Still procrastinating…

 

It seems I am on target for creating one post a month. Hopefully, I will make it a habit to stop by more often.

PAX!!!!:
We are going to PAX again this year! I am so excited. So, so excited. I think about it almost every day. Last year was our first attendance to PAX and it was literally the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life.
For those of you who don’t know what PAX is, it’s a convention held in Seattle every year in which nerds and geeks alike gather in masses to rub shoulders and play games. Games, games and more games. Video games, card games, tabletop games, indie games, dice games – GAMES! And when the exhibition hall closes, there are sponsored parties in which free booze is flowing and free food keeps coming. Umm, awesome!
PAX was created by a group called Penny Arcade. Mike and Jerry are amazingly generous people and they’ve created one amazing cooperation.
Several moments stick out in my mind from last year:
Acquisitions Incorporated: Wil Wheaton, Scott Kurtz, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins sit down to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons. And to top it off, their DM is Chris Perkins – the GOD of Dungeon Mastering. I could listen to him DM for hours. He is so amazingly creative. And the entire group is hilarious. Their dynamic is awesome. The bad part about Acquisitions Inc. is that it’s hugely popular. The lines were quite long, but I did get there pretty early. We were all set outside in a closed off street, and eventually the sun creeped over the high-rises and provided a ton of light and HEAT. Oh man, that part was miserable. Next time, I know to bring water. Lots of water. 
Dragon Age Panel:
I had a slight inkling that something special might happen at this panel. All my friends know that I am kind of in love with Felicia Day. I think she is amazing and I admire her greatly. I knew that she was creating a web series called Dragon Age Redemption that she based off the game, but I also knew that she was not listed as one of the special guests of PAX. My fiancée wanted to nap, so I took a leap of faith and stood/sat in line for a couple hours (What’s nice about the waiting in lines at PAX is that everyone there is like you. Geeky, nerdy, some are social awkward – but they open up there. It’s amazing and makes waiting in line for 2-3 hours tolerable.) I sat down and counted the chairs and watched as the creators and writers came to sit and noticed one was empty! A large SQUEE rang inside my head as I presumptuously assumed it was for Felicia. Not far into the panel, they began to talk about the web serious Felicia was creating. A louder SQUEE screamed in my head. And sure enough, she came walking in. OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG – was the text I sent to my fiancée, and he knew exactly that it meant.
I couldn’t even tell you want was said the rest of the panel, as I was completely star struck by seeing her. ❤ When the panel ended, I put on my tryhard pants and walked up to her asking if I could get a picture. She informed me that should would be at Wil Wheaton’s booth the following day for autographs and pictures. SQUEEEEE!
My wonderful fiancée then sat in that line the next day for a couple hours as I waited to officially meet her. (Man, I totally sound like a desperate fangirl. I promise I am completely normal.) I finally got up to meet her, and I could hardly talk. But, I did get a picture with her. 🙂 My fiancée wasn’t as interested as I was, but he did walk up to the table and told her “You just made her entire year.” then continued on. ❤ him.

This year, we were super lucky to even get badges. The system crashed almost immediately due to congestion, but we got our badges. When the system came back up a week later, the badges sold out in less than 5 hours. 5 hours?!?! It took 21 days last year for the badges to sell out. Holy crappola!
We were also lucky to get booked at the Sheraton. YAYER! Right across the street from the Convention Center. Our entire group got rooms there. This year is going to be amazing. 3 months won’t go by fast enough.

Gamer fun!:
I have been slacking on trying new games lately. Diablo 3 came out and I have a key for a digital copy, but I have yet to download the client. I was so excited to finally hear a release date after years of development, so I am unsure as to why I still haven’t tried it out. Shame on me. I should start the download tonight.

I go through periods where WoW is all I am interested in. It sucks you in. I can quit cold turkey for a few months, but that one time you think “I’ll log in to see if some friends are online.” doesn’t turn into just seeing if friends are online. You want to explore either new content, accomplish more achievements – and say goodbye to the idea of signing of shortly after if there’s a holiday going on. Those holiday quests and dungeons can get you pets and/or mounts! Grind, grind, farm, grind! Gotta catch them all!

So, with that said – I have been sucked back into PvP. During Burning Crusade, PvP was all I did. More specifically, Alterac Valley. Alliance always won Alterac Valley. And with 40 opponents, HK goes through the roof. When WotLK came out, I then transitioned into raiding. I had never been a part of a regular raid group. I would occasionally go to Kara if a friend needed an extra DPS (How often does that happen?), but as far as the whole organized group dynamic – totally uncharted territory for me.
After a couple months of running Naxx, I became the “Raid Leader” and held that title for a few months… I believe until Ulduar was released. Never again. A different, mean side of me came out when I was Raid Leader. I would get angry, frustrated and eventually exhausted from trying to coordinate 25 people. So, I quit. Much to the distain of other guild mates, but so be it.
I then began trying arenas with a good friend. We were new to the whole arena scene. A mage and a warrior. Definitely fun times and frustrating times. I specifically remember one match in the Ruins of Lordearon in which it was myself (the mage) and a shadow priest left alive, running in circles around the tomb in the center. For literally 5-10 minutes. One would start casting, and the other would break LoS. I was eventually screaming by the end of the match. Hilarious to think back on now and I wish I had a PVR recording. She could heal herself full. I could Iceblock then Evocate health back or bandage. Mirror Image would throw her off for a moment – but in the end, my Zwink perished.
Currently, I am completely burnt out on Dragon Soul, so I am now back into PvP. I am totally appreciating the new interface for PvP queues. The upside of ‘Random Battleground’ is the bonus Honor Points and daily Conquest Points but the downside is getting into a BG you hate. There are things I like and dislike about each BG, but I hate Isle of Conquest with a passion. I would rather take the 15 minute Deserter consequence than deal with the lack of coordination in that stupid place.
Honor Point gear is fairly easy to obtain if you can win a few matches in a row. Conquest – eh, takes a while. At this point, I am trying to fill every slot with Season 11 gear and slide back into arenas. Our arena team name – It Burns When We PvP. Classy, huh?

Tattoos:
No new tattoos to speak of. I have several drawings that I would like to consult with my artist on – but all extra money is allocated to our PAX fund. Maybe, just maybe, for my birthday in August, I will get monies for a tattoo for a gift certificate for a tattoo. I am lucky that my parents are pretty cool about the tattoos. Actually, my dad’s not a huge fan but my stepmom loves tattoos. The large tattoo on my arm was partially paid for by her for a Christmas present. 🙂

Foodie stuff:
I haven’t dined out much lately or attempted to expand my culinary skills. I tried to go vegetarian for a while in attempt to help some health issues I have, but it didn’t work out so well. It didn’t seem to help and I missed bacon. Who can live without bacon?!
I also received a note in the mail, on a prescription paper, from my father’s doctor telling me to chill out on the fanciful, rich cooking for him. Pops has had several heart surgeries. Oops. I was narked on. I should be looking out better for him. Whenever I go to my parent’s house, I cook a large meal for us. I guess I will be making more salads.

Quite a long post – I just need to come more often and break these down into smaller posts.

I hope everyone’s Spring is starting out fantastically!

~Sevy Jane

Procrastination

Clearly, I haven’t written since my first post. Nothing momentous to explain why. Mostly, nervous to provide content that is interesting to read and to keep people drawn in.
I’ll touch on several topics my blog is about.

1. Tattoos:
I finally completed the larger piece in my forearm. It took two different artists and a few sessions to get to something beautiful. Now, it’s nothing like the image I had in my head to begin with, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. The story is long, but I don’t want to go about throwing anyone under any buses.

Unfortunately, the image is upside down and I’m too tired to fix it. 🙂

I went through a phase recently and ended up with like 3 tattoos total in a matter of a couple months. And I already have at least two more in mind. To say that tattoos are addicting is an understatement. I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment. Here are the other two.

These just add to my collection which is somewhere in the teens. I vow to be a little old lady covered with wrinkled ink. Tattoos will always be a huge passion of mine – Sorry Dad. 😉

2. Gaming:
I decided to hang up my WoW cloak for a bit and try out SW:TOR. Initially, I was impressed and was definitely intrigued by the different story lines associated with each class. And of course, who doesn’t like being in control of a light saber?
The leveling, for me, was slow. Finding groups for quests and dungeons was near impossible. I know I can be introverted at times and maybe that’s why I had trouble, but I have yet to even step foot in a dungeon.
The mounts are interesting and fun. I was sad to see I couldn’t get a Speeder until max level.
The player interface is definitely user friendly but the “Auction House”, as I like to call it, needs a ton of work. You can’t even manually type in items to search for. Weak sauce.
The PvP system is fun with different types of matches than I was used to. It seems the only way to win is to have a fixed group. Again, never won a match. The gear you can obtain through PvP isn’t limited to that type of game play like WoW. There’s no resilience or anything like that which is what made PvP more intriguing to me.
The mods, hilts, armor enchantments, etc. for gear can be a bit confusing and hard to keep up with. Same as enhancements for your ship.
That brings me to the ship combat. Lots of fun. Harder to keep up with the higher level quests if you’re not on top of your ship mods.
Overall, I am having a hard time staying engaged. I haven’t played in a couple weeks and I’m not missing it.

Skylanders: … Addicting! The creators of this game are marketing geniuses, too. My partner and I have already put in way more money than we’d like to admit on characters. Having one single character bound to one gamertag? Brilliant for them. When we discover one we both love, we then have to buy another. Jackpot for Activision.
I think the little portal is adorable and I’m loving the different abilities between each little toon.
For a game labeled for 6 years and up, this 26 and 32 year old are probably having too much fun.

WoW: I will always have a longstanding love affair with WoW. No matter what game I find, I will always go back to WoW.
Right now is the Noble Garden holiday. Nothing like camping spots in Goldshire for eggs with 200 other people. As a guild mate put it, they should call it “Ninja Garden”.  Man, people are ruthless when it comes to those little colorful eggs. This year, they’ve introduced a mount. This mount is either found in an egg or can be purchased with 500 chocolates, which are also found in eggs. I was ‘lucky’ and got my mount on about my 400th egg. It was still a few hours of camping and elbowing with my little gnome arms to get that damn mount.  And you know what? It’s ugly. Nothing to it. A plainstrider. A white plainstrider. What a let down, Blizzard.

3. Now on to food stuffs.
I am slowly but diligently working my way towards vegetarianism/raw foods and avoiding dairy, but not quite to a vegan standpoint. This decision was not made lightly, as I am a meat eater. I could eat a steak every single day. It’s only been two weeks, but I’m rocking it.
For years, I have suffered from endometriosis. Anyone else who had this disease understands the unexplainable pain I go through. Over the years, I’ve had 7 surgeries. My first at 18 and last at 24, which ended with a complete hysterectomy. Two years later, at 26, I am still in a considerable amount of pain. Now, I’m not going to delve into that as that’s not what this blog is about. I have decided to change my diet in attempt to alleviate the residual pain I have and to lose the weight I’ve gained from all the surgeries which consequently resulted in a lot of sitting around eating junk because I didn’t have the energy to cook. (And a lot of gaming, I might add.)
So far, it’s been fairly okay. Luckily, I absolutely adore tofu. Any way I can get it. Nom nom.
It has also been fun experimenting with foods I’ve never cooked with. Quinoa is delicious! I just tossed it with some balsamic and olive oil with red onions, tomatoes and feta. Amazing. I can already tell quinoa is going to be a staple. 
The other main thing I’m trying to avoid is anything refined or unnecessarily processed. This is going to be tough as I am a major chocaholic. I seriously have a problem. I have been strong, but I purchased some Newman-O’s from the organic section and had a couple this evening. Tasty and not guilt-ridden.

I will try to post more often on my progress with foods and more on gaming adventures/opinions. And always, tattoo pictures.
I also will be a bit more detailed with my gaming notations. 3:00am is a hard time to break anything down into writing. 😀

I’m sleepy. Night night time for me.

SevyJane, signing off.

*Edited to fix sleepytime typos*

Popping the blog cherry…

The title pretty much explains it. I have never even subscribed to a blog let alone written one. This is completely uncharted territory for me. Hooray for jumping in with both feet!

With that said, let me explain a little about myself, what I plan to write about and why I feel the need to express what I do.

I am a geek. A nerd – however you’d like to say it. By definition, a nerd or a geek is a socially inept, unattractive person who excels in scientific or technical pursuits. I don’t believe that is how most people feel when they hear that term; currently and in recent past. Maybe that’s just me, though. I feel a slight ping of pride when I am referred to as a geek. Also, I’d like to think I’m a pretty cute geek. I thoroughly enjoy my hobbies and interests. I’m elated to have found them. Like millions before me, I struggled for years to figure out who I am. Now that I have, I let my geek flag fly at full mast at all times.

There is one part of the definition that is extremely broad. ‘Someone who excels in scientific or technical pursuits’. This can be applied to almost anything! How awesome is that?! There are several things I enjoy that will fall into the category of stereotypical geeky interests. Video games, RPG & tabletop gaming, computers, etc.. I would also consider myself a geek for many other things; cooking,  tattoos, fine dining, cars, music and more. These are all things I geek out on.  Passionately.

I understand there are people who will use those terms in a derogatory fashion. There will always be people who find joy or humor in making people who have ‘different’ interests feel inferior, small, weak and lesser than they. To the contrary, my friends! It’s one thing to think a certain way, but it’s another to waste the energy in actively trying to make people feel bad for who they are. Regardless, there will always be those people. Fine with me! No skin off my back. Leave the geeks to their geekiness and move along. The exit is that-a-way.
/bigcheesysmile

In regards to an earlier statement, my blog will be about all the things I geek out on. Video games, tabletop and RPG gaming, gaming conventions, cooking, fine dining, music and anything I may get myself wound up in. I’ll even share pictures of said items!
I sometimes get overly excited about new projects or activities that eventually don’t pan out to be lifelong hobbies. There will probably be plenty of those but I can guarantee the aforementioned topics will be a constant. Also, and I should apologize ahead of time, there will probably be little drawings that will make any 5 year old look like Michelangelo. The artist, not the TNMT.

In closing, I look forward to sharing my adventures with everyone. I will attempt to post on a schedule once I get a handle on this new outlet. If you share some, one or all of the same interests, I hope this blog will be a routine stop for you. 🙂

Pew Pew, SevyJane out!