Sideshow & Syrana

You may have noticed that the internet has been just a little quieter the past few days.

And you are right.  I’ve been a bit absent from much of anything related to the internet since Tuesday.

You see…this game that I’ve been anxiously awaiting has been released.  It’s very important for me to moonlight as a detective and catch the Origami Killer.

I’m closing in on him too… I think.

I hope.

Anywho, first playthrough should be complete soon, then I might hit up a second one this weekend.

We’ll see, because I have to play nice and let Sideshow get some time in too.  (And not spoil things.  It’s really hard for me to keep quiet ’round him, but I’m doing it so far!)

Expect clear skies with scattered tweets and posts next week.

In the meantime, if you would like some Sideshow & Syrana-y goodness…

We got the opportunity to hang with the /2 Podcast crew last Friday and it was a blast!  Sideshow and I let loose on Episode 26.  Or at least, I let loose after I stopped trying to censor myself and remembered /2 is full of mature language, hehe.

This week I offer you some gaming, writing, and movie link love.  Enjoy!

Do you want to be a writer? Then check out this job posting for the position of being an unpublished writer.  (A fantastic guest post from Tami!)

Also, if you haven’t been to Tami’s site… just… go.  I starred several of her posts, but really I  need to star her whole blog.  So instead of linking every wonderful post – I am just going to urge you to head on over there!

Mutant Reviews From Hell have a list of the 10 romantic comedies worth watching.  Personally, I usually don’t watch many of those, but this is a good list.  And it has one of my favorite movies on there!

Check out Polygamerous Episode 12: Russell and the Mothman! Not only was it a fun show, there’s this awesome interview I did with CCP Games…

Darcy and Russell had the opportunity to talk with CCP Manifest (PR Associate) and CCP Jasonitas (Content Team) from CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online.  They provided us with some great information regarding the unique sandbox game world of New Eden as well as some of the challenges of running the universe on a single shard.  CCP Manifest and CCP Jasonitas discussed their current roles and how they got started with CCP Games.  CCP Jasonitas shared which mission he wrote is his favorite, and what their favorite aspect of the game is.  We also took a look at the relationship between the developers and the player community, especially in regards to the Council of Stellar Management (CSM), which gives elected players a chance to meet face-to-face with developers to discuss issues, concerns, and suggestions.  We lightly touched upon the highly anticipated Incarna expansion and the console MMOFPS DUST 514 which are currently in development.  Of course, we confirmed they have been Polygamerized as well.  Oh! And we even asked CCP Jasonitas about the Mothman.

Also! Make sure to listen in to Slash 2 Podcast this Friday at 7pm CST, where Sideshow and I join them for an evening.

Euripedes of Critical QQ reminds us that gaming is a hobby and ponders why it isn’t always viewed that way by outsiders and even some insiders.

Miss Medicina shows us her geeky nerd side.  Or is it nerdy geek side?

I love a good song parody, and there’s one about the new dungeon finder tool set over at Kill Ten Rats.

Speaking of Kill Ten Rats … Ravious has been working with Massively on how bloggers can build relationships with community managers.  I found it pretty informative – check out Part 1 and Part 2.

First part of this is… full of superawesomeSyrana-y goodness.

• Syrana received some in character mail over at Diabolical Minds.  She has now shared her thoughts on Sylvanas and Thrall.  She will be expressing her (not mine – HER… ok a little bit of mine) opinions of the faction leaders over a series of posts.
• Polygamerous celebrated its 10th episode this week! This show was a lot of fun – you don’t want to miss it.
• Syrana takes another step up the ladder towards becoming a professional last minute guest.  Check out TNB’s 75th episode: Need More Guest as I join Fimlys and Nibuca to talk about the latest WoW news.  I had a blast, again.  Anytime you need me, you know where to find me.

The second part is… making up for the lack of TLC Thursday posts and bringing you up-to-date on posts I starred in my reader as excellente.  (Of course, this does not mean I am caught up on my reading… this is merely an array of posts I’ve wanted to include in TLC Thursday for… um.. since the last one was posted! And… you’ve probably seen these already, but I still love to give my, um, love.)

• Player Versus Developer has an interesting and thought provoking post about the differences of difficulty and how they scale than in say, Mario, versus the difficulty of Wrath of the Lich King.
• The 7th Annual Women in Games Conference is coming up in March.  I wish it was near where I live.
• The ever amazing Pike illustrates a great Weezer song – WoW style.
• Talented Tami (I know she likes alliteration ) shares the secrets of writing in a guest post over at Too Many Annas.
• Miss Medicina wrote us a prescription on how to make it through the least favorite random dungeon.
• Arioch uses a great analogy for the various levels of ‘core when it comes to playin’ WoW.

Psst – there were actually more, but I had to make a cut off.  Bad Syrana shouldn’t compile links more than a month old in a links -OMG GO READ- post.  (I still <3 you though.)

I will have today’s RP post up later this evening.  I had about half written prior to the start of Polygamerous last night and was planning to finish it up after the show since we were starting earlier… but we had SO much to talk about, a guest, and just an all around awesome show.  However, I needed to go to bed afterwards.

So… stay tuned!

Just a reminder that tonight we’ll be recording our 10th episode of Polygamerous live!  We have a special guest joining us – Nicole Spagnuolo from Ladies of Leet.

Join us in the chatroom and the live recording on Mondays at 8pm PST.  If you can’t join us live, that’s ok! Go to the Polygamerous site to listen to the show or download us off iTunes or Zune.

Even if you have subscribed to the show on iTunes,  you’ll want to keep an eye on the blog for special announcements, game reviews, and other fun stuff!

This first full work week after two short weeks due to the holidays is just killing my brain.  Seriously.  At least I have some time off coming up really soon, which will definitely help me get back on track with the normal posting schedule.

If you listened to Episode 6 of Polygamerous, you’ll noticed I mentioned playing around with Allods Online and Dreamworld.

Allods Online is in the 3rd closed beta until January 11th, and since I hadn’t spent a lot of time playing it during the previous closed betas I wanted to get a bit more time in over the weekend.

Dreamworld, on the other hand… is on Facebook.

Yup, you read that right.  I’ve finally joined the Facebook gaming phenomenom and accepted a guildmate’s request for that game.  Currently it is the only Facebook game I’m playing around with.  We’ll see if it catches on.

You can listen to me talk about them a bit more on the podcast, but I thought I’d share some screenshots I took of each. (continue reading…)

Samodean!  He worked diligently using “creative googling,” as he put it, to submit his blog scavenger hunt entry within 24 hours after it went live.

He did quite well too! Only 2.5 close-but-not-quite-on-the-money answers.  I’m almost glad he didn’t have a perfect score or y’all might think it was suspicious.  Or I’d have to question Sideshow to see if he sold Samo the answers or something.

He did answer the bonus questions right though! Woo!

Granted, he had the only entry… all I can say is lesson learned, I guess? Saved me some money at least…

I know a few people responded on Twitter suggesting I extend the deadline by a week when I tweeted this afternoon about only receiving one entry.  I had considered that over the weekend as the deadline drew near… but I decided not to do so.  I’m not sure if that would have actually resulted in more entries (especially if I hadn’t revealed the fact there had only been one).

And I woulda felt silly extending it if after an additional week there was still only one.

Also, I kept the promotion of the contest to the blog and Twitter because, well, I wanted it to be for our readers/followers.

Hey, at least this time there was an entry.  The last contest I attempted resulted in zero entries.

Baby steps, right Bob?

Well, if you still want to tackle the scavenger hunt for the helluvit, you may not want to look at the answers after the cut.  Otherwise, enjoy going through ‘em. (continue reading…)

A reminder that tonight will be the first Polygamerous podcast episode of 2010.  And the first with me as an “official” host!  I’d love to see you in the live chatroom tonight… at 8pm PST.

Since the show records live on Monday nights, I might have to move the weekly fanfiction installment to a different day.  We’ll see (although part 42 won’t be ready and posted until next week) if I can preplan and write it before Monday evening as I’ve been doing.  And, please, bare with me this week as I return to all my normal routines (work, home, blogging, gaming).  The holidays definitely mixed things up a bit.

Also, it seems one of my New Year’s resolutions might be to drink more.

I forgot how much I love champagne.

Let’s see, what other randomness can I include for you today?

Oh!

I tweeted this picture yesterday, but in case you missed it….

Cat butt magnets. For the true cat lover?

This has to be the strangest gift I’ve ever received.  I got this for Christmas.  At least my mother-in-law has a sense of humor.

This is going to be a bit different than last year’s goal list.  Last year I focused heavily on World of Warcraft goals with a smattering of Rock Band goals mixed in.  This year, I’ve broken down my goals into a few different categories: WoW, Aion, Dragons Age, Sims 3, Blogging, and Assorted.  And my, I look gamerbitious, don’tcha think? (continue reading…)

… yeah, I failed at a catchy title there.  Actually, what you see above is better than what I originally wrote which was “Announcements and Reminders.”  *snore*

You could say my brain is a little frazzled.  Truthfully, this year’s holiday season has not been too bad.  I’m trying to pick out silver linings and such.  For example, work is a bit slow because I have fewer clients than normal due to dreaded funding issues.  BUT that means less people in crisis, which means I’m not pulling my hair out.

See how that works?

Anyway, I wanted to post up a bit of a rambly update and direct your attention to a few things.  As I said before, posting will be a bit sketchy until after the new year.  It’s part of my reward for the blogiversary and, well, it’s the holidays.  You know how it is!

Plus, you all have more fun things to do than read my craziness right now.  I know you’ll appreciate fewer unread posts in the feedreader right about now.  Heck, I know I’m behind on reading mine again.  (Big surprise, I know.)

Oh, guess what Sideshow got me for Christmas? My very own Amberlash! <3  Now I’m wrestling with the dreaded “to open or not to open” decision.

Alright on with the point(s)! (continue reading…)