Something that's always been a bit weird to me is the objectification of women in video games now that women make up nearly half of the gaming population. I'm referring to the scantily clad women with nonsensical armor and crazy high heels that are extremely prevalent and make no sense other than drawing in the men for the games. Now that women have a large voice in the gaming community, I think that this is something that should change mostly because none of outfits that women are wearing (if you can even play as a female in the game) would help them at all in the game. Most male armor makes sense and will help them stay alive, but just look at any women in video games and try to explain to me how exposed boobs will help them take sword hits and what not. Don't get me wrong, we can still have pretty women in games, but why can't we have more realistic armor that doesn't turn females into warrior whores?
In case you've never seen female characters in practical armor, check out the Tumblr Repair Her Armor. It's one of the only ones I check out on a fairly regular basis because I love the re-drawings of characters that are posted. The armor makes sense, still makes the girls look good, and isn't that hard to redesign (for the most part). I hope this isn't a lot to ask for, but I think it's something that needs to change. I'm sure there will still be games out there with women looking like porn stars, but we girls should be able to play good, popular games without cringing and wondering how these characters would fight or do anything without worrying about twisting an ankle or taking a hit to all the exposed skin.
This small rant comes from my observations at Comic Con where I spent some time people-watching. There were many women dressed up as their favorite characters and a lot of their costumes were great, but something I found funny was after they had been walking around for awhile. Lots of these women wearing their detail-perfect cosplays ended up walking around the convention center carrying their several-inch-heeled shoes in their hands because it is very uncomfortable to wear them. If these women can't walk around in these shoes for very long, how are the character supposed to fight and run in them? All I could do was laugh as woman after woman would walk past me with their shoes in their hands, complaining about how their feet hurt. This is something that needs to change, but can people accept it without lashing out at the gaming companies or crying about how they can't see more skin? I hope so, because it seems like something that can be changed without too much effort! Here's to a little more equality in the gaming industry!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
The Start of Comic Con
San Diego International Comic Con starts this Wednesday, July 17th, with preview night, but I've already started getting ready for the craziness. Not only have I been trying to get my costume and book-selling paraphernalia together, but I've been helping my G-pa get stuff ready for his booth since that's my ticket into the show. If this isn't my tenth year of Comic Con, it's certainly getting close to that. I'd like to think of myself as a Comic Con Veteran, so I'm really excited to have two new-comers this year, some awesome friends from Kansas: Tommy and Chris. :D
Now I started working on Friday with my G-pa, going through boxes on boxes of merchandise that he has recently moved into a couple of storage units. We have to get to work early because it gets very, very hot and there is no shade anywhere. In fact, I am picking up Tommy and Jesse at 5:45 AM so we can start working at 6. We gotta pack up the truck with shelving units, display cases, a couple of walls, and boxes of wood carvings and other crazy pieces for sale. I'll try to get a picture of the finished booth so y'all can see the stuff he sells. Probably his most popular sellers are the sterling silver jewelry pieces, including twenty something trays of rings and several displays of earrings and pendents. The designs are so cool! I've never really seen stuff like it here because a lot of them are hand made! But my favorite thing he displays are the dragons. Every wood carving is hand carved, but some of the dragons he has... Amazing. I hope he brings a big one to the show so I can include it in the picture. They're so cool.
But after we pack everything, we have to transport it to the convention center, unload it, unpack it, and then set it up, make it look pretty, and make sure everything is priced! It's a crazy process and the set up starts on Tuesday. We finish it up Wednesday and get ready for the preview night attendees that usually come as we're still getting everything ready. Then I put on my best seller's face and try to get people to buy everything since that means less stuff to pack up at the end. :D Though we do have to restock every morning. The rings are the most tedious things to do since you have to find the rings that have been sold and then measure the sizes around the sold space so you can put in the right size. And you have to polish them so they look pretty, haha. But we get a lot of people down our aisle in Artist's Alley so it's a lot of fun to see the costumes and weird things people buy. Comic Con is always worth it.
New to this year's booth is the addition of Meet the Author! My G is letting me put up a sign to show off when I'll be in the booth so people can buy my book, talk to me about it, and basically just let me share it with the Con-goers. I feel so weird promoting my book since I'm not exactly full of compliments about myself, but I'll have to suck it up and act super cool so I can convince people to help promote my college education. My mom is also convinced I'll sell out of my thirty copies really quickly, but I still think I ordered quite a few. It'd be quite awesome if I sold them all, though! I also got some pretty sweet business cards to help promote my sales while I'm walking around or if I do sell out of books. I've just always wanted to have some business cards, so I thought this was as good a time as any to make some! I hope they work, haha.
Besides that, I've been working on my costume which is pretty easy, but there has been one thing I still haven't figured out, and that is Rayne's trusty sidewalk scraper! I want to go out tomorrow and get one because a zombie hunter costume isn't complete without the main weapon! I also want to put some fake blood on my goggles (which I just got in the mail the other day) and scraper, but so far my best idea is getting some plasti dip and flicking it on each. The problem is that the red I can get is very bright and I don't think zombie blood would be that color. So I'm thinking I can perhaps sharpie some black on it after it dries or I can buy some black plasti dip and mix a little in. The only problem with the second idea is that I'd have to pay $20 instead of $10. :( And as I'm typing this, I realize it'd be pretty cool if I could get her knife and thigh holster, but I don't know where I could get one that I could take in to the Con... So I hope the scraper is enough! I'm just so excited. :D
I also have a few questions for anyone that reads this. Any better ideas for zombie blood? Any better ideas for promoting my book? I'm hopefully gunna make a sign to hang from my scraper so when I rest it on my shoulder it hangs above the crowd for people to see. Anything I should say in particular to get people to spend $9 on a book? How do I sound cool and knowledgeable without being a jerk? Should I wear my costume every day? I think that's all I have on my mind right now, though, haha. I'm so ready for this nerd fest. :D
Now I started working on Friday with my G-pa, going through boxes on boxes of merchandise that he has recently moved into a couple of storage units. We have to get to work early because it gets very, very hot and there is no shade anywhere. In fact, I am picking up Tommy and Jesse at 5:45 AM so we can start working at 6. We gotta pack up the truck with shelving units, display cases, a couple of walls, and boxes of wood carvings and other crazy pieces for sale. I'll try to get a picture of the finished booth so y'all can see the stuff he sells. Probably his most popular sellers are the sterling silver jewelry pieces, including twenty something trays of rings and several displays of earrings and pendents. The designs are so cool! I've never really seen stuff like it here because a lot of them are hand made! But my favorite thing he displays are the dragons. Every wood carving is hand carved, but some of the dragons he has... Amazing. I hope he brings a big one to the show so I can include it in the picture. They're so cool.
But after we pack everything, we have to transport it to the convention center, unload it, unpack it, and then set it up, make it look pretty, and make sure everything is priced! It's a crazy process and the set up starts on Tuesday. We finish it up Wednesday and get ready for the preview night attendees that usually come as we're still getting everything ready. Then I put on my best seller's face and try to get people to buy everything since that means less stuff to pack up at the end. :D Though we do have to restock every morning. The rings are the most tedious things to do since you have to find the rings that have been sold and then measure the sizes around the sold space so you can put in the right size. And you have to polish them so they look pretty, haha. But we get a lot of people down our aisle in Artist's Alley so it's a lot of fun to see the costumes and weird things people buy. Comic Con is always worth it.
New to this year's booth is the addition of Meet the Author! My G is letting me put up a sign to show off when I'll be in the booth so people can buy my book, talk to me about it, and basically just let me share it with the Con-goers. I feel so weird promoting my book since I'm not exactly full of compliments about myself, but I'll have to suck it up and act super cool so I can convince people to help promote my college education. My mom is also convinced I'll sell out of my thirty copies really quickly, but I still think I ordered quite a few. It'd be quite awesome if I sold them all, though! I also got some pretty sweet business cards to help promote my sales while I'm walking around or if I do sell out of books. I've just always wanted to have some business cards, so I thought this was as good a time as any to make some! I hope they work, haha.
Besides that, I've been working on my costume which is pretty easy, but there has been one thing I still haven't figured out, and that is Rayne's trusty sidewalk scraper! I want to go out tomorrow and get one because a zombie hunter costume isn't complete without the main weapon! I also want to put some fake blood on my goggles (which I just got in the mail the other day) and scraper, but so far my best idea is getting some plasti dip and flicking it on each. The problem is that the red I can get is very bright and I don't think zombie blood would be that color. So I'm thinking I can perhaps sharpie some black on it after it dries or I can buy some black plasti dip and mix a little in. The only problem with the second idea is that I'd have to pay $20 instead of $10. :( And as I'm typing this, I realize it'd be pretty cool if I could get her knife and thigh holster, but I don't know where I could get one that I could take in to the Con... So I hope the scraper is enough! I'm just so excited. :D
I also have a few questions for anyone that reads this. Any better ideas for zombie blood? Any better ideas for promoting my book? I'm hopefully gunna make a sign to hang from my scraper so when I rest it on my shoulder it hangs above the crowd for people to see. Anything I should say in particular to get people to spend $9 on a book? How do I sound cool and knowledgeable without being a jerk? Should I wear my costume every day? I think that's all I have on my mind right now, though, haha. I'm so ready for this nerd fest. :D
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Drabble, Drabble, Drabble
Now that I've hit the lull between being published and trying to sell more books at Comic Con (I've sold six copies, yo), I got a little bored and didn't know what to do. I even asked my sister what to do a blog post on and she said, "Me." Psh, she's boring right now, haha. Lately she's just been lazing around and not wanting to leave the house to hang out with me and my friends. Although, I guess I can understand a little bit why she wouldn't want to, haha. Right, guys? :P (Don't hate me, Syd. <3)
Anyway, I've been missing my keyboard and decided to get back into some writing. I haven't been able to sit down for too long by myself, so I didn't want to work on a long project (though I should!). Instead, I picked up something called drabble. It's a type of flash fiction that is exactly one hundred words long. Flash fiction is just a very short story that is usually between three hundred and a thousand words (according to Wikipedia). If I had known of Flash Fiction Month, I may have tried to do it, but Comic Con would probably have kept me from doing one every day. I applaud everyone who is attempting it, though. :D (Hope you're keeping up on your writing, Nick!)
I told Jesse this would be a short post, and I'm trying to not get into another wordy rant, so here are a few examples of drabble that I wrote.
1. My eyes opened, but I didn't know why until the dark room that I had awakened in flashed brilliantly for just a moment. The light was so bright that there were no shadows, leaving me dazed as my mind attempted to put together the pieces. Rumbling began and I could feel it begin from one corner as it swept across the floor followed by a deep roar that shook everything even more. Rhythmic slapping turned my head towards the window and I could see chaotic trails of water streaming down the glass. The maelstrom outside raged, roared; in essence, life.
2. The sentences rush together as I realize they have no true conviction to them. There is no pain and suffering in these polysyllabic words that tell the story of good triumphing over evil. Instead, everything seems gilded in gold as heroes easily subdued the savages of the land, mutilating them to cries of victory from the better armed. There is no mention of families torn apart, friends murdered, homes trampled and burned, lives destroyed forever; only smiles as they marched over the land that their God had blessed them with. This is my history, my past, and yet so foreign.
3. I read his files on the back of my eyelids again, but everything checked out. He's been living in a space station for ten years that's been in geosynchronous orbit around a small planet, researching the properties of a strange flora that resides there. No notes on the research, must be classified. Perhaps the reason he's on the run? His look of suspicion then relief at his first glimpse of my face slid through my mind. He shows his feelings on his face-- dangerous or truthful? Opening my eyes, his grateful smile appeared before me, truer than data.
4. I brought my wrist up to my face to view the screen: five minutes. Attempting a slow spin, I glanced around as I noted that nothing was close enough to be bigger than just a pinprick in the darkness. It's always so hard to imagine how many stars there actually are until you see them from space, infinite in every direction. A beep from my helmet let me know the timer was on its way to zero since my suit could no longer sustain my life. Interlacing my hands behind my head, I floated peacefully because panicking is wasteful.
So try your hand at some drabble and let me see what you come up with. Choose your words carefully!
Anyway, I've been missing my keyboard and decided to get back into some writing. I haven't been able to sit down for too long by myself, so I didn't want to work on a long project (though I should!). Instead, I picked up something called drabble. It's a type of flash fiction that is exactly one hundred words long. Flash fiction is just a very short story that is usually between three hundred and a thousand words (according to Wikipedia). If I had known of Flash Fiction Month, I may have tried to do it, but Comic Con would probably have kept me from doing one every day. I applaud everyone who is attempting it, though. :D (Hope you're keeping up on your writing, Nick!)
I told Jesse this would be a short post, and I'm trying to not get into another wordy rant, so here are a few examples of drabble that I wrote.
1. My eyes opened, but I didn't know why until the dark room that I had awakened in flashed brilliantly for just a moment. The light was so bright that there were no shadows, leaving me dazed as my mind attempted to put together the pieces. Rumbling began and I could feel it begin from one corner as it swept across the floor followed by a deep roar that shook everything even more. Rhythmic slapping turned my head towards the window and I could see chaotic trails of water streaming down the glass. The maelstrom outside raged, roared; in essence, life.
2. The sentences rush together as I realize they have no true conviction to them. There is no pain and suffering in these polysyllabic words that tell the story of good triumphing over evil. Instead, everything seems gilded in gold as heroes easily subdued the savages of the land, mutilating them to cries of victory from the better armed. There is no mention of families torn apart, friends murdered, homes trampled and burned, lives destroyed forever; only smiles as they marched over the land that their God had blessed them with. This is my history, my past, and yet so foreign.
3. I read his files on the back of my eyelids again, but everything checked out. He's been living in a space station for ten years that's been in geosynchronous orbit around a small planet, researching the properties of a strange flora that resides there. No notes on the research, must be classified. Perhaps the reason he's on the run? His look of suspicion then relief at his first glimpse of my face slid through my mind. He shows his feelings on his face-- dangerous or truthful? Opening my eyes, his grateful smile appeared before me, truer than data.
4. I brought my wrist up to my face to view the screen: five minutes. Attempting a slow spin, I glanced around as I noted that nothing was close enough to be bigger than just a pinprick in the darkness. It's always so hard to imagine how many stars there actually are until you see them from space, infinite in every direction. A beep from my helmet let me know the timer was on its way to zero since my suit could no longer sustain my life. Interlacing my hands behind my head, I floated peacefully because panicking is wasteful.
So try your hand at some drabble and let me see what you come up with. Choose your words carefully!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
My First Publication
So I did it, guys. I actually have a published book. Now, granted it is self-published, but hey, I'm much farther than I was before. The story isn't even my favorite thing I've written, but it's a start. My real dream is to write and publish a stellar sci-fi novel about space travel and crazy physics, but I'm still working on that! Until then, I had to give in to Cody's nagging and publish my zombie novel (but that sequel... I dunno if I can do that, what would the plot even be?). Honestly, I saw that winning NaNoWriMo gave me a CreateSpace code to get five free copies of my book, but I didn't realize that I had to actually publish the book to do so. I just wanted the physical copies! Now I've made $13.70. So far. Haha.
I don't want to sound whiny, but I don't think this story is my best writing. HOWEVER, I think it's an entertaining story and just something fun to get into for a few hours. Now that it's in a permanent state, of course I think of things I wish I added to the story, or changed, or just fixed so it sounds better. That being said, I still think it's pretty good for being written in thirty days and only edited for clarity. Also, the money is going to a good cause: my college education! So I'm absolutely happy for whatever money comes my way and I'm actually more concerned that people simply enjoy the story and maybe laugh a bit, perhaps spark some zombie apocalypse conversations. Because those are always fun.
But publishing was so much harder than I thought it was! I mean, I knew it was pretty involved, but I tried to shove everything into a week because I was not very smart and didn't realize my code expired on June 30th (I actually totally forgot about it and got a reminder email from the NaNoWriMo site). I did one edit while I was still in Lawrence, had Jesse and Mookie do a read through on the plane home to San Diego as well as having Mookie rewrite his creative zombie killing scene in Walmart, and then did a marathon session of reading my book aloud with my sister. I'd like to say I caught most of the errors, but now I'm scared to read through my book because I know I'll find commas I forgot to take out, or weird sounding sentences, or just any typos in general. The more I think about the story, the more I realize it was pretty poorly planned, leaves lots of questions unanswered, doesn't have great descriptions or character development, and probably could have included way more awesome stuff, but I have to stop thinking about that! It is what it is and I had fun, learned lots, and now it can hopefully make other people smile.
All those negative things being said, I absolutely love the fact I can hold my writing in an official form. I love that my friends and family are excited for me and willing to spend some money to read my story and support my hobby/fanciful future job/college education. It's so cool that I've taken a step in the right direction and gained some experience and insight for future publications. Now I know to think about having an author picture in my book, writing an about the author blurb, how to make a cover image, how to format a book in Word, book prices, royalty amounts, and all these little things that never really crossed my mind. It'll definitely make my next story much better. I hope I'm not saturating you guys in too much talk about it, but I really am excited despite the fact I get all shy when people talk to me about it.
Now I wanted to dress up for Comic Con this year, but didn't know what to go as, so now I have a character! My own Rayne, loosely based on me, is the perfect candidate, haha. I even have the one outfit I described her in, so it shouldn't be too hard to get the other accessories I need (I have friends who say they can get me aviator goggles and a sidewalk scraper :D). I bought thirty copies of my book at my special author price and I'm hoping I can sell them while I walk around the convention center. I thought that was way too many copies, but my parents are sure I'll sell out. I dunno myself, but it'd sure be cool. I'll be selling them for $9 and signing them on request, if anyone would actually want that. Gawd, I even made a twitter account and email should anyone want to contact me about my book. @ZombieTJO and zombie.t.j.olson@gmail.com in case anyone was wondering.
So here's to more writing and publications! Thanks for all your support and listening to all my blatant self-promotion. :)
Amazon/Kindle Link
CreateSpace Link
I don't want to sound whiny, but I don't think this story is my best writing. HOWEVER, I think it's an entertaining story and just something fun to get into for a few hours. Now that it's in a permanent state, of course I think of things I wish I added to the story, or changed, or just fixed so it sounds better. That being said, I still think it's pretty good for being written in thirty days and only edited for clarity. Also, the money is going to a good cause: my college education! So I'm absolutely happy for whatever money comes my way and I'm actually more concerned that people simply enjoy the story and maybe laugh a bit, perhaps spark some zombie apocalypse conversations. Because those are always fun.
But publishing was so much harder than I thought it was! I mean, I knew it was pretty involved, but I tried to shove everything into a week because I was not very smart and didn't realize my code expired on June 30th (I actually totally forgot about it and got a reminder email from the NaNoWriMo site). I did one edit while I was still in Lawrence, had Jesse and Mookie do a read through on the plane home to San Diego as well as having Mookie rewrite his creative zombie killing scene in Walmart, and then did a marathon session of reading my book aloud with my sister. I'd like to say I caught most of the errors, but now I'm scared to read through my book because I know I'll find commas I forgot to take out, or weird sounding sentences, or just any typos in general. The more I think about the story, the more I realize it was pretty poorly planned, leaves lots of questions unanswered, doesn't have great descriptions or character development, and probably could have included way more awesome stuff, but I have to stop thinking about that! It is what it is and I had fun, learned lots, and now it can hopefully make other people smile.
All those negative things being said, I absolutely love the fact I can hold my writing in an official form. I love that my friends and family are excited for me and willing to spend some money to read my story and support my hobby/fanciful future job/college education. It's so cool that I've taken a step in the right direction and gained some experience and insight for future publications. Now I know to think about having an author picture in my book, writing an about the author blurb, how to make a cover image, how to format a book in Word, book prices, royalty amounts, and all these little things that never really crossed my mind. It'll definitely make my next story much better. I hope I'm not saturating you guys in too much talk about it, but I really am excited despite the fact I get all shy when people talk to me about it.
Now I wanted to dress up for Comic Con this year, but didn't know what to go as, so now I have a character! My own Rayne, loosely based on me, is the perfect candidate, haha. I even have the one outfit I described her in, so it shouldn't be too hard to get the other accessories I need (I have friends who say they can get me aviator goggles and a sidewalk scraper :D). I bought thirty copies of my book at my special author price and I'm hoping I can sell them while I walk around the convention center. I thought that was way too many copies, but my parents are sure I'll sell out. I dunno myself, but it'd sure be cool. I'll be selling them for $9 and signing them on request, if anyone would actually want that. Gawd, I even made a twitter account and email should anyone want to contact me about my book. @ZombieTJO and zombie.t.j.olson@gmail.com in case anyone was wondering.
So here's to more writing and publications! Thanks for all your support and listening to all my blatant self-promotion. :)
Amazon/Kindle Link
CreateSpace Link
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