Girls play video games?!

I remember my first gameboy that I had inherited from Aunt.
Ah, I loved that old brick and the games I inherited with it (Tetris and Pipedream). I loved it so much, that I nagged my parents to buy me the cutting edge technology that was the game boy printer (which I would primarily use to print off my pokédex with pokémon gold).

On my 9th birthday, I received my coveted gameboy color in lime green. This gameboy color saw me through some great times; it would ensure that I wouldn't have to look out of the car window when brought on road-trips through rural Ireland by my parents, it would give me hours of pleasure when I was hiding in the shed from socializing with kids my own age (true story, and it worked a treat!). I distinctly remember playing Zelda: Link's Awakening for hours upon hours. To this day, I would consider Zelda: Link's Awakening to be one of my favourite games and I still spend ridiculous amounts of times playing it on various ROMs. I skipped the Gameboy advance stage, favouring my beloved Gameboy Color.

 The first console I experienced was the Nintendo 64, which my cousins hooked up to my grandmother's small television which was used to play Mario 64. I also remember visiting my cousin's place and being completely fascinated (if not a bit intimidated) with the playstation 1. In terms of console ownership, the first console I owned came in the form the playstation 2. Although I did slip into a tendency of playing some very casual games on the ps2, (sims 2 anyone?), happiness came in the form of Bully (Canis Canem Edit). Bully was defiantly my favourite ps2 game. For a brief period, I left Sony and returned to Nintendo consoles, this time in the form of a Wii. Although, I had some great fun with games such as Mario Kart, Wii Sport and so forth, it was nothing more then a casual experience.

 


At present I'm mainly playing my playstation 3. Although I dabble in the world of first person shooters, I'm an RPG girl and I blatantly favour open world games. I am a complete Fallout fangirl, it's my favourite game series of all time.
I have dabbled in PC gaming, but at present I am operating OSX and Linux ubuntu, so I have very limited options.

But why you may ask, am I detailing my 'gaming CV'?
Well as you can see, from a young age, I have been very interested in gaming. I would even consider myself to be a part of the gaming community.

So, when I found a series of walkthroughs, weapon mods and so forth on gaming community websites, forums and youtube.. I was very excited. You can only imagine my disappointment, and my somewhat disheartened dispostion when I saw comments saying

"Girls can't play video games lol"
"girls need to get back to the kitchen and make my sammich"
ect.

Thinking this douchebagery was confined to certain sites, I began to play online (Halo 2 on my friend's xbox 360 was the first game where I used a headset and I went online), I was hit with more blatant sexism.
And it's never ceased. Although I am referring to a minority, the mirage of ridiculous comments have continued. Usually a comment about my female bodily parts. Or a gamer who is so curious, he's compelled to ask me "are you a tomboy, fat and ugly or playing to get d*ck".

I am not critizing our entire community. Plenty of male gamers treat their female counterparts with the same respect as they'd treat their male gaming friends. Also, this problem is not simply the fault of small minded individuals, but it is symptomatic of a larger problem within the gaming community.
 There are gamers out there who either nerd cred shame/sexually harass female players and it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.
An interesting hypothesis arises for said male gamers who have no problem shaming/harassing a female player and in the same breath asking "WHY are there no girls here?!".

Some food for thought comes from all of this...

1. If you play your games on a casual basis, you are a casual gamer. And hey, own that. I don't understand why people view casual gamers as some sort of outcasts. That said, whether you are 'casual' or not, does not have to do with your gender.
2. Think about what you say, before you say it. If you're not open enough to accept the fact that gaming in not a little boy's club, then you're not open enough to be playing online.
3. And at some point or another, you're gonna have to except that we have evolved into a society in which women are respected and treated as equal, again.. you really shouldn't be playing online.

This was a pretty short post, but it is only the 'jumping off' point for a larger post I am in the process of making in which I discuss the history of women in video games.

Here is one of my favourite youtubers, Albinwonderland, with an excellent video in which she discusses sexism within the realm of geekery.



Anyone experience any such sexism/hassle while playing video games? Leave them in the comments below!
x

Lessons we learn from Twilight

Have you ever watched Twilight backwards? It's amazing. Nah, not really. It's still crap.

In the past, if I felt depressed or hopeless, I'd console myself by telling myself that I had never read any of the Twilight books. But that has all changed now. I purposely exposed myself to the Twilight universe for experimental purposes (not sexual experimentation though, sparkly dominating vampires ain't mah thing). Nevertheless, I did learn a few 'truths' from Stephanie Meyer's modern masterpiece.


Be submissive, be helpless.

Oh Bella. The new pin up girl for Damsels in Distress everywhere. Interestingly, Bella's description within the book is very vague. But her flawed personality makes up for it. Bella is described as clumsy, stubborn and rather 'average'. Bella is also described as a terrible liar, who overeats when she feels upset. Basically, an unoriginal character devoid of any unique traits/quirks who is set up for failure. And where Bella fails, there is always a hypermasuline character fighting to 'save' her.

Submissiveness is a huge component in Bella's personality. From the very beginning of the first book, we see Bella is constantly cooking, cleaning and caring for her (...lazy) father. And when Bella wins the attention of sparkly Edward Cullen, she instantly submits to his every whim. And due to a lack of self, Edward becomes Bella's obsession which results in page upon page of mindless drivel.

Time upon time, Bella has to be rescued (from a car, from harassment/teasing, from drowning, from Jasper ect) because she's too flawed, helpless or goddamn stupid to save herself. Seriously, from the amount of near death experiences Bella has experienced, it seems like even the universe is trying to kill her useless self off. Well, I'd hardly blame the universe in this case.

Overprotective, abusive man-child = panty dropper

Edwards is a cute, overprotective boyfriend that every girl craves.
 It baffles me as to why countless girls/women let their panties drop, the second they hear about fictional Edward Cullen. Maybe I'm just not normal. I wouldn't actually enjoy having my supernatural man reading my private and intimate thoughts to ensure that I am only thinking about him. I would hate having a man who BANS me from driving a car and you call me a crazy femeninazi, but I've never secretly wished that my man's sister would kidnap me so he could control my movement. And although this isn't necessarily 'abuse', Edward creeping on Bella as she sleeps? Come on Meyers, let's keep that creepy voyeurism where it belongs, on 4chan.

Bella becomes isolated from all friends and family, Edward continues to dominate and control her, even threatening her in certain instances. But no, this isn't abuse ladies. This is a cute relationship that we all need to crave.

And some more pearls of wisdom we learn from the series..

- You CAN change a person for the better. Well if you sacrifice your wellbeing, happiness and sanity.
- The best situation a woman can wish to be in, is stuck between two 'men'. Choosing bestiality or necrophilia. Ahh, romantic.
- Is your crush aloof, mean tempered and rude? Does he ignore you a lot? It means he's in love with you.
- Punctuation and correct full-stop usage within writing is like, so last year. Oh and cramming that bad boy of a 'novel' full of teenage angst, it just leaves readers hungry for more.

I think I'll leave it at that.
The universe of Twilight is most insightful. And it goes without saying that Twilight might be the best book-to-movie adaptation ever. Nothing was lost in the translation, because bullshit remains bullshit.

And that leaves us with one question.
In my research, did I join 'team Edward' or 'team Jacob'?
I'm team person who tried to hit Bella with a car.

the Rose of Diddly Dum Aye-Ville

I've lived in Dublin, Ireland all my life so I know a thing or two about businesses and money makers stripping down our culture, simplifying it and making it marketable to the masses of tourists that visit the rip off republic. But seeing American tourists parading around our beautiful city in XXL Aran island jumpers is only the beginning. The dreaded Rose of Tralee. The ultimate saturation of Plastic Paddy wishy washy 'oirish' culture. And available to anyone it seems, who wants to buy into this yone who buys into the diddly o'diddly aye culture.

I know a few people who have applied to be Roses and plastered it all over facebook.
And I've kept silent until now.

I still cannot understand why they bother to broadcast it on Irish television anymore.
Is watching Mary Catherine O'Yank reciting a beautiful 'wee' poem about the green hills of Ireland while convincing Daithí O'Se about the legitimacy of her 'Irishness' and ethnicity your idea of a good time? Television licence money well spent again, RTE.

My favourite part of the 'festival'*?

Watching the glassy eyed parents and family members in the audience as they look on proudly as their daughter becomes the new walking advertisement for Newbridge jewellery and the other generic sponsors.

The most accurate and perhaps only honest depiction of the contest was portrayed on an episode 'Father Ted', in form of 'The Lovely Girl contest':


People will always stand by the argument that this 'Festival' generates a lot of money for Irish tourism. And to that, I shall say this.

Do we really need and/or want a glorified beauty pageant to be one of our 'selling points'?

Do we really need to endure much more of this nonsense?

This pageant should have been buried somewhere in the last century, where it belongs. 

* = glorified beauty pageant

Don't, don't knock my door

Conversation with a Jehovah's witness at the door:

JW: Hi, do you have a few moments to talk?

Me: Em. No.

JW: Well actually, we are just here to talk to you about the good word of the Lord

Me: Been there, done that.. did that whole catholic thing for a few years.

JW: We're actually here from..

Me: Yeah Jehovah's witnesses, I get it

JW: *sighs* what are you GOALS in life?

Me: My goal is not to wake up at 40 and have to knock on doors converting people, living with the bitter realization that I've wasted my life in a wacky 'religion' that I actually hate because I changed my religious beliefs as a young adult based on the preachings of a door-to-door conversions.

He walked off.

How rude.

Top 5: worst dublin bus experiences

This is somewhat of an ode to Dublin bus and many of the.. interesting experiences I've had on various trips with Dublin Bus.

5. Last week, an 'interesting' smelling chap on the 7b decided it would be proper order to read out the Irish Republic proclamation of 1916. It was an interesting interpretation to say the least.

4. On a dusky Summer night last year, I had the pleasure of experiencing Herbert the Pervert on the 46a. Every time a member of the female sex would walk up the stairs of the bus, Herbert would proceed to greet them with one of his charming one liners.

"Jaysis love.. they're some fine cacas on ye!"

"LOVE! LOVE! I saved ye a seat over here next to me! Don't be shy me aul flower!"

"Don't be givin me tha look love, ye probably have a c*** on ye like a burst couch"

Charming.

3. We've all been tourists. I get it. But American tourists, for the love of God, if you're going to venture out of your cheesy melting pot, at least know the basics of where you're staying. The 46a was held up for a good 10 - 15 minutes at St. Stephens green because a herd of yanks decided to try out Dublin bus in all it's glory. After the majority of them payed their fare, they asked the bus driver how long it would take to get to Bunratty.

For those of you who are privileged enough to live outside the Republic of Ireland, Bunratty would be about 2 hours away from Dublin and not a destination on the local dublin buses....

After the bus driver muttered some colourful language followed by "you'll be waiting a long time if you sit on the 46a waiting to go to bunratty", the yanks realized their mistake. Apparently, Ireland does not have just one big long road.

The icing on the cake came when the angry Americans vacated the bus and one of them panted "God, how big can Ireland be?!"

2. Exhausted didn't even cover how tired I was coming home from work on the 4 one day. So you can imagine my utter delight when I walked up the stairs of the bus and saw two drunk travellers (irish gypsies) sitting at the back of the bus... singing. Just think of the worst x-factor audition you've ever seen and multiply it by 10. Traveller woman decided that her 'poor auld uncle Willie' would be the centerpiece of her medley. A medley that never seemed to stop!

"me poor aul uncle willie.. he had but nuttin.. he tried and tried.. hadn't even a button"

Mind blowing stuff.

Traveller woman was similar to Herbert the Pervert because she too had her own way of 'welcoming' and saying goodbye to other patrons of the bus. I couldn't understand much of what she was shouting, but she shouted "get off ye fuckin tramp ye' to some posh woman (quickly) exiting the bus at Blackrock.

1. Those of you who live in Dublin were probably waiting for this one. I have countlessly, sat on the bus (mainly the 46a) during the Summer months with rowdy, noisy (and horny) Spanish students.

• On trip A, two Spanish 'amigos' decided to get it on at the back of the 46a. Everytime the bus went over a bump, the pair would make an eh.. interesting series of noises.
• On trip B, a Spanish student accused some lad sitting next him of stealing his phone. The poor guy had no idea what was going on until the Spanish boy's amigo found his phone in his pocket. No apologies to the poor chap who was berated in Span-glish for 20 minutes. Just more obnoxious noisy Spanish banter.

Honourable mentions that didn't make the list:

- Homeless man on the 7 who told me an epic tale of why one should never do heroin with a chinese prostitute.

- The exhausted old fucker who fell asleep and started snoring so loudly that people were avoiding sitting next to him.

- Underage spoilt rich girls on the way to Wezz (an underage disco) in the most revealing and hideous outfits I've ever seen begging me to throw them a few cigerettes. They're persistant. I'll give them that much.

What about you lot? Anyone else experience these sort of fun and games?

Keep on truckin' (and/or bus-ing) until then

Love and rockets,

Ruth x