I'm into this thing called casual gaming. It sounds like I'm just into Halo and WoW but not so much that my brain melts out my ears, but it's actually a different set of games. Websites like Big Fish Games provides fun little games that users can download for a much lower price than most video or computer games. The games are usually either fun little arcade games - Diner Dash is one that's really popular all over the place - or are hidden object games (HOGs!). If the game has a storyline that can end, which they usually do, it usually only lasts a few hours, which correlates to the lower price. Sometimes they're longer or take more work.
I like casual gaming because the games don't consume my life the way longer games can, and it doesn't take as much commitment to enjoy them or be good at them. I have a Big Fish Games subscription, so once a month I buy a game. I also get to download one-hour free trials of most games, which usually satisfies my desire to goof off for a little while.
A great many casual gamers are, like me, female. And that results in an interesting phenomenon of marketing games to women. I'm not entirely sure why it works out that more women do casual gaming and more men do other types of gaming (I suppose I'm making generalizations here). What I can say is that it is often bizarre and obvious how much casual games cater to what the designers think women want.
I say think because I'm not really sure it's what I want, or what other women want. I play mostly the hidden object games or similar puzzle-type story games.
Nearly all of the HOGs I've played have a female main character. Usually she's a plucky young woman who has to solve a mystery after a relative or trusted professor dies/is kidnapped/gets lost/meets disaster. Sometimes she has to rescue a family member, usually someone who is elderly or a child. What is always obvious is how much the quest revolves around a personal, emotional goal - she is rarely solving a mystery for her own personal edification without some friend or family connected to it. I'm generally ok with that type of game, because the woman can be pretty bad ass too - the games love to have female pilots, for example.
The female-centered design shows up in the images too. It's not the case with all of them, but I often see games that are just very pretty. This is good - I like good visuals - but I often find it overdone. The Dream Chronicles series, for example, is a series of very well done (if too short) games that always have a woman rescuing a family member or being helped by a family member, and it is positively dripping with feminine frills. Think the Rivendale of the LOTR movies but curlier. Again, the visuals are great and the games are good, but I personally don't need the scenery to all be elegant swoops and flowers and all the hidden objects to be gems and jewels. I have even tried games full of fairies or ballerinas that make me sick with the sweetness.
Alternatively, some games are actually a little creepy, and I think that relates to the storyline ideal - it's fun to have to work through a scary story to rescue someone. I tend to avoid the far end of these too, mostly because I don't really want to have to find blood spatters as part of my quest.
The casual games that really rile me up are less often the HOGs and more often time-management games, like Diner Dash, in which players have to serve customers in a diner to make a certain amount of money before time runs out. There are all sorts of versions of the idea - cake shops, beauty salons, ranches, restaurants. The main character is almost always female and almost always ridiculously cutesy. She's also full of cheer and pep and knows we can do it! And then she runs around serving people. I just did a trial for a version where the shop was a cake shop and the heroine is pregnant, having gotten married in a previous installation. The colors are bright (often pink) the cakes are super girly, and it's all incredibly stereotypical of a perfect little family with a perfect little business. Gag.
What I'm getting at is that these games are marketed to women, and portray women in a very interesting way. It's usually stereotypical, but it's often also as a very effective person - the woman is getting things done. I get sick of the girly colors and especially the "serving others" cliches, and wonder why these are the things that sell. I know there's something about the way that the games portray women that grates on me, and I think it's because the heroine is supposed to he an ideal, and I never want to be like her.
There are some games available on casual gaming sites that aren't like what I've described here. They're more often "large file games," which have been released previously for more money and are then released later on the gaming site. Syberia is one that stars a woman but isn't too stereotyped and cheesy and is also very interesting (although my version of the sequel has a glitch and I can't finish it).
Friday, July 30, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Kind of live-blogging Eclipse
I finally got around to watching Twilight: Eclipse, which I did because I have been following the entire stupid saga out of a morbid curiosity. Some observations:
1. It REALLY burns me up when people treat an unmarried woman's body as if it were her father's property. I am only marginally ok with men asking the father's permission to marry his daughter, and that more in a "may we have your blessing on our marriage" than a permission thing.
2. I am not sure everyone back in Edward's time were perfectly chaste virgins the way he makes it out to be. And the guy is like 100-something? Also, he says he's not concerned about his virtue, but about hers - he says it's because his is already gone due to being a soulless vampire - but it seems to imply that female virtue (and virtue=virginity) is more valuable.
3. I would be entirely team-Jacob if there weren't the whole imprinting thing. Why the heck would you get involved with someone who could suddenly imprint on someone else and become wildly obsessed with and devoted to her?
4. I am uncomfortable with the way both Edward and Jacob try to plot Bella's life for her - they say they're doing it for her protection, for her own good, etc, but they're really just making all her decisions for her. Big strong men protecting the little innocent woman.
5. Still, it is nice to see Bella occasionally exercise her right to do her own thing - insisting that she gets to talk to Jacob, etc.
6. Edward, tampering with your girlfriend's car so she can't go places you don't want her to go is NOT acceptable. It is also hard-core creepy.
7. I find Edward's obsession with marrying Bella also creepy, and did when I read the book. She is SO YOUNG. Also, her engagement ring is seriously ugly. I am also a little disturbed by Edward's insistence on marriage in face of how Bella doesn't really want it.
8. The scene where Bella tells her father she's a virgin is pretty amusing and showcases some good acting.
9. ENOUGH with the tortured vampire-angst already. Edward, having the ability to do bad things does not make you evil. Acting on the ability does. Rosalie, or whatever your name is, there is more to a woman's life than having babies.
10. I keep hearing that Kristen Stewart is a good actress. I'll believe the people who know what they're talking about, but that means she must be playing Bella as annoyingly sullen and sulky and awkward on purpose.
11. Then again, poor Bella got seriously shot down in the sex department. I'd be sullen and sulky too. I bet Jacob wouldn't make her get married to get it on.
12. How do vampires not hit trees while sprinting through the forest?
13. There are a lot of vampires losing limbs and heads but no blood. That looks weird. They look like broken mannequins.
14. Can vampires not gall in love again after their "mate" is killed? It seems if they live a really long time they could find another person/vampire to love.
15. OH. Also creepy and controlling: Jacob's insistence that he can "make" Bella admit her feelings for him. Because he "knows" she loves him. Ok, so it turns out she does, but...trying to make her feel something? Creepy.
1. It REALLY burns me up when people treat an unmarried woman's body as if it were her father's property. I am only marginally ok with men asking the father's permission to marry his daughter, and that more in a "may we have your blessing on our marriage" than a permission thing.
2. I am not sure everyone back in Edward's time were perfectly chaste virgins the way he makes it out to be. And the guy is like 100-something? Also, he says he's not concerned about his virtue, but about hers - he says it's because his is already gone due to being a soulless vampire - but it seems to imply that female virtue (and virtue=virginity) is more valuable.
3. I would be entirely team-Jacob if there weren't the whole imprinting thing. Why the heck would you get involved with someone who could suddenly imprint on someone else and become wildly obsessed with and devoted to her?
4. I am uncomfortable with the way both Edward and Jacob try to plot Bella's life for her - they say they're doing it for her protection, for her own good, etc, but they're really just making all her decisions for her. Big strong men protecting the little innocent woman.
5. Still, it is nice to see Bella occasionally exercise her right to do her own thing - insisting that she gets to talk to Jacob, etc.
6. Edward, tampering with your girlfriend's car so she can't go places you don't want her to go is NOT acceptable. It is also hard-core creepy.
7. I find Edward's obsession with marrying Bella also creepy, and did when I read the book. She is SO YOUNG. Also, her engagement ring is seriously ugly. I am also a little disturbed by Edward's insistence on marriage in face of how Bella doesn't really want it.
8. The scene where Bella tells her father she's a virgin is pretty amusing and showcases some good acting.
9. ENOUGH with the tortured vampire-angst already. Edward, having the ability to do bad things does not make you evil. Acting on the ability does. Rosalie, or whatever your name is, there is more to a woman's life than having babies.
10. I keep hearing that Kristen Stewart is a good actress. I'll believe the people who know what they're talking about, but that means she must be playing Bella as annoyingly sullen and sulky and awkward on purpose.
11. Then again, poor Bella got seriously shot down in the sex department. I'd be sullen and sulky too. I bet Jacob wouldn't make her get married to get it on.
12. How do vampires not hit trees while sprinting through the forest?
13. There are a lot of vampires losing limbs and heads but no blood. That looks weird. They look like broken mannequins.
14. Can vampires not gall in love again after their "mate" is killed? It seems if they live a really long time they could find another person/vampire to love.
15. OH. Also creepy and controlling: Jacob's insistence that he can "make" Bella admit her feelings for him. Because he "knows" she loves him. Ok, so it turns out she does, but...trying to make her feel something? Creepy.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
How I Became Pro-Choice
In the last few months I've been reading a lot of feminist blogs and I've been slightly surprised by how much I agree with them on an issue I had been uncertain about before - abortion.
This post is about how I became pro-choice, and I really did make a big flip. As previously noted, I grew up in a large, evangelical church and had a period in my life where I was a little bit fundamentalist. I was definitely against abortion; I even wrote a paper about why it should be illegal when I was a freshman in high school. My teacher was Catholic and gave me an A, although growing up in rural Ohio I didn't even think to worry that someone would disagree with me.
My opinions on the matter stayed the same through college, but as I noticed my opinions on nearly everything else changing, I wondered if that would too. I came to the conclusion that there are times when it really makes sense - rape, incest, and when the pregnancy risks the mother's life. Otherwise, bad!
Then I came to grad school, met my boyfriend, fell in love, and lost my V-card. And discovered that not only did I not want children, I was incredibly terrified of getting pregnant. To the point that I convinced myself, multiple times, that I might actually BE pregnant, and then proceeded to have anxiety-induced breakdowns. Now, I worked a lot of that out with a therapist and it turns out that some of it was my predisposition to irrational fears, which I have also dealt with. But the fear that was involved in the possibility that I could get pregnant, even though we were usually using two forms of birth control (and were never without the pill), was staggering.
It was at that point that I realized that if, by some pretty unlikely chance, I did get pregnant, I might abort. Which...made me think that I probably wasn't as pro-life as my 14-year-old self was. After getting over the fear of pregnancy, the anxiety problems that made me think I was pregnant, and the church-taught horror of abortion, I began to read more and evaluate my opinions.
I don't think my opinions on abortion now are revolutionary, but they are for me. I realized that I am not entirely sure when I believe a fetus becomes a person, but I am not sure it's at the second of fertilization, when it's really just a blob of cells. I know I am not ready for a child now, and I don't know if I ever will be. My boyfriend and I don't intend to have children, really, and I am ok with that. It's my choice.
It's also the choice of every woman to decide if she wants to have a child or not. The woman who is pregnant is the only one who can feel and experience the full brunt of the responsibility - physically, emotionally, financially, and socially, possibly for the rest of her life. Children are too important to be thrust upon someone who isn't willing and ready to have them. And women should have the right to not have their lives dramatically changed by a child if they don't want them to be.
There are thousands of other reasons to be pro-choice, some of which I am just starting to understand. In the meantime, of course I think there are limits and negatives to the debate - I don't want to see abortion replacing birth control or safe sex, and I would love to see improved services for women who are pregnant and want real alternatives to abortion. What I would love to see the end of, though, are things that I was nearly involved in at one point - people who protest abortions by making women feel shameful and evil and by displaying those horrible aborted fetus posters. That helps no one and only hurts people.
This post is about how I became pro-choice, and I really did make a big flip. As previously noted, I grew up in a large, evangelical church and had a period in my life where I was a little bit fundamentalist. I was definitely against abortion; I even wrote a paper about why it should be illegal when I was a freshman in high school. My teacher was Catholic and gave me an A, although growing up in rural Ohio I didn't even think to worry that someone would disagree with me.
My opinions on the matter stayed the same through college, but as I noticed my opinions on nearly everything else changing, I wondered if that would too. I came to the conclusion that there are times when it really makes sense - rape, incest, and when the pregnancy risks the mother's life. Otherwise, bad!
Then I came to grad school, met my boyfriend, fell in love, and lost my V-card. And discovered that not only did I not want children, I was incredibly terrified of getting pregnant. To the point that I convinced myself, multiple times, that I might actually BE pregnant, and then proceeded to have anxiety-induced breakdowns. Now, I worked a lot of that out with a therapist and it turns out that some of it was my predisposition to irrational fears, which I have also dealt with. But the fear that was involved in the possibility that I could get pregnant, even though we were usually using two forms of birth control (and were never without the pill), was staggering.
It was at that point that I realized that if, by some pretty unlikely chance, I did get pregnant, I might abort. Which...made me think that I probably wasn't as pro-life as my 14-year-old self was. After getting over the fear of pregnancy, the anxiety problems that made me think I was pregnant, and the church-taught horror of abortion, I began to read more and evaluate my opinions.
I don't think my opinions on abortion now are revolutionary, but they are for me. I realized that I am not entirely sure when I believe a fetus becomes a person, but I am not sure it's at the second of fertilization, when it's really just a blob of cells. I know I am not ready for a child now, and I don't know if I ever will be. My boyfriend and I don't intend to have children, really, and I am ok with that. It's my choice.
It's also the choice of every woman to decide if she wants to have a child or not. The woman who is pregnant is the only one who can feel and experience the full brunt of the responsibility - physically, emotionally, financially, and socially, possibly for the rest of her life. Children are too important to be thrust upon someone who isn't willing and ready to have them. And women should have the right to not have their lives dramatically changed by a child if they don't want them to be.
There are thousands of other reasons to be pro-choice, some of which I am just starting to understand. In the meantime, of course I think there are limits and negatives to the debate - I don't want to see abortion replacing birth control or safe sex, and I would love to see improved services for women who are pregnant and want real alternatives to abortion. What I would love to see the end of, though, are things that I was nearly involved in at one point - people who protest abortions by making women feel shameful and evil and by displaying those horrible aborted fetus posters. That helps no one and only hurts people.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
I believe
When I was in my pree-teen/early-teen years, I was kind of a religious nut. It's somewhat unfortunate, because I'm pretty sure I missed out on some good pop culture during that time when I was up to my eyeballs in Only Pure and Approved Evangelical Christian Godly Media. Uh. I mean, I didn't believe in evolution. I believe every word of the Bible was literally true. I was thinking about that time, and this song, which was pretty much me:
"I Believe" by Wes King
I believe
In six days and a rest
God is good
I do confess
I believe
In Adam and Eve
In a tree and a garden
In a snake and a thief
Chorus:
I believe, I believe
I believe in the Word of God
I believe, I believe
'Cause He made me believe
I believe Noah
Built an ark of wood
120 years
No one understood
I believe Elijah never died
Called fire from heaven
On a mountainside
I remember when I first started doubting some of that song. Like, "six days? That's not very long..."
I also remember the song "Affirmation," by Savage Garden (did I have some pretty questionable musical taste?) Also, this post is getting long:
I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold
I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
I believe forgiveness is the key to your own unhappiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse tv evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye(Repeat 2)
Until you say goodbye
This song made me really uncomfortable at one point, but I've gotten over that. Why am I posting all this? I've been thinking about my own personal affirmations, maybe because I'm really not sure what they are anymore. Here are some. Maybe I will have more someday:
I believe that whoever or whatever God is, God is not male or female or the exclusive property of any religion.
I believe that all human beings bear a responsibility to each other and to all living things on this planet, and however we may be capable of living up to that responsibility, we should.
I believe that people are capable of causing the greatest possible evil and the greatest possible good, and it's mostly up to us which we do.
I believe that change is inevitable and often good.
Like Savage Garden, I believe that we can't (entirely) chose our sexuality, and we should be allowed to make safe, adult decisions about our sexualities.
I believe that women should have equal rights as men, including the rights to chose our employment and be paid equally, chose what we want to do with out bodies, and chose when and how we want to have sex.
I believe that hard work is one of the most rewarding things a person can do, but that work is not the whole point of existence.
I believe that being thin is not worth a world in which chocolate is not available.
I believe in the power of education to change the world, and the enduring beauty of books (regardless of what format they eventually take).
I am sure I have more beliefs, but I'm already amazed by how many I've thought of. Enough for now!
"I Believe" by Wes King
I believe
In six days and a rest
God is good
I do confess
I believe
In Adam and Eve
In a tree and a garden
In a snake and a thief
Chorus:
I believe, I believe
I believe in the Word of God
I believe, I believe
'Cause He made me believe
I believe Noah
Built an ark of wood
120 years
No one understood
I believe Elijah never died
Called fire from heaven
On a mountainside
I remember when I first started doubting some of that song. Like, "six days? That's not very long..."
I also remember the song "Affirmation," by Savage Garden (did I have some pretty questionable musical taste?) Also, this post is getting long:
I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold
I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
I believe forgiveness is the key to your own unhappiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse tv evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye(Repeat 2)
Until you say goodbye
This song made me really uncomfortable at one point, but I've gotten over that. Why am I posting all this? I've been thinking about my own personal affirmations, maybe because I'm really not sure what they are anymore. Here are some. Maybe I will have more someday:
I believe that whoever or whatever God is, God is not male or female or the exclusive property of any religion.
I believe that all human beings bear a responsibility to each other and to all living things on this planet, and however we may be capable of living up to that responsibility, we should.
I believe that people are capable of causing the greatest possible evil and the greatest possible good, and it's mostly up to us which we do.
I believe that change is inevitable and often good.
Like Savage Garden, I believe that we can't (entirely) chose our sexuality, and we should be allowed to make safe, adult decisions about our sexualities.
I believe that women should have equal rights as men, including the rights to chose our employment and be paid equally, chose what we want to do with out bodies, and chose when and how we want to have sex.
I believe that hard work is one of the most rewarding things a person can do, but that work is not the whole point of existence.
I believe that being thin is not worth a world in which chocolate is not available.
I believe in the power of education to change the world, and the enduring beauty of books (regardless of what format they eventually take).
I am sure I have more beliefs, but I'm already amazed by how many I've thought of. Enough for now!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Things I want for the Kitchen
I am lusting after kitchen supplies. Specifically, I want:
A mandolin
An electric teakettle
A teapot with a strainer for loose-leaf tea
A stainless steel frying pan (I ordered one from Amazon but they apparently don't actually have it.)
Better cupcake tins
A pizza stone
I can't really afford any of this though.
EDIT: add to that:
A candy thermometer
A kitchen scale
A tart dish
A mandolin
An electric teakettle
A teapot with a strainer for loose-leaf tea
A stainless steel frying pan (I ordered one from Amazon but they apparently don't actually have it.)
Better cupcake tins
A pizza stone
I can't really afford any of this though.
EDIT: add to that:
A candy thermometer
A kitchen scale
A tart dish
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sad Post
When I was 11, my parents sent me to stay with my grandparents in Kentucky for a week or two in the summer. It was a tradition that some of the grandkids would stay for a while each summer, and I was the one who had yet to do my time. My cousins often stayed for months at a time, but I was awkward and shy and didn't want to be gone for that long.
Looking back on it, I'm still not sure if I had a good time that week in Kentucky. My grandparents were very particular people who had gotten used to not having children around a lot. Not to say that they weren't wonderful to be around and incredibly good to me. They just lived in a very different way than I was used to. They were thrilled to have me visit though, and I have a lot of awkward pictures of skinny, eleven-year-old me all over the place in Kentucky. My grandma made me take swimming lessons at their country club (even though I could swim already, kind of) and I seem to remember visiting some sort of petting zoo.
Unfortunately, my trip was deep in the middle of my terror-of-thunderstorms time. As it turns out, this past year I discussed my tendency to develop intense, irrational fears with my therapist, and she suggested it might not be something I can entirely control, and might relate to my predisposition to anxiety. She suggested I work to control it through medication, and my gosh, life is better now. I didn't know this when I was 11 though, and was horribly terrified of things like wind, rain, and dark clouds. It was exhausting. One evening there was a thunderstorm, which isn't uncommon in Kentucky, and I completely freaked out. My grandmother was baffled and frightened by my fear, but managed to calm me down.
But none of that is actually why I started writing this post. One of the many things we did when I visited was visit Bernheim Forest, an arboretum and research forest my grandparents loved. While we were walking I saw a tree that looked like it had a huge rabbit face on the side. This wasn't just an eleven-year-old's imagination - there really IS a rabbit face on the side of that tree - some sort of growth deformity caused several large bulges that look like a nose, big cheeks, and two even rabbit ears. The tree henceforth became known as the Rabbit Tree, and my grandparents pointed it out to everyone. They even told the park guides, who agreed, thought it was great, and started pointing it out on tours.
I never went back to Kentucky for a visit on my own again, and if I saw the Rabbit Tree after that I don't remember. Eventually my grandparents moved back to an assisted living apartment in Ohio, because my grandmother was sick. She died last summer while I was in Chicago, and on some level it was a relief. She'd been sick for a while, and she wasn't herself anymore. For someone who was so strong, intelligent, vibrant, and in charge it was hard to watch her fade. I miss her more than I expected to, since we all knew the end was coming. She was amazing in a way eleven-year-old me never really understood, and I feel cheated that she had to go just as I was realizing that.
Last weekend was her memorial service, because she had donated her body to science and we had just gotten her ashes back. She had a very definite idea about what she wanted done after she died, and that included no funeral. She wanted her ashes scattered in Bernheim Forest. My grandfather decided to have a bench put below the Rabbit Tree in her memory. I wasn't able to go to the memorial, because the flight would have been too expensive and it's close to graduation. I could have gone, I suppose, but part of me didn't want to deal with it all. On Saturday my mother called me from the park to tell me what the dedication on the bench said. It had "In Memory of," her name, and "She loved the forest, and [my name]'s Rabbit Tree."
I wish I had been there.
Looking back on it, I'm still not sure if I had a good time that week in Kentucky. My grandparents were very particular people who had gotten used to not having children around a lot. Not to say that they weren't wonderful to be around and incredibly good to me. They just lived in a very different way than I was used to. They were thrilled to have me visit though, and I have a lot of awkward pictures of skinny, eleven-year-old me all over the place in Kentucky. My grandma made me take swimming lessons at their country club (even though I could swim already, kind of) and I seem to remember visiting some sort of petting zoo.
Unfortunately, my trip was deep in the middle of my terror-of-thunderstorms time. As it turns out, this past year I discussed my tendency to develop intense, irrational fears with my therapist, and she suggested it might not be something I can entirely control, and might relate to my predisposition to anxiety. She suggested I work to control it through medication, and my gosh, life is better now. I didn't know this when I was 11 though, and was horribly terrified of things like wind, rain, and dark clouds. It was exhausting. One evening there was a thunderstorm, which isn't uncommon in Kentucky, and I completely freaked out. My grandmother was baffled and frightened by my fear, but managed to calm me down.
But none of that is actually why I started writing this post. One of the many things we did when I visited was visit Bernheim Forest, an arboretum and research forest my grandparents loved. While we were walking I saw a tree that looked like it had a huge rabbit face on the side. This wasn't just an eleven-year-old's imagination - there really IS a rabbit face on the side of that tree - some sort of growth deformity caused several large bulges that look like a nose, big cheeks, and two even rabbit ears. The tree henceforth became known as the Rabbit Tree, and my grandparents pointed it out to everyone. They even told the park guides, who agreed, thought it was great, and started pointing it out on tours.
I never went back to Kentucky for a visit on my own again, and if I saw the Rabbit Tree after that I don't remember. Eventually my grandparents moved back to an assisted living apartment in Ohio, because my grandmother was sick. She died last summer while I was in Chicago, and on some level it was a relief. She'd been sick for a while, and she wasn't herself anymore. For someone who was so strong, intelligent, vibrant, and in charge it was hard to watch her fade. I miss her more than I expected to, since we all knew the end was coming. She was amazing in a way eleven-year-old me never really understood, and I feel cheated that she had to go just as I was realizing that.
Last weekend was her memorial service, because she had donated her body to science and we had just gotten her ashes back. She had a very definite idea about what she wanted done after she died, and that included no funeral. She wanted her ashes scattered in Bernheim Forest. My grandfather decided to have a bench put below the Rabbit Tree in her memory. I wasn't able to go to the memorial, because the flight would have been too expensive and it's close to graduation. I could have gone, I suppose, but part of me didn't want to deal with it all. On Saturday my mother called me from the park to tell me what the dedication on the bench said. It had "In Memory of," her name, and "She loved the forest, and [my name]'s Rabbit Tree."
I wish I had been there.
Friday, March 12, 2010
The Epic Webcomic Post
Lately I haven't been doing anything terribly interesting. That makes it a little difficult to blog. I have, however, been reading a lot of webcomics lately, and I thought I would share some webcomic blurbs with you, in case you are looking for some to read. Keep in mind that these are just what I like - there are some well known comics out there that I just haven't been able to get into and never found funny.
Background - my introduction to webcomics came through a guy who I was kinda-sorta dating. It didn't work out (my fault - I just wasn't that interested) but I am eternally grateful for the push towards some awesome comics.
The first
comic I started reading, thanks to above-mentioned guy, was Questionable Content, which I still read failthfully every week day. QC is about some pretty normal, semi-hipster young people, doing the things young people do. It centers around a coffee shop one character owns, the owner's boyfriend, and their assortment of friends, roommates, and friend's roommates. It's generally funny, often quirky, and occasionally really moving. There are a few moments of suspension-of-disbelief, like the girl who grew up on the moon. Overall an excellent comic, and the progression of the art is absolutely amazing. This is probably one of my favorite strips.
Most people I know read xkcd at least occasionally, so it doesn't need much explanation. As far as art goes, there isn't much - the comic mostly consists of stick figures. But it's seriously heavy in smart and hilarious punchlines. I've learned a lot from this strip, since half the time the joke is too technical to get and I have to look it up. It's also the reason I watched Firefly, which in itself is a good enough reason to love it. The smart, geeky jokes are mixed in with occasional really cute comics about love and relationships. The comics are usually standalone, although there have been a few storylines.
Girls with Slingshots is another really awesome, hilarious strip about more-or-less normal young people being the awesome people they are. Danielle Corsetto does a great job of making every character unique in art and personality, and they all have good storylines. This one gets slightly NSFW - two characters work in a porn shop (just because they need jobs, of course!) and there's a dominatrix who shows up every once in a while. Like QC there's some minor quirkiness, like a talking cactus and a hypoallergenic cat with a seriously mischievous personality.
Gunnerkrigg Court is a little different from the above in story and the amount of work it takes to read. It's a beautifully done, fascinating comic about a mysterious boarding school situated at the intersection between an institution based in technology and a mysterious, magical forest. It combines British boarding schools with fantasy and sci-fi in a totally unique way. It feels a lot like several books in a graphic novel series, and it helps to read it that way - I get lost if I read one comic a day without refreshing myself on the backstory. Sit down and read it like a novel.
T
he Phoenic Requiem reads a lot like Gunnerkrigg Court, in that the reader needs to keep up with the story to avoid getting lost. It likewise has absolutely beautiful artwork, which means the comics come out less frequently. It looks and feels like it should be a period piece, but I think it's possible it actually takes place in a completely alternate world created by the artist. There is plenty of backstory and interesting details to learn about the main conflict in the story - the Shades that are somehow coming to life from the ashes of cremated dead and infecting people with a strange illness. There is also a counterbalancing element of (possibly) good spirits and male characters who somehow manage to be eye candy despite being artwork.
The
Dreamer actually has been published as a graphic novel (actually, most of these have books) and really feels like one. The heroine in this comic lives a normal high school life most of the time, complete with a crush on a hunky football player. But every time she falls asleep, she's transported back to the American Revolutionary War, where (when?) she's apparently a real person who plenty of people know - but she can't remember anything. The Dreamer is aimed at teen girls, and there is plenty of teen-angst, hot guys, and fashion, but it's also historically interesting and very well-drawn. I recommend, again, reading this one like a book - it's easy to lose the plot if you're gone for a while.
Schlock Mercen
ary is one of the giants of the webcomic world. It updates every day, and has been running for what is best described as "ages." The comic follows the misadventures of a space-aged mercenary troupe named after a sergeant who most resembles a huge blob of...excrement. It's set incredibly far in the future, so there are occasionally long passages describing futuristic "technology" and customs. It's not my favorite, but I bet guys who love sci-far are all over it.
Helioth
aumic is a comic that I'm still getting used to, and I'm not entirely sure how I think. It takes place either in the distant future or a completely different world, and there are plenty of new customs and cultures to get excited about. It's hard to say what exactly it's about, because there are storylines that currently include a sentient machine, a rebellion on another planet, a mysterious stranger, and several romantic relationships. I like that even though they live in a world that is a fantasy to the reader, the characters have very human skepticism - for example, despite being nearly immortal herself, one character refuses to believe in vampires (who happen to be harassing her roommate). I wish the artist differentiated between characters better though, because some of the members of the same race look nearly identical.
I'm listin
g Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery together because they're by the same artist and share a website. Scary Go Round is officially finished and Bad Machinery is relatively new. They also share a few characters. Scary Go Round is about...uh...a lot of people, doing a lot of weird things, including coming back from the dead, chasing the Kraken, saving the world, inventing a lot of stuff, getting kidnapped, and a heck of a lot more. It's a seriously odd and quirky comic with a fairly tenuous grasp of an overall storyline. I read it all and I'm still not sure I like it. Bad Machinery seems to be a little less bizarre and more grounded, and so far deals a lot with the mishaps of schoolkids (British) and an odd antiques dealer.
DAR is possibly the shortest and definitely least safe for work of the comics I've listed so far. It's the real comic-diary of a young artist who deals with the fact that she's pretty sure she's a lesbian but she's falling in love with a man, among other challenges. It's sometimes crude and sometimes funny, but always authentic. Don't read if you're offended by comic penises, the "c" word, and frank comments about sex.
There was supposed to be one more after this, but for some reason it was messing up the way the blog viewed. So, too bad, it's not one of my favorites anyway.
I'm not listing Unshelved because most people associated with libraries already know about it, and to me it has always felt more like a newspaper comic strip than a webcomic. My personal favorite way to read webcomics is like books - straight through from the beginning to the end/as far along as it currently is. I know there are some well-known comics I excluded - that's because I don't read them! I might have tried and not liked them, or I might not know they exist. If there's something I should read, let me know!
Background - my introduction to webcomics came through a guy who I was kinda-sorta dating. It didn't work out (my fault - I just wasn't that interested) but I am eternally grateful for the push towards some awesome comics.
The first
comic I started reading, thanks to above-mentioned guy, was Questionable Content, which I still read failthfully every week day. QC is about some pretty normal, semi-hipster young people, doing the things young people do. It centers around a coffee shop one character owns, the owner's boyfriend, and their assortment of friends, roommates, and friend's roommates. It's generally funny, often quirky, and occasionally really moving. There are a few moments of suspension-of-disbelief, like the girl who grew up on the moon. Overall an excellent comic, and the progression of the art is absolutely amazing. This is probably one of my favorite strips.
Most people I know read xkcd at least occasionally, so it doesn't need much explanation. As far as art goes, there isn't much - the comic mostly consists of stick figures. But it's seriously heavy in smart and hilarious punchlines. I've learned a lot from this strip, since half the time the joke is too technical to get and I have to look it up. It's also the reason I watched Firefly, which in itself is a good enough reason to love it. The smart, geeky jokes are mixed in with occasional really cute comics about love and relationships. The comics are usually standalone, although there have been a few storylines.
Girls with Slingshots is another really awesome, hilarious strip about more-or-less normal young people being the awesome people they are. Danielle Corsetto does a great job of making every character unique in art and personality, and they all have good storylines. This one gets slightly NSFW - two characters work in a porn shop (just because they need jobs, of course!) and there's a dominatrix who shows up every once in a while. Like QC there's some minor quirkiness, like a talking cactus and a hypoallergenic cat with a seriously mischievous personality.
Gunnerkrigg Court is a little different from the above in story and the amount of work it takes to read. It's a beautifully done, fascinating comic about a mysterious boarding school situated at the intersection between an institution based in technology and a mysterious, magical forest. It combines British boarding schools with fantasy and sci-fi in a totally unique way. It feels a lot like several books in a graphic novel series, and it helps to read it that way - I get lost if I read one comic a day without refreshing myself on the backstory. Sit down and read it like a novel.
T
he Phoenic Requiem reads a lot like Gunnerkrigg Court, in that the reader needs to keep up with the story to avoid getting lost. It likewise has absolutely beautiful artwork, which means the comics come out less frequently. It looks and feels like it should be a period piece, but I think it's possible it actually takes place in a completely alternate world created by the artist. There is plenty of backstory and interesting details to learn about the main conflict in the story - the Shades that are somehow coming to life from the ashes of cremated dead and infecting people with a strange illness. There is also a counterbalancing element of (possibly) good spirits and male characters who somehow manage to be eye candy despite being artwork.
The
Dreamer actually has been published as a graphic novel (actually, most of these have books) and really feels like one. The heroine in this comic lives a normal high school life most of the time, complete with a crush on a hunky football player. But every time she falls asleep, she's transported back to the American Revolutionary War, where (when?) she's apparently a real person who plenty of people know - but she can't remember anything. The Dreamer is aimed at teen girls, and there is plenty of teen-angst, hot guys, and fashion, but it's also historically interesting and very well-drawn. I recommend, again, reading this one like a book - it's easy to lose the plot if you're gone for a while.
Schlock Mercen
ary is one of the giants of the webcomic world. It updates every day, and has been running for what is best described as "ages." The comic follows the misadventures of a space-aged mercenary troupe named after a sergeant who most resembles a huge blob of...excrement. It's set incredibly far in the future, so there are occasionally long passages describing futuristic "technology" and customs. It's not my favorite, but I bet guys who love sci-far are all over it.
Helioth
aumic is a comic that I'm still getting used to, and I'm not entirely sure how I think. It takes place either in the distant future or a completely different world, and there are plenty of new customs and cultures to get excited about. It's hard to say what exactly it's about, because there are storylines that currently include a sentient machine, a rebellion on another planet, a mysterious stranger, and several romantic relationships. I like that even though they live in a world that is a fantasy to the reader, the characters have very human skepticism - for example, despite being nearly immortal herself, one character refuses to believe in vampires (who happen to be harassing her roommate). I wish the artist differentiated between characters better though, because some of the members of the same race look nearly identical.
I'm listin
g Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery together because they're by the same artist and share a website. Scary Go Round is officially finished and Bad Machinery is relatively new. They also share a few characters. Scary Go Round is about...uh...a lot of people, doing a lot of weird things, including coming back from the dead, chasing the Kraken, saving the world, inventing a lot of stuff, getting kidnapped, and a heck of a lot more. It's a seriously odd and quirky comic with a fairly tenuous grasp of an overall storyline. I read it all and I'm still not sure I like it. Bad Machinery seems to be a little less bizarre and more grounded, and so far deals a lot with the mishaps of schoolkids (British) and an odd antiques dealer.
DAR is possibly the shortest and definitely least safe for work of the comics I've listed so far. It's the real comic-diary of a young artist who deals with the fact that she's pretty sure she's a lesbian but she's falling in love with a man, among other challenges. It's sometimes crude and sometimes funny, but always authentic. Don't read if you're offended by comic penises, the "c" word, and frank comments about sex.
There was supposed to be one more after this, but for some reason it was messing up the way the blog viewed. So, too bad, it's not one of my favorites anyway.
I'm not listing Unshelved because most people associated with libraries already know about it, and to me it has always felt more like a newspaper comic strip than a webcomic. My personal favorite way to read webcomics is like books - straight through from the beginning to the end/as far along as it currently is. I know there are some well-known comics I excluded - that's because I don't read them! I might have tried and not liked them, or I might not know they exist. If there's something I should read, let me know!
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