Holidays

First of all, happy holidays! And Happy New Year!

Second of all, sorry I've dropped the ball on posting.

It's been busy, I've been working, and friend visiting, and family visiting.

It's been good though. My friend recently got me involved in Eve online.

Eve online is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). You create a character, and have a spaceship. You then go through space and blow things up and do missions.... and thaaaaat is about as far as I've gotten. I did the tutorials just before Christmas, and haven't had much chance to look at it since.

I have also spent a lot of time reading. I got the book Inheritance as a gift for Christmas, so I'll be immersed in that for a while.

Now that it's 2012, I suppose it's a good time to reflect on 2011.

You know what? 2011 was a good year.

A really good year, for me at least.

I turned 18, finally giving me some freedom to be myself.

I gained confidence in myself, confidence being in short supply before now.

I graduated high school and managed to get into college, and stay in college.

And I made a lot of new, great friends; as well as keeping in touch with some older friends.

I'm hoping 2012 will be just as good.

School starts again this week, so I'll have a regular posting schedule again soon.

Until then I bid you all farewell, and hope you had a safe and happy holiday season.

First week of Freedom

For the first week of relaxation from school... I have slept. A lot.

I also saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which was pretty darn good.

But this week I've really got nothing to blog on right now, I work later tonight though.

We're having a staff party later too, blacklight mini golf.

But, bye for now!

End of a Semester

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: Huge success.
I cannot overstate my satisfaction.


Aperture science. We do what we must because we can.


School is almost over for my class for this semester (one more exam Monday), and I am truly happy. I'm not happy to be leaving our class though (I'll miss you, Section 1 D= ) I'm just happy to get a chance to slooooooow down (Powerthirst reference anyone?)

Also, during the break there are two movies that I am planning to see come hell or high water.

The first is Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which officially comes out on December 16th, but they're doing a 22 o'clock (that's 10 p.m., if you don't read 24 hour time) showing at the Empire Theater at Grant Park Shopping Centre on the 15th. Since school's done by then, I think I might have to mosey over and see that.

I haven't seen the first Sherlock Holmes movie (of this incarnation) since it was in theaters, but I remember it was really, really good. It has good acting, keeps you guessing, and it's pretty darned funny.

In A Game of Shadows they also have Noomi Rapace playing a character.

For those who don't know Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish version of the Millennium Trilogy. I've only had the chance to see the first movie from that series (in Swedish), but the one thing I've asked for for Christmas is a box set of the movies they have at McNally Robinson book store. Even if that doesn't happen, I think I'm pretty willing to spend a little bit to get the box set on my own.

Dun dun duuuuuun

And that brings us to the next movie! The American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is being released December 21st.

I'm a little aprehensive about it, since they're remaking a movie that's already fantastic. But it looks like it will be on the upside of decent.

They've got Daniel Craig playing Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara playing Lisbeth Salander. 

Both versions of the movie are rated R, due to violence, nudity, and rape, among other things.

It doesn't look too bad.

Another thing to look forward to is the fact that Trent Reznor was part of creating the soundtrack. I'm a fan of Nine Inch Nails and their music, so I'm very hopeful for the soundtrack as well.

For those who haven't read the books in the Millennium Trilogy, I would suggest you get on that. Though they're very long (about 750 pages per book, if I recall correctly) they're worth the time. When I was reading the first book it took me a year to get it done, partially because I'd just picked it up on a layover in Amsterdam,  and partially because the first 100 pages or so are really slow, and talking about Swedish economy. Once I got past that though, I finished it in a week.

I then picked up the second one to read on the flight to Greece to visit my father that summer. I finished it in about a week as well.

Leaving Greece that summer, I found the last book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, in English, at a little kiosk by my gate for about 7 Euro. I didn't hesitate in buying it, and I finished it in less than two days.

Now I think I'll go read them again!

Talk to you all next week.

Movies missed

I have had it pointed out to me on several occasions that I need to watch more movies.

"Watch more movies!" They say.
"But I don't have the time to dedicate to sitting down and just watching a movie." I say
And then they threaten to smack me. In a funny way, because I don't tolerate people hitting me willy-nilly.

I've come to realize that at a lot of these times they're right.

There's something going on right now where a t.v. station is broadcasting Disney movies frequently. (I'm not sure how frequently, since my mom's the one PVRing the movies).

So far we have Mulan. Which I've seen in several languages actually, but it loses something in Greek.

I actually still have a Mulan Barbie doll, although I've lost the hair extension piece that was supposed to be before she cut off her hair to join the Army in her father's place.

Secret Hero Mulan!

We've also PVR'd Beauty and the Beast... which I can't ever remember watching. I've read the book, and seen  it performed at Disney On Ice... but I don't think I've watched the movie.

I kind of feel like I may have missed part of my childhood never having watched it.

My teapots never dance =(

So I'm making a list of movies I need to watch (or need to watch again, if the only time I saw them was before I could form memory).

Thus far, I have:

Beauty and the Beast

The Lion King

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Up

Robin Hood

Sleeping Beauty

Mary Poppins

Brave (which isn't out yet, but it must be seen)

Pocahontas

Nightmare Before Christmas

The Sound of Music
Dark Crystal
Labyrinth
Battle Royale
Goemon
Dragonslayer
Ong-Bak
Braveheart
The Patriot

Some of these have been suggested by friends, so they might just be them messing around.

I won't deny that I watched a lot of T.V. when I was younger. I was an only child until I was 10, and even then I couldn't really play with my siblings.

I think I might have enjoyed shows that weren't typical. Things like Mumies Alive.

Mummies Alive

That's probably not the best example of why the show was good... since that was pretty terrible. It's so cheesy. To me it's actually so bad that it's good.

The show is about a boy who finds out he's the reincarnation of a Pharaoh, and he's being hunted by... someone, for some reason. It's been a few years since I've seen it, and I'm going off memory. Anyway, he's being hunted, but luckily some mummies are there to protect him.

Like I said, so bad it's good.

Dark Oracle


This is one of those offbeat shows. Dark Oracle is a Canadian show about fraternal twins, Callie and Lance Stone, who have their lives basically taken over by a comic book (it's the best description I can give).

That's the intro to the show, as well as a commercial for it that was run on YTV. I've been a fan of this since I was in elementary school (so about six years). Being a little more... dark minded than others, you could say, it was a good semi-dark show.

Actually, Alex House, who plays Lance, has been filming the show Todd and the Book of Pure Evil in Winnipeg.

Here's the IMDB for Dark Oracle:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437711/

And here's the IMDB for Todd and the Book of Pure Evil:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558128/

I'll be posting again later, bye all!

New Dungeons and Dragons fun!

Finally, I get to go back to playing Dungeons and Dragons, just in time for school to be going on break.

As far as I understand, it's the same group I was with before, so that guarantees some interesting stories.

Unfortunately, I still have to make my character. Writing her up should be easy, but assigning her skills will be the more difficult part, since I have to roll my numbers in front of the DM.

I've decided not to gender bend this time, since last time I had a male character, at least for a while. That's a funny story actually. My character (when he was still a male half-elf), was helping another character in our group hunt down a young T-Rex to feed his wolf, when the T-Rex ate me. The rest of my group was so close to saving me, but I died one turn before they could kill the T-Rex.

I would have been fine with them leaving my character dead, and then writing a new character. They essentially told me that I didn't get a say in the matter though, and resurrected me.

Funny thing about resurrection in D&D, you get to roll  two dice, a percentile dice, and a D10 (a 10 sided dice).

Then you add them together, and depending on what percentile you get, that's the species you're resurrected as. It depends on which chart you're using, but it generally isn't the same species you were before.

Then you get to roll the dice again, to use the percentage to find your gender.

   

Essentially from something like this...

to this.

And that's how I ended up going from a male half-elf, to a female gnoll.











I didn't have it as bad as another character in our group though, he had a minion who got eaten by another dinosaur. The minion, Leonardo (name after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, not the artist), was a male human. He had the luck to be resurrected as a female centaur.

Yup. He wasn't too happy.

Poor guy (gal?) then had the luck to be caught when we were attacked by a hydra.

It also could breath fire.

The fact it could breath fire was a very important fact. Because it set him on fire. So, we had our Druid resurrect him again.

This time he had the luck to come back as a female Gnoll, just like me.

My friend let the minion go home after that, he felt Leonardo had been killed enough.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Anyway, back to the not gender bending this time. 

Since this is an all rouge group this time, I decided to go for a tiny unassuming female assassin/healer.

I've based her on a character on the character Kyler Stern from Brent Weeks Night Angel Trilogy. The big way they will be similar is that both of them are assassins with a good grasp of poisons.

They are both orphans, though he, if I recall correctly, always was an orphan, while she watched her parents and siblings die.

I suppose I should mention her name, I've decided on Aidan. Aidan is Irish in origin and means little fire.

Anyway, Kylar is trained as an assassin, and poses as a number of other profession (such as a healer). Aidan will have a healers background, thus knowing the properties of plants and having some surgical knowledge, and turn assassin after her family is killed.

Once I've got a full background written up on her, I will post it, possibly with a sketch of her I'm working on.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Something I'd like to point out to people who might be thinking of joining a D&D group who enjoy writing, this is a great way to bring your characters to life.

Aidan might be based partially on a character from another book, but my previous character, Kori, was based on a story I've been writing, I basically picked him up out of that story, and ploped him into D&D character format.

But now I must be off! Bye Bye!

Japan!

I am going to go to Japan this summer.

http://www.uni.edu/becker/japanese.html

Or at least, I'm going to do my damnedest to get there.

Other than the fact that for many many years I've wanted to go to Japan, I know two people who will be teaching there.

My cousin is in Gifu teaching English there as I... um... type. I also have a friend who will be going out there in a few months to teach English, and he'll be trying for Osaka.

Osaka Castle

I'm starting to save up once Christmas has passed, and if anyone has any knowledge of what it's like to travel to Japan, and any great places to visit, it would be greatly appreciated if you would comment! ^w^ (That's a cat smiley face)

My cousin who's out there, Kevin Brown, told me that I can use his photo's in my blog, so I've got some beautiful pictures of Japan to put in here today! I've also got some silly photo's! If anyone has any questions about the photo's comment and I can ask him for more information about them. ^w^

ありがとう！おやすみ！
Thank you! Goodnight!

Priest

Well, this movie's a little older, it came out last Spring.

I liked this movie, but the few other people I know who saw it didn't.

I think the difference was that they went in looking for a well made movie with a good plot line. The movie was well made, it had good effects. The plot line... it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great.

That's why I think my friends didn't like it.

Thin plotline? What?

I agree, the plotline wasn't the best. It might be better in the graphic novel version, but I haven't read that yet.

I liked it more than my friends because I went into that movie expecting to see some vampires get killed.

And you know what? I got that. And I loved it.

It's not too memorable to me, I find that I can only loosely remember what happened now (when normally I can remember more). But at the time it was good.

The person I went to see it with had a very funny thought during the movie:

"Why don't vampire hunters wear neck guards?"

Onto the next order of business, I have a poster from the movie.

This poster, actually.

So, this is only really applicable to people who live in Winnipeg, since I'm not at the moment willing to ship a poster somewhere out of town.

If you're interested in having this poster, the first Winnipeger who comments on this post saying their favorite Vampire movie, and why it's your favorite, I will bring the poster to you (only if you live in Winnipeg, I'm sorry, but I can't mail it.)

That's about it for now! Nighty night!

Movie Days

Alrighty everyone. First of all, no pictures this week, since the movies I saw last week weren't too appropriate. Also, there will be a wee bit of foul language in a bit, just a heads up.

Last Friday (after attending a Remembrance Day ceremony) I went to see A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas with a friend. Then, later that night I went to see Immortals with other friends.

The next day, after work, I went to my friends house, and watched Heavy Metal 2000.

On a side note, I was sick of movies  by the end of the weekend, but not the company I was keeping.

First of all, A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas.

Well, for some odd reason, the theater I went to thought this movie was rated 14A. It's really, really not. It's 18A. It's 18A for very good reasons. There is foul language, drug use, nudity, general inappropriate content, and did I mention the nudity? I'm not really a prude when it comes to people being naked, but that was waaaaaay more male genitalia than I needed to see in one movie. I can only imagine how the girl sitting near me who appeared to be less than 16 felt.

That being said, it wasn't too bad. I haven't seen the other Harold and Kumar movies (mostly because I didn't want to), and to be honest I probably won't watch them unless my friend wants to watch them with me. I wouldn't suggest watching it if you're easily offended by... well, most things. If you liked the other movies in the series, I've been told (by people who like them) that this is a good one to see.

Immortals


I wasn't really going to see this movie, but I was asked along as a... fourth wheel? It makes sense to me, but I can't explain my friends personal lives.

For a 3D movie, it used the 3D effects very very well. I've seen some pretty terrible 3D, and this was pretty damn good.

I don't really have anything I can say on how they represent Ancient Greece, though for some reason they interpret a Greek accent into a... semi-English accent? Which, to be honest, is probably for the better, the Greek accent can be hard to understand. I've known my dad all my life (haha) and I still have a hard time understanding him sometimes.

-Insanely- violent though. If any of you read my blog post on the movie Drive, you`ll have a bit of an idea on how I feel towards head squishing.

Well, I almost threw up during Immortals too. Lets just leave it to your imagination now.

Heavy Metal 2000


This isn't a new movie in any sense. It's an interesting movie though.

Really inappropriate in most ways too.

The first time I saw this I think I was still in junior high. Which isn't really a good thing. I say that because I saw it on Teletoon. You know, the children's show channel. This might be animated, but there is nudity, violence, sex, sexual reference, swearing, and I'm fairly certain illegal substance use. On Teletoon.

That I watched it when I was younger explains a lot about me I've been told.

I do truly enjoy this movie, to me it's so bad that it's good.

And I will give a real spoiler, this is my favorite line in the movie:

"How do you lose a six foot B**** and a talking rock! How do you do that?"

It makes me laugh so hard every time I hear that.

This movie is rater R. It's got good reason to be. But it also has Billy Idol voicing one of the characters, which makes it kind of awesome.

It also has a pretty decent soundtrack if you like metal.

One I particularily enjoy is "Psychosexy" by Sinisstar. It's fun to dance too.

But, time for bed, night all!

Kenny Shields and Streetheart!

Alright everyone, no movie goodness this week. I was planning to watch a movie tonight, but my mom won tickets to go see Kenny Shields and Streetheart tonight!




That's their song Action. I find it's the one that sticks in my head the most.

Another concert in Winnipeg this month is The Tea Party! They're playing The Burton Cummings Theater on November 23rd. I am so very, very excited. So you guys get to easily get the links to some Tea Party songs!




Here you go!
Now I must away, see you all next week!

The cats meow

This past weekend, Puss in Boots came out.

Thank you Puss in Boots blog

And, oh my gosh, was it adorable.

Kinda like this... Well, exactly like this.

There was a surprising amount of innuendo though. I know they through innuendo in so that adults can enjoy it as much as the children the movies are intended for do, but with Puss in Boots, it almost seemed like it was more for adults.

We find out about Puss' past in this movie, and meet "Kitty Softpaws" (played by Salma Hayek)

"That's a lot of heel for a guy."

It's not too bad a movie, it appeals to both children and adults... but be prepared for awkward questions from the kidlings if they're old enough to understand that something inappropriate has been said, but not know what it was. 

In Other News

If anyone reading this is a fan of the Inheritance Cycle, happy days are here again.

For those who have never read the books from the Inheritance Cycle, it is made of the books Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. It will also finally, finally, have the last book in the series, Inheritance coming out in four days (from this post).

Finally. FINALLY.

It might be hard for people to see how happy I am that Inheritance is finally coming out. So I'll explain. The first book in the series, Eragon, came out in 2002. I would have been about eight or nine. Originally the Inheritance Cycle was called the Inheritance Trilogy. When Brisingr was released in 2008, I thought there would finally be closure on the series. But no. It didn't wrap it up, and I've been wondering since then if Christopher Paolini was ever going to end the series. And he finally is. Finally.

If anyone is interested in finding out more, here's Christopher Paolini's website: http://www.alagaesia.com/index.php

On that note, I'm off! Bye!

I would Rather Be online than on TV

Hello Hello,

Today is a blog for an assignment in class, so it's not about a movie (not that this week’s blog post wasn't going to be about a movie anyway, but c'est la vie).

From a list of 21 topics to choose from, I have chosen "I would rather be online than on TV".

Here's the thing, as people who know me in real life will realize, I am terrified of speaking in front of people or on camera.

When I say terrified, I mean nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, the whole shebang.

Not being able to be seen or heard helps a lot with the nervousness I find. I'm still fairly nervous because there are some people reading what I'm writing, but not to the point where I might faint.

A few times I've been asked why I'm in Creative Communications if I'm so afraid of speaking in front of people. There's a lot to that answer, I'm hoping that being in Cre Comm will help with the nerves, for one thing. I also want to improve my writing skills, and become comfortable with people reading what I write. Finally, for a long time, I've wanted to be a radio host, or DJ, and Radio Broadcast is one of our classes.

I don't understand my fear though, and it's getting to the point that it interferes with my ability to deal with life on a day to day basis. Though, to be fair, that's not all fear, some of it is the fact I'm an introvert, and like to keep to myself in public.

I've been told by a few of my friends that I "can't be an introvert" because I do talk to people, but I can explain that too, I get nervous around people I don't know and start talking more. That's right; I'm one of those awkward people.

To make one loooong explanation simple, I'd prefer to be online blogging than on TV as a reporter or something because I'm afraid to speak in front of others, even friends and classmates.

Hope you all have a good day, and I'll probably be back Saturday after I see the new Puss in Boots movie.

Drive

This is the Canadian poster as far as I can tell

.

So, I went to see Drive with my classmate Sam (from Sam Unconstrained). I won't lie, I'm pretty sure we mostly went because of Ryan Gosling.

For you Sam.

The film however is rated R.

And I can completely understand why.

The is mature content, and foul language.

And then holy gratuitous violence Batman.

The movie started off alright, albeit a little aimless. And then things went wrong. Really, really wrong. Sometimes there is the cliche line of "an orgy of violence". That would not be an overstatement here.

There were parts of this movie that almost made me throw up. And there will be spoilers here, so stop reading or skip the underlined paragraph.

Two words. Curb Stomp. That's right. Curb stomp. In what was one of the grosser parts of the movie, Ryan Gosling CURB STOMPS some guys head in. Albeit he had self defense on his side, it still was so very, very gross. I would have been fine never having heard the sound of some guys head going squish while Ryan Gosling had a very Jack from The Shining look on his face.

Kind of like this.
On a side note, in my search for this picture, I found pictures of people who have this tattooed on their arms.

I don't want to seem too critical of the movie, because I did enjoy it. But there were some bad things, like the font. I can't find a picture of just the title, but if you look at the poster you'll see it. The pink. The terrible, terrible font. That font made up the opening credits, and the whole time I saw it I was thinking "That would make us fail an assignment in Electronic Publishing Layout and Design." (You know what I'm talking about CreComm readers).

For those who aren't in Creative Communications, let me explain, in Elec. Pub. if any of us used that font for something in an assignment, we would probably have failed.

Anyway! Back to the movie.

Like I've said before, I work at a theater, and sometimes I see people when they are leaving a theater. I must say, the most surprising people I've seen that went to see Drive were these two nice little ladies who I'm guessing are in their late 60's, early 70's.

They stayed for the entire movie, and when I asked them how they liked it, they told me that

"It's a very good movie, but very violent."

That was the best part of my day that day.

On more extremely violent movie news, I saw a poster for the movie The Hunger Games today.

Excuse me while I jump up and down with fan girl glee.

I don't want to give anything away, but I recommend people go read this book. It's really, really, really good. Catching Fire (the second book) and Mockingjay (the third) are also pretty good. I got my mom to read the first one, and she could hardly put it down.

So, when this comes out in March (if IMDB is correct) I will be seeing it. Come hell or high water, I will be seeing it.

But that's all for now, Goodnight!

50/50

                                                          Warning: May Contain Spoilers


I'm well aware that the movie 50/50 staring Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been out for a few weeks, but I've been sitting on this post. I actually saw it with my cousin the weekend it came out .

I was a little nervous going to see it however, because I was worried it would cross the fine line of things that are acceptable in a movie about cancer.

It didn't though. It was undoubtedly funny, and occasionally crass. It's probably not a movie to watch with  you parents if you'd feel awkward watching a sex scene with them, or hearing crude sexual language with them.

The main point I found though is that, yes, there are jokes involving cancer, things like having Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character using it to pick up women, but the movie didn't make fun of cancer.

It was also sad at parts though, since this is based on a real story, we know that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character lives, but it's still very emotional. I won't lie, I cried when I watched it.

I personally think this is a great movie, and would recommend it to most people (not people who are easily offended by foul language), it's not a family film though.

Night,

Emily

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Alright, today we'll be talking about anime.

The cast of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6430

More specifically, a dance from the anime the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I see a certain beauty in choreographed dance, even if it's goofy.

I actually tried to teach this to my dance class a few years ago, since it requires a certain amount of coordination, but for some strange reason they didn't want to learn it.

I've heard a lot of people call me a fanatic for wanting to learn this dance (and some other dances that come from anime). But this is all about perspective, I want to learn to dance it, possibly in a group. I don't really want to do what the people in this next video did though. Keep in mind I think that they're awesome, I just don't have that level of devotion.




Some of you may notice that the music is different in that video (if you watched it). That's because they're using the full version of the song used in the actual anime. That means that they've had to choreograph parts of that on their own, just going off what the dance in the anime looked like.

I think that's all about the dance for tonight really. I'm considering trying to learn the dance, and mayyyybe recording it to post on here, but that's only a maybe, if people really want to see it, then comment about it.

And for any of you who want to learn the dance at a reasonable pace, here's the video:




Nighty night!

Page One

Alrighty, hello hello

This blog will actually be about a movie (finally). Last Friday all of the students in first year Creative Communications went to see the movie Page One: Inside The New York Times.

None too shabby

Personally, I enjoyed the movie, it's not flashy and full of action, but for an information junkie (like me) it's great. It's also great if you're interested in journalism. 

Unfortunately in my case I was completely exhausted during the movie, so I didn't absorb parts of it. I would see it again though if it was still here.

Here's the link to the IMDB page in case anyone is interested:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787777/

- Emily

D&D Destruction

Hello All,

D&D


First things first today, it turns out I made a miscalculation with the D&D group I'm part of. I thought we'd be going until at least December, but it turns out we've only got a few sessions left with this group.

This is in part because we cut a bloody path through the castle we were supposed to be stealthily infiltrating. It is also in part because I am a bad judge of how fast we move.

The good news is that I will be joining another group soon after, so I can chronicle that group, and be more organized about it.

Movies

Apparently it's an awesome movie

I was going to watch Across the Universe tonight, but due to exhaustion and other obligations, I won't have time to.

But I am buying Love Actually tomorrow! Which is awesome in so many ways. It's a movie I've seen before, but I'll put more explanation tomorrow!

-Emily

The foray into Twitter.

Hello all, today is a school assignment, just in case anyone was wondering.

Yesterday I joined the world of Twitter. I've been avoiding that for years because Twitter just didn't appeal to me.
I'm on there now though, and I've already had the experience of Twitter 'going down'. For a few hours last night I was trying to get onto it, and it was very decidedly not working. It's working now though, but so far it's not too bad.

- Emily

Que Sura, Sura

Whatever will be, will be.

A year ago today a very good friend of mine passed away at the age of 19.
Her family and friends lost someone so very special, and while wounds may heal over time,this still hurts for many of us.

Miss you so much Sarah, we love you.

-Emily

Oh dear, this newfangled blog.

Well, I've come across a problem today.
I can see people following me, but I'm not sure how to get to their profiles to also follow them.
So! I've turned to you, fair internet users, for advice, can any of you help me?

- Emily

Movies, Dungeons and Dragons and Introductions

Well, many of you won't know what's going on with this blog, at least not yet. I'll start with introduction, you (the readers) can call me Emily, or Em, anything really, just try to keep it respectful. I'll occasionally use chat speak, or emoticons, because I find that the tone I'm using (example: when I'm being sarcastic) won't always translate well in my typing, but I will try to avoid it.

Fig. 1

                                                                           
I work at a theater (which is awesome), so I decided to make use of the fact and have part of this be a movie review. If there aren't any new movies out that I want to see, I'll probably look at a movie that's on DVD to review.

Unfortunately I will not be doing a movie review this week, since I'm still getting used to handling a blog.

Dungeons and Dragons


I haven't been playing D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) for too long, if my memory serves me correctly my first session was in early February of 2011. In matter of fact, the campaign I'm currently in is getting near its end, but D&D is always an interesting creative trip.

For those who don't know, Dungeons and Dragons is a RPG (Role Playing Game). Basically, you create a character, and then get to roll dice to give them some characteristics. The numbers you roll are put into things like dexterity, strength, and intelligence (that's not all of them, but it gives a general idea). If you give a higher number to dexterity, but a lower number to strength, you would be more nimble, but not as strong. Then, depending on what your character is like, you get to give them skills. I play an acrobatic rogue, so I have a high dexterity, and my stealth and acrobatic skills are higher than most of my other skills.

The group you play with (oh yes, this is a group game) will have a leader who makes the story as you go along, and generally does not have a set character that they play (though that might be only in the games I've played). They are basically the master of the world you are playing in, and they can through some interesting challenges at you. Things like exploding crystal hedgehogs, though I think that's not as common.

I'll get a summary of the campaign I'm in up next week, I doubt anyone wants to keep reading about D&D today.

Fig. 2
This is a D20 (twenty sided dice), it is your friend, it can also destroy you.

Odds and Ends

If I have something else I feel like, I'll put some odds and ends into a post, from something interesting I saw, to special events, to questions I have for you all. It probably won't happen every post though.

With that, I bid you adieu, and hope to see you this time next week.

- Emily B