Days of Thankfulness Week One

Every November I participate in the Days of Thankfulness on FaceBook and Twitter. Here are my Days of Thankfulness for the first week of November:






Month of Thankfulness Day 1 I'm thankful for family

Month of Thankfulness Day 2 I'm thankful for no snow.







Month of Thankfulness Day 3 I'm thankful for modern transportation.

Month of Thankfulness Day 4: I'm glad I'm home.





Month of Thankfulness Day 5:
I am thankful for all the fun and kind people I've met through #GamerGate and the GamerGate Kitteh Patrol. (When people are fighting we swamp them with cute kitten pictures)

We are fighting against journalistic corruption and journalistic bullying. Is it surprising the pro-corruption journalist and pro-bullying bloggers have painted us as a hate
movement?

Month of Thankfulness Day 6: I am Thankful for co-workers who bring me soup. (Thanks Phil! I appreciate it)


Month of Thankfulness Day 7: I am Thankful for Virtual BlizzCon Tickets.  

On Sock Puppets, WoW, and Sam Biddle's Ass

My latest video, which has a very fierce picture! 

Starting my Vlog (Someday)

I was going to start my Vlog today, but heath issues popped up and I wasn't able to.


My subject was going to be my background in fighting to be taken seriously in my life. I was a girl, growing up on a reservation who wanted to be Han Solo. I read Science Fiction, I read Comics, I played Video Games whenever the opportunity presented itself, and later, after I grew up, I became a Computer Technician. I've been fighting to be taken seriously in my life, and not treated like a token or a special snowflake or a fragile flower, for a long, long time. And, for the record, I started dating my husband when I was 18 (he was 19), so I wasn't faking interest "to meet the boyz".


Here is what I posted on Facebook and sent a screen shot to Twitter. It was going to be the base of my Vlog:


I am so outraged right now that I can't speak, and I know I'm a month late on this, but it was just brought to my attention. Here are quotes from David Auerbach's Slate article titled "Letter To A Young Male Gamer". (I had to read the article twice to see if it was sarcasm, and it doesn't appear to be) :


"But I do have a request for you: Stop publicly criticizing LW. Go after the men. Criticize the games themselves. But leave the women alone, even if you think they merit criticism."


"Women in gaming have it way rougher than men, and to be blunt, it is simply not the end of the world if LW gets a free pass for whatever sins she may have committed"


What. The. Hell. David Auerbach.


I have been fighting all my life to be taken seriously. Now you are telling me I'm too fragile for criticism.


Chris told me this is why I am a Thorn and not a Flower. You sit on a flower and it is crushed, destroyed. You sit on a Thorn and jump up and say, "Holy Hell, That hurt."


I'm proud to be a Thorn today.

Why I Support Intel's Decision To Pull Their Ads

We own one i7, two i5, one i3, a Celeron, two Atom, and a Q6600.

My love affair with Intel began with the Q6600. It was (and is) the brains of The Most Beautiful Computer In The Whole Of The Known Universe.  My current computer is an i7-3770 and I'm planning on upgrading to the new x99 chipset with a 6-core i7 and DDR4 in the near future.

I got the Q6600 computer in 2007 and I'm still using it today. It's my back up computer and is also my Netflix computer. I support Intel because it makes a rock solid product and I appreciate the way they are going forward in processor design.

I also support #GamerGate and here are my reasons:

1. I believe, and have believed for years, that Gaming Journalists are corrupt (For example see coverage of  Dragon Age 2).
2. I believe that questioning Gaming Journalists and their integrity does not make me "Anti-Feminist". 
3. I do not believe all gamers are hateful.
4. I do not believe all gamers are potential rapists
5. I do not believe that telling young women that a whole sub-culture hates them is the way to fix anything.

Some background: I was aware of the controversy surrounding a certain game designer and her ex, but I ignored it because, well, break up drama. I wasn't surprised by the claims of Journalistic Misfeasance (the performance of a lawful action in an improper manner). Anyone who was around during the Dragon Age 2 Debacle is aware that the Gaming Press is in bed with Game Publishers. What did surprise me this time was how the Gaming Press reacted to claims that they weren't Impartial Ponies, suddenly all gamers were misogynists and rapists. I read article after article attacking my hobby. 

I followed all the big names gaming sites on Facebook. When I used Facebook to reply to an anti-gamer article I received hateful messages in my Facebook Inbox, I was called misogynistic, was told I supported rapists, was told I wasn't really a gamer, was called a neckbeard. (I had no idea what a neckbeard was, I had to ask my nephew).

When the site wrote another piece on how #GamerGate supporters were harrassing people I once again used Facebook to tell the story of the attack on me. Once again I received hateful messages. I had to lock down my FaceBook and make everything Private so that the stream of hate would stop. This is when I decided to join #GamerGate.

 

When #GamerGate suggested a polite letter writing campaign to the advertisers on the websites that were attacking my hobby I happily joined in.

 

And it's working.

And the Anti-GamerGate hate volcanoe just keeps getting bigger. Intel is listening to it's customers, which is a good thing. It does not make the company Anti-Feminist, Misogynistic, or part of the rape culture.

 

In closing, just for the record: I am a Liberal. I am a Woman. I am an American Indian. I am a Computer Technician. I am a Wife. I am a Gamer. I am NOT a Sock Puppet. I am NOT a Shill. I am NOT a Misogynist. I am NOT Sadly Misinformed.

Why I Identify As A Gamer

To paraphrase my favorite pirate movie: 

• Are you putting [writing] down that I'm a Gamer? Good! Because I am! I have sought pleasure and profit all my life in games without regard for any man's disapproval

I identify as a gamer because I've been playing games ever since I became aware of them. My gaming started with the Atari 2600. Frogger, PacMan, Space Invaders, Tank, Breakout. As I got older and bought my own consoles I was a Sega girl, but I did have a Game Boy for the times when I couldn't be near a TV set, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was my game of Choice.

Then I got my first computer and I discovered Sid Meier. Pirates, Covert Action, Civilization. I lost whole weekends to these games. And then Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans. My love affair with Blizzard and Azaroth began.

So, yes, I'm a gamer because I love games. I love playing them. I love reading about them. I love talking about them. They are my hobby of choice and I'm proud to say I am a gamer.
I'd like to close with an update of a post I did in 2007 -

"Will You Regret Playing Games When You Are Old?"
What could I be doing instead of gaming? Let's see.... What did I do before?

I read. I painted. I designed quilts. I went out with friends. I watched television. I wrote poetry. I dabbled with computer games. I had a full life. 

Then, the person I considered to be my touch stone died and my life changed. 

On the days I worked I would wake up, force myself out of bed, take a shower, go to work, come home and collapse into bed until the next morning. 

On my days off I laid in bed and watched birds in the birdfeeders and birdbath all day, until the sun started to set and the fireflies came out. And then I would go to sleep. There were whole weekends where I didn't get out of bed. 

I went on anti-depressants. 

I went off anti-depressants.

I was a zombie.

This went on for months and months. 

Finally, one of my friends convinced me to try a new game called World of Warcraft. 

And... I started to wake up. I had something to look forward to every day. 

I started going out again with friends who also played WoW. I started taking classes and meeting people and having fun again. I started smiling more. I started being me again. 

So, no... I will never regret WoW. I will never regret The Sims. I will never regret Portal 2. They brought me back. I recognize myself again. 

What about you? Why do you identify as a gamer?

Hello World! I Guess I'm Picking Up From Where I Was in 2009

I was thinking of starting a new blog so I can articulate my thoughts on #NotYourShield and #GamerGate and I remembered I had a gaming blog from 2006-2009. I found an archive of the blog on The Most Beautiful Computer In The Whole Of The Known Universe (the computer I used from 2006 - 2011 and which is now hooked up to the TV for Netflix).

Here are my favorite quotes from that blog:

• I don't think anyone started treating me differently when they heard my voice. I do get a lot of "How old are you?" because I have a high squeaky voice and sound like a teenager. But, eventually everyone gets over that and we can get on with our questing.
  
  
• "A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction." -Rita Mae Brown
  This quote explains why I prefer to play a Fury Warrior instead of a Prot warrior - I believe (right or wrong) that a Fury Warrior acts and a Prot Warrior reacts.
  
  
• And then there was the "Alton Brown" moment. I had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV and something roused me. I woke up just enough to see an Alton Brown commercial and I remember thinking I needed to attack him, but I couldn't tell if he was flagged or not.
  It took me a few minutes to realize that #1 - Alton Brown is not a member of the Horde and #2 - thank goodness I don't have combat reflexes because I would hate to have to buy Chris a new television.
  
  
•  I have interests in life other than gaming (honestly - I do!) . One of my lifelong passions has been poetry. I blame AA Milne.
  
  
•  I detest that book. I am so rabidly anti-that book that when asked for my opinion on the book I went on a rant that lasted several minutes (not days as some people like to exaggerate). The person I was ranting to made the comment that they hadn't seen me this worked up since Dawn was introduced on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (I would like to go on record that it wasn't Dawn's introduction. If you follow the Buffy example I haven't been this upset since my run in with David Fury. )
  
  
•  Today someone told me that gaming is not an interesting hobby because there are no 'real life consequences'. 
  Who are these people and why do they talk to me?