Low tech for lent... 40 days without a laptop.

Well... you may be asking... "Now Ryotgrrl, did WoW eat you? Are you indeed a zombie? Where have you gone?"  Fear not faithful readers!  True to the Ryotgrrl spirit I was trying something new and the same stuff all at the same time!  Easter Sunday has passed and many of the christian faith have been released from the restrictions they put on themselves for Lent.  Like them I got to return to what I had given up, my laptop. You may raise an eyebrow, and without back-story I would too. Hear me out and you'll see where this got skewed up.

http://www.webcomichell.com

"In the beginning, she had an idea: and  she thought it great.  And that was good.
I shall go low tech for Lent! I shall report! I shall... be pious?
And she tried, and that was a different story."
-the book of ryot


So up late I get the idea to dump my high tech gadgets over Lent.  It's just 40 days... and what the hell do I do in a day? It will make a good story! Getting outside is good for you, er me! This can only lead to good things; well I don't know if I was drinking when I came to this conclusion but let's take a look at how this played out.
Usually Mardi Gras is looked forward to and decadently observed in my little world, this year I had already started making excuses for my commitment to lessen long before Ash Wednesday.  Um, I need my... phone still, it is how I talk to my mom and what if there is an emergency? ..... yea. So there I have social networks, all sorts of media and the ability to get more.  And I can't take away the TV, I'm not the only one in the house; or wait! I can watch TV when they do and just not play video games. Wait, did I say not play video games, that's stupid.  So in the zero hour it became I won't use my laptop for Lent. That will still get me out of the house, using my free time more wisely and save monies... somehow.  Again, I forget it's bitter cold here in the middle of nowhere and there is little to nothing to do in this one horse town; oh yea, and I'm incurably lazy with no attention span.
So I started off ok, walking to the store in time I might have been WoWing, cleaning when I could have been blogging and talking to the better half, myself, and my higher power in my quieter moments; this lasted a week, maybe 10 days. Then I was sorta bored, and the house was pretty clean and the cats were looking at me sideways cause I had started making costumes and creating tiny puzzles for them to solve.
I started coming up with excuses for the better half to use my computer, check things, listen to Pandora  pull up movies (you see where this is headed); suddenly the retrospective moments vanished.  I spent more time using internet programs I usually did on the computer on my phone and game console. I got better at cheating. Gave up a PC mmo and started a console one. Then I read somewhere that Sundays didn't count in Lent and out the window went any sort of resolve. Like a doomed New Year's resolution I then lamented my failure instead of just trying again at piety, meditation, alms-giving, repentance and self-reflection I sulkingly plodded on doing the same.  It just built and built until it was pointless in my eyes so I sorta just sat stagnant. This was supposed to be a time for me, regardless of religion, to focus on faith, bettering of my body and soul; and I made it 40 days of excuses, corner cutting and cheating. I gave up WoW for Lent but picked DCUO back up.
I realize and winder how many other people may be turning a good thing around and in that making it the exact opposite of what they wanted.

Why couldn't I give up driving?  I don't even have a damned car.

NOTE: No, I am not making light of sacrifice, meditation, prayer, penance or repentance.  I am also not making statements to anyone's belief or experience over Lent but my own. Lastly I make no clams to the validity of ANY religion. (What the hell would I know?)

The New Year & What It Brought Me...

Wow.. After a holiday break here we are back at the daily grind of bringing the injustices and insights of the world to light.
If you are looking for some emotional crap about how I vow to change or do this or do that click elsewhere. I can't even bring myself to say that stupid shit to myself in the mirror let alone spoon feed it to you good people.  So you wonder... What good Ryotgrrl, what is it that you have gotten for the new year? WELL let me tell you, I got a big box of Blizzard. The WoW all the way up to the new expansion. If you are rolling your eyes and thinking how crappy WoW is again, click away now.
I have wanted to be many things over the years, but when I saw the opportunity to be a panda,  how could I resist?  In the past I have played EverQuest, and recently checked out the EQII (NOT a fan, but that is a blog for another day), I've gone the DCUO route as well some others; this is not my first time at the rodeo.  I have always wanted to play WoW so this is my first foray into it since I tried a free trial download years ago.

I was extra interested in starting my blog about this after re-reading PLAYBOY's article 'Life and Death Online- They're Not Just Games (March 2003)' I was musing about the evolution of gaming online and the wide range of gamers that have come to fill the evolving roll of players in them.  I know many people see players of said online games as kids in a dark basement with bad skin, asthma, too many caffeinated beverages about and nothing better to do.  Shows like The Guild, Big Bang Theory, Pure Pwnage, Numbers, have shown us that geeks, gamers and the tech savvy can come in all shapes and sizes, all walks of life.  Hell, is there a crime drama out there now without the quirky geek, the boy genius or tech wizard?  So, yea, my point... gamers aren't the social pariahs they used to be, they are becoming more of a norm.

After 2 weeks of starting and deleting toons, I have 2 lvl 20+ characters and a 2 others that have barely broke level 10 on different servers.  I've joined one guild logged many hours and still retain most of my sanity and a fair hold on reality.   My housework gets done, I talk to people and my boyfriend still talks to me; so far, I don't seem to be addicted but I AM enjoying myself.  I'm also VERY curious about the community on different servers and factions, players races and I would love comments from other players!  Hit me up people!

So.. This pretty much qualifies as a WTF?

WARNING: This is me being judgmental about ACTUAL EVENTS.  I can do that, I have the right especially when it's across the street.  If you don't want to experience me being holier than thou (or them, or... whatever) stop reading now. Right now.  I mean it! This is some ridiculous crap and I'm gonna call it like I see it.  I obviously LIVE in the trailer park, so there is no judgment there; I don't look down on people with kids OR those that need state aid, my family depended on help when I was young.  Again, this isn't why I use certain terms, I use them because they are ACCURATE.

Let me first introduce the players in this predictably trashy... in this thing...  Names have OBVIOUSLY been changed to protect the ... people involved.

Peg- Professional breeder, mother of 4; 5th on the way, one has been taken from her.  No vehicle, no job (duh) and no prospect to ever be anything better than she is at this moment
Alvin- Moron (ex)boyfriend of Peg's, worked for Cable Co. R Us, a decade older than Peg and no stranger to knocking a woman around
Marcy- Poor hapless pregnant.... girl, friend of Peg
Violet- Caring neighbor and general good soul

Scene: that trailer park on the edge of town, you know the one; not terribly shabby, no fences made from car hoods, but a trailer park none the less.  Plenty of dogs, cats, and children abound on any given day ending in 'y'; and more every other weekend.  Lots of noise and yelling so often commotion is overlooked or ignored.

It was a quiet Monday night at the end of a chilly November.  There was frost atop the fallen leaves and Peg went to bed giving little thought to Alvin, despite the protection order that she had had to take out after he called and threatened her life and that of their unborn child.  The small children (all under 9) were all asleep in their room and her friend Marcy was asleep on the couch, the young expectant mother ignorant of the danger the darkness held. In the first moments of early morning a cable van pulled up to her trailer; to the normal passer-by nothing was amiss. Alvin and Peg had lived together for a while and comings and goings at all hours aren't unheard of.

He entered the house and saw a sleeping figure on the couch, and swung sinking his blade into the slumbering figure her startled screams cutting into the early morn. Marcy lurched for the door clutching at her wounds begging for help as she stumbled across the lawn.  The confused dark figure looked left and right and made move towards Peg's door before turning to flee.  As he fumbled in his van and sped off Marcy plodded toward the light in the distance.

Violet had heard some noise as she played some games in the facespace. When the noise came direct to her door she peered out into the darkness.  It looked like a scene from a cheap horror movie, too much blood... blood was everywhere.  Blue eyes peered at her pleading "Help me! He's still after me!" Violet thought it was her writer friend from a few trailers down, was there a car accident? Yanking the door open she breathed a sigh of relief and caught her own breath in the next moment.  The girl that stood before her was unknown to her but she ushered Marcy in and tried to calm her while Violet's mother called the authorities.  The sounds of sirens woke the nearby residents hours before sunrise.

A day passed, blood spattered the front lawn where the children's toys were strewn and people just cluck their tongues.  Violet spent the next day cleaning up the carnage that had spilled into her living room.  All she could do now was answer the authorities questions and figure out how to get blood out of carpet.  Even Marcy's mother came to Violet to thank her for saving her daughter's life.

So now the whispers of concern circulate for Marcy and there are plenty of people saying that well, Peg had it coming.  What the blogger across the street wonders is why the heck this white trash baby factory is able to keep the remaining children in her care if this is the sort of thing that happens around her.  And once is.... too much. 3 children in this house and another on the way; this is the stuff nightmares are made of and no child should live in a crime scene.

Yea, I sound sanctimonious. Big deal. This is crazy shit.  It happened across the street. Effing crazy white trash breeders and their idiot boyfriends.

Ok... so first: I know the blog is late... Ta hell with you holidays, I get off cause my family stuffs me too full to even type.  Next, I AM going to address the Twinkies issue; but I need time to do some DEEP research on this.  (How does HOSTESS effen go under? Idiots...)

So after plenty of thought here is our discussion for the week...  I know that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year.  This is no surprise to me since there were Christmas decorations are up before Halloween, as soon as November started there were radio stations that play nothing but carols, I'm SO over this holiday. I'm used to it and I thought I was immune to all this cheery crap. Since I live in B.F.E. I get a whopping 3-6 channels on my television.  (I promise this is relevant.) Now on one of these they have dictated that weekends are Holiday season type movie nights weather I like it or not. (Can you believe they didn't even ask me?) Without realizing it I was about to brainwash myself I was cleaning my house with the Television on; I came out again and again catching bits of this and a minute of that... next thing I know I am seated on my love seat nibbling chips ACTUALLY WATCHING THIS CRAP! Not only did I watch it I was involved!  OK hallmark,  here I draw the line.  I was watching that bitchy red head from clueless (Elisa Donovan) almost 20 years/lbs later crying about how her Hollywood type life isn't perfect. (I thought for a moment it was Clueless 2; yes I'm still a mean brainless girl who cries about being popular and rich.)  After a few minor hiccups in her life she goes to what she thinks is a life coach that winds up being her guardian angel type gal who gives her 12 wishes.  Obviously she makes impulse driven decisions for new clothes and attention from her boyfriend ect. which results in negative consequences and then she has to pull herself up by her bootstraps and take responsibility. By the end I was giving FAR too much thought to the wishes I would make. Buy property? New car? New job? What WOULD the backlash be, WHO would that effect? Seriously? I spent a night on this! To save me from this deep sort of mushy thought I am watching only horror movies all night long now, but you! My special little readers! I write this to save you!  BEWARE you could be next! You could be weeping watching golden retrievers reunite couples or giggling laughing at an idiot being selfish and punished by karma only to have them rise above and learn a  lesson.  You have been warned.

Lastly, after being inundated by the Yuletide season I ask you ALL this because after I perversly finished up my list I'm curious!: If you had 12 wishes, (immediately granted by some weird Christmas faerie) what would they be? Would you help others? Be selfish?  Tell me, try and be honest!  (Remember: Even spontaneously granted wishes have consequences and fallout.)

Really Steak 'N Shake?

Ok... So after class I stop with my lovely mum to grab a bite to eat for the ride home; not an uncommon happening.  We order our tasty meals and I... like an idiot do not order a shake... but a soda pop.  We receive our food and head out the door to the car.  Now, I'm an amazon, not exactly delicate, but I don't exactly hold on to a drink with an iron fist... despite this my hand went straight through the STYROFOAM cup that held my large soda.  I am sticky, annoyed, thirsty... and on the whole furious.

Who the heck STILL USES STYROFOAM?!?  It's a flimsy, non biodegradable material that has no business housing my SODA POP!  The ice is at the top, offering NO support within the cup, just a gallon of soda sloshing about waiting to escape and soak you.  Now, the cup has been rendered in twain, and I sit holding two sides of and eviscerated cup; I shake off my hands, stalk back inside and thrust the two halves into the hands of the cashier letting him know that I find the fact such a large soda is in a flimsy source asinine.
Is it just me?  I mean, I can't think of a SINGLE fast food source that gives a trap waiting to spring on me.  I know that McDonalds still uses styrofoam cups for their sweet tea, but they serve plenty of cold drinks in plastic cups, including their shakes.  So WHY?!?!?  Why Steak 'n Shake do you do this to me? Is it too difficult to have 2 styles of cup?  Not to say that Steak 'n Shake does a bad job, they were super nice  about it and gave my mom another soda for me...  It isn't the fault of the workers at this eatery, fault falls with the idiot that decided they can only have ONE type of to go cup.  Seriously? Come on dude-that-makes-the-orders-for-our-drink-cups you gotta step up here, the kids working behind the counter can handle it.  I have faith, and I hate sticky hands; make this better!

Words with Friends... the board game?

OK... like many of the people out there I have been playing Zynga's Words with Friends.  It's a fun way to pass a few minutes, easy to find my friends from Facebook or Twitter, and it can keep for a few days if I just want to leave it alone for a day or two.  It doesn't make tons of noise or insist that I buy things to have a fair shot at playing.  Also, any game I can play with my mother and beat her at occasionally automatically makes it into my play rotation.  It's an app on my phone and I can play it while I'm on Facebook so it's versatile and easily accessible.  You can also search out random opponents if you are looking for someone to play with that's not on a friends list.  Then, a week ago I start to notice a new ad in my app.  For Words with Friends.... the board game? WTF?

Isn't this Scrabble? I swear, it's not as flashy and I don't have an app for it on Facebook... but I'm pretty sure. It was a 15x15 square board with bonuses scattered about, 100 letter tiles of varying point values, and Hasbro/Mattel makes it?  I'm not wrong am I? This is a game that has been around since like the 70's; if not longer? I'm pretty sure both my grandmother and mother have the game in their closets with monopoly and Yahtzee.  So, what is this?  A reboot of our classic game?  
To keep you good people in the know I had to check this noise out! I'm not against an old favorite getting a new face, we have Uno Attack! Yahtzee Party, Superman Monopoly; I can learn to adapt.

After scoping out the Hasbro website and it's product description for the game it seems that indeed it IS basically the same game. There is the same size board with the same style of score bonus squares, same little trays for tiles of the 2-4 players.  There appears to be 4 extra tiles, (104 vs. the 100 in Scrabble) a 'game guide' (rule book?) and a cute little tile bag that's slightly snazzier than the little velour one that comes in the Scrabble box. It main difference seems to be that it has a digital code to redeem online and it claims that it interfaces (somehow) with the app.  All this comes for about 20 bucks (5 bucks more than Scrabble).  

Um... I remember downloading the app, it was free.  I have some adds, I can pay for little cheaterpants tools if I want, but it's free to play.  Why in the name of the cosmos would you want to pay for a new look on a game that all ready exists, that you probably have laying around? Seriously, paint your board blue at the edges, put a letter on your tile bag, soak your wooden tiles in some food coloring to die them yellow and... KACHOW! there ya go. I just saved you people a quick twenty bucks!

'Sexy' Plus Size Costumes

First off, sorry this one is so late guys... moved out of my apt., kitty ran away from home, test in school... life happened.

Next, anyone who knows me knows I am not... hear me before you read this and start hating me, NOT a small girl.  Never have been, too hard to be small when you're 6' tall. So, when it comes to a Halloween costume I am not new to shopping in the large or plus sized costume category, usually it's a slightly smaller  selection with slightly longer hemlines and seams that don't over accentuate the curves us bigger gals wanna keep covered.  Now I don't know if it's something I am noticing JUST this year, but there are some of these so called 'sexy' plus sized costumes that shouldn't... be... so... sexy?

Here we have just one item that I would like to use as my prime example.  Now I'm not sure if you skinny attractive folk know this but often when a female reaches a particular size, her midsection gets larger, not just the chest and hips.  If ones midsection is not flat, does one really need to wear a top that intentionally shows said area?  I know that most larger sizes try to draw attention to be breast area, that's fine as it's usually ample and easy to do; but there are limits to what the eye should take in if you are in a bar or at a party.  Also, I'm not sure if this logic has hit anyone designing these so called 'plus size costumes' but when your backside is larger... YOU NEED MORE FABRIC TO COVER IT!!! My legs are long people!  I can't be given a 10 inch long skirt and be expected to walk out of my bathroom.  Hell, my boyfriend doesn't see me like that on our anniversary! I always thought that extra fabric was a gift! It covered all the areas I was insecure about and made the areas of me that I liked seem all the more alluring. So is this all my own insecurity screaming at me to take my frustration out on people who are large and proud and wanna get out there and shake it? I think it comes down to a sense of propriety.  I have no problems with some high heels, fishnets and a shorter skirt. I have an aversion to seeing a girls panties if I'm not trying to.  So sweetheart, I get that you are big and beautiful but cover some of that up!
Am I saying curvy ladies shouldn't have fabulous costumes? That a big gal can't have something short and extra sexy to dazzle her special guy with? No.  I AM saying that there are body types out there that -I- personally would prefer if I didn't have to see your ass or tits as I take children house to house. And that doesn't apply JUST to the bigger girls...