Guest post today at TalkToYoUniverse

I don't normally talk about my religion, but I hope you'll come by and read my post on growing up Baha'i in the American Midwest. It's my contribution to the Writer's International Culture Share feature that Juliette Wade started on her blog.

Who's the tank?

One of the people in my gaming group showed me this on Sunday: a modern interpretation of the old Abbott and Costello "Who's on 1st" routine set in World of Warcraft terms. I was laughing so hard. My dad used to have a cassette of the old routines, so I've actually listened to them many times. The guys who put this together have the entire thing nailed from beginning to end with all the emotions. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Even though I know some of you aren't gamers, it still makes sense from a fantasy standpoint. Hehehe.

Trailer for The Guild's new comicbook

I found out about Felicia Day from Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. That's what pointed me toward her web series called The Guild, a funny look at MMORPGers. I've been hooked ever since, though I'm behind on the latest season (#3). Whether you've played an online game before or not, you might have fun watching the series. And now this week, their new comic book comes out. I plan to pick it up sometime this summer.

Check out the new trailer for the comic book. Then go watch some of the webseries. :D

Fun video Friday: B5-diets in the future

Just to do something a little different, and because I'm on a Babylon 5 kick at the moment, here is one of my many favorite episodes in which Dr. Franklin gives the rest of the Command staff new diets. Food plans. Whatever. Garibaldi is told to cut back on the fats and salt, Sheridan has to cut back on meats and add more veggies, and Ivanova has to add fats and minerals. As you can guess, none of them are very happy about it. Though it's nearly cut off in the transition between excepts, listen for Franklin's final comment to Ivanova's exasperated metaphor.

Though Babylon 5 has many serious moments and episodes that focus more heavily on the conflict, there are the more ordinary (and humorous) moments like this scattered throughout the five seasons. I love these characters.

Sleepy day

I've been dragging all morning. It's afternoon now, and I still don't have much oomph. But days like today are good for curling up with cozy books like Redwall and Mossflower. I don't know how many times I've read them, but something about the series is relaxing.

Wanders off with the one of the books and finds a comfy nook in the dragon cave not already crowded by sprites.

Filk Friday: Roll a D6

I can't believe I almost forgot to do my Friday post again. Well, since gaming is on my mind, here's a parody on "Like a G6" called Roll a D6. For those of you less familiar, a d6 is a six-sided die used in many roleplaying games. D&D usually uses several different dice: the d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and the d20. Sometimes you have to roll a d3, but for that we usually use d6 (1-2, 3-4, 5-6 for 1, 2, 3).

Now my gaming group doesn't this deep into our roles, but technically we do play in the basement at our friends' house. Both the husband and wife play, so I'm not the only gal there. But the guys are all pretty cool. My husband is our Gamemaster, and he comes up with some tough challenges of various kinds, a nice balance between hack-n-slash and roleplaying. It's the sort of balance that makes for great retelling later.

Ah the stories I could tell from various campaigns I've been in... But I digress. Enjoy this catchy bit of gamer filk, grab some friends, and roll a d6!

And the writing creeps forward

I haven't gotten very far on the writing goals yet this month. 993 new words written, 1824 if I add in the count from May 31st. I had a good start, then realized my scene had the wrong emotional overtones which meant the characterization didn't fit with the first scene. Even the history and political structure had changed based on the tidbits I'd thrown in. I reread my original notes and decided that I preferred the old context. The whole scene went into my cut file. 3k words=ouch.

After taking a few days to study what pulled it out of alignment and read up on various empires for ideas to solidify my basic concept, I got trickling forward again. Some of what I'd had has been recycled back in. New stuff is trickling in, but I think I'm picking up momentum again. Whether I finish the scene today is questionable, but I will try.

Do any of you have similar stories you'd like to share?