I Did It!

I have a lot to update on, but I spent November really focusing on finishing my novel for NaNo and I did it!!

Now I just have to edit it!

Winning just means that you wrote a whole novel of at least 50,000 words over the course of November. I feel really good about myself after feeling really low for a long while due to feeling like I'd lost my identity because of poor health.

Well NaNo, going to see some concerts and talking to my husband about it has helped turn things around for me. I feel much happier and more like my old self. I can't believe it!

Skyrim Release Party

I've been working incredibly hard on my NaNoWriMo novel and am well ahead of the scheduled word count with 28,081 words down out of 50,000 required to win the event.

However, it's not been all hard work (i.e. laying on my couch with a laptop and an electric blanket for my joints).

Thursday evening I went to my local game store and I ran a custom D20 based game that I developed along the storyline used in the game Skyrim.

That's the skeleton of a Beholder on my t-shirt. Ever had a DM who looked like me?

We reached our local mall at closing time with a bag of miniatures, a map that I had created, and characters that I pre-generated for the event.  Also present for the release of Skyrim was a group of local LARPers (Live Action Roleplayers). This group uses foam weapons and sometimes real armor (or just padded armor) to stage medieval style fights.  They were very cool to speak with.

Even though the game wouldn't be released until 12:01 A.M. by the time we arrived at 9:15 there were already thirty or forty people waiting.  As the night wore on over 400 people were collected in the mall in a massive, snaking line waiting for the game to come out.  Luckily a ticketing system kept everyone in a set order.

To pass the wait with fun the LARPers and I had been asked to entertain the crowd by the woman who was managing the event.  I hadn't run a game in a few years, but I quickly got into once I found some willing players.

Once they got to the end of the session they had to fight this big dragon!

That's the custom map that I made using an image of snowy terrain that I added hexes to demarcate feet of space that the players minis needed to navigate. Having minis isn't necessary with table-top RPGs but it does make it easier for the players to make tactical decisions when they can literally see what I see in my mind (and may or may not successfully communicate).

Well all in all it was a fun night. I had a great time being a DM. I got a couple of free posters in exchange for my effort and got to meet some cool people.  It was a festive atmosphere.

It turns out Skyrim is an excellent game and very immersive. I found the beginning to be a bit scary because of the total immersion into the world.

The next day I woke up in pretty intense pain from standing and sitting over the course of the three hours we were there.  This is the price I always pay for events, whether they are great fun or awful.  This is why I can't work and have to be selective about what I do for fun.  Still totally worth it!

NaNoWriMo and Skyrim

Most of my regular gaming is on hold this month as I work on completing a novel for National Novel Writing Month.  When it's done this will be the fourth novel I've written, but I think it's the only one I'm going to try to publish.  The other three are a combination of historical/fantasy and are too settings/plot driven to the detriment of the characters and dialogue.  It's taken me a long time to write good dialogue and I'm challenging myself to write a story in a contemporary setting that is character driven.  The novel is a horror novel about a metal band led by a young woman.

That said I continue to meet with table-top group to play a quick Pathfinder (a game like Dungeons and Dragons) run once a week.  Completely on hold are the games I've been playing Rift, LoL, and Dragon Quest IX on my DS. 

This Thursday, however, I'll be in line at my local game store waiting to pick up my copy of Skyrim! The local manager asked me to run an hour long DnD game that has the players fighting a dragon. She told me she'd set up a table and hopes to have other games running during the wait.  This is a challenge, but I'm going to do it! I already know what the story will be and now I just need to tweak some rules to make it easy for people that may have never played before. I haven't GMed a game since Vampire four years ago, but I'm excited.

Skyrim is also exciting for me because I always buy and support games in which you can play as a female character.

Geographic Dissonance

I've been feeling incredibly down this past week from the flu to my sick cat to realizing a few things about my life that I had been good at ignoring.

Over four years ago we moved hundreds of miles away from where we were living for Dustin to attend a university for the first time in his life.  He had spent several years working as a tile contractor and his body was already telling him it was time to find a desk job.  I decided to go for a second degree and the years we spent here have proven life saving as when I got really sick the only insurance I had was my student plan.

Yet we were both immediately miserable.  Dustin had been in metal bands for the majority of his adult life and there was no scene in our new area to enjoy.  We couldn't meet new friends because the area attracts people with children, hunters and fishermen, preps, and hippies.  There wasn't much of a place for two goth kids in all black, but we did our best to find a group to hang out with.  Eventually I started table-top gaming again and met a few people through that.

Being back north in the area with our old friends, Dustin's old bandmates and hanging out was wonderful.  I'd gotten used to just not socializing over the past couple of years, due in part to my illness and surgeries, but also due to the nature of a transient college population.  To make matters worse compared to where we live now where we are from is a mecca of gluten-free vegan food with restaurants I can actually eat at without fearing illness. Here this is not the case. I got so sick after eating what was supposed to be a safe meal that I ended up in the hospital for three days and even the staff at the hospital somehow didn't know what Celiac's or a wheat allergy meant (I have both).

I'm not the most social person in the world, but I feel fed up.  I want someone who will watch creepy shows with me, go ghost hunting, play a video game even it's just a few times a month. I want to eat at a restaurant, even if our tight budget means it's just once a month or less. Don't get me started about live music! Somehow going to a noisy metal show actually relieves pain in my body.  While I like alternative bluegrass and have gone to some shows here the music doesn't affect my body the same way.  I have a lot of sensory processing issues that tie into this.

Dustin should be done with school by Christmas 2012, but I want to move next summer.  I keep hoping he'll be able to finish his classes online.  I hate living here.  I've never had so many seasonal allergies and problems with the rapidly switching weather (from freezing to hot in two days!).

Sick!

I have not been blogging this week because I came down with the Flu.  One of my cats also became ill and we had to take her to the vet.  Luckily we are both slowly getting better, but I still feel pretty awful.

Thankfully I've been able to summon the energy to lay on the couch and work on NaNoWriMo.  Every November people who would like to try to write a 50,000 word novel in a month get together and get to work! My profile can be found here.

Last Costume!

Monday night we went out for vegan sushi (avocado and seaweed yum!).  We wore our costumes. Our friend and neighbor made a cool steampunk Alice in Wonderland dress for herself, but I won't post her photo since I'm not sure she'd want me to do it.

I dressed up as an alchemist/witch.  I played an alchemist in Pathfinder, a game system that is similar to Dungeons and Dragons. 

 Alchemist garter belt that I got at a pirate faire. Bloomers from Etsy and my skull dice bag made a nice pouch .

 Here you can see my rings and a full size picture of the whole outfit next to the big, carved wooden dragon that the sushi place has in their foyer.  It was a fun time. 

Halloween or Samhain is the anniversary of Dustin asking me to marry him in 2008!  We were at a metal show and he proposed and gave me a black pearl ring.  I no longer wear the ring because my joints swell randomly and one ring is all I can do on any finger, sometimes no ring at all.  Anyhow, he surprised me by bringing home a soy latte for me and delivered it to me in bed!  Espresso is romance to me.

Alice Madness Returns

On the second night of our Halloween weekend (which I am now paying for in pain) we attended a party hosted by my friend who was my maid of honor and dressmaker for our gothy wedding.  She's the manager of a video game store and some of her employees were there in video game costumes. I wore one too!

 

I'm in an Alice Madness Returns costume. I love the Xbox 360 game and the original game, American McGee's Alice.  The game is based on Alice in Wonderland and your get to play as Alice and use such awesome weapons as a pepper mill gun.  Basically any game that comes out with a female lead or the option of playing a female character I buy. 

Here's the character from the game. I think I make a good Alice and one of my middle names is Alice, so...

Vampire Halloween

Typically I dress in all black, but for Halloween I decided to dress up as a sort of vampire doll in all white. The veneers are flexible dental veneers that I got from Vampfangs.com and even though they come with a custom mold maker I decided it would be easier and less toxic to buy dye/additive free denture paste and stick them in with that. This proved to work out well and after a few hours with them in I got used to talking and sipping a vodka tonic with my new teeth.

The wig is from a cosplay site on Ebay and was shipped from Hong Kong (my favorite city in the world!).  The choker used to belong to a friend but she gave it to me. I happened to have it in my bag and decided it just added the right touch.

Here's the full dress. The lighting wasn't great at the tavern we went to, but the dress is an Elegant Gothic Lolita one-piece or OP from Bodyline. I love the EGL subculture, but I rarely wear my dresses because of my pain levels. Usually I think, oh blah I hurt too much to wear a dress, but it was actually
surprisingly fine.

The bands that played included one of our friend's who my husband used to be in a metal band with.  The other band that played was one of the bands that played at our wedding. They are so amazing and such kind men.  While their music sounds really brutal and loud it is their way of coping with issues like depression and even for one of them chronic illness. I can relate to that.  


All in all it was a wonderful night. The tavern had padded bar stools circa 1985 that were in great shape and very comfortable. I even did a bit of dancing. Loud music distracts me from how I feel physically and I love that!  Hubby was a black and white Mad Hatter. He looked great!

Tonight we are going to a friend's house for Halloween party number two!  I have a different costume for tonight!

Halloween & Gaming

Now let me follow up that previous post with how pop culture gets women right, in my opinion.  I've been trying to celebrate Halloween all month because I absolutely adore it.  Everyday I've done something seasonal from decorating to crafting to watching paranormal or Halloween themed videos.

I also picked up a new game! Emily the Strange: Strangerous.  Emily the Strange is an awesome figure to me. She's a small girl whose main message is "No, Leave me Alone" and spends her time with her cats.  Yes, she exists entirely as a commercial mascot, but in a sea of very shitty views on girlhood I find her refreshing.  I wish she'd existed when I was a girl and maybe I wouldn't have mistakenly thought I was a boy my entire childhood (internalized misogyny, boo).

So, how does her game stack up? I started playing it this morning and got through a few puzzles.  Here are my initial thoughts.

Graphics: Excellent.  The graphics push the DS display quite far.  They are all black and white with a touch of red.  This game is really a piece of art in the best sense.

Playability: Fair.  Puzzle games are not my typical choice in gaming.  The puzzles are decent, but do not have enough instructions.  The print is very tiny!  However, moving Emily around is easy and solving the puzzles is enjoyable.  I would like more of a reward than the success graphic, however.

Here's an example of one of the puzzles.  In this you put oddly shaped puzzle pieces together.  As you can see the black and white graphics lend a bit more of a challenge, but the limited playing surface also makes it a bit harder.

The puzzles include mazes, lock-picking, and visual identification so far. 


CONCLUSION: I like the game and will keep it playing it.

Women are Not a Commodity/Resource

Yes, in between posts about my hobbies and fashion exist posts like this one that focus on the things that really matter.  The more frivolous posts are not frivolous to me because they are my stress-relief/coping mechanism to deal with the harshness of reality. I believe in doing what I can to help change and also preserving my fragile mind (don't ask, too much trauma throughout my life).

So, with that in mind let's discuss the "Shortage of Women" articles that pop up all over.  Female infanticide has been an issue for a long time and infanticide in general has been a widespread practice throughout human history. 

Sex selective abortion targets the female fetus and results in skewed populations. I saw this in practice when I lived in Asia for a year.  There was an orphanage a short bus ride from my apartment and it was filled with floor after floor of girl babies and slightly older children.  Once a week I'd go there to volunteer which mostly consisted of giving the babies much needed attention.

What I find troubling is that EVERY article online that I've read so far has focused on the issue much the way one might write about over-grazing or dwindling fishing.  The issue is seen as one of men not being able to find wives and having to "import" women from other countries.  Writers tackle this horrifying problem from a heteronormative and very male perspective.  You can see this in articles like this one from Jezebel.

I don't think I need to say more.

Blood Dripping Manicure

 

Well a bloody manicure is as good as any other topic to start off this new blog.  How many other blogs of mine lay dormant and dying around the internet? Well, probably as many as the defunct websites that I've built over the years. Practice makes perfect!

Back to the topic "at hand". The manicure I gave myself, of course. This isn't the first time I've tried this look. I was inspired by the Lady of the Manners over at Gothic Charm School.

Last night was general Goth maintenance night. I added black dye over the older pink dye in my hair and even worked on stretching my ears. (Must get to 0g).  

Today was a great day. I was treated by my beautiful Metal Geeky husband to a soy latte and then bought myself a copy of the Emily the Strange DS game. I'll review it soon! Our trip to the nearby town to shop was wonderful accompanied by the cold and gentle rain. After returning home I had some gluten-free vegan chili for a late lunch and a glass of Witches Brew spiced wine.

Now as the night settles in I'm giving Vampire Diaries a chance on Netflix and trying to relax before bed.

Not bad for a first post.