Black March to Protest Internet Censorship!

Patch 4.3.0

If you're following me on any other social networks, I thank you for dealing with my major cross-posting but I really want to get the word out everywhere I can because I believe we can really do this. I'm uploading this image about the Media boycott the internet is calling "Black March" on every social network I personally use to encourage my social circles to further protest Stop Online Piracy Act, Protect IP Act, and Internet Censorship in general! We NEED a free and open internet!

SOPA & PIPA

Patch 4.3.0

If you don't know what SOPA is by now, here's a very informative post on SOPA (and PIPA) from the official reddit blog: http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html.

As of now there is little I can personally do other than to make more people aware of the SOPA situation. So, I'm joining the internet protest with a "STOP CENSORSHIP" banner over my blog's header image. Depending on how things pan out, I may leave it there longer than the 24 hour "internet protest". For now, SOPA has been "shelved", but it doesn't mean that legislation can't and won't slip parts of SOPA into new bills up for vote, and PIPA (Protect IP Act) is still to-be-voted-for on January 24th. So, please click the "STOP CENSORSHIP" banner to sign the e-petition, send a letter to Congress, and if you're not in America you can even petition the state department in your country via the banner link (http://americancensorship.org/).

Without going into crazy detail, my personal stance on SOPA is this:

1. It won't stop movie and music piracy at all. [period] I honestly don't believe it will even slow it down in the slightest.
2. It's bad for business. Start-ups and e-businesses will have a dramatically more difficult time setting up any kind of website because of the need to prepare for potential offending links on forums for example, and they'll need to be careful on which sites they themselves advertise on.
3. The vague language in the actual bill is obviously vulnerable to be abused.

Let's hope that this internet protest will open more eyes to the SOPA situation and get our congressmen to KILL SOPA all together.

First Vlog of 2012

Patch 4.3.0

I hope everyone had fun and safe celebrations for New Year's! Last night, I streamed some WoW and a flash game called "Happy Wheels" on AtheneLive.com/ember for the first time to ring in my New Year, and I decided to kick off the year on YouTube with this tiny vlog. Enjoy! ^_^

http://www.youtube.com/embed/cibfwF1MnNk

Finally found a home for my stream!

Patch 4.3.0

Hey everyone! After trying out Livestream.com, and Twitch.tv... I've finally found a home for my broadcast with Own3d.tv! Huge thanks to all of you viewers for being so patient with me and my sporadic testing-out all these websites, because I know how annoying it is to register new accounts just to be able to chat with me and the other viewers on different sites. But rest assured that I won't be switching for a really long time (if ever) because of the amazing things that are happening with me, Own3d.tv, and ...drum roll please... AtheneLive.com!

I got to be a dragon! ..sorta.

Patch 4.3.0

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you haven't seen the Deathwing "end-game" cinematic and you're a lore buff, I suggest that you don't watch this video. But if you know about what happens after Deathwing dies, then please enjoy this humorous take on what happens next. Scripted, machinimated, and voiced by THE Myndflame, featuring my petty voice talent as Alexstrasza herself, please enjoy "The Day After the Cataclysm Ended"! (I hope I did the Life Binder justice!) XD

http://youtu.be/qNcGDH7s1qM

More Live Gaming Broadcasts

Patch 4.3.0

After finding out that Livestream.com is not as free as they advertised (by finding out the hard way--that they ALLOW you to go over the "free" bandwidth limit), I started broadcasting with Justin.tv a.k.a. Twitch.tv. So, there shall be more of me live-streaming WoW (and possibly other games, including some old school SNES and Wii games since there will be a video capture card in my possession in the very near future ^_^...)

For a little taste of stream footage, I put together this video advertising my stream on YouTube. Please enjoy!

http://youtu.be/ORV_ZurQD-A

BlizzCon Vlogs - Part 5

Patch 4.3.0

Ok, I have to warn you: if you don't enjoy the "F" word, please DON'T watch this video because I probably said it way too many times to even sound like a normal person. =/ With this video, I've realized just how often I swear in public and how stupid I sound as a result. So with that said... For those of you that want to watch, in this video I met Athene and his crew. It blew my mind so much that I couldn't get over it.

http://youtu.be/2cmhXXpcyq4

BlizzCon Vlogs - Part 4

Patch 4.2.2

Again.. warning: lots of Ember swearing. Saarryyy. And in this episode(!!!) we meet Rawrbug and Asiko IRL for the first time and I fansquee over being in the same room with them and Crykoda!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT29vixEr6Q

BlizzCon Vlogs - Part 3

Patch 4.2.2

More boring vlog footage ^_^. If anything, watch it to hear me say "Mega Blocks" 'cause I lol'd at myself when I watched it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp5f8uhzVYk

BlizzCon Vlogs - Part 2

Patch 4.2.2

This video is a LOT shorter than the first one, and I probably could have just tacked it onto the end, but I felt that my awkward moments just before and all of the awkwardness during actually meeting Crykoda for the first time IRL merited it's own video. XD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM9izXzSrTI

BlizzCon Vlogs - Part 1

Patch 4.2.2

Hey guys, I know this is way old news, but I've finally gotten around to editing some of the footage that I took while I was at BlizzCon. I never did any sort of "news coverage" for BlizzCon announcements since I figured everyone would be spammed with news elsewhere and I just wanted to enjoy my first BlizzCon experience, so the next few video logs I'll be uploading that I took at the Con are just that.. Personal video logs. XD Hope you enjoy my silliness if anything. Here's the first video: just me vlogging on the way to pick up Crykoda and Mikey from the airport. =3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMqvG0IBBA

Rolling Out The Deeps [New Parody]

Patch 4.2.2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij8cg-0SpHs

Hi!

Patch 4.2.2

I'm not dead! I swear I'll have a BlizzCon post up soon, I just have a lot on the list first! XD Prioritizing is not one of my strong points. Saaarryyyy. <3

Legendary Shoutout from THE Athene

Patch 4.2.2

If you don't know who Athene is, I don't know where you've been! He's just..like.. the BEST PAL-A-DIIIN IN DA WURLD!!! Subscribe to my channel and don't forget to subscribe to his channel if you're not already! --http://youtube.com/athenewins
http://youtu.be/AcHuuAWWnWs

A little late but... Happy Brewfest!

Patch 4.2.2

I swear I wasn't drunk when I recorded this video. But I was definitely tipsy a little while after XD. http://youtu.be/sUV0Z4LqdtI And to all of you beer snobs, give it a rest with the "Heineken is piss" comments. If you must know, of all the beer that I've tasted in my life (which isn't a whole lot) Blue Moon Belgian White is my favorite. I also enjoy Newcastle, Sam Adams, the local breweries' reds and ambers... and I'm just not a picky beer drinker. XD There have been known sightings of an Ember with Corona, Budweiser, even a one-dollar "forty" of 211 Steel Reserve! lol.

BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT: HAPPY BREWFEST!

Personal Reflection (continued)

Well friends, thank you for all the healing vibes because I have no doubt in my mind that your well wishes helped! TMI: I passed the kidney stone and now I just have to take it in to the doctor to get it analyzed so they can give me more specific info about how unhealthy I am lol. XD

Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts in this little "first time" of mine. I was scared to tell you the truth and I still am a little scared about what the doc's gonna say, but we'll see. Much love to you all.

Personal Reflection

Let me preface with this: this blog entry is a personal reflection of recent events regarding my health. No cause for alarm here, I simply wanted to get my thoughts out of my head while I'm thinking them...

Last week, Nuku took me to the hospital at around 10pm Wednesday night for the first time in my life due to some really painful aches in my lower back (or so I thought that's where the pain was from). I felt silly since I've never gone to the hospital before and we don't even have a regular physician. We even went to the wrong entrance where a nice lady in "Patient Registration" directed us to the ER! There was a family in the waiting room when we arrived so I was nervous about how long we'd be waiting. But I filled out the short information form and the triage nurse called me up in less than 10 minutes. She asked me to pee in a cup which was fail because I had just gone to the bathroom at home before Nuku took me to the ER because I thought I just had some really bad gas cramps! XD The nurse sent me back to a curtained off room where I signed more paperwork as another nurse hooked me up to an IV and drugged me with three drugs (I can't remember the names of atm) to get rid of the pain quickly. The doctor told me I may have a kidney stone. They ordered me a CT Scan, that was another first for me too, and results showed that I do in fact have kidney stones. "Of note, there is a duplicated left kidney." hehe.. Ya, I just found out last week that I have 3 kidneys too. The doctor compared the abnormality to having a 6th finger. =3

So he wrote me a prescription for some Vicodin for when the pain comes back since the stones aren't big enough for invasive treatment/surgery (thank gods!) but I'll have to pee the damn thing out! He gave me an odd strainer thingy and said that until I "catch" the stone, they can't really tell me anything else about how the stone formed and what I can do to prevent them in the future. XD Sorry if this is way too much information, but I am thoroughly amused that I have to strain my own urine and actually look for a stone as small as a grain of sand!

My family doesn't have a history of kidney stones that I know of, but my mom's side has a history of diabetes. Doc said It can take up to 2 weeks for a stone to pass so I'm doing a little more research on kidney stones in the meantime so I at least know more about it. XD

I'm turning 27 at the end of November and this incident has given me that feelin' old mentality! At least it's helped as far as reminding me that I need to take better care of myself. I popped a pill just a minute ago since the pain is what prompted these thoughts in the first place. Hope this passes before BlizzCon and not during! XD The pain is unbearable when it happens, but that's the problem: it's really random and sporadic. Wish me luck with this. Thanks.

WTF#10

Patch 4.2.2

New vlog today! http://youtu.be/bNtFSrzYI0o

I have been getting so many messages asking me, "Where are you?" on YouTube that I finally buckled down and recorded a quickie for you today! By the way, you all make me feel SO loved and awesome with your messages that I am feeling like an asshole not giving you more regularly scheduled content! But that doesn't mean you should stop sending me messages! <3 Hehe. XD I really am sorry about the lack of video content lately, but I've been busy with my costume and other artsy things... AND to be totally honest, I'm still not completely over the whole idea of "Who would care to hear and watch me talk about my-fat-self anyway?" XD.

Aaanywaayy, I decided to shorten the video title from "Weekly Talking Fun" (like the previous vlogs) to just "WTF". I swear, only 3 people even saw that acronym which was the whole reason why I even wanted to call it "Weekly Talking Fun" despite the horrible English... But maybe it was just so under the radar barely anyone noticed. And if you DID notice, and didn't say anything, well.. Kudos to you even though you didn't say anything to me about it! ^_^

So, in this update video, I just show off some progress on my costume and some gift art I've been working on for my friends in the WoW/YouTube community. Also Please don't expect a song from me before BlizzCon since I'm devoting all my free time to these projects and the cosplay thing is a lot bigger a project than I thought it'd be XD. I'm SO glad I started it when I did!

Thanks for visiting my blog and enjoy the video!

 

Cosplay Update!

Patch 4.2.2

Firstly, I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping you up to date with my [what were supposed to be] weekly vlogs. DX I haven't posted a new video since WTF#9 three weeks ago! But in my defense, I have good personal reasons for skipping them! Besides real life stuff going on like my nephew's second birthday and getting out of the house more regularly, the time away from my computer has paid off in that it has given me enough time away from WoW and YouTube to finally make some decisions about what to do for my cosplay for BlizzCon! And with the new project underway I'm getting some serious BlizzCon fever!

Tin foil armature ready for paper clay.

So, I've decided on Dwarf Shaman in T10. Reasons: 1) Because dwarves have skin color that I don't have to use body paint for; 2) I LOVE Shaman T10; and 3) Dwarves don't require stilts. XD As a sidenote, I still plan to do a Dreanei or Worgen cosplay at some point with those stilts that I commissioned, but as of now I don't see it coming together in time for BlizzCon this coming October. The stilts are simply not 100% ready for a costume because they still need permanent straps to hold my feet securely onto them. In the test video I uploaded to YouTube a while back, I improvised with some rope and just tied my feet down. XD Heh.. Yeah, dangerous... But not only that, the metal is RUSTING! I mean, I knew ahead of time (before Gir shipped them to me) that I'd have to figure out a way to strap my feet on somehow myself, but the rust was a surprise to me. =[ I picked up some "Rust Destroyer" and some Plasti-Dip spray for them, but that project will have to wait until after BlizzCon since I'm going full speed ahead on this Dwarf Shaman idea.

I did a little shopping over the weekend and now I have pretty much all the supplies I need for building this costume. I even ordered some blue LED "Power Dots" from thatscoolwire.com for the lighty bits of the gear set ^_^. And those shipped so fast: ordered on the 23rd and they arrived at my house on the 25th! I'm still not exactly sure how to go about building everything, but I'm pretty resourceful, so I know that I'll at least be proud of the final outcome. I'm so excited!

Weekly Talking Fun #9 - Succubus Live?

Patch 4.2.0

Another vlog. And I sing Succubus live. Sounds poopy stupid webcam software..RAGE. Oh well. I ain't gon' redo it. So... deal widit. <3 http://youtu.be/vzWTpr3qecI