Its been so exciting to see my Twitch presence grow! Its not something I expected at all. I mean, I didn't really expect to have kept Twitching for as long as I have. I get bored pretty easily, especially if it feels more like work than it does play. So it shows the amount of fun I've been having with Twitch and you. The growth I've experienced only fuels that fire. 50! I have 50 followers. And if I can get 50, I know I can get 100!
Sooooooooooo, here's my next goal and it comes with a treat to sweeten the pot!
My birthday is August 24th. I'm going to shoot for 100 followers by that date. If I do, I will be doing a give away! For those of you that are already followers, your job is done and you've automatically been entered. But lets get more joining us for the fun in the evenings! Tell people its as easy as pressing that Follow button!
I'll be giving away the following several Steam gift cards so that you can pick the game of your choice!
You can't win if we don't get to 100, so please encourage your friends on Twitch to swing by and see how they like the stream. And if they do, they can hit that Follow button and win some presents from me on my birthday!
Click HERE to go to the Event page for this party. And click HERE if you want to Follow me!
Thank you to everyone who help me achieve my first milestone on Twitch! As much as I really like to play games, having the ability to play games AND share it with a whole community of like-minded people makes it that much more fun! And I hope that you guys are in it for the long haul because I've only just started.
One of the main things I use as my touchstone is "What do I like about playing games?" Because chances are if I like something about gaming, say transmog, then its pretty likely other people do too. I don't worry if people don't like it because everyone has their 'thing'. So if this person likes a 'thing' then someone else does too, and so on. And on it goes until the whole community is one big circle of sharing our 'things'. So for my part, I share the things I like and do it the best I can so that every time you tune into my channel, you find yourself enjoying your time and maybe encouraged to try something new or share something that people didn't know or think about before.
So without getting too heavy handed in my philosophies, I feel honored by your time, your comments, and your support.
I would also like to give special thanks to all my ladies in the Girl Streamers Community. It's rare to find a group of people so open and welcoming. And then add to that, people that are so free with helping hands and encouragement for no other reason than they want to be. Thank you for including me and here's to a mutually beneficial arrangement in the future!
The Manaan Stronghold is finally here. Basking pristinely in its vast oceanscape, its rounded metallic roof and walls seem a fitting residence for kings and queens of this habitable domain. That is once you pay the 2.5 million/2500 CC price tag, of course. But we knew that was coming. In fact we'd been warned in advance that this was yet again another credit sink. So was the prize worth the price tag? Let's start with some observations - good and bad.
The eye can be deceiving when you are finally plopped down on the flight platform from the cinematic. It looks huge. Not quite Yavin 4 huge, but large nonetheless. The long entryway leading to the interior has some pretty fountains and other water features. The lines are clean and rounded giving the overall appearance of tranquility. There are several outside wall hooks and a decent assortment of small, medium, large, and centerpiece hooks around the grounds.
And a hint - you get a starship hook as well. Don't see it? Look up and to your right as your facing the front of the building. You'll see a bit of purple hook peeking over the edge. First impression is that this is a really nice outside set up.
And then you reach the front door.
Irritated is probably the first word that came to mind as I clicked on the door only to be asked for another 2 million credits. I mean I haven't even come in out of the rain yet, so to speak, and they've got their grubby mitts out again. Ok, fine. I knew it was a money sink (thinking of Yavin 4 again), I paid the extortion. Bear with me, please. Yavin 4, for the initial price you pay, gives you a large landing pad, a rough trail to the building with some leafy tropical plants blowing in the breeze, a large entryway room. So stands to reason that expectations are pretty high that if we are going to pay 4 million credits for anything, that we'd get a slightly better return on our investment. Instead, we get a hallway. And an elevator. Let's just say I was less than enthused at this point. I've paid 4 million credits and I don't even have a proper room yet.
The first hint of a bright spot was when I rolled the dice and went downstairs first. Stepping off the elevator the first thing that draws your eye is a large glass dome in the middle of floor. And below that you see coral reef, fish swimming by and bubbles rising. I could probably stand there all day and watch it. I had kind of hoped that every so often something large and dark would swim by but I figured an animal of that size wouldn't hang out in the shallower waters of a reef. But you do get a pufferfish-looking dude hanging out in his spot, so I figure I'll take what I can get. His name is George, just in case you were wondering.
However, if you spend a little time looking out of the windows of your new Underwater Observatory rooms, that large, dark thing will indeed swim by. Score!
My attitude by this point is, "Well, I'm already bleeding credits. Why stop now?" I go ahead and pay for both Underwater Observatory rooms, and the Rooftop Garden. This time I feel grateful that they gave me the outside terrace as well as the garden room itself as a package deal.
All in all I was pleased with the number of decoration hooks this place has to offer. Some of them are put in some curious places though. In the Observation Rooms, there are two flooring or carpet hooks, but they are located at the far ends of the room from each other, only leaving a large centerpiece decoration in the middle. So no carpet in the middle?
Another pleasant surprise is the change they made in the centerpiece hook. You now have several different layouts to choose from should you not not want one big massive piece in the middle of the room.
The outside terrace of the garden rooftop is one of my favorite spots. There is a nice hook space with two centerpiece squares, a handful of medium hooks and large hooks on the pillars. May be time for my Rishi Tiki hut idea?
Ultimately, Manaan's stronghold is a beautiful, tranquil money sink. For as large as it looks, its surprisingly very small. I felt like I probably should have gotten more space for all the credits I spent. If you are a player where credits are not an object, then I'll think, overall, you'll be pleased with some of the aesthetic things you get at Manaan that you don't get elsewhere. But if you're looking for space, or even a revolutionary stronghold experience, you'll still be waiting for one. Its knacky pleasant points don't make up for the negatives. I guess where I feel the most disappointed is there was such an opportunity for innovation when planning this and instead we got as-minimum-an-effort-as-we-could-get-away-with. With a 8,375,000 credit price tag. Awesome.
I had not planned on going to Salt Lake Gaming Con. We're saving our ducats to go to Salt Lake Comic Con in the fall. But I received an email a little after 12am on Friday morning saying that my order had been completed. Not sure why or where I had managed to land myself a free Friday only ticket, but there it was with a beautiful QR code attached. Now I'm not usually able to drop everything and travel 40 minutes away, and almost never with my kids. But Friday's schedule was particularly open and I had some extra money. And so go we did!
SLGC is a smaller venue compared to SLCC. But what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in excellent utilization of space, variety, and activities. How things are arranged to allow through-traffic is important for someone like to who utilizes a wheelchair. One of my main complains of SLCC is that because there are so many of us Con-lovers, it tends to start to feel a little claustrophobic with the push of bodies all around me. While SLCC organizers have gotten better each year planning the layout of the con, I don't think they've yet found that magical formula to be wide in the places that need it to be wide to allow for a lot of traffic, but narrow enough so they can offer the largest possible variety in vendors and artists. Gaming Con had all the good in spades. Wide through-ways and bigger crowd-attracting events kept in places that were easy to find, yet out of the way. To be somewhat fair, to SLCC, my children and I were there at Gaming Con on a Friday afternoon, so foot traffic is anticipated to be less than in the evening or on Saturday. But seems to me that even if they got a huge influx later on, the layout would more than handle the increase.
There is a lot to do at Gaming Con. The commercials, I don't feel, gave a very good indication of what you could expect to find. On the south side of the hall, they had two very large projector screens and stages set up for the different types of competitions. Below each stage was at least 6 or 7 rows of seating for onlookers. In between the two stages was a large section of floor dedicated to computer gaming. It was my understanding that this section would have also served as competition space for games specific to the PC. Equipped with power strips, CAT5 cabling, chairs and sturdy tables, it was a great set up for LAN parties and online competitions alike. Beyond that were several islands of large screen TVs and consoles that anyone was welcome to play on. No sign-ups or lines, just people being nice and courteous to other people who share a passion. This, of course, was my sons' second to favorite place at the con. It was also nice for me to have them occupied for a while.
Beyond that the computer gaming area was the vendor area. I can't say much about it other than it was the standard con fare of t-shirts, jewelry, gaming gear and so on. What I was impressed with was the presence of both Microsoft and Playstation.
Both had very interactive booth areas where people could come and play. While it shouldn't be surprising that console/PC gaming companies would be here, if you think about it, it is. Gaming Con is a relatively average and locally influential con, much like other cons of its size. But its only appropriate that these companies make a presence here because you go to where the people who buy your games are.
There was a very good selection of artists in Artist's Alley. This however was where my one small complaint was. There was one very long alley to traverse, but then the rest seemed to spread out in these little awkward islands of artiness. Some of these poor folks I didn't know were there until we were searching for a bathroom and came up behind their booths. I hope that in future dates, Gaming Con does a little better of keeping all the artists in places where their patrons can find them.
At the north end of the hall, I regret to say we did not spend much time. This was the area set aside for tabletop gaming of all kinds. I saw Warhammer, D&D, Pathfinder, Magic: The Gathering, and on and on. It was wonderful. Stuff like that tends to take up a lot of time and while I would have loved to participate, the thought of playing a one-off game of Pathfinder while my kids are pulling on my sleeve was not appealing. I also noticed too late that this was also the area where one could find the con's Gaming Library. Shelves and shelves of games, old and new, were available to check out and try out. What a great way to learn new games and teach old ones to new people! Like I said, we noticed this one late in our day so there wasn't time for me to really get a good look at the availability list, let alone sit down and try to teach my kids a new game. Guess that will be something I save for next time.
Now last, but definitely not least, was KidCon. I kept saying in my head over and over that I wished that KidCon at SL ComicCon looked just like Gaming Con's. My boys had a blast. This was easily their favorite spot. Particularly large kudos to the gentlemen running the Zombie Invasion nerf gun arena. My boys were in nerf heaven. And all the running, ducking and shooting they had to do worked off a lot of the extra energy that makes taking kids to cons so hard on parents. Also in this adorable little area of the con was the Kart Racing Track. Kids, in waves, could take turns scooting a little kart around a small track to see if they were the 'winner'. No prizes were being given out but I can guarantee they didn't need any. These kids were having a ball. Even a group of cute girls in their anime cosplays got in on the action. How I wish my phone hadn't died 60 seconds previous to this adorable spectacle.
If activity wasn't your kids' thing, they definitely had something for them too. There was a crafting table, a green screen photo op designed to make your kid look like a super hero, and what would our local cons be without our lovely, resident princesses and action heroes to take pictures with? All in all, I was extremely pleased with the organization and variety of Gaming Con's KidCon. This is what most kids need. Something interactive and active to do, as well as the quiet and artistic things. I hope that Bryan and Dan take that into consideration for this fall's SL ComicCon offering.
What a great way to spend a triple-digit degree summer afternoon! We all got to play, shop, and participate in all things geeky, and to me that is the best kind of day. In my decidedly inexpert opinion, I would guess that we'll see Gaming Con swing by again next year, and I hope that as SLCC has done, they'll find their numbers grow exponentially.
As a bonus, I also recorded a little vlog for my Twitch channel giving a mobile and visual overview of the con. Enjoy!
It has finally been confirmed that the upcoming release of 5.3 on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 will also include a new purchasable stronghold. What had been kept under wraps was where exactly this stronghold would be located. I had been privy to some unverifiable information about a month or so ago that this stronghold would be, in fact, located on Manaan. But in typical fashion, SWTOR Devs were all like "Hey, we can neither confirm or deny the presence of a Manaan Stronghold, and any information appearing to confirm any specific location is most likely rumor." Yeah, nice one guys. Its sort of like calling your favorite store where they tell you your favorite long time cashier is "No longer with the company and pursuing other employment opportunities." We're not fooled. Thankfully, that time has passed and they are now only extending the finest veneer of 'unconfirmed' because they like the surprise of Patch Day morning, I guess.
According to questions regarding the new stronghold, Dev Musco stated the following about it: "MAN, whatA great question. Let me see if I can get you ANanswer to that ." ** Emphasis added by me. Except the capitalized letters. Musco did that.
He then went on to give a run down on the costs for initial purchase and how much each wing will cost to be opened. Even if there wasn't such an obvious hint in his initial response, anyone with half a brain would have figured rumors confirmed simply by the names of some of the rooms alone.
I'm personally very excited for the new stronghold. I tend to favor strongholds with light colors and rounded features. And Manaan sounds like this will appeal to me on both counts.
I admit that I'm a bit of a cheapskate. Part of it, I think comes from my perfectionism when it comes to my creations. If its not really doing what I want it to do or look, then what's the point in paying all kinds of money for something I'm going to make it over in my own way anyway? Now, this is not to say that I haven't bought patterns before, or that I discourage people from supporting the super creative people we find all around us. I just like it the way I like it. And it may not be the way the pattern calls for. But I am more than happy to throw out kudos to where kudos are due for those amazingly smart and innovative folks who not only make beautiful pieces but have the wherewithal to actually write their patterns down. In an understandable way. Unlike me who makes stuff, says "I'm so awesome." and then can't remember how I got it to look so awesome.
So I present to you my lapghan project "Stormy Summer Afternoon". I found a fun and easy pattern written by Heather Davidson from the UK. I love how much the stripe and texture make a nice visual impact but its so easy a beginner shouldn't have a problem tackling this!
Yarn Colors: All yarn was Caron's Simply Soft
- Off White
- Light Country Blue
- Country Blue
- Grey Heather
- Charcoal Heather
Hook Size: I or 5.50mm
I don't list how many skeins you're going to need because this pattern is so versatile that you can make it as big or small as you want.
So far, I estimate I'm about halfway through the project. Watch me on Twitch on Sundays for my Creative Day as I work on this project! And I always need motivation to finish my projects! Hang out, ask questions, talk about geekery and fun times will be had by all! And don't forget to Follow!
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