Gamer RAGER Mom

     It's another day and another time to empty the cranial cavity.  So glad I have an outlet for all of these thoughts, ideas and random bits of blarney.

    Hello.  My name is Regina, and I am a gamer... HI REGINA!  I have 3 kids I game with, and also without.  I blame them for this......I am a victim, a victim I tell you!  No, just kidding. (maybe)  I have always liked video games.  I was not very good at most of them, but loved them anyway.  I grew up in the era of gaming.  Pong, to Pac Man, to Mario and more.  I love most types of games, but my favorite are RPG or Role Playing Games.

     I like to play them online with live people.  Most of the time I don't tell anyone I am old enough to be their mom, since it freaks them out.  I play with my kids a lot and by myself late at night.  Either way, I come across a heck of a lot of gamer rage.  For those not familiar with this... here is a little peek...

     A girl gamer has problems.  She gets trolled.  For those not familiar with this term it means they will hit on you in juvenile disgusting ways, or make fun of you by saying girls cannot game.  You learn quickly to mute a troll or it is guaranteed to cause you to rage.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen this phrase written to me, my daughter or another fellow female gamer, "Woman!  Git back in that kitchen and make me a sammich" 

             When you find a fellow female gamer, you friend them! (nice alliteration there, Gina :-P)  

     I try to look for people who are a bit more mature and then tell them not only am I a female, but a mom.  An older mom. GASP... (you can actually hear this in your head when you tell them.)  There is always a big pause.  Then you usually get one of two reactions.  "COOL!  Wish my mom would play with me!" (which makes you feel good about yourself for playing with your own kids)  And then there is this reaction, "Whoa! REALLY ?  A girl plays this and she's a mom! Like an OLDER mom!"

     As a gaming mom I had to learn a whole new vocabulary!  Words like noob, pug, rager, QQ, QQ'er, troll and other magical words!  Never say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, cause this bitch learned a whole new language!

     Have I ever raged during a game?  Ummmm weeeeeeell, maybe.....okay yes, yes I rage.  You can get so caught up in fighting with your team, that when someone does a completely noob thing it makes you mad! They might cost you the game! (noob is a new person to the game or gaming)  So yes, I have hollered, cussed, tossed my mouse in frustration and raged.  This is one of the reasons I do not get on Skype when I play. (must maintain that motherly ladylike decorum you know)

(noobs always focus the tank in a team fight...sigh)

     My husband knows when I am playing because apparently I do something odd with my feet while fighting.  He will then say, "It's okay baby, calm down...you won't stay dead forever.  Your little person will come back, just watch... see?  There you are!"  The screen darkens when you are "dead", and he will also pass by and say, "watching another black and white movie I see". (grrrrrrrr) lol

     If you would like to game with your kids, I wholeheartedly suggest it!  I have done the 4-H and cheerleading, band, choir, brownies, parades, floats etc.  This is completely different and is still a great way to spend time with your kids, see what kind of modern electronics appeal to them, and keep an eye on what they are doing and whom they are doing it with! It keeps you current.

     I don't say that raging is right, nor does it accomplish anything. (other than to possibly damage your mouse or keyboard with the banging)   I try to teach my kids to stay calm, to be kind to the noobs, and to think before they commit to an action in game that can affect their team or the outcome.  I use gaming as a teaching method for dealing with people of all walks of life and all ages. I try to teach good sportsmanship, tolerance, spelling and grammar skills as well. (they just have no clue I am doing it)

     When I win, I win with grace and dignity...no really.... I do...(roflmao)

       Hope this made you laugh, and if you want to game with me... give me a shout!  Have a great day!

     

Politically Correct

Hi all... it's another day in my head.  Time to empty out the thoughts and ideas before it explodes!
Today I am pondering if there is such a thing as TOO politically correct.

     So as a lot of people know, and for those of you who do not... I am short.  I've always been short.  There are many ways of saying this.  Tiny, petite, small, little etc.  If someone tells me I am short I feel like I should say, "Good Job!! Yay... you have 20/20 vision yaaaaaaay."

  lol  Then I could jump up and give them a high five and miss since I cannot reach their hand because I am short!  I am not offended because, get this... I am short!

     When I was young, (note I didn't say little lol) I couldn't reach the cabinets to get glasses, bowls, plates etc.  So I climbed them!  Now that I am older I still cannot reach the cabinets, but because of arthritic knees I can't climb anymore. I found a solution... I had a son!  (step stools are great but dangerous or annoying because you have to move them constantly or find place to store them)
     In school people used my head for an arm rest walking down the hallways.  It annoyed me but I wasn't really offended.  Kids would ask, "how's the weather doing down there?"  You hear that so many times and all you can think is (that is so not original, or is that the best you've got?).
     As a baby I wore baby doll clothes my mom made from McCall's dress patterns.  As an adult the pants drag the ground so much I have holes in them so I am automatically cool and in style with the teens! lol  As a child I got hand me downs from my brothers, and now I get them from my kids! (still savin' and not offended)
     As an adult the kids measured their growth spurts against me. (they all passed me up by the age of 11).
     Going furniture shopping is fun!  I get to sit on the furniture and let my legs stick straight out or dangle uselessly in the air!  Wheeeeeee!

     Two years ago for Christmas, my mom and cousin gave me a pretty white rocker for my front porch.  I loved it!  I hopped up there... and then the room erupted in laughter.  I couldn't push against the floor to rock as my legs didn't reach!  Well it was funny, and I was not offended.  I learned as a child how to rock and swing without having to touch the ground. Easy Peasy...
     Today my daughter witnessed something that shocked me.  A woman, who is short, was so offended at being referred to as short, she lashed out claiming the person should have been politically correct!  She WANTS people to call her diminutive in stature, vertically challenged, height unrealized?  COME ON!  lol
     Short is short.  There is nothing wrong with it!  People who see (visually lucky?), tend to describe what they see with the best or most descriptive words possible.  If I see a bald man I am going to say bald man, not  follicly  challenged.  My friend, who is blind, is not sight challenged, or visually impaired.  I think those terms imply something negative like they are less than normal.  When my kids build a snowman it is not a snow person.  I don't think they need to make it anatomically correct for you to understand what it is or is not!
     There is nothing ambiguous about short, whereas saying "a person of color" is!  I don't know if they are Indian, Asian, black, etc.  I have friends and family who are gay, black, blind, deaf, short, fat, tall, hairy, blonde, freckled, missing a limb  etc.  Now by my description above, you can imagine them to a point.  If more description is needed, I will fill it in.  By making my description ambiguous it muddies the image I am trying to achieve.
     I am not saying that there are not offensive words out there, certainly there are, but do we now go too far in attempting to not offend someone?  If I call my friend fatty fatty two by four can't get through the bathroom door...that is offensive!  Shouldn't we just rely on most of the people to not purposefully offend rather than assume everyone will?  We need to create special phrasing?
     I am not white. I am a peachy pink ivory color, but I don't demand someone try to describe me that way.  My black friends would crack up if I referred to them as caramel mocha with a drop of cream.  Hey wait.. that sounds delicious, maybe they would want that?!

     I can see that some forms or descriptions need to be addressed, but hey people let's not take it so far that it is ridiculous!  I mean it's not like there is an online dictionary of politically correct words... oh wait, there are several!  (see the links at the bottom)
     Who is to say that the "new" politically correct terms won't be offensive in 20 years?  This is a hot topic in that there are many young people today referring to themselves, and others, as retarded.  Not cool and pretty offensive.  Many years ago this term was normal.  It was spoken clinically by doctors to mean something completely different than how it does today.  This just goes to show how words can develop over time from one meaning to the next and to evolve into an offensive term.
   
I hereby demand to be called a munchkin-American!

     I leave you with these politically correct dictionary websites!  They are a great read and good for a belly laugh.  Have a great day all! :-)

A small glimpse into our crazy or mentally challenged thinking.

Check this link for all of your P.C. needs!

Haircuts from Hades

So today starts the first post in my world of blogs.  Sometimes I just get so full up of things to say I feel the need to write them down.  I am bursting with topics I feel so passionate about and this will be my way of telling the world....so... hang on world... here goes.

     We all have hair, and all need to get them trimmed, cut, dyed, permed, curled or straightened.  Whatever it is that you wish to do to your hair is totally up to you.  Or is it...dun..dun..duuuuunnn...

     Today my son went to get his hair cut.  He is 17.  He'd been letting it grow out pretty long in order to get a specific style cut in.  He is in a musical at school and needs to look "surfer-ish".  The dress rehearsal is tonight so they are awaiting his perfect cut for the musical.  
     I send him to the stylist to get a haircut like Peeta, from Hunger Games.  I send a phone with pictures of several looks for the same haircut, so there could be no mistake.  I send my 24 year old daughter to supervise. We choose the most experienced looking stylist!  I feel I've got this thing in hand.  Nothing can go wrong. 
      The picture is shown.  The stylist says, "sure I can do that easily".  When asked if she wants the phone left with the picture on it (to refer to of course), she declines saying, "No... I've got it!"
     You can guess what happened the second she was left unattended.  She got out her trusty dusty clippers and ZIIIIP  straight up the back of my son's head. My daughter glances up to see the clippers in action.  It looks like a scene straight from Edward Scissorhands with hair flying everywhere!  The only thing lacking is the great Vincent Price to complete the scenario.

     My daughter is texting me frantically while racing back to the stylist's chair.  Too late.  When the dust clears and the last hair settles, my son looks nothing like Peeta, not even like a surfer dude, not even like a clean cut boy next door with layered locks.  It has been buzzed.  The back of his head looked like he was going into the Army.
     Why is it that everyone wants to make my beautiful son look like a Hitler Youth?  I feel like he should step out and thrust his arm up shouting, "Sieg Heil!"  With his blonde hair and blue eyes, and now his buzzed head, he definitely could get a role in a production of Hitler's Youth: The Real Story.

                                               (Note the lack of hair on the back and sides.)
     Needless to say my tirade over the phone to the manager resulted in a soft and lackadaisical, "oh, sorry."  Then it was followed by, "well... we can't glue the hair back on...".  REALLY?  I wanted to know WHY that stylist performed a hack job that rivaled the woodcarvers at the county fair, and my son looking like a bald eagle.  She was told how important this cut was, and given everything she needed to cut that  feathered and layered look, which could quickly be styled into a G.Q. look.  There was not a single buzzed tress in that picture.
     I asked my son why he didn't say anything.  He replied, "well, once she buzzed that first stripe, what could I say?!"
     I don't know what it is around here, that when a teenage male walks in and asks for a cut, he gets a buzz.  He doesn't chew t'baccy and sport bib overalls.  He isn't named Bubba and has all of his teeth.  He isn't Eminem and walking in with tats, bling, and a hitch in his stride.  He supports cancer survivors by wearing pink and running marathons in a tutu, not by shaving his head.  What makes a stylist decide to do whatever haircut she wants, regardless of what the client asks for?  
     This is not an isolated incident.  This is the 4th time this has happened!  It didn't matter if I was standing there or sitting in the waiting area.  It didn't matter if I took him, my husband, or my daughter.  Different stylists each time and the same result.
     My husband goes to the same salon, and has never been given a buzz.  I tell them what haircut I want, and it is done.  My son sits in the chair and the clippers come out the second I turn my back.  Normally I bitch and move on.  This haircut was important and if she couldn't do the haircut she should have said so, and then given him to someone who could, rather than do the easiest thing to make money!  
    Apparently out here in the country, surfer dude = buzzed Nazi youth or Bubba Buzz!

  






This is the picture we showed her.  It is Peeta, from Hunger Games.  Note the hair that is all over his head!

     

(Per your requests...)  This is my son BEFORE the haircut.  Note the long shaggy hair that he has been growing in order to get it all grown out for "surfer dude".  This was about 2 months ago, so it was even longer.  It's tucked into his shirt at the back and hung down to the bottom of his eyes.
      

The front is a little short to pull off the surfer wet look pictured above.  It's the back and sides that were buzzed so short you cannot even comb or brush them.  Here is a pic of the back.

She stopped buzzing when it got to the top, as my daughter stopped her, or the top would have been buzzed too.  He has VERY thick hair and it may look like there is a lot, but trust me.. it is all so short I moved my hand through it and it didn't move!