I read an article a couple days ago about a fifth-grader playing Minecraft where she met this “12-year-old boy” The mother saw the messages sent by this “12-year-old boy” which were sexual in nature. The mother went to the police and they are currently trying to track down this creep. It’s disgusting that predators use gaming to lure kids. Harassment exists prominently in gaming.
I have certainly been harassed extensively when I first started gaming. As a young 13-year-old awkward girl in middle school, I received an Xbox 360 in Christmas 2007. That Christmas I played Halo 3 for probably the entire day; those were the good days. That’s when I first saw the ugly side of gaming. Me being a naive 13-year-old girl, I made my gamer tag an obvious somewhat girly tag. I would get messages from guys trying to flirt with me. I would be in a match and people would see my gamer tag and say I was probably ugly, fat, and a bitch. Those were the PG comments that I got. I had a lot of sexual comments from guys saying what they would do to me. Yet, I’m just a 13-year-old girl trying to enjoy her favorite game.
I handle harassment by just reporting it and hopefully, that fixes the issue. In the past, I would have reacted defensively, but that leads to the comments becoming worse with more threatening language. I wish the gaming industry wasn’t this way, and I won’t let it stop me from enjoying something I love. However, it shows me how sexism & misogyny are still prevalent in today’s society.
Last semester, I was approached by a couple friends to start a Doctor Who club on our college campus. I’m the current secretary so I just send emails about meetings and such. We got our club ratified and we have at least 20-30 members right now. A huge part of my college experience has been participating in clubs on campus. I have been the secretary of the Astronomy Club for a year or two now and I have met many unique individuals because of it. I also got to meet someone from NASA!
I’m so glad to be a part of this club. A fun fact is that a former WSU employee started a DoctorWho club way back in the 80s but it dissolved due to the cancellation of the show. So the fact that I’m a part of bringing this club back to life is neat. Our first meeting is tomorrow and I’m pretty excited to see some new faces of people who love this show as much as I do.
What I hope to see with this club is watching the older doctors since I haven’t really seen any. Especially Tom Baker because apparently, he was an amazing Timelord. I also hope to get the members to go to Console Room this summer. I went last year and it was a blast. It was great to hear panels all Doctor Who.
When I was at the club fair, I got some looks. I mean most people don’t really know much about DoctorWho. Plus our officers including myself are super energetic in promoting this club. Those looks don’t really bother me because this show is amazing and I love showing my love for something regardless of what people think. Plus we had alien balloons at our booth, so how neat is that?
My bookshelf has been slowly getting smaller thanks to my review of Firefight. Firefight was just as good as the original book, Steelheart, thank goodness because I really loved this book. It was one of my favorite books I read last year. I’m not going to post a review on this blog, but I did write one on Twin Cities Geek so here’s the link if you want to read it. Firefight Review If you’re a fan of superhero content like myself, Steelheart and Firefight will satisfy your needs.
Anyway, I decided to go through my to-read shelf on good reads and show you some books that I can’t wait to get my hands on! I may have to do a trip to Barnes & Noble in La Crosse or hunt around local Winona bookstores sometime soon.
Insanity (Mad In Wonderland) by Cameron Jace
This is a modern take on the Alice in Wonderland story starring Alice Wonder who is currently locked away in an asylum. Criminals are reincarnated monsters from Wonderland. A college professor believes that Alice is the key to putting these criminals away so by day she’s a college student while spending her nights at the asylum. This book has a gothic element to it and it’s definitely my kind of book.
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
I saw a coworker reading this at work and she raved about the book.
Fallout: Lois Lane by Gwenda Bond
A young adult novel themed around Lois Lane is something I’m looking forward to. Again my love of superheroes is showing, but I think this is a unique idea. Lois Lane is an intelligent character that is compliment Superman. Also, the cover is pretty well designed. I like the contrast of the newspaper with the bright red and blue of Superman.
Also, I’m reading Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige and I’m almost done so another book review will be coming.
I tackled my first week of classes pretty well if I do say so myself. Out of three quizzes, I got an A in two of them. As I slowly come back to terms with being back at school, winter TV is coming off of hiatus. This includes Legends of Tomorrow premiering a week from now.
I’m so pumped for this television show. I love watching the CW Superhero shows. You fall in love with a character and then boom that character has its own TV show that next year. This happened with the premiere of The Flash. Legends of Tomorrow is another show that is a spin-off of Arrow.
Part of the reason I’m excited is for a couple characters. White Canary is back. I absolutely loved the Black Canary when Sara played the role. She’s talented, brutal, and holds her own. When she died on Arrow, I was crushed. Also the return of Arthur Darvill??! I loved Rory and Amy on Doctor Who so it’s good to see him return to TV. Finally, Ray Palmer will also be making an appearance on this show. I like his costume a lot and it’s certainly less cheesy than his comic book suit.
There are so many superhero TV shows to watch and I love them! That’s not even including the slew of superhero movies getting released this year. Personally, I’m excited for Suicide Squad, Deadpool, and Batman V. Superman. I will have to wait on those later in the year, but thank goodness Legends of Tomorrow premieres in less than a week.
Normally, I don’t participate in 5 Fandom Friday, but I really loved the topic last week and I decided to relate this to my life. Even though today is Monday, not Friday, I love this topic and I wanted to discuss how I have changed as a person in 2015.
1. I reconnected to my love of books
One distinct memory of 2015 is how many books I read. 45 is a HUGE number of books. I can’t believe I almost doubled my reading goal of 25 last year. Reading has a huge place in my heart because it’s such a stress-relieving activity. My mind can vividly become a part of the story and I can almost feel the emotions of the characters and be in their world. I read before I fall asleep to help me relax, but I also read in between all of my classes on campus. I also read in the mornings with my cup of coffee because that is truly bliss for me. Books and coffee are two sources of happiness so combining them in the morning is a necessity. I’m trying not to find pressure in meeting my new goal of 50 books read this year, but I do hope to read as much if not more than I did last year.
2. I gained muscle mass.
In 2015, more of my workouts were weight training based. Sure, I would still run around the track at my gym because I enjoy running, but I added weights. Easily within a couple weeks, I saw a difference. I could see the muscle definition in my arms, shoulders and back. I absolutely make time for every huge muscle group including: legs/abs, chest/back and arms/shoulders. Weightlifting is awesome and I’m glad I made an emphasis of this in my usual exercise routine.
3. Experiences > Stuff
I made a post about this earlier in the year so I won’t touch on this again. I’m trying to put money into savings to explore my surroundings. The world is at my fingertips and I cannot wait to devote more serious time into traveling. I also hopefully am still going to Chicago for Spring Break this year! I would be spending some much needed time with the boyfriend while also diving into deep dish pizza which will be so yummy. I love college, but it sucks up most of my money so when I graduate I hope to travel!
4. Tried to become more impulsive
Electric Forest is an example of this. Sure, it was definitely an interesting experience, but I’m so glad I tried something completely out of my comfort zone! It wasn’t really my thing though and I’m not sure if I would do Electric Forest again, but I would easily want to try another music festival say Lollapalooza or Coachella?
5. Blogging more!
My blogging has really tripled in the year of 2015. It certainly helped that I became a blogger for Twin Cities Geeks (Twin Cities Geek site) I have been exposed to different board games and books and met cool staff members who also blog. I have also tried to post on this site every 2-3 days or so. I also started blogging for the Winona State University blog too and that helps keep me busy.
I have grown as a person last year and I hope to expand my horizons and learn a lot this year. Huzzah 2015 it’s been fun.
On New Year’s Eve, I’m always a hermit. I don’t usually have big extravagant plans with a glass of champagne in my hand. This year is no different because I spent it at home playing a board game I received for Christmas called Pandemic. Special thanks to my boyfriend’s parents for buying this game for me for Christmas after seeing my bucket list pinned to the top of this blog. 🙂
The basis behind Pandemic is to prevent a world catastrophe by finding the cure to four deadly diseases. This game is cooperative which brings players together. There are seven pawns that represent characters who are crucial to the success of this game. There’s a researcher and a scientist who have extra benefits to help make the game that much easier.
Losing the game can happen in a couple of ways: there are more than 7 outbreaks globally, no more diseases (diseases are represented by color-coded cubes placed on the board) can be placed on the board and all cards are drawn from the player deck. It may seem like the odds are against you, but with character benefits, it makes for a pretty fair game.
I love how each game is relatively short. I would say no longer than an hour. In terms of difficulty that can be adjusted by the player. Epidemic cards can be added to the main deck resulting in diseases spreading and increasing the infection rate. There are 6 epidemic cards and they recommend adding four if you’re a beginner.
My only problem with this game is how the cards are worded. I realized that I had misread the card and I had been playing the game wrong twice. Oops. That happens sometimes when you start a new board game, but I thought the wording on the instruction cards could have been more clear.
Pandemic is a very fun game for beginners to board games such as myself, but it’s great for longtime fans. I’m going to play it tomorrow again, but it ranks among the top five board games I have played so far. I definitely need to research the expansions for this game because I’m sure they’re fantastic. It’s great to cross another game off my bucket list!
Happy New Year! I haven’t been able to blog recently due to the boyfriend coming to my town. This year was a very successful reading year for me and I want to top my record this year! I found this end-of-year survey from The Perpetual Page-Turner. I will include the link to the bottom. Without further ado, here is a recap of all the books I read in 2015
Number of books read 45.
Number of re-reads: 0! I read all new books this year.
Genre you read the most of: I read a lot of young adults, graphic novels, and mysteries.
Best Book you read in 2015?
Easily hands down are Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I have lost count of how many times I have talked about this book, but I felt like this book really related to me. I have always been a geek and the main character in this novel is writing fan fiction. I just related so much with Cath and I loved this book to pieces. If you’re a geek, this book must be read.
Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Would Love More?
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy. I loved the movie a lot so I thought the book was going to be amazing. I was really sad that I didn’t like this book as much as the movie. The movie is fabulous though.
Most Surprising Book You Read?
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. This book completely threw me for a loop. It didn’t go how I thought it was going to. It was a fantastic book, but it was so twisted and surprising.
Book You “Pushed” Most People to Read and They Did?
Fangirl!! Seriously I really should stop with this book but I can’t. My roommate read this book and finished it within a day or two.
Best Series of 2015, Best Sequel & Best Series Ender of 2015?
Steelheart by Brian Sanderson was a great first book. I had heard so much about this book so I was super excited to read it. It did not disappoint me. Best Sequel? I’m reading Firefight which is the sequel to Steelheart as we speak, so I will let you know. I don’t believe I read a book this year that ended a series.
Favorite New Author Discovered?
I really like Brian Sanderson a lot. I heard that he will be in Madison later this year for a convention and I’m so tempted into going just to meet him and have him sign my books.
Best Book From a Genre You Don’t Normally Read?
Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon was a really good graphic novel. I’m just starting to get into comics & graphic novels and I really enjoyed this series. I love Hawkeye a lot and I admire his archery skills. This graphic novel was great and I hope to continue on in the series this year.
Most Action-Packed/Thrilling/Unputdownable Book Of The Year?
Sharp Objects & Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. Her books are incredibly interesting and fast-paced right off the bat. I love the darkness of each novel and how each novel examines different themes. I haven’t read Gone Girl yet, but I may read it just to say that I have.
Book You Read In 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
I’m not sure if I will re-read any of the books that I read last year. I mean maybe a couple of my favorites sure. Usually, I try and read something new each year with my favorites being re-read every so often.
Favorite Cover Of a Book You Read In 2015?
The Catalain Book of Secrets by Jessica Lourey. The cover is mixed with different shades of blues and purples. The castle looks old but appealing. I have to admit I did buy this book because of the cover, but I ended up enjoying it.
Most Memorable Character of 2015?
I really liked Cath from Fangirl, but I also appreciated Eleanor & Park in Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell too. Cath is such a sweetie and pretty introverted like myself. Eleanor is sweet but has this rough exterior to her that I sympathize with. Park is very patient and caring which are two qualities I see in my current boyfriend.
Most Beautifully Written Book Read in 2015?
The Catalain Book of Secrets had really beautiful writing in it. It seemed very local and old-fashioned to me. It helped tell a beautiful story of witches and a family curse in a small Minnesota town.
Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2015
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell is very thought-provoking. It talks about Eleanor’s family and history of abuse and how bullying is a huge problem in school systems. It also discusses fatphobia and how that is so prevalent in today’s society. I definitely felt for Eleanor and I also hated the people who teased her so relentlessly.
Book You Can’t Believe You Waited UNTIL 2015 To Finally Read
Honestly, all of the books I read I had wish I read earlier. I had mixed feelings about a couple books that I read, but I’m still glad to have read them.
Book That Shocked You The Most?
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. If any of you have read it, you know what I’m talking about. The whole book just shocked me. It’s very disturbing but interesting to read about.
OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
Eleanor & Park are literally perfect for each other. ❤ I really hope that they are together forever and I like to believe that they are.
Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
Batgirl & Black Canary in Batgirl #1 Burnside. Best girlfriend relationship in comics.
Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I could totally picture dystopian Oz in my head. Plus just picturing evil fake Dorothy.. so creepy.
So there you have it! I skipped a lot of the questions because I felt this post was getting a little too long.. but here is the original article and feel free to participate in it like I have! My goal next year is to read 50 books. Goodreads will keep track for me but I’m determined to read a lot this year.
The holiday season has passed and it was a nice couple of days filled with Christmas cookies and socializing. Although, the holidays are very tough for me because I miss my dad and I wish he was here.
My dad was easily my best friend. He drove me to the bookstore, went to all of my school plays and he was the radio announcer at all my ice shows. My world changed in 2005 when I came home from a field trip and found out my dad had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates. It’s also rather difficult to treat because surgery is out of the question. The pancreas is surrounded by the liver and the gall bladder so the metastasis rate is naturally high (metastasis = cancer spreading). He died a year after his diagnosis. I look at how lucky I am that he survived a year. 9 years have passed since his passing and I still get emotional about various things. I don’t think that feeling will ever go away because my dad was such an important part of my life and he still is. Those who know what it’s like going through the holiday season without a family member know this feeling.
Even though I miss my dad, I try to not let that affect my holidays. Christmas Eve is always spent with my mom’s side of the family. Christmas is spent with my dad’s side and we go ice skating and eat a lot of food. As for presents this year, I am loaded on fuzzy socks, have gift cards to do some shopping with and I’m currently reading Firefight which I received this Christmas. Overall this holiday season was pretty great.
My year is coming to an end so I decided to do a recap post on an event that I should have blogged about months ago. In way older posts, I mentioned my trip to the Electric Forest music festival in June 2015. I have been wanting to make a blog post for a while, but I kept forgetting and now, I have decided to talk about my experience. Electric Forest was an interesting experience and I’m glad that I went.
Way back in March this year, my best friend showed me this music festival. Now I’m the first one to say I’m not an impulsive person, but me and my friend both bought tickets after a week of finding out about this festival. This would be my first music festival ever! Electric Forest is in Rothbury, Michigan which is approximately 10 hours from my home. The weeks started ticking away and the date of the festival was approaching. After numerous hours spent packing, we were ready to go. The drive definitely felt long at parts. I drove the first half and when it came to Chicago I handed the wheel over. One distinct memory of the drive was horrible traffic on I94 towards Detroit. They were forcing four lanes of traffic into one exit and I thought the traffic would never end.
On the day of the music festival, we got up early and waited in line to get in. We were in line for close to three maybe even four hours when my car shut off. Panic set in and I tried to turn my car back on, but nothing. Tears rushed down my face as a couple other people rushed to help push my car off to the side. One thing that the Forests advertise is how everyone feels like a family. I can attest to that because so many people came over asking how to help and if I was okay. Unfortunately, we had to carry all of our camping stuff to our campsite which took forever. The first person I called was my mom and thank god for my car insurance which has roadside assistance, we were able to call for a tow. My car not working definitely put a damper on the festival. I wish I could say the car had no impact on my experience there, but unfortunately not.
To sum up this post, here were my favorite memories of the Forest.
Sherwood Forest The forest itself was mystical! The dragon above is actually made entirely out of CDs with lights on the inside. The entrance to the forest is amazing too. My favorite were these yellow lights that reminded me of tetrahedral dice (my nerd is showing) These lights were stunning and were one of my favorite parts of the forest.
Seeing Skrillex at 1:00 AM because we slept through some of his performances.
Waiting in line to get into the Forest and taking pictures while waiting
The totems! People were carrying these totems which basically were pictures taped onto sticks. It was a huge thing there. Of course, I appreciated all the geeky ones but I took quite a few pictures of those.
Seeing Borgeous on Thursday and being literally in the middle of the crowd.
Going to this kind of gross water park
Camping
Playing beer darts with friends.
Our camping neighbors
Due to my car being fixed and the mechanic closed on Sunday, we had to stay another night that wasn’t planned. Eventually, we called the mechanic and they said nothing was wrong with my car which was great because I couldn’t imagine paying hundreds of dollars for them to repair my car. My car took us the 10 hours home and let me tell you, I have never been so happy to be at my house.
And that was my experience in the Forest! Electric Forest was a fun experience and I think if you haven’t been to a music festival, definitely go. I probably won’t go to the Forest again at least not for a while. I’m glad I was impulsive enough to take a chance and check this event out. I will definitely have many memories that I won’t forget.
This month I have been feeling the fantasy genre which contributed to the books I’m reading. This includes the above book Storm Front, but also I’m currently reading H.P Love Craft’s horror stories. I guess that isn’t exactly fantasy more like horror, but I played Arkham Horror recently and I’m feeling Lovecraft’s tales. Anyway back to Storm Front, I sped through this book last night and I definitely liked it and would continue on in the series.
Storm Front follows a struggling P. I named Harry Dresden. He’s rather unusual because his cases normally have a paranormal element to them. His knowledge of the paranormal provided him an occasional employee of the Chicago Police Department. Also, by the way, Harry is a wizard. Setting the stage for this book is a horrific crime committed by dark magic. Harry becomes prime suspect #1, especially with the White Council, the police for wizards. So not only does he have to solve this case, he has to prove his innocence or he will be executed by the White Council.
My first thought is I love how this story takes place in Chicago. It’s a perfect location for a novel like this and I could easily imagine Harry Dresden in his black robe and hat to be walking down the city. The Lives of Tao another sci-fi book I loved took place in this city too. The action in this book was pretty well written too. Eventually, Dresden has to fight a scorpion the size of a small Gorilla. I could picture how Dresden felt, how the Scorpion looked, and how Dresden’s office was getting torn apart. It felt very real and horrifying to me.
What I didn’t really like was that I did find this book to be somewhat predictable. I wasn’t shocked at who actually committed the crime. I think this book really isn’t meant to shock anyone and I always felt there was more to it but there wasn’t. That doesn’t mean this book is horrible but I love when a book knows how to deliver a surprise twist at the end, this book didn’t for me.
Overall I would easily continue on in the series. This book wasn’t my favorite, but I did enjoy reading it all the same. I have the second book waiting on my to-be-read shelf on Goodreads. Now it’s time to move on to the creepy and mystical tales of H.P Lovecraft.
Best Book you read in 2015?
The forest itself was mystical! The dragon above is actually made entirely out of CDs with lights on the inside. The entrance to the forest is amazing too. My favorite were these yellow lights that reminded me of tetrahedral dice (my nerd is showing) These lights were stunning and were one of my favorite parts of the forest.
Bizarre Brunette 