At Gen Con!

Geeky Musical Video

Over the last two weeks I put out a call amongst gamer friends to send me video for an upcoming music video parody. I got excellent footage, shot some of my own, and put it all together for a song I wrote called "Game This Way". The song is a parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and celebrates all kinds of gaming.



The lyrics are available at youtube.

Winner and Websites

We have a winner in the IronDie steampunk wedding contest! It's Kieko!!! Congratulations on winning this fabulous purple D6!

Now, what should I have for the next contest?

Gen Con is fast approaching and before it hits I'll be taking a train into Chicago for a very fun weekend and a stay at a hostel. I'm so glad I can stay at such an inexpensive place and I've heard good reviews about it.

In the meantime I've been in demand doing work from home. A lot of it is for my last course as an IT student, so it's not paid. I've been building websites for several important departments at my school for an independent study credit. It's taken a lot of my time, but I've learned so much. Here's a screenshot of one of the sites in progress. I designed the banner.

Graphic design is a passion of mine, but in all the technical work I do, like coding, it usually gets pushed to the background.

I'm also designing logos and labels for someone else and have been making banners and Photoshop work for someone in trade.

Well I have some more work to do right now, so more later!

ENnies !

Don't forget to vote in the ENnies! Go here to vote now.

Dragon Chow Dice bags are up for an ENnie and I certainly hope Dragon Chow wins! I will be at the ENnies at Gen Con and I'm looking forward to it tremendously.

In other news the winner of the Iron Die contest will be announced later today.

Harry Potter Premiere

I am actually going to wait to see the last film. However, I am going to dress up as my own version of Bellatrix!

What are your plans for the premiere?

A New Mouse for a Plague Rat

This week I came to the realization that my my mouse was broken beyond repair. In an effort to be thrifty I had been using the mouse from my netbook, but after 3.5 years of it's mousey life it was dying a tragic death.

So I went to the store to find a new one. I wanted one that was ambidextrous (because I am), ergonomic and lightweight (because I have hand problems) and cheap. At the store I was faced with the surprisingly high cost of mice until I came across one that met all my standards and was the cheapest one there.

There was just one catch. It was an LED mouse and changed color (although it can be set to one color). I kind of thought that a color changing mouse might be annoying in practice, but I was wrong.

Not only is this the most comfortable mouse that I've ever used, but it's also pretty delightful. With the lights off it adds a nice glow and the color changing is not distracting. I became a little obsessed with the mouse and decided to make a video of the color changes. I got a new video editing program two months ago and have been too busy to use it, so the mouse seemed like the perfect low-risk kind of video to edit with it. I shot the footage on my iPhone and in a few minutes I had a video ready. I also composed a quick Apple chipset tune using Acid Music Studio.



As much as I love technology and find fixing computers and writing programs enjoyable, well, tech might as well be low-key fun now and again.

Steampunk Ring

Check out the jewelry of Jenna Scifres! Just click on the banner to go to her shop.



Jenna makes high quality jewelry at very reasonable prices. She's recently listed this very neat ring with movable hands! There's only one currently available so check it out here.


A few weeks ago I bought the gothic angel wing ring from her and she did a great job customizing the size to fit my small, hobbit fingers.

You can add Jenna's page on Facebook here.

Ok, that's all for now. Don't forget to enter my contest to win an awesome metal D6.

Pathfinder: Carrion Crown

Our Carrion Crown game is on a break. We finished the first book and I have never been so satisfied by a gaming experience. It was perfect. In fact, the path we just finished The Haunting of Harrowstone is up for an ENnie. I hope it wins! Our gaming group will be at the ENnies again this year and I'm looking forward to it. Last year it was so much fun hearing from the RPG industry speakers and meeting some of the writers/creators of the products I love.

In the game I'm playing a Gnome Alchemist named Adaleet (she has several more names that she refuses to let me reveal here). Adaleet was drawn by my talented pirate friend Captain Balfour and this coloring was done by his co-Captain Crystal. When I described her I wanted her to sound as much like the Fourth Doctor as possible and I think Chris really got what I wanted!

Until our Pathfinder game starts up again we'll be playing a Dresden Files game. More details on that to come!

Time and Space Bridal Shower & Contest!

Thanks for the good wishes about my bad news post yesterday. I think it was important for me to get that off my chest and get back into blogging with an honest start.

Yesterday turned out to be an awesome day as a gaming friend of mine held a bridal shower. My friend Beth arrived at my house looking pretty and glam to drive us to north to the event. I completely forgot that people dress up for stuff like this and was wearing a Victorian Tron shirt to try to fit the theme of the upcoming wedding.

Once there it was an awesome time of sitting around a table talking about gaming and anime with a bunch of other ladies. I'd never had the experience of just hanging out with a group of girl gamers without a dude present and while not super different than any other gamer conversation it was a positive experience. We were surrounded by movie themed decorations and by a very supportive family.
As the afternoon progressed we filled out a 2-page document that would be used to generate a custom RPG about the bride and groom. When the presents were open your sheet was used to fill out an ongoing story about the bride fighting her way across the world. At one point she defeated a book club and a mad-scientist surrounded by enchanted bunk beds! When it got to my answers...
My sheet was a little all over the board and once my present was open she had to face...ENCHANTED PROSTITUTES! (Hey, it said profession and that was the first that came to mind since I'd already used lawyer for a job title in a previous question).

Now on to my present. While I did get the Bride something for her house (ok Dragonfly decorative lights...) I also gave her a dice bag with a space print and an IronDie. What is that you ask?
Oh look there's my antique Tron shirt! Ok, and what's that I'm holding? That's an IronDie. It's an all metal D6 that retails for $5-$6 and can be used to replace your typical D6s or can be used as part of the IronDie Game. I included a different more steampunk looking one with the bride's gifts, but this lovely purple one is what I'm giving away!

To win the D6 leave a comment about what you would hope to see GO WRONG during a wedding that involved actual time travel. The contest is open until Sunday July 16th at 11:59 PM CST. The winner will be randomly chosen (using dice of course!) and announced on Monday July 17th.

Good luck! I leave you with the awesome cookie jar someone gave the bride. It makes the Tardis brake noise when you open it!

It's Been a Hard Year

As my lack of posts may indicate and the fact that I did not get to celebrate my one year blog anniversary it's been a bad few months. In February I had two consecutive gluten exposures that sent me to the hospital for a week and I've been ill off and on ever since. It's no secret that the name of this blog Chronic Geek comes from the fact that I have chronic illnesses, but it's something I try to leave out of the blog. I would rather be the Chronic Geek because I've been a fan of something since childhood, and well, that's part of the reason for the name too.

Since my health has worsened I have quit working and am doing the odd research assistance and web design work from home. I have also found out that I cannot get financial aid for the upcoming school year since I already have a Bachelor's and a Master's. This means I will not be in school for I.T. any longer.

Let's not be down though! Anyone who has read my entries knows that this blog is a positive space. For the most part I DO NOT do negative reviews and I promote people and businesses on here that are awesome.

My blog is back up and running now. I may not be able to get out a lot to do stuff, but I am going to Gen Con and I was able to get a hotel connected to the ICC so that I can easily go back and rest as necessary.

So, let's get to some posting. Thanks for listening!

Flooding and Dandies

There are three roads going out of the town I live in and one is closed due to flooding. My area of the US is having record flooding right now and I wanted to share a bit of that. The science geek in me would love to take some samples and study them. In high school I got to take a summer science survey course that did surveying for the state rivers and wetlands. It was so fun. This situation, however, is not so fun. If the other road floods I won't be able to make it to school or even worse, to work.





Well, check it out:




This video also links to a new channel on Youtube that I made to showcase my silliness, i.e. making characters and cosplaying as them. more on that later!

Here is another road that is getting close to flooding over. If this one goes then I can't make it out of town. My town has a gas station and a flea market, so prospects aren't good for getting stuck here, but I can always cosplay some more. Whew. This river is usually low and all the water you see was a farm field that I have never seen flood.

I took this photo earlier in the week and the water has actually advanced up to the pavement since then. I don't have an updated picture right now, but I did snap a quick image of the eastern side of the road which is also flooded. The water was up on the shoulder on Friday, having advanced without any rain falling.


It's been raining for several hours and is forecasted to continue into Monday with up to 5 inches so I'm expecting to lose access to this major highway very soon.

Custom Zombie Art Contest!

My friend Lupe Posada is a wonderful artist that you should check out. She's holding a contest right now. What's it for?!

"A custom portrait of yourself zombified! It will be done with acrylic paint on an 8"x10" canvas board."

Visit her site to sign up. The winner will be chosen at random. While you are there be sure to browse her galleries. You can also go to her etsy store for more goodies.

Lupe's art shows in Southern California so be sure to look for updates if you live in the area.

Emilie Autumn

I got to do something very excellent as a late birthday present this year. Emilie Autumn was in St. Louis at the Fubar and tickets were only $13 pre-sale! This was an incredible bargain to see her amazing live show.

Her stage set-up and some of her logos have a Steampunk flair to them. If you are into literature, especially Shakespearean, you recognize many of the themes in her music.

At the back of the stage was a big clock with a shadowy silhouette that was sometimes this adorable rat and sometimes Emilie or one of her Crumpets (the girls who are part of her merry band).

Once the show started it was about three hours of amazing singing, violin performance, dancing, pirate stilt-walking, and tea flying everywhere! There was also a sword fight and of course the rat-game (for those who know what that is). EA's next album, F.L.A.G. will be out in a year or so (hopefully) so be sure to see her live when she goes on tour again!

Harry Potter in China

Years ago I spent a year working in China. While I was there I was lucky enough to find a one-night showing of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in English. That particular print had Chinese sub-titles. The usual showing was dubbed in Chinese.

While I was working on a project for a course I got out my big scrapbook of memories from China and was delighted by this page. You can see my theatre ticket in the upper right, a promo card I got at the theatre, the theatre's business card and a blurb in the local English weekly newspaper.

I recall it being a very nice place with a good sound system and stadium seating. There were very few people present for the English showing. I was so happy to not miss seeing this film in the theatre.

Now, my trip to Hong Kong to see Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is another story for another time...

Web Project

In the web class I'm taking we use Microsoft Expression to create sites. Well our final project is to create a site and then upload it to our free sites the school provides. When it's done I'll link it.

I decided early on that I wanted the site to look like it was a paper scrapbook or notebook full of stuck-in pictures, doodles, etc.

So, here's what I've come up with.