Memory Lane Monday: A Fair Fare-thee-well to Ye Olde Renaissance Faire, Also, Camels

You know that feeling when you write a post for your blog and then hit "save" instead of "publish," and then you try to fend off the stress and anxiety from the knowledge that you are moving across the country in 3 weeks and leaving behind everything you've known for the past 7 years by binge-watching Breaking Bad which just makes you feel shittier so then you try to cleanse your pallet by binge-playing Ni No Kuni and then the next thing you realize is you've gone an entire week without accomplishing anything? Yeah.

Boyfriend, our friend Jen, and I made our annual pilgrimage to the New York Renaissance Faire this year, probably for the last time. It was fun. I rode a camel! 
But, Faire felt different this year. Maybe it's grown stale for me since it's the same year after year, or maybe I was just melancholy that day, or maybe it was all the drunk assholes since they decided to add a Pub Crawl to the roster to boost sales but didn't think to boost security. I'm going to go with a little of all of the above. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Faire, but this year felt different. I still had fun, I rode a camel. I think I'm just blue about the reality of leaving NY.It was nice to be outdoors on a nice day and sort of push the stress of moving out of my mind for a few hours, but as moving day draws nearer, the stress bubble inside my brain grows and grows. But, I rode a camel, and that was awesome.

The first time I ever rode a camel I was 3 years old and it was at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. We were probably visiting my grandparents. I remember nothing about it except looking down from atop the camel to the ground. It was terrifying and fascinating and I felt a thousand feet high. I've had dreams and flashbacks to that moment staring down from the camel's back throughout my life. Yet I never really knew if these memories were real or just something I had imagined. I never knew until I rode that Camel at the Ren Faire, and I looked down from the camel's hump and felt the same feeling I had almost 27 years ago. It was a relief. Lately I've been questioning my own sanity and my ability to remember real things. I think it's just stress and anxiety and fear manifesting into me shutting things out. But being able to know that one very distinct memory of that camel ride at age 3 was not something I had invented, helped me feel sane and free for the 5-ish minutes adult me was on that camel. Thank you, Ren Faire.

So go out there and ride your camel!

I can conquer anything

Friday Favorites: Procrastination Edition

I finally started watching Breaking Bad this week on Netflix. Holy shit that show is intense and amazing. Between that and Ni No Kuni, I have been fairly useless this week. Any excuse to procrastinate getting prepared to move...OMG I'M MOVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN A MONTH!!!!

-A Field Guide to Procrastinators
I am all of these

-Sexism in Video Games Not Dealing With Giant Boobies
It probably doesn't help that I call them "boobies" huh?

-Baby Elephant and a Sleeping Dog
Other than the obnoxious rooster in the background, this is a very soothing sweet video

-Why Grammar is Important
Learn that shit, yo! 
(Sorry, I've been watching a lot of Breaking Bad lately. Like, a LOT.)

-Cats Knocking Sh*t Over
Exactly.

-Disney Princess Costume Swap
This is darling and I want a collection of prints. My favorite one is Belle in Beast's clothing

And on a more serious but important and educational note:

-Mental Health in the Marketplace
Useful resources and information for those struggling with mental health issues.

Friday Favorites: The Revenge

My laptop is acting crazy today. It has these wierd flickering lines on it like an old tube TV that isn't getting good reception. I think it's dying you guys. Um...other than that, I've got nothing today. Here:



-Roommate Confessions
With my series of awful roommates/living situations, I am proud to say I never did any of these things.

-Things I Never Learned in School T-Shirt
Yeah, I kind of need this shirt...

-Dear Fake Geek Girls, Go Away?
Thank you satire. Note: if you read the comments on this video, your head might explode with rage...mine almost did.

-We Can To Please Have More Doctors?
I don't claim to be a DW expert (I reserve that title for my buddy, KAnderson) but I really do hope that there are multiple Doctors/companions/other DW alums in the 50th anniversary. I really believe it will lose something if there aren't as many alums as possible.

-More Harry Potter...sort of!
When I first saw the headline, I almost rolled my eyes, but stay with it, guys.

-Dr. Lollipop the Unicorn
Oh yes, it's a thing.

-My former place of residence in under water!
Of all the natural (and unnatural) disasters I have experience or expected to experience in Colorado, massive flooding was not one of them.

And finally, I'm going to include something that I read this week but did not like:

-10 Things You Didn't know about Playing Video Games
Normally I really like a lot of the stuff written on LifeHack.com, but I found this article to be slightly condescending especially since it was written by a female gamer who is addicted to The Sims just like me! Feel free to leave your opinions in the comments. Maybe I'm too sensitive. 
Also, for the record, (and not to sound all hipstery or troll-y) yes I did know all of those things about playing video games, because I read technology-based publications regularly, and most of the studies the author referred to (that ABC and NYT just now appear to be reporting on) came out last year. But maybe I'm just splitting hairs...

Memory Lane Monday: When Childhood Gaming and Being a Classy Adult Get Together and Make an Awesome Baby

Last Friday night, Boyfriend and I did something that, as a child, I always imagined every cultured person in NYC did all the time: we attended an art show at a gallery. Now this was no ordinary art show, thank you very much. This was the 3 NES Show at the Bottleneck Gallery, featuring a multitude of pieces in every medium imaginable, all inspired by the Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid games. So in other words: Best. Art Show. Ever.

To be honest, I was only mildly excited about going to the art show opening. Firstly, the gallery was in Williamsburg, which is not only mildly annoying to get to from Astoria, but we all know how I feel about Williamsburg. Secondly, going to a crowded art gallery (aka a small space) did not sound very appealing... you know, that whole social anxiety thing.  However, once we got inside and I got a free beer in my hand (thank you Brooklyn Brewery) I felt ok. Then I just reminded myself that I was surrounded by other nerds like me who probably all had their own awkward inner demons, and we were all there because we liked video games and/or free beer. But once all the people who were only there for the free beer cleared out, and I started documenting things for the blog, I felt a lot better and really enjoyed myself.

My t-shirt was designed by ShayLei and can be purchased on Redbubble

There was so much amazing art at this gallery! I wish I could have taken pictures of everything to share, but then no one would go to the gallery to see the show. So here are just some of my favorite pieces:

These gorgeous portraits of Peach, Zelda, and Samus are painted with acrylic by Kathleen Sanders and are available to purchase for $300 each. If I had a thousand extra bucks laying around, I would have snatched these up in a heartbeat.

Peach

Zelda

Samus

This amazing paper mache sculpture, entitled "Chomper Plant with Fireball" was done by Art Lopez, and stands approximately 13" high.

Boyfriend and I did end up buying 4 limited edition prints of some pieces we really liked. That's right, bitches, we bought us some art, like adults! Because we're all classy and shit.

"Armoured Beauty" By: Javier Jimenez

 Boyfriend and I bought a set of 3 of these giclee prints of your favorite video game beauties all tattooed and bad-ass-looking. We also bought this signed limited edition archival print of Link and dark Link in the Water Temple. I wanted this not only because it's awesome, but also because of the piece's title:

"The F ' ing Water Temple" By: Kim Herbst

I won't comment on all the pieces that I documented except this one last giclee print. I'm only going to share this one because it made me feel icky and it falls into the category of "things you can't unsee" and I need to share that pain with you all. I cropped the photo to be as SFW as possible, but it probably still isn't. Behold, your childhood game heroines as call-girl posters: (After the break)

Friday Favorites: Powerful Nerdy

Yup this week is pretty much all geek-tastic nerdity! I finally beat Bioshock Infinite without anyone spoiling the ending for me!! (It's a goddamn miracle, I tell ya.) And now I've moved on to Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and all I can say is gorgeous! Gorgeous, delightful, charming. Aaah! My heart may explode with love for this endearing game!
Anywho...on with my favorite distractions inspirations this week on the interwebs!!!

-Inside-Out Grilled Cheese?!
Yes. All the yes.

-On of My Favorite Movies of All Time is FINALLY On Blu-Ray!!!

-Video Games are Saving Mankind
I knew it!!!

-One Teething Ring to Rule Them All
It almost makes me want to entertain the idea of possibly thinking about considering having a baby. Almost.

-Custom Lunch Boxes FTW!
Some are not the most appetizing, but it'll keep people from stealing them, won't it? 

-The Bloggess has designed a track jacket for the rest of us
Because.  

-My Buddy Kyle Shared Simon Pegg's Strar Trek cast prank
Love me some Simon Pegg 

-Badass fast food cosplay
You heard me. Fast food cosplay. It's epic.

-A Mighty Girl
A website designed after my own heart: "The world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls." Stuff like this makes me less fearful of having a daughter in this world.

-The Fox
AKA the sleeper song of the summer. Ok this was originally going to go on next week's edition of FF because this one seems out of control long. However, since I discovered this last night it has almost tripled in views, so I gotta jump on this before CNN "discovers" it. I can't post something awesome after CNN has reported on it. My soul would die. 

Friday Favorites: Thug Life

Yay for the first week with bookend posts! I've been keeping a mental list throughout the week of all the cool links and pictures I want to include on here today. I'm working hard to be entertaining while keep- SWEET JESUS ON A PONY THERE IS A GIANT HORNET IN MY OFFICE NOOK!!!


Holy shit, sorry guys. There was a giant black hornet in my office nook. I took care of it. Don't worry, I documented it on Twitter, so you know it happened.

Thug Life

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Here's stuff that distracted me from writing this week:

-Thug Kitchen (NSFW) 
Vegan cooking never sounded so bad ass. Even if you're not Vegan, this site has some delicious recipes and is hilarious. (My favorite one is his thoughts on Hamburger Helper)

-Bald Solo in NYC
Watch his whirlwind tour of game shops in Manhattan

-WTF Are You Watching?!
My friends Kyle and Lincoln are celebrating their 100th episode of their weekly movie-review podcast! The next episode will go up on Monday September 2nd. Don't miss it!

-These 13 Things to Help You Get Through a Rough Day
BuzzFeed's the best, isn't it?

-Vash & Justin
I know I've featured them on my blog before, but I have to put them on again today because while I wasn't having a fight to the death with a hornet, I was busy making a little cameo on this week's episode. 

 

Memory Lane Monday: Life on Set, and Why I'm a Ninja

I keep saying to myself, "Jess, we need to get back on a more consistent blogging schedule." Myself usually responds with something like, "You know, you're right, we've been lazy as hell lately, let's start writing immedi- ooo look a new video game!"

I can't blame laziness entirely for my falling off the blogging wagon. I had a very busy weekend at work, and then I had to get up before the ass-crack of dawn last Monday to go work on an episode of Boardwalk Empire. It was a great day. I woke up at 3am, took a shower, got dressed, made coffee and left my apartment to go catch the courtesy production bus that would take me to holding and set in Staten Island. I wasn't being sarcastic when I said it was a great day, either. Yes, waking up at 3am is crappy no matter how early you go to bed the night before, but normally a day on set lasts at least 10 hours, and is more likely to be a 14+ hour day. But this day was awesome. I spent almost 3 hours in hair, make-up, and wardrobe, and less than an hour on set before they wrapped us for the day and sent us home. This was an almost unheard of short day. It rocked. And dammit if I didn't look super cute!

3 hours baby! Three. Hours.

On Wednesday I helped out as a production assistant on a low-budget indie web-series called Ghost Light. Boyfriend was the Director of Photography and our friend Neil was directing. I was there to provide general assistance, but I mostly ended up babysitting the slow-as-molasses sound operator. In his defense, he was using professional-grade equipment that was borrowed from another friend of ours, and had never worked on a set before. Nonetheless, dude moved slower than frozen honey in a glass jar, and the stakes were pretty high for this production. They had 5 days to film 8 episodes in this great old theater in NJ called The Barn Theatre. That was it. No do-overs, no option for re-shoots. Nada. So saying that time was of the essence was a bit of an understatement and something Sound Dude clearly missed the memo on. He also had no sense of spacial reasoning, he hit Boyfriend in the head with the boom at least 9 times. He got tangled in his own cables and would stand in frame every time we set up a shot. No observational skills, you guys. None. So, it's a damn good thing that when I'm in the right place at the right time, I'm in the god damn right place at the god damn right time. But I'm getting ahead of myself...lemme esplain:

This was a very low-budget project. We had two lights. Expensive lights. Hot lights. These lights are hooked to telescopic stands so they can be raised and lowered as needed. These stands are fairly light-weight so they are easy to move, but when the lights are on them and they are raised to a height of eight feet, they become slightly top-heavy. You mix this with Sound Dude who has no spacial reasoning, and you get a disaster. Unless you have a P.A like me who turns into a ninja after her third cup of coffee!

I'm totally getting this on a t-shirt, you guys!

Sound Dude cut in the middle of a take because he needed batteries or something, so everyone paused what they were doing, holding their positions so we could be ready to continue as soon as the batteries situation was taken care of. I was standing in front of one of the aforementioned lights  on the edge of the stage, holding the boom cable so that it wasn't a tripping hazard for anyone (i.e Boyfriend, Neil, and Sound Dude.) Sound Dude, apparently oblivious to his proximity to the light stand puts down his equipment and knocks the light stand completely over. There was a collective gasp that rang out in the quiet theater, and like the mysterious bad-ass love-child of Spiderman and a Kunoichi, I reached diagonally back behind my body and caught the stand with my left hand (my non-dominant hand, thank you very much) and with just enough leverage to prevent the light itself from smashing onto the concrete house floor. Did I mention I did all of this while still holding the boom cable with my other hand? The ashen fearful looks on the producer and assistant director's faces quickly melted into relief once I put the light stand upright again, and applause from everyone else on set made me feel like a god damn hero.

In this picture, you can see the light I so badassadly caught. For perspective, the guys in this picture are all 6 feet or taller.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but two nights later at the wrap party, everyone was still talking about how awesome it was that I caught that light.

So, the long and short of last week is: I got to spend lots of time on set and I'm a mother fuckin ninja!