• where the rez meets the virtual world …

    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.

    Oh yeah, and I'm totally made of awesome.

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Tag: internet

Novel Update

And by novel, I mean my writing, not as in amusing.  Although, I suppose it may be amusing … but not really.

So, here’s the deal.   Every November there’s this challenge called NaNoWriMo which is short for National Novel Writing Month.  It started in the US, but has since expanded to an international thing thanks to the internet.  Now, all over the world, aspiring and established novelists attempt to write a 50,000 word novel (or novella) in the space of one month – 12:00:01 November 1 to 12:00:00 November 30 to be more exact.  (This is an annual event should you find yourself reading this and feel so inclined to participate yourself.)

I’ve participated a few times over the years since discovering it myself, but I have yet to win.  BUT … this past year is the closest I’ve ever come at roughly 10K words.  Most years I make it to about 5k or less, so I was pretty proud of myself.  Even better, I kept writing.  I’m now up to 15,000 words and counting!

In fact, I’m about halfway through my first draft.  I am already making plans for the second draft too!  I’m so exciting about this story, I can’t even begin to tell you.  :D

That isn’t even the best part … the best part is that I have plans to write MORE once I’m finished this story!  SEQUELS!  And another TWO stories separate from this one altogether!  I don’t even know where these stories are coming from!  It’s like I just started writing and all these ideas started coming out.  It’s so weird.

Of course, I may all be for naught as I don’t have any plans to actually publish any of these.  lol  I may not even get to writing anything other than the one novel I’m currently working on.  For now, I’m just enjoying the creative outlet.  I guess we’ll just have to see.  *sigh*

No Comments by sharon on July 7, 2010
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sharonangus.com is back! Woo!

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.  ;)

No Comments by sharon on June 26, 2010
filed in life, technology, twitter, website, work
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Wow, that’s addictive …

And that was a bad pun.  lol

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?

No Comments by sharon on June 1, 2010
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Steampunk in the (Native) Americas

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.

Lakota Woman

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

2 Comments by sharon on May 27, 2010
filed in pop culture, technology
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Happy birthday to us ALL …

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!

Happy birthday to us all!

LINKS

Canadian Red Cross

Doctors Without Borders (Canada)

Sanctuary for Kids

No Comments by sharon on May 12, 2010
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Gaming: Would you like to date my avatar?

(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!

No Comments by sharon on May 5, 2010
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May the Fourth Be With You …

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone!

(In case you didn’t get it … It’s May 4th … May the Force (Fourth) be with you … har har.)

Anyhoot … I think the weirdest part of today is that someone actually tried to get Jedi recognised as an official religion.  lol  Oh intarwebs, how I love you.

Here are some fun and silly links I’ve encountered today in honour of the day:

LINKS

Wikipedia – an explanation of May the Fourth

Kris Abel’s Tech Life: Official Star Wars Voices Now Available For TomTom GPS Guidance

Jib Jab: Star Wars, starring you! (Empire Strikes Back is the only free vid)

YouTube: TROOPS – a COPS spoof

No Comments by sharon on May 4, 2010
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Gaming: Tales of a n00b

WoW logoFor 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

No Comments by sharon on April 28, 2010
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A few more photos from the Calgary Expo …

As they say in the geekier circles I tend to run in … MOAR CON PICS! Woo!

No Comments by sharon on April 26, 2010
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Calgary Expo: Con Report

Short Version: I had so much fun!! I totally want to do that again! (I can see how people can become addicted to going to cons. lol)

Long Version …

Friday

This wasn’t a con day, it was our travel day. We didn’t end up leaving the rez until much later than we’d anticipated which meant we didn’t arrive in Calgary until 3am. CRAZY! I’m surprised I made it. I must have been cruising on pure adrenaline and caffeine courtesy of Tim Hortons. :s

Saturday

Man, the kids were PUMPED! :D

And to be completely honest, so was I! :D :D :D

We got up early (I had a grand total of 5 hours of sleep urgh). My girl wore a cute little made up costume of just black and a cape (with the intention of getting her face painted like Darth Maul, and my boy wore his brand new canvas hightops with Marvel characters on the sides. I just stuck to my Serenity tee (courtesy of former LJer K) and my Where’s Waldo-esque knitted toque since it was pretty darned cold that morning.

Of course once we got there, my girl saw the work presented by the The Tattooed Lady and went with some beautiful red sorceress make up instead. :) And my boy went with Avatar. lol We bought the movie on the way up and it was INSTANT OBSESSION for him. :D

Paul McGillion @CalgaryExpoFrom there on in it was mayhem and geekery! And total technology fail for me AND my sister as we were so exhausted the previous night when we got in, we forgot to charge our phones and I forgot to bring my camera and my daughter forgot to charge her camera batteries! We barely got any pictures! The only pictures I got were these:

YES! That’s me, my daughter and Paul McGillion (left)! :D :D :D

He accused me of being my daughter’s sister. :D And yes, it totally made my day! He’s a GREAT actor and even looked “startled” when I said I was her mother and said my real age. lol Bless the man. ?

And this is a guy dressed as Ten (right)! His costume was pretty good, so I took a picture for my daughter since I saw him when I was standing in line for the ATM and she was with my sister at the time. (OMG there were NOT enough ATMs there. Only 3 for the THOUSANDS of people, AND I hear they were cracked. :( Not good.)Tenth Doctor

This is a picture of Chris Giarrusso (left) drawing my boy his favourite hero, Spider-man! Eeeeeeeeeeee! SO PRECIOUS!! My boy was so excited! And then he drew my girl Harley Quinn! :D

Hmmm … What else … I got a bunch of autographs …

OH YEAH! I totally met the guys from Kirby Krackle! They’re GREAT! We chatted about their songs and how awesome they are. lol It was cool, and they were totally nice about me being all fangirly. lol Which was cool of them. I tried not to weird them out, and when I started to embarrass my daughter, we left. :P But then I ran back and got an autograph. lol

OH! And then we went and met Alina Pete from Weregeek! She was kickass! She signed my daughter’s comics for her and drew her a little Sarah picture! Yay! THEN it was my daughter’s turn to be all fangirly. :D

OHHHHHH! And we totally met LANDO! Okay, it was Billy Dee Williams, but in my head it was Lando Calrissian. lol Except it was a bit disappointing since we stood in line for like AGES, and when he finally showed up (LATE), he was totally spacing out and the handler people were like spelling shit out for him. I think he was stoned or something. :/ I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was for medical reasons though. :P

My boy and my sister wandered off together at some point because they were all “ooooooooh!” and WE were all “oooooooooooh!” in different directions. After that, I’m not sure what they were up to. :/

We had this whole plan for the panels and ended up missing EVERY SINGLE panel because there were so many awesome things and people there. :D We didn’t even mind.

Well, except for we hadn’t realized that we should have lined up like (probably) HOURS in advance for the Leonard Nimoy panel and ended up getting the mad cuts on that one. :( It was the ONLY one we actually lined up for and we got barred out for too many people. LAME! My daughter cried. Like hard. :(

So to make it up to her, we bought her an anime costume to wear the next day. :)

*thinky face* I’m sure there was more, but I was (and still am) sooooo tired, I can’t remember right now. If I do recall anything, I’ll update.

But then we got back to my sister’s place.  *sigh*  And here’s where the story takes a tragic turn for the worse.  I’ll have to explain in another post which will follow tomorrow.  Suffice to say … it isn’t good news.  :(  Just send happy thoughts to my daughter who lost her beloved kitten on Saturday night.  We spent all of Sunday making her feel better.

Sunday

Not quite so bright and early, we were at the con pretty late the next day. We had decided the day before we were tossing the plans to see the panels out the window in favour of just visiting with booths and shopping and wandering and taking in as much as possible. This time, I remembered my camera, I bought new batteries for my daughter’s camera … but our phones were even even worse shape than the day before. My plans for tweeting the whole thing? Bleh. Ah well.

So, off we went! We split up again (which was a TERRIBLE idea since we didn’t have our phones!) and we off to see what we could see. Again, since my boy was with my sister, I’m still not sure what they all saw. lol

I left my camera at home, so I’ll have to update my post with pictures later. :P

I did most of my shopping on this day as well, so bear with me … I’m totally broke now. lol

Day 2 had me meeting Aaron Douglas though! He is very handsome up close, you guys! Liek whoah! And he’s super nice. :)

And … I went back to harass the Kirby Krackle guys a bit more because I realized that I totally didn’t get my friend  an autograph! I told them that she’d kill me if I didn’t. lol

d20 purse from the conventionOH OH OH! And I got a way deadly d20 purse (left)! It’s a little rough around the edges, but the guy lowered his price and I figured I can fix it up to make sure it doesn’t disintegrate on me. :D

OH OH OH! AND I bought a pair of knee high brown leather boots (right) for $35!! SO IN LOVE! I’m wearing them right now with a purple caftan/tunic type shirt. *twirls*

OH AND GET THIS GUYS … WE MET LEONARD NIMOY!! That’s right! My girl and I met SPOCK 1.0! William Bell himself! XD And we didn’t have to pay a dime! lol

We were looking for my sister and my boy when my girl goes, “Hey, Mom, look. The line up is really short. We should just go.” And she was so heartbroken from yesterday, I said, “Okay.”

We went up, and we get the front and the guy says “$60 for autographs.” And I said, “How about if we just want a quick picture?” and I held up my camera. And he says “The picture line-up is over there. And I look over and OMG you guys. It’s like a kilometer long. So I said, “How about if we just want to say hi?” And the guys laughed and said, “I’m not going to stop you.”

SO WE RAN UP AND MET LEONARD NIMOY! :D :D :D :D :D

And he gave us a fist bump and said my daughter was cute! XD

And then we ran away giggling like the mad idiots we are! I have no autograph or photographic evidence to prove it, but we totally met him!

You may now proceed to be jealous.

ETA: I totally forgot!  My daughter got to meet one of her favourite personalities from the SPACE Channel’s show InnerSPACE (left): Teddy!  She was so excited!  He even gave her an autograph!  Yaaaaaaaaay!  He was really nice to her.  lol

And after that? Uhm … OOOOOOOOOOOOOH! I totally met Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics! He was ADORABLE! Apparently he sold out of tshirts the first day so he bought tshirts and underpants and fabric paint at Walmart and made his own to sell on Sunday! I totally bought one that said “THERE / now I’m not naked anymore” He kept trying to talk me out of it saying there would be a much nicer one available on the website soon, but I told him “But YOU made this one. That makes it, like, 500 times way more awesome!” So I took a picture of him holding it up to prove he made it and therefore that much more geekier. lol

Of course, on the way home I realized I should have had him SIGN IT! DUR! Ah well.

Uhm … hmmm … what else?

OH! There were like a MASS of awesome costumes! I loved them all so much! I only got a few pictures. Of course … will have to post them later when I get home to my camera.

Uhm … what else? Hmmm … I think that’s it. For now at least. I should probably do more work. :P Seeing as I totally slept in this morning.

Freakin’ took 7 hours to drive home and I didn’t get in until after midnight, but I would totally do it again in a heartbeat! Spent way too much on autographs, cute pictures, doodles, costumes, facepainting, etc.

ETA: OH YES! There were a LOT of really cute guys there. Doods! LIKE A LOT! Whiplash! lol Yaaaaay!

Hmm … I hear there’s an anime-con in Edmonton later this summer …

No Comments by sharon on April 26, 2010
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