I'm Not A Platypus, or Don't Hate Because You Can Only Button Mash

Most of my titles make a decent amount of sense. This one will after reading the post, but it does grab your attention, doesn't it? When was the last time you thought about platypuses? I find them cute, but then again, I have a habit of being able to draw just about anything in a cute form. The point is platypuses are rare, so rare that it is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus(Ornithorhynchus). While almost hunted to a threatening level for their fur, they are currently not under any immediate threat. You just can't find them outside of Australia.

This little scientific background about the platypus brings me to the point of my longwinded-ness. I'm not a platypus. I'm not that rare, I'm not extinct, I'm not exotic, you just have to sometimes look a little harder to find me.

I'm not a platypus, I'm a girl who games.

Maybe I'm just not used to coming out of the technological, socially-challenged, adventuresome, ridiculous world of RPI. I got used to girls who game, flaming cereal, rubix cube costumes, cosplay, LAN parties, SSB tournaments, playing video games at work and reviewing the newest Mortal Kombat game for the Poly, the school's newspaper. Maybe this shouldn't be such a surprise, maybe I shouldn't be face-palming so hard at so many guys, but I just have to wonder, why are girls who game still considered an anomaly?

Since living in Madison for over three weeks now, and being in the "real world" there's been a plethera of responses to the fact that I own a PS3, play a variety of games, am decently good at said games, and used to play PC games. There were one or two responses of just plain acceptance, which is really nice. Then there are two others which include flirtatious joking about giving me a bad time for playing video games, in the sense that ::GASP!:: a girl who games? Don't be silly. The other, which I find a bit annoying is:

I've always found a girl who games to be kind of sexy.

Ladies, do you find a guy who games sexy? I'm not sure if the reverse is true, it might be, I'm not going to hate, but it doesn't always seem to be the case in my opinion. During my lunch break at work the other day, I found this interesting little infograph that you can see below. (I apologize again for the image disrupting my blog's formatting.)



According to their research, women now account for 40% of all gamers and 67% of households engage in playing video games. While 40% isn't half and half, it's still not really a minority considering the only categories are pretty much a) guys or b)girls. There's a lot of us who do this! Why is this odd?

Now, I will say that I didn't do a lot of follow-up research into this, so I don't know what they are classifying as "gaming". There are some statistics that incorporate women who play Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook as gaming. I don't know the break down of PC verses console games. My hunch is that it's a smaller statistic, but even so, 40% is nothing to shake your head at.

My musings above are turning out to be one of my more annoying posts personally, where I don't really make a solid point or reach a definite conclusion, but rather verbalize my own befuddlement. I don't understand why it's weird that a girl could play video games. Both myself and my two younger sisters always have and still do. I remember when I was five and I played Pajama Sam on our good old Windows 95 system. We all had Gameboys, then Gameboy Colors, Gameboy Advances, and both of my sisters currently have DSs. A paycheck or two from now, I'd like to have one of the new 3-D DSs.

Maybe it's the fact that we were raised by parents who's love story was set in the early days of Intel. Maybe it's because most of my cousins are guys, so many summers included playing Super Smash Brothers, StarFox, and Halo when we couldn't go to the beach. Maybe my family's just plain nerdy?

Who knows, maybe that (and many other) statistic is just flat out wrong and female gamers really are an odd phenomenon. I don't really understand it all. Back to coding work, followed by an evening of cleaning and restoring my FFXIII data.

At Odds About Odds and Ends

In the grand scheme of things, this post has almost as much weight as angel food cake. That's being generous too. Relaxing on a Saturday morning in my pajamas, I'm allowed to be superficially indulgent. I get my first real paycheck in a little over a week, and my girlfriend Adya and I have already started the fantasizing.

There's the practical purchases; I'd like to get some more pots and pans, maybe a small dresser for my room. The foodie in me is dying for a good steak, grilled with my favorite Pappa Jake's seasoning, I can melt in the flavors of spice and smoothness of the pepper, natural juices, washed down with a good Cabernet. Mmmmmm.

Back to Saturday morning: there are the practical, and then there's the "I don't need this, but I want it and I'm enjoying having freedom with my spending" aka indulgence and wants. The real question is: girly fashion or rock climbing gear.

While I still don't have a car, and won't for a while, my friend Jeff is willing to drive anywhere and is always up for everything. On Thursday, we went to this climbing gym on the East side. I remembered how to belay, and the Girl Scout in me remembered a figure-8 knot. Climbing the 5.9 to show that I remembered how to move, my muscles seemed to effortlessly know how to balance, how to position. Damn I love moving.

I'm working on joining a swim club at work, and hopefully I can convince Jeff to make climbing a weekly release. If so, I'm really tempted to buy my own shoes and harness, you know actually have some gear. I've always enjoyed climbing, just never really had the time nor capital to fund this interest, so the thought of immediate advancement and gratification? That paycheck is going to be so satisfying.

Shoes and a harness? Just shoes so I can buy a shirt at Anthropologie, maybe a necklace too?

As a girl in the modern age, we've been told we can have it all. Sometimes though, it sucks considering that your optimization is unfortunately a constrained problem.

Personalization Preferences

Man, do I love a good alliteration. Anywho, as some of you might be aware. I'm a big kid now. I've got an apartment, soon to be co-habited my a roommate, a carpool, a t.v., and the ever elusive employment. At my lovely new place of paycheck sources, I do not have a cubicle.

What have I then?

I have my very own office (see stance of proud accomplishment). Well, technically, it's not all my own. I have an officemate, Corey who's pretty chill.

Since I do have an office, complete with desk, whiteboard, bulletin board, phone and dual monitors, how should I decorate it? I have a few favorite family photos and Gumby and Pokey currently on my desk. In addition, there is a mug that will never leave since Epic is aiding in fueling my caffeine addiction with free coffee.

I'll post photos soon, but today I forgot my memory card adaptor. Silly Sony Cybershot being all picky and exclusive.

On Jewelry, or Why Do People Like the Absolute?

Somewhere in the walks of life, I remember either hearing or reading this:

You shouldn't wear jewelry an ex gave you

Everytime this pops into my head I can't helpu but to stop, pause and disagree. First, I am not a fan of the absolute. The closest I've gotten to this is a personal rule to not kiss on the first date, and my best friend Patrick is still the sole exception. There's exceptions everywher in life.

Secondly, it just seems a bit, well, silly. I still wear a good deal of gifts from exes. I also don't throw things out, so take that as you will. I'm a pack rat at heart. I wear the white and silver scarf given to me from the co-producer of my worst break-up to date. I didn't throw out the handcrafted metal rose given to me for my 21st birthday from a crazy boy. I occassionally wear some of the necklaces given to me by my longest overall relationship. The main exception is that I do not wear the diamond necklace that was a Christmas gift from my first boyfriend.

I understand the above "rule" as a guideline to, don't wear something that weirds you out. Makes sense, right? That's what the diamond necklace does. I can't pin point exactly what it is, but there's just been this sentiment that leaves me no reason to put it on.

Thoughts dear readers? This mainly pertains to the female half, but I guess it could also extend to you dudes in the form of clothes? Any of you discard jewelry from someone in your past?

Is it dusty in the back of a draw somewhere, or does it have a comfortable home in your regular wardrobe?

Most Favoritest

One of my most favorite, simple little pleasures in life is when you're either doing the dishes or dispensing shampoo, and a spree of tiny soap bubbles comes whistfully darting out.

You just kind of stand there and watch their playful descent upon the tile. It always makes me smile.

Happy thought of the day.

EDIT: Sorry about the large photo size screwing around with the layout. I'm a bit too busy to fix it.

Anger at the Interwebs

Earlier this week, on my first day of work actually, my gmail account was hacked/spammed, and overall compromised. It sent a lot of people a phishing email saying I had been mugged in London, and that I needed money wired to me.

Now while it would be great to be in London, I'm actually in Wisconsin. Working. I have enough to deal with; I didn't need this.

I reported it to Google that my account had been compromised, changed my password, altered filters, but I am still having problems recieving emails. Hopefully, I can get this fixed once and for all soon, and won't have dramatic troubles with my blog, since they are both connected on the same Google account.

Why do people really have to be jerks sometimes?