Oh, technology. Also, state of the fannish me.
So, some sort of alignment of the stars or something has prompted gmail and LJ to just now cough up some comment notifications. Some from back in DECEMBER. Good job there, y'all.
In other news, I am curious: What comics are folks reading? For a while, I was staying current with Blue Beetle and a few others but it's been so long since I stepped foot in a comics shop that I've only been getting my news about storylines from friends of mine who still read every month. I'd like to get back into stuff, though.
Carrying on with the geeky theme, I'm kinda ridiculously excited about Sims 3 dropping soon. I won't be getting the game until it's been out for a while but all the advances in gameplay that I've been reading about make me giddy. Seamless neighborhoods especially make me happy. And I'm sure that means there will be a HOST of new interesting ways to kill your sims now and they won't even have to be in their homes. Sweet!
I am *trying* to keep up my enthusiasm about World of Warcraft, and the Wrath expansion did help with that some because I love getting new lore. But, more often than not, I find myself going "Do I really want to log in and deal with ignorant motherfuckers today? Do I REALLY?" Not saying that all of my experiences with folks in the game have been bad, but the bad tends to overwhelm the few bright points of joy in my communal gaming experience.
For example, here's a Pro Tip: When you come across a player character who is coded as a human female of color and she is hacking her way through various beasts and her quest log, the proper way to address her is NOT to say "Hey, Condelezza! How 'bout you back that ass up?" NOR is it to whisper her to say things about "tasting the rainbow" and "wanting try something exotic." You should ESPECIALLY not be surprised when she proceeds to tell you the hell off and slice you in twain with her greatsword. You should then REALLY not be surprised when you find out that the player behind the character is ACTUALLY A REAL LIVE BLACK WOMAN. HOLY SHIT, THE SKY IS FALLING YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A WHITE MALE LIKE ME HOW DARE YOU TRICK ME COLOREDS AND WOMEN DON'T PLAY VIDEO GAMES.
I don't know about other folks but neither me nor my paladin play that and WILL cut you. Just sayin'.
Also, it'd be nice to be able to play my blood elf male character without being called a "fag" all the time or being told how such and such a thing is "SOOOOO GAY". I know requesting equality and a happy fun fantasy space that DOESN'T try to beat down the various facets of my being as a queer woman of color are fucking pipe dreams, but I still hope.
I mean, I've somehow managed to keep playing the game for this many years despite the skanky ethnic/racial portrayals all over the place. Like the "savage and barbarous jungle trolls" who are Fauxmaican as the day is long and warn you to "stay away from da voodoo" and such. And the Pretendian Taurens, where several Native American cultures are smashed together and called good. I guess I should be happy that they don't say "How" anymore. And let's not forget the Orcs and their blood lust and how their race are the only ones in the game whose natural skin tones on their home world are brown (they turn green after drinking demon blood and going through a dimensional portal to rampage on Azeroth). Or that their dances are the MC Hammer dance for the males and general booty shaking for the females. Or that their faction is called The Horde and is portrayed as being savage. Unless you're Forsaken (basically intelligent zombies). Then you're just pure evil. Blood Elves are apparently just pretty. When they're not trying to suck the magical essence from your body because they're all addicted to it. Yes, they ARE the least troubling of the Horde races. Which sucks, because I find The Horde MUCH more interesting from a storytelling standpoint than the Alliance.
Ah, yes. The Alliance. They are not without their own wtfness. Like how the default for humans is totally Western Euro-centric both appearance and culture-wise, even though they do allow you to create human characters with darker skin tones. They still have more generic European facial features and hairstyles and communities and such. And there's the Draenei who are like Romani Goats! From! Space!, with attempted genocide and generic Eastern European accent thrown in. And the Dwarves who are just about every stereotype of the drunken, violent Irish. I think the Gnomes are the least troubling of the Alliance races because they're just tiny and wacky and like building things. I guess the Night Elves are the mysterious Asians in this scenario, but to tell the truth, I had to stop paying attention and turn off my brain after a while.
I find myself having to do that a lot with this game if I ever want to get to end-game content. Like how the current campaign is basically colonialism with both factions showing up on a new continent and how the groups already there meet them. One is basically the Vikings, who are hostile and very much GET OFF OUR LAWN. They get killed left, right, and center by both factions and SOME of the killing is done with DISEASES. FANTASTIC. (That's sarcasm, for the slow among us.) One is basically the Inuit, who are the peaceful, welcoming natives. Who are actually Walrus People, but totally help the new comers to the continent with surviving in a new environment, etc etc, I hope it doesn't end up biting them in the ass.
Moving on to television, I'm still in the mindset of not being used to having a tv from a few years ago, so even though the fam has cable, I can really only focus on one tv show at a time back from when the only tv I really got to watch were dvds I would rent/borrow. My current tv obsession is Leverage and the fact that it's SO ott and ridic that I can't help but be all omglol. I LOVE Hardison's character. And Parker. And Eliot. That's really all I can say about that because I can't be more intellectual about it right now because it's been so long since I actually LIKED a tv show that I'm still in the "It smells new and sparkly!" stage. Well, that and as much as I love Christian Kane with longer hair because it adds to the hotness, HE NEEDS TO STOP THE BLOWOUT CRAZINESS. It's KILLING me. I worry about it being damaged. Then I wonder just how much product he's using and how his hair's probably unhappy. Then I shake my head at myself because I'm worried about the man's HAIR, for fuck's sake.
I'll have you know, LJ, that for this post, I was torn between the icon I used and the icon I have of my human paladin character. The only reason I didn't choose her is because I've not yet gotten around to putting text on it that reads "Holy or not, I WILL cut you." Or something of that nature. Things, stuff.
In other news, I am curious: What comics are folks reading? For a while, I was staying current with Blue Beetle and a few others but it's been so long since I stepped foot in a comics shop that I've only been getting my news about storylines from friends of mine who still read every month. I'd like to get back into stuff, though.
Carrying on with the geeky theme, I'm kinda ridiculously excited about Sims 3 dropping soon. I won't be getting the game until it's been out for a while but all the advances in gameplay that I've been reading about make me giddy. Seamless neighborhoods especially make me happy. And I'm sure that means there will be a HOST of new interesting ways to kill your sims now and they won't even have to be in their homes. Sweet!
I am *trying* to keep up my enthusiasm about World of Warcraft, and the Wrath expansion did help with that some because I love getting new lore. But, more often than not, I find myself going "Do I really want to log in and deal with ignorant motherfuckers today? Do I REALLY?" Not saying that all of my experiences with folks in the game have been bad, but the bad tends to overwhelm the few bright points of joy in my communal gaming experience.
For example, here's a Pro Tip: When you come across a player character who is coded as a human female of color and she is hacking her way through various beasts and her quest log, the proper way to address her is NOT to say "Hey, Condelezza! How 'bout you back that ass up?" NOR is it to whisper her to say things about "tasting the rainbow" and "wanting try something exotic." You should ESPECIALLY not be surprised when she proceeds to tell you the hell off and slice you in twain with her greatsword. You should then REALLY not be surprised when you find out that the player behind the character is ACTUALLY A REAL LIVE BLACK WOMAN. HOLY SHIT, THE SKY IS FALLING YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A WHITE MALE LIKE ME HOW DARE YOU TRICK ME COLOREDS AND WOMEN DON'T PLAY VIDEO GAMES.
I don't know about other folks but neither me nor my paladin play that and WILL cut you. Just sayin'.
Also, it'd be nice to be able to play my blood elf male character without being called a "fag" all the time or being told how such and such a thing is "SOOOOO GAY". I know requesting equality and a happy fun fantasy space that DOESN'T try to beat down the various facets of my being as a queer woman of color are fucking pipe dreams, but I still hope.
I mean, I've somehow managed to keep playing the game for this many years despite the skanky ethnic/racial portrayals all over the place. Like the "savage and barbarous jungle trolls" who are Fauxmaican as the day is long and warn you to "stay away from da voodoo" and such. And the Pretendian Taurens, where several Native American cultures are smashed together and called good. I guess I should be happy that they don't say "How" anymore. And let's not forget the Orcs and their blood lust and how their race are the only ones in the game whose natural skin tones on their home world are brown (they turn green after drinking demon blood and going through a dimensional portal to rampage on Azeroth). Or that their dances are the MC Hammer dance for the males and general booty shaking for the females. Or that their faction is called The Horde and is portrayed as being savage. Unless you're Forsaken (basically intelligent zombies). Then you're just pure evil. Blood Elves are apparently just pretty. When they're not trying to suck the magical essence from your body because they're all addicted to it. Yes, they ARE the least troubling of the Horde races. Which sucks, because I find The Horde MUCH more interesting from a storytelling standpoint than the Alliance.
Ah, yes. The Alliance. They are not without their own wtfness. Like how the default for humans is totally Western Euro-centric both appearance and culture-wise, even though they do allow you to create human characters with darker skin tones. They still have more generic European facial features and hairstyles and communities and such. And there's the Draenei who are like Romani Goats! From! Space!, with attempted genocide and generic Eastern European accent thrown in. And the Dwarves who are just about every stereotype of the drunken, violent Irish. I think the Gnomes are the least troubling of the Alliance races because they're just tiny and wacky and like building things. I guess the Night Elves are the mysterious Asians in this scenario, but to tell the truth, I had to stop paying attention and turn off my brain after a while.
I find myself having to do that a lot with this game if I ever want to get to end-game content. Like how the current campaign is basically colonialism with both factions showing up on a new continent and how the groups already there meet them. One is basically the Vikings, who are hostile and very much GET OFF OUR LAWN. They get killed left, right, and center by both factions and SOME of the killing is done with DISEASES. FANTASTIC. (That's sarcasm, for the slow among us.) One is basically the Inuit, who are the peaceful, welcoming natives. Who are actually Walrus People, but totally help the new comers to the continent with surviving in a new environment, etc etc, I hope it doesn't end up biting them in the ass.
Moving on to television, I'm still in the mindset of not being used to having a tv from a few years ago, so even though the fam has cable, I can really only focus on one tv show at a time back from when the only tv I really got to watch were dvds I would rent/borrow. My current tv obsession is Leverage and the fact that it's SO ott and ridic that I can't help but be all omglol. I LOVE Hardison's character. And Parker. And Eliot. That's really all I can say about that because I can't be more intellectual about it right now because it's been so long since I actually LIKED a tv show that I'm still in the "It smells new and sparkly!" stage. Well, that and as much as I love Christian Kane with longer hair because it adds to the hotness, HE NEEDS TO STOP THE BLOWOUT CRAZINESS. It's KILLING me. I worry about it being damaged. Then I wonder just how much product he's using and how his hair's probably unhappy. Then I shake my head at myself because I'm worried about the man's HAIR, for fuck's sake.
I'll have you know, LJ, that for this post, I was torn between the icon I used and the icon I have of my human paladin character. The only reason I didn't choose her is because I've not yet gotten around to putting text on it that reads "Holy or not, I WILL cut you." Or something of that nature. Things, stuff.