Corset is Slacking off Writing

Ya you heard me right. I am going to be working on my art for the next week or so seeing how I have a long term goal of maybe running a type of web comic. However this Requires more skill than I have soo I will be using this to track my progress for a bit. There will still be opinion pieces but expect to see art.

Corset signing off. And as always feel free to leave me your opinions and suggestions. I might go back to writing if I thought someone was reading. =P

Not afraid of no ghost.

Who ya gonna call?

GHOSTBUSTERS!!

Corset Likes To Cook!

Ok. This will be the first of many recipes that I put up here because there are some things that would be a crime to not share. I absolutely love this one and it is my others absolute favorite. This is the adapted recipe I was given. I will add a few of my own adaptations in another color. First of all though let me say you don't have to use lamb to make this. I have made it with pork chops as well as turkey legs but beware those meat will not absorb the flavor as well. However a Pork Roast is delicious I believe because it is slow cooked like the shanks.

Lamb Shanks with Plum Sauce

Adapted from Introducing Chinese Casserole Cookbook

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 3½ to 4 hours

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Salt for browning lamb (Use a coarse salt like Kosher)

4 lamb shanks (3/4 to 1 pound each), trimmed of excess fat

Note:: I don't like using the salt. I think it is delicious without.

Braising Liquid:

6 Tbl. Black soy sauce (you can use regular soy sauce, if nec.)

Do not use low salt soy if you omit the salt from the pan browning.

6 Tbl. Sherry

½ tsp sugar

1½ cups water

¾ cup plum sauce

3 cloves garlic, peeled and flattened (or can use bottled, chopped garlic)

2 dried chili peppers, broken in half (use both seeds and pods, can also use dried pepper flakes)

I use the red pepper flakes because it gives a more potent flavor more cost effectively. When using flakes about a teaspoon is nice for me.

2 whole star anise

1 slice ginger root, ¼-inch thick, flattened

Binder and Final Seasoning:

1 Tbl. Cornstarch

1 Tbl. Cold water

½ tsp. sesame oil.

Method:

1. Put a large frying pan or wok over high heat and sprinkle in about 1 tsp. of salt. When the salt is hot, add the lamb shanks and brown them on all sides (about 10 minutes.)
   Do this even if you omit the salt. 
2. Mix the braising liquid ingredients in a 4 quart casserole or pot. Add the lamb shanks and bring the liquid toa boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover the casserole/pot, and simmer the shanks for 3½ to 4 hours or until the meat is tender. Turn the lamb shanks from time to time.
3. Remove the lamb shanks to a serving dish. Skim the fat from the braising liquid and discard the slice of ginger. Mix the cornstarch and water binder and stir it into the liquid. Cood the sauce for a few minutes to thicken it.
   personally once I have the lamb out I skim off a lot of the extra fat from the lamb. It floats right on top so a spoon can get it off fine.
4. Stir in the sesame oil, pour the sauce over the lamb shanks and serve them hot with rice.
   It wasn't until I went to post this that I even realized there was sesame oil in here. I feel silly but I have never used it. Serve sauce over rice and it is a wonderful mean.

Women's Games

Ok, so before I have talked about how games catered to men it seems almost exclusively. Well not exactly. There was a point where the industry was still flailing along that men and women disagreed about what was in a game. Instead of trying to find middle ground between men and women in gaming and producing games that both could enjoy, the industry made the anti-thesis to 'mens' games with things like Barbie Fashion Design. This game experienced brief popularity because it was Barbie that the girls were after however other games made in the same fashion failed because they were dull. They had removed any real challenge to the game in an effort to make them woman appropriate. The first true women's game was an accidental success: The Sims. This game was designed for men, but women tended to gravitate towards it since they had the ability to create their own world from the ground up with realistic challenges and minimal gratuitous violence. Even the women were only overly sexualized if they wanted them to be.

Now this little oops in the gaming industry happened in the 90's and a lot of things we can look back now and declare them to be silly, but really, did things ever change? As I mentioned in a previous article women tended to play games where there was  a story oriented reason for the gratuitous violence. Men didn't seem to care what you hit as long as it hit something. I am in disagreement with this statement, despite the evidence. I have found that all gaming evidence tends to be shady at best and it reads as if someone was simply telling the researchers what they wanted to hear. This is what I have seen. Let's start by exploring the current game market. I don't know about you but in my future I see Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, Bioshock Infinate, and Assassins Creed: Revalations. 

Hmmm. Well according to the research I've read. I shouldn't like these games. These are high action gratuitous violence games that will involve a challenge. The only women I will notice in Assassins Creed is the brothel women who I pay to hide me behind their beauty. Skyrim is a story led game, bonus, but a driving force will be fighting, ditto for bats. Bioshock is another high action adventure game. Oh my. 

Well I hate to tell the silly little researchers whose articles I read that I thoroughly plan on enjoying all of these games at some point. To say that I gathered all this information prior out of books that were theoretically backed by research, I think that they may have forgotten something. I think they forgot to ask the women what they wanted. In all the years I have been gaming, the women have seemed to have just as much fun with games designed for men, as the men do. I really do not understand the need for segregation. Granted women are a little more prone to games like Cooking Mama than men, but it's more a nice addition to the market rather than a stamp of the only games women want. 

What I would like to see from someone (with more money and research capabilities than me) is an honest to god study of gaming. Find out what men really think of games, what women really want in a game. How many more men than women game? Why? Is that case even still true. I am doing a lot of speculating  based off my experience and all that is saying is that men and women enjoy the exact same type of games collectively. However it's not the same as a legitimate study. 


Well this is feeling flaky even to me.
Corset signing off to get her thoughts together.

Weregeek

You would think that I should be accustomed to finding gamers in unlikely places. I mean I did stand on a soap box and speak out against stereotypes, however they keep popping up and leaving me speechless. It's odd when you are sitting in class and the girl two seats down goes nice d20 earrings can you use them? To which the guy sitting on the other side of me says, "I hate d20 systems. I like Gurps." Then as if I am not all adaze and in my geeky little euphoria as I am leaving the class my Professor stops me to ask me if the RPG in my bag is any good. Then goes to tell me that she is besties with the LARP coordinator in my area. I geeked out for a good hour after that at least. Now as for what this has to do with the title...

Weregeek is a online comic written by Alina Pete about a group of gamers and their exploits. Now I have seen a few of these floating around on the wide webs but this is the first one to ever really get my attention. The comic starts with a regular self declared not geeky guy, who is geeking out at the comic book store and I think most store owners will agree, you drool on it, you bought it.

This is where the twist comes in. Geeks are  persued by people called Hunters. Hunters are the Anti-Geek and kidnap them in order to reprogram them into 'regular' people. I think I like it best though because the hunters are used as an honest to god story villian. They are around but not so much as they get tedious. They appear at inopportune moments to remind everyone they are not out of the fire yet. This is a nice change from a lot of web comics where the declared villain never really goes away and is not actually competent. These are! It brings out the inner little girl in me and makes me giggle in evil delight that a story is being done in a way I enjoy.

Now as the Villian is not the prime focus of the story, you may ask, what is? Well it's the were geeks. If they geek out enough or go for long enough they change into a wereform where they will game and indulge in other geeky activities. Anyone who has ever been hard core into a game knows that really isn't too far off. I've been without a role playing group for almost two months and I keep finding myself spewing game information to anyone who will give me the time of day. Thankfully I've been able to harness most of my gaming excitement into Sunday nights where there is a place I can go to do some board games.

These geeks also have a life though. We do get to see some of the trouble caused by the main character and his nongamer girlfriend. That and a little crush one of the other girls have. We get to explore goth clubs and shadowrun adventures as well as D&D adventures.

I don't know about you but it's a real blast. If you need a taste...

This is the sole property of Alina Pete!

Not me. Not my Blog. Alina. 

Well, Corset signing off. I have a game of Descent to set up for.
Never stop gaming. ^_^

Faire Sunday!

Well, Corset has been playing with automatic updates and will check back Monday to see if I actually updated this weekend like I said I would. In the mean time I have run off to the Ren Faire for the weekend and this is a dose of regularly supplied filler. However the next filler page will come on Thursday not Tuesday. Until then stay out of trouble. Batman is watching. 

 

Corset signing off. 

Give me the Brain!

Give me the brain! I forgot what lettuce is... =D

Thank you Steve Jackson Games for this fun little card game. I know I've enjoyed it. Of course a lot of people are probably thinking 'what are you talking about?' 

And of course I will answer with, Give me the Brain! As for what that is, Give Me the Brain is a little card game where you have a starting hand of seven and the first person to get rid of all their cards wins. Of course it's really not that simple because you are doing this by playing a zombie in a fast food restaurant and there is only one brain between the lot of you. 

In this game, the brain takes the form of a six sided dice. We will come back to this. Let's start with the types of cards. The first type of card is an action. It will have some flavor text and either one or two hands on it. You only have two hands to work with each turn so you can not play cards that would equal more than this. It will also have an effect on it, and quite possibly a brain symbol. If the card has a brain on it, you can not play it unless you are in possession of the 'Brain'.

So how do you get the brain? Well the game starts out by everyone playing bid cards. These are just as simple as they sound. They will say bid and have a corresponding number on them, who ever plays the highest one wins the brain, and as an added bonus they are out of your hand. But oh no. Now HE has the brain YOU need. That's ok. Those brain symbols on action cards I was talking about earlier, if you do not roll the number on the card, he just dropped the brain. When the brain is dropped, bidding starts over again. However this is not the only way to acquire the brain. There are also cards that do things such as passing the brain to your left, or just making others drop the brain even if you can't pick it up. That stops one person from just emptying their hand. Not to mention, every round you can not play a card, you have to draw a card.

This really is a fun and quick little game. However I'll admit there must be some type of design flaw because I have played in games where it really did stall out for periods of time when one person had all the luck and even when he dropped the brain got it right back. It's real upside is it takes about five minutes to learn and as long as a child can read, they can play too. It makes it nice for family night or surprises when something comes up and all of a sudden there is not enough people for the big game of Descent you wanted to play. As for what Descent is, I'll talk about that soon.

Until then, Give me the brain! I need to make change! 

Corset signing off.

On A Lighter Note! Sheepadoodle!

Ok guys, I know I've been a bit dreary and deep the last few days so here is something on Sheepadoodles that I promised. First of all who just ran to google to get a jump start or sheepadoodles? Ya, when I first heard the word I did too. Well as you found out then, the sheepadoodle is a fairly recent breed that is the cross between an Old English Sheepdog and a Standard (or mini) Poodle. It's part of the attempt to create a truly hypo allergenic dog, that and have you seen one? They are the most adorable thing, you can't help but want to hug it.

Picture is courtesy of Sheepadoodle.com

I fell in love with the dogs. However as many people are aware getting a dog isn't as easy as going to the pet store. This was a hard reality for me when I first moved out of my parents home and found out my apartment wouldn't let me take my miniature dachshund with me. I didn't understand the problem. He was small, house broken, quiet, loved to chew but not on anything that the apartment owners should care about. Why couldn't I keep him with me? Well the answer to that was simple. If I wanted to take him I had to add $100 to my rent every month and when I moved out I might as well forfeight my deposit because of all the extra cleaning involved when someone brings a pet into the facility. So being the young woman that I was, I moped but I left him at home with my mother and his mini schnauzer friend where I knew he would get the love he deserved. It was here that the distinction between a hypoallergenic dog and everyone elses dog first came into play for me.

It was also about this time that I had begun dating my Significant other and he had a severe allergy to dogs. It was from him that I heard the term because his parents had adopted a dog from the pound that was theoretcially hypo allergenic. Now if you have even a smidge of medical training BS bells are ringing. People are typically allergic to the dogs dander. Any dog with skin will have dander. Where does the hypo come in?

Hypoallergenic dogs do not mean without dander, they simply mean less of it and controled. Hypoallergenic dogs typically mean they have hair, not fur so they do not shed and spread less of it around at the cost of monthly grooming. Certain breeds of dogs are also proven to have less dander than others so weekly bathing could eleminate the excess problem almost completely.

You can imagine how being a dog lover this concept began to greatly appeal to me, especially after I found myself to be in love with a man who couldn't own a dog for health concerns. It was a tough conversation to start but we did eventually begin to discuss options about owning a dog once we owned a house and I did some research to see what my hypoallergenic options were. The list was alphabetical and I was having some trouble finding out that just called out to me until I found the sheepadoodle. It was the most darling thing I'd ever seen and I knew that if I had to pick a hypodog I wanted it to be that one. At this point my mini dachshund has also been living with my mother for three years and it seemed cruel to take him away from her and his mini schnauzer buddy as he had really become her dog and he was highly allergenic.

As far as I can tell there are two main breeders in the USA. One being Sheepadoodle.com based of California and the other being Sheepadoodle.net based out of Washington state. Both want north of $1000 per puppy and as far as I am concerned it's money well spent. To get a sheepadoodle for hypoallergenic reasons means you need to know where the puppy came from and know for certain what is in it's back ground. If you don't you could end up in a situation where you have a dog that makes you sick and you can't give it the love it deserves.

So I don't know about you but corset is hoping that one day she will find a puppy with a bow on its butt for Christmas once we get settled in our house. ;) Between hypo allergenic puppies and the amazing leaps immunotherapy has made, I have hope.

Having a soft spot for puppies,
Corset is signing off.

Education as Hope

             Education is defined as the process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge in order to prepare oneself for mature life however to so many the process of become educated is more a chore than a passion to make something of their life. Where children should leave high school with a desire to go farther, and a basis to make an educated decisions when choosing the path they wish to follow, there are too many who see continuing there development as a chore expected by society with little ambition to learn the material, it is all to often that students learn with the premise that they will just have to ingest and regurgitate the information for the next test before letting the knowledge slip away. It is this misconception that calls for an increased demand in educators relying on application of knowledge.
The ability to build and reinforce critical thinking skills within the developing child is on the rise as the standards are changed and programs become more competitive asking for a new quality of students as employers demand a new quality of employee. The truly sad part about this is in many institutions they wait until the child is older before they start to instill these tactics when it should be one of the first things a child learns. A mass of knowledge means nothing if the child has no way to apply the knowledge and simply allowing them to flit through early years learning through trial and error is not good enough. It is during a young age that a child needs to be instilled with the desire to learn and to understand that it is their responsibility to take control of their own education.
It is this lack of understanding that causes epidemics such as the ADHD effect. An entire generation of children being raised with the idea that they can not learn because they have a disease. They are being taught that this is not their fault and they hold no responsibility in the matter and if they do not learn it is excusable because they have an alternative choice that society chooses to blame. It is children like these that are in greatest need but are given the least amount of attention because they require more theoretical work to instill knowledge within them and while in some cases, class size may prevent, in many, it is disregard for an unruly child that leads to something that can only be called neglect.
When I was still in high school I had an acquaintance that was due to graduate the same year as I and I asked her what she planned to do in college and she told me. She said that she didn’t know what to do, she had been diagnosed as having ADHD in early middle school and they let her into the learning disability program because of it. They had always given her the answers and she never had to actually learn the material for the tests because she knew the right way to ask a question during a test so they just told her. The worst part of it being, she was ok with this. The fact she could barely read at a 6th grade level and basic algebra was incomprehensible didn’t matter at all to the young woman because she thought it would work the same way in the real world. As a result she is now in remedial classes and will be for the next year or so before she ever comes close to taking her first class at the college level, all because no one had the desire to instill her with the want to learn, to take responsibility.
That is a core of education, to prepare children for the real world, and sometimes that means letting them find out at certain ages that things will not always work out for them. The world will not just fall into their lap but the message doesn’t need to be dire. All children should grow up with the desire to grow and learn. To bring good into the world and do no intentional harm and while it is an unrealistic goal, to get even one child to want for the greater good, to desire knowledge is a success. Letting a child know that no matter what background they come from, there are options can mean the world to someone. A girl I met recently, was ecstatic when I was speaking with her and she told me she was getting her GED but didn’t know how and I told her that the college offered a program that would help her if she needed it. She had come from poverty and had no idea it was ever an option she could get financial aid. I was appaled when I heard that not one of her teachers over the years had never informed her she had options for that was why she dropped out in the first place. She had a 3.5average and left because she knew she would never be able to afford college.
Events like this is what fuel me to become an educator. One should never walk away from a future and a career because they feel they are trapped, like there is no one there who can show them a better way. Instructors should always strive to show their students that there are other ways. The world is not black and white, there are always options and to live in ignorance is not bliss for ignorance breeds into disdain and into distrust of the unknown. While so many children will disobey and flaunt the rules, it is your patience, understanding, and guidance that you hope they will remember. The one who always took the time to listen, inspired some glimpse of hope, or gave them the benefit of the doubt, these are the instructors that people should strive to be.


Hope. It's contagious. Pass it on
Corset signing off.

My God Your God

Hi Guys! So if you haven't noticed, I like reading. I also like to interpret what I read it does not necessarily reflect my views on a subject just because I write on a specific side of it.  I am more than willing to have a civil discussion with anyone who wants to voice an opinion about the things I write. Just leave a comment.   =)

My God Your God:

The Misinterpretation of Religion Based on “The Call” from The Teachings of Rumi

To have religion, is to believe so firmly in something so implausible, that many are willing to die defending that idea because to lose it, to find it was never true would be too much to bear. Even if one idea is not so different from another, as a wise man once said, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another”₁ despite the fact that if you look at any deity worshiping religion you will find they all have four things in common: a god, even if it is divided into sub personalities; a prophet; a beginning; and an end. So the true question is, just as a rose smells as sweet by any name, does a god lose his power if you call him by another?

To read the book of Rumi, is to come to an understanding that no two religions differ from another except in the form of followers as the paths to Kaaba are many. For the book says, “If you are considering the different roads, the variety is immense and the difference infinite; if you consider the goal, however, they are all in harmony and one” and this is truth. As the book explains though prose and poetry, it is not god that has changed to our whims and diversity, nor god that has allowed our wars and devastation, God is eternal; it is man that changes. It was man who lowered his eyes to the earth and accepted what he saw as the truth, what he could hold in his hands as the valuable and this was the creation of sin, this was the loss of the path to Kaaba.

It is through this loss of religion, this rejection that the sin was allowed to perpetuate as the Sons of Man began to separate religion. It was during this separation that man chose to believe accept one prophet while rejection another and in this way it was said, “I am against this year’s sun but I accept last year’s when in fact this years and last year’s sun are not different in any way…the difference comes from the fact you really didn’t experience last year’s sun.” Just as it states, what this means is that when you refuse the present prophet after accepting the previous it to say that you never understood the purpose of the prophet to begin with, it is to say that you missed the grander meaning and knowing or unknowingly you have rejected God in this way. However just as to reject god through rejecting his prophets is considered to be blinded, the way to God is not always a virtuous one man would like to believe and many of the most devote found their way through desperation.

It is much the same as the story of the man on the wall. He was dying of thirst so one day in his anger he threw a brick and heard it splash down into the water becoming enthralled by the sound. After this he began to tear down the wall more quickly until a man asked him why he did it and he explained that the wall was merely an obstacle. The more he tore it down the closer he got to the water he sought and with every brick he tossed and the sound of the water splashing from the bricks was like being given new life. As the story further explains this is much how it is with god. The more you tear down your physical understanding the closer you get to god and all that he has to offer you. It is in discarding these physical objects that you bring yourself closer to his presence and he will fill you with new life for it is only your physical body that is mortal.

It is often through this realization that those who are led astray find their way back to the Lord after they realize that physical objects means nothing to God. It is courage and faith that the Lord looks for within a person and he rewards those with these traits. As the book teaches, when you approach a merchant to buy sugar he examines the bag you brought and fills it accordingly, it is the same with the lord. The lord will grant you knowledge based upon your courage and faith, and how much you are willing to learn for it is in learning that you can dispel ignorance and misunderstanding.

Like much in the way of religion, there is often a quarrel through lack of understanding. When dealing with syntax there is no end to the possibilities of mistake as the language is ever changing so even if two men say they both are seeking God, they may come to blows over the way they have learned to say the name. However this is not what matters. How you say his name is just as the pilgrimage to Kaaba, the act itself is empty if you do not come to the understanding of God as a being of understanding and immeasurable knowledge. For the pilgrimage to Kaaba means nothing if you leave only with what you came, if you did not feel the presence of the lord and realize that he is not in the stones, that he does not reside in the walls, then you have left with nothing.

“Become a fool so your heart stays pure- not a fool, of course, who lowers himself to stupid jokes, But one who’s lost and astounded in him” All the Lord asks is that by becoming a fool you will allow him to give you wisdom for the Lord knows all things and his way shall always prevail. All the Lord asks is that you accept that all beings are naught but fools compared to him and no matter what name you call him, he is all powerful and if you are following in the footsteps of his prophets than the perversion can stop for as a wise scholar one said, “The fact is that more people have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason. That, THAT my friends, is true perversion.”


Wondering where the hate came from...
Corset signing off.

Filler Tuesdays

This beautiful costume was hand crafted for the Gen Con 2011 costume contest. Poor dear was running late and was ambushed by photographers but she allowed us all one round before making a run for it. I had a jaw drop moment when she said it took her three months to make the costume. It would have taken me all year.

Happy Tuesday! Corset Signing off.

Gaia Online

Back in 2005 I stumbled across a site called Gaia online after a friend told me I needed an account. I looked it over and shrugged, why not. It gave me an avatar I could dress up. I could be social (god forbid). It gave me something to fill the gap when none of the real people I knew could talk. Win win right? Ok in case you guys haven't noticed when I get involved with something I tend to get a little bit excitable. Whether it will be a sheepadoodle you will hear about next time the new video game I've been pining after, I tend to get a little bit obsessed until someone comes and bursts my bubble.

When I first created the account, it was a forum based game. There was a town setting that your avatar could walk around in but I was not impressed. So I wandered aimlessly through the forums and decided, meh. I've got better things to do. So I logged out and walked away, or at least tried to. For the first few days it was just a passing thought. Someone had a really pretty item and I wanted it. Then well I can't leave my avatar half naked... I just want the one item. So three weeks later when I am devising a stratagy to make the most money on the site, I logged back in.

I started to peruse the forums again when I ran across my first experience with forum roleplaying. It was like writing a story where everyone got a character, I could get behind that, except I was finickier than I knew. The people in the public forum wanted to RP something like this
::  *walks to bar* Hello sir *takes out wallet* Can I have a drink?
And this irritated me to no end but hey we all have to start some where. So I asked the girl running the thread, can I type mine in paragraph form without the ** and she said 'SURE!! I would love that'. She also told me about another aspect of the site I had missed before. Guilds. They were meant to get people of common interest in the same place and she thought I might enjoy the RolePlaying guild that she was in. This is where my honest addiction started. I love to write. Whether its a poorly written peice for a blog, a critiqued short story, or a role playing forum, I love to write. So the guild this girl led me to was close to a place called heaven.

The site I couldn't have cared less about became the site I spent a great deal of my day and night on participating in as many role plays as I had the time to type responses for. I believe the most was being almost 10. I did a LOT of typing during that time since they all had literacy standards of at least one well written paragraph per response and I was typing on average 8-12 responses per role play per day. My mother was certian I was going to give myself carpel tunnel but so far so good, no pain yet.

Perusing this guild I ran into a out of character thread where I started to meet other people with simular interests to mine and who were pining after items as I Was. They told me I was questing. Ok if it was a quest then I would make it a spectacular journey.  I went to the charity forums and braved my way through tasks that each owner required to gain favor but then I realized something. By the time I was finished posting for the day in my RP's and talking with the virtual friends I had made in the Charity forums, I had more than enough gold for the items I wanted with one exception.

The site offered thank you letters every month for people who donated real money to keep the site afloat. Not being able to donate real money, I had to pay virtual currency for them, and each letter held two items. I could only keep up enough to afford one a month. This actually wasn't as big a problem as it sounded. There were several charities I had made friends in that made it their business to give out letters to those who couldn't afford so I rarely missed out on an item I wanted. This is about the time that the real world kicked into place.

Tradjedy struck in real life so I slowly back out of the site drawing away from everyone. THe last announcement for the site I remembered reading was one declaring a new invention. Gaia Cash. You had to buy it with real money and it would offer you an evolving item. I looked it. Declared it a bad idea I didn't have time for and left. For several months I didn't look at the site but when I came back, it was aweful. All my items that I had wanted had undergone massive price inflation and Gaia gold the original currency was all but worthless compared to the Gaia cash. I was horrified. The thank you letters were so far outside my price range I had a jaw drop moment. I went to my old threads. Many of which had shut down since there primary for of helping people was no longer valid amidst the new price jacking and many people had outright quit from the changes being made to the site. All my favorite roleplayers had moved on to bigger and better things and only a few stragglers remained.

My online community was broken. I tried to keep up with the new system but unless you could sink real money into the game it was fighting a loosing battle. Then I came to a conclusion. To hell with the items. Gaia had grown so much over the years that it didn't notice part of the population leaving when it had a new crew coming in who would pay cash. I ignored it. I roam here and there now days. Mostly in life issues forums to offer advice to those who are in need. I chit chat but the role plays hold little interest since many have returned to the old way of ** for actions that irritated me so badly before. The themes are redundant and no one seems willing to learn anymore. Because of this I roamed to find a new way to fufil my need to tell stories and I began to write short stories again. I started a blog. I have still have my human being role playing games but it's not the same.

I miss the site that was trying to pry its way off the ground and didn't force people to pay cash for virtual items, but that's just me. A lot of people seem to like it just the way it is. I don't. I was Gaia's cash shop system that made me think twice when google offered to put ad sense on my blog. I could make money for every click that was here! But it's not what I want. I wanted a place I could put my opinion. Type til my heart was content and maybe even say something insightful once in a blue moon. I like it just the way it is. As for Gaia. It grows every year. I hope their proud.

Girl in a corset signing off.

Sleepy Sundays

A happy couple going out for a nice bite to eat at the mall. <3 

Many thanks to the sweet splicer couple who was a good sport for my photos despite the fact they were trying to get a bite and rest. I know it's a filler day but this really made me think of Photo Etiquette at Cons. I know I try to leave people be when they have lunch in hand or are collapsed for a two minute break against the wall. So I'd like to hear some opinions on this. Is there a such thing as Convention Photo Etiquette?

Let's talk about Quarriors.

As a lot of people in the table top gaming universe will have noticed recently, it's that deck building games are the hot thing. What started out as Dominion and Ascension ruling the deck building world, it has grown much like a viral video. We all have our favorites but you get really tired of seeing them. I had this problem at Gen Con 2011. Everywhere I turned I was looking down at another deck building game and that was really cool for the first day and about a month after the con.

Then it went the bread route. Its a bit crunchy but you'll eat it anyway. There's a bad piece but the loafs still good. Is that forming it's own lifeforms? I think I'll go for soup instead.

I was getting really burnt out on deck builders. Even Dominion wasn't holding onto its glamour amidst all the rest and then I went to game night and the owner was demoing a game. Being curious I stuck my head in to see what was going on. There were cards on the board with abilities and associated dice. People rolled dice from a dice bag and depending on what they rolled they got to buy more dice. I don't know about you but I really like to roll dice. It's fun. It's got an element of change. It's all around fairly nifty, plus I kick butt at chance games. So next round I said count me in.

You have a starting 'deck'. It consists of 8 quiddity dice (mana) and 4 little guys. The little guys are nice. They have a few options on them. Three sides give you a guy to fight with, one gives you a re roll on two dice, and the third is quiddity, there silly but nice starter dice. So you toss all 12 into a dice bag, four are included with the game, and you draw six and roll them. You get to power as many monsters as you have quiddity for or you can use the quiddity to buy more powerful monsters or spells. Discard it all when you are done and next round draw six more. When you can not draw dice, you draw what you can, put your discard pile into the bag give it a shake and keep going.

Now I bet your all wonder how do you score. Well scoring is simple. Remember how I said you could use the quiddity to power out monsters. Well each monster has a point value assigned to him. When you use your quiddity to put a monster into play, he stays there. By stays there I mean you get one round of attack against everyone, then it goes into defensive mode. If it stays alive until the start of your next turn, you get to score it. When you score a monster you put the monster into your discard pile, you also get to cull a dice to make your bag run more effectively.

Neat huh?

Now despite the fact it runs like a deck builders, it doesn't particularly feel like a deck builder game to me. I think that's mostly the lack of shuffling. It's easy set up and easy clean up. They are talking an expansion in November. The game was not that expensive either for all the dice you got, dice bags, and the tin it came in.

That's not to say the game is all perfect. I enjoy it but there are certain things that I think are off balance. Such as the dragon. When there is a dragon in game it comes down to who can get the most first. They score the most points. They have ridiculously high offense and defense and there are few ways to counteract them which is a pain if you want to decide what to play with by random draw.

I know  a lot of people out there own the game and are reading this going and you didn't talk about this or this or this.... I know.  I don't want to bore people to tears by giving a 100% thorough examination of the game and every card. Other people have been there done that. I just want to provide a quick over view so the people who haven't heard of it can say, yes maybe I'll look into it or no thanks.

Girl In A Corset Signing off.

Anti Education Fashion

So, I was checking my email like ya do when I noticed a  human interest story. What can I say, I'm a sucker for some of those things. So I click the link and lo and behold a group of parents are having a hissy because one of the big labels were selling shirts to the early teen demographic sporting logos such as "I love school-Not" and "Algebra Sucks".

Ok Parents don't want that message being sent out to their children I get it, but the more I Read the more it because clear they were not made it was on the clothing, they were mad it was only on the girls clothing. They argued that young women did not need to be encouraged to hate school and stay uneducated. This is where I started to laugh. Now I am all for the educational equality of young women vs young men, however t-shirts of this ilk are far from new and as far as I can tell, have never hurt anyone.

Even when I was a little girl in middle school one of my favorite t-shirts said "No Time for School the Malls are Open". No one had a fit back then because it was just fashion and everyone was a lot more worried about the children who were faking eye problems to get Harry Potter Glasses and the little girls who wanted to don mini skirts to look like Britney Spears.

I think this dramatic change says a lot for culture and not in a positive light. When I was that age parents were out raged that little girls wanted to grow up so quickly and wear high heels and low cut t-shirts. Last May I attended my brothers graduation ceremony. My sister and I had a jaw drop moment when a seven year old girl sporting an Iphone, full makeup, high heel boots, mini shirt with a slit, and crop top cut in front of us followed by her clone mother. We sat there dumbfounded for a moment before my sister said something I won't forget, "There goes a proud moment for feminists."

To say that people are striving toward the equality of men and women seeing little girls dressed like that breaks my heart. High heels at that age aren't healthy. Neither is the idea you have to show as much skin as the law will allow to be popular and pretty.

In culture, the extreme is swinging back into popularity as the culture grows more open and understanding. Just as you had free love and all that jazz in the 60's and 70's today's culture is about fads and seeing how far you can make someone's jaw drop. Everyone is moving out of the closet and onto prime time TV to air dirty laundry and as a result it's taking a lot more to win the one upsmanship game these days and unfortunately the people who are learning the most from this are the ones who understand it the least. Too many children have free roam of television and the internet  and what they see is what they learn to imitate. Instead of parents raising their children the task is falling to day car centers and teenage children looking to make a buck, both of which are guilty of setting a child in front of the TV so they can have so peace and quiet.

My question to you today is, how young is too young? I've see this asked on internet forums and people will rage in response, but if everyone is so against the sexualization of young children why is it being encouraged? I've got a silly idea. Today instead of watching some show on TV or putting your child in a pageant or whatever it is you do, how about a family night. Talk to your kids see whats running through there minds. Play a game. Wasabi is a great one. I know some people are thinking I don't know what it's like to have kids there not that easy to communicate with and you know what, their right. I never said it was easy, I said I thought it would do some good if people took the time to explain their morals instead of guessing them off the latest celebrity list.

crabby girl in a corset signing off.
-Corset

Pokemon For Adults

Ok. Being the type of girl that I am I'll admit that I bought Pokemon Black and White when they came out and I played them both all the way through. However like many of the older Pokemon fans, it didn't hold the attraction that Silver and Gold had. Now I'm not picking today to start my Pokemon rant. Today I am actually talking about The Drunken Moogle. It was a blog I ran across that made me start thanking deities as I came across a loooong list of game themed shots and alcoholic beverages.


I enjoy a night out as much as the next person and I would just love to go to the bar and ask for a Charizard.


Charizard-
2 oz Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey
2 splashes of grenadine
2 splash of scotch
1.5 ounces Bacardi 151
Fill with ginger ale 
(All rights go to Drunken Moogle) 


Or Even to ask for a Tweedle Rum and Tweedle Tea (Alice: Madness Returns Cocktail)
It made my inner little girl giggle like mad while the adult in me was ready to whip open the cabinets and see what I could make. It was a nice change of pace and I like the trend. It gets old quickly to have to say some of the odd names associated with cocktails. I know I blushed the first time I asked someone to make me a "Rocky Mountain Muther F*cker" and you have to be careful how you ask for an "Orgasm".  


 They have brought some long awaited class to the drinking world and I hope that many of these will catch on. I look forward to trying the Bioshock Adam and Eve while I wait for the next installment of Bioshock to hit stores. 


It's drinks like these that give me hope I can go to a bar one day and not have to listen to cheesy country music or bad metal wanabee. It will be a place I can go with my friends and we can dress as we want and talk about games with out people harassing us or acting like we have the plague. I would love to see a club or a bar that played off this theme of gamers. To encourage the socially awkward that there is a place for us out there too and it doesn't involve fighting our way through whatever happens to be hip at the moment to have a drink with friends. Or even worse, some dive because it's the only place they don't judge us. A see a vision in the future of a type of bar where you can order these drinks and go play Fall Out in the corner or run a Table top in a back room. I may be a bit delusional about all this but you know what, I hate the bar scene as it is now. So even if this way is doomed to fail, it would be a fun ride.

I would even greatly enjoy a compilation bar tenders guide. 




I guess what I am trying to say is my top hat goes off to you Drunken Moogle.
Girl In A Corset Heading out for a long day and even longer night.
Drink Responsibly!

BMXXX

Video Games Literature Review

• Unlike the previous articles I read, this one demonstrates how this male dominated corporation can negatively effect the gaming industry as a whole diverting women from it before they ever have a chance to play. The author writes about her experiences with a game called BMX XXX. It is a generic cycling game. You can choose to play as a woman and can customize her as much as you want. The woman customized by the authors husband was a 75lb brunette with D cups that chose her cycling gear to be patsies with a white lace thong. The goal of the game other than winning the races involves things such as picking up prostitutes to deliver to the pimps. Unlike the races where you earn points, if you score high enough on these side missions, you are rewarded with nudity. They offer actual real life footage from a prestigious full nudity strip club in Manhattan as a reward. There is also a two player form that allows for a type of strip poker. The cyclist looses clothes based on points. It is games like this that has led the author to accuse the game designers of being misogynist. It is games like these that discourage women from ever considering the gaming industry as being enjoyable when it is displayed as a way to gain access to porn.
  
  However it would be very one sided if we only looked at this perspective. I have spoken with many women who don't find this to be a deterrent at all. It seems that woman have their own ideals they wish to customize into a female character just as much as men do. These ideals are actually not to far off. The women also seemed to want the female character to have a small waist and large chest in most cases. The only real difference was men tended to prefer blondes and women tended to have their avatars a little less imatiated with some meat on the bones but just as scantily clad. Given the option many women I talked to would dress characters in a way that would portray them as the stereotyped sexy or they would opt for as close to nude as conservation would allow.  
  
  I think this is in large part to the more open ideals of culture that has been cropping up in the past several years. Women have more options than they used to. Much like how there is an increase of 80 year old women getting a tattoo. I'll have more to say on this subject tomorrow. Let's stay on track here. ;)
  
  Girl in a Corset Signing off.
  
  

Filler Tuesdays

I have something important today. Wish me luck! 

No the Important thing was not regaining my mind from possession.

I absolutely love this photo from Gen Con though. Bravo both to the costume and the concept.  To see more of his Gen Con exploits check out their site at 

The Evil Team of Evil

Education Accomplishment

An education. Something millions of people within the United States take for granted on a daily basis. I know I was one of them. During high school I was one of the thousands of students every year who would have rather been elsewhere and like any girl worth her salt, where there a will there's a way. Looking back I wish I had only been as dedicated to my classes.

Well as many of you will have seen coming, I dropped out of high school at the point where my fellow classmates were about to graduate but didn't lose to much ground. In order to keep from getting cut off financially at age 17 I took the GED and actually received my passing results three days before my class took their walk down the isle. Go me. I'm three days ahead at this point. It's unfortunate that a piece of paper can not instill a desire to learn. I spent the next two years fumbling through college until I became CNA certified. I got full time employment. I could support myself and at age 19 I was out on my own trying to live my life. You can imagine that I found something was missing. So let's back track three months before my 19th birthday.

My sister in law (my best friend) was in rough waters with her husband. In an attempt to irritate him and try to be part of his life she decided after we had seen a movie she was going to drop by and surprise him at a Friday Night game night he attended with a girl she thought he was too close to. (That was years ago their fine now don't worry). Well we were in the same car so I said I'd drop her off, she could ride home with her husband. We pull into the lot and in the window there is a group of people having a good ol time laughing and smiling, you could feel the energy radiating off them. I found myself smiling. I had forgotten what it felt like to not just be drifting through life. She convinced me to go in with her, where a man convinced me to stay and join the games. If I didn't have fun or said I was bored he'd apologize and not say another word. This was the first time I met the man I fell in love with.

Fast forward again. After some resistance I joined his D&D group and saved my self the effort of falling for him and just dove. For the first time in years laughter came easy and for the first time since middle school he instilled in me a desire to learn. He'd tell me stories of History and we would discuss science and I wanted to know more. More than that, I wanted to be a girl he would be proud to say was his. It was a month after my 19th birthday I got my wish he asked me if I would go out to dinner with him one night.

That fall through many tears and fears I hadn't had the strength or desire to face alone, I was enrolled full time in college. Financially I was sinking in an unsustainable lifestyle but for the first time in years I had focus on education. I KNEW what I wanted. Where I was going. Most importantly I believed I could do it. The hard part was how. My family and I were on unstable terms and unwilling to help me any farther with college. They were convinced I had gone as far as I was going in life.

I wasn't done yet. Unable to get my parents tax information left me ineligible for even fafsa so I did it the hard way. I worked every hour I could get my hand on, I studied, and still found time for my new love to grow. It was an emotional roller coaster. We had fights. I cried. He'd help me study before finals. It seemed everything that could go wrong did at some point including my car, choosing the morning of finals where power had gone out so my alarm never went off, died. Yet I never stopped. Now two years later I ran down to meet the mail man every day for a month asking if the package had come that held my associates degree.

Of course the one day I give that it won't come on Saturday, So at 11pm I walked down to hte box and our little one only held a key. I thought it was another late present for my boyfriend's birthday. I nearly cried when I saw the college ensignia. After two years it was mine and no one could take it away from me. Even now as I work toward my Bachelors and one day my Masters degree, no one can take this love of knowledge away from me.  No one can take away this accomplishment like fire took my home, anger took my brother, no one could take this from me.

It is my only regret that I do not know how to instill this love into others. How to make them see as I wish I had seen. How do you make people understand that you can't give up. How do you make people want to right by themselves and reach all they are capable of. How do you mold them into someone great that will lead the country into tomorrow. They say children are the future. I look around my neighborhood and I want to cry. This can not be the future. It is school hours as I write this. A pair of teenage boys and a couple girls sneak past ditching back packs by a tree.

I could have called truency but I know better than anyone that forcing them to go will not force them to learn. It is the way they were raised I think. Their parents could do no better. I hear a slurred voice shouting through the walls. A woman shouts back. When does the cycle end. So many people who know its not their fault when all they have to do is rise up and say, this isn't good enough for me. I deserve better. All they have to do is act. I just wish I knew. How do you instill others with a desire to learn. How does the little girl that wanted to be a nurse grow into the woman who will never be more than an alcoholics wife? Why does this happen? How do we stop it? I don't know. I hope that one day I will look back and say, look how far we have come. I am afraid that this is unrealistic. Please America. Prove me wrong. Let America grow strong together through knowledge and wisdom. Never let anyone tell you that you are not good enough. Never stop learning.

Girl in a Corset signing off.
I believe in you.

Sketch Sunday

It is exhausting to write seven days a week on top of the real world.

Soooo, I am taking some time, Sundays and Tuesdays, to build up a better buffer and toss up art/photography fillers. I am an artist in progress so any tips on the subject would be greatly appreciated. This is a silly little piece I did in class (shame on me) with some pens and highlighters. To say I didn't have a pencil I am pleased. It was an experiment to work on angels and posing with someone who wasn't looking/standing directly at you. The color was mostly done with highlighter and pen though I played with it a bit when I found out my scanner was broken and uploaded it via web cam. >.> 

Girl In A Corset Signing off. 

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog

I have spent the better part of a week trying to determine how to explain this movie so I will start with the origin and we will see how it goes. Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog was written by Joss Whedon during the writers strike of 2007/2008 and made of a budget of less than $5000. It was originally aired as a three part webisode that became a phenomena starring Nathon Fillion, Felicia Day, and Neil Patrick Harris. It is filled with songs that you want to sing a long with and a deep message that astounds. 


To me Dr. Horrible, is the story of the death of a boy named Billy and his alter ego that takes over, but I am getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning of the film.


The opening scene is a man (Billy) manically laughing into a web cam where he then starts to explain that you can never be a great super villain without a solid evil laugh. At this point we first hear mention of Bad Horse. His idol. Moving on he goes to his fan mail and shows the results of a less than perfect heist but based on Billy's attitude we can guess that this is an improvement of previous attempts. Flipping through the fan letters he finds one that asks about who 'she' is, that he is trying so hard to  impress. Cue the first song. We find out that Billy is in love with a girl at the laundry mat. The end of the song is interrupted by his roommate and friendly henchman, his buddy Moist who has the mail. In the mail he finds a letter to be sung by the Bad Horse choir informing him that he still needs to impress the Evil League of Evil that he wants so desperately to be a part of. It all seems perfect. He already has a heist planned. What could go wrong?


Well to answer that, two things:

First of all, the girl from the Laundry mat (Penny) chooses now to speak to him for the first time. She wants to help the homeless and needs signatures for her petition.  Unfortunately he is too distracted to properly pay her any attention and she walks away when he's not looking.


Second problem? That would be his arch nemesis Captain Hammer. He enters the scene and proceeds to destroy the object Billy is using to control a van and makes it go wildly out of control while Captain Hammer flirts with a random woman.


Billy tries to regain control of the van when he is aware it would hit Penny. While he is doing this, Captain Hammer shows up and throws her into the garbage to save her but it wasn't needed. Billy had stopped the van not that Penny sees this. 


After a duet between Penny and Captain Hammer, Billy storms off infuriated with himself that Penny seems to like Captain Hammer and he was unintentially the cause of them meeting. End Scene One.

Scene two opens with one of my favorite songs that shows Penny and Captain Hammer going on a date and Billy stalking them. Then we go to the laundry mat where he seems now to be able to talk to Penny and gives her a frozen yogurt and drives a spork into his leg when Penny says she wants to see him again. Billy then blogs about his up coming heist where he finds out the police watch his blog as does Captain Hammer. Then Bad Horse Chorus calls. He saw the failed heist and Billy finds out the only way he can get in to the Evil Leage of Evil is if he commits a murder and he is appalled by the idea.  


He is conflicted and Penny tries to console him before she tells him Captain Hammer is going to meet her there. Billy panicks and while trying to get away runs into him. Captain Hammer recognises him as Dr. Horrible but doesn't tell Penny. Instead he tells Billy he will have sex with Penny just because Billy wants her and Captain Hammer gets what Billy wants.

This starts the process of Billy breaking. He decides that if he has to murder someone it will be Captain Hammer.  He focuses on this so intently that he ignores his friends and Penny who we see a scene of her waiting on him at the laundry mat.  End Scene two.

The Final part of the story begins with a song about how the world is finally looking up. Of course if you listen carefully, Penny is less than certain about her relationship with Captain Hammer, and Captain Hammer seems to think she is worth sleeping with twice. We don't see Billy at this point as it moves into Captain Hammer giving a speech at the new homeless shelter that the mayor gave him. Penny unable to stand his ego leaves the room. Nearing the end of the song Billy emerges from where Captain Hammers statue was supposed to be and uses a freeze ray to still him. With Captain Hammer unable to move Billy get's a song where he goes to kill Captain Hammer but finds himself unable to pull the trigger when the freeze ray breaks freeing Captain Hammer. At this point Captain Hammer goes to kill Billy but the gun malfunctions and we find out Penny didn't actually leave. When the gun explodes Captain Hammer experiences pain for the first time and runs screaming and Billy is fine, until he sees one of the shards hits Penny. 


Penny smiles when she sees Billy and tells him not to worry Captain Hammer will save them before she dies.  When Penny dies, Billy leaves broken. We see a musical scene where he is going through the motions but his face is blank. He got everything he every wanted, at the cost of Penny and this destroys him. The last scene goes from Dr. Horrible walking into the Evil League of Evil main room with confidence and malice before in the last moment switches back to a heart broken Billy alone in an empty room. 

To summarize, this was a spectacular film of musical brilliance. I never get tired of hearing the soundtrack and  have seen the movie more times than I can recall. I have never met anyone who didn't like it for that matter but would love to hear from you if you have a problem with it. I am always open to different perspectives. 


Loving to watch movies where the good guy looses to himself,
-The Girl in a Corset.

Lit Review

Male and Female Roles Literature Reviews

The Reviews focusing on gender and technology both had very much the same things to say about gender preferences on a more in depth level. A study was conducted to find out what women preferred in games and the findings were really not so different from the titles men said they enjoyed. When women were interviewed many of their favorites included games such as, The Sims, Prince of Persia, Halo, Final Fantasy, and The Legend of Zelda. It wasn't that women didn't enjoy the same games men did, it was that they were more direct in what they wanted. Women were more interested in “the presence of a good plot, rich characters, choice in how they perused goals, freedom of self expression, novelty in challenges, immersion in virtual environment and pick up and play flexibility.” Statistics showed that men tended to care less about the plot and self expression and more in the options of how they were able to kill things.

I apologize for the shorites the past few days, 

I have some major class work due today so by Monday there should be a good one coming up.

Don't forget to breathe.

-Girl in a corset

Literature Review: The Gendering of Computer gaming

The Gendering of Computer Gaming Literature Review

This article argues that the lack of female gamers in the public is the because of two main factors: men and leisure constraints. The latter plays a much more minor role as it states the most common leisure constraints are gender, race, income, class, and health status. However if you are a female then they are expanded to include time, marital status, and parental status. They use this point to transition into the belief that men are primarily to blame. Within the gaming community, men and women are proven to enjoy different genre of games. However, the majority of games are designed by men for men making this author argue that they are deliberate in making an uninteresting themes for women. They claim that men gender games in a way to make them uninterested or outright offensive to women in several ways. They tend to be looked down upon by women because in many actions games, you are rewarded for gratuitous violence and this reward is either in points or in the case of many games, by looking at stereotypical woman. This brings us to the second point. In many games there is an outright lack of females characters for them to relate to or the females present are stereotypical and hyper sexualized. This is the reason he argues that there are more women who participate in MMORPG's because there tends to be less gender discrimination since who is on the other side of the character is never known. He explains that this is the reason that female gamers tend to be more private and casual about how they game instead of competitive and outspoken

Fright Night (2011)

I could just as easily write a piece on the 1985's Fright Night and use that as a great excuse to rewatch the original movie, however I am enjoying the modern era with one big understanding. The 2011 Fright  Night movie is drastically different than the original. As long as you watch it bearing in mind they took the theme not the movie, I had a blast.

**SPOILERS!!!!** 

This movie starts with an opening scene of horror as we look upon some of the dead and a boy trying to hide under the bed beside his fathers corpse and trying to load a gun. Short scene, the boy is discovered. Let's remember this later.

After this, the movie actually starts. Our young hero Charlie Brewster is waking up on his way to school where he gets a ride from his hot girlfriend and her hot friends in a convertible. In this version of Fright Night Charlie has abandoned all of his old geeky friends and the games of his past to become part of the cool kids club in hopes to keep his girlfriend Amy. He is briefly teased about getting a mocha instead of coffee in the morning but they all laugh it off and he seems to be fitting in just fine and everyone goes to class. There are a few absences. (People not going to highschool! The shock!) Well one of his oldest friends who Charlie is trying to detach himself from thinks there is a pattern that points to Charlie's new neighbor as a vampire.

Jerry, the vampire. Of course that makes sense. Charlie doesn't think so. Jerry has just moved in and seems to be an all around nice guy. Night construction worker. Polite. Handsome. After listening for a moment Charlie goes to blow him off until (lets call his friend Ed since I forgot his name) threatens to black mail him if they don't break into one of the missing kids homes after school.

Well they do sneak into the home and find nothing except a good reason to get into a fight and declare their friendship over. At this point Charlie goes home and his friend attempts to leave. Charlie arrives safe at home however Ed starts getting harassed by a bully from school and jumps a fence to get away from him. He runs for a few moments before running into Jerry of all people. He and Jerry converse where Jerry is convinced it doesn't matter that Ed told people he is a vampire. Then we see Ed fall into a pool where Jerry goes for a snack.

The next day Charlie notices that he is absent as well from school and starts to feel a bit bad about the way he acted. So like a good friend he goes to his house, lies to Ed's parents about having seen him, and then goes to steal all his vampire research where he finds video evidence that Jerry is a vampire.

Of course Charlie being a teenager finds this out at the expense of being laid. So his angry girlfriend leaves and Charlie goes to see an expert.  Peter Vincent is an alcoholic vampire expert/ fraud depending on how you look at it. If you want to flash back to the dead family in the intro of the movie, that boy that was hiding was Peter.  He doesn't believe in fighting vampires, only escaping them. However he is rich with an ridiculous arsenal of vampire fighting gear even if at first he throws Charlie out. He comes around. Later when Amy and Charlie go back to him in comes Ed. Ed was changed by Jerry but that doesn't last long before Charlie kills him with the help of Amy.

Fast forward a bit because we all know where this is going. There is some fighting and running and then woe is Charlie, Amy gets kidnapped. Peter is still be reluctant about physically helping but he comes around like I said and they go to kill Jerry with a stake blessed by St. Michael to turn Amy back. Its in this little bit that you find out Jerry killed Peter's family. Oh my. They rough house in Jerry's basement for a bit with a few of his other minions before Charlie kills him and then we do a slight time skip. Everyone still alive is ok. Amy is turned back into a human. Amy finally get to sleep with Charlie which she has been trying to do for half a movie and life moves on with them more aware and better people.

I know some parts of this make it sound awful but if I wrote enough to give this movie justice and tell you every thing that happened I could write a small novel. Like I said, take it with a grain of salt. Realize this is a drastically different movie than the first one and enjoy yourself.

The girl who loves Fright Night signing off
-The girl in a corset.