Who I am #4: Roleplayer

I first found roleplaying at the age of 16, when I started playing Everquest. It was an outlet for my creative writing. I fell in love. At the time, I developed a character named Leiella. (You'll hear more about her on another day.) The character I've done the most work with is Lolanae. She is a wood elf rogue. The picture for today is of a dagger and a key. Two things very key to almost any of Lolanae's stories. I tried a new idea with the lighting, seeing as rogues are usually hiding in the shadows.

I love writing stories. It goes back to part of what I talked about yesterday. I love getting lost in my head in these worlds of imagination and fantasy. It's definitely my fun, wind down time at the end of the day.

I'm grateful that I got into roleplay and online gaming. I have friends (and a husband!) from there and bonds formed that have lasted years past when we still played the games. Some of these friends I've never met in person (though I hope to one day), but that doesn't matter to us.

Who I am #3: Artsie Fartsie

When we first started dating, my husband jokingly called me Artsie Fartsie. It's sort of stuck over the years. I'm definitely the more artsie one of the relationship. (We are actually complete opposites if you look at the MTBI personality tests. hehe) He is way more science and math, where I'm happy in my colorful rainbow bubble with my camera, writing, and colors.

I'm grateful for artsie farstie outlets of creativity. =)

Who I am #2: Submariner's Wife

I've been married for almost eight years. When I met my husband, I had never really known anyone in the military. I had grew up next to one of the largest Air Force bases, but that's about it. I still remember to this day, he sat me down and laid out all of the facts of how his schedules work. It can be emotionally taxing at times, especially now that we have a daughter. For all the time away (with little to no communication), to the long, wonky hours, to the times he is home, it's all worth it. I share him with the sea, but I don't mind. A little salt water makes him happy and makes him who he is. I wouldn't change that for the world. I'm so grateful that I have him in my life.

The picture is of my wive's dolphins. They are a miniature version of his submarine qualification pin. Dolphins are the symbol of the submarine fleet.

Who I am?

I've had this idea in my head for a bit. It's actually thanks to a line from one of my favorite songs by 30 Seconds to Mars - The Kill.

I tried to be someone else
But nothing seemed to change
I know now, this is who I really am inside.
Finally found myself
Fighting for a chance.
I know now, this is who I really am.

I'm doing this as part of my 365project. It's taking a little thinking outside of the box. It will also take some nerves, courage and planning since I plan to atleast end it with a self-portrait. I started today with this picture:



This was the description:

My main "job" for the last 3 and 1/2 years has been a stay at home mama. I love it, even though my boss is prone to tantrums, hilarity, and sudden work schedule changes. For all the sleepless nights, she is totally worth it. The two am smiles after I've solved whatever crisis make the lack of sleep tolerable. I wouldn't change it for the world, no matter how frustrated I might get some days.

The star was her idea. She then sang me 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while I took the picture. The letters are from her toys, except the M is from my scrapbooking stuff.

So this should be a fun little challenge. =)

It does get better

Today I was reminded of an old blog post of mine about bullying. What reminded me was this video:



Such a powerful song and video. It conveys a message that I do hold dear to my heart. One that you should not judge or shame someone for who they choose to love or be. I understand that the world will never be perfect, and that Utopia is nothing but a pipe dream. However, if we were all cookie cutter versions of each other, the world would be bloody boring. Humans thrive of being different. If it's one thing I've learned over the years, thanks to my online gaming actually, is that there are MANY different types of people in this world.

I do know that life does get better. It is not the instant you graduate high school, but it will get better. Hell, at 28, I'm still figuring out me. I don't think there is a set age to find yourself. One thing I have learned is that you have to be true to yourself. It's hard shrugging off listening to what everyone thinks, but for your own happiness, you have to.

Acceptance and tolerance are such huge things I wish people would have more of. I've even covered it in my 365project. I know part of the strong feelings I have on this topic is because of my personality. I also know that changing the attitudes of the kids/teens today won't happen until we change the attitude of the adults. I can only hope that maybe my generation will see what is happening to teens now and raise our children to be more accepting. A girl can dream, right?

Some of the pics I've done:

Photography adventure - 4 months in

So I still haven't braved manual. I have stuff to read up on, but for some reason I haven't braved it. Yes, I know. Man up and do it. I will say I've been venturing outside my comfort areas lately, so that's a start, right? I've also been playing with some creative edits and having fun. Maybe manual can be my adventure for while Ryan's home, so when I get frustrated he can re-focus me. hehe Even with sticking in my cameras pre-set modes, I've managed to do a lot of fun little things.

Well, let's start at Day 1 of my 365project for reference:



Go figure...I buy a spiffy new camera and...it's gloomy and rainy for a week afterwards!

This was the first photo that seemed to get a load of attention. I was rather proud of it, and it definitely was nice to get feedback.



This is the topped ranked photo of mine on my project. I definitely think the meaning I attached to it of leaving your mark on the people you meet helped it's popularity. I've also found a niche for using my camera to help portray a cause of acceptance.



I have an insane love for macro shots...



One of my recent favs. Straight out of the camera. Loved how it came out.



And lately I've gone outside my box a bit. Still hugging the wall, but it's progress.







The two rainbow ones are straight out of the camera. The one of Alison is playing with some edits.

I'm still having fun. I do like finding new things to photograph, and I've learned that what I think looks cool won't always be what is popular, cool, or "right." It's definitely a project and adventure for "me." Sometimes I do still need to remind myself of that though.

Gone Rifting

So I was a bad girl, and I did not write yesterday. In my defense, I felt like crapola! So I did not do much outside sit in my computer chair and play RIFT. It's the new game I've been playing. I picked it up after a much needed break from Everquest 2. Go go drama! (Long story, but I did need a break. Glad I took it.)

RIFT has been a fun little game to play. Some what laid back. No guild drama. Rar! And it's also perfect from my ADD oh shiney disorder! The game will randomly spawn "rifts", which are tears into the game world from the planar worlds - Death, Life, Air, Earth, Water, Fire. Each zone tends to have their "elements".

I will say out of all the games I have played, RIFT has had the smoothest launch ever. Trion Worlds has had a few bumps along the road, though. The first major event, River of Souls, was not without it's hiccups at the end. Trion did take the heat, and has said they learned. On the 22nd of this month, patch 1.3 will bring the next big event, so we'll see.

It's nice to have a game where I don't need to race to max level to experience life in the game world. At the moment my "main" is 36. (Or 37, I can't remember.) So far that's just been soloing (with minimal duoing with the husband-unit). I still have not seen the inside of an instance. (Blame the kiddo on that lol, though with the LFG finder, I hope to fix that.) I've also only barely tried the PVP, but PVP is not really my thing. Give me a patrol, once all my crafters are maxed, and I'm bored - then I'll try PVP probably.

Overall, I'm really impressed with RIFT. From the betas, to the release, to the Collector's Edition release (OMG - best CE ever. Totally worth the cost. I love my blue glowy flash drive!), and to the events. And I know, shocker, the flower girl in me totally loves the life RIFTS best. Can you blame me?



A few other shots:



What a zone event can look like...All those purple things are bad guys.



And RAINBOW!




Here are the rest of my screenshots. I will try to keep the album up to date. If you have any questions, let me know! I play on the Faeblight server - typically Defiant side at the moment.

Direction?

I got this link from a fellow poster on a parenting forum I frequent. I think I will try to do this here on the blog, and save the journaling challenge for my notebooks/journals. I might not do the list in order, but it'll be nice to have a bank of ideas to pull from! Not to mention it could touch on some interesting subjects/topics. We'll see how it goes.

Today I've been a rather crank-tastic mama. I blame the "Let's cry at the drop of a hat" three year old, whom I think is still catching up on sleep from her two week cold/cough stuff. Not to mention my creative juice for my 365 project seems to have been zapped, which is sort of being fueled by comments going down. Though apparently being cranky prompted two neat photos:





Those were done with a CD bottom side up, a LED light, and some water droplets on the second one. Both straight out of the camera, save a small crop on the first one. I guess my brain works odd ways when emotional. (Or I'm just like some super heros and my emotions fuel my "power" LOL)

Probably not much more writing for tonight unless I can't sleep. I'm still cranky, feeling like shiat, and rather emotional. Plans for tonight will probably include continuing to listen to 30STM, going to watch Game of Thrones, playing RIFT, or some of all of the above.

Curveballs

I planned to start catching up with blogging in June. A trip back from Phoenix with a sick toddler derailed my creative juices to say the least. Needless to say I have gotten nothing done for the 30 day journal challenge that I wanted to do. Hopefully I can pick it up soon.

I'm still working on my 365 project. We did an A to Z section that was really fun! Right now I'm focusing on gratitude shots. I want to get a chance to read the photo books I picked up during vacation. I still haven't practiced much in manual. (Yes, I know, bad girl!) That being said, people seem to like some of my photos, so that's awesome. I also finally caved and opened a flickr account. (Which I need to catch up as well.) Did I mention the darling toddler gave me her cold, and she is also still coughing? Yeah...I think I'm running away to the movies this weekend!

So to start off my renewing of the blog - I did a little redecorating. I'll play around with the links/widgets/silly stuff over the next few days. I do need to find a kind of "direction." Could always go with the geeky, gamer, navy wife mama that likes to ramble? There is a niche for that, right? hehe