Hit by a Train... The Sickness Train that is!

Oh goodness. I feel horrid. I went to bed a few nights ago feeling fine and woke up the next day sicker than a dog. And have been that way ever since.

Sore from coughing, my head hurts, I am wheezing.... Yeah it is no fun.

So it is Dayquil and Mucinex during the day and Theraflu for the night time hours for me.

Yay for no productivity....

Let's Playing: What is the appeal?

As I have stated on this blog before, I am a huge nerd.

Anime, manga, gaming, music, movies - name it and more than likely I have either went through a time of obsession over it or am currently obsessing over it.

One of those is watching Let's Plays on YouTube.

Okay, okay, I get it. IT'S WEIRD. Most people don't understand the draw to it. It is definitely a more  acquired sensibility. If you don't run in this circle, you won't get it. One of the questions I often hear is "Why do you want to watch or listen to it a potentially grown man being stupid, recording himself playing a game and talking about it?" Fair enough, folks, fair enough.

I don't know about the hundreds of thousands (or millions if you are certain YouTubers *cough* Markiplier, PewDiePie... I am looking you two! *cough*) but I can speak for myself.

Gaming has been a LARGE part of my life. I grew up with a NES Controller in my hand from the age of three. I am now 27. Come on! That is all my life essentially. It was also one of my escapes. I was the social pariah of my class to say the least, so a social life really didn't happen for me until I got to college during my freshmen year at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. So games were a great distraction for me from this point. Not to mention it was one of many ways that me and my younger sister were able to bond. In fact, she learn how to read partially thanks to games - particularly Mario Party 2 on the N64. So gaming has been crucial to my development and there is a chance I may one day find employment writing dialogue and branching dialogue for games!

I am a poor girl. Very poor. Poverty poor for the most part. So I don't get to new consoles or handhelds a lot and I can't afford to do much PC gaming. So one reason I watch these videos is to live vicariously through the player in the video and experience these games in the only way that I can at the current moment in time.

Another reason - I just find gamer rage hilarious. I have it in spades personally. So I can easily relate. It is a great way to relieve stress - laughing at these videos.

There are also some inspirational reasons behind it. One YouTuber that falls into this category is one I mentioned above. Markiplier. That guy has been drug the muck in his life but that made him be determined to overcome it, do what he wants to do and help make the world a better place. Seriously. He is a little whacky (OKAY maybe more than a LITTLE but that is okay by me!) and a bit goofy, but he loves his fans dearly and continually strives to remind the fans of that. He also uses his position to do good things for the world through charity live streams on Twitch. That is worth supporting in my book!

There are a lot more reasons but I will end it there! Another geekery related post comes to an end! I may have a food rant coming in the near future. *Bleck*

Till next time guys!
~ Jeri (J.R.) ~ Out!

Sailor Moon Crystal: Enter The Black Moon Arc

Okay. So it is time for a geekery post.

I was a huge fan of the 90s anime, Sailor Moon. Like huge. It was my introduce to the world of anime and manga and it will always remain something near and dear to my heart. When I had heard there was going to be a modern day reboot, I was ecstatic but also terrified.

I mean this was a huge piece to my childhood and overall development - they better not eff it up!! 

I remembered there was a manga component to the series and I started wondering if it was going to stay close to the manga or close to the 90s anime. Thankfully, here we are exiting the Dark Kingdom Arc and going into The Black Moon Arc and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised with the show thus far. I hope it continues to stick around beyond the first promised 26 episodes.

All in all, it has stayed pretty close to the manga. The only other anime I have seen that stayed almost exactly with the manga had to be Naruto (cue Taps in the background). There have been some homages back to the 90s anime but mostly it's fairly new material and much faster in development than the original anime.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED THE MOST RECENT EPISODE!

A few things I was glad to see were:
The girls all remembered everything and not having been reborn without their memories. That slowed down the pace a lot having to wait for the team to reassemble. And that drove me cooky. Do not get me wrong - I loved the 90s anime BUT the pace was DREADFUL.

The relationship between Mamoru and Usagi was far, far more realistic in Crystal. I am sorry - in the original anime Mamoru is what almost 20 or older while she is in junior high/high school!

And the entrance of Chibi-Usa was almost exactly the same, which is one of my favorite scenes. The look on Mamoru's face? PRICELESS!

Okay geekery moment over.... TATA!
J.R. - Out!

Wow, it has been a while!

Yeah. I am not so great at this blogging thing.

I gotta fix that. Ha ha.

What has happened since April 2014?

Well... first off, I started class at Full Sail University in the Creative Writing for Entertainment Masters of Fine Arts program. I love it. It is a challenge - don't get me wrong. I've had one whopper of a learning curve to catch up on. Learning a new operating system (Mac), new programs (Final Draft, Toon Boom, etc), and more. But my experience has been much better than my previous school of Colorado Technical University. I feel like I am actually learning something! Not to mention the professors are way more helpful and the staff are eager to help. So glad I made this change. I will hopefully (knocking on every piece of wood that I can locate!) graduate in June 2015.

Second of all, in May 2014 my book series, The Black Blood Legacies was accepted for publication. The first part, Fate's Crossing, dropped on November 8, 2014. You can check out more at theblackbloodlegaciesseries.blogspot.com. :)

Last - MY MANGA ENDED! I am so mad! Granted, Naruto ended on a brilliant note. It is still over. Waaahhh!

Oh well. Off to finishing school and working on books! :D

Tata!
J.R. - Out!

Food Related: Recipes on a dime??

OKAY.

I kind of have to go on a rant here and I know that this isn't the greatest way to start out a new blog BUT... this is irritating me to no end. 

Those supposed recipes on a dime or limited budget things that you see on Pinterest and all over the web.

I will admit that there are a few that I have personally tried and that my house likes enough for us to do once in a while and for the most part they adhered to the requirements of being under a certain budgetary level. 

NOT ALL OF THEM DO. 

When you are trying to feed a family of 5 on nearly nothing and have to pay attention to health needs, allergies, etc., food can add up. Especially these days. For example, a 10 lb thing of ground hamburger meat at my local Wal-Mart costs ALMOST 30$!! Are you serious!? That is almost my budget for a night of dinner!!! A NIGHT!!

Folks, I tell you what - just do yourselves a favor before you decide to actually purchase the ingredients for most of these recipes, price them out. You might find it's better for you to create your own meals based on your budget and you might get something the family likes as an alternative to any other dinner.

The main part of the rant comes into the realm of prices: food AND gas. Gas prices play into food prices. If gas prices rise, then trucker wages have to rise to get the food to the distributor which means the distributor prices as well. Trust me, my step-father-to-be is a trucker currently. It's a slippery slope. If prices were controlled a hell of a lot better then it would make feeding ourselves easier and not so many people having to go on food stamps, etc. JUST TO EAT. (Which THAT is another post for another day by the way!) Folks, petition the crap out of your representatives and your senators and show them THIS HAS TO CHANGE. We are tired of nearly starving!! Why do you think drug crime rates have risen in low population areas (at least in my area...)? People are trying to do what they can do to make money just to survive in a bad job economy (AND THAT IS ANOTHER RANT FOR ANOTHER DAY!). 

So yeah... price crap out, petition for change...you never know what might happen.

J- out!

Welcome to..FOOD, GEEKERY, AND ALL THAT JAZZ!!

Hi folks!!
I have had blogs before. None of them panned out because quite frankly I find it irritating to stick to ONE type of blog. Be it just food, just geekery, - whatever. I can't stay on one topic. It's kinda crazy - just like my life. Ha ha ha. So this blog is going to be dedicated to mindless ramblings that come from my very erratic at times brain (a result of my life!). Posts you see here will include but not be limited to:

• Food (healthy AND unhealthy alike - come on life is about balance people!)
• Geekery (Youtube videos, gaming, anime - you get the drift!)
• My long journey towards whatever weight loss I can muster (it has been a long journey and due to life it's far from over!)
• My journey with Full Sail University (including why I transferred there!)
• My day to day ramblings (like I said my life is crazy at times!)
• Promoting and teasing my book series that I have been working on and seeking publication for! (Yes yes don't say it...)

But there ya go! A little teaser of what to look forward to! I warn you due to scheduling there may be significant gaps between posts at times. But without further ado - away we go!

J ~ out!!