Adventures in FictionLand

I'm really good at updating this, aren't I?

Things that have gone down since April: I was fired from my job in June, which was both exhilarating and crushing. I have no other means of income, and I had just gotten back from my very first PAID vacation, which I had put on my credit card.

Now my bills are all rolling in, and I have no way to pay for them. I have gone to the unemployment office, and am waiting for my first check. Life kind of sucks. Did I mention I spent my last $25 on a town beach sticker? Priorities, man.

I've started a new project, attempting my first Steampunk novel. It's harder than I thought. But at least it's a good excuse to pull out all of the Steampunk books in my "TO READ" pile and put them on top and in my beach bag. Wikipedia is a great help too. If anyone has any suggestions or links, I would love it!

What else have I been doing with my free time? Playing lots and lots of video games. No, you have no idea. I uncovered and dusted off my Game Cube and put in Skies of Arcadia, which I haven't played since, oh, roughly 2003? And I have never had so much fun. I've played and completed Bioshock the First, and have started Bioshock 2. I would really like to play Fable 2 again, except that's being lent out.

Surprisingly, video games are keeping me from really going over the edge. I find myself going back to Wil Wheaton's Pax East 2010 keynote address, which is amazing by the way, where he talks about how when you game, you're creating your own world. My world is not what I'd like it to be right now, so having a way to escape that means the world to me.

He also talks about games being the mortar that has held his friendships together for over 20 years. I can relate. From playing our own twisted versions of Dungeons and Dragons in my friend Lori's living room, to breaking in the Umm Jammer Lammy game my best friend Sarah got for her birthday the night before, to me and my brother throwing on the invincibility code on Star Wars: Battlefront and trying to blow the crap out of each other's character, games have always been a huge part of my life. My first memory of video gaming is me sitting down with Pac-man on the Atari 2600 as a toddler. My brother remembers that as a three year old, he hooked the Atari up to the television without any help.

So many of my happy memories include games. This year, my brother and I attended the first PAX to be held on the East Coast. Wil Wheaton, in his keynote address, says he can divide his life into two parts: Before PAX, and After PAX. I'm now a card-carrying member of that tribe. I don't think I have ever had that good of a time in my entire life. I'm even considering signing up for the Omegathon next year.

This part of Wil Wheaton's address explains my love for this convention. It was like being home.

"We are parents, we are grandparents, we are sons, we are daughters, we are professionals, we are students, we are Trekkies, we are Browncoats, we are everywhere, we are geeks, we are nerds, we are liberals, we are conservatives, we are Christians, we are Jews, we are Muslims, we are atheists, we are Nintendo fanboys, we are XBox fanboys, we are Sony fanboys, we are "Atari Will Never Die, 8-Bits Forever" fanboys, we are wanna-be rockstars, we are wanna-be race car drivers, we are wanna-be DJs, we are wanna-be dragon slayers, we are Alliance, we are Horde, this weekend, all that matters is that we are gamers. We are, all of us, creators of our own stories together. Welcome home."