Orion has decided that it is bedtime

But I am up reading the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property as I lost time the last two days trying to figure out this computer virus. 

I don't mind that I'm reading this.  i love cultural resource law. That's my THANG.  However, when my purring kitty with no belly fur and two unremoved stitches burrows under the blankets (I'm reading in bed) and curls up against my thigh, I feel guilty for keeping her up.  It just seems like it is *now* bedtime.

Neci, on the other hand, has decided that her time is best spent leaping from the edge of the bed onto my new purse that crackles so delightfully because it's made of laminated fabric.

Books and cats and fair-haired little girls make the best furnishing for a room. - French Proverb

Those that dislike cats will be carried to the cemetery in the rain. - Dutch Proverb

browser hijacked....

so i'm dealing with a browser hijacking.

i've run mcafree and adaware from my main account and thought it was ok...

i ran mcafree from safe mode.

now i can't sign into my main account...

::le sigh::

gendered rpg frustration

Rarely is the RPG world viewed as aimed toward females.  Think of a group of Dungeon and Dragon players, and most likely it's all males, maybe a female tagging along.  How about online RPGs like World of Warcraft?  There seems to be a larger female presence, but how many of the females are really males who want to play a female for any number of reasons.  Also, the female characters seem to be extremely sexualized, suggesting that their purpose is eyecandy/fanservice to heteronormative males.

 

Do your thoughts accurately reflect the demographics of RPG players, though?  Most likely not entirely. 

 

(Disclaimer: I've only played four Dungeons and Dragons games.  All have been with Morgan, all have been with Living Forgotten Realms through RPGA.)

 

For example, Morgan ran a game on Saturday.  Present were: Morgan (the DM), three other males, myself, Beth, and Mandy.  Half of the playing population were female.  We all played characters that corresponded with our IDed gender, so I won't touch upon that.

 

The story: we wander into town and see a crowd harassing a female and claiming she's a witch.  Our main goal is to rescue her.  Once we do, we need to see her safely to her uncle in another village.

 

So basically, we remove a victimized female and release her to another form of patriarchy.

 

The previous game's story:  We wander into a town and find a funeral.  The funeree was murdered, clues lead us to a group of citizens.  The only one still in town is a milkmaid (and girlfriend of another in questioned group) who implores to us to only bring her bf back before breaking down in tears.  When we get to the end, we find that the other woman of the group that ran away was actually abducted and is presently in the middle of a difficult birth.

 

Once again, the vicimization of females.  None are able to actually control their own life or act autonomously and only care about their "female role" as partner and mother.

 

Another story involved adrogynous pixies leading us to a dieing psuedo-magical woman, too sick to care for her cave which now has MONSTERS RAWR! But we take care of the monsters and give her a peaceful death.

 

Again, the only female depicted is powerless.

 

Yet another involved only monsters.

 

So three out of four stories I've played were about damsels in distress.  None contained even a single strong female figure.  All stories are led by males, all evil people are males.

 

I say to Morgan: "I'm tired of females being portrayed as powerless.  Not one story has a strong female figure.  What is the deal?  Are the DMs  specifically not picking certain stories which may have a dominant female?  I understand that male is the 'pattern' but this is bothering me."

 

Morgan responds that it most likely is because Dungeons and Dragons his primarily, if not exclusively male writers for their modules.  Other RPG games he participates in have storylines driven by stronger female characters.

 

"So, write your own module!" is his excited suggestion.

 

I look at him oddly, as I have so little experiance that I don't even know what all my single character can do.  "Maybe you can write one?" I respond.

 

He agrees, so now we're tossing back and forth story ideas.

 

Any suggestions?

birthday weekend part 2

Sunday (the aftermath day) my brother picks us up at my house, as my car was left at Morgan's and he was driving (of course), and we go to Sunspot for brunch because I caught wind (via their myspace page) that they were serving CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES!!!

When we drive back to Morgan's to figure out how to spend the afternoon, it's mentioned that Morgan needed to go to the mall.  The brother jumped on that, so we went.  Apparently there was a 30% sale on everything at SciFi city... so Morgan loaded up on miniatures and stuff.  Vincent actually didn't buy anything for himself, and I managed to find a couple sweaters on uber-post-xmas sale.

Vincent was so entranced with Morgan's minis that he wanted to play a Dungeons and Dragons game.  I think Vincent just wanted Morgan to take a few out and set up a scenario.  But Morgan instead called up some people and made it a game sanctioned with the National Organization.  So we spent Sunday night playing DnD.

Monday morning I picked the brother up at 7 and we headed to ETSU in Johnson City.  Then we went to AppState in Boone.  The weather was pretty nice.  It was wet, but the temperature was in the 40s.  We were then going to head over to UNC Charlotte, but he couldn't get ahold of an actual person on the campus, so then we headed home.  The following day we went to UT Chattanooga, and thought about going to Clemson, but instead decided to check out MTSU.

On the way back from MTSU, I was approaching Cookeville and noticed my gas light turning on.  I pulled off at the next exit because I didn't want to get into Cookeville and possibly meet with someone at an exit I used to take.  Irony of Ironies, that exit I took was the one I wanted to avoid.  I noticed that because there's this motel-turned-something else at the gas station.  So I pulled in, looked around, and satisfied myself that probability was on my side instead of bad luck.  I wasn't too worried of the prospect of seeing him, but I was worried that if he saw me then my presence would be initially interpreted as something more intrusive and possibly more malevolent than "i need gas."  am I over thinking??

Monday evening (when we got back from North Carolina), by the way, I made an AWESOME meatloaf.

NOM NOM.

Wednesday, he headed out, and I went to work.  Morgan and I attacked some of the brats my brother brought down from my mother.

Thursday was class.  I made most awesome pizza.  I used a recipe from "Jamie at Home" by Jamie Oliver for the dough.  It was a simple flour/salt/yeast/water/oil/sugar recipe.  I topped it with curried canned tomato sauce, thinly sliced bratwursts (courtosy of my new awesome kitchen knives), carmalized onions, sauteed mushrooms, and chopped kale.

Friday was work, help a friend at a car accident (we waited 2+ hours for the tow truck).

Saturday Morgan and I chilled.  Then he ran a DnD game in the afternoon.  I ended up playing and making a massive pot of soup at the same time. 

The soup contained: 2 baby videlia onions, 10 cloves of garlic, 1 chicken breast, 3 diced sun dried tomatoes, 2 baby potatoes (they were sitting around) and 1 turnip all chopped up to 1/2 inch chunks, 2 carrots chopped,  1/4 lb of kale (it was sitting there not being used) diced up, and some fresh basil.  Combine like you do for soups (I listed it in the rought order of adding things), when it came to adding broth (before the kale), I used 3 parts water, 1 part chicken stock (it normally gets too rich/salty if I use more).  Salt/pepper to taste.

Then we just chilled for the evening.  We thought of going to see a show, but our friend got ill so it would just be us and we needed to read for class.

Yay.

... the rest of the holidays

I had a few days to myself after I returned from PA.  Morgan's parents came down with him since his car was still in the shop.  He finally got it back this past weekend.  Three weeks without a car!  The transmission died and something mega got sheared off in the process of the imploding (exploding?) transmission and basically it required his mechanic to make multiple trips to junkyards.

So his parents took me to dinner at Amerigos and to lunch at PF Changs.  I really enjoyed the duck/sausage pizza from Amerigos.

This, I guess brings me to enjoying my birthday gifts from my parents.  My mother actually managed to get me some clothes that I can/will wear.  Normally we have some issues with what size I am or what sort of "things" I would be seen in and much gets returned.  I also got the cookbook "Jamie at Home," which I'm currently in the middle of as my pizza dough is rising.  I meant to half it, but I sorta forgot, so now I have an ARSE LOAD of dough.

Neci is going crazy because Orion is out getting spayed.  I called and the kitten is just waking up, but the surgery went well.  Heather will be so pleased that next time she crashes here  she can actually sleep.  That was one of my "New Year goals"

Speaking of New Year, Morgan and I celebrated well, I think i mentioned before.  And then my brother came up for my birthday.  His plan was a little tentative as he got into a fight and needed his tooth fixed.  But his next appointment wasn't until later the following week, so on Jan 2 he popped on down south for a bit of a visit.

We had some fun on my birthday.  Before breakfast, Morgan gave me my gift, a painting by one of my friends titled "green fairy"



Then for breakfast we went to Knoxville Pearl, a cereal bar and ate super gut-rotting sugar cereals until we got diabetes.  Then we dropped Morgan off at a DnD game and I took the bro to McKay's.  He didn't expect it to be so large.  And then he saw it was 2 stories.  Afterwards, I dropped him off at Morgan's (he was staying there because of my cats) and he took a nap.  AND THEN I GOT READY FOR MY BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Cut to the Brewery!  Woot!! It was an awesome birthday.  Morgan and Vincent were there.  So were Jim and Eric, Ann and Heather, Lee and Rusty, Shannon and Lindsay, and Nathan and Claire... everyone pairs off.  Only one is married.  We had cheesy pretzals and I was drinking some yummy pints of stout.  Then, of all things, Morgan disappears.  I get all worried because he was gone longer than to go smoke.  Then he shows up with 2 mugs.  MUGS.  Like, what members of the MUG CLUB drink.  I got a MUG CLUB MEMBERSHIP!

glee....

Then a chill Sunday and we started the college adventure, but that needs to wait, the dough is done rising.

teh xmas lewts

So, I made out like a bandit this Christmas.  I totally didn't expect any presents aside from the heaters that my mother paid to have installed in my house.  Instead, she took the xmas/birthday list and ran with it.

Additionally, Morgan gifted me not only with a trip to Garde Bien for my hair but also an adorable set of earrings from Bliss.  They're handmade green enameled cut copper, and there is a subtle sunburst design on them.

Apparently I made a mistake on my list, though.  When i stated I wanted an extrusion pasta maker, I wanted a pasta maker like this (which is NOT an extrusion pasta maker), not a crazy contraption like this.  Thankfully my mother exercised some good sense and decided to not get me the over complicated pasta maker.  I say that because she asked me if that was *really* what I wanted.

I also got an awesome chef's knife.  I'm waiting to use it until I have my house fully cleaned. Morgan and I went through and cleaned the kitchen/diningroom/livingroom in a big project yesterday evening... I kept getting discouraged by all the *stuff*.  So his job was to throw out all the random papers that the kittens have been playing with while I washed all dishes and cleared out all the dishes and food I'm passing on to my brother.  Then I moved all the dishes that my mother passed on to me (that I wanted to keep) into the kitchen and made them fit.  So now I have a full set of 1930-1950 ironstone plates complete with salt cellars and bone plates and a random set of crystal wine and apartiffe glasses.

So now the kitchen is ready for me to explore my new cookbook: Cook with Jamie.  I already made one recipe in it: a beet salad for my family.

Next on the agenda is setting up the container gardens.  I received a book on making, using, and gardening with self-watering containers; and another on organic gardening practices: such as creating soil mixes, making liquid manure, and pest control methods.

I am so very excited!

Ringing in the New Year: Wine (and WoW)

The new year in Knoxville was rung in rather uneventfully, but still satisfactorily.  There were invitations, but one party was with Eric in Cookeville (1.5 hours away) and the other was with a few people I really didn't know.  Morgan and I were tempted to the Cookeville one, but I really didn't want to sleep on a couch.  I guess I'm getting older.

So what did we do?  Well, we went out and got some fancy cheeses and then we hooked up with Heather on World of Warcraft and watched some fireworks in Stormwind (one of the in game cities) and drank in-game wine and got our characters drunk. Which is funny as the screen gets blurry, the avatar can't walk straight, and when you chat, the speach is slurred and interrupted by "hic"s.  During all of this Morgan and I finished 4 bottles of wine: a vino verde, Badger Mountain organic Reisling, Pacific Rim Dry Reisling, and a sparkling shiraz for the New Year bubbly.

On the Vino Verde: I had heard about them before so when we hit Downtown Wine and Spirits (awesome btw!) and I saw one I snagged it.  It went marvelously with the blue cheese with honey and pecans.  The VV has a light, citrusy, GREEN flavor ... and it's SPARKLY!  I'm so very glad that we decided to drink it first because it had a delicate flavor. I will definately try it again.

I was looking up VV's trying to find the lable of the one we had - it had a flower on it - a big vibrent one that the lable said was painted by the vinyardowner's 4 year old grand/daughter/neice.  Then I find that this one is one of WineLoversPage.com's best wines under $15 for 2008.  Well, I passed up the Gazela for the one I bought based on the store clerk's advice (it was still under $15) so I guess next time I'll try Gazela.... then we shall see which is better!

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. - T. S. Elliot

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.  - Benjamin Franklin

Eartha Kitt

has passed.

::sigh:: too much awesomeness has left

A new face on my radar

I love Susie Bright.

I have just discovered her.  She showed up in two posts at two websites I follow in the same day.  The first: her essay Egg Sex was linked to in the comments of a story Feministing discussed.  The second: She was a guest blogger on BoingBoing.  That there clinched the deal.  Not only was she able to write such awesome, open essays of gender liberation and exploration that were tempered with experience, but in my mind which constantly weighs independent critical thinking with validation through peer review, here she hit on the big one... right into the left field I tend to hang out in.

Since then, I have added her to my RSS feeder and have been pouring through her blog.  She comments on movies, technology, sex, eroticism, and rights.  It is.... ::shiver:: orgasmic.  It's revolutionary, strengthening, funny, and provacative.  Read it!

Claire's Party

Before I start:

1) HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!

2)Orion just found the cap to my mouse.  That is... she knocked over my mouse and the cap came off.  Neci likes feathers, Orion likes psuedo-cylindrical clear things.  Therefor, Orion is currently pouncing all over my bed room.  It's adorable.

Now, onto Claire's party.

Claire's party was awesome! There were so many people there that half the party had to eat dinner at the bar!!  I go there before Claire and her mom and husband and his family showed up.  Remember, as this flavors the rest of the night: Claire's brother-in-law is Aaron.  You know, the one I had the not-quite-stable-or-amicable break up with.  The one who broke up with me then proceded to continually show up at my house and freak me out.  The one who sent me all sorts of weird emails saying that we needed to get together to talk some things out.  You know, that one.

Well, apparently he wasn't told I would be there.  So when he showed up at the restaurant, I got the EVAL GLARE OF DETH!  Fortunately he showed up with his family, so his sister and her boyfriend sat next to me, and then his father,  he on the other side of all of them.  That way we didn't need to talk or see each other.  His sister and i talked about college and boyfriends and anime and all sorts of things.  Aaron came up a few times as she had heard bits of stories and needed clarification.  There was a dude named Scott sitting across the table from us, another person from Cookeville, who we talked with alot.  Everyone asked me why I didn't bring my boyfriend (he came up after "OOH! I LOVE YOUR HAIR!" "Thanks! It was a Xmas gift from my boyfriend!"  I had to respond that I didn't want to start any issues as Aaron and I had a not-good breakup and it's Claire's birthday and we're having fun! goddammit!!

So then we go bowling.  i'm on a lane with Claire, Nathen, Scott, and someone else whose name starts with C.  We're sandwitched between the other lanes, so Aaron and I are sometimes up at the same time.  No big deal, no eye contact, no issue.  Suddenly Scott gets up, he had been sitting next to me and we discussed all sorts of dorky things (like WoW).  And then Aaron comes over...
"Elizabeth?"  I'm surprised that he's talking to me somewhat, but I don't want to seem unfriendly and be the catalyst for a scene.
"Hey! Yeah?"
"I think that sometime we need to talk."
"About what?"  If he has something he wants to talk about, an actual topic, I can be reasonable and nice.  However if he just wants to attempt to draw out the past and defend his actions then I don't want to even give him my time.
"The past."
"I don't think there's anything to talk about. It's over."
"I still think we need to sit down and talk."
"no. We're here for Claire's birthday. We should be having fun."
"I'm not saying right now. And I'm having a blast.  But we need to talk."
"Just go, please."

At that point, the easygoing, noworry feeling I managed to have that eveing , the feeling that we were just going to realize that things didn't work out, and to not antagonize each other was gone.  He's still having issues.

Does this mean he's going to start back with the whole creepy email thing?  Will he again show up at my house unannounced and unwanted?

Why can't he get over this. 

I'm done with it.


I don't think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future.  They are both just illusions that can manipulate you in to thinking there's some kind of change.
-Bob Dylan