The Halloween Creeper

Normally Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but in the last couple of years, it's been feeling a bit lackluster. A couple of years ago, I went as Leeloo from The Fifth Element. Since I was pretty poor at the time and making shit-all for money at my job, I made the costume on the cheap out of medical gauze/bandages from the drugstore, not the best idea since the forecast was calling for some rain, but I figured since it was an unusually warm Halloween, this was my chance to go out and not freeze to death.

The night was a disaster. Boyfriend and I wanted to go to the parade that goes through the village, since I had never been before. We got on the train and rode into the city (we were living in Brooklyn at the time) but by the time we got there, the skies had opened up and there was a torrential downpour. It was like something out of a disaster flick. We had a tiny umbrella for the 2 of us and it did very little in the way of keeping us dry. We couldn't see the parade over everyone's umbrellas, so we decided to cut our losses and just go home. We turned around to try to get back in the train station, but the police had blocked off the entrance. We trudged through the crowds and the buckets of rain that were slowly dissolving my costume. We finally found a train station that the cops didn't block off and waited for the train. My costume was still covering the parts that needed to be covered, but I felt a little naked. It was a sauna in the train station, especially with all the rain, it was humid as hell. Even while wearing next to nothing, I was sweating and uncomfortable. While we were standing talking and waiting for the train, Boyfriend stopped and suddenly went ape shit on this middle-aged guy who was apparently taking pictures of me from behind without asking. Boyfriend chased him down the platform a bit screaming at him, while I, embarrassed nearly to tears, covered up with Boyfriend's coat.

This brings me to today's lesson: If a girl is dressed in a sexy Halloween costume at a party with her friends, or even at a bar, it's probably ok for people to take pictures, because it's a safe environment. However, if you are at a Con or out on the street (parades are the exception to this rule) and see a girl dressed all sexy, fucking ask before you take their picture! It's rude not to ask. Yes, they want to be seen, otherwise they would not have worn a costume that grabs people's attentions, but their image is their intellectual property and they have every right to not want it to be captured by some creeper they don't know.
So, somewhere out there some random 40-year-old guy has a series of pictures of my ass in tighty-whities in a NY train station. #ThingsThatMakeYouGoBleh

Happy Halloween, stay safe everybody!
Me post Halloween rain storm. (You can sort of see where the orange is washing out of my hair and where the costume is coming apart on the right and on my legs.)

Happy Day of Birth, Cary Elwes!

Happy 49th birthday, Cary Elwes! I hope your day is just as you wish it to be!
(I should write Hallmark cards!)

Sexy New Twitter Follower

This is a short post, it's just something I have to share.

You can follow my Twitter @GurlOnGirlGming, which sounds sexual, which makes it funny. So, I already pointed out that this punny name of my blog gives me some strange stats, but now, my Twitter is followed by @EdenFantasys, a sex store. Again, I guess it's just what I get for trying to be clever...
(I got the picture at A Liar's Autobiography panel at NYCC 2011)

P.S This morning, before I found this new follower of mine, I tweeted about Gonorrhea. (Not mine.) I also, had to Google how to spell Gonorrhea.

P.P.S I feel icky after all that, here's a puppy palate-cleanser:

New York Comic Con (Part 3: Revenge of the Nerds) ~UPDATED~

NYCC Day 3:It was a crisp Sunday morning. It felt like October should: a bright sunny clear sky, a small breeze and the smell of autumn. It was Kid's Day at NYCC, so we laughed at all of the cute kids in costume and decided to forget the crappiness of the first 2 days and just enjoy what was left of the weekend and the con.

We started off at the Women of Marvel panel, which was awesome. It was really inspiring and encouraging and entertaining listening to the ladies on the panel talk about being female creators, editors, artists, and inkers in what is typically a "guy's environment." I also loved that there appeared to be a fairly equal ratio of men/women in the audience. That panel really made my day. They began with the women of Marvel asking all of the females in the audience who were trying to get into the business to stand up. I stood up, having applied as a proofreader for Marvel in the past. The panel then asked the rest of the audience to applaud for the standing gals. I thought that was a nice touch. The ladies opened the room up for questions almost right away, which I have seen before, and seen go awry quite quickly, but this time it went very smoothly. People got up and asked really intelligent questions and the panel discussed and debated and offered very encouraging feedback to aspiring women (and men) in the comic and/or "nerd" industries.

The main idea/advice I walked away with was to drop the idea that if you're a female it's harder to get into the industry, and that apprehension of being rejected because of your gender is the biggest hindrance to women. While this idea of rampant sexism in male-dominated industries may prove true on rare occasions, the general consensus among Marvel is they love women and want women in their company and in the industry. My favorite quote of the day was from comic creator Kelly Sue Deconnick : I don't know of anyone who is out there saying, ''Oh don't give Kelly Sue that job, she's a chick. She's going to try and write it with her vagina!" I want to hang out with Kelly Sue! She's my new hero! I also found a full blog/report/summary on this panel at Newsrama.

So on the positive start to the morning, the rest of the day was quite enjoyable. We wandered the show floor a bit to do some shopping, we got some shwag, and I got to chat with Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka in Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. I also bought a Cylon shirt from her booth, Her Universe.


After shopping, we tried to get into a Jim Henson panel, but it filled up quickly since it was in one of the smallest rooms, and it was kids' day (way to plan ahead, NYCC). But we felt satisfied with the day at that point, so we sat near the entrance to people-watch and saw some good cosplay before we decided to call it a day. Overall, my first NYCC experience was a pleasant one with some major disappointments. Next year, I plan to just get a day pass or, better yet, a press pass. Gotta keep blogging.

NYCC Day 3 = 3.5 out of 5 Lightsabers

The Horse-Pony ~UPDATED~ (For realsies this time)

While waiting for the bus to take us to the Javits Center for NYCC last Saturday, I noticed a policeman on a horse nearby. I love animals. If I could take all of the homeless, abused and unwanted animals in and make sure that each one of them was loved and cared for, I would. If the resources and the man hours existed, it would be done tomorrow by me (even birds, and I am terrified of birds, I would rather kiss a snake than touch a bird, I'm crazy).

I had a dog growing up named Sophie, who sadly died a couple of years ago from a heart attack. I also (like every little girl) desperately wanted a horse when I was growing up. I took riding lessons and would go out of my way to pet, play with, or be near horses (which wasn't too difficult growing up in Colorado). I wanted every pet imaginable as a kid. I wanted turtles, mice, gerbils, hamsters, ferrets, skunks, prairie dogs, tigers, elephants, frogs, and more. I never got to have anything more exotic than goldfish (and Sophie after years of begging my parents), but in college I missed having a pet and had trouble coping with being in that adulthood limbo that comes with living on your own in college but still getting some financial help from your parents, so I got a ferret. And another. And another. I could dedicate an entire blog (not just a post) to my love of ferrets and the Mustelid family. But I won't...yet. My ferrets were awesome pets. They were my babies and the main source of joy in my life. Alas, they have extremely short lifespans and have all since departed this plane of existence, but that's another tale for another time.

Long-story-short: I love animals, they make me happy and when I see a cute animal, I get a little adrenaline rush and I will point and say the type of animal when I see it, almost like a toddler when they learn their animals. It's ridiculous, but it's a strange compulsion I have, it's almost a reflex.

So on this particular morning, I hadn't had my coffee yet, I was coming down with a cold, and I was shivering a little from the wind; my brain hadn't quite turned on yet. I saw the police horse, and got a little thrill and in my tired mushy brain the words, horse, police, and pony all got mixed together. I pointed down the street and said, "Look, it's a horse-pony!"
Boyfriend just chuckled at me and said, "I think most ponies are horse ponies." He went on about the difference between "dog-ponies" and "cat-ponies" and "tweetybird-ponies" for a few minutes, just to make sure he got the most he could out of this new classic "Jessword", while taking every advantage of making fun of me as much as possible.
I started thinking about it. What would a Horse-Pony or a Dog-Pony look like..?

Um, the best thing ever!!!

According to Getty Images, this is a Horse-Pony:

UPDATE: 4/2/12- Well, at least now I can dress one up to look like a horse-pony...

This is a Dog-Pony:

Here's a dog that kind of looks like a horse:

I like my Horse-Pony the best:(Thank you MS Paint and free time at work)
This is my Dog-Pony:

And my Cat-Pony:

Maybe they will all go on adventures together and fight crime or something.


P.S I am not the only one who gets excited about cops on horses and "horsey-cops" and Horse-Ponies. Thank you, Simon Helberg's wife!

In Case You Wanted More Opinions...

I probably sound like I've been bashing NYCC in my previous blog posts, well, I kind of have. Now, in NYCC's (minuscule) defense, I was tired, I was coming down with a cold, and I was on my period all weekend, so I was bound to be a little testy. However, the main issues I had with the show lie strictly with the management/execution of the show (i.e. ReedPop) and the Javits Center, not the comic con community. I was very disappointed, mostly because PAX East (a con I adored) is also managed by ReedPop, yet the 2 shows were run very differently.
Let's start on a positive note so I don't sound like a whiny troll with nothing better to do than bitch and moan about stuff, k? Ok.

Good stuff about PAX East:
-I got to visit Boston for the first time, and Boston is a tolerable bus ride away from NYC, where I live, so it was easy enough to get to and fro.

-The Boston Convention Center was massive (almost too much so) and easily accommodated all who attended/participated. That being said, we did not get into every panel we wanted to, however there was an abundance of alternative yet equally-as-awesome panels we could choose as 2nd or 3rd choices.

-The "Enforcers" or volunteers/staff who helped keep everything running smoothly were energetic, informative, and had great attitudes during the 3 day weekend nerd extravaganza.

-The convention center food was not terrible and not too badly overpriced.

-We did not have to pay for a single autograph/picture.

-There were show-sponsored concerts that were included with admission (and they rocked).

-Most people seemed to follow "Wheaton's Law"

Not-So-Good-Stuff about PAX East:
-The Con was held the weekend of DST kicking in (a la "Spring ahead") so we lost an hour Sunday morning after the concert, which translated into 1 less hour to sleep, which translated into thousands of sleep-deprived convention-goers. Sunday looked a bit like the Walking Dead (minus the blood and entrails). But it was soooo worth it.
JoCo summed it up best at the end of his set on Saturday night/Sunday morning: "It's late at night. It's spring forward night which I think it means it's already Wednesday, so we're all fucked." Indeed, sir.

-We did have to take a cab to the bus depot from the convention center as there was no other mode of transportation, but it was fairly inexpensive.

-Convention center food was pretty much the only option for sustenance.

Good stuff about NYCC:
-It was held in NYC, so it wasn't much longer than my normal morning commute to attend, plus I was familiar with the train/bus routes already, and I got to sleep in my own bed at night.

-Overall, it was fun...ish.

-Bought some cool toys/merch

-Got some autographs/pictures from some cool people.

-We saw some great Cosplay

Not-So-Good Stuff about NYCC:
-Many non-follower's of Wheaton's Law (Worst offenders: the 3 douche mongers who cut in front of 1000 people in line to see the Masquerade).

-Lack of organization/information from the staff

-Lack of information provided by the show management/organizers

-Paying for autographs sucks ass (apparently $30 is the new $20)

-Etc, etc, etcNow, this all having been said, I understand that organizing and executing a large convention of these magnitudes (or larger) is not easy. I know that it takes the show management team loads of planning all year long and that at the end of the day, it's not possible to please 100% of the people 100% of the time. I know all of this because I happen to work for such a company (who will remain nameless to protect their identities and my job). So having an insider's view of the convention/trade show management process, I think I'm qualified to be a little picky about the conventions I choose to attend. I don't plan to attend NYCC in the future, unless I can be a guest on a panel or possibly qualify as press with my blog. However, after my scathing reviews, they may not even want me there...

New York Comic Con (Part 2: Attack of the Assholes) ~UPDATED~

NYCC Day 2
Today just started out on a bad note, a note that, unfortunately carried on throughout the day. I woke up excited about my costume, I went as Baby Doll from Batman: the Animated Series. Unfortunately, I woke up with a dry stabbing tickle in my throat, the unmistakable feeling that a head cold was eminent int he near future. Poop. Boyfriend and I got our costumes ready, he was also going as a BTAS villain. I tried to power through the sickiness feeling and pump myself up for a fun-filled day.


After getting off the subway in midtown, the wind was whipping down 42nd st while we waited for the bus to take us over to the west side, since there is no subway directly to the JCC yet and I hate 34th st. I was quite chilly in my little dress. We were a little late meeting our buddy Max and thus missed the first panel we wanted to go to, then we couldn't get into another panel due to it's time having changed to an hour earlier. The time changed? How the hell was anyone supposed to know? There were no signs, the app wasn't updated, the Twitter feed wasn't updated, there was no way anyone could have know that! Was anyone even in that panel as a spectator?
So, grumbling about yet another fuck-up by show management we decided to go to the autograph area to see Felicia Day for an affordable $22! Her wrangler/handler/helper-person who was taking our tickets was a colossal bitch with some serious power issues. Max went first in line, then Boyfriend, then me. But even though I was with the boys/taking their pictures, Handler-Lady wouldn't let more than 2 people at the table at a time. Then when it was my turn to talk to Felicia, Handler-Lady closed the line for the day and rushed everyone through. So even though I paid just like everyone else, I was rushed through and didn't get to pick up an autograph from Felicia. Lame!!! I got a pic with boyfriend and Felicia, but felt really screwed by Handler-Lady and the "green shirts" rushing everyone out of line. Bitches. That really put a damper on the rest of my day. I tweeted Felicia that night, but she's a busy gal, I don't blame her for not being able to get back to me.

So, we got some dinner (oh and way to go running out of fried food and Cherry Coke, Javits Center! You seriously don't know your audience!) and attempted to process the failure of a day we just experienced. But, we still had the 2 Walking Dead panels, the Avengers panel, and the Masquerade to look forward to that evening, and all 3 panels were held back-to-back in the large IGN Theater, we were sure to get in to at least one of those. (Oh hope and optimism, you fickle bitches.)

We got to the line for the Walking Dead panels 90 minutes beforehand, both were full and the line was closed. What?!
So we asked if there was a holding area for the Avengers panel. Full. Dare we ask about the Masquerade line? After milling about trying to find someone with information, we followed a "green shirt" to the Masquerade line which appeared to be a bunch of people corralled in an airplane hangar with the shittiest metal line busters you've ever seen. If you breathed on those things they would tumble to the concrete floor and clatter with ear-pounding awfulness. To say that the Masquerade line was a clusterfuck was the understatement of the year. It zigged and zagged through this abyss of a holding area as more and more people trampled in. We were in line for at least an hour before they started shuffling us out in a snaking slow-moving "line" of people. One word came to mind: Moo.

Now the geniuses running NYCC decided that they would lead this ever-growing living mass of crazy through the convention center...you know, where anyone could just join the line anywhere they wanted (and they did). They moved us in this way just to put us in another airplane hangar! Why we didn't just start in that hangar to begin with, I don't know. But now in this new hangar, the "line" gained a couple hundred "line-cutters" including the 3 assholes behind us who attempted to cut in front of us. I wasn't having any of this. Boyfriend and I called them out on their douchery, but they cared not.
This the face of someone not obeying Wheaton's Law!

On the bright side, we looked as though we were somewhere near the front half of the line, so we would get seats, and probably decent seats at that. Huzzah.
As I peered behind me at the frighteningly large mass of people, we all thought the same thing, "WTF? There is no way half of these people are getting into that theater."

Our conclusion: NYCC oversold their tickets for Saturday by at least 2,000 people. Why? Simply, because the JCC can legally hold X number of people, but the conference rooms can only hold X-3000 number of people. (Sorry to hit you with a sudden burst of math.) There is no reason that 3 panels in the largest room available should fill up 2 hours before they start.

But, we tried to put that thought out of our heads and anticipate the Masquerade while trying to keep the Douchey 3 from cutting in line even more. Enter a surly hoarse "green shirt" yelling something incoherently at us as she made her way up and down the aisles. The message: "Due to technical difficulties, the Masquerade will not start until 10:15pm." At this point, it was 8:45pm, the Masquerade was scheduled for 8:30pm, and we'd been standing in line for almost 2 hours.

At this point Max, Boyfriend, and I had just had enough of this shitty excuse for a day. We said "fuck it" with several hundred other people and left the airplane hangar, the giant line, the orchestra of clattering metal line busters, and the 3 douchebags behind. We tried to be positive and optimistic that Sunday might be salvageable, but the disappointments with high prices, disorganization, and lack of communication on behalf of NYCC was inexcusable. (Especially with all the technology and nerds the world has at it's disposal!)

The day wasn't a complete wash, though, we got to meet Felicia Day and Jewel Staite. We saw some awesome Cosplay. We saw Steven Lang from Terra Nova. We did get into an interesting fantasy novelists panel, and we came to a very important conclusion: next year, we might come back to NYCC, but we are certainly not wasting money on a 3 day pass when one day can hold all the excitement and/or disappointment we need. I also decided on a new goal: get this blog up and running fairly regularly so that I can attend NYCC on a Press Pass next year, and hopefully by then I can afford a better camera to take way better photos for the enjoyment of all.

NYCC Day 2 = 1.5 Lightsabers out of 5

New York Comic Con (Part 1: The Saga Begins)~UPDATED~

Let me preface this by saying that I have only been to 2 Cons. Ever. (Not including the 3 Colorado State Thespian Conferences in high school; those are another story, for another blog). Earlier this year I attended PAX East in Boston which was awesome! Money was tight, and I was dealing with some health issues at the time, but we had a blast! It was 3 days of crazy, nerdy, sleepless fun. That being said, NYCC was only the 2nd nerd con I've attended and so I don't have a lot to compare it too, yet I have some very strong opinions in the PAX vs NYCC comparison. (Hint: PAX is winning.)

I purchased my 3 day passes for my boyfriend and myself earlier this summer, started my countdown clock on my iPod, and planned out what I would Cosplay for 2 of the 3 days. NYCC was held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, a place I am quite familiar with because of my day job. I do customer service for a trade show company who uses the Javits Center frequently throughout the year. I felt quite confident that with my knowledge of the JJC and with the help of the NYCC app on my new smart phone, and especially when the news that Mark Hamill himself would be there, we would own this con and it would rock. I clearly set the bar far too high.

NYCC Day 1:
We woke up on time and got our costumes ready for the first day of Cosplaying. I went as Raphael from TMNT and my boyfriend went as TinTin (because he IS TinTin). We arrived around 9:15am at the corner of 38th st and 11th ave to discover a group of people in what appeared to be a line with lots of "volunteers" in green shirts yelling incoherently. We somehow interpreted that the line wrapped around the corner and down the block a ways, so we walked confidently down the block. And we walked. Then walked some more. And a little more. Now, I live here in NY. I'm used to walking and I am used to lines, there are lines for everything here, but this was the longest line I have ever stood in. There had to be at least a half of a mile of people standing 3 deep on the sidewalk. Now, this isn't a complaint so much as a statement of "Holy hell, that's a lot of people!" (Again, this is coming from a girl who lives in a city with 6 million people.) Our friend, Max eventually caught up to us in the massive line, and we chatted and fiddled with the apps on our phones trying to plan out the day. That's where things started to go downhill. First off, the NYCC app itself is terrible. Why design something meant for nerds (who notoriously seem to have a very delicate love/hate balance with technology) that sucked so much?! I would be willing to just blame the app's shitiness on too many people using it at once, but it was never a very good app even in the weeks leading up to NYCC. I could (and probably will) write a blog on everything that is wrong with the app and how it can be made better. But, I digress...

We finally shuffled into the JCC and were ready for the awesomeness to commence. But first-things-first, we needed to grab lanyards. But there were no lanyards to be found. We walked up and down the entrance looking for a box of lanyards or a "green shirt" to ask about the lanyard situation, or-even better-a "green shirt" handing out said lanyards. We finally found some at the other end of the entrance hall. (Just for perspective, the JCC spans about 5 square blocks, a mile is approx 12 blocks, the line we were in to enter wrapped around the JCC.) Ok, so, a small stumble in the awesomeness and a lack of "green shirts" was irksome, but on with the day! Next, we needed a program. Once again, no programs. Anywhere! No "green shirts" and crappy cell phone service inside the concrete building. Super.

We eventually found programs and one guy in a green shirt directing people. So far, NYCC is dropping the ball. But, we go into the Felicia Day/The Guild panel hosted by Chris Hardwick, which was awesome! All 3 of us couldn't find unobstructed-view-seats together, so we had to split up. The guy I sat next to was trying to explain to his girlfriend who Felicia Day was, and failing miserably!

Guy Next to Me: "She's the girl with red hair, she's funny, and cute."

Girlfriend: "Oh, um I think I like her."

Guy Next to Me: "Yeah, I don't remember her name, but this might be fun."

I took it upon myself to kindly explain Felicia Day to them and The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and they both looked at me like cows looking at an oncoming train. They had no clue who Felicia Day was! And they took up precious seats that 2 fans could have sat in! #Nerdfail.
The panel was fun and interesting and hilarious and we had a great time, especially when Boyfriend, Max and I snagged 3 seats together from people who left early. #Nerdscore!

Lunchtime was surprisingly good and not too expensive. Things were looking up. Then, the heartbreak: We learned that getting an autograph from Mark Hamill was $100!
ONE. HUNDRED. DOLLARS. We assumed it would cost something, but $100?! We were crestfallen. There was no way Boyfriend and I could afford to drop 2 hundos even for Luke Skywalker himself. I considered splitting it and having boyfriend get one autograph for the both of us, but they wouldn't let you near the Hamill unless you bought a ticket, so I would be forced to watch from afar while he had all the fun, so we begrudgingly opted to not, and settled fro trying to get into his panel that night. So that put a damper on the day. Then we realised that apparently $30 was the new $20. Most of the autographs cost $30-$40! Yes, I am a New Yorker and I was suffering from sticker shock at Comic Con! What does that say to you? On the shiny side, we got to take a picture with "Dante" from Clerks for free! It made me think of my pals Lincoln and Kanderson from college who got me into Kevin Smith movies. We paid $20 to get a picture with Kevin Sorbo (totally worth it, he was super nice and chatted with us for a bit).

We explored the show floor and I bought a Domo plush I'd been wanting and we looked a lot of cool art, and drooled over the furniture at the Geek Chic booth.

By that time, we decided to get in line for the Marvel/Spiderman panel which was packed and we had to sit on the floor. But it was worth it because 3 seats in the 3rd row emptied up near the end of the slide show/discussion and we had prime seats for the next panel: Mark Hamill Spotlight!!! We were 20 feet from the nerdgod himself. #nerdgasm!

He was amazing! He did voices, he told random stories and even let out some political rage for a brief moment. Hilarious! The pounding headache I had developed late in the evening (probably due to lack of coffee and/or minor dehydration) could not spoil the awesomeness of Mark Hamill. *Cue chorus of angels*



To sum up the day, it started with high anticipation with a letdown in the middle that sort of bogged down the rest of the afternoon, but we left on a high note after listening to Mark Hamill speak.


NYCC Day 1 = 3.5 lightsabers out of 5


Thank you for the image, Mr-Obi-Wan

A Tragic Day...(UPDATED)

(Getty)
I live in New York City, and unless you live under a rock, you probably know that it's really expensive here. I have lots of bills to pay: rent, utilities, cable/Internet, groceries, medical bills, credit card payments, etc. I often fantasize about waking up at Noon, playing video games or blogging or making funny films all day until it's time to go to bed, and just magically having money to pay for stuff. Unfortunately, I live in a reality and a very harsh reality a lot of the time. In reality I have to go to work. I work a fairly typical 9-5-type job in an office. I have a little bit of freedom at my desk (I have time to blog and surf the web in between real work needing to get done) and I can drink all the free (pretty decent) coffee my heart desires, I have health insurance and I don't have to stress out about money 24/7. Overall, not a terrible gig, but not my dream job. My point is, I'm thankful for employment, but at the end of the day or on the weekends, I don't want to be bothered, I just want to go home, sit in my under-roos and play video games until my head hurts. I'm a simple gal.

Friday night I went to bed fairly early because I was tired from a long and unnecessarily stressful week at work. My boyfriend stayed up and watched Doctor Who streaming on the PS3. When I woke up the next morning all refreshed and thinking about gaming to day away, I hear a strange beep-beep-beep and my boyfriend saying "Oh fuck!" in the living room. He then admitted that while watching The Doctor, the PS3 turned itself off. He figured it had just overheated and left it alone. But when he touched the power button, the power light turned green for a couple of seconds, then yellow/red/orange, beeped 3 times and turned off again. My heart broke; first Steve Jobs, now this?! (And I swear to you, since Steve Jobs died, my 3 month-old iPod has been acting funny...but I digress.) We had never seen this "Yellow Light of Death" before.

Swiftly, my boyfriend turned to our trusty friend Google. We clicked link after link and watched video after crappy video of "solutions" to this problem. Our warranty was well past expired and we sure didn't want to fork over $150 for Sony to diagnose and maybe fix it.

We finally came across a video from iFixIt. The video was well-made with step by step instructions on taking apart the PS3 and re-soddering a broken connection, which is the most common cause of the "Yellow Light of Death." We did some more investigation to make sure they were legit. They had mostly positive reviews, and the little kit they sold was only $40 and included all the materials you would need to fix your PS3. We ordered it, and hopefully we can get our PS3 up and running again soon.

Now, you might be asking, "Why not just buy a new one?" Well, aside from the whole I-live-in-NYC-and-everything-is-expensive-here-and-I-don't-have-the-money-to-blow-on-a-new-console-right-now thing, we have a very special PS3 that Sony no longer makes. We have the 80GB that is backwards-compatible with PS2 games. So if we got a new PS3, we would also need to hunt down a PS2 if we ever wanted to play any of our older games again. And that's a lot of $cratch we just don't have right now, especially since the holiday season is almost upon us and I need to save up for gift-giving.

If there is a silver lining to this story, it's that I did get to play video games this weekend. We not only have a PS3, but we also have our older consoles, including a Sega Genesis, SNES, NES, GameCube, and an Xbox360 that my boyfriend's co-worker just gave to us. I'd been meaning to start playing Xbox more regularly, but we hadn't gotten around to getting any games for it other than the NBA Live 2010 or whatever disk was left in there from the previous owner, and as I mentioned before, I don't really play sports games. However, another friend of ours loaned us his copy of Fable III which I've been wanting to play for some time. I started playing and am really enjoying it. So, yes, there is a bright side to the story: I got to play a new game (even though I still prefer PS to XBox) and there is still hope that the PS3 may live to game once again.

So, stay tuned, I will talk more about my pros/cons of PS3 Vs. XBox, how I'm enjoying Fable III, and let you know the outcome of my PS3 YLOD drama (also whether or not iFixit came through for us).

Update: The kit came in the mail in a timely fashion, we were at NYCC when the mailman brought it, so we had to pick it up at the post office, but it got to us as stated! Boyfriend went into "tinkering mode" and spent the better part of a day fixing the PlayStation as instructed by iFixit. He's going to end up replacing the fan inside the PS3 as well to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the near future, but otherwise, so far it seems to be all fixed for a fraction of what Sony would have charged us! *knock on wood*

A Very Nerdy Review

(Broadwayworld.com)

I have another blog called Keep the Starving Out of Starving Artist and I didn't ever really anticipate the two blogs crossing paths. So, today is a special day, it's a blog cross-over! I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but one of my other geeky/nerdy interests aside from the stereotypical ones (video games, tabletop games, nerd music, sci-fi, etc) I'm also a theatre geek. I adore musicals. they're so fantastical and cheesy and ridiculous and just let you leave reality for a couple of hours but there is still the excitement and danger of the live performance. I studied theatre arts in college, in fact, I have a degree in the arts. So, when I say I saw an off-off-Broadway play last night that spoke to the nerd audience, you'll know where I'm coming from and also I want you to know that by "nerd audience" I mean both the theatre nerd audience and the computer nerd audience. It was like my two nerdy side got to come together and hang out with each other for a night. It was enjoyable. So here is my review of the show:

Last night I attended a preview performance of Mangella, a play by Ken Ferrigni and directed by Joe Jung. In a nutshell, the play is a dark comedy for nerds, by nerds. I went into it not really knowing what to expect. Even based on the promo postcard’s description:
Ned is a low-rent hacker who uses his trusty computer, Gabriella, to shake down Asian websites with coordinated network attacks. He is hell-bent on restoring the memory of his stroke-ridden father who believes himself to be a fictional 1940’s black blues musician Mangella St. James. However, when Lily, a beautiful prostitute, arrives at Ned’s door battling an unseen tormentor, Ned is sucked into a life-and-death struggle to save his father, his desktop PC, and himself. Who will make it to tomorrow?

I don’t even know what to make of that description, even after seeing the show. The production was powerfully and brilliantly executed with wonderful use of multimedia even if I felt the script was (very briefly at times) lacking. The dialogue was smart, witty, ridiculous, and moving all at the appropriate (and inappropriate) times. There were some unfortunate coincidences in the script mentioning Apple products and pancreatic cancer with the very recent death of Steve Jobs, which sort of struck a nerve with me, but that was simply unfortunate timing with current events. While the dialogue was impressive, the plot dragged a little but also left lots of unanswered questions that it put forth. While you want to leave a good piece of theatre pondering a little, I don’t what to have to ask myself too many questions at the end of the night.

The desktop PC, Gabriella (portrayed by a very energetic and funny Ali Perlwitz) was definitely my favorite character. I love the fantastical anthropomorphizing characters in plays (such as Sylvia). I never knew a piece of technology could be so well-rounded. It’s going to make me look at my iPod and laptop differently now.

The overall story is moved forward by an unseen force that the audience does not learn about until late in the 2nd act, and even then, we still left the show asking, “What exactly happened, now?” Overall, the show was enjoyable, funny, and bizarre. It was an excellent piece of off-off-Broadway; just absurd enough to be what people have come to expect from OOB productions, but not so far “out there” that you start your story with, “Well, I went to my friend’s off-off-Broadway show last night…*sigh*…it was…well…” as so many of us in the NYC theatre scene know all too well. We’ve all uttered that phrase, and we’ve all probably been that friend the phrase refers to.
The show also stars Anthony Manna as Ned, Bob Austin McDonald as Mangella St. James, and Hannah Wilson as Lily. Mangella runs October 6-23 at The Drilling Company theatre 236 W 78th St @ Broadway. Recommended for theatre nerds, especially those who appreciate darker humor.

Blog Stats

Ok, this is a super short post because it was funny, so I just had to share. So I was looking at my blog stats yesterday just to get to know my audience a little better, and I noticed that once of the referring websites didn't quite fit with the others...


Glad to know that Viagra pill users in the Netherlands search for my blog. I guess that's what I get for having a double entendre for a blog title.

Do not feed the Trolls

I'm an emoting person. I think the word "emotional" gets thrown around too much to describe someone (mainly a female someone) who is upset or crying. We're people, we have emotions, we're emotional creatures. We feel things on a non-physical level. So when I say that I get emotional, I mean that I become so filled up with a feeling (any feeling) that it's like I will burst. I'm empathetic. I often say that I feel too much because of my intense empathy. If someone is joyful, I want to share in that joy and it affects me, usually in a positive way. Their joy reverberates off of me and fills me up to the brim.

I'm also the type of person who cries. A lot. Any emotion I feel that fills me up so full that I may burst, overflows from my body in the form of tears. So the joy that I can see in someone else makes tears spring from my eyes and spew down my face. Happy tears. Likewise, if anger or rage overcome me: angry tears. Maybe it's psychosimatic, but angry tears always feel hotter than other tears. Rage tears are violent and stingy and they get sprayed off my face when accompanied by screaming. Angry screaming.

When I say angry screaming, I don't mean frustrated/exasperated yelling at the TV because you can't beat your boss battle you've spent 2 days grinding to get to; no, I mean rage. That boiling infuriated numbness that comes over you when some great injustice has been committed. I feel this more often than I would care to. Just as joy/happiness bubble up inside me, rage and sadness affect me much more quickly and for longer periods of time. So, if someone has a negative attitude, even small periods of time spent with this individual can turn me into a cranky bitch.

That all being said, I'm also sensitive to what other people say to/about me and the people/things I care about. I can get rather defensive about things. Blame it on childhood bullying/teasing or a rocky home situation (at times). Call it nature. Call it nurture. call it what you want, but don't be a dick about it. So if you say something rude or venture a non-constructive critical oppinion about something I care about, someone I love, or me, you're gonna get a rage-filled tongue-lashing.

I think the internet and our technology-saturated world have done amazing things that seem straight out of science fiction, and made wondorous advancements in society and our well-being as a people. However, (yes, Imma bout to quote me some Spiderman) with great power comes great responsibility. The internet and the anonnymity it and new technology provide to us, have turned us into narcissitic douchebags.
So, let's not be trolls, kids, in real life or on the interwebs.
(Yes, this did stem from a specific incident, but I'll get into that at another time.)

Games Are Good

Last week I started replaying one of my favorite games, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. It is a classic RPG originally released on PS2 by Square Enix and Level-5 in 2005. I've heard it said that, at the time, it was the longest RPG ever made. I can't find any valid sources that prove this, but it's also relative. What takes me 70 hours to complete may differ with other more/less experienced players. Either way, if you are a fan of RPG style games, and haven't played this, go now. But it. play it. Love it. This being said, I can also understand that many people do not care for true RPG style console games. They are tedious. I thrive with the tedium of puzzles most of the time (if I'm in an impulsive mood or feel impatient, then I'll sit down and watch an action movie or something instead of playing an RPG). But I understand that tedium is not for everyone. Lots of players play Madden or other sports games. I don't particularly care for those (although the 1993 NBA Jam arcade game was the shit). I've played and enjoyed Wii sports, but when playing those games with friends, I feel more accomplished and tend to have more fun than sitting on my couch mashing buttons and watching football/hockey/soccer/baseball teams do stuff, I'd rather just go to a sporting event or watch one on TV at a bar or friend's house. I find sports games much more fun while playing with friends, but if I had my choice, I'd rather play a battle or racing game with friends than Madden.

This blog wasn't intended to bash sports games or the people who enjoy them. I respect you, sports games and the players who play them! I respect you as people and as fellow gamers. My point was merely that I know that I like games that others don't and lots of other people like games that I don't particularly care for, and that's ok. If you like games, we have something to chat about. But don't come over to my house and bash my taste in games. Don't be a douche. But that's another story...