After swearing for 15 years I would never ever do it, I played Axis and Allies today. The Spousal Unit to Be set up on the extra bed in my dorm room bed once, and after about an hour of trying to parse the rules I got exasperated, sat down on the bed beside it, destroyed Asia and half of Europe, and declared victory. I wasn’t going to play that game ever ever ever. I also never have succombed to Risk or almost any other war games of the board sort. Chess and checkers notwithstanding, of course.

Anyway, my friends are over, and peer pressure does work on me on rare occasions, depending on the peers. And, darnit, of course I had a little bit of fun at it, too, after my brain stopped hurting from so many rules all at once. Sooo many rules! We stopped after about 6 hours of gameplay or so, because my attention span had enough, but maybe it wouldn’t be incredibly awful later now that I know the rules. Or… maaaaaybe I’d deign to play Risk. If Jared didn’t bring any blue decks over. I’m not promising anything though.

This is not really so much a review, as much as a recounting of lessons learned. Dragon*Con was mostly a failure, but not because the Con wasn’t cool or there wasn’t stuff to do.   I’ll try to work in what things we did see along the way, though.

Planning errors were our biggest downfall. I knew there were events in downtown Atlanta, but I was actually using this as a way to get away from college football — specifically the Alabama/Virginia Tech game. See, my brother Lauren was all about Alabama football, and he was living in Hokey territory. It was a badge of honor to him to piss off Tech fans around him. This game was something we’d been looking forward to for most of the year. So, I was glad I’d be at a convention and a baseball game, to avoid that first hard game of the season.  Yeah, guess where they played? The Georgia Dome, because that’s a natural venue for that game. But you already knew this, didn’t you? This is what I get for avoiding the news. I started seeing Virginia Tech jerseys everywhere. It was like a sledgehammer to my gut.  An emotional booby trap.

There were other issues, of course. We shouldn’t have taken the kids, or should have taken them straight to the daycare services. There were a million people there, and the kids were well behaved, but constantly on the verge of being lost or trampled. I shouldn’t have allowed us to get double booked with the ball game, because we had the bright idea of avoiding the 10 minutes a block traffic and hoofed it to Turner Stadium. We should have tattooed a map of downtown Atlanta to one of us. I mean, there were henna artists right there. They’d have done it for no more than $20.

The line was long, and we should have brought more cash to pay for tickets. That would have saved us two hours. In fact, we should have started out with cash and credit, because we finally found ourselves a parking space and it took credit.  All in all, we missed out on a hugely fun time because the expectations were too high, we didn’t plan well enough, and we kept wandering in circles and trying to keep the kids from being bored to death. Also, because I kept bursting into tears and apologising for being an angry, broken person.

I hate that I don’t have much shiny stuff to tell everyone, but I know people want to know what I saw. We went to one presentation by Lucasfilm, which was very exciting for the boys.  It highlighted the upcoming Season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the Old Republic MMORPG coming out soon. That looked really wicked.

The cosplay was colorful and varied.  For a bunch of introverts, I saw tons of skin and self-confidence.  There were steampunk, anime, comic book, period, and any other types of costumes you can think of.  There were even two Coralines that I saw.  No, we don’t have a lot of pictures.  Refer back to me trying to keep the kids from being trampled and general crowd panic.

There were some really cool vendors.  We wanted to find some dice, but there were no GameScience anywhere.  In fact, the only dice to be had were Chessex.  I wouldn’t be caught rolling those things, but they didn’t have a decent collection of dicebags, either.  That was a big disappointment.  Maybe next year I can represent GameScience, and if I learn to sew or leatherwork between then and now, I can provide those as well.  There was certainly a market for them that wasn’t filled.

There were some spectacular artists, my favorite being Kevin Dyer.   His artwork is made of cast paper, and he relies heavily on Celtic themes.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it, but I loved all the Celtic Knots and dragons and trees. I want one of everything, and a house big enough to house it along with my Ansel Adams prints that I will own one day.

OH!  I do have one encounter with someone nifty in particular.  I had to say “excuse me” because I almost bumped into this dude in a pink dress, with a white mohawk and black corset that matched his combat boots.  I think it was Malcolm McDowell, from A Clockwork Orange and Heroes.  So that did send my tummy swimming a bit.  For a few moments I was very excited.  But then Red Chief almost plowed into him and I thought the earth was going to swallow me whole, so we walked away.

Next year we’ll be much more prepared, and I’ll regale you with all sorts of stories.  If anyone else went, I’d love to know more of what happened around the Con.  I know that there were four buildings and days of events, so we missed out on a lot.  I’d love to hear about it.

Who else is going?  We’ll be there at least Saturday and Sunday. We’ve never made it before, but this summer wasn’t so hot for vacating or relaxation of any sort. It’s going to be a bit of a tight squeeze for the budget, but we’re going to make it work. We all need this.

We do have a Braves game we’re going to Saturday night, though. So we’ll miss the aquarium event, which kind of bites, but we’ll have fun anyway.  My Mom is a huge Reds fan, and the rest of my family are Braves fans. (I hate baseball, but I’m a trooper.) So, it’s a tradition to go to at least one Reds vs. Braves game every year.  There’s only one this year. It often falls on the weekend of Dragon*Con, and we see all the people dressed up in their costumes as we drive through downtown and pine for the fjords.

So are you going?  Would you like to meet up?  Let me know.   I’d love to at least be on the lookout for crazy internet people to dying to mug me in a very public, crowded venue.  Plus, there’s gonna be Felicia Day, Bill Shatner, and Patrick Stewart!   And others!  Go look!

Yes, it’s up and running.  Chris finalized the first blog post last night.  The forums are there too, but they haven’t seen much action just yet. Chris has introduced the Player Characters involved in our current roleplaying campaign.  I know he’d enjoy feedback as to what you’re interested in reading about, and how you feel he misrepresented your characters’ true natures.

Head over there and be one of those rare people who will be able to say, “Oh, I’ve been following Kuralia since Chris made his first blog post, back in 2009.”

Since I wrote yesterday’s post about the Society for Geek Advancement during the commercials of Big Bang Theory, the video I showed you yesterday has circulated throughout the world and stirred up a lot of drama.  The comments made here reflect the conversation that seems to be going on all over the internet.  Wil Wheaton started out ranting on twitter, and quickly moved to his blog.  His post regarding the difference between embracing and exploiting geek culture, seeks to address his discomfort at being associated with the finished video:

Having someone in a video that purports to celebrate our geek culture say that they don’t play D&D, like playing an RPG is something to be ashamed of, is profoundly offensive to me, because I play D&D. In fact, it’s the chief reason I am a geek. D&D isn’t anything to be ashamed of, it’s awesome. I don’t recall seeing that in the script I was given, and if I had, I never would have agreed to be part of this project.

I loved the idea of creating a video that celebrates our culture and shows that we’re proud to be in it. That’s what I thought this would be, but I feel like we ended up with some kind of self-promoting internet marketing thing that plays right into established stereotypes, and hopes that The Cool Kids will let us hang out with them.

I am a geek. I have been all my life, and I know that those guys are nothing like me and my friends. If we’re going to celebrate and embrace geek culture, we should have geeks leading the effort, not popular kids who are pretending to be geeks because it’s the easy way to get attention during the current 15 minute window.

I’ll admit, even though I enjoyed the video, that bit rubbed me the wrong way.  And I did cut out a snarky sentence that my proofreader commented on wherein I had been a bit judgmental about the poseurs.  Certainly, I don’t want to be a hypocrite, implying that newcomers aren’t welcome.  I gladly cut it out, because my overall joy overshadowed the rough edge of jade that tried to poke through.

Maybe I really am a hypocrite, though.  I know I tend to dichotomize nerd from geek.  My husband and I have discussed this many times, because he isn’t a nerd, and I’m not really a geek.  The difference would be simply picking nits to most people, and clearly the two groups are fairly fluid socially.   He was on the football team in high school, which is auto-disqualification for nerd.  “Nerd” is a badge you have to earn.  Nerds put in some hard time learning to accept who they are, and choosing to stay true to themselves.  As an example, I remember breaking the curve on many math tests.  My teacher even made a point of it, holding up my test as proof that she had taught everyone the material adequately.  That history of mortification and social stigma doesn’t just appear with a lot of gadgets and a lot of followers on twitter. So, if someone had made that exact same video, but claiming all those people were “nerds,” I know I’d have been rubbed the wrong way.  But mostly this video was about techy people, and I don’t identify as strongly with that label.

Of course everyone knows that MC Hammer and Shaq aren’t real geeks! The geeks know it, the cool kids know it, and they know it.  But if they want to play in our sandbox, then a lot of cool things can happen.  Maybe they’ll learn from a new point of view and quit stigmatizing some of the very people that make the world go round.  Social media, and things that were previously “geeky” and bringing them into the mainstream really helps us all out, doesn’t it?  That’s part of why I like Big Bang Theory, because yes, the guys are quirky and socially awkward, but they’re also awesome!  Geek culture isn’t ever going to genuinely be co-opted by the mainstream.  I do think it’s actually pretty awesome that for the moment, being a geek is a badge of honor.  To see some of the cool kids trying to jump on the geek bandwagon just tickles me.

Looky what I got!  Isn’t it awesome?  Some friends of mine went to a small anime convention and immediately thought of me when they saw it.  So they bought it!  I love surprises. In addition to the obvious, this was a nod to my half-orc, XaXa.  A couple of their characters lust after XaXa mightily, green skin or not.  I don’t blame them.  She is pretty hot.

She's green? That'll do!

I’m wearing it right now, to get me into the gaming frame of mind.  But really, it’s just serving as a reminder to me that the Star Trek movie is out and I haven’t seen it yet!   It looks like I may have to wait a little bit, too.  Unless… oh!  Maybe I can convince my mom that she would really like to go see that with me for Mother’s Day! Yeah, I think I’ve got a shot at that.   She did take me to see every single Star Trek movie out there while I was growing up, and taught me that we were “Trekkies, honey, never Trekkers.”

Have a great weekend everyone, and please don’t forget your moms.  Live long and prosper!

FINALLY, I am finished with my six weeks 100 pushups challenge!  Yes, it did take me roughly six months.  Since I started out unable to even do one, I did the program with “girly” pushups, where you put your weight on your knees.  When I wrote about it in March, I was on week 3.  I’ve had a couple of set backs since then, most notably banging the heck out of my knee so that I could not put weight on it at all for two weeks.  I did a couple of weeks twice.  But I’m finished!  I did all 100 today!  On pushup 11 or so, my left shoulder twinged a bit, and I thought some bad thoughts that today wouldn’t be the day; I could stop at 50.  I pushed through, though.  I rock my face off!

Also today, Apollo‘s comment calling himself an idiot was my 100th on this blog.  I’m pretty sure he’s not an idiot, but still, that’s just too cool.  Thanks for all the conversation, everyone!  Y’all are great!  And I’m definitely all sorts of awesome myself!  Let’s go take on the world!  RAWR!!

Today I read a Paste Magazine interview with Felicia Day.  She is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses. She’s unconventional — beautiful, smart, witty and has gorgeous eyes and red hair!  Yay!  She’s a gamer nerd chick, with smooth pale luminescent skin glowing from lack of pigment and too much computer time.  She’s got freckles!  She was born in Huntsville.  She was home schooled and then went on to college and double majored in mathematics and violin performance.  After she graduated, she moved to California… to become an actress.  What’s not to love?

Felicia has been here and there, most recognizably playing Vi on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But I became really familiar with her through her online work, particularly Penny in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Dr. Horrible is Joss Whedon’s hilarious and wonderful online musical, created during the writer’s strike last year.  Did you ever see the Buffy musical episode?  Dr. Horrible is definitely a close relative.  It chronicles a young hopeful’s rise to stardom in the world of super villains.  It’s only 43 minutes all told. I was a  big evangelist when the episodes originally debuted.  I’ve memorized it by now, because I have watched it at least a dozen times.

As I began researching the actress who played the lovely Penny, I discovered that Felicia Day actually was brought to Dr. Horrible largely because of her experience with her own online project, The Guild. The first season of The Guild was very easy to find Youtube.  I immediately watched them all, enjoying the instant gratification. Before you click “play,” I should warn you there is some strong language.

There, the first one’s free. Actually all of them are. Just travel over to the Guild’s website.  There are only two seasons so far, so catching up won’t be hard.  It’s very different than Dr. Horrible, which created for mass appeal.  Obviously, it’s very much a niche oriented video, with jokes geared toward online gamers.  World of Warcraft players will especially enjoy it.

Felicia had tried to sell The Guild as a more traditional show, but it was too much of a niche market.  Too many people didn’t understand the jokes.  So she turned to where the audience that would appreciate her work hangs out all day every day, and began making Youtube shorts.  By the end of the first season, the donations that were pouring in actually made it possible to pay the actors.  For the second season, after much wooing from many angles, the perfect solution to return to her pet project and actually make money while retaining her creative autonomy.  From the Paste interview:

Then, Xbox and Microsoft came in and were like, “We love the show, we want you to do what you do with it, we just want to help you produce it and make it and roll it out really fast.” They created a revolutionary business model, because not only did they get a sponsor on board, but they distributed it over all the Microsoft platforms so you can download it for free off of Xbox live and HD which is basically like downloading a TV show. So our little independent, shot-in-my-shed show is essentially one click away from 30 Rock.

How cool is that?  She had the idea for a nifty show about gaming, got rejected everywhere, and decided to go ahead and do it.  And now she’s enjoying incredible success by turning a small independent venture into something that is reaching the whole world because niche marketing actually works so well on the internet.  Joss Whedon was right to seek her simply for her skills as an internet guru for Dr. Horrible.  The fact that she can actually sing and act was simply a bonus.

A while back, I was thinking of putting up a summary of what’s happened so far in the Friday night D&D game.  Then every Saturday or so, I’d put up a post-game summary.  It works for some other blogs I’ve read. I know a few of you quiet ones out there are wondering what’s going on with this, so I thought I’d update you real quick.

Last Friday, Newby joined the group.  He made himself a character, and Chris threw him into the thick of the action.  When he encountered us, we had to sum up the story so far.  This part of game night took roughly 5 hours!  There were 4 players plus the DM giving information, and I know that poor Newby’s head had to be overflowing by the end of it.  We closed up with me promising to compile the information in a readable narrative.  My overwhelming thought was, No wonder I’ve been procrastinating on this. This is going to be one heck of a long write.

After some discussion with the players and Chris, we’ve all come to the conclusion that the DM needs to take a heavy part in writing this novella. Here’s how it’s probably going to work.  Chris has a website parked for the purpose of his game world, anyway.  We’re not sure what format it’s going to take, but the game summary to date is going to go on his page.  We’re going to update it, probably in blog format, together.  Comments will be open for all, especially the players to discuss and replay their favorite battle scenes. We may have sections on Kuralia’s boards to talk about it, and we might even have other guest bloggers.

I’m much more comfortable with this decision.  It was going to take a good week of writing to get everyone up to date.  The flow was also off to have an ongoing narrative every Saturday, broken up by my climbing on soapboxes or squeeing about books or whatever it is I’m doing here.  Although I love talking gaming, and several people were very enthusiastic about having a written record of our mayhem out there, it just felt wrong for me to be doing all the writing and then putting it on this blog.

There will be an announcement and updates to let you all know when it’s starting to get up and running.  Currently there’s no real timeline, so don’t hold your breath.

(If you don’t know Killa, this won’t make much sense.  He’s one of my RS buds who is going through an awful time right now.  I don’t know all the details, but even if I did, they’re not mine to tell.  I’m simply making a place where everyone can send out their good vibes to him.)

Killa Str25, you’re one of the good ones.   We hate that you’re going through this right now.   Knowing you has made my life better, even if it is just pixels in an online game where you pretend to be an adventurer.   You’ve always been positive and kind.  People can really be jerks when they have a computer screen to hide their real face.  But even when you were in a foul mood, and someone was trying to piss you off, you always seem to try your hardest to just turn around and walk away rather than be nasty.  You’ve got a lot of heart and I know your family loves you a lot.  The RuneScape community can’t do a whole lot for you right now, but at least we can send you some love.