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...

Effen game maps...

PREEMPTIVE DISCLAIMER: I know nothing about programming   What I'm about to talk about may be difficult if not impossible to make available in the games I'm speaking about.  I will discuss out of date games and systems.  I may or may not know what I am talking about.  You may or may not agree with me, I don't care. 

OK, I spent the last few days playing a few different titles on the PS 3 and um... it needs to be said; YOU PEOPLE DOING GAME MAPS SHOULD BE SHOT!  I don't need an infrared, night visioned, topographical map of my factious area!  I need straight lines and a big frigging arrow.
It doesn't make me simple it makes me right.

Look, there are good examples and bad but lets look at some tried and true things that have seen us though many a game. We in the beginning had 2 D linear format. Straight line! Easy... we can do that. Then this format exhausted itself... all things do! We were presented with open world maps and random encounters. We were greedy.  Champions of Norrath had a relativity clear mapping for thier open world. (Yes I know it is a linear game I know it's not a truly 'open' world.) There was a mini map that was overlaid atop the players screen in a corner or a full size map over the whole screen.  Nice to just pop-up and close when needed or leave small in the corner.  Did it get in the way? SOMETIMES.  So does hitting a button to bring up a map screen.  Do I hate all maps? Most annoy the heck out of me; shining examples being FALLOUT: New Vegas.  Not only is this map HUGE with other DLC maps that make other areas available; these are gigantic as well.  Let me tell you things like levels the rooms are on are pretty darned unclear in most of the areas especially the vaults.

Is there nothing in the map world that pleases me?  Sure!  I loved the glowing trail toward quests in Fable (all of them were good for this) and there was also a spell in Skyrim that gave another glowing trail to follow for a time.  This is a GREAT way to clear up the confusion when it came to the floor a chest/person of interest or quest item is on.  Yea, it sort of made things too easy sometimes but it also saved me looking around an area for 2 hours to miss the door in front of my face.  Dragon Age, did a fine job to start but tried to open up maps in the expansion; leaving me wandering around in circles looking for landmarks to point me in the right direction.  Dragon Age: II was so nice in it's format for mapping, I know the gameplay was chapter based and the same map had small variations depending on chapters but regardless I was in looooooooooove!  Let me see, what other examples are there of games that let me get from point a to point b, oh yes!  Kingdoms of Amular : Reckoning; another good job.  It had a wide open map, simplified world map, fast travel and a local map that didn't make me want to stab myself in the eye getting from place to place.  I could see areas that were nearby without being confused by icons on my mini map.  Quests didn't have to be active to be marked on the map, it was on the whole a very user friendly map.

So a glowing cheater trail, or a spell you pay for to give you a hint as to where to go.  This seems like a feasible option that could easily be added to games.  I know the argument of the overlaid map being distracting is a valid one but it seems less so than stopping and pulling up the full map.  That may just be me being lazy or even wishing the game worlds weren't so big.   

Like I said, I don't need to have everything spelled out for me, but it is nice to not curse being lost for an hour in game despite pulling up a map screen every 2 minutes and 15 steps.  I'm not willing to check out other games either and see if I don't come around to the way things are mapped out.  Drop me a reply, tell me my gameplay is simple, tell me I'm right. (I mean I know but tell me.) give me good examples or even bad ones!  Lets make maps better damnit there are enough gamers to do it!

So a little something new...

To those that have ever read any of my social media, I am spotty at best and that is a generous statement. I  hereby take on something new; me versus the damned world... that's right kids; I'm at large with a weekly vendetta.  You all asked for this, you left stupid comments on yahoo; idiotic wiki articles; had stupid forum threads and far more sins I shall verbally spank you all for.  So flame me, follow me, or sod off. 

Ok. I ate a few games... some movies and here I um... well I am gonna address things here. One at a time. Whatever I want. Guess that sums this up. So... first on the list...
Life without... (Drumroll please?) ...the interweb. (the interweb: n. low tech slang; Internet.) Ok it's damned hard let me tell you; but past the initial inconvenience there is always a way. Smart phones, internet hot spots, school.... MC Donald's. Are you ever really without it? Probably not. I got as cut off as I could be and when I have access anywhere I all but itch when I get home for lack of it.  So therein lies a question; what do we do to cope?

You start to find other outlets... the time you spent in games you (and by you I mean me) solo in rpg's or fighting games; sadly I can't rock a fps or driving game to save my life. I stumbled back into Soul Calibur IV again last night. It's funny you forget about something you enjoyed for so many hours. It is a connection and it has its own energy.  You find yourself working toward 100% for  no reason other than personal satisfaction. (Especially since my Sony and XBox accounts aren't being updated with my epic sweetness.)

So what... we can live without MMO's? Without constantly sizing up with opponents worldwide? NO. Are you stupid?  Ok. you missed the point here kids, I said I learned to cope.  Come on... if you're gonna play here you gotta keep up.  We don't learn to live without, we find our fix where we can... Tell me... are you so different?