"I Hope You Like Text"

It's a difficult thing, categorizing and picking favorites.

A favorite book might seem easy, but there are so many different types of books, it seems unfair to put them all together. The same goes for music. I don't know many operas or musicals, but Phantom of the Opera is definitely my favorite. Is it my favorite music ever though? No. It's complicated!

Likewise, I could probably say that that PA up there is my favorite. Is it my favorite PA of all time? Maybe. Is it my favorite gaming related PA? No. Is it my favorite random content PA? No.

In general terms, do I love it very much every time I see it and am I consistently thankful that it exists? Well, yes.

I'd like to just say that I am really enjoying having this blog space to jot down all my random thoughts and to post PA comics that tickle me especially strongly.

-MJ

Read More

In this strip, I am Gabe.

And Gabe's dad is my entire family.

I love them all, but Goddamn: It's not that hard!

;)

-MJ

Read More

Identity crisis.

Tonight would have been made more prefect had I been recording the entirety of my conversation with Xandre.

We discussed the difficulties of the nerd identity and our own personal identity crises. I believe crises is the plural of crisis. There are some rather big ones.

I am exhausted and about to pass out so I'll keep this short, I just wanted to get a few words on here.

My two years at Evergreen have given me a very severe identity crisis. Who am I, who do I want to be? I only just realized this sometime over the past two weeks.

I'm a gamer, I love video games. If it comes down to it, video games are my preference and my love. I'd rather be playing them over most other options, excluding human interaction. I love my gaming t-shirts, my hoodies and my references. I love having my DSi on me and checking the Pokédex app on my iPod touch when my friends and I are discussing move sets and abilities. I love it all and I want it to be a part of my life. It IS a part of my life.

One last time, even though I am speechless with excitement and anticipation regarding Ireland/Scotland/England, I am bummed as fuck that I'll be missing PAX for the first time ever. It is important enough to me to keep bitching about missing it even though I'm going off on a fantastic opportunity.

So tonight I will go to bed dreaming of my shiny Oddish, regretting not playing WoW for the past two nights, contemplating how I can get to PAX East next year and wondering what it will be like to be an Enforcer.

Goodnight.

-MJ

Read More

Memories.

Did you ever play Nintendogs? This is a pretty accurate portrayal of what it's like to play it.

While I'm thinking about it, it's pronounced Nin-ten-dogs, NOT Nin-ten-do-dogs. GAH! It was the temporary bane of my existence when this game was launched to hear every freakin' customer come in and ask, "Do you have Nintendodogs in stock?"

alsjdflasdflkjsdf

-MJ

Read More

A quick note.

Last night I dreamed about a large spider, I blame this on WoW.

Last night I dreamed about playing WoW, I blame this on WoW too.

I've traversed the Whirwind caves and I am at about to approach Lugia. You know what my dumbass did? Failed to stock up on Ultra Balls.

My Ampharos can get it down to barely any HP, in the red and paralyzed, but it proceeds to KO all of my Pokemon after that. I can barely throw enough Ultra Balls even if I had a sufficient quantity. I need to swap out one of my party members for one that knows Sleep in some form, that'll at least buy me some time. I suppose I'll dig my way out and have a go at it later.

I believe I forgot Sleep Powder in favor of Poison Powder with my Oddish. Was that the right decision? I'll go to the move tutor place and hash things out.

Yesterday I couldn't figure out how to spell simultaneously. I had everything correct except for the "u". I tried it with a, e and i. I was getting very angry. I feel a lot better now.

One last thing, last night while I was running around Dolanaar I picked up a quest from some guy on the floor in a house. There was another player standing near him. After I accepted the quest and started to leave s/he called me a slut. Not really sure what that was all about. I took a screen shot though, my very first inexplicably rude person! I really feel like I'm a part of the MMO world now.

EDIT***

I'm pretty sure I have the mature language filter on, so s/he had to retype it with a space so their random, angry insult could properly display. I have such a love-hate relationship with the internet.

-MJ

Read More

Did someone say shiny?

Something magical happened to me today. 

I'd like to paint you a picture, if you wouldn't mind.

Flash back to two days ago when Kelly is visiting me. We gabbed all day about video games, World of Warcraft, Pokémon and Zelda. One particular conversation regarding Pokémon turned to the original starters of Red and Blue: Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur. No starters have compared since then, in my humble opinion. He agreed. The other starters all just look... weird, and their evolutions have never felt quite right to me either. We went on to discuss what lengths we would have to go to in order to get those three Pokémon onto our Soul Silver/Heart Gold versions. 

My convoluted answer was this: start a file on Leaf Green/Fire Red, trade the starter to someone with a copy of Diamond/Pearl, trade from Diamond/Pearl to Soul Silver/Heart Gold. Repeat from step one with the other two starters. 

Sounds exhausting! Past that, breeding with a Ditto would be required in order to get more and share with other players. I learned today that starters have only a 10% chance of being female, and when breeding the female Pokémon is what the egg will turn out to be. Seeing as there's such a low chance of our magical starters being female, breeding with a Ditto is just easiest because it'll guarantee that you get whatever the other Pokémon is. This is really only a good idea if you don't care about nature or egg moves. I'm getting way over my own head right now.

So breeding well is extremely complicated. I discovered today that I have a friend named Eve who, along with her boyfriend Brit, happen to be well versed in Pokémon breeding! How wonderful, a perfect opportunity to ask them questions! We start to talk about breeding and rare Pokémon. She brings up shiny Pokémon, extremely rare alternate colored versions of regular Pokémon. I tell her I've never even seen a shiny, let alone owned one.

But that's this? Eve has a surprise for me! I'm instructed to get out my DS and prepare to receive my belated birthday gift.

SHINY ODDISH! Can you say jaw on the freakin' floor?! I am PSYCHED! I never dreamed I'd have a shiny Oddish! Just so you know, Oddish has been and always will be my most favorite and beloved Pokémon. This beauty passed hands from Brit's friend, to Eve and finally to me. Eve says she can't think of anyone else who would give it a better home. She is so right!

The surprises and excitement didn't stop there though.

THE ORIGINAL STARTERS! I mentioned earlier that she and Brit are excellent breeders. They breed all sorts of Pokémon to give away and to build their own super teams. What a dream come true! I timidly asked if I could get two of each to give one set to my best friend Jacki, a fellow Pokémon lover. They happily obliged. 

Thank you Eve and Brit! I will treasure my shiny Oddish, and when I'm finished in the Kanto region and move to the Johto region in Soul Silver I'm going to add them to my team to really kick it old school in the original region! Can I get a hell yeah?! Don't mind me.

-MJ

Read More

This is very important.

Please please please, backup your important files. Put them on your local hard drive (the one that is built into your computer) AND an external hard drive. Please.

Brought to you by Penny Arcade.

-MJ

Read More

A little bit on WoW, and talks with my cousin.

I really do intend on blogging about games other than WoW, it's just at the forefront of my mind right now!

I made a friend!

Today my cousin visited me from Spokane for a photo shoot. He just graduated college and will be moving  to New York and he needs professional photos for his musician's portfolio! I was happy to oblige. Plus, we haven't seen each other in years and I was totally down with hanging out with him! So he arrives late morning and walks into my bedroom and, like most other awesome people, he starts commenting on all the badass video game paraphernalia I have around.

We immediately burst into conversation about Twilight Princess, Chrono Trigger, Kirby, the virtual console, GBA games, kids that don't know what the SNES is, Pokemon and WoW. We hung out for about  8 hours and talked non-stop about video games almost the entire time. A good portion of our conversation centered around WoW. I told him I had just started playing and he got all excited, apparently he plays. I told him all about my experiences as a newbie and how much fun I've been having so far. I asked him a lot of questions that I've had pop up, y'know, new person questions, and he happily answered them all.

My first green drop!

I told him about this entire last year being completely dedicated to photography and my video game life had been shrinking and it bothered me. Now I am so happy to be up to my ears in Pokemon and trolls!

The initial beginnings for this blog, before I actually created it, started a few weeks ago while I was on the phone with my boyfriend Jake. We are fortunate to have found each other, us being the video game enthusiasts that we are. However, he is a Sony guy and I am a Nintendo girl. I respect his system of choice and he likes to poke fun at mine. I am not ashamed though, nor do I waiver! I am interested in his games even if I don't want to play them, and every so often there's a Nintendo title that will pique his interest as well.

This is what happens when someone hits you with a Mohawked! grenade.

We happened to have an amazing phone conversation one night that circulated around which video games we'd love to play together. We fantasized about a time in the future where our evenings will be filled with Mario, MGS, Prince of Persia, Zelda and more. There are games that he wants to watch me play and vice versa, as well as games that we'd like to play together.

"How neat would it be," I thought to myself, "if I made a blog dedicated to our video gaming adventures?".

I then sat on this idea for a few weeks until just yesterday. While in the throes of my new interest in WoW I decided now was as good a time as any to make a blog about all of the so called geeky things that I love. Eventually these pages will also contain thrilling accounts of our gaming adventures together. I can't wait!

Playing with Amanda!

P.S. Kelly plays Alliance and I want to play Alliance! Seeing as you can have characters on both sides on one account I'm going to make a night elf on his server and play with him! I'm pretty damn pumped. Video games AND keeping in touch. Win!

-MJ

Read More

It Looks Delicious.

This is a good space to just rant and rave about Penny Arcade comics that I love.

I've been spending my free internet time reading the Penny Arcade archives. They started their comic in November (I believe) of 1998. There's a lot of great material in there just waiting to be perused on a rainy day. Or in my case, when I'm bored or just in need of more comics.

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite strip. It's just so hilarious. The expressions are perfect, Gabe just looks so happy in that last panel. He wants to have a cake party! I love the persona of Gabe. He makes me happy. I should throw a cake party sometime in honor of this strip. The cake would have to have a dong on it though, y'know, to keep it really Penny Arcade.

Mike and Jerry are just so poignant. They're able to take just about any topic and really "get it" in their default three panel setup. That's talent. And they're so funny. No matter what they choose to write their comic about (it's usually video games but not always), they're able to really give it that extra jazz, really Penny Arcade it up.

Kudos to them both, I really appreciate their work as web comic creators and as the philanthropic folk that they're becoming through Child's Play!

-MJ

Read More

Wow... WoW!

Yes that's right, I am officially a World of Warcraft player.

If we're being honest here, and I hope that we are, I've always wanted to play an MMO. I've wanted to be a part of that online community because I find it fascinating! I'm not talking about the 13 year olds who can't type and call everyone a fag, I mean the other people like me who have real lives and derive great enjoyment from video games! It's nice to meet new people, even if they are online.

When World of Warcraft came out I was a fresh faced GameStop employee. It was November of 2004 and I remember it well. I was hired on for the holiday season and, more importantly, the launch of Halo 2. I would like the record to show that I don't give a fuck about Halo. We can move on now. So, I'm learning the ropes, we're prepping for Halo. I am also being prepped for Everquest II and the much spoken of World of Warcraft. It was one hell of a month.

Flash forward five and a half years (yikes) and I have yet to really *know* anything about the game. People were very consistently purchasing it at work since its release and I have been privy to the releases of The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. There is an apparent frenzy for this game and I just got curiouser and curiouser. About two years ago I ventured into a 10 day free trial, but I didn't care for it. I think this is mostly because I didn't understand how to play the game. At this time, also, no one in my "circle" played. This is definitely a social game and I was missing that aspect in a big way. I kept getting murdered by the same Harpy over and over again, each time running back to my body only to get slayed again. "Well that wasn't fun", I thought to myself before uninstalling the trial.

In September of 2008 Warhammer: Age of Reckoning was released and I thought it would be my chance to get into an MMO. I care much more about the Warhammer universe than I do the Warcraft universe. I've played Dawn of War and I have an army of Witch Hunters for tabletop 40k. There was a pre-existing investment here. Well, no one I knew wanted to play WAR. I thought I'd be able to get past this, and I might have been able to if WAR weren't so PVP heavy. Even though I'm interested in making new "friends" over the internet, I'm not really into the idea of creating strict guild requirements and having these sort of strange online "commitments". I'm fairly wishy washy with my gaming time, I don't think I would have been a good member.

This story is going somewhere I promise.

I recently received the Netflix instant watch disc for my Wii (about time), and the first thing I did with it was start searching for instant watch content of course!

Now I had heard of The Guild before and I had a vague inkling of what it actually was, but I had never watched it. Seasons 1 and 2 are available on instant watch and I instantly watched them.

Highly entertaining! I definitely recommend them. I need to start on season 3. But the point of this is that it centers around people playing WoW. The show started to stir my curiosity and thirst to be a part of an MMO. That and about once a month Penny Arcade does a WoW comic and I swear it just makes me burn to be involved. Agh!

The final straw here happened last weekend. I was home from school visiting friends and family, and on one particular outing Jake and I went to the GameStop where I sometimes work. My fabulous friend James was on shift and he told me he started playing WoW. I looked at him incredulously (he wouldn't play WAR with me, afterall). Apparently he started playing and was running around with another friend of ours, Amanda, who has been a player for a long time.

I turned this information over in my mind a few times before starting a 10 day trial just three days ago. James sent me a recruitment thing and apparently we get more XP or something.

I love WoW! I'm pretty damn happy to say that. I'm currently trying my hardest to level up to mid 20s so I can go questing with James and Amanda. I'm level 12 right now, not bad for three days of playing if I may say so (although I really have no basis for comparison).  I am a troll mage specializing in alchemy and herbalism. I hail from Zangarmarsh, fear me!

There's a boar stuck in the canyon wall. His legs were going as though he were running. I found this to be pretty funny.

I just want to add that, under different circumstances, I would have chosen Alliance not Horde.

-MJ

Read More

Just an idea.

So I like a lot of things, and I like to share those things via words. I used to blog all the time via Livejournal, Melo and Myspace. Now that I'm firmly planted in Facebook for an interpersonal platform I have lost my space for random musings. I could easily journal on a real piece of paper, but I like to know that my thoughts can be viewed by others. Makes me feel nice. I have another blog, http://mjphotolife.blogspot.com but that's entirely devoted to my photography endeavors. Where oh where to put the rest of my life in internet journal form?

This space right here.

Really what I want to talk about is all the so-called geeky things that I like to do. I don't mind the word geek, I think it's nice, although I do think it gets over used and misused. I'm going to attempt to use it proper! Here's what I love and what I will be applying it to: video games, web comics (and comic books to a certain extent), tabletop gaming, manga/anime and some other things that I'm probably forgetting. Does this seem sufficiently geeky? I really hope so.

This past year has been almost entirely dedicated to the pursuit of photography. I'm about to graduate and I've had my nose to the proverbial grindstone, chipping away at the endless amount of photography information that there is to know. I have had essentially zero time for video games or any of my other beloved hobbies. This makes me sad sad sad. Really the only part I've been able to keep up on is my super heated love for Penny Arcade. Three days a week they have amused me, consistently and without fail, for the past six and a half years.

This space will be my dumping zone for talk of video games that I'm playing, video games I want to be playing, how much I miss D&D and warhammer 40k, penny arcade, PAX, new nerd music (I hope!) and possibly anime/manga at some point.

So read along, if you please! I hope to do something along the lines of "entertain". I'd like to post pictures and screen shots if possible. I'll see what I can do.

Onward!

-MJ

Read More