The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's that time of the year again, Gencon Indy starts tomorrow! Can't wait, so stay tuned for gaming goodness :)

Hoarse

*clears throat*

Hubs and I beat Rock Band on medium tonight. Hubs played the drums, and I did the vocals. Had to finish the night with 2 sets that totaled 14 songs. Including a few go rounds of "Run Through the Hills". I'm going to sound nice and raspy tomorrow, but had a lot of fun getting that way :)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

After my recent lace disasters, I've scaled back on my project complexity for the time being. Enter a new sock on the needles for Grandpop. Knit 3, purl 2 all the way around the cuff. Counting to 5 is all I felt I could muster last week. Knitting these with no particular pattern in mind, 80 stitches around, trusty US1 dpns, and Paton's Kroy yarn.

Plain ol' sock = Good knitting vibe salve

One of my Knitty Sock Swap Pal, Knitchick07, received her sock package last week. I made a pair of Meida's Socks for her from IK's 25 Favorite Sock Patterns. These didn't take too terribly long to finish, mainly because I worked on them while listening to the Deathly Hallows audiobook.

Pattern: Meida's Socks by NancyBush
Yarn: Crystal Palace Panda Wool in "Teal Lake"
Needles: US1 dpns
Misc Thoughts: The cuff and foot repeat was really quite easy to memorize and knit on the go. The honeycombed heel is quite another story. I had to rip these back a few times after getting a bit lackadaisical with following the pattern. Overall, a very enjoyable knit!

Apart from still being sucked in by the Dresden Files books, I also have painted a new mini for a new D&D campaign. Perpetual cleric player me turned in her wooden holy symbol to play a rogue for this campaign. Rogues apparently wear much less clothing than clerics...

Much sadness ensued when I saw the wear marks on her hair and arm :(

Ah, yes.

Proof I am still knitting.

Second Pair of Madder Ribbed Socks

Surprise, surprise. As soon as I finished my first pair of Madder Ribbed Socks, I started another. This pair was completed using Lucy Neatby's Celestial Dream Merino on US1's (back to my trusty Crystal Palace DPNs). These are destined for Pennsylvania for my grandma. They were started as a back-up pair in case her first pair were lost in the mail. :) All the packages that I send will have tracking on them from now on. Can't be too cautious with handknits!

Wii've been enjoying the we. :) Some of the mini games can give you a hell of a workout!

Kris playing Raving Rabbits tonight

Can't Blog, I'm Wii-ing!

No Movie Musings Monday post today; Hubs found a Wii for my early Valentine's present.

Definition of Lame

Hubs and I rented Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom a co-op RPG for the PS3 this week. Last night, we sat down to create our characters and start the game. First, I was miffed that the warrior class only had a male character available, so expressing my inner crabbiness at the lack of female characters, I named him "Bitch Tits". However, anytime my character's name was on screen it was a censored out garble of symbols. Censoring mild curse words on a game rated "T" for ages 13 and up. *insert eyeroll here*

However, on Viva Pinata, a game approved for all ages for the Xbox 360, has allowed me to name my pinatas and stupid helpers very colorful names - Dipshit the Watering Helper, Dumbass the Harvesting Helper, and a herd of horse pinatas all named a variant of "ass".

Clearly, XBox 360 is winning the next-gen console war in the "No Lame Censoring" category.

Movie Musings Monday: Gamerz

With a title like "Gamerz" how could I pass by this movie?

Gamerz is the quintessential niche comedy for role-playing game players. The premise of the movie is that regardless of drudgery and crappiness of everyday life, they could find an escape in gaming. Add in a love square (not a triangle) and shadow animated RPG character depictions for the in game storyline, and that's the major gist of Gamerz.

Several of the major gamer archetypes are portrayed very well, too. The over-invested in his character player, a walking rule book player, street-wise strategist, and disgusting habit gamer are all represented. Including a player which shows why most D&D books come with a first page worthy warning that the contents are purely fiction. Many times throughout the movie, I was able to relate the scene to occurrences in gaming sessions I've had. The writers must be gamers, too. :)

On the bad side, while I realize it's a low-budget, indie film, the wobbly camera work left me nauseous in the first 15 minutes of the movie. Also, I could have used subtitles since the dialogue has a strong Scottish accent. (Though, I'm a lamer who needs subtitles to Trainspotting, too.)

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars. I really wouldn't recommend this title to non-gamers though. There's a lot of humor found in the nuances of gaming that may be lost if you've never played an RPG before. If you play RPGs, watch this movie!
Knitting Rating: 3 out of 5 Skeins. I was able to work on a sock and still catch most of the dialogue. Bonus, there is a knitter shown in the movie. :)

In Memoriam

I am constantly amazed by the relationships with others that I have forged online. Nowhere have I felt more at ease than with my guild, Immortal Crusaders, in the online game, Dark Age of Camelot. I have not logged into the game for well over a year; yet, I maintained a pulsepoint on the comings and goings of the IC family through our guild's message boards.

We received the news today that one of the members of our little online family has untimely passed away. Though we never met him in person, we're still very saddened, especially for his family's loss.

Farewell, D. You are sorely missed. :(