Tuesdays with Mindy: Yelp’s Pley On @ OMSI
This past Saturday boasted my second ever Yelp event at OMSI. Their Game On 2.0 exhibit just ended on Sunday – the 18th of September and we got free passes from Yelp to enjoy free food, drinks and video games the night before. You can check all the details here at the Yelp website.
Well, we ended up stalling out on the first two and never did get to play Frogger or Pitfall. Major bummer. But they wouldn’t allow alcohol in the exhibit and no pictures either, so you wouldn’t have been able to visually enjoy that part of the evening. If it had occurred.
Instead we gorged ourselves on food and alcohol to the point of an extreme hang-over the next day. But the event itself was well put-together. Everyone there was having a blast and tons of people were sporting costumes. We should have dressed up – I know. But I didn’t wanna.
Here are the pics from the event:
Hoping this exhibit comes around again in the future. Would love another opportunity to play some old school games!
Tuesdays with Mindy: Couples Who Game Together…
Sometimes this blog feels like a confessional…so in that vein I have a dirty secret to share. I started playing World of Warcraft again. Last month, right after cousins Eric and Carly visited. And it’s all their fault.
Ilyria, Level 51, Looking Bad Ass
Plus the account was totally free until Level 20. And I get to be a Draenei!! I’ve been secretly pining for years to be a virtual character with a tail, ram horns and goat hooves. All my prayers have now been answered.
I used to play WoW many, many years ago (about six of them), but had to give it up when we were shaving costs to move out of my parents house and into our own place. Yes, at that time a $30 WoW subscription WAS really going to make or break us. And The Burning Crusade expansion was just coming out. We couldn’t afford to buy it, were moving anyway…and it just made sense to abandon the whole enterprise.
A few years later I got a nasty email from Blizzard telling me I had violated the WoW economy and they were closing my account. I fired off an equally irritated email and was summarily bounced around in their system until I didn’t have the time or energy to pursue it any longer. Case closed. Well, when I wanted to activate my account again – I had to deal with their customer service. It was actually quite pleasant and because I intended to start paying them money (it helps to remind businesses of this, cause sometimes they forget), they were willing to reverse all the nasty things they said about me. Basically someone hacked my account and set up some dummy characters and violated their terms of use. Or whatever.
Sadly – all the characters I had created are now lost to me. It looks like one entire Night Elf was deleted (R.I.P. Sarasvati) and another I can only see the stats (R.I.P. Arjuna). I had a thing for Hindu Mythology for awhile, ya’ll.
But now I’ve created newer – better characters (yes, I already have three of them). Two of them are Draenei – a Level 51 Hunter (Ilyria) and a Level 15 Paladin (Argeus). I also started up a Horde character (they’re kinda the bad guys) and she’s a Level 8 Blood Elf named Miss Frosty. I styled her to look like Emma Frost. I’ve also had a slew of pets – three different cats (all named Chairman Meow), two wolves (Wolfenstein and Ghost), a diseased bear (Gentle Ben), an owl (Archimedes), and a moth (Mothra). My current animals are a bloodhound (Blood Dumpster), a green and yellow striped saber cat (Chairman Meow the third), and a flying snake creature (Kaa, from the jungle book).
Me and Dan + WoW Fishing = Twu Luv
Our guild is the Mudsprocket Marauders – it’s largely comprised of Robertsons and Robertson descendants. Most of the Guildies we communicate with are Level 85…so there is a big incentive to level up quickly and start more actively contributing to the guild achievements and quests.
Dan and I spent pretty much this entire weekend cloistered in our respective corners of the house, communicating with each-other via Skype and questing/dungeoning/raiding to our hearts content.
The Other Gryffindor Scarf and…Other Stuff
Guess what I finished, just in time for the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I? The “Other” Gryffindor scarf – which shows up in Prisoner of Azkaban (my personal favorite) and The Goblet of Fire (my least favorite). I modified the pattern a bit – used a heavier weight yarn: Aran/10 ply (8 wpi) instead of what the pattern suggested. Also used size 8 needles, as there were no size 7 at either of the two craft stores I visited. I only cast on 60 stitches per row, instead of the 100 it recommended. 100 would have been HUGE. This is the pattern I worked from – DID NOT alter the number of yellow rows. Ended up using barely one skein of the mustard colored yarn.
Here is the finished product:
The "Other" Gryffindor Scarf
We’ve been re-watching the Harry Potter movies leading up to the midnight showing and I’ve already spotted another HP item I’d like to knit up. Maybe as a hat for my mother. I’ll have to check the Charmed Knits book out from the library again…or maybe one of my kind friends or family will purchase one for me.
Anyways – finishing up this project is abnormally satisfying, as I am ready to take a much-needed break from knitting. Yes, after nearly 2.5 months of ALWAYS having a knitting project on the needles (as well as knitting up three birthday presents), I’m taking a week off. Well, maybe just a few days.
I’ll probably start something on Wednesday.
But another pleasurable indulgence has taken hold in the interim: VIDEO GAMES. Most specifically…
Galen Marek is another one of my video game crushes.
It was fantastical to be immersed in the world of Starkiller again, and both the DH and I managed to beat it in one day.
Yeah. That doesn’t seem right. It was a ridiculously short game. Much shorter than the Assassin’s Creed sequel, and also shorter than the original Force Unleashed. The original Force might just be one of my favorite video game experiences in a long, long time.
So – the sequel had a lot to live up to, and didn’t quite make it. It seemed like the storyline was rushed and lacking both the depth and breadth of the original. There was no twist, tangle or really any character arch or growth. Pretty disappointed in the story.
But the game play is excellent. I’d like to get my hands on a copy for the Wii, so I can experience the joy of wielding a light saber again. Otherwise, I’m holding out hope for the third installment. And praying they don’t make a movie out of these video games. I’m quite of the belief that this particular storyline fits so much better on the small screen, with all the intimacy of you, the controller and the TV.
Sure – this would have made a great movie. Theoretically, the prequels would have also made great flicks as well. And we all saw how that played out. No, I much prefer Starkiller, Juno, General Kota and Proxy to exist as playable characters in a video game. I really don’t want Lucas putting his grubby mitts on these folks.
For those doubters – you must answer this question: what would the story gain from being turned into a movie? Video games are already visual and auditory, as well as tactile. Movies just remove one of the sensory experiences. In my opinion, more movies need to be turned into video games. 🙂 But GOOD video games. Not the shite that is already churned out by the direct-to-game industry.
Of course – any obsession or interest is automatically filtered through my youtube lens – so please enjoy a few videos I’ve stumbled across in my searching:
The classic fanvid: music plus video clips
Something altogether different – a lego fight sequence inspired by Force Unleashed.
That’s all you get folks.
We’re picking up a copy of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood tomorrow after work, so you can look forward to some madness on that end. We’ve got Harry Potter on Thursday/Friday and the Portland Comic Book Show on Sunday, so you can pretty much be guaranteed some posts in the near future. Get excited! 😀
Spreading the Link Love: 6/4/2010
Sorry ya’ll – no Bechdel test entry today.
**********************************************************
COMIC CON DOCUMENTARY: AN UPDATE
We spent last night filming our audition tape for the San Diego Comic Con Documentary. It’s not quite up to snuff, but in the interim you can watch some of the extended scenes which didn’t make the cut.
Sorry if some it is boring and rambly…this is unedited material we decided to throw in there as a bonus. BONUS!
****************************************************
SHE HAS NO HEAD! AND JEZEBEL
Remember that post I did about She Has No Head! yesterday? Kelly Thompson’s interview with Hope Larson was featured in Jezebel, along with a write-up about the comic book Frenemy of the State co-written by Rashida Jones and published by Oni Press. It’s sort of a Paris-Hilton-meets-James-Bond satire piece. Or something.
Whatever the case may be – lots of great commentary happening by the Jezebel readers regarding many of the issues addressed in the Hope Larson survey and interview.
It’s a shame that while the debate still rages on the article – it seems like no matter what women are saying is their experience a few of the guys are doing everything they can to deny women their opinions. “It’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be” seems to be the general consensus of a few stubbornly clueless fellas in the discussion.
No one’s saying it’s an atrocious crime against humanity – we’re just saying it’s offensive and we’re not buying it (literally). I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about that. We’re also saying what we would like to see change about it.
If you’re up for some deep-soul-searching and epic frustration – I still suggest checking it out. Ben Cohen, Dean and Rene continue to give me hope that some men can resist making sexism a personal attack and see the validity of a woman’s experience. Kudos to these dudes!
****************************************************
TOO MANY DICKS
Who else finds this video hilarious? Knowing that it comes from a Flight of the Conchords sketch makes me actually want to watch the show. The original video is pretty laughtastical as well.
As a woman who finds myself cycling through some great RPG games at least once or twice a year (as well as first person shooters like Left 4 Dead) – this really hits home. Who says feminists don’t have a sense of humor?
******************************************************
AVENGERS MOVIE UPDATE
That’s it – I’m sure most of you already know that Jeremy Renner is in “serious” talks to play Hawkeye in the Avengers flick? Well, now you know. Two thumbs + this news = way up.
I’m really liking how this film is pulling together. If they could just throw one more chick in there – someone to play Spider-Woman (perhaps *gasp* even a female of color?) this movie would bump up several notches in my excite-o-meter. What about Rashida Jones in the role? She likes comic books.
At least Scarlet’s still on the roster. Big ups to tokenism! 😉
************************************************************
If all goes according to plan, I should be able to delve into the stack of TV shows and books I’ve been neglecting this week for all these various and asundry activities. And then, one day – a Bechdel post!!
Unleashing the Force
So – I have a confession to make. In the last four days, I spent AT LEAST 10 hours playing video games. OK, just one video game in particular. Are you ready?
This is highly unlike me. It’s rare that a video game out there manages to capture my interest with it’s attractiveness, easy playing style, and storytelling.
And most of those that do hook me end up being some kind of RPG style entity – a few that I’ve fallen for over the last few years:
And of course – World of Warcraft. I was pretty much logging like 3-4 hours a night for a three month stretch back in 2005. Yes, bask in the nerdiness of that statement. But I haven’t touched that game since then.
So – by and large I’m not a huge gamer. I enjoy RPG style outings (though I never really got into Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) and interactive games like Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, Rock Band and DDR. But I don’t read gaming magazines, or track release dates for games. It’s just not my thing.
So, this game is one of those rare exceptions.
Dan purchased The Force Unleashed for the Wii console exactly one week ago. He played a little last Friday night while I paged insanely through Twilight, trying to ignore the John Williams orchestrations and blaster shots.
My level of interest in Star Wars waxes and wanes, and for the most part – I could care less about spaceships and aliens. However, I happened to glance up now and then last Friday evening and thought…shit, this thing has a STORY. And the voice-acting and characterizations aren’t half bad.
Dan caught me eye-balling, and then practically insisted I duel him.
Of course, he soundly kicked my ass several times and I threw the controls down in frustration. But despite the brutal beating – I enjoyed being able to wield a light saber and use incredibly fun force powers (push, choke, repel, electricity). Since adequate dueling requires that the champions be on equal footing, Dan suggested I start up a game and figure out how to use the powers.
And then I was hooked.
Dan
tinyheroes
Tiny Heroes 