Out of the MUDD and MUCK into Oblivion

My younger brother has been kind enough to take me under his wing and give me a crash course in gaming. Although, I'm afraid to say that I'm really bad at jumping from game to game. Where some people might play one game for a few hours and then try something new, I like to wrestle with something for ages. In a rather mulish way I'll beat my head against a wall until I burst through. Or pass out. Whichever comes first. That said, he's being amazingly patient with me in this endeavor and has even gone so far as to help me set up an Xbox Live account (he, in fact, is the reason I have an xbox at all now). Now, I say 'help' not because I'm not technically savvy and couldn't figure it out for myself. No, I can figure out the particulars. It's just that damn 6 - 15 character username that gets me every time. When faced with defining myself in such a small, irrelevant way my mind goes blank. Cue my brother and his friend with suggestions. Some of you might be happy to know that I didn't steal the following names away from the world last night:

Angry Alan Thick
Lovely Carl Winslow
Be Bea Arthur

Although, I think that my brother's friend my have taken some form of 'Lovely Carl Winslow' by now. And if you were curious about 'Kirk Cameron', 'Lisa Turtle' or 'Kelly Kapowski' they were all taken. I'm pretty happy with what I ended up with, though I can't claim it's clever or even similar to any of my usual monikers. But if you see 'candace cameron' running around, it's me.

The only down side to having my own xbox live account instead of playing on my brother's is that I had to restart my Dragon Age Origins game. Really it's not such a hardship because I hadn't gotten so far. The interesting thing is that by going back and playing again I unlocked different accomplishments and have different characters in my party. It's interesting to me that the choices I make matter so much. That's the sort of thing that I love. Years ago when my brother introduced me to Knights of the Old Republic he lost access to his xbox for an entire week.

Now, the fantastic thing about Dragon Age is that, even for someone like me who is accustomed to MUSH/MUCK/MUDD platforms and not a heavy console gamer, it is easy to slip into the game play. Control functions make sense and after a little bit of fooling around with are really natural. The controls for Mass Effect I'm much clumsier with. I ended up having to invert the controller because somehow making up into down and vice versa made more sense to my head. Go figure.

Maybe I'm just inherently better with sharp pointy things than guns. Hm. Something to ponder.

Spinning my Wheels

Three weeks of holiday goodness means (for me) not only catching up with family and people I haven't seen in a great while, but also glutting myself with as much media as possible. Where I feel I have been falling down in the area of visiting people (note lack of car and irrational anxiety when it comes to phone conversations) whom I love deeply, I am confident that I am getting my fair share of media. Surprisingly, all forms.

Initially when I packed my back to head to the (not so) sunny south I convinced myself the following would be utterly vital:

• 2 cookbooks
• 1 book on the Okefenokee to return to my grandmother
• 5 fictional novels I've been meaning to read for ages
• 1 Nintendo DS, charger & a Final Fantasy game
• 2 sets of knitting needles
• 3 skeins of yarn
• 1 laptop & charger
• 1 sketchbook & bag of drawing pencils
  

Dave managed to convince me that, no, I do not need five books to read. So, I only brought three. To be fair, I have read two of those in addition to going through one skein of yarn... even if the second skein I started was not one I brought with, but one my mother purchased for me today. But, hey! I need something to do while I watch Dexter with my brother.

It's strange catching up with the things that I've been neglecting. With reading, for instance, it's like gluping down ice cold water from the hose after spending a long day out playing. Nothing else can taste so good. I race through the words, tumbling forward recklessly not caring about meaning. It was probably a good thing that I read Real Murders by Charlaine Harris first. One of her first books, I gather, and her early writing style leaves something to be desired. I probably would have liked it more if it weren't set in a fictional Georgia town that is almost (but not quite) a lot of cities I know. I felt like not only did she not do her research on more than several occasions, but she just didn't go far enough. She was skirting the edge of the pool and occasionally dipping her toes instead of just doing it and leaping in like we wanted. That said, it was a light and fluffy read. Interesting to see where she has come from, but I'm glad that her writing has improved a great deal in the nineteen years it's been since that novel was initially published. I finished the whole read in about a day and was left wanting more. Not of that, per se, but of words in general. As it would turn out, I was in luck. Soulless by Gail Carriger is positively amazing. I mean, the cover boasts that it's about vampires, werewolves and parasols. What is not to like?

Soulless is one of those books that found me rather than the other way around. During one of my random jaunts in a bookstore during my lunch hour (a time frequently spent sneaking away to peek at books I know I won't have time to read during the school year) I was drawn towards the bright pink around the bold font. While the description on the back was intriguing, I must say that it was the author's bio that made me purchase the book more than anything else. It reminded me of Orli, and goodness know how I love that woman as well as her writing. I must say that Soulless was far from disappointing. It was clever from the top down. The characters were engaging and I found myself drawn into this Victorian world that had hints of steam punk without making me want to cringe at the 'hipness' of it all. No, there is a definite reason this story is being told. The heroine within this book is full of agency. She's someone I would like to be. Roman nose and all. I urge you all to pick it up and give the pages a turn. The words are a bit dense, but it's rewarding. Like bunt cake. So delicious!

When I not reading I, surprisingly, have been indulging in a great deal of video games. The new Mario for the wii. It is both fun and frustrating. And multi-player divorce mode is next to impossible for me. I find that my teammates are always jumping on my head or I forget who I am and end up bubbled. But I like it even if my timing skills leave a lot to be desired. It's fun to remember the original game as I stumble through the levels of this new one.

My netflix account, too, has been getting a fair share of use. But I think I will save my review of Lost in Austen for when I have decided exactly how I feel about it. I keep waffling back in forth on that one. Cleverly done but... hm. Better not to launch into it.

So, all in all the holidays are going well in my little corner of the globe. I hope that you and yours can say the same. And for goodness sake, do stay safe! We only have a little left of 2009 to get through and I want to see that everyone makes it! I'm tired of people skipping out on us.