Wedding Report: Let's Talk About Themes.

So, I've been perusing Offbeat Bride (OBB) to the point where it's almost an obsession. That site and The Knot are my wedding crack cocaine, and it's not a bad thing. The Knot keeps me organized and OBB keeps me inspired.

I've started re-working the models for the cake topper. I need to chat with the awesome Auntie J about the cake, though, and to get back in touch in general.

I've also realized that I need to pick a theme/concept and stick with it. We're doing a kinda modern take on beachy with the colors, decor, and flowers. But it doesn't feel like "Whoa! Awesome!" I mean, I see what people do with things on a budget and I can't help but think "How can I have that impact?"

Problem: We definitely are geeks of the gaming variety, but how do we turn it into a theme without it getting kitschy?

Solution: Uh, let's make a list.

Thoughts. Mostly About WikiLeaks.

I've been neglecting you, dear reader(s?). I apologize.

Now, I also apologize for the rest of this post if you dislike political commentary.  Don't click the "read more" link if you don't want to read my perspective on the WikiLeaks/Julian Assange scandal.

Cataclysmic-ly Epic, Part 2

The story continues, timestamped and short.

23:31: I take some pictures of the in-store crowd. The line is getting long. The manager is cool with it, lets me take a few before he tells me that there's no photo-taking allowed in the store. Right before I woulda nabbed a pic of the four or five Collectors' Editions behind the counter, too. But, hey, I'm happy with what I've got.

23:40: Jimmy John's shows up. Mmmmm, free subs. Mini-subs, but they were free, so, hey, I'm not passing one up.

23:50: People are still filing in, getting pre-rung and getting in line. For the umpteenth time, I tell the two college or high school kids that just came in, yes, I'm at the front. Get pre-rung first. I'm starting to get giddy and antsy all at once. Then I realize: I have to pee. Well, nuts.

23:52: Two high school or college kids look to bypass the line, first trying to get in front of me without getting pre-rung, then, after getting pre-rung, while the store's filled to capacity, after they've been told to wait outside a half dozen times, by trying to get in the back of the line in the store. Durok and I both agree: d-bags. Seriously? I waited outside for over an hour before they let me in. You can wait 10-15 minutes. Don't give me that male version of the pouty "I'm going to cry" face. I'm a woman, we invented that face.

23:54: Durok takes my phone, and the timer that he thinks is responsible for my excitement. No, it's not the timer. It's anxiety. Good anxiety, but anxiety

Cataclysmic-ly Epic, Part 1

So, last night was the midnight release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. What am I doing awake and not playing it right now? I'll take things that pay the bills for 1000, Alex.

Anywho, I was determined to be first in line last night. Determined. I got to GameStop at 8:40 local time. Yeah, that means I waited 3 hours, 20 minutes for Cataclysm. But I was first in line. First! For once, I was first at something. The employees and manager at the Brier Creek Gamestop were awesome, letting me stay inside until the last customer (other than me) left. Then came das boot at roughly 21:00 (that's 9 pm for you non-military time folks). So I stood outside. Had I still been in Rhode Island for that, I would have said "Eff this" and waited in the car. But, this is North Carolina, how bad can it be? Uh, below freezing and windy. OK. I can deal. Wool pea coat? Check. Wool hat? Check. Gloves? Check. Snuggly scarf? Check. Sub-zero rated hiking boots? Check. A way to operate my Droid? Uh...

The next line-waiters didn't show until about 21:20. They were awesome. Their names elude me, but I remember them being awesome. They both play Horde, though she has a Night Elf Druid (doesn't like "Cow People", which Durok was a sad panda about when he finally showed). Durok arrived shortly thereafter, and promptly took my coffee order. Mint mocha. Delicious. That' when people started filing in. The line was getting deeper and deeper. And my excitement was growing and growing. Apparently, most of the Northeast Raleigh/Morrisville crowd plays Horde, as there were few folks with even Alliance alts. This made the little Undead Warlock inside me cackle with joy. MWAHAHA! We sat out in the cold together, our little makeshift family of geeks, counting down the minutes until 22:30 when they would open the doors for pre-ringing.

More after the cut.

Lots of Little Thoughts About Big Things

It still feels like winter here in Raleigh, and I hope it will for a while. Fires in the fireplace, and homemade hot cocoa on the stove are happy things.

I'm working diligently to get the NC Gunbunnies' web site up. I've got the forum and blog working, now just to set up the main page and get everything to look the same. Unfortunately, some of the email is grumpy. I have to work on that.

I'm trying to budget my time better...there's so much to do and not enough time to do it all! I need to budget free time, and cleaning time, and exercise, and minis painting, and... I think you get the idea.

I need to finish up the wedding planning. less than 6 months out, now, and I have heaps I need to do! The good news is, we're still well within budget!

I found out about Katie and the hashtag #maytheforcebewithKatie. It's totally awesome that there was even a Facebook event in her honor on Friday. Wear something Star Wars, and show Katie she isn't alone! (And don't listen to the people who say "it's just a lucasfilm event to get you to buy stuff". The point isn't to buy stuff, it's to show support for Katie, and show her that lots of cool people, young and old, like Star Wars.)

Winter-like weather! At last!

Once upon a time (about three and a half years ago), this crazy girl moved from Newport, RI to Raleigh, NC. She moved in with this guy (who's totally awesome) and all was well. Until Thanksgiving came. Rhode Island winters seemed to start on or around Halloween and didn't end until Easter at least. The crazy girl was used to seeing the first frost and the first snow by Thanksgiving. And then, she realized, in North Carolina, you can wear a long-sleeved T-shirt on Thanksgiving to no ill effect.

Year after year, I still expect the wintery weather to start sometime in late October or early November. And it was still in the 60s until earlier this week! But, now here I am, wearing my nice, warm, wool pea coat out of the house and into work in the mornings, waiting for the car to heat up enough that I won't be shivering on the way.

It's also time, now, for me to start working on the annual DIY holiday gifts. This year's gifts: ornaments. For non-gamers, I'll be making swirled glass ball ornaments, for the gamers: faction ornaments, depending on the game said gamer plays. I'll have Horde insignias for WoWers, and Cryx, Khador, Legion, Minions, Mercs, etc. for the WarmaHordes crowd. For myself, I want to knit a Cryx sweater. But that'll take too much time. Why do I always want to knit in the winter, when I know the project I start won't be done until it's too warm and the project is useless?

Also, I bought the Gunbunnies' domain, and am starting to get the blog set up, as well as all the Press Gang's email addresses. Just got to get email set up properly...

When Did Geek Become Cool?

I'm serious. When did it happen?

When I was in high school, the cool kids didn't play video games. Well, not the games I was playing. The jocks had their Madden NFL, NBA 2kwhatever, and the girls...wait. The cool girls didn't play video games. Ever. They were the ones in the hall griping about "My boyfriend just wants to sit and play games with his friends, and I want him to take me shopping. Blah blah." Oh, and don't get me started about the entire physics class that blamed me for them all getting Cs on a test. I wrote two formulas for linear velocity of something traveling in a circle. Both are correct. One is for if you have the time of a SINGLE, FULL rotation, the other if you have the time for a partial rotation or for multiple rotations. But, I digress.

Now, it's almost like geek is chic. An etsy search for "geek" done as I write this resulted in 24,226 results. The same kind of search for "nerd", 6,615. Wow. I can also walk up to a random stranger and ask them "What is Halo?" and get a response of "A video game" from at least 3 of every 10. And that's if I'm wearing my street, non-geeky clothes. Shoes, jeans, basic or decent looking shirt. Nothing that screams "I play video games!"

OK, I get it. It's cool to be seen around town in those geek chic sunglasses, or sporting a Star Trek shirt. And I know everyone uses emoticons now, not just those of us who spent most of our high school careers sequestered in the computer room, hiding from the sun behind a CRT monitor and a forum handle. And I understand that if I say to you "I can has?", if you're under the age of 30, you probably know it's a lolcat thing. But, somewhere along the line, we went from having the video games section crammed in a spot at Target and Wal-Mart somewhere between the music/movies and the edge of the universe to Target having an Assassin's Creed II t-shirt as the third item (top row, center) when you click "Men's Apparel" and go to Graphic Tees.

Great Weekend, Crappy Morning

So, here I am, procrastinating at work like I'm so good at. Also, I'm realizing what a great weekend I had.

Durok had a Saturday off that isn't an all-day gaming extravaganza, so I sent him off the the Foodmachine tournament. See, Foodmachine does two things: gaming and raising money and donations to feed the hungry. We raised 758 cans in donations from both people who played in the tourney and people who didn't. Durok was a good boy and donated 96 cans all on his own. 758 cans will go a long way in feeding the hungry, I think. A long way.

I also needed Durok out of the apartment so I could work on cleaning, especially since the new Roommate had a friend coming by to help with the cleaning. Girl took control. She walked in, got changed, nabbed cleaner and sponges, and immediately started work on the bathroom. 15-20 minutes later, and it was done, with even the trash can being spotless.. I started slowly but surely working my way from the entryway to the fireplace, cleaning the living room and sorting everything that got in my way.

MACE is Awesome*!

*and sucks at the same time, explanation to follow.

MACE is awesome, so much so that it took me 5 attempts not to spell awesome with a capital "A" in this sentence. Being my first con, I'm confident that I'm a little biased. Just a little. Roundup of things I did at MACE:

• Ran a bunch of Warmachine demos. YAY! I love running demos. It's especially fun when I am demoing for someone who knows only that the game exists, involves minis and dice, and is kinda-sorta steampunk. There were a handful of people who I demoed for who were excited about the game, and wanted to purchase an army of their own. *claps* I love when that happens. It seemed like I was on a permanent happy-high for two days of demos. OK, well, until I almost passed out at the wheel Friday, and until I realized Durok got sick Saturday. But, the rest of the weekend was GREAT!
• Met the famous PG_Devilsquid. He kept me laughing all weekend. And gave me a backrub. I vote the Gunbunnies keep him, no matter how far away he goes. I'll bribe him with cupcakes and cookies and pumpkin bread if I have to.

Privateer Press Forum Search, Boolean Operators, and a Workaround Option

So, I love Privateer Press (PP). No surprise. Great customer service. Great company to volunteer for. Great merchandise. There is, however, one thing I would change: the search functionality on their forums.

At present, each of the multi-keyword searches done on the PP forums behaves as an "or search" as I like to call them. This means "apple orange carrot" produces results containing "apple" or "orange" or "carrot". Not all three. If PP would turn on boolean operators for searching, it would be so nice.

A quick explanations of boolean operators and logic for the programming-impaired follows the cut.

Warmachine and the Wedding

Warmachine (and Hordes!)

We had an awesome tourney this weekend, thanks to Game Theory and one PG_bjorkgnu. One of the local guys dressed up as "very epic Sorsha". Dude can walk in heels! He won (deservedly so) the $25 gift Game Theory gift card for best costume.

Standings wise, I failed as usual, losing all of my games. 2 of my 3 opponents won mini-achievements, though, so I guess I'm lucky for them. On a similar note, my first opponent won the tourney, my second opponent came in second (he had one scenario point, everyone else had none), and my third opponent came in just ahead of me. They were good, fun games all, though, and that's the important part.

Also, on the hobby side of things, I have a laundry list of models I need to mod/assemble/paint. I'm almost done with the first item on the list, Epic Thagrosh. Some small detail work, my typical protective coating, and a quick gloss on the snow base, and he'll be complete. Then I can start modding my Bane Knights. I love what those boys can do, but HATE assembling them. *grumblegrumble*

Last, (but not least by any means!) I have to finish up some terrain for MACE, where the Gunbunnies will be making an appearance in full force. I will be doing 12 hours of demos on Saturday, and attending the fun on both Friday and Saturday. Durok (aka the fiancé) and I also need to book our hotel room.


Wedding
So, now the wedding is just under 7 months out (209 days, but who's counting?). I still have a laundry list of things to do and pay for. The invitations have been chosen, but we need to finalize wording and order them. Our newsletter for family and the bridal party is nearly complete (I need to find our slip of paper for the tux rental goup code, then it can get printed and go out). I'm debating whether or not to send out save the date cards at this point as the invites are going out in February since hotels have to be reserved by the end of March. I also need to set up my first dress fitting appointment, as I have received my dress and shoes. They're both perfect! The shoes are adorable in light blue!

I'm making progress on the cake topper. The cake topper, itself, is going to be two hand-sculpted models, inspired by World of Warcraft (through which we met): Durok's Tauren Druid in Moonkin form proposing to my Undead Warlock in a black dress. I have the moonkin almost ready to be baked, and I want to measure him to be sure he is the appropriate size first. The ringbox is ready for the oven, but I haven't started on the 'lock. I figure I'll get the proportions correct on the moonkin, then sculpt the 'lock at the appropriate height/size based on his measurements.

With an luck, all these laundry list items will be complete in a fairly timely way. I hope.

Wedding Report: a Bridesmaid, a Dress, Shoes, and a DJ

So, I've been toying with the idea of asking one of my cousins to be a bridesmaid since February. I just wasn't sure how to ask, or if it would be ok. Or, if I would have too many bridesmaids. So, finally, 8 months later I ask her, and she said yes! I'm so excited to have not just one blood relative up there with me, but two! I'll have my sister and my cousin. And my best friend who's been there since third grade. And my more recent good friends. Life is sweet.

My shoes finally came in at the David's Bridal where I purchased my dress, and now I can have them ship the whole kit and caboodle to me! I'd share pictures of the dress, but the fiancé might be reading. I'll share pictures of the shoes once I have them. I got them dyed blue!

I think I'm settled on a DJ, but I need a new copy of the contract and to send in my deposit. If this falls through, with only roughly 30 weeks till the wedding, I'm going to need to rush to find another.

First Real Bento

Not super cute inside or anything, but it's pretty. And delicious. And filling. I made steamed chicken wontons (I think I should have three or four per bento, instead of just two. Two is under-satisfying) last night, as well as onigiri. I have yet to make a cute onigiri. Though, I did make some in a cool shape, aided by a measuring cup.

I attempted to pad out using bibb lettuce. But I don't think it looks all that great.

I also need to make smaller onigiri so that I can fit two instead of one giant one in the boxes. I brought a second bento today so that I have something to eat at Warmachine/Hordes open play tonight that isn't super-ultra-fatty and calorie-dense.

Bentos!

In addition to everything else I've been up to, I decided to start doing Bento Boxes for lunch. I save about $6/day doing it, and they're delicious and healthy (and normally pretty, unlike today's).

In other news, I've been up to the following:

• I'm officially a PressGanger for Privateer Press (YAY)
• I've started losing weight (down 13lbs from February, not much loss but it's decent) using mostly diet and exercise, added Alli to see if it'll work
• I'm painting Epic Thagrosh for one of the regulars at GameTheory. He's getting prettier and prettier.
• I bought my wedding dress, and now I'm just waiting till my shoes come in to have it shipped here

Press Gangership

I applied earlier this week to become a Press Ganger (game rep) for Warmachine/Hordes. With any luck, I should hear back soon. I'll be supporting my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store), GameTheory, primarily as well as some of the others in the area at tourneys and such.