Darkpippi and his WoW parody songs.

I don't know how many of you know of Darkpippi from YouTube but he has some great parody songs that he does about WoW. Since I am having an extremely busy week (next week I probably won't even be able to update) and I don't have time for a real update, I wanted to share with you some of his videos instead. These are some of my favorites. Enjoy.

Geeky Videos

So I have gotten very busy lately and I'm not sure if I will be able to update with an actual update next week or not.

In the meantime, since I don't have the time to write up a post today, here are some Parody videos about Math.

Enjoy.

Mists Beta - Login Screen & Lady Pandaren Videos

While I don't have an invite to the beta testing (and probably won't for a long while), I don't know how much I will be able to share in regards to the Beta that isn't already known.

I do want to bring you these two videos though, thanks through a search on YouTube. The first is a video of the character creation screen. If this is how they plan to redo the screens, I think I can be on-board with that. I sometimes cannot remember how many clicks it takes to get that face that I use for almost every character. I'm not sure if they have more choices but it sure feels that way. (Then again, I've clicked through the options I have so many times that it just goes rather quickly. Hopefully if they do put this into the game, they won't make you pay extra money to make sure you've got your characters looking exactly the way you want.





This second video is of the lady Pandaren animations. I'm looking forward to seeing the /flirt and /silly in the future. Personally, I think they're rather cute.




See you next week.

A list of songs I probably won't play at my wedding.

Sometime last week, I was trying to find music to be played before the ceremony and then at the reception afterwards. My external hard drive where I've kept a multitude of music up and died on me the week or so before, which has left me in a bit of a pickle as I was planning on pulling all of my music from there. I thankfully do have a list of every song that was in there as I was getting slightly obsessed with organizing everything on that harddrive (no idea of the pictures and other things though, which is sad) so I can pull some ideas off of that list but I still have to go out and buy songs off iTunes when I find one that I really want.

Surfing around iTunes the other day and trying to find more wedding music has brought me across many jems and made me realize that there probably are some really great romantic songs that maybe I'm not going to play at the wedding even though they are wonderful songs. Songs that have made the list here just have that something in it that could be taken as being a little odd if you listen to the lyrics/put them into context. So, for my own reference...


For those of you who are worried about that sort of thing, SPOILERS FOR TITANIC, CASABLANCA and ROMEO & JULIET (because I care about 16th century theatrical spoilers)

Romantic Songs I Probably Won't Play At My Wedding

10. Celine Dion - "My Heart Will Go On"
I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this song on various wedding albums in the past few days. It's a nice song but I can never hear it out of the context of Titanic and SPOILERS, because Rose never gave him a turn to get out of the water and hang out on whatever float-y thing she was on, he DIED. That's right, he up and dies on her and sinks away to the bottom of the ocean so I can't really see this song as being the best thing to play at your wedding, personally. Then again, I was never a big fan of the movie because I knew HE DIED from the song that was played on the radio incessantly that included movie clips. THANKS A LOT SPOILER SONG.



9. Michael Buble - "Haven't Met You Yet"
I actually saw this on a wedding album and was a bit confused. The song to me goes like this, "I haven't found anyone yet but it's okay because I'm still hopeful and perky about it. HORRAY!" How that belongs on a wedding album confounds me. "I have not met you (AKA The One) yet but I'm still going to marry this person until the right one comes along?" I...don't...I don't get it but that's how I see it personally.



8. Mercyme - "I Can Only Imagine"
Thought the song was about Jesus & Heaven. The end.



7. Henry Mancini - "Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet"
Probably the best known of Shakespeare's romantic tragedies but I'm not the biggest fan of R&J and while people like to try to romanticize the story and the love, they die at the end. Dying doesn't really come off at romantic to me. (See #10 above.) It's not exactly something I want to emulate in my relationship. I'm not okay with the dying at a young age part. This is also pretty much the reason why I didn't want a Honeymoon Suite named after these two. It sounded like a horrible idea but clearly something that everyone else thinks is awesome. I absolutely love Henry Mancini but I cannot play this at the wedding.



6. Traditional - "The Water Is Wide"
I don't know why but this showed up a few times on different wedding albums that I looked at. The Wikipedia article on the this song pretty much confirmed it to me that it's not that sweet at all.

"O love is handsome and love is kind
Bright as a jewel when first it's new
but love grows old and waxes cold
And fades away like the morning dew."

Ouch. That's not very nice.


5. Whitney Houston or Dolly Parton  "I Will Always Love You"
What is with this song being on almost every wedding album? It's a beautiful song sung by either of those lovely ladies but it's not a wedding song! She's saying I love you, yes but there's also another word in that song that makes it a little bit less wedding related: Goodbye. And SPOILERS for the movie - they don't get together at the end. How horribly sad!



4. Willie Nelson - "Always On My Mind"
I'm not sure about this. This one always sounded like an "I'm Sorry," song to me not a "First wedding dance! YAY!" song.


3. George & Ira Gershwin "Someone To Watch Over Me"
The Gershwins has some great romantic "I am in love," songs. This is not one of them. "S'Wonderful", "For You, For Me, Forever More", "Embraceable You", are a few though. This is another one of those songs in which you're still looking for love but you're more mellow about it than "Haven't Met You Yet".
(By the way, even though I am an old movie fan, I haven't seen this movie. Shame on me. SHAME.)



2. Dooley Wilson - "As Time Goes By"
Again, another song that I can never take out of context of Casablanca.  I've seen the movie, I know the plot and I know the song. I cannot separate it from the romance that Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman have/had in the movie and, again, SPOILERS -- THEY DON'T HAVE A HAPPY ENDING!



1. Meatloaf - "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
Okay, so I actually haven't found this song on any wedding albums (yet) but it pretty much tops my list of romantic songs I would not play at my wedding. It's a cool song but everyone seems to be confused as to what 'THAT' actually is. Sometimes, I'm actually confused too but it's a neat song and I sadly mourn the loss of my Meatloaf album from my external hard drive.




If you know of any other Romantic Songs that you don't feel would be appropriate played at your wedding (or that had been played), drop me a comment. I'd love to know what they were.

Manly man hands

When news started coming out about Mists of Pandaria and the new character models (which, I have heard is something they have been talking about for a while), I couldn't quite understand why they wanted to redo them. Personally, I like the way most of them look but I also understand that some of these models have been around since the creation of World of Warcraft so the technology has advanced a little since then.

Before we get new models in (whenever that will actually be), I wanted to do a series of post on the hands and feet of the characters we have now. I want to focus on this because as an artist, I know how hard it is to draw hands -- all those digits going this way or that so I'm sure animating it must be even more of a pain. I also have never really studied anyone's feet in the game (what a strange thing to say), so I suppose that section will be a learning experience for me.

My computer isn't a gaming computer so these are just the graphics I use on a daily basis. I'll go back and do a compare and contrast with a lot of these on a fancy computer once I have a bit more time. With a bigger screen and excellent graphics, I'm sure there will be a bit of a difference but the shapes for the most part (which is what this is really concentrating on) should really just be the same.

DISCO!

This post will focus on Human Men. I currently don't have any myself so I rolled one on a random server and screen capped him doing different things so there would be different angles of his hands. I probably shouldn't have chosen his features at random since I really didn't make him as best as I could have but it works for him just being a Hand Model.

Whoops. Guess I hurt his feelings.

I've nicknamed him George Costanza, for all you Seinfeld fans.

Fighting.

I don't really know what this was.

Fisticuffs

He looks like he has Lego hands from this angle.

Dancing, which looks more like pointing.

Stop. /No

I tried to get some better pictures of his hands without the purple robe but I don't think getting rid of it helped much.

Even more dancing. Which he looks thrilled about

/Kneel

Invisible car!

/roar

Sit

Rock on.

See you next week.

"Mr. Worf, do you know Gilbert and Sullivan?"

Over this weekend, I was reminded of the Gilbert & Sullivan sci-fi references I have come across with the help of my soon-to-be husband. I was introduced to these references first out of the context of their show/movie/game they appeared in but this weekend, I have finally witnessed them all in context.

I have enjoyed Gilbert & Sullivan music since I first really started listening to them in high school years ago. In grade school, I remember we watched the Pirates Of Penzance with Kevin Kline but I don't really remember it affecting me. I don't really remember much of it from class and so when I came across a recording years later of The Mikado with Groucho Marx (as the Marx Brothers were my interest at the time), I didn't even know it was by the same composers.

I believe this is the same recording, which you can get on Amazon. The recording is about an hour in length to fit on television, which cuts out some songs and bits of plot but still gives you the general gist of the plot. (Check YouTube if you are interested in clips from the show too.)

Over the next few years or so I acquired some Gilbert & Sullivan CD's, attended performances of live shows and memorized, just for the heck of it all the words to "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" (as I figured if I could memorize that, I could memorize anything). I also insisted to my Mother that I would never marry unless they knew about Gilbert & Sullivan. I already had a long list of what I wanted in a spouse and this really added to the, "I will never find a mate" mindset. I was completely accepting of the theory that I would someday end up with lots of cats and no husband, which to me would be a great deal better than lots of husbands and no cats. (I really like cats, what can I say.)

Fast forward a bit more to a new relationship I was in. The guy I was seeing was a major fan of sci-fi and video games. Having watched more musicals than sci-fi and not really gaming at the time, I wasn't sure how this was all going to work out but I was open to sci-fi, providing that the storyline was good as I am a sucker for a good plot. I had seen a bit of Star Trek and had seen Episodes 4-6 of Star Wars growing up (except part of the storyline on Hoth since our video tape fell apart there) but that was about it.

A discussion one day brought up a song from a Gilbert & Sullivan show, which left me a bit in awe until I realized that he had no idea what it was that he was actually quoting. It had been in some movie or show he had seen but he had no idea where it actually came from. I rather handed over my Gilbert & Sullivan CDs as soon as I could get my hands on them after that and surprisingly, he enjoyed them. (On a side note, similar to other experiences I had, when he tried to introduce the music to other people, it just got him some strange looks.)

Together we've watched a few different Gilbert & Sullivan musicals and though we both list different ones as our favorites, we still geek out over them and the references that pop up in sci-fi and other things (like Geico commercials). These are the only sci-fi Gilbert & Sullivan that we have come across personally in sci-fi movies, shows and games but if you know of any others, let me know. I've noticed that Isaac Asimov has made mention of various Gilbert & Sullivan songs, etc in some of his work. I also want to add that while searching down these sci-fi shows, movies and video games, I  found a Firefly inspired production of The Pirates of Penzance by The Stanford Savoyards with a few photos on their Facebook page from the production.


(POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK, BABYLON 5 AND MASS EFFECT)

("A British Tar" - H.M.S. Pinafore)

I believe there is at least another Gilbert & Sullivan reference during the show itself but I have not been able to find a clip of that yet. This is one of my favorite scenes and I play it for myself ever so often when I get in a silly mood for it. Worf's reaction to Picard's singing really makes it for me.

On a side note, as I was doing the research for this post, I came across a theatre out in California that combined Star Trek and Gilbert & Sullivan works into a show called USS Pinafore (article with a preview video at the link). It looks interesting but there seem to be a lot of red shirts. Hmm...

("I am the very model of a modern Major-General" - The Pirates of Penzance)

I was rather on the fence about watching Babylon 5. Season One went rather slow for me but once I got into it, I loved it. They had some great jokes ("Nibbled to death by cats," is one of my favorites.) and character and plot-wise, I thought it was excellent. I thoroughly enjoy Marcus' character and seeing him sing this really sealed it for me.

("I am the very model of a modern Major-General" - The Pirates of Penzance)

This I witnessed over the weekend for myself as Mass Effect 3 was released last week. I've watched a bit of the game but I just don't have time to play the whole thing myself. The "scientist salarian" was back from Mass Effect 2 (at least in our version) and so was his song, for a brief moment. It seems as it was rather popular as they also have a shirt available in the BioWare shop of Mordin, The Scientist Salarian.


There seem to be a lot of Gilbert & Sullivan references in many shows, movies and so forth in our culture. These are just the ones I've come across personally in sci-fi shows, movies and video games. If you wish to see a list of other Gilbert & Sullivan references, Wikipedia has a rather long list of them here. Some you may recognize and some you may not. YouTube may even have some of those in videos, among some others that aren't on the list, such as Christopher Lee singing a few of their songs.


I remember hearing from my parents that it use to be said that somewhere around the world, someone was performing Gilbert & Sullivan. Perhaps this still rings true today with the cultural influences that W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan have left on society even one hundred years after their deaths that have gone into new worlds to the year 2257, 2183 CE and Stardate 52000.

A look into my gaming history.

There’s a lot of blogs out there about all sorts of gaming. I know I’m not the first person to think of the idea to write about it. I wanted to think about things that would make this blog different...and well, that was the problem.

There are too many things in the game that interest me so I know I couldn’t narrow it down to one thing. My hope with my WoW posts is to cover a lot of subjects involving things that interest me or that I am curious about that can come together in one place.

First off, let me give you a little introduction to my gaming self.

I love to play games. Any type of game growing up was fun to me. I could play chess by myself or Rummy with a bunch of people and enjoy both.

Growing up, we had an Atari and then later a Nintendo. I enjoyed both of them, but I was really bad at most of the games. This probably had to deal with the fact that I was so young. I would watch my older brother play, sometimes with his friends, and really enjoy it. 

The first video game I remember enjoying.

In grade school, we would go to the computer lab and learn how to type on Apple computers. On our free days, we could play games on it like the Oregon Trail and a few others I wish I could remember the names.

 Ah, the memories.

Later, I got two hand held Disney games from the 90’s. They were fun until I got a Game Gear and then most of my gaming time was spend on that. It was awesome. For a few years, we would go to Toys ‘R Us and pick out a game for my birthday or for Christmas. I played on it a lot until one day it just wouldn’t turn on anymore. I still have it in my parents’ house, along with a bunch of the games that go with it.

It crapped out on me one day and I've never been able to get it to work since.

About the same time, I got to try out a Windows computer for the first time and ended up playing on what was probably the first version of SimCity. When we got our first computer, we got a CD filled with demo and mini games and I got hours of enjoyment from it.

This was one of those demo games. I never really understood the point of it.

 Not to mention, I also played on the games that came with the computer a lot too. I'm sure many of you remember this guy from that time period. I hated how he would jump up and down and taunt me after he just ate my skier.

What a jerk.

Years later, I got to play SimCity again on my older brother’s college computer before I got my own. I ended up getting The Sims for it and spent countless hours and late nights playing it in high school. 

 Everyone liked to play their Sims differently. I'll talk about some of my Sim stories later.

In college, my gaming evolved into a few internet games and then later to Facebook games but I really didn’t have enough time to spend too much of my time playing any games as most of my free time was spent on homework and napping. Now, living out in the real world with my significant other, I have gotten back into gaming again.

After watching them play World of Warcraft for a few weeks, I gave in and got a trial account while they were away on a business trip. It kept me occupied on the nights they were gone and I found it to be really cool. 

My first character was a Troll Mage on Draka since what is now our main server was down for maintenance that night. I played on her enough so that I could get her to Orgimmar where I then got so lost that I put her in the old orphanage (this is prior to the Cataclysm that struck Azeroth). I left her there, thinking it would be a safe place and that no one would bother me in an orphanage. Silly noob.

She doesn't look too bad for a Level 9.

I wasn’t really enjoying playing a mage at that time so I decided that perhaps I would go back to our main server and make a Night Elf. I decided to try a Hunter and managed to level her up to 20 with many, many blunders on the way. (That will be a different post entirely.) I tried out a Human Warlock after that but didn’t find that I liked it as much. After talking it over, I felt like I was ready to try out a subscription. After that, as they say, the rest is history. I now have played for nearly two years and learned so much from websites like WoWHead, YouTube videos and people I've met that I want to share some of the things I have learned while playing. Granted, I have not played for that long a period of time so I don’t have the knowledge that a lot of older players have (and the "when I was your age" stories) but I don’t plan on touching on a lot of heavy topics. I've raided most content in some form or other (Old World, LFR, guild raiding) and have downed most bosses on one toon or another. Try not to hate on me too much for still being a bit of a noobish player as I’m still learning some things in regards to my lowbie alts. For the most part, I think WoW has been an it enjoyable experience thus far. 

Oh and by the way, I’m a girl. Just in case you didn't catch that earlier. Some of us girls game just like guys do.

Like many cats, I enjoy yarn.

Over the past year and a half or so, I have taught myself how to crochet using the internet and YouTube. My first few items that I tried to make went horribly, horribly awry. I've undone most of them but I still have a red and black scarf that I held onto.

Exhibit A: 1st try at a Red & Black Scarf

I can see how and where I messed this one up but when I first made it, I wasn't really sure where the problem had begun.

Exhibit B: 2nd try at a Red & Black Scarf

A much better version of the scarf that is available on my Etsy.

I can get rather ahead of myself sometimes and so after making a few things here and there, I decided that it was time to move onto something big and I decided it was time for me to make a blanket. It would be lovely and I would put it on the bed and we would all love the warm crocheted blanket that wouldn't slip off like our comforter regularly does.

This blanket did not go well  I got about three balls of yarn into it before I could really see the curve that was forming on the sides of the blanket. It was horrible.

Cue me pulling out my work and rolling all the yarn back into balls.

I like rolling yarn. I find it rather relaxing...until my fingers start getting raw from the massive amounts of yarn going through them. I didn't enjoy having to take out all that work but it was something that needed to be done.

I've now started the blanket over and it is looking much better this time. It takes quite a while to just do a line, which was not something I was expecting. For some reason, I thought I could speed crochet when I had just learned the basics of it a few months prior. It usually takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to crochet a line but I seem to have been getting faster with time.

This was the blanket back in November.

It's getting rather large now and working with it on my lap can be awkward at times. I'm sure it'll get even more fun to work with the bigger it gets.

I know it's not perfect but it's main use will probably be for one of the beds in the house so I'm not trying to win any awards with it.

A look at the progress as of today's posting.

I got a crocheting book for Christmas from my future In-laws so I'm sure that will teach me a lot that I have probably missed with my YouTube and self teaching lessons.

I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to any of my crafts and I can tell when items don't meet my expectations. Since I expect others to have similar standards, those pieces that I don't see as up to par I have listed under sale items for flaws or because they don't meet my set expectations of them.

Here are some more of my crocheted projects I have done over the past year plus and you can judge for yourself.

Things I have learned at 25.

My birthday is coming up soon. I am always surprised when my birthday arrives. Perhaps it has something to do with it being at the beginning of the month and I don't see the date coming up on the calender and I'm surprised when it arrives. When I was little and people would ask me what I wanted for my birthday in February, I would get very confused since my birthday wasn't until another month. I have realized over time that it's not really in another month. It's less than a month and they wanted to have time to shop for a present and have it wrapped and everything ready by my birthday.

The past few years, I just had not been prepared to turn whatever age it was. I just didn't feel I was suppose to be that old. This year, I have seemed to accept my age before it has even been placed on me. In regards to feeling a certain age, I think that comes to you over time. I certainly feel like I am more mature than I was a few years ago but when I think about people who are my age and have three kids, a husband and two jobs, I think, "No, I'm not really that mature yet."


Last year, I learned a lot of things. Some I already knew but they reappeared again this past year. Here's some of the biggies in no particular order:

- Good friends will stick with you through good and bad. They will not try to drag you down with them.

- Some people may be a lot older than you but that doesn't mean they are smarter.

- Don't work for someone if you don't have some type of contract.

- No matter what you say, some people are just going to do what they want and you can't ask them not to because they won't listen.

- There are those that think that they are the center of the universe. They will try to get their way every time. Once identifying these individuals, stay away from them.

- Not everyone that you think is your friend really is.  Some people just want to use you.

- Time management skills take...time.

- When planning for a wedding, there are a lot of expenses....and there's always something that you've almost forgot about.

- Sitting down and having a proper communication discussion with someone can help clear the air on many issues.

- Fear can be a great motivator and can push you closer to your goals if you don't let it hold you back.

- Certain things in life might just always make you happy. (One of these for me is The Muppets.)

- There will be those that will never tell you the truth to your face. Accept them as they are and move your life away from them.

- Your past does not need to hold you back. Do not dwell on past mistakes. They've happened already. Move forward and burn that bridge behind you. Make sure you remember the lesson you have learned and never make that same mistake again.

- Even though time has past, some things can still make you angry. Acknowledge it but don't dwell on the anger.

- Take time during the day to reflect inwardly on things that make you grateful.

- There are those that will always place the blame on others. Try not to spend time with them or else you will be blamed for things you have not done.

- Know your priorities. Try not to get angry over things that aren't that important.

- You can't be happy all the time. You also can't be sad all the time.



This is all I can think of right now. I'm sure there'll be more later.