Getting Ready for TableTop Day

Board games have become a big part of my life in the past year since I binge-watched all existing episode of Geek & Sundry's TableTop and started insisting on game nights with my friends. By now, we're all full-on board game geeks, playing together at least once a month, buying new games, and looking forward to International TableTop Day on April 11th.

Wil Wheaton (host of TableTop and well-known geek) and Geek & Sundry (led by geek queen Felicia Day) designated the first International TableTop Day three years ago. They created the day to encourage people all over the world to play board games. Local game shops and groups can organize a TableTop Day event and register it on the TableTop Day website so that local people can find it and attend.

Nothing is stopping my friends and I from spending an entire day playing board games at any time, but I see TableTop Day as a chance to play games with some new people, maybe even making some friends, and to play games that we don't have.

We're also particularly excited about this TableTop Day because they are holding a What's Your Game Plan? contest. For a chance to win a prize pack full of board game goodies, you can enter a 1-minute video about how you're getting ready for TableTop Day and what your plans are. Not knowing that it would be a random draw contest (boo!), I went into full video-creator mode and wrote a fun video idea that involved my friends and I training hard for TableTop Day. I'm really proud of it, so here it is!

I'm also really proud of our gaming t-shirts that we made. When my friend showed me an image of the Settlers of Catan pun, "Yes, we Catan!" I immediately wanted more gaming puns and the image of Rosie the Riveter saying "We can do it!" came to mind. That, and my friend's idea for matching game day shirts, led me to redesign Rosie to say "We Catan do it!" and add our gaming group name (that we came up with for the sole purpose of this shirt design), Board Bitches. With Rosie sporting the popular bandana look, we decided we'd have to follow suit. I also wanted the shirts to be like sports jerseys, so, with much difficulty for some, we came up with game-themed nicknames for all of us (TableTop Tish, MonopoLinda, YahtzKelsey, Kim of Catan, and RPJuliana) and threw our favorite number on the back, too. We made the t-shirts using iron-on transfer paper which proved much easier and better looking than I imagined and I only screwed up one t-shirt (and remade it).

We made sure to get some nice group shots of us all dressed up in our game outfits after we shot the video. I also got individual photos of my friends that day, but I opted to model for my own individual photos at home in my "studio". And I'm glad I did my photos later because I tried something different with my pin-up style hair and I loved it! So much that I had to take about a hundred photos. (As I usually do for any photo shoot I set up, and only get about 5 that I like enough to edit up nice.)

We brought a variety of games to build a game pile for the video.

Game face!

Board Bitches will fuck you up!

QTs

Channeling the pin-up vibe.

You can print your own Wil, Felicia, & TableTop trophy cut-outs so they can join you on TableTop Day, or live on your game shelf. 

Wil & trophy here. Felicia here.

Girl I Love: Felicia Day

I can't remember the first time I heard about Felicia Day, but I'm sure her name was used in relation to something YouTubey, Geeky, or Internety. You might know Felicia for her acting work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural. I know her as the Internet's Geek Queen, founder of Geek & Sundry.

Felicia's rise to Geek Queen status started in 2007 when she was spending her life playing video games between acting jobs. She decided to finally do something, so she wrote a TV pilot, which turned into season one of The Guild. The Guild just ended their sixth and final season on Felicia's YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry, last year. Geek & Sundry also produces several scripted and not-so-scripted shows like The Flog (in which Felicia vlogs and goes on adventures), Caper (scripted series about superheros trying to just make rent), and my favorites Co-Optitude (in which Felicia and her brother, Ryon, play retro console games) and TableTop (in which Wil Wheaton plays board games with friends). Geek & Sundry also has a vlogs channel, and several associated vloggers' channels. That's right, the geeks are indeed taking over the world, guys.

The Guild

Aside from the simple fact that Felicia is a female in a male-dominated industry (aren't they all, though?), Felicia stands out to me as someone who never backed down from doing what she loves, liking what she likes, and doesn't take shit from anyone who thinks she's not [insert qualification here] enough. Being a geek and gamer is deemed pretty cool now, but when Felicia created The Guild, she was taking a big risk that there were enough gamers that would find this web series and that non-gamers would like it, too. (As a non-gamer, I can say that it is not a gamers-only series. It's hilarious and charming.)

Felicia as Tallis in Dragon Age: Redemption

Felicia has become a huge inspiration & role model to me because of her "origin story" (writing The Guild and having the guts to make it happen) and everything she's done since. She's created her own niche on the Internet by just sticking with what she likes, not bending to short-lived trends. By being her awesome self, she's attracted an audience of people that share her interests as well as people like me, who are not gamers or geeks in all the same ways, but who have a penchant for geekiness and enjoy quality work. As a multi-passionate creative person, I also look to Felicia as an example of someone who has pursued multiple passions, and been able to incorporate them all into her creative work. Felicia is an accomplished violinist, singer, actor, writer, producer, gamer, and a reader of both comics and fantasy romance novels. With Geek & Sundry, and other projects, I've been able to see how Felicia has incorporated all of these talents into her work.

Felicia Day is a Girl I Love because she stands up for herself, she broke the mold of a gamer/geek, she pursues her passions unapologetically, and she does it all with gratitude & respect for the fans who helped her get where she is.


Check out Felicia Day in these places!
Geek & Sundry // YouTube // Twitter // Website // Wikipedia // IMDb

Guest Posts on Chocolate & Cream Cake

This week was my third time guest posting on Chocolate & Cream Cake. I'm so grateful to Mandy for giving me the opportunity to write for her blog. Mandy's blog is fairly popular and has a loyal following, so to be trusted to write a post that fits her blog's style is an honor.

I can't quite remember how I came across Mandy's blog, or how we became Internet friends, but it happened some time ago. Now we keep in touch through Facebook, and I still enjoy all of Mandy's posts. While her main focus on the blog is all things geek, she shares all of her interests from fashion to her own home decor.

I haven't mentioned my guest posts here on my blog, other than linking them on my About page, so I thought it was time I brought it to your attention.

My first post was as a Geek of the Week. Mandy asked her readers to answer her questionnaire and be featured as a Geek of the Week. I loved when she introduced this feature as it was a way of celebrating all sorts of "geeks", not just the sci-fi-loving variety. I wrote about my own brand of geek, what are my passions and what I think it means to be a "geek".

My second post was for another great feature that Mandy called Fictional Fancies. She encouraged her readers to send in their own posts about a fictional character that they fancy. The first character that came to mind for me was Ned of Pushing Daisies. I wrote about why he is so fanciable and how much I love him and the show.

My post this week was all about Skull Appeal. While Mandy is on vacation, she is having all sorts of other bloggers fill in the gaps with guest posts. I decided to do something fun, not so wordy, and wrote about my new found love of all things skulls. 

If you know what's good for you, you'll check out my posts on Chocolate & Cream Cake and then keep on reading because Mandy is a consistent, caring blogger. Every article is well thought-out and true to her personal voice. And if you have even the slightest  bit of nerd in you, you'll definitely want to keep up with her Nerd News weekly posts. She always finds great stuff!

My Birthday Wishlist

I'm not actually expecting any of these presents from anyone, it's just a wishlist. ;)

But these are three things I would really love. And I might just get for myself someday.

Massage Gift Certificate

I blame my lame cashier job. I spend all day standing, hunched over the cash register and counter, scanning and bagging. Sore shoulders everyday. :(

N64

I think this might be my favorite game console. I've never owned one, but I always loved when I got to play it. I've got a Super NES and PS2 now, but Super NES is quite limited and PS2 doesn't have Nintendo games, like my favorite; Mario Party.

Grey Wolf Spirit Hood

I just love it. And it will keep me warm. I love anything that will liven up my dull Winter.

P.S. My birthday is October 31st, so remember to wish me a Happy Birthday then. :)

Some Mac Shopping

One of my January goals is "No extraneous spending. Not even craft supplies."

This is so hard for me because I am a major shopaholic. And I work at Michaels, where I see so much cute stuff and craft supplies that I want. Not to mention I see all the great deals that make shopping even more tempting.

So, I think I've already broken this goal by purchasing a new Mac OS, mouse and remote for my iMac.
The remote was actually needed because the back button stopped working.
And the mouse is half-necessity since the scroll ball hasn't been working for years. (It stopped working after only a few months, I got a new one, and it stopped working again, so I just kept it.) And since they don't sell the wireless mighty mouse anymore, and I wasn't going to downgrade to a wired mouse (with a scroll ball that would probably stop working.) I went for the (expensive) new magic mouse. It's all fancy touch click and scroll; no buttons. It better last forever.

So, really, the only completely unnecessary thing was the new Snow Leopard OS. I'm perfectly happy with my OS (10.4) except that some new applications and updates (and the new mouse) will only work with 10.6. I'm just a little nervous about losing all my files, applications and system settings when I install the new OS.

I think mostly I'm looking forward to being able to scroll without dragging the scroll bar. And not being able to use the back button on the remote has gotten pretty annoying.


P.S. I enjoyed my Christmas break but catching up on all that sleep and having all the time to just chillax got me in a sleepy, lazy funk which then turned into a cold. =( So basically, I've been in bed since Christmas (with the exception of work- which has been way less since the crazy pre-Christmas season has ended). But finally today I wasn't completely exhausted or completely sick and actually got some stuff done. I'll be back to blogging regularly soon.

Let Them Eat Cake: Geek

I'm definitely a big geek at heart. I love computers, gadgets, Super Mario, Nintendo, video games, and anything to do with them. Geeky cakes and cupcakes are some of the cutest ones out there.

Super Mario Bros.

Transformers

Video Games

iPhone

Star Wars

Twitter