The Project: Setting Up

My brilliant writing project is starting to get underway. I’m attempting to get my ducks in a row. I was going to put a row of ducks in the pic up there, but realized we are all different with some things in common…  and I liked that picture. I am thrilled to have the people I wanted agreeing to participate . They are very creative folks. I know this because they are nearly all part of my family. Yup, no bias here!

I was sitting at dinner with my aunt a few weeks ago. My Aunt Sandy is much like a sister to me, as she is only four years my senior. We lived together off and on growing up. We fought with each other, laughed, and cried.  Today we share stories that make us laugh so hard we cry…

Anyway, at dinner I shared with her about mom wanting me to write and how I was humoring her. Then it struck me! Sandy has always wanted to write. My youngest son, Da (pronounced Day, and no his name is NOT a tribute to Felicia Day,) already writes and has numerous characters developed (just found out he has about 17 nearly fully developed characters.) My middle son, Hagardly, writes music and comics; I knew he would be a tremendous creative talent. I was so excited my hands started their flailing in Applebee’s.

My aunt just stared at me, then started to smile. I told her about the Star Wars fiction writing group that I am part of. I explained how we all collaborate to make a story happen. I excitedly told her our litte group of creatives needed to do the same thing! We needed to write a book collaboratively! She listened, but there was something in her eyes. She asked some questions, but I knew she was intrigued by the idea.

Our current stage of the project is being set. I created a Google group for our coordination efforts. I invited everyone. Now it’s time to move forward into character development. *rubs hands together in excited anticipation* 

Everyone can be a part a part of the project. I am going to create a blog chronicling our efforts. Each of the participants will be posting about their own experiences and processes, how well it’s going, what our thoughts are…

Only problem is.. We still need a name for it! Twitter Contest For The Win! I’m going to offer a $15 gift certificate to Amazon.com for the winner of the naming contest. I hope that will entice people to help me name our blog.

Exciting times ahead! I hope you will all join us in our journey, it won’t always be smooth, but I’m thinking it will almost be an internet writing version of reality TV! (eewww, did I really just say that?)

Staying in Touch…

I don’t know what direction to take. I have several ideas and a few posts started in my drafts folder.

My thoughts are turning to my future now. I will be 50 in less that two months. My youngest son just left for college. There is this big house and me and Hagardly, my middlemost son. I don’t expect Hagardly to stay too much longer, but then again, who really knows.

I want to do something meaningful, fun, exciting. I don’t know that that is. So, until I figure it out I’ll be playing WoW, blogging, Tweeting, and sending spaceships to their doom (AstroEmpires.)

I’m going to look into doing something with my voice. I’m told it’s a huge asset of mine…

WoW and Politics…

Who’da thought!?

Well, apparently Sandeep Parikh thought about it. He’s working on a project involving polling WoW players to see who their presidential choice for is. Actually, I found out about the project because I follow Felicia Day on Twitter.  I can feel another blog post about Internet celebrities just wanting to be written…

Anyway, after following the link she provided, I emailed answers to the questions and indicated that a follow-up phone call was welcome if they needed more information. Guess what?!? They called and the hilarity and fun ensued.

They were good sports. I knew going in I would probably be on the opposite political side, but that’s fine, the pollster’s questions and interaction was professional. He inquired about my WoW character (Human), her class (70 Mage) and professions (375 Enchanter/Tailor). Then asked who I was voting for. I replied and the normal questions followed, things like “Why him? What’s the most important issue in the election?” You know, the basics.

Then came the fun… “So, which WoW race and class do you view each candidate as being?! Three of them were easy:

 

McCain: Human Warrior
Palin: Troll Shaman (I do want to explain… Trolls in WoW are incredibly colorful and Shaman are hybrids, capable of many roles)
Obama: Night Elf Mage (Mages have amazing magical abilities, which seems to explain some otherwise unexplainable things, while Night  Elves are very charismatic.)

Then the Biden question. Mr Biden, I have disagreed with for years and years. I respect him as a person, but we are so far opposite on certain issues. I’m not getting into the politics here, but I did let my bias show. I picked the race I liked the least… a Dwarf. For the class, a sneaky rogue.

What I haven’t mentioned yet is that my youngest son, Da (pronounced Day) was standing there listening to the call and participating in the fun. It was at this point that he got all dramatic on me and was mortally offended (okay, not really, but he does know drama!) His WoW character is a…   Dwarf Rogue.

It was then that the pollster asked to talk to Da and got his opinions. His first question to Da was, “Do you agree or disagree with your mom?” To which Da replied, “I disagree with several things, I just can’t remember which ones now.”

So many questions asked like,  ”What would each candidate’s attributes be, what spells would I cast on them?” It was just a great time and we all laughed a lot.

When the video is released, I’ll be sure to let everyone know. Sandeep is one of the main characters in an awesome web show called The Guild, and produces a web show, The Legend of Neil, which my middle son, Hagardly, absolutely loves.

So, do WoW and politics mix? Quite possibly. Just… stay away from guild chat with it, trust me.

Nerds are cool…

There was a song a number of years back, I was Country when Country Wasn’t Cool. I’m fairly certain it was sung by Barbara Mandrell. At first I was thinking Marie Osmond, but she did “I’m a little bit county…” or something like that.

…but back to nerds. I’m thinking nerds are starting to be the cool thing! There are two outstanding pieces of evidence for this.

First, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along-Blog. If you haven’t seen this musical web series, you have to drop what you are doing and watch it now! The two male leads are gorgeous, Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion. I fell for Nathan Fillion as Malcom Reynolds in the Firefly series (yet another MUST SEE series for everyone!) But I think it is Felicia Day that captures everyone’s heart in this webisode.

In one scene, Captain Hammer (played by Fillion) sings about how his girlfriend is hot in a nerdy sort of way. (need to go see it for about the 20th time to get the quote right!) Felicia Day is amazing, and is my personal hero. I want to be like her when I grow up!

The second huge piece of evidence for nerds being cool is the television series, The Big Bang Theory. This show is hilarious. Shadowcall is heading to New York for a few days (I am so jealous!) and he’s letting me watching the series he rented from Netflix, so long as I get them in the mail in time to get his next choices back. (note to self, check out Netflix)

… ANYWAY, I was laughing so hard, my youngest son Day comes to see what’s going on, recognizes the show, heads downstairs to make popcorn. By the time he’s back, his brother Hagardly has come to investigate the hilarity and has plopped down on my bed to watch too.

Talk about quality family time! You MUST watch this show!

So, if my premise is correct… “I was Nerdy, when being a Nerd wasn’t cool!“