#speakgeek – do you? (original poetry)

I’ve been tossing around my ideas for writing for Speak out with your Geek out.

And honestly, the only thing that comes to mind? poetry. Which is, in all fairness, fairly geeky to me. And since it’s been a while since I posted a freeverse… I’m just riffing on a bunch of things I’ve been told over the years, stereotype or otherwise. And it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. But hey… sometimes that’s me too.

~

Say What?

You laugh and say I live in a world
of fantasy and I ask you what is more
realistic – a land of elves and fairies
or a land where people say one thing

and do another. Which is more honest?
Me, pretending to be an armless fairy
in a game or you, telling your girlfriend
you love her via phone while you roll your

eyes? Yes, I wear big glasses. Yes, I’m
clumsy. I’m not a barbie doll – think more
50s era girl with a different mentality
about many, many things. Like it’s -really-

awesome for girls to play video games.
(I’m fairly sure the game companies have this
figured out – I don’t see too many guys
running around with pink 360 controllers and

rose coloured DSes. Okay, I fit that stereotype.
Sue me. I love pink.) Yes, dear, I DID play
Counterstrike on PC. Dirty rotten camper?
(de_dust and cs_office were my faves)

Oh, I can’t possibly care what’s under the hood?
Did you know my dream car is a 67 Shelby?
Did you know I HAVE a dream car? A girl can’t watch auto
racing? and like sports? Pardon me, I need to laugh.

After all, no girl could sit through game
after game after game week in and out
and care beyond “omg, they look good in their
uniforms.” (That’s just an added bonus!)

Please note my sarcasm on the topic. Would
you care to comment on the state of the financial
situation of the club? or perhaps on the
fluidity of the defense in the latest match?

Switching topics – yes, I know all the words
to the songs I’m hearing. yes, I may have
sold merch before. Once or dozens of times.
Did you just seriously ask if I fuck them?

Honey, i work with the bands, not on them.
Not everyone is a stereotype. Many of us ignored
“you can’t” and went straight to “watch me do this”
because of people like you ….

Maybe one day, they’ll make the molds
out of us instead of trying to fit us
into them. Who knows? In the meantime,
care to play a game?

~

Please note.. this is just me sitting here, rambling about things I swear I’ve heard in the past 5 or so years off and on. Not PC, it just is what it is. If you’re offended by it, I don’t mean to offend anyone. But I hope that it makes people realize that it doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a guy, you can be interested and love and, in fact, geek out, over virtually anything.

And it’s okay. In my world, at least, it’s encouraged. I encourage anyone who read this, even if you think the poem was awful, to be yourself. It’s always best to be yourself. It’s never any good to be anyone else.

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Fan Day 20: @GodsandHeroes : Rome Rising

I’ve played one MMO in my entire lifetime – Final Fantasy XI since 2004. In that time, I’ve seen the game develop, age, mature, the players demature/become more immature, etc. I am still contemplating a post about it for this month’s theme.

Back in 07/08, a friend of mine from FFXI told me about a game she was working on. It was set in Medieval Rome. Okay, that’s all she really needed to say, because being the history nut I am, I wanted to join.

Fast forward a bit, and the project goes away. My friend is out of a job. Which sucks. Sucks more for her, and I can’t lie that I was a bit disappointed that the game wasn’t coming out. I promptly just chalked it up to crappy circumstances.

Then in late fall last year, I got an email about this game that sounded REALLY REALLY FAMILIAR. Holy crap, it’s the same game. Well.. different company, but same game, within reason. And I joined immediately as a Closed Beta tester.

I wasn’t able to play a lot, but whenever I was, I really enjoyed it. Sure, there were bugs, but that’s what I expect in a beta. It was a lot of fun to be able to just run around, pet cats, and stare at the beautiful graphics within the game. (seriously, I kept forgetting to level because the game was just so PRETTY.)

They changed the way Beta went down, and I was able to enter a haiku contest on Facebook and get an unlimited CB key to play all the time. Which was nice, since my playtime was pretty erratic.

Towards the end of February, they were offering up a chance to go down, visit the new Game Developer, and cover the game for a magazine. Well.. Hi. I like to write. I like video games. So I entered the contest and promptly forgot about it (see a trend?). I didn’t expect to win – no one expects to win, really – and I continued playing the game.

Time passed, and in the middle of April, I got an email saying “Congrats! You won. No. Really. You won. We’ll set up the trip.” I shot out of my chair like a rocket and went screaming through the house.

(I wrote a blog post about my randomly winning contests a while back)

In May, I went down to Austin for the first time in years (last time I was back was for SXSW, which is a whole other entity). And, quite literally, I met some of the coolest people out there currently that are making video games if not some of the coolest people -ever-. I felt like I was really shown everything about the game – they let me sit in on meetings, I got to ask questions about EVERYTHING I wanted to (from the inane – cats – to certain statistics that will be coming out in my piece forthcoming), I got to go to team Happy Hour(s), eat a ton of good food (more sweet potato fries please), and just really, seriously, had a great experience, which wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t such awesome people.

I wrote up my story (which should come out soon, and of course I will have a link when it finally comes out) about my experiences, about meeting the amazing staff of Heatwave Interactive, and, quite honestly, how excited I was to play this game when it finally released. I haven’t been -this excited- for a video game in years. (Despite loving video games, I don’t really play a lot of them and I don’t own a lot of them. Owning a lot of games = quite a bit of money that I don’t have.)

I pre-ordered it, have played open beta, headstart and..

Today the game comes out.

So if you’re at all interested in playing a game where the staff cares enough to treat you like a human being, take your suggestions into account, and hey – the CEO himself apologizes when the servers are down – come on, when’s the last time you saw a game company (or hell, most companies) give this kind of service?

I guess you could call me a fangirl at this point of this game, but having met a lot of the staff, I really believe in these guys. They have the capability to do amazing things, and this is just the first of many projects for this amazing team, I’m sure of it. As much as I love this game, I have fun playing it, and it is a blast, I love knowing that if something messes up that it will be fixed. I’m willing to do whatever it takes for them to help them succeed. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way about a company. It’s something that I’ll never forget – their kindness, generosity, and open door policy has been something that I feel sets them apart from the rest. It’s well worth the $50 + whatever kind of subscription fee plan you choose to support a company like this so they can continue to knock it out of the park.

I hope to see you all in game! I’m on the Bacchus server currently. Let me know if you sign up! You can buy it from Amazon, Gamestop, Steam, D2D, and many other retailers.

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NaBloPoMo for June – FAN!

This came across my email a few days ago, and I think this has a lot of potential to me. Not that I don’t have a ton to write about already, but sometimes I need to not feel pressured to make something “absolutely amazing and stellar.”

~

A message to all members of NaBloPoMo

Hi bloggers,

June’s theme for daily blogging: FAN. There are the physical ones, the symbol of summer in the northern hemisphere. I’m sitting across from one right now, and it’s cooling down the room. There are the handheld ones that women demurely shake in front of their face. There are the human ones — the fans we see at sporting events or the fans we see in our comment section. There are the times it comes tucked into a word… such as “fantastic.”

~

So, 30 days of things I’m a fan of. You ready for this? Some of them will startle you.

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Next stop Chicago! @animecentral, @YoshikiOfficial, @msichicago…

If all goes to plan, this will go to post as I am waiting in the airport waiting to go to Chicago.

I get to see my friend Jen, who I don’t think I’ve seen in at least 9 years. I get to meet my friend Sarah who I have known for several. I HOPEFULLY will get to meet my friend Drew, his wife, and newborn daughter after… years and years, we’ve known each other via Dave Matthews and Warehouse.

Wednesday night I get to go embarrass myself while playing Rock Band at Jen’s work.

I get to go to Gameworks for my birthday night. (any friends reading this in or near Chicago, drop me a line! You’re invited!) Yes, I turn 31 on May 19. Send me birthday wishes? =D Yes, I’m odd about it. I’m weird. I approach birthdays with both dread and happiness. One year closer to the unknown, but one year more I have lived.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are Anime Central/Acen. Friday Jen and I are cosplaying Femme!Ten for her and “Tooth and Claw” Rose for me. Saturday I am playing Miwako from Paradise Kiss and she is cosplaying Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle. I also am on the Final Fantasy MMORPG panel from 7-9 in Salon 1. Come. I’ll pelt gum at you. I will also most definitely be attending the Yoshiki Q&A, I am not a fan of every crazy Japanese band out there, but I really admire and respect Yoshiki and in a bit of a fangirl moment, yay he follows me on Twitter too! Sunday I am cosplaying Luna Lovegood and Jen is portraying her Gryffindor side.

Monday and Tuesday will be spent roaming around the Museum of Science and Industry, which I am unbeLIEVABLY incredibly insanely psyched about, and if all goes well, Tuesday night I will finally be seeing the Cubs and fulfilling a promise I made as a 9 year old to a man who made me learn all about, and love, the Cubs for life. If we do get to go, Elmore, you’re right there with us, and I promise I will try to catch a ball if it comes my way, just like I said I would!

Then I come home Wednesday, unpack, and start cleaning my room that’s been a disaster after school, moving things around, and starting to list things on eBay and look for a job, not to mention working on my taking over the world plan with Annette the Awesome (this is her official title now, even though she doesn’t know it), and hopefully getting my plans for LA taken care of. Not to mention writing my article for Massively about my Gods and Heroes trip, as well as writing more stories for Aerys Sports Soccer

It’s a good thing I love writing, because I have an awful lot of it to do.

In other things, I’ve managed to pare my girly type items (makeup, nail polish) down to over half gone of what I had a year ago, and I have a lot to sell. I need to sell quite a bit (or trade for things that I will use), it’s the same with bath and body stuff… after going on a no buy on January 1, aside from things I have been 100% out of, I have not bought anything new, and found that my drawer and shelf space is increasing at a fairly good clip! It makes me happy. It makes me sad when I need to buy something!

I have lots of blog posts to make… still some NAB reviews…. still all about my trip to Austin.. so many other things. But right now, I keep on keeping on. School went well. I didn’t flunk anything. I improved most of my classes. In July I get my packet to get my work study, so I will have at least one job throughout next semester. I have no idea what comes in 6 months, and while it’s somewhat terrifying, right now, my brain just says “enjoy what you have now. The rest will come”.

So I am… and I’m leaving on a jet plane. Be back in a week!

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music videos at midnight, ruminating

I keep thinking of all these random videos that are songs that are a bit of how I feel right now. I was posting them to Facebook, then I realized they’d be a better post here.

School is over. I did.. reasonably well. a 3.0 at the worst, and some bad grades are better. I didn’t flunk anything, and I survived. I even got an A in a class that I wasn’t sure if I could, so that makes me very happy. (Plus, that teacher won Educator of the Year.. as well he should. He was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in my life. That list is now 4, not 3 – my 2nd grade teacher, my high school English teacher, my forensics/speech coach from HCC who taught me that it’s okay to overcome my stutter and I really could memorize speeches, and now him.) So, parabéns to him. Very sad I can’t take another class from him next semester, too.

Austin was an amazing trip. I can’t wait to write up another post about it, as well as work on the article for Massively. As well as anything else that might come up.. But that’s another blog post when I’m not so tired.

Chicago is Wednesday. Oh dear.

I promised videos, so here they are. Look up the lyrics if you can’t figure them out… I love being able to be thoroughly cryptic. Thoroughly.

Matt Nathanson – Car Crash

The Frames – Pavement Tune

Angie Aparo – Hush (I was at this show.)

Virginia Coalition – Mason Dixon (I was at this show, too.)

Agents of Good Roots – Come On (Let Your Blood Come Alive)

Carbon Leaf – Under The Wire

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Estates on @GodsandHeroes Developer Video!

This is, by far and away, the #1 thing I’ve heard these past couple days down at Heatwave, the maker of Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising.

Estates. They are new, they are different, and they look like they are going to be completely wicked. Absolutely a minigame within a game, but I really, really, really can’t wait for the new patch when these get released.

Because hey, nothing says “pissed off demigod” than someone whose house is razed because of some crazies. And we all know how well that revenge anger works.

Now, how big can I make my guard towers again, guys? Guys? uh.. why are you staring at me…. *hides*

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