either alternate endings due to game choices or a healthy dose of dlc to bring you back. It means that the publishers almost admit the game is lacking. "Sorry guys, here's some new stuff you can pay extra for!" Even if you just have to make different choices in the game, you're paying your time to enjoy it. However, if the game publisher doesn't provide the possibility to replay the game with different missions or story hooks, you still feel cheated because why won't they do it while everyone else is? It's a catch-22 that a lot of big names in the industry gets caught up in.

But is replay really something you want to be standard in a game? What does that do in the gaming market when the only games that can be replayed again with small differences are the target? WEll, it means that sooner or later, the same tropes that make games like Mass Effect fun to play over and over again are going to become passe, and the evolution of those tools for video games will stagnate. If you watch closely, you'll see it happening right now, especially with the dlc market more accessible to console lovers. Zombie modes and extra missions introducing ridiculously over-powered weapons are incredibly abundant, and even special items for purchasing your game at specific stores. Doing this once or twice is exciting, ten thousand times is not.

The funny thing is that the games I think of with addictive replay value are things like Tetris. Simple games that require enough brain power to be challenging. It doesn't have a story for you to be invested in once and then get tired of later. It doesn't need DLC since adding more would just make it needlessly complicated. Its a perfect balance. And I can admit I was addicted to this game for years. It has legit replay value built in.

The problem with this is that this is the original casual game. Tetris is the game you played if you sucked at all other video games. I know this because I was that kid for a period of time. The kind of games that are trying really hard to capture replayability don't have that beautifully simple formula.

I am going to cut this rant a bit short because I'm sleepy, and I'm sure so are you for reading this, but my point is that some games aren't designed to have seamless replayability. Some games are probably worth enjoying even if it only has one storyline. You don't need to have a rereading to throughly enjoy a book, or a detailed rewatching of a movie to get it. So how about you publishers just write good storyline? I'll just sit here and replay tetris if i need to.

The end of 2010.

2010-12-31T18:11:00.000-06:00

Someone let me know who to credit for this awesome!

It's time to party! 2010 is over, and 2011 is ready to take it's place. But before that happens, I would like to commemorate some of the awesomeness that happened this year on the blog. Sure, my personal life is pretty awesome with a new job and a new car and great friends, and don't forget the awesome Boyfriend and I go 2 and a half years strong. But the blog is not here for me to think about that stuff, memoir blogs are everywhere. This is to remember the nerd awesome of the year, specifically talked about on this blog. So here's a list of that:

Mass Effect 2
Great game, great story, one of my favorite things to play all year, and I'm just getting back to it with a new concept for a character. Hooray Renegade Adept!

Restarting my old campaign
Getting back to my old DMing was actually great. I love being able to tell stories, especially directly to other people. And when you have the right players, it makes the experience more interesting to see how creatively they react to what you give them.

Writing a lot more
I not only was able to post more in this blog after a while, but I was also able to finish a play, get more of my trilogy done and at least realize what writing habits work for me.

Reading a lot more
I know reading a couple more books here and there is nothing for most people, but making an effort to read the plethora of books my mother has here. Discovering LeGuin and rediscovering Asimov were helpful to my writing.

Indie Games
The Boyfriend continues to introduce great things to me, including indie games. Audiosurf, Chime, The Path... games I wish I had more time to write about, but are definitely fun playing.

Here's to continuing to have fun times in 2011, and more of these great things. Well, maybe not too much Mass Effect 2, because the sequel is coming soon!

The Nerdification of Christmas

2010-12-28T21:05:00.000-06:00

As I've gotten older, I've realized that I have affected the Christmas present shopping in my household. And it's kind of for the better, at least in my opinion.

I have expressed my love of Think Geek here before. But it's become somewhat of a family staple. It all started around my sophomore year of college, where I had just discovered the site and did a wish list. My mother was just looking for something easy to get me for Christmas, and that was really easy. And then she kind of got sucked into the site. That Christmas she got something from that site for everyone.

That was just the beginning.

Now almost everyone ordered from Think Geek this year. My mom got me the Ingenui-tea tea brewer, which I find the handiest thing in the friggin' world. My brother got everyone's gifts from there, including my d20 fuzzy dice for my new car. However, he was following my lead, since I have done that every year for the past three years now. I got whiskey stones for my dad, caffeinated goodies for my mom, and personal soundtrack shirt for my brother. For the Boyfriend, a golf shirt with an 1-UP mushroom on it.

I think, combined with a couple of strange gifts for my friends, this was the nerdiest Christmas haul I ever had. I even got a book set in the new Starfleet Academy cast from the recent Star Trek movie. I expect it to be enjoyable trash.

With the new friends and the gifts from one of the nerdiest sites on the internet, I think Chirstmas is going to continue to be full of geeky goodness.

Christmas in Solaria

2010-12-24T18:57:00.003-06:00

Santa was still getting used to Christmas in space

Traveling with spacesuits and rockets in place

Reindeer and elves back on earth with Ms. Claus

He thought of them fondly during a brief pause

He had finished with Earth, the Moon and Mars

Halfway through his journey through the stars

Solaria was next on the delivery list

He set the coordinances with a flick of his wrist

He saw only one place with children that play

Who would love presents on Christmas day

He set off with his usual joy and cheer

With hopes of a great Space Christmas this year

When Santa landed, vast lands around

Not a creature was stirring, not a single sound

Except one lone woman, standing outside

Oblivious to Santa, carrying pride

Santa checked the list, Klorissa her name,

Good this year, good genes her fame

Or so she thought, but Santa knew

He job was thankless, through and through

She toiled hard all year around

Rarely making a complaining sound

To anyone, but now one could see,

Only view the stress done to she

Solaria was not a place of a mom and a dad

But robots to watch children be good and bad

No families, just structure, Klorissa the only one

To watch every daughter and every son

Each child had every toy ever made

But human affection would soon fade

No mother's hugs, no father's games

And soon playing with children would not be the same

By a certain age they would view

Every single person they ever knew

Klorissa the only person who could even touch

Even then she didn't give much

Just discipline to all the boys and girls

The only real parent on this world

How could she know to give them more?

She didn't know what a mom and dad were for

She never had one, never saw the need

Just thought children were to protect and feed

Robots could do both within the three laws

Keep children safe, feed eager maws

Put them to sleep when the time was right

Watch ever step, stop every fight

Klorissa was there when robots wouldn't do

And she didn't do much, that Santa knew

There was no one gift for each, Santa did fear

That wasn't already in front of them here

He snuck past Klorissa when he could

And found out where all kids, bad and good

Were staying, and the control for their rooms

He'd have to open all of them, and soon

He snuck past robots standing duty

He hid in the shadows, his suit still sooty

From houses before, where families had love

Not where the only man who cared was from above

Who would come and give presents once a year

Santa knew what Solaria children wanted this year

Klorissa went to bed, robots on standby

He went to the controls, easy as pie,

Opened every room and went to the halls

That were miles away in the complex mall

Where all the children were bred and raised

Where only genetics were worshiped and praised

Not love, and affection, and family where one

Could teach and hold each daughter and son

The children, surprised, went along with the happenings,

Knew to expect presents in wrappings,

Instead they found Santa, in his classic suit

Red with white trim, and shiny black boot

They ran to him, the younger ones first

Screaming out in one jovial burst

The older ones were taught of the fear of germs

The idea crawled under their skin like worms

But they were intrigued, an adult that smiled

At the eyes of every single child

Santa urged them over, and began to say

"I simply came over to see you and play

And teach you how to be good boys and girls

Like parents do on other spacer worlds

We can do it again next year if you like

I won't get you sick, which is in spite

of what you were taught, I made myself clean

There will not be a hurting stomach or spleen."

He gave a big grin, which every child returned

The only adult that showed them concern

And from there the games began

They clapped and sang and laughed and ran

And Santa taught lessons to each child

How to be nice and not too wild

They played for hours, until everyone was tired

The sun was close, night had expired

Santa wished them "Merry Christmas, see you next year!

And to all on Solaria, good cheer!"

The children waved by as he went to his sleigh,

Some started to cry, knowing today

They would go back to no contact, no family

Klorissa and the robots were all they could be

But not enough to fill their hearts

With gloved hands and metallic parts

They knew that next year, Santa would come

And play again all the fun games they had done

Santa packed up the sleigh, went up to the sky

Seeing some little ones still waving bye

He looked to a letter and gave a smile,

One from a good boy who had been a man for a while

Plainsclothesman Elijah gave the heads up

About the children who had no ma or pop

And suggest a parent on Christmas Eve

And tonight, that's what Santa came to be

He'd left good gifts for Elijah on Earth,

Knowing what a thoughtful idea was worth

But he still had to take care of children near and far,

So Santa started the sleigh, and headed for the stars

_________________________________________

For those of you who have read Asimov's The Naked Sun, I hope you appreciate my spontaneous poem for the season. Recovering from the busy week at work has my creative juices flowing again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! And once again, avoid the Krampus!

-d20 Sapphire

DnDnD

2010-12-17T20:55:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I shall be starting again a tradition that I had since high school: DnDnD. Dungeons and Dragons and Dinner.

You would think that the combination would not work, but believe me, it does. In high school, when I could get a few of my friends over for DnD (conflicting schedules prevented consistent games) we would have Chinese food. A feast even. We would eat and then I would run my game.

In college the chinese food tradition continued. We would play friday evenings around dinnertime (around 7 to 11 most nights) and people would get hungry because they hadn't had dinner yet. Chinese food was ordered a lot of those times. We were in a college parlor where there was space to spread out and eat while rolling dice. It was conducive to the RP parts of the story more than the battle parts. For some reason, some people are a lot more comfortable in a communal story while munching on delicious. One of my players called it DnDnD, and it stuck in my head.

Tomorrow, I think my players will get accustomed to NPCs and Pizza. There's a place near my house that will be open late and a player of mine was nice enough to call and see that the place would be accommodating. Hooray!

Food and gaming go hand in hand, surprisingly.

Superman Glows?

2010-12-16T06:53:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this...

I do live Tim Burton, but really?

The Glory of a One Shot

2010-12-11T00:28:00.000-06:00

Those of you who follow my twitter (d20sapphire, unsurprisingly) may know that while running RPG Chicago I have lobbied the idea of a One Shot Night in multiple locations in the area. I know a lot of people love being in long standing campaigns. You guys know that I love running one. But the one-shot... it's a glory all on it's own.

The thing about a campaign is that everyone starts it knowing that it's an investment. With each session you have to give enough to keep the players involved, but not every session has to be on point. In fact, it's almost impossible to keep it on point, because every player is going to have goals that diverge from your main plot. As a DM you become half story-teller, half manager. It's still fun, but it's not the same as a one shot.

The one shot is a one-time chance to prove to the players that this story is awesome. It is a one time chance to give them something sensational, and it has to hit immediately. Slow story is not an option.

Players love it too. For once they have a character that they don't have to fear about losing, they can just be reckless and take bigger chances. It's time to shine, because this character only has once.

The glory of the one shot is exactly that: you have one shot to make an impression. And it makes the difference in how people play.

The Argument Against AI: The Rights of the Sentient

2010-12-08T22:11:00.000-06:00

I have been exposed to the idea of robots with Artificial Intelligence since I was young. I was raised with Data on the television, realizing he wasn't a person but felt he was still an important figure. I read the Positronic Man in 5th grade, and had a lot of people around me willing to discuss the philosophical implications of a lot of hypothetical situations, including when I was growing up. And now it's something I think about because I'm reading The Naked Sun, a fantastic mystery. AI is not a new concept.

Something that has bothered me of late is the future of robotics. Not that I'm afraid of a robotic uprising. That's not necessary. Anyone who knows the three laws of robotics knows that's avoidable. It's more the future of people, and how the past can easily predict the present.

To see the problems potentially with Artificial Intelligence, you also have to see the problems that humanity experience in history. Particularly the need to find "the other", the need to find someone that is different enough. Someone that needs to "oppose" everything a community holds dear, and to use that supposed opposition to reassert their own existence and culture. This has manifested in many ways: racism, religious wars, political battles... and a lot of horrible things happen. Including creating a second-class citizen.

I'm sure that many of you are either descended from or familiar with a second-class citizen group. In America we've had a lot that trend, involving indentured servitude, slavery, accusations of unethical acts, biased laws, and other horrendous traditions. It's a habit that prevents man from ignoring his violent instincts. Not to say this is the only reason progress is stifled, but it's a huge one.

Now imagine if we had an entire race of sentient beings that can easily be programmed to be the other to hate? Something that can be programmed to not fight back if persecuted and killed?

I fear what the future will be when we do have AI abundant on earth. They'll be sentient beings that can be easily prejudiced against, and would be the only one known to have no urge to fight back. That doesn't make oppressing robots with AI right, it merely makes it easy. Considering how hard it has been to let people who fight for their rights get accepted in the mainstream , and how easy it is to fall backward after moving forward, how long would it take for a group who can't stand up for itself to be treated equally? Years? Decades? A millenia?

I think it is better for the rights of all sentient beings to respect those rights, and although this may make me a cynic, I don't think humanity would be able to do this with any AI it creates. It saddens me to say it, but the easiest solution at this point is prevention. The easiest prevention is to not develop AI.

Wow, that was a depressing essay. Something more uplifting next time, guys.

The Start of the Season... With Zombies

2010-12-04T14:21:00.000-06:00

I am on one of my chill vacations where I hang out with some my nerd friends in Central IL. Since we wouldn't see each other again before or soon after Christmas, we exchange presents.

Knowing my love for zombie-slaying, I got this as my first Christmas present last night:

A plushie boomer! It even comes with sound effects. Isn't he hideous and adorable all at once?

I named mine meatloaf. Maybe he'll make a guest appearance on the blog someday.

Hooray for RPGs in Chicago!

2010-12-02T20:25:00.000-06:00

Great news! I am now the coordinator for RPG Chicago. If you're in the area, please check it out!

In general, I suggest you RPG lovers see if there's a similar group in your area. If not, see if you can start one. It's totally worth it to bring gamers together. Good friends to run a one-shot or a campaign with are hard to find, and I'm all for making it easier. Meetup.com helps make it easier.

Learning from NaNoWriMo

2010-11-29T20:05:00.000-06:00

I'm really sad that I wasn't able to produce anything for NaNoWriMo this year. The new job at the beginning of the month definitely threw me through a loop where I couldn't really focus on my writing pursuits. But it did teach me one thing I absolutely have to do if I want to be a consistent writer.

Schedule.

Making time for writing was not something I was worried about before because I worked a job where I didn't have a lot of hours. I could just write whenever I felt like and still get a considerable amount of it done. Now that the opposite is true, I just have to work a little harder to get my writing done, especially considering the plethora of ideas that flood my head.

What's going to surprisingly help is having a job that involves prioritizing and some organizational skills. Practicing those skills on a daily basis are only going to help me organize my nerdy pursuits, which many of them involve writing. Especially this job.

I hope some of your readers were much more successful in your writing pursuits in the month of November than I was. I do know next November I will be participating in NaNoWriMo and will friggin' succeed!

Nerdify Your Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T11:28:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the one holiday that is probably the hardest to make nerdy. As much as I know who my ideal Thanksgiving would be with when it comes to nerd idols, I was thinking if there was any realistic way to have a Turkey day super nerdy. Well, I thought up some ideas, other than LARPing through your meal. Because that idea is creepy.

LASERS

This is a lot easier if you are friends with an engineer. Use lasers to cut the turkey and portion out the food. Sure, lasers are in short supply, but if you can get on you can definitely impress your family members with the precision you carve the bird.

CELEBRATE FANDOM CULTURE BRIDGES

We all know the story of the first Thanksgiving, and how the Native Americans basically saved the Pilgrams from extinction and they celebrated with food. But who says that's the only broken culture barrier we should celebrate? And not only ones from the real world (of which there is a long list) but ones from fictional universes! The Fellowship of the Ring, half the episodes of Star Trek, covenants of Requiem coming together (if that ever happens in your Vampire games)... You can find one that can be worth celebrating. Take the good from the fiction you love, and apply it to the world. How could it hurt?

FANTASY FOOTBALL

I'm not talking about the teams you make up online with your favorite players. I'm talking about making up your own league of fantasy teams comprised of elves, gnomes, orcs, or whatever crazy creatures. You could use RPGs to set up your own football game that is sure to last hours, or use an RTS to do something weird like that. The easiest thing is to play the bomb passing game on Unreal Tournament.

Do you guys have any ideas? Think it over the table today.

And a quick shout-out to all the new followers! I'm now at 70 and that just make me more motivated to keep you all entertained! We'll have to officially celebrate after the holidays.

Red Riding Hood: "Twilight" Treatment or Original Intent?

2010-11-19T09:44:00.000-06:00

I don't know why I check up on Yahoo as much as I do, since I keep my spam email there, but I do. Today over on Yahoo I found this article talking about the new movie that was thought up by Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first twilight movie. It's going to be Red Riding Hood, and the article talks about giving it the "Twilight" treatment.

But then I watched the trailer, and I thought, nay, it's just finally getting to the point of what the original story intended.

Well, here watch it with me:

My question is why is this the "Twilight" treatment? Just because Hardwicke is directing it doesn't mean that it's going to be anything like sparkly vampires.

From the trailer you get that a) there's a love story and b) there are dangerous forces. But unlike the Twilight Saga, this doesn't look like the young lady is an emotionless vessel being pursued by a creature that technically is a monster but actually is really sensitive and just wants to love. NO. You have a young woman who is in a secluded village that is being ravaged by an actual monster, a monster who actually kills people, and she's either dating the monster, betrothed to the monster, or even worse, BOTH. There is a sense of actual danger because you can't really escape that village. And the end of the trailer suggests that she's getting punished for associating with the village's enemy. That's not Twilight, that's an old myth.

The reason I think it harkens back to the original intention of the Red Riding Hood story is that in earlier tales, not only does Red Riding Hood get into the same bed as the disguised wolf, she strips down naked and burns her clothes before doing so, suggesting a sexual predator at the same time a hungry one. There are even theories that the story was a just a long metaphor for a young girl coming of age as a woman, losing her virginity and therefore her innocence.

But then why is it a children's tale? Well, not only did people become "adults" earlier in the day, but also because one of the best way to get your children to listen to you is to scare the bejesus out of them. "Don't get in bed with strangers, young lady! It will kill you!" And although that may not be the best parenting method in the world, it works.

So if the whole point of the story was to convince little girls to not get in bed with strangers (or at least strange looking grandmothers), then this new Red Riding Hood movie is taking the next logical step. Don't lie in bed with wolves, for then no one has your back. This is especially true in a setting where you're in an isolated small village who is on a hunt for the one thing that is killing them off. It's a scenario that we've seen played out in history dozens of times.

Or at least that's what I get from the trailer. I could be completely wrong and it's all about emo werewolves and their need to feel understood in a world where the odds are stacked against them. Like the new Teen Wolf show.

Let's never talk about the Teen Wolf show ever again.

Writing Plans and Fails

2010-11-17T21:36:00.000-06:00

Hey, I'm finally figuring out this schedule I have right now, and I think I'm finally getting used to it. Unfortunately, I'm not sticking to all the writing plans I had.

I'll be back to 3 to 4 posts a week soon, I promise. The last two weeks kind of hit me like a freight train. I haven't even revealed to all my co-workers just how truly nerdy I am, let alone reveal that I'm a nerd in the first place. I don't think they see it yet... maybe for the better. Anyway, thinking of nerd things has been put to the side.

I don't think I'll finish my NaNoWriMo novel, or hit the goal. I'm going to try to catch up this weekend since I have it off, but we'll see how far that takes me.

Working on the trilogy is slow too. I did make progress but I didn't finish the first book. I got around halfway.

My plan right now is to be more consistent with the blog posts, try my best to get 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo, and then start again on the trilogy in december.

Let's try it out and see what happens.