Star Wars the Old Republic: Controversial Twi’lek Slave is Controversial
It’s Wednesday and a sad day when I can’t even work up the energy to get even a little bit irate about the Twi’lek slave companion with shock collar option in the Star Wars the Old Republic MMORPG.
Unwittingly opened my browser this morning to a storm of controversy about whether or not having a sexy female slave in a shock collar and being able to punish her at will is problematic or not. And yes, I do think Twi’leks are sexy. Those brain tails man. Unf.
So here goes – slaves are problematic. Women as slaves are deeply problematic.
If you can shock this beautiful blue face, you're a monster. Just sayin'.
Do fangirls feel uncomfortable with another female being forcibly enslaved and brutally punished? Yes.
Does this hurt fanboys feelings because it’s all in good fun and you’re an evil Sith killing loads of people anyways? Yes.
Can fangirls just get over it? No.
Can fanboys just be OK with fangirls NOT being OK with it? No.
*I would have included “some” or “many” here as qualifiers but that should be obvious.*
So there are female attempts at explaining their reactions to this information and then men start to mansplain and then men-apologists back up their assertions and then people who’ve never played the game chime in with their two cents. I’d like to pretend that I care more. But today is a sad day because I really don’t. Fairly certain men and women of all ages will mistreat this poor imaginary creature and fap all over themselves while they do it. There is nothing to stop them.
Do I wish the game developers had been a bit smarter about all of this? Of course. It would be nice to have the female perspective considered when games are being put together.
Just last night I had to endure the most wince-worthy few hours of gaming yet because someone told the creators of Gears of War 3 they should include female characters. So I get to hear dude banter about “a woman serving with the COG” for two hours, in which she has to be called ugly, etc, etc and run down by the Baird character I was playing. You know – instead of interesting game play or dialogue.
Tuesdays with Mindy: Yelp’s Pley On @ OMSI
This past Saturday boasted my second ever Yelp event at OMSI. Their Game On 2.0 exhibit just ended on Sunday – the 18th of September and we got free passes from Yelp to enjoy free food, drinks and video games the night before. You can check all the details here at the Yelp website.
Well, we ended up stalling out on the first two and never did get to play Frogger or Pitfall. Major bummer. But they wouldn’t allow alcohol in the exhibit and no pictures either, so you wouldn’t have been able to visually enjoy that part of the evening. If it had occurred.
Instead we gorged ourselves on food and alcohol to the point of an extreme hang-over the next day. But the event itself was well put-together. Everyone there was having a blast and tons of people were sporting costumes. We should have dressed up – I know. But I didn’t wanna.
Here are the pics from the event:
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Hoping this exhibit comes around again in the future. Would love another opportunity to play some old school games!
Tuesdays with Mindy: Couples Who Game Together…
Sometimes this blog feels like a confessional…so in that vein I have a dirty secret to share. I started playing World of Warcraft again. Last month, right after cousins Eric and Carly visited. And it’s all their fault.
Ilyria, Level 51, Looking Bad Ass
Plus the account was totally free until Level 20. And I get to be a Draenei!! I’ve been secretly pining for years to be a virtual character with a tail, ram horns and goat hooves. All my prayers have now been answered.
I used to play WoW many, many years ago (about six of them), but had to give it up when we were shaving costs to move out of my parents house and into our own place. Yes, at that time a $30 WoW subscription WAS really going to make or break us. And The Burning Crusade expansion was just coming out. We couldn’t afford to buy it, were moving anyway…and it just made sense to abandon the whole enterprise.
A few years later I got a nasty email from Blizzard telling me I had violated the WoW economy and they were closing my account. I fired off an equally irritated email and was summarily bounced around in their system until I didn’t have the time or energy to pursue it any longer. Case closed. Well, when I wanted to activate my account again – I had to deal with their customer service. It was actually quite pleasant and because I intended to start paying them money (it helps to remind businesses of this, cause sometimes they forget), they were willing to reverse all the nasty things they said about me. Basically someone hacked my account and set up some dummy characters and violated their terms of use. Or whatever.
Sadly - all the characters I had created are now lost to me. It looks like one entire Night Elf was deleted (R.I.P. Sarasvati) and another I can only see the stats (R.I.P. Arjuna). I had a thing for Hindu Mythology for awhile, ya’ll.
But now I’ve created newer – better characters (yes, I already have three of them). Two of them are Draenei – a Level 51 Hunter (Ilyria) and a Level 15 Paladin (Argeus). I also started up a Horde character (they’re kinda the bad guys) and she’s a Level 8 Blood Elf named Miss Frosty. I styled her to look like Emma Frost. I’ve also had a slew of pets – three different cats (all named Chairman Meow), two wolves (Wolfenstein and Ghost), a diseased bear (Gentle Ben), an owl (Archimedes), and a moth (Mothra). My current animals are a bloodhound (Blood Dumpster), a green and yellow striped saber cat (Chairman Meow the third), and a flying snake creature (Kaa, from the jungle book).
Me and Dan + WoW Fishing = Twu Luv
Our guild is the Mudsprocket Marauders – it’s largely comprised of Robertsons and Robertson descendants. Most of the Guildies we communicate with are Level 85…so there is a big incentive to level up quickly and start more actively contributing to the guild achievements and quests.
Dan and I spent pretty much this entire weekend cloistered in our respective corners of the house, communicating with each-other via Skype and questing/dungeoning/raiding to our hearts content.
Tuesdays With Mindy: Leveling Up
About 9 years ago I took this amazing road trip with my two best friends. We traveled to California, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico in about a week by car. I quit my job for this trip. I turned 21 a few days after I returned, the final stage in severing youth from adulthood.
This trip and this time in my life was supposed to change me. Change everything. It felt that monumental.
But the funny thing about change, is that you can’t schedule it. You can’t craft an experience or a moment and then say, “this means something.” And have it really, actually mean something.
Life doesn’t work that way. It’s far more complex. And far more simple.
X-Men Legends II: Leveling Up
VIDEO GAME ANALOGY
I think of change building in your body like XP points. After you’ve amassed a certain amount of experiences, your brain signals your body that it’s time to grow. Become more mature. Better at some things. Wiser at others. You spend a lot of time contemplating what that change will look and feel like.
And then all the sudden it happens. You level up in an instant – in the middle of a fight with your spouse, during a long weekend of drinking and visiting with friends and family, sitting at a table in the middle of a conference eating yogurt, walking down the street to catch the bus. A scale gets tipped and you suddenly have this strange new power and better vantage point to engage with the world.
LIFE QUESTS
I’ve been struggling with some major life changes this year. Debating about embracing unemployment and the opportunity to completely alter my career trajectory or just getting any kind of freaking job that will pay me decently and provide a measure of stability. Mentally wrestling with the idea of reproducing vs. traveling. Struggling with balancing health, work, personal interests, friends, and family. Dealing with immense job-related pressures I have never encountered in my 12 years in the work force.
Nerd Bucket List
Originally had planned to write a recap of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena but that will have to be put on hold. Instead, I bring you something that immediately inspired me as soon as I saw it.The Nerd Bucket List.
It was actually brought to my attention by another female comic book enthusiast who goes by the name of Jill The Nerdy Bird and guest writes for Newsarama.com. She penned up an article there with her own very specialized Nerd Bucket List as opposed to one that must be adhered to by all nerds.
So, you probably guessed by now that the remainder of this entry is going to be about my own personal Nerd Bucket List. The very exciting thing is that I’ve managed to cross off quite a few things on the list already! These are in no particular order or sequence, as all things are equally important to a nerd like me. 
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MINDY’S NERD BUCKET LIST
Meet Katee Sackhoff and Edward James Olmos. Obviously – she is my female heroine idol and it would be the shining moment of my days to shake her hand and tell her that she totally changed my perception of what a female heroine could be with her performance. I would also HAVE to ask her, “What do you hear Starbuck?” Because no one
Starbuck and Adama. My two favorites!
has ever asked her that before. And Edward James Olmos is like the Grandpa I never had. His gravelly voice and reading glasses and general demeanor are as comforting as a glass of warm milk. I’m especially excited to learn that he might return to the BSG Exhibit in Seattle this year for another script reading. I’m so there.
Visit NYC and lurk outside the Marvel Office. They don’t do regular tours, but I can still be a creeper and maybe snap a few pictures with an editor or something out on the street. Or maybe contact them ahead of time and see if a tour is possible. Or rewind time back to 1998 and be this kid.
Cosplay as a sexy superhero. This is probably something that should be done before I turn 30 (so like, next year) because after 30 I’ve decided is the cut-off for any kind of sexy cosplay. Please time, do not make a liar of me. I don’t know though – Steampunk has made dressing up in costume at any age a work of art, so that might be the loophole in the future. Not sure what superheroine I would like to attempt. I’ve done Rogue before for a superhero party and all that hair dyeing was such a hassle. Any suggestions?
Participate in Thrill The World in full zombie regalia. At least once. Complete with zombie eye contacts and a clever costume.
Obtain a comic book artist portrait. That sounds so ridiculous, but I’ve always fantasized about becoming a comic book character. Not sure what the process would entail either – probably scouting out a decent picture and passing it off to the artist at a convention. Thinking Pablo Raimondi, Pia Guerra or Joelle Jones. Unless someone has an alternate suggestion?
Join or lead a geeky volunteer group. Like the PDX Browncoats. As mentioned before, this would unite my passion for contributing to the community AND displaying geekery in all it’s glory. Plus meeting and hanging out with a group of like-minded folks. Hopefully that can be checked off in the near future!
Alex Maleev sketch, Scarlet Witch
Sketch from Alex Maleev. Dude, he lives here in Portland but I haven’t seen him attending one convention in the last year. He was even noticeably absent at SDCC. What gives? He is elusive as fuck, which makes a sketch from him about as prized as a Unicorn horn.
Sit inside the cockpit of a Colonial Viper. It wasn’t just enough to SEE them. Seriously. It’s the equivalent to some fans of LOOKING at the Millenium Falcon. Want to touch! Want to see what it would look like if I was flying through space, blasting some frakin’ toasters. So say we all!
Create a comic book. I’m no artist, but I’ve dabbled in all forms of writing save one (or two) and it seems especially strange given my passion for comics. How hard would it be to work up a script? Probably not that difficult. The scary part would be in finding an artist who would be willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears to see those words brought to life.
Meet Joss Whedon AND Brian K. Vaughn. The last of the comic book scribes whose work has inspired and thrilled me over the years. They are both hugely talented and the opportunity to shake their hands or stare at them obsessively while my mind goes helplessly blank and my knees give way would be truly special.
Complete all Assassin’s Creed games with 100% achievements. Just cause.
Finish up the Phoenix Tattoo in the next two years. Provided both the DH and I can find stable employment situations. Have had to reschedule twice now, so London no doubt thinks I’m a flake. But I don’t intend to have a half-finished tattoo on my body forever.
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BUCKET LIST ITEMS ALREADY COMPLETED
Attend San Diego Comic Con At Least Once. This was listed as one of the top items on the collaborative nerd bucket list, so I believe I can safely assume the mantle of nerd for the rest of my days – having traveled to the geek mecca and survived the eye-gouging dangers of Hall H and witnessed the glory that was the Avengers Panel (even if we were in the back row and it was on the jumbo-tron). Check out the recap of SDCC 2010 starting here.
Emerald City Comic Con 2011: Day Two
DAY TWO RECAP: L4D COSPLAY, THE GUILD PANEL, MASQUERADE
The morning got off to a rocky start with a late breakfast at the hotel restaurant and getting my parents settled in to the room. We’d all (except for Erin) decided to do a little Cosplay for Saturday – my parents dressed in Star Trek uniforms for their picture with William Shatner, my dad once again sporting some stylized facial hair.
My parents are just too damn cute for words.
LEFT4DEAD COSPLAY
Dan and I were sporting our Left 4 Dead costumes – Dan dressed as Bill and I went as Zoey. It took us about two months to put the costumes together. Most of the pieces were purchased outright or items we already owned, but some were customized.
Clothing items we already owned: Dan’s pants, white undershirt. My jeans and white undershirt.
Clothing items we purchased: Green beret, pink track jacket, black hi-top cons, black army boots
Bill’s green beret was customized with a yellow patch which Dan ACTUALLY sewed on. Very proud of him for that. Zoey’s jacket we purchased online at Wal-Mart. It was the closest match I could find and also the cheapest. They’re on clearance right now, if you want to pick one up before they’re gone. I had to do a bit of alteration – cutting, gluing and sewing white fabric on – Thank God this jacket comes equipped with black fabric as an outline for all the places you need to add material. Also had to cut the black fabric off the collar, as well as remove the tacky glued on bits underneath. THAT took awhile. Way too damn long but aided with the help of one of those de-fuzz-baller-things.
Dan spray-painted two guns black to cover the orange tips – one a machine and another a shot-gun – both appear in the video game series. We printed up some hilarious “Pain Reliever” labels for generic aspirin bottles here, attached it to the side of our pants with velcro and safety pins.
We also purchased two red expandable duffle bags from Wal-Mart which we customized with white fabric. We attached them to our backs with safety pins so they would seem to inexplicably hang there.
Finally – we made up “Boomer Bile” bottles which took searching at three or four different stores to find the right container. We went with water bottles purchased at our local Target (not finding them online), augmented with flat toothpicks and spray painted to match the white color of the lids. We added a bit of red tape to the lid, and then printed up a label found here on sticker paper. The boomer bile we modified based on a recipe we found on this Cosplay forum. Highly suggest the forum – it has a ton of great ideas for manufacturing props and putting together accurate costumes.
Boomer Bile Recipe Used: Lime Green Gatorade, Green Food Coloring and a dab of Cornstarch. Just gotta shake it up every once in awhile if the starch settles. It gives off a delicious green glowing color…and you can drink it for full effect.
The results of all this time and effort looked something like this:
Not exactly screen accurate - but you get the idea.
The Other Gryffindor Scarf and…Other Stuff
Guess what I finished, just in time for the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I? The “Other” Gryffindor scarf – which shows up in Prisoner of Azkaban (my personal favorite) and The Goblet of Fire (my least favorite). I modified the pattern a bit – used a heavier weight yarn: Aran/10 ply (8 wpi) instead of what the pattern suggested. Also used size 8 needles, as there were no size 7 at either of the two craft stores I visited. I only cast on 60 stitches per row, instead of the 100 it recommended. 100 would have been HUGE. This is the pattern I worked from – DID NOT alter the number of yellow rows. Ended up using barely one skein of the mustard colored yarn.
Here is the finished product:
The "Other" Gryffindor Scarf
We’ve been re-watching the Harry Potter movies leading up to the midnight showing and I’ve already spotted another HP item I’d like to knit up. Maybe as a hat for my mother. I’ll have to check the Charmed Knits book out from the library again…or maybe one of my kind friends or family will purchase one for me.
Anyways – finishing up this project is abnormally satisfying, as I am ready to take a much-needed break from knitting. Yes, after nearly 2.5 months of ALWAYS having a knitting project on the needles (as well as knitting up three birthday presents), I’m taking a week off. Well, maybe just a few days.
I’ll probably start something on Wednesday.
But another pleasurable indulgence has taken hold in the interim: VIDEO GAMES. Most specifically…
Galen Marek is another one of my video game crushes.
It was fantastical to be immersed in the world of Starkiller again, and both the DH and I managed to beat it in one day.
Yeah. That doesn’t seem right. It was a ridiculously short game. Much shorter than the Assassin’s Creed sequel, and also shorter than the original Force Unleashed. The original Force might just be one of my favorite video game experiences in a long, long time.
So – the sequel had a lot to live up to, and didn’t quite make it. It seemed like the storyline was rushed and lacking both the depth and breadth of the original. There was no twist, tangle or really any character arch or growth. Pretty disappointed in the story.
But the game play is excellent. I’d like to get my hands on a copy for the Wii, so I can experience the joy of wielding a light saber again. Otherwise, I’m holding out hope for the third installment. And praying they don’t make a movie out of these video games. I’m quite of the belief that this particular storyline fits so much better on the small screen, with all the intimacy of you, the controller and the TV.
Sure – this would have made a great movie. Theoretically, the prequels would have also made great flicks as well. And we all saw how that played out. No, I much prefer Starkiller, Juno, General Kota and Proxy to exist as playable characters in a video game. I really don’t want Lucas putting his grubby mitts on these folks.
For those doubters – you must answer this question: what would the story gain from being turned into a movie? Video games are already visual and auditory, as well as tactile. Movies just remove one of the sensory experiences. In my opinion, more movies need to be turned into video games. 
But GOOD video games. Not the shite that is already churned out by the direct-to-game industry.
Of course - any obsession or interest is automatically filtered through my youtube lens – so please enjoy a few videos I’ve stumbled across in my searching:
The classic fanvid: music plus video clips
Something altogether different – a lego fight sequence inspired by Force Unleashed.
That’s all you get folks.
We’re picking up a copy of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood tomorrow after work, so you can look forward to some madness on that end. We’ve got Harry Potter on Thursday/Friday and the Portland Comic Book Show on Sunday, so you can pretty much be guaranteed some posts in the near future. Get excited! 
Resident Evil: A Female Centric Film Series
Was Resident Evil: After Life worth the $27.00 3D ticket price (for 2)? Oh, and tack on another $5 for a large bottled water. Must have been cause we happily paid it. Well, not THAT happily. But we did.
I’m not gonna say the movie itself was worth dropping nearly 30 bones to view. It was the action tag-team of Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich that more than made up for the craptastical CGI and less than compelling plot.
For a summer DOMINATED by male-centric action flicks…for this modestly budgeted film to take the #1 Box Office towards the end of summer tasted a bit like justice. There was something almost serene and telling in the final scenes of this flick when Alice, Claire and K-Mart all seem to exchange a knowing glance saying- yes – we are the heroines of this horror/action series, so what’re you gonna do about it?
The female centric nature of the film series really solidified for me at SDCC when the RE: After Life panel was equally divided by gender, but Milla and adorably pregnant Ali Larter dominated the conversation. The fan questions were directed at them. The 3D movie clip shown was their scene battling one of the big bosses – in the final moments they stand together, strong and powerful while Milla fires a gun straight into the camera.
As mentioned above, what’s so wonderful about this film franchise is not necessarily the films. For a series, there is no over-arching theme or grand plot device moving them along or making them gel together as a cohesive unit, like a great season of your favorite TV show would. They are plot-lite and often-times the special effects are nothing to excite the adrenaline. The action is always super solid and in general there is some sweet zombie action or post-apocalyptic scenario which will delight those excited by those genres (that would be me).
But they are consistently appealing to the masses and garnering large numbers of fans in foreign markets like Japan, Russia and Spain who are attracted to the material for various reasons – at least two of those being their connection to the supermodel and actress playing the title role of Alice.
What intrigued me most in reading articles to prepare for this blog post is the consistent reference to the Resident Evil film success (not widespread insane success, but consistent and increasing box office take) as being male driven. Sure, the dudes around me are interested in seeing the movies but in my slice of the world, it was the females who pushed to make it happen. Myself and my sister-in-law, who doesn’t watch too much horror/scifi/etc actually made a point to see the movie this weekend.
When we stood in line behind the mother/daughter combo to purchase our ticket, I blindly assumed they were going to re-release of Twilight. I dunno why. I make assumptions. But when we spotted them in our theatre, I felt a nice little toe tingle thinking that there are at least two other ladies in the world anxious to see Alice kick ass.
The gender of the theatre-goers in our auditorium was pretty evenly divided – and it was far more packed than with either of our recent viewings (Scott Pilgrim and Machete).
Maybe this has something to do with the fact that at least in it’s original conception – the Resident Evil videogame series offered up both a male and female playable character. Most first person shooters of similar ilk are not so giving. Two of my favorite video games of late which focus on heavy plot have been totally male dominated (Assassin’s Creed and The Force Unleashed) and while for me that doesn’t heavily influence my enjoyment, it’s still sometimes nice to have an excellent story AND a character whose gender I can identify with. You know.
That might be one of the reasons people are plunking down money in reasonable numbers to watch this action extravaganza.
And the other could simply be that Milla Jovovich is a fucking action star.
Bad Blogging and Other Assorted Crap
YES: I realize I’ve been a terrible blogger lately. Can I just blame it all on my new job? Basically I’ve gained the much coveted (in my world anyway) mantle of AmeriCorps Program Coordinator but it comes at the cost of tackling two programs. Which used to be staffed and supported by like 5 people. So here’s me…on the raggedy edge for the next 12 months.
So please, bear with me. I promise that I’ll post content very soon, but it’ll probably be sporadic the next month due to hosting multiple day orientations in the next three weeks. And settling into another office. And trying not to go stark raving mad.
BUT: I can promise you more content regarding the Phoenix tattoo (another appointment on the 11th!) AND the aforementioned post comparing the Lizbeths of the World (going to see Eat, Pray, Love this weekend). Probably some True Blood Season 3 wrap-up in there somewhere. Not to mention gurglings about some of my favorite TV shows right now…
October will feature a Wordstock wrap-up and lots of posts regarding the extravaganza known as Halloween (The Walking Dead TV series!).
November is the Portland Comic Book Show, Harry Potter and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.
ALSO: I’m applying for a MLIS program this year, which will hopefully start up in August. For those not in the know, an MLIS is a Master’s in Library and Information Science. I’ll probably update snippets here and there on ye old blog regarding that process.
ALSO: Expect to see a few knitting posts cropping up. I promise only appropriately themed nerd projects (Jayne Hats and HP scarves in the future).
RIGHT NOW: Emerald City Comic Con 2011 tix are on-sale today. I’m reserving mine immediately. I’m also clearing out my calendar. No, seriously. And there’s a kick-ass hotel 6 blocks from the convention center with free parking and wireless. It’s $59 a night, which is pretty comparable to what we ended up paying at a crappy Motel 6 two years ago. The hotel looks kinda skeevy, but oh well. I don’t plan on spending much time there!
Stumptown Comics Fest posted their dates already. April 16 and 17. They’ve also decided to wear big boy pants and move to the Convention Center. Read all about it here.
I feel like such a proud nerd right now – seeing my Pacific NW comic book scene pull its shit together so early. It is keeping me from going balls-out-crazy with work stress.
That – and the Assassin’s Creed II expansion packs (Bonfire of the Vanities, Battle of Forli) we purchased a few days ago.
Please, have patience with my slothenly ways. I’ll come back in full force pretty soon. Just need some space to catch my breath!
Portland Streets Morph into Mario Kart
Pic courtesy of Bike Portland
Couldn’t help but share this video with folks this morning. If you love Portland, bicycling, and video games (or even just one of those things) you’ll be pleased to know that someone in the often times rather serious cycling community here has a sense of humor, as is evidenced by the following:
I hope the city doesn’t plan on removing them anytime soon. Although the snarky quote in this article on Kotaku in which the bicyclist takes the opportunity to dump on people who commute by car does take a little of the fun out of it.
As a whole, I’ve found the cycling community here to be very welcoming, and if it can gain some positive exposure (rather than articles about road rage and bicycle lane budget demands), that’s awesome.
What cracks me up the most is the banana – as that is a common snack handed out at many of the major bike rides. When we were at the Providence Bridge Pedal a few weeks ago – someone had dropped a banana peel on railroad tracks, and a bicyclist did slip and fall on it. Just like a real life Mario Kart.
There were even a few more banana peels dotting the road later in the ride. I like when art imitates life. Or vice versa.
LINK LOVE
- Find more pics and comments here on the Bike Portland blog
tinyheroes
Dan
