Old photos...

Going back through some old photo files...

I took this in 2008... I really need to blow that up and get it framed sometime...

Meditations on Grimace...

I was chatting with a friend the other day about Ronald McDonald (the clown that was the mascot for McDonald's many moons ago) and we started discussing how disturbing the entire cast of characters was for the whole McDonald's campaign back then...

I mean, let's look at your basic 1970's McDonald's characters(R):

Hamburglar - a freakishly big-headed thief... who stole hamburgers.
The Fry Guys - a bunch of strangely colored yarn-type figures... who stole fries.
Mayor McCheese - head of this town apparently rampant with thievery
Birdie - not sure what she ever did... but we had to have a representative for the chicken nuggets on the menu, I guess?
Ronald McDonald - a clown who was the smartest one of the bunch...
Grimace - a big purple.... something? Huh?

In fact, what the hell was Grimace anyway?  According to the McDonald's website: "Grimace is a big, loving, fuzzy purple fellow who is Ronald McDonald's best friend. He's sure Ronald is the world's ultimate authority on everything. While Grimace loves all McDonald's foods, he's absolutely crazy about milkshakes. Grimace is very enthusiastic and eager to try new things. His joyous spirit helps everyone overlook the fact he's a little slow and clumsy sometimes.”

Grimace the...blob?

But before this happy purple bumkin became a "joyous spirit", Grimace was "Evil Grimace" and actually had four arms - with which he was more effectively able to... yes... you got it...  steal more milkshakes. So this makes Grimace perfect for him to fit into the McDonald's lineup of junk-food-stealing hoodlums.

(Geek side note: That seems to have precious little to do with the actual definition of the word (care of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1996 edition): To "grimace" means, "a sharp contortion of the face, expressive of pain, contempt, or disgust.")

Now that I think about it, I would have loved to be in that board room meeting at McDonald's headquarters when the brilliant thought a town full of thievery was received as a fabulous marketing idea to put in front of kids while they're watching their Saturday morning cartoons.  But hey, I watched those guys steal fries, burgers and milkshakes for years, and it hasn't messed me up... too much...

Confessions of a girl gamer 3

The days of visually-stunning adventures games continued for a few years from the mid-90's and into the new millennium.  A few of my favorites during that time:

Grim Fandango

Siberia I

Siberia II

I was so involved in the genre of adventure gaming that I even started volunteering my time to be the "New Releases" editor for the website Just Adventure (which, if you're interested in adventure games, is a fabulous resource.)  We got snooty for a while, judging all other game styles as unintelligent, non-thinking games (which isn't true unless you haven't ever played those other types of games.)

World of Warcraft

And then I found World of Warcraft.  Yep, I got hooked. I started out with a warlock, and now have a warlock, priest, hunter, shaman, paladin, mage... and when the expansion comes out, I'll make one of the new classes - a monk. The game has changed a lot since I started, but the goal of the game stays the same: Suck you in and don't let you go.  I have been a serious "raider" and a less serious "casual" gamer. But the game is pretty good (for what it is.)  There are far too many people who take it too seriously. Those that play are offended by every update that the manufacturer creates. Those that don't play judge it for being addictive (which is true) and mindless (which can be true, depending on how you play.) But the game is what you make it - can it be addictive, mind-numbing and destroy your life? Yes, if you let it. Can it be a casual past time that is entertaining? Yes, that too.  Is it destroying the world as we know it?  Likely not.  I still play today, though less than in years past. And now I have more of an interest in collecting the in-game "pets" than anything else.

Following Felicia Day on Google+ has introduced me to some of the cutest little online games to help waste more of your time.  From "defend the castle" style Kingdom Rush (which will suck away several days of your life) to the most recent flash game, Wonderputt (which will only cost you an hour or so), which is like an 18-hole mini-golf course with cows, aliens and submarines. (It's hard to describe... feel free to go see for yourself).

Kingdom Rush

Wonderputt

And for cheaper games, I have had a lot of fun recently with Torchlight (which was just $20) and Machinarium (a puzzle-solving game with fascinating graphics and haunting music) which was only $10.

Torchlight

Machinarium

We (the boy and I) are now playing Dark Souls, Prototype, and just finished Starcraft II. And of course WoW will be there for a few years to come, at least.

Starcraft II

But needless to say, games will be a part of our life for years to come. And on an "hours-of-entertainment-per dollar" scale, they really are quite impressive (not quite as good as books, but better than going to the movies.)  And with the average age of gamers today just around my generation, I'm happy to see that games will be created with us in mind, appealing not only to my personal preference of visually stunning graphics, but also intelligent designs, puzzles, and high entertainment value.

Confessions of a girl gamer... part 2

Transylvania

Do any of you guys remember Transylvania?  It was 1992, and my sister and I played this game together on our parent's computer at home... and were totally in love with the graphics. I mean wow, pictures we didn't have to draw ourselves!?  After the text-only games and the Intellivision experiences, these were pretty intense experiences!

I think for a few years, I didn't game too much - not enough time during high school, and only played games with my sister when I came home from college and had access to my parent's computer.  I don't remember playing a lot during those years (too much homework, track team practice, theater work, after school job, and clarinet practice.) And around 1993 or 1994, I found Myst. Once I left the world of text games and started with the graphics, I was hooked... and I never looked back.

Screenshot from Myst, released in 1993

This game totally changed the way I experienced video games. The graphics totally blew my mind (they were impressive for their time), and I was in my 20's, didn't care much for partying and loved computers, so many weekends and evenings were spent playing these types of puzzle-solving games. There was no violence (unless the story lines had them incorporated as part of a back story) and the idea was to solve puzzles.

If you've never played video games, you probably don't know Myst. But if you have, there's very little chance you've avoided it.  It seems to evoke emotions of one extreme or the other - either you loved it and swear that it revolutionized the gaming world, or you hated it and thought everyone else was nuts. I haven't met a lot of people who felt neutral about Myst.  In any case, I think you can now download the game on your iPod or iPhone if you want to give it a try yourself.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (and the dreaded avatar)

There were several sequels to Myst, which I made sure to play as soon as they were released. The graphics, of course, got better and better, and the first-person, slide-show style continued until the last installment, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, in which you could create your own avatar.

This caused an uproar for purist Myst fans - the player was supposed to be anonymous! Genderless! Faceless! I got the impression that die-hard fans felt like Cyan (the developer) was "selling out" to the more popular style of 3rd-person gameplay that was emerging at the time and not being true to the original Myst following.

I didn't care - it looked gorgeous, there were cool puzzles, a good plot line, decent soundtrack, and nothing jumped out and killed you instantly. As far as I was concerned, it was an awesome game.

There were also a few games that gave me nightmares. Blackstone Chronicles comes to mind - a creepy game that took you back into the memories of an old sanitarium, where you discovered the horrifying treatments of the patients through ghostly flashbacks and whispered echos in deserted hallways.  Again, nothing ever jumped out at you, but the sound effects of footsteps behind you or the sudden SLAM of a closing door were enough to make my heart jump in my chest enough times that I had to vow only to play during the daylight hours.

Blackstone Chronicles' creepy "treatment" room

Another along these lines was Dark Fall... another "only during the daytime" games that was the ultimate in creepy nightmare-inducing sound effects.

Dark Fall: The Journal (warning: causes nightmares)

But my favorite games were primarily along the Myst lines - imaginary worlds with adventurers with no memories, following a trail of clues and puzzles.  Schizm was one of my favorites. The concept was that the two main characters were split apart from each other and into two separate but parallel universes, and had to solve puzzles on either side in order to reunite and (inevitably) save the world.  Again, the plot line was good, but the graphics were what always sold me. Exploring areas, drinking in the ambiance, and figuring out puzzles to unlock new, visually-stunning areas were what drew me into the gaming world.

Schizm screenshot

C'mon, tell me this isn't pretty awesome for 2002!

Even the Zork line of games made a few appearances during these years, and to this day, one of my favorite games is Zork: Grand Inquisitor. This game was hysterical, and full of slapstick humor, character actors, and even flashbacks to the original text adventure game that was, for a true fan of the genre, a geeky high.

Zork: Grand Inquisitor revisits the little white house with mailbox.

Another one from 1998 was called "Sanitarium" which began in, yep, an insane asylum-gone-bad. (What is it with me and evil mental institutions that I find so darn entertaining?)

Sanitarium - the starting screen

I had never heard of this until several years after it was released, and didn't get to play it until well past the operating system that it was programmed for.  As a result, I played Sanitarium in four-minute increments - I had to save every four minutes because the game crashed every five. If I didn't save, I would lose my progress. So I literally played this game four minutes at a time, shut it down, rebooted, and played four minutes again. (Try it sometime, it's irritating.) But the game was so engaging, and so well written, well-conceived and executed that I played the entire thing all the way through, and it was worth it. And that is really saying something right there.  It was a slight departure for me personally, since the graphics weren't as drop-dead gorgeous as the other games I loved to play.  But it caught me up in its talons and even with the technical nightmares, to this day Sanitarium is one of my all time favorite games.

Sanitarium again

Confessions of a girl gamer... Part 1

So, I have a confession to make.

I am a girl. And I play video games.

I have played them for years, and listened to the blah-da-blah-blah experts that say playing video games makes you dumb, or violent, or antisocial square-pants.  I don't think I'm dumb (although I do still have issues spelling "awesome" because I'm never sure if I should leave out the middle "e"), and so far I'm not violent (haven't killed a single, solitary person in my whole life!) and as for an antisocial square-pants... didn't Huey Lewis tell me it was Hip to be Square?

Anyway, I grew up with games. The first one I remember was Zork... have you ever played Zork? Guess what... there weren't any pictures! It was all... reading.  Here's a stunning screenshot:

Are you impressed?  Yes, that's it... and it was awesome (with an e in the middle). You type in commands like
> Open mailbox 


> Kill thief 
With what? 
>Kill thief with knife


> Open grate. 
The grate is locked.

I spent *hours* on this game, figuring out puzzles, and avoiding being eaten by a gru (horrid underground creatures that ate you if you got caught in this underground labyrinth without your lamp on).  I corrupted my sister in the efforts to also make her a dumb, violent square-pants, and we sat up in the computer room figuring out puzzles for a bunch of games for hours at a time, and hand-drawing maps of the imaginary worlds.

Maze in Zork. These were the "graphics" back then.

She eventually stopped playing with me because "the baby was crying" or some such nonsense... but I'll get her back into it, I vow.

There were other games, like "Deadline" where you had to solve a murder mystery, but had a time limit to do it, so you only had a certain number of moves before something pivotal happened (a phone call) and you had to do your part to get a clue (pick up the handset and eavesdrop on the conversation.)  That was my first taste of not loving time-pressure games... I enjoy the wandering around and being able to pause and think before acting.

Our family got our first video game console when I was about 8 or so? We didn't have the ColecoVision or Atari that the "cool kids" had.  We had... Intellivision.  Some of my favorite memories from there:

Snafu!

Auto racing

My favorite (I think) was Pitfall.  At some point, someone told me that if you went far enough in one direction, you meet the "Princess" and save her and get a treasure chest.  I remember sitting in front of that screen for hours, swinging on hundreds of vines, stepping on hundreds of alligator heads... and never reached the end. (Turns out there wasn't one.)

Pitfall

My love affair with games continues, although now I'm a PC gamer (with an occasional foray into Playstation games) and I'm also a graphics geek... I love anything that looks amazing. I'll post more about my favorite games through the years in future posts, I'm sure.

I tried to revisit Zork a while ago and just didn't have the patience for it.  But if you want to give it some effort, most of the Infocom games (including Zork) are online...and free... (including Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is just about as much fun as the book!)  Feel free to check them out here: Free Online Infocom Games or I think a bunch are also available as free apps for iPhones and the like.

More posts on gaming will be in the pipeline, I'm sure... I mean, after all, the more dumb, violent square-pants there are in the world, the better, in my opinion...

Delusional Bride

Wedding Don'ts

When you get engaged, there are no shortage of ridiculous things that people feel the need to sell you.  Don't even get me started on the fact that that if you want to buy a "long, white formal gown" you can get a gorgeous one for about $200.  But if you want to buy a "wedding gown" the dress will look exactly the same, but the price goes up by about 1000%.

But there are other things that are pretty outrageous, too.  I've decided to let you know what we are NOT going to have at our wedding:

Bunny-ear headpieces

This bridesmaid's outfit

This cake topper

Mullet dresses

A cake shaped like the bride (or anyone else)

Cartoon characters

Butt-bows of unusual size (BBOUS's)

I'm absolutely, 100% sure that this post will just be the first of many blog postings along these themes...

Crotchety Crochet

A few years ago, I started crocheting. I do need to get back into it, but all I ever really ended up making were a bunch of scarves and a funny looking pointed hat.  It's still a fun hobby that is much better for me than biting my nails.

But I got nothin' on this woman...  Here are the before and after photos of one of her most famous works...

Before....

..and after.

...and her video of the process is below...

Facebookery

I've been pondering today the world of Facebook today.  Just so you know, I have a 411 friends...and none are complete strangers. Apparently, in the FB world, this is fairly pathetic. And if I were in high school, I would be considered even more pathetic. Fortunately, I rarely take offense at the word "loser" because most of the "losers" I know are some of the most fascinating and engaging people I know.  But I digress...

The people I have friendships with are an interesting bunch, and how they've fit themselves back into my life is really kind of wild.  There's one woman who I went to high school with (let's call her H) and I haven't seen her since.  That's 20 years, for anyone counting. She posts photos of everything... her kids gap-tooth smiles after losing teeth, or crying hysterically because they have Play-Doh stuck in their hair for the second time in one day. Lounging on the couch on a Friday night with her husband, doing absolutely nada.  Today, H posted photos - "before" and "after" shots of the dog getting a bath...and it's wonderful. I can't quite put my finger on why. It's my opinion that the impact that Facebook has on our social relationships has yet to reach some conclusion. There hasn't been enough time to figure out how it will impact kids who know nothing else, or how we who watched it emerge have changed. But from personal experience, these glimpses into people's lives that I haven't seen or known in years gives a sense of almost family...and I doubt most people even realize the impact they have. H likely has no idea how often she makes me smile. Isn't that wild?

One of my photo experiments

Several people on my FB friends list I've never technically met - only virtually, while playing games online.  One in particular (we'll call her S) does crafts by the dozens, and bakes, and has shared with us her stories of life's successes and challenges... and her friends (including myself) post words of encouragement when she has a rough week, or congratulations when she got her new job.  S isn't someone I've ever met, or probably ever will, but we share these things with each other and inspire each other. She's the one who got me to start blogging again.  Sharing my experiments in photography have come from her posting her own crafting successes and failures, and laughing at herself along the way. Again...Inspiring.

One person in particular who I am friend with, I also knew in high school, but once again, didn't speak or see one another for almost 20 years. And then, we became "friends" because I thought "if we have so many friends in common, I'll just add 'em right in."  I recall making a comment about a cheesy science fiction movie ("Blade 2", if I recall correctly) and after a few bantered comments, we decided to meet to catch up over coffee one afternoon.  Two years later, we're engaged to be married. Weird.

I understand the concerns - the loss of interpersonal relations, privacy concerns, obsession with status....  Taking Facebook too seriously is like living life based on text messaging... you miss some some important nuances and it's no substitute for a hug. But overall, I really can't knock the Facebook trend too much. It's become a place where I can see photos of my far-away family as their new babies grow up or post best wishes to a long time friend who was in the hospital but lives too far away to visit.  It's where I can make jokes or tell little stories, or even just post a cartoon that made me laugh. It's fun, inspiring, frustrating, annoying, illuminating, and sometimes mind-numbingly bland... but isn't real life just like that, too?

The ghost of Halloween past...

I know it's a little early to be posting Halloween stuff, but I just HAD to post this after finding it in my old photo albums...

That's me (the witch), my sister (the ghost) and I have no idea who that is in the middle...