Beat That Poor Passed on Equine

I have a much longer post in shambles of an outline that this sort of thing was supposed to cover in great detail, perhaps even some sort of mega arc post that would span several pages.

But I came across a post on a friends tumbler and I had a small thought and felt I needed to elaborate on it in some way that was public.

And I know we see these sort of things and this sort of post ON tumblr, twitter, Facebook.
But this is my platform, my soapbox so here is where it shall be.
 Linky link Linky

But the thought that I had was this.
The "fake geek girl" and "Girly geek" and "cosplay is consent" panels . . . yes, they are exhaustive, sometimes it seems like you can only cover the same topic so many times, "yeah yeah, get over it"
But you know what? No.
Keep hosting it, keep discussing it, keep telling the stories and never believe it doesn't make a difference.

When I was growing up we had the anti-drug campaigns. And we got that propaganda drilled into our heads, "say no to drugs" and now that I'm older, I know that certain, perfectly legal things, are arguably, more dangerous than things that are illegal, but I have come to my own conclusions on that as I've grown. But I believe, that as a result of those campaigns, I stayed away from many substances, legal and otherwise, not out of fear, but out of the education of them. The constant discussion, the knowledge, kept me from going down paths I might have explored had I not had that information available to me.

I think it's the same way with Equal Rights (any variation thereof, and there are a lot. some more relevant to this conversation than others) and that the more we discuss these things, the more conscious we will become of them, and that others will stay conscious of them, and those who grow up after us will look at these things and say "wow, look how silly they were back then. Well, some of these things are cool, but dude, did they have a skewed perspective" much as we do to our past today.

So I guess it comes down to education, as much of my life is centered around. Education and the nurturing of critical thought. Otherwise you are an ignorant animal controlled by emotions, not the enlightened creatures we masquerade as.

THINGS!

I know! I know. Almost two weeks, but don't worry. I FEEL IT! I feel like there may be things in the future for me to truly expound upon.
TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY!
And since the only things I want to talk about are somewhat "serious" things and I promised a silly post, here are things I've found that I love and perhaps you have not come across all of them already.

Enjoy . . . .

Confession: I liked Sucker Punch.
And you should have as well!!!! Here's why.


 Boo-busters



And in a return to the ever present discussion about "girl stuff" I saw this awesome post from the Mary Sue
and I looked at the bow and thought. I would rock that bow even though it does have pink on it, it actually makes it cool. So there!
See!

In other news. IMMA GO SEE DOC AWKWARD TWICE THIS WEEK CAUSE I DON'T GIVE  SHIT THAT I'M BROKE!
Wanna know why?
THATS WHY!

Oh yeah, he's in SJ Sunday around noon, and then at DNA in the City Monday Night. Hit me up if you want to come along NERDLIFE!!!

Oh yeah, and there's this awesome thing . . .

And I realize in retrospect I could have broken these things into separate posts BUT FUCK YOU ITS MY BLOG and they Might not have been topical (THERE IS NO CREAM FOR THAT!) by the time it posted so there!
Later H47ites! I now have to flesh out a game I'm not ready for while jonesin to play wow while trying to be properly productive. We'll see how it goes.

Stuff I Missed

While I was away from the internet, having a "real life" pphhtt.

Because I feel they can't wait till next week, plus I have a really solid post brewing already that I can use for it, I will present these new findings here . . .

First, NEW "Meet the . . ." Yes! they did come out wiht the Medic, and there are even some fantastic outakes for that particular story, but more recently,

THISS

 

If I don't see the "pryo-vison" flame thrower as a cosplay by the end of Con season, I'm not sure our nerds are doing their jobs.

Also, I might be reading a little too much into this, and I am not consciously trying to be a sexist pig, but I love how one MIGHT interpret the Pyro as a sadistic woman, as alluded to by The Heavy, the "girly" world the Pyro lives in and perhaps even the need to "take care" of the Blu babies as a maternal instinct? Oh yes, and please read all of those thoughts as if recited by a nerd voice with lots of lisping.



Also's THE FP CAME OUT ON BLU-RAY & DVD AHHAHAH!!!!

What's "The FP" you may ask? GET YOURSELF LEARNED SON!

WHATS TAT BITCH!? YOU WANT MORE!?! you got it, tatsy-tits . . .
3
two
WON!
BEAT BEAT!!!!

Part Time Opinions

Impressions of "A Part Time Sorceress" . . .

The Cover. A lot of pink . . . I suppose not TOO much though.

I read this book second, and how I came to seek it out will be outlined further in another post, probably my next regular update, as I intend to review her second book as well.
After finishing reading this book, the only things I really learned were more about the living habits of  modern semi-feminist/girly girls from the East Coast, their mothers proclivities, how they put upon their significant others, and the social circles they cultivate. As for what I would consider the "meat" of the book, it was comprised things I already know, surrounded by anecdotes and tips on how a "normal" female can get into D&D. I was happy that it was a very fast read and was able to finish it before I got to a point where it might have become totally unreadable.

 

 

 

The Author with someone whom I believe is one of her co-workers.

Having said all that, I highly recommend this book . . . to almost any female who doesn't read this blog, or understand any of the posts with "RPG" or "Table top" in the tags. Then again, my fiancee has been with me for almost a decade, played in a few campaigns, including different systems (not just Wizards D&D) and I think she will enjoy this book immensely. Also, I would probably still recommend it to any lady gamer I know who isn't exactly like me (that's a terrifying thought, what a slutty lesbian that would be). I am constantly trying to understand the opposite sex, ESPECIALLY the gamer/geek type as I will be the first to admit there are disparate misconceptions across the genders, and I'm not sure why, but I think this book would speak to many femme fraggers. More simply put, I don't think it was a bad book, on the contrary I would even say it was good and worth a read. It's just that I could barely stand it. Don't understand how those two statements can be true? I think you might be on the wrong blog, OR ask me for my review of the Watchmen movie some time.

Then again, I'm confident there are some ladies out there who agree with my more snarky side and see this as yet another brick in the marketing wall from Wizards that is an attempt to make D&D accessible to everyone from "bros" to housewives regardless if it maintains it's soul (whatever that is) as a game. I don't want to get into my feelings on 4.0, or any "x.0 vs -whateva system" at this time, but it does feel like they tie in to each other when you come from that perspective. Maybe I'm just a bitter gaming-conspiracy theorists but, I thnk most people might understand where I'm coming from on that one.

So yeah, get the book if you know girls, it might help. And since I usually throw a vid in somewhere, try THIS ONE > > > >

Game-con-on

This weekend M'Lady & I will be in SoCal attending Strategicon's Gateway gaming convention. She will be helping keep the con looking good with the D20 Girls and I will be riding along for shiggles.
Although I don't normally attend gaming cons I do hope to change that. I'm looking forward to trying some different systems. My coworker "RunningRyan" recommended I try Arkham Horror, as I've never actually played it and maybe even put my acting chops to good use in a LARP, as there seems to be a cool Eberron session set on the lightning rail and of course a steampunk game also.

To add some vaguely relevant personal insight to this post I might discuss the new Campaign that just started with Eric the Blave as DM.

As a flavor/powering component he has had us roll up lvl 1 NPC class characters, and then when we level we will take the first level of a core class. However, instead of having us play a short prologue like he has done once previously, we rolled straight into the first session of the game.

It has been interesting so far, I like the idea in general as a neat quirk but even up against po-dunk peasants it was a challenge.

I don't mind low powered survival scenarios and if I know that's the kind of game we're going into I know to enjoy it. However, I don't know why I never learn with this DM, I expected something more epic, initially.

So, the idea is that magic is returning to the world after thousands of years and our characters are inheritors of this concept (i.e. sorcerers are unheard of, there is no "live" pantheon, everyone worships the elements, but we are the rare few to bring about change in the world). Being that our group would be (after our first "real" level) fairly unique and definitely more powerful than the average citizen of the world I anticipated some fun derring-do our first session.

I was wrong, as I so often am in Eric's games. Brad_again(rejoining our group once more after a 3+ year hiatus) and I would joke about making a kill order list of every named NPC we met and general taking a KoS view of the world if anyone was a jerk or TOO helpful. The joking was about 60% joke and 40% serious as intelligent, articulate, polite and EVIL JERKS seem to infest The Blave's worlds.

Although, even with a mob of peasants vs 3 level 1 npc's I am learning the power of a reliable strength score as well as controller characters. Even as an expert, which gets no BAB, built to level into bard, I was able to make excellent use of trips and grapples.
As much as I want to gripe, perhaps I will have enough time to see how effective I can be "dual wielding" a quarterstaff with a -2/-4 attack. For some inexplicable reason I seem to be terribly adept when my characters have absolutely no business doing a certain thing, and then does them. (My full progression Wizard who had a Bastard Sword for looks and ended up one shoting a peasant and some utiugs on separate occasions.)

Nerdettes

Make no mistakes, I like the ladies. The ladies who like ladies, the ladies who like guys, the ladies who like everybody, but especially, the ladies who like the things I like (Don't worry, I like guys who like guys, we hang out, but this isn't their post).

My entire upbringing was engineered by strong independent women and as a result I feel I have a fair, if not progressive, view and respect for the fairer sex. I would also venture to say protective and even fascinated. Therefore, whenever a particularly interesting item floats by, I give it an extra peek if it involves females.


I think part of my unconscious flirting (hehe, an unconscious person flirting) and protectiveness is me trying to be "the man" of the house/ situation, and be protective and try to take care of whatever ladies I'm around. OR, I am a shameless flirt and in another reality, was a major Player.

ANYWAY, Tink, also a quiet feminine feminist, is always looking towards women empowerment and ways to show off how awesome women are, has been building some serious steam in gender-centric circles.

Seeing as these things are orbiting my life (and sometimes crashing into them in rough terraforming instances) I figured it would be an excellent idea to compile some online resources I find myself drawn to time, and time again.

d20 girls

Tired of Booth Babes being vapid vacuums of vain villainy? You either? But you would like it if they actually had something in common with you, right? That would be even hotter? Well look no more. A few of the nerdy gals in my life have signed on as professional models. This company promotes and contracts out professional booth babes with knowledge in the industry. Through meticulous interview processes, geeky ladies of every size, shape & stripe are screened before entry and provide for a fantastic pallet of girl power.
fat, ugly or slutty

On a less cheery note, the male condition is one fraught with disgusting, uncultured, swine. I was going to use the colloquial "douche bag" but honestly, thats being unfair to the term. This site chronicles various unsavory occurrences from around the nerd world where the revelation that the gamer on the other end of the controller is a female results in misogynistic idiocy. There is little censorship on this site, and good thing too, as anyone who believes any of this behavior is allowable in any situation, they deserve to let their habits to be known to the world.
Comic Con Pervs

A very similar site to the last, I think this is a great idea for the same reasons as outlined above.

I will admit, I am a pervy nerd, and I like to see naughty things fairly often, BUT, not like that. Not that process, that is disgusting and wrong. There are sites for that sort of thing where everyone involved is consenting and, usually, it's all much better quality and less chance you will be prosecuted for pedophilia.
hot gamer girls

I have not done too much research into this site, but I like the concept so far. It appears to dominantly be originally a a forum comprised of dominantly lady gamers as the focus.

cosplay deviants

As mentioned earlier in the post, "there are sites for that." And this is one of them. I heard about them at their booth at Fanime and also heard through the grapevine they did a shoot somewhere very close to the convention. Frankly, I am a little jealous I had not thought of this first.

The Gamer Girls

You all know how much I love my Nerdcore, well so do these gals. One of the groups mentioned in this post to have a presence at Gamer Con, there was an "industry only" concert on a rooftop in San Diego where Doc Awk & Zealous rocked out. Music aside, once more, these are nerdy ladies that are also in the modeling contact sort of biz.

empowered fire

This site I have mentioned before and unfortunately has stopped posting since before the first of this year. I am saddened by this, but many of their posts are excellent as they examine many issues in the female gaming community with a focus on World of Warcraft. Worth a dig through if you have some spare time.
Geek Girl Network

Not one cohesive site, but an ever growing conglomerate of gals. This jiggly juggernaut has spawned a con, numerous panels, and even a WoW guild, which was named by my lady, T1nk (true story).

Other sites I have come across that are of the female persuasion that might be worth a look, that I have not researched too thoroughly include . . .

Charisma +2

Another modeling site, very clean, looks very professional.

Frag Dolls

Real professional Gamers who are female. These fragging femmes make money for beating guys (and some other girls) at video games. Isn't that awesome?

And, I'm gonna give an honorable mention, I'd even call it, a vigorous nod to . . .
D&D With Porn Stars
Though led by a "dude's dude of dorks" his crew is largly comprised of X chromosomes and I think that is fantastic. I have not had him describe a single game so far where a gal wasn't involved. And in case you have no idea what this is, its a gaming blog. If you go check it out, you should be able to deduce the rest, like why it's so named and how cool those folks are.

I very rarely bemoan my status as a male of our species, even though I am of the painful opinion that women can do everything better than guys if they try hard enough. But, many of these sites and groups kinda give me that nudge, to wish, for a little while, I could rock a rack. Actually, no, bad idea, I would never leave my room.

Comin' From Space to Teach You

For those of you who are even less aware of current anime and what's going on in the Japanese animated world (not hard to do, but if you're around here than I know SOME of you [I'm looking at you two Japanese majors who still haven't translated my knife markings snickering with each other like two magical girls] might be a step ahead of me on this one, but nonetheless) I stumbled across something fairly awesome in my quarterly assault on the intarwebs in search of moving drawings from the Great Island that stimulate me in very particular ways (yes, sometimes like that, but not too much).
What, you may ask? As to explain what the hell I just said, no, but as to what I found . . .

An excellent short series collaborated upon by Subaru (yes, the car company) and Gainax. As to be expected, there is a plethora of symbolism and things named after other things to give weight and connectivity. To the jaded cynical mind one might see it as one long commercial for Subaru in a passive non-obvious name placement sort of way, but honestly, that only occured to me like, once, as I started watching it.
It's short, its cute, its looks fantastic, its from Gainax, its simple and it resolves itself more than some three season animes I've seen, so here it is below in it's entirety, should take less than a half hour to watch, do so.