In Which We Write Things

I have been reading. A lot. Sometimes to the extreme consternation of my friends for whom, "Sorry, don't want to join you out tonight, have a book I'd like to read" doesn't make a bit of sense. This just happened last night, for example.

So it stands to reason that because I enjoy reading so much, that I should be able to write. When I was younger, they were often sappy love stories revolving around how I was going to meet Kirk Cameron and he would fall in love with me and we'd live happily ever after. Thank goodness that never happened. Sorry Kirk. Jesus and I just aren't that tight. He's a cool dude and all, but there are other cool dudes out there. Like Buddha. And Johnny Depp.

As I got older, I took some creative writing courses. My stories got better, but never longer. I could only manage to write a few chapters and then I would get stuck. Another idea for a story would alight itself and I'd be off to something else. And then something else.

One thing I learned from my creative writing courses was the important thing was just to write. Keep writing. Eventually it will come to you... and if it doesn't, you move on.

I had this funny dream a few months ago that I thought would make a clever story. Somehow (not quite sure *how* so I'd have to work on that plot device) a few members of my guild and I (ah... yes, we're talking about World of Warcraft, now) got sucked into the game. But instead of being our fierce and well-geared avatars, we were just... ourselves. There was some huge Devilsaur-type thing chasing us. And we had to get away (remember, we had no weapons or armor or skill to fight). And being that were were like WTF! We're IN THE GAME!!11??? We we keen on getting the fuck out of Dodge (or Un'Goro, or wherever the crap we were) with much haste.

And then my brain got in the way.

Instead of just going along for the ride and enjoying this kinda-cool (imminent danger, notwithstanding) adventure, my brain said: "In the game, you could now just click on your mount, and you would be off. However, you are not playing the game from behind the safety of your computer. There is no keyboard here. YOU ARE IN THE GAME."

And then I was off on a tangent. Just how is the mounting thing supposed to work? When you are playing the game and you summon your mount where does your mount come from? When you dismount, where does your mount go? Is there some ethereal stable where your raptor, wolf, battle chicken, what-have-you, just chills until its services are required? And if you were actually me, and having a dream where you have been somehow magically transported into the game, how in the hell goddamn would you summon it without a summoning spell to click on?

So, in my dream, I got so wrapped up in this confusing set of circumstances and couldn't simply embrace a sort of suspension of disbelief that I unwillingly caused the dream to end. No one will ever know what sort of zany exploits my guildmates and I could have gotten into, because my stupid brain wouldn't let me get past the first scene.

Unless I figure out a way to conjure a mount out of thin air and make it believable. And just how the hell did we get in the game again?

// Nana's Snippet of Scribbes: A Creative Generator (with Names, Settings, Weapons, Spells, and much more) To Get You Started on Your Own Adventure. I seriously spent hours here. [Seventh Sanctum]

In Which We Read Stuff

April 11-17 is National Library Week.

I can't even remember the last time I stepped foot in a actual brick-and-mortar library. I was probably still in school. There is an ongoing debate regarding whether libraries are still relevant and the book-lover in me hopes they still are.

Libraries still provide a great service to their communities and, in fact, that is this year's theme: "Communities thrive @ your library."

Not to mention, libraries are a benefit and a comfort in these tough economic times.

I love collecting books... looking upon them, standing cover-to-cover like so many literary soldiers, with a sense of accomplishment. Of those, there are only a few that I would hesitate to lend to a friend. Only I charge my friends $100 per book while your local library will let you borrow them for free.

And there are so many phenomenal books out right now. The market is definitely changing and adapting to reflect a wide and wonderful variety of interests.

This kind of sums it up for me (you have to watch until the very end):


The Future of Publishing - PenguinBooksUSA [YouTube]


More on Reading
* The 11 Most Surprising Banned Books
* Donating Your Books to Needy Libraries
* A 24-Hour Read-a-Thon
* Over 35,000 books to read for free online at The Online Books Page
* April is also School Library Month
* What Should I Read Next?


// Nana's Wedge of WoW: A guide to the Words of Warcraft. The books. [Official WoW Forums]

In Which I Am Queen Peeved of Peevedland

"I'm Awesome" by Spose [MySpace]

Ok.

So today was just one of those days when everything and everyone seemed to annoy me. Fair warning: this is a rant.

1.) "No offense but... (something extremely offensive)." This *should* be used when you think you are about to say something that might hurt someone's feelings, but you're saying it constructively and with good intentions. It is *not* a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card where you can shred a person's psyche to bits just because you are smarter, prettier, well-endowed, and/or a man.

2.) "You don't understand what I mean." Oh man, hold up, are you some kind of college course? Where do I go to enroll in "You 101?" Oh and stfu while you are at it. I'm not stupid and your ideas are not so abstract and superior that I can't understand them. Usually, you just aren't making yourself clear. And so, instead of saying "You don't understand what I mean," try "I am not making myself clear." Makes you seem like less of a douchelick.

3.) Sidewalk Brigades. You know those people that walk in groups of 3 or more on the sidewalk, spanning the entire width so no one can pass in either direction? And they walk so slowly? Are they a search party? Is this some urban version of Red Rover? The wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) has the largest wingspan of any living bird. But it uses those things to fly, dude. You, however, are using your collective jerkspan to be a jerk. I guarantee if you came across a wandering albatross on the sidewalk, he would hem his wings in, give you an elegant nod, say "Cheerio, good show!" and let you freakin' pass. We could all learn something from albatrosses.

4.) And then there was that car full of total bro-dudes who decided to whoop and holler at me while passing me on my bike. Yeah, because watching a girl almost careen into a line of parked cars is a total hoot. What does this achieve? Oh, it makes you fun and interesting. I guess if all else fails it give you something to laugh about at your circle-jerk later. Makes it less awkward if you are laughing. And also? You need better jokes.


So anyway. Related: You play WoW and you want to join a raiding guild? You want people to like you? And you're not that guy in trade chat whom everyone judiciously puts on /ignore?
// Nana's Wedge of WoW: How to fill out a raiding app [WoW.com]

In Which Hilarity Ensues

Happy April Fool's Day!

An assembled list of some geek-centric pranks around the web:

• Google changes it's name to "Topeka" and zeroes in on an untapped market.
• Blizzard Entertainment launches its awesome new Battle.net Matchmaking feature.
• WoW.com attempts to expand its viewer demographic by reviewing the Twilight graphic novel and blinging its own site with sparkley vampireness (and shirtless wolf-but-not-werewolves-they-are-shapeshiftersOMG!-boyz).
• Wowhead likes tacos. So much so...

// Nana's Slice of Silly: The History of April Fool's Day and the 7 Funniest Pranks of All Time [The Huffington Post]

In Which We Begin

I've always been fascinated by the design process, the evolution of a thing from thought > page/screen/tangible-thing/what-have-you. It's humbling. Last summer at BlizzCon, I got to see in person just how Blizzard crafts those places we go with 5-25 friends and get phat lewt ("World of Warcraft Dungeons and Raids" panel), creates characters and worlds ("World of Warcraft Art"), and balances everything to make sense and keep us playing ("World of Warcraft Game Systems"). Let's face it, everything about BlizzCon is straight-up cool, but the fact that Blizzard is always keen to share a little of their mojo and know-how with their players is... well... uber.

I'm currently reading the second book in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, Changeless. While trawling around on her site, I found an awesome youtube video which illustrates in under 2 minutes the making of the cover for her (yet-to-be released) third book in the series, Blameless.



And if that wasn't enough to whet your appetite, how about some Felicia Day? Darkhorse, the publisher of The Guild comic, has a "Making of the Comic" feature on their website, as well.


// Nana's Tidbit of Tech: A closer look at the upcoming MMORPG, The Secret World.