I’m just your average Native American, half Plains Cree, half Mohawk, rez-livin’, single motherin’, IT instructin’, sci-fi lovin’ woman who just so happens to love knittin’, hockey and baseball.
I can’t believe it’s been … wow. Something like 7 weeks straight of just Twitter spew entries. Ugh. Sorry about that. It’s been a busy summer. We went to 3 powwows, ziplining, my sister and her boyfriend moved from California to Portland to Saskatoon, my other sister moved from Calgary to Saskatoon, my other sister hurt her ankle and is now on medical, my cousin had her baby, my niece had HER baby, and my kids are back in school as of today.
Oh yes, and I’m back teaching again this week. *sigh*
Oh AND my computer’s HDD up and died on me, so I’m without a computer at home. WOE! As soon as I get some downtime, I’ll see if I can reformat and salvage it. Bleh.
Hopefully, I’ll have time later for a proper update. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, you can catch up via the Twitter feeds. :P
I know I promised an update, but it’s been a very busy week for me. Busy month, really. And here it is, July already. Crazy!
Proper update tomorrow. I SWEAR! I have a whole whack of interesting things coming up this week month. I have an entire backlog of cool posts planned, and I cannot wait to get them out! Just see what I have planned:
Conference in Calgary with Cisco
PC v. Mac debate: Yes, I’m a PC
My boy’s birthday! He turned 6 on Canada Day!
My novel(s), and what I have planned for them
A webseries I want to write/film some day
Creative Commons Licensing
I have a whole lot to say on each of these, and I can’t wait to get these posts out. I’ll probably start with the birthday one tomorrow. :) My little man. *sigh* When did he get so big?!
Well, I didn’t win the lottery. Boo-urns. The jackpot for the LottoMax was $50+ million, but I kept forgetting to buy a ticket as I’m not a big lottery player. My sister did buy a ticket, but only bought ONE! *SIGH* Then when I checked Twitter this morning, the CBC headlines said the jackpot would be split between a ticket here in Saskatchewan and one in Labrador. I got excited for a second. :P
But it looks like I’m going back to work on Monday. *woe*
Anyhoot …
So, the site was down for a week and it looks like I lost a post or two. Nothing groundbreaking or super awesome, so that’s cool. I was mostly concerned about my Steampunk post, but that made it out alive, so I’m happy. :) I did lose my last Twitter backup, but I’m pretty sure I can do that one manually later today, so you may see two “Weekly Twitter spews” in a row for this week. Just ignore them. ;)
What happened was, I moved servers as my totally awesome host (and I’m dead serious about that, he’s totally AWESOMESAUCE) decided to close down his seller account, and move onto his friend’s hosting account. And his new host agreed to take me on as well. So now I have a new TOTALLY AWESOMESAUCE HOST. <3 I am surrounded by AWESOMESAUCE and I can’t believe how fortunate I am in this regard.
So a huge thank you goes out to both Mark and Brian! <3
Oh, but anyways, what happened with the site going down … that was TOTALLY MY FAULT! lol When they moved the servers, I ended up having to go to Calgary for a conference and wasn’t around to switch the DNS to the new servers. And when I got back, I then had to head up north to Meadow Lake to teach a class for a day. When I got back from there, I was totally brain dead and kept trying to log into the wrong place to do that. DUR. I felt really stupid. When I finally did realize my mistake (after being corrected so sweetly by Mark lol), I forgot my password to my GoDaddy account. Good times.
But obviously I have finally figured everything out, and things are now a-okay. WHEW! *kermit flail* Yaaaaaaaay!
And hopefully, once I have recovered my last Twitter spew, and I’ve cleaned up my living room (it’s chaos up there!), I’ll do a proper post about my trip to Calgary because it was totally interesting in all sorts of ways as it was a conference about Cisco Telepresence and its role in modern education. Oooooooh. ;)
Yes, I’m talking about World of Warcraft, (aka WoW). When I first started, I had about 3 or four characters that I played off and on, no real loyalty to any of them. I did favour my two elf hunter characters, the Alliance night elf and the Horde blood elf, but I played both equally in the beginning.
Friends who have been playing forever, one in particular, have told told me that “everyone eventually goes Horde.” At first I believed him, but then I saw the fallacy in his argument because it seemed quite a few of the Alliance servers were full to maxed out. So that seemed somewhat inaccurate. Not to mention, I have fallen head over heels for my Night Elf Hunter, which is an Alliance character.
Sure, my Blood Elf Hunter is pretty cool too, but she just didn’t grab me the way the Night Elf did. Not sure why. She even has all the cool stuff: a dragon pet, better professions (which I just learned yesterday thanks to a sick day), and a nicer haircut.
But in the end, I just liked my Night Elf better. I like the friendly Alliance players (a lot of them will just run past and heal you for fun); there’s a sense of camaraderie missing from the Horde players. Plus, I got a wolf as my pet! His name is Mahihkan! :D It’s corny, I know, but I’m wolf clan and I gave him the Cree word for wolf. :P
As for the cool haircut and professions, I stopped in at the barber in Stormwind City this weekend and got a snazzy new hairstyle and I think I’ll just unlearn my crappy professions and learn the cool ones.
That’s right, I have a main! My Blood Elf is now my alt. Woo! I’m officially a WoW nerd. Go me?
So, I’ve posted the link before for Beyond Victoriana, but I am doing it again because a few thoughts have occurred to me in the interim.
First thought being that Steampunk is loosely defined as scifi in the Victorian era (during Queen Victoria’s rule), hence the term “Steam” as it was major technological force at the time.
The second thought being that there is a tiny movement of Steampunk fans who wish to broaden the cultural aspects of Steampunk by not limiting it to just the Euro-centric British Isles, and are looking to expand it to the Asias and beyond.
The third thought was that the Victorian era was when the Treaties were being signed in Canada.
So, after all these thoughts … my point is: how can we combine all of the preceding? And how cool would that be? What would the outcome of the Treaties have been if there had been Steampunk technologies in the Americas? What if we’d (Native Americans) had access to those technologies? Instead of horses, would they ride steam powered vehicles? OR would their horses be all tricked out with lasers and shit? lol That would be cool, actually. lol
How different would this woman look in a Steampunk version of her dress? I think she’d look pretty awesome.
Actually, for inspiration for a Steampunk Native American universe, one wouldn’t have to think too hard, one could simply go to a modern powwow. The regalia is based on traditional outfitting, albeit it is very bright and out there, not meant for everyday wear as it is meant for competition dancing. But to get a sense of how the then and now look would integrate, I think it’s a great place to begin. A lot of modern dancers, like the traditional grass dancers, mix modern pieces into their outfits like old CDs as reflectors on their bustles, or use bright reflective warning tape for the “grass”. I know it isn’t “Steampunk” but I think you can get my meaning.
Anyway, it’s something to think about at least. I know it isn’t TRUE Steampunk, but it’s certainly better than Reise the Series. :P
It’s that time of year again! Yeah, my birthday. I do this every year; I start reminding everyone that my birthday is coming up. It’s an old habit from when I was a kid and someone forgot my birthday. ISSUES! lol
Anyway, I think I’m going to change things up this year. Rather than remind everyone it’s my birthday so I’ll get tons of presents (which is never my reasons for reminding everyone), I’m going to run around reminding everyone so they’ll donate to charities on my behalf.
While I’ve been pretty broke over the last few weeks, I have to admit that the past year has been been pretty amazing for me. I’m a really lucky woman. I may be an aboriginal woman from the reserve, but I’m also an intelligent person, born to upper middle class parents, and I have the skills, training and opportunities that have allowed me to lead a pretty amazing life so far. I may have my problems, but they aren’t insurmountable.
I want to show my appreciation for my life by giving to others rather than for asking for more.
Of course I want presents (I’m not lying here), we all want more, but really, do I need more? No, probably not. If I’m honest, I could point to my Etsy wishlist, or my other wishlist with my dream bike and stuff, but those are all things I could probably eventually get for myself some day. Why put the onus on someone else?
Why don’t I just donate money myself, you may ask? Well, I have! I donate all throughout the year, in fact. This is my chance to get a lot of people to donate a little all at once, which will hopefully equal a lot. And it will make me feel all warm and fuzzy. And will hopefully make you feel warm and fuzzy as well! We all win! Woo!
(Post title courtesy of The Guild song. Video following actual post.)
Oh I couldn’t help it! I didn’t even make it all the way through my 10-day trial version of World of Warcraft, and I bought the full version of the game. In fact, I ended up purchasing the War Chest which is the original game along with the Burning Crusades expansion pack just so I could get a Blood Elf character. *blush*
That’s right, I now have a Night Elf and a Blood Elf. An Elf for both the Alliance and the Horde. Go me! Both are hunters because as it turns out, I don’t really like mages. Or the Undead. *meh*
Although, I did really like my Undead mage’s name, so I deleted her before creating my Blood Elf so she could have her name. :D Yes, I really am that lame.
Anyway, that’s not the point to this particular post. No, the point is … I find I really like being Native, so much so, I find myself trying to reflect that in my online avatars. I mean, when creating avatars, one always has the option of making them as fantastic as one wishes, to do away with “faults” in their own appearances, or make up for whatever one feels is lacking. The thing is, I always find myself making my avatars as close to me as I can. Not that I think I’m super awesomely hot or anything, I find, I just like … me. I am especially proud of who I am as a person and my heritage, and for whatever reason, I tend to try and reflect my appearance in my avatars.
Take both my Elves for example: When creating the characters, I had the option for several skin tones, but ultimately went with the shade that I felt most accurately reflected my own brown hue. Both my elves have black hair as well (one has a long braid like how my hair used to be, and the other has a haircut that is more like my own current hairstyle) when I could have gone with something slightly more exotic … like white or red.
And just to be cheeky, my original Elf was a hunter, running around with bows and arrows. lol I ended up really liking hunters though so, now my second Elf is one too. As it turns out, the hunters work best for me. :D
It isn’t just with the Elves though; when I created my Undead mage character, I did the same for her. I found the darkest skin tone (the darkest green lol), and found the darkest hair colour available for the Undead.
I guess I’ve always done this with avatars. I suppose part of me sees it as my teeny tiny contribution of hopefully making Native people more visible on the internet in otherwise less common grounds. THAT’S RIGHT PEOPLE, WE DON’T JUST HANG OUT ON FACEBOOK. :P In fact, as the internet and technology to access the internet becomes more prevalent in communities, we are becoming more prevalent in online communities. And not just the social networks either.
It is exciting to say the least! :D
In the mean time, I have two videos to share! One is the video that inspired the title for this post, and other is a video that hopefully inspires others to go out there and make GAMES that star Natives. OMG, it’s a first-person shooter with the Mohawk flying head legend! I totally remember that story from when I was a kid in Akwesasne!
For years I’ve been wanting to check out World of Warcraft, but I just never seemed to do it. First of all, I never really had a high speed connection, and then I also knew it took a lot of time to play and my kids needed most of my attention. But now? Well, now I have a connection at home, and the kids are older (and in fact, are pretty interested in gaming themselves).
I figured now is the time …
So last night, I downloaded and installed a 10-day trial version to check it out. I created a character and set myself up on a world. I ended up going with a Horde character (undead mage), and … well, I totally forget which world. It was a bit confusing at first, and trying to get my left hand to work the keys for camera and movement controls was a bit frustrating at first mostly because my left hand is fairly useless in most cases as I’m very much a right-handed person. I started to figure it out after a while though.
At first it was a lot of wandering around aimlessly (probably the first 10-15 minutes) trying to figure out exactly what I was doing. I kept hitting the attack controls and my character was getting increasingly frustrated. lol It was good times. At first the kids (who were watching me play) were a little scared of the characters as I was in a world of zombies, but then they were too excited by the tasks as I figured more and more out. They were getting into it as much as I was.
I think, though, if I play again, I’ll create a less terrifying character and play in a less scary world if they’re going to sit with me next time. lol
All-in-all, it was a very fun and interesting experience. I think I’ll play again. Just not tonight as I have things to do. Perhaps tomorrow or Friday. I’ll just have to keep in mind that I only have 10 days of this free trial. :P
Next on my gaming tryouts … Dungeons & Dragons! :D
Life has gotten away on me, and I’ve been neglectful of my blog. I know.
It’s been a chaotic few weeks (hell, a chaotic few days!), but hopefully I’ll be able to get back to blogging regularly by next week. I have a special weekend planned for my family as we are attending the Calgary Expo! It will be my first ever convention and we are all looking forward to it immensely.
I will have a full con report, of course, complete with pictures!
My first planned interview will have to wait until May as the person I had planned on interviewing has just purchased a house and is moving. Not exactly the best time for an interview. lol Oh yes, I have great timing, don’t I?
In the mean time …
Apple pushed back the international release dates for the iPad due to “unexpected popularity in the United States.” What’s up with that? And yes, that international release includes Canada. Lame sauce. So now we have to wait until late May to get our hands on it. Not that I can afford one anymore thanks to the past few weeks. (Long story. I shall fill in later … or not.) The new pre-purchase date has been listed as May 10th according to the Canadian Apple website. Yay? Just in time for my birthday, I suppose. :P
Speaking of Apple … The internets are all a-flutter over the leaked prototype of their new iPhone. Whether or not it’s the genuine article is up for debate, but whatever. *handwave* It’s all sort of like that whole “baby-bump” thing you see in gossip rags. Gizmodo seems to have had the scoop, in either case.
I think Kris Abel had the best take on it when he said, “Celebrity gossip is designed to tear down the worship of that culture, perhaps in gadgets its the same for the worship of brands like Apple, Microsoft, or Google, but as someone who loves technology, I dislike a destructive focus when the point is to celebrate innovation and change.”
Whether or not this hurts the release of the latest iPhone remains to be seen as Apple has always been notorious for holding their cards close to the chest. If it was a legitimate prototype, it may force design changes which may mean another delay for the new iPhone.
In other tech news, I’ve been following several official Cisco Twitter accounts and I have to say, they’re pretty interesting. I started following out of curiosity at first, and then found them to be quite useful for my classes. They’re proving to be very good resources as they link to some great articles about security and such which are coming in handy for those chapters in my lectures.
Anyway, I really should get back to work. I have a lot to catch up on as this morning was a bit of a circus. :/
