"We'll Break His Legs!"

I made a new shirt! And by made, I mean I bought a shirt from Value Village and painted on it.

I made one for my boyfriend for Christmas, and it turned out great. The next two I made after that were only okay, but the most recent one turned out amazing. So well, in fact, that it received a great response on Reddit, and now apparently I'm tagged as the "real life Nora Valkyrie."

For any RWBY fans out there, it's a Nora shirt. On one side, it says "We'll Break His Legs!" For non-RWBY fans, it's a scene from the show where Nora offers her suggestion to break a bullies legs after she finds out that her friend is being bullied.

The shirt had such a great response that I'm considering making more and trying to sell them on etsy. Of course, I have to check about copyright and everything, not to mention I have to consider the responsibility. It takes about half an hour to make one shirt, and a few more hours for it to dry. In addition, I would have to buy the shirt and paint, and pay for the shipping costs. I've wanted to try my hand at selling nerd shirts for a while, but it might be harder than I actually thought.

But hey, maybe if I have some time, and people really want it, I'll give it a shot. It'll be a pretty good way to earn some extra money.

Fan Expo!

I think I have a new addiction.

On Saturday, I went to Fan Expo with my boyfriend. It's my first nerd convention, or any convention, for that matter. I've wanted to go to one for years, but I never really had the friends who would go with me. This year I had more friends, though most of them are poor and couldn't afford to go...

We got there around noon, which is about an hour after it started. The place was packed! I knew it would be busy because it was a Saturday, but once we go into the main part of the convention, which is where all the merchants and signings were, it was almost impossible to move. I guess it didn't help that a lot of people were dressed up,some in very large and extravagant costumes that made it hard to get around, or so good that people kept stopping them to get photos. That being said, I definitely dressed up too. Nothing too extreme, since my textile skills are sorely lacking. I just put on my Link costume, complete with the shield my dad made me for Christmas, and the hat that my boyfriend just made me. The costume was better than ever, and still easy to wear. I even had a few people ask to take pictures with me! One was an adorable little boy dressed as the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz.

We did more than just wander around though. One reason why I canted to go to Fan Expo was for the panels. Most of them didn't interest me too much, like the Q&As with actors from shows I don't watch, or tutorials on drawing for graphic novels. Although I'm sure they were interesting, my drawing skills are at the level of an elementary school kid... We visited one panel on cosplaying (costume playing), which was pretty cool. I'm hoping to work on my textile skills a bit, and maybe make a more elaborate costume for next year. The other panel we went to was done by professional authors.

This one was amazing, because these weren't really well known and popular authors. I had never heard of any of them before. And that's the truth about being an author. So many writers see authors like Rowling and Martin and think that's what their life will be, but in the end it's more like this. Writing a few books, making a few bucks, and maybe talking about your craft to a room of fifty people once a year. Not to say that's a bad thing. It's still better than working a customer service job my whole life...

The authors all said a little blurb about their books, then talked a bit about their lives and how they got to where they are now. Most of them were fairly new, having published for the first time within the last few years. One of them had been writing for twenty five years though! They also ranged in genres, from horror/mystery, to post apocalyptic, to children's literature. One thing I realized while listening to them was that none of them really knew how to describe their books in one or two sentences. They all just kept going, revealing more than a few spoilers. Now I know they're trying to sell their books to readers, not publishers, but it just reminds me of myself,and my whole class, how none of us really feel comfortable talking about our work.

There was only time for a few questions, as the panel was shorter than the rest. Something that came up was planning. The veteran author said that there are two types of writers. Planners and Pantsers. Planners are obviously the ones that plan everything out before they write. Pantsers (which I am one of), write from the seat of their pants.They come up with their plot and everything as they write. Apparently Stephen King is a Pantser. It's more difficult, but can also produce some really good work, because it surprises the author and the reader. Of course, there is always the very high risk of discontinuity errors and mistakes, so Pantsers have to be constantly rereading their own work.

I also got a book signed by one of the authors, because he was giving our free copies of his first novel. I'm not sure if he'll actually earn money from that, but my boyfriend was interested in the book, so he might buy the rest of the series.

We stayed at the Expo until it closed at 7, which seemed way too early in my opinion. There was just so much more to see and explore. I wish I had splurged and bought the three day pass, or even a two day pass. But I guess I'll just have to look forward to next year.

Magic: The Gathering

Sorry for the dull posts for the last week or so. I've not been feeling well, and the worst symptom is just feeling sluggish. For the past couple days, everything I do saps my energy, from walking up the stairs to having a conversation. Today I'm just plain tired. I got a good eight hours of sleep, and it feels like I only got five. I've barely done anything, and have just been sitting around all day.

On the bright side, my manager felt so bad that I had to take the shift yesterday, that she gave me today and Monday off. Yay! I've informed her that I would like to work less, not that school is in, and I might sort of being seeing someone now. Everyone else is happy with that too, since everyone wants more hours. I'll just keep my minimum of sixteen hours a week, and just be available for up to twenty four.

Now that updates are all done with, let's have a review! Recently I've been introduced to a lot of games, so I have a lot to talk about. Let's start with a popular one, Magic: The Gathering.

If you have an ear in the nerd community, you've probably at least heard of this game. It's simply a luck-based strategy game. And by simply, I mean that's the simplest thing to categorize it as. Now I'm not too bad when it comes to strategy, though to be honest, most of my strategies in these types of games it to overwhelm my opponent with attacks. That doesn't work so well in this game.

It's the type of game where you need to see three turns ahead and know what your opponent will do. And of course, you need luck. If you have too much of one type of card, you can't do anything, while at the same time, if you have too little of the same type of card, you can do even less. I've definitely been on both sides of the spectrum on countless occasions.

So my verdict is: A good game, that's not too hard to learn, but definitely needs some dedication and interest in the subject. I would suggest it for anyone that likes strategy games, and whoever classifies themselves as a nerd.

Good Weekend

So after my little rant on Thursday, let's have some good news about my life!

I have friends! Okay, so I had friends before, but not many, and definitely not many that shared my interests. I had about two that played Zelda, and of those only one that lived near by. In addition, we're all too lazy to actually leave our house to hang out. So you can guess, these new friends will be willing to leave their house. In fact, they seem to like being away from their house.

First off, they are friends of a friend, so that's how we met. Second, two are guys and one a girl. I've never had guy friends! Not for a very long time. I just get awkward around guys, because I never really know how to introduce myself, or how to admit that I'm probably a bigger nerd than them. A thirdly, they introduced my to Magic, which I've been dying to learn for years now. Brandon Sanderson, my favorite author, plays it, and it sounded like fun.

Now one of these guys is actually my friend's boyfriend, which has been a little weird. But then again, hanging out with anyone of the opposite gender is kind of awkward for me...

So yeah, my whole week since Thursday has been made up of socializing. I swear, I've been out with people more in the last four days than I have for the last month. Apparently I'm not as anti social as I thought, I just needed a bit of a kick in the but to actually plan stuff with people.

The Guild review

I hit my elbow on my door handle and now there's a bump that definitely should not be there... Ow. Anyway, review time!

I watched this show a while ago, but it was just so great that I had to watch it again. It's called The Guild, and it's just perfect for a gamer nerd. It revolves around the life of a female gamer, who goes by her character name, Codex, and how she copes with real life. Each season is only one episode long, but each episode is about an hour long. It was originally created for Youtube, but gain so much popularity that now it's on Netflix, along with many other websites or devices.

The plot is sweet and simple. Take someone who spends most of their day on the computer and stick them in real life. It's sadly so similar to my own life, except I have a tad more social skills... Just a tad. It finished after the sixth season, which was rather disappointing, but also made sense. Like I said, the plot was simple, so there really wasn't much left to do. Better to end on a good note than to wither out.

The acting got progressively better as the season went on. The main actor was pretty good from the beginning, and the rest were fairly decent, but there are times you just wince. Still better than Twilight. In addition, there are some pretty famous and respected people that appear, including Will Wheaton, Neil Gaiman and Stan Lee.

The cinematography was surprisingly good, considering it started out as a Youtube series. They never did anything too special until the third or fourth episode, and then you see the work in special effects and costumes.

Not much else to say. It's a quick watch, maybe one full day or a couple nights. I would definitely suggest it to anyone who's even a remote nerd, or just into the socially awkward type of shows/movies.

Super Mario Bros. Wii U

Wow, it didn't take me long to break my promise about posting on time. In my defense, the internet was down all of Monday and most of Tuesday. It finally came up right before I was going to head off to bed, and after two days of no internet, I had other things to catch up on. It was a horrible couple of weeks.

I just realized that I never did a review for Super Mario Bros. Wii U. It was a free game I got with this deal Nintendo is having. I bought the Mario Kart 8 and got a free download of one of four games. I picked Super Mario Bros. because it's great with one person, or with four. I needed a new game that I could play with friends, and this was perfect.

So far it's only been my sister and me playing. We're pretty bad... I've never been very good at Super Mario Bros, and I didn't expect this one to be any different. But I'm getting better! It took us forever to lean how to run, and we're still really bad at picking stuff up. On average we need to play a course at least three times before we get through it, and most often than not, it can take us up to ten, if not twenty tries. We've both over 20 restarts, and I'll admit, most of my sister's are because I accidentally killed her... But I'm getting better at that too! I don't bounce on her head in the game as often...

But it's fun. Kind of frustrating, but fun. The only other times I've played this game has been at a friend's house, so it's nice to have one at home that I can play for more than a couple hours.

Six Weeks Later...

So it's already been six weeks since I got back from Disneyland, and yesterday something really exciting came in the mail:

Yes, that is a fancy-shmancy dagger. I bought it in this small shop in Disneyland that sold these really elaborate replicas of famous swords,a nd even a few shields or other weapons. This one was only $20, plus another $13 or so for shipping, since I couldn't exactly bring it on the plain in my luggage. Don't worry though, it's so dull that it won't even cut paper. Believe me, I tried. It's just for decoration, and yet another thing to add my my collection of nerd stuff. It's also my third 'weapon'. I have a wooden dagger, a wooden sword, and plastic bow and arrow, and now a metal dagger.

Nerd Level +1

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I bought a ticket to see Symphony of the Goddess, which is a Legend of Zelda symphony. It was last night, and I'll say now, it was amazing. I've had Zelda songs stuck in my head all day. I even thought I heard the Song of Storms at one point during work.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos. My phone was dying and I didn't want to risk the power running out. Especially since we ended up getting out of there half an hour later than expected, making me miss the last bus that would go past my house, therefore making me call my mom to ask her to pick me up. I owe her big time. She even picked me up from work tonight too, and I would have completely understood if she made me bus.

But back to the symphony. Almost instantly after entering the building, we got a picture with a girl dressed up in an amazing Link costume, complete with a shield (if she has a sword, she didn't bring it. I don't think that's considered safe...) Then during intermission there were a group of three girls dressed up. It took us a while to figure out what they were. At first we thought Poes, but Poes are purple, and they were either red, green or blue. Vanessa finally figured out that they are Poes, but from the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time. I with we had gotten a photo, but again, my phone was dying. (I'm currently searching Reddit for any photos...)

And that was pretty much it! It has really made me realize that I need more friends that are fans of Zelda... I'll just start forcing it onto my current friends.

A Tour of My Room

As you may have guessed by now, I'm a huge fantasy fiction nerd. I'm the girl that has to correct people when they call me a 'sir' or a 'he' in RPG games, because let's face it, how many girls actually play RPG games? And my room reflects this nerdiness, so I'm going to give you a few glimpses of it.

Also, I apologize in advanced, because the only camera I have is my phone, and it sucks.

I made these family crests in grade eleven for an English project. Each one is supposed to represent a major character from Macbeth (The one in the top right is Macbeth's) It took me about an hour or two each day to make them, so probably somewhere between seven and ten hours in total. I got perfect on the project, by the way.

This is one of my most prized possessions. And yes, it is a light. Isn't it beautiful? My parents finally agreed that I needed a new light after they took my old one down to replace the bulb and found a ton of dead bugs in it. They said they would spend $50, so I looked around for a while. I fell in love with this one, but it was eighty, so I paid for the last $30 of it. Since it doesn't exactly match the rest of the house, my parents are going to let me take it when I move.

(Also notice the Mad Hatter poster in the background. Everyone thinks it's creepy to have hanging over my bed...)

Now this is something to brag about. My dad made this shield when he was in high school, and had given it to his mom. When she moved into a care home, I claimed it as my own. It now hangs above my TV, and I'm still searching for a pair of swords to hang below it.

This is a bad quality picture, but here is a real beaver pelt top hat, with a scarf and a peacock feather. I wore it to school in grade twelve for Halloween, and I've kind of claimed it as my own now... I believe it used to belong to my great grandfather... Or maybe my great great grandfather. Either way, it's old.

A your of my room wouldn't be complete without a picture of my bookshelf. Please note that there is another shelf at the bottom of this picture that I wasn't able to get into the frame, and another shelf on a separate bookshelf. I also trim my collection down by a few books every once in a while, so there are about thirty or so book that I've donated. 

So there you are, a few of the best aspects of my room. There's more, so maybe I'll do this again later... Maybe when I have a better camera. 

Christmas Zelda

Sorry for the late post, but I was having a party yesterday, and didn't have time to blog about it. But I have a bit of time between cleaning up from last night and when our next guests arrive.

At noon, Kyra and Brandi showed up, and it was around this time that we found out that the Wii is broken. Luckily, I also have a Gamecube, so we set that up. It's not in much better shape, since you have to spin the disk then close the lid fast and hope that it keeps going. But we got it working, and started playing the very first Legend of Zelda game. It was adorable, but harder in some parts than other. The most annoying was that your heart containers don't fill up easily. However, if they are full, you can shoot laser swords, that makes up for everything. And of course, the graphics are terrible, so what is supposed to look like a monster actually looks like one of those Scottish dogs, throwing a sword. Then there were vikings, globs of pudding and a triceratops that eats bombs. All in all it was pretty entertaining. The music started to get on my nerves after a while, and as I was trying to sleep, all I could hear was the Hyrule song playing through my head... Now it is the Song of Storms from Ocarina of Time.

Anyway, once Vanessa showed up, we ate some home made mac n' cheese, then Sianna showed up and we opened presents. Kyra made the best present I have ever seen, which I will post a picture of in a moment. When Liliana showed up, we started eating the chocolate fondue, and later Brittney showed up. Unfortunately, Brittney had to go home a few hours later.

Once it hit around 11, people started trickling off to bed. I think it was around one when Kyra went to bed, leaving Vanessa, Liliana and I to go play the Sims. Long story short, I made myself and albino man and a dog named Pongo Dongo.

Aright, I have to go clean up the rest of the house, because apparently when I have more than three friends over (I had six over yesterday) we end up using most of the dishes in the house. I think today will be the third load of dishes I have done since yesterday morning. But as promised, here is the picture:

The lighting is a little off, and the detail is pretty bad since it was taken with my phone. Kyra made all four of us aprons depicting characters that we represent from Legend of Zelda. On the left I am Link, Sianna is Malon, Brandi is Sheik, and Vanessa is Zelda. If I can, I'll try to get a better picture up of my apron. I also got my birthday present from Kyra, which is a picture of the Great Deku Tree and Link, but drawn to look like a scene from the Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein. It's pretty damn adorable, and very comfy. Again, I'll try to get a picture, if I remember.

Now, off to clean!

The Grand List of Nerdiness

Oh my, I completely forgot it was Friday. =/ Although I was also busy sleeping in and working, so I've only now had the chance to type this up.

Alright, so I'm being lazy, and since school is about to start, I'm just going to have some fun with this. So here it is, my list of nerd types! (Yes, you read that right)

1) Academic Nerd: The type who takes all math or sciences classes, often four or five at a time. They spend twice as much time on homework or studying as they actually spend in class.

2) Book Nerd Also know as a bookworm. They enjoy English classes, and in some cases will aspire to become a writer or editor. They are rarely found without a book with them, and can easily hold a conversation about their favourite novels and authors.

3) Medieval Nerd: These nerds have an unusual addiction to the medieval or middle ages. They can often be found at medieval fairs or at real life roleplaying events. Even in real life, they like to have an aspect of medieval times around them, normally in the form of clothing. Despite how pathetic they may appear to everyone else, usually they are quite skilled with at least one weapon. If not, they are likely a bard, in which case a lute is quite painful to be hit with too.

4) Gaming Nerd: These will often be pale and slightly overweight from never leaving their room for sunlight or exercise. They will have almost every console and several dozen games for each, of witch they have beaten at least once. Most of these games will consist of first person shooter or something else violent. Many hard core gaming nerds will play from their 'pimped-out' computer.

5) Sport Nerds: Also known as jocks. These ones will have a heightened sense of self and finds amusement in beating others in competitive sports, whether it's as simple as badminton or as rough as American Football. Most often male, they have way too much testosterone for a sane female to find attractive. (In my opinion, at least...)

6) Gym nerds: Sometimes called gym junkies. They spend at least an hour a day at the gym, and although they claim to be happy when someone attempts to get into shape, they secretly wish that the gym was only for their own kind.

7) Stereotypical Nerd: Almost always found in cartoons, movies or TV shows, this nerd will be wearing glasses, braces, waist high pants and shiny black shoes. Quite often they are very short or unusally tall, with curly red hair and a pimply face. They are a mixture of the Academic Nerd, the Book Nerd, and sometimes even the medieval nerd, with not a trace of the Gaming, Sport or Gym nerd.


Please note that this list is purely for fun, and any coincidences toward your own life should be laughed at. I do not mean to insult anyone... Unless you are amused by being insulted. If it helps, I consider myself a Book Nerd, with a sprinkle of medieval nerd and just a tiny dash of gaming nerd (I like Legend of Zelda and any such games).

Now, I'm not feeling too great, so I'm going to leave it here. Hope you had fun reading this one.