Hey you look like me!

So as a chick I've often been sad when games don't bother to have a female character to play. Today I started playing Alice Madness Returns and was describing it to a friend.

ME: I'm playing as Alice but she has a big ass knife for killing
MOSTLY ASIAN FRIEND: So she's basically me
ME: No, she's a honkie
MOSTLY ASIAN FRIEND: So half me
ME: yes.

I'm not being racist, just accurate. I don't think it's bad to have characters that are white or male, I just think there should be more variety. I want to be able to play as a girl which is often not easy. Luckily I'm white so most female characters when they exist look like me. And you know most people relate better to characters that look like them.

Personally I'm not nearly as pale as Alice but I'm sure I'm as crazy as she is. Although I tend to wash the blood out of my clothes.

Many video games have a range of genders, races and sexualities but those are as rare as a stripper with a Ph.D in Mathematics. The first two inclusive games that come to mind are Mass Effect and Borderlands. Much has been written around the interwebs about Mass Effect and its gender and sexual inclusivity so onto Borderlands 2.

I played Borderlands 2 with my boyfriend and his friend(basically his non-sexual life partner) and they played as the commando and the siren so I was left with either a husky short male or a non gender specific assassin. The choice was easy. Zero, the assassin has a male voice but for the most part is gender neutral. Zero is fun to play but when Gearbox released a second female character I switched teams. Both the female characters are white and one is too young to have a sexual identity but the siren is mainly appears to be heterosexual. The non player characters are generally white and also heterosexual. I should note that the gunzerker appears as latino or hispanic, basically not white.

Here's a picture of Gaige to break up this wall of text. 

Overall the game is heterocentric which is going to be common in video games/entertainment for many more years to come. On the bright side the game is not heteronormative, the female characters have as many responsibilities, skills and talents as their male counterparts. There are fewer females in the game than men but I think it's closer to 1/3 females than the typical 1/4 ratio. Also many of the females are very strong and well developed. I found Tiny Tina and Moxxi to be more developed in the personality realm than some of the comparable male NPCs. There is also a remarkable amount of discussion about sexual pasts and it generally does not come off as the typical slut/stud dynamic.

In Borderlands the female characters are most often in overly sexualized outfits but in all fairness the male characters are also on display and their physical traits are nowhere near realistic either. The entire game is very sexual, one of the characters skill trees is sexual tyrannosaurus, I've seen pornos that are less sexually charged.

Clearly Borderlands is not a polite conversation sort of game but the raunchiness does go both ways along with a fair variety of characters.

Anyway back to my main point, damn am I lucky that I'm not trying to find a character that is female and hispanic and a lesbian.

Reclaiming childhood

Hipsters are pretty much just reclaiming the best/awkward/cheap/sincere parts of childhood. Seriously, whose parents didn't have flannel shirts? Or pajamas for that matter. Every kid at a sleepover had footie jamas.

Damn we are stylish. 

I get it, it's not easy being 20-something so let's just go back 20 years. I need a shirt with 7 patterns on it. And I need to cut bangs into my hair. Then I can pretend life is simple again. My sister had the sweet glasses, I bet she could sell those now for easily twice what our medicaid paid for them.

Basically all childhood photos are what hipsters wish they could be now. All I know now is that I was a great hipster before modern hipsters even existed. I'm not all that into jazz like the previous hipsters were.

Photobomb by my cousin when I didn't even know my picture was being taken. 

Much like hipsters my cousin and I spent the majority of our time just chillin outside, not worrying about the world. When the above photo was taken I'm pretty sure the LA riots were happening. We gave zero fucks. 

Finally there's this:

I'm probably pooping. 

Floating in the backyard. Waiting for some giant to carry me to my next location of just chilling. Clearly life was easier then. 

The problem with being a hipster now is that they are missing out on the fashion of today and won't be able to look at old photos and laugh at their pants the same way their friends that had jobs during this period will. Having a job outside of customer service is the most effective cure for hipsterdom. 

OMFG THE FLOOR IS LAVA!

WHY DO WE KEEP LIVING IN PLACES WHERE THE FLOOR SUDDENLY AND WITHOUT WARNING BECOMES LAVA?

Seriously, I can't jump from the bed to the night stand to the box we never unpacked by the door to the coat rack and climb over the laundry hamper every morning just so I can take a shower.

Also, shouldn't there be some kind of regulations about buildings with lava prone floors? I mean of course I have lava boots with me at all times but what about deep lava? 

Waiting for the floor of lava to cool and harden into igneous rock so I can have breakfast is not as awesome as it sounds. I sit on the edge of the bed poking the floor with my toe to see if it is safe while thinking about how hungry I am and why don't I just keep the bagels next to the bed and heat them on the lava? 

Well, the hot magma is cooled and I should head to work. Hopefully the train to work isn't filled with dragons. 

24ct Golden Rule

This is going to sound judgmental but not in the condemning you sort of way. You are doing life wrong if your choices are constantly harming others. Yes, you should put your needs(emotional, physical or financial) first but you should also make sure you aren't seriously fucking over others while you do it.

You don't need to spread that rumor just so someone will listen to you for two minutes. You can hold the elevator door even if you are running late and don't want to stop at every floor on the way up. The person working in a shitty customer service position didn't say 'hello' or 'thank you' or they forgot the ketchup but you don't have to complain to the manager.

How about we all try a little harder to be nice to others? Have the waiter box your leftovers and give them to a homeless person. Open a door for anyone, especially people in wheelchairs or with a stroller or with a neckbeard. Pick up after your damn self at a restaurant, stack your plates neatly or clear your table if it's that kind of place.

Basically, don't be a fucking douche nozzle. Life doesn't have to suck, we make it that way.

Ch-ch-ch changes

Life happens; it has a way of doing that, getting in the way of what we want to focus on. I've been working more, exploring my options at both my employers. I'm still very lost on my path for a future.

I moved at the beginning of the year and will likely never be fully unpacked. The apartment looks better than this but not by much. I feel very off living in such a crowded space. My stuff needs to be in its place for me to feel at home. I think this is starting to cause tension in my life, I feel stressed but I don't know how to get it all done. Many of things that need to find a place to live in the apartment are not mine. I struggle with how to move around someone else's things.

Of course I also have serious issues with how to bring this up without sounding like a bitch. So, I'm just trying to wait it out. Waiting it out doesn't work too well in this situation.

New hair(not really, same hairs with new color)

The hairs on my head are shorter and lighter now. I'm enjoying it, although I don't think my level of fun has increased significantly. 

Perhaps I'll make another post within in the next 90 days.